Lag Ba'Omer - From Ashes to Fire

2:26 Aviva gave me the green light. So once Aviva gives me the green light, I'm driving through as fast as possible. So there is a machlokas actually why we celebrate Lag BaOmer. So the Beis Yosef says that the reason is that on Lag BaOmer, Rav Akiva's students stopped dying on that day And so we're celebrating the fact that the Magen was over and that the Talmidim of Rav Akiva stopped dying. The Pritchadash asks the following question on the Beis Yosef. The Pritchadash says that the reason the Talmidim stopped dying is because there were no Talmidim left to die. Rav Kiva had twenty-four thousand talmidim, and they all died. So of course they stopped dying. There was nobody left. That wouldn't be a cause for celebration. Rather, the Pri Chadash explains. He says the reason why we celebrate Lag BaOmer is because on Lag BaOmer, Rav Kiva took the five remaining students: Rav Meir, Rav Yehuda, Rav Yosi, Rav Shimon, and Rav Shimon Bar Yochai, and Rav Lazar ben Shamuah.

3:43 And he began the process of rebuilding Klal Yisrael, and so we're celebrating not the fact that the Magifa ended, but we're celebrating the fact that the Torah is continuing, starting from Lag BaOmer. So these are two very beautiful reasons. It should bother us a little bit if we start to think deeply about these reasons. It should bother us a little bit because it doesn't a hundred percent make sense. Why? Let's look at the pre chadash for a second. The pre chadash says that the reason why the Beis Yosef can't be right is because all twenty four thousand Talmidim of Rav Akiva died. So that's why we shouldn't be celebrating. They all died. But it's not exactly true because even the pre chadash recognizes that five Talmidim were left. So these five talmidim that Rav Kiva rebuilt Torah from were these new talmidim, and as the twenty-four thousand passed away, and then Rav Kiva met Rav Shemba Yochai.

4:45 So where exactly do these five talmidim come from? If all twenty-four thousand talmidim died, how are there five left? It's not exactly obvious what the Pri Chadash is saying over here. It needs to be deeply understood. And even more than that, to understand deeply what the Hezber Hamachlokus is, obviously the Beis Yosef knew the Pri Chadash's kasha. What would the Beis Yosef have responded to the Pri Chadash? We're just celebrating the fact that twenty-four thousand Talmidim died. That's a huge number of Talmidim. To celebrate the fact that it stopped is very strange. What would the Beis Yosef say back to that? So I want to introduce a concept tonight. That I think is deeply relevant to all of us. It's particularly relevant in light of what Lag BaOmer means because of the tragedy in Lag BaOmer five years ago. We had last night in Yeshiva.

5:44 We have such a beautiful minig that we've done for the last three years on Lag BaOmer. You should know that Lag BaOmer five years ago was the first time that I didn't go to Meron for Lag BaOmer. That was the first time. Every single year, I would go to Lag. I would go to Meron on Lag Baomer night with the yeshiva. That year, for whatever reason, I was just exhausted. I didn't go. I woke up in the morning. I'll never forget. I had hundreds of messages from guys, from parents. Everybody was scrambling to try to figure out what was going on. I woke up to the messages. I myself didn't know what was going on. Baruch Hashem, one by one, all the Talmidim were accounted for, and the yeshiva even took back boys from other yeshivas that did that. They came on their own, so they came on our buses and we got them back. In fact, many years ago, I was invited to be a scholar in residence in Los Angeles. One of the people that paid for the scholar in residence said, 'I'm paying for the scholar in residence because you don't know this. My son was in a different yeshiva, but Mevaseret was the one that took him back to Yerushalayim. Hakar Satov.'

6:50 That you like got my son out of Meron that night. I'm sponsoring your scholar in residence, which I didn't even know happened. It was a terrible day as the news rolled in of the tragedy of what had happened and the enormity of what had happened. It was such a cognitive dissonance of Lag Baomer, especially in Eretz Israel. I don't really remember so much Lag Baomer in America. Maybe it's changed. In Eretz Yisrael, Lag BaOmer, the country is on fire. I was driving last night with my son on the side of the highway, like you just see fire after fire, massive maduras. I like everything here is Lag BaOmer. So to have that joy. And then to have that destruction, b'vavasachas, it made no sense to us. As the day rolled on, news came in that there was a boy from Yeshivat Shalvim who was missing and unaccounted for.

7:52 This young man, his name was Donny Morris. It was later found out that Donny Morris was killed in Meron. Donny Morris obviously had very close friends in Chalvim. They were his classmates. They were in the same year. They were very close. Some of Donny's closest friends were in Mevaseret. They grew up together. They were in camp together. I went that Shabbos. If you recall, Lag Bomer was Thursday night. Friday, I told my wife. I said, "I have to go to yeshiva for Shabbos." There's just no way the yeshiva could. I have to be with them. My wife stayed home. I went to yeshiva for Shabbos. One of the strangest Shabbosos of my life. Sitting there on Friday afternoon. Talking to these boys who don't know what's with their friend. Is he alive? Is he not alive? The news came in. We had honestly heard beforehand the news that he wasn't alive, so I was trying to figure out how to negotiate that. By the way, they don't teach you that in rabbi school. When you're going through your learning, Rambam's and Tzivosin, and they don't teach you how to deal with the enormity of these tragedies because nobody can. There's no textbook for these things.

9:02 And that Shabbos was so challenging. One of the young men in our yeshiva, who I loved dearly, mamish like a son. He was actually in the pile, and he was pulled out from the pile. There's a picture. There's a famous picture from Myron of all these black shoes. They were pulling people out of the pile, and people's shoes were being left behind. There's a picture of all these black shoes and one yellow pair of high top sneakers. That yellow pair of high top sneakers belonged to a Mivaserah boy. I held his hand that Shabbos morning as he benched Gomel. Because he literally was inches, moments away from being killed himself. It was an unbelievable moment. In the aftermath, the levaya of Donny was something you can't imagine what it was like. Every yeshiva went; we all went to Shalvim. The hespedim were so exceptionally powerful. Every parent came back from that levaya. We all went and we were hugging our children and telling them we love them.

10:13 I'm sorry for crying. It's so it's so it's still today. It's right here in my heart. When Mr. Morris, who I've now become very close with, actually when it's a privilege to call him a friend When Mr. Morris spoke And he spoke about walking to school with his son. And he walked him. He said, "Let's walk you one last time together." To go bury his son. When he said those words, it was like a flood of tears. One of the most powerful Hasbaim I've ever heard in my entire life. How do we hold space to have Lag Baomer the way we have it today, knowing what happened five years ago? Danny's little brother Akiva has been in Mevaseret and our yeshiva for the last three years. And so, for the last three years, Mevaseret and Shalvim, we do a joint Lag BaOmer event in memory of Dany Maris. He learned in Shalvim, his brothers in Mevaseret, so we do the event in Mevaseret And it is stunning and gorgeous. Aviva Barry, I'm going to share with you the videos later And you can share them with the group. You should see the singing, the dancing, and the boys, the achdos together. It's absolutely incredible.

11:36 It's so difficult to be able to hold the complexity of these emotions at once. It's so absolutely. How do we hold this level of simcha, vlag baemer, and how do we also hold the tragedy? And I don't just mean vlag baemer. How do we hold the tragedy of everything that's going on in the world today? How does a yid live today? How do we live? That's the kasha. So I want to share with you a tire that I think will For me, it's very meaningful. I hope it'll be meaningful to you as well. There's a machlokes whether or not there's a fiftieth level of tuma. I think we always grew up knowing that there's a fiftieth level of tuma because we all learned about it by the Pesach Seder, right? If Klal Yisrael had been there for one more minute, we would have fallen into the 50th level of tuma, and everything would have been wiped out. Everything would have been destroyed, and that would have been everything lost. Therefore, Hakadosh Baruch Hu had to take us out right away in a speedy way, because otherwise everything would have been lost. So I grew up knowing that there's a 50th level of tuma.

12:46 The truth is, it's a little bit more complicated than that. It's actually a machlekes in Kabbalah. There are different shittas regarding whether a 50th level of tuma actually exists. So we're going to need to analyze that machlekes. Does a fiftieth level of tuma exist or not? In a very similar way, we have the exact opposite question. But if you think deeply, you'll see it's the same exact question. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world There was a kasha. If Hashem is infinite and Hashem is everywhere, then where are we? How does Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so to speak, create us? If everything is him, how does he create us? So the answer to this question is called tzimtzum. That Hashem pulls Himself back To create space for something else. And again, we have a machleikus in Kabbalah when we speak about tzimtzum. Does tzimtzum mean kipshuto, that Hashem actually literally pulled Himself back, and there is a space where Hashem isn't?

13:53 Or is Simsem Lav Kipshuto? It can't literally mean that Hashem pulls Himself back because Hashem is everywhere. This machlokes in Kabbalah became a famous machlokes between the Vilna Gaon and the Balshamtof. The Vilna Gaon held Simsem Kipshuto that Hashem actually pulls Himself back. The Balshamtof said he took the school of thought. Hashem is everywhere. There's no space where Hashem isn't, and so even in the place where it appears that Hashem pulled Himself back, He didn't actually pull Himself back. So if you think about it, it's like a very similar type of machlekas. Is there a fiftieth level of the talmum? Okay, so I need to fix this. Is there a place where there's like total devastation, total obliteration? In a similar way, it's like is there a space where Hashem isn't? So I want to share with you the answer of the Lashem. Lashem was, of course, Rav Yishev's grandfather. It was an unbelievable makobal.

14:44 He taught us. How to take these two shitas and put them together? How these two things that appear to be polar opposites are actually really one. And he answers as follows. This is very deep. He says this. I'm going to use my language for it first, and then I'll use Leshem's language. Imagine that you have an addict who hits rock bottom. In order for him to actually change, he needs to hit rock bottom. We're going to call rock bottom the 50th level of tuma. In other words, he needs to go to a space of absolute destruction in order for him to grow. If it's not a space of absolute destruction, he won't grow. But something happens when an addict hits rock bottom, meaning when you actually get to that space of total destruction. What we learn in that space specifically is there's an irreducible essence that can never be destroyed.

15:50 Everything fell apart, and in that space is the flowering. Think about a seed that has to totally lose every aspect of its being in order for it to become a flower. The acorn needs to completely decompose in order for it to become the oak tree. It's decomposition. It's totally destroyed. But there's an irreducible kernel of essence, from which everything flowers. It's like the luz bone, right? The luz bone of a human being, right? Which is where ultimately tchiasa mesim comes from, right? There's a bone in our body that is indestructible. Everything else is destroyed, including this luz bone. It appears to be totally destroyed, but there's one. Microscopic little space, and from that everything flourishes. The Leshem says like this: the secret of the fiftieth level of Tuma is that it does exist And when you enter it, what you learn is that it doesn't exist.

16:56 In other words, there is a place of complete destruction where there is no hope whatsoever. And in that space of no hope is exactly where we find out that there's always hope. But you can't discover that there's always hope until you go to the place where there's absolutely no hope left. Which is a remarkable thing to think about. That a person needs to lose everything to find out that it's impossible to lose everything. Think about it like Kriyas Yamsuf. We're standing at the precipice of the Yamsuf. The Egyptian army is coming from one direction. The Yamsuf is on the other side. It is impossible. It is impossible. The show's over. There's nothing left to do. And in that space of impossible, what do we find out? It's always possible. Creating Yamzuf is going to happen. There's no such thing as impossible. But you have to go into the space of impossible to find out that there's really no such thing as impossible. So what happens? The sea splits. Unbelievable. Now we're walking through the Yamzuf, and what happens? The Egyptians follow us. So even within our space of like whoa, there's no such thing as impossible. It's always possible. Now we see all hope is lost because they were able to follow us into the miracle. And then what happens?

18:20 And then the Egyptians are destroyed specifically from within that place of hopelessness. We there's the rebirth of hope that comes from hopelessness. So there's a secret in our lives. We think we're heading down. Into this abyss where everything is lost, and actually we're falling upwards because as we head down into this abyss, into this place of absolute devastation, it turns out that that's the place of the greatest possible flowering. In a very similar fashion, this is exactly what happens by creation itself. In order for us to exist, there needs to be a space where Hashem isn't. Because if Hashem was there, we would never have free choice. Existence would just be transparent godliness. We would look at existence and see Hashem. In order for Hashem to say, "I'm going to create a world," there needs to be a place where Hashem says, "I don't exist."

19:23 And so we enter into that space, and what do we find out? That even in that space where Hashem absolutely doesn't exist, he exists. So there's no place that's devoid of Hashem. It's not possible to have a place that's devoid of Hashem. And so both shitas the Leshem says are true. So there's a space where Hashem mamish doesn't exist. And in that space Hashem is there also. The fiftieth level of Tuma, it really exists. But once you're there, you find out that that's actually a catapult for growth, which is why so often. What we see is rock bottom is the best possible place for building a foundation. I see that Fromi wrote here, and this rock bottom can happen multiple times in one's life. That's true. Every time the vessel is too small to hold the light that is coming, it perfectly said, at Mamish perfectly said. I see that you're holding in the world of Cleveland Chasidus. So there's a, it's true because like you hit one rock bottom

20:21 And that becomes the next place for growth, and then the light is too strong. Okay, but I think we need to fix this. The light is too big for the next vessel, and it keeps this galgal keeps going. It's like you have to keep going down, going up, going down, going up, and then down again. It's the only way to grow. But we grow not because things are like we want growth to be on an upward trajectory, and that's not the nature of growth. The nature of growth is to enter into the devastation, and then from that devastation is the explosion of becoming. That's the way growth must happen. It's the nature of growth. Let's take a look at what Lag Ba'omer is. Let's take a look at the Beis Yosef. What exactly is the Beis Yosef saying? The twenty four thousand Talmidim of Rav Akiva stopped dying, says the Pri Chadash. They stopped dying because there was nobody left. What precisely is the Beis Yosef saying?

21:07 We hit the bottom. The celebration is that we hit the bottom. They stopped dying. That's the end of it. They stopped dying. The Pri Chadash is now giving us the other side. Of the Beis Yosef, and in that space of total devastation, there was a Nakuda, there was a kernel, there was a luzbone, so to speak, of these five Talmidim. In other words, fundamentally, everything was wiped out. The twenty-four thousand Talmidim of Rav Kiva died. These five Talmidim were the essence of the essence that cannot be destroyed. So when you look at Rav Shmuel Chayyim, when you look at Rav Meir, when you look at Rav Yosi, when you look at Rav Yehuda. When you look at Rav Elazar ben Shamuah, these five tzaddikim represented the essence, the great essence of all the twenty four thousand. The externals were all the seed had completely decomposed.

22:04 What was the godless of Rav Akiva? Rav Akiva understood that, despite the fact that everything was lost and everything was hopeless. That was only on an external level. That was only on the level of the seed, not the level of the essence of the seed that then flourishes to become whatever it is that's meant to become. Whereas we would look at it and see absolute destruction, the godless of Rava Kiva is that he saw through to the essence, and he said the essence has not been lost. Externally, everything decomposed. This is going to be the great flowering now. That's always the way that Rava Kiva sees it. That's why Rava Kiva, the famous Gemara, at the end of Makos, everybody's crying when they see the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, and Rava Kiva is laughing. It's totally inappropriate to laugh at a funeral. What is Rava Kiva laughing at? You want to say that because one day the Beis Hamikdash would be rebuilt, it's appropriate for Rava Kiva to be laughing? It doesn't make any sense. What do you mean it's appropriate for Rava Kiva to be laughing? Beis Rosh Hashanah. One day when the Beis Hamikdash will be rebuilt.

23:05 Rava Kiva will laugh. But in the meantime, why is he laughing? Right now we're holding by devastation, so the response of the other Abanim was more appropriate than Rivkah's. The tarot is that you can only laugh if you're not looking at it in a linear fashion. The way we look at it, we look and we go, okay, so there's devastation, crying, and there's rebuilding, laughter. That's not the way Rivkah sees the world. Rivkah understands that there's one movement here, not two separate movements. The seed decomposing is the tree becoming. That's why he's laughing. He's not experiencing the same reality. Everybody else is watching the Talmidim of Rav Kiva pass away, and they're like, "This is devastating." Rav Kiva understands this process has to happen in order for there to be a flourishing. The secret of Klal Yisrael in these final moments before Mashiach is As we look at the devastation.

24:05 We understand that it's not devastation. It's the unfolding of a reality, and it requires taking down some of the structure that has currently held us in this space in order for it to grow to its next level. It's how we have October seventh and Simchas Torah bevasachas. It's how we can commemorate the terrible tragedy of five years ago. And also be in this space of dancing and singing. We can do it all at once because we're complex enough to be able to hold these two emotions because we understand that in their essence they're not conflicting. They're conflicting on an outside level, but on an inside level they're not conflicting. Today we went to Har Azesim. Danni Marosalvasham was buried on Har Azesim. So we went. Some chaver from the yeshiva, some chaver from Shalvim. Some friends of the Marases, some rebbeim from the various yeshivas. We all went to the kever today for the yard side of Dani.

25:08 So we're on Harazesim And I'm looking at this like bifurcated reality. On the one hand I'm in Harazesim. On the other hand, I drove through. It was the first time I ever did this. Don't tell my mother. It's the first time. Forty five years old. I'm still afraid of her. I'm still sneaking a little bit. Just don't tell her. For the first time in my life, I drove to East Jerusalem. I don't really like to drive through East Jerusalem. It's not exactly a safe neighborhood. People that look like me, if they're wearing a, the truth is, I look very much like the people that are walking around over there. The yarmulke, I think, gives it away. If I wore a kaffiyeh, maybe it'd be safer. But I'm driving through East Jerusalem because I had to go to another levaya afterwards. So I'm driving through a neighborhood that's really unsafe for Jews.

25:59 And then I come to Har Azesim, and the biggest tzaddikim in history. It's unbelievable. Har Azesim is like everywhere you turn, more and more tzaddikim are buried in Har Azesim. And I'm standing on Har Azesim, and you know where the paraduma was done on Har Azesim, and the whole avoda of the Yom Kippur, the sir la azazel and sir la Hashem went right over Har Azesim. It's an unbelievable space. And if you're looking at Har Abayis, so what you see, because it's a totally different angle than if you're by the Kotel. If you're by the Kotel, you don't really appreciate what your Shuliam looks like. Your Shuliam really can only be seen from above. So when you go to Har Azesim, you're looking at your Shuliam from the other angle. It's a totally different angle. And on the one hand, if you look to your left You see your Shuliam is being rebuilt.

26:57 The scaffolding, the cranes, everywhere you look in your Shalayim is being rebuilt. It is so beautiful to see. And as you like, it's literally every step of the way is scaffolding and cranes. And then as you move closer and closer, you see that's your Shalayim, that's the old city, and then you see on the Makom HaMikdash. There's a there's there's a mosque. Like it's this wild duality, like. Where are we in the world? It's very hard to synthesize these two opposite movements until you realize it's not two opposite movements. Every structure has to fall away in order for that essence to come out. Rabbi Nachman writes that the biggest avoda in the times of Mashiach is emuna. You're going to have to go beyond logic in the times of Mashiach. Because in the times of Mashiach It's got to be the essence. It's not going to be any of our levushim.

28:03 We're not going to be able to have the intellectual control, so to speak. There's a certain control that we get from understanding things. Everything makes sense. Everything is in its proper categories, right? This is not again. It's important. Of course, we should engage our minds. Of course, we should engage our hearts to serve our Kadosh Baruch Hu. I'm not Chaz VaShalom diminishing a yid's intellectual or emotional avoda, but both of those things are just expressions of the essence. They're not the neshama itself. The greatest expression of the neshama itself is emuna Emuna that goes beyond logic, before logic. It's not limited to anything logical. And in these moments where scaffolding is falling away. Some people are getting swept away in the tides of the scaffolding falling away, and they're saying, 'Well, I'm just not going to be a part of this when the scaffolding falls away.' But it's interesting to see that most people are not having that reaction. Most people, again, I don't know how it works in the Orthodox world, but when you have a question like that, you know, you know, you can ask me.

29:13 Outside of the Orthodox world, there was this tremendous resurgence of the Jewish neshama. I don't know if any of you had the opportunity to see it. People who were working in the world of Kiruv, it was an it was like all of a sudden everybody was interested in coming to a Shabbat dinner, everybody wanted to learn more. The engagement, the numbers went through the roof. Why? Because the neshamah was coming out. The neshamah was coming out. It was a moment of total devastation. Two things are true. The moment of total devastation is also the moment of absolute rebirth. And this is the secret of Lag Baomer. This is the secret of Rosh Hashanah. That's why Rosh Hashanah. Why do we light a madura? Why do we light a big fire? So I once heard, we light yardside candles. The candle, Mer Hashem Nishmas Adam. We light a candle. That's the neshama. For Rosh Hashanah, who was like the biggest neshama, we have to mamish light bonfires. I like that concept. I like that concept that the whole tyra of Rosh Hashanah is the neshama. It's just the Yidden dancing around the neshama.

30:20 Something about connecting to that tzaddik, and I think that movement also expresses itself in another dimension of our Yiddishkeit that we see is coming on the scene in a major way today, which is pniyus hatayra. When I say pniyus hatayra, I just want to be absolutely clear what I mean, because for some reason, when you say the words pniyus hatayra, people get very nervous. When I say pnimius ha'tyra, the inner essence of tyra, I don't mean chasidus. Chasidus is something personally that I'm deeply moved by. But it doesn't matter if it's Chasidus or if it's the Gra or if it's the Maral or if it's the Ramchal. All of these things are just fluid sentences. All of these are to be combined into one sentence. All of these things are just movement towards the essence. There's always the guf and there's the neshama. Even within tyra itself, there's guf and neshama.

31:12 Chas v'shalom. Again, I have to say these things because otherwise people go crazy and they think that what are you saying? They'll put words in my mouth that I never said. Of course, the goof is vital and it's critical. Of course, we must learn the goof Torah. Chas v'shalom for anybody to say that we shouldn't learn the goof Torah. All of the classic halacha, Gemara, Mishnayis, all of those things, most are absolutely critical. But what's Paramount today is people are yearning for neshama of Torah. They're learning. They're yearning for the Torah of Rav Shmuel Yochai. What exactly is the Torah of Shmuel Yochai? What does it mean that people are studying Zayar today? They're studying the inner essence. The reason why our generation and we see all the scaffolding folding away. It's like we're being pushed into the essence. It's like you have no choice today but to confront the essence. We're not satisfied as a generation. Maybe there are individuals, but as a generation, we're not satisfied with just the gof. We yearn in an unusual way for the neshama of Taira.

32:25 It's because we're being conditioned to not be afraid of the scaffolding falling away. That we see this unbelievable resurgence. There's two types of people. There's people that are focusing on Yeridus Hadoris, and every word out of their mouth is Yeridus Hadoris. Every word out of their mouth is how everything is going bad and there's no hope. And then there's people that are like, this is a Dor Mitzuyon. This is the most unbelievable generation. I can tell you exactly what Tyra those people are learning. The reason they're speaking that way, they're speaking that way because they're not afraid of the seed breaking open, because they know what comes out after that. It's true, even within the classical structure today of Yiddishkeit, things are shifting. Again, when I say falling away, I don't mean Chassidishalom that we shouldn't be learning Gemara and that we shouldn't be going to davening and that we shouldn't be keeping halacha. Of course, all of those things are fundamentally essential, not even a question.

33:28 But there's a movement in a very major way today. It always comes from the kids first, right? That's what's meant to happen. That's what happens when all the things fall away. The twenty four thousand talmidim of Avakiva died, but the five talmidim are the ones that renew taira. They're bringing a whole new dimension of taira into the world. That taira was the taira of Rishem Bayochai. And so The big takeaway for us. As we're in these moments of counting down towards Matan Torah, and we're getting closer and closer to Bez Hashem Tishbev, which is going to be a Yomtov this year, and we're already in this movement of redemption from Pesach and Purim and everything that's going on in the world right now, and we're looking at this Let's be honest, how many of us knew about the market, I think 很好 How many of us six months ago were like, 'Yeah, I mean the Straits of Hormuz, yeah, it's fundamental. Otherwise, how are you going to get your oil to the entire world?' None of us knew the Straits of Hormuz, right? We didn't really. Maybe you saw it once. Maybe you heard about it a little bit. None of us really knew, right? Now we're watching the entire structure of the entire world has shifted.

34:44 Trump is not at war. I don't know what you're talking about. There's a ceasefire. I'm not at war. You're blockading the Strait of Hormuz, right? The whole thing is a game. It's the Mamshapuram Dikha story. The whole thing is an unbelievable game. All the structures are falling apart. For us, that's exciting. Because that means there's a flowering occurring. And so Mrs. Reese pointed out, and I was going to mention this also. Trump called on everyone to keep Shabbos this week in celebration of what was 250th. Something like that. The president of the United States is saying, "No, you didn't keep Shabbos." Wild. In our lives, we could never have imagined such a thing. And there's a movement in the world. If you're not paying attention to it, I don't know what you're paying attention to. So for us, the takeaway has to be to live from a deeper place of essence.

35:42 That in our own personal lives, as things are falling away, we are always and forever in the art of becoming. On a global level, everything that's happening in history now is this movement towards becoming. The avoidance of Lag Baomer, which again, by us in Eretz Yisrael, it already passed. You still have a couple of hours left to tap into the iris of Lag Baomer to really focus on not getting caught up in the trap of paying attention to the chitzonius that's shifting. But to deeply connect to the process that's unfolding, and to give space both within our personal lives and in a general sense. Show up in new ways from the essence, from that space of emuna, to try to connect to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Let's pause to take some questions, comments, and reactions. Or not, but we don't. I guess it was so clear we don't have to have any questions. I just assumed Barry was going to unmute herself within two seconds.

36:49 I'm. I'm just. I'm. Inside out right now. That's what. Because it's so. First of all, thank you. First of all, thank you, Ashram, that I get to be here today. I'm the only one on the screen. It's just you and I because I put just you. And nobody's listening to the recording either. So don't even worry about it, Barry. We can just say whatever we want. I'm so grateful because I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't fully be in and just I wanted so much to be here. Just to show my face for my mother. Like that we're Look at what's happening here. But Hashem knew otherwise, and I just want to say something very quickly that So much of what you're saying is so interesting. It so reflects the neshama of who my mother was. She was a very, very holy soul. She was so be, so ahead of her time, like. I didn't even get it. Like as a child, and you don't appreciate things, and you don't understand it, and you're almost like Like, what is this?

37:59 Yes. And I just, what he just reflected, and she did not have an easy life. She didn't. Just on a personal note, just thank you for the gift of giving me this gift of number one of Vlad Baomir of the fiftieth, and of you know how. And speaking about the last time, of what you what we see is now what we're really seeing. It's something so much more. It's so much deeper. And what seemingly could look like darkness is really the light. And it's just a reminder to all of us that we're in the midst of the story, and we're part of that story. And the bracha that we get to be part of this story, and that it should give us a sense of nechama. Of being part of all of this and playing that part And Hashem has the end goal, and we get to be a part of it. So thank you, and again, just be for my mother and be for Neshama. Amen. Amen. Amen.