Bo - Living In Paralyzing Darkness

2:42 So imagine you were walking, the darkness set in, and you're like, you know, for three days. That's a crazy thing. Our question for tonight is What was the paralyzing property of makos chasidim? How could something be so dark that it becomes tangible, thick, physical that I think I can't actually move? Does that make sense? Very simple question. But we're see we're going to see it's going to take us to a very deep place. There are three tens. There are three sets of ten. There are ten utterances of creation. There are ten makos And there are the aseres hadibros. You're familiar with these three sets? The ten utterances of creation. The ten makos And the aseres hadibros. They actually all work together, and you will see how they work together. The first utterance of creation. Is Bereshis bara lochem as Hashemayim ve'Esaras. The second is Vayehi or Let there be light.

4:03 These ten utterances of creation were all jumbled in Mitzrayim. Every one of them became in some way like deformed. Like something about them fell apart. And the ten makos are there to rectify. The ten utterances of creation. And then what happens when they're rectified? When they're rectified, those ten utterances become the Asheras Adibros. Does this make sense so far? So we have the ten utterances of creation. We have the ten Makos that are going to rectify. They're going to fix the ten utterances as they broke down in Mitzrayim, and they're going to turn them into the Asheras Adibros. So far, so good. If you're excavating something, if you're digging down So you're going to find the reverse order.

5:06 If you're going to fix Berenices, and Berenices is in the very beginning, then when are you actually going to rectify it? At the very end. You're only going to rectify it last, because you've got to work your way up. So which makah will rectify bereshis baralokim as a Shamayim vesaritz? You'll see, it makes obvious sense. Makas b'choros. Do you start seeing how the symmetry works here? So the tenth makah is makas b'choros. The killing of the firstborn, because that corresponds to the rectification of bereshis baralokim as a Shamayim vesaritz. Which means. Which one rectified vayihi or choshech? See how it makes sense? Because it makes sense to think about that if vayihi or got messed up, it's going to be choshech that's going to actually rectify it. When bereshis baralokim asa Shamayim ve'asa aretz becomes one of the asaras hadibros, which one does it become?

6:18 Think. It should be the Anochi Yashamalukecha. Very good. It should be the first one because we're back again to the original order. So it's anochi. What's the second one? What does vayehi correspond to? Lo yelocha, lo kimachirim. Don't have any avodah zarah. So what have we learned so far tonight? I know it's a little complicated, but it's not that complicated. The ten utterances of creation in Mitzrayim were what? They were messed up. So what did Hashem do? He brought ten makos to fix the ten utterances. It's going to go in reverse order because it's an excavation. So choshech corresponds to vayihior. When choshech rectifies vayihior, what does vayihior become? Thou shalt not serve any graven images. Thou shalt not have any other gods before thee. So. Just to sum up Our question was: How does choshek paralyze? What have we learned so far? Three sets of ten; they all go together. Vayihi or choshek and lo yielacha are all the same thing. So far, so good. Good.

7:37 When Hashem said bereshis This is where it's going to get a little bit complicated. Stay with me. When Hashem said bereshis, He created form. Without matter. That's what the word 'berecious' means. Berecious means form without. I'm sorry, matter without form. Did I say form without matter? I meant the opposite. He created matter without form. What should the second utterance of creation have been? If you create matter without form, what's the thing you would naturally do next? You would create form. What wouldn't you do? You wouldn't create light. Why? Okay, so I think the main point is that light must be a precondition for form. Because that's like installing lights in the building before the building is built. It makes no sense. There's a problem, in other words, with the order of creation. Probably the one that we never considered. When we were learning Chumash, the first thing we learned is God creates baracious matter without form. The second thing should be that God actually takes the earth and gives it specific dimensions. But that's not what He does. What does He do? He makes light. What does that mean? It means that light must be a precondition for form.

8:58 Because if light was not a precondition for form, when would light have come after form? I'll say it again. Sometimes you got to spell it out, and then you got to spell it out again, and you have to spell it out one more time. Can we spell it out again? If light meant light the way that we understand it, then God would have created matter without form, and then what would have been the next step? Form. And then what would have been step three? Light. But if God creates matter without form and then light and then form, what does that tell you? You can't have form without light. Which means that light must mean something different than we think it means. I'll put it on the board to make sure you get it. Can I erase this part? You got this part. I'm going to erase the top.

9:50 The order of creation should be. Let's go for three. The order of creation should be. Step one, matter without form. Step two, what would we have thought? Form. Form. But instead, what is it? Light. Light. Good. You're coming along with me. And then step three is form. What does that tell you about light? Light must not be this, because if light was just simply illumination, then when would God have created it? After form. If God creates light here, that means it must come before form. It's a precondition for form. You can't have form without light, which means light must not mean what we think light is. And if light means something different, then what else must mean something different? Darkness. Do you see how this goes? Shall I walk you through this year from beginning to end so far to make sure everyone's got me? Let's go. We'll do like a Rav Gav style micro machines.

10:52 End of the Sheir style thing in the beginning of the Sheir. It goes like this. In the beginning of the Sheir, we asked. Choshach has two properties. Number one, it creates paralysis. Number two, it creates a lack of sight. I understand why it creates a lack of sight. I don't understand why it creates a lack of paralysis. We have to figure out why Choshach creates a lack of paralysis. What do we say? There's three sets of ten. The three sets of ten are the Asaros, they are the Asarim Haymaros, the ten utterances of creation, the ten Makos, and the Asaros Hadibros. We said they all go together. The eser, the asar amaros in Mitzrayim were messed up. What fixed the asar amaros? The eser makos. Each one corresponds in reverse order because it's an excavation process. So three things went together. Vayihir was rectified by makaschoshek, which became loi elachal lo kemachirim. Then we said, what is baracious? Baracious means it's matter without form. What should step two have been?

11:47 Form. Instead, what was step two? And step three is: What does that tell you about light? Light is a prerequisite for form, which means light doesn't mean illumination. What must light mean? We don't know. But if light means something else, what also means something else? Darkness. So you see how it's coming along? So I told you, it's heavy stuff. Heavy stuff. Rav Lapiansky is unbelievable. His tir is just absolutely unbelievable. Listen what Shlomo HaMelech says in Kohelus. This line is an unbelievable line, but most of us miss it because we don't learn Kohelus. But even if we did learn Kohelus, most of us would miss it because we have a hard time learning Kohelus. But even if we were learning Kohelus deeply, we would probably not pay attention to a lack of symmetry in the following pasuk. See if you can chop the lack of symmetry. I'll say it slowly. See if you can lock in and follow the lack of symmetry. Hachacham einav berosha The wise man, his eyes are in his head. V'haksil and the fool b'choshech holech Walks in the darkness.

13:05 Did you catch the asymmetry? You did not. Shall I say it again? I will say it again. One more time. Hachacham, if you're wise, it's better to be at the top. Where are your eyes? In your head. If you're a seal, if you're a fool, you walk in the darkness. Let's look at the symmetry of the pasuk. On one end we have a chacham, on the other hand we have a seal, a fool. Does that make sense? Is that symmetrical? That's pretty good. Hachacham, if you're wise, einav barosha. What does that mean? Sight. And if you're a fool, what should I do? I mean, what should Shlomo HaMelech said, if he's keeping it all symmetrical? A lack of sight. But what does Shlomoh Melech say? He doesn't speak about a lack of sight. He says, 'Vaxil b'choshech holech walks in the darkness.' Do you see the difference? The wise person it speaks about sight. The foolish person it speaks about movement.

14:01 Isn't that interesting? You see how Shlomoh Melech set it up there. Shlomoh Melech was brilliant. He was telling us something very deep about the nature of light and darkness. What we think is asymmetrical is actually symmetrical. Watch this move. This is what Shlomo Amelch is teaching us. Light doesn't mean illumination. Choshek doesn't mean the absence of light. Light means orientation. Darkness means disorientation. Light means I know where I'm headed. Darkness means I have no purpose. Do you hear how light and darkness now are not about function words? Light is about purpose. It's about telling you what your destination is, where you're going. Choshech is the lack of purpose. Watch this. You ready for this? Bereshis Baralakimus of Shamayim Vess Arts. What does Hashem create? We're gonna do this again until everyone's doing it with me. I need classroom participation. They taught me that when I was doing my masters in Touro.

15:04 I was doing a masters in special ed Which I use every day. Classroom participation. Let's do it together. Here we go. Revving it up. Baruch Shas Baruch Hashem, is matter without form. Light comes second because it is the prerequisite for form. Why is light a prerequisite for form? Because light is the purpose. And you can't have form without purpose. If I wanted to make a vacuum cleaner, the first thing I need to know is that I'm making a vacuum cleaner. If I go ahead and I put just random parts together, that thing will never become the thing that it needs to become, unless what do I first do? I have to know what this thing is. So imagine I'm sitting in a warehouse. I've got tons of raw material all over the place. That's breshus. If I just take those raw materials and haphazardly put them together, what do I have? Nothing.

16:13 But if I'm sitting in that warehouse and I go, I want to build a vacuum cleaner. Then I'm going to take specific parts and put them together in specific ways in order to build a vacuum cleaner. So why does Hakadosh Baruch Hu first create matter without form, and then he creates light, and then he creates form? Because if you don't have life, you don't know what you're doing. If you don't have a clear plan, you can't make progress. You need to define your goals before you start working on the project. This is why, when a person feels disoriented in their yiddishkeit, and they're like, "I have no idea where I'm going with any of this." What is it like to have those questions, those existential questions in Judaism, where you're like, "I don't even know anything about Judaism." What exactly is Olam Haba? What is the meaning of this word? What is the meaning of this sentence? What exactly is the purpose of this text? What are we doing any of this? Why are you asking those questions? Because really, what are you saying? I see this thing, this form, this earth, this world.

17:06 I have no idea. How to engage with it? Because I'm lacking in light. I'm living in the darkness. I have no idea what to do. I have no idea where to go because I have no sense of the vision of what it is that Hashem is trying to accomplish. Amen. Does that make sense? Yes. So light means I know the purpose. I know the tachlis. I know the direction that I'm heading. Choshech means the absence of purpose, disorientation. I have no idea where any of this is headed. Does that make sense? Can we go a little deeper now? I feel like I have about eighty percent of you, but I like the twenty percent. Should I do it one more time, real quickly? We don't need it. The eighty percent feel like they're good. Is the eighty percent sensitive to the twenty percent? Yes. That is good, midos.

18:11 Let's go a little bit deeper. The Rabbeinu Bechaya says that choshech corresponds to chachma. Choshech corresponds to chachma, which means that in Egypt, in Mitzrayim, the wisdom became inaccessible. Which makes sense. Why would their Aben Ubachai say that? Because what did we just say? What is light? Light is purpose. Purpose, by its definition, is intelligent. If you see a door and you think the door just magically appeared, you're probably a fool, because a door just doesn't magically appear. How do you know that door didn't magically appear? Because it operates with a very specific purpose. What's the specific purpose of the door? It closes. It locks. It keeps somebody in. It keeps somebody out. The nature of a door. It has a particular form for a particular purpose, which means there was an intelligence in creating it. Any time you see anything that has a particular function or form It's likely not haphazard. Imagine if I took ink. Imagine if I told you, craziest thing, girls, this morning in yeshiva, I just took all this ink, I threw it at paper, and just an entire seder got written. What would you say? It's a lie. Why would you say that it's a lie?

19:33 Because if words were cogent on a paper, and one word followed the next, and they all together made sentences and paragraphs that communicated ideas, you would say there was an intelligent person that was writing those things. So in Choshek What does the Rabbeinu Bechaya say? In Choshek, it was a revelation of the lack of wisdom, the lack of light that was in Mitzrayim. Rashi says something unbelievable. Rashi says, where wisdom comes from? And this is not obvious. Wisdom comes from learning from other people. Halomayd mikol adam. Do you ever stop and think about where you learned life from? You think you're all so smart, right? You remember when you were like a teenager and you were fourteen years old and you figured everything out and you just knew better than everybody. How did you learn anything in your life? Do you know how you learned?

20:30 You watched others very carefully. You watched your parents. You watched your friends. You watched your teachers. You watched your camp counselors. You watched your peers. Everything that you learned in your life. You know how you learned it. You learned it from watching other people. By the way, that's the value of having really good role models. Because if you have good role models, what do you get to do? You get to go like that girl's life looks good. I want to follow in that girl's footsteps. So everything we learned from others. So knowing these two things is an unbelievable thing. What was that first property of choshech? The first one we spoke about was paralysis. The second one we spoke about was light. They weren't able to see each other. How does that dovetail? There you go. That look right there, the one where you drop your jaw and you go, "Oh, that's what I'm looking for." How does it work together? Listen carefully. This is an amazing thing.

21:23 If I can't see you How can I possibly learn anything? If I can't possibly learn anything, how do I know what destination I'm meant to travel in my life? Do you see how these things go together now? What's the first step of Makaschoshech? You can't see lack of wisdom. What can't you see? You can't see your friend. Where do you learn from? You learn from others. If I can't learn from others, then I have no idea where I'm going. If I have no idea where I'm going, what am I? Paralyzed. Everything starts to fit in. Rashi and the Rabbeinu Bachaya here are brilliant. In Mitzrayim, Mitzrayim was a purposeless existence because they didn't learn from each other. We'll discuss why they didn't. Because they didn't learn from each other, the purpose of Mitzrayim was for nothing. All of Mitzrayim existed just for the sake of existing.

22:18 The purpose of Mitzrayim is just to exist. And by the way, if you think about it, what was Paro afraid of? We're going to run out of food, and if we run out of food, what's going to happen? We're going to die. And what happens if Klal Yisrael gets too big? If Klal Yisrael gets too big and they join our enemies from the outside, then what's going to happen? We're going to die. Does Paro ever say? And if we die Then our mission is not going to be fulfilled. Of course not, because Paro has no mission. The purpose of Mitzrayim is just to exist, not to exist for a reason. Contrast that with the way a Jew lives their life. If Klal Yisrael Chas v'Shalom were to be wiped out, the problem is not that we would be wiped out. The problem is that the mission that we are created for would not be fulfilled.

23:04 We don't exist in this world as Jews just for the sake of existing. We exist for a purpose that's larger than ourselves, which is the single most inspiring thing you can learn in your life. If you really want real inspiration, inspiration that will last for a lifetime, that won't go up and won't go down, it's a very simple equation. What do I exist for? The more that we tell kids you exist for yourself, the more miserable kids are, because nobody wants to exist just for the sake of existing. We all want to exist for a purpose that's larger than ourselves. That's the natural human condition in Mitzrayim, because wisdom was locked up. Remember, what was the thing that got jumbled up in Mitzrayim was Va'yehi Or. They were lacking in wisdom. So what did they do? They said, 'I'm not learning from anybody else. I have no direction. I have no purpose. I exist just for the sake of existing. And if you exist just for the sake of existing, what's going to be your number one fear? What happens if I don't exist?' Or what happens if somebody comes along and says you exist for a purpose and you're obligated to exist for that purpose?

24:08 That's an existential threat. So if Klal Yisrael exists and this what Paro says, this the teeth guy, this the death, this the big punchline, girls, you ready for it? Here it comes. What is Paro afraid of? Paro is afraid that the enemy from the outside, who's the enemy from the outside, is purpose, is going to join up with Klal Yisrael. And all of Egyptian society will crumble. Why? Because the whole Yisod of Paro is I exist, and that is it. I don't exist for any reason. I exist to do nothing. And Klal Yisrael is a threat to that, because if you tell someone who exists for nothing you exist for a purpose, their entire life gets messed up. I have a friend, by the way, who's completely off the derech. A guy that we went to yeshiva with. Lives in the Czech Republic. One of my closest friends in the world.

25:01 He doesn't believe in God. He doesn't believe in purpose. This is our fundamental argument. Whenever we get together, we come back to this fundamental argument. I say, this thing is intelligent. This world is clearly created on purpose because everything about this world leads me to believe that everything works in a symmetrical way. Obviously, there's purpose. He goes, I don't believe in purpose. I said, Do you realize how miserable your life will be? And at that point in the conversation, he always cries and he says, "Yes, my life is miserable, but there's nothing I can do about it. I just don't believe in anything outside of myself. I don't believe in a higher being. I don't believe in a God that created this world for a purpose. The threat to Paro. This is why there's no wisdom in Mitzrayim. Even though Mitzrayim was a very intelligent society where they built massive buildings, what did they build massive buildings for? Just for a legacy?" That's why they built the pyramids.

25:56 And by the way, were they successful? Absolutely, they were successful. Because today people go to Mitzrayim to visit the pyramids, and what do they talk about? The pyramids that the pharaohs built. So they were very successful at doing what? Existing forever. In Judaism, we're not interested if you know who we are. We're interested in the mission being fulfilled. There's a humility that comes with being a Jew. The humility is it's not about me. It's about the mission. Is a beautiful story, a beautiful, beautiful story with the Alter of Slabodka. Girls know who the Alter of Slabodka was. Slabodka was the great yeshiva of Mussar in Europe. There were two great yeshivas of Mussar: Slabodka and Novardok. Slabodka was all about Godless Adam, and Novardok was also all about how little a person was. In Slabodka, it was all about Godless Adam. And Slabodka produced an enormous amount of gadol Torah. Rav Aaron Cutler went to Slabodka. Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky went to Slabodka. Rav Ruderman went to Slabodka. Rav Victor Miller went to Slabodka. All of the Mir came from Rav Laser Yudofinkel, who was the son of the Alter of Slabodka. The amount of Tifer that came out from Slabodka was unbelievable. And today in America, the yeshivas that exist, Tifer Yedas, Neir Yisrael Lakewood, it all came from Slabodka.

27:07 It's unbelievable to think about what the Alter built. How did he build it? What was his secret? Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky and Rav Aaron Kotler, Zeichutatik Levrach, were at a wedding. And a young man came over to them, and he was two great Rashi Yeshiva, two great Gedaliyadar, in front of him. So he wanted to ask them what it was like to learn by the Alter of Slabodka. So he asked them, 'How come the Alter of Slabodka never wrote a sefer?' " And Rav aaron kotler and Rav Yaakov kamenetsky started laughing. Write a sefer. And Rav Aaron answered this young man. The Alter of Slabodka never wanted anyone to know that he existed. That was the secret success of Slabodka. People misunderstand Slabodka. They think Slabodka is all about Godless Adam. Look how awesome you are. So it must create unbelievable ego. It's exactly the opposite. In the Alter of Slabodka, look how awesome you are means be humble to the mission for which you were created. Don't make it about yourself. It's not interesting who you are. It's like you're barely even there. Your entire purpose in life is just to fulfill this great cosmic purpose for which you were created.

28:18 Is it any wonder that he created so many gedolim? He lived not to have anyone pay attention to his own legacy, but merely to fulfill the purpose for which he was created. In Mitzrayim, what was it all about? Who's going to remember me after I've died in 50 years from now, in 100 years from now, in 150 years from now, in 200 years from now? The truth is. As much as Mitzrayim succeeded, they also failed. Because at the end of the day, does it really matter that they existed? I might not know who my great grandfather was, but I'll tell you what I do know about him: he got me here. I would not be here if it wasn't for him. And I know that the reason my great grandfather existed was to fulfill the mission that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created this world for. That was passed down generation to generation, and up until me. And my parents are balei chova. Your grandparents, your great grandparents weren't even from.

29:15 These people were deeply Jewish, even though they weren't observant. My grandmother became a balaschuva when she was 70 years old, and at her 90th birthday party, her big sister, who lived until she was 100 years old, Aunt Ruthie, on video, Aunt Ruthie is crying, and she said, "Sarah, they were best friends. How cool is that? By the way, that your sister is your best friend." And you're a couple years older than your sister, and you're together in your 90s playing mahjong. They went to Las Vegas together, and they both had their walkers. And then somebody took a picture of them. I think it was my cousin Ellie who took a picture of them, and it got put on the family chat. So that's the picture in the family chat: my grandmother and my aunt, with their walkers. How cool is that? That they were best friends.

30:02 They called each other every single day. They loved each other so much. My grandmother, my aunt, couldn't be my grandmother's 90th birthday, but she spoke in the matzeket and the video montage that they made, and she said Sarah. Our parents are so proud of you. You became prum. You did the right thing. You keep Shabbos. You keep kosher. You understand? These people weren't observant, but they were deeply Jewish. That was the mila of the last generation. They didn't have philosophical arguments with you. They knew the right thing to do. My grandmother didn't become prum because she went to Eishat Torah and somebody proved to her that there was a God. My grandmother became prum because she was a Jew. And our family has always lived for a purpose beyond ourselves. You girls are sitting on the top of the mountain, thinking that you climbed here. You didn't climb here. You were born here.

30:49 All of your parents, all of your grandparents, your great grandparents, all the way back for thousands of years, have been building you up into this moment. Because they had the wisdom to learn from others what direction they should take in their lives. That's how you got to this place. So the condition for movement is vision. You don't actually go anywhere unless you know where it is that you want to go. So what is darkness? The purpose of darkness is to give you free choice. Because if you live in the light You'll never make a mistake, right? If it's too much light, what happens? If you have too much light, then you can't make any wrong choice. If you can't make the wrong choice, what's the value of making the right choice? I'll share with you a sharp line. It's not impressive to stay married if there's no parsha of divorce.

31:53 It's impressive to stay married because you could get divorced, but you say I'm going to work through this and I'm going to remain loyal to you. That's impressive. In Christianity, where they have no notion of divorce. It's like okay, shkayach. So you stayed married. That's not a big deal. Staying married is not a big deal. If you have no other option, shkayach. Staying married when you have the option to leave is impressive. Because you're fighting through the darkness to stay with each other. That doesn't mean that you never get divorced. It means you get divorced when it's appropriate, not just because things got hard. Right? So follow the logic. You ready for this? Choshech is created to give us free choice. Too much choshech paralyzes us because I have no vision. Too much light paralyzes me because I can't make a bad choice. And if I can't make a bad choice, what's the value of making a good one?

32:48 In Mitzrayim They dialed down the light. So there was too much darkness. In Olam Habah, what will we have? We'll have all the light. No more free choice. What do we have right now? Right now, we live. In this space of light and darkness, which gives us this unbelievable ability to make the right choice. If you make the wrong choice, what does that mean? It just means now you have an opportunity to make the right choice and do tshuva. Okay. How does this all fit into avodah zarah? What is avodah zarah at its core? Avodah zarah, at its core, is no vision and no movement. Avodah zarah at its core is no vision and no movement. What do we mean by that? You know how if you meet a guy—not you—but you know how if you meet a guy—not you—but you know how if you meet a guy, and he could be very good-looking until he opens his mouth.

34:01 Terrible. Or the opposite. You meet a guy and you're like But then he opens his mouth and he's kind and he's humble and he's thoughtful and he's giving and he's sincere and he's authentic and all of a sudden he becomes like Maybe. And given enough time, it's even like I don't know what happened. We were just platonic friends. And now he's Ross. Nah, you shouldn't get that joke. That joke is from the '90s. There's no reason for you to know that joke. Ziggy and I know that joke. You have no right to know that joke. It's okay. We're old friends. That joke is for me. That's an old man joke. You don't understand because you're young. You don't understand the nachas of making a joke that nobody gets. It's best for us. That's why fathers make the worst jokes at their Shabbos tables. It doesn't matter that you hate it. We love it, and the fact that you hate it makes it more delicious for us. And by the way, if you meet a man on a date and he likes corny Abba jokes, he's going to be a great dad.

35:27 Why is it that we can show up to meet someone and just see the surface? And in the beginning, it's either yes or no. But then all of a sudden, when you see a little bit deeper, the surface starts to change. That's what it means to lead a godly life. To lead a godly life is to have the vision to see beneath the veneer of the surface. To lead an idolatrous life means all I see is the surface. This world, as it's currently constituted, is an insanely idolatrous world. Because all of the content that's curated for you on social media is meant just to show you the veneer of somebody's existence, not what's behind that existence. That's why when you go to the party, what do you have to do? Shake the camera. You know why you have to shake the camera? Because the party's not actually that good. But when I post it on my TikTok with those brain rot words, yeah.

36:21 Because you don't want to say the party's chopped cheese You want to say that the party was lit. Somebody told me that they listened to the shirum in the car, and they were listening with their 16-year-old son. And I kept using the brain rot words, and the kid in the back, who's not listening to the shir at all, is like, "Holy smokes, this rabbi speaks like we do?" I'm learning new words every day. I learned chuz today. That's a bad word. What is that? I'm not doing Urban Dictionary with you. If you're not cool enough to know what I know, then maybe you should hang out in Mivaseret all day and learn these words. Seems like you do anyway. I promise you, it's not worth it. In real life, outside of TikTok, nobody intelligent speaks this way. When you're doom scrolling through Instagram and you're just seeing the veneer of anybody else's life, I went out with my wife. This is my ADHD moment. The whole last five minutes were my ADHD moment. I went out with my wife yesterday to Cafe Rimond.

37:41 I got a halloumi salad. My wife got the toast salad. The girls sitting next to us also got salads. There was one fundamental difference in our experience. My wife and I, when we got our salads, did this crazy thing where we ate our salads. The girls next to us did a show with their salads, taking pictures from all the different angles to post on their Instagram, so that everybody could know that they got a halloumi salad. Apparently, this is very important today, because if I have a halloumi salad and you don't know that I've had a halloumi salad. Then how are you going to be jealous of my life that's chock full of halloumi salads? But it's not true. Her life is not full of halloumi salads and sunsets at the beach. There was this whole five hours in between where her life was miserable. But it will never actually show up on the curated content Instagram that actually tells you what life is like.

38:40 But girls, if you actually live this way, think about how messed up that is. If all you do in life is live this existence without any substance behind it. And you show up to a date that way. Who's going to want to marry somebody like that? Or worse, who is going to marry somebody like that? Because if they're not going to marry somebody like that, that makes sense. Because who wants to marry just this veneer of existence? And somebody who's willing to marry somebody like that is the most shallow person in the world. None of us actually want this thing we're creating, and actually today you don't need the shmoos from me because I hear the shmoos from the guys all the time. The guys like, it's so stupid. So if it's so stupid, stop participating in it. Because it actually does something. If you do this for a long enough time, you will actually desensitize yourself from living a life of substance. And then people show up on a date and they go, I don't know why it's not working out. I can give you a hint.

39:33 There's no vulnerability. There's nothing behind the surface. It's just like I have to be this perfect, basic girl, like just like this thing. And I have no personality. I just do what everybody else tells me to do because this way I show up perfect enough for somebody that I won't chas v'shalom offend or think that maybe I'm different in some way. If you're not different in some way, you're not interesting in some way. It's a tragedy to live your life in an idolatrous way because it means that you have no vision. You look at the sun and you think the sun is a god because you have no capacity to look at a thing and ask, what's the thing behind the thing? What's the thing that created all of these things? If you don't look behind the thing to think about what created all of these things, you have no idea to ask yourself the question, and where is all of this headed? This means avodah zarah is about no sight; you can't see past an actual thing, and no vision of where you're going in your life, no purpose, no movement. You're paralyzed because if you only look at the surface of something, then it has no purpose.

40:34 It's actually when I look deeply at the thing that I know what to do with it. Imagine somebody who walks in. Let's go back to the vacuum cleaner, Moshe. Imagine somebody walks into your house, they see a vacuum cleaner there, and they go, 'Cool baseball bat,' and they just like pick up the vacuum cleaner and start to like swing it around your room. You're like, 'What are you doing?' Why are you swinging a vacuum cleaner like a baseball bat? Did you not take two seconds to see that it has a plug? And if it has a plug, maybe plug it into the wall. And if you plug it into the wall, maybe it has an on switch. It has an on switch and it starts going. Maybe you should ask yourself why it is going. Then you start to move it around and you realize it has suction. Then you say to yourself vacuum cleaner. But how many of us are going through life doing exactly the opposite? How many of us are going through life just looking at a thing, treating it like a thing, and not looking at the actual person that's behind it? How many of us are looking at people and just objectifying people? By the way, how crazy is it that Hollywood's like, no, we have to protect the dignity of women?

41:35 Why? Because you're the ones that destroyed it. Now you have to step up to the plate. Is there anyone in the world that's done a better job at objectifying women than Hollywood? In Judaism, we always teach to look behind the thing. Look deeper. There's a person behind there. It's gross when you meet people that are. And I'm going to use this word, and I mean it, but I don't want to say it as extreme as the original language. We've created real world pornography. Real world pornography, because when you actually, when two people meet, they don't actually meet each other. They just put on this show. That's what it is. There's no intimacy. There's nothing behind. There's nothing. There's no value. There's no connection. It's just two people that are seeing like, can we pretend to be the right person with each other? That's horrific. That's tragic.

42:24 That's an avodah zarah. That's an idolatrous type of life. So we see now how it all goes together. Baruch Shas Baruch Okim. How Kolish Baruch who first creates matter without form? Then what does he do? He creates purpose. Then what does he do? He actually creates the thing itself, the form. Why? Because it has to have purpose. You have to see beyond the ten utterances. What falls in Mitzrayim? What falls in Mitzrayim is vayihi or. They have no orientation of their lives because they can't see each other. They can't learn how to be. They don't have any actual purpose to what they're doing. So what does Makas Choshech do? Makas Choshech says it slaps them in the face with their own hand. It says if you want to live a life where there's no wisdom. Where you don't actually see each other, where there's no purpose, your only purpose is to exist, then you're going to be stuck. You're not going to see each other, and you're not going to be able to move. Of course, when it's rectified, what does it become?

43:14 Thou shall not worship any foreign gods. Because if you worship a foreign god, you're just looking at the veneer of existence. You're not actually looking at Purpose itself. Every single day in Kriyat Shema, what do we say in Berachos Kriyat Shema? If Kriyat Shema is about purpose, what do we say beforehand? Yotzer or Uvar Echosach. Before we get to Shema, we have to look at light and darkness. What is our orientation in life, and then we can be mekabelal on ourselves, all Malchus Shamayim. This is what the Chiddush HaRim says: it is the whole Yisod of Avram Avinu. What did Avram Avinu see? He saw a bira dolekas. He saw a palace. What does the word dolekes mean? On fire? Some people say it means illuminated. You know what the Chiddush HaRim says? To be Avram Avinu means doleik is going in a certain direction.

44:10 That's what doleik actually means. Doleik means heading in a certain direction. When Avram Avinu looked at the world, he saw a palace that was illuminated, but it had a purpose. We have a choice. And it's a serious choice. You either get this or you don't get it. You can live your life just amassing material things. I don't want to be mozi laza on the Jewish community. I don't want to say anything not nice. But I do want, for a moment, just to talk about the level of materialism that our community is confronting today. We have more stuff today than ever before. The Jewish community is wealthy in ways we can't possibly imagine. Gourmet glot today is a palace. When I go shopping in Yesh in Eretz Yisrael, it's nice. It used to be like that, ten years ago, fifteen years ago, before all the Americans came. Yesh was like you had pigeons flying around in Yesh. When I moved to Eretz Yisrael and you were picking out your fruit, you were looking not only to see if the fruit was ripe, but how many pigeons pooped on your fruit.

45:17 When I go to Gourmet Glat, it's like a rainforest. They have that mist coming down on all of your fruit, and birds chirping in the back. You're walking through and picking fruit off of a vine. You're like walking in Gan Eden like Adam and Chava, and then you get to the meat section and it's like they're shefting cows in front of you, and it's like the most tender choice meats, Wagyu grade A, and I'm sitting there like in the counter in Yesh going, you have three. We don't have tenderloin. We have three. It's just not the same experience. And then our houses and our cars and our vacations. It's like if you don't go away during Yeshiva week. How pathetic of you. And where you go on Yeshiva week, right? Nebuch. Some of us had kids in Israel, so we had to come to Israel to visit. We weren't able to go to Guatemala for Yeshiva week.

46:14 We weren't able to go to Venezuela because Trump took it over. The danger of all this materialism. It's not just the fact that we have a lot of stuff. Jews have had a lot of stuff before. Yudanassi was the wealthiest person in the entire world, and at the time of his death, he raised his hand and said, "I didn't even lift one pinky, not in the service of Hashem." The danger of materialism is not the amount of stuff that we have. We can always use the stuff that we have for a particular purpose to serve Hashem. But are we? Are we? That's a really powerful question. Are we? If we take an honest look at our community today Are we in this state of Mitzrayim Where we're just looking at the physical material existence, just having stuff for no particular purpose, or is what we have meant to be used? I'll finish with this.

47:11 A very successful businessman told me last year when I asked him, "How do I teach the boys in the vassar about tzedakah?" " I asked him, "How do I teach the boys in the vassar about tzedakah?" He's a wealthy businessman. He had just written a sizable check for the yeshiva, but I wasn't interested in the check. I was interested in the check, but I wasn't interested in the check. This guy was a man who clearly knew how to give tzedakah. He did it with grace. He did it with dignity. I didn't walk out feeling like a tzedakah collector. You walk out feeling like, a person of value. He was a special person. I said, "How do I teach the boys about tzedakah?" And he looked at me and he said It's not your money. It's Hashem's money. It's not your money, and you're going to have to give din v'cheshbon on every dollar that you spend Because if you spend that dollar for selfish purposes, then you lost the nature of that dollar. The dollar was given to you to serve Hashem. So of course, I'm going to use whatever I need to for myself." But I want to give it to others because that's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu made me—the custodian of His money. That is a Torah hashkafa.

48:11 Stom to go ahead and burn through the money that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given us just for the sake of pleasure. There's no value in that. There's a reason that we're starting to see the negative impact of materialism in our community. There's a reason that we're seeing people turn to alcohol, turn to drugs, marriages are falling apart, relationships between parents and children are falling apart. This is what happens when you take away purpose and you just live with materialism. People live in beautiful houses and they're miserable. So it's a tremendous opportunity as we consider Makaschoshek to ask ourselves: Are we living in the light or are we living in the darkness? Girls have a beautiful shabbos.