Do Children Get Punished For Parent's Secular Environment? (5 minutes)

1:05Inside you is a piece of Hashem, meaning, there's no such thing as a person who doesn't have a conscience. It's no such thing. You may have evil intentions, you may have desires you can't overcome, but nonetheless, everyone has a conscience. Everyone knows the truth. Inside us, we all know whether it's right or wrong. Everyone knows that no one in their right mind thinks that murder is a good thing to do. You don't need the Torah for that. No one in their right mind thinks that stealing is permissible. "A good character trait is a good sign of a positive person, of someone that's honest. No one is born thinking otherwise; you don't need the Torah for that. So Hashem told us, 'I put a piece of Myself inside you to ensure that you have this conscience.' The reason why is because even if you see your parents sinning, you'll know it's wrong. So, after 120 years, you won't be able to go up to Shamayim and claim..." And say, hey, my father was a sinner, so I continued his ways. My mother was a sinner, so I continued her ways. There's no such thing. There's no such excuse. And the reason why is because if you look at some of the major sages, some of the major personalities in our Torah, they didn't exactly come from the greatest families. If this excuse would have been a good excuse in Shamayim, then Terach,

2:27There would have been viewed as an idol worshiper. He would have been seen as a good father. But in reality, he was an idol worshiper until he did Teshuvah. Until he did Teshuvah, he was an idol worshiper. But nonetheless, Avraham Avinu could have used the excuse and said, "Listen, my father is not only an idol worshiper; he's the Walmart of idol worship. He sells all the idols. So I have an excuse. Why do I need to become monotheistic?" He didn't use that excuse. Another example is that there was a person. His brother was a giant, a giant in righteousness. His father was a great tzaddik, an even greater giant. His grandfather was an even bigger giant. But, regarding Esav, there's a verse in the Torah that says, "Esav saneti," meaning, "Esav I hate." His name was Esav, and God specifically says, "Him I hate." What do you mean? Pharaoh killed Jews, killed Am Yisrael. It doesn't say He hates them. Nebuchadnezzar killed millions. It doesn't say He hates them. A lot of people were wicked. It doesn't say He hates them. But Esav, I hate him. Why is Esav worse than Nebuchadnezzar, worse than Pharaoh, worse than anyone in history? Why? Because Esav knew the truth.

3:42Esav knew his brother was a tzaddik, Yaakov. His father, Yitzchak, also a tzaddik. His grandfather, Avraham, gave him all the reasons in the world to do good, but he still chose otherwise. The fact that he knew and still didn't do, Hashem says "Esav saneti." That's why Hashem only allowed his head to be buried in Me'arat HaMachpelah and not the rest of his body. Because his head knew Torah, but his body just didn't do it. And for that, my friends, we need to understand that when we go up to Shamayim, there's no excuses. There's no excuses because we have both arguments in the Torah. Ones that had bad parents and ones that had good parents. In both cases, you have the opposite happening. Terach wasn't exactly the best, but his son was Avraham. Why? Avraham had a conscience and he realized the truth is Hashem Yitbarach. I'm sticking to Him. But you're going to go on fire. Doesn't matter. You're going to go on fire. Doesn't matter. You're going to go on fire. Doesn't matter. I'm going with the truth. Why? My conscience tells me that's what I have to do. That's the emet. I'm sticking to it. Esav, my father is a tzaddik. He's a rabbi. My grandfather is a rabbi. Everybody's father is a rabbi. Okay, what about you? He's in Gan Eden. What about you? No, but my father. Your father is not going to help you. Your grandfather is not going to help you.

5:00The only thing I can help you with is whether you are going to be yourself or you're going to be Yaakov? That's your choice. There's no shame; we all choose to be like Yaakov.