Finding the Gateway to Your Soul - Rabbi Efraim Stauber

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Hidabroot - Torah & Judaism’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

So, I have a story for you today. This is a Bible story. And the powerful message of this story is exactly the message that we talked about yesterday. That the most powerful force in our personal growth and in our relationships, friends, family, and Hashem himself is the ability to experience authentically our own emotions. As a matter of fact, the yetzer hara's favorite trick is to keep us so stuck in our minds. So busy, so distracted. So scared that we can't feel. There are so many things that stop us from feeling. Many of us are just too scared of emotions. Too distracted, so busy. And the Ramchal tells us that there's a villain, a big famous villain in the Torah, bad guy, that knew this trick also. His name was Paro. And he said, "We're just going to keep the Jews so busy that they won't even think of escaping. They won't think of praying to God." And you see this really, really powerfully in the pasuk itself. This is in Shmot perek bet, pasuk chof gimmel. Vayehi bayomim harabim hahem. And it was in those many days. Vayamot melech Mitzrayim, the king of Egypt died. Vayei'anchu bnei Yisrael min ha'avoda, and the Jewish people groaned from the slavery, from the hard work. Vayiz'aku, and they cried out to God. Vatal shav'atam el ha'Elohim min ha'avoda. And perhaps in one of the most pivotal moments of Jewish history, their prayer rose to God. And that's when everything started to change. But there's a bunch of questions in this

Jump to a moment

1. 0:11So, I have a story for you today. This is a Bible story. And the powerful…
2. 0:41So scared that we can't feel. There are so many things that stop us from feeling.…
3. 1:12Vayehi bayomim harabim hahem. And it was in those many days. Vayamot melech Mitzrayim, the king…
4. 2:12tortured, they won't even feel their own pain. They didn't even groan because they couldn't. They…
5. 2:42or something, you know? So, what do you do? You know, you shift it to the…
6. 3:42one that Hashem listened to. Why? Vayitz'aku would seem to be a more sophisticated prayer. You're…
7. 4:12The next pasuk after Hashem hears this groan. Listen to this. Vayishma Elohim es Yitzchak v'es…
8. 4:42our greatness. Suddenly, these are not just Jews who are suffering. These are the children. These…
9. 5:42temple. We all have a broken Beis Hamikdash. And while you're feeling real sadness, your mind…
10. 6:13know what else you can feel? When you hear this, Hashem responds, does a woman forget…

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