The Soul, Satan, Afterlife & The Resurrection of the Dead

there was this preacher back in Russia hookah City considered himself a great philosopher he was a legend in his own mind and he would go around from step Alkesh Nepalese philosophical lectures to simple farming people so naturally they all fell asleep but he would go from town to town and he would deliver his lectures one time he came to comes to a town he's giving his lecture everybody falls asleep except for one guy who's looking at him very intently and at one point in his lecture he sees this guy going like this he said finally somebody is listening somebody is agreeing with me but after a few moments the guy is going like this say things oh he doesn't agree with me so he bought more arguments and he explained it better and he tried harder and after a while the guy's going like this and this went on back and forth he would say no and he would explain it better and then the guy would say nod yes so of course the lecture went on for hours finally when he finishes his lecture he goes over to the guy and he says so tell me in the end did you agree with me or not the guy says look I'm a simple farmer I didn't understand a word you said he said then what were you making with your head he says last week my best goat disappeared and when you were standing at a certain angle you looked like my goat but then you turned the other way ever now no but when you turned back I thought yeah yeah so he says I finally came to the conclusion you're certainly a goat but not mine when we get together a whole community of Jews we got a accomplish something we've got to say something got to learn something meaningful something real something true something wholly something without an echo otherwise it comes across like a goat so let's learn something very important very real and very true what does the Torah tell us about life that we can understand and appreciate now there's an expression that everybody uses that causes great confusion the expression life after death and people say do you believe in life after death and people are stunned that sounds like a very deep question and you know we're not so philosophical do you believe in life after death the expression is wrong misleading and confusing what does it mean life after death what are you talking about are you asking me whether something that has died is alive that's nonsense if it's not if it died then it's not alive because if it was alive than it didn't die so what does it mean is there life after death a human being is defined in Torah as a creature with a body and a soul because in the story of creation it says God formed a body and then breathed into it a soul and it was a man an inch so what is a mensch not a body alone and not a soul alone but a body with a soul or a soul in a body every life has a certain span every person is given a certain number of years when those years are up the soul and the body go their separate ways they each return to their natural habitat and that is the expression from dust to dust the body goes back to the ground because that's where it came from it was made from the earth and it goes back to the earth the soul goes back to where Souls come from wherever that is when the soul and the body separate we call that death but what actually happened when the body and soul separated the body is not a living thing by its very nature it is earth it's not a living thing it only lives because the soul gives it life the soul on the other hand is a living thing it is alive so when we ask the question is there life after death what are we talking about are we talking about the body are we talking about the soul either way the question makes no sense because if you're talking about the body and you're asking is the body alive after it dies not a very good question of course not if you're asking is the soul alive after it leaves the body that's not a good question either because of course yes a living thing can't die life can't die it's just a logical necessary assumption life can't die death can't live so is there life after death what does it mean what's alive is always alive not after death always so there are only real questions only logical question should be where does life go when it leaves the body that's a good question and I don't know the answer that's what makes it a good question but is there life when it leaves the body the soul is more alive when it leaves the body because while it's in the body it has to schlep this thing around it's like a locomotive can a locomotive move when it's disconnected from the 300 cars can move yes it can move a lot easier so the soul is a locomotive the body is like the cars the caboose so for a hundred and twenty years this the locomotive schleps this body around and gives it life when it separates from the body it becomes more alive what does life mean life means feelings life means knowledge life means sensitivity how much knowledge can a soul have when it has to work through a little brain it's limited how much sensitivity can the soul experience when it has to experience it through an insensitive body it's limited how much emotion can a soul feel when it has to do it through a human heart it's limited and that's why there were times in the olden days when people would die from excitement from heartbreak why cuz the heart couldn't take it the soul was feeling more than the heart could take but when the soul is not attached to the body it feels those same feelings more intensely it understands what it had studied or what it had thought more deeply it's now free to live without restrictions so when people say God forbid a husband dies leaving leaving a wife or a wife dies leaving a husband do they does the soul in heaven still feel care no the answer is what he means still now it really feels if it could feel love or compassion or devotion through a human heart that is only so big imagine how much love it feels now that it's not restricted to that little heart and it doesn't have to worry about whether the heart can take it now it can really feel so it's hard for us to imagine how much emotion is a soul capable of when it is not restricted by the human heart how much knowledge and understanding is a soul capable of when it doesn't have to work through the little brain how much does the soul see when it doesn't have to see through eyes how much does it hear when it doesn't have to hear through the ears so is the soul still alive not still alive now it is fully alive a fair an interesting story we have this seminar for women based Hana it's 30 years now whew for more than 30 years women come during vacation times from college from work from all over the world for a couple of weeks for a month to get a crash course on Judaism and her life is strange there are women who come from Israel to st. Paul Minnesota it's a study Judaism one year many years ago a woman came to basically a girl came to base Hannah she was 16 her mother begged her to come because from the time she was 13 she had told her parents that she wants to be a Mormon you know what is a Mormon this girl grew up in Brooklyn she went to a day school all her life when she was 13 she decided she wants to be a Mormon she told her mother the mother says what a Mormon she had no idea what that was at first they thought they would pass they took it to a psychiatrist eventually they had the grandfather come flying in to talk to her the rabbi of the shul the principal of the day school garnished the whole thing she wants to be a Mormon finally when she was 16 she tells her parents she's going to Utah because she has to be a Mormon so the parents prevailed on her to make a stop in Minneapolis and it's on the way so she did them a favor and she stopped off in Minneapolis I tried to talk to her there was no chance I said why are you going to Utah she says I'm going to find out if they have the truth I said how are you gonna know if they have the truth we can ask them do you have the truth that's how you're gonna find that what do you know about truth what do you what are you going she said I just have to go and there was no talking to her fine next morning she goes down to the office and she's on the telephone with the airline making arrangements to continue her journey to Utah but the Secretary of the hobbit house was on the other line talking to a Baptist northern Baptist to a church group who were coming to the Hobbit house for election this girl hears this and she says to the secretary they're coming to her bat house for a lecture the secretary says yeah the girl said why the secretary who wasn't Jewish says to learn I guess anyway the girl got very curious and she said wait I gotta see this so she cancelled her flight and she stayed two extra days and a group of ministers say I get invited to speak they're at their seminary for the graduating class a year after they graduated they have been out in the field for a year they come back for a retreat and part of the program is that they come to the Hobart house first year ministers so about 30 ministers come to the Habad house and the students of Base Hana the Jewish women are sitting around the walls the periphery of the room and there are 30 ministers in the center of the room and I'm familiar with the routine they act they came to ask questions about Judaism but really they want to know what I think about their religion that's really why they come about their religion so they asked me two or three questions about Judaism and then they start asking me questions about their religion so I was familiar with this I wasn't surprised but all these women from all over the world they couldn't believe it they're all sitting there and when it comes to the questions one of the ministers said what are what are the different types of labor you're not allowed to perform on Shabbos we talked about that for a while then somebody said what is this holiday Lag Ba'Omer [Music] they had done their homework we talked about that for a few minutes and then it began question do you believe in heaven and hell I said of course when the soul leaves the body it goes back to where Souls come from now a soul that comes back to the world of souls and it still looks like a soul and it still smells like a soul well it just picks up where it left off and it fits right in and it's paradise but a soul comes back after a hundred years on earth and it kind of smells like a body not like a soul it's got an earthy smell to it well that's very embarrassing that's hell the burning of hell is the burning with shame at a physical fire a soul is ashamed because it doesn't smell like a soul and so it goes through hell until that smell wears off then it's in paradise and that smell can only last up to a maximum of 12 months that's why we say Kaddish for 11 months because why do you think my relative needed the whole 12 months so we say for 11 months just in case but we don't want to make that you know make it look bad and say the whole 12 months so we say for 11 months out of respect for the soul and to believe that hell goes on forever is not kosher it's not allowed it's idolatry because evil cannot go on forever only good is eternal not even now of course this is not what they're taught and this is not what they believe but they're very glad to hear it because eternal damnation is a very painful difficult concept so nobody objected they went on to the next question and these Jewish women are saying or I said wait wait a minute why don't they you argue next question do you believe in the resurrection so of course after Messiah comes every soul will come back into its body that's the ultimate perfection of the world souls don't stay in heaven forever they come back to earth for a very simple reason the reward that the soul receives in heaven is for the mitzvahs it performed while it was on earth right but to perform a mitzvah you have to have a body so the soul could not perform the Mitzvah without the body so why isn't getting all the reward that makes sense to be rewarded properly the body has to share in the reward because the body shared in the Mitzvah and that's why ultimately the true reward is when the soul comes back into the body and together they are rewarded with a perfect world this is not what they're taught but nobody objected next question do you believe in Satan I said of course Sutton is an angel an angel means a messenger a messenger has no agenda of his own he's an angel he does what God tells him to do and that's all he cares about that's all he knows to do what God told him to do unfortunately Sutton gets to do all the dirty work gets all the dirty jobs but to think that Sutton has some kind of an agenda and he's at war with God that's Greek mythology now that I believe that no objections next question do you believe in the Messiah I said of course Messiah is a descendant of King David he will aspire the world bring peace to the world but it's not a matter of believing just to believe that someday there will be a messiah the sooner we get back to keeping all the commandments the sooner he will come of course this is not what they're told but a guy raises his hand that's sitting right in front of me a minister raises his hand and he says is there anything we can do to help this girl who was on her way to Omaha to where it was on her way to Utah she had been sitting at the edge of her seat literally physically when this guy said is there anything we can do to help she leaned forward a little bit and the chair toppled over literally she fell out of her chair the session was over and she comes over to me and she says I'm not going I'm not going to Utah what's the point go bring me here for an afternoon to find out would you I might as well stay here do we believe in resurrection it's not a matter of belief just like life continues logically and necessarily because a living thing can't die the same is true with resurrection it's necessary morally to assume that the body will be rewarded with the soul so it's not just a matter of believing in some strange event that's going to happen it's part of our morality you don't reward the soul without the body if it couldn't do the mitzvot without the body and since God is just how could he not reward the body so if we don't believe in resurrection then we're basically saying that God is not just that there is no justice the body deserves a reward in fact the body deserves more of a reward than a soul because a soul is a godly thing it loves doing mitzvahs so why does it deserve such a reward it's only doing what it loves but the body hates doing misses body hates doing anything so when a body does a mitzvah it really deserves a reward and to not reward the body that's just not nice and God is nice and so we believe in the resurrection of every Jewish soul and every righteous not Gentile because it's only right it wouldn't be right any other way now the process of birth and death is explained very very graphically intolerant in Kabbalah by the way Kabbalah I mean real Kabbalah not the stuff Madonna Gavilan real Kabbalah is simply a section of Torah only it's the mystical section so in the Torah it says that birth and death come in stages they don't happen suddenly how does birth happen forty days before conception the angel announces that there's going to be a conception and a birth it announces how long the soul is going to be in the body it announces the type of life it's going to have it announces who you're gonna marry that's before you're conceived you're already married then it's just a question of finding him or her that is the beginning of the birth process here's a very interesting thing if you look at the stories on the Torah like for example the birth of Isaac the angel came to Sarah and said this time next year you will have a son the obvious question is it doesn't take a year why is it always this time next year nine months all it takes it doesn't the pregnancy takes nine months but before conception the soul has to get used to the idea that it's going to come down into a body into this world and it has to adjust that need a little time to orient itself it would be too shocking for conception to happen without warning so it literally does take 12 months for a soul to be born so we've all been here before we're old hands at this so when the resurrection happens which body is our soul going to come back to some suggest that you get to pick the best parts of each body okay like I missed the potato head you can kind of every body did a mitzvah so every body has to be rewarded so which body will the soul come back into all of them they were all good a soul can have more than one body one soul can give life to many bodies this explains a fascinating statement in the Midrash the Meldrick makes the following observation if you look in the verse in the Torah it says and the day's drew near or there it drew near the days for Yaakov to die which literally means he was close to death but the Madras takes it very literally and says the days were gonna die that's what it sounds like if you translate it literally like the days were going to die Yaakov was days were going to die so the measure says the days are going to die and it answers question it says that's right Yakko doesn't die just the day's die you run out of days you don't run out of life so we really don't die our time is up the time ran out not the soul not the life but the time that the soul was supposed to spend on earth that ran out that's a very Jewish and correct understanding of life and death but at one end with another incredible story personal experience it was back in the 70s I was in New York visiting and I went up to one of the offices therapies offices there were secretaries and I found out that for the first time in about 30 years they're rearranging the office they still had dial phones but there were for some reason they were redecorating the office or something so I pitched in and we were slepping file cabinets around and moving desks and as we're rolling this one cabinet file cabinet a file had slipped out of the drawer was between the drawers and when we leaned the cabinet forward the file fell out we picked it up it was a manila file folder and I had one letter in it dated 1957 we read it it was a letter to the Rebbe from a dr. Jacobson who lived in Manhattan in the letter dr. Jacobson writes to the river a terrible thing happened a friend of mine a mr. Shapiro a wealthy man wanted to fulfill the Mitzvah of writing a Torah and so he hired a scribe and he authorized him to write a new Torah scroll the custom is that just before you finish the last line of the new Torah you make a party you invite a lot of people it's the celebration of the conclusion of a Torah scroll and then at the party you finish you fill in those last letters and there's a big celebration mr. Shapiro asked dr. Jacobson if the party could be held in dr. Jacobson's apartment because it was larger than mr. Shapiro's and so there was a party it was a great celebration and at the party there was a woman there a single woman young woman who doesn't say in the letter but she must have had an aneurysm and all the doctors who were there could not help her and she died at the party in dr. Jacobson's apart now dr. Jacobson writes to the letter my faith is fine I have no questions I have no problems but people are asking me how to how do you explain this a woman comes to a party celebrating Torah and dies where is the justice now you know of course when a person says I have no problem but a friend of mine you know you know already what that means right some guy once came to our Deborah and said Deb a friend of mine asked me to find out how do you how do you repent for committing adultery so the Deborah said why didn't your friend come to ask himself he said well he's embarrassed she doesn't have to be embarrassed he can come and tell me that he has a friend so the man admitted that it was him so dr. Jacobson says I have no problem but I have a friend students particularly who are asking me to explain how such a thing can happen what should I tell them and then as a giveaway he says and my second question is why did it happen in my house the way that ever answered most letters is that he would write his answer in the margin of your letter that way you save paper and you save time and it's so the devas answer was written in the margins of dr. Jacobson's letter right there so after we finished reading back to Jacobson's letter we read the Deborah's answer it ever writes it out and then the secretary types it up and nails it out but here was the answer and it's written very briefly ABC points here is the Debbie's answer a why do human beings think that they can understand God be God asks us to try to understand him so let's try see when a person is born there is an announcement made by the angel that says how long that person is going to live with very rare exceptions the person lives exactly that amount of years to the day if you do something so horrendous so unthinkable it could shorten the life but that's very unusual and if you do something so stupid Asst so more meritorious it could lengthen your life but that's rare generally we live out the life we were given where we have to D when the time comes and the person is finished with his life death can happen in so many different ways it can happen in very unpleasant circumstances like a person alone in the streets it can happen in a hospital where you have at least some caring doctors some people who are interested sensitive it can happen with your family standing around different ways point e every detail of a person's last minutes in life are unimaginably meaningful your last breaths of course everything that's going on around you is very meaningful next point you cannot imagine that ever says how meaningful is it to a Jewish girl who is breathing her last and cannot speak how meaningful is it that she knows that she is breathing her last breaths in a room that has a mezuzah on the door and in the mezuzah it says Sh'ma Israel Hashem Allah kainoa Channahon which is what you're supposed to say before you die but she couldn't say it so knowing that it's in the mezuzah and that she's in a room that has a mezuzah how meaningful is that and how meaningful is it to know that her life is concluding together with the conclude so what should you tell the people who are asking you you should tell them that they just witnessed an incredible example of divine planning in fact that ever since according to the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov why did mr. Shapiro suddenly decide to write a tone for this girl it was her merit there were four of us sitting in the office we read this letter and we were stunned I mean the clarity of the vision that holy way of looking at things the beauty of the way that ever explained we were just marveling and suddenly the phone rings the story is not over the phone rings it's a rabbi from a big city in the Midwest he says please get a message to the devil I am in middle of a bar mitzvah of my oldest son and my father came from Israel to celebrate the bar mitzvah we're right in middle of the celebration my father just collapsed and died from a heart attack what should I do we're in middle of a Bar Mitzvah what should I tell the people we looked at each other was a what do we have an answer for you we read him the letter what greater merit for a grandfather than to be in his last moments at the Bar Mitzvah of his grandson this is not a tragedy this is such as whose so he ran back to the bar mitzvah hall and he read the whole he dictated it to him because there were no faxes in those days we dictate it to him and he read it to the people and the Bar Mitzvah went on now we looked at each other and we said wait a minute who decided to move furniture around all of a sudden why and you know they never finished they never finished moving that front that's it that was the end of the movement to the furniture because there really was no reason for rearranging the office other than to find that letter on that day when this rabbi would call and say what should I tell people my father just died at a bar mitzvah when we take these principles together the ancient wisdom of Judaism everything happens by divine plan Satan doesn't make anything happen he's an angel everything happens according to God's plan and God's plan is always perfect and it's always for the good if we could understand God if we had holy eyes so that we could see holiness we wouldn't have any questions at all but God doesn't let us see he wants us to figure it out because that way we appreciate him so much more if we just saw it we would get used to it that's why it's so important this ancient Jewish custom to say Baruch Hashem thank God it sounds like such meaningless simple words but it's not it's a whole approach to life when you say thank God something happens you say thank God what does that mean it means I know who runs this world I know there's a divine plan I know there is justice in this world I know that everything happens for the good and therefore when something happens my response is Baruch Hashem thank God and before it happens God willing if it's in God's plan then it will happen God willing simple words but so meaningful let's wish each other let's offer good wishes and blessings we should all appreciate the beauty the greatness the holiness of life because if we don't then we will not grieve the loss of life the more we appreciate life the more we reject death we don't get used to it we don't accept it we don't become tolerant of it we want to live choose life God says which is why we say lehayim to life because we want life we appreciate life we see the beauty of it the holiness of it even when we say Mazel Tov it's not just an expression it's full of meaning it's full of life so celebrate life and let's celebrate our Jewish wisdom we're forgetting and that's a tragedy we have the greatest wisdom in the world there's nothing like the wisdom of Judaism I mean we see it now some people claim to believe in God and as a result they blow themselves up with others we need the wisdom of Judaism more than ever we have become proud to be Jewish now we need to become proud of our Jewishness proud of our mitzvahs proud of our customs proud of our tradition and our heritage it's the Torah that makes us great let's celebrate it let's do it and let's do it with a passion and with joy and with appreciation and with wisdom there is so much to learn and it's so pleasant to do the learning so I want to tell you that the fact that you're sitting here tonight you're so humble you probably think there's nothing special that you're not special for being here tonight but that's not true I don't want it to go to your head so I'll keep it short the fact that you're sitting here tonight is the greatest miracle the world has ever seen the fact that Jews are Jewish today 3,000 years after God spoke to us for the first and last time and said be Jews and we said okay we had no idea what we were in for we had no idea that God would not talk to us again for 3,000 years and we had no idea that it was going to be 3,000 miserable years we thought we'd be at the top of the world no we're not three thousand years has gone by since God asked us to be the Jewish people and we've suffered and we're Jewish you stop and think about it even for a minute this is not possible it isn't possible how can you still be Jewish three thousand years later and why would you want to be what is wrong with you but why do you call yourself a Jew and why do you come running when you hear there's a Jewish program happening what is with you it's a miracle you are so Jewish you are so incredibly Jewish and you don't even realize it you don't even realize it and you think so you can ask the average Jew do you consider yourself a good Jew I'm not talking about political people the average Jew stop the average Jew anywhere in the world and say do you consider yourself a good Jew nobody is gonna say yes we're all lousy Jews because everybody will tell you part of me I'm a good Jew compared to my grandmother I'm nothing compared to my grandfather from my mother's side that was at Saavik I'm nothing everybody says that whether you are Orthodox conservative or reformed everybody says the same thing what me a good joke there used to be some good Jews now that me now that may be true but it doesn't change the fact that we are unbelievably Jewish rabbi in Israel who is a class in townland he's a brilliant man in all the sciences in all of Torah so all the professors come to the class been going on for 15 years but there was one Rabb one professor who refused to come he was invited he was at would not come to the class one day the rabbi meets this professor had a party somewhere and he says to him how come you don't come to the class all your colleagues come they love it it's interesting it's in your building come you'll enjoy this professor says oh I do not belong get at Ulmer class the rabbi says why not he says because we you and me we have nothing in common so the rabbi said what are you saying how can you say such a thing he says since the day I arrived in Israel I eat pork on Shabbos they came out of the war he was upset I eat pork every Shabbos the rabbi said only eyeshadows he says yeah Beth get on Shabbos despite so the rabbi says well in that case we do have something in common he says what he said we both celebrate Charles I celebrate Shabbos in an old-fashioned way and you celebrate Shabbos in the original the professor started coming to the class and he told his colleagues why he's coming to the class he says that rabbi is very smart I heard what he said to me it wasn't just a joke you hear what he said to me he said to me like this why do you eat pork because you're angry at God for the Holocaust so how do you get back at God you do the most outrageous on Jewish thing you can think of what is the most unjú --is-- thing that person can think of to eat pork because everybody knows that you doesn't need pork but it didn't feel like it was enough of a punishment so you thought to yourself how can i punish God a little more she thought I had not on Tuesday or Wednesday I'm gonna eat pork on Shabbos that feels more like a punishment so the rabbi was basically saying to me you think you're not Jewish you think you have we have nothing in common you don't belong at a town with class listen to yourself first of all you believe in God otherwise who you angry at secondly you believe that God gave the Torah otherwise how do you know you now let eat pork thirdly you know that Shabbos is a special day for God otherwise why is that a bigger punishment so you believe in God you believe in the Torah you believe that God runs the world and should have stopped the Holocaust and you believe that Shabbos is a holy day listen to yourself your Orthodox [Laughter] no.11 betrayer ultra he says a here I thought I wasn't Jewish anymore we are in incredible people and it doesn't it you can tell you can tell others also won't do any harm we are an incredible people and we take no credit for the fact that a Jew today says yes I'm Jewish for that he deserves every reward in the world every blessing in the world he has just earned himself if after three thousand miserable years of suffering you say you're Jewish you're a hero and you don't even think so you think now a lousy Jew we are incredible God got a real bargain when he picked us he probably didn't even expect us to last this long on the other hand what a compliment if I was God if I was God and I gathered a people at the foot of Mount Sinai and I wanted them to be my people and be Jewish and observe the mitzvahs I would talk to them every day no are you doing it I'd be such a nudnik okay maybe not every day how about once in a thousand years doesn't he feel any need to come back and repeat himself no not even once in a thousand years he lets 3000 years go by and he said yeah don't be Jewish isn't that a compliment I called my children together one day effort let me try this I called them together and I said listen carefully because I'm not gonna repeat myself for a thousand years no fighting in the house garnished all of them but God tells us be my people be Jewish keep mitzvahs and then doesn't say it again for three thousand years miserable years and he's confident that we're still gonna hate Jewish white he's got a lot of confidence in us and he and he's right cuz looking we're here you're sitting here it's not Shabbos it's not yom kippur you think it's Yom Kippur no it's not it's Arif based on by the way and you come out here why because you want to know about what community huh no that's not what you came here because you're Jewish and you heard something Jewish you're going on you don't care whether it's about mental health mental unhealthy comes as long as it's a Jewish program you come running why cuz 3,000 years ago your great-grandparents stood at Mount Sinai and God said be my people and we said sure we are really amazing people Daniel Pearl because if there's a movie being made of him of his life now is that not exotic is that not a hero but why what did he have to say find Jewish my father's Jewish my mother's Jewish what's his problem his problem is he is insanely Jewish he's at Sonic and we're all like that and we don't even take credit in there my grandfather was a good Jew we are not good Jews but we are great Jews and therefore we deserve that after 3,000 years since Mount Sinai we deserve that the world should become perfect the way God envisioned that people should become good God's will should prevail the world should be as he wants it to be mushiya should come and catch us sitting here on a Sunday evening being Jewish for no reason at all that's my phone let's see this good news hello yes hi watch what you're saying about a hundred people listening now you'd rather not talk yeah and it's all on tape you want to make a speech I'll talk to in a few minutes okay he wanted to make a speech as long as he's got an audience he figures why not so that was she of come in catch us here being just Jewish just plain Jewish and let the world finally become good and let them all come to learn and we will be nice to them even though they haven't been nice to us and we will gladly share our wisdom with them and teach them whatever they want to know and then we will have a beautiful world and all the souls in heaven who are impatiently waiting to come back we'll finally be able to come back and we'll be reunited with all of our loved ones and with all of our ancestors the entire Jewish people not just a generation but all the generations of Jews together on earth forever in a perfect world under the leadership of mushiya may he come speedily quickly right now before we all go home and mess up this perfect evening thank you very much very very good question and a very complex question if every person's life span is predetermined then why do we punish a murderer didn't the victim by what he was supposed to know so why are you punishing the murderer is some of my skin as well here's what know reality basically is God came to this world and said I'm God I killed one and high-end what I give pleasure and I give pain idea wealth and I give power that's my job your jobs well there is health very Gong participate where there's illness going on don't break this where relief is happening join me be my partner when death is hoping he leave that to me don't join me that's basically what were alligators mortality doesn't mean no one will ever be hungry morality means whether there is hunger you should try to stop who's causing the hunger God then why are we trying to stop it because that's what he has this to do when this is happening who's causing God there one should be participating because he has the semantics that's called moral that made discriminant we will need its partner in giving life but we will not participate in God's activities when he's Bing lies he's allowed he's done holla in fact even when I know that God is causing illness or hunger or whatever I'm supposed to uh Jack not just not participate so what was wrong with a murderer before the murderer is not that he is indeed alive but that he wants to participate as the enemy middle of that's the more and what is so great about a doctor who saves a life wasn't this man destined for with anyone yes he was and that's why sometimes even about the tenseiga love it but when he participates in saving a life thanks : good point when you participate in somebody suffering that's called an evil version that makes sense so what that means is they it's not because I will totally pain that makes me immoral it's because I choose to because I want to even though our hot cause of you and when we participate that makes you and that's why a victimless crime is also a crime legally attempted murder is not the same as murder legal but morally is the same animals is just not as capable the attempted murder the failure of murder is a murder of horses but he's just as evil okay whole point is money if you have no control anything there's no reason their choice it's done well if it's done why you focus beating people why would anybody participate anything if you know via walkie Cosi turn if because your choice shows what you're attracted to and what interests you another certain children it's a scary thing there's little children wherever there is mischief going on thank you is there have you know how'd you hear about it he's got a radar whenever something bad is going on this kid is there they don't love a child wherever anything good happens that kid is always there it's something I make it so morality doesn't mean did you cause anybody to die morality means did you choose to have someone that you don't have to be the architect you just have to be the one who chooses so what mom says we are judged by the morality of our choices even if we don't succeed our choices become there's any difference it makes us who we are it doesn't it doesn't sectors income but it affects me so that's right pretty turned in my church doesn't make any difference so I don't know what the outcome is gonna see when the doctor for example we call the doctor and he's a believer so he says we're already together from day one God runs the world see it's destined for you don't you leave you to die so call me the one these are the more because if there's a possibility that this man could survive don't you want to be part of me oh yeah you want her to survive what you do doesn't it give it throw them after it's true but if it tells it tells you who you if you can roll back to sleep now we know what the person but if you get up out of bed and go run because you might participate in somebody's survival how we know these are good person so again our freedom is not that we can run the world freedom is that we can make choices when of those choices will succeed or not we never have any guarantees so if a person decides he wants to be rich okay that's his choice will give you rich no guarantees so I'm glad besides he wants to be a mass murderer would he get to kill many people not if he can't shoot straight so his choice is an immoral choice but there's a rule we need to pull off everybody knows that if you're hurting somebody it's bad Judaism says if you have chosen to her to somebody that's bad even if he doesn't get worse so we're taking more responsibility for our choices better people for it a soul is a living creature not something that comes alive or is given lumps it is completely a soul is also an intelligent that's why we aren't led creatures because our soul has intelligence contains it glows creation yeah wisdom comes when our minds are open to what our soul knows so wisdom does not come from the outside it comes from the inside because every soul has wisdom question is can you extract it can you withdraw like a banking can you withdraw that wisdom of your soul and make it touches in your mouth oh my wisdom number soul but the unique thing about a soul that makes us different from angels of different from ordinary for all creatures a soul has a sense of purpose the most painful things for us all is to be unable to perform because if we can't perform we can't fulfill some purpose the souls that may be a little one out afraid of the edges for the more experienced we're here to finish just a little bit of unfinished business otherwise we're pretty inventive so even what but we've accomplished the bulk of our work and we've got just the finishing touches now and that's why one Mitzvah can make all the difference in the world because maybe all the other ones was already big last night yeah well the Jewish soul is different than a non-jewish soul because the soul is on machine jewish souls have a different mission from a non zero so it's kind of a whole different makeup so when we say a person is born Jewish we certainly don't need his born religious except for with a yarmulke president is born huge means he's born with a Jewish initial which means that your soul so the Jewish soul is inherently different from a non Jew soul and that's why intermarriage can't happen the souls don't match but personalities can match but not the soul because we have a converted so why does Anand you have to convert to be ecology course you have to convert he just have to learn a little bit that he's Jewish right now though he has to convert but what converts his mind doesn't convert of course he has to get it Jewish soul me let's get on to this important point in a in a week from how we're gonna sit down to a seder and we'd like to celebrate the exodus from eg Saudis we're gonna celebrate the exodus from Egypt and we're going to say thank you God for taking our hand says those I believe you know what if an Egyptian wants to become Jews and he converts a week before Facebook he converts he becomes a Jew and then a week later he sits down to the Seder and says thank you for taking my hand sister's out of Egypt know your ancestors were you or what if he comes before Hanukkah then he's got a light the Chanukah candles to say thank you for performing miracles for my ancestors they weren't your ancestors haha that's why he has to convert when he converts he is gets a Jewish soul and then they are his ancestors that's what convert means convert means transform not join so the night walks into the rabbi says rabbi I have always felt Jewish I believe my did you I feel why did you I read all the Jewish books I think why could you rabbi says okay well pervert you he says excuse me you don't have to cover anything I think what did you I feel I gave you and believe why did you what do you come honey I'm here the answer is yes you think and you feeling you and you even have food tastes like I mean you know white bagels on memo and matzo balls and give attention but your soul is not of descendants of the people came out of Egypt so to become a member of the people you have to have a Jewish soul and that happens when you convert just like God can give you a Jewish soul of birth God says if you convert I'll give you a Jewish soul when you come out with it but that's what conversion means if our soul is we're not different there would be no need to convert you talked about when you come back Absolut acai they pick up the bodies then what's your belief on donors know you know since the body has to come back the soil we have it's the body then can you donate organs let's try to save other lives yes it's not it's not you're not interested in my belief but it what is Torah study matters the Torah says that we have to treat the body with great respects that's what a funeral is all about that's what we respect for the bottom because he's coming back and it's very valuable and that's why you're not allowed to harm the body and I allowed degrade the bodies but if you can save another one one of the course of course question is when you donate your body to science it may not save anybody's life so you want to be careful but if if you're actually going to save a woman and then what's going to happen if you're missing an organ I'm sure and my grandmother was one of wasn't flattering speaking for a group she was good and I was saying for Tanika 14 children family in this regards verse 22 well they would have but my great-grandfather came over to United States wrong world one broke out and the other half stayed back in Russia otherwise we figured that wrong a little bit a few more children and of course magazines always trying to get interviews we had talked to these people 22 children one at a time no please a triplets no cheating like that so they're interviewing the teenage daughters of this family that has 22 children and they're talking about how it goes and how it works and how it happens it's over and then at the end of the interview they say so when you get married do you intend to have a large family - she says no 13 that's it thank you again [Applause] you

Channel: 11213org

Views: 64,484

Rating: 4.7171717 out of 5

Keywords: Rabbi Manis Friedman, Manis Friedman, 11213.org, 11213org, Chabad Chassidus, Chabad, Chassidus, Tanya, Kabbalah, Torah, Daily Study, Judaism, Jewish Thought, Jewish

Id: EkUoAQC0arw

Length: 75min 40sec (4540 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2018