Yom Kippur: Appreciating & Achieving Greatness - Rabbi Benzion Shafier

[Music] the most unusual parshas in the torah is the Parcher of dylan far shove Bullock the story where Nash M gives neva gives prophecy to a Gentile prophet and below Manavi basically what happens is Bullock hears that the Jewish nation is over running every one of their enemies he's then the king of Moab Olav he sends a messenger to Bill him I want you to curse the Jewish people I know you're given special powers I want you to curse the Jewish people bilham despite the fact that he was extraordinarily arrogant had to admit the fact that he could do nothing without a chef's permission so he's told those messengers wait here Hashem only appears to me in the evening at night I'll hear what a Shem has to say Hashem will allow me to go curse the Jews I will if not I cannot in any case that evening Shem himself appears to bill him and right away bilham says something unusual but luck MELAS motive shut off a light you know a sham who's sent messengers to me but look the king of mow off the king of Moab sent messengers to me to honor me and to ask me if I'll curse the Jewish people and Rachid bonded by the fact that obviously a Shem knows Bullock is the king of all billing those in a Shem knows it why is Dylan stressing the fact that Bullock the king of Moe of sent messengers to honor me says Rashi because he was saying something to a Shem ham even though you don't consider me important you should know I really am important you may not think of me as anything significant but you should just know the king of Moab Bullock but like himself sends messages to me that's how important I am that's how Rashi explains why he mentioned the king of Moab at that point now if you think about this Rashi it is rather perplexing number one you're talking to God the creator of the heavens and earth and all that it contains I don't care how powerful how mighty little little little little Bullock is you're talking to Kurdish bar ho so if you want to tell them that you're important because important people speak to you you're not impressing anyone with the fact that a mortal flesh and blood King speaks to you but more than that this Russia is rather rather difficult to understand because this human being was given more honor than any other human being maybe in existence do you know what it means to be a novia Shem prophecy is a level in that requires decades and decades of perfection the Rambam explains in a Navi is a man who worked at himself for literally tens and tens of years he perfected his medals he got to a point where nothing distracts him and then if he's on a very high level he goes to study by another he's a been novi he's in training because it's not enough to be a great Sadiq it's not enough to be a tremendous Tom Holcomb you have to learn this illness this Malacca this type of profession called being a prophet and he goes to another he's a Ben Nabi in these studies he's an apprentice of many many years and the Rambam explains that most people in that state maybe gotten Duvall got a Shem to speak to them once in their life some the VM got a Shem can actually spoke to him a few times but it was very very exceptional and very rare to have the creator of the heavens and the earth himself come speak to a mortal flesh and blood and by the way you should know it was an extraordinary experience meaning in everything physical blocked me from seeing a Shem it was an out-of-body experience something miraculous and that moment was etched in an Ovie's existence forever he had reached the pinnacle when Hashem spoke to him was unprecedented bilham did not work for this bilham was granted it for free but he wasn't granted just a regular level of Navarra and he was granted the level of navarre of moshe rabbeinu Moshe Boehner spoke to him upon a fully conscious that is a type of Navarra that bilham had he was singled out from the entire human race the reason had nothing to do with him Asham felt that the Gentile nations would ever claim that the jewish people had in the vm had we had a prophet would have sent us on the right way we'd be different also so Shem gave them a prophet and said let's see what this prophet does for you but here's the point of the entire race of humanity there was one man selected for this honor to have God Himself speak to him on a regular basis with the highest level of the war and that's bilam so how does he say to a Shem if you don't think I'm important you should know Bullock the king of Mahler thinks I'm important there's probably no human being who's given more on a more accord with more dignity than you what do you mean if I said you don't think I'm important if I shouldn't even think you were important she won't speak to you so this Rashi is a difficult to understand and what I'd like to see this evening is if we can fact better understand what this Rashi is teaching us and to do that what I'd like to do is take a little tour of something that we never really focus on much and that is a tour of the human being as in you and I and I think if you spend even a little bit of time trying to understand yourself I think you'll quickly find that we are the most complex the most difficult to understand creatures on the face of the planet I have an important saying that I've been saying now for maybe 20 years the human being is a very very strange creation and I too am a human being you see it's very easy to watch other people and they do things that are really strange when they do self-destructive things when they lose their temper and become a different person when their entire emotionality becomes hijacked and they said the most foolish things it's very easy to be a student of other people and see how strange those things called human beings are and that's a good practice provided you follow it up with the I too am a human being and then you search yourself and you find that I to do the very same thing ladies and gentleman I speak to people on a regular basis and I cannot tell you how many times someone comes to me you know the problem with an issue in a situation I say myself you know I also have that maybe not to that same extent maybe not debilitating but there's a simple reality that we beings are constantly being hijacked constantly being doing things that are so strange to ourselves doing things that if we thought about it if we'd step out of ourselves and look at it we'd say what in the world is going on and the reason why we human beings do things that are difficult for us to understand is because we human beings are quite complex the conscious I that I'm speaking to you am comprised of two distinct components one component there are mile explains is made up of what he calls the safe hell which includes imagination and includes simply memory it includes a safer intelligence and it also includes ruts on the conscious I has a brilliant precise thinking part to it it also has an imaginative part it also has memory that also has will that part is also sometimes controlled by another part there's inefficient bhajami within me a complete an animal soul as much as you'll find any animal in animal kingdom within me are the appetites and desires to keep them and being alive can search the animal kingdom you'll find every single animal in the wild has all of the instincts all the desires to keep itself alive and keep the next generation in existence within me are all of those as well and the eye the conscious I think the conscious I was speaking to you now and comprised of two vastly different parts each competing for primacy each fighting and if you'd like to fundamentally understand yourself I have a muscle that I think is very very important Siamese twins today who live much longer than they ever did before because of surgeries and because of various advances in medicine a code joined set of twins can often survive typically the doctors will try to separate them often they'll be able to have both survived but there are some rare exceptions where you'll have code join twin Siamese twins who remain joined together for life now and sometimes it comes out that they're actually very highly highly functional live full complete lives and there number of pairs alive today who can actually function as fully effective human beings but here's a strange part you'll see two legs two arms and two heads and if you don't look very carefully you think it's one person but it's two distinct people there's a set of code join twins who drive one controls the right side one controls the left side I mean who came up with his wise idea but they made him take two driving tests even though it's in one body and it can't go without the other but because there are two heads and two they made him take two driving tests but they're two distinct people two different personalities two very very different they have different senses of humor and different levels of intellect different interests they do share one body but very very different there's also a set of Siamese twins who teach fifth grade basically it's I mean it's rather unique to see because again you'll see one body and they're in the classroom and one is teaching and the other is observing you ever have when I was a kid they used to there's always that teacher always caught me doing things wrong and she would say oh I have eyes in the back of my head I mean this is real I mean you have one teacher teaching and the other one literally observing and seeing what's going on in any case they do share two minds they do share two personalities but they do share also one bloodstream so what happens if one of them likes to drink and the other one doesn't I'm sorry Charlie both of you guys are getting drunk and what that means in plain simple language if Tom and Peter and Tom likes to drink and Peter doesn't well tough luck Peter in the minute that alcohol gets into the bloodstream you share that bloodstream and unless you slap his hand quick and before he drinks it down you're both gonna be drunk and if you'd like to understand the AI as in you and I you have to understand that I am constantly competing with this other half of me and there's a half of me that doesn't care about anything other than it's desires that means to say there's a full half of my personality that only knows instincts and desires dry and needs and it's very real and if you deny it you don't understand yourself I also have another part of the conscious eye that understands consequences who understands results and as long as that part of I remains in control I act sober I act intelligent but sometimes I get drunk when that other part of me takes control and I get angry I'm furious I now AM drunk with anger I no longer view things the same way I know mother think the same way I might have been careful with every word I said I might have regarded people with great great respect but the minute I get overcome drunk with anger in that part took control and I am gone and I'm constantly being hijacked because again there are two parts and these two parts are competing and these two parts make up the eye however if you believe that it ends there I believe that you're selling yourself tremendously tremendously short that is but a tip of the iceberg of understanding the conscious I let me straight to what I mean Cambridge declaration on consciousness what is a Cambridge declaration of consciousness so as you know and PETA has an interesting claim People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claim that four-legged animals and two-legged animals are all occupants of the same planet what right does a two-legged animal have to consume barbarically eat of a four-legged animal it's horrific and pizza is a very violent very vile organisation and they even take out very disgusting ads you'll see an ad showing an Auschwitz bunker and saying Hitler may have killed six million Jews but Frank Perdue kills six billion chickens and here's the problem it's obvious to you and I that that's beyond ludicrous but the problem is why you see man always answered that question by saying because man has feelings animals doesn't man uses tools animals does don't man has a consciousness animals don't but the problem is it seems not to be true animals have feelings animals use tools and the Cambridge declaration on consciousness which was comprised of some of the greatest scientists of our day basically declared that animals have a conscious sense of self as do man so if they use tools if they have feelings if they have a conscious sense of self how are they any different than you and I so the next time you sit down to a hamburger as you're about to bite into it I want you to ask yourself what's the difference Elsie the cow had a heart that pumped I have a heart that pump you can L see the cow had meat and flesh and a lot good stuff in skin and so do i what is the difference between me and Elsie the cow and ladies and gentlemen they are 100% right from their perspective there is no difference but it's not because compete the values human beings as it's because they view human beings as animals you see when you're sitting down to eat that hamburger if you say the words I in L see the cow are exactly the same then you are the same because what you've done is you so lowered the human being what you've done is you began identifying as the body I am this corporeal body and much like L see the cow is a body with some interesting features she eats grass she moves I am a body I go I speak and I walk but if you think of yourself as a body then pizzas right and the first step that you have to do is to recognize that I am the one inside I'm housed in this body it's like an astronaut temporarily wearing the suit but I the conscious I am the part inside I wear this body I use this body but I am completely utterly spiritual and one of the most important steps human being can ever make is to realize that I'm not physical I am spiritual and I think this is one of those gross errors that people make all the time sometimes there'll be a Rosh Hashanah yom kippur and if personal say wow it's so strange i had this spiritual experience I wasn't shul and I was like talking to Shem was so strange because Here I am is physical entity and I was temporarily having this this spiritual experience nothing could be further from the truth you are not a physical being temporarily having a spiritual experience you are a spiritual entity either on two things either one who feels I'm a spiritual entity temporarily having a physical experience I'm inside this body for a few short years eventually the body's gonna be put in the ground and I will separate but I'm not the body and once you do that step and then you're ready to understand a little bit more about what makes us tick and then I'm Kyle and Eric Hashem explains very very graphically that there's a whole other part of I that you and I are not aware of where we're somewhat of the conscious eye and that muscle the Siamese twins has to do with the part that we're alert to but there's a whole other part of the neshamah thing that you and I are completely not attuned to he calls it the neshamah alyona and their five parts to it is a neshama you see da rua it's a very complex system but if you'd like to understand what he's referring to here's a very simple observation and we all hear the expression of Shama you sailor on Shabbos you get an extra neshama now do you know you were being who has said Wow Shabbos give me now get this oh is this yummy you see her over came you know like floating out-of-body experience like what know if if they do speak that way yes and what they were smoking what they were drinking because it's not what happened you will not feel it you won't be alert to it then a ShowMe USERRA comes and it leaves but don't think it does nothing oh it does something very very real you see the neshamah alyona the upper neshama is responsible for directing me for guiding me it has two separate completely different functions one function is it's responsible to pull me in the way that it will and I'll explain to what I mean you ever eat a meal and about an hour after you start grazing you go to the kitchen and you look through a refrigerator and someone says to you are you hungry hungry you say the big meal so what are you doing what you're doing is you're your ear I'm hungry I'm not hungry meaning I'm not I don't have hunger pangs I don't have an empty stomach so what are you doing it's sort of a longing sort of an inclination sort of I don't know that is a comparable sense to what your neshama does all the time you see show me Leona is not allowed to speak clearly in your conscious mind that would take away free will but it does pull you it pulls you to everything good and everything proper that's what pulls you to do what's right that's what says to you what are you wasting your time for weren't you accomplishing when you said something that's nasty or selfish that guilty feeling inside well your neshama Lu owner their safety what are you doing yes now again it can't speak in conscious words and it can't influence you overtly because that would take away free will but it pulls you always pulls you always pulls you to the good into it's right and proper that part the neshamah alyona is very very complex and very very sophisticated it came from under the kiss a culvert it knows exactly every answer to every question that you'll ever have it's programmed with every desire only to do it's right wholly improper and one of its main purposes is to pull me towards good but it has a totally different purpose altogether the nationally owner has a purpose that has nothing to do with pulling me to go and if you'd like to understand what that is I'll share with you because I'll tell us that on Rosh Hashanah honor Hashanah Milwaukee metaphasic yeah we get that expression in in the sauna talk if on roshanda Malakand themselves tremble when hashem judges mankind when hashem judges the world the Malakand themselves tremble here's the question why tamil from tremble you and I have spent our time incorrectly you and I may have messed up you and I may have used our existence in a way that we should have thought melaka more perfect they don't sin they don't they don't fail why are they trembling were they afraid of and I'm call explain says that we human beings live in a very very dark world and we don't have a clue to what's really going on he explains that every physical entity has a spiritual counterpart a rock has a spiritual counterpart a blade of grass as a spiritual counterpart everything that Hashem created in the physical world flesh am created something opposite it in the spiritual world that spiritual part is responsible for the existence of the physical part for its maintenance and for everything that occurs to it because I'll say that every blade of grass has a mala what that means is that every living entity has a spiritual force a DA sniffer a separate type of mala who's responsible for its existence for everything that happens to it they keep me around and if you look at a tree and if you look at a meadow and if you look at a field what you should be able to see if we had different sets of eyes is huge groups of Melaka each responsible for one part on top of them a lot more responsible for everything involved the spiritual world would be very very crowded if it weren't for the fact that malorum don't take up any space but every single physical entity has a spiritual counterpart okay now what happens when man uses the world properly so because I'll tell us and that if you use a table properly that spiritual part of it becomes empowered the spiritual part of it lights up the spiritual part of it gets invigorated and gets clear what happens if you use that very same table for something incorrect you're doing a veil with it what happens is you're molded a Coahoma that means to say there's a spiritual almost a black hole and you create a negative force and that spiritual black hole now sucks out the kedusha sucks out the holiness from the world you see the world we live in is constantly changing not the physical world but the spiritual world which is the underpinning of everything physical is constantly changing Hashem said to Adam orient ain't die talk pay careful attention that you don't destroy my world hashem took auto Mauritian showed him gan eden showed him the beauty look at what I created look at my handiwork look how carefully was all form pay careful attention that you don't destroy it let me destroy it was him take down an axe and chop down the trees but in fact other did destroy it because every tree has a mouth off behind it every blade of grass has a mouth behind it that's kept in existence by the spiritual force and when Adam Rishon sinned because he basically corrupted the world he destroyed the spiritual entity behind it and therefore the world itself was radically different and a sham now had to run the world in a different way we're not aware of it where we live in a very corporal physical world but every action that we do changes a spiritual world and that changes everything in creation what happens when a human being does what it should is they give tremendous energy tremendous power to this world and when they do what's wrong they damage it dramatically now if that sounds highfalutin and you say like okay rabbi what are you talking about I want to give you a mushroom we're all familiar with something called electricity but often we don't quite think about what electricity is so almost all electricity is generated by another force typically you'll have a turbine something sent something it spins there'll be a magnet the magnet is going to is surrounded by copper wire when the magnet moves past a copper wire it moves the electrons in the copper wire copper wire conducts like electricity well and that force is electricity basically the magnet moving the electrons in the copper wire and that is electricity and all electricity is generated by turbines it can be powered by burning gas by burning coal but it's all powered by something turning that magnet magnet turning past the copper wire and the electrons in the copper wire moving and that is how you generate electricity okay now this is rather interesting why because the Texas State University decided to go green they decided that well we could generate electricity in a very clean fashion why don't we hook up generators to elliptical machines and they spent twenty thousand dollars as an experiment to hook up 30 elliptical machines and two generators so now when a man would get on the elliptical machine that energy would cause the turbine would cause the moving the magnet to move up past copper wire and this would be a way that people could generate electricity and again they this was an experiment and they tried doing it so here's what they found when a person gets on an elliptical machine it is true you generate some output and when that output is converted into electricity you could generate about 100 watts an hour but a lightbulb one light bulb uses about 100 watts an hour so meaning to say if you got on your elliptical machine and you were using that to general electricity you might generate one percent of the electricity you yourself would use so what they found was that these 30 elliptical machines generated about 387 dollars worth of electricity after 57 years of payback the twenty thousand dollars and cost to put the generators - and what they found was this is not a very efficient way of generating electricity would you like to know what is an efficient way of generating electricity near my home is something called Indian Point - nuclear reactors that are constantly pumping out when we talk about megawatts we're talking thousands of millions of watts an hour and 25 percent of New York City is powered by these two reactors one single reactor and generates a hundred million times what one human being can generate on an elliptical machine and if you'd like to understand what their own pal is saying I'll give you a muscle that I think explains it well imagine we have a man here on an elliptical machine and he's pumping away all these producing is but a little bit of energy about a hundred watts an hour but imagine with me for a moment that that elliptical machine were tied to a nuclear reactor above imagine that that elliptical machine was actually powering a nuclear reactor so that his little actions over here the output of a hundred watt who are actually generating a hundred million times that above and what he was doing was powering cities now he may not be aware of it but there are hollow explains that's exactly what happens when a person fulfills a mitzvah we live in a corporal physical world and in this very dark world we think we do very small things we blow a shofar we put on tefillin we learn big deal and it is true in the physical world what we did was very little but in the upper world in a spiritual world we lit up the cities and we lit up a world we don't see it we don't perceive it but that's exactly what's happening and when you begin to understand this you begin to understand something phenomenal that begins to explain almost every Mitzvah I'll share with you one simple observation there's a mitzvah called blowing chauffeur why don't we blow chauffeur the Rambam explains it sarafina's explains it the reason is because chauffeur has a power to awaken a person when you hear the shofar blast it awakens you it makes you realize you doing chuva etc see here's a little question what happens if you spaced out during chauffeured loan you don't pay attention at all are you obtain a mitzvah but I have a bigger question not only Yossi a mitzvah and what happens if I say listen this idea of show for waking up it's very good but to be honest with you a French horn is much more potent when I hear a French horn blasting out that fills me trim room so what do you think would happen if I in my shul we said no more chauffeured we're gonna have a French horn of a brass section so here's the problem I'm not your China Mitzvah but why if the whole purpose of chauffeur is really to awaken you why do you need a horn from a bahama to aura preferably an isle preferably a ram why does it mean why should it be bit why do you need all the details I'd like to understand in the physical world that we live in it doesn't make a bit of difference but in the physical world that we live in is very dark and very very thick in the upper world what you're doing is changing up a world and you're lighting up cities but we don't understand it because we live in a very thick world and because we live in his thick physical world he were blinded but the reason why I Shem gave us mixes in the way an exact manner than a sham gave it is because they accomplished things in the upper world at a way way beyond our understanding if you have a perfectly kosher pair it's filling but one letter is cracked you did nothing zero FS if you have a Arabic on for shifts it's it's but six strings so effectively three doubled and not for nothing in fact if you wear that on Shabbos you could main even be kind of folks all for carrying a mite behind Misa well I don't get it whole purpose is just to remind us about the mid says you got the knots you got the string so I missing - why you why are you getting all bent out of shape and if you search this earth from one end to the other you won't find an answer because there is no answer under the Sun but once you understand that every mits look hooks into the upper world you won't you understand that when I'm on this elliptical machine yes I'm pumping out a hundred watt but it's powering a nuclear reactor it's lighting up cities in the upper world it's empowering the upper world you're changing the very level of kedusha in the world and the opposite when you're doing a Vera it powers Coco's Optima it creates these spiritual black holes that suck away in the kedusha in the world and what you and I see as human beings is but a tip a tip tip tip of the iceberg but I'm call explains that when a Shem gave us in this neshama Alyona it's not just as a guide but a Shem wanted to give every human being the opportunity to be a builder to be a creator of worlds and what that means is a little me can eight entire worlds or destroy entire worlds in wine a sham do that because a sham wanted give the human being Adam the opportunity to be as great as imaginable or the opposite and the purpose of everything in creation is man do you know why the Malakand tremble because mankind the Jewish nation is being judged and if they're judged Laura then the world everything in creation is toast everything that was created was put in the world for Adam and if man has failed even if Adam hit the point where it's no longer serving the purpose that man was supposed to everything in creation ceases to exist that means officially the oceans the rivers the upper world in the Malacca the Seraphim of everything the cosmos because everything that came into existence was put into existence from man and man alone it's not that Peter are slightly off there so backwards they're so behind and what life is about because they're clued strictly into a physical world and if you view yourself much like elsita cal then you're right don't eat that hamburger because that hamburger is the same as you can you're the same as us at account once you understand that the human being was creative or something so much larger and then a Shem invested in the humanist capacity to change up a world the light up picking up worlds or the opposite create cocles atomic creates spiritual black holes you begin to realize our actions are way way bigger way more and more importantly you could ever imagine but there's one more effect that happens to neshama alyona when it does what's right or what's wrong you see when I do a mitzvah - Shama alyona is hooked into the upper world and it causes cities to light up and therefore the world itself is given more kedusha but therefore - shaman alyona is given more kedusha as well it becomes holier and it influences me to much greater extent let's say I do something wrong and then - show me Leon against its will is forced to create Coco so Toma it's forced to create these powerful spiritual black holes that not only influence the world that influence it - the bed as well and begin pulling it down then it pulls me down you see there's a pass-through and if you'd like to really understand the human being and I hope I don't lose you with this but watch let's go back to our Siamese twin Marshall would you like to really understand what's happening we have two distinct people sharing one blood supply and they get drunk while both get drunk but what happens if when they get drunk they become violent whatever they become a really ugly nasty drunk in what if every time they get drunk they start punching things and breaking things again into fist fight and become violent and very so then we're not just dealing with an issue of you know I don't like getting drunk and you do then we're dealing with what are you doing you're gonna get us arrested you're gonna get us killed you're gonna get what are you doing ladies and gentlemen if you understood the human being you don't understand that's exactly what's happening - Shama Eliana is pure its colors and knows exactly what it's doing here and it says to me let's go Hashem gave you this unbelievable opportunity to change yourself change the world you live in light up the upper world and then it watches me get drunk I listen to never see behind me I get drunk with anger or jealousy whatever maybe and then I don't just get drunk I start doing things that are destructive I say nasty hurtful things and I say things I do things that destroy the upperworld that destroyed the world here and - shoma Eliana saying what are you doing you fool you're destroying us you're not just being drunk rolling in the mud you're getting drunk destroying people destroying yourself what are you doing and if you could imagine the turmoil the tremendous sour that the neshamah alyona has it's beyond description and this is not complicated enough and if the you and I isn't complex enough let me to take one more step you haven't noticed that most people most people aren't happy some people aren't happy some of the time some people aren't happy a lot of the time some people aren't happy most of them but most people are unhappy and you have to wonder why is it all of us have nice clothing we have by and large you have nice homes in by and large enough food to eat and there's one simple reason because there is a nationally owner within me that's saying what are you doing what are you wasting your time for why aren't you accomplishing you don't you put in the world to be doing and you could be lighting up cities you could be accomplishing worlds you know you could be doing you own frittering your time you're on social media now what are you doing you're wasting hours you could be doing things what are you doing and there's a powerful voice within me that doesn't let up that keeps bothering me and bothering me say why aren't you doing great things and human being has two choices either he listens to that voice and changes and begin setting lofty goals and really sets this path or what typically happens is he either implodes or fights against that voice some people just get depressed and down but some people actually fight against that voice and you can almost hear the internal struggle what do you know about great you know what I'm doing you think I'm that great I'm making money I'm famous and I'm writing books everybody knows you know who I am and if you'd like to understand what an arrogant person is all you have to understand is because there's a voice inside that's saying why aren't you powering cities who aren't you generating a hundred million watts an hour and he gets on the elliptical he says I am Jen I'm seven hours a day seven hundred Watts today Wow look at me I made money Wow look what I did and the shaman says you fool 700 watts I'm talking about hundreds of millions of times their production and no matter what he does that neshama Leona's never satisfied no matter if he even gets 800 watts that day 1200 watts he's on it all day long his upper soul isn't satisfied isn't impressed and if you'd like to understand arrogance it's an unmet greatness of man and I'd like to share with you one classic example in the first century there was an emperor Caligula Caligula sent a message to the hummin that he's furious every single religion puts his statue a statue of him in their temple and the Jews will not erect a statue of him in their temple he's furious with him Columbus sent a contingency to blacken him and I said your majesty this year alone we already brought three sacrifices in Caligula's honor he gets up and says exactly what I meant you bring sacrifices for me but not one sacrifice to me now that's an arrogant person but how do you understand that how do you understand a person who's so inflated because so big the answer is that is the human being because there's a voice inside that says why aren't you powering cities and he's got an answer I am doing great things I'm eternal I'm immortal you're not more powerful and when you watch a truly arrogant person that's what you sing would you like to understand shot and bilam bilham was a very arrogant person he was given a lofty neshama and his neshama alyona's upper neshama scream you know why did you accomplish the world God himself visit you you should be doing tremendous things and he said I am doing tremendous things I'm rich and I'm famous everybody knows me and when God himself and came to visit bilham bilham had a problem because God didn't treat him like an equal listen Hashem a junior partner maybe I'll accept but you talk to me like I'm a creation you talk to me like I'm a human being like I don't go for that why was that him because bilham had a lofty neshama I think bilham had a true understanding of who he was but because he was pulling against that instead of growing instead of meeting it he was becoming nothing and because of that he had a tremendous sense of not being fulfilled constantly needing more honor and whenever Shem himself came to him it wasn't enough and he said to him I don't like the way you treat me the king of ball off treats me with honor because when a person becomes really that inflated he really needs more and more but again why because the neshamah Eliana the up in a chambre really really understands how great it should be it really strives for that type of greatness really was created to create worlds and unless it does exactly that it's gonna ever be unsatisfied now and you may say what in the world does this have to do with us this is a lovely view of the upper world nice little study other I'm calm but what does it have to do with us and what does it have to do with Yom Kippur and I like to share with you that this has everything to do with um Kippur twice a day a Jew is supposed to say the words of Tana you ever pay attention to words of tottenham Dada Mela failed in front of on the aide in front of every member of the Jewish people he failed the biggest test of his life and in front of the Jewish nation he lived with but Sheva and for the rest of his life he suffered embarrassment and the words are tough and are the words that he said and your gusty Banco see my groans are so powerful like I I'm weakened by my groaning my pillow is filled with tears each night my bed becomes soaked with my tears the man clearly suffered and for the rest of his life he suffered tremendous tremendous time but here's the problem what does have to do with me twice a day I'm supposed to say that those are the fall of my arm and say these words make some sense what's it got through me but even worse read the words in your cap at dampening a sham new began new Kazan you go through the list now I don't claim to be a tonic but wait a minute that's me what's that guy doing me okay I do things wrong I admit it I have to work on things but such a detailed long what's it got to do with me and we'd like to understand what shot in this is if you view yourself much like else to the cow if you view yourself in a physical sense only you'll have no answer to that question because you don't understand who you are and you don't understand the ramifications of your actions Ramona explains manana says it more clearly the first thing you need to do chuva is to understand who you are and I'd like to give you a guarantee if you are the most inflated ego in the world I guarantee you sell yourself short I guarantee that you don't have an inkling talent porn your how significant your actions are and if we could ever tap into the Torah's understanding of how huge actions our thoughts our words are and we will be blown away blown away with the dramatic impact that my words have my actions have do you know who I am I'm an atom a human being I'm young being who when I keep Shabbos I'm a partner in my Sabri she's I'm a partner whether she put him in a partnership I didn't create world I don't make Saturn I make a Sun but as Jim put me in the world in such a way and then when I used this world properly the upper worlds are given energy it's like I am their creator I sustain them and I keep them in existence and as such I'm a partner with a Shem if you and I had a clue to the gravity of our actions to the impact of our thoughts and ways we'd be blown away we'd be just mesmerized by our significance and it has a very real implication and that is that when we mess up it's big time we need to say it's not just words of lush and horror it's not just words I said that embarrass somebody it's not just I spoke at the wrong time it's a major major big deal and then you have to tap into the effect in the upper world and have to tap into what you do to realize the grand significance of it and it's only when you begin reading about different punishments that has I'll bring and it's only when you begin thinking about it on some level and you read the words of Toffler and you say that's supposed to apply to me that means my actions are way way bigger than I thought they were but ladies and gentlemen this point is not about feeling Hirata not about feeling bad you know what it really means Hashem created us to grow and Shem wants our success and ghazal tell us that 500 times a reward is timed to the punishment meaning anything that I've done wrong that is severely punished everything I did right is rewarded 500 times the amount of a punishment that means to say if one time I put on Dylan do you know what I did in the upper world you know I did too - Shambhala you know you know what I did I changed the world if one time can I dive in and I actually spoke to a Shem if one time I gave stuck up properly if one time I held they didn't speak Russian or you know like complex a big deal whatever I feel and I learn that they da what am i doing I'm not changing I'm just a regular human being exactly if you view the world it is very myopic very small version than you're doing nothing if you're able to open your eyes and able to understand what you're doing upper world you're changing upper world what you're doing is phenomenal play you're doing is lighting up cities if I say creation my one time right I get all the words and I have the right governor I lit up in a world that remains for eternity lit up I don't see it very nice I don't see there's a lot we don't see we don't see electricity going through the walls we don't see my fight we don't see my cell phone in my pocket speaking to a satellite three miles up setting a cell phone message but because I don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist and I think this cos all shares with us a very eye-opening perspective what bilham was was a lofty neshama and because he was lofty he understood his it neshama you know screaming and I'm a country girl light up cities and because it was such a powerful pull Tim and he wasn't doing that he had this need to fill it to fill it I am great I am great I'm important I'm significant I'm bigger than that I'm bigger than that he got so big in his own mind that God Himself treated him not like an equal extreme you not like an equal how could you know who I am and if it sounds insane that's exactly what arrogance is any sense of arrogance is a desire for greatness it's true it's a ganda Sodom that's misdirected if you and I had a clue to our importance or significance we'd be blown away the biggest bug I ever find me the most arrogant man in the world find me a collective the Emperor who says you should be sacrificing to him he sells himself short you and I are bigger than that you and I are actions are accomplished more but again you have to hook into the upper worlds you have to understand this here when you understand this you understand the value of amid so you understand why there's such precision why is there such exactitude in every Mitzvah you got to do it this way 1000 homo she was seen as until in miss one you know do anything chauffeur has to be exactly right and if the takea shorter than this form you want you know you ygo say it woke me up it did answer is because in the physical world you're right it didn't make much of a difference the regime gave us his ability to hook up into the upper world and it's much like that man on that elliptical machine he's only cranking out a hundred watts and I was doing nothing big deal 101 now it's nothing but that 100 watt is powering a nuclear furnace above and that nuclear furnace is pumping out a hundred million times the production and what he's doing with his small actions is powering up a world when you think about this when you dwell on it you begin to understand things in a vastly different way and you begin to understand what it means to stand in front of a sh m and ask for chuva ask some Athena ask the forgiveness when you understand the impact of one sin and understand I created a spiritual black hole and it's a powerful spiritual black hole that sucks out the kedusha from this world and I don't mean a big a favor even I mean a little Avera it creates a huge negative black hole that pulls away kedusha and there is a concept called chuhwa and a Shem gave his ability to just get rid of those black holes one after another fella if a person uses the truth system he gets rid of rid of them it reads his soul it reads the world of them but more than anything when you begin to understand the impact of your actions you can look at yourself differently on Yom Kippur a person can feel things that you don't feel during the rest of the year and on Yom Kippur you could realize my actions are bigger than anything I could ever imagine my words have more effect more impact than anything I could ever dream of and when you think about that you then set your course very carefully what am I going to accomplish and what I'm going to do this year where am I headed and I want to close with one little illustration in 1988 a British TV program showed a man sitting in a live audience the live audience was filled with middle-aged people this man was sitting there with his wife and the reason why everyone was gathered there who was because this man had held a secret a huge secret for 50 years and the TV host was about to reveal the secret to the people in the audience as well as to the world at large and justice was to be served you see that man's name was Nicholas Winton and in 1938 Nicholas Winton was in Czechoslovakia he was a British citizen he was not in the Armed Forces and he was not a representative of the British government he was in Czechoslovakia and he saw was happening and he saw that the Jews there were in grave danger and he arranged for Jewish children to leave Czechoslovakia and go to England and he arranged for them to have places to live in the arrange of transportation he got no support he raised money on his own he arranged everything himself in the end he saved six hundred and ninety-nine children their parents mostly was sent to Auschwitz but six hundred and ninety-nine children he alone he had some friends he saved and he brought them to England put them into homes that fact remained largely unknown to anyone he didn't talk about it and didn't discuss it fifty years later his wife was up in the attic and she finds a scrapbook in the scrapbook of pictures of the children in the scrapbook of dates of birth in this graphical exact houses where they landed she took that scrapbook and she brought it to a TV reporter because she wanted that story out a TV reporter invited Winston Nicholas Winton down to this meeting he didn't know it but the other people in the room were all those children who survived and then at a certain point the radio the TV host explained why they were all there everyone stands up applauding and he alone at that moment recognized the one through the fact that these were the children who had now grown and families of their own and he recognized fully when he had accomplished this man Nicholas Winton died in 2015 at the age of 105 now ladies and gentlemen I sincerely believe that when he leaves this earth and left this earth the reward that's awaiting him is unimaginable because you see 699 children doesn't stop there and they get married have children of their own have grandchildren and that 699 Jewish children has a way of just multiplying and multiplying and I can't even imagine when he leaves this earth who what his reward was the extent and the grand parade of thousands and thousands of new Shamas that would be paying homage to him and the amount of good hard to envision but here's the point let's say you went to this fellow let's say went to Nicholas Winton in 1938 and says do you know that these 699 children they're gonna get married I think enough children their own and grandchildren do you know you're saving thousands and thousands can you imagine what you're doing I'm sure he would have said you know I can't imagine what I'm doing but it doesn't matter this is what's right these are children they don't deserve to be killed and I'm going to do what's right my friends I believe that's a powerful muscle we're never gonna really fully get the gravity of our actions we're never gonna fully feel it I guarantee when we leave this earth we're gonna be astounded because every action we do creates a powerful powerful spiritual force and maybe thousands and millions in powerful powerful cadres hundreds of thousands marching out there it'll be unbelievable beyond anything we can imagine and the truth is we can't imagine it now and we don't have to I have to know that Hashem wants me to grow have to know that a Shem loves everyone whose creations I have to know that it wants me to do what's right and proper and if I have to set my course exactly as ischium wants then I'm Kippur is a time to take stock it's a time to get rid of things you've done wrong it's a time to set my course two things do right so hook into the upper world as much as I can't understand things but at the end of the day I have a Torah hi Mitch's that sort of to do my sham grant us the wisdom understanding ability to put this into practice by the way anyone wants something powerful a powerful trick that I we'll make an astonishing difference in your year more than anything else you could possibly do everybody gets your people get real fun by milla and they're looking give me something something I got a simple thing ready fizz and gentlemen it's put this on your side first take your wife out once a week make a fruit commitment to take your wife out once a week I guarantee it'll be the biggest juvey ever did but what second do it over oh it's very simple think of the last time you got into a fight think about on Nosed form the words that you said to your wife and your wife said to you and I care who started I'm not interested in it but the words you say the the hurtful biting words to people are supposed to be the closest confidence was suppose to be lovers who literally almost bite each other's head off and just pay attention to that and realize that the single greatest change you could make is to improve your relationship you see if your relationship is better everything is better now that doesn't make you Sonic and you still may lose your temper your wife may still I'm not discussing that but if the climate of your marriage is one of love then all the sudden things are very different you're not biting each other's heads off anywhere near as much you're acting like lovers are supposed to get him saying and it doesn't sound religious go man I'm making a cabal of the godless week that's a religious yeah it's about a big a religious commitment is you're gonna make wine because it'll really change your behaviors more significantly than anything else you're gonna do I'm gonna lose her for two hours a day very nice she's not gonna change your temper that quickly take you 20 years well I'm gonna really really I'm gonna work very nice slowly lot lot this single Kabbalah this single acceptance will change your behavior radically if you improve your relationship guess what everything changes you actively you feel differently and okay you don't think why can't I just be happy why you know why that's not what God made you to do where you take a surgical instrument take a scalpel and use it to pry open a window it does a lousy job and a dull blade I shall create do you moving for a very specific purpose to grow to accomplish change myself to change the world and when I use my life that way there's an innocence of harmony in a sense of peace if I use my life at anything else I get of all the luxuries all the play everything but there's little inside is an emptiness why because guess what that's not the way my shell made you and you're not doing what you were made to do we're human beings get very comfortable living in a Wi-Fi world we have to sort of also take that step in terms of bigger things as well and understanding that you're right it's a big jump and that's really why I use that closing story because we don't really live in the upper world we live in this world and my job is to do the missus the way the tour says to do it but sometimes you need to understand why is it tourists so exact why is every myths is so precise and do one little thing often boom you do anything it doesn't make sense why does why should it be that way so again in this physical world it will not make sense once you understand and that kind of like you but do we ever take your cell phone and drop it into the toilet and suddenly it doesn't work why does it work it's all the same why shouldn't what's why should you I don't understand why it doesn't work I'll tell you a little secret you're right it should work except when the problem you fried the circuits and then you're done yeah now if you don't want to think about how it works you'll never get it but once you understand this you understand missus you understand it why I'm torso exactly understand the impact of your actions so you're right we don't live in the upper world but it's important to be aware of this so that I can then do the missus way I'm suppose I can learn as I'm supposed to I can understand on some level and what I'm doing I don't live there but being aware of it helps me live in the world I do live everything why is what is arrogance arrogance is a true understanding of Micra is this pulling from above that says you should be great you should be great should be lighting up world you be doing phenomenal things now I have two choices I could either implode say you're right I'm nobody I'm nothing I'm worthless I'm a jerk I'll let you know and and become a damaged human being what I could fight against but I am great you know who I am you know how important I am I do great things it's like that guy on the treadmill who's you know who says I'm pumping out 400 watts at a day 700 watts look what I'm doing don't tell me I'm that great but as a showman is up in ash I'm saying it but I'm talking about 100 million times your production I'm talking about lighting up a city and you're talking about 200 watts 300 watts so what he did well I'll do more I'll do 1210 me I'm low I'm big I'm big the arrogant person has a constant need to become bigger and bigger and bigger than that why because he's trying to speak to that voice inside he's using the wrong terms he's using the wrong currency and so anything he feeds it is never gonna feed it but he needs it and bigger and that's what you see arrogant people do arrogant person think he's gonna live forever he's all-powerful when you see a king saying you didn't bring a sacrifice to me what what's bad because when you allow yourself to become fully engage in this arrogance basic what's happening and you have an up and a shaman saying you should be great I am great you know great am i mighty and powerful and I'm a king just about why because again it's that same unmet need that you're trying to meet by self-inflating by puffing yourself up by being big bilham and had a highly neshama has a shaman was sanctum you should be really really really great I am great you don't become so important Bullock cheats me not on this one treatment everyone he needed honor here watch this you ever noticed watches what's a homework of an arrogant person the arrogant person says you're small you're small you're small you're tinier I'm big you're tiny so why is it that the arrogant person always needs everyone's attention if you're nobody you're nobody you're nobody why does he need you to pay attention to him you're nobody he's somebody right he doesn't need you you're nothing you're nobody why does he need you to compliment him why he always need your attention the answer is he's trying to puff himself up but it's not real he's constantly keep trying to puff but it's constantly coming down because it's it's fake and the more he becomes inflated more he's constantly you know like one of those you know air balloons that you got a constant convey puff up he was at a point where when God treated him like just to you and Poornima Bing I mean listen God you see me as a junior partner might be one thing don't treat me like just a creation like I'm I'm your servant it's all I got please you know saying so I think that's that's shot and raashi by the way I always want to have hot the shoes after whoever did this with you all right we're good folks okay wish you all a good mature in Kmart ovens much much Slava [Music]