מה לכל הרוחות אנחנו עושים כאן? - הרצאה באנגלית עם כתוביות בעברית HD

A number of years ago, I did a talk in New York City called the Jewish way to immortality. There was a publicity error and uh they put out there in public that Rabbi Aaron was going to do the Jewish way to immortality. Uh, needless to say, I got a very big crowd. Nobody liked my talk. But I hope you're going to like this talk because this talk is so much about you and me living on purpose. Why on earth are we here? Why on earth are we here? I don't know if you've ever had the experience, but this happens to me sometimes. Did Did you ever find yourself it's it's at the end of the day, you've

had a you you've worked hard that day. You go home and you're feeling really hungry. So, you open up the refrigerator door, right? And you start looking through the refrigerator and nah, I don't nah. Maybe maybe the tuna s maybe the last month's meatloaf. Nah. Have you ever found yourself going through the refrigerator? It's full, but nothing in there speaks to you. Nothing in there just seems to be the right fit. So, you close the door, you walk away, and then you come right back and you open the door again, right? And you go through the same painful routine. Maybe this. No, maybe. No. How?

No. And then you close the door and then you walk away and then come right back and open the door again. Do you find yourself opening the door, opening the door? multiple times like as if some little elf in the meantime put something new in there, right? Well, I want you to know if you ever had that experience where you keep going back to the refrigerator and nothing seems to be the right thing, then what I want you to know is what you're looking for is not in the refrigerator. Because what you're looking for is in the freezer. It's ice cream. Yes. Chunky monkey. Yes. Now, what you're looking

for is not a thing. What you're looking for is your soul sensing that today you worked hard, but you didn't feel that you were living on purpose. So, I want to talk about what does it mean to live on purpose? On purpose means you get up with intention to get up. But on purpose means purpose is the life source and force that gives you excitement to keep going on and on and on. So let me share with you a story from the Talmud and I'm not taking this story necessarily literally although I am going to take this story seriously. The story is about Sinai you know and this is Sinai and Doabin. I

mentioned for you that were here uh this morning that I was so foolish when I was called by the chief rabbinet of South Africa to speak at Sinai and Daba. I was so excited. I told my wife I'm going to Daba, right? I don't know where it is, but it's some exotic place in South Africa. I I probably fishing and snorkeling and there's some Sinai in Daba, right? I had no clue that this is Daba. Okay, but I want to talk about the first Sinai. The first si Moses goes into the heavenly realm and uh the this is what the Talmet says track Shabbat the angels are shocked. What is this human being doing up

here with us angels? You know, he's an old man. He's huffing and puffing. And most people don't realize that Moses had a stutter, right? They didn't have Charlton H stutter in the movie, right? Don't pay that money for a stutter, but Moses had a stutter. And he gets into the pearly gates and he probably says, "Is is this the the heaven?" And they go, "Oh man, the angels say, "Who's this guy? What's he doing here?" And so the angels turn to God and says, "What's this human being doing up here amongst the angels?" God says, "Well, no, he's not staying. He just came to get the Torah." And that

did not calm the angels at all. They say, "The Torah, the Torah, you've been holding on to the Torah for 974 generations, and you're going to give it to him? He and his people are going to desecrate your Torah." So God says to Moses, "Moses, we got a problem here. The angels do not want you to have the Torah. You will have to present your case. Why do you and your people deserve the Torah? So Moses says, "God, no. I don't I don't think I'm up to that task. I mean, if those angels just breathe on me, I'm out of here. I don't even match up to the substance of their breath." So God says, "Okay,

Moses, I'll give you a little hint, but then from there on, you're on your own. Hold on to my holy throne." So Moses says, "Okay." He holds on to the holy throne and this energy field envelops Moses and now he begins his case. He says, "Ma God says, what's in your Torah?" God says, "I am God your God who took you out of Egypt." H Moses says, "Angels, were you in Egypt? Did you suffer the cruelty, the torture hundreds of years under the regime of the Egyptians? The angels go, "No, we're we're angels. We're I mean, we live in La La Land. We're we're angels." So Moses says proudly, "But we did.

We've suffered hundreds of years of oppression and torture." So the angels go, "Wow." So then Moses says to God, "What else is in your Torah?" So God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me, no idolatry." Now I have to understand something about idolatry. A lot of people misunderstand. There's so much in Judaism against idolatry. Most people think it's some kind of theological thing that we have. We don't like people bowing down to trees and rocks. And no, it's not theology. I want you to understand that idolatry was worse than Nazism. The ancient idolatrous nations were worse than

Nazis. Why? Because idolatry is the deification of nature. When you believe that nature is God, that means anything that you feel like doing and are capable of doing naturally is good. So, so if you're a lion and you devour a lamb, don't judge him and don't even try and stop him because that would be going against God. So might makes right and the law of the jungle rules supreme. That was idolatry. Idolatry was a full ethical system whereby evil was good and good was evil. I don't know if you know this, but the the the most common practice of idolatry was orgies. Sexual promiscuity was a

major part of how they would celebrate the deification of nature. It was all about orgies. You can you can you could be sure it wasn't hard to get a minion, right? At center at center, we have a tenth man, right? Wouldn't happen, right? So, you have to understand that idolatry was incredibly seductive, perverted, corrupt, evil. So, now we go back. God says, "Don't commit idolatry." Moses turns to the angels, says, "Angels? Do you live in a seductive society, promiscuous society that's alluring you?" And the angels say, "No, we're angels. We're transcendental beings." So angels, so Moses

proudly says, "Well, we do." So the angels are going, "Wow, well, what else is in your Torah, God?" Well, it says there, "Celebrate the Shabbat." Angels, do you work? Do you need a day of rest? No, we're angels. What else does it say in your Torah? Honor your mother and your father. Moses turns to the angels. Angels, do you go to therapy? You know the story about these Jewish mothers and they're bragging over their son. And one mother says, "My son, he loves me so much. He bought me a ticket around the whole world for a year." The other one says, "Huh? You think that's love? My son, he honors

me so much. He bought me a ticket on a cruise a whole year." The other one says, "Yeah, nothing. My son, he loves me so much. Every day he meets with someone. He spends $500 just to talk about me." Angels. Angels. Moshe says, "Do you have to honor your father's?" Angels say, "No." Moses proudly says, "Well, we do." God, what else is in your Torah? Don't steal. Don't covet. Don't lie. Don't. Moses says, "Angels, this is my last point in my case. Why we deserve to get the Torah? Do you have evil inclinations? Do you have urges that go counter to godliness? Do you have jealousy amongst you? And

the angels say, "No." And Moses proudly says, "Well, we do." And the angels go, "Oh, wow. We are so impressed." Now, do you hear what's really amazing about this midrash? Basically, Moses is bragging over the fact that we're basically losers, right? We've got so much psychological baggage after hundreds of years of oppression, right? We live in societies that are constantly seducing us, right? We have issues with work and family, and we have an evil inclination, an urge that goes counter to our higher selves, constantly challenging us. And so Moses says to angels, "Angels, next time you say

man, you say that with a smile. because you don't know who you're dealing with. We're low lives. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You might be perfect angels, but you don't know who you're talking to. And the angels are so impressed. The Talmet says that they say, "Here, Moses, take this to your people." And they say to God, "Oh God, how great is your name on this planet? What is the meaning of this story?" So you know the rabbis they encode in these stories secrets and I want to share with you that secret. How would we decode this mystical story? So I would suggest that we define what an angel is and I

believe if we could define what an angel is this whole story will unravel and you will discover who you are, why you are and why you came to this planet and what's your job on earth. So listen very carefully. What is an angel? So, most people think angels are these little babyfaced wing guys and they're kind of like looking at each other like this, right? Those are guys that hang out in bars, but those are not angels. No, they're not. That's poor something. I don't know. Those are not angels. An angel is an agent. And what is an agent? An agent is someone that you give the power of attorney

to represent you. and they act on your behalf. In our tradition, you can appoint someone and they literally are like you. So for instance, if I want to get engaged to Khan, but Kala happens to be in the North Pole right now doing her degree in ICE, right? And I'm in Israel, right, learning in yeshiva, but I'm madly in love with Kana, right? And I cannot chill out. Right. I cannot wait. So I appoint my friend Yosi and I say, "Yussie, I appoint you to be my agent and you go to the North Pole and you bewed Khan on my behalf. Don't you touch her. I will kill you." Right? But you can hand in the

ring and say, "Hari Atmid, you have been betrothed and I am operating in the name of David Aaron. She would be my wife. You can appoint someone to be your agent. What are angels? Angels are divine agents. They basically do divine work. And one angel gets one job and they literally so to speak are the conduit through which God works in the world. Just like you are working through this agent. Why did Moses go to the angelic realm to get the Torah? Why did the angels not want them to have the Torah? Clearly, they have no clue what it is because Moses does the most simple thing. He just tells

them what's in it and then they realize it's totally irrelevant to them. So, why in the first place did they think it was relevant? Because you know what the Torah is? I didn't know this when I was growing up. I say there's a child's version of Judaism and then there's the adult version of Judaism, which we deserve to get. When I was a kid, what's Torah? Torah is a bunch of laws and rules that God for some reason found everything fun and made it forbidden. Right? And then told me that I get some paradise in the next world and I wasn't really so interested in that. To me, mitzvah,

commandments, we're a bunch of good things that you do. You get a little star, you collect them, you save them, you trade them in, you get some prize. That's not what a mitzvah is. Our cabalists teach us that a mitzvah is a mission. A mitzvah means that God has appointed you in his name. He's given you the power of attorney to represent the Almighty on earth and perform this act. And that's why the Torah was in the divine realm in the angelic realm because it's a mission. And the angels wondered for 974 generations, which I'm not going to explain right now, that there's some mission. There is

some amazing divine mission. And they wondered all along which one of us angels was going to merit this mission. And then who shows up? This old man, human frail being with a stutter. And they go, "No way. Who is this person? How is it possible that a human being so frail, so fraught, so filled with imperfections, how could they perform a mission on God's behalf? What could that mission be? So, what is the mission? You know what the mission is? And you know why you and I are perfect for the mission? Because the mission is to choose goodness. And to choose goodness, you have to have serious

interest in bad. Your mission is to choose love. But to choose love, you have to have a strong inclination to hate. Your mission is to choose peace. But to choose peace, you have to have a strong inclination towards war. In other words, what's perfect about you and me is that we're imperfect. And what's so good about us is we're not so good. But we can become good. We can choose to become good. And that's a mission that angels can't do. Let me put it to you this way. I have two friends. Um, one one friend, he's very kind. He's naturally kind. He's always being kind. He was kind. He is kind.

He's always will be kind. He's got a lot of money, right? Wealthy guy. And he's very, very hospitable. So, um, when he opens up the Torah and he sees there's a mitzvah of a mitzvah of hosting guests at your home, what do you think? Is he happy? Yeah. He loves He does that anyways. He would have done that whether it was written in the Torah or not. For sure. Why not? That's great. going to love it. And when he has someone at his home, did he perform the mitzvah, the commandment of hospitable, being hospitable? What do you think? Of course. But I have another friend. This friend is not

naturally kind. He's naturally stingy. Doesn't have a lot of money, so it's not easy for him to let go of it. And he doesn't have a lot to let go of anyways. He's not also such a social butterfly. He's very awkward in discussion. And then he picks up in the mission book that one of the tasks in our divine mission is to be hospitable. O he says, "Oh my, oh whoa, what am I going to do?" His little inclination says, "No, pick another one. There's 613. Go for the other. Go for an easier one." But something inside him says, "No, I want to transcend my nature and give presence to a godly nature in

the world." So let me ask you a question. Both my friends have a guest over. Both my friends demonstrate an act of kindness. Which one of my friends demonstrated a richer form of kindness? The one who is kind, was kind, always will be kind, cannot but be kind or the one who with great courage chose to overcome his inclination and chose kindness. Which one would you say is a kindness that demonstrates a richer kindness? I think we all intuit it. The second one that's amazing. This guy really chose to be kind. The other one, he's kind. But you know, robots could be kind. You could have a very

kind pet. But this is amazing. The person chooses. See, now I want to share with you a very deep secret. This is something that bothered me for many, many years until I discovered this in the writings of the capitalists. You know, God, I always had a problem with God when I was a kid. He always was good. He's always good. Always kind. always loving, always honest, always happy, totally perfect. So I wondered, well, but is God missing the possibility to express kindness through choice, through overcoming cruelty? Is God able to choose love over hate? Is God able to choose peace over war? God

doesn't have an evil inclination. God doesn't have an urge to go against himself. Well, would it mean then that God is missing this rich form of kindness, of love, of peace, of integrity? The answer is no. Because he's got you. if you're willing to perform the mission. You see, the secrets of Torah teach us that you and I are rays of aspects of a a part of God. And what part of God are you? You're the part of God that's able to choose goodness. In other words, on one hand, we would say that God is loving, was loving, and always will be loving. But within the perfection of divinity is included

the possibility of choosing love over hate, choosing peace over war, choosing integrity over deception. And that's who you and I are. And that's what Judaism is. It's a mission. Why on earth are we here? Because there's a certain kind of godly goodness that you've come in this world to choose to do. And how do you get in touch with what your mission is? Well, this is a bit challenging. It's what you're not so good at. We like to do what we're good at. This is easy for me. I do this like for me to get up in front of people and talk. I was born doing this. You know they say that the number one

fear in the United States my assume assumption is in South Africa also is public speaking. The number two fear in the United States is death. That means that if you've been asked to give a eulogy, you'd rather be in the box than give a eulogy. That's Jerry Seinfeld. I only quote Jewish sources. Rebby Jerry, right? But I I don't have that problem. Right. For me, since I'm a kid, the more people in front of me, it just flows. I I'm not afraid of public speaking at all. But I did nothing for this. I was born this way. So, this is not my mission in life. Even though you might think it is, I would

like to believe it is, but it's not my mission in life. It's something that I do for the world, and I'm happy to do it. But my real deepest mission is there's something about me, some negative trait that I need to work on. Right? Okay, I'll tell you what it is. It's snoring at night. Right? That's why my wife doesn't join me on these trips because she sits in front goes, "Yeah, yeah, he's y right." What is your mission in life? What are you most ethically spiritually challenged in? And that means that's what you're going to really be the greatest at. So there's what you do great and that you

should do for the world. But then there's what you don't do great, but we're talking ethically, spiritually. Like if for instance, you're not funny and you like to be funny. That's not funny. Forget about that's not that's not your mission to work on being funny. There's no mitzvah. There's no great spiritual reason to be funny. But if you find yourself challenged in a loose lip, you speak slanderously. That's your mission from God. So, as I mentioned before, God is good, was good, and always will be good. But does God miss the opportunity to choose good over evil? No. Because you're that

part of God. God is one. And our tradition teaches that there's really nothing but God. We all exist within him. We are all aspects of him. But what aspect of God are you? Or maybe the question is what good are you? What divine good are you? So to get in touch with what good divine are you? Just look at your yeets. Look at that inner opponent. And what is it that you're most challenged ethically and spiritually? You got issues with anger. There you go. You got something to work on. You got issues with being calm and patient. There you go. Something to work on. Right? Angels can't do that job.

Right? They live in La La Land. They're perfect beings. But what's perfect about us is we're imperfect beings with the ability to choose to become a little more perfect. That's why you're here. And that's your purpose. Just every day ask yourself what are the choices that I can make today to choose a little more love, a little more kindness, a little more peace, a little more understanding, a little more caring, a little more happiness. Thank you very much. Hi, my name is Taran. I just want to know what what would you say are the best tools to be able to make that choice to actually work on

those things that are so important. Great. The question is so how do we get the power to make that choice? The first thing is to know that you're not alone. Right? It's so good to know that I just work here and I don't own this universe. Right? And the more you reach out to God as your higher self, as our higher self is, which is what I shared in the talk before, then the more you get help, right? But the more you don't understand that you have a divine mission and you've come to this world to make a choice to speak on behalf of God to choose goodness, then that will give you the strength.

Okay? That will get you strength. When you know who you work for, then who you work for becomes more part of your consciousness and you get greater clarity and you great get greater energy. Right? So the more people have this God consciousness but again you know when we talk about God from the adult version of Judaism God is not some guy in the sky somewhere over there but rather the Cabala teaches that God is the oneself the higher universal self and that each and every one of us is a ray and an aspect of that self and therefore if my finger wants to do its mission then the more aware it is

that it's part of a hand which is part of an arm which is part of David Aaron the more it'll be able to be a full finger. To be a holy person means to realize that you're part of a greater self. And the more you're aware of that, our tradition teaches that consciousness is actually the on button to tap into that divine electricity to pour into your life and get the direction and get the power. But in the end, you got to make choices. And people don't understand. We're in a world that doesn't want to make choices. They want everybody else to make choices for them. I have a friend, not a Jewish

guy, um, and, um, not a religious guy either in his life, and he got a job as a crystal ball reader, right? He was looking through the New York Times for a job and it said, "Crystal ball reader, fortune teller, no experience necessary." So he said, "Well, that's me. I could do that." Right? So he went in there and he said, "Listen, I've never done this before." So that's fine. So just put this turbine on turban on your head and just look into the ball and tell me my future. He said, "Well, I told you I don't know how to do this." He said, "Just make it up. Just go in there." So he said,

"Okay, fine. Well, so in the future I see that tomorrow morning you're going to wake up." No, no, that's not a fortune teller, something rich, something dramatic. So my friend started doing all these crazy, you know, like you're going to you're going to meet this amazing person and the job is going to come in your life and all this. And that's great. You're going to make a fortune. That's why it's called fortuneelling, right? You make the fortune. Anyways, after a while he was doing incredibly well. People were coming in and raving about the accuracy of how he's able to see their life, right?

And finally after making a lot of money, he realized that he cannot be deceiving people anymore. And he decided this is ridiculous. I can't I have to stop doing this and he just gave up the job. This one woman who was a real client of his showed up and she says, "Where's Swami Bami Gibbiga?" Right? He says, "Well, he quit. Quit. He's in the middle of a reading. He's telling him my whole life." Right? She hired a private detector to find him because she couldn't live without him. When she finally found him, he could not convince her that he made it all up, right? Because it was all perfectly

accurate. This is just just one example. People don't want to make choices. They want to go to a palm reader. They want to go to a forehead reader. They want to go to an eyeball reader, right? Tea reader, just read my life and leave me alone for making the bold, courageous choices. I have to make a choice, a reasonable choice. an intelligent choice. I ask my friends, I get advice, but in the end, take the leap of choice. That's why we're here. Does the divine miss the benefits of making choices? No. You're it. We do know that there are consequences for our choices. Absolutely. So, on the one

hand, we know that this is our purpose to make these choices and we want to make the right choices, right? But most well often we don't make the right choices or we struggling to make the right choices and at the back of our minds we know that they're consequences for the wrong choices. So it's there's a lot of pressure and stress around that to to um discourage us. Did you notice the heat in the room got more intense as I was speaking? Yes, it's very intense. I want you to understand for there to be a real choice, there have to be real consequences. People say to me, "Well, listen, if it

says in the Torah that if you do this, you get that, that's not a choice." What are you talking about? That is a choice. I mean, there's no real consequence if I choose to pick up this cap and choose to put it down. Nothing really changed in the universe, as far as I can tell. Consequences is what makes it a choice. But this is what I want you to understand, which is very empowering. Don't worry about the consequences. Just make a choice from a place of integrity, and it's going to be all right. That's all God is asking us to do. The Torah says, "Choose life." That's all you were asked to do

is to choose life. What'll happen? That's in God's hands. What you choose is your hands. You know, in our tradition, if God prefid a person chooses to kill somebody, there's a million things that could happen. They pull the trigger, it jams. They pull the trigger, there was no bullet. They pull the trigger, the bullet flies, but it's misses. They pull the trigger, hits the guy in, you know, in his chest, but there's a metal box in his chest. I don't know what. A million things can happen. You have no control of what will happen. That's in God's hands. The greater self knows what's going to

happen. But there's an aspect of God that seeks to experience. In other words, you are a human. You are a godly being having a human experience. And what makes that human experience human is that you're willing to take the risk and make the choices. Okay? And if you make that choice from a place of integrity with a real desire to be a vehicle for something about God in the world, then it's going to be all right. And if you made the wrong choice, you know what's great? You can make another one, right? That's a beautiful story. There's a kidic story of a great master and he saw his students

playing chess. And so he said to the students, "This looks like a great game. and I would like to play this game. So the student said, "Okay, Rebby, let's we'll teach you the rules." Uh, so he starts telling the Rebi the rules and he says, "Oh, by the way, Rebby, when you make a move, you can't take it back." The Rebi says, "Oh, this is not a Jewish game. In Jewish games, you can always take the move back." Okay, that's called chuva. Okay. So, I find Judaism extremely empowering because really you're responsible for the choice and act out that choice as best as you can with your actions. But

who knows? You might make that choice and your hand just goes paralyzed and you can't sign the document. We don't know. But you made the choice in God's name. And that's what Judaism is about. Live your life for God's sake. What for God's sake? What does it mean to live God? For God's sake. Yeah, there's something you're doing for God. Well, of course, it's God doing something for himself because we're part of God. So, that we'd have to clarify a little bit more. And if you want to see a little bit more about this, then take a look at my book, either The Secret Life of God or the Godpowered

Life. But what I do want you to understand is don't allow this talk to discourage you. It's actually just the opposite. You are very powerful. But stop running away from the choices you have to make and stop pretending, well, I bought it because the salesman was so pushy or I did it because my husband or my spouse kept annoying me, right? No. Make the choice and you will live a life that is the choice life. And that's what Judaism is about. It's about choices and making choices. What'll happen? Trust God. But God is trusting you to make a choice. I saw a great great um postcard while I was

giving this class at someone's home. It says who you are is God's gift to you. Who you become is your gift to God. You've come into this world and your gift to God is choose to become great. Choose to become good. Choose to become loving. Right? And in that you are in some way expressing an aspect of God himself in the world. And that's your greatness. And so you know what? When people feel I've got so many challenges, I have so many problems. I have so many phobias. I've got such a strong inclination for such negative things. You're great. You should You're great. That's a sign of your

greatness, right? If you have so many challenges, that means you've got an amazing mission to accomplish in this world. And that means that God really believes in you because God doesn't give missions to people who can't accomplish them. So if you have a life with a lot of struggle and a lot of challenges and a lot of difficult choices then say thank God because you believe in me. You know in the morning we have a beautiful meditation I thank you God king who's alive was established you gave me back my soul great is your faith. We wake up in the morning, we don't acknowledge our faith in God.

We actually affirm our belief that God believes in us. God believes in every single one of you. And the greater your challenge is, the greater the affirmation that you've got something of incredible godly significance here to do. And I bless you to be able to do that. Thank you. Last year in Europe, yeah, there was a very big experiment. Yeah. Where the physicists said they found the God particle. Yes. Which was physically in physics called the Higs Bzon particle. Yeah. I'd like to know if you have any thoughts about that in connection with God consciousness. Yeah. The whole idea is whether

there's a uh you know some genetic relationship to God consciousness. Uh I I can't say yes. I can't say no. But I'm not uncomfortable saying yes. I think so because I believe that the mission of the Jewish people is very much connected to generating God consciousness. You know, the Torah describes the Jewish people in relationship to the world as the teachers to the world or the priests, the mitanim, a kingly a priestly nation. In other words, you know, for instance, I'm a rabbi, okay? And I'm standing here and you've come to hear me speak. Does that mean that I'm better than you? What do you

think? Because I'm a rabbi and I'm up here teaching, does that mean I'm better than you? What do you think? Well, you're wrong. I am better than you. No, I'm not better than you. It's just my job. My job is to talk about God. My job is to talk about higher consciousness. My job is to inspire you and maybe even annoy you, right? To challenge you to look at your life in a way, get rid of disempowering beliefs and embrace an understanding of yourself that will give you an incredible sense of significance that God is counting on you because you've got a divine job to do and you have a calling.

Okay? But that's our job to tell the whole world. Right. In this room there are doctors, accountants, lawyers. You're all Jewish, right? Right. There's actors, actresses, plumbers, you know, we all have a job, okay? And when I need help, you know, in my plumbing, I go to my congregant, right? And you know what? If I need therapy, and some rabbis, maybe even most rabbis, maybe all rabbis, right, need therapy, you go to a therapist, right? That's their job. Rabbi's job. Everybody's got a different job. We're not better or worse. We're just different. But there's a big difference though that

when your job is to tell the world about God and tell everybody else that you should do your job in the name of God. So if you're a plumber, then you you do your job in the name of God. Right? If you're an accountant, then you do your job name of God. My job is to en encourage you all to do your job in the name of God. So that's one of the unique things about the Jewish people is that whether you're an accountant or a doctor in your office, you have a responsibility to be a model to inspire everybody in your office to live your godly mission. My question is why does he need us to do his

mission in the world? Why does he need to give us his great great question Rob is asking the question that I'm very glad that you asked this question because this idea is easily confused. God doesn't need us because that would imply there's God and us. Right? But Judaism teaches there's nothing but God. See, most people think that Judaism teaches that there is one God. And that's not true. There is one God means there somewhere over there. And the category of gods is one God. That's not what Judaism taught. Judaism taught God is one. There is one God is not our teaching. God is one. And God

is one means that there's nothing but God. And if there's nothing but God, where does that leave you and me? Are we illusions? No. Are we God? No. Then what are we? We're aspects of God. Just like white light, within that white light is a spectrum of colors. You're a different color of that white light and I'm a different color of that white light. We're not the white light, but we're aspects of that white light. And therefore, God doesn't need us because that would imply there's God in us. There's just God. And one aspect of God is the possibility to choose goodness. And you're the

embodiment of that possibility. So you're not God and I'm not God. But with the aspect of God's perfection which includes the possibility to choose perfection. In other words, the paradox of Judaism is God while being completely perfect also includes the possibility to experience choosing to become a little more perfect. And each and every one of us is a unique aspect of that godly part. Okay? So there isn't God and you and we're separate. There's just one self, one consciousness, one perfection, but within that one perfection, one goodness, but within that one goodness is the possibility to

choose goodness, which is also the possibility to choose evil. And each and every one of us is one of those divine possibilities. And so go out there and celebrate your greatness, but you have to choose it. Thank you very much. All English lectures are available online at Brute.com