Episode 13 BEYOND THE 7 (Love G-d) with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] oh hey good day folks welcome back to another episode of beyond the seven live from jerusalem with rabbi aaron david poston i'm so enjoying this class folks for me he's teaching something unique i enjoy this turn uh to the six constant mitzvahs in the sense that they're uh almost all universal they're they're relevant at any any era any to almost any person and um i'm not gonna i'm not gonna go on i'm gonna let the rabbi clarify exactly what he means it's always a joy to spend time with him and i'm so thankful that he stays up late rabbi poston we see you're in a different location today so good to be with you sir you have the mic you're on stage thank you dan welcome everyone i'm so glad to be here once again i'm actually just now in my study it just happens to be that i don't have air conditioning but in the last few evenings i last few times i woke my wife up so here's a little bit more um secure in terms of round and uh i've been using this uh for last week or two for other classes so uh it's actually more comfortable in a certain sense so i'm glad to be here either way was it hot there has it been hot i heard you had a bit of heat wave there in israel yeah but not at this hour so i actually i have to keep my window closed because the neighbors would probably hear me so it's okay i'm comfortable thank you well once again we do appreciate you staying up i know it's after 11 30 there in israel uh but this class this class is valuable and um i'm glad we're able to share it and thank you for sharing with us all right thank you for having me once again i want to start off by mentioning the we're in the fourth of the six constant mixes the first three were more like intellectual attitudes and the latter three which were beginning the first of the latter three is um i'm going to either call behaviors or how did i put it i actually uh took myself notes okay to find them to find the order of them all uh we'll call them not just deeds or actions but also emotions okay at least the fourth and the fifth which is love god and to fear god so the the big question let me just let me let me this read uh rabbi daniel katz's translation to love hashem as it is written and you can find this in deuteronomy chapter 5 6 verse 5 which is uh part of the shema i will read it in depth and in hebrew but i just want to read but he writes love hashem your god and power with all your heart so the the remember we're reading from the in the mission of brewer who is quoting the safer and this is rabbi katz's translation how does one acc access this experience of divine love through the torah itself as is brought in the sith free it says love hashem but the big question we're going to deal with is how because again if it's an emotion how does one elicit this emotion the verse that follows actually tells you how so if you read the shema itself so i said it was in deuteronomy chapter says in english now shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might but i wanted to just mention verse four that's the shema israel hashem we dealt with this i i guess we'll call it at length as much as we could last week so i referred those who are just tuning in now for the first time to go back to the previous sessions but that verse four is dealing with ye knowing that god is one and all the implications okay so you just read verse five and it's not just with all your heart but with all your soul and with all your resources with all your heart and we'll talk about this probably in the the number six the commandment number six the fact that lavov has two bets with all your inclinations with all your soul and with all your ma'odeka that's a very strange word but we'll use the translation as resources or actually daniel didn't translate that but okay that's fine so right away what's the next verse in other words if you're commanded to love god the next verse if you read it for us number six let me just turn up my mic and these words which i commanded thee this day shall be upon thy heart okay so what we're going to lead you to believe right to to try to understand that if if this is an emotion and god wants you to have this emotion are you in control of your emotions and how do you elicit this how do you draw it forth the answer is in the next verse which says and you just read it i'm going to just say read it in hebrew as well it's talking about i have to find it i lost my place these matters which i command you today i want you to know when you read the english it's not it's not as explicit it's not as deep as if you understood the hebrew so it says by you had the vari it will be these words these matters these words what what is that it's the torah itself it's the torah if you put these words let me just go back again that i command you today they shall be upon your heart right the seat of emotion so in order to elicit this love that god just commanded you to have you shall love the lord your god the way to get there at least one of the three ways we'll talk about tonight there are two other ways is through torah learning learning the torah so i don't understand where anybody comes off and says of this not too controversial that uh that the torah is only for the jews yes we did discuss this that there are parts of the torah that may be off limits but a majority and i don't know what the majority means it could be 99 it could be 95 at least you know we're talking about the huge amount of torah learning is for mankind and i say turtle learning i'm talking about the the written torah for sure 100 okay the whole tanakh it's when we get into the oral torah and i've expressed many times there's really zero possibility of understanding the written torah without the oral torah you don't even know an aleph is an allah for a bet as a bet without the oral torah right you don't know what the word how to pronounce the word because the vowels are not in the written torah right you don't have vowels you don't have there's no expression of what it means other than what your rebbe or your father will teach you so we were at mount sinai we were at the revelation and this is where you the the oral torah comes in so without getting controversial right that this this is this is how do you how do you love hashem through learning target says it right there you have to learn the talk so we'll go on i'll just read again the verse that follows the mitzvah the command to love teaches you how let these words and teachings of the torah that i charge you with today reach and influence your heart you understand this beautiful translation that through engaging in torah you will recognize and become increasingly conscious of the one who spoke and generated the world into being practically speaking by meditating on the teachings of the torah one will become conscious of the true greatness of the divine meaning hashem that nothing compares to it for it is infinitely beyond anything we can conceive i just want to go back one more point that we mentioned uh rabbi gutmacher said that mitzvah one matches up with mitchell four mitzvah two matches up with mitch mitzvah five and the last of the first three which is number three matches up with number six so the first commandment is to know there's a god to believe in god and number four which will tell us to love that god so how can you okay how can you love him so the way is to know him right it's almost like a relation any relation any relationship you you have a spouse so the truth is probably on day one i mean provided that you weren't living with them or or intimate with them so how do you know them right even the word to know in hebrews like is means intimate okay it's through getting to know them and the more time you spend i think there was a movie called the fiddler on the roof and there was a scene it was a long time ago i'm sure many have seen it a song between the husband and wife you know she's do you love me i i've washed your clothes i've made you dinner i you know i've done all these things how can you ask so we're going to get into this idea that it's about the first of the three which we said is knowing god that's intellectual but now we're talking about deeds and actions and emotions okay so this number one matches up with number four and as one practices this automatically a sense of a great love for hashem will begin to settle and be awakened in your heart the essence of this mitzvah is that a person should strive to invest their entire mind and being into feeling divine love until their heart experiences that everything in this world from riches to children and honor is all like nothing at all in comparison to the love of the divine so we will discuss this tonight how to get to this point a person should constantly invest in seeking the wisdom of the torah in order to know hashem intimately alternatively one who sets their mind and desires on that which is physical and transitory his own enjoyment and honor and lacking any deeper spiritual intent would have transgressed this mitzvah his punishment and consequence for submitting illusion for reality is great okay so this is what the hovenshine brings down in the name of the hinok and that is how we're going to start the evening and okay let me just put this away there we go so one of the great questions that rav noah weinberg had asked is again if it's a emotion how does what is love you have to define love actually right so one of the ways he defines it is that you like i said if you're just newly married i mean how do you have love so love the in the hebrew is the root is have which is aramaic forgiving so we have like a little understanding the one who gives is the one who loves you may say okay the person has given me all this stuff i must love them that that may be true but the real building block on love is giving so from hashem's point of view he wants to give us the greatest good and then if we recognize that and feel that and we emote it i know as we we study it and we it becomes real to us and we're going to discuss all these ideas tonight of how one can come to that realization so you'll feel the love because it's emitting from hashem himself and then you hopefully will then love him again now i know this may sound controversial because ravnoch says it everyone says it god does not need anything he doesn't need anything and we did discuss this idea that there is meet sadenu and mitsudo from his perspective of course he needs nothing but he created us in his image and we're supposed to i'm gonna use the word feel or think philosophically that we can means hashem okay that doesn't mean that he's lacking anything god forbid there's nothing he's lacking but i know this topic has become quite controversial i know you discussed it not in depth but in conceptually speaking in a previous class with rabbi kaufman about certain teachers that discuss god's need and what we can do for him i'm not going to go into that at all tonight but i want to discuss this idea of that how are we supposed to love hashem when we contemplate contemplate and meditate and realize again we talked about the torah's one way but we're going to see the ram bomb brings two well at least one other and the ramban brings a third and that would be through nature through observing the unbelievable com complications uh the miracle of nature i know we say well it's not it's not a miracle it's just natural but really when you study science properly you will be overwhelmed blown away by you know what we're going to talk about you you get the point oh yeah okay so i do want to go back a little bit again just to review the first three number one that we know there's a god believe in a god which means that we believe that there's a purpose to the world and the relationship we have with him that's number one number two that there is no other meaning there's no other road to success we want to have happiness and success it's only going to come through that relationship number three that everything that exists what we call good and bad where the the revealed good and the hidden good it all has one purpose and that's to help us come closer to hashem even what we call evil it's just a challenge so that we can earn and feel the value of the good and the growth that comes out of it in order to build ourselves and to correct our own character which is really where such i'm going to use the word schlep it's a yiddish expression for deriving pleasure when you work let's say you know you're an inventor you're a builder and you accomplish something in the physical world you do feel a sense of accomplishment and there's nothing wrong with that but can you imagine work on working on a character trait i mean this is what you're here in the world to do so if you can feel that pleasure of the increments you're making right if you were god forbid overweight or unhealthy in a certain area and you were trying to adjust your cholesterol or your sugar whatever it is so if every pound you lose or every time your your your numbers drop as a diabetic or so the same thing when you're working on your anger wow i just had a situation where i know i passed right i i passed the challenge uh i counted to 10 and i didn't uh respond like i normally respond however it is you should schlep nachas you should derive such pleasure because this is what you're in the world to do okay so that's a little bit of an idea of discussing happiness but we're going to get into um getting this a little bit deeper i want to mention that in the curses that are mentioned in deuteronomy chapter 28 they're quite horrific i don't know if that's the word i mean catastrophic and um at one point it's really towards the end basically of the first set um it's verse 47 chapter 28 in deuteronomy verse 47. shall i read it i want to go back to verse 45 because he kind of it sums up all these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you're destroyed because you will not have hearkened to the voice of hashem your god to observe his commandments and decrees that he commanded you 46 they will be a sign and a wonder in you and in your offspring forever and now i want you to read 47 for us because thou did not serve the lord thy god with joyfulness and with gladness of heart by reason of the abundance of all things okay so basically can you imagine you had everything do we have everything that's the question sometimes we feel we don't but again that is a emotion elicited from uh from our minds from our intellect so we talked about yiklo hashem that everything comes from hashem even what we call bad or challenges and yet are we looking at them negatively or positively hashem says i'm going to read in hebrew in 47 because you did not serve the everything in this world is to serve hashem believe it or not that's what we're here to do and he gave us the resources as we mentioned you should love the lord your god with your heart and your soul and all your resources so because you didn't serve hashem your god bisimra and with the goodness of heart me wrote me cold when you had everything like okay if you didn't have money i can understand why you're not a big contributor right to uh charity or certain causes okay but what happens when you did have it well we god gave us all that we need in this world the truth be told right god provides everything the question is is this our attitude how are we dealing with this and this is what we're going to talk about tonight a little bit more this is the worst curse the worst or let's say as a summary of all the curses ultimately come because of this i'm going to call it a mistake many people make this mistake they don't realize oh how do i express it it's like this if i say what's the worst sin okay so we can say murder idol worship right adultery all these things are they're horrible guess what it sounds like this this is the worst sin okay because if we had the love for hashem we wouldn't want to harm him we talked about this right there's different kinds of love or different kinds of fear right if you love hashem a lot of times you don't really love hashem you just love yourself right the famous story about the person who loved fish someone heard this guy loves fish he comes to his house he thinks that he's going to see all these aquariums with these beautiful fish and everything's gonna be labeled and i don't know so organized the guy loves fish and he comes and the guy he's eating the fish he's eating the fish you don't love fish you hate the fish if you love the fish you would be killing it need it no it's called selfishness right so okay so when we talk about love it has to be on this ultimate love is going to be on a higher level just like fear you either fear punishment which is a low level but it's still broke hashem look if someone is going to refrain from sinning because he fears punishment it's not so bad but that's not the highest level and that's not what god ultimately wants he wants you to fear him meaning all of him that you have such respect that you wouldn't want to harm him again again using these words because hashem is not harmed there's nothing that that could uh impact god like that but we talk about from our aspect we think that we're harming hashem let's just say we're pleasing hashem again it's it's literal it's not literal we're not going to go there okay keep this in mind this is something that we have to contemplate we love hashem and we wouldn't want to um to harm him okay just like an intimate relationship with our wife when we're going through the bedroom at two o'clock in the morning to find something you know you want to turn the light on to find it you know what you'll find a way i think every phone now has a little flashlight okay so you'll find a way to tiptoe around the room so you don't wake her right you don't want to harm her you don't want to disturb her sleep okay um here we go from here i do want to talk about a particular author rabbi avigdor miller amazing amazing author and unfortunately passed away quite a few years ago here's just one book and he he wrote so many so many books and he he you can still listen to his tapes and read his books i i suggest highly to borrow them to to buy them the very last verse maybe i shouldn't go there yet let me let me go somewhere else first there's a in psalms chapter 100 verse 2. let's go let's go there and you have it you want to read it one second psalm 100 verse two yeah verse two yeah serve the lord with gladness come before his presence with singing now this may sound and okay so it's one verse big deal remember there's nothing there's nothing new in the tanakh i i should say the nachman in other words the prophet could never come and reveal something that had never been revealed before the main job of the prophet or prophets is to give rebuke rebuke means to remind somebody of what they know is right and they should then go back to the proper path so even though david the psalms is in the writings david was a prophet but we're not talking about his prophecies we're talking about the writings so even in the writings there's nothing revealed same as the prophet there's nothing revealed that hadn't already been revealed in the torah so if god wants to serve you to serve him with joy with joy and love is going to be synonymous let's say okay if you if that's hard to uh understand hopefully we'll discuss this further but to search with joy that's what that's what king david is saying he said it's a hundred verse two let me just read it in hebrew gladness in the version i'm reading from eve and come before him with joyous song serve hashem with gladness come before him with joyous song i just want you to know do we say this every day i mean the jews are you know we're reading psalms throughout our day particularly in the morning so bazooka zimra this particular safer by rabbi the victor miller is on the prayers in the morning and he's going to quote the very last imagine this the last verse of all songs there's 150 chapters and in the last psalms go to chapter 150 in psalms we're going to read the last verse of the last chapter right it's like one of the biggest books in the tanakh i'm not going to say in english we'll start with english sure i just want to mention it's like a uh dish it's like the hammer that struck the final blow on on the nail that set everything in place right you can imagine in our prayers the last word is always shalom okay and if it's benching the mazon grace after meals in the shemon esre in the standing amidah the word shalom that's like the gold the sea the the climax is peace that's what we're hoping and praying and aspiring towards here this is king david's last words and psalms and what does he say says let everything that hath breath praise the lord hallelujah okay i'm glad that your translation says breath and the word neshama really means soul however we do know that when god placed our soul into our bodies in genesis the the targum ankalet the translation says the soul that he put in is a speaking spirit speaking spirit so we're talking about breath okay the the speech and i mean that's that's what connected okay so the so one of the main ideas is that what are we supposed to do how are we supposed to i'll use the word how is our soul supposed to praise hashem with every breath through speaking right it's now king david also instituted that we should say a hundred blessings a day okay it's a little bit of a mock locus whether it was always instituted and it was forgotten about but there was a plague and many jews had died and king david realized that we're not doing this properly and he instituted saying a hundred blessings a day what it's not just moving your lips it's not just by rote it's it's a fulfillment of this idea every soul or every breath shall praise hashem i'll just read from rabbi victor's book victor miller he writes it's not written called hanni shama which we mean every soul but called haneshama which denotes all the soul the entire soul okay indeed all souls should participate in the greatest of all functions but also all the potential qualities of the soul should be enlisted and the soul is endowed with the ability to meditate and to be melancholy to be humbled or to be elated so all the soul can be activated and developed in other words this is our job also intended here is the summons to all kinds of souls meaning all men so those who are not jewish listen well okay all people those who have the tendency to meditate or to rejoice or to be humble or to marvel at hashem's wonders which leads us into this idea how does one come to love hashem number one we said through nature through observing nature and also through meditation on the torah okay by marveling at hashem's wonders or to yearn to come close to him again number one was to know there's a god number four this love of god is is actually a physical you know deeds on how we're going to become close to hashem although everyone is urged to bestow all his all of his potentialities yet men differ greatly in their natures they're summoned to unite and contribute their abilities just as each individual is urged to utilize all aspects of this character so we take our entire being okay at least on a personal level all of our different parts all of our different uh our attributes to to serve hashem before we go further i want to go to ecclesiastes this is a king david's son king solomon so i'll just quote the three verses i want to focus on right now um chapter 3 verse 12 in kohelet in ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 22 and 8 verse 15 and then we'll go back to psalms 19 9 but okay so if you want to read in 3 12 3 verse 12 i know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to get pleasure so long as they live okay i don't have the same translation but in hebrew yadati i know i knew he ain't there's no greater thing in the world but in this world okay so when we're talking the the commentators talk about this as to find it okay thus i perceive the addati i know that there's nothing better for them for who for mankind this is for everybody that it's meant to type of remembrance he should remember about the david's death that's hidden that's fine there's nothing better for them for them than to rejoice in their lot and to do what is right in god's eyes while they're still alive so we're talking about the idea of practicing or incorporating torah principles in our lives that's what is called good and one should be happy doing that okay there's nothing better for him than to do that okay the next verse i mentioned was 22 that was 22. where wherefore i perceived that there was nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works for that is his portion for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him and i think you just elaborated on that yeah i just want to know i mean let you know i mean you think about what i'm not here to bash christianity although they deserve quite a bashing um going back to the hebrew in in in verse 12 it says there's nothing better than to be la and to do good acts i know there's a philosophy out there that's just believing and you don't have to do anything okay so i'm sure there's a lot of christians that know that's already um maybe not but uh that that is extremely false it's a false idea right god wants us to improve our actions and to act this is what he said you should love the lord your god with everything not just your belief right love god with your heart your soul your breath right and your resources okay so here even though in number 12 it says the la soto then to do good over here it says in hebrew yes right i observed i saw there's nothing better for a man to be happy in what in what he is doing in his actions because that is his lot before we go i want you to go if you're in perky i voted who is happy who is happy with his lot what is his lot his deeds okay when what he's doing i'm sorry in his in what he's doing that's his deeds meaning the performance of the torah and the mitzvahs because that is your portion meaning the torah observance whatever level you want or whoever you are whether you're a righteous no kind or a jew it doesn't matter whatever torah observance this is your joy this is your portion this is what's within man's power alone he should concentrate on spiritual matters primarily therefore putting mundane matters secondary rashi interprets the man is entitled to rejoice in and enjoy the products of his labor but that he must exercise temperance and not accumulate accumulate what is not rightfully his so what do you really make yours when you die right you're going to die eventually 120 years uh with a shame toe bizarre to show with a good name what does it mean a good name it means what you have accomplished in your life in terms of your character development okay i just want to make that clear okay if you want to go to 8 15 we're still in ecclesiastes 8 15. so i commended mirth that a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry and that this should accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which god has given him under the sun okay so it sounds a little different mike when it says in hebrew the shebachti ani right i have praised what et simbra the joy the enjoyment i think you translate is myrrh i don't know but it's simple i have praised the simpler i sure aim there is nothing better for man under the sun except to eat to drink and to be simcha okay because this is going to accompany him in his toil now the word malo is amal means toil the days of his work the days of his life which god has given him we're going to say he gave him all these opportunities but the commentary explains said verse one second okay so when it says simpa we translate that as joy he's not talking about joy for its own sake but she's america but again someone should be satisfied with his lot again what is that talking about his involvement in performing righteous precepts which glad in the heart so that's why i want you to go to psalms 19 9 just to get an idea what we're talking about here 19 9 the precepts of the lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the lord is pure enlightening the eyes all right okay let's see the hebrew sorry and the wrong chapter there you go 19. yeah 99. hashem yashari miss mitzvos hashem borum irishanayan now we're going to talk about the word piku day pekudei it really means like a visitation or instructions okay to count it has a lot of uh a lot of um possible meanings but whatever these visitations of god or the uh commandments of god are for the straight and for the upright here it's in hebrew for the joy the gladdening apart okay so we want joy it always seems to be connected with doing the right thing i mean i can imagine people who do the wrong thing i'm talking for myself we have a sense of either guilt or what a waste of a life what a waste of energy i hope that this would be a person who does the wrong thing would feel um an emptiness where's the joy where's the joy there's no joy there right so before we go into the the safer the actual book on the six constant mitzvahs i want to read for you a few ideas from the rambam himself in the mishnah torah in they found the fundamental principles of the torah itself the foundation of the torah so he actually brings down that it's a mitzvah to love god he actually combines it with fear so we're going to try to separate them a little bit it's a mitzvah to love and fear this glorious and awesome god as we quoted in deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 5 and you shall love the lord your god it happens to also say in deuteronomy 6 13 about fearing god but we're going to skip over that for the moment we'll talk about that next week so he asks what is the path to attain this love and of course he's including fear when a person contemplates i guess that means like meditate his wondrous and great deeds and creations and appreciates his infinite wisdom that surpasses all comparison he will immediately love praise and glorify him yearning with tremendous desire to know god's great name you understand why we also put in uh we compare myths for one of knowing there's a god to the idea that you have to love god because the only way to really love god is to know him right as we we're saying this is going to elicit that that emotion and king david says in chapter 42 verse 3 of psalms my soul thirsts for the lord uh the living god so in hebrew semen right there's this great thirst of my soul for god when he when someone con continues to reflect on these same matters he will immediately recoil in awe and fear appreciating how tight how he is a tiny lowly and dark creature does again to him at the fear part standing with his flimsy limited wisdom before he who is of perfect knowledge david said in psalms chapter eight verse four and five and this is gonna this is like a a segue to get us into some of the quotes of rabbi victor miller um i wanna quote um so david said when i see your heavens the work of your fingers i wonder what is man that you should recall him so based on these concepts i will explain important principles regarding the deeds of the masculine world okay this is the rambam introducing the idea that he's going to go into some scientific ideas to bring you to an awe or a love of hashem i want to mention rabbi victor miller he he was such a great orator and the way he described things was not just simple principles he gave great examples so i'll give you an example somebody mentioned to him that he lived in new york city and there was a lot of pollution so someone says how can you breathe the air it's um it's it's sickening it's so polluted so in his mind he said wow you know i breathe the air i should appreciate the air that i breathe even if it's polluted so he went ahead and this sounds really silly he stuck his head into the kitchen sink he filled his sink with water and someone caught him doing it so he said what rabbit what are you doing he says well someone told me that the air is polluted and i started to lose gratitude for the air that i breathed so i wanted to regain my appreciation so i stuck my head and held my breath for however long it was i don't know 30 seconds a minute and a half and i come up and i did it again and now i can really appreciate wow the breath even if it's polluted who cares at least i have an appreciation so this was this is the kind of rabbi that he didn't just wasn't just textural it wasn't just scientific he talked about an apple right you're gonna make a blessing on an apple think about the color the texture the miracle how i mean i i don't have the book in front of me because unfortunately might be out of print but i had it somewhere i think it's called rejoice oh youth and he's talking to the youth about how to make bronchos real before you bless hashem for the apple you have think about everything i just said but beyond that that there's seeds inside and those seeds when the apple falls off the tree the the what's it called the fertilizer the natural fertilizer is already there as the as the apple disintegrates that the apple itself becomes the ripe fertilizer to help this new uh fruit tree eventually grow right and think about when you have an animal that goes ahead and eats it it doesn't allow it to grow so those seeds did not um disintegrate inside the animal body but he actually carries it on somewhere else and with ever i'm going to use the word fertilizer that comes out with the seed at this point that also will help that apple tree uh flower and so he talks like in such great detail scientifically um when you think about the unbelievable you know it's not just the stars in heaven you can ponder as king david said but also the the smallest the smallest things so i have in front of me a website called taurat avigdor torres of victor if anybody wants to look it up it's t-o-r-a-s a-v-i-g-d-o-r just go to google and punch that in and you'll find an amazing amazing uh um torah from this rabbi victor miller so when this particular thing that i have open it's called on the secret to happiness this is rabbi miller's uh secret to happiness how does one find happiness in this world one of the this is the the it's a blog i guess um i'm going to just read it a little bit one of the things i really like about rabbi victor's miller style is he doesn't just say be grateful for indoor plumbing or what would you do without electricity it's good to say these things of course but rabbi victor miller has a special way of getting the point across i mean he is a fantastic orator i'm just telling you instead rabbi miller flashes fleshes out in great detail so you can see the deprivation uh clarity and really feel the contrast between what you have and what you could be missing if you weren't so fortunate it helps so much with fostering gratitude also i enjoy what he says about pockets about pockets because this year taking my son to the the kindergarten involves getting on a bus and initially i was overwhelmed with holding on to my son maneuvering my bus pass getting us all to sit down and all my purse swinging under my arm and i remembered that i have one of the top pockets and it was amazing how much easier it was to maneuver the whole bus routine with two roomy pockets now this is where he gets into some really funny stuff because you know it's true that much of women's clothing lacks pockets i've heard some of these comedians these women come in and they talk about i mean they have to carry this big pocketbook they have a whole i don't know what they have in there a whole year supply of something but many of their clothes are lacking pockets so when you just think about it and we do make a blessing thank god i'm not a woman that one of the things we should think about is this okay anyway um so this is the um the answer to the question it was said this is the question it was said many here many times that man possesses a deep well of happiness within him how does one open it up so he he says i'm going to tell you the secret right now happiness happiness is not just one thing it's ten thousand things now pay attention you might make fun of me but if if you'll be serious you'll see i'm giving you a big gift he says number one be happy that you have a roof over your head and then he describes somebody else here's a poor woman homeless maybe even a little bit demented she's pushing around a shopping wagon all her worldly possessions are in the shopping wagon she's nothing she doesn't even have a bathroom she doesn't have a kitchen she doesn't have a bed to sleep in where does she go when it's raining pity on her yet you see she's been bedraggled i mean she's all over she's not kept it's a heartbreak to look at her if she'd only have a place to sleep she sits down on a bench and it's freezing outside she's trying to get a nap on a bench trying to fall asleep and it's freezing and it's noisy and it's raining and she's no place to sleep and what do you you have a house a roof over your head how lucky she would be if she could have a little place a little shack right she would be the happiest person right now even without heat right she could just lie on the floor at least sleep she doesn't even have that so you first should first learn to enjoy you have a roof over your head it takes a long time to appreciate a roof properly so he goes in that's unbelievable talks about running water how many how i mean he was brought up in the states but he understood what it was like to live in europe and uh they never had they didn't have running water you had to get dressed to go out to the bathroom right unbelievable anyway so it's great a great reading just to get an idea of gratitude so how remember that curse that i mentioned in 2847 in deuteronomy you had everything and you didn't serve hashem with joy so what does it mean to love hashem that when we contemplate let me go back to the book now so he quotes there are three ways one was to study nature and we we kind of saw that in the ramban i'll just read his words i think we read them already but i'll say it anyway when a person focuses on hashem's wondrous acts and creations and recognizes his infinite and unmatched wisdom he will immediately be filled with love and praise for hashem and he will desire to know him as king david said in 42 3 semen my soul thirsts for god okay he basically says it's really it's nearly impossible to develop emotions but if we take what the rambam says and it's think about abraham abraham came to love god because he pondered nature i'm not going to say he didn't have the torah but he certainly didn't have the torah as we have it today right so he saw nature and he realized if he could realize it so could we but we're not on the level of avraham he was extremely a high level soul so the truth is it's probably harder for us to come to that level just by nature alone but if we already believe in hashem we can still ponder his his um his his creations his deeds and come to a truer understanding of the love that god has for us okay the next thing is studying the torah meaning the hinok writes to love hashem is to study his commandments even if you're not jewish and you don't have an obligation to keep these commandments just to study the torah right to understand what god wants and to get the principles right if you're not going to accept them right as a convert right you're going to remain a righteous gentile but knowing what god wants what god desires right that's really what the mitzvahs are about so even if just the principles right that which we we um we underst we study god's commandments and his deeds until we gain an understanding of them according to our ability and to take extreme pleasure in that understanding how often have you learned the piece of torah and just had one of those aha moments wow such clarity that's what i should be aspiring for that's what i should want to do in my life this is the love that is required of us if the torah only said you should love the lord your god i would not know how to come to love god that's why the torah says the next verse which you read in the very beginning of this class by you and vari mahela that these matters which i command you today shall place upon your heart how do you come to love through the torah now the third idea is called masirat nephesh giving over your life and this could be a little bit controversial as we already spoke about god doesn't need anything but he wants the desire to be there so strong that you're willing to do his commandments you're willing let's say you're noah and you're speaking up for what's moral in this world right and uh the world is not a moral place there's a lot of a lot of problems in this world so let me just read the ramban brings down a medrush and says this is what god loves those who love me this is referring to the jews who live in the land of israel they sacrifice their lives for the sake of mitzvah observance the medrash that the ramban is quoting brings certain hypothetical conversations the jews would have when they sacrificed themselves for god so why are you being executed so the jew answered because i circumcised my son did you know the romans made it a death penalty even in russia not so long ago it wasn't i don't know if it was a death penalty but it could have been you could go to siberia which is basically death just for circumcising your son why are you being burned at the stake because i studied torah as we know again the romans they forbade learning torah at the penalty of death why are you being hanged because i ate matzah right when a jew goes out of the way and do misses when they're not allowed to we're in this today's today's crazy world where you stand up for morality you're ostracized you could be canceled right there's a thing called cancel culture that's akin to being hung in public correct i i think i'm getting the idea across that your mom is strong right um why are you being whipped because i took so basically what you're saying that your love for god is becoming strengthened and it's increasing guess what there may be some sacrifice there may be some suffering involved and this will help bring a greater and deeper a burning love okay so i want to talk about one more thing and that is what we call kiruf outreach i i spoke about the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous and one of them let me just bring it up um okay i just want to bring the 12 step up so we're all on the same page here okay so having had a spiritual awakening as a result of those steps so this is for someone who experienced in egypt a bondage they were i don't know on the brink of death or of financial ruin or all their relationships were just in the mud so having now recovered their their they have they restored they were restored to sanity they no longer have a desire to go back to these evil or damaging behaviors so they try to carry this message to other alcoholics and it tends to practice these principles on all our affairs so very similar to this idea what about uh whether you're a jew or a non-jew you're you're experiencing this love for god and you want other people to experience this like if i had a relationship with you dan and i we meet once a week we meet a few times a week it's it's intimate time just for you and me so i think your greatest guy in the world and i want other people to know you but there's going to be a sacrifice for me my sacrifice is you know what every time i i tell another person about you if there's a chance that i'll be able to spend less time with you that's true in human relations right so you keep the good guy for yourself when it comes to god it doesn't work like that he's infinite he's unlimited the more people i tell about god it's no it's no sacrifice for me right it's not going to take away my time in fact it's going to glorify god that's what i want to do in this world i love god he loves me i want to glorify him as we said king david said let every soul or every breath talking about it speaking about it this reinforces it but that's not the reason to do it it's not so it reinforces as a result it's essentially this 12 step it's almost like it should be as as a result so as a result of loving god you're going to want to share right here in the 12 steps as a result of your own recovery you want other people to be recovered as well so you go out of your way to find people that need help so here you love god you just have such i'm gonna use i don't know what word to use a transcendental experience and you can have it all the time okay every time you make a bracha even when you're not make just thinking about the breath that you're taking just feeling the awesomeness of god who wouldn't want to share that it's a result just like the 12 steps it's result when you feel that sanity when that the gratitude the love you just want to share it um yeah that's amazing it's just like sticking your head in the water you the rabbi had mentioned and then coming up for a breath of air why wouldn't you want to ah just share it so you can walk around saying baruch hashem hashem all day long now there is a problem with that it's called toxic faith syndrome okay now my wife she's a convert she used to be in in the church and she got kicked out of the church because she has too many questions but one of the things they they they actually had a psychologist they had they had they had her see a psychologist because they felt that she was um asking too many questions and there's something wrong with her they they the the psychologist this christian psychologist diagnosed her and labeled her with what they call toxic faith syndrome now i don't know what it is other than what i have here on the on the facebook on this um internet here about a certain book that deals with it so i don't know what happened to it one second i don't know okay i had another page up um basically they're claiming you need to have a balance and if you don't have this balance then it's going to cause all kinds of problems which i'm sure is probably true but not in this case okay i remember watching a an interview you know there was a guy uh now you're gonna have to help me moshe moshe dayan was one of the politicians in israel back in the beginning and he was not known to be pro-religious and in fact he didn't even have a bar mitzvah or bar mitzvah for his children he was so against this idea of judaism judaism and his grandchild is now a religious orthodox jew so his daughter if i'm not mistaken her name is yael dayan that she was interviewed how do you feel about your child who is now uh walking around saying hashem by hashem because that's what these religious do jews do they they just they're they're just so fascinated they spend as much time as they can learning torah they're trying to do mitzvahs they spent hours a day praying right this would be your this is what they these people would call toxic fate syndrome right this is unbelievable no she knows she said it was it was really hard for me in the beginning because i thought it was just being brainwashed like like a robot but wow i see she's happy she's normal that she's actually like when she says it it's not just by road she can see through her own flesh and blood so it's really a big turnaround so um it should be for all those people that uh think that the future of judaism is a secular or cultural judaism it couldn't be further from the truth almost every one of our secular leaders has a grandchild a child a a nephew somebody you know from bibi netanyahu to even a victor liberman uh even your laped some some relative everybody has somebody and it's turning around the jewish people turning turning them around to shem um so look this was just like i think just for an introduction truth is i'm gonna go to fear next week but an introduction for you meditate on the torah read some of these victor miller very detailed um stories how he's able to express if you really think and ponder critically scientifically the universe you'll come to a oh a love unbelievable love that hashem has for you and you'll in turn love him back and that's where we're at today so um this is just the beginning right this is the beginning of a new light you can take these six constant missiles they're constant meaning every moment one is obligated to have this love the question is how to implement it the first three were intellectual ideas but the latter three are called deeds um or emotions so when we when we do something function learning torah contemplating meditating that will help arouse this emotion and hopefully we can live with that and we could be what we call a real kind of sham a real life to the nations and um yeah change the world rabbi this is profound what a wonderful lesson today i really am touched and to hear about your your spouse also that toxic face faith syndrome i personally i've been you know publicly excommunicated three times when i was uh a christian and i remember one rabbi uh he said to me good and i just felt so healthy to hear that great good news he got so excited and i was just overjoyed to say oh it's not me you know and anybody can come up with a derogatory statement for for the oddest of things especially for those that are on the fence out there listening to uh this uh beyond the seven noahide uh uh outrage this is uh rabbi poston from from from uh jerusalem sharing uh some great stuff go on no so i wanna finish off with the mitzvah review because this is very important after everything we discussed tonight this is the summary in this book of this particular mitzvah so about loving hashem which is mitzvah number four we develop love for god for hashem when we appreciate his greatness rambam teaches us that we can build that appreciation by studying nature and torah the ramban adds that when we act with masiras nephesh meaning the sacrificing uh our soul and suffer for hashem's sake our love for him becomes stronger we can also build love for hashem by heightening our awareness that all of creation is for our benefit the vast universe and everything in it as well as all events and circumstances in history were created and orchestrated by hashem to enable us to use our time in this world to perfect ourselves so we can earn and therefore enjoy the reward in the world to come the practical applications are as follows he gives four number one to study nature and torah as a means of building love for hashem be sure however that you're not blinded by subconscious feelings that prevent you from seeing the truth remember there's a thing called um what's it called i forgot there's a thing where ugh okay maybe he'll come to me as we talk and closeness to hashem enables you to see the and enjoy the beauty and fulfillment of the torah's lifestyle don't allow surface restrictiveness of such a lifestyle to prevent you from giving it a fair chance um okay i can't remember yet but remind yourself that everything in the world exists for you as a means to help you perfect yourself so that you can earn and enjoy reward in the world to come by doing so you can turn even the most trying circumstances into positive moments for growth of growth so you can enjoy life to its fullest this is important talk about hashem constantly insert his name in conversation to remind you of his presence in your life when reciting blessings to thank hashem take a moment to think about the object or occasion you are thinking of him for and to be grateful that he has granted it to you and the last thing is be sure not to diminish your love for god by actively pursuing materialism for its own sake okay the word i was thinking of cognitive dissonance so basically there's a lot of um fake news out there there's a lot of peer pressure to believe certain things certain ways and that if you are part of that society it's very wrong in that society to think certain ways and outside the box you have to break through you have to think for yourself and be willing to think critically right cognitive dissonance mean dissonance means even if the truth is staring you in your in the face you have this emotional connection to that falsehood that won't allow you so the idea is that if you want to love hashem dive into hashem right you know you may know that he exists but you haven't gotten to this point yet ask him for assistance ask him for help ask him to guide you to to reach that point if you desire it it will come to you right so this cognitive dissonance is very strong it doesn't want you know they'll come up with all kinds of things like uh i don't know let's say evolution yeah there may be certain facts there may be certain um well you know more than anybody else right about the whole timeline and everything all i can say is yeah go on there are certain things that are seemingly proven facts but there may be other ideas within those facts that will still allow you to totally believe like uh we talked about i don't know if um rabbi dr gerald schroeder who's able to explain how the universe could be simultaneously i think the numbers of 14 billion years and six 24-hour days at the same time okay plus another 5 780 years but anyway so open your mind ask hashem to allow you to see the truth and to guide you and bizrat hashem you'll get there amen amen it's so beautiful rabbi there's such a touching lesson here today i think i love the way king david really talks about doing this with joy doing this with with that hard attitude and and the way ecclesiastes the way solomon really went to town and i i i think you clarified a hebrew word in there uh for me today that uh yeah i'd looked at uh in a little bit different light that you you really punched home so for me it was quite helpful but uh uh it's always been a struggle of mine to be a more joyful in this world it's uh you know the the the fight of life or what it seems to just claw for survival or claw to to get ahead or crawl you know claw just to have a you know you mentioned like even a poor person sometimes life seems that way that it's it's so dark that that it's hard to express that degree of gratitude uh or maybe some of us has just been too spoiled and um we've had too much and we we missed the mark in the sense that we're not truly thankful for the the the humility that that that is truly thankful for what we do in fact have i i just think you've touched on some really good things here today so hashem willing are we okay for next week ran by or have you got any final words no it's okay it's fine next week looking forward rabbi you're such a blessing i want to thank you for sharing all the way from jerusalem uh even though it's late in the evening there uh it's now you know nearing uh one in the morning right and uh yet uh um you continue to share torah with us and teach us the sixth question is some is some some profound material thanks for selecting it and i look forward to hearing next week so folks until next week you can always catch uh a rabbi poston on his uh website gibene.com you can find him on social media you can find him on facebook youtube check him out folks you know don't be afraid to help him out in any way shape or form but hear the messages he's sharing out there is always great stuff i know he's doing wonderful work in jerusalem and it's just a joy to spend some time with him here and be able to share it to many of you all over the all over the planet so till next week folks we're going to sign out have a wonderful wonderful week [Music] here foreign