Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, director of TORCH, The Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Good evening everybody. It is so wonderful to be back here at Mussar Monday. We are in process of studying the teachings of Ramchal in the book Masilat Yesharim, which is the path of the just. We are in middle of the conversation about pleasure and about the purpose of life. The purpose and we mentioned this many times before the purpose of our life is for this pleasure. It's the one thing that every single human being on planet earth desires. We all desire the same thing Pleasure. Those who are sadists you know why they want to hurt themselves, because that's their interpretation of they both consider that pleasure and that's obviously something wrong with them. But either way, their whole desire is for pleasure.

01:06
There are people who cheat in business because that's what gives them pleasure. It's the thrill, it's the excitement, that's what gives them pleasure. You have the same thing with people in sports. They're willing to work hard and sweat and cry and break bones for the pleasure of that competition. So anybody who tells you well, why should I do that? It's not pleasurable, obviously never worked hard for any type of accomplishment. Because anyone who succeeded in any major accomplishment in life knows that you need to work really, really hard to get there. And the harder we work, the more we'll enjoy it when we actually succeed.

01:53
Nothing worthwhile comes easy. We all agree Nothing worthwhile comes easy. If it comes easy, perhaps it might not be worthwhile. Anybody here blessed with a beautiful relationship or a great marriage? Is there anybody here who will say that it was easy to get there? No, it was very difficult, a lot of hard work. So this is the basic explanation of man's purpose in this world. There is, however, a deeper understanding of the matter.

02:26
We mentioned previously. The reason we came to this world is for pleasure. What is the ultimate pleasure? And, by the way, I'll give a plug here for Rabbi Milstein's class that he gave on December 25th, on Xmas Day. We had a marvelous program here and his second class, his second lecture, was about the five levels of pleasure. And, as he mentioned so beautifully and I recommend all of our friends out there to watch it online, either on Facebook or on YouTube you can look at it it's called the five levels of pleasure.

03:02
Any pleasure that's not an authentic fifth star, five star pleasure too much of that pleasure will cause you pain. Give you my example, a simple example. Everybody here knows I love barbecue potato chips. I almost have never found the barbecue potato chips I didn't fall in love with. But try to eat a whole bag, a whole family-sized bag, of barbecue potato chips and you'll feel sick to your stomach, you'll start getting dizzy and the day is over. So, even though it's a wonderful pleasure but it's a pleasure that too much of that pleasure will cause you pain. Try any such type of pleasure. It is fleeting and it is not long-term Okay, and too much of it will only give you an ache, an authentic pleasure. The more the merrier.

03:56
You see, for example, we have it's funny someone who was this, who was telling me this is not someone who's Shalmer Shabbos, and he told me he says, rabbi, I just discovered the importance of stopping with technology, stopping with all of my business, stopping, he says, because I was just overloading myself with so much work, I didn't have a chance to just live. And he decided that he's going to observe a Shabbos without his phone, without his computer, without his work, without going to the bank, without going shopping, without doing anything, without worrying about his car, not even car washing it, nothing, just taking some time now, and the transformation that one feels 25 hours of being completely disconnected. It does miraculous things for a person, aside from the fact that if you're at my house and you're all welcome, you'll have the most amazing food also. So, along with all that break, to also have really good food. And you know what comes to end of Shabbos and people don't want it to end. They don't want it to end not because they don't want to get back into reality, it's just that awesome pleasure. You know who calls Shabbos pleasure the Torah, the Karasala, shabbos Oneg. And you will call the Shabbos Oneg a pleasure, a real pleasure, an authentic pleasure, a fifth level pleasure. You know what you do on Shabbos. Shabbos is a time of bonding Bonding with your family, bonding with your spouse, bonding with your community, but most of all, and more important than everything, bonding with the Almighty See. God understands this. By the way, it coincides with what was happening in Egypt in these weeks Torah portions that we're reading last week and this week and the week before last and next week.

05:55
The Jewish people are enslaved in Egypt. What's the problem with slavery? Problem with slavery is that you don't have a mind of your own, you don't have any freedom, you can't think for yourself. You know why Because you are enslaved to someone else. And when you're enslaved to someone else. You know what happens. They decide what you do and when you do. They decide if you get a rest. They decide if you're going to eat, if you're going to drink, if you're going to sleep and part of, by the way, part of the plagues as we discussed Shabbat morning in our class at Congregation Beth Ramam our prayer experience, we spoke about some of the plagues.

06:38
All of the plagues actually were a direct Medaq Keneget, meda'in eye for an eye for the extra labor that the Egyptians inflicted on the Jewish people. So they used to tell them hey, hey, you know what? Jew boy, can you do me a favor? We want to play with some frogs. Do you mind going out in the field and get us some frogs? Go into the forest and get us some lizards and some snakes so we can play with them. It was a way to humiliate the Jews. So why did God pick frogs? Intentionally? The frogs should be the punishment on the Egyptians, one of the 10 plagues, because that's what they did to the Jewish people. They used to also make the Jewish people walk all the way down to the river and slap water for them. What was the first thing that affected them? The water. They used to make the Jewish people dust their houses. They sweep their houses. So what did God say? I'm going to give you lice. The lice were like the dust. Every where was lice. Anything that was lice, that was dust, became lice.

07:51
What did the Moshe negotiate with Pharaoh? Brilliantly, moshe negotiated with Pharaoh. If you read the regular text, you don't see this. But if you read the Midrash, you see that every plague, pharaoh was convinced to release the Jewish people of one level of bondage. For example, in this week's portion we see that Pharaoh finally gets to his senses and releases the Jewish people and says you guys can go. But before he does that, he says fine.

08:26
Seventh plague, it's about to be the eighth plague. He says you know what? The men can go, but the women and children, they can't go. Moses says binal reinu bis kreninu, with our youth, with our elders, with our men, with our women. So Pharaoh says after that plague, he says okay, moses, come back here. Ninth plague he says now you can go with the women, with the children, but you can't take your cattle. Moses says no, no, no, that's not going to work like this. We're also taking the cattle, right. We're also because the Jewish cattle weren't affected by the plagues. Remember all of those that died from boils and all of those that died from the hail. It didn't happen to the Jewish animals, to the Jewish-owned animals, it only happened to the Egyptian animals. So now they needed some animals. Who are they going to buy it from? From the Jews? They said no. No, keep your cattle here. Moses says no, they're coming with us too.

09:22
Until all of the choice was taken away from Pharaoh, what did Moses negotiate in the beginning? Moses negotiated Shabbos. How did he persuade Pharaoh to allow the Jewish people to rest on Shabbos? He says you know something? We all know that it's not good for someone to work 24-7., 365 days a year. We all know that's terrible. Right, moses? I have a great idea. Why don't you make them work for six days? Six days work, work, work. On the seventh day they should take a break. That way they'll be more re-energized for the other six days. Pharaoh says I like that Right. And Moses, of course, picks the day of Shabbos to be that day of rest. And that was part of his negotiation solely chipping away, getting the Jewish people the privileges that they had, the privileges that they deserved and needed. But Shabbos already started.

10:22
Shabbos is a day of absolute pleasure on every level. So let's see here what Ramchal tells us on another way of understanding, a deeper understanding of this matter. And when you examine the matter further, you will see the true perfection, which is the ultimate good. Who is only the cleaving to Hashem. The closer one is to Hashem, the more pleasure they will have in their lives. And this is what King David says in Psalm 73-28. And I, the Lord, am very pleased.

11:15
But as for me do you want to know what's good for me? Closeness to Hashem is my good. Closeness to God, do you want to know what's good for me? This is what King David defines as good. Closeness to Hashem, that's my perfection. This is what King David and all of our matriarchs and patriarchs this is the way they define their perfection in life. How close were they to the Almighty? The closer they were to the Almighty, the more they considered their life perfect.

11:56
Okay, there's always a very good barometer. Don't measure your success in life. By the way, something that those of you who come to this class regularly know ticks me off is when people talk about other people and say, oh, you know that, very successful, they are very successful. They're usually referring to someone who has money. That's not success. I know way too many people who were successful financially but were unsuccessful with raising a family, unsuccessful in marriage, unsuccessful in many other areas of life. Is that what we call success? Is it all money? Success is someone who's able to nurture beautiful relationships, someone who's able to raise a family, someone who's able to build love and harmony, peace and harmony in their home, someone who has a beautiful, loving relationship with their children Is someone successful because they have money but they haven't spoken to their sister or brother for the past 10 years. Is that success? Why are we limiting ourselves to what we call success just for money? I think it's something that's important for us to redefine what it is to be successful. According to King David, do you know what success is? Someone who has close to the stash of it. Do what's right, even if it's unpopular.

13:27
And there are many times, there are many, many times that we collectively, maybe in situations where we're saying you know something, I just want to do something, maybe to be a little bit more liked by other people, and that might cause me to maybe not be as religious as I think I maybe. Should you know what are my neighbors going to say? What are my friends going to say? What is my synagogue going to say? You know all my society people. What are they going to say? They can say, oh, he went off the deep end, right, heck, I went off the deep end because you know he's no longer driving on Shabbos. He's not one of us cultured people. Is that what we're considering, success? Or are we considering success our relationship with Hashem?

14:19
I'm going to talk here for a second about someone who's sitting in our presence, who, after a terrible car accident, his wife I'm not going to say the name because we're on online it's people in the class. It's a more intimate setting. Sorry, friends, come to class and you'll see. So people could start coming in now. But after a terrible accident and your wife passed away.

14:47
So one of the rabbis in our community came to visit our fellow classmate many times at the hospital, every day at the hospital, and when our fellow classmate was leaving the hospital he asked the rabbis what can I do to memorialize my wife and her nashama? The rabbis said there's nothing you can do more than keep Shabbos, and that was the last time that our fellow classmate experienced sorry, it was the first time and has never changed since the observance of Shabbos. There's nothing that is a greater pleasantness for God than the observance of Shabbos. You know there's a song. I don't know why, but I've been singing this song the whole day, today and yesterday, but it's words that we may know from prayers or from liturgy. It says matonatova gnuzebebeskeno zayi. God says to Moses I have a great gift in my treasure house and I desire to give it to the Jewish people Feshabas, shema, and its name is Shabbos and God instructs Moses to tell them the greatest gift, the most beautiful gift, the most pleasurable gift you can possibly imagine. God is willing to give it to us. But it's a treasure. We've got to be careful. We have to treat it right. We have to take care of it.

16:25
Like I've said numerous times, at my Shabbos table, my wife tells me please, please, you've got to stop saying that. Look, the Midrash says a very interesting thing. The Midrash says that Sunday was married to Monday and Tuesday was married to Wednesday and Thursday was married to Friday. And Shabbos came and complained to Hashem and said it's not fear, everybody has a mate. I don't have a mate, it's not fear. So God says don't worry, your mate is going to be the Jewish people. The Jewish people are going to dress up for you. The Jewish people are going to buy flowers for you. The Jewish people are going to cook the finest delicacies for you. The Jewish people are going to sing for you. They're going to stop all of their other activities.

17:08
What does a wife want more than anything from her husband? Attention, just spend time with me. Right, stop with the phone. Stop with it. Now. That's Shabbos. That is Shabbos. What we're doing is we're turning off the entire world to focus on our relationship. And that's why, friday night, when we're in synagogue, we all turn around towards the back at one point, be'el Chaddody, right. Bo'y V'shalom at it, right. What are we turning around for? Well, that's the Queen. When a bride walks into the room, what do we all do? We all stand up and face the back face, face the bride as she walks to the, to the Chuppah, to the canopy. You know who's walking in Friday night? That's our bride, that's our Shabbos. We're married to.

17:57
Shabbos Is no greater pleasure on planet Earth than Shabbos. What is Shabbos? Shabbos is that absolute relationship with God, uninterrupted. We don't have interruptions of anything. There's only one interruption that's allowed, and that's life matters, right? If someone's about to die and you need to take them to a hospital, then you get in your car and you drive into the hospital, because life comes first. But otherwise nothing else. Not picking up the cleaners and not the movies, and nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. We do that before Shabbos, we do it after Shabbos, not on jobs. Okay.

18:41
And then King David says another verse in Psalms 27, for he says Achad Sha'altim et Hashem otaavakesh. One thing I ask of Hashem that I seek, that I dwell in the house of Hashem all the days of my life To behold the sweetness of Hashem and to contemplate in his sanctuary. In sanctuary, meaning, in his closeness, in that relationship with God, kirok Zehu Hato, for only this attachment to him is the true good. So we're looking for what is that true pleasure? What is that? I give me the ultimate ecstasy of pleasure. Right, you know what it is, that closeness with Hashem. Okay, so now we're talking a lot in in, in Spiritual terms.

19:36
Okay, being close to Hashem, what is that really really mean? To be close to Hashem? What does that mean? To be in a relationship with God that's not compromised by anything and that it's a fifth level pleasure? The whole Zula that she actually will be a dumb, a talk, while anything else that people consider to be good a, no, a la, have a little shavnit, a Is nothing but futility and deceptive nothingness.

20:04
Om Nam Likish Yischa Adab Lutovazot. However, in order for man To merit this true good of becoming attached to Hashem, the source of true perfection, ra Uishi Amol Rishonah, the Ishtadelbi Goli Knotah, he says like this it is fitting that one should first toil and endeavor through his own efforts to acquire it, and I know right. And what does that mean? She is the deli, the back boy, it barach. This means that he should endeavor to attach himself to Hashem in this world, to attach ourselves to Hashem in this world. We call him a sim shitulad, at times a young, through the power of our actions that bring about the result of making a person close to Hashem.

20:53
So what actions can a person do that brings us closer to God? Acts of kindness, what else can we do in this world, right here, to be closer to God? Sadaka, prayer, mitzvahs, torah, study, repentance, all of these things are the correct answer. So let's define it, let's bring it down one step simpler. Then, then, then, then. All of these are all of these names of, of actions. Okay, what does it mean when someone does a mitzvah? Right, so mitzvah means what is a sin?

21:43
A sin is an action that a person does that distances themselves from God or Godliness. What is a mitzvah is an action that a person does that brings them closer to Hashem. Every mitzvah that a person does brings them closer to Hashem. Every sin that a person does Takes them further away. Now it's interesting that a sin really gets two punishments and gets two punishments. Number one for the sin. But number two is what could you have been doing during that time of that sin? You could have been doing a mitzvah. So number one, you're forgo the mitzvah. Number two you did the sin Right. It's like when you travel the wrong direction, right, you're supposed to go towards Austin and you end up going towards Beaumont, what happens? Every mile you travel, you have to go back to Right, because you're traveling one there and one back Right.

22:40
Yes but a person does a sin. What they're doing is they're going one way Away from God and they have to go another one back, closer to get closer, to just get back to the evil, to the, to the level playing field. Right, it's? It's a scary thought. Now let's just Talk for a second about the following statement. I've heard this.

23:04
I remember when I was going, when I was in Israel, living in Israel, so I always like to schmooze with my cab drivers, many of whom were not, not religious Jews, and I'd like to see no shoes with them. It happens to be that some of them became a really good friends and over the years, I would, I would call them and they would, you know, they would be my, like, my private, private, yeah, my private taxi, right, so they always had a common, a common theme. They said listen, why do I need to keep the Torah? Why do I need to keep the Shabbos? What's?

23:37
Why can't I just be a good person? I'm just a good person. I Don't hurt anybody, I don't kill anybody, I pay my taxes. I'm just a good person. Why is that not good enough? So that may be good enough. Let's define what it means to be a good person. Does good person mean that I just make myself feel good, that I'm doing enough for myself, or does good person mean that I'm doing enough to be selfless? Now, on top of being selfless, what am I doing to elevate myself? Because if we really want to get on a higher connection, on of being godly, we have to elevate ourselves constantly, be in a in a mode of growth. What am I doing to elevate myself? Because by elevating myself, what I'm doing is not just being a good person, I'm elevating all of those around me. I'm gonna inspire all of those around me.

24:39
So it's not just me being a good person, my whole community becomes my whole community doesn't necessarily mean me in the entire city of Houston, but all of the people who are in direct contact with me get elevated by my inspiration, by my growth. That means my children, it means my spouse, it means my neighbors, it means my friends. They all know you know what. I'm not gonna eat shrimp anymore, right, I'm taking a step, and you know what that might inspire them. So, at any level, that a person's at their pursuit of greatness, of godliness, is not only good for themselves but it's also good for their entire community. Every time you have a desire and urge To do something a goddess is not to do and you withstand that urge, you get the greatest reward you can possibly imagine for that. Now, it all depends on where someone comes from. We actually spoke about this shop this morning. Everyone has their point of challenge. I'll give you an example. Someone who is endeavoring or is on the mission to change their eating habits to start eating kosher. So they say you know what, I'm only gonna eat, I'm gonna try my best to keep kosher. Comes three o'clock in the afternoon and they're in their office and they say to themselves you know what? I'm really hungry, I'm really hungry. And they start Is this to me chance, or is this water burger right? And they're thinking to themselves, oh, maybe I should just go right. Sure, I really want to get myself a burger right now, but we know it's not kosher. That burger is not kosher. So that person is faced with a point of challenge when them overcoming that challenge will be rewarded so greatly it's, it's imaginable. However, okay, I grew up eating kosher my whole life. I never in my life had the urge or desire to eat a cheeseburger. Okay, I never did. So I'm gonna come up to the heavenly courts and After 120, hopefully.

26:48
So we come up to the heavenly court and and I say what, what, what you guys do to David? Well, david, did he refrain from eating, eating non-kocher? So he got a very big reward. I'm gonna say, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know where the torch center is? It's right down the block from McDonald's. And guess what? I never ate it. I never, once, never. They were like so. So what? I'm like? He got reward. Why don't I get that reward? Like cuz? It was never challenged for you. Understand, it was never a challenge. If it's not a challenge for you, you're not gonna get the same reward for it For someone who's tasted it can say that someone who didn't taste it thinks there still is something there. Right, and I'll tell you. I'll tell you like this you won't you watch football games and you see that how they drop that cheese on that, on that, on that.

27:47
Right oh yeah, right, you say yourself Whoa, maybe there is something good out there. No, no, no, no, no. Obviously there's no dizzy person. By the way, rashi says something very interesting. Rashi and Leviticus says the great commentator, rashi says that one should not say about non-kocher food oh, it's disgusting. He said no, don't say that. He's just saying you know something? I really wish I could eat it, but I shem said I can't.

28:17
On the contrary, the commentary say that every thing that is forbidden to us is permitted to us through a Torah way. For example and Talmud brings this example the pig right. There is a type of fish that tastes exactly like pork. Yeah, I don't know what it is, I'm not even interested in knowing what it is. But there is an alternative and there's nothing wrong with someone pursuing that in a kosher way. I'll give you another example.

28:47
Some people think that they see, you see on the media, you see a very fake world. Hollywood is a fake world of what love is, is a fake world of what it means to have an intimate relationship. It's all. And sometimes people get taken by that like, oh, religious people, they don't know how to have intimacy and they don't know how to have a close relationship with their house. It's all wrong. It's all wrong. The Torah gives us more clarity on this area than any of the movies, any of the books and any of the Hollywood can imagine. But there's one difference One is done behind closed doors, in privacy, and one is trying to make it a public scene, and one is holy and one isn't. It's that we need to understand that God doesn't want us to suffer. And by observing the Torah properly, we will never, ever, ever miss out.

29:56
And there's a verse that I have to prove it from King David, where he says the door shei Hashem loyach suru kotov. And those who seek Hashem will not lack anything. Nothing. You will not lack anything. Loyach suru kotov, any goodness in the world you will not lack because of your desire to connect Hashem on a higher level. On a higher level, all right. So he says like this while anything else that people consider to be good is nothing but futility and deceptive nothingness. However, in order for man to merit this true good of becoming attached to Hashem, the source of all true perfection, it is fitting that he should first toil and endeavor through his own effort to acquire it. We have to work on acquiring it. It's not going to come easy. We said before it's going to come with. Just an interesting observation.

30:53
King Solomon tells us Sheva ye polt, sadik ve kam. Seven times the righteous will fall and stand up again. Seven times you fall, you know. Think of a little baby. My little daughter just started walking a few months ago and when she started walking she tried to stand up and get her balance sheet fall. So if we would just give up after one time, we'd never learn to walk. But children are resilient. They want to learn how to walk. So they fall and they get up again, and they fall, and they get up again, and they fall and they get up again. Anything worthwhile, we stand up and try it again.

31:30
If our desire is to have a true perfection in life, a true pleasure in life and a true relationship with Hashem, it's worth all of the toil in the world and all of the failures that lead to the ultimate true success. Bekoach, ma'asim shatolad, etam zeh e'inyan, through the power of action that bring about this result of making a person close to him heim, heim ha mitzvot. And these actions are specifically the mitzvot, the commandments. Thus, the mitzvot are not merely methods for acquiring one's place in the world to come. Rather, their fulfillment bonds a person to Hashem, and that attachment is the ultimate perfection, which is the primary reward that a person receives for his efforts. So there are a couple of points here. The first point is as follows there are many mitzvot that a person can observe, and observe them out of total habit. A person can do the same mitzvot over and over, and, over and over again and it has no meaning anymore. Or a person can stop a second before they do it.

32:42
Whatever that mitzvot is let's say it's the mitzvot saying a blessing before we eat, or the mitzvot of any mitzvot. You can think of the mitzvot prayer, the mitzvot putting up the philin, the mitzvot putting the misus on our door, the mitzvot of reading the Torah, of studying the Torah. Do you know that there's a prayer that we're supposed to say before every mitzvot? There's a blessing. You know I've mentioned this numerous times. I'll repeat it because I think it fits very, very well to what we're talking about here.

33:15
You know, the Talmud tells us that one who does not say a blessing prior to eating food, prior to enjoying from this world, is considered a thief. We've discussed this many times. Considered a thief. Why a thief? I didn't steal anything. So the idea behind this is that you're a thief. You're stealing from yourself. You're about to bite into an apple and you don't stop to appreciate how lucky you are to have an apple. You know what you just stole. You just stole from yourself an opportunity to be happy. You just stole from yourself an opportunity for perfection. You just stole from yourself the ability to be happy and to be fulfilled and satisfied. Instead, you just gobbled it up and go by it.

34:11
A person who does any mitzvot has the opportunity to do that mitzvot, the mitzvot putting on a Talit. It's a mitzvot. You're surrounding yourself with godliness, you know? Just interesting. We have the word tzitzit. Anybody know what the numerical value of the word tzitzit? Sadiq, yud, sadiq yud, taf. Sadiq is 90. Yud is 10. That's 100. So you do that twice Sadiq yud and Sadiq yud. It's 200. And taf is 400. So it's the numerical value of 600. Now, if you take tzitzit, you have how many strings do you have? Eight strings? How many knots do you have? One, two, three, four, five, five knots. Eight strings, that's how much? Thirteen the name tzitzit, with the five knots and the eight strings 613 mitzvot. By fulfilling the mitzvot of wearing tzitzit, we have the entire Torah wrapped on ourselves, on our body.

35:17
So we can put on tzitzit every day and just put them on.

35:20
We're doing a mitzvot, or we can have in mind, you know something, I'm not just putting on tzitzit, I'm incorporating the entire Torah on me. Now tell me who's going to have a different day? Someone who thinks about that and gets into the presence of mind that now they have the entire 613 commandments along with them as their shield throughout the day, versus what? Just another garment that I was trained to put on when I was three years old. So every mitzvot, it's not only the performance of the mitzvot, it's not the quantity of how many mitzvots we observe, but it's the quality of how we observe those mitzvots, and all of the beauty of our relationship with God depends not on the quantity but on the quality. How much are we going to be able to bring our relationship to the next level through quality service of Hashem? And the more we have intention, the more we have thought, the more we have preparation for the mitzvot that we're about to observe, the greater the relationship is going to be strengthened through the observance. Is there any questions about this? We're good, it's clear. It's amazing. No, I think it's amazing. If a person stopped, you know what we like.

36:52
Think of any mitzvot that you do on a regular basis. Any mitzvot Did you ever have?

37:00 - Intro (Announcement)
did anybody?

37:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
ever wear something, a garment that they have always wanted to wear. They always wanted to. You wanted those pairs of shoes and you're like I can't wait to get that shoes. I finally have enough money to buy that purse, right, anybody. Or a car anybody here. Right, you buy that new car and you're like I'm so excited about this, right, anybody. Have that. Anybody. Have a. Show me, show of hands.

37:24
You've had that experience of something new, something unique, something special. So watch, it's a piece of jewelry, it's something. And we all felt probably the same feeling. I'm never going to get sick of this, right? I'm never, ever going to this feeling of like. It's just so incredible, it's so amazing, it can never wear off on me. Trans-itory, and it lasts a day, two days, a week, a month, and done on with the next thing. There's one way to stop that Focus, focus every day. You're about to get into that new car, you're about to wear those new shoes. Ah, thank you, asham, for giving me this special gift.

38:11
Don't just say it as a habit, that can also become a habit. But to appreciate, we can live in a world of total pleasure if we just stopped living and started experiencing and started feeling and connecting to what it is. We're living Two different worlds. Let's review here and maybe we'll have some time to go further. So every mitzvah has the potential of elevating. By the way, it can even be one mitzvah. It can even be one mitzvah that transforms a person's life. We see this in the Talmud. The Talmud relates that someone who experienced one experience of T'ashuva of repentance one, a heavenly voice came out and said you're welcome to the world to come. The sages were crying. They're like what we're trying our whole lives to get to this point of perfection so we can receive our place in the world to come. This guy slips in with one mitzvah Boom, he's gone. He's got it Right. It's like people who are playing golf their whole lives.

39:24
Right, trying to get that whole in one. And this whippersnapper comes out of eighth grade and goes, boom, gets this whole in one. He's like guys, so long I'm out, right, it's easy. The midrash says something very, very interesting. It says that when Moses ascended up to the seventh firmament, what happened was that each firmament that he ascended, he was met by a group of angels, and the lowest firmament, the first firmament, was lowest ranking angels. Again, these are heavenly angels already, as is, but of the heavenly angels, this was the lowest ranking ones. And he hears them reciting the first day of creation, and then they start praising the Jewish people. Then the next firmament's higher ranking angels and they say the second day of creation, and then they start praising the Jewish people in the land of Israel, and each firmament successively is higher ranking angels. And they read the next day of creation and they praise another one of the qualities and the seventh firmament, the highest level, there's reading about the Shabbos, which is the seventh day of creation and the highest ranking angels. And then they stop and they praise the greatest gift ever given to mankind, to Shubah repentance.

40:51
So you can ask this question. I don't understand More than Shabbos, more than the land of Israel, more than the Jewish people, more than Ghanai, more than Ghanai than the Garden of Eden, more than Gehenom, which is all one of those seven. The highest of all levels is to Shubah repentance. You know why? It's very simple, because all of those other things, whether it's the Torah, whether it's the land of Israel, whether each one of those things, what is their goal? To bring a person to a clarity, to bring a person to a place of a strong relationship with God. What is Teshuvah? Teshuvah is that relationship. Teshuvah is that clarity.

41:40
Teshuvah means oh my goodness, I cannot believe it. You mean, it's like imagine students in this class are playing a prank on their teacher, not realizing that the principal is standing in the back of the classroom. I had that once in ninth grade. The principal slipped into the back of the room and the kids pulled the prank on the teacher and the principal was standing right there. What happens? Little shameful moment there, right, I wasn't the troublemaker, so it wasn't me, but it's a little bit of a shameful moment, right, you know why? Because he saw everything that went on. Everything that went on. That's a little embarrassing. Imagine that we suddenly realized that God saw everything, we did Everything. He was right there. How do we feel you mean, he saw that and he saw that and he saw what I said there and he saw the way I acted there and he saw it so embarrassed, I'm humiliated. Oh my goodness, hashem, please forgive me. Please forgive me. I didn't realize you were right there. That's true Teshuvah.

42:59
True repentance means I recognize I've gone the wrong way. I didn't even realize how far I went. I didn't realize. I now have that clarity of your presence right there. You're right in the room. If I would have known, I would never have done it. Hashem is always there.

43:18
You know people right up there there's a camera. See the camera right up there, right. So wave, say hi because you're on camera, right, but you know what? You're on camera 24-7. You know, I was by Walmart over here at the grocery at the neighborhood Walmart and I scanned an item. I guess I scanned it a little bit too fast and it replayed for me on the screen a shot from a camera right on top of me. You see me from right on top scanning the item. You see and I actually did a video about that of how God records everything. God doesn't need hard drives, he doesn't need a cloud, he doesn't need any of the right. God has been recording it since day one.

44:15
Imagine, you know the president announced that he's going to be doing an overlawful address tomorrow, so you can imagine there are going to be cameras upon cameras and microphones and you can have commentators and you can have all these different right the second the president comes out. You see any president, there are hundreds of mics there. Everyone, god, mr President, everyone's asking questions, right? Everyone's yelling till he picks, okay, you, and still people are yelling. Do you know that when we do something like, the thousands of mics, the cameras, they're all on us. We are that president, we are that person and all of those tapes are recording. They're recording the words that we say and that in our own private conversations with people. You think that because other people didn't hear, I could be obnoxious? No, the mission teaches us. Even the smallest conversation in private is recorded, everything.

45:17
And you know who's the ultimate judge at the end of the day? Of course Hashem, but you yourself, you are your judge. God's going to show us when we pass away, is going to show us a footage of a movie. Everyone's going to sit back at their popcorn and God's going to say well, you came guess what, right, david, you're going to be the judge. You're going to be the judge, right? You're going to tell us how to judge this person. And the person's not going to know that it's actually themselves that they're judging, because the face is going to be blurred out. Well, you're going to be able to see what they were thinking, what they actually did, what they said. You'll be able to see all of the actual intentions and the focus Right. So the better we teach ourselves to become positive thinkers, to become positive judges of other people, to do positive actions, the more we will train ourselves to judge ourselves favorably.

46:17
The power of a mitzvah, the power of a mitzvah is so great that you know what it's worth being there for the mitzvah. The reward that one gets for doing a true mitzvah is greater than any imaginable reward. It says that one millisecond, one millisecond of the world to come, no, okay, one second of your world to come, each one as an individual, is greater than all of the pleasures collectively of every single human being. Imagine, everyone has, you know, 200 million ounces of pleasure, right? Take all of those, each person, right.

47:05
So, then the next person is 200 million, the next person is 200 million ounces of pleasure. All of those pleasures combined does not equal one second of your olam haba, your world to come. Think about that. How do we get that? Through our godliness, being godlike. We are called Adam not only because we're taken from the earth, because we are Adam there. Because we are godlike. We are meant to be godlike. That's our purpose. Our entire function in this world is to be godlike. It's an unbelievable opportunity that we have in this world every day.

47:48
You wake up right Technically, we should never be depressed in our lives why You've been given an opportunity. You've been given an opportunity to maximize pleasure, to maximize your relationship with God, to accomplish unbelievable things, and being is an unbelievable potential, unbelievable abilities. The problem is we limit ourselves. You know why we limit ourselves? Because we say well, you think I could run faster than anybody else. What is the first thing a parent tells their child when they say I'm going to go compete in the Olympics.

48:29
So many have tried that. You know how many have failed. They've all failed. A few people didn't. That's what everyone says. Oh, you want to become the next Jeff Bezos. You want to become the next Bill Gates. You know what Everybody's trying to be a billionaire, good luck, and everyone's trying to downplay your potential.

48:52
But a person who really understands how much God invests in us. Forget about money pursuits, forget about materialistic pursuits, spiritual pursuits. Well, you're going to try to become a rabbi, by the way. That's much easier. It's much easier to become a rabbi, I promise. Okay, you just have to want it. It's not as attractive as people making money, because that's the way we've been nurtured throughout our society. It's always been oh, that's the rich family. Oh, can they please? You know the rabbi, the rabbi's sitting in the back Rabbi can take a back seat. He can wait.

49:31
The truth is that we all have unbelievable potential. If we only believed in ourselves as much as God believes in us, we'd be the most successful people in our true success. But that's what we're missing. We are missing our own belief in ourselves, and this is what our Ahmadi is telling us here. You have to bring out you, you have to bring out your own potential to make that relationship, to make that connection with God a real one. Only we can do it. And you know what You're going to be people who are going to say, eh what, off the deep end Lunatic, crazy, closed-minded. What other titles am I missing about people who are religious? Right?

50:24
For they're from the dark ages they haven't modernized.

50:28
They're out of touch with reality. Fanatics yeah, they, oh, they think they're better than us. I heard that one self-righteous. The truth is, we have to give ourselves more credit than that. As a society, we have to look up to people who are holier, who are more spiritual, people who have overcome challenges, and admire it. Let's not talk them down from it. Let's admire it and say you know what? Maybe I can be inspired to take a step to change, to be more selfless, to be more God-like, to be more spiritual and less materialistic. So Hashem shall bless us all, that we should all find that success in our spiritual pursuits. We should all live a life which is filled with true pleasure, authentic pleasure, and not, god forbid, get stuck in a world of counterfeit and fake pleasures. Amen.

51:21
Have a wonderful evening.

51:22
I look forward to seeing everyone here next week.

51:26 - Intro (Announcement)
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