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Rabbi Anava is LIVE!!! - Overcoming challenges - The Keter Project – Aventure, FL
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
I don't know.
>> [clears throat]
>> Uh I'll have later cuz now I'm still
I I ate
No, no, I I ate meat. So, like in two in
an hour I can have coffee.
Sure, but not now. It's going to cool
down.
>> [clears throat]
>> Excuse me?
Live?
Uh this is on YouTube.
So, before we start, everybody's doing
okay?
You hear me well in the back?
I'm assuming the ones that didn't answer
don't hear me, so
>> [laughter]
>> We'll wait a few more seconds for the
rabbi to come in and then
Well, actually, somebody asked me to
dedicate the class.
Okay, how am I going to do that?
immediate refuah
Should have a strong health,
immediate recovery, miraculous recovery.
Any yeshuot that you need
b'ezrat Hashem
Hashem should bless us all with a lot of
nachat, a lot of yeshuot, a lot of
salvation and help and
refuah, patience
>> [laughter]
>> money, tea
ideas how to get out of all my problems,
solutions to all the nonsense.
Zivugim
agunim, everything. I have you know
let's cut a deal. Everything.
akol
akol mikol ya'ala
ta'amisu
tov
Welcome everybody. Thank you all for
joining us. Thank you for the
ones online who are joining us.
The last lecture in Miami for this tour.
So for me another check on the map.
And
for the ones of you who followed all
three lectures, not that it was
planned like that, but it happened to be
that they're all kind of connected to
each other.
Where the first lecture we spoke about
the concept of time and how important
time is in one's life and how one needs
to take
the their time
as if it's the most precious thing they
have because that's one of the most
precious thing you do.
And we talked a lot about that.
Yesterday we spoke about
finding this inner power that you have
in you that drives you to do negative
things to use this to positive things.
And then we're left now with
now how I do all of that. So that brings
me to a level of challenges.
And the reality is that most of us are
all day long juggling a few types of
challenges of all sorts
that first of all to a point that most
people already can almost can't take it
depending on their challenge.
And in many of the cases we don't
understand why I need to be challenged.
I don't understand if I need to change
something. Maybe I'm doing something
wrong.
So it happens to be that most people are
constantly busy with difficulties and
challenge. And in many of the cases just
causes aggravation, sadness, depression,
pressure,
stress,
and a long a list of other emotions.
No benefit and
tonight [snorts] we're going to shed
some light to see that actually the
challenges there are a lot of benefits
to them.
But I want to share with you a quick
story.
When I was about
I guess 15,
then
I needed money.
You know, 15-year-old boy, I was smoking
already. I I already had all the bad
habits, so I needed money.
And
you know, wanted to go out, friends,
whatever it is.
And
I said yesterday and I expressed that a
few times that my father
was a very tough father and educated me
in a very strict way, which down the
line ripped a lot of fruits. But as it
was going as a teenager, I didn't like
that.
So why? Because in this respect I wanted
something. I would ask, he would tell me
go and work.
Our days you the kids want money, they
come to the parent, I need 20 dollars.
Here, here's here's 30.
Now as a kid I needed money. I
never came to my father and if I wanted
something, go and work.
So I I was working for them since I was
nine.
So when I was 15, I I I
I really I really needed money, so I
couldn't find much jobs. Wasn't much of
options.
But I found a job, very very tough job.
I used to pick oranges in orchards.
And the season of
the oranges is winter. So, 99% of the
time you're working in the cold
and in the rain.
And I don't know if you ever had the
experience of picking oranges, it's a
very
the tree has a lot of thorns.
So, every time you put your hand in to
pull an orange, then you'll get your
hands scraped a lot.
Unless you put gloves or whatever it is.
And but anyways, there's a method how to
do that. And you would be shocked how
many oranges are on one tree. You can
work sometimes 5 hours on one tree and
you fill up huge crates.
And I would get paid by the crate.
Not hourly or any other way. Just by the
crate. You fill up one crate, X amount.
I don't even remember what it was per
but it was eventually, if you work
normal pace, it was equivalent to what
would be an hourly rate.
And I really wanted a lot of money and I
wanted to I was like, "Okay, I like the
opportunity that I can work more and and
gain in the same time more money."
So, I was his best worker. I would go
like had two sacks on me going into the
trees cutting with one hand holding the
tree by the
orange in one hand. I was like uh
while other workers would do one crate,
I would do three. I would go up, down.
So, and why? Because I was like, "Okay,
you work slow, you'll make only X per
hour. Work fast, you'll make Y per hour,
much more.
I'm already here."
There was one friend that used to go
with me. I was on the tree, he was down
on the leaning on the tree smoking,
peeling
you know,
oranges. The end of the day he had like
a quarter of a crate.
And I it was like four crates. So,
and it usually was very hard because it
was always raining.
And then you you wet. Now, when you were
walking in the rain for 20 minutes,
fine.
10 hours in the rain, you're already
like you're you're
So, and and everything gets wet. And and
then when you get wet, your skin becomes
very soft. So, all the scrapes of the
thorns are much stronger.
Anyways,
and you know, the orchards are usually
in the middle of nowhere. They're not in
the city. So, I had to walk like another
like 5 km when I was done. The the owner
the balabay, it wasn't like always nice
to take me. Anyways, long story short, I
worked very hard
to make a few shekels. And then of
course, I had money to buy myself
whatever I wanted.
And I would come home
sometimes late at night,
all wet,
most of my hands bruised, and in many of
the cases the face because you put your
head in, you need to see where the
oranges you cut your face.
Wet, tired, my shoulders would be sore
cuz I would put me to save time. What
takes a lot of time is going up and
down. So, I would wear Most people would
put one sack on them. So, you can only
have one sack of oranges. So, I'll go
with four sacks. So, at some point, it's
heavy. So, my my shoulders would would
hurt me. It was hard work.
But at the end of the day, I would come
home and I was
satisfied. I finished the day work. I
accomplished what I put myself as a
target. And most important, I came home
with a stash of money.
And it was a lot of money considering
uh
young man.
And
almost every time the the
the balabayit, the owner, would tell me
bring more friends. I need like you
know, there's a lot of a lot of trees.
And every time I would bring a friend or
two or three, I would go up and down up
and down and they would not survive a
day or two. After a day or two, ah, it's
too hard, give up and and that's it.
I survived I remember
the whole winter like that.
And like I told you yesterday,
if you don't know how to learn
anything from your own actions,
if you can't make two things come
together and realize and come to some
understanding, then
no offense, the situation is not that
great.
Because you need to learn how to observe
any situation in your life and learn
something from that. Cuz either than
that, why would you go through the
situation?
Every situation that you go through in
your life, there's something you can
learn from.
And in many of the cases, much more than
one thing that you can learn from.
Now, not only that you can learn from,
you have to learn from. You should.
That's the whole purpose.
Hashem puts you in situations for you to
figure out something.
Kind of like you walking in this world,
kind of like a like a game. When I was a
young child,
we had a game. We didn't have screens.
We didn't have Netflix and all that
junk. So, when there was a birthday
party, there was games. And it was that
we would actually play.
And there was a game. I liked that game
that you split into groups.
And somebody has to plan that game and
you would go from one place to another
with hints.
So, you find one place and there's a
hint and whatever you find a note and go
three steps and go this and that and you
know, there's would be a hint and then
you would find the next note and
you know somebody had to sit there and
write all the note the notes.
But nevertheless, I love that game. What
is it it has a name?
Escape room. Kind of like escape room an
old-fashioned escape room. Hm? Like
clue. Clue?
Whatever.
Treasure hunt.
Okay, you all had a good childhood. I'm
very happy. So
Uh so you all are familiar with the
concept. Now I like that. When I was a
young kid, I I liked the challenge. I
liked okay, let me let me see how I can
figure it out. Then it would take me to
the next step.
So every situation you have in your life
it's an escape room. Sham is presenting
to you a situation
and he wants you
to come out of that situation. He wants
you to understand
the vomit of the bell.
The vomit of the bell that you
understand something from something.
Cuz at the end of the day we're all
blind in this world.
We're placed in this world. Everybody's
born in a different location in the
world.
Everybody goes through a different path
in their world.
Just now the day
I'm now here on the tour. My older kids
are with me.
And we started the tour in Los Angeles
and right before we made a layover to
Los Angeles, we lived in Los Angeles.
And
we were driving around and at some point
I was like you want some
memory lane drive? So we started driving
where the school was, where we lived.
And and in my mind I was like look at
that. One little decision that two
parents make changes the course of the
life of a child.
And I told all my kids, can you imagine
if we my wife and me wouldn't decide to
move to Israel, start to stay here, you
would have different lives.
Different lives completely.
So,
every
frame in your life
>> [clears throat]
>> And if you're asking yourself what I
mean by a frame, then you'll have to go
and watch the lecture that I I gave on
Tuesday in Boca Raton cuz I was
explaining that our life
cannot be measured with time. We are
programmed to understand that there's
time. Seconds, minutes, hours, days,
months. We we we see that. But the
reality there isn't such thing as time.
Rather,
instead of time, there are situations.
In Hebrew it's called matsavim. A
situation. I call it a frame. Like you
have a film,
a video film. In the olden days, you had
the film, actual film. 18 mm, 16 mm. In
our days, the the the the video is
measured by frames. How many frames per
second? 30 frames per second, 60 frames
per second. The more frames, the more
quality the video will be. But every
frame captures
a shot.
The example that I like giving when I
was a young child, I used to like taking
cuz I was very bored in school. I wasn't
a good student. I used to take the
notebooks and make in every page of the
notebook a a drawing. And then I would
like
go like this and the person would like
run and he would make some salsa, you
know, dance, stuff like that.
So, that's our life. It's it's
situations. It's frame I like calling it
frame. It's a frame. And every frame
it's a picture of your life.
It's not time. It's not that a second
passed. It's just a picture and a
picture and a picture and a picture. And
I put them all together, then then it's
a motion picture.
And every second you are required to see
what's wrong with this picture and how
can I change it? Or what am I supposed
to change in it? That's called tikkun.
That's called teshuvah.
In many of the situations,
it's already something that you're
carrying with you from previous
incarnations. And in many of the
situations, it's part of this life that
you need to fulfill.
But what's important to take from that
is that every blink, every frame in your
life, is a situation.
Going back to what I was saying, how can
you figure out what you need to do in
this world?
99.9%
of all human beings have no idea why
they came to this world, what they're
supposed to do in this world, and
needless to say doing what they're
supposed to do in this world.
You're talking about a fraction of
people
that actually figured out their purpose
and they're doing it.
The result is that they're walking on
their path of their purpose successfully
in most cases. That doesn't mean that
they're successful.
They're walking on their path
successfully cuz sometimes your path is
destined to be disastrous. So, you can't
say I'm successful, but I'm walking
successfully on my path because with all
the disasters, I'm still walking on my
path with my head up high, with a big
smile, and the and the path of disasters
don't affect me.
So, that's why I walk on my path
successful. Most people don't walk on
their path successful even if they walk
on their path. Now, when you're not
walking on the path that you need to
walk on, you are most cases miserable
and unhappy, and you don't even know
why. So, of course, you have to blame it
on anybody that's closest to you.
And usually it's your spouse
cuz that's the closest thing to you. All
your misery, it's her.
And then it's your boss, of course, and
your employees, the business people,
anyone who's around you is at fault to
your misery and your misfortune and your
all your problems.
That's this this
this uh
strong
unhappiness feeling, this emptiness,
this
It's not anybody's fault.
It's you not walking on the right path.
So, it's kind of like you walking
blindly into walls, bumping into walls.
So, things don't work out.
Now, there are two types of things that
two types of styles of things that don't
work out.
The thing that don't The things that
don't work out because they're not
supposed to work out, and that's your
hints to move on.
And then the things that don't work out
because you are not on the right
channel.
In the olden days,
if you remember, the channels were not
digital. We would turn a dial.
And if you want to get the
the right channel,
there was a lot of static in between.
Then you come to the right channel, and
then you would swing swing the antenna a
little bit, poke somebody's eye.
And and and and and and then and finally
when you're on the right channel,
I hear well.
You move a
a little millimeter of the antenna,
frequency is not
When you are not
transmitting
and receiving the the frequencies on the
right channel, there's a lot of static.
So, when things don't work in your life,
there's one group
it's not supposed to work. It's not
destined to work.
Figure that very fast and move on.
It can be a job, can be a date, it can
be pursuing a real estate. It doesn't
matter. You want You trying to push
something, it doesn't work, doesn't
work, doesn't work.
Come on, shut up. You stop, figure it
out,
recalculate, and move on.
And most people are like, "But I like
her. But but"
No.
Then the other half of the things that
don't work on your life, it's your
static.
That you are you're not doing something
wrong at this point. Maybe you are, but
it's you just not walking on your path.
So, Hashem is going to start throwing to
you How do you call that system that now
all the new cars have? That that you
lane assistance? You go down the off the
lane Lane guidance. Yeah, you know.
Wheel uh buzzes and shoots you back.
That's what Hashem has to do cuz you
don't you don't know what's going on.
You're you're driving like a drunk.
Zigzagging, going off the path all the
time.
And then you're kind of spiritually
drunk if you would be observed from
above.
Hashem has to give you some type of
indication.
So, when you understand that every
situation in your life is now a riddle
in this game, how we're going to call
the game just to for the sake of the
night.
Scavenger hunt. Scavenger hunt. That's
the last option that I had.
I It Listen, in in Hebrew we used to
call it
the matmon. So, I think we should stick
with the treasure hunt. Who said
treasure hunt? Okay.
So, so every situation in your life is a
stage in the treasure hunt that helps
you get to the next
uh riddle, the next hint. And at the
end, you find the treasure.
Almost all the games that we used to
play as as children, they have a very
deep spiritual meaning.
This is a perfect example to you.
Uh just for the example for what I'm
talking about, we all used to play a
game when we were kids called the shoots
and ladders, right? That's how it's
called in English?
And that's like just this this game is
like totally our life. You have to go
one step after the other.
Now, if you're lucky
and you hit a ladder
and you
you fly up.
That's equivalent when you do chuva, you
do something good, you you you fix a
certain damage, you figure out something
that Hashem is trying to tell you to do
and you get bonus, you get jumped to the
next level. That's the Hebrew word.
And if Has v'shalom you fall on the
snake, which for us we understand the
yetzer hara, the evil inclination is we
know we identify it as a serpent. It's
nachash.
So, when you fall on the snake, you fall
down in your level. And then you go up
again, you go down, and you go up, and
you down, and that's your life.
Up and down and up and down and up and
down.
In the game world, you don't give up. In
the real world, most people give up.
And they give up on what you don't need
to give up.
And don't give up on the things that are
irrelevant in their life. That's my
analogy to most people that I see, talk
to,
whatever, teach.
People are very quick to give up on what
they actually need to fight.
And things that are nonsense.
Like fights that have no meaning.
And nothing will come out of it. Some
disagreement.
That's what they're not giving up.
But about something small in their
spiritual growth, to a path of success,
give up in a second and a half. That
that that the human common sense
sometimes doesn't make sense.
So,
when you understand
let's go to lecture number one, how
precious your time is, then you also
understand that you don't have time to
waste up on nonsense.
When I smell nonsense,
few seconds and it's out. Next.
Whether it's somebody that's coming to
talk to me, I have many people who ask
to talk to me. They sit in front of me
for half an hour and they just talk
nonsense.
And after a few minutes I was like, "Do
you have a question? Why you want to You
want to just sit with me for half an
hour? Talk? Talk my ear off?"
I'll bring a pillow, put my head down,
talk as much as you want and then
I mean, you want You asked to talk to
me. You must have a question, no? How
many times they sit in front of people
the whole time they talked?
And I'm all right.
They understand why you wanted to talk
to me.
But
I talk to a lot of people. I I meet a
lot of people and I see certain
patterns.
So
Every second of my life
is some type of a We'll call now a
challenge.
Some are easy challenges, some are
hard challenges.
I like to um break down the challenges
to a few groups.
Because the challenges in your life
already give
How do you say spill the beans? You
don't have to wait till the end of the
lecture.
The challenges are these riddles in the
Find Your
Find Your Treasure?
How do we call it? Treasure hunt?
Find your treasure.
One group Yeah, yeah. One group of the
challenges in your life are the clues.
Where you need to go.
And sorry that I'm going to tell you
that, but most of the times you are so
dumb.
And you don't understand. You just don't
understand that this is a clue and you
get angry and you get upset and you get
so frustrated. And needless to say how
it leads you to behavior that's
inappropriate. It can be false language,
that you curse, foul language. It can
cause you to slander, to take lashon
hara, to to look for for
Oh, shame on him.
And it's like as if if somebody would
have put it to tell you, "What are you
doing?
What are you doing? You're wasting you
so much time, you fool. It's one little
message that Hashem is trying to tell
you. Take it and move on."
But you're so arrogant and your ego
can't allow you for somebody else
to do something and what are you doing
really? Then you kind of rolling it over
that these are the statics that you are
creating in your life.
So, you might be in front of your other
half,
but there's so much static, no peace in
the house, fighting all the time, no
shalom bayit,
no, you know, nothing.
And that's your other half.
You know many couples come to me,
"Should we get divorced? Not get
divorced?"
In many of the cases, it's not it's it's
not the right zivug, but in most of the
cases, it is the right zivug. It's just
that each and every one
are not even in the direction
of trying to work on themselves, so the
static noise causes the biggest friction
between the the person who's most
closest to you.
And then that's why most marriages are
not successful.
Either they end in divorces or they're
just not happy marriages.
I don't I don't see you know a lot of
couples that are
still happy after 20 years.
How are you doing?
Hello.
There's three vehicles parked at 20655.
Please move the cars or they will get
towed. You cannot park at somebody's
house. Okay. For our information. Thank
you. Thank you. So, you heard if
anybody's parking
and blocking drive a driveway.
>> [snorts]
>> I can take you home if the car gets
stolen, don't worry.
Yeah, it's just a challenge. It's a car.
I would actually rather if you hold the
questions till the end.
And I'll tell you why. Because then
everybody will ask ask questions and
then only that my answer will take me
now to a completely different class. So,
B'ezrat Hashem, no, no, with B'ezrat
Hashem we'll
finish the class and if there's time
I'll take
questions. Hopefully you have a how do
you get home? But
but no, they have Ubers here so you
don't have a problem.
Have a big car. I can take do a carpool.
Okay.
The wheels of the bus go round. Dope.
See how the head likes to disturb?
So,
a lot of the challenges
And then then I don't want to now group
it in percentage. One group is the
challenges that are hints for you to
move on to the next place, the next
stop.
In most of the cases you're too stupid
or arrogant to see that it's a hint and
I'm and I'm using these words on purpose
because people need to understand.
Sometimes people tell me why do you say
that stupid? Because I'm maybe it's my
English. In in Hebrew it's tipesh. It's
a wrong word.
But but I'm talking about somebody who's
And and you know what? And when somebody
tells it to your face you're a fool, you
get either very offended because you
know it's true or you get very offended
cuz it's not true and you're like but
I'm not.
Most of the hints
that Hashem sends you you don't
understand.
Now what happens is when you don't
understand these hints, A, you don't go
really on the path you need to go on.
Or you just can't creating all this
static noise.
And as I said, when things don't go
well, you're unhappy.
And when you And it's not that you wake
up in the morning like, "Oh, I'm I'm I'm
I'm I'm unhappy. Who should I blame it
on?" It's not. It's just a feeling. It
can be frustration. Can be
lack of energy. It can be so many
different feelings.
And the first person in your proximity
will get the the the
the anger.
The exactly, the the punching bag.
And that in itself already is a one
challenge to to to look at. But that
type of challenge
that's the problems you create to
yourself.
So it's not even say you kind of adding
on yourself more hard work.
Now a lot of the challenges
has nothing to do with hints.
It has to do with your tikkun.
You need to understand
what you need to fix.
So the the way to understand it is very
simple.
We have to fulfill 613 mitzvot, each and
every one of us.
We can't do that in one shot because it
has to be done in thought, speech, and
action.
I think only the prophet Daniel did
that. No, there was a few other
individuals
that did all three shot all three levels
in one shot, one lifetime. No no no
incarnations.
So we are not like that. So we need to
get incarnated. And every time we
incarnated, we do more mitzvot. We need
to fill a certain quota.
Whatever you finished in a previous
incarnation is not marked V.
And whatever you achieved is protected
in Gan Eden. Nothing can touch it. It's
not that if you do some sin or
something, it will touch what you
already
achieved.
And every lifetime you will come and you
do more mitzvot. That's it, very simple.
So, in your life, you are missing we're
all missing a certain amount of mitzvot.
So, you are missing 23 mitzvot, you are
missing 42, you are missing 62, you are
missing 102. Every person is missing a
certain amount of mitzvot they didn't
do. They didn't fulfill that quota in
any type of a life.
When, let's say you did the tikkun on a
certain mitzvah,
then in this life it would be very, very
easy for you. The easiest thing for you.
So, if you did a tikkun for the mitzvah
of charity, in this world, you are going
to be the most charitable person. It's
going to be the easiest thing for you to
give money. Never going to think for one
blink a second anyone who asks something
why you already fulfilled this mitzvah.
So, the mitzvah now doesn't come with
any, any chance, any kvetch.
But, let's say for example, let's say we
get a different one. You did a tikkun
for the mitzvah of tefillin, then you
tefillin will be the easiest mitzvah for
you.
But, if you find yourself putting
tefillin 5 minutes before shkiah,
then you know that that is one of the
mitzvot that you need to achieve because
you have challenges with that.
So, this is the next group of challenges
that you need to be focused on. The
challenges that just hint to me one of
the mitzvot that I need to do. So, these
challenges will come only in mitzvot.
And I don't know about you, but I can
tell you about only about myself.
Certain mitzvot are very difficult for
me to do. It comes with so much yetzer
hara.
And so much difficulty, and so much no
desire to do, and
the yetzer hara knows he can take me
like that on these mitzvot.
>> [snorts]
>> That's my understanding that that's the
mitzvot that on my list I'm missing,
which means that I have to do it the
right way in this lifetime cuz if I'm
going to have to come back and do it
again, I didn't complete it. I didn't
reach a tikkun for that mitzvah.
And you can see it on yourself and it
doesn't matter right now if you're
observant or not or how observant you
are. Because I know people who are
secular
and they give a lot of charity and for
them giving tzedakah, they love it.
Person is not even religious but they're
very charitable. They're very
uh generous. They like helping other
people. Everybody knows that person
helps.
Person doesn't observe Shabbat, doesn't
eat kosher. And and it's the I'm giving
you one example out of many. I know
people
that are not observant of certain
mitzvot
and on the outside they look secular
but they do certain mitzvot that
religious people don't do in that
in that level.
Let's start with just with kibbud av em
with honoring my parents.
Don't think this is a small mitzvah. I
know a lot of people who are not
observing tfillin, kashrut, Shabbat but
how they honor their parents
different level.
So first you can't judge a book by its
cover because there are a lot of people
who don't appear observant. They do
mitzvot in levels that you don't even
come even even reach to that level.
That's first of all. So don't be so
I am a kind of much better than you.
No.
If you are completely not observant
then half of what I'm saying tonight is
doesn't even apply because it won't make
sense. It won't resonate with it won't
have any common sense here.
You need to have
minimum amount of observance of the
Torah and the mitzvot.
So when you understand from those
challenges what you're missing, then you
understanding the hint Hashem tells you
this mitzvah you have to fulfill. You
have to do it the right way.
So, and what does it mean to do it the
right way? Let's say for a person it's
very a man it's very hard to put
feeling.
First of all, he will have a yetzer hara
with him till the last day he dies.
It's not going to change.
First of all.
So, I'm already telling you when you if
something you have a certain yetzer hara
in departments of mitzvot, don't think
you're going to win it.
It's not about winning. It's about not
giving up.
Most likely you'll never win the yetzer
hara. It's not designed that you would
win the yetzer hara. In order for you to
win the yetzer hara you need to reach a
level of of David Hamelach.
David Hamelach killed his yetzer hara.
Now, we're not even in the thumbnail of
David Hamelach. So, don't try. Waste of
time. I came to a long time to terms
that the yetzer hara is not an opponent
that I can knock out.
The only thing I need to do is I to
learn how to avoid him, you know, it's
to to ditch him
and being how to dance in his rhythm. He
starts dancing, I need to dance in in
his rhythm. That's it. You need to know
how to work with the yetzer hara.
The yetzer hara is very sophisticated,
but once you understand the purpose,
then really the yetzer hara is your
personal trainer. That's it. You might
not like him.
But that's your personal trainer.
Now, normally people likes their
personal trainer. So, I'll take it to a
different department. It's like your
teacher in class. Most people most
students don't like their teacher.
But it's your teacher. They teach you,
you know. Kids are not in that level to
understand. Kids just don't like the
teacher.
But the yetzer hara is like your
teacher.
Now, if you become an enemy of the
yetzer hara, then good luck.
But if you understand that the yetzer
hara is coming to teach you, then he's
not as
severe as you would think because you
understand where he's attacking you,
that's what I need to work on.
If I have a desire for this, obviously
that's what I need to work on. Now
again,
the whole boils down to a very, very
powerful foundation that if you don't
have, it won't work.
And that's why I told you the story with
the oranges
because to achieve something you want,
to gain something,
to bring you to a place that you earned
it and you are satisfied and you're
proud of yourself and
you need to work hard.
And you're going to get bruised and
you're going to get wet and you're going
to get and you're going to fall a few
times,
but after me working in the orchards,
sometimes 10 hours, 12 hours, I would
come home I I would forget the pain. I
forgot the cuts. I had the money.
And I bought what I wanted. The time we
had these big records. Remember the
records? Some of you are at least my age
and older. There was these big records.
And yeah, and and and
a record cost, if I remember correct,
anywhere between 12 to 20 shekels.
And an hourly rate at the time was like
15 shekels. Something like that. Maybe I
maybe I don't remember. I don't
remember, but the the fact is that when
I had the money,
I forgot the the hard work because I
achieved what I wanted.
You don't get nothing in this world for
free.
Nothing in this world for free and not
only that, Hashem is not bringing you to
this world for you to waste 70 years
here. This world is a education system.
It's a place of refinement.
If you didn't get that till now, you
have a problem. Your life will always be
going into dead ends.
When you don't understand that this is a
journey
in your eternal life and what you do in
this world sets a certain tone for the
rest of your eternity and needless to
say will affect you in this world,
if you don't have the right mind frame,
again, the topic of the night won't
won't make any justice
and maybe will hope hopefully get a
person to start understanding.
But you need to understand, like I said
in the previous lecture, every frame of
your life, every situation is something
that you need to understand and analyze
and do something.
And that's part of the game. That's how
you get your credit points. That's how
you go to the next level.
So, really it boils down to the
challenges are to help you to get to the
next level
if you are in the game.
If you're in the game, it doesn't matter
if it's finding your treasure or
whatever you game you call it. The point
is that you need to go from one level to
another.
I know it's not the right way of saying
that, but I do see our life like a video
game.
And you finish a certain level
and you go to the next level. And in the
next level, it's a little bit harder and
whatever you need to do, I'm not so
familiar with the current video games. I
can tell you the video games I used to
play with. I used to play with the
Donkey Kong. There was a
There was a gorilla and you had to go
and jump over barrels and and eventually
get to the gorilla and save, I think,
the monkey or something. Something, I
don't remember. But then you would get
to the next level.
And the next level had different types
of
paths, different challenges, different
points.
And then you would finish the second
level, go to the third level.
That's our life.
You're like a little monkey jumping over
barrel barrels
and the barrels are all all your
challenges. Now if you understand that
the challenge is here to fail you
then most likely it will.
If you understand that the challenge is
hopping over the challenge takes you one
step closer to completing that level
then you understand that the challenge
is not really something bad is rather
it's a step for you.
Can you imagine if I would tell you on
this roof of this house
there's $5 million in cash
and gold coins.
It's yours.
But
you you say how how do I get to the
roof?
I need to solve your problems.
I just told you there's money on the
roof.
So what would be the first thing you do
is find a ladder.
If the ladder doesn't have steps
you're not getting the money.
You need steps.
That's it. So every barrel, every
challenge you have that you jump over
then it's not a it's not a problem in
your life. It's another step bringing
you closer to finishing and completing
the next level.
So
group number one of the challenges
are directly to the mitzvot that you
need to do or not do.
The diffi the level of difficulty in
that mitzvah it's your indication that
you need to do a tikun for this mitzvah.
Saying in other words if filling is a
very difficult mitzvah for you and like
I said I know many men they put filling
at the 5 minutes to shkia and not
because anything they're bad or they're
just that's the reason why.
They wake up at 10:00 in the morning
they right away business phone thing
phone it's a few phone calls this that
till 12:00 in the afternoon I'll do it
later I'll do IT LATER PETER
4:00 IN THE AND YOU PUT THE FEELING ON.
I've been there.
Now, it's not because you're a bad
person, this organized
feeling must be a huge huge tikun that
you need to do. So, the yetzer hara will
make it that you that it's like with a
challenge. Then you keep asking
yourself, "Hashem, why I have a
challenge with this mitzvah? I want to
do it the right way. I don't want to
fail all the time."
So, what does Hashem tell you? You have
to put effort. You think you're going to
get it for free?
When you really want something,
what do you do?
Somebody got a ticket? Uh, what is the
tikun? Tikun is the rectification.
When you have to rectify something, I
now come and I stole something from you.
You lost money, you have damage and all
that. Now, I I got caught, the court
tells me, "Before you go to jail, pay
her back."
For the damage you did.
That's a tikun. I damaged something in
this world, I have to fix it.
Nobody will fix it for me. Repair, fix.
And a lot of the problems that we have
is something that I'm carrying from a
previous life.
So, again,
a group number one, it has to do only
with mitzvot.
Some mitzvot are very easy for you. I
know people that they have a home that
a quarter of this and all day long the
the the the house is full of guests
because they love hosting, they love
feeding. And why? Because in that
mitzvah, hachnasat orchim, they mastered
it. They did it right in a previous
life, they did a completion of the
mitzvah.
Because
to understand a little bit the concept,
you're not going to understand now
everything about mitzvot.
You have to understand that a mitzvah
it's it works on a certain quantity.
So,
if I do a certain mitzvah every day,
then I can do this mitzvah 80,000 day
and the 80,000 times.
So, I can do the mitzvah of of tzitzit 7
[snorts] days times a month. I Let's say
I live 70 80 years. Calculate how many
times I did the mitzvah.
But, Shabbat I can only do once a week.
And shofar, once a year.
So, there's certain mitzvah that I can
only do 50 times in my life.
You know that there's certain mitzvah
that you can maybe do once in your
lifetime.
And that could be the Yovel, Jubilee.
And there's some mitzvah that you may
Yovel, but every 50 years there's a
certain a certain cycle. Every seven
shmita, seven cycles of seven years, we
have Yovel. In English, I believe it's
Jubilee. Maybe I'm pronouncing it wrong.
So, there are mitzvah that you can maybe
do once in your lifetime.
Just to see if you're you're on the same
frequency with it. Can you think of a
mitzvah that a man does once in his
lifetime?
Excuse me?
Wait me now? Yeah, where is he? I mean,
sometimes you Don't don't be asleep.
Mhm?
Feed your mother a bed?
There are mitzvah that you do once in
your lifetime. Some mitzvah you can only
do once or two. And there's some mitzvah
that you can do five times a day.
10 times a day.
So,
doesn't matter your level of observance.
Every person has to fill quotas of
mitzvot. Now, you have to understand
that the same way that I just broke it
down that you need X amount of
repetition of the mitzvah.
If you're looking you see this beautiful
painting over there, that's on canvas.
So, this I can't give you an example
with what I want to give you, but if you
would turn to this TV behind me
and you would put that picture on this
TV,
then now that picture would be divided
into pixels.
So now I can tell you that the more
pixels the picture will be more clear,
more vivid, higher quality.
And you don't see the pixels just when
you
pull it closer, then you start seeing
all these squares.
Every mitzvah has to fill a beautiful
picture with a certain amount of pixels.
So you have to put filling on 50,000
times in order for the picture
in shamayim, of course,
to look beautiful with perfect
pixels. And every time you put then you
put one pixel and one pixel. And again,
I'm trying to paint it in some idea that
you understand why do I need to do a
certain mitzvah all my life.
And that quota is going to be, "Okay, I
finished. Okay, Mark, you're done."
And that means that you finished with
this mitzvah.
So Hashem will tell you, "You need to do
x amount of time filling, x amount of
time challah, x amount of time shacharit
mincha maariv, x amount of time you have
to observe Shabbat."
>> [snorts]
>> And I know, of course, other people say
it, but I didn't do a lot of mitzvot all
my life. When you can make other people
do these mitzvot, then you know there's
a ways to to balance it. I also didn't
do a lot of mitzvot. When I became
observant,
I was 27 years old and I understood
that the negative precepts, okay,
whatever I did whatever I damaged, okay,
I'm not going to do it again and that's
where it ends.
But the positive mitzvot, I started
calculating how many positive mitzvot I
missed.
So I made a very quick calculation how
many times I missed mitzvah of filling.
From 13 to 27, took a calendar, minus
Shabbat, minus yamim tovim, I came to an
amount how many times I didn't put
filling.
It It a little bit over 4,000 times.
Now, how do you how do you catch that
up? You can't put twice filling a day.
And I'm missing and I'm I'm missing
4,000 four pixels I'm missing.
I'm going to come up to Shamayim and
they'll tell me you didn't finish the
mitzvah. You needed to you needed to do
the mit filling 50,000 times.
And if one time you miss it, one pixel
is gone. So, the picture is not that
great.
And again, for us to understand it as
human beings, the picture is not that
great. I'm talking all in the spiritual
level.
Of course, you said how do you add it?
You said to teach. You're right. Yeah, I
used to go out in the street. You
Jewish? So, filling. You Jewish? You put
filling on? You put filling on? You put
filling on?
Now, I don't know on the scale how many
other fillings is worth my one filling.
So, if I missed 4,000 filling, then I'll
put 40,000 filling on people.
I 10 times.
And I'm not going to argue with them in
Shamayim on that.
So, there's a a limit how much I can run
in the street and ask people if they
want to put filling on.
But you're right.
You know how many shares I'm holding in
men's filling? Because when men buy
filling, a lot people don't have money.
Here's $50. I invest $50 in a pair of
filling.
I have shares.
In hundreds and hundreds of filling that
every day that the man puts filling, I
invested $50 in that. I'm talking right
now educating and inspiring. So,
technically, you inspire 5,000 people.
Let's say hypothetically, I inspired
5,000 people to put filling on. Then I
get the volume of 5,000 filling. That
will balance what I missed.
And you don't have to go to those
numbers, but you have to Rambam calls it
tchuvas mishkal. The tchuva of a scale.
It went down like this, then then you
need to make double.
So, first thing that you need to
remember
that
the challenges that come with mitzvahs
then you're not just missing this
mitzvah. Don't don't take it as an
insult from Hashem. Don't think that you
don't have the power. Just understand
that that's the hint. Now, once you
start applying that mitzvah and
understanding, "Oh, that's what I need
to do." Then after a while, it will
become much easier to do.
And you can all testify to that if you
are baal teshuvahs or converts that at
some point, in the beginning it's hard,
but at some point you you do it every
day,
then it's not so hard. In the beginning,
when I used to read Birkat Hamazon, it
was for me like reading a book for 45
minutes.
It was like, "Okay, I'll just stay
hungry."
And then the mitzvah is like, you know,
it's very hard to do the mitzvah. You're
thinking, "Okay, I'm going to eat. It's
going to take me 3 minutes to eat, 40
minutes to read."
"Okay, I'll have the apple."
But once you know how to do it, then you
read it, it takes 7 minutes. Tick-tock.
Same thing with tefillin. I said that
shared with that yesterday. First time I
put tefillin on, it looked like a
disaster. You know, that tefillin was
here and I I didn't even know. I'm like,
I'm putting it from here.
Once you get good at something, then it
runs.
So, mark on your notes when you have
challenges with a mitzvah, that's Hashem
telling you, "That's a mitzvah that you
have to do.
It's a mitzvah that is nogea to your
neshama. If you put all your effort to
do that, you'll see great success cuz
that's what's going to bring you great
shefa and abundance. And if you are lazy
to fight this, then good luck. Then all
your life you'll fight with it.
You're never going to win. Don't think
you're going to win the yetzer hara, but
you can shut the yetzer hara's mouth.
So, you might have a certain
yetzer hara that's fighting you for 2 3
years.
And then if you're able to shut it down,
no no, you just just shut it down. It's
there, but it doesn't really bother you.
It's kind of like and why? Because
you're already mastering them it's value
doing it consistent and over and over.
There's another type of challenge when
it comes to sins, not to not doing a
mitzvah. It's two different types how I
see it because
the challenge with a positive mitzvah
it's a mitzvah you need to do. When the
challenge is with a sin,
then
half of it just for the sake of the
example
is the challenge the the fact that the
sham is hinting to you this is sins that
you need to be very careful because you
didn't master them.
All I talked about now is positive
mitzvot. Now I'm talking about negative
mitzvot. You know, some people
it's the easiest thing for them not to
talk
they never slander. They don't look at
other people. You know what she did and
it's just not their
well part of their nature. Now it's not
that it's not their nature. It's just
that they fixed this sin so they don't
have desires to
gossip and chat and
So there's a lot of negative mitzvot
that some people
don't have a challenge with that and
some people do. Same idea where the
is hinting to you that you need to work
on. But when it comes to sins, half of
the challenge it's already not
sin you need to work on.
That's just the your weaknesses or what
I spoke about yesterday. That's your
just your weaknesses
and the reality it's a challenge it
doesn't matter how you're looking at it.
I like looking at it cuz I want to see
where the challenge is coming from. Is
it coming from a deficiency meaning I
need to add a certain mitzvah or is it
coming from my from where I need to put
effort and to work on myself.
That's already a different challenge.
These are important. You get to familiar
with that. you'll see that it will help
you a lot in Avodas Hashem. And you'll
see that even tonight, you choose one
mitzvah that you understand that it's
difficult and you see that there's a
certain difficulty there.
I had for many, many years
uh difficulty. I didn't even know I
don't know why. I didn't figure out why.
To somehow make it to Mincha on Friday.
All the rest of the days was easy.
Friday, Mincha was a difficult Mincha. I
don't know, somehow related to going
into Shabbat.
I always like to help the house as much
as I can. Somehow Mincha of Erev
Shabbat, I I never nailed it. Always
would come late, always pray without a
minyan, if you know. So then after a few
years, I said, "Okay,
I'll start praying Mincha Gedola. I'll
pray the second that you can pray
Mincha, then I'll pray, you know, right
from the beginning." So it's not so easy
to find minyan for like that on your on
Friday.
So I created my own minyan.
I said, "Okay." So it worked for a
while. But it's very hard to get people,
especially when it's winter, so it's
like very cold. In the summer, that's a
whole different thing. Long story short,
I in in the analogy that I'm telling
you, I didn't understand why dafka this
is a challenge.
Why dafka? And I would try to come to
all the explanations. Okay, maybe
because I'm helping my wife, I'm not
supposed to I would try to
But the fact is that I understood that
there are certain mitzvos that you need
to put more effort. You need to put much
more work towards them and it might
sound like, "Oh, it's the same mitzvah."
No, it's a different day. It's different
day, different energy, everything is
different.
So when I get
attacked
by the yetzer hara, the yetzer hara, by
the way, I told you yesterday how he
works. He doesn't make you sin. He just
shows you where the sin is.
That's it.
Okay, well, yesterday I said he opens
the door, and then he tells you, "No,
go through it."
But, he doesn't make you sin.
It's to be very
clear about the role of the yetzer hara.
He just shows you where the sin is, and
then, of course, gives you some good
explanations why it's okay for you to do
it.
His commentary.
So,
again, when it comes to mitzvot and and
averot,
very, very clear when whatever's hard,
that's what you need to put your effort
on. Now, it doesn't mean necessarily
that you like it, or it will be easy,
and some of the mitzvot can take you 20
years to master. But, again, nobody's
asking you, I'm just telling you how to
figure it out.
And
many things you don't like, but it
doesn't matter. You have a divine way to
understand what you Hashem wants from
you.
Then, the next
group of mitzvot that I spoke about is
the hints in the riddles of the game of
your life,
which Hashem puts you in a situation,
and he he can't tell you, "Okay, go do
A, B, and C." Then, how can he reward
you for that?
You have to understand something very,
very basic. Prior to the world, this
world,
there was only Hashem that existed,
and there was nothing else.
And at some point, Hashem had the desire
to be a king.
So, he had to create a nation. How can
you be a king on on no nation?
So, he created a nation.
The nation is all our souls.
In the beginning, the master of the
universe just radiated his godly light
to the souls
which this godly light was this divine
wisdom. And the souls would just benefit
this unbelievable pleasure.
At some point the the souls felt very
very embarrassed in front of Hashem.
Coming to Hashem and saying, "Listen,
you just give and give and give and
we
feel so embarrassed. We want to give you
something."
The Zohar calls this bread of shame,
lechem d'kisufa. Like a poor person that
comes to your door and every day knocks
and he's like he puts his hand out.
You're fine with giving him the money or
the food, but he is really embarrassed
like
So, the souls were in the same level and
they asked Hashem, "We want to do
something for you.
We want to do something that we're not
going to feel the shame."
So, Hashem says, "No problem. I will
create a system. I'll create a world
where you earn your mitzvot.
Whatever I give you, now you earn it.
You put a lot of effort, you'll earn a
lot. You'll put less, you'll earn less.
That way nobody feels I got more, I got
less. You get You get fair square.
Whatever you did, that's what you get."
Of course, at that point the souls were
like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, we're
joking."
But that was already 2 minutes too late
too late and the world was created.
Exactly. But
but our sages clarify that and they say
Hashem
wanted to give merit to the nation of
Israel so he gave them a lot of Torah
and a lot of mitzvot.
I'm sure you heard this verse a few
times if you attend your prayers.
But it means Hashem wanted to give merit
to the nation of Israel so he gave them
a lot of Torah and a lot of mitzvot.
I go in the path of what my father did
to me. I don't give my kids money.
Because then they'll they'll they'll be
they'll I'll educate them that I'm an
ATM.
So, I do the same thing my father does.
Go and work.
Now, the system works well
when the child can find a job.
But what if the child doesn't find a
job?
The child said I I tried. I couldn't
find a job.
What's your answer?
So, I have to invent jobs.
Yeah.
So, a a 17-year-old can find a job.
Like when my 12-year-old says, "Abba,
you're going to America. I want you to
buy me A, B, and C."
Excuse me?
>> [laughter]
>> I'm willing to carry it,
but you buy it.
Now, what job do you give a 12-year-old?
What she's going to go work now at a at
a restaurant? So, I have to invent jobs.
Okay, water the garden.
Uh pick up the leaves from the driveway.
Uh clean the mess over here. And then I
invent jobs so she can earn money and
feel very confident and uh have a strong
feeling of achievement.
And and really I created the job. I may
I didn't really need the job and I gave
her money so to educate her. That's what
Hashem does with us.
It's very simple.
He creates the jobs so we can earn
what he would give us anyways,
but now he's doing it fair and square
that you don't feel that I got it for
free. I earned it.
That's the feeling I used to have when I
used to come back from the orchard. I
didn't mind the scratches. You know, I
still have
scars on my hands.
Just from that job.
But I was so satisfied
that the hard work gave me results. I
was happy with the results.
I was focused on the results.
I understood in a very early age that
results come with hard work.
Never in my life something came to me
with not doing nothing.
Now, unfortunately in our generation,
hopefully it skipped on you,
everybody's very
spoiled.
Instead of you you know when I used to
drive when I was young, I opened the map
to calculate where I need to go and I
would plan my trip.
Now you just press a button.
You know the olden days
you used to work to do certain things.
Now you just put it in chat GPT, does it
for you.
So all this progress is great, but makes
you so
lazy.
Stupid, thank you. It makes you so I'm
looking sometimes at the younger
generation, I'm like
They don't know what to do. They don't
know nothing.
So so the the progress is very good.
But if you don't
if you leaning on it to be your
salvation, that's that's
first of all that's what the
wants. It's a form of idolatry that I go
to
No, no, it's such a sick sick way.
You see it's coming from the man. It's
not coming from anything holy.
Because most people they they don't they
they they don't see the big picture.
So the next level of challenges that you
have is really
It's really a shame telling you where
you need to go.
What you need to do.
The sad reality is most people are like
they going looking for the
People come to ask me questions that I'm
like
What do you want from me?
I understand you ask me a question in
Halacha.
A question [clears throat] in the Torah.
You ask me sometimes you ask me
questions and I'm like what do you want
from me?
No, you don't see things.
No, I don't see things.
I see a fool
think [laughter]
that I see things. I see a lazy person.
That's what I see. Go and work hard for
what you need to achieve.
I don't ask advice. I ask Hashem.
The other day I was
in one of my stops on the tour. I stayed
over with one of my friends and he he
asked me about about my rabbi. My rabbi
is a big big individual. He said why you
you see him, you talk to him, you like
you know. And I'm like listen, I don't
really go there often.
I wouldn't bother him with questions.
He's bothered enough with questions.
So I don't go to him if I have a
question. I I feel bad to go there to I
I if I escalate it to my rabbi, that
means that I couldn't find an answer.
First I go and look for an answer.
I don't [snorts] bother somebody else
for advice and when I need
enlightenment, when I need guidance from
God,
no offense, I don't go to rabbis. I know
people go to rabbi People come to me
like as if I'm like excuse me.
>> [laughter]
>> I should start charging for
consultations. People now call me should
I buy the Bitcoin, sell the Bitcoin.
What do you want from me?
>> [laughter]
>> I'm a banker.
You have
questions in your life, only Hashem will
answer you.
You just know who don't know how to ask
and in most of the cases you don't know
how to read the messages.
The minute Hashem gives you messages all
day long, gives you guidance all day
long. When when can't find it,
he It's not that he's losing his
patience,
but it's kind of like a parent that
tells you something
and you don't listen and you don't
listen and you don't listen. At some
point, what does the parent do?
Raises their voice.
Right? You Some of you are parents.
When my kids when I tell them to do
something over and over and over, after
a few repetitions,
then the voice the volume goes up.
Hello, Shmuel.
You don't you don't hear? I told you two
times.
I'm just giving you an example, of
course.
My kids
>> [laughter]
>> I look very nice on video. I look a very
nice individual. Come to my house. I'm
not that nice.
I have a I have I I need to educate kids
here. I'm not here to play.
So, you like me, you don't like me, I
don't care. Yeah.
Same with my students. You like me, you
don't like me, I I don't care if you
like me or not.
Yesterday somebody told me, "Oh, you're
very direct."
Do you want me to be not direct? Do you
want me to what? Wishy-washy? What do
you want What do you want me to do?
I This is the This is a cup of water.
It's a cup of water.
I'm not going to tell you it's a plastic
thing that holds water in it.
It's a cup of water.
>> [snorts]
>> Deal with the reality. Deal with the
truth. Swallow the the the the move on.
So, why am I saying? And again, I know a
lot of times I raise my voice at my
kids, all a show. One time I pretended
like I'm really like screaming, throwing
things, and and I had a guest in the in
the house. He was shocked.
And then when I was done, I came back to
the table and I was like, "No, no, just
joking." And I went back to like normal
conversation and he was like,
"What just happened here?" I said,
"Listen, if I'm going to ask them nice,
they're not going to do it. They need to
understand that sometimes Abba freaks
out."
That's it. It's done. So,
Hashem wants the same thing. You know
that in my house,
if there's a problem, I'm sure it's in
many houses,
if there's a problem that is caused to
my wife, you know what's the slogan,
wait till your father comes home.
>> [laughter]
>> Now, my kids are like, "Hey, hey, he's
three weeks in America."
>> [laughter]
>> But,
but my wife waves the wait till he comes
home.
You see him all the time. Now, I'm still
a celebrity. I have a few more. I
Cool it down, son.
Uh
But, and it's not that Has v'shalom I'm
a dictator or evil.
I just
I gained my position in the house that I
call the shots. I run the show. Ba'al
habayit u'va'al hade'ah, I pay, I
decide. And not from anything else but
to put the child in the right place. I
need to educate my kids. I'm not here to
play with them.
So, they need to know that when you they
cross a line, there's going to be
repercussions. There's going to be a
reaction.
Whether on my reaction they're outside,
I don't care. They're not listening.
Well, my other one is on this live. He's
moderating, but he's old enough. He
knows my tricks.
The old ones are now laughing seeing me
doing it on the young ones.
But, it's all a show. At the end of the
day, it's all a show. When I When I I
have seven kids, baruch Hashem. When
they were born, I told my wife, we are
the architects
of each and every one of these kids'
lives.
I make a mistake, I'll mess up the
artwork,
the the final product. So, whether they
choose to like me or not, I didn't like
my father for many years. When I grew
out of my stupidity, I understood what a
great father it was, what an educational
father, what a teacher. I'm forever
grateful, thankful. But, as a teenager,
limited mind, no muchin, I didn't
understand that. I resented
So, as an appreciation, I want to give
it down to the next generation. I don't
want to
generation of
spoiled kids, spoiled adults. Spoiled
kids they become spoiled adults, by the
way.
That it's not that spoiled kids suddenly
become not spoiled.
So, if you are a spoiled kid, you are a
spoiled adult. And spoiled adults are
not easy to deal with.
At all. They don't even know how to deal
with themselves.
So, why am I saying that? Because when I
need to show some
>> [clears throat]
>> How do you say I'm assertive?
Then I What do I do? I raise my voice.
You know, in in the real world, it will
come with hand movements.
But
But I In my situation, I raise my my
voice. I have a very strong voice. When
I scream, my kids
under the table.
But if you didn't get it the first time,
and you didn't get it after the 15th
time, then the reaction it's going to
come not nice. It's going to come with a
stronger voice. It's going to come with
less pleases
and excuse me's. And at some point, it's
going to narrow down
to become very bad.
Can be with you and your boss. Can be
between a child and a parent, teacher,
authority.
Shem does the exact same thing.
He comes and tells you,
"I'm not asking much. A, B, and C." You
become stubborn.
Then he has to raise his voice.
And at some point, the voice has to
become stronger. It's not coming from
hate. It's not coming from any It's
coming from the Talmud Shem. You're not
listening. You're not doing.
So, most of the challenges
that are not mitzvahs,
that are anything else, situations,
and so forth. It's just a sham writing
you hints on the wall. Now, when you get
it,
you operate, the challenge disappears.
That's [snorts] how it works.
It challenged and disappeared, you
didn't get it. You didn't get the
message. You missed one digit on the
safe.
That's the problem with most people.
Hashem gives you all the hints that you
need in the riddle, in the find your
uh treasure,
and your ego, arrogance, honor,
I like to uh call that stupidity.
It doesn't allow you to read the
message.
And in most of the cases, these messages
are people around you that appeared to
anger you or to do something to you, but
they are the message.
And then you're getting upset at the
message
and the messenger. So, you don't get the
message. And then you find yourself with
some challenge
with your parents, with your boss, with
some neighbor in a lawsuit. It doesn't
matter. You find yourself tangled with
some individual that you don't even ever
understand. What does the person want
from me? It's all what they could. Leave
me already.
But that person is holding the message
you need to know.
And what stops you is your ego.
And I'll give you one example out of a
million.
Two years ago, my neighbor,
it's a little bit uh sick in the head.
No, no, but that's
and he physically attacked me and my
son.
But physically, like and like he cracked
my head, like he really physically
attacked us 2 years ago.
And like was it extreme? Wow.
And you know, when you're angry
then all the ideas come out. Oh, I'm
going to sue him. I'm going to sue I'm
I'm going to I'm going to clean his bank
accounts. What am I going
>> [screaming]
>> And then you go to the criminal path.
I'm going to call my cousin Vinnie.
>> [laughter]
>> We're going to wait for him in the dark
alley when he comes out.
Suddenly you become all tough.
And also some weird ideas.
And you are like you first of all you
aggravated, angry, looking for like
revenge. I'm going to do
What I'm going to do and every person
that you see, you know what he did to
me? No.
So I had I'm also a human being. I had
my neighbor attack me and my son.
And a lot of people told me, "Why didn't
you defend like why didn't you defend
yourself?"
So
You know, when a little dinghy comes and
attacks an aircraft carrier, the
aircraft carrier doesn't do anything cuz
if the aircraft carrier will shoot one
missile, the dinghy goes. Oh my god.
So I I first I can't hit another another
another person. Uh he's not a Hashem
Shalom a bad person. He's just a little
bit
sick in the mind.
It doesn't matter right now. That's not
the point. The point is that as a
regular human being in the first few
weeks, there was a lot of anger.
Yeah, because everybody was giving me
advice. Sue him.
Make a lot of money.
And do this and do that and
And at the end, I was like, "Okay, if
it's bothering me for a few weeks and
where my mind is taking me is only
negative things. Nothing is positive
here."
Then it's just my ego driving me to a
path that I'm not supposed to go to.
There is a situation in my life. I need
to analyze right now. What does Hashem
want from me?
And it took me a certain amount of
thoughts and time of meditating,
praying, asking Hashem, give me this
clarity.
When something is not clear in my life,
I don't run to a rabbi or open a book or
something, I do chuva.
I repent.
I look inside myself, what can I change?
What can I
refine?
And I make myself a worthy vessel to
receive this godly light, which will
come as the answer that I need.
But very quickly I understood that in
this case, that person is just a
shaliach, he's just a messenger. Me
being angry at the messenger, okay,
maybe I'll sue him, I'll get some money.
There's not going to be blessing in that
money.
It's not that that money's going to do
any good to me. You know, I can sue him.
I have the legal rights, everything,
good lawyer, I'll get some money.
There's not going to be a blessing in
that money.
That money will go.
Because I'm not supposed to get money
like that. That's not how you make money
by suing somebody.
You can go with your ego. I'll sue him,
I'll this, I'll do that, I can do this.
And and and listen, all sorts of evil
ideas came in my mind as a normal human
being.
You know, like I told you, do this, do
that. Just for the sake of the example,
there were there are neighbors. Their
entire house is no permits, everything
is illegal. I was like, I'm going to go
to the city hall
and tell them
and two days later there's going to be a
tractor taking down their whole house.
And then I'm like,
listen to yourself. That's That's what
you're going to do? I'm going to walk
into the city hall like a snitch?
And I It's like I'm I caught myself like
alone. What are you thinking of?
Where are you even That's what's going
on in your mind.
That's your Torah. That's what the
Kadosh Baruch Hu wants.
Revenge.
Kadosh Baruch Hu doesn't want that.
So, you have to put your ego aside.
You have to put your pain aside, your
greed, everything has to be put be put
aside and understand that person is a
messenger.
For me to do A, B, and C.
It's nothing to do with me, this guy.
And the second that I understood what
Hashem wanted me to understand and learn
and change and achieve from this
encounter, that's what I understood.
That's it. I don't look at that person.
He's not my enemy. He's just another,
you know, fly on the wall for me.
It's another hint for me, a divine
message,
the next step.
Now, in that particular case,
that's another type of challenges.
That's
This is more more of a higher level to
understand is that when you're doing
something wrong, not necessarily a sin,
and Hashem wants to give you a certain
hint by telling you, "You're not doing
it right. Do it right."
You're doing it 90% right.
But it all falls under the hints of all
the categories that Hashem is hinting
you.
So, really, most of the challenges you
have is Hashem hinting to you how you
get to the next level.
And since you don't get it, then it
repeats itself, and then you perceive it
as something that you're challenged
with.
If you just open your eyes,
stop what you need to do, and I'll
explain to you in a second how.
That's it. Then you you understand it,
and the challenge
disappears. Now, you go to the next
level.
>> [clears throat]
>> So, really, before I explain to you how
I do it,
you have to understand
challenges [snorts]
are the best things that you have
because they show you where you holding.
It's your indication.
I love technology how it can teach us
everything.
I was now
in
Denver part of the tour and my friend
has a Cybertruck. The Tesla Cybertruck.
It's not that of a wow.
It's a driving piece of garbage. It's a
It looks like a garbage bin.
But nevertheless, it's irrelevant. If
you like it, go ahead. It's It's not a
matter trying to say. What I'm trying to
say is that you sit in some
box.
>> [snorts]
>> And nothing fancy there.
Plain.
And this is irrelevant, but you have
so much indications of what's going on.
So I put the self-driving mode
and it drives by itself and you can look
around. It's pretty cool.
But I was constantly looking and I
That's how I look at everything. Every
situation that I'm in, I right away take
3-4 seconds to analyze. I'm in a
situation right now, a frame in my life.
What am I taking from that? I have to
take a few a few things.
And what I took from that specific
experience is how much indicators and
sensors this car has. I don't know in
numbers how many cameras. But it's like
it has dozens of cameras and in order to
drive by itself, it has to has hundreds
of sensors.
All funneling into one main system that
causes the machine to drive.
Really, when you're thinking about it,
it's the most basic thing.
If this is the distance, it's a basic
programming. All you need is the sensors
and the distances and it will calculate
speed.
I don't think it's that much of a wow
technology. The sensor is the
technology, not the analyzing the the
the information.
But what I saw was like so much
indications in this car. You see all
around you at all given times what's
happening and the indications, they also
warn you and they also do it for you.
And I was like, we're driving in a
Cybertruck. My life is a Cybertruck.
You know how many indications you have
around you that you don't even know how
to read?
So many cameras around you are helping
you, guiding you,
saving you, protecting you.
And and and you you don't you you don't
read the signs.
So,
challenges I see, I don't like the
challenges, by the way. And by the way,
I do I'm sorry I didn't clear it out in
the beginning of the class.
A challenge is not a test.
Test is a test. That's a nisayon. That
Hashem tests you
with a certain situation and he wants to
see your reaction.
That's a nisayon.
We're not mixing now chall- challenges
and and and nisayon is a test.
That's a whole different thing.
And you need to understand what's a
challenge and what's a test.
I'll I'll tell you in the end the ba-
the the the the basic things what you
need to do. First, you need to
understand what you what you're dealing
with.
So, once you understand that most of
what's going on in your life, it's
actually not necessarily people against
you and it's not your misfortune and
it's not your
mazal that is not working. It's not what
90% of what you think. And then of
course, some of the rabbis will tell
you, "Oh, oh, this is happening because
you did this this and this and that and
that is happening." And they give you
like a whole analysis. How do you know?
How do you know?
I you did this, you did that, this you
did and now it's this is happening
because of that. Like, listen, unless
you're the Baal Shem Tov, don't tell me
things like this.
And tell me what what
Most of the times that I'm dealing with
things, you don't know where it came
from and it didn't come from your
action.
So, I when I see a challenge, I don't
run into the challenge headfirst.
Then you're going to get knocked down.
I
I step out of the challenge and I try to
observe in what department the challenge
came.
Is the challenge in a sin that I'm
repeating or challenge to do? Like I
told you, category number one.
If it's a mitzvah that is very hard for
me to do, I understand very quickly,
okay, this mitzvah needs more power.
Maybe I'm not doing it the right way.
Maybe I'm not doing enough.
When the challenge comes in a way
that
it's almost doesn't make sense or is not
clear why I have this challenge,
then I don't even look at it as a
challenge. I'm starting to read the
riddle.
I'm starting to look at the challenge
and exactly like you're reading now the
the hint, okay, what is the hint? And in
many of the cases, I'll go wacky with
it. Gematriot, numerical values, I'm
going to pull out what's the the hint.
But you don't don't don't be
discouraged. It's almost very simple to
pull out from the hint what is the what
is the riddle. What is the hint?
But it requires
patience.
It requires a little bit of wisdom.
And it mainly requires from you of
self-refinement that you become uh
worthy vessel to receive this message.
Sometimes the message in front of you
and you don't see it.
The one
and you're looking for a solution
and the whole time it was in front of
you.
That's most of the cases, by the way.
But again, it's all under the same
title, your ego, your kavod doesn't
allow you to bow down and to accept now
what the world is catering to you. But
I'm already telling you that the
majority
of the challenges that don't really make
sense to you,
then that's where you need to first of
all stop and ask, "Okay, now let me
start cracking the code."
Now, how do I tell the difference
between a challenge and a test?
Because a test, Hashem wants to see
reactions.
And a challenge, Hashem wants to you to
meditate, to focus, to find a solution,
to reverse engineer what needs to be
done. It's two two different types of
behavior.
And I know it might sound a little bit
not familiar what I'm talking or
confusing, then watch the rerun. Watch
it again.
But that's how I see how I see. A test A
test is testing my reaction.
So he would test me.
And what what should or should not be my
reaction? Anger. That's That's a great
test.
Hashem is going to put a situation in
front of me to see if I get angry.
And if I get angry,
you lost a few points. If you didn't get
angry, come on, come on, then you move
to the next test.
So tests usually follow a reaction.
Hashem wants to see how you're going to
react. You're going to react with anger?
Are you going to react with frustration?
Are you going to react with insulting
the person back or you're going to shut
up? Your reaction.
And by the way, many of the times your
reactions are severe sins. You can
insult somebody in front of a a whole
room of people cuz they said something
and you're like,
"I'll give him back."
And you insult somebody in front of
other people, and you don't have a place
in the world to come for that even.
But
and you're insulting somebody, and
you lose your your place in the world to
come for something like that.
Hashem Shalom.
So many of the times your reactions are
sins.
But I like doing everything in my life
in a delay.
So I don't impulsively, you know, act
cuz then 99% of the time you'll miss.
I always pause for a whatever amount of
time to see cuz I want to make the
analogy here very quickly.
If I'm triggered here to for some
response,
then I know Hashem is testing it. And
you'll test it all day long, by the way.
And usually the tests are also where you
need to work on.
So if you need to work on the attribute
of anger, Hashem will test you all the
time with little things of anger to see
how how much you letting the anger go
out or how much you look at the room.
Call the center and call it to buy and
calm yourself down.
So
when I see that the situation will
trigger for me a reaction, I know that's
a test from Hashem. Alone, relax, be
focused. The test is on.
Be very careful.
Because now you're tested. So I'm trying
to look, okay, this man or woman did
this and this. Okay.
Plan one plus one will cause me to be
anger angry. Okay, so I'm tested with
anger right now. Okay, I'm not going to
feed it. I'm not going to So I I
actually analyze the situation in my
mind.
Almost like you know these commercials
that I saw a few of them that they show
like a two cars coming and then they
stop and then they show like the
pre-accident. It's little videos, short
videos and you see the two people coming
and they're talking. Yeah, but you
didn't look, but I didn't see, but you
didn't give me
uh uh how do you say
the right of way? And then they go back
to the car and
it goes fast and you see the accident,
you know? You ever saw these videos?
That's what I do. I
I stop the situation. Wait, wait, wait,
let me pause.
Cuz once I used to react right away.
So, that's my indication. When I'm
called for a reaction, Hashem is testing
me right now.
And I you have to be very careful that
in any time of the test, you can roll it
over to a sin.
That you can fail in a sin.
And usually people fail in a sin cuz
they'll go to Lashon Hara right away.
If not Lashon Hara, slandering, foul
language, that that that department.
When I see that the challenge that I'm
dealing with right now, it's not about
pulling a reaction from me,
then I divide it. If it's a mitzvah or a
sin, then I know what I explained to
you. If it doesn't make any sense,
the situation that I need to deal with
right now,
then I know Hashem is now challenging
me.
And in a challenge, there is the form of
a test.
But he's challenging me. And you know
what the challenge is?
To understand that there's a
a message there.
So, why would I get upset? Why would I
lose my patience? Why would I be
judgmental? Why would I want to do
anything? Wait wait wait wait wait wait
the the message is here. Don't go. It's
for your own good.
Not only that it's for your own good,
you're not going to get another
opportunity. Who said that the messenger
is going to stay?
And then you're missing a hint and
you're delaying your progress.
Because the reality, most people
unfortunately don't they don't
understand that your entire life is a
journey.
The journey is required of you to grow.
If you come into the world and you go
out the same way, what did you do?
You didn't do nothing.
You are required to go through this
journey and refine yourself and change
and grow.
Most people don't do that. They're still
locked on the things that don't have any
meaning.
Everything else is meaningless. Your
your spiritual growth, that's what's
important.
The path that you walk on, that's what's
important.
So again, when I get a challenge with
mitzvot, I already know what Hashem is
telling me. It's very clear to me.
If I have a challenge with a certain
aveira
and it's already in a category of a
desire that is almost uncontrollable.
And everybody has a fair share of a few
of them. You don't have to
pretend that you're such a pious
individual.
You know what I mean? Hashem doesn't
like that. I I admit my sins. I admit my
weaknesses. Everybody has weaknesses.
Everybody has lusts. And each and every
one of us has one or two or three or
five that is almost uncontrollable. That
that's where you give up for that
specific desire or lust.
So when it comes to mitzvot, I
understand where where am I holding?
That's my indication
in regards to my mitzvot.
So don't be angry. Don't be upset.
Read between the lines.
Understand that that desire or this lust
or this weakness is giving you
indication where you holding. Wouldn't
you want to know?
Can you imagine you're putting tefillin
all your life? 20 years you put tefillin
on.
And suddenly somebody comes and tells
you, you know, you're not doing it
right.
The knot has to be there.
Or the tefillin has to be here.
You not doing it right.
Would you want somebody to come and tell
you that?
Of course you want somebody to tell you
that.
So Hashem is telling you that when you
messing up with your mitzvot.
And this applies by the way it does
doesn't matter how observant you are. It
applies to you every individual whether
you call yourself observant or not, you
are obligated in the same level.
If I'm obligated in putting tefillin,
you are obligated. It doesn't matter if
you have a yarmulke, you don't have a
you wear a beard, you wear a doesn't
matter. We're equal in the obligation. I
have to eat kosher, you have to eat
kosher. I have to observe Shabbat, you
have to observe Shabbat. There's no
difference between us. Whether you do it
or not, that's your that's your own
decision.
Again, so we can move on. When the
challenge doesn't make sense,
it's not trying to pull some emotion out
of me,
and the what I'm challenged doesn't make
sense,
then I understand that that's there's a
hint in there that Hashem wants me to
understand. And when I understand the
hint, I will go to the next level.
Therefore, the challenges are really
they're steps for me to go to another
step and another step. I just don't see
the steps.
If I figure out the steps by myself,
you won't have much challenges. Then the
challenges are actually going to be
different types of challenges. I didn't
get to them yet. Now we're talking about
the basic ones that you need to
constantly understand.
And when the challenge doesn't make
sense,
then I don't try to fight it. I don't
try to argue with it. I don't try to
find much solutions.
I try to understand what am I required
to do, and then by default the challenge
disappears.
So like in the look for your
treasure game,
the the the hint can come in the form of
go three steps and count you know, I 1 2
3 and the third door open it and
there'll be that's what that's like a
hint. It's like telling you to do A B
and C. But in many of the hints, it's
like a question that doesn't make sense
and you need to sit. What does it mean?
What does it mean? You need to sit.
That's how you have to figure out the
challenge. And in many of the case can
take you a week or two or a month.
That you don't understand. What does
this want from me?
When I find a dead end,
then I go and I do teshuvah. If I really
do in a dead end, I will fast, I will
learn Torah, stay up all night. I will
do all sorts of actions so Hashem send
me a message, which I'm not different
than anyone. Anybody can do that.
In most of the cases, if you move aside,
you you see it. You see very clear. The
only reason why it won't work is when
you are you have even one little dot of
kavod or ego. It's not going to work.
Because you have to be so uh
humble for sure. It's only going to work
with humility because you sometimes you
have to look at somebody who's your
enemy and find the message within their
actions and not to be judgemental and
not to be angry and not to look for
revenge and not to to go berserk.
I tell I I I
I shared a
a certain story many many times how many
years ago there was a certain investment
that I went into and and the person
didn't
provide the the software that he was
supposed to. Anyways,
that was beyond it was a test and a and
and a challenge together because it
constantly caused me to be emotional
and I had to control my emotions, but
the test was
what to what's the the the message to
get out of the encounter. So, there are
situations that the nisayon, the test,
and the challenge gets tangled together.
But now that I kind of covered briefly
the
challenges that we have, then there's
another type of a challenge
is that it's not in the level of
mitzvot, it's in the level of my middot,
of my attributes because we're all
required to refine ourselves. The
mitzvot and the Torah are very
important, but I am required to refine
my characteristics.
And the characteristics can be anger,
jealousy, sadness, depression, many
different sort of emotions and
characteristics.
And then the challenge will come
in the attribute that I need to to work
on.
And it's the same idea of what I just
said before, but that has to do with my
with my refinement.
And to give you an example, if I need to
refine my patience,
then Hashem is going to give me very
annoying kids.
Not annoying, but kids that are they
require me to
challenges.
In the least to say.
Now, there's nothing wrong with the
kids. You don't have to go now to 50
million rabbis, what's wrong with the
kid? Nothing's wrong with the kid.
What what's wrong is you. No, no, you
are the one that's wrong. The kid is
just to show you how you are wrong.
So, in many of the cases Hashem is
challenging you to refine yourself.
Now, I can continue going on and on and
on in the categories how I see it in my
mind of the challenges, but here is
where I'm going to stop because by now
you need to understand that all the
challenges in your life
is only for your benefit. It's only to
get you to a higher level.
It's only done for your good.
And
a very small amount of it is maybe your
negligence in your spiritual growth.
It's Hashem putting speed bumps in your
way because if you wouldn't, you
wouldn't grow.
If you would go only on a flat
treadmill, then there's not much effort.
You need to constantly raise the
treadmill higher, like a stress test.
You ever did a stress test?
The stress test, they did that to me.
They tried to stress me, it didn't work
out. I was walking on the on the
treadmill, and I'm walking and walking,
and then he takes the treadmill a little
bit higher, so it becomes harder and
then higher higher, and then he makes
the treadmill higher. So, and they want
to see how how your heart goes.
So, it's the same thing what Hashem does
for you. He says, "If you're going to go
on a flat
treadmill or
path, you you're not going to put much
effort."
So, it it's equivalent when you go to
work out. If you go now to the most
fanciest gym in the world, and you pay
top money, and you just come there with
your beautiful outfit,
and you just sit like this on one of the
benches,
nothing will happen.
You're not going to have any change in
your body. You need to move your body.
So, even if you will start moving your
body in movements of exercise, nothing
will happen.
You can sit now on a bench and go like
this 100 times,
nothing will happen.
Why? Because you need resistance. In
order for the muscles to grow, they need
resistance. Something needs You need to
push and to pull. And then happens uh an
effect that you sweat.
And you get tired.
And in many time bruised up or may or
whatever it is, but the point
is that you grow.
You cannot grow in this world if there's
no resistance. You cannot grow if
there's no power that is playing with
you, manipulating with you. Sometimes
pulling you, sometimes pushing you.
If you won't have any challenges in your
life, it would be like a person that's
sitting on a bed like this all their
life and not moving.
You don't use your muscles.
Kind of like the have the little of the
Lord.
You know the hostages that came out of
the tunnels, they were in cages for
months. They couldn't they couldn't
stand on their feet.
You sometimes watch a movie and your
fifth leg is bended and you were you get
up an hour and you
you know, you get like these
uh
You know what I'm talking about?
tangled
Can you imagine like this not moving for
a whole thousand years or a whole for 70
years?
So, the challenge is
is really the rhythm of your life.
Because if you're looking at a monitor
in a hospital
when the monitor is flat, that person is
dead.
But indicates that the person is alive
is that it goes up and then it goes down
and then it goes up and then it goes
down and then it goes up and then it
goes down and you want a pretty
equal a rhythm of the up and down.
So, the ups, that's when Hashem is
giving you some break.
Some nice moments, some small in your
life, some success. He's a little bit
up.
But very quickly tells you take a deep
breath.
You're going down. You're going down
again.
And what's the reason for you to go
down? Now I know you're going to answer
for you know,
to go to go up.
I descend to order to to ascend. Okay,
that's true.
To catch momentum.
But really the going up and the down,
that's what Hashem wants from you. Now
again, we perceive it as a challenge, we
perceive it as a punishment from Hashem,
we perceive it as the a disaster in my
life.
Hashem is telling you in other words,
what are you talking about? You're
trying to jump from here to here and I
just gave you a stool.
What are you complaining?
You can jump from here to here.
Now your soul constantly wants to go
higher and higher. So we all have this
some drive in us
to wake up in the morning, to go to
work, to become successful, to find my
other half, to raise my kids. That's
most people. You don't have it,
something's sick in the neshama.
But the Kadosh Baruch Hu constantly
tells you to be in a motion of growing.
We as human beings
don't have the energy, don't have the
tools, don't have the desire, don't see
what's going on. And more than that,
not only that Hashem invents for you
jobs, like I invent jobs for my kids so
I can pay them,
he also makes the jobs hard
so you can you can give you more money,
more more pain. He says, "Okay, if I'll
give you a little job, what am I going
to reward you? A cup of water?
I want to give you a big reward.
I want to
elevate you. I want to inspire you."
So you have to understand that it's all
a game.
Now here there's another side note that
it's important to know that many of the
times your behavior will trigger
spiritual reactions that will come to
your life as not such pleasant things.
And you might perceive that as a test or
as a challenge, but it's not. It's not
just a reaction to your action.
And what I mean is that you're behaving
in a certain way,
you can call it karma,
but it's it's going to come it's going
to come back at you.
So it's not a test. It's not a
challenge.
It's it's your behavior. That you did
something and now you're getting your
own a taste of your own medicine.
Hashem always will incorporate in that
some type of a message, some type of a
of a test.
But it all boils down that everything
that happens to you
>> [snorts]
>> is a message from Hashem for your
spiritual growth.
When you understand that in your mind,
that really
every little thing that might be
difficult in my life is for my benefit,
then suddenly you understand that most
of the earth thing
most of your challenges
that they're not bad.
That's why our sages say accept all
these challenges with a smile because
it's good for you. You might not see it.
It's almost equivalent to how I try to
educate my kids. They don't see what I
see.
They just see how it's affecting them.
That's my my my recommendation in every
situation. So let's just step aside.
Step aside may meaning judge the
situation without being judgemental.
Be very fair to all sides.
You have to be fair even to the ones who
are against you.
If you're not, you're not doing it
right.
My neighbors that attacked us, if I
would be
pulling to my side all the time, I'm
right, I'm the victim, then it won't
work.
When I'm judging a situation,
everybody's equal here. I don't see me
or the other person separately cuz
that's where I can see the right way.
So I'm assuming that you're also
understanding that to make this work you
have to come with an approach of
humility or never
of
I'm not I can't even be always right.
Now how do you practically do it?
Practically because you're going to come
out of the door very soon and everything
that we just talked about is going to
come and will apply in your life.
Tomorrow in the morning you're going to
wake up
stepping on a little toy, hurting your
leg, jumping up and down. Now you are
required to hold your anger
and to not and your patience to your
kids. So you're saying, "Okay, first
challenge of the day, I passed. Check, I
made a check."
When you understand that in the morning
when you wake up in the morning and you
say modeh ani l'fanecha,
when you say the I thank you Hashem on
the bed,
you might not see it, but some note
falls from above
next to you
and it says what's going to be your
challenge for the day.
And imagine this you would open the
note, oh, anger.
And then the next thing something angers
you.
Now when you are prepared,
then you don't get angry.
When you're prepared,
then you are self-settled.
Now here comes one more element that's
here that will affect everything
that is in all the tests and the
challenges Hashem also wants you to
refine one more quality and it's called
emunah.
That you believe that it's coming from
Hashem, that it's good for you, there's
nothing bad and
Hashem is giving me this test. You have
to have the anavah and the emunah, the
humility and the and the
uh
how would you would translate it?
Uh hmm? The faith.
Uh
belief, faith, okay.
That it's coming from Hashem, that's
part of the ingredients and that's it.
And once you understand all that, then
you don't you don't let it trigger you.
I'll give you one example out of many
from my life.
I now came to Florida with a lot of my
wine from Israel. I manufacture wine, I
have my own vineyards, I make my own
wine.
Excuse me?
No, the Organos is my neighbors. I'm not
the Organos.
We can advertise them, too.
Their wine is not as good as mine, but
>> [laughter]
>> but it's okay. It's okay wine.
So why am I saying that?
The wine came to Miami 4 days ago.
4 days I'm running after any possible
individual in the system to release it
from the customs and get it delivered.
Something that needs to take 3 hours.
And it didn't happen as you noticed.
Didn't get the wine yesterday, didn't
get the wine the day before.
So
Mhm?
Today we got it.
So now let me give you a live example.
Is that a nisayon, a test, or is that a
challenge?
No.
So the
Okay, in my analogy that was just a
nisayon.
Testing my reactions.
Testing if I will get angry, testing if
I will get disappointed. Disappointed,
tested if I will
uh
you know, impatient, raise my voice. I
mean I was dealing with a trucking
company that for 2 days were giving me
really rude answers.
So the test, do you lose your temper?
Do you understand that Hashem wants you
to
hold your anger, hold your patience. So
this is for example
no question a challenge nisayon a test.
And you know why?
Because when I'm looking at the
situation and I move to the side
everything is clear.
There's nothing here that doesn't make
sense.
It's just I understand here that now I
worked hard.
Money is involved, investment is
involved, etc.
It's a pure test not to lose my
patience, not to get angry,
not to get disappointed,
not to Hashem start yelling at the
company cuz I could technically start
yelling at them. Three days,
it's a delay. I have a lot of money.
I'll sue you.
First of all, relax. First of all,
relax. Look at what's going on here.
So, right away I'm stepping taking a
step back and I'm asking myself, is
there any mitzvah involved here?
No.
So, it's not a challenge with a mitzvah.
It's not a hint about any mitzvah or
sin. Okay, move that out of the way.
Is it something that doesn't make sense?
No. The wine came, it was stopped in
customs, it's sitting in Miami
International.
Somehow it's not getting delivered.
That's pretty clear to me.
I I I I understand the map here right
now. I'm not looking who to blame right
now. I'm just telling you how my thought
process works.
Everything is clear. It landed in time.
There's maybe a miscommunication between
the parties, but the fact is that it's
somewhere on a truck and something in
the universe is stopping it from coming
to me and I'm losing my patience and I'm
getting angry and I CAN'T TAKE IT
ANYMORE.
THAT'S what was the expected
reaction. But, I understand that I'm not
tested if I'm going to lose my anger or
not, raise my voice or not, etc. Or
curse with shalom do stupid things.
That's a test.
And the reason why I don't look at it as
a challenge because everything is clear
to me. I understand the stages. So, this
is a test. Hashem is testing me.
Clearly. And I won the test cuz I stood
aside and I just waited to see. Not
getting angry.
Not getting upset. Not saying, "Oh my
gosh, I could have sold so much more. I
would have made." And
it's not even in the
I'm not wasting my time on that. It's
not here.
Move on. Yesterday I tried all morning.
At some point in the afternoon, the
answer is coming tomorrow. That's it.
Okay, no wine today, kids. Let's go.
Next.
Challenge
is that I don't understand what Hashem
wants wants from me.
Now, I'll give you another example. A
few years ago, I came here to Florida
and I got stuck in a hurricane.
Which hurricane was it? About 7 years
ago?
I think Irma. No, no, no, no. Irma came
after that.
It doesn't matter.
Uh it hit pretty hard. I mean, I was
stuck here for a few days.
>> [clears throat]
>> But nevertheless,
not Katrina. Katrina was in New York.
Uh it was the one before Andrew. It
doesn't matter.
Matthew, Andrew, Mickey Mouse. It
doesn't matter. I don't even know who
names the storms.
Sit some guy somewhere. They say,
"Okay."
Yeah, I whatever. They'll
>> [laughter]
>> Okay, let's move on.
So, I got stuck here in a hurricane. I
don't remember if it was a woman or a
man. It probably was a man because it
wasn't that bad. I think it was a
category four or five. Wasn't that much
damages. But anyways, I came here, I got
stuck here. I had a beautiful 5 days
without electricity and generators and
evaporating heat.
So, finally, there was a miracle and
they flew me out to Boston
and I shared that story many times, but
when I landed in Boston as a connection
flight, when I came to board the El Al
flight, I
realized I forgot the passport on the
other plane.
And I'm like not the type of person that
forgets things. I'm very organized, very
on top of things.
And that was a
that was a challenge.
Then I was running backwards and
forwards from gates and you don't even
know what I went through.
And the whole time when I was running
backwards and forwards from one gate to
another to the El Al security to this to
that.
Then there was one guy there was you
know El Al the gate is always at the
end.
So I had to run all the time from gate
to gate. So there was one guy every time
that I was running backwards and
forwards telling me My rib My rib My rib
My rib My rib My rib My rib My rib and
I'm like no no no no
I'll play I'll pray on the plane.
And I'm and I'm running and I'm one
phone I'm talking to the security and
one talking to El Al and I'm like
occupied and I'm like going through a
serious challenge.
And this guy every time I pass is My rib
My rib My rib My rib I can't no I'll
pray on the plane. That's what you know.
And after like an hour of My rib My rib
I'm like
That's what Hashem wants me to do.
He wants me to pray Alvit.
And then I put everything down, put
everything on hold, went and prayed My
rib and the second that I finished
praying Alvit
everything worked out.
So and again going back in the time
machine is this a challenge?
It's a challenge that's hinting to me on
a mitzvah that I need to do.
So Hashem probably did this entire thing
so I will understand
you're not putting enough effort to pray
Alvit. It's a big thing. So I'll stop
the world because of you. I will take
away your passport. It didn't make
sense. I don't lose anything. I don't
have any record of losing things. Hashem
Shalom.
I'm like so like
I'm the one who always carries the
passports, the money. I know I that's my
personality. So this makes sense. I lose
passports. Why would I even put the
passports in the pocket?
And why and why and why and why? That's
your answer. Doesn't make sense. It's a
challenge.
It's a challenge that Hashem wants me to
stop and do okay. Why am I challenged?
Ah. Maybe I don't pray at night in a
minyan.
Ah. Maybe I don't do A, B, and C. So
when I take it to a mitzvah, in this
case was a mitzvah, I got my answer.
Do you think that prior to that I was
making an effort to pray at night in a
minyan?
No.
Because my yetzer hara was telling me
you busy, you going from lecture to
lecture, you helping people, you
dedicate your life to God. You don't
need to pray in a minyan. Pray now on
the road.
So my yetzer hara is a posek.
And he tells me when it's okay, when
it's not okay.
And you know what? Then my yetzer hara
gave me all the excuses. You busy, you
in a rush to go to a lecture, people
waiting for you. Pray after.
So Hashem manipulates a situation for
you to understand something.
And now
you can take these examples and figure
it out.
Whenever there's a challenge in your
life, and by the way, a lot of the
challenges repeat themselves every day,
every day, every day. So here you know
you are here either for a mitzvah or
something that you need with your
refinements. If it's repeating every
day.
You really I can't answer you every
challenge why, but I can tell you that
if you stop and you observe the
challenge, You observe the the details.
You can make a very quick analogy if
it's a wake-up call about mix what I'm
not doing. Is it a warning call for sins
that I'm doing?
Category number one. Same thing with my
refinement. My anger, my being jealous,
being judgmental, patient, etc. You have
to put a lot of emphasis them into that
cuz that's the main refinement that you
are required to do.
You're required to observe the mix what,
but all your characteristics, if you
don't refine yourself, you're missing
the point.
And the cream of the crop, I told you,
are the ones who don't make sense.
And when it doesn't make sense in a way
that you don't understand how it
happened, why it happened,
how to find the solution.
Now, I'm not telling you to give up on
any situation. The whole point of the
challenge is Hashem wants you to use
your brain, get off your tuchus, dig
deep down inside, ask questions, put
options on the table. He wants you to
work a little bit. That's why I don't
appreciate when people run to a rabbi or
some scholar, "Uh rabbi,
work yourself a little bit.
Not you. I mean I
>> [laughter]
>> No, no, cuz I said that and she came
towards me
and looked like I'm telling her, "Works
yourself a little bit."
But
But Hashem says,
"You work. You figure it out."
You know how many times people come to
me with a certain situation and I know
that I'm some who-ha. I read the the
between the lines in a second and a half
and I'm like, "How can you not read it?
You didn't figure it out what Hashem
wants from you."
So, you have to understand that the
majority of the challenges that you go
through is Hashem speaking to you in a
language that you don't understand.
So, the first thing, don't get angry.
Don't get disappointed. Don't get
discouraged. Don't lose your patience.
Understand? Figure right away. Hashem
wants your attention.
If Hashem wouldn't get your attention or
want your attention, you wouldn't have
anything going on in your life. All
these triggers is Hashem making you turn
around.
Instead of getting angry, what do you
want from me? Instead of getting upset,
how can I do what you want?
That's the name of the game.
So, why the challenges? Cuz they help
you grow.
How do you deal with it? I hope I gave
you the minimum of the tools,
but if you simplify the tools that I
gave you, you'll understand. You'll see
that half the difficulties and the
challenges that you have will disappear.
Because you'll understand A to which
direction it's going.
Has to be something. I'm not challenged
for nothing. And I can give you a
million and one different challenges.
I'll give you it again. I'll give you a
challenge that for me, that's a
challenge. Not Not a difficulty, not a
test. I have some bad karma with
traveling.
I don't even know why.
I always miss flights. I always come the
last on flights.
Something always going on with my
luggage. It's It's Doesn't matter what I
do.
It will always happen. I come to the
airport 5 hours in advance. I can tell
you by how things look if I'm missing
the flight or not.
I can tell you by No, no, I'm not
joking. I I This is a I have a record.
And always something happens. Always.
I can't even
It's
tell you how much
anything that has to do with traveling.
There's a challenge here.
Because there's nothing to do with
mitzvot.
So, that I'm I'm missing a flight, oh,
what mitzvah am I doing?
>> [snorts]
>> And it never makes sense.
It never makes sense.
So, here is for example, it might not be
the best example. Here is a challenge,
but it's mixed with some flavored of
Nisayon.
Cuz this is you is a lot you have to be
very patient when these situations. But
why am I saying a challenge?
Because in many of the cases,
I don't even know how it got to this.
So, what do I do again? I reverse
engineer what is the message message is
same as Hashem is telling me. And you
know what? I always find message. I
always find these messages. And I
understand, ah.
I'm not going to share with you every
message that I understand, but I'm
trying to give you the how my mind
works. If you dive into my mind, and you
know what?
It will make you happy.
It will make you calm and relax. It's
not going to make you overwhelmed all
day long. And I told you Tuesday, I deal
all day long with a million and one
things
at at any given time. I juggle many
things at the same time. I have many
different hats that I wear.
But I constantly have a certain thought
process. It took me a lot of years not
to get distracted with that thought
process. But I I don't let the chaos
that is around me
affect me in any way.
So, first of all, all the mess is
staying outside. No nothing goes into to
to here.
I don't care the mess of the entire
world because I know that 90% of the
mess around me,
it's some background noise.
So, it has nothing to do with me.
As this is just These are the little
tests, your anger, your patience.
They're like constantly little
flickering tests.
But hopefully, you're able to dive into
my thought process to understand
that a lot of the challenges in your
life uh can be handled like that.
And the result is A, you you reduce
stress,
you're much more productive, you're much
more What's the word?
I was about to say fulfilled, but a
different word. When you're able to
to go to jump over this challenge
three, four, five times Perseverance.
Persevere?
No, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no. I'm talking about
when you but how you feel when you uh
manage to
accomplish.
Yeah, cuz you put effort. You put
effort. You fail once. One time you make
it. One time you fail. One time you make
it. After a certain amount of effort,
you accomplish and you go to the next
level in the video game.
Yeah, I I did it.
I did it. I picked up the oranges. I
worked hard.
That's what was going stuck in my mind.
I go I worked hard. The hard work reaped
fruit.
I worked hard. Here's the lot of money.
If I would work less hard, I would do
the same job, less money.
I'm already here. Do the job right. And
put If you put extra, you'll get extra.
So, when you understand that a large
amount, 50 to 80% of the difficulties in
your life,
can be easily gone like this and you
move it on,
then suddenly your life is much more
productive, you're much more effective,
you are much more accomplished cuz you
feel how you're going to another level
and another level.
I'm looking now at my all my kids. When
my older kids were young,
then I would lose my temper with them
and my patience very fast.
Now?
>> [snorts]
>> The other day, before I left to America,
I played with my 6-year-old football,
soccer.
And we were playing in the house. It was
very cold outside, rain, so we were in
the house.
You play soccer in the house, eventually
the ball's going to go flying somewhere.
So, sure enough, that's what happened.
My
little boy, he kicks the ball and there
was a cup on the floor. Cup went flying,
everything, the whole wall, the floor,
the couch, everything.
Now,
10 years back,
everybody run to the safe room. I was
about to freak freak [laughter] out.
I wouldn't even have to even do
anything. I would just look and
everybody would run to the rooms.
Take a deep breath, I'm about to make a
hole in the wall.
So, and now my kid like kicked and it
was all over the place and there was no
reaction. I was like, "Okay, okay,
nothing happened." And then
So, my young kid was like looking at me
like this, like, "Let's see if he's
going to freak out."
The older ones were like, "Huh, when we
were young, that wouldn't happen."
And I'm like, "Yeah, well, look how much
white hairs I have now. Every white hair
is every time you annoyed me and now I
learned not to be annoyed."
So, when I see that, you know what a
sense of accomplishment you get?
That like, "Wow,
20 years ago, I would turn the table
upside down now from anger.
Now, it's like, "Nothing happened. Go to
sleep.
I mean, it's fine. I mean, it's just
clean the mess.
So, for myself, when I see
that I'm actually changing from my own
understanding,
so the accomplishment, the the you you
feel like I'm growing, I'm changing. I'm
not the same person. Once this triggered
my anger, now it doesn't.
When I came first to back to Israel
after I became observant, I didn't see
my family like 13 years.
So, and unfortunately, I went to bad
news. My brother-in-law died. So, I went
to the funeral and I went to and I
stayed with my sister.
And she saw me different. And she told
me, "Wow, you're so different since you
became religious." I said, "I'm not
different. This is the 2.0 version of
Alon. This is the better version."
You just need to understand that Hashem
wants not the 2.0, the 6.0. Hashem wants
a better version of you.
He tells you, "This is who you are right
now. You belong here."
You have much more abilities than you
think. You are much more talented than
you think. You are using maybe 5% of
your abilities.
You're not even using your talent.
You're not even using half of the power
that I gave you to fulfill your purpose.
You're really a couch potato. You're
wasting your time.
That's what Hashem would tell you
straight out to your face. "What are you
doing?"
It's almost like a father coming to his
child and telling him, "Here's a million
dollars.
Go and invest it."
And the child's like,
"I'm busy with this Netflix series."
"I'm giving you a million dollars.
Invest it."
So, Hashem is telling you, "I brought
you to this world. What are you doing?
Why are you Why are you passing your
time like that?"
So, if everything good is good, you're
numb.
If things don't work out your way and
you don't have the desire, then you lose
your
your desire to do anything.
So, somebody needs to wake you up.
So, Hashem wakes you up, slapping you to
the face every day. 15 different slaps.
Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake
up. Wake up.
If you're a fool, if you're driven by
your ego and your honor, then you don't
see the message, you see the the wake-up
call.
If you have a little bit of sense,
hopefully today I was able to introduce
to you to some
thought process
that when things happen, don't be
affected by the chaos. Step aside for 1
second, 2 seconds, 3 minutes. You don't
have to react. You don't have to come
with the solution right away.
I've learned through all my life that a
quick reaction is the wrong reaction.
First
think very well
and then react.
And I can tell you that this 3-second
pause saved me in the last 20 years from
a lot of problems. And you know how many
times something happens, I pause, I
don't react
because I don't know if it's a test.
I don't know if it's a challenge. I
don't know if I did a sin or I'm doing
something wrong. I don't know yet.
Let me see how it rolls out. Let me see
what's the next few things, and I'm
waiting curiously. What's going to
happen?
I don't want to miss the opportunity
because my time is running out.
So,
some here are very smart and they're
taking a lot of notes. If not, watch the
I I
I agree and I don't agree. I spoke for 2
hours now. It's hard to have it all
here. No, no, I'm just saying it's good
to write notes or review the video.
I agree with you when you said it's
here. You accepted everything that I
said. Everything made sense.
Everything sounded easy to to apply, and
I think it was pretty good.
But don't forget that your friend
Amalek, when you go out of this door, he
cools you down right away. And tomorrow
you're already 50% of what's in your
mind was reduced.
I always ask if you want to be uh
productive
Excuse me.
You want to be productive? Then before
you even leave this room, you already
have to have yourself some type of a
plan.
Like I told you yesterday, because why?
There is a force, it's called the
Amalek. Amalek is here to cool you down.
He's waiting outside to cool down all
the excitement. And some of the ways how
he cools the excitement is makes you
forget
parts of the of the talk. So, you don't
have it you'll be like, "Wait wait a
minute. The the challenge?
It didn't make sense. Was that a test?
Was that You know what I mean?"
The Amalek, he cools you down, he makes
you forget, so you remember the the
topic.
Now, the fact is if you don't apply
anything, you go back to square one.
And you your life didn't change. If you
take that knowledge and you saying,
"Okay, let me practically apply that."
And the next time something happens, by
the way, you'll fail the next 20 times,
but one time you'll get it.
But you have to apply it right away. A
mechanism
I take it very serious. I don't let my
mind wander. I'm constantly controlling
my thoughts and my mind. Not so easy,
but why? Because I understand that every
frame is an opportunity.
Which means that right now I have a a
certain scene that I'm dealing with,
that's my opportunity. And if Hashem
already gave me 10 that I'm juggling in
the same day, obviously he thinks I can
juggle that cuz that's how my life is.
But instead of getting angry, I I just
do what I told you for 2 hours. I step
aside, I analyze the information.
If I don't get any answer or clear
answer, I the pause stays.
I don't get angry. I don't get upset. I
I let it I don't let it feed feed. If
you notice when it comes to anger, it
feeds up. You start this much angry
angry and then it goes and then it goes
and then you said tell told her and told
him AND HE SAYS, "WHAT?" NOW YOUR ANGER
WENT HERE.
Now he agrees with me. The what was like
So the anger
Ooh, from this it became this.
That's stupidity.
Well,
leave it there.
I'll deal with it in a few seconds when
I made my calculations and my thought
what's going on here.
Now why would you want to apply that?
Because I can tell you that most people
they I see by people how they coming and
ask me questions.
They they don't even take most people
don't take that to consideration that
that's a big part of their life.
That Hashem is looking at you all day
long
and testing you.
And when you if you actually ever read
the morning prayers is good as her the
right way, then look what you asking
from the master of the universe cuz
that's when you open your day.
I told you already, don't open your day
with your smartphone.
Don't go to your smartphone right now
right away. Don't wake up with a with a
smartphone.
Where wake up with an alarm clock. The
first hour of the day no smartphone.
If you want to be happy, healthy,
successful, reach your goals and much
more,
first hour of the day no phone, last
hour of the day no phone. Rest of the
day deal with it.
You start the day with Hashem and you
finish the day with Hashem and
definitely not with a phone. Doesn't
give you anything. The phone is a tool
to help you if you have it's business or
whatever. You don't need to check emails
or Instagram at 2:00 in the morning.
Waste of time. You're just wasting your
time.
So I understand that when you wake up in
the morning, Hashem already has a whole
list of challenges for you. That's
that's yeah that's your job.
What are you going to be the challenges
today? What are you going to be the
tests?
Constantly.
So again, when you are familiar with the
concept, then you you become
professional. You deal with this, you
deal with this, find solution for this,
you don't get upset here, you happy
here. That's okay. Thank you, Hashem. T
t t.
But, when you're not, it becomes
overwhelming.
It becomes overwhelming, and the problem
is that when you don't get the point,
then the challenge becomes stronger,
stronger, stronger. It's like Hashem
saying, "Hello.
Hello. Hello."
Hashem doesn't get your attention, the
knocks become stronger.
You don't get the message, the knocks
will become stronger and stronger till
you get it. And there's nothing wrong
with you saying, "Hashem, I don't know
what you want from me."
Explain to me.
It doesn't work, by the way.
Hashem says, "Do something, and you'll
get it." And when I need a divine
message, I do something I make a change.
I repent, I look inside myself, what do
I need to change, where was I wrong, how
can I become a better individual, here I
need to be a little bit better.
And then the answer comes.
So, next time you are uh uh
facing a challenge,
stop. Sof ma'aseh bemachshavah techilah.
It's the verse we read in the Lechah
Dodi psalm on when we read on Yom Shishi
on on Friday.
Sof ma'aseh bemachshavah techilah, the
easy translation is think before you
act.
Because the the action that you did
started with a thought.
And you don't want to come and say, "Ah,
I wish I would have done that. If I
would have done this, it would have gone
like that."
So, think very well before you want to
do something, cuz in most situations in
your life, you don't have a second
chance.
That's in most situations in your life.
You can in a 1 second, 1 moment of
anger, you do a certain sin that you
can't reverse, ever.
So,
don't try to find sense find try to find
sense.
Hashem there's nothing sense making
sense with Hashem.
Hashem wants you to grow, end of story.
And he will put steps in front of you
that you can grow through them.
You are humble, you see that them that
there's steps and you grow on them.
You're less humble,
arrogant, you let your kavod affect you,
you don't see them as steps.
And they become aggravating, annoying,
challenging, you you can't take it
anymore, it's too much. The reality,
a lot of people turn to me with
questions and and and
most of the time
I I I don't tell it to the person, but
most of the time I tell myself in my
heart, you needed me for that?
You can figure that out by yourself?
I know I'm not going to say why did you
waste my time cuz it's not a waste of
time, but you you I look at a person and
I feel like that you couldn't figure
that by yourself. You had to come to me?
What I'm the wizard?
You you came with a question, I'm the
wizard and I figured it out for you? How
come I see it
and you didn't?
And the way I understand why you didn't
see it cuz you only looking at yourself.
I'm looking from the outside.
And Adam who any gay at small.
A person cannot see the inflictions that
are on him.
The other day my son told me you have a
stain on your back and I'm like, "Okay."
He's like, "What, you don't see it?" And
I'm like,
"No. I can't see it.
How can I see it? It's on my back."
So, he's a smart tuchus, so he told me,
"Then take the shirt off, you'll see
it."
>> [laughter]
>> And I was like, "Oh,
take your shirt off.
Take your
Yeah, yeah, get get your take your honor
off a little bit. You'll see the stains
that you have on you.
But the fact is I don't see the stains
on me. I need you to tell me.
And most people when they tell me the
stains they see it comes in an insulting
way cuz people are not respectful.
They just come and tell you
the bad.
But nevertheless when people don't tell
you all in many of the cases people do
tell you but you're too arrogant to
accept it then the shame tells you.
And you don't understand the shame's
language so he tells you that in a way
that he requires you to grow out of your
own misery to grow out of your own
confusion not to say it's too hard. It's
too confusing. I I I don't have a
solution. Why is it super it's
Step outside for one second. Look at the
look at the challenge. You know that
50 to 80% of my challenges I don't even
deal with them. I just
stay aside and I'm trying to find the
message and then I just don't deal with
the challenge.
That's how I mark it as a challenge
because it's not a mitzvah. It's not a
sin. It's it's
nothing makes sense and then eventually
it
figures out by itself.
So
to conclude
challenges are good. Hashem is giving us
steps in our life that we can climb on.
When the attitude is positive towards
the challenge then the ease of dealing
with it becomes much much easier because
you don't look at it as an enemy rather
you're looking at it as an opportunity.
You're not looking at the challenge as
something that is you can't take
anymore. You wish it would be over. You
wish it you would get rid of it rather
you're saying okay, I have an
opportunity to grow right now. If I do
whatever is required I will gain a
spiritual growth.
Now, you might not recognize a spiritual
growth maybe because you don't have a
lot of them.
And you only remember one a year ago.
Oh, that Rabbi came to town and there
was a Shabbaton. It was inspiring and
since then I do kiddush on Shabbat.
Right? You have something. So, you had
one spiritual growth from one event and
you remember it so clearly because it's
one that happened one a year once a
year.
But really you can have five times a day
spiritual growths.
Where and the definition by the way of a
spiritual growth that I achieved a
certain action that didn't require
necessarily something physical. It
required a lot of work, a lot of effort
and the result was that I was able to
overcome the difficulty.
Then I reached a higher level.
Yeah.
And of course that cannot be done in one
shot. It has to be done in small
increments.
So, really
the next time something happens in your
life, don't be in a rush to be angry,
disappointed.
Don't don't just be passive and wait to
see what Hashem is telling you and
you'll be surprised how much information
Hashem is going to give you.
And at the end of the day
your life becomes much more easier, much
more organized, much more calm. There's
some type of a seder and there's also
the excitement. Okay, what's the next
hint? Where do I need to go next?
I need to go to the next level. I don't
know where I'm going next. You think
somebody's leading me? You think
somebody's telling me what to do? Hashem
is leading me.
And he surprises me. I wake up with all
these ideas. You think I invent these
ideas?
Hashem comes up with all these ideas and
he's like, "Okay, do this."
Oh.
So, you you have to understand how
Hashem works with you.
If you are a parent, see how you work
with your kids. I look at my kids. I
mean, I I take my kids
upbringing very seriously,
but it teaches me a lot. It teaches me
my relationship with Hashem. How I deal
with the kids, it teaches me how what
Hashem deals with me.
So, I start understanding
how I deal with my kids, what Hashem is
doing to me. And he's doing the same
thing with you. And the bottom line is
Hashem only wants you to grow, to to
benefit you.
Hashem wants you to be able to be
independent, spread your wings, be your
own person, so you can look at Hashem
and say, "I did good."
I did good.
So, don't disappoint Hashem. Don't
disappoint yourself. You have so much
more to achieve. You have so much powers
to actually do it.
Hashem is giving you so much
opportunities. Ignore the background
noise of your life of running after
money and the mortgage and the rent and
the and the nonsense and the bank is
going and this These are all background
noises. Half of it is just tests. Your
reactions.
You understand the name of the game and
you're going the right track, you see
suddenly life becomes a little bit
different,
easier, more fulfilling, you more
achievements,
you eat better, you sleep better, you
much better mood, you don't get angry at
every little thing. I used to get angry
from every little thing and be angry for
hours.
Couldn't let go.
Till I understand. Not you. Not you. Not
No, there's not one person in this world
that is worth me being angry.
That person is not born yet.
And he will never be born because nobody
should get me angry. Why should I get
you angry?
If I get you angry, something's wrong
with you, not with me.
That I'm talking about anger for
something that is common denominator
with all of us.
But it got a
fair share of of disappointment
and being judgemental and many other
qualities.
So just remember when you go out the
door, I'm going to like your friend is
going to is not your friend, but he's
going to cool you down. So prepare for
half the excitement to leave.
If you don't practice it right away,
then it won't work. You lose the points
that you need to apply. And the faster
you apply it and the more you apply it,
you'll become better at it.
The first it's not going to be so easy.
First few times you'll be like, "I'm
getting anything here."
And you're going to call me, "I want my
money back." Yeah, but you didn't pay
anything.
"Okay, I still want my money back."
First few times it might not work.
Cuz then the yetzer hara is going to try
to confuse you, but you have to be very
precise. It's very
Practically, [clears throat] it's pretty
simple.
It's simple math and common sense.
And the point here is don't don't you
are not the factor here.
You have to see yourself as one of the
figures of the of the picture.
Not as the main
character. You are not the main
character.
In half the situations in your life, you
are not the main character.
>> [snorts]
>> I've been not too long ago to a to an
event.
The birthday was for the child and the
mother made it all It's all It was all
about the mother.
And at some point I told her cuz it's a
relative, so I don't mind being
chutzpah. I told her, "It's not your
birthday.
It's his birthday.
Back off. What a mother."
So
in many of your situations, it's not
about you.
When you realize that, 50% of your
problems disappear.
When you realize
this situation is not about me.
I'm just the I'm now the background
noise.
I wish you great success because this
challenge is not a simple one. You need
a lot of sad to this Maya. You need a
lot of help from above.
You need to have a sham on your side.
Then you need to put a lot of effort. It
this everything we talked about tonight
it can only work with effort. It cannot
work if you're lazy. If you're lazy, it
won't work. You're back to square one.
You need to
move yourself out of your comfort zone.
I shall will break it to you because
he's going to bring you challenges every
second. You just need to say one time in
your life
this challenge I'm I'm going to I'm
going to deal with this challenge. Let's
see how how I'm going to work with it.
And I guarantee it to you. Follow the
steps I told you, you'll see the
challenge is now suddenly makes sense.
Things help themselves. Things fix
themselves.
You're getting the information that you
want. And you like I told you, don't be
disappointed if the first 10 times it
doesn't work. You're going to get a
once after a lot of effort. Then you
pick them seed and you pick them seed I
got I understood. You know those
pictures that you look at them for 2
hours and you're supposed to see a space
shadow and you don't see nothing.
You ever saw anything in these pictures?
I didn't see nothing in these pictures.
So that's exactly like what I'm telling
you. You can sometimes look at something
you don't see it.
I never saw anything in these pictures.
Not the space shadow, not the nothing.
I'm always the one that's like
>> [snorts]
>> So I shall I shall is showing you in
this world you're looking at a picture
that you don't you don't know what
you're seeing.
That's how I see it.
But the more you practice it like any
muscle, you'll get better, things will
get easier.
And the most important thing you're
fulfilling your purpose what I shall
wants you in this world. Hashem is just
leading you to your purpose, leading you
on your path.
So, I hope I was able to give you some
important tools, and I wish for you to
have great success,
and that this
new path you're going to walk on Hashem
will allow you to master it so you can
reach to a point that you control the
rules of the game.
And at the end of the game, you find
your own true treasure, and you win your
own journey.
Hashem, I wish you all to reach to the
journey of finding your treasure in the
most easiest way. Enjoy the game. You
only live once. Well, you live a few
times, but enjoy the game.
You know what? When you put a smile on
your on your face,
Let me just tell you one thing, and then
I'll let you go.
You can go on a horrible vacation,
nothing worked out, everything but you
always remember that the
you remember the good things.
When you're looking back 20 years of
your life, 30 years of your life, you
don't remember necessarily the little
the challenges. You remember the big
events.
And you mainly remember the good things.
You come back from a
vacation, the food that was disgusting,
the beds was everything was
oh, it was so much fun. What was fun? We
were complaining the whole two weeks.
But that's how life is. We're focusing
on the small details, and we complain,
and we whine, and this is not good, and
that is not good. Looking at it in one
big picture,
all you're going to remember is the good
things, the good times. So, make the
good the times as good as possible, as
much as possible.
You change your attitude, suddenly
everything changes in your life.
And you see that really Hashem doesn't
go against you, the world doesn't hate
you, nothing is it's not that you're
doing something wrong, my karma, my
People people to me with all sorts of
nonsense. No, she just wants your
attention.
He just wants your attention. He just
wants to be a mensch and he wants you to
take responsibility and he wants you to
work a little bit hard to read the signs
and do some effort to become a better
person.
That's it.
So with other sham I wish for you
success and I wish for you to find your
treasure very easy.
And it should be clear to you and you
should walk on a path of your
tikun of your rectification successfully
and I'll take the opportunity to wish
you
much
happiness in this process.
And you
should take the opportunity next week is
a very powerful time Rosh Chodesh Adar
at the time for really apply all these
things. So that's when you're getting a
lot of siyata dishmaya help from above.
Thank you so much. I want to say a very
very very special thanks to Julie for
all the hard hard hard work. You don't
even know.
>> [applause]
>> With Julie it's it's challenges, tests,
it's everything.
So see that's a perfect example that
something good doesn't come easy.
The the the if you would know what takes
to make a an event. So Hashem should
bless you and your husband with
everything that you need, success,
happiness, health, masa, guidance.
Reward you for all your good work. You
should all take example how one takes
matters into their hands just to spread
some words. So we're going to also thank
Moshe
and
where's your wife?
Elanit, thank you for
>> [applause and cheering]
>> opening your home.
And can I say what you told her and the
message?
Yes, no?
So, when
when we were corresponding going
backwards and forwards, I don't remember
the message exactly,
but
you said something along the line that
your house should be a place where Torah
comes in, scholars are invited, rabbis
are invited to bring the Torah into your
house.
So, I can only congratulate you both
for doing such a thing. You bring the
Shekinah into the house. That's a pretty
rare thing.
So, Hashem should bless you both to have
success in everything that you do.
Should have amazing shalom bayit,
amazing love between you. Should raise
your kids with Torah, chuppah, u'maasim
tovim. Should have great wealth,
happiness, health, success in everything
that you do. You should take it
example to open your home, bring Torah
into your house.
And I thank you for the opportunity, for
the invitation. Thank you all for
coming.
I'm leaving Florida tonight, so thank
you for coming to all the lectures.
Thank you. Now, next time I'm going from
the beautiful weather to disgusting
minus seven New York.
So, usually usually Florida is last, but
somehow
uh It's a test. It's a test. That's not
a test. That's like
uh
>> [laughter]
>> That's beyond a test and a challenge.
It's New York.
That's a different category.
>> [applause]
>> Have a wonderful Shabbat. Thank you all
for coming.
And
uh pleasure.
Thank you. And if you have friends,
families, people you know, we have a
full schedule in New York. You can send
them to my website to see. And please
share the videos. Don't forget to
subscribe and join our channels and I
thank you for your presence and your
support and have a wonderful, wonderful
evening.
How are you?
I remember.
Here.
And is it there this week?
After poor?
I never met him, but I know of him.
Amazing. Should happen in the right time
in the right way.
What a good thing. Persistence.
Baruch Hashem. Welcome home.
It should be from you opening your own
just new opportunities.
Baruch Hashem.
Baruch Hashem. You should learn from
that. I mean, I'm sure you don't need to
learn. You did it, but that's just to
show you when you're persistent with
something that it happens.
Hashem. Very exciting.
Very, very exciting. I can give you one
tip that I tell all my students who are
converting.
That say you got to be very careful when
reading that when you go out of the
mikveh
the yetzer hara is the one who gives you
the towel.
And he tells you wipe yourself up
and then right away he slaps you and
tells you welcome. Now start working.
So a lot of a lot of people it comes
instant. You go out of the mikveh, you
think that's it. I'm getting now all
these
and a second later, the yetzer hara
comes and
puts us
So, just know, because he gives you I I
joke that he gives you the towel to get
dry. He tells you now you're dry, now
you're Jewish, now I'm going to start
hitting you.
So, come with the right attitude
that it's
right away the battle starts.
You should be proud of yourself and I'm
sure Hashem is proud of you and
Hashem I will come to
very soon.
After you you finish that.
Hashem beautiful progress.
Amazing.
You should be very happy and proud and
kol hakavod. Kol hakavod. It should go
smooth and successful.
Thanks for coming. I remember you from
last time. I was here in December.
In August, August, September.
Hashem I'm actually will come back here
again in about a month. I don't know if
right before Pesach or right after
Pesach. Then you can definitely come and
Hashem good luck. Thank you for coming.
I remember you remember me from last
time?
When you were here in Val Harbor.
The class was I think it was right
before
>> Val Harbor that's a
That's
yeah, yeah.
So, I just wanted to say thanks cuz I
was very very inspired.
I've been watching you for 10 years. I'm
going to show you something on the phone
in a second.
But, I just want to say thank God
for all your classes
because almost every night before I go
to sleep I watch
and I say, "Wow, this class is 2 hours.
This class is 3 hours. I'm going to
watch 15-20 minutes and go to sleep." I
end up watching
almost the whole thing, you know?
So, I just wanted to say thank you. It's
very, very inspiring. I don't I don't
get inspired by by a lot of rabbies.
But, uh I
you know, I really connected with you.
So, thank you very Wait, what do you
want to show me on the phone? My My kid
give me the
Okay. No, what's that? Yeah, yeah.
That's the picture of you.
Husband?
I need a memory.
I watch you all the time.
I know your whole
life.
>> [laughter]
>> Show Show me the WhatsApp picture I sent
it and sent it to you.
That was
Dallas, 2016.
And over here, right here in
I don't know which school, and I was
going to a synagogue here. That's in
That was in
Right house, something? I think so.
Yeah, yeah.
That's in
August? 11 years ago, right?
I think so.
Yes, yeah. Could be 11 years ago. That
was
there. This lecture, I think it was
August 11 years ago.
Wow, wow, wow.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
Now I have a before and after.
Now you'll have that with all the white
hair.
Exactly.
Yeah, just just today I was talking with
my kids, and I My daughter asked
something, and I was like, "I'm getting
old." And she was like, "No, don't get
old." I'm like,
Anyway, thank you so much. I hope to see
you
again. Thank you.
What's your name?
Here, the kids are outside. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. It's all you can buy it online and
then we ship it.
Thank you so much. How about some other
Good boy.
for you and him.
So,
Pretty cool. We just started.
Uh we build a
that uh
AI but sometimes with a software
you put in like a bunch of information
that the
program requires.
And then what it does, it starts
matching
from
your questions from the whatever it
finds in the database. So, it spits out
a
a potential matches
you can see what what matches.
And once you see once there's a
potential match then it alerts the
system and then it brings up and
compares both profiles. And that's the
you know, the result uh you put a
profile and somebody sees it. Yeah,
yeah.
The point is we should build a big
database that there's going to be so
much people
that they your machine will be
in Thailand Yeah. or in South Africa or
whatever and you have no chance
and you wouldn't even think of that.
Then the system will say, "Okay, the by
the answers
we have a 87% match."
So, then you need a human to be like,
"Okay, why was it a match? This is
this." It's up and running and running
and it's Well, now it's in the stage of
building the database. It's running but
the database is still small.
So, but the chances are there are a
Yeah, yeah.
Many helping kids.
>> [clears throat]
>> Oh, I forgot the guys online. We're not
done with you guys. Yeah, how are you
Sure.
I want a picture.
>> [laughter]
>> Sure.
Thank you.
Yeah, yeah. Let me throw it over there.
Okay.