CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #34: Rabbi Boruch Goldstein - Seeing the Light in the Darkness

welcome welcome welcome to yet another edition of hazak's tuesday's timely tour talks the very popular interviews on various torah topics with very very uh influential and and amazing rabbis and speakers tonight we have with us rabbi bharara what a great honor to be part of one of the most wonderful organizations that spread stereo worldwide across the globe and it's a tremendous horse thank you for having me of course it's our honor and tonight's topic is seeing the light in the darkness uh but before we delve into tonight's exciting topic robert goldstein can you give our audience a little bit of a background about yourself and the great work that you're involved with yes absolutely sabar hashem i'm currently the rav at kahal nerlemayo we're a kehillah on no shrimp the avenue between king's highway and avenue p and bark hashem it's a tremendous choice to be able to be a rob of such a beautiful and warm and loving kihilo there are many many professionals which at the same time are tremendous people that have tremendous shift and aspirations you know to be able to be part of such a beautiful kihilo where our darwining is so outstanding i could say that hashem you know that you know where mccain the words of the says and it's a tremendous experience and a great source to be part of such a beautiful show amazing near le mans has had this host of merit to organize quite a few events and lectures at the rav shul and we're always excited to spread torah everywhere and anywhere yes it's incredible work it's incredible i mean over the years that we worked together the different urim whether it was tish above or the legal holidays and it's really i mean the organization it's it's it's a conduit to really spread to the masses let's jump into it as we said tonight's topic is seeing the light in the darkness as we all know we just enter the cold winter months where there is a tendency to unfortunately you know for certain people to get down or to be sad uh you know in a sad mood because it's cold outside and the darkness starts earlier uh maybe the rabbit can elaborate on this phenomenon and order two ways to address it uh we all know we just had hanukkah also and we light up the night uh whenever it's night whenever it's uh that's when we're supposed to light the menorah yes 100 you know you're right in the summer you see the beautiful bright sun you know people are going around they're traveling you just walk outside and you just the weather it's just it lifts up a person's spirits right but then it comes to the dark nights of the winter in a way a person could get down you know it's raining outside it's cold it's snowing but the truth is that if you look through the prisms of toro if you look through the lens of saturn tells us a dialogue with different opinions of mandiarman between the rabbis what were the knights created for one rabbis of the opinion the knights created to go to sleep try to spend your time away during the daytime it lifts up a person exactly what you're saying but it's interesting that if shin ben lakesh who spent the earlier years of his life you know touring the streets he was the head of the abandons and you know he's part of the gang and he experienced traveling all over and if sherman laksh writes the night was not created ella lagerson and i was created to be able to have time persons not as busy during the days at work he has the nights in a sense it's viewed as a gift as a matano really an opportunity and a present from the ubanishalam that a person has longer nights where he's not so busy that he's able to spend on on learning torah you look through the prisms of of the way hashtag satori viewed it it wasn't a time to get down to the contrary it was a time to be uplifted you know we all celebrate two above it's a great yantef we're all familiar especially those who are learning the daft we're going to come to it shortly about the great yantov of tuba which is more famously that's the time that there were many shidduchim that transpired that took place the boys would go out the girls would go out there many sudden that took place and cloudy so it's a tremendous simcha but the gemara offers another interpretation on what the great celebration of tubal was and the gemara writes that the celebration of tubal according to one opinion was is that now is the time after the summer solstice where the nights get longer december 21st you have the winters you have longer nights that activated a special symbol a happiness of peace of mind of serenity of tranquility where a person sees i have a whole night in front of me i could use the time now to serve three bonus shalom that was the great simcha of tubov you should know it's very interesting revyaka if you're really going to appreciate this rabbi you have to hit us you know we know that i learned by billionski and he was 97 for 30 years anyone who came to his shed they would say oh he's in his high 90s for decades rebelliour kanski was a talmud and rebelliorkansky every single year on purim he would tell us over the story that in the time of the prophet shahim there was a dibik and he would say over the story what happened during the times of the debate by the chavez and they asked the debate they asked him the question that in what merit is the holy prophet saying is he held in such high regards in shamayim she would think they would answer because he penned his magnum opus the mishna bureau perhaps as safe from schmier salashan he wrote the dip against it it did again said you know why the times held on such a high pedestal it's because of it's his mother he uses his time he cherishes his time to use it in the proper fashion that was the godless that the praise for the prophet so you say okay but how do we address this how do we address this to the simple person you know there is no simple yid everybody is but how do we address it how do we address and implement it in our lives what can we walk away with it you know like you mentioned that we just left the ant of hanukkah i want to share with you a tremendous a profound thought from the basis throne the basic scroll is valdega kashu it says unorganized tells us that the whole holiday in the celebration of hanukkah was due to the fact that they found one flask of oil and this flask of oil that was supposed to last one night ended up lasting for eight nights and therefore we make a great celebration baha'u'llah nissan so the basis he doesn't understand the gemaran shabbos rafale tells us that towards the end of the era of sheminat sadiq which was about roughly maybe two generations before the miracle of hanukkah the gemara says that every single day there was a nace which took place with the meniro they would use the khasi look of shaman which had in it enough oil to burn he would ignite it at night and had enough oil in it that in the morning it would go out and yet says degemar that there's a daily miracle that the western limb even though the other lamps went out in the morning but there was a miracle with the western lamp that it's oil burnt until the next night till until the following night so the basic role is we sort of we witnessed eyewitness this miracle day in day out so why is it that we make such a celebration they saw says an incredible thing he says you know why he says because during that kufo the whole han hago the way that we banished loyola governed us and he conducted his hanauga with claudia's role everything was boif and nice clown esau was living in the full glory there being chamitaria mitzvahs a source of steadfast you saw what it means to live the life of your shamayim of er kite so the whole way that bernie salam conducted his hanaga with us and he governed us was in a way of miracles so this says the basis we saw another miracle so we witnessed another nace but that's not such a ready that's not such a great thing because the whole hanaga was by finnais but when it came to the era of hanako where unfortunately we know the majority of the jews they became the savnim they got mixed into the hellenistic culture to the greek lifestyle they were influenced and the majority of vietnam aren't germatory missiles but yet there was a small group that has who he saw such devotion and tremendous mysterious nefish and amidst such darkness amid such khaisha three bernie shalom went ahead and performed the miracle and showed these hidden this small group of hidden that i will never abandon you you're not forlorn you're not lost i'm with you side by side every step of the way every action that you do it means so much to me says the basis throw when reversal makes an nice when there's so much when there's so much darkness that's already a great celebration he should not be losing toric he's a a legendary a legendary margaret he's a shishibo and the illustrious goddale so he has the yeshiva narrative stroll he gives shay to the bakram and he learned in the part of which he ishiva so he was relaying over his story that he remembers that when he was learning by results all the students knew that if you can ask a question and share you have to make sure it's a good question because if it's not the schmorzovsky would let you know about it he would tell you why don't you think before you ask you know i'm oldicky your with lithuania rasha shiva's it's not like today they said what had to be said he was in shia one time and uh one of the boys asked a question that schmulzowski stopped to share he thought for a moment and he told this boy he says he should know he isn't a great casual casual he thought for another moment and he told him a great parents she belongs the turk that was in the class when he's writing down the notes he wrote down this boy's question and he wrote down the reshishida's answer decades later this fellow who asked the question he ended up going into business he went out to work he had his family and he meets him decades later and if he lost his torah tells this person you should know i'm saying share now and yeshiva we're learning messengers bob matsia and i was going over my notes and i told all the students in the yeshiva i told them over your question and i told them what ski answered and they parted they switched wished each other goodbye and they left a year or two later they meet again in rochester they meet again and this person comes over to bellazar toric and he thanks him he embraces him he hugs him he tells him you should know you saved my life the loss of turkish and what do you mean had i saved your life he says i'll tell you you know listen i got so involved in the business world and as we know of it today i became so immersed in business that unfortunately the only learning i did was shabbos morning korea satoru that's how i was yesterday learning for the week but then when you came over to me at that moment and you told me that you're saying over my torah there are people in cloud you soul that are saying over my torah how could i not apply myself more and right when we left and we parted i went to this farm store and i bought myself a gamer above meteor and i made the result that i'm not going to stop my day or finish my day without spending some time learning the holy words of the tarakado show and from that it led to more anytime i have time during the day i pull out my gmail above methio and you should know when i was elevated my wife was elevated my children became better the whole atmosphere the whole environment of my entire home became so different and that's why i want to thank you for what you did for me you know every single one of us has a small flask of oil every nisham is blessed with his mission statement with his unique mission with his task that he's placed onto this world that nobody else could accomplish and although we're amidst there's such darkness the influence the environment of the outside world that tries daily to infiltrate into our lives to try to minimize the kadusa vid but every single year it has his flask of oil whether it's a person who's able to apply himself to taro whether he's able to apply himself to hesed or whatever it may be ibrunishlam says when you leave the yantov of hanukkah just ignite that small flesh and you'll see if you do that one action and you light your flask of oil it's not only gonna last for eight days but it's gonna change your entire life and it's going to last all eternity and the same way that person he had that park he built in that small flask of oil that he was able to gain in yeshiva it was ignited by a compliment by making the resolve and his whole entire life himself his offspring his descendants everything is going to change and that's how we have to leave hanukkah and the way to address it is is that every individual and every person has to realize that he's given a god-given talent a flask of shaman a flask of oil that's his unique shaman and a person honestly knows what his cultures are what his talents are and if he ignites that flask we burnish them or take that small path and he'll see that also his life will change and that's really what it's all about because when a person applies himself to spiritual matters in the pursuit of roughness he'll see he'll have more of an elevated life and he'll be able to attach himself like the question he asking how to address it the true answer is is that for each person that knows his talent and every person has a milo he has to ignite that flask and he'll see his winters will start to shine he'll start to become brighter he'll be a happier person he'll be more fulfilled and he'll be able to turn his winters and he'll be just as happy as he is in the summer amazing rabbit it's like the famous saying of the ghost crime that a person wanted to change the world he realized he couldn't do this so he said i'll change my country he couldn't do it he changed my city he couldn't do it i changed my family he couldn't do it he said i'll change myself but once he changed himself then his family his city his country and the world was changed as well exactly so you start with yourself and slowly but surely it will it will spread the light so so rabbi we know that one of the f foundational mitzvoth is love your fellows you love yourself if we find our fellow friend or neighbor who is in the darkness and isn't as they say in the best mood what's the best device for this situation so it could be like the rabbi just said to throw a compliment to give him a little bit of and we know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure how do we prevent our fellow relatives and friends from falling into the tendency of getting down and being in a sad mood don't we avoid the problem in the first place not for them to get there in the first place oh wonderful you shouldn't be if there's a an incredible ramban this is a really an amazing ramban you know there's a misconception that you know people learn the possibility a person should love his fellow friend like himself and you know a person could ask the question how's that possible you know it's the mathias is otherwise it's a matisse of a person that he loves himself the most more than anybody else the manual even poses the question how could there be a mitzvah reach commercial and even more so we find in the talmud and in many other sources which indicates and implies otherwise you know the imam bob mitchell says the famous case we have two people walking in the desert there's one flask of water says there's only one flask of what are you supposed to drink it yourself i what does it even mean what happened after the reflect you know it's very interesting in spain during the times of the redvase unfortunately it also subjected tremendous oppression to his terrible anti-semitism that was taking place and there were two two very good friends two childhood friends they were best friends and unfortunately um one of them were arrested and was a liable it wasn't true as a false false accusation that they arrested him for stealing and in spain at that point the time if somebody was found guilty they would cut off his arm and the person knew he was innocent he was 100 innocent there was totally motivated by anti-semitism and luckily a miracle happened and if he was arrested he was able to escape and he fled to a different country which is a story on its own but we don't have time for that it's beyond the scope of the time that we have so uh the government the police government was so agitated on what happened so they ended up arresting his best friend and they placed out an announcement and they spread out a declaration that if the person that escaped comes back then fine we'll let your best friend go free but if you don't come back not only are we going to chop off your friend's arm we're going to kill him well so he had a shiloh what to do what does he do is he makes to go back because his friend his best friend's life is at risk so they send this shiloh to the advance and they wanted to ask him his opinion andrew penderchuva it's a famous shooter it does whether it was writes back that he's not making to go back to have his arm chopped off to save his friends so this makes the cash even bigger what happened to the after reach and here we see that it's even taken in it doesn't mean that i need to love my friends as much as i love myself because that's impossible it's against the teva the nature the way that we banish them created us but rather says ramban what the pusk is teaching us is the what each and every individual wants for himself the shidduch that he wants for himself the wealth the way he desires his life to run it should be a life of shalom of avo viagra of serenity of peace of tranquility the same way what you want for yourself you should want that for the other person as well you know there's i want to i want to share with you the part was in a phenomenal fundraiser phenomenal one of the best fundraisers i think claudia show had you know they say over a famous uh acute uh anecdote he was once a fundraising and they told him if you go to this person you're wasting your time you're not gonna get anything he wasn't such a religious person so you're wasting your time don't even bother the parametric says no i want to go to him came to me spoke to him and this affluent wealthy individual told the ponovich he says listen i'll make a deal with you i'll cover the whole budget of the school i'll put up the building on one condition none of the boys could could wear keepers they can't wear yarmulkes so the part of it you're off told them fine we have a deal he walked out of the house and he opened up a girls school [Music] so when the panama chiropract came to america to collect his only child uh gave birth a couple of weeks early and he was stuck here in america and it's not like today he could get on a red-eye flight he wasn't able to get a ticket so fast so he ended up missing the bris before he came back the khasanesh instructed his children to go back to the hospital and put the baby back in the hospital bed it's like this when he comes back that simcha that joy that is they did that a grandparent has when the first grandchild is born they'll be able to experience that and not feel that it was taken away from him and the entire happened without him you know what's so great about the story the kazanishina had children oh wow but yet he was so sensitive to the needs of others he was able to tap in what's the need what's the tsar what would i want in such a situation what does the other person need what's he missing and he was able to be urinated and he was such a gudle in that aspect that akide kach don't take away that symmetra that he could have experienced and that's i believe the answer to the question here you see somebody else is down you have to be a person should be urinated what are they missing what what makes them tick what excites them what could i do for them that will put them back on the map to make them happy whether it's going out together whether it's spending time if it's someone who wants to be able to learn to learn with them to schmooze with them to be yuri leslie shalom to be sensitive to their needs and when a person is sensitive to another person needs his needs you could change his life there are so many stories i mean we ourselves just being in and being at this role we could tell you of stories of what it meant a good word to somebody what a compliment could do what it means to make a say with a person to go out with them if it's something they like to play a sport game or like they want to go out to eat for a coffee together whatever the person needs it could be a vast difference of of people what they need what they're yearning and how they have to be nourished if a person is you're the same type of one person like you said he could change it could be a whole a whole different a whole different uh dynamics of the person's life to change amazing rabbi goldstein what what inspiration very very very nice and maybe we could ask you for one final message one final thought for our broader audience about these points about uh lighting up the night we'll say so i'll tell you i want to leave with it with a with a message that i i believe is is ms lamite you know we all know the story with joseph and the tremendousness sign that he was able to pierce that the rama titles and the random list examples of how you describe the epitome what's the pinnacle of a haify dummy kid hashem how do we describe someone who is makadashem shamayim she would think the rambam would list maybe a ramavinu was thrown into the kitchen age people who are moist in their should give up their lives for hashem and simon writes the ramen writes that the epitome the top of the totem pole the greatest example the primary example of someone who's making shame shamayim was joseph sadiq with the nissan of asia's paitifa where she tried to entice him and learn into het and yosef being all alone and being able to withstand such a test that's the epitome of what a kid is hashem is but you know what's interesting the introduction that the terror gives to such a story to the episode of isis it says it's a regular day joseph came to do his work we know joseph was the manager he was the ceo of the business he ran everything and the puzzle describes the introduction to the story he came to do his work sigmar inciter wonders what does it mean lassis nalafti do his work one opinion is that he had a mind to do the sin he had the marshal he had the intent for hashem he was saved but his merchava was to do the other another opinion is what does it mean he came to do the work it means it was a regular day and he had a mind to come to do his daily work whatever he was supposed to do whatever job he had to do it was a regular day and he had a mind to perform and to do the work that he was supposed to do i beg the question if you learn like the opinion that he had in mind to do the average i understand that this is the introduction to the episode of isis we want to tell you that although we had the marshal hashem he was able to withstand this the greatness as difficult as it was and even he had the mashup to do it if you learned the last malachi means it was a regular day he came to work why is that necessary why is that the preface of this story what do i need to know that for about a person that did a courageous and bold act and in all three similar stories the ignora concludes on all these three instances rebbe had an epiphany and he began to cry and he said yes there are those who are meritorious that are able to merit to be a to acquire a portion of the world to come on the turn of a dime in one instant the azerbaija rebbe and this rebbe cried and i asked you what was rebbe crying about you mean he was this disappointed and agitated that what took me a lifetime this other person was able to accomplish on the turn of a dime you know what rebbe is teaching us what rebbe is telling us is is that rebbe realized of what a moment of inspiration of what could it can accomplish what a person could accomplish in one instant in one moment the alzheimer's ready cried because he said to himself who knows how many times in my life i let those moments pass comes the and the plastic says her boy it was a regular day and he was faced with something that changed the entire landscape it it changed his destiny he became the use of the lekka shoveler writes if he never would have withstanders to sign the whole world would have crumbled and been destroyed it was a regular day a regular moment and joseph was given the opportunity to be faced with an asylum that changed everything it elevated him from yosef to become joseph he's the one that represents claudia's throne yosef is the same numerical value as melekhiyovan he's the same gematria as antiochus living in the living amidst the darkness like we are living today the influence of the darkness of the outside world the yeast have embedded within us every single year this kayak it wasn't young kipler it wasn't the ila it wasn't that grand great moment it was a regular day and that's the message that we in our days it could be a regular day a person's face with an assignee thinks oh i accomplished an essay and i faltered in a certain it's not going to make a difference what dent is going to make is it going to make dr pasik no every single person don't minimize any act any mission you know why because you're rewriting the books of history by yavoi yosef was a regular day he was planning on going to work and yet he was faced with nassarian and jesus probably thought to himself what's the difference and i do do it i don't know who's going to know anyway it's before martin toro he could have had myriads and myriads of excuses but yet he with stand in the sun look look what he accomplished his entire destiny changed he was on the haitian that's what the message is we in our lives every single moment don't turn it away how's that buffer review what a moment of inspiration could accomplish that's the message that we have to take out you know if schwab once spent the shabbos schwab and he's set over many times you know his experience you can imagine how he felt to be better for his shabbos and one of the things he mentioned he told him said you should know i'm a kind he says you know why he's my great great great great grandfather when mushroom made the calling mila my great great grandfather stepped forward and from that one act it changed the entire dynamics forever and ever that his children will be serving not in a regular place but doing the void in the base being mark of the cabanas spending time in the holiest place why because of one act that my great great grandfather did that's the message we have to ignite our parchemin everybody has tremendous crisis we live in a world today that our mitzvahs have so much more value than the previous generations we realize the path that's invested within us but we realized what we could accomplish i think that's the greatest physic and that's the greatest message that we could walk away from hanukkah and to the [Music] the power of the moment how a person within a moment can really really be inspired or to change or to do more uh robbie goldstein want to thank you for your inspiration for your zook i want to thank you for all that you do for call yourself for the jewish people and for everyone and uh let's take these messages to heart and like the rabbi said let's present the shem uh bring the gula and we'll see the gulash the complete redemption spin there it is you