The Mystical Secret of Persistence and Focus: Netzach vs Hod - Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser

[Music] and one is net is notice you all kept going until you got here did anyone get tired on their way here no it was pretty easy to get here okay but imagine it was a hot summer day and you walked from like harno or something so you if you just kept going and going and going for an hour walk from enough let's say it was shabas anyone walked here on Shabu any no no walked here okay but Shabu people walk long distances to get to the Western Wall for Sunrise onos they'll walk from way the opposite side of the city over an hour walk from of them just to make it here for sunrise for the sunrise prayers at the Western Wall which is right behind us and that attribute is called n and that's now we're in the leg ver now we're down below the belt so that's the right leg is nah and that's to be able to keep going so um anyone here started something that takes many years to finish did you finish so those who finished have a good strong me of n those who didn't not so strong then there's a left leg which is called hod and hod oh by the way I'm going to go back to Creation God's constantly keeping things in check and we're the recipient the physical world is the recipient God's flowing creation into existence by an eternal light he's limiting it that's gavor with these parallel worlds that filter the light those are called the oo and the exact ratio of light to Worlds that filter is always kept perfectly in tiis for us malus the recipient to not get blown out by the light or Frozen by too much filter certain places are highly filtered Los Angeles is highly filtered yeah people go to La like go to LA with all the best intentions and you find them a couple weeks later they they don't even smell Jewish anymore Las Vegas has that same type of thing and I've actually noticed I mean maybe I'm crazy but I've noticed that when I when I fly from LA to New York I sense less filters when I fly from New York to to Europe I sense even less filters and then I get to Israel and it's like the filters are gone and and it's I feel this natural progression towards God when I'm here it seems just natural to me which kind of explains why a lot of my secular friends are so unnatural you know I I had a these great people in class yesterday there was a couple sitting right behind these cameras and and uh and the the the guy was like there was a couple and the guy was you know had really developed his mind quite a bit because of the his cont tensions with God while his partner this woman there was just kind of nodding away she was so receptive the entire time she was a smart girl and we were talking on pretty high level yesterday and she was smart and she was getting it and she was receptive and I said to them afterwards I said to them I see you know that you're not Jewish and she said how did you know and I said because you're so receptive you don't have anything to lose by by this by God being real you had nothing to lose you had only to gain whereas your boyfriend you know for for for me to be right about that discussion had major implications for him and so what happens if you live in a country where God is the default mode you know Israel where God's the default mode but you're hellbent on staying secular so then your your whole your whole life's going to be a little weird because you're going to you're going to be this reaction to the very environment you're in it's a little different than see when I meet a secular New Yorker who doesn't spend time here yeah some kid grew up in Manhattan you know he's different he's developed way more of an ontology you know ontology like the study of God like he's it's way developed why is it way developed because he's got to deal with his guilt he's got to deal with his feelings regarding God and Jew being a Jew so you have to have a very developed perspective quite philosophical if you're ashkanazi on how you've somehow philosophize God a little bit out of the picture whereas if you live in the land of Israel you're just going to be altogether different because it's godland you know this is godland you've heard of Disneyland this is godland and and if you want to live in godland without God you're going to be a funky dude or Dad if you're female now um that's netak netak is your ability to keep going so I have a very strong M that that attribute for me is is undamaged at all it's it's super strong so so like for example um I'm in contact with students of mine from 20 years ago and more regularly because I never ever because I'm careful with t feris i I'm very careful with my relationships that I I stay in relationships for if I'm in a relationship it never ever goes away ever the same relationships I've had all my life are still there I can I can WhatsApp people from 40 years ago plus I sent a Facebook message to my skateboard partner we used to skate together when we were uh 13 and so he got a Facebook message this week I was just thinking about him I was watching some of the more radical surf Maneuvers in the Pro Tour today and he when I transitioned from skating to surfing he he said it wasn't radical enough for him because he was really radical you know he he had a halfpipe in his backyard that didn't even have a transition half pipes are you know it's the Steep wall and then it's a transition and then the other steep wall his had no transition it was just it was just a circle or a semicircle which means you have no time to set up your maneu Maneuvers but he would he somehow had them set up he was amazing but he said serving wasn't radical enough so so I I have not sent a message to I haven't had one communication with this guy in uh in 38 years but I remembered his name and I sent him a what a Facebook message saying that whenever I see someone now doing Aerials on surfboards you know really getting radical Maneuvers I said I think of you each time I should check my messages maybe message me back I I don't use Facebook messaging much so I I'll take a look remind me to see if Brendan Murdoch's in my Facebook messages anyway um sorry if I'm getting a little off well that's the the thing is is that I'm really good at Neto but what's its partner anyone know neto's partner or or counterpart it's called hod and hod is focus laser me focus and I've got very little of that I'm damaged on hod that's where where I'm damaged goods I got a lifetime of work of staying focused that's hod and what do I mean by Focus so net just keeps going if you shine a FL flashlight into the night air like a regular flashlight into the night air does it keep going of course it keeps going but it also what scatters so you can see the beam for a little while but it's gone pretty soon what's another kind of flashlight where you see the beam is the limits only your eyes not the beam what is laser beams laser beams are this thing that's just kind of focusing in on itself as it goes and the limitation of its being is not you it's not it it's you being able to still see it as it continues into space And so there's certain people who have laser being focus and they really stay on task and what's interesting about those people is they don't necessarily have Nets up so they'll stay on task but the task may change they may go from test to test they could go from job to job someone who who um someone who goes job to job or they're observant today and they're not observant tomorrow and then they're observing the next day and then they're not observing the next day after that their meus in nsak is pretty lousy they don't stick with things you know I get people commenting to me why am I still surfing in mountain biking you know as a rabbi I'm aidic also it's decades later and why am I still totally invested in these things and the answer is is I'm not I I just have a very strong me as a netx I loved it then I still love it and I still do it I when I take something I start it and I don't stop my wife and I just had our last week we had our 25th wedding anniversary but it's really 28 years because I noticed her when I was a Yeshiva B and I noticed her as someone who really I would share my life with that person and and so of course I was a good Yeshiva boy and didn't have a lot of contact with her but but I but you know when I studied in Yeshiva when the rabbi said it's time to date I said okay I'm ready to date if you say I'm ready I'm ready so I'll date but I'd like to start with this particular person and and I never dated anyone I was I dated her and married her and and so so that's cuz my meus and Neto super strong but the fact that I could come home late perpetually is a lack of which attribute code you're staying focused because I'll get some SOS the phone rings I'm like literally walking up the street to my door and I'm I'm there you know I'm going to be on time and everything and phone rings and someone in some serious situation and it's time sensitive and it's got to get dealt with now I'll deal with it and and you know I'll and I'll deal with the consequences later for walking in the house at 7 or 7:15 or 8 instead of 6:30 when dinner is so because my meus my meus a hod is not great but my meus net very strong but someone who's in and out of relationships in and out of their Judaism in and out of jobs in and out of this in and out of that