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The pasuk says "Va'yihi kol nefesh yotze yerech Yaakov shivim nefesh, the Yosef hayah b'Mitzrayim." Shmos chapter one verse five. All those descended from Yaakov were seventy souls, and Yosef who was in Mitzrayim. So there are obvious questions here. The obvious questions are: first of all, we know this. We just read the whole story that Yosef was in Mitzrayim. And all everybody was in Mitzrayim. So why is Yosef singled out? So listen to what Rashi says. I'm going to read the words of Rashi. In slide The Yosef haya b'Mitzrayim, v'alaihu u'bano v'hayu b'chlal shivim. Obviously, Yosef and his children were included in the seventy souls that came down to Mitzrayim. So why does the Torah specify 'Yosef was in Mitzrayim'? We didn't know that Yosef HaTzaddik was in Mitzrayim. All these parshas that we've been reading, where was Yosef HaTzaddik in Mitzrayim? What's the Torah telling us? This is to teach us the righteousness of Yosef HaTzaddik.
Who is Yosef? Who is Yosef Haraya, son of Aviv? This is Yosef, who was the shepherd. To his father's sheep Who Yosef Shohaya b'Mitzrayim It's Yosef that was in Mitzrayim v'nasam Melech And he became a king, v'aymade b'tzedkai, and he retained his righteousness. So why is Yosef singled out? Rashi explains to teach us something special about Yosef HaTzaddik. He was Yosef HaTzaddik when he was a shepherd. And he was Yosef HaTzaddik when he was a Melech. But there's a question on this. What does Rashi mean exactly? He was a tzaddik here and he was a tzaddik there. Of course That's the Yosef a tzaddik. What does that mean? You Yosef, if you're Yosef a tzaddik, you're Yosef a tzaddik wherever you go. So what is it coming to teach us? So I'm going to share with you soon the answer of Ravolbi, but by way of introduction, and as a final message to you, Shana Bet girls.
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I would like to share with you the following idea. We have to go back to Yaakov Avinu and to Esav. Yaakov Avinu is called Ish Tam Yoshev Ohalim. He is a simple man who dwells in tents. How is Esav Arasha called? Esav arasha is called ish yodeya tsayid. He is a cunning person. Ish Sada, and he's a man of the field. So you'll notice when it comes to Yaakov Avinu, he only has one terminology. He's Ish Tam Yosef v'halam. He's the simple man who dwells in tents, but Esav has two. Esav is number one in Ish Yadayat Zayet. He's cunning. And he's an Ish Sade. He's a man of the fields. Why is it that Yaakov Avinu gets one, and Esav gets two? So I'll share with you a very beautiful idea. Yaakov Avinu was Yaakov Avinu wherever he went. Because no matter where he was ish tam yosef ohalim.
So Yaakov Avinu, before he was chased out of Eretz Yisrael, Eretz Canaan, by Esav He was sitting and learning. First, he learned the Torah of Yitzchak, and then later the Torah of Yeshiva Shem Beever. But when Yaakov Avinu went to the house of Lavan He was still ish tam yosef ohalim, and that he was still drawing from the well springs of the beis medrash. Even though he was working and he was out and he was building up Lavan's flock. You know where his head was. His head was in the base midrash. You'll say, how could his head be in the base midrash if he's running around worrying about the sheep, worrying about the business? The answer is some people are worrying about their business and still their head is in the base midrash. I'll give you an example of what this looks like. When a person goes out to work You have to ask yourself why you're working. And this is relevant for every one of us because probably 99 percent of you are going to go out to work.
And when you go out to work, you could have two different consciousness. You could have the consciousness of I'm going out to work, but this is only a means to an end. For example, why are you working? Okay, so you're working because you want the paycheck. Because you want what the paycheck can do. And what can the paycheck do? The paycheck can pay your mortgage. Now I understand. You're working because you want a house. Is that right? No. You say I'm working because I want the paycheck to pay the mortgage, so that my family can live inside the house. Some people go to work. And the entire time that they're in work, what are they thinking of? They're thinking of their family. Other people go to work. And they're working not for the sake of their family, but for the sake of the work.
And what I mean by that is as follows: It's possible, and I think perhaps this happens more with the men than with the women. It's possible to go out to work and find your self and find your sense of satisfaction and your sense of self from the work. So it could be that a man initially goes into work and why does he go into work? I want the paycheck and why do you want the paycheck to pay the mortgage and to pay the bills and to pay the tuition bills? Why? Because I want to raise a family. But now he gets promoted And he feels good that he got promoted, and his boss says to him, "You're awesome. You're awesome at what you do." Really, in a couple of years, you could be sitting in this chair, and maybe I'll be sitting in the chair upstairs. And the guy starts thinking to himself, "Wow, that'd be great. I go from making a hundred thousand dollars to two hundred thousand dollars. What could I do with that two hundred thousand dollars? I could pay my mortgage. I could pay my bills. I could pay the tuition bills."
But then, what starts to happen? Five years go by, and he gets promoted again. Now it's not about the paycheck anymore. What is it about? Now it's about. When am I going to get my next promotion? When am I going to become president of the company? And he starts to lose balance and he starts to lose focus. And what does that look like? All of a sudden, a couple years ago, when he started off in business, if his boss said, "I need you to stay late at night," he would say, "Stay late at night." But then I'm not going to get to see my children. The whole reason that I'm working is to be able to raise these children. If working means that I don't get to raise these children, then I don't want this job. But now, all of a sudden, he feels gishmak about himself, and he's getting raise after raise and promotion after promotion, and he's taking that vacation, and he's got that big baller house, and he's got that fancy car.
And he's pulling up to places, and people whisper when he walks in the room because now he's a gvir and he's a big baltsuk, and everybody's paying attention to him and giving him the kavod. All of a sudden, he starts to say, "I gotta stay in, but I gotta stay in the office longer, and I gotta work harder, and I gotta make that much more money." And he loses sight of his goals, and now he has two different lives. And he sacrifices one for the other. Yaakov Avinu, his greatness is that he's ishtam Yosef Ahalim. He keeps his focus on the main thing. The main thing is always the main thing. He remembers why am I in the house of Lavan? This is my opportunity to serve Hashem. I served Hashem in the beis medrash, and even when I'm out of the beis medrash, my consciousness is still the beis medrash. I'm ishtam. I'm a simple man. I don't have many parts. One tam means simple. Simple doesn't mean simplistic. Simple means one.
Yaakov Venu says, "I'm ish tam Yosef Vohalem." Wherever I go, I'm one. And then there's people like Esav Arasha, ish yodeyat zayid. They're cunning. It means to be duplicitous. It means to have two, to be ununified, to be imbalanced. And he's also ish sade. You understand? There's two versions of Esav. There's a person that comes home at night, and he's a father. And there's a person who goes into the office, and he's a businessman. Some people go into the office, and all they are is a father. They have to do business in order to be a father. The challenge of today's generation is we're asking people to do so much. Think about what's going to be asked of you girls in the next couple of years, and I'm guaranteeing this is what you'll go through. I hope not, but ninety-nine percent of you will. You're gonna leave.
And you're gonna be thrown into a life that's very different than the one that you have right now. Right now, you wake up in the morning and go to shiurim. You have rakazot, mechanechot Rabeim, shiurim. It's a jam packed day full of inspiration. And then You will leave. And for some of you, if not many of you The structured system that you have here in Talmud Torah will fall away. You will not have your abayim, your mechanchot, your rakazot, your shiurim. You'll have shiurim that you go to. Hopefully, you can be in some sort of system that has some sort of structure. But even if it does, it's not the same. Even if you go to a place where there's learning in the morning and there's college in the afternoon, you still have multiple parts of your day. Some of you will go out to work. You'll find jobs.
And you'll start to feel a sense of distance from Yerushalayim Eirei Kodesh. You might feel a certain duality, duplicitousness, a certain cunning, a lack of tzmimus, a lack of simplicity. All of a sudden, there's two me's. There's the me that I was in Toma Devora, stigging, growth-oriented, focused, and now there's me. I've left the seminary bubble. Have come down to earth. Give her six months, then you can start dating her. She's still nuts. She's still nuts from the seminary bubble. You've heard people speak this way. And she comes and she leaves Tzomid Devora, and she gets over time. She's still yearning and craving that inspiration, Paruch Hashem. She's a good girl. She's still looking for any moment that she can chaptiru. She's looking to grab it, but the reality is life doesn't have the same structure here. So you start to feel like a fraud And you start to now question everything that you did for all the time that you were in Tzomah Devora.
And it sounds like this. When I was in Sem, say that I was flying high, I didn't know reality. Now that I'm back and I know reality, now I've calmed down a little bit. But say that it was cute back then. Or alternatively, it could be like this. When I was in Tormer Devora, I had an unbelievable opportunity to live a life that had no dualities. For sure, I was here in Yerushalayim Eretz Yisroel, and everything was glad. But now that I've left, I have a new opportunity to continue to drink from the well springs of what I learned in Tormer Devora and to apply it to multiple sections of my life. You hear the difference between these two stories. One girl grows cynical of the lessons that she learned in elementary school, middle school, high school, and sem. It was unrealistic. My rabbis fed me whatever they fed me. It was cute at the time. I was all inspired, but now it's real life. Real life means doing real things. You understand?
What do you want me to do? Beseder. They fed me a line. Beseder. I've calmed down now. Or those lessons that I learned then. All of those lessons were for now. I am drawing those lessons into new parts of my life. There is a sefer that was written called Igros Mechtavim. Igros Mechtavim are letters that Rav Huttner wrote to some of his talmidim. Have you heard of these? The sefer Igros Mechtavim. You girls know who Rav Huttner was. Rav Huttner was Roshiv of Roshivus Rabbi Yochai in Berlin. He was one of the Gedolei Adori. He was a very, very clever man. And he got a letter from a Talmud And the Talmud said, "Rabbi, when I was in yeshiva, I was staying away." But now that I'm out of yeshiva I feel like a faker. I feel like I have two lives: the life of the yeshiva guy that I was, and the life of the business person that I am.
And Rav Huttner said to him, "Chas v'shalom." It's not a dual life; it's a broad life. It's not two lives; it's one life. And he compared it to a large mansion that has many rooms. He said, 'You might be in a different room right now, but it's all the same mansion.' Rav Huttner recalled that he visited Shari Tzedek Hospital and he noticed that Doctor Wallach Who was the founder of Shari Tzedek Hospital, when he would visit a patient who was about to go into surgery, he would ask the patient for his mother's name so that he could daven for him before his operation. And Rav Huttner wrote that he told the story of Doctor Wallach to one of the Gedolim in Yerushalayim, and this is what the Gedolim in Yerushalayim said to Rav Huttner: How much a person must be jealous of such a Jew as Doctor Wallach! Who uses his professional career as a vessel to promote kveid shamayim?
Some people go out to work. And some people see work as an opportunity to be marbek kveid shamayim. My father was a very successful businessman. There was a man that worked for him. My father did not wear a yarmulke to work because of the anti-Semitism that existed in his industry. And there's a hetter from Rav Moshe Feinstein that my father chose to make use of. Not to wear a yarmulke to work, but he did carry a yarmulke in his pocket. But there was another guy in his office who did wear a yarmulke to work And this guy who wore a yarmulke to work was actually a talmud chacham. In fact, he gave a daf yomi every single day on the train. And I had the opportunity to schmooze with this guy once when I went in with my father to work. I don't remember what the occasion was. There were no other people in the office that wore a yarmulke. There were several Jews. None of them were Orthodox. My father was Orthodox, but didn't wear a yarmulke. This guy was Orthodox, and he wore a yarmulke, and he gave a dafyomi on the train. And I asked him, "Are you not concerned about the anti-Semitism? Are you not concerned that you'll lose business because of it?"
And I'll never forget what he said to me. He looked at me and he said It's who I am. And it was the end of the conversation. "It's who I am." That's all he said. "It's who I am." He couldn't take off his yarmulke. There was nothing wrong with my father not wearing a yarmulke. He did what he felt was right. He had a hetter from the R' Moshe Feinstein. That's no small business. But this guy wore his yarmulke because he said it's who I am. I can't take off my yarmulke because then it would be a dual life, and it can't be a dual life. It'll be a broad life. Yosef HaTzaddik has a foil. You girls know what a foil is. Remember when you were learning English literature? A foil is somebody's opposite. Somebody's the person who raises up to fight against. Yaakov dwelt in the land of his fathers in the land of Canaan.
Listen what Rashi says. Rashi said the camels of a flax dealer once entered into a town that was laden with flax, and the blacksmith wondered where all this flax would go. And one clever fellow answered, and he said one spark will come out. It will burn all of the flax, and this is the same thing. Yaakov saw the chieftains of Esav, and he said, 'Who can conquer all of them? Who's gonna get rid of all of this flax?' And then the pasuk in Avadja was said. It says, 'Vahaya beis Yaakov la'ish, ubeis Yosef la'hava, ubeis Esav lakash.' Esav is a house of straw. Yaakov is the fire. But who's the spark? That jumps from the fire into the straw to burn all the straw. That was Yosef. Yaakov Avinu saw in Yosef, and he said, "Once Yosef is born, now I can return to confront Esav, because Esav is the Yosef is the foil for Esav."
Why is Yosef the foil for Esav? Because Esav was two people. He was Ishyodayatzayed But he was also Ishsade, but not Yosef Atzade. Yosef HaTzaddik is one person. That's why in this week's parsha, what does it say? It says the Yosef Hayah Bei Mitzrayim. The greatness, says Ravolbi, of Yosef HaTzaddik. Listen carefully to these words. The greatness of Yosef HaTzaddik was not that he was a tzadik in both places. That's obvious. You don't need to tell us that. That was the story that we just learned. Listen to what Ravolbi says. The same shepherd. Was the same king? What does a shepherd do all day, girls? Talks to God. That's what a shepherd does. That's why they're shepherds, because they get to talk to Hashem all day long. There's a guy in my neighborhood. His name is Beryl Thomas. Beryl Thomas does home maintenance repair. He fixes things in the house.
Beryl Thomas is amazing because all day long, he talks to Hashem. So I hired Beryl Thomas many years ago to fix my tree sim. You girls know what tree sims are. Like those shades that come down that make the room into a blackout room. Supposed to protect you from rockets. So my tree sim broke. I didn't know how to fix them. I didn't grow up with tree sim. But I know how to hire people. I grew up in the Five Towns. That's what I know how to do. Some people know how to fix things. Some people know how to hire people. I grew up in Lawrence. I hire people. So I hired Beryl Thomas. Beryl Thomas comes to my house and he's fixing the trees. So what does he do? He puts his ladder up, and he pulls off the thing, and he's sitting there and he's untying the knots and he's retying the knots and he's doing whatever he's doing. I notice that Beryl is talking to himself.
And Beryl's from Memphis. So it's not shocking that he's talking to himself. But he's talking to himself, and I want to hear what Beryl has to say. So I started sneaking in. You know what he's doing? He's talking to Hashem Saying Hashem. Help me fix this treas. I can't fix this treas on my own. This knot ain't coming out. Hashem, give me a little help here. I need a little help on this knot. And this literally, he's doing it, and he's screwing the thing back in. He's like, Hashem, help me get this angle right. And he's talking to Hashem the entire time. I'm sitting there thinking, I'm at such a low level. He's talking to Hashem when he fixes the treas. When you have kavana in davening for the first time By the shir shol yom, because you have to think what day it is. How many of us are davening, and in the middle of davening, we wake up and go, 'How did I get here?' You ever wake up in modem and go, 'Oh, time to bow.' The Rav of my shul makes a joke. He says, 'Be better for us to daven a tefillah saderich than a shmona esrei, because you've traveled thousands of miles across many oceans. You should make a hagomel at the end of shmona esrei, considering how far you've traveled.' I don't daven when I'm davening. Baril Thomas is davening when he's fixing the trees.
You understand? That's tom Yosef ahalin. He fixes the trees. He's talking to Hashem. Yosef HaTzaddik is a shepherd for his father. What he's doing all day as a shepherd is talking to Hashem. And now Yosef HaTzaddik is the Melech in Mitzrayim. He's the king of Egypt. You know what he's doing? He's talking to Hashem. That says Ravulbi is what Rashi means. It doesn't mean that he was a tzadik in both places. Of course he was a tzadik in both places. He was Yosef HaTzaddik. Of course he was. You know what it means? It means he didn't change his avoda. He was the same person through and through. How do we do this? How do we leave? Because now you're not leaving for a summer, thinking I'm coming. Shana bet, you're gonna be okay. I appreciate that Krechz. And even for those of us that lost some time because of the war There's a certain finality to what we're about to experience.
And it's hard to acknowledge, and it's hard to say out loud, 'This is the end,' because endings are hard because we don't know what comes next, and so there's a vulnerability to endings. But if we don't pay attention to the ending of something, then we don't know how to take the next step. So how do we consider this ending? What would be the proper lens to consider this ending? Believe I believe that the proper answer to this question is The way that we take the next step is by understanding the next step that we take. It is a continuation of the steps that we just took for the last year and a half. It's not a step into a new house. It's a step into a new room. It's ish tom yoshev ohalim. We're going to be the same people when we leave Tomer Devora, taking the lessons with us. The same person that we are. It doesn't mean that we're going to be doing the same things, but the same person moves from room to room. And yes, you will develop, and yes, you will learn new ideas. And you'll learn new things about life. Life is the greatest teacher. That's why Benjamin's name was Ben Yamin. The Rebbe Avraham ben Rambam says his name was Ben Yamin because he was the son of days. Some people learn from their mother, but Benjamin's mother died in childbirth, so she's so Yaakov Avinu said
Don't worry, he's Ben Yamin. Life will be his teacher. Life is an amazing teacher. Right now, the lessons that you learned in Sem were theoretical. But soon the lessons will no longer be theoretical. And you will have a tremendous opportunity to be the same person here and there. You're not a different person because you're in Los Angeles or New York. You're the same person. You just happen not to be in Yerushalayim. So you can choose not just to be righteous in both places. You can choose to be loyal to your deepest sense of self. And there is one difficult way to pull this off, says Ravolbi, and the answer is seder. We'll explain what seder means. Revolba says that seder is like the string on a pearl necklace. A pearl necklace could be very expensive. Do you girls know this? Kallahs sometimes, if they like pearls, get a pearl necklace as a gift in the yichud room.
The pearls could be worth thousands of dollars. How much is the string worth? The string is worth nothing. The string is worth baucas. What's a string? A string is nothing. But pearls without a string are just all over the floor. Says Revolby, seder is the same way. But you're sitting and learning, or you're davening, or you're saying tilling. That's the beautiful stuff, right? That's the stuff that's worth thousands of dollars, says Revolby. But unless you're misudar, unless you have a kvias, unless you have a set time for things It won't happen. The seder is as important as the pearls. Because if there's no seder, the pearls are haphazard. So I'd like to share with you the following idea, girls. Whether this is right or wrong, and I certainly think it's wrong And I've been very honest and open over the years about this. It's sad that the girls don't always get the same opportunities as the guys when they leave. When the guys leave yeshiva, they have so many options as to what comes next. And for many girls, you don't get the same options, and it's sad.
And I wish that we would do better. Our community is not yet there; we have to do better, but we're not yet there. So girls come back and they say Rabbi, it's been so long since I was in Torah Devora And I feel like the inspiration that I had has been lost. What do I do? And there is, as far as I can see, only one answer: you need to make a seder for yourself. You need to make a structure for yourself. If a girl says, "I want to get in shape" Did you buy a gym membership? No. Why not? Do you have a gym? No. Do you have access to healthy food? No. What are the chances you're going to get in shape? Zero. What's the first thing you do when you want to go on a diet? I'll tell you because I've been on many.
Buy a salad bowl. It seems like a funny thing to say, if you have a good bowl that you can fill up with salad, and you get one of those choppers that you could chop the lettuce with, because big lettuce doesn't taste good, but chopped lettuce is a little bit more manageable. You're ready on your way. Buy a gym membership and use it. But buy a gym membership because at least then you have access to a gym. You can have a say there that you could do these things. If girls come back in six months or a year from now and they come to visit Tomer Dvorah and you go, "How you doing?" "I don't feel the inspiration." I'll tell you why. Were you masader yourself? Did you set yourself up for success? Let's look at the things that got you to where you are today. Think about what you want your davening to look like. If davening is meaningful to you, structure yourself for davening.
If you make a class at seven forty-five in the morning and it's a half an hour drive to get there, what are the chances you're going to daven that day with any kavana? Don't make the class at seven forty-five if your davening is important. If you want to learn, and I again, people disagree with me on this, but I can't understand why. Learning is important. A lot of the growth that you girls did over the last year and a half was right here in this room. So what do we want these girls to do? It's unfair. We raise you girls, intelligent girls. We give you awesome shiurim, inspiring shiurim. We teach you how to think about things, and then as soon as you leave Sam, we go all done. The girls go. What happened to my Torah? What happened to my limud Torah? What happened to those classes that inspired me?
So you may not have the structure in place. Some of you will. Some of you won't. But there is a beautiful thing that Hashem created for our generation. You can get Torah anywhere today. There are so many different apps with so many different shiurim, and all of these shiurim are amazing. What do you choose to have on in your car? I also want to listen to Mordechai Shapiro sometimes. I happen to be a Mordechai Shapiro fan. Mainly because some of my talmidim are the ones producing his music. But I also like his music. I don't really like Jewish music so much, but I find his music to be the most tolerable. It's not true; even some of it's good. The stuff that Pinsker puts out is good. Everything else is Everything else is okay. I like the Pinsker stuff. We're in Tati. Bezrat Hashem. One day.
Girls If you have the sheer on in the car. You're connected. Even if you're not listening the entire time, even if you find yourself doing something else. But if a car ride is going to be music, and a car ride is not going to be an inspiring she'er, at least from time to time, at least having some sort of seder. Maybe you'll say on the way back, I'm going to call a friend, but on the way there, I'm going to listen to a she'er. You have the inspiration. Take time for yourself to be a part of growth-oriented chevros and make initiatives for yourself. You girls know how Nitzotzos was born. It was born from two Toma Devora girls. Who came back. It's true, Itzuts was born because two Toma Devora girls came back into this beis medrash, and they said, "Rabbi" We don't have access to the shiurim anymore.
Record the shiurim, put them on a website. When we come into America, we'll get different rabbanim together and we'll make a thing. And they did. Those girls have since retired. But other girls have taken their place. And halavai that girls would go out today, and they would say, "every Thursday night we're going to get together, and each one of us are going to prepare on one aliyah" And one aliyah we all prepare. If seven girls get together, we can have something on the parsha every single week. The seder keeps you strong, it keeps you locked in. You have no seder, you have no shot. That's pearl necklaces all over the floor. A girl comes back to sem a year later, and she hasn't davened, she hasn't learned, and she hasn't been in touch with a growth oriented chaver, and she doesn't have anyone to talk to. Is it shocking that she says I'm not inspired?
Of course not. We all want to be Yosef HaTzaddik. We all want to be authentic through and through. We want to be the same girl that we were in Yerushalayim that we will be Bezrach Hashem in Los Angeles, in New York, and in Florida or in Belgium or wherever else we come from. Amsterdam, God knows where we come from. We come from funny places, but we want to be the same person everywhere we are. How do we do that? The answer is Seder. You got to set yourself up for success. Now the next question you'll say is But it's not realistic. It's not realistic. I have a very busy day. I wake up in the morning. I go to classes. I go to classes in the afternoon. I have a job. It's not realistic. If you want it to be your reality, you make it realistic.
You know, muscle girls. If you have a big jar and you have small marbles and big rocks, what do you put in first? If you put in the small marbles first The big rocks will pile up. And they won't fit. So you put in a rock And then you put the small marbles around it. Then you put in another rock, and you put the small marbles around it. Everyone of us has to decide what are our big rocks and what are our small marbles. There are lines that we create for ourselves. I don't miss a day without davening. I don't always daven in the right time because things can be hectic, but I don't miss a day of davening. I have some Torah in my day every single day. You have that. You'll see it'll translate. And the stakes are high. And I want to tell you what I mean by the stakes are high.
I'm not into this notion of the Shidduch crisis. I think the only thing the Shidduch crisis does is create fear in the hearts of girls that they'll never get married. I don't like talking about the Shidduch crisis. I don't even think the Shidduch crisis is factual. That's not what I mean to say at all. What I'm about to say. And we attract what we are. When we're dating somebody, when we are in a certain place, we attract that into our lives. People who are focused, who are mesudar in their yiddishkeit, attract those people into their lives. It is a simple equation. If you're a girl who's davening every day and learning and doing your best to stay in touch and stay inspired. Do you think some goodie's gonna come over to you and I have a great idea for you? I mean he vapes and he smokes up like ten, ten to fifteen times a year and like he kind of learns and kind of dawns. I think he'd be perfect for you.
You'd be insulted if you heard that. Why would you be insulted? Because that's not me. But somebody thought of it for a reason. There's only one of two reasons: either that person doesn't know you at all, or maybe you're not putting it out there. Maybe that's not your vibe. You will. People will see you in a certain way, and guess what? It's not only about attracting your future spouse. It's about what your children see. What do your children see at night when they come into the house? Do they see a mother who, if she has a couple minutes, is running to the couch to say Tehillim for the soldiers, or she's chilling out on the phone, schmoozing with her friends? Not that there's anything wrong with schmoozing with your friends, but there's something valuable about the kids. Ema says Tehillim for the soldiers. Something to that.
You can impute the values of the parents very easily, don't you know your parents' values? I guarantee you, you know your parents' values. In fact, I think you might know your parents' values better than they know their values. If the children see an authentic mother She's Yosef HaTzaddik in the house, she's Yosef HaTzaddik in her job, she's Yosef HaTzaddik in the car, it inspires them. My daughter Racheli, she works for a woman whose name is Michal Gruen. Has Michal Gruen come to Toma Devora this year to do any dance things or anything like that? She came last year. She does this thing. She goes. Was that her husband Ari is your tour guide? Sometimes. So the Gruen family is a very chashva family, and her map echamesh. My daughter Racheli works for Mrs. Gruen. She does like dancing at bat mitzvahs here in Eretz Yisrael. My daughter works for her. She doesn't get paid a lot of money. It's more just like a geshmak thing to do. She loves hanging out with Mrs. Gruen. My daughter says Mrs. Gruen is her role model in so many ways. Why? Because whenever they're driving back from a bat mitzvah, what's on? Shirum and emuna and bitachon.
Shirum and emuna and bitachon. Because there's a sense of this my life. This where I want to be. Shirum and emuna and bitachon. It translates. It's what we communicate to the world. It's an amazing thing to teach your children. I'm an authentic person. Authentic doesn't mean perfect. It means I'm doing my best. To be the same person here and there. I'm ish tam yoshev alim. I'm drawing from the well springs of the beis medrash no matter where I go. My very close friend, one of my best friends in the world, his name is Yitzi Haber. He was just at my house for Shabbos. He flew in for the Gerbitz wedding because the Gerbitz married Weinreb. And Donny Weinreb was an old friend of mine. He is Yitzi Haber's partner and best friend. So Yitzi flew in for the wedding. Yitzi told me this past Shabbos. Unbelievable line. You can tell your brother-in-law that I said this over.
Yitzi told me this past Shabbos that Donny is his rebbe and emuna and bitachon. I said, "Yeah, is your rebbe and emuna and bitachon?" I knew Donny was a good guy. I didn't know he was your rebbe and emuna and bitachon. He said, "Yup." Every night that we don't have a job, they're partners. Every night that we don't have a job, you know what Donny says? Paid vacation. Because Hashem decrees for us on Rosh Hashanah what we're going to make, He signs it on Yom Kippur. Sometimes Hashem makes us work for it; other days Hashem gives us off, paid vacation. What an unbelievable line, paid vacation! You know what I think? I think the kids who grow up in that house with a father who, when he's working, says, "today Hashem told me to make a kli And when he has off, says, 'Paid vacation.' I think a kid like that who grows up in such a home.
Amunah will be in his cereal. Amunah will be in his milk. He grows up with a sense of this is not a dual life. It's a broad life. It's a tremendous thing what your new brother in law grew up with. Paid vacation. What a line. This is the key. It's the key for ourselves. It's the key for our future families. I know that. I know that it was a fascinating year to be here in Eretz Yisrael for Yerushalayim Bet. Of all the years to be in this country for Shabbat For those who are able to be Man, you will never forget the Shabbat. In fact, I believe that in twenty-five years from now, you'll be sitting with your kids and my going. My year was the Simchas Torah war. My year we were locked down. My year when the first Shabbos after Simchas Torah happened and the siren went off on Arab Shabbos, we freaked out because we thought it was an air raid siren.
And you'll talk about some girls. Wasn't just Chana and you asked that. Berg felt it too. It's true. And Mrs. Berg is a big Chana fan. So the two of them together, nafshak shura benafsho. You'll never forget this. Even for those who had to go home, you'll never forget it. Because you'll say, "Yeah, I got pulled home." Not easy to be here this year. But what a gift! What an amazing gift! Because some lessons are so deeply implanted within us that they become part of our bones. Twenty five years from now, you'll be telling your kids, "Here's what I learned that year." You'll be drawing from the well springs of this year, God willing, for many, many, many years to come. And what may have at times appeared to be such a frustrating part of our shanabet was actually the best thing that ever happened to us.
Because you can't possibly forget it. Ask the girls from last year's shanavet. I don't know if they'll remember it as well as you girls do. Because you went through something hard. So my bracha to all of us as we finish is that we should be zeicheh to be authentic To take the lessons that we learned this year And to move into the next room of our house Which for some of us may not be in Yerushalayim Eretz Yisroel. Some of us have to become the viceroy of Egypt. But we will still be a shepherd, no matter where we go. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn Torah with you every single week. Our fights were epic; I will never forget them. Some of you gave me a harder time than others. I want you to know I appreciate it very much. Harbe lamarati mei rabbayisai mei talmidei yisrael mikulam. I learned a lot from my rabbis, but the most from my students.
And we worked hard to develop a hashkafa this year. And I know that at times it was confusing, and at other times it was complex. But I want you to know that I appreciate all of you, and I appreciate the opportunity that you've given me. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Looking forward to a beautiful Shabbos and Bnei Brak with you. Now that we're done.
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