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We're a week ahead of America now. America is not up to our parsha But we are in parshas Bhalosha. I want to show you something. You can see it here in this chumash. It's actually written in the Sefer Torah itself. Do you see here? There's that marking. Do you see there? That marking. These are two psukim. There's this marking twice, once over here and once over there. Those are known as the inverted nuns. These are the upside down nuns in the Torah. The question is Why are there these inverted nuns? You're probably familiar with the psukim that are in these inverted nuns. There's two psukim that are in these inverted nuns. They're pretty famous. We say them in davening. The first is Vayihiben Soharon Vayomer Moshe Kumo Hashem Vayaputzlo Vecha. We say that when we're taking out the Sefer Torah, we say those words Vayib N Saron, and when we're putting away the Torah, we say the second pasuk, which is Uvenuchay Omar Shuvah Hashem Rivivos Alfe Yisrael.
Okay. What's with these inverted nuns? Where do we have them in the Torah? So there's a Gemara and Shabbos. We're going super deep tonight. The Gemara and Shabbos offers two opinions. The first opinion, I'm going to write it here on the board because it's going to be a lot to remember. The first opinion is that it's coming to make a split between two things in the Torah that Klal Yisrael were punished for. There were two things that happened. So we want it. We don't want to have two bad things in a row. This is the simple way of explaining it. We don't want to have two bad things in a row. So we get something to split it up. What's the first thing that was not so good? The first thing that's not so good is that it says they left Har Sinai. How long had they been at Har Sinai? They received the Torah. They were there for a year, and now they left Har Sinai. So the first thing is they left.
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Harsinai. That was the first bad thing that happened. And then the second bad thing that happened is they complained We'll see exactly what they complained about soon. But they complained And then Hashem, because they complained Brought a fire of destruction. So we don't want to have two bad things in a row, says the Gemara. So we have these two psukim that really don't belong here. And the Gemara says that in the future these pesukim are actually going to be brought back to the correct place. We brought these two seemingly random pesukim here in order to break up between these two things, namely that they left Har Sinai and that they complained. What was the problem with leaving Har Sinai? What's the problem with leaving Har Sinai? The Ramban says as follows: the Ramban says it's not a problem that they left Har Sinai. The problem is the way that they left Har Sinai.
What was the way that they left Har Sinai? He says, Ketina Kaboreach Mibes HaSefer. They left like kids who were running away from school. You know how like little kids when they leave school. How do they leave school? Like everyone's excited to leave school. Kids are not so in general excited to come to school. They're excited to leave school. So they left Har Sinai. What does the Ramban say? What was the bad thing that they did? They were running away from Har Sinai, and the Ramban explains why they were running away because they were afraid that Hashem was going to give them more mitzvos. So they said, we have to get out of here before Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us more mitzvos, and they ran away from school. Imagine your teacher is sitting there at the bell, and she says, okay, you have the following for homework, and then the bell rings. And you just dart out of the class because the bell rang. She can't give you more homework. That's the way Klal Yisrael was by Arsinai.
Klal Yisrael said, "we got to get out of here before Hashem gives us more mitzvos." So they ran out of school. They ran from school. That's the first bad thing they did. The second bad thing they did is they complained. What were they complaining about? Rashi explains. That after they left Har Sinai, how long was their journey for? Their journey was for three days, and the entire time of those three days, they were traveling. So they complained, Klal Yisrael. They complained when they left Har Sinai. They complained, we're traveling so much, we're so tired, we're not getting any breaks. So they complained that the travel was too hard. I'm sorry if the marker, if you can't see the marker. They complained that the travel. Was too hard. We're gonna have to invest in new markers here in Be'er Miriam. Wait, what was for a year? For a year they were by Har Sinai.
They were by. Then they left. How did they leave? They ran like children from school because they were afraid Hashem was gonna give them more mitzvos. And then when they were traveling, they complained. We're traveling without any breaks. Is this like on topic these questions or just random things? When they said, "Not sevenishma." That's way beforehand. We're talking about much, much later. This whole story happens much later. But I'm saying they ran after they got. Way, way, way after. Way after. Why don't we assume that maybe they were running away to do mitzvahs and they're so excited? So that's what we're going to discuss. But the Ramban says that they ran away, not excited to go to Eretz Yisrael, but they ran away because they said Hashem is going to give us more mitzvot. Now you're asking a very powerful question, which is where do we see this in the pesukim?
Chazal say this. We don't see this in the pesukim. What does the pasuk say? The pasuk says a very simple thing. It says they traveled from Ar Sinai three days. Where is there any indication that they ran away because they were afraid Hashem was going to give them more mitzvot? So you don't see that at all in the pesukim. So that's our first question for the night. Our first question for the night is. Where did their emban know this from? Where did where did the where did Chazal know this from that they were running away like children from school because they were afraid they were going to get more mitzvahs? It just says they traveled. Does that make sense? Thank you so much for bringing more markers, and you brought so many markers. Hopefully one of them will work. They all work. Okay, we're going to make it a very colorful day. So that is one explanation in the Gemara.
There is, however, a second explanation in the Gemara. And the second explanation in the Gemara is from Rabbi Yehuda Nasi Rabbi yehuda nasi, judah the prince And Rebi, as he's commonly known. What does Rebi say? Rebi says, "How many svarim are there in the Torah?" Everybody knows. How many svarim are there in the Torah? Rebi says, "Incorrect." A fancy Gemara. You never knew this Gemara before. Good to come to Shir and Ber Miriam because you learn a new thing. We always grew up knowing there's hamisha chum she Torah comes along with Yudanasi and says no. In fact, there are seven. So the reason why these two psukim are bracketed by these inverted nuns is because it's telling us this is a whole safar in the Torah. That's wild. Did anyone ever know that before? If somebody says to you, "How many svarim are there?" You go to Machlokas. Maybe there's five. Maybe there's seven. So Rav Yudanassi says, why do we have the inverted nuns to tell you that this is an entire sefer in the Torah? So far, so good.
Does this make sense? I need some classroom participation, as they taught me when I was doing my master's in special ed. Thank you so much for letting me know that you are here with me. Only on-topic questions. With the inverted nuns is to show that. That these two pesukim represent an entire sefer And that's why you have these upside down nuns. I'm saying that they left Har Sinai like children running away from school. This is Bamidbar chapter ten, verse thirty-five and thirty-six. So far so good. Now. Usually, let's go a little deeper now. Usually, when we have a machlokas in the Gemara Two disparate things can be put together. Usually Usually, they like to have some. The connection between them. What's the problem with these two explanations? We have two explanations of these inverted nuns. They seem to have nothing to do with each other. The first one says it's to break up two bad things, and the second one says it's to let you know that this is the entire safer of a Torah.
It's like what does one thing have to do with the other? These are two very random explanations. We don't yet see how they're two sides of one coin. So we have to figure out how to connect. This is our second question for the night. We have to connect these two psukim. So far, so good. Now let's go a little bit deeper. We have two questions so far. Number one, we said, how do we know that they left Har Sinai like children running away from school because they didn't want to get any more mitzvot? And two, how do we put these two things together? Comes along the Maharsha. The Maharsha is a commentary on the Gemara, and the Maharsha explains the Gemara as follows. We have to go deeper. Why a nun? Of all the things that you could use to say that these two pesukim are different, why a nun? A nun is a pretty random letter to put in.
So comes along Marsha and he says a nun will depend on which pshat you go with. If you go, says Marsha. Again, you're going to have to focus deeply here. If you go with the first explanation of the Gemara. That the reason we have these two nuns is to split between the two bad things. Then the meaning of the nun is nefila. The Gemara says that a nun represents nefila. What does the word nefila mean, girls? To fall. So in Ashrei, girls, every day when you say Ashrei, you know that Ashrei is an acrostic. Aleph, beis, gimel, dalet. There's only one letter that we skip in Ashrei. What letter do we skip? We skip nun because nun stands for nifla. So the Marsha comes along and he says, according to the first explanation of the Gemara, we have one bad thing and then we have another. How do we break it up with what letter? With the nun that represents nifla. But why are the nuns inverted? Why are they upside down? Says the Marsha In order to teach you that you have to take the fall and you have to rise up from it. That's what the Marsha says. So here the nun represents nifila. It means to rise from the fall. An inverted nun, you have to rise from the fall.
And then he says, what about according to the second explanation of the Gemara? Why does it have a nun specifically? The Marsha says because there are how many gates of understanding? There are fifty gates of understanding. Did you girls know that? It's called Nun Sharei Bina. There are fifty gates of understanding, and Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the greatest Navi of all time, only understood forty-nine of them. So he says, the Marsha says, even if this is only a very small Sefer in the Torah, it's the fourth Sefer of the Torah according to Rabbi Yudanasi. Even within this Sefer, how many gates of understanding are there? There's fifty gates of understanding, and that's why you have a nun. But why is it inverted? Why is it upside down? To teach you that you're only going to understand. Moshe Avinu could only understand 49 of them. That you can't reach the highest level of understanding.
So again, this needs to be understood in a very deep way. What are we talking about over here? Here the nun means nifla, and here the nun means the nun sharebina, the fifty gates of understanding. We're talking about such lofty ideas. What does it all mean for us? And the Marsha adds one last thing before I take your question: seven svarim in Torah. Seven svarim in Torah correspond to each day of creation. So there are seven svarim in Torah. Bereshis represents the first day. Devarim represents the last day. This sefer represents the fourth day of creation. The seven days of creation are represented in the seven svarim of Torah. We need to understand that deeply as well. There was one question. Because nun would be fifty. So to make it upside down is a way of saying like. But you can't get to the fiftieth level. It's an upside down nun. Moshe Rabbeinu could understand forty nine levels, but nobody can understand the fiftieth level of Torah. The question I think you want to ask is, what does that mean? What does it mean that there's Torah, but there's wisdom, but you can only understand forty nine levels, and you can't understand the fiftieth level? I think that's what you're trying to get at. So it's a great question. God willing, we're going to answer it.
So far, so good. That's all the technical questions I'm going to ask tonight. This is one of the most important concepts that we could give to a group of young women in their life. I hope you'll come along with me for the journey because it's mamish worth it. Why were Klal Yisrael running away from Har Sinai? Like a child who's running away from school. What did we say? Because they were afraid of getting more mitzvos. Now we ask the question: How do they know this? Before we get there, let's try to learn something a little bit deeper. Sometimes the reason why we run away from a relationship is not because we don't like the person. Sometimes we run away from a relationship because there's a feeling we have within the relationship. Because the relationship is asking me to hold more than I'm capable of holding.
Sometimes, for example, if you're a mother, you might feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of being a mother. It's not that you don't want to be a mother. I want to be a mother. I want to be a father. But am I really going to be responsible for a person? Am I really going to be responsible? What happens if that kid gets sick? I don't know what to do, or what happens if that kid gets hurt, or what happens if the kid is behaving out of control. Sometimes the reason we pull away in a relationship is not because I don't love you; it's because I'm so overwhelmed by the responsibility of the love that I have for you. Or, let's put it a little bit differently: Imagine a girl is dating And she knows he's my person. But she finds herself pulling back from him. Why? Because the prospect of being married is terrifying. She's not afraid of him. What's she afraid of?
What happens if I'm not a good enough wife? So she's withdrawing from the relationship, not because she doesn't love that person. She's withdrawing from the relationship because she's asking herself, what if I'm not enough? When Klal Yisrael was by Har Sinai for a year, what did Hashem keep telling them? He said, "Here's another mitzvah." What was Klal Yisrael's response? They said, "It's too much. Obviously, it's true. Obviously, Hashem is telling us to do it. But what was their fear? Their fear was, if He keeps going with all these mitzvos, what if I can't do them? So when they left Har Sinai, how did they leave? They weren't running away, and this is critical because people misquote this Ramban all the time. They weren't leaving like people say, oh, they're getting I got to get out of school I got to get out of school I just want to go home and play. No. They were leaving because what if the teacher gives us more responsibility and I already don't feel like I could handle the responsibility that's in front of me. Does that make sense? That's a very deep Torah because revelation creates responsibility.
Once you see the truth, you remember. You remember before you came to Be'er Miriam, there were certain things that you were able to ignore. You're like, you know what I'm saying? Like you're able to ignore it. Okay, to say that I know it's true, but I don't want to confront it because if I confront it, then it's going to obligate me to live in a certain way. And then you came to Be'er Miriam, and somebody gave a she'er here, and you're like, oh man, now I see it. And once you see it, what can't you do anymore? I can't ignore it. Because once you see the truth, it obligates you And it's terrifying. So what do people do? They avoid reality by withdrawing from reality. So the first thing we have to understand is, Klal Yisrael leaves Har Sinai because they loved Hashem and they loved the mitzvah. What if this is too much? What if I can't handle this? I think a lot of girls towards the end of the year start to ask themselves this question. They go, maybe I could do this in Yeshivayim, maybe I could do this in the safe confines of seminary. But what if I can't do this when I leave? What if it's all too much for me? And so sometimes towards the end of the year you see certain talmidim or talmidot shut down because I can't learn this anymore.
It's already too much. I'm not going to be able to handle this when I go back to England, South Africa, America or Los Angeles. There's no way that I'm going to be able to keep this going. So I don't even want to learn this anymore. That's one way of leaving seminary. You're not doing it because you didn't love it. You're leaving in that way because you're afraid you won't be able to handle the commitment. Now here's a deep thing. Klal Yisrael had no idea that's why they were leaving Har Sinai And it's nowhere in the pesukim. If you look at the actual pasuk, do you see this? Do you see what I just said? Do you see it anywhere in the pesukim? No. What do the pesukim say? The pasuk says it very simply: Vayisum Ehar Hashem. They traveled. Is there any indication in these words that they left because of the psychological underpinnings that they were afraid of the commitment of the relationship? You don't see it in the words of the psukim at all. You know why? Because it's in the subconscious.
It's not in the conscious. It's in the subconscious. So where do you see it play out? You see it play out only a little bit later when they're traveling and they're traveling for three days. And what do they start to do? They start to complain, And they go, "we're not getting any rest. We're traveling so far in three days. We're so exhausted." I'll explain to you what this means. I want you to imagine the following scenario. I want to imagine the following scenario with you. You have a husband and a wife, and they're fighting with each other. This husband and wife are fighting with each other They might not even know why they're fighting with each other. In fact, they think they're fighting about something, but the truth is that's not what they're fighting about at all. What are they really fighting about? About something that's happening subconsciously for them that they're so not aware of.
That's why this is what happens very subtly underneath the surface. Very subtly underneath the surface. Very subtly underneath the surface. You know what's happening? What's happening is one of them withdrew a little bit from the relationship. And now, in their state of withdrawal They start to complain about the other person, and they think in their conscious mind that what's it really about? It's really about the other person. So a husband will come to me and he'll say, "My wife's driving me crazy, and she's doing this and this." And the wife will come and she'll say, "My husband's driving me crazy, and he's doing this and this." But that's not really what happened first, is it? It's not really that he started doing this and you started complaining. What happened before that? Since you weren't feeling close to him, you withdrew a little bit. And then in your state of withdrawal, what do you start to do?
The withdrawal creates the complaining. How did Chazal know? This is brilliant. The Torah is psychologically absolutely brilliant. How did the Torah know that when they were leaving Har Hashem, they were leaving in a negative way? Because you know what it says immediately afterwards? They started complaining. The journey is too hard. It was never about the journey being hard. What was it really about? It was really about the fact that they were feeling overwhelmed by the relationship. And rather than narrating it positively, now they start to narrate it negatively. Isn't that what we do in life? When things start, you ever see people who just like Like they tell themselves a story? Have you ever seen that before? I'll give you a good example of this. A girl comes into the dorms and she buys something for the dorm and she puts it in the fridge, but it takes up a lot of space in the fridge of the dorm. In the fridge of the apartment.
And somebody else walks in and she opens the fridge and there's no room for her stuff. So what does she say? This girl is always taking up every inch of the fridge with no regard for everybody else, and everything is all about her. They start telling a nasty story about the other person. In the meantime, what was that person thinking? I just bought all of our groceries. Do you see how somebody, when they withdraw from the relationship, they'll start to tell a negative story? Girls, you know what Rashi says? Very profoundly, why did our Kadosh Baruch Hu walk them so far in three days? The answer was that He wanted to bring them immediately into Eretz Israel. He wanted to say, 'Let's go. We're immediately going to go into Eretz Israel.' But what happens? They're complaining about it and going, 'Ugh, we're exhausted. Why are you complaining about it?' Our Kodesh Baruch Hu is bringing you right away into Eretz Israel. You know why you're complaining? You're complaining because you withdrew from the relationship. When did you withdraw from the relationship?
By Har Sinai, when you were feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility that was in front of you, since you were overwhelmed by Hashem and you said, 'What if I'm not enough? What if I'm not good enough?' Now, when it came to actually leaving, what did you start to do? You started to tell yourself a negative story. It's just so exhausting. What is Hakadosh Baruch Hu doing to us? He's just overwhelming us with this travel. I'm so tired. I can't do this anymore. Do you see how the complaint is really where it's from? Has nothing to do with the journey. What's the complaint really about? It's about the way that we were feeling underneath the surface that we never processed. And that is If not the most important Torah, one of the most important Torahs you can learn this year. Because in your life, when you start to tell a negative story, see, there are people in this room. They're very positive people. Some people in this room always know how to look for the good. And some people in this room are uncomfortable to be around because everything is always negative.
Everything is always bad, the system is always broken. They don't know how to see the beauty in anything. You know why? It's because something is going on inside of themselves subconsciously that they never worked out. So the Torah is telling us an unbelievable thing: the complaining in the relationship It's not coming because of the other person. Where is it coming from? It's coming from your inner world where you feel inadequate in the relationship, and that's why you're complaining about your spouse. And by the way, girls, what happens to those complainers—the people that said, "Oh, the journey is so long." Hashem brings a fire. Because there's two fires. There's the fire of Har Sinai you mentioned before, Naso and Mishma. There's the fire of Har Sinai. And that fire can cut both ways. The passion in a relationship can either bring you closer together or it can destroy you. You get to choose what you want to do with that fire. Because nobody could hurt you like your spouse. Nobody could hurt you like the people that you love. Isn't that true?
That's why when your mother is more infuriating than anybody else in the world. I'm talking about you're generally a calm person, but your mother just knows how to push your buttons. Yes. Or your father. Thank you for the validation. I appreciate it, and for revealing your inner world to all of us. It's a safe space. Why is that? Because the fire of a relationship cuts both ways. We're so close. The fire comes down from Arseni. We're so incredibly close. But what also happens with that incredible closeness, if you start to withdraw from the relationship, that fire will start to consume you. And that's why couples that fight with each other, the fire is explosive. You have to choose which fire you want in life. You can either have the fire of closeness, or you can have the fire of distance. It will depend not on the other person that you're complaining about. It depends on your inner world. If you process your stuff and you bring it up into reality, then you can deal with it and you can have the fire of closeness. But if you don't, you start telling a negative story about your spouse. My husband is never home enough.
And he doesn't do this for me, and he doesn't do that, and he never does this, and he never does that. You should know if you start complaining in a relationship, you know what will absolutely happen? Is the fire that built your relationship will destroy your relationship? That's why the same people when they were dating The same people who were so passionate about each other when they were dating, when they get into a fight, it's that same passion that could tear them apart. Because you have to choose. You have to choose which fire you're going to have. What's the solution? The solution here that the Torah gives us is so elegant, so powerful, so profoundly obvious. If you're only paying attention Comes along the Gemara And it says we have two sukkahs here that have no place, surrounded by these upside down nuns. What are these upside down nuns doing? You ready for it? It's called the power of a pause.
The power of a pause. What does it mean? The power of a pause. The power of a pause means as follows. You ever have a situation where you react so fast you don't even realize what happened? You ever just fly off the handle before? It's like it almost happened immediately. You didn't even remember making the choice. Somebody did something and immediately you just explode. There's a famous line called "In between stimulus and response is choice." You don't realize, but every single time you do something, you actually made a choice. It just happens so quickly that you're reacting instead of responding. So ideally, what would we want? We would want something to happen, and then before you explode. We want you to hit pause. Process, and then instead of reacting, we want you to respond. I'll give you an example of what this looks like. Your roommate comes in. You're sitting comfortably in the bed. The thermostat has been placed to where you are comfortable, and your roommate walks in and changes the temperature in the room.
In that moment That was a little close to home for about 15% of you. 15% of you just went like this. It doesn't have to become a moment, but I'm with you. By the way, I'm going to choose you just because you were the most obvious in the room of this is something. I'm not saying. I'm just saying if you know what I'm saying. You were, your roommate changes the temperature. She doesn't ask anybody. Right away in that moment, before you explode, what do you have the ability to do? Stop. Before you react, stop. Hit pause and ask yourself What just happened inside of me? We use a word in today's language called "I got triggered." Every 15-year-old is walking around going, "It's trauma. I was triggered." Everybody knows the psychological language today. I have PTSD from this. I was talking about it with my therapist. I was like, I'm working on it, but still in this toxic relationship, I don't know how to hold. They don't hold space for me. Everyone has all the psychological language today. Girls, if you got triggered, that means the explosives were inside of you.
Right? So somebody, but they did this to me. They didn't. All they did was they did something, and then where did the explosion occur? Inside of you. So when your roommate walked in and just turned the temperature down to freezing, before you explode, ask yourself, what just happened in my inner world? And you know what you might discover? I was telling myself a story. What's the story that I told myself? She's insensitive. I can't get my needs met. I've never been able to get my needs met. It's just like when I was six years old and my older sister did it to me all over again. That stuff is happening inside of us. So if you hit pause and you realize all she did was lower the temperature, everything after that was a story you told yourself. What does a pause give you the opportunity to do?
It gives you the opportunity to choose your responses. So comes along the first sheeta in the Gemara, and it says like this: Something happened. I was walking away from Arseni. What was I feeling? Remember, girls, were they feeling it out loud? Were they feeling consciously? Did they know when they were leaving Har Sinai what was going on inside of them? They didn't know. What is the Torah telling us? Have the inverted nuns stop. You had an ephela. Hit pause. Something went wrong. Something inside of you is saying, "I'm overwhelmed by the responsibility that Hashem is giving me." So what do we do? Hit pause. And now you have the opportunity to do what when you hit pause. You have the opportunity to turn a nefila. What did the marsha say? Upside down into an aliyah. That's why it's an upside down nun. It's inverted. It's an upside down nun. It's inverted. What does that mean?
An upside down nun, an inverted nun means that you have the opportunity if you hit pause. To turn it around, just because you started to lose it doesn't mean you have to go on this train and fly off the mountain, and that's what very often happens. I was talking to somebody today, and she said, "My father is a rage aholic." So rage aha! He's from zero to a hundred. Something happened. Boom! He's off to the races, yelling about this and yelling about that, and taking out his anger on everybody in the family. And now it's an unsafe environment in the home, and the kids don't feel safe because their father's just raging all over the place. Because he's unaware of what's happening inside of his inner world, he's reacting. He has the nefila, but he doesn't know how to turn it around because he never hit pause. So the Torah comes along with these two quote-unquote random sukkim, and what does it tell us?
If you hit pause and you break up the story, then guess what? You have the ability to turn it around. And comes along the Rebbe and he says, and now we're going to put these two sheets together. Comes along Rebbe and he goes, if you hit pause That's where the wisdom is. This thing, these two psukim, it's its own sefer in the Torah. There's not five books of Moses. There's seven: Bereishis, Shmos, the beginning of Ayekra, and then this pause. It's an entire sefer and comes along the Marshan. He says, 'How much wisdom is in this sefer? All fifty gates of understanding are in this sefer.' Because if you actually hit pause and you delve deeply into yourself, that's when you start to learn what you're really all about. Because then you get to go. I hit pause. I'm leaving Har Sinai, and something inside of me feels off. You stop and you go, 'Wait a second.'
I'm not moving towards Eretz Yisrael. I feel like I'm running away from Arsinai. And then you go, why am I running away from Arsinai? I'm running away from Arsinai because Hashem's going to give me more mitzvos. And then you go, well, what's wrong with that? And he goes, because if He gives me more mitzvos, I can't handle them. And you go, you can't handle them? And he goes, yeah, because I don't know what happens if I fail. I don't know what happens if you fail. I have to be perfect. Who told you have to be perfect? When I was growing up, the way that they measured success was by who could do the most mitzvos. And I feel like if He keeps giving me more mitzvos, I won't be able to do them. So your issue is with perfection. All the wisdom and understanding in your life that you'll have about yourself is when you actually stop for a minute and look inside and get curious. It's an entire safer. Here's the thing. You could go to therapy for years and understand as much as you possibly can about yourself, but you'll only ever get to 49 levels of understanding.
There is something about us that remains a mystery. If you would go to therapy for your entire life, if you would spend every single hour just thinking about—and by the way, that's what Freud did. I don't know if you know that. You know how Freud, when he was the founder of psychology, what he did? He thought about himself all day long. And he spent a lot of time looking inside of himself and really analyzing his own psychology. That's how he came up with a lot of his theories. Even if you do that for your entire life, you'll only ever get to 49 levels. Because there is something called a soul. That's not—it's not. It's not rational. It's before rational. It's deeper than rational. There's something about us that's always beyond understanding. And that's a powerful thing to know. Because sometimes in life, girls, you might have a particular challenge that you can't make any sense of. That no matter how much work you put into yourself, and no matter how curious you are about yourself, there's something that's just like, hey, man, this is your path to walk in this world.
Because your soul came down into this world to walk this path, and it makes no sense. No matter how much you try to figure it out, in this pause, you know what you come in contact with—the point of yourself that's beyond understanding. It's the 50th level that I'll never be able to understand. That's something deep to know about yourself. That I have a soul, and that soul cannot be understood. Only 49 levels could be understood, but the 50th level cannot be understood. Why is this connected to the seven days of creation, girls? That's what we're here to do. We're here to create ourselves. Every single step of Torah is another step in our creation. Yom Rishon, Yom Sheni, Yom Shlishi, Yom Ravi. Every day you take another step. So there's not five books of Moses. How many are there? There's seven because every single day that God created the world, it's also a way of communicating to us. This is not only the architecture of creation; it's the architecture of us. That's what happens when a Jew learns Torah.
Every single minute that you're learning Torah, you ought to be looking inside of yourself and saying, "How does this bring me one step closer to the ultimate fulfillment of my creation?" Let's go back. Let's sum it all up. This is a very powerful idea. Klal Yisrael starts off. They leave Arcei. How do they leave Arcei? Running away. Why are they running away? Because they couldn't handle the responsibility. Because they said, 'What if we're not enough?' But did they know that was going on? It was subconscious. When did we actually see it come into reality? When they started complaining. Because when you start to withdraw from the relationship, because you think you're not enough, you end up blaming the other person. Even if they were trying to do a good thing for you, you end up blaming them. But then, what happens to the fire of the relationship? The fire of the relationship is no longer bringing you together. What's the fire of the relationship doing now? It's consuming you and it's destroying the relationship. So what's the antidote?
The antidote to that is hit pause. In between stimulus and response is choice. If you take a second to slow yourself down, you'll get to make a response and not a reaction. But what do I do when I hit pause? Is it enough just to count to ten? Like those people, you ever see people like they'll tell you like when you get angry count to ten. When they get to eleven, they explode like Mount Vesuvius. That's the worst possible advice you could ever give to anybody. Why do they explode? Because what are you doing that ten seconds when you hit pause? You listen to yourself. You get curious. What's going on in my inner world? Once you understand what's going on in your inner world, you have unbelievable information. That's how you self-create. That's where all the wisdom is. But there's a level of wisdom that you'll never get to. That's the 50th level. Sometimes the way that we are in this world makes no sense. It's just that this is our journey. And that's how you create yourself. You create yourself by hitting pause, delving deeply into yourself, and then actually making a choice of how you want to show up in the world. Girls have a beautiful Shabbos.
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