AMAZING STORIES OF Miracles Coming From Sacrifice

1:07You can't just automatically assume certain things. I know, for example, somebody asked me the other day about Rabbi Pinto, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, and shlit''a. And a lot of people always ask, "How did he succeed?" I mean, aside from the challenges that he's dealing with, with health. Law and so on, it is a goon, succeeded in a big way. My Rav told me once, he said, I've always asked myself, you know, everybody has certain siyata dishmaya to succeed. But how do they succeed? There's always a reason, it's always like one thing that you did that, ah, that's it—mesirat nefesh. What did you do? Studying? A lot of people study. I... A lot of people read, and a lot of people write. All these things people do. What was your mesirat nefesh? Someone came and said one time, "You know, I'm not jealous of the Beit Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Karo, that he wrote the Shulchan Aruch. I'm jealous of the mitzvah that he did before he wrote the Shulchan Aruch, to know how he got the merit to write the Shulchan Aruch."

2:24You have to do something. You're not just going to one day write the Shulchan Aruch that all of Am Yisrael is going to abide by as law. Just because you have a brain, a lot of people have a brain. Baruch Hashem, Am Yisrael is very smart. What did you do? What is the mesirat nefesh? You should know Rav Pinto, shlit"a. If you're learning from him directly, it's a different story. If you're learning from somebody else who says he's connected to him, I can't vouch for that. I could vouch for him himself. When he first started, before he was the famous Rabbi Pinto, before anybody knew who he was, he began by calling a few people. One day, he didn't have money. There was no money. He didn't have the money to pay the students, to pay the avreichim. He came to his wife and said, "Okay, we're putting the house up for sale. Why? To pay the avreichim." That's Mesirut Nefesh, rabotai. You can put your house on sale to pay avreichim. Most people just say to avreichim, "I'm sorry, I can't pay you. I'll come up with the money, I'll pay you down the road, but I can't continue this." You're not going to sell your house; you're not going to sell your house for strangers. It's not your kids. Strangers. Or at least, listen, you say, "I don't have the money. I'll go borrow. I'll go do this. I'll go do something. I don't have it now." No, no. Sold the house.

3:49That's Mesirat Nefesh. People have no concept of what Mesirat Nefesh means. People think that just because they got a flat tire, that's Mesirat Nefesh. Or because they gave $100 out of their $5,000 salary, that's Mesirat Nefesh. Mesirat Nefesh is putting your life on the line, making yourself uncomfortable. I always told people in the business world, if you ever want to succeed, already make it a rule: in order to be comfortable, you must become uncomfortable. If you want to be comfortable, you have to be willing to become uncomfortable first. If you're looking to be comfortable, you'll never be comfortable. You have to be willing to take risks. So, The Baba Sali was willing to put everything on the line. Rabbi Shlomkin Mizvil, 100 years ago, Rabbi Shlomo Goldman was the fourth Admor of the Chassidut Zvhill.

5:13This is each kadosh that ran away from kavod in any way, shape, or form. One time, there was a famous non-Jewish drunk in the area in Seville who broke into a Jewish house on Friday night. He broke into the house, saw that there were challot and wine, and helped himself. Saw that there are challot, there's wine, helped himself. Started eating the challot, started drinking the wine. As you would have it, he choked on the challah and died. The Ba'al HaBayit, Rabbi Yitzchak, came to the house after Beit Knesset, and he couldn't open the door because this drunk, Stephan,

6:14Blocking the door, the body was preventing access. After he and his wife pushed really hard, they managed to open the door. Shimmy and his wife then saw a dead body in the house. Nowadays, if someone in America finds a dead body in their house, they call 9-1-1. Authorities come to investigate with DNA analysis and private investigators. They knock on the door and say, "Shalom Aleichem, good afternoon. We're sorry to disturb you and for the unfortunate incident you’re dealing with. We apologize that you have a dead body in your house." We're sorry, Daddy. You know, all they say is it's karma. They blame karma for it. "Oh see, he stole from you; see, karma killed him." Whoever karma is, fine. In those days, it wasn't like this. About time you guys realized we're living in Ghana then. Right now, with religious freedom, we could say what we want. You could talk against the government if you want. You could do whatever you want. Back then, if a Jew had a non-Jew die even next to him, immediately they blamed all the Jewish people and started killing Jews. Kal va-chomer, needless to say if the non-Jew is found dead in the house.

7:29Oh, see blood libels. They called it. Ah, you see the Jews are killing the non-Jews again so they could use their blood for their matzah. That's what they must think. This is a legitimate thought people to this day believe. It's not like from a hundred or a thousand years ago. So, right now, they believe it. Right now, today, it's not as it was back then. But back then, the Beit Yitzhak saw a dead body in his house. He said the shame of him and all of Am Yisrael that lives over here is in danger. Forget about me and my wife and... Am Yisrael is in danger. He goes and runs to the Rav's house in a state of panic. "Am Yisrael is in danger! It's Friday night. We need your help, for the love of Hashem. We need your help." "No, no, what do you mean? What happened?" "Stefan is in my house. He's dead—the famous drunk. He's dead in my house." Without thinking twice, the Rav responds.

8:29The Rav says, one second. He goes to his bowl of cholent, takes a spoon, takes some cholent out, and he gives it to Rav Yitzchak, saying, "Go feed him." "No, no, no, Kavod HaRav, he's dead." "Exactly, go feed him." "No, no, Kavod HaRav, you don't understand. He died, he died, so he can't eat." "Do what I said." What do you do? You ask him again? He didn't ask. He said, okay, twice is enough. He left. He goes to his house. Now Stefan's mouth is closed. Now, once a dead person has closed their mouth, generally their whole body changes. Once a person dies, the body becomes like a stone. So opening his mouth was not so easy. Finally, he opens his mouth. Finally, he gets to a point where he says, "Stefan, open your mouth already." Stefan opens his mouth.

9:30He puts the spoon of the Rebbe's cholent. He sees Stefan get up, not saying anything, and walking away. He starts following him, asking, "What's going on over here?" He continues to follow him. Where's he going? He goes back to wherever he came from and dies. But he doesn't die in a Jewish home. As soon as this story happened, Rabbi Shlomkin left Zvil and went to Eretz Yisrael and stayed there for the rest of his life because he knew that after such a story, you would get too much kavod. You get too much honor. So much honor that he ran away from it. Miracles he could perform; honor he couldn't deal with. People love such stories. That's why they think today, maybe there are some rabbanim in the world who can perform such miracles. I'm sure there are, but we don't know who they are. But what people don't like to hear about is how do you get to that level? Some people believe the stories, some don't. It's their problem. Whether you believe it or not, it makes no difference to me. If it's a story you want to believe, believe it; if not, don't. People love such stories. That's why they think today there may be some rabbis in the world who can make such miracles. I'm sure there are, but we don't know who they are. But what people don't like to hear about is how do you get to that level? Okay, nice. Thank you very much for a nice story. Some people believe it; some people don't believe it. It's their problem. I don't care about what you believe or don't believe—makes no difference to me. This is a story. If you want to believe, believe; if you don't want to believe, don't believe.

10:59Is how do you get there? Is it, oh, it's nice stories, but Sally loved everyone? No, no, no. He told everyone, you go to public school, you're dead. What about him? One time, Rabbi Shlomo, or Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, saw that people were getting too secular. Why were they getting too secular? Because the kehillah was controlled by rich people, and... So he said, from now on, anyone who's a Mechalel Shabbat or has a child that's a Mechalel Shabbat is not allowed to get an Aliyah in our Beit Knesset. No more Aliyot. You want to come and pray, pray. But you cannot get an Aliyah if you have a Mechalel Shabbat in your house. Even if you yourself are keeping Shabbat, if you have a son who is not keeping Shabbat, or if you have a daughter who is not keeping Shabbat, you cannot receive an Aliyah in our Beit Knesset. Why? It's your fault. It's your fault that your son or daughter is a Mechalel Shabbat. It's not their fault. They saw from you that sports are number one, so they made sports number one on Shabbat. They saw from you that business is number one, so they made business number one on Shabbat. They saw from you that Hashem is not important, so Hashem is not important at any time, and thus, Hashem is not important on Shabbat either.

12:21Child is a replica of the parents, that's just a reality. If you want to have good kids, work on your middot (character traits). If you don't work on your middot, you will end up with problematic children. That's the way it is. People come and say, "No, no, I have bad kids." The reality is no, no, you're a bad parent. You have bad kids because they are a replica of you. Just look in the mirror; that's the child. If you scream, they scream. If you're angry, they're angry. If you're cheap, they're cheap. You are their role model until they reach adulthood. Their only opinion will be: What do Abba and Ima think? If they see the rabbi of the school taking his job seriously, they're going to respect it. But if they come home and see Abba and Ima not taking the Torah seriously, they're going to say the rabbi is a fool. The rabbi is a fool. He's just doing it because it's his job. He's doing it for the money, not because he genuinely believes. If he truly believed, if what he was saying was true, then surely Ema and Abba would follow suit. There's no way that Ema and Abba are making a mistake. There's no way that Ema and Abba are not taking Hashem seriously, if Hashem were really to be taken seriously. No way. No way that the rabbi knows, but Ema and Abba don't know. No way.

13:43So the kid is always gonna follow Ima and Abba. If you're sending a kid to yeshiva, but at home he's secular, you might as well not send him anywhere. It's the same thing. In fact, it may be worse. It may be worse. Why? Because kids that go to schools where the schools are yeshiva and the house is secular, many times from my experience, I've seen them become kofrim gemurim. They become heretics completely. Why? Because now they think of Judaism as a complete joke. At least the kid went to public school, and his parents were public, and the school was public. It was the same. No one knows, no one cares. When he saw religious people, it was okay; they're different people, whatever they are. He has no connection, but he has no disrespect for them most of the time. The ones that go off the derech and become real heretics are the ones who had a mix. They're a mix. Parents are always surprised. "I have bad kids." They're not bad kids; you're a bad parent. You're a parent, and you're not doing a good job. As hard as it is to hear, it's a reality. This is why when a couple came to Rav Ovadia (Rav Ovadia Yosef) and their child said, "Kevod Harav, we need parenting advice on how to be good parents,"

15:00Rabbi says, I love a shamash. You're late. No, no, not for the brit milah. The kid was just born two months ago. The other rabbi at the table says, "Hashem, he's only two months old." The other rabbi responds, "Yeah, exactly. You're late." "No, no, not for the brit milah. He was born two months ago." "No, no, maybe the rabbi is old. He doesn't hear well. He was just born two months ago for the brit milah." The rabbi then says, "Exactly, you're 20 years late." Why 20 years late for the brit milah? Why? Why 20 years late? First, if you want to be a good parent, you have to educate yourself. You want your kids to love Hashem? You have to educate yourself first. You can't expect your kids to do something you're not willing to do. You can't expect your kids to be modest if you're walking around with a miniskirt or with tight clothes that make it hard to distinguish between your skin and the clothes. You cannot expect your kids to love Hashem when all you talk about is business at home. You cannot expect your kids to care about Torah when all you talk about is the entrepreneurs of the world, and who's on the news, and who's the president, and who's running next, and the Democrats, and the Republicans, and this one and that one, and all the shtuyot of this world. And once in a blue moon on Friday, it's like you're doing God a favor: "Son, give us a Dvar Torah." And even when he's telling you the Dvar Torah, you're not really listening.

16:25But you want to look good to the guests that your kid spoke about Torah. It's such a joke. People fool themselves, and then they're surprised when we learn the parasha and see that Hashem says He killed 80% of Am Yisrael. Oh, maybe you're being makhmir, maybe you're being stringent. If you've never heard this before, then you had bad teachers. What can I tell you? It's not my fault that you didn't hear it before. It's what it says. Look at Rashi; it's not some Kabbalah. Look at Rashi. Everyone is like, "No, no," but I like it. I like the Kabbalah stuff. I like the mystical stuff. So there's a story that I think will put all this Kabbalah nonsense that people fool themselves with to rest, hopefully, if they understand the meaning of the story. The entire Kabbalah, the entire mystical aspect of the Torah, from that section of the Torah, from the Zohar HaKadosh...

17:25comes from a beis midrash almost 2,500 years ago. Now, we didn't really understand much until the Arizal came. The Arizal came, and he truly uncovered; he took the veil off and gave us amazing insights. He had some students, and he asked the students, "Go, give me the Kabbalah commentary on the Gemara." The Gemara itself has an enormous amount of mystical parts. To write commentary on the Gemara is an extraordinary thing to do. He tells the students, "I want commentary on the Gemara." They come back... with ten volumes of books just on a couple of masechtot, not on a whole Gemara. A whole Gemara would have been a library. Just ten huge books, ten volumes, just on a couple of masechtot, a couple of tractates. He says, we think somebody's going to read all this. No, you got to minimize it. Some people are going to read it. People are going to see it. They're not going to read ten volumes. For every two masechtot you're going to have ten volumes, no one's going to read it.

18:52The real genius is to convey the maximum amount of information with the minimum number of words. That's the essence of genius. That's how you can discern if someone possesses true intelligence. In modern books, whether they're fiction or non-fiction, as you may have noticed, much of it is shtuyot. Why? Because the entire content can be encapsulated in just three pages. The whole book can be summed up in three pages. Why do they sell you 500 pages? Because you're unlikely to pay twenty dollars for three pages. But for 500 pages, it looks chashuv. It looks important. Wow, it must be saying something special. 500 pages? In reality, the whole message you can say in three pages. Most of the books today are complete shtuyot on anything, in all topics, especially non-religious. So the Arizal says to his students, you have to minimize it. Okay. They minimize it, not enough. They minimize it, not enough. They minimize it, not enough. Eventually, they minimize it to something tiny and small. Hey, y'all, for the love of wisdom. Ah, perfect. Unfortunately, it's not a huge insight when he meets Kabbalah. Yes, it's also exactly the same as Rashi. What do you mean Rashi? He wrote exactly the same words. Rashi wrote those same words 500 years before you.

20:19People think Rashi is like a fifth grader. People think it's for little kids. They don't realize the wisdom of Rashi. The Ramban said, what Rashi did for the Gemara, giving commentary, I can do. Why? Because it's intellect; it's wisdom. What he did as far as commentary on the Chumash, I can't do. Why? That's Ruach HaKodesh. The same generation says Ramban, says Rashi is not from this world. So, why did you continue? Why'd you continue? Ramban also made a commentary on the Torah. He says, you read the preface, you read the beginning of his commentary on the Torah. He says, I'm sorry. He's apologizing. I'm sorry, I'm not worthy to write commentary on the Torah. That's as great or even at the level of the people that came before me, but I can't help it; I love the Torah and I must include my commentary. He's apologizing for the commentary. But the Kedusha that he wrote, all Kedushim. But people are like, no, no, no, I'm going to go to the Kabbalah Center. No, no, I'm going to go learn Kabbalah. I'm going to go learn mystical Torah. Do you know how to keep Shabbat?

21:46Do you know how to keep family purity? Do you know how to be a decent human being? Do you know how to conduct business honestly? How to borrow money honestly? How to lend money honestly? How to give tzedakah honestly? Do you give maaser b'chlal? Or are you still thinking maybe you don't have enough money to give maaser? You're still one of those people that thinks that maaser doesn't apply to you. It applies to everyone else except you. Says no, you exclude. It's okay. It's okay. You make too much money to give ma'aser. You make too much money. It's not for yourself. It's only for poor people. It's for all who are poor. Whether they make 500 bucks a week, they give ma'aser. It's easy for them. It's only 50 bucks. You, my son, you make $25,000 a month. You can't give ma'aser? You're crazy. It's too much! Ma'aser is only for poor people. So now... The question is how did the Rabbi, Shlomka from Zhvil, reach the point of being a miracle worker, mamash reviving the dead. How does one attain such a level? Is it because his father was such, or his mother was such, and...

23:09Heard that the rich people are controlling the community, and he said rich people, if you're not keeping Shabbat, if your children are not keeping Shabbat, we're not giving you aliyot. We're not letting you have an aliyah. In those days, by the way, an aliyah was very important. Today, it's important but not as it was a hundred years ago. Today, you get an aliyah; if you don't get it today, you'll get it tomorrow. It's not such a big deal. those days, the big machloket, the big debates would be all about why you didn't give me the third one. The third Aliyah was the most significant. People would debate, "Oh, he got the third. I got the fourth. I got the big big aliyah." Then I said, "No, no, really, it's the sixth one. It's the most important, and really, I was the third." But they said, "No, it's the sixth one." So then they said at least they're gonna argue only after the sixth one, and I can argue right away. So... Oh, but he got six and he got seven. He got this. Rav Abishlamkin says if you don't keep Shabbat, no aliyah for you. Your kid doesn't keep Shabbat, no aliyah. The rich people say, "Don't give us aliyah. We don't care. Don't give us aliyah. Keep your aliyah." Oh, no problem. Rav Abishlamkin says he went to the water, to the people that run the water, and...

24:36Water companies, like today, you open, you turn on a faucet, water comes out. He knows that you have to buy water. He goes to the people running the water company and says, "From now on, you're not selling water to the rich people. It's called love." Number one customers, they take showers every day. They, you know, they buy extra, they have parties, they have get-togethers. That's the number one customer. We're gonna lose money for the love. It's 50% of the profits, 50% of the business because you're not allowed to sell the water. Why? In the kolel, there's nobody in the money. Don't worry about the money. I promise you, I will pay half of any losses you have. I'll vouch for it. How much money do they have? Nothing. Nothing. Why doesn't he have anything? He's 24 years old right now. He's an avrech. No one knows who he is at all. The rich people continue. Do you want to sell us water? We'll buy from the creek. Buy from somebody else. We don't need your water.

25:38Rabbi Shlomkin says, okay, you still don't want to do teshuva? Fine. Anyone that's a mechaleil Shabbat or has a child that's a mechaleil Shabbat, we're not burying anyone of that family in a Jewish cemetery. Chevra Kadisha, not allowed to talk to them. Not allowed to talk to them. At that moment, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Many of the wealthy individuals came and said, okay, okay, fine, fine. Odu teshuva, chatanu avinu pashanu. Okay, what do we get from the goyim? Aliyot, we don't really care too much. We're not even keeping Shabbat. What do we care about aliyot? But I don't want to be seen as bad. It's disrespectful for us to be buried with the goyim. Okay, kvod harav, chatanu avinu pashanu. Except one guy. Except one guy. One guy says, "Take your cemetery, take your Chevra Kadisha, take what I don't care, I'm not doing teshuva." Who's this guy? The richest one of all. Rabbi Shlomkin came to him and said, "You have to do teshuva. You have to make sure your kid keeps Shabbat." He replied, "I'm not doing anything. Who are you? Don't tell me what to do." Rabbi Shlomkin said, "Listen, I promise you if you don't do teshuva..."

26:58You're gonna pay for it. You're gonna suffer because what are you gonna do to me? He says you're gonna suffer if you're not gonna do teshuva; you're gonna suffer. Test me. A day later, his son died. He calls; he wants to get Chevra Kadisha to bury him. "We're not burying; we're not keeping Shabbat." I'll bury him, okay. I'll find someone, I'll find someone who is going to bury him because they are going to want to bury me there. Nobody wants to bury him. He starts seeing his own son's body rot. You start seeing a body right, you do teshuva. He calls a rabbi for the other to do teshuva, "Please, whatever you want, please bury my son." He brought all these kids back to Jewish school with teshuva about Hashem. Everything worked out. Rabbi Shlomkin put his life on the line. Before he became known as a miracle worker, he was willing to risk his life many times. There are many opinions about Satmar. The Satmar movement today is based on Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, who was the Rebbe of Satmar.

28:21Ish kadosh, ish emet. Unfortunately, some of the students broke off and aren't really considered students anymore. For example, the Neturei Karta—they paraded with the Iranians on TV and burned Israeli flags, and so on. They claim to be his students, but they're not connected to him at all in any way, shape, or form. All they are is a walking chillul Hashem. The Ba'al Shem Tov, on the other hand, was an ish kadosh and... People needed miracles; if people needed anything, he was available. There were no questions asked about whether it was possible or not. The question was, how fast could you get to the Baal Shem Tov? How fast could you get to him? One time, his driver...

29:24into an accident and unfortunately killed a non-Jew, and he knew this meant trouble. Why? Because the authorities wouldn't give a fair trial once a Jew killed a non-Jew. That's it. They would say they're killing all the Jews. Immediately, they arrested him, and they were planning on lynching him. I'll be your... One of the local government members was a low-level official. He said, "Go free him because you are from the level of the [lava]. Listen, I know you're an important man, but it's not my position. I don't have that authority. I'm not that high in the hierarchy because from now on you are..." She's being from now on, and five minutes later, you get a phone call. Okay, you got the position, you're the new leader. You've gained your freedom when your etz ha'chaim (Tree of Life) nature is only based on what you say. Why does Hashem decide to change the world according to you? You don't get there without putting mesirat nefesh (self-sacrifice); you don't get there without...

30:54One of the things that I heard about Rabbi Yoel is that it's actually in a few books. Maybe I don't know if people know the story or not. There was a very rich guy that mamash wanted to go to war with him. His name was Izado. Izado inherited a very big meat business from his father and decided that money is more important than God. He decided to make the business not kosher food and decided to have a mixed dancing wedding. Careless about Judaism to such an extent that you want to have a mixed dancing wedding. Now, for anyone who doesn't know, mixed dancing, according to Judaism, according to the Torah, is a hundred percent giluy arayot. What's giluy arayot? Giluy arayot is one of the three sins for which it is better to die than to commit.

32:16You die and not sin. There's three of them: If someone tells you to go kill another Jew, you must die and not sin. If someone tells you to go worship an idol, you must die and not sin. If someone tells you to commit a sexual transgression, you must die and not sin. You know, it has different aspects of it. It could be actual intimacy with a woman that's not your wife. It could be intimacy with your own wife, but at a time when you're not allowed to be with her. It could be intimacy with a non-Jew. It could be intimacy with someone who is not your sibling. But it also can be even touching a woman that's not your wife. People think it's just the intimacy aspect of it, that it's merely about sex. It's not; it's even touching. So many people think that going to these mixed dancing weddings and bar mitzvahs and celebrations is fine. What's the big deal? Everyone does it. Well, the reality is that there's an enormous amount of sins in those places. An enormous amount of sins. To such an extent that there was one time a woman that asked Rav Nissim Yagen, alav ha-shalom, to please come and give her a blessing because she's having a lot of problems.

33:44He came to her and he sees the house she lived in. He says, "Multiple stories. As big as the White House. Multiple stories, there's servants, there's this, there's that." But the woman is miserable and crying. And she says, "My husband left me. My son's on drugs and my daughter's about to marry a non-Jew. What did I do for Hashem to give me such a punishment?" He says, "Do you see what I mean?" The sister responds, "I don't know what you did, but these are some things that could have caused it. You probably sent your daughter to public school, and she met Carlos there. You probably didn't send your son to yeshiva either, so he met the drug dealer while he was doing something in the schoolyard. And your husband..." Maybe you guys didn't keep Taharat HaMishpacha. You didn't really care about Shalom Bayit. You didn't care about Torah. So, you probably went to one of these mixed dancing weddings, and he met his girlfriend over there and then he married her. She says, "Rabbi, are you a prophet? That's exactly what happened." He says, "I'm not a prophet, but these are things that happen." The daughter went to public school. She met the non-Jew. The kid had nothing to do, no learning Torah, and he met drugs.

35:09Husband met some other guy's wife at a wedding and danced with her. The next thing you know, he married her, too. These are real stories—it's not fake stories. So if you're warned to cease the door on such behavior, take heed lest you devalue your soul and cost lives. This is not just a warning; it's a reality that can happen. If a Baal HaBayit defiantly declares, "I'm going to have the mixed wedding dancing," and goes ahead with the party, he must understand the spiritual and communal repercussions involved. They come and tell the Rav, "The Rav, he's having the party right now." The rabbi says, "We're going there now." He goes to the party and says to the Baal HaBayit, "Listen, I'm warning you. I'm warning you. Shut down this party." The Baal HaBayit responds, "Who are you? What are you going to do to me? I have all the money in the world. I have all the protection in the world. Who are you, little rabbi? Who are you?" The rabbi insists, "I'm warning you." What are you gonna do? He says, all I could tell you is, just like your business is, you're gonna be... The guy says, "Get out of here, who are you?" He has his party. Unfortunately for him, it was the last party he ever had. Why? The next day, he went to visit his business. His jacket got caught in one of the machines, and he became like his meat, ground.

36:39You don't get to that level just by reading Parashat Shevuot to people. It requires sacrifice. You have to put yourself on the line, telling people the truth.