הנשמה המחפשת - הרב יהונתן אלפרן - כתוביות בעברית HD

Heat. Heat. My name is uh Yahusan Alprron and I would like to discuss the topic of a searching soul. I was once sitting on a plane going to the United States and uh sitting next to me in the economy class was a a young man. He was about 30 or so who uh had a magnificent uh iPod I think in front of him and he had a movie which he was watching at the same time. uh he was wearing the most beautiful watch. He his clothes were really very immaculate. He looked very good. And uh I could see he was an affluent, successful young man. But then I I thought to myself at one minute, why is he sitting

next to me like a sardine in the economy class? If he's really made it, he would be in business class or first class. When you come out of an airport and you're like confronted almost bombarded by every possible enticement by the shops in the uh airport lounge, it's all in the same aspect of to entice and to possibly draw in the attention to buy something which you perhaps don't even need. But because of the attraction of the propaganda, you're caught in to buy it. You think you need it. Maybe a new camera, maybe a a new pair of shoes or or something which in in the world of the consumer

market, the world of advertising in the media keeps on pushing you and driving you that perhaps you need this and you're lacking without it. Of course, in the world of media, we know that the skill of a really perfect advert is to almost convince you that how did you ever manage in life without using this perfume? How can you s survive in life without driving this type of car? If you never smoked this type of cigarette, then you really have never tasted luxury in your life. And it goes on and on and it works. Where's the proof, the evidence that it works? simply because the advertising world

is they spend so much money and uh they keep on spending money. So pumping money into advertising clearly it makes a difference and it it's successful. In this short lecture I'd like to make a suggestion. What happens when a person is caught up in this magnetic pull of the consumer market and you actually do believe that you're missing something and if I don't have this new suit or this new dress or if I don't buy this perfume, what happens when you do buy it? What happens the next day? Well, that enticement has gone and you're caught on to the next. And that's the way the consumer market

works. There's a trap. The problem is we all get caught into the trap and we have to try and stand away from the trap and avoid its cunning because clearly that's really not the success story in life because once a person gets dragged in, it's like a whirlpool. You're continually being told that you're missing something when you're really not. and they succeed in brainwashing you and you keep on searching for more and more. But every time you buy whatever the material object of desire is the next day it something else and that's where the trap is. I remember I was once sitting in a kitchen a

magnificent kitchen in far walk away in in New York and I was having a cup of tea. I remember and a woman walked into the kitchen. It was a magnificent kitchen. She stood in the kitchen and looked around and then I don't know, maybe she shouldn't have let it out, but she she cried out and said, "Why don't I have a kitchen like this? Why didn't my husband buy me?" And she went on. I don't know, maybe she thought I wasn't sitting there, but it was it was pathetic. I'm sure looking at all the other homes around in the area, she probably had a magnificent kitchen, but it was something that she

didn't have. She was obviously caught up in this whirlpool of material acquisitions. And it it was an awful comment to hear because I almost felt like turning around and say, "Lady, what's wrong with what you have?" But that's the problem in the consumer society. you get caught up and you didn't you're not aware of it until you see something else and then you want that and it moves on and on and on. I'd like to suggest an alternative way of living almost perhaps an antidote and uh a solution to this continual trap of searching for material acquisitions. The wisest of all men we're told was

King Solomon Schlamik. He wrote a book at the end of his life which is called Coylesis. In English it's called Ecclesiastes. In chapter 6 verse 7 I think he gives the answer to this enormous enticement in the materialistic society. Call amal hodom leu. Every effort which a man makes is for his mouth, for his consumption, the gamesh loim. But the soul is never full. Now why not? If he's continually feeding his mouth, of course, the commentators explained that the mouth does not mean the mouth. Literally, it means the home, the fixtures, the furnishings, the appliances, uh the clothing, the

wardrobe, whatever it is. It doesn't just mean pe who means consumption. But the problem is but why isn't it full? Surely you can fill up a wardrobe. You can fill up a home with fixtures and fittings and and furniture and and uh replica whatever you want to fill it up with. But why isn't it full? What does King Solomon mean when he says Tim that really it's never full? I think this is what he means. our constitution on a spiritual basis. Physically we know we have a body and we have a mouth and we have limbs and functions which all have to function according to the food, the exercise, the

sleep, the air, the the good life which is all a physical existence. But we have also a spiritual existence. In very broad general terms, it's called a nephesh, a v and an ashama. A nephesh means the lowest level of spiritual, which means physical activity. All actions are governed by the nephesh, which means physical actions. Higher than that, we have something called a a spirit. aim a spirit of life that gives speech and motivation. It's more ethereal. It's more aesthetic than the physical side which is clearly you can see a person swings his arms, a person walks. That's the nephesh. Higher

than that is speech and motivation. The wak and higher than that is called the nana which is the place of thought of cognizance of memory of emotions as well. It's more more aesthetic. It's the place of the nama marsh nephesh warm. And therefore we see that a person in his constitution how he's made up is not just a physical person. He also has a spiritual life as well. Meaning that if you fill yourself up with food, you'll feel satisfied physically. But that's not enough. As much as you fill yourself up with consumer items and you become satisfied. Why the hesimole? because you didn't

satisfy the other appetite. There's something called a spiritual need as well. A person must have what's called in Hebrew moi spiritual nourishment as well as physical nourishment. And it's never enough if you just concentrate on physical needs. Let me explain to you an episode that once happened to my wife and I several years ago. I live in in Jerusalem and our children were growing up and whenever we had any like used clothing or money for charity, we would go down to next to the Mir Yeshiva. There used to be a famous lady who lived there who's called who was called Esther Seagel. She lived

right next to the Mir Yeshiva in in Meim and we would take her whatever clothing we had which we didn't need or or charity money. She was known a woman who collected in clothing and gave it out to poor people and also money as well. We also knew as well her a little bit of her history, her background. She was unfortunately a widow very young and she single-handedly brought up nine children all by herself and uh a brave woman, also a righteous woman, a very famous woman in Jerusalem in her time. We went and we stood at her door and the conversation as usual went on to children and uh I think

my wife turned around and said to her, you know, it's not easy finding a good education for for children. And she turned around like almost with a nonchulant grin in Yiddish nish problem. It's not such a serious problem really. Then we said we're also in the in the period of our lives where we're marrying off our children. And she seemed to everything was glib, everything was easy. And we found it almost careless in her responses of what she was saying. And yet she was by no means a careless woman. And we couldn't understand how all these responses were just carefree and clearly a woman of a

widow, a young lady bringing up nine children and her reputation. It was clearly her answers. we were missing something of how she had managed. And then she as they I suppose let the cat out of the bag. She turned around and said to us in Yiddish vob, I have a very rich father. And there was a beautiful twinkle in her eye. And I remember when she said those words, I have a very rich father. I remember looking at my wife and said, well, lucky lady you have a rich father and everything is taken care of. And then we look back at her and the twinkle and the grin in her eye and we realize well I

also have the rich father. Here was a lady who had filled up her spiritual investments with spiritual acquisitions. I don't think she had much physically but spiritually it was quite clear she had tremendous betron which means in English security from the word batu she was sure she was confident in her trust in the almighty listening to her looking at her it was like her life was covered with a rich veneer of highly polished trust in in the Almighty. A woman who was confident with her trust in the Almighty. There wasn't much worry in her eyes, hardly any. There was very little fear and yet

she really didn't have much. She lived almost in a little hvel. How come she was so happy? What happened here in her life that she could turn around with a big smile and say, bringing up children and marrying them off and she'd done a tremendous job and each of her children were exceptional. I know I heard once about her families. How did she manage it? Her rich father had helped her. Here was a woman who had received a tremendous amount of spiritual nourishment in her life and therefore she was able to cope in quite a different way. I remember I once taught a girl in one of the seminaries in

Jerusalem and she had gone away for Shabas and came and spoke to me after the Shabas. She'd spent a Shabas with a girl. She came from a very wealthy home and she'd gone and spent a Shabas with a friend from her area who was married about 10 years or so and living in a two- room apartment in in Jerusalem I think with six children and the girl came from an extremely wealthy family the girl who where she'd gone to visit and she came back to me and this is what she told me she said I'm so angry I said why she said I went to spend Shabas with a girl who came from a an extremely wealthy home. And

I'm upset because this woman is so blissfully happy with so little. And yet I've never ever seen my mother ever as happy as this woman is. And my mother has everything. A car in the drive, appointments at the cosmetic. She has a full wardrobe. And my mother has never in her life, as far as I can remember, been as happy as this woman was who had six children in two rooms and hardly any money. yet what she came from. There's something called where the soul has to stop searching where there comes a point when a person has to recognize I suppose that in this material world of acquisitions that

the more one gets caught up in the trap it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be full what King Solomon says he means that you won't feel satisfied you'll just need for more in the words of Kazal Mishlo who someone who has 100 wants 200. But that's the materialistic society. The way we're made is that our spiritual side, our nephesh, our anal organs as such, they also need nourishment. If they get nourishment together with our physical side, then you can feel full and satiated in life. I'd like to bring you another passage from King Solomon from a different book which he wrote when he was

younger called Shia Hashirim, the book of Psalms. It describes the searching of a soul but in a different way. And this was from Puk 3 verse alf in Shashirim. I'd like to read it out in Hebrew and translate. I hope you catch the mood of what King Solomn is trying to give over here in this permanent persistent search of the Nishama. But what happens when you eventually find what you're looking for? Al- Mishkovi Balos on my bed at night. I searched Sha for he who I loved. If you know a little bit, Sh Hashim is talking. They think it's a love song. It's between a man and a woman and they each

express each other. But of course, the woman referred to here is the Jewish nation. And the bridegroom is called the Almighty. And therefore, the bride, the Jewish nation searches for the Almighty. On my bed at night, I searched for the one who I love. It means of course a teenage Jew searching for belief in the Almighty. I searched but I never found. Just because a person looks for the Almighty doesn't mean to say that you find him straight away. You must keep on going. I got up and I wandered around the city in the markets in the streets. I searched for the one who I love but I still didn't

find him. Even if you make efforts, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll find the Almighty straight away. It needs a lot of searching. It's not enough to want to find him. One has to put great effort into actually searching for him. And even if you go wandering around, many unfortunately are wandering off to India and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Burma and searching for different religions and they're searching for the meaning of life. But just because you're searching, it doesn't mean to say that you'll find the guards found me. Those who surround the city, I asked them, did did you see

the one who I'm looking for? Who are the guards referring to here? What does Kin Solomon mean? That I found people and I asked them. I would like to suggest it means movie stars. It means sports idols. It means people who capture the hearts of youth and they begin to believe in them. But they're really not nothing more than idols. They're really not real profiles of people to believe in. But their success, successful at sport, successful great movie stars or singers. I remember hearing that in one of the great yeshivas in Israel when John Lennon of the Beatles had died. So one of the uh

leaders, one of the raonim of the yeshiva explained that this is one of the shimba who has just died. He had a great impact. He and his wife on the youth. He captured their imagination. He captured their their hearts. But he wasn't by any means a god, but people believed in him. That was a trap. It wasn't the real thing. But still the search we resumes. You're looking for him, but you don't find him straight away. Kimi mayhem. I walk past all these guards. In other words, I dismiss the movie stars, the singers, the political figures, the so-called leaders, but they're not they're not the

almighty. They're people who might be have a great deal of glamour and stardom, but they're not really the heroes of life. Shai, I found the one who I loved. Eventually, after a great deal of searching for the Almighty, which every Jew, I imagine, in his teenage years and a little bit later as well, searches and searches for the Almighty. You find him. If you keep on searching, you find him. I will hold on to him. I will not let go until I brought him back to my parents' home. It means to internalize him. We learn from these verses of King Solomon that in order to find amuna and ben faith and

trust in the almighty you need to search but you don't find straight away. You can perhaps get distracted and deflected on the way and you can get caught up in something else which you think is very attractive at the time but it doesn't mean to say that it really is what you're really searching for. When I was growing up, I grew up in a city called Birmingham in England. I remember I had a friend who was an outstanding linguist. He knew, I think, five languages from his home, French and German and Spanish and Italian. And he was remarkable at languages. And I remember he was offered a

scholarship to Oxford University at the age of 18 with almost a free scholarship, everything paid for to go and study languages there. And he was an outstanding brain. We used to learn to together on Shabas afternoon. I remember after the first year he came back and he had no interest in learning anymore on Shabas afternoon. I think after the second semester he he removed his his cattle. He wasn't interested in anything to do with Jewish religion. He was completely caught up in the university union in the university life. He he searched and he found what he thought he was looking for. By the

third year he was on to drugs. I think the fourth year he had died. It was a tragedy. He was caught up in a society where they searched for I suppose what you could call materialistic highs and he was lost. He drifted and eventually lost his own life because he got caught up and dragged into a search which was not the real search. He didn't understand really what to search for in life and got caught up and lost his life as a result of it. It's a trap. Not everybody has the enormous privilege of Esther Seagel for finding the rayata of finding the rich father. But one has to persevere and keep

on trying and looking and searching for the almighty with good mentors that help you on the way and to ensure that you don't get distracted with the wrong aim and the wrong goals and the wrong idols. One of the greatest thinkers in the Jewish religion was Remo Lutato. He lived in Italy. He was later he came to Erit Israel to Israel. He died in a plague in Ako with all his family and by the age of 40 he was buried next to Rebea in Taria. He was an outstanding thinker, philosopher both of the revealed tora and the hidden aspects, the cabala, the mysteries of toyra and he once he wrote a book

called hashem the way of hashem and he there is a passage inside the book which I think is very relevant and can give a tremendous amount of enlightenment of what really the search is all about. He talks about the Jewish calendar. Let me explain first of all in the non-Jewish world what does the calendar really represent? You go through different seasons, different periods and there's periods of thanksgiving and there's periods of celebration. But in reality, whatever you celebrate in the calendar is really only historic. what happened perhaps in history if there's anything to celebrate like

Thanksgiving or Columbus's day or Lincoln's day or or the 25th of December these they're historical dates which are important in the calendar but he explains that the Jewish calendar is a cycle which you keep on going back into it let's start with the most regular and the most routine of all every six days when it comes to Shabas Everything is supposed to wind down. There are no emails. There are no iPhones. There are no newspapers. You're supposed to connect with the life with the light of the holiness of Shabas. Shabas is a day of kadusha. It begins with kdush and ends with havdala. It's 24

hours when a person is supposed to consider the enormous beauty of the world that the world has a creator. It's not a world without a a designer, a director, a manufacturer. Hashem completed the world and left the seventh day. Shabas is a day of kaduca. We call it's a unique day. A day when the searching switches from physical needs where you uplift food and you uplift dress, you dress and eat special and perhaps eat in a special room for the honor of Shabas, for the holiness of Shabas. It's a moment when the searching changes completely in dimension from a materialistic world of looking to

see what's happening in my bank account, with my shares, with my portfolio, with my business. Telephones are kept quiet. Newspapers are out of bounds. One is supposed to spend the day studying tora, talking in aspects of Torah, in prayer. It's a day of kaduca but holiness which is clearly defined in aspects of kadusha. So you receive an aspect of kaduca of holiness from the day itself. Pesak which comes in the springtime in the month of Nissen. We go again back into the redemption from Egypt. It's not a historical day when we celebrate the going out of Egypt. It is what happened. But once

again, it's called leel shimurim, a night of protection. When we once again go into the the whole aspect of enlightenment and redemption of the Jewish nation, the birth of the Jewish nation as they left Egypt and wandered into the desert following the clouds and listening to the Almighty. That's an enormous light which exists for seven days which is the holiness and the searching of the soul which it receives during these seven days. Shus is a time of the giving of the tora. It's not just a historical day of the when the Jews receive the toy. It's much more than that. Once again we receive

the tora. True we don't go to the mount si and we don't listen to the voice of the almighty. But the day is reminiscent and we receive the same ability of light of of renewal of renaissance of holiness which pumps us up together and we move on in our acquisition of spiritual gain until the next yont which is sukas. Again, we're in the suka. We don't go into the desert, but the light says the ramal says Mosha is there again and present again at each of these festivals. Similarly with Kaneka and with Purim and the fast days, it's not a historical calendar. It's a current topical awareness that

we are living in a life of holiness rather than just living a life of material acquisition. The searching changes from our bank from our employees from our needs physical. We have everything provided before Shabas and Yandov but the day has a different mindset. It's a day of kaduca. One of the most beautiful songs that we sing of shabasades. Anybody who sanctifies shabas in the correct way. Anybody who is careful from doing any aspects of work on the day his reward is very great according to what he does, how much he puts into shabas. Of course, if Shabas just becomes a a day of of eating

delicacies and getting dressed up, then you're missing out on the searching of the soul of the spiritual nourishment that a person can gain from Shabas and similarly with any of the Yamas. It's much more than that. It's a day of prayer. It's a day of studying tora. It's a day when a person gets uplifted and therefore the calendar promotes this spiritual nourishment which you collect every single week on chabas and every yus it comes around that's the nature of the searching soul if you remain in the shopping malls at the airport lounges or if you remain just enticed by materialistic

possessions and acquisitions It's extremely dull and it becomes an enormous trap because the watch is never good enough as the person next to you who has a better watch or there's another car which is even better than that. The trap and the pit is endless. Once you get caught up, you're just feeding the physical needs. But you never really get full because you're not receiving spiritual nourishment. Spiritual nourishment is the other side of our existence. Of course, you need the physical, you need the clothing, you need the food, you need the whatever it is. But that's only one side of

existence. Of course, the more a person climbs and grows and appreciates the importance of spiritual acquisitions, the physical side gets less and diminishes and the spiritual grows. But that's perhaps later. at an early stage just to recognize the need of a searching soul of what it means to have not just a physical body but also a nephesh a a different life a different existence which gets helped along every week on chabas and also from the pesakas and sukas and of course the mitzvah and the tora that we get involved in these are all what's called spiritual nourishment And therefore if one

has that together with the physical then you can feel full and satisfied and the searching soul has almost a closing appetite. You can rest and you can stop and you can be calm. In Yiddish there's an expression called buu to become calm and not always chasing after the next acquisition which just leads you onto another one. I suppose the highest level is Esther Seagel when with great nonchalance but with great confidence and great optimism she turned around and said but I have a a tattera I have a rich father the dependence and the awareness of the almighty and bringing him into one's life on

a daily basis the search in the soul begins to become abated and you become far more satisfied and appeased in life. Thank you. All English lectures are available online at heabbrut.com.