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0:00 Dear friends, welcome to this week's virtual draw. This week we have the incredible privilege of the double par of Mats and M and conclude our journey through and Mats opens up with a very familiar topic. The topic of the dharma vows and the says Moshe speaks to all of the heads the tribal leaders and he tells them the following is commanded the following. 0:25 If a person will make a nether a vow or he'll he'll swear he'll make an oath and in that oath he prohibits something onto himself. Do not let your word become profane. Whatever you say you're going to do, whatever you promise to do, whatever you vow to do, whatever you make an oath to do, follow through. Make good on your word. And of course, whenever the Torah 0:53 comes to teach us this of the dharma and of oaths and vows, there's always one central core theme, the power of our words. Words are powerful. You know, you know, when we're children, we often hear the I don't know, it's a nursery rhyme, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me. And the truth is, we may chant it or sing it as children, but as we become adults, we know that it's unequivocally false. 1:18 Sticks and stones absolutely could hurt. But usually the harm that is endured through sticks and stones could be healed. But often the harm the profound wounds inflicted by harsh and abrasive words sometimes could leave a lasting ongoing impact. Words make a difference in the context here of excuse me of s and vows. So the idea is 1:41 that my words create realities. A person makes a nether makes a vow to do something that creates a binding obligation. A person takes an oath, that oath creates brand new realities. But you'll say it's just words. It's not just words. Words create realities for ourselves and words create realities for those around us. There's a beautiful 2:04 Mishna in Perkavas. The Mishna says in the fourth chapter of Perkavas, Mishna Mishna 20, be the first to greet every single person. Now it's interesting. This is a beautiful idea. We have we have this type of motif also echoed throughout greet every person with a smiling countenance. But here seems to give us a piece of daily 2:34 advice. Make sure to be the first to greet. Don't wait for someone to say hello to you. Don't wait to say wait for someone to say shalom to you. Don't wait for someone to say good shabas to you. Be mim you be the first to go ahead and greet every individual. Now it's interesting to note a little bit historically lived in Rome. In fact again he was one of the first people to establish a 2:56 yeshiva in Rome and therefore mayor in his parish explains that really is teaching us how to be a Jew in the gulos that again diaspora you have to interact with a whole bunch of people sometimes amongst Jews unfortunately we take certain interpersonal liberties okay and we could you know we could push a little bit shove a little bit I don't know maybe be a little bit standoffish okay 3:21 we all love each other we all love each other so even if The interpersonal interactions are not as they should be. We can give each other a pass. But when you are a Jew in the greater world, you absolutely have to hold yourself to the highest standard. Karesh living in Rome says, "Listen, here's where we are right now. 3:38 You have to say hello to everyone. You have to be that smiling face. You have to be that bright countenance. You have to be that individual who is going to go out of his or her way to greet every single person proactively." But the Mal makes an amazing observation. writes and I quote to you, he says, what does it mean? Just say go ahead and greet per people. People people what it mean every person. And 4:02 Mar says, who does this apply to? That you have to greet every single person. Whether the person is a sadic, whether the person is a Russia, the person is righteous, the person is wicked, you have to proactively greet every individual. Goes on, he explains something so beautiful. He says, is generally a person who is a Russia a person who is wicked doesn't usually think of himself as wicked he usually thinks of himself just a regular guy or 4:29 maybe even if he's very talented even a good guy super talented at sadic and therefore what therefore if I do not extend a greeting to the Russia reflects poorly on me see if I encounter the Russia and I don't give the Russia I don't greet the wicked person the wicked person doesn't look at himself is wicked. So he says ah silver is not giving me if silver is not giving me 4:55 what's wrong with silver what's wrong with him and therefore says is telling us be the first to greet to all people sadikim the righteous the wicked just be the kind of person who gives a shalom a good shabis a hello a how are you a something something whe 5:19 the person is at sadic where the person is a Russia be that kind of person and I think to take the moral a step further I think what the moral sensitizing us to is that sometimes you come across people encounter people and let's be honest there are some people I do not want to say hello to there are some people I do not want to give shalom to there are some people I don't want to say good chabas to for a whole variety of 5:44 different reasons some of them legitimate some of them not legitimate sensitizing us to isra. You have no idea what's happening in someone else's life. And sometimes the people who we look at as wicked or the people who we look at as misguided or the people we look at as the people who wronged us are different things. 6:04 Sometimes it's just something broken inside of them that they don't know how to deal with. And sometimes you'd be surprised a kind word, a kind gesture, a shalom. Sometimes just a small act of recognizing the humanity of the other could fill a person with the confidence and the self-esteem to be able to affect 6:29 the changes in their life that in their life that they need to make. See, you have to live life with with the idea that people are good. And therefore, when people do things that are not good, more often than not, it's because something's broken inside of them. And who amongst us doesn't have something broken inside of us? Who amongst us doesn't have something which is in a state of profound and overwhelming 6:53 disrepair? And sometimes it's hard to acknowledge and it's hard to deal with my inconsistencies and with my broken tight, with the things that are misfiring. and I feel down on myself or some I don't feel good at myself. It manifests itself in all kinds of negative ways to others with others. I think what the is trying to sensitize us to is that when you give a person a little bit of a positive verbal pickme 7:18 up, you go ahead and you acknowledge someone else's humanity. You say, "I see you. I see you." Whether I like you or not is a different discussion, but I see you. I'm going to acknowledge you. And and by doing that, by acknowledging another's humanity, do you understand what you do for them? Do you understand the power of a positive word? Of how it 7:42 can move a person's entire existence of how sometimes one word, one little sp verbal spark of positivity could ignite a lightning bolt of change. Because maybe if I'm down on myself and someone else sees me, someone else acknowledges me, someone else takes the time out of their busy day, the million things they're doing just to give a shim, 8:05 maybe that'll give me the to do the things I need to do to create the change I need to create. Teaches us in you make an oath, you make a vow, you make a nether, you make a your words are powerful. Your words create realities for you. Your words shape worlds, new realities for yourself with just an 8:28 utterance. One, one sh your life can be fundamentally, but it's just words. It's not just words. Words create realities in your life. And teaches us that words create realities for others. My words create realities for others. Your words create realities for others. This is the verbal power and prowess that we 8:53 possess. Our words shape our lives and our words shape the lives of others. You want to share with you a beautiful story. This is a story actually that I saw quoted in Women's Day magazine. Somebody sent it to me. 9:10 Women's Day and not not normally on my reading list. The title of the story is the miracle of a brother's song. And I just want to quote to you part of the story. Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her three-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. The baby was going to be a girl. And day after day, night after 9:35 night, Michael sang to his sister in mommy's tummy. He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her. The pregnancy progressed normally for Karen, an active member of the of the Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown, Tennessee, USA. In time, the labor pains came. Soon it was every 5 minutes, every three, every minute. 9:58 But serious complications arose during delivery, and Karen found herself in hours of labor. Finally, after a long struggle, Michael's little sister was born. But she was in very serious condition. With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit in St. Mary's Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. The days inched by, the 10:22 little girl got worse. The pediatrician had to tell the parents there was very little hope. Be prepared for the worst. Karen and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special room in their home for their new baby and found themselves instead having to plan for a funeral. 10:41 Little Michael, right? The older brother, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister. I want to sing to her, he kept saying. Week two in intensive care looked as if the funeral would come before the end before the week was over. Michael kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in the intensive care unit. Karen decided to take Michael 11:05 whether into the to see his little sister, whether they liked it or not. If he didn't see his sister right then, he may never see her alive. She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit, marched him into the ICU. He looked like a walking laundry basket. The head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, "Get that kid out of here. No children are allowed." The mother rose up strong 11:28 in Karen, and the usually mildmannered lady glared steel eyed right into the head nurse's eyes, her lips a firm line. He is not leaving until he sings to his sister. Then Karen towed Michael to his sister's bedside. 11:47 He gazed at the tiny infant, losing the battle to live. After a moment, he began tossing. In the purehearted voice of a three-year-old, Michael sang, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray." Instantly, the baby girl seemed to respond. The pulry began to calm down 12:12 and became steady. "Keep on singing, Michael encouraged Karen with tears in her eyes. You never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away. As Michael sang to his sister, the baby ragged the baby's ragged strain breathing became as smooth as a kitten's purr. "Keep on singing, sweetheart," his 12:36 mother said. The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms. Michael's little sister began to relax as rest, healing rest seemed to sweep over her. Keep sinking, Michael. 12:52 Tears now conquered the face of the bossy head nurse and Karen glowed. The next day, the very next day, the little girl was well enough to go home. I'm assuming that since the story is included in Women's Day magazine, someone fact checked it and it's true. 13:12 But dear friends, you know, there are some stories where whether they're true or not doesn't matter. What matters is it could be true. There are power to our words. 13:26 And sometimes in a world that is filled with so much difficulty and so much heartbreak and so much adversity and sometimes in a world where inevitably we're all struggling with something. 13:41 A kind word you give to another person can make all of the difference. With this month comes so much heartbreak and so much sadness. And so much of it is because historically of what we've done to each other. It's never been our external enemies that have been our problem. It's been what we do to each other. Dearra, 14:11 our words are powerful and our words create realities. Our words create new realities for ourselves and our worlds our words can create incredible new worlds for one another. 14:25 the power of a positive word. Have aim for you just find a way within ourselves to just take a few moments every day to infuse a little bit of verbal positivity into the life of another. Whether it's a compliment, whether it's a word of a word of encouragement, or whether it's just a hello, or even if it's a nonverbal gesture of just a smile. Our 14:52 words are powerful. Our words and our gestures could be purposeful. Our words build our world and our words could fundamentally change the world of each other. Let us hope that we will use these coming days to use our words to build beautiful brand new worlds to use our words to lift up each other. And in 15:16 that sus, in that merit, may we be privileged to transform this month, this coming month of Av, a month that has been one historically of mourning and sadness. Transform it into a month of joy, jubilation, national reconciliation. 15:34 Amen. Amen.
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