Corona CRISIS, Imperfect CREATION, HEAVEN & HELL, Lubavitcher Rebbe REBUKE - STUMP THE RABBI (43)

0:17we're back on our Wednesday night shiur, Stump the Rabbi, where you guys ask me some questions and we give you the answers, um... So, B'ezrat Hashem, hopefully you guys have prepared some questions for us to answer. There are a few really, really interesting chiddushim that I learned that B'ezrat Hashem, at some point, we will discuss, whether at the beginning or the end, I'm not sure yet. Something very interesting, very, very interesting. But anyway, today I actually was planning on taking the rest of the week off, to spend some more time with the family, but I got a call. I got a few reasons that motivated me to have this shiur tonight. Number one, a few visitors from out of town, but even more so, I got a very disturbing call.

1:22um, that, uh, from someone that, uh, is in the New Rochelle community in New York, and, um, I'm sorry, uh, yeah, New Rochelle is in New York or in Jersey? I think it's in Jersey. Yeah, no, New York, New York. I'm losing my mind. Yeah, New Rochelle, and, um This is the community that had the one particular guy and his family that got infected with the coronavirus. And then he traveled once to Florida. And apparently, you know, the news says he didn't touch anyone, he didn't handshake, he didn't cough, he didn't sneeze, he didn't do anything. But as soon as he got home, he, his family, and the entire community have been in quarantine. You're not allowed to leave your house, apparently, or it's a thousand-dollar fine.

2:26People can conduct certain things, but very minimal. A few people in the community got infected because someone went to shul, not realizing that he had the virus. Now the whole community, which is maybe about a thousand people... that Hashem will have mercy on us, have mercy on them to give them all because it's not an easy situation. Someone sent me a website that tracks the infections of the coronavirus worldwide, and unfortunately, the numbers continue to grow. We're approaching almost 5,000 deaths worldwide, although the vast majority of them are in China, and then after that it's Italy and Iran. Still, we have over 1,100 cases of infected people in America, confirmed cases, and the numbers continue to grow. Just a few days ago it was 400.

3:35And we have some in Israel, unfortunately. The number is 79 confirmed cases. Baruch Hashem, no one has died. And no one will die. There were actually a few Mekubalim that did a special Segulah yesterday. They flew over the city and made special prayers. It's a special Segulah that the last time it was done was by Rabbi Yehudah Petaya. And by praying and doing certain special prayers for the nation of Israel while you're approaching the four corners of the land. So the point is that anyone that has an understanding of what's really on the line is worried. Not necessarily worried that this is the end of the world, but that simply a lot of people are going to die. And even more so, the virus is not the only reason people will die.

4:44And that's what I was telling the person that I was speaking to from New Rochelle. He has been under quarantine for some time. He said, "I can't believe this is actually happening." And to say the least, it's uncomfortable, this whole situation, for anybody, even if you're not sick. To know that to get delivery of food, you pretty much have to do it at a specific time during the day. Why? Because you can't leave, you can't go, you have to get delivery, and the delivery is not coming whenever you feel like it, because there's so much higher demand now. It's a nightmare, to say the least. So the shiur will go out to the refuah shlema of that community, also for refuah shlema for my dear rebbetzin, Levana Bat Sara, David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah, Esther Bat Zipporah, Elisheva Chaya Bat Sarah, Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sarah, Dvora Bat Mercedes, and all of Am Yisrael. B'ezrat Hashem, they will have refuah shlema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf. Esther Bat Zipporah, Elisheva Chaya Bat Sarah, Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sarah, Dvora Bat Mercedes, and all of Am Yisrael. B'ezrat Hashem, they will have refuah shlema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf.

6:00So, to continue with the situation as far as what's going on in the world, the situation is deteriorating because what's happening now is that it's not just the virus spreading like everyone hoped it wouldn't, but even worse, everyone is panicking, especially when it comes to government. Now, in North Korea, There was one guy, one person that got it, they killed him on the spot. Now, of course, you're gonna say, you know, they shot him, they shot the guy. Now, of course, yeah, yeah, it's North Korea, they kill people anyway. Yeah, okay, but what's to say that the same thing is not gonna happen in your hometown? Oh, no, it's illegal. It's illegal until it's legal. It was illegal to burn people until the Holocaust. Then it became a mitzvah for them to burn people, especially if they were Jewish. it's illegal until it's legal. There's no faith in human justice. There's no faith in there. They don't have any emunah ba'goyim. And the reality is, is that the people are panicking, the governments are panicking, because no one wants to die. And...

7:25If I were in the stock market business still today, I would be a very rich person now. The reason why is because what we said about a month ago regarding what was going to happen to the market has happened today. The market, for the first time in, I don't know, six years, I look at it every few days. Because there are 500 messages. Oh, look what's happening. Eventually, I respond. The market is crashing. It's down 20% from the highs, which means it's a bear market. Meaning everything that we said a few weeks ago, that the show is over, is confirmed. It's over. The bull market is over. How far it's going to go, unfortunately, Whoever's in the market, you haven't seen anything yet. You haven't seen anything yet. Part of the reason is because of the way people are addressing this issue, the panic, the way people react when they don't have a God. When they think that the solution is in their hands, and they don't have a solution, what else is there to do other than panic? What else is there to do?

8:54The people that panic don't have any emunah in Hashem. And the people that have emunah in Hashem don't panic. Now, how do you not panic? You know that it's in Hashem's hands whether you live or you die. It's in Hashem's hands every day, not just because coronavirus visited. What do you think? Coronavirus is the only reason that everyone's life is on the line? That's it? You are going to die otherwise? How come my cousin died a few weeks ago at 48? How come he didn't have coronavirus? He had a drug problem, not coronavirus. How come he died? How come his brother died two years ago? He didn't have coronavirus and not a drug problem either. He had a scooter problem. How come? How come so many people I know have died over the last several years? I haven't spoken to these people, but the point is that from my high school, my high school, I think at least 30 people from my graduating class died. Young guys, young girls. How come? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided that it was over for them. Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't decide the same for us, or you. But we have to give Him a reason.

10:15Corona is just Hashem showing you there's an added danger in the world. Now, the way people are reacting to it is simply a testament to their faith in God. When you have no faith in God, you simply panic, lose your mind, and start doing all types of crazy things, like hitting people in the middle of the street, or boarding up people in their houses in China. And so on and so forth. Now, the situation is not going to get any better anytime soon. And the reason why is the following: For any of those people that, when I first announced that, in my opinion, at the time it was an opinion, today it's a fact. The market bull run is over, and the market's going to crash. And by market, I mean everything—every asset class. There's nothing safe—not currency, not precious metals, not oil, not any type of other commodity, not stocks, not bonds. That's what the Gemara says: that Mashiach is not going to come until everything is the same price, meaning everything goes to nothing.

11:42Now, is that going to happen in the next few weeks? No, I don't think so. But that's, again, my opinion. Before Mashiach comes, for sure it's happening. I'm just hoping that we have more time. Why? Because there are a lot of precious neshamot. A lot of precious neshamot that we still want to help. We still want to get them closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu before Mashiach comes. Why? Once Mashiach comes, there's no more time. There's no teshuva once you see Mashiach is here. There's no teshuva anymore. Just like there was no conversion, no new additions to Am Yisrael at the time of David HaMelech and Shlomo HaMelech, because it was obvious who the winner is. Same thing. Source: Gemara Masechet Avoda Zara, page 4a. Now, the point being is, Rabotai, that The market is reacting in a way that people know how to react when they don't have a God. They pretty much sell everything because they are assuming it's gonna be lower value tomorrow. But there's always a guy that says, no, no, no, it's gonna rebound. So when I first said the market's over, people said, nah, but what if they find a cure? Then the market's gonna skyrocket again, right? Yeah, it will.

13:06They will. They will skyrocket when they find a cure. Problem is, it's not going to happen anytime soon. And even if they find a cure, that initial skyrocketing will just be a fake-out. Why? Because then people are going to realize, okay, let's say hypothetically speaking, they find a cure tomorrow. Tomorrow they find it. Now, why would they find a cure? We don't have a vested interest in them not finding a cure. We used to find a cure. Let's say they found a cure right now while we're doing the shiur. They say, we found a cure and we're going to start mass-producing it to bring it to the market. To bring it to even the initial stages of the market, not the whole market, the initial stages of the market will take them somewhere in the neighborhood of two years to produce. Put all the stuff together, all the chemicals together, the labs together, the machines together to make all the vials, all the pills, or whatever it is. To make all the stuff takes time, takes money, takes effort. What do you think? Just because you have a cure, that's it, everybody? Okay, guys, you have nothing to worry about. Go hug everyone from now on. Anyone you see, hug them. Give them a nice kiss too. What do you think? Even if you have a cure,

14:32It'll take a long time for it to get to market. And even when it gets to market, it's not for everyone. It's the first stage. So that's why when people ask, "Oh, how come they're testing so many more people in China, in Hong Kong, than they're testing in America?" Like in Hong Kong right now, they're testing something in the neighborhood of like 55,000 people a week. Like some, you know, ridiculously high number. In America, it's like 400. You know why? They have a billion and a half people that work for free pretty much. We have practically zero that work for free. No one works for free. Unless it's b'ezrat Hashem, you volunteer. Other than that, no one works for free. And even that's starting to end soon. Well, it's a reality. There's money. It costs money. It costs money. And also people. Also skill set. A lot of the people that are willing to work for free in America, you wouldn't want to hire them even for money.

15:44America is not exactly known as the most skilled country in the world. In China, on the other hand, the average guy is very skilled, much more skilled than people in America. Hence the reason why there's so much more manufacturing done over there by the best companies in the world. It's not just the cost. People think, no, everyone does their business in China because the cost is cheaper. First of all, the cost is not that much cheaper if you're talking about big numbers. Number two, it's just that the skill set over there is much better. So the point is that even if you found a cure, and you wanted to produce it, guess what? Who do you think China is going to take care of first? America? Israel? Iran? Bangladesh? Or themselves? They have almost 2 billion of their own they have to take care of first. So, that's another issue. It'll take a while for this thing. Meaning, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Shemo. And you wanted to produce it. Guess what? Who do you think China is going to take care of first? America? Israel? Iran? Bangladesh? Or themselves? They have almost 2 billion of their own they have to take care of first. So, that's another issue. It'll take a while for this thing. Meaning, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Shemo,

16:52He has put us in a situation where we are all going to have to arrive at the conclusion that there's nothing else but Him. There's nothing to rely on but Him. There's nothing to do without Him. And that's just a reality. There's nothing you can do without Him. Every single person will get to that understanding at some point. Hopefully, it's before they die. But the point is that even if the market initially started booming because somebody announced there's a cure, a reality check comes in, sometimes a day later, sometimes a month later. It's not hitting the market. It won't hit the market. Somebody pretty much gives out the big secret, lets everyone know about the elephant in the room. By the way, yeah, we have the cure, but it's going to be a really long time before anyone actually gets it. Yeah, we have the vaccine, but it's going to be a long time before anyone gets it. And a vaccine is not the same thing as a cure. A vaccine is for all the healthy people, not the sick people. It still does nothing for the sick people. Now, the good news is, percentage-wise, there's not that many people dying. But unfortunately, they're still dying. There's still a lot of people dying. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu is cleaning up the world.

18:18and in different ways in order to wake us up, and He's giving us a clock that we're not so familiar with. Chazal tell us that before Mashiach comes, Hashem is going to speed up time. What does it mean to speed up time? It doesn't mean that there are going to be less than 24 hours in a day, it doesn't mean that the 60 seconds in your minute are going to go faster, but rather things in the world will move faster. If you notice, the way we handle things today is much, much faster. In the old days, when you wanted to log on to the internet, it would take 15-20 minutes before you went on the first website. Today, if it takes you more than three seconds, you're already complaining to the company. "Hey, this internet is garbage. This is below garbage. You guys should go bankrupt. Why? It took me three and a half seconds, a whole three and a half seconds to go to a website." Or sometimes they call you, "Listen, I think your website needs to be redone." Why? "It takes two seconds to open. I don't know. This is garbage. It's horrible. Horrible. I don't know. I felt like I was getting old waiting for it to open. Something's wrong with your video." Why? "What's wrong with it? I don't know. It takes like 20 seconds to load. It's horrible. It's terrible. I don't understand. 20 seconds? What do you think? Are people going to wait for you 20 seconds? What kind of company is this? Are you guys real? Are you guys a real organization?"

19:4220 seconds to load, and God forbid it takes a minute, Hashem, people start sending you hate mail, like you're Hamas, because we're used to everything at speed, but it's not like that; it's not normal life. It's not normal life. Normal life is, you call your friend, he doesn't pick up, you call another time. That's normal life. Today, text message, you don't even call anybody. Five seconds later, if he doesn't respond, question mark. Are you okay? Is everything okay? Are you there? You know how many "are you there"s I get a day? Are you there? Is everything okay? Did I do something? I don't even know you. Why? Because you didn't get an instant response. Sick generation, sick, sick. You go to a restaurant, every restaurant, if it's busy, you're definitely gonna find one yeller. Every restaurant you go to, one yeller. What's the yeller? Ah, this place is garbage. I'm not coming here again, not coming here again. Fifteen minutes we're waiting for the food. Buddy, it takes that much time to cook the food. What do you want? You want fast, go eat at McDonald's?

21:00It's pre-made, what do you want? 15 minutes, the guy complains, hates the place. Why? It took 15 minutes to get the food. Starts cursing out everybody. Deformed generation. But nonetheless, this also happens in the rest of the world that we live in. Technology is something that allows Hashem to make it look realistic. But we see that technological developments are much faster. People are much quicker to press the button. People are much quicker to end relationships. People are much quicker to start removing body parts. People are much quicker to start relationships. People are much quicker to do everything. Just on the way here, I spoke to a young woman who was scheduled to have surgery to remove a body part. Why? Because it's possible, it's possible that maybe, maybe it has cancer. Maybe. Not sure.

22:02But already the doctor said, "Listen, maybe it might have cancer. Maybe. We're not really sure. It's not conclusive. We should remove it." It's like me saying, "Oh, listen, maybe, maybe you're ugly. I should chop your head off. Maybe you're ugly. In my taste, according to me, you're ugly. So maybe somebody else agrees with me. You should chop your head off." People are just so quick to remove body parts. Same thing happens with relationships. Rabbi, how do I get a get? What happened? Why do you want to get divorced? How do I get a get? I got to get out of this. I don't know. It's horrible. Horrible. How long have you been married? Six months. What happened? Six months? You already hate her? Yeah, yeah. She's the worst. Why? What happened? The meal she cooked yesterday? I can't. I can't. Rabbi, if I ever eat this again, I don't know. I think I'm going to die. So you want to get divorced because of the food? You should marry a restaurant.

23:03This is the type of stuff people deal with. Why? We don't believe in fixing. We're not a generation that believes in fixing. We want everything made. Everything perfect. And unfortunately, that is a perfect pattern to a miserable life. If you expect everything to be perfect, I am telling you, you're guaranteed to have a miserable life. Because life is imperfect. Life is imperfect. Relationships are imperfect. All things are imperfect. Why? Because it's for us to make it perfect. It's for us to make it better. One of the hints that we have from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that this is His way, this is His doing, He made it imperfect intentionally, is simply by the way we came into this world. One of the most important mitzvot that a Jewish male has is the Brit Milah. Now, a father who doesn't arrange a Brit Milah for his son is in a very, very problematic situation with Shamayim. But nonetheless, when that child grows up, he still has to get a Brit Milah, even if his father chose otherwise, like many people did in Russia. They were scared to do Brit Milah for different reasons.

24:29life risk, and so on. So a lot of Russian Jews that moved to Eretz Yisrael, who wanted to get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, had to get Brit Milah as adults. Now, anyone who wants to be Jewish has to have a Brit Milah. But then you would ask, wait a minute, before I cut this body part, before I cut it off in the most sensitive part of the body, And the scariest part of the body for guys, before I do this, maybe there's another way. Is there another rabbi that says maybe no? Like last week's rabbi. Is there another opinion that says maybe no? Is there maybe leniency on this one? No, there's no leniency. You want to be a Jew? You have to have Brit Milah. Now, the problem is that If you do not get a Brit Milah, you go up to Shamayim, Avraham Avinu doesn't recognize you. When you get to Gan Eden, he takes out the souls that have suffered enough, he takes out the righteous souls that finished suffering, he takes them out. But someone that doesn't have a Brit Milah, or someone that did not do teshuva for wasting seed, he doesn't recognize them. So they stay there.

25:52You'd ask, wait a minute, if HaKadosh Baruch Hu is perfect, why did He create us imperfect? Meaning, if He wanted us to have Brit Milah, then why did He create us with the orlah, with the foreskin? What do I need this for? Why do I need to go through this pain? Eight days old, poor kid. Ask him for his opinion at least. Wait for him until he's 12, 13 years old. Ask him, listen, you want to cut it? No? Okay, kaparah, go play with your friends. go play with your friends. No, that's what the feminists and the lefty liberals and all the Torah haters say. Oh, you're violating human rights. Why? Because you're hurting a little baby. You should wait for his opinion. Like this one crazy woman was on television. They actually let these people on television. She has an organization. People actually give her money somehow. Give her money to run an organization for protecting the rights of babies. Now, you would think, wait, protecting the rights of babies, that means no abortions, right? No, no, I'm not talking about those rights. I'm not talking about those rights.

26:54I'm talking about protecting the rights of babies where she wants the government to change the law and force parents to ask permission from the baby before they change their diaper. Now, when the newscaster heard this, he goes, "Wait a minute, but the baby doesn't know how to talk." She goes, "No, but a mother knows if she has the right or not." The guy couldn't help himself and started laughing. Wait, so you're going to ask this? Maybe the kid doesn't want it, so you're just going to let them sit in it for a week straight? The level of stupidity in the generation that we have right now is at new highs. And it keeps going higher. Now, we're back to the question. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the King of Kings, wanted us without a foreskin, why did He create us with one? And the reason is to give us a hint at how He created all other creation imperfect. He created us imperfect. Why? In order to have us contribute to the creation. So we become partners. Why does He care for us to become partners? Because if He created us perfect, then we would be simply like employees.

28:19Now, an employee, Baruch Hashem, I have had many of them, and every single one of them has tortured me. And I can tell you that employees, no matter how much you pay them, they don't care. No matter how much you pay them, at some point, sometimes they care, but at some point, they don't really care about your business, about your needs, as much as they care about theirs. Why? It's your business. It's not their business. They're just here for the money. The second they get somebody to offer them more money. Bye. You pay them $1,000 a day. Somebody's willing to pay them $5,000. Bye. Good to see you. Thanks for the experience. Why? It's not my company. Yeah, but didn't you enjoy it? Yeah, I enjoyed it. But now I'm going to enjoy $5,000. i'm going to enjoy it. I enjoyed it so much. I'm going to write you letters about how much I enjoyed it, but I'm going to afford really nice letters because I'm going to have $5,000 a day. So I'm going to get you with a special paper, 80-pound paper. I'm going to get you. That's how much I enjoy it. And I'll come to the honorees and the dinners. I'll come for that. But working here? No. Why? I'm going to make more money. An employee is never going to care about your company as much as you do as an owner. Why? It's not his company.

29:42But a partner, it's a different story. Why? He feels it's his. She feels it's her company. She feels it's her business. Even if she only owns or he only owns 1% of it, it's still their 1%. They're acting as if they own the whole 99%. So that means that even if there are difficult times where the partners are not getting any salaries, where the partners are not getting any profits, they stick it out most of the time. Why? It's their business. It's my company. Somebody says, where do you work? Oh, I have a company. Even if the guy owns half a percent. It's my company. It's my business. Yeah, my business. Yeah, yeah. I was one of the founders. He's one of the first six employees, so he considers himself a founder. But the reality is, it's his business. Why? He was a partner. HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted us to be partners. So we take care of the creation.

30:43He created us in a way where we have a very critical mitzvah, which is to protect our brit. Not only to have a brit milah. That doesn't mean you're protecting your brit by having a brit milah. In 99% of the cases, you don't have much of an option. Your parents decided already. But protecting your brit means that you are going to protect it as you grow up. When you start learning that this brit does more than just relieve yourself of things you don't want in your body. Once you mature, you realize this is something that you can use for different reasons. And you are now going to think about it: wait a minute, do I want to use it now? Is it allowed to use it now? Not allowed to use it now. Is Hashem going to be happy if I use it now? He's not going to be happy. Why are you taking this into consideration? Why? Because you are a partner. you're a partner in creation. You're a partner in protecting this brit. Because this brit is the oldest mitzvah we have since the time of Avraham Avinu, even before the Matan Torah. So, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu created us, and continues to create us, in such a way that on day number eight,

32:00And for the parents, it's pretty much day number one. Because they're already worried about the Brit Milah the first second the kid's born. And you know it's a boy. Is he yellow? He's not yellow. Oh, he's going to be ready. He's not going to be ready. Right, right. He's okay. He's alive. He's good. The second the kid's born, you're already thinking about the Brit Milah. already getting ready, the caterer, this, that, the people inviting, not inviting, who I'm going to invite, who I'm not going to invite, where we're going to do it, where we're not going to do it. No one really cares about if the baby's going to be okay or not, because you're just ready for the Brit Milah. You're so excited about something that's going to happen. The reality is, why do you do it? Because your grandparents did it, and your great-grandparents did it, and so on and so forth, all the way to the time of Avraham Avinu. Why? Because the Kadosh Baruch Hu wants us to be partners in the creation. When you took so much care in order to do something, to continue something we've been doing for thousands of years, needless to say, you should continue thinking about this before you go out with a non-Jewish person. before you commit immorality, before you become homosexual, before you make your dog your wife also, before you do all of these things that are technically not natural, but have become natural in this generation. You guys think, oh, it's crazy. This is natural in people's minds. People think that homosexuality is a natural thing. They don't think there's anything abnormal about it. Now if you go back to when I was a kid, absolutely abnormal. If somebody was homosexual, they usually hid it from everyone. And eventually when they came out of the closet, they regretted it. Why? You should stay in the closet. Today there's no closets. Just walls. Everybody shows their business and they're proud of it. They have marches. They have marches about their abnormality.

33:25Now, if you go back to when I was a kid, it was absolutely abnormal. If somebody was homosexual, they usually hid it from everyone. And eventually, when they came out of the closet, they regretted it. Why? You should stay in the closet. Today, there are no closets—just walls. Everybody shows their business, and they're proud of it. They have marches. They have marches about their abnormality. They don't realize that if their parents were also homosexual, they wouldn't be here. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says it's not natural, but people think it's natural. Why? It all starts with missing the small details. Forgetting about the original agreement that was made over 4,000 years ago with Avraham Avinu of Brit Milah. Now, when we make that commitment to have the Brit Milah, we can make the commitment to protect our Brit, we can make the commitment to make sure that we're only with our wives, only at times we're allowed, only doing things that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says are allowed. It's a mitzvah to do it. Once we take that into account, we actually start acting like partners. When we act like partners, we get the benefits of the partnership.

34:51The same thing goes with creation, the rest of creation. HaKadosh Baruch Hu created a world where nothing is perfect. Marriage is never perfect. Friendship is never perfect. Work is never perfect. A sandwich is never perfect. Doing your taxes is not perfect. It's only perfect in your mind until the IRS shows up and tells you, "Hey, by the way, sir, yeah, you missed a few zeros. It's not perfect, your taxes. It's not perfect. You owe us some more money." Ah, but I thought it was perfect. Yeah, you thought, you thought. You thought. We think we're perfect, but we're not perfect. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants us to contribute to creation. He created things in such a way where we have to contribute. Don't cry about things being not perfect or not going your way. That's the way it's supposed to be. It's not supposed to go your way. You're supposed to contribute in order for it to go in the direction that it needs to go. If the direction that it needs to go happens to coincide with the direction that you want it to be, good for you. But if things are going the way they're supposed to be, which is against the way you want them to be, you're the one that's wrong.

36:08If your marriage has a problem, there's something wrong with you, not just the other person. Why? Because a marriage is a full-time job. You're supposed to fix it every day. "Yeah, but I didn't break it." No, no, trust me. It's broken. It's broken. It's broken. How do I know if it's broken? It's permanently broken. Every day needs fixing. Why? She's crying. He's crying. They're crying. Somebody's crying. Somebody's always crying. or they want to cry. Or they're thinking about crying. Or they cried but you didn't pay attention. Or they're going to cry because something's going to happen. Someone is going to cry. It's going to make them cry. It's always going to be something. So get ready. Every day there's something to fix. Every day. Your job? Never perfect. Why? You're working. If it was perfect, we wouldn't need you. If the system was perfect, they wouldn't need you as an employee. The worst employee in the world is an employee who says, "I don't know what to do." You're fired. That's what you should tell them. What you should do is leave. You don't know what to do? Leave. That's what you should do. We're going to find somebody who knows that something needs to be done. Why? If you're working here, that means that something needs to be done.

37:26If you have nothing to do, it's not that there's nothing to do. It's that you don't care to the extent that you're looking for nothing to do unless somebody tells you something to do. You don't realize that the system is broken. You're not smart enough to be an employee. We need someone smart enough to be an employee, someone who can figure out something to do. Why? Because there's always something to do. Always. If you don't have something to do, you shouldn't work here. We're going to find somebody that can find something to do. Oh, I was waiting for you to tell me. Oh, you're waiting for me to tell you. So you want to give me another job? Of thinking about stuff to tell you to do. It's not enough that I have 87 other jobs. I need another job for every employee. Thank you. I should pay you for that. You're the boss. I should pay you for that, no? Or you should pay me for thinking about the idea. Why do people want things to be perfect? It doesn't work that way. Your job is not going to be perfect. You have to create it. You have to do something. Judaism is not perfect either. Why? You have to make it perfect. It doesn't come naturally to anyone to have 100% kavanah in their prayer. The vast majority of us, when we pray, forget we've been talking to G-d.

38:48Come on, when was the last time? Be honest with yourself. Don't raise your hand, though. It's going to be embarrassing. When was the last time you actually prayed and you actually thought you were talking to G-d? Last time you actually prayed and actually thought about God from the beginning of the prayer all the way to the end. And you didn't think about baseball, basketball, football, your stock market portfolio, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your dog, whether you took him out or if he's peeing in the house, whether you have to go to the bathroom now and your stomach's really hurting and you should really stop or you shouldn't stop. And what you're going to have for dinner and what you had for lunch and where you're going to go and who's coming over and why the bell is ringing? When was the last time you actually thought about God? When? We have so much junk in our head, we forget to think about G-d. And what do you think, it's only when we're praying? Sometimes you can have people learning Torah and forget that they're talking about G-d. They read it like it's a storybook. So what do we do? You have to stop. Like we talked about last week in the Iggeret HaRamban shiur,

39:55When it's time to pray, when it's time to learn, you have to make it work. Turn everything else off. Nothing matters. And start realizing that, okay, if you can't get rid of this thought, work, marriage, children, food, whatever it is—you can't get rid of it, right? So, what do you do? Connect it to God. How can I connect this issue with God? Okay, the marriage is not working. So, okay, God, what should I do with my marriage? Okay, kids—the kids are jumping off the walls. What do I do, God? Well, it's mitzvot to teach them Torah, so hopefully, they'll jump a little less off the walls and more do Torah. Or even if they're jumping off the walls, as long as they're saying Mishnayot, it's okay anyway. Expect it. Food. How do I connect my food? Well, let's see. Where am I going to eat? Who has the best kashrut? Should I just cook at home? Should I start connecting all of these things that are in your mind to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Because most of us can't get rid of the thoughts.

41:08So what do you do? Take the thoughts and connect them to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Which means that even to pray requires effort. To study Torah requires effort if you want it to work. Or else you're just going to be a robot. Or else we're all just robots. The mitzvot become robotic. You're putting the lulav, and you forget you're even doing it because you're looking at everybody else's lulav and seeing who has a nicer etrog than you. And you're like this all day on Sukkot. You forget you have it in your hand. You're looking at everybody else. They stop shaking, but you're still shaking. Yom Kippur. Everyone's praying. You're just waiting. When's the fast going to be over? Robotic. Robotic. Why? It was created that way. those who created it in an imperfect way in order to make you a partner. If you wanted to be a partner, you'll try harder, you'll try harder. If you want to be an employee, you'll be a robot. Hashem doesn't want employees. Now, when it comes to all of the mitzvot, rabotai, if we start picking up and working on ourselves and realizing that

42:27...we need to make things perfect; suddenly, the creation starts to make more sense. You're not going to ask foolish questions like, why did God do this and why did God do that? Obviously, this is part of the whole system. Everything that happens, whether we understand it or not, is part of the system. Sometimes you're going to go see one of these videos of these factories that make ice cream and all types of foods and so on. And you don't really understand how this milk is going to end up in this ice cream and how they put the chocolate. And then even after they show it to you. They show you the whole system, and all of a sudden, it becomes this solid piece of ice cream. Then they put the chocolate on it, but you still can't understand how they got the stick in. And then, after it got the stick, it just went through a machine, but you didn't really see what happened. So it just goes into the machine, and then it leaves the machine, but when it went into the machine, it didn't have a stick, but now it has a stick. It went into the machine, it had no chocolate, but now it has chocolate. You saw it go into the machine, but you don't understand how it did it inside. Guess what? You still eat the ice cream. Why? It doesn't matter how it worked. You just know it worked. The point is that sometimes,

43:42It's not for us to understand everything that Hashem does. We still have to do it. We still have to listen to what He says. We still have to accept everything that He does because we know it works. The system works. He's been doing it for a long time. He's much better at it than you. So, the whole situation that's happening with Corona, is forcing people to get closer to the understanding that we have right now: that Hashem is the one running the show. And that we have to make a better effort to serve Him and not ourselves. The people that start serving Him will be saved, will be in a good situation. The people that don't and continue serving themselves will see their lives disappear in front of them. ...just all their friends, all their family, all the people that matter to them, will simply disintegrate. Why? Because that's part of life, with or without Corona. Corona is just expediting that understanding, giving more people a chance, because sometimes, unless you put a gun to somebody's head, he's not going to move. So Hashem is putting a gun to all of our heads. There's no community that's safe.

45:04There's no community that's safe. There's no town that's safe. There's no, even if you look at the map, if you look at the map of everybody that has Corona, pretty much the only places that you have like really few cases are Russia and Africa. But even there, you have very small numbers in comparison to the size of the land, but that could also be because of lack of reporting. You know, Russians, you know, they're not exactly friends with anyone right now. Earlier this week, they decided that the oil deal that's been keeping the oil market at bay is simply not worth it for them. So they went into a battle with the Saudi Arabians, and they went tit for tat with people's lives, and pretty much the oil market dropped over 30% in value. Oil prices dropped 30% in value in a single instant. Only once in history has such a thing happened. Just so you know, this could very well lead to the Third World War. That's how impactful this is. This is not like, "Oh, I dropped ten dollars, what's the big deal?" No, no, this is big. This is much worse than Corona when it comes to money, when it comes to world power. Much worse than Corona. Why? Because you're talking about trillions of dollars, not even billions.

46:27Talking about countries, talking about all types of things. The impact of what happened earlier this week. Right after the shiur we had, on the way home, somebody sent me a message, told me, look what happened. The OPEC deal dropped, oil is down over 30%. I said, we may be running out of time. Why? This is the type of stuff that starts wars. Now everyone's acting like, okay, they went down already, everything's going to be okay. No, no, not so fast. Why? It's all going to have an impact. Same thing with Corona, it's all going to have an impact. So, briefly before we go to your questions, for anyone that's still crazy enough to invest in the stock market or actually think that investing in anything right now should even matter to you, other than investing in helping people publicize Torah and do teshuvah and learn Torah, this is in essence what's happening. even if they find a cure or a vaccine, it's gonna take a long time for it to hit the market, which means that this Corona epidemic or pandemic is, without a miracle, without a miracle, it's not going away. Get used to hearing the term. No, you shouldn't even bother watching the news every day. Why? Doesn't make a difference. Nothing you can do about it. Watching the news is just gonna stress you out.

47:56stress you out. No, you shouldn't. I know for what you should know what's going to happen at the end of the world and what's going to happen at Olam HaBa. What's going to happen if you don't do Teshuva? You should know about that stuff. Knowing what Corona is not going to help you. Don't watch the news. It's just going to depress you, stress you, and it's definitely not going to help you. You want to track things once a week just to see how bad things are? Do it. It takes two minutes. But to watch the news on a regular basis? Complete waste of time. Complete waste of time is just going to ruin your life. You're just going to be stressed out 24 hours a day. Before you know it, you're going to fill up your whole house with potato chips and bottles of water. Because you're going to be thirsty after you ate all those potato chips. It's not going to help you. What's going to help you? Fixing. Fixing. Start fixing. Start perfecting your life. Perfect your marriage. Perfect your relationship. Perfect your brit. Perfect your Shabbat. Perfect your Torah. Perfect your everything. That's what's going to help you. Whether the person's going to live or die, because those people are going to decide with or without corona. What do you think, just because a person doesn't get corona, no one else dies? 55 million people die every single year without corona. You're talking about a quarter million people a day die. Go to sleep, don't wake up. Without corona. Corona is 5,000 people dying. So learning about corona every day, what are you going to be, the community's corona expert? What's that going to do for you?

49:27Next, after people realize that no vaccine or cure is really going to help the economy, and like I said, absent a miracle, it's not going to go away anytime soon. As the market realizes this, they're going to realize that this is going to have a major impact on the world in such a capacity like we've never seen before. And the reason why is because right now, the most infected country is China, which is the leading economy in the world, not just because of money, not just because they're a $20 trillion economy that surpassed America a few years ago, but also because most of the other economies, mainly America, depend on the Chinese economy, depend on the manufacturing and all the supply and import, export, and so on. So it's not that they're just a producer of certain things, they're a receiver of certain things and so on, which means that they have their tentacles everywhere. So this is gonna have a world impact. When the market realizes this, it's going to make the last couple of weeks of the market dropping 20% seem like a good day.

50:37And the reason why is because we have a very different market today than we had when I was still in it six, seven years ago, and much, much different than when I started in the business 20 years ago, a little more than that. The reason why is because today we have something called over-liquidity. Now, over-liquidity is when you have easy access to anything you want to buy. in the press of a button. Now, theoretically, this was where the market wanted to be. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to buy a mutual fund, you had to wait to know what price you paid for it. Let's say you wanted to buy a million dollars or a hundred thousand dollars or whatever, a thousand dollars worth of some mutual fund. You gave the broker the money. I want to buy X amount of this XYZ mutual fund. You didn't know what you paid for it until the market closed.

51:37If you want to sell it, even if you wanted to sell it at nine o'clock in the morning, you're not going to know what you sold it for until the end of the day, because that's how mutual funds work. And that's where the majority of the money invested in the stock market was: it was in mutual funds, because the majority of the market is invested in funds via retirement plans, IRA plans, 401(k) plans, 529 plans, and so on and so forth. People's retirement money goes into mutual funds. Now, this also helped the market somewhat be controlled to a certain extent from panics. because you would never have massive selling at once, because even if people wanted to sell because something happened, they'd have to wait. That is no longer the case. Today, the leading item that people have their money invested in, in their 401(k)s and other retirement plans, hedge funds, and so on, is something called exchange-traded funds, ETFs. Now the difference between them is that these ETFs trade like regular stocks.

52:47which means you can buy and sell it a million times in the same day. And it trades like a regular stock, which means that if I want to buy a million dollars' worth of this ETF, this fund, and sell it within two seconds of each other, I can do it. And that's actually one of the major tools that people use for trading. The problem is, These ETFs actually own the stocks and the things that they have, the bonds, the stocks, whatever they have, these underlying tools that are in it. And at the end of the day, they settle up and decide how much more of each thing they have to buy, how much more they have to sell, and so on. The problem here is that when you have massive selling and massive buying of anything, these ETFs work instantly, which means that you have right now almost six trillion dollars that has been transferred from mutual funds to these ETFs, putting us in a situation where if there was panic selling, not only would people want to sell, but the ETFs would have to sell

53:59themselves, which would exacerbate the damage, because now you sold the ETF, they have to sell the underlying vehicle, whatever's in it. The bond, the stock. Now, if you're just buying and selling a few million dollars, no one really cares about you. Like people think if they have a million dollars in the market, they're rich. You're nothing. all due respect to your million or ten million dollars, you're still zero according to market terms. But when you have an entire pension plan, an entire retirement plan, or just an enormous amount of people panicking, everybody starts selling. That means that the ETF has to start selling the vehicle itself, which exaggerates the damage much more than what it is, because now there's, in essence, double And you have yourself a situation where it could literally lead to the market dropping by 50% in a day or in a week. Without them shutting the market down, there's no way to stop it. Because you don't have the benefits or the luxury of waiting for the end of the day, letting people calm down, letting things calm down, and letting more news go into the market. You don't have that luxury anymore. Everything is intraday, instant.

55:17So much so that when I first started in the business in '98, I think it was, there were almost 10,000 traders on the New York Stock Exchange floor. Today, there are more news reporters on the New York Stock Exchange floor than there are people who work there. It's a few hundred people who work there, that's it. And they only work there because they're keeping them there. Why did everybody else go? Everybody else was either replaced by computers or they work in offices because there's no need to be there anymore. Everything's electronic. Even the traders, who used to make two, three, four, or five million dollars, were replaced by computers. Everything is automated. Everything is based on algorithms, which means that the effect, the impact that you've seen in the last couple of weeks in the market, where the market dropped 20%, which is unprecedented—it's not normal for a market to drop 20% in such a short period of time—is actually nothing. That could happen in two minutes. What you saw in oil at the beginning of the week is what could happen to the entire market.

56:33in one minute because of all the things that changed. So when people start understanding the impact that you have on the economy now, where, with or without a cure, you have the biggest economy in the world simply absent. You have all of the other countries that depend on this economy absent. Tourism is absent. Import/export, almost absent. A lot of people are starting to realize the magnitude of what's happening here. That means that this year, the economic difference, the economic growth or decline that you're going to have from this year versus last year is going to be something like we've never seen before outside of depressions. Even what happened in the Great Recession of 2007-2008 is nothing in comparison to this, because this is something that affects everything. Now, the key is to understand, if a person knows who's running the world, knows that the only way they could lose or gain,

57:53is based on the Creator above, knows that the only way they're gonna live or die is based on the Creator above, none of what I just said is gonna make them panic. But the less emunah and bitachon a person has, the more they're gonna end up panicking. Now, I'm not saying that anyone should stay in the market, and I'm not saying anyone should buy more or sell or anything. I'm not giving anyone investment advice. If I did, I'd have to charge you for it. But the point is, it's a market that if I was in the business, this would be hell on earth. Because even if you know what's going on and you predicted everything that's going on, it doesn't mean that the clients are gonna agree with you to do what's necessary. So the whole day you become a psychiatrist. It's simply hell on earth. But either way, this is HaKadosh Baruch Hu waking us up and telling us that everything that we have built, everything that we have, everything that we planned has always been in His hand. He just wanted to make us feel like it was really in our hand to see maybe we're going to one day question it. Since we didn't question it enough, He's forcing us to question it.

59:22So the things that are happening right now in the world are going to make everyone question their own existence. Hopefully, enough people realize that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is trying to get our attention for a good reason before more damage happens. But so long as we do not do teshuva, the reality is that things are going to get worse and worse because that's what happens. If the sickness does not react to the medicine, what do you have to do? Increase the medicine. If someone has a sickness and you treat them with the right medicine, but it's just not enough, you have to increase. You have an infection, they're going to give you 250 milligrams of amoxicillin three times a day. Not enough? Okay, we're going to move to four times a day. Not enough? We're going to increase to 500 milligrams three times a day, four times a day. Until you get this infection out. Why? If we don't, you're going to die. Yeah, but it's hurting the body too. It's hurting the body in order to save it. It's hurting creation in order to save it. The question is, how much medicine do we need? That's the question. So, with that being said, now that you guys are all depressed,

1:00:41B'chavod, ask some questions to cheer me up at least. At least one of us will be happy. Yeah, Sutton. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Give him the... How can I learn to enjoy Judaism? How can you learn to enjoy Judaism? It's a good question. Now, someone asked me today if I can do a shiur about Gan Eden. And at some point, we're thinking about doing a series. Maybe after we finish, we complete the series about Igeret HaRamban, we're contemplating a few series, but I think maybe we'll do a series about the Ramban's Sha'ar HaGmul, which talks about Gan Eden and Gehenom. Because this is a very critical foundation of Judaism. But it cannot be a series just about Gan Eden. And the reason why is because most people won't understand Gan Eden. And I'll give you an example. This will answer your question. The Ramban writes in Sha'ar HaGmul that there's Gan Eden and there's Gehenom.

1:02:09And that Gan Eden is having a clearer perception of the Divine Presence, as if you're pointing with a finger at God from the midst of the chorus of the high perception and the unique delight of spiritual joy. And this suggests that the people that will be in Olam HaBa will attain the eminence of Moshe Rabbeinu, whose soul was spiritually so far above his body that his bodily powers were voided, and he was at all times arrayed with Ruach HaKodesh. I'll explain what all this means in a moment. It was as if his sight and hearing were only of the essence of the soul alone and were not accomplished through the medium of a physical eye. This was how the other prophets perceived the powers of the body were voided by those of the soul being expanded so the Ruach HaKodesh emanated upon it. Now, most of what I just said is gibberish to most people.

1:03:30The reason why is because it is gibberish to most people. Unless you understand what Gan Eden is supposed to be, you have no idea what I just said. It sounds cool because you heard a few familiar words like Moshe Rabbeinu, soul, you know, finger, God. You heard a few familiar words, and you think you understand what I just said? No. Do I understand what I just said? No. But I can explain to you what I said. Gan Eden does not offer the benefits that we view as benefits. Meaning, the reward in Gan Eden is not the reward we would expect. And the reason why is because all of the things that we aspire to have and to feel are not necessarily good.

1:04:30we view things that are good that are usually dependent on physicality. So whether it be more food, more intimacy, more feelings of that nature, more kavod, more power, more respect, and honor. Those are the things we view as good. So if... we were to design our own Gan Eden like they do in the movies, we would design it like a vacation resort. We are just sitting there on the beach, the water is so clear that you can see the bottom of the ocean with all of the sharks and the dolphins over there, and you're sitting over there getting a suntan, and there's a bunch of beautiful people serving you as if you're the master. That's what Gan Eden is to the average person. That looks nothing like the real Gan Eden. Nothing like. Why? Because all of those are physical pleasures, most of which are not good for you, unless they're used in a certain way, in a kosher way. So, Gan Eden, if Hashem were to give us more details about it, we wouldn't want to go there because we wouldn't view much of that as any good.

1:05:54Because we think that more people to be intimate with is good, Hashem says, "No, no, that's good for Gehinom." We think getting more honor is good, Hashem says, "That's definitely very good for Gehinom." We think that eating more food is good. Oh, that's good for the Chibut HaKever. The worms will eat more meat because you ate more meat. Meaning, all the things from which we derive physical pleasure, if they go out of control, help the bad side, not the good side. The good side is having a clear understanding or clearer understanding of Hashem. Now, this would not sound very good to most people because we don't understand Hashem to begin with. But what the Ramban does here in Sha'ar HaGmul is that he says the following: He says that when you understand God, you can feel like Moshe Rabbeinu felt. While he was on earth, which is unbelievable, by the way; anyone that actually paid attention to that part, it's truly unbelievable that we can only hope to get to a point after we leave this miserable body.

1:07:20after we leave it, our ultimate hope, I hope, I pray every day, that one day I'm going to go to Gan Eden. For what? To feel like Moshe Rabbeinu felt in this world. That's how holy Moshe Rabbeinu was. And what was this feeling? Clarity of what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is and what He wants. That gives a person a certain divine pleasure that the world can never, physicality can never compete with. So, since we do not understand anything that I just said, including what I just said now, this is something that you can understand. How could we want the things we don't understand? First, We do know what we don't want. We don't want to suffer. No one wants to suffer, even someone who is depressed. Hence the reason why there are many more details about Gehenom than there are about Gan Eden. Because Gehenom is pure suffering.

1:08:39We do not want to go to Gehenom. So one motivation for a person to follow the law is in order to avoid Gehenom, avoid suffering. Suffering in Gehenom and also suffering in this world. Why suffering in this world? Because the more a person goes against God, the more God is going to have to keep giving him or her medicine. And medicine hurts. It's not always a pill. And even if it's a pill, it can have effects that you don't want. So the first thing that will motivate us to do what God says is that we already know what we don't want. The second thing is that no one wants to be a... average person. Everyone wants to be above average. No one wants to be an average employee. Everyone wants to be the best employee or even the CEO. No one wants to be an average sports star. They always want to be the best. They compete. We're all competitive people. So if anyone thought about it, how come you want to be the guy that has the nicest house, the nicest car, the most beautiful wife, the smartest, most beautiful kids, the most successful person, the smartest person, everything in the physical world you want to be the best. But how come your ulama bai is homeless?

1:09:45So if anyone thought about it, how come you want to be the guy that has the nicest house, the nicest car, the most beautiful wife, the smartest, most beautiful kids, the most successful person, the smartest person, everything in the physical world you want to be the best. But how come your Olam HaBa is homeless? So when a person starts thinking about this, wait a minute, if I'm already going to go to Olam HaBa, whether I like it or not, why don't I at least try to aspire to have the best one? Furthermore, the more you try to make your Olam HaBa better, the more you start enjoying doing what you're doing. And that's part of the nature that Hashem created. He created us in such a way that the more we do something, the more we like it. The more we put our effort into it, the more we like it. The reason why a child will never love the mother as much as the mother loves the child is because the child put no effort whatsoever into raising the mother.

1:10:59When he came into this world, she was already here. On the other hand, though, the mother invested everything: her body, her mind, her money, her time, her life, her marriage—everything she invested for this kid. So naturally, because she invested so much in this kid, she loves him, even if he's rotten sometimes. The more you invest into the mitzvot, the more you invest into the Torah and make the Torah your baby. You make the mitzvot your baby, the more you will enjoy them. Because now you have a piece of yourself in this. What is this like? This is like somebody handing you something versus you building something. Imagine when you were a kid. You saw a tower in Lego town, and they made some fancy replica of the universe or something cool like dinosaurs from little pieces of Legos. You looked at it, appreciated it for a maximum of five minutes, and left. But if you built it, you're never leaving that thing.

1:12:23Even if what you built is a microcosm of what they have in Lego town, yours is a little misshapen dinosaur that has like three heads, but you don't really realize it. It's your baby. You created it; it took you three days to put this monster together, and you can't wait to show it to every one of your friends. "Look, look at what I did. Look what I did. Look what I did." Why? Because you built it. If you moved into a house and the house is brand new, within a few months... It's like any other house. But if you remodeled the house, and not only remodeled, you actually put some screws in the wall. You took some sheetrock and did all types of stuff. You actually did some work. This is your baby. This is your house. You're going to die in this house. Why? You built it. When you build something, it becomes yours. And you love it because you've invested in it. When it's just given to you, there's very little connection. This is the reason why HaKadosh Baruch Hu, when He gave Moshe Rabbeinu the Torah, He didn't give him everything, everything. What did He give him? He gave him the Ten Commandments, He gave him the written Torah until Parashat Yitro,

1:13:45until the moment that they were at. He's not going to give him the entire Five Books of Moses because that would tell him the future. The rest of it he gave him at different times throughout the next 40 years. And he gave him the foundational laws of the Oral Torah, meaning, all of the principles of not only the basics of the law, but also how to arrive at the right law. He didn't give him all the discussions that Abaye and Rava are going to have. He didn't give him the discussions that Rabbi Shimon is going to have with Rabbi Yehuda, and the debates. He gave him the foundational principles that Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon are going to use, that Rava and Abaye are going to use. How to arrive at the law? Why didn't he just give him the law? Why didn't he just tell him, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no? That way we're not making mistakes. Because, like I just said, he wanted to make us partners in the Torah. If he just gave us yes or no, guess what? No one would study Torah; it would be boring. It would be like a test in high school, where you just have to memorize stuff, even if you have no idea what the teacher is saying. The minute you finish the test, you care less about the subject. Why? It's all memory.

1:15:05But when you fought through different tractates, and different chachamim, and different opinions, and all types of different times, to get to the law, to fight for the law, to get to the eventual truth, now it's yours. Now you want to kill somebody over it. And that's why Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, the two sides, they got into fistfights sometimes. Arguing about the law, not because they're resha'im, chas v'shalom, but tzaddikim. Because they both arrived at a truth using the same rules, but they arrived at different truths. Same tools, but this tool built a house that, you know, has a side apartment, and this one built a house with a two-door front. Both are houses, but they look a little different. Both are true, but they look a little different. And they fought. "No, mine's better." "No, mine's better." "I can rent mine." "You can't rent yours." "Yeah, but mine has a higher ceiling." "Mine has a garage." They're fighting for the truth. They're fighting. But they're fighting to such an extent sometimes and say, "Listen, your truth is not just your truth. Your truth sometimes negates mine. Your truth is telling me that I'm living a lie. I'll kill you if you say I'm a lie."

1:16:22Why? Because my truth says that if I do it, I'm going to Gan Eden. But if I'm not doing it, I'm going to Gehenom. She would tell me that I'm not sure. I'll kill you over that. And they would fight with each other. But still, at the end, arrive at the truth. And even if they still had a machloket, even if they still had a debate at the end, they'd still marry their kids together. Why? Because they loved each other. But they fought for the truth. That's what Moshe Rabbeinu got at Har Sinai. So, when you toil for Torah, you look at the page, you read it for six hours, and you don't have a clue of what you just read, that's a good sign. Why? Because that means that if you care about Torah, this is the test. Will you read it again? Or are you just going to say, ah, who cares anyway? If you say, who cares anyway, and you move on, you're never going to get the sweetness of Torah. Why? You want everything handed to you. You want everything handed to you. And this happens, unfortunately, a lot with people where they're stuck on just watching shiurim. They don't ever grow past the shiurim where, although a person should always watch shiurim, even if he's a talmid chacham, Rav Efraim watches shiurim. Rav Efraim finished the Shas more times than anyone else that I know.

1:17:46But still, on his way to kollel, and on the way back, any time that he's walking, he's out, he listens to shiurim. Funny, he listens to mine, even though he doesn't speak a word of English. He says, I know a few words. I'll find this, I'll find this. He says, you said my name a few times. He goes, but I know if the shiur was good, based on your tone. He's the funniest person in the world. But the thing is, though, he listens to a few chachamim, If it's interesting, continues, doesn't, you go on to the next one. But the point is that even though he studies all day, he still listens to shiurim. But it's not just shiurim. If you're just going to be stuck on shiurim, that's a problem. You're never really going to enjoy the Torah 100%, especially as a man I'm talking about. Why? Because everything is being handed to you. You come to the shiur, you ask a question, I'm giving it to you on a silver platter. You're not toiling for it. It's watching it. Oh, yeah, well... Yeah, yeah, it's good. Yeah, he's eating a pig. He's learning Torah. You're not. You're not gonna enjoy it. Why? You stop listening to him for two weeks. That's it. You become chiloni. And that's what happens to people. The people that just don't toil for Torah—what happens? As soon as they stop watching shiurim, in two or three weeks, already they're down to a level of shem yishmor ve'yatzil.

1:19:10Why? They never toil for Torah, so they have no problem letting it go. But when you toil for Torah, you finish the tractate, blood, sweat, and tears. Hours and hours on every page. Hours and hours and pages on halachot. Reading the whole thing, then realizing that you were wrong. Crying about it. Saying, okay, I'll do it again. Reading the parasha with the commentary. Another commentary. Doing all of this stuff and toiling over it. It becomes yours. So when one of your friends tells you to go out with some girl that you're not supposed to, or go to someplace you're not supposed to, you're like, what, are you crazy? You know how hard I've been working? You know how hard I've been working to have what I have? What do you have? You have no house. You have no car. You have no money. Yeah, but I have Torah, you idiot. He looks at you and he goes, I'm the idiot, and you're saying you only have Torah, you have no money. How come? He said, because you think that the car, the house, and the money is something that means something. That only means something if you don't have Torah. When you have Torah, you know it means nothing. As long as you think it means something, then you realize you have no Torah. How do you enjoy the Torah? How do you enjoy the mitzvot? You have to invest in them. You have to work really, really hard. Which means that what Iyov said, Adam l'amal yulad, is emet amita.

1:20:31meaning Iyov says a person came to this world to toil, to work hard. Anyone looking for an easy life is guaranteed only one thing, a hard life. Why? There is no such thing as an easy life. An easy life only exists for someone that worked really hard. And that life of ease is not here. There is no easy life here. One who's looking for an easy life here will have a hard life that's miserable because they'll constantly be chasing their tail and never catching it. It's like looking for a corner in a circle. You can run as much as you want and you can scream as much as you want, but you're never going to find a corner in a circle. That's a person who's looking for an easy life. Oh, relax and enjoy. Yeah, good luck with that one. ...luck with that one. Find me one person that has an easy life. It doesn't exist. With or without money, it doesn't make a difference. So, how does a person start liking the mitzvot, start liking the Torah, start getting used to the mentality that I have to work hard...

1:21:48In order for me to enjoy it. If I worked hard to build this Lego, I would appreciate this Lego a lot more. If I worked hard to build this car, I would appreciate this car, even if nobody else likes the car. Even if everybody else thinks this car is a piece of junk, I built the darn thing. To me, it's my baby. It's like a kidney. When my wife tells me to sell this car, I'm saying, "Honey, how about I sell your kidney?" Tell me I saw the car. Why? Because you slaved over this stupid car that you feel like it's your baby. Needless to say with Torah, needless to say with mitzvot, when you work really hard to perfect a mitzvah, you fall in love with that mitzvah. And when someone ruins that mitzvah for you, Hashem is going to see what's going to happen to that person. Why? It's your baby. It's your everything. But that's the only way. The only way is hard. But the hard way is the easy way. The easy way doesn't exist. Next question. How about Moshe? Same price. So when you first do teshuva...

1:23:09you have this amazing feeling that comes to you. You feel great, you feel like you just were, I don't know, you, I don't know, the best. Yeah. So, over time it goes away. Does that ever come back? But then, cloud nine goes away, and sometimes becomes a dark cloud. Does cloud nine ever come back? The answer depends on the person. The initial feeling that a baby gets when he or she first stands is unbelievable. They're so happy that they stood up that it's like the greatest thing in the world. You look at their smile and see, wow, I want to be that happy like this baby. This year-old baby is so happy that he stood up, even though he's gonna fall on his tushy two seconds later. For those two seconds, he's the happiest baby on planet Earth. But then, after a while, he's not so happy about standing anymore. Why? He wants more.

1:24:36He wants more than standing. He wants to start walking. So he takes a few steps, and he falls. He gets a little upset, so he gets up again, and he falls. And he gets up again, and he falls. And it's not enough for him. He's not as happy. You see him start walking, taking a step. He's not as happy. When does he start getting happy? When he starts taking three, four, five steps. Then he's the happiest thing in the world. "I took four steps," like he just discovered America. But guess what? After a little while, four steps are not enough. Why? He wants to run like his brother and sister. Why? It's not enough to just take three or four steps. Yeah, but you were feeling good yesterday. Yeah, yesterday. Yesterday is a long time ago. Like my kids tell me. You know, remember Abba, a long time ago yesterday? Remember when we were dancing in your office a long time ago yesterday? To a kid, a long time ago is yesterday. Then he starts running. And he runs. And he feels good about it. But then eventually, that's not enough. He wants something more. That's a Baal Teshuva. A Baal Teshuva that's going to continue to aspire for more will get back that feeling and more than what he had originally. But a Baal Teshuva that sparks...

1:25:54discovers the Torah, discovers Shabbat, starts keeping Shabbat. But you know, it's not really why. He gives another dollar. He's not on the drive because the Rabbi said you're going to die. You know, you're not to use your phone because the Rabbi says you're going to die. You know, you're not allowed to touch different things because the Rabbi says you're probably going to die. They keep saying keep dying. So he doesn't move the whole Shabbat, sleeps. Guess what? After six months of this, he hates Shabbat. Why? He has no why keeping it. He puts on tefillin. Why? Because the Rabbi said, if you don't have it, you're going to die. So he puts on tefillin. He puts tefillin, tefillin, tefillin, tefillin. After six months of this, he can't stand going to shul. Why? Why am I putting this rubber stuff on me, this leather, this stuff? Is it real? What's in it? Why does Hashem care about this stuff? Why is it square? Why can't I make it like, you know, a triangle? Make it like a Magen David. Maybe I should style it, put some stickers on it, tattoo it on my hand, engrave it, do something cool. Put some rims on it or something, at least, Rabbi. No, come on.

1:27:01Let me do something with this. Make it stylish. No, it's boring. Boring. 3,300 years. The same piece of leather. Square. Black. It's, like, depressing, Rabbi. What? He doesn't know anything about this mitzvah. How is he going to enjoy it? He's parked, standing. After a while, standing is not enough. Why? The neshama wants more. The neshama wants more. The neshama is telling you, why do you lay tefillin? Why? Why is it square? Why is it black? Why don't you ever see somebody with pink and rims on tefillin? Why? Why do we do it? What does the Torah say about it? How come the Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah says there are certain people that sin and they get punished for a year, but there are certain people that sin with their body and their punishment is eternal, even after Mashiach? It gives an example. It says an example is someone who doesn't put on tefillin. He goes to Gehenom forever. Why is it such a big deal to put on tefillin? It's just some leather straps, it's a big deal.

1:28:08Why is it such a big deal? He doesn't know. He never discovered. He never looked into it. He doesn't actually care. And that's the problem. So long as he doesn't care, he's never going to enjoy the mitzvah. He's never going to get that original feeling that he had in the beginning when he did care. He did care in the beginning about who Moshe Rabbeinu was. He did care in the beginning about Shabbat. She did care in the beginning about modesty. She did care in the beginning about who our Rabbi is. She did care in the beginning about what kind of kosher food she's going to eat. He did care in the beginning about all types of things, but then he stopped caring, so that feeling went away with the care. If he cares less, the feeling goes away. And he's like a little baby that's standing, but is seven years old. not so much fun if you're seven years old to just stand. You want to run, you want to climb, you want to do stuff. So if you want that feeling, you have to work hard. You have to get your neshama to keep going, keep caring. This is also why, Rabotai, even in the holiest place on earth, the Beit HaMikdash...

1:29:27Inside the Beit HaMikdash, even inside the Beit HaMikdash, there was the holiest point on earth. It was called the Kodesh HaKodashim. And inside the Kodesh HaKodashim, there was the holiest item in the world, in the universe. It was the Aron HaKodesh. Why? Inside it were the Ten Commandments, both the set that's broken and the other second set, and a staff. The staff of Moshe Rabbeinu, and the staff of Aharon HaKohen. You had the manna in a jar. You had the original Sefer Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu wrote. All types of amazing things. Now, all of these holy things, on top of it, HaKadosh Baruch Hu would speak to the Kohen. Would speak to Moshe Rabbeinu. On top of it. From an area that's a tefach. A voice would come out of it. From where? From the space between two angels. The Keruvim. There were two angels in gold, engraved there, that were looking at each other. Two cute little angels, with the image of babies. Now, if I were to make Aron Kodesh, I'd make him like an X-Men.

1:30:53I make the angels look like X-Men, like the Hulk. Diesel, jacked, got biceps from here to the next town, maybe has a sword or something, or a jackhammer. You mess with me, I'm an angel, right? That's why I don't make anything. I make jokes of myself, that's what I make. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu made babies. Why did He make babies? On the most holy place in the world, inside the holiest place in the world, inside the holiest, holiest place in the world, inside the Aron HaKodesh, on top of it. Where HaKadosh Baruch Hu's voice comes out, is two little babies. Why two little babies? Why two little babies? He wanted to tell us that the holiest thing on earth... It's coming from this imagery. Why? What's coming from two babies? What, having babies is the most holy thing in the world? What if the baby is Hitler? Is that still holy? No, obviously it's not that. He says, look at these babies. Look at these babies. What do you think of when you think of a baby other than cute?

1:31:57You think of the baby's personality. A baby's personality is that he always wants more. He wants to learn more. He wants to do more. He's interested in everything. Everything goes in his mouth. Everything he wants to look at. Everything he wants to do by himself. He says that's what you're supposed to be. You're supposed to want more. More of Hashem's Torah. More of Hashem's mitzvot. More understanding of the Divine Presence. More. That's what we have ambition for. A Baal Teshuva is like a baby. A convert is like a baby. They want everything. If you stay with that mentality, you'll get really far. You're supposed to want more. More of Hashem's Torah. More of Hashem's mitzvot. More understanding of the Divine Presence. More. That's what we have ambition for. A Baal Teshuva is like a baby. A convert is like a baby. They want everything. If you stay with that mentality, you'll get really far. you'll get to the holiest place on earth, the holiest place in the universe. If you stay with that mentality and you exercise that mentality of wanting more—more mitzvot, more Torah, more knowledge, more clarity—you'll arrive at the greatest point that anyone else can. But if you stop acting like a baby, and you don't want more anymore because you're happy with what you have, you start acting like a retiree.

1:33:12You just want to sit there and do nothing until you die. Then you start suffering. Then everything becomes like a burden. Then putting on tefillin is like you're putting on chains. Keeping Shabbat, it's almost like they're sending you to a gas chamber. Eating kosher, it's almost like you don't want to eat it. Why? I don't know why, it's just not good to me. Being married all of a sudden seems miserable. Having kids, you start thinking about the money it's going to cost you. All mitzvot become like a burden. It's like one sack of potatoes. Why? You don't want to put anything into it. You don't want it. When you don't want something, automatically it becomes bad. When you don't want to be married, automatically your spouse becomes ugly. When you don't want kids, automatically you don't like anyone else's kids either. When you don't like your job, guess what? Automatically, you start seeing everything that's wrong with this company. How come it didn't matter to you for the first five years you worked for them? How come all of a sudden everything is wrong with this company? How come you didn't say anything for the first five years? You don't want to work for somebody, automatically the boss is rotten. How come you didn't say he's rotten for the first five years? You don't want to do mitzvot. All of a sudden, all the rabbis are terrible.

1:34:38All of a sudden, you're having questions about God. Who made God? How come you didn't ask this in the first five years? How come? Because it's not the question. You don't want to be religious. You want to be a rasha. Enjoy yourself if you're going to do that. But once you start realizing, my lack of enjoyment is only because of my lack of effort. When I put effort into it, I liked it. You have to find a way to push yourself to start investing more. You invest more into doing it, you're going to start liking it. All of the mitzvot. Learning, writing, listening, doing. You'll become the most excited person in the world. Excitement doesn't mean you become one of these firecracker personalities, start jumping around in bikinis, hey guys, how are you at 6 o'clock in the morning? No, it's not that. Excited means that you're actually passionate about the mitzvot. Don't be one of those 6 o'clock in the morning guys excited. No one wants to talk to you. Be excited inside, quietly. Excited inside. But the point is, you'll be excited to do mitzvot. When someone says, "Oh, it's a three-day Yom Tov," you're like, "Oh, Baruch Hashem!" Not like one of these people, "Why, it's three days this year, Rabbi?"

1:35:57What if I go to Israel? You're looking for less Yom Tov. The whole year we're waiting for Yom Tov. The whole year we're waiting for Yom Tov. You're looking for less Yom Tov. That's a bad sign. That's a bad sign. If you're looking for a shorter Yom Tov, if you're looking for the fast to end, if you're looking for the holidays not to come or to be over, it's a very bad sign for your neshamah. It means that the entire Torah is a burden. Now, just to scare you guys, because I like to scare you, because it's good for you, and it's also good for me, to remind me, there's two types of Gehinom. Gehinom of fire, Gehinom of ice. Chazal ask, what's the difference? What's the difference? It says the fire goes to a person who goes to the fire, who goes to the ice. I'm not talking about Shabbat; they turn off the fire, send the guy to the ice. I'm not talking about that. No, no, there are certain people, they go to Gehinom, oh, it's ice; there are certain people going to Gehinom, oh, it's fire. Why? It says, the one that touched the things that he's forbidden, he touched the girl that he was forbidden, she touched the guy that she's forbidden, they touched the food that is forbidden, fire.

1:37:24That's what I get. You're dead stuff that's forbidden. Fire. Okay, fine. I get that. You could rationalize this easily. What's the ice though? What? I didn't touch it? That's a mitzvah then. He goes, no. Ice goes to the heart of people that didn't want to do the mitzvot. They didn't do what they were supposed to. He didn't put on tefillin. Why? I don't feel like it, Rabbi. He didn't learn Torah. Why not? I was tired. You weren't tired to play on the internet until 3 o'clock in the morning. He didn't feel like learning Torah. He was tired. He didn't feel like putting on tefillin. He was tired. He didn't feel like eating kosher. He was tired. He didn't feel like getting married. He was tired. Hashem says, no problem. You'll wake up in Gehinnom, the cold one. Why? Your heart was cold? To my mitzvot, I'll put you in a special place. Cold against the mitzvot goes to a cold place. Even the places have their reasons. Next question.

1:38:47This parashah, it says that Hashem shows Moshe the knot on his tefillin. What does that mean? How do we understand something like that? The Gemara talks about it in Masechet Berachot. that there's a Midrash that says that when Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu, "No one can see My face and live," and therefore, "I can only show you My back." So, the pshat is that Hashem cannot show anybody the future. Meaning what He's doing right now, the present or the future, and you understand it while you're still in this world. If He showed you the future of how the world ends, you wouldn't understand why it ended that way. Even if He showed you the present and what He's doing right now, you wouldn't understand why He's doing what He's doing. Because you're still in this world, you're still limited. But He says, "I can show you My back" because that will show you things after I've already completed them. Meaning you'll see all three points: the past, present, and future of that particular issue, and you'll understand why I did what I did.

1:40:16So that's the pshat of Hashem saying to Moshe Rabbeinu that "I can't show you My face and you live; I can only show you My back." But then the Midrash gives a curveball, where it says, yeah, but when He passed him, there was actually something passing, and Moshe Rabbeinu saw the back of His tefillin. The answer to that is, we have no idea. That's the answer. The answer is we have no idea because this, on one end, contradicts the 13 Principles of Faith that God does not have a body or the likeness of a body, hence the reason where it says that He does not have a head. So what does it mean to have tefillin? But then, on the other end, the Torah says that Hashem fulfills the entire Torah, including putting on tefillin. What does that mean? I have no idea. I asked my rabbi the same question. And he gave me a similar answer to what I'm telling you right now. But there's also another Gemara that, if you read, I believe it's Masechet Berachot, where it talks about how the Kohen Gadol was so holy that the angel of God came to him and said, "Bless me." Asked a person, a human body, flesh and blood, Hashem asked him, or the angel of God asked him, "Give me a blessing."

1:41:40And he gave her a blessing: "May your kindness overcome the anger," I think it was, or something like, "May your will be fulfilled." I don't remember exactly the blessing, but it says that he nodded his head three times. What head? So some say, yeah, this was an actual angel representing Hashem, not really Hashem. This could be the same thing in this particular story, but 100%, I can't tell you an answer. I could tell you it was an angel of Hashem, because there are angels of Hashem that are called by that same name. There are certain angels that represent Hashem. There are certain angels that represent Hashem, and they are called by the same name. But it's not Hashem. So I could tell you that answer. But I cannot tell you with a real heart, an honest heart, that that's 100% the answer. Same thing that you could say in the different parts of the Torah, where it says that... Am Yisrael saw a special stone under Hashem's feet. Now, you can use all types of examples and learn all types of metaphors from it and explanations of what it really was and what it really wasn’t, but there's still a pshat there that there were feet and there was something. What does that mean? The 100% answer, we're only going to find out when Mashiach comes.

1:42:58But different answers, there's books, books, entire libraries written about this question that you have. Different chachamim discussing the different aspects of it. What could it be? What's this? What's that? Who said this? Who said that? But obviously, I don't know all the answers. I can just tell you that these are just a couple of the answers. But bottom, bottom line, 100%, we're going to find out when Mashiach comes. Next question. If nobody else has a question, you can ask another question. No, somebody didn't ask a question. Anybody from the back, or are you guys on strike? Okay, they're on strike. Go ahead, ask another question. Also in this parashah, chapters 34:6-7, they talk about Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy. What's the significance of reciting this with kavanah when you're praying this in a minyan? Then you have the answer. The attributes of mercy are a gift, a special gift that the Malach HaMavet gave to Moshe Rabbeinu.

1:44:18There's a certain blessing that Malach HaMavet gave to Moshe Rabbeinu. And he said that anytime there's a decree on Am Yisrael, say this, and it will ease the decree. It's like a cure. Each of the angels gave Moshe Rabbeinu a present. Malach HaMavet gave him this. He is, in essence, the one that's given the right to take the life of certain people. So he knows what also, in essence, gives a person more time or a cure. So he gave this gift to Moshe Rabbeinu. This was the gift that the Malach HaMavet gave to Moshe Rabbeinu. So when we say it, we are honoring God by using all types of adjectives and by using His own words in order to describe Him, showing that we are His children. When someone asks you about your parents, how do you know that's your mom? How do you know that's your dad? You know, prove it to me. Say, well, we have the DNA. No, no, no DNA. Prove it to me that's your mom and dad.

1:45:18We look alike. You can look like a lot of other people. Prove it to me. You're going to start describing the person. Oh, I know that she does this, and she does that, and she likes this, and she likes that. He likes this, and he likes that. You start describing them. Ah, once you give a lot of details of who this person is that only a child would know, you say, ah, yeah, that's right. She's your mom. He's your dad. When we give these details of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we're showing that we're His children. Because we're the only nation that describes Him this way, no other nation describes God this way. Next question. The people on the mic and the camera need a mic. The mic's not for you; it's for me. No? The question is... You said the Mashiach would be any righteous person out of Israel or any Jew out of anywhere in the world? It doesn't specify. Right. As far as Mashiach is concerned, the only thing that's specific is that this person obviously has to be a Shomer Torah u'Mitzvot. He has to be a Jew, a natural-born Jew. He cannot be a convert because he has to be a descendant of David HaMelech.

1:46:35So, he has to be a direct descendant of David HaMelech. Where he lives, that I don't believe is said anywhere. He could be living in Ghana, he could be living in Israel, he could be living anywhere. I could tell you that there are quite a few people who think they're Mashiach. Some are Jews, some are non-Jews, some are male, some are female. All of them are wicked. Because anyone that tells you he is Mashiach, for sure is wicked. Because that makes him a Navi Sheker. A Mashiach is a Navi. A Mashiach is a prophet. And anyone that says he's a prophet and he's not a prophet, that's a death penalty. You don't give the death penalty to good people. The death penalty is for Resha'im. So anyone that says he's Mashiach is, by default, wicked. Unless he's really the Mashiach. And if he's really the Mashiach, he's not going to have to say he's Mashiach. Why? We're going to know. It doesn't say in the Torah that the Mashiach is going to say, "I'm the Mashiach, please pick me." Or like this crazy guy from India says, "Why don't you guys call me and come pick me up? I'm Mashiach." This crazy Indian guy. He's not even Jewish. He says, "When are you guys going to come pick me up? I'm Mashiach. I'm the chosen one."

1:48:01It's the craziest thing in the world. He doesn't even know how to speak Hebrew, but he decided he's Mashiach, yet he needs to be picked up. All types of crazy people in the world. Mashiach will not have to declare he's Mashiach. You will know. Why? God said so. God said so. He's going to be able to smell. Smell your sins. I don't even know what that means. I can see your sins. When you're playing with your phone during the lecture, when you're talking to each other instead of listening to me, I can see them. But he's going to be able to smell them. Meaning, even if you look like tzaddikim like most of you look right now after I said it, he's going to be able to think what's in your mind. God said so. All the things you did before the shiur, all the things you planned after the shiur. HaMashiach. Mashiach. Oh, wow, Mashiach. Mashiach is not going to know he's Mashiach until he's Mashiach. Now, what about, you can ask the follow-up question, what about all the articles that are written in the news about there are some Chachamim that say they are talking to Mashiach on a regular basis. Rav Kanievsky talks to the Mashiach every day.

1:49:18Did he say it? The news said it, I said. I didn't say he said it. The news says that Rav Kanievsky says that he's speaking to the Mashiach every day. And that other Chachamim, like Rabbi Kook, go visit him in Tveria, they go visit the Mashiach in Tveria on a regular basis. Those articles, only one thing can tell you what you should do with them: delete. There's an X button on your thing, press it. If it's a PC, it's on the right side. If it's an Apple, I think it's on the left side. It's like a green button or something like that, or red. Okay? Whatever it is, delete, escape, run away. I ask all these questions. People ask me, so I have to ask. I ask my Rav. What about these articles? He goes, I know all these articles are fake. I say, why? He says, because they say that Rav Kanievsky speaks to the Mashiach. on a regular basis, I said, "Why is that a problem?" He goes, "He doesn't speak. Even when people come to him for a blessing, he says 'bracha v'hatzlacha,' meaning he limits his own words so much that he uses an acronym instead of two words. Why? It'll save a microsecond. So you're saying he's speaking to the Mashiach every day? Wait, they're not going to talk to you at some point if they speak so much?"

1:50:45People are just living a fantasy in their mind, thinking they want Mashiach to come because they assume that they’re righteous. They assume that the Mashiach is going to be the one that saves them. They're in the first row. They're in the first row of being saved. I don't know, all the righteous people that I know, not a single one of them is secure. All the righteous people that I know, I ask them about Mashiach, they start getting scared. You know who's not scared of Mashiach? Wicked people that think they're righteous. Oh, I can't wait for Mashiach to come. Why? Why can't you wait for Mashiach to come? Why? He's going to solve all the problems. We think he's social security. He's welfare. Why is he going to solve all the problems? What about the million kids in Israel that don't know how to say Kriyat Shema? What are you going to do with them? There's a million kids in Israel right now who don't know how to say Shema Yisrael. You want Mashiach to come? What do you think is going to happen to them? Do they go to Gan Eden? 80% of Am Yisrael doesn't keep Shabbat. 80% of Am Yisrael doesn't keep Shabbat. What do you think is going to happen to them? They're going to go to Gan Eden? Well, isn't he going to let them do Teshuva? No! That's the point. It ends. There's no more Teshuva.

1:52:12Mashiach now? Aleichem! People have to understand that the subject of Mashiach is not a joke. The real tzadikim who spoke about Mashiach didn't speak like the ignorant people of today. No one said "Mashiach now," no one other than delirious people who don't understand what it means. Mashiach comes, that's it, clocks out. You got a million kids in Eretz Yisrael, a million kids don't know Kriyat Shema. You got 80% of Am Yisrael that does not know how to keep Shabbat. We want more time, that's what we want. More time to do teshuva, or people do teshuva, whatever Hashem allows to happen. If people do teshuva tomorrow, let Mashiach come tomorrow. But the delirious people that write these articles just to get clicks, just to get people to read their stuff and get paid for it, it's an evil thing to do. Because it leads people astray; it eventually breaks people's hope. It's not a good thing to do. How do you know if Mashiach is here? Trust me, you'll know.

1:53:33The whole world is going to know. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu said it'll be bigger than Mount Sinai. The whole world knew about Mount Sinai. The whole world saw the ocean split because the water split not only in the Sea of Reeds; the water split all over the world. If you had a coffee, your coffee split into 12. You had a little lake, your lake split. You had a little pool in the backyard, it split. God's voice, everyone heard. No one questioned Mount Sinai until this awful generation. No one questioned it, Rabotai. Why? The whole world knew. Knew Mount Sinai. Mashiach will be bigger than Mount Sinai. And you're asking, how do we know? You'll know. You'll know, you'll know. You're going to know. You're going to know. You're going to know real well. By the time he comes, there's not going to be any doubts. So stop wasting your time reading these articles or watching lectures that specifically talk about the timing of Mashiach. "Oh, Mashiach is going to come on Pesach 2020." Mashiach doesn't use the Christian calendar. A lot of Christian missionaries write these articles.

1:54:59i know they do. And so do Jews, though. They like to get views on the internet. Christians have their own problems. It's called avodah zarah. Let me fix all the Jews, and then I'll deal with the Christians. The point is, all of these people that write about Mashiach, that their whole life is focused on Mashiach, run away, run away from those people. Run away from people whose whole life is just focused on Mashiach. That's not Judaism. Mashiach is a part of Judaism. Judaism is to learn and do every day. A person came to this world to toil over Torah. That's Mashiach, daily. Daily, every day you open a sefer Torah, you see secrets of the creation to solve your life. That's what you're supposed to be. A Jew is not supposed to just constantly, you know, look for dates and different Torah codes that talk about dates of when Mashiach is gonna come. Oh, it's gonna be in two months. Oh, it's gonna be in three months. Oh, there's a big star. Oh, there's a small star. Oh, this guy, I don't know what he's doing, but he said something.

1:56:15Enough, enough. That's not Judaism. Judaism is learning and toiling over Torah and overcoming the obstacles of day-to-day life. When Mashiach comes, I promise you, you'll know it. I promise you, you'll know it. Next question. We're almost done. This religious guy told me that the Lubavitcher Rebbe said that Mashiach is going to be in Miami. If that's true, how would he know that? He just took two bites. He just took two bites. I'm not even going to answer it. I can't. I can't. I can't. I'm sorry. I can't. I don't even know what to do with this question. Listen. The Lubavitcher Rebbe was a tzaddik. Actually, my chiddushim that I have today are from him. But it has nothing to do with Mashiach. It has to do with what you need to do in order to be saved in the time of Mashiach. That was the chiddushim that I have from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. But it has nothing to do with Mashiach. Now, since you mentioned the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and people distort what he says all the time, it's time we defended his honor and his Torah. Lots of people that mentioned the Lubavitcher Rebbe's name

1:57:41Distorted things he said. Make him look like a Care Bear Rabbi. Truth is, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was a tzaddik, and he knew a lot of things about both the spiritual world and the material world. He was an engineer by trade. But he also built the Chassidut of Chabad to a point that it's beyond what it was before. And people think that that was based on some lovey-dovey type of Judaism that's different than ours. No, we don't teach Mussar in Chabad. Who said that? Who said that? Wait, you think Chassidut is not Mussar? That means you don't know Chassidut either. Chassidut is just another name for Mussar. Chassidut is more. If you look at the laws of the Chassidim, they're more stringent than the rest of the Orthodox Jews. I'm not talking about the laws, I'm talking about behavior. But people say things in the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that's complete nonsense. Like,

1:59:02No, the Lubavitcher Rebbe didn't just teach about love, love, and love. I have a video from the Lubavitcher Rebbe that we publicized some time ago. The Lubavitcher Rebbe himself says that the only way to do Kiruv is by telling people the truth and not lowering the Torah to them, but by bringing them up to the Torah, even if the truth hurts. The opposite of many Chabadniks today. The opposite of many Chabadniks today. Opposite. You think the Lubavitcher Rebbe got such siyata dishmaya for doing the opposite of what Hashem said? Now you say, wait, some of the things you say about modesty are stringent. You know what the Lubavitcher Rebbe said? I'm going to tell you what he said. I'm going to tell you what he said, and it's going to sound like I'm a puppy next to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Lubavitcher Rebbe said the following: You must explain to the girls that the look of immodesty shows that the girl thinks that she will not be accepted in any other way by the man.

2:00:30Not with her intelligence, because she doesn't have any. Not with her heart, because this too she doesn't have. And not with anything good, because she's not even a decent human being. And the only way is if she shows the places of her body that are supposed to be covered, which only exposes her insignificance. As if she's holding a sign saying, "Intelligence I don't have, feelings I don't have, knowledge and positive traits I don't have, and even my face is ugly. And the only thing that I can offer is exposing the places that are supposed to be covered. And this will make me look better and will convince the man to speak to her and say hello to her." As if she's holding a sign saying, "Intelligence I don't have, feelings I don't have, knowledge and positive traits I don't have, and even my face is ugly. And the only thing that I can offer is exposing the places that are supposed to be covered. And this will make me look better and will convince the man to speak to me and say hello to me." And this is the lowest level a person can embarrass themselves with, where the only thing that the man can see in her is the pritzut, is the immodesty, and nothing else. Show me one Chabadnik other than Rav Chaim Shlomo Diskin in Eretz Yisrael that said what I just wrote to you in a lecture seven years ago, six years ago.

2:01:42in Eretz Yisrael that said what I just wrote to you in a lecture seven years ago, six years ago. Show me another Chabadnik saying this. Quoting this, this, this sicha. They quote a lot of sichot. Quote this sicha. No? Okay, I'll give you another one. In the sefer called Hatznei'a Lechet, which is a different compilation of letters from the Lubavitcher Rebbe that talks about tzniut. He says, you must explain to the talmida, to the female student, that immodest behavior is not one that belongs to Bnot Yisrael, to the daughters of Israel, who are modest and will end up bringing her to different tests. meaning a girl that acts immodestly will eventually have different tests where men will try to get her in different ways until it gets to the point of danger. And for anyone who doesn't understand what I just said, he elaborates. As the Rishonim said, break-ins happen to the thief.

2:03:04thief breaks into other people's houses, his house also gets broken into. Why? It's measure for measure. And all of this begins with the lack of attention to small details of modest behavior. There's a principle in the Torah that a measure for measure. And the measure for measure for a thief, he steals, Hashem sends people to steal from him. A woman that walks around immodestly, she shows things that are supposed to be covered, then the people that are not supposed to see what's covered, will see it. Furthermore, the Lubavitcher Rebbe says, in the same sefer Hatsnei'a Lechet, a 600-page book with 13 chapters, He says, when a woman acts immodestly, such as wearing immodest clothing that grabs attention, sometimes it's in the way she walks that she ends up enticing anyone who sees her, leading them to foreign thoughts of immorality, and who knows where that can lead.

2:04:26The sin is hanging on her, even if she didn't mean to do it and doesn't even know about it, and therefore she's considered a machti'at ha-rabim, which means that she causes the public to sin. The Torah says that such a person does not get divine assistance to do teshuva because the many who sinned because of her do not do teshuva. So the Lubavitcher Rebbe is talking to us, telling us, first and foremost, if you're walking around immodestly, young girl, old woman, it doesn't make a difference. There's no age. He says, all you're doing is you're showing that you mean nothing. You're a piece of meat. You have no brain. You have no feelings. You have no nothing. You have no value whatsoever other than uncovering what's supposed to be private. Lubavitcher Rebbe, if he said it in the shul today, kick him out. Instead of screaming Moshiach, kick him out if he said this. Then he says, by the way, that girl that got raped, the girl that guys took advantage of, put the club drink in there, made her fall asleep until the next day when it was too late.

2:05:51She did it to herself. I'm just repeating it. You have to sue him. He says that if she walks around immodestly, there are going to be guys that chase her in different ways until it gets dangerous. Don't misunderstand what that means. Rav Chaim Shlomo Diskin says, he says, he witnessed with his own eyes, one of the people from his seminar, a young girl, naive, religious girl, decided to start going out with some guy. And he said, why don't you come with me to Eilat? And this foolish girl went. And they had a good time. She came home. Short while later, he says, "Why don't we go again?" Foolish girl made the same mistake twice. She went, but as soon as she arrived, she saw in the car, saw three of his friends. "Who are these?" "Oh, no, you don't mind if they come with us, right? They're my friends, my buddies." He said, "Oh, okay, it's too late, you're in the car, you don't know what to do. Okay, fine, well, you know, what do I care? He's here, right?"

2:07:14So when she came back home from that weekend, she was suicidal. She was suicidal. She was suicidal because of what happened to her on that weekend. The Lubavitcher Rebbe says she did it to herself. As much as we hate it, it's true. It's true. Now, all these politically correct, lefty, liberal, anti-Torah mentalities will probably want to rip my head off. But no, no, no, it's not my head. Go to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, "Moshiach Now." Why? He said it. He said it. Know why he said it? Because Torah says it. You walk around immodestly, bad things are going to happen. Not just in Olam HaBa and the Gehinnom that they're going to put you in to cook you. Not just that. He says in this world, in this world,

2:08:14Can't find a shidduch? That's measure for measure. You're breaking marriages because of immodesty? Hashem's not going to give you a marriage. And furthermore, even if you want to do teshuvah, it's going to be hard in the beginning. Why? Hashem's not going to help you in the beginning. Why? So many victims. So many victims looked at you and did all types of things. Foreign thoughts, he calls it. To him, it's a foreign thought. Today, it's not foreign. Where does he get it from? One of the sources is the Prophet Micah. The Prophet Micah says, "Oh man, what is good?" Meaning, God's definition of good is different than yours. What does Hashem require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk modestly with your God? Micah says to us, what does Hashem really want from you? What are you making such a big deal of? Oh, I can't keep mitzvot, I can't... Why? What's so hard? What does Hashem really want from you, really? What does He want? He wants you to keep the Torah.

2:09:33Why? It's hard for you to do that until 11 in the morning. Hard for you to say a blessing before you eat. Birkat HaMazon, hard for you. Put on tefillin six days a week, hard for you. Keep Shabbat, you're sleeping and eating for 25 hours straight, it's hard for you. What's so hard? What's the big deal? You don't eat bread for a week, wow. You shouldn't eat bread the whole year, with your weight. You should be fasting 360 days a year, with your weight. He only makes you fast five times a year. What's the big deal? You're making such a big deal to keep Torah. It's like you're Moshe Rabbeinu lifting the mountain. What's the big deal? What does He want from you? He says He wants you to do justice, meaning keep the Torah. He wants you to love chesed. What's chesed? Kindness. What? Care about each other. Stop talking bad about each other. Stop judging each other for no reason. Stop stealing in your business. Help each other get closer to Hashem. What does He want from you? These two things are simple, right? But then He adds one more. He says to walk modestly. Walk modestly with Hashem. Be a modest human being. Cover your body. Cover your mouth too. All the filth that comes out of people's mouths.

2:11:03That's it. That's what Hashem wants. You want Gan Eden? That's it. Finished. That's what He wants. And Rashi says... Micah is telling us something clear. All the korbanot, meaning all of the tefillot, the sacrifices, will not help fix your sins if you don't follow the Torah, if you don't do chesed, and if you're not modest. You can do whatever you want. You can keep Shabbat, and you can learn Torah, but if you're not modest, nothing's going to help you. You can be modest, but if you don't keep Torah, nothing's going to help you. You keep Torah, and you can be modest, but you're stingy. You don't want to help people do teshuva. Nothing's going to help you. It's all of them or nothing. Why? These are foundations. Foundations of connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? These are His middot. These are His traits, and we're supposed to emulate Him to prove that we're His children.

2:12:08And that's why the Lubavitcher Rebbe, alav ha-shalom, says in the Bat Melech Pnima sefer, there's nothing Hashem loves more dearly than modesty. And in Beautiful Within, chapter 5, He elaborates further about modesty to make sure that the B'not Yisrael of today who say that they are connected to him, connected to Chabad, understand clearly. He says that when you're walking around as a woman, it's not just enough to wear a skirt. Sometimes women wear skirts, and it's better off they wear pants because the skirts are so short. Or they're so tight, it's better off to just not leave the house. So, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in chapter five of "Beautiful Within," says that the knees must be covered even while she is sitting. This means if you are sitting down as a woman and you have to pull your skirt down, it is already too short. The skirt needs to be loose-fitting, but also long enough to cover the bottom of your knee.

2:13:26Six inches below the bottom of the knee, after you sit. But then he says something amazing. And this is the minimum amount that applies to all women. This is not ideal. Don't start buying skirts that are dafka six inches below your knee and think that you're a tzaddeket. This is the minimum amount, not ideal. Minimum. You don't believe me? Let's continue to see what he says. This is the minimum amount. But there are places where the minimum amount is not sufficient in regards to tzniut. Certain places in the world, i.e., America, are full of goyim. Certain places where the minimum is not enough. And it's necessary to be stringent according to the conditions of the location. And this doesn't necessarily mean...

2:14:39that it's a stringency to wear a longer dress, but rather the conditions of the place cause the minimum requirement to be longer as a Torah prohibition. This means that the minimum requirement is no longer allowed. It's a sin to wear a dress right at the bottom of the knee; it's not enough. Now the minimum becomes a sin, and you have to wear something longer. So for all these girls that only wear skirts that are just below the knee and think you're perfect, it depends where you are. If you're home, yeah, it's okay. You're home. Other places, it depends where. Why? Because there are certain places you have to be even more modest. You're more modest. Now, unfortunately, you go today to most Chabad houses, even the minimum they don't do sometimes. you're the minimum. There are certain Rabbis with their own wives. I saw with my own eyes, a Shemesh Mogi Hatzil live in my neighborhood. Walking on Shabbat, I see the wife. What minimum? What minimum? She doesn't even look Jewish. Walking next to the head of the kehillah.

2:15:58But everybody's harping and focusing on the wigs. Okay, forget it. Wear the wigs. Don't wear the wigs. What about the rest of your clothes? What about the rest of your clothes? What about the... No, we're Chabad. Yeah, you're Chabad exactly. That's what I'm saying. You're Chabad. You know, Chabadniks, they don't listen to anything that's not Chabad. Okay, I brought you Chabad. No. You tell this to Chabad. Well, we're gonna make a clip out of this to tell it to Chabad. You guys tell Chabad. They already hate me enough, especially after they watch this. Why? They didn't think we're gonna discover their secrets. Why did the Lubavitcher Rebbe have such siyata dishmaya to build such a huge organization? Because he was in accordance with the Torah. He was in accordance with the Torah. He did what he said, and I know that what he said was according to the Torah. He didn't call himself a Mashiach. He didn't call himself a prophet. He didn't say all these things. And the issue of the whole wigs being avodah zarah wasn't known at that time anyway. So the point is, Rabotai, many people say many things in the name of tzaddikim that are simply false.

2:17:17That's why it's important for us to look for ourselves. See for ourselves with our own eyes. What did they say? What did they write in a sefer? If it's not in a sefer, it's a waste of time. A Baal Teshuva, a convert, or even someone who has been through this their entire life. If you want to grow, you have to go search for it. You have to go search for the truth, as if you've never seen it before. Because whatever you've done so far is not enough. You have to do more. You have to learn more. B'ezrat Hashem, this will motivate us to learn more, to do more, to get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to serve Him like all of the tzaddikim that served Him. And b'ezrat Hashem, get more of His children to come back to Him when Mashiach finally arrives. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen v'amen.