This week in Even Shlomo on Parshat Va’era, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David go straight into the cry so many of us are holding: “Ribono Shel Olam… for what? Haven’t we been through enough?” Moshe Rabbeinu asks it too — and the answer isn’t a slogan, it’s a demand: Geulah is not “back to normal.”

Reb Shlomo teaches that the world’s “unnatural” situation can’t last forever — but the real question is what happens to us while we’re waiting. Do we settle for healthy, functional, status quo… or do we move into above nature: the place of an Eved Hashem, where Yiddishkeit isn’t routine, relationships aren’t “fine,” and a shul isn’t just a place to daven — it’s a center for dreaming Geulah.

Through a piercing story of Reb Shlomo saving a life, and then meeting a lifeguard who saved 26 and didn’t shine at all, we learn the difference between doing something because it’s your job… and doing it with your pnimiyus. And we end with the charge that builds everything: accountability, patience, chaverus, and a Ruach Se’arah — a stormy spirit inside keilim — to carry this community (and our lives) beyond “normal.”

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Chapters

0:00 Opening dedication and sponsors
1:17 Why does suffering continue?
2:45 Moshe’s dialogue with Hashem
4:36 Maharal: the unnatural has a limit
7:43 Natural vs. normal (and “status quo”)
13:12 Eved vs. Oved Hashem (Tanya)
24:07 The nature of true revelation
25:16 Moshe’s imagined dialogue with Pharaoh
26:19 Moshe’s question: “For what?”
27:58 Imagining a miracle in Iran
29:09 Why continue suffering? Moshe’s inquiry
30:54 Moshe seeks the nature of future redemption
32:49 Call for deeper commitment
35:55 Lifeguard story: “26 lives saved”
37:00 Service as job vs. spiritual involvement
45:18 Understanding Avodah Zarah (the “zarah to you” definition)
46:34 Avoiding spiritual estrangement (not a stranger to God)
48:19 Taking responsibility + helping the hungry
49:29 Exodus vs. returning to Eretz Yisrael
50:50 House of Love & Prayer vision
52:39 Removing Avodah Zarah from our kehillah
54:17 Ruach Se’arah (Rav Weinberger)
55:36 Inner pulse of chevra for redemption