Daily Chidush:Why are Jews so Special, the Power of Kiruv.

1:21In the Gemara Masechet Yevamot, page 61a, it says, "Atem korem Adam, ve'ein umot ha'olam korem Adam." Hashem says to Am Yisrael, you are called Adam, but none of the other nations are called Adam. So the literal translation of Adam is "person". So why is Hashem referencing Adam? Every time He's referencing Adam in the Torah, He's referencing... the Jewish people but never mentioning that Adam is, you know, the non-Jews. He's every time he's mentioning them as, you know, as goyim and so on. Why? So one time, there was a lawsuit against a Jewish person in the days of Rabbi Meir Shapiro from Lublin, and... They accuse this Jewish person of murdering someone. As usual, they always pin everything on the Jew. And one of the things they used as a case is actually our own Torah. And they said, look, they say that only the Jews are considered a person, whereas the non-Jews are not considered a person. So Rabbi Meir Shapiro came and said, no, no, you're not understanding.

2:46see, the Jewish people are considered as one group because we're all considered as one neshama, all considered as one person. When one of us is in trouble, we're all affected. So, for example, in the case that we're dealing with now, you're trying this one person, but the reality of it is that you're trying all of us. You're viewing the actions of one individual as representative of the entire community. You know, if this person is a murderer, then maybe all of the Jewish people are considered murderers. If he's a thief, then all of the Jewish people are labeled as thieves, and so on and so forth. And that's really the case across the board. If you look at the world today, if one Jewish person, especially if he's religious, does something bad, the world often views the entire nation as culpable. That's just the reality, and it forms the foundation of anti-Semitism. But Rav Shapiro was saying, see, This is something unique to the nation of Israel. It's not found anywhere else. Because if you see one Russian guy doing something bad, no one thinks anything bad about a French guy. No one thinks anything bad about an American guy or so on. Each one of the nations is independent of itself. Jewish people are one. Even if the non-Jews have the same religion—whether a Russian Christian, a French Christian, or anybody else—they're not viewed as one people. So what Hashem is telling us is that we have to understand that we are one nation.

3:52Even if the non-Jews have the same religion, whether they are Russian Christians or French Christians, or anybody else, they are not viewed as one people. So, when Hashem is telling us that we have to understand that we are one nation, it is so much so that the Rambam said that Hashem put Himself into the Torah to the point of... where the letters, each one of the letters of the Hebrew, the Lashon Kodesh, the holy language, each one of the letters is actually one of His names. And we see this in the word Yehudi, Jew. How so? Not only do we see that there are secrets inside the letters themselves, but actually inside the words themselves as well, specifically when it's referencing Jewish people, because that's who the Torah was given to. Now, Yehudi is Yud, Heh, Vav, Dalet, Yud. Daled Yud. Now, if you notice, the Daled, the fourth letter, looks like a Reish, looks like the letter Reish, except it has a little extra line on the right side. Now, if you take that extra line out, and you actually put it under the Reish, under the Daled, it creates a Hei, the letter Hei. And then the word Yehudi.

5:17You have something beautiful here, that Hashem is connected to the Jewish people so much so that He's in the actual name. There was a Rabbi from Lubavitch, Rabbi Zecher Tzaddik Livracha, who said that... Somebody told him, "Listen, you know, I'm trying to help this Jew do teshuva, but I'm scared. Maybe I'm going to turn him off. Maybe I'm going to offend him by telling him that violating Shabbat is a big sin. Maybe I'm going to offend him by telling him that eating non-kosher is making him spiritually stupefied, as we learned in last week's parasha. Don't read it as you are impure." Read it as you are stupefied. Meaning that when we eat non-kosher food, we become spiritually insensitive. This doesn't mean that we can't do math problems or science problems or anything like that. It just means that when it comes to connecting to Hashem, it becomes virtually impossible to truly connect to Hashem on a deep level without kosher food. So, the Lubavitcher Rebbe said, okay, well listen, what if you had a roommate...

6:41And this roommate came after a very long day of work and he told you, "Listen, I'm going to sleep right now. I don't care who calls. I don't care who writes. I don't care who does anything. I'm going to sleep. Do not wake me up under any condition." You're thinking, "Who's this guy with his groiseh, with his anger right now and his bad mood? Who wants to deal with him? I'm leaving." So, you know, you go out. You're going to get a coffee. And right when you leave the apartment you get to the bottom. You should notice that the house has for Shalom. But the building is starting to go on fire. Now if you go back inside to wake him up, is he gonna be angry at you that you woke him up, saying, "Hey, how dare you wake me up? I specifically told you not to wake me up. I'm sleeping." Is he gonna be angry, or is he gonna realize that you waking him up saved his life? leave the apartment and get to the bottom. You should notice that the house has a problem with shalom (peace). But, the building is starting to go on fire. Now, if you go back inside to wake him up, is he going to be angry at you for waking him up, saying, "Hey, how dare you wake me up? I specifically told you not to wake me up. I'm sleeping." Is he going to be angry, or is he going to realize that you waking him up saved his life? Same concept when it comes to teshuva. The same concept applies to bringing someone back to Hashem because, in reality, when you're not connected to Hashem, you're not connected to reality. You're not connected to the truth. You're sleeping.

7:53Because when someone says they believe in Hashem, but in essence they are constantly taking actions against Hashem and are making themselves an enemy of Hashem by violating Shabbat, violating Niddah, and violating all of these mitzvot that are in the Torah, obviously this person is sleeping. They have no idea what they're doing. Because if you really believe in the same Hashem, the Hashem that's in the Torah, Then under no condition whatsoever should we ever even commit one sin intentionally, let alone many sins. Obviously, the Rabbi says that he's obviously sleeping. So if you wake him up, when he wakes up, he's going to thank you. He's going to hug you. He's going to love you. Even though initially, he'll be shocked and maybe upset for the first few seconds because, hey, you just woke him up. But then, when he smells the smoke and he realizes it's time to get out, it's time to wake up, it's time to save his life, he's going to be very, very happy. The same concept applies to Teshuva. that it's time to get out, it's time to wake up, it's time to save our lives, He's going to be very, very happy. The same concept applies when it comes to Teshuva. Now, joining these special people is what we see today. And one of the things that we also see about the Jewish people is that in Sefer Devarim, Deuteronomy 32:9, it says, "For Hashem's portion is His people."

9:16Now, if you look at the numerical value of the total of all of those letters, you know, each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has an actual value, Aleph has a value of 1, Bet has a value of 2, and so on and so forth, the total value of each one of those letters is 310. Okay, 310. Another interesting thing is the word Zikui HaRabim. which is helping people do tshuva, the value of all of those letters is also 310. Zikui is 53, u'leharabim is 257. Total value, 310. So in essence, what Hashem is telling you is that His people are extraordinarily important to Him, and the ones that are bringing them back are also extraordinarily important to Him. Now, what's the significance of another significance of this 310 is that Hashem is also telling us that a righteous person who actually does teshuva, and the purpose, in essence, of all of creation, is for all of us to do teshuva, for all of us to reach a point where we're getting to Gan Eden and Olam Haba. Each righteous person is given 310 worlds. So when each of us is, you know,

10:42excited about the next car we're going to buy, the next house we're going to buy, or the next, I don't know, iPad we're going to buy. The reality of it is that if we just work a little harder at connecting to Hashem, We have much, much more waiting for us. So much so that anyone that's involved with Zikui HaRabim, and I'm not just talking to you as a speaker; I'm talking to you just like you, because before I started speaking, Baruch Hashem, we were trying to benefit the public in a bunch of other ways: sending CDs to people, putting links on Facebook and YouTube and Twitter, and sending books, just like Gabi was doing. and are still doing, Baruch Hashem. So benefiting the public and getting people in front of the truth to hopefully get them to see the truth and wake up to it is such an extraordinary mitzvah that the Zohar says that if people really knew the value of helping just one person do teshuvah, they would leave everything that they have

11:49And start running in the streets looking for a secular person to help them do teshuva. They would just go run crazy looking for anyone to do teshuva. So whether it's somebody that is religious and knows someone that's not religious, or someone that's in the process of doing teshuva and knows somebody else that's completely off, or even someone that's secular that still hasn't beaten their yetzer hara and is having a hard time learning Torah 15 minutes a day or an hour a day or anything, they want Hashem's help. This is your ticket. This is your ticket to getting Hashem's assistance. Even if you're not Jewish right now and you're in the process of converting, or you're just in the process of becoming a righteous Noachide, this is your ticket to becoming not only righteous with Hashem but also getting divine assistance for everything that you're doing. Because Hashem is telling us here that when you are interested and careful,

12:50and caring about my people, then you become one of my stars. When you become one of my stars, just like I align the stars every day in the right places, I'm going to align your life in a very special place. The Midrash says on, you know, on Tehillim 116, that Hashem says to the tzaddikim regarding also Yirmiyahu 15:19, is that I am the Creator of the world, and bring back the dead, and you're the same. Who is he talking about? He's not talking about just the tzaddikim, the righteous individuals who are knowledgeable and learned. He's specifically talking here about the people that are bringing back others to Judaism, bringing people back to Hashem. He's, in essence, telling them that by you caring for My children... to such an extent that you care enough to give them a CD, you care enough to put a link on Facebook, you care enough to press like on YouTube, you care enough to give somebody a book, you care enough to even tell somebody, hey, by the way, you know, Shabbat is what makes you Jewish. It's the foundation of Judaism. Without it, you're not even considered Jewish, chas v'shalom. Telling someone the truth

14:15You become special. How special? Hashem says, you and I are the same. What's the meaning of "the same"? Obviously, we can't create anything, but it actually says in the Gemara, in Masechet Avodah Zarah, also in Sanhedrin, I think it's page 90, that when someone helps somebody do teshuva, it's as if they created them. This is one part of it. The other part of it is that Hashem is telling us here that when you help somebody do teshuva, the traditional decrees that I pass on, whether they're good or bad, I will give you the right to select. How so? If there's a bad decree, chas v'shalom, on someone that you care for, in shamayim, they made a sin, chas v'shalom, and are supposed to get a very big punishment, death penalty, chas v'shalom, If you are putting the links on YouTube, putting the links on Facebook, giving discs, giving mussar to people, bringing them to shiurim Torah, doing everything you can with the extra time you have to get people to listen to the truth, to get people in front of the truth so, be'ezrat Hashem, they come back to Hashem and have a meaningful life, you, my friend, can override that decree. Your prayer becomes so powerful.

15:36That Hashem is telling you that if you pray hard enough and seriously enough, I can change a decree just for you. That's what it means. You'll be like My mouth. So, why is all of this so significant? This goes back to the beginning because the Jew is so significant to the point where the name of Hashem is inside the word Jew, inside the word Yehudi. where each one of them is the only one that's called Adam in the entire Torah, you see that we're the chosen people, you see that we're special to Him. Of course, Hashem is going to want His other special ones to be collected and brought back. Just like if a father lost a son and you brought him back, how grateful do you think he would be? especially if that son or daughter has been gone for many, many years. So B'ezrat Hashem, this will give us a little bit of perspective on the value of a Jew, why people are, you know, doing everything they can and literally sacrificing their entire lives just to join the Jewish people. And last but not least, what we can do about it as far as not only helping our brothers and sisters come back to Hashem and us ourselves coming back to Hashem.

17:03But most importantly, get an idea from the Torah of how to get the extra help that we need, the prayers that we have, answered. Do kiruv, my friends. You don't need to be a public speaker. You just need to press like, post shiurim, send on WhatsApp, do all of those things. And of course, if you can speak, obviously the more the better. But anything you can do, any support you can give to that, makes you very, very special. And in Torah, they call that a star. Chazakim u'Baruchim. Thank you for learning with me. And Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll talk soon.