Don't Use This as Your Excuse! - Bitachon#12

1:32there are many, many more crimes per capita and in general by non-religious people than there are by religious people. But needless to say, when a religious person has a Ponzi scheme or some type of taking advantage of the poor and the lowly, where, let's say, countless stories of rich religious landlords refuse to fix their buildings and let the people who live in their buildings live in a place that's no different than a rat hole. And when people complain, he says, listen, you complain, get out. But they don't have the money to put a down payment on a new house or a new apartment, or even to pay rent anywhere else. No one is going to approve them. They got into this one by a great miracle. So they're stuck there. This guy knows it, and he refuses to fix the sinks and the walls. Anytime somebody goes into the house, they don't want to stay there. Why? Because there are holes in the walls, there's mold everywhere, and it's completely disgusting. But he feels, "No, that's what you get for the price." Don't let yourself think that that's true. Number one, don't let yourself think that that's daat Torah. That's not true. You're not allowed to let people live like that, Jews or non-Jews.

2:50Not to let people live in a place that even a rat gets sick in is not allowed. But unfortunately, this happens. Why? Because people feel like they have to help HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If He's not going to give me the money that I want, then I guess I have to help Him. So I take advantage of people that can't help themselves. That's one of the reasons why you sometimes see religious criminals get highlighted much more. The yetzer hara wants to ensure that all the people who are not religious, all the secular people, use that as an excuse. They say, "See, you're not going to be religious; you're going to be like this guy. You're even nicer than this guy, and you're not even religious." And it justifies this horrible cycle of continuing to go against HaKadosh Baruch Hu. People blame G-d for a person's mistake. The Yetzer Hara loves to highlight these things, which causes such a crime in heaven called Chilul Hashem, for which the Gemara says there is no way to do teshuva.

4:04There's no way to fix it until a person dies. We have a lot of sins in the Torah, a lot of opportunities to mess up—Shabbat, eating non-kosher, being with a married woman, or being with a woman that's not your wife. The list is endless. But every one of these things, including murder, has a way to do teshuva; every one of them. Except for Chilul Hashem. Chilul Hashem is so significant that the Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin says that when there is Chilul Hashem, you don't even have to pay any consideration to the Kavod HaRav, to the honor of a rabbi. In other places in the Torah, it says that if you do not have Kavod for the Rav, Like Nadav and Avihu, for example, in last week's parasha, one of the reasons Rabbi Eliezer says that Hashem killed them is because they didn't have Kavod HaRav. Why? They said, listen, Moshe didn't put the Ketoret, he didn't bring the Korban right now to Hashem. So, you know what? We think it's the right thing to do it now.

5:10Who asked you? Who asked you if it's now or later? He's the rabbi. You don't go do anything without asking permission from the rabbi. You have to go to Gedolei Hador. You have to ask them: allowed or not allowed? Kavod Harav, is it allowed or not allowed for me to go to this party? Allowed or not allowed for me to marry this woman? Allowed or not allowed for me to marry this man? You cannot take a step without asking the rabbi. They decided to take it upon themselves. Hashem says, "Oh, you know what happens to somebody who doesn't have kavod for his rabbi? What? I kill him." "Yeah, but we were righteous." "Exactly. You were righteous until you did this." So we see in other places in the Torah that Hashem... gives so much, so much power to the sages, to the Bnei Torah, he says that if you desecrate their name, it's like you desecrated Mine. But if you're going to desecrate Mine, then there's no consideration for their name. There's no consideration for their name. The reality is, Rabotai Hakarim, you have to understand, Chilul Hashem is above everything.

6:21When a person violates or desecrates the name of Hashem, there's nothing worse than that. So when a person does this, when a Jew cheats in business, especially if he's a religious Jew, it's even more severe. When that gets exposed, as the Mishnah in Avot says, someone who desecrates Hashem's name baseter, in hiding, behind the scenes, it's a significant issue. Nobody knows that he owns that building. He owns it under a partnership that owns another partnership, and nobody really knows who owns any of the partnerships. So he's doing baseter, baseter. He only shows up for collecting the checks once a month, so no one really knows. He pretends like he works for somebody, yet his actions still contribute to a Chillul Hashem. When that gets exposed, as the Mishnah in Avot says, someone who desecrates Hashem's name in baseter, in hiding, behind the scenes, nobody knows that he owns that building. He owns it under a partnership that owns a partnership that owns a partnership that owns a partnership, and nobody really knows who owns any of the partnerships. So he's doing baseter, baseter. He only shows up for collecting the checks once a month. So no one really knows. He pretends like he works for somebody. He violates Hashem's name b'seter. He lets everybody live in mold, inside a sewer, but he collects the full rent check. Guess what? When Hashem punishes them, the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot says, He punishes them b'galui, b'farhesya, in front of everybody. Yeah, but that's going to desecrate Hashem's name. No, no, no. It was already desecrating Hashem's name.

7:31You just didn't know about it yet. The desecration of Hashem's name already happened. A few people knew, a few people said it; it already happened. Let's just make it a big deal. Why? I want to show you what I can do, Hashem says. So sometimes people violate Hashem's name in business, and the Malach HaMavet, the Satan, the Yetzer Hara, loves, loves to expose this to the world. Because he wants to give all of the non-religious people an excuse to continue wasting their time, living a purposeless life, and thinking that they have an excuse when they get up to Shamayim. They have a negotiation tactic. They say, "Listen, Hashem, yeah, I wanted to be religious, but then I saw my rabbi go out with some girl who wasn't religious, and he was married." Like these two guys that I overheard speaking in the supermarket on Friday. One guy says to the other guy, "Hey, how are you?" "Hey, how are you?" And you're shopping. What are you going to do? You hear stuff.

8:36My headphones weren't working to listen to Shiur Torah. Apparently, I had to hear this. So, the guy says, listen, I heard you have a girlfriend. Yeah, yeah, I have a girlfriend. No, I heard. Well, she's not Jewish though, right? Nah, nah, nah. I got her. She's from Colorado. Really nice girl. I took her to the Kotel. You should see it. Three, four hundred people. She goes, yeah, but she's not Jewish. He goes, yeah, yeah. She's not. Converter. Why don't you have a convert? He goes, what convert? We took her to some rabbi, then we found out the rabbi was sleeping with some girl. I'm going to take her to a different rabbi. Hashem yirachem. Hashem yerachem aleinu in a generation of such lowly people that pretend to be rabbis, but then they take advantage of people like this. Look what happened. This guy may lose his Olam Haba because of this unscrupulous rabbi. He calls himself a rabbi. We expose this. Why? Because we want to tell you and anyone that's watching today or whenever, This is not the face of Judaism. This is not the Torah. This has nothing to do with Hashem. It has to do with reshaim. It has to do with evil people. They pretend to represent Hashem, but they don't. Some people wear a costume once a year. The Jews, they wear a costume once a year for Purim. The goyim, if they celebrate their Christian falsehood, they celebrate Halloween.

9:57Full of Avodah Zarah. So they wear a costume once a year. L'havdil, Am Yisrael wears a costume once a year. But then there are some people whose whole life is one big costume. Their whole life is one big costume. So anytime you see somebody that appears to be an Eved Hashem, they look like a servant of Hashem, they look like a Jew with a kippah and a beard and everything else, but they do something that doesn't look right—it's illegal, it's unethical, it's disgusting, it's everything in between. Just remember what I said here: this is a custom. This is a custom. That's it. Don't connect it to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and do not use it as a case for yourself, like as if you're gonna go up to Shamayim and say, "No, Hashem, I wanted to get religious, but then I heard about this guy." That's not gonna help you. That's just a test. You know, sometimes you go to a place where somebody's going to talk into a microphone at you, testing, testing, one, two, three. That's it, testing, one, two, three. Hashem is just testing your neshama. Can you hear me? Testing, testing, one, two, three. Can you hear me talking? I'm showing you this. Are you going to say, "This is me," or are you going to look at the good people and say, "This is me"? Which one? Testing, testing—your neshama—is your neshama receptive to good, or only to bad? Are you looking for excuses, or are you looking for good?

11:16Looking for the truth? If you're looking for excuses, testing one, two, three, check. Okay, that's you. You were looking; you got it. If you were looking for good testing, not just no sound, no sound, no sound—I need the truth. Okay, there's a shiur in Sunny Isles every Sunday night at 9 o'clock. Yeah, but I'm in Jamaica. Okay, so you listen to the internet. Oh. Oh, okay. Someone who comes to be purified, Hashem says, "I'll give you a hand. I'll send you the internet. I'll give you an internet generation where there are so many lowly people, and you can still access the truth even if you are in the middle of nowhere."

12:42I'm sorry, but without specific text provided, I am unable to execute the corrections. Please provide the text that needs to be edited. Thank you.