Parshas Haazinu: “Location, location, location.”

The top three keys to success in real estate are location, location and you guessed it location. This is a famous quote uttered by many great real estate tycoons through the years, the idea being that while you may have a property beautiful, sprawling lawns for a new roof on the mansion home on the property, new appliances, granite countertops, it's got it all but if it's in the middle of Nowheresville, hicktown, where nobody wants to live, the land ain't coveted very much. Well, the ROI will not be too spectacular. But if you should have some small dinky, worn out run down apartment, but it's in the middle of downtown Lakewood, in the old days, downtown Manhattan, the upper west side, a place where it has the feature of great location even if it lacks everything else, you're probably going to do pretty well with it. It'll be a lucrative investment and deal, hopefully. It's all about location and this isn't a rule that is specific to business real estate. I know In husbandry, in farming and trying to really grow any fruit or vegetable, the location, the climate, the habitat, it matters. Avocados you want to be a successful avocado farmer? Well, you must make sure that you're in a location that is moderately warm, 60 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. You should plant it, probably between March and June. Some solid humidity is how the avocados like it. That's your best chance to have a successful, successful avocado ranch. But if you should try that same climate to plant oranges, oh no, no, no, you need it much warmer. Oranges love the sun. Florida, morocco, california, location, location, location. And when it comes to coffee beans, oh yeah, get out of the sun. Tropical climates and outside, away from the direct sunlight, it seems, and in many areas, if you have this attribute locked up a great location well then you will ensure success. But this week we come to Apusic in this rather arcane, all-encompassing, beautiful, lyrical, sinister piece of a song inside of Parasas Hazinu that stretches this idea of location and how it can ensure beautiful, ripe, successful fruits. Peros, it seems to be implied even to growing, successful humans. The Apusic says it is Parasas Hazinu, paraklamid Bey is Pusic Ches, bahamchel, eliyain Goyim, bahafrido Benay, adam Yatzeev, gevulos Amim, lemis, bar Benay, yisrael, when the most high directed the nations to their inheritance, when he separated the sons of man, he set up the boundaries of the nations. See, every country has a certain feel to it. It's very interesting, every muckim, the borders. It seems that the environment a person grows up in it has a serious impact on what will sprout forth. Location matters in growing humans. You'll see that if you grow up in, let's say, overseas, you will have a different outlook on life, different mentalities, a different physique, different mannerisms. Each country like its own species. Some countries give birth to smaller humans, larger humans, slower humans, faster humans, wiser humans, more dull-minded humans. You can almost laugh that in other countries besides for your own home territory, when you hear them speaking a certain language, it doesn't even sound like it could possibly mean anything. It's just gibberish. Have you ever heard someone speak Arabic or Swahili? Sounds funny, but yet I bet you they would think the same thing when we talk English. But the location of where you grow up, where you're planted the muckim it really matters. I love to talk about the middle parts of America. I'm a southerner. If you go a little bit more west, let's say you hit small towns in Oklahoma, you'll find people that Life is peaceful and slow. They've been brought up under the sun where some of the most important things is their prayer services on Sunday, ice, cold beers, football and the only thing more important than family is their hat. It kind of sounds like a new chasun who just got his first Borcellino, or I guess it's just a bad joke, but that's the type of climate, the type of habitat, the muckim that maybe Oklahoma inspires in a person. But if you send a New Yorker out there, oh, it's way too slow for them. They will not enjoy some dirt road long, kicking it back type of ride. A New Yorker needs a fast paced type of lifestyle, hustle and bustle. He loves the noise because it seems muckim a person's local and district is a part of what he will grow up to be like. Humans grow based on where they are planted. It seems now that our spiritual success yes, our hat slougha in our Torah and our hat slougha in our Tfila also is dependent upon our muckim. Why? Because when you start to look out for why macomos are important and where they show up throughout Tanakh, you're fine, myriads, cadres, bevy of instances. Let's talk Davening first. When it comes to Tfila, we already know how important a muckim kavua is. The Gamara in Barakos it tells us on 6b that anyone who prays at his muckim kavua is the God of Abraham to be of special help to him. There's something unique about Davening at your muckim kavua. I don't know why, but you're Muckum, it's different, seems like there's a better ability to connect, you have an upper hand. And when Yaakov Vainu passed by Ha Muckum, the place that his father, his Zadie, that they prayed, he didn't stop. He said to himself, as a possible aftershad of Artiala Muckum Is it possible that I will walk right past the place that my father's prayed and not pray that Muckum, that plateau, that Ha Arabis, that's a special Muckum to Fila, and Rashi comments there that all the Tfilos based on the Pusuk have to fly to the Ha Arabis, to the Zesha Ar Hashomim. There is this portal to heaven that, even when you pray in your shul out in Los Angeles or in Paseik, new Jersey, your Tfilos flies from your mouth across the world to the portal in heaven which is stationed right above the Western Wall. The Ha Arabis, that is the Muckum Tfilos is Tulli in Muckum, dovetailing in the wrong spot, seems like it could be planting avocados in Antarctica. When it comes to the Holy Temple, we are told over and over again that Ha Muckum, that is the place to bring sacrifices, to serve. And outside, if you shall try to bring a sacrifice at a different spot, in your own backyard, private bummer, no backyard sacrifice services. No, Ha Muckum, there is one place for the divine Shrinna. It rests itself stronger, so no backyard sacrifices. Ha Muckum, the Mikdash, the holiest place on earth, is called after that spot. It seems that location, location, location, it truly is the Muckum Tzamiha, the fertile soil that one needs in order to see beautiful, luscious, lavish fruits of his labor. You've got to plant, pray in the right spot, one of the biggest examples. So how about Ha Kudash Baruch himself? One of the ways that we refer to Ha Shem is by his name, the name omnipresent, the all-present, the Ha Muckum. He is the place. He doesn't need to confine himself to certain spots. He is everything, he is all of the place, omnipresent, he owns all locations. It's amazing. Locations need specific locations, habitats and climates in order to strike. People divided up into different countries will grow up to be different style people. It's always interesting to see how it's the same tower being taught in America and in Eretz Yisrael, but yet the children come out with a different sort of tone and temperament If they're brought up in Eretz Yisrael or America, or they're brought up in town, out of town. The location matters and definitely, if we're to zero in on the holiest locations, it's obvious that Eretz Yisrael and the boundaries, the biblical boundaries. It's obvious that the Eretz Yisrael, in cases a certain super spiritual, accessible location, it's different than all other lands. That location, that locale, that region, that district, it's just simply higher up, better, you get even closer in Yorusha Lyam, a better location, the biggest ROI, and eventually you get even closer to the higher bias, even closer, the OMOA, the mcdush, the Kairusha Kedashim, right between the crew of him, the holy Aron, there's a certain proximity that you keep getting closer and closer. Location matters, what about now? Let's get into any Anna de Yoma, saving ourselves from the God forbid, any evil decree that may have been given to us. For Even if it has been God forbid, god forbid, god forbid, we can still rip it up. Now I shall remove it Until young kipper To the Gamora and Russia, shona 16b Says that there are four things that are able to rip up a evil decree. Someone has been Decreed to have something bad happen to them. That year Rebya truck tells us that you can rip it up to duck a Charity. It's auck, a crying out. She may ask. Shame can change her name. She know my son and you can change your actions. I want to focus on the next part of the Gamora. Very interesting addition. The Gamora goes on further. You know what else you can use to save yourself from an evil decree? The Asia I'm run off, she know muck them. You can simply change your location and you could change Everything. It's unbelievable. It makes a little bit of sense now that you have a relatively healthy avocado tree, but it's in the brutal winter of Antarctica. You should uproot it and actually put it inside of some beautiful, moist, well fertilized land in a moderately Humid, 65 degree Fahrenheit Location that it may start to sprout. Beautiful, soft, just the right firmness. Avocados, the more brings a puzzle. Approve it to you, my Yamera, shem el Avram, lech lecha, my art. So go for yourself, leave your land. That's how I got all. You're gonna be a great nation. So it's really pretty interesting. You just changed your location because it's about location, location, location, and Maybe, just maybe, we can suggest this is the reason why, after cayenne killed heaven, the first murder, what was the punishment? Novenoid, you were sent banished to wander, to walk. There's no set spot, you have no locale, you have no home, territory and district. You just always wandering. You never get a muckum, something deep going on here, and I want to get personal Say over something that happened to me, a tradition given over to me that I want to pass along to you. That makes things a little bit even more practical and Hopefully we'll answer sometimes a complex issue that we may encounter in our lives. So the question was pretty straightforward. It was about Not about. I remember it was three years ago when I got married and it's always fun to take a trip down memory lane to remember the wedding. But there are some things that were different about my wedding from how I had pictured it to look like. For one, it was during the COVID epidemic, so there were not too many people there, say about 50 to 75. And a lot of my close relatives and friends were not present. It's weird to see the pictures with people with masks on their face. It's weird to see just how distant everyone was from each other Physically, socially distant. It's good they abided by the rules, right, but it was just, it was different. Now, ultimately, it ended up being probably just the more I think about it the greatest wedding ever. It was cozy and it was small and it was friends and it was family and everyone was involved and you felt a need to dance, and you know we did all the myths as everything was great. So, but right after, maybe say a couple months after, the wedding, I was planning on going to Eretz Yisrael to go back to Yashivas Mir. After all, the locale, the location matters. Eretz Yisrael is where it's at Yusr Shalime, yashivas Mir. With her, my elephant learning in Kolo, and my brother was there. Here we go, except the borders were closed and there was no ability to fly. So the time being, I rented a small apartment in Lakewood, just for a couple months, right, but things began to become very comfortable. I got a spot in the Kolo in Lakewood and the apartment was nice, america's nice. To be able to have a car in Eretz Yisrael, it's not so practical or doable. We got comfortable and we were striking. But then we heard some news that the borders were opening up and, thank God, covid was leaving our midst and we were going to have the ability, after the next couple of weeks were over that Zman, to fly back to Eretz Yisrael and carry out the dream Live the honeymoon A year in Eretz Yisrael, no parents around, yes, basking in the holy Eretz Yisrael, schnitzel, Falafel, maybe a little bit of learning that's the dream, right. But we weren't sure. Should we uproot our lives In a place where we were being successful to go try to be more successful somewhere else? So, fortunately enough, we had a short meeting with some pull, and someone in my family has connections to the great Rabbi Greenwald, who is a head of a seminary in Eretz Yisrael such a kachamah, brilliant person. So my wife and I we went to ask him this question. We told him all the different details of the question and he thought and he thought and he thought. Then he thought some more and he said you know, bistro Salanter said that we do not uproot a flower that is growing to be able to replant it somewhere else where it may grow better. And he explained to us that the location matters. But if you're being successful somewhere, we don't change the mak'um to try to get more hatslacha. And what this is is an answer. And now that location is so important and we know that location will have a direct impact on our hatslacha, when do we say that we're having enough hatslacha? When do we say we want more? And the tradition that I received is that if a person is looking for more hatslacha, then no, that's not dependent on the mak'um, that's yourself, that's putting in the work, the determination, the grit. But the rest of the answer, the tradition is, if a person should feel stuck, he feels like he's got a Roya Ghz'ar, he's got a bad, evil decree on him. It's not being matzliach, it's not going, it's just not happening and like, well, then a person should go Change your mak'um Sh'i noi mak'um Unbelievable. And it works hand in hand with what happens during Hallel. I once heard this from a great person, eli Mishori. He told me over that why is it that we shake the lula on the upcoming holiday of Sukkis? Why on the Hashem H'ish'i, noi ma'um, mak'hazim h'osei ono, hashem H'ish'i ono. But on the Hashem H'hzli h'no, no shaking, no moving. Everyone just says it back and forth. On the Hashem H'hzli h'no. That's it. Why the moving by Hashim and not the moving of the lula, of H'hzli h'hzli? He said the Pshad is I believe he said it from either a Toys of Us, yantiver, to Ferris Yisrael. Because when a person needs H'ish'i, he needs a salvation. Sometimes you gotta move, you gotta shake, you gotta have a shinaimaka, but if you just want more at slakh, you want a bit more success. No, no, no, it's not dependent upon you moving. Don't move, just put in more effort and add some fuel to your fire, muster up the resolve to be more matzliah. So we can't conclude that location, location, location is, or the essential part of the essential aspects of growing a successful human. You learn toer in the wrong spot. It's not gonna go the same way. You're trying to build yourself and pray without a makam kavua on the side of the road, not paying attention In the spot, far away from Erich Yisrael, far away from a shoal outside of a base Knesses. It's like trying to put seeds into a big parking lot. It's not gonna grow. Our H'hzliah is tully the makam and besmanah zeh that we don't have the Besameh Dush. Where is the ultimate makam Hashem, tells us. G'morim Brochah says that, now that our temple has been destroyed, that ayinak kudash baruchu Hashem cannot be found. A little bedalad amas, shal halachos, except we're in the eight square feet, four cubit feet around eight feet. But then that proximity of learning Tyra. So yeah, learning sholes, daven, and sholes Hang out in Yeshivos. This way, you can move your coffee plant from the Sahara Desert, where they're doing very well, into this tropical paradise. You move your avocados into that perfect climate. You will plant yourself in a new makam that is fertile and ready for you to start striking. So if you need a H'hzliah, need a salvation, consider changing where you learn, changing where you hang out, maybe even changing your location. If you don't need a H'hzliah, you just need a H'hzliah, then maybe it just takes a little bit more grit and determination. But we can conclude that really our success is dependent upon location. The place matters H'hzliah. Our success is totally in makam. So plant yourself, so we're ready for you to start growing.