The Importance of Silence: A Lesson from Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky

It's not like we're saying "Oh, I'm done, I give up." Surrendering is not giving up. It's giving over. Aon gave over his trust for Hashem and sometimes life, especially the past couple of weeks when we can't understand how we must trust in Hashem.

I read a beautiful quote by Rifka Maka proman, it says "The quieter you are, the more you can hear." That was really the way Aon responded to Hashem after he knew that his sons were killed. He understood that he has to be silent to be able to have that understanding between him and Hashem. That Hashem knows what he's doing although we can't understand.

I heard an incredible story by R Pesak Cron where he spoke about this woman named Oma, who told over the story to Cronin herself and she said that her and her husband Alex were during the world war during the Holocaust. They were newly married and the Germans took all the Jews out of the city but Ma and her husband worked for a Day School. Her husband was a Jude study teacher, and she worked in general studies. They were completely poverty-stricken and since they were Jews wearing the yellow star of Jude their food was being rationed so they were only being given a limited amount of flour and bread and eggs every month.

In fact, she was only able to receive four eggs every month no Delicacies no chocolate no butter so she understood that their situation was very dire but still she wanted to maintain a certain level of Shabbat Kes for her and her husband SP Alex. So every single week in honor of Shabbat she would bake a small cake using one of those four eggs that she was given for the month in honor of Shabbat to make it a beautiful experience for her and her husband Alex.

One day as she's preparing the cake for Shabbat she cracks that one egg and as she opens it she sees there's a small spot of blood. We know as Jews that if there's any blood in our egg it renders it not Kosher after all this is kosher so she knows that she's looking at this egg she cannot use this egg in fact she cannot use any of the ingredients.

She thinks to herself "What do I do? I'm not going to have any cake this week. Do I throw out this egg? Do I throw out my batter or my husband Alex won't necessarily know if I just peel away that piece of blood from the yolk after all it's not super embedded into the yolk I could probably get away with just peeling it out and she has this idea do I just use the egg because after all we're poor we don't even know if we're going to survive the week."

She thinks about asking for help from shilas, but then she thinks "You know what? She can't do this to Hashem. Hashem gave us laws she knows that she really cannot use an egg that contains some blood in it and her husband Alex trusts her she can't betray his trust so she's going back and forth thinking what am I going to do finally".

She decides instead of doing away with the cake that week she's just going to use next week's egg for this week's cake and she takes that egg and she cracks it and she opens it up and she sees she has a twin yolk so she tells the story to her Pesak Cron.

So I think for this week our lesson our homework is that go silent when you can't understand what's going on don't answer back don't scream don't curse don't fire back accept in silence and in that surrender to the will of Hashem it's ultimate test of amuna that we can pass especially with so much craziness and Chaos going on around us let us all choose silens and let us all not give up because we're Jews we don't give up but let's give over to Hashem and trust that although we totally cannot understand the how we will trust the Shabbat.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome back to another episode of Shabbat M this week's paraa is para shim I think I've learned one of the greatest lessons of my entire life by just two words in this week's para when Aon aoan was informed that his two sons nadav and AIU were tragically killed it says that Aon responded in the following man vad Aon and Aon was silent that's something that we're going to delve into because I can tell you that this has been something that has guided me through so many reactions to tragedies and reactions to turmoil in my personal life Aon was silent kazal break it down for us and they say he wasn't silent because he was shocked he wasn't silent because he was mad he was silent because he understood that Hashem knows much better than he does and although he can't control what's happening he can control the way he reacts to what's happening that Silence of Aon was pure acceptance that Hashem runs the world it was pure humility that he can't change anything but he can accept the way Hashem runs the world and that acceptance it's so important to recognize that VI Aon and Aon was silent that surrender Hing to Hashem was the ultimate way of showing Hashem his and his inem when we surrender to the will of Hashem it's not an act of passivity it's not like we're saying oh I'm done I give up surrendering is not giving up it's giving over Aon gave over his trust for hash and sometimes life especially the past couple of weeks when we can't understand the how we must trust the who I read a beautiful quote by Rifka Maka proman it says the quieter you are the more you can hear and that was really the way Aon responded to Hashem after he knew that his sons were killed he understood that he has to be silent to be able to have that understanding between him and Hashem that Hashem knows what he's doing although we can't understand I heard an incredible Story by R pesak cron where he spoke about this woman named om and om told over the story to Cronin herself and she said that her and her husband Alex were during the world during the war during the Holocaust they were newly married and the Germans Zak were taking all the Jews out of the city but Ma and her husband worked for a Day School her husband was a Jude study teacher and Ma worked in general studies and they were completely poverty stricken and since they were Jews wearing the yellow star of Jude their food was being rationed so they were only being given a limited amount of flour and bread and eggs every month in fact she was only able to receive four eggs every month no Delicacies no chocolate no butter so she understood that their situation was very dive but still she wanted to maintain a certain level of Shabbat KES for her and her husband SP Alex so every single week in honor of Shabbat she would bake a small cake using one of those four eggs that she was given for month in honor of Shabbat to make it a beautiful experience for her and her husband Alex one day as she's preparing the cake for Shabbat she cracks that one egg and as she opens it she sees there's a small spot of blood we know as Jews that if there's any blood in our egg it renders it not Kosher after all this is kosher so she knows that she's looking at this egg she cannot use this egg in fact she cannot use any of the ingredients and she's thinking to herself what do I do I'm not going to have any egg I'm not going to have any cake this week do I throw out this egg do I throw out my batter or my my husband Alex won't necessarily know if I just peel away that piece of blood from in the Yol after all it's not super embedded into the Yol I could probably get away with just peeling it out and she has this this idea do I just use the egg because after all we're poor we don't even know if we're going to survive the week after after all there are no re here that I can ask them shilas and then she thinks to herself that you know what she she can't do this to hasem Hashem gave us laws she knows that she really cannot use an egg that contains some blood in it and her husband Alex trusts her she can't betray his trust so she's going back and forth thinking what am I going to do finally she makes a decision I trust aan although this is a horrible situation to happen I'm going to throw away the egg I'm going to throw away the contents of the bowl I'm going to start from scratch who knows what next week brings but next week is next week right now I will trust Hashem in this nission and she decides instead of doing away with the cake that week she's just going to use next week's egg for this week's cake and she takes that egg and she cracks it and she opens it up and she sees she has a twin Yol so she tells the story to her PES crown of course she saves that second yolk for next week's egg and she felt like in that moment of her silence where she didn't cry she didn't get angry she didn't yell she didn't curse she didn't throw things she really accepted her n and she accepted hashem's decree and right then it's like Hashem spoke back to her by giving her a double Yol so she could use one for this week and one for next week so so I think for this week our lesson our homework is that go silent when you can't understand what's going on don't answer back don't scream don't curse don't fire back accept in silence and in that surrender to the will of Hashem it's ultimate test of amuna that we can pass especially with so much craziness and Chaos going on around us let us all choose silens and let us all not give up because we're Jews we don't give up but let's give over to Hashem and trust that although we totally cannot understand the how we will trust the shabbat shalomwelcome back to another episode of Shabbat M this week's paraa is para shim I think I've learned one of the greatest lessons of my entire life by just two words in this week's para when Aon aoan was informed that his two sons nadav and AIU were tragically killed it says that Aon responded in the following man vad Aon and Aon was silent that's something that we're going to delve into because I can tell you that this has been something that has guided me through so many reactions to tragedies and reactions to turmoil in my personal life Aon was silent kazal break it down for us and they say he wasn't silent because he was shocked he wasn't silent because he was mad he was silent because he understood that Hashem knows much better than he does and although he can't control what's happening he can control the way he reacts to what's happening that Silence of Aon was pure acceptance that Hashem runs the world it was pure humility that he can't change anything but he can accept the way Hashem runs the world and that acceptance it's so important to recognize that VI Aon and Aon was silent that surrender Hing to Hashem was the ultimate way of showing Hashem his and his inem when we surrender to the will of Hashem it's not an act of passivity it's not like we're saying oh I'm done I give up surrendering is not giving up it's giving over Aon gave over his trust for hash and sometimes life especially the past couple of weeks when we can't understand the how we must trust the who I read a beautiful quote by Rifka Maka proman it says the quieter you are the more you can hear and that was really the way Aon responded to Hashem after he knew that his sons were killed he understood that he has to be silent to be able to have that understanding between him and Hashem that Hashem knows what he's doing although we can't understand I heard an incredible Story by R pesak cron where he spoke about this woman named om and om told over the story to Cronin herself and she said that her and her husband Alex were during the world during the war during the Holocaust they were newly married and the Germans Zak were taking all the Jews out of the city but Ma and her husband worked for a Day School her husband was a Jude study teacher and Ma worked in general studies and they were completely poverty stricken and since they were Jews wearing the yellow star of Jude their food was being rationed so they were only being given a limited amount of flour and bread and eggs every month in fact she was only able to receive four eggs every month no Delicacies no chocolate no butter so she understood that their situation was very dive but still she wanted to maintain a certain level of Shabbat KES for her and her husband SP Alex so every single week in honor of Shabbat she would bake a small cake using one of those four eggs that she was given for month in honor of Shabbat to make it a beautiful experience for her and her husband Alex one day as she's preparing the cake for Shabbat she cracks that one egg and as she opens it she sees there's a small spot of blood we know as Jews that if there's any blood in our egg it renders it not Kosher after all this is kosher so she knows that she's looking at this egg she cannot use this egg in fact she cannot use any of the ingredients and she's thinking to herself what do I do I'm not going to have any egg I'm not going to have any cake this week do I throw out this egg do I throw out my batter or my my husband Alex won't necessarily know if I just peel away that piece of blood from in the Yol after all it's not super embedded into the Yol I could probably get away with just peeling it out and she has this this idea do I just use the egg because after all we're poor we don't even know if we're going to survive the week after after all there are no re here that I can ask them shilas and then she thinks to herself that you know what she she can't do this to hasem Hashem gave us laws she knows that she really cannot use an egg that contains some blood in it and her husband Alex trusts her she can't betray his trust so she's going back and forth thinking what am I going to do finally she makes a decision I trust aan although this is a horrible situation to happen I'm going to throw away the egg I'm going to throw away the contents of the bowl I'm going to start from scratch who knows what next week brings but next week is next week right now I will trust Hashem in this nission and she decides instead of doing away with the cake that week she's just going to use next week's egg for this week's cake and she takes that egg and she cracks it and she opens it up and she sees she has a twin Yol so she tells the story to her PES crown of course she saves that second yolk for next week's egg and she felt like in that moment of her silence where she didn't cry she didn't get angry she didn't yell she didn't curse she didn't throw things she really accepted her n and she accepted hashem's decree and right then it's like Hashem spoke back to her by giving her a double Yol so she could use one for this week and one for next week so so I think for this week our lesson our homework is that go silent when you can't understand what's going on don't answer back don't scream don't curse don't fire back accept in silence and in that surrender to the will of Hashem it's ultimate test of amuna that we can pass especially with so much craziness and Chaos going on around us let us all choose silens and let us all not give up because we're Jews we don't give up but let's give over to Hashem and trust that although we totally cannot understand the how we will trust the shabbat shalom\n"