Last year, we did our first virtual honoring of our annual award winners for the Alumni Ministry and Service Recognition, and we decided that that worked really well. It allows people from a lot of different places to be part of this event, rather than mostly the AMBS community being part of it. So we're doing that again tonight, and so pleased that all of you can join us. We have folks here from all different parts of Leonard and Joanne's lives, and I know they are very happy that you've joined us tonight as well. After I'm finished with the introduction, then our president, David Busher, will read a commendation for Leonard, and then Leonard will have some time to share. And then after he has shared, we will open it up to everyone. And that is your chance to offer him congratulations or memories if you can kind of keep them somewhat short that allows more people to share their memories. So don't go too long on that, but that's what the evening will be, and then I will close us up at 7.15 with a word of prayer. So very grateful to all of you for joining us tonight, and I'm going to turn it over now to President David Busher to, oops, we just lost David. Okay. I'm here. Oh, there he is. There he is. Okay. Popped a different point on my screen. David, I'll turn it over to you now. Please mute themselves before we go any further. Go ahead and put the little mute button in the corner of the screen on so that we don't hear your background noise. And then, Dan, if you would now start the focus screen on the speaker, thank you. Thank you, Janine. It's been it's really good to be with you all this evening. I am delighted to present the 2021 AMBS alumni ministry and service recognition to you Leonard Webe. As a younger pastor, you have been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me over the years, and I'm just delighted to be extending this award to you for your much deserved years of service to the church. Leonard received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 1960. Leonard grew up in Kansas and graduated from Bethel College in 1957, where he met his wife, Joanne. While at Bethel, they became close friends with Erland Waldner, a Bible professor at Bethel, who went on to become a Bible professor and president of Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Chicago. Erland officiated at the Webe's wedding and encouraged them to go to MBS. Leonard's first year of seminary was in Chicago, and then the seminary and its students moved to Elkhart in 1958 to begin the association with Goshen Biblical Seminary known as AMBS. While still in seminary, the Webe's were asked to plant a church in Fort Wayne, and they moved to Fort Wayne after Leonard's graduation in 1960. Leonard was pastor of Maplewood Mennonite Church until 1974, and during that time he also completed a Master of Sacred Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1970. From 1974 to 1986, Leonard was pastor of Faith Mennonite Church in Newton, Kansas. And he then planted a second church in East Denver, pastoring at Peace Mennonite Community Church in Aurora from 1986 until 1998. I noticed that all of Leonard's pastorates were longer than 10 years, which is very significant I think. Since returning to Northern Indiana, Leonard has served as a congregational coach for several congregations in the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. So Anne have been active members of 8th Street Mennonite Church, which is part of Central District Conference. Leonard, thank you so much for your decades of service in pastoral ministry, church planting, and leadership. Congratulations on being named one of our alumni recognition recipients. This certificate recognizing this honor will be delivered to you soon. And we invite you to share with us a few words at this point. You're still on mute. Start one more time. Okay. Oh, okay. I want to begin by thanking the seminary for the Alumni Ministry and Service Award and this recognition event. I feel like the seminary prepared me well for my approximately 60 years of active work with churches. About 40 of these years were as lead pastor of Mennonite churches in Fort Wayne, Newton, Kansas, and Denver, Colorado. And then the last 20 years were as interim of two Mennonite churches in Kansas and as a congregational coach of three churches here in northern Indiana. At the age of 91, just this fall, I finally fully retired, whatever that means. And Joanne and I just moved here to Green Crop. It has been a rich and full life. I decided I wanted to go into the ministry after my second year of college, while doing one W work in a polio hospital in Los Angeles. A patient I knew well, suggested that I should become a pastor. While I had always thought about being a farmer, the idea of being a pastor was planted at a young age.  When my sister did that at that time, I didn't really go with her on that. I was still thinking a little bit of farming. But Gertrude then later became a Greek professor here at the seminary. I do want to acknowledge Joanne's role throughout all of these years. We met at Bethel College, as you've already heard. We took a Bible class from Erlen Waltner, and I'll say more about Erlen later. But we asked him to officiate at our wedding. And in a counseling session, he made this statement, I see you two as a team in the pastoral ministry. And this is what it has been. I'm very grateful to Joanne, the way we could pass her together. After graduation from Bethel, we began our study at Mennonite Biblical Seminary as you've heard, or MBS. And the first year in Chicago, and then we made the move with the seminary to Elkhart in 58. During our seminary years, I had the opportunity to do some interesting things. One was to join several others from the seminary to take a trip to the south to study racial issues in 1960. Our small group went to the Martin Luther King's installation service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. And we were able to meet him and to visit with him briefly. Of approximately 600 in attendance, there were only about 30 whites that I could count. This impacted me. The seminary made this possible, giving us a card to use for two weeks and helping to set this up. The speakers were Peter Edgar. No, I'm sorry. Another memorable experience was attending a conference in Kansas City on urban church planting. The speakers were Peter Edgar from Fresno, Stan Bone from Kansas City, and Don Wismer from Arvada, Colorado. I spoke and it created an interest in me when I heard of the good experience they were having in church planting in the city. During our senior year, Erlen Walker told me about the burn church in Elgin, Fort Wayne, and yeah, yeah, the burn church. Dad, you got muted somehow. I'll start over there. Just right there. Yeah. Yeah. During our senior year, Erlen Walker told me about the burn church interest in planting a church in Fort Wayne. Can you hear now? The burn church contacted us. And after some thought and prayer, we sensed a call to go forth to Fort Wayne. They were anxious to begin soon. So they asked us to begin part time by March 1 of our senior year. The church purchased a house in northeast Fort Wayne, which would serve as a person age and also a meeting house to get started. We began with just four couples who were interested in helping us. Years later, having grown to about 65 persons, we built a church with seating for about 120 people and additional Sunday school classes and fellowship hall. In 1964, we hit a plateau in our attendance. It was difficult to reach out to new persons and families, and we were discouraged. Out of this difficult time, we, Joanne and I decided to meet every Thursday evening with Stan and Ruth Naylor, and they would, we would have prayer together. We continued for a number of months and over the next few years our prayers were answered and we did keep growing. Two things we started during those years were a preschool at our church, and we also helped develop the East Central Neighborhood Center. We started a voluntary service unit in 1966 to help with this project. After housing became a serious problem in this black neighborhood. With the help of a Mennonite businessman, we started a housing project, which purchased older homes, which were empty and condemned, and completely restored them with electrical plumbing and heating units. In the period of eight years, we restored 20 such houses to sell back to the community at a modest price. To continue growing, we needed to keep reaching new people. People have sometimes asked me, how did you make contacts with the new people in your community? Our church was in a neighborhood of new homes, and I visited every home in our neighborhood or the community. When I visited with someone at the door, I often asked one question. May I ask, do you have a church home? No one has ever objected to answer that question. The question opened the door for further conversation, resulting in many people visiting our church. And I've used that question over the years. By our 12th year, the church had overgrown or outgrown the existing sanctuary. And in 1972, we added on a long larger sanctuary with additional classrooms for Christmas education, Christian education. By then, the attendance was about 190. About a third of our membership came from members who were not from Mennonite background. Following our 14 years of ministry in Fort Wayne in 1974, we accepted a call to Faith Mennonite Church in Newton, Kansas, where we served for 12 years. And it was the only established church that we served, except for interim work, which we did in retirement. We enjoyed our work at Faith Church very much. In our fifth year there, we went through a building program, enlarging the sanctuary and adding Christian education classrooms. With a larger sanctuary, we needed two services because of the attendance. Part of this was because we were in the same community as Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. And many college students came to our church. Some pews on the right side of the sanctuary were sort of when the high, that's where the high school students sat. And on the left side, the college sat there. They had their kind of usual places. Some Sundays, we had 50 to 60 college students. Now these were usually the potluck Sundays, when the students love to come for a meal. The food probably helped the students to attend more regularly. There were many young families that were coming too. I recall one Sunday, when we had a baby dedication, and there were 34 parents holding 17 babies all in a row in front. I spent time that week memorizing each baby's name so that I could bless each one individually. During our 12th year at Faith Church, we received a call from the Western District Conference, the office, asking if we would be open to help start a new church in East Denver. We considered it and prayed about it, but we were hesitant. And we said no. We didn't know if we had the energy to plant another church. Also, Joanne was serving in her eighth year as Executive Director of Women in Mission of the General Conference Mennonite Church, but they called again. And we gave it some more thought and prayer. And then we felt that God was leading us to say yes. There were several churches in Denver, but there was a desire that the new church be on the east side of Denver in Aurora. To get started, we wrote to all of our Mennonite colleges and asked them to send a list of the alumni who lived in the larger Denver area. For the first five months, we called on many persons. We began to meet at our home for Bible study, prayer sessions, planning meetings, many meals, and welcoming new people to the group. After five months of bringing small groups of people together, we had about 30 people, and it felt it was time to find a place where we could rent space. And we realized that the Aurora Senior Center, a gathering place for senior citizens, became available to be used on Sundays. We chose the name Peace Mennonite Community, Community Church. We did Sunday services announcing this in the papers, and we stopped at many houses in the community, giving them a brochure, and telling them about the new church. After we had been there for about three and a half years in a rented building, a piece of land came up for sale. It was very near to the Aurora Senior Center where we were meeting. We were located on Alameda Avenue, a well-traveled street, and good visibility. One humorous experience was a time I felt compelled to go to this plot of land and pray that, ask God, is this really something we can afford to do and pay for? My VW bug and parked it partially on the land and partially on the sidewalk of this undeveloped 2.2 acres. I walked to the middle of the land, and I knelt down and prayed. And the only interruption was that after a little while, a police car pulled up behind my VW. I was worried he was going to write me a ticket.  Paying for the land and the building was a big challenge. And all I can say is that we relied on many generous people, not just in Colorado, but also in Kansas, Nebraska, and Indiana. The land 2.2 acres was 170,000 in cost, quite a bit higher than the usual farmland we think of. And in Whitewater, Kansas, the land wasn't that high. Well, the construction company, it was tremendous how they had a lot of help. Some of these people came from far away, and like Barney Hubberger from Burn, Indiana, who made three trips to help out, and he even brought a small crew with him every time he came. We couldn't have done it without all of this help. The first worship service in the new building was on August 17, 1997, which happened to be Joanne's 62nd birthday. I was 67 by then, and it was 11 years since we had first moved to Denver to plan a church. The membership at the church was about 100 people when we finished our ministry. There are one year later, and almost half of the congregation came from backgrounds other than many. I want to close with a few things about Erlen Walker, who I mentioned at the beginning. The relationship with Erlen demonstrates the role that AMBS faculty have with their students. It's not just a relationship for three years, but often for a lifetime. In addition to being our professor in college and marrying us. He was my professor when we both ended up in the new seminary in Elkarp. He was my ordination service at a Mayesh church in Whitewater, Kansas, and he also preached at my mother's funeral. He spoke at the dedication of the second building project in Fort Wayne, and he came, he was 80 years old, and he came all the way to Colorado to give the sermon when we dedicated that church. Enter for me for over 50 years. Many of you, of course, know that Walker was a president of the seminary for 20 years. Through all of these experiences, we know that it was God's doing. And there were many answers to prayer. Joanne and I witnessed God's faithfulness to us and to our church institutions, including AMBS. Thank you for allowing me to share these reflections. Thank you so much Leonard. What a rich life's experience for you and Joanne, and we are very grateful to hear that story.


Hello and welcome to the CSS podcast, where we break down what's happening on the web platform for CSS and UI. We've got a short one for you today, which is more of an FYI, but it's a nice ergonomic improvement to a feature you're probably already familiar with, media queries. Did you know that media queries are used on over 80% of websites according to the HTTP archive? They let you adjust styles based on the size of the viewport. You can use min widths, max widths when you're setting these media queries. You can do something like at media space, open parentheses, min dash width, 400 pixels, and parentheses. And then in curly brackets, it'll let you apply styles when the browser window is at a width of 400 pixels or larger, minimal width of 400 pixels or larger. While at media space, open parentheses, max dash width, 400 pixels, and parentheses start the curly brackets. Yeah, I'm doing that that fast. That lets you apply styles at 400 pixels or smaller. We also have an episode all about media queries, and we're talking about page-level media queries here. That is episode 32. So if you want to learn more about media queries, we go into depth about how to use them, when to use them, and why you're using them. But so many of you are already using them. You can also set media query values in between two sizes using the AND combinator. And that might look like at media and then in parentheses, min width, 400 px, and then in another set of parentheses, max width 800 px. And then you have your styles in there. So this would let you then apply styles if the viewport was in between 400 pixels and 800 pixels. Yes, but that got a little long-winded, didn't it? There's a streamlined new syntax, which is pretty much what this whole episode is about, for these types of queries with the media query syntax level four specification. The new range queries, that's their cool official name, are currently supported in Chromium 104 plus and Firefox 63 plus. Yeah, Firefox has had these for a hot minute, that's for sure. Oh yeah, a long time. But they have not been implemented in Safari yet, but you can poly-fold them with post-css using the post-css media-minmax plugin. The new range queries can be written more succinctly using the less than, less than or equal to, greater than, and greater than or equal to operators. So instead of at media, min width, 400 px, you could write at media with greater than or equal to 400 px, which is a lot more clear. And for max width, you would write less than or equal to 400 px. Instead of at media, and then parentheses min width, cold and 400 px, and parentheses max width, cold and 400 px, you could shorten that to at media in one parentheses, 400 px less than or equal to width, less than or equal to 800 px. And this is just so much cleaner and easier to read. I'm sure as I'm saying it, it still sounds complicated, but it makes so much more sense when you see the ranges in front of your eyes. And you can also use less than or greater than instead of less than or equal to, and greater than or equal to if you don't want to be inclusive of the boundary values. Yep, I think of this a lot like, this is how I write my JavaScript, this is how I think about comparisons. It's how we learned math, right? These are logical operators we're very familiar with, and there even has a little superpower in this kind of hidden, which is that greater than and equal to or less than and equal to, which means you're not just doing like min width, 399 pixels, so that it's 400 pixels and above, and some junk like that. This is much more specific and streamlined and shorter, and it's overall beautiful. And it makes sense. This streamlined range queries syntax is supported in new query types and APIs like container queries. So you could write at container colon min dash width 400, or use the new range syntax and say at container inline size is less than or equal to 400 pixels. So you get to use that nice little logical operator. And now we're testing against the inline size because we're in container query land, which is the width in Latin languages. And checking that is less than or equal to 400 pixels. For more media queries, as I mentioned, check out episode 32. And for more on logical properties, we have an episode on that as well. I feel like I'm always sending people to that episode. Which one was it? Logical properties. Episode 12, season one episode 12. That was a while ago. Nice, that was. Also in episode 33, we dive into preference, queries, and teach you how to get even more customizable with your user driven CSS styles. So this podcast is just one of those books that you read and then choose your adventure. Those like goosebumps choose your adventure books. Nice. There's just so much to do. And to learn about container queries, we have got your back there to an episode 59. So now that you've chosen this adventure, choose your next adventure and your next podcast episode. But very nice. That's all we have today. It's a short one. But as always, thank you for joining us. If you have any questions about range syntax or anything else about CSS, we'd love to answer those questions on the show. Just tweet us with the hashtag CSSPodcast. I'm at UNO, that's at UNA. I'm at Argalink, A-R-G-Y-L-E-I-N-K. Your question, it can help a lot of people. And while you're on your choose your own adventure for the show, please give us a review on whatever podcast app you're using. It only takes one to five minutes and it helps people discover the show, but also helps people discover the show is sharing it with your friends and coworkers. So that way more people can be aware of all of these fun changes in CSS world. Yeah, good call. All right, well, thanks y'all. Holler at your pod. We'll see you next time.


Happy Hanukkah everyone. Hi, my name is Elio Yonik. I live in Burlington. I work at the Chabad Center there. We'd like to welcome Governor Phil Scott and Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman and to congratulate them on their winning their re-election. We'd like to thank them here today for coming as we kindle the second flame of the menorah. Hanukkah marks the miraculous victory of the Jewish freedom fighters who ousted the powerful Syrian Greeks from the Holy Land well over 2,000 years ago. It was a victory of religious freedom against an oppressive regime of heavy-handed pagans who tried to force their culture and beliefs on the Jewish people. But we stood strong. We did not cave in to the wicked regime and their desires that would be like them. Then upon entering the newly liberated Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the victorious Jewish armies found a small jar of pure olive oil with which to kindle the lamp that always burned there. Miraculously, the oil, which was enough for just one day, burned for eight days, the time it took to bring fresh supplies. The sages declared that lights be written every Jewish home to commemorate the miracle publicly marking God's providence for His people and the temperate of light over darkness. In recent times, the celebration spilled from the Jewish homes and synagogues into the public arena with the inspiration of the Lubavitchi Rabbi Menachem Shenereson of blessed memory who encouraged all Jews and all humans to add and bring light to the world. Therefore, Chabad-Lubavitch sponsored public menorahs appearing in public squares, government building, shopping malls, and common areas all over the world. In Vermont alone, we kindle the menorah in Heron, Montpellier, in Burlington, South Burlington, Jericho, St. Albans, Middlebury, Manchester, Brattleboro, and Bristol. This year, due to the events in Pittsburgh and the rise in anti-Semitism, there is an added urgency to celebrate in the open at state houses and public venues all over the world. A lighting of the Chanukah menorah, in response to a letter from the Jewish Community Council of Tunik, a New Jersey Lubavitchi Rabbi of blessed memory, pending letter in which he wrote, and I quote, Experience has shown that the Chanukah menorah displayed publicly during the eight days of Chanukah has been an inspiration to many, many Jews and evoked in them a spirit of identity with the Jewish people and the Jewish way of life. To many others it has brought a sense of pride in their Judaism and the realization that there is no reason really in this free country to hide one's Jewishness as if it were contrary to the American life and culture. On the contrary, it is fully in keeping with the American national slogan for many one, and the fact that American culture has been enriched by the thriving ethnic cultures, which contributed very much each in its own very way to American life both materially and spiritually. Therefore is it our honor that we sit here in front of the state house with government officials and with a great crowd to honor and to celebrate the second night of Chanukah. We'd like to call upon a very active member of the Jewish community here in Mount Pylir and the director of the yearning to running center Toby to give some greetings. I'm not by Toby Wiseman of the yearning for learning center and director of PJ library in Vermont. I work for Jewish communities of Vermont, which is a statewide Jewish organization bringing all Jews together all over Vermont. I would like to thank sincerely thank the governor and the lieutenant governor for being here with us tonight. And it is a very big honor for us to have you here. And I'd also like to thank Rabbi Raskin and Rabbi Eliaho Unik, Rabbi Benjamin Murray and the Chabad community who has been sponsoring this menorah lighting for over about seven years and bringing the delicious latkes and donuts and donating this menorah, which is now part of the state house. I'd like to really thank the state house for welcoming, welcoming us here. They not only house the menorah, they put it up and they are inviting us for the second year inside the state house for reception. The name Hanukkah actually means rededication because we're as Rabbi Eliaho Unik just said we are commemorating the miracle of over over 2000 years ago when the Jews rededicated our Holy Temple in Jerusalem after it had been desecrated by the Seleucid Greek Army. Hanukkah also comes from the Hebrew word Chinukh, education. And our rabbis taught us over 2000 years ago not to focus on the military victory but on the spiritual victory where one cruise of pure oil was found to light the menorah and instead of one day it lasted for eight days. Hanukkah's message is universal and eternal. Hanukkah teaches that the most important thing we can teach our children and ourselves is that each person has a unique and holy light within them. And in this time of hatred and bigotry, we need to reeducate ourselves that no matter what race we are, what religion, what culture, what country we come from, we all have a holy and unique light within us and we have to make a safe space for each person to be able to express their unique light in this world. And this is the most important message we can teach our children. And if we are successful in teaching our children that each person has a unique light and each person is holy and each person needs to be able to have a safe space to express themselves, then we could experience and hopefully we will experience peace in the whole world in our day. Thank you and I'd like to thank you for always arranging this event and being on top of it. The Lubavitcha Rebbe of Bless Memory was honored starting by President Carter that his birthday be called a national education day honoring the Lubavitcha Rebbe for all his work in Jewish education. I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the governor for realizing the importance of education for all of the citizens of the United States and declaring the Rebbe's birthday this past year the 11th of Nissan as Education Day here in Vermont. I'd like to take this opportunity to call upon the Governor Phil Scott to address the gathered. Thank you very much. A little bit warmer than last year as I remember it seemed like it was about 15 degrees here so a little more palatable but good evening. And thank you all very much for being here today. I'm grateful for the opportunity to join you as we celebrate the second night of Hanukkah. This is the sixth year I believe that we've had the Manoa here at the State House. It's been a great opportunity to bring together Vermonters in solidarity and appreciation for the diverse community we all know and love and to celebrate the special holiday at the most beautiful State House in the country. Here tonight we recall Hanukkah's lessons. How any group, no matter how small, can make a big difference. That's the lesson that the Maccabees. Here how a little bit can go a long way like that small amount of oil, which is shown for eight nights. It reminds us that even when resources are limited, faith and community can help make us make the most of what we have. The books of Maccabee tell how rulers persecuted Jews who observed their faith. That's part of why it's so important to not only light the Manoa but display it for all to see. I think all Vermonters can appreciate the spirit of this tradition. Our state has a proud history of defending the rights of all Vermonters regardless of religion or background and I'm glad to celebrate that with you tonight. Vermon is also known for our deep sense of community and commitment to our neighbors. It's part of our DNA. We help each other out, go the extra mile, believe in each other and the value of every single person. During this holiday season it's important to reflect on how fortunate we really are to live in this brave little state, to live alongside so many good and decent people who in their homes and jobs, churches and synagogues give so much of themselves to others. It's important that we don't take that for granted. On that note, I want to take a moment to thank the utility crews who have been working day and night throughout our first two winter storms to restore electricity to nearly 100,000 Vermonters. As we celebrate Hanukkah here tonight, let's commit ourselves to showing gratitude for each other. Especially all the Vermonters who inspire us with kindness, dedication to their families, their compassion and optimism and their love for one another because to me that's what this season is really all about. This is especially important right now, at a time where our dialogue too often lacks the respect and civility our nation desperately needs right now and our people really deserve it. I try to live by the golden rule, do unto others as you have done unto you. It's really pretty simple in my world, treat others the way you want to be treated. Even when someone may not be extending that same courtesy to you because actually that's when it really matters most. In this time of unrest and division in our country, we must remember that our children are watching and listening and they need us as role models to show them the right way to talk to and treat each other. As well, we should remember there are many Vermont families who are less fortunate than many of us who may not look forward to this season as much as we do. We should do our part to make sure they feel the joy and spirit of the season. Take some time to donate or volunteer at a local food shelf, shelter or community kitchen. Donate to a local charity and always, always be kind to one another, leading by example goes farther than we sometimes realize. Let's also remember that we have men and women in the military who will not be home for the holidays. They're in distant lands serving our nation and protecting the values we cherish so much. Let's keep them and their families in our thoughts as we move towards the new year. And finally, let's embrace hope and promise with so much negativity in the world today. There's so many ways to get caught up in the anger and hate. Let's use this time to set the example. Let's be the example. The shining stars for others to look to and learn from because that's the Vermont way. Thank you very much for being here tonight and sharing this with me. Thank you very much. I'd like to call upon the Lieutenant Governor David Zickermann to address the assemble. Thank you. Shalom. It's an honor to be here this evening. It brings for me a lot of memories of my childhood. My father would light the candles and unfortunately after I turned 13, he was no longer there to light the candles anymore. And I remember so much of what he taught me of the culture of Judaism. And that's to make the world a better place. To make each person's day or life or moment a little brighter. To do what we each can do to improve someone else's moment in that moment. And in reflecting on the governor's remarks, I think he touched on a lot of that. And in Vermont, we are a welcoming state. And in this moment of national discord, we come together for the lighting of the candles of the menorah. We come together when there's division in the community to come up with positive solutions for everyone. We hold those values deeply in Vermonters regardless of whichever religion or non-religion background we have. It's inherent in our people. So I see tonight's lighting of the menorah as a perfect symbol of who we are in Vermont. Of lighting candles of hope, lighting candles of community, lighting candles of a better future and tomorrow for our citizens, and for folks who are not yet citizens but maybe who want to be. And as a symbol that in Vermont, we will welcome people whom others are persecuting. We will welcome people who are fleeing violence and desperate situations. And so for me tonight's lighting is both deeply personal reflecting on my childhood and deeply personal on who we are as a community. So I want to thank you for inviting me to be a part of this. It's wonderful to have everybody here to be a part of this. And I know that this night and each of the eight nights are symbols of how we feel every night and every day as citizens of this state and members of our respective communities within the state. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to call upon Rabbi Byron Bin Yaman Morey, an emissary of the Rebbe to Middlebury as a Chabad house in Middlebury College to read a letter that the Lubavitch Rebbe addressed to Republic menorah lighting. Greetings and blessings. Hanukkah the festival of lights recalls the victory of more than 2,100 years ago of a military weak but spiritually strong Jewish people over the mighty forces of a ruthless enemy who had overrun the holy land and threatened to engulf the land and its people into darkness. The miraculous victory, culminating with the rededication of the sanctuary in Jerusalem and the rekindling of the menorah, menorah which had been desecrated and extinguished by the enemy has been celebrated annually ever since during these eight days of Hanukkah, especially by lighting the menorah, the Hanukkah menorah. Also is a symbol and message of the triumph of freedom over oppression, spirit over matter, and light over darkness. This is a timely and reassuring message for the forces of darkness are ever present in our time. Moreover, the danger does not come exclusively from outside and often works close to home in the form of insidious erosion of time-honored values and principles at other foundation of any decent human society. Needless to say, darkness cannot be chased away by brooms and sticks, but by illumination. Our sages say, a little light expels a lot of darkness. The Hanukkah lights remind us in the most obvious way that illumination begins at home with oneself and one's family by increasing and intensifying the light of Torah and mitzvahs in the everyday experience. Even as the Hanukkah lights are kindled in the glowing number of days, glowing numbers from day to day, but though it begins at home, it does not stop there, such is the nature of light, that when kindles a light for one's own benefit, it benefits all who are within the vicinity. Indeed, the Hanukkah lights are expressively meant to illuminate the outside, symbolically alluding to the duty to bring light all through those, for one reason or another, still walk in darkness. What is true of the individual is true of the nation, especially this great United States, united under God, and generously blessed by God with material as well as spiritual riches. It is surely the duty and privilege of this nation to road all the forces of light at home and abroad and in a steadily growing measure. Let us pray that the message of the Hanukkah lights will illuminate the everyday life of everyone personally and of the society at large for a brighter life in every respect, both materially and spiritually. With esteem, blessings and the spirit of Hanukkah, signed M. Shersen from the Baruch-e-Rabbi. Thank you. We have a custom after we light the menorah at home. We sit and we watch the candles burning. It is a chesedic saying that says you should listen to what the candles are telling you. I like to call upon Rabbi Raskin, the emissary of the Baruch-e-Rabbi to the state of Vermont and the senior rabbi of Burlington, Vermont for some words of inspiration. Happy Hanukkah and a special welcome to the governor and to the lieutenant governor. Thanks for coming. I just want to touch on two interesting ideas for what we heard tonight. One is when we look back in our history throughout all the times when there was the ups and downs, trouble, good times. It is very interesting when we got to Hanukkah times when it is 2100 years ago. We all know just now long ago it was 80 years to the Kristallnacht. This was clear. We're not just individual, we're a government, the Nazi regime, one after the Jewish people and others as we all know. The tragic what has happened. We're going back to Hanukkah times 2100 years ago. It's another type of war that sometimes we get lost by the other types and that was clearly against the religion. They had no problem if our ancestors stayed the way they are. The only thing they wanted just follow our customs. They came into Israel, invaded and wanted to enforce their ideas on us, the Jewish people. And they fought back and from that developed unfortunately to a war too. How did all this begin is going after us that we shouldn't be able to practice our religion. From that it developed into a war. It's interesting that generations later the founding fathers here in the United States when they created this country one of the ideas was to have freedom for religion. If you look very carefully the language is not freedom from religion but freedom for religion. That everyone should be entitled to celebrate their religion freely. There's no question that this is what's so special about this country and I would say I feel very safe here in Vermont I've been here for 35 years with my family and it's unbelievable the warmth and everyone is so nice to each other and we should only continue that way. And Hanukkah is a time that we bring in more lights and we remember this by increasing being strong in what we believe, strong in our religion and that helps us in helping each other in making this world a much better world. I mentioned before in the Rabbi's letter was a very interesting statement that light, darkness you can't get rid of with a broom. This is not dirt that you can get rid of with a broom. The only way you get rid of darkness by bringing in more light and that's what it is. And here's an amazing thing. Last night was on candle. Tonight's gonna be two and we keep on going. Somehow it stops by eight.  Imagine if Hanukkah keeps on going, you know. We're gonna have to get ten jobs, not just. So it's wonderful to all of us here. I have Hanukkah and we should be able to increase night after night, bring more joy, more warmth. And I'm Israel Chai. Happy Hanukkah. Thank you. We'd like to start with the lighting of the menorah. We'd like to ask David Fried, a very active member of the Napali or Jewish community to help out with the lighting as well as the governor or the cabinet governor. And Toby. And Toby. What is today? I think everyone could join with me together. Because I remember getting to do this.


It's cool. Nicole, this one's cool. Hello. There's the guns, isn't it, Cole? Oh, good thing. How are you? How are you? It's my name's Nathan. My name's Nathan McCoy, gong. Oh, hi, Malcolm. Good things. How are you? Where are you ringing from, Malcolm? Well, I was just finishing up on Google. You're done so drunk. Yeah, I had a couple of warm-ups after this. OK, well, you better sober up a bit, mate. Yeah. Yeah, no, I was just a couple. No, you've been birthing. It's just a couple of warm-ups after work. But what's what are you... What are you ringing from? What's that, mate? Where are you ringing from? I was ringing from my house on the telephone. That's up north. What area? That's north of Brisbane, up near... Oh, come on. I'm down the Gold Coast, mate. OK, when are you ready to come down here? Yeah, that's right. I'm heading down north. That's what I call on, right? I'm coming down to about 6.30 to go to dinner with a couple of the boys. Well, OK, Ulra, we'll give it to you to call back tomorrow, then. That's all good. No, I was just thinking maybe come over tonight, right? If I come around your joint, right? I'll bring both of them on. Maybe we can have a bit of a feeling around and just see what's going on down the... You know what I'm saying? Well, what are you acting? What are you charging? Bloody... I'm under something, is it? Right. Yeah, right, so... So you're already going to be drinking all night? No, no, I'm not drinking all night. No, I'm still done now. Right till the dinner time. I've got to be straight for the boys, right? And I've got one of my sons. He's 18, right? He's coming over dinner tonight. And it's his 18th birthday tonight and I'm trying to turn him into a man, right? So I'm thinking it's not for me. I might come see how I feel later on, but it's more for my son, right? He's 18. OK. Just turning 18, right? So I'm thinking... OK, all right, will you give me a call back over to the time? OK, I've got to lock this in right now, otherwise I've got to call someone else. I've got to lock it in right now. He's... Listen, he's dressed up, right? He's dressed... Yeah. He's dressed in a cow costume. He's got a cow costume. And he has never had sex before. And he's begging me, right?  I'm not for you, it's for him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's for him. It's for him, yeah, yeah, yeah. $300 for the real person. Yeah, well, I'll give you $300, right? And you just bloody... You go to town with him and put a couple of fingers in his arse and put maybe two, three fingers in his arse too, because I hadn't done that before. And that's what it's all about, you know what I'm saying? He's a man now, right? You put a couple of fingers in his arse, right? And I want to make sure $300 for half hour. That's pretty decent, right? What'll that give me, $300 for 30 minutes? Can he get a little tongue flick in the arse?  Yeah, there's three, man.  He's in a cow costume, Nicole. Fuck. Oh, my God, dude. You did well. You did well to keep her for as long as you had. She said it very well. She was not happy. But like, they must get that all at once. That's what it's all about is a couple of fingers in the arse. Just want you guys to know that my sister is here, witnessing this podcast. And her name is Nicole as well.   I've never seen that, but fuck, that made me very happy. I can't, I can't.


الله سبحانه وتعالى يقول ويلفجري by the fajر. The waw in walfajr is called wawul qasam. The waw in walfajr it's called the wawul qasam. What does it mean? It means Allah is making a oath. He's swearing by something سبحانه وتعالى. And in the Arabic language there are three letters that are used for an oath. In the Arabic language there are three words, three letters there are three letters that are used for the oath. The first one is the waw and the second one is the ba' and the third one is the ta. The first one is waw. The first one is the waw. الله سبحانه وتعالى قالوا والله ربنا ما كنا مشركين قالوا they said والله by our lord ما كنا مشركين we were never pagans and polythes. The second one is the second one is ba. Allah سيز قالوا تقاسموا بالله. ba. And the third one is تا وتالله وتالله لأكيداً أصنامكم بعد أن تولموا مدبرين. وتالله لأكيداً أصنامكم. والله بالله but they are different all three of them are not the same even though they all show that the person is making an oath but they are all differently used the waw is used for اسم ظاهر and a parent noun the waw it is used for a parent noun اسم ظاهر or what you would say in English grammar and it's also used for a pronoun اي بامير so it's only used for اسم ظاهر sorry sorry the waw is only used for اسم ظاهر and it's not used for a pronoun and you can never mention with it the verb أقسمو you can never mention that verb with it so what is the waw used for it's used for a parent noun okay and you cannot mention the verb أقسمو with it the second one is the waw the waw enters the اسم ظاهر the parent noun and it also enters the pronoun the بامير in the Arabic language and you mention أقسمو with it for example you say أقسمو بالله and you can also say أقسمو به به is a pronoun so it went in what a proper noun which is أقسمو بالله that's a proper noun and it also enters into a pronoun which is أقسمو بي and you also have to mention the verb أقسمو with it the third one is the تاء and the تاء only enters لفظ الجلالة it only enters the تاب الله it cannot be used for anything else so you can't even say ترحمن it is not from the names of Allah it is but the تاء can't be used for it it is only used for the name الله so you can only use it for what تاء الله only for Allah and you cannot mention with it the واب أقسمو you cannot mention with it so which of the three was used here the waw was used والفجري الله و تبارك وتعالى يسوز by the فجر what does it mean والفجري the فجر that Allah is swearing by according to the scholars of تفسير they have three opinions three views of what is meant by الفجر هيا how many views there are three views the first one is the دون it is the دون Allah is swearing by the دون that view is attributed to اكرمة from the مفصرين it is also attributed to عبد العباس it is also attributed to مجاهد من جبرين and it is also attributed to سدي they are the ones who said it means the دون so some of the translation in English you will see it says بايدا by the دون that's one view the second view is it means النهار the day the whole entire day is referred to الفجر this view is attributed to عبد العباس alone even though it is من طريق ابي نصرين from the chain of ابي نصرين وفيه غرابة it's a bit strange because the Arabs don't generally use the word فجر for the whole day but maybe من باب المقابلة because what is after فجر وليالين عشري because night was mentioned he mentioned day here من باب المقابلة the night was mentioned in the next verse so here the day will be mentioned the third view is it means the صلاة الفجر it means صلاة الفجر and that view is also attributed to عبد العباس himself and our sheikh عبد العباس he said it makes more sense to attribute it to which one the third one because the word الفجر in the شريعة where is it used as if somebody just say to you I came from فجر what would you understand it as the particular prayer right so the sheikh said it's better to restrict it to the that is used that is used for it الله says by the dawn I swear وليالين عشري and by ten nights and I also swear by the what by the ten nights what is meant by the ten nights here and what is intended by it there are three views regarding what is meant by وليالين عشري the ten nights the first view is the term here that is meant is أل أول من دل حجة the first term of the حجة the first term of the حجة أل أول من دل حجة the first term of what the حجة that's one view وليالين عشري he bought a consensus that is what is meant by it again the first view is the first ten of the حجة and وليالين عشري he transmitted a consensus and he said that's a consensus but there is no consensus because the second group they also transmitted a consensus which is the ten last of رمضان the last ten of رمضان and تبريزي the إمام تبريزيو he transmitted the إجماء that is meant by those ten are we all together and the third view is and the third the third view is it is meant by the first ten of the month of محرم and the strongest of those three before I strengthen one over the other or I favor one over the other the overwhelming majority of scholars are of the opinion that وليالين عشري is meant the ten of the حجة but the one that seems strongest is it does not mean the ten of the حجة means the ten nights of رمضان why and why did we strengthen this over the other because the scholars they say we can't strengthen one opinion over the other without a valid reason or else we will be using what is known in علم المناظرة as التحكم dictatorship we're forcing our view there and the reason is because the virtue of the first ten days of دلحجة is not the night it's the is the days and the virtues of the last ten nights of رمضان is what it's nights not the day when إيديانيك and the scholars they reconciled by saying the first ten days of دلحجة the first ten days of دلحجة is better than the last ten days of رمضان but the last ten nights of رمضان is better than the first ten nights of دلحجة does that make sense when إيديانيك and the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم he said in a hadith ربي الله تعالى عنهما that the messenger said ملعمل في أيام العشر أفضل من العمل في هاره ملعمل any righteous deeds that a person does is not as good as the ten days of دلحجة the prophet didn't say in nights what did he say he said days صلى الله عليه وسلم the companions then they said even jihad or messenger of Allah the messenger said even jihad even the one who goes to the battlefield and he fights the one who does righteous deeds in these ten days of دلحجة is better except the person who loses his wealth and his money and another narration in his family and he doesn't come back with anything the last ten nights of Ramadan is better than the first ten nights of دلحجة but the first ten days of دلحجة is better than the last ten days of Ramadan what did Allah say did he say did Allah say وَالَيَالِنْ أَشْرِمْ or what did he say وَأَيَامِ أَشْرِمْ الله تعالى تعالى he said so is it night here that's been spoken about or is it day so since it's night it goes to which one it goes to the last ten days of Ramadan even though this suppose is the view of the جمهور وَالَيَالِنْ أَشْرِمْ الله he swears by Subhanahu و تعالى the last ten days of Ramadan among the last ten nights of Ramadan الله Subhanahu و تعالى he swears by it الله Subhanahu و تعالى he also swears by وَالشَفْعِ وَالوَتْرِ the word there's two two recitation the first one is and the second one is الوطري both are two recitations that are read الوطري and الوطري الوطري and الوطري what is meant by وَالشَفْعِ وَالوَتْرِ وَالشَفْعِ وَالوِتْرِ what is meant by the word وَالشَفْعُ means even وَالوَتْرِ it means odd الله is swearing by the odd and even but what does it mean the odd and what does it mean the even that Allah is swearing by Subhanahu و تعالى because the word here is وَالعَطْف وَالشَفْعِ وَالوَتْرِ is connected to the قسم that Allah made before and also by the odd and the even what is the odd and what is the even and what is the even and the odd the scholars they have three opinions there are three opinions what is meant by the odd and the even rather the views they reached 20 20 different views and also ابنو جوزي they both transmitted it 20 views but we are going to choose 3 prominent ones the 3 strongest ones the first one is the shafa is meant by the day of the slaughter and the witter is meant by يوم عرفة the day of Arafa that's one view and this view is attributed to 5 great scholars the first one is the second is the third one is the fourth is and the fifth is the second the second opinion is because because the creation they come in even 2 by 2 man and woman جنة because the jannah is a creation right so everything Allah brought it in pairs and the witter is what Allah because the Hadith of the Prophet SAW he said you love witter Allah is odd and he loves because Allah is one not odd one is odd this view is attributed to and and the third opinion is it's referring to the prayers that we pray some prayers are what and some of them are what some prayers we pray 2 and some of the Salah is what one you just pray one witter and when he blew all of those views he said the strongest opinion and what we should say is إن الله تعالى ذكة إن الله تعالى ذكو أقسم بالشفع والوطر ولم يخص سنوعة من الشفع ولا من الوطري دون نوع بخبر ولا عقل وكل شفع ووطر فهو من ما أقسم به من ما قال أهل التأويل لعموم قسمي بيدالي because Allah did not restrict it Allah left it unrestricted Allah said on and even so all of them will facilitate what they mention all of them fall under it because Allah left it what general and the reason why Allah left it general is so all of that can enter it Allah left it left it سبحانه وتعالى what he left it unrestricted and so all of that can fall under والشفع والوطري and by the even number and the odd number Allah swt by سبحانه وتعالى وليلي and by the night Allah swt when it passes إدا يثري Allah is swearing by the night سبحانه وتعالى when is he swearing by it إدا ذهب وصار when the night passes Allah is swearing by it واتعالى and then Allah تعالى هل في ذلك قسم وليلي حجر is it not Allah is saying is there not in all of that oath all of that custom Allah made is there not in all of that oath that Allah made is it not in it ليلي حجر for a person of عقل a person of perception of person of intellect is it not enough for them to see what Allah swt by Allah is saying in all of that which I swt by is it not sufficient for one of perception a person who has عقل لي صاحب عقل is there not a is there not in it for that person enough is it not sufficient for them what it means here is a rhetorical question Allah is not asking you a direct question what it means in the question is that all of those things that Allah swt by are great things and in them are enough for a person to ponder and understand the greatness of Allah's commandments and the greatness of Allah's prohibition سبحانه و تعالى here we need to understand brothers when you swear by something if I say to you you are waiting for a what you are waiting for a جواب القسم the response to that what the oath so you are going to say to me Allah swt by all of that the question here is what is that oath towards what is the answer of that oath the جواب القسم so Allah swt by the والفجري والليال العشر all of that Allah swt by it what is the جواب القسم the scholars they said the جواب القسم is محضوف it hidden and how would we know what it is because the context of what Allah is going to speak about allows us to know what it is and what is it it is you will all be accounted for your actions the day of judgment when Allah says I swear by the dawn you will be accounted for your actions والفجري والليال العشر you will be accounted for your actions you will be accounted for your actions and what you do all of that which Allah is swearing by the answer to it is you will be accounted the day of judgment for the things that you do brothers we believe Allah without him without him having to make an oath what would you think if Allah makes an oath the matter becomes great brothers right it becomes great we would have taken it from Allah without him having to make an oath but he swore by all of that for us to show us how great it is and how big it is his commandments the things he commanded you and the things that he prohibited you from and then Allah تعالى then says have you not considered have you not seen the word ألم تراك it means ألم تنظر يا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم محمد did you not look at بعين قلبك with the eyes of your heart did you not deeply observe and think and contemplate over كيف فعل ربك بعيد how Allah dealt with the people of Aad ألم تراك محمد have you not looked at صلى الله عليه وسلم have you not looked at have you not pondered over and contemplated over كيف فعل ربك the way that your Lord dealt with what بعيد the people of Aad الله تعالى he destroyed the people of Aad as Allah said in سورة القمر كيف كان عذابي ونذر إن أرسل عليهم ريحا صرصرا في يوم نحس مستمر تنزع الناس كأنه أعجاز نخل منقعر الله قد قد قد قد قد سبحانه وتعالى و الله قد قد قد و قد قد قد و قد قد قد و قد قد قد و قد قد الله قد قد و until today الله سنة did not change in how he dealt with people who were against him and we'll speak about that إن شاء الله تعالى how sins take away the blessing الله يقول محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم have you not thought have you not contemplated have you not pondered over what your Lord and the way he dealt with the people of Aad إرامة دات العباد إرامة what does it mean there are five views what is meant by إرامة the first view is إرامة was a nation from the previous nations that existed they are a Ummah من الأمم a nation from the previous nations this is attributed to Qatada Qatada is the one who said this the second one is that the term إرامة it means القديمة old ancient that view is attributed to Mujahid but that can't be correct because if it meant قديمة if it meant قديمة then grammatically it would have been it wouldn't have been إرامة it would have been that's what it would have been so that view of Mujahid is incorrect the third one is إرامة was a village from the villages of the people of A'ad this is a view attributed to محمد المكعب للقراضي the fourth view is إرام is the great-great grandfather of the people of A'ad is where they come from it's the people of A'ad where they come from this view is also attributed to Qatada last but not least the fifth view is إرامة actually means those who were destroyed those who were destroyed and this is attributed to two great scholars عبد العبث and ضحاكم المزاحن إرامة will take the view that إرامة is the great-grandfathers of the people of A'ad Allah says إرامة ذات العماد إرامة ذات العماد إرامة the people of Irama they were that they were a people who had lofty pillar what does it mean ذات العماد ذات العماد means they were a people who were excessively big the people of A'ad they were very big people very strong they were a whole people but when you look at the books of Tafseer you find exaggeration when it comes to the people of A'ad you come across a story of a man by the name of عوج ابنو عنق some scholars they said that he was 3000 دراع how many 3000 3000 دراع one of the two I don't remember and they said that he was so tall he would take the fish from the ocean and he would warm it up on the sun حقيقة they mention this in the books of Tafseer and the books of history they mention it and ابنو كثير and القادي أبي بكر ابنو العربي the great malik is Qala and أبي عبد الله القرطبي and ابنو القي من كتاب المنار والمنيث المنار والمنيث and أمل حجر الهيطبي in his كتاب الففتاة الحديثية أن ملي على قارئ in his كتاب السرار المرفوع في حديث الموضوع all of them did not accept these kind of stories the reason why they rejected it is because the prophet the prophet told us in the حديث بخارن مسلم both narrated او ادم وطوله في السماء ستون دراعة وطوله في السماء ستون دراعة الله قررت ادم and how tall was he only 60 60 دراع 60 دراع is this long 60 of this the prophet then said يزل الخلق the creation were consistently what ينقصوا حتى الآن they were reducing until now this hadith I want to stand over a bit first of all what is this hadith show us what is this hadith show us this hadith shows us that ادم عليه السلام was only 60 دراع and Adam was the tallest so no one can be taller than Adam and everybody was becoming less than Adam so all of these خرافات and these things that don't have no reality we don't accept it because he goes against حديث الموخارن مسلم the second thing that we take from this hadith is a misconception that some people have which is that this امه as they go on they become shorter and shorter and that's not what the hadith mentioned the hadith the prophet he said in the hadith فلم يزل الخلق the people will become short and they will becoming short حتى الآن until this time the prophet was speaking not after the prophet now we all together brothers حتى الآن means until this moment and so what is clear is based on the explanation of the scholars is that this امه they are generally the same in height this امه from the time of the prophet until now you still find people the same in height now we all together the امه not becoming shorter as some may think الله says do you not see كيف فعل ربك بعاد الله dealt with the people of ad الله how do you deal with the people of ad as I said الله said with them a wind ان ارسلنا عليهم ريحا صر صرا في يوم نحس المستمر هاي ابراهيم what is it read the ayah next read ان ارسلنا عليهم ريحا صر صرا في يوم نحس المستمر هاي اخري تنزع الناس كانهم اعجاز نخل منقع الله تنزعهم and they became like palm trees what did they become ان ارسلنا الله تبارك وتعالى فهل ترى لهم منبقية do you see any remaining of this meaning الله never left the people of ad any one of them standing all of them Allah destroyed them are we all together brothers but did I think that there is a group that a prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم spoke about that are going to come out the prophet spoke about a group called the khawarij and the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said that the khawarij are going to come out and he said to the prophet he said to the companions يحقر أحدكم صلاته مع صلاته one of you will belittle his prayer in comparison to their prayer one of you will belittle the prayer he prays you will belittle your prayer وصيامهم مع صيامهم and they are fasting in accordance to their fasting you belittle your fasting when you see their fasting the way they pray and everything the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم يمرقون من الدين كما يمرقوا السهم من الرمية they exit the religion the way that the arrow exits the bow the way the arrow is thrown it goes out the bow they will exit the religion the same way the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم و لأين أدرقتهم if I meet those people لأقت لأنهم قتل عاد I will kill them the way that Allah destroyed the people of ad are we all together brothers at a time that the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he took jizya from the non-muslims and he gave them covenants are we all together brothers he took rhood and muathik covenants and treaties with the non-muslims and some of them he fought but the khawarij he didn't say I'm gonna take a covenant with them so I'm gonna kill them all some of the scholars they took from that that he meant I'm gonna kill every single one of them if I see them all of them the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he said they are the evilest and the worst of the creation of Allah under the sky are we all together brothers the reason is because they make takfir of the Muslims and they call the Muslims kufar easily and take them out of the fold of Islam and then they permit the blood of the Muslims from there and they bring corruption and harm to the land but the reason why I brought it here is because because ألم تر كيف فعال ربك بعاد the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he destroyed them like the people of عاد and how did Allah destroyed the people of عاد فهل ترى لهم من باقي none of them remained none of them remained Allah then says إرامة ذات العماد the people of إرامة ذات العمادي they had what who had lofty pillars they were strong and they were big and they were powerful ذات العماد we said is الشدة والقوة they were very strong الله then says اللتي لم يخلق مثلها في البلاد their likes was not created الله did not create a nation a people like that the people of عاد they were unique in their strength they were unique in their power ولذلك الله says in another ayat وذكوروا إذ جعالكم خلفاء من بعد قوم عاء نوح وزادكم في الخلق بصطح الله He made them big and another ayat Allah says وَإِذَا بَطَشْتُمْ بَطَشْتُمْ جَبَرِينْ they were if they grabbed they were like these palm trees that you can see today because what did the ayat mention when they were destroyed what did they become like empty palm trees that their fruits went off it imagine a destruction comes to a people and the only things that are on the floor is palm trees palm trees are very big right that's how tall they were that's how tall they were brothers if Allah destroyed a nation that strong and that powerful would he would it be hard for him to destroy people small and weak like us it won't be that's what you need to remember then الله تبارك و تعالى He says وثمودا and Allah also destroyed سبحانه و تعالى وثمودا الديل جابوا الصخرة بالواد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم وثمودا تفكير وثمودا كيف الله تقل with the people of the mood هدر الله تقل with the people of the mood الله ستكدبت تمود بالنظر they disparate فقالوا أبشرا مننا واحدا نتبعه إنا إذا لفيل ضلال وسعر أولقية ذكر عليه من بيننا بل هو كذاب أشر سيعلموا غدا من الكذاب أشر إنا مرسل الناقة فتنة لهم فارتقبهم أستبر ونبئهم أن الماء قسمة بينهم هي إبراهيم ويداوت فنادو ودر الله سبحانه و تعالى the people of the mood إنا أرسلنا عليهم صيحة واحدة فكانوا كعشي من محتضل ودر الله سبحانه و تعالى الله سبحانه و تعالى صيحة a sound noise loud noise الله سبحانه و تعالى the people of the mood they were very strong they were powerful they used to live and they used to reside in on the corners of the caves they used to go on the top and they used to carve it with their own hands الله said وكانوا ينحطون من الجبال بيوتا أمينين وكانوا ينحطون they used to carve from the rocks from their own hands look the rock open it and they will make their houses from there وكانوا ينحطون من الجبال بيوتا أمينين safe houses they would make from it وليدالكة today if you go to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia they're still there if you go to the place of residency it's still there because it's mountains that they carved into it's still there just the doors and the windows and whatever they were using it's not there but you still can see the way they carved it it's called دياره ثمود it's called حجره ثمود whatever it's called وليدالكة سبحانه و تعالى but Allah destroyed them سبحانه و تعالى today if you go there you don't even find insects there ants are not there you don't see anything so Allah said punishment to them سبحانه و تعالى nothing and no one lives there it's an empty place this is how powerful they were Allah says وثمود الذين and with ثمود جابس صخربي الوادي who carved out of the rocks in the valleys if they wanted a place they would move the mountains and make a road for themselves that's the type of people they were very strong and powerful brothers Allah destroyed the people like this Allah got rid of them when they went against Allah's command and they did not follow what they were told to do and when they came with the prohibitions then Allah mentioned سبحانه و تعالى Allah mentioned سبحانه و تعالى فرعون 3 people have been mentioned now what are the 3 groups عاد how did Allah destroyed the people of عاد ريحا و صرصرا Allah sent a wind on them سبحانه و تعالى the people of ثمود how did Allah destroyed them إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَا عَرِيْمْ صَيْحَةً وَاَحِيدَةً فَكَأْلُوا كَهَشِي مِنْ مُحْطَضَرًا the third one is فرعون and his army how did Allah تبارك و تعالى destroyed them الله جانهم فأتبعهم فرعون بجنوده فغشيةهم من اليمم ما غشيةهم فرعون ودينا الله سaid relentless فضرب بعصاك الب界 Liter فسلقا فكانust كل فرقك التوعد العظيم massively صحابتني و حرفنا jedem و حرف الله هج لي Іنسى فغشيةهم من اليمم و يضاف어요 emphasis الله تباركه تعالى يقول الان وقد عصيته من قبل وكنت من المفسدين فاليوما نجيك ببدنك لتكون لمن خلفك آية now you want to believe because when he saw that he was about to die for our own and death was coming to him and he was drowning الله says now you want to believe after you bought destruction to the earth at the time you bought harm and problems to the people and you said أنا ربكم الأعلى you claim the supreme lord الله تباركه تعالى he says فاليوما نجيك ببدنك today we are going to save your body لتكون لمن خلفك آية so those who come like us we can take a lesson from فرعون اسم المفصرين I mentioned the reason why Allah allowed فرعون's body to remain was because the people were scared of him so much فاستخفق قومه فأطاعه إنهم كانوا قوم فاسقين they obeyed for our own because he oppressed them and he whipped them and he lashed them so they didn't even believe that فرعون could die so they wanted to see his body to see that he really died and so Allah showed him there he is the people were shocked are you with me brothers الله destroyed him سبحانه وتعالى and if you look at the Quran the reason why Allah destroyed these people is because they went against Allah's command الله says فأما عادوا فاستكبروا في الارضي بغير الحق وقالوا من أشدوا مننا قوة the people of Aadwadi they do فأما عادوا فاستكبروا في الارضي they became arrogant on this earth and they thought ok where the supreme power where the strongest people in the world فاستكبروا في الارضي بغير الحق and they had no rights to do that and they said وقالوا من أشدوا مننا قوة who is more stronger than us who has more power than us الله has more power than any individual وصرعون and فرعون ذي الأوتاد what does it mean ذي الأوتاد the word ootad the scholars they differed in three views the first view is that the word ootad it means army it comes from the word wetad which is a peg some of the scholars books it says stokes but the reason why a peg is used is because I'm aware we can call the ootad as an army is because the government it stands on you know the peg you stand on it right the tent stands it holds it down the army what does it do for the government it holds the government without an army the government will go so some of the scholars they said وفرعون and فرعون ذي الأوتاد the one who had army فرعون had an army and that is the opinion of Ibn Abbas and some scholars they said ذي الأوتاد it means الحبال the ropes it actually means the ropes and these ropes are the ropes فرعون used to use to punish the people when he said فلأقط عن ايديكم وارجولكم من خلاف ولا أصليبنكم في جدوء النخل ولا تعلمون ايون اشدوا عذاب وابقا when he cut the people when he cut your hands right hand in your left leg and I'm going to hang you on to the trees and you're going to know whose punishment is most severe my punishment is Allah the ropes that he was using and the third views is the scholars they said the places where فرعون would play he would shade himself and he would make himself a tent where he would go out and play and enjoy himself and Ibn Jalil أطبري he pushed the two last opinions he pushed the last sorry the first and the last one the first and the third opinion he pushed رحمه الله وفرعون and فرعون ذي لو تادي and do you not look at Muhammad how Allah destroyed فرعون and his army and everything that he had and Allah destroyed it سبحانه وتعالى Allah mentions all three of them he says اللذين are the ones اللذين goes back to brothers who عاد ثموت and فرعون اللذين are the ones تاغاو what does تاغاو mean they exceeded their limits اطغيان what does it mean اطغيان means exceeding your boundaries on your limits اللذين are the ones تاغاو they exceeded their boundaries they oppressed فلبلادي on the land how do they do oppression on the land brothers committing sins is an oppression on this earth when you sin it's an oppression on this earth and also فرعون what did he do he oppressed he oppressed the people and he wronged the people because he thought he was the ultimate power فأكثروا فيها الفساد and Allah said and increased on this earth corruption فصب عليهم your lord اللذين he poured upon them فصب عليهم Allah poured upon them ثوت عذاب what does this word ثوت means in the Arabic language the word ثوت means a lash and the reason why Allah used that word ثوت is that when a person is being punished generally use a a whip to lash the individual and that's what the Sahabas understood in Mecca because that's what was done to them they were lashed when they took Islam but here it means how each party Allah destroyed them the people of عاد الله how did he said عذاب on them we mentioned it by sending a wind to them are we all together and the people of ثموت what did Allah destroyed them a sound Allah sent to them سبحانه وتعالى and فرعون how did Allah destroy him by drowning him سبحانه وتعالى فصب عليهم Allah poured onto them سلط عذاب a scourge of punishment الله placed on them سبحانه وتعالى إن ربك يولود brothers and sisters لبين مرصاد يولود الله تبارك وتعالى is observing is looking at us the word مرصاد it means يرقب أعمال Allah is observing you see brothers there is a difference between looking and seeing and observing observing is looking at detailed it's a detailed observation it's a detailed look that's what observation is الله سبحانه وتعالى is observing us this ayah by itself can move a mountain والله إن ربك يولود لبين مرصاد he is looking at your actions الله تبارك وتعالى he sees everything which you say and everything which you do إن ربك يولود لبين مرصاد I'm going to conclude إن شاء الله وتعالى with how the sins brothers when it occurs from you it takes away the blessings brothers المعاصي سبب لزوال المعام memorize that the sins are the reasons why blessings go the good and the blessings that you had will go it won't remain for you anymore let's mention some of the evidence الله سبحانه وتعالى he said to the companions وما أصابك من مصيبتي the things that you were afflicted with and the harm that touched you الله سبحانه وتعالى he said وما أصابك it didn't afflict you these harm and these pain and these problems did not afflict you except through what reason إلا بما كسبت إيديكم من مصيبتي فبما كسبت إيديكم ويعفو عن كثير it only came to you because of that which you had put forward pay attention الله is clearly telling us وما أصابك من مصيبتي فبما كسبت إيديكم ألوك على الله سبحانه وتعالى ويعفو عن كثير and he actually forgave us for a lot because of everything we did he took away the blessings from us we wouldn't even live he only is punishing us for some of the sins that we did are we all together brothers sins will take away blessings from you because brothers if Allah sends a punishment on us there's one of two ways that we can answer this we can either say الله is oppressing us سبحانه وتعالى and this is oppression سبحانه وتعالى معاد الله can we say that about Allah and the second one is that we blame ourselves and we say this is what we've done to ourselves الله says in another ayah فأكثروا فيها الفساد فصب عليهم ربك صوت عذاب فأكثروا فيها الفساد they increased in the corruption that they brought to this earth and then look what Allah says فصب عليهم ربك صوت عذاب and then Allah sent to them a severe punishment the punishment when did it come فأكثروا فيها الفساد when they increased in the corruption that they were causing then the punishment came then the punishment came الله says in another ayah ولو أن أهل القرى آمنوا if the people of the village were to believe واتقوا and they were to come with taqwa لفتحنا we would have opened for them عليهم بركاتهم من السماء we would have opened for them the blessings of the sky والأرضي the blessings from the sky is we would have said rain and we would have sent والأرضي from this earth we would have brought crops from them from the earth ولكن but we're not going to do neither of those for them why ولكن كذبوا they disbelieved فأخذناهم الله says we grabbed them سبحانه وتعالى بما كانوا يكسبون because of that which they did look what he said ولو أن أهل القرى آمنوا واتقوا لفتحنا عليهم بركاتهم من السماء والأرض ولكن كذبوا فأخذناهم بما كانوا يكسبون سبحانه وتعالى كل ما كان محتاجه كانوا يقوى إيمانا ومقبولا ولكن الله يقول سألهم من السماء بركات بركات بل why does Allah say I will send from the sky بركات because some of the rains brothers it can destroy some of the rain it can destroy what destroyed the people of نور was it not rain that was sent down are we all together brothers the people have add even what destroyed them فلما رأوه عرض مستقب لأوديةهم قالوا هذا عرض منطرنا بل هو مستعجلتم به ريح فيها عذابا إليم تدمر كل شيء بأمد ربيها فأصبح لا يرأي إلا مساكنهم pay attention the rain that comes down can sometimes be a punishment from Allah ولي ذلك the messenger whenever it rained or the sky became dark دقال وخرج he would enter the room and he would come out and he would enter and he could be seen on his face it's a rain it's bringing blessings for us and then the prophet said فلما رأوه عرض مستقب لأوديةهم قالوا هذا عرض منطرنا that's what the people of ad said when they saw this cloud coming together and it becoming dark the people of ad they didn't know it was the day that they were being punished they said it's going to be a nice rain but it was actually the day that the wind was coming it was formatting and how things were happening brothers الله also said in another ayah إن الذين أمنوا those of you who believe I'm sorry إن الذين تولوا منكم يوم التقل جمعاني those of you who turned away when the two armies met one another this is the battle of أحد those of you who turned away because that day some of the companions they ran away from the prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام are you with me brothers and our messenger was one of the bravest people when he came to battle نبي الله محمد never turned his back in the battlefield صلى الله عليه وسلم he never turned his back rather when the sahabah they ran away from him in the middle of the battle he stood up he said I am the prophet of Allah أنا النبي لا كذب أنا ابن عبد المطارب imagine in the middle of the battlefield the overwhelming majority of your soldiers and your army ran away from you the enemy is willing to kill you and you shout your name out and you tell them I am the prophet of Allah the only one who could do that is a brave and a courageous individual صح he was very brave صلى الله عليه وسلم عليه so he is calling his companions to come back but he is saying his name out he is saying who he is he is not scared صلى الله عليه وسلم so Allah says those of you who are backs when the two armies met one another إنما استزلهم إنما استزلهم الشيطان الشيطان made them slip إنما استزلهم الشيطان الشيطان made them slip why ببعض ما ببعض ما كسبوا because of some of the sins and the mistakes that they came with the reason why الشيطان succeeded in getting to them is because of the mistakes that they did إنه ندأ الله تبارك تعالى تاوزا سسطوري باثل الله تاوزا سسطوري يقول وضرب الله مثلا مثلا قرية كانت آمينة مطمئنة يأتيها رزقها رغدا من كل مكان فكافرت بأن عم الله فأذاقها الله لبأس الجوع والخوفي بما كان يسمعون الله تاوزا about مكة مكة the risk was coming to them from where يأتيها رزقها رغدا من كل مكان الله يقول افما يفقف فكافرت يأتي يعني أنه لن يؤتأون شوكور قفر هنا means قفر نعمة لن يؤتأون جائع لان جائع ليس كذلك لن يؤتأون ضخمة جائع جائع الفاكيل لدينا جيدة لدينا الله سبحانه وتعالى الله سبحانه وتعالى فبما نقضيهم ميثاقهم لعناهم وجعلنا قلوبهم قاسية في نهاية الله سبحانه وتعالى إنّا بلوناهم كما بلونا أصحاب الجنة إذا قصموا ليس للمنها مصبحين أنت أعلم ستوري من الأطفال الذين كانوا أفضل خلال أجهزة لهم هو سورة القلم الله أفضل لهم هو أجهزة وarya الله Colonel يردني على خلاله كما أسرك لك وحتى أنحق الدخولa بجهة فعاله مع إجاب Boca منّا وإزال أعلم بسرعة الصباح يردون المساعد يب使وك أسRun ويعطي من거 وينع eventually و دايسبة ما كل القمرياتك تيحظ والنقضون ماذا يفعلون؟ يخبرون أن لا يدخل انها اليوم عليكم مسكين لا يدخل مسكين لن يدخل هذا المنزل اليوم لن يدخل لن يدخل لن يدخل أبينا كان مخلصاً لم يكن أعلم ما يفعله لن يجب أن نرى بعد المنزل لن يدخل لن يدخل لن يدخل ماذا حدث لهم؟ فطاف عليها طائف من ربك وهم نائمون فأصبحت كثرين فترادوا مصبحين عندما يدخلون في morning يعتقدون أن يدخلون كل شيء في morning يعتقدون أن يدخلون لن يدخلون كل شيء ولكن فقط هل يدخلون؟ الله يدخلون سبحانه وتعالى الله يدخلون سبحانه وتعالى و الله يدخل كل شيء و الله يدخل صريب وصفه إذا كنت ترى على المخلصة عندما يدخلون على بسائرهم وبسائرهم إذا كنت ترى على المخلصة وإذا يرى على المخلصة ووكل بسائرهم ولكن فقط عندما ترى على المخلصة كان لا تفعل as كانا يقول إذا عصائلنا الله إذا عصائلنا الله كنا نرى أثر ذلك يدخلون على المخلصة عقبنا ومخلصنا ومشيخنا ومخلصنا كل شيء لم تابع ولكن لماذا يعتقدون أن هذا الموضوع يأتي لهم منهم؟ أن يأتي لهم وأنهم لم يأتي لهم ولماذا يعتقدون أنه يأتي لهم منهم؟ لأنهم يعتقدون أنه يأتي لهم وانا هذا why they are in the situation that you are therein الله also tells us about the story of لقد كان لي سبق في مسكانهم آية جنة تاني عيمين وشمال كلوا من رزق ربكم شكرا لهم بلدة طيبة ورب غفور فعرضوا فأرسلنا عليهم سيلة العرن وبدلناهم بجنتين جنتين ذوات يؤكل خمط وأثن وشيء من صدر قليل ذلك جزيناهم بما كفروا وهل نجازي إلا الكفور الله mentions many stories like that إن قارون كان من قومي موسى فضغى عليهم واتيناهم من الكنوزي ما إنما فاتيعوا لتنوه بالأصبة والقوة قارون هد مني هد everything فدره أبي الله هل يجدون لكم أيضاً؟ الله سرف خسفنا به وبداره الأرب فما كان لهم من فيعة ينصرونهم من دون الله وما كان من المتصر لا يوجد من يساعدهم لا يوجد من يدفعهم الله يجعل الأرض سوله قارون نحن نحن بلدهم هناك طريقة التي يتفق مع المساعدين ومساعدين وذلك إذا كانت بلسطة لهم سيكونوا يتفق منهم عندما يتفقون بألله عندما يجدون لكم أيضاً يا ربكة لا بالنرصار إذن your Lord is observing your actions and everything that you do سبحانه وتعالى والله he brothers nothing is hidden from him سبحانه وتعالى يعلى مخاينة الأعيوني وما تغفص تدور الله knows that the person who is trying to deceive the people and Allah knows what's in the people's chests he knows what's in the people's hearts I ask Allah عز وجل to make us those who are righteous and publicly من ما الله تبارك وتعالى forgive us for any shortcomings or mistakes that we may have come from with إنه ولي ذلك والقادر علي سبحانك اللهم بحمدك أشجول لا إله إلا الله أستغفروك وأتوب إلي


Welcome to ToffeeTV, it is the Everton News Daily. Rafa Benitez has spoken ahead of tomorrow's trip to Calero to play Knowledge City and it looks like there's a little bit of good news.  So that's fantastic. He spoke about Richarlison and Mina, maybe not quite being up to the level so he's going to have to check on those players. I can imagine those players would be on the bench. He did say there was one player who had COVID as well but the player wasn't mentioned because I don't think you're allowed to mention the players who've got COVID. So it looks like we'll have one player out tomorrow with COVID as well. But that's a real boost having the likes of Dominic Avalon, Richarlison, Gray, Gordon, Townsend all available. It's huge for Everton and obviously the New Sirens, Patterson and Michael Encoe who will probably start the game as well is big. This is what we were told that was going to be the big difference this year in the second half of the season is that players would be back. So no excuses tomorrow hopefully. He's also got El Ghazi as well. He was asked about that deal. He said he'll bring competition to the squad. It has been mentioned that although there's no obligation to buy the player, they can buy the player if he does well at the end of the season. Although the Athletic are reporting that El Ghazi was not on the radar till negotiations with Luka Dean started and Fahad Mishiri and Kia Jorahban spoke about the player which is convenient. But he's an Everton player now and let's hope he does well and he will be available for tomorrow and gives us more options whether he starts the game or comes on off the bench. It'll be interesting to see how he fits in with Everton. Just mentioned the Luka Dean deal as well. The manager was asked about Luka Dean as well. He basically said if you've got a row and boat and someone isn't working as hard as everybody else then you have to do something about it. So I think that gives you everything you need to know from Everton's point of view anyway on Luka Dean. He said he was 29 this year and he thought it was a good deal for the club to get the money in as well and helping us to refresh the squad. He did say he was looking for a couple more players this month. He said he was an issue in the middle of the park. He said he was a bit short on midfielders. A link player to go into the midfield but be interesting to see because we've been linked to a couple players so far who don't quite fit that bill although we have been linked to the likes of Deli Alley and Ross Barkley as well. So it'll be interesting to see whether we can get one or two more players into the end of the before the end of the window. Sorry the window closes two weeks on Monday. So it'll be interesting to see we've done three players so far two payment one loan so it's not bad business so far and he'll be looking for a real uptane starting tomorrow for the second half of the season because that's what they promised us and we certainly need it because we are obviously far too close to the bottom of the table then we want to be. A couple of players mentioned Gullivan from Monaco has been mentioned we've been linked with him but apparently that's a deal worth about 40 million euros which you can see is going to be an absolute non-starter. Eddie Howard's almost shown long staff today as well and said that they were really happy with the player and he's in the team now and no plans to sell him. He is out of contact in the decision and that's why I haven't been linked to them so heavily so it'll be interesting to see what happens there but everything are interested in a couple more players so yeah that's good news as well as said the manager was asked about it and you know when you the squad is getting back to full fitness now and hopefully that means we start winning games it gives them some headaches on the on the selection point of view but that's exactly what we want that's exactly what he wants and having some like Dominic Cavalloon having with Charleston back having Yeri Mina really really important and after next week's game against Aston Villa there's an international break so hopefully we already know with Charleston isn't getting called up to Brazil so if players can stay behind and not go in international duty that'll be another couple of weeks break for them so hopefully you know it never never really happens like this but hopefully after an international break we'll have most of our squad available it's about keeping them fit because that's been a major concern this season as in keeping those players fit so yeah that game after the international break is Brentford in the FA Cup fourth round it's been confirmed it is a three o'clock kickoff for Gullison Park on the 5th of February on the Saturday so a Saturday three o'clock kickoff and then that'll be the first one we've had at home since Wafford so that'll be good to actually get normal a normal three o'clock Saturday kickoff and it's in the FA Cup as well so it's a little bit special so let's hope we've got lots of players available for that game so there you go that's all your news from today obviously big game tomorrow I haven't you know I think for me it's a must-win game tomorrow get three points everyone else genuinely has been picking up points against Norwich so it's really important we get three points tomorrow and get that gap between us and the bottom three teams a little bit bigger ahead of the Aston Villa game next week which is going to be a bit of a tasty affair with all the links between us but the job starts tomorrow I'll take Carol Road so there you go make sure you check out the match preview for that the start on 11 show as well make sure to give this video a like a like subscribe if you haven't already if you want more great videos join us over on Patreon the link is in the description and it's on the screen see you later


Head at home from the Chris Paul. So I just lost fellow North Carolinian all-star Chris Paul Got me good. Got me with a half court shot two out of three my man Let me help you out today Spend that on food. You okay? You all right? All right. Hang in there my friend Do you wear a new pair every game? Yes. Yeah. Yep. Are these those P.E. like players? You know exactly what's going on. Because I get a lot of like Sneakerheads following me. So I was like you need to get the Chris Paul P.E., so now I got him. Thank you Yeah, but I learned a lot, you know one of the things I learned from Chris Paul every time I've been around him He's a nice guy and you know people always say You got to be ruthless to be at the top and he knows how to be ruthless when he's playing a game And he's competitive. I saw that when I was playing him when I started to do. All right He came at me pretty hard, but all in you know good spirit and stuff So but he's a polite person He makes you feel good and that's a real skill as you work on your social skills so you can Win friends influence people Network better, you know, you got to make people there's that old cliche which is so true that says People don't remember What you did they remember how you made them feel that I'll remember what you said They remember how you made them feel so humans are emotional creatures and I was just reminded Chris Paul you know obviously basketball players alive right now and That's a real skill you want to cultivate in yourself is that ability to be able to be in the moment with You're there for them, but you care that they're there can't tell you how many times in social settings And maybe you made this mistake. I have where you like get distracted your ADD But Chris Paul was there the whole time never checked his phone didn't text wasn't talking to anybody else just they're right there with me and That's something you want to cultivate in yourself is that ability to Really be present in the moment. There's that famous book The Power of Now by Eckhart Toll and He's big on that and we live in a world now or if you're not careful, man focus down Be present when you need to be present. There's a time to daydream. Don't get me wrong That's why I come up with great ideas For myself business, you know, you gotta you got to have a dreamer, but you have to be able to I call that Modulation you got to oscillate modulate alternate between different Modalities of behavior and so on and so it's always a great lesson. I love, you know, one of the things I was talking about in this video. I did heaven and hell on earth What heaven on earth to me like I said, I don't know what happens after we die I leave the spiritual experts, but I do know there is a hell and a heaven on earth that we create by the habits of our mind and so Chris Paul you can tell he's got good habits in the mind, you know, you were saying uh, never quit on a miss You think that's just psychological Could be could be I just never never end on a miss never leave practice on a miss.   You can see that he has that ability to create heaven on earth just by The focus that he has and it's really about focus life's about focus If you're not focused, where are you? You know what I mean?  You're gonna be dissipated Disappear find your sport that you like For me, it's basketball. That's what I grew up with. I like Jiu Jitsu and I like Muay Thai boxing. So guys like fast cars filming me Pick up a sport that you haven't played maybe you played when you were younger you gave up on it Don't give up on stuff. I'm hurting myself.  Yeah I was gonna just make you sign your shoes and make you start HORS and horse Because I never gave up on my sport and I did for some years and I always regretted it now Now I don't work my Muay Thai teacher kickboxing He told me he would rather go to a hole. I'm sure I should have done that. There's that old saying Better to ask forgiveness than permission So give up on something that you used to love for the most part you give up on it not because you don't love it anymore, but you give up on it because Trauma happens and so we give up we don't push through it Don't do that stick to what you know stick to what you like do it till the day you die and then you'll be able to say omission Better to have regrets of co-mission of things you did than regrets of omission omission is not good Now there are omission like that's something you can leave like a sport Boxing you love basketball. You still love soccer. You gotta ask yourself Why are you not playing and if the only reason is because you're older? That's not a good reason that means you're giving up on life That means you're falling for the old Thoreau the massive men lead lives of quiet desperation. What's called resignation is confirmed desperation That just means you're confirming your desperation by saying up got a little older Well, you know what keeps you young movement You see Chris Paul's in good shape. Well, I'll tell you that right now. He's in great shape. He's lean We've got enough muscle on him.  That's kind of a crazy Anyway So my recommendation for you is Number one focus It's coming out. So you look at this lady. She's not so good at the focus situation About the crash in the cars everywhere Number one focus a number two practical tip Revive whatever thing you gave up for no good reason. Now if you gave it up for a good reason Always be logical, but the only reason like I said is older or you stop finding time for it. That's BS That's right. Confirm desperation Don't don't try to hide it as oh resign yourself like uh Well, I did that a long time ago That goes back to being present If you're present Right now you're not thinking about whether you're older or younger. You're just present the past is a Mist Like the mist in the morning that disappears. It's not really real. You know, it's kind of there, but it's like fog And so what's really here is you right now And the second you start putting your brain at that place where you're thinking about Um, oh, well, I used to do that you what is used to You know Some things like I said you have to give up for varying reasons. It's understandable life gets busy You're not gonna have the same amount of time As an adult as you had when you're five years old when you didn't have any responsibilities But for the most part it becomes trust me It becomes an excuse with no justification because if you think about it you have 24 hours a day you sleep eight that's 16 even if you work eight or 10 That's those six you only spend three hours with your kids in one hour working out And one hour doing nothing you still have one hour. You only got to play a sport you play Like seven minutes enough scientists have found that even seven minutes of something Whether it be jogging or sprinting If you use the like basketball put a hoop up in the garage go shoot for at the timer for seven minutes Trust me.  It's like Charlie Munger says Go to bed a little wiser Then you were the day before Step by step you get ahead but not necessarily in fast spurts One thing chris paul told me that was interesting He said you know ty Uh I uh Sometimes people play me and he goes that's because it's my it's my job I'm a pro basketball player. That's my job, you know, and uh so the way When we watch sports I just hit my head one Chess or read a book or all those things that you know, you should do and you really want to do It's because you look at people who are better than you and go Oh, I can never be like them if I only do seven minutes a day Well, it's their job. You don't have to be as good as them. I read a book a day That's kind of what I do. You don't have to read a book a day It's smart to do but you don't have to so what you do is just set the timer for incremental I'm actually working on a new program by the time you watch this video. It might be out. I'm not sure All about that incremental beauty. I saw that in chris paul's Countines his eyes his face his mood his expressions. This is a dude He's living life the right way now. He's a man He's a human I don't look at him and thinking he has no flaws if I hung out with any human for Something weird about him the same with me. I'm not all good. I got my dark side So do you like mark twain said all humans are like the moon They have the light side and the dark side But my point being I don't judge people whether they're their deities whether they're what I look for is the general Vibe that I get from and the vibe you get from chris paul This dude's doing it right and I have this little test. I've talked about you might have heard Which is a very powerful test you can try on yourself. It's called the exchange or the trade test and it's when you meet somebody That you admire you go what I trade for his life and uh or her life And then you've got to ask yourself the flip side Would they trade for yours and if the answer is you trade for theirs? But you're sure they wouldn't trade for you That's when you got to give yourself a check in life as a gut check to go What am I doing wrong that? I'm sure I want to be like them, but they don't want to be like me now Some people are delusional in this test. Whoo a little bumpy But some people are very delusional but uh For I hope that's not you because some people go. Oh, I love myself normally. I forget that Real talk here. Look down honestly with yourself. There's no improvement without honesty With yourself at the moment, you don't have to tell the world this you just think it in your head, but When I see chris paul I now I'll tell you it's interesting over the years um There's not that many people that I meet that I would trade for their life chris paul is one I would consider pro basketball player You got a good life all around And I don't know if you would trade for mine probably not but I at least know that He has some respect for me And maybe some part of my life he would trade so that lets me know that I'm You know, maybe on the right track, but I got to even get better So that I could answer that absolutely We would both trade for each other's lives and by the way in terms of the people you should be hanging out with in life You want to hang out with the people in life that you absolutely Would trade for their life and they would trade for yours because or else you create a mismatch situation Where you're hanging out with somebody Who you know, you don't want to be like them. That's not good. You got to have something you admire and everybody That's around you or else you're hanging out with two low-level people That often it's not about how much money they make or you know, it's not about whether they're perfect it's basically about Or is there some part you admire And vice versa that they admire you and that's another lesson I learned today You know playing a horse playing with someone on one against chris ball.  This guy's got a cool life I don't know if I would trade but I'm just saying it's in the running. It's in consideration so Hope sweet hole For you. What are the things leave a comment? What's one simple thing? then From this game that I played with chris paul What can you learn? What can you apply from chris paul to your life? Is it the focus and how you're gonna focus more? Is it picking up an old sport? What old sport are you gonna pick? How much? Time you're gonna spend today. Is it Knowing how to network better and make people feel good when you're around them Or is it that trade factor leave a little comment below and bye