A Holiday Tree In Your House Is 100% Idol Worship (15 Minutes)

0:00Okay, so now, a lot of people, in America especially, this is something that's unique to America and the Galut, more so than I think Israel. I'm not talking to anybody here, just in case you hear somebody's doing this, or thought about this, or anything like this. This is something that I found recently, and I thought it was extraordinary, so I'm sharing it with you. People heard about this concept of Hanukkah trees? Hanukkah's coming up. Hanukkah trees? Hanukkah trees. People in America. Hanukkah bush. You know, like Hanukkah bush, Hanukkah tree, whatever it is. I've never heard of that. Okay, so what people do... People do... Okay, so what happened... Hanukkah was never necessarily a holiday of gifts until America created that. So they want to... The Jews want to compete with Christmas. They have this tree... and they have gifts around it. So what Jews started doing is that, okay, during Chanukah, we're also going to give gifts, and we're going to give eight small gifts, and so on. So they made it a gift holiday. It's not exactly what the holiday is about. The holiday is not about gifts. It's actually about our Am Yisrael survival, which is a little bit different than just getting a new PlayStation or some other nonsense toy. But the point is that

1:24everything is becoming marketable, everything is becoming, you know, commerce, and people are falling far, far, far away from the point of what we need to do. Now, what's happened also, and I remember this even when I was a kid, 20 years ago, I remember one of the Jewish kids in the neighborhood told me, "Oh yeah, yeah, we celebrate," you know, he wasn't religious, but he was like, "Oh yeah, we have a unique Hanukkah." I'm like, "Well, what's a unique Hanukkah?" He goes, "Oh, we have a tree also. We have a Hanukkah bush. I'm like, what's Hanukkah? I don't even know what a Hanukkah bush is. What's a Hanukkah bush? Well, no, we have a tree and it has, you know, blue and white instead of being green. And we put little Jewish stars on it. And it's fun. And ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. Okay. I didn't know much at the time. And..." Oh, we have a tree also. We have a Chanukah bush. I'm like, what's Chanukah? I don't even know what a Chanukah bush is. What's a Chanukah bush? Well, no, we have a tree, and it has, you know, blue and white instead of being green. And we put little Magen Davids on it. And it's fun. And ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. Okay. I didn't know much at the time. And... I still don't know much to this day, but I know a little bit more than I did back then. And I found a very, very interesting thing about the whole aspect of trees. Now, the Torah, obviously, was given to us by Hashem. We all know and agree that it's divine, which means that everything that's written here is directly from Hashem. And, as much today as it was when it was written. Nothing changed. So, now, the Torah repeatedly tells us that we should not do what the non-Jewish people do. The Goyim have their laws, and we have our laws, but we don't have to...

2:48as much today as it was when it was written. Nothing has changed. So, now, the Torah repeatedly tells us that we should not do what the non-Jewish people do. The goyim have their laws, and we have our laws, but we don't have to... argue about it. It doesn't necessarily make them bad or anything like that. It's just that we have different standards that Hashem gave us, different laws that we have to follow. And they have different laws. That's it. The problem with us is that, again, because we're back to lack of knowledge and ignorance, we try to imitate them, which is something that Hashem told us specifically not to do multiple times. We're repeating it over and over again. Now the problem is, is that people, because they don't know, because they don't know, it's not because they, some people want to anger Hashem, but for the most part, it's because they don't know. They do things because they don't think it's a big deal. It's a tree. What's the big deal? It's just a tree. It's a big deal. I go to my friend Tony's house, and he has trees all the time. God's not striking him.

4:11so bad, he just destroyed them on the spot. All these people, he's got millions of people all over America, all over the world. They have trees in the middle of their living room—some white, some green, some with balls, some with stars, some with this, some with that. All these people are living life. This guy's got a big house, got ten rooms in it, and there's trees in every room. Why can't I have a tree? Why can't we have a tree? Because Hashem said we can't. And this is something that's not only something that Hashem said, He said it literally. It's not a translation. This is not an understanding. Actually, not only are we not allowed to do it, but no one is allowed to do it, meaning Jews or non-Jews. Unfortunately, people don't read the Torah. Someone told them a verse, and they remembered it their whole life. So they think they know the Torah or they know the Tanakh, or they know something. They know three verses since kindergarten, or they know Tehillim because they read it every Tuesday or Shabbat, or some other day, or anytime somebody's sick they read something, and they remember a couple of them by heart, so they think they know the Torah. They don't know anything. The problem is, the Torah is endless. And if you read it, everything is in it. I found this recently, and I think this is something extraordinary. It's in the book of Yirmiyahu. It's in the Tanakh. Yeah, yeah. Um,

5:37It's chapter 10. And I'll just start from the beginning, and you guys tell me if you understand what this says, because this is just a simple English translation. I mean, I can read it in Hebrew also, but I think English—not Rashi’s translation of it, or some other sage interpretation of it, or the Gemara’s interpretation. This is a basic, word-for-word translation of what it says. Tell me what you guys think. Here are the words. which the Lord has spoken to you, O house of Israel. Thus said the Lord, do not learn to go the way of the nations, and do not be dismayed by portents in the sky. Let the nations be dismayed by them, for the laws of the nations are delusions, for it is the work of a craftsman's hands. He cuts down a tree in the forest with an axe. He adorns it with silver and gold. He fastens it with nails and a hammer so that it does not totter. They are like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch. They cannot speak. They have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Be not afraid of them, for they can do no harm. You guys got this so far? Okay, so tree, kishutim on them with little decorations, silver, gold. Sounds familiar, right? Okay, so we're at a good start.

7:10Then Jeremiah 11. Interesting verse. That first one is much more literal than this one, but the point is that this one is... So, in case anyone thinks that the second thing with the same book is relevant, anyone who thinks that the covenant we have with Hashem, meaning the mitzvot we have with Hashem, are not relevant or outdated and don't need to be kept, should look at Jeremiah 11, verses 1 through 5. The word came to Jeremiah from Hashem.

8:14Okay, so it's not from Jeremiah's buddy, it's from Hashem. Hear the terms of this covenant and recite them to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and say to them, thus said the Lord, the God of Israel, cursed be the man who will not obey the terms of this covenant. Okay, so this is actually the third verse. You got the point on that one. And the last one about this tree. If the tree didn't bother Hashem, I don't think He would say this. Again, Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 11. Hashem informed me, and I knew. Then You let me see their deeds. For I was like a docile lamb led to the slaughter. I did not realize that it was against me that they fashioned their plots. Let us destroy the tree. with its fruit. Let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more. The tree also represents something else, is the point here. Okay? It represents an idol. And the point here is that if the tree was not a big deal... If the tree did not mean much, if it was not a big deal... It's the first one.

9:38Uh, yeah, the, uh, first one is Yochanan 9:10. It's highlighted, the parts that are highlighted. But as soon as you bring a tree into your house, or put a plant in your house, it's just a plant. Water it. It's just a plant. It's a living thing. Very different. They're not describing a plant. Yeah, but they're not decorating it. They're not describing a plant. As soon as you bring a tree into your house and you start decorating it, it's kind of like you're worshiping it, like it's an idol. That's the problem. Well, that's the thing. He's not talking about putting plants in our houses. He's talking specifically about a tree that they put decorations... The way they treat their trees is the ornaments that they get, the bigger, the nicer, the taller the tree. So here's the thing, in a big store, the top of the tree. Right, so here's the point, guys. This is something... It's in the days, like, it's before how long, this, like, way before they celebrate Christmas. And the Hebrew is actually even a little more detailed than the English part. It's basically a false card because the thing is that it's... The way they treat their trees is with the ornaments that they get; the bigger, the nicer, the taller the tree. So here's the thing: in a big store, the top of the tree. Right, so here's the point, guys. This is something... It's from the days, like, way before they celebrated Christmas.

10:44Oh, yeah, yeah. This is before the religion. Yeah? Yes, yes. Definitely before. This is before Christianity ever existed or was even a thought. But the point, the beauty of the Torah is that it's eternal. It's as relevant as much 3,300 years ago when we received it until the end of time. It applies to everything, and you can find everything that's relevant to today with all the fancy-schmancy technology, and the different types of houses, and the cars, and the planes, and the cell phones, and the nonsense that we consume our life with—you can find all of that in the Torah. All of it. Everything is in the Torah. So when we realize that this stuff is already there, and dafka we go against it, It's just a fool. So what does it mean? Most people are not going davka against it. Most people just don't know because why? It goes back to what we were talking about before. People believe big nonsense stories because they don't think that anybody would make such a big lie. That's why a guy like Madoff, for example,

11:53gave the rest of the Jews a bad name by stealing billions of dollars. Why? Because people believed his big story that he's this and he's that, and he doesn't want to accept money but he's doing you a favor by taking your money, and people fell for this trap because they fell for a big lie. The bigger the lie, the more people believe it. And that's one thing that we have to understand for ourselves, is that we have to check the facts. We have to check the facts in the Torah, we have to check the facts in our life, we have to check ourselves every single day. We have to wake up. Because as long as we don't know these facts, we have nothing to stand on. So this specific thing about the tree is not just for you guys, because I wasn't assuming any of you are doing it, but number one, if you know anybody that doesn't think it's a big deal, let them know it's a big deal. If you don't know the verse, ask me. I think it's my brother also. It's not. Anybody has a tree, I think. Anybody is, it's not. But, the second thing is, anybody that actually watches this, if there are ten people, five people, one person watches this video, it makes it all worth it. If one person doesn't do it because of watching this, it's worth a million lectures. Let them know it's a big deal. If you don't know the verse, ask me. I think it's my brother also. It's not. Anybody has a tree, I think. Anybody is, it's not. But, the second thing is, anybody that actually watches this, if there are ten people, five people, one person who watches this video, it makes it all worth it. If one person doesn't do it because of watching this, it's worth a million lectures.

13:11works, you know, it's worth you guys being late every time. So, and that's the point of all of this, is so we learn, so we fix ourselves, connect to Hashem, realize this is true, and b'ezrat Hashem, achieve our purpose in this world, and help other people. So, Be'ezrat Hashem, next week, during this next... You have seven days to try to get me one more person for next week. I'm going to use Shimon. One more person. Anybody. I don't care who it is. It could be Shimon. It could be Zvika. It could be this one. Get me one more person for next week. We have to grow this shiur. Anyone. Anyone. All three of you guys get me just one more person for next week. We made a big, big achievement. So, let's get as many people as possible. If you can't get somebody, then the link that I send you guys... With the lectures, with the shiurim that we do, send it to them. If they don't want to watch me because I'm not good to look at, then have them watch Rabbi Mizrachi because he has a lot better things to say than I do. If they don't want to listen to English, he has it in Hebrew. If they don't want to listen to him because they don't like him either, have them listen to my cousin Rabbi Efraim Kachlon.

14:19If they don't like him either, you've got a problem. There are a lot of things, a lot of Torah out there. Just get them to watch something. "Torah and Science," that's also, again, I don't know if, I didn't ask you guys if anybody watched it yet, but please, if you haven't watched it, watch it. Okay? Watch it. It's good stuff. The CD is not the same as the movie? The CD, yeah, the CD "Torah and Science" is the same thing as the movie. Oh, so one is just... One is audio and one is visual. The visual you should watch with your wife because you shouldn't be selfish and be the only one that learns. You should watch it with your wife. My wife took the CD and she's telling me stories now. Ah, tzaddeikes, see? I put it in her car and she's coming to tell me stories. Okay, so guys, please. Two things we gotta do: Watch Torah and Science and work on getting one person. for next week's lecture. And Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll have a good week. As you can see, parnasah is from the Shamayim. You guys, Be'ezrat Hashem, will work on something good together. And Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll all succeed. We'll all succeed in having Hashem happy with us every day and succeed in our lives. Alright? Baruch Adonai Le'olam. Amen ve'Amen.