ELUL IS HERE

0:51So, B'ezrat Hashem, today we'll go over a few things. First of all, it's amazing to be at the siyum masechet of my own father. If you would have told me ten years ago, even five years ago, that this would be life, I would think that you're making a practical joke, because a person lives his life thinking that he has everything under control and he knows what he's doing. ...and he's got everything planned, with his IRA set up in a specific way so his retirement should look a certain way. He's got his kids going to a certain school so they should grow up a certain way. His wife looks this way, so he thinks the marriage is going to last this long, and the husband looks this way, so the marriage will last this long. However, Hashem runs the world. Many of us do blessings every day, recognizing that ultimately, it is Hashem who guides our lives and plans... But Elul, Elul is here to remind us of what we are actually saying when we're saying "Melech HaOlam." He said every day the average Jew will mention God. And Baruch Hashem, many people that have learned a little bit about Torah will recite a blessing before they eat something.

2:13After they go to the bathroom, before they drink something, before they go to sleep, there are many blessings, Baruch Hashem. David HaMelech made it a very important ma'aseh for each person to be critical of his mitzvot to such an extent that he makes sure to say 100 blessings per day. Make 100 blessings per day. Know that our avot used to be very makpid on making a hundred blessings per day. Now, some people say a hundred blessings a day, some people say ten blessings a day, and some people say one blessing a day. But the question is still the same: When you say "Baruch Atah Hashem, Elokeinu Melech Haolam" - Blessed are You, Hashem, King of the world - what do you mean? What are you saying? Most people have an easy time saying Melech Ha'Olam in a blessing, but they have a very hard time applying it in their real life. As the Rav and my father were finishing Masechet Berachot, they were talking about emunah - faith, emunah for parnassah - a livelihood, and emunah for trusting Hashem to run your world without necessarily needing you to help Him so much. It talks about hishtadlut - human effort.

3:42The problem is that sometimes people have so much hishtadlut, they don't want to let Hashem help them. They work so hard, every day and every night, that even if Hashem wanted to help them, He wouldn't have time. Why? Because they're working already 24 hours a day. So as the Rav was saying, sometimes you have to just let things go. You can't push things, you can't force them. But then you're going to say, yes, but I need to make parnassah. I need to work. The kids need to go to school. Yeshiva tuition is going up every year. Kosher food is becoming more expensive every year. Everything we need becomes more costly each year. We need to make money. Now, you'll see that in the Gemara, the same Masechet Berachot, it says, What does it mean? The Talmidei Chachamim bring peace to the world. What does it mean that they bring peace to the world? Do they run the UN, that UN slash Nazi organization today? With their anti-Semitism campaign that they have on a daily basis? Every opportunity they get, they bash Israel? Do the Talmidei Chachamim work for the UN? Marbim Shalom? What does it mean that the Talmidei Chachamim bring Shalom? So if you look at the Gemara Masechet Bava Metziah, page 59a,

5:10says that a regular house, a normal house, is not going to have any fighting as long as there's food on the table. If there's food, there's not going to be fighting. There might be fighting from time to time, but it's not going to be a regular occurrence. Why? If there's food, there's peace, meaning there's parnasah. If there's parnasah, there's peace. Now, going back to the... Page 17a, it says the whole world receives sustenance because of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa. So when I read the Gemara, I thought Rabbi Chanina is so holy that he has many merits. Because of him, the whole world gets sustenance, gets parnassah. But the problem is, that Rabbi Chanina has been gone for 2,000 years. What about now? We don't have him, yet B'H, everybody's eating. The Gemara is trying to teach us that kol ha’olam nizon b’shvil Chanina b’ni. If I’m explaining, that b’shvil means “for Chanina” means “because of.”

6:30Rabbi Chanina, it also means that Chanina became the vessel. Rabbi Chanina was so holy in all the Torah that he learned that he became the vessel. Hashem says, "Ah, for you, I'll let the world exist. For you, I'll let the world exist." Why? Because anyone that sees what you do understands the significance of it, will repeat it, and I can continue doing it. Rabbi Chanina was already almost 2,000 years ago. But Baruch Hashem, the world is still existing today. Why? Because people like Rav Ze'ev, my father, and other Talmidei Chachamim all over the world are learning Torah, and Hashem says, ah, for them, they're the Rabbi Chanina of the generation. For them, they became the vessel. For them, I'm going to bring parnasah to the world. So what about everybody else that goes to work and goes to Wall Street like I did for almost 20 years? Thinks that it is such a great mind, a great idea, and great everything. What about you, who wakes up at five o'clock in the morning? You're going to fix the house, the refrigerator, the AC, and everything else. Are you really making the parnassah? No. That's what the Gemara says - you're not making the parnassah. Who's making the parnassah? Rabbi Chanina. Why? Because Hashem said to the Prophet Yirmiyahu: If I don't make the parnassah day and night, I will not make the parnassah of the heavens and the earth.

7:56If not for My covenant, meaning for learning Torah, being learned day and night, the rules of the world would cease to exist. This means that the things we call gravity, oxygen, the entire table of elements, everything and anything that you see, the atom that makes up all of creation, that spins— all of these things that you see and depend on would cease to exist if there wasn't somebody in the world learning Torah. When the Gemara says that Hashem gave sustenance to the world because of Rabbi Chanina, it's telling you today that you're supposed to learn it because you're supposed to be Rabbi Chanina. Now, Chodesh Elul is one of those months where a lot of people call it the month of Teshuva. This is the time that every person is supposed to do Teshuva, get some chizuk, and prepare spiritually for the upcoming High Holy Days.

8:57Some people say, okay, maybe it's a good time to get a new car because usually, there are sales during the summer. Some people want to get new clothes during back-to-school sales. Different people use Elul for different reasons. Now, in the days of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, about 150 years ago, when Rabbi Yisrael would say, "Rabotai, Elul!", people would fall down and pass out. Why would somebody pass out just because you say the word Elul? I said Elul, did anybody here pass out? I think he just woke up. Nobody's passing out. Nobody's passing out. How come 150 years ago you said Elul, people fell and passed out? 150 years ago. We're not talking about Moshe Rabbeinu. We're talking about great-grandfather. That's it. The generation before the Holocaust. A generation before the Holocaust, if you said a little about the gravity of the situation, someone might fall down and pass out. I'll come and also be here. Today, we're like, "Oh, yeah, it's nice. Maybe I'll get a new car this year." You know what? I think there's a good sale at Macy's. I'll get my kids some new shirts. I just saw a commercial. There's a new car with a promotion – buy one, get one free. No one's passing out at these trivial matters; they lose perspective. Why?

10:24You ask a child, "How big is a star?" There are so many stars in the world. The little kid will tell you, "It's this big," the size of a coin. But anyone who did a little research or studied a bit of science in their life knows that the star is most likely not only not this big, it's bigger than Earth. Some stars are a thousand times bigger than Earth; sometimes they're even a million times bigger than Earth. But from here, they all look the same; they look this big. So how come the kid, the little boy, the genius little kid, thinks that the star is this big? Because he's far away from it. But the difference between us and the generation of the Avos HaRishonim... A thousand times bigger than Earth, sometimes they're even a million times bigger than Earth, but from here they all look the same. They look like this big. So how come the kid, the little boy, the genius little kid, thinks that the star is this big? Because he's far away from it. But the difference between us and the generation of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter... Not that the Torah has changed. The Torah is the same Torah that we've had for over three thousand three hundred years. Nothing has changed. Even a miracle that happened about sixty years ago, where a child was born and miraculously knew the entire Torah by heart, attests to the unchanging nature of our sacred texts.

11:35At three years old, they were trying to teach him Chumash. He turned to Bereshit Bara Elokim. He finished the entire Chumash by heart. They didn't have to teach him the rest. He knew the whole thing by heart. The Zohar – he knew the whole thing by heart. From there, they went all the way to the Sifrei Chachamim, such as the Ben Ish Chai. He knew the whole thing by heart. The same Torah that we had 3,300 years ago, this little boy, 3 years old, knew everything. Nothing changed. The Torah didn't change. What changed? Us. We changed. 150 years ago, we still had a little bit of an understanding of what it means to sin. What does it mean to be away from Hashem? Today, we have no concept of that. Today, we think that if we take something that doesn't belong to us, it's not really such a big deal. If we violate Shabbat, Hashem has a lot of other people keeping Shabbat. What's the big deal? He doesn't need me too. He'll be fine without my Shabbat. If we eat something that is safek kasher, maybe it has a little worm on it, maybe. It's not just one sin, it's six sins to eat a worm.

12:54It's a salad, it's on sale, or it's from Subway, it's cheap, it's convenient. We don't understand the concept of sin. There's a pasuk that the prophet Jeremiah also tells us. In chapter 2, verse 25, Jeremiah tells us something that every Yehudi is supposed to know, especially now, during Chodesh Elul. Jeremiah, for anyone who doesn't know or forgot, is one of the main prophets of Am Yisrael. Jeremiah was alive during the time of the Beit HaMikdash, but he's also the one that saw it get destroyed. So a few weeks ago, when we mourned and cried over Tisha B'Av, we learned the book of Eicha, the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah wrote it. Eicha means "how do we get to this point?" That's what Eicha means. I actually my whole life thought Eicha was a name. Some guy's name, Eicha. It's a kind of a strange name, but Eicha. I didn't know. But Eicha actually means "how do we get here?" And there are three times in the Torah that the word Eicha is mentioned: by Moshe Rabbeinu, the prophet Yeshayahu, and the prophet Yirmiyahu. Now in the third chapter of Eicha,

14:21Jeremiah says, "I know suffering." That's how he starts. "I know suffering," meaning, "I'm an expert." How is he an expert? He said, "I saw the whole Beit HaMikdash. I saw the entire Beit HaMikdash destroyed. I saw a river full of blood of the people of Am Yisrael, a river turning from city to city. They killed so many people, shema yimach shemo, the goyim had no mercy on us and..." saw it. He says, "I saw the Kodesh HaKodashim get desecrated. The Shekhinah was there one minute; it's gone the next. I saw miracles with my own eyes disappear." The types of things that he writes in the book of Eicha are very sad and very scary. It's sad because it happened, and it's scary because it happened more than once. I Now, this same Yirmiyahu was one of the greatest prophets that ever lived. Anyone that reads his sefer will know that every verse, every time he says something, you can write a whole book about it. How many things he saw in his life, how many things he witnessed, how many conversations he had with Hashem. It's really unbelievable. Somebody talks to Hashem, you should listen to him. He knows a few things. So,

15:44The Gemara in Masechet Megillah discusses how many prophets Am Yisrael had. The Gemara states at least double the number of those who left Mitzrayim, meaning 1.2 million. With 600,000 men between the ages of 20 and 60 who left Mitzrayim, at least double that number were prophets throughout all of Am Yisrael, totaling 1.2 million at least. Asks, wait a minute. If there were 1.2 million prophets, how can we only have a Tanakh that has 55? We're missing quite a few. 1.2 million minus 55 is still quite a number left unaccounted for. How can we understand what happened to all those 1.2 million prophets? Does that mean the Torah is no good? So, my answer is... It's perfectly fine. It's just that the 1.2 million, their prophecy, what they were talking about was only relevant to their generation. And whatever is mentioned in the Tanach is relevant to every single generation. Yes, even us 3,300 years later. So if anybody ever tells you, "Yeah, but the Torah is old. It's not really relevant to our generation," this is one of the best gemarot, one of the best proofs to show them it's the exact opposite.

17:02We had the prophecies of all of the prophets we ever had, then yes, you're right. Some of the prophecies are not relevant to us, but any pursuit that we have in our Torah today is relevant to us today. So how is the prophet Jeremiah relevant to us today? The prophet Jeremiah tells us the following in chapter 2, verse 25. verse 35, I'm sorry, verse 35, he says. So the prophet tells Am Yisrael... He says, that when you say, "No, I'm pure; His anger will subside for me," behold, I am entering into judgment with you because of your saying, "I have not sinned." So the prophet tells Am Yisrael, the fact that you committed sins is indeed a problem. It's not good. You violated Shabbat. You ate non-kosher food.

18:21You didn't keep niddah really well. Your business is halfway kosher. All those things are no good. No one in the Torah is going to tell you it's okay. No way. But he says, that's not the problem, Yirmiyahu says. That's not the problem. Hashem says that's not the problem. What's the problem? He says, the problem is when you said, no, no, I didn't sin. I didn't do anything. That's the problem. The problem is when you say, I didn't sin. He says, I enter into judgment with you, not because of the sin, but because you denied it. Because you got so used to the sin that you thought it's a blessing. You thought it's a mitzvah. And unfortunately, we live in the days approaching Mashiach today, Baruch Hashem, which means on one hand, we know the end is near, which is good. On the other hand, we know it's terrible because the challenges we face can lead us astray, thinking we’re doing a mitzvah when, in fact, we are not. The Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin teaches us that the days before Mashiach will be filled with challenges, but we must remain vigilant and true to the Torah. Because even in the Gemara, Masechet Sanhedrin, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus says that he does not want to witness the coming of Mashiach. Why? Because before Mashiach arrives, there will be many challenges. This is one of them. You see, sometimes people go against the Torah while thinking they are fulfilling a mitzvah. Someone might go against Hashem and say, "No, I didn't do anything wrong. What did I do? What's the big deal?" Denying everything they have done wrong. Let me give you an example.

19:37Chodesh Elul is a time for each one of us to ask ourselves when we say King of the world, what do we mean? What are we saying? A person can go into a store and steal a piece of chocolate. Either he stole it because he thought it was funny. He stole because he didn't have any money. He stole it because he just wants to take advantage of the shop owner. Bottom line, it's a dollar. What's the big deal? The dollar. How much disaster can possibly happen from stealing one dollar? Because if I start telling you, listen, every single person has to learn hilchot Shabbat. If you're Sephardi, you have to learn Yalkut Yosef. There are three volumes. It's going to take you a little while to learn it. If I tell you that you have to finish Masechet Shabbat, it's going to take you a little while to learn it. If I tell you, you have to keep kashrut, it's something you have to know every single law for—right, left. It's going to take you a little while to learn it. So everyone says, "Listen, I'm a good person." I used to say the same thing. "I'm a good person. I'm an honest guy. I don't steal. I give tzedakah when I can. I'm nice to my wife. I'm nice to my husband. My kids go to yeshiva, even though we don't keep all the mitzvot. We don't do this, but we're decent people."

20:56So what if I took a one-dollar KitKat bar from the store and I forgot to pay? So what? What's the big deal? One dollar, what's the big deal? In Shamayim, they look at everything as a big deal because they see the entire picture. If a guy starts putting rocks into a hole, he doesn't know where the rocks are going. He puts a hole; every day he places another rock, and another rock, and another rock, and another rock. Nothing seems to change. After a while, he becomes somewhat bored. So the boss says, "No, no, keep going, keep going." He asks, "Why?" So the boss removes the veil and shows him, "Look, all those rocks," and he reveals to him half a castle. Wow, I did all this? Yes, you did all this. You did all this. The little rocks, one at a time, for the last several years, look, you built half a castle. Wow, I didn't know. Okay, so I'll continue now. Why? Because now there's a different perspective. Now he sees, oh, it's worth it. I see what I'm doing. Sometimes we don't think about what we're doing. We think, we take $1 from a person. What's the big deal? We took $1. It's $1. I'm not talking about you stole in a Ponzi scheme. You stole $50 billion. You stole $50 million. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about you overcharged the guy by $5,000, and he's so rich he's not going to notice it. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about $1.

22:12But the emet (truth) is that the depth of judgment is on one dollar. If it's such a deep judgment for one dollar, then needless to say it's on a lot more. If somebody took one dollar, this could be the picture: he took one dollar, and the wife... And the owner of the store saw it. But the owner was like a nebach, a little weak, humble, naive little guy. He couldn't defend himself, so he didn't say anything. Why? He's afraid of you. He's afraid you're going to take a dollar. Ah, it's only a dollar. What can I do? If I tell the guy, maybe he'll yell at me, embarrass me. He doesn't say anything. Nebech. Nebech doesn't say anything. His wife, Chava, his wife is a little superhero for the bad guys, though. She doesn't like it. She doesn't like it. But she's not going to say anything either. Not to the customer. Who does she say something to? To the husband. She starts yelling at the husband. "You loser. You weakling. You this. You let people take advantage of you. What a loser you are. What a degenerate you are. You can't even manage your own store. One dollar you can't even protect. The kids are going to starve because of you." This is what you teach them.

23:31Miskin, the guy doesn't know what to do and wants to bury himself in the ground. Now the kids, his kids, saw it. The kids saw the mom abuse the husband. So what happened? The kids lose respect for the father. Why? He says, if Ima thinks he's a loser, then I agree with her. He's a loser. So now the father loses the respect of his kids. He starts getting depressed. He starts drinking. He doesn't want to live life anymore. The wife says, "Oh, before you were a loser, now you're a verified loser. I'm leaving you." She leaves him. Now the kid sees, "Oh, Ima and Abba are not together anymore. They joined the statistic of the high divorce rate in America. I don't have an Ima. I don't have an Abba. I have nothing. And who is at fault? The thief. The guy that stole. No." The kid becomes bitter, starts hating life, starts failing at school, gets out of yeshiva, doesn't want to keep Shabbat anymore, doesn't want to keep mitzvot, wants to be a goy, wants to murder all the reshaim in the world. The mom feels helpless and says, "Listen, I have to move on with my life." She gets remarried. She finds another man. This man doesn't actually like her son, especially since her son is a troublemaker, so he mistreats him.

24:48Now the old husband who became an alcoholic sees that his ex-wife got married. He can't take it, he gets a heart attack, and he dies. The kid can't take it, and he doesn't know what to do. He wants to fight the new husband. The new husband gets him arrested. The kid goes to jail, and the story can continue to unfold in many ways. These are real stories. Now, in Beit Din of Shamayim, Guy that stole the one-dollar chocolate, he's going to go up to shamayim. He says, "What did I do? I did nothing! Wait, one dollar, hold on, I'll get you a dollar, I'll get you a dollar, what's the big deal? Why did you give me a dollar? Do you know what you did? Do you know what you did with the one dollar that you stole, the chocolate bar that you stole? He's going to show you the entire picture." Showing the person the entire picture of how he led to a divorce and how he influenced the kid disrespecting the parent, and how he instigated the remarriage and abandonment. He caused the situation to escalate. Why? He stole $1. But I carry a rule: it's time for us to be reminded that if Hashem said it, it's a big deal.

26:01should have known that this is very important. He meant it; it wasn't just an option. Akadosh Baruch Hu, the Holy One, Blessed be He, could have said anything he wanted. No one was limiting Him, no one told Him, "Listen, Hashem, You're limited to three hundred four thousand words, not one more." No one said that. He could have said whatever He wanted, meaning that if He said it in the Torah, He meant it. He wasn't joking. If He said you have to keep Shabbat, He meant it. If He said that a person doesn't keep Shabbat, he cannot be counted as part of Am Yisrael because he's considered an oved avodah zarah, he's considered an idol worshiper. He meant it, he wasn’t joking. He didn’t say, “No, no, you know what? The other people, not you. You're cute, you're cute, I love you, you’re funny, you're nice to everybody, I'll let this one go for you.” He never said that. When Hashem said that you have to keep kosher both in your business and in your mouth, he was serious. cannot be counted as part of Am Yisrael because he's considered an oved avodah zarah, he's considered an idol worshiper. He meant it, he wasn't joking. He didn't say, no, no, you know what? The other people, not you, you're cute, you're cute, I love you, you're funny, you're nice to everybody, I'll let this one go for you. He never said that. When Hashem said that you have to keep kosher both in your business and in your mouth, He said all the time all of the things that he said he meant them. And Rabotai, the depth of judgment, if it's so severe for the one dollar—what about the bigger things? Now someone can go up to Shamayim and say, "Listen, I didn't learn Torah, so I didn't know." And they're going to come back to that person and say, "Oh, you didn't know Torah? Why not?" So you know, I was busy with work, I was busy with work.

27:23I asked you, wait, did you believe in Hashem? Yeah, I believed in Hashem. So how come you didn't learn Torah? No, I was busy at work. Okay, so did you believe in Hashem? Yes, I believed in Hashem. So how come you didn't learn Torah? Because I was busy at work. So the question goes back to, wait a minute, if you believe in Hashem, didn't you hear that He's the one that gives sustenance to the whole world? He gives parnasa to the whole world. Didn't you hear that He's the one who opens His hands and feeds everyone? Didn't you hear that before? Oh yeah, I heard it. So how come you had to help him? A person who doesn't learn Torah every day, doesn't make time to learn Torah, cannot have a share in the World to Come. And the reason why is because there's no way for him to fulfill the mitzvot, to even know what to do—not to know right and not to know left—without learning Torah every day. When someone is learning Gemara every day, learning Halacha every day, learning Parashat HaShavua every day, he's not doing the rabbi a favor. He's doing himself a favor. It's crucial that we engage with these texts regularly to stay grounded in our faith and practice. During Elul, this reflection becomes even more poignant as we prepare for the Days of Awe.

28:30It's the only chance he has. Chodesh Elul, the month of Elul, is the time when Hashem says, "The whole year you've been playing around. Now, there's judgment day. Now, I have to evaluate whether I want to continue this deal we have." You say you want parnassah. The Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah, page 16, and also in Beitza, page 16, one is a, the other one is b, says that Hashem Yitbarach provides parnassah on Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah, He decides how much parnassah you're going to get. Whether you're going to make $100,000 a year, or $10,000 a year, or $10,000,000 a year, He decides on Rosh Hashanah. How does He decide? Based on how you act. He says, what is he doing with the money? He spends money going to bars and clubs. Okay, so let's give him less money, so he makes fewer sins. Let's give him less money, so he makes fewer sins. It's better for him. Oh, he is giving tzedakah, he is mezakeh harabim. Oh, let's give him more money, so he can do even more good deeds. So do teshuvah. This is how parnassah is determined. But sometimes you're going to see a person that goes against Hashem every day on purpose and...

29:42drives on Shabbat, eats treif, and he goes out with non-Jewish people. He does everything he can against Hashem. He goes against Hashem in any way that he can, but yet he gets more and more money every day. Everyone asks the same exact question: How is it possible? There's a righteous person that has a tough time, suffering, and there's a wicked person that has a lot of money. How could it be? All you have to do is go to the parashat Va'etchanan, and Hashem tells you exactly why. He says, sometimes a person is considered my lover. Why? Because he keeps Torah and mitzvot. If he keeps Torah and mitzvot, I love him. And I know he loves me because he's proving it. To say you love Hashem in words means nothing. Saying "I love you, Hashem" means nothing. Someone who tells his wife "I love you" while having a girlfriend on the side means nothing. It really means nothing when he says, "I love you, honey. What do you think of her? She's cute?" It doesn't mean anything.

30:47When a guy says, "Listen, boss, I love this company," when in reality he's stealing from them every day, those words mean nothing. Actions mean something. Hashem says, "Those that keep My mitzvot are My lovers, and for them, I'll pay for a thousand generations. But My haters, meaning those that don't keep My mitzvot, I pay My haters cash to their face to destroy them." you're going to see these types of patterns in celebrities where they reach a peak in their renown and wealth, akin to the story of Haman in the Torah. This phenomenon of reaching incredible heights before a dramatic fall is something that has real-life parallels which occur all the time. Hashem builds people up to a very high level, sometimes overwhelming them with more than they can handle. Just like if you love steak but have it for every meal, eventually you might grow tired of it. of the other celebrities that, right before they commit suicide, usually they reach their peak, just like Haman. Haman is not just a story; it actually happened and it continues to happen every year. Haman happens all the time. Hashem built somebody to a very, very high level. He gives them a whole lot, to the point where they vomit it. They don't want it anymore. If you like steak, but I feed you steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, eventually you don't like it anymore, and...

31:59A person whose main focus is "Parnassah, Parnassah, Parnassah"—they want money, money, money, money. Hashem says, "Okay, I'll give you money. But when will we talk? When will you learn My Torah? When will you learn what it says in 'Bereshit bara Elokim et ha-shamayim v'et ha-aretz'? When will you learn that? When will you learn Gemara? When will you even learn what Gemara means, something that is useful, for a purpose beyond just material gain? Oh, after you make more money? Okay, I'll give you more money, and then more money, and then more money, and eventually, Hashem might say, 'Enough.'" So now you just want money. Okay, so you don't have me at all. And Hashem, what can happen is that Hashem can punish the person to such an extent that He can give them so much money that the money itself destroys them. This is why you see literally on a monthly basis celebrities, the people that have all the money that everybody else wants, and the so-called life that everybody else wants, kill themselves. They have everything that everybody else wants except life. Because life is not something you can buy with money. So Chodesh Elul is a time that each and every single one of us has to reflect. What's the point of my life? What did I contribute to the world? What did I do? Okay, so you made money, good for you. After you die, no one cares. What else did you do? What else can you take from this world other than money? There was a story that we're making a movie out of, a short film on, that puts things into perspective.

33:30of right before the Holocaust began, or even during the time of the Holocaust and was actually murdered during the Holocaust, was one of the Talmidim of the Chafetz Chaim. He was someone that you didn't need to ask anything before you did to know that he was holy. He was so holy, and he respected his Rav so much that one time they heard the drasha of the Chofetz Chaim. One of the other talmidim said, "Yeah, the Rav said the same drasha last year." He replied, "No, you're wrong. Last year he used eight more words." Meaning, in his mind, he was counting the words and looking at every single detail, analyzing the difference between this year and last year. At the time of the Holocaust, when the war broke out, he found out that his students were still back in Germany. He was visiting America, and he went back to Germany to join his students, even though everyone was telling him that if he goes back there, it’s very likely he won't survive. His famous statement was, "I'll die with my students."

34:57Now, Rav Wasserman, before all of this happened, was trying to raise money in America, and a few chachamim told him, listen, Kvod Harav, instead of going door to door, you just came from Lita, you came from Lithuania, it's far, it's a far trip, you, gadol hador, wasting your time going door to door, asking for a hundred dollars, why don't you solve the problem in one shot? How? He says, go to this one guy. Go to this one guy and ask him for the money. He says, okay, well, so why don’t you go to him? He says, no, no. He hates us. He hates religion. He hates Judaism. And he hates to give. He says, so why should I go to him? He says, because he knows you. He was in class with you many years ago, and his name was Pinchas. Go visit him. He made a lot of money in the textile business and clothes. I said fine, for my children, for the talmidim, even if I get embarrassed, it's worth it. Once Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman went, he called, he made an appointment, he went to see him. At first, Pinchas, now named Peter. Once you have money, usually, you change your name sometimes.

36:23Your old name becomes obsolete, like milk. So Pinchas said, "Let me show you my stuff. Let me show you my factory." He showed him the factory. He showed him this section: "We make 5 million." This section: "We make 10 million." This section: "We make 100 million." "This section, we make this." He shows him his glory. Every king likes to show his glory. So he says, "What about you, Elchanan? What about you, Abbas Alman? What did you do with your life?" And Rav Wasserman says, me? No, you know, I studied under this Rabbi and this Rabbi and this Rabbi, and eventually, I went to the Chofetz Chaim, and I studied under him. After that, I opened my yeshiva and I have all these students, and they're becoming talmidim little by little. Rav Elchanan Wasserman sees his old friend Pinchas starting to hate himself because Pinchas realizes that with all the money in the world that he has, he cannot buy even one percent of the Torah of one of the talmidim of Rav Wasserman. He cannot buy one percent of the happiness that the talmidim of Rav Wasserman have.

37:33So then he ends the conversation and he says, "Okay, so why did you come here?" And Rav Wasserman says to him, "Just to see you." He says, "Okay, great, you saw me, fine, so what else do you need?" He says, "Nothing. Just wanted to see you. Say hello." He goes, "Okay, fine, hello, hello. Maybe you don't feel comfortable. Fine, you can tell me between us. Why are you here?" He goes, "No, no, no reason. Just wanted to say hello." Rav Wasserman, at this point, had no interest in getting money from him. He saw that everything that everybody said is true. They said he has a lot of money. He said it's true. Actually, he has more money than they said. They said he has 5 million; he probably has 100 million. But I don't want it anymore. I don't want the money from him. Why? I'm too busy feeling bad for him. I'm too busy feeling bad for him because all he has, he's so rich in money that it made him poor in everything else. Some people are so poor, all they have is money.

38:39He says, "Yes, but you came here all the way from Lithuania. It took you a long time. Why are you here?" He said, "Well, you know what? I have a button here. The button on my jacket is falling off. If you don't mind, maybe I heard that you're in clothing. Maybe you can fix my button." And he looks and he says, "What do you mean fix? You came all the way for the button? Because, you know, the button... See, I'm a rabbi. People see me, and if they see that the button falls off, it's a Chillul Hashem. Chillul Hashem is the biggest sin in Judaism. I don't want to go to Gehinnom; I want to go to Gan Eden. Can you fix my button? Can you help me out a little bit?" Didn't know what to do with himself. He said, "One of his people, fix the Rabbi's button, please." And then he goes back again to the same show, and he says, "Listen, for the love, you didn't come here for the button. Please tell me, why are you here? Why are you here? You didn't come here for the button." And he responds, "No, I'm here. I have to go now. Thank you very much. Bye." And he leaves. Peter/Pinkus cannot sleep at night. turns over and he turns over, and he just can't sleep. He starts dialing the phone, looking for Rav Wasserman all over the city. He's asking who and what, waking up people throughout the whole night, trying to figure out who knows where he's at. He finally finds him and gets him on the phone at 2 o'clock in the morning. He says, "For the love of Hashem, why did you come here? I can't sleep. You're killing me. You have to tell me why you came here."

39:57He says, "I came here for a button." He responds, "There's no way. There's no way you came here for a button. There's no way. You came from Lita. You have to talk. Please come to my office." He says, "You're my old friend. I'm leaving soon, so I'll come to you." comes to his office. It's almost three o'clock in the morning, and he says, for the love. I know you're not a fool, and I'm not a fool either. We went to the same school together many years ago. There's no way that you traveled on a boat all the way from Lita, two weeks on a boat to get here. You stayed in the Bronx, then you came to me in my office in Manhattan. Just to do what? To get a button for five cents. There's no way. He watches them and looks at him. He says, oh. It bothers you. It bothers you that I traveled on a boat for two weeks to come all the way to America to fix a button. But it doesn't bother you that your neshama came from the Kisah HaKavod. That's 3,500 light-years away. To go from one level of the Kiseh HaKavod to the next one is another 3,000 years, and to go to the next one is another 1,000 years. All the way until you got here, the Gemara in Masechet Chagiga says, each level is thousands of light-years separation until your neshama got to this world. It doesn't bother you. So what did you do here? You're here to fix buttons. So what did I do? I came here to help you.

41:22The only thing you do is fix buttons. So I said, okay, fix my button, because that's what you do. Pinchas wanted to bury himself, like I did when I heard the story. The reason why is because sometimes we could spend 50, 60, 70 years being a button—a meaningless button. did nothing in this world. They came to this world like the wind and left the world like the wind, contributing nothing. A person needs to use the month of Elul to evaluate: What have you contributed to humanity? If you made money and you built a house, it means nothing. Why? Because someone will destroy the house one day and build a bigger one. If you build a company No one will care. Someone will eventually buy it, break it up into pieces, keep what he likes, throw out what he doesn't, even if you liked it, and move on. And your memory disappears. All of these millionaires that put their names on buildings because they want people to know who they are, you know the first thing people do after they die? Erase the name and look for a new donor.

42:45Material is not something that can help you beyond your life here. A person needs to know that at some point he's going to go up to Shamayim, and they're going to ask him: What have you done? Were you a button, or did you actually bring something here? Now, the only thing that's meaningful in Shamayim is Torah and Mitzvot. That's what Hashem said. He's the one that wrote the instructions and... buttons. He says to leave it for the people that are still living here. That's why He said to the Nevi'im (prophets), He told them instructions time and time again: "Don't be a button. Don't be a nothing." And if you think that you're supposed to be here to make money, to spend all of your time building things that won't last much beyond your life, and... There are countless proofs. There are countless stories that all of you know, have heard, and can hear about people who spend their lives building a fortune only to realize that they can’t even enjoy it. A person builds a restaurant empire, only to learn later in life that he can't eat because he has diabetes.

44:04person spending all of his time making beautiful things only to realize that he can't see them because he went blind. A person trying to develop every single sense that he has in his body to enjoy every sense, only to realize one day that he can't feel his body anymore. This means that when you're spending your whole life chasing material, you're bound to be disappointed. We wrote in the Alon HaKodesh, the newsletter that we have, and... that the vast majority of people in the world have no idea what happiness means. Everybody says that they're looking to be happy, they're sometimes happy, sometimes they're not happy, but the vast majority of people have no idea what happiness really means. And the reason why is because they try to define happiness by something that's momentary. They won a game, so they're happy. They won some money, so they're happy. They got married, so they're happy. They had a kid, so they're happy. The problem is that all of these moments of happiness are like an adrenaline rush. When I was a kid, I used to play football, and sometimes during a game you'd get injured, but you wouldn't feel it until after the game. The reason why is because you have adrenaline going through your system, and you don't feel the pain until after, when you calm down.

45:24People are so confused about happiness that they think it is supposed to be something momentary, just like an adrenaline rush. It's not. Happiness is supposed to be something that is constant. You're supposed to wake up happy, go to sleep happy, be happy in the afternoon, during disasters, with good things, always happy. That's how it's supposed to be. That's how life is supposed to be. That's when Hashem gave you the Torah on Mount Sinai. He said these are the instructions for what? To be happy. So how come everybody's miserable? Why are there so many people, religious and non-religious, miserable? Why? The reason, Rabotai, is because we're trying to become happy by following the wrong instructions. We're trying to achieve happiness by following our own instructions—by buying a new system, by buying a new car, by buying a new house, and by increasing the material consumption that we have. We end up realizing that we have everything we want and nothing that we want at the same time.

46:28People like Robin Williams and all of these other celebrities eventually realized they now can't even buy more stuff. Why? They bought everything already. There's nothing else to buy, so they lose hope, and they kill themselves. Happiness, rabotai, is one of the first things that a person needs to think about. How am I gonna get to happiness? Maybe I'm not gonna be Moshe Rabbeinu. For people to think about becoming a tzaddik is hard for them. I... Maybe I'm not going to become the best businessman in the world. To become a billionaire is not always possible in most people's minds. But everyone has a common denominator. Everyone wants to be happy. No one wakes up in the morning and says, "I can't wait to be miserable today." No one says that. Everybody says, "I can't wait to be happy." Now, happiness is a spiritual feeling. not something that you can achieve with physicality; you cannot achieve it with material possessions.

47:31The only thing that can give you even a small chance or any chance whatsoever of being happy is to show up at the shiurim, learn the purpose of life, and start evaluating what you are doing here. Why are you here? What's the purpose above work, marriage, kids, eating, drinking, restaurants, games, and all the shtuyot that we do every day? After you finish all that... After that, what's the point? Let's say you went to the game. Let's say you went to the show. Let's say you ate the steak and another steak. You finished all of that. Then what? That's happy? Happiness is understanding that you have to have a purpose in life. You can't have a purpose in life without Hashem. All of these people that claim to be atheists. They claim they don't believe in anything. They love to attack religious people. Why? Because they need a purpose in their life. Without Hashem, there's no purpose. So they create a new purpose. What is that? To attack those who have a purpose. Rabotai, Elul is a time for us to reflect. When you arrive at Rosh Hashanah, in less than a month from now, Hashem is going to want to decide: Why should I give you another year? Why should I give you more money? Why should I give you a wife? Why should I give you children? Why should I give you a husband? Why should I give you health? Why should I give you anything?

48:58Why? You're not even happy with what I gave you. Why should I give you more? Why should I give you anything? So at least, Rabotai, spend the next few weeks learning about Hashem and trying to figure out what's the point? What's the point of why I'm here? And is what I'm doing going to help me become happy? Any questions? Baruch Adonai le'olam, amen v'amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

51:00Thank you.