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Rabbi YY Jacobson - How to Discover Your Spark
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Rabbi YY Jacobson - How to Discover Your Spark - The process of change Rabbi Jacobsons Keynote address at the YEHUDI Day of Inspiration & Million Dollar Campaign. Oct 9, 2016 - Hyatt Regency, Miami www.YEHUDI.Today
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
[Music]
thank you
wow when I was born they said why
why and all my life I'm trying to answer
that
question not successful
yet okay if I could just ask of you
kindly to put your cell phones on
vibrate I will do the same
thing thank
you
so there was this uh
Jew who was a very uh they used to call
them Maya extremely particular about his
preferences in
life and he had a flight with Swiss
ear he phones up 6 months before the
flight to make sure that he gets the
seat 38
C because he must sit in an aisle
seat they guarantee him
38c a month later he phones again to
confirm it and they confirm it and so
each month he phones again and they
confirm you have your aisle seat 38
seat and a month before the flight he
calls again yes see Isle a week before a
day
before finally he comes to the airport 6
hours before his
flight Noah a signed seating yet when he
gets his boarding pass he gets onto the
plane to his horror
he sees that he got
38b he's sitting by a window he was not
given his aisle
seat outraged is not the
word he
lands his wife calls him she says Jack
how was the flight he says you call that
a
flight 6 months I call them that I want
an aisle seat 5 months 4 months 3 months
2 months one month they lied I'm going
to sue them I will close down this
Earline his wife says my dear husband
darling if it's so important for you to
have an a seat why didn't you just ask
the person near you to switch seats with
you he says ask there was nobody
there you see some
people are
stuck and when you're stuck you're just
stuck
suck no you just got it
okay that's fine that's fine no
worries I still didn't get
it now today we just we discuss as the
title that was given how to discover
your spark the process of
change you know yum Kipper is coming yum
Kipper there was a very interesting
prayer that the high priest PR used to
make and it always baffled me it
surprised me it was once a year the
holiest day in the Jewish year that the
high priest the holiest Jew would go
into the holiest space so you had the
convergence of three of the
holiest Dynamics in the Jewish World the
holiest space the holiest man and the
holiest time and they came together the
kohen Gad the high priest entered into
the holy of holies of the Holy Temple in
Jerusalem
on this day of yum Kipper he was not
there for
long oh excuse me
sorry he was not there for long but when
he comes
out he would utter a small short prayer
and we recite this entire prayer very
brief every single y Kipper when we
review the experience of the high priest
in the holy of holies and coming out we
go through the prayer what did he say
right when he comes out on yum Kipper
from this holiest space you would expect
him to speak about things that relate to
the entire people their fate their
Destiny and that's indeed what he does
number one he asks that there should be
enough rain remember Israel the Middle
East it's semi arid you need rain it's
very difficult to have produce Without
Rain and that would mean starvation
famine he asks that the nation should
have enough livelihood to support itself
got it he
asks that the enemies should not be able
to destroy the people he asks that the
people should not lose their sovereignty
their independence they should be able
to continue to live in their country and
their
Homeland but then he asks for one more
thing this should be a
year no woman should have a miscarriage
this year no
miscarriage now it's a wonderful prayer
it's a great thing to ask
for but I wondered why doesn't he ask
that somebody who is infertile should be
able to have children that nobody people
shouldn't get sick people shouldn't die
prematurely from all the individual
requests for People's Health for
people's lives he discusses only one
issue no stillborn babies no
misscarriage in the
womb he doesn't even ask for healthy
births for healthy children which are
all critical and vital blessings but he
doesn't get into the details of what
every person needs he discusses what the
nation needs as a whole but this he
discusses no miscarriage why this right
when they came out of the holy of
holies
friends there is something else that
always perturbed me
most of us or all of us this yum Kipper
night Tuesday night will go to a sh a
synagogue a
temple and everybody knows that the
holiest prayer in Judaism is
considered which is the opening prayer
of yum Kipper services in every Jewish
Community the world
over from Brazil to Sydney from Miami to
New York from Honolulu to Peru from
Moscow to Tel
Aviv every Jewish starts off with kidre
and the song The Melody is heart
stirring in fact it's a Melody that
triggers deep Jewish emotions I once
read that kazen Yos rosenblat the famous
caner Yos rosenblat he was offered and
he was a poor man in the
1920s close to
$50,000 which was an astronomical sum of
money to perform the col nidre in
Vienna which was the center of
international Opera and yosa rosenblat
refused he felt it would be profane to
perform kidre outside of yum Kipper in a
public concerto setting
okay I don't think a lot of Jewish
singers do it today but this was y Ro he
was a unique person very great caner and
a God-fearing
Jew
so this the melody is
stirring
but the words are in
Aramaic I want you this year to take a
look in the English prayer book The
English
mager and see the English translation of
kidre and
here one must be
perplexed why these
words evoke invite such a Melody do you
know K nidri is not even a prayer it's
not a Quest it's not a song it's not a
poem you know what it is it's a legal
declaration a legal verbal declaration
about absolving
vows basically what we say in kidre is
this all the promises all the pledges
all the Oaths all the
commitments that I'm going to make from
this Yer till next J Kipper I hereby
aull why because Judaism holds language
to be sacred words to have deep value
commit commitments have profound
significance if I say I swear this year
I'm not going to eat
cheesecake but then I come to a yudi
conference and there's a delicious piece
of cheesecake and as we heard before
it's going to be on the rooftop also so
I can eat the cheesecake and also have a
view I can't resist it if I now go and
take the cheesecake I violated my vow so
on yipper when most Jews are in sh we
publicly declare that whatever we commit
to next year is
worthless don't take it seriously which
is why Jews always say I'll do it ble NE
I'm not
promising which often means of course I
won't do
it I'm just not so comfortable to tell
you no so I just say I'm not pro ising
but really that's what we do in kidra in
kidre we say don't take my commitments
that seriously I'm committing but it
doesn't have any Authority it's not
called a nether it's not called a
promise and that way even if I don't
fulfill it throughout the year I didn't
violate any sin because already
retroactively it's
null okay maybe a good idea but is that
that
inspiring is this so meaningful is this
spiritual in any
way and yet this Melody is so heart
stirring so the great thing is that most
Jews don't know Aramaic they don't know
what they're saying and it sounds cute
and the melody is certainly moving so it
works but if you would match the lyrics
to The Melody and you understand the
lyrics oh my
God I'll give you an
example the last line we
say who knows what that means
nobody but now I'm going to do it for
you in English with the melody and you
tell me does this make sense to you my
promises are no
promises
I and my pledges are
no
wedges
cresendo and my
Oaths are no
o
wow wow my Oaths are no
Oaths and we go through the whole kid
saying this in different ways different
forms
here
again my my Oaths are absolved and
they're not and they're meaningless and
they're
nothing all my prises mean
nothing something very
strange so some associated
with times of the Spanish Inquisition in
the 15th and 14th century when many Jews
converted to Christianity superficially
and they were called by the Spaniards
they were called moros which really
means pigs they called these Jews pigs
because they felt their conversion was
not genuine and it was not genuine they
only converted out of coercion and yum
Kipper was once a year they came to pray
privately secretly because it was
Yer so the prayer of nid assumed deep
significance because they were basically
saying that the vow that they made to
the
church was anold The Vow that they would
make to the church was absolved that's
what some say historically created the
emotion associated with
kidre but the truth is the tradition of
kidre at the opening of yimi goes back
centuries before the Spanish Inquisition
ultimately the Spanish
expulsion so I'm going to share another
Insight with you another perspective
that really touches the core of our
discussion of the process of change how
to discover how to discover your
spark you know Rashia Shana after the
blowing of the shauer there are
beautiful words that I said every
R what does har or mean so the English
will tell you today is the birthday of
the world today is the birthday of the
world because rash celebrates the
anniversary of creation got it but it's
a very strange choice of words because
the words harat originate in
Jeremiah in the book of Yia the Prophet
Jeremiah but there the connotation is
the exact opposite Jeremiah lived a very
difficult
life and he cursed the day that he was
born and he says in his in his book in
Jeremiah he says I wish I would have
been still
born I wish I would have remained
eternally pregnant in other words I
would have died in the womb of my mother
and never seeing the light of day that's
what he says and the expression he uses
uses is I wish I would have been
harat I would have been eternally
pregnant you see harat means pregnant
means eternally I wish I would have
remained eternally pregnant in my
mother's womb in other words a stillborn
baby the sages took those words and they
put it into the rash
litery harat became from pregnant it
became to mean birth and instead of
Eternal means the world so we say today
is the birthday of the world really har
means forever pregnant not the birthday
of the world a very interesting Twist on
Words pregnant became birth and forever
became world today is the birthday of
the world but the truth is that in this
very strange change they were trying to
convey the exact message message of the
Jewish New Year and that is that
everybody makes a choice in the
beginning of the year when it comes when
it comes R this time of the year and the
choice is this will I remain forever
pregnant in the womb of my mom or will I
have the courage to finally be
born now that sounds like a strange
question nobody here seems to choose the
form what do I mean I'll remain pregnant
in the womb of my mother I have been
born for good or for bad true mothers on
some level think that their children are
still in them it's very hard for mothers
to really really feel that your
50-year-old baby has been born because
he's still a baby especially if he's a
man he also acts
it so uh it's hard for mothers to really
you know cut the emical cord
psychologically
I mean you do know that uh there was
this little boy and her Mo his mother
sent him to preschool on the first day
four years old and she looks at and says
my angel my Malik my sweetheart my
deliciousness my beauty my my Z my peace
of Heaven you're going to go on the bus
today but mommy is going to be here
right when you come back to hug you and
kiss you my angel my heaven my
sweetheart my Paradise my love my love
mwah mwah mwah and she sends him off to
school the first day he comes home and
she gives him a kiss and she says my
angel how was school what did you learn
he says for starters I learned that I
have a name it's
David it's hard it's hard for people
okay we get
it it was the other day was it was
rashash in the morning rash in the
morning Monday morning the mother walks
into her son's bedroom she says
Samuel SCH it's 9:00 in the morning you
got to go to SCH you got to go to SCH he
says no I'm not
going say I'm not going why should I go
why should I go I'm not
going she says why don't you want to go
to SCH he says everybody hates me in SCH
everybody the congregants the board of
directors the president the gab
everybody hates me why should I go to sh
and she says two reasons number one
you're 49 number two you're the
rabbi so you
see what's the real question what's the
question am I going to remain pregnant
or am I going to be
born but we all I think understand what
that means every person sitting here in
this
room every person is pregnant with
potential with dreams
with
aspirations we're full of
possibility especially as we're young
and we begin to explore life and
youngsters are
dreamers and we're pregnant with all
this possib possible Vitality in life
and
future but the question a person has to
answer is will my dreams remain
eternally pregnant in me will I
essentially experience a miscarriage
psychologically speaking of my
aspirations of my possibilities or will
I have the courage to finally be
born they say there was a baby camel I
listen sometimes to animal speak CU they
they're very
intelligent people it's a little harder
to listen to but animals always have
what to say and it's usually practical
productive because they're just I don't
know their genes just tell them to do
three things to do things that are good
for them to live and to propagate and to
help their environment they're not so
complicated like us like for example I
never saw sheep say you know I would
love the black and white but I have a
wedding next week or a horse say you
know I would take the lollipop with the
ice cream but I really have to look good
next week somehow they're fine with
grass okay we have other
issues so I'm overhearing this
conversation okay between camels at
least in my perception of course I don't
really understand animal language I
barely understand my own but uh I was I
was watching the two the two camels this
baby camel turns to Mommy says
Mommy I want to ask you three questions
sure why is this
camel why are we different than all
other animals mommy says what do you
mean we're very proud we're great
animals we're camels she says mommy the
three-toed ugly legs why oh daughter
come on let me explain to you about your
greatness we're not regular animals we
are capable of marching ing thousands of
miles so we need strong sturdy feet to
support those Journeys ah why these
grotesque
eyelashes ah we March thousands of miles
through the Sahara Desert they
sandstorms who knows what comes our way
between Matthews and sandstorms we could
get blind so we have these eyelashes to
protect our eyes ah Mommy and why these
horrible humps why can't we just have a
little smoother nicer backs why these
big humps ah my daughter when you march
thousands of miles through deserts
there's no water we can go weak
throughout without water but we need a
place to store the water we drink before
and we have these humps where we store
all these large quantities of water so
we can live weeks without
water M wow one more question I get it
we have three towed legs even though
they're ugly to March thousands of
miles big ugly eyelashes to protect us
from sandstorms as we March thousands of
miles humps to be able to store water as
we March thousands of miles so one more
question if this is so what in the world
are we doing in a cage in the
zoo this is the question of
haras if you're capable of so
much why are you allowing these dreams
to remain eternally pregnant in your
brain and not bringing them to fruition
one of the great rabbis of the previous
generation was the rabbi of the city of
valan in bellarus he was also the head
of the famous famed Yeshiva of valan
valan is a city in Belarus
Thea he's known as the which is an
acronym for yud Berlin rabud Berlin he
he was a prolif
author great great scholar and a
tremendous teacher he raised generations
of students and that's how he's known is
acronym Berlin he passed away in the
1890s
1893 he once completed one of his works
and they made a celebration in the
Yeshiva and he got up at a celebration
and he says I want to tell you something
about myself when I was a child I was a
horrible student I wasted my time all
day Bar Mitzvah came and I went to sleep
one night but I couldn't fall asleep as
I overhear a conversation between my
father and mother in the kitchen and my
father tells my mother you know I
thought with his mind he would be able
to become a really great Torah giant but
it doesn't look like it's working so
tomorrow I made an appointment for him
with a carpenter he seems good with his
hands he's going to become an apprentice
for a carpenter and at least he'll be
able to make a decent fine living
support himself by building wooden
utensils items vessels and so
forth I'm in bed and I hear my father
saying to my mother tomorrow I'm going
to take him as his first day as an
apprentice I leave my bedroom I come out
to the kitchen and I say father mother
please I would love to succeed in
learning Torah give me another chance
his father says we tried for so many
years what's the point of you sitting
and wasting years you know it's already
after Mitzvah everybody goes to work
this is the today people sit for years
and years on the same bench but uh
people
worked you had to support yourself a
carpenter is a very fine respectable job
he says father no give me a chance I
want to learn so and he's crying he's
crying so he says my father said okay
one more
day one more day he'll go to Yeshiva and
we'll see
so the N tells the students I went the
next day to Yeshiva and the rest is
history here I am today and he tells his
students do you know what motivated me
to get out of bed and challenge my
father's decision to make me a carpenter
Apprentice It's a great job and I'm good
with my hands I'll tell you what I'll
tell you why I decided I was thinking
about my end the end of my life and when
people come up to heaven after they die
you know God interviews you so I would
come for my interview and God would say
ah they called
him welcome to Heaven tell me what did
you accomplish in the
world and I would tell God oh I was a
great
Carpenter so God would say wow that's
wonderful and God always wants to see
samples so he would say show me samples
say ah look at my
stender okay this is not wood but could
have been look at the
bookcases look at the mahogany table ah
look at the cedar wooden candelabra look
at the couch look at the chair look at
the Lector look at the AR KES look at
the
bookcases look at these walls look at
these frames look at these structures
this is all mine and God would
say
I think I might become a customer but I
have a question I have a
question where
is
your where is
your where is your IM he started to list
off all the books that he wrote the
books of scholarship that he wrote where
is your IM on the where is your on where
is your T where is
your where is he went through all the
works that he wrote God would say where
are all these books and I wouldn't have
an answer they remained
pregnant they experienced a miscarriage
I do have to tell you a cute sequence
the other day the head of a Yeshiva was
talking to his students and he wasn't
very impressed about their diligence he
told them the story and he says now let
me tell you what's going to happen when
you guys die you're going to come to
heaven and God will say what do you do
your whole life they said oh we stayed
in Yeshiva KY our whole
life God will say wonderful but I have a
question where is the shender where is
the table where are the
benches where are the mahoganies you
were supposed to create that's what he's
going to want to know from you you have
to know who you are you have to know
what you're capable of and you have to
be able to zoom in on your possible CH
child and fetus and allow it to be born
so on yum Kipper when the high priest
came out of the holy of
holies when you go into your own holy of
holies you become pregnant with
possibility but you know what happens we
have
miscarriages it remains there so what
was the one prayer he asked for
sh it should be a year in which no human
being no woman and all the Jewish people
are defined as God's spouse as God's
kala as God's bride should
miscarry their infinite potential of
course physical children as well but
their infinite potential and
possibilities and children and dreams
and
aspirations but what is the greatest
reason what is the reason for people not
having the ability to be able to get out
of the cage why do the camels get into
the cage
why aren't those
camels achieving their goals maximizing
their
potentials why what is the greatest
reason and perhaps you might say there's
a lot of
fear there is
insecurity there are scars there are
wounds there is the need for Conformity
there's the question of you know
pleasing
others being mocked by
others there is inner stagnation or
paralysis or a sense of inaction that
may be safer if I just remain pregnant I
don't make a Ruckus I don't make too
many waves no ripple
effect I'll just surrender to Med the AC
who said thorough I think most people
live lives of quiet
desperation but what is the
reason the reason we address right when
we come into Yumer and that's the secret
of
kidre what is really what is really
kidre you see there are two types of
promises that people make in life there
are promises that I make to you I'm
going to do this and this for you there
are promises I make to myself I'm going
to lose 60 pounds within the next few
hours okay classical Jewish
promises but there are other promises
much deeper promises there are the
promises you make to yourself about
yourself about your
capabilities there are promises I say to
myself this is just how it
is I swear to myself that this is who I
am and I can't
change some people tell themselves my
marriage will never be happy it's
destined to be
miserable me my body I'll never be able
to really turn it into the body I like
my life is destined to be this type of
life my relationship with my children
will forever be compromised my
relationship with my parents will
forever be problematic me and my mother
will just never get along me and my
father we haven't spoken for a year we
won't speak for the next year me and my
brother forget about it if you would
have such a
brother me and my sister oh my God we
put ourselves into confined boxes and we
promise our our elves that this is the
way it's supposed to be we are tied down
by
Shackles by cords that don't allow us to
emerge so what's the first thing you
have to do on yipper you have to nullify
the vows which vows the vows that you
have been making and you will be making
to yourself and I will be making to
myself about what I'm capable of and
what I'm not capable of about what type
of year I'm going to have about what
type of relation relationship I'm going
to have about what type of marriage I'm
going to have about what type
of accomplishments I'm going to be able
to accomplish about what type of life I
am going to live physically financially
socially emotionally psychologically
spiritually the other day there was a
Jewish not a Jewish a non-jewish
American Family their last name is
Smith they are very proud of their
lineage you know why their ancestry has
arrived they had an ancestor who arrived
to these Shores on the
Mayflower in the S the 1600s and they
hired a researcher to write a book about
the family because they wanted
to display and transmit this Pride to
their children because B they are
basically from the founding fathers the
first pilgrims who came to the to this
country which would become the United
States of America the researchers
started to research the family history
and you know whenever you research
family history you come across a
skeleton or
two so he comes across to their dismay
the story of great great uncle Clarence
Smith and you know the story of Clarence
Smith right he died on the electric
chair because he was a criminal he was a
real criminal now what do you do this is
part of the family history so in our
circles you just eliminate him from the
history and you make a book and you make
believe he never existed and we love to
call that history we have no issue with
revisionism I read a lot of Jewish
biographies their connection to truth is
uh like my relationships with turtles in
New Zealand even less cuz I like turtles
in New Zealand their regard for
historical accuracy is null it's void in
fact I told somebody but it's not
history it's called his
story which is fine just don't call it
history put a hyphen in the middle his
story so that's what we do but non-jews
don't always can't always afford that
luxury they don't always think in such
broad terms some of them believe in
something we call Integrity or
accuracy so when you're writing a
biography about the family you got to
write about the family if Clarence Smith
was executed on the electric trair what
are you going to do to delete it from
the story is inaccurate to put it into
the story will cast a stain on the
family it's worthless to write the book
so the author the researcher says you
know what I have dealt with these
situations in the past I will put in the
full truth they said you can't it's
going to destroy the family name no no
no I'll do it in a way that will be true
but it will not embarrass the family
okay they have publication they run to
the store they buy the book they look at
the index in the back Claren Smith page
78 they turn to page 78 and there is the
story and this is what it says great
great uncle Clarence Smith occupied an
important she in a vital governmental
institution he was tied to his position
with the greatest of
shackles and despite all of his attempts
and desires he could not tear himself
away from that important cheer in this
great governmental
institution he remained connected to his
position till his last
breath his death came as a sudden
shock so you see my
friends okay I also just got it don't
feel bad it's a pretty good
one you see my
friends I cannot experience yum if I
don't
Sayid because I'm tied down with
shackles what is kidre kidre is
basically a
declaration not that I have no trauma
that's not true I may not that I have no
fears oh I have a lot of
fears not that I have no insecurities I
have lots of insecurities that's why I'm
a public
speaker not that I don't have pain to
deal with not that I don't have
[Music]
issues I don't know a Jew that doesn't
have
issues in fact the only people I know
that are perfect are the people I don't
know the only marriages I know that are
perfect are the marriages I don't
know so it's not that I don't have this
you don't have this and therefore of
course all my dreams just come to
fruition it's that I am more powerful
than my trauma I am more powerful than
my pain I am larger than my insecurity I
am deeper than my frailties I have all
of them but the ey of the soul is as the
says the soul is a fragment of God it's
as Invincible as God it has all the
confidence wholesomeness sacredness
power Joy optimism of its
creator the verse in Psalm says we say
it every morning in the morning prayers
in there is confidence and joy in God's
SP space how do you know that you're in
God's space any time of the day or the
night how do you know two things if
you're operating from a place of
confidence and you're operating from a
place of
Joy because the soul is always in a
space of confidence and always in a
space of Joy do I have moments where I
lack confidence in joy of course but the
eye the true eye the Deep eye my
soul is more powerful than my chains
it's more powerful than my trauma it's
more powerful than my pain it's more
powerful than my fears my fears are
there but my soul is more powerful and
therefore I can
declare that all the shackles that I
have placed upon myself all the chains
that lock me in that confine me and that
I will be making from this to next all
the times I will be saying I I can't I
will forever remain in Conflict I will
forever be the depressed soul I will
forever be the neb I will forever be
obese I will forever be in a fight with
this one and that one I will never get
really along with my siblings or
children or parents or Partners or
friends and so forth all these
commitments that we make to ourselves
are based on a super superficial version
of yourself but when you discover a
deeper version of yourself which is what
Yumi is all about how do you start a day
when you discover your real eye the
first thing you have to say all these
vows I made to myself about myself are
absolved now come back to the song Come
Back to the words and tell me do they
match or do they not match when we can
interpret it not just in terms of
legalities but in terms of
psychological chains shackles cords and
ropes ah the melody Mish fits and
matches the
words my
promises are no
promises and my pledges are
noes
and
my are no
oath you see this is the
Deep Declaration of a free
soul of a liberated emancipated
spirit that my vows my promises my Oaths
in which I confined myself and live lied
myself and promised myself this is just
the way it
is I am destined to this pattern to this
relationship to this lifestyle to these
inhibitions to this
reality it's
worthless it's not more powerful than me
it's not more powerful than my soul
which
is which is part of the
Divine which if we think about
it answers a very fundamental and
interesting question every Jew every
student of the Bible knows Adam and Eve
are created on rashash and the Torah
says Man was created in God's image and
the obvious question is God doesn't have
an image Moses tells us hundreds of
times God has no image he's imageless
what do we mean when we say human beings
are created in God's
image God has no image to say God has an
image is a form of
idolatry it's anathema to the Jewish
faith so what do you mean I and you and
every human being from Adam and Eve were
created in God's
image let me open your hearts let me
tell you the secret of this when we say
the human being was created in God's
image and God has no image that's the
point if I was created in God's image
and God has no image it means I also
have no image I choose my image I don't
have an image you might tell me of
course I have an image we all have
images there's what I look like I have
my DNA I have my genetic my genim my
genetic makeup my chemistry my
disposition my upbringing my nature my
nurture what do you mean I have no image
of course I have images we all have an
image we we have an image to others we
have an image to ourselves true but the
real human being is created in God's
image and God is imageless meaning the
core of your being has no image you're
not fixed in any image you're not you we
tell ourselves we're fixed in an image
we tell ourselves I can't I'm afraid
it's not going to work that's a voice
that's a thought that's not you you have
no image just like God has no image you
choose your image I choose who I'm going
to be today I choose who I'm going to be
now I choose what I'm going to do in an
hour I choose it I have no image I
create an image every moment but it's a
choice I have to make if I don't create
an image any moment every moment I have
my default image my default image is
victimhood but that's not my real image
my real image is that I have no image I
choose an image I have thoughts I have
voices that tell me I have an image but
that's not my image my image is God's
image and God has no image he chooses
his image so this other day there was a
Mitzvah you heard of a Mitzvah right
that's when Jews come and eat
sushi so uh no it's very important UL
because if there's no sushi there are
many opinions that the B Mitzvah did not
happen you have to redo you have to read
and the same thing by a wedding you may
have to redo the wedding if there was no
sushi just it's an important H view that
you should take into consideration not
all Jews agree but a very big majority
of of of of Orthodox Jews believe that
so it's very
important
now so this guy this this boy wants to
give up a Mitzvah speech you know you
know what you doing my Mitzvah speeches
right you thank people that you don't
really like
so so he comes to his mother and he says
you know Mommy I want to talk about our
family ancestry where we come from so uh
mother says come
from and she starts waxing eloquent
about her mother and grandmother and
great no no no no mommy all the way back
where do we come from I want to talk
about the beginning the beginning in the
beginning God created heaven and earth
and on the sixth day he created Adam and
Eve and they had children I'm not sure
why and those children had more children
and the rest is his story history or
actually her
story okay and where do we come from oh
Abraham Isaac Jacob Sarah Rebecca Rachel
sh comes to his father his father was a
very educated graduate of Columbia
University and Y University an
enlightened fellow he says daddy where
do we come from so daddy tells him about
the family lineage no no the beginning
the beginning daddy says the beginning
it began with a primordial soup and a
big bang some 15.3 billion years ago and
after hundreds of millions of years
billions of years of evolution the homo
sapien emerged so he says Daddy I'm
confused but what were we before he says
before that we were apes and what were
the Apes before oh they were monkeys and
and what where did they come they came
from other primates and how did it all
begin it began with an explosion of gas
and
bacteria he comes back to his mother and
says mommy I'm really confused about my
B Mitzvah speech I want to talk about
where we come from you tell me we come
from Abraham Isaac Jacob and God Adam
Eve god daddy tells me we come from apes
monkeys and
bacteria so what should I say who do we
come from and his mother says son
there's no contradiction here your
father was talking about his side of the
family
[Music]
and I'm talking about my side of the
family you
so this is this is a very profound idea
we each have two sides of the family
there's your father's side of the family
and there's mom's side of the family I
could look in the mirror and see an ape
and you know what when I'm by a schmus
board I feel like
one and sometimes I I even look like
one and it's true it's true there is a
part of us that is a beast and a beast
has an
image a beast has an image only the
human being was created in God's image
but I can also look in the mirror and
say you know what my images my image is
that I have to choose an image that's my
image I choose an image there's no ropes
called nidre yum have absolved them and
that's what the high priest asks
for a year in which no person
miscarries a year in which all of your
infinite
potential
aspirations dreams
possibilities come gushing forth they
emerge from your symbolic womb into the
world to bring so much more light that
our world desperately needs and you know
I have to say I'm gonna I don't mean
this in a disrespectful way but I mean
it actually in an inspiring Way 3 days
before
rash was the funeral of shiman Paris the
ninth president of
Israel 70 world leaders came to his
funeral in Jerusalem to Bid Farewell
including the president of the United
States including leaders of Britain and
France and so many 70 countries were
represented there very impressive
a
poish a Polish little Jewish boy whose
grandfather was burnt alive with eight
family members and 70 in
1942 his own grandfather his name
was Meltzer a graduate of the Yesa that
I said spoke about before the Yesa his Z
came from
vajan his name was not shiman Paris his
name was Shimon perisi but that's a shle
name so of course like many names they
changed it to hebraic you know Zionist
sounding names hebra azed names and here
70 leaders come but to something
interesting about Chim and Paris and
that is that he kept on losing the
Israeli
elections I don't even know if there was
one election that he ever won he kept on
running and running and running and
running and he lost every election by
default by default Rabin was
assassinated so shiman Paris becomes an
acting prime minister until nanyu
defeats him but this was the story of
his life almost every office he ran for
he lost you would think at some point a
person should get a
message and say you know what it's time
to start eating
lafa and retire into some Farm or into
some nice T Aviv cond condominium and
all is good this man
at the age of
93 still
had plans Galore so his son his son
kamami Paris asks his father a short
while before he died he's 93 what should
I write on your
Tombstone and you know what shim Paris
says you should write he died
prematurely there's a lesson in
that he died
prematurely what a profound lesson and
he worked and worked and relentlessly
and they made fun of him constantly and
they wrote sometimes not such this and
you know that I believe that many of his
policies were profoundly ill-conceived
especially one particular policy but I'm
not addressing now ideological or
political disagreements I'm addressing
the drive of a human being
to be born not to remain pregnant
forever and look how he went out there
was no Israeli leader who was elected
who served for many years who went out
with that
respect where world leaders had such a
deep affection and respect for him and
I'm not now getting into the details
again of his policies I know it's it's a
painful and it's different topic and
today there was another terrorist attack
in in in in the holy city of Jerusalem
and it's all connected to the philosophy
of appeasement whatever it's a separate
subject a painful subject but it teaches
us
about about human Drive about human
ambition about the ability of a person
not to Define themselves and say I am a
loser because that's what Paris could
have easily done and for Justified
reasons in fact they called him in
Israeli newspapers they would call him
the Eternal
loser you know Jews don't are not stingy
with titles for other
people right ask your
grandmother how many words do we have in
English for a poor person I know two a
poverty stricken guy and a poer how many
words they have in
Yiddish
Anan a captain a
schlamazel
a
and many
more we're pretty good at titles for
people especially people that we like so
that's why they call them the Eternal
loser imagine you were called in
politics not by your by your by your by
third grade teacher that you go to
therapy for but what when a whole
country calls you an eternal Loser on
newspapers you sit down and you say okay
okay I guess I'm a loser fine let me let
me go to therapy and figure it
out and maybe one day I'll be a winner
but that he could have had that image he
didn't allow that and he ultimately
becomes the president of Israel very
popular president and he goes out and
he's like the face of Israel to the
world the high priest asked for this on
yum Kipper a year in which no woman no
person
miscarries because every person is
filled with so much
potential and it's such a great
tragedy when we die
prematurely especially when we die
prematurely when we're still alive thank
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you and now what usually happens is you
go
eat to meditate on everything I said on
a full
stomach okay we'll see you
[Applause]
[Music]
later