Current Events, Being The Light In A Dark World

0:16In the name of G-d, let's do it and succeed. Shavua Tov, Shavua Mevorach. Today's shiur will be for Ilui Nishmat Ernesto Ben Roza. Also for Refuah Shlema of Levana Bat Sara, Sara Bat Levana, Doris Bat Jorah, David Ben Esria. Yosef Ben Levana, Levana Bat Sara, Ovadia Ben Levana, also for Esther Bat Zipora, and all of Am Yisrael, Be'ezrat Hashem, we should have Refuah Shlema, Refuah HaNefesh, Refuah HaGuf. So, for anyone who hasn't heard, the anti-Semitism in the world, Baruch Hashem, is growing rapidly, especially in our allied country called America. This past weekend, Motzei Shabbat, for anyone who keeps Shabbat, heard about it on Motzei Shabbat. Unfortunately, anyone who doesn't keep Shabbat heard it during Shabbat, that there was a

1:44vandalism on a shul in Los Angeles. When the kehillah showed up, or the workers showed up in the morning on Shabbat morning, they saw that the big, fancy, beautiful shul was vandalized by some reshaim to the extent where they took The siddurim were ripped apart, the chairs were all over the place. They took the Sifrei Torah, threw them on the ground, and ripped one Sefer Torah in half. Are we okay? They ripped one Sefer Torah in half, Hashem, and the people of the kehillah were shocked. The people on the news are shocked. The only one that's not shocked is HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Now, of course, everyone is crying foul because this is not something that any one of us wants. This is not something that any one of us ever thought was going to happen. Especially in such a rich neighborhood. You're talking about an average net worth of 10 million plus. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few billionaires in town attending the shul once in a while.

3:10So, you know, these are the types of things that you think happen, maybe, I don't know, maybe in the projects. Maybe they're happening in places where crime is very high. They're happening in places where definitely not a place where there is so much money. So, someone came out from the kehillah and made a video and said, "Look, let's pay attention to what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling us." He says anyone would notice that the Sefer Torah that was ripped was ripped at the beginning of a parasha, not in the middle, as he said. and said, "Look, let's pay attention to what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling us." He says anyone would notice that the Sefer Torah that was ripped was ripped at the beginning of a parasha, not in the middle, as he said. not in the middle, not in some odd section, but at the beginning, the beginning of Parashat Shelach. Parashat Shelach, he says, look at that. This is the parashah of the Meraglim. Parashat Meraglim, where you had some Jewish leaders go to Eretz Yisrael to scout the area, and they came back and they said about the place.

4:32Hashem punished them. So he says from here we learn. From here we learn. What do we learn? We learn we shouldn't say Lashon Hara. Now let me ask you guys a question. You've been to enough of my shiurim. Do you believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to tarnish a place because of Lashon Hara? Because if the answer is yes, if the answer is yes, we should shut down all shiurim. All shuls, all around the world. Why? Because there's not a single shul in the world without Lashon Hara. Might as well just shut down shop, go pray at home. Okay, guys, it was nice to pray in a minyan, but the mitzvah is levatel otah. We got a takana, no beit knesset anymore. Why? Somebody here is talking Lashon Hara. Sometimes in the middle of the beit knesset, while you're praying, somebody's saying Lashon Hara about somebody else. So we have to look a little further. What else does Parashat Shlach talk about? We're going to designate a certain amount of time of the shiur to identify what Parashat Shlach is talking about. Not because it's this week's parasha, but rather because if we're already going to learn a message from our holy Torah, we have to learn the message. Now, Parashat Shlach says a lot of interesting things.

6:00First and foremost, it tells us who are these people that went to Eretz Yisrael, which was called Canaan at the time. It says, these were not just regular people that went to scout the land, these Meraglim. These were the most distinguished men, the heads of the children of Yisrael they were. This was the board of directors. This was the president. This was the vice president. This was the president's cousin. This was everybody's who's who list. Who's who list? That's who went. The biggest rabbis in the world, that's who went. So you don't think, oh, these people were reshaim anyway, they went, and that's what they, no, no, no, these people were the biggest. Already, we're going to learn from the parasha. Okay, so we're going to already start from the top. You're going to start looking at faces. Don't look at the average guy who barely knows aleph bet if he said lashon hara. Let's look at the top. Who's the leader, right? Because if it's happening in Los Angeles, guess what? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is warning us here in Florida. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is warning us in New York. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is warning us in Tel Aviv, in Netanya, in Yerushalayim, in Arizona, everywhere. That's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is doing. Somebody came to the Chafetz Chaim and told him, "I just came back from a trip to raise some money and give chizuk to a kehillah in Africa."

7:28And I wanted to tell the Rav a little bit about the kehillah over there. The Chafetz Chaim says to him, hold on, before you tell me about the kehillah, can you tell me a little bit more about the goyim over there? Are the black people still being, you know, persecuted against? The rabbi says, what? Why does the Chafetz Chaim care about the goyim in Africa? Oh, what are you talking about? Of course I care. If something is happening to the goyim—goyim, not the Jews even, the goyim—in Africa, that's a warning sign for Am Yisrael. Needless to say, if something is happening to Am Yisrael in Los Angeles, in New York, in Arizona, in Florida, in Gehenom, wherever it's happening, that's a sign for all of us. Where does it start? It starts with the leaders. Something is going on with our leaders. Okay, let's move on. So we sent the leaders. We sent the leaders. And they didn't do so well. They came back with lashon hara. So that's the first lesson. I don't need to give you a shiur on that, because that we already know. Lashon hara is in every kehillah. If you don't say lashon hara, there's something wrong with you. We have to send you to some psychiatrist. Like, why aren't you saying lashon hara? Everybody's doing it. All the cool kids are doing it. So what else does Parashat Shelach say? What else does it say?

8:47So Parashat Shelach actually happens to be a parasha that is extremely scary. Not because of any details, but rather because of the simple language that HaKadosh Baruch Hu uses to scare the lights out of us if we actually understand the parasha. First and foremost, chapter 13. Verse 32, HaKadosh Baruch Hu simply says to Moshe Rabbeinu, I've had it with them. What have I had it with them? He says that He's had it with them to such an extent that He's considering destroying all of Am Yisrael. Chapter 14 actually. He says, Chapter 14, verse 11, Hashem says to Moshe, How long will the people provoke me? And how long will they not have faith in me? How long are you not going to have emunah in me? Emunah about what? What do we do? Okay, the Meraglim said, what does it have to do with us today? We'll get to that. I know, I know you got the end of it. Hold on one second. Give me a minute. We'll get to the point. Hashem says to Moshe Rabbeinu,

10:02How long will these people provoke me? How long will they not have emunah in me? What emunah? What do we do? It's 2019, 5780. What emunah? Why? Is it that bad not to have emunah? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, despite all the signs that I have performed for them in their midst, all the anti-Semitism, all the governments going upside down, all of the things that are happening, they didn't get the sign. I will smite them with the plague and annihilate them. And I shall make you a greater and more powerful nation than they. One of the few times in the entire Torah HaKadosh Baruch Hu really considers destroying Am Yisrael. And if it wasn't for Moshe Rabbeinu begging and putting his own life on the line, we wouldn't be here giving you a shiur. For what? For not having emunah? Not having emunah, that's it. Not having emunah, already how are we surviving today? Hold on, let's go on. What else? What is Hashem really so upset about? What is Hashem so upset about in Parashat Shelach? He's upset about the Lashon Hara, but this parasha also has other lessons in it. Not just this, not just this. What else does it have, Rabotai Yekarim? It has a message for us that is the message of messages.

11:26Chapter 15, verse number 32. Vayihyu Bnei Yisrael bamidbar v'ayimtze'u ish mekoshesh eitzim b'yom haShabbat. Vayakrivu oto hamotzim oto mekoshesh eitzim el Moshe v'el Aharon v'el kol ha'edah. Vayanichu oto bamishmar ki lo porash mah ye'aseh lo. Vayomer Hashem el Moshe mot yumat ha'ish, yirgemu oto b'avanim kol ha'edah michutz lamachaneh. Vayotzi'u oto kol ha'edah el michutz lamachaneh, vayirg'mu oto b'avanim. The children of Israel were in the wilderness, and they found a man gathering wood on Shabbat. He was gathering wood. He wasn't driving a car even. He wasn't driving a car. He wasn't driving a car. He took a bunch of wood, put it together, put a nice little rope around it. Why? He wanted to gather it. It's hard to carry all the wood one at a time. You get all the wood, what's the big deal? HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it's a big deal. It's one of the 39 melachot you do not have permission to do on Shabbat. So, okay, but we just got the Torah a week before this. This is the second week after Matan Torah. He didn't have time to get to that halacha. Second week. We got the Torah last week. This is the second week. So he didn't get to the halacha. It's a big book. Did you read the whole Chumash in one week? Not yet.

12:53you the truth I didn't need it in one week, but don't fault me for it because it's more than a week. It's a big book. But over here, this person by the name of Tzelofchad made a little Shabbat violation. Why? He gathered some wood. So what does HaKadosh Baruch Hu say? Maybe give a pass? Those who found them gathering wood brought them to Moshe and Aharon and to the entire assembly. They placed them in custody, meaning jail, for it had not been clarified what should be done with him. Not what should be done with him. I'll explain what should be done with him in a minute. What does it mean what should be done with him? Should we give a pass? It's not one of those options. So Moshe Rabbeinu goes to Hashem. Hashem, what should we do with this? Hashem says to Moshe, The man shall be put to death. The entire assembly shall pelt him with stones outside the camp. The entire assembly removed him to the outside of the camp, and they pelted him with stones, and he died, as Hashem commanded Moshe. One week after Matan Torah, a person by the name of Tzelofchad, the Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat, violated Shabbat.

14:09Am Yisrael didn't know what to do with him. What do you mean you don't know what to do with him? Chilul Shabbat warrants the death penalty. No, no, we didn't know which kind of death penalty to administer. For sure we're going to kill him. It's Chilul Shabbat. We just don't know. Is it going to be stoning, or is it going to be decapitation? What are we going to do with him? No, no, Hashem says give him a death penalty, and the worst kind, the one that hurts the most—stoning. You look at Gemara, Masechet Sanhedrin, Perek Chelek, what it actually means, stoning. Hashem, it's scarier than my shiur about Gehenom. They throw you off a second story, just enough so you don't die. Then they throw a big boulder on top of him. Then on top of that, if you're not dead enough, everybody throws stones at him. Hashem, what happens to this person? For what? He gathered some wood, guys. He gathered some wood. Now, Rabotai Yekarim, yes. They knew not to do what he did, because there's only one Mechalel Shabbat. Let me finish the point for a second. It's relevant? He still died. Purpose or not purpose, he still died. The point is, he made a mistake. Why? Because if he didn't make a mistake, Hashem would let it go. He made a mistake, and Hashem killed him. Whether he got a second chance by being reincarnated.

15:34Different place in the Gemara. But nonetheless, we see here now the death penalty. Why? Chilul Shabbat. This is Parashat Shelach. So what does Chilul Shabbat have to do with Emunah? What does Chilul Shabbat have to do with the leaders? What does Chilul Shabbat have to do with anti-Semitism? Well, some time ago, a person came to me and asked me if I could come to Los Angeles. I said, no problem, just arrange some shiurim for me. He says, no, there's a very good kehillah for you, perfect. I said, why? Why is this perfect? Why is it so perfect? He says, because almost, I don't know if it's everybody, but a big part of them drive on Shabbat. I said, how do you know? How do you know they drive on Shabbat? Why? You just sit there, look at everybody. It's not nice to say Lashon Hara. We got killed for it almost in Meraglim. He goes, no, everybody knows. I said, how does everybody know? He says, even the non-Jews know. I said, how do the non-Jews know? What? Non-Jews know Halachot Shabbat. They know who's violating Shabbat. He goes, no, you don't understand. They have valet parking on Shabbat.

16:42Mr. Billionaire shows up with his Rolls Royce, with his Ferrari, with his Mercedes, with whatever he's wearing, to the shul on Shabbat, on Yom Tov. And he has a little guy with a papillon, with a little bow tie, waiting for him. Yes, sir. Shabbat. Good Shabbos. Shabbat Shalom. Orthodox pretending to be Reform, Reform pretending to be Orthodox. Rabotai yekarim. I told them, sure, I'll come. No, no, they wouldn't have you. You talk too strong. What's too strong? You guys call it parashat Shelach. I said parashat Shelach also. I just said the rest of the parasha. I said the rest of the parasha. that we have synagogues all over the world committing the same exact crime and thinking it's kosher, thinking it's okay. Where does it start? The beginning of the parasha. Where? All of these distinguished men, heads of the children of Israel, whether it's the rabbis, the board of directors, the people with money, they're the ones setting up the valet parking on Shabbat.

18:05rabbi works in a place like this, he's part of the crime also, even if he himself does not drive on Shabbat. Why? You are allowing it to happen. "No, no, but if I say something, they'll fire me." So let them fire you. "But what am I going to do for food? How am I going to feed my kids?" Hey, it says you have to have emunah (faith) in HaKadosh Baruch Hu (The Holy One, Blessed be He). You're on the board of directors of such a place, you're in a kehillah (community) of such a place. They don't want to change. They don't want to start this public chilul Hashem. You leave. Why? You have to have emunah in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This is a public chilul Hashem week after week. Week after week. Now if we give them kaf zechut, let's say nobody knew halachot Shabbat. The entire kehillah of Orthodox Jews from all countries, where their grandfathers, their grandfathers were willing to die, to die, mamash die, not die like, you know, "No, I almost died," like mamash die, just to keep halachot of Chanukah. Just to keep the mitzvah of Tzitzit. Just to keep the mitzvah of Purim. Rabbeinu, kol hamitzvot.

19:13Tzitzit is De'oraita, but the other two... Their grandparents were willing to die, to die, mamash die, so they could light candles for Shabbat, so they could keep Shabbat, so they could keep kashrut. Busha v'cherpah that their grandchildren are desecrating HaKadosh Baruch Hu, desecrating their grandparents, driving on Shabbat b'farhesya, like as if it's allowed, it's a mitzvah already. Still calling themselves Jews, still calling themselves Orthodox Jews, and then you have all of the newscasters, the Jewish networks: "Oh, anti-Semitism! What anti-Semitism? HaKadosh Baruch Hu, what anti-Semitism?" Waiting for anti-Semitism to happen by itself. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, He's the staff, but He's also the stick. He's the staff that leads us in certain directions, but He's also the stick that hits us if we go against Him on a regular basis. The fact that they've survived this long is a miracle. Now, of course, many people are going to be offended by this message. Let you be offended. I'm glad you're offended. That means that it hits your heart. It's time that people understood what it means to be a Jew. You don't want to be a Jew? B'chavod, do what you want. But don't pretend to be one.

20:36Now I'm gonna ask you a question. How come in the morning you all do Birkot HaShachar, right? One of your blessings, you say, "Baruch Hashem that you didn't make me a goy." How come we don't say, like, you know, the woman says, "Thank you Hashem for making me as You wanted"? How come we don't say, thank you Hashem for making me a Jew? Why don't we say, thank you Hashem that you didn't make me a goy? Why can't we say, thank you for making me a Jew? Know who's going to give me some answers? Louder. But we still say a blessing in the morning. You wake up in the morning, you say, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, thank you for not making me a goy. Well, an answer that I'm going to give you can only come from a Gadol HaDor. I didn't have this answer. Rav Shach, zt”l, was asked this question. Kavod HaRav, how come in the morning we don't say, thank you Hashem for making me a Jew? How come we say, thank you Hashem for not making me a goy?

21:59Rav Shach says that's because all HaKadosh Baruch Hu did is make you not a goy. That's what he did. To be a Jew, that's up to you. You've got to learn Torah. You've got to do mitzvot. You've got to dress appropriately. You've got to act appropriately. You've got to fulfill the Torah. Even though the Shulchan Aruch says, what is a Jew? A Jew, his mother is a Jew. But then you go to a different part of the Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch says, what's a Jew? Oh yeah, if he converts to Judaism. Which means that it's not just because your mother or your grandfather or your great-grandmother and all of those people were Jewish. That doesn't make you a Jew. It qualifies you to be a Jew. You could also convert to Judaism if your grandfather is Yoshke. Your grandfather is Haman himself. Who cares who your grandfather is? You want to be a Jew? You're allowed to convert. No problem. Baruch haba. In fact, the Rambam says, if you're a righteous convert, we're obligated. The Jews are obligated to love you more than they love regular Jews that are born that way. In fact, we're obligated to love the converts as much as we love HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

23:04A Jew that's a natural-born Jew, we are obligated to love him as much as we love ourselves. A convert who is a righteous convert, we are obligated to love him or her as much as we love HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself, even more than ourselves. So, here we learn that Judaism is not necessarily only based on who your mother is. Because Haman, the Gemara says, Haman's grandkids taught Torah in Bnei Brak, big Rabbanim. Haman was a rasha, an Amalekite, who tried to kill all of Israel, but what? His grandkids became big rabbis. Meaning? That you could be a Jew no matter what your background is, no matter who your father is, who your mother is. You want to be a Jew? You could be a Jew. But that also means that you could be born of a Jewish mother and a Jewish father, and they could both be rabbis. In fact, they could both be G'dolei HaDor, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, whoever you want. But in the eyes of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you're a goy 100%. But you're judged as a Jew, but you're acting like a goy. Why? Because in order to be a Jew, rabotai yekarim, you have to act like one. You have to fulfill the Torah. Judaism only began at Har Sinai when we got the Torah. Anyone who fulfills the Torah in accordance with what we have, that's a Jew. Anyone who violates the Torah, not a Jew.

24:25Judaism is on suspension. Now, he doesn't have to convert if he violated Shabbat his whole life and wants to start keeping Shabbat. In order for him to be a Jew again, he doesn't have to go through a conversion process or go to Beit Din. No, he just keeps Shabbat. Finished. His Judaism that was on suspension for 30-40 years is no longer on suspension. Why? He's no longer driving on Shabbat. He's keeping Shabbat. He's keeping Halacha. He's trying the best that he can with all the knowledge that he has. Whatever he knows, he does. Whatever she knows, she does. We have a holiday coming up next week that the Arizal says every year HaKadosh Baruch Hu brings extra power to the Jewish people at these times, but especially during Chanukah. More than any other holiday, almost 500 years ago, the Arizal HaKadosh said that there is special power during the time of Chanukah. What power is this?

25:27For the few righteous to beat the many wicked. Due to the merit of the righteous ones who won almost 2,000 years ago. People think that the Maccabees were a bunch of bodybuilders, martial artists, did karate, kung fu, ninjutsu. A bunch of rabbis, that's what they were. A bunch of rabbis, who had never fought a war in their lives. That's who they were. That's who won the war. Why? It had nothing to do with skill. It had nothing to do with power. It had nothing to do with muscles. It had to do with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. A person who is going to celebrate Chanukah, what is he commemorating? Is he commemorating the battle? Are you celebrating that they won the battle? You're going to add a bracha to your tefillah next week in the Amidah. You're going to pray, what are you really saying? Are you saying that we won the war? No. What celebration are we doing? What are we celebrating? We're celebrating the oil. We're celebrating the oil, Rabotai. We're not celebrating winning the war. The Pri Chadash asks this question. How come we celebrate the oil and not the fact that we won the war? There were millions and millions of Greeks

26:52anti-Semitic, anti-Torah, lefty liberal, reshaim gemurim, tried to destroy the Torah and everything that had to do with it. And unfortunately, many, many Jews were also lefty liberals that joined them. They called themselves, in those days, Hellenists. Today, they call themselves lefty liberals. Same thing, just change names. So now, The war is a few rabbis versus millions of reshaim. HaKadosh Baruch Hu lets the few rabbis win, killing a massive amount of people, Jews, and non-Jews. Anyone that was going against Hashem was getting killed by the dozens. Now you're gonna celebrate... whole holiday for eight days. Not even commemorating that. What are you commemorating? You are commemorating the fact that we had oil that miraculously survived for eight days. I say it's actually maybe not really eight days. It could be a little less, seven really, because the first day anyway. Long story short, it's the oil. It's not the battle. Why? A few reasons. Number one, the Pri Chadash says...

28:18Because the spirituality is the reason why we won the war. The spirituality is what we need to commemorate. The spirituality is what's relevant in every generation. The war, not so much. We're not going to war tomorrow, Baruch Hashem. We didn't go to war yesterday, Baruch Hashem. Even more than that though, rabotai yekarim, even more than that, is the truth is, we didn't win the battle. The war, we didn't win. Why? Hellenists are still here. They just call themselves left, even liberals. They still call themselves Reform, Conservative, fake Jews. They're still here, and they're still being given power by Akadosh Baruch Hu in order to test all of us—who's real and who's not. Now, it's very, very important for a person to know that... If HaKadosh Baruch Hu sent a kehillah in Los Angeles or a kehillah in New York or a kehillah anywhere a message like this, that also means that we ourselves are not doing good enough. Because if we were, it wouldn't happen. It simply would not happen. Now, when you ask people what's a Jew, people really don't know what a Jew is. People really don't understand what a Jew is.

29:44think a Jew is maybe somebody that wears a certain type of clothes or maybe a certain person eats certain types of food or maybe a certain person that knows certain languages. But that's actually not what makes a Jew. One of the gedolim in the world of Chassidut was Rabbi. He wrote a sefer that no matter what kind of Chassid you are, if you're a normal type of Chassid, this is like, almost like your Torah of Chassidut, called Bnei Yissaschar, almost a little over 200 years ago. Now Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Shapira of Dinov, one time on a Friday night, he had all of his chassidim with him, they already did Kabbalat Shabbat, And they're having the aruchah, they're having the meal. Suddenly, some messy, disaster-looking, drunk, smelly villager walks into the beit midrash. Some of the chassidim figured he got the wrong address. But the Rebbe sees him, leaves all of his chassidim, stands up, runs towards him in the front,

31:08Come, come, come, come, sit. In those days, Chassidim had great kavod for their Rebbes. Great kavod for their Rebbes. Still today. See, this guy is bringing them this smelly, drunk-looking guy. Everybody automatically has some thoughts. Maybe this guy is Eliyahu HaNavi. Eliyahu HaNavi, it's known that Eliyahu HaNavi, when he comes to this world, he doesn't come as Eliyahu HaNavi with the wings and everything. He comes sometimes as a homeless person, sometimes as a soldier, all types of stories we heard in the Torah. So people are saying, definitely, it's Eliyahu HaNavi. But then they see the Rebbe taking him and sitting him right next to him. Right next to him and giving him half of his food. He's protecting him. No one's talking to him, and he's talking to him and taking care of him. He's feeding him, and this guy's getting kavod. It's like maybe this guy is a malach. This is Michael himself. Malach Michael, this is the malach of Am Yisrael. It has to be Gavriel, Raphael, somebody. The whole Shabbat, he's right next to him the whole time, not moving.

32:23After he gives him his bed to sleep in, he gives him his clothes. This villager is wearing the Rebbe's clothes now. Everyone's baffled. One guy figured, you know what, maybe he's not Eliyahu HaNavi. Maybe he's not a malach, but for sure he's one of the hidden tzaddikim of the generation. Has to be. After Shabbat is over... He comes to the Rebbe, he says, Kvod HaRav, I just wanted to thank you for showing us the big secret that was right in front of us, sitting among us, one of the biggest hidden tzaddikim of the generation. Thank you, Kvod HaRav, for showing him to us. Rav Tzvi Elimelech starts smiling and giggling. He says, no, let me tell you a story. He said, years ago, I wasn't so famous. When I was young, I wasn't so famous. And when I would go to different places, people wouldn't know who I was. And I would make it so that I would go visit one of the Gedolei HaDor, the Chozeh MiLublin. I would go visit him. And on one of my journeys to go visit him, in the middle of the journey, Bo Chava, move the things, you can sit here.

33:51One of my journeys, it started snowing—a snowstorm. I said, because I'm on a mitzvah, on a journey of mitzvah, the mitzvah is going to protect me. I kept going and going and going, but the snow wasn't stopping. And all of a sudden, my legs started to lose feeling. I fell over. I couldn't move my legs anymore. I fell over. I saw that there's a light right behind the woods, right behind some trees over there. There's a village, and I saw light. I couldn't get up, so I said I'll roll myself there. I rolled myself little by little, and I got to the village and... And as Hashem would have it, Baruch Hashem, the first house I got to, I saw there was a mezuzah on the door. I said, Baruch Hashem. I got myself up. I knocked on the door. And this villager opens the door. And he had a Tisha B'Av face on him. He wasn't happy to see me. And I said, dear Jew, have some mercy, please. Please, let me inside. It's snowing outside, please. The villager looks at me and says, no. Pah!

35:08closed the door in my face. I knew that if I wasn't going to become a chutzpan and push my way in, this was going to be my last night. So I knocked again. The villager opened the door again. His face was even nastier than before. I said, please, dear Jew, help me. I'm going to die outside. He says to me, "Listen, I don't have time for people like you. This is not a hotel. I have a barn for my horses. I have a tool shed. And I have the food for the animals. Pick one of those places, you can sleep over there. But inside my house, you're not coming in." What choice did I have? I rolled myself into... The barn, the smell was so bad, I couldn't. I went to the tool shed, but there was no room. Simply no room. Where the food was for the animals, there was barely any room, and it didn't smell so good, but it was better than the horses. So I said, what are my choices? I'll go over there. And I spent the night over there, but it was so cold, I could not sleep the whole night.

36:28For a second, I was freezing. And I said to myself, what am I going to do? I'm cold, I can't sleep. You know what? Let's learn Torah. Let's learn Torah, that's what we're going to do. So I started crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and then I started learning Torah. But because I was suffering in so much pain and agony from the cold and the journey itself, this was the type of Torah that came with Mesirut Nefesh, with major sacrifice. There's a Torah that you learn while you're drinking a nice cup of coffee, nice tea with some popcorn on the side, maybe a cookie, maybe a steak for some people. And then there's real Torah, Torah that you study with mesirut nefesh, with sacrifice. And that's the Torah that I learned. And he says, because I learned this Torah, throughout that night, suddenly all types of heavenly secrets were opened up. The heavens opened to me during that night, and I started discovering all types of secrets, powerful, mystical things that I had never encountered my whole life, secrets that I still hold to this day. So the chassid says to the Rebbe, "Rebbe, what does this have to do with the drunk that came here?" He says, "He was my host."

37:56Because the Rebbe should have told us he was a host. We would have taken care of this guy. A couple of big chassidim that had a couple of children would have taken care of him. He goes, no, chas v'shalom. I owe a great gratitude to this guy. What gratitude? He let you almost die outside. He goes, no. Only because of him was I able to elevate my neshama to such a high level and learn pure Torah with mesirut nefesh. Or else I would have never received those secrets from Shamayim. I owe him a great gratitude for doing what he did. That is the difference between a Jewish story and a non-Jewish story. A Jewish story, you learn, what could I learn from that story? The Jew will always say, okay, Holocaust, what could I learn from there? This terrible situation that happened to the Rebbe over here, what could he learn from there? All types of stories, what could I learn from it in order to apply it to my life? Non-Jewish stories, what's in it for me? How much money can this story make me? What can I sell it for? Can I write a book about the story and sell it on Artscroll maybe? On Amazon?

39:20Not to compare the two, but you get the point. The reality is, Rabotai HaYekarim, a Jewish story is a story that you learn something from. That's what makes you a Jew. If you're only going to look for things based on your benefit, that's not Jewish behavior. But then you're going to say, "Wait a minute, the perception that the goyim have of us is quite the opposite." The perception that the goyim have of Jews is the exact opposite of what I just said. The goyim look at the Jews and make all these caricatures of Jews. They're all money-hungry. They're always involved in all these businesses and banking and lending and this and that. They're always behind everything. They always have a benefit in something, whether it's the government, missiles, weapons, or this or that. Why do you think that is? That's because their perception of Jews is skewed by stereotypes and misinformation. Their perception of non-religious Jews is that they don't act like Jews, even if they sometimes look religious. They may have the peyos, they may have the hats, or they may not. But nonetheless, they're not acting Jewish. It's time for us to start acting Jewish publicly, privately, proudly, and unapologetically.

40:47There are so many Jewish kids today that are embarrassed of their Judaism. The only time they put on a kippah is if they go into shul or if they're praying, and maybe sometimes not even then. Where do they learn this from? Their parents. Their parents go to shul with the kippah inside their pocket. Why? Because they don't feel like the kippah applies as long as they're not in shul. You ask the father, "Wait a minute, aren't you religious?" "Yeah, yeah, Modern Orthodox." "Okay, so whatever Orthodox version you are, FFB, Nike, Modern, whatever you are. We have a mitzvah in Judaism. You read about this mitzvah, you pray three times a day?" "I try." "Okay, you try. So you say Shema Yisrael once a day at least?" "Yes, I try." "Okay, so Shema Yisrael has a mitzvah of tzitzit." Mitzvah of tzitzit. You remember the mitzvah of tzitzit? You remember that? Because, yeah, but Rabbi, isn't that only applicable if you have four corners in your clothing? And the kippah isn't only applicable when you're studying? No. Who told you that? What do you mean? My rabbi told me it's only if you have four corners. Okay, he told you part of the teshuva. Part of the teshuva. I'm going to give you the rest.

42:07Gemara says a few things. There are certain people that HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves. Somebody who doesn't get angry, somebody who doesn't get drunk, somebody who doesn't insist on his due measure, meaning if somebody insulted you, you don't insist on giving it back to him; you know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu takes care of everything. People like that, HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves. Okay. And then there are certain types of people that HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates. Already, many of the shuls are not going to like this part. Why? Because they have never heard that Hashem hates people. Well, in fact, He does. He hates people who speak one thing with their mouth but something else with their heart—fakers, hypocrites. They call you a tzaddik, but in reality, they think you're a rasha. They say, "I love you," but in reality, they hate you. Things like that.

43:09Someone who could defend his friend with testimony that he has but doesn't. But then it goes on and it says: You should know we're talking about Jews here, it's not talking about Gentiles, we're not talking about non-Jews—specifically talking about Jews. The Gemara says you should know that we're talking about Jews and not be mistaken that we're not. But you should know that there are certain people that HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't actually just hate. But He excommunicates them. He puts them on nidui. You know what nidui is? Nidui is when you pray, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says he's not part of a minyan. Kicked out. Excommunicated. Certain people like this. And they don't even know it though. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't put a billboard on I-95 saying, "The following people are on nidui on My list." You know why? You would need the whole highway sometimes.

44:10It's not enough. It's too expensive already. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, no, I'll just deal with it later. We'll make Rabbi Reuven make a video on it for free. Publicize it all over the world. Who are these people that are excommunicated? There are seven who are excommunicated from heaven. And these are A Jew has no wife. Not because he's single, he hasn't found a wife. He doesn't feel like getting married. He wants to shop around. "No, I haven't found the right one yet." Buddy, you're 45 years old. What's "not the right one"? Get anyone in there at this point. "No, she's not religious enough for me. She keeps Shabbat, she keeps Taharat HaMishpacha, she's modest." Yeah, in reality, it's not that she's not religious. She's not pretty enough for me. Oh, she's not pretty enough for you. Okay, HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates you. What? What do you mean He hates me? That's what it says. You're in nidui. You're excommunicated. Why? Because this is already your 19th shidduch. It's not your first one. No problem. You can find somebody to your liking. Don't marry someone that you don't like. No problem. But no one you like? You don't like anyone? Who do you like? You like one of these Hashem yirachem women on the internet, on TV. That's who you like. You think that a Bat Yisrael is supposed to look like this zonah. That's what you think.

45:38Don't worry, zonah is a milah in the Gemara, it's not a curse word. So now, this is where we learn in the parashah that the sons of Yaakov say about Dinah, "Ha'kezonah ya'aseh et achoteinu?" Why? She is a zonah? Our sister Dinah? We're gonna let this guy rape her and not do anything about it? Be with her and we have to do nothing about it? That's milah naTorah. It's the language of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Anyway, a person doesn't have a wife, doesn't want to get married, wants to shop around, wants to go to clubs. Every week he has a new "wife" because he hasn't found the right one yet. Okay, that's already a lot of us. What else? One who has a wife but doesn't have children. What? Not because he can't have children because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the one that decides if he can have children. But he doesn't want to have children because he doesn't want to ruin her beauty. So every single time he's with her, it's wasted seed. No, no, we just got married. It's only our second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh year already. We're not ready. We're still in our 20s to have kids. We're not ready. She's on the pill. It's okay, Rabbi. My Rabbi in Eretz Yisrael told me it's okay.

46:56They told me it's fine, no? What no? The Gemara says it's not. What do you mean it's not? You're excommunicating, you are in nidui. You have no right to not have kids. That's the point of marriage. One of the points, not all of it. One of the points is you get married so you have kids. You don't want to have kids? Don't get married. You want to ruin her figure? What do you expect? She's gonna stay 95 pounds for the rest of her life? She has kids. What else? One who has kids. One who has kids, but doesn't raise them to study Torah. He sends them to go learn law. He sends them to go become a sports announcer. To go become the next NFL star. a two-and-a-half-year career before you want to commit suicide because that's how long the average career is in the NFL. I used to deal with them; they were my clients. The average career is two and a half years, then they want to commit suicide because, by four years after retirement, they've lost every single penny they have, and they're more broke than when they started. No matter how much money they got, we're talking about guys that made a hundred million dollars and are broke within four years of retirement. I wrote a whole paper about it; you can look it up on the internet.

48:22The point is, rabotai, you raise your kids to become an NFL star, a basketball star, a baseball star, a lawyer, a doctor, whatever you are, not learn Torah, you're in nidui. You're allowed to be a lawyer, allowed to be a doctor, allowed to be a shoemaker, allowed to make money, but you have to learn Torah. You don't make sure your son goes to the best yeshiva to learn Torah, you're in nidui. You pray, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, delete it. Junk mail, He looks at your prayers as junk mail. Why? Because you sent your son to a mixed boys and girls school that calls itself religious. You send your son to public school, Shemuel says, "the Me’am Lo’ez calls every parent that sends their children to public school an idol worshiper." Why? Because that's what they teach in public school. Next.

49:23Someone who does not have tefillin on his head and tefillin on his arm. Someone who doesn't lay tefillin, you don't put on tefillin. "No, I put on tefillin whenever I get a chance, Rabbi, you know, at least three or four times a week." Three or four times a week. Okay, so three or four times a week. Who says you're on him? Yeah, but I was sick, and I was praying to Hashem, and He didn't cure me. Exactly. Why? You're on karet. Your tefillot are going to a junk mailbox. Why? You put on tefillin whenever you feel like it. "Hey Rabbi, is it still okay to put on tefillin? It's 5:30. The sun's kind of down. The stars are out. Can I put on tefillin?" No, it's too late, mister. Next time, remember at eight o'clock in the morning, six o'clock in the morning, or definitely before it. If you forgot, something happened, you're on a flight to wherever, no problem. Make sure you put on tefillin before the sun goes down every day except Shabbat, except Yom Tov. Why? That's the brit, rabotai. That's the brit. You don't keep the brit, you have no connection. Talking about who? Yeah, my father didn't do it. Okay, there you go. That's why you came out like this. Fix your father's sin by doing the opposite and...

50:40But then my favorite. My favorite one. One that no one ever thought was going to be part of the list. No one ever thought it was going to make it to the best of the seven. Someone who does not wear tzitzit. Someone who does not wear tzitzit is in nidui. Yeah, but I didn't wear four corners. Okay, you didn't wear four corners. So you should. Because if you do not wear a tzitzit and you are a Jew, you're in nidui. You're excommunicated from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave you a gift. A gift that keeps on giving and you not only rejected it, you threw it in His face. He gave you a gift called mitzvat tzitzit, which is a mitzvah that's so easy, it's so easy, You have to be crazy not to do it if you're a Jew. Why? Every single second you have this piece of clothing on, that's a mitzvah every second. If one mitzvah, one mitzvah, we're not talking about the whole day, one mitzvah—pick any mitzvah from the Torah. Let's say the mitzvah of tzitzit for one second. If you take all of the good that you've had in your life, that's not your whole life. Let's say you're 25 years old.

52:03out of the 25, let's say five years is good. 20 years, you're in the bathroom, sleeping, eating, not having such a good time, whatever it is. Five years out of the 25 years is good. Percentage-wise, let's say if you lived 100 years, let's say 20%. That's really exaggerating, but nonetheless, let's say 20% of your life is good. If we take that 20% of your life, 100 years, 20 years of life, and put it in a box, remove all the bad. we inject it into you in one shot. That's a lot of good. Imagine you could enjoy 20 years of good in one second. That's a lot of good. All the ecstasy pills and crack in the world can't do that. Now imagine all the good, not just yours, but of all the people in all of the generations from the beginning of the world until today, until the end of the world. All of their good, not their bad, no wars, no inquisitions, no disease, no breakups, no makeups, no nothing. All of the good that they've all had, you put all of their good into that same box that was just yours.

53:27You inject that into somebody, that's a lot of good. All of that good is not even a down payment for what you're gonna get for wearing tzitzit for one second. So when HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I gave you a gift that's gonna give you that much good, for what? For wearing an extra t-shirt. Not only does it make you more modest, but also gives you a lot of mitzvot. Something you cannot even imagine and begin to appreciate. But what do you do? You say, no, no, didn't you say four corners? No four corners. I'm not going to wear it if I'm not wearing four corners. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you don't want my mitzvot? To that extent, you're on cherem. And the Gemara Masechet Menachot, page 25. says a Jew does not wear a tzitzit if there is a gezeira on the nation, a decree on the nation, a world war, pogroms, inquisitions, the first people that get killed are the people that wear tzitzit. Why? They don't have any protection.

54:42All of those extra mitzvot that they would have made by wearing the tzitzit when it's hot, when it's cold, when they're inside, when they're outside, all of that extra, they didn't have it. So they don't have protection when the times, unfortunately, call for a decree to wake up the people. So not only do they lose while they're alive when they're in nidui, but also Hashem if bad things happen, which anyone with eyes and ears would know that unfortunately, we are at such times. We are at such times. You don't have to be a big genius to realize the world wars are all heating up. All of the nations are ready to fight. Everybody is just looking for an excuse to press the trigger. Whether it's Trump or it's China or it's Korea or it's Russia or it's Israel or it's Iran. Everybody's looking for a reason. Everyone's looking for an excuse. This is not one of those times that you just pass on mitzvot as if you have extras. And that's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu says you treat My mitzvot as if they're not important. You're on nidui. Lastly, someone who does not have a mezuzah on his doorway, someone who does not put a mezuzah on his door...

56:03He has a house with seven rooms. How many mezuzot? One. What happened to the other rooms? Nah, they're expensive. What is it, a mezuzah? $100, $150 a mezuzah? That's too much. One mezuzah is enough for the whole house. Where did you get the mezuzah? eBay. I got it for a discount. $9.99. $9.99. The plastic cost more money, so I had to make it. The house is half a million dollars plus, a million dollars plus, mezuzah $9.99, $40 from the Judaica store that's being run by goyim. The only thing that's Jewish about it is the name, Judaica. Instead of going to a kosher rabbi who has mezuzot and actually knows where they come from and who the sofer is, one guy calls me about a month ago, month and a half ago. He says, "Listen, do you have mezuzot?" I said, "Yes, but I only have expensive ones. I don't deal with the $60 ones, I'm sorry." He goes, "No, no, no, I want the best one." I said, "The best one I have right now is $350." He goes, "I want that one." I said, "Okay, baruch haba, no problem." It's the first time I've ever sold a mezuzah. Usually, it's for free, gifts for donors.

57:17What's the occasion? He goes, "Listen, I'm never going to make this mistake again. What would you do?" He said, "I bought a mezuzah. Some guy, it was a discount. Whatever it was, I don't know, $50 or something like that. I figured I got a good deal because, you know, the covering, the shell looked really cool. But I don't know, there was something wrong, something wrong all the time in my house, all types of problems. And I heard in the shiur to check your mezuzah. So I asked the rabbi, can you check the mezuzah?" So the rabbi, not the one that sold it to him, checked the mezuzah, opened it up, It's printer paper. Printer paper. Somebody went on a computer, pressed print on something they found on the internet, put it inside a box, and hey, it's a mezuzah. This is kosher for dogs. If the dog is Jewish, he can use that mezuzah. A Jew cannot use it. A Jewish human being cannot use this mezuzah. It's printed on printer paper. Another person sent me and told me, "Listen, I need a mezuzah. What's the problem? All my mezuzot got checked. All of them have crosses inside. I bought them on eBay. I didn't know it was missionaries."

58:22writing. They have all types of people, Chinese people, writing mezuzot because they have skills in writing and drawing. They write mezuzot, but the secret missionary act is they write and put crosses, Yoshke, inside the mezuzah. The guy checked his mezuzot; all of his mezuzot have crosses inside. Why? He bought it on eBay. A person who does not have kosher mezuzot in his house is in niduy. You pray to HaKadosh Baruch Hu's junk mail. How many of our brothers and sisters are having their prayers go to junk mail? No tefillin, no tzitzit, no mezuzah. They don't want to get married because they want to shop around. They don't want to have kids because they want to leave their wife like Tamar. Beautiful. When are we actually going to finally realize what it means to be a Jew, Rabotai? Stop joking around and pretending like we're Goyim. Remember, if you were born a Jew, you cannot become a Goy even if you want to. You could act like a Goy, but you're always going to be a Jew. Meaning, when you go up to Shamayim, they're going to judge you like a Jew. And Hashem Yirachem what happens to a Jew that acts like a Goy in this world. Now,

59:52know that the young generation today has a very, very hard time—a very hard time—looking Jewish because we're always trying to fit in. We're always trying to fit in. And if you live in America or in Israel or anywhere, pretty much the majority of people are either goyim or they look like them. Now, I'm not saying that you have to look like a penguin, wearing black and white, and That's not a requirement in Shulchan Aruch. It's not a requirement in Shulchan Aruch. By the way, black and white is not a Jewish uniform, just so you know. Black and white is just a suit with a white shirt. That's all it means. On Wall Street, I also wore a white shirt. You go to Wall Street right now, you go to the banking district, you go to different places, full of non-Jews, all of them wearing black and white. Why? Because it's black and white. Black suit, white shirt. Why do Jews that go to yeshiva or kollel generally choose to wear black and white? Because it's modest. That's it. It's not too flashy. It's appropriate. It's respectable. You look like you're ready to talk to the King of Kings. You don't look like one of these street kids that you're not even sure if he's alive, if he's dead, if he's homeless, if he's a multi-millionaire. You're not even sure anymore.

1:01:15Sometimes you see these interviews of multi-millionaires. They just made a movie for 50 million dollars that they got paid. They look like they're homeless. You feel like giving the guy some change, maybe adding to his millions, because all of his clothes are ripped. His hair is like Tisha B'Av, like he just woke up, but this is all on purpose. A Jew is not supposed to look like that. A Jew is supposed to look respectable. Now again, you don't have to wear a three-piece suit, but you have to look respectable. Now, why should you try to look respectable? Why should you try so hard to look like a Jew? Because, Rabotai HaYekarim, these things that are happening in the world, they're getting closer and closer to home. This means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is trying to give all of us the message that He's getting tired of us being fakers. He's getting tired of us being fakers that don't appreciate all the gifts that He gives us. And He's starting to repeat some of His past actions. If you look at the world right before the Holocaust, it's as if you're reading the news of today. You look at the world right before the Spanish Inquisition, it's like reading the news of what's happening today. You look at the world 2,000 years ago, at the time of Chanukah.

1:02:44it's like reading the news today. The only difference is the names. Who's the leader? Who's not a leader? Who's the richest? Who's the poorest? That's the only difference. Clothing was a little bit different. Less technology or different technology of the day. That's it. Actions of people are identical. Actions of people haven't changed, especially our people now. You'll see, Rabotai, that it didn't end too well for us every time we went against Hashem. It didn't end too well. Now, anyone can say, wait a minute, how do we know that if we have, let's say, a kehillah that was attacked, Whether it's in Pittsburgh about a year ago, or in Los Angeles now, or in New York recently, or in Australia, all types of places. Every other week we have a new attack somewhere else. How do we know it's really our fault? Maybe somebody else did it. Maybe they really hate us that much that Hashem is making them do it. But it's not really our fault. We have sources in the Torah.

1:04:02says the following: Rav said in the name of Rav Reuven, the son of Yisroeli. Rav Reuven, the son of Yisroeli, said a person is not suspected of something, meaning of a sin. unless he's done it. Meaning no one is going to suspect you of stealing, of causing Chilul Hashem, of driving on Shabbat, of going with a married woman, of wasting seed, or doing all types of sins, unless you did it. No, wait a minute. I got accused last week. I didn't do it. Hold on a second. Let's read the rest of the Gemara. If you've been accused of something, the Gemara says you did it. But what if you didn't do it?

1:05:03What if he didn't do it? And if he has not done it at all, then he did part of it. He did part of it. He didn't go with the married woman. He didn't go with the married woman, but almost did. He asked her on the date, but then he backed out. He sent her a few texts, but then as soon as it got serious, he said, no, no, no, no. I was just kidding. I was just kidding. I'm busy. Like he didn't actually know that she's going to buy into it because she's married. married, so you know, but as soon as he said, "Do you want to go out tonight?" he didn't think she was going to say yes. He was just joking. "We're friends on WhatsApp, we're friends on YouTube, on non-gay norm, on all types of stations or friends." He didn't think she could say yes, but when she said yes, "No, no, I was just kidding. I was just kidding. No, no, you're married, you're married." Is that considered a transgression? It's considered one because she's married now; you are not allowed to talk to her. If she's married, you are not allowed to talk to her. There's no such thing as platonic relationships between males and females in Judaism. All of these guys have girlfriends. Who said it's allowed? Who said it's allowed? No, she's my best friend since childhood. Okay, the friendship has to end at some point. You don't have to have girlfriends. You have to have a wife, good.

1:06:24You have a sister? Good. Finished. Your mom? Call your mom. You want to talk to a woman? Call your mom. I'm sure she'll appreciate your calls. One womanly advice, your mom knows better than your girlfriend. But then he says, if he didn't do it, and he didn't do part of it, he's done. He hasn't done a part of it, he hasn't done it, but he had thoughts of doing it. You're being accused of something. You didn't do it. You didn't partially do it. At least you thought about it, though. You thought about going out with her. You thought that she's cute and, you know, I kind of... You thought, almost. That's already enough and Shamayim says, you're going to be accused of it. Well, you're not even allowed to have such unkosher thoughts. You're not even allowed to have unkosher thoughts. You're judged for unkosher thoughts. Why in your right mind would you think that you're allowed to be with a married woman? Why in your right mind would you think you're allowed to drive on Shabbat to the Beit Knesset? Why? Why would you think such a thing? HaKadosh Baruch Hu killed Tzlafchad in front of all of Am Yisrael. Because what did he do? He picked up some trees. He didn't even light a fire. And if he had not had thoughts of doing it,

1:07:44He saw other people doing it, and he was happy. This is the scariest one of all. Now, you're getting accused in Shamayim. They're accusing you of being a Mechalel Shabbat. Why are they accusing you of being a Mechalel Shabbat? You keep Shabbat. You know you'll cut yourself because you're Sephardi by heart. You're not violating Shabbat. In fact, you didn't even think about violating Shabbat. You didn't even think about violating Shabbat. You're such a righteous person, not only did you not violate Shabbat, you didn't violate any part of it either, because you know all the halachot, and you didn't even think about violating Shabbat. So why are you being accused in Shamayim, and accused in Israel as a Mechalel Shabbat? Because you attended a shul, And they let everybody drive to that shul on Shabbat; they gave them a parking lot, they gave them a valet service, and instead of being a mochiach, instead of rebuking the people, rebuking the rabbi, that you have such a place that calls itself Orthodox, you reform. What are you doing to people? You're telling them they're allowed to drive on Shabbat. No, I never said it's allowed. By allowing this, you're saying it's not only allowed, it's kosher Badatz.

1:09:01You open the parking lot for these people to drive on Shabbat. You give them a valet service, nonetheless. You didn't rebuke. Instead of rebuking, what did you do? Yeah, you know, they're not ready for it. You know, but this, it's a nice thing to do kiruv this way. It's nice that our shul is open to everybody. It's nice that we have unity in our shul. We're welcoming everybody. The resha'im, the tzaddikim, the lefty liberals, ISIS, Da'esh, everybody we welcome. You enjoyed that parking lot, you made some time for it and said, oh, no, no, this is nice. It's nice that we have a parking lot on Shabbat for the people that live far away. Instead of rebuking the people, instead of leaving the shul, going to a different place as a sign of protest, and telling everybody else who is Shomer Shabbat to leave this place, let it go bankrupt and not allow another person to think it's okay to drive on Shabbat.

1:10:02You said, no, it's a nice shul, it's so pretty, this shul. It's so beautiful, this shul, that allows people to drive on Shabbat. You'll be part of the people that are accused. Why? Because you're part of it. You didn't protest. 18b, see for yourself. HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not create bodies. He created people. If He wanted you to be a body, He'd create you as a steak, already made as a steak. He'd make you already a shish kebab. He'd make you already schnitzel. Put some oil on you, delicious. He didn't create schnitzel. He didn't create steaks. He created people that have a mouth. You see something is wrong, say something. Don't allow HaKadosh Baruch Hu's Torah to be desecrated week after week inside your shuls when people are driving and no one says anything.

1:11:07If the rabbi says, no, we're doing kiruv. What kiruv is this that you're allowing people to drive on Shabbat? How is this kiruv? The guy's been driving for five years to shul. When is this kiruv strategy supposed to work? No, little by little we're getting them to learn mitzvot and eventually they're going to keep. You'll see, you'll see. Well, let me ask you something. What if "you'll see" never happens? What if the guy dies tomorrow while he's driving to shul on Shabbat? The kiruv strategy never had enough time to mature. The kiruv strategy never had time to work. Why? Because all this time he's driving on Shabbat to beit knesset because his rabbi says, "Listen, it doesn't matter where you live. We want to see you on Shabbat." I didn't tell him to drive, but I told him I want to see him on Shabbat. He knows he's driving. "Park over here." I mean, no, no, don't park. That's what they said. He's reshaim. The kiruv strategy, what if it doesn't work? What if the guy dies?

1:12:07He's going to go up to Shamayim, and he says, no, no, the kiruv strategy, you didn't give enough time for the kiruv strategy to work. He's going to complain to Hashem. In which chamber of Ge'enom? 7 or 7.0? Which one? There's no such thing as doing a mitzvah in the way of sin. There's no permission from the Torah to allow somebody or even make somebody think that their sin is allowed because they're not ready for the mitzvah. You live too far from the shul, don't come. Shabbat is a mitzvah that's part of the Ten Commandments. Going to shul is not. Going to shul is a rabbinical mitzvah. It's nice to do. But no one goes to Ge'enom for not going to shul. But everybody goes to Ge'enom for violating Shabbat. No exceptions. If we desecrate HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name on a regular basis by simply not saying a word while we're attending synagogues where people are driving on Shabbat as if it's allowed. They're not even hiding it; they're driving and they're parking right next to the shul.

1:13:28No one says a word. The rabbi doesn't say anything. The board doesn't say anything. Some of the board members themselves are Mechalelei Shabbat. We allow this to happen? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I don't need this type of Torah. I'll send some vandals to throw it on the floor because that's what you're doing every week. In fact, that's what you're doing every day, much worse. You're burning My Torah. When you allow people to drive on Shabbat to Beit Knesset or anywhere without saying something, you're burning HaKadosh Baruch Hu's Torah. And people are crying anti-Semitism? How come nobody's crying anti-Hashem? How come nobody's crying anti-Hashem, anti-Hashem? Stop the madness! Stop going against Hashem. How come no one says that? How come nobody cries, no protest in the street? Stop going against Hashem. How come there's no protest for Hashem? What, because He's only one? Because He doesn't speak up right away? He's doing you a favor by not speaking up. Because when He speaks up, you don't want to hear it. It's too late. These batei knesset that call themselves Orthodox...

1:14:48in reality are acting like Reform, it's our fault, the religious among us, it's our fault. Don't blame them; it's our fault. Why? Because we're not religious enough, and I'll explain to you why we're not religious enough. Because if we were religious like we're supposed to be, if we actually listened to the Torah, this would never happen. If we actually loved Hashem 1% as much as we say we love Hashem, it would never happen. Never. Every single shul around the world would be religious. If we loved Hashem as much as religious people say they love Hashem, this would never happen. And I'll explain to you why. You see, the mitzvah of Hanukkah says, והדליקו נרות בחצות חושך we light the lights of Hanukkah in the courtyard. In reality, I already explained to you last week, the Menorah of Hanukkah was lit inside the Beit HaMikdash. So, why do we say in our prayer, "Thank you for the miracles for us, for us lighting the light"?

1:16:09in the courtyard. Chazal says that because we also lit not only the light in the Heichal inside the Beit HaMikdash, but we also lit another menorah outside to publicize the mitzvah and the miracle. We know how important it is to publicize mitzvot, to publicize the Torah. We know that's one of the foundations of being a Jew — to publicize the Torah. If you're not publicizing the Torah, and you're only learning it for yourself, page 17b says it's as if you don't have a G-d. You learn Torah for yourself, but not to publicize it to other people. It's as if you don't have a G-d. Why? Because you learn Torah. Why? Part of the reason to learn Torah is to learn about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. First thing you learn about Hakadosh Baruch Hu is that He gives, gives, gives, and never receives anything. All the mitzvot you do are for yourself. All the learning you do is for yourself.

1:17:10So you don't really give Hashem anything. The first thing you learn about Hashem is that He gives all the time. So if that's not something that you repeat, if you're not giving His Torah also, if you're not becoming a giving person, it's as if you're learning Torah, but it's not Hashem's Torah. You're learning, I don't know, history or something. Which means that giving is a very, very key part of Judaism, but not just any type of giving. Not just giving tzedakah to some newlyweds or giving some money to some homeless person or giving some challah to some people who don't have enough or anything like that. Giving means giving the Torah, giving the emet, titen emet leYaakov. The pasuk says titen emet leYaakov, chesed leAvraham. How come it says give emet to Yaakov, but kindness to Avraham? Who came first, Avraham or Yaakov? Wake up, who came first, Avraham or Yaakov? Avraham. Okay, all of you had the same answer. You sure about it?

1:18:15No one is picking the other side? For sure, Avraham. Okay, so now, what's the right way? You don't have to be a big scholar to know. What's the right way? Who should come first in order of honor? Avraham or Yaakov? When you say the forefathers, what do you say? Yaakov, Yitzchak, Avraham? Or do you say Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov? Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov. So I come to the pasuk. So the prophet says, give emet to Yaakov, chesed to Avraham. How come, shouldn't it say, it should be, give chesed to Avraham, emet to Yaakov. It should be Avraham first. Because, Rabotai HaYekarim, when you get up to Shamayim, there's no more sheker, there's no more lies, there's no more fakers. In Shamayim they're going to show you that chesed that you did, that kindness that you did, how much emet was inside that chesed. Did you do it because you care about the homeless people and the needy people and the newlyweds and the new neighbor and the pregnant mother, whatever you are? Oh, pregnant mothers these days. Whatever you are. Did you really care? Oh, you did it because you wanted to tell everybody, "Oh, you heard about that campaign? Yeah, I started it. You heard about that campaign? Yeah, yeah, I'm on the..." He says, so my name...

1:19:41The Beit Knesset. You never heard of the Beit Knesset? Yeah, my name is on the wall over there. Who did you do it for? You did that Chesed for... For whom did you do it? For the Beit Knesset? For the newlyweds? For the pregnant wife? Who did you do it for? Or did you do it for Kavod? In Shamayim, before they go into your Chesed, Chesed, Chesed, I want to see how much Emet is in your Chesed. How much Emet is in your Chesed? Who did you do it for? You donated a million dollars to buy an Aliyah. Do you really care about Torah? A million dollars you spent on an Aliyah on Yom Kippur. Some Batei Knesset in different places around the world, Aliyot on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a million dollars plus. Did you donate the million dollars, that chesed you did to Beit Knesset? Did you donate it because you care about the Torah that will be publicized or you care about your name being publicized in the kehillah as the winner of the bid? You're the bigwigs this year. You won the Yom Kippur War. How much emet is in your chesed? Rabotai.

1:20:59They're gonna ask us, how much emet is in our religiosity? You're saying you're religious, you keep Shabbat, you come to a shiur, you watch a shiur, you give some tzedakah once in a while. How much emet is in it? How religious are we? Let's see. It says that, kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh, all of Am Yisrael are responsible for each other. Somebody drives on Shabbat in San Francisco. You have to care. You don't care? That's a problem. That's a problem. Somebody cheats on his wife. You don't care? That's a problem. Poor father, his son died in Eretz Yisrael, in Bnei Brak. The six-month-old son died. During the Shiva, the father was so heartbroken, he got a heart attack and died yesterday. Firstborn son died. During the shiva, the father died. If that story doesn't make you want to cry out to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Please, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, please, please, Hashem, enough, enough, enough of taking these beautiful roses from the world while the resha'im stay here."

1:22:20The roses, the beautiful ones that are honoring You, that You take. But the resha'im stay. Enough, please Hashem. It doesn't bother You. Something's wrong. Now, the Gemara says that one of the giants among Am Yisrael was Rabbi Chiya. Rabbi Chiya was the talmid of Rabbeinu HaKadosh, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. But Rabbi Chiya was a giant among giants. The Gemara says in Yerushalmi that Rabbi Yossi, who was also a giant, wanted to see Rabbi Chiya after he died, he wanted to see him in a dream. But to get such a merit to see Rabbi Chiya in a dream, it's not just "please Hashem, show me Rabbi Chiya."

1:23:23you want to see the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation in a dream. You want him to talk to you, say something to you. You have to do something for it, sacrifice. So Rabbi Yossi fasted. Rabbi Yossi fasted for nine days. He fasted for nine days in order to get the merit from Shamayim to see Rabbi Chiya's face. After nine days of fasting, Shamayim gave him an answer. No, you don't have the merit to see Rabbi Chiya. Now you're going to say, okay, maybe Rabbi Yossi wasn't righteous enough. So let me tell you a little bit more about Rabbi Yossi. Rabbi Yossi, one time, there was one of the people in the kehillah, came to the rabbi, and said, I need you to help me. I had a dream. A very, very fantastical type of dream. I need help with this dream.

1:24:24I know this dream has meaning to it. He says, "What happened in your dream?" He says, "I was walking around here. I saw the world as it is right now. It felt like it was the real world, but I saw that the sky, the sky was falling. I saw the sky because, before HaKadosh Baruch Hu roared the sky into place, the sky was soft." That's why the symbol of fear of Hashem is called Yirat Shamayim, fear of heaven. Why? Because Rabbi Ephraim explains, he says, Hashem, the sky was soft, Hashem roared, and the sky stands. And now for 5,780 years, it's standing and hasn't moved, showing that the sky has the most amount of fear of Hashem. So now, the sky in his dream, in this guy's dream, was falling. He started running, and he saw that it was getting to the end; the corner was falling. It was getting there, and then he saw a big tzaddik. There was a big light on his face, and he was holding up the sky like a superhuman. He was saying, "Don't worry, it's going to be okay."

1:25:46The sky is being held by this tzaddik. So the guy tells the rabbi, he goes, "What does this dream mean?" He says, "This tzaddik that you saw in the dream, you saw his face?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "If I show him to you, will you recognize him?" He goes, "Of course. I remember it clearly right now." He goes, "Come." He takes him to the beit midrash. He goes, "Here, these are all the students. Let me know if you see him." He goes, "It's right here." He goes, "Oh, that's Rabbi Yossi." Rabbi Yossi was the symbol of Yirat Shamayim of the generation. The whole world existed in that generation just for him. He fasted nine days to see Rabbi Chiya, but didn't have the merit. Fast forward, Reish Lakish, former gangster, head of the mob, does teshuva and becomes Gadol HaDor. His Rabbi, Rabbi Yochanan, Teaches him to become the giant of the generation. He hears about Rabbi Chiya and his significance. He says, "I want to be Rabbi Chiya. I want to see him. Sacrifice. What sacrifice?" He fasts 300 days. 300 days. Obviously, they eat once a day at the end of the day, or they fast the whole day and then the next day they eat. Whatever their method is. Not 300 days in a row. But nonetheless...

1:27:10He has fasted for 300 days. For what? To get the merit to see the face of Rabbi Chiya in a dream. After 300 days, he gets a message from Shamayim. Reish Lakish gets a message. Message? No. Rejected. You have no merit to see Rabbi Chiya. So Reish Lakish was hurt. Because what's the difference between me and Rabbi Chiya? What? He learned Torah, I learned Torah. He sacrificed to learn Torah. I sacrificed to learn Torah. Why? Did he learn more Torah than me? To that extent? So Shamayim answered him, saying, no. You learn Torah; he learns Torah. But there's a big difference between your Torahs. You learn Torah for you. So you can learn for yourself, to be a tzaddik. You are a symbol of Yirat Shamayim. When you learn Torah to fulfill the mitzvot, that's symbolic of Yirat Shamayim. You have fear of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You're learning to do what Hashem says. Rabbi Chiya, Rabbi Chiya Rabotai, Rabbi Chiya was not on the level of Yirat Shamayim. Rabbi Chiya was on the level of Ahavat Hashem, of loving HaKadosh Baruch Hu. How do we know? Because Shamayim told Reish Lakish, all of the Torah that Rabbi Chiya learned was for the purpose of doing kiruv.

1:28:38He put his Gemara down, closed the book, and went to towns where there was no Torah. He planted some seeds, made some nets out of the plant. After he got the net, he caught a deer, took the deer, slaughtered it, took its skin, skinned it, and wrote a Sefer Torah. Then he taught the kids Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Bereshit, Bara, Elohim, Et HaShamayim, Ve'et Ha'aretz, Torah, Dinim, Chumash. After that, he did the same thing again and wrote for them the entire Mishnah. Then those who learned the Torah taught those who learned the Mishnah. Then those who learned the Mishnah taught those who learned the Torah. Yeah, but you're a Gadol HaDor, you're the biggest rabbi in the world. Why don't you teach them Aleph, Bet? Go find some 18-year-old to do this. Go find some 25-year-old guy that just got a job to do this. You're the biggest rabbi in the world. So some people think that if you do kiruv, maybe you don't know much. You can't say that about Rabbi Chiya. Rabbi Chiya was a giant among giants. One time, Rabbi Yossi ben Rabbi Ishmael comes to Rabbi HaKadosh after he sees the Rabbi is giving a lot of respect to Rabbi Chiya.

1:29:58He says, why are you giving Rabbi Chiya so much respect? He doesn't have much respect for Torah. He says, what do you mean? He says, yesterday I saw him in the bathhouse and he didn't even stand up for me. Not that it's for me, but for the Torah that I have. He didn't even stand up. It's a rule in the Torah. Talmid Chacham walks in. You have to stand up. He didn't even stand up. He says, no, we have to get to the bottom of it. Call Rabbi Chiya. He says, "Kvoda Rav, is it true that you saw Rabbi Yossi ben Rabbi Yishmael yesterday at the bathhouse and you didn't stand up? Can such a thing be true?" He says, "Kvoda Rav, I swear to you that I was so enamored and deep into my Torah that I was learning the different Haggadot of Tehillim at that moment." that I didn't know how I arrived at the bathhouse. I didn't know I went to the bathhouse. I simply eventually finished studying, and I was in the bathhouse. I had no idea I was there. When he was there, apparently, I was still learning Torah. That's how deep he would go into the Torah. From that moment on, Rebbe HaKadosh says two people have to walk with Rabbi Chiya at all times. Why? He's so into his Torah, he doesn't even know. His body moves. Next thing you know, he's going to fall off of a bridge.

1:31:18He saw it in the Torah, he didn't even know how he got to the bathhouse. He's learning Aggadot, different secrets, mystical things about what's happening in Tehillim and so on. His body just moved. One time, Rebbe HaKadosh says to his students, although he's the Gadol HaDor in Eretz Yisrael, If Rav Huna, Rav Huna was the Gadol HaDor in Bavel, in Iraq. If Rav Huna would come to Eretz Yisrael, I would go off my chair and I would give Rav Huna a seat. He would be the Gadol HaDor in Eretz Yisrael. Why? Because even though they're both connected to the house of David, still Rav Huna has a more direct, higher connection. So one day, Rabbi Chiya walks into the office of Rebbe HaKadosh and he says to him, "Kevod HaRav, Rav Huna is here." Immediately, Rebbe gets nervous. He goes, "No, no, not Rav Huna, the body, he died. Rav Huna died. So they brought the casket to bury it in Eretz Yisrael." So Rebbe got upset.

1:32:42What are you joking around with me? Say Rav Huna is here, thinking that way, or maybe I'm not going to give my seat away because he's here, fighting because I said it. You say that, then you tell me the body is here. Go, go check if somebody's looking for you outside. So, I went outside, and he saw no one's looking for him, and he realized, "Oh, he sent me outside because he's upset at me. I made Rebbe upset. That's it. I'm putting myself on nidui." I'm putting myself on nidui, I'm not allowing myself to see the face of Rebbe HaKadosh for 30 days. That's the respect he had for him. He says I made him upset. He didn't mean to make him upset. He just said things in a certain order. He didn't mean to make him upset, but he got upset nonetheless. There's still a result out of my actions. I'm punishing myself. What's the punishment? I'm not allowing myself to see Rebbe HaKadosh for 30 days. So for 30 days, he wouldn't go to the Beit Midrash; he'd study at home. He had students. One of his students was Rav. His name was Rav. If you learn Gemara, every page of Gemara, Rav's name is there. He himself was considered one of the giants of giants. He was the student of Rabbi Chiya. Now, in Shamayim, HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted Rebbe HaKadosh to know that Rabbi Chiya is not just an average person. Even though he knew he had a lot of Torah, even though he knew he was a tzaddik, in Shamayim they wanted him to know that he's more than that even.

1:34:09So on day number 30, before Rabbi Chiya came back, they sent Eliyahu HaNavi, HaKadosh Baruch Hu sent Eliyahu HaNavi in the image of Rabbi Chiya to the office of Rebbe. And at that moment, Rebbe was having an enormous toothache. He says, "How are you? Are you okay?" He goes, "No, no, I have this toothache. I can't even study Torah. It's unbelievable." He says, "Where does it hurt exactly? Where does it hurt?" He goes, "Right here." He goes, "Show me. Show me where it hurts." He opened his mouth. Eliyahu HaNavi, who looks like Rabbi Chiya, touches the tooth. Healed. No root canal. Free. Free. Free. Oh, Baruch Hashem, I feel so much better. Okay, Kavod HaRav, Kol Tov. The next day was the end of the nidui that Rabbi Chiya placed on himself. So the next day the real Rabbi Chiya shows up. "Hi, Kavod HaRav, how are you? Listen, how are you doing?"

1:35:22I'm sorry. I didn't see you in 30 days. I know that I upset you a month ago, and I put myself on nidui, that's why I wasn't here. How are you doing? So Rebbe HaKadosh says, well, since I saw you yesterday, Baruch Hashem, my tooth doesn't hurt. He says, no, no, Kavod HaRav, I wasn't here 30 days. I haven't been here. So Rebbe HaKadosh says, wait, if it wasn't you, who was it? And he thinks and he thinks, he has Ruach HaKodesh. He knows, ah, it was Eliyahu HaNavi. He says, "If in Shamayim they tell Eliyahu HaNavi to look like you, then from now on, I have to give you honor. I have to give you honor. You're different from everybody else. If Eliyahu HaNavi is dressed like you, looks like you, and they want me to see you as Eliyahu HaNavi, that means you're different from everybody else." From that moment on, anytime he comes to the Beit Midrash, Rabbi Chiya comes to the Beit Midrash, Rebbe HaKadosh makes an announcement: "Rabbi Chiya, come in. Rabbi Chiya is here. Everybody needs to know." Why was Rabbi Chiya such a giant? The Torah we know he had, but he left. He shut off the books. Shut off the books and he left. During those 30 days, by the way, what did he do for 30 days? What did he do with those 30 days? The Gemara says, he told his student Rav, "Come to my house, we're going to learn." In 30 days, he taught Rav all of the laws of the Torah.

1:36:50The entire laws of all the Torah, the entire makeup, laws of the Torah, how to understand certain things, how to get to the halacha, how to get to the psak, this, that, the other thing, all of the rules of the Torah in 30 days. I mean, in 30 years we cannot learn it. So imagine the teacher, imagine the student here we're talking about. But instead of becoming the next nasi, next gadol hador, next biggest rabbi, Rabbi Chiya takes the books, closes them, and starts going to different cities that don't even have a rabbi. Or if they have a rabbi, it's like a rabbi of today, it's a "rabbi." It's one of these places where they teach you that it's okay to drive on Shabbat with VIP valet parking. Why? Because Rabbi Chiya understood that the whole purpose of the Torah is to emulate HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If He loves something, then I love it. If He hates something, then I hate it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves His people. He doesn't want to hate them. He doesn't want to put them on nidui.

1:38:03He doesn't want to put them on excommunication. He loves them. We are His firstborn, He says. But apparently, the firstborn doesn't realize he's the firstborn. Apparently, the firstborn doesn't understand the significance of being the firstborn, doesn't understand what it means to have the responsibility of a firstborn and doesn't understand the significance of carrying the torch of the firstborn. So he acts like everybody else. So Rabbi Chiya says, how could I be happy in my own learning, in my own mitzvot, while the rest of my brothers and sisters are on excommunication because they're not wearing tzitzit and they're not keeping Shabbat and they're not putting on kosher mezuzot and their tefillin are from the days of Antiochus and all of the things that they do are upside down. to put a hat that some basketball player decided to put his number on and maybe some ink on. We'll put it on. We'll hang it on our walls. We'll hang it on our head. We'll walk out with it proudly—sideways, backwards. Tell the Jew to wear a kippah. No, it's... So why is it okay for you to wear the hat? No, it's LeBron James. No, it's the Eagles. No, it's the...

1:39:25Kaf HaKela team, they have a good baseball team there. Put a hat on, no problem. Put a kippah on, not so much. Put a jersey on, for sure. Especially if it's the championship team. Put tzitzit on, it's too hot. It's too hot. Too hot to wear tzitzit. How long, how long are we gonna be fakers? How long? I'm not talking about the non-religious. I'm talking about the religious. How long are we not gonna care that our brothers are in need and don't even know it? You have a sister, you have a cousin, you have a neighbor—Jewish women, Jewish men. They're praying once in a blue moon, talking about who they don't realize it's all going to junk mail. They're praying for a cure for cancer. They're praying for parnassah. They're praying for a zivug. They're praying to stop being lonely. They're praying to have food to eat. They're praying to get a solid job. They're praying to get to work on time. They're praying for all types of stuff. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Yeah, it's junk mail." Now you, Mr. Religious, Mrs. Religious, you know all this, but you do nothing about it. How long?

1:40:52It's time that all of us start realizing that if we're not going to be leaders, who needs us? That's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu said at the time of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, both the first one and the second one. The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 56a. says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu was originally planning on only punishing the resha'im, the people that were driving on Shabbat, the people that were going with married women, the people that were murderers and killers. That's who He was planning on killing, and He sent the angels to put a special letter special letter on the foreheads, a spiritual sign on the foreheads of all the religious people. All the rabbis, all the talmidei yeshiva, all the avreichim. Why? Just like the plague in Egypt, He told us to put a sign on the doorpost. At that time, He actually had us put a physical sign. But this time, before He destroys the Beit HaMikdash, He says put a spiritual sign on all the religious people. Why? So Malach HaMavet, when he comes, won't touch those people.

1:42:11That's those people. Why? Because they have a taf. They have a symbol of taf on their forehead, symbolizing that they follow the Torah from Aleph to Taf, from A to Z. Malach HaMavet shows up. "Hashem, I have a complaint. I have a complaint. I have a complaint. There's a problem with Your Torah." HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "What's the problem with My Torah?" He says, "You say the Torah is emet. Of course it's emet." "Okay, well there's sheker in it then." "What sheker? What sheker? What lie?" He says, "You say that anyone that's a sinner is going to get punished right now with the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. You'll give me full permission to rip them apart." Hashem says, "Yes." "But you got all these people that the angels just put a taf on their forehead. I'm not allowed to touch them." Hashem says, "What's the problem?" He goes, "But they're reshaim." Hashem says, "No. These people follow the Torah from Aleph to Taf. That's the symbol." The Malach HaMavet is smart. He's a talmid chacham. He says, "No, HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I'm sorry, HaKadosh Baruch Hu. There's a mitzvah in the Torah called hocheiach tochiach et amitecha."

1:43:36You see your brother driving on Shabbat. You see that there's a shul having valet parking on Shabbat. You see that they're selling pig at the kosher store. You see women not modestly dressed. You see this? You have to rebuke people privately, politely, not embarrassing people in public, but nonetheless, you have to do something. Tell the rabbi, tell the guy personally, tell the woman, but you have to do something. You can't just sit there and look pretty by yourself, caring only about your own righteousness. Malach HaMavet says to Hashem, the Gemara says, all of these religious people that have the Torah, they all knew the truth and they didn't share it with the rest of the people. They let the people continue driving on Shabbat. They let the people continue violating the Torah, not put on tzitzit, not put on tefillin, go out with goyot, go out with goyim, stealing in their business, as long as they give tzedakah, tzaddikim. They violated the Torah because they didn't rebuke. HaKadosh Baruch Hu tried to defend Am Yisrael. HaKadosh Baruch Hu started crying. He doesn't want to kill the tzaddikim. He doesn't want to kill them. They're His sons. They're His daughters. He says, yeah, but this generation was so rotten.

1:44:52HaKadosh Baruch Hu says this, tells the Malach HaMavet this generation was so rotten that even if the rabbis would have gone to these reshaim and told them to stop driving on Shabbat, stop using valet parking at a shul, stop going out with goyot and pretending they're really converted, stop doing all this stuff, these reshaim would have fired the rabbis. These reshaim would have never listened. Unfortunately, the Malach HaMavet It's also smart. HaKadosh Baruch Hu put wisdom in him too. And he knows how to do his job. And he says, "HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you know that. But Your Torah doesn't work based on Your knowledge. Your Torah works based off of their knowledge. They didn't know that the people are not going to listen to them. They didn't know that the people are not going to listen to them. And therefore they were still obligated to tell them to stop driving on Shabbat." They didn't know they're gonna not listen to them and not leave the goyot. Therefore, they were still obligated to tell them, leave the goya. Whether they listen or not, that's not your business. You're obligated to do. We're obligated with effort. Outcome the hands of Hashem. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to the Satan, you're right.

1:46:13Kill them first. All the people who have the Ket Mitzvot, the symbol of the Taf on their forehead, kill them first. Not only kill them, but kill them before the Reshaim. Why? Because the Reshaim are only Reshaim because they're not righteous enough. Because the rabbis are not righteous enough. The rabbis did not do enough Kiruv. Religious people did not do enough Kiruv. They're worrying about their own family, their own kids. They didn't care about Steve, who lived down the block but doesn't really know what Judaism is. They didn't care about Samantha, whose father and mother are both Jewish, but she went to public school. They didn't care about all these people. Oh, he left it there. He comes to see this family, but he's off the derech. So he's like, oh, he's not part of us anymore. They didn't care about the kid off the derech. Because he doesn't feel like we're in a shtreimel anymore because he doesn't feel like talking Yiddish anymore. A guy tells me the other day, we were both guests in one of the people's homes in the Hasidic community. The guy that was hosting us started talking to my son, giving him a nice Dvar Torah. Suddenly, one of the other guests yells at him and me at the same time.

1:47:37The father of the kid. Why? He says, you should be embarrassed of yourself. Why are you talking to the kid in English? Yiddish. Talk to him in Yiddish. That's the only language you should talk to him in. What if the kid doesn't speak Yiddish? What if the kid connects to English? What's more important? English, Yiddish, or Torah? Torah says if you speak English, you can still go to Gan Eden. Torah says if you speak English, you can still go to Gan Eden. But Torah also says, someone who embarrasses another in public, he doesn't go to Gan Eden. He goes to Gehenom forever. So although it's disturbing to you that we're not keeping the custom of our ancestors to the best of all your likings, and we're not speaking Yiddish, we're speaking English because we're in America,

1:48:38You should know that it may not be ideal, but it's still Torah. Whereas what you're doing, embarrassing another Jew, especially a little kid, by telling him that he's not enough, that he's not good enough because he doesn't speak Yiddish, guess what? You could be murdering this kid right on Shulchan Shabbat. Because now the kid says, oh, if I'm not going to learn Torah and Yiddish, I might as well not learn Torah. I might as well become a goy. That's the calculation of a 10-year-old kid. We've become so enamored and obsessed with certain customs that we forgot the Torah. We've become so enamored and obsessed with money that we forgot the Torah. We forgot what the Torah is. We've become so obsessed and enamored by the goyim that we forgot the Torah. The problems that I'm mentioning to you are problems that we have in the religious world and the non-religious world, in the Hasidic world and the non-Hasidic world. It's everywhere. Everyone simply is only looking at themselves; no one is looking at the community at large. And I promise you, I have people contacting me, crying hysterically, from every community.

1:50:05Every community has intermarriage. Every community has problems with people off the derech. Every community has drug problems. Every community has chillul Shabbat. Every community has major issues. But they're scared to tell their local rabbis, either because their local rabbis are part of the crime itself, by allowing valet parking to a synagogue on Shabbat, Or they're scared that the rabbi, once he hears that their son or daughter went off the derech, he'll put that family, that entire family, in cherem and no one's gonna want to marry the kids. Rabotai, we've made Judaism into something that's all about you. Instead of all about us. We talk about unity, but unity is just the "you." We say unity, but that's only because it starts with you, meaning yourself. The "nity" is for everybody else. Rabbi Chiya was a giant, a giant of giants.

1:51:26Because he cared about other people, he put down the sefer. He put down the sefarim. And he made sure to go help Am Yisrael do teshuva. Because he knew that was his talent. He didn't have millions of dollars like Rebbe. He had the ability to speak. He had the ability to teach. And that's enough. Rebbe HaKadosh had a lot of money. But he also knew a lot of Torah, so he decided that he's also going to do kiruv. Why? Because in his merit, Rebbe was so holy that after Rebbi Chiya died, Rebbe HaKadosh had the merit to see how Rebbi Chiya is being treated in Shamayim. And he saw Rebbi Chiya is the only one who is allowed to go anywhere he wants without any angels telling him what to do. Any of the other tzaddikim that want to visit one of their friends in a different world, they have to have the Malach take them. "Oh, where do you want to go?" "I want to go see Rabbi Akiva." "Okay, Malach takes you to Rabbi Akiva." Another one says, "Where do you want to go?" "I want to go see Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai." "Okay, let me take you there."

1:52:47Different places, different areas close to Hashem, different areas. Rebbi Chiya, no angels. Why? They’ll burn. If they get next to him, they’ll burn. Why? Rebbi Chiya does whatever he wants. He has full control and autonomy over whatever he wants to do. Why? Because Rebbi Chiya helped Am Yisrael do teshuva. When Rabbi HaKadosh saw this, he started crying. He started crying. All the Torah that I learned, Rebbi Chiya has a bigger olam haba than me. My student has a bigger olam haba than me. It's not normal. Rabbi HaKadosh went in the streets, started to look for people to help him do teshuva. Today, it's easy to help people do teshuva. All you got to do is share teshuva. Give a few dollars. Invite a few people. There are people from all over the world, all over the world, that are watching the shiurim. Jews, goyim, people in the process of conversion. I got one guy in Mexico, in Mexico, not Jewish, addicted to the lectures. He's addicted to the lectures.

1:54:12There's a key line: Mexico also has Jewish people, some of them addicted to the lectures; Panama watching the lectures; Australia watching the lectures; Israel watching the lectures. All over the world, people are watching the shiurim. That means the people, the crowd, the public, like it, they just never seen it before. in the beginning, it's like a slap in the face. It's like, whoa, what are you doing? But when you realize that if he didn't slap you in the face, you would have been pretty much sleepwalking for the rest of your life. Then you say, oh, thank you for slapping me. I thought I was religious for 50 years until you slapped me back into reality because his Rosh Yeshiva told him there's no Gehinnom. His Rosh Yeshiva told him there's no punishment. This rasha merusha that I've been arguing with over the last two and a half weeks, Rosh Yeshiva in New York, sends me a message: "Congratulations, you are now at fault for me throwing the kid out of the yeshiva."

1:55:32The kid, I have a few kids that go to his yeshiva. One already left. Two are on the way, b'ezrat Hashem. But he didn't want to wait. He decided to throw one of them out. Why? Because he didn't want to believe that the Rebbe is Mashiach. He didn't want to believe that the Rebbe is God. He didn't want to believe that. So he decided he's going to throw him out. Now, even though technically he's doing the kid a favor by throwing him out, Shows how evil he is. Why? Because in reality, you don't want the kid to be there. He doesn't want to be an idol worshiper like you. No problem. Let him transfer somewhere else. Let him transfer somewhere else. Why? Because the kid now is going to want to go to a different school. And the other schools will ask, "Why do you want to leave?" If he says, "No, I'm transferring because their hashkafa is not according to our tradition," or whatever he says, okay, it's still amicable, different teachings, no problem. And... kid now says in an application, "Okay, reason for leaving: thrown out." That doesn't look good; that requires an explanation. Now, no problem, we'll write him a letter, we'll get involved if we need to. But the point is, this shows you how evil these idol worshippers are. It has nothing to do with Chassidut, it has nothing to do with the Rebbe, it has nothing to do with Lubavitch, or with Chabad, it has to do with Resha'im.

1:56:50The shame is that all they care about is money and control. They use the Rebbe's name as a way to gain control over people, to influence people. While he was a tzaddik, they figured that if you're connected to a tzaddik, you must be a tzaddik. It's as if they know in the business world, if you hang out with rich people, everyone else is going to think you're rich. You'll become rich eventually. So people have the tzaddik's picture on the wall, and they think, "Oh, if you are constantly mentioning the Rebbe, you must be like him. You must follow his teachings." Where are you, and where are his teachings? You know what the Torah says about people that throw Jewish kids out of schools? What kind of punishments they get in Shamayim? There's no end to the Gehinnom he's going to get. No end. Mashiach will come. the resurrection of the dead will happen, and he still will not be let out of Gehinnom. For hurting one little Jewish boy. Needless to say, for being a machti ha'rabim and teaching a bunch of kids idol worship. Telling them to pray to a rabbi that died.

1:57:58The point is, rabotai, kiruv also involves this. You see that there's messianic, elokistim, people that are praying to a rabbi, people that are praying to some false ideology, people that are going against the Torah, you don't speak out, you are part of the crime. You are part of the crime. You attend that shul and you see that the rabbi is teaching people things that are against the Torah, you're part of the crime. Why? It wouldn't happen if you start speaking up. Yeah, but what if I'm the only one? Let you be the only one. You know who was also the only one? Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen. Pinchas saw that Zimri was going against Hashem and he killed him. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen You have a Brit with me. What's the Brit? You're gonna live forever. Become Eliyahu Hanavi. Eliyahu Hanavi is a grandfather. Who's his grandfather? I just said Aharon HaKohen, but it's on the father's side. Who's his grandfather on the mother's side? Yitro. Yitro is his grandfather. Yitro the convert. Yitro the convert.

1:59:23The righteous convert is the grandfather of Pinchas, Eliyahu HaNavi. He made a partnership with who? With Balak. Balak was a king. It says, "Balak ben Tzipor." Balak ben Tzipor. What, you think his father was named Tzipor? No, look at the Rashi over there; it says no. It's just because he was a wizard and he used a bird to do witchcraft. What was really, who was his father? Who was his grandfather? Yitro. Yitro was the grandfather of Balak also. What does the Torah say about Balak? But Yitro was his grandfather, how come he didn't get him a "get out of jail free" card? Because when Balak found out that Yitro is going with the emet, he said, no, no, you do whatever you want to do. I'm going to become a king. I'm going to be a lefty liberal. I'm going to drive on Shabbat. I don't want Torah. I don't want mitzvot. I'm going to live in this world. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you want to live in this world? No problem. You're going to live in this world. You'll even be king for a short period of time before we chop you up into 50 million pieces. You'll feel like you're on top of the world until you're not.

2:00:44What about Pinchas? Pinchas was frowned upon. Pinchas was made fun of. Who are you to take charge over here? Who asked you for anything? Your grandfather, Yitro, he's like an idol worshiper almost. He's a convert. Who even accepted him? It's only because he's related to Moshe. Who spoke to everybody in front of everyone? He spoke to, he says, no, Pinchas. I chose him. He has a brit shalom. He's gonna live forever. He's gonna live forever. Why? Despite his status, despite his lack of favor as far as odds are concerned, he didn't care. He was the only person in the kehillah that was willing to fight for Me, and he's the only reason why the rest of you are alive. Because if it wasn't for Pinchas, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says He was going to destroy everyone. Now, this shows us, Rabotai, that sometimes the numbers don't matter. HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to see where your heart is. Now, we're not going to go over the entire chapter, but for anyone who questions anything that I said, you could simply go to the prophets.

2:02:08You go to the prophet Yechezkel, Ezekiel, chapter 34. Read the entire chapter, along with a little bit of commentary. You'll understand that all I did is simply repeat part of this chapter, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu comes to the prophet and he says to him, Vayidaber Adonai Elai lemor: "Ben Adam, hinave al ro'ei Yisrael." The word of Hashem came to me, Ezekiel says. Son of man, Ben Adam, He calls him. Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to the shepherds, "Thus says the Lord Hashem Elohim." Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have tended themselves. Is it not the flock that the shepherd should be tending? Says all of you leaders, you board of directors, you rabbis, you politicians, you community leaders, instead of tending to my sheep, to my flock, to my nation who doesn't know right or left, who doesn't know all the laws of Shabbat, instead of teaching them the laws of Shabbat, what do you do? You enable them to sin against Me.

2:03:35How'd you enable them? You asked them to give you more money as if it's the only mitzvah in the Torah. Is it not the flock that the shepherds should be tending to? The choicest you eat, the wool you wear, the healthiest you slaughter. But the rest of the flock you do not tend. You rabbis are building big houses. Three-million-dollar houses in Boca Raton for the chief rabbi over there. Tzvi Derasha makes a million and a half dollars a year. Mirvis, God only knows how much money that guy's making. All of these community leaders, whether they're in Beverly Hills or in Gehenom, wherever they are, they're milking it. They're writing books every other day. They're getting fees for every type of speech. Tequila? Doesn't even know halachot Shabbat. Doesn't know halachot Shabbat. But you're coming out with new books. You're coming out with new events. The frail you did not strengthen. The ill you did not cure. The broken you did not bind. The banished you did not retrieve. All those people that were in nidui because they didn't wear tzitzit. All those people that were in nidui, their prayers could not be accepted because they were immodest, because they were against Hashem, because they were violating Shabbat. You didn't bring them back. You didn't retrieve them.

2:05:04For the lost, you didn't search. All the kids that went off the derech, all the people that grew up in a Zionist home, all the people that simply did not even know what it means to be a Jew. You didn't go after them. You didn't help them do teshuva. And even when you went to their college to do kiruv, what kiruv did you do? You had boys and girls' parties; they made more sins just with Jewish people. These organizations make it as if they're doing kiruv. They have trips to Israel, trips to all types of places, trips to Kaf HaKela, trips to all places for what? So that Jewish boys and girls can make sins together. They're proud of it. They put their pictures on the websites, the boys and girls not married, they're hugging each other, rabbis next to them also hugging them. Fundraisers inspire us: a million dollars in 24 hours. For what? A million dollars for what? What, to make more sins? What's the million dollars for? What do you need a million dollars for? You just opened a year ago. What do you need a million dollars for? The kids pay for the trips anyway.

2:06:14What do you need a million dollars for? For your salaries? So it's a non-profit organization. It's a lot of profit for a non-profit. Rather, you subjugated them with force and with rigor. Thus, they became scattered for lack of a shepherd and became food for every beast of the field. They became scattered. All of these people, instead of you bringing them back home to do teshuva, got even more lost after they watched your shiur. They watch your shiur on Torah Anytime, on YouTube, on different channels. They saw a rabbi speaking. Instead of getting closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, they're more confused. They heard one rabbi say you're not allowed to waste seed. Another rabbi says, nah, that's not for this generation. The guy's more confused; he decides to become a Christian.

2:07:18That's what it means they became food for every beast, all these beasts, all these Christian missionaries. Why do you think they're eating up Jewish flesh alive? Because the Jewish people are confused. They don't know what it means to be a Jew. It seems like the Christian people know what they're talking about. They're mentioning verses, same thing all the time, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9. They don't know anything else in the Torah except mistranslating those two verses. But nonetheless, it sounds like they know what they're doing. It sounds like it. My sheep wander on all the mountains and upon the high hills. My sheep have scattered upon the whole face of the earth, but no one seeks and no one searches. And then HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to them, in verse number 10, he says, Thus says the Lord Hashem. Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will seek out My flock from their hand. I will cause them to cease herding sheep, and the shepherds will no longer tend to themselves.

2:08:31Thus, I will rescue My sheep from their mouths, and they will no longer be food for them. He says, "You are the ones that actually made My sheep, My Jewish people, not understand right or left about Me. I'm gonna fight against you." He doesn't say He's gonna fight against the beasts. He's gonna fight against the fakers. And He's gonna prosecute against the fakers because they didn't care enough about anybody but themselves. And He says in verse 17, "Thus says the Lord Hashem, behold, I am judging between lamb and lamb, and the rams and the he-goats." Is it not enough for you that you graze in a good pasture, that you must also trample the rest of your pasture underfoot? He talks to Am Yisrael, saying, all the good that I'm giving you—it's not enough? What I gave you—you're also looking at different religions? You're also looking at different sects, different this, different that? It's not enough what I'm giving you? This is when Hashem is starting to deal...

2:09:54the people themselves, but this is not a one-time event, three times a week. Eventually, he talks about Mashiach ben David in verse number 23. But then, at the end, he says the following in verses 30 and 31: says, "Then they will know that I am Hashem their God, and with them, and that they are My people, the house of Israel, the word of the Lord Hashem. Now you are My sheep, the sheep of My pasture. You are Adam, you are man. I am your God, the word of the Lord Hashem." Now, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, after He sends the Mashiach, and there's a war, and there are a lot of disasters... because he's the one that's forced to get involved. There's not gonna be much free choice left. Simply, all the choices that you would have made already by then, that's your choice. If you picked Hashem by then, you picked Hashem. If you didn't pick Hashem, you're in serious trouble. But what's interesting is that he says in the last verse, that in those days after the Mashiach comes, you will know that I am Hashem. You'll know that I am your God.

2:11:19you are man, and I am your God. And he says that Adam is referring to the Jewish people. If you know Hebrew, you see that both words are spelled identically with the exception of one letter. Adam is Aleph, Dalet, Mem Sofit. Atem is Aleph, Tav, Mem Sofit. Meaning that the two letters, the beginning of the first letter and the last letter of both words, are the same. What's the difference? The middle letter, the Dalet and the Tav. What is Dalet and Tav? Spell out, Dat. Religion. You want to be a man? You want to be part of the army of Israel? It's all based on your religion. You want to be part of the army of Israel? It's all based on the dat. It's all based on how much of a Jew you really are. Now you can say that you're religious and you're keeping Shabbat. But if you're not keeping the mitzvah of kiruv, how much of a Jew are you really? If you're keeping the mitzvot only for you, only for your family,

2:12:48How can you see Hashem's other children get themselves one-way tickets to Gehinom without even knowing it, and you're sitting pretty without a care in the world? How religious are you really? If a person wants to be religious, he has to understand that kiruv is not one of those things that's a suggestion. Now we're going to finish with this story. People didn't know how big the Chafetz Chaim was during his lifetime. Really, the Chafetz Chaim during his lifetime was just known as a tzaddik. It's all grandfather type, prays Tehillim for people. In reality, he was the Gadol HaDor, the giant of giants, and only the people who knew Torah and knew him understood how much of a giant he was. But the rest of the public just thought he was a tzaddik. They didn't know how much of a genius he was, the Mishnah Berurah, the Hilchot Lashon Hara that he wrote. They didn't know how great a man he was. He was just a tzaddik in their eyes. Because he would go from place to place with his caravan with some books and sell the books one at a time.

2:14:00Now, people who bought these books thought he was a worker. They didn't know he was the Gadol HaDor selling the books. They thought he was like the rabbi's helper. They didn't know he was anybody. He cared about Am Yisrael so much that he literally wanted to make sure that people learn his books. Because if one Jew learns one mitzvah of Lashon Hara, he's not going to say Lashon Hara one day. That's going to help his neshama. That's going to make HaKadosh Baruch Hu happy. That's going to make that Jew happy too. So he would go from place to place, community to community. He could go sit down, learn Torah, become Malach Hashem, become like a malach, become an angel. No, no, no, he's gonna go, he wrote the books, no problem, we're gonna go time too, give it to people so they can learn it. Now his grandson, his grandson came to Rav Aharon Kotler and asked the Rav, "My grandfather was a genius. Chafetz Chaim was a genius." How come during his generation, no one knew how much of a genius he was? He wasn't publicized as a genius. He was publicized as a tzaddik. Everybody today knows that he was a genius. There's no secret. Every website has his picture on it. If you don't have the Chafetz Chaim on your website, there's something wrong. If you're selling books, you have to have the Chafetz Chaim somewhere. It's the number one seller in every store. Everybody knows he's a genius. Jews, non-Jews,

2:15:29One of the biggest giants we've had in the last 150 years. So how come during the time that he was alive, no one knew this? Except his talmidim, Rav Wasserman and a few others. Rabbi Aharon Kotler says, I'm sorry, I don't have an answer for you, but I'm going to the Rav of Brisk, the Gadol HaDor. And he knows, he knew your father, he knows. Your grandfather, he knows. So come with me. So the grandson of the Chafetz Chaim and Rabbi Aharon Kotler go to Rav MiBrisk. Rav MiBrisk didn't speak much. He would speak like in verses. Very minimal. Because he knew that Chachamim, the Gra—I’m sorry, Rabbi Chaim Vital—used a verse from Song of Songs, that says there’s a verse in the Torah which serves as proof that you're limited with the words you can use in this world. So, Rav MiBrisk, Rabbi Onkel asked him, how come the Chafetz Chaim wasn't publicized?

2:16:44as a huge Talmid Chacham during his generation. So Rabbi MiBrisk says, a verse from Psalms, a verse from Psalms 145:19, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, meaning, "I will do the will of those who fear Me." So Rabbi Aharon Kotler tells the grandson, He says, "What the Rav MiBrisk is trying to tell you is that your grandfather prayed to HaKadosh Baruch Hu that no one would discover him as a Talmid Chacham. He didn't want to be discovered. And because he feared Hashem, Hashem did what he wanted. He didn't allow anyone to discover him." So then the grandson says, "Okay, so how come he was discovered as a Tzaddik too?" Okay, if he prayed for HaKadosh Baruch Hu not to be discovered as the gadol hador, Talmid Chacham, for different reasons. Okay, fine. Hashem did what he wanted. But how come he was discovered as a tzaddik in his generation? Rabbi Yaron Reuven says, because your grandfather didn't think he was a tzaddik.

2:17:59he didn't pray for it. He didn't pray for Hashem to save him from being discovered as a tzaddik because he didn't think he was a tzaddik. What is he going to pray for? If you're praying for people not to find out you're a tzaddik and you think you're a tzaddik, oh, you got to check yourself. But what made him such a tzaddik? That everyone knew it. What made him such a tzaddik? He cared about Klal Yisrael. He cared about people. He cared about the regular people, the frum people, Am Yisrael. Why? Because he knew HaKadosh Baruch Hu cares, Rabotai. When they asked Rav Shach why we pray to Hashem and say, Rav Shach answered, like I said in the beginning of the shiur, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu simply did not make you a goy. That's why you say the blessing, Baruch Hashem, you didn't make me a goy. And you don't say, Baruch Hashem, that He made me a Jew. You don't say that blessing. You say, thank you, that You didn't make me a goy. Why? Because all Hashem did is make you not a goy. To be a Jew, you have to do that. You have to go to the mikveh, if it's a kosher mikveh. You have to convert if you weren't born a Jew and you want to be a Jew. But most importantly,

2:19:18You have to forget everything that's anti-Hashem. Put it away. Only think about what does Hashem want? What does Hashem want? What does Hashem want? Does He want His Klal Yisrael to, chas v'shalom, continue going against Him, or does He want Klal Yisrael to get closer to Him? Does He want me to wear tzitzit or not wear tzitzit? Does He want me to wear a kippah or not wear a kippah? Eat kosher or not kosher? What does Hashem want? Of course, if He wants you to do it, He also wants all of His other children to do it. If He wants you to be modest, He wants His other daughters to be modest. If He wants you to learn Torah, He wants His other children to learn Torah. So, if you want what He wants, then you're going to also want them to learn Torah. You're going to also want them to do mitzvot. You're also going to want them to be modest. And you're going to start caring about Klal Yisrael. Because that's what makes you a Jew, whether you were born one or not. What makes you a Jew is acting like a Jew by caring about Klal Yisrael, regardless of where they came from. Whether they're converts or not, whether they were born into a Zionist family or not, whether they're part of a Chasidic family or not, off the derech, on the derech, in between drachim, whatever they are, it doesn't make a difference.

2:20:40The point is, Rabotai, it says, "Titen emet l'Yaakov." Yaakov is Am Yisrael. You want to be classified as a Jew in the eyes of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to ask you one question: What did you do for Me? You cannot answer, "I did mitzvot," because those mitzvot are for you. You cannot answer, "Torah," because the Torah is for you. The only thing that you can do for HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as a Jew or a Gentile, is kiruv. is helping Am Yisrael do teshuva. That's the only thing you can do for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Nothing else you can do for Him. You want to do something for HaKadosh Baruch Hu? I promise you, you won't regret it. Not only because Hashem pays in cash, but even more importantly, all of those people's lives that you're going to help change, ...are going to make you the happiest person in the world. Be'ezrat Hashem, this will give us the chizuk that we need, the motivation that we need, to really be Jews, like we're supposed to be. And Be'ezrat Hashem, get the rest of Am Yisrael to join us as well. Baruch Adonai Le'olam. Amen ve’amen.