Being Disgusting is Not Kosher

1:33They were able to tell the difference between an 'arbeh', which is what we call a grasshopper today. They were able to distinguish between the kosher ones and the non-kosher ones. The Yemenites today that still live in Yemen can still tell because it's a minhag for them for 3,000 years. They haven't left home, Baruch Hashem, that they're still there. The head rabbi of Yemen, by the way, recently said no one should leave anymore because anyone that left, there's been a lot of problems. Anyway, anyone that left, it's time to do teshuva. But even if you think you did teshuva... But even in Iran, there are still some Jews. A Rabbi over there said that no one should leave; stay in Iran. If you're a religious Jew in Iran, stay there. Yes, the Iranians are harming people, but they're not targeting religious Jews; they're targeting Zionists. So anyway, the minhag of Yemen is still alive for people that live there because they were able to tell the difference between an arbeh, which is a kosher grasshopper, and a non-kosher one. Now, if you see a non-kosher grasshopper and you eat it, that's an issur d'Orayta, resulting in Gehinnom for at least a few years unless you do teshuva.

2:54Why? Because it's committing sins, sins against the Torah. It's at least five times like eating a pig. It's as if you ate a pig five times. Anytime you eat a bug that you can see with your eyes, it's five different sins in the Torah. Now, if you can't see it with your own eyes, meaning it's one of these microscopic bugs, then it's not a Torah sin, but it still makes you spiritually insensitive. It still harms you, but there's no benefit in it. But if somebody eats a bug on purpose because he wants to go to a local non-kosher place and just eat salad, thinking he's beating the system by going to a non-kosher place and eating salad that still has the essence of the bugs in it, he should actually know that he's consuming something non-kosher. That was a joke shared in jest. The thing is, though, there were people who were able to distinguish between a kosher arbeh and a non-kosher one. would eat them. Why would they eat them? Why is it so delicious? I don't know how it tasted, but the Gemara says that there was a special ma'alah, a special significance in this specific type, not all of them, in this specific type of arbeh, that if you ate the arbeh, you ate the grasshopper from the right side, it would open up your mind so that you were able to consume as much Torah as you wanted in a moment.

4:20You'd be able to study the entire Shas in five minutes. But then you have to eat the second half. It's left hidden. Why? So it's concealed and you don't forget it. Why? If you don't eat the other half, you forget everything. Forget everything. So one of the Tana'im did it. He ate one. The other Tana'im says, "It's not kosher." "No, it's kosher." "No, it's not kosher." Why not kosher? It's disgusting. It's disgusting me. It's not that the bug itself is technically not a bug, so therefore you're allowed to eat it. It's not kosher. No, it's kosher. But you're eating next to me, and it disgusts me that there are little legs crawling out of your mouth. It's disgusting to me. It's not kosher. Meaning, rabotai, to be disgusting makes you not kosher—not the bug. The bug is kosher. You're not kosher. So you're not allowed to be disgusting. What does it have to do with the olives and all the other foods that have peels in them? A lot of fruits have peels, and olives have, you know, pits in them and different things. And people have this bad teva, bad middot that they don't realize are bad. But they spit out the pit from their mouth and put it on the table.

5:38There's nothing other than other things that come out of the body. Excuse me for being frank, but you have to say this. Other than that, there's nothing more disgusting. Nothing that comes out of your body other than Torah is good looking. Everything else is disgusting. This reminds us of another reason to never be arrogant, because everything that comes out of us, other than Torah, is disgusting. And Torah is not ours anyway. But the point is, rabotai, that you're not allowed to be disgusting. So if you're sitting at a table and you're eating these seeds, like people, like Israelis, typically like to eat seeds, and they put all the klipot, all of the peels, on the table, they build themselves Mount Sinai, Everest, the mountains; everybody compares their mountains. There's nothing more disgusting than this for anybody else that's not eating it or is normal. that sees the peels that come out of your mouth, with all the goan nefesh that you have in your mouth, and the saliva is dripping from it. There's nothing more disgusting than that. That makes even the seeds, sunflower seeds, lo kasher. It's not kosher. Not kosher. Why? It's disgusting. You're not allowed to be disgusting. So it's very, very important that if you're going to eat olives, which I like very much, and I'm sure you do as well, my suggestion is eat the ones that don't have pits in them.

6:59That's the best way. Why? It saves you the headache plus maybe a tooth. But if you have to have them because, I don't know, the ones that you like come only with pits, then what I would suggest you do is have a napkin handy. Have a napkin handy. Every time you take the olive, and you want to take out the pit from your mouth, take it out with the napkin. Therefore, the people sitting next to you only see the napkin. You leave it in the napkin, and no one has to see the guf nefesh (discomfort) that exits your mouth. It's not nice. It's not nice for somebody else who's trying to enjoy his Shabbat meal, and he sees food coming out of your mouth. It's not nice. Or sometimes people don't like the food. You know, some people, they don't like the food. So they want to make sure you know they don't like the food. So what do they do? They start spitting it on the table. They start taking it out of their mouth and putting it on their plate. Oh, sir, this is not good. Well, it's not good. Now I'm not hungry anymore. I want to vomit. It's not nice, so you're not allowed to be disgusting. Why? Because that turns the purest cow, which you just paid $100 for a steak on, lo kasher—not kosher. It's not kosher anymore. Why? Because you're not kosher. The cow is good. The cow goes to Gan Eden. You, on the other hand, are something else. Why? Not allowed to be disgusting. It's bad middot, and it causes other people anguish. We learned this from the Gemara. We learned from the Gemara that we're not allowed to be disgusting. Next.

8:21So a Talmid Chacham is obligated to represent Hashem. All of us are obligated to represent Hashem, but a Talmid Chacham is supposed to know that he is a representative of Hashem at all times. Meaning that at any time, any regular person, any Am Ha'aretz, any regular Baal HaBayit, thinks of Torah, he has to visualize something. He has to visualize something alive. He's not going to visualize the Sifrei HaKadoshim behind me. He's not going to visualize that. Why? Because, to him, it's just some cow, miskena the cow, they skinned her, then they made her skin into parchment, and we read it and somebody picks it up and pays a few thousand dollars for it. He doesn't really know what it means to be a Sefer Torah. So what does he see? He sees the living Sefer Torah. He sees the Talmid Chacham. He's a Sefer Torah. So now if he sees the Sefer Torah looks like he's homeless, to such an extent that it's not because he doesn't have enough clothes, but because he's always appearing disheveled and smelling terrible with stains on his shirt. He says, "Is this the Torah, and this its reward?" If I don't learn Torah, I have houses in every city, I have cars, I have this, this... such an extent that not because he doesn't have more clothes. If he doesn't have any more clothes, it's a different story. But if people see him, he always looks disheveled, he always smells terrible, and he has stains on his shirt. They say, "Oh, this is the Torah, and this is the reward for it?" So if I go learn Torah, but if I don't learn Torah, I have houses in every city, I have cars, I have this, this...

9:46Look at this. He still has cholent on his shirt. Disgusting. He always smells bad, too, and he starts giving the Torah a bad name. He's a chillul Hashem. So the chillul Hashem that he causes, that's why he's chayav mita. Now, they ask the next question, which is what happens if it happens on Shabbat? It happens on Shabbat, and he doesn't have another shirt. He doesn't have another shirt. Does he go to the Knesset or not? Answer is, he goes to the Knesset. Why? Because then it's a Kiddush Hashem. Why is it a Kiddush Hashem? He goes to the Knesset with the stain on. Why? Because anyone that has any da'at, any mind, knows he's not allowed to launder on Shabbat. So, wow, look, this Talmid Chacham came with a stain on Shabbat; he keeps Shabbat. He's a serious Shabbat observer. Why? Because it's a busha to go walk around with a stain. It's not nice. But he's walking around with this stain. Why? Because it's even more important to go pray to Hashem with a minyan. So that's a Kiddush Hashem. However, on a regular weekday, when he's able to change his shirt and he chooses not to, it's not a Kiddush Hashem. Kiddush Hashem. Next.