EMET Verifier, Practical EMUNAH, Suffering, MUSIC, Leaving Christianity - STUMP THE RABBI (33)

0:17Thank you for coming. Hopefully, you guys have some questions tonight. Tonight is Wednesday. We're in Shaarei Tzion in Sunny Isles, Florida. In case you guys didn't know where you are, you're in Sunny Isles. Tonight's shiur will be for a refuah shlema for Levana bat Sara, Doris bat Jorah, David ben Esria, Elisheva Chaya bat Sara, Batya bat Sara, and all of Am Yisrael b'ezrat Hashem will have a refuah shlema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf, and also for Rav Efraim ben Shulamit and Rabbanit Sara bat Anat. Refuah shlema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf. Now, I'm hoping that you guys have some questions for me today. Our shiurim on questions and answers, Baruch Hashem, have been the biggest hit every week. People like the questions that you guys ask, and sometimes they like the questions that I ask and I answer. Because if you're asking the question, if you have a question in your head, you should ask it. Don't ever think it's a stupid question or it's a smart question. Because if you have a question, that means that most likely somebody else in the audience around the world also has that question. And one of the beautiful things about the Torah is that it's from God. Now, what does it mean that the Torah is from God? Why is it a big deal? What if the Torah was from Ari over here?

1:41You should ask it. Don't ever think it's a stupid question or a smart question. Because if you have a question, that means that most likely somebody else in the audience around the world also has that question. And one of the beautiful things about the Torah is that it's from God. Now, what does it mean that the Torah is from God? Why is it a big deal? What if the Torah was from Ari over here? It's still a nice book. Still a nice book. No words changed. It tells us Moshe Rabbeinu brought Torah to Klal Yisrael. He got Torah from Hashem. Why is it such a big difference if it's from Ari or it's from HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Because if it's from Ari, then it's Ari's opinion. Ari's opinion can change next week. Last week it was too loud; this week it's not loud enough. Next week it might be just fine, and the week after that, it could be different again. It's always a human being like us, even though sometimes his questions seem like he has Ruach HaKodesh. He's a human being like us, so Ari's opinion is a human opinion.

2:58has no deficiencies as we talked about yesterday, has no lackings, has no mistakes, but also HaKadosh Baruch Hu shows us if we chase after His emet, if we chase after His emet like it's a treasure, like Shlomo HaMelech tells us, "Chase the emet like it's a treasure," then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to truly show you things that are beyond your imagination, things that are miraculous, And He's going to show you how your question is not only in the Torah; the answer is also in the Torah. But most importantly, when you press play on the shiur, any shiur that you know has emet in it, you don't know that this shiur has your question in it. You know this shiur is by a speaker that speaks the emet. Guess what's going to happen? Like that you press play so much, like that you attended the shiur so much, He's going to give you a gift. What gift is He going to give you? He's going to answer the question that was in your head that nobody else knew except you. When exactly? When you press play. Why? Because the Torah comes from God, not from me or from Ari or from anybody else. He will give you an answer custom made just for you. Why? Because you pressed play.

4:22Because you were looking for the emet, and you know this is the source of emet. I remember when I first started learning, I was so amazed by this, that for me this was the biggest proof in the world that the Torah is from God. Because I would speak to Rabbi Efraim, And I would have questions in my head. And I would ask questions. But sometimes I didn't have questions. And he would start, he would give me a shiur about something. And through the shiur, he's answering all the questions that I forgot that I had. But if that wasn't enough, you know, sometimes, you know, I would listen to, you know, he would obviously go to the kollel, continue studying. I'd listen to shiurim by Rabbi Mizrahi. I listened to hundreds and hundreds of shiurim by Rabbi Mizrahi. And no, it's fine, it's fine. I got it, thank you. I listened to hundreds of shiurim by Rabbi Mizrachi, sheyichyeh, and it was amazing to me how it didn't matter what shiur I pressed. I'd press play, and through the shiur, I'm getting answers to my questions. And not just any questions that I ever had, but questions that I had that day. And if that wasn't enough, you'd think, why? Do you think it's only because it's digital? Digital is advanced? No, no, HaKadosh Baruch Hu also works on paper. I'd open Parashat HaShavua,

5:38Parashat HaShavua, whatever Parashat HaShavua was, whether it's Bereishit, Noach, Lech Lecha, whatever, pick one. That's the parasha. I start reading the parasha, study the parasha, and guess what? I get the answers to my questions. What questions do I have? The question I had that week, that day, that minute. That's how we know, rabotai, when you study Torah, that's how you know for sure two things. Number one, Torah is from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It's better than any scientific proof you're ever gonna have. Number two, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu likes you studying Torah. Now, what happens if you're watching a thousand shiurim already from Friedman and company, and Goldberg, and Dror, and the bird, but you're not getting all of this? You're getting, you know, you like it, you're enjoying it, you laugh, you giggle with the old man, but you're not getting any chiddushim, you're not getting any answers. You're just, you know, what does that mean? Lo bashamayim hi. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says His Torah is not from Shamayim, it's from his own logic. Why? Because the Torah says homosexuality is To'evat Hashem, it's disgusting to Hashem. Friedman and company and Dror Kasuto and his friends, they don't think that homosexuality is disgusting. They think it's one sin, what's the big deal? That's what they say in their shiurim.

6:55You understand? So if you're not getting that, what is HaKadosh Baruch Hu telling you? You're not advancing. Five years you're listening to this clown and nothing has changed. Why? Because it's not from Shamayim. It sounds like it, it's called the same name, but it's like buying Nike shoes from the flea market. You really think they're real? So how come it's $20 but in the store it's $200? What, they got it at a discount? It's not from Shamayim. Rabotai, the Torah that you're learning is supposed to be like a shock to your heart every single time. Every time you watch a shiur, every time you read a sefer, it's supposed to be like an electric shock to your heart. If it's not, something's wrong. Now, sometimes it's not the speaker; sometimes it's you. Why? Sometimes you're studying Torah like you're watching a movie. Every two seconds you walk away, you let the shiur continue playing, you're bringing your steak, your hamburger—it falls everywhere. You know, it's good. You know, the whole thing is like, what do you think? You're in a restaurant? Studying Torah. Studying Torah, you have to obviously give it the respect it deserves.

8:15Now, the Rambam writes, we're commanded to learn Torah day and night, and that's the reason we have to learn in the morning and at night. But he also says that if it wasn't for this commandment, that we have to learn Torah day and night, we should only learn Torah at night. Why? He says because all of the chochmah, all of the wisdom that a person is going to get from the Torah is going to be at night. Now, Many people are night owls like me, and they stay up and send me text messages at 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. Now, that's not necessarily a good thing. Why? Why aren't you studying Torah? Why are you sending me text messages? Now, if your text message is about a specific halacha you need to know at 2 o'clock in the morning, okay, chazak u'baruch, that's a good thing. You're thinking about Torah at 2 o'clock in the morning, good for you. But if your question is about, I don't know, what you should do at school tomorrow, or how much money you should make this week, all things like that, at 2 o'clock in the morning, you're wasting your time. Why? Because the Rambam writes that if a person knew the value of Torah learned at night, he would never waste a single night eating, drinking, socializing, or even sleeping.

9:34But since we're obligated to learn Torah both day and night, we still have to learn day and night. You have to learn a little bit in the morning, you have to learn as much as you possibly can at night, but still make sure that you Wake up early enough in the morning to pray Shacharit. You're not allowed to learn Torah late at night and skip prayers. Like, you know, "I can't make it to minyan in the morning. Oh, I'll come." No, because I go to sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning, 5 o'clock in the morning. I watch shiurim. So what time do you wake up? Ah, you know, I wake up at 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn’t give you permission to skip mitzvot for the sake of learning Torah. Torah is something that's supposed to enhance the fulfillment of mitzvot, not to excuse skipping mitzvot. You have to pray, so if you know yourself, you know that you need five, six, seven, eight hours of sleep, then you have to go to sleep. Yeah, what about learning at night? Obviously, you can't. Obviously, you can't, unless you're going to give up on some sleep. The point is, rabotai, that all of the mitzvot we do are a way for us to connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu on a regular basis, but the koach, the strength, to do those mitzvot comes from learning Torah. Now, many times,

10:44People hear some of the things that we say, and perhaps it's new to them, and most of the time, I try to mention sources, but once in a while, I forget, or I don't mention it at all, whatever it is, and people ask for sources. It's good to have a source. It's good to have a source, to know where things are coming from, to know that it's coming from Chachamim. The problem is, Rabotai, that many times I see that people who ask for sources don't ask for them for the right reason. They only ask for the source just to see if there is one because they're hoping there isn't one, so then they can go against it. Meaning, if I tell you, listen, Like I said yesterday, there was a very, very big chiddush for some of you about the fire of Gehinom. Sixty times this world, and then from each chamber to the other, it's another sixty times from that, and so on and so forth. Now, if I just said that, people would say, oh, is there a source? And if I didn't have a source, they would say, ah, so the whole Gehinom is nothing. There's no Gehinom. We're going back to Friedlander.

11:52Going back to over there. Well, no, there's nothing. There's no Gehinom. Why? Because I didn't have a source. But the reality is that I do. I mentioned two sources. One was the Rambam said it before, and the other one is Rav Yisroel Salanter. So the key is, if you can ask for a source, ask for it for the right reason, meaning that... That source has to be a stamp that, okay, I got to change. I got to do something about this. Now this is a chotemet. Why is it so important? There is a concept in Judaism that is critical, is popular, but is rarely understood. It's called emunah. אמונה. Emunah, everybody has heard shiurim about emunah. Everybody likes to talk about emunah. But I promise you that very few people understand what emunah is. And the reason why is because people think that emunah is that if I believe that good things will happen, then good things will happen. And they think like it's a magic trick of some kind. But then when it fails,

13:07When it fails, they don't really know. They become koferim. They become heretics. They're like, oh, so emunah doesn't work. They never think, maybe you didn't have enough emunah. Maybe you didn't really have emunah. I'm going to give you some examples. Now, at the time of, we're going to read about in a couple of weeks, of Exodus, we see that HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu to go and be the go'el, go be the Mashiach of his day, and get Am Yisrael out of Egypt. And He says, go to Am Yisrael and free them. Now Rav Yagen says, wait a minute, hold on a second. Why is HaKadosh Baruch Hu telling Moshe Rabbeinu to go to Am Yisrael and free them? They don't have control. They're slaves. Who has control of them? No, no, who volunteers? Wake up. Who has control of Am Yisrael in Egypt? Paro, Baruch Hashem, one person. Paro has control. So why didn't HaKadosh Baruch Hu tell Moshe Rabbeinu, "Go to Paro, tell Paro, 'Paro, enough's enough.'" Now you're going to tell me, "Yeah, he eventually went there." Thank you very much, he eventually went there. I read the parasha also. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't say go to Paro. He said go to the zekeinim, go to the elders of Am Yisrael. Why? Why?

14:32Why go to the old people? Why go to the Chachamim over there? Why not go directly to the guy that has control? If Moshe Rabbeinu goes to the Chachamim, he goes to the Zekeinim, he goes to Klal Yisrael, he tells them, "Rabotai, let's go, get out of here." Anybody leaving? Nobody's leaving. Why? They're slaves. They have no control. If they could leave, they would have already left. Why don't you just go to Paro? Who wants to give me an answer? Chavrutah session. freedom from the Yetzer Hara. How so? But they knew about Hashem. They knew about Hashem. That's why they kept their language, their clothes. They knew about Hashem. Even though they were idol worshippers, they still knew about Hashem. But no, it's... To prepare them. Why do I need to prepare them?

15:35They're not suffering plagues. The Egyptians are suffering plagues. Yeah, but if I, let's just play your argument out. If I just go, if I, let's pretend I'm Moshe Rabbeinu, or at least a shoe. I'm Moshe Rabbeinu's shoe, okay? And I go directly, I skip going to the elders. I go directly to Pharaoh. I take the shoe and throw it in Pharaoh's face. I say, Pharaoh, either you free them or I'm going to give you the other shoe. And Pharaoh says, okay, you know what? You scared me enough. Go. I go straight away to Klal Yisrael, Eitam Rabotai. Got to deal with Paro. We're leaving; it's obviously going to still leave. Hold on, answer my question: is Am Yisrael staying or leaving? Are they going to tell me, "No, no, we're not ready"? They're going to tell me, "Not ready"? They're ready. Okay, so the argument goes in the garbage. Give me a second argument. Would it be because they knew at some point they had to go? No, I said, though, it's a good argument. We have to get to the truth. It's good to play the whole thing out. We have to play the whole thing out. How's it going to work? Why? But he just said, if I went to Paro, they don't know that he's going to make their life hard. But Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know that. No, no, but Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know that Paro is going to make their life harder. How do we know Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know he's going to make their life harder? How do we know? Because after he went to Paro, after he went to the Zekainim, then he went to Paro. Yeah.

16:58And Paro said no, and he actually made their life harder, and Moshe Rabbeinu cried to Hashem. He said, "Why are You doing this? Why did You send me to make their life harder?" Meaning that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know that that's going to happen. He thought he's going to go to Paro, Paro's going to say okay and yalla, we're out of here. So he didn't know. We didn't know. No, so give me the argument, Netanel. Why do I need to tell them? Why can't I just go to Paro, finish the deal with Paro, and then go to Am Yisrael and say, "Guys, I did the deal. You don't have to do anything. Let's get out of here." What do you mean it's Hashem? Hashem told our great-great-great-grandfather that we're going to be there for some time, and at some time we'll leave, so Hashem is in control. Therefore, we... no, no, but hold on a second. Okay, I am the shaliach again. I go to Paro; we play the whole thing out again. He says, "Okay, fine, you scared me enough. Go tell your guys. Here's a ticket, here's a visa, take it to all of California." And you have a big Moshe Rabbeinu walking around with a huge billboard. He says, "Guys, we're out of here."

18:18Signed Paro. This is from Hashem. Baruch Hashem. He puts a Be'ezrat Hashem on top. Be'ezrat Hashem on top. He says, "Guys, whoever wants to come, come with me." Are they going to say no or are they going to say yes? They're going to say yes if they've been slaves for 210 years almost. 87 specifically were the most difficult part. But the point is, they're not going to not leave. They're leaving. So I'll give you the answer. Unless somebody else has another possibility. Anybody else have another answer? Satan's going to try number two. Okay. Okay. Okay. He's not asking for help from Paro. He's telling Paro, free us. And Paro says yes. Then he comes to Klal Yisrael and says, let's leave. So that would work. So now, the question is, how come he didn't do that? How come Hashem told Moshe, go to the people, then go to Paro? Why does Hashem have to do this whole process? Why is it not just like, let's go, guys? Here's the answer. I gave you the answer already. I gave you the answer. What's the answer?

19:42HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu, "Go and free Am Yisrael, go free my children." Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hashem, "But they're not going to believe me. They're not going to believe me." What does Hashem say? Hashem should say, "Moshe, what? Are you doubting Me? I'm telling you, go free them. Why are you doubting Me?" What does Hashem say? "You're right, Moshe. They're not going to believe you. They're not going to believe you. So I'm going to give you signs. What am I going to give you? Signs. Oh, take the stick, throw it on the ground." Huh? The stick turns into an anaconda. Oh, a huge snake. Wow, okay, it's one sign. Pick it up, grab the snake. Okay, it's back to a stick now. Then show me your arm. His arm turns to pretty much tzara'at. It looks like snow. Okay, show them these signs. Okay, what's Your name, Hashem? What's Your name? Tell me Your name, Hashem. He tells him. He tells him the name. Okay, now I have the signs after a week of arguing with Hashem that he doesn't want to go. Moshe Rabbeinu is convinced. Okay, now I'm going to go. Who? To where am I going to go?

20:50Tahiti? Where am I going? Oh, I'm going to go to the people. Why am I going to go to the people? Because now I have something so they can believe. Because I'm going to tell them the code. The code that Yosef HaTzaddik is telling his brothers in this week's parasha is that when you're going to eventually be freed, get out of here, make sure that the Goel, the Mashiach that's going to bring you, is going to bring you this code. This code. Pakod Pakadeti. There are two words. He has to say, this is the message that you know he is really from Hashem. It's not some strange crazy guy who says he's Mashiach on a message board. This is really from Hashem. Okay, now on top of that, that means this guy has to show other things, show some signs. Why? Because we need to know this is real. So Moshe Rabbeinu shows them. He says, "Listen, I have not only the code words, because I could have stolen them from somebody, I could have known them from somebody else, and then killed them, and then I know it. So, I'm going to show you." What? "Here, the stick turns into a snake, then turns back to a stick. Then look at my hand, it turns into tzara'at, and so on." Why does he need to do this whole process? Because, Rabotai, in order for any bracha to work, there's a rule in Judaism.

22:00It's in the Shulchan Aruch, it's in the Rambam. In order for any bracha to work, you must have emunah that this bracha is from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that this bracha is going to work. How do we know? The Rambam writes on Yom Kippur, Yom Kippur, Yom Kippur, we believe, what do we believe on Yom Kippur? We believe that we should eat a steak in the middle. What do we believe on Yom Kippur? We believe that we're going to pray to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we're going to cry like the Klausenberger Rebbe, yalvai. On Yom Kippur, we're gonna cry. Why? So HaKadosh Baruch Hu forgives all of our sins. Now the Rambam writes, if you believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is gonna forgive all of your sins on Yom Kippur, guess what? And you pray and you do all the things you need to do, you really say "I'm sorry," and you believe that your "sorry" is gonna work, you believe that your prayer is gonna work, guess what? It's gonna work. But if you just go to Beit Knesset, and you hang out with the guys, and you pray here and there when you feel like it, and you can't wait until the fast is over because you don't really believe this mumbo jumbo, but you're doing it because you've been doing it, guess what? Your Yom Kippur is like a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of any week. It doesn't help you a cent, nothing. Why? You don't believe in it. In order for the bracha to work, you have to have emunah in it.

23:25When Moshe Rabbeinu told HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "They're not going to believe me," HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't say, "Moshe, how dare you challenge me?" HaKadosh Baruch Hu said, "No, you're right, Moshe, you're right. They're not going to believe. And if they don't believe, even you, Moshe, are not going to be able to take them out of Mitzrayim. Even you, my messenger, it's not going to work." Why? They have to believe in the salvation. They have to believe in the bracha. They have to believe in it for it to work. If you don't have emunah in it, it's not going to work. Example number one. Example number two. I told you some time ago about Elisha HaNavi. Elisha HaNavi, he is the talmid of Eliyahu HaNavi. When Eliyahu HaNavi left this world without dying, through a special, extraordinary event where HaKadosh Baruch Hu lifted him from the world right in front of Elisha HaNavi. It's in the Tanakh. Took him out of this world, but alive, with his clothes on. Elisha HaNavi became the Gadol HaDor, the biggest prophet. Before he left, he asked Eliyahu HaNavi for a bracha. Eliyahu HaNavi says, what bracha do you want? He says, I want to have even more miracles, more power than what you did. He said, amen.

24:51Some of the miracles were even bigger than those of Eliyahu HaNavi. One time, a woman came, she was praying, and she asked for a bracha from the Rav. So Eliyahu HaNavi says, "What do you want me to pray for you?" She says, "Don't pray for me. Pray for Klal Yisrael." What a tzaddekes. Who comes to the Kotel asking for blessings for somebody else? Who comes to the Rav asking for a blessing? No, don't give me any blessings, Rav. Give it to all of Klal Yisrael. When was the last time anybody here cried for Klal Yisrael? People cry about their own problems all day. No one cries for anybody else. The reality is this woman, special woman, what does she do? She comes to the Gadol HaDor, waits in line for five hours. What? Kevod HaRav, please pray for Klal Yisrael, not for me. I don't need anything. I have everything I need. Elisha HaNavi was so impressed by this woman. Wow, tzaddekes. So Gehazi, his gabbai, tells him, you know, but Kevod HaRav, you know this woman, she doesn't have any kids.

26:10She's barren. Elisha HaNavi says, so this year she'll have a kid. Ten years she's barren. She can't have kids. She's like one of our Matriarchs. The uterus is missing. Elisha HaNavi says, she'll have a baby this year. She believed in Elisha HaNavi. That's why she came. Now, where's the problem? The problem is, shortly after the baby is born, he dies. Baby dies. Now everybody's crying, hysterical. The woman is not crying. She takes the baby. Everybody's in shock. What does she do? She runs to Elisha HaNavi. She runs with the baby to Elisha HaNavi. Where am I going to go? I'm going to go to Elisha HaNavi? He's the one that blessed me with the baby. I'm going to go to him. Hey, hey. Hey, you gave me a baby. What kind of baby did you give me? Half a baby? What's going on here? She comes to him and says, "What did you do here? Why did you give me a baby only for her to die?" Elisha, the prophet, says to Gehazi, "Gehazi, go to this woman, take my stick, take my staff, and touch the baby with the stick." Now Gehazi was joking around a little bit. He's walking around with the stick.

27:36Touches a dead dog, the dog comes back to life. Now, when he touches the baby, it doesn't work. So Elisha never finds this out. The woman comes to him with the baby because, okay, he touches the baby, the baby comes back to life. You stop, actually, well, resurrection of the dead. Now, why did this all work? Why didn’t it work with the stick? If you touch a stick right now, is it gonna be able to bring a dog back to life and... Is the stick gonna be able to bring a kid to life? Is the stick gonna be able to do anything other than be a stick? No, the woman had emunah in the Rabbi, in the Navi (Prophet), and not in him specifically that he is God, chas v'shalom. She knew he's a messenger of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. His prayers have VIP, VIP treatment in Shamayim. He says something, Hashem says, oh, I got a WhatsApp message from Elisha HaNavi. Oh, okay, I'll answer it. No matter what time. She had emunah in the Rav, and it worked. Elisha HaNavi.

28:41said this stick has powers. The stick has powers. Why? Because example number two. Now, sometimes I'm going to give you example number three, and then you can ask the questions. Sometimes Hashem wants to show Klal Yisrael some mussar on how to behave. by sending us a righteous goy. Now, even though goyim have mixed feelings, to say the least, about Jews—many of them hate us, but also many of them love us—there is a klal in the Torah. that a goy that keeps the Noahide laws because Hashem said it, has olam haba, goes to heaven. Now if he keeps the seven Noahide laws and all of the common sense laws like honoring your parents, being ethical and so on, but just because he wants to be ethical, not because Hashem said it, the Rambam says he doesn't go to heaven. But if he keeps the same exact laws, keeps the Noahide laws, and all the common sense laws because Hashem said it, he or she goes to heaven. Permanently. Now, I'm going to give you an example of a woman that's not only in Olam Haba. She's in a very special place in Olam Haba. And she's not Jewish. Her name was Matronita. The Gemara Masechet Nedarim, page 50.

30:06And all the common sense laws because Hashem said it, he or she goes to heaven permanently. Now, I'm going to give you an example of a woman that's not only in Olam Haba; she's in a very special place in Olam Haba. And she's not Jewish. Her name was Matronita. The Gemara Masechet Nedarim, page 50. says Rabbi Akiva once was needing an enormous amount of money for his yeshiva. Now, Rabbi Akiva's yeshiva had 24,000 students. So when you need to payroll, it's not $500. It's not a $200,000 24-hour campaign. You're talking about millions of dollars. Now, the Jews didn't have the money. So the rabbis told Rabbi Akiva, "Listen, there's this rich Gentile, this rich woman, but she's a righteous woman. Her name is Matronita. She lives on the coastline. She lives on a beach. There's a big, big, huge, gigantic house. She's very rich. Go to her. Maybe the bracha is going to come from her. She's going to be a righteous person. Maybe she's going to lend us the money."

31:30Rabbi Akiva goes to Matronita's house. They set it up. He says, listen, I need a hundred million dollars. I need a lot of money. Why? Because if I don't get this money, the government is going to shut us down. Everything's going to shut down. Everything collapses in a second. Rabbi Akiva needs millions of dollars. He says, I can borrow it from you. Borrow it from you. Not, don't give it to me. I have an obligation to give it to me. I'll borrow it from you. I'll give it back to you. So Matronita, being a righteous Gentile, she says, okay, Rabbi Akiva, who's going to be the witness that is going to be the witness of our deal here that you're going to return the money at the agreed upon time? Rabbi Akiva says, whoever you want. She said, "Whatever I want? Okay, I want the ocean to be one of the witnesses, and I want HaKadosh Baruch Hu to be another witness. That's who I want as a witness." Rabbi Akiva says, "Amen. That's what you want? That's the witness? That's the witness. I'll give you the money in X amount of time, I don't know, 90 days, a year, whatever it was, I'll give you the money on that day." She gives him the money, he takes care of business, and now comes the time to pay back. Rabbi Akiva has the money.

32:52But HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to teach us a little bit of Mussar. You're going to learn from a righteous gentile. What does He do? He makes Rabbi Akiva really sick. And Rabbi Akiva is bedridden. He can't leave the bed. But he has to pay the money. He can't pay the money because he can't leave, and he's stuck. Patronita expects today, oh, the day is almost over. Rabbi Akiva is nowhere to be found. Matronita looks at Shamayim, she says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, You are the witness that I only lent him the money. You are the witness because I only lent the money because You're the witness and the ocean is the witness. That's the only reason I lent the money, because I believe in You. She starts talking to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. In that moment, HaKadosh Baruch Hu made the Caesar's daughter, the Roman Caesar's daughter, cuckoo, lose her mind. She decided to go to the treasure, take all the treasure, and just throw it all in the ocean, out the window, right into the ocean. Then HaKadosh Baruch Hu told the ocean, "Hey ocean, you're one of the witnesses, yallah, let's go, make the ocean do whatever it needs to do to get this treasure to Matronita."

34:06Ocean. Two seconds later, all of the treasure hits the door of the woman. There's a big knock on the door. What happened? She goes downstairs. She has a huge treasure outside. Why did this happen? Why did this happen? You could cry to Hashem 500 times, no treasure showing up in your house. Why? Because maybe you don't believe as much as Matronita. Now a little time passed. Rabbi Akiva shows up with the money after he heals. about the money he goes, "Here's your money." She says, "No, no, Rabbi, your Father in Heaven already paid for you. Your Father in Heaven already paid for you. It made me so happy," she says. "It made me so happy. Keep everything that you brought for yourself, and take some more. Hey, take whatever you want. Go, take some more." That's why the Gemara says he became the richest man in the world from three different ways. This was one of them. Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu make all of this happen, Rabotai? Because this righteous gentile woman had emunah that if HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the witness, then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the witness. If this is a beracha, this is a beracha. She didn't believe in herself like most people. Oh no, I have a lot of self-confidence. That's a problem. You should have confidence in Hashem, not yourself. What are you? You have stomach aches. What confidence do you have?

35:36Human beings are the most fragile creation there is. Rabbi Ephraim says, just look at the human being, how lowly it is. A human being eats something two days old and gets sick for three days. A cat can eat something a month old, and he's fine. It's like he's making a salad out of it. A human being, you go outside in the winter, and a few days you won't survive without Hashem. The cat and the dog, they can live winter after winter for 20 years. No jacket, no nothing. What confidence in yourself? Confidence in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Confidence in the berakhah that you say. And you can even learn this from a righteous gentile, the Gemara says. Now, what do you guys think? You think Matronita is in Gan Eden or Gehinom? I don't know. My name is not mentioned in the Gemara, but Matronita is. My name is not mentioned in the Gemara about giving big tzedakah and having emunah in Hashem, but Matronita is. I'll allow Eliezer to be there.

36:37Do you understand what the power of emunah is? The power of real emunah. Many people come to rabbis thinking that the rabbi is a magician, forgetting how to apply the right thing. And they think that the rabbi is the one who is going to make something happen. And they make a mistake. They make a mistake. They pray to the rabbis, whether deceased or alive. You always have to pray to Hashem. But there is a concept that's very critical in Judaism that's called Emunat Chachamim. Meaning you have to have faith in the rabbis, faith in the chachamim, that when they pray for you, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will answer their prayers. Not that they are powerful, or they are doing any magic, or anything supernatural, but rather that their prayers are going to be accepted by Hashem. Two couples come to Rav Ovadia. Both crying for the same problem. Both of them haven't had children in a very long time. Rav Ovadia says, B'ezrat Hashem, you'll have a baby this year. A year passes, both couples come back. One is happy, one is sad. True story. One has a baby, says, Kevod HaRav, we just had a baby. We want Rav to see the baby and we want to invite you to the Brit Milah.

38:05Second friend comes and says, I'm really upset. How come you only blessed my friend? He goes, no, I blessed you too. I didn't just bless you, I blessed you too. He goes, hey, I got sold out here. I got nothing. They got a baby, I got bupkis. He goes, no, no, no. You got a blessing. He goes, how come it didn't work? He goes, let me ask you a question. What did you do right after I gave you a blessing? What did you go do? He said, to tell you the truth, after he told me that my wife is going to give birth, we went to the doctor. And we asked the doctor, what do you think of this rabbi? He said, you can have a baby. And the doctor says, I don't know, maybe it's going to be a miracle. I don't believe in stuff like that, the doctor says. Scientifically, he says, the doorknob may have a baby before your wife. So then we got really upset, and we went to another rabbi. And he says, b'ezrat Hashem. He said, okay, let's bring your friend. He goes, what did you do after I gave you a blessing that you're going to have a baby? Oh, because the rabbi was so happy, we went to the store, we started buying, we bought the carriage that day, we started looking at clothes. Is it going to be a boy, is it going to be a girl? We didn't know, so we figured, you know, we'll buy neutral colors, you know, light blue. You know, we started buying stuff for the baby. Why? Because, why did you buy stuff? You didn't have the baby. He goes, no, but the rabbi said I'm going to have a baby. The rabbi said I'm going to have a baby. I'm going to have a baby. What do you mean? He said, you see the difference here?

39:31When I gave her a blessing, she said amen. She believed that my blessing from HaKadosh Baruch Hu was going to come true. You went for a second opinion, third opinion, fourth opinion, meaning you didn't believe, you didn't have emunah in the blessing of the rabbi. How do you expect it to work? How do you expect it to work? Now this rabbi, Just to show you how extraordinary it is to have emunah in what a rabbi says, what a Talmid Chacham says, or even what a simpleton like myself says. Somebody came to me one time, five years they're married, five years they're married, no kids, nothing. Doctor says, yeah, the doorknob, maybe they're going to have twins before you. They come to me, I tell them, listen, B'ezrat Hashem, you do one, two, three, B'ezrat Hashem, you're going to have a baby. If I'm something special, nine months later, they have a baby. Now, what does that make me? A big Talmid Chacham? Does it make me even a shuvav (rascal)? No, I said something, I prayed to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, they did what they were supposed to, they believed that the bracha is going to work, and guess what—it worked. And

40:37And this happens many, many times when people have emunat chachamim. But if you don't have emunat chachamim, nothing is going to work, including your learning of Torah. Many times, people learn Torah and they doubt the chachamim. They conflict with the chachamim, like, "Oh, I don't agree with the Rambam here." "Ah, I don't agree that the Zohar is this." "Ah, I don't this, I don't that." They start fighting with the chachamim as if you're on a level to fight with them. And that's why they don't enjoy their learning. It's like torture for them. They don't understand why, who, what, when. Just today I got a question from a guy, a young guy in his maybe late 20s, early 30s, nice kid, but I don't know, for some reason he has this attachment. His yetzer hara is not like most people. His yetzer hara is to kofrim. He has to listen to kofrim. Kofrim rabbis, every other day, he brings me another heretic. It's like he cannot find a single normal rabbi in the world. So he shows me this one now and goes, "Oh, yeah, listen, we don't believe in reincarnation." I said, "Well, it's in the Torah. What do you mean?" "No, no, no, this rabbi, this one, and rabbi that one says it's not in the Torah. It's nonsense. We don't believe."

41:59He goes, what do you think of that? I said, I think it's arrogant and ignorant. It's arrogant because you think you know more than the Chachamim, the countless Chachamim that said that it is true, that reincarnation is true, that it is valid. The Arizal wrote an entire Torah about it. The Zohar HaKadosh talks about it. And it's ignorant because you assume that you know more than all of those Chachamim even without learning what they wrote. Did you ever read the entire Zohar? Did you ever read the entire Arizal's work? Did you ever read any of the other Kabbalistic works? Did you ever read the entire Gemara? At least did you read the Chumash with commentary by Rashi? No, but some guy that says, no, we don't believe. You have emunat chachamim, b'nei chachamim. Emunat kofrim. You have emunat kofrim. And that's what happens, Rabotai, people like this, they have emunat chachamim in the wrong people. Why? Because it serves their purpose, because now they can just say, "Oh yeah, see, it's not all that, this Judaism. I don't have to keep this, and I don't have to keep that." They start looking for ways to get out of jail. They’re looking for ways to get out of what? They don't like it. So they look for ways to excuse themselves from their sins.

43:25So when a person does not have emunat chachamim, when a person does not have real emunah, valid emunah, you simply cannot feel the joy and beauty and deliciousness of the Torah. Why? You're by yourself. You think that the Torah came from the Ari over here. You think it came from me. You think it came from some human being. You don't think it came from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. A Torah like that, I wouldn't believe it either. But if you simply are like Noach. What's tzadik tamim? Righteous we understand, that's tzadik. What's tamim? Tamim is complete. Anything HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, Noach says amen. Anything the rabbi says, Noach says amen. I'm not asking, double-checking, are you sure, rabbi? Maybe this, maybe that. No, he said it, that's it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu put the words in his mouth. If you have such emunah in chachamim, even if the rabbi makes a mistake, listen to this, if you have real emunat chachamim, you go to a rabbi that has Yirat Shamayim, not some Joe Schmo. Go to a rabbi that has Yirat Shamayim, you have emunat chachamim, you ask the rabbi for advice, and the rabbi makes a mistake. He tells you this is a bad shidduch, but it's a really good shidduch. He tells you this is a bad job, but it's a really good job.

44:50Guess what? HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves the Chachamim so much, He's gonna change nature just for the Chacham. He's gonna tell you don't take the client, but you take the client. You take the client, don't take, whatever he says. He tells you the wrong thing to do, Hashem is gonna change nature just to make sure the Chacham doesn't look bad. Meaning it was wrong, but now he's right. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't want to make the Chachamim look wrong. That's how much HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves the Chachamim. It's very important for us to know how critical, critical it is to have real emunah. Because that way, rabotai, you could feel the joy and beauty of the Torah. When you're learning Torah, and you're constantly trying to fight with the Chachamim that are in a different world than you, you disagree with Rashi, you disagree with the Rambam. You just started learning Torah a year or two ago, and you're already disagreeing with the sages. You read, you know, you're like, no, I'm not really sure I'm going to accept this one.

45:52That's such a high level of pride, you're never going to enjoy the Torah. And you're going to become like one of these heretics who is a miserable, miserable person but thinks he knows better than everybody else. that's not a life, that's a Torah. As some of the sages say, if a person learns it lishmah, the Torah becomes a sam chaim, a potion of life. But if not, the Torah itself turns, some of it turns into a sam hamavet, a potion of death. The same Torah could be a potion of life or a potion of death, depending on how We treat it. So with that being said, Rabotai, hopefully this gives you guys a little bit of chizuk, but also some things to think about. Maybe you've had some time to think about some questions. B'chavod, who wants to go with the first question? You have a question? Okay, so here's the mic. Can you give him the mic, please? This is just a continuation of what we were talking about earlier, with the prophet, with the kid...

47:02given that the lady believed, and also the prophet had the blessing with the stick, so why did he work on the dog and not on the baby? Because it was meant for the baby. Right, because Elisha, In essence, he instilled power, put his, in essence, his blessing on the stick to work. So he doesn't have to go there and waste valuable Torah time. He said, here, here's the messenger, put it into the stick, take the stick, touch the baby. That's it, he put the blessing as if you sent a check in the mail. Now you could have sent a wire transfer, but a wire transfer takes a lot of time. You have to go to the bank, fill out some paperwork. So what do you do? You write the check, five minutes, put it in an envelope, and it goes in the mail. It goes in the mail, takes a few days, and finally arrives, b'ezrat Hashem. That's in essence what he did. He put the check in the stick. But what happened? The mailman got a little interested because he had a nice envelope, and he said, "Where's his envelope? Let me see what's in his envelope." He looked at it, "Oh, there's some cash, some checks in it." He started messing with it. He goes, "No, no, okay, put it back." He took a few dollars for himself. That's what Gehazi did. He ruined the whole thing. So that's why Elisha had to get involved. But why did Elisha find out? HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't want Elisha to look bad.

48:26HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't want Elisha to look bad, so HaKadosh Baruch Hu changed nature and made sure that Elisha found out and ended up fixing the problem. So it's a very, very critical thing for the Chachamim to look good in the eyes of the people. And that's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu many times has changed, literally changed nature to show how the Chachamim are right, even though initially it didn't make any sense. Many times. Next question. Joshua, go. I read that Yaakov and I actually studied a paragraph in the Gemara. Is it possible that if Hashem makes a decree that... people, with their own free will, could actually override that decree. For example, with the Egyptians, there was a decree that the Jews were supposed to suffer a certain amount and be enslaved, but then they took it to a whole other level. There was a certain level of suffering that was a little bit too much, so the Gemara says that

49:51There are certain decrees that HaKadosh Baruch Hu puts into the world, but there are also certain people who can change those decrees. And there are a few conditions for how a person can change a decree. For example, we were asked one time, what's the point of prayer if HaKadosh Baruch Hu already decided? If you already decided, what's the point? What's the point of praying for more money if HaKadosh Baruch Hu already decided on Rosh Hashanah? So the example that Rav Dessler, zt"l, talks about and several other Chachamim discuss is that when a person prays, in essence, if it's a real prayer, they're supposed to elevate their neshama to such an extent that they're no longer the same person

50:52that they were before that prayer. Which means that even though that decree doesn't change, it no longer belongs to them. Why? They're not the same person anymore. That's why David HaMelech says, there are people, they're lying about me. Who's lying about him? He says, the angels are lying about me. He says, what do you mean they're lying about you? Angels are lying about you. They have nothing better to do. He goes, no. They're still thinking that I'm the sinner that they said. No, but I already did Teshuvah. So they're talking about it. They're saying I don't deserve such and such. But no, it's not me anymore. I did Teshuvah already. I'm a different person. I'm a different person. So when we pray, Rabotai, with real kavanah, you read some Tehillim, you pray your Mincha, Shacharit, Arvit, you just pray your individual prayer, your hisbodedut, whatever prayer you're going to do, you start crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you start having some serious tears, you're elevating your neshama, and you're literally becoming a different person. You're becoming a different person that that decree doesn't belong to anymore.

51:55So that's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu, in essence, even though there was a decree, a person can change that. Where a person was sick, now he's healthy. Why? The sickness belongs to somebody else, not him. The Gemara gives a couple of examples of this. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus walks around with some of his students one time, and he starts to teach them about how everything is from Hashem, and there is a... no suffering without sin and so on and so forth. And as they're talking, because Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that if two people are talking, two Chachamim are walking and there's no Torah between them, they both deserve a death penalty. So even when they're walking around in the streets, they're learning Torah. So as he's learning with them, a giant snake, a cobra passes right in front of them. And Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh says, "Let me show you guys something. Hey, snake." He stops the snake. The snake turns around and goes, "Hey, where are you going?" He speaks the snake language. You know, the Chachamim, they spoke all types of languages. The snake says, "I'm going to this guy." He goes, "No, no, no, no, no. You're not going to him. He already did teshuva. This Jew you're going to, he already did teshuva. Go somewhere else. I'll help you. Out of here." The snake turns around and goes somewhere else. The students are amazed.

53:22Rabbi Yisrael said, a giant snake, instead of running away, everybody's scared to death. He talks to the snake, and the snake runs away. Okay, they continue walking, walking, walking. All of a sudden, they hear screams. People are running away. What happened? What happened? Oh, this guy was in the middle of robbing these people, and suddenly, miraculously, this giant snake, this cobra, killed him. He said, "You told him to go away." He goes, "Yeah, he did go away. But he went somewhere else." He goes, "Yeah, you have to understand. Sometimes the decree is already passed. That means that the bullet has already been fired. So it has to go somewhere." Now, when a person prays and does teshuva, even though he deserved to get that bullet, he deserved that machalah chas v'shalom, he deserved the things, but once he prayed, once he did teshuva, he no longer deserves it. So, with the power of that, the decree has to change. But since the bullet has already been fired,

54:27The decree already came into the world and has to go somewhere. So I told him, "Hey, there's a snake. He already did teshuva, go away." Okay, the snake had to go to the next stop. Who's the one who deserves it? Because I'm already here. I'm already, I got to get paid. I'm already here, I'm collecting. Oh, there's somebody else. Why? He's robbing. He's robbing a Jewish couple. Oh, but I'll kill him. Why? He deserves it. So, Chaveirim, This is a huge Mussar lesson for us to understand that we can change everything through the power of prayer, the power of good deeds, and the power of tzedakah—different things that we can do. That's one way that a person can change a decree. Another way is, the Gemara says, Hashem Himself tells the Chachamim, "I make decrees and you cancel them. Why? I love your Torah so much, I love studying your Torah so much, that you, and if you..." You study my Torah, you value my Torah, you're like partners with Me. You're partners with Me. You say something, I'll change it. Even though the person deserves it, if you're involved, I'll change it for you. Last but not least, there is a special segula, which is the most powerful that I know of, which is, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, it's a pasuk in the Torah.

55:51in the book of Jeremiah, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, if you make people do teshuva, you will be like My mouth. You help people do teshuva, you take money, you sponsor CDs to help people do teshuva, you send money to kiruv organizations that actually help people do teshuva, you actually speak to people to do teshuva, you invite them to lectures, you actively get involved with doing kiruv every day. That becomes your esek, your business, your life. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says you will be like My mouth. So Chachamim say, what does it mean to be like Hashem's mouth? Hashem tells them, just like I said a few words and the world was created by it, the person that does kiruv and helps people do teshuva, he says a few words and I'll do whatever he says. He'll be like My mouth. He says something, I'm going to press enter. Check. Why? Because now

56:52He's become a partner with Me in creation. Because every time you help a person do teshuva, the Gemara says it's like you created him. It's like you created him. That's what the Torah says. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Oh, you created this boy. You created this girl." What do you mean? She was here before? No, no, no, no, no. She was like Esav. She was like Edom. She was like Amalek. She was like everything else but what I wanted her to be. She was my daughter. I wanted her to be a tzadeket, but she unfortunately had a yetzer hara, got an Arab boyfriend, got this, got that. Oh, but you brought her back to Me. It's like you created her. We're partners with this one. So now, since you are a creator, next time you have a nice blessing, you want something special, just let me know what it is. Let me know. Send me a nice text message that says, "enter." So that is, rabotai, three different examples of people that could literally change the decree. It could be the simplest person, regular average Jew, and it could be somebody that is huge in Torah, and it could be somebody that does kiruv. Point being, rabotai, is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us a

58:03ticket, a cheat, a cheat code, if you will, of how to literally change anything we want. But again, you have to meet the requirements. You have to meet the requirements. That's why when Rabbeinu HaKadosh found out himself, when he learned himself the power of helping people do teshuva, he stopped, he shut all of his books and started looking for people to help them do teshuva. Anyone that understands the power of what it means to help people do teshuva literally makes it their number one investment. And some people have. Some smart people have done it, but unfortunately, it's not enough. Not enough, but nonetheless, there is a lot of power in helping people do teshuva. Next question. In the back. You? You have a question? Go ahead. Does Hashem ever give us the effect before we make the cause? In other words, a tikkun for something that hasn't happened yet. Oh, does Hashem kind of punish us before we commit a sin?

59:20So the answer is no, and the proof is that the Chachamim tell us that there was a debate between Hashem and the angels. The angels came to Hashem and said, "Hashem, how come You're letting this Yishmael, Yishmael HaRasha, he's trying to kill Yitzchak, he's going to have descendants that at the end of days, the Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer says they're going to take over Israel. These Arabs are going to take over Israel, take control for nine months, Hashem Yerachem. They're going to torture Jews. They're going to do this. They're going to have all these bombs. Why are You going to give this? This is their grandfather. Why don't You just kill him? Hashem says no. Why? He cannot be punished for something he hasn't done yet. He hasn't already given birth to all these descendants. He hasn't committed all these crimes yet. And the crime that he committed with Yitzchak, he did teshuva for. So I cannot punish him for something that he hasn't done. So now, on the other hand, when a person is special in the eyes of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, HaKadosh Baruch Hu can warn him. As it says in the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot, Kol hamezakei et harabim ein chet ba'al yado.

1:00:42Meaning, someone that's involved with helping Am Yisrael do teshuva on a regular basis. Every month, she sends money. Every month, they share CDs. Every month, they do all types of things to help Klal Yisrael come back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu makes a deal with them. And it's in the Mishnah, which is the core body of our Oral Torah. You help people do teshuva, sin will not come to your hand, the Mishnah says. Anyone that helps people do teshuva, sin will not come to your hand. What does it mean sin doesn't come to your hand? You can't make sins? No. You can make sins. You choose to make a sin, you're going to make a sin. But sometimes we're not really sure if this is allowed or not allowed. Sometimes we go, we encounter a certain situation, we're not really sure if it's allowed or not allowed. He doesn't know. Oh, maybe it's Shabbat or it's not Shabbat yet. I don't know. I look at my clock and remember Shabbat starts at 5, but the guy made a mistake. It didn't start at 5; it started already at 4:52. But he saw it for some reason and thought it's 5. That's 5. So what does he do? He wanted to go turn on the light, which is Chilul Shabbat. He'll turn on the light. It's fire.

1:01:54So right before he turned on the light, all of a sudden one of his kids runs to him and goes, "Pah!" and punches him in the stomach. Ha ha ha, he's playing with him. You know, but it hurts though. "Hey, what are you doing, kid?" He starts running after his kids and he forgets all about turning on the light. So he got punched in the stomach, but trust me, it's much better to get punched in the stomach than to be mechaleil Shabbat. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is protecting him. protecting him from making a sin because he made a mistake. It was eight minutes off. So different, unusual circumstances like that happen many times to people where HaKadosh Baruch Hu can warn them and do different things to protect them from themselves. Dealing with certain people, you know, somebody who looks like they're really righteous comes into your life, you want to do something with them, but all of a sudden they disappear and What happened? How come it's tikkun? No, no, Hashem is protecting you. He got this person to go away somewhere in order to protect you. It looks bad sometimes because you think that it's bad, but in reality, it's good. So Hashem does help certain people that are very, very dedicated to Him if they're serious in learning Torah, if they're serious about mitzvot, if they have Yirat Shamayim, and like I said, if they help people do teshuva, there is an enormous amount of protection. But as far as

1:03:10The punishment itself, the truth is that there are virtually no punishments in this world. Everything that we get in this world is messages. Messages from Hashem to do teshuva. Punishments have a different place. Punishments are given to people either in Kaf HaKela or in Ge'enom or in both. In this world, when a person is suffering, even though the suffering that I've heard and I've dealt with myself, sometimes it's a nightmare of all nightmares. You swear to yourself, this must be Gehenom. I promise you, the more you learn about Gehenom, the more you realize it's a walk in the park next to Gehenom. But sometimes you deal with certain anguish, pain, suffering, emotional, mental, all types of suffering that you swear, this must be Gehenom. It's not. The suffering that a person has in this world is not for punishment mostly. It's mostly to help a person do teshuvah. It's a message to wake us up.

1:04:15And it's a message sometimes to strengthen us. It's sometimes a message to fix past sins that we've made, but not as a punishment, but rather as a payment. But the actual punishment itself is in a completely different world. And I wish people understood this. Because that simple understanding that whatever is happening in your life, it's not really Hashem punishing you. Because if He wanted to punish you, He has a whole world just set up for that. There's a whole world just set up for that. If a person just took that into account, they would simply look at their life very differently. If they're sick or if they're lonely or if they're this or if they're that, whatever suffering they're dealing with, and honestly, there's no end to the suffering that people have. Every day there's a new message. somebody else that's sick, and somebody else that has a surgery, and somebody else that's lonely, and somebody else that's suicidal, and somebody else this, and so every day, how many horrible messages I get every day of people that are suffering. And if those people simply understood that that suffering is not the punishment, that suffering is a message and

1:05:24It's a message from Hashem for you to get closer to Him. Similar to what I said in the movie that was released this morning, Teshuva Music number 10, or number 9. It's a fantastic message; it was 100% siyata dishmaya, that message. And it shows people that suffering is HaKadosh Baruch Hu looking for your attention in order for you to get closer to Him. That's what Hashem wants. No, but I already keep mitzvot. No, but I already keep Shabbat. No, I already said that. Okay, so it's not Shabbat. You're good with Shabbat? Okay, so it's not Shabbat. It's something else. Oh, but I'm already doing the best that I can. Well, apparently Hashem says, no, you're not doing the best that you can. Why? Hashem is never wrong. Tzuri v'lo avla bo means He has no mistakes. HaKadosh Baruch Hu has no mistakes. If He's giving you something and He's expecting more from you, that means you can do more. Yeah, but I don't agree. Okay, don't agree. It's like the little toy telling the mouse, "Hey, listen, I don't agree with you playing with me." It's a joke. What do you mean you don't agree? The more we understand that the suffering we endure in this world is messages from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the easier our life becomes and more tolerable it becomes.

1:06:39Now that I know that my suffering has value, it has value. This suffering can have value that Hashem wants me to do teshuva for something. Okay, so Hashem wants me to do teshuva, I have to start keeping Shabbat, or else I'm going to continue losing money. I have to start keeping Shabbat, or I'm never going to have bracha in anything. I have to start keeping Shabbat, or I'm never going to get married. So I get it, okay, so I know I'm not keeping Shabbat, I got to start keeping Shabbat. So it could be a message to do teshuva, or perhaps to improve a character trait. It's angry all the time, yelling at people, arrogant all the time, telling people what to do—all that type of mentality—and the person knows. But why does he know? How does she know that she's arrogant and angry all the time? Because everybody complains about it—that she's arrogant and complains all the time. You know what your flaws are, so now when you start getting suffering, you already know yourself that you have a few flaws and... now if you understand what suffering is, also Hashem wants me to fix this. Why? Because He’s giving me, because I'm angry, He’s constantly sending me annoying people. He’s not sending people that don’t get angry annoying people; He only sends the people that get angry annoying people. Hence the reason why I get so many annoying people. By the way, in case you didn't realize, that was a rebuke for myself. I have a tikkun.

1:07:57So now, rabotai, this is a tikkun for me. It's a tikkun for people that are angry. He gives that to the person that's cheap. A person that's cheap, guess what? He gets all the people, all the schnorrers, all the people that want money for the wrong reason. Why? So, he gets that. That's the point. You have to understand. Hashem is sending you a message, sending you suffering. That's for that reason. If a person understands that, he starts doing teshuva for it, life changes. I'll give you an example. The Gemara says Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi one time saw a butcher with a line of little cattle going in, and he was slaughtering one after another. Rabbi HaKadosh, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, was very wealthy. He had hundreds of horses, properties, and so on. He had his own... cattle and so on. So as he's walking around, you know, the Rebbe was like a king. He had a glima, like the uniform of a king. He was mamash like a king. Everyone said in that generation, if anyone is Mashiach, it's Rabbeinu HaKadosh. So now he's walking around and he sees one of the calves.

1:09:14Runs away from the butcher and hides under his glima. Hides under his, what is it called? Cape or something like that. Hides under his cape, it's called? No, it's called something else probably. It's not Superman. It's called something else. Whatever it's called. You guys get what I'm saying. Glima, it's called in Hebrew. Huh? Drape? Yeah. It's not for a window, but yeah. You guys get what it is. Cloak. Hey, tov, Baruch Hashem. Okay, somebody has vocabulary here. Immigrants like me don't have vocabulary. So now... the little calf hides under it. So Rebbe says to the calf, he speaks to the calf; he knows the calf. Why? Because he's the head of the Sanhedrin, you have to know 70 languages. So he knows the calf's language. So he says, "What are you doing here? Go back to the butcher because you were created for this. What are you hiding under me? Go back to the butcher. You were created for this, to get slaughtered, be eaten as a nice kosher meal, a nice steak for tomorrow morning. What? What are you hiding here?" At that moment, There was a judgment in Shemayim. Bet Din of Shemayim said no. Is Rebbe right or wrong? No one wants to volunteer. Is he right or wrong? Is the calf created to be slaughtered and eaten as a kosher meal or no? No? You eat steak? What? No, no, tell me from the beginning. Don't give me philosophy. Do you eat steak? So what, are you a sinner?

1:10:44It's kosher, I'm assuming. It's not kosher food? It's not kosher food? Oh, I'm going to throw a book at you. The cow, is it created for man or is man created for the cow? Exactly. So now, is Rebbe right that the calf was created for the purpose of being a steak? Yes. So did Rebbe lie? No. In Shamayim, they said, is Rebbe right or wrong? He's right. But he's wrong. Why is he wrong? Because Rebbe HaKadosh, Rebbe HaKadosh, you're such a Kadosh, you're so holy, you're so smart, you're so beautiful, you're so amazing. When you saw the calf was scared, when you saw the calf was going against its own purpose in life, you should have had some mercy on it. You should have felt bad for it. You should have adopted it and said, maybe, you know what, not today, maybe tomorrow. Bring it into your house like a little puppy. Why? Have some mercy on the creation. Because he didn't have mercy, because Rebbe HaKadosh, because Rebbe HaKadosh did not have mercy on the calf in Shamayim,

1:12:01Pesach Din was 13 years of suffering, agonizing pain, to the extent that every single time he went to the bathroom to relieve himself, he would scream so loud from pain, they would hear his screams in the middle of the ocean. This is no exaggeration. Rebbe made it a new rule in his house. Every time, every time I go into this hallway, that means I'm going to the bathroom, you go run outside, start feeding the horses. Why? Because when you feed the horses, they make a lot of noise. They make a lot of noise. Hopefully, it overcompensates and it's over my screams. Why? Because if the biggest rabbi in the world is screaming from pain, people are going to get, oh, wow. He doesn't want people to feel bad. So, feed the horses, make a lot of noise. Hopefully, they don't hear my screams. Guess what? Despite the horses eating, they still heard Rebbe's screams in the middle of the osher. That's how much suffering he got. Why? He didn't have mercy on a calf. Now, fast forward 13 years. How did it stop? Did he do teshuva? Did he do teshuva or no? Yom Kippur, did he have? How many Yom Kippurs are in 13 years? 13 years. What do you do every Yom Kippur?

1:13:19You do teshuva. The fastest part of the teshuva. So how come it didn't stop after a year? Now Yom Kippur arrived, right? Yom Kippur arrived. Rebbe HaKadosh says, I'm sorry for whatever I did. And the pain continued. Why did the pain continue for 13 years? No? Because the animal was? It didn't die even. Yeah, like okay, but the point is why didn't Rebbe, he said I'm sorry for all the sins, like all of us, but Hashem continued to give him suffering. Okay? Why is he suffering? It's a calf, he just didn't have mercy. Why is he suffering? It's allowed, he's right though. Thirteen years of suffering, everything we do, thirteen years, Hashem, we're all going to suffer forever. With your pesak din, I'm scared. You're worse than my Gehinnom, Shia. Thirteen years for every sin? Just to wake up in the morning, I'm scared. No, that is the truth.

1:14:25The truth is, Rabotai, every single year, like us, he goes to the Beit Knesset, he prays, he cries to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and guess what? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you're doing teshuva for everything except what you're supposed to. Why? Because you don't even know it was a sin. He didn't know that he hurt the calf. He didn't know he was supposed to say, "I'm sorry" to the calf. He didn't know it was anything. They didn't send him an email from Shamayim saying, "Hey, Rabbi, you made a mistake here." Meaning he made a mistake, but he didn't know he made a mistake. So as long as this mistake was outstanding in the world, the pain continues. Thirteen years have passed. One day, Rebbe Hakadosh sees this cleaning lady sweeping and sweeping in the hall in this huge building that's his home. What happens? She sees a bunch of little rats, little mice. So she starts shooing them with the broom. Hey, lady, lady, you don't have to kill them. You don't have to kill them. Let's just put them aside. Mercy, have some mercy on them.

1:15:25At that moment, the Beit Din of Shamayim says, Rebbe did teshuvah. Why? Rebbe has mercy on little mice. If Rebbe has mercy on little mice, that means he understands now you have to have mercy on all creation. It's not that you're not supposed to shecht the cow and not eat it. No, go eat it. It was created for that. But there are certain times and certain places where you're supposed to do certain things. And the more Torah that you learn, the more you work on yourself, you're expected to do even more. It took you 13 years to realize you have to have mercy on animals? Okay, Baruch Hashem, 13 years of suffering. 13 years of suffering. This, rabotai ekarim, is very, very important for us to know. If a person is experiencing suffering in his life, that means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is trying to talk to him, trying to listen to him, and trying to do a lot of things to communicate with him in order to get him or her closer, so you do teshuva. That's the biggest thing. It's not to punish you per se, as this is Gehinnom. No, no, no, my friend. Gehinnom is real. Gehinnom is much worse than this world can ever be.

1:16:36He's trying to get you closer. And if a person understood that this suffering has a purpose, automatically the suffering changes. If I know that every time I have back pain, every time I have leg pain, every time I have something, that suffering has a value. Oh, Hashem wants me to pray better. Hashem wants me to learn better. Hashem wants me to do more lectures. Hashem wants me to watch this. Hashem wants me to watch that. Hashem wants me to do something. Okay, automatically, that pain is what? It's like communication with Hashem. On the other hand, Sometimes Hashem will give a person some type of pain in order to build them up, in order to build their emunah, in order to build their bitachon, in order to build them to see: Do you still believe in Me despite the pain? Despite the agony, despite the loneliness, despite the financial problems, do you still believe in Me? And He gives the person pain for a certain amount of time—six months, six years, whatever it is. Do you still stay strong? And if the person does, their reward is millions of times bigger in this world and the next. because they stayed faithful to Hashem. Last but not least, it could also be kaparat avonot. A person made a sin in the past, but now he's doing teshuva,

1:17:45But Hashem says, "Okay, you're doing teshuva, you said I'm sorry, but somebody already died. You killed somebody, spiritually. So there has to be some type of payment aside from you saying I'm sorry. Now, since I like your teshuva, since I love your teshuva, since I love you, what am I going to do for you?" Hashem says, "I'm going to do a deal. We're going to make a deal. Instead of you getting 5,000 years in Chamber 5 of Gehinnom, suffering like Arafat, you know what you're going to get? You're going to get six months of foot pain." Six months of foot pain. Now, when you get the foot pain, what are you saying? Hashem, why are You doing this to me? In reality, you're always supposed to say, thank You very much, thank You very much, because I know that this foot pain, this head pain, this death pain, this financial pain, this loneliness, whatever pain you have, is a small, tiny payment in comparison to what we really owe. Small, tiny payment. So if a person understood the significance of suffering in this world, they would look at things differently. So much so that the Gemara says, Chachamim concluded, if a person knows the value of suffering, he would pray for it. Now, there's almost nobody in the world today that exists who understands the value of suffering to that extent where they're even allowed to pray for it. And don't worry, suffering comes by itself, you don't have to pray for it.

1:19:09It comes by itself. Automatically. The longer you're alive, the more things you're going to experience. None of us are exempt from suffering, but that's life. That's life. Life has different experiences. Not all of them are pleasant. But it's very important to know what it is. Why are you getting it? These are just a few of the reasons why a person experiences suffering. If a person looks at it that way, they will be able to fulfill the mitzvah that the Gemara in Masechet Berachot says: a person must bless Hashem, whether he's receiving good or bad, in the same way. You just won the lottery? Baruch Hashem. Just lost all your money? Baruch Hashem. He has to bless the good and the bad the same way. How can a person bless the good and the bad the same way? If he understands that both are from Hashem and both are good, even though right now it doesn't look like that. That's a lot of work. It's very difficult, but it's not impossible. You know how I know it's not impossible? Because it's a mitzvah in the Torah. Hashem is not going to give you a mitzvah in the Torah if you can't do it. That means that we can build ourselves to do it.

1:20:18We may not be able to do it today, but maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next year, maybe in thirteen years from now. But if we build ourselves every single day, eventually we'll get there. However, if we just sit there on autopilot and do nothing, thinking that we're automatically going to grow spiritually by itself, it doesn't work that way. Next question. In the back. Online's good. Online's good. We'll take it. You want to just say it in the mic or give me the paper? Okay, I'll send the paper. Okay. Hi, Rabbi. Hi. Thank you for these lectures. I have a question. You don't have to write that part. They say, but since you wrote it, I have to read it. They say, because of the anti-Semitic attacks being on the rise, men should tuck in their tzitzit and wear a cap over their kippahs.

1:21:22Okay, so that's the first question, I'm assuming. There's another question after it. Actually, I'll read the second question. What are the women supposed to do? I can't hide. Oh, okay, so this is, I guess, a two-part question. They say that men, since anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise, should tuck in their tzitzit and wear a cap over their kippot. But what are women supposed to be doing? you know, I can't hide. I'm a Jew. I wear kisui rosh and ankle-length skirts, baruch Hashem. Okay, now, as far as hiding your Judaism, it all depends on where you live. If you live in a dangerous neighborhood, and you know that Mustafa lives right next to you, or one of these Hebrew Israelites, these big, vicious Black people that think that they're the original Jews, even though they don't even know how to read Hebrew. They don't even know what Tanach is. They know just the New Testament. They're just Christians in disguise. And they're very, very vocal and very angry.

1:22:34I remember seeing them many times in New York, screaming in the middle of the street, wearing all types of strange costumes as if they're back in the archaic ages. And if those people are next door to you, then simply do your best to avoid them. I don't necessarily think that wearing your kippah or your tzitzit is going to change nature. When we talk about emunah and believing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu runs the world, that means that every bullet has its name on it. Which means that if you do not deserve to get punished, guess what? You could walk normally without fear of anything. Constantly repeat in your mind, "Ein od milvado." And guess what? You'll see there's nothing else but Him. No one's going to touch you. No one's going to hurt you.

1:23:35Now, if you put yourself at risk, meaning you davka go into their community, you davka go into their houses, you davka go into their neighborhood and you start arguing with them, okay, obviously you're a crazy person and you're putting a risk on yourself. You don't have to do that. But if you're just a normal New Yorker, normal Californian, normal Floridian, wherever you live in the world, And I don't believe personally that you need to hide your Judaism as far as hiding your tzitzit, your kippah, or anything like that. I don't believe in that. I think that's a fear that rabbis are teaching, not because the rabbis necessarily believe that it's necessary for everybody, but rather it's necessary for most people because most people don't have enough emunah. Most people do believe that the terrorists are the ones that kill us, and it's not Hashem. Most people do believe that the Nazis killed us and it's not Hashem. And that's the problem. So they give advice based on the people. If you have the right amount of emunah, you have nothing to worry about. If you don't have the right amount of emunah, you have everything to worry about. So as far as hiding your Judaism, again, it all depends on what you believe and how you believe it, and how you're serving Hashem.

1:24:55how you're serving Hashem, and what you're doing, and whether you believe that an attack is from Hashem or not. So, as far as the tzitzit and the kippah for guys, again, I walk around with the kippah and tzitzit, and to be quite honest with you, I'm trying to look for more things to do to look more Jewish. Not because I'm some huge baal emunah, just because I think it's necessary in the world. for people to know the difference between Jews and Gentiles. There are many good Gentiles, and there are many bad ones, just like there are many good Jews and there are many bad ones. The point is that a person who is serving Hashem doesn't have to worry about all of these things, because even if something bad happens, he knows it's coming from Hashem anyway, so what are you worried about? Same goes for women. Women, obviously, if you are modest, if you are putting yourself in harm's way, you obviously don't walk around in the middle of the night by yourself, you're not walking around in dangerous neighborhoods, you know, you're careful. You don't have to be extreme. You don't have to be crazy. You're just normal, but you're more careful, which you should always be regardless, even without anti-Semitism.

1:26:10A woman should never walk around by herself at night. Even a man shouldn't walk around by himself at night. You should be careful regardless because you're not allowed to put yourself at risk. But that's not because of anti-Semitism. That's because you're in the world. There are 8 billion people. Many of them want to kill you. You know, so putting yourself in harm's way is not a good idea. But that's not because that's going to necessarily make you wicked. It's just simply because you're not allowed to put yourself in harm's way. You're not allowed to go and run into a house that's on fire and say, "No, no, I believe in God, I'm not going to get burned." No, no, you're not going to get burned if you stay outside. You put yourself into a house full of fire, then you're probably going to get burned. So, the point being is that I don't think you should hide yourself if you have the right amount of emunah and you're doing everything you possibly can to get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And most importantly, you are a person that's needed by the public. One of the greatest ideas that a person can take advantage of is the idea that Chazal teaches

1:27:15...which is that if a person wants to live a long life, they have to put themselves in a situation where they're needed by the public. This is the reason why many of the Chachamim, the Gedolei HaDor, live many years, 95, 100 years, sometimes many more. Whereas the average rich, secular Jew, 70 years, 72 years dead. He has a hundred billion dollars, but he can't buy an extra day. Whereas this rabbi that's 95 years old, he's still more active than a 20-year-old, mentally. This is the reason why many of the Chachamim, the Gedolei HaDor, live many years—95, 100 years, sometimes even more. Whereas the average rich, secular Jew, 70 years, 72 years, dead. He has a hundred billion dollars, but he can't buy an extra day. Whereas this rabbi that's 95 years old, he's still more active than a 20-year-old, mentally. How come? Because that giant rabbi is needed by the public. Whereas the billionaire, no one needs him. His employees? He doesn't deal with them anymore. He has managers. So if a person puts themselves in a scenario where they're needed by the public because of their donations, because of their chizuk to the community, because of things that they do, then HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives them more time in the world. So if a person, number one, is following what Hashem says, two, has obviously the right amount of emunah and understands that everything, the good and bad, all comes from Hashem, and last but not least, does everything that's possible

1:28:27to make him or herself needed by the public, they don't have anything to worry about. And that's for both male and female. The second question is: When it comes to music that's already been composed by a non-Jew, regardless of the tune, but it's not kosher, is it allowed to use that same song and turn it around and make it into a kosher song to praise Hashem? This is a fantastic question, so here is the kicker: music by itself, the tune by itself, does not have a way to become non-kosher because it's simply a tune. The stuff that makes the music not kosher is not the boom boom boom or ding ding ding; that stuff doesn't make something kosher or not. What makes it kosher or not is what goes along with it and the words that come with it. the words that come with it. Now, if you can have, like I gave you guys an example some time ago with somebody with a violin, but the whole violin music is cursing Jews. "Oh, I hate Jews," and all that stuff. And he's playing the violin, and he tells whole songs about Jews, and he hates them. Obviously, that song is not kosher, not because of the music, but because of what goes along with it. It's like yesterday somebody sent me

1:29:45a new rap song that is 100% cursing Jews. The whole thing is just talking about how Jews are terrible and so on and so forth. And this has become a new hit, a new hit. And it's become popular, apparently for only reasons that Hashem knows. They hate Jews right now, especially in the black community. No one really has an explanation for it, aside from, obviously, it's from Hashem. um, so black people, many of whom are, you know, friends of mine that I've had over the years, many of them are fantastic people. But apparently, their brothers and sisters all of a sudden had the "on" button turned to hating Jews for no reason whatsoever, and they're making all types of music all types of shows and all types of speeches against Jews, so this has become horrible. Now, that song, that tune of that song that's against Jews by itself, the tune itself, just the music itself, you could play at your bar mitzvah if you want. But the words that go along with it obviously make it not kosher now

1:30:53The issue comes, as far as this particular question, is if a song has already become famous to be a bad song. Like really famous. Like, for example, if you are to take just any random songs from, let's say, I don't know, country music. there's no problem for you to take that music and put some kosher song on it, kosher lyrics on it, praise Hashem's name, put it into your tune of your praying to Hashem every day in your Beit Knesset for all we care. There's even Arab songs that were turned, their music that was turned into the prayers of the Sephardi kehillot all over the world. Why? Because the song itself wasn't known to necessarily be bad at all. And on top of it, it wasn't so popular to the extent where you connected the two all the time. But even if you did, even if you connected the two, it wasn't necessarily like, "Oh, this is terrible." Now, there are certain songs in the world that are horrible. Like, for example, "Jingle Bells." If you have "Jingle Bells" for their Santa Claus...

1:31:59know that song. Can you make the tune kosher? Yes, technically, if you start saying instead of "Jingle Bells" about some fat guy that Coca-Cola made, you start talking about Hashem being the best and He's amazing and so on, there's really technically no problem with it. There's no problem with it. Should you do it? No, you shouldn't do it. Why shouldn't you do it? Because the vast majority of people will have a hard time thinking that this song is talking about Hashem. They're going to think about Fat Santa from Coca-Cola. So, there are certain things that are allowed and there are certain things that are allowed but not recommended, like we talked about a few weeks ago. So, a song like that, it's very hard to believe that anyone could ever justify making that glatt kosher. Is it a sin per se? It becomes like, "Oh, you're going to gain?" Probably not. But should you really do it? Also no. Why? Because it's already a well-known song that's celebrating something that's the opposite of Judaism.

1:33:14It's the opposite of Judaism, you understand? So it could become a Chilul Hashem, it could become very problematic. For example, when sometimes you see certain religious people putting tefillin on a Santa Claus or a Buddhist monk, people think this is a great thing. This is not a great thing. This is a disaster. There's nothing great about putting tefillin on a Santa Claus or a Buddhist monk who's a Jew that left the derech. I'm actually going to tell you something that, you know what, I don't want to kill any new Baalei Teshuva, but I'll give you this in short. If you don't do a mitzvah because it's part of your teshuva, guess what, it's not even a mitzvah. Simple. Putting tefillin on some guy without him accepting malchut shamayim, without him actually understanding, okay, I'm not gonna start doing, it's like you put a football in his pocket. There are chachamim that say it's actually a sin. So again, there's a big machloket about who, what, when, how, maybe this could do this, maybe that. Point being, rabotai,

1:34:29Certain things are recommended. It's a mitzvah. Certain things are said to be allowed, but they are not recommended. So, to take a famous anti-Israel, anti-Torah, anti-Jewish song and turn it into a good song is simply not a good idea. It's not a good idea, and it could turn into a problem. So, as far as can you do it technically with any song, technically you can. Should you? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Also, a person should know that even though there's, let's say, the tune of music, it could be kosher for everybody else except you. There is certain music that exists in the world that's kosher for everyone else, the whole world, except you. And that's what we were talking about before the shiur. Why? How come you're the victim here? You're the victim here because you made yourself into a victim by connecting this song to the actual real song, this tune to the actual real song. And this real song was a song that you made a lot of sins to.

1:35:42Every time you heard the song, you used to do all types of sins. So now, even though you're not hearing the whole song, you are hearing the tune, automatically you connect this song, this tune to the actual song, so you're thinking about the sins. So, since you're thinking about the sins, that song becomes forbidden to you. But everybody else that did not do the same things you did, they listen to that tune, they don't even connect it to the actual real song; it's perfectly fine for them. Now, who can make this song allowed or not allowed to you? You. You have to be your own rabbi, your own rabbanit. You have to know yourself, you have to know where your own limitations are. I can tell you myself, personally, before Baruch Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu woke me up and did me the favor that I can never ever repay, I used to listen to all types of hip-hop music and so on. Today, I refuse to listen to anything even remotely connected to it, even if it's just the tune itself. Even if it's just the tune itself. Now, if you heard one of the tunes of one of these songs, you may not even know that an artist made it. You thought maybe somebody else made it without words. Now, I listened to it, and I know. Now, even though I didn't necessarily make sense of these musics or anything like that, I want to be completely clean of any of that stuff to the extent... I don't want to... I want my past to not even be a distant memory.

1:37:05I want it to be like something like a Gilgul, like it was a different incarnation. So what am I going to do? I'm going to do as much as I possibly can to disconnect from it. So this is why when people ask me, how come you don't still dabble with the stock market? Aside from not having money, you know, a few people offer me some money to trade for them, to invest for them, and so on. I always tell them no. Why? I don't want any connection whatsoever. Not that my business dealings were illegal or bad. All my business was always kosher. But I don't want to deal with it. I want to move on. I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to talk about it. Nothing. I don't watch the stock market. I have no idea whatsoever what it does, if it's up or it's down. Nothing. Only times I know is if somebody sends me, "Oh, you heard this?" Now I heard. So the point is that I know myself. I know myself, and I know that if I listen once, I'll listen twice. If I listen twice, I'll listen three times. If I listen three times, I can listen ten times. Before you know it, this juke, this bug, goes into my mind, goes into my neshama, and I start having safek. I start having doubts, I start having regrets, I start having all types of things that I don't want to have. I don't want to have all this stuff. So that's why you have to be your own rabbi sometimes. You have to be your own yetzer hatov.

1:38:20Because no one else is going to know your limitations like you do. Even your rabbi is not going to know your limitations on everything because it's your own mental thing. You know what you connect this song to. You know what you connect this restaurant to. You know what you connect this car to. You know what you connect this community to. If you connect it to something bad, move away. Move away. Move away from this stuff. It's very, very critical. I'll give you a side note. I spoke to somebody in Eretz Yisrael today and they told me that in Israel, they're asking for my recommendation for a person to convert. And I know the person, so I said, yeah, no problem. I said, is there anything special needed in this case? He said, yeah, this case is going to be maybe a little more difficult than usual. I said, "Why is it more difficult? It's a good person. Actually, this should be easier. Usually, if you're converting a family or something like that, it becomes more difficult because then everybody has to be on the same page. But if you're converting one person, it's usually easy. One, two, three." He says, "No, it's very, very difficult." "Why?" He says that there are certain rabbis that have a bias against people who were idol worshippers.

1:39:40But not idol worshippers like Christians. Idol worshippers like people that pray to a statue or the sun. You know, idol worshippers where everybody agrees they're idol worshippers, including themselves. They pray to a rat, they pray to a cow, or whatever they pray to in the world. There's a certain bias that there is against those people, much more than anything else. I said, well, actually, it should be the opposite. Anyone that knows... Converts well and knows their world, their mentality, and so on will agree with the fact that actually for an idol worshiper that prays to a statue, or a cow, or a mouse, or a motorcycle, or whatever they pray to, it's much, much easier to abandon their idol once they discover the Torah and the truth than it is for a Christian to leave "Yoshke." it's much, much more difficult for a Christian to abandon Yoshke than it is for somebody that prayed to Buddha. Somebody prayed to a cow. Much, much, much more difficult. Why? Because the idol worshiper, the guy that's praying to a statue,

1:40:55Okay, once he discovers the truth, he discovers there's a Divine God that oversees everything. He sees that there's a clear difference between the two. It's like everything snaps in one second. That's it, finished. He's like Avraham Avinu overnight. Why? He breaks all the statues. He's finished. Why? Because there's a clear difference between the two. And he abandons it in a second. As soon as you give him the truth, and he has the special assistance from Heaven that he sees or she sees the truth, they abandon it in a second. They become the most zealous, best Jew in the world. But the guy or the girl that's coming from Christianity, they don't always see that difference, even if they're in the process of converting. There are many times that people actually go through the conversion process and, unfortunately, sometimes complete the conversion process, but they're still 100% Christian.

1:41:58they still want to celebrate Yoshke's birthday every, uh, Christmas and New Year's and every holiday, and they still like to do this. So why do you convert? You ask, "What? I want to know if you want to celebrate Christmas. What? What's the matter with you?" What's the matter with you? No, I don't, the Christian says, I don't mind putting a kippah on my head. I actually like it for a good look. I don't mind putting modest clothes on. It gives me an excuse to buy more clothes. I don't mind adding these holidays. Why? It's fun. You get the family together, more food. They don't mind adding all this stuff to it. It's fun. Mitzvot are only not fun to the Jew that has a yetzer hara. The Christian likes it. It's fun for him. It's fun for her. Well, okay, so I'll add some more mitzvot. What's the big deal? Well, it's a good thing. I'm connecting to Hashem this way. Oh, great. But yet they still believe that Hashem is Yoshke. They still haven't abandoned. That's why it's a hundred percent requirement. It's a requirement of the Beit Din and the rabbi that's sponsoring.

1:43:03to ask the Christian convert repeatedly, on different occasions, to outright say, "Do you still believe in Yoshke, or do you think he's a faker, a liar, a heretic, a rasha, or this or that?" You have to make sure that you ask them to tell you outright that they don’t believe in Yoshke. Why? Because in Christianity, it's not like Islam. In Islam, you're allowed to lie. The Quran says you're allowed to lie. The Quran says you're allowed to lie for your own purposes. But the New Testament says that you're allowed to commit every crime under the sun. However, there's one thing that's unforgivable: you're never allowed to say that you don't believe in Yoshke. That's eternal damnation, they tell you. So now, if you tell the guy or the girl that's coming from Yoshke town, wants to be a Jew. Now you tell me, okay, so they told you, "Do you believe in Yoshke?" No, and he doesn't want to answer. Oh, he hesitates, starts stuttering. Guess what? He's a hundred percent Christian. No way, but he's been learning Tanakh, he's learning Gemara already, puts on tefillin, and he could put on a Pikachu outfit for all I care. He's 100% Christian. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed.

1:44:24Why? Because for him, for her, for the Christian, it's much more difficult to make that change. Why? Because they don't really see much of a difference. They don't see much of a difference between Christianity and Judaism. They just see that you do more stuff. Okay, so I'll do more stuff. I'll be like you. Why? You put on these t-shirts? I'll put on t-shirts. What, it's an extra t-shirt? It's cold in New York anyway. Why? You put on a kippah? Okay, so I'll put on a kippah. I put on a hat, so now I put on a kippah. Okay, a kippah. What? Beard? Okay, a beard grows for free. I'll borrow your beard. You don't even have to, but anyway. What else do you want? What do you want? Oh, you have a nice jacket, black and white, so I look more professional every day? Black and white. Peyos? Okay, I'll grow peyos. Everyone wants to wear peyos. You have these Christians walking around with peyos. You have no idea why. Jews don't want to do it, but the Christians want to. Why? We celebrate every other month. That's another reason for me to praise Yoshke. You understand, for the Christian, they don't see much of a difference. They don't see much of a big deal. They don't understand that one of the critical battles of every Jew is to fight against avodah zarah, to fight against idolatry. The Gemara, Masechet Megillah, says, who is a Jew? Who is a Jew?

1:45:49A Jew is somebody that makes fun of idol worship. A Jew is somebody that goes against idol worship. That's what the Gemara says. That's a Jew. And it gives two examples. One is Mordechai, who made fun of Haman, because Haman had an idol on his neck. Amalek. So he would always make fun of Haman, even though Haman was like the Hitler. He made fun in front of everybody. And the second one is Batya bat Pharaoh. Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh. Who did she get her name from? Her name wasn't really Batya. She wasn't born with the name Batya. Who gave her the name Batya? Hashem. Batya means the daughter of God. Why did Hashem give her the name daughter of God? Why? Because she abandoned idolatry. What was the idolatry? Her own father. Her own father Pharaoh thought of himself as a god. So she gave up all of the wealth, all of the praises, all of the everything to be with Am Yisrael, to be with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And she made fun of it, in front of her father's face. So this, Rabotai, is not an easy thing for a person to do if they're leaving Christianity. Why? Because even though they like the Jewish customs and mitzvot and so on,

1:47:02Real conversion requires the person to abandon Christianity to such an extent that they literally become an anti-missionary. They become anti-Christianity. They hate it. They hate it. They think of it as the most filthy, disgusting thing in the world. And if they don't, if they think it's not a big deal, it's a very big problem. It's a very big problem. They could fool the Beit Din. They could fool the Beit Din. They could fool the community. They can't fool Hashem, though. And unfortunately, rabotai, it happens often. What ends up happening with these weak converts that never really fully abandoned their past is that the second they get a test from Heaven, the second something goes wrong, there's a divorce, there's a sickness, there's a money loss or something, they abandon everything. They go back to their parents in Christianity. What happened? You were a Jew. Kisurosh, this, that. You were the rabbi here. You're this. What happened all of a sudden? What happened? You're Yeshu reincarnated. What happened to you? No, no, it's the community. That's nothing. You never, ever, ever really converted. You never abandoned it. Because for somebody, for somebody to convert from Christianity, they have to do the unforgivable. They have to pretty much say that Yeshu is nothing. He's zero. He's garbage.

1:48:30Which is what the Gemara says. And that's why it's very sad that many times when you see comments on my shiurim that discuss, you know, Christianity, fighting against Christianity, who defends Christianity the most? These liberal Jews. These idiots. These idiots that pretend to be religious, especially these Modern Orthodox types, they defend Christianity more than the Christians even. It's unbelievable. No, but don't you know that the Yavetz said this, and this one said that, and there's a little confusion. What confusion? What are you defending here, you moron? You're defending idolatry? No, I'm not really defending it, but maybe you should say it's something different. What's the matter with you? And that's the problem. The problem is that the liberal Jew is almost identical to the Christian.

1:49:30...thereby the reason why the Christian doesn't see much of a difference. A Christian meets me, he sees a difference in two seconds. Why? This guy's crazy. This guy, somebody wrote on the internet, somebody else says, "How did nobody kill this guy yet? I hope he stays alive. I like him, I like what he says, it's the truth, but how is this guy still alive?" they say. They like me, but they're surprised that you guys haven't killed me yet. Well, I tell people the truth, and the truth sometimes hurts a little bit. A lot of it. But the point is that the Christian sees me, he knows in a second I'm different. Well, I'm going to tell him he's an idol worshiper. Christians send me messages every single day. Every single day. They all get the same exact return message: "Dear New Testament believer, you are an idol worshiper." And you have to abandon your idol worship and your man-made religion. And I give them a bunch of sources and shiurim to watch to abandon and help them leave idolatry. And Baruch Hashem, it works. Once in a while, they actually leave it. I actually have one woman in Manchester. She was a missionary. She sent me a message to convert me to Christianity. Baruch Hashem, she's in the process of conversion right now to Judaism.

1:50:49She tried to convert me many times; it happened several times. So, the point is that I tell them how it is right away. Why? Because I believe the Torah is from God, and everything else is idol worship. Everything else is idol worship. I'm not looking for friends or civil relationships. You live your life, I live my life. I have no problem with that. But as far as pretending like it's okay, there's nothing okay about it. When a Christian comes to a liberal Jew that wants to be friendly with everybody, whether he has a beard or not, whether he looks like me or not, is irrelevant. Liberalism exists in all shapes and sizes. He comes and he meets one of these liberal-minded Jews, and he sees, wow, they're nice guys. Wow, they invited me even to their Hanukkah parties. Why? They invited me to their kids' bar mitzvah. Oh, they invited me to the Siyum HaShas. Siyum HaShas today had some anti-Torah people. Anti-Torah people, politician. A politician, I forgot what his name is. One of these politicians, they gave him the big stage. This politician just signed a bill to kill babies, to kill human beings if they want to die. All types of things that are against the Torah. They gave him front stage on Siyum HaShas.

1:52:12this liberal-minded, obviously this Christian, doesn't see much of a difference between them. Why? In fact, he thinks he's more religious than them sometimes. The Christian, the real Christian, sees Jews that are liberal, says they're not religious. Christians are more modest sometimes, this, that. It's a kitrug. It's a case against Am Yisrael. So that's why with conversion, you have to know what you're doing. You have to know what you're doing. It's a very, very tricky conversion. Very tricky world. You have to become a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a prophet, have Ruach HaKodesh. You have to have Moshe Rabbeinu at your side. You have to, I mean, you have to, you have to have like, you have to have like merits, like Moshe Rabbeinu and all of Klal Yisrael together just to survive a week in the conversion world. You know how many times people have tried to fool me into different things in conversion? It's very difficult. One time, one time I tell you guys a story.

1:53:12one time, I was, I think it was four or five days away, four or five days away from bringing a person to the Beit Din. Now, this person was with me for like a year and a half. He didn't live next to me; he lived, I don't know, 40, 50 minutes away, an hour away, and he would come to my shiurim, and... ...needed to get a conversion, so on, said he's this, he's that, goes to the Knesset, everything good, da-da-da-da. Now, I don't go and double-check, does he eat kosher in his house, or, you know, stay at his house for the whole weekend to see if he keeps Shabbat the right way. I take your word for it. I see you ask questions, and so on. I see somebody's committed to coming to the shiurim every week for a year and a half, okay. Four days, this is like mamash in the early, early times. Four days away from taking this person to the Beit Din. After one of the shiurim, one of my students comes to me and says, "Rabbi, can I talk to you for a second? Is it true you're going to take this person to the Beit Din?" I said, "Yeah, what's the matter?" He goes, "You know he drives on Shabbat, right?" I said, "No." I said, "Are you sure about this?" He said, "No, no, I know for sure." My heart dropped to the floor. I wanted to kick it, put it in the garbage.

1:54:42So now I have the shock of my life. Why? Because I have an appointment. Now he doesn't know I have the exact appointment, but I know I do. So all of a sudden, okay, I have to think quickly now. Okay, listen, something came up. They said we have to postpone. Postpone, they'll get back to me next week to let me know. Why? I need more time to verify this information. So I tell him, so he doesn't get, I can't tell him, listen, you're driving on, I can't accuse him of anything. I have to verify it. So this gave me a couple of days to verify it, b'ezrat Hashem. 100%. The guy was lying to me the whole time. Lying to me the whole time. I was saved. It was like a gift from Heaven. A gift from Heaven. Last minute. It happens. It happens all the time. So it happens to the best of them. It's not something. That's why you have to be very careful, and that's why also now with people that I convert and so on, I always tell people that if you want me to be the sponsor, you have to come to every single shiur. There's no more conversions from long distance and so on. You have to come to every shiur. It's very difficult. Unless I've already been working with you for a few years and so on, and I've met you and this and that.

1:56:00It's very, very difficult because people are liars. People are liars. I don't want to sign off my olam haba, you know, just make a mistake. But the point is, Rabotai, that conversion is not an easy thing. Like what some of these people do where they just pretty much convert anyone like it's cattle. You know, it's a mistake. It's a very, very big mistake. And it also shows the lack of yirat shamayim that the people have. Next question. You guys have some more over there? Yes. Oh, it's nice and wet. Good. Can we warm up bread on Shabbat in an oven on Shabbat? A Shabbat oven on Shabbat. If the bread is already made, meaning you're not cooking anything, the bread is already made. The pita is already made. There's nothing being cooked here. You want to warm it up. There's no difference between warming that up and warming your cholent up or warming your schnitzel up or anything else. You're not cooking anything; you're warming something up. Now, as far as warming it up on a plata, warming it up on a Shabbat oven...

1:57:25There's a little bit of an issue with ovens; there's a machloket. On a plata, it's much easier. A plata is much easier to warm it, simply because there's no fire and heat contained. Whereas with the Shabbat ovens, it could be problematic because it depends on the oven that you have and which psak you follow, whether Ashkenazi or Sephardi, so there's no... no general answer for that because when you open the Shabbat oven, there are certain ovens where if you leave it open for a while, the heat comes out. Now you're closing it back, and it creates more fire. So, there are certain poskim that did not allow it. So, to be on the safe side in all ways, it's better to warm the challah on a plata. on a plata and not to use it. But, again, it's a, can you, is it possible, is there a, some that say that you're allowed to even do it on an oven? Yes, there are some that say you can do it on an oven. What do I do? In our house, we only use a plata.

1:58:34Can you use a Shabbat oven? Again, they're all possibly going to tell you yes. But you simply have to know how to treat this, how to treat that. I personally find it more difficult. But can you do it? Yes, you can do it. It's just that you have to know a little bit more details, I guess, about your oven. Because the technology itself—if it's an older oven, if it's a newer oven—ovens are made differently. Some ovens are programmed in a certain way where it's the same heat regardless, coming out of that oven no matter what. Open it, close it, it doesn't make a difference. Some ovens are programmed in such a way that if you open it, the heat comes out. You close it, and now the fire kicks in even more so. So, in essence, you pretty much led to a fire increasing, which some of the Chachamim say is 100% not allowed. So, it depends on the oven. You can't just pretty much say all ovens are allowed or not allowed. It depends on the oven; it depends on that. Whereas with a plata, a hot plate, it's pretty much standard. It's just a hot plate, you put something on it, there's no difference between them really. The only difference between the hot plates is how safe or how unsafe it is based on the wiring inside.

1:59:49There's one that we recommend for people to buy because it's the safest one as far as the way it's built. The guy that invented it actually watches our shiur. He's in New York. So I recommend that hot plate for people because it's safe, not because it's hotter or colder or nicer or uglier. It's just simply safer. uh... but do I have a second hot plate also though once in a while we use it? Yes, to other people, yes. If you use the other hot plate, okay, is it okay? It's okay. I just, uh... you know, have a wife that worries about safety a lot more than I do, and she says she wants the safer one, please. I say go ahead. Like, you have to pick your battles here. When you fight about hot plates, no fighting about it. Honey, I agree. Mitzvah. Mitzvah from the Torah to get a safer hot plate. Which, by the way, it really should be a mitzvah from the Torah, and it may even be. It may even be. Why? It's safer. It's safer. Either way, it's a safer hot plate.

2:00:51And you should get it. Anyone that wants the information on it, I've posted it on the WhatsApp groups many times, but I'll post it again for anyone that's interested in it. Don't worry. I don't make any commissions, so the price that you get after the shiur and during the shiur and before the shiur is going to be the same price. Next. Hi. What is the metaphor of the shiur? How is it related, or is it related to? I'll explain the question because it may sound confusing. The Rosh HaKahal is the head of a community. If he is not helping others, he's not a Rosh HaKahal. He's just for himself, which defeats the purpose. The tree supports birds, insects, and...

2:01:53tree supports life around it, and in turn, the life around it also supports the tree. So, it's like a symbiosis. The same with, uh, similar. Is there any connection? You just made it, but there is a connection. In the Torah, it says the tzaddik is symbolized by different things. One of the things that the tzaddik is symbolized by is the tree. A tree is stable. A tree gives to the things that are around it and brings a lot of benefits. So a tzaddik brings benefit to other people and is also stable and not volatile. There are some people that are good, but they're only good randomly. You know, so the guy, You know, people come to him all year round. Oh, listen, tzedakah, tzedakah, please help us out. No, no, get out of here. I'm busy, I'm busy. He insults every guy in the world. But then he gets, I don't know, out of the blue at least once or twice a year. He just decides, you know what? I'm going to donate $150,000 to this homeless organization. I'm going to donate a million dollars to this Torah organization. The whole year he's destroying people that ask him for money. But once or twice a year he wants to do something nice. Now, is that guy a tzaddik or no?

2:03:07No, he's not a tzaddik. Not a tzaddik at all. He's just a guy that has a moment of righteousness, whereas the rest of the year is no good. A tzaddik is someone that's stable, like a tree. A tree doesn't walk around in different places. Moshe Rabbeinu told the meraglim to go check the nation, go check the land of Canaan, which later becomes Eretz Yisrael, and see if there's a tree there. No. Let me ask you guys a question. Do you really think that Moshe Rabbeinu cares about trees? There are trees everywhere. Why ask if there's a tree there? So... The Chachamim say, Rashi on the place says that Moshe Rabbeinu was referring to the tzaddik. Is the tree still there? Which tzaddik? How did Moshe Rabbeinu know which tzaddik is there? So Rashi says he was talking about Iyov. Is Iyov still alive? Why? If Iyov is still alive,

2:04:07Then the land has merit. It's good there. Learn something from him. He's a tree. Get something from him. Learn how it is and who and what, man. But if Iyov is not there, then the place, who wants it? It's like Sodom and Amorah, this place. There's nothing good over there. That's why Moshe Rabbeinu sent the Meraglim to go find out. So a tree is symbolic of a tzaddik for some of the reasons you said as well as what I said here. As far as the Eitz HaChaim, the Tree of Life was not a metaphor but actually a real tree. There was a tree. As far as what kind of tree it was, the Gemara says we don't know, but we have several different options. It could have been wheat, it could have been grapes, it could have been figs, some even say it could have been a pomegranate. So it could have been a handful of different options, but Hashem specifically did not tell us what kind of tree the Tree of Knowledge was because He didn't want the Tree of Knowledge to be symbolic of something bad, meaning He didn't want us to remember any particular food as something that was bad. So, if let's say, for example, it was a

2:05:16You know, a fig tree or something like that, or if it was a fig tree, every time you'd see a fig tree, you'd think, "Yeah, we're suffering because of you. My cousin got this because of you. I just lost my money because of you." So Hashem didn't want, you know, the tree to suffer like this. And yes, the tree does suffer. So the point is that He left it unknown. We're only going to know what the Tree of Knowledge was once Mashiach comes. But there are different Gemarot that talk about why it's this and why it's that. One reason why it could be a fig tree is because it says that Hashem made Adam and Chava made their clothes from the fig leaves, and so on. Then there are other examples for the wheat, and so on and so forth. So there are different possibilities, but we will not know for sure until Mashiach comes. Next question. One or two left. Go ahead, Chava, right here.

2:06:23Several weeks ago in the Parashat HaShavua, I read about Yaakov and his entire family bowing down to Esav. I personally felt that it was bad. Is this considered to be bad that he bowed to Esav HaRasha? So yes, there is a discussion among the sages. as far as why they do it, is it bad, is it horrible, is it really an act of peace because there was danger that people would be hurt, or is it being a kiss-up to a wicked person, and there are different sides, both sides, both sides there. Everyone is very careful before, when they understand the gedula, the significance of our forefathers, you know, these are not regular people. to us, it might as well be angels. To us, it might as well be something that's beyond anything that we've ever seen or could even understand. Their kedusha was something out of this world. So to say that he made a mistake or he lied or he cheated or any of that stuff,

2:07:39None of the Chachamim dared to say such a thing, and the ones that did had a very big problem. I'll give you an example in a moment. The point being is that, but we still chase after the truth, and we say, is it wrong, is it right? So one side says that he did it, it's right to do it because it was an act of peace; he didn't really bow. he was really looking at a certain thing which made it look like he was bowing just in order to create peace so there's no war and no one dies and so on. On the other hand, the other side says, wait a minute, but still it's like kissing up to a wicked person. And all of us know you're not allowed to kiss up to wicked people. It's a sin to kiss up to wicked people. So there's a debate between both sides. One thing we can say for sure is that in the eyes of Hashem, this is something that had to have happened, and He dealt with it with Yaakov in His own way. There are certain things, for example, that Avraham Avinu—Avraham Avinu, none of us could even think of a sin that he ever did.

2:08:47But Avraham Avinu did certain things that Hashem didn't like, and because of what he did, He sent his grandkids to become slaves for 400 years. Yaakov did a few things that Hashem didn't like. For example, he hid Dina, his daughter, from Esav. Yeah, but Esav is a rasha. Why would you want to marry your daughter to the biggest gangster in the world? Why would you want to do that? Hashem wasn't happy about that. He said, why? Because Dina was really a shidduch for Esav. She could have made him do teshuva. And we could have been not only the descendants of Yaakov, but also the descendants of Esav. Because Dina had the power to make him do teshuva. Because of that, because he hid her, He says, oh, you don't want her to marry one of the descendants of Avraham Avinu? Okay, so now we'll go to one of the descendants of Amalek from Canaan over there. So, the gentile over there, the wicked person, ended up raping his daughter. Now, if you don't want your daughter to marry some wicked person, is that a mitzvah or is that a sin? It's a mitzvah. But on the level of Yaakov Avinu, Hashem dissects their actions to a completely different level. Hence the reason why we can't know.

2:10:06right wrong because there are certain things to us that don't seem like they're wrong at all. For example, the issue with Dinah doesn't seem like it's wrong at all, and then there's issues that clearly seem wrong to us, like him bowing to Esav. That seems 100% wrong, but I don't remember any place where Hashem punished him for it. He punished him for other reasons, but not for this. So the point being is that there's an extended amount of talk by the sages and the Midrashim and the Gemarot and so on about the behavior of the forefathers and their connection to Hashem and their servitude, I mean the things they did. But you're right, it is an odd situation. It's also odd that Moshe Rabbeinu, with all of his righteousness, What mistake did he really make when he hit the rock? I mean, okay, so fine. It's not exactly what Hashem said, but is it really that bad? According to us, it's not even bad at all if you hit the wrong rock. Would it be a sin for you? No, not even a sin. It's probably a mitzvah that you hit the rock. Probably a mitzvah that you hit something. You finally did something that Hashem said. But in Moshe Rabbeinu's level,

2:11:22It was a mistake. It was a mistake. So that's the thing. So it's worth it to read Midrash Me'am Loez or Midrash Rabbah about that specific parashah, and you'll see many of the opinions by the sages that discuss good, bad, mean, yeah, but everybody treads carefully. Everybody treads carefully. It's like, okay, it's good, bad, yeah. It's like everybody's, you know, walking like on fire. Why? Because this is Yaakov Avinu. You're not talking about, like, Donald Trump. You're talking about Yaakov Avinu. You understand? It's a billion havdalot. It's Yaakov Avinu. But nonetheless, since you're obligated to chase the truth, you're allowed to state certain things, just that you have to tread carefully. Someone started reading one of Rav Ephraim's sefarim, questions and answers about different complicated halachot. And he sent me an email. He says, "Wow, this sefer is amazing. He says he's fearless of everyone."

2:12:41Because he states what his emet is, but he respects everyone, and he gives honor and kavod to every single opinion. While he fears no one, meaning he's not afraid to state his opinion, what's the bottom line? But he'll value and give the right amount of kavod to all of the other poskim that have mentioned this specific issue, and he said this, and he said that, and he said this, and he said that, which is something that is not common. usually, people pick a side. People pick a side rather than find a side. They already pick a side. Like the guy today that sent me a message, he already decided, he decided without ever learning the entire Gemara, without ever learning the entire Zohar, without ever reading a single book that the Arizal wrote, without pretty much learning almost anything, that of substance, he already decided that anyone that ever said that reincarnation is true is not even kosher. Like you just went out there with your big, huge shoulders and called the Arizal a kofer. The Arizal. The Arizal. The biggest giants in history, the biggest giants in history, they think twice before they don't do what he says.

2:14:04Even though it's not even a halacha, it's, let's say, a minhag that he did. They think twice before they don't follow his minhag. But you, with your big shoulders, you decide, no, no, he... Eh. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I don't know what he's talking about. It's... This is... I don't know if you can call it ignorance or stupidity... Honestly, I don't know. I don't know what it's almost like. It's like a shoteh. You know what a shoteh is? A shoteh is like a crazy person that you cannot even judge. Why? He's mentally unstable. You know what the problem of calling this person a shoteh is? He's a rabbi. He's a rabbi of a Beit Midrash. He has Talmidim. He makes YouTube videos.

2:15:08Like, he's a big rabbi, like a rabbi that has, you know, I don't know, probably at least 50, 100, maybe more students in his Beit Midrash, in his kollel. So you can't say, oh, this is a shoteh. You ask a guy a question, he'll give you an answer. You ask him a halacha, he'll give you an answer. He knows what he's talking about. But there are certain things where it's like, what the hell, what's wrong with you? You just took all of the Chachamim under your shoulders and said they're all wrong and you're right. Where's your humility? Even if you don't agree, shut your mouth. Quiet. Find a reason why you don't agree. The deficiency is in you, not in everybody else. The Gedolei HaDor say it's good, it's this, it's that, and you're saying no? Like, which planet did you come from? That's why it's obnoxious when you see different people mock different parts of the Torah that they either disagree with or they simply don't want to believe. Again, you're not expected to agree with everything. But to have humility means that you have to know that if somebody huge...

2:16:25but to have humility means that you have to know that if somebody huge, or some bodies, many big, huge Talmidei Chachamim, the Steipler Gaon, Rav Ovadia, the Chofetz Chaim, Rav Wasserman, you know, this is just in the last hundred years, you know, Rav Shach, all of these giants, they quoted these huge sources, they quoted the Zohar, they quoted different parts of the Kabbalah, they quoted these different things, meaning that they followed it, they believed in it, they studied it. That's just in the last hundred years. I named only a handful of people. You go back 200 years, you go to Ketzos HaChoshen, you go over to all the giants from a couple of hundred years ago. Then you go 300 years ago, you go 400 years ago, 500 years ago. Every generation, you start seeing things like this. So, you're taking all of these people on, and all of them were wrong, and you, you little you with your YouTube channel and your funny haircut, you little you, you're smarter than all of these people?

2:17:32They're all wrong and you're right with your iPhone. Even one ounce of humility will simply say, you know what? I don't agree. I don't like it. But I'm just going to shut up about it. I'm going to keep that opinion to myself. I don't agree. I don't like it. I don't believe it. Whatever. But you know what? I'm just going to reserve. Reserve. mouse. Why? Because there are too many great people who came before me that said it's good. Now you're going to say, "Yeah, but there are also great people on the other side." Okay, when you become one of those great people, then you can join the fight too. But since you can't go back in the past 500 years, you should be quiet. That's humility. Humility, that's it. And the funny thing is, all of these people have little minions that follow their opinions blindly. They just decide, they choose a side, they choose a side, they decide who's right and who's wrong, even though they themselves never checked it. They never read all of these books, all of this work; they never verified it for themselves. They're simply taking their opinion, and that makes it even more ridiculous.

2:18:52So, it's very important for us, Rabotai, to know that if you're already going to learn Torah, do mitzvot, join Klal Yisrael, connect and glue yourself to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it's not just about being a robot. You have to ask questions. But if you don't understand what's going on, first and foremost, check yourself. You don't find something, check again. You don't find something, check again. You don't find something, check again until you find something. Why? The deficiency is in you, for sure. For sure. The deficiency is in you, for sure. It's in me. It's in you. That's just a reality. But always remember, if you're constantly hitting walls, you're constantly hitting walls, you keep getting into places where you don't agree, you don't like, you don't agree, you don't like, you don't agree, you don't like, means there's something wrong with this. There's something wrong here. There's something wrong with your emunah. Maybe you don't really want to believe. Maybe you're looking for mistakes. Maybe your teacher is a heretic, really in disguise. There's something wrong here. There's something wrong with what you go. Why? Because Torah is supposed to be sweet at some point. It's not necessarily always sweet right in the beginning because you're still trying to figure out what's going on here. But after a while, it's supposed to be sweet. It's supposed to be delicious. You're supposed to be addicted to it.

2:20:13supposed to enjoy it. And if you're not, if you're not enjoying the mitzvot, you're not enjoying Shabbat, you're not looking forward to all of it, there's something wrong here. So this is how we're going to end tonight. Hopefully, the questions will be answered. Will give us all chizuk. Will give us a little bit more courage to work on ourselves, to get ourselves closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and prepare ourselves for Shabbat Kodesh. To have this Shabbat as the best Shabbat we've ever had. But more importantly, get ourselves ready for next week. Because I'll see you next week. Baruch Adonai Elohei Yisrael. Amen v'Amen.