Welcome back, and thank you for coming. I hope everyone enjoyed their two-week break. Hopefully, B'ezrat Hashem, we’ll have classes through the holidays, God willing.
Today’s class is dedicated anonymously, so I don’t know what to say. I like the guy; I don’t know what else to say. Thank you for coming.
Is there a kind of person you’re jealous of? I don’t mean an actual person; I mean a kind of person. Maybe you’re jealous of a good-looking person or a thin person. Maybe you’re jealous of a smart person, or you wish you had a better memory. Is there a kind of person you wish you were a little more like?
I’ll tell you the truth. I don’t think I’m jealous of a wealthy person, a smarter person, someone with a better memory, or someone better-looking. That is what it is. But there’s one kind of person I’m a little jealous of, and I wish I had some of what they have: the kind of person who is calm, cool, and collected. You know that person? Things are happening, and they’re cool. They’re under control. I don’t mean dramatic things; that’s hard for anybody. I mean the regular, everyday things. It all gets to me. I’m the kind of person who is bothered when one little thing goes wrong. One little insult, and I’m thinking about it. One little failure, and it’s on my mind for two days. Something happens to my kids, and I’m worried and concerned about it. Sometimes I see these people who are just calm and in control, and I wish I had some of that.
Over the years, I’ve started to like myself a little more, and I’m not really jealous of that quality. But there’s always a piece of me that says there’s something wonderful about being that way. The goal today is to help every one of us have a little bit of that calm, cool, and collectedness. If you’re one of those people who is already there, you can leave now. But if you’re like me, and you get anxious and nervous, and you go up and down, and within an hour you can fluctuate ten times, I hope what we’re going to provide today will help you. It’s going to help you have a better mentality and mindset through anything that’s happening in your life. Again, I don’t mean something dramatic and catastrophic, like, God forbid, loss of life, or something very dramatic.
Let’s go to this week’s parashah. We haven’t spoken about the parashah in a few weeks. Since we’ve been away, the Jews came down to Egypt. They’ve been suffering in Egypt for 210 years. It all happened in two weeks: 210 years, and seven of the plagues have already taken place. Now we start Parashat Bo, where Hashem comes to Moshe and says, “I harden the heart of Paroh because I want to put these plagues within him.” There’s an extra word, and I have one question: Why does He put in the word eleh? He should put eleh, “these.” Why is that added? What’s unique? What is He trying to say with that extra word? It’s going to take us a little while to answer that.
During the time the Jewish people were leaving Egypt, we had ten plagues. Many of the plagues, Paroh’s advisors were able to imitate through kishuf, through witchcraft. I saw a commentary ask a question that I’m sure you’ve asked yourself at different times. All these things they talk about having back in the day, like witchcraft or shedim and demons, all these different things—why don’t we hear about any of them today? Why don’t we see any of it? If there was witchcraft then, why isn’t there witchcraft now? There was kishuf then, and some guy could bring blood or some person could bring frogs. Why can’t they do that now?
I saw a powerful and important answer in a sefer called Emet LeYaakov, by Rabbi Yaakov, that gives a very important perspective on the entire history of the world and then brings us to today. He says that every time Hashem did something, He always balanced it out, giving you the opportunity not to be a hundred percent sure that it was Him. For example, when God split the sea, He brought a wind beforehand. So, if you were standing there, you wouldn’t have been a hundred percent sure: Was this God, or was it just natural because there was a wind? When God gave the world the greatest prophet of all time, Moshe Rabbeinu, He also gave the non-Jews a prophet, Bilaam, so that you wouldn’t be a hundred percent sure: Is it God, or can even a person who doesn’t believe in God or observe anything have prophecies? So I don’t know if it’s really God or not. That’s why, at a time when we had miracles, Hashem also brought this witchcraft. If you saw the blood, you wouldn’t have been a thousand percent sure: Is this Hashem, or can witchcraft do the same thing?
That’s why, when we had a time of prophecy, they also had these concepts of demons, whatever they meant and whatever they were. It’s because Hashem was giving a balance: Do I believe in this, or do I believe in that? At no point throughout the history of the world would you ever have been able to wake up in the morning and say, “A thousand percent, I know God is here.” Hashem always made the world balanced, so that you could ask yourself, “Is it Him or is it not Him?” You have to come up with your belief in Hashem because it’s not a thousand percent clear. When we used to have voices coming out of heaven and Ruach HaKodesh (holy spirit), Hashem balanced it by making people like astrologers, who could also see some form of the future. So you’re never a hundred percent sure.
This Emet LeYaakov goes through all these points in history. He stops at the examples I just gave. I think that right now, we have the same thing. Hashem made a world where, if you look around, it’s so clear that you can see Him. If you ever look at the amount of science we know today about nature, it’s so clear that Hashem is running the world. It’s so clear what’s in a cell, what happens, what bugs do. It’s just unbelievably clear. So what did Hashem do for our generation to balance it? He created beliefs like Darwinism, the Big Bang, evolution, and whatever—all that stuff—to make you say, “Is it Hashem, or did it just happen?” I don’t mean people who try to figure out the age of the world in a way that fits with the Torah. I’m not getting into that philosophical debate. I just mean that Hashem made this world where you could see Him so clearly. Through the amount of science we’ve known over the past 200 years, you could see Him so vividly, and yet they created philosophies that could make you unsure.
Why am I telling you all this? I’m telling you because I want to show you how clearly I recently got to see Hashem’s running of this world in the most beautiful way. Through this, I’m going to answer our original question about being calm, cool, and collected.
Before winter vacation, you know how people talk: “Are you going away? Are you not going away? Are you going away? Are you going away?” Good. People asked me that question, and I gave them the most babyish answer possible. People would say, “Oh, Rabbi, you went on vacation. Are you going away?” I’d say, “Yeah, I’m going away.” Then they’d ask, “Okay, where are you going?” “I’m not telling.” That was my thing: I’m not telling. Ask anyone who asked me. When they’d ask, “Oh, where are you going?”—they really didn’t care—I’d suddenly say, “I’m not telling.” “What do you mean? Where are you going?”
The reason I kept saying “I’m not telling” was that, to be honest with you, I was a little uncomfortable. For most of my life, I never went away anywhere. Then I became a little bit of a traveler. I went to Israel sometimes, for Bar Mitzvahs (son of the commandment) and things like that. Occasionally, I went to Florida. I never did anything even close to as unique as this, so I was really uncomfortable about it. I kept just saying, “I’m not telling, I’m not telling.” Besides my family, nobody had any idea where I was going. My kids weren’t coming because they still had school, so it was just me and my wife. I’m not telling.
Long story short, some guy had gotten me access to a prize, and he said, “Rabbi, if you just pay a little, you can go to this place. I think it’s very inspiring. I really think you should go.” Next thing you know, I decided I was going. So where did I go? Africa.
Now you know why I wasn’t telling. I’m not that kind of person. I went to Africa. I went to South Africa, which I didn’t even know about. I thought South Africa was just the southern half of the continent. I didn’t realize it was a country. Anyhow, I went to a couple of the Jewish cities, like Johannesburg, and saw the Jewish community there, and Cape Town, where there’s a little Jewish community. Then I went on an African safari for a few days. It’s pretty cool, right? It really is pretty cool, by the way. It’s magical. You’re in an open Jeep. They have an area in South Africa about the size of a small country, bigger than Israel, that’s just complete wilderness. Nobody has touched it. There are just trees, grass, bushes, animals, reptiles, insects, flies, birds, all kinds of things. You go in a Jeep with your own guide, and he drives you through. You’re sitting on top of the Jeep, totally open—not just open, completely open. You could ride for an hour and just see birds and insects, an occasional scorpion or snake or whatever. Then you could see a herd of elephants or lions or whatever. So that’s what we did. I guess I just said it. I’m not telling; he’s not going to fly anymore.
To tell you the truth, it’s unbelievable to see Hashem’s creation. It’s unbelievable to see Hashem’s creation. I don’t know how to say it. Even to explain why I’m telling you this, I kept saying to myself, “Should I talk about it? Should I not talk about it?” It sounds like a cool place. I’m not so jet-setty (accustomed to luxury travel). Maybe I am jet-setty. I don’t know. Then I got back on Friday, and I was in Jersey for Shabbat. I got an Aliyah (being called up to the Torah). At the end of the Aliyah, what was it about, of all things? The Aliyah was about Makat Arov, the wild animals. The last Pasuk (verse) in the Aliyah is this. You can look it up: the last Pasuk of Aliyah 60 in Parashat Va'era: “Because of this, I raised you up, in order for you to show the world My strength, and so that you should talk about Me in all the land.” So I said, “Hashem, if I ever got a message that I am supposed to see Your strength and talk about You, I got it.” I got off in the Aliyah and said, “I have to share a little bit about what you’re able to see.”
Here’s what’s amazing about this area: It’s completely untouched. When I say completely, I mean they don’t water any grass. They don’t plant any seeds. They don’t fix any animals. If an animal has a broken leg, it stays broken. If an animal is dying, it dies. They don’t touch it at all. I’m talking about hundreds of thousands of acres that are just completely untouched by one human being.
What’s so powerful about it is how perfectly everything fits and how perfectly everything flows, from the birds to the insects to lions and leopards and giraffes. Everything just flows perfectly. You know how we’re in America right now, and Trump’s going crazy trying to put this country back together? He’s either going to make it crazy again or make it great again. He’s going to do something. He’s going out of his mind. People stopped at the airport. People in this room stopped at the airport for hours. I know. And yet, you go to a place that human beings have not touched at all, and it’s perfect. I don’t know how to describe perfect.
We had this tour guide who may have been the greatest, the best tour guide in Africa. I’m serious. There wasn’t one question we asked him that didn’t have an answer. “Oh, there’s a dik-dik (small African antelope).” “What?” “It’s some kind of deer-looking thing.” “Why does it have black lines under its eyes?” “Because it wipes them on the branches, and it marks its territory so other animals don’t take over.” “Oh, the impala. Why does it have lines on the backs of its legs?” “Because the rest of its body is kind of camouflaged in the woods, but they glow in big herds—maybe 60, 70, 100 of them at once—so they can follow each other because of the black lines on the backs of their legs.” Everything was like that. “That bird, as I tell you, helps its mating. It’s only there in this season. It changes colors.” Everything is perfect. I can’t say it better, stronger, or clearer.
We saw a leopard once. It was eating an impala on top of a tree. We were right there underneath it. I asked the tour guide, “If he wants to jump, can he jump?” He said, “Yeah, he could.” I said, “So what are we doing here?” He said, “No, no, we’re fine.” We were watching the impala. First of all, this leopard can carry this deer-like animal all the way up to the tree. But here’s what’s perfect: The leopard will eat most of the animal. Then the vultures will eat the next portion. As it starts to rot, the hyena is able to eat unhealthy meat, so the hyena will eat the remains of the animal. Then the insects will consume the final part of the animal, so that there’s nothing left and no disease can come or happen.
Hashem, You’re awesome! It’s unbelievable to watch the flow of Hashem’s world. Sitting there, over and over again, I said, “Hashem, what are You telling me? What are You telling me? What are You telling me?” I said, “You know what You’re telling me? Your world and the flow of Your world are so perfect. What am I getting nervous over? What am I getting worried about? An extra dollar here, an extra person here, missing something there. Hashem’s got it under control.” If He knows how to take that animal and make sure every piece of the forest can use it for the right amount, so that no disease remains, do You think He could take care of one sale I’m trying to make, or my kid doing a little better in school? All those things that get to me, one insult I get—His world has such a perfect flow. I can’t even describe it. I’ll tell you more examples. It has such a perfect and beautiful flow that He doesn’t need me getting nervous. There’s nothing to me if He can take care of the insect, take care of the bird, and know how to lay the eggs the right way. He can take care of whatever little thing I need.
Hashem made the world in this beautiful way, where we all have strengths and weaknesses, needs and advantages, and skills that perfectly complement each other. Out there in the middle of nowhere, I kept saying to myself, “What am I doing here? I’m in Africa right now. Africa—I didn’t know where the continent was before six months ago.” But you can see: This is how Hashem’s world has such a… Hashem makes a world where everything you need is what I’m able to provide, what the lion needs the giraffe can provide, and what the ground needs the animals and insects can provide. It’s an unbelievable thing.
Hashem made the world in a way that I can’t buy unless You sell, and I can’t sell unless You buy. I can’t talk unless someone listens, and I can’t listen unless someone talks. I can’t win unless someone loses, and I can’t lose and get the advantage of losing unless someone wins. I can’t eat unless someone serves, and I can’t serve unless someone’s going to eat. I can’t teach unless someone wants to learn, and I can’t learn unless someone wants to teach. I can’t lead unless someone wants to follow, and I can’t follow unless someone wants to lead. Hashem made the world with this perfect flow and perfect symmetry. If you understand it, believe it, and can visualize it, it makes you calm. It makes you realize that everything is under control.
I’ll give you another example. We’re going out on the first day. You go early in the morning for a few hours and at night for a few hours. We see this herd of buffalo. Buffalo are frightening animals. The guy said, “You get out of this Jeep, you’re done.” There were maybe 30 buffalo. I saw that one buffalo had a wound on its back, like a hole in its back, which was bad enough. Then there was this bird pecking away at the wound. I told the guy, “Ooh, that’s horrible. Look at it. It’s going right in the wound. Boom, boom, boom.” He said, “No, that’s beautiful.” I said, “What’s beautiful?” He said, “The bird likes the blood.” I said, “That’s worse. The bird is going in. What are you talking to me about?” He said, “No, you don’t understand. The buffalo has a wound. The bird enjoys the blood, and when it goes in to get the blood, it’s cleaning out the wound so it doesn’t become infected.” Here’s Hashem’s gorgeous world: He gives the buffalo the wound, puts the bird on its back, and the bird eats and cleans out its wound. I’m buying, you’re selling; I’m selling, you’re buying. It’s perfect.
There’s a word that captures this, a word you wouldn’t have thought had such powerful meaning. The word means that everything is from Him. The word is eleh. Eleh means “these.” These things we’re seeing in front of us all have someone orchestrating, controlling, guiding, and directing them. There’s another word that is the opposite, also not a word you would have thought was such a big deal. It means everything contrary to what we just said. The word is mi. Mi means “who?” Who’s doing this? What’s behind this? Mi—as if this is just chaos, as if I’m just looking at the world and it just evolved this way. It just happened to be this way. Eleh means you see something in all of this. Mi means, “Who is this?” There’s nothing. Every time in the Torah that it emphasizes the word mi, it’s trying to say that it’s as if there’s nothing here, and it’s just chaos, just happening by itself. Every time it emphasizes the word eleh, it emphasizes that these things are controlled by Hashem. So when it says mi and then eleh, it’s like, “Mi—who is all this?” But if it says eleh and then mi, it’s saying, “Eleh—this is; is someone here? There’s someone in control.”
This is why there’s a word you say every day whose power you may never have appreciated: Elohim. How do you spell Elohim? Eleh, mi. That means this all is somebody. There’s someone behind all of this. There’s someone creating this flow. It’s not “mi, eleh”—“Who is this?” It’s “eleh, mi.” There’s someone who is this. There’s someone orchestrating all of this. I’m not out there in a wilderness that’s just happening by itself, where every single insect is fed, every single bird is able to lay its eggs, and every single animal knows where to go. It didn’t just happen. It’s not mi; it’s eleh. It’s Hashem who’s in control. Elohim means that eleh, this all, is someone. There’s someone behind this. There’s nothing more liberating, calming, or soothing than realizing that the flow of the world around you is all under control.
When Yaakov Avinu was approaching his brother Esav, Esav asked him a question. He saw all his children, and it didn’t make sense. “You ran away from our father’s house. You were a fugitive. What is this?” He asked, “Mi, eleh? Who is this? What is this?” Yaakov’s response was, “By your mother,” he said. “These children, these eleh, mi—there’s someone behind all this. Hashem gave me these children.”
I’ll give you another example. As you drive through, you keep seeing these hills, almost like little mountains. What are they? There are hundreds of them; you keep seeing them every few feet. This is a termite mountain. What is a termite mountain? What does this mean? You know termites? There’s no worse word than “termites.” You say the word “termites,” and it’s almost as bad as Zika. Termites are the worst. You don’t know how awesome and powerful termites are. You don’t know how the whole atmosphere is living off termites.
Here’s what happens. A tree falls in the forest, right? Nothing. What happens is, the tree falls, and the termites can only work under the sand. So they cover the tree with sand, and then they go to work. There’s a mother termite about 50 feet down in the ground. She lives for literally 35 years, and she gives birth to babies. Babies—I mean, billions of babies. She’d make Lakewood crazy. Billions of babies. Billions and billions. Forget how many babies. They all just go to work.
Here’s what they do. They take this tree and start cutting it up into little pieces. They bring it all the way down to the bottom of the ground. They make air ducts for air to go down to provide for them, and for water to go down. They cut up these trees and create little ones, cut up and irrigated properly. They regularly have a farm down there. It turns into fungus, and then the termites eat the fungus. They start traveling underneath the ground to get to the next tree. They’ll travel 60, 70, 80, 90 feet. As they travel to the next tree, they go to the bathroom. What they produce from their bodies is nutrients that allow grass to grow. So the termite is literally taking care of the whole forest by bringing the tree all the way down, eating it, farming it, eating it, and going to the bathroom. It doesn’t know what it’s doing. In the meantime, it’s growing the whole Africa. It’s unbelievable. You can’t believe how perfect Hashem’s world is.
Once a year, this mother, this queen, lets out millions of termites that fly to another location and start a new camp. Another queen comes, and she keeps having different mates and whatever. It’s so perfect. When you stop and realize that there’s someone behind all of this, someone controlling all of this, the next time you get a little nervous because someone’s yelling, or because you’re not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow with a little exam, a little sale, a little conversation, one of the things with your children, or how to find a shiduch (match), remember: Hashem’s making shiduchim for billions of species out there just fine, with a perfect, perfect flow.
I’ve heard many times that Elohim has the same number, 86. Elohim is 86. It’s the same number as haTeva, the nature. But I never appreciated it. It’s also haTeva—Hashem’s nature is also 86. I never appreciated what it meant until I understood it and actually got to be in it and see that when you’re seeing what’s happening in His nature, you see Him. You see Him. Some person wants to make it sound like, “Oh, there was just a bang that happened, and everything just happened by itself.” Are you serious? Do you realize? Can you see how beautiful this is?
When you see it, the greatest thing you see is that when this tree is getting chopped up and getting ruined, quote unquote, it’s building up the future of everything. The same thing is happening to you. I read this book. I don’t care about what’s in the book. The title is great. It’s called Win at Losing: understanding that even when you’re losing, you’re winning. Even when you think you’re missing something, you’re gaining something else. This thing that’s missing, someone else is going to fill, and this thing that I can fill is filling something someone else is missing. There’s just a perfect flow. It puts you in such a calm frame of mind.
When Aharon and Moshe walked into Paroh for the first time, Paroh said, “Who is God that I should listen to Him?” What’s the word again? The key word is mi. “Who is this? What are you talking to me? I should take you out of Egypt and let you go? Who is God?” That’s why, in this week’s parashah, Hashem says, “Go in and tell them. I want to put my miracles—I want to put—I want these—I want it to be clear that there’s mi here. I want it to be clear. I want them to be able to see that I put this here.” That Paroh who asked, “What is all this? Who is all this? Where does all this come from? Why should I listen?”—I want that Paroh to hear clearly why he should listen. I want it to be as if there’s not a world of mi, eleh. It’s a world of eleh, where Hashem is here and Hashem is in control. There’s nothing more soothing or calming than understanding that and living that way.
There’s another famous use of the word: Mitzrayim. Many of you have probably heard this before. The word Mitzrayim means metzar. Metzar means limited, like boundaries held in. That’s what Mitzrayim was. It was the ultimate boundary, the ultimate limitation for the Jewish people. Metzar. But they usually stop there: metzar means it’s limiting. The end of the word has meaning too: Mem (Hebrew letter mem), Yud (Hebrew letter yud). Yud, Mem, Mitzrayim. What does that mean? What’s the limitation? When you look around and say mi, and ask, “Who is this?” If that’s how you look at life, and you say, “What is this?” it’s so limiting, frustrating, and chaotic. You look around at the world, and that’s why you have people protesting every day in this country: “What’s happening? What’s going on in my world? What’s the future? What’s the past?” If you don’t see eleh, and you don’t see God, and you don’t see Hashem creating this whole flow, then you’re in this frustrating existence where, yes, you should be nervous about whether you’re going to get a ticket on your car, what your husband says tonight, or how you’re going to find the food you need to cook. You should be nervous about all those things because it’s chaotic and hit or miss. But if you stop and see that Hashem is making this whole process happen and making this beautiful, gorgeous flow in His world, then it should make you so calm, so cool, and so collected.
That’s why there’s a Pasuk in Tehillim that I think says it best: Who is the person who’s wise? The person who can protect the eleh—the fact that Hashem can see it—and not allow things to make you doubt it. Don’t allow yourself to question it. Don’t allow yourself to challenge it. If you can protect eleh, then you’ll be able to understand the beautiful chesed, the beautiful kindness of God. You’ll be able to see the hand of Hashem in it.
Are you wondering what it’s like? Are there lions? The answer is, actually, there are lions. You drive right through the lions, and there was one time we had six lions around us, right around us. “Hi, how are you?” That was really what it was. I don’t know what to say. Again, I want to make it very clear: This was a unique thing. Someone had a prize they won that I could get for almost free—not quite free—but I just want to make it very clear. I’m not that… I kept saying, “What am I doing in South Africa?” By the way, it’s a very, very interesting place in general. The blacks, the whites—they’re all very open about it. Apartheid, Nelson Mandela, there are a lot of interesting things over there, but that’s not for today. Maybe I’ll put it in another class.
The beautiful flow of Hashem’s world is—and I think maybe that’s why, out of the ten plagues, as I counted them in my head over Shabbat, five of them are Hashem’s creatures and animals: the frogs, the locusts, the wild animals, the dead animals, and the kinim. What is that? Lice. Lice is the word I’m looking for. All five of them are Hashem’s creatures because Hashem’s creatures are Him. Hashem’s creatures are His perfection and His complete control and complete orchestration of this world. So the next time you say the word Elohim, understand what it’s trying to tell you. It’s telling you that in all this mi, there’s someone behind it. It’s not mi, Elohim; it’s Elohim, mi. There’s a Hashem who’s here.
Should I give you one last example? I’ll give you one more. We’re driving, and you have to realize these guides are very careful about everything. They really don’t want to touch anything. We had a snake cross the path one time, a really venomous black mamba. It was cool. I took a picture for my son. It was great. I don’t know—because they’ve done it so often, they really know what they’re doing and how to handle each thing. They know how to read the lion’s signals. When the lion’s getting a little uneasy, they know how to pull back a little bit. They know how to react to each thing. The elephant literally walked right by. I got splat by an elephant. They just know exactly how to react to it. It’s all totally open. There’s nothing. The guy has a gun, but he doesn’t even pick it up. He’s just doing his thing. Again, you could go for an hour and just see some different birds. Then all of a sudden you could see six giraffes, ten elephants, and twelve buffalo. It’s cool.
Anyhow, I’ll give you one example. We’re driving on the road—not a road, on this dirt—and all of a sudden the guy pulls to the side, to go around. I said, “What’s there?” He says, “There are beetles.” I said, “Okay, so you’re avoiding the beetles?” He says, “Yes.” I look down, and there are these big beetles, two beetles, rolling a ball. I said, “What is that?” He says, “It’s called a dung beetle.” I said, “What’s this?” He says, “The dung beetle…” By the way, you want to know how vast Hashem’s creation is? I said, “Do you know the name of every species of bird?” He says, “There are ten thousand species of birds in South Africa. I know every one. There are—I don’t know how many thousands in the world. I know about 60–70% of all the birds in the world.” I said, “So how about all the insects?” He starts laughing at me. He says, “Insects? There are 60,000 species of beetles in South Africa alone. You think I know?” So Amar says, “But this is the dung beetle.”
Okay, what is it? You know what the word “dung” means? What does this mean? He says, “They’re rolling a ball of dung. That’s waste from the other animals.” I’m like, “Okay, what are they doing?” He says, “Here’s how it works. Listen to Hashem’s perfect creation. They can only lay an egg, and the egg can only grow if it’s placed inside the waste of another animal. There are nutrients in that waste that the egg can take from, and then they can eventually consume that waste.” He says, “So what are you saying?” I said, “In other words, these beetles are cleaning up the whole floor.” He says, “Yes. Hashem made a private vacuum cleaner machine on the floor of the safari that’s cleaning up all the waste.” Imagine the waste from elephants. There’s a lot of waste from some of these animals, and it’s just being constantly cleaned.
But it goes a step further. He says, “In Australia once, they were having a problem. They had way too many flies because there was way too much waste. So they figured they had a great idea: Let’s import millions of dung beetles, and they’ll come and vacuum the floor, right? So they brought millions of dung beetles on a plane or something, and transported them to Australia. Within two weeks, all the dung beetles were dead. What happened? What they realized is that, as these beetles are rolling the dung, their bodies get dirty, right? Their joints get dirty. Listen to Hashem here now. Inside their joints, they have mites. Mites are these little, teeny, minuscule insects that clean the beetle’s joints so it can function and roll and do its thing. When they went to Australia, they didn’t have mites. Because they didn’t have the mites, the beetles were rolling the waste, and after a little while they got dirty. They got dirty, froze in place, and died.”
So Hashem put mites on the joints of a beetle so the beetle would roll the waste, so they could lay their eggs, so they could then consume that waste, so they could clean the jungle. And you’re worried that your house is a little messy tonight? You’re worried, “Oh, there are a couple of toys out”? Hashem has this world in a perfect flow. What you have, I’m missing. What you’re missing, I have. That’s the way Hashem made the world. I can’t buy unless you’re willing to sell, and I can’t sell unless someone’s there to buy. I can’t eat unless someone serves, and I can’t serve unless someone eats. I can’t lead unless someone follows, and I can’t follow unless someone else is willing to lead. I can’t teach unless you’re willing to learn, and I can’t learn unless you’re willing to teach. I can’t grow unless someone wants to guide me. I can’t talk if no one wants to listen, and I can’t listen if no one wants to talk. I can’t win if no one loses, and I can’t lose if no one’s going to win. Hashem’s world has a perfect symmetry.
I hope that now, when you go outside and find the little challenges in your life, you’ll look up at a bird, look down at the grass, look at a tree, look at Hashem’s gorgeous world, and realize that if He could create a perfect flow for a termite, a beetle, a bird, a buffalo, a leopard, and a hyena, He can make a perfect flow for me. If He can, nothing else should make me feel more in control than realizing that Elohim is running this world. If God’s running this world, my job and responsibility is to become cool and collected. Thank you.