Vayechi - Exile Begins When Truth Dies

2:21 As long as he was alive, they didn't feel that pain. Their hearts and their eyes were open, but now that their Zaidi dies, now that Yaakov Avinu dies, they became emotionally numb. Why? Because of the pain of the slavery of Mitzrayim. That's the first pshat in Rashi. So just to sum up. The parsha is closed. Why? Because it reflects the fact that their eyes and their hearts were closed. Why were their eyes and their hearts closed? Because Yaakov died. What happened when Yaakov died? They started to feel the pain of the slavery of Mitzrayim. That's Rashi's first shot. Everyone clear? He was. They were slaves already. Go ahead. I'm going to get to that. They were in Mitzrayim. Yaakov dies, and it says, "Now the pain of the shibud." That now they would begin to be enslaved. The bondage of Mitzrayim is beginning now at the end of Yaakov Avinu's life. So their hearts and eyes were closed, and the pain of the shibud begins. Okay, that's the first pshat. There is a second pshat. We're going to go very deep now. There's a second pshat that Rashi says, which is also a fascinating pshat. And we're going to see that these two things go together. Okay, the second pshat is "devar acher."

3:40 Yaakov Avinu is on his deathbed And what does he want to do? He wants to tell his children the date. Because they knew that they were going to be enslaved by Mitzrayim. They knew that they were going into exile. That this was the beginning of the exile. So he says, "I want to tell you the date that it's going to be over." Wouldn't that be awesome if you knew the date that Mashiach was going to come? That would make everything better, right? So Yaakov Avinu says. I want to tell my children what's the end of this entire story called Yud Tsheis Mitzrayim. I want to tell them the date. I want to tell them that in Nissan, in the middle of Nissan, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to come. It's going to be miraculous. I want to let them know that this thing is going to end. And what does Hashem do? Hashem closes Yaakov Avinu's capacity to reveal to his children when Mitzrayim would end.

4:34 When the slavery in Mitzrayim would end. The second reason Rashi is explaining why this parsha is astuma. Why is it closed? Why does it begin in the middle of a paragraph? Because Yaakov's eyes were closed. His ability to relate to his children. The end of the story. I thought that it was when Mashiach would come. Hashem made him forget. No. Right now, on his deathbed. Yaakov Avinu is being closed up. Hashem is not letting him tell his children when the servitude in Mitzrayim will be over. That's what Rashi says. So we have two pshatim. First pshat: Why is the parsha closed? Because the eyes and the hearts of Kali's father closed. Second pshat: Because Yaakov Avinu's capacity to reveal to them the end of the shibud Mitzrayim was closed off. So two pshatim. So far so good. Whenever you have, what do you need me to repeat? The second.

5:30 The second pshat is that Yaakov Avinu wanted to reveal to his children the date of when the servitude in Mitzrayim would end, when the slavery will end, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu hid it from him. He closed him up, meaning he wasn't able to reveal it, even though he knew it, he wasn't able to reveal it, so it was closed. Whenever you see, this is a rule, whenever you see Rashi gives two pshatim. Sometimes we think it's like one pshat is over here and the other pshat is over there, but really Rashi's always telling us two sides of the same coin. He's always really saying one thing from two different perspectives. What we want to do today is see how these two pshatim in Rashi are really one. Want to take these two things that appear to be two separate things and put them back together. Does that make sense? Rebbezina Kazdan asked the question before. She said, "When did the gullus actually start? When did the slavery actually start?"

6:32 So Rashi says, 'If you looked carefully at the words, if you were listening carefully, "Nistemu e nehem the libon shel Yisrael, the hearts and the eyes of Klal Yisrael were closed." Why? From the pain of the slavery that's beginning now. Anyone see any problem with that? Their Yaakovinu is dying. And what's why are their eyes and their hearts being closed? Rashi says because the pain of the slavery was closing their hearts and their eyes. What's the obvious question? If slavery didn't start yet, there would be no pain. If slavery started, very good. If the slavery started Then they should have already been in pain. If the slavery didn't start So then. What exactly is closing their hearts and their eyes? So maybe you'll say, 'Oh, it's because Yaakov Avinu died,' but that's not exactly what Rashi says. Rashi says, 'Lefi shekivon.' Rashi says, 'Lefi shekivon shenifter Yaakov Avinu.' Since Yaakov Avinu died, their eyes and their hearts were closed from the pain of the slavery that was beginning now.

7:44 It's not exactly clear what Rashi is saying, so we're going to have to try to make sense of this also. What exactly was causing this emotional numbness? So we have two questions in front of us. One is how do we take these two divergent pshatim in Rashi and put them together? And two, how do we understand that first pshat in Rashi? The Yaakov Avinu died. It closed their eyes because of the pain of the slavery which was beginning now. Also, when in this timeline was Moshe Rabbeinu? Much later. Moshe Rabbeinu wasn't born until much later. We're at the very, very beginning. Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov Avinu is dying now, so Yosef is still alive. We have a lot of time to go until hundreds of years later when Moshe Avinu would be born and eventually take them out of slavery. What's the second question? The second question is, what exactly closed the eyes and the hearts of Klal Yisrael? What exactly was it? Was it the fact that Yaakov Avinu died? Was it the pain of the slavery? If it was the pain of the slavery, the pain of the slavery didn't really start yet. Let's start moving because there's a lot to accomplish. So I appreciate all the questions, but let's just keep it moving.

8:52 So it goes like this: When we say the word "gullus" When we say the word "exile," what exactly does that mean? So I'm going to share with you an idea that I once heard that I love. Suffering is pain minus reason. Suffering is pain minus reason. Give an example. If you see somebody in a gym and they're in pain because they're lifting weights and grunting heavily, it really hurts. They're not suffering. Why aren't they suffering? Why don't we go? Oh my God, that guy's really suffering lifting those weights. Why aren't they suffering? Because the reason is clear. If you go into the emergency room and you see somebody screaming, writhing in pain. Because they were in a car accident. They're suffering. If you go into the maternity ward and you hear a woman screaming in pain, you don't call it suffering because you know that there's a baby at the end. Whenever you have pain Pain will either be pain or it'll be suffering, and the difference is if you know why it's happening.

10:11 You got you understand? Suffering is pain minus reason. Exile. Is the feeling of suffering. It's not actual suffering because, of course, there's a reason for everything. But what is galus? Galus means I'm in a tremendous amount of pain and I have no idea where this is taking me. That's the pain of galus. Pain in galus becomes suffering. Now watch this. Every one of the avos has a different midah. That's their midah. Abraham is chesed. He's loving kindness. Yitzchak is gevura. He's strength. What's Yaakov's midah? Emes. Titin emes liYaakov. Yaakov avinu is truth. As long as Yaakov avinu is alive What do we perceive in his presence, in the presence of that tzaddik? What do we perceive? We perceive the truth. As long as Yaakov Avinu is alive Because his midah is emes In his presence, the truth is obvious. So seeing Yaakov Avinu could not be gullis. As long as Yaakov Avinu is alive, it's not gullis. Because when you look at Yaakov, what do you know?

11:33 I know all of this is for a reason. Yaakov Avinu was the truth. Shining so brightly that in that space there could be no suffering, because whatever happens in Mitzrayim. The truth of Hashem's plan was evident. But once Yaakov Avinu dies, listen how Rashi says it. Rashi is very, very, very smart. Listen how Rashi says it. Lefishakivon shenifter Yaakov Avinu. Once Yaakov Avinu died, what does that mean? Once Yaakov Avinu died, what did we lose? The perception of the truth. Once Yaakovinu dies, listen what happens. Nistemu enehem v'liban shel Yisrael. We got closed up. We got closed up in our eyes and in our hearts. What's the difference between eyes and hearts? Your eyes are your perception. Your heart is your emotion. Which one comes first? Your eyes come first. Nistemu einayhem v'leiban shal yisrael. Look what Rashi says. Rashi is so smart. Rashi had unbelievable ruach hakodesh. Once Yaakov Avinu died, the first thing that goes is your perception of reality.

12:47 You're no longer seeing the deeper truth. What are you seeing? You're seeing suffering now. You're seeing pain without reason. And what do we do when you start to suffer? Emotional shutdown. If you want to stay emotionally engaged, it means your perception is that all of this is happening for a reason. Somehow, this makes sense. So if you're having a hard time in your life Staying emotionally present This is why. Emotional presence comes with the perception of the truth. That's why you know, like today in the world of psychology, everybody's talking about being emotionally present. So they tell you have to be present with your emotions. How can I be present with my emotions when my emotions are killing me? Right? You tell somebody who lo aline who loses a parent Or is going through a very hard time in their life, and you say, "Stay present with your emotions." What do they say?

13:46 "I don't want to stay present with my emotions. I want to numb out." Why? Because this is suffering. It's not painful. It's suffering. But if you know that everything is happening for a reason, what are you able to do? I'm able to stay present with my emotions because my emotions hurt. This reality hurts, but it doesn't mean that there's no reason. Suffering means you will be emotionally shut down. So now look what happens. Let's finish up this Rashi. Once the perception of the truth is diminished, what happens? Nistemu enem. Now their eyes are closed, v'libam, and their hearts become closed. Why? Because what is just beginning right now—the pain of slavery. Meaning, as long—I'm going to say it again. As long as Yaakov Avinu was alive Even if they went into slavery, it would have no impact on them. As long as Yaakov Avinu was alive, even if they were being treated so badly by the Mitzrim, Yaakov Avinu's presence would be like all of this is happening for a reason. It's like birth pains. Birth pains aren't suffering; that's pain.

15:02 So Hashem says, "I don't start the slavery until what?" Until Yaakov Avinu dies, because otherwise the slavery doesn't do anything. Slavery will only have an impact when you lose Yaakov Avinu. Because first you have to diminish the truth. Then once you diminish the truth, my perception of the truth goes away. I'm emotionally numb. Now you're ready to have the suffering of slavery. The obvious question is, why does Hashem want the suffering of slavery? Which we'll get to in a minute. But we already see a very profound thing. What happens? Yaakov Avinu dies. Emotional shutdown followed by slavery. What does Yaakov Avinu want? Let's finish up the Rashi, and then we're going to say something even deeper in a moment. Take questions in a second. He says, "Okay If I'm not going to be alive Let me at least do something to diminish the suffering. What could Yaakov Avinu do to diminish the suffering if he's not alive?

16:05 He could tell them the end. If you know that there's an end. There's an end in sight. Then what do you do? Then you say, at least I know that there's an end to this. If there's an end to this, what does that mean? It means that all of this is for a reason. So I may not know the reason, but I know that there is an end. Meaning there's an end zone that you're going to cross and score your touchdown. But if let's say I put you in a situation and you feel like the suffering is never going to end Right? That's an impossible thing. You know my favorite thing is. At some point, little kids get sick. That's not the favorite part. I'm not. I'm not a masochist. But if you have a two-year-old or a three-year-old and they can speak and they get sick and they go like this, they go, 'I'm never gonna get better.' Aww, right? The but you know why that's so precious?

16:54 Because in that moment, when they're running a fever and they're three, four years old, what do they think? Because they don't have the experience to know that it's a flu. You're gonna get strep throat for a day. It's gonna be right. But because they don't know that, what do they think? I'm never going to get better, and if it's never going to get better Then there's no way I'm going to get through this So what do people ask when they're suffering? Get this question all the time Rebbe. When am I going to stop feeling like this? When does it end? So Yaakov Avinu says, if I'm not going to be there to alleviate their suffering by showing them the reason for everything, at least let me tell them when the end is. And what does Hashem say? No. Because if you tell them when the end is Then it's not going to be suffering.

17:45 And for whatever reason, Hashem says I need this to be suffering. We'll see why in a moment. I'm going to take two questions just because we have so much to accomplish. One, two. You already got questions. So you're saying that Yaakov Avinu knew when the She'arim come. In this particular case, we're talking about the end of Mitzrayim, the end of days. Yaakov Avinu knew when Moshiach was going to come. And also, what do you mean by he told us the reason why everything was happening? He told us a specific reason, or just everything happens for a reason, like Hashem has. I would say it's even more profound than that. When you see Yaakov Avinu, even if Yaakov Avinu doesn't open up his mouth But because Yaakov Avinu personified the truth of Hashem. In his presence, you had no questions. He radiated truth. He was such a shining light of truth that there could be no darkness in his space. So a person who lacked faith in the space of Yaakov Avinu, they just knew. I know there's Hashem, and I know Hashem has a plan, and I know all of this is for a reason. And once you know that, you're not suffering anymore. You're in pain, but you're not suffering.

18:56 Last question. Because I know that there's going to be an end. So that means we've arrived. That means there was a destination we had to get to. And that means that even if I don't know what that destination is, at least I know I'm going somewhere. A good way of thinking about this is: This is a bad muscle for girls, but it works for boys. If you're playing basketball, you could run around for hours. Because there's a ball and there's an objective. I want to get the ball into the hole, and I want to stop the other team from getting the ball into the hole. We only have 48 minutes to play this game. That's why. But if you take the same activity but without the ball, and you just tell people to run in those motions for 48 minutes, they won't make it five minutes. They'll collapse because there's no end, there's no game, there's no purpose. So sometimes I know what the purpose is. That's Yaakov Avinu. In Yaakov Avinu space, I know exactly what the reason is. He radiates the truth.

19:54 But maybe I won't know the reason. But at least Yaakov says, 'Can I tell them the end? Can I tell them like it's gonna go until this date?' And it's like, okay, at least I know there's an end in sight. That's a little bit comforting, and I know that there's a place that we're getting to. The end is whenever we arrive at that place. Let's go a little bit deeper. Can we go a little bit deeper? Okay. Let's go a little bit deeper. At the end of Yaakov's life, he asks Yosef the Tzaddik. He says, "I need you not to bury me in Mitzrayim. I need you to promise me that you're going to take me to Eretz Yisrael." Where's Yaakov Vino buried? Marasimachpilah. Did your girls go yet this year to Chevron? Yes. So yes, just this past week. The so I like teaching in the seminary. Boys never do that. I never like ask the boys a question and get a woo.

20:53 Very enthusiastic. So the story goes like this. Yaakov Yenu says, 'I want you to bury me there.' It says, 'All you have to promise me that you're not going to bury me in Mitzrayim.' Rashi says three reasons. Three reasons. Yaakov says, "I don't want you to bury me in Mitzrayim." What are three reasons? You ready for it? These are three reasons. I'm not going to read the Rashi inside. Number one. The Egyptian soil will eventually turn into lice. This is the first reason because we know Correct? The makah of lice is so deep that it eventually turns into the Egyptian soil. Number two Number two, the Egyptian soil. The dirt becomes lice, and Yaakov doesn't want to be buried in it. Number two. You all know when Tchiasa Mesim happens, all of the bodies that are buried underground are going to roll all the way to Eretz Yisrael. And Yaakov Avinu says, "I don't want to go through the painful rolling process that has to do with Tchiasa Mesim."

22:06 And number three The Egyptians are going to turn me into an idol. And I don't want them to turn me into an idol. I'm repeating all three. I'm repeating all three. Happy to repeat. Repeating all three. What was the kash? The question was why didn't Yaakov Avinu? The real question now is why do we need suffering? What's the value of suffering? Why does Hashem want to put us in a place where His truth is concealed? But Yaakov Avinu says before we get there, Yaakov Avinu says, "Don't bury me in Eretz Yisrael. Don't bury me in Eretz Mitzrayim. Yosef, you have to promise me that you're going to bury me in Eretz Yisrael. Why doesn't he want to be buried in Mitzrayim? Three reasons. Number one, because the soil is going to turn into lice. I don't want to be buried in lice." Number two, because during Tchias Hamesim, during the resurrection of the dead It's going to be very painful for me to roll all the way from Egypt to Israel.

22:57 And number three, because if I stay here, what's going to happen? They're going to turn me into Avodah Zara. They're going to come to my burial place and they're going to worship me. And I don't want to be Avodah Zara. Those are the three reasons that Rashi brings why Yaakov Avinu doesn't want to be buried in Mitzrayim. I want to show you now something unbelievable about these three reasons. Because these appear again to be three separate reasons, I'm going to show you it's really all one reason. Remember, before Rashi, we had two Rashi's, two Pshatim and Rashi, but we showed now how they're really one. Let's do the same thing for this Rashi. Remember, what's Yaakov Avinu's midah? Emes. Yaakov Avinu is the midah of truth. Psychological truth number one. Once truth is concealed. Once truth is concealed, it erodes the very foundations of the land.

23:54 The land itself will become corrupted. I'm going to say this again. I want to make sure you get this. Stay with me. Once the truth becomes concealed, as long as Yaakov Avinu was in Mitzrayim, what was there? Truth. Once Yaakov Avinu dies The first thing that's going to happen Whenever truth falls away Society gets corrupted. The very land itself will turn into lice. You understand? There's something about truth that's so profound that as long as you have it Society's okay. But the moment you start to conceal the truth, what happens to society? The foundations of society start to crumble. By the way, throughout history People always ask, "What is? How come civilizations have their downfall? What's the real answer to that question?" Civilizations die when truth becomes subjective. Right? There's you know there was always like this is capital T truth and today we see this in the world today it's happening again.

24:56 Today everyone's like I don't even know what the truth is anymore. All the basic fundamentals of truth in society today. Again, I'm not saying anything specific. You'll have to figure out what I'm talking about for yourself. But you can figure out for yourself. All the things that were obvious to us when I was growing up, when I was a teenager in the mid '90s, if you would have told me some of the morality of 2025, I would have said to you, "No way" That's crazy. The things that we knew to be absolutely true are gone. Thirty years later, you're looking at an entirely different—it's like a totally different morality than the morality that I grew up with. Today there's no such thing as objective truth. It's whatever I feel. And what happens when you lose truth? Number one, the ground itself becomes corrupted. The foundations of society crumble. So what's the first thing Yaakov Yenua says? When I die, because I am the midah of truth, what's going to happen? The earth itself is going to turn into lice. It's going to become corrupted. That's truth number one. Truth number two.

26:06 This is even more profound. Not only does the ground become unstable But the journey to redemption becomes longer and harder. Remember, if Yaakovin was buried in Mitzrayim, in order to be resurrected, how far would he have to travel? He'd have to travel all the way from Egypt. All the way to Israel. It's a long rolling, and it's a painful rolling. When redemption happens, the road to redemption becomes longer and harder. It's long to go from Mitsrayim to Israel, and it's a difficult process. It's a painful process. Listen to these words. I want you to try to take this in. These are very important concepts. Rashi is telling us something that could change our lives if we're paying attention. Concealment. When you conceal the truth. It creates a distance between where you are and where you're meant to be. Concealment creates a distance between where you are and where you're meant to be. Once the truth fades, all of a sudden You're no longer in the place where you're meant to be.

27:28 That's why, in order to be redeemed, what do you need to do? You need to roll all the way to Israel. You ever have that? You ever have this experience in life? I'll play it out so it makes a little bit sense to you. You ever have a feeling in life you're like I knew the truth. I forgot the truth And I have no idea how I got here. You ever have a feeling like that? Like you ended up at a I don't want to say anything specific. You ever ended up at a party that you're like a fruit vegetable story. You ever end up somewhere and you're like, I promised myself I wouldn't go here. But in a moment of confusion, I ended up. I promised myself I wasn't gonna send him a message. I wasn't gonna DM him. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, you go like this. You go like I don't even know how I got back into this relationship.

28:19 That's about 75% of the room. That was intense. How does that make it? Because this is what happens. You have a moment of clarity. You have a moment of clarity. And in that moment of clarity, you go, I'm done with this relationship. Then the moment of clarity passes, and all of a sudden you find yourself back in the relationship, right? So the journey—it's more than the yechidah. It's when I know the truth, I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Once I forget the truth, I'm very far from where I'm supposed to be. And the journey to get back to where I'm supposed to be is not simple. You have to roll all the way back to your truth. So Yaakov Yenu says, if I'm going to be buried in this land that represents the concealment of the truth, and I'm going to be dead. The journey to Tchiasa Mesim, meaning the journey to get to be alive again, to get to be where I need to be, that's a long and complicated journey.

29:17 And returning to who I'm supposed to be involves struggle, friction, rolling through the darkness. You ever have this thing where you're like at the beginning of a diet? I'm talking about the beginning of a diet. It's like in the beginning of a diet, after a week you lose like five pounds because you lose all the water weight first, and then you do this. If I had started this diet six months ago, I'd already be finished. Right? And you know that it's hard to start that process. So step number two, what does Rashi say? When truth fades. The journey to return to who you are and where you're supposed to be is a long and painful journey. Yaakov says, "I don't want to do that." And step three, and this is perhaps the most powerful one: any time you live in a world of concealed truth, that's where distortion happens.

30:11 And people who are deeply spiritual, without the truth, they become idolatrous. Don't worry, I'll repeat it. Step number three, concealment involves distortion. What's the third thing Yaakov Avinu is afraid of? He's afraid of they're going to turn me into Avodah Zarah. Why are you so worried? They're going to turn you into Avodah Zarah because as long as there's truth. Then they're going to see. They're going to look at me. They're going to see God. But without truth, because the Egyptians are very spiritual people. What happens without the truth? Spirituality gets distorted. And instead of submitting to God, you make God submit to you. That's what idolatry is. God serves me. All I have to do is bring him this offering, and then God will do what I want. As opposed to submitting myself to God. So Yaakov Avinu says three things. Number one, once the truth is gone, three things are going to happen. Number one, society is going to collapse.

31:09 Number two, the return journey to who I want to be, to where I want to be, is long and painful. Number three, in the absence of truth, my spirituality becomes distorted, and instead of submitting myself to Hashem and His will, I become idolatrous. I make God try to submit to me. I don't think we have a lot of time left, so I'm going to hold off on questions. You could ask me questions at the end of the year. If you don't have a clear perception of the truth, you end up using your spirituality. Not to serve God, but to try to make God serve you. That's like people that daven and they go, 'If I daven really hard, then God's going to do what I want.' As opposed to saying, "I'm davening hard because I'm trying to connect to Hashem." What's the purpose of goulas? What's the purpose of getting into suffering? Why does God want us to have no revealed truth? Why does He want it to be moving from pain to suffering?

32:08 That's exactly right. Because in the space of suffering, that's where we find faith. When you don't see the reason clearly for why anything is happening, you have to believe. You can't see it with your eyes. Yaakov Avinu has died. But you have to live as if everything is happening for a reason. Listen to the last Rashi that I want to share with you. This Rashi is the most unbelievable Rashi. I hope that it will really inspire you to live a life of Chesed. What does Yaakov Avinu say to Yosef? He says, "Asisa imadi Chesed veEmes al natek bereini b'Mitzrayim." Please do me a genuine kindness, Chesed veEmes, not just any Chesed. What type of Chesed would Yaakov Avinu want? Emes dek Chesed. Chesed shel Emes. What does Rashi say? What's the Chesed shel Emes? What's the most genuine type of kindness that you could have, Chesed she'osan imameisim who Chesed shel emes she'ena mitzaple etashlem gemul.

33:12 Rashi says, the most real, genuine Chesed. It's the Chesed that you do for somebody who's dead because they can never repay you. In other words In the space of darkness, why would we do Chesed? Why most of us would do Chesed because of what we get from doing Chesed. It's like you ever hear people say this? I love giving tzedakah. It makes me feel so good about myself. I'm glad there are poor people so that you could feel good about yourself. Right? It's like that's the like your chesed is really selfish. I like doing chesed because afterwards I leave and I'm a really good person. So your chesed is not about doing for another. What's it about? It's about your identity. And people do get approval. You ever see people that do this? Don't tell anyone. I'm the anonymous donor. It's like you had your cake and you ate it too. You gave anonymously, and so you're a big tzaddik for giving anonymously, and then you tell everyone.

34:15 I'm anonymous. That's not chesed. That's chesed for the purpose of getting something in return. How do we live out? You said it perfectly before. When I live with the concealment of truth What's my opportunity? My opportunity is to say I believe that there's a deeper truth to all of this. How do you live that out practically? The answer is genuine chesed. When you have no reason to do a chesed for selfish reason and you do one anyway, right? This get this dead person is never going to pay you back. Yaakov Binu can never pay Yosef back. He has to take him all the way from Eretz Yisrael, all the way to Eretz Israel. That's quite a journey. It's not like today that it's a couple of hours. That was weeks back then. And by the way, it was very complicated. Because Parol wasn't going to let him, because he wanted to keep the bones of Yaakov in Mitzrayim, right? He's going to have to confront Esav in Marasamachpela. It's not simple at all to be able to do this And he's going to get nothing in return.

35:14 If you want to know the beauty of Gullus, this is the beauty of Gullus. The truth is obfuscated. You have no idea why Hashem is doing anything, but you live as if everything has a purpose. You live from the inextinguishable soul that you have. And that inextinguishable soul. You know why the soul does chessed? Because that's what the soul is. The soul is a giver. The soul is a giver. So you say, gullus can't destroy my soul. I'm doing things msic, even though the ms isn't apparent. And what's the ultimate ms that I can live? The ultimate ms that I can do is chessed. So in Mitzrayim, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says like this: I'm going to conceal the truth. There's going to be unbelievable levels of suffering. Your job is to turn that suffering into pain by believing that there's a reason that everything is happening and living that way. Act like a genuine balas chesed.

36:13 Now look at the Jewish community. What defines the Jewish community? You could argue a lot of things define the Jewish community, but I'm going to tell you what I think defines the Jewish community. We are the most incredible community of chesed. If you live somewhere and someone gets hurt, who do you call? Hatsala If your car breaks down, who do you call? Chaverim. If you can't afford food for Shabbos, Tomke Shabbos. If you get cancer, Chai Lifeline. If you have a special needs child, Olam or Campesk. And the list goes on. And if you're sitting Shiva, Miss Askim, anything you need. If someone dies in the Jewish community, we start a campaign, 72 hours to raise a million dollars to make sure that those kids can go to school, be educated, and have a roof over their heads. We do these campaigns all the time. We do it like it's nothing.

37:00 We are the ultimate community of Chesed. Why? Because thousands of years ago, when Yaakov died and the truth died along with him, Yaakov Avinu told us the secret. If you want to make it through Gullus, if you want to get to that finish line, I can't tell you the end. Yaakov says, I can't tell you the end date, but he winks at us. He says, Hashem closed my eyes and I'm not allowed to tell you the end. And I know that in my absence, you're not going to perceive the truth anymore, and you're going to emotionally numb out. So Yaakov gives us a wink. He goes, "Here's the secret to surviving Golahs—not just surviving, but thriving." Genuine, selfless Altruistic Chesed. Do things not because of what you get in return. Do things simply because that's the truth of what you should do. And that's the purpose. The purpose of Golahs is to reveal Hashem's light in the deepest darkness. As long as Yaakov Avinu was alive, we can't do that. The world isn't dark enough. A Jew loves the darkness. We thrive in the darkness. We are the light. And we're not afraid of the darkness. We know that the secret to darkness is Chesed Shalem. Guys, have a wonderful Shabbos.