The Joy of Being Nothing (59 minutes)

Hi, this is David Sachs and welcome to Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. Every week we do a little couples therapy between us and God. It's a chance to deepen and explore our most important relationship. Okay, I'm glad you're here. So we have this amazing thing called the Mishkan, which was the Tabernacle in the Desert, which was the prototype of the base of Migdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. And the rabbis teach us that the Mishkan was actually a microcosm of the entire universe. Not only that, but it was a microcosm of each and every single person. So it was a miniature of the human being and it was a miniature of the world, both at the same time. And now, when you remember that each person is a miniature of the world, then it makes sense because we've got the entire universe inside of us, right? So these are all parallel thoughts, which leads to a very big idea, which is if you fix yourself, you fix the whole world. And that everything that we do has tremendous significance, even if we're just alone in our houses and we put a coin in its adaca box, a charity box, that that actually reverberates cosmically because the entire universe is inside of us. So what is us? What is I? So a lot of people when they think of who am I, they're thinking of the contours of their own flesh and blood. But the reality is, is that you extend beyond yourself. There's the Jewish people, which is one soul. So in other words, part of you is in you and part of you is this collective nation called the Jewish people, which is very significant because to be the best you means not just being inwardly focused, but it also means being outwardly focused because part of you exists outside of you. And that's not you being generous or charitable or whatever it is. That's you, that's actually you. So the example that I always think of is in the movie Barbie, all the Barbies look different. But the beginning of the movie is all the different looking Barbies, all greet each other. Hi, Barbie, Hi, Barbie, Hi, Barbie, Hi, Barbie. So in other words, everyone around you looks different, but it's all because we're one soul. It's us. So now let's revisit this idea of the Mishka. Because a lot of the Mishka is about putting together the Mishka. So how do you put it together? Because when we put it together, then we've realized the shlame-skite of it, the wholeness of it. And that's another way of saying that would be the ghoul of the redemption. That's when everything flows together because everything has been put in its place. So I saw a question from Rob Al-Ezrbar-Shimon, who is the son of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yul-Khai. And it's in the Zahari, he asks an amazing question, and the Ramak explains what the question is. I love this because it's such a simple question, but it's not simple. And the answer is so simple, but it's not simple. So it's an incredibly simple question, an incredibly simple answer, while simultaneously being an incredibly deep question and an incredibly deep answer. So what's the question? Why is the universe so big? If you think about it, do we really need that many galaxies? Do we really need that many planets? Like, couldn't God have kind of fit everything that He wanted to do in a much smaller superstructure? And seemingly, of course, He could have. So why did God make the universe so big? And I listened to the answer in order to give us free choice. Wow, that's a very deep answer. That's not simple, but believe me, that's not simple. In order to give us free choice. Now, I'm going to try to explain that. You see, the universe is so big, it's so big, and God did that on purpose. In order that people should look around and think, maybe this is all there is, just the physical universe itself. Because how is it so big? Is there room for anything else other than that? It's pretty amazing because it really does give a person free choice. Because in other words, what sense does it make? It seems to be a thing in and of itself. I was thinking of an example. It's not the greatest example, but just another way of thinking about it. That's so long ago. This used to be in the headlines all of the time, which was a giant company would fail because they were doing big, irresponsible things financially. And the government would bail it out. And the phrase "too big to fail" used to be like in the papers every single day. Because if it failed, it would bring down the entire economy with it. So you had to save it. You had no choice. In other words, the company had succeeded in becoming a thing in and of itself. That's how big it was. So that's the idea of the universe. It's so big in and of itself, it can't fail. It's not allowed to fail because that's all there is. Then it goes on to say something else, which is quite amazing. Which is, you think the universe is so big? We spent all this time talking about how big the universe is. The next point that the Ramak points out is that every single piece of it is necessary. You go, wait a second. Wow. So it's bigger than I could ever even imagine. And now you're telling me every single piece of it is absolutely necessary. It serves a role in terms of, of Otis Hashem, in terms of serving God. And he mentions with this thought, why do I have so many organs inside my body? And so many sinews, so many parts. Why? Because every single part of my body, every single part of the universe is there to serve God in a different way. So those are two very interesting companion thoughts. We started off by saying that the universe is so big in order for us to think that maybe all there is is the universe. So it's to give us free choice, the grandness of the universe. And then we said, you think anything's extra? Part of the greatness of God is that no, every single part of that thing that at first you thought was absolutely unnecessarily big is there to serve God. Wow. Okay. So again, we're still talking about the Mishkan. We're still talking about this amazing divine structure which contains everything within it. The whole world within it. The rabbis teach that when we finished building the Mishkan, God rejoiced like he did when he created the entire universe. So that's another parallel showing you that the Mishkan really is like the whole world. Okay. Now I'll tell you something interesting. The first holy temple was destroyed. The second holy temple was destroyed. Guess what? The Mishkan was never destroyed. So there's an eternality about the Mishkan, which is also very striking and very compelling. So that microcosm of creation, if we knew where it was, we could walk there right now. We could go there right now. It's not a thought. It's there somewhere. So much of our lives are about this process of assembly. Just like the Mishkan, it has to be assembled. And I heard Rabbi Rosé something very interesting. God is infinite, but he allows for the finite within his infinity. And then within the finite, we create the infinite. And that's the Mishkan. I'm going to sit here. that again because it's like a very big thought. God is infinite but within the infinite he creates the finite, that's the physical universe, that's you and me, and then within the finite realms we create the infinite and that's the Mishkan. We make a place for the infinite. In other words God makes a place for the finite within himself and then within the finite we create a place for the infinite and that's the Mishkan. That's a lot of things, that's a lot of the Mitzhas and everything like that but right now we're talking about that dwelling place. That headquarters if you will and remember it's not like that's God's house because the famous verse which is inscribed in many shools for all time all around the world. Make a sanctuary and I will dwell in them. Right? You're ready and I will dwell in it and it doesn't say that. Make a sanctuary and I will dwell in them meaning to say that when that last piece is put together then God's revelation, His oneness is revealed throughout the entire world but again it's about piecing this thing together. Now someone asked a question and I gave an answer so I want to share that with you based on what I just told you which is one of the hallmarks of the Mishkan is that it had to be assembled right that's what all these parches in the Torah are dealing with putting it together but then when we journeyed through in the desert we had to take it apart and then we had to put it back together. So it wasn't just the idea of putting it together it was also the idea of taking it apart and putting it back together. I'm going to go deeper into this idea but let's just why the question is why and so the answer that I wanted to give is if the Mishkan is us what does it mean to take yourself apart and what does it mean to make an infinite place amidst the finite and so the answer that I wanted to give for why we had to disassemble it on a regular basis is that God has hard wired us toward the finite. We have a certain number of years in this world like if I take one step in front of me I don't end up in China I end up eight inches in front of me in other words we're so hardwired to have this relationship with our own limitations that on a regular basis we have to disassemble our notion of our own limitations in order to remind ourselves that we're completely connected and swimming in the infinite because it's so easy to forget. That is really the bottom line of so many of the Mitzvahs just to reconnect to the infinite. You know one of the amazing things about every blessing that we say and every blessing is meant to be a reminder is that we say Baruch Atah. Now Atah means you. Now you only use the word you if the person is standing right in front of you. You which means that there's this regular reminder that we give to ourselves all the time if you're focused on the words if you're aware what you're saying is that God is right there. God is right here all of the time as I always tell you God is as present in this dimension that we're in as he is in the highest heavens he's just more concealed but he's no less present not only that but to always remember concealment doesn't mean abandonment because we can obviously see you know crazy miracles going on in front of our face every single second that doesn't mean that God is any less present or any less with us or any less loving it just being filtered in this way that we can have free choice and it's through our free choice and exercising our free choice in the proper way that we assemble the Mishkan. Now let me tell you a a khidish a new idea that came to me and Shabbos which is if this partial a partial truma is talking about putting together the Mishkan and it's in so many different pieces then the last word of the partial should be the last piece that needs to be assembled did you hear the thought so what is the last piece the last word of this partial which is talking about putting together all these different pieces and interestingly it's the word nighoshet now nighoshet is copper so you had three main metals that were going into the Mishkan you had gold you had silver and then you had copper so whose gold got into the Arna Codash because it was all made by the contributions of the people and it's the people who gave the gold with the holiest intentions right so there are all sorts of levels like depending on how full a heart you gave with with where your contribution ended up in the Mishkan itself now you know to be part of it at all was amazing and copper was one of the things and a lot of of the essential parts of the Mishkan were made out of copper so there was nothing wrong with copper but again if the whole partial is about putting together the Mishkan and we know on a deeper level it's about putting together the world and putting together ourselves well the last word the last piece is nighoshet so it is nighoshet so I want to say like this if you look at the word nighoshet it's the word nighosh nighosh means snake as in the snake from the Garden of Eden and then the letter tough which is the last letter of the alif base so I want to say like this when we've that last word we're putting together the world right now what's the last piece of putting together the whole world the nighosh ends because tough is the last letter of the alif base that's the end of everything in other words the end of evil when we put together everything the nighosh hits a wall and it ends as it says in Gamora Suka that in the end of days the aetzahara is going to be shechted the aetzahara is going to disappear it's going to it's going to be killed and so we have interestingly at the end of parcious truma which is talking about finishing up the whole world it ends with the last word which talks about the end of evil so now let's go deeper we've been focusing mostly on how the Mishkan is a miniature of the world but what about the Mishkan being a miniature of ourselves how do we build ourselves how do we do that how do we complete ourselves how do you listen to these words carefully how do you become what you are how do you become what you are and I found an amazing thing in the parasha there's so many levels it's just endless to endless endless endless as I always tell you the Torah is the infinite compressed into the finite you will never run out of levels within the Torah never well there was a foundational element from the half-shekels that we gave from the silver that we gave and they went to make the sockets of the Mishkan the sockets were the foundational pieces that the boards the walls of the Mishkan were made out of planks of wood that were all aligned next to each other and then they would go into these sockets and the sockets were pure silver and very heavy like super heavy now the sockets if you saw them they were actually in a square shape with a hollow middle which means that they were the letter mem the letter mem because that's what a final mem looks like it's a square and in the middle of the road. It's cut out. Maybe one year something absolutely amazing, this was amazing to me anyway. Do you know how many sockets there were in the Mishkan? Well, Mem is the Gamma tree of 40. Guess what? There were 40 sockets in the Mishkan. It's the letter Mem and there were 40 of them in the Mishkan. Do you know what that means? It became what it was. It's a full realization of its essence. And remember, how did God create the world through the letters of the Torah? As the Bala Turum points out, the word "truma," the name of the parasha, if you rearrange the letters, it spells Torah Mem. Torah and then the letter Mem. Because the Torah was given in 40 days. Or, Truma is talking about the Mishkan, which is a miniature of the world and God made the entire world out of the Torah. So let's get back to us. How can I become what I am? How can I be a reflection in the here and now of what's inside of me? And so, Abraham Amalif addresses this question in a very, very amazing, deep way. And he gives an example, which again, I love the examples that the Khakhamim gives, that the sages give us, because they seem so simple. And at the same time, they're endlessly deep. And you know, he talks about a chicken and an egg, which is great, because in the Ukraine and the, you know, 1800s, the Adelana, chickens and eggs. And if you're Abraham Amalif, you look at it and you come up with the most grand existential example of the human condition and our potential. So, he says that there is a chicken inside the egg. I need to imagine, just a picture of that in your mind, there's a chicken waiting to come out from that egg. But imagine it's actually, it come to the development process where it's actually a chicken, right? Do you know what? That, when you look at it though, all you see is an egg. And that chicken can't get outside of that egg until the egg becomes nothing, meaning the shell of the egg. When the shell becomes nothing, when the shell is broken, when it goes away, then that, which is inside of it, can emerge outside of it in reality. Or to put it another way, there is a U inside of you right now, a better U inside of you right now. But the only way that it can come out is if the present U becomes nothing. And so, what does it mean to be nothing? And the word he uses is Ion. And I'm thinking of calling this year, it's good to be nothing. Because a lot of people hear the word nothing and it's sort of like, they want to run for the door. What do you mean nothing? You're gonna take everything away from me? Like, I don't want that. It's the last thing I want. Who is this guy? This is wisdom. So, first of all, let's use the Hebrew word, 'cause I'm just using English. The word is Ion. That's, and it doesn't mean to, to become to lose everything God forbid. You ready? This is what it means to be nothing. To disappear into the oneness of God. To disappear into the oneness of God, which is the full realization of yourself. Right? Like, imagine you're a hook in the Mishkan. There are a lot of hooks holding up the curtains. Imagine you're a hook in the Mishkan. And imagine your whole life as a hook. You're just looking in the mirror. I'm a hook. I'm a hook, all right. Look at me. No, I'm just gonna like turn a little bit to the left. Oh yeah, now I'm looking good. I caught my good side. And imagine you're not aware of the fact that there's this divine structure that you're playing a part in. That can't be that divine structure without you, but you're just concentrating on yourself. Imagine all of a sudden, like, you know, a wind comes, the mirror goes away and you look around and you're going to say, "Um, that? That's an awesome moment." At that moment of a shocking realization that you're part of something so much greater, you literally disappear for that moment. But you don't really disappear because you then are an essential part of this thing which is so much greater than yourself. That's what the Reb is mean when they talk about Bittl. That's what they mean. You know, sometimes in English books, it's such a shame because I know that there's so many people walking around depressed who are trying to learn Torah and they read these translations in English and they have no idea what the Reb is saying. The word self-melification is often used to translate Bittl. And we're not talking about low self-esteem. Like, "Oh, if only I had worse self-esteem." You know, I thought I was more garbage than I currently think I am. I already think of garbage, but if only I were lower, dirtier garbage, I can't reach such a level. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about disappearing within the oneness of God while simultaneously understanding that you're playing this exalted role within that superstructure, in the way that we started out. What does it mean to be I? Why were we giving a half a shackle? It doesn't make any sense. If it's a census and you're counting me, make it a whole coin. But no, there's something essential about our identity that we have to understand, which is, "I'm partly me and all of us are partly me also." We're all us, we're all me, we're all I. And I'm not just who I am right now. The half a shackle is saying, "I'm also who I can be in the future." And how am I deriving that? Because it says that one of the reasons why the Red Sea split, the Bolloturm brings it, is because of the half shackle that we were going to give to the Mishka. And this is one of the most exalted teachings because God did a miracle to save us based on a mitzvah that we hadn't done yet. Based on our future service, God was saving us now. God was counting future merit that we hadn't gotten yet and was giving us the reward in the present moment for something from the future. Which means if the half a shackle represents me, the half a shackle doesn't just represent me right now, but it also represents the person that I'm going to become in the best way. So then again, we need a better understanding of what it means to become nothing and the greatness of Ion. I tell you something crazy. If you rearrange the letters, I think this is from the Safey Yitzira. If you rearrange the letters of Ion, do you know what it spells? I need I. We just talked about how Ion is the antidote to being eye. And yet, until you are I, you can't be nothing. Meaning to say, until you understand your own greatness, you're not even eligible to be humble. Don't even apply. Don't bother applying for greatness, or rather, don't bother apply to being humble, unless you can show me on your resume that you already think that you're great. Because most people's understanding of humbleness, or humility, or anava, is just low self-esteem, masquerading as holiness. It's a masquerade. So you say, "Well, but I'm not great. How can I think that I'm great? I'm not great. I'm not the richest person in the world. I'm not an Olympian. I'm not, you know, own Amazon. I'm not the rich, whatever it is. I'm not the strongest person. I'm not the smartest person in the world. So where is my greatness deriving from? If I have to think that I'm great. And the answer is that you have a piece of God inside of you. And who put that piece of, you didn't steal it. God put that piece of God inside of you. Which means God made the decision that you were worthy of being a vessel for the ultimate beyond the ultimate beyond the ultimate God himself. Now think of it in terms of modern business practice. So what's an IP up? So that's called an initial public offering. So that means that, you know, I've got this great company or a great idea for a company. And now it's private. We're making so much money. You can't even believe it. But now I'm going to give you an opportunity to buy shares in my company so that as I become crazy rich, depending on how many shares you have, you can also become rich. That's the initial public offering where you go public with it. So before you get there, someone's got to invest in your idea. So there are a lot of venture capital firms which are like the biggest. There's Ben Schmark, there's Andrewson, there's Sequoia. These are like the giants in the field. Imagine you have an idea. And they want to give you $100 million for your idea. They're going to give you $100 million to further your idea. And you're like Sequoia is going to. I mean, these are the guys who have invested in the biggest companies on the planet. They think so much of my idea that they're going to give me $100 million for my idea as an investment. Now think about God putting a piece of himself in you. Do you know how much more exalted that is? I mean, again, it's like a joke. Their $100 million is a joke. And God is perfect. Which means God knows what He's doing. Which means when He made that investment, He absolutely knew what He was doing. From that, a person can think that they're great. So how do I make my outer shell disappear? So that this better me that's inside of me can emerge. Well, you said by becoming Ion or by becoming a knee. You have to become a knee first, right? Because that's the same letters. You realize your greatness. Then you can get to this place of humility. And you realize that you're not going to be able to do anything. You're not going to be able to do anything. I won't tell you the whole thing, but I'm going to give you both extremes of the answer and the teaching. And the question is, who has the most faith? And it goes through different stages, but I'm going to give you the two extremes. David Amelach, who leads the army in battle and is swinging his sword and must have been the ultimate horseman. Horseman, in terms of controlling his horse, like, you have to understand, like, those battle fields were, like, mayhem. They were, like, horses all over the place. I mean, can you imagine how incredible a horseman you had to be and how precise while you were wielding a sword in an incredible way? I mean, that was really something. So, that's one sign of faith. You're in the middle of the battle and you are absolutely consumed with the battle. And the other extreme is Chazikia Hameal, who the armies of Sinharov have already finished off 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel. And now they're about to finish off the rest of the Jewish people. This was a battle that the Gomorrah says could have been Gogumagag. It could have been the apocalyptic battle and Mishiah could have come and Chazikia would have been Mishiah. These are the words of the Gomorrah. And do you know what Chazikia did? He didn't even get out of bed. He prayed from bed. Because he said, "I'm not on the level to do like the previous kings did, where they could be partially involved and not think that it's their own doing when they received success." They all partially were able to be involved, but to know it was God, "I'm not on that level. If I do anything, I'm going to think that it's me. I'm going to lie in bed and pray to God, and then I'm going to know it's all God." And sure enough, a miracle happened and a play came and wiped away all of Sinharov's army. And that happened at Khatsod and Pesach. And if you look in the Haggadah, it's one of the miracles that's mentioned of all the things that happened at Khatsod, which is the time that the Jewish people left Egypt. And listen to this, it says that Mashiach would have come, except Chazikia didn't sing a song of thanks afterwards. We were one song away from Mashiach. So let's answer to our question. Who has more faith? The person who prayed from bed and fully trusted God, or David Amelach, who's in the middle of battle directing his horse in the most incredible way. Can you feel his biceps clenching as he's pulling the horse tightly in this direction, in that direction? Total master. While he's swinging his sword, and what's the answer? The answer is David Amelach. That was the greater act of faith, because while he was doing everything, he knew that he was doing nothing. While he was doing everything, he realized everything was just coming from God through him. He knew what he was doing. That is the ultimate nothingness. And he talks about a concept that's a very important concept in Torah. You don't hear it so often, but Abraham Amelach is into it. And it's this idea called "yuli". And "yuli" is actually a Greek word. The ramban was very into "yuli". And it's the idea that when God created the world, He created this substance, this raw material. I like to call it this divine ectoplasm. And he drew from this substance that he made. And then God just took a little bit of it and he made the moon. And he took another little bit of it and he made carrots. And he took another little bit of it and he made Chicago. And that's how God first created this euli. And then he drew from it. from the Eulee and He made everything that He made. So the idea is that God works His salvation through the Tsaddik and don't get hung up on the word Sadiq, that's you and me, that's you and me. Because the Tsaddik, someone who has attained that level to be called Sadiq, has reached the level of becoming Eulee. In other words, I'm there to be formed by you God. And then how does the Tsaddik become Eulee? Because do you know what the ultimate Eulee is? The Torah itself. So this caterpillar that becomes a butterfly. The caterpillar goes into this state called this chrysalis. And then it emerges from it in a completely different form. A caterpillar is crawling on its belly, right? Or on these tiny little legs. And then it turns into this winged, beautiful creature that can literally fly. I mean, it's so symbolic and absolutely miraculous. I mean like from a worm to an eagle. And it happens in front of our eyes. But this is I think another beautiful, beautiful example of what the Torah is talking about. And what Avraham Amalik is talking about when he talks about Eulee. Because remember what is Eulee? Eulee is that raw material that God created at the beginning and then takes from it and then makes every single thing from that thing. So what does the caterpillar do? The caterpillar becomes nothing. The caterpillar completely stops being a caterpillar and becomes nothing. But that nothing is all caterpillar, right? And then once it makes itself into nothing, meaning to say not just nothing, but an expression of the divine oneness, then it becomes the substance where God can create the absolute opposite out of it. Like this gorgeous winged creature which flutters around and makes people incredibly happy. Like who runs home and says, "Mom, I saw the most beautiful caterpillar today." But butterflies are like, "Whoa." But the key step is the Eulee. The key step is this idea of nothingness or surrender, like a divine surrender, but a divine surrender to what? To the ultimate Eulee which is the Torah itself, which is the primary substance through which God creates and recreates with. God created, this is from the Zohrna. God created with the Torah, through the Torah, and God continues to create through the Torah. So if I can make myself like Torah and the Torah is called Eulee, if I can make myself just God, I want to do your will, let me do your will, I'm going to try to do your will with in all my ways. And at that moment I've become the substance through which something else can emerge in the most beautiful way. Now again, Avram Amalik uses the word "sotic" to describe that person. I'm democratizing it right now. But I think that he's not just saying, "Oh, I want to tell you something about what the special people among this can do." I can't imagine that that's what his intention is. I think that he's talking to all of us, but the reason why I'm emphasizing this exotic part right now is to understand that this is a very aspirational spiritual level to get to. Right? Like someone really has to work on themselves to become nothing. You have to be a big something to be nothing. That's the crazy part, right? You know, like Ribbien-Autman of Brezlev says, "Simple is heart." Or maybe that's Steve Jobs. Or maybe it's both of them. Really, I can tell you, like, you know, I'll come up with an idea for a TV series or a movie or whatever it is, and then you've got to pitch it. And you've got to find that one or two sentences that contains the entire DNA so that someone just hears it, and it just blossoms in front of them. And man, that's heart. That is heart. So to become nothing is quite an achievement. You know, I'll tell you just one of the classic stories that I heard from Ripschlomo. And it involves the Kutskarebbi and the community of the Kutskarek Hasidim, which is that it was very controversial in its day, and people wanted to know, like, what's going on in Kutsk? Like it was like a radical form of Khasidis. And it's kind of funny because part of the radical aspect of Kutskarek Hasidis was that it was going back toward the mainstream in some ways in that it was lessening the emphasis on the Tzadik's role. Like the Kutskare was saying, you be the Tzadik. What are you running to the Tzadik to pray for you for? You be that person. You know, so it was like, it was like, there was like this bit of a Yatesahara that the Kutskarebbi felt was creeping into the Khasidik movement where people were sort of like, kind of like denying accountability. And now maybe I can just kind of put it on the Tzadik. And the Kutskare was like, no, no, no, no, no. The Tzadik is there to pray for you when you're doing everything that you need to be doing also. So this, you know, to the average Khasidik person who was like way into the Tzadik, right? This was a bit of a heresy. In fact, the whole Kutskareh Khasidik movement was put on trial. It's a famous, famous thing and was exonerated by the optaroth at his granddaughter's wedding. It was like a famous, it was called like the wedding of the century. And every Khasidik master just about was there. The Kutskare knew that he was going to be put on trial there and he's like, I'm not showing that for you. So who did he send to represent him? The KhaduShairim, the first Kareh Rebi. Anyway, Kutsk was acquitted, but here's the story. So one of these people was finding Kutsk very controversial. He himself was at Ahmed Khakim. Decided that he's going to go and investigate what's going on there. And he comes and he's more of a non-Khasidik type guy or he is a non-Khasidik type guy. And he shows up and again, he's a Torah scholar. And he sees no one is standing for him. And he's not crazy about that. Like, you know, what is all these Khutspaniks, right? They should be standing for me. They're not standing for me. And then after a certain period of time of investigating Kutsk, he noticed that they stood for two people. One was the Kutskarebi and the other one was someone who was so poor that he had a leaf on his head for a Yamaka and two like burlop bags for shoes. He had two bags for shoes and a leaf for a Yamaka. That's how broke he was. And he wasn't learned. And the Kutskarek Hasidim stood for him and the Rebi. And so finally, this Talmud Khakim came to investigate Kutsk, said, okay, I understand why you stand for the Rebi. But why do you stand for this guy? He's nothing. And they answered back to him. He is nothing. And he's not arrogant about it. In other words, he has achieved this exalted state of nothingness, which is why we stand for him. Because the Yatesahar never goes away. And you can reach a state of being nothing and then start bragging about how you're nothing. I did it. I'm nothing. Okay, everyone should have a great week. So if a person cleats you, you can get a lot of money. keeps wholeheartedly to the Torah, which is Yule, because God made the world through the Torah, and God is making everything through the arrangements of the letters that Sarufim of the Torah. You can become Yule, and God can work through you and bring everything into the world. Amazing, amazing idea. Now why is this so hard? Why is this so hard? And there's another verse in this week's parasha that I think is really amazing. It seems to have a contradiction in it, so much so that Rasji actually has to come and address this question. But I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to paraphrase it to you, but listen carefully and see if you can hear the problem in this verse. That says to us, put the lid on top of the arin, meaning the ark that held the tablets, put the lid on top of the arin, and then put the tablets in the ark. God, are you one more time? Put the lid on top of the arin, and then put the luchos in the arin. Okay, so I'm sure you all heard the problem. Well, if the lid is on top of the arin, how am I going to put the luchos in the arin? But that's what the verse says. That's what the verse says. So, so this is the problem with us. And I would say practically speaking, if we want to get rid of the egg, if we want to evato ourselves and become part of that divine oneness, where the hook stops looking in the mirror and sees like this exalted thing that is an essential part of making complete, that's each of us. We want to reach this level where the amni becomes ayin. We have to get rid of the lid. What do I mean by that? The lid is an important part. There's a time for the lid. So let me explain better. In my life, more than once, I've gone up to someone who's a Talmud Hakam, a legitimate Torah scholar, and I've told them something that they didn't know. And you know what their response has been? Maybe. It's like, what? I just, I just told you something. It's true. You didn't know it. And your response has maybe. Do you know what the problem is there? The lid is on so that the Torah can't go in. In other words, they've already become a finished product. Imagine a jar with the lid screwed onto the top. You can't get anything more into that jar because you've already screwed on the lid. And this is the chief danger that all of us have to guard against. Where we've decided, we've figured it out. We've decided I am who I am. That's a very hard shell to break. Where the lid is screwed on tightly. How am I going to get more information? How am I going to integrate it? How am I going to get that better self that's in me out of me if the lid is screwed on so tightly? Or as R. Shlomo said it so brilliantly so many times, what do we know? What do we know? This gift, this state of consciousness, of staying in a place of not knowing. Again, that's a form of Ion. A form of not knowing. I don't know. Creates an opening where new information can come in and the better me can come out. Right? So how do you break the egg shell? So you can break the egg like you just knock it against the kitchen counter. And then you separate it. That's from the outside in. But when the chicken emerges, it does it from the inside out. And so I think that's what makes all of the difference. Circumstances can come and just say, my friend, you're on the wrong side. You're on the wrong path. And I'm just going to have to step in right now and tell you you're on the wrong path. That's what it is. It's a fixing. Doesn't feel good. But at a pull-out of the Thornbushes, I really like this visual. Imagine someone's kind of wandering down the road. Or you can use the word derroth. They're on the derroth. And then they kind of wander off the derroth and they walk into a Thornbush. They keep on walking and they're in the middle of a Thornbush. I don't know if you know about Thornbushes, but Thornbushes are a bummer. They're like really sharp. They're like sharp like nails. Like if you press your thumb on the top of one of them, you will bleed. Like they don't fool around Thornbushes. So now imagine you're yelling, "Help, help!" I'm in the middle of a Thornbush and I'm like, "I'm running to get you out." But you know what? To get out of the Thornbush, you know what you got to go through? A Thornbush. And it doesn't feel good. And while you're getting pulled out of it, you're kicking and screaming and you hate it. But then you're out of it. And how did you get into it? Because the person wandered off the straightener. That's how they got into it. So that's an example of cracking the egg from the outside. But then there's another way of doing it. We all make mistakes and we all fall. And it's part of our humanity and we can't endlessly kick ourselves for it. Because it's just who we are. It's how we're made. We're fallible. We're human beings. It's just what it is. However, having said that, if you can learn from someone else's mistakes, that's the best case scenario. That's the best case scenario. Right? You know, I wrote for the Simpsons. And there's different ways to watch that show, especially when it was first appeared and was considered almost anti-social. Like parents were like a gasped like, what is this? You know? It's teaching kids the absolute worst behavior and celebrating it. Like what is this? But if you are a little bit more sophisticated and you watch it, you realize that you're a little bit more sophisticated and you realize these people who are doing the worst things are complete and total idiots. And I would never want to do something like that because look what an idiot that person is. And so if you watch it in a more sophisticated way, it's actually a fantastic show to teach you proper behavior. But you have to be on a level of maturity and sophistication to understand that. To be able to learn from someone else's mistakes and to go, wow, that's where that action leads to. Being that or doing that, well, I'm going to go this way instead. So to break the shell from the inside, what that means is I'm learning from other people's mistakes. And I'm also learning Torah. And I'm integrating Torah in a way that I'm ready to evolve to the next stage of being a higher manifestation of me. Remember, I told you that the mem is 40 and there were 40 sockets in the shape of the letter "Meth." The mem was a complete realization of itself. And so the more I'm in tune with the ultimate yule, the ultimate creative substance which is the Torah, the more I can become the better version of myself. And then at that point, I am breaking the shell, but I'm breaking the shell because I'm ready to take the next step in terms of my spiritual evolution. Thanks for listening. We do this every week where we explore the amazingness of life and review us and send in any comments or suggestions. I'd love to hear him.