Kabbalah for Everyone Lesson 8: Ratzon and Ta’anug: What Your Soul Really Wants

You can download the PDF worksheet here:
 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oy2ioeforqhuspaxj2cz6/Lesson-8-Ratzon-and-Taanug.pdf?rlkey=7bkm55v1r9xwpujfy535uih7z&dl=0

What is the difference between doing what is right and actually loving what is right? Kabbalah teaches that two powerful forces shape our inner lives: Ratzon, the power of will, and Ta’anug, the deeper experience of delight. Ratzon gives us the strength to act even when we do not feel inspired. Ta’anug is the inner sweetness we experience when our choices become aligned with who we truly are.

In this lesson, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath explores the spiritual journey from obligation to connection, from discipline to joy, and from simply showing up to discovering that holiness can feel like coming home.

The goal is not to wait until we feel inspired before doing what is right. It is to use holy will to educate the heart, until the truths we once struggled to choose become the truths we genuinely love.

Key Points

• Ratzon means will: the power to choose, commit, and move forward.
• Ta’anug means delight: the inner sweetness of living in alignment with the soul.
• Will is often the beginning of spiritual growth, while delight is a deeper stage of internal connection.
• We do not need to understand or feel everything before taking the first meaningful step.
• Na’aseh v’nishma teaches that action can open the door to deeper understanding.
• Acting with kindness before feeling kind is not hypocrisy; it is emotional and spiritual maturity.
• Our feelings are real, but they do not always deserve to control our actions.
• A passing desire may be loud, while a deeper delight can be quiet and true.
• We can train our hearts to find joy in prayer, Torah, mitzvot, honesty, generosity, and healthy relationships.
• The goal of Judaism is not dry obedience, but loyalty that grows into love and delight.
• Repeated acts of holy will educate the heart.
• The truth we once obeyed can eventually become the truth we love.
• A spiritual life becomes real when inspiration enters our choices, habits, and relationships.
• The deepest question is not only, “What do I want?” but “What kind of person do I want to become?”

#Ratzon #Taanug #WillAndDelight #Kabbalah #KabbalahForEveryone #JewishWisdom #spiritualgrowth #SpiritualDiscipline #FindingJoy #InnerPurpose #SoulAlignment #JewishSpirituality #EmotionalMaturity #personalgrowth 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning, good morning. It is a beautiful, beautiful morning. Today we are going to continue this series that we're doing called Kabbalah for Everyone. And I have some new ideas, some new concepts for you today. We're going to talk today about two things that already run your life. And even if you've never studied with me or you've never studied any of these ideas, my hope is that they will be, they will stand on their own. Today we're going to talk about what you want and what you enjoy. In the language of Kabbalah, we're going to call them Ratson and Tanug. If you have, there's a PDF handout that I sent. If you have that in front of you, you can see it there. Ratson means will, and Tanug means delight, though we may change that translation over the course of our time together today. We'll decide that. And there are things I do because it lights me up inside. Because I'm a different person as a result of it. Things that I do that just bring me, you know, some people will say it brings me absolute joy, but I think even more than that. There are things that I choose with discipline. And there are things that I do just because I want to do them. I wish I got to those things a little more in my life. Not always is there time for them. And I want to kind of maybe hit that on the head today a bit. I'll give you an example. One that's come up recently in a lot of our discussions and classes is the idea of prayer. There are mornings when I pray because that's what I do, and that's what a good Jew should do. And there are mornings when I'm praying and I feel like I'm alive. And there's a difference. There's a difference between doing because I must, and doing because my soul is getting nourished and fed. And this is the doorway into today's lesson. Kabbalah says that will is holy, but delight is holier or deeper. What you want can still be one step removed from who you are. But what you truly delight reveals something closer to your essence. I'm gonna say that again. What you want can still be one step removed from who you are. But what you truly delight reveals something closer to your essence. In our last conversation, we spoke about the idea of Mimala and Soviv, that God fills reality from within, and then there's a godliness that transcends our vessels from beyond. Today, I want to go one level higher or one level deeper. Kabbalah calls it Keter. Keter means a crown, but but not a crown because God needs jewelry. A crown because it sits above the ordinary faculties. It sits above the level of measured understanding. It sits above the level of ordinary emotion. And within that crown, there are two inner movements, will and delight. Tanuk, delight. The Altar Abba talks about this in Igarata Kodesh, and he says that in the human soul, the power of Ratsun, the power of will is the outer expression, and the deeper power is the power of delight, the power of tainuk. In the language of Kabbalah, the supernal will is the more outward face, and the delight is the more inward sweetness beneath it. So I want to try to put this into context. We've spoken before about the idea that creation is built through a holy tension. King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, I'll quote the verse, he says, Gam etze la mutze, that with opposites God created the world. The world is built in pairs. Hidden and revealed. Soul and body. These are pairs. You may call them opposites. I'm going to call them pairs. Heaven and earth. Filling and surrounding. And the purpose is not that these opposites stay enemies. The purpose is that we take opposites and opposites become a higher unity. If you remember, we spoke about the Bahrain, right? The bottom line, the practical result. Because in Judaism, if a brilliant idea does not eventually change a Wednesday morning, then it's still waiting to become its full potential. The idea is that something that we hear, something that we experience, it changes us. The Mishnah says that if wisdom exceeds deeds, it's like a tree with many branches and few roots. But if deeds exceed wisdom, the tree stands. I like tree analogies, especially in the summer. And that doesn't mean that wisdom is bad. I don't think it's an insult to wisdom. But to me it means that spiritual truth must put down roots in action. And so today I want to add a new question. It's not only what did I do, but from where inside me did I do it? Was this a moment of habit? Sometimes I do things out of habit. They just become absent minded. Just I'm on, press the button and I go. Absent-minded completely. Was it a moment that I willed? I really, really wanted this. I wanted this into being. Was it a moment of delight? I pleasured this into being. I'm trying to find the right word for Tanuk. Tainuk could also be pleasure. Pleasure sometimes has a funny connotation in English. So I'm I'm trying to move away from that. Maybe over the course of our time we'll find the right word. And I think the next question for me would be: how do I grow from one to the next? So I want to try to unpack it. If you didn't understand a word that I've said so far, that's fine. I'm going to slowly unpack this whole idea over the course of the next 30 to 40 minutes. I want to begin with Ratsan. Will. What is will? I think the simple answer is will is whatever I decide I will. Whatever I decide will is. What I choose. What I move towards. Kabbalah is going to push a bit deeper. Because will is not just a thought in the head. It's not only a conclusion after analysis. It's the soul extending itself towards something. It's the soul leaning outward. And that's why will is so powerful. Because reason can explain. Emotion can react. But will can move mountains. I can understand everything and do nothing about it. I know. I know it's right. But what am I going to do about it? I'm I'm depressed. I don't feel like moving. I'm not feeling like it today. So my emotions got to the best of me. I know it's wrong. I know I should be doing whatever it is I should be doing, but sorry, just not my day today. I could understand, I could feel, I could feel and not move. But when the will awakens, suddenly I move. Nothing stands in the way of the will. And we give such dignity to this idea in Jewish thought called kabbalatol. It means accepting the yoke of heaven. Now, I know in English, yoke sounds very heavy. Today people don't even know what a yoke is. They think it's the inside of the egg. Judaism, uh, for those of you who know what a yoke is, it doesn't want to turn you into a spiritual ox. What what what what it means, the yoke of heaven, it's not it's not humiliation. It means that I agree that I am not my own ultimate reference point. I am not the center of reality. Goddess. And because God is the master, I can align my will with God's will even before I fully understand everything. So there's a part of me, and there was a point in time in my life that I would say, if I don't get it, I'm not doing it. What Kabala's gonna say to that is you're limiting yourself. Because you're smart. And sometimes you'll catch up with it. Now, if at some point you're doing something, you're like, I don't like this. This is not for me. No problem. It's simple, just turn the corner, do something else. But to be waiting to understand everything before you do it, there's something missing. The example that the Mishnah gives is it says, do not be like servants who serve a master in order to receive reward. Be like servants who serve the master without expectation of reward, which means don't make relationships transactional. I think that's true in all relationships. And I think it especially shows itself in our relationship with God. I've had times in my life where I turned a mitzvah into a spiritual invoice. I would say, look, God, what did I do for you? I did this and I did this and I did this. Now where's my parking spot? Where's my miracle? Where's my lower mortgage rate? And I understand, I mean, there's times that I want Amazon Prime delivery from heaven. I want it now. I want the answer to be yes. I want the same-day blessing, I want free shipping. And I feel like I've done a lot of good things. I should get the points. I'm I'm turning in the points. And this is something that hits hard, I think, for me. As I think about it, it is We're not connecting to God because there's a point system, but because there's a higher power. I'm serving because there's a master in the world. I'm serving because I belong. And I'm serving because truth is truth. I know, I know these ideas are so foreign. I could feel the energy, I could feel the tension even in the room here. And I know that this is just so antithetical to so much of our world. And sometimes I say, come on, haven't we progressed? And I'm not saying that there should be blind faith, but there's a little tiny bit of our lives that should be blind faith in order to be able to move forward. This was the secret of the Jewish people, even at Sinai. They said the words na seven Ishma, which means we will do and then we will understand. Before they understood, before the analysis, before the details were digested, the people said, We will do and then we will hear. First we'll do and then we'll have a deeper hearing. First, loyalty and then unfolding understanding. When I realized this, and then I realized that at Sinai we married God, and that our marriage with God is supposed to be the example of what our marriages with our significant others are supposed to be like. And I said, ah, that makes sense to me now. Because I want, I will do, and then I will listen later in my marriage too. I don't want to have to wait for everything to be understood for it to happen. The Talmud says that when the Jews said, We will do, and then we will listen, the angels placed crowns on them. And the heaven said, Who revealed to my children the secret that is used by the angels? Now, and I and I I feel the pushback, and I I push back myself also. This is not blind faith. This does not mean that Judaism is against asking questions. I would say, on the contrary, we are addicted to questions. And that's why this is so important. You see, often we have to hold many truths at the same time. I think today in our world, this is more true than ever, that we have to hold many truths at the same time. And so I am an intelligent human. I am addicted to questions. And a person who is addicted to questions, who's addicted to logic, who wants to know everything, also needs to have a time in their life where they do and they ask questions later. Not always. Sometimes that's important. Otherwise, it'll be much more difficult for progress. I think there's a difference between asking to understand and asking in order to postpone surrender. Some questions are doors, and some questions are shields. And it's okay to have a defense mechanism. I do that a lot, and I catch myself. And I ask myself, is this question a door or is it a defense mechanism? Some questions I ask open my soul. And some questions I ask help me avoid doing what I know is right. And so this idea of na sevanishma, I will do and I will hear later after. I don't need to understand everything before I begin belonging. I begin with my will, with my ratsan, with my loyalty, with my kabawat all, with accepting the yoke. And then understanding grows in inside the faithfulness. Now that's step one. Here I want to introduce the part that I think saves this from becoming a dry religion. Because Judaism does not want me to remain a servant in the narrow sense. Just do blind faith, and that's it. First of all, I wouldn't last too long in this if that was the case. There is a point. There's a time for service. There's a time to just accept. There's a time to not ask questions. But then there's a time to lead onward. Maimonides says that one who serves from love does not do truth for reward, not out of fear for harm, but He does what is true because it is true. I'll paraphrase what Maimonides is saying. When a person loves God, they immediately want to have perform a mitzvah from love. When I have a relationship, I want to do for that person out of love. When I have a relationship with God, I want to do for God out of love. So the beginning, there may be an element of duty. There may be an element of I do, and then I understand. But the goal is love. The beginning may be, I will. The goal is something in me delights in this truth. And this is the next stage, the stage of Tanuk. What is Tinook? People translate it as pleasure. I think that it's not enough. The English word pleasure is a little suspicious. It can sound like dessert. It can sound like a vacation. It could sound like the feeling of finding out the meeting could have been on an email. Wonderful things. But that's not what we're looking for in our lives. That's not a deeper dimension of our lives. Tanug in Kabbalah means the inward sweetness of being aligned. A delight that reveals essence. The yes of the soul when it meets what it truly belongs in. When you know you're doing the right thing, because your soul is just so happy and so you feel like like you feel you feed your body with good food and you feel satiated. And then there's moments in life where you feel your soul, you're feeding it with good, whatever you're feeding it with, and your soul feels satiated, and maybe you haven't had that feeling in a while. That's delight. The authorabba says in Nagarta Kodesh that the human soul, delight is deeper than intelligence. And will is the outward side of delight. And the example he gives is that when a person grasps a profound new insight, it's hard. You're like trying to catch it. Like right now, some of these ideas are difficult. You're trying to catch it. But when you catch it, you're like, oh, that makes sense. Delight is born. Which shows that delight is higher than the intellect, even as it becomes clothed within it. And the same thing above. I'll explain it like this. You can know things and not yet delight in them. You can even will things and not yet delight in them. But when Tanuk, when delight comes, it reveals that the truth has entered somewhere that's deeper than all of these ideas. It's not just something that I submit to. It's becoming something I taste. And it's interesting because Kabbalah talks about mitzvot. Not as duties, which people call them commandments. They're not commandments. They're connectors. They're relationship connectors. We're in a relationship with God, and God gave us 613 ways to six hundred and thirteen love languages. Choose yours. These are channels of divine sweetness. The Kute Torah teaches that mitzvot are rooted in the Supranal will, higher than grasped reason. And that their deepest inwardness is Tanuk, is the delight that stands behind the will. So saying that a mitzvah is a commandment is a mistranslation of what a mitzvah is. It is an opportunity to touch inner pleasantness of God. When you have someone in your life who you love, and they do something for you that you want them to do, not something they want them to do. They love you the way you want to be loved, not the way they want to be loved. There's a delight. If you've experienced it, you know what I'm talking about. There's something so beautiful about that delight. And that's what a mitzvah is. It's our beloved in a relationship said, This is what I want. And we do it sometimes because it's nice, but most of the time because our beloved wants us to do it. And that's how we build the relationship. Like any relationship, it's a muscle. It takes working it. Not every mitzvah I do feels delicious on a Wednesday morning. Sometimes it feels holy, and sometimes it feels difficult. And sometimes it feels like I'm dragging myself with the emotional enthusiasm of a parking ticket. And I used to think, like, why am I doing it if I if if I don't feel it? I don't want to be a faker. Well, doing it when I don't feel it, that's the stage of rat's n. That's the stage of will. That's the stage of I'm going to do it and I'll understand later. That's kaba wat all. It's beautiful. It's powerful. Overcoming my desire, because when I look back at it, maybe it was because I was lazy. Maybe it was because who knows? I don't want to give excuses. It's not going to help anyone. But if I wait to do a mitzvah for it to feel good and for it to feel effortless and luminous, then I'm going to end up probably with a very inspired imagination, but an unused prayer book. So the path that Kabbalah is paving for us here is first Ratson, first will, and then over time, Tanug delight will begin to happen. But it's a process. If you want to experience true delight, do something for someone you love that you don't feel. And when you see their reaction, when you see that, that is a delight that you can't do. You can't put words to it. First fidelity, then sweetness. First show up, and then you can discover what will happen as a result of that. The example that is often given is the example of the great Rabbi Akiva. He was an incredible person on his own right. And in his time period, in the times of the Talmud, there were the learned and the unlearned. There wasn't schools. And so most people were unlearned. And to become learned is a very, very difficult thing. And the story goes is that he's he over the course of years he was a shepherd, and he would take his sheep to the well, and he saw something incredible. He saw that there was a little leak in the well. And there was a drop, a drip that was dripping down from the well onto a stone beneath it. And over time he noticed, I love noticing. That's why I love this story. Over time, he noticed that the drop dripping from the well was creating an indent in the stone. And there was an actual indent in the dense stone from the water, from constant drip. And he said, If a drip of water can make an indent in a dense stone, then a drip of knowledge can make an indent in my dense skull. And at 40 years old, he started studying for the first time from the beginning. And he became the great Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest sages, one of the greatest Jewish teachers in history. He was the teacher of 24,000 students. Later, his greatest student was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who was the author of the Zohar. And the Zohar is the magnum opus of Kabbalah. So Rabbi Akiva has a very special place in our story, in our learning, in our teaching. Later on in his life, his whole life story is quite incredible, but the the point I wanted to, the story I wanted to bring out today was he was um he was killed by the Romans. Brutally killed by the Romans. It was beyond the scope of what I want to talk about today. As they're torturing him, his students cried out, they saw him saying the Shema, the sixth-word beautiful prayer, the most powerful prayer, the oneness prayer, Shema Yisrael Shemalu Kenu Hashamachad, stating that God is one. And the students cried out, Our teacher, even now, even now, during this difficult time, they're torturing you. Now you're talking about yoke? You're talking about oneness, you're talking about God? And he answered them that all his life he had been troubled by the verse in the Shema Bechol Nafshekha with all of your soul. And he says, Students, even if God takes your soul, so he wondered when he would ever have the opportunity to fulfill it with all my soul. I love you with all my soul. And now he said, My students, the opportunity has come. And if the opportunity has come, would I not fulfill it? And with that, he prolongs the word one, Echad. He prolongs the word one until his soul departs with it. I've thought about this story. And I used to think I can't relate to this. It's beyond me. It's from a different time period. It's a different challenge. And yeah, it there is a truth that it is beyond me. But I think it's also there's a teaching here that is very close to me. A life of work. For those of you who know me, you know that if you knew me a year ago, there's a good chance that I'm not the same person that I was then. And if you judge me from two or three or five or ten years ago, I'm definitely not the same person. My version of life is one that is a tremendous amount of work every single day, becoming better. And there are truths that become so real when the test comes. And sometimes I fail because I have so many opportunities to be tested, not Rabbi Akiva tested, but little tests, little tests that we all have. And then I would see, did I really do the work? When my wife was out of town for a few days, and I had to balance my busy schedule with making sure that I was the care the sole caregiver for my children. And it was extremely testing. And I got to see, have I done the work? Am I different? And there's parts of me that I was very happy with and parts of me that I wasn't. And I don't negotiate with them. And I'm not trying trying to be dramatic here. And I'm not trying to impress heaven or in impress saying, oh, here, look at me. I'm I'm doing all this work. It's because it's a great opportunity for me to see within myself, to look within myself and say, am I doing the work? Am I have I become, when I'm tested, have I become the person that I want to be? And that is Ratsan, that is will becoming fused with the deepest selfhood. Now, I want to make a very important distinction here. There are things I want because I'm attracted to them. And there are things that I delight because they express me. And they're not always the same. Maybe right now, because my older kids kept me up very late and my younger kids woke me up very early, I may want another cup of coffee right now, which I don't usually have. But that doesn't necessarily reveal my deepest soul. At 6 30 in the morning, it can feel metaphysical. And it may delight in a certain kind of kindness. But in the honesty of Torah, it opens something else. It's the kind of delight that says something much deeper about me. And so I want to get into the practical question that I'm grappling with today as we go through these ideas. What am I training my heart to delight in? Now, if I'm not training my heart to delight in something, I'm passively training my heart as well with the choices that I make. Every time I give into a temptation, that's also training my heart to delight in something. Whatever I repeatedly feed it will eventually feel normal. And what feels normal eventually begins to feel like self. And is that the self I want to be? And that is why this is so deep. It runs so deep. It's the essence of what may become recovery for some people. The essence of what may become making life changes for others. Whatever I repeatedly feed myself will eventually become normal. And normal will eventually become me. And how I can just pull back and choose is what am I feeding myself? The work is not only to restrain bad desires. It's to cultivate a good delight. King David says this all the time. I delight in God. A holy joy. Like we're not embarrassed by a holy joy. We're not meant to produce emotionally constipated saints. We are meant to produce humans whose loyalty ripens into joy. And it happens sometimes in a relationship where there's a dissonance. Where I love and I'm delighting in something. I finally got it, it clicked. And the person I'm in a relationship with is like, what's so exciting? And so I have the opportunity to let them enter my world or to keep it to myself. And anytime there's change, there's going to be elements that are going to be good and more difficult. Now here's the next step that I'm thinking about as I process this. If Tanuk, if delight is really what Kabbalah is describing here, then why don't we just skip straight there? Why don't we just say, I only want joy, I only want authenticity, I only want what feels real to me. Why do I have to go through all this complicated and convoluted relationships and this and that and the other thing? Enough. I am going straight to the essence. And it's because of this. Because that can sound spiritual and still be a disaster. Because if by authenticity I mean I will only do what I presently feel like doing, then I haven't reached the essence. I haven't reached the truth. I've become a servant to my mood. And mood is a terrible rabbi. It changes every four and a half minutes. Sometimes Because of deep reasons and sometimes because of blood sugar. And that's why Ratson will must come first. The will gives a direction to the soul. Will says to me, it may not be sweet, it may be difficult, but this is where I belong. I may not be inspired, but I'm going to do the action. I'm going to light the Shabbat candles. I'm going to put on Tfillin. My heart may not be open, but I'm going to show up and I'm going to pray. It may be boring, but I'm going to do it. I don't feel like forgiving this person, but I'm not going to speak poison about them. I may not feel joyful, but I will remain loyal, as difficult as it is. And then, then something miraculous happens. A repeated act of holy will begins to educate the heart. A repeated act of holy will begins to educate the heart. The mitzvah I did because I had to becomes the mitzvah I miss when I don't. Shabbat that maybe used to feel to me like a list of restrictions. To me, today feels like I can't wait for it. I just want to turn off my phone. I want to just be present. I never appreciated how present Shabbat comes. At the end of Shabbat, especially in the summer now, I sit on my porch with beautiful people and I don't want it to end. Where a version of me used to be the moment it was over, I was running to grab my phone because I'm so addicted to it. Today, I delight in presence, which I rarely get because usually my phone is on me. The moment I look at it, I'm present with that and not present with here. The external deed becomes internal delight. That's what growth is. A number of lessons ago, we said we spoke about Bachin. The bottom line. So now I learned about will and delight. What's going to change me? So now let me give you some examples in real life. When I learn, sometimes I learn because I scheduled it. For example, this Wednesday morning class is scheduled. We try not to miss it because it's a class that we are connected to every single week. That's great. That is Ratson. That is Will. I may have been very tired this morning, but I am going to do it because I'm going to do it. So where's the sweetness? So while I'm here, because I showed up, I can ask myself: is there one nugget? Is there one sentence that suddenly felt alive? That something clicked for me? My will brought me here, but my delight can experience, can be present here. Is there one idea that made my soul sit up straighter? I mark it down. If I write, if I voice note, however, I keep my notes, I savor it. And that's how my Tanuk, that's how my delight begins to awaken. Let's look at what this looks like in relationships. I think in relationships, this one is very practical. Today is a very special day. Today is the Jewish holiday of love, which is why you may have heard me talk about relationships a little more today than I usually do. So I think in relationships, this one is very practical. I'm not going to wait until I feel like being kind. If my partner is tired, if my child is spiraling, if my friend is carrying something heavy, I'm going to begin with will. I'm going to choose a kind tone. I'm going to choose not to answer sharply, even though I just want to whatever. I'm going to choose generosity before my emotion catches up. It's not fake. It's adulthood. It's being the adult. It's answering as the adult instead of answering as the child. And what's interesting is that when I do that constantly and consistently, a deeper delight appears. The joy of being the kind of person that my soul respects. Here's a hard practical. Temptation. When I feel pulled by a desire, for me, sometimes it's mindless eating. Just kind of happens. I see something that looks good and I'm just mindlessly eating it. I can stop and say, am I actually delighting in this or is it mindless eating? Because I'm my emotions are getting to me. Sometimes desire is loud and shallow. And delight is not loud. It's the opposite. It's quiet. And it's true. I can want distraction and still delight in clarity. I could want revenge and still delight in peace. I could want more noise because it just feels comfortable. I don't have to think and feel myself. Or I can delight in in the quiet stillness, which may be harder for some, for me. And I think it's about learning to ask that deeper question. And then beginning to live from essence rather than impulse. I know this is hard. I know that these ideas are so antithetical to some of just to feel, do, whatever makes you happy. So there's a lot of unlearning that has to happen. A lot. It's adulting. It's flipping the switch. And deciding that my child has spent a lot of time deciding my future. And now I can I'm an adult. I'm the adult I've been waiting for, and I can decide. I could take a step back. I have the wisdom and I have the experience to know what is right and wrong, and sometimes I don't, so I have to take a leap. And that's also okay. I want to end with this. The goal of Judaism is not to make us less human, it's to make us more true. And sometimes that truth begins with discipline. And sometimes that truth begins with surrender. And sometimes it begins with simply saying, God, I do not feel much right now, but I am still here. And that is precious. Don't underestimate the holiness of showing up. But don't stop there. Don't settle for an experience. In this case, because I'm talking about Judaism, don't settle for a Jewish experience that is only external compliance. Don't settle for a relationship with God that is only obligation without good tableware. Don't settle for a relationship with anyone that is only obligation. Our souls, my soul, wants more. It wants sweetness. It wants inwardness. It wants the day when a mitzvah that I do is not just something I checked off, but something that felt like coming home. And so this week, I'd like to invite you to ask yourself two questions again and again. One is what is the right thing I must choose? And two is what is the holy thing I want to learn to love. I will use my Ratson, my will to guide me, and then my delight, my Tainug, will begin to find me. And so my blessing to us this week, to each and every one of you, is may Hashem, may God help each of us, that our service should begin with faithfulness and then grow into love, and then ripen into delight, and then descend all the way into action until our bodies become willing, our hearts become warm, the Torah becomes sweet, the mitzvot that we do become alive, and our whole lives, our whole beings become a dwelling place. For the one that we serve. And with that I wish you a beautiful week. Beautiful day. Filled with love. And this Jewish holiday of love. Till we meet again.