AMAZING Story of One of The Greatest Ba'al TeShuva's In History

1:01It first starts with Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanos. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanos wasn't exactly a ben Torah when he was a child. As a matter of fact, according to many sources, until he was 28 years old, he knew nothing. To a point where he didn't even know how to read or write. 28 years old. But his father was Halkinos Ashir, a multi-millionaire. Huge. One day, Eliezer is working, and he sees this material world is worthless. He's like, I know the truth, it's in Torah; I want to go learn Torah. But he's like, where am I going to start? There's no yeshiva; there's no local yeshiva. There's no TorahAnytime.com.

2:02I'm going to learn a lot. So he starts crying, he's scared. Avraham knows his father, the millionaire, sees him and asks, "What happened? Is this job that I gave you too difficult? Okay, go to the next department, it's a little easier." He goes to the next department, and the next day his father sees him crying again. "Why, is this work also difficult for you? Go to the next department, it's even easier." The next day, he's crying again. No, what happened? Is the work so difficult? He goes, "No, no, Abba. I have to tell you something. I've decided I'm going to learn Torah." "Torah? You're 20 years old. If you told me when you were a kid you wanted to go learn Torah, then okay, you could be something someday. Start learning. First, you have to learn Aleph Bet." You have to learn something. You don't know anything. You're 20 years old. Get married. Take over the business. Make a few million with your brothers. And that's it? No. Azov b'tochah. Once you retire or something, you can learn some Torah. Make your money first? No. Make your money, build a castle. What do you got to do first? First, you build a factory. Then you build a castle. And then you go learn Torah. You can't build a castle then a factory because then you can't pay for the castle. You have to build a factory first.

3:21Then the castle. And then you go learn Torah. That's the mindset of the secular mind. B'ezrat Hashem, at least they're going to learn Torah one day. But in reality, where is it supposed to be? The same thing that Yaakov Avinu did. Yaakov Avinu, when he found out that his son is a millionaire, he's leading Egypt, he didn't say, "Oh, great, finally I can retire." No, what did he say? Yehuda, go over there to Goshen, build me a yeshiva. Then I'll move. Until the yeshiva is not finished, I'm not moving. He didn't say go build me a house. Yeshiva! Build me a yeshiva so I know there's going to be Judaism there. I know I can learn Torah. The castle afterwards, the house, this, my son being a millionaire doesn't matter to me at all. I need a place to learn Torah. So we have it twisted. And Holkenos, even though he was a righteous man, also had it twisted. So Eliezer couldn't take it and he started crying hysterically until he had the merit for Hashem to send him Eliyahu HaNavi. Eliyahu HaNavi came to Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and said, "Why are you crying, son?" He replied, "I want to learn Torah." Eliyahu Hanavi said, "Then you should." So immediately, Eliezer felt supported for the first time, hearing someone saying he should learn Torah. Others had previously said, "Are you crazy? Learn Torah? Go make money, your father's a millionaire."

4:49What do you need to learn Torah for? Go, it's your family business. You're set already. Go find yourself a wife, build yourself a life, build yourself a future. What do you need to learn Torah for? Hire someone to learn Torah for you. Give $500 a month to an avrech, and he'll learn for you. You get the mitzvah anyway. What do you care? The first time you hear someone say, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go, you should. He gets excited. He asks, where, where can I go? Where can I go? Then he's told, go to Yerushalayim. There's a Rabbi called Rabban Yochanan. Go to him; he's going to teach you. Who is Rabban Yochanan? Rabban Yochanan is a great sage of the generation. He's telling him to go to the great sage of the generation, and he's going to teach you. You don't even know how to bet. You don't even know how to read yet; go to Rabban Yochanan, he tells him.

5:51It says to him, go to the Gadol Hador, the one who can revive the dead, the one who knows things that we can't even understand, and he'll teach you. So Eliezer goes to Yerushalayim, and he goes to the yeshiva, and he listens to the first shiur by Rabban Yochanan. And all of a sudden, Rabban Yochanan hears somebody crying. Who's crying from the students? Who's crying? Who's crying? Who's crying? And he'll point to this little new guy, Eliezer. He's like, why are you crying, son? Because I'm here listening to you for all this time. I don't understand even one word that you said. I don't understand anything. Rabban Yochanan saw the love that he has for the Torah and how much he wanted to learn Torah. They said, "Don't worry, I'll give a couple of avrechim, a couple of my students. They're going to come teach you, they're going to sit with you, and they're going to teach you." Beseder, so that's what they did. They started teaching him, teaching him, and teaching him. Every day they're teaching him more, and Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus,

7:12Nothing was ever enough. He learned one Mishnah, he wants another Mishnah. He wants one commentary, he wants to learn another commentary. One Gemara, another Gemara, nothing's ever enough. The more you give him, the more he wants. Just like we have desires for money; you give him a hundred, he wants two hundred. Yes, for Torah. You give him one Mishnah, he wants two Mishnayot. Non-stop, non-stop, more and more and more Torah, non-stop. Eventually, he becomes a knowledgeable guy. And one day, Rabban Yochanan comes to the yeshiva and he smells something not so pleasant, not like these fragrant flowers. It's not a good smell. He searches around because one cannot pray or learn Torah if there's a bad odor present. It is forbidden to pray or engage in learning if there's an unpleasant smell. In any place where there is a bad odor, you are prohibited from praying or learning. You must remove it first. So, He looks, looks, looks, and eventually finds out where it is coming from, this awful, awful smell that he can smell from a hundred yards away, the mouth of Rabbi Eliezer. He investigates how it is possible that his mouth is so smelly. Perhaps he's fasting and not eating, which eventually is causing a problem. So, he asks the two people that are hosting him, because he's staying in a place where they don't provide food, it's just a place to sleep.

8:40Like, what are you feeding him every day? Do you give him food? He goes, no, no, he never eats with us. So what does he eat? He goes, I don't know. Okay, so let's ask the ba'al habayit. Let's go ask the person whose house he's staying at. Go find out for me and tell me. So the students go over there. They go to the ba'al habayit and they say, okay, what do you feed Eliezer every day? I don't feed him anything. He eats on his own. He goes, what does he eat? He goes, I don't really know what he eats, but I know that every so often he goes behind his bed. He has this sack. He grabs something from the sack, he puts it in his mouth and that's it. They say, "Can we see it?" So they go inside. They move the bed. They see the sack. What's in the sack? Boots. Mud. He's eating mud. For months. How can someone live like this? The news comes back to Rabban Yochanan. Rabban Yochanan understands this. is a special person. He didn't want to bother anyone, he didn't want to annoy anyone, he didn't want to interfere with anyone, and he didn't want to take any risk of being thrown out of yeshiva or being an expense on anyone. So he said, "Just give me Torah; I'll figure out the rest." And he was eating mud for months.

10:07Eat mud once. Try mud once. Try mud once. Feel what he felt for months. So Rabban Yochanan said, that's mesirat nefesh for Torah. And he gave Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus a blessing. He said, just like the smell of Torah you have, the smell in your mouth came from Torah, only amazing smells, only amazing things will come out of the Torah that you will actually inherit in general. One day, During the Chol HaMoed of Pesach, Rabban Yochanan invited many gevirim, numerous people, and many rabbis to celebrate. He asked Rabbi Eliezer to speak, to give a speech, to give a shiur Torah. No flowers, though. No schnitzel. Schnitzel they already ate before. Before I was finished, they started on time. So, He says, "Give a speech." He responds, "No, what can I teach that my teacher doesn't know?" His teacher insists, "No, no, I give you something, you develop it. You're a big chacham." He continues, "Maybe you're shy or embarrassed because I'm your teacher and I'm here, and you don't want to teach next to me, so what I'll do is I'll leave. I'll leave and you teach." So immediately, Rabbi Eliezer jumped up, "No, no, no, k'vod harav, k'vod harav," and he started teaching. He started teaching and teaching with great enthusiasm. They said,

11:36No one's ever heard anything he said before. Everything was chiddushim. To such an extent that his face started lighting up like Moshe Rabbeinu's face lit up at Mount Sinai. And at the same time, who comes in? Who was also invited? His father, Hurkanos. Why did his father come to town for? He came to town to see his rabbi, Rabban Yochanan. To tell him, listen, I made a swear. Many years ago, I decided that once my son left, I would remove him from the will and give everything to his brothers. So I came to a rabbi to confirm it. As he went in to see his rabbi, he heard a shiur and sat down to listen. There were many people present. He heard these amazing chiddushim and saw a light emanating from everyone; he didn't understand what was going on. He asked, who is this rabbi? It's Eliezer. He's like, Eliezer who? Who's this father? He goes, Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Huh? He goes, Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, me? It's my son? He goes and sees his son be the Moshe Rabbeinu of his generation. And he goes to Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai and he says, I came here for one reason. But now I want the opposite. I want to take everything away from my other sons and give everything to him.

13:01And Rabbi Eliezer says to his father, Abba, if I wanted money from you, I would have stayed home. All I want is Torah. So the most I can agree to take, agree to take. Not what I want, just what I agree to take. If you want to give me, the most I agree to take is just my share. Give the rest to my brothers. He didn't agree to take one penny more. Why didn't he agree to take one penny more? Because he understood something that we are trying to understand. What did he know? He knew that material possessions, money, clothing, and all the trivialities (shtuyot) of this world are literally meaningless. He understood what is truly valuable, and he possessed it. This is Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanos. Now, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanos also had some amazing stories in the Torah. There was a big disagreement. Between him and Rabban Gamliel and all of the sages, where, in the Gemara Bava Metzia, page 59, there is a big argument between Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and all of the sages.

14:28halacha of purity and impurity in regards to making an oven. And he says, listen, I got this halacha from Moshe Rabbeinu, I know I'm right. All of the other rabbis are saying, you're wrong. He says, okay, if I'm right, Hashem is going to make it happen. He's going to cut the tree in half. Boom, it happens. The tree splits in half. The Rabbi says, we don't learn halachot from trees. Next, he says, if I'm right, the water from the river that goes in one direction is going to go the opposite direction. It's going to go against the current, the opposite, reverse. It's going to change nature for me. Boom, that's what happens. The river starts flowing backwards. Where the rabbi says, sorry, we don't learn halachot from rivers. And there are a few other instances, like one time he says, if I'm right, the wall of the Beit Midrash is going to topple over. And one of the other rabbis, I think it was Rabbi Yehoshua, stopped it. He goes, okay, okay, stop, stop, enough. We don't need to kill anyone. He says, if I'm right,

15:53It's gonna be a bat kol from Shamayim, saying I'm right. Hashem will send a voice, saying Rabbi Eliezer is right. You want more than that? And as you would have it, a bat kol came from Shamayim, saying, "Why do you disturb My son Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanos? Don't you know the halacha is always like him?" Meaning he's always right? And the rabbis said, we're sorry, but we don't learn halachot from a bat kol. Hashem gave a law to Am Yisrael, and He says the majority rules, not a bat kol, not a one person. Majority, rabbis, we have an order. Yeah, but there's a bat kol, Hashem just spoke. He gave us the rules, we're listening to the same Hashem. We're following His rules. I can't just decide that this Gemara means this because I decide that it means that. We have a system. How do we know the system? From our rabbis, who know from their rabbis, from their rabbis, and from their rabbis. That's how we know, and if we don't have a rabbi, the whole system collapses. So now, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus says, "Listen, I know the truth, I can't leave it. I can't change my mind. I know, I understand, I know the laws, but I can't change my mind."

17:19Because you're not going back, you're not turning your mind, you're not going with us, we put you in cherem. No one's allowed to learn from you anymore. You're not allowed to be part of the beit din anymore. This is Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos, who got thrown out. He got thrown out until almost the end of his life. And Chazal says in the Gemara, the day that they actually put him in cherem, Hashem decided to destroy the world. And the whole ocean started rocking. Hashem mamash was starting to destroy the world until Rabban Gamliel said, "Hashem, You know I didn't do this for my honor. It is for Your honor. You gave us rules. It's Your rules." You said the sages have to decide, and that's what we're doing. I know it hurts, but I had to throw him out. Why? Because he would teach people the opposite. If one person teaches the opposite, they're going to say maybe everything else is the opposite. Becomes Chilul Hashem. And Hashem quieted the world. But to show you how big Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was, Hashem wanted to destroy the world for him.

18:35At the end of his life, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, who was one of the greatest sages, had Rabbi Akiva, who was one of his students, come to visit him. Rabbi Eliezer was very upset with Rabbi Akiva because he had not come to learn from him all these years. He admonished Rabbi Akiva and predicted, saying, "You will face a very strange death." This prophecy came true, as Rabbi Akiva later experienced a very unusual and tragic death, consistent with what Rabbi Eliezer had forewarned. Furthermore, Rabbi Eliezer had spoken about the fate of other students, as well. But he said, "Okay, I understand you're upset at me because I didn't come to learn from you. I wish I would have come to learn from you, but teach me something now." He started teaching him. In a matter of a few moments, he taught him apparently more Torah than we have in this world. But one of the things he said was, "You think this is a lot of Torah? What I taught you is not even a drop of water compared to what I know." And what I know is, if all of the ocean were ink, and all of the trees were pens, and all of the land were paper, it wouldn't be enough to write down all the knowledge that I know. And all of the knowledge that I know, it's not even like a dog that licks water from an ocean, in comparison to my teacher, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai.

20:05So these are the people we're dealing with here. These are not even ordinary people, Bachur. These are angels, this is not normal. It's important to understand this about the sages because before we decide whether we agree or disagree with them, we need to know who we're dealing with first. Now, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus said a few things that were very famous. In Gemara Masechet Eruvin, page 63a, it says that if a person rules a point of law in the presence of his teacher, he is chayav mita (liable for the death penalty). If someone asks you a halakha question, like what's the halakha for kosher, and your rabbi is right next to you, and you respond instead of your rabbi, you are chayav mita (liable for the death penalty).

21:06Disrespecting the rabbi is not appropriate. You can ask the rabbi for permission if you feel the need to address the halakha, but until the rabbi gives you an answer or permission, it is important to maintain respect and decorum. If I had told you this at the beginning of the shiur, instead of after explaining who Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was, it might have been perceived differently. But now, let me tell you, it's crucial to maintain respect. One might think, "Hey, I can state halakha just like my rabbi can. He read the same book, the Rambam, and I read the Rambam too." However, there is a decorum and order to follow in these matters, ensuring that we uphold the respect and honor due to our Torah leaders. Why can't I say it in front of my rabbi? What's the big deal? Why is he a big head? He's arrogant. Didn't you say arrogance is not good? Didn't you say Moshe Rabbenu was anav, was humble? No, it's a rule. Halakha. Next. It says in Gemara Masechet Sotah, page 48b, a person who has bread today, but still asks, what am I going to eat tomorrow? It says that a person has no emunah. No emunah. Why no emunah? They're wondering what are they going to eat tomorrow. Why do they have no emunah if they're asking, where is my bread going to come from tomorrow? Because if, obviously, Hashem cared enough for you to have food today, then you already see that Hashem runs the world. How could you be so ungrateful as to at least not thank Him and believe in Him?

22:35At least until tomorrow, you're not saying you believe in Him next week, next year, next month, or for your kid's wedding. He's saying, you've got bread today, but you can't believe in Hashem until tomorrow? You have no emunah. You've got your paycheck, and you're already worrying about the bills for next month. Why? Hashem gave you this month; He will give you next month too. How is He going to give it to you? Who knows? It's His business, not your business. It's His business how He's going to give you. It's one of the main things we're all lacking. We're all lacking in emunah in Hashem. We're all constantly questioning Hashem. How are You going to do this? How are You going to do that? Hashem, I don't have a job, so how am I going to make money? Hashem, I don't have any customers, so how am I going to earn a living? Hashem, I don't have this or that, so what am I going to do? You're constantly asking Hashem, how, how, how? Instead of focusing on what you need to do, you're focusing on what He needs to do. And if you're so busy doing Hashem's job, who's doing your job? If you're so busy trying to figure out how Hashem is going to handle everything, how will you find the time to actually do the things that will lead Hashem to bless you with those outcomes? If you're so busy trying to figure out how Hashem is going to do all these things, how are you going to have any time to actually do the things that will lead Hashem to do them? And last but not least, in Masechet Yevamot, obviously, he said many things, but here are three famous ones. Masechet Yevamot, page 63b, says whoever refuses to have children,

24:02is considered a murderer. This is because of the very same issue that we've talked about, Baruch Hashem, we had several shiurim about, the issue of wasting seed. When someone decides, "I don't want to have kids," obviously they have to do something. They're still a guy, they're still a man, they still have needs, they still have a wife, they didn't become a statue. Which means that if you are going to intentionally not have kids, that means that the sperm is going in the wrong places. So, Abayei the Hezronite says, just so you know, in case you're wondering, we already knew 2,500 years ago you were murdering 300 million people each time. They already knew. They already knew it was murder 2,000 years ago. We didn't just figure it out now with the scientists. We didn't need the scientists. Abayei the Hezronite already knew. You already knew that every little cell has a name. Every cell has a name. Every cell has a potential neshamah that's supposed to come to this world. And you decide, no, no, I don't want it. So you create a little holocaust times a thousand every day. No, no, I don't want to ruin my wife's body.

25:24I don't want to ruin our bodies. She's so nice, pretty. She's 22 years old. We're not ready for kids. They're the best, but we don't have any money for them. Tuition, tuition, what tuition? The kid's a baby. No, but who knows if I’m going to have the money. Let me get the money first, enough money for the yeshiva, and then I'll have the kids. So by the time he gets to yeshiva, it's already too late. Because I'm invested in Microsoft stock with dividends. All these shtuyot are in people's heads, thinking that they're responsible for the money. The kid comes with money. Hashem sends him with the money. Once you make rules that are against the Torah, why does Hashem get upset? He says, because you're pretty much saying that I'm wrong. When you make a rule that's against my Torah, you're saying that my Torah is wrong. My instructions are wrong. I manufactured you, but I made a mistake in my own creation. I say, bring children into the world, and I'll give you parnassah. I say, have shalom bayit, and I'll give you parnassah. I say, don't waste seed, and I'll give you parnassah. I say, be honest, and I'll give you parnassah. I say, keep Shabbat, keep mitzvot, and I'll give you parnassah. You don't do any of them, and then you complain to me. And on top of that, you want to blackmail me. You say, no, no, no, Hashem, first give me parnassah, then I'll do it.

26:50And sometimes Hashem does it. Sometimes Hashem gives you parnassah, gives you not parnassah, gives you a lot. Gives you a Ferrari, and a penthouse, and another house, and a vacation house, and if that's not enough, you get another house, and the plane, and everything else. What happens? You become the biggest kofer. You have a website against rabbis. Why? You say, I made all of it. I don't need God. Secret. Secret. Secret. So, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was a very, very tough, very tough sage. One time, it didn't rain for several days, the Gemara says. And he told everybody that we have to fast. We have to fast several days until it starts raining. After the thirteenth day, it still didn't rain. The thirteenth fast they did already, still didn't rain.

27:51But everybody left the shul, like we leave the shul after Yom Kippur. How do you leave the shul after Yom Kippur? Everybody's happy. All of a sudden you're not hungry. You haven't eaten for 24 hours. An hour before the fast ends, you're dying. But as soon as the fast is over, you want to go home and hang out with the guys. All of a sudden we don't want anything else. We don't want to eat a full meal. Just give me a candy, it's fine. Give me a little sip of tea. I could fast for another two weeks. Have you ever noticed that during a fast, at 8 o'clock in the morning, you're thinking, "No, no, no, I can't wake up from prayer. I'm dying from not eating or drinking. I can't go pray. I want to sleep all day." Yet, you've only been fasting for six hours, and once the fast is over, suddenly we don't want to go home. We want to hang out with the guys, plan a vacation, plan a barbecue, plan this, plan that. All these shtuyot (nonsense) that we plan, suddenly the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) doesn't bother us. Why is that? As a rule in the Torah, "mayim genuvim yimtaku" - stolen waters are sweeter. When we're not allowed to do something, that's what we want to do. Water, whether you steal it or buy it, stays the same. Actually, check it, check it. Water is the same, whether you stole it or you bought it, it's the same. But if you stole it, you say, no, it's sweeter. What's sweeter? It's the same flavor.

29:07Same thing with mitzvot. The thing that you're not allowed to do, that's what you're going to want. They actually did an experiment on this. They showed guys identical twins. Women, identical twins. They said, which one's prettier? They look exactly the same. Everyone said, the one on the left. Why? We'll find out later. She's married. So even subconsciously, the yetzer hara convinces us that that's what we want. They look exactly the same. It's the same person. But they want that one, the one on the left. Why? She's married. She's prettier. Mayim genuvim yimtaku. So, Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkanos says, you're leaving the kehilah, you're leaving the prayer, the rain didn't start 13 times. So everybody's like happy, like what are we doing? Prayed? We did our job. So Rabbi Eliezer says, did you finish digging your graves yet? Because we're going to die. Abiel Ezeh said something like this. It's very scary. Everybody started crying and ran back to shul. Two minutes later, rain started. He goes, "Okay, now I know you prayed." What's the prayer all about? We go to pray, pray Shacharit, Minchah, Arvit, Yom Kippur, Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah. What's the prayer for? What does Hashem want from us? Does He really need us to repeat these words? What does He want? He wants your heart.

30:33He wants your heart for a few minutes. Give Him a few minutes. Why did it make the prayer so long? If you look at the siddur of Avraham Avinu, it's not even 10% of our siddur. You look at the sages even from a couple of hundred years ago, you look at their siddur, our siddur, it's not even a comparison. And I'm not talking about English and Hebrew. I'm talking about just the basic siddur. Much, much bigger. Much bigger today than it was a thousand years ago, two thousand years ago. Much, much bigger. Why? Back then, they connected to Hashem like that. They'd meditate for an hour, an hour before prayer. Then the prayer itself, another hour. Then to come down from the high level they reached, they'd have to meditate for another hour. So Chazal (the Sages) ask, when did they have time to study Torah? They're praying nine hours a day. They say, answer, "halvai adam yitpallel tamid." Hashem wishes that a person will pray all day—24 hours a day. Hitbodedut. But even that, you need to know how to do it, and it also has to come along with a lot of Torah. You can't just go into the middle of the woods, smoke weed, and think it's hitbodedut. We have to be serious with hitbodedut. You tell most people about hitbodedut, and they're like, oh yeah, yeah, the...

31:59Ben Ish Chai, Chazon Ish, and Baal Shem Tov all were smoking weed together. No, no, they weren't. They were all tzadikim; they all did mitzvot, they all knew the entire Shulchan Aruch, and they all fulfilled the entire Shulchan Aruch. It was part of what they were doing. In today's world, you have to explain these things. You throw words at people, and they say, okay, so I can just go to the woods and hang out with my friends with ecstasy and say I'm feeling I'm close to Hashem? People will give you all types of reasons, all types of things. All types of things. People will make, what, we never heard that, what, they don't do that in all these places? They go to graves. They go to graves once a year. Were they all tzaddikim over there? No. A lot of people do shtuyot over there. A lot of people do shtuyot. So anyway, the key is to... Wow, this Facebook may die out soon because my battery is dying. But anyway, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was a very, very serious person. And there were no shortcuts. There was no, "Hey listen, you can just do half the mitzvot and have nothing to worry about." Actually, if you look at it, every time he's mentioned in the Gemara, every time he's mentioned in the Torah, he's the ultimate rebuker. There is no gray area. It's black or white. If it's true, it's true. If it's not, it's not.