A Shabbat With The Steipler Gaon

0:06Endless amount of teachings about the necessity of Yirat Shamayim. What is Yirat Shamayim in practice? Like I could tell you a lot of things, but what does Yirat Shamayim in, let's say for example, your day-to-day life look like? The Steipler Gaon, Rabbi Yaakov Kanievsky, alav hashalom, He said that if somebody walked into his Beit Midrash, just walked into it. Didn't go up to him and talk to him. If he was a Mechalel Shabbat, the Steipler already knew, and he would start screaming to kick the person out. He didn't have to see them. He didn't have to shake their hand. He didn't have to talk to them. As soon as the person walked into the room, if he was a Mechalel Shabbat, he already knew, and he would start yelling to get this person out. Happens several times. Now you can say that maybe it's a fairy tale. Maybe it's not hard to believe. What does your mind look like for a person that got to that level? When he was already in his 80s, he had problems with his legs for many years and

1:31But by the time he was in his 80s, they would literally take a liter of liquid out of his knees every so often. When you have problems with your knees, it builds up a lot of liquid. It's very painful. And the only way to get rid of it is literally to take it out. And they would take out a liter of liquid from his knees every so often. He had an immense amount of pain and suffering from his legs, aside from many other things. But one of his talmidim witnessed this story. And he says that when he was already in his 80s, suffering from pain, he still lived in a house that had a long stairway downstairs. And one time, he went down the stairs, and as soon as he got to the bottom stair, he didn't realize, but there was a huge puddle. And his foot went into the puddle. Shh! really, really wet. Now, to an average person, it’s like, "Oh, too bad. Okay, just go upstairs, change socks, maybe change shoes, and go back to wherever you were going. You’re going to shul, you’re going somewhere else." That’s what it would mean to a normal person that has no yirat Shamayim whatsoever or knowledge of what this actually means. What does this actually mean? This type will go and realize that there is an issur from the Torah and...

3:00squeeze out the water. If, let's say, for example, you had some type of sponge that has water in it or a towel that has water in it, and if you squeeze it and the water comes out, it's an issue from the Torah. It's like lighting a fire. That's why, for example, any woman that washes dishes on Shabbat should only use the nets. Don't ever use a sponge, because if you use a sponge, you're violating Shabbat and... He used nets. There are different nets that have holes where they don't retain any water. It's also part of the reason why we're not allowed to take showers, cold or hot, on Shabbat, because there is a fear that the towel will get wet enough to the point where if you squeeze it, water will come out. But anyway, he, in his 80s already, he's old, he's in pain, and he just stepped into a puddle, and his sock is really wet. What did he do? He did something that Alvai, one day, we would do also. But he did it, and we're just talking about it. He realized that he not only has to change his sock, but he cannot step on his sock. So he had to hop on one leg all the way back upstairs.

4:21That wasn't enough. He didn't realize once he got upstairs that even if now, okay, this torture pain that he just went through, an 80-something-year-old on one leg that barely worked when it was perfect anyway, if that's not enough, wait a minute. If I take the shoe off, just the action of taking the shoe may squeeze the sock. even though technically you don't mean to, and there's many poskim that could say no, no, you didn't mean to squeeze it. Therefore, it's not really a sin. It doesn't make a difference. You know it's gonna happen. Therefore, you're not allowed to do it. It's like saying you know that the chicken's gonna die if you chop its head off and Don't, uh, you can't just decide, "No, no, I'm gonna only chop its head off. I'm not gonna kill the whole chicken." No, it's gonna die. You know it's gonna die. You know that it's going to squeeze the sock if you take off the shoe. So what did he do? He made sure that his leg was hanging the whole Shabbat until Motzaei Shabbat, and no one's touching it and no one's nothing. He had to make sure that his leg was hanging and...

5:35Entire Shabbat, so husband Shalom, husband Shalom. The sock that got wet by accident when you're 80-something years old with problems in your legs doesn't get squeezed and a little bit of water maybe gets squeezed out. That's your children. That's fear of Hashem. That is the highest level of fear of Hashem that a person should aspire to in this generation. But the reality is, if we simply just stop sinning, that's already enough for most people, at least the intentional ones. Now, all of the stories of the tzaddikim, some of the miracles they performed, some of the blessings that came true, and so on and so forth, are amazing. But none of them ever attained any of that without fear of Hashem. No one can attain anything in Torah without basic-level fear of Hashem. And this is what the Mishnah is trying to tell us: that first and foremost, a person must have awe. What is this awe? The awe and the reverence that a person is supposed to have is that anytime he's faced

7:01whether it's learning Torah or teaching Torah or even praying, the person needs to think of the fact that he is now going to meet Hashem. What does it mean to meet Hashem? So the Gemara in Masechet Berachot gives us a little bit of insight. What does Hashem really expect of us? Talmud Bavli, Masechet Berachot, page 22a, says that when a person learns Torah, as it is written, the Talmud says, make sure teach your children and your grandchildren to follow what's written, that they should behave as if they are in the day that you stood before Hashem, your God, at Mount Horeb, at Mount Sinai. From this, we learn that when a person learns or teaches Torah, he has to have fear, awe, and trembling, just like Am Yisrael had when they were literally at Mount Sinai.

8:25He has to have fear and awe and trembling just like Am Yisrael had when they were literally at Mount Sinai. Rashi specifies with respect to the study and teaching of Torah in any generation, it must be done with dread, awe, and trembling with fear. So, this is not Yaron Reuven; this Rashi came a little bit before me, about 900 years before me. Rashi says in any generation, he specifically writes, any generation, if you're going to learn Torah, if you're going to follow Torah, if you're going to fulfill a mitzvah, if you're going to pray at shul, you have to do it with dread and trepidation, trembling with fear. Not jump around, breakdance in the middle of the shul, start getting everybody all amped up. Yeah, yeah, Mashiach, Mashiach. No, it doesn't say any of that. It says, if you actually understand, Hashem is here. That Hashem was also here at Har Sinai. At Har Sinai, Am Yisrael was so scared, they all died. Twice. And Hashem had to bring them back from the dead. That's how scared they were.

9:45she says we're supposed to be that scared. Why do we become scared at all? The point is that she says we're supposed to be as scared as if we are at Mount Sinai. Instead of you being scared of my face, because what can I do? My God created me this way. You have to be scared of the Torah that I'm saying to you. Why? Because God's here and That's how scared a person is supposed to be. Regular shiur. Regular, you're reading parasha. You're reading a little Mishnah. You're reading a halacha. A couple halachot every day. A person is supposed to have such a level of fear as if mamash, God is next to him, watching. No, no, no. Did you get that? Did you understand that, my son? Did you understand every word? Or are you thinking about your kids, your mortgage, your business, the stock market went down, the stock market went... What are you thinking about, my son? He's not gonna ask because he knows. But this is how much fear a person needs to have. This Gemara, Masechet Berachot—anybody that actually knows what Shas is starts with it. You start with Masechet Berachot, which means that unless a person simply skipped over this page or half the Masechet, you would know that Yirat Shamayim is the foundation of everything.

11:10if you read Rashi, which you're supposed to because without Rashi, we simply don't understand anything, you would answer the very, very famous question that people ask me every day, at least once a day: Are you sure this stuff is relevant to our lowly generation? You know, we have such big tikkunim. We have such big tests. We have iPhones and pornography and the internet, and the Facebooks, and no one wears clothes anymore. The previous generation's clothes that were underwear today are outerwear. Like, that's a big test for guys, it's a big test for girls, a big test for everyone. Rashi answered it. He literally said any generation. Any generation includes us too. the Facebooks, and no one wears clothes anymore. The previous generation's clothes that were underwear today are outerwear. That's a big test for guys, and it's a big test for girls. A big test for everyone. So, you sure this is for everyone? Rashi answered it. He literally said, "any generation." "Any generation" includes us too. This is why in the Torah it constantly says in many places, le'olam. Le'olam means eternally. So no one should ever say or ever think that there is anything in the Torah that's no longer relevant to us. The only reason why we're not obligated to bring korbanot right now, to bring sacrifices right now for every sin we make or other reasons,

12:34It's not because it's not relevant. It's because we're anousim. We can't do it because we are not allowed to do it without a Beit HaMikdash. If and when the Beit HaMikdash, the third Beit HaMikdash, is built, immediately, all of us have to go get some cows and bring korbanot to the Beit HaMikdash. Immediately. You can't wait. Oh, you know, I'll do it next week. I'll do it next month. I'll do it. I'll do it next month. And when I get to it, I'll save some money. Everybody has to start bringing cows. Go bring korbanot. On a regular basis. You made sins? More korbanot. The only reason we're not bringing korbanot right now is because we don't have a Beit HaMikdash. So what do we do? We pray. We pray instead. But as soon as a Beit HaMikdash is built, we have to go back to bringing korbanot. Every single day.