Elul In The End Of Days What Can I Do Before Its Too Late

0:01Thank you again for having me. We had a great Shabbaton. We talked about a lot. We went through a lot. We went through an experience together. We talked about Emunah. We talked about Teshuva. My personal story entertained a few people. Thank you again for having me. We had a great Shabbaton. We talked about a lot. We went through a lot. We went through an experience together. We talked about Emunah. We talked about Teshuva. My personal story entertained a few people.

1:18We just had another lecture with a group of teenagers and early 20s young people, Baruch Hashem, that were very interested in learning the truth about Hashem. Unfortunately, it wasn’t surprising, but one of the comments that continues to shock me is when I hear them saying, “Wow, how come I never heard this from any other rabbi?” How come no other rabbi told me that it's so bad to violate Shabbat, waste seed, or intermarry? Why didn't anybody else talk about it? I said, well, that's the reason why I provide sources in the lectures. You don't think that I made it up. Because if you look at my intelligence in comparison to Chazal, I'm not enough to be a toenail. So you have to use their source, which is the Torah itself.

2:19Why doesn't anybody else mention it, or why do very few, better said, mention it? Well, it has to do with today's subject, which, Baruch Hashem, we'll talk about a little bit. It has to do with the very same sin that got us in trouble at Mount Sinai. Now, most of you are probably thinking about avodah zarah, of the golden calf. you're partly right. Yes, it's the avodah zarah, the golden calf. But it's not the golden calf. It's called money. The golden calf in today's world is called the dollar bill. And the dollar bill has a verse on it that I've mentioned in a few lectures and people always enjoy. But it also makes me sad that it's true. That on the dollar bill it says, "In God We Trust." And most people translate it literally, where they think that they're talking about the dollar being God. So, the reality of it is that we're facing a world where people are worshipping an idol, and they don't even know that they're doing it. We are in Mitzrayim, but we don't even realize that we're slaves. That's the difference between us and the generation of Moshe Rabbeinu.

3:43This is not to speak necessarily badly about the United States, which provides us certain freedoms and privileges, but the state of spirituality that we live in today is as distant as it was when we were slaves in Egypt, when we were in the 49th level of Tumah, of impurity. And one of the main reasons that we got to that level in the first place is the very same reason why we very easily fell for the sin of idol worship. It was money. In the Gemara Masechet Megillah, Moshe Rabbeinu complains to Hashem. He says, "You know, Hashem, why are You going to punish Am Yisrael for worshipping an idol when it's partly Your fault? Why did You give them so much gold?" When they left Egypt, the Egyptians were begging them to leave. And part of the convincing was that they gave them a bunch of gold and silver. On top of that, as if that gold wasn't enough, when we got to the Yam Suf, we found one of the three treasures of Yosef HaTzaddik.

4:59He split the wealth of Egypt into three places, and one of the locations where he hid the treasure was right next to Yam Suf, and Am Yisrael found it. So, everyone became a millionaire overnight. Hashem, if You didn't give them all this gold, they wouldn't have had enough gold to build a golden calf. It's partly our fault. If this wasn't written in the Gemara, I wouldn't be allowed to say it. And Hashem took it into account. Moses was a good leader and a good lawyer too. He saved us every parasha for almost two months straight. But Hashem took it into account and He said, okay, they'll have another chance, but unfortunately, we continued sinning. Nonetheless, the very same thing that got us in trouble 3,300 years ago, God is in trouble repeatedly, almost every single generation, with the most recent before today being during the Holocaust. Anyone who looks at the history books and sees the Jewish people before the Holocaust started would see that the Jewish people were in very good positions. They were politicians, they were business leaders, they were on top. Germany was the America of its day.

6:26A lot of Jews in positions of power, feeling comfortable, feeling at home, and forgetting that they're Jewish. And as Hashem says in His Torah, in one of His prophecies in Parashat Ki Tavo, if you won't serve Me, then you'll serve your enemy. And this, unfortunately, is one of the things that happened during the Holocaust. where many Jews turned into the servants of the Nazis in order to punish their own brothers and sisters. So here we see that on one end, obviously, as we've already learned throughout this weekend and Baruch Hashem in the Torah every week, Hashem is not kidding. And two, we keep making the same mistakes. So what's the source of all of this? Chodesh Elul that we find ourselves in is an opportunity for each one of us to do serious teshuva. There's teshuva, and then there's serious teshuva. Decide which one you want to do. The teshuva that some people do, they come to Moshe, they realize that violation of Shabbat is worse than murder. They realize that a woman who is not modest

7:49is failing her test, even if she has guests at her house every day of the week, even if she's very generous and donates money, even if her husband is the happiest guy alive. If she's not modest, she's failing her test. She needs to become modest. Some people become modest, but they still violate Shabbat. Some people keep Shabbat but they're still walking around with a miniskirt or a tank top. Some people do both, but they still feel free going to non-kosher restaurants and eat salad, thinking it's okay. No, it's only salad, k'vod harav. Oh, okay. Well, just in case someone doesn't know, eating a salad in a non-kosher place is most likely worse than eating pig. The reason is, when you eat pig, It's one violation. You eat a salad, it could be six. Why? Because unlike the Jews that are obligated to clean their salad and remove the bugs, the goyim are not. So you're not going to see the guy at Subway when he's making a sandwich cleaning the chasa, cleaning the lettuce over and over again with salt and cleaning products to make sure there are no bugs that are still alive, no bugs to be seen. It's a factory.

9:19He makes a sandwich, puts it in, thank you very much, $7. The deli, same thing. The restaurant, same thing. It could be a five-star restaurant. They don't think the way we do because they're not obligated by it. So you're thinking that you're eating a kosher salad because it's just a salad, and you're eating a nice little worm, or maybe a few wings. with a nice, different type of maggot, you have yourself a problem. You just violated five sins from the Torah. It's worse than eating pig. Don't eat salad in non-kosher places. If it's not kosher, there's a reason for it. And it's definitely not the rabbi's fault. So, this teshuva, that's that type of teshuva. We do half. Half. We pick and choose. We take this one, we take that one. It's like a salad. We make a salad of our teshuva. We take this mitzvah, okay, this is convenient. We take that one, yeah, the kosher store is right next to my house. Okay, I'll eat kosher too. Shabbat, yeah, you know what, it's a vacation once a week, fine. Oh, stealing? No, I need to steal. It's my business. So we make a salad out of mitzvot. And you went with me with casualness, meaning you treated my Torah with casualness, like you can pick and choose which mitzvot to follow because you like them, and which you don't follow because you don't feel like it.

10:51Then Hashem says, "Then I will go with you with double keri. I will go with you with a fury of keri, a fury of casualness. You treat Me with casualness and I'll treat you with casualness at the most inconvenient times." So remember the story that I told all of you, or most of you, last night? When I came out of the surgery and I was screaming and no one could do anything about it? That's the time. That's the time when Hashem doesn't want to answer you. That's the time when the pain doesn't stop. That's what He means when He says, "I will go with you with keri." When you're praying and you don't get any answers, that's because you treated My Torah like it's a phone book. So, now that we know that being half-hearted with teshuva can get us into a little trouble at the most inappropriate times, let's talk about real teshuva.

11:52Shlomo HaMelech, in one of the most important Mussar books in history, if not the most, Sefer Mishlei, one of the 24 books of the Torah, full of Mussar, says to us, "Cling tightly to ethical discipline, meaning Mussar; do not lose guard, I'm sorry, do not lose discipline." Guard it carefully, for it is your life. This is Sefer Mishlei, Proverbs 4:13. The wisest man of all time is telling you that hearing some things of Mussar, hearing some things that are a little bit on your head once in a while, hearing some things that are making you feel a little uncomfortable with your current status, is not only healthy, it's necessary. It's not just the medicine; it's the vitamins too. And one of the main things that we need to understand is that the foundation of connection to Hashem is based on Yirat Shamayim. When you start considering Hashem as a permanent part of your life,

13:13You will live the verse that's in most kehillot, they have it on the wall or in different places where it says, "Shiviti Hashem lenegdi tamid"—that I regarded Hashem as if He's next to me at all times. Okay, so you believe that Hashem is next to you, what does it mean? If you really believe that Hashem is next to you, then obviously you believe that He's watching. And if He's watching... then when you're sinning, He also sees firsthand. He doesn't get secondhand information from some angel that's far, far away. He's watching you. So when you're about to put the tank top on, He's watching. When you're about to overcharge the customer, He's watching. When you're about to commit any single sin or perform any single mitzvah, He's watching. And if He's watching, we think about it twice.

14:19Rabbi Yosefi once was in a taxi, and they were driving on a highway when he sees the taxi driver becoming white and starting to shake. He says, "What's wrong? What's wrong?" The guy didn't answer; he just keeps looking in the mirror, keeps looking in the mirror, and eventually, he pulls over to relax. Rabbi Yosefi says, "What's wrong? What happened? Are you okay? Are you healthy?" He goes, "No, I was driving 20 miles over the speed limit and I passed a cop." So Rabbi Yosefi starts saying, "Give me a bracha right now. Give me a bracha right now." He goes, "Me give you a bracha? You're the rabbi." He goes, "Give me a bracha right now." He goes, "Okay, okay. What do you want, Rebbe? What do you want?" "Give me a bracha that I will fear God as much as you fear the police."

15:24This is the truth. If we feared God as much as we fear the police, we'd be more righteous. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says the most important lesson that someone needs to learn in their process of teshuva, in the process of connecting to Hashem Yitbarach, is fear of the Almighty. Being scared of Hashem. Source? Nothing less than Avraham Avinu. Poor father, he knows a few things. All of us in our tefillah remind ourselves of the Akeidat Yitzchak, where Avraham Avinu was willing to slaughter and sacrifice his son for Hashem, until Hashem Yitbarach has mercy and He says, no, this is not what I meant. Don't put your hand on the young lad.

16:26Go catch a ram and slaughter it instead. This is obviously in my own words. And from here we learn what Hashem really considers special. Because at this point, Chazal say that Avraham Avinu already went through nine tests. Meaning this wasn't the first test. The first test was when he jumped into the fire. Instead of worshipping idols. When Nimrod HaRasha told him either bow to my idol or be thrown into the fire, Avraham Avinu didn't wait; he just jumped instead. And the angel screamed to Hashem saying, "Can we be the ones to save him?" And the Midrash says, Hashem said, "He's Avraham HaIvri, he's by himself. He's on one side of the world as the only monotheistic person."

17:26and I'm also one. I'll go save him myself. So this very same Avraham, who achieved the ultimate level of Yirat Shamayim, the ultimate level of help from Hashem, received a compliment from Hashem after the Akeidat Yitzchak. The highest compliment that he got during his life. After He put Yitzchak, he tied him up, and Hashem says, stop, this is what happens. In chapter 22 of the Sefer Bereishit, Genesis, Hashem says, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, nor do anything to him, for now I know you are a God-fearing man." Hashem says, "Don't touch him because now I know you fear Me. Now you know what? When I jumped into the fire, it wasn't enough. The other eight tests weren't enough. Hashem is telling Avraham Avinu, 'Now you got to the highest level of fear of Hashem.'"

18:50The lowest level of fear of Hashem is fear of punishment. We talked about it a little bit earlier today to the teenagers. Hopefully, they can sleep tonight, b'ezrat Hashem. But we need some yirat Shamayim in our life. The lowest level is fearing punishment. You know the story you heard yesterday? People get scared after they hear it. They're motivated, but they also get scared. I don't want that to happen to me. No one wants it to happen to him. So it's good. It's the first level of Yirat Shamayim. Avraham Avinu got to the level of Yirat Shamayim of fearing that punishment. He already endured punishment his whole life. At this point, he got to the highest level of Yirat Shamayim, which is fearing hurting the relationship with Hashem Yitbarach. Fearing a disconnect. Like a relationship between a man and his wife.

19:50The man is not, usually at least, scared that his wife is going to beat him up. Usually, the wife, if she married a normal person—which we're running out of in this world—is not afraid of her husband beating her up. So why don't they just yell at each other and disrespect each other like animals? Because they fear hurting the connection. They're not scared that it's going to be a fist fight. They're scared that the other person is going to be upset. And if he's upset, I'm upset. And then there's a disconnect. And I don't want to disconnect with my wife, chas v'shalom. I'll do anything for my wife. And you start thinking about it, and you already start suffering in your mind just thinking, what would happen if I do this, this, and this that would actually offend my wife? This is if you care about your wife. And the same thing with the wife. Oh, if I make this, he hates this food. If I make this, he's going to be upset. And if he's upset, then I'm going to be upset. And if I'm upset, then we're not going to talk for probably the next five or six minutes. And that's not good. Or sometimes it's okay.

21:13But the point is that when there's a healthy relationship, the biggest fear that there is, is hurting that relationship. This is the highest level of Yirat Shamayim. And Chazal says that the highest level of Yirat Shamayim is the beginning of loving Hashem. The beginning. So when you hear sometimes teachings in today's generation, where they tell you, no, you're supposed to love Hashem, it says in Shema Yisrael, it's nice. It's just not appropriate for most people that live today because we don't even know what Yirat Shamayim is at the highest level yet to know what Ahavat Hashem is. I'm not saying you're not obligated to love Hashem. You are. But you can't love Him if you don't fear Him. As Chazal say, and I think I mentioned it earlier today, or at least yesterday, a connection with Hashem Yitbarach that's only based out of fear is a connection, but it's an incomplete one. Meaning that the ideal connection is fear and love, a balance of both. So if it's just fear, it's incomplete. So what about if I just have love?

22:35Well, the very same Chazal, the very same sages, say, "Oh, just love? It's no connection at all. It's nothing. It's impossible." And the reason why is because you can't love something if you don't know what it is. And if you knew what Hashem was, or even 1% of the 1% that you're able to know, of course you're going to be scared. That means that you'll have both Ahava and Yirah. You can't just have Ahava. And the highest level of compliment during Avraham Avinu's life is that he had Yirat Shamayim. So it's not such a bad thing to have, like people think today. Once we have Yirat Shamayim, the rest of the shiur applies to us. The Midrash says that if Adam HaRishon Instead of saying, "It's the wife, it's the woman You gave me. She led me to eat," if instead of saying that, he had said, "I sinned, Hashem," the Midrash says that Hashem would have forgiven him and he would have stayed in Gan Eden. Just a simple word would have been enough.

24:05I made a sin, Hashem. I'm sorry. Sorry goes a long way with Hashem. We should say it more often. There are a lot of famous stories about him. Tell us something about Elul. Tell us something about the month of Elul. He says, sure, let me give you a parable. There was one time, there were two thieves, one driver, and a horse, a horse carriage, and they were all going into town, and they had a stolen treasure in the back. As soon as they were about to enter the town, they saw there was a checkpoint, a bunch of guards looking for thieves.

25:06The thieves are worried; they stole. The driver is worried; he's a driver. Maybe they'll accuse him of being part of the crime. Who's the only one that's not scared? The horse is not scared. He didn't steal anything, so he keeps going. And the Maggid from Dubno says, David HaMelech taught us this very same lesson. In Psalm 32, verse 9, don't be like a horse or a donkey. You're the thief, or at the very least, when you enter the month of Elul, you're the driver. You have something to be scared about. You have to do teshuva. We're definitely not the horse that's innocent.

26:06In Gemara Masechet Chullin, page seven, it explains a common question that we hear today. A lot of people go through suffering, whether it's a broken fingernail, a flat tire, you bought the wrong size shirt, your son failed in school, wake up with a cold. All types of things. Different suffering for different types of people. And everyone always looks up and says, "Huh, why? Why, Hashem?" When Gemara Masechet Chullin, it tells you why. It says there's no such person that gets an injury on his finger. down in this world, without there being a righteous reason for it in the upper world. Translation: there's no suffering without sin. It's called kaparat avonot for a reason. Meaning, anything that we're suffering for, there's a reason for it.

27:30either we've sinned in this life, or perhaps in a previous life, but nonetheless we've sinned. There's a reason for it. Now, suffering, though, is a choice. You don't have to suffer. Because once you understand what kaparat avonot is, once you understand what suffering is, and its essence as an atonement for your sins, You could change it and actually look at it as less than suffering. And if you get to a really, really high level of Yirat Shamayim and Ahavat Hashem, you may even get to a point of actually welcoming it, like some of the sages did in the past. We're not going to get there overnight, but let's explain how we can get there. If I know... that me taking a coin out of my pocket, and instead of it being a quarter, it's a dime. In Shamayim, it's considered suffering. Obviously, a very low form of suffering, but suffering nonetheless. The surgery, where I screamed for 62 days, is a higher level of suffering than the coin. I prefer the coin. I'm sure you do too. But both of them are different levels of suffering.

28:50Once we look at it from the general secular perspective, which is, why is this happening to me? It's not nice. Why is Hashem doing this to me? And we treat ourselves like victims. Then that means that we are suffering 24 hours a day, every single day that we're alive, with moments of happiness in between. We are always suffering. Always wake up suffering, go to sleep suffering, and in between suffering. Maybe once a year we go on a break for a vacation to Tahiti or something, and while we're looking at the beach, we're not suffering until the waiter comes with the wrong drink, and then we're suffering again. But in general, we're always suffering. If we are victims, if we're not at fault, life is terrible. It's awful. It's depressing. Why would you want to live a week? You're always going to suffer. You're guaranteed to suffer. There's even t-shirts they made and sell in flea markets that tell you to expect to suffer. I can't say it because it's foul language. But I'm a vinishmartem. The point is that life without understanding the purpose of suffering is awful. And this is why we have so many depressed people.

30:15Because the psychiatrists tell us, "I can't really help you, but I'll listen to you for $350 an hour." I went to one one time, and I think it was $350 or $400 an hour. But as soon as I got to exactly one hour, he says, "Yeah, thank you very much, but we're going to have to continue this next week." I'm like spilling my heart out, and the guy tells me, "We're done now. We're going to continue next week." I'm like, "Wow, you care so much. I don't think I'm going to see you again." So a psychiatrist tells us, "Thank you. I'll listen to you, but I can't actually help you." If someone has an addiction, which we talked about earlier today briefly... you have a drug addiction, you have an alcohol addiction, you have a sex addiction, all types of crazy addictions this generation has. You go to an AA meeting that's in a church, surrounded by idol worship, and they tell you, yes, this is a disease, and you're going to suffer from it forever unless you come here. Meaning there's no cure to the disease, to being a drug addict, to the disease, to being...

31:34Any type of addict. And by the way, thank you for coming. If we think that way, then yes, we have a disease and it's not curable. But once we realize that it's not a disease, once we realize that Da'as Torah, the wisdom of the Torah, tells us that there is no such thing as a disease such as alcoholism, or drug addiction, or any type of addiction. It's a desire. That's it. It's just a desire. Some people have more of a desire than others, but it's a desire. How do we know it's a desire? You weren't born with it, and you can stop. It may be hard for you to stop, but you can stop without taking medicine. Pfizer is not making drugs to help people stop taking drugs because that would take them out of business.

32:37The people out there that have quit taking drugs or alcohol or any type of other addiction, in many cases, realize that it's just a choice. Once you realize it's a desire, then you realize it's a choice. Once you realize it's a choice, then you start making the right choice. Or at least you have a chance of making the right choice. But as long as you listen to these people who tell you it's not a choice, that you have to come here in order to stay away from making this choice, then unfortunately, you really do have a disease, which is called stupidity, not drug addiction. So, once we realize that we have a lot of choices to make, We realize that one of our choices is to understand that there's a different perspective from which we can view our suffering. We do not have to view it like most people. We do not have to view it as a negative thing. We do not have to view it as though we are victims. We can view it as having a purpose.

33:48Once you see that, okay, wait a minute. This God is a holy God. It's a good God. He created me. If He wanted me purely to just suffer, it wouldn't be in this world. There's a much, much more intense place called Gehenom. He could send me there. Why make me suffer here? Meaning that as long as you're here, you're not here to suffer. There is a higher purpose. Suffering is done somewhere else—Kaf HaKela, Gehenom. Other places. Not here. Meaning that the suffering that you do here has a purpose. And part of it is to clean you up. Part of it is to make sure that you're ready for a better place. And that requires you to become less stubborn. Chazal say that if Am Yisrael did not go to Egypt, They would never have had the merit to receive the Torah. They were too stubborn of a people and completely intolerable by the rest of mankind. So they had to go through years and years of suffering in order to soften up their character. And even then, we have ourselves today, we're still stubborn. But Baruch Hashem, this stubbornness is also what has kept us Jewish.

35:14No other nation would have survived with as much persecution as our brothers and sisters have gone through. We would just quit, start something new, like the Christians start every other day. There's a new sect—Protestants and this one and that one and Seventh Day Adventists. There's a new thing every week. Now, they started a new movement in recent years called the Messianic Movement, but they call themselves Jews. ...100% Christianity, but now they call themselves Jews and created a new name for their idol. They chose a name from the Torah called Yeshu. Why? Because the other one is not in the Torah, so they stopped having a fight. So they created a new name. They added a few letters. Only in this generation. So you see that nonsense continues. But nonetheless, our nation... ...continues to have a choice. Hashem continues to bring us back to the world, but at the same time continues to let us suffer. There's no end of suffering that I hear every day, every week. Someone calls me with a different story, whether it's a health crisis, marriage crisis, money crisis, or any other crisis in between. It never ends. The real job of kiruv starts after the lecture, after you leave, and it's all wonderful. That's when it really starts. That's the 20 hours a day. The lecture is the fun part...

36:42The real key work starts after. It's also fulfilling, but it's much harder work than just talking. So if I viewed suffering as a miserable, horrendous situation, no one should ever call me. What could I do? Yes, I'm sorry to hear you're suffering. She could have paid $350 somewhere else and helped somebody make a living with that instead of doing it for free with me. Why call me and tell me you're suffering if I agree with you that you're suffering? Why tell me that you're going through trouble and there's no point? There is a point. The reason why people call me is because I explain to them what the possibility of the point is.

37:42The point is that you probably made some type of sin at some point. And Hashem sees that you're authentic and you're realistic and you are trying to do teshuva. And therefore He says, listen, my son or my daughter, I love you. I see that you're trying to become modest. I see that you're trying to keep Shabbat, keep kosher, keep the mitzvot, keep teshuva. I see that you're actually learning Torah for real and you're not just playing video games and watching TV. I see that you're actually trying. So, there's a tab that you still owe me for the previous sins before you did teshuva. You have to pay for it. You have two choices. You could pay for it here for a year, two years, three years, or four. Or, where I am. There's a section, a department called Gehenom, and The sentences are very, very long because there's no time there, because there's no material. And if you compare the time there to here, it could be millions of years for just one small sin. So He already knows which choice we would pick if He asked us. So He makes it for us. So it's okay, you're going to suffer for a year instead of suffering for a million. Much, much worse.

39:06and when you get up there and you finally find the news, say, "Thank you, Hashem." This was worth it. It's a good deal. So now when you realize, okay, there is a deal to be made. I have to pay for something. Therefore, this is why it's happening. The second thing is, if we have our Torah that we look at, can anyone name The only character in the entire Torah, one character, one person, that had a life full of enjoyment. From the beginning of Bereishit all the way to the end of the Tanakh. Can anyone tell me who that person was? His whole life from beginning to end was just joy. Hmm? Shlomo HaMelech? Well, his father died before his time. At the end of his books, it says that Hashem was upset at him and he realized that he was wrong. But we're close, right? Avraham? He went through ten tests. One of them was jumping into the fire. And the other one was his son almost dying because he was the one that had to kill him. And as soon as he passed that test, he came back and found out that his wife had died. Ah, that's the answer. There is no such person.

40:33The entire Torah does not have such a person that did not suffer. But the entire Torah is full of the most righteous people that ever lived. And we find out in last week's parasha that Hashem is telling us, "I test you and torture you to see if you love Me." You get tests, you get suffering, you get... All of these things we call bad because Hashem is trying to build you. What is it like? If anyone ever spent some time in a gym, he'd realize that it's torture. You go there and, you know, when I was a teenager, I used to work out. I used to be on a football team. I looked a little bit like a gorilla and had all these muscles, and I was lifting weights and It felt great. But in reality, it's torture. What do you do? You go there. You left the house, and you're in a massive amount of pain after. You get home because you're sore. But you're excited when you look in the mirror because your muscles are gigantic and you're big. In reality, if you actually looked under the skin at what's happening under your skin,

41:58You see that the only reason why your muscles are puffy is because they're all ripped to shreds. So it's actually swelling that is the reason why you're puffy. That's why someone who's built is called "ripped," because his muscles are constantly ripped. And he's constantly puffy. But that's the only way to grow. If you want to grow, if you want to be a football player, a bodybuilder, or just in good shape. You have to constantly rip your muscles on a daily basis. And if you even just want to maintain, it has to be at least four to five times a week. You have to spend a solid hour to an hour and a half in a gym actually lifting weights and not just looking at the jacuzzi wondering how much fun it's going to be when you jump in. You actually have to lift weights. One week you lift 10 pounds. A few months later, you're lifting 50, a few months later, you're lifting 100, a few years later, you're lifting 300, maybe down the road, you'll lift a house. The point is you keep lifting more and more weight because the old weight, the old test, is not effective anymore. The small test doesn't count anymore. When you first start doing teshuva, your biggest problem in life is whether you're going to pray on time or not, whether you're going to lay tefillin or not.

43:25Am I going to go to the beit knesset on Shabbat or just pray at home? That's the test when you first start doing teshuva. After a while, it's not so hard. You start going to the beit knesset, you become part of the kehillah, you start liking people, you start socializing, you lay tefillin, you start learning Torah. And then the next test comes. Mr. Jones, your stock portfolio has gone to zero. As a matter of fact, you have a margin call of $150,000. Please wire the money or we'll sue you. Your next question is, your next test is, what are you going to do? Are you going to steal at the next opportunity and violate one of the sins of the Torah? Or are you going to say, thank you, Hashem, You just saved my life. Because the Torah says that, as we talked about last night, Hashem only takes your money for two reasons. One, it's instead of your life. And two, because you're ruining your life. So, if someone actually knew that when they lose money, it's in their best interest, when they lose money, they say thank you.

44:53I don't see that many people saying thank you. But that's Emunah. That's when you believe in Hashem to the highest level. We'll get to B'ezrat Hashem. Abarbanel, one of the Gedolei HaDor of previous generations, was one of the main people that helped the king, the goy king, and he was used as his treasurer because he was very smart. Even the non-Jews valued Jewish wisdom, but nonetheless, the other servants of the king didn't like this Jew being responsible for the country's money. So they continued with their little chit-chat of anti-Semitism, and they would whisper into the king's ear constantly, "Maybe this guy's stealing, maybe he's this, maybe he's that." And eventually, it wore on the king. And the king saw the Abarbanel walking in the street, and he says, "Where are you going?" He says, "I don't know."

46:19What kind of answer is that? One of the smartest men in the entire world? Just walking aimlessly? Doesn't know where he's going? So the king was offended that he's treating him like a fool, so he asked him the next question. So how much money do you have? And the Abarbanel says, takes out a book, says, gives him an amount, The king knows it is not even two years' salary for Abarbanel, and he already knows he has a big house and wealth. He pays him, he knows how much money he has. The king says, "Ah, you're the thief," and immediately gets angry and furious and throws him in jail. A few days pass, and the king continues to think about his friend, Abarbanel. I don't understand. He's the smartest man in the country, probably one of the smartest, if not the smartest in the world. And I asked him two simple questions, and he gives me the silliest responses I've ever heard. It doesn't make sense. So he goes to the prison. He says, I have to ask you, why did you give me such stupid answers? "No, Your Highness, I gave you the right answers."

47:47When you asked me where I'm going, I told you I don't know. But if you would have asked me where do I think I'm going, I thought I was going to the castle. But instead, as you can see, you stopped me and threw me into jail. So I intended on going to the castle, but instead I went to jail. "Okay, fine, fine, smart guy." When I ask you how much money you have, how come you only told me maybe a year or two years' worth of salary? I know you have a lot more. Just your house is worth ten times that. He says, "Your Highness, you ask me how much money do I have? The only money I have is the money that I can take with me to Olam HaBa." And that's the tzedakah that I gave, and I have a book in my pocket. It tells me exactly how much tzedakah I've given because I write down every time I give tzedakah. When I show up, it's the only money that they'll count. The money here, it's not mine. As you can see, you threw me in jail and you took all of my wealth in an instant. It's obviously not mine.

49:02Chazal say that when there is a decree from Shamayim, a heavy decree, a terrible decree, three things can change and turn the tides, transforming the suffering into something completely different: doing teshuva, praying, and giving tzedakah. By doing teshuva, we've talked about this several times throughout the last few days. As I told you, Pirkei Avot in the Mishnah, which was written well before the Gemara, somewhere around 2,500 years ago, tells us that the reward we get in this world is for our effort, our genuine effort. not necessarily for our execution. Because even though we have 613 biblical mitzvot and another seven rabbinical mitzvot, no one person can fulfill all 620, not because it's okay to fail, but rather because it's not for any one person. Not everyone is a Kohen, not everyone is a woman, not everyone is an Yisrael. You have somewhere around a third of them that we are actually responsible for. But most people don't even know 50 by heart.

50:26If you ask most people, even if they're religious from birth, to name a hundred mitzvot by heart out of the 613, a lot of people won't know it by heart. If you tell them, "Do you remember this one?" they'll probably say yes. But knowing it by heart is a different story. So, how do we do it? How do we fulfill it if we don't even know them? The key is to learn, but the second part is to make sure that we are considering the fact that Hashem is watching at all times, and we are being genuine with our teshuva. We must be 100% real with ourselves and not lie to ourselves, thinking that we're fooling Hashem in the process of determining whether our next action or step is a mitzvah or an aveirah. When you're stealing, you know you're stealing. When you're cheating, you know you're cheating. No woman who walks around with a mini skirt or a tight dress thinks that she's modest, even if she says she is. You know you're not. Why? Because you know what modesty looks like. It's not defined by a dress that's the second layer of skin.

51:41Same thing with someone who's not honest. He knows he's not being honest. Even if he's lying to himself and convincing himself that he's a tzaddik, deep inside, he knows he's not honest. So you have to be real with yourself. Why? Because when you get up to Shamayim, you can't lie to them. And you definitely can't lie to Hashem. This is why our effort, our genuine effort, is what counts. Hashem knows what you can and can't do and what level you stand at. He knows that at this point, you just started doing teshuva. For Him to expect you to learn 12 hours a day is just not realistic. He created you; He knows you. But He knows you can learn an hour, maybe even an hour and a half. And if you spend that hour, hour and a half, watching a baseball game, you'll get punished for it. Why? Because you could have learned for an hour or an hour and a half and eventually got to 12 hours, eventually got to two hours even. You missed out on a reward, you missed out on an opportunity, and you missed your purpose in life. For that hour and a half, you watched baseball or football or some other frivolous sport of people throwing a ball and getting paid $25 million a year to do that and everyone talking about how much money they make for some reason.

52:59So we know that teshuva, the first step, has to be serious. It's time to wake up. Tefillah, you know if you're praying or you're just here to socialize. You come to Beit Knesset, if you're looking at a magazine during a tefillah, you're not praying. You're looking at a magazine. If you come to Beit Knesset and you know everybody's name by heart and you know what everybody does for a living and how much he makes, he makes, he makes, he makes, you didn't come here to pray, you came here to socialize. If you don't even notice who's sitting next to you for the last three months, there's a possibility that you are praying. Because the only thing that matters in a Beit Knesset is Hashem. That's it. The only thing that matters. If you came to pray to Hashem, Chazak U'Baruch, you fulfilled the second part. That's Tefillah. If at some point the mom cries over her children, and asks Hashem for mercy to help her kids do teshuva, now you're praying, mom. But if you're encouraging your kid to go on vacation to Cancun because he needs a good time, because his girlfriend just broke up with him, you're not being a good mother. That's not praying. There are many parents that are doing that. They say, "No, no, she just broke his heart. Go, go, Habibi, go, go to Cancun and

54:26Find three girlfriends this weekend. Go. You need it for relaxation. The psychiatrist who charges $400 an hour told us so. The same one that tells people that they can have two wives and three wives at the same time. So we know the second part. Tefillah has to be serious. It's time for us to pray. Women, you have a much easier time crying. Use that talent. Use it. It's a privilege. It's the only gate in Heaven that doesn't close. The tears of a mother. You have children that go into struggles. You have a husband that doesn't know why he's alive. You have relatives that have no clue what's the purpose. You love Am Yisrael, start crying. Cry to Hashem. Because that's the only thing that's going to save us at the end of times. It's what saved us in Egypt. It's what's going to save us before the Mashiach comes. Your tears. If you don't use that talent, you're wasting it. Give it to me, please. No, obviously, we cry with a purpose. Don't just cry complaining to Hashem, "How come I don't have a million dollars today?"

55:47Cry for a real reason. Cry for Israel. Cry for your children to become tzaddikim. Cry for your husband to become a talmid chacham. Cry with a purpose. Cry for people to do teshuvah. Cry for you to do teshuvah. Cry to connect to Hashem. I can't tell this to men because it's not cool to cry. So, okay, so we know what tefillah is, let's start using it. Step two. These are obviously a brief description of each step. If we cover the details of each one, we'll be here till next week and my flight's tomorrow morning. The next place is the one that I want to spend the rest of this shiur talking about. And that's tzedakah. Not because I'm looking for tzedakah. If anyone wants to give, they're more than welcome to. But that's not the reason I'm mentioning it. The reason I'm mentioning it is because that's what we started this shiur with. And that's the very same reason we've gotten into trouble for the last 3,300 plus years. Money. Money is this generation's version of Avodah Zarah. Tzedakah is like a bad word in Hebrew. People think that if they give a dollar to the homeless guy, they're Tzadikim, despite the fact that they have a million and a half dollar house.

57:09and a portfolio that's worth more money than they need, they don't consider that to be inappropriate. It's okay to have nice things, but it's not okay to have these nice things while the people around you that are actually trying to serve Hashem, the people around you that are struggling to have food to feed their kids, have no other place other than you. This is something we must deeply contemplate. The story of one of the tzaddikim, the Baal Shem Tov. During Yom Kippur, which is coming soon, b'ezrat Hashem, it's a day of appeal. Rosh Hashanah is the day of judgment. It's where Hashem decides our fate. And in case that fate is not so good, we have ten days to appeal, with the last day being Yom Kippur.

58:10Before I did teshuvah, I used to think that Rosh Hashanah is a nice holiday we should celebrate and enjoy eating food. And Yom Kippur is just a bunch of people torturing themselves for no reason. Okay, maybe there's some judgment there, but I didn't realize that it's not even a day of judgment; it's just a day of appeal. Meaning it's your last shot to turn things around. The judgment was already made. Someone was already decreed from Shamayim to be guilty of murder. And you're trying to appeal so you don't have to serve life in jail. So Rosh Hashanah, it's a big day. Yom Kippur, it's the last opportunity, so a lot of people consider it even bigger. That's why we have seven aliyot to the Torah on Yom Kippur, which is the highest in the entire year, except for one day that we have every week called Shabbat, showing us that Shabbat is even more than Yom Kippur. But the Baal Shem Tov, during the break that they had between the tefillah, a short break during the day for maybe an hour and a half or so, saw one of the gvirim, one of the rich people of the city, staying in the beit knesset and crying his heart out. If someone today started crying in the beit knesset at all, you'd think he's already a gadol hador.

59:35He's crying at a time that we're not even praying. He's just taking extra prayers upon himself. One of the greatest tzaddikim of the generation. But instead, the Baal Shem Tov says, "You traitor. Stop taking other people's job." The rich man is shocked. He says, "I thought I was a tzaddik." praying to Hashem in the break. I already prayed all day. I already prayed all night. Now I'm praying during the time we have a break between the next prayer. Not much of a break, but I'm praying even then. And on top of it, I'm crying. And he says I'm a traitor? It doesn't make any sense. The Baal Shem Tov says, Hashem gave you a lot of money. And instead of using that money to help the people... They're learning His Torah, fulfilling the purpose of the world. You're not using that money for any of that. You're using it to buy your houses and everything else that you want. And instead, you come here and pretend to be like one of them and take their job during the holidays and cry to Hashem. Serve your purpose because that's the only reason why Hashem gave it to you. You can't pretend to be something that you're not.

1:01:00If Hashem gave you money, there's a reason. Yes, you're entitled to have a nice house and a nice car and a nice family and a nice everything. But you can't forget your brothers and sisters. Why do we forget? Why do we tend to forget so many people? In Hebrew, you call it resh'anut. In English, it's called greed. Greed. And the Gemara says that you give a person 100 and he wants 200. You give him 200, he wants 400. You give him 400, he wants 800. Meaning that the more you give someone, the more they'll want. It's a natural yetzer hara, human instinct that we have. Which means that the guy that only has $100 to his name only feels like he's missing 100. The guy that has 10 million feels, literally, that he's missing 10 million. I can tell you from experience, it's 100% right. You feel like you're supposed to have more. The more you have, the more you feel like you're supposed to have more. When I made 5 million, I said, ah, b'ezrat Hashem, I'll start living when I'm making 10. This is really what it was. Yes, I can walk into any store and not look at the price tag. But you still feel like you're supposed to have more. People mistake greed for ambition, right?

1:02:30The two are worlds apart. There's nothing more different than the two, but there's nothing that's more confused than the two. One of the people that confused ambition and greed is King Achav. King Achav was not just a regular king. King Achav was selected by God. He was such a big Talmid Chacham that he was able to give a shiur Torah on any subject in the entire Torah. He would give you 127 different lectures. 127 lectures on it, different from each other. Not like me, where I use a little bit from here, a little bit from there, and make a salad. 127 different lectures about the same exact subject. Any subject. He was a king. He had Torah. But the Gemara says he has no share in the world to come. Lost it. All this Torah is lost. All of this knowledge that I wish I had. I'll give you a lot more lectures. Lost.

1:04:00How? One bad middah. One bad character trait called greed. It says that one day he woke up and realized that the prophet who was his next-door neighbor, next to his castle, had a vineyard. And he liked this vineyard. And he came to him and said, I want to buy it. He says, "I'm sorry, it's not for sale. It's been in my family through generation after generation after generation. It's not for sale." He says, "But I'll pay you a lot of money and I'll give you a vineyard that's even better." "I don't want. It's not about the money, and it's not about getting anything better. This is just in my family. It's not for sale." "Yes, but I'm going to give you something better." I understand. But I don't want anything better because there is nothing better; this has sentimental value. So, Achav, with all of his money, with all of his power, and all of his Torah, went home and became depressed. He couldn't deal with the fact that there was something in this world that he couldn't get, and he couldn't sleep all night until his wife, Izevel, came to him and said, "What's wrong?"

1:05:25And he tells her the story. We have a vineyard next to our castle and he won't give it to me, and I want it, like a little baby that wants a candy. And she says to him, "Aren't you the king?" He says, "Yes." "Well, I'm going to practice this authority for you." And she frames the prophet, who was then accused of a crime. and then shortly later sentenced to death. And as soon as someone dies, the king inherits his property. Achav inherits this property without even paying for it with any money. Instead, he just gives something else, his Olam HaBa. Having greed, Chazal says, is like drinking salt water. If you're thirsty, it doesn't matter how much you drink, your thirst will continue to increase. It's also the same thing with the horrific sin of zera levatala, wasting seed. Chazal says that, Rabbi Yochanan says in the Gemara, Masechet Niddah, I think it's page 13a, it says a man has a small organ,

1:06:51The more he feeds it, the hungrier it is. The less he feeds it, the more satisfied it is. Young teenagers today think that it's okay to go and waste seed. Parents think it's inappropriate to talk to them about it. Therefore, our teenagers have no idea what Kedushah is, what Torah is, what anything is in life. Slowly but surely, they're destroying their own lives in this generation. And no one knows why, except the guy that teaches Zera Levatala, knowing that this is the basic foundation of all sins. So, Chazal already told us that if you waste seed, this addiction is the worst addiction of all addictions. It's more difficult to stop wasting seed than to stop smoking crack. It's the worst possible addiction.

1:07:51But Chazal says it's only an addiction. It's not a disease. It's a desire. You just have to choose right. It's just a hard one to get over. Shlomo HaMelech tells us if you find honey, eat a little bit at a time. Because if you eat too much, eventually you'll vomit all of it. Because even though it's sweet and delicious, if you have too much of it, You're not going to like it so much anymore. Even if your favorite food is steak, if I feed it to you three times a day, after a month, just the word "steak" will make you vomit. The same thing goes with every sin, especially with wasting seed. You notice that people who have marriage problems usually tend to have that same problem also. Either before marriage or during marriage, they're wasting seed.

1:08:51And the reason why they tend to have a problem is because, number one, the pleasure that they're used to is no longer pleasurable, but they're addicted. Two, the wife can never satisfy the man who's unsatisfiable. The man has made so many sins he's created an army worth of demons that's torturing him on a regular basis and causing him to have marriage problems. And four, those demons notify the neshamah of the mom, of the wife, and her neshamah hates him. She knows the truth. Problems.

1:09:52When a baby is born, you see that he's already born with this middah of greed. Because he's born with his fists closed, he wants to grab everything in sight. Whereas when an old man dies, he dies with his hands open. This is according to Chazal. It's one of the things that shows us how we need to go through some suffering in order to become human beings. Usually, that happens at the end of our life. The biggest, most greedy person that's mentioned in the Torah is Pharaoh. Pharaoh was so greedy that despite getting the position of the richest man in the world due to the work of Yosef HaTzadik, one day he woke up and he decided that's not enough. He doesn't want to have competition. We have to eliminate the competition.

1:11:00And not only eliminate them, make them our slaves too. So having their money was not enough. He got to such a point that even having them as slaves was not enough. So, as the prophet Yechezkel says in chapter 29, verse 9, Pharaoh made himself into an idol. Pharaoh made himself into a god because now he viewed God as competition. punishment, Hashem took everything from him. Now, when we think about Sodom and Gomorrah, usually it's the whole issue of modesty. There's no modesty in Sodom and Gomorrah. Hashem destroyed it. It's a disastrous place. But one of the things that we don't learn much about is the story that happened after the king of Sodom lost his kingship, and then Avraham Avinu went and fought the kings and beat everyone and helped the king of Sodom become free again. This is obviously before it was destroyed.

1:12:00we don't learn much about is the story that happened after the king of Sodom lost his kingship, and then Avraham Avinu went and fought the kings and beat everyone and helped the king of Sodom become free again. This is obviously before it was destroyed. In the book of Genesis, chapter 14, verses 22 and 23, the king of Sodom offers a deal to Avraham Avinu. And he says, "Take all the money, just give me the people." And Avraham responds, "I don't want to take any money from you, not even a shoestring, a shoelace. I'm not going to take from you, because I don't want you to ever think that it was you that made me rich and not God."

1:13:02Take all the money, just give me the people. And Avraham responds, "I don't want to take any money from you, not even a shoestring, a shoelace. I'm not going to take from you, because I don't want you to ever think that it was you that made me rich and not God." Some of Chazal say that this was one of the tests, the test of greed. When someone is looking to be righteous with Hashem, they have to change their perspective on money. The first thing is we have to realize who gives us money. The Baal Shem Tov says, one time he saw someone carrying water,

1:14:05And he asked him, how are you doing? And the guy smiled and said, everything is good. Everything is okay. The guy's been delivering the same water for 20 years. Today he looks happy. The very next day, the Baal Shem Tov sees the same guy delivering water. It was just as heavy as yesterday. The sun, it was just as hot in Eretz Yisrael back then also. He asked him, "How are you doing?" So, you know, for the love, struggling, it's very, very tough. I don't know why Hashem gave me this trouble, this heat. I have to carry this heavy water; it's so tough. And the Baal Shem Tov says, "Thank you very much for helping me with a sugya, with a complication, a question that I've had for a long time about the Mishnah. Thank you for giving me the answer."

1:15:05The guy carrying water, he goes, me giving you the answer? He goes, yeah, you gave me the answer. Because what's the answer? What's the question? He says in the Gemara, it says that Hashem judges us on Rosh Hashanah until the next Rosh Hashanah. It's in the Gemara, Masechet Rosh Hashanah and Masechet Beitzah. Two places it says the same thing. Hashem decides how much parnassah we're going to get on Rosh Hashanah. Meaning that it does not matter whether you work 20 hours a week, 40 hours a week, or 80 hours a week. It's irrelevant. You work nights, you work days, you work for the government, you work for the stock market, you work for anyone, you have your own business. Whatever Hashem decides is what you're going to get, is what you're going to get. Anyone that really believes that will never work overtime again. It's not worth it. As a matter of fact, anyone that truly, truly believes that should become an avrech. Start learning Torah 24 hours a day if you can, which is much, much more difficult, by the way, than working in any job. I ran a Wall Street firm. It's not even close to an avrech of today. An avrech. But anyway, if someone believes what the Torah says,

1:16:35And that Hashem really decides what your parnassah is. The value of their effort at work changes. They will no longer see themselves as the almighty skilled employee that they think they are. They will no longer think of themselves as the smartest psychiatrist in town or the best doctor in the world and that's why they make a million dollars a year. No. You make that much money because Hashem decreed for you to have it. It has nothing to do with you. It may have to do with your actions, but you as a being are nothing special. Rav Nissim Yagen, Zecher Tzadik Livracha, says, if someone wants a connection to Hashem, there's a very simple way to do it. The more of a nothing that they think of themselves, the more of a something they actually become. As soon as your ga'ava is in Shamayim and you think you're a big deal,

1:17:45You unfortunately put yourself in a very, very risky place. Because Hashem said, the pride of man will lead to his downfall. So now the Baal Shem Tov is telling us that the fact that you made money this year and last year you didn't, and next year you will again, and B'ezrat Hashem, parnassah is going to be okay, is already decided on Rosh Hashanah. Okay, this is good. But then the Baal Shem Tov says, but the Mishnah that came before the Gemara says that Hashem doesn't judge us every year, but rather every day. Why does He need to judge us every day if He already judged us on Rosh Hashanah? And you answered it. And obviously, the water carrier, the water man, is as confused as we all are right now. He says, "Yes, Hashem decides on Rosh Hashanah what you're going to get, whether it's 50,000, 100,000, or 100 million. He decides. How you're going to get it is decided every day."

1:19:09Sometimes you wake up and you're in a bad mood. Ever wonder why? Nothing happened. The husband woke up, he's already mad at his wife. She hasn't done anything yet. She's still sleeping. Poor lady. She's still sleeping, and he's already angry at her. The guy is still sleeping. He worked overtime. She's angry at him. She wants to chop his head off. What? She has no idea why. She's angry as can be. He's angry as can be. No one knows why. Before knowing what Torah is, I used to wake up, and instead of saying "Modeh Ani," I would say a curse word because I always thought I was late. For what? I have no idea. I ran the place. I didn't have a schedule. But I always felt like I was late. The first word of the day would be a curse. You can figure out which one. It shows you where you are—when you have Torah and when you don't have Torah. When you have Torah, you're human; when you don't have Torah, it's very easy to become like a cow, just with curse words. But anyway, when you wake up in a bad mood, I can tell you why, at least one of the reasons.

1:20:22When you go to sleep, your neshama goes upstairs. And over there, you report what you've done during the day. You say, yes, Hashem, I made the following list of mitzvot, and this is my proof, all of the angels that I created. All of the angels, they come and say, yes, I was the angel that was created when he did Birkat Hamazon. My name is Birkat Hamazon. I was the angel that was created when he ate kosher. My name is Kosher. I was the angel that was created When he didn't look at the immodest lady, and these are the rest of my friends that were also created by him not looking at her, our names are Tzaddik. And so on and so forth. And then there are the other guys. Here's the list of the sins. I'm the demon that was created when he did look at the immodest lady five minutes later. And these are the million and a half friends that came with me. I am the... 15 million demons were created when he stole money from the customer in the name of religion and used it to gamble. This is a true story about someone who, to this day, refuses to do complete teshuva because he saw someone come to his poker club many years ago, take out a check from his pocket, and buy chips with it.

1:21:50is the beginning of his problems. This fake religious person. But anyway, your neshama reports and you have to sign it. So, after 120, you go up, it's not going to be a surprise. You can't say, no, I didn't know. You knew, you reported your sins and your mitzvot every day. You signed right here. So now, they're going to tell you, listen, based on the report, you have 15 mitzvot, congratulations, but you have 15,000 sins today. The sins are bigger than the mitzvot. Hashem likes the effort that you at least did 15 mitzvot, so tomorrow He's going to start giving you some of the payment for the sins. So you don't have to suffer in Gehinom. So tomorrow is going to be a tough day. You're gonna get a flat tire on the way to work, which means you're gonna miss the appointment, which means that the customer's not gonna sign the contract, which means that your salary's gonna drop by $15,000, at least for this month. You're still gonna make $100,000 this year, but you're not gonna think so. And you already get the report of what's gonna happen during this horrific day. Now when you wake up and your future is disguised by this thing you call flesh.

1:23:19You only know that it's bad news. You have no idea why. So you wake up in a bad mood. Your neshamah already knows what's coming. Now, now that you know this, you have a choice. The next time you wake up in a bad mood, you can either do what many fools do, which is continue making sins, so tomorrow is going to be another bad day. Or say, oh, if I woke up in a bad mood, Hashem has given me a sign. There's no suffering without sin. That means I need to do some type of teshuva. I have to fix something. So you start doing a review. What do I need to fix? Something I did yesterday. Something I did last week. Something I did today. Something. Something has to happen. You woke up in a bad mood for a reason. It's not because you had a bad dream. And it's definitely not the fault of your husband. He didn't do anything yet. He's just sleeping.

1:24:29When we realize that Hashem decrees how we're going to get up on Rosh Hashanah, and it doesn't matter if we work overtime or not, it starts becoming easier to do real teshuva. It starts becoming easier to spend an extra hour learning Torah and fulfilling the mitzvot. It starts becoming easier to dress modestly because we know Hashem is watching. It starts becoming easier justifying not working once a week on Shabbat because that's the day that Hashem decreed is the holiest day of the week. Every week you have the holiest day of the week. Instead of saving your money for a vacation once a year to go to some awful place, you have a vacation once a week. You have an opportunity, and it's free. And the best part about it is in the same Gemara that talks about parnassah, that says that Hashem is going to decree how much money you're going to get, that very same Gemara in Beitzah and also Rosh Hashanah says that any money you spend on Shabbat to prepare for it, on holidays to prepare for them, which can't be cheap these days, on any type of mitzvah,

1:25:52And on tzedakah, which is obviously one of the mitzvot, it is not considered part of your income. Meaning, if you're decreed to get $100,000 this year, even if you give $100,000, you'll still get $100,000. How? It's God's business. That part you didn’t tell me. Meaning that regardless of how much tzedakah you give, whatever money you're supposed to have this year and get, you will get. It may not be from your job. It may be from your job. You may give a $10,000 check from your job thinking that instead of $100,000, now I'm going to get $90,000. No. Hashem will pay you back the $10,000 some other way. It may be from a stock portfolio. It may be from just a loan that you forgot somebody owes you. It may be an inheritance. It may be some lotto ticket. It may be you found it. It may be the insurance company realized that they overcharged you for the last 37 years.

1:26:55Hashem will find a way. You want proof? I'll give you proof. One day, we were still in New York before we moved to Florida. The bills started adding up. The income was slowly but surely disappearing. My wife tells me, in order for us to keep the lights on, we need to come up with $6,000 today. Said, "What about tomorrow?" She goes, "Tomorrow is also good, but today is better." I said, "Okay, we don't have." I asked her, "How much do we have?" She says, "Nothing." I said, "Oh, that's not good. That's not a good sign." I said, "Okay, so we'll just pray. Hashem gives it to us anyway." And she says, "Okay, you're right, Hashem gives it to us anyway." Not an hour passed, and I get a weird phone call from a phone number I don't know.

1:27:58I said, "Hey, Yaron, how are you? Long time no speak." He replied, "Who is this?" I said, "Oh, it's Dudu." I was thinking to myself, "Who's this Dudu Bechler?" As it happens, Dudu is someone I lent money to almost 10 years before. He tried to convince me to invest in his business when I had a lot of money, and I told him, "No problem." Give me a business plan. I'll invest. I have plenty of money. Just give me a plan. Because I need $50,000. No problem. I need $150,000. No problem. Just give me a plan. I'll give you the money. I have extra. Do something with it. Okay. I'll give you a plan. A few days later, he comes back and goes, "Listen, I'm going to Israel for my sister's wedding, and I feel bad that I don't have money to buy her a present." You think you can lend me $5,000?" I said to myself, sure, why not? I'm already gonna invest $100,000 or $50,000 or $150,000 with this guy. What difference is $5,000? Like, sure, I'll try to write a check and give him the money. No questions, no doubts, no second thoughts. I didn't know he would just disappear. And he just disappeared. And, I mean, it was annoying.

1:29:26But, if I got all the loans back that I gave out to people, I'd be a millionaire again. This was the smallest one. Another guy owes me 500,000 until this day. It's not happening. It's not coming back. He's still alive, Baruch Hashem. The money has disappeared. But it's okay. When Hashem wants it to come back, it'll come back. He's the Boss. But this guy... disappears, phone number changes, nowhere to be found. Hello, okay. Well, at least you know what? I saved myself a hundred thousand. If he took five thousand and he's not honest about it, so I say, Oh Hashem, I just saved myself a hundred. Right, and that's how it went, and I just forgot about it. And as you would have it, many years pass and... Baruch Hashem, we go through our own story of doing teshuva, going through suffering, going through fortune, going through losses, and so on and so forth, as you heard last night. And the one day that I need it, I get a phone call from a strange number, who happens to be him, who is starting to do teshuva because he's watching some shiurim that I did somewhere. And he says, I want to support your cause and I can't sleep at night because I still owe you money.

1:30:52So here's $5,000, and I also want to send you $1,000 as a gift to support your cause for doing kiruv. Because I can't charge interest. Exactly $6,000 on the dot. And not only that, he says, can I just go to the bank, whatever bank you bank with, and deposit it right now so you don't have to wait for a check? When it says, Yeshuat Hashem k'heref ayin salvation of Hashem comes faster than the blink of an eye. It's not just that salvation of Hashem comes and you get something nice in the mail. When Hashem wants to show you who's boss, He brings the whole team. He shows you everything, and this has happened every single month. To some, another miracle. I always tell people, if you need some chizuk, you need a miracle, just call me and I'll give you the daily miracle. It's either mine or one of my students is going to some type of miracle. And I'll tell you in a few moments why these miracles are even happening. So once somebody started to take this teshuvah seriously, then take this tefillah seriously,

1:32:10Then take this tzedakah seriously, where they realize that everything related to money comes from Hashem and nowhere else. It's not from your effort, it's not from your skills, it's not from your intellect. It has nothing to do with you. When you start doing that, then you're starting to do teshuvah. And it says, by Hashem, this is in Tehillim 37:23. By Hashem, our man's footsteps are established, and He shall favor his way. Once Hashem sees that your teshuvah is serious, He's going to start helping you pick the right road. It's called siyata dishmaya. You don't really know that much about the difference between good and bad. God does. So if He knows you're trying to be good, genuinely trying to be good, you know that He's the One that gives the money, you know that you have to stop all types of bad habits, and so on. Even when you make a bad choice, Hashem will veer you in a different direction. And that's what King David is saying here, that He'll even direct your steps in the right way.

1:33:42Once you have Hashem directing your way, you're almost complete in getting to the ultimate connection with Hashem. There's one thing that you have to do in order to get to the major connection with Hashem. You've shown Him that you know and you understand that Hashem is boss. You even got to a point possibly, like it says in Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah, where they called Rabbi Menachem Ben Shemay, the son of the holy ones. And why do they call him the son of the holy ones? Because he refused to even look at the faces on money. Because he didn't want to be enticed by money in any way. So he looked at it as just coins or bills. When you realize that Hashem is giving you whatever you have, and you see someone homeless, then you'll just take the bills out of your pocket, and you just give them whatever bill comes out. If it's a one, you give them the one. If it's a twenty, you give them a twenty. It doesn't matter. Number one, He's paying you back. Number two, He gave it to you in the first place. Tzedakah becomes easier. But if you value money so much, you're never going to be a big ba'al chesed.

1:35:09If you value money too much, and you think you're making the money, it's going to be hard for you to part with something you love. If you love money, why would you want to get rid of it? When a person comes to you and tells you, "Listen, I need tzedakah, my kids are starving," you say, "Go work. I worked, I love my money. If you need money, go work yourself. Why would I give you something I love?" Sometimes it's easier for somebody to give their own kid instead of their money. It's true. So once we are at that point, we have one step left. The one step is to complete all of it, to get the siyata diShmaya that we need, and obviously show that we know that Hashem is managing everything, we're exercising our emunah,

1:36:10were just like Rachav, who was not only a convert, but a Ba'al Teshuva that went from the tumah of tumah, the impurity of impurity, the deepest level of impurity of being a prostitute, to being married to the Gadol HaDor, Yehoshua bin Nun. And the only reason why it says in the Torah that she had that merit is because just like Yitro, When he heard about Hashem, he heard about the God of Israel, it was enough. This is what she said. When she saw Yehoshua, she said, "We heard and our hearts melted. No spirit remained in any man because of you. For Hashem your God, He is the God of the heavens above and the earth below." Rachav says that as soon as I heard about the God of Israel and how He was performing miracles for you, that was enough. Our hearts melted. We knew that He's the only God. I knew I wanted to become part of you, and I'll do anything to save Jews.

1:37:32And she helped the Jews. She says she actually helped the Jews save their lives. And Hashem says that's teshuva. That's real teshuva. She cares about My children. I'm not only going to show her that I care about her, but I'm also going to accept her as a Jew. And on top of it, show everyone else that it's legitimate and it's not fake. something like a fake conversion, a conversion for marriage, a conversion out of convenience, I'm going to have her marry the Gadol HaDor. I'm going to have her marry Yehoshua bin Nun. If you told even a rabbi, forget a Gadol HaDor, told a big rabbi, listen, you want to marry a convert that used to be a prostitute? that probably puts you in cherem for the rest of your life, it's a desecration. But apparently, G-d thinks differently. He values Teshuva a little higher. So now, since we can't really do the same thing as Rachav, what can we do for G-d? And then in the times that we find ourselves in,

1:38:53Chazal tell us only two things are going to save us: Torah and Gemilut Chasadim. Torah we talked about all night and all weekend, Baruch Hashem. There's a lot of Torah to learn. There's a lot of Torah to comply with. So Torah means learn and comply with what it says. Do what it says. If you're a Jew, you do what it says for Jews. If you're a Gentile, do what it says for Gentiles. Simple. What's Gemilut Chasadim? Gemilut Chasadim means overwhelming kindness. So, if I give someone a ride to the mall, is that considered overwhelming kindness or just kindness? Kindness. If I give someone a challah bread every Friday for 20 years, is that overwhelming kindness or just kindness? Overwhelming?

1:39:53It's kindness. It's a challah, but you can still buy it for two bucks in the store, or three or four, but it's kindness, not saving his life with it. But if I save his life, it's more than just kindness. What if I save his soul? Life is just here. Soul is forever. This is why Hashem wrote this in His Torah and gave this insight to Yirmiyahu to tell us in Hashem's name. Therefore, thus said Hashem, if you repent, I will bring you back and let you stand before Me. If you bring forth an honorable person from a glutton, then you will be like My own mouth. There's two parts to this verse, which we'll explain and finish as the last point. Hashem says to us there's a lot of prophecies about the end of times, given to Yirmiyahu, given to Zechariah, Yechezkel. A lot of interesting things that they said.

1:41:19A lot of things that we're seeing coming true today. A lot of it is not so pretty. We talk about a war. We talk about two-thirds of the world dying instantly or in eight minutes according to the Arizal. We talk about difficulties. We talk about a lot of stuff. But then they talk about a little bit of hope. Little glimpses of hope here and there. This is one of them. So Hashem says—so it's not Jeremiah, it's not Moses, it's not me, it's not anyone—it's Hashem Himself who said it. If you do teshuva, I will accept you and you will stand next to Me. Meaning, someone who is genuine about their teshuva. Not half-hearted like we were talking about earlier today. Serious. A woman covers her hair, is modest, generous, good to her husband, honest—all of these things that require you to be... In accordance with the Torah. Men, same thing. You learn Torah every day. You stop playing video games and wasting your life away with it. Especially if you're 30 years old. If you're six, you have an excuse. When you're 30, you don't. This is, unfortunately, a problem. It's an epidemic in our generation. There are 30-year-old kids still living with their parents, playing PlayStation. I know eight of them. It's also the parents' fault.

1:42:47It's everyone's fault. The point is, it's a problem. We have no idea where we're living, so we play PlayStation instead. We live vicariously through fake characters. But nonetheless, if we do serious teshuva, we spend our time learning Torah, fulfilling the will of Hashem, sanctifying His name on a regular basis, and being a walking kiddush Hashem. When someone looks at us, they see a Jew, they see a righteous person, they see someone that's honorable, that's a light to the nations. Hashem says, if you're even trying to be that, not if you just succeed, if you're trying to do that, im tashuv, you come back, you're trying, He didn't say you succeed. If you're trying to be this person, but genuinely trying, I'll accept your teshuva and you'll stand next to Me. What do you mean you'll stand next to Me? He says, you're not going to be like a second-rate citizen because you're not frum from birth. I'm going to have you stand next to Me as a Baal Teshuva, and if you're really a serious Baal Teshuva, you'll even get to a higher level than the person frum from birth. You'll stand next to Me. It's good news. Teshuva is good. It gives us hope. But what does it have to do with miracles? Second part. But if you make someone else do Teshuva,

1:44:14If you bring an honorable person from a glutton, you make a sinner into a Baal Teshuva, you'll be like My mouth. Chazal asks, what does it mean when God says, you'll be like My mouth? And Hashem responds to them and He says, I created the heaven and the earth, and everything in between, and just like I could revive the dead, so can you. Meaning, just like I could change nature, your prayers will be answered, and I'll be able to change nature and justify changing nature for you. Why? If you help worry about My children, I'll worry about yours. If you help save My children, you have a different deal from everyone else. The highest righteous person, it says in the Gemara, and I heard this from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the highest level of a righteous person, someone that's amazing in Torah, fulfills all of the mitzvot. When he gets to Olam HaBa,

1:45:41He gets to the level of Malachei HaSharet, the angels of G-d. There's only one higher level. It's higher than Malachei HaSharet. And that's for someone who helps people do Teshuva. Now, I'm not talking just about myself and why I'm doing this. I'm talking about each and every single one of you and what you can do. Each and every single one of you can also save souls, because it's very easy in our generation. It doesn't always require money. It just requires love. You need to love Hashem and you need to love His kids. That's it. The rest of it, Hashem will give you the tools. A few suggestions that are relatively simple: One, if you're able to speak and you know Torah, teach. According to the Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 4, or page 17, it says someone that learns Torah without an intention to teach is like someone who does not have a God. So this is a very, very difficult complication. What do you mean you're teaching, you're learning Torah and you don't have a God? What Torah are you learning then? It says if you're learning Torah, then you're learning the Torah of Hashem Yitbarach. And if you're learning the Torah of Hashem Yitbarach, then you know that the purpose of learning Torah is to learn Hashem's Middot. To emulate Hashem and His character traits. He's kind, you need to be kind. He's merciful, you need to be merciful. He's generous, you need to be generous, and so on. But if you're learning Torah, and you're keeping it to yourself, then you are the opposite of Hashem. Hashem only gives, He gets nothing. He has everything.

1:47:07then you know that the purpose of learning Torah is to learn Hashem's middot. To emulate Hashem and His character traits. He's kind, you need to be kind. He's merciful, you need to be merciful. He's generous, you need to be generous, and so on. But if you're learning Torah and you're keeping it to yourself, then you are the opposite of Hashem. Hashem only gives; He gets nothing. He has everything. He only gives. So if you've learned Torah and you keep the holiness of the Torah to yourself, you're being cheap with the holiest and most extraordinary thing in the world. You can't be learning Torah; you're learning Avodah Zarah instead. If you know who Noach is, teach it. You know Avraham Avinu, teach it. Why? 80% of Am Yisrael does not know who they are. They heard somewhere, there was some guy, Moshe, in a movie 35 years ago. It was a very famous movie called The Ten Commandments. That's who they think is Moshe. Noach, the movie was made about five years ago, even though it has nothing to do with the story other than they're all on an ark. That's who they think is Noach. You tell them, what about Yehoshua Bin Nun? Isn't that Christian?

1:48:36They won't know. What about Rabbi Akiva? Does he work for Chabad? They don't know. They don't know. And you think I'm kidding. I went around the country, different places around the world. People don't know. They know much less than you think. The fact that I'm teaching is a disgrace because there's plenty of people that know a whole lot more than I can ever know. And they're sitting and collecting the Torah and keeping it to themselves because it's not convenient. You're not allowed to keep it to yourself. If you don't have a public audience, teach your kids. Teach your family. If you don't have a family yet, teach your friends. If you don't have any friends, teach yourself. Look in the mirror and teach yourself. Hashem is going to show up too. You have to teach somebody. Do something with this knowledge. That's one. Step two, if you're already in the world and living and you're not in a cave or under some rock, then you realize that all of this stuff costs money. The CDs cost money, the lectures cost money, setting up a shiur costs money, support it. Your retirement account is not going to help you when the Mashiach comes. Your money cannot go with you to Olam HaBa.

1:50:02The $8,000 Persian carpet that's in the store is not 100% necessary. But 8,000 Jews that you can save because it's only $1 for a CD is necessary. You can help somebody do teshuva with a dollar. There are these things on your desks. There are the CDs. Baruch Hashem, we've sent a bunch of CDs to Rav Baruch. I don't know how many they have left. But Baruch Hashem, a lot have been given out. If there are any left, take one for yourself. If there are extras, give them out. Each CD has 30 hours of shiurei Torah. Some long, some short, some 10 minutes, some 2 hours. This is just one CD. It costs $1. It's MP3. MP3, you can put it into your computer and listen on your computer. You can put it in your car. If your car was made in the last five years, it usually has a CD player. It's an MP3. Or if you don't have a CD player in your car, you could just download it to your computer, put it on your phone, and then you can listen on your phone. It's a CD. It's simple. You want to help other Jews do teshuva. Get a bunch of them. You give them to people.

1:51:21They listen to it, they do teshuva, you bought yourself the next world. You got a thousand CDs, even if one person listened. One. Did teshuva, you're set. It's very, very simple. It's not rocket science. This is why we make so many of them. Because we don't know how many are going to listen, how many are not going to listen. It's not our business who's going to listen and who's not. Our business is to try. My business is to come to Arizona and try to help people do teshuva. Whether you do it or not is your choice. I can't choose for you. I can't do teshuva for you. I'm already going through my own. It's already difficult enough. You need to do teshuva if you need to do teshuva. You know it. Hashem knows it. The point is, if you want to have siyata dishmaya, you want help from Hashem, help His kids. Baruch Hashem, Rabbanim just brought many CDs. Take them, enjoy, give them to people. So, this is CD number one. Baruch Hashem, also, because CD number one was so popular, we're coming out with CD number two. We had a 25,000 CD drive for the first one. The second one I think is going to be much better, so we're looking for 50,000. This is CD number two.

1:52:44Anyone that has the ability to donate can donate. It's up to you. The point is, Hashem is going to bring it anyway. It's up to you whether you want to be the messenger or not. I didn't come here to raise money. I came here to tell you guys that you need to do something for yourselves. You want to help? Help. It's helping you more than me because Hashem is going to give it anyway. I would love to have you as a partner. This is option number two. Option number three is free. It costs nothing. So, in case you don't have any money, Hashem made sure that you could also do kiruv. And for this one, I'll show you three different miracles that happen for people who do it for free. Free is because most people are on the internet today. At some point or another, everyone is on the internet. We spend hours and hours on websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Now, the next time you're on the internet anyway—if you're not on the internet, don't get on—but if you're already there, then instead of looking at some cop that saved a group of ducks in the middle of the road, watch a shiur Torah. If you like my stuff, take it, press copy, paste it on your page, and give a little caption on it: "Great shiur, watch it."

1:54:12Someone clicks, they do teshuva, you've done kiruv for free, you bought yourself a lamb. It costs nothing. If you do this for five minutes every day, then you can fulfill the verse. If you do it once in a blue moon, that's not real kiruv, it's occasional kiruv. But if you're making it a part of your life every day, Where, if you're already on the internet for 8 hours, you spend 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, however much time you have, actually doing kiruv, actually looking to help other Jews. Sending links, posting shiurim, doing something. Every day, as an active part of your life, you'll see everything around you change. And for anyone who doesn't believe and wants proof, I'll provide you three. In my shiurim in the Bukharian community in New York, less than a month ago, on Tisha B'Av, I gave a story about one of my helpers, who's also one of my students, that lives in Bulgaria. His name is Emmanuel.

1:55:28If you look at my page on Facebook, on Be'ezrat Hashem Facebook, or my Facebook, my groups, you'll see a lot of the posts of my shiurim are made by him and also by another tzaddik named Vimesh. Emmanuel, I told the story, it's a simple one and it's an amazing one. And every time I tell it, I get goosebumps. So Emmanuel was born into idol worship, not born Jewish, and into the deepest level of idol worship. His parents actually think that they're talking to angels and crazy stuff like this. It's Christianity, but like to the 80th power. Well, Emmanuel was bright and he realized that it's nonsense. And he started looking for the truth. And he looked into Islam, realized that's nonsense also. And eventually arrived at Judaism and arrived at the God of Israel, seeing that it's the only truth. There is no second best; there's only one. He started watching shiurim, learning Torah, and learning more Torah than some avreichim. He's in his early 20s. Early 20s, maybe mid-20s, early 20s I think. In Bulgaria.

1:56:47Where is he learning? No, where did he learn at the beginning? Oh, he's learning on the internet. He got some books and he learned on the internet. Watched my shiurim, watched Rabbi Mizrachi, Rabbi Singer, a few different rabbis. Got himself some books, learned Shulchan Aruch. Became very, very dedicated. There's only one problem. Where he lives, there's no Jews. Not that there are some and they're just not religious. No, they don't exist. Where he lives, there's nothing other than different types of idol worship, Christianity, and so on. He left his job because the only job that would allow him to keep Shabbat, that he knew at some point or another he would have to keep 100%. I want to give you a check. I don't know what to give you. You can just leave it blank. You can put B'ezrat Hashem, which is His name. So, thank you. So he had a regular job. Thank you. And he had a regular job and he left that job and he became a shepherd.

1:58:06Shepherd, it's the only job where he doesn't have to be his own boss. It's the only job that is 100% kosher. And he prays that one day he can produce Chalav Yisrael. There are still no Jews. But now he wants to convert. There are still no Jews. I tell him, listen, I can help you if you come to the United States. I can help you if you go to Israel. I can help you there. I don't know anyone. I don't know. So without any guarantee whatsoever that there's any hope in any way, shape, or form, Emmanuel continues to do kiruv, continues to try to save Am Yisrael, and continues to dedicate his time to learning Torah on a daily basis. And one day he decides that he's going to spend his life savings on getting a Brit Milah. And he goes and he gets a Brit Milah. Without conversion. At eight days old, if you do a Brit Milah, you don't remember it. And when you're in your 20s, you never forget it. But this is 100% Mesirut Nefesh. Avraham Avinu did Brit Milah. We learned about him earlier today. Emmanuel also did Brit Milah. Not to compare, but nonetheless, this can't be discredited in any way. But apparently, the combination of Mesirut Nefesh and Kiruv

1:59:35was the button that he needed to press. Because I told this story, and then I told him the end of the first part of the story is that on the day that he got his Brit Milah, I saw him on the internet, and I said, I saw him posting my shiur, and I thought maybe he missed his appointment, maybe the doctor backed out, I don't know. I told him what happened to the surgery. He didn't have it? He says, no, no, no, I had it, I had it. And I said, aren't you in pain? And he says, yes, I'm in pain. So I said, why don't you go rest? And he says to me something that's shocking. How can Am Yisrael get their Torah if I'm sleeping in bed? How can Am Yisrael get Torah if I am resting in bed, nursing my pain?

2:00:35he's not obligated to do kiruv. You are. I told this story and I woke up a few people, and Baruch Hashem, a few people started getting involved in kiruv. Some people, like this very gracious lady, with money. Some people with time. Some people with a skill set. Everyone was shocked. But Hashem wasn't finished. Not a week passed by, and I get an email from From a tzaddik from Bulgaria. Rabbi Yoel emails me and he says one of the people or a few of the people in my kehillah in Bulgaria saw your shiur on TorahAnytime.com and we heard that you have a student in Bulgaria who wants to convert, and we'd like to help him. So I tell him the story with this guy. He's amazing. He's this, and he's that. And all we're looking for is a beit din. We look for a community. And he says to me, don't worry. We have a conversion program. It takes about a year. If he's serious and he knows as much as you say, maybe less. I tell this to Emmanuel. He starts crying. I start crying. My wife starts crying. We're all crying. It's one big crying family.

2:02:02But when Hashem, as I told you before, when Hashem gives you the salvation, He's not finished. This is just part one. After we stop crying for a moment, Emmanuel texts me and he says, I hope that they have some patience with me because I don't have any money to get to where they are. They're about three hours away from him. I don't have any money. I spent all my money on the Brit Milah. So I hope they have some patience with me. Not a moment goes by, and he gets a call from a Mr. Cohen from that kehillah, apparently the one that watched the shiur. He says, "I heard your story, I told my rabbi, and I want to be involved. I want to pay for you to come here. I want to pay for your conversion. I want to pay for your tallit, your tzitzit, your siddur, and your tefillin." And I'm also going to try to help you in every way I can to move to this community and help us rebuild it to what it could be. Something like that. I think that's where the kehillah is. Now think about this. There are not that many Jews there. It's not like a kehillah of hundreds of thousands of Jews that's prospering. It's few.

2:03:24What are the chances that any of them are going to actually speak English? One. Two, speak English and be religious. Three, English, religious, and watch shiurim online. Four, English, religious, shiurim online, Torah Anytime. My shiur, out of every shiur out there, specifically talks about Emmanuel. the only guy they can help because he lives right next to them. When Emmanuel was looking for a kehillah, Hashem was looking for mesirut nefesh. And when Emmanuel did mesirut nefesh, Hashem created a kehillah. The second story is with a student that's happening today. Another student from New York Oh Hashem, I'm helping him already for the last several months doing teshuva, but he still lives in a very difficult situation. I told him the most important thing as part of his teshuva is to try to do as much kiruv as he can. Start to learn Torah as much as he can. The kiruv he's amazing at, the Torah is a little more difficult. He needs a more appropriate environment. I tell him you should go to yeshiva. We've talked about it a few times.

2:04:50He says it's difficult, it's difficult, it's difficult. Plus, who's going to accept me? He's Jewish. I'm in my 20s, early 20s. I never went to yeshiva before this. I don't really know any Torah other than what I've learned recently. Usually, when you go to yeshiva at my age, you already have to have some type of foundation. If Rabbi Akiva went to your kollel today, they wouldn't accept him. He was illiterate, he was 40, he was divorced with a kid. They wouldn't accept him. So this young man wants to go to yeshiva, but who's going to accept him? So he tries to learn, he tries to do some kiruv, he helps us out, Baruch Hashem, he helps us reach a lot more souls. And then we talk about a week ago, and I tell him, "Listen, you have to go to yeshiva." He says, "Rabbi, you're right. I have to go to yeshiva. I'm ready to go to yeshiva. What do I do?" I say, "Start praying, Baruch Hashem."

2:05:50I'm not a prophet or even a big deal. But not an hour passed by, and he gets a text message from a friend. Says, Baruch Hashem, they're opening a yeshiva in our community for people that are Baalei Teshuva and it starts tomorrow. In Queens. He makes the call. The other guy also knows me. So he calls me. He tells me, "Did you really tell him to go to yeshiva?" I said, "Yeah, this is exactly what happened." We're all dumbfounded. He calls the yeshiva. He talks to the yeshiva. At the end of the story, they actually connect him with a different yeshiva that's actually in Monsey. And he's on his way there now. Yeshuat Hashem. We're all looking for salvation. We're all looking to do teshuva. We're all looking to help Am Yisrael. Very, very simple way. Teshuva. Tzedakah. Tzedakah. parts of it. The magic ingredient is to start taking care of the children of Am Yisrael, the children of Hashem Yitbarach. You start taking care of His kids, He'll start taking care of you all. Any questions? Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.

2:07:08Yes? You're not allowed to be a missionary, am I right? You're not allowed to convince someone to convert. It's not about convincing them; it's about if they ask you for the truth, you have to tell them the truth. If they ask you about the truth, you have to be a light to the nations and tell them the truth. But you're not necessarily obligated to go from church to church and tell them, by the way, you're all idol worshippers. That you don't have to do. But, you know, if somebody is looking for the truth, it's okay. It's okay. So, where's my remote? I'm looking for the remote for a second. Ah, okay, there we go.