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0:00 Dear friends, welcome to this week's virtual dasha. This week we have the incredible privilege and the para begins in a way seemingly straightforward ways to see I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse. Life is filled with choices. And whereas we often like to think there's a lot of gray says there's not as much gray as you think. 0:24 In any given moment, there's a choice between blessing in life and a curse in life. How do you access these respective things? How do you access the listen to listen to the you will find the where does the come up in most if you do not listen to the mitzvah and you veer away from the path that 0:57 I've created for you today to follow after other gods that you do not know. So speaking on behalf of advancing beforeh what appears to be a very simple life decision there are two choices on any given moment on any given day there are two paths there's a path of braha and there's a path of the path of braha the path of blessing is to be 1:23 found by obedience connection and ultimately allegiance tokes the the curse unfortunately is to be found when we veer away when we abandon this is a motif that mosh expresses over and over, especially in this idea almost of divine reciprocity that what you could expect to get out from a relationship with is directly related to 1:46 what you're willing to put in. If you're willing to invest, if you're willing to commit myself to a life of to a life of spiritual elevation and growth, then I could expect from but I choose to turn my back on a very basic level. on a very basic level what you put in is what you get out. So if I abandon to just understand that that divine 2:10 reciprocity is waiting for me as well. So leaving aside the fact that life doesn't always seem to work out in in these exact parameters in these exact models. But leaving that aside is giving us a he's giving us an outlook for life. 2:26 In any given moment there are two paths in front of you and choose wisely because what you choose regarding your relationship with will ultimately have an impact on how relates to you but perhaps I don't know for some reason this this year this bus this really struck me in a little bit of a different way and perhaps whereas it's true Mosh was 2:49 absolutely conveying this message that in any given moment you stand at the fork in the roads and you have to decide braha oral blessing curse, right? What do you want? What do you want? As we often discuss, there's no, right? There's no real middle ground. You're either going right, you're either going left, you're either going, you're either going kala. Every single decision we make puts us and advances us on one of these two at points mutually exclusive 3:13 paths. Choose wisely because what I choose for myself ultimately frames my relationship with. But perhaps is also conveying to us something even simpler. remembers told you and says to us my beautiful precious children see that I have placed before you today and meaning what the is telling us my 3:40 precious children as you go through life you'll be confronted with a variety of different circumstances some of your circumstances will be some of your circumstances will be beautiful will be pleasant will be enjoyable and other circumstances may feel like other circumstances may feel overwhelming, may feel dreadful, may feel terrible. But my dear child, always understand 4:04 always know that whatever you're going through in life, I'm giving you those circumstances. Hashem says nothing ever happens to you haphazardly. Nothing ever happens randomly. It's not just the some series or confluence of events occurs that creates the life that you have. 4:27 Know that whatever you're undergoing in life or good or bad, pleasant, difficult, enjoyable, despicable, whatever it might be, know because doesn't just mean to see. It means to know your God. 4:46 my I'm giving you those circumstances. I'm giving you that situation. And I'm aesh and as au I know exactly what you need, when you need it, and how you need it. And I know exactly the perfect cocktail of life circumstances that need to be arranged for you in order for you to fully self-actualize and become the best version of ourselves. You know, 5:11 when things are going right in life, we don't usually question, right? No one ever says why me when they ask enjoying a deluge of but we all say why me or what's going on over here what's your plan when we suffer and we we encounter adversity or difficulty. So what's the isode? What's so to speak like the hashkafic anchor that keeps us rooted 5:35 even the tumultuous seas of life? It's knowing that everything we undergo, everything we endure, everything that happens to us is just know I whatever your circumstances are, it comes from me. And the knowledge that our life circumstances stems from and 6:04 that nothing is random. Of course, in times of good should engender within us a profound sense of of gratitude tok for the brah that he's bestowed upon us. But in times of difficulty, in times of adversity, the knowledge that my suffering and my difficulty is not random. It's not some other cosmic force that's foisted these circumstances upon me. It's shalom. And who loves me wants 6:31 me to be successful who is always looking out for me. Even if it hurts. Even if it hurts. Those circumstances ultimately are coming from me. You know, my good friend Mickey Felbam gave me a beautiful book called Two Worlds Exist. It's a book of poetry by a Jewish poet, Yoshua November. He's my new uh poetry hero. 6:55 And he has a beautiful poem. The poem is titled Falling from the Sky. And I just want to share it with you. It's a short poem. When we found out our daughter had gone deaf, I did not question God's fairness. Not out of faith, but because my whole life it had always seemed that at the next moment terrible news would 7:18 fall from the sky as punishment, perhaps for a particular transgression, but more likely because whatever you think could never happen must happen. You hear these words because whatever you think could never happen must happen. And in this way you know clearly there is a world you do not see. And in this way you know 7:42 clearly there is a world you do not see. What November is teaching us is a tremendous life never goes according to plan. It never goes according to plan. And it's incredible because for some strange reason, even though life never goes according to plan, we still always expect it to go according to plan. And then when it doesn't go according to plan and it goes off the rails in big ways and little ways, we're so like 8:07 disillusioned. We're so upset. We're so like, what's going to be? But at the end of the day, do you know why life never goes according to plan? Because what that would mean is that I could script my life. If I could script my life, then that would mean that all there is in this world is what I see. But there is a world we do not see. And in this way, 8:29 because things happen that we never plan for because life rarely f follows the plan because life tends to go off the rails all of the time. That's by design. does that to remind us that there and know in this way when life goes off the rails you know clearly there is a world you do not see because things don't go 8:54 accordingly right it's a little bit almost of hubris or ga to think that I have a plan and life is going to follow this plan that presupposes I have all the information I know everything I've got it all planned out but I don't I know what's in front of me maybe a little bit what's behind me maybe I could foresee a little bit what's in front of me, but that's it. Very limited light vision. The runs a beautiful, 9:18 wholly, perfectly executed and choreographed world. And he knows what I need, when I need, and how I need it. And he knows when there needs to be bra. And he knows when there needs to be. And he knows when there needs to be good things and beauty and blessing and comfort. And he knows when there needs to be adversity, difficulty, and 9:41 tumultuousness. And because life doesn't go according to plan, that's ultimately how we know that there is because life doesn't go according to plan. That's how we know that there is a world that we do not see. And at the end of the day, that's what was telling Moshe to tell Mosha says, "My beautiful 10:04 holy people. You are about to go into you're about to go. You're about to embrace your destiny." And I know all of you have a plan. Life is going to go like this. And when you're 20, you're going to do this. And when you're 30, you're going to do this. And when you're 40, and when you're 60, and when you're 80 and 119, you've got the whole plan. 10:23 You've got the whole plan. You know exactly. And you know, you know what? you know what you're supposed to do, everybody's supposed to do and then stuff happens and overwhelming stuff happens and we become so disillusioned, so broken, so upset what's going to be with me and Mosha this is my dear children just remember this lesson whatever happens to 10:45 you in life whatever happens to you always remember one thing I your god the events of your life and the events of your days, whether they're or whether they're close, it's all from me. Says it's all from me. And if it's from me, I got you. 11:12 I got you. I promise. I promise. I promise. I promise. Says, "I've got you." And even when it looks like everything's falling apart, and even when it looks like doesn't have me, and even when it feels like things have just gone off the rails in such a dramatic way, know that sometimes throws us a bunch of curve balls to remind us that there is a world we do not see. And that 11:36 world that we do not see is so much better and so much holier than the one we do see. Just tells us, just have faith in me. I promise I got you. I promise I got you. And if we could just believe that whatever happens in life, the braha and the it all comes from Hashem and it's all part of his plan for us, then there is no blessing that will not intensify our profound gratitude for 11:59 and there's no adversity that could derail us. Because when that adversity or difficulty sets in, all I needs me to do is hold on to even tighter. And the God who knows what I need will get me through this difficulty and shepherd me into my personal promised land. This was the message that Mosha was giving to Isel 12:24 thousands of years ago and the message that holy Moshabu whispers in our ears this shabas paras as well. Wishing everyone a good night of Shabas and a beautiful Shabas kesh.
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