Tisha B'Av: The Destructive Power of Fear - Rabbi YY Jacobson

[Music] my dear friends there was once a fellow from Switzerland who booked the flight to New York and when he booked this flight he asked to make sure that they give him an aisle seat the day of the flight arrives he comes to the plane he gets onto the plane and he approaches his seats he takes out his boarding pass takes a look at the number of his seat and to his dismay and horror he sees he was given a window seat he is outraged he didn't ask them once he called back four times in preparation of the flight to make sure he got his oil seat and he never did he comes home from his trip he comes home and his wife says why are you so stressed he says you will not believe the Hutt's book the suits book though deixa sness the dishonesty the lack of you maintenance and empathy of this ill and I want to sue them and get them out of business wife says what happened so I asked for an aisle seat again and again and again they gave me a window seat his wife turns to her Swiss husband and says my dear husband why didn't you just ask the guy sitting by the aisle to switch with you he says there was nobody in that seat I share this anecdote with you because I think it explains in a very powerful way that unique an enigmatic statement in the gomorian Talmud tractate Ines 29b [Music] Talmud rabbi monthly to just mentioned a few moments ago with the Mishna says Patricia above Nagala vase and Aleya Cancellara's on the ninth day of the Hebrew month above there was the edict and our forefathers that they would not enter the Holy Land they would remain in the wilderness for forty years but he saw Khalidov I eat newest coil my youth go humble allow when the spies came back the ninth of of they dissuaded the Jewish people from entering into the land they inculcated them with fear with dread that they will all be slain if they dear tried to conquer the land that was promised to them and the entire nation wept there was a mass hysteria of dread and terror of what might befall them if they follow their journey their destiny they all want to remain in the desert says the Talmud omar abu americana robbers said in the name of revelation on Tisha B'Av oil that night when the nation weapons it was the ninth of marla Hakodesh Burroughs who are shem said to them at embarrassin we're here shall he nam varney develop empathy ladarius you have wept tears that were in vain Adam but he's simply Asahina these were unjustified tears there was no reason to weep there was no excuse for sobbing as a result I will turn this day into a when you will weep for generations and have a reason to weep for generations that became of course the day of destruction and exile over the generations but I want to ask you my dear friends a question imagine this happened in your home and I assume it happens in your home one of your children is crying for absolutely no reason which can include your husband or any one of the children and there's really no reason he got a lollipop he got supper everything is fine but he's crying some fear that he is afraid of and your baby is crying so what do you do maybe you need a discipline then maybe you need to train them maybe you need to educate them maybe you need to rehabilitate them maybe you need to give them a lesson maybe I have to explain to them a few facts about life but I never heard of a parent or an educator turning to the child and saying you're crying in vain but I will make sure to give you a reason that you could sob justifiably doctor doctor doctor doctor doctor doc now you have a reason to cry what's what's the logic behind us you're not talking about an impulsive vengeful mother or father you're talking about the master of the universe who has the Baal Shem Tov says loves every single drew more than a parent love as a child an only child that was born when they were older you can imagine only imagine the infinite love of a parent to an ordinary child never mind parents who were blessed with one child after waiting for decades how much love is there in that relationship and the baal shem tov said that doesn't capture even a glimmer of the love that god has for every single one of his children what's the meaning of this response the jews cried for no yes they were terrified they were overwhelmed by the message of the spies they needed be educated they need to be rehabilitated perhaps penalized but what's this message you cried for no reason I will make sure that this dish above is gonna be a day in which you will cry and cry for good reason P líderes but the truth is this wasn't the punishment it wasn't a threat this was an statement of you started up with me I'll start up with you and I'm bigger and stronger this wasn't about making a point scoring points rather what regulation and I think is conveying is that God was telling the Jewish people about the consequences of what we call today learnt hopelessness learnt hopelessness you learn to become hopeless what indeed allowed the spies to dissuade the people from entering into the land after all this was a generation for whom miracles was the stuff of daily life if you would have asked the spies what did you have today for breakfast and they would have said mana from where oh it comes down from heaven every day and what you have to drink just before you gave your speech oh we have this Rolling Stone that we call Myriam's well that gives us water how did you get out of Egypt Oh ten plagues how do you get through the Red Sea it splits this happened just a few months ago suddenly like Newhall alloys we can't but friends that is exactly the power of fear what fear achieves is it paralyzes you it makes you believe that you can't and here is the great truth of life bear with me whether you believe you can or you believe you and you're right I once read about this fellow he was a real pessimist he always predicted the worst of the worst you know they used to say the Jewish telegrams would read start worrying details to follow right in a kosher restaurant the way that walks around wants to know one thing is anything all right so this fellow you just got it okay that's fun no worries no worries you could say my Donnie this fellow this fellow was a real real pessimist everything was bleak and dark and it's getting darker it's not over yet but will soon be over they once asked the pessimist what saluting an optimist and a pessimist so the pessimist says the optimist says it can get worse the pessimist says it can't get worse anyway what he did for a job was he worked he would upload trains that were transports foods and one day he uploaded a train that was going on a long journey and he was uploading it with dearie food yogurts and milk and ice cream and Seas and butter who was a refrigerator train supposed to be refrigerated trained and he finished his uploading in it's a long 48 hour journey and lo and behold the doors closed on him and of course his cell phone died and the train starts moving and he's banging on the doors nobody can hear it and he knows that for the next 48 hours she's supposed to be seated in a refrigerated cabin for all the d-r-e no way he could survive he finds a cardboard takes out a pen and writes his last will and testament my dear wife I always knew that something like this what happened and he goes on to describe what a horrific dark bleak disastrous tragic catastrophic life he left I now must say goodbye as the Frost will take my soul love and he signs his name train arrives in Vancouver doors open people come to unload all of the dairy products and they see a fellow militia lying on the floor they call my doctor Russia symptoms of hypothermia revives him takes into the hospital but they can't figure it out because the refrigerator was off thus you believe you can you're right you believe you can't you're also right that's the power of fear the fear often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy my thoughts start telling me I am paralyzed I am inept I am a loser I am capable it's horrible it's getting worse and indeed that's the reality that unfolds before my eyes so what tribulation turn is saying is not a punishment God says today you're crying in vain why you cry you know you could go into the land you know you could conquer the land you know that this land was given to you you know that this is your destiny this is your journey this is your promised land but this demonic fear enters into our consciousness takes us over and you believe you can't and then you really can't and if you can't you have to stay here but the problem is that as a result of this you really will become paralyzed and you really will not be able to confront your challenges you really will not have the tools to be able to face adversity and the fake tears can God forbid become genuine tears which might explain according to the great mystics why it happens on the ninth day why the ninth and we're now in a period known as the nine days why nine well you might say it happened to be nine days from the first day of off till the ninth of of it happens to be nine days what do you want would have been eleven all it been eleven but in history and in Jewish history everything is precise the human soul is made up of ten faculties ten building blocks of the soul hakama bina das Casa de Bharata Ferris Nats ahoy deicide mouth hood simple English translation we have the power of conception the power of comprehension the power of application s ed we have the ability to love Guevara we have the ability to discipline tif Aris empathy Nets our victory hide gratitude and humility you Sade bonding but there's the 10th Faculty of the human soul Malthus Malthus means royalty kingship leadership aristocracy every soul has all of these ten what is the final intent attribute it's the deep unwavering conviction at the core of the self that I matter that my dignity is non-negotiable that you are an ambassador of the divine to this world an ambassador for love for light and hope and thus you are invincible you carry the characteristics the infinity and the love of the one who sent you God sent every soul into this world for a mission says the Gemara kaduche Lukoil shall Adam camisa when somebody sends you you become an ambassador a representative of the one who sent you on the mission every soul is Ashley F is an ambassador an agent an emissary of the divine the soul is divine and if the soul is divine it remains indestructible no force in the world no abuse no negative experiences some of you in this room have been through difficult things in your youth but all of those challenges even trauma addiction mistakes that we make consciously or unconsciously willingly or unwillingly can snuff out the divine infinite value of a soul that's what mouths us that sense of Malthus I've once said some of you may remember the name some of you don't remember the name some of you remember the name but you can't say it there was a fellow knowing as Zero Mostel Zero Mostel was a well accomplished actor many ask for awards but I always wondered who gives their child a name 0uf friends named zero anybody good boy named tsuya the steeple operas used to have a song a boy named slaughter who names their child zero you know the story his name wasn't Zero Mostel you could look it up his name was Neil yo-yo a must L Samuel Joel but in Hollywood Smeal yo-yo doesn't go that well for whatever reason real yo-yo grew up in the Bronx he grew up in a very from a very observant family one of eight but then he left you to use him he went to a different world he needed a new name and he named himself 0y0 so he said there was somebody I won't mention whom but somebody close to him who would always tell me he said the same thing in Yiddish I'll say it in Yiddish and translate smile du bist are garnished but if it's bleiben are garnished smile yo yo you're a zero and you're going to remain a zero says well today I want to make sure this person has Nos I have lived up to his expectations and his name becomes zero muster and I learned from this friends if you don't make your child feel special somebody else will but it may be in a different way than you want it the nine days represent the loss of the tenth the tenth quality mouth hosts the ninth of lacking number 10 what allows for personal destruction tisha Bob is not only collective destructor begins with personal exile personal destruction your own presence of the divine in yourself becomes concealed why because of a loss of malice the moment a person starts believing that they are essentially zero that I'm valueless that I don't matter that previous things that I did or have been done to me have destroyed me at my core the gates are now open for all forms of self-destruction and those of us who are more sensitive and more spiritual to pain must numb this void the sense of anxiety with all type of numbing agents that some of you know all too well and I won't elaborate I won't elaborate upon you know Gomorrah says and succoth of Christ rebuked in a Ben Zakai on this to the conversations of animals you ever go to a zoo I live in Muncie a lot of animals around me and they're always having conversations and those who are sensitive can understand the conversations let me tell you what happened the other day a baby camel turned to her mommy and she said mommy I want to ask you three questions and mommy said okay go ahead and the baby camel said mommy why do we have these three ugly three toes feet and mommy said because we're not like other spoiled animals we march thousands of miles through the Sahara Desert we need good sturdy feet mommy what about these ugly eyelashes huh and the Sahara Desert there are sandstorms these eyelashes protect our eyes from becoming blind mommy what about these grotesque humps why can't we just have a handsome cute flatbacks and mommy says we go thousands of miles through the desert we are the animals of the mammals that can go weeks without drinking without eating how our humps all those all that fat that then dissolves and give us the nutrients we need for weeks marching in a desert without water she says mommy one more fourth question mama Svoboda friggin a fair takács three-toed ugly feet to hold us strong as we march thousands of miles to the sahara ugly eyelashes to protect us from the sandstorms as we go thousands of miles and our trekking and repulsive humps to store the fat in the water as we march thousands of miles from one end of the planet to the other end of the planet i got it mommy now one last question if this is true what in the world are we doing in a cage in the Bronx Zoo that's the question of mouthfuls if you realize who you are if you understand what type of soul and body you have if you understand who you're representing and what your power is why do I allow myself to live in a cage confined inhibited afraid to flex my spiritual and physical muscles we look at ourselves so many of us are not only dumbing down our lives because of a fear that we're so small some of us also have a fear to be great we look in the mirror and we say Who am I to be powerful Who am I to be successful Who am I to be happy Who am I to be gorgeous Who am I to make an impact Who am I to have an awesome marriage Who am I to have a great relationship with my children Who am I to live an incredible life me I'm a zero Amish matter what do you mean who you are who are you you are the infinite light of God manifested in this world and when you dull your light you don't help anybody else on the contrary when each one of us expresses our infinite light fully we help others manifest their divine light fully in this world you know in India talking about animals and camera conversations you know they train elephants a little baby elephant is born and they want to train the elephant they want the elephant to surrender to the rule of the master so they tie they take a little rope and they tie one of the legs of the elephant to the tree and the baby elephant kicks and tries to get out of it hundreds of times thousands of times but he can't he gives up and now years later the baby elephant turns into a massive powerful elephant that you don't want to start up with in an alley in Queens and here is the amazing fact with one kick the elephant could break the chain or tear the rope and get out but it doesn't even try because as a baby it new with try then it can't it doesn't try it remains bound to that tree and when I read about this I thought this is true about elephants how often is it true about people what's the mistake of this elephant this elephant is being bound it's a victim to its own belief that it can't it could it just thinks it can't how many of us when we were young we also tried to run but somebody held us down maybe something within our self held us down and for the rest of our lives were tied by that shame we are victims of our own belief system because if you believe you can't you're right and if you believe you can right you can give a kick you can transcend those thoughts you can transcend those instincts you could let them be don't have to worship them and surrender your soul to those confinements but so often I am a victim to my own belief system and that is what defines me you know my dearest friends I want to share with you a little story when I read about at first it left such a profound impression on me because of how authentic it is till today in other areas in the 19th century there was a terrible fever that took the lives of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of young mothers who have recently given birth known as child bed fever and it was the cause of what's known today as the black death of child bed in the 1800s thousands and thousands of mothers gave birth and within a few days they have died and none of the physicians can figure out what is this cause for it there were regions in Britain and other places where 50 60 70 % of women giving birth died within the next few days the tragedy was alarming and to no avail according to the knowledge of medicine that they had now this is the 1800s so the science of Medicine is developing rapidly so is the arrogance the Pampas Ness of the physicians there were two doctors two doctors who believed that they came up with the solution the first was named Ignaz Semmelweis the second Oliver Wendell Holmes both nineteenth-century physicians and Semmelweis started to walk into the wards walk into the rooms and just examine all of the factors he wanted to know what is happening between birth and death between the birth of the children and the death of the mothers and he just looked at everything he even thought maybe the priests were coming in for the final confessions and there came in with bells and maybe the bells were scaring the mothers in killing them he did not rule out anything and he was looking and looking and examining and then his eyes noticed one detail you know hindsight is 20/20 but then it was revolutionary he was looking at what the doctors are doing of course the doctors trying to figure out what is happening every dead body they were doing an autopsy so in the morning when the doctors would come into the hospital they would examine all of the corpses of the young mothers who gave birth a few days ago they would do autopsies on them they would examine their bodies they tried to identify the cause of death and then he also realized that these same physicians in the afternoon were going to deliver new babies and he realized that they weren't cleaning their hands in between and he came and he proposed it's you doctors who are killing these mothers from the what up so you go to a childbirth and you know how they rewarded Ignaz Semmelweis they put him into a mental asylum in vienna they say there's a Michigan man that's a diretor that's a Rudy Ted that's a hacker there's nothing like you dish when it comes to describing or meshuggener there's nothing like you dish you'll forgive me nothing like curses in Yiddish nothing like love and Yiddish and nothing like describing certain people in Yiddish you can ask those of you who are Ashkenazim ask your great-grandmother's about Yiddish curses even the spire them are pretty good with sharp words don't come close somehow a thousand years in Poland they just developed certain stuff right this is what they would say it so sine V I'm in Noida so sine V I'm annoyed hanging by Tagum Brennan banana you should be like a candelabra hang during the day burn at night islets same as all my rice fallen hoods from diva sister tray all your teeth should fall out besides the one that kills I don't know who came up with these stuff but you're gonna anyway so they decided they decided it's fine you don't have to sue them they're finally giving feedback it's not simple for a Jewish audience to get feedback usually Chicago so to cook it off this you don't know I don't know if you guys are Jewish I think some of you got to convert after this evening so they took Ignace they took he gonna Semmelweis and they put him in a base Michigan where he was abused too it took 30 years 30 years in countless deaths for the world to get to realize the truth they were right they were right and when doctors started to wash their hands and sterilize the equipment's and the instruments they were using and their own hands and their own bodies suddenly it dropped the women were not dying anymore today thank God it's very very real uniquely rear I thought to myself wow it's so easy to blame the world the doctors came in you know doctors right they came in in their physician suits that's out in the Gomorrah toy super rifle lagaa hanim that stormy types of arrived from in condition they came in to figure out what's the source not even realizing it's you the expert is the one who's guilty that honestly that ability for me to be able to take accountability you want to take credit for your great accomplishments GRA do that but take accountability sometimes as we look around that our communities at our homes and our schools and our environments and it takes 30 years for some of us sometimes to realize certain truths that it's so easy not to look at because it's difficult to look myself in the mirror and say maybe it's my hands that are unclean maybe it's my attitude that is contaminated maybe it's my mindset that is subjugated to an exile mindset maybe it's my own imagination my own expectations my own trauma my own way of looking at the world that is so not allowing me to be able to bring healing recovery life and salvation so rebuking honest teaching us and saying God told the Jewish people never ever underestimate the power of fear the destructive power of fear was Roosevelt who said justifiably we have nothing to fear but fear itself each one of us was granted with incredible infinite potential to bring light love Redemption and hope to the world the spies were wrong Yoko looka we could fulfill our mission we could transcend our mindset of Exile we could prepare ourselves and usher in into our own psyche a consciousness of expansiveness of infinity of redemption of gula and bring that light to people all around us and then that great night of tisha both will be transformed from a night of tears in vain to a night as the Rambam says of dancing festivities and joy boom hey Robby Amane who our main thank you very much [Music] [Applause]