Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Daily Advice. Here we are, still in Surfside, Florida. Thank you all for being here, B'ezrat Hashem (with Hashem's help). What a beautiful community, what a beautiful kahal (community) over here. Baruch Hashem (blessed is Hashem), so accepting, so warm, so kind.
Here we are, Daily Advice for today. A personal request: we did it; we're still not picking the randoms like we do every day. We're going to pick a very important topic, I think one of the most important topics in Judaism, if you ask me—my personal opinion, dealing with many, many people. You say every morning, “You chose me, you chose me to be a Jew, you chose me in your army, you chose me to be your ambassador, you chose me to be your ambassador, you chose me, you chose me.” There are billions of people out there, billions of people out there. The fact that you chose me must mean that I'm a special guy, must mean that there's something of virtue to me, there's a quality that I might have, something that I possess, Baruch Hashem, that made it so important for you but allowed to make me part of your team. We say every day in the Korbanot (offerings), lucky. Now, ladies and gentlemen, this idea that I have to feel—I should feel lucky that I'm part of this wonderful group—is paramount to my performance in Judaism.
Why? Because I feel that I'm a lucky guy. You know, a person gets on a basketball team, okay? You chose, you work hard, diligently, you do drives, you practice; finally they're tryouts. You make it to the first cut, and then second cut, you chose on the second cut. Ah, you're a bench warmer. You're a bench warmer, you sit there, and you take the pom-poms, and you go like this, right? Boom, bye. You'll do okay. Maybe get in for two minutes. But there's a sense of pride. Why is there a sense of pride? I was chosen. I was chosen. That means there's something in me, and today maybe I'm a benchwarmer, but today or tomorrow, who knows what my destiny is on this team? That's the way a person is supposed to feel about Judaism.
Now, Borei Olam (Creator of the world), you chose me, whether I'm accomplishing a lot, accomplishing a little, accomplishing today, accomplishing tomorrow. Borei Olam is saying, “I need you on my team.” You're here, and if tomorrow you wake up and again you're still Jewish, Baruch Hashem, you have to thank Hashem for the beautiful opportunities that God gives you to represent Him. And we said this many times on this forum: every time you do a mitzvah (commandment), that's someone on the team passing you the ball, playing basketball. You're on the court. You find a guy you want to meet in the team. What happens? Nobody touches you. You don't get a ball, you don't get an opportunity to shine. That's not what happens in life, because in life every time you have an opportunity to do a mitzvah, put on tefillin (phylacteries), make challah (braided bread), hafrashat (separation), keep Shabbat, have a child, raise a kid, all of that is Borei Olam saying, “Here's the ball, go score. You are now on my team. I chose you.” Okay? And, you know, there's a warm-up session. There's a warm-up session. Everybody knows before the season starts, there's pre-game, there's practice. That's the first 12 years of a person's life. He's practicing, practicing, practicing, warming up for the game, but the moment the person turns bar, bat mitzvah (son or daughter of the commandment), you're so lucky because now you're in the game and you don't get benched, like the Gemara says, the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) is always, always there. Why? Why is the Yetzer Hara always accosting us? Why is it always attacking us? Why is it always threatening us? What's the reason? You know what the reason is? Very simple: because a defender doesn't play if there's no offense. If no one's trying to score, there's no defense. So if the Yetzer Hara right now is playing defense, that means I'm on offense, that means I have the ball in my hand. I gotta figure out how to score, I gotta figure out how to gain points for the team, how to gain points for Borei Olam, how to represent the Kadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, blessed is He) properly.
What a pride, what a pride. I walk around and keep patting my head. Why? I'm proud. It's like people walk around with the varsity jackets, walk around in varsity jackets, why? Because they're proud. That's your kippah (skullcap), that's your tzitzit (ritual fringes), that's the way to do it, that's the Tzniut (modesty). Why? I'm part of it. I am part of the greatest, greatest nation in the world, and if you're a frum Jew, you're religious, you have what to do with, put it on, that you have what to do with Judaism, then you're double, you're double lucky. That's why we say that I'm Jewish, then I'm a frum Jew, I'm a religious Jew. I'm not only a bench warmer, I'm starting five. And if we take our responsibility seriously, then maybe, just maybe, we'll make it to the hall of fame. Rabbi Zeytouneh, hope you enjoyed. Have a great day.
