Applications and Implications of Emunah

Shusterman, Rav Atman, Rav Sadowsky, ladies and gentlemen, when Judah was coordinating the timing for this evening's Divrei Torah, so we weren't necessarily looking to have it between Parshas Zachor and Purim, but in balancing the community schedule and other things, this is what turned out. But timing of course is as everything in life is not coincidental but providential. Emunah is very much Inyana d'Yoma of Parshas Zachor and Purim. The mitzvah of Michiyas Amalek of eradicating the memory of Amalek, perhaps more than any other mitzvah requires total emunah. The reasons for that is because the mitzvah of Michiyas Amalek at first glance, at first blush, seems to contradict, even offend our moral sense and sensibilities. Not only our subjective moral sense and sensibilities, but that moral sense which the Torah would have us inculcate and develop within ourselves. When Chazal tell us that ג' סימנים באומה זו that there are three defining characteristic qualities in a Jew, the Jews are Rachmanim, the Bayshanim, Gomlei Chasadim, they're compassionate people, they're tzanua, they're modest, and they practice kindness, so none of this seems to square with the mitzvah of eradicating Amalek, even children, even babies. And yet the mitzvah of Michiyas Amalek is one which we have to with suspending and surrendering our own judgment and our own feelings, it's that one we have to with total emunah, so we have to surrender our judgment and our moral sense to that of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. In that sense the mitzvah of Michiyas Amalek perhaps is the quintessential mitzvah of emunah. In fact in yesterday's Haftarah so the Malbim explains that this is what constituted Shaul's sin, that Shaul, Vayachmol, according to the Malbim's understanding, the connotation of Vayachmol is that Shaul, Shaul disagreed, Shaul rejected Hakadosh Baruch Hu's judgment and Shaul said no, it's a waste and it's not right that there just be this wanton, seemingly wanton destruction. And the Malbim says that he failed this test of emunah. That's why presumably it's not coincidental when the famous Mishna in Rosh Hashana tells us commenting on the pesukim at the end of Parshas Beshalach that

והיה כאשר ירים משה ידו וגבר ישראל וכאשר יניח ידו וגבר עמלק

when Moshe Rabbeinu would lift his arms so then Bnei Yisrael would prevail and when he lowered his arms so then Amalek would prevail, so the Mishna says how does Moshe Rabbeinu's arms how does that affect the tide of the war? So it says no but rather בזמן שישראל מסתכלים כלפי מעלה Bnei Yisrael's attention was drawn to Moshe Rabbeinu's arms extending heavenward so then היו משעבדים את לבם לאביהם שבשמים. So what the Mishna is telling us here is that the war with Amalek is waged with emunah. Not only is it a mitzvah which calls upon us to have emunah but the arsenal which we employ in that milchama in that war is one of emunah. Even within the Yom Tov of Purim, one theme, one salient theme of the Yom Tov of Purim is the mitzvah of Amalek. The Ramban in Parshas Ki Seitzei says that

זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק מכאן סמכו מקרא מגילה מן התורה

that this is the basis or this is the cue for Chazal, every mitzvah d'rabbanan requires some kind of d'oraissa-dik anchor, so this is the cue, this is the anchor for the mitzvah d'rabbanan of Krias HaMegillah, the mitzvah of remembering Amalek. So that's one salient theme of Purim. Another salient theme of course of Purim and the Megillah is the absence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's name in Megillas Esther, signifying that the miracles were nissim nistarim. Nissim nistarim require emunah in order to be identified and recognized and appreciated. So these two themes in fact converge and are really one and the same because again the mitzvah of Michiyas Amalek is about emunah. Similarly the ability and the sensitivity to recognize nissim nistarim hidden miracles and Hakadosh Baruch Hu's governance of the world also is one which requires a sense and a sensitivity of emunah. So to discuss inyonei emunah in the week between Parshas Zachor and Purim is very much me'inyona d'yoma, very much a davar b'ito. Basically what I thought maybe we'd do for a few minutes is a few case studies. A few case studies in very much real life scenarios that most of us encounter at one point or another and to try to see again what the applications and implications of emunah are in these situations. Just one or two comments by way of introduction. Obviously in the the time we're devoting to this, maybe Hillel could provide an exhaustive treatment of applications and implications of emunah within 45 minutes. I make no such claim. And another comment, whatever we're gonna talk about is not to the exclusion of hishtadlus. Nothing is to is nothing we're going to say is meant to insinuate that emunah preaches some sort of passivity. What what we're going to discuss is in addition to whatever opportunity and whatever opening there is for human initiative in dealing with various challenges, what the role of emunah is. And finally, if you'll walk away and and your reaction will be that everything we discussed were devarim peshutim, were simple and straightforward, so first of all I won't be offended and the truth is I'll agree with you. I think that everything we're going to discuss are devarim peshutim. Okay. The first area we'll focus on is dealing with with adversity. And I don't know if anyone coasts through life on calm placid waters for one's entire one's entire life. Most of us deal with adversity at one time or another. Some of us deal with it more often, others of us deal with it less often, but most people at some point in their lives encounter encounter the turbulence, encounter adversity. And the adversity can come in different forms and shapes. It can come in the form of personal disappointment. That personal disappointment might be a person at a younger stage of life, maybe had his heart set on going to medical school and spends his entire collegiate career being pre-med and invests all the hours and then and then doesn't make it into medical school. So then he takes a year off and he works in a laboratory and reapplies the next year and again he he receives the same disappointing letter from the various medical schools to which he applied. Personal disappointment could be at a later stage in life, it might be that a person is denied a promotion which seemingly he or she richly deserved and it's very easy for these types of experiences and vekayotzei bahem and and and and the like to engender within one a sense of frustration. A sense of frustration that here I I looked inward and I had the interest and and I thought and still think that I have the ability, again, whether it was medical school or or whatever it was that I had targeted, and now I'm gonna be frustrated. And now I'm gonna be frustrated. So what's the emunah perspective on this? So the emunah perspective on this, and again, it's not really the forum to go into differences of opinion in Rishonim, so not necessarily everything we say do 100% of the Rishonim subscribe to. But what's the emunah perspective on on dealing with these types of of personal disappointments? So there is a very, very fundamental teaching of the Sefer Hachinuch. The Sefer Hachinuch is commenting on the Torah's prohibition of lo sikom against taking revenge. Okay, so I think our our gut reaction if we were asked to speculate on the reasons for this prohibition, so we would have said because it's a corrupt ethical trait. No, you shouldn't a person a person wronged you, you should be able to be misgaber, you should be able to overcome. and not have to act in kind. You shouldn't lower yourself to his or her level to seek revenge. So Sefer HaChinuch doesn't dismiss this, but the first reason the Sefer HaChinuch offers and that which he elaborates on most, the Sefer HaChinuch says you know why the Torah ossers nekama? For theological reasons, not for moral and ethical reasons, but for theological reasons. Because if I seek revenge against someone who wronged me, so the assumption, my presumption is that he's responsible for whatever befell me. Whatever avla it is that I feel, whatever wrong was perpetrated upon me to which I'm objecting, so I feel that that person was the source of what happened to me and therefore I want to settle the score, I want to even the score. If this would have happened to me anyway, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu's hashgacha pratis is such that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wouldn't allow someone else to impact my life in a way that he for reasons which may be understandable to us, maybe inscrutable to us, for reasons which he approves of, so then that person couldn't have impacted my life in the way that he did. The Sefer HaChinuch says whatever happens in terms of external circumstances in a person's life, in terms of what a person does for himself, that's a different story. If a person goes and I bang my head against the pillar and then I get a headache, so I don't have to attribute that to some heavenly decree. But if someone else grabs me and bangs my head against a pole, so then the Sefer HaChinuch says then the Sefer HaChinuch says that no human agent, no human agency can impact, can affect someone else unless Hakadosh Baruch Hu again for reasons which we may or may not understand, unless Hakadosh Baruch Hu approves of it. So what are the implications of that? The implications of that are that I thought that I was cut out for medical school, and I thought that was the best way for me to live a productive life, and therefore I was right to make the hishtadlus, I was right to put in the effort to try to achieve that goal. If it doesn't happen, so if it doesn't happen, so it means Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sending me a message: you know what? That wasn't the right path. Will I ever fully understand why it wasn't the right path? Maybe. Maybe in 20 years down the road, maybe in my second choice profession, I'll realize ומי יודע אם לעת כזאת הגעת למלכות. Esther probably didn't, neither Esther nor Mordechai necessarily understood initially why she had to suffer the fate of becoming Achashverosh's queen. And then as things developed, so Mordechai says now I understand it, ומי יודע אם לעת כזאת הגעת למלכות. So sometimes there are those moments in life, there are those moments of clarity, of understanding. And sometimes we don't fully understand. But either way, there's no room for frustration because if Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't let it happen, so that means that for whatever reason it wasn't supposed to happen, and that it wasn't the right thing. And fortunately, fortunately, Hakadosh Baruch Hu when what we want isn't right, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu overrules us. That's why in when we bench Rosh Chodesh, so we ask that ממלא משאלות לבנו לטובה. We don't ask that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should answer all our tefillos. We ask that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should answer our tefillos if we're davening for the right thing. I may be davening for this job, for this shidduch, for this opportunity. If it's not the right thing, so we don't want Hakadosh Baruch Hu to answer. ימלא השם משאלות לבך לטובה. Another form of adversity with which we sometimes have to deal is some kind of very difficult trying personal relationship. It can be a family member, it can be a co-worker. And again, we're talking about whatever a person can do in terms of hishtadlus, in terms of human initiative in dealing with the situation, a person should do. But what are the implications and applications of emuna above and beyond that? So without emuna, so the reaction probably would be a reaction of anger, of why the person feels why do I have to be constantly subjected to this person's abuse or this co-worker's incompetence? Whatever the specifics of the situation. specifics of the situation may be. What's the emuna perspective? The emuna perspective again is that if Hakadosh Baruch Hu is letting it happen, he's letting it happen for the reason. What's the reason? It could be the reason is that having to deal with this is going to challenge me in the area of tikkun hamiddos. There are going to be certain character traits that I'm pushed to develop, to refine, to perfect in having to deal with the adversity of this situation. It may be a certain humility that I'll develop, it may be a certain patience and forbearance that I'll develop, it may be a certain perspective on what's important and what's not important that I'll be forced to develop in dealing with it. Maybe part of the cheshbon is that these trials and tribulations, which this relationship involves, are intended as yissurim, as suffering, as a form of kappara, as a form of atonement. Maybe Hakadosh Baruch Hu is doing me the favor of giving me, granting me a source of atonement for my misdeeds. But the emuna perspective is that if it's happening to me, it means it's supposed to be happening to me. And therefore, it's not something which should engender frustration, it's not something which should engender anger, but it's something which should be viewed as a challenge and an opportunity that a person is supposed to take advantage of. How do we deal with sickness? Rachmana litzlan. So Chazal tell us, Chazal tell us that if yissurim ba'im alav, if a person Rachmana litzlan is dealing with sickness, so yimashmesh bema'asav, yifashpesh bema'asav. The reaction should be, again, in addition to whatever hishtadlus, whatever effort and whatever human initiative can and should happen on a natural level, there should be a reaction of introspection. It's not simply statistics. There's something that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is asking, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is looking to elicit a reaction. Can we figure out what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants? I don't know, but more importantly, if a person goes about it in a healthy fashion—meaning a person doesn't beat himself up and doesn't hold himself or herself to an unreal standard—there won't be any wrong answers. משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say a person has some kind of symptoms, it's not clear, different aches and pains, so he goes to the doctor. So the doctor takes an MRI and runs a whole battery of tests, and the doctor discovers three distinct problems or issues that he has. And they're all very real. He can point to the MRI and show the irregularity, and he can point to the blood test, to the blood work, and show what's amiss in the results. Now, did the doctor discover the source of the problems which brought the patient to him in the first place? Maybe yes, maybe no. But the point is, he didn't come up with wrong answers. He may not have come up with the right answer, but he didn't come up with wrong answers either. When a person engages in a cheshbon hanefesh, so there's no guarantee that a person is going to be able to diagnose and to pinpoint exactly what Hakadosh Baruch Hu's message is to him. But as long as a person goes about it in a healthy fashion—not in some kind of a religious masochistic fashion, but a person goes about it in a healthy, normal fashion—there are no wrong answers. Because again, if the MRI shows something, so maybe that's not what was causing the pain in my knee, in my back in the first place, but the MRI has successfully uncovered something which needs to be addressed. Maybe let's just take one final example of a type of adversity. Sometimes Rachmana litzlan people have to deal with unemployment. Now in addition to the possible reactions of anger, anger at the boss or whoever it is who's responsible for the pink slip, in addition to possible feelings of frustration, so certainly one overriding concern is worry. Worry about how a person is going to continue to meet his financial responsibilities, how a person's going to continue paying the bills. The Chovot Halevavot writes, Rabbenu Bachya writes in Chovot Halevavot in the Sha'ar Habitachon, he says that one of the corollaries of bitachon, of a sense of trust in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, trust is sort of the, I guess the the premier application of emuna. A person has faith in Hakadosh Baruch Hu and therefore that translates into an attitude of trust in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So Rabbenu Bachya says that perhaps one of the corollaries of having bitachon is that a person has a sense of menuchat hanefesh. A person has a sense of calm and composure because again in terms of external circumstances, a person can't be complacent about himself or herself, but in terms of external circumstances impacting me, so I know that things aren't accidental and things aren't happenstance. I know Hakadosh Baruch Hu is running the world and השלך על ה' יהבך and a person therefore can trust in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So a person doesn't have to just calculate well based on the economic forecast what's going to be and based on the economic forecast I don't see any prospects. Hayad Hashem tiktzar, Hakadosh Baruch Hu can figure out how to channel a yeshua to a person in in any economic situation. משל למה הדבר דומה, let's say rachmana litzlan a person loses a job but he has either let's say he has a rich father who loves him, who dotes on him, or maybe he doesn't have a rich father but he has a very very well-to-do friend, his closest friend since childhood. They've been close for 20, 30 years since childhood. And he knows that if he turns to them that they're not going to turn him away. They're not going to turn him away. So even though again he's hit by this blow of unemployment, but he knows I'm not worried. My father's going to stand behind me. My best friend, we've been as close as this since childhood, he's not going to abandon me in this time. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu, our belief is, is Avinu Av Harachaman. Hakadosh Baruch Hu also, Rashi in the Gemara in Shabbat quotes the pasuk in Mishlei when Hillel tells the ger that kol haTorah kula is veahavta lereacha kamocha. So Hillel tells the ger that's what kol haTorah kula is. So Rashi says what does it mean? Because the pasuk in Mishlei says רעך ורע אביך אל תעזוב or something that you shouldn't abandon your friend and your father's friend. So who's your friend and who's your father's friend? That's Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is a person's best friend also. So rachmana litzlan if a person lost a job but he knew that he has a compassionate and rich father, he's going to be relaxed about it. If he knows that he has a compassionate friend who has deep pockets, he's also going to be able to deal, he's going to be able to cope with the situation. Okay, maybe let's move to a different area. Another very basic belief of ours is that Olam Hazeh is a temporary existence, a temporary existence, and that eternal life is in Olam Haba. Now that in no way devalues life in Olam Hazeh, on the contrary, היום לעשותם ומחר לקבל שכרם, it infuses, it imbues every moment of life of Olam Hazeh with indescribable preciousness. But clearly the implication of that emuna, as Chazal tell us in Pirkei Avot, is that

העולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור והעולם הבא לטרקלין התקן עצמך בפרוזדור כדי שתיכנס לטרקלין.

If Olam Hazeh is temporary and one's ultimate... fulfillment can't come about, can't result from this worldly achievements or or acquisitions, so it means that the very clear implication of that emuna is that our orientation should be towards olam ha-ba. Now, unquestionably, part of the nisayon, part of the challenge Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us in olam ha-zeh is to retain that focus on olam ha-ba while having to deal with certain mundane challenges. We have to, we have to again take initiative in earning a livelihood and we have to maintain health and we have to attend to the physical and mundane needs of not only our own but of our family. But that's part of the nisayon again to juggle that and to balance that, but the focus has to be on that which transcends olam ha-zeh. The focus has to be on avodas Hashem which transcends olam ha-zeh. It has to be on, on olam ha-ba. Rabbeinu Bachya again in Chovos HaLevavos has a very, very sharp formulation. I guess sharp is, is the way we describe truth but that jar us. It probably shouldn't be sharp, but, but from our perspective it's a very sharp formulation. Rabbeinu Bachya says in Chovos HaLevavos, he says that love of olam ha-zeh, and by that he doesn't mean, he's not talking about the Vilna Gaon's love of olam ha-zeh, about the ability to be mekayeim mitzvas lulav and esrog. He means love of olam ha-zeh in terms of material and physical pleasure and enjoyment. He says love of olam ha-zeh and love of olam ha-ba can no more coexist than water and fire. A person is either oriented towards olam ha-zeh or he's oriented towards olam ha-ba. The degree, the extent to which I'm oriented towards olam ha-zeh, again, olam ha-zeh not in the sense of valuing every second of time, not in the sense of looking at life as such a wonderful blessing and privilege and opportunity, but olam ha-zeh, love of olam ha-zeh in the sense of the pleasures and the enjoyments of olam ha-zeh. The degree to which I'm oriented towards olam ha-zeh, the degree to which I love olam ha-zeh, to that degree I cannot love olam ha-ba. I can't. The two are, the two are antithetical. Olam ha-ba, again, whether olam ha-ba is body and soul together or whether olam ha-ba is only, is only the soul, doesn't make a difference. But everyone agrees that it's a spiritual existence. Whether it's a spiritual existence of body and soul, or whether it's a spiritual existence only of the soul, but it's clearly a, a spiritual existence. So we believe that. We believe that. And, and that's a basic, basic belief of, of in olam ha-ba. But that also has very clear implications and applications in terms of what the correct balance is within our lives between balancing the gashmius and the ruchnius, the materialism and the spirituality within our lives. But this is especially challenging in our society because the Western society in which we live has, has lost any sense whatsoever of what moderation means. It's lost any sense of where the line really should be drawn between what we need as opposed to what we enjoy. The, the definition of need keeps on getting inflated more and more so that what the previous generations didn't even dream about as, as a luxury, so for us is, is, is a basic, is a basic need. So in attempting to restore the correct balance, again, which is implied, which is dictated by our emuna between the gashmius and the ruchnius, we can't really take our cue from what society or even what we hitherto have defined as moderate and as where the line. Let's move to another realm. Priorities. How often does it happen that we run out of Shul early in the morning because we have some kind of very important business meeting or the like? Again, all of these examples can be adjusted, and I don't mean to pick any more on doctors and businessmen than on accountants and Indian chiefs. So they can all be adjusted, obviously. Okay, so there's an important meeting in the office at 8:00. It takes me 30 to 40 minutes to drive to the office. The Minyan begins at 7:00, so I have to run out a few minutes early. Erev Shabbos, it's hard in the wintertime. It's hard to leave at 12:00, not even half a day. It's hard. Okay, so you Cheshbon that Licht Bentching is 4:00. Licht Bentching is 4:00, and usually, when there's nothing unforeseen, if I leave at 3:00, I should get home and from the driveway, you know, if the window's open, I can answer Amen when my wife Bentches Licht. It should work out. So the Chovos HaLevavos again tells the story. The Chovos HaLevavos tells the story about a Chassid Echad who, I guess he was maybe in the modern equivalent of the import-export business. They used to travel overseas. So in the Chovos HaLevavos's day, almost a thousand years ago, so obviously, whenever a person traveled overseas, he literally was risking his life. Literally, it was Sakanas Nefashos. So once this Chassid Echad encounters someone, and the person says to the Chassid Echad, tell me, what do you believe your sustenance, what do you believe your Parnassa comes from? So the Chassid says, it comes from Ribbono Shel Olam. Where else? So he says to the Chassid Echad, and if Ribbono Shel Olam doesn't want to give it to you, so with all your effort and with all your strategizing, are you going to be able to get what Ribbono Shel Olam doesn't want to give you? He says no, absolutely not. Not a thousand dollars, not a cent. He says, what do you think? He says Ribbono Shel Olam can't channel you your money unless you risk your life? So the Chovos HaLevavos writes that that Chassid Echad from that day on, he sought out a different source of livelihood. Now, obviously, if Rabbeinu Bachya were alive today, he'd give a different example. I don't think he would say that a person can't fly overseas to attend to business. So the example is outdated, but clearly the message isn't. So if we think again about applications and implications of Emuna, so it's kind of mind-boggling. So we run out of Shul. What are we running out of Shul for? Because we have to make a Parnassa. And what are we running out from? We rushed through our Shemoneh Esrei and we're maybe not even there for Chazaras HaShatz. If we're there for Chazaras HaShatz, then we're busy finishing Davening and folding our Tallis Tefillin at the same time and checking our cell phone for messages pertaining to this meeting. So what's going to determine the success of the meeting? If we stay in Shul and we Daven Barech Aleinu and we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu for the Siyata DiShmaya in the Parnassa, so then maybe the meeting's going to be successful. And then if we answer Amen in Chazaras HaShatz to Barech Aleinu. But we seem to lose the message of the implications of Emuna. If Parnassa comes from Ribbono Shel Olam, כל מזונותיו של אדם קצובים, our Parnassa comes from Ribbono Shel Olam, so how can it be that we run out of Shul before Davening is over? Aye, because there's an 8 o'clock meeting. Okay, so maybe there's a 6 o'clock Minyan, maybe there's a 6:30 Minyan, or maybe you tell them I can't attend the meeting at 8 o'clock if the neighborhood doesn't have a 6 to 6:30 Minyan. So either complain to the rabbi and tell him that he should make a six to six-thirty minyan. Or if he runs away to Eretz Yisrael and you can't and you can't complain to him so then so then tell him you can't make the you can't make the the eight o'clock meeting. I can't do it. I can't do it. We mentioned the example of erev Shabbos. So what is Shabbos? What is Shabbos? So what we believe, what our emunah is, that Shabbos is שקולה כנגד כל התורה כולה. It's one of those things that is שקולה כנגד כל התורה כולה. You put all of Torah on one side of a scale, you put Shabbos on the other side of the scale, it's שקולה כנגד כל התורה כולה. It it it affirms our belief that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. It's a day when again we're freed from all mundane or most many mundane commitments and involvements. יום השביעי שבת להשם אלקיך to focus on cultivating our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's שקולה כנגד כל התורה כולה. משל למה הדבר דומה? Let's say you're driving on a on a rather narrow narrow country road in upstate. Okay. So if let's say it's a rather narrow road. So if to the side of the road there's a drop of an inch or two, okay, so it's not so terrible if if if my car will veer off the road, it's not so terrible, so I'm probably not going to slow down, I'll I'll drive my regular fifty-five or sixty-five, what happens happens. Okay. Let's say instead of being an inch or two drop, let's say it's a five or six inch drop. Okay, I'm going to slow down a little bit. I don't think I'm going to crawl along at twenty or fifteen miles an hour because, okay, it may it may damage one of the tires a little bit and all things being equal, so I'd rather that not happen but lo nora, I can I can deal with the consequences. But let's say it's one of these windy roads, mountain roads, and then there's a drop, there's a precipitous drop. You're it's a long there's a precipitous drop. You're it's along the side of of of a cliff. So then you slow down to ten miles an hour because the consequences, the odds are still the same, right? Whether or not it's a two inch drop or whether or not it's a two mile drop, the odds are still the same. The odds are overwhelmingly in my favor. But even when odds are overwhelmingly in our favor, you don't bet unless you can afford to lose. No matter how good, no matter how good the the odds are, no matter how overwhelming they are in your favor, if you can't afford to lose, you can't bet. Everyone knows that. Because otherwise, because sometimes the odds don't play out and sometimes the odds don't work out in in our favor. So the question is what's Shabbos? So when I leave at three o'clock and licht bentching is four o'clock, yeah, so all things being equal, I should get home I should get home by licht bentching. All things are not always equal. So if Shabbos is, okay, it's something I do, it's a two inch drop, so I'll leave at three o'clock. But let's say there's a forecast for snow, it's already snowing on on Friday and we've heard all kinds of horror stories of what happens lo aleinu when there's a snowstorm on on an erev Shabbos. So the question is is it a two inch drop off the side of the road if we don't get home in time for Shabbos or is it a two mile drop? So clearly what our emunah tells us about Shabbos is that it's a two mile drop. So that's also a clear application and implication. Just very very quickly I'd like to touch on on two other points. In in most situations, emunah notwithstanding, we have to be very practical and very realistic. And and the reason for that is that even though we have emunah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu also wants us to to invest effort, to show initiative, because that's how Hakadosh Baruch Hu chooses to channel his bracha to us. So again so so emunah doesn't doesn't preach any kind of passivity, any kind of quiescent approach to life is is not at all what. Nevertheless, there are certain situations where our emuna will tell us that even though practically it doesn't seem so realistic, but it's something we're gonna do anyway. The Rav, zichrono livracha, was fond of saying, murgala bepumei, especially in the early years when he came to this country, so he used to try to energize people and to bolster their confidence. He used to say, "I don't know if it's possible to be mechanech children in America. I don't know if it's possible for them to carry a double load of a dual curriculum. I don't know when I think about it in the abstract, I'm not sure it's possible." He says, "Maybe it's impossible, but one thing I know is that we have to do it." So certain things are so basic and so fundamental that here emuna says, if it's so basic and it's so fundamental and it's so clear that מה השם אלוקיך שואל מעמך, it's so clear that this is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants, at this point, you try to be as practical as you can, you try to be as realistic as you can, but if this is clearly what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants, so then we have to do it even if it doesn't seem possible, even if we can't begin to anticipate how it's going to play out, how it's going to succeed. The example of chinuch remains true. There's no question that the cost of sending our children to yeshivas at times is astronomical. There's no question, and the more blessed with children a family is, so the more astronomical the cost. Is it possible to send, to be able to deal with so many tuition bills? So I think the answer the Rav would tell us is, "I don't know. Maybe it's not possible, but one thing is clear: that's not an area in which we can compromise, and not even from the youngest age, from the youngest age, to even preschool age, children absorb influences. It's not true that only in high school, no, children are like sponges, they're absorbing influences of their environment." Again, מיום עמדם על דעתם, when they're two, when they're three years old, they're already absorbing, they're already parroting, they're already, they're already, they're already imitating. It's already making some kind of imprint and impact upon them. So is it possible to carry the burden of all these tuitions? I don't know, probably not. But the answer is, clearly Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants that, and if Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants it, then eich shehu it has to happen. Eich shehu it has to happen. In conclusion, I just want to reflect very quickly on the following. I think most of us are pretty clear about the various emunos that we've been talking about tonight. Our belief in hashgacha pratis, our belief in the transience of olam hazeh and the eternity of olam haba, our belief in what priorities should be in life. So why is it that too often we find ourselves unsuccessful in living in accordance with these various, again, implications and applications of emuna? The answer is a combination of two factors. Factor number one is that the Torah expects that we not only know and believe these basics of emuna, but that we internalize them. Not only would we, if given a questionnaire, "Do you believe in hashgacha pratis?" check the yes box, "Do you believe in the transience of olam hazeh and the eternity of olam haba?" we check the yes box. So that's the starting point, but then once we know that and believe that, we have to internalize it. Because if we don't know it, if we only know it but don't internalize it, it's too easy to get distracted. That's certainly not the direction in which the tide of most people who populate this earth, that's certainly not the direction in which they're headed. If it's not the direction in which they're headed, so that means there are very strong currents pulling us in the wrong direction. How is it internalized? So basically in the Sfarim there are two approaches. One approach is that again is that which which Ramchal in Mesilas Yesharim presents which is simply that when a person knows something, so we make the mistake of saying "I know it" and and "I reviewed it, I remember it, Shaitz, now let's learn something new." So that's maybe enough to cement it intellectually, to make sure that intellectually one has a grasp on it. But in order to internalize it, so that's what Ramchal writes. He says you have to learn Mesilas Yesharim again and again and again and again. Why? Because I'm not trying to tell you anything you don't know, I'm trying to help you internalize it. And the way one internalizes, it's not a magical formula, it's very very prosaic, very down to earth. The way we internalize is by constantly reinforcing. If a person is working again on the the transience of Olam Hazeh, the eternity of Olam Habah, let him take the Mishna in Pirkei Avos, write it down on an index card: העולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור והעולם הבא דומה לטרקלין, that Olam Hazeh is the antechamber, is the waiting room, and Olam Habah is the is the is the banquet hall. Let a person have that on an index card and read that index card thirty times a day, thirty times a day. Let him even say it aloud to himself and that constant reinforcement is the way a person makes the transition from knowing to to internalizing. The other method is more the behavioral approach. The Rambam talks about this in Hilchos Deios, again there are many other Mareh Mekomos on on both sides and the two are not competing, they're they're complementary. Is that if a person acts in accordance with a with a fundamental belief, that helps him internalize the belief within himself. So let's let's go back to one of the examples we spoke about. Let's say again the the belief, the core belief that yes we're called upon to take initiative and yes we have to invest effort and time but ultimately our Parnassah is going to come from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has the first word and the last word about what our Parnassah will be. Okay, so that's something we want to internalize. So according to the Rambam in Hilchos Deios, so I haven't internalized it yet. But if I'll stop and think about it and force myself not to leave Shul early, again, or go to the earlier Minyan, but Eich Shehu, I'm not going to make that 8 o'clock Minyan at the expense of leaving Davening early. If I'll do that time and time again and one time I'll tell them "I'm sorry, it's a crucial meeting, I can't be there. If if there's no earlier Minyan for me to go to to be there on time, I'm sorry, I can't be present at the Minyan." Those actions again, which which bespeak a certain Emunah, help us then instill and and internalize. Right, that's the Sefer Hachinuch: אחרי הפעולות נמשכות הלבבות. So those two approaches, one, the the reinforcement, as it were the direct appeal to the heart, the reinforcement again the relationship between Olam Hazeh and and Olam Habah, the the all-encompassing nature of divine providence of Hashgacha Pratis and all its applications and implications, appeal directly to the heart, reinforce time and time again. There's no Chiddush in it, it doesn't have to be a Chiddush in it. It's just the the reinforcement. That plus the actions which are predicated upon these Emunos which bespeak it are the way that we that we try to internalize and Hakadosh Baruch Hu should should give us the Siyata Dishmaya of הבא ליטהר מסייעין אותו that we should be able to internalize and that we should be able to live in accordance with all these applications of Emunah.