KLM: Beyond Here and Now with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

your Museum [Music] oh they're not not as uh Torah Jews we know throughout history there's been challenges to our ammuna and it's fascinating the rom-bomb the rambam in the mishna Torah actually addresses something that I I wouldn't be surprised you know we we have the revelation of Hashem from Sinai the Torah that it's forever and a relationship you know we have the truth and how come there's so many people that are not uh following the the Torah and and especially you know these movements of Christianity and Muslim they appear and they get masses of people masses of people so you know you you might say to yourself uh I don't know maybe there's truth in numbers so the rom-bomb in the Mishra Torah had this Kasha uh and he explained as follows he said that the um we have to keep in mind that um thanks to Abram and descendants that we don't need people to convert you know um Mankind and there's so many good people that are not Jewish they just have to observe the seven no I do we don't need Mass conversion to Judaism and so the rambang says this follows he says what Hashem did is he allowed for the immense proliferation of Christianity and and muslimness whatever you say Muslim uh Islam uh so he allowed for that so that the world will be ready there'll be millions of people that believe there's one God and also the God who gave the Torah to the Jews one God and they'll be ready when the mashiach shows up okay so that covers a big portion of the world but what about let's ask what about now that's the Giant rambam and this teeny weensy lean see me is gonna try to stand on his shoulders and say F Shar possibly and that's this what about all the the Buddhists and uh the Hindus that's pretty large population there correct and then there's secular people right so what about them you know that could also shake our Jewish faith that the Torah is true Moshe mesutorial MS so I'd like to suggest that there's one word that explains it mindfulness mindfulness is sweeping the world and it it's it's not it first of all I mean it derives from Buddhism and it's just popular everywhere they've found ways to make it for the secular they say it has health facts and etc etc etc so perhaps we can say that Hashem is putting another dimension that is so Central to our Judaism he's putting another mention Dimension into the world so when the Final Redemption occurs then everyone will be there I'll explain what I mean in other words the uh it's been accomplished that there's an acceptance of a monotheistic God in general right and Hashem as one God in the Dollar Trees you know not doing so well in numbers and hits so that's been accomplished but we see that um and know that there's uh Jew people that were born Jewish and and had a um identified in some way with a Jewish religion and the uh and there's I there are uh Muslims and there are Christians who they're just associated with the religion that identify that way but they're not really observant they're not observant right so I would suggest that we see it even with the Holy Torah that um you could know the truth but if your relationship with that one God is an abstract action and you're not really feeling connected to it then what happens the uh the myths is turn into rituals and you're just you may not even be involved right and we know this is a big problem so it seems to me that the missing thing you could know there is a God but how how do you connect to God so you have to be present in the moment right so the the they're given that awareness uh to get them ready because you need both you need hashem's reality and you need to be there for the reality and that's why I call this sheer Beyond here and now and my wife came up with it but it's a great one Beyond tearing now and and it gets back to this um I told you that my rebby uh said a statement in passing and I I um he said that you know it just takes a few seconds a couple minutes to be in a state of ecstasy I I told you he said this in a in a talk and a schmooze on and I and then he just went on and I patted myself in the back for following up and asking wait a minute well uh I've had a funny time on my hands and I don't find myself in a state of entity ecstasy so often and so I told you the first thing he said the first thing he said is Step number one is you have to uh stop the voice in your head that's always saying I got this to do I got that to do something's coming so now I'm gonna take her there right rushing all right that's what we spoke about last week if if if you can't um settle down into the experience there's no way there's no path to kosher authentic Jewish Jewish ecstasy by the way the goal is not to provide to teach you how to get spiritually high that's not my Missoura okay the only reason to get spiritually high is to connect and to serve uh Shem in a proper way okay so that's it's not my goal but uh but there's an important reality here okay so that's number one so that's what he said he says that you have you can't rush and and that's what we showed last week that the ram Hall said you can't rush into a mitzvah it's not going to work right you need to be calm settled and ready for reflection before you enter into the Mitzvah okay that was last week and now with that in mind and we know that that's one critical step in the process then we're going to now look at the governor formula again but let's review this rushing thing I hoped you worked on it okay and and so let me just remind you of the principles you know this is something where you have to think about the negative aspects of rushing right so what we said was your rushing past your purpose in life in other words if you're rushing when it comes to the Mitzvahs which are the only way for us to connect tuition if you're rushing it you're rushing past your your purpose here okay so that should shake us up and wake us up and also you know hashem's so good to us right so why in the time that's set aside for him will we want to rush past our relationship okay so those were the the charges like that so that number one is realizing you're rushing past your purpose number two is to realize not so it's not so good for the relationship with Hashem and thirdly I said let's let you know the reality is as we learn in kohelus rabba that we that then the shama is like a princess is like this princess who was in the palace with her father the king sound familiar right so we have in his our soul loves it when we reflect and connect and do the Mitzvahs in a way that brings us closer so um if if you don't want to do it for yourself do it for your soul do it for your inner princess right that's a review of the Russians year now let's go back to the Kelowna formula and I'm still gonna I haven't explained how we're beyond the Here and Now yet okay and I haven't told you the second part of how to reach a state of ecstasy it's going to come about uh as we go over the um Cabana formula okay so allow me to pull it up second okay ah there we are Paris you see it yeah we got it okay all right now I'm just going to do a quick review of the general scheme and then we're going to go one by one and learn very very valuable points about each of these steps okay number one I changed the order this is a more logical order okay and before I even do this quick review I do want to go to this next step it the present in the moment is one thing okay that's for sure we want to be present in the moment oh you know what I'm going to wait to wait until we get there in the p and the g so it's MPG sorry GNP has a very uh it's a memorable thing about economics I apologize MPG is the way to go okay so we have to uh we have to step one oh and one more thing one more reminder why we're do why we are doing this because we learn learned something that's a little disappointing when you feel that is his horror is that Awakening from from having cavana for the Mitzvah it can be a little unsettling when that becomes uh when that becomes road right you start to say well I um uh yeah yeah yeah my name is right so that that can get disappointed so this is what the kavana formula is coming to address because the point is the only way to um truly stay present in the moment is to remind yourself to ask yourself questions that prompt you back into the experience so you'll choose life okay because you can always zone out but these are reminders they're open-ended questions to put you in the moment all right so what are they again you ask yourself what Mitzvah am I about to to do and then you have confunded to fill that and it's uh step number one step number two use you you say to yourself and whose presence am I doing this the answer is and always will be a Shem okay and finally what's my goal here and for those of you who've been with us for a while or if you haven't the Mitzvahs are not an end in themselves Believe It or Not besides an overall end to get close to God the Mitzvahs are supposed to evolve us to become either attached to a shin our soul a like a soul to a shame connection or to become as Godlike as we can while we we walk the earth okay so let the Cabana formula and I asked parents to please share his experience because to his credit he and I'm sure many people did as well parents worked on this immediately after this year and his experiences positive and negative are going to be very valuable for this year okay parrots take it away you can you can turn off the screen or I'll go off thanks and you see me okay uh all right fine yeah so just briefly I think that um my experience with uh that first part of the formula was that um I I asked myself the question what meets firm I'm about to do which was which was a big step from what I was doing before instead of just rushing into them but then I so that was the the m the the the G in terms well originally the G which is the goal um I was saying okay I'm I'm going to uh come closer to Hashem or maybe I'm doing something and so it's like walking in hashem's ways but I found that that that g the goal was common to sort of most Mitzvahs so I just felt like that wasn't my first thought I first thought was like what is the midsummer about to do and that that's that's obviously I think uh what Springs to what's spoke to my mind and then the the the P the pre being presence having doing it in hashem's presence also is because it's common to all all Mitzvahs I felt that I was it was much harder to uh have that in the Forefront of my mind so I think that I found the the positives part was definitely the the M the what the the the harder things to keep in the Forefront of the Mind was definitely you know that I mean hashem's presence and what is the goal so um so that's that's what uh you and I were discussing and I think you've you've switched to MPG which is a nice acronym in in the car industry World they call it miles per gallon MPG I think you're getting um you know more mileage for you that's fantastic you didn't know that thank you parents fantastic okay all right thanks for sharing that now I want to address all of this so first of all um about uh the let's think about the first one M for Mitzvah so let me go to that slide okay so in this in this um phase of Mitzvah there's really two things to do is you have to wake yourself up to the moment you have to be present right what Miss am I about to do so as you travel through your day um when you you're gonna do them automatically but if you catch yourself beforehand say what am I about to do I'm telling you that you're already in a different place and by the way I just a little hint for the future we're finishing this formula and after Hanukkah we're gonna have we're gonna start a series of cavana uh um for 20 24 hours a day meaning we're gonna we're gonna see where everything applies and and hopefully create a a very visual scene where you'll be prodded into remembering to apply the world of opportunity okay but ready so stopping and thinking right stop stop and think that's the thing the first path to ecstasy if I can sell Lola schma right is you have to stop what are we doing what am I doing because you're doing you're you're about to do a mid-spot right and this is the wrong call this is not me the rompo says if you want a purity of um devotion and relationship you have to you have to stop and think what am I about to do you have to prepare okay now I have a new technology that is so wonderful all right to share with you so once you realize uh here where let's stop and think what are we doing right now okay we're learning Torah right so the uh that that's already it's a conscious and you could just go right into the sheer you're listening you're following God Bless but still what am I doing what am I doing right now okay so that's start one now how do you express your kavana I want to just quickly give you a review and introduce something that's personally has been a once again life-changing okay you could even just say let's say it's the Mitzvah of creatma you could even get away with the Shane Mitzvah and by the way you don't have to say it out loud in most oftentimes you can't but but sometimes you can and it's better but anyhow Nitza okay you did that you just moved into however there's better machine this is krishma so you you have in mind I'm doing Krishna but the classic formula which is mentioned in the mission of Brewer and what Rabbi garfinkel focused on is kashar Siva Shen I have in mind to fill the Mitzvah sivaj and as Hashem commanded and that's throughout the Torah and the Mr Brewer brings that how could you improve on that how about this okay you know one of the most Wanted dreams of someone who uh is involved in Torah is to reach the level of the shame shamayan right if you see what the mission in Abu says about someone who's lashem shamayan it's like the whole creation is worthy for someone who's has that kind of Purity that Hashem I'm doing this for no other reason than you told me to then you love me the shame shamayan so guess what Rashi in the gamara Tinus I think it's tessian Ahmed Allah you know what you know what it says how do you how how you should be La shame shamayam do you know what the the formula is listen to what Rashi says to do the Mitzvah Kasher sivani Hashem and not for some other agenda because shared sivani how do we translate that Hashem which is the classic is as Hashem commanded but listen to this kasho sivani as he commanded me then now it's getting personal now we're going Beyond here and now right relationship right there's a relationship there and when I I say as a shin commanded me not the Jewish people in general right emotionally that's a Shem commanded me when you do that and you have in mind right let's do it right now we're learning Torah I have in mind to fulfill the Mitzvah of learning Torah because as a shim commanded me and feel that personal quality that's what law all the you hear Look of course the to purify ourselves from other agendas uh and bilashma in what we do that's I I admit we're not talking that this is the ultimate but if it's counts as well grab onto it what a benefit you hear so lock that in write that down lock that in touch your teeth bunny Hashem is Hashem commanded me okay all right so that's the first part and again as parents shared this is something that it's going to change in given situations uh you go into a show to what am I about to do I'm about to enter the miniature base amigdush and I can fulfill my Dashi tirau right so you you can project I'm about to recite ashrae which the rabbis uh which sin commands me to listen to the rabbis and the rabbis command me to do it three times a day who commanded me okay great this part will wake you up guaranteed because you have to be constantly stopping and thinking all right now let's deal with uh parents's uh point where who am I doing the uh of the midst before Hashem okay what about this situation who am I doing in the midst before Hashem it's always the same so isn't it prone to rote at the surface yet but no okay let me explain and also that like he said if the destination is either going to be um uh uh de vacas or elective Draco to either be attached to Hashem or to uh emulate a shin so you're gonna always be answering one or the other so why isn't that going to be wrote so this is because we have to realize what the point of PG is okay what's the point of presence reminding you so the ROM Paul told us to do this uh uh presence you're doing it before Hashem in a second I'll give you I think everybody knows this muscle I think it's Universal is it Universal experience you know parents is from South Africa slash London and he knew it I mean I guess you've heard this and just in case anyone listening hasn't ever done this let's do it right now okay so um raise your hand and you know raise your hand fine okay all right good now I want you to do uh one more thing raise it higher okay I succeeded right most people right when they're given that instruction right is uh to stretch it further they're able to stretch it further okay the purpose of reminding yourself you're doing in the mid the midst and the presence of Hashem is to stretch you further and engage you more deeply in what you're doing okay that's and the same thing with the goal I'll explain them one by one and we'll be done oh oh oh oh I forgot this before we go to PNG those are stretchers but uh this is the famous check analogy uh look at the title here the Supreme importance of kavana for the Mitzvah okay this formula is not weighted equally the best way is this is this metaphor if there's a check if there's a one every zero afterwards is making you more money but if there's no one there you can add a hundred thousand zeros and it's still nothing right the stopping and saying the shame Mitzvah or uh that is the one okay that moves your Mitzvah into lift at Gila some misses if you don't have it there is no mint butter so don't don't when you're working on this put a premium on having kavana from the midst of the first step we did and like I said after Hanukkah we're gonna go into your entire day and night and sleeping period and teach you what kavana to have so okay I just that's a public service announcement for the importance of KLM okay now let's go to the stretching and let's understand how we can use the fact that we're absolutely in the presence of Hashem to enhance the mitzvah okay so um this you have to uh again a caveat anyone who's new to the game uh what's so um powerfully Jewish is that uh Hashem has no image uh you know um I must say this there there was um from from our perspective there was a well-known uh Jewish person who went into another uh religion and uh it kind of sent waves out and you know one of the things about it you could see that it could be that they were attracted to it because there was an image that affected them emotionally and and Mrs uh Sarah Rigler wrote an article about this and and this is you know Judaism is a very mature um look into reality and she said a beautiful point Hashem is formless but he's not an abstraction it was very important a wonderful way to describe it the challenge is there's no form for Hashem but he's real realer than all of us I'm not going to go into that it's very deep and very important and true but he's more real than all of us okay he's just there's no form so I just put in the caveat that when you do this you have to imagine something that you can picture but the sensation you should have okay and I'm a big believer in doing it right now okay we're learning Torah right so here's what I do okay is first of all we pointed out about it's true it's always you're always in front of Hashem but it's like your breath most this entire share most people were not following their breath now if you stop for a second you notice you're breathing you're doing the same thing with the heartbeat right so the same thing with shem's not going to be um uh hashem's not going to be in your presence uh uh you're not going to be in his presence uh or you're he's not going to be in your awareness unless you've drawn him in okay so it's it okay that's one thing but now how do you draw them in so this is what I do and this is why it stretches my my experience uh my performance of the Mitzvah okay let's not do the well do it now also you're let's start with the experience we're having right now but I want to move to something like making a shariatsar okay so right now the thing is that is the thing you have to um uh want us to uh think that Hashem is watching me but what how do you relate to that so we say he's a v Miller just recently said this exact point but think of um think of that the observing Hashem is doing of you when you're doing this Mitzi right now of learning Tara is like a parent who's just looking on and is so proud of you and is getting so much knockless that you're taking time out of your busy schedules to immerse and Torah and to mercent Torah that's trying to help you evolve your relationship with him think about how much knocks us right so the point is this when you do that now imagine you went to the restroom and coming out of the restroom and you're gonna and you're in a bit middle of your busy day so stop don't rush you have a sure yats are and by the way I pointed out a shariatsar it takes um there's that sign it takes 120 seconds maybe maybe two minutes you know that sounds like too much 20 seconds I don't remember but anyway the point is this if you feel you don't have enough time to slow down and say uh sure yansar that blessing for being able to use the restroom you're being irrational you're definitely being irrational you have time for it okay as soon as you stop but ready this is what I want you to add Okay add this to your I'll show you sorry picture that you're doing this in the presence of Hashem and and you want to give him so by the way that's uh that's being with Shema according to Usher Weiss it's a mix of obviously it's a lot you accomplished by that okay so being in hashem's presence my recommendation recommendation is have a sensation like the Divine parent Your Divine parent is watching and getting mouthless but you you want to do the Mitzvah you want to stretch the midst of do it in a way that's going to bring in office and that's the difference if you say a Sharia Tsar without thinking Hashem is present you'll you may whip through it okay but when you stop yourself and say hashem's watching and I want to give him nafas so you're going to do it properly please God okay now on the last one okay so that's P okay so my goal right so again this is to help you if the answer will be the same but it reminds you to stretch yourself and do the Mitzvah with more engagement and more properly let's say uh let's take uh the first one let's say I don't want to talk about like sadder things let's say you have a khasana right you're going to hasnah it's your best friend he's marrying off a daughter right so you you have the midst of kamoka to show them the Honor by coming you have elected a draft of by sharing his right but you wanna uh you want to leave you want to do those knits of us of a half to Rafa kamoha and electroduction you want to do that in a way that when you leave the hasana you're more a lot you more are more like a kind of Oracle in terms of his Meadows in terms of his perfect qualities you're more like Hashem than when you came to the hasana you hear it's going to stretch you the same thing with tsuki to zimra on the on the other one what's the goal remember we say the vacas is an overall goal but no novakis is a Mitzvah and the Ron Bon and the Hyatt explain it as follows meaning to that your thoughts and your feelings are supposed to end up attached to Hashem so you can recite tsukia Zimmer one way and you're there's not going to be that much attachment but you want to finish the tsukiyazimra and delay in the fact that your your thoughts and your feelings really as if attached to Hashem you hear so that's that's the process so now let me let me go all the way back to the beginning see beyond Here and Now is is as follows and now let me tell you what Robert Greene said the second step towards ecstasy first one slow down turn off the voice of hurriedness accomplishment we said by the way last time we said some of that is you're chasing a it's a wild goose because you're never gonna get enough money you're never gonna get enough affirmation from other people it's not happening so get off the treadmill okay that treadmill get off it right that's the first step calm that down don't rush and say what am I about to do who am I doing it in front of what's my goal right that's the step one but why is it why is Judaism why is mindfulness just a like a step further right so we said um you believe in in God great do you believe the world had a Creator great but if he's just kind of not in your life and Abstract right so then we have be in the moment right but now here's what Robbie green said what's the second thing he said and again keep in mind there's no godhead is formless he's formless but he created things right so he um what Robert Green says the second step is is everything you see right the image on the screen your computer a flower of the air uh the sky it's all in that it's as always if the shin is behind itself no images but saying I'm here I love you I love you I'm I'm behind all of this and we're Beyond here and now is what Hashem says but you know the only way to have a relationship see that's the thing Buddhism has a universe there's it's not a relationship with the maker of the universe who's also a Divine parent and a ruler Etc so the thing is this we have to realize that the midst is the only way to have a relationship so let's do them in a way that relates to a shin that's why we need this what am I doing who am I doing it for and what's my goal occasion should help us please apply as much as you can and spread this uh these ideas okay thank you everybody I apologize for going a little longer than we normally do [Music] love everybody [Music]