Rabbi Alon Anava is live! - Do we have free will? Denver , CO

raised secular, he later embraced Torah and Kabala and now teaches with clarity and intensity, making deep Jewish wisdom practical, accessible, and life-changing for audiences worldwide. Tonight's subject is going to be free will. How does that fit in with an all powerful and all knowing God? If I can add the words, we know we know there is know divine providence. How does everything intersect and what is the clarity of free will? So I thank you for joining us and it is my humble pleasure to present to you Harav alone an [applause] >> thank you. Thank you so much, Rabbi Angel. Thank you so much first of all for again hosting us here in Denver and opening your beautiful shaw and your beautiful community. And I thank you all for coming and thank you Rabbi for inviting us and thank you for working hard and using all your allies to make everything happen. Uh needless to say, what a huge mitzvah to organize a Torah class and a lecture and the merit one gets from that and every little benefit that each and every one of you are going to get tonight, plus the thousands that are joining us right now online, then the merit of bringing souls together and excited to be closer to God. Their is unfathomable and I highly recommend for you to do that too in your free time. But Hashem should bless you with you and your family with true blessing. Everything your heart's desires Hashem should give you in the best way possible. Before we start, let me say a few. I have delicious food here. So I'm going to take the opportunity to say blessings. Some of you maybe saw the tubish that we had a few last week and you got used to that. But since I have such beautiful fruit here, take the opportunity to thank the master of the universe. What else do we have here? Amen. Next blessing I say maybe you can say the man with more excitement and I'll tell you why. uh the when a person says amen the numerical value of the word amen is 91. There's another word that the numerical number is 91 and that's the word angel malik. >> And when a person answers says amen, amen means it's an acronym. which means a trustworthy leader, a trust, a trustworthy king. Basically, what I'm saying when I'm saying amen is I say in other words, I agree. You said, wow, Hashem is the best. I agree. So, when you say amen, it says the one who answers a man is greater than the ones who said the bra. So there are many great scholars that would not say a blessing even without somebody next to them ready to say amen to complete the blessing. So let's try it again. [clears throat] >> We're starting to get there. I see the angels coming. What else do we have? do one more braha and then we can start. And I thank you all for coming on a Super Bowl night. When kafir told me there's a Super Bowl tonight, what are we going to do? I said, listen, the ones who want to listen to me, they're not interested in the Super Bowl. So, so thank you all for coming. Amen. >> And last but not least, uh the people online, can you hear me well and see me well? Kil, call yourself in for a second. Can you see me well and hear me well? The people online. >> Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Very well. Comments. become a >> I want to start the the lecture with a question and uh before I start a I thank you all for come that you come that you came thank you all for coming I appreciate it and more than that I'm honored I don't take it for granted that people leave their home in such cold weather to come and listen to words of dua. I make my effort to come, but you make the effort to sit in front of me. I mean, I can sit in front of a camera, but it's not the same. So, I thank you that you came. I appreciate it, and I'm honored. But I do want to ask you a question. Do you believe that you chose to come here tonight? And I'm sure the answer will be yes. >> And if the answer is yes, I know some of you are nodding no, but if the [clears throat] answer is yes, that you think that you chose to come here tonight, that means that what I understand from that that you believe that you have free choice. [clears throat] If the answer is no, then we might make the lecture much long shorter. But if the answer was yes, so I understand from that that you believe that you chose to come here. And what if I tell you that you didn't choose anything? What if [snorts] I tell you it's Hashem that chose your path and he decided that you're going to come tonight and uh not only that that you don't choose anything that you're walking on a path that Hashem chose for you. And uh you know many people wanted to come tonight. They heard about the lecture they just couldn't make it. Couldn't find a babysitter. Couldn't find a ride. They wanted, they had a choice to come, but it didn't work out. And some people heard about the lecture maybe today in the last few hours. They didn't even know I'm in town. And more than that, you in many of the cases believe that if you chose to came here tonight, then whether it's the question is if did you choose to come here tonight or whether it's Hashem choosing your path, that's a big question that we're going to start with because when it comes to free choice, there's a A lot of lot of questions here. First of all, there are three conditions that are non-negotiable by the Torah. The first one is that Hashem knows everything. You cannot doubt that. You cannot say he knows most. Hashem knows everything. No question, no doubt. The next one is that Hashem is in control of everything. There's no question here. No doubt. You can't question it. You can't say in any other way, Hashem has 90% control. He has control over this but not over that. No negotiable. Hashem knows everything. And number two, Hashem controls everything. Another thing that is not negotiable is that human beings are morally responsible for their choices. morally responsible for their choices. The only problem is that when you put all these three together, they don't work out together. Because if Hashem knows everything and Hashem is in all control, then how can I have any responsibility on anything? Therefore, the three non-negotiable parts that I just read, they don't work together. Something doesn't fit well. And when I'm facing this uh question, it will directly affect a long list of things that I need to pay attention. How it's affecting it and what I need to do. The first thing that it's affecting this contradiction that the three concepts have to fit together. It's affecting about a concept that my mon is talking about that is called sah reward and punishment. If I'm not responsible for anything that I can be punished but on the other hand I also can be rewarded. The next thing that it will affect is the concept of repentance of chuva. Again, if I don't have any responsibility for my choices, if I'm walking on some path that is predestined to me, then how exactly do I do chuva? If I have no control, if I have no control over my decisions and I have no control over my acts because Hashem is in control, then how is chuva fit here? How can I repent for something that I did but I was actually manipulated to do or that I was destined to do? So how can I do chuva for that? I I didn't do anything. >> What about the commandments? >> Wait, if you don't mind I'm not going to answer >> I'm not going to answer any questions right now. The questions will be at the end of the class and I will give time for questions right now. Let me go through the uh the the little information that I want to go to. I think a lot of it will be uh cleared as I'm speaking. Uh another problem that we have with this concept is it's going to affect directly prophecies. If I read a certain prophecy and uh Hashem is in control and Hashem knows everything but I have or don't right now we don't know yet the ability to choose then it will directly affect the prophecy how the prophecy will end up. Now if I have no say here or no nothing then now it's going to affect another thing prayer. Why should I pray? If I'm already going on a predestined path and everything is decided for me and I have no choice here, then why do I need to pray? And of course, if this is the case and I'm just listing a bunch of things that it's affecting after what I just listed, there's another problem that it's going to affect which is called justice. If everything is controlled by Hashem and Hashem decides everything, then why do we see so much injustice in the world? And of course that will affect also evil and suffering. Free choice. So Hitler had a free choice. Imm had a free choice. any of their enemies had free choice or they were predestined to do whatever act they were supposed to do and just acting as a messenger of Hashem. So that will affect also any evil in the world and every suffering in the world. And uh of course the last but not least, the meaning of the mitzvot. If I don't have a free choice, what meaning does the mitzvot have? And if I do have a free choice, how is that going to make meaning to the mitzvot? So there's a lot of questions that one can ask when you are facing the big question about free choice. Where am I holding here? Now there are a few erh different approaches that can be found in many great scholars. One approach that I want to talk about is the approach of my monities that he says it's very simple to answer this question. The prophet says my thoughts are not your thoughts. Of course, it's going on Hashem that human beings thoughts cannot be compared to the master of the world's thoughts, opinions, and how he sees things. And therefore, Hashem knows our choice, but he just doesn't force it. He sees what I'm going to choose and he lets me choose it. Okay, that's the one type of approach. But if Hashem knows what I'm going to do, so what's the purpose of trying or testing me if Hashem already knows what I'm going to do? And if I'm if this is the case, am I really choosing or am I just reacting to what I'm supposed to react? Did I really choose an act that I want to do or it's just a reaction that I'm programmed to do? And another big question I want to ask before we continue is if Hashem plans everything and everything is predestined and I have no choice here, then why would I even get punished for something that I do? We know the Torah is talking clearly about the many places in the Torah it says in simple words you do good then you'll get good you do not good then the Torah I'm not talking here about interpretations not kabala not zoh and not even rash I'm talking about the Torah the Torah is telling us simple things the Torah is daring to tell me curses that is almost un unbearable to hear and then telling me because you didn't serve Hashem with true happiness. So I do have a choice to serve if I serve with happiness or not and then I get punished or not. So let's try to make a little bit of a sad here now that we asked a lot of questions and now that we're presented a lot of problems. Let's see if maybe in the next hour we can uh understand more clearly the concept and more important is what do I need to take from that? The reality is that it's not questionable and you can't argue with that that Hashem knows everything. He created the world. He governs the world. He knows everything. He controls everything. Nothing can move in this world without the direct order of Hashem. The Talmud says an al a leaf doesn't even turn from one side to the other. What we see that the wind does. A leaf doesn't even flip from one side to the other. Unless an angel stands on that leaf and says, "Okay, now you need to turn over." And about that angel, there's another angel that is in control of him. And another angel and another angel. And everything goes all the way back to Hashem. And nothing moves in this world without Hashem approving it. A person cannot even move his little toe, his little finger like this unless it's approved in the heavens. So I can take from that very clearly that the control is coming from above which means that when I want to do something it has to be approved by the master of the universe. It's what I'm talking here is simple math and facts because the Torah is very clear. The Torah of course has an esoteric part to it but the messages are very clear and cut to the chase. So if I understand that the master of the universe created the world and not only that he created the world In his great kindness, he recreates the world every second. Which means that if Hashem now somehow decides to back out, no world, if Hashem stops his uh constant flow of creation, everything goes back to its source and back to nothingness. And every day we thank Hashem that he constantly recreates the world. We read that every day in the prayer of and needless to say I don't have to elaborate and explain and add the fact that Hashem creates the world constantly as we also mentioning in the prayer bless that he said and the world is created. So Hashem is constantly involved in creating the world. He doesn't stop for one second. There's no vacations and there's no stops. So I know that Hashem not only created the world, he's also recreating the world every second. So no question here that he has to say he has the control, he has the the the the last word as it say. So if I'm taking the quote from the that person cannot move his finger down here unless it's approved the word the the the way it's expressed in the which means it has to be announced from in the world above to simplify it is Hashem has to approve it everything that happens in this world has to come from the approval of Hashem So that means that all evil was approved by Hashem. Because if you say otherwise, that's a pretty strong statement of heresy. If I will come and say now, oh no, no, that person is the evil one who did this to these people and I take Hashem completely out of the equation here. That's heresy. Because you want to tell me that a person I just told you that a person cannot move move his finger without the approval from above. So to murder a nation that requires a even a bigger approval. So in other words, and I know it's not so easy to sound to to the ear to sound it, but even the evil things that we experience around the world, all around history, all the time of history was approved by the master of the universe. And again, if you say otherwise, you got to be very careful because you're basically saying somebody was able to go around Hashem. Nobody can go around Hashem. Nobody nobody can bypass God. the most evil individual, Hitler, Makimo, whoever, they have to be approved to operate. It's a very deep co concept, very hard to accept because basically what I'm saying is that all evil in the world came directly from Hashem. Then we can compare it to many quotes from our sages and evil doesn't come down from hem. Hashem has no evil in him. So what what's going on here? I see evil in front of me. I experience it. On the other hand, you're telling me Hashem is in control. So we're back to square one. The fact is nobody can move in this world without the approval of Hashem. The next fact is is that we are free to choose. Now let me explain to you a little bit more deeper how I understand and see the concept. And by the way there are many ways of looking at this concept. There are many books who talk about it. There are many great sages who give their two cents about it. It's not black and white here. There are things that you cannot argue with the fact that Hashem is in control. Hashem creates the world, recreates the world, controls every creature, and nothing moves in this world without the control of Hashem. That is unquestionable. No negotiation. And that's the fact. Now, how do I fit in? The reality is if you look in kazal in many quotes of our sages you will find that we don't have free choice. The most dominating one is in tract of the fathers the essics of the fathers where it says in the Mishna and nobody's asking you it's against your will you come down to this world and against your will you die and against your will. So the Mishna is telling me you don't have a will or you can look at it different against your will. So oh I do have a will but at the end of the day the bottom line is not my word. So it goes against my will. It's a very easy way to say I have no free choice and Hashem decides everything and I will just do my hishloot my effort. I'll do whatever um required I'll give it the best I can and that's where it ends. And if Hashem doesn't want something to work out, I have control over it. If Hashem wants a certain thing to happen, can I change it? On the surface, no. On the surface, if something is decided, if there's a if there's a decree, nothing you're going to do is going to change it. On the surface, on a deeper surface, we do know that prayer can change everything. for where do we see the best example that prayer didn't work especially by the top top top top Jew in whole history our master and our teacher Moshe Rabenu who prayed 515 times to the master of the universe to have permission to enter into the land of Israel and the answer was denied Mosher. No, I'm not talking here about some scholar or a great rabbi. I'm talking about the rabbi. The man who saw God with his own eyes. The man who went up to the mountains 40 days, didn't sleep, didn't eat, brought down the Torah to the world. That's a pretty uh pretty high level. I don't think there's much higher to grow above Mosher Rabenu. Okay, Mashiach. But Mosher Rabenu still was holding a pretty good title and he was denied saying in other words that prayer doesn't always work. So why did Mosha Rabenu tried if it wasn't his choice? If it was Hashem's choice, why did he try? Why did he pray 515 times? And Hashem already told him at this point, stop. It was not going to work. Can stop right there. So to simplify things, I like simplifying the Torah because the Torah is very deep and the Torah is very very difficult to understand by any human being because it's not our wisdom. The wisdom belongs to the master of the universe. And for us, we we somehow put some dots together. It's not the time now. When mashia will come, then our wellsp springsings of knowledge will open. Then we'll be receptive to Hashem's Torah. Right now, we're not fully can absorb the light of the Torah. It's time of exile. We have to refine ourselves. We have to do a certain act as a nation, as individuals to do a rectification from the sin of Adam. There's many major things that has nothing much to do with us. We're just need to do our part and Hashem does the rest. [snorts] But let's now focus now on my personal life. And when I wake up in the morning and I ask myself, should I wear a white shirt or should I wear a blue shirt? And I end up wearing the blue shirt. Did I choose to wear the blue shirt or was it Hashem that placed that thought in my mind and made me choose to wear a blue shirt? My brother-in-law is a not an official comedian, but a very funny individual. It's the type of individual that you sit next to him, he will make you laugh. So when he became observant uh he used to stand in front of the mirror and say hashem you know everything and you know everything I'm going to do and right now I need to know I need a message to know if I do have free choice or not. Hashem tell me do you know that I'm about to do this? Did you know that I'm going to do that? Now, of course, he did that all in a humor way. But ask yourself this question. Did I choose to wear a blue suit and this tie? I have a few ties. So, I'll tell you the simple answer when it comes to choosing the color of the shirt. It's irrelevant. It's unimportant. It's not even something that we need to focus on. This is not something that will affect your life. choosing a white shirt or a blue shirt is going to affect my life in any type of a way. I don't think so. Therefore, that choice is minor. It's a choice to give me so to say the magic wand or more right to say to give me the reigns to think, oh yeah, I'm in control. I'm I'm thinking here I'm doing here. It's irrelevant these choices. What's relevant is the choices that affect your life. choices that don't affect your life. Okay, we'll give it to you. You have free choice whether you choose to get the cheesecake or the chocolate cake or you're going to choose the chocolate milkshake or the vanilla milkshake or if you're taking today the sushi or the steak choices that don't affect your life. I make I call them minor and it doesn't really matter if Hashem chooses for you or you choose for yourself. Sometimes it's easy just to say Hashem chose it. But to categorize these choices, I think there are completely irrelevant and they're not so it's kind of background noise like everything in this world to distract me from the focus because when I choose a lot of things all day long, I choose to have breakfast. I choose to have this. I choose to to pick up this cucumber and this and that cucumber. That these are all my choices right here. Here's a plate full of fruit. Now I want to eat one of these blueberries. I'll choose uh this one. Did I just choose it? Why are you not answering? >> You're right. I just chose it. Did Hashem plant that thought in my mind? Could be. I think that when it comes to such irrelevant things, Hashem says, "Choose, choose which blueberry you'll eat." Think that you're choosing to make me feel that, oh, I am an entity. I am something separate from Hashem. I do have my own opinions. I am separated from Hashem. That's really the concept of the world is to bring you to a point of thinking that you are separated from Hashem. That's how Hashem created the system. Youth should think that you are separated from Hashem, but the reality that you're not. You are part of Hashem. You are a huge part and Hashem is a huge part. You're not separate from Hashem. Where do the choices that you do start to make effect? Now, there's many different levels in free choices. Let's go to the lowest of all. And that's something that happens to you every day. You wake up in the morning, you choose if you have this shirt or that shirt, that for breakfast, this for breakfast. All that is you, you know, choosing minor things. Then you go out to the street. Now starts the real choices. Somebody comes up to you and tells you, "I need your help." Now you're rushing to work. If you're going to stop now for five minutes, you're going to be late to work, your boss will be angry. Maybe you'll miss a business meeting, whatever it is. But that person is asking you for help. I just need you to jump start my car. I need you to take me from here to there because of this and that. Now, the choice is already not something irrelevant like a shirt. It's a choice that will change your life. Because if you choose to help that person, choice number one, you're late to work, you you missed the the meeting, you you know a chain reaction of negative things. But let's say now for the sake of the example, you're not late. There's nothing stopping you. You have all the time in the world. Your choice will be detrimental. If you choose to help the person, you grab the mitzvah. Hashem threw in your direction an opportunity to do something good. And he wants to see what you're going to choose. Are you going to choose something that is good for you? Are you going to choose something that's good for somebody else or an opportunity that Hashem wants you to do? Now kicks in the real choice. Do I want to do the good in the eyes of Hashem? It is a mitzvah. or I don't want it's not comfortable for me right now. So I chose whether to do this mitzvah or not or if to help that person or not. If I chose to help the person and it falls under a category of doing of kindness then Hashem says you will get rewarded for that. If I choose not to help that person I'm not going to get hit on my head. But Hashem says okay you you lost one good opportunity. You could have grabbed a mitzvah in this world. You could have grabbed. This type of free choice is kind of like a video game. There's a video game that I actually never played. I just saw other people playing. It's called Subway Surf. And you're like running on some path. Uh I think it's like actually running on train tracks. And you pick up like these gold coins. And when you go and of course somebody something is running after you, the is running after you. He wants to kill you and your option is to stay stay alive and to get as many coins as possible. [clears throat] That's the exact example of what I just said. Hashem puts you on a path and he throws at you throughout the path like in this game all these medals or coins or whatever and he says you can choose if you are going to take one and benefit from it or not. Not going to punish you. I'm not going to beat you up. I'm just giving you an option here. And why? Because before the world was created, we didn't have that option. Before the world was created, the zor says that Hashem was in existence and around him was all the souls enjoying the benefit of this godly light. And at some point the souls felt very very embarrassed and ashamed that Hashem just gives them and gives them and gives them and they came to Hashem and said we want to give something back. The calls it bread of shamef like a poor person comes to your door, knocks on the door every day, asks for food. You gladly give him the food and the money, but he's already embarrassed. Every day the same thing. So the souls came to God and says, "Please, we want to do something for you." She says, "I don't need you to do anything for me, but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll create a system that you earn what you get. Instead of me just giving it to you as a as a free present, I'll make a system that you earn it. And that's why it's fair and square. The more you work, the more you earn. And that way you can't uh complain. You were lazy. You didn't earn that much. Okay? And so you earn less. Of course, the souls were like, "No, no, no, no. It's okay. It's okay. But it was already a minute too late. The world was created and now we are in the option that Hashem says, "No problem. I want you to receive this reward." The reward is no checks or some medal. The reward is closeness to Hashem. Because the more I do mitzvot, I create spiritual garments. That's the that's the purpose of the mitzvot. I mean, there's many other purposes. Don't limit it. The main and most important that's the will of Hashem. That's why I do the mitzvot because that's the will of Hashem. Not because I'm going to be rewarded or not because I'm going to be punished or not because I don't know what. I'm doing the mitzvot only because it's that's the will of Hashem. So I humbly do that because he gives me life. He gives me food. He gave me a wife. He gave me kids. He gives me parasa health. Everything that I need. So the minimum the minimum that I do is I do his will. But if we're already looking at it in a personal way, when I do a mitzvah, I create a spiritual garment that when my soul leaves this world, then it gets dressed in this beautiful garment and able to stand closer to Hashem because the garment allows the light of Hashem that normally will anullify me because I have no vessel to hold this light. The garments of the mitzvot allow me to enjoy the zeve of the ray of the light of hem. And the more mitzvot I do, more garments I have, the closer I can come to Hashem. The reward really is that I'm closer to Hashem. to simplify reward and punishment in the Torah. It's not necessarily people think they sitting in Ganeden on a deck chair with pina colada or a beer and some angels you know waving you and massaging your feet and no the simple explanation of ganed and gum. Ganedin is how close you are to Hashem and Gom is how far away you are from Hashem. That's it. Few years ago, many years ago to be exact, I had a friend who loved the NBA. And one time he took me to a game and uh we went in the corner in the alley where you buy the tickets cheap, not in the reg regular tickets. So we got real cheap tickets for $20 a piece. But when we came into the stadium, we were on row 372 all the way up. the people, the players, they look this big. I told him, "Why did I come here? I see better on the TV. I don't see anything. I can't hear. I can't see. They look miniature." So he told me, "Don't worry." [laughter] And uh a few minutes later, he took me and we ran down 10 lines and we sat in seats that were vacant. That was his uh shittita. He would buy cheap tickets in the bank and then he would go like this, look for free seats and run down. 20 minutes into the game, I'm in row 13. I smell the sweat of the players. Oh, now I see. I'm close. I can see the game. That taught me a very, very profound message. The further away you are from Hashem in the world to come and for eternity, you don't see, you don't hear. IT'S FAR AWAY. WHAT? WHAT? WHAT DID HE SAY? That's gum. You're far away from Hashem and Ganedan. Then you're closer. Don't you want to be first row? I want to be first row. I don't settle for second row. So I choose in this world to fill the will of Hashem. Whether Hashem planted it in my mind or my soul and I'm just following orders or not, we'll get to that in a second. But when it comes to me, I feel that I choose to do the will of Hashem. Let's go back now to the example that I gave you. I wake up in the morning, I go out, I have an opportunity to do a mitzvah. Right now, I can choose if to do the mitzvah or not. And if I choose, I will be rewarded and I'll get an opportunity to do another mitzvah because the Mishna says mitzvah you do one mitzvah, you the reward you get to do another one and then the reward of that is you get to do another one. And what would be the reward of that not only to do another one then I'm closer to Hashem. I'm closer to Hashem then I hear better. I feel better. I feel Hashem. You know, people ask me like as if I'm the know-it-all rabbi. I don't know it all. People send me questions like as if, you know, people know sending me questions, sell, should I sell my Bitcoin? Should I buy my Bitcoin? What are you asking me? I'm a rabbi. I'm not a consultant. Yeah, but you you see things. I don't see anything. I see what you see. And when I have a question that I don't understand, I don't go to my rabbi and ask him. I ask my Araba questions in and every now and then maybe something that I to help me in my spiritual growth but when I have a question I ask Hashem I do an effort I will pray more I will learn more Torah in many cases even fast if and the qu the answer comes I I don't need to seek for answers too much what do I do I just gain closeness to Hashem and the answer will just come by default so really My point here is to gain closeness to Hashem. So first option of free will is like I told you is that I walk on my path and Hashem throws to me opportunities to do a good a good deed to do a mitzvah. In the exact same level he does that with temptations and let's see if you'll fail. On the one hand, I can choose to do something good and gain a mitzvah. And on the other hand, I can choose to do something wrong. I'm not talking right now not to do the first option. I'm choosing now option completely different option that I choose to do something bad. I walk in the street or I'm in some type of situation. An opportunity comes for me to sin and I sin. And again we're in the same question is if I chose to do that or not. Now let's introduce a different type of free choice. I walk on the path that Hashem put me on. And here there's not really a question. Everything is predestined. Next week I'm going to give a class. is going to be oneshar on next Tuesday. I believe it will be live like this. I highly recommend you uh log in and watch it. It's going to be a similar lecture to here but with a different uh approach. So it's not going to be the same lecture but in that lecture I talk about a concept that when a man and a woman a husband and wife are together conceiving a child then an angel comes down to this world the name of the angel is Laya and it takes a little drop from the father and it goes all the way up to Hashem and it tells Hashem this drop what's going to be the result of this job. Is it going to be a man or a woman? Is it going to be a tall or short? Blonde, brown, blue eyes, rich, poor, brave, wicked. What's the person? What's going to be this drop? And everything is already listed. What's going to be the answer of Hashem is everything is everything is in the hands of hem. besides and I'll explain in a second what that means but saying in other words that everything is predestined if it's going to be a man or a woman if he or she are going to be tall or short fat skinny blue eyes rich poor brave everything is predestined the only thing that is not isim now most people take the wordim and they translate it to fearing god God cuz shamim is another word the another name of Hashem. Shamim Shamim means the heavens. But in many places in the Tanakh we find that the word shamim refers to Hashem. So Shamim is fear of God. Is fear of God a good thing? Yes it is. It's a very good thing. You can't reach to love without fear. You need the fear. The balatana explains in the holy book of Tanya that the fear and the love. He's explaining it based on the zor that fear and love are two wings and one wing is the fear and one wing is the love. And I never saw a bird that flies with one wing. You need both wings to take off. So you need the love and you need the fear. I have seven kids. I am a fully a full-blown father. The first thing of my day is a father. I'm a husband. I'm a first of all uh God-fearing Jew that I have a 3 to six hour job a day just serving my master. So, first of all, I'm a god-fearing Jew, but I'm also a husband and I'm a father and I'm a rabbi and I'm a teacher and many other things. But father right now in my life is a very dominating part. And I can tell you that being a father made me much more closer to Hashem, much more aware of Hashem by relating with my kids. I understand how Hashem relates with me. It changed my life being a father because I understand now the the responsibility that comes with it. the the responsibility of being sometimes very firm and sometimes very kind. And it's not about if I like the kid or not or love them or not. If I'm not going to be firm and educate them, what's going to happen to that person? When my first daughter was born, my wife and me were very, very h happy. We brought her home and we looked at this beautiful baby and I told my wife, we are going to be now the architect of this person, the architect of this person's life. Whatever we going to give this little baby in the next 20 years, we defined so to say and again it kind of contradicts this entire topic of tonight of free choice but nevertheless the approach was we are going to design the life of this child. If I'm going to teach this child good midot good attributes to be kind and to be merciful and to be charitable and to be hospitable and by showing them and teaching them I'm designing that person children are product of their parents and their environment I have a huge responsibility to give whatever tools to these kids that makes me understand how Hashem relates with us. You know how many times I give my kids an option and I know what they're going to choose and I act accordingly and it's not because I'm a prophet but take now a cucumber in one hand and take a very colorful lollipop in the other hand and show it to your three-year-old. I know what they're going to choose. They're not going to choose the cucumber. Try it. The child will choose the lollipop because it's shiny and it's colorful and the rapper makes noise. This looks pretty boring. But let me ask you a question. And what I said right now is a fact. Test it. go now to a kindergarten with cucumbers and lollies and you'll see which child will take the cucumber. So I know I know do they have free choice these two year olds these three year olds I put in front of them something that is irresistible for them something that they know causes them happiness and something that is good on their taste buds. Why would they choose the cucumber? Do you understand how Hashem sometimes operates? He knows what's good for you. So when I go to my kid and I present options, then I know what's good for them. In many of the cases, I don't even give them an option. That is what's going to happen. And in many of the cases, I do give them options. And why? Because I want to see if they learned anything that I taught them in the last 10 years. I educate my kids. First of all, to be a mench. You know what a mench means? Be a good person. Don't be mad. Don't be bad to other people. Don't look to do evil things to other people. Move away from disagreements. Speak always truth. I know sometimes it's hard, but always speak the truth. Don't raise your voice on people. Don't use foul language. I have a long list of things that I want to teach my kids because eventually when they run around in the streets of the world, I have some responsibility. When I'm going to come up to the heavens after 120 years, they'll tell me, "Oh, your child did this and that. Why didn't you educate? Why didn't you educate him?" Now, I give the most that I can to my kids. Do they all go in the path that I wish? No. The fact is that neither one of them is going on the p path that I wish because they're going on their own path. They have their own choices, their own life, their own. But it doesn't stop me from giving them the right tools. And at some point when they grow, that's it. They left the house. They're going to be my child for always all my life. But the education uh period is over. I can't educate my 20-year-old. I can support, help, teach, but that's it. I'm done with the [snorts] part and hopefully I did the right thing. But why am I saying all this? Because I can learn very easily how I relate with my kids, how Hashem is relating with us. And I don't always tell my kids this is what's going to happen. I give them options. And the reason that I give them options because I want to see if the material that I gave them sits there and I can let them go. You're ready to go to the world. So I will see their reactions all all the time. As a good father, I will bring a situation and wait to see the reaction and then educate them based on that reaction. This mini model is the same model that Hashem does with us. He knows what we're going to choose. First of all, he puts us on a path that you can't change. For that, listen to the class on Jada next Tuesday. I believe it's February 17. I think if I'm not mistaken, 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. Log in. You're going to be very, very happy. It's a very powerful lecture. Going back to what I told you, the Talmud That's talking about the angel that's taking the drop. The answer is very simple. Everything is predestined. Where you going to be born, where you going to live, where you going to learn, what's going to be your profession, who's going to be your wife or husband, kids, everything is predestined. It's this. No, no need to be alarmed. Everything is predestined. And you cannot can't argue with that. I'll tell you what's not predestined is now as I explained before yachamim can be translated as god-fearing but let me give you the true explanation not true sorry the god-fearing is true too let me give you a more profound way of looking of the definition when you write the word in Hebrew you write Re alif. If you change just the punctuation, not the letters and not the orders of the letter, just the punctuation, you can read it. Same letters, just instead of the under the al if is a now I put a seal, it's a completely change the meaning because means that I should see the hand of God in everything. That's a different level of everything is predestined which means that how much I see the hand of Hashem in the situation that's up to me. So how can I analyze that? You wake up in the morning and uh it doesn't matter right now uh what but you get bad news. You walk out, somebody bumped into your car, you walk out, I don't know the something the ceiling fell down, whatever a problem. Every day we wake up to problems, right? Unfortunately, every day there's some something new. What now? The principal of the kid called from school, the I don't know what the bank is calling you. Every day there's a different a different problem to juggle. Now you have a choice to see how much it's the hand of Hashem. If you choose to see that it's not the hand of Hashem, then you deal with it with whatever the problem is. If you choose to see that it's a hand of Hashem, then you also know that the solution will come from Hashem. And you also don't stress over it. And now your reaction changes. And from a reaction of losing your temper, you move to a reaction of moving on or thanking Hashem even though it doesn't sound so good. Your reaction is different. Somebody does something bad to you, instead of getting angry at them, you just see that person as a messenger. Suddenly instead of anger, you have gratitude to that person. This is the concept that is more practical I would like to say about about free choice because if I need to simplify it the re don't have any choice the master of the universe is two steps ahead which means that he already knows what you're going to choose 50% of the times he puts the situation in a way that there's not even a question what you're going to choose like the analogy that I gave with a kid with a lollipop. The more important part that we need to focus on is you choose how to react. If you're supposed to do a mitzvah, you're going to do it. Hashem will allow you to do it. But you choose how you're going to do it. You can ask me for help and I'll be like, "Here, take a $100. Leave me alone. I helped you. Did I [clears throat] do the mitzvah right?" No, I did the mitzvah. I didn't do it the nice way. I made you feel not so comfortable. Maybe I embarrassed you. Maybe I embarrassed you in front of others, but I did the actual mitzvah. I gave you the money. So even Hashem might tell you, I choose if you'll do the mitzvah, but how you going to do the mitzvah, you can go on a journey on a train. The destination is the same destination. The origin is the same origin. The train will arrive at the time that it's supposed to come. It's predestined to arrive in the gate at 2:43. and it knows which gate it's going to arrive in. Everything is predestined. But when you walk on that train, you do have a choice. Where are you going to sit yourself? Are you going to sit yourself in the front? Are you going to sit yourself in the back? Are you going to sit on the right side? Because if you go on the right side of the journey, the scenery is this. And if you choose to go on the left side, the scenery is that. So the destination is the same. The origin is the same. The time of arrival is predestined. Who's going to be the driver of the train is predestined. Which train? What are the stops? What is the path? Everything is predestined. Your choice is where you decide to sit. Because if you sit on the right side of the train, you're going to see one type of you. And if you sit on the left side of the train, you see a different type of you. And if you do chuva, you switch sides and you switch the switch the view. So you went on the same path, but the view changed. Hashem is testing you with your reactions. In many cases, Hashem programs you to sin. There's a great argument in the Talmud whether the golden calf what what was going on with the golden calf. Five minutes before that they saw Hashem with their own eyes. Well, not exactly five minutes. five minutes I'm saying as a term you know three months before that for a whole year they saw miracles of the 10 plagues that how can you not be fa shocked by seeing it with their own eyes then they saw more miracles by escaping Egypt then they saw more miracles by walking in the in the desert and getting man from the heavens protected by the war of Amalik getting water from in the middle of the desert and miracles from here till Matan Torah and then in the time of getting the Torah they saw shem heard the voices you saw the mount there the mount the fire on the mountain the Torah coming down and then a minute later you're going and doing a golden calf by the way I said five minutes later it was exactly 40 days later the story is that Mosher Rabenu received the Torah went up to the mountain sorry came down went up to get the Torah came down after 40 days the Satan the devil showed everybody that Mosher Rabenu died made a fake hologram of a fake funeral or burial of Mosher Rabenu and convinced them Moshe is not coming down so I said five minutes please don't uh I said it as a term five minutes later but it really was 40 days later but it's irrelevant The question in the Talmud is how can you see such greatness, such miracles and a minute later 40 days do a golden calf make a false idol may melee us 3,000 years later. If I believe in some idol, I didn't see Hashem. I didn't see Mosher Rabenu. I didn't see man coming from the heavens. How can you do such a sin of idolatry forming a new god shalom minutes, hours, days after you saw the hand of God? I'm not asking this question. The Talmud is asking this question. And you know what's the conclusion that the Talmud comes to? There was a conspiracy against the humans. Hashem conspired to make us fail. It was predestined too. By the way, just for the to for the record, we didn't do the golden calf. It was 3,000 people who are considered a mixture of different people, different nations, all the junk. Sorry to say that. that we came out of it. Some junk came with us. We didn't do the golden calf by the way. That's why the sin was forgiven. The sin that we did as a nation right after that is the sin of the spies. That's that didn't get forgiven. But let's go back to the golden calf. The Talmud says was a conspiracy. It's like as if like in other words, Hashem made it happen. Now, why would Hashem do such a thing? I'll ask you even a bigger question. Did Adam and Kava actually mess things up? How many you know the story? Adam and Kava were created on Shabbat. All they needed to do is accept Shabbat, then observe observe the Shabbat, and that's it. And then Mashia was supposed to come. Alan was supposed to be Mashia. If you're reading the description of what was supposed to be in the seven days of creation, I mean the I mean one little mistake and the entire plan was changed. It's almost impossible to believe that that was the plan. It's much easier to believe the whole thing was predestined. It was already planned. Because if not, you want to tell me that one little mistake changes the course of the entire universe and Hashem's plans. I have a way to affect Hashem's plans. So if we're going back to Matan Torah and what the Talmud says, there are situation that Hashem will force you to sin. He will make you sin and only to see your reaction to see if you get upset or not. to see if you lose your temper or not, to see if you lose your hope or not. Because many times you try and you sin over and over and over, you lose your hope. You're like, "Okay, it's a lost case. I can't get rid of this sin." Shem is constantly testing your reaction. The professional term to to reaction is how much are you willing to see that it was the hand of God. So, I'll give you one example out of many. Many years ago, I had an idea for a business. I hired somebody to do the job. Quarter of a million dollars later, nothing. He didn't do the job. Of course, all sorts of excuses, but the fact was a lot of money was paid and there was no product. Needless to say, that brought a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, and he instead of admitting, he went and blamed me. Sounds like a normal story that everybody goes through. It was started a disagreement between me and this individual. The problem was that this individual prayed in the same synagogue that I prayed. And this individual, I was the Gabby of that sh. And he was the only levy in our congregation. I had to call him up to the Torah four times a week and give him a blessing with a smile when he finagled quarter of a million dollars and didn't even admit he kept saying I was the problem and he was I'm not telling you the whole story there's a lot of background here but that person hurt me my money he didn't provide the product that I needed he e insulted me and attacking me. I'm the problem. Now, let's analyze this. What's my free choice here? To choose that he did it or to choose that Hashem did it. My test was here and I saw it clearly. The writing was on the wall. My test was if I'm going to get angry or not. If I lose my temper, then I don't believe it's in the hand that it's in the control of Hashem. Lost. If I lose my patience, if I start losing foul language or what do I do? Do I sue him? Do I take him to bed? The bigger test, the biggest challenge was if I say lashon about him, if I slander him. And you know how hard it was to be in a congregation. Smile. People are asking me, "No, how's the project going?" It's going, it's getting there. So, I had to lie now to cover his failure cuz if not, will be questions. You need to understand what a test was to see his face every day and not to jump on him like a lion for what he did. And it all boils down to understanding or rather choosing to think that did he do it or did Hashem do it. Needless to say that the conclusion was very fast to understand that that was the will of Hashem. And the challenge is if I get angry or not, if I will shalom use foul language towards him or violence or anything negative. If I'm going to slander him, trash him, talk bad about him in the community, my reaction is what's going to count. Then Hashem made it even more interesting and spiced it up and he moved into my building. So every day I wake up in the morning, the elevator opens. Ding. And he's in the elevator. We pray in the same minyan same time. I'll take the stairs. It was extremely obvious that I'm being tested right now with your not by afraid of God, but how much am I willing to see that this is the hand of God that did that? And why a could have been that I did that and now I'm getting back my own medicine. That's called a tikun. You do something you need to rectify it. So how first of all might have been a tikun could be someone from a previous life a debt from a previous life that I owed him money in a previous life and we both came back to this world so I can pay him back. Sorry he can pay is sorry I can pay him back can be many different options. You know there's a famous story with I'll tell you quickly the story [snorts] is known as Rabbi one of the biggest pillars of the teachings of Kabala lived inat about 500 years ago and there's a big story a famous story that there was a re very rich man in the community who had a wonderful daughter and he couldn't marry her off with all the money he couldn't findan finally after many many years. She comes home and she says, "My dear father, I found the man that I want to marry." She goes and looks at the man and he sees this skinny, pale Jew who learns Torah all day long. He didn't want that type of a son-in-law. He wanted somebody that can take over the business. He has only a daughter. He wanted a son-in-law that will go into business, a sharp businessman. But that was the choice of the daughter. He was happy with it. He's like, "You happy? Fine." And they got married. The day of the wedding, the father comes to the groom and he tells him, "Here's a certain amount of money." And he tells him, "That's half my wealth. I'm giving you half my wealth so you can take care of my daughter for the rest of your life because I know you're going to sit there all day long and not going to work. I wish I had such a father-in-law." [clears throat] Everybody would wish for such a father-in-law, giving you half of his wealth just to sit and learn Torah. But unfortunately a week or a month after the wedding, the bride dies and now the groom is a very rich widow. The father comes to him and tells him, "Please give me back my money." The groom says, "What are you talking about? You gave it to me as a present." The father says, "I gave it to you to support my daughter. The daughter died. Give me back the money." No, I don't want to give you back the money. And as two good Jews, they go to the bedin. They go to the to get some justice. Who do they go to? To the betf man. Rabbi Ysef Caro who wrote the shuk the Jewish code of law. Go to his bed. Very quickly he reviews the case and he says the boy the groom has to give the money back to the father. That's the groom says no I disagree with that. I want a I want a second opinion. second opinion. This is this is not a second opinion. He says, "I want to see the I want to talk to the I want to see what he says." Now, the was known to have what's called a magg mid is an angel that is standing next to this individual and tells him in his ear constantly everything that he needs to know. The had a mag. Many great sages, they they have a mag. That's how it's called. and kind of like a voice in their ear that telling them all sorts of things that they need to know. These two individuals come into the room of the Arizal already the mag already told him in two words what's the question they walk into the room the room and the Rizal says right away the money stays for the groom the father is fuming what are you talking about I have a sucked in a verdict from the baked in that I get the money says to him let me explain to you something very simple [clears throat] you Your daughter and this young man were business partners in a previous incarnation. You and your daughter stole his part. All three of you came back in an incarnation and now you gave him back the money from previous life. If you take the money back from him, your daughter will not go to Ganedin. She'll have to come back down here in another incarnation. You are not going to go to Ganedin. You're going to have to come back here in another incarnation and you're going to drag him to another time and you all three of you are going to come back here again till you give him back the money. Finish with it right now and give him the money. So many many many situations in our life is a previous incarnation debt. So when I looked at this individual that took that money, it could have been a tikun. It could have been a debt from a previous life. could have been just a very big challenge to see if I will be angry or not. You know what a challenge that was? Not to lose my anger and not to use foul language. I know to some of you maybe foul language is not a big deal, but foul language is not an appropriate way to talk. And I'm talking about all sorts of words that we all say without even noticing. I'm not going to say the letters of the word, but I'll define them as the A word, the B word, the C word. You know, you you you know what I'm talking about. It's not a right way. It's not the it's not I used to talk like that. So I understand it but it's you know when I became observant that was one of the first thing that I I was was hard for me is how I talked and I worked on that and I went months without talking because I didn't want to every second word that it comes with some derogatory word or some curse. So I know to many people foul language is not the big but maybe you came all the way tonight here just to hear that because sometimes you know I understand you bump your toe in the edge of the bed instead of saying ah you say another word so just don't say that word you don't need to say that word just say I. But nevertheless, the test was for me also not to use foul language with this guy and not to slander him and not to the test was very very intense. But I understood the concept then of free choice that a hashem takes me on the path that I need to walk on and you can't change it. It's predestined. This act was predestined. Now kicks in the free choice. Do you choose to accept that it came from Hashem or not? How does Shakespeare say? That is the question. If you choose to believe it was the hand of another person, then you lost the you lost the the the challenge here right now. If you choose to understand and believe that it was the hand of God, that's your mind. You see the hand in God of God in it. And for the little challenge of the day or the week, you passed. That's it. All again. Just remember with choices that change your and affect your life, then you need to pay attention to that. We already removed from the list the choices if you're going to eat the cucumber or the olive or the am I going to eat sushi tonight or Italian. I do believe that 50% of these situations it's irrelevant. So let you choose it because it has no value if you wear a blue shirt or a white shirt. But sometimes something as minor as where we going to eat tonight is decided by Hashem. Because you have to understand that Hashem works in a system that is called divine providence. Hashem sits in his war room and he's managing trillions and trillions and trillions of details every second. Billions of birds, billions of animals, billions of fish. Everything is calculated. Who's going to get what food when, who's going to eat who? Just imagine how many details Hashem has on his mind. And why is it so dynamic? Because every second it changes because if one person needs to change now the route it's affecting now 30,000 people they need to change everything changes. So here is unbelievable that the genius of the master of the universe no computer will ever reach to that level. They're trying to do that with AI and many other things. It's never going to reach to the level of Hashem because Hashem can recalibrate the entire system within a split second that will affect five million people. No machine or computer can ever do that. But works. You have to vision it from above that Hashem sees everything. And if right now you need to meet person A to hear one sentence and will affect you and then and you know the chain reaction and if that person you're going to bump into him in the Italian restaurant that you ate dinner tonight then Hashem is going to be the one who's going to pit the oh I want Italian tonight. I'm craving some good ravioli. You think you're craving it. No, no, no, no, no. Hashem programmed in in your mind that right now you are uh you're getting an SMS. Tonight's special 20% off. Oo, honey, we're going out. All these are not your choices. It's Hashem moving the system that you will follow the path because you need to meet somebody. That's that's a different topic. We're not talking about this tonight. But that removes 90% of your choices. By the way, the the divine providence that Hashem needs you somewhere, he will start putting thoughts and situations in your mind. How many times did you have a plan for the day, somebody calls and the plan changes and you have to cater the plan and you have to come up with solutions or ideas how you going to do it. So technically you choosing what you do here but in that case Hashem is leading you to a certain place. He's deciding everything. Everything is decided for you. the zero choices here right now. So is there a certain mechanism that sometimes the free choice is valid and in sometimes you are totally on autopilot. How to tell the difference? You can't. You can't really you have to be very focused. You have to be very spiritually enlightened and you have to really surround yourself with Torah and prevent any sins. Then you can very easily see where Hashem is leading you. And then you are challenged with your reaction. Not your choice, your reaction. Because in many of the choices, A, it's irrelevant. B, Hashem plants it in your mind. C, Hashem will give you a non other option. Like you do these tests [clears throat] and they ask you a question. One question is clear that it's the right answer. One answer is very close to the right answer and two answers nothing to do with reality. [snorts] The iron the the irony is that in Israel we call these tests American tests. I don't know why. I don't think it's an American thing but uh you know what I'm talking about. So in many of the situation, Hashem gives you four options, but it's just obvious which option you're going to choose. That's not free choice, by the way. That's Hashem being two steps ahead of you, and he just knows what will be your calculation that is the right choice. You think you chose it, you really didn't choose it. And the proof to that that there will be situ situations exceptions that you choose completely different but you always do that's where you see that the kosh is already starting to to put you on the free choice track. So to conclude and by the way I'm concluding but there's not there's much more to talk about it but I want to kind of simplify it and to narrow it down that I can actually act accordingly. Most of the choices that Hashem is going to give you is to see your reaction. That's it. That's the major part. After that he wants to see if you choose to do good or if to choose if you choose to do bad. In many of the situation he's not consulting you. He's already putting in your mind the predestined situation because there's a chain reaction and he needs you to do something. I have mentioned before that in many situations Hashem forces you to sin. He blinds you in in some type of a way. You can say, "Oh, I was tempted. The temptation was too strong. The tava, the the desire, I couldn't stand the desire." Or you can say, "I made a mistake. I didn't think. I didn't see." Sometimes Hashem wants you to go on a certain path and you sin and you do bad things on this path. But he wants you after that to do cha. I'm sure you heard a verse that we recite every day and it says we say that depends on the congregation where you pray. In this congregation, you will say it before the last before, right? And you start the morning as garish after that. What does it mean? Wanted to give you merit. Therefore, he gave you a lot of Torah. >> [snorts] >> The zor says don't read it re read it is to give you merit means to refine you. The hashem wanted to refine you. So he gave you a lot of dua and mitzvot. Hashem is the manufacturer. He creates you with a few defaults, a few blemishes. I'm not talking right now what you did in in sins in previous lives. He creates you like that. Why? Because he wants you to build up and reach to perfection by yourself. All based on what I told you before that our souls, we asked Hashem, we want to do something. This bread of shame that I spoke about before, we came to Hashem and told him, we want to we we don't want this anymore. So Hashem build a system that we earn it. So here is how you earn it. So Hashem says, I want you to earn your reward. I want to refine you. Leak means to refine. What does it mean to refine? The more refined I am, the closer I am to Hashem. So I want to be closer more to Hashem than I need to be refined. And the reward is that I see a greater revelation of Hashem. If I don't do it, what's the punishment? that I'm further away from Hashem. Hashem wants me to do it. I want my my boys to come and pray so I can wake them up in the morning. But I rather them wake up themselves. If I wake them up every day, they'll get used to that I'm waking them up. And if one day I won't wake them up, will they wake up? Are they waking up because I'm forcing them? My purpose is to make them wake up by themselves. So when my child is four years old, then it has to come with candy. You bring the little kid to the sh, you give him a candy, he makes one plus one shu candy. Okay, I'm going. I get candy. That's how you start. I'm not joking. That's even tells you entice the child. Give them all sorts of sweet things so they would learn the Torah is sweet. But eventually the child doesn't take candy anymore. And I don't have a budget to start buying my kids things to make them come to the synagogue. I need to educate them that they need to want to come because it's the right thing for them. So Hashem does the same thing with us. He's teaching us that we can come up with our own understanding what is the right thing to do. You should choose the good. The Torah tells you straight out means you chose. You will choose. So you can find many places in the Torah that tells you you have no choice. But the Torah tells you clear of course it says if you choose bad you choose death. But the Torah tells you you are choosing here. So the whole thing boils down to what do you choose? Hashem wants you to come to a place that you are automatically choosing the right thing to do that he can reward you for that he can refine you. It's not about what you make in this world. If you're successful in this world, you're not successful in this world. If you have a good life, a less good life, that's a different topic from tonight. Hashem like a good father wants to educate you that you should do it should come from you and that way he can give you 100% your reward for that. If it doesn't come from you what kind of reward he's going to give you? He's going to have to give you the the basics. So everything that Hashem does is to bring you to a point that you should learn to choose the right thing. Half the choices like I told you when it doesn't affect your life. I'm wearing a blue shirt or a white shirt. It's irrelevant. In many of these cases, yes, Hashem will plant a choice in your mind that you would choose a certain thing because it will lead you to a certain situation where you're going to meet somebody or do something or so. Yeah. So, a lot of these choices, they come into your mind and it's 100% from Hashem and he's kind of letting you think that you're choosing. Where does the real ch free choice comes is when you're facing a challenge. A first option is when you're facing an option of doing a mitzvah, an a commandment, a positive commandment or doing a sin. And again, Hashem wants you to be able to do it by yourself. So many of the times you will fail and he will help you fail because he wants you to come to the understanding by yourself. We read in the song on Friday night that we read the first verse we read translation get up from the dirt and brush off the dirt. Shake yourself and brush the dirt off. This goes on the fact that Hashem sometimes pushes you spiritually to to to to fail, to sin, to do something wrong because he wants you a he wants to see what you're going to do when you're on the floor. Are you going to whine? Are you going to complain? Life is hard. I can't take it anymore. I hate my wife. I hate my boss. I hate him. and he and she and or you're going to choose to get up and brush off the dirt. Get up from the dirt and shake yourself like what chickens do or other birds throw off the dust. the continuation of the verse. You will be able to wear the garments, the glorious garments of my nation. So, Hashem wants to elevate you. So, he will push you. And he says, "Okay, now let's see what you're going to do. Are you going to be on the floor whining and complaining and cursing and I don't know what?" And that's most of us childish behaviors. childish what's the word reactions or do you choose to see that it's the hand of Hashem I see that it's the hand of Hashem I see what Hashem is trying to educate me and then I lose anger judgmental jealousy he's basically refining me because each and every one of us were born with a definition of bad attributes. We have good attributes, good characteristics. I'm kind, I'm patient, forgiving, etc. And there's also bad character traits, jealousy, anger, hate, sadness, depression, and so forth. That's the name of the game. The student of the in the book of Sharah in an introduction says that doing the mitzvot is very important it's like the air and the food of our soul you have to but the real purpose that we came down to this world is called refining my characteristics and I have 80 years to do that and I'm born with anger you born with jealousy you born with being judgmental you born with being lazy everybody has bad attributes and the name of the game is how you break it how you refine it that you come into this world and you go out in a completely different way. That's your purpose. That's the main thing you need to focus on. And everything around it is going to cater for that purpose. How am I refining myself? Now, if I have to refine anger, Hashem will do constantly test me with challenges of anger. And it will be my choice if I get angry or not. It will be my choice if I choose to do something good or choose to do something bad. That's where your free choice kicks in. And how is it defined by our sages? How much do you see Hashem in every situation? And I can tell you that when you see Hashem in every situation, you don't get angry. You don't get disappointed. You don't get frustrated. You might get happy at sometimes, but all these things and much more, it doesn't affect you because you know it's it's the will of Hashem. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you get a slap to your face. The fact is, and the bottom line is that Hashem has a point. Like I told you, I am a father. Every child that I bring to the world, I have a plan. This child needs to be a good individuals. I will do whatever I can in my hands to give the right tools to this child. What's going to end up? It's not in my not in my hands. That's in Hashem's hands. But I have to do my part. Now I take that structure and I change it from macro to Hashem. Hashem brings you to this world. He he has a purpose. He wants you to come into this world as dirty as you are and to come out from this world as clean as possible and he will do whatever he needs to do to bring you to the situations where you will fulfill your purpose. The more you humble yourself in front of Hashem, the more you bring yourself to a place of a nullification in front of Hashem, what's called bet, then you will start hitting your purpose. Most people don't know what their purpose is. They don't even know where to start. They don't know what they're doing. Hashem is guiding you. So the real concept of what it boils down to free choice right now it's not if I choose to do A or B that's not so important is the lesson that I need to derive from the fact of what Hashem the challenge that Hashem sends me and if I have learned from that lesson I have grown and every day and every week and every month I grow and I become a better person, a better uh servant to God. That's Hashem's purpose. So, it all boils down to what do you choose to do in regards to the Hashem? The topic, of course, can be broken down into many, many, many things. And there's a lot a lot of questions. I'm sure one of the biggest questions the crowd has is if I do the wrong thing and I sin, why do I get punished for that? It wasn't my choice. I was manipulated to do that. Then [snorts] first of all, if Hashem puts you in a situation that he forces you to sin because he wants to see your reaction, there's no judgment there. There's no punishment there. And I'm going to give you one example and I think this will conclude the concept and then we can deliver the message so you can go out to the world and conquer your desires and become a very successful individual. Many many years ago I was in a lecture similar to this just that I shared my personal story and one person in the crowd got very very affected positively. He started coming after that lecture every Wednesday to a class, my class. And first he came with earrings and hairdo and the whole thing and every week it changed. Then after 3 months he was already with a little yamaka, clothes were different. I saw the transformation and every time of course he would sometimes ask questions and one time after a few months I told him listen I see really I see the transformation and I know you're not educated enough but you know we pray every day three times a day why don't you come and pray with us I see that you really you you see the benefit so he started coming to pray with us I lived in Brooklyn he lived in Queens he used to drive every day there's 500 synagogues in Queens. He came to us every day. He came and every day I saw a growth. After a month, little beard, after two months, tit growth. After a few months, one day he doesn't show up. Being concerned, I call him. Maybe he's sick. Maybe he needs my help. What happened? I call him and I tell him, "Ma, what what happened? Why didn't you come to Shahit? He tells me, I'm done. Don't call me anymore. Don't invite me anywhere. I'm not coming to synagogue anymore. I'm not coming to your classes. I'm done. Mom, what? You're you you are on such a good path. You're like, how you saying? You were on a roll. Maka, what happened? He says, I can't do this anymore. I I I feel like a hypocrite. And I said, "Please explain." So he tells me, "You know where I was last night." I said, "Well, I don't care where you were last night. I care where you weren't today." He says, "Yesterday, I went out to a party in a club and you know what I did last night?" I said, "Again, I don't care what you did. I care why you didn't come to Shah today." So he said, "I met a girl and then I went home with her and I did all the sins in the book. anything that you can just imagine. I can't show up in the morning to the synagogue and put fillin on and pray like as if nothing happened. I did horrible sins yesterday. I feel like a hypocrite. I'm not doing this ever again. And I told him, I'm sorry to tell you, but I think you're suffering from some rare disease of stupidity. What is the connection between one and the other? I don't know. I actually don't know. Well, let me explain to you your stupidity. Hashem tested you yesterday. He sent you a woman for you to meet, to like, and to go and sin with her. He designed the sin. If you are familiar with the movie The Matrix, he sent you the lady in the red dress. Hashem designed the whole thing, the party, the club. He made everything available for you. All the choices that you made, he made them comfortable for you to choose. He kind of led you to the choice for the ultimate test to see if you will come to the synagogue in the morning and pray Shaharit. And let me tell you what happened. When you didn't show up to pray the morning prayer, Shahar, let me tell you how many positive mitzvot that you have to do, you didn't do. If you will come to the synagogue, you would put fillin on that's two positive mitzvot from the Torah. When I'm saying positive, it's a positive commandment that you have to do. Putting fill on one on the head, one on the arm. two positive mitzvah. You would wear a tallet. Another positive mitzvah. You would say, another positive mitzvah. You would pray. Another positive mitzvah. You would put a few coins in charity. Another positive mitzvah. After prayer, you would read some tim. That's a positive mitzvah. Learning Torah. You want me to keep on going? I'm going to give you now 20 mitzvah that you could have done by showing up to Shakar. But you chose to think that you are a hypocrite which nobody's asking you. You are obligated to wake up in the morning, go to the mikvah, wash yourself, repent, do chuva, ask forgiveness, but nobody's exempting you from coming and doing the prayers. You cancelled, you transgressed at least 20 mitzvot that you're going to be judged for. Now, let me tell you how the test works. If you would sin yesterday with this woman and in the morning, wake up in the morning and brush off the dirt and say, "Hashem, I'm a human being. I'm sorry. you caught me in a very weak point. Go to the mikvah, wash yourself, ask forgiveness, ask Hashem to forgive you, and come and pray. If you would do that, everything that happened last night would disappear like it ever happened. There's no sin here. There's not going to be any punishment. There's not going to be any judgment. It's as if it never happened. Why? because you chose to see that that was the hand of Hashem testing you and you did not fail and you chose to do the right thing in the eyes of Hashem because sinning yesterday was a mistake but not showing up to pray in the morning that's already yours that you're going to be judged for that you're going to be punished for. Now, the fact that you didn't do that and you didn't show up to pray, now you have double the trouble. Now you're going to be judged for not coming to pray and all the mitzvah that you transgressed and for yesterday. Therefore, I told you I'm sorry to tell you my dear friend. I think you are very full. You are a full person. Foolish, stupid. The test here is obvious. call me at 6:00 in the morning, I will tell you to come. And that's what Hashem does with you and with all of us. In many cases, he puts me in a situation that I will sin against my will. And of course, I will perceive it. It was my temptation. It was a desire. It was a last. My was too strong. If Hashem wants you to fail and he turns the volume up and he tells the make this person fail, doesn't matter who you are. David failed. Everybody failed in their tests. Great sages failed. And our sages teach us there's no such a thing that there's going to be a sadic in this world that won't sin because Hashem loves in a place of chuva where the baluva stands a complete sadi cannot stand. Hashem loves the ones who repent. I have to tell you another example before we finish. I know you want to finish. Go back to the Super Bowl. [snorts] I'm joking. I know all of you are not here for the Super Bowl. But I'm going to give you one more story. Now I completely lost my thought what I wanted to tell you. Now is that my choice or was it Hashem's choice? Please remind me what were we talking about? We were talking about I gave an example the first one with the person who did didn't show up and then uh >> ah the balance. Thank you. Very quick story just that you get the point of the bala and what what what is the bottom line? It's [snorts] a story. There was a king and he didn't have any son to take over. So he needed somebody to take over. So he told his advisers, please find uh a candidate to somebody who will take over. They went and advertised all over the kingdom. The king needs a second uh you know the the how do you say pre predecessor predecessor the come one who comes after they recruited 10,000 people gave them very extreme tests narrow it down to a thousand more tests narrowed down to a 100 more challenges and tests and narrowed it down finally three candidates they come to the king we narrowed it down for three what do you want us to do king says says, "Now we're going to do the ultimate challenge, and let's see. And the one who's going to pass it is going to be the next king." What's the challenge? Well, the challenge is that each and every one of these individuals are going to be locked in a room for 24 hours. And each and every one of them is going to get a bottle of wine of the king's wine. And equivalent to our generation, it's like a heroine addict in a room full of heroin. That would be the equivalent just so that you understand the the the parable. A temptation that cannot be held. They lock the men in the room and they're waiting for 24 hours. 24 hours later, all the press is there. Cameras, everybody's biting their nails. What's going to be? They're going into the first room, starting to unlock. Drum rolls. Everybody's like, "What's going to happen?" They open the door. They see the guy sitting like this on the bed. They're [snorts] looking at the bottle of wine completely closed. They didn't touch it. Everybody's like, "That might be the next king." They go to the second cage, second uh not cage, second cell, whatever room. Start opening the door. Everybody's looking. They open the door. They see the guy on the floor drunk. The bottle is [clears throat] empty. [laughter] That's for sure not going to be the king. Now, let's see what's going to happen on the third door. Everybody's focused on the third door. What's going to happen? Drum roll. Cameras. They open the door. They see the guy sitting very angry like this on the bed and they're looking at the bottle of the wine. The bottle of the wine is open. This much was drunk was drunken from it. And the bottle is closed. The king looks and that person says, "Okay, that's the person I want." And everybody's shocked. Your majesty, you said whoever is not going to drink from the wine is going to be the right person. He says, "You're very right." But that person that didn't drink from the wine, he just has very strong [snorts] will. But the person in room number three tasted the wine, understood that he's not allowed to, closed the bottle of wine, and for 24 hours looked at the wine and held his temptation. That's what I want. That's about chuga. A person who's born religious, everything is fed to them. Of course, they don't open the wine. They're already programmed to that. The bala is a person who tasted the taste of sin and chose not to do it ever again. That's the power of a baluva. That's what Hashem is looking for. He's looking for you to be able to look at a sin, to look at a desire, at a lust, and for 50 years not to do it. and he will reward you for that. And if you fail, he's not necessarily going to punish you for that because that's not his point. His point is to reward you and to bring you to the place that you wake up by yourself. And he doesn't need to reward you or punish you. But in order to bring you to this place, he needs to use a system where you are going to get educated and how to say in the program to be able to do it like that. So, Hashem loves balas. He loves the sadikim, of course, but he wants everybody to be balas. And a balu is a person who comes back to Hashem. It doesn't matter if you were born Jewish, secular, and found God or if you were born into a Gentiles body and you converted and you became a Jew. It doesn't matter. And by the way, what I'm saying now, it's equivalent to all people, not only to the Jewish faith. I maybe I failed to say that in the beginning of the lecture, but what I'm saying now is no difference if you are a Jew or a Gentile. It's the same idea, same God, same Torah, same So everything that I'm saying here is is relevant to everybody. But Hashem's plan, Hashem's focus, Hashem's desire is to make you do it by yourself. I don't want to wake up my boys in the morning to go and pray. I want them to wake up by themselves. So I need to go through many different methods how to make them come and bring themsel to this point that they understand and they can choose the right thing. So Hashem manipulates the situations many many times till you get it. And your challenge is what do you choose in every situation? Do you choose that it came from Hashem or not? That's the first thing that needs to be analyzed. If the answer not, you're wrong. You failed. Next time we'll try another time. You need to consecutive come to the answer. It's all from Hashem. The good, the bad, the worse, the not so good. It needs to bring you to a place of humility where you don't get disappointed. You don't give up. You don't lose hope. Why? Because you know, Hashem is doing everything for me. Hashem is taking me. What better ways for you to find your purpose in this world? Your purpose in this world is not to work for 50 years and make some bank rich by paying your mortgage. That's not your purpose. Your purpose is to refine yourself and to re bring back your soul back to Hashem clean. Your soul is an unrefined diamond that came from the mining. and you refine it. You ever saw how a diamond comes out of a mine? It's a black rock. That's how it looks. You wouldn't look at it. You wouldn't even recognize that it's a diamond. And when it's a raw rock, doesn't have much of value, you need to start polishing it. And the more it's polished, right, the carrot will be greater. The carrot is defines how good the polishing is. And you look with a magnifying glass and you can see the lines and the more it's refined, the more the carrot is greater and you can have a stone this big that is worth a million dollars. Then you are a diamond. Your soul is a diamond that came out of the mine dirty. And Hashem says, "You need to refine it. You need to clean it. And after 80 years of this life, when you leave this world, it's not Hashem 120 years. It's not Hashem. You'll see Mashia and you don't have to do that. But assuming you won't, when you leave this world, you bring back your nishama as a clean diamond to Hashem. That's your job. That's your purpose. Everything else is background music. So everything that Hashem does is for you to reach to the point that you are educated to do the right thing without being programmed. And that's called redemption. That's called gula. that you break free free from your mit from your exile. That's what Hashem wants. So next time that you are dealing with a situation, first thing that you need to understand choosing a blue shirt or a white shirt, Italian sushi, all that just don't put too much importance to it. Half of it has no importance. Like I said, the color of the shirt. And by the way, even that can be very particular because when it's time for you, I'm going to give you one example out of many. When it's time for you to meet your other half, when I met my wife the first time, I didn't have a yamaka and I didn't have a beard. I looked completely secular. We were introduced and she looked at me like this. Half a year later, I walked into the same place cuz we met in Eshotra in in Manhattan. I walked into the same place. Half after half a year in yeshiva. I had a yamaka. I had a little beard. I had tits, a suit and my face was blowing from light from sitting half a year in a Shiva. Then her head went like that. And I was exaggerating. So sometimes it could be something small that you think that you chose you are attracting something can be your spouse can be whatever. So first of all these minor choices don't pay any much of attention to it. Don't over you know OCD on every little thing. That's the driving you crazy by the way. Go with the flow basic things. It's not so important. The next time when it starts when it kicks in and you need to start paying attention is if you have the option of doing something good or bad. Then the red lights and all the flags need to start waving. Khabibi, you are now in a situation that you have to activate your choice. Do it smart. That's when you have to start thinking what does Hashem want from me? Because really ultimately you're not really choosing but Hashem is kind of like riddling you and giving you options. The easiest way is just to say, "What does Hashem want me to do in this situation?" And that's what's going to happen. That's my choice. That's my free choice. I'm telling you what I choose. I choose what Hashem wants me to do right now. Does Hashem want me right now to sin? No. Does Hashem want me to do right now good in his eyes? Yes. So, I'll do that. That's my choice. The real free choice that you need to pay attention to can come once a week, can come once a month, can come three times a day. I think now it comes about 10 times a day because we're closer to the redemption and we don't have much time. The quotota is very big and we don't have much time. So the challenges are all the time every day. You just have to have that have the little awareness that in every situation you are in a crossroad very quickly you need to analyze if it's something minor keep it moving. Don't waste your time on that. something that you have a choice of doing a sin or a mitzvah positive negative it's pretty obvious the decision have to follow the right way and by the way keep your focus on that if you choose to sin don't fall into despair right away see what Hashem is doing I I don't jump for anything for any any news that comes my way I let it resonate I first want to see what does Hashem The main thing that you need to focus on is in every situation the first question if you choose to understand and agree that it came from Hashem and I know all of you say of course I know it comes from Hashem in theory it's very easy to say when you getting hit with a big challenge you've not so much thinking that it's coming from Hashem or you even start complaining Hashem why you doing this to me I'm such a good person why do I deserve it the point you need to take from that is very very simple is to see what is the point what is the purpose that Hashem wants you to do is to realize by yourself and you activate your choices accordingly and again one can tell you you don't have any free choice Hashem is putting everything in front of you that will be right for 90% of the time 8% 10% % of the time you actually have to choose something. Don't have in the back of your mind if you're going to be rewarded or punished for that because that's just going to make you very not motivated to do anything. Oh, I might get punished. That's not the name of the game. The name of the game is how do I do the right thing in the eyes of Hashem? And therefore, I also pray for Hashem. Lead me to do the right thing. I pray for Hashem all the time. Make me do right choices. Put me on the right path. Don't make it so difficult. When choices become difficult to me, I don't try to find advice. I refine myself more because when I'm more refined, then the choices become very easy to make. So the point that Hashem wants to bring you to is refinement. He wants you closer to him. You need to understand that every step that you do is an opportunity to come closer to Hashem or go one step back. To conclude, it all boils down to how much you focus on how you refine yourself. That's really the the bottom line. My perception of my entire life. Yes, I have to work. I have to bring food to the table. I have a wife. I have kids. I have to educate the kids. At some point, we're going to have to marry them off. I need to learn every day Torah. I need to teach. I need to pray. I know more or less my daily structure. But I understand that in between the purpose here is to become a better version of myself every day. Not once a month. Every day. Every day. Today I need to look back at yesterday and be like today was better. Now whether it's achievable or not right now is irrelevant. That's needs to be your goal. At the end of the day you need to say yesterday I'm much better than yesterday. I learned more today. I became better person. I refined myself. That's Hashem's purpose. He's going to give you the options to reach it by yourself. He doesn't want to do it for you. If he does it for you, then you don't gain anything. He doesn't want uh autodriving Tesla. He wants you to drive. Not for nothing, Hashem is bringing us all this technology because he wants us to understand you can have it done for you or you can do it yourself. Now we are introduced to AI. AI I don't see it in a positive way. I mean, okay, some things it helps us, but AI makes you very, very lazy. And it will make you very lazy. And we will get to a point that you're going to have AI do everything for you. AI is going to read your mail. It's going to read your emails. It's going to write your letters. Everything that you're going to have to write, it's going to write for you. You're gonna everything's going to do for you. It's going to become very, very, very, very lazy. Now, there's a lot of positive aspects in it, and there's a lot of negative aspects in it. If I want to pull this right now just to make a point. Hashem doesn't want you to be lazy and thinking that things will be done for you. Amen. Anily merely nobody will do nothing for you. Get it out of your system. Especially when it comes to the world to come and especially when it comes to your closeness to Hashem. Nobody will do anything for you. You have to do it. You have to earn it. You have to gain it. And that's the purpose of Hashem. And Hashem will manipulate in other words all your situations that you should come to the understanding by yourself. And eventually after a thousand times of making the wrong answer, wrong choice, finally a thousand and one times you made the right choice. And the more right choices you make, imagine it like a game. You get more points and more points. But the poor purpose of it that you will do it by yourself and nobody will do it for you. Hashem could have created us. Many people say why did Hashem make it so difficult? Why is it so this? I can Hashem wants us to do mitzvot. Then give me a lot of money and I'll sit and learn all day long. I if I would have a dollar for every time I heard that. No, Hashem just should make my life easy and I'll do whatever he wants. Really? Last time I checked, if Hashem gives you everything that you need, you don't do nothing. You're going to be a spoiled brat. If Hashem gives you a lot of money, you'll be sitting all day long on PlayStation. You won't be doing anything productive. You won't be moving yourself. You have everything coming to you. Hashem doesn't want to spoil brat. Hashem says, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You do everything yourself." So after 120 you can tap yourself on the back and say I did it. So the next time you are faced with a challenge or a question or a choice don't think right now if I if it's if I have free choice or not. The conclusion we want to take out of this class is that the situation that brings you to two choices or maybe sometimes four. It's only for you to focus on what's the message that Hashem wants you to get right now and what is the refinement that Hashem is looking for. So one time your choice is like I told you with my example don't get angry [snorts] don't say don't slander the person find other solutions use your creativity you know how many times Hashem puts me in a situation that I initially don't understand why and he puts me in a situation that I don't want to do something but I understand that by me doing it I am helping another person. I'll give you one example from my uh profession. I have a nonforprofit. I have an organization a yeshiva everything everything costs money. I get challenged a lot with money. Many of the times Hashem blocks away my parasa to test me. Am I going to get angry? Am I going to get upset? And I realize that the test here that Hashem wants me in a certain situation to turn to somebody else and say, "Can you donate to this purpose?" And I hate doing that. I don't ask for donations. I don't like doing that. I tell you, go and buy my wine. Don't don't give me a donation. But many situations, I get to a point that I need money. And why? Because Hashem wants me to make you do a mitzvah. You won't do it. If I won't come to you and ask you, you won't be involved. Koshu wants to give you a huge present. And he says for a little investment, I'll let you sponsor a class or whatever and you get huge mitzvot, but you don't do it by yourself. So I have to come and tell you, can you do so? I understand in my I'm giving you an example for my profession how sometimes my path gets blocked and instead the test here is if I get to get if I if I will get angry not angry but the real understanding is that I have to help now another person so you have to understand it not so easy what does Hashem want to give you as information and that's where your choice really comes in And by the way, what I said tonight is a drop in the ocean. There are so many different angles how you can look at it. You can read what the Marra says. Unbelievable. What the Marsha everybody has something interesting to say about free choice. It is it isn't I chose to kind of summarize everything today in a very practical way that every day you are facing choices. You need to first educate how you sifting from the ones who don't really make much of importance. They're not so important and kind of to go with the flow and to constantly understand is looking you at your reactions. It's not necessarily choices. It's your reaction. That's where you get judged. Hashem will put you in a situation just to see your reaction. And that's the free choice really. Not if it's sushi or Italian or blue shirt or white shirt, your reaction. So you need to take the advice of our great sages. I quoted the song of in the same song they read on Friday. He says means the end of your action starts with your first thought about it. And how many times did you say a if I would have done like that the next time think before you do fools do and then think and in many cases don't think and the right ways think before you do something that's wants to bring you to everything is Hashem's purpose to bring you to the place where he's leading you kind of like leading you through your nose like in the cartoons when they have good smell and there's like this uh like a line and the they go after the smell. That's what Hashem is doing to you. So from a 100% of your choices really there's only a few that are the ones who make a difference. The rest basic things don't stop for them. You need to look and very quickly realize not important. move on and see where Hashem is putting that choice where he wants to see some spiritual growth and your part. What you need to take from this door tonight is the awareness then the patience to look for it to understand okay here's the test here's a choice what am I doing ah it's something so small fine next till you find the one that the answer of this test of this choice is do I do something good in the eyes of Hashem or bad what's the end result where would it take me and that's how You understand what are the choices are that are meaningful and then you choose accordingly. What you choose hopefully you go out of this door tonight understanding that you need to choose always what's right in the eyes of Hashem. And in order for you to do that then of course you need to be educated in the Torah. What is the right in the eyes of Hashem? And I like more trusting the books and trusting people. So really, you have a lot of homework to do. It's not not something that you leave this door tonight and you're saying, "Okay, Rabban figured it out for me. I know what to do now. I maybe I hope I was able to simplify it." But now your choice is what do you choose when you leave this door tonight? Do you choose to apply everything? then your free choice kicked in because it's causing you a spiritual growth and if you choose to ignore everything then it's also your choice what's the result taking you to a less positive place. So it boils down to what takes me to the next space level. And a large amount of my focus when it comes to free choice is my reactions. That's what I would really want you to leave the door with tonight is your reactions. For that, you need to be a place of humility. I can tell you straight out all my faults. I'm not embarrassed, especially in front of Hashem. I I'm I'm good with confessing. And you need to do the same thing. If you're lazy, I'm lazy. Don't say my wife and my this and the alarm clock and the you're lazy. Just say, "Hashem, help me to become not lazy." Understanding your faults will help you activate the right choice in refining yourself because again your reaction, you have to ask yourself, is that a reaction that I would do in front of Hashem? How many times you are prevented from doing something because a guest is in the house or you don't do something because people are looking. I don't I used to do that once. Now I don't do that. Now I pretend that Hashem is there and then I'm like okay Hashem is right here. How would you react right now? See how I my I activate my choices. Everything is in the same line. What does Hashem want me to do? That's the name of the game. Does Hashem want me to get upset? I'll get upset. You know that sometimes Hashem wants me to get upset because when you're showing a little bit of anger, maybe the other party will understand what not to do. It works very well usually with kids. Sometimes you have to raise your voice at the kid or pretend that you're angry. Even the Shuhanag says sometimes you have to pretend. You know, one time I had a guest in the house and he saw me raising my voice and then he looked at me and I and at the end at the end at the end I smiled and I said, "It's all a show, my friend. It's all a show. It's just for the kids to be not angry." So, you have to understand the the path Hashem wants you to walk on. Then you can activate your choices. The right one. You want to do the right choice. is at the end of the day, Hashem does give you the opportunity to choose. Many of the times he will pre-program your your choice. Fine. Many of the times he will blind you that your choice will be the wrong one. But that's his decision. Literally today I was driving, I saw something, had a few tears in my eyes and I was like, I wonder if I did the right choice 20 years ago. And in my mind, I was like, I will never know. I will know when I meet Hashem. And I was a little bit hard on myself and I was like, I think I did the wrong choice. And then I remembered that I have to teach you about free choice. It all happened this morning. And I was like, ah, okay. I guess it wasn't my choice. It's the path that Hashem wanted me to walk on. I'm not taking any responsibility. So, I hope when you leave this door tonight, you'll have enough uh information to use that mechanism of the choice the right way. Because most of the time you you you're not using it. It's Hashem doing it. And it's good. Nothing wrong with that. But that little of the time that you are required to do that, then I bless you that your choice should be focused on what it needs to. And it's one word, God. Hashem. >> Your choices have to be what he wants, what you know that his choice will be. And and I know it's very hard and in many of the cases it's impossible. And 90% of the time you'll fail because of your ego, because of your cavode, your honor, because of a million and one things. But push comes to shove. You need to bring yourself to a place. That's what I do. I look in the mirror and I say, "Who are you kidding?" That's what I say to myself. That's my mantra. Who are you kidding? That's not what Hashem wants. Hashem doesn't want you to be angry right now. Hashem doesn't want you to trash this person. Hashem doesn't want you to fight this individual. Hashem doesn't want you to waste time on this situation. He needs you to do another completely different thing. Then my choices change the path I walk on. And my path because my ch my my based on what I know is Hashem's desire. If somebody cuts me in the street in the morning and I want to scream and curse and and drive fast and pass him and do all sorts of movements with my fingers and what is defined as road rage, that's what Hashem wants me to do right now. No. and all.