The Secret of Kol Nidrei: How to Actualize Your Life's Potential

the yeshiva dotnet so there was this Jew who was a very they used to call them my eka extremely particular about his preferences in life and he had a flight with Swiss Air he phones up six months before the flight to make sure that he gets the seat 38 scene because he must sit in an aisle seat they guarantee him 38c a month later he phones again to confirm it and they confirm it and so each month he phones again and they confirm you have your oil seed 38c and a month before the flight he calls again yes Sea Isle a week before a day before finally he comes to the airport six hours before his flight no assigned seating yet when he gets his boarding pass he gets onto the plane to his horror he sees that he got 38b he's sitting by a window he was not given his aisle seat outraged is not the word he lands his wife calls them she says Jack how was the flight he says you call that a flight six months I called them that I want an aisle seat five months four months three months doom on the one month they lied I'm gonna sue them I will close down this airline his wife says my dear husband darling if it's so important for you to have an aisle seat why didn't you just ask the person near you to switch seats with you he says ask there was nobody there you see some people are stuck and when you stuck you just stuck now you just got it okay that's fine that's fine no worries I still didn't get it today we just we discuss as the title that was given how to discover your spark the process of change you know Yom Kippur is coming young people there was a very interesting prayer that the high priest used to make and that always baffled me it surprised me it was once a year the holiest day in the Jewish year that the high priest the holiest Jew would go into the holiest space so you had the convergence of three of the holiest dynamics in the Jewish world the holiest space the holiest man and the holiest time and they came together the Kohan God all the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on this day of Yom Kippur he was not there for long excuse me sorry he was not there for long but when he comes out he would utter a small short prayer and we recite this entire prayer very brief every single Yom Kippur when we review the experience of the high priest in the Holy of Holies and coming out we go through the prayer What did he say right when he comes out on Yom Kippur from this holiest space you would expect them to speak about things that relate to the entire people their faith their destiny and that's indeed what he does number one he asks that it should be enough rain remember Israel the Middle East its semi-arid you need rain it's very difficult to have produce without rain and that would mean starvation famine he asks that the nation should have enough livelihood to support itself got it he asks that the enemies should not be able to destroy the people he asks that the people should not lose their sovereignty their independence they should be able to continue to live in their country in their homeland but then he asks for one more thing this should be a year shall I top Elisha pre-bid no no woman should have a miscarriage this year no miscarriage now it's a wonderful prayer it's a great thing to ask for but I wondered why doesn't he ask that somebody who's infertile should be able to have children that nobody people shouldn't get sick people shouldn't die prematurely from all the individual requests for people's health for people's lives he discusses only one issue no stillborn babies no miscarriage in the womb like top elisha pre-bid 'no he doesn't even ask for healthy births for healthy children which are all critical and vital blessings but it doesn't get into the details of what every person needs he discusses what the nation needs as a whole but this he discusses no miscarriage why this right when he came out of the holy of holies friends there was something else that always perturbed me most of us are all of us this Yom Kippur night Tuesday night we'll go to a show or synagogue or temple and everybody knows that the holiest prayer and Judaism is considered Kol Nidre which is the opening prayer of Yom Kippur services in every Jewish community the world over from Brazil to Sydney from Miami to New York from Honolulu to Peru from Moscow to Tel Aviv every Jewish show starts off with Kol Nidre and the song the melody is heart-stirring in fact it's a melody that triggers deep Jewish emotions I once read that house and yossel arose a lot the famous can to you Sally Rosenblatt he was offered and he was a poor man in the 1920s close to $50,000 which was an astronomical sum of money to perform the Kol Nidrei in Vienna which was the center of international opera and yasala Rosenblat refused he felt it would be profane to perform Kol Nidrei outside of Yom Kippur in a public concert Oh setting I don't think a lot of Jewish singers do it today but this was your seller Rosenblatt he was a unique person very great Cantor and a god-fearing Jew so this the melody is stirring aha a coal and needed a but the words are in Aramaic I want you this year to take a look in the English prayer book the English monitor and see the English translation of Kol Nidre and here one must be perplexed why these words evoke invite such a melody do you know Kol Nidre is not even a prayer it's not a request it's not a song it's not a poem you know what it is it's a legal declaration a legal verbal declaration about absolving vows basically what we say in Cullinan Dre is this all the promises all the pledges all the oaths all the commitments that I'm going to make from this yom kippur till next yom kippur i hereby annul why because judaism holds language to be sacred words to have deep value commitment commitments have profound significance if I say I swear this year I'm not going to eat cheesecake but then I come tell you who the conference and there is a delicious piece of cheesecake and as we heard before it's gonna be on the rooftop also so I can eat the cheesecake and also have a view I can't resist it if I now go and take the cheesecake I violated my vow so on Yom Kippur when Moe's Jews are in Seoul we publicly declare that whatever we commit to next year is worthless don't take it seriously which is why Jews always say I'll do it Bleen either I'm not promising which orphan means of course I won't do it I'm just not so comfortable to tell you know so I just say I'm not promising but really that's what we do in Kol Nidre in committee we say don't take my commitments that seriously I'm committing but it doesn't have any authority it's not called an Edgar it's not called a promise and that way even if I don't fulfill it throughout the year I didn't violate any sin because already retro actively its nullified okay may be a good idea but is that that inspiring is this so meaningful is this spiritual in any way and yet this melody is so hard stirring so the great thing is that most Jews don't know Aramaic so they don't know what they're saying and it sounds cute and the melody is certainly moving so it works but if you would match the lyrics to the melody and you understand the lyrics oh my god I'll give you an example the last line we say need run along need rest I run a laceration or sauna wash service who knows what that means nobody but now I'm going to do it for you in English with the melody and you tell me does this make sense to you my promises are no promises and my pledges are nope leverages hi yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah yah a question though and my Sarno oh wow Wow my oaths are no oaths and we go through the whole culinary saying this in different ways different forms shrieking shrimp tail and whomever Toland here again my oaths are absolved and they're north and they're meaningless and they're nothing larger in Villa Kai your men or my promises mean nothing something very strange so some associated with times of the Spanish Inquisition the 15th and 14th century when many Jews converted to Christianity superficially and they were called by the Spaniards they were called morano's which really means pigs they called these Jews pigs because they felt their conversion was not genuine and it was not genuine they only converted out of coercion and Yom Kippur was once a year they came to pray privately secretly because it was Yom Kippur so the prayer of comedy I assume deep significance because they were basically saying that the vow that they made to the church was annulled the vow that they would make to the church was absolved that's what some say historically created the emotion associated with commentary but the truth is the tradition of Kol Nidrei at the opening of Yom Kippur goes back centuries before the Spanish Inquisition ultimately the Spanish expulsion so I'm going to share another insight with you another perspective that really touches the core of our discussion of the process of change how to discover how to discover your spark you know rosh hashanah after the blowing of the chauffeur there are beautiful words that are said every Rosh Hashanah Yom harrass along what does high ohm Haris or her Allah mean so the English will tell you today is the birthday of the world today is the birthday of the world Kozma Shoshanna celebrates the anniversary of creation got it but it's a very strange choice of words because the words hirato alarm originated in jeremiah in the book of year mia that prophet jeremiah but vir the connotation is the exact opposite jeremiah lived a very difficult life and he cursed the day that he was born and he says in his in his book and jeremiah he says I wish I would have been stillborn I wish I would have remained eternally pregnant in other words I would have died in the womb of my mother and never seen the light of day that's what he says and expression he uses uses is I wish I would have been Herat along Rama I would have been eternally pregnant you see Herat means pregnant or what means eternally I wish I would have remained eternally pregnant in my mother's womb in other words stillborn baby the sages took those words and they put it into the Rosh Hashanah liturgy Herat became from pregnant it became to mean birth and olam instead of eternal means the world so we say hey Yamato Alam today is the birthday of the world really hirato la means forever pregnant not the birthday of the world a very interesting twist on words pregnant became birth and forever became world today is the birthday of the world but the truth is that in this very strange change they were trying to convey the exact mess of the Jewish New Year and that is that everybody makes a choice in the beginning of the year when it comes Yom Kippur when it comes Rosh Hashanah this time of the year and the choice is this will I remain forever pregnant in the womb of my mom or will I have the courage to finally be born now that sounds like a strange question somebody here seems to choose the form what do I mean how remain pregnant in the womb of my mother I have been born for good or for bad true mothers on some level think that their children are still in them it's very hard for mothers to really really feel that your 50 year old baby has been born because he's still a baby especially if he's a man he also acts it so it's hard for mothers to really you know cut the umbilical cord psychologically I mean you do know that there was this little boy and her mother his mother sent him to preschool on the first day four years old and she looks at it says my angel my mama my sweetheart my deliciousness my beauty - Shama lamb Isay Skype my piece of heaven you're gonna go on the bus today but mommy is gonna be here right when you come back to hug you and kiss you my angel I have in my sweetheart my paradise I love my love mama and she sends him off to school the first day he comes home and she gives him a kiss and she says my angel how was school what did you learn he says for starters I learned that I have a name it's Dovid it's hard it's hard for people okay we get it it was the other day was Russia shun in the morning or Shama in the morning Monday morning the mother walks into her son's bedroom she says Samuel Shmuel it's 9 o'clock in the morning you gotta go to show you gotta go to show he says no I'm not going that's Russia sunny something not going why should I go why should I go I'm not going she says why don't you want to go to show he says everybody hates me and show everybody that congregant is the board of directors the president and the God but everybody hates me why should I go to show and she says two reasons number one you're 49 number two you're the rabbi so you see what's the real question what's the question am I gonna remain pregnant or am I gonna be born but we all I think understand what that means every person sitting here in this room every person is pregnant with potential with dreams with aspirations we're full of possibility especially as we're young and we begin to explore life and youngsters are dreamers and we're pregnant with all this possible possible vitality and life and future but the question a person has to answer is will my dreams remain eternally pregnant in me will I essentially experience a miscarriage psychologically speaking of my aspirations of my possibilities oh well I have the courage to finally be born they say there was a baby camel I listen sometimes to animal speak because they're very intelligent people it's a little harder to listen to but animals always have what to say and it's usually practical productive because they're just I don't know their genes just tell them to do three things to do things that are good for them to live and to propagate and to help their environment they're not so complicated like us like for example I never saw sheep say you know I would love the black and white but I have a wedding next week or a horse say you know I would take the lollipop with the ice cream but I really have to look good next week somehow they're fine with grass okay we have other issues so I'm overhearing this conversation okay between camels at least in my perception of course I don't really understand animal language I really understand my own but I was I was watching the to add the true camels this baby camel turns to mommy says mommy filled the friggin dry childless I want to ask you three questions sure man Astana hug Amal has a McCullogh male McCulloch Ayotte why is this camel why are we different than all other animals mommy says what do you mean we're very proud we're great animals were camels she says mommy the three-toed ugly legs why o daughter come on let me explain to you about your greatness we're not regular animals we are capable of marching thousands of miles so we need strong sturdy feet to support those journeys ma why these grotesque eyelashes we marched thousands of miles through the Sahara Desert sandstorms who knows what comes our way between Matthews and sandstorms we could get blind so we have these eyelashes to protect our eyes ah mommy and why these horrible humps why can we just have a little like smoother nicer backs these big humps are my daughter when you March thousands of miles through deserts there's no water we can go week throughout without water but we need a place to store the water we drink before we have these humps where we store all these large quantities of water so we can live weeks without water Wow Wow one more question I get it we have three tote legs even though they're ugly to march thousands of miles big ugly eyelashes to protect us from sandstorms as we march thousands of miles humps to be able to store water as we march thousands of miles so one more question if this is so what in the world are we doing in a cage in the zoo this is the question of hair asylum if you're capable of so much why are you allowing these dreams to remain eternally pregnant in your brain and not bringing them to fruition one of the great rabbis of the previous generation was the rabbi of the city of a vulajin in Belarus he was also the head of the famous famous Shiva of Val Arjun vulajin is a city in the Belarus the vulajin a yeshiva he's no one has done it sieve which is an acronym for Naftali it's V u hood the Berlin rabbi Naftali tzu-yu hood the Berlin he was a prolific author great great scholar and a tremendous teacher he raised generations of students and they didn't it SIV that's how he's known it's a vis acronym known Sadiq you'd Vaes Naphtali to me you would the Berlin he passed away in the 1890s 1893 he once completed one of his works and they made a celebration in the yeshiva and he got up at the celebration and he said I want to tell you something about myself when I was a child I was a horrible student I wasted my time all day Bar Mitzvah came and I went to sleep one night but I couldn't fall asleep as I overhear a conversation between my father and mother in the kitchen and my father tells my mother you know I thought with his mind he would be able to become a really great Torah giant but it doesn't look like it's working so tomorrow I made an appointment for him with a carpenter he seems good with his hands he's going to become on apprentice for a carpenter and at least he'll be able to make a decent fine living support himself by building wooden utensils items vessels and so forth I'm in bed and I hear my father saying to my mother tomorrow I'm going to take him as his first day as an apprentice I leave my bedroom I come out to the kitchen and I say father mother please I would love to succeed in learning Torah give me another chance this father says we tried for so many years what's the point of you sitting in wasting years you know he's already after Bar Mitzvah everybody goes to work this is the shtetl today people sit for years and years on the same bench but people worked you had to support yourself a carpenter is a very fine respectable job he's his father now give me a chance I want to learn so if and he's crying he's crying so he says my father said okay one more day one more day I'll go to yeshiva and we'll see so then it's if tells the students I went the next day to yeshiva and the rest is history Here I am today and he tells his students do you know what motivated me to get out of bed and challenge my father's decision to make me a carpenter apprentice it's a great job and I'm good with my hands I'll tell you what I'll tell you why I decided I was thinking about my end the end of my life and when people come up to heaven after they die you know God interviews you so I would come for my interview and God would say ah NAFTA leads me herschele they called him Hesh apparel apparel welcome to heaven tell me what did you accomplish in the world and I would tell God oh I was a great carpenter so God would say wow that's wonderful and God always wants to see samples so you would say show me samples ah look at my Stender okay this is not wood but could have been look at the bookcases look at the mahogany table look at the cedar wooden candelabra look at the couch look at the chair look at the lectern look at the are encouraged look at the bookcases look at these walls look at these frames look at these structures this is all mine and God would say I think I might become a customer but I have a question I have a question where is your ha mcdhh over where is your hair shaved over where is your embrace Geoffrey started to list off all the books that he wrote the books of scholarship that he wrote where is the embrace chef around the Haggadah where is your hammock Dover and Hamish where is your heart if double and Torah where is your hammock Shayla and the shill toys where is he went through all the works that he wrote God would say we are all these books and I wouldn't have an answer they remained pregnant they experienced a miscarriage I do have to tell you acute sequence the other day the head of a yeshiva was talking to his students and he wasn't very impressed about their diligence he told him the story and he says now let me tell you it's gonna happen when you guys die you're gonna come to heaven and God will say what do you do your whole life is that all we stayed in yeshiva and Kyle our whole life God will say wonderful but I have a question where is distend there where is the table we are the benches where are the mahogany's you were supposed to create that's what he's gonna want to know from you you have to know who you are you have to know what you're capable of and you have to be able to zoom in on your possible Joel child and fetus and allow it to be born so on Yom Kippur when the high priest came out of the Holy of Holies when you go into your own Holy of Holies you become pregnant with possibility but you know what happens we have miscarriages it remains there so what was the one prayer he asked for Shana shall I topple pre-bid nah it should be a year which no human being no woman and all the Jewish people are defined as God spouses God's colors God's bride should miss carry their infinite potential of course physical children as well but their infinite potential and possibilities and children and dreams and aspirations but what is the greatest reason what is the reason for people not having the ability to be able to get out of the cage why do the camels get into the cage why aren't those camels achieving their goals maximizing their potentials why what is the greatest reason and perhaps you might say there's a lot of fear there is insecurity there are scars there are wounds there is the need for conformity there is the question of you know pleasing others being mocked by others there is inner stagnation or paralysis or a sense of inaction that may be safer if I just remain pregnant I don't make a ruckus I don't make too many waves no ripple effect I'll just surrender to me the equity who said Thoreau I think most people live lives of quiet desperation but what is the reason the reason we address right when we come into your Kippur and that's the secret of Kol Nidrei what is really cool what is really call me Dre you see there are two types of promises that people make in life there are promises that I make to you I'm going to do this and this for you there are promises I make to myself I'm going to lose 60 pounds within the next few hours classical Jewish promises but there are other promises much deeper promises there are the promises you make to yourself about yourself about your capabilities there are promises I say to myself this is just how it is I swear to myself that this is who I am and I can't change some people tell themselves my marriage will never be happy it's destined to be miserable me my body I'll never be able to really turn it into the body I like my life is destined to be this type of life my relationship with my children will forever be compromised my relationship with my parents will forever be problematic me and my mother will just never get along me and my father we haven't spoken for a year we won't speak for the next year me and my brother forget about it if you would have such a brother me and my sister oh my god we put ourselves into confined boxes and we promised ourselves that this is the way it's supposed to be we are tied down by shackles by cords that don't allow us to emerge so what's the first thing you have to Don Young Kippur you have to nullify the valves which valves the valves that you have been making and you will be making to yourself and I will be making to myself about what I'm capable of and what I'm not capable of about what type of year I'm going to have about what type of relationship I'm going to have but what type of marriage I'm going to have about what type of accomplishments I'm going to be able to accomplish about what type of life I am going to live physically financially socially emotionally psychologically spiritually the other day there was a Jewish or not a Jewish and non-jewish American family their last name is Smith they are very proud of their lineage you know why their ancestry has arrived they had an ancestor who arrived to these shores on the Mayflower in the seventh the 1600s and they hired a researcher to write a book about the family because they wanted to display and transmit this prior to their children because bei they are basically from the founding fathers the first pilgrims who came to the to this country which would become the United States of America the researchers started to research the family history and you know whenever you research family history you come across a skeleton or two so he comes across to their dismay the story of great-great uncle Clarence Smith and you know the story of Clarence Smith right he died on the electric chair because he was a criminal he was a real criminal now what do you do this is part of the family history so in our circles you just eliminate him from the history and you make a book and you make believe he never existed and we love to call that history we have no issue with revisionism I read a lot of Jewish biographies their connection to truth is like my relationships with Turtles in New Zealand even less because I like turtles in New Zealand their regards for historical accuracy is null it's void in fact I told somebody but it's not history it's called his story which is fine just don't call it history put a hyphen in the middle his story so that's what we do but non-jews don't always can't always afford that luxury they don't always think in such a broad term some of them believe in something we call integrity or accuracy so when you're writing a biography about the family you got to write about the family if Clarence Smith was executed on the electric chair what are you gonna do to delete it from the story is inaccurate to put it into this story will cast a stain on the family it's worthless to write the book so the author the researcher says you know what I have dealt with these situations in the past I will put in the full truth they said you can't it's gonna destroy the family name no no I'll do it in a way that will be true but it will not embarrass the family okay day of publication they run to the store they buy the book they look at the index in the back clear in Smith page 78 they turn to page 78 and here is the story and this is what it says great-great uncle Clarence Smith occupied an important Shir in a vital governmental institution he was tied to his position with the greatest of shackles and despite all of his attempts and desires he could not tear himself away from that important cheer in this great governmental institution he remained connected to his position till his last breath his death came as a sudden shock so you see my friends ok I also just got it don't feel that it's a pretty good one you see my friends I cannot experience Yom Kippur if I don't say Kol Nidre because I'm tied down with shackles what is called Nidre Kol Nidrei is basically a declaration not that I have no trauma that's not true I may not that I have no fears oh I have a lot of fears not that I have no insecurities I have lots of insecurities that's why I'm a public speaker not that I don't have pain to deal with not that I don't have issues I don't know a Jew that doesn't have issues in fact the only people I know that are perfect are the people I don't know the only marriages I know that a perfect other marriages I don't know so it's not that I don't have this you don't have this and therefore of course all my dreams just come to fruition it's that I am more powerful than my trauma I am more powerful than my pain I am larger than my insecurities I am deeper than my frailties I have all of them but the eye of the soul is says that Tonya says a hail akeli calm me ma ma ma SH the soul is a fragment of God it's as invincible as God it has all the confidence wholesomeness sacredness power joy optimism of its creator the verses Psalm says we said every morning in the morning prayers in haidu is versed verbum claim oi there is confidence and joy in God space how do you know that you're in God's space anytime of the day or the night how do you know two things if you're operating from a place of confidence and you're operating from a place of joy because the soul is always in a space of confidence and always in a space of joy do I have moments where I lack confidence in joy of course but the eye the true eye the deep eye my soul is more powerful than my chains it's more powerful than my trauma it's more powerful than my pain it's more powerful than my fears my fears are there but my soul is more powerful and therefore I couldn't declare calm Nidre that all the shackles that I have placed upon myself all the chains that lock me in that confine me and that I will be making from this Yom Kippur the lyceum Kippur all the times I will be saying I I can't I will forever remain in conflict I will forever be the depressed soul I will forever be the NEB I will forever be obese I will forever be in a fight with this one on that one I will never really along with my siblings or children or parents or partners or friends and so forth all these commitments that we make to ourselves are based on a super superficial version of yourself but when you discover a deeper version of yourself which is what um Kippur is all about how do you start the day when you discover your real I the first thing you have to say all these vows I made to myself about myself are absolved now come back to the song come back to the words and tell me do they match or do they not match well we can interpret it not just in terms of legalities but in terms of psychological change shackles chords and ropes ah ha ha the melody mom-ish fits and matches the words my promises are no promises and my pledges are nope leverages I uh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and my sarno oaths you see this is the deep declaration of a free soul of a liberated emancipated spirit that my vows my promise is my oaths in which I confined myself and limited myself and promised myself this is just the way it is I am destined to this pattern to this relationship to this lifestyle to these inhibitions to this reality it's worthless it's not more powerful than me it's not more powerful than my soul which is a helical a common mouth which is part of the divine which if we think about it answers a very fundamental and interesting question every Jew every student of the Bible knows Adam and Eve are created on Rosh Hashanah and the Torah says man was created in God's image and the obvious question is God doesn't have an image Moses tells us hundreds of times God has no image he's imageless what do we mean when we say human beings are created in God's image God has no image to say God has an image as a form of idolatry it's anathema to the Jewish faith so what do you mean I and you and every human being from Adam and Eve were created in God's image oh you valve let me open your hearts let me ant tell you the secret of this when we say the human being was created in God's image and God has no image that's the point if I was created in God's image and God has no image it means I also have no image I choose my image I don't have an image you might tell me of course I have an image we all have images there's what I look like I have my DNA I have my genetic my Jinnah my genetic makeup mic mystery my disposition my upbringing my nature my nerd so what do you mean have no image of course have images we all have an image we have an image to others we have an image to ourselves true but the real human being is created in God's image and God is imageless meaning the core of your being has no image you're not fixed in any image you're not you we tell ourselves we're fixed in an image we tell ourselves I can't I'm afraid it's not gonna work that's a voice that's a thought that's not you you have no image just like God has no image you choose your image I choose who are I'm going to be today I choose who I'm going to be now I choose what I'm going to do in an hour I choose it I have no image I create an image every moment but it's a choice I have to make if I don't create an image any moment every moment I have my default image my default image is victimhood but that's not my real image my real image is that I have no image I choose an image I have thoughts have voices that tell me you have an image but that's not my image my images God's image and God has no image he chooses his image so this other day there was a Bar Mitzvah you heard of a vomits all right that's when Jews come and eat sushi so no it's very important I did because if there's no sushi there are many opinions that the bar mitzva did not happen you have to read do you have to read and the same thing buy a wedding you may have to redo the wedding if there was no sushi just it's an important I walk view that you should take into consideration not all Jews agree but a very big majority of Orthodox Jews believe that so it's very important now so this guy this this boy wants to give up a mitzvah speech you know he do mom it's for speeches right you thank people that you don't really like so she comes to his mother and he says you know mommy I want to talk about our family ancestry where we come from so a mother says become from haha and she starts waxing eloquent about her mother and grandmother great no no no no mommy all the way back where do we come from I want to talk about the beginning the beginning in the beginning God created heaven and earth another six day created Adam and Eve and they had soldiering I'm not sure why and those children had more children and the rest is his story history are actually her story okay and we come from our dad a bream Isaac Jacob Sarah Rebecca Rachel a son comes to his father his father was a very educated graduate of Columbia University and Yale University and enlightened fellow he says daddy where do we come from so Daddy tells him about the family lineage none on the beginning in the beginning that he says the beginning it began with a primordial soup and a big bang some fifteen point three billion years ago and after hundreds of millions of years billions of years of evolution the Homo Sapien emerged ceases that am confused but what were we before he says before that we were Apes and what were the APIs before oh there were monkeys and what did we did they come they came from other primates and how did it all begin it began with an explosion of gas and bacteria he comes back to his mother and says mommy I'm really confused about my bum it's for speech I want to talk about where we come from you tell me we come from Abraham Isaac Jacob and God Adam Eve God daddy tells me we come from apes monkeys and bacteria so what should I say who do we come from and his mother says his son there's no contradiction here your father was talking about his side of the family and I'm talking about my side of the family so this is this is a very profound idea we each have two sides of the family there's your father's side of the family and there's mom's side of the family I could look in the mirror and see an ape and you know what when I'm buying a smorgasbord I feel like one and sometimes I even look like one and it's true it's true there is a part of us that is a beast and a beast has an image a beast has an image only the human being was created in God's image but I can also look in the mirror and say you know what my images my image is that I have to choose an image that's my image I choose an image there's no ropes call me Dre you have kippur have absolved them and that's what the high priest asks for a year in which no person miscarries a year in which all of your infinite potential aspirations dreams possibilities come gushing forth they emerge from your symbolic room into the world to bring so much more light that our world desperately needs and you know I have to say I'm good night I don't mean this in a disrespectful way but I mean it actually in an inspiring way three days before Shoshanna was the funeral of Shimon Paris the ninth president of Israel 70 world leaders came to his funeral in Jerusalem to bid farewell including the president of United States including leaders of Britain and France and so many 70 countries were represented there very impressive a Polish leadership in go of Polish little Jewish boy whose grandfather was burnt alive with eight family members and 74 in 1942 his own grandfather his name was rapid V Meltzer a graduate of the valar Geneva that I had said we spoke about before then it saves you Shiva the his Aida came from vulajin his name was not Shimon Peres as Amos shimon peres scheme but that's a shtetl name so of course like many names they changed it to hit break you know Zionist sounding names hit brea sized names and here 70 leaders come but to something interesting much him in paris and that is that he kept on losing the Israeli elections I don't even know if there was one election that he ever won he kept on running and running and running and running and he lost every election by default by default Robin was assassinated so Shimon Paris becomes an acting Prime Minister until Netanyahu defeats him but this was the story of his life almost every office he ran for he lost you would think at some point a person should get a message and say you know what it's time to start eating lava and retire into some farm or into some nice Tel Aviv Condon condominium and all is good this man at the age of 93 still had plans galore so his son his son Tommy Paris asks his father a short while before he died he's 93 what should I write on your tombstone and you know what Shimon Peres says you should write he died prematurely there's a lesson in that he died prematurely what I'll profound 'less and he worked and worked and relentlessly and they made fun of him constantly and they wrote sometimes not such service and you know that I believe that many of his policies were profoundly ill-conceived especially one particular policy but I'm not addressing now ideological or political disagreements I'm addressing the drive of a human being to be born not to remain pregnant forever and look how he went out there was no Israeli leader who was elected who served for many years who went out with that respect where world leaders had such a deep affection and respect for him and I'm not now getting into the details again of his policies I know it's it's it's a painful and it's different topic and today there was another terrorist attacking in the holy city of Jerusalem and it's all connected to the philosophy of appeasement whatever the separate subject a painful subject but it teaches us about about human dry about human ambition about the ability of a person not to define themselves and say I am a loser because that's what Paris could have easily done and for justified reasons in fact they called them in Israeli newspapers they would call them the eternal loser you know Jews don't are not stingy with titles for other people right ask your grandmother how many words do we have in English for a poor person nah no to a poverty-stricken guy and a pauper how many words they have any dish an order man a captain Ashla Mazel under Nick ash Nora Allah Islamic immediate kilala accelerated and must be miss sugar I can garnish Tommy's I'm Leben and many more we're pretty good at titles for people especially people that we like so that's why they called him the eternal loser imagine you were called in politics not by your buyer by earth by a third grade teacher that you go to therapy for but what when a whole country calls you an eternal loser on newspapers you sit down they say okay I guess I'm a loser fine let me let me go to therapy and figure it out and maybe one day I'll be a winner but data busy he could have had that in but he didn't allow that and he ultimately becomes the president of Israel very popular president and he goes out and he's like the face of Israel to the world the high priest asked for this on Yom Kippur a year in which no woman no person miscarries because every person is filled with so much potential and it's such a great tragedy when we die prematurely especially when we die prematurely when we're still alive thank you this class is brought to you by the achieve Annette please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot they you see vinet slash donate

Channel: Rabbi YY Jacobson

Views: 39,041

Keywords: TheYeshiva.net, Torah Study, Religion, Judaism, Rabbi YY Jacobson, Rabbi Jacobson, YY Jacobson, theyeshiva, the yeshiva, Torah Online, kol nidrei, kal nidrei, yom kippur, actualizing potential, limitations, rabbi yy

Id: xyo860ksjWc

Length: 54min 12sec (3252 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 02 2019