This is the WORST thing that can happen to you: and how to protect yourself against it

looked at some of the great radical atheists look at their main one of their main arguments against God we have Christopher Hitchens all of our Shalom God Is Not Great or uh Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins and they are basically almost as fundamentalist as the people that are criticizing they're they're Fanatics atheist Fanatics and they rile they they Rave against religion and one of their critiques is that you see religion and its passion has brought a lot of Destruction to this world some of them make arguments more destruction than anyone else I don't know about that you know Hitler and Stalin weren't exactly religious but um however but they do make the argument of religious words and we see it today look in the Middle East you look at terrorism in the name of God we're not talking about criminals who are trying to uh still rob a bank or steal something in the name of God are ready to kill themselves and kill others so if you're a an outsider an objective Outsider so to speak I don't know if there's such a thing but you look and you say look at religion religion is this you feel in the name of God already to kill what kind of God is this what kind of religion is this and then you look at the history of religion especially in the last few thousand years until basically two three hundred years ago the Western World the church dominated and it was basically terrorized all its subjects everyone has the classic story of Galileo having to recant his ideas because it was then against the church's Doctrine in other words the battle what we call between science and religion between faith and reason we began a few hundred years ago was a backlash and maybe a healthy backlash against a an abusive and a corrupt religion that was using God as an excuse to claim Authority and this is still haunts us till this day at the same time you see religion has now gone away faith is still there so summing the argument you know faith it's too risky once you bring God into the Picture People start thinking they have absolute uh Monopoly on truth and God basically they burn everything up around them they're intolerant religion and intolerance are almost synonymous in most people's secular Minds and for good reason you see it all the time you know recently we have all this embarrassing news coming out of cities in Israel of how so-called fundamentalist Jews behaving very very embarrassing ways to their neighbors and I for one I'm embarrassed by these things because one of the hardest challenges I have to deal with is of course I'm stereotyped as well like that you know I'm a beard in a yamaka so I must be one of these guys that spits and throws rocks at others so it's not a simple matter to deal with and it creates the impression unfortunately that that's what religion is about so it is it's a it's religion basically consumes its inhabitants it consumes those that come near it and that obviously is definitely not what Moses or what God really wants so that's one manifestation of it and then as I mentioned before the other manifestation as we see these uh musical Geniuses and others who come to points of recognizing touching deeper truths and they do not have the capacity or as the capitalists say the containers to come back and tell about it and they burn out as did the students of the children of Rabbi of uh Aaron as did the three other stages who entered into the pardes and Moses was struggling with his dilemma from the beginning of his life and the relevance of it here is critical the relevance of it and that will lead us of course to what the secret is what is Rabbi akiva's secret and what did Moses discover why the Torah doesn't tell us what happened actually so you'll see if you really read closely it does tell us that that the the the Dilemma was resolved so Moses is struggling with this thing he sees a fire burning a bush a burning bush and it's not being consumed it's opposite of nature things that burn get consumed you have a piece of wood or any other fuel that's ignited and lit it may take time but that fuel will run out that that that wood will burn out and unless you add more fuel the matter will turn into energy so what Moses was struggling with is how do you see something here's matter remains matter is burning and it's not being consumed and why was he saying it because this was more the philosophical and personal and psychological dilemma that Moses was struggling with so let's go back a moment to the story of the Bush the Bush was a thorn bush a snan Hebrews a thornbush considered to be the lothiest of all vegetation a thornbush thornbushes grow in the most parched land they don't bear fruit and they're considered to be always symbols of pain Thorns are always a symbol of pain not a symbol of beauty so the majors asked the question the first time God Appears to Moses why does he appear at them in a thorn bush why doesn't they appeared to him in a uh in a beautiful tree an apple tree a willow you know we have all kinds of nice Mighty Oak Tree all kinds of trees to appear so true this was a Wilderness in the desert but hey this is Miracles are happening anyway so why has he appeared to him in a thornbush and the mother has a fascinating answer because God and Moses understood each other and God anticipated Moses biggest question which was you're coming to tell me to go to the people and tell them they should have hope and that they will be redeemed one day from their oppression so I want to know one question one thing and they will want to know one thing are you God With Us only in beauty or do you also argue with us in pain and in our loneliness the big question that we all ask when people are suffering and feel alone I feel things are not working the biggest question where is God why isn't God here to help me now and sometimes the way it's phrases that God only appears when there's beautiful things and Moses was wondering that you know maybe you're a God that only appears where it's beautiful with his light but with his Darkness with his loneliness with his pain you disappear so God in anticipating that and that's what the measure says says I will appear to in a thorn bush not in a beautiful Bush to answer that question to Moses to tell him no I am here with you in your Void I am here with you in your suffering and though you may not feel that I'm there I'm still there with you your work is to figure out how to meet me there but I'm there with you you know that classic um greeting card those two sets of footprints in the sand that describe the Journey of life and the person says you know he sees the footprints and sees two sets of footprints and whenever he had a state of despair or loss he sees only one set of footprints and these two sets is God and you traveling through life so the man asks God why is it that whenever I was in trouble I only see one set of footprints why did you forsake me then and God said I didn't forsake you those are my footprints I was carrying you so we are in darkness when three are um suffering we are blinded that is essentially if you want to Define visualize loneliness visualize fear visualize despair it's a sense of isolation and a sense of blindness we don't see clearly that's how it is it blinds us that's how powerful it is and in blinds us we don't know what strengths we have that's what makes it so difficult if we knew what strengths we had then if we were a situation where things are difficult to use your strengths and you get it you're so validity situation the problem the secondary problem is that fear paralyzes us Darkness paralyzes us to think deceive us into thinking you don't have the power to get out of this and that's far worse than the initial problem the awareness of a problem is half the Cure but if you don't think you have a problem or you're or you feel completely powerless very difficult to get out of that that's why you find Jeremiah when he describes in the book of Lamentations it's the saddest book in the Bible in the Torah the book that we read on the night of Tish above the saddest night in the Hebrew calendar so it says there it begins whoa he says alas she sits alone that's how he opens up the entire book now who's the she he's talking about Jerusalem the Jerusalem wall to Jerusalem she sits all along and the question the obvious question is of all things that's how he opens up the book The Temple is the holy Temple is being destroyed is destroyed in flames the people are being massacred beginning a long Exile that would just be bring oppression after oppression and all things you Jeremiah begins what bothers him is the loneliness and if you think about it that's exactly the issue because if we didn't feel so alone in our pain we'd be able to get out of it pain makes you isolate feel isolated you feel no one's there with you that when things are going well people are around but nobody wants to be with you when you're in Despair and nobody can really get you when you're in that place and it's the loneliness that is is ultimately the the most debilitating Factor it may not be the worst part of the experience but is the worst element of it you know because the loneliest means that you don't feel there's anyone that can help you you don't feel that you can that anyone cares and that's the question we ask do does anyone care about me that's what we ask when things are not working well so God says appears to Moses in the thorn bush says not only do I care I'm with you in the storm bush again here is not the place to discuss the significant how God Appears in darkness when you can't see him but suffice it to say there's long discussions of how you sometimes something exists inside of you even though you absolutely don't see it and sometimes it's more intense actually when you don't see it than when you do so this leads now to the next stage well Moses was struggling with was obviously the issue of evil the issue of a holocaust where is God in the Holocaust where's good God in all this darkness in our lives and Moses was wondering about these questions not just for himself but for generations to come which is why it's all documented so the first question was is God there and the second question is can we contain God that's the question and that's the issue of the burning bush can you contain these forces and not be consumed and this is a dilemma as I said a philosophical one the mystics have always wondered because if you can say one second if there's expression in some of the the the Jewish philosophers they say can you know God and one of them answers if I knew him I would be him you know if I knew him I would be him which means essentially you can argue you and God cannot coexist if you want to be with God you have to give up your individuality you may get something much greater in return but it's not you any longer or if you want to be you you're going to have to have some concealed form of God which is really a question also if you think about it about relationships can two people who are distinct individuals both with their strengths and I'm talking about healthy that will one um is annihilated by the presence of another can two people two independent circles join as one maintain their individuality and have absolute seamless love for each other it would seem impossible or logic would dictate it's impossible because how could two people have different interests they come from different backgrounds they will have disagreements so you could see love is a form of compromise because we love each other I give in a little you're given so can we maintain a fierce individuality and Independence and still be one with another this is a dilemma and you'll find that in Jewish mysticism you'll find different opinions some say you want your individuality you can't have the full experience of the other some say you want the experience of the other you can't have your complete individuality and ultimately the result and the mystics that come after him especially in Hasidic thought go on to an entire discussion of how you can have both the best of both worlds but there's a secret ingredient to get there because it doesn't seem logical how could I have individuality and um completely join another human being and all this was what Moses was struggling with and all this is what the tree that does not that burns and doesn't get consumed is about it means you can burn with passion and not hurt yourself and hurt others is that possible now many people will will will will um describe their lives you know when I was younger and more energetic and Wilder I had a fiery revolutionary spirit and it was great but I ended up hurting myself and hurting others I came to realize that the only way to really live is I have to give up some of my passion because the fires of passion unbridled untempered will destroy me or others and logic and logic would as I said seems to support that but here the the division of Moses was no it's not doesn't it's not correct it doesn't have to be that way and Judaism is built on the principle that is absolutely not that way but here's the secret answer if you read the next verse so it says that Moses went to see the site he wanted to see how does this happen how does something burn and not be consumed and as I mentioned in history you find everybody that burned too much got consumed or they stubborn or they have to slow down their burning if they weren't going to get consumed as I said like if the faucet breaks or tears open the flow is too much it's overwhelming so it says that God then says to Moses Moses Moses he says here I am so don't go continue because you're working on sacred ground and they said remove your shoes from your feet because it's sacred ground then Moses hides his face what is the meaning of this this statement here basically it was like this Moses was intrigued by this site and God was reminding him that if you ever want to be able to reconcile and burn with passion and not be consumed you cannot be con you're not you can't be driven by your self-interest even your interest in discovering what the mystery is behind this paradox and that's when that when Moses says here I am which means he recognizes that he's not here just for his own selfish gain but he's here to serve God serve a higher calling and Moses takes off your shoes which is symbolic of giving up some of your needs you know a certain humility that humility is a secret ingredient to enter the holy of holies and not get burnt and it's only those people that were humble in that experience that we're able to combine the two and that's why Moses hides his face so that is exactly the answer that's exactly the response to what Moses what Moses was coming to discover he found his answer that's why it doesn't continue asking God how is this bush not being burned so let's explain this for a moment humility you know the problem with the sons of Aaron was they were not driven for any negative or evil interests they weren't trying to make money it wasn't about their honor they were very passionate Souls who said hey here's an experience I can enter into the holy of holies I can experience a moment of spiritual ecstasy unprecedented the problem was there was too much of the eye I could experience I wanted and the key secret is as you wanted too much then it's on your terms and if it's on your terms that's where it cannot coexist with God as soon as you recognize it it's not about you and doesn't begin with you and you're able to give up that you that's when you can coexist now the interesting thing that doesn't mean you're giving up your individuality it means you're giving up your self-contained sense of fulfillment and here's the interesting thing remember I referred to this earlier later on Moses asked God to show me your face this was in a moment of intimacy literally intimacy with God where Moses is praying for the people because they had built a golden calf it's also bad times and he elicits from God the deepest secrets of compassion called the 13 Divine attributes of compassion which we invoke every Yom Kippur God reveals to him the secret of how to awaken compassion in me when all else seems to fail it's a pretty powerful thing God is saying here's the secret call these names say these words say them with your heart and I will hear you so at that moment Moses has a desire his desire is I want to see your face no one has ever seen God's face she says Show Me Your Glory show me your face and God says the immortal word that I mentioned earlier no man can see my face and live so listen to the end of the story the God then comes back to Moses and says you know what I will show you my back but my face you will not see so the question is asked why does God have to rub it in we already told them no man can see me and live she says okay I will show you my back why does he have to say about my face you will not see as if like you know to make it very clear my face you will not see and another question is this Moses was not a was Moses was what could call one of the wisest men maybe the wisest of all he understood what he needed God to tell him you can't see my face on this well why did he ask and why are we told that he asked when he was rejected so one of the commentaries explains it the fascinating way I want to discuss this here says the way he's supposed to read the verse is a follow and then I'll I'll explain in more palatable terms I hope this is not getting too mystical here um and that is God says to Moses I will show you my back and my face that's how you should read it but my face you will see by not looking so instead of reading I will show you my back and my face you will not see the reason I will show you my my back and my face but my face you will see by not looking which means there are two ways to experience a real true experience because one is interpolation one is extrapolation one is direct site you see something and you can describe what you see another you see it through Its Reflection through its uh let's say through process of elimination I'll just use an example you know no one has ever seen the unconscious that's why it's called unconscious and if someone has seen it usually as I mentioned will probably be someone that's more mad than saying yet we have people who claim to be experts on the unconscious and you go to therapy again I'm saying all therapists are good but let's say some are good um what what can they see in you that you don't see in yourself and what can they see in the forces a trained eye what do they see and how can they see it if the unconscious remains behind the curtain how do we ever see the unconscious so here's an example here's I'll just give you an example imagine imaginary War that shrouded in darkness you cannot see the wall but you know there's a wall there you cannot go over and touch it and you can't shine a light on it is there any way for you ever to figure out what this wall looks like is it a straight wall is it a jagged wall is it vent is you know what kind of walls so yes there is one way you have a ball and you bounce to the gun the wall and what you see you don't see the wall you see how it bounces back if it bounces back straight you know that part of the wall is straight if it bounces back to the right you know that part of the wall is jacked to the left you keep bouncing it enough times you can get an extra almost a real image of the wall without ever having touching it seeing it through its reaction a trained person who understands psychological forces especially unconscious in a way just like when you go to a doctor doctor have a pain in my head so start touching pulling okay is it hurt does it hurt dessert you start getting to the more sensitive area so you know there's a nerve or whatever it is and that way it's not like you can actually see it but by process of eliminating you see how you react in a conversation this is also true someone who's trained and really knows how to do this we'll have a conversation with you and we'll ask questions and you'll I think they're just innocent questions but the way you answer and the way you resist answering and the things you avoid going to is clear sign there's something there so you're not seeing the unconscious but you're bouncing a ball off of it and very often that's the case exactly where somebody doesn't want to talk about that so usually where the problem is of course because the nerve is raw there you don't want to go there it's too tender it's not because you're being secretive or it's it's it's just like it's just like a reaction it's a knee-jerk reaction so you can never see the unconscious but you can see it by not looking and this is a secret to real true relationships and everything if you want one of the things we live in a society that is driven by acquisition you want something you want to own it you want to acquire it you want to possess it we don't um appreciate and we're not trained to think in terms of truths that emerge you cannot acquire money can't buy it it's not a cliche money cannot buy love love emerges truth emerges God emerges everything real truly emerges cannot be bought so we're trying to think I can just go and get it here 10 steps secrets to love 20 steps the secret to efficiency you know and so on the reason these books still remain in the best sell list is obviously they're not working or else they you know no one would buy anyone you know why would you buy another one but it's the it's the aspiration you know like uh someone told me that the journey the destination is the journey is the seeking out um Matt and so you're ever going to get what you want but the the art of acquiring things of uh emerging things is not something that we are trained because it's much more subtle and it requires a tool that this Society our society does not cherish it's called The Tool of humility it's a tool of restraint it's a tool of Silence you want to hear truths you have to know how to be silent you have not have to listen well you want to hear music you can't allow the rush hour and other extra extraterrestrial extra curricular noises drown out the sounds every one of us has a sound you listen to someone that you love or you care about there are words that they won't say but if you are able to go away if you're not able to get rid of yourself put yourself aside you're able to suspend yourself you can hear other sounds people who listen well are able to suspend themselves all those that suspend themselves can see deeper truths but this is something that is not taught in school because school we're taught here are the instruments here are the tools go and use them and be aggressive because if you don't do it no one's going to do it for you that may be all good in material things nothing that is energy related or spiritual related can can be experienced that way and that's what Moses saw he's so matter burning the Bush was burning and it was not being consumed so so he was wondering matter is consumed matter turns into energy but here it wasn't being consumed how's that possible the answer is once you experience Bittle that Hebrew word the thing that only thing that can disappear that can be consumed is something that's not consumed with itself as soon as you are an ego or an entity just like you were born you can die what can I die something that wasn't born selflessness cannot disappear because it's this the more it disappears The more powerful it becomes you see so when a person is not shaped is not defined does not define themselves by their presence where they Define themselves by their lack of presence that can never be taken from them those are the people that live on forever and anyone that builds monuments for themselves and it's a big name for themselves there comes a point where that name will die with their presence will die where their influence will die and when they're dead some people will be even happy that they're not here anymore because their power was only there when they wielded it and then there are people who are here that we can talk about here Moses almost three and a half thousand years ago 3 300 years ago and we talk about them as if he's here because he was never taken by himself he was What's called the homeless man that ever walked on Earth and it was the humility it was then that you're able to see that which you cannot see when you go with your presence so interestingly when we talk about faith and reason some people think faith is absence of reason you don't want else fails okay I have some Faith it's my crutch I rely on it maybe faith is not the absence of Reason maybe faith is the door that you enter after reason brings you to certain steps informed faith is not the faith of a child that has no reason the informed faith is the faith that comes after reason when a person falls in love with someone and they decide to marry they decide to commit the rest of their lives to this person is this an act of reason this is a logical thing to do there's always risks there's always risks so what is really going on what's going on is that that your reason leads you to a place that this person seems to be the right person but there's always a door you have to enter and I won't necessarily quote truly faith it could be intuition it could be a sense but it takes it is there is a risk because if you want to take no risks you're not going to make any commitments in your life that's it no risks no commitment as soon as there's commitment there's going to be some element of of of risk but if it's an intelligent risk means it comes a fate that follows reason so Moses was considered the person a person who was an ultimate person of faith and the ultimate mind and there were no contradiction so it says that Moses was the humblest man that walked on Earth the word is and um what is a humble on off there's another word in Hebrew it's called Shuffle this is a humble person and a shuffle I'm in a simple English on of is a humble person Shuffle is a person of low self-esteem or in different terms humility true humility comes from strength Shuffle low self-esteem comes from weakness fused with weakness but the truly humble person is the strongest of all he's secure enough or she's secure enough to be able to be humble doesn't always have to be heard it doesn't always have to be pronounced and it's completely fine a shuffle is someone has low self-esteem doesn't feel they're worth anything a humble person knows his or her value knows that they're indispensable knows that they have qualities Moses knew of his strengths he was no pushover but this is the key to a humble person he never thought that his strengths are his own he knew they were a gift and he said to himself if someone else was given this gift they would have done better than I that's a true power man of power because he has the powers and he never takes himself that seriously and that's the hardest of all things so when a person is consumed with fire and a person is passionate you know someone that's mediocre mediocre mediocre people don't usually cause too much damage they cause mediocre damage passionate and Powerful fiery people can cause a lot of damage like wrecked fire so a fiery passionate person with a rebellious spirit with a uh with fervor with Zeal with the whole uh with all the intensity a person like that can go two ways they can be very destructive they can be very powerful and very constructive but the secret key to the key to that type of person is humility is the only count of force to their passion because if the passion they'll say in the name of passion everything is Justified I'm passionate person the fact that some people are going to be stepped on or some people are going to be hurt or damaged too bad this is the price you pay for my passion humility is the counter Force to Passion so naturally passion will happen will happen naturally what will happen to the children of Aaron to the other three sages they get burned out by their own passion they destroy themselves with their passion as all those men I mentioned earlier the guys who burned out whatever it was it is Rabbi Akiva knew the secrets of Shalom of entering in peace entering with humility he realized I'm going into a place it's not about me he wasn't excited because children of Aaron were too excited about it you think what's wrong being excited about having a Divine experience wow that's that's unbelievable they weren't excited about some type of selfish material experience about making money or about something they were they were excited about but their excitement was their undoing because I'm there are you and you cannot see me and live Moses was able to shed the eye and Rabbi Akiva was able to shed the eye and let the experience emerge and if I have the gift to be able to be there I feel honored but it's not about me experiencing ecstasy it's not about me experiencing love or I am now a man or a woman that has seen the truth the eye has to get out of there once the eye gets out of there that matter does not get consumed and that's what Moses recognized when God when he saw the burning bush so it wasn't being consumed so his eye was very intrigued he went closer to see it and then what happened was suddenly God's voice emerged and Moses recognized and he stopped and he said I am here I'm present I'm here not about me I hear I'm here to serve hinene I'm here for you and as a result of that God says to Moses is a sacred ground and Moses takes off your shoes so that's a sense of humility had he not taken up his shoes had he just continued Marching In then he would have been consumed and the bush would have been consumed and Moses understood that and took off his shoes and that's when he covers his face doesn't want to see that is the true humble person it says in the sages say interesting statement they say a person who pursues honor the honor will salute you a person who escapes on her the honor pursues you that's what it says now running someone who pursues honor the honor illusion is because it's not real but somebody who wants to go the other direction doesn't want the honor the honor pursues you that doesn't mean to run away from honor and look over your shoulder if it's pursuing you obviously that's not exactly the way it's supposed to be so it's a truly humble person who does not who takes something higher than himself more seriously than himself and that's the secret of the burning bush The Secret of uh real success now it's not easy because as I said we live in a society we're not trained like this this requires requires true reprogramming reprogramming we are trained to be as great as we can become that doesn't sound bad right that's what's wrong with that what's wrong with being the best you can be actualizing your potential what's wrong with that nothing wrong with that except one thing it will die with you because it's only as powerful As You Are interesting elevator upstairs when you are dedicated to yourself as great as you are there's a limit when you're dedicated to a cause greater than yourself then you become an extension of that course were you dedicated to Eternity you become an extension of Eternity so how does one achieve that you know that everybody pursues the Fountain of Youth Paradise we want immortality in different ways some do it through cyrogenic freezing the Pharaohs of all try to lock themselves in their pyramids with their Brides they all died and maybe there's some memories of some of their Technologies and their and their teachings but eternity is in domain it belongs to The Domain only of those that don't allow themselves to get the way and that's the art that we have to master it's the art of listening is the art of emerging into art of suspending part of yourself to allow something greater to emerge this is the real secret of love you know it would be nice if we could teach this to our children so we don't have to start working backwards when we get into adults turn into adults and start trying to figure out how to build healthy loving relationships because the fact is we have been programmed to think love is just another commodity yes it's of course a little more complicated and more subtle than buying a loaf of bread but it's a commodity that we have to find a way to conquer to own to possess and people are struggling and and desperate in relationships trying to find control what happens if you discover that love can be controlled what happens is only when you give up control is when it actually becomes yours that's pretty terrifying for some people for many of us because we don't like to think that way control means I can control that means I can turn it on when I want I can turn it off Moses understood the sequence you give up control that's when you get real control and there's no tricks there's no way to fake it you cannot fake God you cannot fake truth and you cannot fake true love if come it emerges to those that allow it to allow who suspend their self their self-interest and allow it to emerge in their lives so there are many many lessons that we can derive from this uh from this story of The Burning Bush you know both in the context of being passionate at the same time coexisting with others it's only possible if you if your passion becomes an agent of some higher cause if it's your passion about your interests it has to end up hurting somebody there's no way around it you know may not be today it'll be tomorrow because there's going to be conflicts if it's a passion that's not about you alone then there's room you know someone you know I was recently counseling a couple who definitely loved each other but they came to the impasse they came to a point where they just were simply unable to coexist and their interests were in many ways they were they was clear to me that they were meant to be with each other there wasn't no doubt there was no mistake here but they screwed up they screwed up a lot of things and they and then you know you start the Vicious Cycle to a point where because it's very difficult to repair like any little infection it begins to faster and faster until a point where it's hard to repair and I remember when we were sitting and speaking and I said to them you know you're both so passionate about your opinions and you may be both right even but one thing I don't hear you're not passionate about your relationship you're passionate about your opinion maybe if one of you or both of you would be passionate about your connection with each other and you figure out how to maintain this connection all this passion in doing is becoming a passion about my understanding of it my interest so I said it may be correct but that's not that's not the ingredients of a relationship so I remember he says to me the guy said but if I'm not if it's not my if my interests are not being met then how am I going to be in this relationship I don't want to give up my interest and it was very hard for me to to explain and I didn't I wasn't able to at that point at least um to explain I said you know what you're saying is a contradiction what do you want you want your interests and you want a relationship with another person who has other interests how exactly is that going to work she says well that's why we came to you so I said okay so if you came to me let me tell you how it works for now get all your interests over the table figure out how you too the interest is only one how you two should be together and the climate get all the interests of the table period and then you'll get your interests satisfied but if you're going to begin and end there it's over there's nothing to talk about because you have interest and so does she and that's simple as that why should she give up your interest because you're not ready to give up yours so how are we going to deal with this who's gonna one how you has to win but that's what happens you get trapped in that mentality but it's either me or you or compromise but the commitment to say one second maybe there's a third entity here that's invisible at a wedding ceremony you have the hovering third invisible ingredient called God maybe the passion should be what does God want from this what is the what we call the Transcendent element in this relationship that is not you and not her that is more than the sum of the parts we want to build together when you start focusing on that that doesn't mean you don't that your interests and needs met because then it comes back to you because once you have that uh that Bond then the interest will be met you know when someone loves somebody they go out of their way to to help to satisfy them there's another way to help them but if it becomes you versus me why would I go out of my way to help you you know you want what you want I want what I want and that's where we get stuck now I know it's easier said than done you know what I said make sense on paper but whenever you're in an emotional state you don't just don't feel that you don't feel that and at that moment you're blinded and you can't see what the other person's saying you can't see what you're saying really and essentially that's where most problems begin and end now of course when you enter into a relationship with that a sense of suspension of self you see I keep reiterating I don't mean annihilation of self I'm not talking about compromising yourself I'm talking about suspension in order to gain something greater a simple example would be listening want to learn something new you have to listen not why because if you don't listen you're going to only know what you're new till now so the smarter you are the more you have to listen because you have so much and so much wisdom up till now you want to hear something new you need to listen now listening means suspending your intelligence I mean suspending your processing you're suspending all your analysis because if you don't suspend it then it's just you again trying to understand and listening to another person to share something that maybe you haven't heard before it's not easy for an intelligent person to do because the more you know and the more confident you are in your tools the less um patience and restraint you have to really open up to another person but without that there's no growth so essentially that's called suspension of self you suspend where you are right now in order to absorb something bigger and then you become and you can bring yourself back into it that's the key and that's what Moses understood and that's what Rabbi Akiva understands and that's what hopefully each of us here understand so you can have your cake and eat it too you can have your passion and your fires and actually not only have it but it can become even more intense because you know that it will not hurt on the contrary it will make people grow so Rabbi Akiva after he came out of the orchard he only um improves his and everybody's life around him and he had a student called up Schumann who learned from his teacher and had a similar experience for 12 years he had to hide in a cave from the Romans who were decreed that he should be killed because of his teaching and studying and teaching of Torah so he hidden a cape the story of lagba Omar we go to Israel after Passover lag bomber the pilgrimages up north grave in the city of Iran so rabi Akiva student so after 12 years you can imagine that was so refined and so separate from civilization they were extremely extremely lofty state and the talmud tells us fascinating story that wherever they would go after they came after the decree was over the or the Emperor died they were able to come back home and they came back to civilization and they saw the pettiness the superficiality the the plain greed and and and foolishness of people it says whatever looked at began to burn yet again burning began to burn whether physically or figuratively so God says to them not that's not the way that's not the path of the Torah the path of the Torah is paths are Paths of pleasantness and all that's roads are roads of peace you go back one more year the 13th Bar Mitzvah year is God sent them back not because of decree you go back one more year and develop the maturity the spiritual maturity that you control your fires when you come back after 13 years after the 13th year wherever you go instead of it burning figure out ways to improve it to repair it and that's what happened after the 13th year I developed that maturity that whatever he saw that was petty that seemed simple superficial he helped bring some helped elevate it and repair it in some way now you would think the Schumann after 12 years was a much more powerful person whoever everything burned everything that was inferior burned but that's not the way it's far greater to have restraints and be able to as I mentioned with the Simpson be able to transmit a flow that elevates the one that destroys so his eyes were very powerful but when he burned whatever he looked at was consumed and to be a bush that does not consume you can be a Godly person and you don't so yourself for infidels but in the country you figure out ways to elevate them you figure out ways to inspire them that's far more spiritual person than a person that burns everything around them and each of us has many manifestations of this moments of passion the things that you are most passionate or believe most how much tolerance do you have when you on that state and that tolerance is direct proportion to how much humility you have you have humility and passion you have the secret to change the world you have passion without humility very powerful well it can be very destructive and of course if you have humility without passion then that speaks for itself then it's not going anywhere too much either so you need to have all of it together and like that girl that comes home from school she gets a B plus her father says listen either an A plus or an F anything but mediocre either Excellence or a complete failure so I wish you all in this week of Schmitz where we begin the second book of the Torah the book of Exodus the book of The Book of Moses where we start reading about the little child Moses growing into an adult we all have a Moses within us and we all have many burning bush opportunities and uh and the beauty is Einstein said E equals m c squared matter and energy are reversible um obviously uh on a mystical on a spiritual level it means that matter and energy do not have to consume one another they could coexist and the burning bush if you wanted to study of physics in The Burning Bush was matter that did not become consumed matter that became energy and matter remained matter that would be an interesting Fusion which Judaism Jews thought always believed that's what the ultimate's goal would be that we don't have to um annihilate or destroy an apocalypse of this material universe that this world of matter the material Universe can become a body of energy actually it is energy except it's concealed energy so when we use our tables and our chairs and our food and our work and everything that we are all the all the material part of our corner of the world and we use it for Spiritual purposes we essentially are converting matter into energy without the matter being destroyed with the matter itself becoming Illuminating like a bush that continues to burn but it continues to remain a bush so I wish this upon all of us to find it in our own relationships to find that passionate romantic relationship with another human being we two individuals can become a whole an entity that is more than the sum of the parts and um and and find it also in our own in all the different ways that this manifests in our daily lives so with that being said I conclude by wishing you all a very pleasant week it's a real honor to share and speak with you all and I want to just announce that Philips class won't be taking place tomorrow night we'll continue to resume next week those of you that have that please leave your email address with us so we can remain in contact and um and I hope to see you next week none of you no one should be consumed um as far as that burn but without the consumption part A a nice blend of the two thank you very much

Channel: Rabbi Simon Jacobson at Meaningful Life Center

Views: 9,304

Keywords: spirituality, soul, meaning, purpose, god, kabbalah, torah, chassidus, mysticism, psychology, bible, practical bible

Id: 3I0FOWUvEGM

Length: 48min 34sec (2914 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 25 2023