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Rav Shlomo Katz explores the teachings of Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt"l on the Parsha with the sefer Even Shlomo
We are learning in the month of Teves sponsored by the Aron family memory of Lillian's אבא לוי בן יוסף and for the ima's refuah sheleima Ahuva bas Chana. She should just have a refuah sheleima. Amen. And by the Silver family in memory of בתיה פייגא בת ישראל.
Okay so today what we have what we have the zchus of learning today is a very very important piece from Even Shlomo. Now this piece what I did was in order to get to the heart of it Hashem should forgive me I shochted the whole piece. Z'omeret I went in and out of a very long piece but to try to get to the basar of it because you have whatever it's here it's three pages but in the original I think it's five or maybe even six. But it's in order to address I think something that that is a question that I know mothers have been asking me again recently since this whole talk right now about like another sivuv another round another possible experience of having to run into into bomb shelters again and and go through this whole balagan again.
And the question obvious question is I don't understand for what. For what? Ribono shel olam Hakadosh Baruch Hu the Master of the world could end this whole thing in a second. And the question of like haven't we suffered enough comes up from like a very sincere and broken heart. Like haven't haven't our kids gone through enough? Isn't it enough? Like what what else needs to what else needs to happen? Why if God is God which He is then why can't it just be a why can't this just be done already? What else needs to happen, right? These questions are more or less exactly the questions that Moshe Rabbeinu has in in these parshiyos.
Specifically the end of Shemos ends off with Moshe Rabbeinu challenging Hashem with this question. Since this started it's only gotten worse. And then Moshe knows the more I talk to them about You the more it seems that I guess due to both my stuttering or whatever the speech impediment was and the fact that things seem to be gnarly הן לא יאמינו לי. They're not they're not going to believe me.
Like what's what's this plan? What is what is really happening over here? And the dialogue forget all the it's an interesting thing. In our parsha forget all the the action things right? Forget the makkos. Forget the seven plagues that are in our parsha. Forget of all those things.
Just the dialogue between Moshe Rabbeinu and Hashem is fascinating in our parsha. Fascinating. Just to spend time with that. I had this whole there's a Rashi yesterday that caught me.
Anyone see the Rashi yesterday about Aharon's going to be your your neviecha. Aharon will be your navi. Rashi says there he's going to be your meturgeman. And then I started thinking about this whole thing of you know meturgeman means translator.
So Rashi is basically saying that prophecy is translation. So I had a whole mahalach on this yesterday and it may show up in the piece over here. But there's something really really important that it's you know if I have if I see someone that's that's putting on tefillin wrong or if I see someone that's not keeping Shabbos right then what's my chiyuv? Forget as a rav I'm saying as a yid like what's my chiyuv? To figure out a way to figure out a smart way a non-judgmental way to point it out and to bring it to the person's attention. Yes.
It's not to also look deeper inside ourselves and see how where we're mechallel Shabbos? Not literally meaning how we're maybe also lenient. Always everything classic Baal Shem Tov teaching about you know obviously whatever Hashem shows you has something to do with you of course. But I have but there's an obligation to point it out. So here what we're see what we're going to be seeing today is like we're in this we're in this very interesting interesting time in life and Hashem put us all together to go through this interesting time in life.
There's something very meduyak I want to show you. Now because I had rachmanus on on on you for the time because we'd be here till be'emes 11 and we're going to try to end by 10. Just a little bit of a background to this piece. There's a teaching from the Maharal of Prague.
And the Maharal of Prague says that anything that's unnatural can only last for a certain amount of time. Anything unnatural in the world has its end. It has to have its end at a certain point. War war is not natural even though it's become natural in the world but war is actually not a natural.
natural thing. What's a natural state of being? Shalom. Peace is a natural state of being. That means that everything that's unnatural in the world will have its time.
It will be over. This current state of the world right now is an unnatural state of the world. It will have its time. It will be over.
The question is how long will it take? But a deeper question is what's happening to me during the process of things going from being unnatural to natural. People think that becoming natural again means for things to be normal again. And that would be a very very sad thing. Like we were discussing from the beginning of this whole period if we just went back to being the same people we were before, but there wouldn't be a physical threat let's say.
That'd be so sad. It'd be so painful. It would be so detrimental to the long term of who Am Yisrael really is. Yesterday I was on the phone with a Chayal Amiluimnik, a very good friend of mine and others in the room who lost another friend due to a suicide who took his life.
A Chayal that served for hundreds of days. A big big Gibor, Gibor Yisrael. And he was crying without he couldn't even control himself. He just couldn't stop because he was just saying can you explain this to me? This is mamash unnatural because we don't talk about it too much.
There have been a lot of suicides. Hundreds. There have been a lot of suicides. This is an unnatural thing.
This is an unnatural thing but the world that these mosrei nefesh came back to after living in a state of mesirus nefesh is really harsh. It's really really really rough. Really rough for the person that was willing to give everything everything to come back to an Eretz Yisrael to a Yiddishkeit to an Am Yisrael that is still holding on to shtuyot, shtuyot things. These are this is one of the hardest things in the world and I'm so sorry for speaking about this and highlighting it but it's all in the context of us being aware of what our avodah really really is.
What it really really is. What else needs to happen is the question. What else needs to take place for the unnatural to stop and for things to be natural again? So here the thing is that natural doesn't mean normal. And that's very important.
Natural doesn't mean this word that everyone likes to use here regarding the status for instance of Har Habayit. What do the politicians always say the status when they want to when they want to sound like everything's okay? Status quo. No, they don't say status quo. Status quo, please.
Proper Hebrew, status quo. Right? Status quo. Let's go back to status quo. Chevre, that you'll see how this status quo seeps into all different areas in our life.
And there's a lot more to share. It'll come out while we learn. So this is Reb Shlomo on Parshas Vaera. Pesach you need the Hebrew because it's not in the Even Shlomo that you have in English.
No. Pieces, chunks of it are scattered but it's not the way that that it appears in the sefer.
אני רוצה שתפתחו את הלב לעומק העמוקים I want you to open your hearts in the deepest depths.
לחזור ולהיות נורמלי יכול להיות דבר בריא אבל יש משהו הרבה יותר עמוק מאשר להיות טבעי ובריא אני לא מתכוון שצריך להיות לא טבעי אבל יש לנו משהו הרבה יותר עמוק מאשר להיות טבעיים Going back he says and becoming normal again could become is a very could be a healthy thing let's admit it.
Not having to check our phones every twenty seconds and not being I mean there was a lot of thunder right the last few days. When the remember when thunder was happening last winter? Every second you couldn't tell if that was actually a siren or or not and it it would jolt the system for those that remember. Here we're going back to so to speak this normal. So it's bari it's very healthy to not lose your mind every time you hear a thunder and not think you have to catch shelter and then start thinking about where your children are.
That is a healthier state of being. But there's something much deeper he's saying than just being normal and being healthy again. We have something much deeper than just status quo. Status quo we have something much much more real.
אני רוצה שתחשבו על כך בצורה עמוקה ביותר I want you to think about this in the deepest way.
לפעמים אני פוגש מישהו שאומר אני יהודי, אבל אתה יכול לראות שזה עוד לא אמיתי.
הם אוכלים גפילטע פיש בשבת, הם הולכים לבית כנסת בשבת בבוקר, אבל מה חסר שם?
הכל סביבם הוא בגדר הטבעי, אין שום דבר מעל הטבע. Meaning, you meet a Yid and he says he's a Yid, but you could see that in the person it's not yet real, it hasn't penetrated them yet.
That they they eat what they eat on Shabbos, they go to shul, they'll go to a farbrengen. But what's missing is that everything around them is still in the geder of normal or healthy.
אין שום דבר מעל הטבע. There's nothing beyond nature.
So, don't raise your hands, but think about the following question. For how many people right now coming to shul in the morning and coming staying for a shiur afterwards is healthy versus beyond natural? For some people in this room, the fact that you come to minyan every morning or when you're able to make it to minyan is actually meal, it's actually beyond nature. Wow, I'm holding back now. I'm just.
Right. Yeah, no, be’emes, it's like it's it's miraculous. And then staying to learn afterwards, it's beyond. For some people, that could already become part of the status quo of their lives.
It's what they do. It's what they do. And in everything in our life, in every at this stage in Yiddishkeit, sorry, at this stage of the world, at this stage by now, after everything we've been through and who Hashem put us to live with, we have to have a deep gut check mamash, a reality gut check and wonder, where am I just being normal and healthy and right versus going beyond? Where am I going beyond myself? Can it be that it would have been unnatural and miraculous and now it's healthy, but that means that we need to get to the next shlab? Yeah, betach. It's always progressing.
It's not a it's not like you enter this club. It's always evolving. The fact that something became normal to you and healthy to you and not supernatural is also 100%. The fact that this shul became normal to most of us is one of the saddest things in the world.
Amen. I'm telling you guys, the fact that this shul became normal to so many of us is heart-wrenching and heartbreaking. Poshut, devastating. Enough.
אתם יודעים מה זה עבד השם? You know what a servant of God is?
עבד השם זה אדם שהוא לגמרי מעל הטבע. A servant of God is someone who's completely beyond nature. How does this fit into yesterday's Tanya? Very important. Those that are holding with with the Baal HaTanya, this is very, very important.
The last few days of the Baal HaTanya, he's discussing the difference between Eved Hashem versus Oved Hashem. And it says אינו דומה שונה פרקו מאה פעמים לשונה פרקו מאה ואחת. It's a very important piece in the Tanya that the Alter Rebbe explains how a person that that is that learns goes over his teaching learning for the hundred and first time is far superior than the person that's learning for the hundredth time. Why? What's the big difference? He says because back then that's how they would learn, a hundred times, right? But if you go one more beyond than what you're natural to, if you did one more beyond than what you're used to, just one more time, you you enter into a status that's called actively serving God, Oved Hashem.
You're actively doing something. So even in the Alter Rebbe's language is that the moment you go to a place that's not natural for you, at that only at that moment that status of Oved Hashem, I'm currently serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that's what happens over there. Is that clearer in terms of the how he's differentiating here? Okay, very good. So again, אז שוב עבד השם זה אדם שהוא לגמרי מעל הטבע וגם במה שנוגע לחברות זה אותו דבר.
With friendship as well.
אני יכול להיפגש עם חבר לארוחת צהריים, לשלם על הארוחה שלו, אבל אם אני מעיר אותו ב-4 בבוקר ואומר אני צריך אותך זה מקרה חירום, אולי הוא יגיד לי למה התקשרת אליי אין לך חברים אחרים? Yeah, we have friends. It's nice to hang out with them, chill with them. But then when I when I really need them and I call them with the equivalent of a 4 a.m. phone call, whatever that is, and I really need them, right? Where are they then?
יש כל כך הרבה זוגות נשואים שהם כל כך רחוקים זה מזה.
I don't have to start telling you, there's so many husbands and wives that are living like this, so far from each other.
כל מה שקשור למערכת היחסים ביניהם הוא טבעי במאה אחוז. It's healthy, meaning on the level of normalcy it's healthy, why? He has his corner, she has her corner, they don't bother each other too much. He, she knows what he likes for dinner, he knows what coffee she likes in the morning, and it all works.
It's tiv'i, it's natural, אבל אין שום דבר מעבר לזה. There's nothing beyond. Hu gever, hi isha, hem hitchatnu, הם גרים באותו בית, ma chaser? Gevald! Kama shechaser! How much is lacking? Why?
כי אין ביניהם משהו מעבר לטבע. There's nothing beyond nature for them.
And I should, I should also, I should've prefaced by saying this but it's not too late now is that the obligation we have to learn a Torah like this is because of the soldiers, because they've ushered us in into a new era of relationships of going beyond ourselves and there's no turning back. And if Yiddishkeit and relationships and all the things that we're used to are still reminiscent of what was before the war, then the chayal that was killing himself, going above and beyond himself, his avodah, it's almost like saying I guess it wasn't for you, it was more for people that understand why I gave my life and soul so that you could be here. Just to live here? You know, like it drove me nuts on the radio the first few months of the war, maybe it was even later on, they kept on ending off their shidurim as שנחזור שיהיו ימים שקטים עוד פעם. Oh, it drove me crazy.
It should be, there should be quiet days again. There should be a storm. There should be an inner storm again. It shouldn't be quiet days.
It should be ushered in into a new era. So what I want to explain to you, chevra, is that the shul and the community was created to usher us into a new era. And it takes time to figure that out. What it definitely takes is accountability and patience.
On my 30th birthday, my dear friend Nachman Forman alav hashalom gave me a bracha. He said to me, I want to give you a bracha that Rebbi Nachman said is going to be the thing that Mashiach's going to teach everyone. So Rebbi Nachman said that Mashiach is going to teach the world the midat hasavlanut. Mashiach's going to teach the world the mida of patience.
That's going to be Mashiach's teaching for the world, and he said I want to give you that bracha now at 30. I had no idea, I had no idea how to internalize what he was saying back then. When you're 30, it's more shpilkes. You know, you're more like, you're more on shpilkes.
And also back then I was living on the plane. It was just tours, it was concerts. I was just traveling all over the world. There's no I mean patience? It's one of the infinitely deepest things because to get to a place of realizing that what you're here for is to usher in a new era of consciousness takes a lot of patience.
A lot of patience. Ze lo pashut. And I believe so strongly that the mesirut nefesh we've seen from our chayalim, they couldn't afford to have any, they were not allowed, they're not allowed to have any patience. Ha'ipech.
They can't have any patience. They're doing, they're opposite, they're operating on the other side. They have to fight immediately, now. Why? Clear and present danger all over the place.
For the sake of who? In order to do what? In order to instill what? To give us the privilege to go beyond, to dream. That's been the story here for 77 years. What is it now, 78? This year will be the 78th year. That's what it's been like here this whole time.
What were they fighting for for so long aside from keeping us alive? So these gates of mesirut nefesh were opened and these things take patience. The community was established not so that people have a place to daven. There were, there are plenty of places to daven. I think there's 65 shuls in Efrat.
That's pretty cool. That's like, because when Rabbi Riskin came for our cornerstone, he I think he said and I have to look at the video, I think back then which was like 19? No, no, no, our here, this stone. He said 19 shuls. No, it was 2019.
I tried to stop you. I tried to help you. Thank you. You did.
19. Aryeh Polonsky sends me a message at 1 am this morning. What? It's like, I figured it out. The difference between אמן יהא שמיה רבא מבורך and ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו because the Torah we said on Parshat Vayechi, or Vayechi, he said the difference is 6, 7.
I figured it out. I said what do you mean? I have a whole drasha from him on that. When Rabbi Riskin came here approximately seven years ago for the laying of the cornerstone, he said something back then that that's like, I think back then like 50 shuls, 55 shuls, mashu kaze. That was before there was even more growth in both Dagan and the Tamar.
And I know for a fact that many more shuls have been, have been opening up. So to have a place to to davven is not the reason, it's not the reason that I, it's not what I signed up for and it's not what anyone that put their heart and soul and a lot of money into the shul for. That's bechlal not the reason. But in order to reach this place of consciousness, this takes time and it takes accountability.
And we see that these things when they're not observed like this, it could lead to the state that the Yiden were when we're trying to leave Mitzrayim. We're trying to leave Mitzrayim, but Hashem is saying pay attention to what's happening on the way. Because at the end, when it's over, what's the point of this whole, of the whole purpose? Da'at. Lema'an yedu doroteichem.
וידעתם כי אני ה'. To know. To have a da'at of God. To go through chochmah, binah and then reach da'at.
These things take a long time. It was the purpose of all creation and it was the purpose of also the exodus of Egypt. Now look how he continues here. You'll see how everything I just said connects to the whole flow over here.
Aval, I need patience. Haolam tzarich geulah.
וגאולה זה להיות מעבר לכל דבר. The world needs redemption.
Redemption doesn't mean that people stop fighting. That's not redemption. That's called a treaty. Anyone feel really geshmak with Egypt and Jordan? We have peace treaties with them.
Anyone feel like in your heart there's such a dibbuk chaveirim, right? That's a bei? Peace? No, it's going beyond ourselves.
גאולה זה לא לחזור למצב הטבעי שלי. Redemption doesn't mean going back to my natural state of being.
זה להיות במקום הרבה יותר עמוק והרבה יותר קדוש.
Holiness... sorry, geulah means to go to a place that's much deeper and much holier than where you were before.
אתם יודעים כמה כאב אנחנו חווים כדי לזכות בארץ הקודש? How much pain we've experienced to merit the holy land?
כבר אלפיים שנה אנחנו עוברים מארץ אחת לאחרת. We're wandering for 2,000 years.
כמה עברנו בהיסטוריה כדי להיות יהודים? How much have we gone through history in order to be Yiden?
האם עברנו כל כך הרבה רק כדי ללכת לבית הכנסת בשבת בבוקר ולהתנדנד קצת? Like we went through all of this so we come into shul and we shuckle a little bit?
מוכרח להיות יותר מזה. Listen to Hanan song, what's it called? Mashu, יש פה יותר מזה or יש כאן יותר מזה, one of those. He describes it beautifully. It's got to be more than this.
It's got to be more than just whatever we've had until now. It has to be more than this. This is, to know what it is exactly is a godly revelation also. Like to know what that more is doesn't come from like knowledge or planning or...
to really know what this definition of more, you have to davven and you have to love and you have to hold hands and you have to be accountable and you have to be together. But the one thing that will never bring out a revelation of more is complaining, is kvetching. That'll never get anyone to a state of more. It may get people to another state of another normal reality, but a state of more? Bechlal no.
וכאן אנו מגיעים לשאלה העמוקה ביותר בעולם. Now we're getting to the deepest question in the world.
על איזה מין גאולה חלמנו במצרים? What type of a redemption did we dream of when we were in Egypt?
משה רבינו חשב שהוא יבוא לפרעה ויגיד לו שלח את עמי ויעבדוני ופרעה יגיד לו אני חושב שאתה צודק משה אני נותן להם ללכת, right? Moshe Rabbeinu thought he'd come to Paroh and he'd say send out my people and let us God said send my people so they could serve me and then Paroh said you know what you're right yeah you should go.
איך זה נשמע לכם? Imagine that would have happened.
Imagine that actually would have been the story put it like that. That's what he's saying over here. Imagine that would have been the story. God appears himself to Moshe Rabbeinu at the burning bush he reveals himself he tells them all the dreams of Am Yisrael.
And then Moshe Rabbeinu hears he's like okay I think I got it. A little bit tough with my speech. It's okay Aharon will be there you both will talk together. God tells Moshe Rabbeinu while he's giving him instructions for the geula.
What does he say will be the response of Paroh? He's actually saying to him you have to do your thing. You have to do your thing and at the same time it's not going to work. Isn't that isn't that amazing? Here's your sales leads but nobody here's your sales leads but no one's going to buy. But call and if you don't you're letting everyone down.
Moshe Rabbeinu could say for what? And the tzadikim when they mifaresh Parshat Va'eira they're giving a subtext they're giving actually like this silent dialogue between Moshe Rabbeinu and Hashem that in his deepest depths of his heart he was saying for what but not in a chutzpadig way. He wasn't saying for what? He's saying okay Ribbono Shel Olam I'm yours I'm going to do anything you say to me even though you're telling me he's not going to listen I'm still going to do it but I'm dying to know lemah. For right not lamah, lemah. For what is this? Why? Bemet I want to know.
Moshe Rabbeinu is the one that could say for what? And Hashem will answer him. Kachah. Well kachah the tikkun of kachah. Keter kol haktarim.
So he says like this.
איך זה נשמע לכם?
בשביל זה היינו עבדים מאתיים ועשר שנים? For this we were slaves for 210 years שפרעה יאמר אתה צודק אנחנו צריכים להיות יותר אנושיים אני אתן לכם חופש.
איך זה נשמע לכם? Like we were slaves for 210 years for Moshe to come in the name of God to Paroh and say it's horrible and Paroh is saying we've been horrible to you it's time for you to leave. What kind of exodus would that be?
זה כל מה שיש? And he says here האם היינו משתחררים ממצרים על ידי פרעה בלי כל הצרות שעברנו האם היה לנו ליל סדר האם היה לנו פסח? Would we even have Seder night would we have Pesach? Would we have this? So I want to say the same thing about the current state in Eretz Yisrael.
Imagine that right now what will happen is the people of Iran let's just go like this for a second people of Iran will somehow miraculously be able to cause a full-on revolution. We'd have no idea what's going on there. It's an amazing thing. Mamash someone was telling me this yesterday literally makat choshech.
Like there's no we don't know the all information is conflicting besides one thing that it's horrible. Like we know it's horrible and we know there's a lot of death. What we don't know really the extent of it and we have no idea where things are standing. Now imagine there'd be an amazing miracle there'd be a mahpecha there'll be a coup.
And then what happens to all the neshek what happens to all of their missiles? Imagine this. There's no threat. What does your day look like the next day? What does your Yiddishkeit look like the next day? What does your relationship with people look like the next day? Can Hashem do that? Of course he could. None of this needed to happen.
But Moshe Rabbeinu is asking lemah why do we still have to go through it why isn't that the situation? Because essentially what's going to come out of all this period that we're in right now if our hearts are open enough and if we're willing to go beyond enough and get out of kvetch mode what we can get into is a new state of reality where you think Mitzrayim was high? You think Egypt you think exodus from Egypt was high? We all know that the geula atida will make Mitzrayim look cute. It'll be cute. But the questions I think that we have to ask Hashem is please show me how to daven to you right now. Please get me out of something.
Get me out of that status quo get me out of that normalcy or that healthy thing get me out of that I want to go beyond. Okay so עכשיו תפתחו את הלב. Moshe Rabbeinu אומר לקדוש ברוך הוא ואמרו לי מה שמו מה אומר אליהם. They're gonna ask me what's your name? Right? This is last week.
Hashem oneh lo, it's a typo, it should have been with a vav, lo. Hashem עונה לו ושמי השם לא נודעתי להם.
מה כוונה שהם לא ידעו את השם של הקדוש ברוך הוא? It says I didn't reveal that my name Hashem wasn't known to them. They didn't know it.
And what does that mean? He's, Reb Shlomo is saying that they didn't know the name of God. So אתם יודעים מה הקדוש ברוך הוא ענה? He said my name is Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. I will be which I will be, that which I will be. And what is he really telling Moshe? Mah omer leMoshe?
אלא שבאמת משה רבנו שאל את הקדוש ברוך הוא איזה סוג של גאולה אתה מכין לנו.
He wasn't asking him what's your name? He wanted to know, Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to know what should we be prepared for?
האם אני הולך לפרעה ואומר שלח את עמי וזה אולי יקח כמה שבועות אבל בסוף דבר הוא יכנע או שזה משהו הרבה יותר עמוק מזה?
על מה בדיוק אנחנו מדברים? Moshe Rabbeinu was asking Hashem, he's saying am I going to Paroh saying send us away? And it may take a few weeks but eventually he'll give in, or is it much deeper than all that? What exactly are we talking about? What kind of a geulah are we talking about? And here I bring it back to us. What exactly are we looking at now? What are we looking to do right now with the gift of being together here? Are we looking to figure out a way that we could have nice experiences and we could have a strong davening on Shabbos, or is it much much much much more than that? And all these old videos of Tamar are bringing me back very much to a different period in life. I don't miss it because I'm happy it was. But a Yid doesn't miss, he longs for mah yihyeh.
What's going to be? That was the foundation, in my humble opinion, that ruach that he brought and the small, yes, six to seven guy chabura that was going on for a while was gevalt for its time. But it's time to move forward. What's the proof? Is that three-quarters of you weren't here when that was happening. And now there's space for you to be here.
But it's not to be here to try to long to grab onto something that once was. Everything has its time. Now it's time for something bigger, something deeper, something that demands loyalty, something that demands patience and something that demands a ratzon to go beyond ourselves. To go beyond ourselves.
Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to know, what is this, why are you building, kiveyachol, why are you building this shul? For what? That's what he's asking Hashem. For what are you doing this whole creativity, what is this for? Not what am I gonna tell them your name is. That's the pshat. Deep down inside it's much more intense.
וכאן אני רוצה שתדעו משהו שהוא את עומק העומקים. Okay, so this is a story that happened in Paris, in Nice, in France, in the early 60s. And I just cut it up to make it as clear as possible, but it's a crazy story. It's in the biography that we're putting out later in the year.
The most amazing thing is that this story is written up much longer, it has a lot of parts to it. But it's basically the only time that Reb Shlomo actually did physically save someone's life. It was on the beach late in the middle of the night.
פעם אחת בחיי הייתה לי הזכות להציל חיים של מישהו.
הייתי בצרפת וילדה אחת קפצה לתוך הים וניסתה להתאבד. There was a girl that was part of that chevra that was hanging out with him in France that, she it's a long story, but she had enough with life and she wanted to take her life and she ran into the ocean trying to kill herself. He just says very simply קפצתי לים והוצאתי אותה החוצה. There was a whole dialogue happening in the water of how he convinced her to come out.
But he ran into the water, he ran into—he said this story many, this is the only story that he ever said about himself that he repeated over and over again that could sound like a Rebbishe story. But this happened, he said it many times, this story. into the ocean and he saved her life.
וזאת הייתה חוויה מדהימה.
He says it was an amazing experience.
מאז לא יכולתי לדמיין אף פעם שאני אעשה משהו לא בסדר. Since then, I could have never imagined that I would ever do something wrong. You know when you do something really, really holy, you can't imagine you'll ever do something wrong, right?
זה היה כל כך קדוש ממש להציל חיים של מישהו.
It was so holy to save someone's life.
כשהמשנה אומרת שהצלת חייו של אדם זה כאילו להציל את כל העולם זה ממש אמיתי when the Gemara in Sanhedrin says that when a person that saves one person's life is likened to saving the whole world, that is not a cute statement of Chazal to make you feel good about your accomplishment. That's a real that's a reality. That's a real thing.
Az le-mohorat he said the next day I went back to that beach where there was a lifeguard during the day. Sha'alti matzil echad, I asked a lifeguard, כמה נפשות הוא הציל באותה שנה. How many people did you save that year?
בפנים מרירות ביותר הוא אומר לי twenty-six. Just like that twenty-six.
Twenty-six kids? Esrim ve-shisha yeladim?
לפי הטבע הוא היה צריך לזרוח מסוף העולם ועד סופו. How could you twenty-six. How could that be?
הייתה צריכה להיות עליו הארה אלוקית שמימית. It had to be upon him a godly illumination, a heavenly illumination unto him.
אז למה הוא לא זרח when he told me that he saved twenty-six kids that year?
בגלל שזה עבודה שלו. Because it's he gets paid to do this. It's his job.
הוא אמור להציל אנשים.
He's supposed to save people.
הוא רואה מישהו טובע, he sees someone drowning, הוא קופץ פנימה מוציא אותו החוצה. That's what he's supposed to do. So he jumps in and he pulls them out.
אבל הפנימיות שלו לא מעורבת בעבודה שלו. But his kishkas are not part of it. So therefore when he's asked how many kids did you save he says twenty-six. There's nothing shining from him.
Why? Because it has nothing to do with his beyond, with his kishkas. It's what he's paid to do. It's what he it's what he was trained to do. It's what he was trained to do.
You know it's amazing, any soldier I've spoken to and I ask them for like body, you know, how many I'll ask like you know, all these questions and no one ever has told me any number and I've asked a lot of chayalim. A lot. And they they can't even speak about it because they they are connected their mesirus nefesh for saving our lives is not like this. Even though they'll say this is what I signed up for, they can't they can't even speak about what they do.
And it's not to do with humility. It means you entered a realm of beyond. And when you're operating from that place, everything looks and sounds different. If they went to that place, we have to go to that place also.
So therefore for some of you I would ask you tell me what would be the most ideal tzura of a Yid in you for next year. Let's say I approached some of you five years ago. And I said let me ask you something. There's how many how many weekday Shachrises are there in a year approximately? Right? Like three hundred? Two eighty? Mashehu ka-ze? Take out Shabbos and Yom Tov? Let's say two let's say two seventy okay? There are two hundred seventy Shachrises in a year.
Can you imagine a person of an image of you that shows up to half of them? Right? Be crazy. Mah pitom. That's not me. That's not me.
Maybe once every two weeks if I make it it'll be okay but mah pitom. But then you evolve and you grow up and things change and it becomes part of the routine and you're holding kimat by half let's say. How come that doesn't make you shine from one corner of the world to the next? Because those things became natural also unfortunately. And the secret of Yiddishkeit is to how to blend both all the time.
And you know how you blend how you you merge. The things that become natural that were once very exciting but have become natural to longing for dreams while you're holding on to to spiritual growth. Chaveirus, commitment, accountability, and responsibility, and patience. All of these things that don't seem too flashy are the key besides chaveirus, besides friendship.
That that is flashy. That is all those other things without those other things you'll it's just you're looking for another high and then that'll pass and also completely removing the element of complaining. But trusting that there's a nucleus of of people that are in this for like they say the whole ball of wax. You know what that means? Anyone ever hear that or that's my old like yeah? Doverich have you heard of that concept before? Too long ago.
They're in it for the long run. They're in it for the long run. We're not here we're not here for the short run. We we are hopefully here for the long run.
But to make it really happen, it's got to take everyone everyone to be in. If not, it'll still be a nice it'll still be a great place and people will enjoy but I always felt the chaburah was the pulse of the shul. I always felt that. I said that from day one.
Because a shul without a vision a shul without a vision is a nice place to make sure you're יוצא ידי חובת הלכה. It's great. You could even have a nice spicy shiur once in a while. You could have a nice farbrengen here and there.
Zeh lo zeh. It's not it. More, beyond, talking, real talk, chaverim, dibbuk chaverim. There's no other way.
And that's the purpose that this structure was built. Why why do you think those things are all there? Why do you think all those books are out there right now? I'll tell you why. I'll be very honest why. We built a mikvah to be the yesod of the shul.
To be that was the only condition I had with the vaad when we first started building was to have a mikvah. Our mikvah's there. The mikvah you have to have what what we've been working on for a long time this tofes arba deal in order to activate it and for it to be used vechulu. These people don't know so the kvetching begins it you get used to it after a while but it's chaval like how come it's not operated.
People have no idea they don't ask how could I help? They just wonder why isn't this happening. But I had Moshe and Paul yesterday and Yudi we moved all the sefarim almost all the sefarim out of this these have been stored in the mikvah. We moved them all out here went through all of them yesterday for one reason: that the second that we get that tofes arba, bezras Hashem we could activate this mikvah, this power of kedusha, preparing. Yeah, Amen but but what's usually what's usually the assumptions? Someone will take care of it for me.
Someone will take care of it for me. That's the that's the shift that I want to see happening over here. It it has to happen. Someone will be taking care of it.
They have it under control. No, I'm saying beraysh galey we have to understand what makes me a geulahdika yid which means to think beyond, to go beyond and and not to assume anything. But to know that there's a place here that is that was built with with so much dedication in order for you to be able to dream as as big as you can and in the healthiest, healthiest, healthiest way to go really veiter and to trust I sound like I'm from Philly to trust the process, right? Sorry, I had to. Chavadinev.
To trust this process. That's 7-6? Huh? That's right right that's not 6-7. That's how you had to that was a drop. That's 7-6 right that's 7-6.
Meaning are we in for some people they walk in here and for them it's like saving a drowning girl in the middle of the night that's because it happens to them once. So they come in here they think like they're they have the experience of drowning a girl of of taking a girl out of the water and saving their life. Then what then what ends up happening? Then we start sounding like the like the lifeguard. We start sounding like the lifeguard.
That's Amalek. That's Amalek cooling you off asher karcha baderech. That's mamash the bechinah of Amalek cooling you off.
לעבוד את השם בלי הפנימיות שלך serving God without your pnimiyus zeh paganiyus that means paganism.
בעברית פגניות נקראת עבודה זרה. So similar to what the conversation Yossi and I were having during shiur the other week I think last Wednesday Avodah Zarah to us was always like pesels or we even called it here being politically correct. We've called it money, taivas nashim, all these different things that are like our idols, right? He gives a definition, Reb Shlomo gives an important definition for us that's based on Chassidus, but he says, here, he quotes the Kotzker Rebbe.
הרבי מקוצק אומר שעבודה זרה זה לא פגניות.
Avoda Zara doesn't mean Paganism. He says, סוג של עבודה שהיא מוזרה. It's strange worship to you.
אני יכול לעבוד את השם אבל עבודת השם היא זרה לי.
I could serve God, but I could serve God as a stranger, it's still strange to me. It's not close to me. I do it, but it's not, I feel strange, I feel not close. And he says here, אני יכול להיות נשוי לאשתי כמו אדם זר.
Hashem yirachem, how many times that happens? I could love, I could be married, I could love like a stranger.
אני יכול להגיד שלום לילדים שלי כמו אדם זר. One guy once came in and he said, I'm dealing with ghosts. I said, have you decided to put down the pipe yet? Like, mah? He's like, no, I feel like I'm a ghost in my house.
I mamash feel like I'm a ghost and I feel like when I'm not a ghost, that they're ghosts. Nothing bad happened necessarily, there was no craziness that happened, just mamash just ghosts, right?
אני יכול להיות נשוי לאשתי כמו אדם זר, אני יכול להגיד שלום לילדים שלי כמו אדם זר.
השאלה החשובה ביותר היא כמה אתה לא זר לאלוקים. How much are you not strange to God? Meaning, how much is your Avodas Hashem avoda kerova and not Avoda Zara? Which is the most fundamental question of our dor.
אתם מבינים חברים יקרים, so you understand, Yetzias Mitzrayim is not just yetzia from avdus. It's not just taking us out of slavery.
זה יציאה מעבודה זרה. It's the end of being an idol worshiper on the level that he's speaking about about serving God as a foreigner.
להפסיק להיות זר לאלוקים. Stop being strange to God.
כל אדם שמרגיש מוזר כלפי אדם אחר זה לא משהו טוב עבור המשיח. Any person that feels strange towards another person, it's not good for Mashiach.
אתה יכול ללכת לגן עדן אבל אתה עדיין לא טעמת משהו מהמשיח. You still haven't tasted anything special of Mashiach.
כשאני רואה איש מסכן ברחוב שאין לו מה לאכול אני סוגר את החלונות ומניח שהוא כנראה מכור לסמים. Ever happened to anybody? You see that guy waiting by the traffic light, and in the name of every holy reason you've come up with, the right and holy and correct thing is we don't help drug addicts, 'cause any money I give him he's going to use, right?
אם אח שלי נמצא ברחוב.
And what about if that was my brother? If my brother is on the street, I open the door ומתחנן לפניו שייכנס פנימה. And I beg him to come inside.
כל השנה אני לא פותח את הדלת ומזמין אותו לבית שלי כי מבחינתי כולם זרים. Usually everyone's a stranger, I don't open my door and say please everybody come in.
אם הוא רעב שילך לעובדת סוציאלית. If he's hungry, go and see a social worker, get your life together. Be responsible. That's the real right thing to do.
אתם יודעים מה קורה לי בליל הסדר כשאני יוצא ממצרים. But one night, Leil Seder when I get out of Egypt, when I get out of being strange and far from everyone, אין יותר זרים בעולם. There's no such thing as strangers anymore.
כל דכפין ייתי וייכול כל דצריך ייתי וייפסח.
What do I say? How do I open up this night? What declaration do I start Seder night with? Removal of being strangers. That's how I'm starting the night. Why? I got out of Mitzrayim, which means I got out of my own narrow vision, my own narrow way of thinking about people, of looking at people, at interpreting people. I'm out of it.
I'm just out of it. So the first expression of being out of that Avoda Zara is: כל דכפין ייתי וייכול. Whoever's hungry, come. Come inside.
All year long I'd never open my door to you. Never. One night I would. Because that's why God took me out of Mitzrayim.
Now if that's why God took me out of Mitzrayim to make sure that there's no strangers anymore, what's Yetzias Mitzrayim compared to coming back to Eretz Yisrael? What is the exodus in comparison to coming home to Eretz Yisrael? It's mamash like kindergarten to college. That's the difference. And what we have to do here, and in, and in hopefully wherever. Whatever else Hashem allows us to do anything and be'ezras Hashem I'm going to see it this Shabbos with my own eyes.
I'm so proud of our boys in Yerushalayim that opened up pnima, our family is going to be there this Shabbos. What we have to do is to continue to create centers and communities of people that want much more, but that that much more isn't nerve-wracking. It doesn't scare us. It's exciting, it's invigorating, it's thrilling, it makes you feel like I just want more of this.
But it's got to be centers of accountability, of people that are holding up, they're responsible for each other. They know that someone's counting on me. Someone's really counting on me to show up. And as Reb Shlomo explained his dreams about opening up the House of Love and Prayer, I've said this to you guys so many times and I think about this every day, and it still remains probably the most the core of my own belief for here is that it's a place that when you walk into, you know that someone was waiting for you, and that when you leave, you know that someone's going to miss you.
And that's what I'm davening to be able to display to everyone that comes in here and everyone that leaves, and that's what I'm davening that you guys choose to display to anyone that comes in here or anyone that leaves. Anyone. And the only homework assignment I would ask for anyone is to find out to maybe think deeper about what you think it would take in order to raise that awareness and consciousness within the kehila, not to tell me what's wrong, right? That baruch Hashem you do, but what I mean is that's not today's assignment. The assignment is what do you think, after learning a piece like this, if this is the vision, what do you think it would take in order to bring that awareness to a higher state? This is what I'm more invested in more than any other aspect of what goes on here.
More than any other aspect. Mamash. To take out this is going to sound harsh but only in the context of this shiur, don't clip this one, okay? To take out the avoda zara out of the community. See chas veshalom it should be misinterpreted, I'm just meaning what's avoda zara? Avoda zara means that person starts saying about this, about that, and then it becomes avoda zara.
Hakol galuy. No one's no one that has anything to do with running anything here has any negiah atzmit. Everyone's here for this for something much bigger. Efrat didn't need another shul to daven in.
Efrat needed a center where people grow and dream about geula. Grow and dream about redemption. And that's a tall order, it's big. So you'll finish this piece on your own, but because I said 10 and it's 9:59 and I'm staying to my word.
But I'm asking you, think about it deeply. Not what the first thing that comes to your mind. And not now, not after shiur, don't catch me now. Daven over this one tfila.
One tfila. And say I think that this would be a thing that could take things to the place that you're talking about. And that would be the greatest gift you could ever give me. The greatest gift you could ever give me.
Not from a place of pointing out what you think is lacking, but rather from a place of saying how much you feel in this area, this could be amazing. The only thing is that you have to be accountable with your you gotta show up. You have to show up. Rav Weinberger told me when I was sitting in the gas station filling up the car ten not six-seven, and not eight-nine, twelve years ago, eleven years ago.
I said Rebbe, what would it really take in order to create what these dreams are? And he said one pasuk. And I want you to remember this pasuk, chevra. He said רוח סערה עושה דברו. The only way to make something happen like this is a ruach se'ara.
Ruach se'ara means a stormy spirit within keilim. Stormy spirit. The shul provides more of. The amount of speakers, classes, guests, artists, concerts, you name it, but on the inside, it's the pulse of the chevra that are the ones that are they're going to be the ones that will really take those high moments, that's not the Ruach Searah.
The Ruach Searah is more like a chabura of Bnei Machshava Tova, of chevra that get together to really really take, to really build what they believe is a Geula dream, a Geula dream. So it should be from our chelek to to discover these things inside and shkoyach for everyone for coming because it looks like Hashem is still doing things in the world, not as fast as we would have liked even though I'm really if you think about it it's happening faster than ever, only for us to to say L'mah and Hashem is saying L'man Daas so that you have daas to take you out of on a klal level of anything, anything that's avoda zara, but also on a prati level of anything that's avoda zara. Okay, I love you all very much and I also like you.