BREATHING EMET - Jewish HaShkafa (7)

0:17We're back on our Sunday night series, Jewish Hashkafah. We're up to lecture number six in the series. So far, Baruch Hashem, we've gotten remarkable feedback from the series. Some longtime fans are saying that this is, go somewhere else, are saying that they've gotten a lot of motivation from it, they feel it's the best, I don't know what's the best, I don't know what's not the best, all I know is that, Baruch Hashem, each time you learn Torah, you improve not only on your existing knowledge, but also on your past knowledge, so as we continue to grow with Torah, are saying that this is, go somewhere else, saying that they've gotten a lot of motivation from it. They feel it's the best. I don't know what's the best, I don't know what's not the best. All I know is that, Baruch Hashem, each time you learn Torah, you improve not only on your existing knowledge but also on your past knowledge. So, as we continue to grow with Torah, Baruch Hashem, the shiurim continue to get better, B'ezrat Hashem. A couple of brief updates before we start. First off, the shiur tonight will be for Refuah Shlema, for Levana Bat Sara, Rav Ephraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah, Yitro Ben Avraham, Devorah Bat Mercedes, Elisheva Chaya Bat Sara,

1:45Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sara, Esther Bat Zipporah, and all of Am Yisrael, B'ezrat Hashem, will have Refuah Shlema, Refuat HaNefesh, Refuat HaGuf. So, a little bit of an update. Anyone that saw my brief video clip on Friday night saw that we had some fantastic news. So, first off, we have these new amazing CDs and USBs. The USBs are very cool-looking, but more than cool-looking, they have some amazing Torah in them. I brought you guys each one. Anyone that wants to take one, Sonia will give you one. You can take it for free because you attend the shiurim. Anyone that wants to buy them online, these are too expensive to give out in mass numbers for free. Unfortunately, they're very expensive. I mean, if you just want to buy a blank USB...

2:48That's this size, which I believe is 32 gigabytes. It's almost $20–$30 just for the device by itself without anything on it. Needless to say, with design, with employees, with shipment from this and that, and the material that's in it, it costs a lot of money. So we can't really distribute it in massive numbers for free, but anyone that wants to buy it for themselves, for a friend, for a family member, will be able to buy them online later this week, b'ezrat Hashem. As far as the one thing that's fantastic for people to distribute in large numbers, it's the CDs. These also arrived like the other CDs; they arrive in a cool-looking box. Each box has 50 CDs, so it's 25 pairs. One is a DVD with nine movies on it. ...uh, the personal story in the eighth of the movies, Torah and science, uh, Shabbat, uh, any of the true stories, some fantastic things, a little bit of each. By the way, as a side note, a little bit of a bonus for the people that buy the USB. The USB has a lot more than the CD because it contains more; there's more room. So I think there's something like thirty or forty movies on the USB versus the CD.

4:13But anyway, so one DVD has—you can play it on your computer or on your DVD player—you'll have nine movies. By the time you finish the movies, you'll start doing teshuva. Then you start, you put the CD into your computer or your car, and then pretty much you become a yirei Shamayim Jew. Why? Because unless you're deaf, or simply just don't understand English, you'll do teshuva after you hear these 57 shiurim. I don't like to necessarily call them scary, but in reality, they're the scariest shiurim that exist in English. Because it's about the scariest subject there is, which is Gehinnom. So obviously some of them are intellectual, like the pornography issue that we talked about that involves some... scientific research, and some of them are about modesty. But nonetheless, all the stuff that is getting tons of people to do teshuva is on these CDs. The Gehinnom shiur is on this CD. So this is going to be available. It's actually already available on the site for anyone that wants it.

5:26And these are cheap. These are cheap. You could distribute them. I mean, it's only a few bucks for each CD, DVD. It's a little more expensive than the past CDs, but still relatively cheap. In comparison, you know, people spend $20, $30 for shtuyot. You have $3 for a CD. You know, it's a bargain. I think to buy blank CDs costs more than that sometimes. But anyway, we don't sell them individually. Don't ask me if you could send me $3 and I'll send you a CD, because postage by itself is $1. So don't ask me to send you one CD. If you want to buy the CD, you can either buy it as a package to distribute to people, or you can buy the Kiruv package, because our Kiruv package continues to grow, Baruch Hashem. We probably have to increase the price at some point and stop losing money. But anyway, the Kiruv package will include this CD as well. So this is a fantastic thing. Now the Tikkun HaBrit shiurim are as strong as can be. The movies here are unbelievable. But now, a person wants to take his Torah to the next level. He wants to learn Mussar. He wants to learn Mussar that's going to be from all facets of the same diamond.

6:38And that's why we made some of these, Baruch Hashem, some of the best series that we've made so far. I know everybody calls this series the best series, that series the best series. For my Mesirat Nefesh, I can tell you for sure, this one is the best series of all. Why? It took almost three years. to complete the series. It's the Pirkei Avot series. It's 179 shiurim. Some of you that attended every single one of them know that there were maybe one or two that were less than three hours. So you do the math. 180 shiurim, almost three hours each. By the time you finish, you're probably a full Rabbi and a half. We're not sure what we're going to do with the half. Maybe you can give it to one of your friends. But anyway, the shiurim on it is USB. It's all audio, but it's... Each one is different, full of stories, full of chokhmah. Every Mishnah is different. Every Mishnah is covered in depth. Sometimes it took us three, four, five shiurim to complete one Mishnah, and one of them, I believe, we had 10 or 12 shiurim for one Mishnah. You know, people usually, when they read Pirkei Avot, it's a minhag to do it between Pesach and Shavuot.

7:55But the way people read it in shul and at home and so on is they breeze through it. Why? Because they're all intellectual statements that you could basically understand some part of them. But once you actually listen to one of the shiurim, just skip through it. Don't even go to number one. Go to number 37, 48. Pick a number. Go to whichever one you want. You listen to one of the shiurim, and pretty much you're going to look at your Mishnah and you're never going to see it the same way again. Why? Because you're going to see how much you missed out by breezing through it. There's just an endless amount of chokhmah in Pirkei Avot. And like I said, if we did the series all over again, it would be 180 completely different shiurim. So this also will be available on the website, b'ezrat Hashem, later this week. They're a little bit more expensive than the CDs. They're only $50 each instead of $3. But, like I said, if you want to invest in Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu pays you back. That's also the reason why you can't mass distribute them. You can't mass distribute $50 a person. Yeah, you guys, I like you guys, so I'm going to give you $50 for free. But if there were 500 of you, I'll say, yeah, here's $50, here's a gift, $50. Why? Because the reality is it's too expensive to do it. It's too expensive to do it, even if you're a big organization. I mean, you give a thousand of these, you're talking about big money.

9:13So if somebody steps up and wants to mass distribute them, wants to print a hundred thousand or something like that, or even fifty thousand, of course your price will go much lower. But when you're printing a thousand or two thousand, it's not really possible. It's not really possible with the CDs. Baruch Hashem, it is possible because we got a few hundred thousand of them, and we're going to continue getting more of them. So for all those people who say, "Yeah, but people don't have CD players," it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You have to understand. In marketing, I did a little bit of it in the last 20 years. In marketing, it's not about what people have. It's about telling people what they need to have. You don't have a CD player? You want to watch this? You're going to go buy one. So Sony's going to send me a letter and say, "Thank you, Ron Rubin. You just got us 200,000 new orders of a CD player that's been discontinued. Thank you." Why? Because it's not about what people have. It's about telling people what they need to have. And the reality is that even if somebody doesn't have a CD player, not on their computer, not in their car, they're so futuristic, they're like, you know, in Star Wars. Well, guess what? They go, they open it, they have a QR code. You go on the QR code, it goes to the playlist, it goes to the website.

10:26They're so advanced. But they're not going to do that if they didn't have the CD in their hand because they wouldn't know it exists. So this, at worst-case scenario, is a good flyer. Worst-case scenario. So that's why I'm very, very keen on the CDs. We'll continue to print CDs, but hopefully as prices drop for these other things, or perhaps donors increase, whichever one happens first, we'll print out more of these USBs as well. But unfortunately, we cannot mass-produce them in the same quantity. The other bit of good news is that b'ezrat Hashem, we will have a big zechut in the works. I mean, in the last 48 hours, Hashem is picking up the notch. So maybe I should have stayed quiet, but since it's already public anyway, b'ezrat Hashem, we're going to try to do a mass distribution in one day of 100,000 CDs in New York on Tuesday, on Lag Ba'Omer. So b'ezrat Hashem, I mean, usually the way we do with CDs is we send them out to different people. Ninety-nine percent of the time they're given for free.

11:33uh... we've already given out over half a million CDs for free uh... so we send them out to different people who want to distribute them. The problem with doing that is, number one, it's uh... very slow, very slow. Well, okay, so let's say you get a few people, yeah, I want to volunteer, I'll do five hundred, I'll do two hundred and five, and I'll do a thousand. Okay, so you got a few thousand, that's ten thousand. Let's say by the time that's to ship them out, that's my part. Okay, so let's say within a week you have the CDs. The problem is, by the time that people actually give them out, many times, you know, I contact the people. They contact me two, three, four months later. I'm like, all right, so you need more CDs by now already. You should have finished already. You should have finished in two days. Oh, no, no, I still have some left. They're still sitting in my room. I haven't gotten to it yet. So it might as well be in my warehouse. So now you understand what I'm saying? It doesn't really work that way very well. A lot of times the CDs end up sitting in somebody's bedroom or basement or something like that, and they don't do anything. So we're going to try. We're spending a lot of money. I mean, you're talking about it costs 25 cents a CD now. It's another 25 cents. You have 100,000 CDs, 25 cents each. You can do the math. But that's going to get them into people's hands in one day instead of over a year.

12:46...or two years. So, b'ezrat Hashem, we're going to try this, and hopefully b'ezrat Hashem and the merit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, it'll actually work out, and if that's the case, b'ezrat Hashem, we'll do much more of it. So that's coming up. Brings me to my next point, Tuesday, Wednesday, no shiur. We completed our series last week on the Ramban. Last Tuesday, we’re going to start a new series soon. But this week, Tuesday and Wednesday, no shiur. Tuesday is Lag Ba'Omer. And Wednesday is another day of the week, but no shiur on Wednesday, b'ezrat Hashem. We'll come back, b'ezrat Hashem, next week, revived and ready to do some new shiurim, and b'ezrat Hashem, also start a new series. So with that being said, let's start, let's go into the next part of the Chazon Ish's Emunah u'Bitachon sefer. We are at the end of the third part of the first chapter.

13:51So the first section of Emunah u'Bitachon has several parts. We are at the end of the third part, where the Chazon Ish says the following: And the wisdom to be content with the connection of life with the world's air, which is stopped by the air and the body, and that the relationship between man and the air is established by the presence of seven bodies, and it is given to the breath power to purify the air, to invest the field and the garden of life in his flesh and blood, his self and his home. He is very honored, son of a warrior army, the war of the life of man. In English, one of the joys of wisdom is to contemplate the connection between life and air. We'll obviously delve into what that means momentarily. its elements being oxygen and carbon dioxide. So already at the time of the Chazon Ish, although he never went to med school, never took any chemistry classes, he was extremely well aware of what is standard knowledge in today's scientific world, but not necessarily was as standard back then. He tells you, no, we understand that air, you have the oxygen, you have carbon dioxide,

15:19very, very familiar with the mechanics of the world. And he says that when you have wisdom, which wisdom means Torah, it leads you to contemplating the connection between the fact that you have life and air. What connection? Says the agent acting between a human being and the air is the seven-lobed lung. which was given the ability to breathe the oxygen into the body so that the living body, which means the blood, the flesh, the bones, and sinews, can be maintained. The lung is one of the body's many soldiers in the battle of life. So here, he's in essence talking about the koach ha'neshimah, the power to breathe, how a person breathes. that connects to Torah and wants to build themselves the right hashkafah, the right ideology, must continue to delve into themselves, into ourselves.

16:28at the fact that they were created, at the fact that they were manufactured by a Supreme Being that gave them mechanics that are beyond their understanding. But even if they were to delve into the mechanics of their creation, they would be enamored by the Creator itself. Now, when a person understands breathing, most of the time, doesn't carry that much weight. Now it may carry some more weight because of what's going on with Corona, but a day before Corona, a day before Corona became something that the news even mentioned, most people, unless they had asthma or they saw somebody choke to death, most people never really valued breathing so much. Why? You do it 15,000 times a day, literally. The average human being breathes 15,000 times per day.

17:29What was the last time you took a breath and said, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you? When? Never. Why? It's us. It's humans. We're so used to it, we figure that this is the way it's supposed to be. And that's the failure. Now, when you think about breathing, before you even start on the mechanics of how your lungs work, and how you could actually live even with one lung, although with difficulty, but nonetheless you can live. However, you can cause a lot of damage to your lungs over an extended period of time, but they continue working until Hashem decides simply that they stop. Some people say, "Yeah, but if you smoke, you're gonna kill yourself." Well, not necessarily. Why? There are plenty of people that smoked for 80 years and didn't die. They died from old age. They didn't die from smoking. And there are plenty of people who, after smoking for 10 years, got cancer. Oh yeah, see, he died from smoking. No, he died because Hashem decided to take him. That's why he died. Smoking definitely didn't help because he put himself at risk. And you shouldn't put yourself at risk. As a mitzvah in the Torah, you have to protect your neshama (soul). You have to protect your body. You shouldn't do things that are harmful. But nonetheless, smoking was not the reason why he died. Sinning was the reason why he died.

18:55Now, the scientific world doesn't accept such explanations. Scientifically minded people also don't accept such explanations. Why? It removes control from their hands because they believe they have a handle on creation. They have a handle on why people live and why people die. Yet, when the whole Darwin theory came into the market, There was a meeting of the leading philosophers in the world, held in Philadelphia, about what to do with this new theory, this Darwin theory. Until this day, people will mention his name, even though none of his followers, not a single one of his followers, actually follows what he says. But they still call themselves Darwinists. The point being that at the time of Darwin, there was a famous professor named Professor Francis who gave a speech at a symposium in Philadelphia in the United States and told them that no matter what Darwin says or doesn't say

20:13None of you philosophers and none of the scientists that would follow would ever be able to explain creation. You can never explain where the first cell comes from. You can never explain where life begins. And surely, Even Darwin himself cannot explain the logistics and how and why these things happened the way he says they happened without a reliance on faith in something that's beyond nature, that's beyond our understanding. In so many words, faith in God is a prerequisite to believe in anything if you still want to classify yourself as a wise person. Now, the good news is that Professor Francis was not the first one to say this. In fact, if he would have read the Rambam, Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, he would have saved himself many, many other books because it's the first halacha. It's the first halacha. The Rambam writes in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, which translates to the halachot of the foundation of the Torah.

21:37This is for anyone that wants to learn Torah, live by the Torah, and comply with the Torah, who say that they are a Ben Torah or a Bat Torah. These are the rules that have to be a prerequisite for such a person. And the Rambam's first halacha. First halacha means, there's a klal in Judaism: Rishon Rishon Chashuv. First thing is the most important. The Chachamim did not put something first or second or third or fourth just because of alphabetical order or just because the first thing that came to their mind. In essence, when they mention something first or they mention something last, there's a reason for it. So the Rambam starts the Mishneh Torah, the entire series called the Rambam also, he starts it with one halacha. In Perek Rishon he says the following: Yesod ha-yesodot ve'amud ha-chokhmot leida sheyesh sham matzui rishon vehu mamtsi kol nimtza.

22:52Translation: The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a primary being who brought all existence into being. all the entities in the heavens, the earth, and what is in between them came into existence only from the truth of His being. In so many words, to minimize, micro, what the Rambam just told us, before you talk about any halacha, before you talk about any musar, before you delve into any book that has to do with Judaism, before you can even classify yourself, not only as a Jew, but as a righteous Noahide, or even as a person that claims to possess chokhmah, wisdom. minimize, micro, what the Rambam just told us: Before you talk about any halacha, before you talk about any mussar, before you delve into any book that has to do with Judaism, before you can even classify yourself not only as a Jew, but as a righteous Noachide, or even as a person that claims to possess chochmah, wisdom.

24:00You have to understand this rule. What is this rule? There has to be a Creator. There has to be the foundation of all foundations, the pillar of all wisdom, meaning everything that you have must stand on something, a foundation. And you say, yeah, but the foundation itself is on something. Yeah, okay, so that pillar that's holding the foundation, the pillar of wisdom, the foundation of all foundations, you must know that there has to be a primary being who brought all of existence into being. There has to be a single, unlimited, infinite Creator. Without that as a first belief, we cannot even start. Which means, if somebody does not believe in this, whether they believe in nothing, that we came from mud or something, or some molecule, or they believe we came from some guy, or they believe that we came from some woman that had a dream,

25:16Or whatever they believe that's outside of this, the Rambam gives them a hechsher of stupidity. Not wise. You know, there's hechsher, there's Badatz, there's Beit Yosef, there's hechsher of stupidity from the Rambam. Why? He says this is wisdom. All wisdom begins with this. You don't believe that we came from a single being? You're stupid. Yeah, but he has 87 degrees, exactly 87 degrees verifying your stupidity. Yeah, but what about all these scientists? Stupid. Yeah, but they did so many great things. A lot of stupid people do great things. Doesn't mean that they, I'm not saying they're stupid in everything. They could be good at math. They could be good at archaeology. They could be good in architecture. They could be good in a lot of different things. But as far as understanding creation, stupid. Dumb as a rock. Actually, the rock's smarter because the rock knows its creator. In fact, the Lord says the donkey even knows its creator.

26:30He knows his creator, his owner. You don't know who made you? Problem. And that's why Rabbi Akiva in the Midrash says, just think about these people that think that we came from nothing. You're never going to say, "This shirt came from nowhere." He says, everyone knows if you see a shirt, there has to be someone who sewed the shirt. has to be someone who sewed this shirt. If you see a house, there had to have been somebody that built the house. The house didn't just, some hurricane didn't gather some parts from all parts of the country and put the house together with the windows exactly in the right place. And this is glass and the other sheetrock, or if you're in Europe, this is cement. They didn't do that. No one thinks that. You're never going to say, "Wait a minute, that drawing, that painting came by itself." There has to be a painter. Give a sense. There has to be a painter; there has to be a sewer; there has to be a builder. We had a paper. Also, you're gonna say it didn't come from nothing. Why? It came from a tree. Well, you're gonna say the tree came by itself. The paper didn't come by itself, but the tree came by itself? The byproduct didn't come by itself, but the product, which is much more sophisticated, the source, which is much more sophisticated, oh, that came by itself? And yet, you call yourself wise?

28:01You obviously know that the tree cannot have come by itself. Somebody had to plant it. No, maybe it's really old. Okay, so somebody a long time ago planted it. No, maybe it's really, really old, millions and millions of years. Okay, so millions and millions of years. Let's play your game. So millions and millions of years ago, somebody planted it. Why did somebody have to plant it? Because it cannot plant itself. And if the tree cannot plant itself, surely the world cannot make itself and make one part land, one part ocean, mechanics of the world, laws within the world that allow life to exist, where you notice that you yourself breathe air. How come you need as much air as possible? You need air. And if the tree cannot plant itself, surely the world cannot make itself and make one part land, one part ocean, with the mechanics of the world, and the laws within the world that allow life to exist, where you notice that you yourself breathe air. How come you need as much air as possible? You need air. You cannot be restricted with air. And you happen to live, coincidentally, in the only place in the universe that could supply you this air. If you lived on Mars, you wouldn't survive. If you lived on Pluto, you wouldn't survive. But here you survive. How come this happenstance, this coincidence, this molecule turning into a lot of things didn't happen over there? Oh, but we don't know. We know, we know. We know.

29:22Why? Torah says we know. The point being, Abutai, is that anyone that delves into creation and understands that the universe itself, just where it's positioned, just the laws of physics, just your own body, understands that this obviously has to have a Designer. Now, you'll see that there are many, many scientists, especially the original scientists. We're not talking about this generation of kofrim. even though there are many, many scientists that have done teshuva in recent generations. But nonetheless, the scientists that came before them, which everyone knows were much more sophisticated, much more wise than the scientists of today. The scientists of today just develop the original idea. Very few scientists today come up with anything original. It's as rare as can be. What are they doing? They're developing a pre-existing idea. And you ask any wise person, what's more difficult, to come up with an innovation of an existing idea or to come up with an original idea that's valid? No person with a normal IQ will tell you that innovation is more difficult than an original idea. So we know that Sir Isaac Newton,

30:47and the people of his generation, and Aristotle, and Plato, and so on and so forth. Obviously, the Rambam and the Ramban were also scientists. Very accomplished as well. They not only believed in God, but believed in the same very God that we have in the Torah. Now you have a bunch of people with YouTube channels, feel like because they have a million views on some of their videos, they're accomplished. You know when they're going to realize they're not so accomplished? When Corona arrives at their door. When death arrives at their door. When they choke on food. When they're constipated. When they arrive at the hospice center and they know that they're the ones not leaving. They're no longer the visitor. That's when they realize, maybe I was wrong. There's a very famous atheist named Steve Jobs. Had all the money in the world. Smart guy in technology, even smarter in marketing. But when it came to existence, when it came to the purpose of life, one of the dumbest people in the history of man.

32:04But at least he was smart and honest enough that before he died, he realized that his 10 billion dollars were not able to afford him a single lung, a single limb, a single anything. He couldn't afford anything. He needed to buy one liver. That's it. One liver to live a little longer. He couldn't. Couldn't afford a liver, with 10 billion dollars. You should never ever complain about parnassah again. You're already worth 10 billion dollars. You have a liver that works, Baruch Hashem. Steve Jobs would have paid you 10 billion dollars for it. Couldn't find one. But before he died, he said, maybe I should have delved into the Creator a little bit more and figured out if there is one or there isn't. Well, now he's finding out firsthand. Just too late, though. Smart guy in marketing. Marketing is not worth anything in Shamayim. If anything, marketing is not so good. Why? He marketed things that are against Hashem. Why? Because people follow him. And that's why Rabotai... People that are accomplished in the scientific world, where people follow them and follow their opinion, intentionally or unintentionally become machti'ei harabim—people that cause the public to sin. This makes it even more difficult for them to do teshuvah, according to the Rambam. HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not want those people to do teshuvah with His help. They have to do it on their own.

33:32He doesn’t help them. That’s the punishment for causing people to sin. As Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught us in the Gemara, a person that causes other people to sin is even worse than a person that kills somebody. Because a person that kills somebody, he killed him, he killed his body, but at least that person will still go to the next world. The person that died is still going to the next world. Somebody murdered him, but if he kept Shabbat, kept mitzvot, he's going to the next world, he's going to heaven. But a person that caused him to sin, caused him to go start praying to Yeshu, caused him to go start violating Shabbat, caused him to go do things that are against Hashem, he lost his whole life. So surely the guy that caused people to sin is much worse than a murderer. Hence the reason why we came out with a video today, a fantastic movie, that it's God's war against the liars. It's not my war against the liars. It's not Sonny's or Joshua's or Michal's or Elhanan's or anybody else's. It's not our war against the liars. It's HaKadosh Baruch Hu's war against the liars. Why? You're killing His kids by lying to them.

34:42By telling them that they can do whatever they want and Hashem is not going to judge them, you're killing them. You're murdering His kids. You're much worse than Hitler when you cause people to sin and do things against Hashem. So these scientists and different types of philosophical-minded people like Manis the Menace and his likes, they're worse than murderers. They're machtiyei harabim. But sometimes you can tell people, yeah, but this is wrong. You have scientists that believe the opposite. Yeah, but they're religious, these scientists. Yeah, but they weren't always religious. And in fact, when you think about it, a scientist that did teshuva, or better yet, even if he didn't do teshuva, a scientist that's religious, a religious Jewish scientist, is much more impressive and much more impactful than an atheist scientist. And the reason is, the religious Jew, like Professor Rips, or some of his colleagues, Professor Scholl, that are religious Jews, these people are brilliant. They know it's actually much easier for them to become atheists. than an atheist scientist. The reason is, the religious Jew, like Professor Rips, or some of his colleagues, Professor Scholem, who are religious Jews, are brilliant. They know it's actually much easier for them to become atheists.

36:04Much easier. First of all, a much easier way of life. No one's going to tell you what to do. No one's going to tell you to take a day off out of the week. No one's going to tell you what to eat. No one's going to tell you if you need to stay married to one woman, ten women, be with your wife only a certain amount of time, and so on and so forth. No one's going to give you any rules. You live however you want, do whatever you want, like a bohemian, like some animal. That's number one. Number two, in a scientific world, it's much easier. Why? Practically, you're on the other side of what's popular today. So that means that you, unlike them, have to constantly defend your beliefs. No one is challenging the atheistic belief. You tell people you're an atheist, they go, "Okay, it's okay. It's okay." No, I'm agnostic. It's another way of saying atheist. Somebody tells you, "I'm agnostic," it's an atheist. Or idol worshipper, whichever one you want to call it. No, no, I believe in God. I just don't believe in Judaism. Okay, you're an atheist in disguise. Why? There's no other God other than Hashem. And that God isn't a God in the Torah. Which means that if you believe in anything else, it's either you think you're God, which means you're an atheist.

37:14Like, okay, yeah, I believe in God, but I'm just Him. Okay, so you're an atheist in yourself. You're an egotistical person, or you believe in a foreign god. You're an idol worshiper. If you don't believe in the God of Israel, you are an atheist. That's it. Or an idol worshiper. Pick one. Both go to Gehinom, one's chamber seven, the other's chamber seven. Which one do you want? Seven or seven? Why? There's only one God. There's only one Emet. The person needs to know that. Now, when you have a scientist, an accomplished scientist, all types of degrees, MIT, all types of achievements, Nobel Prize winners, and so on. And he comes and he tells you, I believe in the God of Israel. I follow the Torah. I do whatever it says. It's much more impactful. It's much more impressive. And the reason why is because it's much easier to be the opposite. No one's challenging you. Whereas if you're a religious Jew, by default, people are challenging you. Can you prove to me that there's a God? Can I see Him? Can you prove to me that there are radio waves? Can I see them?

38:21Can you prove to me that you have a brain? Can I see it? Can you prove to me that you have any wisdom? Can I see it? Can you prove to me that you have life? Can I see it? Can you prove to me that you have a soul? Can I see it? Can you prove to me you love your wife or your husband? Can I see it? Oh, I can't see the love? Okay, then you'll love each other. Marry somebody else. You don't have to see something to know it exists. So how do we know Hashem exists? Byproduct: the things he makes. What does he do? You know the wisdom of the Creator based on His creation. Someone could tell you he is an architect. You tell him, "Okay, you're an architect. Wow, great. Let me see your resume." You see the resume. It gives you a name spelled right. Oh, it's already a good start. Address, right address. You check on Google; he lives there. Good. Well, I'm already seeing the guy has a good resume.

39:23From 1980 to 2020, one major achievement. What? I built a house. She said, "Oh, wow, it must be sophisticated. 40 years it took you to build this house? Can I see the house?" "Oh, yeah, sure, sure. Come on, come on. I'll show you this house." "Wow, you're going to show me the house it took you 40 years to build?" "Yeah, yeah, of course. You want to hire me, right?" "Yeah, yeah. Let's go." "You go, where is it?" "Oh, it's in my room." "What? What do you mean it's in your room?" "I'll show you. I've been working on it for 40 years." "It's in your room? 40 years? Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, come on, you're going to love it, you're going to love it." You go, you open the door, his mom tells you, "Are you coming to eat?" "Are you still with your mom?" "Yeah, yeah, come on, come on, no, no, don't mind her, don't mind her, she's just yelling, come on, come on, come on." Okay, you're already worried, but okay, whatever, you know, 40 years on a resume, you want to see this architecture over here, 40 years to create something. Come, he opens the door. and you start seeing all types of toys, you know, Batman, X-Men, this, that, all types of toys in this 60-year-old guy's house. And you say, oh, okay, no, no, so where's the house? And he opens his closet, and you're expecting to see, I don't know, maybe it's the Choshen, maybe it's the Aron HaKodesh or something that Betzalel had special chokhmah.

40:39he had to create it, so you thought maybe he's opening an Aron HaKodesh or something, maybe the Ten Commandments are going to come out of this one. He opens it, and you see a house made out of Lego. You're going to hire this guy for 40 years for this job? That's your creation? That's your creation? 40 years and you call yourself an architect? How do you know if he's a good architect? He has to show you buildings, houses, communities. Show you the creation. How do you know HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the best creator of all creation, of all creators? Look at the creation. Look at yourself in the mirror. Look at the bug. Look at the fly. Look at the chair. Look at the mechanics of the world. Look at the universe. Look at anything. Any one thing that you would focus all your attention on, you would see the wisdom of the Creator itself. Because you could trace where this came from to another thing that's even more genius. Okay, you could look at something as simple as a chair. Wow, a chair, wow, yeah, somebody made it. Yeah, but let's think about it. Forget, put the guy aside. Where did this piece of wood come from? A tree. Let's go to the tree. Let's go analyze the tree. You go to the tree, you start analyzing the botany. You analyze the tree, you analyze the mechanics of the tree. You could tell that the tree is a certain age based on the rings that it has.

42:07tree has certain leaves, and leaves fall at a certain time of the year every year, no questions asked. Then they regrow, no questions. Hashem doesn't say, "This one I'm gonna take off," and some of them grow fruit, and some of them don't. Some of them grow really tall, some of them grow really short, and some of them grow in only specific areas, and some others don't. But one thing that you're never gonna see you're never gonna see two living trees running into each other—never. And you're gonna see sometimes a tree go through a house. The tree grows, grows, grows. You know, they built a house; they didn't realize they built a house next to a tree. Sometimes the tree is under, sometimes it's next to it, and the tree continues to grow. As the house gets older, the tree continues to grow also. grows. One day, one of the branches goes through the house, through the wall. Especially here in America, where everything's made out of sheetrock, and you can pretty much tear it up with your hands, it goes through the wall. In Israel, you can't do anything like that because there's your cement. But anyway, that's also not good with your angry cement. But anyway, it's good for your anger; you feel really strong in America. In America, you feel strong; you can punch the wall and make a hole. In Israel, you realize how much of a nothing you are because you break your hand instead.

43:27So anyway, I've experienced that. So anyway, you have yourself a tree, it continues to grow, but the house is not growing. And a tree one day decides, you know what, I want this house out of my way. It makes a hole in the wall. It makes a hole in the floor. The floor starts coming up because the roots need more room. So the floor of your house starts coming up. wall falls, you all go, has a hole in the wall all of a sudden. Oh, we're gonna do this tree, we're gonna do it. But if you go in the bushes, you go in the yard, you go in the, uh, in the woods, you go in the forest, you're never gonna see two trees running into each other. How come the tree ran into the house that's made out of tree, but it didn't run into a tree in the forest where there's many more trees? You see them. You see them. But they barely, right there, get really close, but don't touch. Don't touch. Why not? Because the tree is a living thing, and it knows that the other tree is alive. I can't be in this space. But the tree in your house, that's dead wood. Hey, you're dead. You're taking up space. Get out of here. I'm still alive. I'm still alive.

44:55So now we just started with the chair, we're already at the tree. Where does the tree get its sustenance? Well, you think somebody comes there every day and waters the tree? No. So now you got to start, where does this water come from? So, for many, many decades, we always thought that the water that waters the earth is the rainwater that comes from the evaporation and the ocean and the whole mechanics of everything. That's what we thought was the main watering of our world until recent history, where the scientists caught up to the Torah. The Torah in Sefer Bereishit says that when HaKadosh Baruch Hu split the water, He says there's water under the rakia, under the heavens, and there's water above the rakia, above the heavens, above the sky. And the Chachamim say, and surely there is more water above the heavens than there is under the heavens.

45:57So for decades, centuries, like what are you talking about? Where do you see water? With the telescope, nothing. Mars, nothing. The moon, nothing. Anything that we can see, nothing. No water. Where's this water coming from? Ah, it's a mistake in the Torah. How you, Jewish people? Ah, it's a mistake. No, no, it's a mistake in your head. You just don't know where the water's coming from. Until the scientists came up and understood and finally caught up to our Torah that we got almost 2,000 years ago. realized that every time you see what's called a "falling star," it's really not a star. It's a comet, which is, in essence, an enormous iceberg. An enormous iceberg that's now passing in direct line with the sun and is melting at high speed. Hence the reason why there's a streak, because of all the water that's melting from this huge iceberg. When they discovered this, they were amazed. But when they discovered the following thing, they were even more amazed. What did they discover? They discovered that the entire outer surface of the universe is all ice, and the water that feeds this world is from there.

47:16all the water that's okay yeah you have some evaporation, the ocean evaporates a little bit and goes into rain, yeah yeah, you have some of that, but the main sustenance of the world comes from exactly where the Chachamim said: from above the heavens, a much more significant place. It just took science about 2000 years to catch up, so... That's also one of the things that Professor Francis told the rest of his colleagues in this meeting in Philadelphia years ago. He says, "You're never going to figure this stuff out. Everything that we have in creation, we're never going to figure out the source of creation without believing in a Creator." So now, when a person understands that, okay, so you have the chair. The chair, we go to the tree. The tree, now you have the water. Now from the water, you go to the comets. And the comets will create the comets. And you realize that the Creator's system is so extraordinary that with or without you, it would be there, number one. Number two, the...

48:18with or without you agreeing to it, understanding it, it's still functioning perfectly; it doesn't need your assistance in any way. And most importantly, all of this knowledge that we have is just a microcosm of what the true knowledge really is, of how it all really works, which He possesses. So when a person understands his Creator, surely he starts understanding why he has to serve this Creator. So when a scientist comes and he says, listen, I understand my own limitations, I understand certain things that are in the creation itself, I'm enamored by them, I'm impressed by them, and hence that's the reason why I'm a religious Jew. That's much more impressive. Why? Because to be an atheist... The kofer just pretty much says, no, no, I don't believe in anything. I believe we came from monkeys and lizards and whatever is in between. Much easier. Much easier. Now, every time one of these atheistic scientists or philosophers comes out with a paper as evidence for their belief or lack of belief in Hashem, they're in essence causing the public to sin.

49:38which is putting them in a much more difficult position to ever fix that. Because in order to fix that, they not only have to stop doing it, but they have to retract every single thing they've ever said. They have to publicly state that everything they've ever said is wrong. And that means they have to become humble like Moshe Rabbeinu. To admit that your whole life's work is one big mistake, it's not very common. One of the most famous atheists admitted that everything he ever said was a mistake. I forget his name, but he was a very famous atheist who admitted that he was mistaken something like 20 years ago, and he was like the bigwig in atheism for 40-50 years. He wrote many, many books about it and eventually admitted it was all a mistake. Before him, another one I'm familiar with is Aristotle. Aristotle, one of his biggest talmidim, his biggest student, was Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great was his talmid. And the Midrash Me'am Lo'ez published a letter that Aristotle wrote to Alexander the Great, and towards the end of his life, he told him,

50:59Everything that I've ever said and I've ever taught you is completely false. My books should not be read, and in fact, they should all be burned. Anyone that reads and studies them will be punished by the one and only Creator. Now, the followers of Aristotle, and I can tell you this either because they don't know or because this is the opposite of what they want to believe, do not actually believe this. But at some point or another, rabotai, everyone will get to know their Maker. Everyone. The question is when? And is that when too late? But everyone will get to know Him. So, the Rambam, in the first halacha in Yesodei HaTorah, tells us that the foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there's a primary being. Now, to make sure that we do not have any warped concept of Hashem, to think that He is in parts, because He does have different traits that He uses. For example, He created the world with midat ha-din, the trait of judgment, where if someone does something wrong, he gets punished immediately. But when He saw, which obviously is all...

52:24At the same time, He did not wait to see something and then He saw it. It's all at the same time. But the way Chazal explain it is that originally, the thought was to make it Midat HaDin, but because He saw that we would not be able to survive even a single day and with such harsh judgment, He also included Midat HaChesed. And that's why there are a couple of names being used for Hashem. In Sefer Bereishit, there's the Yud Kei Vav Kei, and then there's Elokim. One representing the Chesed, the kindness and mercy, and the other one representing the judgment. But when you first start learning Torah, to tell people that Hashem has different traits that He uses to apply to the world, people start thinking that God has different parts. So what did the Rambam, the Rambam, the mamash, Ish HaElokim, what did he do in his writing? Remember I told you guys that sages don't use a word superficially. A word, a word. You know, we write something. You want to write an article, write an article.

53:35I'll take me, I don't know, it's like mamash, I give my neshama to write an article. Sometimes it takes me a few days to write an article. That's why I don't write so often, because it's just so hard for me to do it and portray what I'm thinking. And I like writing, it's just that I think if I wrote more, it simply wouldn't survive. It's just hard for me. Some people, they write easily, but what's the difference? The more careful you are with the words that you choose, the more difficult it is to write. When they came to Rav Chaim Kanievsky... Sheheycheyanu, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, they asked him, "You haven't published a book in a long time. We're just translating your books into English. Why don't you write a new book?" He says, "I don't have the koach to do it anymore." Now, this is a tzaddik that learns the entire Shas Bavli, the entire Shas Yerushalmi, the Zohar, the Midrashim, the entire Tanakh, and many, many other things I can't even name, every year. For 90 years already, he says, I don't have the strength to write another book. Why? Because the amount of wisdom that he uses to write a book is beyond our comprehension. The same thing with all of the Chachamim. They put their life into it.

54:40Now, when somebody writes, le'havdil, a novel or something, they don't think twice about certain words. They just think of what's going to impact people the most, what's going to give people the best picture of what they're trying to portray. But this is different. Why? The Rambam in the Yesodei HaTorah says, "The foundation of all foundations is the pillar of wisdom." These are important words. This is clearly what we know. There's a reason why these words are in this order. Why? Yesod starts with a Yud. Yesodot. A Yesodot starts with a Hei. Ve'amud starts with a Vav. A Chochmot starts with a Hei. Yud, Hei, Vav, Hei. The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of all wisdom, inside it. First letter, God's name. Which one? The one that encompasses everything.

55:42The one that encompasses everything. Don't make a mistake. It's not six parts like Manis Friedman and the company said. No, no. The one that encompasses everything. Yud, Hei, Vav, Hei. That's it. That's the beginning of Mishneh Torah. The words that he picked are studied by Chachamim. Why did he pick this word and not that word? You write a book, no one's going to care. I write a book, no one's going to care why I use this word and not that word. Why? We're not on this level. We're not on this level. The reality is when they write serious books, they choose their words carefully. So even the order of the words has to be calculated. Now, you can calculate your words as much as you want; it may not make sense though, as far as the sentence goes. You may want to have an acronym that spells God's name, but the sentence itself is not going to make any sense. That's the difference. between a regular person that thinks he could contradict the Rambam and say the Rambam is wrong here, and the Rambam himself. One that has no chokhmah and one that has chokhmah. Now, he tells us that a person that does not accept God's existence simply will not have faith in the Torah.

57:05If you do not believe in hashgacha pratit, you do not believe in Hashem's divine providence, in Hashem's status of echad, yachid, and meyuchad. That He's one, that He's alone, and that He's special. That He's not echad because there's a shnayim. He's not echad because there's a two. You know, we think, oh, there's one because it's more than nothing, and hence there has to be more, something after. No, no, no. He's one and only. There is nothing else like Him. There is no other God. There are no partners. There's no middleman. Nothing. One is one. Now, this is very difficult for some people to understand, especially goyim. that try to humanize God because it's very difficult for them to understand how it could be that He's alone. They can come to the conclusion and understanding that He created the world, but they also believe that the world was like a surface that allowed creation, meaning

58:32you could have the avdi. You could have, let's say, a tower that you build out of Legos, like this architect I told you guys about for 40 years, right? Yeah, this architect, he creates you a big castle or a house or something out of Legos. Now, you could believe, yeah, he created it, but he was only able to create it because the Lego pieces existed. and the surface that will uphold the Lego pieces existed. And that's wrong. What it means to believe in Hashem, that He's one and only, and special, and there's nothing else but Him, is that it's not only that He created the world, it's that He also created the ability for a world to be created. There was no ability, there was no world to be created before He decided to create it. A lot of people think that before the world, there was nothing, right? Before the world, there was God and nothing else; there was just God. And God minimized Himself in order to make space for His creation, if you will. And...

59:52It's not that the world is part of God. God doesn't have parts. He doesn't have arms, legs, a world, you know, a universe, Mars, or Pluto. He doesn't have that. There's only God, really. Everything is God. Everything. The world is not part of God. And that's one of the things that's very, very difficult for people to understand. where they think that God is, in essence, a part of creation, if you will, or He took advantage of something that already existed to some extent. Hence the reason why Am Yisrael constantly says that Hashem created the world ex nihilo, from nothing. That there was nothing, not that there was literally just empty space. There was no ability for anything to exist. There was just God. So the commentaries on this explain that this understanding of God's existence is the fundamental principle upon which everything is based. All of the halachot, all of the mitzvot, all of the learning, all of everything that you do,

1:01:18has to be sitting on this as a foundation. Your entire ideology of being a Jew or a righteous gentile must be sitting on this understanding that God is one and only and there is nothing else but Him. If you have a different understanding, you, my friend, are in a very, very serious problem. What kind of problem? The Rambam writes in Hilchot Teshuva, chapter 3, halakha 7, that someone who does not believe that God is alone and the first thing and the first being and the creator of everything, such a person is considered a heretic, a min, who does not have a portion in the World to Come. So not believing in Hashgacha Pratit, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu is everything, which means also, not that He was only here at all times, that there is no before Him, there is no after Him, there is no part of Him, but aside from that, the creation itself is not something separate from Him, meaning that your thoughts, which are the most private thing that you have,

1:02:37Your body is not private. Why? You shared it with somebody probably at some point. If you haven't, you will in the future. Whether it be a doctor or a spouse. At some point, it's not so private. But your thoughts, not always. Your thoughts, you're not going to always share with somebody. Especially if you're Moroccan. I'm sure you're not sharing them. Moroccans don't share their thoughts. How are you doing? Baruch Hashem. End of conversation. Can't say nothing to them. Sorry, what's going on? It's the perfect answer, really, in reality, but you can't have a conversation with them unless you're talking about yourself the whole time. But I love Moroccans; they're good people, good-hearted people. Just don't say anything about their life. Now, a person that believes in anything absent from this has no share in the World to Come.

1:03:38is a big deal. It's a very big deal. Why? That means that you have to believe, not you should. This is not a recommendation. I know I sometimes give recommendations. No, this is an obligation, just like you're obligated to breathe if you want to live. It's an obligation to believe that Hashem knows your thoughts right now. Not only that, He knows the thoughts that you had at any other time in your life right now. You don't have to recollect it to remember it like you do. Right now, He knows all the thoughts that you've ever had. The thoughts, not just the actions—the thoughts. Things that you forgot yourself, He knows. Your most prized possession, your most private possession—He knows. And... That's how much control HaKadosh Baruch Hu has over this world. A person who has trouble believing this must read the Mishneh Torah and go through it one halacha after another with commentary in their first language, reading it over and over again until they understand this. Why? Otherwise, all the things that you're doing are going to garbage.

1:04:57If you don't believe in the One and Only God, everything you're doing is going to go to garbage. This is not easy for people to believe sometimes. Why? Because people want to give themselves power. I made the money, I bought this house, I knew the area, so it was a good idea I had, and it was the right timing because the market just dropped. I knew that it was the market bottom, and I'm the one that picked him to work for me. I knew that he's going to be the best employee in the world. I picked him when he was a nobody. I did, and I, I, I, I, I... Throw that out into the garbage. Throw the word "I" out of your vocabulary. Baruch Hashem or Be'ezrat Hashem should replace "I." That's what it is. Why? It has nothing to do with you. Yeah, but I did do it. No. Hashem made it look realistic. In reality, Hashem did it. Yeah, but I had the idea. Who gave you the brain? Who gave you the thought? Who decided that this is going to actually work?

1:06:05Yeah, but what, Hashem knows my thoughts? Yes. Ah, He knows a lot of stuff then. Everything. Everything He knows. Even the stuff that you don't know yet. He knows that too. Wait, so if He knows what I'm going to do, how can He judge me for it? Did He tell you to do it? He knows all the possibilities of what choices are available to you. You still choose. What is that like? Let's say, for example, I told you to give me a piece of paper. I'll write down on a piece of paper, and we'll put it in an envelope. We're both going to lock it up in a safe. Tomorrow, we'll come back and see what's in the paper. You go about your day. After we do this, we come back the next day. We open the safe, open the envelope, and see what I wrote. I wrote every single thing you did the next day. Every single thing you did. Now, obviously, I didn't follow you. I wasn't there. The paper was there the whole time. that the fact that I knew everything you're going to do, change your behavior, influence your behavior? No. So I knew it. That's in essence a simplistic explanation of Hashem's knowledge of your free will. It doesn't alter your behavior, but nonetheless, He does have that knowledge too. The point being is, anyone that thinks that Hashem

1:07:30forces you to do something. The Rambam writes that this is a foolish thought. It's a heretical thought. Why? Because if Hashem wanted to send you... Oh, what's the purpose of bringing you into this world? For someone to put you in Gehinnom, then only what's the purpose of putting you in this world? Meaning that your choice does have... Your choice, your ability, your influence. He's not going to influence you. The fact that He knows the outcome of everything doesn't change you. You still choose for yourself. But this is one of the things that the Rambam himself writes in Shemonah Perakim. It's not possible for a human being to understand free choice, just like it's not possible for a human being to understand God Himself. We can understand aspects of it, facets of the diamond. Now, we are obligated to not just believe in God; we're obligated to know God. As Rav Mizrahi shlit"a always says, believing is not knowing. If you believe something will happen, that means that you're not sure it's going to happen. You don't know if it's going to happen. You believe. You hope. But you're not sure. Hashem does not command us to believe in Him, with the exception of one time, but rather to know that He is G-d.

1:08:52Every time he mentions it, he says that you should know that I am God, that you should know that I am God. So, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in the year 5745, writes that wisdom refers to the Torah, And each and every separate dimension of our Torah, the practice of the Torah, is elevated by our knowledge of God. Meaning that the more we delve and meditate over this knowledge of God, the higher our understanding of the Torah is going to be, which shows that we actually have a practical benefit. Not just a halachic benefit and a spiritual benefit, but a practical benefit to meditating over God and what He is. Now surely we can never get to a conclusion because He has no limitations. Surely we can never get to a full understanding. So what are we actually meditating over? We're meditating over the creation itself, the product. So a person has to know that he has to

1:10:18Comprehend the existence of Hashem intellectually, not merely believe it. The Rambam writes in the Moreh Nevuchim (The Guide to the Perplexed), Volume 1, Chapter 37, that even the use of the word "being" is incorrect, saying that Hashem is a supreme being. It's really incorrect. But we still, nonetheless, have to use it. Why? Because He's not nothing. And we have to, to make it make sense in our limited understanding, define Him as something. so in order to clarify that He does exist, we have to call Him something, hence the reason. But don't think that "being" by itself is actually a complete definition of Him. The Torah has seven different names for Hashem, but in Kabbalah, there are many, many other names, over 70 names. But a person's conception of what Hashem is,

1:11:36is limited by his understanding of the world around him. The more a person understands the world around him and connects that to the Creator, the more he will appreciate the Creator Himself. The less he understands the world around him, or the less he connects Hashem to the creation, the more difficulty he's going to have in believing that there is a Creator at all. Hence the reason why the people that understand a lot about the mechanics of the world but don't connect it to God have the most difficulty in believing in God. Because they have misused this intellect that Hashem gave them so many times, it's hard for them to now retrace and rewire their existing knowledge that they have already now. now, if you go to the next chapter of Yilchot Yesodei HaTorah, the first halacha, the Rambam now goes into what do we do now. The first chapter, he goes into the belief in G-d. It is very critical for a person to read this part with an understanding from the commentaries, but now you go to the second chapter.

1:13:00Second chapter, what do you do with this knowledge now? Now that I have this knowledge that G-d exists, what do I do with this knowledge? First halacha, in the second chapter of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, the Rambam writes it's a mitzvah from the Torah, To love and fear this glorious and awesome God. As it says in Deuteronomy 6:5, "And you shall love God your Lord," or in Deuteronomy 6:13, "Fear God your Lord." Here we see that we have two separate obligations. In addition to the obligation of knowing God, We now have an obligation that, now that you know Him, what do you do with that belief? You must love and fear God. You must love and fear God. Now, loving Hashem has different stages, and fearing Hashem has different stages. It's not just one love and one fear. There are levels.

1:14:25The lowest level of fearing Hashem is fearing Hashem because you're afraid that He will punish you. He will stop making this oxygen, which you take for granted, work. You'll become allergic to oxygen. In essence, that means you're allergic to life because, without oxygen, a person can't live. Fearing Hashem will take something that you possess. Although Hashem says, "Mine is the money, mine is the gold, everything is Mine," He gives it to us and makes us believe that it's really ours. And we are afraid that He will take it. And many times, people do teshuva after Hashem takes it, or because they're afraid He'll take it from them. we're afraid they'll take our health, we're afraid they'll take our money, we're afraid they'll take loved ones, and so on and so forth. That level of fear, or perhaps a fear of retribution and punishment after this life, by itself, is the lowest level of fear.

1:15:41Now, people misunderstand the meaning of the lowest level of fear. They think that the lowest level of fear means that it's frowned upon. Wrong. The lowest level of fear means this is the foundation you're going to build every other belief upon. Meaning, you cannot have the highest level of fear without the lowest level of fear too. People think they can just skip. No, no, I'm not afraid of getting punished. I'm already at the highest level of fear. I'm afraid of His Majesty. We have such a close relationship. I don't want to hurt it, like in a marriage. such a close relationship between me and my spouse that I'm afraid to hurt this relationship. That's why I don't do certain things. Not because I'm afraid that something bad is going to happen, but rather I'm afraid to hurt the relationship. That's in essence the highest level of fear. That's what Hashem told Avraham Avinu at Akeidat Yitzchak. Now I know that you fear me. Now I know you fear me. What fear? Now I know that you have the highest level of fear.

1:16:49It's not fear of punishment, because you weren't going to get punished if you didn't bring your son and make him into a little shish kebab. No. You weren't going to get punished for that. Which means that you did this because you have the highest level of fear, that you did not want to disappoint me. Because you're afraid about our relationship, now I know you have the highest level of fear. And everybody who knew about teshuvah six months ago thinks he already has the highest level of fear because he breakdances in the middle of the street and says some rabbi's name. No disrespect to the rabbis, just that the talmidim are not exactly following the rabbi's words. Why? Because if you say, yeah, but the Breslevers, no, no, no. If you read Likkutei Moharan, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov himself says, halvai, he says in his words, halvai, that the tzaddikim in my generation, meaning in his generation almost 200 years ago, that the tzaddikim in my generation would reach fear of Hashem.

1:17:51He wasn't talking about love. Hopefully, they reach fear of Hashem. Why? Because love of Hashem is not relevant to most people in his generation. Needless to say, in ours. But the lowest level of fear... not the lowest that it's frowned upon but rather the lowest that's the foundation, which means that if you have worked on yourself and you've developed such a close relationship with Hashem and you understand the creation and therefore you appreciate the Creator and you've gotten yourself and elevated yourself to the highest level of fear, first of all, first of all but don't think for a moment that that fear is valid if you don't have still the fear of punishment too. Because the highest level of fear builds on top of the lowest level of fear. It's not two things that are separate from each other. You can have the lowest level of fear, which is the fear of punishment, but you cannot have

1:18:57just the highest level of fear. It's either the lowest level of fear by itself, or the lowest level of fear and the ones in the middle all the way to the highest level of fear, meaning all of them included, but you can never have just the highest level of fear. It's either the lowest level of fear and all the other blocks that go on top of it, or just the lowest. It's nothing else. You cannot have the highest. Now, what's the love of Hashem? What's the love of Hashem? Chachamim explain that loving Hashem is much higher than fearing Hashem. That's where you're supposed to get to. It's a mitzvah to do it. What's the problem? The problem is If we don't understand fearing Hashem, we'll never reach loving Hashem. Why? Because the Chachamim explain that the highest level of fearing Hashem, the one where you're in awe of His Majesty, is only the beginning of the lowest level of loving Hashem.

1:20:08So you have the lowest level of fear: fear of punishment, fear of losing money, fear of being alone, fear of sickness, fear of all that stuff. We have that. We have that. Now, you got yourself one of these. You watched it, listened to it ten times. You've already got to the highest level of fear, but you still need to get to the love. Why? The highest level of fear is just the beginning of love. Beginning. So what about all these people saying, no, no, I love Hashem? A lot of people are delusional. A lot of people are delusional. Who says this? Rabbi Nachman Breslover. Rabbi Nachman Breslover says this. So now, the question is, how can a person be commanded to have an emotion or a state of mind? If a person loves somebody, he loves them. If he fears them, he fears them. We can't just simply express our feelings based on demand. Like somebody says, "Love Hashem." You can't just love Hashem if you don't love Hashem. "Fear Hashem." It's not going to work. So how come we're commanded...

1:21:25to fear Hashem, we're commanded to love Hashem, but we can't just do it because we want to. Then you can say to me, "Okay, you know what, Rabbi? I like everything you say; everything is scary, everything is this, everything. I want to do it. I want to do it." No. So where do I start? I said, "Learn." Uh, okay, wait. So if I listen to this entire shiur, it's not going to make me fear Hashem? Maybe. What do you mean maybe? What can make me definitely fear Hashem? Implementing everything it says. Listening to it may lead you to implement it. If you don't implement it, it won't help you. Which means what? Which means that we're commanded to fear Hashem, we're commanded to love Hashem, not because we can do it on demand, but rather to explain to us that the Torah is commanding us to contemplate and to meditate upon these concepts in order to get the desired feelings. You have to think about fearing Hashem in order to eventually fear Hashem. What do I have to think about to fear Hashem? Let's see. Am Yisrael in Sefer Shmuel, in Sefer Shmuel, Shmuel Alef, Am Yisrael makes the mistake of a lifetime.

1:22:51go to Shmuel the Navi, who was Kodesh Kodashim, someone that the Chachamim say was at the level of Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon HaKohen. Now, Shmuel was around Kedusha his entire life. Already at the age of two years old, he was able to answer difficult halachic questions. His mother Chana was a tzaddekes gemurah who cried to HaKadosh Baruch Hu for many years to have a son. But not because she wanted to have a child and tell him, "Oh, look at my kid, look, he can play baseball, look, he can play football." No. She said, "Hashem, just give me a son so I can have him go serve You." As soon as he was able to, she put him in the Mishkan with Eli. It was called the Mishkan at the time; it was before the Beit HaMikdash.

1:23:52I'll put him over there. How old is he when she put him there? Two years old. Two years old, he's able to answer a lot of questions. Okay, yada. Swear, let's go. Where are we going? You're going to a new home. Where's my new home? To go learn from Eli HaKohen. Okay, when are you going to pick me up? Five? No, no, I'm not going to pick you up. Well, vacation in the summer? No vacation. You're there permanently. Why? To serve Hashem. Am I going to see you again? Yeah, once a year. You know, during the holidays, I come to visit. Regalim is a mitzvah. Not because I'm coming to visit you, but because the mitzvah is to come to the Mishkan. So, your father, Elkanah, he's a tzaddik. He takes all Jews to the Mishkan every year. I'm going to come and see you. I'll bring you a new robe every year. That's when you see your mom. Two years old. Hashem, I want a son, so I give him to You.

1:24:54That's Shmuel. Shmuel grew up to be a giant among giants. One day he starts hearing a voice. He thought it's Eli HaKohen. He runs to Eli. He wakes up out of sleep. What do you want? What can I do? Well, I didn't say anything. Oh, okay. Go back to sleep, son. Go back to sleep. You go back to sleep. Shmuel, ha, ha, oh, look, Shmuel gets out of bed, immediately, yeah, yeah, what can I do, what can I do? I didn't call you, I didn't say anything. Why are you here? Go to sleep, son, it's late at night. Oh, okay. Goes back to sleep. Shmuel, ha, again, he didn't stop, he's like, oh, maybe it's a prank or something. Immediately, right, like it's the first time. Right, what can I do, what can I do? God's talking to you, son. Next time He says your name, say, I'm here to serve You, Hashem, I'm ready. God's talking to you, son. It's not me. HaKadosh Baruch Hu was talking to him, and he talked back. He grew up and became a Gadol HaDor. Surrounded by resha'im. Eliyahu Kohen's two sons, resha'im gemurim. The Torah says that they used to influence the women who came to bring korbanot in the names of their husbands, to stay in the place overnight so they could sleep with them.

1:26:23HaKadosh Baruch Hu came to Eliyahu Kohen and said to him, "Hey, what are you doing? Why aren't you rebuking your sons?" "I rebuked them, Hashem." "No, you didn't rebuke them hard enough. And because you didn't rebuke them hard enough, I'm going to destroy them. And I'm going to destroy your lineage. None of your sons and descendants are ever going to be Kohanim again. Why? You rebuked them, but not strong enough. You told them, 'No, no, everyone's a tzaddik, just do teshuva whenever you feel like it.'" Eli HaKohen's both sons and he died on the same day. And none of his descendants lived to old age unless they became Talmidei Chachamim, like Abaye and Rava. And even they didn't die at such an old age. Why? The curse of Eli HaKohen. Why? He didn't rebuke them hard enough. He didn't tell them about Gehinnom. He didn't tell them about what happens if Hashem is your enemy. Now Shmuel understood this. How do I know I understood this? Because until this moment, Am Yisrael had one king. Which king? HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself. But then, as Shmuel got older, Am Yisrael made the mistake of a lifetime and came to Shmuel and said, "Shmuel, we want a king like the goyim have. A king of flesh and blood that's going to lead us."

1:27:49Shmuel says, "What do you want? You know, what are you talking about? You have Hashem. You have Hashem as your king. How could you want something else? This king is going to go against you. This king is going to tax you. This king is going to torture you." "No, no, no, we want it anyway." "I'll talk to Hashem," Shmuel says. Hashem says to Shmuel, "Shmuel, don't be upset at them. It's not you that they don't want. It's Me they don't want. Give them what they want." Pick a king for them. So Shmuel goes out and says to them, "Okay, you can have a king. But I have to pick him, based on HaKadosh Baruch Hu's words. He's going to tell me who's who." One day, he meets the next king, the first king of Am Yisrael. Who? Shaul. Now Shaul is divinely led to this position. He doesn't know. He's a young guy, comes from a modest family. He's looking for his three donkeys, or his donkeys that were lost for three days. And he doesn't find them, but he ends up running into Shmuel HaNavi. And he asks Shmuel, "Yeah, I heard the Navi is here, maybe I could ask him a question. Do you know where the Navi lives?" He says, "Yeah, he lives over there." "Oh, okay." He goes, "I'm the Navi." He didn't know that it was Shmuel he was asking directions for. He goes, "I'm the Navi."

1:29:17Come, I'll take you. I've been preparing a meal for you. For me? Yeah, yeah, for you, for you. This whole thing is for you. This whole party is for you. For me? You sure you got the right family? He goes, yeah, yeah. You're from the tribe of Binyamin. Your father's this, your father's that. Yeah, everything's for you. Takes him to the feast, sits him at the head of the table. Shaul doesn't even know why he's here. He's at the head of the table. Thirty of the most important Jews in the world are there. He has no idea why he's there. He's at the head of the table. Shmuel takes Shaul to the roof, and it says that over there he makes him king. But what does it mean he makes him king? It says in Shmuel, chapter 9. Verse 25: When they descended from the high place to the city, he spoke with Shaul on the rooftop. They arose early the next morning, and at daybreak, Shmuel called Shaul to the roof, saying, "Arise, and I will send you off." So Shaul arose, and the two of them, he and Shmuel, went outside.

1:30:42As they were going down to the edge of the town, Shmuel said to Shaul, "Tell the attendant to go ahead of us," so he passed ahead of them so they could talk freely. "You stand here, and I will let you hear the word of Hashem." So, the question is, what did they talk about on the roof? What did they talk about? when they wanted the attendant of Shaul to go ahead so they could have a private conversation. What are you going to talk about? You're about to make me king. What are you going to tell me? Rashi says he taught him to fear Hashem, talked to him about punishment, and talked to him about loving Hashem. If you want to be king, you have to fear Hashem. Why? That's the mitzvah in the Torah. Sefer Devarim, the book of Deuteronomy, says make sure there's a mitzvah. If someone is going to be a king, make sure that they follow the halacha. What's the halacha? They have to carry a Sefer Torah with them at all times. Why? So they fear Hashem. How are they going to fear Hashem if they have a Sefer Torah in their hand? They're going to read it. And if they read it, they read that half the Torah talks about punishment. If you do this, good. If you don't do this, bad.

1:31:59Where does it start? Sefer Bereishit. Adam HaRishon didn't follow, Hashem punished him. Next parasha, Parashat Noach. The generation of Noach didn't listen to Hashem, Hashem destroyed all of them. End of the parasha, a bunch of people wanted to build a building against Hashem, Hashem destroyed them. Tower of Bavel. Next parasha, Avraham Avinu saw Nimrod get punished. Another punishment, another punishment. Sodom and Gomorrah, and so on and so forth. Every parasha has punishment. Why? It's the foundation of believing in Hashem. Without it, there is no belief in Hashem that's valid. Now, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a mitzvah that He tells us that we have to love and fear Him. And the Rambam elaborates in the second halakha what is the path to attain love and fear of Hashem. When a person contemplates Hashem's wondrous and great deeds and creation and appreciates His infinite wisdom that surpasses all comparison

1:33:23He will immediately love, praise, and glorify Hashem, yearning with tremendous desire to know Hashem and to know His great name. As it says, David HaMelech says in Psalm 42:3, "My soul thirsts for the Lord, for the living God." When a person starts delving into the creation, he immediately falls in love with Hashem. you start paying attention to the trees, to the house you have, to your eyes, to the breath of fresh air—everything that's in your life. Immediately, you're going to fall in love with Hashem. Why? You're going to realize how much of a nothing you are without Him, how much you need Him, and how much good He does for you for free. was sick, went to the hospital, was on a respirator, like unfortunately many people are with this COVID-19. Needed help breathing. After three days, they took him off the respirator. Little by little, he got cleared out of the hospital. After a week, the hospital says, okay, you're ready to go, sir. Here's your bill. He looks at the bill.

1:34:49$45,000. What? What's this for? Oh, see? First three days. What happened the first three days? You were on a respirator. Respirator, $15,000 a day. We gave you a good deal, no? The rabbi starts crying. I mean, if you can't afford it... Then you can do a payment plan. Maybe you have insurance, something. Because I'm not crying about the money. I have the money. I'll get the money. Don't worry. So why are you crying, sir? Why are you crying? I'm crying that for three days of breathing, you charged me $45,000. How much do I owe Hashem for 60 years of letting me breathe for free? How much do I owe Him for 60 years? That's why I'm crying. A person understands how much stuff he's getting for free, he falls in love with Hashem. When does a person not love Hashem? When he's not thinking about what Hashem is giving him. He's thinking about what Hashem is not giving him. Oh, come on, Hashem, how come You didn't give me this new car? How come you don't say, how come, Hashem, how come You didn't give me this eye? Because He gave it to you. What's worth more, the eye or the car?

1:36:12How about this? We'll make a trade. Hashem is going to give you the car, but we'll take your eye instead. Good trade or no? No, no, are you crazy? No, I don't need to drive. I'll take a bus. Why? But you were just crying about the car. You were crying about the car. You were crying to Hashem, saying Hashem is unfair, right? So I said, I'll give you a car. But I'll take the eye though, because you don't want the eye. You don't appreciate the eye. No, no, I can't have both. I didn't say you can't have both. You're complaining about what you don't have, but you weren't saying thank you for what you do have. So at the very least, either you give back what you got, because you didn't say thank you, or start saying thank you for what you have. We are very focused on what we don't have. That's why we're miserable. People are miserable because of stuff they don't have. But if you ask them, what do you have? Well, I have what everybody else has. What do you have? Give me a list. I don't know. I have a lot of stuff. No, no, no. Give me a list. Give me a list. What stuff do you have? I have a house. Your house? Yeah, yeah. I just owe a little bit on the mortgage, but it's my house. Wow. You know that a good 90% of the world's population doesn't own a house?

1:37:27Oh, well, okay, that's pretty cool, I guess. Yeah, well, oh, thanks, Hashem. Okay, what else do you have? I have a husband. Oh, you know how many women I know that can't find a husband? They're 30, 40, 50 years old, looking for a husband, can't find him. Right, Hashem didn't just decide no husband yet, your husband... Oh, well, yeah, I feel bad for them. No, no, no, forget about feeling bad. No, don't worry, Hashem will take care of them. But you have a husband. You have what a lot of people don't have. Oh, yeah, yeah, I guess so. Thanks, Hashem. Yeah, yeah. What else do you have? Oh, I got four kids. Oh, you have four kids. You know how many couples are married for 10, 15 years with no kids? I know one couple, one couple—they're having a kid after 14 years of trying right now. 14 years they waited. 14 years they waited to have their first kid. 14 years. ...you have four and you still have room for more if you want. "No, I'm gonna take birth control pills, Rabbi. I'm not ready for more kids." "You have four kids. You have so many kids, and you don't want any more? What else do you have?" "Oh, I have a regular job." "A job? You know that they just announced on CNBC that 20.5 million people lost their jobs..."

1:38:48The worst statistic in history: 20 million people lost their jobs in America. Not in the world. In America, 20 million people lost their jobs. You have a job? You're richer than all those 20 million people. Oh. Yeah, well, you know, my job is... No, no, no, forget about your job. Don't give me the logistics of why you have the job. Hashem doesn't say you have a job. But you have a job. Yeah, He pays you every two weeks. Yeah. Baruch Hashem. You have a job? I know some people don't have a job. If you don't have a job, give them the job. You don't want the job? I got some people who would take your job in a second. They don't even know what your job is, but they'll take it. No, no, my job expertise, you know, I need to, I need to, you know, you need to, oh, wait, wait a minute, it's a special job? It's like a career, it's like a something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, how much do you make? I don't know, in a good month, maybe 15, 20,000 a month. Oh, so now you have a job, you're actually on a higher level, middle, higher-income type of person. Do you know that if you make 300,000 a year... You are in the top 1% of income earners in the entire world of 8 billion people. 1%. $300,000. You’re one of the 1% richest people in the world. Oh, you don’t have to be a billionaire for that? Not even a millionaire. You make $300,000 a year, you’re one of the richest people in the world. Wow, never really looked at it that way. Oh, well, I guess I’m kind of rich then.

1:40:10I got more than that. Oh, oh, oh. You take a shem for that? Yeah, you know, I give tzedakah. No, no, I didn't ask you if you give tzedakah. You take a shem for that. Because you were just complaining about the car. So let's continue. No, I get the point. No, no, no, no, no. Let's see what else you have. You have any food in your fridge? Yeah, I got food. What do you got in your fridge? I got some bunch of stuff. Oh, you know how many people don't have food? You know how many people don't have food? You know, there's people in Africa. They wait for shipments to come from different countries. Why? They don't have any food. In a certain part in Africa, I saw with my own eyes, they eat mud. Mud they eat. Mud. That's what they eat. Why? They can't afford food. They eat mud. They make plates. They make little plates, and they heat them up with fire, and they eat it. That's their food. That's their food. You eat tomatoes, potatoes; you have so much, you throw them out. Oh yeah, I think this is bad. Yeah, I don't think it's bad. They'll take your bad. Why? Because they're eating mud. Mud they eat. But you don't have enough. You don't have enough. What else do you have? What else do you have? I can't get the point. No, no, no, you didn't get the point. Let's go through the whole list. Let's go through the whole list. By the time you go through the whole list, the person is crying, forever complaining a day in their life.

1:41:25And all of that was free gifts from HaKadosh Baruch Hu that you barely ever said thank you for, if you said it at all. Why? You don't pay attention. Because we only pay attention to the glass that's half empty, not full. Not the fact that you're the only one with a glass, needless to say, a glass that has water in it. We look at what's missing and therefore we're ungrateful. a person looks at what they have and they start calculating all of the things they have, the miraculous way they attained them, and on top of that, the miracles around everything, the miracles that happen to them every single day. You will never be upset for something that you're lacking a single day in your life. To be unhappy because you don't have something material is outright stupidity, but not stupidity

1:42:25because you didn't go to school. Stupidity because you're choosing to pay attention to only the things that you're missing rather than all the things you have. It's stupidity by choice. This, Rabotai, is one of the epidemics that's destroying the most amount of lives. The rich and the poor alike. What do you think? The rich people don't suffer from the same exact thing I just told you? More, they suffer. Why? They compete with bigger things. They have a boat, but their friend just got a bigger boat. They hate their boat automatically. They have a plane, but their friend just got the next G5, the next G something, the next X-Men plane or whatever they got. They already hate their plane. Yeah, who's going to ride in such a plane? What do you mean, who's going to ride in a plane? Everybody else? No, no, this plane's not good enough for me. Why not? What, you need to fly faster? What do you mean? You going to outer space? What do you need a better plane for? It's old. It's three years old. Planes are supposed to last 30 years. Yeah, but you know, Rabbi, you know. Show off miserable, you can die miserable. Even if you get a spaceship, you're that miserable. Why? You're looking at everything you don't have, and that's what the Gemara in Masechet Sukkah says: A person that loves money will never have enough money, and no person ever died with even half of what he desired.

1:43:54Why? Because you're desiring money, you're never going to have enough. It's okay to have stuff. It's wrong to desire it, to live for it. If your whole day is made up of just wanting stuff, it's a miserable life. If your whole day is calculating and counting how much stuff you have, it's a miserable life. You're looking for the next laptop. What's wrong with your current laptop? I don't know, it's good, but you know, it's old. Does it work? Does it work? Does it function? Yeah, no, I guess it does. What is the new one going to do other than look cooler? Does it go on the internet faster? No, the internet has nothing to do with the laptop, Rabbi. It's the internet, don't you know that? No, no, I do. I'm asking you. Oh, what does it do then? What does it do, this laptop? Does it fly to make coffee for you? No, what, the background's cooler? What's going to happen with this new laptop? Oh, it's a little faster. How much faster? Where are you racing to? How much faster on Yom Kippur also? Yeah, maybe I don't need it. No, no, you need it. But why do you need it? Why do you need it? If you could give a legitimate reason why you need it, I'll buy it for you. But why do you need it? I just want it. I just want it. It's a desire. That's going to kill you. You buy it, you're killing yourself. You buy it, you're going to kill yourself. Why? It's never going to end. If you buy things purely based on desire and not need, you're going to kill yourself.

1:45:22Because it's never going to end. You're going to buy that laptop. You're going to buy that car. You're going to buy that house. I know, trust me. I had money. You're going to buy stuff? You're going to kill yourself. Why? It's never going to be enough. Because the minute you have it, you have that instant gratification. Yeah, I got it. Tick, tick, tick. All of a sudden, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. You never typed in your life. All of a sudden, you want to type a story because you got a new laptop. Tick, tick, tick. After a week, who wants to use this thing? After a week, you're back to your phone. Back to the text messaging again. Who needs this thing? You're bored already. After a week, the brand new car that cost you $100,000 is just like a regular toot-toot. It's the same thing. You don't even wash it after two months. Who cares? In the beginning, the tires, you're cleaning the tires. The tires you're cleaning. Because it's a brand new car, you want to make sure you can see your reflection on the black tire. After two, three months, who cares if it's dirty? Who cares? Put it in the garage, yell "I'll take a cab." Why? It's faster. I know, I had one of those cars. You know when I used it? Almost never. The guy at the garage says, "Why do you have a car?" I said, "I don't know. I just bought it, so what am I going to do with it? I have it already." "Good, but you never use it, sir." I say, "Yeah, I use it, you know, like once every three months." Why? "It's there. Will I buy it again? No."

1:46:42It wasn't even that expensive of a car. The point is that it was still a stupid, useless desire. If you buy things based on desire, you're killing yourself slowly. If you buy things based on need, enjoy—go ahead. Even if you enjoy them, no problem—go ahead. But to buy things based on desire is killing yourself, killing yourself. This is the number one reason why we buy stuff most of the time. become addicted to stuff. We want to buy stuff because we want it, but in reality, we don't need it. So once we have it, after a while, the rush is over. we'll use it becomes waste and what ends up happening, what's the killing part? Okay, so what's the big deal? I bought myself an extra few dresses, I bought myself an extra few hundred pairs of shoes, I bought myself an extra few hundred dollar bags. So what if I have a little extra? What's the big deal, Rabbi? Not to enjoy? No, no, you're allowed to enjoy, but you're not gonna enjoy it. That's what I'm telling you. The more you buy, the less you're gonna enjoy. Why? Because the instant gratification that you're getting in the beginning when you first buy your expensive item, your expensive bag, your expensive car, your expensive whatever, that joy is going to deteriorate the next time you buy something. In the beginning, you got gratification out of it for a few months. The second time you bought something, you're getting it for two weeks. After a while, you get gratification for literally a second. You bought a car; the next day, you want to return it.

1:48:09The guys that have 30 cars and you see them on TV and stuff. Do you think they really want 30 cars? No, they hate all of them. They just bought everything they could afford. There's nothing else. But the second you show them something else, they'll buy it too. And guess what? They'll get bored of it an hour later. To be a rich person with all of your desires is the worst state of existence known to man. Why? You have no hope left. You have no hope left. You have no fantasy left. Hence the reason why suicide is a rich person's problem. So who's the rich one that the Mishnah says? Someone that's happy with their share. What's your share? You have a breath of fresh air? Say Baruch Hashem. What was the last thing? Baruch Hashem. Did anybody interrupt my fresh air? Nobody interrupted. I got fresh air for free. Fresh air for free. The guy paid $45,000 to get fresh air for three days, and it's not even fresh from a machine. But we get it for free, and we barely even say thank you. Needless to say, we complain about the stuff we don't have. Now, the Borei Olam is merciful, so therefore He knows His creations are a bunch of little, stupid children that don't know how to say thank you until they come to a shiur at nine o'clock at night and...

1:49:39But, that doesn't mean He's going to wait forever. He tells you, you are obligated to love your God, even if you don't know that you are obligated to love your God. You are obligated to fear your God, even if you don't know you are obligated to fear your God. But now that you know, the obligation has increased. So now that you've watched this shiur, your obligation has increased. My obligation has increased. What obligation? Say thank you. How can we say thank you? Notice everything you have. That's where you start. You have fresh air? Baruch Hashem. Next time you take fresh air? Baruch Hashem. Before you start your day, before your parnassah, before you worry about going to pray, before anything. Baruch Hashem. In reality, you know what we're supposed to do? Every time we get fresh air. 15,000 times, say Baruch Hashem. Because if you didn't have that breath of air, if you didn't have that fresh breath of air, you wouldn't live. Miss it, skip it, a few times, finished. Go ahead, try to hold your breath for 10 minutes, let's see. We'll test the system. If it works, we'll use it for our next movie. Yehoshua, we'll show you, we'll film you. The next time you breathe fresh air, you say, thank you very much for giving me something priceless for free.

1:51:03For free. That's what David HaMelech is trying to tell us here: "My soul thirsts for the Lord, for the living God." When he continues to reflect on these same matters for the rest of creation, he will immediately recoil in awe and fear. You start noticing, wow, how much I need Hashem for air. I need Him. He starts appreciating how tiny and lowly and dark a creature he is, standing with his flimsy, limited wisdom before He who is of perfect knowledge. That's what the Rambam writes here. The more you understand the Creator, the more you realize how much of a nothing you are. People think that I'm being offensive when I tell them that they're nothing. No, that's what the halacha is. You're a nothing. If you think you're a something, you're even less than a nothing. And it's not a compliment to be less than that. When a person understands how flimsy and limited he is, and his wisdom is, and his desires are, and his addictions are, in comparison to the One who is with perfect knowledge, as David HaMelech says in Tehillim 8, verses 4 and 5, "When I see Your heavens..."

1:52:27The work of Your fingers, I wonder, what is man that You should recall him? David says to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, I see all the wonderful things You created. Why do You even bother dealing with man? You're so majestic, so perfect. What do You even need us for? We don't make anything for You. We don't do anything for You. We're not adding anything to You. Why did You even bother? We still don't have an answer for that, by the way. All the answers you have are just possibilities. The real answer, we don't know. You can say the answer is that He's good, so therefore He creates good, but that's not the real answer. The real answer, we'll know when Moshiach comes. Why? Because He's perfect. So, in essence, the good creates good, He's good, so He can create good in any other way. Why have a bunch of people that have the option to sin and so on? David HaMelech has the same question. He goes, Hashem, what do You even need us for? And the fact that you created such a chesed, such a kindness. You give us everything for free. You give us air for free. Somebody asked me, "Listen, I didn't ask to be created. So why do I need to serve Hashem?" Okay, so just die then. "No, no, I don’t want to die." Oh, so you want to live. Okay, you want to live. There's a price. Maybe you didn't want to be created, or at least in your mind, you didn't want to be created. You didn't ask to be created. But now that you're alive, you want to stay alive, right? Okay, so you have to pay. You have to pay.

1:53:54maybe you didn't want to be a citizen of this country, but now that you live in this country, you have to obey the rules. You don't obey the country? Go to the Congo. Live with the monkeys over there, with the gorillas. They'll put you there, right in the jungle, over there. You and the gorillas over there make best friends. We'll make the next movie: "Congo 2." You'll be the featured actor, or food, or something. well, you don't want to live with the rules of America or Israel or whatever country you live in. You want to live like in a zoo, right? Okay, we'll put you in a zoo. It has to be created, which is bogus. Fine. Forget about that. We'll forget about that. You're alive. You want to stay alive? You have to comply with the rules. So now... Based on these concepts, the Rambam writes, I will explain important principles regarding the deeds of the Master of the Worlds, to provide a foothold for a person of understanding, to develop love for God, as our sages said regarding love. In this matter, you will recognize He who spoke and thus brought the world into being. So, the rest of this perek in the Mishneh Torah, the Rambam writes different things that a person would read and understand.

1:55:13The different purposes of how to love God, but we've already got enough of a taste of it. It is highly recommended for anyone to read the rest of it. But when we hear what David HaMelech, the King Messiah himself, says to Hashem, did you even bother? And we're talking about the highest human being that lived in the last three thousand years, the most perfect human being, David HaMelech. The most perfect human being that's lived in the last three thousand years, one of the most perfect in history. Even he himself says, in his perfection, in his height, in his glory as a majesty, "Why even bother with me? I'm nothing." If he, in his level of righteousness... And wisdom is nothing. She says, "I'm a worm but not a man." Surely we have to ask ourselves, instead of asking, "Why didn't Hashem give me more money?" or "Why didn't Hashem give me the zivug?" or "Why didn't Hashem make me this?" or "Why didn't Hashem make me that?" Surely we should ask something more. "Why did Hashem make me b’chalal and continue to let me exist even though I'm not serving Him even 10% as well as David HaMelech?"

1:56:29And that should lead us to say, wait a minute, you know what? The fact that He is, I should at least say thank you. And that's why David HaMelech wrote at the end of Tehillim, the last Tehillim, as I told you, if the Chachamim write something first or last, there's a reason for it. In the last Tehillim, 150, the last verse, David HaMelech says, "Let all souls praise God, Halleluyah." But the Chachamim say, "Let all the souls" is also "Kol Neshima," every breath. should praise Hashem. Every time you breathe, it should really be an obligation of you saying, "Baruch Hashem." You shouldn't be allowed to talk at all without saying, "Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem." That's what we should be doing. Because in reality, you need the breath so much, at the very least you should be thanking Hashem for it. At the very least. So,

1:57:43When a person understands this, he understands his obligation. He understands how much he needs to do teshuva for all the times he complained. And he has to start doing teshuva. Now, the Chafetz Chaim says, when there's the unfortunate event where a couple needs to get divorced, you have to bring witnesses, two witnesses. In Judaism, there always have to be two witnesses. One witness is not enough. But more than that, they have to be kosher witnesses. If they are mechalel Shabbat, they cannot be a kosher witness. If they are missionaries or messianics, they cannot be a kosher witness. If they are idol worshippers, they cannot be a kosher witness. They lend money with charging interest cannot be a kosher witness. If they gamble, they cannot be a kosher witness. Now, you're not going to know everything about everybody. So, what do they do when they bring these people to the Beit Din? They say, do teshuvah. Do teshuvah in case you're doing something wrong. Do teshuvah right now, read the Tachanun, do serious teshuvah. Therefore, you as the witnesses will be valid witnesses. Because we can't investigate everything you do to know if you're valid or not, so do teshuvah right now.

1:59:01And they have to do teshuvah about these two people. The question is, why would they want to be witnesses? Why would they want to be witnesses? It says they pay them a little bit of money. Not because they pay them to be witnesses, because that would be bias. Rather, they pay them for their time. Opportunity cost, they call it. How much does your time cost? Oh, my time costs $20 an hour. Okay, so we'll pay you $20 for an hour. You're going to be here two hours, we'll pay you 40 bucks. How much does your time cost? Oh, I'm a high-end lawyer, my time is $300. Okay, there you go. Well, high-end, $1,000. But anyway, we'll pay you $2,000 for two hours. Oh, we'll just get a cheaper witness. But either way, we'll pay you for your time. The Chafetz Chaim says, look at this. People are willing to do teshuvah for $20. How much stuff is HaKadosh Baruch Hu giving you for free just to do teshuvah, and you still don't do it? At Tishrei, they paid you 20 bucks; you did teshuvah. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave you what? A house for half a million dollars, a car for 50,000, food at least a thousand dollars a month. The kids are gonna cost you a million dollars each just to get them to get out of your house.

2:00:20From birth to get out of the house, a million bucks each. How much did HaKadosh Baruch Hu give you just to do teshuvah? But for 20 bucks you're going to do teshuvah. Who's paying attention and who's not? When a person pays attention, he has everything to gain and nothing to lose. But sometimes we pay attention to the wrong things, to the minuscule things. And I'll give you two examples and we're finished. There was a tzaddik or the tzaddik that was mentioned in our Torah at one point, and his name was Tzlofchad. Tzlofchad wanted, for the sake of Heaven, to show Am Yisrael that violating Shabbat is not a joke. tzaddik or the tzaddik that was mentioned in our Torah at one point, and his name was Tzelofchad. Tzelofchad wanted, for the sake of Heaven, to show Am Yisrael that violating Shabbat is not a joke

2:01:23And therefore, he violated the first Shabbat. Now, the Torah calls it Mekoshesh Etzim. Mekoshesh Etzim, the wood gatherer. And it's in Parashat Shelach, in chapter 15 of Numbers, Bamidbar, verses 32 to 36. Now, this is the first Shabbat, Mechalel Shabbat. This was the second Shabbat after we got the Torah. But after this, the tzaddik didn't sin because he wanted to go against Hashem. He just wanted to show everybody else that Hashem is serious about Chilul Shabbat. And the Chachamim say he shouldn't have done that. He got punished. And it's a machloket between Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Akiva, whether he has a share in the World to Come or not, and whether he was reincarnated in somebody else. not the time to discuss, but nonetheless, when he gets caught violating Shabbat, they bring him to Moshe, and Moshe goes to ask Hashem, "What should we do with him?" Now, surely Moshe knows it's a death penalty. Surely, Moshe knows it's a death penalty because the Torah says to kill him—death penalty.

2:02:51So the Chachamim ask, why is Moshe asking, what should we do with him? And the reason is because of what we read in this week's parasha, this past week. At the end of the parasha, in Parashat Emor, there was a situation with the blasphemer. A woman by the name of Shlomit, who was a Very, very friendly Jewish woman in Egypt. A Jewish woman was very friendly with everybody. Wrong idea. Say hi to everybody. It's not your husband. It's not women. Bad idea. Where do we learn it from? Shlomit. Shlomit said hi. Hi. Hi. How are you? How's your wife? Hi, everything. Hi. Hi. Hi. No, you've said to normal people, to normal women. No, no problem. But guys are not normal sometimes. You say hi to them, they think you want to be with them. And that's what the Egyptian thought. She said hi to me because she likes me. So I'm going to be with her. So what did he do? The Egyptian went into her house at 3 o'clock in the morning, told her husband, "Yalla, get out. You have to go work." "Yeah, but work is not for another hour and a half." "No, no, go to work now." He sends her husband out of the house so he can come back inside and be with her.

2:04:15She didn't know it was the Egyptian; he entered the house, sent the husband away, and so on. In essence, he raped her, and there was a son that came out of this. This son was a Jew, but the father of this child was a Mitzri (an Egyptian). So the son did not belong to any shevet (tribe). He did not belong to any particular tribe because the tribe is determined by the father, not the mother. So the son went to the tribe, one of the tribes, and said, "No, no, you're not part of us." Why? It doesn't go by the mother. So he went to another tribe, and they said, "Oh, you're not part of us. You can't just pick whatever you want." So the son of this rape got so upset, he said, "Why did you do this to me, Hashem?" And he cursed Hashem. Something that people do almost daily. At the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, was called the generation of da'at, which means that Hashem gave us a tighter rope. Make a sin, get punished on the spot. As soon as he cursed Hashem, he got caught, he got put in jail, and prepared for the death penalty. Why curse Hashem? Why did he curse Hashem? Because he was looking at what he was missing. What was he missing? He was missing a tribe.

2:05:37Instead of looking at the fact that he's part of the chosen people, one of the chosen people, one of the greatest people that ever lived in history. Not just the chosen people, but the generation of Da'at that received the Torah. You heard God's voice. You saw God's voice. Instead of paying attention to that, that your leader is Moshe Rabbeinu, who speaks to Hashem face to face. He's your rabbi. Instead of paying attention to that, you pay attention to what? I don't have a tribe. I don't have a tribe. What happened to him? Death penalty. Lost his right to live. Now, how does this connect to the story of the Mechalel Shabbat? At the same time, Tzelafchad violated Shabbat. Same time. Before this guy was sentenced, Tzelafchad violated Shabbat. So they said to Moshe Rabbeinu, what do we do with him? He goes, let me ask God. What do we do with him? Why? Because the blasphemer that cursed God surely gets a death penalty. But I don't know if it's as bad as the Mechalel Shabbat. Because the Mechalel Shabbat, surely he gets the worst death penalty: sekilah, the worst death penalty that exists. But I'm not sure that the blasphemer that cursed God is as bad as the Mechalel Shabbat.

2:06:58Because if we put them in the same cell, the blasphemer, the one that cursed God, will suffer more than he deserves. Yeah, he's going to get the death penalty. But maybe he doesn't deserve the same death penalty. And he's going to think he's going to get the same death penalty as that guy. He's going to be afraid 1% more than he's supposed to be. That's extra suffering. He doesn't deserve that. Why does the blasphemer deserve less of a death penalty than the Mechalel Shabbat? Why? My idea was, and I believe this is a myth, while the blasphemer is cursing G-d, at least he is acknowledging He exists. While the Mechalel Shabbat, the Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat, is in essence saying G-d doesn't exist. You see, Rabotai, every single one of our mitzvot, has not just what's on the outer surface that we can see but things that are much, much deeper. If we do not learn how to appreciate every single breath of fresh air that we have, it becomes a domino effect where eventually we stop appreciating G-d altogether, like this blasphemer.

2:08:15Instead of being grateful that he has a breath of fresh air, that he lives in a generation of knowledge, that he's a part of Am Yisrael, that his rabbi is Moshe Rabbeinu, that the other rabbi is Aharon HaKohen, Yehoshua Bin-Nun, the seven elders, HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself, Mount Sinai. He's not a slave anymore. Instead of appreciating everything he has, he's getting money from Shamayim, Ribbono Shel Olam. You don't even have to work. There's food coming right to your house and it tastes like whatever you want. Instead of appreciating that, he'll say, oh, I don't have a tribe. I don't have a stamp. I don't have a flag on my coffee cup. On my Coca-Cola, it doesn't have a flag. I'm missing that flag. The whole thing is worse. I don't want it. I don't want it. If it's not going to be like I want, I don't want it. And guess what? That guy? Horrible, right? Mechalel Shabbat, even worse. Mechalel Shabbat, even worse.

2:09:17So, Be'ezrat Hashem, this too will give us a little bit more chizuk to take advantage of all of the opportunities and the endless gifts that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us, has given us in the past, gives us in the present, and Be'ezrat Hashem will give us in the future. Not because we want the gifts, but because we need them. We need them to breathe, We need them to exist. We need them to serve Him. And ultimately, we need them to fear Him and to fall in love with Him. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.