Hanukah

Thank you all for coming. I know it’s the middle of Chanukah, and it’s hard for some people. I think even a couple of schools are off today, so thank you all for being here. Today we’re not going to speak so much about Chanukah. We covered it more last week. This week’s class is going to be about how to get lucky.

Now, obviously, there’s no such thing as saying, “Oh, this is an automatic way to get lucky.” But I do think people don’t understand this concept well enough. Last night we had a little family Chanukah party, just my wife and my kids. We were playing a dreidel game or something, and one of my daughters wasn’t doing so well. Her name is Mazal, so she said, “Dad, you have to change my name.” I said, “What’s wrong? Your name is a cute name. What’s wrong with Mazal?” She said, “No, I like the name.” I said, “So what do you want?” She said, “I want it to be Mazal Tov. Because then I’ll win a game like this.” So far, we haven’t done that yet.

What I mean is that many people go through life thinking that some people just get lucky. Some people get breaks. Some people get lucky opportunities more than others do. Maybe they know the right people. Maybe they just wake up on the right side of the bed. Some people get lucky.

I want to talk about a person who, I don’t think, has a greater example of someone who got lucky than he does. We’ll use him as a role model to understand how to get lucky. This week’s parasha, Parashat Miketz, discusses the story of Yosef. Yosef was discarded by his brothers last week. All his brothers agreed to sell him and get rid of him. He was sold from Midyanim to Yishmaelim to whatever. Then he ended up in the house of Potiphar, one of the governors or leaders of Egypt. Within a short time, he was falsely accused of something involving the man’s wife. He was thrown into jail. Some say he was in jail for ten years. Either way, the whole ordeal was a good ten years. He was in a dungeon, in a cell, and now he’s standing before the king. After speaking for eleven sentences, he becomes the second most powerful man in the world.

That, to me, is a lucky moment. Basically, it doesn’t get lower than where you are. You’re underneath the underneath. You have no family that cares about you. You have no people that care about you. You’re in a cell, in a dungeon, and now, all of a sudden, you’re maybe the most important person on the planet. In eleven sentences. The king has a dream. Your guys had a dream. They tell the king, “You can interpret the dream.” You stand in front of the king, say a few smart things, and bang, you’re the leader of the world.

That seems lucky to me. If you think it’s lucky, then you’re not really understanding the story. We’re going to try to look again at the story of Yosef, see how it happened, and understand in a very practical sense how people get to be lucky. We’re going to try to provide three steps.

Number one is when Yosef gives his advice. He interprets the dreams. You’re familiar with the dreams: seven skinny cows, seven fat cows, the stalks, and they eat each other. He interprets the dreams to mean that there will be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Paroah loves his interpretation. Then Yosef takes the liberty of starting to give some advice. He says, “You need someone to run this, manage this, and organize the country. Divide it into sections, and each section will answer to an individual person who will save the wheat from the years of plenty to use during the years of famine.” Paroah says, “I never met a man as intelligent as you, and you’re the guy.”

But when Yosef gives his advice, he says, “Choose a man who is smart.” Why is he asking for a man who’s smart, of all things? If I were giving that advice, I would say, “Choose someone who’s organized. Choose someone who has things in order.” Why is being smart—being a Chacham—such a key component for this position?

This will hopefully give us the first step for someone who’s lucky. You might say, “Lucky enough to find the right husband, lucky enough to find the right business opportunity, lucky enough to make money”—all those things you think of as lucky. Number one is knowing the first step: the ability and the time to invest in building your foundation. People need to know how to build a foundation.

What impressed Paroah, and what Yosef was trying to say about the wisdom required, is that during those seven years of plenty, most people would just grab the wheat and eat it now. You need a smart person who knows and understands what seven years of famine looks like. He knows that, yes, right now, in 2012, it’s great, but in 2019 the day is coming. Rabbis tell us that a wise person is someone who can see it—or someone who sees the future. If you have that wisdom, then you’re able to hold back.

Someone needs the ability and the time to build a foundation. Most people don’t think like this. Most people think, “What am I going to do right now that’s going to give me results today, maybe tomorrow?” They don’t appreciate that, in order to have, or to be, or to marry, or to get whatever those moments are that you’re waiting for, you have to build a foundation first, so you’re ready for that moment.

Let me try to give you an example of where I sense this. This isn’t the subject of the class, but it’s a good example. Since I’m involved in a high school, I’ll very often talk to kids or parents about going to Israel for one year after high school. A very common response from a lot of people is, “I don’t want to waste a year.” Or parents will say, “I don’t want my son to waste a year, because he has to come back and then go to college, and by the time he’s done, I don’t want him to have wasted a year.” Has anyone here ever heard this complaint? “Yes, I do want to go to Israel.” Okay, good. Some rabbi told her Friday morning. Some rabbi told her Friday morning, and she’s already in. Okay, good. Has anyone here thought this way? Don’t raise your hand. Good.

Here’s my reaction to that. Again, I’m not telling you whether you should or shouldn’t go. This isn’t a class about that. It’s a different class. I think you should, but that’s not the subject of this class. The point is the mindset. You’re right: if you’re trying to figure out the fastest route to a dollar, then going to Israel will delay that route. But if you want to be able to have a son who’s strong, smart, and independent, who knows how to think, understands how to learn, can study Torah, and could be a better husband and a better father—all those things that build a foundation—you’re crazy if you think that’s wasting a year. Again, if you’re trying to get to a dollar by the fastest route, then yes, it’s wasting time. But if you want to know about building a foundation, and about people who look successful 10 or 15 or 20 years later, it’s not people who just had a lucky moment. It’s people who know how to build, and build, and build, so they’re ready for that moment.

The greatest example is Yosef. Let me explain. People think Yosef was just thrown into jail, falsely accused, and all that. They don’t understand that Yosef’s luck wasn’t standing in front of Pharaoh. Yosef’s luck—do you know when his first lucky moment was? When he was sold by his brothers. His second lucky moment was when he was stuck working in a governor’s house. His next lucky moment was when he was falsely accused and thrown into jail. Those were his lucky moments.

I’ll tell you why. When he was sold from his brothers’ house, he learned independence. When he was in Potiphar’s house, he was able to rise up and rise up until he was controlling the whole estate. In other words, he was preparing to be second in command. When he was thrown into jail, the same thing happened. He rose up until he was controlling the whole cell and all the jails, preparing himself to be second in command. By the time he stood in front of Pharaoh, he didn’t just happen to know what to say. He had ten years of experience. He had built the foundation to be ready for that moment. It didn’t come out of the blue. It came out of years and years and years of building a foundation. Maybe he wasn’t making money in jail, or maybe he didn’t look like the kind of person who would be, but slowly and surely he was building a foundation that made him perfectly appropriate for that spot. It wasn’t just luck.

I’ll give you another very practical example. Everyone here is familiar with computers. What’s the first name that comes to your mind as the most successful in the history of computers? Apple. Have you ever heard of Bill Gates? That’s a good example, too. Everyone knows the story of Bill Gates. He dropped out of Harvard after a couple of years with a couple of friends, opened a computer company, and became Bill Gates, the wealthiest person in the world. That’s the story. You have no clue what the real story is.

Let me tell you the real story of Bill Gates. In the 1960s, he was in a public school and was too smart for his school. His parents had a little bit of money, so they said, “You know, we’re going to send him to private school.” In seventh grade, he transferred to Lakeside Private School in, you know, Washington, Seattle. At Lakeside, it happened to have a computer club. One year, the PTA raised money and had an extra $3,000. They weren’t sure what to do with it; sometimes they’d give it to teachers, and so on. That year they decided, “We’ll give it to the computer club.” They brought in a nice computer, and the club was able to work on the computers.

When he was in eighth grade, one of the mothers of the kids in the computer club got access to a computer, some computer they used at the University of Washington. Bill Gates and his friends would go to the university all the time. They had all kinds of access at someplace called C-Cubed. I don’t know what it meant, but it was like a computer area in the university. They were able to log hours and hours. Over the course of about seven months, they logged 1,500 hours. They would go 25 or 30 hours a week all the time.

They went to high school, and C-Cubed closed down. There was another thing that opened up at the University of Washington, something called ISI. They went there, had access, and started using the computers. This was in the 1960s. No one had a computer in 1960. Right? Okay? Then he was in this club that won the—Then they closed C-Cubed, and they weren’t allowed in. Bill and his friend Paul Allen knew that the computers at the university were being used practically around the clock, except from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. So Bill would wake up every night when he was in high school at about 2:30 in the morning and walk to the university. They had some way to pick the lock. He would get in, and he and his friend would sit there for three hours. At 6 o’clock, he’d go back and get into bed. Years later, his mother said, “I never knew why I always had a hard time waking up in the morning.” He was up in the middle of the night.

When he was graduating high school, someone came along. There was a local power plant that needed someone to create a computer program. They called somebody, who said, “I know the boys from that club in Lakeside.” So he called those boys. They created a program, and they kept going. When he was at Harvard, he had logged more computer hours than practically anybody in the world. In the 1960s and early 1970s, nobody had access to a computer. Barely any colleges had computer clubs, and definitely no elementary schools did. He had spent hours and hours. He said, “I probably spent more hours on the computer than maybe anybody alive.” So when he dropped out of Harvard, it wasn’t just a lucky moment. He had built a foundation that made him ready for that moment.

The same thing is true about any area of your life. You don’t just get lucky and find the right guy. You don’t just get lucky and find a good job. You don’t just get lucky and end up in a good position. You build a foundation underneath the ground, without a lot of fanfare, without a lot of recognition, and maybe without being paid the way you should be, until you get to that moment. The first step toward being a lucky person is building a foundation. It’s worth spending the time on building that foundation for your children and for yourself. Let them understand that they don’t need results tomorrow. They don’t even need results five years from now. The results could come 15 years from now. But they have to be willing to do it.

Yosef HaTzadik (the righteous) was building and building and building and building. When he got there, he didn’t just happen to show up and stand in front of the king and happen to know what to say. He knew what to say because he’d been doing things like this for ten years. The truth is, I thought about it last night: Hashem set him up perfectly. First He put him in the house of Potiphar, one of the wealthiest men in the country. Then He put him in a jail, one of the poorest spots in the country. What was Yosef going to have to run? Seven years of plenty, and then seven years of famine. So he was prepared for the plenty in the house of Potiphar, and he was prepared for the famine in the jail. Hashem had prepared him and built his foundation so that he was totally ready for that moment.

The next step, step two. I have no idea what time it is or where we are. It’s fine. Maybe that’s what Hashem knows already. I’m going to say something inappropriate. That’s why He didn’t set me up here for this. Did I say anything wrong yet? Am I okay so far? All right, I got it. Thank you.

Here’s the next thing I think people need in order to, like I said, get lucky. This is the type of thing I would try to grow in myself and hope my children have. It’s what you need in order to reach those lucky moments, as you said. And that is simple intelligence. I mean both words: simple intelligence.

When Paroah finally chooses Yosef, I was trying to look for the pasuk (verse) before, and I wasn’t finding it. It’s here. Paroah tells Yosef that he needs a person who is Navon. Yosef tells Paroah, “Excuse me, I need a person who is Navon.” He says Navon and Chacham. What’s the difference? What does Navon mean? What does Chacham mean? Navon means someone who understands, and Chacham means someone who has knowledge.

What’s strange about this is that almost any other time in the Torah, when it talks about knowledge and wisdom, it says Chacham and Navon. This time it says it backward: Navon and Chacham. Why is that? The answer is that for most people, it first starts with Chochmah, amassing knowledge. Then comes Navon, understanding and better understanding. For Paroah, what he needed right now was someone who was a Navon. That was the most important thing: someone who understands, someone who’s paying attention, someone who’s thinking. What he saw in Yosef was a person who understands people, understands how to manage, understands how to lead, and understands.

If I were running a college, which I’m never going to, I would have a course. Tell me if you agree with this: I think it would be the most important course in the college, but I don’t think any college has this course. It would be called “Understanding People.” It would be all about people: what makes them think, what makes them tick, what inspires them, what motivates them, what they like, and what they don’t like. I think that if you excelled in this course and knew it, you could do anything. You could communicate with people, motivate them, sell to them, buy from them, lead them, manage them, and do whatever you want, if you understand people.

Understanding is a very, very important thing. There are a lot of smart people who don’t have this. In fact, I saw this. I just checked it out. There’s something titled—how do I say this right? You know, rationale, the rationale. There’s something called disrationalia. Do you know what that means? It means the opposite of rationale. It means that people don’t really understand. They don’t understand normal, simple rationale. They could be very smart, but they don’t react or work with normal, simple rationale.

I’ll give you an example. This isn’t a great life example, but it’s a good one. If I asked you a question, you’d have to pick one red bean from a bowl. I have one bowl with nine white beans and one red bean. I have another bowl with 92 white beans and eight red beans. Which bowl would you choose? The one with the red? Again: one has nine, and the other has 92 and eight. You need to pick the red. Which one would you choose? Give me an answer. What? The one with the one? The one with the eight? Eight. One. Eight. How many people say eight? How many people say one? Okay. How many said eight?

Listen, I just want to tell you something. They did this test, and a lot of people—a lot, a lot of people—said the one with the eight. You realize it makes no sense to choose the one with the eight, because the one with eight is only eight percent. The one with one is ten percent. Right or wrong? I’m telling you, there are a lot of people who don’t lead life with simple intelligence.

I want to explain again what I mean here and, hopefully, make it very practical. What? That’s what makes us dumb. That’s my point. When Yosef came, everyone should convince each other about who is right, and then let’s go. Yosef interpreted these dreams, and he really wasn’t the first one to interpret them. Other people tried to interpret the dream. One person said the seven fat cows meant you were going to have seven daughters, and the seven skinny cows meant the seven daughters were going to die. That was one interpretation. Another interpretation was that you were going to conquer seven countries.

So the Malbim says, what was unique about Yosef’s interpretation that Paroah liked it? He says there were three things. Number one, Yosef understood that both dreams were really one message. Number two, Yosef understood that if this dream was going to the leader of a country, it was about his whole country. It wasn’t just about him. Number three, Yosef’s answer was the simplest. His answer fit best. Fat cows and big wheat meant plenty, and skinny cows and skinny wheat meant famine. It was simple.

The truth is, successful people are people who take life simply. I’ve read a ton of those books about leadership and success and all that stuff. I want to tell you something: almost all the books are about basic concepts. Work hard. Be proactive. Don’t be lazy. Take advice. They all say that; maybe each has a twist. But to lead life successfully is to lead life simply. Yosef saw the dream and said, “This is the simplest understanding.” It’s fat; it’s famine. Fat cows don’t mean daughters, I hope. It’s a simple understanding of what it can be.

You know what we do to kids? Lately, we basically scare the living daylights out of them. That’s what every parent does, every school does. It’s all we do. “You know how hard this world is. You know how hard it is to have a successful marriage. You know how hard it is to be successful in business. Do you understand the economy isn’t the way it used to be? Daddy’s business is falling apart. You have to go to college, and then you have to go…” I heard someone recently give a statistic that only 40% of kids who go to college graduate. Of those 40% who graduate, only half get a job. So, in other words, you have a 20% chance of being alive ten years from now. I’m serious. They really, really freak kids out. That’s what every parent does. We do it all the time. It’s so not true. It’s so not true.

Life isn’t that scary. If you lead it simply, you’re going to be okay. That means if you have intelligence, make smart decisions, take the right advice on your decisions, proceed, work hard, and try, and don’t get distracted by crazy things, bad friends, drugs, or this or that, or different things that distract you, and you really work hard, there’s a very, very, very, very good chance that you’ll be okay. A successful life belongs to somebody you know who’s just thinking straight and thinking simply.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the most intelligent people are so messed up because they overthink? It’s simple. There are simple concepts that a good life is built on, and if you stay on that road, there’s not a 20% chance that your life will be healthy and normal and okay. It might be a 20% chance that you’re a billionaire, but there’s a much better chance than that that your life will be healthy and normal and okay. It’s not as scary as they make it sound. You have to work hard. You have to do the simple foundational things that build a person.

My first step toward getting lucky is being willing to spend time on your foundation. My second step in how to get lucky is to live life simply and with intelligence. I recently read one of these books that said President Roosevelt maybe had his best advisor in a man named Harry Hopkins. Has anybody heard of Harry Hopkins? No, I never did either. Supposedly, this fellow got sick during World War II. He got so sick that he needed a room in the White House to live in. He was one of the advisors and lived in the White House for about three years. Because he got pretty sick, he was only able to come to work a few hours a day, or even a few hours every other day. He wasn’t really able to come in much. They said that during that time he was the most effective advisor in the White House.

In fact, Churchill used to call him “Lord Heart of the Matter.” He was always able to get to the heart of the matter. Do you know why? Because he got rid of all the clutter, overthinking, and nonsense that got into people’s heads. He only had a little bit of time. So when you had only a little bit of time, you came to the real issue, thought about what made sense, gave advice on it, and moved forward. It’s not so complicated.

I saw something else recently. It said, “If two people could dig a hole that was ten feet deep, how deep would the hole be if four people dug it?” No, how deep? It’s not a trick question. How deep? If two people can dig a hole that’s ten feet deep, how deep can four people dig it? The answer in third grade is twenty. But the answer today, if you want to know the real-world answer, is that they probably can’t even do five. Do you know what happens? One guy says, “Okay, you take the shovel. Now I’m going to get this part. Now I’ll take that. Now let’s go from this side. Now let’s have a meeting about whether we should go from that side.” By the time the day is over, you haven’t even started yet.

I’m telling you, there are people with simple intelligence. All these Chartumim (Egyptian magicians) and wise men in Egypt had different thoughts about what the dreams were about. Yosef was the right one, and he was also the simplest one.

This is one thing I know a little bit about, one thing I feel, because I remember feeling scared. I got married pretty young, and I remember going into my in-laws’ extended family. They’re a beautiful family, and they’re pretty—what’s the right word? Baruch Hashem, they’re good. Everyone seems okay; they’re great. So I would go there, and I was a kid, and they would ask me, “What are you doing?” or “What’s your plan?” I was in kollel (Torah study program), and they’d ask, “What are you going to do in the future?” I had no idea. I would try to give them answers. My father’s a rabbi; I may or may not be a rabbi. I had no clue. I really had no clue.

I remember the feeling inside: here are people who are older, who know what they’re doing, who know about life, who are grounded, who know what they’re talking about, and I have no idea what’s going to happen next week. And you know what? It’s okay. It’s okay, because if your values are strong and your foundation is strong, you can be okay.

The same thing is true: send that message to every one of your children. If they’re strong, building their foundation, thinking people, trying to do the right thing, and on the right path, they may not figure this out, but they’ll figure that out. If they don’t figure that out, they’ll figure this out, if they’re on the right road. The challenge is that a lot of people find a way to get off that road. It might be drugs, a bad girl they marry, crazy advice, crazy friends, or doing something else. Simple intelligence will get you to that moment.

I’ll tell you the truth. If I stopped the class right now, before I got to my third and most important step, I would be an apikores. I mean it. An apikores is a person who doesn’t believe in God. The first two steps made it all sound like if you build your foundation and you’re a smart person, you’re good. You’re nowhere without the third step. The third step is realizing—and again, it’s carefully worded—having the patience to realize it’s in God’s hands. The patience to realize that it’s not you. Now, that’s not easy.

I want to tell you something else about Yosef. I told you he was in jail. It’s not clear where he was or for how long, but between the whole thing, he was there for about 11 years. Or ten years, 11 years. Yosef could have shortcut the whole issue. Do you know how he could have gone straight to a pretty high position? When Potiphar’s wife wanted him to do what she wanted him to do, if he had followed along, he would have had a shortcut right to the top. Boom. He would have had this powerful woman in the country, and he would have been pretty well off.

But Yosef said no. Yosef had the patience to know that Hashem is controlling this world. If it’s not right right now, Hashem will send it to me when it is. I don’t have to jump the gun. I don’t have to overstep. I don’t have to jump in before I’m supposed to. Hashem will send it when He wants to send it to me. If I’m doing the first two steps, He’ll send me the third step.

I’m going to give you a real-life example, and then a few nice—Let me give you, Rabbi Yaakov, let me first give you the thought, then I’ll give you the life example. Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky explains how Yosef approached this whole thing. He says, “You know, it’s interesting that in our religion we have two times, or two candles, that we’re obligated to light. What are the two candles we’re obligated to light?” Shabbat and Chanukah. Very good guess. If you couldn’t guess it this week, right? Okay, Shabbat and Chanukah. But what’s interesting about those sets of candles is that they’re almost exactly the opposite.

What it means is that Shabbat candles are made for Shalom Bayit, for your home to be easy to work in. Shabbat candles are made to use. If you’re not getting use from them, there’s a problem. The whole point of the Shabbat candles is that you’re at least eating near them, or sleeping, doing something near those candles, because you’re required to benefit from them. The Chanukah candles are exactly the opposite. You’re not allowed to benefit from the Chanukah candles. If you get any sort of benefit from them, even studying Torah near the candles, it’s a problem.

So the Shabbat candles are all about you, and the Chanukah candles are not about you at all. Which one is greater? If you had money for only one, which would you get? Shabbat. Shabbat candles is the right answer. Why? Because the Chanukah candles send a message of only holiness. The Shabbat candles send a message of the combination of the two: holiness working its way into my life, that Kedushah of Hashem’s holy Shabbat being a part of me, being a part of what I do. So those candles are greater than the Chanukah candles. He said that’s—Havdalah (separation between holy and ordinary) is another conversation. I’m not going to get into it.

He says that’s what Yosef was about. Yosef understood this, and that’s why the minute he stood before Paroah and Paroah said, “I heard all about you. You’re this unbelievable person. You interpret dreams. Maybe you could…” the first thing Yosef said was, “It’s not me. God is going to answer your dreams.”

I want to give you another example of where I felt it. This isn’t a great story. It’s not an inspiring story. It’s actually almost a weird story. But to me, it sent this message very clearly.

Last Thursday night I came home. Long story short, some plumber was in my house, and somehow it cost $500 to fix a broken toilet. I have no idea how. Don’t ask how I reacted. It was about 9 o’clock last Thursday night, and I needed a Rabbi Joey Haber class, you know what I’m saying, to get my—But I was—I couldn’t believe it. I called the guy up. I flipped out. I said, “You know what, Hashem? I don’t know why this keeps happening to me. Every day I turn on another faucet and something’s dripping somewhere else. I don’t know what’s wrong with this house. It’s the upstairs bathroom, the downstairs bathroom; it’s coming into the kitchen, it’s coming into the bedroom. It just eats your money. It’s like a vacuum of money. There’s nothing worse than paying for plumbing. You take $300 and do something with it, and you get that something. Or you pay for your house, and you have your house. Here, what do you have? A toilet now. It’s not even worth $500.”

Bottom line, I was losing my mind. I said, “Hashem, you know what? What am I doing a little wrong?” I said, “You know, I realize we’ve been moving things around lately. Maybe I should make sure I’ve been careful to check that every door has the mezuzah (doorpost scroll) set up right. We’ve been moving this and painting this and taking this down.” I said, “I just went through the whole house, from the basement all the way up—every single room, closet, whatever—to check exactly what the story is.”

In the meantime, we had moved bookcases upstairs, and I told my wife, “You know, the bookcases—the floor is leaning. Of course, we move them upstairs, and the floor is leaning. The bookcases are leaning. Nothing’s going right.” So I told her, “You know, we really need a piece of wood or something to put underneath these bookcases.” So we moved them.

I’m in the high school. They’re building a gym, and my office is where the gym is going to be. My office is basically the foul line, so they moved my office to a new spot. Right next to the new spot, they’re doing some construction. They’re building a computer room. Very nice. I walked out of my office on the first day in the new office, last Friday, and someone from the school came over to me. He said, “Hi, Rabbi.” I said, “Hi, how are you?” He said, “Take this.” He took a piece of wood from the construction, put it in my hand, and walked away.

First of all, this is the weirdest thing in the world. Why are you giving—who comes over to a Rabbi and gives him a piece of wood? Have you ever heard of anything like this in your life? It’s weird. Then I’m thinking, “What am I doing?” I said, “Wow, it’s exactly the right size. If I cut it into three parts, it would be the right size.” It’s a weird example. It is weird. I still have no idea why a man would come over to me and give me a piece of wood. I’m serious; it really happened. He said, “Rabbi, hold this.”

When Hashem—okay, you know what? Let’s say this week, Hashem, I could use a million dollars. I could wait for someone to come over and hand that to me. But the way the world works is that Hashem sends you what you need when you need it.

If you understand the message of those Shabbat candles, that the physical world and the spiritual world are connected and intertwined, and that it isn’t you, it’s Borei Olam (Creator of the world) who can send it to you when you need it. When Paroah offered Yosef the job, the first thing he said was—“Is there anyone as wise and smart as you?”—like we said. “Is there anyone who has the Spirit of God in him?” What does that mean, the Spirit of God in Yosef? Paroah saw the way Yosef worked and what had happened in Yosef’s life, how well orchestrated God’s presence was in Yosef’s life and how much God was in everything he did. So Paroah was able to appreciate and understand it. Yosef’s life was not an accident. It was lucky.

What I told you about how Yosef built that foundation—that was all Hashem. Hashem got him sold. Hashem got him into that house. Hashem put him in jail and put him with two people who knew. Hashem made Paroah have a dream. Hashem gave him seven of those steps so he could build that foundation and be ready for that lucky moment. Hashem will send you what you need when you need it.

In fact, look at the Bill Gates story the way a Jew looks at it. He got lucky enough to have parents who had a little extra money to send him to private school. He got lucky enough to be at the school right when they were starting a computer club. He got lucky enough to have a PTA with an extra three thousand dollars that decided to use it, and lucky enough that the mother of one of his classmates had access to the University of Washington. He got lucky enough to be within walking distance of one of the only universities in the country in 1970 that had a whole computer lab. He got lucky enough to know the guy who was called because a power plant needed a programmer. It was all Borei Olam. As much as you think you can build and do, it’s all Him. Yosef understood that. When Yosef stood in front of Paroah, he understood that God had made him lucky so many times in his life that he could say, although he had worked very hard and done a lot, it had nothing to do with him. Bil’adai. It’s not me at all. It’s all Him.

I have no idea what time it is. All of a sudden I have no idea. It could still be eleven o’clock. I just have to give you a couple more examples, and then we’ll go five more minutes. As far as I know, we have another half hour, so we’re good. Let me give you an example. I don’t know if you realize this or have been paying attention, but everything that’s been going on in the past month or two is all about Sandy. Everything you see now is based on Sandy. Let’s raise money for Sandy. Let’s sell things for Sandy. Today, right before the class, I got an email, twenty minutes ago: a post-Hurricane Sandy offer from one of those email blasts, Sephardic Events or something—two emails for the price of one. What does that have to do with Sandy? It doesn’t have anything to do with Sandy, but everything. There are people selling you cars related to Sandy. I don’t even understand what it means. I went to Israel, and people said, “You’re worried about missiles? You had Sandy.” Sandy is really all over the place. Pay attention, and you’ll see it in commercials and advertisements. Everyone is using it. For some people, Sandy was Hashem’s: He sent them a piece of wood; He sent them Sandy. The key to being able to succeed is to realize that, as much as you have to work and be smart, you have to realize it really isn’t you.

One great example in the Tanakh is the story of Shimshon, and we’ll end—maybe I’ll tell you another story if we have time, but that’s it. You all know Samson and Delilah. Shimshon was a man who, without even being the leader of the Jewish people, was able to save many Jewish people because, in what seemed like a chaotic way, he was able to kill many Pelishtim. At one point he took the jawbone of a donkey, started swinging it around, and killed a thousand people with it. That’s pretty impressive: a thousand men, no gun, no sword, no soldiers with him, totally alone—one man killing a thousand people with a jawbone.

He threw the jawbone down, and the pasuk says he said a little poem: “Look, I made piles with a jawbone of a donkey. I was able to have piles of dead people.” The next pasuk says that he sat there and suddenly became very thirsty, with nothing to drink. The commentary asks, “What do those two things have to do with each other?” The answer is that Shimshon had just conquered a thousand people and, for a second, thought it was him. God said, “You think it’s you? I’m going to remind you right away.” It happens to all of us all the time. The minute we think we can do this well, something happens, and Hashem says, “You’re nothing without me.” The minute we think we’re smart, that we’re talented, Hashem says, “Look, if you’re not set up, what can go wrong?”

Here’s Shimshon, the strongest man alive, physically the strongest. He could kill a thousand people with a jawbone. Hashem says, “If I want to make you nothing in a minute, I can make you thirsty, dying for water,” until he prayed and said, “Hashem, I’m your servant,” and immediately water came out.

Yosef was so successful because of that one powerful word, Bil’adai. Even though he saw how much his intelligence did, he knew it wasn’t him, because even your intelligence—where do you think you got it from? You got it from God, so it’s all not you.

You want to know how to create lucky moments? Understand these three steps. Number one, you can’t just expect it to happen tomorrow. Be willing to build a foundation, and a foundation can take years of knowledge, learning, and growth. The second step is simple intelligence. You just have to have simple intelligence. Number three is that you need to realize it really has nothing to do with you. And if you understand it’s not you, hopefully Hashem—We’re not going to tell the story. It’s too late. I’ll tell it next week. It’s okay. I told you enough stuff. You have enough to tell your husband when you get home tonight. Understand that if you understand it’s not you, hopefully Hashem will send it all to you. Thank you.