Matot-Masei: The Staff, the Journey, and my Last class in Denver... for now

services. Amen. >> Well, here we are. This is a prayer for peace. >> It's one that you all know, >> you know. And in our time together, which is not coming to an end, it's just shifting. >> The heat ocean. Absolutely. Peace is probably everything we've ever asked for. Peace in our heart, peace in our community, peace in our city, and peace in the world. >> Amen. >> So sing along with me, not as a song, but as a prayer. And as you sing, open your heart and direct it to Hashem that he should bring peace everywhere. together. Shalom. We are call. >> All right, we're going to try that one more time. And like if you've been singing a little bit, turn up the volume. If you haven't been singing, really turn up the volume. All right, let's go. Shalom. Salam salam salam salam peace. Peace. Peace in Jerusale. Peace in the holy land. Peace on every corner. Let there be peace. Oh, peace in Jerusalem. Peace in the holy land. Peace on every corner. Let there be peace. The amino ye shalom shino is We hear him shing. Fore. We all have to live with opposites. We all have to live straddling worlds. It's the very nature of being human. And in particular, it's the very nature of being Jewish. How come it says >> we >> we do say it's our home but there's a Hebrew terminology erites the holy land too. >> We believe it's very holy. >> We believe it's very holy. So you know all of us have to live holding opposites holding contrary emotions straddling worlds. Rabi Shimon Bario, the great legend who we talked a lot about during the time of anyone remember what was his holiday bulb. >> Lag bulmer. Very good. Lag bulmer. We talked about Rabishimon. Rabishimon had to hide in the cave for 13 years with his son. And it was shortly after the destruction of the temple and Rabishimon is revealing amazing amazing secrets divine secrets about the destruction of the temple. And his son beloved says that joy is lodged in my heart on one side and sorrow is lodged in the other side. Meaning sorrow and joy are not necessarily antithetical. Do me a favor. Shut that that one off. So, you know, we have a lot of double paras in the Torah. A lot of double paras. Read them all the time. If you've noticed and we've talked about a few times, the double para Thank you very much, my friend. The double para often hap has contradictory names. For example, there's a there's a double para that's vayak pud. Vyako means the collective. Pud means count the individuals. They're they're balancing opposites. It happens with a lot of double paras. Our double para is no different. Our double para is m. What's a mate? >> Huh? >> We do talk about vows in this partial, but mate doesn't mean val. Mate is a rod, a staff and ma. You ever heard you ever told someone? What does that mean? >> Have a good trip. >> Have a good trip. What a long strange trip. >> Have a good trip. So na is a trip comes from the word ma. A journey. A trip. So, who can tell me why is a staff and a trip antithetical to each other? >> Trip your >> very good. >> A staff is rooted. >> A staff gets planted, >> right? There's even a common colloquial term, don't plant a rod, right? It means I hold firm to where I am. And a journey on the other hand means I am in fluid motion. That I'm just a traveler along the way. This is not whatsoever relevant to anything we're experiencing right now. Or maybe it is because Torah is relevant to all of us at every moment of every day. It's always alive. But there's seems to be a calling that it's time for my staff to pick up to get my bundle over my shoulder. By bundle, I mean my guitar. >> Two kids. >> Yeah, I'll fly them. and keep the journey going. The Balmto tells us that just as there were 42 different sojourneys in the desert, every human goes through 42 different journeys in their life. That could mean geographically, that could mean spiritually, that could mean emotionally, that could mean just stage of life that someone's in. We'll all experience 42 distinct discrete journeys of our life. Now, as one part of the journey ends and another part of the journey opens, when we're in the bay mashot, as we are right now, for myself personally, we're the in between hours, there's a certain magic there. The great Elazar Hakoen, you might know him as Leonard, said, >> "And ring the bells that still do ring. Forget your perfect >> offering." >> offering. There's a crack in everything. That's where the light >> gets in. >> Never would have guessed. So I always look for these moments of in between. These moments of in between are so powerful. There's amazing light that comes streaming through the universes in these in between moments. You'll have an in between moments every single day twice by sunrise and sunset. You'll have in between moments every single week twice the moments where Shabbat enters and the moments where Shabbat ends. You'll have the same thing monthly and yearly and at different stages throughout your life. It's beautiful for to be in this space with all of you at this in between moments. It's a mishuga moment in my life. It's my mishog moment. Can't even tell you. All I see is uh packing boxes and packing boxes and details and things to figure out. And yet at the same time, I've never felt a bigger outpouring of love from a community in my life. At the same time, I've never felt so much releasing with joy that this community has offered me. So, I want to thank you all. It's been beautiful to have my staff planted here for some time. >> Okay, let's talk about the para. Yeah. So this week's para as we said is a doubler the daily double double or nothing. And so we start off with the laws of vows. And now a law of vow is a very interesting thing. Judaism takes your word very seriously. God takes your word very seriously. Your words have huge weight, huge power. Even more than that, your words create worlds. Your dour creates the davar. We have to be very serious about vows. But what type of vow are we talking about? Okay, so let's get into the nitty-gritty a little bit before we get into the spirit of it. Let's talk about the let's talk about the bones. So the bones of this law are if I make a vow and I say Hashem I'm going to put on fill in every single day. Does that vow take effect? Nope. It doesn't. Hashem already commanded me to put on fill in every single day. I can't have a vow that's a superfluous addendum to God's already directives to me. What if I say, "Hashem, I take a vow. God forbid I'm going to eat a pork sandwich every Tuesday." >> Does that vow take effect? >> What? >> No. Why? >> A pork sandwich. >> Don't worry, it's not actually happening. God forbid. >> It It doesn't take effect cuz I can't make a vow against the word of God. So, where can I take a vow? in the realm of the permissible in general in order to exclude something that is permissible to me usually as an act of refinement and spiritual growth. For example, saying I am not going to go on my phone for the next two days or every every night I'm going to shut my phone off an hour before bedtime. I take a vow. I swear before the Lord. Not I'm not saying I'm necessarily doing this, but I'm giving you an example. >> I've done it. I've I've done it. I'm I'm not doing it currently, but but there was there were periods in my life where I didn't touch my phone for the first hour after waking and the f last hour before going to bed. And wow, my head space was so much more expansive. So much more expansive. If I forbid this to myself and I swear before God, then according to Jewish law and according to the Torah as we read it, someone is absolutely obligated to fulfill that. Another form of a vow is I vow to give two cows to the temple. I vow to give my tithe to the sh I vow to you know we've all we've all seen the the pledge boxes they're full seen the coffers they're empty there's a disconnect somehow what's going on a pledge is a vow a pledge is saying I am going to give and somehow we don't always follow through on that giving but the Torah tells us that if we pledge that we are not just bound by our own morals and ethics. We're actually bound by the laws of the Torah to fulfill them. This is all an invitation to be very intentional with what we say. Unfortunately, it has become common terminology to say, "I swear to God, I swear to God, I swear to God, I swear to God." Do you realize how powerful that statement is? People just throw it around. Unfortunately, more often than not, when they're stating falsehoods and even if you're stating truth, you know, it's very interesting because there's it seems to be there's an apparent an apparent argument between the Jerusalem Talmud and And the Mishnik scholars, the the Mishnik scholars said people should employ a vow. Use a vow. Go for it. And the Jerusalem Talmet says people should very much avoid using vows. Don't use vow so much. >> What's going on? Is it this one or that one? We said what's the primary function of a vow? >> We're going to do what we say. But why were we taking the vow in the first place? >> In order to elevate our game by refraining from engaging in something material. That's generally the primary purpose of event. I am saying I'm not going to be on my phone. I am not gonna eat chocolate every night. I'm not gonna I'm not going to eat a tub of ice cream while I watch Seinfeld going to bed every night. Why? Not just cuz I'm watching my waistline, but because I want to be a more spiritual being. I want to be a more connected entity. I want to feel Hashem more in my life. So why? So it seems like a vow is a good thing, right? Seems like a vow is a good thing. I should be refraining and abstaining from engagement with the physical. So there are two types of masters. There's a master who absolves and refrains. Excuse me. Absolve is not the word. Abstains and refrains. And then there is a master that transforms. When the Mishna when the Mishnik sages told us don't take vows, they were speaking of the master who must abstain. He knows that if he's going to eat a piece of chocolate, he's not just going to eat a one piece of chocolate. He knows that one piece of chocolate is a gateway gateway hug to a lot more chocolates. And so what does the twisha say? Absolve. Be spiritual. But the Jerusalem Talmet is talking about a completely different type of individual. They're talking about someone who is engaged in the process of transforming the sparks. And someone who's engaged in the process of transforming the sparks. The sparks are found where? In the material world. This physical world is the place where all the sparks are contained. Now if I abstain and abstain and go to the mountain and meditate and connect and be divine and be spiritual, wonderful. I did nothing for God. I did everything for myself. Now could be I feel more connected to God. Could be I feel more aligned. But my feelings are fleeting. And at the end of the day, the great game that God put us in is not taking place. Who here played Super Marios? Anyone ever played Super Mario once or twice? No. >> Pac-Man. What if you ever played Pac-Man? >> All right, we all played Pac-Man. I have to go I have to go far back. Whoa. Yeah. You ever played Asteroids? Exactly. >> All right, let's let's use Pac-Man. >> Pong. >> Exact. Okay. So So let's say in Pac-Man, right? >> It's such a good example. I love this actually. Say you go right. You show up with your friends on a Sunday morning to the arcade and there's the Pac-Man game over there and it has the buttons on the side to move left, to move right, to go forward and you show up and you know in the Pac-Man there's all the little food that he could eat, all the little dots that he can get in order to he she non-binary. I don't know, right? I don't want to put necessarily gender labels. >> Oh, it's Pac-Man, right? Yeah. No, I'm calling him he. We're taking this one. Pac-Man's a he. It's in the name. So P, what if you show up and your friend goes and you see your friend and he goes there and he goes, "Go up. Go left. Go left." Boom. Got the high score. He's Schvitzing Abyssal at this point, right? He's giving it his all. Did all the levels. He's into it. He's getting excited. And you know, like after level two, the other guys try come to try to eat you. The other other people try to come and get you. And you see how much he's in and this and that. And you say, "Why all the hassle? Watch how I play. Watch me." So what do I do? I go to the Pac-Man machine. I press play. Hey dude, what's going on? Shh. Pac-Man's meditating. We're relaxed. We're calm. We're feeling present. There's no need to go collect all the little sparks. We're good right where we are. Okay, but you're in the game. Shh. We're good. Relax, dude. It's all okay, man. Yeah, but like there's a game you're meant to like level up and get these ch n We're chill. We're chill. We're chill. We're good. We've reached Nirvana. Pac-Man is now no lack man. There's nothing I need. There's nothing to eat. I'm perfect. And so after two minutes of you doing this, your friend says, "I hate playing with you. You're so annoying." And leaves you alone to to be no lack man. Friends, this is very much how some people play the game. And you know the medit the meditating version is the more lofty version. Sometimes you stay stationary and you don't collect the the sparks. Why? Because you're so busy focused on on whatever little temporary pleasure is coming up. We're not even involved in the game. But the game is there not for us to stay stationary. Be it through indulgence and pleasure or be it through abstaining from pleasure. That's not what the game's about. The game is there for you to go and traverse the levels, for you to go and test your strength, for you to develop your speed, for you to develop your agility, for you to develop your predictive powers, and for you to level up. And you know what happens when you level up? Doesn't get any easier. Doesn't get any easier. To to the contrary, there's more opponents that try to get you. There's more of those tiny little blue and pink things with like the little little bottoms that are like this. You know what I'm talking about? The ghost. The ghost try to come for you. Wait, I thought I leveled up, man. Why do I have to deal with ghosts now? I should have been like, "No, actually, you level up." You get additional challenges. You think you're dealing with hard stuff now, and you're like, "Hashem, come on. Haven't I worked on myself?" Yes, you've worked on yourself. Which is why Hashem's like, "I got this person got it. He got it. She got it. They're leveling up. They could do it. I believe in them. Let send in the ghosts. We're meant to go and munch our way through the world. Not eating to our heart's content, but engaging with all the different sparks that are available. engaging with everything that could be seen, everything that could be felt, >> and finding the inner spark, finding the inner light inside of it, revealing that inner spark, bringing that inner spark out to its fullness, bringing intention, consciousness, and blessing, bringing the light of Hashem into this moment. And then this spark gets to return back to its source. It goes up to the leaderboard. It's another point on the top. It goes up. It goes up. I collected it. This is the mission of every human. This is very much the mission of the Jewish people in particular to be spark seekers, collectors of sparks. And you're not going to collect sparks by watching Netflix all day. It's not going to happen. Sorry. And you're not going to collect sparks by meditating on a mountain all day. It's not going to happen. You're going to collect sparks by going into the world, looking at it, and recognizing you don't exist. But a game from God. But a game from God for me to develop, test my strength. I could take this guitar. I can go to a festival and I could sing about all kinds of stupid things. Hello, I love you. Won't you tell me your name? Hello, I love you. Very nice. And then I just feed my animal a little bit bigger and I miss the point of the whole game. And what do I do with the spark over here? Did I elevate it? Maybe I even denigrated it. But then I can get into a room with a couple holy souls and sing some holy songs and speak some holy words. And we can feel a little bit for just a split second. We can feel collected and closer to God. And the sparks in this guitar. The light in these strings go back to God. And I've taken something physical and I've made it spiritual. And I've drawn down from the great spirit and brought it into this world. This is why this is why the Jerusalem Talmud, excuse me, this is why the Mishna says Can >> you bring those books over here? >> Put those books right over here. >> That was weird. I don't know. >> You guys ready for this? >> Are you ready for a chef? Just giving us all a beautiful kiss. >> What's the name of this week's para? >> Moss. What does it mean? >> No. >> And it's a double portion. It's a double portion which means it's not just one step but two steps. >> And what are we talking about? Making vows and promises. >> What the what the promise? >> We're talking about making promises. >> No. Four. >> This one must be the best. >> No. That's one's for later on in the class. >> Jim's talking directly to >> I was watching you. >> I'm never really going to leave. >> They jumped. They've actually bounced. Did you see that? >> It was a nice little bounce onto the table. >> Hashem is with us right now, friends. >> Hashem is talking to us right now. Clear as day. >> Don't you ever forget that Hashem is with you. When you make the promise, when you make a promise, you are abstaining. And do it if you feel like you do not have the capacity to transform right now and you need to hold back from the world. But there's a deeper level. There's a deeper level of saying, "Hashem, I'm going to go into this world. I'm not going to take a vow because a vow is a very serious thing. But I'm also not going to take a vow because I'm not going to abstain from this world. What am I going to do? I'm going to enter this world with unbelievable intention. I'm going to enter this world with unbelievable consciousness and transform it. So, it's our job to light things up. They say >> we are lamp lighters. We are lamp lighters. Deep in the night, our souls we ignite. We are lamp lighters. Deep in the night, our souls we ignite. There was once a student that came to his master's rebi and said rebby what am I here to do and he said rebi he said well my dear dear friend mo you see the man who goes and walks throughout the town and every night he has this long long stick and he goes and lights all the lamps with his long long stick says yeah says that's your up all around you. You'll see that there are sparks waiting to be lit. You'll see that there's people that are waiting for you to put a little light in their soul. Put a little song in their heart. And you're meant to go around and light them all. And Misha says, "Dear Rebi, dear Rebi, but what if they're in the middle of the ocean?" He says if they're in the middle of the ocean, you take your grace stick and you go bring it to the ocean, light them up. He says, "Rebby, rebi, but what if they're in the middle of the desert?" He says, "Then you take your big stick, you go to the middle of the desert, and you light them up." Meaning, my job is to go and engage the world fully. Whether they're in the city, whether in the desert, whether in the ocean, whether they are in the mountains, or whether they're by the beach. And my job is to light up the world. We are lamp lighters. Deep in the night, our souls we are lamp lighters. We all live lighters deep in the night. Our souls we ignite. And I'll tell you any wondering souls lost in the desert. I climb up on the camel and I'll be there for you. Any wondering souls lost in the ocean. I get up in my rowboat and I'll be there for you. Because we are lamp lighters. We are lamp lighters. Deep in the night. Our souls reignite. We are lamp lighters. Deep in the night the world will ignite. We need the fire. That's the great unifier, the great one fire, the one flame. But your spark and your spark and your spark are going to be magnets to all of the beautiful sparks around the world where we're going to go and interact and find every book we can open it, learn it, and connect to God. We're going to find every person we can. You should walk out this door today. Not like, "Oh, that menric, okay, leave me alone." But look at this person. He came into my force field because there's an there's a a spark there. There's an inflection point. There's an interaction that needs to happen in order for me and them to activate ourselves fully. You're a lamp lighter. You're a lamp lighter, brother. Now, you can get by much faster than the guy walking, right? You're on your bike. Boom, boom, boom. We have to light the world up. There's no two ways about it. We have to light the world up. There's no chance that we can go through our lives just living and eating and dying. There's no chance. It's not what we're here for. Get rid of that notion of trying to be comfortable. Instead, start activating this notion that whether you're 2 years old or 200 years old, it doesn't matter. You have a job. You have a job to let up your world. You have a job to let up the space around you. And don't refrain. Try not to make promises. Try not to make vows. Because making a vow is saying, "Hashem, I can't do it. I don't have the power to do it. I need to hold back from this world cuz I can't engage." Or, "I need to hold back from chocolate cuz I can't engage." No, you are going to take this one piece of chocolate and you were going to lean in and you were going to say, "Hashem, I'm eating one piece of chocolate and one piece of chocolate only. And when I do it, I'm going to say it with a braha. When I do it, I'm going to bring you in fully. When I do it, I'm going to invite your light, your strength, your power, your intention because I know there's a spark in here. There's your Hebrew letters that are enlivening this piece of chocolate right now. And through this, I will elevate the spark that is in this piece and I will bring it back home to you. What is it? What take what's a greater warrior? The one who says, "I can't touch it. No, I I got, you know, I can't deal with it." Or the one who says, "I'm going to deal with it, but I'm going to deal with it in the right amount, and I'm going to bring ultimate intention to it." You know, my grandmother, she's awesome. God bless her. She's amazing. But she has this like thing for her entire life of like like health, health, health health. But not like buff, just like be a toothpick. This is her thing. And so she would literally put like a sumo wrestler in the fridge, like a mini sumo wrestler, and she'd write on its belly, "Back off, fatty. It's one form of service. I I got to give it to her. It's one form of divine service. >> First form of divine service is back off, Addie. But the second form is dance with me, beautiful. Dance with me, beautiful. But dance in the right way. Don't step on my toes. Don't overpower me. Let's dance together. Let's find this. Let's find the way we can connect. Okay, moving on because there's so much in this para and we're Wow. Anyone have three more hours? Wendy's in. I love it. I love it, Wendy. Okay, so we talked about vows. Okay, so then we get to the war against Midian. We learned about last week's Torah portion. The Midianites sent in their daughters in order to ensure the Jewish people to sin after they couldn't curse us. After bum couldn't curse. And unfortunately a terrible plague ensued and 24,000 people passed. There was a civil war. It was terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. And so now Hashem commands Moshe, "Take retribution on the Midionites. They came to bring divisiveness. They came to divide you. And it is time for you to eradicate that evil." And this is a hard pill to swallow, especially for some of us Quakers and pacifists, right? We're not talking about the oatmeal. It's hard. You know, you think we just want peace. We want to all be friends. Yes. And peace through strength. Peace through strength. You got to be strong. If you're not strong, we talked about this last week. You're just weak. You're not If you're not strong, you're not peaceful. You're just weak. This This is the moment where they say that this was completely evil and terrible. They created orgies and idol worship among the Jewish people in public. They created terrible sin. They created tens of thousands of us to die. And Moshe said, "Take them out." And so it was. And it's interesting because this is the only battle that we've ever seen that the Jewish people went to war and they come back to Moses and they say they say to Moshe, "Your servants count to the soldiers who were with us and not one man was missing from among us. Not one fallen soldier. Every one of them came home." What a what what an amazing thing we pray for in our times. >> That the amazing warriors that are on the forefront defending the Jewish people that they should be safe. Not one they should be able to do their job and not one should go missing. But it go it goes a level deeper. We said what did Midian try to do? They tried to sew divisiveness. They tried to be divisive. What was the rectification for the divisiveness? >> Cohesion. >> Unity. cohesion being together. The uni fire and now it makes sense why they say not one of us was missing. Not one of us was missing. They weren't just talking about the uh the body count of how many people died. Thank God there were none. But they were saying energetically we were all together in soul, in spirit, in oneness. We were all infusioned. Infusion. Whoa. Is that what an infusion is? It becomes one with you. Infusion you get infused means gets connected to you. We were infused with Hashem's light of the oneness. And so we were all fused together as one. Some of us blew a fuse but we were all sorry. We we were all connected. This is what we need now in our days more than ever. You know, you know what happened weeks before October 7th? There was huge fighting between the religious and the irreligious in Tel Aviv about a makita on yum kipper in a public space. Should look it up. It's a terrible fiasco. Terrible. A a public humiliation of divisiveness. And I'm not saying one side is right, one side is wrong because it always takes two to two to troublemake. There's a lot more than that. You also have the Supreme Court situation where there were people there were hundreds of thousands of people protesting. There was a lot of particip. But you're right. There was a lot of divisiveness. And when the Jewish people are divided, they know they could get us. >> When we're divided, they have power. But when we're one, when we're unified, there's nothing the world could do against us. It doesn't matter. When we are unified, when we're connected, when we love each other, when we care about each other, when we look at another and we see part of ourselves in them, the world could do nothing to us. Where does it start? It doesn't start with the Israeli High Court. Although I want we should fix that, too. I have a dream of instituting the Sanhedrin again, the the ancient Judeaic high court of the greatest sages ever. It's not just a dream. I have a little bit of a game plan for it, but it's for another time. What we need to do, we need to look at someone across the table who chews really annoyingly who slurps their tea so obnoxiously that we can't stand them. Take a deep breath and get out of our biases for a second. Take a deep breath and remember this human being is a human being. And this human being is another limb of the same body of which I am part of. We're all connected. And so therefore, you no longer see them as another and try to fight with them, but you see them as an integral part of yourself. And if you are an integral part of me and I love myself, oh, I love myself. Then naturally I love you too. Naturally I'll see that you are part of me. You're part of the and our sages say love covers over all iniquities all mess ups, right? It's the it's the reason why in the beginning like the honeymoon stage, right? She slurps her her teeth. You think it's so cute. It's so cute the way she does that. And then 8 10 years later, you're like, can you just drink normally for a second? Because when you're infatuated and when you're in love, you you don't see the iniquities. It's the exact same action, but it's just a different perspective that you have on it. But if you're in love with them, if you really love and you bring that love to heart and you see how you're connected to them, then you don't you don't focus on all the little stuff. You're not trying to point all out every negative thing people are doing. It's not over here. I'm not here to get you. Ah, I got you. No, no, Carrie. You You messed up, didn't mess up, you annoy me, didn't whatever. I love you, man. love you. You're awesome. You're part of me. We're one. We're We're all part of the same organism. We need unity in this show, friends. We very strongly need unity in this sh. >> United we stand divided before. >> It's true. We need unity in this show. And that's going to not look like people agreeing with one another. It's people are not going to agree with one another and that's okay. Unity is composite of diff defraction and differentiation. >> But it seems like today we need to learn how to do that again. Seems like today we need to learn how to do that again. >> We do. >> Welcome to the Torah class. >> Agree with me. >> That's what we're here to do. No. Right. This is a big malady in today's day and age. We have demonized those that we disagree with. There's been such a polarization that if you disagree with me, you are the bane of society and the cause of all of its ills and hurts. And we forgot the art of lovingly and respectfully disagreeing. You know, in the 60s, two people would meet, they would say, "I'm a liberal. I'm a conservative. Great. Let's get lunch. I'm religious. I'm not religious. Great. Who cares? Let's get lunch. >> Not even the >> 80s. Yeah. >> It's important. What we need to do, >> we need to look. I can find literally every single every single modern political and economic philosophy in the Torah. You know that every single one of them. They're all in the Torah. Some of them have taken it to an an extreme and distorted it. But I can literally find liberal mentality, progressive mentalities, Marxism, and socialism. Even turtle, even in the Torah, you can find capitalism. You can find literally every single ideology in some way in its most pure pristine root in the Torah. So what do you have to do? First of all, you have to learn a lot of Torah. You have to learn a lot of Torah because if you don't learn a lot of Torah, you're going to see you're different than me. But if you learn a lot of Torah, you see that renew my days as in the days of old. What does progressive mean? What does it mean to progress? To >> go forward. >> Go forward. What does it mean to conserve? >> Stay put. >> Preserve. What does the Torah say? Renew our days. Be progressive like we used to be conservative. Torah has space for all of it. Torah has space. The problem is when people start hating each other. Problem is when people start demonizing each other. This is where you get into trouble. The problem is where you have uh two different sides of of where Schul should go and where Schult should operate. And instead of saying you know that's an interesting opinion and I know at the very core at the very depth of your opinion there's a kernel and a spark of truth that is going to help this show skyrocket and the other can say you know I don't agree with you but I can have an eye to the inner core and I know at the very depth of your perspective and your opinion there is something that there that is truth and it is going to help our our show flourish. This is what we need friends. We're going into incredibly delicate and important times, not just for this show, but for this entire area. This place is a big enough of a dragon that it will affect this entire area. It could affect the entire Midwest in my personal opinion. Right now, this future is in your hands. This future is in your hands. You, you, you, you, and every single one of you. And it's not a light charge. And I invite you to stay and lean in to BMH strongly. Lean in like you've never leaned in before. Don't see my departure as any reason to step back at all. Cuz then we didn't we didn't learn anything here. You're meant to be a lamp lighter. You're meant to be a self-sustaining flame. You're meant to be the one who brings the change, who brings the light, who brings the inspiration, who voices your opinion strongly, who doesn't sit passively on the side. If you have something to say, say it. But look the other person in the eye with all the love in the world and say it. If you disagree with someone fiercely, say so, but preface it. I love you so much, and I know that there's a kernel of truth at the depth of what you're saying, but I see it very differently. And I hope that you could see the kernel of truth at where I am. And hopefully we could find the ultimate truth that unifies both of these truths. We're getting to incredibly important times for the city. Utili, you are at the epicenter of it. You don't realize how important you are right now. every single one of you and specifically this class I would say is probably at the very epicenter of BMH in my personal opinion >> because what have you shown by consistently showing up here week after week >> you care and you not only do you care about this sh you care about God you care about Torah who should be at the epicenter of the show but the people that care about God and Torah this is the crew right here this room in my opinion is the very epicenter of Marshall. Don't tell me some Borg schmore. Don't tell me some is Borg. Don't tell me any of this funny stuff. This room is at the epicenter of our show. Every single one of you in this room, because you have shown me time after time that you care. Don't diminish that. Activate it further. Care even more. Bring this light. Bring this light strongly. And you Yes, Jackie is going to do a good job on the board. We know you're going to you're going to rock the board. Okay. But >> do I have can I can I can I see who here is willing to lean in? Who's here to be willing to be more invested in BMH than they've ever been? >> You got one. Anyone else? >> Anyone else? Two. Anyone else ready to lean in? >> Who else is ready to lean in? You don't have to. But you recognize that if you don't, God forbid what the future of this building could hold because I only know two other type of organizations that could take this over and neither of them would be healthy for our space. And they're not represented in any part by any Jewish denomination. >> What was the board book that fell? >> Jackie, >> before you change the subject to thesis about this, the Jewish experience down the road is having a series of talks called clean speech. The next one is July 21st and it's about American Jews. Is it time to leave? Okay. And it's basically round tables teaching you how to talk to one another, talk to those who disagree with you and those who agree with you as well. It's very interesting. Check out their website so you can sign up and come and join them. time to leave. >> So, so Jackie, that's the perfect segue to close out what we're going to talk about today because then in Paras Masi, it lists the 42 journeys of the Jews in Egypt and it talks to them about them going towards Israel and then Hashem tells tells Moshe what the borders of the land are they going to be. And then Moshe knows, as we've learned in last week's Torah portion, that he is setting up a structure that he himself is not going to see through. He right now is there appointing the tribes, helping conceptualize the borders and the land and everything. But he is going to be the king that has always stayed on the eastern eastern bank of the Jordan River. He's the king who always stayed on the eastern bank. And we're actually right now going to enter the segue. It was finished the book of Bidbar. We're going to enter the segue into Moshe giving his last will and testament. Giving his last for the last 36 days of his life. It's all of of the book of Deuteronomy. Last 36 days of Mosha's life, his his ethical will and testament. He rebukes the people. He loves them. And then he's going to say, I'm essentially I was the king of the East Bank. But there's going to be a prince of the West Bank. There's going to be a prince of the West End. And this prince of the West End is going to bring you home. And so, no, it doesn't matter whether you've had the leader that you've always wanted or you have the prince >> of the West End >> or you have the prince of the West End. >> Wow. >> But either way, the leader that will be there is the leader that you need. The leader that will be with you will take you to the promised land, will bring you home. And may the leadership that comes and infuses this place be supported by all of your holy souls. May we bring this shul to its absolute greatest heights. May all of us lean in and lean in and lean in again. And may we give great nat to our creator Hashem. >> I just joined the class. I'd like to read something that I wrote. >> Can you speak really loud? I can. The wind's blowing. >> Speak as loud as I can. You came to our shul one day and said my name shalom. I've come to join with all of you and call my home. You came with joy and a life so bright that attracted us all to you. It didn't take but a minute to see your musical spiritual loving you. With guitar in hand and songs to sing and praise to the one above, he shared your imun to Hashem and all of us with so much love. Along with you, right by your side is your beloved Dalia Raz and more. It's been joyful having all of you here. Sad to see you leave for sure. We know as you go on your way, you will teach and learn and grow and enrich your new community with your gifts and talents all in tow. What becomes of Monday nights with your exuberant teaching style? Will we eventually be zooming in with your songs, your rua, and your smile? We will miss your vibrant, joyful spirit and your energy that's off the charts. Just know that while you journey on, you will always remain within our hearts. So go with God and angels and know that as you do, you will always be so grateful for the joy of knowing. Thank you. It's never goodbye. It's always >> All of you have given me probably one of the greatest gifts of my life, which is to share in a beautiful consistent space, the Torah that I love to connect, to learn, to develop, to build, to bring Hashem's light in. Thank you. Thank you for carving out this time in your week. Thank you for caring about Hashem and thank you for being such dear friends. Should we bring it one more time together? Y is help together. I'm Israel. I'm your new high. Oh no. Oh no. Oh d Oh no. Let's go. Hey, I'm your soil. I'm your I'm your I'm your I'm so I'm so I'm so I'm so I'm so I'm your I'm your high I'm I'm destroy I'm destroy I'm destroy I'm destroy I'm destroy I'm fly I love you all really deeply for my heart. May you be blessed to keep learning the most sweetest, beautiful Torah both with me. But be a lamp lighter. Be a lamp lighter. Light your own spark and bring it to the world.