Emor - Complete Submission to Hashem

2:07 Either the guy had no money and he couldn't pay his bills, so he sold himself into slavery, or alternatively, if he stole and he couldn't pay back the money, then he could become a slave in order to pay back his debt. An eved ivri. How long is he an eved for? Only until shmita, maximum. What happens if he re-ups and says, "I want to continue to be a slave"? When does he go free? Then he goes free by yovel. That's the process with the piercing of the ear. Then he goes free by yovel. That's the difference between an eved ivri and an eved kanani. Girls, can an eved ivri who's owned by a kohen eat truma? No. Only an eved kanani. Who's owned by a Cohen can eat truma. So obviously we have to ask ourselves two questions. The first question, and this is based on a sicha from the Labavitch Rebbe. I didn't make any of this up. For those Labavitches in the room I present with you. We fly our flags proudly.

3:07 Absolutely. It's the Yechi. It's not. I'm not into that. But that's the joke. So we have two questions here. Question number one is, what's the difference between an Eved Kenani and an Eved Ivri? Rashi says, if you look carefully, an Eved Kenani shekunui legufo. He's been acquired even in respect to his body. Since his body is owned by the Jewish Kohain master. He can eat truma and not the eved ivri. What's the difference between an eved kanani and an eved ivri? That an eved kanani can eat truma from a kohen and an eved ivri cannot. And the second question, and this is obvious for all of us in the room because we've been learning together all year. The second question is What's the difference to us? Every single halacha in the Torah has to be relevant to every single Jew. There's no such thing as a halacha that's not relevant to every single Jew, and not only every single Jew. But every single Jew throughout all of history, girls, do we have truma today?

4:11 No. Do we have slaves today? Anybody here own an eved kenani? I was a little nervous. I wanted to see which one of you was going to raise your hand. Well done. Perfectly done. There's always that girl that's like, I own ten. Very not politically correct. So what's the relevancy of this halacha to us today? That an eved kenani can eat the truma of a kohen, but not an evitivri. Like, what does that have to do with us? In order to answer this question I want to. Before I read the Gemara inside, I want to ask you: fill in the blank. It is usher for us to eat food in this world before we make a bracha, because otherwise, it's. Remember, we all grew up like that. We all grew up with the knowledge that the reason we make a bracha is because otherwise it's stealing. If that's the case, what's the purpose of making a bracha?

5:12 Asking permission. It's a very simple equation. This is the way all of us grew up. We're going to see in a second, completely not true, but we all grew up with the understanding it's stealing from Hashem. So we make a bracha so that He gives us permission so that it's not stealing. That's the way we grew up. Everybody here has heard that. Now let's look at what Chazal actually say. It's the Gemara and Brachas Lamadheyam and Aleph. Gemara and Brachas thirty-five A. I'm quoting the Gemara inside. I'm quoting two pieces of the Gemara. The first one: Aser lo leAdam sheyehana mina Olam Azeh below Bracha. It's Aser for a person to get Hanat to get pleasure from Olam Azeh from this world without a Bracha. Vichol Hanene mina Olam Azeh below Bracha, and anybody who does get Hana from this physical world without making a bracha We would have thought the Gemara would have said kiilu ganav. It's like they stole. It's not what the Gemara says. The Gemara says maal.

6:12 Maal. What does maal mean? This is not talking about bris mila. This is maal with an ayin. Maal means as follows. Maal is if something is consecrated to be used in the beis hamikdash. It's not allowed to be used for your personal purposes anymore. If something is mukdash, if something is designated, if it's consecrated for use in the base of mukdash, you can't use it for yourself. So it's a very interesting thing. The Gemara doesn't say what we all grew up thinking it says. The Gemara says if you were nene from olam azeh If you got gratification from this world, you ate something in this world And you didn't make a bracha. It's what it's not Geneva. You violated what's called the Isser of Meila. You took a consecrated object and you used it for yourself. The Gemara continues, "Kilu Nene Mikad Sheishamayim." It's like your Nene from what? It's like you're getting Hanaf from Kad Sheishamayim, things that were designated for use by Shamayim, by the heavens, by Hashem.

7:23 It's not Geneva. It's not Geneva. But here's the difference. Remember, we said a moment ago, girls. If it was Geneva, then what would the purpose of the bracha be? Permission. If it's Meila If you're using an item that was designated for Kodesh Shamayim, it was meant to be used for the purposes of Hashem, and you don't make a bracha. What exactly does the bracha do? What exactly does the bracha do? It doesn't really appear to make any sense because The bracha Girls, can the bracha make something not kudshes shamayim? Of course not. If it's kudshes shamayim, if it's designated to be used in the service of Hashem, then that's all it can be used for. You can't say that the bracha makes it not kudshes shamayim. What's the obvious question here? What's the purpose of a bracha, girls? Anyone eat today? You made brachas. Did you stop and ask yourself?

8:27 What was I just doing? Up until this sicha from the Rebbe, we all knew what we were doing. We're asking permission from Hashem, but that's not really what the Gemara says. We're not asking for permission from Hashem because it's not stealing. It's not ganeva. What is it really? It's meila. You're misappropriating an item that was meant to be used in the service of Hashem. If it's meant to be used in the service of Hashem, that's all it is. A bracha doesn't help. It doesn't make it not kadesh shamayim. We're human beings. How could we eat anything in this world? So here the Rebbe gives an unbelievable answer An answer that I never heard before in my life, an incredible answer, and really, I just learned this morning. I'm sharing it with you tonight. It's a game changer of an idea. And the truth is, even though I didn't plan for this to be our last year, it's a good way to end off.

9:19 When we make a bracha, what do we say? Let's say shachal Baruchatoh Hashem. Elokeenu Melech Olam. What are we saying when we say Elokeenu Melech Olam? We're recognizing that Hashem is our King. Elokeenu is our God. Melech Olam is the leader of the world. Says the Rebbe as follows: an unbelievable idea based on the pasuk in this parsha, the idea that we literally just discussed. He says, "Girls, a Cohen is allowed to give his truma to who? To the Eved Keni, right?" Why? Because the Eved Kenani is his servant. What changes when we make a bracha? Not the food. What changes? We change. When a Jew declares Baruch Atah Hashem Elokeinu Melech HaOlam Shachol Nied Bevaro, we became like an Eved Kenani to Hashem. In this case, Hashem would be the kohen. So imagine this the way Chazal think about it. It's an unbelievable way of thinking about it. All the food in the world is called k'dshe shamayim. All the food in the world is designated for who? It's designated for Hashem. So then, how could we eat it? The food doesn't change when we make a bracha. We're becoming like the Eved Kanani.

10:38 Hashem is the kohen in this case, and we're becoming like the Eved Kanani. Really, can we eat Hashem's food? No. We cannot. Because we are a tzar, we're not kohanim. We have no right to eat Hashem's food. It's designated for kadosh shamayim. It's not for us. But when a Jew says alokeinu melech haolam, what's he saying? I'm Hashem's servant. And if I'm Hashem's servant, and not just an eved ivri, an eved kanani, now I can eat the food. Girls, this is a game changer of an idea. Because it changes the way that we see the physical world, and it changes the way that we relate to Hashem, is an amazing story about the holy getzadik Ravely Melech of Legends. Girls, you went to Poland this year, did you? Did you go to his kever? Ravely Melech of Legends was a great tzaddik. Many stories are told about Ravely Melech of Legends and his brother Zusha.

11:36 I'm sure they told you many of these stories when you were in Poland. But there's a story, a beautiful story about the Rebbe of Eli Melech Melejensk that I want to share with you. There was a young Tamchachim A person who was a well-known Tamchachim. And he came to Eli Melech Melejensk and he wanted to learn. But he had a specific question that he wanted to ask. He said to Eli Melech with humility He said Eli Melech, you're a very big Tamchachim. You know a tremendous amount of Torah, Gemara, Mishnayos, Tanach, Kabbalah, Chassidus. But being honest, I also know a tremendous amount. So why is it that you've achieved levels of tzedkus, you've achieved levels of righteousness that I just haven't achieved? I look at you, and it's clear that you're in a completely different stratosphere than the stratosphere that I'm in. How did you attain such great heights? It can't just be through learning Torah, because in terms of Torah, maybe we know the same amount. So how is it that you got here and I only got here?

12:39 So ravely melech. Thought about it And he turned to this young talmudachem and he asked Tell me, when you eat an apple, do you make a bracha? So the talmudachem was shocked by that. Of course I make a bracha. Who doesn't make a bracha on their food? Am I an animal? Of course I make a bracha. So R' Elimelech said, "That's the difference between you and me." He said, "When you eat an apple" You make a bracha. He said, "When I want to make a bracha, I eat an apple." It's a completely different way of seeing it. Just think about the depth of that story. It's a very, very deep story. It's deceptively simple. Because you think it's just like a sharp line But really, Riveli Melech was saying something about a worldview that we have to cultivate, or that we should strive to cultivate. I would say the way that Riveli Melech was saying it is Do you eat to live?

13:38 Or do you live to eat? He's saying, I want to make a bracha. Because I want to align myself with Hashem. I want to be Hashem's servant in this world. I want to dedicate my life to Hashem. An apple is the opportunity that I have to declare Elokeinu Melech HaOlam. And when you want to eat an apple, I make a bracha so that I could eat the apple. But what's your focus? Where's your passion? Where's your heart? Where have you put yourself? Now this is I know again I didn't expect this to be our last year But the truth of the matter is, if you think about this particular year. I see that it's after the Shema that it happened to be that I listened to a year this morning where they said over this seichel from the Rebbe. I said, oh, that would be a beautiful seichel to tell over the girls and Sharfman's tonight. I see that their Banisham had a better plan than me because usually I give a different year at the end of the year. But I see it's really a very good year to end with because if you think about it, in some level, what have we been trying to do this year?

14:36 We're trying to recalibrate the way we see the world. We're asking ourselves a question: To whom do I belong? The Gemara says rishayim are bereshus libam. Rishayim live in the domain of their own desires. They're slaves to their own desires. You look around in the world today; that's what it is. It's addiction everywhere you look. Rishayim Bereshus Libam. What do they want? They want the apple. So what do they do? I'll make the bracha, but I want the apple, I want the house, I want the car. Who is all of this olam hazeh for? When they're consuming all of this olam hazeh, who is it for? It's all in the service of themselves. It's all an expression of ego. It's all an expression of arrogance. But it's tzaddik And that's what we're again. We're not trying to beat tzaddikim because we're not ever going to reach that level. But tzaddikim help us orient our life. They help us show which direction we should be moving in. The way that tzaddik sees the world is this world is here for me to become a servant to Hashem. That's what I'm here. I'm here to dedicate my life to Hashem. It's His life; He gave it to me. It belongs to Him, and one day He'll take it back. So I want to align myself with reality. I want to be a servant to Hashem. That's the goal.

15:52 That's what a bracha does. When we engage in olam hazeh, you have to understand we engage in olam hazeh because it changes us. Not because we're just looking to get the olam hazeh for free. Does that make sense? But I want to take this one step further And this to me is a topic that's very near and dear to my heart. I want to share with you girls a trap. It's a trap that I think all of us fall into, including myself. And I'll tell you. I'll start off by telling you about a story that happened last night. Last night, teaching a different seminary, you won't know which one it is because I teach in multiple. A girl came over to me. And I have to tell you, I'm very impressed by this girl. She's really devoted to her Yiddishkeit. She's really working on herself.

16:44 And she expressed a tremendous amount of pain and frustration that she feels like she went back for Pesach, and since she came back, she just can't find that spark. She can't find that love, that inspiration that she was feeling. And she's feeling like she's flatlined in her Judaism. I didn't have time to answer her properly. I don't know if she'll listen to this recording or not. But if she does, this is my real answer that I would want to give her. There's something exceptionally beautiful about serving Hashem with avah and with yira. We want to serve Hashem with love. We want to be in awe of Hashem. That's what avah and yira mean. Why do we want to serve Hashem with avah and yira? Because if we serve Hashem with ava and yira, our service of Hashem is better. What I mean to say is that a husband could be in service of his wife.

17:38 But he just gets the job done. He just does what he needs to do, and the wife might not feel loved by the activity that the husband did. Why not? Because she says, "I know you did it" But where was the love? Where was the awe? Where was the passion? You just did it by rote. You didn't really care. And so the wife says, "I don't feel really loved." Why do we want to serve Hashem with love and fear? When I say fear, I mean awe. Because then the service itself is enhanced. It's a better service of Hashem. But there's a trap. This is the trap. When we serve Hashem with love and awe, with awe and yira It's possible that really we're just serving ourselves. I'll tell you what this looks like. Let's say a girl came to the Benot Torah Institute of Jerusalem, Israel, for the year.

18:37 And she really fell in love with davening. She found her place in davening. Isn't that an amazing thing? She found her place in davening. How beautiful is that? And now let's say six months go by, a year goes by And she doesn't love davening anymore. She's not enjoying it the same way she did when she was here in Sharfman's. So she stops davening, or she davenes, but she davenes very quickly. Who was she serving? Back in the day when she was 'on fire' about her davening, who was she serving? She was serving herself. The litmus test of if we're serving Hashem or serving ourselves is when we're not in the mood. So even though, of course, what's the best way to serve Hashem? What's the highest level? Serve Hashem with ava and yira. But if you serve Hashem with ava and yira, what are you maybe missing?

19:33 It's possible that you'll never even know who you're really serving. You're serving yourself. So a girl could be sitting here again. It's the last year of the year, and she could be saying, "I gained so much this year, and I really grew, and I found ava Hashem and yira Hashem, and I've grown so much." And you have. And I don't want to take away from that on any level But you won't know if it's real until you lose your inspiration. You won't know if you were really serving Hashem until you don't want to serve Hashem. In other words, let's put the following two cases up against each other. You'll tell me whose is the better service of Hashem. You have a girl who comes into daven in the morning, and this girl doesn't just daven in the dorms. She comes downstairs to the Beit Midrash because she wants to daven right here in this beautiful Sharfman's Beit Midrash, and she doesn't come down half asleep. She makes sure that she's awake, and she makes sure that she washes nagelvasser, and she makes sure that she's actually dressed for davening and not doing the half pajama half dressed thing, like that happens in seminaries. She really wants to be mechubad for davening.

20:38 And she comes and she stands. I imagine her standing in the corner right over there. And she's got the sitter scrunched up against her face, and she's holding her elbow. She's gently swaying in the breeze. And every once in a while she looks up and she throws her hands to Shamayim and she rolls her eyes back in her head. From the outside, it looks like an amazing davening. That girl shuffling like she's having a seizure, a beautiful thing. And then there's another girl. She also comes downstairs half asleep. She didn't have her coffee. You know. Some people they're real coffee addicts. You know what it means to be a real coffee addict. A real coffee addict is not somebody who needs coffee. A real coffee addict is somebody that you could see them slowly come alive as they drink their coffee. I'm talking about like you're a human slug.

21:25 And then you just drink the coffee, and you see them just sort of straighten up and come alive. It's like you're filling them up. It's like they're plugged in, like a phone charger. They have their coffee and they come alive. This girl hasn't had a coffee. And she comes into the base right here. She's also sitting. That girl's sitting in that corner, and she's standing and chuckling like she's having a seizure. This girl's in the back corner. She's got a sitter, and she's just mumbling the words. And she's half dressed, and she's not inspired. And the only time that she has kavana in the entire davening is by shir shal yom because she has to remember what day it is. Who had the better davening? It's quite possible. That girl who wasn't in the mood to daven at all But she was a loyal servant to Hashem, and she said, 'Whether I'm in the mood or not is not the point.'

22:12 I'm a servant of Hashem, so I do what needs to be done. That girl who's in the corner shuffling away, unbelievable, beautiful, but we won't know if it's real until she loses her inspiration. Because what happens if in six months from now she loses inspiration, so she stops davening? Then the entire time, what do we know? She wasn't serving Hashem, or she's partially serving Hashem, but who else was she serving? She was serving herself because it's geshmack to daven. It's geshmack to meditate every day. It's geshmack to do yoga. So she had her yoga, she had her meditation. It happened to be with a sitter. She liked the good clash. She liked when Rav Gav would come and he would laugh, and it was so inspiring. But then six months from now, I haven't had cheer with Rav Gav in a while, and all of a sudden the service of Hashem starts to falter. Inspiration is not a relationship.

23:00 If you're serving yourself, you're not in a relationship with Hashem. Listen to the difference between an Eved Kenani and an Eved Ivri. And these are not just terminologies. Everything in the Torah has such incredible depth to it. When you learn the Kabbalah, when you learn the Chassidus, when you learn the Machshava, the philosophy that's behind everything in Judaism, it comes alive because these halachos have meaning to us right now in 2024 to 18-year-old girls in sharfman's. These halachos have tremendous meaning. Listen to the halacha: an eved ivri goes free after six years, or if he chooses to stay, goes free after yovel. You know what that means? He's not completely connected to his master. This is like a Jew who serves Hashem with avah and yira. They serve Hashem as long as they have avah and yira there, but it doesn't last. Eventually, they go free, and maybe they're not servants of Hashem anymore.

23:54 But then there's an eved kanani. An Eved Kenani never goes free. And what was that lashon of Rashi? That beautiful lashon of Rashi. Look at the lashon of Rashi. Kohen ki yikna nefesh, Eved Kenani shekanoi legufo. What does the master own? Everything. He owns his body. You know what an Eved Kenani is? Somebody who serves Hashem with no love. Somebody who serves Hashem with no awe. They show up every day and they put in the work. Some people call those people Jews who just check the box. We call those people Jews who were loyal to Hashem even when they didn't want to be. They're not just checking the box. They're real servants of Hashem. Don't look at those girls that are on fire in their Yiddishkeit and think that they're ahead of you. You don't know who they're serving. Hopefully, they're legitimate. Hopefully, they're authentic. And if they are, then that's an incredibly elevated service of Hashem. But if you're like me And you're like this girl from last night Then a Jew is like the human heartbeat.

25:00 Up and down. Girls, what happens if a heartbeat only goes up? What do we call that? It's a heart attack. The heart beats; it goes up and down. We will go up and down. You're gonna be in wherever you're gonna be this summer. I promise you, you'll have aliyahs and yuridahs. It's part of the system. Are you an eved ivri who goes free after your time in Eretz Yisrael? And she just says, "I'm just leave him. I'm a slave to my desires. This is what I do." Or are you oriented towards being an Eved Kanani? I'm loyal to Hashem. It's not we don't talk this way in 2024. What are the ways they talk to people today? They say we want you to do what you want to do. But that's how you raise a generation of selfish people. Of course, we want you to do what you want to do, but we want your want to be to serve something higher than yourself.

25:55 We want you to be loyal. We want you to show up to work even when you don't want to show up to work. My father was joking around and he said the difference between the kids these days and when I was in business. My father's retired now. He said when we were in business, you spent a career. Maybe you worked for two or three companies. Today, a kid goes into business. He works for two or three companies in the first six years of his career. Because the moment the kid is dissatisfied, what do they do? I think I should move on. And it's transferred over into Yiddishkeit. I don't daven because I don't really find value in davening. This is a common one. I'm not going to do it unless you explain to me why. For the neo philosopher who is in twelfth grade, it sounds like they're yeah, we're very, very sophisticated people. But if you think about it, isn't it just selfish?

26:48 Would you do that in any other relationship? Would you say to your husband, "Explain to me why, and then I'll do it." That sounds nasty. If your husband asks you to do something and you love him Do it, and then ask him, 'What was that about? Why did you want me to do that?' You understand the difference? If some of you girls are probably all Chalv Yisrael. I didn't grow up Chalv Yisrael. You know Hershey Kisses? You know how the Hershey Kisses—they come in that like really like the silver foil and the little string, right? You know how sometimes you open it up and there's a little white dusting on top of the Hershey Kiss. Like a little white powder. It's not mold. It's just a white powder that's there. If somebody hands you a Hershey Kiss and you open up the Hershey Kiss and you see that little white dusting and you think that's anthrax, this person's trying to poison me.

27:41 That means there's something terribly off in the relationship. If somebody hands you a Hershey Kiss and your first thought is anthrax, you're probably in a terrible relationship with that person. If somebody hands you a Hershey kiss, your first thought should be, 'Thank you, it's delicious.' Hashem comes with the Torah. What does He say to us? Here's my Torah. What did every other nation in the world do? Wait, what's in it? Their first thought was anthrax. So Hashem said, 'This is what's in it. It's not for me. It's not for it.' What did? What was the difference? What was the Jewish difference? Hashem came to us with the Torah. What did we say? Said, "Thanks, awesome." We'll take it. What's in it? What's the difference? The difference is we belong to Hashem. If Hashem takes us out of Egypt, what's our response? He took us out of Egypt, and you want to give us something? Great. What are you going to give me? If your husband comes home and he's got a little box, and it's in like a jewelry bag, right? Don't go slow. I need this opened by like the bomb scare people. It's a chefetz chasud. Put that in the middle of the room. We'll back out. I need the robot to come and open it. If the robot needs to come open your jewelry box, it's probably a good time for you to think about ending that marriage.

28:55 It's the same thing in our yiddishkeit. If Hashem asks us to serve Him Whether we're in the mood or not is not the question. Of course, we want to get in the mood, but why? Because it'll make our service more profound. But is our mood dependent, or does our mood make our service dependent on the mood? Just because I'm not in the mood to daven, does that mean we don't daven? Just because I'm not in the mood to do chesed, does that mean we don't do chesed? We challenge ourselves to do more. Now we understand why it's only the Evid Kanani who gets the truma, because only the Evid Kanani is really connected deeply to the master. And the lesson for us is powerful. Are we really connected to Hashem or not? I want to say thank you. I want to end this year by saying thank you to you.

29:47 It's a very special privilege to be in the position that I'm in. To come here and learn Torah with you every single week. And it's not obvious. A Rebbe could be a Rebbe, but unless they have talmidot or talmidim, unless they have people that they can teach, they're just a guy who knows some Torah. You're not a Rebbe until you have talmidim. And every Thursday night Come to Sharfman's, and I get to watch the vicissitudes of the year. The beginning of the year, the middle of the year. Who sits in the back? Who sits on the sides? Who's engaged? Who's locked in? Who's on their phones? The beginning of the year, where the hair is over the ears and the earpods are in, but you turned in the phone, so officially you can get marked here, but you're still playing the Spotify right to your ears. I'm not blind. You know. I'm not out to lunch. The pillars, by the way, represent an excellent opportunity.

30:42 I'm well aware that as I sit here, there are segments of the room that are beyond my capacity to see. You see the beginning of the year. You see the middle of the year, and now you see today. Baruch Hashem. We've tremendous nachas. It's not a waste of time what happens here in Sharfman. We see every year how the girls grow. And I want you to know, it's a privilege to be a part of it. It's a privilege to come. It's a privilege to watch. It's a privilege to teach. It's a privilege to watch the girls here take the information and think about it, work on themselves. It's an amazing privilege. So I want to say thank you. Without you Thursday night would be boring. But we get to come in the spirited combat of the year. So thank you very much for this amazing opportunity. I hope for those of you that are coming back next year, Shana Bet, we'll get to see you. A word that we have no idea what that means. Speaking of Rav Gav, he is here. Girls have a wonderful Shabbos.