The Fourth Most Used Emoji and the Significance of the Jewish People | The Three Weeks
It's absolutely fascinating to view the world through the lens of emojis. So much of our communication today is emojis, is reactions, it's comments through those cute little emojis, whether it's comment section on YouTube or whether it's through WhatsApp, whatever it might be, a lot of people communicate with emojis and it says something about who we are. But it also says something about what emojis we're using. You know, there is a top five list. The number one, the king of emojis is the face with tears of joy. What does that say about our generation? Maybe it's a positive thing, right? Deep down we're laughing. We find joy, simcha happiness, maybe, or maybe that's really what everyone's really striving for. I know a lot of people are not experiencing true happiness, but maybe that face with tears of joy is representing that deep desire that we're all searching, at least searching for that happiness. Maybe that's a positive twist on it. The second most popular, after the king of emojis, the queen of emojis, right? The second most popular is the red heart. Beautiful. People are striving and craving connection, right? Connection with people and connection deep down with God. People are craving meaning. The third most popular emoji is like the laughing one, the rolling on the floor laughing one. And the fourth one, I'm not sure honestly, what the fifth one I forgot. The fourth most popular emoji that's used is the thumbs up, right? It's used for approval, acknowledgement, recognition. We use that very, very often. You know, I was thinking as Jewish people, is there a specific emoji that we use more? And I wanted to say maybe it's the thumbs up one. Even if not, I want to share with you an idea based on the thumbs up, because it's a symbol that we often associate with approval and recognition, and it's a symbol that's deeply associated with the Jewish people. And I want to share with you how. I want to share with you an idea from none other than the Benishai, a great, great Svarik leader and master of the Jewish people. The Benishai says something astonishing. If you look at the hand of a person, you'll notice something unique, and that is you have five fingers, hopefully. Five fingers, and four of them are similar and one is different. Four of the fingers consist of three knuckles. If you look at your pinky, one, two, three. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. The four tall, the four big fingers, each are comprised of three knuckles. But off to the side, there exists another finger, a very important finger called the Agudol in Hebrew, which gudol means like great, right? Godless, goddl, great, the great finger, the thumb. The thumb, if you look at it, only has two knuckles, one, two. And this structure of the human hand tells us about the structure of humanity. And I'll share with you what that means. So says the Benishai, the four fingers, the four tall fingers represent the four primary nations of the world, the four, the four nations of the world, right? Represents the people of the world, represents the forces. And it's comprised of three knuckles because you have the people on the bottom, you have God, Hashem on top, but in middle, between the people and between God, you have the heavenly angel that governs that particular nation. So they're four primary nations, and they are represented by the four fingers, which have three knuckles representing the fact that they have the people, they have the intermediary, the angel, and then you have God. But there is a nation off to the side, Badog Yeshev, that sits alone in isolation. That people is the thumb. The thumb people, the thumbs up nation, the Jewish people are compared to the Agudol, they're compared to the thumb. And what's absolutely interesting is that the thumb has two knuckles. Two knuckles represents no intermediaries, no ifs, ands, or buts, just a direct connection to Hashem. It's the people and God. And one of the primary lessons that we learn from the period of the three weeks is to get rid of all the intermediaries in our life, to get rid of all the things that prevent us from connecting directly with God. And the Jewish people, by the 17th of Tamuz, which is the marks of the beginning of the three-week period, what happened on that day? That was the day when Moshe, Rabbeinu, Moses came down the mountain with the tablets. He saw that we were dancing around the ego, the golden calf, and he broke the tablets. What was the mistake? What was the grave sin of the ego, of the golden calf? The mistake, the commentaries explained, was that we were not directly connecting ourselves with God. Instead of being a thumb, we were a regular finger. Instead of being directly connected, we felt that we needed a go-between, an intermediary. When reality, the ideal relationship between a Jew and his master and his creator is just a direct connection. Of course, we do that through connecting with others and through Torah and mitzvos and through prayer and good deeds and chariot and all that stuff. But that's still in the realm of a direct connection. We're not meant to be one step removed. We're meant to be on the burner directly hot with a connection with our Creator. That word Badud, which means alone, is used in Echa. It's used in Lamentations. Echha Badud Yashav, right? That the Jerusalem sat in isolation. The word badud also is used by the Mitsorah. A mitzoh is somebody who spoke Oshnara and needed to be ousted. He needed to go out of the three camps, Badud. But Badud also represents the thumb with Shits alone in isolation. And there's a silver lining. Although it's not good that Jerusalem is in isolation and then that we're in exile. And there's a secret under the secret silver lining that I want to bring to your attention. You know, by the Mitsorah. So what happened? He can experience Tsaras, the leprosy on his skin. He could experience it on his clothing, or he could experience it on his house. And it's interesting if you take the Hebrew word for a person, Adam, or a person can experience it on himself, Adam. So the first letter of Adam is an aleph. Clothing is called levush. So the first letter of that is a lamid. And the first letter of a home, biat, is bias. Right? The Hebrew word for bias. The Hebrew word for bias is bias. The Hebrew word for home is bias, and the first letter of that is a base. So if you take those first three letters, aleph, lamin, and a base, and rearrange them, it spells avel, which means mourning. So again, you find a connection between avelos, mourning, and a mitzora. Mitsorah sits in isolation. But there's a silver lining. What is that? The silver lining, I believe, is the thumbs up. That deep inside, Hashem is saying, You got this. I got you. And I want you to be connected directly to me. I want you to come back, come back home. And that's really the message of the three weeks is that yes, we're in mourning. Yes, we're in a state of a velos. Yes, we're in isolation. But find that point in you where you are directly connected to me, says God. I'm the Father, you're the Son. Come back home. And one of the really interesting things about the person who experienced Saras is that when he would experience the leprosy on his home, if it was a legitimate Tsaras disease, they would destroy the home. They would demolish the home. But what happened after that? Our sages teach us that within the walls of the home was treasures, was a fortune. So you had to break down those walls. And yes, it was difficult. Yes, it was hard, but guess what was found inside of those rocks? Something precious, something meaningful. There was tremendous value and tremendous treasure waiting in store. And so, yes, the Besha Mikdash, which was rock and stone, it was destroyed. But there is a treasure deep inside that doesn't get destroyed. There is a fortune inside each and every one of us. That fortune that's waiting, you know what it's called? It's called the Vecus. It's called connection with God. It's called a direct connection. You know, sometimes you call on a phone and it says, they, you know, you call a company, whatever it is, insurance and uh phone service or uh whatever it might be. And so many of the so man, so much of the time you get an automatic response that says, we apologize, the right, the menu options have changed. Please be careful. Please note the menu options have recently changed. And you have to go to this option. Why do menu options keep changing? I don't know. But when it comes to Judaism, menu options don't keep changing. It's the same as it's always been. And that is no ifs, ands, or buts, no intermediaries, no go-betweens. It's just us and Hashem. And let's get rid of everything else that's in the way of that. And through these three weeks, let's have that focus, let's have that tunnel vision, let's connect to who we are at our core. Let's connect to our source. Let's connect to what our thumb represents, realizing that we are the thumbs up nation. God approves of who you are. And you have to start approving who you are. Can you be better? Probably. If you're a person and you're alive and you're breathing and you're watching, you're listening to this, that means that your role is not yet done. And that means you have more to do, to fulfill, more light to bring. And so me, we all be Zochem and we all merit to do so. Let's connect to being the thumbs up nation. And maybe, just maybe in some time, it's not going to be the fourth most uh used emoji, but it'll be the number one most used emoji as we all connect to our source. I was we all connect to our creator in a most beautiful, intimate, and direct way. Wishing you all the best and a meaningful rest of your day.
