Donation Fraud, Bad Rabbis, Unmotivated Frum, Stolen Lulav, Agunot LAST CHANCE- STUMP THE RABBI (21)

0:14We're back in Sunny Isles. We're doing our series on "Stump the Rabbi." Hopefully, you guys have some questions today. We'll have the answers. The shiur will be for a refuah shlema for Avi Mori, David ben Esriah, Doris bat Jorah, Levana bat Sara, Elisheva Chaya bat Sara, Yochevet bat Patya, Esther bat Zipora, also le'iluy nishmat Eliyahu ben Frecha, and all of our Mitzrayim b'ezrat Hashem have refuat ha'shemah, refuat ha'nefesh, and refuat ha'guf. David ben Esriah, Doris bat Jorah, Levana bat Sara, Elisheva Chaya bat Sara, Yochevet bat Patya, Esther bat Zipora, also le'iluy nishmat Eliyahu ben Frecha, and all of our Mitzrayim, b'ezrat Hashem, have refuat ha'shemah, refuat ha'nefesh, and refuat ha'guf. So today, b'ezrat Hashem, we're going to go over some questions. As a side note for anyone who doesn't know, our website is beezrathashem.org. B-E-E-Z-R-A-T-H-A-S-H-E-M dot org. Baruch Hashem, all of our shiurim are on that website. You could also go on...

1:26iTunes and also on Google, and download the Bezrat Hashem app. If you don't want to see all the filth of the internet and you want to go straight to Torah, you can just download the app. Baruch Hashem, it's a fantastic app and there's an update coming up very soon. And Bezrat Hashem, so the app is Bezrat Hashem, it's called Bezrat Hashem app. And the website is bezrathashem.org. The reason I'm mentioning this is because a lot of people are asking me questions that, I don't know, I guess, I assume people know, but apparently they don't. Which is where to donate. People ask where to donate. Well, actually, people ask me two types of questions about donations. Most of the time, they ask me if they should donate to somebody else. That's most of the time because that's my special tikkun in the world, to deal with foolish people. You go to someone who dedicates his life to the world for free, and you ask him, after taking everything for free, could I donate to somebody else? That's my tikkun in the world. This is what I deal with all day. You'd be surprised how many people ask me this question. I don't get mad; I just feel sorry for people because, I don't know, you figure, Hashem put a brain in your head, and you don't know how to use it.

2:44A meskin guy tells me he wants to start a community. He's asking if I want to come. I want to go start a community; two people already asked me in the last month if I want to go start a community. So, one of them asked me, "Do you want to start a community?" I said, "Okay, what are you offering for entertainment purposes?" And he said, "I'll provide a place." I said, "What are you, it's a building? You're going to provide a building?" "No, no, no." I said, "You're going to buy a building?" "No." "You're going to rent a building?" "No." "Salary?" "No." "What are you providing?" "I'll provide a place." "What, your kitchen to do shiurim?" "Yeah, you can figure out, you can do something. I'll start a community." This is what I deal with. This is what I deal with, all the guys. It's mighty cool in the world. I thought Wall Street was hard. uh, so anyway, that's 90% of the questions, if you're allowed to donate to somebody else.

3:49Now, for years, I, even myself, sometimes take money and donate to other causes. If I see it's a worthy cause, or I'll promote somebody else's campaign. If, let's say, someone's sick and I know them or something like that, I'll tell people to donate to other things because, again, sometimes it's a good thing to donate to specific causes. Most likely, I will never do it again. And the reason why is because a couple of them have gone wrong. People that seemed trustworthy ended up becoming not so trustworthy. So from now on, the answer is, for anyone who's asking me where you should donate, Be'ezrat Hashem dot org. That's the only place that I can trust, and the reason why is because I'm in it. And the reason why is because a couple of them have gone wrong. People that seemed trustworthy ended up becoming not so trustworthy. So from now on, the answer is, for anyone who's asking me where you should donate, Be'ezrat Hashem dot org. That's the only place that I can trust, and the reason why is because I'm in it. Other organizations, you have to ask somebody else. Don't ask me if you could donate to a kollel or to a yeshiva or to some sick person. I don't know. It's just that people are not trustworthy, unfortunately. There are a lot of fake campaigns out there. There are a lot of people that are asking for money for absolutely no reason. They have money but they want more, or they are literally just false campaigns.

5:06So I can't help you with that anymore. You want to donate; it's at your risk. As far as what we do, if people don't realize what we do by now, I also can't help you. So as far as the few people that do donate, you can donate to BeEzratHashem.org. Further, in regards to some of the things that are coming up soon, as I said, there's going to be a new version, a new edition of the app. It's coming out very soon. We'll also have a couple of short films coming up. Hopefully, in the next few days, we'll have one released. And then the big movie. The big movie that we've been working on for the last year and a half. How long has it been, Sonny? and a half. Movie year and a half. Year and a half already we're working on this movie, and it'll come out very soon. We're working on getting it to have some subtitles also—Spanish, Hebrew, maybe something else. We'll see. So the movie is gonna be a big thing. I hope it's gonna help a lot of people.

6:19and also add more people to the list of enemies because that's usually what happens—the more success you have, the more enemies you have, especially in the Torah world. In business, people always go after each other because they are jealous. But you figure, okay, he wants his money, he wants his money; they're both fighting for the same client. That makes sense, and In the Torah world, it doesn't really make sense. And the reason why is because you both are supposed to be Jewish, follow the law, which is that all of Am Yisrael are supposed to love each other. If you're both rabbis, why should you be enemies? Shouldn't you both be best friends in order to help Am Yisrael? Theoretically, rabotai, that's the way it's supposed to work. Unfortunately, it's not. And... For the last five years, I've told people that, you know, people always ask me, "How come you always talk about other rabbis not being good, doing bad things in Russia, doing bad things in Los Angeles, doing bad things here and there?" How come? There are two reasons for that. Number one, nobody else talks about it. And that makes the problem worse than what it is. And the reason why is because when there's a cancer and you ignore it,

7:38continues to grow, and eventually, it becomes fatal. If you catch the cancer right away, you could save yourself a lot of headache, a lot of pain, and even your life. But if you just ignore it and pretend, "No, no, it's just a headache," when it's actually a tiny little tumor, it's going to get bigger. No, no, it's not going to go away. This is a special tikkun today. Give me the sefer. No, we're just not going to do it. We're just going to do it online. I'm not going to do it. So, I don't have the patience, to be honest with you. The people that want to see the lectures live, you have to attend. If there are any issues with the cameras and all that stuff, it’s ahead of you enough. I don't have the patience. Don't complain about the volume. Don't complain about the vision.

9:05it is hard as it is. You want to see it live, attend. Sorry, it's just the way it is. As far as the people that are doing a lot of things wrong in the world, the problem is that no one has been saying anything for a very long time. In the last 25 years, we've had major changes, so much so that even the Gedolim today simply powerless. Even the people that are the lamdei Torah are powerless. Why? Because there is always somebody else to contradict them, and no one really wants to listen to one gadol. I was telling somebody on the way here that even though you have a rabbi like yourself, you have Rav Chaim Kanievsky, you have a few gedolei Torah. But it doesn't matter why. If one of them says something and the people don't like it, they just won't listen. I'm not talking about the non-religious people. The non-religious people, it's a given already. Non-religious people right now are trying to, many of them are trying to pretty much make Israel into California. They're trying to pretty much remove religion from Eretz Yisrael right now.

10:30trying to remove the Rabbanut, remove the law that marriage has to go to the Rabbanut, have Reform conversion, all types of garbage. So, this, Rabotai, is a disaster. This is a disaster. But the bigger disaster is that the religious world is at fault. It's not the secular world that's at fault, it's the religious world that's at fault. Why? If the religious world were united, then there would be many more running the Israeli government. They would give more votes to the Israeli parties. Instead of creating new parties, new political parties run by different religious people, there would be one religious party, Shas. whichever one, there'd be one religious party. Everybody would be in that one religious party. More people would give it power; they would control the house in Israel. But instead, everybody wants their own rabbi. Everybody wants their own shita. Everybody wants their own thing, and what ends up happening? Everybody loses. So no one has enough power. They're all weak, and little by little, they're getting thrown out. But that's the religious people's fault. It's not the secular people's fault here. We can't blame them. Why?

11:44We're not united. One big rabbi says something, and someone else says, "I have a different big rabbi." Who? "I'll find somebody." He says something else. Gedolim came out and signed a statement a few years ago already. Two years ago, it's been. They signed outright saying you're not allowed to wear a wig. If you're a Jew, you're not allowed to wear a wig. Why? It's overwhelming evidence that all of the real hair wigs today are coming from India. From idolatry. Gedolim. People say, no, no, some other rabbi said something else. Who? He died. So obviously, he didn't say anything about today, because this is today alive. No, but he would have said it if he was alive. Now, this sounds humorous, right? 15 years ago. Just to show you how in your own lifetimes, even the youngest person here would understand. 15 years ago, Rav Elyashiv said you're not allowed to wear wigs because they're coming from India. The same exact thing was discovered for the first time. Almost 1 million Jewish women burned their wigs the next day.

12:53Nobody wore wigs. Everybody was scared to death. Why? Rav Elyashiv said, wigs are not allowed, wigs are not allowed. Husbands came to the house, "Honey, where's your wig? Where's your wig?" They started taking it out. People were panicking. They had bonfires in Brooklyn, in Lakewood, in Eretz Yisrael, all over the place. Why? Rav Elyashiv said, no wigs, that's it, no wigs. No one said, "Oh yeah, but my rabbi said something else." There is no "my rabbi." What? The Gadol HaDor said no, no. That's the way it's been for 3,300 years, until we got to today. Today, because we have a lack of unity and our Gedolim are getting smaller and smaller, meaning Rav Elyashiv, Alav HaShalom, already left the world. Rav Ovadia left the world. We are a Dor SheYetomim. We are an orphan nation. We don't have anything. And even if somebody that's big, you have Rav Chaim Kanievsky saying something, it's like, yeah, Rav Kanievsky, he's not my Rav. What do you mean he's not your Rav? He's the biggest rabbi in the world. Yeah, no, no, I'm Sephardic. Okay, Rav Mazuz says the same thing. No, but I don't really agree with Rav Mazuz. What do you mean? Who do you agree with then? My local rabbi. Your local rabbi is 25 years old. What do you mean your local rabbi? No, but I like him. He's on YouTube.

14:10People don't know what a talmid chacham is. People don't know what da'at Torah is. But this, rabotai ikarim, is the religious world's problem. So now, the biggest problem is that even the religious people are starting to suffer from secularism. with their own kids in this generation, every bayit, every bayit almost, every religious house almost, has somebody going off the derech. It doesn't matter if they went to the best yeshiva, the worst yeshiva, every bayit, every house, has a kid, two, three, falling off. They're not interested in being religious anymore. What happened? You believed in Hashem yesterday, today you don't believe? Why did you go away? You went on vacation? Secularism is affecting everyone. How? Why? It all starts with weak leadership. When the leader, when the local rabbi from Chabad, from Breslov, from your Modern Orthodox shul, in Boca Raton and other places, is telling you that Hashem loves you no matter what, and you could spend your time on a Sunday instead of learning Torah, you could spend it watching football. It's just as good. Learn Torah at halftime.

15:35When that's what happens, Rabotai, and the rabbi becomes your friend and he starts playing basketball with you on Shabbat, guess what? It's only a matter of time before you're not interested in Hashem. Now, last night we mentioned the Mesirat Nefesh of Avraham Avinu, the Mesirat Nefesh of Moshe Rabbeinu, we mentioned it. How if they didn't come up and step up to the plate and sacrifice their life, we wouldn't be here today. But there's something interesting that the Torah says: Avraham Avinu rode on a donkey that was created bein hashmashot. Those unique things that were created on Friday at the end of the day, right before Shabbat. It's a short period of time called bein hashmashot, unique creations. The staff of Moshe Rabbeinu, was created during this time. The Midrash Me'am Loez says it was a staff that was similar to ruby stone, beautiful, weighed 674 pounds, ten amot, which is almost 20 feet. It's like a tree. Moshe Rabbeinu was walking around with a regular walking stick because he was big also.

17:03This was created during bein hashmashot. This donkey was created bein hashmashot. The mouth of the donkey of Bilam that spoke was created bein hashmashot. The name of Mashiach was decided bein hashmashot. You need creations. So this donkey, this special donkey that Avraham Avinu rode, was created then. Later on, Moshe Rabbeinu rode the same donkey. ...donkey gets Social Security and everything, and they say that Mashiach ben David is gonna ride the same donkey. This donkey is 6,000 years old. Does anybody actually think it's a real donkey waiting? Is it a donkey that's walking around waiting for Mashiach? The word "danki" Rabotai in Hebrew is "chamo." "Chamo" comes from the word "chomer." "Chomer" means material, physicality, materialism. The reason why HaKadosh Baruch Hu picked Avraham Avinu is because Avraham Avinu completely disconnected from all materialism.

18:28for the sake of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He sacrificed his life by jumping into the fire time and time again throughout his entire life for the sake of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, leave your father's house, go to a place, no problem, Hashem, I'm going. Over here it's comfortable, he's got money, he's got everything, go somewhere else, go. No problem. Take your son, sacrifice him, no problem. Whatever it is, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, no problem. You command it, I do. Avraham Avinu completely canceled out his own opinion. Moshe Rabbeinu completely canceled out his own opinion. It's not a matter of whether I want to go or I don't want to go. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says yes, that's what I do. And Mashiach ben David, completely disconnected from materialism as well. Meaning, from here we learn that HaKadosh Baruch Hu provided us materialism, whether it's money, cars, houses, jewelry, computers, food, whatever it is, for a specific, unique purpose. If you use your material to connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it's as if you canceled it out.

19:55Because we see that Avraham was very, very rich. He had many, many animals. He was the richest man in the land. It says, "Bakol." What does it mean, "Bakol"? He had money, he had fame, he had fortune, he had everything. So it's not like he had no money. Moshe Rabbeinu, also rich. Billionaire, so it's not that they were poor, that they removed themselves from materialism, and they were just homeless people collecting change just so they could eat. No, they were filthy rich as far as our standards are concerned. But they were removed from the materialism, meaning everything that they had, they used it for kedusha. This table, I'm going to put a kiddush on it; this cup, I'll drink wine right after I do bracha; this room, I'll learn in this room. Whatever they had, they would ask, "How can I use this to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu?" By using it to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you're actually making it holy, which is removing the materialism from the world. Why? Because this is no longer material anymore. This is holy. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, if you use the material for holy reasons to connect to Me, it's as if you're canceling it out.

21:09and you're reaching closer and closer to Me and you're reaching your own personal obligation in the world. If you don't use it for holiness, if the only reason you bought a car is so you could show off to your friends and strangers, if the only reason you are doing an extension to your house or remodeling your house or you move to a certain neighborhood is so you could tell people where you live and show them your kitchen and give the tour, then obviously this is not exactly holy. If the only reason why you work so much is to make more money so you can go on more vacations that are away from the Beit Midrash, that are away from holiness, then obviously your work, there's nothing holy about it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, if you do not use materialism for a holy purpose, you're going to get hurt by it. It becomes poison. If you use the material that I give you—the house, the car, the watch, the ring, the phone, the computer—to connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it's as if you've canceled it out altogether. It's no longer material. But if you just focus on enjoying the moment and showing off, it's actually hurting. One of the prime examples that we see is Bilaam HaRasha. Bilaam HaRasha had all the material in the world you could possibly ask for.

22:40But Bilam HaRasha has no share in the World to Come. Why? He did not make anything holy. So from here we see, Rabotai, that all of us spend our money on different things. We are all allowed to have nice things. You are allowed to have a nice house, a nice car, a nice watch, a nice this, a nice that. But it has to be proportionate to how many nice mitzvot you have. What else are you doing with the money? How else are you using this car? Are you only using this car to show off, or are you using this car to come to shiur Torah also? Are you using this money that you make from the job just to buy new stuff and to make your stomach a little bit bigger, like you're going to be looking pregnant soon? Or are you using it to publicize Torah, get Am Yisrael to do teshuva? Now the interesting thing is that the very same wicked rabbis that we talked about momentarily, just a few moments ago, always like to talk about the mitzvah of tzedakah. They love to talk about the mitzvah of tzedakah. I tell you, if you give, it will save your next life. You know, it says that tzedakah will save you from death. They know all the pesukim, all the sources in the world of why giving tzedakah is good. But I'm going to give you a chiddush. It's worth a million dollars.

24:05You can take it for payments though, not down payment. Except Noach—Noach, haven't seen him for a while. New one shot only. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says a person that gives tzedakah to the wrong place, meaning he gives tzedakah to a place that's not holy, picked the wrong rabbi. He picked the wrong organization. The organization spreads kefirah, spreads atheism, spreads nonsense, heresy. That's like wasting seed. A person gives money, took money, took myself... Homage 20%. He wants to be a tzaddik. Why? It says myself, it is a shell. But homage for sure, you're rich in your own lifetime. You give 20% of your money for tzedakah. Because those who work, who says you're gonna be for sure rich in this lifetime? So the guy wants to be a tzaddik, wants to be rich too, says I'm gonna take, I make a hundred thousand, twenty thousand from the gross goes to the local Kollel, twenty thousand goes to...

25:08local rabbi, local this, or one of the big organizations. If that organization does not spread the truth that helps Am Yisrael do teshuva, Rabbi Nachman MiBreslov says it's the same exact thing as if you just wasted seed. Why? Hashem Yerachem Aleinu, it's not like as if we're not doing it enough. Why? He said, what happens when you waste seed? Hashem Yerachem, what happens? a person takes the shefa, the good that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave him, and wastes it. Hashem gave him the power to bring life to the world. Imagine, one seed can bring an endless amount of neshamot. One neshama, let's say you have one kid, that kid's gonna have another kid, another two kids, three kids, four kids, before you know it, you're gonna be like Rav Elyashiv. By the time he left this world, he had one thousand grandkids. One thousand grandkids is how he left the world. One seed, one thousand grandkids. So what happens when a person wastes seed? He takes the shefa, the goodness that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave, and he wastes it. When a person gives tzedakah to the wrong place that spreads kefirah, anti-Torah nonsense, opposite of Torah, it spreads weakness.

26:33Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says, you yourself have a very serious problem. Why? Even your tzedakah is not a mitzvah, it's a sin. A big one. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, but He never said be stupid. You have to double-check. Why am I giving this place tzedakah? What are the results that they have? What do they generate? Other than having a building with an air conditioner that works really well, what else do they produce? Does anybody do teshuva? I've gone to the shul five years, ten years. Have I ever seen anybody do teshuva or they came animals, they stayed animals, or maybe they got even worse? Are all the women becoming more and more modest with each year that their husbands go to the shul, or do they stay the same? Are the husbands becoming more and more religious, or do they stay the same? They came with a quarter kippah, they left without a kippah even. Anyone changing from this community, this organization? Okay, you see their commercials everywhere, but is anyone actually changing relative to the numbers? People say, "Yeah, but you know how many people did you bring in to Chabad?" because we mentioned something about the fakers in Chabad. There are many of them. There are some good ones and some bad ones, and I said that.

27:55Yeah, but Chabad does a lot of good. Yes, some Chabad centers do a lot of good. But proportional to how much Chabad has, it's as if they do nothing. With a hundred million dollars a month, you should make all of Am Yisrael ba'alei teshuvah in one year. A hundred million dollars a month, in one year you should make all of Am Yisrael ba'alei teshuvah. That's the budget for Chabad. Average Chabad does not exactly have everybody as ba'alei teshuvah. Average Chabad doesn't even have the average minyan even keeping Shabbat. Why? Because the average Chabad hates the truth. Like I said, it's not most. It's just a lot. And the number is growing. And one of the reasons is because they've been leaderless for almost 30 years. Any organization where it's a salt, Words that wait in salt need to have a leader. When you don't have a leader, what do you expect? People go crazy. They start mentioning things in the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the holy Lubavitcher Rebbe. They mention things in his name he never said. I feel bad for him that this is what's going on. But that's the truth. That's the truth, Rabotai. So,

29:22A lot of communities are building new buildings, new yeshivot, new batei knesset, but you're not seeing anywhere nearly as much ba'alei teshuva and people becoming more frum. In fact, you're seeing the opposite. Just on the way here, just on the way here, I got a text message from a student with a picture of some well-known rabbi at a Formula One race, you know, the race cars, with a bunch of Buddhists. Christians and pastors and so on, meaning it was like a religious meeting at a Formula One race. He's asking me, "Can I still listen to this rabbi or is he a clown? I've become the rabbi police." I don't even have to answer that. I mean, if you think that you should listen to divrei Torah from somebody that goes to Formula One races with an idol worshiper, then you need more help than I can help you with. But this is what's happening, rabotai. So, the reason why we speak against the falsehood is, like I said, number one, nobody else is doing it. With the exception of me and Rav Mizrachi, nobody else wants to talk about it. Why? It's the inconvenient truth that's very, very uncomfortable. But like I said, you have to. Because if you let the cancer grow, it becomes fatal eventually. And that's what's happening now.

30:48Now we've gone to the point where we have certain communities, you pretty much have to write them off like Sodom. You can't do anything with them. It's too late. Too late. They let things go too far, you can't help them. You cannot go into a Reform shul and tell them, maybe you guys want to do teshuva. It's too late. They're giving bar mitzvahs to dogs. You can go on YouTube, bar mitzvahs for a dog, you'll see a bunch of them. Reform Jews giving bar mitzvahs, putting tefillin on a dog, $2,000 tefillin on a dog. Putting a kippah on a dog. All of these people that are not interested in nechama, there's nothing to do to help them. And unfortunately, one of the main things that they all do is they speak against the truth. How do I know? From all of your faces.

31:49ones here, the ones that are no longer here, and the thousands and thousands of you all over the internet that tell me, "My rabbi said that you made a mistake, but he never mentioned a source of how you made a mistake, though. But he keeps telling me I shouldn't go and watch your shiurim." Every day there's at least five or ten of those. Every rabbi has a problem with people watching my shiurim. Why? Because chas v'shalom, you do teshuva. Chas v'shalom, you do teshuva and become more religious than him. But this is what's happening. Now, the problem is, rabotai, there's not much I can do about that one. I can give shiurim, I can give personal guidance, but there's not much more that I can do. Meaning, that battle that each one of you have, there's not much I can do to help you. And the reason why is because it won't stop until you make a choice. You have to make a choice. Are you going to stand for the truth, or are you going to go after falsehood? Let me ask you questions in a second. all of the false speakers, all of the fakers, are going to come to you and they're going to try to convince you to stop listening to the truth. One of the reasons is because the truth hurts them also. And that's why, rabotai...

33:01They won't speak against some governor that comes to speak at their shul about Zionism or something like that. They won't speak against Christianity that has been murdering us in the streets for 2,000 years. They won't speak against Christianity that they're doing public conversions in America and Israel every week by the thousands. Thousands of Jews are converting every week to Christianity. There's not a single rabbi that speaks against them. the exception of the ones that focus on it like Tovia Singer of the Jews for Judaism organization, myself, that's it. Out of the hundreds of thousands of people, nothing. They won't speak against them. Who are they going to speak against? Somebody that follows the letter of the law. Says this, this is what we say. Says this, this is what we say. That's what they speak against. And they've convinced many, many people that did teshuva from our shiurim to actually become enemies. They did teshuva; they were donkeys.

34:11They became human beings. Now they're frogs. Not even worse than a donkey. Why? Because now they take the Torah that actually helped them do teshuva and they manipulate it. Why? Because the rabbi helped them manipulate it. Why? Because they wanted to park. They wanted to go on neutral. They figured I'm starting to keep Shabbat. That's enough. But this Rabbi Reuven keeps telling me that I have to keep getting better. I have to keep getting better. How do I stop? Oh, I have to go to a local clown. with a beard calls himself a rabbi. He's gonna tell me, "No, no, this Reuven guy, now he's always talking about he's making mistakes. He makes mistakes. Where did he make a mistake? Where? Where did he make a mistake? Everybody keeps saying I make mistakes. Okay, show me the mistake. Make a video about it. All the stuff that I say is public. Go make a video. Show me where I made a mistake. Show me. If I made a mistake, I'll make a whole new video saying I'm sorry about it." No, they don't have anything. They just like to say he makes mistakes. Why? Because people know that others don't know themselves. And if you say he made a mistake, "Oh, he doesn't make mistakes? Oh, because I shouldn't listen to him anymore? Okay, that's it, he's not reliable anymore. Oh, so that means I could waste seed? Oh, so that means I could drive on Shabbat then? Oh, so that means that my girlfriend, that's a goya, that I didn't really leave, I go back with her? Oh, okay, thank you. You're a good rabbi, you're a good rabbi, I like you kind of rabbi."

35:35Orthodox, all right. Orthodox. Now, Reform? No, okay. This is what's happening: that battle that you each have individually when you're going to go to your shul, when you're going to go to yeshiva, when you're going to go to the kollel, and you're unfortunate enough to fall prey to one of these wicked rabbis. That battle, I can't help you. Why? It's for you. I can help you with the shiurim. If you ask me a question, I can help you. You ask me for guidance, I can help you. But I can't be there. I'm not God. I'm barely a man. The battle is tailored for you. Meaning, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling you, you have to make a choice. Either you're 100% with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, or you're with the rest of the garbage of the world. Right now, we have almost 8 billion people in the world. 99.999% of them are reshaim gemurim. Christians, almost 2.5 billion of them, all idolaters. Arabs, the vast majority of them want to kill us. Already you are at 4 billion.

36:54All the Asians in China, almost 2 billion and growing, even with the one-child policy, almost all of them are either atheists or idolaters. It's another 2 billion; you're at 6. India, 80,000 different cults and religions. 80,000 different cults and religions. The Jewish community, barely 4,000 people. Most of them chilonim gemurim. A billion people, another garbage. They have people in India that eat people, still, cannibals. You think these are tzaddikim? Rabotai, even the majority of our own brothers and sisters, unfortunately, according to the Torah, we love them, we want them to do teshuva, but if they die today, nothing can help them. That's why, we'll finish with this, you guys can ask all the questions you want. The Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin says that Ben David, the Mashiach Ben David, is not going to come until the generation is all righteous or all wicked. Chachamim say it's never going to be possible. If they're all righteous, it's never going to be. There's always going to be one rasha.

38:18There's always going to be one atheist, one wicked person, one homosexual. There's always going to be one of those. How could it be? Mashiach's never going to come. And there's all the reshaim. That's also not possible. Why? For the world to exist, there has to be at least 36 tzaddikim. There have to be at least 36 tzaddikim. So it can never be all. So the Gemara explains, no, no, it's not that everyone has to be tzaddikim or everyone has to be reshaim. What is the Gemara really saying? What is HaKadosh Baruch Hu really saying here? The Mashiach is not coming until everybody makes a choice. Either you're 100% going with Hashem, you're tzaddik. You're gonna do your best to be the best. Doesn't mean you're perfect. You make mistakes, but you're gonna do your best. Or you're gonna do your best to go against Hashem. You're just going to simply ignore everything the Torah says, care less, make your own rules. No one in the middle. Throughout all of history, we've always had people in the middle. He goes to Beit Knesset, but then he goes to the movies. He goes to a kollel, but then he has a girlfriend, though. He has a business, he gives tzedakah, but it's an illegal business. Middle ground, we've always had.

39:40Who says Mashiach is only gonna come when everybody makes a choice? So I went, what if nobody wants to make a choice? Hashem says, no, no, no, I'm gonna make them make a choice. And that's what's happening right now. That's what's happening right now. Everybody is being put on the spot. Everyone is being put under pressure. You have to make a choice. You want to continue listening to Friedman, Dor Casuto, Dweck, and all of the other Resha'im of the world? Enjoy Gehenom. It's nice and warm over there, permanently. You want to do Teshuva? Listen to whoever tells the truth. If that happens to be me, Ashrei v'Ashrei Chelki. If it's somebody else, Baruch Hashem too. I don't care who it is. There's no monopoly on truth. Point is, you have to make a choice. That battles for you. So, with that being said, please, Kavod, Noach, you can start with the questions. Appropriately, the world's being destroyed, Noach. So, you know, you answered my first question, but going on to my second question, it's in regards to, let's say, what's the correct approach if, let's say, there's...

40:58There's a relative that is, let's say, dating or married to a Goya. What is our take as a religious family? Should we invite them to our house, knowing that they are with the Goya? Oh, he's not going to have kosher food; he's going to eat pig. Should we tell them not to come? It's a very, very difficult issue. The question is if somebody is married to or dating a non-Jewish woman or a non-Jewish man, do you invite them for the holidays? Now, this, believe it or not, is a very, very difficult question. The reason why is because it has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. There's no rule of thumb. What's the reason? The reason is, is this person that they're with, is this non-Jew that they're with interested in Judaism but simply ignorant? If they're interested in Judaism, but they're ignorant, just like their boyfriend or girlfriend, that means that you can convince this boyfriend or girlfriend to actually go learn, convert to Judaism, and actually end up saving the neshama of this boyfriend or girlfriend. Why? Because they have an interest, they're not anti. But if they are openly and proudly a Christian or Catholic or some other form of idolatry, you are forbidden 100% from inviting them.

42:21go learn, convert to Judaism, and actually end up saving the neshama of this boyfriend or girlfriend. Why? Because they have an interest; they're not anti. But if they are openly and proudly a Christian or Catholic or some other form of idolatry, you are forbidden 100% from inviting them. Forbidden 100%. Why? There's no chance in the world that they're going to convert at your Shulchan Shabbat, at your Rosh Hashanah table. And for you to host them, in essence, what are you saying? You're saying that everything is okay. We'll accept you as you are because you're our cousin, you're our aunt, you're our uncle, you're this. And that's a problem. That's a problem. So most people are neutral to interested. Some people are proud of their idolatry. And those people you cannot entertain in any way, shape, or form. So it's a very, very difficult issue. In general, it also requires the person who is inviting these people to be well-equipped to know how to deal with these unique people.

43:24know if you don't know how to deal with these types of people and how to bring them closer and closer to the truth. If you're just hoping that they like the children enough or the pomegranate enough that they're gonna want to convert to Judaism, then please don't invite anyone. You should be by yourself. Why? You're enabling them when you invite an open sinner to your house for holidays or for Shabbat. without saying anything, in essence, what you are saying is that it's all okay. And that's the truth. I had it, and I experienced it. For years, the rabbis used to come to my office two, three times a week. All knew that I was married to a non-Jew. All knew that I didn't keep mitzvot. All knew. But they loved my money. They loved it so much, they forgot they had to tell me the truth because they're rabbis. For how long? You figure, no, for a year, two years, eventually I'll get the point. 15 years. 15 years they came to my office. Not a single time did they tell me the truth. Until HaKadosh Baruch Hu put me through Gehenom, I didn't learn the truth.

44:40The system of quiet doesn't work. When you're quiet, that means you're approving. That's the truth. If you don't say something when you see something wrong, it's a sign of approval. That's the reality. That's the way people take it. And that's why you have to be very, very careful when you invite an open sinner. If you're well-equipped and strong enough to say something, go for it. Be careful. You can't do it in front of little kids. If there's a debate, an argument, and so on and so forth, you have to be careful. You have to be... Generally speaking, I say you're probably better off not inviting them. Let them do whatever sins they want to do. It's not your problem. It's not your problem. Most people are not well-equipped. Most people don't know how to speak. Most people are afraid of altercation. It's better not to invite them. They want to go eat pig, let them eat pig. It's not our problem. It's not our problem. I have a relative... They used to come to my house. I would invite them. "Come to my house. Stay in my house." But he couldn't take it. He had to go out Friday night. Young guy like you guys, a little older. He had to go out with his friends.

45:53Tried it once. Tried it twice. After the second time, he didn't want to stay at my house for Friday. I told him, do me a favor, don't ever come to my house on Shabbat. You come any other day. Any other day you can come. Love you. But don't come to my house on Shabbat. Why? I can't tolerate you violating Shabbat. You want to go kill yourself? Go kill yourself in front of somebody else. Yeah, but then he's not going to have Kiddush. Don't have Kiddush. It's not my problem. Probably not gonna have Kiddush, it's not my problem. Not gonna gain them for that. But I will go to Gehinnom if I continue enabling you and tell you it's all okay. Then you can come to my house, eat my wife's food, enjoy it, and then go drive to a club. That's not for me. So being quiet is a sin. That's what the Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah says. That's what the Gemara Masechet Shabbat says. That's what the Gemara says across the board. You're not allowed to be quiet. So if you are well-equipped and you know how to speak and you're not afraid to, and you have the surroundings to do it, go for it. But if not, it's better off you just mind your own business, have a nice family dinner, quiet, and celebrate.

47:01Let the sinners sin as much as they want. It's not your problem. You didn't make the choice for them. Chaval, next question. About his sin to not say anything. Let's say you know someone who's kind of religious, puts on tefillin, but doesn't really enjoy Judaism. You want him to come closer to it, but it's just him that doesn't want to do it. And if you tell him, oh, you should daven three times a day instead of once, he's just going to get more annoyed. right, so there are many people that are very, very weak and getting weaker, and, in essence, the way that they're practicing their Judaism today is as if it's a burden. Praying is like, "Oh, I have to pray again now? Do we have to do it three times? Can't we just do it once? It's enough for Hashem." Kosher all the time? Just the other day, somebody told me, "Listen, does candy have to also be kosher?" No, the poor guy meant well. But he was taught his whole life that, listen, meat has to be kosher. Everything else, chalash, no, don't be a fanatic on us. So the poor guy is already in his 20s, he never knew that candy has to be kosher. Why? Candy has different types of ingredients in it. One of the most common ingredients that's the worst is gelatin.

48:20Gelatin. Gelatin is made from bones. And if it's not from kosher animals, it's coming from non-kosher animals. Now, whether that animal is pig or horse or some other non-kosher animal is irrelevant. It's not kosher. So when you're eating non-kosher Skittles or non-kosher gummy bears or some gummy candy or bubble gum that's not kosher, in essence, you just ate pig. Same thing. Yeah, but I didn't taste the pig. Whether you taste it or not doesn't make a difference. Now, gelatin is not always non-kosher, though. There is kosher gelatin. If there's a kosher symbol on the candy, it's kosher. And there's gelatin that's insignificant. What is that? Gelatin that has to do with no taste. Sometimes you have pills. that in order to have the capsule made a certain way, so you could swallow it, they make it with gelatin. Now, that gelatin doesn't have any flavor. If the gelatin does not have flavor, you're allowed to use it, you're allowed to consume it.

49:24So, but if it has flavor, if it's in gum, if it's candy and so on and so forth, if it's not kosher, you're not allowed to eat it. So candy, bubble gum, chocolate bars, everything has to be kosher. If it's not kosher, there has to be a reason. So many people don't even look at this stuff. Because they're so weakened by society and by just the secularism that they still keep Shabbat and kosher, but everything is hafif. You guys know what the word hafif means? Hafif means like, you know, like freely, like here and there, whenever I feel like it type of thing. It's not like, it's like lethargic. You know, it's like one of the guys comes to the office or comes to school still half-asleep. who wants an employee like this? Who wants a student like this? He's sleeping in your class? Go sleep at home. Go sleep at home; you have a bed over there. Why are you sleeping in my class? You think I want to watch you sleep? Go sleep somewhere else. I used to have somebody come to my office half asleep. I said, "Do me a favor, go work for somebody else." "No, no, I need the money." I said, "You should have thought that before you fell asleep in my office." "Yeah, but I'm tired." "Okay, I'm tired too. Everybody's tired." So people that...

50:37make the mistake and perform their mitzvot that way—where they're tired, they're lethargic—telling them to do more mitzvot is not going to help them. Why? They don't even want to do what they're doing. You tell them to pray three times instead of once, you're not helping them. In fact, they're saying, "You know what, you should be grateful I'm doing one," as if they're doing you a favor. "No, you really should check if that's kosher." "Listen, I did a bracha, that's enough. That makes it kosher." They're so annoyed with the burden, if you will, of religion, of the Torah, that it’s like as if they're acting as if they're doing the world a favor. So telling those people to do more mitzvot, it's not the way. Don't tell them anything. What do you do? Let me tell you. Give them a CD. Here. What is that? Shiur Torah. Interesting. What is it about? Interesting. What is it about? Really interesting. Don't ruin it. Don't tell them what it's about. Interesting. That's all it is. I want to know what it's about before I watch it. It's really interesting. You want some music? Okay, there's some stuff online. Go to Chuva Music by Rabbi. You'll find a few videos over there with music and talk at the same time. That's the only pill that's going to work. Learning Torah is the only pill that's going to work. Telling them to do more mitzvot is not going to work. Why? They need to know why they're even doing what they're doing now. First, they need to justify it in their own psyche.

52:05Why am I even continuing to do this if I don't feel like doing it? You want me to do more of it? So first, we have to convince them that what they're doing, in essence, is saving their own neshama from going to Gehinnom. Once they realize that, they're like, oh wait, so I should probably do more of this then. They already do the kal vachomer in their mind. Once they realize that it's the right thing to do, then they rationalize to themselves that I need to do more of this right thing. And that's it. Torah is the cure to everything. Torah Tziva, the Gemara in Masechet Berachot says, yetzer hara. is bigger than us, but Torah is bigger than him. You want to beat the yetzer hara, you have to use learning Torah. Yes, Chavot. Earlier you said that it takes everyone to become a tzaddik for Mashiach to come, right? Everyone to make a choice, yes. But I heard that if everyone keeps Shabbat for one week, then Mashiach will come. Two weeks. Two weeks in creation. We already kept one Shabbat, and in essence, Chazal say that if all of Am Yisrael keep Shabbat one time,

53:07then Mashiach would have come. Unfortunately, that's an impossibility for two reasons. Number one, there are too many lefty liberals that are haters of the Torah to the extent that they've invested their entire lives to go against the Torah. Like this one rasha named Amnon Levi in Eretz Yisrael for the last almost 40 years. He's written every single anti-Torah article you can possibly find. Another rasha that used to be religious is Yaron Yadan. Yaron Yadan in Eretz Yisrael used to be in a yeshiva. He claims that he used to be a rosh yeshiva. He was maybe a rosh of a pil, maybe the head of an elephant, not a head of a yeshiva. But anyway, he became a complete kofer. So people like this, Keeping Shabbat is not happening. Furthermore, the biggest Christian missionaries in the world are Jews. Again, the most successful Christian missionaries, the people that bring Jewish people to Christianity, are actually Jewish. Go get them to keep Shabbat.

54:33So, there's always going to be these resha'im. The second reason is, in order to keep Shabbat appropriately, you have to know Hilchot Shabbat. Most people that are keeping Shabbat today don't realize that they're violating Shabbat. Even if they're religious, they're violating Shabbat. Why? Because if you don't learn Hilchot Shabbat, surely you're making mistakes and you're violating Shabbat. Now, even though it's not a purposeful sin, you're not driving on Shabbat, you're not cooking on Shabbat, but nonetheless, many people are violating Shabbat without knowing it, but it's still their fault. And the reason why is because they're supposed to learn about Shabbat. That's why I told you guys, anybody that doesn't have a book about Hilchot Shabbat, just come with me to my car. After this shiur, I'll give you books about Hilchot Shabbat. You need to learn Hilchot Shabbat. You have to know them cold. So, for all of Am Yisrael to keep Shabbat, it's a fantastic thing to think about, it's a fantastic thing to dream about. There's even an organization, I think it started in Africa, aimed at getting a lot of people to keep Shabbat, and they got a lot of people to keep Shabbat once a year. That's nice, and it's cute, but no cigar.

55:51It's not going to make the nation do teshuva. And the reason why is because if you're telling the person to keep one Shabbat a year as a nation, it's actually enabling him to continue violating Shabbat. Why? Because in essence what you're telling them is that as long as he keeps one Shabbat, everything else he does is okay. It's like saying to a husband, listen, as long as I don't find out about your girlfriend, it's okay for you to date her. Eddie, what wife is going to tell her husband, "Listen, you go out with any girl you want, as long as I don't find out about them"? No, who wants such a husband like this? Or your wife is going to tell you, "Honey, listen, I'm going to go out with other guys, but you're never going to see it. You're never going to see it. I'm just going to go out with other guys when you're not home." Which guy wants to marry this girl? Raise your hand. So, in essence, by telling Am Yisrael that you can keep one Shabbat... It's not enough. Why? Because you didn't tell them the reason why. The reason why is because you're obligated to keep every Shabbat. That's the reason. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "You violate Shabbat, I'm going to kill you." That's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu says twelve times in the Torah. So, it's nice, theoretically speaking, but it's not enough. It's not enough. Next question. Next question. Yes. Yes.

57:22Cheshbon Nefesh is being real with yourself. Now, typically we all like to look at the flaws of everybody around us. You see, he's too tall, he's too short, he's too cheap, he's too this, he's too... Everybody wants to look at everybody else's flaws. Very rarely do we look at our own flaws. How do we know what our own flaws are? First and foremost, everybody knows their own weaknesses. But if you live in La La Land and you think you're perfect, then here's a hint: ask your spouse. That's the hint. Ask your spouse. If you're married, your wife is your mirror. You ask, "Honey, is anything wrong with me?" She's going to give you a whole lecture. She goes, "Oh, I thought you were never going to ask. Here's the book, honey. I wrote everything that's wrong with you in the last 25 years. Thank you. I'm glad you volunteered." "Oh, honey, I never knew you wrote a book about me." "Yeah, yeah, it's for you. It's for you, honey. I was waiting for you to finally ask what's wrong with you." A husband asks his wife what's wrong with him; she'll give you a list. The wife asks the husband what's wrong with her; he'll say three things, then she'll kill him and find a new husband.

58:41Why? People don't want to hear the truth. And what if you're not married? If you're not married, all you have to do if you want to find out what's wrong with you is ask yourself what everybody complains about regarding you. People always complain about something. There's a common complaint people have. Everybody has that. Oh, he's not communicating. Oh, he's too cheap. Oh, he's too late. Oh, he's too this. Everybody complains about people all the time. Every one of us has complaints that people complain about, and it's the common denominator that we keep denying. No, what are you talking about? I'm never late, even though you're late every time. I'll be there in five minutes. An hour and a half later, you show up. Everybody has the same thing, and people complain about it, but we still do nothing about it. Why? Because we don't care. you want to do hisbonenus first. See the things that are wrong with yourself. Pick one, pick one, don't go crazy, just pick one and start working on it. Okay, everybody keeps complaining about me being late. From now on, I'm gonna show up to every single meeting 15 minutes early. There's a famous broker that made, there was a movie made about him

59:55that he was late one time, and he learned a very serious lesson about it. He said from that moment on, he decided that he's gonna wear two watches. Two watches, why? That way he's always gonna know the time. Even if one breaks, he has the other one to constantly remind him to be on time. He became a very, very wealthy guy as a result. The point is, rabotai, that a person needs to put a geder, a fence around the fence, in order to overcome their own obstacles. People tell you that you're ignorant? Start learning. People tell you that you're cheap? Start becoming generous. People tell you that you get angry too often? Start working on your anger. And there are different things to do for each one of these issues. The point is that cheshbon hanefesh, self-accounting, starts with being real with yourself, being honest with yourself. Stop pretending you're perfect. None of us are even close to being perfect. Every one of us has something to work on. And if we take it seriously, you'll have a much better life as a result. Next question. On that question, besides your spouse, who can you really trust?

1:01:11you know for you to work on because, like, my father could tell me something and my mom could tell me something, but I might believe my father more or my mother. You know, I might be biased. So who can I really go to who can say, "Look, you know you should really work on that category because you're lacking in this," etc. So, as far as who to ask, if you're, like I said, if you're married, your spouse is the one that knows you better than anybody else. if it's another person that a person is supposed to trust, it is the rabbi. If they have a rabbi who is a Talmid Chacham and they have a close relationship with him to the point where they use this rabbi for guidance, they tell him the truth. They don't sugarcoat anything. They don't pretend to be a tzaddik. They tell the truth: "Rabbi, I failed. Rabbi, I did this. Rabbi, I succeeded. Rabbi, I did this. Rabbi, I did that." But they tell the truth and... you're going to be a pretender to your rabbi, he's not your rabbi, he's your friend. Why? You're wasting it, you're wasting your time. A lot of people say, "Oh yeah, Rabbi." I said, "Okay, so what do you need me for? I need to learn from you, you're such a tzaddik. I need to learn from you, tzaddik." So there's no point in being a faker to you, right? You were honest with your rabbi, your rabbi's going to tell you, "Listen, you have to work on this, you have to work on that." If he's a real rabbi, not someone that's dull.

1:02:35that you can manipulate. The second thing is, regardless, it depends on your relationship with people. If you have a close relationship with your father, then obviously your father is going to guide you a certain way. If you have a close relationship with your mother, then your mother is going to, you know, guide you a certain way. But generally speaking, you have a world around you, and that world is constantly giving you feedback. And feedback, more times than not, is more negative than positive for all of us. They tell us that people complain. People love to complain, but not about themselves. They complain about other people. So you must hear plenty of complaints from people about what you're doing. So you start evaluating. What complaint do I hear the most often? After you get that, you do some cheshbon nefesh. You do some accounting and say, you know what? 15 people in the last two months complained that I'm arrogant. I mean, it can't be a coincidence. And in reality, everybody knows their own weaknesses. Everyone knows their own weaknesses. Everyone knows that there's something that they're especially weak on. Sometimes I meet young kids, cute as a peach, go to yeshiva, learn Torah, all these wonderful things. But then one day they drop a bomb on me.

1:03:56Say, Rabbi, I have a non-Jewish girlfriend. What? What? You? Secular people? Yeah, you have a non-Jewish girlfriend? How? Oh, I never told you. Oh, so all this time it's just... Some people, everybody has a skeleton in their closet. Or someone tells me, oh, listen, I learned this, that, that, but I'm a... What is it called? He likes to steal. Kleptomaniac. ...likes to steal, likes to take stuff from other people. Some people are like this; they see something and put it in their pocket without a second thought. They see your book and think, "Oh, it's a good book, that's good for me," and take it. They do this everywhere they go. "Oh, this is a good one," "Oh, this is good," and nothing stops them. It’s become second nature... This is not the secular world; this is the religious world. And I have at least a dozen people with this particular problem. It's not an easy problem to fix, but it's not impossible either. How do you identify it? By being real with yourself. You know what's right and you know what's wrong. So, like I said, you can't overcome every obstacle overnight. You have to start with one and start working on it.

1:05:20after you've established some foundation and you're tackling this problem, then you start evaluating the next one. And little by little, you're going to start becoming the diamond that you were created to be. But in general, as far as finding out what your flaws are, it shouldn't take you more than five minutes. Anyone that spends a little bit of time without noise and just thinks for themselves, will find a lot of things that are good and a lot of things that are bad about themselves. Every single person. There's a lot of noise today. There's music, and there are the roads, and there are people screaming, and there are televisions and the internet. There's just a lot of noise in our life, so people never actually think for themselves. There's so much noise; the only time that there's no noise is when you're sleeping. So the reality is, a person takes a few minutes without anything, no noise, no music in the background, nothing. Just take five minutes and think for yourself. What am I doing? What's going on? Where am I going from here? You'll discover a lot about yourself. Next question. Yes, in the back. So we talked about a lot of things we're going to talk about.

1:06:44No, it's going to happen when we all make a choice. Now, the Gemara says in Masechet Sanhedrin that the Mashiach will come when everyone has made the choice whether they're going to go 100% for Hashem. against Hashem, meaning some people will go against Hashem, and some people will go for Hashem. Some people will keep the Torah, and some people will go against the Torah. Some people will go with the Mashiach, and some people will fight against the Mashiach. So everyone is going to have to make a choice. There are going to be a few that will be in the middle, and Hashem is going to force them to make a choice to pick a side. Now... These two sides are going to go into a spiritual war that's called Gog u'Magog. Yes, the war of Gog u'Magog. And there are different parts of the war. It starts initially as a war that seems irrelevant. But then we start seeing this is more of a spiritual war than anything else because it starts first with Edom against Yishmael. Esav against Yishmael. The Christians against the Arabs.

1:08:08But then, after the Christians beat up the Arabs and the Arabs beat up the Christians, they both decide that everything is the fault of who? Yaakov, Israel. So they both stop fighting each other, combine, and go against Am Yisrael. According to Chazal, they'll end up conquering Eretz Yisrael and taking it for nine months. During that time, all of the people that are in the middle will be put to the test. Anyone that thinks that they had a hard life will pray for that hard life. That's why even the sages said, "We want the Mashiach to come. We just don't want to be alive when it happens," because of how difficult the time is going to be before Mashiach comes. Everyone is going to be put to the test to such an extent that HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells the prophet that two-thirds of the world will die immediately during this war, and the last third will be purified like you purify gold and silver.

1:09:22meaning everyone is going to be put to the test—the most difficult test you could possibly imagine. It's going to make every single person decide either they're for Hashem or against Hashem a hundred percent. No more eighty percent, no more seventy percent, no more half religious, no more sometimes—nothing. Either you're a hundred percent for Hashem, where you're willing to jump off a cliff... knowing HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to catch you or you are on the side of Christianity, Catholicism, and all the idolatry of the world. Those are the only choices available. Nothing else. It's a very, very difficult time, Rabotai. People that are looking forward to the Mashiach are simply ignorant of the reality. If Mashiach came today, we'd be in very, very serious trouble. Because I don't even know if we've done teshuva yet. anyone that's certain that they're going to be saved when the Mashiach comes needs to do teshuva even more. Because they're living an illusion, living in la-la land. If Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, in Gemara Masechet Berachot at the end of Gemara, says, I know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is about to take my neshama right now, but I don't know if he's taking me to Gan Eden or Gehenom. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, the entire Oral Torah we have today is thanks to him.

1:10:40was the rabbi of the rabbi of Rabbi Akiva. He wasn't sure if he's going to Heaven or Hell, and we all saw Mashiach comes, yeah, I'm first class. It's la-la land. The point is, each one of us has to work, work, work, eliminate all of the taavot, all of the desires, run away from all the things that distance you from Hashem. Why? You have to clean yourself up. You have to... So when each person makes a choice and they start serving Hashem like clockwork every day, every day they get closer. Every day they get closer to Hashem. Little by little, they start feeling the goodness of Olam HaBa even in this world, even before Mashiach comes. Why? Because they're so close to Hashem. This is what we talked about last night. The people that get distant from Hashem, they treat the Torah as if it's a burden. Little by little, it becomes more and more suffering to keep mitzvot for them. They start hating it. They stop going to shul. They stop eating kosher. They stop keeping the holidays. All of a sudden, they’re interested in doing this. All of a sudden, they’re interested in doing that. All the things that they never did before. All of a sudden, they’re interested in doing all types of things that are against the Torah. Why? They...

1:11:57...treated the Torah as if it was a burden, meaning they made a choice. And that's where the Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin says that Am Yisrael is going to be forced to make a choice. But if they don't make a choice, Hashem is going to send them a Haman. What does it mean He's going to send them a Haman? Haman already died 2,000 years ago. There's a Haman in every generation, just like there's a Mashiach in every generation. There's a Haman in every generation... And HaKadosh Baruch Hu uses a Haman or a Hitler or a Nebuchadnezzar in order to force the few that are in the middle to make a choice. Either you're going with Hashem or you're going against Hashem. That's what happened to many tzaddikim during the Holocaust. That's what happened to many resha'im during the Holocaust and any other time before, and that's what's happening today. Everybody has to make a choice. So yes, The Mashiach is coming very, very soon. Hopefully, we've made the choice already with enough time to do teshuva. So by the time he comes, we're already not in the middle ground anymore. But the point is that it's not going to be an easy time, and it's not an easy time right now. I mean, just look at the world around you. It's an upside-down world. Everything is upside-down.

1:13:22The world is on fire; people want to go to war every minute. Whether it's Trump, or it's Putin, or it's the guy from China, or the guy from Korea, or the guy from Iran, or Israel, everybody wants to go to war. But not a regular war. Everyone's threatening with nuclear weapons. Chazal told us that the real war, the last part of Gog U'Magog, will last nine minutes. When they said it, when they said that the last war will wipe out the world, Two-thirds of the world in nine minutes. People left, why? The most sophisticated weapon in the world at that time was a bow and arrow. Meaning, even if you took 10 million soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar and all took out their arrows and shot them in the air, maximum you kill 10 million people. Are you gonna kill two-thirds of the world in nine minutes? Nonetheless, how are you gonna get to China and get to all these other places? But obviously, the prophecy was by HaKadosh Baruch Hu, who knew already about the invention of atomic war and atomic weapons. Today, it's not really a question of how it could all happen in a second. All it requires is one person, one psychopath, to press the button. Once they press the button in Iran, they press the button in Israel as retaliation. They don't let anything land; they press it automatically.

1:14:45Once they press it in Israel, they’re pressing it in other countries, like Pakistan. Once they press it in Pakistan, they press it in India. Once they press it in India, they press it somewhere else, like China. China, Russia. Russia, America. A few minutes. Bye-bye, world. This is not to scare you. It's just to warn you that we're running out of time. It's a reality. There's nothing to be scared about. There's nothing you can do about any of this stuff. The only thing you can do something about is your own teshuva and the world around you's teshuva. If you can help yourself do teshuva and you can help Am Yisrael do teshuva, that makes you a very valuable person. But if you're not willing to do teshuva yourself and you're not willing to help other people do teshuva, you have a lot more problems than Gog and Magog. So it's a reality that's happening, and that's what we all have to set our minds on. You're learning Torah for survival. You're fulfilling mitzvot for survival. You're being modest for survival. It's not for show. It's not for looks. It's not because you want all of your girlfriends to give you compliments that they like your new kisui rosh because it has sparkles on it.

1:16:02You can wear the sparkles on the kisui rosh, it's good, it's actually kavod for the Torah, it's making the mitzvah look beautiful, you should do it. But if the only reason you wear kisui rosh is for stylish reasons, it's not a good reason. Why? Eventually the Yetzer Hara is going to convince you that there's a better style. If the only reason you're modest is because you like the look, eventually the Yetzer Hara is going to convince you that something else is a better look. If the only reason you eat kosher is because your father owns the restaurant, eventually your father is not going to own the restaurant. Meaning you have to get to the bottom of everything and do the mitzvot for the right reason. And that only comes from education. That only comes from learning Torah. And this is what we're trying to do every day. But that Torah has to be pure. It has to tell you what's allowed. It has to tell you what's not allowed. It has to tell you what the reward is. It has to tell you what the punishment is. Yesterday we talked a lot about the reward in this world. Anyone who didn't watch the lecture from last night, I think it was number 19.

1:17:03Spiritual ecstasy. I think it's one of the best lectures we've ever done simply because it gives people a clear understanding of the benefits of living a Torah life in this world. Not Olam HaBa. Olam HaBa is hard for people to fathom, but in this world. Definitely highly recommended, but you also need to know the other side if you don't do it. Why? Because that's our nature. We always need to know what the risk is. Next question, yes. Say it. Same price. Do you have to say a bracha when you are about to eat non-kosher food? Okay, second question. And the second one is, if you don't, is that considered stealing from Hashem? Okay, so there's a rule that says ein mitzvah ba'ah b'aveirah. You're not allowed to make a mitzvah by way of aveirah. So you're not allowed to drive to shul on Shabbat. Why? Because keeping Shabbat is a must. Driving to shul is not allowed. So you say, yeah, but I want to go to shul on Shabbat. Yeah, but you're not allowed to make a mitzvah of going to shul by committing a sin. Same concept with making a bracha. Bracha is a rabbinical mitzvah. But eating kosher is a biblical mitzvah. So we cannot, you know,

1:18:23make a sin but at the same time a mitzvah. Why? Because in essence, what are we doing? We are trying to get one dollar, one dollar by losing a million. To say, "Yeah, I'm gonna invest a million dollars with you." I was in the brokerage world for a long time. People invested a lot of money with me. Now, they wouldn't have invested with me if they said, "Listen, you guys give me a million dollars and I'll give you a dollar back." a dollar return? No, no, just a dollar, that's it. $999,000 on the first day gone. How many of you want to invest with me? You invest with me, we're getting that kind of loss. Okay, I should have you as a client. You're good, you're a good customer. I don't even have to try with you. The point is, that's what we're doing when we eat non-kosher. We're violating a mitzvah from the Torah. We're losing a million dollars when we're doing a bracha, we're gaining one dollar. So, that's also nothing. The second thing is, we cannot enjoy something stolen or something that's forbidden to us. Meaning, the Gemara says, what if somebody stole the lulav? Sukkot is coming, and you forgot to buy a lulav. Or by the time you wanted to buy it, no one had it anymore. But your friend had one. Now, with a lulav, you can't really tell the difference. It's not like there's an address on a lulav. It's not like anyone writes their name on a lulav. So, if everybody's lulav is on a table and...

1:19:47You're like one of those guys, you put that lulav in your pocket. All right, because it looks like your name's on it. Looks like your name's on it. What, you want to make a mitzvah? Your friend comes and goes, "Where's my lulav?" "No, I don't speak English. No, I don't know. I don't know, sir. I don't know, sir. I'm just cleaning here." "What? What are you talking about? What's going on?" "Nothing." You pretend like you're one of the guys who works for the shul. You don't know anything. But then you say, "I'm going to make a mitzvah. I'm going to make a mitzvah. I'm going to make a mitzvah." You've stolen a product. You can't do a mitzvah with stolen products. Yeah, but it's a mitzvah. No, it's no mitzvah. Why? Stolen. Same concept. Non-kosher food, forbidden. Not allowed to make a bracha on it. Why? Because it's a loss. It's a total loss. So we have to be very careful. And b'ezrat Hashem, this gives us the chizuk to do it. Good questions.

1:20:49Both of them, or I answered one? Both. Okay. Noach, you have another question for me? Yeah, good question. Go ahead. Ah. That's a very difficult halachic question, believe it or not. It's a very difficult halachic question. The reason why is because you have to determine whether he's losing from it. There are certain things that are a no-loss situation, meaning he's not gaining and he's not losing from you using his internet. Then is it really stealing? Some will say yes, and some will say no. Why? Because in essence, he's buying it, not for you. buying enough for you. But some will say, no, it's not stealing. Why? He doesn't even notice that you're using it. It's like if you go to the airport and use their electricity. Is the airport's bill going to go higher or lower because you used it to charge your phone? It's insignificant, it's inconsequential. Why? It's a multi-billion dollar enterprise. You charging your phone for three minutes, that electricity of three minutes can't count. What is that, a quarter of a penny?

1:22:04So the question is: Is your usage of his Wi-Fi slowing him down? If it is, then it is stealing, and you can measure it. Today, there is the technology to measure it, but that means that you would have to know how his internet is on his side, meaning you have to know how he's using his device. permissibly and using his device also not permissibly, which means already at this point, he knows you're using it. The point is, in essence, you should buy your own internet, your own everything. Don't take anything from anybody. Generally speaking, it's better to never take anything for free. Why? Because it's only a disguise from the Satan and... Nothing of value will come to you for free unless it's the Torah. Why? Because Torah was already a gift that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave to Am Yisrael, our forefathers, many, many years ago. Other than that, there are no free gifts. Everything has a price. Everything. Next. Yes.

1:23:10Mildly, uh, question, um, mildly lengthy question, um, I'll try to pay attention. So let's say if somebody is doing and, uh, they're, you know, they're going through the process, they're keeping the Torah, they're doing everything, and they are, you know, they have a level of that generally is there. Okay, so what's the question? What do you do about it? The source is that they're normal human beings. Every single person has a Yetzer Hara. Now the Yetzer Hara, what's his job? You wake up in the morning, what's your job? What's your job in the morning? Does everybody know what the job in the morning is? Serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's your job in the world. You were created to serve the Master. That's your job in the world. The Gemara Masechet Chagigah, page 4a, says if you did not find a way to sanctify HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name today, it was better off you were never born. Why? You didn't do your job. He's the Master. He's the King.

1:24:31A king has servants. You're one of them. If you served Him today, Chazak u'Baruch. If you didn't serve Him today, you have a serious problem. You have a serious problem. Why? You didn't serve the King. He's not your friend. So our job in the world, each one of us—men, women, boys, girls, children, adults—is to serve Hashem with full force. What's the Yetzer Hara's job? Yetzer Hara's job is to kill you. Yetzer Hara's job is to stop you from serving Hashem. First, he comes and he tells you something to convince you not to go pray. Something to convince you not to do a mitzvah. Why? He tries to give you any excuses. He goes, listen, you can pray, but pray later. Why don't you play a few games first? Come on, you're almost beating the game. A couple more rounds and then you pray. He's not gonna tell you don't do the mitzvah outright because then you'll know it's the yetzer hara talking to you. He's gonna look to you like a rabbi. He's like, "No, listen, do the mitzvah, but just have fun a little bit first. Do the mitzvah, but just write this email first. Do the mitzvah, but just finish this appointment first. You know, just do other stuff first, then do the mitzvah." Why? Because the longer you take, the less fire you have for this mitzvah. That's why the Gemara in Masechet Yoma...

1:25:55says, why do we put on the tefillin of the yad before the tefillin of the rosh? Now, you don't need to be a big tzaddik to know that the more important tefillin is the tefillin of the rosh. You could live without a yad, you could live without an arm, but you can't live without a rosh; that's where your neshamah is. So, the tefillin that's more important, that's more holy, is the one of the head. So which tefillin should you put on first? The more important one, no? How can we put on the first one? We put on the first one because we learned from Avraham Avinu, a mitzvah, you never delay. Your arm naturally, whereas if you take your, let's say you put it on your left arm, and you're gonna use your right arm to put it. Where is your right arm going to reach first, physically? Your head or your arm, as you lift it naturally? Your arm. Why? Because that's the way it is. It reaches your arm. Chazal says in Gemara Masechet Yoma that's enough of a reason to put the tefillin on the arm first. Why? Just get something done while you're ahead. Who knows if you're going to survive to see the head. Put it on the arm first. After you put it on the arm, then put it on the head.

1:27:17Why? Because you got to the arm first. Even though the head is more important, it's more important to do the first mitzvah that you get to. Now, there is a pasuk in the Torah that Chazal say, wait a minute, but there's also a pasuk that says, literally, put it on the arm, then put it on the head. Yes, there is, but Chazal put even more chizuk on it, saying that there's also more limud. The point is, the Yetzer Hara is going to tell you, don't do this mitzvah, do it later. after you don't do it, he goes to Hashem and prosecutes against you. So, you get punished. Who's the punisher? Satan. And every single day, a Jew has to act as if the Satan himself is standing over his head with a huge axe, ready to chop off his head. And Chazal say, if he's not scared to death, the Satan is about to chop off his head. That's already because he chopped it; you're already working for him full-time, and you don't even realize it.

1:28:25that's why, Rabotai, it's very, very important for a person to understand that your obligation in the world is to serve Hashem. The Satan's obligation in the world is to be your resistance because that's where you get a reward for it. If it was easy for us to do mitzvot, then there's no reason for us to get paid for it. The Satan's job is to be the resistance. The fact that a person has in their head heresy, they're thinking about Christianity, they're thinking about atheism, they're thinking about all types of things that are against the Torah, that just means that the Satan is alive and well. That's it. That's all it means. It means it's normal. That's it. It means you're a normal human being. That Satan is in your head. You're thinking about all types of things. You're not having bitachon makes you normal. But that's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us the Torah. So we become above normal, superior to normal. How? By using something divine and applying it to our life. You take the Torah, that's divine, that's from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You apply the Torah completely to your life, you become part of the Torah, you become divine. All of a sudden, you have bitachon, even though it doesn't make any sense. There's rockets in the air. You're perfectly fine.

1:29:45Did I ever tell you guys about the story of the Six-Day War and the woman that stopped it? I didn't tell you? Rabbi Yagen, alev hashalom, says that he heard this story from, I believe it was, Rabbi Shmuel Levitz, alev hashalom, and he says that he remembers the woman that stopped the war. woman stopped the war. He says, yeah, he says, in Eretz Yisrael, unfortunately, there's rocket attacks on a regular basis. That didn't just start now; it's been like that for years. These Arabs have no value for life. They just shoot with carelessness, whether it's babies or adults, it doesn't make a difference.

1:30:45That's what terrorism is. Terrorism is just killing anyone regardless of whether they're at war with you or not. And that's what the Arabs do. They were shooting missiles at us during the war. And poor Jews, what could they do? There's a big alarm. Everybody had to go hide out inside the miklat, in these places where everyone's hiding. It's under the building. Bunker, that's the word. So everyone's hiding in the miklat. Hundreds of people are fitting into this small little place. What are you going to do? Now it got really loud. Missiles were coming everywhere. Boom, boom. And it kept seeming like it's getting louder and louder. Poor kids. People are crying. Adults are crying. Kids are crying. Everybody's scared to death. And the Rabbi himself is watching this. And then he sees a woman.

1:31:45start hysterical crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It's HaKadosh Baruch Hu. 24 years. 24 years and I'm an agunah. My husband left me 24 years ago and ran away to America to be with his girlfriend and left me an agunah and refuses to let me find a new life, start a new life. I already found a place in my heart. Forgive him fully and live like this. You have to forgive your children just like I forgave him. He said this loudly. The love says that the second she finished, the war stopped. The second she finished, the war stopped. All the missiles stopped, and it became quiet like it's Shalom al Yisrael. He says she stopped the war. Why? She did something that no normal human being can do. Somebody just ruined your life and didn't even allow you to continue your life in a normal fashion. Okay, you want to go find somebody else, go kill yourself, do what you want, whatever. But at least let me live my life. Let me get remarried, let me start my life, and so on and so forth. No, no. You stay a prisoner forever. Some people are so arrogant, that's what they do.

1:33:11The Rambam says the way that you get a husband to give a get to his wife if he refuses is to beat him up until he wants to do it. But then the Chachamim say, wait a minute, what do you mean beat him up? Then he has to give the get willingly. If you beat him up, he's not giving it willingly. Rambam says, yes, he is giving it willingly. Why? The only reason he's not giving it is because the Yetzer Hara is telling him not to do it. So when you're beating him up, who are you beating up? You're beating up the Yetzer Hara. Eventually, the Yetzer Hara says, okay, I'm out of here already. I don't want to get beat up. So then the Yetzer Hatov is left. Yetzer Hatov, what does he want to do? He wants to give the get. He wants to do the mitzvah. He wants to do the mitzvah. That's what the Rambam writes in halakha. That's why it's allowed. According to halakha, according to the law, it's not allowed. That's why, unfortunately, people go to jail for that. But the point is, rabotai, there are some resha'im in the world who leave their wives as prisoners without giving them a get. And unfortunately, according to halakha, it's 100% forbidden for the woman to get remarried without having a get.

1:34:23Even though there's one big Talmid Chacham that made a mistake and said maybe he is, maybe not. It's not allowed ever to get married until you have a get. So now this woman, the husband left her, he doesn't want to be with her. Okay, fine, go kill her, do what you want to do. Let her at least get remarried, continue her life. No, he didn't want to give her a get for 24 years. 24 years. She says to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "I forgive him a hundred percent. I'm not even mad." HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows what's in your heart. You can't lie to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and say, "I forgive," but you really don't. You can't say that. "I forgive him, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, 100%, not even mad." HaKadosh Baruch Hu knew what's in our heart. She says to Hashem, "I forgive him. You forgive your nation." If I am using Your Torah to be like You, You be like You. You forgive Your nation also. Hashem says, "Stop the war on the spot." In our times, this is 40 years ago, 50 years ago. People saw this. Hundreds of people witnessed this. That's the power of the Torah. It elevates the person to be part of the Divine. A person without Torah, unfortunately, is less than a person. Next question.

1:35:48So, we'll finalize with a couple of small things. Right now, rabotai, there is a lot of limud, a lot of learning that we need to do, and bringing people to shiurei Torah has never been more critical. And the reason why is because the only way that people do serious teshuva is when they go to a serious shiur Torah. You have to toil for Torah. If you have the ability to go to a serious shiur Torah, you have to go physically. Don't just be lazy and stay at home. Because you have to show Hashem that you're willing to chase Torah, not just read it and learn it when it's convenient for you, under your terms. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Berachot says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gets angry when He comes to a place that is supposed to have Torah, but it doesn't have the people. The Rabbi came, but the people didn't come. The Beit Knesset is there, and only five people showed up for Minyan. There's not even ten people.

1:37:14page 6b says to the prophet, "Why did I come and there's nobody here to receive Me from the king?" So now, wait a minute, hold on a second. If there's nine people... Ten people you need for a minyan, right? So you can say Kaddish at the end of the shiur Torah. So you can say Kaddish at the Bet Knesset. You need ten people. Ten kosher Jews. So if nine showed up, why does Hashem still get mad just like He got mad when there's only one? If there's one or there's nine, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gets mad. Why? He says, but Rav Miponovich says, wait a minute, but there's nine of them. There's nine people here. Okay, so we don't have a minyan, but there's nine people. Rav of Ponevezh says something huge. He says, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu comes to the Beit Knesset, comes to the yeshiva, comes to the place of the shiur Torah, and He sees there's only nine people, and not a single one of them goes out of their way to go find another person,

1:38:40To make it a minyan, Hashem says, there's nobody here. Not a single one of you is a leader enough to go find another Jew. So whether there's nine or there's zero, it's the same thing. We see, Rabotai, right now in the days of Mashiach, in the days before Rosh Hashanah, Judgment Day. The Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah says that there are four Rosh Hashanahs. There are four Rosh Hashanahs a year. Rosh Hashanah is one of them. That's the Rosh Hashanah judgment day for all of creation. But there's judgment day for different parts of creation four times a year. Rosh Hashanah is the biggest one. This is the time to get serious when it comes to Torah. This is the time to get serious when it comes to mitzvot. This is the time to get serious when it comes to doing teshuva. If you're going to be donating money, you have to look a little bit further than you typically do. You cannot donate blindly anymore. There was a recent campaign that got a lot of popularity. People literally donated over $2 million, over $2 million in less than two days. Not one dollar went to the cause.

1:40:11Not one dollar went to the cause. You think any of those people are getting a mitzvah? Zero. Why? What mitzvah did you get? You're buying furniture for people? You think that's a mitzvah? You're extending the house and the kitchen? What mitzvah? Why? People don't do enough research. People just donate blindly, whatever hits their heart. Oh, wow, this guy's... If it doesn't hurt your heart to know that most of Am Yisrael will not be saved if Mashiach came right now unless they do teshuva, if that doesn't hurt your heart more than anything else, you should question whether you're really Jewish or not. Why? Because I have goyim, goyim from Abu Dhabi, goyim from Canada, goyim from America, goyim from all over the world that cry every single day. Every single day they cry because Am Yisrael didn't do teshuva yet. They give every single penny they have to get Am Yisrael to do teshuva every day. Goyim.

1:41:22acting more like Jews than Jews are sometimes, meaning if you're giving money to something blindly, "Oh, no, I'm gonna give to some big organization. It's a Jewish organization, it's good." It's wrong. You have to look at results. Who is making people do teshuva? Who is making people get closer to Hashem? What's working, what's not working—you have to evaluate. Why? Because there's no more time for us to continue making mistakes. your local rabbi is not getting the community to do teshuva. Find a new rabbi or, at the very least, bring rabbis as speakers to speak in your community. But if you're in this kehillah already for 10-20 years and nothing's changed, then you be the change. Do something about it and... Bring rabbis that are going to do something about it. Bring Talmidei Chachamim. Bring Torah. Do something for heaven's sake. A few of my students from different places around the world did something genius. I think it's one of the best ideas I've ever heard for Kiruv. They call it Kiruv night. What do they do? They got a—one guy, I think, got a projector and the other guy just has a big TV in his house. Every, I think it's either Tuesday or Wednesday.

1:42:48They invite a bunch of friends, get a bunch of popcorn, little snacks, drinks, and so on. Come, why? We're going to watch Rabbi Yaron Reuven live. So you got 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 people in this guy's house all watching the shiur right now. Why? They made it a fun night. A fun night to get some mussar. So people are doing something about it. Every person can do something about it. Point is, rabotai, that we have to start evaluating ourselves. What are our flaws? What do we have to fix? What do we really cry about? Are we only crying about things that have to do with our pockets? Or do we cry about the Shechinah? That HaKadosh Baruch Hu is suffering every single day that we haven't done teshuvah yet. His children haven't even understood that He's God, that He's their Father in Heaven. What do we care about? This is one of the main things that I think every person needs to evaluate over these next couple of weeks, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to ask each and every single one of us on Rosh Hashanah, "Why have I come and there's not a person here?" Meaning, okay, you may have a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, Baruch Hashem, five hundred people in your Beit Knesset, but how many of them are Shomrei Torah?

1:44:16Five hundred people show up to Yom Kippur. How many of them actually keep Torah? A thousand people show up. How many people actually keep Shabbat? How many? Not many, right? Why? Secularism, materialism, ignorance—all the reasons we talked about. Okay, we all know it, right? What are you doing about it? What are you doing about it? You have a thousand of your brothers, five hundred of your brothers, a hundred of your brothers that are doomed unless somebody does something about it. Obviously, there's not enough being done. So you take the initiative, do something about it. Arrange a shiur, arrange a yeshiva night, do something. In every community, everybody can do something. And if you're so busy making millions of dollars, fine, use those millions to do something. Don't be like this other millionaire that I talked about. He says, "I want to build a community." Okay, what are you going to provide? Nothing. "I want to build a community though." If you want to win the lotto, you have to buy a ticket. You can't win the lotto without having a ticket. This, Rabotai, is the main thing. Unless you have some questions, we'll have our next shiur on Sunday night. Sunday night we'll talk a little bit more about the holiday.

1:45:38a little bit more. We finished, we completed our series on "Beat the Yetzer Hara," so this next Sunday we're going to just talk about different things about Rosh Hashanah and things of that nature. But if you have questions, we can continue; otherwise, you guys get some sleep. Anything else? No? How long? Question or shiur? One? No? Medium? Medium? Okay, they come in sizes. No? So, normally, when somebody is doing and they find themselves constantly falling—same question, same question—yeah, more or less, constantly falling, but falling because of their

1:46:38No? What's the question? What do they do about it? I have a guy who watches my shiurim. He sent me a thank you letter the other day. He says that if it wasn't for our shiurim, he would still be a complete kofer gamur. Why? He used to listen to other shiurim. He says, "I watch shiurim, all types of shiurim." Still continued wasting seed, still continued violating Shabbat. All the shiurim, hundreds of shiurim, nothing changed. When he met me, he told me that he was watching shiurim while playing video games, and he thought there was nothing wrong with it. Then he saw our shiur; he said at that minute, he stopped wasting seed, at that second. Now, if you tell a guy that's 75 years old, he stops, not really a big deal. Why? Because you don't have as much desire when you're 75. But a 15, 16, 18, 19-year-old kid stops wasting seed. It's like splitting the ocean and finding Mount Sinai inside it. It's huge. The kid realized the truth and did teshuva.

1:47:50But still, he had difficulties along the way. Why? Because he had family members that were heretics, family members that were going against the Torah. He says, listen, my family doesn't want to keep Shabbat. What do I do? I said, keep Shabbat. He goes, yeah, but they tell me to violate it. I said, the Torah says no. He goes, yeah, but they're going to yell at me. I said, let them yell at you. Now, what happens if your father tells you, either you go drive this car to the store for me on Shabbat? I'm gonna kick you out. What do you do? Do you honor your father here, or do you honor your father there? The Torah says, honor your mother and your father, keep Shabbat, I'm God. That's what the pasuk says. Why? There are four commandments here: honor your mom and your dad, because it's one of the commandments, they're your parents. Keep Shabbat, that's also one of the commandments. But always remember, I'm God. Meaning, you have to keep Shabbat. You have to honor your parents. But if your parents tell you to violate Shabbat, remember, I'm God. I'm bigger than your parents. Your parents brought you, what, to this world? I brought you into existence. I brought them into existence.

1:49:16If your parents tell you to violate Shabbat, you're not allowed to listen to them. If your parents tell you to violate a mitzvah, you're not allowed to listen to them. If you violate it, you're considered 100% mezid. Meaning, if your father tells you to drive a car on Shabbat, turn on the television for him on Shabbat, or do something that violates the Torah, and you do it, it's considered as if you did it on purpose. It's not considered as if you were forced to do the sin. Why? He's not threatening to kill you. He's not putting a gun to your head. If someone puts a gun to your head and you know for sure he's a psychopath and he's going to shoot you, then you're allowed to violate Shabbat. Because your life's on the line. You're allowed to violate Shabbat for such a thing. But he's not threatening your life. He's just trying to yell at you, maybe slap you in the face a few times, throw you out of the house, take away your money, whatever it is. That's not life-threatening. If you're not willing to endure a little bit of abuse for the sake of the biggest mitzvah during that moment, then you've missed the point of what it means to keep Shabbat and follow the Torah. HaKadosh Baruch Hu will continue giving you that test over and over again until you pass the test. Why? You need to understand, keeping Shabbat is not a suggestion. It's either life or death. Learning Torah is not a suggestion. It's either life or death. Following the entire Torah is not a suggestion. It's either life or death. That's what it is. And until each one of us arrives at that conclusion,

1:50:41Hashem will continue passing the same test. So sometimes Hashem is going to send us through an uncle, through a cousin, through a wife, or whatever it is. It's only a test. You're not allowed to fail as a result of people. If you do, pick yourself back up and get back on the horse and start doing mitzvot again. Do teshuvah, do mitzvot again. You failed, no problem. All of us fail at some point or another. but you cannot use that as an excuse in Heaven, unless your life is really at risk. Life being at risk means if you don't do it, you die. Not life being at risk if you don't do it, you're going to lose money. That's not life risk. Not if you don't do it, you're going to be homeless. That's not life risk. Life risk is mamash death. If somebody's trying to kill you, then you have permission to violate almost the entire Torah, not the entire thing though. Unless it's idolatry, immorality like a sex crime, or murder, you have to die. But the point is, Rabotai, even dying on such a mitzvah will be the biggest mitzvah you ever do. Why? It's called dying al kiddush Hashem. If somebody tells you, either die or go worship Jesus, and you die, you're going to where Rabbi Akiva is. That's what the Rambam writes. Why? That's dying al kiddush Hashem.

1:52:05How great is dying al kiddush Hashem? We'll finalize with this point. How great is dying al kiddush Hashem? Rabbi Akiva said, when they were peeling his skin, at 120 years old, he was reciting Shema Yisrael. Before he started Shema Yisrael, he said, "Why don't you just kill these people? You could say the name of Hashem and, kabbalistically, kill all these people with one word." Rabbi Akiva says, my whole life I had a desire. What's a desire? Just like we have a desire for immorality, a desire for food, a desire to do all types of sins, Rabbi Akiva says, my whole life I had a desire to die al Kiddush Hashem. My whole life, every time I saw the Romans, the Greeks, somebody, oh, you want to kill me because I'm a Jew? Come on, you want to kill me? Oh, no, not today? Ah, okay. Missed out. I'm going to learn Torah right in front of you. You're going to kill me? Oh, no. Damn it. Tomorrow. He says, my whole life I had a desire to die al Kiddush Hashem. Now you want me to not be happy? They're peeling his skin. He's saying, Shema Yisrael, he's happy as can be. Happy as can be.

1:53:24Why? Finally, he fulfilled his dream. What was his dream? To die al Kiddush Hashem. Rabbi Yosef Karo writes it, writes it, his whole life, his whole life he cried and prayed for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to kill him al Kiddush Hashem. So he could die al Kiddush Hashem. Some Arab, some terrorist, some Christian slaughter his throat because he's defending the Torah. He prayed about it and cried every day. We cry, what do we cry for? Hashem, give me money. Hashem, give me this. Hashem, give me that. All day we cry for shtuyot. Rabbi Yosef Karo, what does he cry about? HaKadosh Baruch Hu, please, please, please, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, kill me al Kiddush Hashem. Please, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, let the Nazis kill me while I'm learning Torah. That's what he's praying for. That's what he's praying for his whole life. That's how great dying al Kiddush Hashem is. Now, I don't think... For most of us, we are going to die al Kiddush Hashem. But there's a wonderful caveat. We can live al Kiddush Hashem. How do you live al Kiddush Hashem? Publicize Torah. Publicize Torah at every opportunity that you have. That's living al Kiddush Hashem. You publicize your own belief in Torah by being a real Yid.

1:54:51By following Torah and mitzvot publicly, by not being scared of it, not being ashamed of it, not being a faker, here you're religious, over there you're secular, you're religious at home, but in business you are a goy. Publicly, religious. Don't worry about any terrorists or any of these people. Oh no, they're going to kill you because you have a kippah on. My friend, if Hashem wants to kill you, He doesn't need your kippah. kill you with the kippah, without the kippah—if it's your time, it's your time. Nothing's going to help you or hurt you. Keep wearing your kippah. Make it a big one. Take one of the kippot that we have; we made them extra big. Why? So everybody knows you're a Jew. Act like a Jew. Publicize your Judaism. Learn Torah. Publicize it. Don't be ashamed of it. That's living on... That's living on Kiddush Hashem. Get Am Yisrael back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's living on Kiddush Hashem. You live on Kiddush Hashem? That's much better than dying on Kiddush Hashem. Why? Dying on Kiddush Hashem is one second. It's a moment of being a hero, one second. Halvai, we could do it, but it's a moment. Living on a Kiddush Hashem, that's a whole life. Halvai, Rabotai HaYekarim, we all live on Kiddush Hashem. Halvai. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.