Beshalach / Tu B'Shvat - Resurrecting the Hopeless

2:24 The story is that there were 300,000 Jews from Shevet Ephraim that attempted to leave Mitzrayim 30 years too early. And they entered into a terrible war with the Plishtim. And we'll try to understand this in a deeper way soon. But they entered into a war with Plishtim, and 300,000 Jews were wiped out. And the Plishtim left their bones in the desert, in a valley in the desert. Where the bones dried up, and they sat there for many years. The Navi Yecheskel describes how eventually, in the times of Tchias Hamesim The moisture would surge throughout the dry bones and revive these dry bones. The Medrash tells us that Hakadosh Baruch Hu did not want Klal Yisrael to see the dry bones of Shevet Efrayim as they were leaving Mitzrayim. Because it makes sense now in context. If they're going to see the bones of those Jews that tried to leave and were wiped out.

3:37 It makes sense that Hakadosh Baruch Hu would not want Klal Yisrael to see that, because then they would become terribly afraid. But the question is for us: What is the Torah teaching us? What does this have to do with us? This whole story of the dry bones that they were going to see. Why is this critical for the Torah to tell us? The Torah doesn't need to tell us the directions of Klal Yisrael. The Torah should just tell us how we left. It seems like the Torah is almost trying to tell us that in order to leave Mitsrayim, a person needs to avoid seeing the dry bones of Shevet Ephraim. That were conquered by the Pelishtim, and the question is, of what relevance is that to us today? So listen to what the Navi Yeheskel says. The Navi Yeheskel says as follows: Vayoymerelai ben Adam.

4:33 He said to me, "Son of man" Haatsamos ha'eleh kol beis Yisrael hima Hinei omrim. Our bones have become dried up. Our hope is lost, and we are clean cut off to ourselves. So the Lubavitcher Rebbe points out over here that there are three levels of hopelessness that a Jew goes through in their lifetimes. Not all Jews go through this But on some level we all go through an aspect of this. The first thing is, and many of us have had this in our lives A feeling of my life is devoid of tayra. There's no meaning in my life. I'm living my life. I wake up every single day, but I wake up with no purpose. I wake up with nothing to live for. I have a life. But where is all of this headed? The hopelessness, these bones The dried out bones of Shevet Efrayim.

5:52 For so many of us, that feeling of Yevashos, that feeling of being dried out. You see people today, and they're dried out people. You ever see a dried out person? You know what it means to be a dried out person. There are some people that are so alive. And there are some people that you look at them and they're just parched. There's hopelessness so deep, you don't see any chayus, you don't see any life to them. There was a term I shouldn't say this out loud but there was a term. It was a terrible term. And unfortunately, so many of us are still suffering from this. There was a term that kids were using for each other After COVID. After COVID ended, the guys had a terminology. They called it "he's an NPC." You know. You know this word. An NPC means a non-playable character. In a video game There are players that you take on and that you're playing as that person. And then there's just stuff like on the side, like scenery.

6:56 They're characters in the game, but they're non-playable. You can't do anything with them. And the boys would tell me immediately in the year following COVID, when I went into America to do bechunas. So I would ask them, "How's your high school experience?" I remember the first time I heard it. One of the boys said It's honestly been terrible. I have so many NPCs in my class. And I didn't know what an NPC was. So he explained to me it's a non-playable character. And I asked him I said, "Was meant such a non-playable character? What does that look like in school?" So he said, "A boy will come to class." He's not allowed to be on his phone in class, so he's not on his phone. But as soon as the period ends And they leave the class, nobody talks to each other anymore. They just sit in the hallway. You've seen this. You ever walk through a high school hallway? You sit in the hallway, and you have boys just sitting on the floor, just on their phones. They're not talking to each other. They're just next to each other.

7:49 They're in the proximity of one another, but there's no connection. There's no vulnerability. There's no deep empathy with another person. There's just dried out people. I don't know. Again, it's hard for me sometimes to give shiur in seminaries because I have my own feelings around these things that probably you don't relate to, but there's something that a boy goes through in his life. That you could play on a Sunday afternoon video games for hours And you could play for five or six hours. You could see a boy does this, and at the end of five or six hours of playing on a Sunday, you actually feel gross. Do you ever have that where you just do nothing for hours, and then what was that? Just scrolling on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and at the end you could do it for three or four hours, and at the end of it you feel dry. There's a life that's devoid of Torah.

8:36 The Navi Yeheskel is speaking, even though he's speaking to those people from Shevet Ephraim, and we'll see why they were from Shevet Ephraim in a moment. He's speaking to those yidden from Shevet Ephraim. The Navi Yeheskel is speaking to us. There are people that they have no. There's a deep feeling. I have nothing in my life to live for. I'm alive. I'm not killing myself chas v'shalom. But for what? For what am I alive? I don't wake up in the morning for any tachlis. I don't wake up for any purpose. It's just like the machine is designed to continue itself. Do you ever have a feeling like that? Like I'm here and I'm doing things just to continue doing things, but there's no point of anything that I'm doing. Sometimes we even could feel that way in our yiddishkeit. That a person could show up every day to their yiddishkeit, they could show up to daven, they could show up to learn. But they're cut off from a life of taira. They're cut off from a deep connection.

9:27 That's the first level. That's what it means, yavshu atzmeisenu. Then there's a next level of hopelessness, va'avda tekvasenu. That hope is lost. The second level of hopelessness is not only that my life is meaningless, but that my life will always be meaningless. And that there's nothing I could do to change it. There's a point in all of our lives, but I'm thinking of somebody in specific right now. There's a point in life where things have been such. In such a profound way for such a long time that there's no way to possibly change it. There's a young man who I love very much. He's an amazing, special, fantastic, phenomenal person. The only one that doesn't know it is him. And he has a feeling right now that it's not possible for me to get out of this, and I don't know how to get out of this.

10:22 And this is a word we use very lightly. We use the word depression like. I'm depressed. We throw these words around. I was just walking in now. I don't know if it was any of you, and if it was, I don't mean to make fun. Just like a thing that people say, it's a 2024 nomenclature. I was walking in, and one of the girls just said, "I have no idea. I didn't even see who it was." One of the girls just threw out this line. She's like, "Oh my gosh, this is causing me so much anxiety." We throw around these words like they're nothing, like anxiety, depression, but when a person gets to a place where they cannot get out and they're completely stuck. And you say to them, "How do you make change?" And they say, "I have no idea how to make change. It's not possible for me to make change." This is where I am, and it's not going to change. There's nothing I could do to change it. It's a terrible place to be. That is. It's a very deeper level of being dried up. The first level of dried up is I have no tachlis to my life. The second level of dried up is and there never will be And there never will be. Lo alenu, you have these girls that are dating. They have no sense of hope.

11:26 So I've been dating for a while, and I just don't see anything coming my way because of this and this in my life. And then there's this tremendous fear that takes hold. And you say to this girl, 'Will you ever get married?' And she says, 'Probably not.' Do you think it's possible that somebody could love you? Probably not. And then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because the more you think you can't be somewhere else, the more you won't be anywhere else. And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. There are girls that come to Eretz Yisrael for the year. And they have big hopes and dreams. They say, by the time I leave Tzomar Devora, I want to look like this. And at some point in the year, we all hit a wall and realize to ourselves that, even though it's not true, we come to this consciousness that this is who I am. There's no changing this.

12:10 This is who I am, and it's always going to follow me. And you have girls that will come to me after a year, and they'll say something like this: They'll go. Even though I think I could change, the world won't let me change. I'm always going to be known as the girl that did this. I'm always going to be, and therefore, since the world won't let me forget it, I'm never going to forget it. And it is me, and it defines me, and my lowest moments define me. And change is impossible. And there's this feeling There's a deep feeling of it's not possible for me to do anything. This is who I am, and it's finished. And that's also the bones that Yehoshuah found in that valley, in that desert outside of Mitzrayim. It's the bones that we could relate to. The bones of number one, my life is devoid of meaning. Number two, my life will always be devoid of meaning. My life will always be devoid of Torah. There is no change that's possible.

12:59 And that story of that girl, by the way, you have that story of that girl in your head, the one that you remember when she came back from Toma Devora. But her story is different. Change was possible for her, but it's not possible for me because at the end of the day, she came back to a certain family, and I'm not coming back to that family. Or she came back to that support system, but I'm not coming back to that support system. And change is impossible. It's an unbelievable thing. I don't. I think they did it in Torah Devora this year. I know they've done it in other seminaries. I spoke in another seminary where they did this, where the girls left their phones. They all got dumb phones for ten days. And well, right. And no, and I want you to know at the end of ten days. I spoke at the end of the ten days, and the girls said when I asked them for the feedback. What was it like? They said, we just never thought it would be possible.

13:48 Like which is in your mind in the beginning, you can't go ten days And every day that goes by, you become more accustomed to the change that's possible. Most of us are living in prisons of our own design. We told ourselves that change is impossible, and we dried up because of it. If change is impossible, then hope is lost. And if hope is lost, then what in the world am I doing here? The natural human being seeks to evolve. If you're not evolving in this world, something is wrong. Have you noticed that you're very different from the person you were when you were 10 years old? You should notice that. That's an obvious thing to notice. There's an evolution that every one of us goes through. Did you ever meet a 16-year-old that's just done? She's done. She's checked out. She's finished. There's nothing. She wakes up in the morning and she says, "Not only do I not know why I'm waking up in the morning, there's no reason for doing anything because nothing will ever change." Have you ever had a friend like that? Have you ever been in a space like that? If you're in a space like that, even for five minutes, you know that is one of the worst, most cruel pains things, painful things that you can ever go through.

14:50 The feeling of "This is me and finished." That is a terrible level of hopelessness and despair to go through. But there is the Navi Yecheskel says an even deeper level, which is Nigzar Nulano. And here I want to speak to a very specific pain in our community, and I might say something that upsets people, but I feel an Achrayis to say it to the future mothers of Klal Yisrael. This is number three. This is number three. It's one thing to lead a life that's meaningless. It's another thing to lead a life where no change is possible. But both of those things are nothing in comparison to the person that's been cut off from the community. The person that's been cut off, that has no friends, that's alone. I'm not talking about a person who has some friends but they can't be honest. I'm talking about a person that's been cut off.

15:42 That is the single deepest level of pain that a person could ever experience. It's a cycle. You lead a life that's meaningless, and then you start to believe change is impossible. You start to cut yourself off from everything around you. You have no desire to be there, and nobody has a desire to be around you. Did you ever have a friend that was so deeply in this place of despair that it was impossible to be her friend? That there was no space to be her friend? That even if you would try to be her friend, nobody was home. You knock on the door, and there's nobody home. You're looking at a blank slate. The feeling of loneliness from the place of despair is the deepest feeling of pain that a person can experience. And unfortunately Trying to choose my words carefully because I don't want to say anything negative about Klal Yisrael, because Klal Yisrael is an amazing and beautiful nation.

16:34 And because we have such a deep capacity to connect to each other Unfortunately, we also have the capacity to hurt each other. And unfortunately. There are people going through this level of pain. And our response to these kids is to say, So you're isolated. When someone is isolated, the last thing in the world they want is to be isolated. When someone is isolated, it's a responsibility to everyone who's paying attention to go over to that person and to say, "It doesn't matter if you feel isolated from us. We will not isolate ourselves from you." When a person is in a tremendous amount of pain and pushing you away, that's exactly the time where you say you're welcome to push me away, but I'm not going anywhere. And unfortunately, we're not yet there. There are children who are crying out, children and teenagers. They're saying I have no terror in my life, I have no meaning in my life, and I don't think change is possible.

17:31 You don't have to do anything to fix those people. You just have to sit next to them. My wife has this line that she says very often. She says, "Don't just do something, sit there." And a lot of times people want to do something. Sometimes people don't need you to do anything. They don't need you to fix them. They just need you to sit there with them. Because for some people, they're living through a holocaust of loneliness. And a holocaust of loneliness is nothing that any of us should ever have to experience. But in our worst moments, we often feel like I don't want to be around anybody. But to know that you have friends next to you Even if you don't want to be around them, they won't leave your side. It's one of the most precious gifts that we can give ourselves—to know that there are people that won't give up on us. Could you imagine being that yavesh? Could you imagine being that dried out That your life has no meaning That you think change is impossible And you have nobody next to you?

18:27 Could you imagine the level of despair that the Navi Yecheskel saw when the Navi Yecheskel was looking at those bones in that valley? The valley girls means the lowest possible place. It wasn't just the desert; it was the valley of the desert. We're talking about yidden that experienced such levels of despair that they were mamish. There was nothing beneath them. There was the dried-out bones. You know what a dried-out bone is? You know how brittle a dried-out bone is? This is the imagery. If you open your heart and pay attention to the imagery, that is the single most painful thing that a person could experience. Take a moment. I'm being serious. Take a moment right now. You all know people like this, and you all know times in your life where you've been in such a place. Take a moment to access the pain of what the Navi Yecheskel was seeing—the dried-out bones of people that had no tachlis habriya.

19:12 There was nothing to their lives, no possibility for change, and no friends, no family, no community, completely cut off. Can you see the pain that the Navi Yecheskel saw? So why is it that the Plishtim were able to do this? Are the Plishdim the enemies? Why were they able to do this? So I want to share with you who Shavudefrāim was. Imagine you're in Mitzrayim And you're like, "That's it, we have to go." And even appropriate or inappropriate, could you imagine what these 300,000 Yidden were living through? After all of those years of slavery, 180 years of slavery. These Yidden had desire. These precious, beautiful, powerful Jews had desire. They were alive. Some people. Rav Shlomo Freifeld, Zechariah Lebracha, he said, some people are young and they're very old, and some people are old and they're very young. Sometimes I look around Not in a judgmental sense. I just look around and I see young people that are very old.

20:26 It's crippling to watch. They sit there stoned. Wake and bake. The pain is so deep that they have nothing to live for. They can't put down the phone. They can't, for a moment, experience their own emotions. They're yavesh, they're young, but they're so old. And then you find old people that are mamish so young. You find people in their 70s and 80s, and even in their 90s, and they're so alive. Can I share with you? There's a rebbe in Mevaseret. Who's in his 90s? He's in his 90s. The top shanah bet shir and mevaser is a very big tamuachem. His name is Rabbi Safer. Rabbi Safer is in his late 50s. His father is over 90 years old, and his father comes in every single day to yeshiva to learn one on one with one of the guys. A 90-year-old and a 19-year-old learn together every single day.

21:28 You know what's you know, but you know what's amazing about it He nobody would. It's understandable. You're ninety years old. Take a walk. What are you gonna do with your life? Take a walk, swim. Can you swim at that age? You could swim. I guess you could float. What can you do? Could you imagine being plus ninety years old, waking up every morning, going to Minyan, putting on tefillin, davening, getting in a car, traveling thirty-five minutes to Mevaseret? And sitting and learning with a boy all morning long, and then getting in a car and going home—that's what he does every single morning. Rabbi Shaffir senior doesn't drive; somebody drives him. He's he's so old But he is so much younger than some of the people in this room because he's got a life of meaning. He's got a life of Torah. He has a desire.

22:16 The godless of Shevet Efraim was you could not beat the desire out of them. Hundred eighty years of Mitzrayim. And you know what they were thinking the entire time? I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna leave Mitzrayim. And they finally did it. Too early and misguided. But they got up and said, "You can't squelch our desire to leave. We don't belong in Galus. We don't belong as slaves." " You know, people died in the Holocaust. You know why? Not because they died because the Nazis imachshemam shot them, or because the Nazis imachshemam worked them to death. Victor Frankel writes, "They died because they had nothing to live for." And those people that had something to live for somehow survived. Shavuot Ephraim sat in Mitzrayim all of those years, and they were so strong. Ephraim from a lashon of piriya, Ephraim from a lashon of growth and fruitfulness. They said, "We don't belong in Galus." How many Yidden I know that belong in Galus that they believe deeply about themselves. I'm a Galus Jew.

23:14 You talk to them again. I'm going to say things that are not going to be popular, but it's what I believe. It's in my heart, and I feel a responsibility to say it to you. If you talk to them, if you even talk to them about making Aliyah, I'm not making Aliyah. You talk. Don't start that. Don't start. We're not making Aliyah. We can be good Jews wherever we are. It's true. Of course you can. But after thousands of years, we have the opportunity to live in Eretz Yisrael. If that doesn't make your heart skip a beat Even if you're going to live in America, if you don't realize the godless of sitting and learning Torah right now in your shulaim or akedas What happened to your desire? Where'd your tayva go? I like the guys in yeshiva that are lebedik. I like the guys in yeshiva that make trouble. They think I don't like them. I love those guys the most. I get them in trouble, but I want you to know when they walk out of the office after I got them in trouble.

24:05 Almost always I turn to the rebbe who's with them, the rebbe who stayed behind. I go, he's gonna be great. Because the guy who gets in trouble is alive. You say he's alive. He's a lebedik kid. He's doing the wrong thing. He's a lebedik kid. Just move him in that direction. He's gonna be phenomenal. There's a guy in yeshiva this year. I'm telling you, I'm gonna tell you his name. There's a guy in yeshiva this year. I would argue right now he's one of the top ten guys in yeshiva, in terms of growth and working on himself and learning in beis medrash and davening. You just see, he's an anderemensch. This guy didn't get into Mivaseret in the beginning of last year. He got in off the wait list. He pushed his way in. And he got in trouble in the beginning of the year. All the rules and regulations that we said you could come to Mivaseret, but you have to follow these rules. He broke every single one of them except for one. I'm not telling you. It doesn't work. He broke every single one of them except for one.

24:54 Drugs. And in the beginning of the year, I kept calling him in, and I had the paper. I said, "Now it's this one. Now it's this one." Why do you keep him in? Because he's awesome. You don't kick people who have desire out. You just have to figure out how to channel them. He's a gevalt. He's a gevaldig guy. I took a picture. He's in the beis medrash before anybody else, sitting with his Gemara and learning and preparing for Shira. I took a picture behind him. I sniped the picture. I said because I'm relevant, I know it means to snipe a picture. I used to take pictures. You snipe pictures. That's because you're not as relevant as me. I know all the words because I hang out with 18 year old boys. At eight o'clock tonight, I'm going to dip and go elsewhere. I'm holding. Trust me. I'm very relevant.

25:42 I took a picture. I sent a picture. I sniped a picture. I sent it to his father. 9:15 in the morning. Seder doesn't even start till 9:30. 9:15 in the morning, he'd already been there for a couple of minutes. Already been there probably for 10-15 minutes, and he's got his head in the Gemara and he's sitting there writing the notes and preparing for the day. The guy is going to be a gavalt. By the way, every time I say to him, "You know you're going to be special," he goes, "I'm telling you, Rabbi, you think I'm going to be something that I'm not." Well, so far he's wrong. And he's going to be wrong. He's going to be unbelievable because he has unbelievable desire. It's just a question of moving him in the right direction. A mentor of mine when I was growing up, his name is Mr. Richie Altobee. He's the principal of Halbe Elementary School today. We love his wife. I love him too. I'll tell him that I said his name and that girl swooned. We love his wife even more. She's great, Lisa. She's a special woman. So I want to tell you something. Richie Altobee Years ago Twenty plus years ago, I asked him about a certain guy.

26:40 Were you ever nervous about that guy? He goes, Nah, I knew he was going to become great. I said, Why? He goes, Because he was a ball player. A kid who gets up in the morning, and maybe he's not going to daven, but maybe he's going to shoot around the gym. Maybe he's cut from class, but he's going to shoot around in the gym. He cares about something. He has energy. He has a motor. These dead kids. We killed these kids. How did we take the life out of these kids? Everyone's blaming the technology. The technology is the symptom, not the cause. We took the life out of these kids. They're dead kids. A ball player, you'll see. He's a ball player. One day, you'll see, he'll become a meshuganah for talmud Torah. The next day, he's a meshuganah for ball. He'll be a meshuganah for Torah. But he's alive. He's lebedik. That was shevet Efrayim. You're not going to hold me back in Mitzrayim forever. So the first chance, we out.

27:32 So who are the plishdim? So listen to the gemara of Avi Dazarah. The pasuk until him says of the Moishev Leitzim Lo Yashav that you shouldn't sit with Leitzim. We shouldn't sit with scoffers. Who is this referring to? The Moishev Leitzim Lo Yashav shall Lo Yashav be Moishev Anshe Plishdim. They shall Leitzanim. You can't sit with Plishdim. The Gemara Navai Dusara says because you know who Plishdim are. They're people that suck the life out of people. They're people that suck the desire out of people. You know, there's such a thing as a let's. It's a sh'tik la malik. A rebbe gives a shir, and a girl is inspired. And she walks out. And she's inspired, and she's thinking to herself, "How am I going to take this into the world of action?" And later that night in the dorms All it takes is one joke.

28:24 One line, one sharp little criticism. Eh, classic, whatever that rebbe. And all of a sudden, you see the balloon get deflated. All the desire, all the passion, all the ruts on, all the things that make a person human. One line. You're sitting in a room of girls, and one girl. She's a plishti in that room. She's a plishti in that room. She just pops the balloon. You know what happened to Ephraim? They were misguided and shouldn't have left when they did. But the desire that Ephraim had to leave would have taken them out of Mitzrayim. Had they not run into the Plishtim, nothing stands in the way of desire. Girls, I'm telling you, you can do whatever you want as long as you know what it is. If you truly want something, nothing will stand in your way. If you're a dreamer and your dream is strong enough, there is nothing that will stop your dream from dying.

29:26 Dreams are exceptionally powerful. Desire is exceptionally powerful. Did you ever meet someone who's a train, a freight train of desire? You see people get out of her way. She's a freight train of desire. She's going right here. Everyone gets out of the way. Everyone clears out. That's where she's going. These are powerful people. Every single person in this room has the capacity for desire, but there are people lo alenu. There are plishdim, moshev leitzim. There are leitzanim. They know how to suck the desire out of a person. They know how to say that line to make fun, to scoff, to roll your eyes. All it takes is an eye roll. All it takes is an eye roll. You want to see what it looks like? I'll show you how quick it is. You could destroy a person. Could destroy a person with an eye roll. That's why you have to be careful who you share your dreams with. Because dreams are exceptionally powerful. Ephraim wasn't killed by the Plishtim because the Plishtim were stronger. Ephraim was killed by the Plishtim because the Plishtim knew how to suck their desire. A hundred eighty years of slavery didn't take away Ephraim's desire, but one interaction with the Plishtim took away the desire.

30:30 And now we can understand why our Kadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe Rabbeinu. We can't go that way. We can't be anywhere near it. Kikarovu, it's very, very dangerous. What will happen? What will happen to these Jews that they see themselves as slaves and I'm taking them out of Mitzrayim? If they're going to look at the dried out bones of Menashe of Ephraim, what's going to happen to them? They're going to turn around. They're going to be too scared. They're going to say, "That's it, Rebbe. I can't do this anymore." And they're going to run back to their slavery. Why in the world would anyone run back to Auschwitz? You know what the Tzitz is. Because Auschwitz is safer than losing your person. Auschwitz is safer than seeing the dried-out bones of Shevet Efrayim. To see, you know what it's like to see the death of somebody who was so big, somebody who lived with so much desire, and then you see them and they're tanked.

31:19 You ever have a friend who was just full of life and then tragedy struck and they fell into a deep depression? You can't see such a person. It doesn't even make any sense. You're looking at them going, how could this be you? You're larger than life. How could this be you? It's a terrifying sight. It's a terrifying sight. Hashem says we have to do whatever we can to keep these people away from seeing those dried out bones that Yeheskel saw. What's the cure for those of us that feel the despair of these atzamos yevashos, these dried out bones? What can we do? Listen what the Gemara in Kesuvah says. The Navi Yecheskel prophesizes that in the times of Tchias Amesim, the Do, the Tal of Mashiach will revive these people. What is the Tal of Mashiach today? Listen what the Gemara in Suvah says: For your Do is the Do of Light, and the Earth shall bring life to the Shades.

32:23 It's a Navi pasuk in Yeshaya And Rav Lazar explains: Anyone that will engage the light of Torah, Torah Mechayehu, the Torah will enliven such a person. The Chosha'ena Meshtamish Ba'ar Torah, and anyone who does not utilize the light of Torah, he will not be enlivened by Torah. There is an unbelievable thing that happens, and we see it in yeshiva and we see it in seminary. This is paint by number. If you want to take someone who is cut off from everything. Who has no hope and no source of change in their life? They think it's impossible, and they have no value in their life. I want to tell you, it's a secret. It's an amazing secret. Sit down and learn Tiro with a person, and a person changes from Tiro. You do not need to dress up Tiro to be something that it's not. Tiro is Chaim, and if you teach Tiro to a person, it works, and I've seen it with my own eyes. For 16 years I've been in Mevasserah, and for 16 years I've seen young men who come in and they're yavesh, they're dry, and there's nothing going on. And you open up a sefer, and they pound the sefer, and they sit there and they memorize Shacharavataya of Gemara, and you see they come alive.

33:37 There's a capacity, there's chayim in Torah. You don't need to dress it up. It doesn't need to be dynamic or charismatic. They sit there, they learn Mishnayos, they do Shnayim Mikra, they're learning the Gemara, they're learning the Lameds. You see these children; they come alive. It's the most incredible, inspiring thing in the world. So what do you do? It's a very simple equation. Don't ask. This is not. You sit down. You learn Torah with a person. I'm telling you, I saw. We did a week in Mevaser. We did a week where we canceled all shiurim. It's called Hasmoder week. And the boys sit there on their own. They learn 40 blatt of Gemara. Some of them did 80 blatt of Gemara. Forty blatt of Gemara in a week, forty hours. Mahasha to believe at all. Sixty minutes in an hour, no phones. And you see, there's one guy. I'm not going to say his name, but I want to say his name because he's amazing. There's one guy in yeshiva, and I saw him. This boy, you would never in a million years think that this would be this boy. He's walking, pacing back and forth in the beis medrash, muttering to himself, and he's saying shakle v'tariy of the Gemara bal peh. He's making sure that he knows every single word bal peh. And I'm telling you, you saw a dramatic change in one week.

34:44 A dramatic change in one week. I'm not saying he won't have his ups and downs. Everyone does. Everyone will. You saw the way that taira impacts a person. This is what the Gemara says. If you want the person to be revived, if you want the tall of Mashiach that will one day come to those atzamos yaveshos that Yeheskel is prophesizing about You have a bit of it here in this world. Taira has the capacity to mechaya a person. And that's why the Navi Yecheskel says, 'Vayoyim Ereilai an Navi al Atzamos HaEilev, V'Amartelei al Atzamos Hayevishos, Shimu Devar Hashem.' He said to me, 'Prophesize over these bones.' This is what the Navi Yecheskel said: 'Prophesize over these bones and say to them, "Atzamos Hayevishos, you dry bones, Shimu Devar Hashem. Listen to the word of Hashem. You learn Torah with a person, you introduce them to Hashem. Watch as a person comes alive.'

35:35 You want to know what the secret is, Rabbi? How can I come alive? How can I be alive? How can I not be the girl that's just like going through the motions anymore? Crack open a sefer. Crack open a sefer, Shimu Devar Hashem. Crack open a sefer. Your soul is thirsting for the word of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We all need food. None of us could survive without food, but we're starving ourselves. And I don't mean come to She'er. Coming to She'er is nice. Coming to She'er is good halachic entertainment, as my Rabbi Shlita would have said. You come, you crack a few jokes. The girls listen. Some do, some don't. Some are fighting through falling asleep. I admire those girls very much. Nothing. As one girl I'm referring to in particular, it's a beautiful thing. The head bob. I want you to know, to the girl who's head bobbing, I want you to know, is the most special thing to see a girl who's fighting. That you're on the verge of whiplash, but you keep coming back.

36:26 You're lucky, you're girls. You know what the boys have to do? The boys have to catch their yarmulke as it falls. You know what it means? To wake up mid-flight. Catch your yarmulke and snap back into shir. Girls, you have it very easy. I'm not talking about coming to shir. I'm talking about a very simple thing: crack open a sefer. Go over to a girl, ask her for a chavrusa. Open up the chumash. The words of the Torah are machaya person. Shimu devar Hashem. I'm feeling yavesh. I'm feeling dried out. Crack open the sefer. The sefer has life in it. You could put away all the nonsense in your life if you open up a sefer of life. So we're out of time. Let me just finish right quickly. Now we can understand why the Navi Yecheskel is read in Nissan because we know that Reb Hayyim says that in Nissan the ultimate Geula will occur.

37:12 And in Nissan specifically, Tchiasa Meisim will occur And we also know why specifically it falls on Pesach because on Pesach we start davening for the Tal, we start davening for the coming of Mashiach. And now we can understand why generally Tu B'Shvat falls out. This year we have two others, but generally Tu B'Shvat falls out 45 days before Pesach. Why does it fall out 45 days before Pesach for Shkai D'Shnisun? Why does it fall out? Because what happens on Tu B'Shvat? The sap that's in the tree, the sap that you think is gone, all you see is the dried out tree. What starts to happen on Tu B'Shvat? The sap starts to rise. The sap that was already there, it's there. It just needs to be malach lech. It just needs to wet things up a little bit. Needs to loosen it up a little bit.

38:02 You might think to yourself, "I'm a dried out tree" But every one of us has the Tal of Mashiach inside of us. Every one of us has the capacity Shemud Vare Hashem. Every one of us has the capacity to listen to the word of God. And it's not an accident that this parsha of Beshalach Where Klal Yisrael goes around so that it won't see the Asamos Yevoshos is the same week where Tu B'Shevat falls out. If you want to stay away from becoming an atzma yevash, if you want to stay away from being a dried out person, stay away from the leitzanim. And stay with tubahshvat. Believe in the sap that exists within every single one of us. Learn taira and allow that sap to rise up from within yourself. Girls have a wonderful shabbos.