Three Weeks - It's Already Good

2:24 We are living in a very, very unique crossroads, not only in general in history, but in this very specific moment. Because not just a couple of weeks ago, in a miraculous fashion, the war with Iran ended in 12 days. Nobody predicted that the war would end in 12 days. Nobody predicted that. In fact, I have it on good authority from a dear chaver of mine who doesn't want to be quoted. But he told me that the Medina bought a plot of land down south that was meant to be used as a cemetery because they did not know how many people were going to die in the first wave of Iranian missiles, and it was only through a nace through the IDF. That we were able to take out enough of their missile launchers that instead of firing the expected thousand cruise missiles that they were going to send that first Friday night, they only responded with a hundred, and the Iron Dome wasn't overwhelmed.

3:29 On the one hand, we are living in a time of Nisim Galuyim. Somebody who I respect very much said to me, and I don't disagree with him. If we were living in the times of Nevi'im and Kesuvim, there might very well be a Megillah that was written about these last 12 days. It's quite possible that we will never know what really happened behind the scenes. What we do know is that the beeper operation that the Mossad had going for Hezbollah was 10 years. What we know is that this operation was going on for 20. That for 20 years there were Yidden who were living in Iran, penetrating the highest levels of their government, pulling off what is absolutely one of the most miraculous victories in modern history, let alone in Israeli history. And so, on the one hand, we are living in extraordinary times, and the word "extraordinary" doesn't begin to capture what we're living through.

4:25 And you have to be vigilant. Every person in this room, including myself, has to be vigilant to remember the nisim that are happening because it's very easy to slip into teva. This is what happens. We have an iron dome. We have an Israeli air force. We have Baruch Hashem friends in America, and Achashverosh dropped a bunker buster on Iran, and that ended the war. It's very easy to think. That the Rebbeinu Sholom is not present here, and we have to be unbelievably grateful to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And yet How do we deal with the fact that this week Again Another couple of young soldiers were taken from us—a boy who grew up in my neighborhood, my wife's good friend. What do we do with that? I mean what I'm about to say in the way that I say it, but if it comes off as more extreme than I mean it, I don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings. But I'm going to say something, and it's going to be very real, and it's going to be from the bottom of my heart. And all I ask is that you open yours just to allow the words to penetrate just this much.

5:36 I don't know where you're from. I don't know if you're from the Five Towns or T. N. X. Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles. I have no idea where you're from. But had you been touring around America, doing mechelat in America, it's easy. It's easy to say I heard another couple of soldiers were killed and continue eating your cereal. It's easy. It's easy to not be emo anochi btsara. It's easy that you could read it in the paper, you could read it online, and you could just go chaval. It's terrible. There's a huge mila of being here in Eretz Yisrael. There's an enormous mila of being in this country. There's an enormous mila of going to the Kotel and going to Kever Rachel and going to Maros Machpelah and learning with the teachers here. There's an enormous mila in any summer, but the opportunity this summer to go pay a shiv'ukal, the opportunity to go stand outside the house and watch the procession.

6:33 And watch Rabbi Noll and Mrs. Noll walk by, and watch all the people from the neighborhood that came to be malavah them to their child's levaya. Those words should never come out of our mouths. Tachilal Hashem That any yid is able to be touched in any way. And you have the opportunity this summer not just to hear it as news, but to live it. Those that are living in Chutz LaAretz. Everybody has their reason for why they live where they live. But there is no excuse ever for distance to be a cause of cognitive dissonance. And if you're here this summer And a boy from this neighborhood This neighborhood, the neighborhood that you're in right now If you are here, that means you're here for a reason. It means your ears had to hear it and your eyes had to see it. And that's a lesson for every one of us.

7:31 What is our response to this crossroads of, on the one hand, unbelievable nisim But on the other hand, the tragedy that continues to happen over and over again. How do we live at this crossroads? I want to share with you tonight for the next half an hour or so. An amazing approach, an approach that I think is relevant not only because we're beginning the three weeks on Sunday, but an approach that's relevant for Hashem for the rest of our lives. The pasuk in Shir Ashirim says, "Yom chasu nasi, Yom simchas liba" That the day of your wedding is the day of your joy. That's the simple explanation of the pasuk. Every girl, I have five girls, Kanai Nahara, and one boy who's eight years old. He's the youngest of six, so I have six girls, and one of them happens to be male. The little one is being raised by a lot of mothers, so he's quite emotional. He's very emotionally articulate. When he was a little boy, he would come downstairs and say, "Abba, I'm having a feeling."

8:35 Little cute boy, and I'm like, "Dude, we got to go play soccer, or somebody has to beat you up. Every girl grows up dreaming about the night of her wedding. Every girl. It can't be that the pasuk is simply telling us that the day of your wedding is the day of your joy. Everybody knows that the day of your wedding is the day of your joy. Mrs. Yudin, are we still Beis Hashem doing what we normally do this summer? Beis Ratzah Hashem. Who knows? It's not a secret. It's not a surprise. I just won't say anything more than okay. I'm getting the don't say anything. Look Every girl dreams of her wedding. Chazal tell us it means something else. Yom Chasunaso is Har Sinai. Yom sim chaslibo is veis Hamikdash. It's a strange thing that the Chazal saw fit to take a pasuk that seems to be talking about one thing and split it into completely two different things: Har Sinai and Veis Hamikdash. Yom Chasunaso, the day of your wedding.

9:45 That's Har Sinai. The day of your joy, that's Veis Hamikdash. But that's not the simple pshat in the pasuk. The simple pesha in the pasuk is we're talking about one thing. Yoyim chasunoso is yoyim sim chaslebo. So what are Chazal doing over here? There are two types of people at a wedding. There's guests, and when I say guests, I mean even the parents of the chasun and the siblings of the chasun, even the parents of the kala and the siblings of the kala. And then there's those two kids. And they are children. Those two kids that stand under the chuppah—they are having a completely different experience than everybody else in the room. And even if you're the best friend Even if you're the best friend who's there with the kallah on the entire day of her chuppah, and you're sitting there with her and you're doing everything, and you've been with her your entire life, even if you're right there, you're the first person that she gives a hug to, you're the first dance—you've had a completely different experience than the kallah.

10:45 What's the difference? Not because the Kallah was center stage. The difference is that for you, you were witnesses to an event. You were participants in an event. The Chassan and Kallah are the event. They're not participating in the Kaddushin. They are the Kaddushin. And you can tell—not because the Kallah is wearing a white dress, and not because the Chassan is wearing a suit. You can tell because at the end of the chasna when everybody goes home They don't go home. They go to a new home. They go to their home. That's what's different. Two women danced in a circle. One of them was the kallah. One of them was the best friend. It's not the same because the one who's the best friend who goes back to her parents' house has not changed in any way. Nothing fundamental about her is different in any way.

11:41 The Kala doesn't go home. She goes to a new home. She goes to her home. She changed. She changed her last name. She's not just the same girl she always was. She's a wife. She has a new designation. She's no longer just a woman. She's a wife. There's something transcendent that happened. That's the nature of what it means to get married. We make a fundamental terrible mistake, and it's not our fault. It's not our fault because we were born in Gullus. Why wouldn't we make this mistake? But I want to tell you the Emes. Har Sinai is the wedding. We stood at the chuppah with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and we got married. It was an unbelievable event. But the difference was that after Har Sinai, we changed. We went through the desert for forty years. And we came to Eretz Yisrael, and it took time until Binyan Beis Hamikdash. That's an extension of Har Sinai.

12:39 Going to the Beis Hamikdash, and this gives us a sense of what we're missing when we don't have the Beis Hamikdash. Going to the Beis Hamikdash was not. Now we have a house to celebrate and worship Hashem. That's not what the Beis Hamikdash was. The Beis Hamikdash was the home that we built together. It was the extension, the natural extension of what happens by Har Sinai. Har Sinai is the chasna The base. Our mikdash is our home. What did we lose? Girls? If we lost a building We could recover, and we do not need to mourn for a building. In this last In this last word, excuse me. In this last war, every day we woke up in the morning for those of us that lived here in Eretz Yisrael And we turned on the news, whatever that news was—WhatsApp statuses, wherever you got your news.

13:41 Every day we saw pictures. Every day we saw pictures of destroyed buildings. Every day we saw pictures of wherever it was. People whose homes were obliterated. I want to share with you something very personal. It was very scary for me. My brother sent me one night. Don't tell mom. That's the way my brother and I have our conversations usually start. I'm a grandfather, and our conversations still start with "Don't tell mom." Don't tell mom. But a cruise missile fell right outside of my house. That's a whole new level to 'Don't tell mom.' Don't tell mom I'm skipping curfew. Don't tell mom that I went to a party. Don't tell mom that I went to a friend's house. Don't tell mom a cruise missile fell outside of my house. So I said, I'm not gonna share it with her. My parents live right here. They live in Beit Shemesh. Baruch Hashem, my entire family has made aliyah.

14:47 That was a better amen than the one you made to this bracha of Shachar. If I give you all a bracha that you should find your zivo exactly in the right time, I would get in. Amen. It's a Super Bowl level amen. There's different levels of amen. Shachal is like a preseason game. Aliyah is like a playoff game. Finding your chasam is a Super Bowl level amen. It's a whole other conversation about the Shidduch crisis and the fear it's created in the Jewish community. All of a sudden, every girl gets very frum. I gotta say a main Just one word, and then I'll find my zivug. Rabbi Greenland quoted me before, and he said it exactly the way I said it, but I did have an extra layer. Rabbi Greenland, I hope you do get stuck here. I hope you don't get stuck because El Al flights are not leaving. I hope you get stuck because so many El Al flights are coming. That there won't be the capacity for you to leave.

15:49 Because when Mashiach comes, everybody who's on the other side of the ocean—Chicago and Miami, L.A., New York, Tijuana, everybody in between—there won't be the capacity to get back. I hope you get stuck here because this is the place we want to be. We want to be home. We have, because we have spent so many thousands of years of exile, forgotten. Rachmanol Itzlan. I don't mean it in that intense way. Chas Sholom, we've forgotten what it means to come home. I can be a good Jew wherever I live. I can follow the laws of the Torah wherever I live. That's true. But that's Yom Chasunasa. That's what you got when you stood under the chuppah. The Rebbeinu Sholom gave you the rules of the relationship, and we follow the rules of the relationship even when we're not home. But could you imagine the couple that doesn't get to come home?

16:49 That's a tragedy of epic proportions. I didn't get to go home. Where's my Simchas Lebo? Buildings we saw destroyed. We saw these every morning. We saw these buildings destroyed. Our heart broke. But you can rebuild a building. As history has proven, this is not a building that we can easily rebuild. Do you know that in the Six Day War We actually recaptured the Temple Mount? Do you know that when they said Har Habayit Be'Adenu, they did not mean the Kotel. They flew an Israeli flag from the Dome of the Rock. And they said, 'Take it down because it will create World War III.' I'm not here to weigh in. I wasn't there in that moment of whether or not they made the right decision or the wrong decision. But it is not a simple thing to build this home because it is not a home of sticks and stones.

17:40 That's not what builds the Beit Hamikdash. You can't just rebuild your home anywhere. It's not the same. I grew up in the Five Towns. I grew up in a place called Lawrence, New York. Anybody here from the Five Towns? Who's from Lawrence? So me and you were better than everybody else. Where in Lawrence? I'm from Harborview. Where in Harborview? I'm from Harborview North, 172 Harborview North. What's your last name? We're neighbors. We only missed each other by 20 years, but it was this close. What's your last name? Berg. This is crazy. I could start playing Jewish geography. Adi, you know the. You realize Jewish geography is the single most pathetic game in the world. Because at the end of Jewish geography, the only thing that's left is to send my regards. Send your own regards. You clearly don't care about them. Schwartz. Me too. Now what?

19:04 But when you go back, send my regards. When I go back to the five towns I don't have to think when I'm driving. I don't have to use ways, and still, even after having made aliyah 18 years ago I still know the traffic patterns. I still know when the light on Rock Hill Road is going to turn green. I know if it's worth it to make the right on red or not because I still have it in my head. It's seared into my brain. Home is something that's etched into your being. That's why immigration is a registered trauma. Do you remember the first night that you came here, and it was just a little off, as awesome as Ratchit's campus is? It just feels a little bit different when you're not in your bed. It's normal and natural to be homesick. People don't call it parent sick or sibling sick. It's homesick. I miss being where I'm meant to be. I miss being located.

20:08 In the normal, natural habitat of who I am, girls, this is the normal, natural habitat of where a Jew is supposed to be. We're not supposed to be in Chicago or Miami or L. A. or Teneck or the Five Towns. Or even West Hempstead. We're not supposed to be there. We just got accustomed to it. If you do something for a long enough time, it could become rigid to you. You could become accustomed to it, but it's not you. And you shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that it's you. But we have been away for so long. I'm speaking from the heart tonight. We have been away for so long that I shudder to say these words. But Eretz Yisrael has become a tourist destination. It's like Pesach. We don't go to Eretz Yisrael. Pesach we go on our Pesach program. Sukkot we come to Eretz Yisrael.

21:01 We come to Eretz Yisrael for a summer. We come to visit when one of my siblings, who is living here, has a baby. But it's a tourist destination. For some people, going to the hotel is like going to Cinderella's castle. Going to Kever Rachel is like going to the teacups, and going to Marosimachpelah is a small world after all. That is a tragedy. We've become accustomed to the shackles of Galus. And that's something that every one of us has to break out of psychologically. When we mourn the Beis Hamikdash It means to go back to the time period of living in the Beis Hamikdash. We have to start acting as if Binyan Bayis Shlishi already occurred. If we act as if something is true, then it becomes true. You feel different when you put on mechubar clothing. You act in a certain way, and then you become that way.

22:07 Jews don't mourn for the sake of traveling back in time and saying, "Ay woleh that we don't have the Beis Hamikdash." Mourning means I go back to that time period and I live in the pain of what we don't have so I can rebuild it. I want to share with you one of the most amazing lines I've ever heard in my life. It's a deep line. Opt in for this line. It's an amazing line. Grief is unexpressed love. Those are words that you only know what they mean if you've ever suffered a loss in your life. Grief means I have so much love in my heart, and you're no longer here. The one person that I want to share it with, you're no longer here to receive that love. That's grief. My grandmother passed away from COVID five years ago. And the grief has never left me. And I hope it never does.

23:05 Because if the grief leaves, that means that in a certain way she's gone. But as long as I still grieve for her, she's still alive within me. I have all this love that I want to give, and I just can't call her. But I could still hear her voice. I could still tap into it. I hear her voice inside, and it's the same voice that she had. And I know exactly what she'll say. She'll tell me it's no big deal. She'll tell me for the days of tein cup. I'm still not sure what that means. I think it's Yiddish, but who knows? She said a lot of things. She'll tell me you're a good boy. I still hear her voice from when I was five years old. It lives inside of us. The Beis Hamikdash still lives; it just doesn't live in sticks and stones. But we have to tap into it.

23:56 How do we do that? So I want to share with you the most amazing part. We only have a couple of minutes left. I want to get you to this night activity. I saw them planning it outside. It looks very good. They told me I'm not allowed to park out there, so it must be very serious. Is that all? That also a surprise? Gavaldik. Mrs. Yudin's not here. I could tell you what's going to happen in a couple of weeks. I'm not going to tell you. But no, just I want to tell you the most amazing part. The life of Rav Kiva is a microcosm for the story of Kal Yisroel. Forty years, he's barely from forty years. He's working as the head of the shepherds for Kalbasavua, a very wealthy man. When he meets his daughter Rachel And he's totally taken with her And they secretly get married.

24:57 They secret. She says, "If you'll dedicate your life to Torah, I'll dedicate my life to you." They secretly get married. Which, by the way, is a crazy thing to do. My daughter, who's now Baruch Hashem expecting her first This year she got married. The night that she got engaged, she called me to tell me that she got engaged. I was like, "You didn't want to ask?" She's like, "No, I'm just letting you know. It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission." I was like, "Okay," but at least she didn't get married behind my back. Kalba Savua's reaction, of course, was, "What did you do?" And he threw her out of the house. They lived in poverty. Complete poverty. Rivkeiva had to borrow straw so she would have a bed to sleep on. And what does he do? She says, "Go, go learn Torah." And he leaves for 12 years. He comes back. We all know the story. I'm not going to get into the details. He leaves for 12 years. He comes back. He hears her talking to a friend, some yenta, next door neighbor, who's in there going, "your husband left you for 12 years." And she says, "Halavai, he'd leave for another 12 if he's staying away." And he goes and leaves for another 12.

26:04 Finally, after 24 years, he has 24,000 talmidim, and he comes to Yerushalayim. And Rachel, his wife. She comes and she's trying to get to him. And she's physically an impoverished woman, and she's trying to get close to her husband, and she's being held back. And Rav Kiva says, Shali v'shalachem, shalach. What I have and what you, my twenty-four thousand talmidim, have, it's all hers. And the story finishes with Kalpasavua coming back. And Kalba Savua says, 'I didn't realize you were Rav Kiva,' and Baruch Hashem is a tremendous reunion. The story is not just the story of Rav Kiva; it's an unbelievable story. It's the story of all of Klal Yisrael. It's the story of a nation. Listen closely, girls. The forty years of Rav Kiva are connected. The forty years that we were in the desert. Forty years where we had not yet come home. What is the catalyst for Rav Kiva's growth? What changes his life?

27:06 He met his wife and he married her. Yom Chasunasa. That's what changed his life. His marriage to Rachel Meinu parallels the marriage that we have to Klal Yisrael Kadosh Baruch Hu. And it changes his life. He's on fire for Taira. And she says, "Go" Go learn Taira. What strength does it take to send your husband away for 24 years? And not only do we not understand the strength, but there's a question that we should all be asking. After 24 years of being separated from his wife, when he says to his talmidim, 'Shaliv, shalachem,' it's all hers. What do you mean it's all hers? She was the one person that wasn't there. She was. So you'll say, no, it doesn't mean that. It means that because she was his inspiration. But that's not what he says. He doesn't say that she was my inspiration and so she's the reason that we're all doing this. He says no, it belongs to her. It's hers.

28:09 How could Rivkah say that? This is an unbelievable var, earth-shattering var. Girls, listen to this: the yisod of Rivkah, which is really the yisod of all of Yiddishkeit. We have a radical belief. It's a belief that we've held onto for thousands of years since the times of Avraham Avinu. It's what every one of us carries in our DNA. Listen to the radical belief of Yiddishkeit. We believe in oneness. We believe that Hashem is everywhere, and everything that exists within Him. Every moment of creation is because He fueled that moment of creation. Every moment of creation is guided by Hakadosh Baruch Hu according to the Bal Shem Tov. The radical belief of oneness is that Hashem is everywhere in everything, in all moments and in all times. Throughout history. Comes along Rivka, he marries Rachel. And what does she say to him? Do you want to show me your oneness?

29:08 Do you want to test our oneness? Do you want to see how much love there is between us? Leave. What happens when you go? What happens when we're distant? That's how you really show the oneness. My grandmother was my hero. My grandmother became a balas tshuva at 70 years old. Could you imagine what it takes to become frum at 70 years old? At 70 years old, my grandmother started keeping Shabbos. At 70 years old, my grandmother started keeping kosher even outside of the house. At 70 years old, she started dressing completely tsneis. At 70 years old, she became judgmental about all my cousins that weren't religious. She was fully Orthodox. She's my hero in every sense of the word. She was like a second mother to me. My grandfather passed away when I was five years old. I didn't really know him. I have very vague memories of him.

30:07 But as a young child, I would often ask my grandmother, Grandma, Why didn't you date? Papa Harry died when you were in your 50s. My grandmother didn't pass away until she was 90. She could have built a life with somebody. Grandma, why don't you date? And my grandmother would tell me I'm married to your grandfather. He's just not around. I tried to date other people. She said it was so weird. I went out on a date and felt like I wasn't being loyal to my husband. Just because he wasn't physically present doesn't mean that they weren't married. That's an unbelievable thing to learn as a child—the love that your grandparents have for each other. She simply could not imagine being married to anybody else. You want to know if you really love somebody? What happens when you're distant? What happens after you've had a fight? What happens in the space of separation? Are you still one? Are you still together? Do you still have unity?

31:07 That's what oneness really means. Rachli Menu says, 'Go learn Taira. Our relationship is so deep that it doesn't matter how far you go. I will be present in every single moment.' And not only did Rachli Menu feel that way, Rivakiva felt that way too. How do you know? Because 24 years later, after he's built up an empire, he's a big Rosh Yeshiva, 24,000 talmidim, and what happens? He comes to Yerushalayim. He comes to the ultimate place of oneness. What does he say? Shali veshalachem shala. Whatever is mine You should know she was here with me in every moment. She was never distant. Sometimes you have people that go away from each other for a bit. It doesn't mean just because there's distance, there's not oneness. Shali veshalachem shala. All of your tiras, she was there. Every sheir that I gave, she was in the beis medrash with me.

32:03 Just because we were not physically together doesn't mean she wasn't present. That's the gadlus of Rav Kiva. The gadlus of Rav Kiva is in the space of the ultimate distance. He sees the ultimate oneness. We all know. I'm not going to repeat it. We all know the Gemara at the end of Makos that the Chachamim were there and they were crying over the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash because they saw a fox come out of the Kodesh Hakodashim and Rav Kiva is laughing and they're crying and they say Rav Kiva, how could you laugh? He says, 'How could you cry? What do you mean? How could we cry? We're crying because we see the churban bias. How could you laugh?' He goes, 'Because I see the rebuilding.' They said, "Akiva nechamtano." Where does that story get told? It gets told in Meseches Makos. What does Meseches Makos mean? It's about getting hit. It's about the distance after you do an aveira.

32:50 At the end of that mesecta, the story is Rav Akiva saying, even in the moments of the greatest distance that we have to the Rebbeinu Sholalem, you should know the Rebbeinu Sholalem is present in every moment. That's why they say Akiva Nichamtanu. They didn't say Akiva Gealtanu. They didn't say Akiva, you have redeemed us. Ratzal Hakohen says, what's the difference between Nachama and Geula? Geula means we've stepped out of the darkness. Nachama means the darkness itself becomes the illuminator. We're used to the light of the moon. The light of the moon illuminates the darkness. In the times of Mashiach. We have Nachama. That's why Mashiach's name is Menachem. In the times of Mashiach, the darkness itself becomes illuminating. It's not the sun that lights up the world. It's the light of the darkness that lights up the world. I want to share with you something that happened in this beis medrash only a couple of weeks ago, and I'm not going to say his name only because I think he won't want me to embarrass him.

33:46 A couple of weeks ago, I was standing in this basement, right in the back of the basement. With a dear chaver of mine. Many people had to make the decision if they were making a wedding, if they were planning on making a wedding during the time of the Iranian war. Many of us had to make a decision: Are we going to have the wedding or are we not going to have the wedding? Officially, the Israeli government said you're not allowed to have any gatherings. Just because you're not allowed to have any gatherings doesn't mean you can't make a wedding. You can make a small wedding or a wedding in a backyard. This chaver of mine He has daughters who have married boys who barely have been home. Daughters who got married right before October 7th Who have basically not seen their husbands for the last two years. And now he had a girl, he had a daughter who was supposed to get married, and wouldn't you know it, a war breaks out.

34:41 His daughter says, "Abba, I don't care. We're getting married. We're getting married." And they got married, small wedding. And they had in the back over here one that one morning they had a little kiddush because not a lot of people were able to come to the wedding, so they made a little sheva brachos after shacharis one morning. I came to say a mazel tov. I couldn't be by the wedding, but I wanted to come to wish a mazel tov. I'm talking to my friend, the father of the kallah, and he said to me the most unbelievable thing. He's a very righteous person. He's a big tzaddik. I said to him Mirzah Hashem, it's going to be good. And he looks at me and he goes, Mordechai It's already good. It's already good. Just because I can't perceive the goodness doesn't mean that it's not already good. There's a difference between gamzul etayva and kol mand aved rachman le'tav of it. Kol mand aved rachman le'tav of it is. Be'ez Hashem, we'll see how one day this is going to work out to be good. Gamzul etayva means right now this is good. The secret of this nation's survival is gam zu le'tayva. It's good.

35:48 It's good that there's a galus. Because we can show Hakadosh Baruch Hu how real our love is. We could show Hakadosh Baruch Hu that even in the greatest distance, we can sense His presence everywhere we go. It's good right now. Not it will be good. It's good right now. How could you say it's good right now when we just buried Ma'asi Nol Hashem Yikom Dama? How could you say it's good right now when your daughter couldn't have her wedding? She grew up dreaming about her wedding, just like every one of you. And her wedding was in the backyard. She didn't get to have a fancy wedding with a hundred thousand dollars worth of flowers. And he looks at me and he goes, "It's good right now. Just because I can't perceive it doesn't mean it's not good right now." And I'm looking at him, going, "You know what? Of course Of course he said that because that's what it means. To live with a Geula mentality.

36:46 There are certain of us—I include myself in this—where we've been broken by the exile. We've adopted such a sad mentality. We've become distant from our home, and there are those of us that know our home is still built. We just need to finish the process of sticks and stones, but we never left our home. It is obvious to anyone who's paying attention that we are living in the most incredible time in history. We are—I wouldn't even say on the doorsteps of Mashiach. I think when I was growing up, we were on the doorsteps of Mashiach. We're holding the knob. We're turning the knob. We're seconds away. It's obvious to anyone who's paying attention. Kibutz Galuyos. We wondered for thousands of years how Rebbeinu Sholom was going to get everybody back. How were Yidden going to be drawn back to Eretz Yisrael? When you're living here in Eretz Yisrael, you see Jews of all shapes and sizes and of all colors and from all countries. It's not like when you're walking around in America or Canada and you just see the same white Jew over and over again.

37:53 We are already coming home, and the Aliyah numbers are up. It's what nobody expected. When October seventh happened, everyone was like, "Okay, who's going to move to Eretz Yisrael now?" People like, "Sign me up." Some of us are going to run to Eretz Yisrael. You guys, you girls, should be blessed to run to Eretz Yisrael. And some are going to have to be pushed out of Chutz La'aretz in order to come. Everybody's going to make it because this is the destination of the Jewish people. Of course, we're coming home. Where else would a married couple live? Can only live at home. As long as I'm living in my parents' basement, I'm not really home. As long as I'm living in some apartment that I'm renting, I'm not really home. This is home. So come this Sunday, as we start the three weeks Let's act as if the geula has already occurred.

38:44 If you're going to be one of those girls that goes to a shiva call at the nol home, remember the strength of the nol's. Of course, they're exceptionally broken. Of course, they just lost their son. What a chilul Hashem that any guy has the capacity to touch a yid. What a tremendous chilul Hashem. I'm confident when I say that those of you who meet Mrs. Knoll, she'll be giving you chizuk. My wife says she's the strongest person she's ever met. Of course she is. Of course she is. That's what it means to be a yid. Be'ez Hashem we should be zeicha to Akiva nihamtano we should be zeicha to the eyes of Rav Akiva and Be'ez Hashem we'll be zeicha this Tishav hopefully sooner to greet Mashiach is born on Tishav Be'ez Hashem we'll be zeicha to greet Mashiach Takanu Be'ez Hashem v'Skach Shav.