Daily Chidush: Emunah and the Ultimate Purpose of Your Life

0:00Hello, how are you? It's been a while since we did a daily chiddush. Baruch Hashem. With some siyata dishmaya, or 100% siyata dishmaya. Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll do a chiddush today answering a lot of questions we got over these last week, week and a half or so from people. And Be'ezrat Hashem, as we always say, if you ever want to find miracles, just look at Parashat HaShavua. Just look at the parasha and you'll find all the answers for everything that's relevant to you. This week's parashat shavua is parashat Shelach. This is the parasha that signifies a critical time for Am Yisrael, where right now we've already received the Torah. Hashem says to go to the land, the land that I've promised Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, the land I have destined for My chosen people, and inherit it. Unfortunately, Am Yisrael again failed in the same thing that many of us are failing at every day. Many of us have the same disease that Dor HaDe'ah, the generation of knowledge, the ones that knew Hashem, the ones that saw Hashem's miracles on a day-to-day basis, also failed at. And not just the average people, but even the Gedolei HaDor.

1:28even the leaders of each one of the tribes. The parasha starts, Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, send forth men, if you please, and let them spy out the land of Canaan. I give to the children of Israel: one man each for his father's tribe shall you send, everyone a leader among them. The key few words in this sentence, in this couple of verses, is "if you please send forth men." "If you please" meaning that Hashem is saying to Moshe Rabbeinu, tell the people that if I if they please, meaning if they don't trust me, if they don't trust the promise that I made to Avraham, the promise that I made to all of them on Mount Sinai that I will give them a good land, and they want to check it out for themselves before they get there, then they should go ahead. Let's not only go there but send your leaders; each tribe should have proper representation to send their greatest leaders. So imagine...

2:44At least 12 or 15 million people, each one according to the Torah, was a prophet. Everyone became a prophet; everyone saw Hashem's words in the sky. And out of all of those 12 million prophets or 15 million prophets, or perhaps even more, choose the best ones, choose the leaders of each one of the tribes, send them, and let them tell the people what they see. But know that when you don't trust me, when you don't have emunah in me, you're bound to use your own opinion, and your opinion will fail you time and time again if it is not the opinion of Hashem. Am Yisrael, as we all learned from the rest of this parasha, sent these spies. These spies went and saw the land and saw giants burying a person, which Chazal says was actually Iyov, the holy man who in this parasha is actually signified in Chapter 13, verse 20, when it says, "Yes, is there a tree there?" And a tree, Chazal says, is a righteous person. These spies went and saw the land and saw giants burying a person, which Chazal say was actually Iyov, the holy man, who in this parasha is actually signified in Chapter 13, Verse 20 when it says, "Yes, is there a tree there?" And a tree, Chazal say, is a righteous person.

4:09so they see these giants burying a person and they're thinking, "Oh, the land is even killing the people." And they come back to Bnei Yisrael and report slanderous words. They speak negatively about the land that Hashem promised, and for that, we are punished by spending the next 39 years in the desert. while the entire generation that lived at that moment dies and only new people enter the Land of Israel, with the exception of a few like Yehoshua bin Nun and Kalev, the vast majority of the nation die. This is the cost of not having Emunah. Every day we go to work, and we have a choice. We have a choice of living with emunah or not. Living without emunah means it's my power, my strength, and my wisdom that's creating this business opportunity, this idea, winning this case, healing this patient, picking the right stock. We have a choice. We have a choice of how we deal with people. We have a choice of how we deal with our wife. We have a choice of how we deal with our children.

5:33And that choice is either with emunah or without. With emunah means that we're always looking above and knowing that Hashem is watching. I've always looked, I've always made sure that I always ask myself, "What does Hashem think about what I'm doing?" Without emunah... We just make our own minds. We use our own minds. We use our own opinion. We use our own what we think is wisdom. And we also fall into our own traps. Hashem is telling us in the Book of Yeshayahu the reward for having Emunah. In the Book of Yeshayahu, chapter 26, verse 4, it says, "Trust in Hashem forever, for in God, Hashem, is the strength of the worlds." He’s telling you exactly how reality is. Hashem has everything. Hashem is not limited. The Hashem of the Torah doesn’t have any limitations. If you want money, He’ll give you money. If you want health, He’ll give you health. It says, "Trust in Hashem forever, for in God, Hashem, is the strength of the worlds." He's telling you exactly how reality is. Hashem has everything. Hashem is not limited. The Hashem of the Torah doesn't have any limitations. If you want money, He'll give you money. You want health, He'll give you health.

7:01You want a new business? He'll give you a new business. You want a wife? He'll give you a wife. You want a husband? He'll give you a husband. You want to fix your children? Hashem gave you instructions how. Everything and anything in this world is in Hashem's hands. We have a choice. We call it free choice, which gives us only one thing that's in our hands. Because everything else is in Hashem's hands. The choice that's in our hands is are we going to live that way or not? Are we going to fear Hashem, live with fear of Hashem, live with understanding His significance, and operate that way with every step of our life? Or are we going to live as if He's only in a Beit Knesset? Are we going to live as if He's only there when we're praying? Only when we're learning? Only when... Whatever limit you want to put in that sentence. This is a decision you have to make each and every single day. The next time somebody gives you an extra $20 as change by accident, you have to make that decision. The next time a customer makes a mistake...

8:26sends you extra money. You have to make the decision the next time you have an opportunity to fool someone. You have to make that decision the next time you have an opportunity to do business on Shabbat by speaking to a very rich guy in the Beit Knesset, which is not allowed on Shabbat. It's exactly like working. You have to make that decision the next time your wife says something that's upsetting you and you feel like screaming at her and which you know you're not allowed to do because expressing anger, according to the Gemara, is the equivalent of idol worship. You have to make that decision. Having emunah is not one of these things where you're just born with it because this epidemic, this disease of lack of emunah, is everywhere. It's in a non-religious world, and it's in a religious world. In a non-religious world, people have fake emunah, where they say, no, no, no, I believe in my heart. Okay, so you believe in your heart, but how come you're working on Shabbat? What, you think God doesn't have money to give you during those six days of work? But he says in his Torah, as we learned in last week's chidush, Haggai chapter 2, verse 8, Li ha-kesef ve'li ha-zahav ne'um Hashem Tzevaot. Hashem specifically said, mine is the silver and mine is the gold. The word of Hashem, Master of Legions. If you really believe in the God of the Torah, you'd know that everything is His. All the money in the world is His. Why are you working on Shabbat? But what about the frum world? What about the religious world?

9:47But he says in his Torah, as we learned in last week's Chiddush, Chaggai chapter 2, verse 8, "Li ha-kesef ve'li ha-zahav ne'um Hashem Tzevaot." Hashem specifically said, "Mine is the silver and mine is the gold," the word of Hashem, Master of Legions. If you really believe in the God of the Torah, you'd know that everything is His. All the money in the world is His. Why are you working on Shabbat? And what about the frum world? What about the religious world? Why is it that when it comes to doing mitzvot, we're doing them, but we don't feel connected all the time? We don't feel like we did when we were kids. We don't feel like it's really being heard by Hashem. Chapter 2, Mishnah 18.

10:48Abishamon says he gives you directions of how to get to him. Be meticulous in reading the Shema and in prayer. When you pray, do not make your prayer a set routine; rather, an entreaty for mercy and a supplication before the Omnipresent. As it is said, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, and relentful of punishment. They get this from Sefer Yoel (Joel), chapter 2, verse 13. And lastly, it says, do not judge yourself to be a wicked person. So, he says, if you really, really believe that you're talking to Hashem, if you really believe... Really want to work on your emunah? Hashem gives you an opportunity to do it each day, first thing in the morning. You pray to Him, you pray to Him, but if you're a robot...

11:54Then you're just going to do it. You're going to breeze through it because you're thinking that you have to be at work at 8 o'clock in the morning and you have to finish the Shema right away, and you have to finish the Amidah right away, and maybe you're going to skip a few things here and there just because you've got to zoom out of there in 25 minutes because you have an appointment with Mr. Jones that may give you a million-dollar contract. But that means, my friend, you think that it's in your hands whether he's going to give it to you or not. Hashem is telling you, it's not up to Him. It's also not up to you. It has nothing to do with your wisdom, with your intellect, with your experience, with your money, with anything. Hashem already decided what your parnassah is going to be on Rosh Hashanah. We learn this in Masechet Beitzah, Masechet Rosh Hashanah, the Gemara. We've seen this time and time again. Why are we constantly making mistakes when it comes to money? Why are we constantly making mistakes when it comes to educating our children? Sending them to the lesser yeshiva because the better one is more expensive. Why are we constantly making these mistakes that show that nothing has changed in 3,300 years and we have no emunah, just like this generation that we read about in this week's parashah.

13:25We have to change. And Hashem is giving us an opportunity to do so every morning. Start working on our prayers. Take your time. Act as if God is watching. Act as if He's actually there. Act as if you are in front of the King of Kings and today is your last opportunity. Act like that every day, as often as you can. When you do that, then you can start saying, "Ah, my prayer today is very different from yesterday. Why? Because I connected to it yesterday, but today felt even different because my neshama needed something else. And tomorrow is even different because my neshama needed something else. I had different issues and different problems, but I know that when I pray to Hashem in a real way, He hears me." as often as you can. When you do that, then you can start saying, "Ah, my prayer today is very different from yesterday." Why? Because I connected to it yesterday, but today felt even different because my neshama needed something else. And tomorrow is even different because my neshama needed something else. I had different issues and different problems, but I know that when I pray to Hashem in a real way, He hears me.

14:26And He responds in different ways. When you can do things like this, which is easy, we just have to spend some effort. Building emunah is something that starts becoming natural. Because the reality of it is, when you talk to Hashem with a genuine voice, with tears in your eyes, and observe him every moment. Job is asking, who is man? Who is man that You even pay attention to him? You inspect him every morning and You observe him every moment. Chazal asks, if You inspect him every morning, why are You observing him every moment? This is the secret of how Hashem is going to help you build your emunah. and observe him every moment. Iyov is asking, who is man? Who is man that You even pay attention to him? You inspect him every morning and You observe him every moment. The Chazal asks, if You inspect him every morning, why are You observing him every moment? This is the secret of how Hashem is going to help you build your emunah.

15:52your day-to-day tests are every day. Every day. This is what it says here. He’s inspecting you every morning. He’s going to give you tests every day. You want to build muscles? You have to go to the gym and lift weights. When you come home, the muscles are puffy. Why are they puffy? Because if you look at your body under a CT scan and actually observe what’s happening to your muscles, you’ll see that during that workout, if it was a real workout, you didn’t just spend all that time in a jacuzzi. If you actually worked out, then you see that all of those muscles that you worked out were shredded, were ripped. That’s why they’re puffy. Hashem is telling you that every day, that test you had, where you couldn’t find parking and you were late for an appointment, you had a customer yell at you and speak to you in an inappropriate way. You'll see that during that workout, if it was a real workout, you didn't just spend all that time in a jacuzzi. If you actually worked out, then you see that all of those muscles that you worked out were shredded, were ripped. That's why they're puffy. Hashem is telling you that every day, that test you had, where you couldn't find parking and you were late for an appointment, you had a customer yell at you and speak to you in an inappropriate way. Yet someone did not pay you on time or perhaps did not pay you at all, or someone sent you a lawsuit—all those tests, Hashem is inspecting you every day. Every morning, He is inspecting you to see: Do you love Me? Are you going to leave Me? Or are you going to believe in Me? It's your choice. But then it says and observes him every moment and...

16:52Yet someone might not pay you on time or perhaps not pay you at all, or someone sent you a lawsuit. All those tests, Hashem is inspecting you every day. Every morning, He is inspecting you to see: Do you love Me? Are you going to leave Me? Or are you going to believe in Me? It's your choice. But then it says He observes him every moment and... What is observed in every moment? Chazal says that it's worth it for a man to go through these tests every morning, the first level of tests every morning for 90 years, just so he can build enough emunah and strength to pass that test of that moment, the ultimate test. Because the ultimate test is literally a moment. It's a second. It's when you can't take it anymore. It's when it reaches above the forehead. It's when you're at a point where you just can't take it.

17:53is literally a moment. It's a second. It's when you can't take it anymore. It's when it has reached above the forehead. It's when you're at a point where you just can't take it. Similar to if someone is in the middle of an argument, and they keep quiet, and they keep quiet, and they keep quiet for a half hour. And they keep quiet, and they keep it to themselves, and then they don't want to respond. And there's one thing they can say, and they want to say it, and maybe they're even right for saying it, but they know that if they do it, they're going to destroy everything. So they keep quiet for another 45 minutes, and then an hour, and then an hour and a half, and then an hour and 45 minutes, and then two hours, and two hours and one minute, they finally say it, and all hell breaks loose. Now, was it worth it for them to keep it for two hours? No, it all went to waste. It all went to waste because we failed when the moment really mattered. All of these tests that you get every day—whether you're going to actually pray in a real way or you're going to worry about Mr. Jones in the office. they finally say it, and all hell breaks loose. Now, was it worth it for them to keep it for two hours? No, it all went to waste. It all went to waste because we failed when the moment really mattered. All of these tests that you get every day, whether you're going to actually pray in a real way or you're going to worry about Mr. Jones in the office.

19:08The problems everywhere that we deal with—health, money, family, kids. There's more than enough problems for Am Yisrael. All of those tests, you should thank Hashem for them. Thank Him. Why? Because He's giving you a chance to pass the ultimate test. When is that ultimate test? You'll know it when you get it, especially when you pass it. May Hashem continue to bless all of you and give you the strength and emunah to connect to Hashem and be grateful for every one of the tests He sends us, because that is your purpose. Kol tuv.