Okay, everybody, welcome to Daily Advice. Wow, Baruch Hashem (Blessed is Hashem), Rabbi Morris is with us today. Baruch Hashem, we're here together. Let's see what Hashem wants us to hear today. The topic is Hit'orerut. Hit'orerut. Rabbi, what is Hit'orerut?
You have to understand. Hit'orerut, Rabbi, is every person's obligation to try to inspire himself, to awaken himself, to invigorate himself. So let's say this. Again, we go off on tangents here. He says here that it's important for a person to try to pay attention in order to invigorate, inspire, and awaken himself to Avodat Hashem (service of God).
Now, this is something that really is very, very difficult, because when you see something, it's easy to be inspired. When a person sees something, he sees his wife—like a bad example. I'm just joking. Anyway, a person sees something, and it inspires him. It's wonderful. You take a look at a baby, and the baby starts talking. That inspires you. It's beautiful. Okay? You take a look at a child who starts walking. That inspires you. You take a look at a beautiful dish. You go to a restaurant and you see it, and that inspires you. Wow! Look at the craftsmanship. Look at the chef. Look how great.
Okay? But a person is supposed to take it one step further. And that is, if you don't pay attention to something, okay, out of mind, right? We say, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Out of sight, out of mind. And it's very hard, because you don't see Borei Olam (Master of the Universe). Okay? A person doesn't see Borei Olam. And the things that we do become routine. First of all, he puts on his tzitzit (ritual fringes) every day. It's routine. He puts on his tzitzit every day. It's routine. You say, “Every day. It's routine.” You don't even think about what you're saying. Everything comes from Borei Olam. Everything comes from Hashem's speech. Everything comes from Hashem's words. “When I come, Borei Olam, I create. You create everything. I continuously create everything.” But if I don't see it, I don't think.
It's a very, very important idea that I have to actively try to find something to inspire me every day. Like I say all the time: you're driving on the Garden State Parkway, and at certain times of the season, you see beautiful trees. You see beautiful trees. You go into—I don't know if Brooklyn has trees—but you go into certain spots and you see beautiful flowers. That's Borei Olam saying, “I'm showing you these flowers. This is a bouquet of flowers from Borei Olam to you.” It's going to be gone. Okay, so a bouquet of flowers also goes away in a couple of minutes, a couple of days. The fact that you're able to see it, that's what I'm giving you: a kiss. It's going to be—look, a bouquet of flowers.
Anything that you're able to grab onto, anything you're able to extrapolate from the world, anything you're able to extract, anything that you're able to benefit from, in order to say, “You know what, Borei Olam? This is beautiful. Thank you so much.” Today, I'm going to do the Amidah (standing prayer). This is my kiss back to you. You gave me a kiss; I'm giving you a kiss back. This is my tefillin (phylacteries), my tefillin.
By the way, the rabbi says so. Rabbi Shimshon Pincus, I think I said it before, says a beautiful thing. He says like this. He says, “You're praying the Amidah, praying the Amidah, praying the Amidah. Now you say, ‘You know what? Let me pray for a person I know who's sick.’ And then you say, ‘Wait, it's not fair. Why? I'm going to have—I don't have any kavanah (focused intention). Now I'm going to come all of a sudden, I'm a big wise guy. Now I'm going to have kavanah.’” Rabbi Shimshon Pincus says, “Don't grab it.” Why? It's a flash of greatness. Now you wake up. Now this inspires you. Now there's something you need. Grab onto it. Don't say, “Oh, I didn't.” So what? You didn't. You didn't. So what? So that whole Amidah, are you going to lose? It doesn't make any sense.
But a person who pays attention, that's what it says: “Take a look. Come close and see how good a good wife is.” A person has a good wife, right? If you pay attention, you'll see all the greatnesses and all the aspects of greatness that she has. All the wonderful things, all the virtues that she has. The more you pay attention, the more, the closer you come, the more you see. Okay? The closer you come, the more you see.
Hashem has to be a Borei (Creator). You come close to Borei Olam. Come take a look at Borei Olam. Take a look. Say, “What are you saying? Borei peri ha'etz?” I know I say a beautiful thing. You might like this. If not, there's no refunds anyway. Listen to what we say. Take a fruit. Go to the refrigerator. Open up the drawer. Take a fruit. Take a peach, a nectarine. Say, “Borei peri ha'etz.” Do you know what you're saying? What does it mean, Borei peri ha'etz? Borei peri ha'etz means what? It means that Borei Olam put it in the mind of the farmer to plant the seed. He watered it. He made sure there was enough shade. He made sure there was enough sunlight. He made sure there was enough nourishment. It came out. He weeded it. He nourished it. Took care of it. Took it, gave it to the distributor. The distributor came, gave it to the wholesaler. The wholesaler came, gave it to the retailer. He made your wife, or whoever God does it, go to the grocer to pick up that nectarine.
When you put that nectarine in your mouth, that's Borei Olam saying, “This was created for you. It's not a coincidence that you're eating a random nectarine. That's not the way it works. Everything that you have that goes in your mouth, that you ingest, is Borei Olam saying, ‘I created this for you.’” You say, “Borei peri ha'etz.” Borei peri ha'etz, He created the fruit of this tree for me. This one had my name on it. So that's a tremendousness. Tremendousness. That is the Torah. Go back to the Borei Olam and you'll see, as your heart will awaken, you'll be invigorated, inspired to come close to the Master of the Universe.