Alei Shur - 10

3:02 So when we're working on ourselves, what does it mean to work on ourselves? Ourselves is the Chibor of guf and Nefesh. B'ederein me'ata ala kivun o'l atzmenu Inu yodem bieser diyuk sha kivun hu'an lekutu sachibor shachalker oda. Avod seinu inu mukhvenas ala guklevad, ala ruachlevad, ela elchibor shne'am yachta. So if we're working on ourselves, what should we be working on? Should we be working on our bodies? Should we be working on our souls? The answer is we should be working on the Qibur, on the point of connection between these two things. The Chibor of a person is a tremendous, tremendous secret and no person would ever be able to decode this jigsaw puzzle of the body and the soul. What's the Chibor? Barakatosh Baruch Hu gave us, revealed to us and instilled inside of us a mida that is mechaber

4:34 that connects between these two opposite forces, the body and the soul, and that is das. The body has its desires and the soul has its desires. The desire of the body is to survive, since the body lives under the penalty of death. The soul does not live with the fear of death because the soul cannot die. The soul is eternal. Rather, what motivates the soul is the connection to the body. Shabbat Chazal is eternal rather what motivates the soul is the connection to its source like a fire that constantly sparks because it seeks to connect to its source. The source of the fire would be the oxygen, right, that is above it. That's why fire goes up. No, I'm not talking about the fire. The source of the soul is Hakadosh baruch. And that creates complications for the soul. Because on the one hand, the soul wants to reconnect to God and leave this mortal coil that it's in.

5:44 But on the other hand, the soul wants to be down here in this world because that's where it can best serve Hakadosh Baruch. So we have two unique forces. On the one hand, the body is in survival mode. All it wants to do is survive. The soul wants everything more than survival. What does the soul want? The soul wants to be connected to Alekadosh Baruch Hu, to do what Alekadosh Baruch Hu wants. To be in this world not for the sake of being in this world, but what? For the sake of fulfilling Alekadosh Baruch Hu's Mish. You understand? The Chibor, what connects these two opposing forces? That's called das. Shwashar Gassina Mebrahos N'en Ha'amir Ali. It's a famous Gemara Mebrahos. Amrul Yehud Amirav. Yedayah ha'yebetzal le tzaref u'n hayim rahim rahim. Mashiach Nivreu Behan Shamara the Artist. The Baal Shem Tov made this one of the pillars of Chassidus Tismmara without going into all of the details but every single thing in creation exists because Hakadosh Baruch Hu sustains it through the letters of creation. So when Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world he did not just snap his fingers and then creation

7:05 Mein Sanacurdh But he spoke Creation into existence you understand? He spoke into existence. So when we say in Lashanakodesh that appeal is an elephant we mean more than that's the handle by which we call it. Rather we mean that there is a certain amount of pay, a certain amount of Yud, and a certain amount of Lamed that is the genetic spiritual code of this animal. So when Ademarisham was naming all the animals, it was a very sophisticated process. He was not arbitrarily deciding, right? Okay, we're gonna call you by this handle and we're gonna call you by this handle. Rather, he was looking at the spiritual DNA of every single animal and revealing the inner letters that sustain it. You've heard this concept before some of you? In the naming of them He just analyzed these animals, saw their spirit, what they were made up of and put them to a name.

8:08 What was that? And then put them to a name and not... That's the name. In other words, the name wasn't just like, my name is Mordecai. So is Mordecai a handle? Right? If you want to get my attention, you say Mordecai. Or is it more than that? Is it a revelation of the essence? So in Judaism, a name is not just a handle, right? But it's a revelation of the essence. By the way, that's why it was a very sophisticated process. Ademarisha was trying to figure out with whom he shared a common soul. But that will learn after Pesach. Okay? So, when, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, he created these letters. These letters sustain creation. But what if I told you that these letters can be manipulated? What if it's not static? For example, you ever do word jumbles as a kid? I had a teacher in sixth grade that he would give us a very long word and then for extra credit we would have to jumble the letters and see how many words we could find within that word. You know that game? So the letters are not static. As currently constituted this is what they say. But, There is an art or a science depending on how you want to refer to it that was known which

9:39 was you could rearrange the letters of creation. So for example, there are certain mathematical principles that exist in the world today. Like for example if I was taller than this room I would have to bend over in order to Bein the Room Right? But why is it that way? Well, it's only because the letters that are currently in creation are structured in such a way that math and science are immutable. These are the laws, right? But what if we reordered the letters of creation? What if by creating a Mishkan? Yeah, in quotation marks. I told you that the Natural order of things no longer applied because the Mishkan was not a building. In fact, the Mishkan was barely in creation. It was something tangible down here, but it was not limited to the science and math that our world is currently limited to. So for example, that's exactly what the Mishkan was. So for example, the Gemara tells us that the Aron Isham was larger than the Kodesh Hakadoshim. How could that be? So what's the common answer?

11:04 It's an ace. The common answer is that it's an ace, but what's the real answer? Correct. It's only a question because you have the immutable laws of science and math, and you say the larger object must contain the smaller object. But that's only because we live in a world that the letters of creation are ordered like that. Does that make sense? Correct and they would all bow down, right? And there would be enough room for everybody. What's the common answer? How could that be? Nace, what's the truer answer? It's not a world that was bound by time and space. I'll give you another one. The Lechem Aponim never went stale. Well, let's think about it. Why does bread go stale? What if the laws of time and space didn't apply in the same language? You understand? So all of these questions are only predicated on the fact that we assume the base of the mittos was a regular natural building.

12:02 Would we mourn for thousands of years for the destruction of a physical building? Would that even make sense? That would be pathetic. Move on. Build a new one. Right? Not so simple. I'll tell you a cool one. Noach's Teiwa. You ever hear the question before? I'm sure some of you have thought of this. How did all the animals sit on the Tevah? I don't know how they got there either. It was a great commercial in Israel. A great commercial. It starts to rain. Naach gets all the animals onto the Tevah. He finally sits down on the stool, takes a breath, and then you hear a bzzzzz. And he goes like this. And he smacks the back of his neck. And he realizes he killed the mosquito. So he takes off into the rain to go find another mosquito because he's got to bring it onto the Tevah.

12:56 Right? What's the word? Tevamin. What does Teva mean? Teva means word. We all translate it as ark our entire life. Teva means words like roshay tevos. So where did Nahg go into? He didn't go into an ark, he didn't go into a boat. It's not like, I mean, if you think about how silly the story is right? What's the story when you're growing up? The whole world was destroyed but it was okay because Nahg was in a boat. Gama o'itraiin Nachana Rebeol muteu Type A So what's the real answer? The real answer is that it didn't take Nach that long to build a boat. It took him that long to build a tava. And by the way, if you'll notice, at the end of every single parshah, there is a gamatria. And the gamatria is according to the amount of sukim. And there's a reference.

13:52 We brought that from Chazal. You know what the gamatria of parshash Nach is? Bitzalah. What's Bitzalah doing as the gamatria of parshash Noah? Bitzalah is the architect of the Mishkan. What's he doing all the way back there in Parshas Na'af? Because it's the very same concept of being Masada, the Osios, the Bria back there in Parshas Na'af that there is in the ultimate building in the Mishka. By the way, when you look at the Aleph, what is an Aleph? An Aleph is a Yod, then a reflecting Yod and a Vav, right? So that initial Yod is the Asarama Maros, the ten utterances of creation, right? Then there's the reflection of those 10 utterances, that's the world. And then the vav is the vav achibor, the vav that joins these two things together. You've heard this from me before. The vav that joins these two things together.

14:42 So when Noah left the bottom yud, right, because that was being destroyed, where did he go to? He went into the vav. That vav is representative of the Beyse'mikdash. And as Nachib pointed out, where is the vav in the body? What part of your body is the ultimate Chibor? The connection between your head and your body, that's the neck. When Yosef and Binyamin were crying on each other's necks after they discovered each other, when Yosef revealed themselves in Mitsrayim, what does Rashi say? What were they crying over? The shtatjim, the Bezamikdash, and the Mishkan Shilo in each other's future territory. Rashi says himself that he always comes to explain the simplest shot. So what would it be the simplest shot? If you just met your brother you hadn't seen for 22 years, what would be the simple shot? The simple shot would be they were crying They hadn't seen each other. So why would Rashi say that it was a reference to the Beysem Iqdosh and to the Mishka?

15:43 What's the answer? Because they were crying on each other's necks and according to Rashi that was the simplest shot. Another one Migdal Bavl Yeah, Migdal Bavl What were they trying to do? Defeat God by building the Empire State Building. Does it make any sense? But what is a mikdal? What letter does a mikdal look like? A giant vav. What were they afraid of? They were afraid that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was going to bring another flood in the Australian world. So what did they do? They said we have to leave the world by going from the yud into the vav. That's what it meant. They were trying to defeat Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What is our capacity to leave the Yud and go into the Vav? It's predicated on the Aktos of all of our souls. Which is why, when does the Vaisam Iqtos get destroyed? When we involve ourselves in Sinasqina.

16:35 So what does Aktos Baruch Hu do? If he wants to stop them from building Migdah Babel, he takes away their language. He takes away their words, because what's the whole thing we're trying to express over here? The power of words. Words are meaningful. So he takes away the actos as expressed in language, mameleh they can't go from the yod into the vah. We could do this for hours, but let's stop here. Simcha? Correct. Simcha? Is there a meaning behind all those... Yes. Is there a meaning behind them? Sorry. That was nice. Like all the measurements and how... Of course. Of course. There's a meaning behind those measurements. There's a tremendous connection between that and the Beis Lamechthosh. And again, for the unasuede observer who's going, oh, it's so boring, the rest are pakuday. Why is everything being repeated, right? Not a simple thing at all, right?

17:26 When people who know these inner wisdoms learn these parshios, they laugh at the question of why is the Torah going in so much detail. What do you mean? This was the whole thing. Okay, so let's continue the gamar. I'm revieu the mirab. Yo dayo ha'yi betzalah litzaref osya sabriyoshinev revan Shamayim b'aritz Betzalah knew the wisdom of all these letters of creation. He knew how to reorder them. Xiv ha'cha vayim malayos oru a'khelukim b'chachma uvetunu uvetas Uxiv ha'sab ashem b'chachma yasal'aritz konim Shamayim betzbuna Uxiv bedayto t'humos nikvos. So what is the gamar saying? The gamar is saying what was the key element that you need We need in order to connect the Chibor of Geth and Nishama the base emitashdam Mishkan or the Chibor of Geth and Nishama The v'v'a Chibor is going to be with Das. So every one of us is gifted with this level of intelligence called Das.

18:24 Das hemi das'atzira, Das is how you take two opposite things and bring them together. Ubbe kocha yadab itzala libnos ha-Mishkan asher bong uchadim shamayim v'aretz. And with the power of das Yibitzala Mu, how to build the Mishkan, which was going to be a combination of shamayim and arz. Uli zuitaklesayitziru This is the entire purpose of creation. Hakadosh Baruch Hu Chazal el ochalki olami nugadim zalazeki goparuch All of creation is opposing forces. What's the definition of emotional maturity? Being able to hold two opposite legs conflicting emotions at once. Everything in Shammaiyim and Arets, even the words Shammaiyim and Arets are two conflicting opposing forces. Where is the Chivor? In Dass. What happens when one starts to overpower the other? What do we do guys? We have to take down emotions in order to return ourselves to a state of intelligence to give back choice. That is why the entire therapeutic field exists.

19:39 Why does the field of therapy exist? People who lost choice, because something was gover, something became too strong for them. One of the opposing forces became too strong. We need to take down the emotion to return once we restore das we restore choice. Make sense? Okay. Let me just finish this last thing and then I'll get with you and then I'll come right to you. Eretz Yisrael Eretz Shamayim V'alaydul-ahachhen Hanigudu l'Avot d'Sasha V'hamidah Shenit n'allanul-Avot t'Kavirazu hia das So what is the world? The world is opposing forces. What is our God? Unite the opposing forces. What is our tool that we've been given for this? That is the tool of Daz. Yeah? What does it mean to hold two conflicting ideas? Let's say, let's say your boss does something very frustrating. You have a choice now. You can experience the emotion of frustration or you can not experience the emotion of frustration and in

21:49 Dass is the tool that we have in order to connect, to join, Shammayim and Arthas. On an interpersonal level, it's a very important tool. It's the emotional maturity. But everything we do in Yiddishkeit is about taking the physical world and revealing the inner spirituality of it. So for example, we take a coin. What does a coin say by itself? If this coin could speak, what would the coin say? Spend me on physical stuff. You've got a coin. Grab it. Do something with it. Treat yourself. What does the inner spirituality of the coin say? I can be used for avod sasham. Put me in the pushka. Give me tzadaka. Spend money on tuition and important things by kosher food. And in so doing,

23:32 Gedolah deyachin nittan ben shtayayseh sheneh mar aleph deyach Hashem chulu amarev elazar gado Miktosh nittan ben shtayayseh sheneh mar Hashem mittan shtayayseh sheneh mar elazar koladam Sheesh vodeyachin l'unimnebei samidash b'yamav deyachin nittan ben shtayayseh sheneh sheneh Machraz ben Chesed Veidin Mikdash Nittem ben Shtayos Yisrael HaYnushu mechabershamayim vahrats So when we look at the Gemara we see what is the value of das there's a connection both were given between two letters right that daios and mikdash why because whoever has das it's like he built the base on mikdash in his days because both are given between the Chesed and Din right and the idea again is that with das with Dashi Hamne Kudahim Rekazu Babu This is the central feature of a person. Many years ago I had a teacher who was a balshuva, he was actually a brilliant man. He got a full fellowship to Georgetown Law.

24:51 Scholarship is when you go to college for free, right? Or when you go to college for a limited amount of money. And a fellowship is when they pay you to go to college. He got a full fellowship to Georgetown Law. He was a very, very smart teacher. And I had him in high school. He was like the type of guy, I don't know how to describe it, but like very cerebral. So, like, we were driving somewhere together, he was the coach of one of the teams, and we were driving somewhere together, and we were listening to the NASA space launch. And he had it on in the car, that's what he liked to listen to. So, one of the guys on the team said to him, Merge, merge, merge your car you fool. And then he looked in the rear view mirror and he looked at all of us and he says, fool is the greatest insult you can call someone because it denies their basic humanity.

26:22 So the entire car we just burst out laughing because like that was classic, you know, that's who he was. But I want you to know as much as he was a great teacher, he was a brilliant, brilliant man and I learned a tremendous announcement. I never forgot that because I remember like it was it became like a thing like if we were like trash talking somebody you'd be like You're a fool. I Denied your basic humanity, you know, like so it stuck with me all those years, but you know what he's right Because to be a foolish person is Denying your basic humanity. That's what he says, right? He says this is the nikudah hamer kaziz bahadom This is the Mer-Kazee, this is the central feature of a person. Hamik dush Hu hamnekudah hammer kazis ba'olam And what corresponds to the inner das of a person in the external world, that's the miktosh.

27:19 Hamis Yahtzeev al mukudah Sadas b'avodaso Ahchaz b'maylah Hamik Huyeves lebinyan amiktosh So if we're going to be rebuilding the base of miktosh in our days, boys, what do we need to do? We need to be highlighting the feature of DAS. Now I'm going to make a plug, something to think about. It's a big movement today in the world, the green movement. I don't mean the green climate control, you know, climate change movement. Everyone wants to know today what's so wrong with doing drugs. What's so wrong with doing drugs? Why is it worse than alcohol? It's a silly conversation to have what's better or what's worse, alcohol or drugs. Sufaiset tesedes tesedes. If you've ever seen anyone stoned, if you've ever seen anyone foolishly drunk, right, you know that what you're looking at is somebody who's given up their basic humanity. If in order to have a chill time you need to kill brain cells, something is off. And on a generational level, right, we should be thinking about that. There's a reason why we are the addict generation, right? The reason is because the more you get rid of And thus, the more you deny a person their basic humanity, what does it say about our community?

28:34 Let's just have an honest conversation, right? What does it say about our community that our children are not growing up satisfied with the happiness that they have? The only way they know how to have a good time is to leave their basic humanity, those brain cells behind. So the conversation of what's worse, drugs or alcohol, why is it any different than having B'er it misses the basic point we should not be trying to get rid of our das and especially for us in the in the generation that Beyzer Hashem is going to rebuild the Beyzer HaMikdash right we need to really be considering this as more and more people are trending right towards these types of behaviors it is an attack on our basic humanity just like gender and sexuality have come under Dass, the destruction of dass is now a part of everyday life. People don't think about it that way, but that's what it is.

29:25 Even the notion of sitting in front of a television for hours on end, you lose your dass. That's what they call it, a couch potato. I had a friend who was very heavysick, and he used to sit on his leather couch. When I say he was very heavysick, I don't mean he was like a little obese. Tov Aleililobis. I mean he was unfortunately, he was in tremendous pain and he was massive. I remember the first time I went to his house, I saw the indentation in his couch where he sat. You could see and because I was much smaller in high school, I could fit in one of his indentations. There were two if you understand what I'm saying. I could fit in one of them. So I said to him, dude, you're the ultimate couch potato. There's a giant indentation Nitzotzos The native happiness of a person should be enough. We shouldn't need to artificially destroy the very facility that makes us human in order to achieve a higher level of happiness.

30:53 It's definitely complicated because that's the human condition, right? But if you think about it, our gratitude should be such that when we wake up in the morning, Feel Happy. By the way, that's why a key part of addiction is gratitude. Recognition that God has given me everything in my life. Problem is, we're so often trying to be in control, we ignore God. Once you ignore God, you ignore gratitude. What do I have to be grateful to? Let alone, what do I have to be grateful for? Make sense? Yeah, Shmuel. Even somebody appreciates what they have without somebody to be grateful to, they can't express their gratitude on. When somebody gives me something, there is gratitude, right?

32:23 So when my parents give me a gift, last night my mother made an order of salmon, she gave me a couple of the pieces, trying to eat healthy, right? So that was a great gift. I can look at my mother, I can say thank you so much. I can express gratitude. But that's just a gift and the salmon will be gone, right? Then what? But imagine, who would you be grateful to if you had to be grateful for vision, for eyesight? If you're not in connection with our Kaddosh Baruch Hu, you're not going to be focused on the gratitude of Pocheach Yivrim. But imagine if we made that bracha every morning with Kavana. That would be an amazing thing, no? But you have to have an abister that constantly be thankful. In other words, God, you gave me everything. Every word of davening on some level is about gratitude.

33:19 Even the small section of Shmona Esriyeh which is Bakashah which somehow has become conflated with the rest of Davening, right? There's a level of gratitude that we have that we can talk to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a personal way and say, I need Raphua, I need Parnassah, I need us, whatever things we're talking about, right? So with that Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who would you be grateful to? It wouldn't even occur to us to be grateful. Because it would be the natural state of affairs. This is why the Labavachir Rebbe is Kossiyyagan Alainu was very pro a non-denominational prayer in public school. Because he said, okay we shouldn't mix church and state, we shouldn't give it a specific prayer, but by taking away prayer from people we're going to harm the entire generation. And by the way, he was right, because look what happened, right? Once you take away the notion of prayer, you lose the basic humanity of a person.

34:11 So someone who doesn't pray is not pleased with you? I think they're going to lose their humanity. That's why talking to God is such a core part of the 12 steps. When we're not in touch with our kadosh baruch Hu, we lose ourselves. So yes, by the way, it changes the attitude when people say, I don't want to go to Davening. It tells you a lot about their inner state. People who daven are self-aware, again, when I say daven I don't just mean show up and say the words, right? People who daven, right? When they daven it creates a level of self-awareness, God-consciousness in the world, and it sets them on their mission. Those people wouldn't know how to stop davening. They wouldn't even, it would be, they would lose something terrible. It would be tragic if they had to. Yeah? How would you fix the problem? It would be very easy to overlook, say like, I have eyesight and not be thankful for it, because like everyone has eyesight and you grew up with it and it's normal, so.

35:14 Until it's not, right? Until it's not. Right. I think if it wasn't for davening, I think we would probably all fall into that. Maybe even with davening some of us do, right? But if a person really has kavana during tfiloh, these things are calibrated in order to make us conscious of the gifts that we have. A large part of the reason that we're so stuck in our way of being is because we're just not grateful for the things that we have. We're not conscious. We don't have das. I feel like there's a point where it's inhuman to be so grateful. I think it's the opposite. It's inhuman to not be grateful. To be grateful. Oh my gosh, I stepped off my bed and I didn't get paralyzed. Yay! Well, you know, if you think about it, if you think about it, think about how quickly human beings get so upset about things that we were never like we didn't even know we had these things, right? Like nowadays you get on a plane, right? The new LL Dreamliners have Wi-Fi. Okay? In fact, I will choose to go to Newark, New Jersey.

36:22 Not because I want to go to New Jersey, I'm a 5-town skin, so going to New Jersey is like, there's no reason to go to New Jersey, right? Okay, and now we have to get a... but we're mine so we know the truth, you know what I'm saying? It's the opposite of good. It's the opposite of good, I'm with you 100%, right? We have that natural Daivah, yeah. I would rather go to Newark, New Jersey and fly on the Dreamliner than fly on those old Fakak the planes that go into JFK. And by the way, that's why they send those planes to Newark, because it's the only way to get people to go to New Jersey, okay? But... That's true. But the thing about the Dreamliner... Other jerseys are so expensive. The thing about the Dreamliner is they have Wi-Fi on the plane. Now, here I am, Wi-Fi on the plane, okay, I'm flying 1.30 p.m., right?

37:13 Right, 1.30 in the afternoon and I'm landing 1.30 p.m. in Israel the next day from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv. I get on the plane, okay, I know the Wi-Fi is gonna start half an hour after the flight starts, right? We have to hit 30,000 feet before they turn on the Wi-Fi. I don't know why it is like that, but it did not work. It didn't work. Sometimes it doesn't work and I said to the stewardess, I said it's gonna be okay. Yeah, it's gonna be, I see you're having like a Vietnam flashback. Yisma Amish gonna be okay, yeah? So I asked the stewardess, I said, what's with the Wi-Fi? She said, yeah, it's down for the flight and inside I was like, oh, come on Wait a second. Yeah last year this concept didn't even exist. Yeah, and this year, how could you not have Wi-Fi on a plane? You know as a famous comedian doesn't matter who it is But you know, he went on one of these talk show hosts at talk shows You know what he said he's like the entire time that you're on a plane This is a good point. It's because of course what do you mean? Of course I'm flying guys think about how upset we get the drink service is so slow. I

38:22 It's because, of course, what do you mean? Of course I'm flying. Guys, think about how upset we get. The drink service is so slow. I can only bring a bag with me. You can bring a bag on a plane, go 30,000 feet. You're right, it's human because we get used to these things. But who says that just because we get used to it doesn't mean we shouldn't be grateful? How many people will thank the stewardesses as they're leaving the plane? The difference between those who do and those who don't, I think says a lot about their humanity. A person just spent a 12 hour plane ride, right? And I'm assuming it's a 12 hour plane ride because the only other place Jews go is to Florida, right? So let's assume it's a 12 hour plane ride, right? That woman just, or that man just served you for 12 hours.

39:12 They just walked up and down and they had to listen to, would you like a hot towel? Would you like to complain about the food that I'm giving you? Right? You want to make 10 minyanam on this plane and stop me from doing the job that I'm trying to do? Right? It's not a simple thing. How could you not say thank you? Until I started cooking, I don't think I was ever thankful for chefs. And then I, we had a chef in Yeshiva, Avi Katz, when he was here he said, you know, when I go to a restaurant, I always make sure to go to the back of the kitchen and thank the chef. Shefs never get thanked because they're in the back so nobody ever sees them. When do you hear about the chef? If you went to the restaurant then you didn't like the food. Right. Okay, that I understand. Yeah? But what about the thousand times that that doesn't happen? Right? How many people thanked Shaul last night? How many people thanked Johnny last night? How many people thanked Shai on a daily basis? Okay, so we'll stop here for today.