Daily Bitachon

Welcome to our daily bitachon . We are now in the topic of Shaar Habechina , recognizing God in creation. One of the things that the Chovot Halevavot asked us to do was to recognize how things in creation are put together and broken apart. We spoke about how God uses fundamental building blocks to create things. And as we said, there's a mixture of physicality and spirituality. You put into your body and those things that were put together are broken down into separate components, and they are sent into the proper places. So it's almost like you build a tower of Lego and then you take it apart and you put everything back in the correct box. Everything is built together from these same building blocks, whether it's an apple or an orange or a bottle of Coke. It goes into your body, gets broken down, and gets processed and put in the right place. So that's what we're doing all day, is we're putting together, God puts together, then we break apart, and the cycle goes on. So, I'm going to take a very interesting little breakdown, which I was just out of curiosity was looking into recently. What happens when you drink a glass of Coke? We know Coke's not that healthy for you. Let's read exactly what happens. When you drink a glass of Coke, your body processes its main ingredients, which are sugar, caffeine, and phosphoric acid. Through a rapid chain of events, it involves absorption, metabolism, waste removal via the kidneys and the bladder. Now, let's go through each one separately. We'll go through the digestion, the absorption. The first thing that happens is, there's a sugar overload. Within minutes, the high amount of sugar, about 10 teaspoons in one can, hits your system. Your pancreas releases a large amount of the hormone insulin to manage this spike in blood sugar. That means you need a certain level of blood sugar, too much is no good. We all know people who have diabetes have to deal with sugar levels and with artificial insulin shots. Baruch Hashem , most of us don't have that challenge, and our body naturally is able to break down that sugar even when there's a sugar overload. Then, your liver is signaled by the insulin to convert as much of the excess sugar as possible into fat for storage. That's why you become fat when you drink too much Coke. Then there's the caffeine kick. The caffeine is absorbed into your bloodstream, raising your blood pressure and blocking brain chemicals that make you feel drowsy. This makes you feel more alert and increases your heart rate. Then there's nutrient binding, which we'll show up later the importance of this. The phosphoric acid in the Coke binds with important minerals like calcium, magnesium, and zinc in your intestines, preventing your body from absorbing them properly. So this is like this phosphoric acid is not doing some very good things for your body in causing certain things that should be absorbed not to be absorbed. Then, how does it impact the urination process? There's something called the diuretic effect. About an hour after drinking, the caffeine's diuretic properties become active. What is a diuretic? It's a substance that makes your kidneys produce more urine than usual. Your kidneys, which normally filter waste and excess water from your blood to make urine, are essentially tricked into flushing out the water and the minerals that the phosphoric acid had bound to it. So this phosphoric acid tricks your kidneys into producing too much water. Now, because of that, the waste fluid goes from your kidneys to your bladder, and then eventually it goes out. And that's why when a person drinks these type of coke or coffee, but more coke than coffee, you think you're hydrating your body, but you're really not because it's really causing more water to come out of your body due to this so-called tricking of the kidneys. Now, this will lead eventually, because of this, will cause valuable nutrients and electrolytes to be lost and could cause the dehydration. Why am I going into this? Because this is what happens with a simple activity like drinking a bottle of Coke. There's factories working to process this, break it down, and sometimes the things that we take in causes things to be broken down in the wrong way. That's not our point for right now. But just to appreciate how something as simple as drinking a glass of Coke is not simple. Everything is complex. Everything is bechochma asita . Everything God makes is with wisdom. So it's complex and takes a lot of wisdom and steps. to make these breakdowns that are necessary.

Welcome to daily dose of bitachon . We're now in our recognizing God in creation series. The next thing the Chovos Halevavos tells us is that a person must recognize that this world has spirituality and physicality. This is actually a deep understanding that although we see this world is a physical world, the underlying factor... Take an example when we eat and we live off of the food that we eat. Now, food is not alive. We're alive. How do we get life from food? And the answer is there is life in food as well. There is spirituality in food. As we mentioned yesterday, there's underlying, we'll call it gases that break down. There's something more than the physical that you can touch and feel inside food. But this is on a deeper level. The Sefer Chesed L'Avraham , the Chida's grandfather in the Sefer Shelah Hakadosh , both explain a pasuk that it says that the lesson of the man was כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם, man does not live on bread alone. Now, what does that mean? Man does not live on bread alone. What does he live on? And I remember when I first started in adult education, I would enjoy asking this question, who said the statement man does not live on bread alone? And what does he live on? And some people would say Shakespeare, Mark Twain. But it's a pasuk in the Torah. What does he live on? And again, different answers. He lives on connection, he lives on spirituality, he lives on meat and chicken as well, not just bread. But the answer of the Torah is man does not live on bread alone. He lives on כי על כל מוצא פי השם יחיה האדם. He lives from the spirituality that emanates from the mouth of God. The Chesed L'Avraham says man does not live on the physicality of bread. Rather he lives on the spirituality that's in the bread that was that is comes out of the mouth of God, that emanates from God. So what's that's what we live on. This world is a a combination of both. And the proof of this was the man . Because if we take the man to a laboratory, there were no nutrients, there was no carbohydrates, there was nothing of the sort. It was just pure emanation from God. And this again the Chovos Halevavos continues says, Ra'ui she'teida , it's important for you to know, כי כל עולם מחובר מגשמיות רוחניות. The world is created from the synthesis of spirituality and physicality that are mixed and and combined in a wonderous way. The Rambam's son in his ספר המספיק לעובדי השם in the 11th chapter called Hamavak , the struggle. And he says that the struggle comes because man is created from a soul which is heavenly, from a body that's physical, and the body and soul are connected with a connection that the only one that could properly understand this is God himself. No human being could give the definition of how this works. Just like no one could understand the essence of the soul, no one could understand how the body and soul work in tandem. The Darkei Moshe as well as the Ramah in Shulchan Aruch tell us that every day we say Asher Yatzar , we're talking about our physical body functions. We end with the words umafli la'asot , and God does something wondrous. What is the wonder? The wonder is that the physical existence which comes from the heavens is connected to the physical body that comes from the earth, and the soul cannot function without the body. If a person is sick in one of his his limbs, his soul feels it so to say. And that is this wondrous connection of body and soul. One of the examples of this wondrous connection, Rav Wolbe speaks about at length in Alei Shur volume two, chapter seven. He discusses how is it that this brain that's a physical organ. Remember him saying if you open a brain, open the skull you would see this bowl of porridge, that's what the brain looks like. And through this bowl of porridge, this physical organ, thoughts, spiritual thoughts and true recognition are created. How do we connect this spirituality in a physical organ? That's the wonder that no one can understand. And that he says is also the wonder of the concept that our actions change our spiritual beings. We become great as the Rambam writes on the... Mishnah in Pirkei Avot , הכל לפי גודל המעשה, it all depends, I'm sorry, הכל לפי רוב המעשה. We change because not the greatness of the action but the repetitiveness, by constantly doing something again. And the famous example is if you have a choice to give $1,000 to one poor person or a thousand single dollars to a thousand people, the latter is more powerful, because the more action changes you. And that's the famous concept that our external arouse our internal, the Sefer HaChinuch that explains why do we do so many actions on the night of the Seder because אחרי המעשים ימשכו הלבבות, after the actions the heart is drawn. You know, how does that work? How do physical, dry actions impact our soul? And that is the Mafli Laasot , that's the wondrous connection of body and soul. The Sefer HaYashar , Rabbeinu Tam in the fourth gate says, why is it that animals walk bent over and human beings stand tall? That's because since the human being is a spiritual existence and his soul comes from above, he's naturally drawn to his source, so he stands up high. Whereas the animal that sources from below goes down back towards his source, which is the ground. The Maharal says that a human being is like a tree, as it says, Adam etz hasadeh . Man is like a tree. How so? A tree is rooted in the ground, but man is rooted in the heavens. And that's why if you stand up and you spread out your arms and spread out your legs and spread out your fingers and spread out your toes and imagine your head is a trunk rooted in the heavens, and the the nutrients and the sap coming from the heavens goes through your brain, through your arms, down to your fingers and your toes. And the the fruit of your labor, when you do something, that's the fruit of your of your labor. But it comes from the roots. And if we're rooted in the heavens, we produce these wonderful fruits from our actions. But that's the connection between body and soul, the wonders of the connection of body of soul that is one of the things we have to be cognizant of when we look.

Welcome to our daily dose of bitachon . We were going through the Chovot Halevavot , Shaar HaBechinah . We're now in the third chapter. He tells us how we're supposed to do this activity called bechinah , probing and looking for God in creation. He says the first thing you have to do is you have to look into the the building blocks of creation. Namely, fire, wind, water, and dirt, which is the approach that our rabbis tell us. Of course, we could break it down into smaller parts. And pay attention to how they're combined to create a new existence. Pay attention to the different qualities of the combination. For example, a tree has roots, a trunk, branches, and fruit. The fruit itself has different qualities. The orange has a thick peel, it has seeds, the pulp, and so on. All this came from the same original ingredients and material. Each of these is intended for a different benefit for mankind. There's a wisdom in how they came to be. Each creature came to be differently, the tree through seeds, the bird from eggs, mammals from pregnant mothers. All this is done with great wisdom. There's wisdom in how all the parts work together. There's wisdom in how the creatures look. Every creature, besides its purposeful organization, has a look to it. The zebra has the stripes, the octopus looks the way it is. And there's wisdom in how they all function. When you look at a building, a building has some basic building blocks. You have steel, you have cement, you have wood, you have plastic, you have glass. And basically everything in the house, you have marble. And we look around the house, everything in the house is basically made from those same materials. And look at the how different every part of the house looks like. You have some fabrics, forgot about that, left out fabric. And you put all that together and you have a very interesting house. You take music, there's your seven or eight notes of music, and all the music comes out of those same notes, just all the different combinations. So that's the part of the wisdom of creation that God uses the same ingredients, the same... if we use the table of elements. Scientists believe that there are 94 natural elements. So if we go with that, that means Hashem used 94 ingredients in creation. It's like you go into a kitchen and the chef has his ingredients and he makes endless cakes and endless dishes, all with these same ingredients. The entire world, the entire globe, Hashem took 94 ingredients and made these. Now, of course, we can break the ingredients down even further. And again, we'll give you a short little class in chemistry, which again is our responsibility. We'll refresh you. For a little refresher course. We start with our atom, that's the basic unit of matter. It's the smallest thing that can have a chemical property. There are many different types of atoms, each with its own name, atomic mass, and size. These different atoms are called chemical elements, which is what we spoke about on that periodic table. Now how big are atoms? They're quite small. Each element has a different size. It ranges between 0.1 to 0.5 nanometers in width. What's a nanometer? It's about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. That means you can't really see these atoms unless you have special tools. Now atoms join to make molecules. For example, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, as we know H2O, combines to make a water molecule. And when these atoms join together, that's what we call a chemical reactions. So we have our atoms, as we said on the periodic, those are our ingredients. And those ingredients can now form themselves to make many different molecules, endless amount of molecules. But the molecules, as we said, are broken down from different type of atoms. The atoms can further be broken down: three smaller particles: protons, which are positively charged; neutrons, which have no charge; electrons, which are negatively charged. The protons and neutrons are heavier and stay in the middle of the atom, which is called the nucleus. They're surrounded by a cloud of electrons, which are very lightweight. They are attracted to the positive charge of the nucleus by electromagnetic forces. So you think about this. This is wondrous. God put everything together without any glue, any concrete, any type of connecting force. God uses electromagnetic forces. That means if you ever see you put two magnets next to each other and they'll hold. in a certain state based on their magnetic force. You could push two magnets and play with them and hold them quite, not quite next to each other. Well if you were very very smart, you could use magnetic force to keep a house hovering above ground. We use magnetic forces are used in our whole setup of the of the orbits of our planets. But we ourselves are walking around being held together with electromagnetic forces. This is beyond wisdom that we can't even fathom. That's the first step that the chovot halevovot wants us to do is break things down into their parts and see what's the smallest parts. Our rebbe used to quote Rav Chaim Volozhin said that everything is spirituality, because what's in the middle is really a gas. It's not even, it's although we have everything's solids, but if you the solid is really just slower moving gases. But everything ultimately boils down to if you just pull out for a moment that electromagnetic force, everything would just turn to gas. So it's spirit is the ultimate building block of creation. Something to think about. And this is what we're doing in our chovot halevovot .

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We're on our Friday series where we talk about Shabbat . In our prayers of Shabbat , interestingly, every tefilah has a different theme. Friday night, we say Vayechulu , we say some pesukim that talk about creation. And we say that it's zecher l'maasei breishit . It's there to remember creation. In the Shacharit prayers, which we're going to discuss now, we mention Matan Torah and how special the Jewish people are. As it says, in Shemot 31:16, ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת, the Jewish people will keep the Shabbat , לעשות את השבת לדורותם ברית עולם. It's an everlasting covenant, it's a deal. Who's it a deal? ביני ובין בני ישראל. It's between God and the Jewish people. Ot hi l'olam . It's an everlasting sign. כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ואת הארץ. God created the heavens and earth in six days וביום השביעי שבת וינפש. And after that it says, and God didn't give it to the other nations of the world. We'll see how exactly that fits in. There's another pasuk in Shemot Lamed Alef Yud Gimmel that also talks about the ot , and it says כי אות היא ביני וביניכם לדורותיכם. It is an everlasting sign, l'daat , to know כי אני ה' מקדשכם, to know that I am Hashem that makes you holy. And Rashi says, what does that mean? What's this ot ? אות גדולה היא בינינו. It's a great sign between us, as we said, it's a sign, it's a covenant, it's a deal. What is that? She'bacharti bachem , I chose you, ונחלתי לכם את יום מנוחתי למנוחה. I chose you, and how do I know I chose you? Because I gave you the day to rest that I rest on. God allowed us into His resting day. That's a sign of how special we are. That is a sign of honor. We have Shabbat and other nations do not. And that now we understand the continuation that we say in the Amidah . ולא נתתו ה' אלוקינו לגויי הארצות. God did not give this to the the nations of the world. ולא הנחלתו מלכנו לעובדי אלילים. And the idol worshipers did not get this inheritance. Gam b'menuchato , in His resting day, lo yishkenu areilim , the fore skinned ones, those that are not Jewish, did not have a brit milah , cannot dwell in this day of menuchah . כי לעמך ישראל נתתו באהבה. God gave it to us lovingly, l'zera Yaakov , to the seed of Yaakov , asher bam bacharta , God chose us. As Rashi says, bacharti bachem , I chose you. So we walk around with Shabbat . It's a sign that we're special, that we're different. Just like tefillin is a sign, brit milah is a sign. It's interesting that it says that lo yishkenu areilim , those non-circumcised, fore skinned people cannot have anything to do with menuchah of Shabbat . All these signs are signs that we're special. It's interesting, it says that anything shows up in three dimensions: people, place, and time. Holiness shows up in people, place, and time. Holiest person, the Kohen Gadol . Holiest place, the Holy of Holies. Holiest time, Yom Kippur . And they all come together as the Kohen Gadol enters the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur . And this sign that God has is also in people, place, and person. It's a sign in people with the brit milah . It's a sign in place, the tefillin are a box which represents space, makom . And lastly, it's a sign in time, Shabbat . And that's what we're talking about, to be proud and walk around with this badge of honor, the badge of Shabbat that separates us. Something to be proud of. You can wear the king's garments, so to say. You can enter into this special elite place that no one's allowed into, but us. So much so that it says goy she'shavat chayav mitah . If a goy decides to keep Shabbat , he's chayav mitah . The Chida in ספר נחל קדומים על במדבר 22 colon 28 explains why. Because he says if someone decides to use the king's scepter, he's chayav mitah . God gave us this scepter to use because we're His children. There's another analogy I once saw brought down in one of the Midrashim , that if a king and queen are sitting alone in a room. some servant walks in, off with his head. Shabbat is the time when God and the Jewish people are alone, and how dare anyone else enter into that special time. So these are all unbelievable appreciations of this great sign of Shabbat and therefore, let us truly appreciate it and take in all that wonderful, beautiful time.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We're going through Sha'ar HaBechinah . We learned yesterday that we have a responsibility to open the wrapping on the gift that God gave us. One of the gifts is our body, and there's millions of gifts, and I'm not exaggerating. Let's go through our blood vessels. When you get a cut, it heals. No one thinks about that. You get a scab, big deal. You ever tear your clothing and suddenly it's sewed up by itself? Strange, isn't it? So let's analyze what happens when you get a scab. You say, what do I have to know about this stuff for? Is this going back to science class? Because these are gifts of God, and intellect requires that we appreciate our gifts. So think of your blood vessels like a system of pipes running through your house. The pipe springs a leak, you need a way to patch it up immediately to stop the water, in our case, it's the blood, from flooding out. Well, your body has an automatic emergency repair crew for this exact purpose. The process is called hemostasis. Hemo is blood, stasis means stopping. And there's three main steps. The first one is the squeeze, vasoconstriction, which means the moment a blood vessel is cut, your body's first reaction is to reduce the flow of that area. Now, body's first reaction, you know, what is that? That's a nice scientific term. Who told the body to react? That's God. So the muscles in the wall of the blood vessels tighten and clamp down. The analogy, it's like turning off the main water valve or squeezing a garden hose to stop the flow of the water. This limits how much blood can escape while the repair begins. Number two, the plug, which is called platelet aggregation. The first responders arrive. These are the platelets, tiny sticky cell fragments floating in your blood. They're always there. What happens? When the platelets touch the jagged edge of a broken vessel, they get activated. This is wild. Little microscopic vessels, when they're torn, create a jagged edge. This activates the platelets. They change shape, become spiky and sticky. They clump together at the site of the cut to form a temporary plug. The analogy, think of this like sticking a piece of chewing gum or wet clay over the hole in the pipe. It stops the immediate leak, but it's soft and won't hold for long against high pressure. Stage three, the glue, the coagulation cascade. To make the repair permanent, the blood, the body needs to reinforce the soft platelet plug with something stronger. This is where the coagulation cascade comes in. Dozens of proteins in your blood are called clotting factor. By the way, parenthetically, hemophiliacs don't have clotting factors. But Baruch Hashem , we do. That wakes it up a chain reaction and creates a tough stringy protein called fibrin. It's like a steel mesh or net. It wraps around the soft platelet plug and hardens, turning the chewing gum into reinforced concrete. This creates a solid scab that seals the wound completely until the skin heals underneath. But there's really a step after that, which is the cleanup, which happens days or weeks later. Once the skin and vessel wall have healed underneath the scab, you don't need the clot anymore. Your body releases a different enzyme called plasmin, that acts like a pair of molecular scissors. It cuts the fibrin mesh into tiny pieces. The scab falls off or dissolves and blood flows normally again. This is craziness what's going on inside our body at all times. Now what's interesting, one of the very uncomfortable things is paper cuts. Now, paper cuts just last. Why? They're seemingly so innocent. The answer is because since they're shallow, and they don't cause significant bleeding, the blood clotting system doesn't get triggered and therefore it leaves it as it is. This is just one small little example of the wondrous things that are happening at all times inside of us. And it behooves us to think about it and appreciate it.

Welcome to our daily Bitochon . We're now in Chovot Halevavot Sha'ar HaBechinah . We're starting chapter two. He says, who says that we have to do this? To start looking into creation and finding God. What's our, who said? He tells us there's three responsibilities. One is min hamuskal , my intellect says. One is min hakatuv from pesukim , and one is min hakabalah from our midrashim and our gemara . Now, if I tell you that you have to do something because your sechel says so, who said? What does that mean my sechel said so? What responsibility is my sechel ? So Rav Nissim Gaon says in his hakdamah to the Shas , that anything that's logical, anything that comes from an understanding heart, everyone has to do it from the first day that God created man on this world for the generations to come. And these are mitzvot , he calls them sichliyot , versus mitzvot noda'ot . There's mitzvot that are intellectual that you could figure it out on your own. There are things you need to hear about, and of course, that's only we the Jewish people have. Now, what's the proof? The proof is, he says, otherwise it'd be unjust for Hashem to punish people for sins they weren't warned about. And we see goyim and things before Har Sinai being punished, who seemingly had no obligation. And he says if we would not have responsibilities based on our intellect, how could God punish them? First proof is Kayin . Kayin and Hevel . The Torah was not given yet, yet Kayin was held accountable. Why? Because murder is permitted based on logic. And that's why he was punished. Another proof. Dor hamabul . Why were they punished? Who told them they shouldn't do what they did? And he says the term used is כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו. All flesh had corrupted its way. What is it, what is this corruption referred to? And corrupted its way? He says the way is the way of the intellect. Like we say derech eretz , the way of the world. Who said that's, who said you have to do that? דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה means that the way of the world, which is my intellect, tells me what to do, that brings responsibilities upon me. Another proof. Sedom va'Amorah . What did they do wrong? Sedom va'Amorah , they didn't have hospitality. They didn't have justice and kindness. That's logical. Dinah is violated by Shechem . We wipe out an entire town. What's the reason? Because they have to establish a society. And if society sees kidnapping and doesn't judge it, they are liable. That's logic. Rav Nissim Gaon said this discussing masechet Berachot and the source, the obligation for berachot , blessings, and tefillah , prayer, which are rational obligations of gratitude. That means hakarat hatov is not a mitzvah . Hakarat hatov is a דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה. And that's what the Chovot Halevavot says is making us responsible to look into creation. What's, who said I have to do it? The answer is if somebody gives you a gift, sechel , logic, dictates, open the box, look inside. Not nice. Someone gives you a gift, you don't even open the box? You see the outside says, doesn't say Gucci on it so you don't want to open it up? It's beneath your dignity? Well, God gives us gifts. We have a responsibility to look into the gifts. When God gave us Shabbat , God tells Moshe, מתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנזי. I have a beautiful gift in my treasure house. Tell them about it. Let them know I'm giving them a beautiful gift. We don't see Shabbat land from the heavens so Moshe has to tell us about it. But our body we see, and all the wonders of creation we see. And we have an obligation to peel away and look under the cover and see what's going on in this wonderful gift. And when he gives such examples, people sometimes get bored with this, like come on. Who, what do I have to know about these things for? What do you have to know about these things for? Because this is the gift that God gave you. Of course you have to know about them. You have to thank and appreciate when you get a gift. That's logic dictates. That's the chiyuv . Of course we're gonna get to pesukim , but before that. There's a responsibility to appreciate God in creation because logic dictates. And logic dictates is a powerful force. Powerful force. We punish based on logic dictates.

Welcome to our daily bitachon . We are now in the Chovot HaLevavot , Shaar HaBechinah . We finished our introduction and we're now starting the first chapter. He says something very interesting. Of course, we know there's one God, and God created everything. And his wisdom could be found in everything. Yet, there are a lot of different manifestations and different types of wisdom, although they all come from one root. Meaning, one could say, hold on, it's one God, why are things so different? And he gives two meshalim , two parables. One is the sun. There's one sun, yet when it goes through a prism, it creates multiple different colors. All the colors were there in the sun, but they manifest themselves differently. Similarly, you use water and you use the water to irrigate the land. The land has certain minerals, and yet out of these land and minerals, depending on the seeds you put in the ground, you get all different kind of colored flowers. Same water, same earth, same minerals manifesting themselves differently. And so too, there's one God, and everything has ultimately one theme behind it. There's ultimately one foundation. If we want to use a scientific approach, it breaks down to atoms which are broken down to neurons and electrons and protons. There is one theme, there's building blocks to everything, yet it all comes out differently. It's like a piano that has a certain number of keys. That's the fundamentals. All pianos have the same number of keys. Yet different musicians will play differently using the same notes and create different music. So the world is all fundamentally one. So, it's like when a person goes to a piano concert, regardless who's playing, we know there's a piano going on over here. There's nothing to talk about. It takes a certain analysis to say, well, this is that style of music, that, but it's all coming from a piano. And that's the world. Although the world is so different, it all comes from one source, which is God. Now the question is, why did God make it that way? Why isn't everything the same? He says the reason is because then everyone would figure out that there's a God. You need to have the wisdom to peel away. Furthermore, he says that anything that keeps on doing the same thing again and again, a machine that always makes the same thing, it shows that the machine has no freedom of will. The machine is just on automatic pilot to keep repeating the same thing. It's forced, it has no, it has no opinion, like fire that always burns, like water that always cools. They don't do things on their own. And therefore, by the constant changing, that in itself is an indicator that God is deciding and makes things happen that are different. Now it's interesting, I just want to bring this out because this is what the Chovot HaLevavot says we're supposed to look for differences and similar themes at the same time. We have different types of vertebrae. Vertebrae are animals that have a bones or they have some type of spinal cord of sorts. We have fish, like sharks and tuna. We have amphibia, like frogs and salamanders. We have reptiles, like snakes and turtles. We have birds, like pigeons. And we have mammals, like humans, rodents and dogs. Now, they all, like we said, they're all vertebrae. But now let's listen to the differences, the nuances. The body covering: fish have scales. Amphibia have moist permeable skin. Reptiles have dry scaly skin plates. Birds have feathers. Mammals have hair or fur. So yes, they're all vertebrae, but there's something different going on over here. It's like God says, hey, I have more ideas. I'm not tied down to one approach. Reproduction: fish lay eggs in water, and the young breathe with gills. The amphibia lay jelly eggs in the water. They have, start off with gills and metamorphosize to lungs. Reptiles have hard leathery shelled eggs laid on land. Birds have hard shelled eggs also laid on land. And mammals are alive at birth, and their young are fed milk. Now what's the beauty of this is that when you have a human being, they, even though they have differences, something's the same about them. For example, if you like a certain singer, let's take Yaakov Shwekey . As much as I like Yaakov Shwekey , you hear a song you can say, that's a Yaakov Shwekey song. I don't care who sings it. It's a Yaakov Shwekey song, he has a certain style. Mordechai ben David has a style. And so on. They have styles. They sound, their songs have a certain similarity to them. Now, if all of God's songs would sound the same, that's limiting to God. Because the reason why all these artists sound the same is because they are limited. God created them with a certain talent set and a certain abilities and a certain level of creativity, and it stops at a certain point. You can't create this music and that music. You don't have the ability to do both. All Carlebach songs sound the same. God's not like that. God says, I can go and make vertebrae, but they'll all be different. You say, wow, the same guy that made, I shouldn't use the word guy, the same creator that made the fish, also made the snakes, also made the eagles. They're so different. Yeah, they're all different. But by the way, he also has a certain theme, there's vertebrae. And don't think that's the only thing he can do. He can make flowers too. There's all different classifications. This is just, this is and this is what we're supposed to do. This is Shaar HaBechina , to say, wow, look at God's abilities. Look how creative he is. Look how boundless he is. And if he could do all that, he could take care of me too. That's the punchline of all these thoughts. If he could do all of that, he could take care of me too.

Welcome to our daily bitachon . We are talking about Sha'ar HaBechinah and the responsibility for those people that recognize God to share with those that don't, because we're supposed to make God beloved upon others. That's what all people try to do. As we said, if you love someone, you want the rest of the world to love them as well. In the source for this, said the Rambam , was Avraham Avinu , who's called Avraham ohavi , Avraham the one that loves me. There's a beautiful Rashi that brings this out and something beautiful that you could think about every day in your amidah three times a day. בראשית כד ג, Avraham is talking to Eliezer and he says, v'ashbiacha , I want to make you swear by השם אלקי השמים ואלקי הארץ, the God of the heavens and the God of the earth…... So who is the God that he makes them swear by? The God of the heavens and the God of the earth. A few pesukim later, pasuk zayin , Avraham says, Hashem Elokei hashamayim , Hashem , the God of the heavens, that took me out of my father's house. So why now is God referred to only as the God of the heavens, not God of the earth? Rashi explains that originally when Avraham was born, when he was taken out of his father's house, he was only Elokei hashamayim . He was the God of the heavens; nobody knew him down here. So, when he's going back in history and telling Eliezer , the God that took me out of my father's house, that was the God of the heavens. When he's talking to him now in real time, when Avraham already made his change in the world, he now became the God of the heavens and the God of the earth. Why, says Rashi ? שהרגלתיו בפי הבריות. I made him common in the mouth of people. I made him known. The world knew of God because of Avraham . But beforehand, his name was not known in the world. So our father, Avraham , was the first one that made God the God of the earth. Based on this, the Da'at Zekeinim on this spot adds a beautiful thought. He's bothered by a question that everybody asks, which is, the first, let me give you a minute of introduction. In order for a bracha to be classified as a bracha , it has to have the words Hashem , Elokeinu , Melech ha'olam , three things: God, who is the one in charge, and he is the king of the world. If you don't have that, it's not a blessing. Now, sometimes, I can have a blessing like אלקי נשמה שנתת בי doesn't start with that, but it's next to asher yatzar . That's why we want to put those two blessings next to each other. When you have a blessing next to another blessing, it doesn't have to have that. Now, ata kadosh in the amidah or ata gibor in the amidah doesn't start. Well, it's next to the first bracha . But hold on. The first bracha of the amidah is Elokeinu v'Elokei avoteinu . We have Hashem , we have Elokeinu , but where's Melech ha'olam ? Answers Tosafot , that by saying Elokei Avraham , by saying the God of Avraham , that's the equivalent of Melech ha'olam , because Avraham made God Melech ha'olam . He made him king of the world. So therefore I don't have to say king of the world. God of Avraham is the equivalent of king of the world. Very nice. The question is, but why not say Melech ha'olam ? Just say Melech ha'olam . Does it hurt? I have to say Elokei Avraham ? Says the Da'at Zekeinim an unbelievable answer. He says that we want you to know that at the beginning when Avraham came onto the picture, there was no Melech ha'olam . He wasn't known by the world. There was no recognition in the world of God. And therefore, the only way to express is Elokei Avraham . It's the God of Avraham , because through Avraham , the world knew what God was. Rav Yeruchem Levovitz applies this to a Midrash Rabbah in Devarim , parsha three, section three, which tells the following story. About Rav Shimon ben Shetach , he bought a donkey from an Arab, and his students noticed that there was a precious stone around the neck of the donkey. So, the students were all excited and they said to him, ברכת ה' היא תעשיר, the blessing of God makes one wealthy. So look, God blessed you. Rav Shimon ben Shetach says, חמור לקחתי, אבן טובה לא לקחתי. I bought a donkey. I didn't buy a jewel. Go and return it to the Arab. They brought it back to the Arab, and the Arab says, ברוך השם אלקי שמעון בן שטח. Blessed is the the God of Shimon ben Shetach . That means this Arab, through the way of Shimon ben Shetach acted, he appreciated God. And that's something that we all can do. We can all make people say, wow, this is the God of this person. That reflects on who God is if this person acts this way and that's his God. And that's what Avraham Avinu did. He made the world say Elohei Avraham . And we too could do that in a certain sense. And the way we act and the way we talk, make God beloved upon the world and known.

Welcome to daily bitachon , an important thought about Shabbat as we've been doing lately on our Friday class. We mentioned two weeks ago that Shabbat has many areas of parallels to the Bet HaMikdash . We have the candles, we have the menorah , we have the loaves of bread, we have the shulchan . We have the zimirot , we have the liviyim singing, we have our clothing of Shabbat , we have bigdei kehuna . And that is because Shabbat is a sanctuary of time. Shabbat is the mikdash of time. That's why in more than one place in our prayers we mention Yerushalayim awakening when we talk about Shabbat , whether it's in Lecha Dodi , whether it's in our Arvit prayers. So in a sense, on Shabbat we enter the Bet HaMikdash . And this Bet HaMikdash is actually holier than the original Bet HaMikdash in a sense, because as we know, we were not allowed to build a Bet HaMikdash on Shabbat . Because Shabbat is greater than the Bet HaMikdash . The 39 activities that we don't do on Shabbat were the same 39 activities that they used for building the Mishkan . And that means that we're building our own Mishkan every week by refraining from those 39 melachot , so we are building a Mishkan . What's the relevance of that? It's a beautiful thought brought down on the Midrash of Parashat Toldot . When Yitzchak greets Yaakov thinking he's Esav, it says וירח את ריח בגדיו. He smelled the smell of his clothing. The word beged shares the same root as bagadnu , we were traitors as in Ashamnu bagadnu that we say in our Vidui confession. Parenthetically, the same word beged is boged , traitor, because the only reason why we needed clothing, begadim , was because the sin of Adam HaRishon . So when we think of the word beged , beged connects to boged . So now, Yitzchak smells the smell of his clothing, and that the Midrash says, don't read it as begadav but bogdav . He smelled the smell of his sinners, his traitors. And it refers to two instances in history. I will share one of them with you called the story of Yosef Meshita. He was a Jew, and he was, we'll call him, an evil Jew. He was there with the enemies, the Romans, as they entered the Bet HaMikdash . And they were afraid to enter the actual area of the holy, and they wanted a Jew to walk in because they knew someone that walks into the holy area without permission might die. So let's see. And they told the Jew, you know what? As a reward for going in there, you could take whatever you want, it's yours. So here we have this man that is collaborating with the enemy. He walks in, he takes out the menorah . And they tell him, no, this menorah , that's for a king. This is not for you. Take something else. He says, I made my creator angry once, I will not do it a second time. They say you go in. No. Go in and we will give you X and Y and Z. No. And finally, they tortured him to death and a heavenly echo went out that he was destined to Olam Haba . So he went from a wicked man to a martyr. And that's what Yitzchak Avinu smelled, that even the most distant Jew still can turn around in a moment. And the Ponevezher Rav asks, how did that happen? What what enabled him to make that shift? And he answers, being exposed to kedusha . The Jewish heart has a flame inside of it. When it's exposed to kedusha , that small little spark becomes inflamed. And that's what happened to Yosef Meshita when he entered the holy Bet HaMikdash . And the same thing is true about Shabbat . Every Shabbat , we're entering a holy place. We're entering the sanctuary of time. And if we keep Shabbat properly, we too can have our souls ignited. And we too can have an enlightening and inspiring experience. Many years ago, over 20 years ago, I went on a trip to Israel and we visited a home called a safe home for Jewish girls that had married Arabs and escaped from their Arab husbands. And Rabbi Sorotzkin told us the following story. There was a young girl that was there that was married, it's actually a a daughter of a woman that was married to an Arab. And he told a fascinating story. This woman, he showed us the Birkat Hamazon for her wedding, ended up being rehabilitated and married a baal teshuva . What was her story? Her father was a terrorist. He had married a Jewish woman and eventually committed a crime. He was killed in the suicide bombing, and his wife and daughter left the country and went to Lebanon. The girl had no idea that she was Jewish. She was raised as an Arab by her seemingly Arab mother. And she is working as an interpreter and gets a job to interpret in Israel for some Arab delegation. And before she goes off to Israel, her mother tells her, by the way, just want to let you know, FYI, I'm Jewish and you're Jewish. Okay. She files that information and she goes on her way to do her job. She's walking in the old city, in the Arab area, and she's right at the point where you could make a right turn and turn to the Kotel or go straight as she planned. And she had some urge that pulled her and she decided to go to the Kotel and she prayed there. And something got sparked inside of her, and she decided to research Judaism and eventually came back to her roots. At her wedding, she asked the rabbi to bless her with, I don't remember what the number is, let's say eight children. And when asked why, she said that my Arab father killed that many Jews in his bombing and I want to replace them. Fascinating. What ignited this girl's soul? And the answer is, she went to the Kotel . She went to a place of holiness, it inspired her. And we too can go to the Kotel every Shabbat and be inspired.

Welcome to our bitachon series. We are now going through shaar bechina in the Chovos HaLevavos . And he told us that there are three obstacles from us enjoying life in this world. We'll repeat them one more time. Obstacle number one is, we always want more than we have, so we don't appreciate what we have. Obstacle number two is that we are used to what we have. We already take it for granted. And obstacle number three is, things don't always go right for us and therefore, we don't appreciate our lives. Now, all those things are incorrect. And the job of shaar bechina is to find Hashem's wisdom in creation and see that he's wise and knows what he's doing and therefore is taking care of us as well. And he ends this introductory chapter by saying therefore, anyone that has wisdom and understanding has a responsibility to awaken those people that don't understand God's goodness and to direct them to understand and use their sechel to appreciate what they have. And he goes on to say that there are many times that people possess wonderful things and they're miserable because they don't understand and appreciate what they have. And when you awaken them and make them realize what they have and what they were missing, they will start being appreciative to God, they'll be thankful to God, and they will get enjoyment and pleasure in this world and in the next. That's why it's our responsibility to help out those poor souls that don't know what they already have. This is an important concept that we can have something if we don't know about it, we don't have it. And a story is told about by Rabbi Criesworth of Antwerp that he was during the war time, there was a man that gave him his Swiss bank account passwords. He was a wealthy man. He didn't know if he would survive the war, and he shared them with the rabbi. And he told them, if you ever find my son, let him know. And that's the seemingly the beginning and end of the story. The man was perished in the in the war, and we're before the internet and search engines. How is he ever going to find this man's son if he survived? Sure enough, many years later, he's in a shul, and he sees a guy that looks just like that fellow. And he approaches him, and sure enough, he's his son. This man was eking out a living. And he shared with him the information, and he was a multi-millionaire overnight. The truth is, he wasn't a multi-millionaire overnight. He had always been a multi-millionaire. He was just wasn't aware of what he had, and therefore he lived the life of a pauper. And that is us sometimes. We have so many great things going for us, so many things to appreciate, we just don't know about them, and therefore we're miserable. In our siddur in the morning, there's a section called korbanos . There are a lot of nice things there besides korbanos . Talks about Akeidas Yitzchak . And there's a beautiful section that talks about man's frailty and weakness and it ends off on a positive note. But we, the children of your covenant, the children of Avraham that you loved, seed of Yitzchak of the Akeidah , the congregation of Yaakov your first born, you loved us, you're happy with us. And therefore, we have a responsibility to thank, to praise, to uplift, to give song and praise and thanks to your great name. And we have a responsibility to sing a song every single day. Ashreinu , how fortunate we are. ma tov chelkeinu , how good is our lot. ma na'im goraleinu , how sweet is our portion. ומה יפה מאוד ירושתנו. And how extremely beautiful is our inheritance. That means we all have this inheritance. We're all no different than that man walking around with Swiss bank accounts who didn't know about it. We all have Swiss bank accounts. We have our inheritance of what it means to be a Jew. We possess a lot. And fortunately when we get up in the morning and go to sleep at night, and when we go to shul and we go to Beit Midrash and we say Shema Yisrael every single day. How fortunate we are. But we're walking around not appreciating what we have. Now, forget about our spiritual benefits, which we'll get to. Even our physical benefits, our bodies, the value that we have there, we don't realize it, we don't appreciate it, and therefore we're not happy. And therefore it's the responsibility of the people that do know, Chovot HaLevavot is one of those people, and to share it with everybody else. And I'm just following in the direction of the Chovot HaLevavot , and I'm going to share it as well. And you should continue and share it with your people. Because that's, we're going to see tomorrow our responsibility to share this.

Welcome to our Bitachon series. We were going through Sha'ar HaBechina now, and he's bothered by why is it that we're not all jumping for joy over all the great things that are in the world, if tov Hashem lakol . And his third reason was that things don't always go right, and we don't appreciate that and therefore, we don't see the goodness. And today we'll spend some time on appreciating when things don't go right. The Ramchal in his sefer Derech Hashem , volume two, chapter eight, says, we all know that all God wants to do is good. That's why He created the world. And He loves us like a father loves his son. But this very love sometimes brings with it a need for discipline. Like the pasuk says, כי כאשר ייסר איש את בנו, like a man chastises his son, Hashem Elokecha meyasreka , God chastises you. And therefore, we have to realize, he says, that the judgment and the justice is coming from a source of love. And God is not coming like an enemy that has a vengeance, but like a father that wants the best for his son. In his sefer Da'at Tvunot , the Ramchal writes in letter 154 that because it comes for love, God's musar , even when it's done, is always softened and sweetened. It doesn't come in cruelty in an overpouring of wrath. But God tempers it in a way that it's palatable. The Reishit Chochma in the section on Anava , chapter five, quotes the pasuk in Iyov where Iyov says, Hashem natan , God gave, v'Hashem lakach , and God took. יהי שם השם מבורך, God should be blessed. And he makes a diyuk and he says, Hashem took and Hashem ... Hashem gave and Hashem took. It should say, Hashem gave, Hashem took. What do we need the 'and' for? And he says when Hashem gave, it was just He gave without any questions. When he takes, and Hashem means He and His court of judgment, which means God has a whole court of judgment to decide whether He should take. It's much harder to take than it is to give. And therefore, we have to bless Hashem and understand, in his words, משפטיו עמנו הוא לטוב לנו. All of God's judgments are for our best interest, l'taher nafshoteinu , to purify us. And he quotes our pasuk again of tov Hashem lakol . And that's why Nachum Ish Gamzu used to always say, gam zu l'tova , because he understood that even the judgment is ultimately for good when you realize that, when you realize it's coming from a good source. I want to end with something that's a little kabbalistic but it's a very nice piece. There's a sefer called Sefer Yetzirah . Some say it was written by Avraham Avinu , that goes through the 22 letters of the alphabet. And it breaks it down to the following three units. The first three letters are the unit of the mass that created the world, Alef Mem Shin , which stands for Alef , avir ; Mem is mayim , and Shin is for eish . Those are the building blocks of the world: water, wind, and fire, leaving out earth. The next letters are what he calls the seven kefulot , the seven letters that have a dagesh in them, which is beged keferet . Even when we don't have a dagesh in the Reish , the Zohar has it as that. That's my second unit, which is the seven days of the week. The third unit is the 12 months of the year. So if I subtract my Alef Mem Shin , which was the first three letters used for the mass, I subtract the next seven, ten, seven letters: Beis , Gimmel , Dalet , Chaf , Pey , Reish and Taf , I subtract the 10, I'm left with 12 letters of the alphabet, 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So I start with a Hey . That's the first letter that hasn't been used yet. And the next 12 letters, starting with the Hey , correspond to the months of the year. Hey is Nissan , Vav is Iyar , Zayin is Sivan , Ches is Tammuz , Tes is Av , Yud is Elul , Lamed is Tishrei , Nun is Cheshvan , Samech is Kislev , Ayin is Teves , Tzadi is Shvat , and Kuf is Adar . We can give a whole class on this, to whet your appetite. We know Nun , these also corresponds to the letter, the letters in Ashrei . We know there's no nun in Ashrei , because nun refers to nefila . falling. Cheshvan has no holidays, it's the nun letter. Nissan , which is a time we talk about God's greatness, Hagadol , הדר כבוד הודך ודברי נפלאותיך אשיחה we speak about the wonders of God, Haggadah shel Pesach . Now, what is Av ? Av is tet . What's what is the pasuk of Av ? Of all the psukim of Ashrei , the last thing you would think of is our pasuk we've been talking about from the beginning, טוב ה' לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו. The month of Av is symbolized by Tov Hashem lakol . And even the number nine is the nine days of Av , which are seen the worst nine days of the year, are really tov . They're the nine of the tet of the letter tov . Because even the worst of times, it's the month of Av . Av is our father. כאשר ייסר איש את בנו, ה' אלוקיך מיסרך like a father chastises his son. So this is the final hurdle that we have in being happy people. Either A, we always want more. B is that we we are used to the goodnesses. And C is we have the difficult challenges. And we have to overcome all three.

Shabbat Message- A sanctuary in time Welcome to the daily Bitachon . As we mentioned, this coming Rosh Hashanah is going to be on Shabbat , and therefore since we don't have the shofar , the year before we need to make sure we're on our best behavior on Shabbat , so with Hashem's help we'll be talking about Shabbat on Fridays.This week's parashah , coincidentally, Chayei Sarah , talks about the passing of Sarah and it talks about that when Rivka came into the tent, the miracles returned. What were the three miracles? Miracle number one was she lit the candles on Friday afternoon and lasted throughout the week. She, the bread that she made was warm all week and there was a cloud of the Shechinah on top of her tent.What is the significance of these three miracles? These three miracles have to do with the woman's three mitzvot , which all revolve around Shabbat . Hafrashat challah , which brought the blessing into the challah , you make challah for Shabbat . Lighting the candles, and the cloud that comes down which has to do with taharat hamishpacha , family purity, which brings the Shechinah upon the home. All of these three mitzvot of Shabbat that the lady has corresponds to certain articles in the Beit Hamikdash . The lighting of the candles corresponds to the menorah . The bread refers to the shulchan with the lechem hapanim , and the cloud upon the tent refers to the holy ark that had in it the two luchot that was where the Shechinah dwelled.And this brings us into an important concept that Shabbat has the aspect of Beit Hamikdash in time. That means it's not the place of the Beit Hamikdash , it's Beit Hamikdash in time. That's why in our Friday night prayers we say, הפורש סוכת שלום עלינו ועל ירושלים. There's a sukkah of peace that comes upon us and Yerushalayim . Yerushalayim is invoked on Friday night because on Friday night we're all in Yerushalayim , we're in the Beit Hamikdash . And many of our Shabbat activities correspond to Shabbat . And we'll give you some of them and maybe you'll think of some others on your own. First of all, we sing zemirot , like the Levi'im sang song. Second of all, we say kiddush on wine, like they poured the wine libations. Third of all, the minimum to wash your hands, minimum washing before Shabbat is wash your hands and feet like in the Beit Hamikdash where they washed their hands and their feet. We wear special clothing like the bigdei kehunah . We have incense, ketoret , in the Beit Hamikdash which is either symbolized by the custom to smell certain fragrances, specifically hadasim , or some say it refers to the smell of the food on Shabbat . כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר השם מירושלים. The Torah comes out of Tzion , it comes out of the Beit Hamikdash . The Sanhedrin was in the Beit Hamikdash , the high court, and therefore we say extra divrei Torah at the Shabbat table. Shabbat is called me'ein Olam Haba . Shabbat is a microcosm of the world to come. And it says so too when you enter the Beit Hamikdash , you felt you were in another world. That's why it's they said in the Beit Hamikdash , min ha'olam v'ad ha'olam , from this world to the next world. When they enter the Beit Hamikdash , you felt you were in another world. And that's so is Shabbat , the feeling of being in another world.And there's a beautiful concept that Rav Moshe Feinstein brings out from a personal experience. He walked into the Russian Embassy in New York and he was originally from Russia. And when he entered the embassy, he felt like he was in Russia. The clock was Russian, the tables were Russian, everything about the place was Russian. You felt like you were in Russia and even legally, if someone's born in the Russian embassy, they're Russian even though in America. The area of the embassy is culturally and legally like that nation. And so too he said that God's embassy on Earth is the Beit Hamikdash . When you walked into the Beit Hamikdash , you felt like you were in another world. You felt like you were in God's world and you were legally in God's world. There was no flies, there was no smell. All the wonders that existed in the Beit Hamikdash , you were in a different world, in a different zone. And in a certain way, on Shabbat we're also in a different world, we're also in a different zone, the world of me'ein Olam Haba , a microcosm of the world to come. And therefore, let's appreciate what goes on. Just like when you're by the Kotel and you're at the Beit Hamikdash , you act differently, you feel differently. So too Shabbat we have to realize we're in a zone. We're in the sanctuary of time, which is called Shabbat . And it's not just a nice allegorical comparison to a parable. As we stated, there are many real things that we do on Shabbat that correspond to the Beit Hamikdash . And I'm sure every... of them. The most obvious is Kiddush and the wine. The most obvious is the two challot , the Lechem Mishneh on the Shulchan . The candles are the Menorah . The Havdalah ceremony on Saturday night. These are all things that we do in our mini- Shabbat home experience of the sanctuary in time that we inherited from the Beit Hamikdash , and it's not a coincidence. It's a real connection. Let's talk about Kiddush on Friday night. Why do we make Kiddush on Friday night? First of all, the word Kiddush itself. What does it mean? When you say something is Kadosh , holy, Kodesh , it is dedicated and designated for a specific purpose. And that is what is called kedushah . So, the kedushat hayom , the sanctity of the day of Shabbat , we take a cup of wine, we make a L'chaim on it. Some people make a Shehecheyanu also on the wine, because it represents the joy of Shabbat . But we are making Kiddush . We are declaring the day holy. In fact, the word Kiddush is related to the word kiddushin , which is marriage. It's a special, unique relationship. We also know that there is such a thing as Kiddush Hashem , sanctifying God's name, or God forbid, Chal Shem Hashem , that we should not do which is the opposite, Chillul Hashem , which is the desecration of God's name. So the word Kiddush means to make something holy and special. In the Kodesh Kodashim , the Holy of Holies in the Beit Hamikdash , was a place where heaven and earth kissed. It's that special. Shabbat is that special time of the week. Now, where do we get this idea of Kiddush from? It's a pasuk in the Torah, and it actually appears twice. In the first Ten Commandments, the pasuk says, זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, remember the Shabbat day to make it holy, to sanctify it. And the second of the Ten Commandments, it says שמור את יום השבת לקדשו. Now, there's a famous story in the Mishnah of Shabbat , Perek Zayin , Mishnah Bet . The Gemara , the Amora'im , were discussing what's the best oneg, pleasure of Shabbat ? And one Amora , Reish Lakish , said chamra v'reichana . What's chamra v'reichana ? Chamra is wine. Reichana is beautiful smelling spices. So Reish Lakish said, Chamra v'reichana leisanei . These are the best for the enjoyment. We make a L'chaim , a Borei pri hagafen on the wine and Borei minei vesamim on the spices to enhance the joy of Shabbat .

Welcome to daily Bitachon . We are now in our Sha'ar HaBechinah series, trying to figure out why we're not all jumping for joy if Tov Hashem l'kol , God is good to everybody. Why is it that most people don't realize it? And we gave two reasons. Reason number one is we're always looking for more. Reason number two, we're just used to it. And reason number three, because things don't always go right. And we have financial losses, we have physical ailments and we don't understand how these can possibly be good for us. We don't get the benefit of nisayon , tests. We don't have the benefits of musar . That means anything that goes wrong in our life is for one of two reasons: it's a test, means we didn't do anything wrong, Hashem's testing us, or it's for musar purposes to give us rebuke, to change. And he quotes a pasuk in Tehillim , Ashrei ha'gever , fortunate is the man, asher t'yasrenu Kah , that God rebukes him, u'mTorascha tolamdenu , and he learns from the Torah, which means he gets the message. And we forget that we and everything that we have are nothing more than gifts of God. That's all we are. Our existence and everything we have are all gifts of God. Generous, kind gifts. And everything that he gives us is b'tzedek . Everything he gives us is done with a just approach based on what God's wisdom feels is right. And we are not accepting of that justice. And not only do we not praise him when God reveals his kindness on us, we actually deny the good to begin with. And he says that this denial is rooted in foolishness. And it comes to the point that people think that they could be smarter than God in how they run the world and how they make things happen. And this is a famous, great Chassidic Rebbe that they asked him the question, if you were God, how would you run the world? If you could change things, what would you do? If you ask people around the table now, someone would say, well, I would find the new mayor for New York, or I would stop the terrorist attacks in Israel, or whatever else I would do. I would heal all the sick. I would get matches for all those without shidduchim and cure all mental health illnesses in the world. And the Rabbi answered, I wouldn't do anything any different than's going on right now because God knows exactly what he's doing and I don't think I could do anything better than he can. And it's really, in a sense, it's a sense of arrogance where we think, well, we could do better. We have better ideas for how to run the world than God does. And he gives a mashal of a group of blind people that were brought into a hospital, a center that was made specifically for them and all their needs. And every possible machine was there, every possible comfort was there, perfectly made for them, rails that they could hold on to when they walk, blinking, you know, beeping noises that they know what if things are safe or unsafe, all types of medicines and pharmacies and doctors. And they didn't pay attention to any of the rules, any of the regulations, didn't follow any doctor's instructions. And they walked through the hospital without listening to the beeps. They tripped, they fell, they banged into the machine that was there to fix them. They broke their arms, they were in pain, they were crying. And they said, who built this place? It's a disaster. We're falling all over the place. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's not a good doctor. He doesn't know how to run anything. And they don't realize that everything here was set up for kindness and goodness, not to paint anybody. And if anything, the one that caused the pain was the person themselves. And they now go deny the benefit and the goodness of the one that helped them. And he quotes a pasuk in Kohelet to this effect. The path that the fool takes is without heart and he announces to the world that he's a fool. Which means that's the person that goes through this world in a foolish way, and by denying God, announces to the world that he's foolish. So that's the first important premise in appreciating our lives is to understand that there's a lot of things that we're not gonna understand. I once heard a beautiful line, I don't know who said it. that the difference between the atheist and the believer. The believer has one thing to deal with. They don't understand why righteous people suffer. That's the question that Moshe Rabbeinu asked. That's the one thing that believing people don't understand. Atheists? They don't understand where a flower came from, where an eye came from, where a heart came from, where the Swiss Alps came from, where air came from. They don't understand anything. We have one thing. We don't understand exactly how God deals with us. Okay. Well, if anything, as we'll see later on, the very fact that we see such wonders of creation tells us how smart and understanding God is. And therefore, we'll tell ourselves, if we don't understand how to create a embryo, we don't know how to make a fly, well, shows God pretty smart. And if he could make a fly, he could probably

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We continue to talk about Sha'ar HaBechinah . And as we said in the past, it relates to Sha'ar HaBitachon in a very strong way. There's a Midrash that says there was a Kohen who was going on a business trip. And before he left, he wanted to tell his wife different laws about how to figure out Tzara'at , leprosy. And he told her in his discussion that only one hair grows out of one follicle and two hairs do not grow out of two follicles. She told him if every hair has a follicle and God could sustain the hair, don't you think he could sustain you? Why do you need to travel? And he didn't. So let's talk a little bit about hair follicles and you'll appreciate what a hair follicle is and how God takes care of a hair follicle, and he can take care of you.So a hair follicle is actually a dynamic organ found in mammals. It resides in the dermal layer of the skin, that means it's on the top of your skin. And it has 20 different cell types, each with distinct functions. The hair follicle regulates hair growth, that means who decides how fast your hair is going to grow. And it's a complex interactions with hormones, neuropeptides, and immune cells. That's why sometimes people that have a immune, autoimmune disease, their hair falls out, because there's something wrong with the immunity. And there are different types of hair on different parts of your body. It means the hair on your head and the hair on your beard and the hair on your stomach or the hair on your back are all different kinds of hairs. And we'll get to another interesting point soon. And the hair growth also happens in stages. First is it actively grows, then it's at a resting stage, then it regresses, then it sheds, and then it's empty for a time till the next stage goes on. Interesting enough. Then we have a gland called a sebaceous gland which is a microscopic exocrine gland. That means it's a type of gland in the skin that opens into the hair follicle. It means you have the hair follicle and there's a little tube, microscopic, that enters the hair follicle. And what's its job? It secretes an oily or waxy matter which lubricates the hair and the skin.These glands are in the greatest number in the face and the scalp. That's why your face gets oily and your scalp gets oily. But it's on other parts of the body as well, except for your palm of your hands and the sole of your feet because we don't want the palms of your hand or the soles of your feet to be slippery. And this gland secretes an oily, waxy substance. And it's a lot of chemicals go into that. We're not going to bore you with the details. It also helps in our thermoregulatory cycle. That means it helps depending on the heat and the cold. In hot conditions, the secretion emulsifies the sweat. And that way the sweat is not easily lost and it stays on the body. It's important to delay dehydration. In colder conditions, it becomes more lipid and it causes rain to be repelled.It also serves as a shield against microorganisms. So there's it secretes an acid, and this slightly acidic film on the surface of the skin is a barrier to prevent the microbes that might penetrate the skin. Now this is an unbelievable one. During the last three months of fetal development, the sebaceous gland of the fetus produces a waxy white substance that cover, that coats the skin to protect it from amniotic fluid. Wild. That means out of the 120 years you're alive, for three months the gland decides to secrete a different type of substance that specifically will protect the embryo from the amniotic fluid. Wonder of wonders. And this is one of the things the Chovot HaLevavot says in Sha'ar HaBitachon where God's taking care of me in the womb is protecting me. How? In this wild concept.Now, there are also glands in the eyelids that secrete a different form of sebum onto the eye that slows the evaporation of tears. It also serves to create an airtight seal when the eyes are closed and prevents the eyelids from sticking together. They attach directly to the follicles of the eyelashes which are arranged vertically within the eyelids. This is wonder of wonders. More than that, as we said, all these different type of glands produce different types of wax and oil. My father's a dermatologist told me once that there's something called lice. We don't want to know about those lice. You have to clean your hair for lice and and so on. But there's different lice that do grow on different parts of the body depending on the type of secretions there are and oils and waxes, they have different habitats, just like different habitats of the world have different animals living on them. Different habitats of your body, because man is called an olam katan , a mini world. So you have the Amazon jungle in your hair where you have rhinoceroses like to hang out there. Then you might have on your stomach some other type of jungle and so on and so forth throughout your body. And different animals and different creatures like those habitats. These are wonders and wonders, and this is just about the hair follicle. And again, shaar bechinah is about appreciating these wonders and saying, wow, if Hashem could take care of the hair follicle.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series and we are now in the Sha'ar HaBechina of the Chovot HaLevavot discussing seeing God in creation. And he tells us that the second reason why people don't see God in creation is they're just used to it. They see it all the time. It doesn't talk to them, doesn't mean anything, nothing extraordinary. The Chovot HaLevavot in his Sha'ar Cheshbon HaNefesh chapter three, says that a person should never be at the point which he calls he gives up on the wow. What does that mean? That means when I see something new and exciting, I say, wow. The first time you saw a Tesla car, you said, wow, look at that. It's a car going without gas. Or the wow of anything that's strange and different, we get the wow. But then we lose the wow. And the wow is only saved for the solar eclipse, but there's no wow for the regular sun. And that's the point that he makes, that we get amazed by waterfalls, but not by rain. We get amazed by the things that change, but not the constants. And the Chazon Ish says the difference between nature and miracles is nothing more than nature is just consistent miracles.And this is an important concept which separates different types of people, the kind of people that are only triggered by the changes and the difference and the people that are don't need an outside trigger, but they themselves are the cause to contemplate. And we see this by the four sons of the Haggadah Shel Pesach . One of them is the chacham . He asks, not because he's prompted by anything special. But the tam says, mah zot , what is this? What's the, what's the, why is this called the simple son? Because this is what's this? And we have to look at the context of when he asks the question. We say we do this is in Shemot 13:11. We it's in our tefillin that when there's a firstborn donkey, you can either redeem it on a sheep or if you don't want to redeem it, then you have to chop the donkey's head off. At that point, the child says, mah zot , what is this? When something's strange, then he starts to ask, otherwise, nothing bothers him. This is a beautiful mashal I once heard of a child that goes into a cockpit of an airplane and he's looking at all the different things that are going on and he sees this big red button. He says, what's this? What's this? I mean, everything else in the cockpit you understand, all the different gauges and all the different levers make sense. Just the red button, you don't understand? And that's this tam over here that he's mah zot , what's this? What's going on? You know, I understand tefillin , I understand tzitzit , I understand all of the 612 mitzvot . The one thing that's bothering me is why you're chopping off this poor donkey's head. That's a tam . That that's you only ask questions when things are extraordinary, and the truth is, there are a lot of tams in the world. And that's why at the night of the Seder , we make changes, changes so the child should ask. But that's the child that should ask. That's the tam . That's we're not supposed to be tams . We're supposed to be the kind of people that are always thinking, always contemplating, always trying to understand.So we're just used to our bodies and used to everything that's going on with us. We don't even spend the time to look into it. Then there's an even lower level, the one אינו יודע לשאול. He doesn't even know how to ask. Even after he sees a change, he doesn't ask anything. He just keeps going. So our job is to bring ourselves up to the level of the chacham . The person that contemplates, that looks, that tries to tries to understand what's going on around him. And not just what's going on around him, but like Iyov said מבשרי אחזה אלוה, from my own skin, my own flesh and blood, I see God. Look at your body. A little simple, little simple example. If you ever look at your your knuckles and you see like there's a little extra skin by your knuckles of your hand, you can look at it right now when you bend it. Well, if you'd have knuckles, but the skin would be as tight by the knuckles as the rest of your body, they wouldn't bend. Look at the back of your shoulder. Has a similar look. Look at your knee. You have a little extra skin over there that God put in like the, you want to bend the straw, like there's that extra, you know, accordion piece at the end that you can bend the straw, otherwise it wouldn't bend well. Well, where did that come from? When do we ever notice that little extra flesh on our fingers? And there's endless examples of that, how God is doing things just for us to make life comfortable and good. And that's again, constant strengthening Tov Hashem la'kol . Hashem is good for everybody. We just don't see it because we're so used to it. And again, this is necessary, this is the backbone of bitachon , understanding Tov Hashem la'kol . He's reliable because he wants to do good for us and he's only doing good for us, but we forget about it and we're blind. And as we said, we're blind because we're used to it and we have to break that habit and that automatic way of looking at things and become excited and put the wow into something as simple.

Welcome to the daily Bitachon . As we mentioned, this coming Rosh Hashanah is going to be on Shabbat , and therefore since we don't have the shofar , the year before we need to make sure we're on our best behavior on Shabbat , so with Hashem's help we'll be talking about Shabbat on Fridays.This week's parashah , coincidentally, Chayei Sarah , talks about the passing of Sarah and it talks about that when Rivka came into the tent, the miracles returned. What were the three miracles? Miracle number one was she lit the candles on Friday afternoon and lasted throughout the week. She, the bread that she made was warm all week and there was a cloud of the Shechinah on top of her tent.What is the significance of these three miracles? These three miracles have to do with the woman's three mitzvot , which all revolve around Shabbat . Hafrashat challah , which brought the blessing into the challah , you make challah for Shabbat . Lighting the candles, and the cloud that comes down which has to do with taharat hamishpacha , family purity, which brings the Shechinah upon the home. All of these three mitzvot of Shabbat that the lady has corresponds to certain articles in the Beit Hamikdash . The lighting of the candles corresponds to the menorah . The bread refers to the shulchan with the lechem hapanim , and the cloud upon the tent refers to the holy ark that had in it the two luchot that was where the Shechinah dwelled.And this brings us into an important concept that Shabbat has the aspect of Beit Hamikdash in time. That means it's not the place of the Beit Hamikdash , it's Beit Hamikdash in time. That's why in our Friday night prayers we say, הפורש סוכת שלום עלינו ועל ירושלים. There's a sukkah of peace that comes upon us and Yerushalayim . Yerushalayim is invoked on Friday night because on Friday night we're all in Yerushalayim , we're in the Beit Hamikdash . And many of our Shabbat activities correspond to Shabbat . And we'll give you some of them and maybe you'll think of some others on your own. First of all, we sing zemirot , like the Levi'im sang song. Second of all, we say kiddush on wine, like they poured the wine libations. Third of all, the minimum to wash your hands, minimum washing before Shabbat is wash your hands and feet like in the Beit Hamikdash where they washed their hands and their feet. We wear special clothing like the bigdei kehunah . We have incense, ketoret , in the Beit Hamikdash which is either symbolized by the custom to smell certain fragrances, specifically hadasim , or some say it refers to the smell of the food on Shabbat . כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר השם מירושלים. The Torah comes out of Tzion , it comes out of the Beit Hamikdash . The Sanhedrin was in the Beit Hamikdash , the high court, and therefore we say extra divrei Torah at the Shabbat table. Shabbat is called me'ein Olam Haba . Shabbat is a microcosm of the world to come. And it says so too when you enter the Beit Hamikdash , you felt you were in another world. That's why it's they said in the Beit Hamikdash , min ha'olam v'ad ha'olam , from this world to the next world. When they enter the Beit Hamikdash , you felt you were in another world. And that's so is Shabbat , the feeling of being in another world.And there's a beautiful concept that Rav Moshe Feinstein brings out from a personal experience. He walked into the Russian Embassy in New York and he was originally from Russia. And when he entered the embassy, he felt like he was in Russia. The clock was Russian, the tables were Russian, everything about the place was Russian. You felt like you were in Russia and even legally, if someone's born in the Russian embassy, they're Russian even though in America. The area of the embassy is culturally and legally like that nation. And so too he said that God's embassy on Earth is the Beit Hamikdash . When you walked into the Beit Hamikdash , you felt like you were in another world. You felt like you were in God's world and you were legally in God's world. There was no flies, there was no smell. All the wonders that existed in the Beit Hamikdash , you were in a different world, in a different zone. And in a certain way, on Shabbat we're also in a different world, we're also in a different zone, the world of me'ein Olam Haba , a microcosm of the world to come. And therefore, let's appreciate what goes on. Just like when you're by the Kotel and you're at the Beit Hamikdash , you act differently, you feel differently. So too Shabbat we have to realize we're in a zone. We're in the sanctuary of time, which is called Shabbat . And it's not just a nice allegorical comparison to a parable. As we stated, there are many real things that we do on Shabbat that correspond to the Beit Hamikdash . And I'm sure every... of them. The most obvious is Kiddush and the wine. The most obvious is the two challot , the Lechem Mishneh on the Shulchan . The candles are the Menorah . The Havdalah ceremony on Saturday night. These are all things that we do in our mini- Shabbat home experience of the sanctuary in time that we inherited from the Beit Hamikdash , and it's not a coincidence. It's a real connection. Let's talk about Kiddush on Friday night. Why do we make Kiddush on Friday night? First of all, the word Kiddush itself. What does it mean? When you say something is Kadosh , holy, Kodesh , it is dedicated and designated for a specific purpose. And that is what is called kedushah . So, the kedushat hayom , the sanctity of the day of Shabbat , we take a cup of wine, we make a L'chaim on it. Some people make a Shehecheyanu also on the wine, because it represents the joy of Shabbat . But we are making Kiddush . We are declaring the day holy. In fact, the word Kiddush is related to the word kiddushin , which is marriage. It's a special, unique relationship. We also know that there is such a thing as Kiddush Hashem , sanctifying God's name, or God forbid, Chal Shem Hashem , that we should not do which is the opposite, Chillul Hashem , which is the desecration of God's name. So the word Kiddush means to make something holy and special. In the Kodesh Kodashim , the Holy of Holies in the Beit Hamikdash , was a place where heaven and earth kissed. It's that special. Shabbat is that special time of the week. Now, where do we get this idea of Kiddush from? It's a pasuk in the Torah, and it actually appears twice. In the first Ten Commandments, the pasuk says, זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, remember the Shabbat day to make it holy, to sanctify it. And the second of the Ten Commandments, it says שמור את יום השבת לקדשו. Now, there's a famous story in the Mishnah of Shabbat , Perek Zayin , Mishnah Bet . The Gemara , the Amora'im , were discussing what's the best oneg, pleasure of Shabbat ? And one Amora , Reish Lakish , said chamra v'reichana . What's chamra v'reichana ? Chamra is wine. Reichana is beautiful smelling spices. So Reish Lakish said, Chamra v'reichana leisanei . These are the best for the enjoyment. We make a L'chaim , a Borei pri hagafen on the wine and Borei minei vesamim on the spices to enhance the joy of Shabbat .

Welcome to daily Bitachon as we continue in our trek through Shaar HaBechinah finding God in creation in the Chovot HaLevavot . And as the Chovot HaLevavot tells us, although God's goodness is all encompassing as it says Tov Hashem la'kol , yet most people are blind. The first reason for the blindness is I only see what I don't have, don't appreciate what I do have. The second reason is what we call hergel . It becomes habit and therefore it's mundane.Now Rav Wolbe writes that this concept of habit is extremely important. First of all, it's a gift. We'll call it the gift of automaticity. It's vital for life. You drive a car, if you remember when you first started driving, you're all tight to the wheel and turn it like they taught you in your training and driver's trainer to do it properly. A person, lo aleinu , that has a stroke, they have to teach him how to brush his teeth again. Life will become difficult if everything is heavy. God made it that things become automatic. And we need that for our religion as well. We say, ve'hargileinu be'Toratecha , get me habituated into doing your mitzvot . It's important. But it has a downside, because we stop thinking and we stop appreciating, and habit becomes nature.And as the Chazon Ish once said, the only difference between miracle and nature is nature is a miracle that keeps repeating itself. And the famous example is given that the generation of the desert, they had bread coming from heaven. Those that were born in the desert, that's all they saw. Bread comes from the heaven. They made a bracha , המוציא לחם מן השמים. God that gives us bread from the heavens. When they came into Eretz Yisrael , it was like a shock. I mean you put a seed in the ground, and the ground gives you food? How can the ground, this dirty, muddy ground produce food? Like, what's going on over here? And if we came outside of our doorstep one morning and there was a pile of bread that came from the heaven, we would be in shock like, what's going on over here? Bread from heaven? What's the point over here? Whatever you're used to becomes normal and it's accepted and it's taken for granted. You don't even notice anything. You walk down the street, trees are growing out of the ground. What in the world? How do trees come out of the ground? It's a hard wood and it's coming out of this soft mud. What is going on over here? But we're used to it.And the Chovot HaLevavot brings down one of his favorite, famous mashals of contrasting a child that was raised in a home versus someone that was a captive and redeemed in his 20s. A child that's raised at home, or for that matter, he actually says a child that was picked up from the side of the street and raised by parents, it's the same parents that raise you. And this child was, everything was done for them: fed, clothing, housing, schooling, hobbies, whatever you want. On the other hand, we have a man that was taken captive as age 20 and the Israeli defense force comes in and saves this person. And of course he's indebted to him for life, and he should be. But at the end of the day, without the parents, there'd be no child at all. Of course, these soldiers are our heroes. But the reason why the person that's saved later in his life is much more appreciative is because it came when his mind was developed and he wasn't habituated and conditioned into the goodness. And that's the reason that we are not able to see God, because we're conditioned into his goodness from a young age and everything therefore is accepted and given. And that's why we need to work hard to overcome this challenge.We use the term hergel , as we said, ve'hargileinu be'Toratecha . The root of the word hergel , which is habit, is regel , your feet. Your feet, as we said, walk, it's automatic. Have you anyone ever experienced you move to a new place and you're walking and suddenly you just walk back to your old house, you're not even thinking. Your feet walk without you even thinking. David HaMelech says in Tehillim 119:59, חשבתי דרכי ואשיבה רגלי אל עדתיך. Even though my might be thinking of doing other things, my feet naturally take me to the Beis Midrash . So that's the, you're not even present. Your feet walk and you're not even there. That's what can happen in our life. We just walk through and we don't even see and appreciate the most basic fundamental gifts that God gives us because we're just on automatic pilot, on our automatic feet. And that's part of our job.

Welcome back to our daily ביטחון. We're talking about recognizing השם in creation and appreciating as we said, the concept of טוב השם לכל, everything God doing is constantly good. I once heard an explanation, I don't remember where, this a seeming paradox of rain. Rain is the greatest thing in the world. The גמרא goes on and describes that rain is like תחיית המתים, like the resurrection of the dead. The rain comes down, the earth is dry, it's like it's dead, and it comes back to life. And yet, people look at rain as a nasty day. We don't want rain, we don't like rain. And why is that? Why did God make it that way? The answer is that anytime a great bounty is coming down, עין הרע interferes with it. For example, it says that the first לוחות were given with a lot of fanfare, thunder and lightning, and the יצר הרע got involved and the golden calf came about. Yet, the second לוחות came quietly, and therefore they lasted. If rain would be apparent and everyone would see the goodness like gold coming out from the heavens, it would be, have an עין הרע on the rain. So therefore, in order for the rain to come down and impact us in the best possible way, God made that it's something that we don't enjoy, the puddles, the mess, the sleeting, the all the negative feelings getting caught in the rainstorm. That's השם's greatness. Yet, we're blind as the חובות הלבבות said. So there's different reasons that's we're blind. One as we spoke about yesterday was, we get used, we always want more. Because we always want more, our desire and our our arrogance, because you always want more interferes with seeing what we have. But there's actually a more fundamental problem which is a concept in psychology called inattentional blindness, which has nothing to do with your arrogance or your desire. And the basic study tells us that when attention is focused on one object or task, observers often fail to perceive an unexpected object, even if it's large and visible. The most famous test was called the gorilla test where people focus on counting basketball passes. And during this game to see if you could count how many times the basketball was passed from the people in black or the people in white. In the middle of this scene, a gorilla, man in a gorilla costume, walks on the stage, beats his chest, and walks off for a total of five seconds, and close to 50% of the people don't notice the gorilla because they're focused on something else. So that's a natural blockage, that if we're not looking for something, we don't see it. And there are many such examples. But the truth is when it comes to הקדוש ברוך הוא, the question is, are we looking for him? We might not be looking for him because we're focused on something else. We're looking for what we want, we're not looking for him. And God is hidden in the world. The world עולם, the root of the word is העלם which means hidden. God is hidden. And if there's something, you're not looking for something, even if it's large and visible, you're not going to see it, surely if it's invisible. That's one strong reason. We're not looking for it, so we're blinded by that, by our inattentional blindness. There are other reasons for our blindness that is subconscious. One of them is we'll call it the obligation trap. The more we see השם's goodness, the more we're obligated to change our lives and show הכרת הטוב, and nobody wants to do that. We avoid recognizing what others do for us to avoid feeling beholden and responsible. And this is, we'll call a self-inflicted blindness, because we don't want to see something that's going to cause me to change my life or change how I look at myself. This is a point brought up by ר' אלחנן וסרמן that the world's greatest philosopher, Aristotle, could not see God, not due to the lack of his intelligence, because he was blinded by something else. He didn't want to see it because he didn't want to have to live his life by God. And that's why the ר' אלחנן וסרמן says that even the youngest person in the Jewish people is asked to have אמונה, because אמונה is really simple. If you see a beautiful building, it didn't come from nowhere. That is just obvious. If you see a, if you see a refrigerator on on Mars, obviously someone was there. Refrigerators don't come from nothing. Yet how could you think the world comes from nothing? The answer is, it's the blindness because you don't want to see it. And שוחד יעוור עיני פקחים, bribe blinds the eyes of the wise. And we're blinded by the bribe of living a life of liberty, a life with no one telling you what to do. And that's why we can't see. So there are many reasons for this blindness that doesn't allow us to see God. And therefore we have to fight against that blindness. And that's our job.

Welcome to daily בטחון. We're now continuing to discuss the concept of recognizing God in creation, recognizing all the good that he does for us. And now that we said, as explained yesterday, טוב השם לכל, God is good to everybody, not just most people, everybody, we have to figure out why is it that we're not all jumping and dancing in appreciation for all this goodness. And the חובות הלבבות is going to give us three reasons. Reason number one is, we're so busy in this world and the pleasures of this world and our desire is driving us to get to the next thing. And we're looking at what we don't have: the house that we don't have, the car that we don't have, the clothing that we don't have, and so on. That constantly looking for what we want next causes us to ignore looking at what we have now, because our hearts are dependent and are being dragged after that awesome force of looking forward to the next thing. And whatever they have, they want the next level, and they're searching for the next one. And therefore, what they have becomes small in their eyes. What they have is less than they should get. And the greatest of gifts become inconsequential. Means you get a gift saying, "Oh yeah, you only gave me a Rolex watch, you know. I wanted a Patek Philippe, not enough." Always going on to the next one. The point he says, that people think that every goodness that they see by their friend is as if it's missing from them. And whatever they have is no good. And they don't appreciate the goodness. So he started off by saying the driving force is desire. But he ends off with the פסוק in תהילים, רשע, the wicked one, כגבה אפו, due to his arrogance, בל ידרש, he's not searching. אין אלהים כל מזמותיו, God's not on his mind. So what's driving him is both the desire and the arrogance. I want so much and I deserve so much. You deserve that, all the great things that you've done, you deserve that. So these bad character traits don't allow us to see the goodness that we have.And that's why we know that people that come from humble beginnings quite often appreciate the most basic things, appreciation of being an American citizen. I heard that once a man who was, came to this country, and he's in his 80s and 90s, and he appreciates that he's an American citizen. I don't even think about that. If you came from communist Russia or you came from some difficult third-world country and you're waiting years to get your green card, you appreciate what it means to be an American citizen. Who appreciates that? And there are endless goodness's that don't mean anything to us.The key is to be able to look at what you have. And that's a lost art. There's a beautiful גמרא in נדרים 50a. We all know the story. רבי עקיבא marries the daughter of כלבא שבוע, one of the wealthiest men. And he was not in favor of the שידוך, and he disowned the couple. And they were living in a hut, sleeping on the floor with no pillows, no mattress, sleeping on the straw. And every morning when רבי עקיבא's wife would get up, she'd have straw in her hair and he'd pluck the straw out and promise her, "One day I'm going to get you a beautiful tiara called a ירושלים של זהב." One day, there's a knock on the door and אליהו הנביא comes looking like a human being. And he says, "Can I have some straw? My wife just gave birth and I have nothing, she's on a mud floor." And רבי עקיבא tells his wife, "You see, we have straw. He doesn't have straw." At that point, she said, "Go out to ישיבה," and the rest is history. My רב would ask a strong question. He says, "I don't understand. אליהו הנביא comes from the heavens and he should come with a pot of gold. You come to רבי עקיבא, not only don't you give him a pot of gold, you take away the straw that he has? What's going on here?" And he said that אליהו הנביא gave רבי עקיבא the greatest gift, which is the proper outlook, which is, "Hey, look, we have straw and they don't have straw." And that's worth all the money in the world. world. That מוסר lesson is more valuable than all the money in the world. And that's what he gave him. And that's the key to happiness. And that's what gave רבי עקיבא and his wife the ability to reach what they reached.

Welcome to daily dose of בטחון . We're on the topic of finding Hashem in creation, which as we said is important for our בטחון .Now, the חובת הלבבות in his שער בחינה opens up with the following important line. טובות הא-ל יתעלה על בריותיו . The benefits and the goodness of God on his creations, הם כוללות את כולם . They include everybody. As it says in תהלים , we say it every day in אשרי, טוב ה׳ לכל . God is good to everybody. Even though that's the absolute truth, he says most people are blind from recognizing it. And even if they recognize it, to understand the true benefit and levels of goodness that God gives us, and we don't really pay attention.This is what we're going to talk about today, this important concept of belief in this פסוק called טוב ה׳ לכל . And we say every single day in our עמידה, הטוב שמך . Your name is good. That is God, that's God's name, his name is good. Everything about him is good. His whole goal in creating this world was good. We say, ובטובו חיינו , we live in his goodness. In the גמרא it says you can't say מיטובו , we get from his goodness, because that sounds like we're outside of his goodness. He's here, giving us something good, that's מיטובו , that's not true. ובטובו , we're living in his goodness, everything is good, we're surrounded and bathing in his goodness. There's a beautiful מדרש in תהלים that says יבוא טוב , let the good one come, ויקבל טוב , and receive the good, מטוב , from the good, לטובים , for the good ones. A lot of good going on here. יבוא טוב , let the good one come, who's that? That's משה , as it says about משה, ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא . What's he getting? יקבל טוב , the goodness. What's the goodness? תורה is goodness, as it says in משלי 4:2, כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם , I gave you a gift of goodness. טוב, מטוב , from the good one. Who's the good one? That's Hashem. How do I know? Our פסוק, טוב ה׳ לכל . Give it לטובים , that's the Jewish people, like it says, הטיבה ה׳ לטובים . So God's description giving us the תורה is he's called the טוב . That's his name.It's interesting, we say every day in our prayers, המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית . When I was preparing this class, I realized something more than I ever paid attention to. I know that Hashem is מחדש בכל יום תמיד . He's recreates, creation's not here once and just stays on. Every moment God is recreating, מחדש בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית , every day constantly renewing creation, pumping energy into creation. But I missed a word, מחדש בטובו . God is constantly renewing his goodness, it's coming from his goodness. The שפת אמת in ויקרא פרשת החודש , year 5638, has an interesting way of reading the פסוק . מחדש בטובו , God rejuvenates, renews with his goodness. What does with his goodness mean? It means with the Jewish people that are called good, that we're the ones that recognize God's goodness in creation and we renew it and appreciate it daily. That's our job as טובים . There's a משנה in פרקי אבות 3:15 that says, הכל צפוי , God knows what's going on, he sees. והרשות נתונה , means he knows what's going to happen, yet we have freedom of choice. ובטוב העולם נדון , and the world is judged with goodness. And the רמב״ם says on this משנה in פרקי אבות that Hashem judges us with kindness and goodness, not what we deserve, but rather he has ארך אפים ורב חסד ואמת , God is full of kindness. And what's my source for this משנה ? טוב ה׳ לכל . טוב ה׳ לכל doesn't just mean that God gives goodness, but God judges us with a good eye. And this is a principle that the מסילת ישרים says in more than one place. In דרך ה׳ , unit one, chapter two, when he discusses the purpose of creation, he says, תכלית הבריאה . היא . What was God's purpose in creation? להיטיב מטובו יתברך לזולתו , to give from his goodness to others. In the ספר דעת תבונות , letter 18, he says, what we could understand is that השם is תכלית הטוב ודאי , is the ultimate goodness. And therefore, מחוק הטוב הוא להיטיב . The way of the good is to do good. And that's what השם wanted. He created us so that he could benefit us. But he says, since השם wants to give us the ultimate good, and he knows that if you receive and you didn't work for it, you can't appreciate it. It's someone that receives what he didn't work for is ashamed to pick his head up and look at the benefactor. Therefore, God in his ultimate goodness made life full of challenges so that we can overcome the challenges and truly enjoy the goodness that we get. Look how concerned Hashem is with our Goodness !