Animals, TIME, MaShiach, Esav, Gog UmaGog War, Evil Spirits, Prayer - STUMP THE RABBI (9)

0:12We're here. Welcome everybody, Baruch Hashem. The numbers continue to grow. Yesterday, Baruch Hashem, at Aventura, we didn't have any chairs left. We had 110 people, Baruch Hashem, 115 people. Today, Baruch Hashem, I think in the next 20 minutes, we're probably not going to have chairs again. That you're coming to learn Torah. You're coming to learn Torah. So... The key is to ask, you know, the key in today's shiur is to ask questions. But again, a reminder: don't be in a hurry to leave. We're here all night. A lot of times, people send me text messages after the shiur and they tell me, "Oh, I have a question." So ask the question during the shiur. "Oh, but I left." Why? "Oh, I thought I only have to be here for an hour." No, you can be here for three hours. You can be here until tomorrow if you want. I'll stay here until you guys leave.

1:12So don't be in a hurry to leave. Some guys here, they look at exactly an hour. You know, it's 9:30 now, 10:30, they run out. You don't have to run out. It's okay. Same price. You stay for two hours, stay for three hours. I can tell you this: if I was in your shoes when I was your age, I would never leave. Why? Because I had so many questions when I was younger. I still have a lot of questions, but I had so many questions about the world, about life, about business, about... Who's God? Why did God do this? Why did God do that? I had so many different questions when I was a kid, but I couldn't find anybody that would give me legitimate answers. So when I finally found one, by the time I found somebody that could actually give me legit answers, I was already in my 30s. Which means that I had to wait 15, 20 years to finally get some answers. You guys, Baruch Hashem, have the opportunity to get the answers today. Any question you have, but make sure it's a question that you actually care about. Not just some riddle or some question just to see if I know. A question to see if something, something, you know, a question that matters to you. Maybe something that bothers you, maybe something that... The music, the music, the background music. ...have the opportunity to get the answers today. Any question you have, but make sure it's a question that you actually care about. Not just some riddle or some question just to see if I know. A question to see if something, something, you know, a question that matters to you. Maybe something that bothers you, maybe something that... The music, the music, the background music...

2:40If you could put it on vibrate, that would help. Okay, if you could do me a favor, put it on vibrate. So, yesterday, last night, for all of the guys and girls that left a little early and... It's not a problem if you leave now; it's no problem. We still love you. It's just that the people who stayed later asked questions that were better than the shiur. Some of the questions that some of the young ladies asked last night were unbelievable questions, honestly. I'm telling you, not just because they asked them. I'm telling you, some of the questions they asked made the whole shiur ten times better. It was worth it for them to stay, and it's worth it for the people who watch the entire shiur online that they stayed. Why? Because they asked a few questions. Some of the questions helped me do teshuvah, some of the questions helped them do teshuvah, and some of the questions can help people on the internet do teshuvah. And guess what? Every single person that listens to those questions and then listens to the answers gets a mitzvah. One mitzvah for every second, for every single word. It's another mitzvah, another word, another mitzvah. So those young girls that asked questions at the end of the shiur, after many people left...

4:04They're gonna benefit for eternity because of those extra few questions. So it's worth it. It's worth the double time. Today's shiur is catered for questions mainly. I've brought a bunch of different books just in case anybody wants to see some of the things that we say. You want to see it in black and white, I'm more than happy. I don't have, obviously, all my books here, but I brought a few. I figured that maybe some people like to see some things. But also... We have another raffle at the end of the night by our dear friends from Ghost Tech, another newer model of the Bluetooth headphones. This one is thinner. I think it's even more expensive. I haven't used this one, but apparently it's even better. So if anybody wants to listen to some shiurei Torah with style, you've got one. Our dear friends at Ghost Tech make some really cool stuff. And the tzaddikim also. Tzaddikim, they like Torah. They like to publicize Torah, Baruch Hashem. Not that many people in the world care about Hashem as much as they care about money. Most people care about money before Hashem. And they only pray to Hashem because they want Him to give them money. So when you see that somebody cares about Hashem before they care about money, that's a special Jew. That's a special person. Sometimes they're not even Jewish. Sometimes people are not even Jewish, but they care about Am Yisrael. I have many, many students who are not Jewish, who are Noahides. They keep the Torah that they're supposed to as non-Jews, and they support the Torah.

5:29They support the Torah in a very big way because they know that that's part of their mission also. So tonight's shiur is also going to be for a refuah shlema for Yitro ben Avraham and also Talia bat Sarah, Levana bat Sarah, Sarah bat Levana, David ben Nesria, Doris bat Jorah, and Elisheva Chaya bat Sarah, and also for hatzlacha rabba for Esther bat Shoshana. So without further ado, please Rabotai, ask some questions. In the back, you guys had some good questions yesterday. So maybe you want to start off today. Same price. Same price. No? Anybody have questions? You guys know everything already by now? and also for hatzlacha rabbah for Esther bat Shoshana. So without further ado, please, Rabotai, ask some questions. In the back, you guys had some good questions yesterday. So maybe you want to start off today. Same price. Same price. No? Anybody have questions? You guys know everything already by now? Somebody like that. Hey, chaverim. The purpose of every single animal? Kids, everything is created for a purpose. So, a few places. First, in Sefer Bereishit, beginning of the Torah, we learn

6:55that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave Adam HaRishon a job. What was his job? He told Adam HaRishon, "You name the animals. You name the animals, each animal." Now, unlike us, where we look at things and we just come up with something, like somebody starts a company and decides, "You know what, I'm going to call this company Google." Why? Because Google is a really big, complicated number. Some other guys say, "You know what, I'm gonna call this company Amazon." Why? Because he wants to represent that they have everything, as if it's in the Amazon in Africa. And he also has a cool little trick where you have A to Z within the word "Amazon." And that's how people come up with names traditionally—based on something cool, based on something that they connect to. Now... Nothing in, you know, we cannot compare ourselves to him. First and foremost, it is because all of the neshamot (souls) that ever existed were inside him. Meaning, he didn't have a single neshamah like us. He had all of the neshamot that exist today originally come from him. So, his wisdom, his beauty, his size...

8:10himself in so many different ways was, in comparison to us, almost not human — very different. He was so big and so beautiful and so powerful that when he was first created, he was huge; he reached the clouds. The Gemara says that his skin was like a diamond, so when he would appear, it was literally like he was created like a sun, and... Reflected the Sun and the malachim never saw a human being before. The angels never saw a human being before, so they thought maybe he's God in human form because they never saw such a beautiful thing like this. But that's why Hashem put him to sleep and took the rib and made Chava, made Eve from that. And the malachim, right before they said "Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh," because they thought he was God. They saw he fell asleep and said, "Ah, okay, he's not God." So anyway, Hashem gave him a job. One of his jobs was to use the wisdom that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave him to name every creature. And the way he decided to name every creature is by simply looking at the creature. He would know the essence of the creature. He would know every single thing that has to do with this creature and what motivates this creature. So, for example, he named the horse sus.

9:31sus. Why sus? Sus comes from sas, which means to run, to run into battle. And that's, in essence, one of the biggest missions of a horse. Throughout most of the generations, until the last century, it has been the war animal. It's the only animal that runs into war, whereas all other animals run away from fire, run away from war. The horse loves war and That's its essence. And the same concept goes, you know, with every other animal that he would name; he named it based on its essence, its purpose in the world. And the Gemara, and in many of the Sefarim HaKadoshim, like the Zohar HaKadosh, talks about some of these things, as far as why this one was named this, why that one was named that, and what the purpose behind it is. Another example is the Nemalah, the ant. Shlomo HaMelech says, he writes in the book, he writes, he says, go to the ant, you lazy, you laggard. Look at its ways and become wise. So the Chachamim said, why am I going to go learn from an ant about not being lazy, about being ambitious?

10:54So Shlomo HaMelech says, look, the nemalah was created in order to teach us about ambition, in order to teach us how to work hard. Because even though the nemalah doesn't have a very long lifespan, in the days of the Sanhedrin, the heads of the Sanhedrin were able to speak 70 languages. Now, not like 70 languages like some people speak, you know, French, English, different dialects of Latin, and so on. No, they spoke all of those languages, but also they spoke the languages of the animals, of the trees, of the demons, and all other creatures. So one time the Chachamim came to the ant and they spoke to the ant. They found that the house of the ant has 300 kilos of food. They said, "Listen, how long do you live?" The ant says, "Six months." They asked, "What about the other ants?" "Six months. All ants live six months." They said, "Yeah, but the food that you have, 300 kilos of food, is enough for 60 million years of life. Why do you have so much food?" So the ant says...

12:01Maybe Hashem is going to decide to give me more time. Even though my grandfather died at six months, my father died at six months, my great-grandfather at six months, everyone died in six months, but maybe I am going to get more than six months. Meaning that the ant doesn't think like we do, "Oh, what do I get out of it? Maybe it's not going to work out. Maybe this, maybe that." The ant doesn't do any calculations. It has a purpose. What's its purpose? To work and... Same thing that we learn also, the Chachamim say in the Gemara, you can learn a lot of Mussar. If we did not have the Torah, we would have to learn our ethics from animals. So, for example, the trait of being clean. The trait of being clean, we would learn from cats. Cats are notoriously very clean animals. You see them constantly licking themselves and cleaning themselves. And every animal has a different thing that a person would learn from. Another part that we see in the Torah is that part of the purpose, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu used some of the animals in order for us to fulfill the mitzvot. So the Zohar HaKadosh says that Hashem looked at the Torah as a blueprint and then He created things based on it. So He saw, okay, I have kosher laws in the Torah, so therefore I have to make kosher animals.

13:14I can't make all animals kosher because then kosher would be insignificant; everything would be kosher. So you have to make kosher animals and non-kosher animals. So, for the kosher animals, if it's a cow or if it's cattle, then it has to have two signs: it has to have split hooves and it has to chew its cud, regurgitate its food. if it only has one sign or no sign, then it's not kosher. So, for example, a lion doesn't have any signs: it doesn't have split hooves, and it doesn't chew its cud. A cow has two signs: it has split hooves, and it chews its cud. Same thing with a deer. Same thing with a, uh, you know, ayil. What's ayil? Um, what is it in English? No, ayil is, uh, goat. Same thing with the, uh, oh dear, no, deer. The ayil is here. So, goats, even a goat, and so on and so forth, all the kosher animals have these two signs. There are four animals in the Torah that Hashem says have only one sign. These are animals that have only one sign. So, you have the rabbit, the hare, which are similar breed animals but still different species. You have the pig, and you have the camel.

14:35So, what's the significance of these four animals? Hashem has millions of animals in the world. There are over two million species in the world that we know of. Over 40,000 different types of fish. How come Hashem decided to name these four animals? He says, because you can use this as one of the proofs that the Torah is real, that it was written by God. How? You're never going to find, ever, even with mutation, even with manipulation, you're never going to find a fifth animal that has one sign. Meaning out of all the animals in the world, there are only four of them that have this one sign. So that means that anyone who wrote this Torah is writing this because he knows, "Listen, I have two, I'm going to have people that are going to say this is not real." And they're going to look for ways to prove that it's not real. Why? Because if it was written by God, God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't make mistakes. So if there's a mistake in the Torah, that means it's not written by God. So if I could find a fifth animal, just one more animal out of all the animals in the world, that has that one sign, one sign instead of zero or instead of two, that means that the entire Torah is canceled. We could all eat bacon on Yom Kippur if we want. Why? Because if the Torah is fake, then there's one mistake, and that means there could be other mistakes.

15:49So the beautiful thing is 3,300 years have passed, and no one has been able to find a fifth animal. This means that whoever wrote this Torah not only knew of all the animals that existed at that time, 3,300 years ago, but also knew of everything that will ever exist for the rest of eternity. So again, another way that the Torah uses animals in order to fulfill the will of Hashem. One way is for them to have a job in the world, another way for us to fulfill certain mitzvot, and another way is for us to prove the authenticity and divinity of the Torah. Because once you understand that the Torah was written by God, there are no more questions. Why? There are no more questions of, "I don't feel like keeping Shabbat." Why? If God said to keep Shabbat, and you don't want to keep Shabbat, you have to be crazy. if I said keep Shabbat, so who's this guy? Who's this guy? What do I care what he said? But if God says keep Shabbat, now you have a problem if you don't keep Shabbat. So that's the beauty of the Torah. Torah has an endless amount of proofs that it was written by God, and once God says keep Shabbat, once God says you have to go to the mikveh, once God says you have to do XYZ, whatever He says, we have to listen. So that's another use of animals, and there are many, many other ways. Next question. Same price.

17:14This world, Tov va'ra, Tov va'ra, was a couple of things. First, the Zohar HaKadosh says that before Hashem created anything, He was the only thing in existence. He had to minimize Himself in order, even though He doesn't have a size. He had to make room in order for anything else to exist but Him, which in essence would mean that everything else is still technically a part of Him. So now... Originally, the world was called Tohu Vavohu. So, there were different things that Hashem created before the world, for example, water and fire. Those things were created before the world. How do we know they were created before the world? Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu says that He created the heavens and the earth. How did He create the heavens? Part of the heavens is the sky that we see, and part of the heavens is above the sky.

18:16Now, the sky here, what is it? It's a combination of water and fire. Something that is impossible for us to do anything with because the two of them negate each other. But Hashem, who is above nature, combined them, and He created the sky, created the heavens. So there were certain things that Hashem created before the world. But in so many words, before this world, there were six other worlds. There were six other worlds that had different missions than ours. We are the last world. Hashem culminates all of the creation, and then there are the thousand years of Mashiach. After that, there is a spiritual world with no physicality anymore. But regarding those six worlds, it says that Hashem created and destroyed worlds not because He made a mistake, chas v'shalom, but each world matured. Each world got to its culmination point; it achieved its mission and... And the Kabbalah actually says that certain beings that did not achieve their culmination, did not achieve their mission in those worlds, were actually reincarnated into this one. There are different creatures in this world that are actually things that used to exist before this world. But that's a high-level shiur for a different time. Next question. Yes. We all know Mashiach is going to come, right?

19:41What's going to happen after Mashiach? Ah, after Mashiach. Well, it says, Mashiach is going to come. Mashiach is also called the Goel, the one who's going to bring us salvation. To save whom? The people that used to be Poshim, the people that used to be criminals. Why is he saving the people that used to be criminals? It doesn’t mean criminals that used to rob stores only. used to rob banks or used to commit crimes. Criminals meaning criminals against Hashem. He's going to save those people who used to be former criminals. Meaning, He's going to save all of the people that did teshuvah. That's who the Mashiach is coming for. He's not coming to save anybody who didn't do teshuvah. Somebody who doesn't do teshuvah, the Prophet Zechariah says, the Mashiach is going to be able to smell his sins—meaning, see the person, see all of his sins, and destroy him on the spot. There's no more to bow once the Mashiach comes. So, in the time of Mashiach, in a short timeline, first off, before Mashiach comes, there's going to be a war called Gog u'Magog, the war of all wars. This war is going to be described by the Prophet Zechariah, chapter 14. If anyone wants to get really, really scared, go to the Prophet Zechariah, chapter 14. It describes a nuclear war that destroys the world and

21:05tells you how people are going to melt; the eyes are going to spill like liquid. Now, in the times of Zechariah, the weapons that they had back then were bow and arrow. They didn't have nuclear weapons like today, but they're describing a nuclear war, obviously, this prophecy there. So, the point is that Zechariah says that this war initially is going to destroy two-thirds of the population. you have eight billion people in the world. Right off the bat, six billion are gone. Two billion, maybe. Two billion, maybe. Why maybe? If they did teshuva or not. It depends on what they decide. It depends on what they decide in the last minute. Choices they make, but in general, the last two billion that survive will obviously be comprised of Am Yisrael and also many, many goyim, many, many of the Gentile nations. These people have to have the merit to live at that time. If a person survives the time of Mashiach, then they have an eternity of good. If they don't survive the time of Mashiach, then it could be a combination of good and bad, it depends. But after the war starts, at some point, Mashiach will arrive and...

22:23Mashiach will destroy the nations that are fighting against Am Yisrael. But part of that war, we're going to be losing in the beginning. In the beginning, Am Yisrael is going to be losing. The war starts with a major conflict between the Christians and the Muslims. Esav (Edom) fights Yishmael. But then, after they fight, they're going to decide that it's all Am Yisrael's fault, so they're both going to stop the war and join forces to fight against Am Yisrael. And they're going to take over Eretz Yisrael for nine months. At that moment, the Mashiach is going to come and destroy all of them, and obviously save all of the righteous people that did teshuva. Now, after he destroys all of the enemies, we're going to have a 40-year time span. between that time and the time of the resurrection of the dead. Meaning all of the righteous people from the previous generations will have their neshamot brought back into their bodies and they'll be resurrected. But during that 40 years, a lot of different things are going to happen. Some of the things we know of, many of the things we don't know of. Because there are certain things that may or may not happen. One of the things that we know for sure is going to happen is that we're going to have to spend seven years burying bodies.

23:46Because there are going to be so many dead people. All of the wicked people are not going to have a second chance. This is the reason why we do what we do and why we're trying to do everything we can to get you and everybody else to do teshuva. Because once Mashiach comes, there will be no more shiurim. It's not meant to scare you, but it is meant to scare you. Because that's the reality. That's what the Torah says. Now, last but not least, I'll get to your question. After the war is over, the resurrection of the dead will happen. You will see Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, and you will see Mashiach ben David. Everything will be good. We'll have a thousand years—the last thousand years in this world—of peace, harmony, and a perfect world. Some debate whether we're even going to have to eat anymore because there's really no purpose, and... Some debate whether there's going to be a lot of different things, like birth. We're not really sure if people are going to still continue bringing kids into the world or not. There are certain things we won't know until they actually happen. But what we do know is that the last thousand years are going to be beautiful days of Mashiach. After the havoc and the horrors are over, it's going to be a beautiful time.

24:59then after those thousand years, this world, this physical world, will reach its maturity, and all of the people will go to a spiritual world that's eternal. And there, there's even more pleasure than could be humanly comprehended. The Chovot HaLevavot in the back notes that not everyone, just two-thirds... it's going to be like what, like those people never existed? No, so we have—it's a very good question, very good question. So, the Rambam writes that we have 13 principles of faith, meaning there are 13 foundational... ideological beliefs that each Jew must believe. If a Jew does not believe them, he's considered a heretic. So, for example, I help a lot of people convert to Judaism. Anyone that's a righteous non-Jew that wants to become a Jew, they're able to become a Jew if they learn the right things and make certain life changes. It's a very, very important thing to help people convert to Judaism if they are righteous and they want to do it. And we deal with a lot of converts, Baruch Hashem, and

26:17Some of the most important Jews that ever lived actually were born non-Jews, like Yitro or Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, Onkelos HaGer. Many, many of the most important Jews in the world actually were born non-Jews or came from families of converts, even the Mashiach. The Mashiach himself, originally his great-great-grandmother was Ruth. Ruth was a convert. So the point is that Rambam says that you have to believe the Messiah is going to come. You have to believe that Hashem has no body. You have to believe that Hashem knows what's in your mind. You have to believe that Hashem knows the future, that there is nothing else but Hashem. But he also said you have to believe in reward and punishment, meaning that the righteous get rewarded and the wicked get punished. Part of the reward and punishment is in this world, but the ultimate reward and punishment is after this world, after a person completes their life. Which means the Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah page 17a says once Mashiach comes, the people that are righteous will have an eternity of good pleasure beyond all the pleasures you can possibly imagine, forever and ever.

27:35people that are wicked, it'll depend on how wicked they are. If they're a little bit wicked, like most of us, but not really wicked—you know, they made a few mistakes here and there—then they have to pay a little bit of punishment for some of the things they did if they didn't pay for it in this world. But if they're really wicked, really wicked, their punishment will be for eternity. forever until their soul is completely destroyed. Who are the people that are considered, or at least some examples of people that are considered, really wicked to the extent of eternal punishment? I'll give you just a couple of examples that are relevant to everyone. Someone that violates Shabbat and dies without doing teshuvah, meaning... Not they violated Shabbat by accident. Not they violated Shabbat one time, two times, five times, even a hundred times, but then they started keeping Shabbat. No, no. Someone that simply, at the end of their life, they were mechallel Shabbat. They were driving on Shabbat. They were watching TV on Shabbat. They were smoking cigarettes on Shabbat. Lighting fire on Shabbat. Working on Shabbat. Somebody dies like this, according to Hashem, that person is considered the worst person on earth. Even worse than a murderer.

28:50Even worse than a murderer. The punishment for a murderer is not as bad as the punishment for a Mechalel Shabbat. One of the ways we know this is from the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments go in order: the first commandment, Hashem says, "I am the one that took you out of Egypt." Then He says, "Don't have any other gods." Then He says, "Don't use My name in vain." Then He says, the fourth commandment, "Keep Shabbat." The fifth commandment, "Honor your parents." The sixth commandment, "Don't murder." So Chazal says, how come "don't murder" comes before "Shabbat"? Because the murderer, even though he murdered, he still has a share in the World to Come. He can still go, after he goes to Gehenom and suffers for a little while, he can still go to heaven if he was righteous everywhere else. But the Mechalel Shabbat? No heaven. No heaven, ever. Meaning, Rabotai, if you're not keeping Shabbat yet, it's time to start. It's time to start. It's not a suggestion. So the people that are part of the wicked, it depends on how wicked they are. If they're part of the worst, like Mechalel Shabbat, then they have a permanent problem. If they are a little bit wicked, then they have a temporary problem, but hopefully they'll pay enough in this world. A little bit of suffering here and there will always help you not have to suffer later on. But definitely, it's not going to be a quiet scene because one of the things that the Gemara says

30:15that part of the punishment for the wicked is that they are actually going to see the reward of the righteous. They are going to see all the righteous people get their reward while they are suffering. That is part of what makes it even much, much worse. So, imagine you see all of your enemies get the best things in the world while you are suffering. That makes your suffering much, much worse. That is part of the punishment. Alright, next question. So, it's a very good question. Until the age of 13, for a boy, and 12 years old for a girl, you are not obligated to fulfill all of the mitzvot. But that also reminds me to tell you that once you're 13 years old, even though you don't see yourself as a grown man, and once you're 12 years old, even though you don't see yourself as a grown woman, according to the Torah, you are fully grown. You are at an age where, if you find a spouse, you should get married and...

31:29I know in today's society this sounds ridiculous. I told somebody in the shiur last night, "Why don't you get married?" He said, "I'm only 17." I said, "It's perfectly fine. What's wrong?" He looked at me funny. He said, "What are you talking about? Do you think I'm from Saudi Arabia or something?" He made some type of funny comment. But it's not really funny. According to the Torah, you're a grown man. Now, why should you get married at such a young age? Because another one of those sins... Yet, what entices boys and girls, who are really men and women, to be intimate? Sometimes they're intimate with somebody else, and sometimes they're intimate with themselves. The problem is, according to the Torah, if you're intimate for the purpose of pleasure without the potential for reproduction, it means that you're wasting seed. And a person that dies without doing teshuva for wasting seed is also classified as one of the wicked people that go to Gehenom and does not leave. Now, I know that in today's world this is practically an addiction, both in yeshivot as well as in public schools. And that's why, Baruch Hashem, we put out a lot of material about this subject. We teach quite a bit about it. It's definitely very difficult to overcome the addiction.

32:53But it's possible. And if you do it, you can be considered a tzaddik. Like Yosef HaTzaddik. That's what's called a tzaddik. A tzaddik is not somebody who has a nice beard. A tzaddik is not somebody that has a big hat. A tzaddik is not somebody that read a lot of books. That's not a tzaddik. Who's a tzaddik? A tzaddik is somebody that protects his brit. That's a tzaddik according to the Torah. That's why Yosef HaTzaddik was called Yosef HaTzaddik. Because he protected his brit. So now back to your question. For the first 13 years, a person is not obligated by all of the mitzvot. With the exception of wasting seed, he's not liable. Everything else, if he fails, he doesn't get punished for it. If he violates Shabbat, he doesn't get punished for it. So Hashem gives him the inclinations that he was born with, which are animalistic inclinations, because that's part of the mission in this world. Part of the mission in this world is for you to learn about your weaknesses and overcome them.

33:54The Yetzer HaTov can be 500 times more powerful than the Yetzer Hara, which is the reason why it doesn't need to be in you from day one. The Yetzer HaTov can have 500 times more power if you allow it than the Yetzer Hara, even though sometimes it seems like the opposite. But the Yetzer HaTov in reality is useless to you. when you're still a baby. Because for the first almost 10 years of your life, if you're a normal kid, you don't think about evil. Little kids don't think about evil. Little six- or seven-year-old kid doesn't think about killing people, doesn't think about raping, doesn't think about pedophilia, doesn't think about stealing. If you find a kid at eight years old stealing, he's not stealing because he's trying to hurt somebody. He's stealing simply because he doesn't understand that there are consequences for taking something that doesn't belong to him. So kids do not have the brain power, the brain capacity at that age to even understand the difference between right and wrong. So even though they have the yetzer hara in them, the yetzer hara is not at its full force. The yetzer hara doesn't go to its full force until you also have the yetzer hatov.

35:10So, in essence, when you have the yetzer hara that goes into full force, you also have the yetzer hatov, and that yetzer hatov can be 500 times more powerful. The other reason is also because the yetzer hara, believe it or not, even though the yetzer hara gets a head start, he's in you before the yetzer hatov, he's still deficient. He’s still behind. And the reason why is because for the nine months that you were inside your mother... You had a malach, you had an angel teach you the entire Torah. And the Torah is the potion that destroys the yetzer hara. So on day one, when the yetzer hara meets you, he just meets you. You don't even know what sins are. You're still crying about getting a binky. That's all you want in life. You want a binky, you want to eat, you want to drink, you want somebody to change your diaper, that's all you know. But technically, inside you, you have the potion to become the biggest tzaddik in the world, to destroy the yetzer hara himself. So again, it's there, but it's not fully implemented. It's like having a nuclear weapon, but you're not allowed to press the button because you're afraid of political issues. Next question. Teshuvah. Teshuvah.

36:24Teshuvah is changing your direction in life and getting yourself on a path to get closer to Hashem on a daily basis. Meaning, you lived your life however many years doing whatever it is that you wanted. Sometimes what you wanted was good and in line with what Hashem wants you. Sometimes it wasn't good. Now, if you didn't learn Torah, you really don't know what's good and bad. You have your own opinion of what's good and bad, but you don't really know. And the reason why is because the only one that could determine what's good and bad is the one that created good and bad, which is Hashem. And the way we know what's good and bad is we look at what Hashem says is good and bad. He says... The ones that love me and keep my mitzvot, those are the good ones. The ones that violate my mitzvot, they're considered my haters. They're considered the bad ones. So we see the good in Hashem's eyes is mitzvot. Bad is sins. That's the difference. So a person that wants to do teshuva, b'ezrat Hashem on all of us, is a person that wants to make mitzvot and the will of Hashem something that is a priority number one in his life.

37:40Every day he's going to learn a little bit more. Every day she's going to learn a little bit more. Every day they're going to work on something else. One day she's going to realize, oh, I learned about Moshe Rabbeinu. I learned about Sarah Imeinu. I learned about all these righteous sages, all these righteous people. Hashem loved them. Why did Hashem love them? Oh, look, Sarah Imeinu, for example. Sarah Imeinu, just so you know, was the most beautiful woman that ever existed. So beautiful, so beautiful that even if you took, I mean, say if you took the most beautiful woman in the world today, whatever woman you think is the most beautiful one, and you put her next to Sarah Imeinu, this woman of this generation looks like a monkey with hair on his face next to Sarah Imeinu. That's how beautiful Sarah Imeinu was. Now, Hashem didn't love Sarah Imeinu because she was beautiful, because He created her after all. Why did He love Sarah Imeinu? Because she was modest. She covered herself. She covered her neckline. She covered her knees. She covered her body. She was so modest that even her own husband never knew her true beauty until they got to Egypt and he saw her calf. He saw her calf for the first time in his life.

38:58Of course, they were intimate, but it was dark; they didn't see. But he saw a small part of her leg. A small part of her leg. And he said it was so beautiful, it was shiny like the sun. Literally shiny, like it would make a light. Like if you put it in a dark room, she puts her skin, it would make the whole room light. That's how beautiful she was. The point being, the reason why Hashem loves her is because she was modest. She hid that beauty. And she preserved it for her husband. The same thing goes with Ruth, the same thing with Rachel, the same thing with Chana, the same thing with all of the righteous women that are mentioned in the Torah. Every single one of them, no one ever mentions that she was wise, she was smart, she was clever, she had a good speech pattern, she knew how to talk. No, no one ever said that. She was rich, no one cares. Why did Hashem love all of the women of Am Yisrael? When he mentions them in the Torah, it is because of modesty. According to the Torah, a woman who is modest can be very righteous. A woman who is not modest cannot be righteous. Even if she reads Tehillim all day, even if she learns all day, even if she does a lot of things all day, if she is not modest, it is impossible for her to be a tzaddeket. Impossible.

40:19So teshuva is the person that starts to take into account who does Hashem think is righteous? Oh, He thinks that a woman that's modest is righteous? Okay, so that's who I want to marry. I want to marry a woman that's modest. I don't want to marry a woman that's on some billboard. I don't want to marry a woman that's dancing in some nightclub. I don't want to marry a woman that was married to 15 people before me. I don't want to marry that. I want to marry a woman that's modest. Why? Because if she's modest, I know Hashem loves her. But who does Hashem love as the man? People that take His Torah seriously. Hashem says, "I love Avraham because Avraham loved My mitzvot and he taught My mitzvot to his children and he made sure his children would listen to My mitzvot. That's why I love Avraham." So, a person that wants Hashem to love him... learns Torah, fulfills the mitzvot, and continues to work on himself or herself every day, little by little, to improve themselves as a human being according to Hashem's definition of good. Next question. Yes?

41:36Esav sonei Yaakov. "Esav sonei Yaakov" is a law that the Torah says. It's a very complicated law because, on one end, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Et Yaakov ahavti ve'et Esav saneiti." "Et Esav, I hate him." Why do I hate Esav? They were both the sons of the same father, Yitzchak. They are both the grandsons of Avraham Avinu. They are both sons of righteous people, both sons of righteous mothers and fathers. But Hashem says, "I love him, Yaakov." And Hashem says, "I hate him, Esav." Why? Yaakov followed my mitzvot. Hashem says, "I love him." Esav, he knew my mitzvot, but he didn't follow them. That's why, if you learn in the Torah, you see that Esav, only his head was buried in Me'arat HaMachpelah. But his body was thrown in the garbage. He wasn't buried in Me'arat HaMachpelah. Why? Because his head knew all the mitzvot. If he was in this generation, he would be the smartest rabbi in the world. But he was a rasha. Why? He knew all the mitzvot, but he didn't follow them.

42:49From there, we see that there is a law here that it doesn't really matter whether your father is a rabbi or he's not a rabbi, your grandfather is a rabbi or not a rabbi. It doesn't make a difference. Your lineage doesn't make a difference. We see that Esav is somebody that Hashem allowed to exist even though He hated him, and the reason why is because some of the descendants of Esav became some of the most righteous people that ever lived. became some of the most righteous people that ever lived. And the Gemara says that Hashem was very careful in how He dealt with Esav because He did not want to destroy Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes. Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes was one of the six students that Rabbi Akiva used to restart the Torah world. He was a descendant of Esav. Another thing is All of the people in this generation and in previous generations, especially even during the times of today, but also in the times of the Beit HaMikdash, if you are a Jew, you have to understand you are part of the chosen people. This means the job of Edom, the job of Esav, is going to try to destroy you; it's not going to be to help you. So for all of the people that like to be politically correct and

44:16and like to make all types of nice deals with the goyim in order to make peace, Hashem says, no matter what, eventually I will use Esav to destroy you, punish you, or simply to wake you up. No matter what, there is no such thing as peace between Esav and Yaakov. Never was and never will be. During the time of the Beit HaMikdash, some people wanted to bring peace. So they figured maybe we befriend the goyim. Eventually, this led to intermarriage and eventually led to the Churban Beit HaMikdash. The same exact thing happened many times throughout history, including World War II, and the same thing is happening right now. The same thing is happening right now where a lot of religious Jews are doing all types of deals and agreements with the goyim in order to... Have unity if you will if you're gonna simply do business, meaning for monetary purposes. No problem doing business with the goyim, with the exception of three days before their holidays. You're not allowed to do business with goyim three days before their holidays, which is another halacha, and the reason why is because if you do business with them three days before their holiday, they can use the money that you give them for their idolatry. Maran could delve into more details.

45:43So that's another aspect of Shulchan Aruch that applies as far as how you're not allowed to do business with the goyim just on any day, but if you want to do business, you want to sell them something, you want to buy something, there's no problem. There's no problem buying and selling from them, with the exception of those days. But if you're going to do something when it comes to spirituality, then you have a problem. Why? According to the Torah, if somebody was chasing a Jew trying to kill him and he has An option. One option is to hide inside a church. Not go pray in a church. Not go pray to Yeshu. Just hide inside a church. Or die. He has to die. Yesterday, instead of hiding inside a church, needless to say, no Jew is ever allowed to attend a church. Even if your best friend is getting married to the love of his life, it doesn't make a difference. Even if it's some president marrying another president, it doesn't make a difference—a Jew is never allowed to even attend the church. Why? It's a place of idolatry. So, this again also a lot of idolatry have a lot to do with the sub, so nearly a cove and...

46:55Last but not least, always remember that no matter what, a person needs to understand that Hashem runs the world. Anytime a Jew is doing good things, Hashem is going to use a slave—Hashem is going to use a slave in order to elevate the Jew even higher. He's gonna use the slave... to build the world and develop the world and create a lot of good things for the world for the benefit of the Jew. Hashgacha Pratit. To such an extent that Hashem will give some sheikh billions of dollars in order to build some huge tower, the Midrash says, in the middle of the desert for no actual economical reason. Why? Because maybe 400 years later Hashem is going to have one of His tzaddikim, one of His Jews, pass in that desert He's gonna get hot, so he wants to use maybe this, you know, a little bit of shade, a little bit of a tent. So he can use that billion-dollar building just for that, so he doesn't get so hot. Meaning, Hashem is gonna give the non-Jew, the Gentile, billions of dollars just to build a building that will be used one time by a Jew for the Jew's benefit. So, when the Jew is righteous, Hashem will use the non-Jews, such as Esav and Ishmael, in order to elevate the Jew even higher.

48:09when the Jew is wicked, then Hashem uses Esav and also Yishmael as a tool to hit the Jew. That's why throughout all of history, every single time the Jews were wicked for an extended period of time, Hashem used the goyim time and time again in order to hurt us. whether it's the Beit HaMikdash, the first one, getting destroyed with millions and millions of people, the second one, or the pogroms, the Inquisitions, Spanish Inquisitions, World War II, and so on and so forth. So there are different ways that you could apply this halacha across the entire Torah. I don't know exactly which specific ways, corners you're looking for, but I think in the last few minutes I mentioned at least a half a dozen halachot that you could apply it to. Next question. Yes. How do you know when you're done with the doing teshuva for a specific thing? Well, you're never really done doing teshuva because the more you understand about the magnitude of reward and punishment, the more you understand a specific mitzvah, the more you understand that you can do a mitzvah standard and you can do hiddur ha-mitzvah, meaning you can even magnify and elevate the mitzvah, do it more than just standard. It's midat chassidut.

49:31Every Jew is supposed to be an expert in at least one mitzvah, meaning he's the best of the best in this mitzvah. But in general, if it's a sin, in order to repent for a specific mitzvah, you have to first of all become very knowledgeable about that sin, very knowledgeable about that mitzvah. And the more knowledgeable you are, the more you realize that you cannot really finish your teshuva simply by not sinning anymore because you have to stay not sinning. So that means that you fulfilled the mitzvah permanently. So teshuva for a Jew is permanent. You never finish teshuva for anything. It's that every single time you don't make that sin, that means that you're still doing teshuva for it. Once a person fails, that means you have to do teshuva even more. But in essence, every time you don't make a sin, that's part of the teshuva. But it's more than that. There's more to it because there are also ways that you have to do tikkunim. For example, there are certain sins that a Jew will commit where it's not enough just to stop sinning. You have to do more. You have to get other people to stop sinning. You have to get other people to learn about this mitzvah. You have to get other people to do teshuva for it.

50:42So the teshuva is not just simply to stop sinning; there are different aspects of it. Next question. Yes? How did time exist before time? How did time exist before time? How did time exist before time? Well, Hashem has no concept of time. He's above time. Bereishit means the beginning. The beginning is the beginning of time. Hashem created the time system. So as far as time does not depend on what we think. We base time on the sun, on the moon, on the globe, on different materials. Hashem is above time. He created material, so He's not subject to time. If Hashem would be subject to time, then time would be God. In order for God to be God, He has to be above time, meaning there's no concept of time that Hashem is bound to. One of the ways that you can understand how time works is...

51:58And how time works is, for example, every single thing that we do in the world, automatically we think of it based on its material makeup. How much does it weigh? How tall is it? How much of a distance is there between me and this thing? How much time will it take? It's all based on materialism. There is a concept of another reality, where there's a place without time, and that's the eternal world. That's the spiritual world. How can you understand that world? Dreams. Sometimes a person can go to sleep and have a dream. They feel, in that dream, that that's their reality. When they're in that dream, sometimes they can have nightmares, and some people call it night terrors, depending on the level or magnitude of it, and... ...where they're being tortured, they're being chased, they're being beaten up, and so on and so forth, for thousands of years. Thousands of years they feel like they're in this thing. Somebody's chasing them, somebody's beating them up for a few weeks, for a few months, and even for thousands of years. But that's their reality. They really went through thousands of years of suffering and anguish. But then they wake up, and they look at the clock; three minutes passed.

53:13Three minutes. Why? When you dream, your soul leaves and goes to a place where there's no time. That's what you felt. It was a thousand years. And it was a thousand years. But in a place where there was no time. A place where there was no time. So, before time, there was no time. And Hashem is not subject to time. If He was, then He wouldn't be God. Time would be God. Next question. Yes. Is it a form of idol worship to follow the secular calendar? Is it a form of idolatry? It's a form of idolatry to believe in it, not necessarily to follow it. Each one of the calendar months in the secular world is based on, the Gregorian calendar is based on the name of an idol. different false idols, different Avodah Zarah (forms of idolatry). But when you use the names January, February, March, April, you are not referring to serving their idols. You're not referring to even the idol itself. And quite frankly, most people don't even know that the calendar has anything to do with idolatry.

54:19You're not using it for that context. You're using it simply because that's the way the world operates. It's the way you conduct business and life in general in the world. However, if a Jew wants to comply with Halacha, that means they are never going to celebrate their birthday or anniversary or any significant day on the Gregorian calendar. They're only going to celebrate their Hebrew birthday, the Hebrew anniversary, and follow the Hebrew calendar. And the reason why is because the Hebrew calendar, first and foremost, is the only one that complies with the Torah, and two, it's the only one that's actually right. If you go to Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah, in the beginning of the Gemara, the first maybe 20 something pages, it teaches about the calendar and different aspects of the calendar, and you also see that the Gregorian calendar is completely wrong. Meaning, even though every one of us has a specific birthday, Statistically speaking, in every room that has 35 people, at least two people have the same birthday—the same day and the same month, though not necessarily the same year. Statistically speaking, one gambler that I knew a long time ago made a lot of money off of fooling people, telling them, "I bet you I could find..."

55:39Two people with the same birthday. And every time people say, "Of course, with 100 people," no. So many dates, so many possibilities. They didn't realize that statistically speaking, if you have 35 people in the same room, more times than not, you're going to have two people with the same birthday. But anyway, even though you were born, let's say, on January 5th, and another person was born on January 5th, that January 5th is not technically the same time of year as the year before. And the reason why is because there are leap years. And the reason why is because their calendar is based on something that changes constantly. The reason why in the Hebrew calendar we have every few years we have a year that is called shana me'uberet, a year with 13 months instead of 12 months, is in order to make sure that those specific days, those birthdays, those holidays, and so on and so forth, always fall on the same day. So if, let's say, for example, your actual birthday is the first day of Av... reason why in the Hebrew calendar we have every few years a year that is called shana me'uberet, a year with 13 months instead of 12 months, is in order to make sure that those specific days, those birthdays, those holidays, and so on and so forth, always fall on the same day. So if, let's say, for example, your actual birthday is the first day of Av...

56:46Even if you celebrate that day, that birthday, 25 years later, it actually is really your birthday. That really is the day you were born. But if you do it based on the Christian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, January 1st today, if you fast forward exactly 365 days a year, years from now or five years from now, even though it's still gonna be January 1st, it's not ten years exactly. Ten years exactly will end up being something like February or March or April, or possibly even something in the neighborhood of September, depending on how many years you're talking about. The reason why is because their calendar is something that does not actually base itself on the true time, really put it that way, whereas the Torah does. Years from now, or five years from now, even though it's still going to be January 1st, it's not exactly ten years. Ten years exactly will end up being something like February, March, April, or possibly even in the neighborhood of September, depending on how many years you're talking about. The reason why is because their calendar is something that does not actually base itself on true time, really put it that way, whereas the Torah does. How are you defining your true birthday? The day that you were born. What does that mean? When you say it's not the exact same day? No, no, no. I'm talking about not the same exact day as far as the Christian calendar, not the Jewish calendar. How would you calculate if it's January 1st? How would you calculate what a year is if it's not through that way? So the way the calendar works is that you're gonna have leap years every four years. So sometimes you're gonna have every year you're gonna have a deficiency because one part of the calendar works off of the revolutions around the Sun and part of it is around the moon. The problem is the Gregorian calendar...

58:07the way the calendar works is that you have leap years every four years. So, sometimes, every year, you have a deficiency because one part of the calendar works off the revolutions around the Sun, and part of it is around the moon. The problem is the Gregorian calendar... times change by about ten days every year, which means that every four years, approximately, you have an accumulation of a month that's changed. A month that's changed meaning that, let's say, for example, January first. Now, you fast forward ten years worth of three hundred sixty-five days. In ten years from now, you're talking about that January first will actually be... You know that three months later, it's not going to be the same exact day. Do you follow me? Based on the revolutions of how actual time really, really passes and...

59:16whereas in the Hebrew calendar, it actually is the same exact day. So there are specific details about how the Jewish calendar works. It's very, very complicated, but nonetheless, it's a precise calendar. Now, the day that you were born, on your birth certificate, you probably have an English birthday. But if you go on the internet, you go to the Hebrew calendar, you put in your actual date of birth, they'll tell you exactly what your Hebrew calendar birthday is. And that's your real day. And that's the day that you'll see. So, for example, if it's the first of Av, and let's say the first of Av also ends up being this year on January 1st, you'll see that next year, the first of Av ends up being January 15th. It's not the same day. It's not the same day. Why? Because the Hebrew calendar, again, like I said, is based on precise time, whereas the Gregorian calendar is not. Yes? Same price. Two for one. How come six million Jews died brutally? How did Hashem let that happen? What do you mean, how did He let that happen? He did. And also, isn't that considered Gog and Magog? A lot of people died during that time.

1:00:33Sure, Gog and Magog, a lot of you are going to die. Two-thirds of the world are going to die. The Torah says, if you fulfill my Torah, I'll bless you. How is Hashem going to bless us? All types of beautiful things that He's going to give us. He tells us all types of things that He will give us as a result of us following the Torah. But if we don't follow the Torah, He gives us over 40 different verses of different curses, different punishments that we're going to get. If you look at Parashat Ha'azinu, if you look at Parashat Bechukotai, if you look at Parashat Ki Tavo, those three Parshiyot specifically, you will find that every single thing that happened during the Holocaust, Hashem predicted that it was going to happen if we violate the Torah. Which means

1:01:34How could Hashem allow the Holocaust to happen? He didn't allow it. We did. We violated the deal. Hashem did not violate the deal. He said if you keep my mitzvot, I'll give you blessings. If you don't, I'll give you curses. So He never changed the deal. He says if you keep my mitzvot, you're good. You'll be, you know, feared by everyone. One of you will be able to beat a thousand of them. You'll have blessings. You'll have parnasa. You'll have everything you want and more if you do my mitzvot. If you don't, you'll be a slave among the people. You will become a tragedy that everyone is going to look at you and say, "How come Hashem cursed such a people?" So, He gives us details of what's going to happen to us if we stray from this Torah. We went over this, I believe, a couple of weeks ago in detail as far as Parashat Bechukotai. And you see that Hashem did not violate the deal. Even though we don't take Hashem seriously, He's serious. So when He says, "If you keep my mitzvot, I'm going to give you reward," we see throughout history that when Am Yisrael was righteous, we were the best of the best. At the time of Shlomo HaMelech, we were kings of the world. Everybody feared us. No one ever wanted to fight Shlomo HaMelech. Even though we were a small country and didn't have that many people, we were never the biggest nation in the world; the whole world was afraid of us.

1:02:57we were the richest, we were the smartest, we were the most righteous. But if you fast forward 410 years, Hashem made us into literal victims to such an extent that there were rivers of blood—rivers of Jewish blood—much, much worse than the Holocaust. That was the time of the first Beit HaMikdash being destroyed. Why? We were wicked for an extended period of time, and Hashem says, "Remember, I told you: if you do good, you'll have everything good. If you don't do good, you'll have everything bad." So, Hashem did not change the deal. just because we changed. We changed. Hashem did not change. He said, "You do bad, I punish you." The same thing happened many times throughout history. Every time, if you look at the history books, You'll see that every single time we've had a major crisis, a national crisis, a pogrom, an inquisition, or a destruction of some kind, you will see that at that time, and for an extended period of years beforehand—it wasn't like for one year or one week or even five or ten years, but for an extended period of time, usually decades—we were extremely wicked as a nation as far as the way we comply with the Torah.

1:04:17Hashem has patience and patience and patience, but eventually, that runs out, and He eventually has to implement the laws of the Torah that force Him to punish us. Because if there were no punishment, there would simply be no point to the world. Good. I'm not following the first part. What do you mean if I don't know? Yeah, no, no, no, I didn't say it doesn't matter that you don't know. I'm saying that if a person—most people do not know that the means that were chosen for the Gregorian calendar, the Christian calendar, were based off of idols. But most people don't know that. Most people are ignorant and...

1:05:19reality, but it's not a form of idolatry even if you do know. I know that January is based on a certain god that was named January and so on and so forth, but it's not idolatry. It's just that you know that that was an idol called that. By saying the name January or September or August, you're not serving that god; you're just saying that name. It's not a sin to say the name. It's a sin to worship or benefit from idolatry. You're not benefiting from the false god of January or February or whatever it is by saying their name. You're simply conducting your life. Most people don't know this in general, as far as that these gods even existed, these false gods. But that doesn't make it a sin or a mitzvah. It's just that people are simply ignorant. as far as the people that are using the wigs that come from India, they are sinning. The reason why is because those wigs were not just named after something; those wigs are actually part of idolatry. They're not just something that was named after an idol; they're actually a part of idolatry, meaning these wigs are hair that somebody sacrificed to the idol and

1:06:32somebody sacrificed to the idol. So it's not something that you could take any piece of paper and say, I'm going to name this paper Pikachu. And good luck to you. Okay, name it whatever you want. Name it Shmuley, name it Pikachu. It doesn't make a difference. You can name it after an idol. It doesn't make it idol worship. as I make it, if you're gonna drink from this cup now, you're an idol worshiper. It doesn't make anything. But if you took this cup and you gave it as a sacrifice to some statue, then this cup has to be destroyed. Why? Because it now became an official part of idolatry. So the wigs that are coming from India, which is the majority of the wigs in the world, are part of idolatry because they were sacrificed by the Hindu people and different foolish reasons, and now sold by those temples because those temples care about money more than they care about their idols. They sell the hair to, unfortunately, foolish people all over the world. Some are Jews, some are non-Jews, who don't really care where the hair came from and put it on their head. Whether the person is a Jew or a non-Jew, they have a serious problem when they have a sacrifice of an idol on their head.

1:07:47Does it have to do anything with this question or just follow up? Something else. Let me follow up with him and give him a chance to ask. You say the names of the Gregorian calendar are really names of idols, based on idols. What about the names of the Hebrew calendar? No, the names of the Hebrew calendar were names the Chachamim came up with. No, they're also idolaters, names of idolaters that we took from Babylon. Okay. Yeah. I don't know the source for that. If you Google that, you can look it up. It's a fact. is based on, I don't know what idol it was named after, like Baal. I don't know; I never heard of it. Yes, I can't hear you because, let's say, for example, I told you that I have a piece of rock.

1:08:51Let the station quiet down. If something is to be special, it has to be unique. If I have a rock and I told you this rock, this piece of rock, is priceless, it's worth 10 million dollars, you're going to ask me what makes this rock worth 10 million dollars. So I'm going to tell you I decided it's 10 million dollars, and you're going to tell me, okay, you can decide whatever you want, but that's worth nothing. has to be unique. So if I have a rock and I told you this rock, this piece of rock, is priceless, it's worth 10 million dollars, you're gonna ask me what makes this rock worth 10 million dollars. So I'm gonna tell you I decided it's 10 million dollars, and you're gonna tell me, okay, you can decide whatever you want, but that's worth nothing. But if I tell you the reason why it's $10 million is because it's a unique rock that's very rare as far as the way it looks, as far as the way it's shaped, as far as its quantity, as far as its size, and so on and so forth. So if you want to have something that's unique, special, and valuable, it cannot be something that is very easy to get, very easy to attain, and so on. For example, sand is not very valuable because there's a surplus of sand. Saltwater is not very valuable because there's a surplus of saltwater; 72% of the world is water. special and valuable, it cannot be something that is very easy to get, very easy to attain, and so on. For example, sand is not very valuable because there's a surplus of sand. Saltwater is not very valuable because there's a surplus of saltwater; 72% of the world is water. But if you take specific types of metals or rocks or different precious stones and so on and so forth, the more rare they are, the more valuable they are. HaKadosh Baruch Hu had to show Am Yisrael that they are rare. Not necessarily because they are of lesser quantity, because there were generations when we were a large quantity of Jews. At the time of the Beit HaMikdash, there was a large quantity of Jews.

1:10:10But if you take specific types of metals or rocks or different precious stones and so on and so forth, the rarer they are, the more valuable they are. HaKadosh Baruch Hu had to show Am Yisrael that they are rare—not necessarily because they are of lesser quantity, because there were generations when we were a very large quantity of Jews. At the time of the Beit HaMikdash, there was a large quantity of Jews. At the time of Egypt, there was a large quantity of Jews. And several times throughout history, we had a large quantity of Jews. Not in comparison to the goyim, but still a large quantity. But Hashem says that what makes us unique as far as the chosen is because we are the only ones that are following the Torah itself. So, Hashem had to make us different from the rest of the nations because that simply gives us the truth. You have two aspects: you have the valuable, and you have the less valuable. You have the scarce, and you have the surplus, and so on and so forth. Hashem decided who is the chosen and who is not the chosen. But the beauty of Hashem is that He allows anybody who wants to be part of the chosen to join and...

1:11:29So, if someone was born not Jewish, but they wanted to become Jewish, they can be. They go through an Orthodox conversion at the Beit Din after learning enough Torah to know how to deal with the day-to-day life of a Jew. They make certain life changes that are necessary, and they convert to Judaism. And they can become part of the chosen people, meaning that Hashem did not leave the rest of the world behind. If you want to be a Jew, you can be. But you can't undo it. Meaning a Jew cannot become non-Jewish. Even if they converted to a different religion, according to halacha, they're still considered and judged as a Jew. They're still judged as a Jew, a wicked one nonetheless, but a Jew. So, Hashem allows every single person that wants to be a Jew to become one. But if a, with a minor exception of a nation that's cursed, that he says, well, they'll never be allowed to be Jews. But even those had exceptions. Even the exceptions had exceptions. In general, the vast majority of the world can become Jewish if they want. Next question. Yes. The first commandment in the Torah talks about how it says that God is the God that brought us out of Egypt. Yes. Why does it say that He brought us out of Egypt instead of on the ground?

1:12:51Very good question. Creating the world is much bigger than Egypt. So how come Hashem didn't say, "I'm the God that created the world?" The reason why is because when He created the world, there were no witnesses. Whereas when He took us out of Egypt and gave us the Torah, there were millions and millions of witnesses, both Jews and non-Jews. So, if He writes in the Torah in a generation today, "I'm the God that created the world," you could say, "Well, I don't believe You created the world because there were no witnesses." But if He says, "I'm the God that took you out of Egypt," you can't say, "No, I don't believe in that," because there were millions and millions of witnesses. that were there, that saw it, that lived through it. Therefore, by rejecting it, you're rejecting history—documented history. Next question. Yes? When you say that, when we're talking about the Holocaust and how people have to betray the Torah in a way for Him to give us the curses, how many people have to betray it? That's, I mean, Hashem's measures are unknown to man. Different people, different quantities, different generations. But in general, we see that Hashem has an enormous amount of patience, and He waits many, many years before He punishes the nation as a whole. Usually, He gives people individual punishments, then it expands to family, then it expands to neighborhoods, then it can even expand into communities.

1:14:17But as far as national punishments, Hashem has an extraordinary amount of patience, which means that it has to get to a certain threshold. What is that threshold? The threshold is, we read it on, I know Sephardim do, I'm not sure about Ashkenazim, on Thursdays and Mondays, we read a certain section of the Gemara, which is, Abaye says, What is the n'shem una avadu? Gemara Masechet Chagigah says the n'shem una avadu was what was said by the Prophet at the time of the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash where Hashem says I have to destroy the Beit Hamikdash and I have to kill a lot of Jews. Why? Because there are no people of emunah. What do you mean emunah? Emunah meaning no people that are believing in Hashem to such an extent that they're actually going to rebuke their brothers and sisters. If there's nobody to rebuke the people and tell them the truth, to tell them to do teshuva, that means that people will not have the ability to do teshuva in any other way other than Hashem rebuking them. Now, when Hashem rebukes people, it's unfortunately very painful. If I rebuke you and I tell you to stop doing such and such, it doesn't hurt, it's just words. You could listen, you could reject it, it's relatively harmless.

1:15:41But when Hashem says something, it's not through talking. It's the world. Things change. He gives a person sickness like He gave me for many years of my life. He gives a person financial issues. He gives a person all types of difficulties. He gives the nation. So the nation got to a point where even the rabbis stopped rebuking the people. And the Gemara, Masechet Shabbat, pages 54, 55, and 56, talks about it extensively. says that originally Hashem wanted to actually punish only the wicked people, but then the Satan came to Hashem and said, "Hashem, you can't just punish all the wicked people; you’ve got to punish all the righteous people too, all these religious people." Hashem says, "Why? But they fulfill the Torah aleph beit. They fulfilled all the mitzvot." But Satan says, "No, they didn't fulfill one mitzvah." "What mitzvah didn't they fulfill?" They did not tell people to do teshuva. They did not tell people to stop violating Shabbat. They did not tell people to stop wasting seed. They did not tell people to repent. They didn't tell them for different reasons." So Hashem says, "Yeah..." You can't just punish all the wicked people; you've got to punish all the righteous people too, all these religious people. Hashem says, "Why? But they fulfill the Torah Aleph Beit. They fulfilled all the mitzvot." But Satan says, "No, they didn't fulfill one mitzvah." "What mitzvah didn't they fulfill?" They did not tell people to do teshuva. They did not tell people to stop violating Shabbat. They did not tell people to stop wasting seed. They did not tell people to repent. They didn't tell them for different reasons. So Hashem says, "Yeah..."

1:16:46didn't tell them. But this generation was so wicked that even if they would have told them, they still wouldn't have done it because they like to sin too much. So Satan says to Hashem, "Yes, you know they wouldn't have done it, but the rabbis don't know," which means that they were still obligated to fulfill that mitzvah and tell them. And Hashem says, "You're right. Punish the rabbis first." punish the rabbis first. And just like in this week's parasha, Hashem punished the rabbis first. In the times of Beit HaMikdash, Hashem punished all of the religious people first. Why? Because if you are a leader, you have a much bigger obligation than a regular person. So, when the threshold, we've seen throughout history, what is the threshold? It's not necessarily a certain specific type of sin, other than the fact that we see that it's the sin where you are eliminating the ability of the public from doing teshuva.

1:17:48where it's not necessarily the public sinning specific sins, but rather the leaders sinning specific sins where they are not allowing people to know the truth. They're not helping them know the truth. In essence, they're not allowing them a fair chance to choose between right and wrong. A person is born into this world without really knowing all the rights and wrongs, so... The rabbi's job is to tell him the Torah. The Torah tells him what's right and wrong. If the rabbi is going to pick and choose what he tells him, he's only going to tell him the nice things and not the bad things. The person is not going to know what to do and how to do teshuva. So when this becomes an epidemic, when the average rabbi and the average religious Jew cares less about rebuking his brother, about fulfilling the mitzvah of "hocheach tocheach et amitecha" (you must rebuke your brother), then we have a very serious problem because that eliminates... the national ability of doing teshuva, and Hashem says we have no more people that can help people doing teshuva. That means that the only way that we could save the nation is by Me punishing them, because once Hashem punishes us, we realize we did something wrong.

1:18:59Every person that is in a hospice center where people die, chas v'shalom, becomes religious. How do I know? I have a student that volunteers at the hospice. And he tells me, regardless of what religion they started, regardless of how old they are, everybody at the hospice asks for a blessing. Even if they were atheists their whole life. Why? Because everybody knows, okay, something's wrong, I'm about to die, I'm about to meet my Maker, even if I denied it my whole life. When bad things happen, people ask why. So we know as a people that when bad things happen to us, there were a lot of bad things that we did, but we only started taking those things into account after bad things happened to us. We didn't think about it beforehand. So the job of the rabbi, the job of the leaders, is to tell people that they're doing wrong before Hashem tells them, because once the rabbi says it, it's a relatively painless instruction. When Hashem says it, it's a very painful one. Next question. Yes?

1:20:04Well, it says that a prayer without kavanah is like a body without a neshama. When somebody prays, but like a robot, yes, they fulfill the prayer obligation, but it's not exactly ideal. What is it like? At the time of the Beit HaMikdash... we had to bring korbanot, we had to bring sacrifices. And the reason why is because this was part of our teshuvah, if we would make a sin or if we wanted to sanctify Hashem's name and so on and so forth. Now, sometimes the sacrifice, the animal, has to be burnt completely, sometimes partially, sometimes it's eaten, and so on and so forth. Now, if it's a specific korban, that is a korban for a sin, a sacrifice for a sin. We did a sin. And the person that's bringing that korban, he says, I made a sin by accident. I turned on the light on Shabbat by accident. I forgot it was Shabbat. I forgot it was Shabbat, so I turned it on. Not that he ran into it. If he just ran into it by accident, it's not even considered a sin. If he turned it on because he forgot it's Shabbat, it's shogeg. It's accidental. For that, he has to bring a sacrifice to the Beit HaMikdash. Now,

1:21:21has to be sorry for the accidental sin and has to be reminded that the reason why that cow is being slaughtered right now is instead of you. Even though it's an accident, it's still a sin. But if that person that's bringing the cow, he's bringing the lamb, he's not really sorry he's actually thinking, "I can't believe I have to spend $10,000 on this stupid cow, and I'm not even going to benefit from it. I can't even make a barbecue out of it." He's not thinking about being sorry for the cow. He's not thinking about the sin. He's sorry about the cow because he wants to eat it. He wants to benefit from it. He's not sorry at all. That's what the Torah calls pigul. Pigul means this is a sacrifice that Heaven will reject. Meaning even though He did the action in order to repent for the sin inside him. Nobody else knows. Hashem knows, though. Inside him, he didn't repent. In Shamayim, he'll have to pay for it. Which means if a person prays, goes to Beit Knesset three times a day, and he prays and she prays, but she's thinking about her groceries, but he's thinking about the stock market, but they're thinking about their car and whether they parked it in the right lot.

1:22:40They're thinking about everything else but Hashem. That means that the prayer, which is replacing the sacrifice from 2,000 years ago, is pigul. It's pigul. You did part of the job, but when it gets to Shamayim, it’s not going to complete the job. Why? It didn't have the right kavanah. This means that when a person prays, they have to do everything and anything possible to have kavanah. But that's also part of the benefit of praying for men, praying with a minyan. Praying with a minyan is important because if a person prays by themselves, then Hashem evaluates their prayer from beginning to end to see whether they have full kavanah or not. If he prays with a minyan, He weighs everybody's prayer and takes the best of everybody and combines them into one. This means that most of us, when we pray... Between all of us, don't tell anybody though. Between all of us, we don't have a lot of kavanah. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes we're saying "Hashem" and there's a little tear that comes out. Sometimes we're saying, stock market, groceries, my wife called, my baby's crying. We think about other stuff. So not the whole prayer is full kavanah.

1:23:56So when you pray with a minyan, you have the benefit. Why? Hashem is going to take out all the stuff that was no good, throw it in the garbage. The little piece that was good, He's going to combine it with His piece that was good. His piece that was good. His piece that was good, combine it into one, and everybody's prayer gets accepted. Assuming that there are at least ten people that are Shomer Shabbat. Meaning the minyan has to be people that are Shomer Shabbat. If you have a hundred people, but none of them keep Shabbat, it's as if there's nothing. Because a person that does not keep Shabbat, according to halacha, cannot be counted in the minyan. Cannot be counted in the minyan. He's considered an idol worshiper, according to halacha. Yes? What if there are nine people, and the next person they're looking for is a Jew, but he doesn't keep Shabbat? Like it's just the worst case scenario. According to halacha, they don't have a minyan? I don't know about all Chabad houses. I haven't been in all of them. All I can tell you is that if there are ten people that keep Shabbat, then that's a minyan, according to halacha, according to Moshe Rabbeinu, according to Hashem. Ten people that keep Shabbat. If you have nine people that keep Shabbat, nine Moshe Rabbeinus, nine Moshe Rabbeinus, but then you have one, or not one, you have 5,000, 5,000 desecrators of Shabbat. Guess what? You don't have a minyan.

1:25:15Why? You need ten. Ten is the minyan. That's halacha. Why? Because when somebody drives on Shabbat, according to halacha, according to the Shulchan Aruch, in seven places; according to the Chumash, in twelve places; according to the Gemara, in many, many places—I don't know the number. Someone who violates Shabbat, according to halacha, is considered 100% an idol worshiper. Meaning, if you have a wedding, you need two witnesses. If one of those witnesses is a mechalel Shabbat, that wedding is not valid. If you have, want to have a witness, there's a trial, you need witnesses. If that witness you have is a Mechalel Shabbat, you're not allowed to use him as a witness. Why? He's not reliable. He's not reliable because he's considered an idol worshiper. Which means, whether Chabad, or Breslev, or regular Orthodox, it doesn't make a difference. If they do not take this halacha into account, then this is not a place to pray. As far as the well, he's not celebrating a holiday though. If he's a Jew, that's considered idolatry; he's not considered celebrating a Jewish holiday. Yeah, but he's not considered an idolater and not regarded as far as the holidays that they're talking about. The Gemara says about Avodah Zarah and...

1:26:42they're specifically talking about the holidays of celebrating their idol, celebrating their idol, not a holiday like, for example, where it's a Shabbat or it's a Pesach. They're not celebrating a heil; they're celebrating Hashem. Even if they don't follow the holiday, they're celebrating Hashem, so they're still right for celebrating Hashem. Whereas the actual true idolaters, the Christians, they're celebrating and praising their idol. They're praising their "JC Penny." The other religions in India and other places, they're praising some moon god or sun god or whatever other type of god. So that idol is wrong, the idol worshiper is wrong. Therefore, the Gemara says that "Hazal says you're not allowed to conduct business with them during those three days because they could potentially take that money and use it for the purpose of idolatry. If he's an idol worshiper, it depends. If he is a Christian, if he's a Christian missionary, according to the Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah and also the Rambam, Rambam writes, he's considered a min. A min is somebody that entices other people to go to idolatry. And such a person, you are not allowed to be within four amot, within six feet of him. Not only are you not allowed to allow him into a synagogue, you're not allowed to stand next to him.

1:27:59within six feet. Why? Because he's considered somebody that leads other people to sin, leads other people to go to idolatry. But that also applies to some Jews. If you know a Jew that's an atheist or you know a Jew that's a different type of a heretic that tries to entice other Jews to violate Shabbat or violate the Torah in any way, He's also considered a min, and I mean the Rambam says any kofer baTorah not only has no share of the World to Come, but he's also considered like a Christian missionary where you're not allowed to help him do teshuva even if he wants to. Meaning, even if, let's say, for example, he enticed a thousand people to become idol worshippers, but now he realizes he's wrong. "I realize, oh, I'm sorry. I can't believe it. I know I didn't want to do it, but now I realize it. Can you help me do teshuva now?" At all? No. He could still do teshuva, but you're not allowed to help him. Why? Because he's a min, because he's someone that enticed other Jews to sin against Hashem.

1:29:00Hashem has to treat him in a different way. What way? He's untrustworthy. We don't know if he's playing a trick on us or not. Maybe just his strategy that he used to kill a thousand souls stopped working, so now he's gonna pretend to do what a lot of Christians are doing today, which is calling themselves Messianic Jews. Even though there's nothing Jewish about them, they call themselves Messianic Jews. Why? Because that's the new trick of the generation. They call themselves Messianic Jews. Why? Because they're saying, "Listen, our god, JC Penny, Yoshke, he was Jewish, and he told us to, you know, worship him and so on and so forth. He's the Messiah. He's really God in their eyes and so on and so forth, and he was a Jew. So we're really Jews. We're Messianic Jews. We believe he was the Messiah." But their definition of Messiah is completely different than ours. The point being, their trick... Changed for 2,000 years; their trick was either we convert you or we kill you physically. They would go up to Jews and tell them, "Convert, or we kill you." Many Jews died because of it. But that's only the body; their neshama went to heaven. In this generation, it's the first time in history where the Christians are pretending to be Jews. And they're successful. It's very successful to such an extent that the most successful Christian missionaries were actually born Jewish.

1:30:26Unfortunately, as the pasuk says, "Your conquerors, your destroyers will come from within you." We are our worst enemy. That's what the Baalei HaMussar say. There's obviously different commentaries on it, but the Baalei HaMussar use it to say that we are our worst enemy. Yes? Is it possible for Amalek to do teshuva? Is it possible for Amalek to do teshuva? If we don't know he's Amalek, then yes. How do we know? The Gemara says that the descendants of Haman became converted to Judaism and became big Talmidei Chachamim in Bnei Brak, even though he was a descendant of Amalek. Of course, their rabbis did not know that they were descendants of Amalek, and today we don't know who is Amalek. But the Gemara says that his descendants ended up converting and became righteous people. And once they convert, we cannot undo it. They became very righteous people. But if you know somebody is Amalek, then actually you're obligated to kill him. We don't know who is Amalek, though. You're not allowed to kill anybody. Yeah, but if Amalek would do teshuva and they convert to Judaism, their kids are not

1:31:41Right, like I said, once you convert to Judaism, you get a new neshama. Rambam says, you get a brand new neshama, your new birthday is that day. The day you converted. Doesn't matter what day you were born biologically. You were born spiritually, you were gifted a brand new neshama on that day. You are officially zero years old. Zero years old. You're a baby. So, when a person converts, life starts all over again. There are certain sins that they still have to pay for from their previous life. They can, for example, if they stole, still have to pay the money back—not necessarily because they owe the money but because it could be where somebody would say, "Hey, remember you stole a hundred dollars from me." No, no, no, that wasn't me. That was who I used to be. No, that could be a desecration of Hashem's name, where that person says, "Ah, Jews steal a hundred dollars." He's not going to say that it's you. He's going to say it's the current you. So if you did certain sins that are between you and another person as a non-Jew, you have to do teshuva for them as a Jew, especially if it's a relatively easy sin to fix. But if it's certain sins between that person and HaMakom and Hashem, they don't have to do teshuva for because they are, in essence, a brand new neshama. According to halacha, they're brand new. Their birthday is that day, Yom HaLeda. Yes? Okay.

1:33:03You were speaking about the war that would happen before Mashiach comes, Gog u'Magog. Yeah. Does that work for the Jews? Is that for the Jews, for what they did? Or is that just a step to Mashiach? Gog u'Magog? No. Gog u'Magog is part of our Torah. It's the culmination of this world. It's what's going to happen before Mashiach comes. I also heard that... That's in the Prophets. The Tanach talks about it. The prophet Yechezkel, the prophet Yeshayahu, and the prophet Zechariah—all the prophets talk about different things about the end of times, but those three that I just mentioned, Yechezkel, Zechariah, and Yeshayahu, specifically mention things about that war. Especially chapter 14 of Zechariah gives some vivid, scary details of what's going to happen at Gog u'Magog. He describes a nuclear war. Describes a nuclear war. Yeah, I mean, in those days, there were no nuclear weapons, but the way he describes what would happen to people—nuclear, biochemical. He says that there would be some event that would happen, and the skin of people would melt. You'd grab your friend's hand, and the hand would come off. The eyes would spill like water. This is what happens in a nuclear biochemical war. And...

1:34:22Well, as far as looking forward to it or not looking forward to it, We always have to go to the Chachamim. We always have to go to the Gedolim and see what they said. Why? Because they have a much bigger knowledge of what's true and what's false. Much bigger knowledge of what Hashem says and what Hashem, you know, expects of us and whatnot. And we go to the biggest and the best. Rabbi Akiva had a rabbi. One of his rabbis' names was Rabbi Eliezer ben-Horkenos. Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol in the entire Gemara is the only one that's called Gadol. Chachamim at the end of his life asked him, "How much Torah do you know?" and he says, "If you take the water of the ocean of the entire world and you turn it into ink, and then you take all of the trees in the world and turn them into pens, and then the land turns into paper..."

1:35:47You would not be able to use all that ink, all those pens, and all that paper to write the Torah that I know. And the Torah that I know is not even a lick in the water in comparison to the Torah that my rabbis know. That's how much Torah Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus knows. Which means a little bit more than us. A little bit. The more Torah you learn, the less you realize you know. The more you know, the more you realize how big the Torah is. So the Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin... They ask Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, "What about the time of Mashiach? How will you be saved?" He says, "Torah and Gemilut Chassadim." They ask him, "Do you want to be alive at the time of Mashiach?" He says, "I want Mashiach to come, but I don't want to be alive when he comes because of how difficult the test is going to be right before he comes, whether it be the war or..." be it the poverty or the different things that the prophet says are going to happen, the real chachamim wanted Mashiach to come but not during their lifetime because of how difficult it will be before Mashiach comes. So, in essence, a Jew is obligated to believe that

1:37:06The Mashiach can come any day: tomorrow, the next day, three days from now, a week from now, and so on and so forth. A Jew is obligated to think that Mashiach can come any day, not because he wants him to come or doesn't want him to come, but because that means he's obligated to do teshuva today. Because once Mashiach comes, there's no more teshuva. There's no more teshuva. So if a person thinks, nah, you know what? Mashiach is probably not going to come for another few years. Guess what? If you think that Mashiach is not going to come for a few years, your motivation to do teshuva will decrease by 95%. This is also part of the reason why Hashem lowered the lifetime of people to 120 years on average. At the time of Adam HaRishon and Noach and that generation, the average person lived hundreds and hundreds of years. Some even over a thousand years. But then Hashem lowered it. It says in the Torah, He lowered their life span. He maxed it at 120 with certain exceptions, you know, here and there. 120 is the max. Why? Because people thought, listen, I'm only 300 years old. My father lived till 900, so I have time before I have to do teshuva. I can still, you know, cause a bunch of mess and go against Hashem for at least another 500 years. The last 100 years, I'll be perfect.

1:38:23People know that everybody else lived a very long life. So Hashem added certain things to the world. Number one, He shortened the lifespan. Number two, He put disease into the world, which I believe it was Yaakov Avinu who asked for it so at least you have a preparation before you die in most cases. And in essence, He gave everybody the understanding that you could literally die on any given day. You're not promised tomorrow. And that's why the Talmidim asked the Rabbi, he says, Rabbi, you said, do teshuva before you die. How would somebody know when they're going to die? He says, exactly. Because you don't know when you're going to die, you're obligated to do teshuva every single day. And that's also part of the reason why in our prayer, whether you're Sephardi or Ashkenazi, every day we read. Every day we have verses in Tehillim, in the Torah, that we read throughout our tefillah that constantly remind us that Mashiach is coming, and when he comes, time's up. Time's up. The end of 3B, beginning of 4A says there's also not going to be any converts.

1:39:36No more converts once Mashiach comes. Meaning, why? Why no more converts? I want to convert now that I know Mashiach is here and it's the Jewish one, not the Christian one. I want to be Jewish. He goes, yeah, now there's no free choice. Once you know that we're the winning team, of course, you want to join us. Of course, you want to join the winning team. The key is to be a winner before you know who's the winning team. That's the key. Before you know that, there are a lot of things, bad things are happening. So that's the thing. A Jew has to do teshuva as soon as possible because anyone that's done teshuva, or at least is trying to do teshuva, knows that it takes a lot of time and effort to do teshuva, even the basics. It's not like, oh, you start keeping Shabbat, you eat kosher, you pray every day, and maybe learn a little bit. That's how you do teshuva. That's not teshuva, my friend. That's the beginning of teshuva. Teshuva means you have to work on your character traits, perfect your character. get rid of bad middot. There's a lot involved in teshuva. It's not just doing mitzvot. It's a lot more than just doing mitzvot. And even the mitzvot—a person doing teshuva doesn't even know what he doesn't know. So even if he starts keeping Shabbat, he doesn't realize he's still a mechallel Shabbat because he doesn't know all the halachot of Shabbat. You don't know all the halachot on day one. So you could probably be a mechallel Shabbat, but accidentally, because you don't know the halachot.

1:40:52If you violate Shabbat because you simply don't know, you haven't gotten to it, then it's considered shogeg, it's accidental sins. But if you are not learning, and that's the reason why you don't know, then the Mishnah in Avot says that if your accidental sins are as a result of you not learning Torah, then it's considered in Shamayim as if you did it on purpose. Why on purpose? because you didn't know, because you purposefully didn't study. So therefore, your accidental sins are considered purposeful sins. But if you just simply didn't get to it, you learned every day, you just didn't get to the specific halacha, then it's still considered shogeg. It's a sin, but it's an accidental sin. Much, much less a decree. Yes? This rabbi told me that when Mashiach comes, we're going to go higher and higher spiritually. But then I've heard from other people that They're both right. Your middot are what they are. If you had corrupt middot, once a person dies, those corrupt middot stay with him. If you have good middot, those good middot stay with him. A certain level of spirituality will be magnified once a person leaves this world because he's not going to be restricted by the body.

1:42:20But how do we know that the middot stayed the same? Rabbi Yehuda Petaya spoke to a lot of dead people, a lot of different neshamot that died. And through different things called dibbukim, where a neshamah that left this world enters a body that still exists. And he would see that those neshamot, many of them had disgusting character traits, like they would curse. Rabbi Yehuda Petaya. I'll give you the example of one of the Chachamim from the Sephardic world about a hundred years ago. He spoke to neshamot. A dibbuk is when there's obviously a neshamah that enters a body. There's neshamot everywhere. There's neshamot here, not just the ones you see. There's a lot of things that you don't see. No, you're not serving the dead; you're not asking for the dead. He was doing it for the sake of people's nefesh.

1:43:21Somebody, when a second neshamah enters the body, the body loses control. The body loses control, and the body starts doing a lot of really bad things. Do you believe in that? Do you believe that that's such a thing? There's evidence of it. It's not a matter of believing in it. It's a matter of there's evidence. It's documented evidence. Whether it's documented evidence from the Arizal, or Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah, or the Zohar HaKadosh, or different things even in the Gemara. There are many, many parts of the Torah that talk about neshamot. I mean, they actually say, I believe it's in the Gemara Berachot, maybe. They say if a person... only saw all of the different spirits that were next to him, he would simply lose his mind. So then the Gemara says, well, how can you see it? It says, if you take a cat, kill the cat, take the stomach, burn the stomach, put specific incense on it, and then take the ashes after you burn everything and put it on your eyes, you'll be able to see everything. One of the Chachamim did it. He was curious. He did it.

1:44:28He was so scared, he started praying to die. He couldn't close his eyes; he couldn't not see it. He started praying to die. He was lucky that he was surrounded by a bunch of Tannaim, a bunch of Chachamim, a bunch of giants in Torah, who prayed for Hashem to take away this thing from him and heal him, to take away this midah. Meaning that the Gemara talks about it in many places, and our Oral Torah talks about it in many places, that there's definitely a lot more to the world than what you see. But that's not necessarily something you just need the Gemara to tell you. If you use a phone, you believe in things that you don't see—radio waves and all types of other things. Gravity. There are all types of laws and different aspects of the world you don't see. Different germs. You know they exist even though you don't see them. So, there are a lot of things in the world that you don't see, but you believe in because you know they exist. So Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah, like many other Chachamim, both from the Sephardi world and the Ashkenazi world, had the ability, had the Kedusha to help people that were attacked by an evil Neshama.

1:45:34got the permission to do it. There are countless stories, countless stories in sifrei tzaddikim, countless stories across the Torah. I talk about such things, and Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah would actually talk to these neshamot and try to convince them to leave this person, saying different holy names, kabbalistic names, and so on and so forth, and and, uh, but it was a very difficult process, and throughout that process, you would get to know who this neshama is. Many times, you would see that the neshama is, uh, doing, uh, really terrible things, really terrible actions, still now. So, he would still curse, for example, use vulgarity and profanity. He would say, "Wait a minute, you know for sure that the real world That's beyond this world. The eternal world, you know for sure it exists. You're there. How dare you still curse when you know Hashem hates it? neshama would say: "This is the way I was when I was in the world, when I was in the physical world. The way you die, your character traits stay with you. If you were a person that was constantly chasing all types of lust and things of that nature, you stay that way after you die and you get punished for it." The point being is that the character traits of a person are something that stay with him, and...

1:46:56But as far as the neshama, you know, if he was righteous, he could be continuously elevated based on his actions. That's also why the Gemara says that Hashem opens the books of the living and the dead on Rosh Hashanah. The living we understand; He judges them on how to judge them in this world. Why does He judge the dead? He judges the dead based on what they left in this world. If they left good and Let's say they wrote a sefer. They wrote a good sefer that people are doing teshuva because of it. And a hundred more people, a thousand more people, a million more people did teshuva that year. 500 years after this person died, he still has to get paid for it. All over again that year. His neshama gets elevated even more. If a person wrote a sefer that gets people to leave Torah... He has to get punished for it. Even more. Even 500 years after he died. Meaning that the living and the dead get rewarded and punished eternally based on how they lived in this world. Anything else? Yes. This week's parashah, in the beginning, it talks about the giving and the building of the menorah. It's obviously in the beginning because it's really important. Can you kind of expound? Because I'm not really sure. Why is the menorah important? Well, the...

1:48:21the spiritual meaning behind it, and then it kind of doesn't really elaborate on it right after that. Go to my YouTube page and type in Parashat Behaalotecha. I have at least a 25 to 35-minute extensive teaching about the menorah itself and probably two to three shiurim. There's a lot of mussar, a lot of teachings about mitzvot, about ethics, about different aspects of the menorah that we talk about. the entire menorah was, meaning that it was hammered out; the whole thing was one piece of gold, it wasn't pieces. Why? It's teaching us many different things. For example, your mitzvot should be complete. You, as a human being, as a Jew, have to try to attain completeness. It's called shlemut. Not only shlemut where your mitzvah is good from beginning to end, but your character traits are good from beginning to end. You're not only good at business, you're also good at learning. You're not only good at learning, you're good at character traits, ethics, and so on and so forth. Some people know how to learn, but they don't know how to behave. Some people know how to behave, but they don't know how to learn.

1:49:35Meaning, a Jew has to do everything possible to reach shleimut. So that's another lesson you can learn from the law, but there are many, many other ones. You could probably talk about it for 50 years. But those are just a couple that show him to have at least a half hour to an hour's worth. Yes? I heard from Rabbi that women are not obligated to do positive time-bound mitzvot. Where do we get that from? Women are not obligated to do positive time-bound mitzvot. What do you mean? I'm not following. So that's right and wrong. It's correct and it's incorrect. It's correct that a woman is not obligated to do time-bound mitzvot, but she is obligated to pray once per day. A woman is obligated to say the Shema Yisrael once a day and the Amidah once a day. When she does it is up to her, but she's not obligated to do it at a specific time like a man. As far as the specific mitzvot that women are obligated to, they have a different responsibility in the world.

1:50:45A woman is supposed to raise the home, a woman is supposed to take care of the kids, and if you spent one day as a woman, you would realize that it's very, very difficult to do that, plus learn Torah, plus provide parnasah, plus do all the things that the man is responsible for. And one of the main things that we see that Torah says is that each person has a role in the world. Each gender has a role in the world. And the role of the man is to learn Torah and provide parnasah. The role of the woman in the world is to raise the home. That's why the Gemara talks about women. Also, many times the Chachamim call their wives "Bayit." They call their wives "Bayit." She's my home. Wherever she is, that's my home. Why? Because she's the one that's responsible for the home. So, because she's responsible for such a significant part of Jewish life, Hashem, you know, removed certain obligations because that's not their priority. So a woman is obligated to learn the basics. She needs to learn the halachot of Shabbat. She needs to learn the things that apply to her.

1:51:50The things that apply to her, but the things that apply to her are not time-bound, because when you're managing the kids, and you have to change diapers in the morning, you have to take kids to school, and you have to manage just an average morning for a mother, if she has three, four, five, six, or seven kids, it'll be impossible for any one of these women to go to a minyan. And Hashem does not want to give somebody a mitzvah that He knows for sure you're going to fail. He didn't create you in order to destroy you. He didn't create you in order to punish you. So the mitzvot that He obligated us, and any test that He obligates us, is something that He knows for sure we can achieve. And for a woman to achieve minyan, unless she stays single her whole life, it would simply be impossible for her to achieve. Anything else? Yes? The story of Yehuda and Tamar, the reason why they wanted to kill her,

1:53:01So in those days, in the days of the Torah and the Sanhedrin, Hashem says, "Kedoshim Tihyu" – you be holy. Being holy doesn't just mean doing mitzvot. Being holy also has a different definition. It says, "Lo Tihyu Kedoshim." When is it "Lo Tihyu Kedoshim"? Don't be promiscuous. "Kedoshim" also means – it's a different way to describe promiscuity. So, promiscuity is something that's... You know something that Hashem finds disgusting. So when a woman is promiscuous, she's a problem to the people. In those days, it was forbidden, so there was a death penalty. The fact that she had a baby or didn't have a baby was not part of the consideration. She fulfilled, she did a specific act... aveira and the punishment for that aveira is the death penalty. They're not thinking about, "Oh wait, in nine months from now or in six months from now, there's gonna be two kids and we're gonna save those kids." That's not part of the consideration. That person violated Shabbat. That person drove on Shabbat, even if she was eight months pregnant, they would still kill her. Not because they want to kill the kids, but because she's the one who did

1:54:21Until they come into this world, they have a different part of the world. They're still considered human beings. Anyone that has an abortion is considered 100% a murderer. But when the Torah gives you the right to kill somebody, then, in essence, it's Hashem killing the person, not you. You're just being the hand. So the Sanhedrin. But the Gemara says if a Sanhedrin killed one person every seven years, there's something wrong with that Sanhedrin. Meaning even though the Torah talks about the death penalty very often, it was very rare for them to actually exercise that death penalty at the time of the Torah. The time of Yehuda and Tamar was before the Torah, before Matan Torah. It was during the time of only the Oral Torah, no Written Torah. So, at those times, there were different restrictions, and, of course, at that point, she also brought a desecration to the family name, and so on and so forth. But as far as consideration for the unborn baby, they don't take that into account when they're evaluating a sinner. As far as the Beit Din does not evaluate the future because there's no guarantee that baby will be born. There's no guarantee she will survive the birth.

1:55:36Guaranteed is what's happened today? What's happened today? We don't punish or reward anybody based on the future. We punish them and reward them based on today. That's why when they asked, "How come Hashem did not kill Yishmael when He knew that his descendants are going to torture His children?" It's because Yishmael himself did teshuva. Yishmael himself did teshuva. The fact that his descendants are still torturing us today is... he cannot be punished for that. Why? Because that's the future. He has to be punished or rewarded based on him, based on what he did. And he eventually did teshuva. Next. Yes. So I've heard from another rabbi before that during the end times before Mashiach comes, there's going to be a regression in how many gedolim, the talmidei chachamim, there are in the world. And so I was wondering, is that If there's becoming less and less, wouldn't that mean that the level of Torah in the world goes lower, making it harder for the people to do teshuva? No, not necessarily. Just because there are fewer wise people doesn't necessarily mean that there's going to be less teshuva. It's just a... I'll give you an explanation. It's a little different.

1:57:02At the time of the Gemara, you see that the details that the Chachamim debate have an endless amount of secrets, an endless amount of lessons. You could read the same Gemara a thousand times, the same page, a thousand times and still learn something new. The details that they went into and that you can learn from the words they used are incomprehensible. He fast-forwarded, he condensed it more specifically, but still, you can learn a lot. We see the way the Chachamim, when they write sheilot v'tshuvot, they write questions, answers; they give you all the different aspects that they understand of these holy questions and answers. You'll see a halacha about, let's say, what do you do if there's something that looks like blood in an egg? Seventeen pages explaining who, what, when, and how. For us today, where you could buy an egg for less than a dollar, you say, just throw out the egg and buy a whole dozen already. What do you care?

1:58:15But that's how you learn. Chachamim cared about all the minutest details. In the time of Mashiach, which is where we find ourselves, the vast majority of Am Yisrael, unfortunately, is ignorant to such an extent that to teach the intricate details of halachot is simply a waste of time. Why? Most people today need to be taught simply Mussar, which is: Do this, don't do this. Stop stealing, put some clothes on. Stop cheating. Learn a little bit every day and consider Hashem in your life every day. Literally, you have to teach people basic ethics and basic ethics and how to dress. The vast majority of Am Yisrael today, which means that the Chokhmah of the Chachamim is not relevant to the generation. The majority of it.

1:59:24But the ones to whom it is relevant, the true talmidei chachamim who spend hours and hours, days, months, and years of their lifetime in the kollel, learning Torah at night, in the morning, and in the afternoon, they have an endless amount of Torah already available to them for thousands of years, and they will be able to literally learn for millions of years just from the material we have available. As far as the rest of the stuff that's applicable for the rest of the people, the majority of the people today, they need to learn how to keep Shabbat. Ninety percent of Am Yisrael right now does not keep Shabbat. Which means teaching them the intricate details of whether to eat the egg that has something that looks like a piece of blood is not relevant to most people. Why? The egg is not going to matter to him. He's a Mechalel Shabbat. He's in a different class. Let him eat the egg all day and all night. Just stop violating Shabbat for heaven's sake. You understand? So it's not that Hashem is giving us a lacking in any way, chas v'shalom. He's giving us specific things for a specific generation. He's catering to the generation. Every generation has the chachamim that are good for them.

2:00:38That is applicable to them. That's the design. Hashem gave the generation, the only generation that could have handled Moshe Rabbeinu was the generation of Egypt. If Moshe Rabbeinu was here today, if he was here today, he would not be allowed to enter any shul in the world. They'd call him a fanatic. They'd probably try to kill him. Moshe Rabbeinu would not be allowed to enter anywhere. Why? He'd literally give a death penalty to almost every single person. So Moshe Rabbeinu is not here. He's there. At the time of Moshiach, you're not going to be able to go up to Moshe Rabbeinu and give him a high-five. Hey, Moshe! What's up, buddy? It's kodesh. It's kedusha. It's something we can't even comprehend. If you can see him from 500 miles away, maybe. So again, it's not applicable. It's not applicable. But if somebody wants to delve into the endless wisdom of the Torah, he's never going to lack because that's Baruch Hashem, available. We have an endless amount of sefarim from hundreds and hundreds of years. And that's the one major thing that Judaism has over any religion in the world. We have better documentation, better details of our Torah, of our lineage, of our history.

2:01:49And in general history more than anybody else in the world. I think we covered enough ground. Next shiur is going to be on Sunday. Sunday, we're back here. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Thank you for learning with me. Amen. A couple of questions. Is there a limit on how wicked you can be? Is there a limit? No. Oh, rasha, rasha. Is there a limit? No. I mean, Hitler, Esav, Amalek, Nebuchadnezzar. No. There's also no limit on how righteous you can be. You have a full potential. Each person has a full potential—full potential of wickedness, full potential of righteousness. But it's not necessarily like the worst he can do is murder one person. No, I'm just saying. You have free choice. Free choice to exercise good or bad. Ken. If someone knew for sure who Amalek was, but he didn't want to kill him because he's afraid of going to jail, you don't know anybody who's not like that.

2:03:14Nobody knows who Amalek is. I heard of the Vilna Gaon. I know who he was. The Vilna Gaon is not here. We're saying today: nobody today knows who Amalek is. Nobody today knows who Amalek is. No one's allowed to kill anybody. Excuse me? Yeah, but the Vilna Gaon didn't kill Amalek. He didn't... I don't know.