Latest / The Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Podcast / 17th of Tammuz: Exile, Awareness, and the Five Avodot of Return
Transcript
- Shalom Shalom. Okay, the 17th of Tammuz, the 17th day of the month of Tammuz. And everyone knows that 17 is gematria tov. So it's meant to be a very good day. Because gematria tov, I've been married for 17 years and three days now. Tammuz, 17th of Tammuz is meant to be a very wonderful day. Why? How do we know that? Because we have a tradition that every major event that happened in Jewish history happened because there was a special energy in the world on that day since the beginning of creation. So the 15th of Nissan, which is when we left Egypt, was always the time of our freedom. Hashem when he created the universe, created the 15th of Nissan as freedom day. So when we were going to leave Egypt, it was obviously going to be on that day. Some people get it wrong the other way around. They think it's called freedom day because we left Egypt on that day. It's not true. It's the other way around. Because there was the power of freedom, that's when freedom occurred. So what was meant to happen on the 17th of Tammuz? Tov. What was meant to happen on the 17th of Tammuz was Moshe was meant to come down from Har Sinai after 40 days with the Luchot and give the Luchot to the Jewish people. That's what was meant to happen. So the power of that was in creation from the beginning of creation. And what is that? That's the power of deep, intimate connection with Hashem. They say that really the Luchot is like a ketubah. It's closeness and commitment. And that was the day that Hashem gave us the wedding ring. That was it. That's the day. We got this amazing thing. So that is actually the essential power and energy of this day. Amazing. And in the future it's going to be a Yom Tov. We should say gut Yom Tov today. But it's not a good day today. It's a great day in essence, but it got covered up. I actually worked out this morning, it's the 17th day of the fourth month. 17 plus 4 is 21. 21 is a numerical value of God's name Ehyeh, אלף הי יוד הי, which is the name that says I will be with you. At the burning bush, Moshe says so Hashem what's your name, and he says Ehyeh, which means I'm going to be with you even in the difficult times. So we have to remember that even though the Luchot got smashed on this day, it doesn't mean that we're abandoned. Hashem says I'm going to be with Ehyeh, I'm going to be with you. It's going to be good in the end. So we should definitely feel some brokenness, but not despair or depression. A brokenness is meant to cause yearning. And so therefore this is actually a very, very, very wonderful and great day. But instead of being this day of immense closeness and commitment and oneness, it became the opposite. It really is the beginning of Galut, Galus, which is exile. So my Rebbe Bilvavi says that there are two essences of exile, of Galot. The first one is distance. There could have been connection, but now we're very, we're disconnected. And there's distance between us. We're very, we're far. I feel far. As we've been saying for a while, that relationship is defined as emotional intimacy. You feel emotionally intimate. And there are, we said there are four expressions of that: Ahava, love; Yira, reverence and respect; Simcha, joy to be with each other; and Dveikut, which means connection that I actually feel your presence. We're meant to, we're actually meant to walk around feeling Hashem's presence with us, hugging us at all times. And very few people do that. And we say שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. I want to feel like I'm actually walking around holding Hashem's hand at all times. And sometimes I do that, by the way, I still do that. I walk around swinging my arms, but I pretend that I'm holding Hashem's hand. It's a cool idea, it's a cool mindfulness tool. Shalom, welcome. Hi. So we're meant... do you feel anywhere? Do you feel Hashem's imminent divine awesome presence right now? Really? Wow, it's just because you walked into the room and you're like, wow, very... but in general, few people walk around feeling Hashem's imminent, powerful, beautiful, divine presence. Why is that? One reason is Hashem's not tangible through our five senses. So you really feel the person sitting next to you and you feel but you don't feel Hashem sitting next to you although who's sitting closer to you, the person sitting next to you or Hashem? Hashem's sitting on your lap and in your lap and in every cell of your body. Hashem is permeating all of it's saturating everything but we don't really feel that until I say things like that and you're like oh that feels cool. That's what tzitzis are meant to be by the way because women are meant to more naturally feel this. Men we don't as naturally feel it basically because we have bigger egos. So we need to have this constant reminder and this spiritual body armor that feels like Hashem and that's what the kippah is for. The kippah is to feel that Hashem is resting his presence on me. Hashem's above spiritually very high but not so high that I can't actually feel the presence of Hashem resting on me. The kippah is really meant to be the Shechinah that is resting upon us. So the first reason we don't feel Hashem's imminent awesome divine presence is because we use our five senses and your five senses can't pick up spirituality. But secondly because the presence Hashem's Shechinah left. The Gemara says when the temple was destroyed that presence left. Now we can keep bringing it back and we say it every day three times a day Hamachzir Shechinato Letziyon you should bring your Shechinah back. We want your Shechinah and when there's Shalom Bayis the Shechinah comes and when we're learning Torah which we're doing now the Shechinah comes and when we're being kind the Shechinah comes and so there are many things but in general we have to do something to bring the Shechinah whereas before the destruction it was just there and in the redemption that's what redemption is. Redemption the final revelation isn't just that there'll be no war and suffering and sickness which is very cute and nice and we want that but we'll tangibly be able to sense just like you can sense physical things with your hands and your eyes we'll have a tangible sense of Hashem's imminent awesome loving joyful presence. So at the moment we have to work hard for that. It's very difficult. We work hard. We say brachos and we have mezuzos and we really try and then some moments maybe at Kabbalas Shabbat or maybe at Ne'ila or some some time we have little tastes of Hashem's actual presence but in general it's very very hard to really feel Hashem's presence. It takes a lot of work, a lot of mindfulness, a lot of meditation, a lot of concentration especially because we're so completely distracted. We're completely completely distracted at the moment. We're not present even with our family who are sitting in front of us. So if you can't be present then how you'll never feel Hashem's presence. Oh if you can't be present you'll never feel Hashem's presence. So that's what we're really working on. So the first idea of galus is distance, disconnection, I'm not feeling, I'm not feeling close in terms of love, reverence, joy and connection but the second thing is bilbul. Do you know what bilbul means? What does it mean? Confusion. Confusion. I'm now a bit confused, I'm now I'm assimilated, I don't know what's right and wrong. In fact my Rebbe says that the archetype of galus is Adam and Chava, Gan Eden. That is what galus is. That's they were exiled from this paradise. So what happened when they were exiled? They ate from the עץ הדעת טוב ורע and what was so bad about that? It became mebalbel, it became confusion. What's good, what's bad, things that are not good seem good and we're chasing all these pleasures so we think they're really good but really they're actually not good for us and then the good things for us actually might be hard for us so we don't think they're good and it's more difficult and holiness seems unholy and unholiness well seems unholy as well but everything feels a bit not holy so we have bilbul. In fact last week they say Bilaam and Balak, Bilaam and Balak the first two letters of their names spell bilbul, bilbul, bilbul, Bilaam and Balak and the last letters of their names spell Amalek, Bilaam Balak spell Amalek. So Amalek is this force of confusion and doubt and it also spells Bavel, Bilaam and Balak spells Bavel which is the first galus. So the עץ הדעת טוב ורע is the archetype the essence of what galus is. I don't feel close to Hashem anymore and we said this a few times that the biggest mistake they made was hiding. That's what they did. They realized they messed up so they hid in the garden. So you can't hide from Hashem. You can't hide from Hashem. Hashem's everywhere. He's in the trees, he's in the leaves that you're hiding behind, in fact he's in your consciousness. Hashem's everywhere. thought that you could hide from Hashem is the biggest galus you can be in, is the biggest exile of consciousness. There's no daas, there's no awareness of Hashem. You can't hide from Hashem. And then Hashem says an amazing powerful thing. What does Hashem say when He realizes they're hiding? Ayeka. Ayeka, which means where are you? So there's two very important teachings with Ayeka. The first one is, Hashem obviously knows where they are. Hashem's keeping them alive every second. The first thing is, where are you spiritually that you believe you can hide from me? Where are you spiritually? Really? What happened to you? You used to be so great, spiritually connected, full of love and joy and playfulness. And you used to be as well, do you remember those days when you were two years old before you got messed up? You were so full of love and joy and playfulness and just connection, it was all good, life was good, and then someone let you down and you got hurt and you stopped trusting the world, which is fair, the world's hard to trust now. But that's galus. Galus, we're meant to be living in a state of love, joy, trust, bitachon, emunah, good. Most people are very far from that. We are we are we're in galus of our soul, of our Shechina. We don't even have our soul in our life anymore. How big a part does your neshama play in your life? Well, I believe in the neshama, but does it really play a part in your life? Not really. Your body plays a big part in your life, very big part, and your emotions, your ego plays a very big part in your life, and your mind plays a huge part in your life, in fact, your mind's messing up your life. But your soul, is it playing a big part? Is it there? Can you hear the whisper of your soul saying hey, you're cool, you're nice, you're okay, everything's fine? Your mind's saying I'm not good enough, what's wrong with me, I'm such an idiot, it's not fair. Your soul's saying no, you're so beautiful, you're so you're so you're a radiant being of sweet beautiful divine love and joy. And your mind and body is saying I want to get more, how can I get more pleasure and how can I get and I get and chasing. And your soul is how can I give more? I just want to give to other people. I don't even need to get. What I get is when I give, I get when I give. So inside this is immense galus, immense galus. So the second major teaching is Hashem says Ayeka, which is saying I can't see you. You know what? You get to choose how close our relationship is. So if you think you can hide from me, okay, so I'll say where are you? The relationship is only as strong as you want it to be. So if you want to hide from me then fine, I can't see you. So we get to choose how close our relationship with Hashem is. If we want Hashem in our lives, Hashem will be in our lives, and if not then we won't. It's really totally up to us. It's an amazing thing. So what happened is we just got confused. We left our land and our kedusha and now we're confused. What's right? What's wrong? What's good? What am I living for? What's the purpose? And we assimilate, we basically assimilated. By the way, even religious people, even religious people are more Western than message Jewish, I think. We always say this around Chanukah time. Who won the battle, the Greeks or the Jews? Chanukah, who won the battle? Who won the war? Who won the war? The Greeks or the Jews? God! That's not always the right answer by the way, but I like it. God always wins. So people say the Jews won the war. In Chanukah the Jews won the war. But whose culture actually won? Greek culture, we live in we're living in Yavan right now. We're living in Greece. True. And the Greek exile was an amazing exile. Why was the Greek exile an amazing exile? Because we weren't in exile. We were in Israel. So it wasn't even exile. But it was exile. It was the deepest most painful exile because we were still in Israel. We were still we look frum and we're doing frum things but we're just Greek. We're Greek Jews. Greek Jews. Even religious most religious people are Greek Jews. And we pray and we're good and we but we we've been so overtaken by the Western idea of success and of meaning so we've been Greekified. So but remember, אין שום יאוש בעולם כלל. Don't now hear what I said and be like oh no, we're doomed, we're broken. Ridiculous. You should get very excited. This should be very exciting. We said 17th of Tammuz, 17 is gematria tov, is a very very good day. The three weeks are very good. The three weeks are the highest three weeks of the year. Why are they the highest three weeks of the year? Because they're the lowest three weeks of the year. And Jewish attitude to the lowest is that it's the opportunity to become the highest. The further you pull down a spring, the higher it bounces up. So the darker it gets, the more light is Can't eat meat, drink wine. It's like really, that's what you're upset? You can't eat meat and drink wine? So we'll at least make a siyum so we can... can't eat meat, drink wine, it's like really, that upsets you? You can't eat meat, drink wine? That's the whole point. We get upset by things we shouldn't get upset by. We get upset by things we shouldn't be upset by. Like the World Cup. England nearly lost yesterday. But thank God, my fourteen year old Bais Yaakov daughter made England win. Because she, most of the girls in her class are French. So France are like the best team and they're destroying everyone, but they tease my daughter a bit. God forbid to think a Bais Yaakov girl would tease someone. But you know they're like... so my daughter she's not even that into football, but she was like \"Abba, we need to win, we need to win\". And so we... they scored a goal in the seventh minute. Congo. They can't even play. It's like ridiculous. It's a country with only like eleven people in it, that's the national football team. So they can't even play and we're meant to be like great and then... and then seventy-five, there's fifteen minutes left of the match, my daughter is like, no one's ever davened, she like said the whole book of Tehillim in three minutes. She was like \"Abba...\", she goes \"I don't even, I just don't, I don't really care, I just don't want us to lose\". And then we scored two goals in like six minutes and my daughter's like... That's what made my daughter frum by the way. When my daughter's fifty years old looking back on her life she's gonna say prayer is answered. Hashem answers prayers. She's like \"we just need to...\" and she told me she was saying Tehillim the whole time. \"Shema Elokeinu Hashem, please...\" We shouldn't be getting upset about football. Or about someone scratching your car. People get upset about that. We said yesterday that if someone scratched your car what does that mean? It means you have a car. It's good. Most people don't have a car. And you should be like \"wow, amazing\". If I didn't have a car, there wouldn't be no one could scratch my car, so the scratch on my car means I've got a car. So the brokenness of the three weeks means that there's fixing to do. We get to fix. And what's your purpose in this world? To fix. You've come to fix. Isn't that awesome? You're here to fix. So if it wasn't broken, you'd be useless. If there was no brokenness, you'd be out of a job. You want it to be broken. You're here to fix yourself, so when there's any brokenness in yourself, don't get depressed, be like amazing, now I've got something to do. You're like a mechanic. Mechanics don't get upset when they have broken engine. Someone brings in their engine and it's broken, the mechanic's not like oh no it's broken, the mechanic's like great, I'm gonna roll up my sleeves, I love it. And they love it. Mechanics even take engines apart so they can put them back together. You don't worry, you don't need to take yourself apart. Life took you apart. So you just got to fix yourself and fix the world. It's amazing. People get depressed when they see the world so broken. I'm like, what do you mean? That's amazing. Now I got something to do. Now David Aaron gave a mashal. He said someone turns up at an adventure, a park, \"I'm going to Disneyland in about a month from now\". If anyone's from LA and can get me a promo code for Disneyland, please let me know, because it's like a thousand dollars for them, ridiculous. Anyway, I'm going to Disneyland. So imagine I get to Disneyland and all the rides are broken. I'd be depressed. So he gives this mashal, this analogy. This guy turns up at Disneyland, all the rides are broken and he's like starts to get upset and the manager runs up to him and says \"I'm so glad you're here, we've been waiting for you\". And he's like \"what do you mean? Everything's broken\". He goes \"no, you're the fix, you fix roller coasters\" and he's like \"oh yeah, I forgot\". So once he realizes he's the fixer of the roller coasters then he's very excited now. So someone who has spiritual eyes are not broken by brokenness, they're excited. They're excited because I got something to do now, I got something to be. That doesn't mean I don't feel my pain, we spoke about that a lot, you're allowed to cry, you should feel your pain, that's okay. But then you use your pain to become greater, you use your pain to become stronger, you use your pain to become kinder, you use your pain to become more empathetic, you use your pain to become more sympathetic. Use your pain to... pain isn't a bad thing. We don't want pain, but you become great through your pain. So what happened? We say there are six things that happened on this day which really speak about this whole inyan, this whole idea of distance and confusion. Galus is distance and then we got mixed up. First one is the luchos. It was meant to be the day when we got the tablets. And instead Moshe smashes the luchos. Which we're going to learn a very deep thing about it, but it was a complete breaking of intimacy. What happened on that day instead of we received the Luchot and we basically had this immense intimacy was the Golden Calf, Chet Ha'egel. The Chet Ha'egel is just repeating the חטא עץ דעת טוב ורע, the sin of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was basically ended up in them hiding from Hashem and saying there's distance. I can't have a direct relationship with Hashem because I'm embarrassed or whatever it is. The Golden Calf is the same thing, there's no direct relationship with Hashem. I have to go through some intermediary. And Hashem says no, no, and especially we're going to read soon, but especially when you mess up, when you mess up and you don't own it and you think you messed up and then you go and hide from Hashem, Hashem says you idiot. In fact the great, deepest intimacy comes from when you own it and you yearn to fix it. Hashem says we can fix. We can fix and it gets stronger after we fix it gets stronger. So basically the Luchot represents this complete distance between us and Hashem, which I feel it a bit today. Then the next thing that happened was the Tamid. There were five... Just a quick question. Yeah. Okay. It's nothing to do with Christianity. Is it talk to like Christians? So Tamid. We had the Beit HaMikdash and the Beit HaMikdash was this place where the Shechinah was most available, the Wi-Fi connection was the most powerful. Now obviously Hashem's everywhere but there's some special places. We spoke about this a lot. You want special places because people say why can't I talk to God when I'm in the bathroom? Hashem's in the bathroom. Is Hashem equally in the bathroom as he is in the Beit HaMikdash? Yeah. But there's something called kedusha. kedusha means sanctification, sanctified, set apart, special, raised up. So if every place is exactly the same, then there's nothing special. So it was my anniversary twice last week. Hebrew anniversary on Sunday and... you're like what you got two wives? No. It was my Hebrew anniversary on Sunday and my slave calendar anniversary on Thursday. Anyway, I spend every day with my wife and every day is special with my wife. But my anniversary is more special. That's it. So it's the same idea. There's some places that are more special. When we were dating my wife told me about a tree she used to go and sit under all the time when she was growing up. Her tree in Emmarentia Park, if anyone's from Johannesburg. So she had this tree and she told me about the tree and I went there when I was sad and I went there when I did art. And then we got married and then we went to South Africa for a while after we got married and we went to Emmarentia Park and she said do you want to come and see my tree? Very special. So all trees are trees but her tree is a special tree. And she was like guess which one's my tree? There's like 8,000 million trees in... I was like that one, she's like no. I just tap which one I... Anyway we went and sat under her tree together. So the Temple is Hashem's tree in Emmarentia Park. Hashem says look this is our place. I want you to come to my place. This is our place together. Yerushalayim, that's what Yerushalayim is. Yira Shalem. Complete awe. We live in complete awe. This is my place, Hashem. So we had the thing and so we then had in the Temple we had Korbanot. Korbanot which I'm not going to give you a whole class about Korbanot, but especially as a secular Jew looking at Judaism on a very surface level, seems a bit weird that God needs us to kill animals and sprinkle their blood. That's just a little bit weird. So I'm not going to get into the whole Kabbalah of it but basically the animal represents our animalistic nature which makes us far from God. Every sin we do, everything we do that's not good is because we're acting like an animal, in some like alpha male desire-driven, I'm just being animalistic, I'm cutting myself off from my soul. So I bring up an animal... whatever... we're not going into too much what blood represents and the blood is the dam is the nefesh and the nefesh is ratzon and what do you really want in life? But maybe we'll talk about that later. But we had the Temple and then we had the Korban Tamid. It was a daily offering. Now the word for an offering in Hebrew is Korban, which comes from the word Karov. It brings me close. I'm offering up my animalistic nature and I'm saying I don't want to invest in that, I want to become close to you. So we had, we still had the Temple. But the Korban ran out. We didn't have any sheep left because we were under siege. So it meant we had the body without the soul, basically. And a body without a soul and it's like doing mitzvot without trying to have a relationship. Putting on my tefillin just to put on my tefillin, I'm not putting on my tefillin to build myself. refine myself, become more spiritually connected, feel Hashem's presence. I'm just putting on my tfillin because that's what Jewish men do and I'm just saying brachas because I feel guilty if I don't say brachas. So what the tamid represents really these two things. It represents that you can have the Beis Hamikdash, you can have the structure, you can have the external structure, but if you don't have the relationship, then what's the point of the external structure? You can be the frumest, the most observant Jew in the world and miss the whole purpose of life. You can be learning Torah all day, praying all day, you're mispalel, because there's no relationship there. So we lost that, and the other thing it teaches us, and the Gemara has a whole debate: what's the most important line, verse in the Torah? Someone says שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד. Someone says V'ahavta L'reiacha Kamocha. And someone said no, it's really the korban tamid, that you have to bring a korban every day. And everyone's like what are you talking about? That's the least. And they said no, because what is real commitment is every day, something small every day. It's committing, I'm showing up every day. I have a commitment. All the time. I'm always there. Sometimes I don't feel like it, but I still show up. Sometimes I don't feel connected to my wife, but I still tell her I love her. Sometimes you just keep showing up. That's what the tamid represents. Third thing that happened on the seventeenth of Tammuz, and it's not a coincidence they all happened on the same day throughout the years because this day was meant to be that day of connection, so when we broke the connection, then that's the energy in the world at that time, so it became a day of brokenness instead of a day of connection, is that the walls were broken. After the siege of Jerusalem, they broke the walls. And what does this represent? Is really when we break our kedusha. We have a Jewish people are actually, and we said in last week's parsha, are meant to be alone. We're meant to be a nation that dwells alone. We're meant to be separate. Now obviously from our place of being separate we're meant to uplift the world and be a light unto the nations and not actually be separate, but we're meant to be fundamentally different. We're meant to look different, we're meant to act differently, we're meant to have different values. In fact, it says that in Egypt, the reason, the zchus, the merit we had for getting out of Egypt were three things. Do you know what they are? They kept their names. They kept their names. They kept their clothes. They kept their clothes. And the language. Names, clothes, language. The Jews in Egypt were in the lowest place in the world. And they were slaves. And they forgot everything, but at least they kept their names, clothes, and language. So I teach in the Yeshiva as well, and someone came in two days ago and I said, \"Hi, what's your name?\" and he said, \"Brian.\" And I said, \"Do you have a Hebrew name?\" and he was like, \"Yes, Mordechai.\" I said, \"Mordechai. What does Brian mean?\" he was like, \"I don't know.\" Mordechai. A few years ago someone came, I said, \"Hi, what's your name? Welcome to Yeshiva. What's your name?\" he said, \"Trevor.\" And I said, \"Do you have a Jewish name, Hebrew name?\" and he goes, \"Yes, Shalom Chaim.\" I said, \"Do you know what Trevor means, Trevor?\" he was like, \"No.\" I said, \"Do you know what Shalom Chaim means?\" I was like, \"Complete life, peaceful life, alive, alive, peace.\" And then also we had Eden. Eden, do you have a Jewish name? Yes. What is it? Avrohom Yitzchok. Avrohom Yitzchok. I was like \"Dude. So hey, Eden, meet Brian. Or hey, Avrohom Yitzchok, meet Mordechai.\" It's a whole different world. So we're not even keeping our names now. We don't even use our names. It's crazy. So in Egypt at the lowest place, at least we kept our names. And language, how many Jews speak Hebrew? I feel embarrassed about myself. I can't teach. Be'ezras Hashem in six months from now I'll be able to teach in Hebrew. I can speak Hebrew, but I can't teach in Hebrew. Clothes, what clothes are we wearing? That's why tzitzis is so important. Tzitzis is so important. Because how are we distinguish how do we look different? Now we're b'ezras Hashem, more tznuah and we cover our head, very cover very special, covering hair very special. You want to stand out. Some people are embarrassed. They go to the airport, they're embarrassed to stand out. Tuck in their tzitzis, wear a baseball cap. I'm the opposite. I'm in the airport, I'm swinging my tzitzis. I'm going to the airport today. I'm going to Venice today. I'm going to be swinging my someone said, \"You better find out from Chabad of Venice, do you have to tuck in your tzitzis? Do you go there, antisemitism?\" I was like, \"I'm not tucking my tzitzis. I'm not embarrassed. I'm not embarrassed to be Jewish. It's the opposite. You should be so proud to be a Jew, the best. People say, 'You know what?' they come up to me and they say, 'Oh, you Jew.' and I'm like, 'That's the best compliment.' If someone came up to me and said, 'You Jew', I'd be like, 'Thank you so much. I thought you didn't like us.' 'Yeah, we hate you.' 'So why are you complimenting me?' It's the best thing. Famous story of a woman in Russia, whenever, 1980s, 1970s, and not a religious but a Jewish woman, and everywhere she went people said, 'Zhid, Zhid, Zhid'.\" And it was very distressing for her, and then one day she saw a Chabad guy, proper black hat, everything, and she went up to him and she said, \"How do you deal with all the insults?\" And I heard two different answers that he gave. One was, \"That's not an insult, that's a compliment.\" And the other one was, \"They don't say it to me because they know that I won't be insulted by that.\" I had a student, she converted, and we were having Shabbat together, and it was the first week that she had converted, and she said on the way to shul, she was walking along the streets of London, and on the way to shul, these people drove past and called out out the window, they were like, \"Yid! Yid!\" The first Shabbat she'd ever kept as a Jew, \"Yid!\" and she was like, \"Yes! I am!\" She was like, \"So, oh my goodness!\" So anti-Semitism is mamash the biggest compliment in a way. Why are they so obsessed with us? Obsessed! We're a little piece of land smaller than New Jersey, and do you know what we do? We pray and we help the economy. Why do you hate us? It's so weird! It's so... they're so obsessed! So that's why I feel very proud, you're so obsessed with us, it's mamash amazing. In fact, anti-Semitism, I was thinking about it this morning because of what we're talking about now, is the greatest thing for us, unfortunately. What's giving people Jewish identity nowadays is anti-Semitism. People call themselves October the 7th Jews, it's a whole thing. I'm an October the 7th Jew, and they nothing... Judaism doesn't mean anything to them, Israel nothing, and then after October 7th, suddenly you got smack in the face. And this is what our sages have been saying for thousands of years. When we stop being doing what we're meant to do, then the anti-Semitism comes and smashes you. And the spiritual reason for that is because they're looking up to us to lead them, and if we're not, they're like, \"We don't need you here! You're not doing your job! You're meant to be a light unto the nations, you're not doing it, so we'll kill you! There's no point, you're not doing what you're meant to be doing here!\" So if we can just be a little bit prouder. But what happened is we broke our walls down. We broke down the walls of our kedusha, and we stopped being separate, and then we assimilate. This is what assimilation is: 72% of Jews marrying non-Jews. Just assimilation. Many more people have died through assimilation since the Holocaust than died in the Holocaust. 72% marrying non-Jews! That's it, you're gone, you've got a whole nation that are disappearing. That's why Rav Noach set up Aish, he was freaking out. He said, \"If there was a physical disease like COVID or something that was killing this many Jews, you would freak out! You'd raise thousands, millions of dollars to find the cure! You wouldn't be okay!\" And he saw that happening, this complete spiritual destruction of the Jewish people, as we completely give up our values and we just go into that: \"These are my values now.\" Very scary. So that's what it means to break down our walls, our walls. Remember though, we don't want to become like... oh my goodness, Venice, I'm going to... that's the first ghetto was in Venice. First Jewish ghetto was in Venice. Maybe I'm going to go make a video there. Could someone think of a cool thing for me to say at the first ever ghetto? So who's in the ghetto now? What does the ghetto mean now? The ghetto is a cool thing now. \"Yeah, I'm from the ghetto.\" I'll work out something, I'm going to make a video in the Jewish ghetto in Venice. So, but we want to be insular, but remember that we still have a job to do. So we want to win... we want to win 22% of Nobel prizes, we want to uplift the world. 25% of tzedaka given in America is given by Jews. Who... what percentage of the population of America are Jewish? 25% of tzedaka given by Jews! And of that 25% of tzedaka, 75% is to non-Jewish causes. We're like... uplift... we're doing... I still... I'm still trying to work out why they hate us, I don't know. We're just trying to help you, just leave us alone! Why don't you join us, actually? How about that? Haven't you learned from history? Anyway, Spain was a superpower until the Spanish Inquisition and then it became not a superpower. It just always happens. Germany until the Holocaust. When you are nice to us, you become a superpower, America! And when you stop being nice to us, America, you're going to stop being a superpower. Which we're looking forward to! Let's come home, it's time to come home! Let's all... let's come home, this is where we're meant to be. Now, this is the biggest problem, we're going to talk about it in a second, but it's a very comfortable galus now. You like it in your little mansion in Beverly Hills, don't you? It's a good galus. Galus feels better than being in Israel, a small apartment in like Rechavia or a huge mansion in Great Neck, wherever you live. So it's the two... the galus is good. Do you understand that's the deepest, darkest galus? When you enjoy it! That's the problem, you enjoy galus! \"Go, I don't need all that stuff, I love galus! It's so good, it's so good! It's the best galus!\" It says Sivlos Mitzrayim. Sivlos Mitzrayim is means the burden of I'm going to take you out of the Sivlos Mitzrayim, the burdens of Egypt. But the deeper Sforim say it means Sivlos Mitzrayim that you have become patient with the slavery. I.e. you got used to it. Savlanus means patience. Sovel means to bear a burden, to hold it. But Savlanus also means to be patient. Your problem is you like Galus. You like it. It feels good. That's our problem. That's the worst thing. Next thing that happened on that day was the Torah was burned. And what does that mean the Torah was burned? That our - it's the same. It's the other extreme. That our worldview and our values and our guidelines כי מציון תצא תורה. כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר השם מירושלים. How much are we living in line with our guidebook? Our guidebook. You know what our guidebook says? Don't speak lashon hara. It's such a good one. Such a good, so good. Speak, say something not nice. Don't say not nice things. That's such an important thing. For many, many people, a large proportion of their speech is not nice. Yes, did you have a question? I thought that you're supposed to enjoy the world and you're supposed to make the best of every situation. So it's like good in a way that we're enjoying Galus because we're learning to appreciate Hashem's world and we're enjoying. Everything that you appreciate in Hashem's world in Galus, I can give it to you in a holy Kosher amazing wonderful way. Do you like wine? The very, very good Kosher wine. Do you like food? The very, very, very good Kosher food. Do you like traveling? The very, you can travel everywhere. Do you like playing music? Yes, you can play any instrument you like. Do you like working at a meaningful job? You can have any meaningful job you like. Do you like learning languages? You can learn any language you like. Do you like everything. There's nothing that they have that I can't have. Apart from pig, which I don't want because it's bad for me. So you're saying that when we enjoy non-Kosher. No, I'm saying if you're chasing that. We had - I had a class the other day - maybe I don't want to say. What are you living for and what's the and what's the supporting - what's the Ikkar and what's the Taffel? What's your major and what's your minor? So there are some people who their major is kind of just normal western modern life and I've got my job and my baseball team and I'm religious so I do keep Shabbat and Kosher kind of. And there are people who are - it's all about Shabbat and Kosher and I also have my job in the city and I like my baseball team. It's like what are you living for? What do you care about? And what's the backup? So there are some people who are very, very Golus - just this world, Olam Hazeh is what I'm living for and I happen to be Frum so I'll do the Frum stuff. And there are other people who are like I'm just all about Hashem, Torah mitzvot and I also like to have a beer and watch a game of football once in a while and have a nice car and that. So it's what are you hustling for? The hustle. Someone asked me - oh it was a rabbi in the hot seat. What do you think about the hustle? You know people are hustling. And I said well it depends what you're hustling for. Hustle for your Neshama. I'm hustling for my Neshama. I am, I'm hustling. What do I have to do? What books do I need to read? What meditation? I'm hustling. But other people are hustling for material possessions, social status. If you're hustling for social status, I wouldn't do that. That's destroying your peace of mind. People don't have any peace of mind now. If you're hustling for the wrong thing you have no peace of mind. It's not even worth it. And then you get that car and that social status, you don't even feel good because someone's got a better car. Hooray. So Judaism says you can have the nice car and the nice house and the nice food and the nice dress and nice clothes and the nice vacation and the yacht and the - you can have everything, but don't chase that. That's not what it's for. That's just a nice little extra benefit. Why not? That's nice. Great. So Judaism's cool, you can have everything. Just chase the right thing, do the right, live for the right reason. So that's the Torah burned, our values. We left - we let go of our values. We made them secondary. Our whole worldview has changed. And the final thing was an idol was put in the Beis Hamikdash. And that's obvious nowadays. Our security, what do we trust? What do we rely on? Money, fame, craving, ego. So basically, it's called American Idol. You've got programs, they're called idols. Money is an idol. I'm idolizing things. And the worst idol is your own ego, is your persona, is your Instagram page. Your own Instagram page is your worst idol. That's why Ace runs mine. I'm nowhere near that page. And they say, \"Send this video,\" I'm like, \"Go,\" and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go near that thing. So my Rebbe says basically what it is, it says people don't sin, people don't do things that disconnect them from their soul and God אלא שנכנס בו רוח שטות unless a spirit of folly entered you. That's how it's usually translated. But unless you just got a bit, you lost your mind a little bit. Because your neshama would never speak lashon hara and your neshama would never put pictures of you on social media doing this. Neshamas don't do the duck face pouty thing. Neshamas don't like that. You can have a little smile, \"here I am at the Kotel\". \"Here me looking really sexy at the Kotel\". Neshama don't do that. Why are people doing that? That's a weird thing to do. I wouldn't do that. That's not in line with our values. So he says you can have redemption now. Redemption song, ay yay yay ay yay yay ay yay yay ay yay yay ay la la lay ay la la lay. That would be a good niggun. Ay yay yay ay yay yay ay yay yay ay yay yay ay la la lay ay la la lay. I'm going to do Lecha Dodi to that this week. Anyway, so you can have redemption, which is, is wake up. Da'as, da'as, da'as is the key. Da'as is in galus. Awareness. We're not aware, we're so distracted, so deeply distracted by the Western world and its values and social media, we've just lost our da'as. We're not aware that Hashem is here. Hashem is here. The galus is in your own mind. You've pushed the Shekhina... not you, me, we all. We push the Shekhina away. But if you just wake up, look up, open your eyes, the Shekhina is mamash here all the time. Got to bring the Shekhina in. You can have a personal redemption. You can have a personal redemption with a bit of contemplation about the Jewish nation and a bit of meditation, Jah Rastafari, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. So you've just got to wake up to reality, but our problem is we just got sucked in, got sucked in. So here are, we have time. Here are five avodas to counter those five things. Been thinking about this because we said brokenness means there's going to be fixing. So let's fix. Here we go. Number one, the broken tablets. The broken tablets you've got to remember that the broken tablets means the fracture of intimacy between us and God. But what came out of the broken tablets? The second tablets. The second tablets were even higher, even holier. Why? Because it was a partnership between God and man. First tablets, God made the stone and wrote on the stone. Second one, Moshe made the stone, God wrote on it. So we said it before, your whole relationship with God depends on you. If you want to hide, then Hashem will say Ayeka, where are you? So you've just got to choose to commit, to recommit to the relationship. Build the broken... just that's all it is. It's a moment of teshuva. I want to read you this very quickly from Rebbi Natan. I didn't leave enough time. It's a beautiful piece though. Let's do this very quickly. כי משה הוא בעצמו התורה. Moshe is basically on this level of Torah, he is Torah. Toras Moshe. וכשהשליך את הלוחות מידיו ושברם הרי הוא כאילו הפיל והשליך את עצמו משמים לארץ. So when he broke the luchos, it's as if he threw himself down. He was on this very very high level, God connection in Torah, he threw the luchos down so basically broke himself. He broke his sense of being, his sense of connection to Hashem. והכל בשביל טובת ישראל. But he did it all for the Israel. Remember, Moshe's fighting Hashem all the time for the Jewish people. This is why we love Moshe. Moshe's like Hashem says I'm going to wipe out the Jewish people. Moshe's like no way, Dude. You're not going to do that. And Hashem's like you're the man, Moshe. I love Moshe, Moshe's the man. והיה חזק בכך שדייקא על ידי הירידה הגדולה שהפיל והוריד את עצמו על ידי שבירת הלוחות exactly by throwing himself down from his greatness to this very low level by smashing the luchos, על ידי זה דייקא יעלה בתכלית העליה. In that way he reached the highest level. Because he says it's not about me. He could have started the whole nation again just with him. If I was Moshe I would be like great, get rid of them, they're annoying, let's go. Let's have a new nation with my sons, by the way. My sons are going to... Moshe's sons didn't even become the next leaders. So if I was Moshe with my big ego, I'd be... Moshe just smashed it, said take me out, You... berg, no interest in you, I'm going down, I'm being I'm with the people. And so many rabbis didn't leave their congregations in Europe, in Eastern Europe, they could have and they didn't, saying I'm staying with my people. And in this way we reach the highest level of connection to God כי יחפש ויבקש כל כך איה. So a very famous Rabbi Nachman Breslev teaching, aye mekom kvodo, aye mekom kvodo, which means if when you feel very very very very very very very far from Hashem, there's always this place within you this aye, where, where's it's replying to Hashem's ayeka. Wow, that just came to me now. But I like it. Aye is a reply to ayeka, is like I'm calling out to you Hashem. From behind the bush and you're behind... now Hashem's behind the bush. So I'm not saying to Hashem ayeka, I'm saying to Hashem aye, where are you? Where are you in me? Where am I? It's called the pintele yid. Your spark of being a yid never goes out. You bring me the most disconnected Jew-hating, Israel-hating, swastika tattooed on his face, Yom Kippur pig-eating weed-smoking Jew in the world, he's got the he's got that aye. He's a yid, he's a yid. He's just got to find that little spark that's been so covered up in galus and fire. You're going to find the fire back ad she'yale l'sham בבחינת ירידה תכלית עליה. Therefore so we went down in order to get to a much higher level. So the whole three weeks that we're going into now is we're going down in order to get to a much higher level ובעצם כוחו זכה לזה וחזר וקיבל את הלוחות השניות והמשיך שלוש עשרה מידות של רחמים. Not only did we get the second tablets which is a reconnection, commitment to Hashem, but we also got the 13 middot of rachamim. We got extra. It was even better. Our relationship was even better afterwards. We rebuilt it on a much higher level. My Rebbe famously says that in the Beis HaMikdash, in the Aron HaKodesh, what's in the Aron HaKodesh? You've got the luchos, the new luchos, but you've also got the broken luchos that were also there because Hashem respects and appreciates our brokenness. He understands that we're going to make mistakes. And my Rebbe says it shows that you can be broken and still be in the Kodesh HaKodashim. You can be in the holiest place as long as you don't let your brokenness define you and then you give up and you have despair. If you get your brokenness to inspire you to become greater and connect even greater on a higher level שעל ידי זה הורה דרך תשובה לנצח. You can always do teshuva. It's never... you can always do teshuva. Always, always, always, there's never ever a point where you can say that's it, Hashem's had enough of me. You can always come back. Always do teshuva. Anyway, there's a lot more there. We've run out of time. Let's go. The tamid. That's the tablets. The tamid. What's the avodah of the tamid? The tamid is a korban. The sages say now that we do not have korbanot, we have something in place of korbanot. It's called avodah, avodah she'blev. Says the world stands on three things: Torah, avodah, gemilus chasadim, which means Torah and avodah, which used to be korbanot, offerings, and acts of kindness. So today we don't have korbanot, but we have tefillah, tefillah. So tefillah means speaking to God in your own language. But tamid. Tamid. Every day, a little bit every day. Two minutes a day for the next three weeks. Go and have an affair with Hashem. Say anything you want in your own language. I love you Hashem, I hate you Hashem, I'm struggling Hashem, I want you Hashem, I need you Hashem, help me Hashem, help me. Really I think that I need you, I want you, I'm yearning for you Hashem. I love you Hashem, I know you love me Hashem. Hashem, Hashem. Every single day, keep going, keep going, keep... but it's got to be tamid. Commit now until Tisha B'Av. Really you should do this for the rest of your life. I've got people they got Snapchat streaks. I've got 500 day Snapchat streak. And I'm like why? You don't even like that person. How about having a 500 day Hashem-chat streak? Go for a 500 day Hashem-chat. Not Snapchat. It's so meaningless. Whoa. I spoke to a girl once and she was like, \"I've got a 600 day Snapchat streak with someone.\" And I was like, \"What, your best friend?\" and she goes, \"No, someone I met on a holiday, vacation.\" I was like, \"Do you even know her?\" No. \"Do you like her?\" No. I said, \"Why are you doing it?\" She goes, \"Because you can't break the streak.\" And I was like, \"What would happen if you broke the streak?\" and she'd be like, \"Well, she'd be really upset.\" and I'm like, \"But you don't know her anyway, you know, I have to keep the streak. I have to get more. I have to go, I need to get more stuff. I just want more, more, more.\" Stop it. You don't. Just be happy with what you have. So you're going to have a Hashem-chat streak for three weeks now, two minutes a day. Number three: walls. Walls got broken down, you've got to build up walls. What does that mean? You've got to create walls for your kedusha. Yerushalayim is Ir HaKodesh. Yerushalayim is the holy city, it's sanctified, and the walls protect the sanctity. So the walls were broken, which means the sanctity was breached. So now for the next three weeks your avodah is build walls. That means no social media after nine o'clock at night. Something like that, I don't, you make up your walls. Or no dessert during the week or no whatever, make some walls for your kedusha. Phone time. No phone before davening in the morning. Speech. Don't say bad things. Relationships, food, social media, phone time. Make some boundaries. At least just for the three weeks. Don't commit for the rest of your life, but for these three weeks rebuild your walls of kedusha. You are Jerusalem. You are Yerushalayim, that's who you are. You need walls. Don't look at stuff. There's got to be things you're not looking at. There's things that you do look at, you shouldn't be looking at those walls. There's things you're to be careful. Number four is Torah. The Torah was set on fire, so you have to be on fire for your values and our message. Are you on fire for our values? Our message? What the Jewish people stand for? Everyone's fighting anti-semitism. I think it's a waste of time. It's not a waste of time, we should do it a bit, but they're not going to change. It doesn't matter. Someone said a video went up of me. I didn't know he was going to put it up. Whatever, it was a joke and I said I grew up in Peru, whatever. And someone wrote to me, sent me a message, a friend, and he said, \"I'm really worried. Can I share my fears with you?\" and I was like, \"Yeah.\" And he goes, \"Someone's going to cut that up and put it out and it's going to just be the bit where you say I use blood of Christian baby and that's going to cause anti-semitism.\" I just said to him, \"Thank you for sharing your fears.\" I'm like it's not going to... I'm not fighting anti-semitism. I've got something better. It's called pro-semitism. I'm a warrior for pro-semitism and you're fighting anti-semitism. I'm a pro-semite. You want to be a pro-semite? Let's start a movement of pro-semites. Let's go and be a Jew. Just be a fiery Jew. Go and be a fiery Jew, light up the world. Three weeks, just for three weeks. So if you do have a social media page, hit some big time Jewish pride thing. And I guarantee for every follower you lose for posting pro-Israel thing, you get immense reward in the world to come. Oh, I lost a million followers because I put pro-Israel. That's great. That million followers is a million rewards in the world to come. People are so worried, what if people don't like me? I don't need those people in my life. Last one is the idol was set up in the Temple. Idol means I'm giving power to something that is not God. So emunah. emunah bitachon. I'm not giving so much power to money and people anymore. I'm not going to, just for these three weeks we're going to come back to Hashem. Very quickly, fasting. What's fasting all about? Fasting today is saying that we're very consumerist. You feel hungry so you eat. You feel pain so you try and fix, get rid of your pain. We're just reacting to life. And we feel our physical hunger and our ego hunger. We're craving physical pleasure and ego pleasure and honor and... so we've got a day where we're going to create physical hunger but not get rid of it in order to tap into our soul's hunger. Do you feel your soul's hunger? Your soul wants Hashem. Your soul wants Hashem. Your soul wants to meditate. Your soul really wants you to do three minutes of meditation a day. It does. It really does. Your body doesn't and your ego doesn't and your mind definitely doesn't. Your mind hates meditation. But your soul is yearning for three minutes of meditation a day. On the Kavana app, K-A-V-A-N-A, get the Kavana app. Forget your Headspace, Insight Timer. You don't need that anymore. We've got the Kavana app. Holy Jewish music, guided meditations. So what... I'm coming back to Hashem. So the fasting, the fasting is tapping you into your soul's yearning, your soul's hunger, and that creates the connection and the clarity. So it's the opposite. The fasting is creating the opposite of galus. Galus is disconnection and distance plus assimilation and confusion. Fasting is focusing now. Focusing on what do I really want? My hunger. What am I really yearning for? And that creates connection. Be'ezrat Hashem gut yom tov soon next year.