Chibut HaKever (The Beatings Of The Grave) - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (10)

0:12We're happy to be here at Netzach Avraham, here in Aventura. We're continuing our series on Igeret HaRamban, a letter that was written by the Ramban to his son almost 900 years ago, 850 years ago approximately, that has an enormous amount of Mussar, an enormous amount of teachings that we've been going over the last couple of months, line by line. And you can see the depth of the letter. You know, when you write letters today, usually people don't write letters. They write text messages, and they don't even usually spell the words. See, the Ramban picked his words very, very carefully, and there's a lot to learn from them. Today's shiur will also be for Ilui Nishmat, Rabbi Nissim Eliyahu ben Leor. Also for a refuah shlema for Avi Mori, David ben Nesirah. My dear mother, Doris bat Jorah. Rabbi Efraim ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sarah bat Anat, Rabbanit Levana bat Sarah, and all of Am Yisrael, by the Lord of the Shem, have refuah shlema, refuat ha-nefesh. So, the Ramban, HaKadosh, has written us a letter; it's not just to his son, it's to his sons. The Gemara says that anyone that teaches another person's son Torah

1:36It's as if it's his son. It's as if it's his son. Anyone that gets somebody to come back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and do teshuva, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "You'll be like My mouth." So the Chachamim say, what does it mean you're going to be like My mouth? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, just like I spoke and created the world, when you spoke to him and revived his neshama, it's as if you recreated him. So you and Me are partners. You are like his G-d. You're his Creator. So, it's extremely important to take care of our bodies. A person needs to make sure he doesn't put any poison in his body, no drugs, doesn't eat too much, and doesn't do anything that's bad for him. Somebody sent me a question on the way here about a certain type of supplement, and he's asking whether he's allowed to take it or not because it has pig in it.

2:37And it's not actually such a simple question. On one hand, you can say no automatically, but in reality, there could be a heter if it doesn't have taste, doesn't have any flavor. But the point is, Rabotai Yekarim, is that bodies, we know, each one of us knows that we need to take care of it. Some of us do a better job than others. But what we forget is that no matter what you do, no matter how well you take care of your body. You can go to the gym for nine hours a day. When I was a kid, I used to go to the gym every morning and sometimes at night and had a fantastic physique. The neshama, on the other hand, not so much. Not so much. Why? The neshama doesn't get any benefit out of you lifting weights. The neshama doesn't get any benefit out of you running 15 miles in the morning. just to get your day going. Your neshama doesn't benefit from you riding a bicycle for 30 miles and breaking a sweat. It doesn't get any benefit out of it. The neshama, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, your soul, only gets a benefit if you learn Torah and you fulfill mitzvot. If you connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So we know that we have to take care of our health physically, but we always say, we need health for our neshama, but also for our guf.

4:05But if we had to pick one, it's better than nefesh, not guf. Why? Because no matter what you do, at some point or another, that body that you took care of, and you toiled over, and you lifted weights, and you lifted houses, and you lifted bicycles, and you rode the bicycle, no matter what you do, everyone, Hashem, at some point, their clock runs out. My cousin was 23 years old when his clock ran out a little over a year ago. Misken, poor kid. Didn't know who Hashem was even. His father knew what a hundred million dollars looked like, but he didn't know who Hashem was either. We'll talk about him. Another cousin that I have, what was it, about a month ago, his time ran out at 50. Fifty years old. Some people, their time is a little longer. Seventy, seventy-five, eighty-five, ninety-five. Rav Kaduri, alav hashalom. My Rav says he was 100 years old for at least 20 years. Everybody says, yeah, he's 100. Yeah, but you've been saying he's 100 for 15 years already. He goes, yeah, after 100 we stop counting. Some say he died at 104. Some say 106. Some say 116. No one knows. Why? After 100 you stop counting. But this is a life that's worth living. Why? Connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu all day, all night. Your mind is still there when you're about to leave this world.

5:34Some people at 65, 70 years old, they already want to leave this world because their mind already left years ago. Why? Because it was a sick neshama, a sick soul. Because they didn't give it the cure. So no matter what we do, Rabotai, not to depress us, but to just give us a little bit of a reality check, no matter how much you work on this guf of yours, this body of yours, at some point that body will become useless. and the only thing that you'll have left is what you had before you came to this world, which is the neshama. If you worked on your neshama during your life, you'll have an eternity of good. An eternity of good, of pleasure, like no other. If you take all of the good, that every human being ever had, from the beginning of the world until the end of the world. Just the good they had, not the difficulties. Everybody has difficulties. But let's say everybody has one minute, two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes of good every day. Seventy years of ten minutes. Take his good, his good, everybody's good, from the beginning of the world until now. Right now there are almost eight billion people. Last generation, six and a half billion. Generation before that, five billion. Generation before that, three billion. And so on and so forth. All the way. Take all of the good that everybody ever had.

6:49Just the good, put it in a little box. That's not even one hour of the good of a tzaddik in the next world. But as HaKadosh Baruch Hu does what He does and He says, I don't think like you, I don't have limitations like you, and even though I'm a loving God, and even though I'm a merciful God, and even though I'm a patient God, Most of these only apply to this world. Meaning, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has patience for us to do teshuvah despite our many sins. He'll give us another chance, another chance, another chance. In this world. In the next world, there's no more patience. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is merciful. Because despite that sometimes a word against Hashem comes out, once in a while by accident, sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidentally on purpose. We say something against Hashem, Hashem says, I'll be patient, I'll be merciful, I'll give you another chance. But that is in this world. In the next world, when a neshama leaves this world, there's no more mercy.

8:09...end me that the mercy, there's no attribute of mercy in the next world. Just like Hashem has the ultimate love for His people, unfortunately, when a person leaves this world, it's pure judgment. If you are a tzaddik or a tzaddeket, you're praiseworthy, your share is praiseworthy. You're going to have so much good that you're going to say, "It's enough, Hashem, enough, so much good." Unfortunately, if a person didn't do anything, continued being a Mechalel Shabbat, continued driving to the Beit Knesset on Shabbat, continued going with Goyot, continued touching women without being married, continued touching his wife without her going to the Mikveh, which unfortunately, a recent statistic from 2017 said that 51% of Modern Orthodox people, people that consider themselves frum, 51% testified that their wives don't go to the mikveh. Hashem yerachem. It explains a lot of how this generation is so difficult. He keeps doing it. She keeps doing it. She keeps walking around like she's some runway model. The clothes, half of them are at home, half of them aren't hers. You're not really sure. Maybe you should combine the two, make a real outfit. You want to keep doing it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, when the time runs out...

9:33Judgment, judgment, the only thing that arrives is judgment. If you did good, you'll get paid for good. If you did bad, unfortunately, you get paid for bad. Now, I know people don't like to talk about this, but we always go to the chachamim. We always go to the tzaddikim. We always go to the Gemarot. What do they teach? If you look at the Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah, at the end of page 16b and the beginning of 17a, it mentions it twice: that the righteous can have a benefit and a reward for eternity, while the wicked can have a punishment. and suffering for eternity. Meaning just like HaKadosh Baruch Hu's love and reward can be eternal and unlimited, the wrath of G-d is also unlimited. Now you're going to hear sometimes people that call themselves rabbis on the internet say, "No, what, eternal Gehinnom, no, that doesn't make any sense."

10:39Like somebody showed me a clip last night of some Santa Claus guy that calls himself a rabbi. And he says, "Nah, what? Gehinnom forever? Nah, it doesn't make any sense." Now, this may not mean so much to you. You say, "Oh, well, so what? He said it. What's the big deal?" Well, by saying such a thing, that means that you violated all four corners of the Torah. The written Torah, the oral Torah, the Halacha, and even the Midrashim and the Chassidut. All of the Chassidim, all of the Tana'im, all of the Tzaddikim, all of the Kedoshim, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself testify in the Torah in all of these places that there is such a thing as eternal punishment. You can look at the Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva, chapter 8, Halacha number 5. The Rambam says that certain people get eternal punishment. You look at Gemara; this is the foundation of our Oral Torah. 16b and 17a both say that certain people, whose judgment is so severe because they died as Mechallelei Shabbat. They died without doing teshuva. They died having committed critical sins of the Torah, such as touching another man's wife. Even after Mashiach comes, their Gehenom will not be extinguished. This means it is eternal.

12:02look at Halacha; it mentions that someone who goes against the Kadosh to such an extent has no share in the World to Come. What does it mean, no share in the World to Come? Does it mean he just sits there like he's in the playground by himself while everybody else plays somewhere else? No, my friends, no share in the World to Come is just another way for our Chachamim to explain to us what it means. It’s just another term for it. You look at the Baal Shem Tov, you look at his Chassidim, they mentioned it. We reviewed in one of our shiurim over 1,400 sources from Chassidut on how they talk about Gehenom. Meaning, Rabotai, this is not an opinion. This is what Torah is. You could also look at Parashat Ki Tisa, Parashat Ki Tavo, just a few that mention that there's a place of punishment that doesn't end. Or you could just look at the parasha from two weeks ago. Look at what Rashi says about where Korach is till this day. The ground opened up and swallowed Korach and the 250 rabbis that followed him.

13:17Because they said, "Oh, maybe Moshe Rabbeinu is not such a good rabbi. He rebukes us all the time." So, you look at what Rashi says over there. Rashi says that Korach and all of his followers went to Gehenom, and they're still there to this day. And there's a machloket, there's a debate, of maybe, maybe, Hashem will eventually take him out. Maybe. Maybe. Based on the Pasuk Tzadik, the last letters. But nonetheless, he's there. The point is, Rabotai Yekarim, Ge'enom is not Kabbalistic. It's not something that only a few know. It's basic level Judaism that unfortunately is almost unheard of in this generation. Now, if you look at some of the ma'amarim, some of the questions that were asked to Rav Ovadia, alav ha-shalom. They asked Rav Ovadia, and he wrote a ma'amar about it. What about Ge'enom? He says, the minhag is to start teaching about Ge'enom at six years old. At six years old, you know, some people start earlier.

14:31He says the minhag is to start at six years old. You already teach the kid about Ge'enom. Why? If he knows that there is a place of punishment at six years old, you're not going to have to remind him at 60. Why? It's already ingrained in him. It's already ingrained in him. Which means that being afraid is actually part of our servitude of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It's part of our Avodat Hashem. That's why the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 31b, says HaKadosh Baruch Hu only created the world in order for you to fear Him. In order for you to fear Him. Why? Because if you fear Him, you will serve Him. If you don't fear Him, you won't serve Him. You'll serve yourself. What is it like Before we go into some scary things that happen before Gehinnom, there was a group of brothers sitting in a house just joking around, and the father said, "Somebody give me a cup of water."

15:44So the kids are like, "Wait, it's a big mitzvah. We just learned in yeshiva. Okay, now it's a big mitzvah. Who's going to take it?" So one of the brothers says, "Let's bid for it, like they do in a big Knesset. You know, you want to buy. Let's do bids." So one guy says, "$10." Another says, "$20, $30, $40, $50." They get to $100. $100 already for young kids is a lot of money. He's like, "Oh, I got it. Okay, you win." the kid says, "Abba, I want the aliyah. I want it. I want this. I'm giving it to you." "Go make yourself some water. Go get yourself some water." You know, sometimes people, they buy an aliyah for kavod. They buy it for somebody else; they just pay for it. It's nice. These kids didn't realize you're not supposed to do that. You can't just buy the mitzvah and give it to somebody else. Sometimes a person comes to this world for 60, 70 years... He says "Baruch Hashem" and "Be'ezrat Hashem" and all types of songs about Hashem, but in reality, all he's doing is serving himself. Serving himself. Now, I don't like to, as much as people think otherwise, I don't like to teach scary things, but unfortunately, a big part of the Torah is scary. And what we got to in this letter is a scary part. Now, today is going to be a scary shiur.

17:11So I'm just giving you a disclosure. It's not for the faint of heart, but all of you need to hear it at least one time in your life. The Ramban over here says, The Ramban in this letter is using a Mishnah in Pirkei Avot, Chapter 3, Mishnah 1, where Akavya ben Mehalalel says that the fear of God will intensify in your heart as you work on some of the things we talked about last week. You work on your humility, you work on your Yirat Shamayim. Just in case the system fails, like you have a yetzer hara, there's a girl that's like half naked, you really want to look, it just appeared on your computer, just appeared by itself, you didn't press the button, it just appeared by itself, it's a commercial. You said, "I'm not pressing any buttons," but it appears nonetheless. You press 'X' or do you take a look and then press 'Y' and press this and press this, and next thing you know, you're on that channel for three hours.

18:26She says she likes you and she really wants to do teshuva, but she really wants to be boyfriend-girlfriend before you get married. It's a nice yetzer hara to have. The guy says, listen, no one's gonna know. Just take the money. The client has millions. You steal 100, 200,000 from him, he's not gonna notice. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu notices. So when your humility doesn't kick in, the Torah says that Yirat Shamayim is the only thing that's going to save you. How do you have Yirat Shamayim? He says the fear of G-d will intensify in your heart by using this very simple tool. The Gemara says first, in Masechet Berachot, first, Try to grab a book of Torah. Try to grab some Torah, some Gemara, some Chumash, something. Press play on one of the shiurim. Rabbi Yaron Reuven, Gehenom. Rabbi Yaron Reuven, Kaf HaKela. Rabbi Yaron Reuven, one of those scary shiurim. Press play. That doesn't work. The play doesn't work. The computer's not next to you. Say Shema Yisrael. Say Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Why? Remind yourself there's a God that's watching. Sometimes it doesn't work.

19:44Sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes the Shema Yisrael, it's like, "Thank you, Hashem." You don't even realize what you're saying. So, the Chachamim say, after this, Yirat Shamayim intensifies in your heart, but sometimes it doesn't work. Think for a second about the day that you're going to die. gonna be a day anytime soon, but after 120, or whenever Hashem decides, shows up and says you're the next customer. So what's gonna happen then? Will you say, "Hey, what's up? High five! How you doing? How's it over there? Show me around!" What happens over there? I did a shiur about a year and a half ago, that, Baruch Hashem, became very popular and helped countless people do teshuva. It's called Gehenom. It's probably the scariest shiur you're ever going to see in your life in English, and most likely in any other language, but nonetheless, it instilled enough Yirat Shamayim in many people to get them away from a lot of big sins.

20:55Much of what I discussed in there came from across all over the Torah, but there was one particular section that we delved into more than others, which is the Reishit Chochmah, Masechet Gehenom. It's the book that was written a few hundred years ago. And he has in there a section called Masechet Gehenom, the tractate of Gehenom, what happens in Gehenom, all seven chambers and so on and so forth. Now this same book, this same book, which by the way is not No one translated it to English. Before that, it has, right before it. What's chibut hakever? It literally translates to the beatings of the grave. That's what it translates to. What happens after you die? You get beat up in the grave. What kind of beatings? That's what we're gonna go over today. Because at some point or another, we're gonna need to see this. Now, the Ramban writes here, the Mishnah, and he says, if the yetzer hara appears and you don't know what to do, then always be aware from where you have come and where you are destined to go. And you will realize that in life,

22:20You are as frail as the maggot or the worm, all the more so in death. Meaning that in life, what do you have? flesh and blood. If you took all the chemicals that make up a body, just all the chemical aspects of it, maybe somewhere between nine to thirteen dollars' worth of chemicals. That's what's in your whole body. Your whole body's nine to thirteen dollars, depending on the market, depending on where you buy, in the US or outside. Thirteen dollars, you're expensive already. Now you feel strong; a little stomach ache, all of a sudden you're nothing. A little too sick, all of a sudden you're nothing. Little grain of sand in your eye, all of a sudden, you're like hitting it, like somebody's beating you up. A little grain of sand is in your eye, and all of a sudden, all that hero, all that strength, all that, all of a sudden, nothing. It says you're so frail, like nothing. You have flesh and blood. What do you have? Fall off a bicycle, and the leg breaks into 15 pieces. What happened? The leg was really strong before the bicycle. So remember, you're nothing while you're here.

23:24he reminds us that you're afraid as a maggot or a worm. Why maggot or worm? All the more so in death. Chazal say this because the source for what he's saying is in the Mishnah, which talks about what happens after you die. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Niddah, page 16b says a story, a narration that happened to all of us, no matter if you're male, female, Jewish, not Jewish, tall, short, black, white, green, burgundy, whatever you are, it happened to all of us. The moment you were conceived, the moment the seed and the egg connected, the Gemara says there's a malach, an angel, that takes that seed, brings it up to Shamayim, and the angel's name is Laila. And Laila comes up to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and says, "Hashem, what will be with this seed? What will be with it? Will he be rich or poor? Will it be a he or a she? Will it be tall or short?"

24:47Will he be someone who is going to be smart or foolish? What will be with this seed? What's going to be with this one? Who's the zivug for this one? Everything that happens to this is decided already before it ever becomes a baby. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides at that moment who the zivug for that person is supposed to be unless they lose it because of bad decisions. Decide whether this person's gonna be rich or poor regardless of what business they're in. I know plenty of guys that work on Wall Street that still, to this day, collect tzedakah from the rest of their workmates because they can't make a living. And I know a guy that sold dog food and made hundreds of millions of dollars. Dog food. Made hundreds of millions of dollars from dog food. When I was a kid, we fed our dogs whatever was left. Apparently, it became a big business in America, a billion-dollar business. So, it doesn't matter what you do for a living. HaKadosh Baruch Hu already decides whether you're gonna be rich or poor. He decides whether you're going to be strong or weak. He decides whether you're gonna be able to see or not.

26:13He decides whether you're going to have good hearing or bad hearing. He decides everything for you. The only thing He does not decide, the only thing He does not tell this malach named Laila, is whether you're going to do what Hashem wants you to do or not. Why? That's your free choice. That's what you decide once you hear. But Laila comes to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and asks Him, "Hashem, what will be with this?" And all of us, experience this after Hashem decides. During the nine months that you're in your mommy's belly, there's an angel that's sitting next to you and teaching you the entire Torah. That's why sometimes you'll hear some divrei Torah that you never heard before, but you feel like you've heard it before. You never read it in a book, but you feel like you've heard it before. Why? Because you heard it before and You heard it before, but you never heard it before, but you heard it before. Why? It was in the belly. You know the entire Torah. In essence, all I'm doing is reminding all of you of what you already know. This angel sits with you, chavruta, for nine months. Aleph, Bet, Bereishit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, and so on and so forth. All of the books of the Torah.

27:42all of the Midrashim, all of the Gemarot, everything you learn. He tells you all of the mitzvot too. And before you leave, on the day of birth, he says, "You see me? You're going to see me again. If you fulfill everything we learned, I welcome you with open arms. But if you don't, I won't." Others will welcome you, and they're not so nice. Then he hits you on the top of the lip so you forget everything you've learned. That way you still have free choice. If you remembered everything you learned, you wouldn't have free choice; it would defeat the purpose of coming to the world. Now, after a person comes to this world, you, me, and everybody else that's watching, baruch Hashem,

28:45make many, many decisions. Some of those decisions are good; some of those decisions are foolish. But at some point, Hashem says, "Time's up, son. Come back to Abba." If you made the right decisions, you don't have much to worry about, other than there's going to be a little bit of pain in the beginning because there's kibbutz for everybody, but it's not the same level for everyone. So, what happens the moment you die? Now, the Zohar HaKadosh, Parashat Naso, page 127a, and also Parashat Vayakhel, page 99, say that There are seven levels of judgment at death. First is the type of death. How did you die? How did the person die? Did a truck hit him? Did he die from cancer? Did he die from some other type of disease? Did he die from old age? How did he die? Easy or difficult death. The Gemara in Masechet Berachot, page 8a,

30:11says that there are 903 different types of deaths in this world—903 different ways that a person can die. I'm not going to list all of them. After that, that's the first judgment: what kind of death you have. The second is the journey that takes place before death, before the actual burial, from the time a person dies until they get buried. What happens during that time? Third, whether people are going to show up to your funeral. Someone's going to say Kaddish. If the person that's going to say Kaddish is actually a kosher person or not. Because if it's not a kosher person, it's better off he doesn't say Kaddish. If it's not a person that keeps Shabbat, it's better off he doesn't say Kaddish. Why? Because you can't even say Amen to his Kaddish. Even if he's your son or he's your father or he's anybody, if he doesn't keep Shabbat, his Kaddish is worth nothing.

31:11Why? Because according to the Torah, someone who is considered an idol worshiper. So what, you want somebody that's an idol worshiper, that worships a different god, to go pray for you? After you die, who wants that? That's a problem for you. But if you have a righteous person say Kaddish for you, if you have a good Rav come to the funeral, give everybody chizuk, as Shlomo HaMelech says, it's better... to go visit someone at the time of death and mourning than to go to his party. Go to his wedding. Why? At a party, people make aveirot, people commit sins. No one does teshuva at parties, really. But at funerals, a few people are going to do teshuva. It's better to go to that. The third level of judgment is how you're deposited into the grave. it's the gate being deposited into the grave. They, in essence, take the body after they wrap it, and they put it into the grave. And that's, in essence, the gate that is leaving this world and entering the next world.

32:26For anyone who speaks Hebrew well, you should watch a series, I believe it's two or three lectures, by Rabbi Meir Eliyahu, a Talmid Chacham, that had a whole series about chibut hakever. The fourth is chibut hakever. The fourth is what happens to the person once they're actually in the grave. What kind of beating are they gonna get? What kind of suffering are they gonna have in the grave? Naturally, we're gonna say, "Wait a minute. What's suffering? We're talking about the guy's dead. She's dead. What's suffering?" The Gemara says that even though to everybody else the body is not moving, the heart is not pumping, the brain is not functioning, the eyes don't see, the ears don't hear, when you inflict pain on it... It feels it even more than it does in this world. Just like it hurts for you to prick yourself with a little pin, immediately you retract your hand, calculate 60 times that pain after a person dies. Now no one else sees, but it doesn't matter what anybody sees; that's what we feel.

33:58The fifth is what's going to happen with the maggots and the worms. The maggots, that's the rimah. The maggots eat the inner body, and the tole'ah is the worms that eat the outer body. This is not a pleasant experience. And the Gemara says in Masechet Berachot page 18 and also Shabbat 152 that the rimah, the maggots, are as painful as, like I said, a needle into the flesh. The sixth and seventh, which we've discussed in the past, or at least the sixth we have, which is after the person finishes this part, whether they go to heaven or to Gehenom, in Gehenom there are seven chambers, in heaven there's also seven chambers. And then there is the galut of the neshama, which is the seventh level of judgment. Now, the Zohar in Parashat Vayechi 199b says that after the body is thrown into the grave, which means that you've completed, we've completed the first three steps.

35:25Then, Parashat Nasso says that after everybody leaves, the levayah is over, all of the other dead, all of the other people that are there, all of the other neshamot that are there, they start yelling and screaming. Why? If you're a tzaddik or a tzaddeket, they celebrate. Oh, Baruch haba, Baruch haba. We have a tzaddik next to us, we have a tzaddeket next to us, she covered her hair, she covered her body, she did everything good, she gave tzedakah, she did chesed, she got shiurim together. Wow! Eize yofi! Baruch haba! Oh, woe to the rasha. All of the dead start screaming, "What are you doing here, you filthy beast?" And they start cursing him and yelling at him and yelling at her, "Get out of here!" As we learn, "Woe to the wicked and woe to his neighbor." Now,

36:45The Arizal and Sha'ar HaGilgulim is one of the primary sources that discusses what happens in the grave. Now, I generally don't teach Kabbalistic concepts, and a lot of this book is Kabbalistic material we're not going to go over anytime soon. But in chapter 23, he gives us some insights that are good for the shiur and good for everyone to know. He says that the beatings of the grave, which is what happens to a person after they die and they're buried in the ground, immediately after everybody leaves and all the neighboring souls are doing their yelling and screaming and so on, immediately four angels come, and they lower the ground of that grave and deepen it.

37:45and make it like a hollow to the height of the person that's buried there. And he uses the tractate Makkot as one of his sources. Then after they deepen it, they stand them up. They stand her up. Hopefully, you're not wearing a mini-skirt. Hopefully, you're not wearing a tank top. because then these angels, that don't have any aspect of mercy—they have "yes" and "no"—each of these angels mentioned holds an end of the body, similar to how you hold a garment, like you have a big garment, like one of, let's say, your bed sheets. ...want to put a big bed sheet on a king bed. Usually, you can't do it by yourself; usually, it's a couple of people. But if you want to do it in two seconds, get four people. You get this corner, you get that corner, you get that corner—finished. Or when you put a... you get this corner, that corner, that corner. That's how the angels hold the body. He's alive now; the soul's back in there, and they start shaking him just like you shake a bed sheet...

39:09they start beating him with sticks of fire, similar to the way a garment is held from its two ends and shaken. Why? To remove the dust that is stuck to it on the sheet. But on the body, on the soul, it's to remove the klipah that separates him from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. it's this klipah. The Arizal goes into it extensively here and throughout the book. The klipah—there are two types. There's one part of the klipah that is something that everyone has. This is from the original sin of Adam; we were all partners to it. It's a very thin layer of klipah in essence. You could use an analogy or some type of imaginary look that it's like a spiritual garment. A very thin spiritual garment that we all have. But the other one, that all depends on what kind of sins we made. The more sins a person makes, the thicker that garment is.

40:16And that person cannot go to the Beit Din of Shamayim until that garment is broken. And that garment is similar to a shell. It's not like a soft garment; it's a garment that's like a shell. And these angels shake them and hit them until it's broken. The thicker it is, the more difficult it is. So imagine someone that's a tzaddik. Someone that's a tzaddik, it's like an eggshell. All you gotta do is tap it in the right place, and it breaks. Someone that's a rasha, someone that looks at girls that are not his wife, someone that eats non-kosher, someone that didn't do teshuva for being with somebody before they're married, someone that walks around immodestly, someone that causes other people to sin, that person's shell is like a safe. The safe has a door. Usually, the door is the thickest part; that's the klipah. And until that comes off, we're not finished. ...this is why it's called the beatings of the grave, similar to the way that a person beats and shakes his garment. Now, not all people are the same. The Arizal says righteous people, who during their lives distanced themselves from humbling themselves...

41:37Their suffering is obviously much lower; their beating is very limited, and it could be even non-existent if they die early on a Friday and are actually buried on a Friday before Shabbat. But this is not the case, the Arizal says, for evil people. it's just the opposite. As a result of the physical pleasures of this world, they attached and strengthened that klipah to their bodies and their souls even more. This is the secret, this is the sod of why a person is not spared from the beatings of the grave, as mentioned in the chapter about the beatings of the grave. What's another analogy you can picture this klipah that all of us have? Like I said, if it's a righteous person, it's a very limited, very thin layer. If it's a wicked person that became lustful on a regular basis, wasted seed on a regular basis, died without doing teshuva for these things.

42:49She liked walking around with only half an outfit because she wants everybody to see the definition of her body. She walked around without modesty because she wanted everybody to see the new hairdo that Oscar from down the street made for her. She wants everybody at the supermarket to say, "Oh, hi, Mrs. So-and-so. How are you?" Why? Because she's half-naked, so they have to say something. She walked around causing other people to sin. Or better yet, he's a rabbi, he calls himself a rabbi, and he tells people, no, homosexuality, that's not a big deal. There's 613 mitzvot, so what if you make one sin? Like this Rasha Arur, Shmuley Boteach, and some of his followers that defend him. People like that, rabotai yekarim, they have become addicted to the sin. So the Arizal says, their klippah is like dough mixed with flour and bran and intricately has become tied together to the point where it's in essence almost a single piece. There's almost no separation; it's almost impossible to break it without some massive, massive efforts because they forgot who is the Master of the house.

44:14now goes into some very interesting things. We'll try to cover some of it. If I'm scaring you, that's a good sign; it means your soul is still alive. As soon as a person dies, the kings of Ashmedai come to him, one of the kings of Ashmedai and one of the kings of death, and one of Seferah and one of Shemonaim. And he says to them, get up, the end has come. He says to them, the end has not come yet. immediately he opens his eyes and sees an angel, his body from one end of the world to the other, from his feet to his heels, full of eyes. His clothes are fire, his clothes are fire, all of them are fire, and a knife is in his hand, and a little bit of an arrow is hanging from him, from the face of the murderer. He is not dead until the Holy One, blessed be He, sees him himself.

45:26Translation in chapter 12 says the following: How does a person die? What happens? The heavenly angels come upon him. One of the angels is from the ministering angels. Another one is the Angel of Death. Another one is a scribe. And another one is an appointed authority. Why do they have all of these angels? Because each of these angels has a different role. One angel hits him. Another angel counts how many hits. Because there's a judgment in Heaven of how many hits he's allowed to hit him. The third angel shoots out fire from his own body like a furnace with a flame coming out and punishes him with fire. And the fourth angel brings the bitter and sour grasses from the mountains in case he stole from his friend or from other people. And they tell him, "Chew this with your teeth, for you have eaten stolen property with your teeth." And then another angel shows up and brings the neshamah of his parents.

46:55his mother and his father. And then he yells at his mother and father, or her mother and father, and says to them, "Why didn't you instruct your children to study Torah and fulfill mitzvot, and do good deeds, and abstain from bad things?" And then after the parents are dumbfounded because they sent him to a school that's public school or to a college university in America that's full of garbage and they said, "No, no, son. I want you to be a doctor. I want you to be a lawyer, so go to UCLA, comprised of kefira. I want you to get a good education so you get a degree, so you can make a lot of money. Gan Eden? We'll worry about it later on." And at that moment... These malachim give him, the person that died, the permission to hit his father and mother because they're the reason he's there. If they gave him a good education, good chinuch, good everything, he would have done teshuvah, he would have done teshuvah, he would have actually had clothes on, he would have had a kippah on, everything else was good. But if he didn't, they are partners to the crime. And if he feels embarrassed, no, I don't want to hit my ima and abba, I love them. Then they hit him instead.

48:21in front of his parents and make his parents suffer watching their son or daughter get hit. Now, these ministering angels, initially before the hits begin, The person is in shock, saying, my time hasn't ended. No, my time came now. I'm only 25. I'm only 35. I'm only 75. I have so many years ahead. I just did a deal for a million dollars. I haven't matured yet. I just bought a house. I just finished the kitchen. I just did all this stuff. I got so much stuff to do. And the angel says to him, get up. Your time has arrived. And then they open up his eyes and he sees the truth. And the first thing that he sees is the Malach HaMavet himself, which stretches from one end of the world to the other, meaning he's from the ground all the way to the heavens. He is full of eyes from head to toe. His clothes are made of fire, and he holds a knife in his hand. At the tip of the knife,

49:37there is a drop of bile hanging from it. The moment that a person sees this Malach HaMavet, he gets so scared that he opens his mouth. And the drop falls into their mouth. And from that, they die. From that, they become smelly and disgusting. From that, the person's face becomes discolored And at that moment, they actually see HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself. As it says, "for no man can see Me and live," in Exodus 33:20. During their lifetime, they cannot see Him, but they do see Him upon their death. Another source is Psalm 22:30. "Before Him will bow all those who have descended to the dirt, and his soul is not alive." Meaning that after a person dies, they will see HaKadosh Baruch Hu. What they see, I have no idea. Baruch Hashem, I haven't seen it yet. The person then immediately testifies that his end has come. He realizes, "Okay, my end has come." And Hashem seals the verdict.

51:02If he's a righteous person, then he gives over his soul to his Owner without a fight. If he's a rasha, then he still remains stubborn and doesn't want to die. "No, no, no, give me more time, give me more time." Even then, he has a yetzer hara; he doesn't want to listen to his Owner. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says, Just as the wicked are stubborn in this world and don't want to do teshuva, so will the wicked remain stubborn when they die and stand for judgment. As it says in Psalm 112:10, "The wicked will see and become angered." Now they asked Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, anytime he is mentioned in the Gemara, which Rabbi Eliezer is it? It's always Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, the Rabbi of Rabbi Akiva, who is the foundation of our Oral Torah. How is the beating of the grave? What happens? He said to them, the person passes from this world, the Malach HaMavet, the Angel of Death, comes and sits on top of his grave, beating him.

52:14says, "Get up and tell me your name." The dead person says, "It's known and revealed before He who spoke, and the world was created, that I don't know my name." The person is in shock; they just died and forgot everything. The Malach HaMavet keeps hitting him and hitting him with fire, asking, "What's your name? What's your name? What's your name?" And he says, even Hashem knows I don't know my name. Why are you asking my name and keep hitting me? Stop. That's the top part I added. I think he says El. So the question the Chachamim ask, the Arizal asks, if the Malach HaMavet knows that you don't know your name, why is he asking your name? Why, does he just want to torture you for no reason? So the Chesed L'Avraham, Rabbi Avraham Azulai, writes in Maayan 5, Nahar 2. He's asked because the Malach HaMavet, in one hand he's hitting him, in another hand he's holding a book.

53:31And that book is your Torah. It's your book. It's your life. Everything you did in your life is in there. It has all of the sins and all of the mitzvot that the person has done during their life. Every single one. Every single time you looked somewhere inappropriate. Every single time you put something inappropriate in your mouth. Every single time you wore something inappropriate. Every single thing you didn't do teshuva for. Everything. It's in that book. He says, "What's your name? What's your name? What's your name?" Why? Because he wants you to say your name and admit, "Yeah, this is my book, this is my life," and admit, sign off on it, everything that's in that book, "It's my life." So that way, after he does it, then the next part of the judgment can begin. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says that the Malach HaMavet is half fire, and he has a chain in his hand as well. On the first hit, the first time he hits the person, he does it with a chain, and all of the person's limbs are dismembered. The second time he hits him, all of the bones of that person fall apart.

54:59And then the other ministering angels come and gather all the bones together and stand them up. Then the Malach HaMavet hits them a third time. They then request him to pay the judgment for everything that he did, seeking justice. This occurs on the first day and the second day. That's why the shiva is a week. Each day has a different din before he goes up to heaven, before he goes up to the judgment over there. On the third day, they judge him with more beatings. They hit his two eyes because he didn't see things properly, meaning he looked at things inappropriately. She looked at things inappropriately. They wanted to go on and surf the internet. They hit his ears because he listened to Shmuley Boteach and his friends. learned he accepted somebody said, and he said, "Wow, really he did that? Wow, really this?" If somebody says something about somebody and that person is a righteous person, not a wicked person, you're not allowed to listen to it. It's called lashon hara even if it's true. In fact, it is true, but the person that you're talking about doesn't want that to be told about them. For example, it could be something like somebody asked the question last week on Wednesday.

56:25What if I tell other people something like somebody's rich? Is that lashon hara? I said, yes. Why? Maybe that person he's saying, oh, he's rich. Maybe he doesn't want people to know he's rich. Maybe he doesn't want people to know he's rich. Maybe he wants to be anonymous. Doesn't want every single stack of bucks showing up at his house. nine o'clock at night, ten o'clock at night, eleven o'clock at night with the little folder, stalker, stalker. Yeah, I just came from Zimbabwe, I just came from Israel, I just came from here, just give me, okay, habibi, why'd you, how do you know where I live? How do you know? Oh yeah, Steve, Steve over there, they told me that you're rich. Oh, that's you. Listen to that, you're also part of the crime. It's not just the person that says it, it's also the person that hears it and it's the person that accepts it. If you spoke, they hit his lips too, hit his mouth. If he curses, somebody who likes to curse, wants to speak like a truck driver, they hit his mouth, as Chazal says. What about his feet? Well, it depends: did he go to a shiur Torah or did he go to the bar?

57:40If he went to the bar, and he went to play basketball on Shabbat, and he went to all the different nice places that are not Torah, he wanted to go to the beach to see all the naked people. He wanted to go to the bar, or he wanted to go to the fake shiur Torah, where they only have food but no Torah because they pay $20 over there. He wanted to go over there so they could teach him that some rabbi that died a few years ago, he's the Mashiach. He wanted to go over there so they could teach him kefirah, they could teach him nonsense. He wanted to go over there where they said there's no Gehinnom. He wanted to go over there to a place where they said that all of Am Yisrael is going to Gan Eden. If you're Moshe Rabbeinu or you're Bilam HaRasha, everybody goes to Gan Eden. He wanted to go to places like this. He wanted to go to bars. He wanted to go to baseball games. He wanted to go everywhere except shiur Torah. Then the angels have to hit his legs too. Why? Because he used them to run to sin. And Chazal says, someone that uses his feet to hasten his sin, then they hastily bring the Malach HaMavet upon him. And then what about a person that says bad things about another person who is a tzaddik?

58:53What about if, let's say, somebody gives tzedakah, does chesed, all types of good things, but you're a little jealous. You don't like it. You don't like this guy. Why? He's getting all the attention. So you say, ah, this guy, I think he stole all of his money. Oh, this guy? No, you know, he cheats on his wife. It's not true. It's made up. He's slandering the guy. so they say this person is going to have a special treatment. He’s going to have another death upon death called askara. What's askara? Page 13, I believe, says that it is the worst type of death out of all 903 deaths. What is it? It is that the throat closes slowly. And slowly, and little by little, he can't breathe. But he's still alive. And he can't breathe. And he's still alive. And it's like the slowest level of torture that possibly exists in the world. You want to say bad things about righteous people? This is what happens. Chapter 3 of Reishit Chochmah, Chibut HaKevel. Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes says in the name of Rabbi Eliezer,

1:00:07The judgment which Hashem carries out on a person in the grave is even harsher than the judgment of Ge'enom. That by itself is scary enough. If people simply understood what Ge'enom was. Unfortunately, most people don't really understand what Ge'enom is. Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschitz, in the book Yaarot Devash, in the second Drush, says, if people only knew... where punishment exists in Gehenom, they'd literally start crying hysterically, begging HaKadosh Baruch Hu to simply just not take them there. Don't even take me to Gan Eden. Just don't take me to Gehenom. I'll do everything. I'll keep mitzvot. I'll keep Torah. I'll become Baba Sali. I'll start teaching. I'll start giving everything I have, all the money, everything. Just don't take me to Gehenom. If they only understood what it means. And then Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess says, by the way, the chibut hakever for the reshaim, it's even worse than Gehenom. I don't know what that means. All I know is that's really bad. Why is it so much worse? He says that Gehenom is limited because he gets judged for the vast majority of his sins from the age of 20, with the exception of wasting seed.

1:01:28So the sins that a person made before the age of 20, Baruch Hashem, most of you are under the age of 20, the sins you made before the age of 20 have less of a judgment. It's not that there's no judgment; it's less of a judgment, with the exception of wasting seed. Why? Because that, even if you did it at 9 years old somehow, that's, unfortunately, the same thing as a 20-year-old or a 30-year-old does it. But either way, there's less of a judgment for a lot of the things that you made a mistake on. You didn't know. You were taught wrong, whatever it is. But then Rabbi Meir says the judgment that's in the grave, the beating of the grave, everyone has to go through, even babies. Even babies that are being nursed. Even a miscarriage. Everyone has to go through this. Now you're going to say, wait a minute, what did the baby do? Baby, what do you say, Abba? Instead of Ima, what did he do, the baby? If you don't know, then this will be the first time. There's no such thing as a baby. We all have neshamot. Our neshamot are no less than 5,779 years old. All of our neshamot were at Har Sinai 3,300 years ago.

1:02:55The body that you have today is simply like clothing. Today you wore a suit, tomorrow you're going to wear something else. That's what the body is. So the baby is simply wearing that shell now, but in his previous incarnation, in his previous life, he wore a different suit, a different body. Similar face, but not the same. Similar name, but not the same. Similar life, but not the same. Why did he have to come back? Because he did not complete his mission. She did not complete her mission. They made certain sins that they have to make up for, and Hashem decided to give them another chance. After they paid for part of the sins in Gehinom, they were let out in order to come back to this world to fix the rest. So how could a person be saved from the Chibut HaKever at least he should give, he should love charity, he should love being rebuked, meaning being told to stop doing this, do teshuva, and so on and so forth. Love doing kindness. Helping people get closer to Hashem is the ultimate kindness. Get people to come to the shiur, get people to watch a shiur, help people that are helpless, and bring guests to his house.

1:04:18When he prays, when she prays, pray with full kavanah. Don't be a robot when you pray. Try to understand what you're saying and say it with meaning as often as you possibly can. Chapter four, we're skipping around a little bit because we're running out of time. Rabbi Yosef says, "Come and see the difference between a man and a beast. An animal endures a lot of suffering in this world. The cow gets slaughtered, and after it gets slaughtered, it gets skinned. But it doesn't have a judgment after that. It's finished. It has finished its mission. It came to the world for people to use it." If it's a kosher animal, somebody slaughtered it in the kosher way. If there was a soul of a Jew in there beforehand, that soul could get a tikkun, meaning it could benefit from this slaughter. Even though it's painful, even though the skin being skinned is painful and so on, that's it, it's finished. That soul is elevated to the next level.

1:05:41There's no and all the other things that I mentioned. None of that. It's finished. It goes to the next chapter, whatever the next chapter is for it. It doesn't have judgment. But man endures a lot of suffering in this world. Who do you know that's not suffering? Everybody suffers in this world. Some people have health issues, some people emotional issues, some people psychological issues, some people financial issues, all types. Everybody suffers; everybody has some type of suffering. Waking up early in the morning is a level of suffering; no one wants to wake up early in the morning. Going to work is suffering. "Yeah, I love my job." Yeah, but if you didn't have to work, you wouldn't work. If all the money in the world was in your bank, you wouldn't go to work. Why? Because no one wants to work; you want to be on vacation. Reality is a lot of different types of suffering. Some we bring on ourselves, and some are just part of life. He says man endures a lot of suffering in this world, but he also suffers after his death. However, if he's a holy, righteous person, at least he's exempt from judgment. But if he's wicked, if he didn't do teshuva before he died, then he's judged with the most severe judgments and...

1:06:55they said at the moment that a person passes from this world, it's not enough that he's frightened by the Angel of Death, who's made up completely of eyes and holds a sword in his hand. They ask him: Did you toil in the Torah? Did you do chesed? Did you do kind things? Did you enthrone your Owner every morning and evening, meaning did you realize that He's watching you at all times? you allow your friend to rule over you, meaning your friend came and needed something, and you say, "What do I want before what he wants?" You're only worried about yourself, like one of the selfish people. If you did all four of these things, then they'll shoot a drop into your mouth, and your soul will leave without any pain, like taking a hair out of a cup of milk. But if you didn't do these things, if you didn't follow the Torah, didn't do mitzvot, you didn't enthrone your Owner, you didn't allow your friend to rule with pleasantry, meaning you help your friends out, let them win a little bit. You always had to be the one with the last word. Then the soul gets dragged out of the body, similar to how when you take out a thorn stuck in wool.

1:08:22Now, chapter five, the last one, says that at the time of judgment, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to the person, "My dear son, my dear daughter, look how I took great care of you. When you were formed in your mother's womb, you weren't a miscarriage. When you came out into the air of the world, I set it up to sustain you." i saved you from suffering. What did you do throughout the 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years you lived? Did you engage in Torah? Did you do kind deeds before Me? This is what happens when you meet Hashem. This is what He asks you. If they did those things, if they have those things, then they're exempt from judgment. But if not, HaKadosh Baruch Hu hands him over to the angels, the damaging angels. There are five damaging angels corresponding to the five books of the Torah, the Five Books of Moses. And each angel hits him while another angel counts. Another angel reviews the deeds. According to the Beit Din, another angel shoots fire out of his body like a furnace.

1:09:50The fourth angel brings him that grass that I mentioned before and feeds him if he stole. While the fifth one brings his parents in front of him to either beat them or they beat him instead. Now, in Otzar HaMidrashim, page 94, it says, A couple of small things that are good to know to finish off, and then you can ask any questions you want. He says that Gehinom has seven names, which is mentioned several times in the Torah. is 300 light years wide and long. The Gemara says, how big is Gan Eden? It says 60 times the size of Earth. How big is Gehinnom? Some say it has no size. Others say it's 2100 light years, some say 300 light years wide and long, and so are the other dimensions.

1:11:15But the total size of Gehinom is 2100 light years long, actually. Sheol is just one of the chambers, that's 300. Gehinom itself, all of it, is 2100 light years long. The reason why they say it has no size is because it continues to increase in size as more and more wicked people enter it. Now, when a person is found guilty in his judgment, they give him over to the damaging angels who bring him to different places, the path is dark and slippery. Whoever does teshuva, instead of being beaten, they bring him directly to Gan Eden, but if he dies without teshuva, they bring him to Gehinnom instead.

1:12:16But before all of this is done, they also get to meet Avraham and Yitzchak. And Avraham and Yitzchak come to him and say, my son, what have you done in this world in which you existed for all these years? If he says, I bought fields and vineyards, and I worked on them all my days. I was middle class. I was rich, I was on CNBC. Avraham and Yitzchak say to him, you fool, you didn't learn from David HaMelech that the land and all of its contents are Hashem's. As it says in Tehillim 24:1, they take him and bring in the next person who says, I acquired gold and silver. And then Avraham and Yitzchak said to him, you fool, didn't you learn from the prophets, Li ha-kesef ve-li ha-zahav, ne'um Hashem Tzevaot? Hashem says to the prophet Chaggai, "Mine is the silver, and Mine is the gold." But if they bring a Talmid Chacham, they bring somebody that kept Torah and mitzvot, they bring a tzaddik there.

1:13:35Avraham and Yitzchak say, "What have you done in the world that they exist?" And he said, "Oh, I followed the Torah, I taught the Torah all the days of my life." So Avraham and Yitzchak say, "Ah, may peace come and rest upon your lying place." And Hashem Himself accepts this person smilingly. the last part of the Midrash says is that what the prophet Yeshayahu saw. The prophet Yeshayahu is one of the greatest prophets Am Yisrael has ever had. Anyone who looks at the book of Yeshayahu can learn some very interesting things from it. The last verse of the book of Yeshayahu. Easy to learn it. Easy to remember where it is. Last verse. Chapter 66, verse 24. Yeshayahu is one of the sources that the Gemara and all of the Chachamim use as proof that not only did Yeshayahu see Gehenom, but he knows exactly what happens there. And he says...

1:14:53And they will go out and see the corpses of the men who rebelled against Hashem. For their decay will not cease, and their fire will not be extinguished, and they will lie in disgrace before all mankind. And the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 33b, and also the Zohar, talks about how this is the source of how for wicked people that do not do teshuva, there is an eternal Gehenom that exists. Now, Chachamim say, what did Isaiah actually see himself? And this is the narration. Isaiah went into Gehenom, saw it, and he went into the second house, one of the chambers there, and he saw two people hanging by their tongues. And Isaiah said to Hashem, O Revealer of secrets, reveal to me the secret behind this. Meaning, why are these people being punished like this? They're being hung by their tongues. He said to him, these people slandered others, and that's their judgment. So then Isaiah goes to the third house, meaning another chamber, and he saw men being hung by their penises. And Isaiah says to Hashem, O Revealer of secrets, reveal to me the secret behind this. Why are these people having this specific judgment? So Hashem says to him, these people leave their wives alone,

1:16:17and fornicate with other women. So this is their judgment. So Isaiah goes to the fourth house, and he saw women being hung by their chests, by their breasts. So Isaiah says to Hashem, O Revealer of secrets, reveal to me the secret behind this. Why are these people getting this specific punishment? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to him, these women reveal their hair on their heads. and they tear their clothing, meaning they wear immodest clothes. And then they sit in marketplaces nursing their children so that they can get people's attention and sin with them. And this is what their judgment is. A woman walks around immodestly, she wants attention. Fourth house apparently. Isaiah goes into the fifth house, and he saw a house full of smoke with all sorts of noblemen and treasurers inside there. With Paro, the wicked, sitting on top of them, guarding the entrance to Gehinnom. And Paro saying to all of these people, "Why didn't you learn from me when I was in Egypt?" Paro still sits there and guards the entrance to Gehinnom. Special punishment they're getting from Paro. Anyone that wants to know what Paro, rasha merusha, did to Am Yisrael,

1:17:42You can read many of the Midrashim. All of the tortures that Am Yisrael went through in the Holocaust are not as much as what we went through in Mitzrayim. Now, This is one of the foundations of our Torah because every person needs to know this, because in the moment of weakness, a moment you're going to have a test, a big test, whether it's money or intimacy or all types of other challenges, this is the type of stuff that hopefully you'll be reminded of and not do it. Because loving Hashem is a wonderful thing to acquire. But the reality is that loving Hashem by itself is not going to stop you from sinning. It won't stop you from sinning. Being afraid will stop you from sinning. And that's why it's actually something that you see in our siddur. In your tefillat Mincha, at the beginning of Mincha, beginning of Mincha that you prayed earlier today, the first Tehillim say, those who pass through the Valley of Tears,

1:18:49...into a wellspring. So the Gemara of Masechet Bava Metzia says, what is this Valley of Tears? What is it? It says that's one of the chambers in Gehenom. This, Rabotai Yekarim, is actually part of our Mincha. Every Jew has to do it at least once a day. Same thing with Arvit. You start with Arvit, saying, Hashem, we're praying because in case we sin, we don't want You to destroy us. Right in the beginning of the prayer. Point is, Rabotai, HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world in such a way that we operate best based on fear. You don't speed on the highway because you don't want to get a ticket, you don't want to get into an accident, you don't want to hurt somebody else, and so on and so forth. We don't take stuff that doesn't belong to us because we don't want to get caught, we don't want to be embarrassed, we don't want to hurt somebody else, and so on and so forth. We don't sit at home and do nothing and go to work instead, even though we don't like work. The reality is we go to work even though we don't want to. Why? Because we don't want to be homeless, we don't want to starve to death, and so on and so forth. We don't yell at our spouse and insult them, at least if we want a good marriage, because, again, we know that if we do yell at them, if we do insult them, it'll hurt the marriage, it'll hurt the relationship, it'll hurt a lot of things.

1:20:13So the way HaKadosh Baruch Hu created mankind is to operate at its best based on fear. That's how you operate from A to Z. Loving Hashem is fantastic; it's just not something that, first of all, everybody can acquire. Number two, you can't acquire it without fearing Hashem first anyway. And three, that by itself is not going to stop you from sinning. That love of Hashem is not by itself going to stop you from cheating on your wife. There are many guys that cheat on their wives even though they love them. There are many women that cheat on their husbands even though they love them. There was a recent horrible statistic that came out of Eretz Yisrael, Hashem Yerachem, and they said that women and men are just as likely to cheat on each other now. In the past, there was an immense problem because of their physical desires. Apparently, the women have become like men. They're just as likely to cheat on each other. Why? But they all love each other. They all said, oh, I love them at first sight. I love her at first sight. She's my baby. She's my honey. She's my pookie. She's my moochies. Okay, so why'd you cheat on her? Oh, you know. But you love her though, no? Yeah, I love her. Why? Because love by itself does not stop us from doing stupid things.

1:21:34It doesn't. That's why the primary, primary thing that a person has to have is Yirat Shamayim. And that's why the Gemara says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu only created the world for you to fear Him. What does it mean? He wants you to be scared, you know, just in the corner over there crying all day? No. Meaning, you have to acquire Yirat Shamayim so you don't sin. Because when you sin, you disconnect from Him. When you disconnect from Him, He's forced to punish you. He doesn't want to punish you, but He's forced to do it. Why? Because there has to be a reward and punishment system in this world. Whether we like it, whether we agree with it, is irrelevant. We're not the ones running the world. So this is why, Rabotai HaYekarim, these scary shiurim are a necessary part of our education. If the whole world was scared of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the world would simply be Gan Eden. If just Am Yisrael was scared of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the Mashiach would arrive immediately. Better yet, if 10 people, 10 Jews, 10 minyan, a minyan of Jews, all had yirat Shamayim under one roof. Real yirat Shamayim, where there's no machloket, debates about nonsense like who's sitting on aliyah, whose name is going to be on the door, or who is going to be the chazzan—none of that stuff. They all have yirat Shamayim. They are all here for Hashem Himself. The Gemara says Mashiach arrives on the spot. Ten people, ten people, that's it.

1:22:4310 Jews, 10 minyan, a minyan of Jews, all had yirat Shamayim under one roof. Real yirat Shamayim, where there's no machloket, debates about nonsense like who's sitting on aliyah, whose name is going to be on the door, or who is going to be the chazzan—none of that stuff. They all have yirat Shamayim. They are all here for Hashem Himself. The Gemara says Mashiach arrives on the spot. Ten people, ten people, that's it. All you need is 10 people. There's no shame if we get more. But the point is, Rabotai HaKedoshim, that's how valuable Yirat Shamayim is. That's how valuable it is. So if it's so valuable for Hashem that He says, if you only had 10 people under one roof that have Yirat Shamayim, I'll actually bring salvation to the whole world. I'll bring Mashiach. Needless to say, each one of us should try to be one of them. Each one of us should be one of them. How? Learn some of these things over and over and over again on a regular basis: once a month, once every couple of weeks, once a week if necessary, and if you have a really big Yetzer Hara, once a day. Until you're scared enough of Hashem that you're not going to make any voluntary sins. You're gonna make sins regardless, but at least it's not gonna be on purpose.

1:24:03It's not going to be on purpose. You make unintentional sins because you don't know, you didn't realize, or it's an accident. That all of us do. But at least let it not be on purpose. Don't leave your house immodest. Don't leave your house immodest. Why? Because that's a purposeful sin. You know you're not modest, but you like it. You like the way the guys are looking at you. Don't waste seed on purpose because you're watching something. Don't do that. Why? Because that's on purpose. If it happens when you're sleeping as a result of certain things you did in your life and so on, that's a different story. But don't do any purposeful sins. Don't go to McDonald's or some non-kosher restaurant because you're really hungry. Find a kosher place or don't eat at all. Don't do any purposeful sins. If you watch these shiurim, on a regular basis, you'll build a Yirat Shamayim; you'll build a foundation of fearing Hashem. At least you're not going to make any purposeful sins. And after a while, this is going to help you fall in love with HaKadosh Baruch Hu and actually enjoy your life for what it really is.

1:25:08learn the Torah, learn the beautiful things, learn some of the scary things and see how they are also beautiful as well. But really have a true connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and not just be one of these fakers that walks around as if they're a perfect tzaddik, as if they have everything good and no matter what they do, Hashem is going to give them Gan Eden. Unfortunately, a lot of people that call themselves frum, they call themselves religious, and they think they're going to Gan Eden, but in reality, the only place they're going to is a permanent Gehenom. Why? Because they have no yirat Shamayim. All they have is a kippah. But you could buy a kippah, you get it for free in the front, right here. Free one. Doesn't make you religious. The beard grows by itself. Doesn't make you religious. The suit doesn't make you religious. On Wall Street, they also wore suits. Suits don't make you religious. Beards don't make you religious. The dress doesn't even make you religious. What makes you religious is how you act and what's inside you and what comes out of your mouth. That's what makes you religious. If you allow your eyes to look at Torah, to look at good things, that's already a great start. If you allow good things to come out of your mouth, like the Torah, like compliments, like good things, honesty, that's good.

1:26:17If you go to places that are good, full of holiness, full of Kedusha, that's good. If you look the part, that makes you perfect. That makes you the perfect person to go to Gan Eden. That's what Hashem wants. But if you don't want to do that, you want to eat McDonald's once in a while because you like the cheeseburger. You like the chicken sandwich from Burger King. You want to walk around with a shirt that's just a little bit tight so they can see exactly how your body is shaped. You want to walk around with a short skirt so everybody says, "Wow, you're looking good today." You want to get a compliment from Steve and Joe and Mustafa. You want to get a compliment from them. If you want to take stuff that doesn't belong to you just because no one else is looking and they have so much and you have so little and you want to be the modern-day Robin Hood, you're going to do a lot of those things, then guess what? I can't help you. No one can help you. You're destroying yourself. It's like somebody that jumps off of a bridge. There's nothing you can do; you already jumped. You already jumped. So it's not necessarily something that you need to learn all day, every day.

1:27:28But it's something that you need to learn enough until you understand your role in this world, that you are here to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He's not here to serve you. Somebody made a comment on a video yesterday or the day before. He says, "Rabbi, you know, I'm kind of tired of all the stuff you talk about punishment. I'm starting to feel like I'm serving Hashem. I'm tired of that. Can you do something happy?" Hence the reason why I did this shiur. If you're tired because you don't think that you're supposed to be a servant of Hashem. That means I haven't done a good enough job yet. So now I'm going to tell you what's really going to happen. Why? Because you need to be a servant of Hashem. That's the job. That's the point of this world. That's why you exist. You exist to serve Hashem. That's why you exist. You don't want to serve Hashem? It's a different problem. That's a problem. That's what we hear. You serve Hashem to the best of your ability. What's the best of your ability? Look at the Torah, do everything you possibly can. That's serving Hashem. It's not as hard as you would think, I promise you.

1:28:39And trust me when I tell you, even if you find it extremely difficult to be modest among all of the modest women around you, even if you find it extremely difficult not to eat treif, not to eat non-kosher because you have a big appetite for non-kosher things, you're addicted to, I don't know, shrimp or something, the bugs of the sea, you're addicted to the cockroaches of the ocean, call them lobster; you're addicted to it. It's hard for you not to eat lobster, all right? Trust me when I tell you, it's going to be much harder in Gehinnom. Why? Because over there, they force-feed you. You understand? Here, you chose So even if it's hard for you not to waste seed, hard for you not to touch somebody that's not your wife, hard for you not to let a man touch you when he's not your husband, hard for you to give tzedakah, because you know, you love your money so much you want it all for yourself, hard for you to fulfill the Torah, hard for you to learn Torah, it's hard for you. Trust me when I tell you, as hard as it is in the beginning, it's not even 1% of 1% of 1% as hard as Gehinnom is, for the first minute.

1:29:51And Gehinnom only gets harder. So this is what we need to learn in order to have at least a foundation to get an understanding that this is what our role is in this world. And the best part about it is that once a person accepts that she is a servant of Hashem, she is a representation of Hashem, he is a representation of Hashem, he is a servant of Hashem, guess what? All of a sudden the mitzvot become fun. Why? That's my job. If my job is to fulfill the Torah and do mitzvot, then that means that every time I do it, you're going to get some gratification out of it. Why? You did a job. You did a good job. You kept Shabbat. You're happy at the end of Shabbat. Wow, I kept the whole Shabbat by myself. I kept the Shabbat. You ate kosher. Look, I ate and I said a beracha in the beginning and at the end. You feel a sense of achievement, believe it or not. eating becomes significant. Why? Because it's not just you eating to fulfill your appetite. Even your eating becomes a serving of Hashem. It's not that you're just reading and okay, you got smarter. No, now you're reading Torah. You're actually learning about Him. You're learning more things to do, how to serve Him even better. Your reading becomes significant.

1:31:10It's not that you just walk down the street and it's just like everybody else. You go to the store. No. During that walk to the street, you watch your eyes. Everything that's immodest, you look away. So even you walking to the store, to the deli, to the supermarket, to the laundromat becomes a mission for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? I didn't look. I didn't look where I don't belong. Going outside, as a buddy said, you are a walking Kiddush Hashem. Everybody's looking at you. Instead of looking at all the immodest women, they're looking at the one modest one. Why? It's like, "Wow, I didn't know we live among princes. I didn't know that the queen lives here. Why? Everybody else is naked. This is the only one that looks like a queen." You're walking, and they're not thinking the garbage in their mind. They're thinking, "Wow, that's modesty. It's classy." No one wants to marry the girl that walks around in a bikini. Trust me when I tell you. No one wants to marry her. No one wants to marry the girl who had 15 boyfriends before she got married. No one wants to marry her. They may want to commit a sin with her, but they don't want to marry her. Everyone wants to marry the princess. You walk around as a modest woman, you are sanctifying HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name simply by existing.

1:32:30married woman walking around with a kisui rosh (a hat or a scarf) on her head, you're a Kiddush Hashem. Why? Because it's the opposite of everybody else. It's even more significant in this generation. But then, if a person doesn't do anything that I say here, if a person doesn't do anything that the Torah here says then just know that the Zohar HaKadosh says that for every single body part that they sinned with, one of the things that they will experience in Chibut HaKever, in the grave, is that there will be a spiritual snake coming out of every single hole and every single part of their body that sinned. If they sinned with their Brit, there's going to be a spiritual snake there constantly torturing them in that area. If she walked around without kisuy rosh, all of her hair is going to turn into snakes like Medusa. She wanted to show her new hairdo to everyone? Okay, now her hairdo is snakes. If he sinned with his eyes, there are going to be two snakes eating his eyes, Hashem yerachem. I'm not even giving you 1% of what it says, and it's already scaring me, and I'm telling it.

1:33:51You understand? It's not worth it. As hard as doing teshuva is, trust me, it's much, much easier than the consequence of not doing teshuva. So please, take this into consideration. Watch it once in a while again to remind yourself because all of us at some point leave this world. It's after all of us do teshuva, regardless of the age. Who cares about the age as long as you did teshuva? It doesn't matter when you die. It matters if you did teshuva before you died. If you did teshuva, then you're going to a great, fantastic place for eternity. What difference does it make that you're leaving this world at 30, at 40, at 90, at 100? Who cares? You're going to an eternal place of good. Yes, the people behind you, they're sad because you're not around anymore and so on. But if they really know that you're a tzaddik, you're a tzaddeket, and you're going to Gan Eden, they're happy when you die. Why? You're going to eternity. You're going to eternity of good. Who cares when you die, as long as you did teshuva first. But if you died without doing teshuva, Hashem, even if you died at 120, it actually makes the case worse. Why? You made more sins. Made more sins, made more judgment. So instead of thinking, when you look at people, instead of saying happy birthday to people and thinking, you know, hopefully he lasts a long time, hopefully she lasts a long time. No, hopefully they do teshuva.

1:35:12That should be your prayer for yourself, your prayer for everybody else. That's the number one thing. Why? Because if a person does teshuva, they connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu while they're alive, they're assured to have an eternity of good. And that's the best thing that you could ever give somebody. So to bring one of your friends, one of your family relatives, your brother, your sister, your parents, your cousins, to bring them to a shiur that's going to wake up their neshama and cause them to change and do teshuva, that's the best present you can possibly give. To support these shiurim, the people online, the people out there that have a few shekels, to support this program, to support this organization that non-stop is doing kiruv. That's the best thing, that's the best investment that anyone can ever make. Why? You're taking your hard-earned money, you worked all day, you worked all night, you made your few thousand dollars for the week, but you're taking a portion of it and you're using it to get people to do teshuva.

1:36:16Do you think Hashem is not going to give you even more money so you can help even more people when you're helping all of His kids come home? And that's when a person asks me about investments today. I tell them, "I'm not in the market anymore. I left the business long ago. I don't watch the market; I haven't watched it in years. The only time I know anything about the market is if somebody tells me because they say, 'Oh, did you see the market drop 500 points?' No, I didn't see, but now I know it dropped 500 points. That's all I know—I know what people tell me once in a blue moon." But anyone that asks me about investments, I tell them there's only one investment that I care about and you should care about. What is it? It's called kiruv. Take your money, a significant portion of it, and regularly donate to kiruv to help people do teshuva. That's the only thing you should do. People that help people do teshuva—unfortunately, there's not many. You can count the real organizations in the world, probably on one hand. There's a lot of organizations. There's a lot of centers. There's a lot of buildings. There's a lot of websites. But actually, people that help people do teshuva, like change their life—not many. It's sad. It's just a reality. There's a lot of Shabbat dinners. There's a lot of people putting tefillin on in the middle of the street. There's a lot of people eating kosher food for free. There's a lot of Chanukah parties, a lot of Purim parties.

1:37:35but there's not a lot of teshuva. And the reason why is because teshuva means that you help somebody change their life, their lifestyle, the way they look at the world, their perspective of the world, what they're gonna do in this world, they change their life. There are not many people that want this job. And that's what the chasid of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, Rabbi Blazer, says that even in his generation over 100 years ago, He says, we live in a generation where there's countless medicines for every ailment. Every sickness, every pain you have, there's 500 different medicines for it, he says. Except one ailment. He says, the spiritual ailment. The neshamah. The neshamah, there's only one cure, but no one wants to be a doctor. There's one cure for the neshamah. What? Give him mussar, teach him how to do teshuvah, but nobody wants to be a doctor, he says.

1:38:35To be a doctor of giving people Advil and Tylenol and Percocet and all the things. Yeah, we have Dr. XYZ, Dr. ABC, and Dr. everybody else. The medicine, nonstop medicine. It works, doesn't work, we'll sell it anyway. But the doctor for the neshamah, there's only one doctor. What? That's someone who's going to tell you the truth. There aren't many people signing up for that job. So that's why I say, rabotai, you can be that person, either directly or indirectly. The point being is that all of the things that I say are true. I read you the books. I brought the books with me if you want to read them for yourself. You want to see what I wrote in case you think that somehow I'm so clever that I actually created the words out of my mind. I brought the books. There's the Reishit Chochmah. There's the Mishneh Torah from the Rambam. The Pirkei Avot and so on and so forth. All of these books, you can get them yourself. They're not on the internet. The point is, you have to read them and then do what they say. That's what we're trying to tell you. We're saving you the time from reading all of this because now you have it all on a silver platter, and now you have a decision to make. Are you going to do teshuva, or are you not going to do teshuva? Teshuva is something you do a little bit every day. Another mitzvah, another mitzvah, another mitzvah. You get better and better and better, and little by little your life changes.

1:40:04Not doing teshuva is also a decision every day. Every day you keep eating non-kosher. Every day you look at things that are inappropriate. Every day you keep going against Hashem. Excuse me, it's not a good idea. B'ezrat Hashem, He just gives us enough chizuk to get closer and closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu as He wants and as He desires for us to do. B'ezrat Hashem, we do real teshuva, lead other people to do teshuva, get Am Yisrael as a whole to do teshuva, even if they're very, very far away or they think they're very, very close. Irrelevant. Everyone should take a little bit of time tomorrow to get a few more people to come. Each person can bring five people. That already can take it to a point where there's not going to be room in a place. That's fine too. Everybody can bring more people. Give people a chance to do teshuva. If you like them, you care about them, even if you don't like them, but they're Jewish, bring them. Encourage people to do teshuva. This is the best thing you could possibly do. If you're not here, you're not local, you're online watching the shiur, take your right finger, or if you want the left finger, same price, and press share.

1:41:14the lecture. Press share on this Facebook that's on right now or tomorrow on YouTube. Press share and share it with every single contact you have on your phone. Every single person. Don't worry about whether they watch it or not. Don't worry about whether they're going to be turned on or off. This is what everybody needs to learn. This is the very basics of the Torah. You need to know that one day you're gonna die and need to know what's gonna happen there. This is the beginning. Once you know, you're gonna act accordingly. Once you know, okay, this is what's possible, okay, so that means I have two options. I have the good part, I have the bad part. Okay, if I want the good part, I have to act accordingly. If I want the bad part, I have to act accordingly. But at least you gave him a chance. You gave yourself a chance. Press share. If you have money, donate. You don't have money, don't donate. You have money, you don't want to donate, don't donate. I don't care. Press share anyway. Press share anyway. At least share your finger. that if you don't do, please do me a favor. Don't watch my shiurim. Don't come to the shiurim. If you're that selfish that you don't want to share the shiurim, we can't learn anything from you. And you can't learn anything from me. A person that's so selfish doesn't want to share the emet with people because he's worried about what people think or she's worried about what people think—that's a person that I can't help. I can't help selfish people. Everybody needs to learn these things because this is the basics. This is simply Judaism 101. Even though...

1:42:39Nobody has heard this until today. This is Judaism 101. Every single person needs to know the basics. Once you know the basics, you'll act accordingly. Any questions? Yes? Okay. And that's what they got. And then they would change their mind, and they would think of something else, and they would fix it. Next question. Yes. Yes. So, I have two questions. So, when you were saying about Pharaoh, when he sits at the entrance of Gehinnom, and he tells people there, does he just sit there and tell the people, or does he get punished the same punishment as them? Oh no, he gets even a worse punishment than the rest of them, but he still gets the role of sitting there. He's getting punished while he gets punished. He gets punished while he, in essence, is ruling over them. So the second question was, since Hashem made the seventh level of Gehinnom, where people don't leave, why did He need to make that? Why couldn't He just destroy the soul?

1:44:00Because the soul is a... A soul is a piece. It's not a single piece, it's two pieces. One piece is... Not that Hashem is physical, but in essence that's how the Mekubalim explain it. Who took a piece of himself... in order to create life, He took a piece of Himself and then He created the soul. And He combined the two, and that's your soul in essence. So what ends up happening is the person that goes to this eternal damnation, that part that He created has to be destroyed. And it takes a very, very, very long time for it to be destroyed until the only thing that's left of it is the part from Hashem, and that part goes back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu eventually. But in essence, what is it like? This is like, for example, in the olden days, the Arabs and Christians were very, very creative with the different types of vicious things they would do to Jewish people. And one time, they took one of the Jewish kings, and they dragged him

1:45:13a horse literally from one city to another city miles until the only thing that was left of him is a small little ball of flesh. There's almost virtually nothing left. In essence, that's what happens to a soul that sins against Hashem and does not do teshuva. The soul has to go to a place where it gets destroyed, but it doesn't get destroyed instantly. It gets destroyed over a very, very long period of time, and then eventually it’s ceases to exist. Yes? Now, we learned that for everyone, for the people who were born, an angel kind of tells the Torah. Now, is that the same for both the Jews and the non-Jews? No, it's not. I don't remember reading that it's the same for both Jews and non-Jews. And the reason why is because the responsibility of the angel is to teach you the things that are going to be relevant to your life.

1:46:16And a non-Jew does not need to know the entire Torah. In fact, a non-Jew is not allowed to learn the entire Torah. He's allowed to learn all of the parts of the Torah that are applicable to him or her, which are the seven Noahide laws, all of the other ethical laws of the Torah, and simply mussar, which is ethics. That's what a non-Jew is obligated to learn, but he's not or she's not allowed to learn you know, the details of the mitzvot of Am Yisrael, like the details of Shabbat, the details of kashrut, the details of the mitzvot themselves, they're not allowed to learn unless they're in a process of converting to Judaism. Once a person is in the process of converting to Judaism, then they can learn the entire Torah. But if they simply decide, "No, no, I'm gonna be a Noahide, but I want to learn Kabbalah, I want to learn Gemara, I want to learn all these things," then the Torah says that such a person is bringing a death penalty on themselves. Because what they're doing is that they're stealing something that was given to Am Yisrael, not to them. That's why the Rambam says that a non-Jew that keeps Shabbat without being in the process of conversion is liable for a heavenly death penalty. And by the way, a heavenly death penalty, just so you know, doesn't just mean that the person themselves would be killed by Hashem. It could also mean that it could bring death to their children.

1:47:36It can mean a premature death to them. It can mean several things. A death penalty from Heaven doesn't only literally mean a death penalty for that person. It can mean a death penalty for other people as well, that they love, that are under their control, and so on. But the point being is that the non-Jew is given the tools that he needs or she needs in this world. If that person was a Jewish soul, that, for example, it's a person that was a Jew who violated the Torah, and his punishment, in essence, and his tikkun would be to reincarnate as a non-Jew. with a mission to convert back to Judaism, then that becomes a little bit more complicated. That becomes more complicated. But as far as if it's simply a regular non-Jew, like many people are, that just needs to fulfill the seven Noahide laws, then there is no reason for them to be taught the entire Torah, since the entire Torah would actually hurt them to know it. It wouldn't help them. Next question? Anything?

1:48:43Tomorrow night, we have this shiur, which is questions and answers. Come with some good questions. Be'ezrat Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will give us some good answers. Thank you again for learning with me. Hopefully, this is enough for all of us to do a little bit more teshuva as a result of it, and for Am Yisrael to do some more teshuva from it. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.

1:50:24Thank you again for learning with me. Hopefully, this is enough for all of us to do a little bit more teshuvah as a result of it, and for Am Yisrael to do some more teshuvah from it. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.