Appreciation of Wealth Without Being A Faker - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (24)

0:15Also for Levana Bat Sara, Sara Bat Levana, Ovadia Ben Levana, Yosef Ben Levana, Rabbi Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbi Nitzara Bat Anat, David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah, Eli Sheva, Chaya Bat Sara. Ovadia Ben Levana, Yosef Ben Levana, Rabbi Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbi Nitzara Bat Anat, David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah, Elisheva, Chaya Bat Sara, Yocheved Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sara, Naomi Bat Sara, and all of Am Yisrael, b'ezrat Hashem, will have refuah shlema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf, and also for the success of Abel and Christy, as well as the success of Elad Ben Doris. Success in teshuva, success in yirat Shamayim,

1:33Success in completing their mission in this world as a mission. Oh, and also, if it is Hashem's will, Esther Bat Zipporah will have a refuah shlema. Eventually, b'ezrat Hashem, by the time we remember her name, she won't need a refuah shlema anymore, or she'll be already healthy enough to give us a shiur. How many times do I forget the name? For all those people, I think I actually have a good memory—it shows you how selective it is. So the Ramban, Baruch Hashem, has been educating us, and a few people, Baruch Hashem, have really connected to this series more than the others. You know, different people connect to different things. This is why I always tell you guys, it has nothing to do with me. It's only the Torah. Each neshama is tuned at different times of its life to different things. And you have to make sure that you listen to yourself, that you chase the emet, but at the same time, not only where the emet is, but also certain things that you're attracted to yourself. There are times in your life when you're going to like to learn halacha more than you like to learn mussar. And there are certain times in your life when you like to learn mussar more than you like to learn halacha. That doesn't mean that you stop learning one or the other.

2:59It means that maybe you add a little bit extra to the one that you connect to more. If you're studying, let's say, an hour of each a day, halvai, then you like to learn mussar a little bit, so okay, so now you go an hour and 15 minutes of halacha, and stay with the hour of mussar. It doesn't mean we necessarily just study what we like, but the point is that we take advantage of certain times when you connect to a certain part of the Torah, but also... Sometimes, if a person is wise, they're going to go over certain shiurim. And I've said this many times in the past, that each shiur, for example, for me, every shiur that Rabbi Ephraim does, I go over it usually at least twice. And even though I don't have time, people always ask me, "Oh, did you hear such-and-such shiur?" I say, "No." "Oh, did you hear that one shiur?" "No, I don't hear any shiurim. But I hear his shiurim." Why? Because I'm part of the shiur, number one. Number two, that's part of my learning.

4:05But those shiurim I'll spend twice on. And the reason why is because, again, I connect to it. And if I'm already going to listen to a shiur, I want to walk away with knowledge, not just motivation. You know, many people, when they watch shiurim, they want to get motivation, which is good. It's important to have motivation. It's going to get you through the day, maybe through the week. But you also have to walk away with something more than just motivation because motivation dissipates. ...may be motivated today, tomorrow, the next day, but after a while that motivation deteriorates over time. So you have to do something that's going to last a little longer, and that's where knowledge comes in. If you remember specific things that you wrote down, that you actually even go over your notes once in a while, or at the very least, you wrote them down in the notebook... Then you've actually committed this knowledge to memory because when you simply hear something, that means you're only using two senses. You're using your ears and your eyes if you're seeing something visually.

5:11But if you write something down, that means that you're using multiple senses, more than that because you're also using your touch, you're using your eyes, and you're using your ears. It becomes something that is much closer to you, something that you commit to memory more, and most importantly, something that you're going to remember when you need it. So that's why sometimes it's good to hear a shiur a couple of times. It's sometimes even better to hear one shiur that really motivated you, that really hit the spot for you, twice, rather than hearing two different shiurim. Again, but you have to know yourself. You have to know yourself. I have one guy that I know who is a Talmid Chacham, a serious Talmid Chacham, but also he watches many, many shiurim, and that's part of his learning. But he watches shiurim to the extent where he commits them to memory. If you ask him a question, he's not only going to give you an answer, he's going to give you the shiur where it says it.

6:17He's going to show, "Oh yeah, this rabbi says it over here, approximately at this minute," and it's usually that minute. And it's very, very important because that means that you have now studied that shiur, like you study a sefer. But if you just study shiurim, you just watch shiurim all day like a machine, and it's like background music. It's good to have it; it's definitely better than the nonsense that people listen to all day, but it's not going to help you sometimes as much as it should. So, it's very critical to write down the information. And like I said, I myself don't have time to watch as many shiurim as I used to. I used to watch, I used to listen to five, six, seven, eight shiurim a day sometimes. There were periods of time where literally I would have a CD of Rabbi Tzachi on and simply just go through it until I passed out. or I would listen to Rav Ephraim, or a combination of the two, or I went through a bunch of shiurim of Rav Yagen, and others, and so on. The point is that if you ask me certain questions, I can usually tell you who else said it and when they said it.

7:27And the reason why is not that I have some unique memory. Baruch Hashem, I try, I try. I try to learn the shiurim like I try to learn sefarim. Sometimes I have more success with one over the other. If you utilize these shiurim like you're supposed to, you can actually become a very well-versed Jew. simply by studying shiurim. Also, you need to learn some sefarim as well, but you can become a well-versed Jew by shiurim. But if you listen to shiurim like it's music, meaning, you know, you listen to it passively, you'll get the motivation. Usually for maybe one part of the shiur or two parts of the shiur. But that motivation will dissipate, and you'll forget about it two or three weeks later. That's here, by the way. You remember when Rabbi Reuven said such-and-such? No, no. What are you talking about? When did he say something like that? Because, yeah, you're the one that told me two weeks ago. Oh, I said it? Oh, yes, we probably said it then, but you forgot that you said it because you didn't commit it to memory.

8:32And chaval, because you're already spending the time. You know, people spend so much time listening to shiurim, Baruch Hashem, that I only see few, few in number, that actually study them. Many, many listen, Baruch Hashem, but very few study them. And the ones that study them, you see how they advance and how they progress. You see how sometimes they remind me of certain things that I said. I remember when Bezalel was here, he said, "So Rabbi, when such and such happened in that story," I said, "I don't know, I don't think I've ever heard of the story." He goes, "What do you mean, Rabbi? You're the one that told me the story in the shiur. Three weeks ago, three months ago, six months ago, eight months ago, whenever it was," and Bezalel knew the shiur better than me. This is fantastic. That's a person that's studying. That's a person that's studying. And again, it's an advice to anyone that wants to utilize the shiurim to the best of their capacity. Now, the same thing goes with these shiurim. One particular woman that was having a lot of marriage issues, Baruch Hashem, she started watching our shiurim.

9:44some time ago, and she got a lot of help from different shiurim about bitachon and mussar and so on and so forth. But she tells me that the cure for all her marriage issues was this series. I don't know who, how, and how it affected her neshama, but apparently, she learned exactly what she needed to learn about her marriage. From this series, some people are going to learn exactly what they need to learn from the Bitachon series. Some people are going to learn it from the Mussar Pirkei Avot series. Some people are going to learn it from some of the random lectures that I do, which are not part of a series. For example, one woman simply rewired her entire brain and how she... relates and connects to sensuality and modesty and so on based on one shiur that we did about it. It's called "Kosher Intimacy." That shiur has helped more people rewire their brains than almost any other shiur that we've done. And it's amazing because, like I said, some extraordinary stories have come from it. I brought you some divrei Torah to give an interview and did nothing; I just told you what the Rambam said.

10:52But no one ever heard this before in their life. The stuff they heard has been a complete distortion of the Rambam or anything like it. And for the first time in their life, they understood the beauty, not just the power, but the beauty of modesty and the beauty of how modesty can be applied even inside the bedroom. Now, that person didn't hear the shiur one time. Person of this year a few times and some of them continue to hear it every so often. Why? Because they want to be reminded and want to have that same feeling. So if you have one of the shiurim, if we had the merit to affect you by simply repeating what Chazal said in a certain way, have that shiur on a certain playlist. Aside from sharing it like we talked about a few days ago, with at least 10% of the people that you know, but aside from that, have a separate playlist that you have of shiurim that you go over and It's going to be like, you know, people collect books on their shelves and really most of the time never read them, but hopefully they do. Collect shiurim. Certain shiurim that this one, this is the best. This is the one I got to listen to once a week. This is the one I got to listen to once a month. This is the one I got to listen to whenever I get down. This is when I get, you know, I'm really excited. This, that. Have a collection of shiurim that are really, really going to affect you. Because again, if something is good,

12:18Don't be in such a hurry to replace it or to abandon it or to simply assume you're going to remember it, because it just doesn't work that way. The Yetzer Hara works very, very hard, and one of its tasks is to affect your memory. Now, there are many things, the Gemara says, that affect a person's memory, and kavod for the Torah is one of them. If a person has a lot of kavod for the Torah, his memory will improve. If a person does not have kavod for the Torah, his memory will deteriorate. The Gemara in Masechet Kiddushin, page 33b, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos, the rabbi of Rabbi Akiva, one of the biggest giants that's ever lived, to the extent that when he spoke and taught Torah, The light that Moshe Rabbeinu had on his face was on Rabbi Eliezer's face. Imagine, you're sitting in a room. It's dark. Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos walks into the room. It's dark. There's no light. There's no light. Chandeliers for $5,000. Nothing. No electricity. Not even candlelight. Nothing. All of a sudden, Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos walks in. Nobody knows yet. He starts saying one Dvar Torah. Moshe kibel Torah mi'Sinai. All of a sudden, the whole room is like, whoa, whoa. Put the glasses on. That's what happened.

13:42That's how much Kedusha he had. So, if he says something, we have to take it seriously. Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos said, any Torah student—here he doesn't distinguish between males and females, even though, generally speaking, Torah students are males who study in yeshiva. But nonetheless, he says, any Torah student who fails to stand up respectfully for his rabbi and his teacher is called a rasha. And he's destined to forget his Torah knowledge. Now, why is Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos scaring the daylights out of this entire generation that not only does not respect rabbis, but they actually insult them? If they don't like one thing that they said, they hurt shiurim for three years straight. Everything good, they changed their life, they got married, they got divorced, they got kids, whatever they did.

14:42The rabbi was there to help him along the way in their ups and their downs and everything. But one day, the rabbi said something, you know, that you didn't like so much. Why? Because it affected you. But it wasn't fake. It wasn't false news. It wasn't fake news. It was the truth. You just didn't like it. All of a sudden, bar minan, bar minan, what do they do? They want to mamash, they want to hang the guy in public, like Yoshke. Want to crucify him. They want the guy to mamash, die the worst death in the world. They like the Nazis more than this rabbi. Why? Because he said one thing that you didn't like. This generation has such a lack of respect for talmidei chachamim, for rabbis, Right now, Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Horkanus has told us to forget about the disrespect. Disrespect. You want to hear what happens to people who disrespect rabbis? People who disrespect talmidei chachamim? We don't have a midrash that goes into detail about Gehinnom. There's a specific section about them. There's a specific chamber just for them, just for those people who show disrespect. I mean, I mean, but we're not talking about disrespecting just anyone. I mean, we're talking about the rabbi walking into the room and

15:53You're learning. You're learning. You're listening. You're doing something. You're not just playing with your phone. You're actually learning. The rabbi walks in and you're just like, "What's up, rabbi?" You said, "What's up." You said, "What's up." No problem. Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Horkanus says that puts you in a category of a rasha. Rasha. Criminal. Wicked. But that's not enough, he says. He says, not only rasha, but now you're going to forget what you learned. How much of it? I don't know. Could be everything, could be some of it; all I know is that it is not good. Which means, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanus is trying to tell us, if you do not respect a talmid chacham, that means you do not respect the Torah. If you don't respect the Torah, you no longer have the permission to possess it. You've lost the right to hold the key to the Torah. Yeah, but I studied it and I taught it over. Yeah, good for you. But who gave you the Torah knowledge? HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He gave it to you. Now He doesn't want to give it to you anymore. Why? You don't respect it. You don't value it. It's like somebody gave you a special gift and instead of valuing and appreciating it, you put it under the laundry.

17:16They come into the room, it's like, "Oh, where's that special diamond bracelet connected to the ring that I spent my life savings on? Where is it, honey?" "I don't know. Maybe it's over there under the underwear. You know, that one over there? Maybe it's over there. Give me, give me, give me back the ring. Give me the ring. Give me the ring. You know what? Give me the ketubah also. Give me. Give me. You respect what I spent my life savings on. You don't value it? Give it back to me." That, rabotai... is a very, very clear warning from Rabbi Eliezer. What does it mean to respect the Torah? Respecting the Torah doesn't always mean respecting the sages from 500 years ago or a thousand years ago, or respecting the sefarim that when you pick them up, you kiss them, or respecting the tefillin that when you take it out, you kiss it, or the mezuzah. It's not just that. Respecting the Torah means aleph to taf, from beginning to end. Because if somebody has the merit to possess Torah and teach it, that means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided to use this person for a reason. They made certain sacrifices. If someone like Rabbi Mizrachi walks into a room and you say, "What's up, Rabbi?" I'm not really sure if you actually understand the damage that you're causing to yourself. Rabbi Mizrachi would not even care. Most of the time, I'll tell you why he's standing up.

18:39Well, you look behind them, maybe one of the Gedolei HaDor, like Rav Mazuz, walked in or something. He's like, no, no, no, why are you standing up? But that's the key, rabotai. You're not standing up specifically for him. You're standing up for the Torah that he has. So it's important to know that if you're going to learn shiurim, if you're going to learn from sefarim, And you're not going to give those shiurim the proper respect. You're bound to lose that knowledge. You come to a shiur empty-handed. You're sitting leg over leg like you're in a movie. Bar Minan. You're like this. Oh, chazak, Rabbi, chazak. It's good. Back to the phone. Play with the phone. My wife hasn't texted me in a few hours. Let me text her. Honey, how are you doing? LOL. Oh, Rabbi, it was good. If that's how you watch a shiur, you need popcorn. There's popcorn coming out of your ears. There's oil all over your shirt. It's entertainment. It's not a shiur Torah. So why do you get surprised that when the Malach HaMavet, the Yetzer Hara, the Satan—all the same thing, the Gemara says—different names, different ways that the Satan

19:59attacks you. He attacks you in some way, your Yetzer Hara. Whether it's money, or it's a woman, or it's a guy, or it's kids, or it's something, he shows up, and you fail immediately. All the Torah that you know, all those shiurim that you've watched for the last few years, it's as if you didn't even know anything. You didn't remember anything, and you simply have no shield whatsoever to defend yourself. Why? Why do you think that's the case? The reason why is because you don't know the Torah. You watch the shiur Torah like you watch a music video—entertainment. So, chaval, chaval meaning it's a waste. Respect the Torah. Respect the Torah means toil over it. Try a little harder. Write notes. Stay awake. If you can't stay awake, then force yourself to stay awake. It's, it's, it's not easy. I promise you it's not easier for me than it is for you. But I can tell you that the more you toil over the Torah, the harder you try to get something, the more your mind will be opened because the Kadosh Baruch Hu says, "Ah, good, you passed the level, and I'll open it a little bit more."

21:02I'll open it a little bit more. You pass the level, I'll open it a little bit more. What's the level? The level is based on Mesirat Nefesh. How much sacrifice you're going to make for the Torah. Why? Because sacrifice is something that is done only for the sake of something that you value. You're not going to sacrifice your life for a marriage you don't want. You're not going to sacrifice your life for a job that you care less about. You're not going to sacrifice your life for a Torah that you care less whether you know it or not. Which means that if you do sacrifice, you love her, you love the job, and you love the Torah. That's why, Rabotai, I see sometimes there's certain people that watch my shiurim two, three, four years. Baruch Hashem, some of them have become serious talmidei chachamim. A couple of people have actually already become rabbis. Mamash rabbis, they have a kehillah. On the other hand, some other people watch the shiurim just as much, just as long—three, four years—and they remain the same behemot I met four years ago. Nothing has changed. I asked them, "Do you watch my shiurim?" They responded, "What do you mean? Every shiur, all the time."

22:15You're on my phone or on my call all the time. I'm failing you or there's something wrong. How is it affecting all the other people like this? And you're like that. I mean, okay, let's say within the first few months, there's some klipah, so many sins a certain person made, so they weren't getting it. But after an extended period of time, you stayed the same while everybody else is already at a different level. There's something wrong here. Something wrong with the learning. That's the key, Rabotai. Sometimes to admit these mistakes, we have to humble ourselves because no one wants to admit that they've been wasting so much of their time and they've been doing something wrong. They always want to blame somebody else. But the truth is that every person knows themselves, knows when they're failing, knows when they succeed, and knows that when something is hitting a nerve, it means that it's an indication that there's something to it that requires further investigation. Now, the Ramban here is telling us that each and every single week we have to reinvestigate ourselves regularly. Reinvestigate ourselves to such a high extent

23:25...that we literally have been studying one sentence at a time out of this letter, and it's not even enough. The two to three hours that we talk about each sentence is not even giving it the full service it requires. It's just giving us a little bit of an impression of what we could learn from it. We've learned about how... damage a person can cause themselves as a result of anger and not controlling themselves. We learn how valuable humility is in regards to how Hashem loves it and how you have to act a certain way physically, exterior-wise, in order to actually have it enter into your neshama. We learn a few things. But now the Ramban is giving us a little bit further. He told us that not only do we have to be humble in our actions, but we have to be humble in our mind. So now the Ramban is going to tell us what this actually looks like in real life. What does humility look like in real life? And he says the following: Let all men seem greater than you in your eyes.

24:29He didn't say some men. He didn't say the tall ones or the short ones, the good-looking ones, the bad-looking ones, the black ones, the green ones. He didn't say that. He didn't say women or men. Let all men, meaning all of mankind, everyone. Everyone is better than you. What do you mean? What about all the stuff that I did? Shouldn't I get some credit? Shouldn't I get some props for it? I was valedictorian. I was a valedictorian. I have all types of certificates. Shouldn't I get some credit for it? Shouldn't everybody stand up for me? Let all men seem greater than you in your eyes, which means that this has more to do with how you view people, not necessarily how people view you. If another person is wiser or wealthier than yourself, you must show him respect. Meaning that even if it's something that perhaps may not necessarily have much to do with his own efforts. We know that Hashem is the one that gives you your IQ. You are not building your IQ by yourself. Sometimes people are born geniuses. As we said on Sunday in a shiur, Rav Aharon Kotler cried about the fact that he was born such a genius and

25:56because he knew that had he not been born such a genius, he would actually have more chiddushim. Same thing with money. Anyone that understands who's the one that's providing parnassah will see the Gemara, Masechet Rosh Hashanah, and also Gemara Masechet Beitzah, both 16a and 16b. Say that HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides how much money He's going to give you on Rosh Hashanah until the next Rosh Hashanah. But this parnassah that He gives you does not include how much you're going to spend on Shabbat, on mitzvot, on Yom Tov. This means that the higher level your emunah is, the more money you're going to spend on mitzvot. Why? Because that's not included in your parnassah. Let's say, for example, HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided He's going to give you $100,000 this year. Okay, some people are saying wow, b'ezrat Hashem. Some people are saying chas v'shalom. You know, it depends on what your income is currently. Just add a zero, deduct a zero, whatever it is. The point is, this is a hypothetical example. Hashem decided to give you $100,000. Now, when did He decide? He decided on Rosh Hashanah. How He's going to give it to you is determined based on every day, based on your actions. But,

27:16Don't think that this is going to limit your mitzvah capabilities like some people think. No, no, I could only give $10,000 ma'aseh this year. Why? Because I made $100,000. I could only give $10,000 ma'aseh. That means that I can't spend $1,500 on tefillin. I can't spend the extra thousand dollars on CDs. I can't spend the extra thousand dollars to help these poor people. I can't do this. I can't do that. I have my budget. You ask a guy, okay, what about, you know, spending money on a special mitzvah, a unique mitzvah, even after you gave your ma'aser? No, no, I already gave my ma'aser. That's a wrong mentality. What about Shabbat? How come your Shabbat still looks homeless? You're still eating tuna out of a can. How come you're spending $3 on Shabbat? No, because I gave all my money in tzedakah. I gave all my money in expenses. Mistake. The mistake is, you did not... Learn the Gemara. The Gemara says HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides what your parnasah is, but that excludes the money you're going to spend on mitzvot. Which means that if you decide to spend $300 or $3,000 every week because you have emunah, not because you're crazy.

28:32Because you have emunah that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will pay you back for this mitzvah, because you are honoring Shabbat, you are honoring the tefillin, you're honoring the Torah, you're honoring, you know, kiruv, and so on and so forth. You're doing this mitzvah. You're spending the money on this mitzvah because this mitzvah is important to you. And you believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will give you the money back, then guess what? He'll give you the money back. Sometimes it works a week later, a day later, six months later. The point being is, It is not going to affect your overall parnasa for the year even though the number of your salary remains the same. You're not getting new jobs every week. HaKadosh Baruch Hu will find a way to give you the money. Or better yet, sometimes you were supposed to have certain expenses, meaning that you are still going to get $100,000. Your salary is $100,000. But before you did all these mitzvot, in reality, you're only going to actually net, after all expenses, $5,000. Why? Because you have expenses. You live a certain lifestyle. And after all is said and done, you have $5,000 left. Out of the $100,000 worth of work, $5,000 was actually saved in the bank at the end of the year.

29:38You had your rent, your mortgage, and your this and your that. After all that stuff, you're left with five thousand dollars. Which, by the way, is a good example. Most people, at the end of the year, are negative fifteen thousand. They made a hundred thousand but are negative fifteen thousand every year. They add more debt. No one knows how to save any money. That's why ma'aser has to be from the gross, not from the net, because if it was from the net, no ma'aser would be given. No one has any money left; everybody overspends. But the point is... person spent $100,000 and he was supposed to have $5,000, but because he used a certain amount of money to honor the Shabbat, to honor Yom Tov, to honor certain mitzvot, to give for the sake of Torah, to sponsor a Talmid Chacham every month, to give for Kiruv every month, every week, whatever it is, because of that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Oh, what did you give? Oh, you gave $15,000." No problem, now instead of keeping $5,000 like you were supposed to anyway, you'll keep $20,000. How? I'll just remove a bunch of expenses from your life. Suddenly, you don't need this insurance because the company made a mistake. Suddenly, you don't need this car repair because your car is not going to break down. Suddenly, you're not going to need this medical expense because you're simply not going to get sick. Certain expenses that you were going to have are not going to happen.

30:57And therefore you end up keeping more. So Hashem has an infinite amount of ways to give you more money. The point is, I just listed a couple. There is not, chas v'shalom, ever a way to limit Hashem. Hashem has an infinite amount of ways to give you more. And I see it with my own eyes every single month. Somebody asked me one time, when we first started out, I said, well, you know, I left the business. He said, well, how are you going to live? I said, Hashem. The way you're gonna send you money. I said, "Yeah." He goes, "How does He send you? Wire transfer? PayPal?" I said, "He uses all types of ways. It's none of your business how. You're asking how I'm gonna live?" I said, "Hashem, seriously. I'm not joking. Hashem is gonna send me money." They said, "But your rent is this, and your kids are this, and your wife is this, and this is this. You have all types of expenses. You really believe that?" I said, "Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do." So they couldn't understand it. They asked, "How does this work?" I said, "I'm gonna do what He says," and I he's gonna do what He says, and this continued. One time, the same person gave me some money, and I said thank you because, regardless of who, what, when, or how, you always have to be grateful.

32:20After a little while, I said, "Listen, I'm not really sure if I'll be able to give anymore." I said, "Okay, there's no problem because—" "Yeah, but how are you gonna pay rent?" I said, "It was no, no, but I'm not gonna be able to give you anymore." I said, "Hashem will send somebody else. What do you think? I'm living off of you? You think that I'm actually living because you're sending me a few dollars? If that's what you think, stop giving now." What do you mean you don't value what I give? No, no, it has nothing to do with it. I value and I appreciate what you do, but never for a second think that I'm alive because of you. If it wasn't you, it would be somebody else. Why? Because Hashem runs the world. You decided to be a vessel for Hashem to do His will. When you decide to stop, if you decide to stop, Hashem will find another way, and... He was a little bit taken aback because usually, people who give money want to get a little bit of, you know, extra kavod for it. I'm not exactly the best person to give kavod for that. Number one, because I tell people things how they are, and number two, I'm also used to being on the other side. So you're giving me a couple of dollars and you want me to make a big deal out of it? Listen, remember I used to live a life that wasn't exactly depending on tzedakah.

33:41Anyway, some time passed, and the money dried up. He wasn't able to give, and a few months later, he asked me, "How are you doing?" I said, "Everything is good." He goes, "Yeah, but I'm not giving you anymore." I said, "Yeah, but I have more money now." He goes, "How?" I said, "Hashem sent more people, Hashem sent more ways." He goes, "What? You're telling me now you have more than what I had?" Well, I'm like, "Yeah, I even have a bigger house and a bigger this and a bigger everything. Everything was better." Why? Because Hashem decided to use somebody else. What do you mean? It's not you. It's Him. This, Rabotai, is very, very important for a person to know. You need to understand where your money comes from, where his money comes from, where everybody's money comes from. The more we understand where the money comes from, the more we understand how to treat it. This does not mean that you disrespect it or give it extra respect. The point is, you need to understand where it's coming from. But nonetheless, the Ramban says that if somebody does have money, you have to treat him with a certain level of kavod. You have to give him respect because he has money, because Hashem decided to use him as a vessel. If somebody has more wisdom, you also have to give a certain amount of kavod. I don't think we'll cover more than that. There is, it even goes further where if somebody makes certain sins, you have to look at them in a certain way. We'll see how much we cover today, but so far I...

35:01We'll try to cover the money aspect of it now. The key is that sometimes when we acquire things, whether it is a car, house, or any other privilege that Hashem gave us, we forget ourselves. We forget who is the one that gave it to us. Sometimes, we never even think that He gave it to us, and... And this is one of the critical mistakes that are putting that gift at risk. Now, there was one time a guy that was learning every day and became a Talmid Chacham. But this Talmid Chacham, unfortunately, did not learn Mussar. So he learned a lot of halachot. You asked him a certain law, he'd tell you what it is and where it is. But as far as his behavior, it wasn't necessarily so great. How do we know? Because the story goes that every day he would leave early in the morning, go to the Beit Midrash to learn. At the same time, his neighbor would go to work. Now, this poor neighbor is going to work; he's not going to learn. But this guy, this Talmid Chacham, he's going to learn, he's having a good time. Now, every day when they would meet, they would say hello. But despite the fact that the worker

36:30Looks at Talmid Chacham with respect. Wow. This is our future. This is our past. This is our present. This guy is going to learn Torah. In his mind, he had so much respect for him. Because he says, I can't do it. I don't have enough emunah. I don't have enough bitachon. I don't have a lot of things. Maybe I don't even have enough brains. I have to go work. This guy, wow. Every day he would admire him. Just looking at him, he's like, you know, like you're happy to see the guy. The Talmid Chacham didn't learn Mussar, and on the other hand, didn't look the same way at this worker. This average guy, what do you say? This guy. He has no purpose in this world. The fool doesn't even know who Hashem is. Doesn't know anything. He barely even knows how to put on tefillin. I saw him in the Beit Knesset put on tefillin. Safek if he's doing it the right way. The guy doesn't know any Mishnayot by heart. The guy doesn't know much. Purposeless life. He frowns upon him. The guy is keeping Torah and Mitzvot. He's not a Rasha. He's not a criminal. But this guy is looking at him as if he is. Why? Because he's not learning Torah like him. And every day, as the Baal HaBayit, the worker, admires the Talmid Chacham, the Talmid Chacham is frowning upon the Baal HaBayit.

37:51As time would have it, eventually, they both go to the Beit Din of Ma'ala, the Beit Din of Shamayim, at the same time. And while the Talmid Chacham gets the surprise of his life, that even though he had a lot of Torah that he learned, his complete misuse of it, where he did not learn Middot, he did not perfect his character traits, Back to haunt them, but at a place that he can't really do anything about it. The Gaon MiVilna says that if you lived in this world and you did not fix your Middot, there was no purpose to your life. That's a purposeless life. Why? You didn't do anything. What did you do? You learned Torah, but you didn't actually fix yourself. You have a lot of money, but you didn't actually buy any Torah with it. What did you do with your life? Nothing. No purpose to your life. In Shamayim, they said you are guilty. Even though you learned Torah, every time you frowned upon this person, that was a sin and another sin and another sin because he wasn't the only one you frowned upon, you have to go spend a little bit of time in Gehinnom. The worker, on the other hand, even though he didn't learn as much Torah, because he valued Torah so much, he would give part of his money for Torah. He would give part of his money to help other people learn Torah.

39:12that made up for his lack of learning Torah to such an extent that every hour that he spent working was considered as if he spent it learning Torah. When a person gives Ma'aser or Chomesh, 10 or 20 percent of their gross salary for the sake of Kiruv, for the sake of publicizing Torah, real Torah, not fake Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu now takes the entire 100 percent of the money that you acquired From working and turns it as if you learn Torah. Why? Because that's really what you're doing. You're working. Yeah, you're buying stuff with it also. You're buying a house. You're buying a car. You're buying all kinds of stuff. But in reality, He's not telling you to spend all the money on Torah. He's telling you to spend a certain amount of money on Torah. Depending again on how much you have. If you're a multi-millionaire, you have a hundred million dollars, then obviously you have to give a lot more than 10 or 20 percent. But if you're an average person, you have to give ma'aser. And if you do it for the sake of Torah because you honor the Torah,

40:12your job turns into as if you're learning Torah, Rabotai. So, this is how critical it is to use your money effectively, but also to know that even if you are learning, you have to know that you have to perfect yourself. Learning by default is not enough. You have to work on your character traits. There are many talmidim, there are many people that are learning in yeshivot, that may consider themselves, and maybe they're even considered by other people, as talmidei chachamim, but the Gemara calls them reshaim. Why? because they have bad middot, they have bad character traits. The Gemara says, a dead animal in the middle of the street is better than him. And the reason why is because the Torah is the instructions of how to emulate God, how to act like Him, how to have good traits like Him. If you use the same Torah that's supposed to improve you, supposed to be used as an instruction manual to improve you. And you misuse it to such an extent where it actually made you worse or you stayed the same. The dead animal has more use than you. Why? Because it's still going to be food for other creatures. It's still going to serve a certain purpose. You serve no purpose if you don't have good middot. If you learn it all and...

41:34Now, the mitzvah of respecting the Torah, respecting Talmidei Chachamim, is not a suggestion. It's actually in the Torah. The book of Leviticus, Sefer Vayikra, chapter 19, verse 32, says, "Arise respectfully before the elderly, the presence of a scholar and be in fear of your God. So here we see these three parts, three mitzvot here. If you see an elderly person, always assume that this elderly person has more mitzvot than you. This elderly person has more knowledge than you, more experience than you; you have to respect them. Standing up, you know, to give a seat to an older person is not just good manners. It's mitzvah gamur. Secondly, if you're in the presence of a scholar, also stand, also rise. Why? Because this is standing up for Torah. If they take out the Sefer Torah from the Aron HaKodesh, everybody has to stand. Everybody has to stand. If a ben Torah walks in, everybody has to stand. Now lastly, be in fear of your God.

43:00Where's fear of your God have to do with anything? That's the reason why you're doing the first two. That's the reason why you're doing all of the mitzvot—because you have yirat shamayim. Now, when a person shows outward signs of respecting the wise, respecting talmidei chachamim, and He becomes inspired to emulate their example. That's what Sefer HaChinuch says. What's the source? The Midrash says that one of the sages, Rabbi Abba HaCohen, was so humble that anytime he saw that there's a bunch of people sitting in a certain place, he would walk around so they don't see him. Why? He didn't want to bother them. You didn't want to bother them. You wanted them to continue sitting there. They're learning. They're doing stuff. You didn't want everybody to stand for you. Even though you're Gadol HaDor. You didn't want them to stand for you. So you would go around and go somewhere else. But then, Rabbi Yossi, one of the Tannaim, rebuked him. He says, no. You see people. They're sitting. Davka, you go there. Let them stand up. Why? Because when they see you,

44:25They stand up because you're a Torah scholar. That is also going to affect their heart and make them say, "Wow, I have to give so much kavod for the Torah. Look how much Torah he learned. Look, everybody else is standing up!" And that's going to actually motivate them to do the same thing, to go learn Torah also. This is why one of the big, big kiruv rabbis one time was asked... What about, you know, sometimes you have lectures, 3, 4, 5,000 people, big lectures, in Eretz Yisrael. And, you know, people in Eretz Yisrael, they, especially Sephardim, they have a lot of kavod for Rabbanim. You know, they see them, they kiss their hands, they, you know, all types of things. and uh now you have one guy kiss you, yeah okay, no big deal, it depends on who the guy is. But nonetheless, if you have three thousand people wanting to kiss your hand, even if you like all of them, by the end of the day you want to take the hand and say, "let me go." So the guy interviewed him and says, "Listen, what's this whole thing about the kissing the hand?" The rabbi tells me, "I'll tell you the truth, I hate it. I find it disgusting. I find it disgusting. I don't know why people kiss me."

45:40So why do you do it? Because it's for them, it's not for me. They want to give honor to the Torah, and I am obligated to let them do it because that's their way of showing honor to the Torah. It has nothing to do with me. So this, rabotai, is strange. It's strange to a culture today that spends a lot of time going after rabbis in a negative way. see, part of the world honors rabbis to the extent where they want to kiss their feet, and the other part is like the Pumbedita who goes to war with rabbis. This one guy that was learning our shiurim for a little while came here a few times. One time he realized that he has to change his entire life, so he's a weak loser who did not want to change his life. He wanted to continue making every sin under the sun. So he decided to make all types of excuses why he doesn't want to come to the shiurim. Eventually, he went back to his old ways and became a rasha gamur. But that's not enough. Why? Because he knows that we still exist. He knows that other people are continuing to advance while he is deteriorating back to Gehinom that he came from.

46:53So this bothers him. He can't live with the fact that this is the right thing to do and he should join it. Why? Because if he's not doing it, it cannot be the right thing to do. So what does he do? He sends me all types of messages, either threatening me or insulting me, just because he wants to make himself feel good. These are sick people, unfortunately. But what does that show? That shows that even though he's sending all these despicable messages, he still knows it's the truth. Because if it were fake, why would it bother you? Why would it bother you to such an extent that you would have to spend a certain time out of your day making bad comments on the internet or telling people negative things? Why do you care so much? You don't care so much about the public or anything else. It's not like you're helping all the dead dogs that are lying in the streets. It's not like you're helping all the homeless in Venezuela. It's not like you're helping all the homeless in San Francisco. You're not helping anybody else in any other way. Why do you decide to become a...

47:54Public servant here with this means that you still know it's the truth, and it bothers you that you're not part of it because you're a loser. Plain and simple. But the point is, rabotai yekarim, that most of the time when people fall off, they don't necessarily always become reshaim. They don't always necessarily go against the Torah. Few and far in between. So if they come back, you have to try your best to accept them and give them a chance. Why? Because just like you ask HaKadosh Baruch Hu for a million and a half chances, you have to also give people chances. A couple of times, we had people that did it, and despite the headaches they gave us, they came back. We made it seem as if it never happened. Why? That's the job. It's annoying. It takes a lot, a lot of strength and willpower, but when you realize who your Boss is, you do what He says. Now, the Sages teach us that when it comes to money, when it comes to money...

49:08A person needs to understand very, very well where the source of this money is, like where this money is coming from. Meaning, who is giving him the money? That's literally one of the ikkarim, one of the ikkarim that a person needs to recite every day. There are ten remembrances, ten things that a person must remember every day: that Hashem gave us the Torah on Mount Sinai. ...gives the mitzvah of Shabbat, the manna bread that He gave us, food from heaven. When Balak and Bilaam wanted to curse Am Yisrael and kill them, HaKadosh Baruch Hu turned it into a blessing, and so on and so forth. But one of the ikkarim, one of the main things that a person has to remember every single day, is where your money is coming from. You have to remember this, because if you do not know where money comes from... You're bound to become a kofer gamur. With or without a kippah. With or without a kisuy rosh. Now the sages teach us that when a person acknowledges that his money is a gift from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it turns his wealth into, literally, a true divine blessing.

50:30Because not only does he have money, but he knows who gave it to him, which means he knows how to use it. He's going to know how to use it. If he doesn't know who gave it to him, if he thinks or she thinks they are the ones who made it, that's going to make it very hard for them to use it the right way. And the reason why is because if he feels like he is the one that worked really hard for it, and someone comes to collect tzedaka, someone comes and says, "Listen, we need to raise half a million dollars, a million dollars to order some CDs to help people stop wasting seed. We need to raise 10 million dollars to open a yeshiva, a real yeshiva for everybody." And you happen to be... vessel that I could also put into the world that we can use to get a hundred thousand, to get two hundred thousand, to get a half a million from. The guy says to himself, "Me? Me? What, just because I have money you're coming to me? What makes you think that I'm the one, the vessel? Maybe it's him. Maybe it's her. Why? Why do you think I am? The reason why, because you have money, that makes you a vessel. You can choose not to be the vessel, you could choose to say no. But that means that you don't know where the money comes from."

51:58It's only when a person sees that his gain, his entire income, is a product of his own doing that his money turns into a curse and literally becomes toxic. The Midrash Rabbah Parashat Bamidbar says that literally a person's income can either be a blessing where you literally see HaKadosh Baruch Hu, feel HaKadosh Baruch Hu 24 hours a day, even if you're not in the Beit Midrash, or it's mamash being a soldier of the Satan himself because of the same money. Now about 800 years ago, there was a chacham and he writes that somebody asked him one time how come that we see that there's a lot of chachamim that look to befriend the rich people, the wealthy people, but the wealthy people never usually look for any chacham to be friends with.

53:19How come? So Rabbi Yechiel Rofe says that's because the chachamim, they appreciate the true value of wealth. They know where it came from. They know how to use it. They know that, in essence, for him to give, he's really receiving. He can buy his Olam HaBa with this money, or he can end up in not such a good place. They understand the true value of money. They understand that Hashem gifted him something. They're trying to help them use it even though it's also helping themselves, but they know they're going to get the money regardless. The wealthy, on the other hand, do not appreciate the value of wisdom, while the wise appreciate the value of wealth. The wealthy do not appreciate the value of wisdom. Now, Rabbi Akiva and Rebbe HaKadosh, page 86a... says that they would give a lot of kavod to rich people. Now, the commentary says, obviously, we're not allowed to be chanfanim, to be kiss-ups. So you cannot even imagine in your wildest dreams that Rabbi Akiva or Rabbi HaKadosh, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, were kissing up to people. So the commentary says, where do we learn from here?

54:41Learned from me that actually, if you start learning the Gemara, you're going to get to a point where you start seeing that Rabbi Akiva and Rebbe HaKadosh, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, themselves were very rich. So they didn't need the money of the rich people. When Rebbe would have a mitzvah, he would say, "Okay, we need to raise ten million dollars, be'ezrat Hashem, to open a yeshiva in Florida." We need to raise a million dollars for this. We need to do that, all types of things. He had all the money. He had hundreds and hundreds of horses and buildings and all types. He was a multi-billionaire, not a millionaire. He didn't need any help or any money. But he would call all of his rich friends and say, you want a piece of this mitzvah? You want a million? You want a million? Okay, you got it. auction: whoever bids more, you're going to get to be able to be part of this mitzvah. Why? To give you some merits, to give you some zechut. You have some money, but that's not worth anything in Shamayim unless you buy mitzvot with it. So why would Rebbi and Rabbi Akiva, who were both very, very rich, give so much kavod to rich people? Because their humility was so extraordinary that when they themselves, when Rebbi HaKadosh and Rabbi Akiva would walk around, and the rich people would give them honor, and

55:55For the Rav, for the love, kiss the hands, kiss there. They thought, "No, they're not giving me any kavod because of the Torah knowledge. I don't know anything. What do I know? They gave me respect because I'm also rich like them, not because of any Torah knowledge." That's how humble they were. They knew where the money came from; they knew how to use it. Now, on the other hand... A person is not allowed to hide his wealth. The Gemara says that there was a young man by the name of Bunyas. Bunyas ben Bunyas. And he walked into the Beit Midrash with just regular clothes. And he learned a little bit. And Rabbi HaKadosh recognized him. He says, who are you? He says, I'm Bunyas ben Bunyas. Because, oh, your father is a tycoon. He says, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, my father has. He says, then please tell him that Rebbe says that he failed miserably in dressing his son appropriately. Why? If you are rich, you're not allowed to look like an average person. You have to look rich.

57:20i don't mean you're going to go to Gucci and buy a bunch of immodest clothes and look like one of these people that are on television. You need to look rich. If you have literally millions of dollars, you cannot go to Gap and buy a suit for a hundred dollars. You gotta buy a respectable suit. Why do people need to know you're rich? Because you're the vessel. you would think they're homeless. We literally would sit down at a table, and there would be at least a million or two million dollars on the table, playing cards and stuff like that. Everybody had a bunch of money—nine people, five people, three people—tons and tons of money, piles of money. Every single person, one next to the other, looks like he's going to go beg for change outside. think they're homeless. We literally would sit down at a table, and there would be at least a million or two million dollars on the table, playing cards and stuff like that. Everybody had a bunch of money—nine people, five people, three people—tons and tons of money, piles of money. Every single person, one next to the other, looks like he's going to go beg for change outside

58:48Literally, people won't wear these ripped shirts, ripped pants; their hair is like this. They look like they just woke up. Some of them are wearing sweatpants like it's pajamas, looks like he hasn't taken a shower in at least three months. You can't tell where'd you get the, would you rub a... Then you start talking to the guy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I founded some biotechnology company. Yeah, we sold it to Pfizer for 300 million dollars. With 300 million dollars, maybe you should buy yourself a new pair of pants, a suit, something. You can afford it. No, you spent it all. Maybe I'll give you some money so you can go buy it. People look homeless today and don't know how to dress. They buy shirts... It's not that the clothes are cheap. They go to places, and they'll buy a $400 or $500 t-shirt. A t-shirt that you can literally buy from the flea market for $2 for $10. Two of them for $10, they'll buy for $500. Why? Because it has Gucci on it or some other brand that some sick person from Paris decided to make it $800.

1:00:04Unbelievable what people pay for sneakers, for t-shirts, for jeans. One guy I know has a collection of maybe like four or five hundred pairs of jeans worth over a quarter million dollars. I mean, to me, that simply sounds like a very sick person. But do you know how many of these sick people there are in the world today? Some of the guys that worked for me would tell me, "Yeah, I got a shoe collection. I'm already at 300 pairs of sneakers." I said, "Why do you have so many sneakers? You can't wear them." He goes, "No, I don't wear any of them. I just wear one or two pairs." I said, "So what do you do with them?" He goes, "I collect them. Collect sneakers. Every day you just wake up and you think you're in a dream." But this is what's happening. This is already 15 years ago. I can imagine that today it's much worse. The point is that a person needs to look a certain way. You always have to look respectable. Someone asked me just a day or two ago, is it okay to wear an expensive suit? The answer is, if that expensive suit is a respectable way to look, then absolutely, if it fits you, meaning if you're wealthy,

1:01:26Problem: if you're broke and you spent your life savings on a $1,500 suit, there's something wrong with you. That suit may actually be a tool for you to con people, so it's not exactly a good idea. Also, I'm not saying wear a garbage bag, but look the part. On the other hand, if that suit, whether it's expensive or cheap, is one of these feminine-looking suits and... Literally makes you look at the girls' and guys' clothing. Then it's not allowed, regardless of whether it's expensive or not. Because I know that some of these suits that people wear cost three, four, five thousand dollars. But even if it's free, you're not allowed to wear it because they're immodest. They're so tight on the person, and they make you look a certain way. And he's like, "What happened? What happened to Am Yisrael?" What happened to Am Yisrael? What? This is the hip way. What hip? What's hip about it? I can see the shape of your hips. That's the only thing that's hip about it. You have to look respectable. Respectable means something that's classic, something that's timeless. And it has to look the part. You have to look the part. Now, the reason why a rich person is not allowed to look like he's homeless is because of the same reason why a talmid chacham

1:02:51Not allowed to be too humble. Meaning he has to be humble, but there's a time and place for everything. If, let's say, for example, there's a shiur program and the rabbi called it off, he can't make it. Now there's already a crowd, there's already fifty, five hundred, a thousand people, whatever it is, but the speaker doesn't show up. If you know Torah, this is not the time to be humble. Stand up, start teaching, and... Stand up, start teaching. Why? All of these people came here to learn Torah. This is not the time to pretend like you don't know anything. Start teaching people. You're not allowed to hide your knowledge. Same concept if somebody asks you a halacha. You know the answer. Answer the question. Unless the rabbi is there. If the rabbi is there, you're not allowed to answer. But if no one else is there, don't pretend like you don't know anything. There's a time and a place for everything. Just like the scholar and his humility may not avoid his duty to teach and to define questions of Torah law, so too, humility is inappropriate for the rich man if he lets other people deny his role as a financial backbone of the Jewish community. Now, Rav Hirsch, in the sefer Horeb, on page 427, says that...

1:04:15Once you've pondered upon the thought that you are nothing so long as you exist only for yourself and that you only become something when you mean something to others, and that you only possess something when you share it with other people, and that even the penny in your pocket is not yours but only becomes so when you spend it for a blessed purpose... Then you will rejoice in the great task to which God has called you. He's teaching us one of the critical lessons of money management. If you want to have your money turn into a blessing, start sharing it. Start sharing it, but share it because you want to share it, because you realize that's the purpose of it. Don't save for 8,000 rainy days.

1:05:15There's a cause. Use your money to do it. A lot of people save money and save money and save money and die, giving all that savings to somebody else. They never actually use their money. They save, save, save, save, save, and then somebody else ends up getting the entire benefit. They die with a bunch of savings. Only become meaningful in this world. The money only becomes yours when you give it to others, when you use it to publicize Torah, when you help people with that money. If all the money that you have is simply for you to accumulate, it's not... Not only is the money meaningless, but you yourself become meaningless. Now, Rabbi Akiva would constantly have debates with his heretic called Tinneius Rufus and Tinneius Rufus... asked him a bunch of very difficult questions that the average person wouldn't have any answer for. One time he asked him, "If HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves Am Yisrael so much, why does He make poor people?" Like people ask all the time, "If Hashem is so good, why did He make the Holocaust?"

1:06:34And people use that as a pretext, an excuse, that that's the reason they don't believe in God or that's the reason they don't keep mitzvot, which is complete nonsense. If you actually understood what the Torah says, you'd know that not only did God allow the Holocaust, but He had all the reasons in the world to do even worse. So, Turnus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva, "If Hashem loves Am Yisrael so much, why does He make poor people?" Rabbi Akiva says, in order to save the rich people from Gehinnom, that's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu makes poor people. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu has to have rules in the world. Certain people in the world he cannot make everybody rich because then money would have no value. He cannot make everybody poor because then, again, money would have no value. He has to have a balance, but that balance has more of a purpose than just poor or rich and

1:07:46because sometimes a rich person is going to be so busy managing his wealth, he's not going to be able to learn as much Torah as he really should. He's not going to be able to acquire as much Torah as the person with fewer responsibilities, with less money. He gets emails and text messages all the way into the late night, three, four o'clock in the morning. He's still getting messages because he has so many things, so many moving parts, so many companies, so many employees, so many customers. It's hard for him to get a solid hour or two to learn Torah. Beyond that, it's a miracle already. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, wait a minute, he has money. So how am I going to get this guy that I gave money to into Gan Eden? I'm going to send him poor people. I'm going to send him good Torah organizations to ask him for money. Why? Because that way his work becomes blessed.

1:08:48Because now, if I leave him alone, nobody comes to him to ask for money. No poor people come to him to ask for money. No organization comes to ask for money. This guy is for sure going to lose out. He's not coming out ahead. Why? He's not going to know enough Torah. He's not going to fulfill enough mitzvot. He's not going to be around religious people because all the other rich people, most of them are not even Jewish. Some of them are Jewish, but they don't keep mitzvot. And so on and so forth. The point is, this guy is doomed. From what? From a gift that Hashem gave him. So what am I going to do? Oh, I'm going to try to save him. How? I'm going to send him all types of Torah organizations, all types of poor people. They're going to ask him for money to give him the opportunity to get himself connected to Torah in another way. get him and get him connected to the Torah in such a way that he's gonna be the backbone of the Torah. He's gonna be financing the yeshiva, he's gonna be financing the kollel, he's gonna be financing all of these CDs and kiruv and tshuva and so on. He's gonna do all that. I'm gonna use him for that. So, in essence, when the poor person or the Torah organization comes to the rich guy and asks him for money and...

1:09:53They say, "Thank you for helping us, for giving us for the yeshiva," but in reality, the rich person should say an even bigger thank you. Why? Because the poor guy would have gotten it anyway; Hashem would have sent a different vessel. The rich guy may not have had another opportunity, though, which means that the rich guy was literally saved by the poor one. So, Rabbi Akiva says, Hashem makes poor people because He uses them as a tool and... the sake of the rich because they can handle a test of being poor. But at the same time, we need them in the world in order to save the rich. Now, the issue of respecting somebody who's rich again is only permissible if you understand where the money comes from and But sometimes people get a certain amount of wealth or a certain amount of wisdom, and they lose themselves. There's a famous story of Rabbi Akiva Eiger. Rabbi Akiva Eiger lived a couple of hundred years ago in days where they didn't have Facebook and pictures everywhere and so on. So sometimes he would go to certain places, and people didn't even know who he was. They didn't know he was the biggest rabbi in the world. Now, Rabbi Akiva Eiger one time went for Yom Kippur to a different community.

1:11:23And no one knew who he was. Now, he wanted to sit next to someone, but he didn't know anybody. Because he wanted to sit next to someone who might also cry to Hashem and motivate each other. You see him crying, that makes you cry. He sees you cry, he cries more. And so on. You want somebody who's a good person; you don't want somebody who's thinking about his work. So on Friday, at Mincha, Mincha of Yom Kippur, the eve, right before Yom Kippur starts, he's sitting in the Beit Knesset. He looks around and sees this older guy praying Mincha with everybody else. You know, when everybody else is, okay, Yom Kippur hasn't hit its peak, it just hasn't started yet. He sees this one guy praying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and when it gets to the part of the tefillah that says, "My soul will be like dust," this guy starts bawling, just crying hysterically. Crying, "Oh Hashem, my soul is dust, dust, dust. It's nothing, I'm nothing."

1:12:45Give us ego says to the gabai, "I want to sit next to him. Please, I want to sit next to him if you have space." The gabai says, "No problem." So, as you would have it, they prayed that night. The next morning, they come back for shacharit, and it gets to the part where they give people aliyot to the Torah, to take out the sefer Torah, and... And they give aliyot, and the gabai comes to this guy that cried yesterday. The older man comes to him and goes, "Kvodo, here, aliyah for you. Number five. You're the fifth aliyah. Giving an aliyah on Yom Kippur is great." Instead of saying, "Thank you very much, chazak u'baruch," Old man stands up and says, "You should be ashamed of yourself. You're giving me the fifth aliyah? Me, you zero that you are. You're giving me number five instead of the third aliyah, instead of the sixth aliyah. You're giving me five? Do you know who I am?"

1:13:56Do you know the yeshiva I run? Do you know how much Torah I know? You zero that you are, you nothing that you are. Do you even understand what Torah is b'chlal? Do you know how much I know? And he embarrasses the guy, mamash murders him. Murders him in public. The entire kehillah is like, shh, shh, shh. But no one knows what to do. The gabbai is quiet. Quiet. As a side note, if you ever see someone embarrass another person in public, and that person doesn't respond, go to the person who didn't respond and ask him for a blessing. Because at that moment, he's holding up the entire world. From Sefer Iyov, Hakadosh Baruch Hu talks to Iyov, and Iyov asks, "Where's the world standing on?" Hashem says, "It stands on nothing." Meaning, on what's "nothing"? On someone who does not respond when other people mock him, make fun of him, insult him, and so on. Because now you're acting like Hashem. People mock Hashem, make fun of Hashem all day and all night, but Hashem doesn't respond right away. Sometimes He'll let the person live another 20, 30, 40 years.

1:15:13Give the person an opportunity to do teshuvah. That's why Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says that people are not going to recognize Hashem when they get up to shamayim. Why? Because over here, all you know is the version of Hashem that's chesed, kindness. You say bad things about Hashem, you say stupid things about Hashem, Hashem gives you more time. You don't lose any breath. Nothing. You say something dumb, some form of kefirah, some form of insult against the King of Kings, Hashem sits there quietly, allows you to continue breathing, allows you to continue doing good things. You yell at Hashem sometimes. Ah, Hashem, what are you doing? Like as if He works for you. Hashem says nothing. He lets you go. Go ahead. Motek, my son, don't worry. It's going to be okay. Nothing. You're living. The next day, you kind of feel bad, but not really, not so much. You forgot you even said what you said. Hashem gives you an opportunity. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says, when you arrive at Shamayim, you're not going to recognize Hashem. Because over there, there's no kindness. There's only din. There's judgment. Why? That's the time you have to pay the bill. You did good, Hashem will pay you forever.

1:16:35Pay you forever. You did bad. I'll also pay you forever, just a different currency. Because over there, it's judgment, no more time to do teshuva. It's not true by each of mine. So now, back to our story. The old man embarrasses that guy despite getting an aliyah. After the whole thing is done... Rabbi Akiva Eiger walks up to the old man sitting next to him. He goes, "But I wanted to ask you something. Yes, one thing I need to know. What happened? Listen. Yesterday, when you got up to this section, 'my soul will be nothing,' 'my soul is nothing,' you were crying hysterically. What's the pshat? And now you embarrass this person?" So the old man says, "What's complicated here? When I say to Hashem, 'Hashem, I'm nothing,' it's only because I'm comparing myself to Hashem. In front of Hashem, I'm nothing. But next to this loser, this zero, I'm everything. He's a nothing, this guy." Rabbi Akiva Eiger says, "You just solved a complication for me that I had."

1:17:57In chapter 12, it says, "Now the man Moshe, Moshe Rabbeinu, was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth." So I always asked, what does it mean? If he says that Moshe Rabbeinu is humble, he's very humble. Why does Hashem add these extra few words? You know, Hashem is very cautious with the words that He uses in the Torah, very precise with them. He doesn't add an extra word. Why does Hashem add that Moshe Rabbeinu is not only humble, but he's humble more than anyone on this earth. On the face of the earth.

1:18:57So Rabbi Akiva Eiger says, because what is it saying here? You can say a person says, no, no, I'm really humble. Who is he comparing himself to? To Hashem. Oh, no, no, I'm really humble. I'm nothing. Who is he nothing next to? He's comparing himself to Rabbi Akiva. Yeah, of course you're nothing next to Rabbi Akiva. Everybody's nothing next to Rabbi Akiva. That's not humility. That's a reality. It's like somebody saying, "No, no, I'm really weak." Yeah, he's comparing himself next to, I don't know, the Hulk or something. Yeah, everybody's weak next to the Hulk. That's not humility, that's a reality. But Moshe Rabbeinu, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself writes that Moshe Rabbeinu is the humblest person on the face of the planet, meaning what? Whether it's someone that's before him that lived in the past, someone that's gonna live in the future or someone that's alive right now. He's more humble than anyone out there. In what way? In a way that no matter what, Moshe Rabbeinu was able to see the spark, the light, the good that someone else had that he didn't, and...

1:20:17Moshe Rabbeinu wasn't delusional. He knew he was a genius. He knew he was holy. He knew he was rich. He wasn't delirious. He knew that he had a lot of money. He knew that he was the leader. He knew that he was the only one that talks to HaKadosh Baruch Hu face to face. But every time he would look at someone, he wouldn't compete with those things. Oh no, he's a better prophet than me. It's not possible that he's a better prophet than you. HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself says, no one's going to be like Moshe Rabbeinu. He's not comparing that. He's comparing something else. He says, oh, see, his eyes are green. He has prettier eyes than me. He has less anger than me. He's happier than me. His teeth are nicer than mine. You will look at whoever, anyone else, even if someone had tzara'at, even if someone had the disease, the spiritual and physical disease that required the person to be thrown out of the camp. And if the disease did not heal itself, Hashem would allow it to happen to the person. They would literally, pieces of their body would start falling apart.

1:21:29All of a sudden, the guy's walking, a finger falls off. A few more steps, another finger. A few more steps, the toe is missing. A few more, it's like pieces of his body would just fall off. All of a sudden, his whole hair turns into a wig. Maybe he could sell it. The whole thing comes off, but you can only see the brain after that. Piece by piece, his body would fall off. That's tzara'at. Horrendous. What's the cure? Teshuva. No doctor can cure it. Moshe Rabbeinu would look at this person and say, "Wow, look at him. He's about to do teshuva. He's about to do teshuva. I still have to do teshuva." He'd still look at this person as if he is better than himself. Why? Because he is closer to doing teshuva because he has this thing now. What does the Torah say about someone who does teshuva? Someone who does teshuva, even tzaddikim gemurim cannot get to his level. That's anavah. Anavah is not thinking of yourself as a loser. Humility is not thinking of yourself as a loser. Humility is understanding your own deficiencies while at the same time seeing the good qualities in other people. What we usually do is we understand everybody else's deficiencies. And we're delirious about our own.

1:22:59And we exaggerate our good ones. Everybody has got a good one. But that's all we talk about. We talk about all the good things we did. We don't talk about the bad stuff. But everybody else, oh yeah, this guy's a rasha. Yeah, yeah, I heard him. I saw him yell at his wife. Oh, you never yelled at your wife? No, not like that. No, you never? Sure? Neighbors didn't call the cops on you five, six, seven times because of how you yell when you yell? Yeah, but that was a long time ago. What, six, seven, eight months ago? A long time ago. Yeah, but that was like yesterday's guy. Wow. Are you making me taka ashamed? What, are you against me? You know, for him? No, it has nothing to do with it. Stop judging other people. Stop judging other people. Look and say, he has something good about him. You have something bad about you. That's humility. That's humility. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Pesachim says that anyone who knows that his friend has a single trait that's better than him must act with honor towards him. You have a friend. You spend a little time with him. You spend a little time with her. You know that there's at least one thing that this person has better than you.

1:24:19if you don't, then your ga'avah, your ego, is bigger than this room. You should get a different room at least. Pay rent for two houses. But every person, you can see that there's something that's better about them than you. Every person. Especially if you spend a lot of time with this person. Now, says if you know that this friend of yours has a single trait that's better than you, you now have to give this person kavod, which means that you pretty much have to give everybody kavod. Now, we're not talking about some rasha, machti arabim, missionary, anti-Torah, lefty liberal Zionist, terrible human being that we can't wait for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to remove them from the world. Not talking about that. Talking about normal people, normal people, regular people. Religious or not is not necessarily as critical in this aspect of it because many people are not religious purely because of ignorance, not because they're anti-God. So you can't just say, "Oh, everybody that's a mechalel Shabbat, that's my enemy. I hate him. I'm gonna kill him. He's the worst person." Take it easy. You used to be mechalel Shabbat also.

1:25:37You may actually still be mechalel Shabbat, because you don't know all halachot Shabbat. Take it easy. Stop judging everyone for their deficiencies. Look at your own deficiencies also. The point being is, does he have anything good? Does she have anything good? Okay, look at that. Someone sent me a message the other day. Some random shiur of some woman says, listen, I don't think that this woman should be called Rabbanit. because I had a situation with her, and she's definitely not a Rabbanit. Now, don't get me wrong, we're still really good friends, and I'm on good terms with her now; I just don't think she should be called Rabbanit. I didn't respond to this because the response wouldn't have actually helped the situation. Number one, what do you think, I'm the police force of people that call themselves Rabbi or Rabbanit? Second of all, that's Lashon Hara and Rechilut. Third of all, with friends like you, who needs enemies?

1:26:38But people love, love to find the deficiencies in somebody else, and they hate it when that person is being given respect by other people. They hate to see other people winning. And that's because they have a very limited mentality, a limited mind. This is very common in the business world because the vast majority of people in the business world have zero, and I literally mean zero, emunah. As soon as a competitor opens a store or an office anywhere near the vicinity of their world, already they start worrying. As soon as they see an opportunity to steal from the hand that fed them, they take it. Why? They feel like they're entitled to it. What? I worked for him for 15 years, so what if I steal all of his customers? I helped him build them in the first place. No, you helped him get some customers because he paid you for it. bought that service from you. He didn't build his business; he paid for you to do it. He would have paid somebody else to do it also. But people feel entitled to their work. They want to leave the company with everything they did. And this happens very often, or better yet, people like to talk bad about their competitors. I had one time

1:28:05A client of mine called me and he says, "Listen, I just spoke to your teacher." I didn't have any teachers, at least not in the business world. I said, "Yeah, what'd he say?" He said, "No, he says he taught you everything and all the stock picks that you have." came from him, and all the money that we made is because of him. So I said, "What's my teacher's name, just so I know?" He goes, "Bernard." I said, "Bernard? Bernard? I don't know Bernard." He goes, "What do you mean? He's your teacher. How do you not know his name?" I said, "Because I don't really actually have a teacher. I just wanted to know, who's this person that's saying all these wonderful things?" And I said, "Okay, who's this Bernard?" And he gives me the last name. I said, "Oh, that kid? He was an intern." He just got his license six months ago. I've been in the business for 15 years. How is he my teacher? So the guy was shocked. He goes, "What do you mean? He's lying to me." I said, "Yeah, welcome to the world." He goes, "Yeah, I was gonna, you send me documentation to transfer all my accounts. I figured if he's your teacher, I might as well, maybe I'll make more money with him." I said, "Yeah, he's an intern. He just got his license six months ago."

1:29:29Everything he's learning, I already forgot from 16 years ago. But people lie. Why? Because people are foolish and people take advantage of it. Now, he could have simply said, "Listen, I know him, but you can still do business with me." And most likely, he would have actually gotten the business. But no, he figured that in order for him to get the business, he has to kill the competition. He has to kill the competition. This is a wrong mentality. is a limited world mentality. Many times, people hate to hear success of someone they know. They don't mind hearing about the success of people they don't know. If they hear that some baseball player or basketball player or movie star got a contract for 30, 40, or 50 million dollars, it's like, "Wow, amazing!" They can't stop talking about it, which, as I said many times, is a limited world mentality. Talking about other people's money is the lowest form of conversation. It simply means that in your head is like a mouse: there's no brain, you have zero wisdom if you talk about other people's money. There's no purpose.

1:30:36But people love to do it. But if he heard that his childhood friend, or his brother or sister, or someone else, his classmate, got that money, all of a sudden, venom comes out of their mouth. You heard Steve got that five-million-dollar house? Probably stole it. Who did he rob it from? Why do you assume that he robbed it? Why do you hate so much? This comes from a limited world mentality. People feel that if he wins, I lose, as if there's a limited amount of money in the world, a limited amount of reward in the world, a limited amount of customers in the world, and... limited amount of good in the world, that if he took good, that made it less available for me. Americans are very well known for that, especially ignorant ones that think that the immigrants are stealing the jobs. People that are anti-immigration, oh, all of these immigrants are stealing our jobs. It's complete nonsense. No immigrant is stealing anybody's job. Same thing when people complain about the racial wars.

1:31:51Why do black people get extra this, why do white people get extra this? It's all complete nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense. First of all, immigrants do a bunch of jobs that Americans are simply not willing to do, bottom line. You're not willing to do it, number one, because you want better treatment, number two, because you want more money and... Second thing is, there's an endless amount of jobs available that people don't want to do, period. Even if they are good jobs. Why? Because it's beneath them. It's beneath them. A bunch of young guys and young girls ask me for work advice. Number one work advice: get a job. Get a job. That's the number one work advice. And... Yeah, but I want to do this, this, and this. Okay, until you get the opportunity to do this, this, and this, do anything else that's legal and appropriate for a Jew. Get a job. That's job advice number one from someone that's worked in pretty much everything. I had newspaper routes, I worked in clothing stores and flea markets in the freezing cold with snow on top of me. I sold electronics.

1:33:12All types of things. Get a job. Either go to Kollel and work for Hashem or get a job. That's number one advice. People, no, no, no. I'll never work for that company. No, I would never bring myself so down. They want to get a first job making $100,000 a year. First make $26,000. Make $500 a week. we'll talk, then you can talk about where you are going. Where are you going with this? "No, what am I going to do? Get coffee for people all day? You know, I got a degree." Okay, take that degree, put it on the wall, and go get coffee. Maybe you can use some of the money that you get from giving people coffee to get a frame for your degree. What degree? What do you think your degree is worth? Do you think your degree is worth anything? I had Harvard graduates give me coffee. And I'd yell at them, "We didn't put the sugar." Why? Because that's what degrees are worth. Nothing. You know what's worth a lot? Work ethics. Hard work. Honesty. Integrity. Longevity. A bunch of words that people don't even know anymore. Ten people are looking it up in a dictionary. Google, define longevity.

1:34:37How do you spell longevity again? Spell check longevity. Persistence. Wow, it's synonymous with non-existence. Extinct, like the dinosaurs. Get a job. That's advice. That's advice for people. But even more than that, Rabbi, I agree with you. Don't think that the world is limited; don't think the world is limited. The world is not limited. If he's winning, if she's winning, that does not mean that it's at your cost. Now, if you see that other people are winning, if you see that other people are succeeding, be happy for them; have a good eye. We had a whole shiur about this, maybe even two, during the series of mussar, about having a good eye versus having an evil eye and... Now, when a person understands where the money is coming from, it becomes much, much easier to have a good eye because you know that simply this is the decision of HaKadosh Baruch Hu to give this person money. Now, even more so, when a person understands the value of humility and seeing the good and bad...

1:35:58yourself and the good and bad in others, but focusing on the right things at the right time. If you're giving somebody mussar, you're trying to teach them. You're not going to give them advice on all the good stuff if they're already an expert in anger. They never get angry. They're simply cold as ice. You could yell at them in the daylight in front of everyone, and they wouldn't get upset. Okay, I'm sorry, like that. Don't give him mussar on anger. It's a waste of time. You should compliment them that they have such great middot. They don't get angry—good for them! But give them mussar on something they're weak in. But if they're asking for help, asking for guidance, they're depressed about something, they're upset about something, then obviously you have to remind them of their good qualities and... Listen, yeah, I understand you're having a tough time, but remember, you are this and you are that, and give them a bunch of compliments. Don't be in such a hurry to bring people lower than what they already are. This requires anavah. This requires humility. And like I said, humility is not necessarily just the way that you look at yourself. Humility is the way that you look at other people. Now,

1:37:25Another reason that a person needs to honor the wealthy is because the wealthy can bring much good to the people. When they don't bring good to the people, they end up bringing evil on themselves and end up being persecuted in Shamayim, or prosecuted in Shamayim for destroying Torah. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave you a certain amount of money... Instead of building yeshivot, you build houses that you're not even going to live in. You have 26 houses and not even a single yeshiva. The person is going to go up to Shamayim, and they're going to rip them to shreds because each one of those houses could have been a yeshiva, and... that means you could have had literally trillions and trillions of mitzvot, trillions and trillions of hours and minutes of people honoring HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but instead, what did you have? You had a piece of land for the cleaning people to clean every so often. For you to go there once a year maybe. And a person that has a lot of money but does not use it for the sake of Torah, gets prosecuted for it. Now,

1:38:48...on the other hand, what if a person doesn't have money or doesn't have wisdom? You still have to be humble to the extent where you have to honor them anyway. Why? Because you always have to remember that each person is judged based on his own abilities. You're not judged on things that you don't have the ability to do. If you have a lot of money... you'll be judged based on how much money you had. But if you're broke, like the average person that I know, then you'll be judged like a broke person. If your income is pretty much barely enough to put food into your mouth, then guess what? Hashem will judge you based on what you put in your mouth. Not based on the tzedakah that you gave, because you don't have any tzedakah to give. What did you actually eat? Did you do a bracha on that? When you did have money once in a while, when your grandmother gave you an inheritance of $5,000, what did you do with it? Did you at least use some money for Torah, or did you just go to Disneyland and pay for a few of your friends like you're the new Rockefeller in the street? What did you do? When you did have money a few times, what did you do with the money? Did you use it for Torah or no? The same thing is with a foolish person versus a smart person.

1:40:18If a person is smart, he gets judged based on his wisdom. Meaning that if he uses his wisdom just simply to remember the phone book by heart, or if he uses his wisdom to do all types of scientific models of outer space because he likes to make videos on YouTube and Facebook to get likes, and to make people even more More confused than they already are, they don't know anything about earth, but he wants to take them to outer space. Instead of using his wisdom on learning Torah, on teaching others, on teaching himself, his family, and his community, he used his brain for a bunch of other things. He'll get prosecuted for it. On the other hand, if Hashem didn't make him the sharpest tool in the shed and He'll judge him for that. Okay, so what you had, did you do what you were supposed to? Rabbi Yisrael Salanter one time was sobbing in his room, and a couple of Talmidim walked in. They said, "Kavod HaRav, are you okay? Are you depressed?" He goes, "Chas v'shalom, depression. What happened to the people that are in the Torah world?" He said to them, "What's wrong?" He says, "Because I know in Shamayim..."

1:41:45They're telling me that I have the power of a thousand men. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter restarted the Mussar movement. His Talmidim, if you just simply learn a little bit about his Talmidim, they might as well be Malachei HaSharet. The type of people that were his Talmidim and the Talmidim of his Talmidim—these might as well be angels walking among men. Imagine him. He says, "I know in Shamayim they're judging me and telling me I have the power to do the job of a thousand men, and I know it's right. I have the strength. I have the power to do it. Build yeshivot, kollel, beit midrash, mosdot, this, that, the other thing. I can do it. No problem. I'm only worried, what if they judge me also for the mitzvot of a thousand men?" Torah learning of a thousand men. For that, I cry. When a person is gifted a talent or money, wisdom, or whatever it is, it's a responsibility. So when a person sees that another person has a lot of money or they themselves have a lot of money or a lot of wisdom, they also have to know there's a certain amount of responsibility that comes with it.

1:43:12Now, Rav Shteinman, alav hashalom, was one of the greatest anshei emet in any generation, let alone in his own generation. And he had a lot of haters. And a lot of lovers too. But no one can say that he was a liar. He was emet to the end. One time, some people came to him and said, kavod harav, We just got this wealthy guy to donate three million dollars. Not three million shekels, three million dollars to the midrash of the Rav, to the yeshiva of the Rabbi. So if the Rav could please write a letter, a handwritten letter, thanking the guy. Rav Shteinman says, no problem, tell me what to write. says, thank you, all types of different descriptions. Okay, he's writing, he's writing, he's writing. And the last sentence was, and surely, whoever takes care of the children of Hashem, then Hashem will surely take care of His children. End the letter with that.

1:44:40Settlement put the pen down. He's 90 years old, puts the pen down. He goes, "No. I'm sorry. I cannot write that." "Why not? The guy just donated for the lobby, just donated three million dollars to the yeshiva." "That's not taking care of Hashem's children." And the Rabbi says, "No, it's not." "Okay, please teach us." He says, this guy that just wrote a check for $3 million, how much money do you estimate that he has? He says, he's a businessman, probably no less than $100 million. He says, exactly. So let's think about it. So he wrote a check for $3 million. That's 3% of what he has. What does any normal human being need $97 million for? What is he going to do with it? How much can he eat? How many cars can he have? How many houses can he have? He's not even giving Maaser. It's not even 10% he's giving. He's giving 3%. That's not called taking care of Hashem's children and being worried about them. If he was giving 97 to Hashem's children and keeping 3 million for himself, then I write whatever you want because that is being worried about Hashem's children and that is taking care of Hashem's children.

1:46:06But here he's giving $3 million because he's taking care of himself. He's keeping the 97 for himself and for his other kids that he has, and all the things that he wants. And he's giving $3 million for himself. He's not taking care of anyone else. Very few people alive in his generation were able to write such a letter, to say such a thing. And even less today. And we're only talking about a few years ago. There are very few people that are that honest when it comes to money. And the reason why is because many people forget the Ten Remembrances of where your money is coming from. Where is it coming from? They think it came from the rich guy, not from God. They forgot it's God. The funny story

1:47:08that some of you saw, some of you didn't see. A few weeks ago, the landlord of the building in the Bet Knesset where we hold our shiur, I don't know what he was doing, apparently he was bored. He ran out of money to count. So he decided to walk by our shiur and interrupted me in the middle of a shiur. told me that he wants everyone to leave by 11 o'clock, even though he owns the building, not our lives. He got confused and thought that by owning the building, he also owns our lives. He said, "Yeah, because two cars, two trucks, are gonna come; they're gonna tow everybody who's still parked here." I said, "Okay, thank you," smiled, and continued my shiur.

1:48:08He said, "Yeah, by 11 o'clock." We continued till 11:45, I think it was. Paid no mind to it. Why? Hashem runs the world. Now, apparently, he was still bored. So he was still hanging around his own building at 11:45 at night. And he came by again and yelled at the guy that works there. And I asked him, like, is everything okay? Why are you so angry? Did they end up towing all the cars? Did they end up towing all the cars? And he says to me, no, I stopped them. I said, Baruch Hashem. He goes, what? No, no, tell me Hashem. I stopped them. I said, no, no, Hashem stopped them. Hashem stopped them. Sadly, he had a kippah. He was not only Jewish, he pretended to be religious. He actually thought he was the one who stopped the tow truck company from towing all the cars. He actually believes this in his heart. That's how sad life is for him. And this is, he called himself religious. He has a kippah and everything. You know, the size of a donut. Kind of looked like a donut. It was brown. He wanted to eat it. It looked delicious. 11 o'clock at night. He was hungry. Anyway, people unfortunately...

1:49:27forget who runs the world, who runs the world, and they think that because they have a few dollars, they can do a lot of things that are forbidden. Now, the Gemara tells us that if I'm rich and he's poor, there's a reason for it. There's a reason for it. But more importantly, there's a deeper meaning of what you need to learn from it. Now, the Pele Yoetz in the Kavod HaBriot says that if I'm rich and he's poor, then I'm considered sinning because I'm giving tzedakah based on whatever makes sense to me.

1:50:31And when the poor come, I'm not giving him the honor. When in reality, when the poor man comes, I'm supposed to give him kavod, the poor guy. Why? Because it says that Hashem is standing at the right side of the poor. They are considered as prophets. Now, many times, we deal with different people and we get confused about who and what they are because of money and certain things that they have, because of wisdom. So I'm going to give you a couple of stories to give you an understanding of what it takes to really be a Jew. Now, sometimes people tell me that they leave the derech, they leave Hashem because they're tired of doing such and such. And I ask them, what does such and such mean? And they'll tell me something. And 99% of the time, that something was not even a halacha. It was not even a law. It was a chumrah. It was a stringency. It was above and beyond the law. Most people that have a bad impression of Judaism, it's only because they took on more than they can handle. And this has been a problem in Chassidut for many years, but also in other parts of Judaism.

1:51:57So much so that at the time of the Baal Shem Tov, there was a Talmid Chacham that was known to be extremely stringent, especially on Baalei Teshuva. So anytime these Baalei Teshuva were trying to do Teshuva, they would come to the rabbi and say, "I made a mistake. I, you know, I did this, this, and that." "Oh, okay. You got to fast 350 times." "350 times? I'm going to die." You have to fast, then you have to roll in snow, then you have to give yourself sekilah, throw some rocks on yourself, torture yourself a little bit, and then hopefully Hashem is going to forgive you. Oh, this guy brushed his teeth the wrong way. Oh, okay, 30 times fast. All types of stringencies. One time, a guy came to him. And the Baal Shem Tov heard about this, and he started watching. Who is this guy? What is he doing? And the guy came to this talmid chacham, and he told him, "Listen, Rabbi, I can't believe it, but I violated Shabbat by accident. Shogeg. Accidental sin. Not on purpose, chas v'shalom. What should I do?" So the talmid chacham tells him,

1:53:11The rabbi tells him, "Okay, well, minimum, minimum, you have to do 702 fasts. That's just the beginning." "702 fasts? Where did you get that? Why?" He goes, "That's the gematria of Shabbat. It's 702 fasts." That's the beginning, though. After that, you have to walk on snow for a little while until your feet start bleeding, and you have to roll in it. Maybe say selichot for this, and hopefully, Hashem will forgive you. The poor guy didn't know what to do with himself. He thought he might as well commit suicide. He runs to the Baal Shem Tov and cries to the Baal Shem Tov. He says, "Rebbe, what am I going to do? I don't know if I can handle this." The Baal Shem Tov says, "You want to do teshuva?" Crying, he wanted to run. He says, "Yeah, what should I do for teshuva?" The Baal Shem Tov says, "Donate one box of candles for Shabbat. Donate. You already said, 'I'm sorry,' you cried to Hashem. You didn't mean it. Just do a little tzedakah. I'll give you a box of candles; give it to one of the people that needs it. That's it; you're finished."

1:54:30What about this? He goes, I'll take care of that. The rabbi, what he said to you, I'll take care of it. So the Baal Shem Tov sent an invitation to this rabbi to come to visit him on Shabbat. So, of course, he heard about the Baal Shem Tov. He says, sure, I'm going to go visit the Baal Shem Tov and go spend Shabbat with him. He must have heard of me. I heard of him. Two Talmidei Chachamim. So he goes on his horses and the carriage, and he starts going to the Baal Shem Tov's house on Friday afternoon. He has to go through the forest. If you don't know your way, you could simply die over there, and no one would ever know, because the forest is big. Some of these forests are huge. He goes into the forest, and he knows his way. But suddenly, he looks around, and everything changed. He's been in this forest a thousand times, but everything changed. he starts getting lost. He has nowhere he's going, and it's starting to get closer and closer to Shabbat. The sun's coming down, and

1:55:41And he doesn't know what to do. And he's running around everywhere. Suddenly, he sees the exit. As the sun is almost down, it's getting to a point where it's twilight. It's like Shabbat, maybe yes, maybe no. It's those few minutes where you're not even sure what it is. He goes on his horse and forces it because he's scared to be in the forest by himself; most likely, he's not going to survive the night. He goes and gets to the Baal Shem Tov's house. But as soon as he gets into the house, he starts crying. I can't believe it. I violated Shabbat. What should I do? You know, we're stuck in a forest. So the Baal Shem Tov looks at him and goes, well, okay, you can start with 702 fasts, just to start with it, 702 fasts. And after that, we'll do a little bit of tortures for you. Throw some rocks on you, roll you in some snow, make you walk in snow for a few miles a day. I'm not gonna survive. Well, I don't know what to do. He goes, "Oh, it's hard. Yeah, I would die." He goes, "What about all those ba'alei teshuvah? You told me to do it every week. All these poor people, every week you tell them to fast 30 times, 500 times, a thousand times for an accidental sin. What about that?" He says, "Listen..."

1:57:05Made you get lost, prayed to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and I made you get lost in the forest. The Baal Shem Tov literally had such power that people say, "Whoever believes all of the stories about the Baal Shem Tov is crazy, but whoever doesn't is a kofer." Meaning, don't think that just because, let's say, the story didn't happen, that he couldn't do it. I The point being, Abutai, is that literally the Baal Shem Tov tells him, "Listen, I prayed to HaKadosh Baruch Hu to manipulate nature and get you lost, to put you in the same situation as all of those poor people that you're torturing. Why? Because I want you to know what it feels like. I want you to know what it feels like." What is this like? There was one time, a king, and the king had a son, a three-year-old son...

1:58:07And he wanted his son to be the next king. Now, you can't just be the next king just like that. If you're a smart king, you want your son to learn how to be a king. You can't have him go to clubs all day, play video games, and expect he's going to be a king. They'll assassinate him in a week. He sent a teacher to teach his son all of the wisdoms, including geography, monetary issues, economic issues, and all types of necessary knowledge. This teacher was a wise man. He started teaching the boy day and night for the next 15 years. After 15 years, he tells the king, "Okay, I've taught him all of the wisdoms." The king is happy. "Let's have a big celebration." They have a huge celebration. But right before the kid comes out, the teacher says to him, "Son, come, come with me." He goes into a room with him. Twenty minutes later...

1:59:14The kid comes out crying hysterically with pain. He has scars and marks everywhere, like he got mamash beaten up. The king is looking at this and he sees the kid is bleeding from his back. He lifts his shirt and sees whip marks everywhere. The king says to the teacher, "You did this to my son?" because the teacher is holding the whip. He's not denying it. Because you did this to my son? Today? You did this to my son? Not only am I going to kill you, but I'm also going to cut you up piece by piece until you die. I'm going to give you some of what you did to my son; I'm going to do a million times worse to you. And the teacher is smiling. So the king, you know, he's a wise king, says, why are you smiling? He says, "If your highness will allow me to explain, I'll explain." The king says, "Go ahead." "You see, for the last 15 years, I've been teaching your son everything I know—all the wisdoms that are necessary to be a great king. But there was only one thing I couldn't teach him. You see, one day, he has the knowledge now to be a king."

2:00:36He knows all the things he needs to run the country: the economic issues, the poor people's issues, the rich people's issues, the food supply, the agriculture, the war—all that stuff. He has that knowledge. But there's one thing that he's going to have to do in the future that I couldn't teach him until now. He says, "What is that?" He says, "You see, one day the court is going to bring the people in front of him to judge." He's the king. He's the final law. And they're going to say, "Your Highness, this guy stole three potatoes." And when you steal from somebody, they want to press charges until the end. They say, "He stole three potatoes. We should whip him. We propose 500 whips." And the king will say, "Yeah, he stole. Guilty. You admit you're guilty? Okay, whip him 500 times." Okay, he stole... Half a potato. Okay, 200 whips. He went to a place he's not allowed to. Okay, 400 whips. 500 whips. And he's just going to say yes. So you see, in order for him to be a good king, he needs to learn something that the son of a king never learns, which is pain.

2:01:52He needs to learn what it feels like to have pain, to experience the whip. Why? Because that way, when someone exaggerates the sentence proposal of a criminal and tells him that because he stole one potato or three potatoes, he deserves 900 whips, before the king is going to agree nonchalantly, he's going to remember today. He's going to remember how it feels to be whipped ten times. And he's going to say, "No way is this guy going to survive 900 whips. And no way is it justified to hit him 900 times just for three potatoes. Hit him once, let him go home. It's enough." Because now he knows the pain. Now he's ready to be a king. Sometimes HaKadosh Baruch Hu will put you through pain In order to prepare you to be the king. Sometimes they'll put somebody else in your life in pain in order to make you their guide and teach them what and how to use it. But sometimes we forget that everything that we have in the world is simply a part of a test in order for us to get to our destination. And the reason for that is because we forget, because money blinds us. Rav Wasserman, zt"l, went to collect for his yeshiva only when there was literally nothing left. Because he would utilize every minute of his time learning and teaching his boys. He gave them food, he gave them shelter, and he gave them Olam Haba. And only when they literally did not have any food to eat.

2:03:12And the reason for that is because we forget, because money blinds us. Rav Wasserman, zt"l, went to collect for his yeshiva only when there was literally nothing left. Because he would utilize every minute of his time learning and teaching his boys. He gave them food, he gave them shelter, and he gave them Olam HaBa. And only when they literally did not have any food to eat. And he'd go out collecting. One time he went to one of his regulars, a rich guy, who would donate whenever he would ask him to. It was in the middle of winter. It was freezing to the extent that, literally, if you were there long enough, you'd simply die. Forget about getting sick or catching a cold. Simply die. He gets to the rich man's house. There's snow everywhere. He knocks on the door. Helper, the butler of the rich guy, opens the big, beautiful door. He says, "Yes?" "Can you please tell the Baal HaBayit that Rav Elchonon Wasserman is here?" "Just come in, come in." He goes, "No, no, no, I'll be here outside."

2:04:33Butler goes, runs to the Baal HaBayit, the wealthy man. In his study, he says, "There's someone here to see you." He says, "Tell him to come up." He goes, "No, he insisted on being downstairs." Outside, freezing because, yeah, yeah, I insisted on being there. "Who is it?" he asked. "It's Elchanan Bunim Wasserman. Rav Wasserman is downstairs, outside. Get out of the way, get out of it." He runs outside. He goes, "Come in, come in." He goes, "No, no, I'm here tonight. We need money for the yeshiva and..." Okay, okay, come in, come in, we'll get off. He goes, no, no, you don't understand. The boys haven't eaten in two days. Some of them are eating the peels of the potatoes because that's all we have left. He goes, okay, okay, just come in, we'll finish. He goes, no, no, but you have to understand. Some of the boys, their shoes have opened up like a whale. Opens his mouth like a hippopotamus opens his mouth, their shoes are like that because we don't have money to buy them shoes. He goes, "Okay, come inside." He goes, "No, but you don't understand. We don't have money to burn wood, and it's freezing, and some of the kids are getting sick." He goes, "How much do you need?" He says, "We need an extra amount of money." He goes, "I'll give it to you. Please come in." He goes, "Okay, now come in."

2:05:52After he comes in, and the guy is freezing, the guy is stuck because the door is open, he's outside also. He says, "You okay?" He says, "Why didn't you just tell me everything here? There's a fire, we didn't have to freeze in the cold." He says, "I needed you to have a few minutes of feeling like my boys feel." So you understand why you're giving. To understand why you're giving, a person who is rich has a responsibility. If you see such a person, if you are such a person, if you know such a person, You have to give them kavod in a sense because you know that if they're taking care of that responsibility, they are a vessel that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is using. If you are using your money to publicize Torah, you deserve kavod because you are being used as a vessel for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to put His Torah all over the world. On the other hand, if a person does not use that money for the right reasons, instead of buying Torah, he’s buying houses and vacations and stocks. Unfortunately, that person, you have to almost mourn over them because it's sad; they’ll be prosecuted for this. So these are some of the things that we have to know, and one of the connections that you could have to this in the current parashat hashavua is the following...

2:07:03For the right reasons, instead of buying Torah, he's buying houses and vacations and stocks. Unfortunately, you have to almost mourn over that person because it's sad; they'll be prosecuted for this. So these are some of the things that we have to know. One of the connections that you could have to this in the current parashat hashavua is the following. Yaakov Avinu is about to see his brother Esav. And it says in parashat Vayishlach that Esav brought with him literally hundreds and hundreds of generals, each one of them had their own armies. Literally, it was like millions of people to go to war with Yaakov. Yaakov sends angels to give gifts to Esav. But he prays to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and he says to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Save me from my brother, save me from Esav." Now, this is a verse that I've given you a couple of insights on in the past, connecting to missionaries, connecting to wicked people, and so on, but it also connects to the rabbis. Sometimes a certain person has good intentions,

2:08:31is good, but he uses that good for bad. He has a blessing, but he uses it for bad, and this, rabotai, is one of the most dangerous things in the world because when a person uses something good for bad, it's very deceiving. If a person has a lot of money and he doesn't use it the right way It's very deceiving if a person has a certain amount of wisdom, but he doesn't use it the right way. It's very deceiving because naturally you would think if he's rich, he's probably generous. Naturally, you would think if he's smart, he goes to yeshiva, he's a rabbi, he should be a good guy. So Yaakov is crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu: "Please save me from my brother, save me from Esav. Save me from such people that look like my brother, but really they're acting like Esav." Sometimes I say certain things in the shiurim that make people cringe. Sometimes I tell you that if a person is a missionary, even if he wants to do teshuva, you're not allowed to help him. If a person violates Shabbat and does not do teshuva, his Gehinnom is for eternity, and so on and so forth. Some of these things make people cringe because it's not politically correct, and it sounds like it's extreme and...

2:09:59Well, another thing that the Gemara says in Masechet Pesachim, on page 113, is that there are certain types of people that HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves, such as a person who doesn't get angry, or a person who doesn't get drunk, or a person who does not insist on his own measures, meaning that he doesn't insist on embarrassing you, and he doesn't insist on giving you what you really deserve. But also the Gemara says there are certain types of people that HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates. HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates them. One that says one thing with his mouth while meaning something else in his heart. He calls you tzaddik, but in reality, he thinks you're a rasha. He says, "I love you," but in reality, he can't wait to kill you. He says, "Thank you," but in reality, he hates you, and he doesn't thank you; you should thank him. Someone that pretends to be your friend, HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates him. Another person is one that knows testimony affecting his friend but does not testify on his behalf. You can help your friend

2:11:14Court and a certain issue, but you choose not to. No, no, I don't want to get involved, like one of those people. Yeah, but she's going to divorce me if you don't say something. Hey, listen, that's your problem. I'm not getting involved between a man and his wife. I'm not getting involved in this business; it's between you guys. I don't want to get involved. One of those people, because why? You can save the situation from getting worse. Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu put you in that place for a reason. Someone who sees his friend involved in a sexual transgression but only testifies against him alone, without a second witness, because that's not acceptable testimony. It has to be true. So we see here clearly there are a few examples of certain people that HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates. But then the Chachamim say, are you allowed to hate him? Okay, HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates this person. What about you? Are you allowed to hate him? So the Gemara says, yes. You're allowed to hate people. But then there's a conflict. Every day, people tell you, wait a minute. All of Am Yisrael, you gotta love everybody. You gotta love all Jews. You gotta love each other. What's going on? That's what the Gemara says.

2:12:42In certain times, you are permitted to hate a Jew. Rav Maggid continues and says the following: He says, we're not talking about all of these examples. Don't misunderstand that this is referring to goyim, like a goy who says one thing with his mouth but means something else in his heart, a goy who commits a sex crime, or a goy who is a false witness. No, no. We're specifically talking about Jews. Right? But what kind of Jews? Are we talking about reshaim? Are we talking about wicked people? So why do they say wicked people? Wicked people, we know there's no kesher, there's no complication. If Hashem hates them, then I hate them. No, if somebody is an enemy of Hashem, it's a mitzvah to hate them. So no, no, no. You not only hate the people that are enemies of Hashem, you're actually allowed to hate people that technically

2:13:43Hashem may not hate them, but you're allowed to hate them sometimes. Why? You're allowed to hate someone who is not necessarily bad everywhere but is bad in one place—that's more than enough. And that is if he's a faker. If he's a fake Jew, he pretends to be religious but he steals in his business. Pretends to be religious, but in reality, he looks at little boys. She pretends to be religious, but in reality, she's not so honest with her husband sometimes. She has a boyfriend, but it's only on Facebook. She's text messaging. He's text messaging. She falls in love with text messages. And a religious woman tells me, "I'm gonna leave my husband and four kids over somebody I met on WhatsApp." I said, Hashem Yerachem. Hashem Yerachem aleinu. I said, is he Jewish? He says, yeah, he's religious. The boyfriend that she met on WhatsApp. Not only, we're not talking about resha'im. We're talking about people that overall, she keeps Shabbat. He keeps Shabbat. Gives tzedakah sometimes too. Well, you're a faker. Hashem hates fakers.

2:15:08Hashem hates people that He gave them a certain amount of gifts in the world, but these people have taken those gifts and simply thrown them in the garbage and disrespected them. There are many rabbis in the world, unfortunately, that are given a crowd. They're given a talent. They're given a certain amount of money, a key, and they're misusing it. Sometimes we speak against them; we mention them by name, and sometimes people cringe—they think it's wrong. No, but a lot of people disagree with you. But a lot of this, about a lot, look at the camera. Look at the camera. We're not doing anything that contradicts the Torah. To be religious is not a once-in-a-while thing. I... It's not a certain color or a certain asset. It's you. Someone made a video recently calling it, "I want to tell you who I am." Nice kid, 23, 24-year-old religious kid.

2:16:25Two and a half minutes, he talks about how he's married, moved from one country to another, then in that country, moved to another city, got a certain job, then changed the job, and has a couple of kids — one here and one on the way. The kid is as cute as can be, a nice, young kid, and people liked it. He made one mistake in the video: that's not you, that's what you have. The kid is what you have. The wife is what you have. Where you live and where you live is what you have. You, you are Jewish. Or you're a faker. One or the other. If your Torah is your priority in life and you live your life in accordance with this rule book from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you're a Jew. And that's as great as can possibly be. If you're a Noahide and you live by this rule book, you're a Noahide. That's as good as can be for you. No problem. But if you violate it, you're a problem. But even a bigger problem, an even bigger problem, is if you pretend like you're keeping it.

2:17:42Because if you're violating it, you're violating it because you're clueless. You were born into a non-religious family. You lived in a non-religious community. You have no idea of the significance of Shabbat. You have no idea of the significance of promiscuity. You have no idea of the significance of honesty and integrity in business. You have no idea about this stuff and you're just learning it now at 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years old. No problem. I love you. I'll help you. Let's do teshuva together. That's what the Rambam says. But if you already know and you like, you say to your students that there's no punishment regardless of what crime you have. Don't worry, the rabbi is the Mashiach. Don't worry, Hashem is kind, and you simply manipulate the Torah. You yourself make all types of crimes against Hashem like this rabbi from Russia that was one of the top rabbis over there.

2:18:43Just got caught by private investigators cheating on his wife with a woman. He's converting. She's not Jewish. But you look at him, he looks like a tzaddik, looks like he's from Mount Sinai. One of my friends tells me that he heard he was at the kehillah that he gave a shiur in on Rosh Hashanah. He told the entire kehillah, which most of them are mechalel Shabbat, "You only have one mitzvah in the world. What's the mitzvah? Donate money to the Knesset." Donate money. That's it. It's your only mitzvah. No Shabbat, no Taharat HaMishpacha, no kashrut, no nothing. That person, not only does HaKadosh Baruch Hu hate him, all of us are obligated to hate him. Because he's a faker. He's a faker. A person like that, a rabbi type, is more dangerous than a non-religious Jew. Now, if you have money, you can help the fakers or the ones that are fighting against them. And that's what Yaakov Avinu is saying over here.

2:19:50Hashem, help me. Help me against the fakers because they look like they're my brothers. They're wearing black and white. They have a kisui rosh. They look great. They're rabbis sometimes. They're gabbaim. They're running shuls. They're running yeshivot and so on. Help me from them. Why? Because in reality, even though they look like my brother, they're on Esav's team. They're on Esav's team. They're Amalek. And I'm not giving you any chiddush here. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai wrote in the Zohar HaKadosh that before Mashiach comes, most of the rabbis in the world are going to be Erev Rav, Amalek. This doesn't mean you start pointing at any rabbi and say Amalek, because we already learned how much kavod you have to give to the Torah. You have to have a reason. Can't just decide, oh he's Amalek. How do you find the reason? What do they teach? If they teach things that are according to the Torah, whether it's from the Mesorah of Chassidut, or the Mesorah of the Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Litaim, Mussar, whatever it is, but they teach according to the Torah, the 13 principles of faith, Shulchan Aruch, Gemara, Chumash, and so on, no problem. Doesn't matter who, what, when, and how. Whether you have a hat, you don't have a hat.

2:21:14...as long as they teach that. But if they teach things that contradict everything else, yet they want to attach some rabbi's name to it because that rabbi is not alive to defend himself, you are not only forbidden from listening to them or supporting them, but if you do, you will be judged just like them. This is a very special message for every single person that donates to these organizations that teach sheker. Because if you donate a hundred dollars to them, that hundred dollars is going to kill Jews and... Donate $1,000 to them, and you're going to kill Jews with that money. Somebody told me, "Yeah, listen, I'm going to open another center for this organization." I said, "Why? They believe some guy that died is the Messiah, like Christianity." He's like, "No, it's a special story, special story, special story. Shimmy of him, special story loud, special stories. A billion dollars, he still can't do anything with it aside from building themselves more buildings and more houses." About a killing...

2:22:29It's time people woke up. It's time people understood that there is a difference between real Torah and fake Torah. Everyone likes to kiss up to rich people because they forgot where the money is coming from. It's important to know where the money came from, but it's also important to give honor to people that deserve honor. But never, ever forget that the Torah is something that comes before everybody. As long as you understand that and you realize that if this person or this organization is something that produces fake Torah that contradicts the sages, contradicts HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you're supporting them. Even if you don't send the money, by simply watching their videos, you're part of the crime. You send the money, you're simply the criminal yourself. You're the mob boss. They're just the snipers. send them your master, you send them your last-minute donation before the end of the year. You are a criminal, a hundred percent. I have to say this because this is what it says in the Torah. If I don't say it, people will continue sending money to these organizations. And what happens? More Jewish people drive on Shabbat; more Jewish people think that some rabbi who died is the Messiah, and

2:23:51more Jewish people continue to live life carelessly without fixing their own character traits. So although we are obligated to honor Talmidei Chachamim, don't think that someone who has a beard and a hat automatically is a Talmid Chacham. The hat you can buy in a store, and the beard grows by itself. A Talmid Chacham is determined not only based on knowledge but also based on behavior. But before you do any of that, analyze yourself. Analyze yourself, see the good in others, but if you see someone outright as an Esav, outright they're teaching things that are against the Torah, verify that it's against the Torah, double-check, ask them if they made a mistake, but if they didn't, you have to expose them with all your strength. This is a tough part for everyone to fulfill, but nonetheless, it's a very necessary part because the war is getting more and more serious. I see many, many people doing teshuvah, but I also see a lot of people getting weaker. They get comfortable, and they start supporting and helping organizations that are simply fakers.

2:25:06And it's very, very damaging to the rest of the people trying to do teshuvah because it's confusing. It's confusing how these fakers continue to build bigger buildings, and more and more Jews support them, but yet the ones that actually help Jews do teshuvah are barely surviving. It doesn't make any sense. It's time that everybody takes the initiative, shares these shiurim, learns them like they're supposed to, judges ourselves, works on ourselves, but also be honest. Be honest with yourself and HaKadosh Baruch Hu, because eventually, we will all be judged for it. And Be'ezrat Hashem, all of us and all of Am Yisrael will do teshuvah and get a favorable judgment. Thank you for learning with me. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.