Emunah Exercise: The Ten Remembrances in Judaism by Rabbi Yaron Reuven

1:37Remember Egypt? You remember that stuff. They may just leave. Okay. Remember, don't trust any Adam — don't trust any man. No one. Why? Tomorrow may not be here. That's why, in a couple of weeks, we're going to see in the parsha, it says, "And now a new king was born who didn't remember Yosef." What do you mean, "didn't remember?" Say for those who forgot — remind them. There are 500 million people in Egypt and... 500 million people, and one of them remembers why you just died last week. It's not like, "Hey, Paul, hey, remember you?" The pictures are all over the wall. Everybody, every house, has a picture of you. You said, "But tzaddik, why? He made us rich; we were nothing. He made us rich." You said, "But tzaddik, remember him." What do you mean, you woke up and didn't remember him? You forgot him on purpose. Why? Get him out of my face. Why? I don't like him anymore. Why? He's dead. I don't have to pay him any honor. I don't have to pay him any honor. He's just some Jew. He did nothing significant. It wasn't really him; it was our money that facilitated everything. It was always them that made the money. We just gave him a job. We provided him an opportunity. Look, he exploited it. He took all of our money. He took all of our jobs. He took all of our careers. He turned the whole narrative upside down.

2:54The America of their day, Egypt—Hashem says you must remember it. Why? You like Him today, everything is fine. They said, "Oh, capital of Israel is... thank you, thank you for giving us permission to have you as the capital." For you, everyone is sending letters. Wow, look at this amazing—thank you very much for telling us what we knew for already three thousand years. Thank you. So much kavod, so many articles written, so many things. What is this, a joke? This mitzvah, verse number one, says remember Mitzrayim, not just the slavery part. What happened before? Two, Shabbat. Shabbat, you got the mitzvah of Shabbat before you even got to Har Sinai. Why? That's the deal breaker. You keep Shabbat, chazak u'baruch, you have a share in Olam HaBa. You don't? Nothing you can do is gonna save you. You can keep 612 out of the 613 mitzvot somehow, some way — your kohen, your woman, your man, your everything — you found a way, you found a loophole to keep all of the mitzvot except Shabbat, but it doesn't make a difference. It goes to the garbage. Why do you get paid in this world? You have no Olam Haba. But remember, Shabbat is a big deal. That's number two. Man, I...

4:16Remember the manna. What's remember the manna? I don't have any manna. Do you have any manna in the house? I'm telling you, I study Torah. I try all night, all day. I sleep. I wake. I try all the time. No manna coming down. No manna coming down. Why do you say remember the manna? I don't remember the manna. Why do you say remember the manna? Remember that Hashem is the one that pays the bills. Your parnassah is from Shamayim, the same way that the manna came from Shamayim. The same way that the manna came from Shamayim 3,300 years ago. Your parnassah comes from Shamayim. So whether you work until 11 o'clock at night or 11 o'clock in the afternoon, or you work six days or seven days or nine days or two days or even one day, your parnassah, regardless, is coming from Shamayim. If you don't believe this, you are a kofer b'Torah. If you think you're making your money by your own strength, you're a kofer, a complete kofer. You have a problem. You have a serious problem. It's not just an emunah issue. It's a problem with your foundational beliefs in Judaism. Why? Because parnassah is from Shamayim. You think the parnassah comes from your koach, from your things. You have a problem. That's two. That's three. Four, Amalek. Maaseh Amalek. What's Amalek? Amalek was created to destroy you. Amalek and the word Safek.

5:38which means doubt, have the same numerical value in Gematria. The same numerical value in Gematria. Now, Amalek is alive and well in body, like the Nazis, but also in words. Sometimes you can have a shiur Torah, you're learning... You're learning, you're there for an hour, two hours, if you're in my shiur, three hours. Everything is good, everything is fantastic, amazing. You just saw a live shiur, you did teshuva, everything is great, Baruch Hashem. Everything is fantastic. You leave the shiur; you leave five seconds after the shiur, or you see a comment on the internet from one of these keyboard warriors, or from somebody who didn't come to the shiur, and... You went to, what, on your own? Your own? That guy again? Oh, really? I heard—you know what I heard? I heard that he started making things up. I heard that he doesn't make up things, yet all of a sudden, what happens? Oh, wait a minute. If what he says is true, then maybe everything else is not true. Maybe he just planted one poisonous seed in your mind and...

6:49Point - you didn't have to say an entire shiur for three hours. Even if it was just for one second. You could just say, "Hey, thanks for listening. Bye." That's it. It’s nothing. You went to him, and that other guy maybe didn't even say anything. That is where the Chafetz Chaim, the Chafetz Chaim says it is assur (forbidden) from the Torah to ever say anything other than a compliment. about someone who teaches Torah. Even if all you have to say are negative things, even if he came and taught Torah, and nothing came out of his mouth but shtuyot—nonsense. It wasn't against the Torah, but nothing was entertaining, nothing of intellect, no chidush—nothing new or insightful. He literally came there and told you guys, "Hashem took us out of Egypt" for five hours straight. That's it. That's all he said. Hashem took us out of Egypt. You are not allowed, the Chafetz Chaim says, to go and say to somebody else, "And by the way, boring shiur." Five hours, he says, Hashem took us out of Egypt. What's assur in the Torah? What does it mean assur in the Torah? What does it mean it's not allowed in the Torah? The Rambam says, Why? He's destroying neshamot.

8:00Someone that maybe got a chizuk out of that shiur or maybe will get a chizuk from it last week or next week, now you just ruined all of it. Why would you put a little poison? It doesn't have to be a lot of poison to be Amalek. You can have, you know, look at those huge barrels they have, like they put water in different cities and so on, as giant, giant barrels. Tiny! Not even 1%—1% of 1% of poison. In that water, the whole water is gone. Everything, anyone drinks it, dies. That's it. That's Amalek. That's Amalek. You don't have to say much. You ruin everything. Next one, Ma'amad Har Sinai. Ma'amad Har Sinai is the fifth one. He says, remember Ma'amad Har Sinai. Why do I need to remember Ma'amad Har Sinai? Why do I have to remember Mount Sinai? Because you were there. You may not remember it, but you were right next to me. You were pushing me. I remember you were there. What does it mean you were there? Your neshama was there. So why was my neshama there? That means when you get up to shamayim, you can't say, "I didn't know." What do you mean you didn't know? You think Hashem, the Creator of all creation, the King of Kings, Hashem that loves you, is going to put you into a world and you don't know anything? Nothing? You're like a golem? Nothing? You're a little, little play-doh? Just a piece of play-doh, you know nothing?

9:27You never had an opportunity to ask yourself: What's the truth? What's fake? Why did I come to this world? Nothing in your upbringing indicated these questions to you directly. Of course, you may not remember being at Mount Sinai because it was 3,000 years ago, a long time ago. But your neshama (soul) remembers. At some points during your life, you're going to constantly be reminded. There are going to be doubts. Am I doing right? Am I doing wrong? Should I marry this woman? Should I marry this guy? Should I do this? Should I do that? Should I steal? You're always asking yourself these questions. Why do you think you're asking yourself? No one taught you in grade school how to approach marriage. No one taught you in grade school about the concept of wasting seed. But if you go to a Jewish crowd, it doesn't matter if they're soldiers in the army, if it's in a kibbutz, in America, in Guam, or in Africa; you tell people, "Ladies and gentlemen, what do you know about wasting seed?" Everyone knows it's a soul. They don't know why it's a soul.

10:29You go to them, you go to non-Jews, ladies and gentlemen, what do you know about wasting seed? Everyone knows a soul. They don't know why. They have never read anything about it. As a matter of fact, this is the first time in their life they actually heard the term, but they automatically know what it means. No one in their right mind thinks that wasting seed is taking a bunch of seeds, for example, sesame seeds, and throwing them on the ground. No one thinks that. No one thinks it's taking little pistachios and throwing them in the air or something. No one thinks that. No one thinks it's watermelon seeds. No one thinks like that. Everyone knows exactly what I mean when I say, what do you think of wasting seed? Why? You were at Mount Sinai. You were at Mount Sinai. You cannot deny it. Next. Our holy fathers, Am Yisrael do experience miracles, despite having miracle after miracle after miracle, day and night. There was not a day that passed without a miracle, but I want to discuss miracles like the ones we read about — not just the small, everyday ones like not having a flat tire or making it to an appointment on time even though you're an hour behind, or the miracle that your wife still likes you, or that your husband wanted to marry you, or that your kids are still at home. I am talking about grand miracles, where Hashem shows us astonishing things. I...

11:56Miracles, despite all of that, a miracle still went against us. We still had the Golden Calf. What is it? What is this reminder? The reminder is: miracles are for all those people that say, why doesn't Hashem just show Himself? Why doesn't Hashem just show Himself to all of us and eliminate all doubt? Hey, I need Hashem, Elokim, a tremendous nase, just write something—write "God"—everyone knows where it came from. Just say something to scare us to death. I... I'm God. That's it, finished. Everyone's going to believe in God. There's not going to be an atheist in the world. Hashem says it's not possible. Why? Look, the ones who saw miracles non-stop, still at some point, the miracles did not help them do teshuva. Why? Because the Yetzer Hara continues to work. Unless the Yetzer Hatov works, the Yetzer Hara wins. Unless you continue learning Torah, continue getting glued to Hashem, and continue working on yourself, on your middot, your character traits, and everything else.

12:56It's all going to fall apart. All the miracles you had are going to become a distant memory. How many of you have books, notebooks, where you wrote down all the miracles that happened in your life? I wouldn't want to embarrass you by asking you to raise your hands. How many of you just have a memory of all the miracles that you ever had in your life? I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. How many remember how many miracles you had today? Not yesterday, not last week, not your whole life, just today. Even that you have to think about. Why? Miracles don't help people do teshuva. Miracles just open the door, come in son, come in daughter, come, come. What keeps you in? Torah. So stop asking the silly question of why doesn't Hashem appear. Next. There are always going to be some leaders out there who go against the nation. But only we can beat ourselves.

13:57Bil'am HaRasha was a prophet that had one power that even Moshe Rabbeinu didn't have. He knew the moment, the Rega, that Hashem would punish the world. The moment, the Rega. Some of the Chachamim say this is one out of 15,000 of a second. That's the Rega. Whatever it is, the Gemara in a couple of places, in Berachot and in the Megillah, mentions this concept and discusses its implications. The ability to harness such a precise moment was unique, and this knowledge gave Bil'am a significant advantage, which he could have used for good or for harm. However, he chose to misuse this power for self-serving purposes. His desire to curse Am Yisrael and his willingness to utilize his prophetic insight for destructive ends exemplifies how power can be misdirected when not guided by a moral compass grounded in Torah values. You know that gave him power. If he utilized that moment, at that rega, he could ask Hashem to do whatever he wanted. Bilam tried cursing Bnei Yisrael during that moment, but Hashem said no. Balak, however, had the resources and said to Bilam, "You curse them, you destroy them, and I'll pay you anything you want. Billion? No problem. Where do you want me to make the check? Table to cash? No problem. With diamonds? Whatever you want, I have cash." For Balak, Donald Trump would have been like an employee because he had so much money. Balak said, "I'll pay whatever you want, just destroy these people." I What really destroyed us, what nearly destroyed the entire nation? You go to Parashat Balak. At the end, after all of the trials that Balak and Bilam tried — cursing us several times, three times — nothing worked. What nearly destroyed us? Immodesty. Immodesty. Bilam told him, "Listen, the curse is not working. Why? The God of Israel — He runs the show. It doesn't matter what I do; He wants to curse — He curses. He's not like a genie."

15:26He wants the curse. He doesn't want the curse. What do you think? He's like us. He changed his mind. He said he's blessing them. He's blessing them. But I do know something about him. What do I know? Their God hates immodesty. You sent your immodest girls to them. They go with them. He'll destroy them without you asking. Why? It's disgusting to Him. An immodest act is disgusting to Hashem. because it eliminates the separation between man and animal. What's the difference between man and animal? You can't tell me it's the fact that you're able to speak. Maybe the cow can speak; you just don't understand. You can't tell me it's because I can pray. Maybe the cow is praying and you don't know. As a matter of fact, the Gemara says they do pray every day. What do you think the frogs are in this world, not praying to Hashem every day? They quack, quack, quack. They sing praises to Hashem constantly. Rambam and other sages have stories about how creatures are constantly praising Hashem. Well, what are you saying? That they are not praying? Do you think it's because they don't have a mortgage? They don't need a mortgage. They can live anywhere they want; they live better than you. They have no stress; you have stress all the time. Is it because you get married? They also have partners, as many as they want, among their kind. Every day is like a new match for them, a new companion. What separates you? What makes you better?

16:47What makes you better than an animal—than one of these animals that we're going to make kosher steaks out of? What makes you different? Why aren't we putting you there, chopping you up into little kosher steaks? What's the difference? The difference is your free choice. They work off of instinct. You have free choice. What's the free choice about? You don't have free choice of whether you're tall or short. You don't have free choice of whether you live or die. You don't have free choice of whether you're born black, white, yellow, green, or any other color in between. What's your free choice? Your free choice is whether you're going to fear Hashem or not. Your free choice is whether you're gonna obey what Hashem said or not. So now, Hashem said, there's a few things that I am disgusted by. One of them is immodesty and promiscuity, whether it's with the same sex or opposite sex, it is irrelevant. The point is, it is disgusting in the eyes of Hashem. Anything connected to it or anything around it is abominable, to such an extent that even the rasha prophet, the wicked prophet Bil'am, had the opportunity to curse us, and it didn't work. What worked? He sent a bunch of prostitutes to us.

18:05Am Yisrael sinned with them, and Hashem started striking us by the second. 24,000 died in a matter of seconds. Not weeks, not months, not days, not even hours—seconds. Seconds. And the magefah (plague) was to such an extent that had Pinchas not done what he did, within a few more seconds all of Am Yisrael would have perished. There would be nothing left of us—no conversion, no teshuvah, no Yom Kippur—nothing. Zero. No Moshe Rabbeinu, nothing. Not like the Cheit HaEgel where we sinned with the golden calf and Hashem came to Moshe Rabbeinu, saying, "Moshe, listen, let Me just destroy them and I'll start a new nation from you." No, he didn't see this. He didn't even warn us. That's how much Hashem hates immodesty. That's how much He hates promiscuity. That's how much He detests intermarriage. That's how much. You ask how much? That's exactly how much. You have to remember this every day. It's number seven. Number eight.

19:07Maaseh Miriam HaNeviyah. Miriam, Miriam, Miriam. Miriam was a prophet, the sister of Moshe Rabbeinu. Not like the foolish claims in the Qur'an that write Miriam as the mother of JC Penny, who lived a thousand years before the man. Miriam was a prophet, Kodesh Kodashim. As a matter of fact, there is a story in the Gemara about Miriam. Make you understand how important it is to listen to rebuke regardless of where it comes from. Miriam was six years old, no, actually five years old at the time. Five years old, Miriam sees her father. I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Don't ignore it. Kodesh kodeshim! How kodesh? How holy is he? The Gemara says only four people lived and died without ever sinning. What do we mean by never sinning? Never sinning like big things? Never chilul Shabbat? Never ate non-kosher? No, no, no. Never sinning. Period. Ever. Nothing. On the way here, I think some of us sinned. Just on the way here. One second. Yeah, four people. Yes. He was allowed. He was allowed.

20:26This is before Matan Torah, and that's why after Matan Torah, one of the best proofs of the Torah is that Moshe Rabbeinu's parents, Amram and Yocheved, had to get divorced. They had to get divorced. That's one of the best proofs that the Torah is authentic. Why? If Moshe Rabbeinu wrote it out of his own free will, out of his own mind, why in his right mind would he go up to the mountain, come down from the mountain, and say, "Hey, Abba, Ima. By the way, I love you guys. We have to get divorced?" At the very least, you say "Abba, Ima," since I'm the one who wrote the Torah. Your grandfather didn't have to do anything. Don't worry about it. I mean, the first thing you have to do is, Abba and Ima, you have to get divorced. It's not the issue of marrying your aunt—that only came after Matan Torah. We also learn this from Yaakov Avinu, who married two sisters, and... Aquavino married two sisters. At the time, he was allowed to marry two sisters because Matan Torah had not yet occurred. Even though they kept the laws, they kept them as Noahides, adhering to their specific limitations. They did not keep them in the same way Am Yisrael did after Matan Torah; it hadn't yet become official.

21:38Amram comes to Am Yisrael and he tells them, "Listen, this Paro, the Rasha, is killing us. Every boy that's born, he's killing us. Every boy, misken, what did the boy do? He's just born. He didn't even do anything. He didn't even curse him out. He didn't even have a chance to do anything yet, and they're already killing him. So why are we going to bother having kids? Carry the baby for nine months, misken, and then you know what the Chachamim say?" One of the miracles that made Am Yisrael greater than Egypt was that the Egyptians decided to only kill the boys, but not the girls. If they wanted to destroy us, why not kill the girls too? They said, no, we want to keep the girls. Why keep the girls? Because every birth was resulting in six children. They said, look at the Jewish women, the Israelite women... They're great. Let's keep the women for ourselves. We can grow every time we're with them. Six Egyptians, six Muhammads, six Mustafas. We're gonna become about two billion within a couple of generations, like China of Mustafas today. So now what happens? They start killing us, but they kill only the boys, and...

22:52Sanhedrin said, what are we going to have this for? For what? We're going to carry the babies just to have them separated from their families? For what purpose? Divorce has become a widespread habit. Miriam HaKadoshah, at five years old, a little, tiny girl, said, "Abba, Abba, you're worse than Pharaoh." What? Excuse me? "You're worse than Pharaoh, Abba." My daughter is only two and a half, Baruch Hashem, and by five years old, she tells me that I'm worse than Pharaoh. I'm not giving that notion another chance. Let's say, well, let me examine why Amram was considered Kodesh Kodashim, the holiest of the holy. He questioned, "Why am I worse than Pharaoh? Pharaoh is wicked. Pharaoh's decree was to kill only the boys. Your decree to divorce the wives, to not have any more children, is tantamount to killing both the boys and the girls. Why? Because after you divorce, you won't have any more children. Now everyone's going to follow you. Everyone's going to divorce their wives, resulting in no children at all—neither boys nor girls."

23:52Your decree is worse than Paro's. Your decree is worse than Paro's. Why is it worse than Paro's? Paro is a rasha. Paro is wicked. Meaning that maybe what he says happens, maybe it doesn't because he's a rasha. Hashem doesn't have to fulfill his will. You're a tzaddik. If you say, Hashem does. Why? Because you're a tzaddik. The Gemara says it in Masechet Shabbat and in Masechet Moed, in a few places. So now, imagine, Gadol HaDor, giant of giants, never sinned in his life, looks like a five-year-old just rebuked him. And she's right. Between you and me, would you listen? I wouldn't listen. I would pretend like it didn't happen. I'm telling you, personally, I would pretend like it didn't happen. What does a five-year-old know? Next week, I'll find something else. I'll find a new excuse. I'll pretend like it's my idea. Am I going to tell the whole world, Am Yisrael, that I made a mistake? That my five-year-old just rebuked me? That's what he did. That's what he did. Why? That's ish emet. That's an ish emet. That's why he's gedor hador. So Miriam had the intuition, had the nevuah, had the prophecy that this had to happen at five years old. And because of her and because of how Amram responded, Moshe Rabbeinu was born.

25:09He married; she was a shadchanit, she got $10,000. Shadchanit, $10,000. Abba, Ima, nice to meet each other, get married—all over again. Moshe Rabbeinu is born a year later. She's six years old, she has little Moshe Rabbeinu, little does everyone know that this little Moshe Rabbeinu is going to become big Moshe Rabbeinu, the prophet of all prophets. Why? Listen to the rebuke of a five-year-old. So this very same Miriam... She sees everything. She leads us out of Egypt. She's in the desert with us. There's a whole river of fresh water following Am Yisrael for 40 years due to her merit. She dies, the river ceases. It says Maaseh Miriam. What's Maaseh Miriam? What's Maaseh Miriam? What do we have to remember about Miriam? It says the one time she sinned. What did she sin? She just saved Am Yisrael. Yes, she sinned once. What did she sin? What did she do? Do you remember? It says that she said something not so appropriate about Moshe Rabbeinu, her brother.

26:17She was talking to Aharon. She was speaking to one of the people close to her. You know, she was talking to her brother. One or the other. She's not addressing the rest of the people. She's not making an announcement. She's speaking to Aharon, someone who understands her, another leader. Our brother Moshe, he left his wife Tzipora. Why? Why does he think he is distinguished in some special way? Maybe he's a little arrogant. Maybe he thinks highly of himself now because Hashem speaks to him. We're prophets too. He is a prophet, but we're prophets as well. Her level was considered lashon hara, and her speech was deemed distasteful against the Gadol HaDor. Hashem came out from heaven, and a bat kol came out and said, "No, he's not a prophet like you. You're a prophet, yes, but not like Moshe Rabbeinu." And He punished her with tzaraat. Tzaraat is both a spiritual and a physical disease. The only cure is Hashem.

27:18Doesn't matter what medicine you have, and when you have it, one of the cures is to do teshuvah. The main thing you have to do is teshuvah. How do you do teshuvah? Bring embarrassment to yourself. Someone has to, first of all, they throw you out of the camp because you can infect other people. They throw you out of the camp so everyone knows you spoke about somebody else in a negative way to make others distance themselves from him or from her. So the actual punishment is... Everyone distances themselves from you. So, first of all, everyone knows you speak badly about others. Everyone knows you have a tongue that doesn't stop. Get out. That's the first thing. The second thing is that when you're outside of the camp, no one is allowed to be next to you. And if someone doesn't know, you have it, don't have it, they come, you know, they're on their horse, they're on their camel, they're on their donkey, they're coming down. And you're over there in your little camp, outside of the camp, you're in your little hut over there, and someone comes down the street. You have to come out and start screaming, "Tzaraat, Tzaraat," meaning, "I have tzaraat." You have to tell people, "I have tzaraat." It's like someone saying, "I have AIDS, AIDS, AIDS." Who wants to do that?

28:39You have to bring embarrassment to yourself. Shalchei the Gemara, Masechet Shabbat, page 66, says that this applies only if you say 'tzara'at' once. If you say 'tzara'at' once, we understand you're bringing embarrassment to yourself. But why say 'tzara'at' twice? If it's for embarrassment, say it once. So why is he saying it twice? He explains that the second time... To make them feel bad for you. Why do you make other people feel bad for you? They pray for you, they pray for you. They have more merits than you because of the shame. You have a flesh blemish. The second time you make other people feel bad for you, why do they pray for you? They pray for you. That's where we get one of the sources where you always see, "Oh, you know, so-and-so, something happened, pray for them, say Tehillim." That's the source and... Say, oh, why do we pray for people? Why do you pray for people? Why? You're not technically allowed to announce it to the world if something happened in someone's house or someplace. If somebody just ruined their car, they're a bad driver. You shouldn't say, "By the way, Joe over there is a terrible driver." That's it.

29:59But if you say, Bar Minan, "Hashem, Joe got into an accident, pray for him." Why? You make other people feel bad for him. You pray for him. So, Miriam got tzaraat. As holy as she was, she got tzaraat. Why? She said one thing. One thing, a little doubt. She had a little safek about Moshe Rabbeinu. So if Miriam can get tzaraat, that's a horrible, horrible disease, that Moshe Rabbeinu was the only one who was able to cure. He prayed one time, five words, finished. But the whole nation prayed for it, nothing happened. Moshe Rabbeinu said five words, finished, cured. Why? It doesn't matter how holy you are. If garbage comes out of your mouth, you have a sore mouth, there will be an outcome. Really bad one. Next one. Which is the reason why we say this whole list for? Um, what is at the heart of it? Hashem Elokecha, and attend to the call to remember Hashem, your God. To remember Hashem, your God. This is a mitzvah in the Torah out of the 613 mitzvot.

31:24From the Torah, the number seven corresponds with mitzvot directly from Hashem. When we count the mitzvot from Lebanon, they total six hundred and twenty. Among these mitzvot, one instructs us to remember God. Why remember God? Because He is the one who grants you the power to acquire wealth. He is the one who gives you the ability to do anything. When you reflect on this logically, it becomes apparent that it is indeed illogical not to remember God. It's illogical not to remember Hashem. Why? Where do you think it all came from? Did you come from nothing? You have to come from somewhere. Did the money just appear? Did you just come up with the idea on your own? Who created your brain? Who gave you eyes? Who gave you ears? Who gave you everything? It's illogical to forget Hashem, but nonetheless, we do it all the time. The reason why is because we turn ourselves, chas v'shalom, into our own gods. We give ourselves the credit: "I'm the one who thought of this new invention. I'm the one who picked this investment. I'm the one who decided to work at this time, at this place, and such and such. Me, me, me." Constantly giving ourselves the credit. Hashem says...

32:52Remember me, what is it like? A king only has one daughter. He says to the daughter, "I will give you anything you want. Your husband you are going to marry one day, I'll give him anything he wants." Okay, one day she grows up, she gets married. Then this guy comes in and says, "Listen, I'll give you guys whatever you want." "Oh really? Sure, we want a house." "No problem. Where do you want the house? How big do you want the house?" I want the house in this place at this time at the top ten million dollar house. No problem. I want a car on Monday, a different car on Tuesday, a different car on Wednesday, and a chopper and a plane and food and servants and this and that—anything you want. Okay, what's the condition? Is there a price for this or not? It's free. Nothing's free in life. He says there's only one small thing that I want, the king says, only one small thing. Wherever you go, you have this vacation house, you have the other house, you have the car on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. You have all these different things that I'm giving you, I'm paying for it. Just make sure to give me a little bit of room—just one tiny little room. It doesn't have to be a big room. You have a house that's 20,000 square feet, give me a room. No bigger than a small bathroom. Something small, tiny, but just give it to me. Don't give it to anyone else, just a room for me.

34:13Sounds logical. Come on. You're not gonna give it to him. He just paid for the house? You should take the whole house? You should have the little room? What happens? One day the king shows up. "Hello. Hello. I need a place to sleep. I need a place to pray. I need a place to eat. I need a place to rest." "Oh, I'm sorry. We're busy. Come back next week." Unfortunately, that's us when we forget about Hashem. He gave us everything. He gave us zivug. He gave us parnassah. He gave us children. He gave us everything we have. We forget to give Him a little room every day. That's why there's a mitzvah in the Torah. Hashem says, "I know I created you. I created you that way because you have to work on this mitzvah in order to fulfill it." You have to constantly and proactively remember Me. That's why you have to say it at the end of your tefillah. It's not part of your tefillah; it's at the end. Why? It's an extra effort. It's not part of your tefillah. It's the end. Because the tefillah, which we'll talk about now...

35:14The part you can easily become used to and become robotic. The last mitzvah that you're obligated to remember is here in Yerushalayim; the benefit of the economy, man. It says, "Remember Yerushalayim; remember that the days of Mashiach are gonna come, and Yerushalayim is going to be rebuilt, and Am Yisrael will be great again." But right before that... This passage reminds us of the importance of remembering Hashem (God) as the only chance to survive and witness the ultimate redemption. The only chance you'll have to see this is if you ensure that you fulfill the first nine. You should strive to uphold the mitzvot and deepen your connection with the Divine.