Circle Of Life, 12 Month GEHINOM, KOSHER Business, LAWSUITS, Buy MIRACLES - STUMP THE RABBI (49)

0:17We are back on our Wednesday night shiur. I stumped the rabbi. Tonight's shiur will be for a refuah shlema for Rabbanit Levana Bat Sarah, Rav Efraim Ben Shulamit. B'Avani Tzara, B'Atanat, Raphael, B'Chana, Yitro, B'Avraham, Devorah, B'Mercedes, Esther, B'Tzipora, Serach, B'Batya, Batya, B'Tzara, Elisha, B'Chaya, B'Tzara, David, B'Esria, Doris, B'Jorah, And all of Am Yisrael b'ezrat Hashem will have refuah shelema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf. So, here we are. We have this week's parasha. Starts off, parashat Emor. Starts off with some very interesting laws of the Kohen.

1:42where HaKadosh Baruch Hu specifies to Bnei Aharon, the sons of Aharon, not just the sons of Aharon at the time, but the sons of Aharon until this day, that they are different than the rest of Klal Yisrael. They have different rules. Now, before the Kohanim were the Kohanim, the position of priesthood was given to the firstborn. Firstborn kids. But that was taken away and given to the Kohanim. Some Chachamim say that when the Mashiach comes, the firstborn will also get special roles. Kohanim will always have it also. And Aharon HaKohen will be the Kohen Gadol, But nonetheless, the special position of the Kohanim makes them different. When we do tefillah b'tzibur in the Beit Knesset, and they have Aliyah laTorah, which, b'ezrat Hashem, will come back soon, the first Aliyah goes to the Kohen.

3:07Then the Levi. Then Yisrael. Who is Yisrael? The rest of Klal Yisrael. So it's very pertinent that a Jew knows that if he's a Kohen, he's different. He's got different rules. Now, some people have a problem with this. You know, they want unity because of their liberal mentality. You know, they say it's not fair. I particularly find it interesting that many converts have a problem that they can't marry Kohanim. Like as if they ran out of people in the world and there's no other Jews. They only want to marry a Kohen. They don't even know a Kohen, but they want to marry a Kohen. Why? Stolen waters are sweeter. What they can't have, that's what they want. But that's only pertaining to a a woman cannot marry a Kohen. A guy who is a convert can marry a Kohen's daughter, but a girl who is a convert cannot marry a Kohen. Additionally, other types, such as a divorcee or a widow, have special rules as well.

4:35One of the things that it says here, in chapter 21, beginning of the parasha in Sefer Vayikra, parashat Emor, in verse 7, 21:7, it says, Isha zonah v'chalalah lo yikachu, v'isha grushah me'ishah lo yikachu, ki kadosh hu l'elohav. They shall not marry a woman who is a harlot or who has been desecrated. And they shall not marry a woman who has been divorced by her husband, for each one is holy to his God. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu to tell the Kohanim, tell everyone, if this woman is a harlot, she's been desecrated, she's not allowed to marry a Kohen. She's not allowed to marry a Kohen. She did teshuvah. Good for you, you can marry somebody else. Now, just because you were a harlot doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad person. If you did teshuvah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, where do we learn this from? Rachav. Rachav was not only a top harlot, but also she was one of the most beautiful women in the world, and she was a goya. But because she did teshuvah...

6:05HaKadosh Baruch Hu not only welcomed her into Am Yisrael, but she married the Gadol HaDor, Yehoshua Bin Nun. So sometimes guys say, "Oh listen, Rabbi, you know, I want to marry someone, but I want to make sure she's a virgin. I want to make sure she's a virgin. Are you a virgin?" "No, but you know, Rabbi, I don't want to make sure." Oh, so you're better than Yehoshua Bin Nun? You're better than Yehoshua Bin Nun? Go, go fly a kite. Go. Go. Go with your arrogance. You and your arrogance can leave my house. Both of you. Don't leave the arrogance here and you go. People want to judge other people; they don't want to judge themselves. The guy has been with a football team, but he wants his wife to be a newborn baby. This doesn't mean that you look for this and look for that. Of course, there's an extraordinary value if a woman has never been desecrated, never been touched, and so on and so forth. But you don't judge them based on that.

7:08But that doesn't mean that everyone should just do whatever they want. Why? Because of what I'm about to tell you. What I'm about to tell you is probably going to hit some nerves. What does this really say? It says if a woman is a prostitute, if a woman is a harlot, if a woman is a zonah, now that to me would be a claim. If she was divorced, now that to me would be a claim. The Gemara asks, what's Zonah? What is Zonah? Say, oh, it's a woman that, you know, works at a certain place, she does everything. No, no, it's the oldest profession in the world. No, Rabbi? No. You know what Zonah is? A Jewish girl that one time in her life, one time, she was with a Goy. She's a Zonah. According to the Torah. Hashem Yishmor VeYatzil.

8:08One time, according to the Torah, let's talk also. So that means that if she, when she was 18, 19, 20 years old, she didn't know right or left. Mustafa and Chris were competing for her. She picked one of them. One-night stand, Hashem Yishmor. And she went back to her life. Ten years passed. Finally found a nice Jew. Finally did teshuvah. She wants to marry him. What's the problem? He's a Kohen. Comes from the Kohen family. What does the Torah say? Not allowed. Yeah, but he loves me. Good for you. Not allowed. Yeah, but I love him. It's very sad. A lot of tears. Not allowed. Now, you know who has the worst position here? The Rabbi. Because the Rabbi is the one that has to tell her. And I had the merit to fulfill this mitzvah. It's very, very difficult. I think I cried as much as the girl. To tell her that the one that she thought is her fiancé cannot be her fiancé. Why? He's a Kohen.

9:36And according to the Torah, she's forbidden. Even though, yeah, but she goes, "Rabbi, I did Teshuvah already." I said, "You're an amazing person. If I had a son, I'd give him to you. If I had a son, I'd give him to you. No problem. But the Torah says no." But what if we do it anyway? If we do it anyway, then you're going against Hashem. Then you're going to have problems. What kind of problems? Just imagine the worst kind, a little worse than that. Both of you. Why? You're going against Hashem. So here we learn that it's not just Gehinnom that we have to worry about, the fiery, horrible place that we've discussed, but rather that we have a principle in the Torah where life is a big circle. you know, the goyim call it "what goes around comes around," or karma, all types of other terms that they stole from Judaism and just put their name tag on it. It's like you created the product, but they put their logo on it. China. So the Torah says that everything is a circle. Don't ever think that you do something now

11:03it's not going to have some type of ramification, good or bad. So Gemara says, Rabbi Chanina, Kodesh Kodashim, tells his wife, after he saw her give money to some poor person, he says to his wife, please, next time, Chazakeihu B'chai, give money to a poor person. But the next time, if you see the poor person coming, if you already see him from the window and you know he's coming, open the door already and go out and give it to him. Go towards him to give it to him. She says, my dear husband, why? just come here. What's the reason? Because if you go out there and you treat the homeless person with extra grace and you make the effort to give it to him, maybe Hashem will do the same thing for our children when they become homeless. Now you tell this to any mother: "What, you're cursing my kids?"

12:13Rabbi Hanan, you're cursing our kids? Chas v'shalom, I'm not cursing our kids. But it's a well-known thing that life is a circle. One day you're up, and it could be that another day you're down. One part of your life you're rich, and another part of your life you're poor. And if it's not you, it could be your kids. And if it's not your kids, it could be your grandkids. At some point, even if you're the richest man, at some point, somewhere along the line, one of your descendants could be completely broke. So if you're a conscious person that understands what Torah actually says here, you can already think about, not just you, you can think about past you. Not because you're saving money for a retirement plan. No retirement plan is going to help you with this. There are certain people from some of the wealthiest families in history that are completely broke to the extent of being homeless. Now if you hear some of the names, you say, oh yeah, he must be rich. No, no, he's homeless. What do you mean? But his grandfather was the richest man in America. One of the richest people in history. How could it be? He had enough money for a million years.

13:29If they would have just simply spent money, a million dollars every day, he'd still be rich. HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't work that way. HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides who's going to be rich, who's going to be poor. Yeah, what about the grandfather? The grandfather had the merit to have money. Great-great-great-grandson? Not so much. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided. HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided. One king asks his dear friend, Talmid Chacham, tells him, "My dear friend, you are a very wise person, I respect you. I want you to please give me a gift, but a gift that is going to help me in life." He says, "What kind of gift to help you in life?" He says, "You see, I have everything. I have money, I have a castle, I have control, I have everything. But I don't want this success to go to my head. So how do I do that?" Everybody says yes to me. Everybody agrees with me, except you. You tell me the truth. But what do I do if you're not around? The Rabbi says, no problem. I got something for you. A few weeks pass. He says, Your Highness, I have the gift for you. Now, if you're a king that has a castle full of diamonds, what are you expecting? You're expecting something honorable. Expecting something expensive. The Rabbi gives him a little silver ring.

14:58Cheap ring, you buy it from Chinatown, $15. But on it, an engraving of three letters: Gimel, Zayin, Yud. Says, who's this GZY? Who's this GZY on this cheap ring? Says, oh, it's a very precious ring. Made it just for you. Who's this GZY? Says, GZY stands for Gam Zeh Ya'avor. This too will pass. Your Highness, you need to know that no matter where you are in your life, if the times are really, really good, don't take it to your head. This too will pass and things will turn around and it's not going to be so good. One day the maggots are going to eat you for lunch. One day the enemy may win. One day things are not going to be so good. One day you're not going to be so healthy and young. But don't get depressed. If you have a down month, you have a down year, you have a down decade, things go bad, don't get depressed. Why? This too will pass. The bad time will pass also, Your Highness. Life is a circle. This was the priceless gift. Why? A person that knows that no matter where he is in life,

16:23this too will pass, automatically half of the concern about his problem is gone. Why? Because one of the primary reasons that people get to the point of desperation, depression, and even commit suicide is because of this reason, where they don't believe that this will pass. The problem that we make as human beings on a regular basis is that we believe that wherever we're at right now, it's permanent. Hence the reason why, when people become successful, especially if they're young and inexperienced, They start doing a lot of foolish things. They start buying expensive cars and houses they don't even have enough people to fill. They start engaging in a bunch of senseless actions because they believe that if they're successful now, surely they're going to be successful in 5, 10, 20, or 30 years. We call those people "new money." What happens to new money? They go broke.

17:37Most of those people go broke. Why? They spend a lot of money assuming that their income and their success will continue, only to realize shortly afterward that their hot stage is gone. Their top product is no longer wanted. It's discontinued. Their idea is no longer valid. It's obsolete. their athletic career, their physical ability, their idea—no one cares about it anymore. Why? Something better came along. So they spent a lot of money, and this happens a lot with very successful entrepreneurs, athletes, all types of people they deal with in Hollywood of some kind. They make 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 200 million dollars in a very short period of time, and then you read about them in the news five, six years later, that they're living in their mother's basement. How could it be? You had enough money for a small civilization. How could it be? I wrote a paper years ago

18:38that shows that nearly 90 percent of the NFL athletes go bankrupt and lose every single penny that they have within three to four years after their career is over. Now, you would think, "Oh yeah, but if he has, let's say, at least a 15-year career, 20-year career, you know, he went from 20 to 40 years old, he at least got some time to enjoy the money." No, wrong. The average career is less than four years. Yeah, but he made $100 million and he lost all of it in less than four years? Sometimes less. Sometimes less. It's the same thing with the NBA. Same thing with Major League Baseball. Same thing with everything. Same thing with all other types. It's constant. Why? They have this mindset that their success is permanent. The people that you see that have gained a lot of wealth and are really successful after a very long career are few and far between. They're literally one in a million. Now, on the other hand, what ends up happening to those people, or people like them, is when they fall, they get very depressed.

19:52If money was the substance that they used to give themselves a spiritual high, then what ends up happening is when that substance is no longer valid, they have very severe withdrawal symptoms, psychological withdrawal symptoms, meaning that they now have lost their purpose in life. Because that was their drug. That was their fuel. That was their purpose to live. Which, in essence, means they now have a purposeless life. The truth is they never had a purpose. The truth is they had a purposeless life even before this. They didn't know it yet. They were addicted to the money. They were addicted to the fame. They were addicted to the success, assuming it was going to continue. But then they realized that this is gone. And now they think, "Oh, my life is over." No, no, your life was over beforehand. You just didn't know it yet. What is it like? Sometimes with certain electronic devices that, you know, they have these LED lights. And you take out the outlet, take out the plug from the electric outlet, but the LED light stays on for a little while. But there's no electricity. How is it on?

21:08No electricity. The answer is, there's still a little bit of remaining electricity that the system already has, and this LED light is living off of it for these extra few seconds or so. That's the same thing with those people. While they were living their fake life that was completely based on materialism and getting their "spiritual" money and living a purposeless life, What ends up happening is that they think, no, no, it's going, it's going, everything is okay, everything is okay, I got a lot of money, everything is okay. No. Everything is not okay. Are you happy? Well, no, I'm going to get happy. But you have the money that you wanted, though. Yeah, yeah, I just need a few more things, though. I need a few more. But you have a lot. Yeah, yeah, I just, it's one more thing. I need to get married. I need to have another kid. I need to have another house. I need to build this company. I need to have this deal. It's always something else. Material. Why? They realized their goal, didn't get them to their goal. They achieved their goal, but it didn't get them to their goal. This type of purposeless life is very, very difficult to live. It's unfortunately very common because what ends up happening is that once these people lose their money, they now have not only no money,

22:26and no purpose, but they don't even know how to get themselves out of this situation because they're not used to it. They're not used to recovering. So this is a battle, literally a survivorship battle. Now, how could they get out of this situation? Same exact principle: This too will pass. What do you mean? How am I going to make money? Hashem's going to send you money. Yeah, but I don't have any money. I used to have $100 million. I didn't tell you Hashem's going to send you another $100 million. He may or may not. But if He sends you $50,000, you could live. Well, it's so tough. No, no, no. It's only tough if you want to maintain the same lifestyle. But live you can. No, but I'm so used to it. Get unused to it. Stop being a baby. But what did I do? A lot. A lot of wrong things. You're lucky you're even alive. Why are you saying that, Rabbi? Are you cursing me? No, no, that's what the Torah says. The Torah says that money is considered damim. Money is called blood in the Torah. There are several names for money. One of them is blood. Bloods. Plural. Why bloods? Because people spend their entire life attaining it.

23:53They spent all of their blood attaining it. And what ends up happening is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu sees that the time is up for this person. He's made a certain amount of sins. She's made a certain amount of sins. And they're ruining their own life. And now, if they're going to do teshuva, they have to start soon. Or else they're simply not going to achieve teshuva. Hashem sends them different messengers. Sometimes He sends them a rabbi. Sometimes He sends them a movie. One of them, Hashem took back his millions, maybe. Sometimes He did. Sometimes He did different things. But sometimes, they don't get those messages. No, no, I don't want to watch the movie. It's too long. An hour and a half. Too long. Yeah, but the movie in the movie theater for three hours, X-Men, you watch them. They don't want to listen to the rabbi. They don't want to listen to the... Hashem said something else. What did He do? IRS. Lawsuit. Competition. Divorce. Medical problems. All types of horrible things that happen to people where literally almost overnight it seems, all of the money they believe they worked hard for, gone. 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 200 million dollars, gone.

25:22Money that you would think, how could such a person spend that kind of money? I mean, with that kind of money, if the guy spends a million dollars a year, he could still live for a hundred years. How could he lose all of it? He could lose. He could lose. Happens every day. Because no one just sits with their money in cash and puts it in some safe. What do they do? They invest it in different things. Why? They want to make more money. They want to protect their assets. Now they protect their assets by putting their assets at risk. The reality is, one day, yes sir, listen, we have a... With something to tell you, sir. Why do you know that mutual fund, the Franklin-Templeton fund, you invested ten million dollars in? Yeah, yeah, it's not worth ten million dollars anymore. What? The market went down a little bit? Yeah, something like that. Well, what happened? That's why it's down. You know, what, nine point five? Because, you know, it's a conservative fund. Conservative. Franklin-Templeton is a big company, trillion-dollar company. So it was nine point five. Well, I lost a little bit. Why are you so nervous? Oh, Mr. Broker...

26:31No, no, sir, it's not worth anything. What? What do you mean it's not worth anything? Yeah, you see, the Franklin-Templeton Company, they announced that, well, the assets are not worth anything. What happened to them? Well, we don't really know, actually, sir. We don't know. But it was just announced in the news two weeks ago. But your next statement is going to have a pretty fair change. What kind of change? Well, it used to be $10 million. Okay, so what now? Zero. Ah, yeah, yeah. Okay, sir, we got to go. What do you mean you got to go? You just told me I lost $10 million. Yeah, but we have a bunch of other people who lost $10 million and more. But thank you for your business, sir. We hope that you come back to us as a client. What's happening right now? Tell me that.

27:33You know how many times this happens? They continue happening. No, I lost everything. There's no purpose to life. I'm going to kill myself. And some people kill themselves. Why? Because their life was purposeless to begin with. What really changed? Absolutely nothing. In reality, nothing changed. Because the money is not like money that he was using to buy groceries, and he needed the money to go pay the tuition for the kids. The money was in some statements. It was some digital number that was on a piece of paper or on a screen, better yet, that he would see once a month. But now that he feels like he doesn't have it anymore, there's no purpose to life. In reality, all that happened here is that he realized that his life was purposeless, and now it's even worse. Now you can't even get that dopamine, that dopamine rush that he gets for half a second every month to look at his statement and see another few hundred thousand dollars up, a few hundred thousand dollars down. He didn't even have that pleasure anymore. So while people are so focused on materialism, it's very, very simple for them to become very depressed. And once they get depressed, it's very quick for them to become suicidal. But if a person...

28:52takes this concept from the Torah of Gam Zeh Ya'avor, this too shall pass, they'll realize that it's all a circle, and yes, you lost everything, yes, you lost a lot, yes, things are down, yes, there's a heartbreak, yeah, bad stuff happens in everybody's life at some point or another. It's not a curse, it's a reality. The longer you live, the more stuff you're going to experience, some good, some bad. B'ezrat Hashem, we all have only good, it's just, let's get into it. So now, what does a person do once he gets to tough times? He has to remember, this too shall pass. So yeah, I'm down. I'm out of a job. I'm out of this. I'm out of that. I've got tough times. It's not going to continue this way. How long is it going to continue? I don't know. But I've got to buckle up, stay strong, and keep pushing. Why? Life is worth it. Now I can tell you that I have a lot of experience with this.

29:54I was going through the worst parts of my own personal battle in health, life, money—all these different things. It was like a storm of all storms; everything was collapsing all at the same time. One day, I wake up, and aside from my health being in the toilet And aside from my company also being in the toilet, there's a little bit left. There's a few million dollars left. Wake up. Oh, bad news. What? Your portfolio is down 84%, sir. What do you mean, sir? It's my portfolio. I'm the manager. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So what do you want? We need you to come up with a few million dollars in two hours. Well, I don't have. I just lost. Yeah, so you're going to have to sell everything at a loss. No chance to recover. Why can't you give me a couple of days? That's not the rule, sir. You've got $30 million on the line here. $40 million on the line here. Every few minutes, it could be worse. You could be in the negative. Okay, so let me just try to sell this, that. No, no, we're going to sell it for you. Yeah, but you guys don't know how to sell. You're going to ruin it even worse. Sir, thank you for your business. Click. By the time they finished, they made it much worse.

31:22Instead of being left with a few million, $11,000. Now you got to call the clients. I'm sorry. I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't do anything illegal, but I'm still sorry. All right. You gave me a responsibility, and I failed. Many people took it well: "We appreciate you. We've done a lot of business with you," and so on and so forth. But a few, not so much. Who were those few that didn't take it so well? The ones whose whole life was based on materialism. And those people were usually the closest to me. The ones that I invested the most in. The ones that I invested the most in, the ones that I helped a lot, the ones that I put everything into. All the energy.

32:24Best part yet, the ones that I made all of the money for. Not me, but in my practice and all the different things that we did for them. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is obviously the one that does everything. But when they came to me, they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Within three, four years, I turned these people into multi-millionaires. All of a sudden, they are big shots. Ha! Ha! They're the ones that are accused. They're the ones that, if you look on the internet, you look it up, you know, all my enemies, they like to look me up. So it's good for them. It gives them something to do. And look, they say, "Oh yeah, look, lawsuit. Look, a couple of people sued him. He's a criminal." You do business, people are going to sue you. The more business you do, the more likely you are to get sued. If you didn't get sued, you probably didn't do much business. You do a billion dollars in business, get sued for $3 million, that's pretty good. It's pretty good. Now, smart people also understand that it's not about the lawsuit. Why? It's about the outcome. What's the outcome? Somebody sues you for a million dollars, wins a million dollars, obviously shows you're guilty. But if somebody sues you for a million dollars and settles for $9,000,

33:51Settle for $9,000. Why would you settle for $9,000 if you really have a real claim for a million dollars, two million dollars? Where's the show? There's no claim. There's no claim, no case. But the enemies are not going to tell you that. What are they going to tell you? Ah, see, he got sued. Criminal, criminal. No, no, you're just a piker. You never made any money in your life. You do a billion dollars in business like I did, billion with a B, billion. Do a billion dollars in business, then you can talk. But, circle. billion-dollar business. Now you say thank you to people who send you 200 bucks for stock. Right, life goes in circles. Now, what do I prefer? A hundred million, zillion, zillion percent. Saying thank you for 200 bucks, why? All the money in the world did not give me any blessing. What gave me blessing? Torah. So, when a person uses

34:51the fall, as a way to connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the fall turns into a blessing. When you realize that this too shall pass, and eventually get out of it, you realize the whole thing is a blessing, one big blessing. If a person doesn't do that, his life turns into one big curse. And for a while, it was a curse. Why? You're dealing with pain. You wake up in the morning in pain, you go to sleep in pain, during the day you're in pain, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the volume, what HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided to give you for that hour. Depends. Sometimes pain, you're pretty much disabled. Laying there, wherever you fell. Not wherever you lay down, wherever you fell. You just sit there, screaming, yelling, crying. No one can help you. Sometimes, sometimes you have to boil yourself in water, hot water, like boiling water. Why? Because the pain from the water is better than the pain that you have otherwise. Sometimes the best solution is to go cut your body up. Why? You have to go to the doctors to cut you up, give you other pain, give you a surgery. Baruch Hashem. Why? That pain, the suffering there, is better than the pain that you have. And so on and so forth.

36:13when you deal with so much pain, what happens? It's depressing. It gets you to a point where you think, "This is going to be forever. I'm going to be sick forever. I'm being pained forever. Who wants to live such a life? Oh, you know, at least I have a little bit of money so I can buy some stuff to, you know, give me some happiness. Oh, money's gone. Oh, okay, so money's not good. Okay, so I have friends, you know, a couple of friends. Oh no, the friends, yeah, yeah, they just robbed your office, sir." You know, those friends that, you know, the ones that you bought them a house, the ones that you helped with their marriage, the ones that you did all that stuff for, yeah, yeah, they just robbed you. Oh. No friends, too. Okay. So friends, money, health, what do you got? Okay, so I'm just gonna die. I'm just gonna jump off a bridge. No, no, no. You still got a few things that are good. What's the few? You know, your wife, your mom, brothers. When you're in hell, in your mind, you don't think that this is valuable. In reality, priceless. Why? Because you realize, Gam Zeh Ya'avor. Now, when I was in my hell, and I wanted to commit suicide, and I wanted to do a lot of different things to end it, I wasn't thinking like this. Why? I didn't have Torah. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu, in His mercy, sent us the message, and little by little we woke up, and realized that

37:42There's much more value to life than money, than this, than all these different things that we talked about. And with or without the pain, and whether the pain goes away or not is irrelevant. There's still value to life. And you start realizing that you've got to keep pushing. You've got to keep moving forward. You've got to keep doing things that are good. And you can enjoy life even with the suffering, even with the difficulty. And Baruch Hashem, little by little, you start getting yourself into a situation where you start dealing with the problems differently. It's not that you start doing teshuva and all your problems go away. Sometimes that happens, but not necessarily always, and not necessarily right away either, even if it does go away. But the beautiful part is, Rabotai, is that you start living life with a purpose because all of a sudden your new life has to do with the purpose of life, with the afterlife, with continuity. It's not just about here; it's about later on. It's about after, and so on and so forth. But a lot of us don't think like that. A lot of us don't think beyond this life; we think about just now. And we get very, very depressed because of that. And that's a mistake. So the first thing that we need to know is that this life is just a corridor to the real life.

39:13And this life, whether it be 70, 80, 100 years, whatever it is, it's not real life. This is the place you work. Where you enjoy the benefits of your work is a place that's eternal. Or you pay the consequences. When a person starts thinking about olam haba, the next world, his actions, his decisions, his mindset, our mindset, are very different. Why? Because now you start realizing, okay, wait a minute, hold on. So maybe what I'm going to do right now may cost me a lot of money. Maybe to give $1,000 to tzedakah and have $1,000 less in my bank to help out a friend, give him a job, even though I really don't want to give him a job, but he needs a job because, or else, he's not going to be able to feed his kids. And just to give him money, it's not really helping him. So I'd rather just give him a job. Yeah, but that means I'm spending and this and that. If you do the math in your head, it's never going to work out. If you do the math, it'll work out. Why? It's much better to give somebody a job than to give somebody tzedakah. Why? Because when you give somebody a job, they don't feel like you're giving them anything. They feel like, thank you, you do me a favor, but I'm working. I'm working for it. You still have their honor. You still have their respect. You give somebody tzedakah; it's very difficult. Why? A person is ashamed. So now,

40:38If a person understands that if they continue pushing for life, continue pushing, pushing, pushing, and fighting through the struggle, it's going to be over at some point. Without giving yourself a time frame. A lot of people have a problem because they give themselves a specific time frame. Oh, no, no, if I don't get a solution, if I'm not healed, if I'm not making money, if I'm not married, if I'm not this or that, by next year, by next month, within the next two years, that's it, I'm giving up. No, no, don't give Hashem a clock. He's not your employee. You've got to keep pushing and living a life and going through the struggles because that's what you've got to do. Don't put a clock on it. Why? The clock will always disappoint you. The clock will always disappoint you. So, make sure that you're pushing without the clock. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do. This is what you're supposed to do. Live. And use whatever you learned from that difficult experience to change your actions if you have to do it all over again. Now, what a lot of people don't know is that although the main punishment that happens to a person happens in Olam HaBa, and the main reward surely happens in Olam HaBa, there are different things that HaKadosh Baruch Hu does in this world and...

41:43Difficult experience to change your actions if you have to do it all over again. Now, what a lot of people don't know is that although the main punishment that happens to a person happens in Olam HaBa, and the main reward surely happens in Olam HaBa, there are different things that HaKadosh Baruch Hu does in this world and... where He runs the world with measure for measure that's as strict as can be. So much so that the Gemara says anyone who says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is vatran, mevatrin me'av; anyone who says that Hashem just lets things go, Hashem gives them an extra punishment just for thinking that. Everything has to be paid for. Everything. Either by teshuva, or by suffering. You pick. So now, at the time of the Chafetz Chaim, there was a young man, successful, who was a landlord, and his poor widow and her kids

43:11weren't able to pay the rent. So the landlord came and he started intimidating her and yelling at her. She said, "I'm sorry, just give me some more time. I don't have anywhere else to go. I don't have money for food. Just let us, you know, at least give us a roof. We'll get you the money." "No, lady. You got till two hours." But I don't have any walls to go. I don't have family. I'm alone here in the middle of nowhere in the countries of Ashkenaz, Europe over there. I don't have anything. It's freezing outside. Just give us a little more time. This rasha merusha removed the roof. It wasn't like today's roofs and today's houses. Removed the roof of the house. ...and let the pouring rain go into the house so she had to run away from there. When the Chafetz Chaim heard about this, he's still young, they told him about this. He said, I wonder what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to do with him. I wonder what kind of punishment Hashem is going to give this person...

44:23Everybody heard about the story. Everybody was shocked, not only by how vicious one Jew could be to another, but to a widow— a woman with young children and no husband to provide for her. It was such a vicious act from one Jew to another. So, everyone expected Hashem to deliver judgment. A year passed—nothing. The guy continued making money. Another year, nothing. Another year, nothing. Ten years, nothing. Twenty years, nothing. People forgot about it already. Fifty years passed. Fifty years passed. That means fifty Yom Kippur. Fifty Rosh Hashanah. 50 opportunities, at least once a year, to do teshuva. That's where you go, Yom Kippur. Do teshuva, I'm sorry, Hashem, I shouldn't have done it. 50 years. Nothing. One day, it's announced in the community, it's a very horrible case. An older man got bitten by a dog that has rabies. In those days, they didn't have the cure. Torah always had the cure, by the way. It's mentioned in the Gemara.

45:44But not everybody learns Gemara. But anyway, a man got bitten by a dog that has rabies. The guy is in so much pain; he's barking, yelling, and screaming. Agony. It's hard to even be around him. And this person is extremely successful. This person has many things, this, that. But no doctor can help him. Nothing can be done. And he's suffering something that no one's ever seen before. He suffered so much. from the pain of this rabies, he died from pain. It's called mitah meshunah, a strange death. So the Chafetz Chaim heard about the story, he says, I wonder who this person is. He investigated it, who is it? It's the guy that threw out the widow and her kids, removing the roof, rasha merusha. Wait for him, wait for him, wait for him, 50 years, you got it. All right? Doesn't give up. Doesn't let go. Gave him an opportunity. Say, oh, where's the kindness? What do you mean, where's the kindness? What do you mean, where's the kindness? He waited 50 years. If that's not kindness, what's kindness? Somebody owes you 500 bucks, you call them every week.

47:08No, no, you have the money, I need the money, I need the money. No, no, I don't have it right now. Ah, come on, why are you doing this to me? You start yelling at the guy, insulting him. You don't wait for two weeks. Hashem waited 50 years. 50 years waiting for this guy to do teshuva. Every year He made sure there's a holiday that's a teshuva holiday. Nothing. Nothing. That's not kindness. What's kindness? And that's only the punishment here. We're not talking about what's waiting for him over there, Hashem Yishmael. The Chafetz Chaim says, here we see again, measure for measure. There's another time, Rabbi Fein told me this story. He says that, true story, that just happened a few days ago. A

48:09by the name of Rabbi Ba'adani said it, if I've heard it, he knows the person himself. True story. Says there was a woman that went into a bank and asked to withdraw 300 shekels, about 100 bucks from her account. Teller says, sure, no problem. Looked at the computer. Negative balance. He says, I'm sorry, ma'am. I can't give you. You already have a negative balance in the account. You've already borrowed against the account, and now there's a negative balance. And you haven't paid. We can't give you. The woman says to him, listen, don't do this to me. I need money to feed my kids. I'm an almanah. I don't have any money. I need money just to feed my kids. I need, you know, $100 to feed my kids. He says, I'm sorry, lady, I can't. It's the bank's rules. But listen, I need the money. I need to eat. We need to eat. I can't, lady, I can't. I'm sorry. It's not my money. It's the bank's. The guy got so frustrated, he started yelling at the woman. What do you think this is, a Gemach? What do you think, it's charity?

49:39The woman was so insulted in front of everybody. You know, there's the bank, this guy's yelling at her. So insulted, she starts crying hysterically. She says, "That's how much you embarrass me over $100?" And she runs out of the bank. Now, the president of the bank saw this, He couldn't take it, and he ran after the lady. He went outside and said, "This lady, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He takes 300 shekels out of his pocket. He goes, "Here, you don't have to give it back." She's crying, "No, no, no. I don't want. I don't want. I don't want anything. I don't want. I don't want. I don't want." He said, "I tried to convince her. No way. She's not taking it. Not taking it." And she went on her way. When the president of the bank comes back in, everybody's a little shocked, but then he sees in the office, he sees that the vice president is crying. Emotional, the story. So he goes in the other room, he goes, "What happened? You okay? Something happened?" "No, no, no, it's okay, it's okay." "No, no, tell me, what happened?"

51:05Listen, it's just, it's okay, it's okay. No, no, tell me what happened. Tell me. I saw what happened. Okay? It reminded me of a story that happened 40 years ago. What happened 40 years ago? He says, when I was a kid, I was a little boy, my dad died, and my mom had to take care of us. And we didn't have much money. And we went to the store, deli, and the way it worked in Israel, it doesn't work like that in America, is that even if you don't have money, he writes it in a book. Oh listen, I'm buying this, this, and this, put it on my tab, put it on my tab, and over time you pay it. It's like a community bank. I remember when we left Eretz Yisrael over 30 years ago,

52:06My mom, God bless her, was struggling financially at the time and built up a tab of almost $5,000, which is an enormous amount of money at the makolet. The fact that the guy, Rafi, may Hashem bless him, I don't know if he's still alive or not, but the fact that he was able to carry such a tab for my family is a big, big chesed. But one of the greatest things that I learned in my life is that despite the fact that we moved from Eretz Yisrael to America, my mom sent the money every single month until she paid the full tab. Until she paid the full tab. It took a few years, but she sent him all the money until she paid the full tab. She could have run away. He goes, ah, no, come on, I'm in a different country. No. Honesty is honesty. You don't have to be the most religious person in the world to be honest, to be ethical. Somebody did you a favor? Don't be an ungrateful person. So this guy, this vice president says, I remember 40 years ago, I was a kid. My father died. Went to the deli.

53:28My mom, you know, got a few things, minimal stuff, some bread, some milk, cheese, so we could eat. Went to the counter, and the owner looked at his book, said, "I'm sorry, I can't do it." So my mom whispered to him, thought I can't hear. I was a little kid, she didn't think I was paying attention. But I heard every word. And she whispered to him. Don't do this to me. Please. It's the only thing I have. I need food for my kids. I don't have anything in the house. Please. The guy looks at her and he gets angry. "It's my fault you don't have anything? I can't do it. Return it." "Please. Don't do this to me." She's still whispering. The guy gets so angry. He takes the bag from her. There's a basket around. He takes everything out and puts back the empty basket. He says, "Now get out of the store."

54:29Kicks her out of the store. He said, "My mom cried, and the pain that I saw on my mom's face was the worst pain I've ever seen on anybody's face. A mom not having food for her kids might as well be death. I saw my mom and went home." Hashem willed it. I grew up, became successful, and became vice president of the bank over here. And now this happened. So the president of the bank says, "Well, it's quite a story." No, he goes, "I'm not finished. See, sir, that store teller over there, the owner of the deli that threw my mom out—his daughter was that woman." that the bank teller in our bank just threw out of the bank. That was his daughter. That was his daughter. Life is a circle. Life is a circle. Rabbi Chayim Volozhin tells us, life is a circle. That's how it works. A person needs to know. But there's also good ways. Chofetz Chaim

55:54At one point, he was ready to build his yeshiva. This was about 120 years ago. He wanted to build the yeshiva. A rich person came and said, "Oh, I'll pay for the whole thing." We're trying to build the yeshiva, $20 at a time. We're waiting for the guy who's going to come and say, "I'll pay for the whole thing." Write a check for $10 million. Write a check for a million. Something. Not yet. Tzad Hashem. Coming. Soon. But somebody came to the Chafetz Chaim. We were shoestring on the Chafetz Chaim's shoe, but he wanted to build a yeshiva. We're trying to build a yeshiva. He did what was needed. We're trying to do what's needed. Follow the instructions of our forefathers. When will my actions reach the actions of my forefathers? What are Jews supposed to say every day? Chafetz Chaim said, "I'm going to open a yeshiva." A rich person comes and says, "Kavod HaRav, I'm ready to pay for the whole thing." Chafetz Chaim says something I don't think anybody in the world is going to say: "No. You can't pay for the whole thing." "No, no, but Kavod HaRav, I insist. I have the money." "It's not about the money. You can't pay for the whole thing." "Well, Kavod HaRav, I keep Shabbat. I keep it for it." "It's not about you keeping Shabbat. I know you keep Shabbat. I know you come to the shul, everything. We like you. You're a good guy. You can't pay for the whole thing."

57:22Why not, Kavod HaRav? He says, the most you can get is one wall. You can pay for a wall. Pay for a wall. Put your name on the wall. That's what you can pay for. But why, Kavod HaRav? I want to do the whole thing. He goes, you see, we don't have the Beit HaMikdash right now. We don't have the Beit HaMikdash. That means we have to get as many mitzvot as possible. We need as many people as possible to get involved in this mitzvah, to show Hashem that we want to build the Beit HaMikdash. So we can't give all the merit to just you, because every single person that donates money for the sake of Torah is fulfilling the entire Torah. A person that does not donate for the sake of Torah is going against the Torah. So much so that the Chafetz Chaim almost made it a Halacha. He made it a Halacha, but then he retracted it. So someone that doesn't support Torah has no share in the world to come.

58:24But then he said to the guy, "No, no, remove it." He goes, "Why? It's not Emet?" He goes, "It's Emet." "Then why are we removing it?" He says, "Because if I make this a Pesak Din, they're going to make a Pesak Din in Shamayim too. Nobody has a chance. All the people who don't donate for Torah, instead they donate to Chanukah parties, they donate to horses, they donate to dogs. Let's at least give them a chance. But that's the Emet. You have to support Torah. How much? As much as you can." At the very least, you're Ma'aser. If you can do Chomesh, you can do 20%, you can do 20%. The point is, you have to give money for Torah. Why? That shows HaKadosh Baruch Hu that this is your most important investment in eternity. It's much more important than your second house. It's much more important than a nicer car. It's much more important than any jewelry you get. Why? It's investing for Olam HaBa. It's investing to build the Torah and sanctify HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name every day. So this man, a rich guy, says, that's what I want to do. I want to pay for the whole thing. I want to invest for Olam HaBa. He says, no. You invest for Olam HaBa, but only a wall. Why? Everybody else also has to invest. So the guy accepted it, got a bracha from the Rav. Chafetz Chaim gives him a very respectable blessing, makes the wall a very special wall in the yeshiva, puts his name on it. Baruch Hashem, as you would have it.

59:50Life is a circle, HaKadosh Baruch Hu puts us here, puts us there, puts us in all types of places. A few years passed, and the guy dies. The donor dies. Now, of course, the government doesn't need much of an excuse to take all your money. If you're a Jew, that's enough of an excuse. The second he dies, they say, yeah, yeah, he owed here, he owed there, he owed there. Wiped out everything that he had. Took the house, took everything. Left the wife and the kids with nothing. Zero, zero, zero, zero. Chafetz Chaim heard about this. Brought, told the people, bring the woman here. Brought to Chafetz Chaim, crying, miskina. Says, no, no, nothing to cry about. Here, let me show you. Takes you to the yeshiva. Come over here. Here you go. This is your room. This is your house, your new house. You and the kids are going to live here. You have a designated room in the yeshiva.

1:00:50Why? Why? No, no, no. It's the least we can do. This is what the yeshiva owes you. The yeshiva owes your husband. You see, when a person invests into Torah, invests into helping Am Yisrael do teshuva, invests into sanctifying HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name, he's not doing the Torah a favor. He's not doing the rabbi a favor. He's doing himself a favor. Why? Life's a circle. The money that you have today, you say, "No, no, I'll donate at the end of the year." Who says you will have the money at the end of the year? What's the most important mitzvah we have in the Torah? The mitzvah that you have now. Which mitzvah? Whatever you can do right now, do. That's the most important mitzvah. Yeah, Shabbat, Shabbat's a big deal, but Shabbat's not today. When Shabbat comes, that's the most important mitzvah. But right now, you can't do Shabbat, so it's not the most important mitzvah. What about tefillin? Tefillin, you can't do tefillin. It's 10 o'clock at night. You can't put on tefillin at 10 o'clock at night. It's not the most important mitzvah. When is the most important mitzvah? In the morning, when you can do tefillin. When you can put on your tefillin. What mitzvah can I do right now? Oh, wow, you didn't get the point yet. You can learn Torah. You can give tzedakah. You can share this lecture. Do kiruv.

1:02:17three mitzvot in five seconds. And there are plenty of others. That's the most important mitzvah. That's the most important mitzvah, Rabotai. A person needs to understand that it's not just the size of the mitzvah, but it's also the timing. And when a person utilizes these few different tools that we talked about, he's going to make himself placed in a good place in this circle regardless of which, you know, sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down, but at least if we make the right decisions when we're up, Hashem will also have mercy on us if we're ever getting to the point that we're down or our descendants are down. And that's what Rabbi Chanina was trying to teach his wife. When the poor man comes to collect tzedakah, go towards him, go towards him. Don't wait for him to come to you. You already see he's coming? Go towards him. Extra kindness. Why? So Hashem, if it gets to the point where our kids or our descendants are down, are homeless, are in bad shape, Hashem also extends somebody to us so that they don't have to embarrass themselves extra. Why? Life is a circle. Life is a circle. With that being said, who wants to come up with some questions?

1:03:39Joshua, come on. It's free, the questions, guys, it's free. Come on, Joshua. You know, 12 months. So, this Gemara, in Masechet Shabbat, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says that The Shaim go to Gehinom for 12 months. But then there's another Gemara, and there's an entire section in the Zohar, and there's an entire teaching in the Reshit Chochmah, and many, many other holy books that talk about how, from Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the same Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, says some people get Gehinom for a very long time, eternity, forever, until the Neshama is destroyed. So on one side, you say one year, On the other side, you say many years or infinity. Or you look at the Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah. When in the beginning it says, Reshaim go to Gehinom for one year. It says, but some Reshaim go to Gehinom forever. It says, what's the difference? It says that the ones that

1:05:05go forever, they make sins. They're both Hashem. They make sins. What sins do they make? They make sins with their body. He says, give me an example. Everybody understands the example. But the example that the Gemara comes up with is someone who doesn't put on tefillin. Someone who doesn't put on tefillin every day, just simply decides not to put on tefillin. The Gemara says, he goes to Gehinnom forever. And of course, other bodily sins. Wasting seed. ni'uf, adultery, going with a niddah, and so on. These are different big sins that a person, if he doesn't do teshuva, or she doesn't do teshuva, it's a very, very big problem. But here we still have a contradiction. Okay, how come one time he told us one, and another time it's forever? I mean, there's, you know, there's a middle ground somewhere, right? So anyone who looks in the Yerushalmi, the Yerushalmi says, the Gemara Yerushalmi, there's two, there's the Bavli, there's Yerushalmi. In Yerushalmi, it says that divrei Torah... are poor in one place but are rich in another. Meaning that when you learn about a subject in the Torah, a specific issue in the Torah, you must learn it from all of the different places that mention that subject and not just one place. There's not a single place in the Torah to learn about any issue in the Torah.

1:06:33It's dispersed all over the place. So, for example, the boys right now, Baruch Hashem, are about to complete Masechet Berachot. Now, you know what's the good news? They're learning right now things about Berachot. Now, if you think that this is the last place you're going to learn about Berachot, mistake. Why? Because Shani, that's about to complete Masechet Shabbat, b'ezrat Hashem, Guess what? He also learned about berachot in Masechet Shabbat. Yeah, but how come they didn't put it in Masechet Berachot? Why didn't they just put everything in Masechet Berachot and everything in Shabbat related to Shabbat? That's not how it works. How does our Torah work? Our Torah works like our nervous system. Where our nervous system, Rabotai, if you ever saw any of these visual illustrations on the computers and so on, you see that our nervous system is completely connected. Everything is connected to everything. sometimes a person can have a pain in their foot that has nothing to do with their foot; it has to do with some clot or some nervous issue that's in their back. Sometimes they can have something in their chest, but it has nothing to do with their chest; it could be something that's happening in another part of the body. So that's why, for example, anyone in the medical world will tell you that if you have certain symptoms

1:07:59then you should check your heart. Say, oh yeah, my chest hurts. No, no, not if your chest hurts. Other things. There are other symptoms. Why? Because your whole body is connected. There's a nervous system, everything's connected. So this also explains, people ask me, I don't understand, how can everything go so bad from a simple hemorrhoidectomy? Hemorrhoidectomy. How could the whole body be in pain from that surgery that you had? How could it be? Because, again, the whole body is connected. If you have a problem with one nerve, it could literally affect the entire body. The entire body. Needless to say, from there we learn, our Torah is just like this. We do not learn Torah from just one book or one line. When we learn about a specific subject, we have to learn about it from everywhere that encompasses it. And that's why you'll see that every time it's mentioned anywhere, it gives you the source of where it got it from.

1:09:05So of course, everything starts with the Five Books of Moses. So if you see it in the Gemara and I tell you, "Where did you get this from?" Oh, this is based on the verse in such and such. It's in the Gemara, it's in the Chumash, in Sefer Bereshit, in Sefer Shemot, Sefer Vayikra, and so on and so forth. On this verse, I'm going to tell you the source. But also, it's mentioned in a different Gemara. And you see that there's another Gemara, and it's also mentioned in the Beraita, and so on and so forth. So you see that they're all connecting things. And you see that this is also discussed in five other different places. So then when you see it, for example, in the Shulchan Aruch, the Halacha of whatever you're looking for, it's going to tell you, "Oh yeah, I got this Halacha from this Gemara on this page, but also from this Gemara on this page, and also from this Posek on this page." Why can't you just give me one? No, no, he can't just give you one. Why? Because this one is discussing the right side of this mitzvah. This one is discussing the left side of the mitzvah, and this one is discussing the middle of the mitzvah. Hypothetical. The point is that it's not just one place. There are different places. There are different facets to the diamond. That's how we learn Torah. So when you see a single statement in the Torah that says something that seems contradictory to what we've said, it doesn't mean that we're wrong. What it means is that you have to learn more.

1:10:31And that's why many times when you see quality speakers, they'll give you one source, sometimes two. But if you see that same speaker write a book, in the book they may mention five sources, ten sources. Why can't he just give me one, like he did in the lecture? Is he trying to show me he's smart, that he knows a lot of sources? No, no, no. You don't speak the way you write, and you don't write the way you speak. It doesn't work the same way. So when you're learning from the sefarim, you're learning from the books, you'll see that every single major thing has countless different sources, countless different chachamim. So for example, if you're going to go over a certain halacha today, it's going to tell you, yeah, this halacha, we got it from the Shulchan Aruch, and this is this page, and this is that section. Now, you're going to go to the Shulchan Aruch, to go to the source, right? The Shulchan Aruch is going to tell you, okay, we got this from where? Rambam, in Hilchot such and such, and page such and such, and Halacha such and such. Now you go to the Rambam. Now the Rambam himself didn't put sources. But the Chachamim that came after him put the sources of where he got what he got. So other people have an easier time. So you look at the Rambam, and you see, oh, the Rambam wrote this Halacha, where did he get it from? Oh, he's using such and such Gemara.

1:11:49So you go to the Gemara. And the Gemara says it's because of a different Gemara. And another Gemara. And another Gemara. And then where did they get it from? It's all from the Tanakh, the Chumash, and so on and so forth. Now, we don't get Halacha from the Tanakh, as far as the Neviim or Ketuvim, the writings, but we get an Asmachta from them. Meaning it's like an assurance that this is the right direction of what we're getting. Halacha is only from the Five Books of Moses. But the point being is that Why didn't the guy that wrote the book today just mention the original source? Why didn't he just mention this halacha is from Sefer Shemot in Pasuk this and this? Why did he have to give me the Shulchan Aruch, and the Shulchan Aruch gave me the Rambam, and the Rambam gave me one of the Poskim, and then this and that, and then I went to the Gemara, and eventually I got all the way to the Promised Land and then the Written Torah? Why didn't I just get it from the guy that wrote the book today? Why is he breaking my head? Because that's how you learn Torah. That's how you learn Torah. You can't just go and say, oh, if I could just read the Chumash, I'm going to understand halacha. You're not going to understand anything. Not only are you not going to understand, you're not going to understand anything. You're not even going to understand how they connected this. Unless you go through all of the steps. And in reality, I'm minimizing it. It's a lot more steps than what I'm telling you. Why? Because the guy that wrote the book today, the gadol that wrote the book today,

1:13:14He's not just mentioning the Shulchan Aruch. He's mentioning 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 150 sources for one single thing. 150. Is there one Shulchan Aruch? Yes, but there are hundreds of major poskim that went for, that went against, and he's giving you both sides. And why did we choose this side? To show you that everything you could possibly think of was already thought of. Everything you think of. So now, when it comes to the issue of Gehenom, if you see it in a regular book that was written by some Chacham, with all due respect to all of them, that says one thing or the other, one sentence, one little tiny paragraph, do not, by any stretch of the imagination, think that this encompasses the entire subject of Gehenom or any other subject. And even if you ask that Chacham himself, if he's an honest person, he's a real Chacham, is this encompassing the whole subject? No, of course not. There's thousands of books written about it. Thousands, not hundreds, thousands. Thousands of books written about it. Thousands of Chachamim spoke about this subject. It's not just Shalom Rubin.

1:14:27Thousands. When we did a shiur on Gehenom, we covered hundreds of sources. But when we did a shiur on Gehenom pertaining just to Chassidut, meaning not Gehenom discussed by all of the Chachamim in history, but just there was a second shiur that we did, Gehenom based on Chassidut, meaning that you've narrowed down the search. The research that was done for that shiur was over 1,400 sources from Chassidut. 1,400 sources. 1,400 sefarim. 1,400 different places. Now you guys get it, Baruch Hashem, on a silver platter. Sounds like, oh, it's easy. Yeah, I can do this. I can do what he does. Yeah, yeah, I can do it. I can do it. Yeah, yeah, same thing. No. It's not so simple. Why? Baruch Hashem, Rabbi Friedman is a genius, a talmid chacham. I try to learn as much as I can and benefit as much as possible and Baruch Hashem, give it to you guys on a silver platter. But the point is that we see from there

1:15:36That just on the aspect of Chassidut, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of chachamim that discuss this particular issue. Needless to say, there are thousands that have discussed this issue in a grand, bigger scope of Judaism, which is much bigger than just Chassidut. Everybody understands that Chassidut is not all of Judaism. You know, Judaism existed before 250 years ago when Chassidut started. So... This specific issue is only debated in this generation, with this specific argument. No one 50, 100, 200 years ago debated the issue of whether Gehinnom is a year or forever. No one debated that. Why? It's obvious, it's clear. First of all, it's a clear Gemara that says it's much longer. Second of all, anyone with a brain knows that it's not possible for all the wicked to go to Gehinnom for just one year. Why? If you have a brain,

1:16:39Let's use it for a second. Okay, brain, turn on. You put the button on, go, now it starts running. Now, okay, Menachem, I told you that Gehinnom is only one year, worst case. Okay, let's see, Menachem, how does this work? Okay, one guy, he kept Torah and mitzvot, went to the shiur, did this, did that, but one time he did something bad. No matter what it is, he did something bad. Let's say we call, the guy obviously has to pay. We just had a whole hour talking about how nothing's for free, right? Hashem says, okay, you get a year in Gehinnom, right? Another guy did not just that one sin that this first guy did; he did a million times more. So, you're telling me he's also getting one year in Gehinnom? So, that one guy did one sin, he gets one year in Gehinnom, and the other guy did a million times, he's getting only one year in Gehinnom? That's it? Everybody gets the same punishment? If you say that, the Ramban... And Sha'agat Aryeh says that makes a person 100% a heretic, a kofer. You can't count them in a minyan. Why? Because saying that everyone gets one year in Gehinnom turns God into a vicious God, that everybody gets the same sentence. Second, he says, "Yeah, but Rabbi, I'm keeping everything. So what, the worst thing that's going to happen to me is one year?" I don't know, what do you mean you're keeping? Do you know everything?

1:18:00Depends on how many times you commit sins. Because even if a person sins, okay, I messed up. You don't just commit one sin in your life; you commit a bunch. So if every sin is one year in Gehinnom, already you have millions of years. So what's our answer? Don't focus on going to Gehinnom; focus on going to Gan Eden. How do you focus on going to Gan Eden? By doing mitzvot. becomes so busy doing mitzvot you don't have time to make sins. And the time that you failed and made a sin, do teshuva, which is a beautiful thing. Why? Because when you do teshuva, you know what happens? You know what happens when you do teshuva? Hashem gives you a reward for the teshuva. Not only are you a criminal, but you are not doing teshuva. Hashem says, "I’m going to give you a reward for doing teshuva." In essence, you get a reward for being a thief because you did teshuva. It's not rational, but that's how much Hashem loves us. If we focus only on going to Gehinnom, Gehinnom, Gehinnom, Gehinnom, then we're probably going to go to Gehinnom because we manifest the presence. It's good to know that Gehinnom is much longer than a year because if it's really only one year, Rabotai, honestly,

1:19:23Would tell everybody, "Do whatever you want. Everyone's going to Gehinnom for just one year. It's the worst thing. Whatever you want. What's the difference if you violate Shabbat or murder people? You're all going to go for one year. What's the worst thing that could happen?" What's the point? It's obvious everyone understands it cannot be one year, and that's why the Chachamim were very, very adamant about this point to the extent that the Ramban, one of the greatest poskim, one of the greatest chachamim Am Yisrael ever had, literally wrote that anyone who says such a thing is 100% a heretic, just as if he violated the entire 13 principles of faith. So, why does one Gemara or one sefer say one year or this or that? Because again, like we said in the beginning, we learned it from the Yerushalmi. The Gemara of the Yerushalmi says that the way the Torah works is that in one place it's poor, in another place it's rich. In one place it's going to give you one sentence, in another place it's going to give you five sentences. That doesn't mean that you by default go to the five sentences. It doesn't mean that. What it means is, you take the one, you take the five, you combine them.

1:20:35And after that, you look for some more. You look for some more, more, more, more, more, and little by little, you start getting yourself a serious answer and a serious understanding of a specific subject. That's how Torah is learned. So if you ever see something that's contradictory, don't jump to conclusions, don't get all riled up. This is not the entire scope of the subject, regardless of what the subject is. It does not just gain on anything. And after that, you look for some more. You look for some more, more, more, more, more, and little by little, you start getting yourself a serious answer and a serious understanding of a specific subject. That's how Torah is learned. So if you ever see something that's contradictory, don't jump to conclusions, don't get all riled up. This is not the entire scope of the subject, regardless of what the subject is. It does not just gain on anything. We're learning and trying to do everything that we do. And that's in the subject of this recording, knowing that Hashem runs the world and everything that comes to you. It's because Hashem is keeping it so. So, like, you're working with other people, and you, yourself, you're trying to keep that focus. But you are put in a situation that people are kind of, they don't understand that idea, and their focus is, like, Next question, same price, 1%. No cover.

1:21:36We're learning and trying to do everything that we do. And that's in the subject of this recording, knowing that Hashem runs the world and everything that comes to you. It's because Hashem is keeping it so. So, like, you're working with other people, and you, yourself, you're trying to keep that focus. But you are put in a situation where people don't understand that idea, and their focus is, like, Whoever I’m doing business with, that person is the one that’s feeding me. So they give them that whole glory, and you have to be put in a position to kind of pretty much serve that person in whatever they do, whether they lie. Right. So you work for a person that does not believe in Hashgacha Pratit, in so many words. It's not a person that's preparing themselves for Gan Eden. They're preparing themselves for a very different world. They believe that their effort, their strength is what's making the money and what's making their success and so on. Now, this is the norm. So it's not a unique situation. The overwhelming majority of the world

1:22:56literally 99.99999% of the world, unfortunately, has the belief that their effort, their skill, their wisdom, their intellect, their idea is what is going to bring them success. Their luck, their being at the right place at the right time, their coincidence, and so on and so forth. People take credit for all of the good that Hashem gives them as if they got it themselves. This is the norm. Now, what happens when you work for those people? What happens when you do business with those people? Well, the truth is, if you didn't do business with those people, you simply wouldn't be able to work in the world. Because the majority of the people are like this. Either they're your boss, or they're your manager, or they're your employee, or they're your customer, or sometimes, chas v'shalom, your spouse, or your friend, or a family member. They're everywhere. That's how people are. So we have to understand that the Torah doesn't tell you that you're only allowed to associate and do business with people who are tzaddikim gemurim.

1:24:06that are completely righteous, one of the 36 that the world exists on. It doesn't say that. The way of the world is something that you need to understand and apply to your life and make sure that you do whatever is necessary in order for you to fulfill the Torah. Meaning that you're allowed to work with such people as long as they're not preaching idol worship and getting other people to idol worship or something like that. If they're just mistaken in their ideology and so on, you're still allowed to deal with them, to work for them, to do whatever. But understand that your role is to fulfill the Torah through your life, which includes your job. You're allowed to work with such people as long as they're not preaching idol worship and getting other people to idol worship or something like that. If they're just mistaken in their ideology and so on, you're still allowed to deal with them, to work for them, to do whatever. But understand that your role is to fulfill the Torah through your life, which includes your job. So how do you fulfill your Torah through your job? By being an honest employee, an honest boss, an honest customer, doing your role. So when you work for somebody, and you're getting paid for it, make sure you work. Don't have him pay you for stuff that you're doing for somebody else.

1:25:20If your boss is paying you to work for him for, let's say, I don't know, X amount of hours, and he's telling you that from, let's say, eight o'clock in the morning until six o'clock at night or ten o'clock at night, whatever your schedule is, you work for me, I'm paying you, you're my employee, right? You're not allowed to do any side projects on his time or her time. You're not allowed. If you do, you're a hundred percent thief. Gazlan now, yeah, but he never saw, he never got hurt. It doesn't matter if he gets hurt. It doesn't matter if he saw. He's paying you to produce for him. She's paying you to produce for her, not for somebody else. So, yeah, but I got my work done. Doesn't matter. That extra time that you had to do that side project, you could have done that side project that he's paying you for and made him more money. You took that time that he's paying you for to work on something else, for yourself, for somebody else, you're 100% a gazlan. You want to work for yourself? Either quit and go work for yourself, or do that at a time that he's not paying you for.

1:26:26You cannot do that. So that's, in essence, how you fulfill the Torah when you're working. It doesn't matter that he's a bad guy or he doesn't believe in God or he's a... It doesn't make a difference. You still have to be a Jew. You still have to comply with the Torah. You still have to do what you're doing. You still have to be honest. If you're the boss, you have to pay people on time. If you're the customer, you have to make sure that your check clears and you're not giving people checks that are practically less than paper. If you're the employee, you have to make sure that you're an honest employee, and so on and so forth. You have to fulfill your role and be a light to the nations. That doesn't mean that everyone is going to be attracted to your light. But surely, after they see you being a light for a long time, they'll see, he's a light. He's a light. And that's actually what happened many, many times throughout history, where when the goyim saw that their power and their strength failed.

1:27:32You know, the money didn't help. The weapons didn't help. Nothing, nothing helped. They were in dire straits. What did they do? They went to the Jewish people, the persecuted Jewish people. Why? They're holy. Yeah, but just six months ago, you made fun of them. Yeah, I made fun of them. It doesn't mean it's true. They're still holy. Yeah, but just six months ago, you were saying this, you were saying that. It doesn't make a difference. They're holy. They're special people. They're the light. And when we fail, we have to go to them. So the way you are at work is you have to be honest, you have to be ethical, you have to do what you have to do, and that's one. Now, the other way is, another thing is, you can try. You can try to influence the public aside from your actions by also sharing Torah with them in a direct or indirect way by giving them, if they're Jews, one of our CDs, a poster, or sharing a text message if you socialize with these people online. uh you know, you give a text message, one of the lectures, you could try to do kiruv that way. But one thing doesn't contradict the other. One thing is not more important than the other. First and foremost, you have to know, as an employee, you're getting paid for a certain service. That's it. Whether the boss or manager or whoever is a good or bad person doesn't make a difference. If you're going to get that money, you want that money, you have to do the service.

1:28:58... have to provide the service. Now, I can tell you from experience of dealing with, I don't know how many, but it's definitely in the thousands of people in business, thousands of customers as well as vendors and service providers, and so on. I have yet to meet a single person that's honest in business. One person... I'm just, this is not one of those times where I'm exaggerating just for the theatrical. I'm dead serious. Not a single person I've ever found that's actually honest. Now, sometimes they're good in the beginning. First transaction, you give them something, they provide it. So what do you do? You come back for more, right? That's when they get you. Sometimes it's two times or three times or four times. Sometimes it's six months. Sometimes it could be two years. it eventually happens with every single person I've ever dealt with every single time. Never failed, never failed. I've never... I just... it's unbelievable to me. When you say, "Yeah, I'm honest in business," I laugh in my heart. Yeah, right, you're either the Mashiach or you're lying to yourself. Why? People don't even know what honesty is. They don't think it's wrong to do what they're doing.

1:30:25You know, they decide, listen, I'm going to charge my customers, I don't know, a hundred bucks a month to go clean their pools. How often are you going to come? I'm going to come once a week. Okay, a hundred bucks once a week. No problem. All right. The guy comes once a week, a month, two, three, four, five months. Good, right? Then all of a sudden you see the guy didn't come this week. Oh, okay. Maybe I didn't see him. All right. Then he comes next week. Okay, fine. But then you start noticing after a while, he's only coming twice a month, but you're still paying for four. Happened when I came. He came. No, no, you didn't come. I'm home all day. I see you didn't come. No, no, he came, he came. I think you're too busy. No. No, I'm not too busy. I see he's not. He didn't come. One look. I think he thought that you're not gonna see. Why? Because usually people are not home. And he's figuring, listen, the pool's clean. No one's using it anyway. So what's the big deal for this customer if I just skip once? The big deal is you're a thief and That's the big deal. To the customer, in reality, it's not a big deal. Why are the pools clean or whatever the service is, it's not a big deal. But in Shamayim, it's 100% a big deal. In Shamayim, they're going to take care of you. For what? Skipping. Same thing with other things. You pay a person, oh, there's a commission to do such and such job. Oh yeah, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. The guy doesn't do it. One time, I was building one of my many websites in business.

1:31:51Websites are like my mini nightmare in life. I've spent so many tens of thousands of dollars on them, and I've built so many, they're like my tycoon in life. I think, I don't know, I can't be a website developer in a previous gilgul, but I did something to do with it. Anyway, one time, I had a guy come, there, yeah, pitch me this whole thing for business, this, that. How much do you want? $47,000 to build this website and this and that, this whole plan. Okay, no problem. gave a piece of the money, started doing some work, dot, delay, delay, delay, do, do, do, do. "Okay, sir, here's what you have." After, I don't know, however many months waiting for this thing, you already got, out of the $47,000, you already got $40,000 of it. Which was a mistake on my end, by the way. You should never pay somebody that much money for incomplete work. But anyway, $40,000. "Okay, what do you got?" I look at the product, and I'm like, this is not even half finished. I'm not doing any more. What do you mean? I paid you all the money. I'm not doing any more. Click. You know how many times stuff like this happened to me in life? I can give you the stories; the world would end and the stories wouldn't. Countless. Lawyers, doctors, web developers, all types of businesses, everything. Why? People are simply dishonest.

1:33:17to the extent where they don't even realize it's wrong. You know who realizes it's wrong? People that have Yirat Shamayim. And that's why the Gemara says someone who doesn't have Yirat Shamayim, you shouldn't even be in a room with him alone. Why? He may kill you. Why? Just because he doesn't have Yirat Shamayim he may kill you? Yes. Where do we learn it from? Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu says to Avimelech, Avimelech says, how come you didn't tell me that your sister is really your wife? Avraham says to him, I saw there's no Yirat Shamayim here, so they would kill me over my wife. A person who has no Yirat Shamayim – don't deal with them at all. But the problem is, it's going to be very, very hard for you to find customers, managers, employees, everything. you have to do what people do, but just be very careful. Be very careful and expect the worst. Don't be overly optimistic with certain things because it's a reality. It's reality. Certain people promise a lot; if they would deliver half of what they promise, it's already a miracle. And that's how it is practically in all of the dealings that I've seen in my life. And trust me, even if you say, "No, no, maybe I have bad luck," it's not. I don't have bad luck.

1:34:35Other people tell me stories. Just a few days ago, somebody said, "Listen, a guy that was struggling because of Corona and everything else—he's a builder or whatever he is—and he can't build anything. So we felt bad, and we figured, you know what, let's give this guy some work. Give him some work in the house. So we hired him. We told him, 'Listen, come to the work, you know, fix up this place. I don't know, a $10,000 job. You know, it's good money when you don't have any money.'" Anyway, oh, $10,000 job. Good. Great. Okay, after you finish the job, okay, great. All right. All right. Thank you. Get the money. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. See you after. The guy later... "Honey, where are the boxes we got from UPS today?" "I don't know." "What do you mean you don't know? Where's the stuff we got?" "I don't know. Let's look at the camera." They looked at the camera, and the guy stole the stuff from them.

1:35:35The guy stole the boxes. The same guy, they just fed him. He was broke, had no money, couldn't pay for anything. They gave him a job, and he stole from them. "Oh, I'm sorry." "Yeah, I know." "Yeah, yeah. Okay, just bring it back. It's okay. I don't know what got into me." Rabbotai. Every day. Why? You have no yirat shamayim. You commit murder in a second. Needless to say, be dishonest in business. So what do we learn from here? Be careful. Set your expectations where they should be and not where you want them to be. Be careful. Expectations. Don't be overly optimistic. Don't be overly pessimistic either, because if you're pessimistic, you can't move on in life. you have to be optimistic to a certain extent, but when it comes to people, set yourself up in such a position where everyone is replaceable. Do not depend on anybody being here tomorrow. Don't think anyone owes you anything. Don't think that anyone is going to promise you anything. Whatever promises people tell you, have it go in one ear and out the other. Not because they're dishonest, not because they're bad people, but because today that's what they're saying. Who knows if they still believe what they're saying next week? People change.

1:36:40set yourself up in such a position where everyone is replaceable. Do not depend on anybody being here tomorrow. Don't think anyone owes you anything. Don't think that anyone is going to promise you anything. Whatever promises people tell you, have it go in one ear and out the other. Not because they're dishonest, not because they're bad people, but because today that's what they're saying. Who knows if they still believe what they're saying next week? People change. People change. Korach was a tzaddik, rabotai. People think that Korach was a gangster. Korach was a tzaddik, you know, I know. He was a navi. A prophet. He saw a prophecy that in his lineage, Shmuel HaNavi is coming. Hashem doesn't give somebody such visions. What happened with Korach? His wife whispered in his ear, told him, "Moshe Rabbeinu..." Wicked wife. He listened to her. Next thing you know, instead of loving Moshe Rabbeinu, he hates him. That's what the Torah says. A woman builds, a woman destroys. If she's righteous, then she'll tell you, "Listen, Moshe Rabbeinu, he's a good rabbi. You should listen to him." "Yeah, but he said something I didn't like. He rebuked me." "Listen, he's a rabbi. If he rebuked you, say, 'I'm sorry, rabbi. You're right.'"

1:38:04But I'm not sorry. I'm sorry. Why? He's right. Well, he's not right. He's right. How do you know he's right? You didn't even hear what he said. If he said it, he's right. Why? He's the rabbi. By default, he's right. By default. Does he have to explain himself to people? No. No. Can you explain this? I don't have to. What? You're the rabbi. I don't tell. If I ask my rabbi certain questions and he gives me an answer against what I want, I would say, "Can you explain it to me, please? Why do you have this and this?" I don't say that. Sometimes you want more to learn, but not because you're trying to have them justify. Sometimes somebody tells you, "Oh, listen, where does it say what you said? Is there a source for it? Do you think I'm a liar?" Now, if you're asking for a source the first, second, third, or fourth time, no problem. Because you don't know, maybe I'm a liar, maybe I make stuff up. But after you've gotten a hundred sources from me already, you're still asking for a source? Is it for learning purposes, or are you trying to see if I'm lying? Did I just make it up for entertainment purposes?

1:39:17And that's the problem, Rabotai. You have to understand. If you have a certain role, rabbis have a certain role, talmidei chachamim have a certain role, employees have a certain role, the boss has a certain role, the customer has a certain role, everybody's got a certain role. You have to have certain expectations, certain things, put everybody in certain things, and just understand that not everything is always going to dance to your tune and work according to your plan, but you got to keep pushing. Keep pushing. Do what you got to do. Put your head down. Focus. Good things will follow. Good things will follow. But as far as disappointments from people, the longer you live, the more you become used to it because that's what happens. That's what happens. It is what it is. It is what it is. Hopefully, you guys have fewer disappointments than I did in my life, but I don't know. I know a lot of old-timers and... They kind of had a similar journey. That's what people are. Next. We're almost done. What time is it? No? You guys are asking some big philosophical questions today. You can make shiurim out of these questions. No? You made an easy one. Shani got one. Okay, no?

1:40:38I have to look at the commentary of exactly where he said it, what Rashi says over there. You know... Yes, so surely a person has to judge everyone based on halacha. And it's forbidden for a person to ever judge another based on his circumstance. Meaning that if the halacha says that, let's say, for example, there's a big lawsuit between a rich guy and a poor guy... And the rich guy can afford to lose. He's got tons of money, and the poor guy can't afford to lose. Can't afford to lose. So, sometimes people want to be nice and philosophical and say, listen, the rich guy can afford to lose, let's just give the case to the poor guy. The Gemara says such a person like this is destroying the world.

1:41:48Why? You're manipulating Torah. You're not allowed to judge this way. Not allowed to judge this way. So what I believe David HaMelech may be referring to over there when he says to judge the poor favorably is an aspect of the legitimacy of their case. Meaning that sometimes rich people sue each other without any legitimacy. Just to get back at each other. Just to hurt each other. Not because they actually have a case. Not because they really have a loss. They're suing their insurance company for damages they didn't even incur. Why? Because they figured, "Let me make some money out of this." They're suing their partner for something they don't even have. "No, you hurt me. You have punitive damages. My reputation is down. I want $10 million. Your whole life is not worth $5. You want $10 million for your reputation? No, I'm going to sue for this amount because I think I deserve this." So sometimes the rich people, not necessarily just billionaires, but just people that are relatively successful and not poor, press charges against each other and file lawsuits without legitimacy. Whereas a poor person generally is not going to do that. Why? He's already struggling as it is. He doesn't have that kind of time to waste, like the rich people. He doesn't have the luxury of time to go sue people for no reason. He also doesn't have the budget to do it.

1:43:08When you're a rich person, you could just pretty much have your own in-house lawyer or a law firm on retainer and pretty much just sue people on a regular basis. I had a guy like that, actually. He used to be my boss, ended up becoming my employee. And this guy was the most litigious person in the world. Now, I can't even say his name because it's like Beetlejuice—you say his name three times, he shows up. Now, this guy is the worst person, like literally one of the worst people on earth. And he's a very dangerous person. And anyway, this guy was the most litigious person in the world. Everybody he sued. If you looked at him the wrong way, he sued you. If he did this, he sued you. Right or wrong, he sued you. Worst person. Everybody had a lawsuit. Every company he ever worked at. lawsuit. Every company had a bunch of his customers' lawsuits. It was unbelievable how many lawsuits this guy had. Anyway, I made the mistake of actually hiring this guy. He used to be my boss, and then, you know, I went my own way. I became a lot more successful than he ever was. And one day, he connected with me and he...

1:44:13wanted to become friends again, and he talked to my brother. He said, "Listen, maybe we could work together." He sold us a dream of how he could help us build the firm, and I really wanted to go in a different direction. So, I needed somebody to run the division, the company, and I bought into it. I said, "Okay, you know what? I'll give you a job. I'll give you this, whatever you want, whatever you want." I gave it. You know, I was generous. I did. Okay, no problem. Within a week, my whole office is like upside down because of all the havoc this guy's causing. But I say, you know what, let him go. Let him do whatever he's got to do. He knows what he's doing. All right, he gets his paycheck. He gets his this. He gets his that. He's building. Okay, you know, sometimes when there's change, you know, there's a little bit of turmoil in the beginning. But I start seeing the employees are complaining. There are different difficulties we never had before. So already within the first few weeks, my wife already comes and she says, this is a mistake. Mistake. mistake. Okay, but how do we get out of this mistake? We have a contract with this Amalek in my office. I have a contract with this guy. So whatever, he'll bury himself. One day, so we continue doing what we're doing. Within a matter of maybe a month and a half, two months, he started burying himself, as he always does, and gets into an argument with me, you know, does a few things out of line, and we catch him stealing.

1:45:41He had some stealing. So it's, "Oh, okay, you stole this. Okay, violated the contract on this, this, this, and this. That's it, fired." That night... He got his lawyer to send, that night, it was like my mom's prepared already. That night, he already had his lawyer send me a 20-page letter with 50 accusations of some crazy stuff that he just made up, different things he wants to sue me for, $50 million or $250,000 cash right now. One of them, I'll never forget this. He said he, because he was not Jewish, and he was an Italian guy, and I like Italian people, but this guy, even the Italian people don’t like. And he said that he felt persecuted every time the rabbi and the Chabad guys used to come to my office, like three times a week. He felt persecuted when the religious Jews would come to the office because he wasn't Jewish, and they would whip him. We would whip him because he's not Jewish.

1:46:53The craziest stuff in the world. Danny said that the secretary touched him. This guy is mamash a giant. And his little secretary says she touched him in a provocative way. Like all types of crazy stuff. And the lawyer doesn't care about anything. Why? Because he's a chashuv just like him. In the end, he got zero. I told him to go fly a kite and, you know, go play this game with somebody else. but, not 50 million, not 200,000, not zero. You actually owe this money to this day. But the point is that some people are just like that. Some people, they're always the victim. They want to sue everybody. Everyone's wrong. Listen, one time, two times, three times, everybody's wrong? Okay, maybe. But if you're in a lawsuit on a regular basis... Check yourself. Check yourself. It can't be everybody. Now, I know I'm kind of contradicting some or I sound like I'm contradicting some of the things I said myself. I've never met a single honest person. I didn't sue all of them. They're not honest. I moved on with my life. Already at this point, I don't even waste my time.

1:48:02waste my time suing people and even arguing with them. I see somebody actually just, uh, two weeks ago. Somebody made an agreement with me. He said he's gonna, uh, do something, and, uh, I thought, okay, it's time to do what you said you were gonna do two years ago. "Oh, I don't remember saying that. Uh, you sure I said that?" So I said, "I remember stuff from when I was three years old. I remember what you said." I remember what you said. Yeah, no, I remember that I said it. All of a sudden, he remembers. "I remember that I said it, but I don't think I meant it that way." I said, "There's no other way to mean it. But don't worry. You don't want to do it? Do whatever you want. You don't want to do it? Don't worry about it. Hashem will send me the money. Hashem will send the money. You don't want to do it? You owe me the money? You don't want to do it? No problem. Go." "No, no, you don't understand." "No, no, I understand perfectly fine. If you want to give me the money you owe me, give. You don't want to give? Don't give." Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu will take care of it. I'm not going to fight with you, go to Beit Din, where's time for that? Where's time for that? Where's time to go fight? If I'm entitled to the money, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will send it right to my door. If I'm not, I could fight until I'm blue in the face. And I'm not getting money. I got a guy that owes me half a million dollars right now. You know how much half a million dollars is? More than what I have. Half a million dollars.

1:49:26I lent them half a million dollars years ago. They were supposed to give it back in 90 days. It's been 13 years, 14 years. I never sued them. I won't sue them. I don't even call the guy. Why? Because if I'm entitled to the money, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will send it to my door without asking, without anything. You know why I didn't get it? I don't deserve it. Why? I don't know. I do good things with my money. I give 25, everything good. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided that I don't deserve it, maybe I don't need it, whatever it is. HaKadosh Baruch Hu made a decision. If you need it, you want it, there's no... He's going to take care of everything. That's how it works. That's how it works. What about the Beit Din? Beit Din is also good. Use it when you need to use it. Use it when you need to use it. But... If you're able to have emunah to the extent where you know that everything that's yours will be given to you, you'll never be shortchanged. He could steal from you, but Hashem can give you the money in a different way. If you understand that Hashem runs the world, you don't even have to use beit din. Rabbeinu Yonah says that beit din is for people that have no yirat shamayim, but that's a different story. That's for his level. So if somebody steals from you, you try to get the money back from them,

1:50:46If they don't want to give you the money back, you go to the Beit Din to tell them, listen, if you don't take you to the Beit Din. If they don't want to go to the Beit Din, you get permission from the Beit Din to go to civil court. You're allowed to use that. There's no problem with you doing that. That's not a problem. But if you've gotten yourself to the point where you believe that you have the emunah, that you know that nothing's going to be shortchanged and you're going to get everything that you're entitled to, you don't have to use the Beit Din. But that's as long as you're not suffering, though. Meaning, if you're not going to go to the Beit Din, you can't, like, you know, eat your heart out every day. "Oh, I can't believe he did it to me. When am I going to get the money back?" No, if that's your attitude, go to the Beit Din. Go to the Beit Din. If it doesn't bother you at all, doesn't bother you at all, you know Hashem is going to give it to you, you're patient, don't bother. Don't waste your time. Go learn Torah with that time. Go learn Torah with that time. That's, again, everybody at a different level, and I'm not telling you that I was always this way. I'm not telling you that I got this overnight, or that it's so easy. But the point is that you're going to have ups, you're going to have downs, you're going to have good things, you're going to have bad things, but if you do good things with your money, I promise you that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will do good for you. And I'm going to finish it tonight with a real-life story. Real-life story. You want to know when I got the story? An hour before the lecture.

1:52:11I always tell you guys, you want miracles? Come to the lecture. A wonderful woman, who is going to be writing this story on our website as part of the Teshuvah stories, says, "Rabbi, I have to tell you something. Something happened twice. You know, when something happens once, it's an incident, a coincidence, this and that. It happened twice. One time a guy... Donated. I was teaching or whatever. He says donate $500, which was not a lot of money for him, but a lot of money considering his stinginess. An hour later, he tells me, "Wow, you're never gonna believe it." So I said, "What?" He said, "I donated $500. You know, by the way, it took him three years to donate this $500. I donated $500. You're never gonna believe it. Just some woman out of nowhere called me and said, 'Listen, I want you to do this job for me. Pick up something from a house. I'll pay you $500.'" Hashem paid me right away what I donated. I said, ah, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem, what a miracle, what a miracle. In reality, I'm a benyamin. So anyway, this wonderful woman, she says, "Rabbi, I have to tell you something. I have proof." I said, "I know, I have proof. I have proof also in the Torah." "No, no, no. I have proof in the Torah, a life, a real life." So what happened? She said,

1:53:38A month ago, I donated money to Be'ezrat Hashem, the organization, and that night, that very night, I donated. An hour later, I went in the car with my young daughter. We were going somewhere, and somebody blew the stop sign and smashed into our car. Hatzalah came, they looked at us, and said, "We have no idea how you're alive." Without a scratch on us. Without a scratch on us. Almost an hour after I donated the money. Somebody blew a stop sign, but nothing happened to us. Baruch Hashem. She says, last night, that was a month ago. Last night, I got this natural thing that she started to take. Trying it out. She didn't know she was allergic to it. She took a bite of this thing. And she started feeling her throat close up. Within a matter of minutes, she started to have a hard time breathing. Hatzalah, come, this, that. Hatzalah came, everything. Said, lady, you're allergic to this thing. They gave her a shot. Within a matter of seconds, saved her life. Everything is good. When was that? An hour after she died. She said, Rabbi, I was supposed to die twice.

1:55:02Suppose I die twice. If I give tzedakah to B'ezrat Hashem, Hashem saves my life. Rabbi, please do me a favor. Spread the story. Tell people that it's 100% true. You donate to B'ezrat Hashem, you donate for Torah, you donate for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It's going to save your life. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe this, but everything, at some point, everything you do will have an outcome. Your prayers will have an outcome. Your tzedakah will have an outcome. And maybe an hour from now, maybe a year from now, maybe ten years, maybe in your kids' lifetime, who knows? But for sure you're going to get paid for it. For sure. Make sure that all of those investments that you're doing and you're making are good ones. The investments you make with your mouth, the investments that you make with your pocket. Make sure that they're good. So the payment that you're going to eventually get, or that your descendants and kids are going to get, is a good payment. Why? Because that's the type of payment that Hashem loves the most. He wants to give you a good payment. He wants to save your life. But He also wants you to see that technically, it could have been something else. It could have been something else. So Baruch Hashem that people are doing the right thing.

1:56:20And they're helping Am Yisrael do teshuva day after day by supporting Be'ezrat Hashem. May they continue supporting Be'ezrat Hashem. May we be able to open the yeshiva, the kollel, this huge community that we're, Be'ezrat Hashem, going to build in South Florida for all those that want to donate a million and up. You can text me at 917-468-2324. No phone calls, please. Have some mercy on me. I have hundreds of messages to deal with. But really, on a serious note, when you donate to Be'ezrat Hashem, you're donating for yourself. You're donating for your investment in Olam HaBa. The second house, the first house, the extra kitchen, all that other stuff, that's just this world. We all have to donate for Olam HaBa. So anyone who can, should, and even if you can't, try to get other people who can. Everyone can do something. You have a few friends, you have a few family members that you can get together. Try to get people to do as much as possible. Because right now, we're hot. We're doing good. People need this. People want this. And that's why we've got to take advantage. We've got to take advantage of the opportunity that we have. Because if we do enough work in a relatively short period of time, we may even be able to start something already in the next school year.

1:57:40But if we delay so much and people pretty much, you know, crawl, you know, sending $20 a month for the sake of Eretz Yisrael, it's going to happen over a long time. So we want everyone to be involved. Why? Because we don't want to give the merit to just one person. Just like we learned from the Chafetz Chaim. One wall. One wall. Why? But I want to donate a million dollars. Okay, so the million dollars will be for one wall. We still want the million dollars. It's not like less money. It's the same money. It's one more. Why? Because we want all of Klal Yisrael to be involved. There's a lot to do, Rabotai. There's a lot of shiurim, a lot of movies, a lot of books, puzzles, all types of ideas, cartoons. We've got lots of stuff in the works. We need an enormous amount of funding. Rabbi Efraim says to me, he says, "Listen, honestly, I think even if people donated a hundred million dollars, it still wouldn't be enough." I said, for your ideas alone, it wouldn't be enough. He has a new idea by the second, G-d bless him. So, Rabotai, there's a lot of good things to do, but we need as many partners as possible. The investment is for you.

1:58:45The investment is for you. Be'ezrat Hashem, we all set ourselves up for good, for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to be in a position that He wants to be in, which is to give us good. And Be'ezrat Hashem, we do good for others, be a light to our own nation, be a light to the nations, and bring Nachat to Boreit Baruch. Baruch Adonai Le'olam. Amen ve'amen.