13. Shemot 5777: "Riddle Me This Riddle Me That..." -Deciphering The Riddle Of Creation

I am awestruck how the further that communicational technology takes us, the less clarity we have of what is true and what is not true. Today, every civilian has unprecedented footage of the frontline of combat, and every voter has at their fingertips unprecedented power of research on any candidate, and the one thing that we don’t have is clarity of truth. The story of the Middle East is another perfect example. The world has a plethora of footage and a plethora of information, everything but clarity and truth. How did this happen? Isn’t knowledge and transparency an innocent man’s strongest weapon of protection? And yet, communicational technology has become the worst weapon of destruction against innocence and truth. Again I ask, how did this happen? The answer is Batman’s nemesis, The Riddler. The Riddler saw its demise nearing as truth and transparency would rob him from his game, and therefore, he hacked into the power of communication, and made its powers his. Now, instead of having unprecedented truth and transparency, we have unprecedented falsehood and misleading riddles, casting the world into an unprecedented Universal darkness, casting the story of truth and innocence further away and more untold. If you will share with me a moment of silence now, you will hear the unnerving evil cackle of The Riddler as we discuss this. How are we to overcome this, as we watch terrorism and evil forces manipulate the minds of innocent people looking for nothing more than peace, love, tolerance and the liberty of liberalism? The answer is Batman, better known as the Dark Knight. What an antithetical name is at play here! A Knight is a soldier who protects the Light of innocence and goodness, while Dark is a euphemism for evil. Nevertheless, this Dark Knight is the only one who can protect us from the Riddler. My friends, I am not speaking to you of a comic strip or a movie. Rather, I am speaking to you of the deepest mystical truth of how spirituality works. Each and every one of us is searching for clarity and truth. It isn’t the hard work that truth demands that leaves us in depression and misery. Rather, our sages tell us (-Metzudas Dovid on Proverbs 15:30), “There is no joy in the world as that of being released from doubt.” This depression, misery and agony of doubt has become far greater in modern times, and is leaving our youth, and the majority of the population in a paralyses of not being able to pursue happiness, for we know not in which direction to pursue it. This lecture will give clarity and guidance how to break free of The Riddler’s grip. ----------- Here is a link to the written notes of this lecture, which will be available until January 30, 2017, after which you can email [email protected] to request them: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4614078/13.%20Shemois%205777%20-Riddle%20Me%20This%2C%20Riddle%20Me%20That....%20-Deciphering%20the%20Riddle%20of%20Creation.pdf