 One of the most important, if not the most important thing that we are supposed to be engaged in as human beings is a lifelong pursuit at self-improvement, self-development, actualizing our potential as human beings, basically growing. That we don't want to be the same people we are in our 20s, 30 years later in our 50s. We don't really want to be different one day to the next. Hopefully, every day we're growing. Hopefully, every day we're changing. We're developing, we're growing, we're changing, we're improving ourselves. And it's a lifetime pursuit. And it requires a lot of work. It's what we call a spiritual practice. A spiritual practice is something that we have to engage in constantly. As our sages say, it's like being a bird. Once you stop flapping your wings, you fall down. And so, spiritual growth requires constant effort, constant work. The sages tell us that one of the laws in the Torah, one of the laws in the Bible, is that when we had our temple, first we had it as a portable sanctuary in the desert, and then that portable sanctuary came to Israel until the permanent sanctuary was built. But we had an altar in the sanctuary, and we're told that the altar was ascended by a ramp, not by steps. The priests that were going up to the altar were not allowed, were not able to go up to the top by steps. They had to go up by a ramp. There are many reasons offered for this. One of the reasons is that when you're going on steps, you're always able to stop at some point along the way. I remember this summer I was in Israel, and I was in Har Nof, where there are tremendous hills from one block to the next block, and they have steps to allow you to get from one street to the next. And sometimes you're going to go up 200 steps. It feels like 200. But it's not easy if you're not in great shape to just trudge up those steps. And so I was able to stop. I walked up 25 steps or 30 steps or whatever it was, until I got tired and I stopped and I kept on going. But if you're going up a ramp, an incline, you can't really stop conveniently. It's not easy just to stop on the middle of a ramp of an incline. And so one of the lessons we learn is that on a spiritual journey, when we're going up towards the top of the altar or we're ascending spiritually, it has to be via a ramp, because we can't stop. We've got to keep on going. You can't really take a vacation from spiritual growth. It's got to be something that we pursue constantly. Now, one of the things that I wanted to begin with tonight was a sharing experience I had in Montreal a few months ago that was one of the most amazing experiences in my educational career. I was speaking to a group of about 150 high school students in Montreal. And it was a different topic altogether. But I showed them the following thought experiment. I showed them the following thing I wanted them to look at and think about. And what I showed them was the following. I showed them this logo that I'm sure all of you have seen. And I asked the students, how many of you, I asked the students, are aware of the fact that in this logo there is an embedded image, a concealed, hidden image in the FedEx logo. And about a third of the students, half of the students, raised their hands. They were aware of the fact that there was something that was embedded, concealed, hidden in this logo. And half of the students were not aware of it. And so I revealed that the designer of this logo was brilliant, is a brilliant designer, because between the E and the X, between the E and the X in the FedEx logo, you'll see an arrow in the white negative space. You'll see an arrow, a white arrow between the E and the X in the negative space. I'm hoping everyone can see it. If you can't see it, I have a wonderful optometrist that you'll be able to see next week. But there is this amazing arrow that's part of the design. And after I showed this to the students, they were all hooing and highing. It was amazing, because half of the students had never noticed this before. And then the question was, for these students, why I showed it to them? And I said that the reason I showed it to them was that the designer of the FedEx logo didn't have this happen by accident. It wasn't just fortuitous. It wasn't a mistake. It was on purpose. The reason is that the designer is wanting to create the impact that FedEx will get your packages to their destination fast like an arrow, straight like an arrow. It's trying to give that impression, that impact. And if people don't see it consciously, it might register subconsciously. But what I was interested, I wasn't interested in sharing with the students the work of some genius logo designer, I wanted to show them that our awareness impacts our experience. Our awareness impacts our experience. How so? So I told them, half of you were never aware of the fact that such a thing even existed. And so I said, I'm willing to bet that the next time you see a FedEx truck passed by, I said, you'll notice the arrow. And I said to them, as a matter of fact, when I was shown this, it was a big revelation to me, when I was shown this, the next time I saw a FedEx truck, the first thing I saw was the arrow. Usually you have to look for the arrow, first thing you see are the words FedEx, and then you have to sort of focus your eyes so you can see the arrow. It's secondary. No, when I saw the truck, I saw an arrow where the FedEx around it. But I said to the students, I bet now that you become aware of this, you'll notice that the next time a truck goes by. And at that moment, a FedEx truck parked itself right in front of the classroom. I didn't see it. I was facing the class, it was off to the side, the whole class is breaking out and laughter, and they had to point me to this truck sitting there. But I think this is a very powerful example, at least one that we can experience every day, of when our awareness changes, it impacts and changes the way we go through life. Everything changes. It's a game changer. There's a famous story. It's told in Buddhist circles. I've heard it in other cultures as well. I'll give you the story that I heard first. It takes place in India and there's a monastery where this had been a monastery that was extremely well attended. It was very active. It was one of the most famous monasteries in all of India. And over the years, for whatever reasons, it began losing visitors and it became a place that was nearly deserted. And all you had at this monastery were just a group of about 10 people. There was the abbot and there was the librarian and there was the cook and the gardener. But you had a very sparse crew of people at this monastery and they became upset. It was all depressing because this place, which was once a very, very active, wonderful, beautiful place, had turned into a place that was basically deserted. And so they had heard that in the forest, there was a rabbi. And they said, you know what? Maybe we should go and seek the advice of the rabbi. Maybe he'll have some advice for us. So they sent the abbot and the abbot went to find the rabbi. And finally, after a long journey through the forest, he finds this rabbi in his little cottage. And he says, rabbi, we never met before. Can I come in? And the rabbi welcomes him in and they share some tea. And then he gets down to business. The abbot says, you know, rabbi, I have a question for you. And he describes the situation. And he says, do you have any advice for me? And the rabbi says, funny, you should come to ask me. He said, my synagogue, which is down the road there, which used to have a whole active congregation is now empty. There's no one there. No one. I'm the only one that's left. It's just me. So he says, I'm sorry. I can't really help you. I have no real advice for you. And the abbot was upset, but he turned to leave. And as he was leaving the door through the door, the rabbi said, I just want to tell you one thing. He says, you should know that it's quite possible that one of the people in your monastery could be the Messiah. This was a little bit surprising to the abbot. And he didn't know how to process it. He goes back to the monastery and everyone's anxious. They're waiting for him to share the good news, what the rabbi has to say in terms of turning this place around. And he says, I'm sorry. The rabbi didn't have any advice for me. He's got a worse problem than we do. But he said, you know, but the rabbi said something very strange and puzzling to me. The rabbi said that he thinks it might be possible that one of the people in our monastery here could be the Messiah. Well, everybody was shocked by this. And what happened over the coming weeks is everyone began to wonder, who is it? Everyone, of course, suspected, well, if anybody, it's got to be the abbot. If anybody here is the Messiah, it's got to be the abbot. He must be the Messiah. But then people were thinking, you know what? Could be the librarian. Without the librarian, we wouldn't be able to really study properly. And then people would wonder, you know, it could be the gardener. Without the gardener, we wouldn't have food. It could be the gardener. No, maybe it's the cook. Maybe the cook is the Messiah. Maybe it's the person that cleans the rooms. Maybe it's this one. Maybe it's that one. And ultimately, everyone began to suspect that everyone else could be the Messiah. And then finally, people began to wonder, you know, maybe it's me. Maybe I could be the Messiah. A few months later, a family is driving on the road of this monastery. And they hadn't eaten for a long time. And they decided they were going to stop and have their meal on the grounds of this monastery. And they sat. They took out their food. And they felt that there was a real, amazingly beautiful energy at this place. And they came back to their hometown. And they told us the friends of theirs. They said, you know, we spent some time at this monastery. And it was so beautiful. It felt so wonderful there. It was so warm and was so positive. There was something glowing about the people there. There was something beautiful in the air. And so people told their friends about this place. And people started to visit. And more people started to visit. And finally, people that had visited sometimes, maybe one of their children would decide to enter the monastery and become one of the monks there. Until several years later, this abandoned, nearly abandoned monastery was thriving and hopping. The point of this story, which again, appears in many cultures, is that when people had this awareness that maybe every person on meeting could be the Messiah. Maybe I myself could be the Messiah. It changes their experience. When you deal with people and you see them in a different light, in that kind of special light. Now, we don't have to necessarily think of the other as the Messiah. Just trying to reframe our lives in a simpler way. Think about the fact that every person you see is an incredible creation in the image of God. We often don't think that way. We often see many people that disappoint us, that frustrate us. That we take for granted from the people in our families, the people we work with, to the people that we encounter in everyday life like the person behind the checkout counter at the supermarket. And so, we interact with them in a certain way, but our interactions would change dramatically if we were to see them through a different lens. If we were to realize what kind of person we meet is a human being created in the image of God, our awareness will change our experience. Our code of Jewish law begins in a very beautiful way. People who had not studied the code of Jewish law may not know this. But the code of Jewish law is a huge work that covers virtually every aspect of daily living. And in the very first paragraph, the Ramah of Moshe Israelis says is the very first comment, the beginning of what we should know in terms of how to live. He says, He quotes a verse from the book of Psalms, I have set God before me at all times. Who clawed God over Torah? This is the major principle of the Torah of Judaism. And he quotes Mamanides who says that a person who sits in their home and is aware of the fact that they are in the presence of God does not conduct themselves in their thoughts and their speech and their actions in the same way as if they weren't aware of that presence. We speak about the idea that someone is always looking at us and it changes the way we behave. It's unfortunate that we need that kind of impetus, that kind of encouragement. They tell a story about the Chavitz Chaim that he was once being driven in a carriage and the driver of the carriage stopped in an orchard and went to steal some of the apples. And he told the Chavitz Chaim please be on the lookout and tell me if anyone has spotted me. And the fellow just takes about 10 steps and the Chavitz Chaim screams out you're being watched, you're being seen. And the fellow jumps back into the carriage and whips the horses and takes off and he's looking around and he says what are you talking about? I don't see anything. And the Chavitz Chaim points up he says you are being seen. You are being watched. Many of our sages have said that we're so concerned about what other people think about us. How what other people think about how we look and how other people think about what matters in this life and how we're conducting ourselves. We're so concerned about what others think of us we don't pay as much attention to what the creator thinks of us. But that awareness has a dramatic effect upon how we go through our day-to-day behavior. The awareness that we are all in the presence of God every moment. Shlomo Schwartz here in Toronto wrote a book called Rewards Miles to Heaven where he says that there are many things that we do each day many routine activities that we do each day that have huge spiritual potential but we need to be aware of the fact that we're doing them for it to work. Rabbi Avigda Miller gave an example. He said think of two musicians two people that their career their job is their musicians and what do they do? They're basically part of a wedding band each one of them plays in a wedding band and each night they eat dinner they go out on their gig and they're sitting there with their band and they're playing for four or five hours however long it takes as the wedding is going on for one of them it's a job for one of them they're playing music because that's how they make their money and it's honest, there's nothing wrong with it it's noble every musician doing the exact same thing playing the exact same music the exact same length of time it's not just a job in their mind they're going out to spend five hours helping a bride and groom rejoice on this most amazing day of their life what is their consciousness is not that I'm here just on a job I'm here on a mission I'm here to help a bride and groom have the most amazing night of their marriage I'm here to give them tremendous joy so this person's consciousness their awareness of what they're doing has a tremendous impact on what they're doing and the value of what they're doing and the quality of what they're doing and that's true of everything we do in life our awareness will impact our experience now this is a difficult thing to actually manifest it's difficult to go through life with a constant awareness of the fact that for example every person we meet is created in the image of God to go through our lives where every moment we are aware of the fact that we're in the presence of God it's not easy R.A. Kaplan wrote one of the most important books on Jewish meditation and he suggests this exercise and I'll ask you to do it now right here it won't hurt close your eyes and for the next 30 seconds don't think of anything starting right now okay how many people were able to do that that's pretty good if you were able to spend 30 seconds in control of your mind that's actually amazing many people find it difficult for 30 seconds not to think of anything because they find that there are plenty of ideas that start flooding into their mind they start wondering about a lot of things what am I doing this for I feel pretty weird it's cold in this room I'm tired when can I go home and finally have something to eat did I turn off the lights in my kitchen before I left for tonight's class there are 10,000 things that easily flood into our mind and the truth is that our minds seem to have a mind of their own our minds are not that easy to control it's hard for us difficult to pay attention it's difficult to pay attention there's a Jewish custom that when we pray we're encouraged to pray in front of a wall it's brought down, it's quoted in our literature that when you pray if possible try to stand in front of a wall why might that be if you try to imagine why might there be an encouragement to pray in front of a wall so people think well maybe it'll help me concentrate maybe there won't be so many distractions there could be a lot of reasons that it makes sense to pray in front of a wall so the question is where does this custom come from is there a precedent in the Bible before a wall so the truth is there is we see a story in the Bible an amazing story where this practice originates it's in the book of Isaiah in the 38th chapter where the king at that time was Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah tells him you are going to die this is the end of your life it's over for you Hezekiah and Hezekiah accept this terrible news and so we are told in chapter 38 verse 2 that He goes to the wall He goes and stands in front of the wall and He prays Rabbi David Cohen in New York asks a very obvious question if the whole purpose of standing before a wall is to help us focus and help us concentrate and to make sure we won't get distracted this is the last person in the world that we would imagine is going to be distracted here he was just told that his life is over and he goes in desperation to go and pray I can't imagine that on the way to the wall to pray he started thinking to himself did I close the garage door on the way out did I send did I pay the bills there are all these distractions they're not going to come into his mind he is someone that's on a life and death mission he needs this artificial device of standing in front of a wall and yet that's exactly what our tradition teaches that's how powerful the forces of distraction are that's how difficult it is to pay attention that even someone like King Hezekiah who at this moment is praying for his very life he is the paradigm of how to pray he needs to be extra encouraged to black out any distractions and disturbances in the book of Exodus chapter 24 verse 12 God says to Moses come up to me on the mountain and be there come up to me on the mountain and be there that sounds like a redundancy if I was writing that my editor would say you seem to have the same thing repeated you don't need to say it two times if you're going to come up to me on the mountain you're going to be there so why does the Torah here say come up to me on the mountain and be there and the cuts Gerebi one of the great Hasidic masters says you know why go someplace and we're not really there you could be going to visit a friend in the hospital but your mind is distracted you have five or ten other things you're thinking about we so often are not fully where we are we're not fully with ourselves we're not fully with other people and so God says to Moses come up to me on the mountain and be there the Baal Shem Tov said you are where your thoughts are you are where your thoughts are the Baal Shem Tov once saw a person praying in the synagogue and after the services he went over to him and he said to him, Shalom Aleichem now normally you say Shalom Aleichem when you haven't seen someone in a long time and the fellow says what are you saying Shalom Aleichem to me for I've been here every day with you for the past three months coming to the same synagogue you're coming over to me Shalom Aleichem so the Baal Shem Tov says no, you weren't here today I know where you were you were at the business fair in Leipzig your body was here but you weren't here when you were here standing in the synagogue you were really at the business convention in Leipzig I remember years ago there was a campaign here in Toronto probably more than probably across North America it was for some kind of I think it was an airline or a travel agency but they had these beautiful scenes in the bus shelters beautiful scenes of different locations in the world like they had a beautiful picture of someone in Spain on a beach and they had this euphoric and heavenly look on their face with their eyes closed and on top of their head they had in big letters I am so there this is the person that's probably sitting here in Toronto going to work every day but this is what they really would like to be on a beach in Spain and so the Baal Shem Tov said that that's where we are we are where our thoughts are we are where our mind is one of the practices in the Torah is that there is a tax system in the times of the Bible we know that the priests and the Levites did not work they were supported by the other Jews and there were various taxes that were paid said that were three times wrong there are various taxes that were paid so there was something that was called truma which was an offering that was given to the priests it was about a 50th produce about 2% and then there was an additional 10% that was given to the Levites that was called Ma'aseer that was the 10th and then during the third and sixth years of this seven year cycle there was a sabbatical year cycle during the third and sixth years there was an additional 10% that went to the poor and then during the first, second, fourth and fifth years of this seven year cycle the individual took this second 20% and had to bring it to Jerusalem spend it in Jerusalem but there was this system of taxes and once a year when an Israelite came to Jerusalem they would actually have to declare that they paid all the taxes properly we find this in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 26 it's called the confession of the tithes the person had to declare publicly that they paid all these tithes appropriately and one of the expressions is I have not transgressed any of your commandments and I have not forgotten I have not transgressed any of your commandments and I have not forgotten and again the commentaries say this seems to be redundant if I haven't transgressed the commandments obviously I have not forgotten it so he says the same thing he says it's possible believe it or not that at the very moment we're fulfilling a commandment we've forgotten it, we're not thinking about it I find myself I hate to confess this often, maybe hopefully not too often I'm in the middle of eating something and after I've taken 5 or 10 bites of a bowl of ice cream I say to myself did I say a blessing before I had the ice cream now if I was really paying attention when I was saying the blessing before I ate the ice cream I wouldn't have forgotten about it so quickly it wouldn't have taken me 30 seconds to say did I say a blessing or not how often that happens that at the moment we're doing something noble and virtuous we're not even aware of what we're doing we're disconnected from it when I was living in Philadelphia many years ago I had given a class to my colleagues that was based upon one of the teachings in the Ethics of the Fathers in Perkayavot it's a very strange teaching it says in Perkayavot that if a person is going along the way and they're studying the Torah and they pause while they're going on the way and studying the Torah and they say oh what a beautiful tree that is what a beautiful field that is they deserve to lose their life now you read that that teaching and your ears are perked up really that sounds pretty harsh that if I am studying the Torah and I'm walking along the way and I pause to say what a beautiful tree that is I deserve to forfeit my life anyway there are very compelling ways of understanding that teaching we're not going to go into it tonight but I gave a two hour class on this teaching and I came to New York to visit my parents they were living in New Jersey but my father was working in Manhattan I'd meet him in Manhattan and then he would drive me back to New Jersey where they lived and it was a little bit of a drive so while we were driving in Manhattan I relayed to my father the essence of this class that I taught about this teaching in the Ethics of the Fathers and here I am explaining to him how inappropriate it is to stop your learning and to point out what a beautiful tree you've passed and right in the middle as I'm teaching this on the FDR drive I see out the window this incredible rainbow beautiful incredible rainbow and I say to my dad look at that amazing rainbow here in the middle of teaching how inappropriate it is to stop and point out what a beautiful tree there is I'm pointing out what a beautiful rainbow there is sometimes at the very moment we're doing something we're not even aware what we're doing years ago I went to the Chabad synagogue up in Thorn Hill and I was there and they ordered me with Hagba with picking up the Torah after the Torah was read and the fellow who called me up to do this he said you know, Rabbi Scobac the custom here in Chabad is that after we pick it up we immediately put it down on the table what we do in our synagogue is we pick up the Torah and then we walk back holding it up in the air we walk back and we sit down in a chair and then it's rolled up and then it's tied but the fellow says to me look here in Chabad we do it differently we pick it up in the air and then we immediately put it back down on the table and I thanked him for letting me know this I said I know that already I was aware of the way they do things in Chabad so what happens I pick up the Torah and immediately I go back down to sit at the seat it was quite amazing to me I said here my mind knew what to do my mind knew what to do my body didn't know what to do because my body had done it so many times so even though at that very moment I had just said three seconds earlier yes don't worry I know exactly what to do here I go and do the wrong thing anyway this is called operating on automatic pilot and what our tradition teaches us is that living without thinking and living on automatic pilot has a tremendous negative spiritual impact on our lives Isaiah the prophet Isaiah referred to this as mitzvot anashim midlumada Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13 doing things on automatic pilot doing things without thinking doing things without consciousness doing things mindlessly there is a amazing practice that we have in Judaism it's not very well known that when a person god forbid loses one of their close relatives they are not supposed to be fulfilling any positive commandments in the Torah it's an amazing story that's told about someone who was on a flight to Israel and they saw someone who looked like a very very important rabbi at least he looked like an important elderly rabbi and they were watching this person's behavior and it looked very strange the person didn't say any blessings before they ate their food when they everyone got up to pray this is a time when people were able to pray on the plane in the back this person didn't get up to join anyone and instead of studying Torah on this flight to Israel he was reading the newspaper and someone was watching him and said they can't understand how this person is behaving like that he's not acting like a spiritual Jew should act he's not saying blessings on his food he's not praying, he's not studying the Torah and the person became convinced it must be a fake, it's a fake rabbi and he said I'm sure that he's got all these followers in Israel and I'm going to tell his followers when I get off the plane I'm going to follow him and I'm going to expose him and so when they got off the plane he followed this person and the person went to the back of the plane to meet a coffin that was being brought off the plane and this this person that was a would-be informer goes oh my goodness he's escorting his relative to be buried in Israel and the Torah tells us that during the period between the death of someone and when they're buried their close relatives are called anonein it's called aninut it's a period between the death and the burial and during that time we do not do mitzvot we don't do positive mitzvot so one of the great teachers today in the world is Rabbi Yisacha friend and he reported that when one of his parents I believe his mother had passed away so before the burial he caught himself saying blessings when he was about to eat food he would eat the food and say oh I shouldn't have made the blessing I wasn't supposed to I'm an onain and he began thinking about this question why is it that an onain does not do commandments why is it that an onain does not say blessings does not pray why is that it's curious it's strange now the simple reason the simple reason is because they are involved with getting ready for the funeral they have a lot of things to attend to they're very busy that's the simple pragmatic reason that we have a principal in Judaism that a person that's engaged with one mitzvot with one commandment is freed from doing other commandments but there's more to it than that Rabbi Shmuel Arabach suggested that the reason the reason that an onain might be relieved exempted from doing commandments is to break our routine performance of them imagine you go through a whole life where every time you are about to eat an apple you set a blessing well if that's what you're doing it can become a routine you're doing it every day seven days a week four weeks a month twelve months a year and it can become a habit it can become a routine it can become something we do mindlessly on automatic pilot and so Rabbi Shmuel Arabach suggests that one of the reasons for the exemption why an onain is told not to do these commandments is to break the routine but why now why now because the Torah could have told us at another time let's say once a year don't do commandments so he says that it's at a time when we've lost a close relative that we often realize for the first time that we've taken them for granted so often we realize after someone's passed away I should have called them more often I should have spent more time with them we come to realize now that they're gone it's a famous line from Joni Mitchell that it'll always seem to go that you don't know what it's got you've got till it's gone and so he says that at this time when we've lost someone close to us and we might begin thinking about the fact that we might have taken them for granted we might not have paid enough attention to them that the Torah says at this time when you're recognizing that you've taken your close relatives for granted recognize that we take God's commandments for granted and stop and break the habit break the routine and for this short period of time don't say blessings don't pray, don't study Torah if we're going to be on a program of self-improvement of spiritual self-improvement guides, one of the great guides that we have as Jews and actually non-Jews can learn a lot from this teaching as well Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lutzato left us a treasure chest in a book called The Mesilat Yasharin The Path of the Just and it's basically a 10-step program to becoming more perfect human beings and he suggests that the first stage of the program of spiritual growth is what he refers to as Zahirut Zahirut is very difficult to translate with one word it's often translated as caution being careful as alertness as watchfulness as paying attention as being mindful it has the same root as the word Zohar the famous mystical Jewish book called the Zohar which is the book of illumination Zahirut means that we have shined the light the light has shined brightly we have a bright light shining on our actions we're seeing our actions clearly we're seeing our life clearly we're thinking about our lives we're thinking about how to live we're thinking about who we are Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living and tragically if we think about this is a hard thing to do how much of my day to day activities are really a product of my thinking when I go through the day if I'm going to go and walk over to my computer to check my email did I really think that out clearly did I really think about that or did I just get up and do it without thinking and so the question is how much of my life is a result of really using my mind how much of my day to day activities is thought out, is examined and so what Ramosh Haim Uzzato says to us is the first stage of spiritual growth is to think why am I here what is the purpose of my life what should I be doing with my life what should I be doing today and to look at every single action like that evaluate every action evaluate the plan that I'm making but to have a life that is a reflection of thinking you know studies have been done recently that show we are living in a very distracted world much more than people lived hundreds of years ago or even 10 years ago the latest studies that I've seen show that adults check their phones an average of 150 to 200 times a day they check their phone between 150 and 200 times a day young adults send on the average about 100 texts a day about 100 text messages a day when you think about if you are someone that is tethered to a phone or tethered to a computer and you think about how often we are distracted by pings and bings and buzzes calling for our attention I've got another email another person has messaged me another comment to my facebook post that I have to respond to we are overburdened with so many distractions it's almost impossible to live a life of awareness and consciousness we are basically being stalked by our blackberries and our iPhones and the Ramchal Moshe Chaim Luzathou says that this was the strategy of Pharaoh back in Egypt he says that the Jewish people in Egypt they couldn't hear the message of Moses Moses is coming to liberate them and it says that they were not able to hear the message of Moses because they were short of spirit and one of the reasons was because they were overburdened by the work of Pharaoh Pharaoh did not want them to think about their existence Pharaoh didn't want them to think about their lives he wanted them to get very busy with work too busy and that's how we find our lives today we are often too busy to even live we're just too busy unfortunately this problem is usually self-inflicted the readings that we're doing now we're reading about the 10 plagues and in Exodus chapter 9 verses 20 to 21 we read about the plague of Hale and we're told that the Egyptians were warned there's going to be a terrible plague of Hale this was the 7th of the plagues the 7th of the 10 plagues and they were told look there's going to be a horrible storm of Hale and so if you have any wisdom any kind of intelligence take your flocks and bring them inside bring them inside so they won't be destroyed by the Hale and the Torah tells us that those that feared God brought their cattle and property inside those who didn't fear God's word left them outside now that's how we translate the Hebrew into English the one that feared God those that didn't fear God but the actual Hebrew the language is the one who feared God the one who didn't fear God now it means those who feared God but the actual literal words are the one that feared God the one that didn't fear God so the Midrash asks about this the Midrash asks who was the one who feared God that was Eo of Job the one who feared God it was Billam now it's hard to imagine how Billam at this point could have been so thick this was the seventh plague Moses had been six for six already there were six plagues that Moses said were going to come and they came and now the seventh plague comes and Moses says look there's going to be a plague of Hale so if you want to be smart bring in your cattle bring in your servants and you know that Billam is going to ignore this what's amazing is that later on in the Bible we see that this was the nature of Billam this was his nature not to pay attention not to stop and think again anyone that would stop for a minute to think would have brought in their cattle why didn't Billam bring in his cattle because he's someone that went through life without ever thinking in the book of Numbers he was told that Billam was hired he was a famous soothsayer he was hired to curse the Jews he was hired by one of the kings who was terrified of the Jewish people and he knew that they couldn't destroy the Jews physically so Billam was hired to curse the Jews and Billam declined this job because God told him that the Jews cannot be cursed since they are blessed so Billam turned down the job but when the pot was sweetened and he was offered a lot of money he decided to ask God again it's like the kid who was turned down by their father and then goes to the mother so Billam asked God a second time and God says okay you can go but you can only do what I instruct you to do so you can go on this journey but you cannot do anything other than what I tell you so he gets on his trusted donkey and he heads out on this journey but suddenly his donkey stops in the middle of the road because an angel that was sent by God blocked the path of the donkey Billam gets very frustrated and he takes out his rod and he smacks the donkey strikes the donkey donkey gets up and keeps on going but again stops a second time and Billam smacks the donkey a second time and then the donkey gets up to go again and stops a third time because the angel is blocking and then Billam strikes the angel a third time and finally the donkey turns around and says to Billam what are you doing this for why are you hitting me now that would have stopped anyone in their tracks that the donkey is speaking to them but now Billam he's unfazed by this to him it's like what's the big deal my donkey is talking to me what the donkey was really saying was look don't you think there's a reason that I stopped I've been your donkey for so many years I've gone wherever you wanted me to take you I've never given you any problems before don't you think that if I'm stopping in the middle of this trip there's a reason but no Billam was not the kind of person that thought about anything in life he didn't ever stop to think to pause to reflect and so the same kind of person who would just be oblivious to the six plagues that came at the command of Moses ignored the warning for the seventh plague that's the same person who would ignore the behavior of their donkey that was unusual and maybe wonder maybe there's a reason donkeys not going and maybe even be surprised that a donkey is speaking to him because he goes and speaks right back to the donkey as if it's nothing's unusual but Havitz Chaim points out something amazing about this story of Billam he says that normally when we read the Torah if you go and open the ark over here and you take out a Torah scroll you'll see that there are spaces between stories that between books of the Torah there are spaces between chapters of the Torah there are spaces and inside each story there are often pauses and spaces you don't just find blocks of print you'll find throughout the Torah there are spaces there's white space and we're told that these white spaces between sentences are there for a purpose these pauses these white spaces are there so that we can pause and reflect on what we're studying you shouldn't just keep on reading and reading and reading and reading without spending a moment to think years ago I went to Vancouver to speak at a conference of Catholic this Catholic order this amazing group of Catholic Lutheran and they had me give a number of lectures but they said Rabbi Scoback we know you rabbis can go on forever so they said we'd like you to pause in the middle of your presentation every 10 minutes or so to allow us to soak in what you're saying to allow us to take in what you're saying and I was very floored by this I said wow I've never done that but it's so wise it's so it's inspiring and that's what they asked me to do they said please maybe every 10 or so minutes just stop for a few minutes and let us soak that was the word that they used we want to soak in what you're saying and so the Chavitz Ryan says that when we study our Torah there are empty spaces so that we can pause we can reflect we can think but the Chavitz Ryan points out that what's incredible about this story of Billim this whole chapter in the book of Numbers there's not one white empty space it's just one big block of print it's one of the only times in the entire Torah you don't find any pauses and the Chavitz Ryan says do you know why that is? because that explains who Billim was he never paused to think he never stopped he never reflected he went through life on automatic pilot the Talmud teaches us in Tractate Brachot 43b that we shouldn't take big steps when we're walking don't take big strides because they can diminish your eyesight by one five hundredth interesting teaching don't take big strides because it can diminish your eyesight by a five hundredth what is the remedy? the remedy is the wine that you can drink at Kiddish when Shabbat begins and Havdallah when the Sabbath ends how do we understand this teaching of the Talmud? Rabbi Zevleff explained that taking large steps means that you're rushing it describes someone who's rushing and a person that's rushing doesn't have time to think doesn't have time to ponder it's just racing through life we do this today we call it multitasking we do ten things at once and we learned today all the studies show that multitasking is a myth you cannot do it it's impossible to do two things well at the same time and people who convince themselves sure I can drive while I'm texting are doing something that is sick and we do many things that are less dangerous but we convince ourselves that we can do two things or three things at the same time so Rabbi Zevleff says that when the Talmud tells us don't take big strides it's saying don't rush through life and that's why he says the antidote to this is the wine we drink at Kiddish and Havdala why because Kiddish is the beginning of the Sabbath it's a time when we're supposed to notice that something is happening we're transitioning from the weak day to the holiness of the Sabbath and the Havdala is the end of the Sabbath the Havdala is a time when we're supposed to notice we're transitioning now from the Sabbath to the weak days so the antidote to rushing through life these moments when we pause and we think and we reflect Rabbi Akiva was someone who for the first 40 years of his life did not study the Torah for 40 years he was ignorant he was an ignorant shepherd he became one of the greatest Jewish sages that ever lived how did he begin studying the Torah at the age of 40 what turned him around so he tells a story that he was once by a river and he saw a rock that had a hole that was bore through the rock by the constant dripping of water in this river and he said to himself if water which is soft can do this to a stone which is hard then the Torah that's compared to fire can certainly penetrate my heart now the question is didn't many people pass by this stream didn't many people see this rock probably there were thousands of people who saw a hole in that rock what is the difference between them and Rabbi Akiva because these people may have seen the hole but never really thought about it never contemplated it never reflected on what it might mean some say by the way that the burning bush that Moses saw may not have been so much a miracle but a test because you have to carefully focus on a burning bush in a desert to notice that it's not being consumed you'll often see a brush fire in the desert because of the heat and the dryness a bush might combust a tree might catch on fire and so it's not so strange to be in a desert and see a bush on fire but Moses had to look at it very carefully to notice wait a second something strange going on here it's on fire but it's not being consumed that required that he had to look carefully he had to be attentive he had to notice he had to pay attention and because he paid attention God spoke to him so too God is always speaking to us and we can hear it if we're paying attention the cuts-girrebi once asked his students where is God and his students gave a million answers until he said God is wherever we let him in and so when we say as Jews twice a day Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonaiachad here is real here is real Hashem is our God Hashem is one what we're saying is here listen each one of us we're supposed to listen here pay attention Shema Yisrael Hashem Eloheinu listen Israel to Hashem our God when I was learning in Israel in 1979 I found a book in Jerusalem on this one verse in Deuteronomy this verse of Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonaiachad it was about 700 pages thick it's not an easy verse to understand but one of the explanations is Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu listen Israel to the Lord our God listen to God why? because Hashem is one because God is one meaning God is everything the one true existence in the world is God everything reflects godliness every single person we meet in the world reflects godliness every single thing that we see in the world reflects godliness everything we hear we're meant to hear and so what we're told in the Shema is pay attention because God is always speaking to us the question is are we listening are we listening everything that we hear can be a message from God everything that we see Shema Yisrael explains that when God said to Abraham the first message to the first Jew go to yourself from your land the first words that God speaks to Abraham go for yourself go to yourself journey in this land so the land that I will show you the Shema says that God is saying this to every single person that ever lived it's not just that God said it to Abraham God is saying to every single one of us go on a journey go to discover yourself go to who you can be what made Abraham special was that he heard he heard this so if we have ears that are attentive each of us can hear God speaking to us because God is always speaking to us if we're listening we'll hear it if we're not listening we're never going to hear it the Talmud says that every single day a voice comes out from heaven and God speaks to us and God says woe to that generation that the temple was destroyed and not rebuilt in that generation and the Baal Shem Tov wondered really there's a voice coming out from heaven every day how come people don't hear it and the Baal Shem Tov said you know what every single time a person has a ping of conscience they're hearing an echo of that voice coming out of heaven we're able to hear these messages we have to be open and attentive so what is able to bring us to awareness what is able to bring us to a life where we have more awareness and we're more conscious and we're more alive so we said last week that according to the Ramchal the first step is studying the Torah that one of the things that comes out of making it a discipline of studying Torah is that it will sensitize us to these kinds of lessons so the first stage to really getting this kind of skill and this tool is to study the Torah because Ramchal Chaim Uzzato tells us that unless we have something on our mind we will not pay attention to us to it we have nothing on our mind to be able to pay attention to it you know I mentioned last week I think that every person on the planet knows the golden rule there isn't a person on the planet that never heard love your neighbor as yourself don't do to other people what annoys you everyone knows that so the question is why isn't it being implemented why don't we live by it and one of the reasons is because we don't pay attention to other people we are very attentive to how we feel all of us are spectacularly sensitive to how we feel all of us are very sensitive to how we feel we're not very sensitive to how other people feel most other people are not on our radar screen and so the question is do we develop that kind of awareness of how other people feel that's what's important that's why it's so important to live a life of awareness because unless we're aware of other people we'll never implement the golden rule and I want to conclude tonight by sharing with you a technique I mentioned last week the technique of studying Torah and practicing Torah I want to share with you one more technique in the beginning of the book of numbers there are two unusual laws there's the law of the sota and there's the law of the nazir the sota was the woman who was suspected of adultery and the Torah required for her to go through a very very terrible ordeal a trial in the temple in order to prove her innocence and then immediately after this law of the sota the Torah describes the institution of the nazir where a person might take a vow for 30 days or even a longer period of time to not consume any wine to not cut their hair to not have any contact with the dead these are two institutions they're not easy to understand we're not going to explore the whole idea of the sota tonight it can raise a lot of hackles we're not going to explore the whole institution of nazir just that you should know these two laws exist side by side in the Bible the sota followed by the nazir and the Talmud wants to know why is one connected to the other why when you study the Torah it's always a legitimate question when you're studying the Torah to ask yourself what is the sequence all about why does one story appear after the other story does there any rhyme or reason why does one law appear right after this law with the connection so the Talmud says that the connection is that a person who sees the degradation of the sota a person who sees this woman going through this horrible ordeal what you're seeing here is a marriage that's basically threatened with extinction a terrible terrible situation it might scare someone it might put the fear of God into someone and they might say wow I'm going to take a vow of being a nazir I'm going to take a Nazirite vow now what is that all about why is it that the person who sees the sota will react by taking a Nazirite vow so our sages explain that one of the great problems in life is that we are often very moved in life we go through an experience which is transformative potentially we learn something that's potentially transformative and then it evaporates how many people go through Yom Kippur and every year we make big resolutions next year is going to be a new year I'm going to be a different person next year or a person goes through a personal tragedy it happened to me when I was 27 my car went over a cliff went over a cliff and it turned over about 15 times the car was squashed flat and I remember saying to myself it's going to be a new life for now on I'm going to take nothing for granted you know that lasted for a few days so that's so tragic that we sometimes go through incredible things in life and they evaporate the Talmud says that any person whose wisdom exceeds their deeds if your wisdom exceeds your deeds your wisdom will evaporate any person whose deeds exceed their wisdom their wisdom will be preserved what does this mean the problem is this when we go through a dramatic experience in life it makes demands on us it creates demands if I go through a Yom Kippur properly it demands that I become a different person next year if I go to a lecture that I find very inspiring the lecture creates demands I've got to be a different person if I go through a personal tragedy or some kind of a tremendous event in my life people that went through 9-11 had the same reaction after the attack on the World Train Center almost all Americans said you know what I can't be the same person next year it's going to be a different life life can't go on as usual and what happens to those people a year later they're the same exact people what's the great problem is that they had this pulling on them that I've got to be different that's their knowledge that's what's in their mind and what happens they make these big general resolutions I'm going to be a different person and at the end of the day they don't change they're not totally different so what happens is they have all this knowledge and inspiration because of practically speaking nothing's changed so what happens to all that inspiration that's challenging them you can't live with that it creates a certain inner conflict a dissonance because it's bothering me all this information is telling me I heard this lecture I've got to give up smoking I've got to change my life I've got to be here in 20 years for my kids I'm going to give up smoking you know how hard it is if you've been smoking three packs a day for years just to give up smoking just to stop cold turkey so to say after a lifetime of behaving in a certain way I'm going to be a totally different person next year it's biting off way more than we can chew and we're going to be like that person that has a lot of knowledge a lot of inspiration and has not really done anything and what happens to that knowledge so our say just say if you learn something or if you're inspired or you go through an experience don't make grandiose plans resolve to do something small take what you've learned and implement it in some small way and in that way your knowledge will not be overcrowding and drowning out your deeds these will be there and that's why the person that saw the degradation of the sota might take an oath and say I'm not going to drink wine for 30 days because it would have been so easy for this person to say what can happen to a marriage for now on I'm going to be a much more sensitive husband for now on I'm going to be a much better a much more attentive husband they're reaching for the sky they're grabbing everything they're going to change their whole life dramatically, no don't make those kind of plans the talmud says this is something small say you know what maybe the person is going to say look at the effects of what alcohol can do to relationships we know what happens unfortunately when people consume too much alcohol they do things that they're not in control they lose their temper that can certainly cause huge problems in a relationship so the person might say you know what for 30 days I'm not going to drink any wine they're taking something small they're making a step so I like to suggest the following maybe choose one of these to practice over the coming weeks how do we implement zihirut being attentive being cautious being careful being mindful being aware I'll share with you one of my pet peeves and any of you who drive in Toronto might relate to this even if you don't drive if you're a pedestrian you might relate to this I hope I'm not going to make anyone feel too uncomfortable but one of my pet peeves driving in this city are people who are going on side streets you know I don't know what the speed limit is 40 kilometers per hour 60 sometimes on the side I don't think so but whatever it is but people might be going past the 40 kilometer speed limit they might be going 60 and they charge the intersection at full speed they don't stop at the stop sign they basically go halfway into the intersection they might pause for a fraction of a section and continue on now they don't probably think about the fact that this is going to scare the hell out of anybody that's driving in the opposite direction or a pedestrian we don't know if they're going to stop come to a full stop it's a great practice it's a great practice that I recommend strongly for all of us I'm struggling to do this but I'm trying if you're driving and you're coming to a stop sign stop at the stop sign not a foot behind the stop sign not past it by a foot come to a full stop at the stop sign it says stop now there's more to it I think for all of us because we need that message in our lives that are so busy why is it that people go right past the stop sign and not coming to a full stop because we're not able to stop in our lives our lives are from the moment we get up to the moment we go to sleep we're moving and moving and moving and moving we're so busy we're so busy we're overly busy we can't stop we don't think so I want to recommend if you want a practice that you can maybe take on I strongly suggest it for you're good and for everyone else is good when you come to a stop sign slow down as you're getting to the stop sign don't charge the intersection at full speed be considerate about how other people are going to feel because pedestrians don't see you slowing down they might be afraid you're going to run them over cars come in the opposite direction they don't know you're going to stop it looks like you're not going to stop so stop at the stop sign full stop not a half a stop and then wait if you're at a traffic light what an amazing time you now have a minute you've got a minute to pause and to be mindful what can you do during that minute you know in the Talmud we have one of the oldest meditations in the world the Talmud recommends a meditation on the last chapter in the book of Psalms 50 which ends with the phrase let every soul praise you let every soul praise you the rabbi suggested thousands of years ago don't read this as soul as call but read it as let every breath thank you we take our breath for granted so wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if you stopped at a stop stop light for a minute if you stopped at some places it's more than a minute but spend 30 seconds paying attention to your breathing and saying to God thank you God for breathing me because my breath is my soul that's all I got my soul God breathe the breath of light into us one of the things we take for granted because we do it by ourselves we think about breathing it happens by itself so the Talmud is saying don't take your breath for granted pause, here's a beautiful time you've got nothing else to do in this minute that you stopped at the red light stop, pause maybe think about something else but don't pass up that opportunity it's saying stop for a reason we don't stop enough in life when you go in a round of a room is accustomed to kiss the mezuzah that is calling out to us it's supposed to be a meditative moment not to kiss it like we're on a skinner's rats where we do things like we've been hypnotized but what an amazing moment to stop for a second kiss the mezuzah or just look at it and pause and think what is the message of the mezuzah to me as I'm going out of my house it's again a moment to reflect a moment to pause it's calling out to us as a meditative moment another great practice during the day is to name that emotion we don't often do that but maybe pause during the day and say to yourself I'm feeling impatient what normally happens is we get impatient and we're not aware of the fact that we're impatient and that feeling of being impatient if we're not aware of it it can boil over into anger and then into rage so we might get a little bit impatient with someone that maybe is three seconds late for a meeting and I'm feeling that impatience so if we name that emotion and we say to ourselves you know I'm feeling impatient then we're aware of it and if we're aware of it we are conscious of it and we are less likely to let it run away by itself so this is also a very very helpful practice by a Victor Miller suggested another practice look at one person's face each day and think about how they reflect the image of God you could do it more than one person but what a wonderful thing to choose one person during the day the doorman in the building you're going into the person at the checkout counter your co-worker your child, your wife, your husband whatever it is stop and look at someone and think about the fact that this human being reflects the image of God one other suggestion stop each day and say a private prayer to yourself asking God to help you succeed in some activity once a day now if you brainstorm with yourself you can probably come up with hundreds of potential activities practices but I think that what helps us secure this incredibly important virtue of mindfulness of the hero of paying attention is not just to learn about it but to practice it in small ways and to build the muscle of paying attention