Parting our red sea - How to go beyond common sense.

3, 2, 1.

Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us today in Influencer Mindset Podcast. And we are here today at the holiday of Passover with Dr. Echiel Harari from Israel. We are going to talk about how to part our own Red Sea because we are approaching the 7th day of Pesach, which was the parting of the Red Sea, and how to go beyond common sense and be successful doing that. How are you, Dr. Yuval Harari?

Hello, how are you? Great, great to see you, to talk with you.

Fantastic, fantastic to see you. Look, We all understand that coming out of Egypt, it's something that has to do not only with a bunch of Jews or Israelites who were slaves in Egypt and then they decided to run away with their leader, with Moses, but we know that it's something that we have to come out of. It's our own Egypt we have to come out of. And then sometimes when we do that, when we want to break the boundaries of us, of our personality, and to really become better human beings and to reach higher levels of ourselves, all of a sudden we reach the Red Sea. We reach an obstacle that to go through it, we have to go beyond our common sense. We have to do something that does not make any sense, but we have to keep walking, just like what happened back then when they reached the Red Sea. I mean, common sense would say, turn around, go the other way. They kept going and the miracle happened. The Red Sea parted. They had two walls from both sides and they kept walking and they got saved. And to me, I think that whole idea is very inspiring. And I think there is so much to learn and so much to take from that learning, from that experience of what happened back then. And I would love to hear from you your insight and your, you know, the way you see it in a practical everyday way for our audience and for us to use it and again to come out winning out of all the obstacles, all the Red Sea that we need to part in our own life.

It's a beautiful concept that you are pointing on. What is the real problem that we are facing? The problem that we are facing is that you are inside Somebody helped you to get out of your addiction, to get out of your negative emotions, to overcome despair or something. And then now you started walking and you see that there is no more any advance. Like the first day of Pesach, it's like the redemption from the first exile. What is the seventh day? Now you are facing the barrier, the Red Sea. And now it's like you get a glimpse where you should walk, how things should happen, how you should do things. It's like you're walking in the darkness. And the first thing that I want, the thing that I really want from anyone that can help me is to show me something like, you know, a light for just a minute, for just a second, that I will see where should I go and what obstacles do I have. And this is the idea of the 7 Days of Perseverance. It's like show us. What's the right direction? You know, in business, you call it the North Star Matrix. What is the North Star Matrix? It's not enough just to know where you are going, where you are heading. I know where I'm heading, but without measuring and without understanding really what is my value— you're speaking about influencing. It's not enough to adopt the concept that I have to influence in life, that I have what to influence, that I'm worth something. It's important, but now I have to measure how do I influence. You want to For instance, let's take two examples from the business field and from daily life. I want to bring more happiness to my world, to my life, to my home. I see that it's too much, I won't say depression, but sadness in my house. My daughter, she's not really smiling. So I want to bring happiness. And this is the value that you want to bring. Now we have to measure it. How do you bring your happiness? What do you do? You buy presents, you buy pizza, you put good music, you are dancing, You are smiling, you are overcoming, you know, all this angry attitude that you have sometimes. Now, after I know what is, how do I measure my influence and what I bring to my home, now I have to ask myself, does she get what I am bringing? Does my influencing meet her needs? And now I have also to measure it. What does it mean to measure it? I really have to ask myself, Is she— what are you looking for? She will smile more, she will go to school, she will wake up early, she will do things, whatever you're looking for. And this is the second thing. And the last thing is how much I have to invest, how hard it is for me to bring value to the world. So in business, we have these same 3 or 4 categories. In business, you know, sometimes you have to ask yourself, I want to bring up value to the world. You are creating content, you are bringing value to the world, but in Which kind of product? How do I do that? Do I do seminars, courses, do I write books, do I upload YouTube? What do I do? And then after that I have to ask myself, does the value that I bring to the world really, really meet other people's needs, my customers? Do they change themselves? And now I have to evaluate, are they changing themselves? What do I expect them to do to be more happy? What does it mean? To smile more, what does it mean to be more influencing, what does it mean to create more, to do more, do I check only money, the bank account? And then after that I ask myself, what do I get from that? And how hard I have to work in order to bring this value? So this North Star Matrix, it's like, it's the star, the North Star, but I have to evaluate this related North Star. And don't you know, I just went out of Egypt, everything was black, and we are not going to be written in the Bible that God is taking out of Egypt. Us out of Egypt in order to walk on this mountain, Mount Sinai. And that means that you are not going out, you are not getting out of Egypt for nothing. You are getting out to bring something else to your life. You are not overcoming a depression. You are not getting out of the COVID-19 without changing yourself in a way, without developing yourself. If something hard, bad, it's an obstacle, it's a challenge, you are facing a challenge, it's in order that you will reveal more. But now it's very hard, because I saw, okay, I'm not in the depression I was, I'm not suffering from fears or from whatever it will be, it doesn't matter, like it was, but still I don't know how to go to the next level, how to push myself forward. So that's why the 7th day of Pesach is coming for us. It's like a glimpse, it's like the north star matrix, it's not how you can make all of your decisions according to those evaluations that you can measure, that you decided. It's not enough to say to yourself that, okay, now I'm breaking boundaries, I'm getting out of the old way and doing things. Okay, now let's bring it down to earth. What are you doing? How do you break through? I want to give a few examples from the old way itself, from the Bible. There were a few miracles in the Exodus, in the parting of the sea, that weren't so logical. It was, one of them was, you know, they have a barrier. How do you say? A barrier from the left and from the right.

Yeah, like a wall of water.

They had walls from both sides. Why do they need this wall? Why God? God does not do a miracle for nothing. And if he's splitting the sea, he doesn't need to change the nature of the water that they will stand like that and they will It would be like, well, why did it? Another miracle that you cannot understand, you know, why God is not creating miracles without a reason, because the nature is creating the nature every moment. He is creating the way that we live, he is orchestrating everything. So he does not need to change what he is creating without any reason. First thing, why do we need the universe from the beginning? From the right and from the left. The second thing, you know, when they walked in the splitting sea, there were trees that came from the sea. And in a moment, they brought fruits and children took these fruits and gave them to the birds that sang with them the song. And they sang together. Why did they need this miracle? Why did they need it? And the Lubavitcher Rabbi had a beautiful talk about that, and he said, it's like to show you how when you are breaking yourself from the right and from the left, and when you are working, you know, we spoke about it, I think, in order to concentrate, in order to get something out of myself, I need to put barriers. That means if I want to succeed to write the next book, I have to close my phone, cannot answer anyone, I cannot be everywhere. Whenever I want to succeed in something, I sacrifice other things. Things, and sacrifice means that I have to break myself, I have to develop myself in a way that I know where I am working, so on the 7 days, it's like a glimpse, where you should break yourself, this is the effort that I should bring to this reality, and then the trees are trees in Jewish thought, it's like my emotional change, I can change myself, I grow myself. And when I grow, I give fruits to the world. And the fruits, it's what other people can be influenced from me. And who are the other people? Are birds. What are birds doing? Birds are singing. Birds, they are showing unity. Singing, it's unity. Talking, when I am talking, when you are interfering, or when you are talking and I am interfering, it's like, it's a different harmonic way of connection. And when we are singing and you are starting to sing and I join you, it's like we find harmony. So it's like when they went in the splitting thing, the parting of the sea, they discovered the glimpse of the way you should go. It's like your North Star matrix, how you should go, where you should go. And now when you are getting to the table and whoever listened to us on the 7th day of Pesach Maushiot, stop for a moment and contemplate and ask for himself, ask himself, okay, I want to do a lot of things. I'm now going through the crisis of the age of 50. I'm getting near 50 and I'm starting and I thought to myself, oh, what I did? Am I doing what I need? Am I in the right place? All those questions that each you can go through the age of 40, 30, 20. And my wife looked at me and she said, Instead of being in all of those questions and let yourself stay and make yourself confused, start doing the next thing. Look for your North Star metrics. Look for how do you influence what you are doing. And if what you are doing is influencing, how it is influencing? What are your products? And what other people can gain out of you? And what is the change that they are accepting for you? And this will show you, let's get back to the happiness example. Now my daughter, she's spilled the wine on the table, she did something. You have here the value that you want to bring to your house, to your family, happiness. And she spilled the wine and all of your clothes, you are about to shout on her what you did and what you did. Now you remember What is the value? And we know that in order to bring this value to the world, you cannot allow yourself to scream because it contradicts the value that you want to bring. It's screaming and something and arguing. It's like it contradicts. So you say to yourself, okay, let's scream. So all the way of accepting, of deciding which way to walk and how to act, all your decisions are extracted, are derived from this North-South matrix. So 7 days of last conference, I maybe I'll let you ask or give your perspective on the issue.

Sure. So I just want to summarize a little bit of what you said right now. So you're saying to really get out of Egypt, to go beyond, you know, our common sense, you know, we have to put just like what happened in the Red Sea, you know, all of a sudden we had two walls which created a barrier. So we have to create our own barriers, we have to learn how to say no to things, you know.

In order to put the barrier, you have to break yourself because it's a barrier, you know, the water has this characteristic of falling down, it's like, I just said that, it's like it's falling down and it's, And you have to change your order, your nature in order to put those barriers because honestly nature tells me go look at TikTok, go spend an hour or two on Instagram.

Exactly. There's always something going on. There's always an event you can go to. But sometimes if you really want to get something accomplished, you got to focus on what you need to do and you need to create those barriers. You need to create those things. This is something that is clear. Now the second thing you said is that when they walked inside the ocean, all of a sudden trees started to come out and the fruits came out at the same time while they were working, which was another miracle of itself, which was quite amazing. And the children took the fruits of those trees and they fed the birds. And that symbolizes for us, again, if you can elaborate a little bit more on the symbolic, I mean, how is that practical for us?

It symbolizes that sometimes, you know, when we spoke about depression, somebody in depression does not believe that he is influencing. In order to help him believe that he is influencing, you have to have a glimpse, like a glance on the future. How do you influence? How do you influence? It's like God gave you a spiritual look. See, see, you are influencing. See those birds, when you break yourself and you go through the regression, you give food to the birds. Birds, it's like the animal sites in the world and create unity. And you see, when you are ready to break yourself, wall from the right, wall from the left, what happens? Trees are coming. What are trees, we said? Trees are our emotions. We change our emotions. Trees, you know, in Chagall, you know, the elder of the trees, it's like it's They are all there for, how do you call it, to be shvat. To be shvat, what happens, we are comparing in the Bible, we are comparing between human being and his emotions and his ability to change his negative emotions and to replace them with positive emotions to the tree. It's like a tree that is staying in its place. You do not change yourself, you are yourself, but you can change the way emotions manifest themselves in order that instead of being all about yourself and depression and I'm not influencing you, influencing and discover your inner attributes and show them in the world. So it's like, the whole thing that I'm trying to say, the 7th day, it's like the holiday of the Messiah, the holiday of redemption. It's what is the redemption? It's to show you, it's like it means, it's like to show you where you should head. It's not like you are really celebrating that things will change, but no, clarity is the best present that a man can get, human being can get. One loves clarity. Most of the problems of people, emotional problems, that they do not accept the way things should be. They do not adopt clarity because they feel, okay, it's good for me to stay in the place. It's very hard for me to change myself. It's very hard. I don't believe in the change. I'm suffering from despair, so I'm giving up hope that I will be able to change things or to be a better person. A better person or somebody that is fulfilling his life mission. And the most important thing is to show him that he can, to give him a glimpse of the future of how redemption would look like. Think about a person that is suffering from, he's trying now to overcome, you know, thoughts that, I don't want to use the psychological term because I'm trying to stay connected to the Jewish psychological terms, but think about a person that is, you know, the thoughts come towards him and undesirable negative thoughts and thoughts that are not connected to this moment and he is now suffering from these thoughts. What you want to show him? That he can concentrate, he can overcome those thoughts, he can choose one thought and stay with it for a period of time, for an hour, for 50 minutes, for 20 minutes. And if he is No, a person that is suffering, suffering from thoughts, and thoughts are not a problem, the problem are the emotions that the thoughts are awakening, and when ensuring that he can, what's the result? That he believes in himself. If I succeeded 20 minutes and I saw that, this is the glimpse to the future, this is the only way of redemption, the day I see that I can do that. So the neural networks is like showing us that we can do that. Live another life, we can have divine consciousness, you can live another life with your inner relationship and the way you live your life and the way you see things. It's like you can change the way your attitude and as you call your podcast, your mindset, you can change your mindset. But in order to change my mindset, I need this glimpse, I need this, you know, this Somebody will come with a light, with a flashlight, and will show me, oh, this is the way you should walk. That's right. He will show me, okay, go this way. This is the right way. You are on the right way. It's like a bit of clarity, how things should happen. But in order to take this clarity into your life, you know, you have to now, you got it. It's like something metaphysical. It's above. You know, there are two kinds of— the mind is very important. The human being's most important quality is the mind, is ability to think. But sometimes in order to succeed, in order to go in the right way, you have to either go above your mind or below your mind. Below your mind, I don't mean below our mind. In the role of mind, it's like I'm walking in a path that I'm saying, I don't understand. I don't know what I'm here. I don't know why I'm married to this woman, but I'm here. This is my family. And here I bring everything that I can without thinking about it, without going through rational understanding of the thing. This is my place. That's what I am. That's why I say, I want to be here, I'll be here, that's it. That's what I see. It's like, it's below our mind because there is no reason in it. There is no, it's like just a decision and you go with this decision and you do it. That's it. Don't ask questions. It's like, sometimes we mock people that do things without a reason or without reason, without understanding. But it's a huge quality. Why? Because sometimes our mind cools us down. It says to us, oh, why should I do that? There is no reason. I won't succeed. I don't believe in myself. So I said, I don't care. As you say, I'm creating content. I'm creating content. I don't know if people will, if I improve my English, if somebody will see me. I don't care. I'm doing it. That's what I'm doing. And it's not only what I'm doing. I'm doing a lot of other stuff. People ask me, I wrote 11 books. Why don't you write books for children? It's something that everyone needs. Okay, because I'm not really writing books for children. It's not my job. It's not something I'm doing. I'm not doing what other people need. I'm doing what I decided to do. And there is this thing that it's taking decisions and going 4 steps above our mind. Above our mind, what do we have above our mind? Above our mind, you have this place of pleasure. I have a will that comes from extract out of a pleasure. Why do you want something? Because you have pleasure in this thing. So, above my mind, I'm doing it, I'm drinking coffee. There is no, I'm trying to convince myself why I'm drinking coffee, but there is no reason, because I have pleasure in the coffee. It's above, it's like a decision, I will drink coffee without any reason. And it's not like there is a reasonable explanation why I'm drinking coffee. It's above our mind. All the best. So I'm just guessing why, because there is pleasure in it. And every reason is pleasure. So sometimes there is also addiction that blurs our mind and our eyes, and I don't really see if it's a real pleasure or not real pleasure. It's for another conversation. But what I'm trying to say overall is that In Jewish life, one of the most important things is to find the pleasure in your influencing. Without finding the pleasure, the fruits that you are giving, and you see the fruits without revealing the things that are concealed, when do you have pleasure? Think about it. Pleasure you have when you are revealing something. Pleasure starts with your mind. Like I revealed something and you said, wow, this is so pleasurable. Wow, this is so huge and I can contemplate on it. Whenever you reveal something, something, and it doesn't need to be new. Your perspective on the matter should be a new thing. And when you see it from a new perspective, you say, oh, you know, on the photo, I will call the night of the photo, there is a name for that in English? The night of photo, it sounds more—

Yeah, I think so. You know what, I don't know if there is like an American English term for it.

Because it's a very Jewish thing.

I'll do a quick search.

So, you know, there are those 4 questions that the 4 sons that ask questions, they want to know things. Questions are one of the most important things in Judaism, and one of the most important questions is the one that the wisdom, the smart guy, the smart son is asking, the one that knows everything, and he's asking like, Why do you do things? Why do you do things like that? Why do you do things from this perspective? Why do you do things? And if you ask me, why do you do things? Because you have to? Because you understand it? Or because you want to be connected to the past? It's like in Hebrew it's Mishpatim. Mishpatim is things that you understand. There are rules, commandments that you understand in your mind. And there are laws that you did not understand in your mind that you do them. Why? Because they are engraved in you and you have to do that. And there are those laws, commandments that you are doing because in Hebrew It's like a dot, a dot, it's testimony to the future. We are sitting in the Sukkah because it's a testimony to something that happened. And he's asking why do we do the things that we are doing. And the answer that he gets, that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters, why do we use things, why do we do things from different things in order that we will find the pleasure in it. Because there's something, you don't eat the sacrificing of the Pesach, of the Passover, when you are full. When you do things and you are angry, it's like, I need it, I really need it. And when you do things from a place of richness, of I see how the future can be, and I can taste it a bit, and there is a pleasure in me doing it, and it's a different attitude. So let's summarize, the holiday of the 7 days of Passover tries to give you a bit of a pleasure in your hard work, walking through Exodus, walking through the desert, and there are some sunburns instead It's not easy to overcome addiction and anxiety and despair. It's not easy at all. But if you think—

It's really an opportunity. You know, it really is an opportunity to kind of break through all the barriers that we have, you know, all the obstacles, all the doubts that we have. Because, you know, like the story, the story of coming out of Egypt, you know, First, you know, Moses is going and he's telling Pharaoh, let my people go. And then Pharaoh is saying, you know, like it's written that God made his heart even harder. No, I'm not letting them go. I'm not letting them. So it's like a teaching for us. You know, when you want to go out of Egypt and you want to get permission, first of all, you don't need to get permission. You don't need to go to ask Pharaoh. Pharaoh will always tell you no.

Beautiful.

What is the Pharaoh? Pharaoh is the Pharaoh that also lives inside of us. And we have to be ready for that Pharaoh. So when we come trying to become influencers, when we try to create content, there's going to be a Pharaoh telling you no, no, don't do it. Exactly. But then eventually, if you understand, if you're ready for that Pharaoh, you're not asking for permission, you're just going. It's going to be doubt because it says also there was the Amalek was a whole nation of people that used to like literally inject doubt into everybody. What are you guys doing? You walk into the desert, you guys are going to die. Stay over here. You were slaves, but at least you had lunch to eat. You know, but after there, there is no lunch. But still, you cannot— because, because this is the example of staying in the comfort zone, like what you were saying. If you really want to get results, you can't stay comfortable. You got to be— you take a risk, you go out there. There's going to be lunch, not going to be lunch, who cares? I'm just going to go. It's fine. So I can fast for a few days. You know, so definitely, but then also to understand that when you're gonna eventually do it, when you're gonna not ask permission from Pharaoh, and even if Pharaoh is gonna tell you no, you're gonna just keep going, you're going to reach the Red Sea. And when you're gonna reach the Red Sea, you're gonna have to do something. And everybody has their own Red Sea. Everybody has their own, you know, dead end. You come, you reach a dead end, and there is, what am I gonna do now?

What am I going to do now?

You know, I've been creating content. I have only like 7 people listening, you know, maybe if I'm lucky. I don't feel it's progressing. I don't see how I'm going to make money. But eventually, like you said, we have to package it. We have to understand what is the value that we are bringing. It's not about us. It's about the content. It's about the ideas that we are sharing. And when we do that, we are really able, and of course, to take the risk, to take a risk, because they kept walking until the water literally reached their head.

Only one did it.

Only one. Why only one?

All the others went after him. That's what's interesting.

So we need a leader, we need a guide, we need, like you said, the North Star matrix is some kind of almost like a leader, almost something that leads us. It's like the same concept of the light at the end of the tunnel. You know, when you see a light in the end of the tunnel, you know where you need to go. You have direction.

Beautiful, beautiful.

So what am I saying? So it's really an amazing, like, this whole event that happened there is just such a powerful learning for each and every human being to really understand. This is what's going to happen. You're going to want to do something beyond your capability, beyond what you think you are able to do. Pharaoh will come. Pharaoh will come and he will try to put doubts in you and he will tell you, no, don't do it. Stay working your 9-to-5 job. Why are you trying to create content? What, are you crazy? But then the whole world is missing out on you because every human being has a unique way to express their experience of life. And it would have been so beautiful to just feel it and to connect with each person. And imagine instead of people showing us their beautiful vacation, they would actually share something meaningful.

Exactly, there is another point that you reminded me of, sometimes we remember very easily odd things in our life, something was very odd that we suffered from, even though it happened only 5-10 minutes, we remember it, I won't say cherishing, but we don't want to cherish it, but we get back to it every time and we remember it, and it's like it's closed out, it's like a huge barrier, our past, remembrance of what happened, but so easily good things that we are going through, we are like forgetting. Someone, something happened to you and it was like a good occasion, good things, a good point in your life, something very good that opened for you a way and made a bit of clarity, as you said before, and you are losing it. Why? Because those bad remembrance are getting more control over you. My point is, try to remember the good places, the good points, the good things that you went through in this process, in this voyage of getting out of Egypt.

Right, right. And also the children, right? The children, when they saw the trees, when they saw the fruits out of the trees, and they start sharing it with the birds, what does it mean for us? It means that we need to take our experiences, even from childhood, you know, whatever it is that we've been through, that we can share with the world and give it back because there is value in it. Every human being, every experience that every human being went through, there is value in it to give to other people who are maybe going through the same experience, about to go through the same experience, or maybe, you know, So, also, it's also for people to understand what really the Torah is. It's not making stories.

No, it is rooting babies, not children, in the Midrash, in the— and the meaning when we use usually babies, it's a person that even before you won your inner battles, you know, a baby, what is a baby? He's very egocentric, it's all about him, you're in the middle, it's like, and when you're a baby, it's like, It's not about you. Even when you are a baby, even when you are so egocentric, you have something to give and it's not you, yourself. Try to see others, try to get out of yourself in order to promote what you have to promote. It doesn't matter what kind of challenge are you facing.

That's really, really beautiful concept. Would you like to add anything else, Dr.

Ikhil Arari, before we end this amazing I think we passed our 25-minute episodes, you know.

Right.

It's so important before the holiday. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you about those important ideas.

Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your time with us and your wisdom and your insights with us. And I'm just going to tell people a little secret. Every time we finish the podcast, when I go to the gym, when I have time to listen, I listen to the podcast again. And I'm getting, you know, I'm just learning so much from it even after listening to it. You know, just all the insight, all the tools that, you know, the wisdom provides to us for humanity to really break the boundaries and come out and turn darkness into light because this is what we're here to do. Thank you so much, Dr. Richard.

Thank you, brother. And happy holiday.

Happy holiday. Happy Passover. Happy Easter. Happy life.

We'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye.