Emunah While Being Robbed, Blackmailed & Insulted

0:16Hi everyone. I'm going to wait for our people to log on. Let's see. Invite everybody. Right, right, right. All right. Okay. All right, I'll wait. Hi, Leah. How are you? Right, right, right. All right. Okay. All right, I'll wait. Hi, Leah. How are you?

1:17How are you, Juan? Yeah, I'll wait a couple of minutes for other people to... Hi, Lisa, how are you? To log on, I've got some cool stories for you guys about this crazy, crazy experience we've had in the last couple of days. of moving. You know, moving is supposed to be—it's never fun. We've moved many times in our lives: offices, houses, apartments, and so on. So it's never fun. But this was one special experience, let me tell you. So I'm tired, so I don't think I'll be able to answer so many questions today, but I'll tell you guys a story. We'll start literally in a minute and get going. Let's see. Did I bring any water? No. Okay, no water. Okay. So as some of you that follow the shiurim know,

2:33we, uh, we moved recently, literally in the last couple of days. We had been planning on moving to a different community for various reasons. Anyway, we found a community, also in Florida, and decided it was worth a shot. So, uh... We set up the move. We looked up some moving companies and decided this one company looked reputable. I'm not going to mention their name yet, just to give them an opportunity to rectify themselves as much as possible before destroying their business. Because the story that you're about to hear, even someone with a vivid imagination, I don't think could make something like this up. So anyway, this company, we called a few companies and we had a few of them give us estimates. Anyway, this one particular company...

3:46send somebody to the house to look at everything, check the price, and give us an estimate. And we liked it because we figured, you know, with moving, there's always games. Just so you know, there's always games. It's always, you know, some added cost at the last minute. It's never what they say it is originally. You agree to, I don't know, 1,000, somehow it ends up being 2,000 or 1,500. You agree to 2,000, somehow it ends up being 3,000 or 4,000. It's always more. It's never ever the price agreed upon, but we figured, okay, this company came and they're gonna check everything. And they were more expensive than the other companies we looked at, but they gave us something that we've never seen before. They gave us a price guarantee. So now they came to the house They looked at everything that was in the house. I also work out of the house, so I have my office in the house. My wife and kids and, you know, one of the Team Hashem members who works with me full time, Sonny, is also there with us. Anyway, this woman came to the house. I couldn't see her because my wife told me that she forgot to put on her clothes. So anyway...

4:59I minded my business somewhere else and let her do what she needed to do as far as her job to evaluate how many... Sorry, I have to put the charger in. My phone's dying. Evaluate how many boxes we have and so on and so forth. So... They did it. At the end of the meeting, this woman gave a price of $1,540. But since we wanted to move before the chag, she said it's an extra $360 to do it on Sunday. So, okay, originally we were supposed to move a couple of weeks ago, but the storm delayed everything. Long story short, to try to cut things short, long story short, we're going to move this Sunday, this past Sunday, a couple of days ago. We agreed that it's going to be $1,900, and she gave us a price guarantee. Price guarantee means price guarantee. You know exactly what we have. You wrote down what we have. I'm not going to double-check what you wrote, what you didn't write. It's not my business. You came there with your own eyes for a purpose. I'm not going to tell you how to do your job. So anyway, she writes down everything.

6:22and we give a deposit. And then, a few days before the actual move, they charge the rest of the money to the card. So, meaning fully paid $1,900 before they even lifted a box, before they lifted a penny, before they lifted anything, which is actually not normal. Usually, you're supposed to get paid after you do a job, especially moving, but no problem. You want the money, take the money. No big deal. Just do the job, for heaven's sake. uh, so anyway, on Sunday, eight o'clock in the morning, they're supposed to show up. They show up a little bit late, no big deal. Three guys show up, and whatever, you know, I don't judge a book by its cover, but they don't exactly look like, you know, a... I don't know, a congressman or anything. Three regular looking guys, blue-collar guys. And I asked them if they want coffee. It's very important for a Jew to be very kind to whatever guest they have, regardless of whether it's a plumber or a mover or whatever it is. It's always very important to be cordial. Not treat people like they're slaves or something, chas v'shalom.

7:40So anyway, I asked them if they wanted coffee. They said yes, so I made the three guys coffee. I asked them if they wanted water, to eat, whatever, just to start off the day on the right foot. The problem is, sometimes when you are kind to people or you're nice to people, they take your kindness as foolishness. They mistake your kindness for being an idiot. And apparently, this is what happened. So this is when the game began. or at least when it started taking the next shift. Anyway, shortly afterward, they had their coffee, they had their day, and they wasted about an hour and a half doing nothing. Then, they finally started picking up some boxes, and within literally an hour of working, which is nothing. The guy comes to me and he tells me, no, this is going to be a two-day job. I said, no, no, no, no, no two-day job. I'm paying extra money, $360. I'm paying an extra 20% for you to do it today. And why would it be a two-day job? And he says to me, well, you know, it's a big job. I said, it's a big job? What big job? What are you talking about? It's a tiny little house, very modest, baruch Hashem. We don't have that much stuff. I moved...

8:53When I moved from New York to Florida, it was four times the amount of stuff, and it still took one day. What are you talking about? A two-day job? It's a tiny little place. What do I have? And most of it is packed already. Oh, no, I don't know. This is a lot more stuff than what she wrote. I'm like, oh, that's the point of the price guarantee. You guys said... You're going to send somebody here. You send somebody here. She evaluated. What she wrote on the paper is not my business. No, but it's more than what she said. I said, hey, I don't know what she said. All I know is the house and me stayed the same. My wife was here. My kids were here. The little one was still six months, seven months old. The bigger one was two years old. Still nothing changed with them within a couple of days. The boxes were the same. The home office was the same. The beds were the same. Nothing changed. Yeah, yeah, but she made a mistake. I said, "Oh, mistake? It's her problem. It's not my problem. It's my problem now? You want me to make a mistake? No, you don't understand. I'm like, just continue the job." So anyway, the conversation started getting a little rough from the beginning. But you have to know that in general, I'm not really sure if it's necessarily just the non-Jews or it's just everyone that doesn't have Yirat Shamayim.

10:10Usually, when people see someone that's religious, they usually assume that they're naive, weak, and just an outright fool. Now, you need to know that you're not allowed to be a fool. You're not allowed to be a fool. You could be forgiving. You could be, you know, someone that's nice. You could be someone that's gracious. You could, you know, be calm and collected and so on. But to be a fool, there's no mitzvah in being a fool. There's no mitzvah. You don't get like extra Gan Eden for being a fool. And actually, it says, When you go to war, when someone is coming to battle, you get ready to go to war. You have to use weapons. You can't just, oh, no, no, you guys want two days, do two days. You want to do three days, do three days. You want to take a year, take a year. Just please help me. And make yourself some type of little victim. There's no mitzvah in being a victim. Already I saw these guys playing games. So I spoke to him in his language. And anyway, he didn't exactly like this.

11:16But they went and continued working. They would take a break every so often. Long story short, I see the guy is intentionally delaying things, intentionally dragging things on, skipping some boxes. And whatever, do whatever he wants. It's his job. I don't really care. As long as you finish the job, it doesn't make a difference to me whether you finish it at 1 in the afternoon or 1 a.m. Just finish. You got the money already. Whatever. So at one o'clock in the afternoon, which is still early in the day, and he says to me, "Listen, it's more than what she wrote." Again, the same story that we had earlier that day. And I said, "Listen, what she wrote is what she wrote. I don't know. What, do you want me to double-check what she wrote? Her homework? What am I, a teacher? It's not my problem what she wrote. She's your employee, not my employee." No, but it's more boxes. She wrote 85 boxes. It's double that. We need more. Meaning, in essence, he wants double the money. Not happening. Not happening. You know, maybe you are looking for suckers. You didn't come to the right place. I'm sorry. With all due respect to your scandal over here, wrong address. I'm not going to be blackmailed. למה? למה?

12:40Why? Because I have a kippah on? Because you have my stuff in your truck? Why? So he didn't like that. So he decided to stop working. After you already loaded 75% of the truck. There's still some stuff in the house. He loaded and he goes outside and he pretends to be on the phone with somebody. And he stopped working. Half an hour passes. An hour passes. I go outside. What's going on? Are you doing something? You're not doing anything? This guy is wasting time, burning time, having a drink, calling, laughing, nothing, just wasting time. He could have finished the rest of the job already. Anyway, two hours he's wasting. And I go outside. Again, we get into a little argument. But this guy is wasting time. I said, you could have already finished the job. Let's go and stop playing this game. I'm not playing a game, he tells me. This guy is double my size. He's double my size. He's a big guy. Probably, I don't know, younger than I am. At least 10 years younger than I am. He's definitely not older than me.

13:48Much better shape. I don't think he had 10 years of medical problems. And he tells me the funniest thing in the world. He's like, I don't feel safe next to you. I say, you don't feel safe next to me? You and you have two other giants that work next to you. You don't feel safe next to me? Why don't you feel safe next to me? I don't know. You said that if we don't finish the job, you're not going to get paid. I said, yeah, I already paid you the money. And if you're not going to get the job done, I'm not going to pay you. What's the problem? He goes, well, I can't work like that. I'm like, well, you don't have to worry. You already got the money. You already took the money out of the account. So even me saying you're not going to get paid, you already got the money. The $2,000 is already in your account. So don't pretend like you didn't get the money and you're not going to get the money. So, we go back and forth, whatever. At 3:15, he comes and knocks on the door. I'm still inside. Two hours have been wasted for no reason. He comes inside with a smirk on his face. He's like, "All right, listen, we're going to go to the next house, which is about 30 minutes away. We're going to drop off everything and come back." And I said, "Whoa, why don't you take the rest of the stuff? There's still room in the truck. Let's finish the rest of the stuff and get this thing done."

15:17Why are you wasting time? And he said, "No, no, no, we're going to finish now. We're going to finish now. And the home office is going to call you. The manager or whatever, the woman that did the estimate, she's going to call you." Okay, she's going to call me. No problem. He left with the two other giants. And we figured, you know what? I don't know what this guy is planning. A couple of students came to help me, two tzaddikim came to help me. And I said, you know what, guys, let's fill up our cars and take as much as we can in case this guy doesn't want to come back and finish the rest. At least we're going to get the most we possibly can. Let's just get this stuff done. Why waste time? So the two tzaddikim loaded up their car, loaded up my car. Loaded up my wife's car. Surprisingly, this tiny little car that she has from 1994 fit as much stuff as the bigger cars. But watch that little engine that could. So anyway, we fit. Got everybody packed up. Baby's packed up. Wife packed up. Two students packed up. Everybody's packed up. We're on. We drive. Again, this is about 40 minutes after these guys left, meaning they should already be unloading the stuff in the new house. We get to the new house.

16:29They're nowhere to be found. Gone. Nothing. No people. I start calling. No one answers. Call, call. Within about five minutes, you know, I wasn't exactly born yesterday. Within five minutes, I realize they're not coming. I call, I call, I call, I call, I call. No one picks up. Maybe about two hours later, somebody finally picks up—that wicked, wicked woman that came to my house, who apparently is behind the whole scam. picks up the phone and says, "Okay, I'm your own Reuven. You know, you guys were moving my house before your employees decided to become criminals and steal my stuff." She goes, "Yeah, yeah, I know exactly who you are." I'm like, "Okay, well, where's my stuff?" She goes, "Oh, it's somewhere." I said, "Well, are you going to deliver it?" She goes, "No, you're going to have to wait. The owner is going to call you tomorrow and figure something out." Meaning, if I'm not paying more money, then I won't get my stuff. This, by the way, is called blackmail. It's illegal. But apparently, I didn't know that people do this on a regular basis with no fear whatsoever. So I said, "Well, I need my stuff. I have two little kids. If it was just me, whatever, I'll sleep on the floor. I'll get a motel, whatever. Who cares? I have two little babies. I got my wife. Are you serious right now?"

17:53No, no, you should have worried about that before you let the driver leave. Like I made him leave. Like it's my fault that he just robbed my entire house in front of me in broad daylight. It's my fault that he left and told me that he's going to the next house and lied to me. It's my fault. You see, this is how criminal minds work, where they always blame the other person. It's always everybody else's fault. It's always because of this and because of that. and because I didn't have a father, and because I didn't have a mother, and because I'm blue, and I'm black, and I'm green, and I'm Chinese, and I'm this, and I'm poor, and I'm rich. All the excuses in the world. Everything except, "It's my fault." Everything except taking responsibility, taking ownership for our stupidity. The foolishness, the stupidity of man is going to lead him to sin, stupidity, his own stupidity, is going to lead him to sin against who? Against God. He's going to say he's sinning against me, he's sinning against God. So his own stupidity will lead him to sin against the only one that he should care about in the world, against God. And instead of saying, I'm sorry, what does he say? He gets mad at God for punishing him.

19:11This is us. This is people. We make sins against God, and then we get mad that God punishes us. He gives us hurricanes, we lose money, problems, all this stuff. This is man. So anyway... We have an agreement, signed, guaranteed, everything wonderful, all meaningless. At this moment, everything goes to the garbage. They just robbed my entire house, and they want more money, and they won't even tell me how much. They insinuated double, meaning another couple thousand dollars, but didn't even say a price. But bottom line is, it doesn't matter how many times I call, and who I call, and what I call, I'm not getting my stuff. Sleep on the floor. So, that's, in essence, the situation that they left us with. Baruch Hashem, Hashem had mercy on us, and He sent us wonderful students. So a few of my students that live in the area, about 20 minutes away, came to the house, were already helping the Rebbetzin clean the house, and were courteous enough to invite us to their house.

20:19so we went to the house and we stayed over there. And it felt like we were at a five-star hotel. It's amazing, amazing people. Holy house, treated us like royalty, gave us a room. It was just amazing to me that Hashem just fixed everything that way. And, you know, the next morning, The Rabbanit, Tzadika, my wife Tzadika, she also knows a lot of Torah. And she says to me, she goes, you know, I had a chiddush. She gets chiddushim, the chiddushim she gets, a million bucks each one. A million bucks each one. She says, I had a chiddush. I said, what's the chiddush, honey? She says, you know, Yosef HaTzadik, Yosef HaTzadik, when his brothers sold him, when his brothers sold him, And, you know, Hashem, obviously, this is all His plan. But they had to sell Yosef HaTzadik so he could go to jail, suffer some kaparat avonot, some repentance for sins, fix the neshama a little bit, get even better, but eventually to become the king of Egypt. Why? So he could...

21:37save his whole family when they come later on and there's famine and there's no food everywhere else. But this whole thing, this whole story, this is in Bereishit. We're going to read it in the next couple of months as we start the Torah all over again, each parashat hashavua. But in this amazing story, you're going to find out something truly extraordinary. It says that when they sold him, they expected a typical traveling salesman of that day to be people who were selling tar products. Tar products and oil, which are very smelly and very disgusting. But that's usually the type of people who would buy slaves and buy people and so on. But it just so happened in this story that Rashi explains, and it says in the Torah, that the actual ones who ended up buying Yosef HaTzaddik were perfume salesmen. perfume. The exact opposite, beautiful smelling. And here, Chazal explains to us that this was chesed Hashem. This was chesed from Hashem, this was kindness from Hashem, where despite

22:46the test that He's giving Yosef HaTzaddik at this stage, He still wants Yosef HaTzaddik to know, "Son, I'm with you. I'm with you." So while you're traveling from where they sold you all the way to Egypt, I don't want you to suffer on top of being sold, on top of being abandoned by your family. I don't want you to suffer on top of it smelling bad because a bad smell, by the way, you should know, is bad for the soul. It hurts the neshama. That's why you're not allowed to learn Torah or do any prayers in any place that has a bad smell. So Hashem says, I don't want my son, on top of the suffering he already has from being sold by his brothers, being abandoned, and the heat, and everything else, on top of that, to hurt his neshamah, I don't want that. So what am I going to do? I'm going to send for the first time in history, perfume salesmen that are going to buy him, so at least he can enjoy the ride and not suffer additionally. So the Rebbetzin tells me, she says, "Yeah, okay, so listen, they took all of our stuff. Who cares about this stuff? Think about this. Look at how amazing Hashem is that even through this test that He's giving us, we have perfume salesmen to enjoy. We have amazing students that have an amazing house that they invited us in with such a warm heart, with such kindness, with such, just mamash, amazing. And we can just, it's like being in a five-star hotel."

24:11So instead of us just, you know, we could have easily been sleeping on the floor in a house that doesn't have furniture. What if we didn't have any money to afford anything? What if we had to be in the street? What if they took the keys? You know, a lot of other things could have happened. But Hashem wanted us to know, my son, my daughter, I'm with you. It's just a test. Testing, testing, one, two, three. Testing, testing, one, two, three. He says, Hashem tells you in the Torah, I test you to see if you love me. And the Rebbetzin got the chiddush first thing in the morning, and she says, look, Hashem is testing us, obviously a test. If it wasn't a test, why would He send us to such a nice place? Such wonderful students that will host us with no second thoughts. So that was already amazing to me. It was amazing to me that she was able to see that, and it really caught me, like I mean, Baruch Hashem, I don't connect with this material for a long time already, but this took it to another level. So anyway, as the story continues, I get a call from the guy. And this happy-go-lucky guy named Billy calls me.

25:32Hey, Mr. Reuven, how are you? Yeah, listen. I said, well, I'm not so fine. And he starts laughing. He thinks it's cute. He thinks it's cute. So I don't think it's cute. Despite the fact that I see Chesed Hashem, despite the fact that I see miracles 24 hours a day, and there's no problem, and I don't miss the stuff. But you also, again, like I said, You can't just let people walk all over you. That by itself is a Chilul Hashem. You can't be just like some turtle for people to kick or something like that. You have to understand, you have to protect yourself. There's no mitzvah of being a fool. So one of the things we learn from Yaakov Avinu is that when he goes and he meets Rachel, before he goes and meets Lavan HaRasha, Rachel warns him. He says, I want to marry you. Yaakov says to Rachel, I want to marry you. She says, yes, but my father, Lavan, he's a rasha. He's a rasha. He's a wicked person. And he's the biggest, aside from being the biggest gangster, aside from being a rasha, aside from being all these bad things, he's the biggest con man in history. And he's going to con you. He's going to fool you. And what does Yaakov Avinu say? What does Yaakov Avinu say?

26:47You see in the Pirush, you see in the actual scripture. He says, if he's a con, I'll con him. I'll be the father of all cons. Meaning, just like David HaMelech says, hundreds of centuries later, meaning when there's battle, go to war. Meaning, there's a language for war; there's a behavior for war. You can't say, "Oh, you want to fight? Okay, I'll hold a little sword and you hold a sword and let's see, ready, go." When there's war, there's war. Somebody robs your house, you're at war. Somebody is invading your privacy. You're at war. Somebody is doing something wrong. You're at war. You can't do... Oh, wow. Oh, you want more money? Okay, sure. How much? 2,000? Sure, here you go, 2,000. Or more? 10,000? Okay, you want me to go make a chesed fund? Go collect money so we can make you rich? Is that enough? Look, why? Don't let people walk over you. There's no mitzvah for that. There's no mitzvah. Especially if it's some zevel shel olam, idol worshiper. What are you doing? Why are you letting a guy walk all over you?

27:50He wants to be a rama, he wants to be a liar, I'll be a bigger liar. I'll fool him. So, at that point, I realized that I'm at war. These guys are making a joke out of the whole thing. These guys are making a joke out of the whole thing. So, I start talking to them in their language. No verses from the Torah. And I tell him, listen, you want to play games? Play games. You picked the wrong guy. What you can do is you can do a few things. You can bring it to my house now, or you can keep it and burn it. And burn with it if you want. Whichever happens first. Don't make a difference to me. Keep it, give it to me, but just don't continue wasting my time. And he didn't like it. And he said, no, no, listen, we're going to send it. I don't know when. I don't know why. I don't know this. I don't know that. Song and dance. I don't have time for games. Anyway, he said, listen, we're going to get it to you by 2 o'clock. Okay, 2 o'clock.

28:58Not an hour passes by. All of a sudden, there's another excuse. No, listen, it's more stuff, and it's this, and it's that. I don't think it's going to be today. I don't think it's this. I said, listen, I already called. I already filed a report. I already called the FBI. I already know the license plate. We already know where the truck is. These excuses that you have are telling me, oh, the guy tells me really, really things. Garbage of all garbage excuses. He says, "Listen, Mr. Rubin, I'm having just as bad of a day as you did yesterday. I have two flat tires." I'm like, "Wow, just as bad of a day. My kids didn't have a bed to sleep on, and you have two flat tires. Wow. What an amazing comparison. What an amazing... These people, they're playing with people's lives." If I didn't have a student that would host us, a dear friend, part of Team HaShem, someone, if I didn't have other people that cared about us, if I didn't have any place to be, this guy wouldn't care in the world if I'd just be in the street. So anyway, I told him, listen, you do what you want with this information. The FBI knows. The cops know. We already know the license plate. We know the story that you're telling me is complete hogwash. The car that has all the stuff is still there. It doesn't have a flat tire.

30:16and I hang up the phone. Five seconds later, some other guy who is supposedly the owner calls. All of a sudden, everything is nice. "Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry." The sorry is worth exactly two cents to me. I said, listen, enough with the games. Like I said to the other guy, one of two things can happen. You bring my stuff today, or you can burn it with yourself, whichever happens first. You guys are playing with people's lives. This is not the way I conduct myself. And again, this might seem like very aggressive language for a rabbi. You shouldn't talk like this, Rabbi. Like I said to you guys earlier, Yaakov Avinu, he's not telling us to go talk like a gangster to people. He's not saying that. But when you're at war, you can't talk to people in a nice civilized way. Oh, you guys have flat tires. Oh, can I help? Do you want me to come change your truck's tire? Should I pay you more? Should I pay somebody to try? Should I call AAA for you guys? Maybe I could. Maybe they could. Like you can't. You have to talk to people in their language. Why?

31:19Because if they're already walking all over you and you continue acting like everything is okay, they'll just continue taking advantage of you. And the next thing you know, they're not going to give you your stuff. They're going to take advantage of you more and more. And this is how disasters go from bad to worse. So you have to tell them, listen, you want the stuff? Keep the stuff. You don't want the stuff? Don't keep the stuff. But stop with the games. No games. What are these games for? You're playing with people's lives. Long story short, I told him, listen, if you're trying to play a game to get more money from me, there's a 0% chance of you getting anything. I'm not paying you a dollar. In fact, you're not even getting the money that you took. You're not going to get it. So on and so forth. All of a sudden, he's saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we'll give you a discount, we'll give you this, whatever." When are you going to give my stuff back? Long story short, a day later, we finally get the stuff late at night. I'm, you know, half asleep. I don't really check anything. They just got some of the stuff. There's still some stuff in the old house. We go back to sleep at our friend's house again. And again, she was amazing and treated us like royalty. It was really, feel at home, felt no different. And again, you see the blessing from Hashem that...

32:39Despite the difficult circumstances, you don't feel it really. What are you missing? Some stuff? Big deal, some stuff. So the next morning, the Rebbetzin teaches me another thing. I said, so we have another chiddush. I said, your chiddushim, each one's worth a million bucks, gotta get this one. And she says, I never realized how little someone actually needs to survive. We don't have anything from this stuff. We just had a little suitcase that we always take with us. A little bit of clothes for the kids. A change of clothes for us. That's it. Nothing. Nothing. My mom has tiny little travel suitcases for the whole family. Most of it is bottles and food for the kids. That's it. And he says, you know, I never realized how little a person actually needs. All this stuff we carry is just stuff for nothing. And this made me think, you know, on the way home, we're driving and I started, you know, I look at the neighborhood and I started looking at everything and I'm like, you know what? Every house looks the same. Like in every neighborhood, all the houses look the same. It doesn't matter where you go. Whether you're in Panama, America, New York, LA, Florida, wherever you are, each neighborhood has, you know, all the houses look the same. The same developer usually built a bunch of houses. They all look the same. It's all like boxes.

33:57So just boxes, box after box after box after box after box. And people spend their fortunes to get this box. They get this box, and it's just like, it's like everything to them. And they make sure that even though, on the outside, all of these boxes look exactly the same. Inside, it's got its own unique things, and they spend everything they have to make sure the inside is amazing. It has their personal touch, and they decorate it. They buy this, and they buy that. They do this, and they decorate, and they fix, and they break, and they fix. They invest all of their time to fix this box so that one day... Whenever that day may happen, when someone comes to visit to see their box, aka home, you say, oh, wow, what a nice box. What a nice home you have. But in reality, that never happens. In reality, what actually happens is more likely to be one of two things. Either they come to the house and they see it's actually a nice house and they say, wow, why didn't God give me something like this? They don't say it to you. But jealousy starts eating their heart when they see you have better stuff than them. Or nicer stuff. And they start giving you ayin hara. They give you the evil eye.

35:05Why didn't God give me something like this? They don't say it to you. But jealousy starts eating their heart when they see you have better stuff than them. Or nicer stuff. And they start giving you ayin hara. They give you the evil eye. Because they feel like you don't deserve it. They do. You don't deserve the $100,000 car. They do. You don't deserve the million-dollar house or the $500,000 house or whatever house. They do. You don't deserve this table. They do. And they start looking at it. It's like their "wow" is not a "wow" of compliment. "Wow, good for you. I'm happy for you." Their "wow" is like, "Wow, I can't believe God made a mistake. Chas v'shalom." That's what they think. God made a mistake that they don't have it, but you do. That's at least 75% of the time people become jealous when they see your stuff. The other 25%, they don't like it. And what happens when they don't like it? They tell everybody else, "Look, Yaron has an ugly house. Steve has an ugly house. This one has an ugly house." They have this, they have that. They start making fun of your house.

36:16You spend your whole life trying to fix this house to be your little unique box. That, you know, it's your own personal space. You spend all your money, all your energy, all your everything to have your own little spot. And this little Mizrab comes to your house, and he's either giving you ayin hara or is making fun of it. It's rare to ever find a decent human being that comes to your house and is actually happy for you. Very rare. But I started seeing, I'm like, you know what? People spend their whole lives trying to fix this thing, this box that they have, this house they have. For what? To impress other people? It's never going to happen. We end up worrying so much about what other people think that we forget about ourselves. We forget about our own neshamot. We forget about what's really, really important in life. And the purpose of life being our relationship with our Creator, our Father in Heaven. We worry about what people think, flesh and blood that's eventually going to be eaten by maggots. We worry about what they think. We worry about what they have or what they don't have. We forget about who gave us everything. And I started thinking, I'm like, this is what Shlomo HaMelech...

37:33was saying in the entire book of Kohelet, you know, my wife was telling me she met some people in the past who would actually say, you know what, I don't want to read it because it depresses me. It’s a serious reality check and you have to be ready for it because it keeps telling you that all this material stuff is worthless. And it's meaningful when it comes from him because he had everything. He had women, he had power, he had money, he had everything. And he's telling you it's all worthless. The only thing that's valuable is the connection between Hashem and you based on Yirat Shamayim, fear of heaven. That's it. Everything else is nonsense. He didn't talk about loving Hashem. He didn't talk about a special type of, I don't know, some emunah where you just sit there and everything works. He said if you have a connection with Hashem based on fear, you have a real connection. Once you have that, you have everything. If you don't have it, you have nothing. All the money in the world, all the girls, all the guys, all the this, all the that. It's all worthless. It's all nothing. Shlomo HaMelech, wise man of all time.

38:41He says, this is a serious reality check. People that know, sometimes they don't want to read the book because they're not ready for this reality check. I said, well, he was right. Look at this. I mean, people just spend their entire lives building these boxes for somebody else to like, and they're eventually not going to like it anyway. And they worry so much about that. that they have to leave behind anyway, because you can't take that to Olam Haba. You can't take that to the next world. You can't take it anywhere. You might not even be there for a long time anyway. You might have to change jobs, change this, change that. This whole investment you made into this house, it's temporary. Why not start investing into your soul? And that's why I started realizing, this is the chesed of Hashem. This is the biggest gift from Hashem, to make you realize that Rosh Hashanah is judgment day. And the Mishnah tells us that Hashem gave us the Selichot 40 days before Rosh Hashanah, before judgment day. Not just for this, you know, let's just see what they do with it. Let's just see what happens if they like to sing or not. No, it's to prepare us for the day. To prepare us for the day, because if someone comes to Rosh Hashanah,

40:01without any intention to change. They're going to Rosh Hashanah. They're going to pray morning to night like the best of them. They're going to pray with full heart. They're going to even cry during the prayer. They're going to pray and pray. They're going to be better than the chazzan. They're going to be better than the rabbi. They're going to pray. People are going to talk about this prayer for centuries. But in reality, in reality, the moment Rosh Hashanah is over, they go back to their life, nothing changes. Same angry guy, same immodest woman, same Mechalel Shabbat, same eating treif, nothing changes. Still cheap, still doesn't give his wife any courteous behavior, any love, any respect, any honor, nothing. Still the same beastly human being, The Mishnah, which came before the Gemara, already from 2,500 years ago, says, better off he didn't come. Why? Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, are not going to help him. Why? Because Rosh Hashanah is only going to help you if you intend to do teshuva. That's why the Pasuk says, it says, Hashem cleanses the sins.

41:21And He doesn't cleanse. What do you mean? He cleanses or He doesn't cleanse? He forgives or He doesn't forgive? Why? He forgives those on Rosh Hashanah if they do teshuva. If they don't do teshuva, they might as well not go. Stay home. Go have a barbecue. I started to realize we spend all this time worrying about the boxes and the boxes and the boxes and to fit in and to look this way and to look that way. For what? First of all, we don't need that much stuff. But Hashem loves us so much that He gives us a lot more than what we need. We need what? A shirt, pants. For a woman, you need a dress. Kids need a few changes of diapers. You need a meal a day. What do you need really to survive? To survive, what do you really need? Do you really need this giant house? Do you really need this fancy car? Do you really need five meals a day, four meals? Do you really need it? Do you really need five sets of outfits for every day of the week, a different suit? Do you really need it or do you want it? We see Hashem is willing to give you what you want, not what you need, even beyond what you need. He gives you what you want. He gives you multiple suits and multiple cars and even multiple houses and multiple kids and multiple... He gives you a bunch of stuff, even beyond what you need, because He loves you. You don't need it, but He loves you, and He gives it to you. What do you give Him back?

42:46What are you giving back? Well, you go to the shul once a year. You gave some tzedakah. You gave $180 once a year. You think you're a big tzaddik? What are you giving Him back? You can't really give Him anything back. He has everything. He's God. So what can we do? At least we can show that we notice, we appreciate. So when we show up on Rosh Hashanah, He's not asking us for prayers. He's not asking if you're a good singer for 40 days and 40 nights on Selichot, or whether you're going to come with the nicest outfit to Rosh Hashanah, or whether you can sing louder than everybody else. Whether you're the biggest macho guy that donated the most amount of money in public, ten times Chai, ten thousand times Chai, fifty million, five million, whatever—all this stuff, this joke that people make out of donations where they do it simply to collect kavod, to collect honor so everyone knows they have a lot of money—that's not what Rosh Hashanah is about. That's not what Yom Kippur is about. It's not. It's about doing teshuva. It's about changing. It's about changing us, changing the middot, changing this anger trait, changing the stinginess, changing these bad character traits that make us no different than these criminals that stole my stuff that Hashem gave us that we don't need anyway. But if we don't change, we're not different than them. Okay, so they steal from people.

44:15We're stealing from Hashem sometimes. They steal from people. They disrespect people. We disrespect Hashem. It's worse. So I see this is why this whole thing is happening. Hashem is teaching me. He's teaching me Torah. I can't study because all this moving, all this stuff is happening. You know, you can't sit down and open a few sefarim like normal. Hashem says, okay, I'll teach you in a different way. We'll learn Torah in a different way. I'll send you a couple of criminals. I'm going to steal your stuff. You know, change your whole world around. In one second, you go from having a few things to having nothing. And let's see what you do with it, son. Good luck. And you start learning. It's like, oh, look. This is Hashem. It's dark. That's where Hashem is. It's dark. That's where Hashem is. So, I started seeing the Rabbonim just give me chiddushim, and I'm developing them, and that's how we work. We're teamwork. And, uh,

45:24As Hashem would have it, late that night, they start bringing some stuff back. The next morning, we look at the stuff. We see there's a bunch of stuff. Most of the stuff is damaged. And then they even violated our privacy even more by these wicked people urinating on some of the stuff. And, you know, on the kids' crib and whatever. They're just disgusting animals. Animals, you know, animals actually, at least animals, you know, they don't have a better choice. They're animals. These people walk on two legs. And they broke our stuff. And you see that some of the stuff is broken intentionally. It's not like accidental moving broken. And obviously, you don't urinate on something that belongs to somebody else by accident. You don't urinate. But these are animals. They don't know any better. They're animals. I said, this is chesed Hashem. This is Hashem explaining to us that it's all from Him. Something good has to happen from here. Something good must happen from all of this experience. All of this experience, it has to be good. And I start realizing that, hey, look at everything that's happening.

46:46In the last several years, Baruch Hashem, many, many people have done teshuva by learning Torah with us and learning the truth about Hashem. And listen, if it's true, we say it. If it's not true, it's not for us. So, Baruch Hashem, this means that we fulfill the mitzvah of using Hashem's Torah as the Book of Wars. That's what Hashem calls it, the Book of Wars. And in the last several years, there have been some big wars when they had these so-called big rabbis decide that it's a good idea to bring the number one Catholic missionary in the world to speak about what he believes is the purpose of life at a synagogue of a thousand Jewish families. Baruch Hashem, we went to war and Hashem won that war where the event was canceled after two months of sleepless nights, letters, videos, shiurim, phone calls, emails, and many other non-stop efforts. And Baruch Hashem, the guy never came. Hashem stopped it. And

48:00Baruch Hashem, throughout this whole journey, there have been many other wars in just the last week. We released three clips of videos, one being about another proof that wigs that are made out of real hair are obviously not only a form of Avodah Zarah, but now we have a connection to the swastika, which again, people are going to make up every excuse in the world of why everything is allowed. Eventually, they're going to tell you why chazir is allowed, pig is allowed, milk and meat is allowed, Driving on Shabbat is allowed. Killing people is allowed. Whatever you want is allowed. People are looking for excuses. They'll make an excuse for anything. People are not looking for the truth. I never considered this. I never considered this. So you see, it's exactly the same. People that wear wigs and don't want to change, they're not looking to do teshuvah, they're looking to be the same animal they started as, the same animal that came into the world, they're going to stay. They go to Rosh Hashanah, and they're not looking to change. They're just looking to, you know,

49:06fill a void. They're just looking to pay their dues. They're just looking to pray like everybody else prays and go home. Nothing's going to change. They're still going to have a barbecue on Shabbat. They're still going to be stingy. They're still going to be the same person. People are not looking to change. We can't help people like that. And unfortunately, sometimes those people are in the religious world. And he showed me, listen, you know, that wig that you're wearing, I know you keep Shabbat. I know you keep kosher. I know you're trying to be modest. I know you send your kids to yeshiva. I know everything is good. I'm not judge or jury. But I also know that according to our halacha, not for me, not my opinion, the gedolei ha'dor, the Gemara, the Zohar, the Shulchan Aruch, the whatever you want, according to halacha, you're not allowed to enjoy idol worship. And if the wig is connected to idol worship, you're not allowed to use it. And you see it in the religious world. People, mamash, are separating themselves from truth and lies. If they're people of truth, they are shocked. And they start looking for, okay, what can I do? It's hard for me to take off the wig because I'm used to it and I like it and this and this and this. But I can't. I mean, I can't go against HaShem every single minute of my life.

50:22So they're in a dilemma. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard. I know. I know it's hard. It's hard. But they know that it's wrong. So they're already trying to figure something out. Some are taking off the wig. Some are taking it off partially. Some are switching to synthetic. They're doing something at least, but they're not faking it. They're not just saying it's not a problem. And then there's the fakers. Then there's the people that are just not looking to change. The people that just, you know, look into, you know, no, no, I wear a wig. I'm already doing Hashem a favor by wearing it in the first place. In reality, they wear a wig because it looks better than their real hair. That's why they wear a wig. And they don't care whether it's Avodah Zarah. You can have the guy that just, you know, the woman that just donated the hair, come to the person's house and say, "Listen, I did it as Avodah Zarah. This is idol worship. I did it as idol worship and I put it on your head." "Okay, thank you." They'll shut off the door and say, "No, no, she didn't say that. She didn't mean it." Don't make a bad excuse for anybody. Why? Because they're not looking for the truth. They're not looking for the truth. So those people are going to make up excuses.

51:26They make up excuses. "No, this rabbi said it's okay." "That rabbi said maybe." "Maybe you're misunderstanding." "Maybe you missed this." There are a million and a half excuses for why they justify not changing. It's the same issue that's in Christianity, which is the second battle we started. We made a whole video. We have already mentioned things about Christianity for years already. We had a whole shiur fighting Christianity, you know, nonsense of the New Testament, whether it's being preached by Christians, Catholics, or what they call these Messianic Jews, which is another form of Christianity. It just calls itself Jewish. For the first time in history, Christians are pretending to be Jews. So, it's become even more dangerous than ever before. Unfortunately, it was easier to identify who's who when they were killing us. centuries ago. Now, we don't know. The voice is the voice of Yaakov. It sounds like a Jew. He wears a tallit. He wears a kippah. He even calls himself a rabbi. But in reality, he's Esav. Why? It says, pray to JC. JC this, JC that, JC, JC, JC. The reality is, you can just see that it's idol worship. Even if they say he's only the Mashiach,

52:47Even those fools that say that JC is the Mashiach, they're also idol worshipers. And the reason why is because they don't mean he's the Mashiach. Why? Because even if he was the Mashiach, let's say, even if anybody was the Mashiach, Chabad also says that the Rebbe that died, Zekher Tzaddik Livracha, they say he's the Mashiach. It's not about him being the Mashiach, it's idol worship. Why is it idol worship? Because where in the Torah does it say, where? Where in the Torah does it say you're constantly supposed to mention... the Mashiach in your prayers to such an extent where, in essence, you're practically praying to the Mashiach. You're connecting to God through the Mashiach. You're constantly talking about the Mashiach. It says, remember the Mashiach, think about him, expect him to come. It doesn't say, pray to the Mashiach, put his pictures on the wall, the Mashiach is this, the Mashiach is that. It doesn't say that anywhere. As a matter of fact, the Rambam said you shouldn't even talk about it much. Why? Because it's not going to help you with Yirat Shamayim, it's not going to help you with Ahavat Hashem, it's not going to help you with fearing Hashem or loving Hashem. It doesn't matter who the Mashiach is. It makes no difference who he is.

53:56The greatest of all is Moshe Rabbeinu. Do you see anywhere in Judaism that someone has a picture of him? That someone says, oh, Moshe Rabbeinu, this and that? No, that's nothing. Hashem specifically made sure that no such nonsense would happen to desecrate Moshe Rabbeinu's name. That's why he buried him in a place that no one knows. Because he knew that if everyone knew where Moshe Rabbeinu was buried, everybody will start praying to Moshe Rabbeinu instead of to God. So obviously, if Hashem didn't want anybody praying to Moshe Rabbeinu, He doesn't want anyone praying to this J.C. Penney idiot that was this big sinner, adulterer, that died 2,000 years ago, or the Rebbe, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Zecher Tzaddik, who was a big tzaddik, but at the same token, did not want anyone praying to him or constantly mentioning his name 24 hours a day. He doesn't say that. So we fight this stuff. We fight it even though it's true. No one likes to hear it. And it hurts. And it's a reality check. And this and that. The bottom line is we fight it. So this wakes up people. During the first day that the lecture came out about Christianity, given all the proofs, literally within hours, within hours of the lecture, one of my students sent me a thing. I showed this to my friend.

55:20who's Christian. She said at the end of the lecture, she dropped Christianity on the spot and now wants to figure out what to do with herself, whether she's going to convert to Judaism or become a righteous Noahide. But she knows for sure now, Christianity and the whole JC Penny is complete garbage. It's toilet paper, like you said, he says. So she says, only a blind person would believe. Christianity is, so you ask yourself, why does anybody believe in Christianity? Why does anybody believe in this so-called Messianic Judaism garbage or this Catholicism? Why? Why? Because, simply said, this religion, this New Testament, allows people to do nothing, to live without any responsibility. Pretty much all you got to do is just believe some guy died 2,000 years ago and he died for you, for your sins, because you're incapable of doing teshuva and you're just a big sinner and you're the worst and everything else. So he died for you to fix your stuff. And as long as you believe that, everything is okay. But you continue murdering, he'll fix it. You continue killing and robbing people and damaging their personalities and damaging their lives and doing everything else.

56:35No problem. As long as you believe some idiot died 2,000 years ago, everything's okay. Nonsense. But why? I mean, why do they even need to believe in him? Why not just believe in nothing? Because believing and going to the church or the Messianic synagogue makes you feel religious. Even though you're not doing anything. Even though you're the same person. Nothing changed. You don't work on character traits. You don't work on anything else. If you're a thief, you stay a thief. If you decide that you want to pee on somebody else's stuff, you'll do it in the name of Yeshu. Why? Because he'll forgive you and he'll fix it and whatever. But at least it makes you feel religious. This is the biggest joke in history. And the reality is that's why so many people are leaving it. Because anyone that's looking for the truth realizes it's a joke and it has to be something. The Creator...

57:35has to want more from us, expect more from us. We're not incapable. We can do more than just nothing, than just use some guy that died as a crutch to continue doing nothing, but feel religious inside. As a matter of fact, if you look at parashat Nitzavim, last week's parasha, Hashem specifically says, Hashem specifically talks to those people. He says, the ones that are religious in their heart, those are going to get an extra punishment. Extra punishment they're going to get. And I'm not going to forgive them. He says this in last week's parasha. I'm not going to forgive those that are religious in their heart. Why? They're making a joke out of the whole thing. I gave you the heavens, I gave you earth, I gave you the sky, I gave you the planet full of goodness, I gave you parnasah, I gave you a wife, I gave you a husband, I gave you children, I gave you good health, I gave you everything you have, and you're telling me you're religious in your heart? You're not going to do anything for it? You're not going to pray like you're supposed to every day? You're not going to give tzedakah because everything is yours, you think?

58:44You're not going to work on your character traits and still act like an animal? You're not going to do anything about it? You're just going to stay silent? It's a joke. Hashem says, the ones that are religious in their hearts, I'm going to punish them extra. I'm not going to forgive them. If they die like that, I'm not going to forgive them. So whether Jew or Gentile, You have to know, Rosh Hashanah is a reminder. There's no such thing as being religious in your heart without action. Being religious, meaning being connected to Hashem, is based on doing. You have to do things. What do you do? You have to read the instruction set. It's called the Torah. What does the Torah say you have to do on Rosh Hashanah? What does the Torah say you have to do on a day-to-day basis? What does the Torah say you have to do on a year-to-year basis? And so on and so forth. There's an instruction set. The Creator knows you need instruction. You need to know what to do. So He gave it to you. But to just say, no, no, I'm just going to figure it out on my own. I'm going to figure it out on the go. I'm just going to wing it. How come you don't wing it on a million-dollar deal? How come you don't wing it on marriage? How come you don't wing it if you're smart? How come you don't wing it on, you know? I got disconnected. We'll connect this to the other one. But anyway, to finalize the point...

1:00:04is that every man has a tefillin, and a tefillin has over a thousand halachot, a thousand laws that the people that make the tefillin have to follow. Over a thousand laws! It's very detailed job, takes a while to make tefillin, approximately about a year to make tefillin, and they have to follow the same halachot that we had at Mount Sinai. Literally, from 3,300 years ago, they have to be black, they have to be square, you're never going to see pink tefillin unless it's some Reform shul. It's always going to be square. It's going to be black. It's going to be a certain type of leather from a pure animal. It can't be from just anything, and so on and so forth. It has to follow all these laws. It's very perfect and very precise. And the scripture that's written inside has to be a certain way, a certain pattern, certain language, certain letters, shapes, forms, and everything. Everything has to be very, very perfect. The tefillin have to be perfect. But then if you notice, on every pair of tefillin,

1:01:17You'll notice that in the stitching, which are all hairs, the tefillin, you'll see that it's all very precise and all going into their holes, and it's very, very tight to keep the tefillin intact. But then at the end, there are a few small loose strings at the end of the tefillin. It's almost like having loose strings on a button-down shirt or a dress. What do you usually do? You take scissors, You cut it to perfect it, to remove this extra string that doesn't look good, that makes it imperfect. So before I knew what this meant, I asked my rabbi, "I'm like, oh, my tefillin, I think the guy made a mistake." The Rabbi made a mistake where he didn't... Everything looks great. It's a beautiful pair of tefillin from Yerushalayim. You know, I got it when we had the Sefer Torah, the Torah scroll, written over there. The same sofer made me the tefillin. I said, oh, I think he made a mistake with the tefillin because there's an extra string that's sticking out. So I'm thinking about cutting it. Is that okay?

1:02:22And my brother was like, no, no, don't cut it. I said, okay, fine, why? Why not cut it? He goes, no, that's for the Satan. I said, excuse me? He goes, that's for the Satan. I said, excuse me? He says, everything that's holy, everything that's kadosh, is what feeds the Satan. the tumah, what feeds the Satan. They nurse, they get their power from kedushah. They don't get their power from tumah, they don't get their power from just sins. They get it, they nurse their power from kedushah. They have to get something. And this is just the nature of the world that Hashem created. He said, okay, so why are we helping him? Because if we don't, all hell will break loose, meaning it gets worse. So now, in everything that you're gonna do that's special, you need to give him something to get him off your back to some extent. It's like a bribe.

1:03:25This is in the Zohar, very, very mystical stuff. But nonetheless, he says, in tefillin, we leave those extra strings. It's in a way to get them off our back, to leave us alone while we're laying tefillin. It's imperfect. So this imperfection is what he wants. So while we're laying tefillin, he doesn't bother us. So we have a direct connection to Hashem Yitbarach, a conversation when Hashem Yitbarach doesn't bother us. Every time you do something big, that's kadosh, that's holy, whether it be wars against Christianity, wars against anti-Semitism, wars against the things that are against God in general, or you're going to finish a masechet in a Gemara, or you're going to give tzedakah, or you're going to do something big, something holy, something that Hashem wants you to do, The bigger it is, the more likely you are to get the Satan's attention. So sometimes you're going to see a lot of interference. And it stops all of a sudden. Because that's usually when the Satan got his. So...

1:04:35We saw that there's an enormous amount of good that's been happening in a very, very short period of time. Of course, we've been doing good for a long time already, a few years. But in the last week, it's been an abundance. Baruch Hashem, an abundance. A lot of people doing teshuva in the last week. A lot of people... Amazing stories in the last week. More than usual... Satan had to get his. He said, okay, you're doing all this stuff, I'm going to wreck your move. I'm going to make that moving truck become the moving truck from hell. Get these three animals to become the drivers of the moving truck. They're going to steal your stuff. They're going to break it on purpose. They're going to urinate on it. They're going to ruin it. And let's see what you do then. Well, Satan, Satan, Hashem will fight you. Why? He's going to beat you. Why? Why? We're not giving up. We have Hashem on our side. We have Hashem on our side. We know this too is a test. This too is for the good. This too is for the good. All of it is for the good. This is the biggest part of the test. When Hashem gives you a test, He's asking you, are you going to leave me or are you going to tell me you love me? And that, my friends, is what Hashem wants to know on Rosh Hashanah. He wants to know, are you going to leave me or are you going to tell me you love me?

1:05:55If you're going to leave me, you're just like everybody else. Just like everybody else that's ungrateful. Just like everybody else that takes and doesn't say thank you. Just like everybody else that pretends like they don't need to do anything. They don't need to do mitzvot. They don't need to learn. They don't need to do anything. They can just do whatever they want. You know, the live-and-let-live type of mentality. They give some tzedakah once or twice a year and make themselves feel like they're great. They do a few prayers and make believe as if they're fantastic. When they want to give tzedakah, they make it like it's a whole scene. They want to let everyone know they just gave $50 or $50,000 or whatever they gave. They want everyone to know that this is happening. It's an event. That's not tzedakah. That's marketing. Or if they prayed, they went to Beit Knesset, they want everyone to know, "I went to Beit Knesset today at 6 a.m." Okay, what do you want, a cookie? This is not mitzvot, this is advertising. Hashem says, that's not loving me, that's not loving me. Loving me means you're doing it just because.

1:07:06You're doing it without expecting anything in return. You're going to get something in return. You're going to get Olam HaBa. But you're not doing it because of that. You're doing it l'shma. You're doing it just because. Because you love Me. So when I send you a test... You're going to stick to that. You're going to stick to that love because you're going to remember, I didn't do the will of Hashem because He gave me money. I didn't do the will of Hashem because He gave me a husband or a wife or kids or this or that. I didn't do the will of Hashem because He gave me good. I did the will of Hashem just because. Just because I love Him. That's it. That's it. That's loving Hashem. When was the last time you did something for Hashem, just because? Not because you wanted a reward, not because you wanted Olam HaBa, not because you want everybody to know you're the big tzaddik or tzaddeket. Oh, and look, I changed my clothing, I'm very modest now. Oh, look, I gave extra money. Oh, look, I'm now giving 20. No, no, no. No, look, nothing. When was the last time you just learned Torah just for the sake of learning Torah? When was the last time you just did the will of Hashem just because? That's it. Just because you didn't stop.

1:08:29any reason the Satan came and knocked on your door and fired you up and broke your chair and broke this and broke that and disturbed you and it was noise and it was craziness and there was no money, and you didn't stop. Why? Because you wanted to do the will of Hashem. Why? No reason. You just wanted to do it. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. When was the last time you did something like that? Ever? Did we ever do anything? ever in our life, one time in our life, one time in our life, not every day, one time in our life, purely because it's the right thing to do for Hashem. Did we ever do such a thing? That's what we have to think about on Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is not for people to show up, make some prayers, make some noises, donate some money, and go back and be the same person. Go back and be the same Echad Shabbat, go back and be the same guy that doesn't change. Rosh Hashanah will not help such a person. There's a Mishnah written about them. It says it's worthless. They might as well not come.

1:09:33If you're not planning on changing, you're making a joke out of it. As a matter of fact, the Rambam, alav ha-shalom, says when someone says vidui, vidui is chatanu, avinu, pashanu, he says we sinned, not on purpose, on purpose, intentional, and so on and so forth. And he says all different types of sins; this is a way of repenting. He says when someone does this vidui, but he doesn't actually mean what he says, he doesn't actually mean that he's sorry to Hashem, he doesn't mean it. It's like a chazan; he's just reading the prayer, just reading the words. Just reading it. It's no big deal to him. It's like a chazan; he makes noises. It's like a little kid makes, you know, all these little strange, you know, weird noises just because it's fun for them to make these noises. Same person, he just makes noises in Hebrew words, or English words, or Russian words, or whatever words. He makes noises. You know, but there's no meaning behind the words. Nothing. The Ramban HaKadosh says those words will act as a kitrug, will act as the prosecutor against him in Shamayim, as to how much of a joke he's making of Hashem. How much of a joke? Why? You're saying chatanu, but you don't mean it. You're saying avinu, but you don't mean it. You're saying pashanu, but you don't mean it. Why are you saying it then?

1:10:59So, not only are you reminding Hashem of something He already knows, which is that you sinned, but you're reminding Him that you don't really care. Why? Why bother, Bechler? Why bother? This is obviously not a message for people who are looking for an excuse not to go to Beit Knesset. This is a video to help people connect to the source, to connect to the truth. You’re looking for excuses? You don’t need to come here. You need to go somewhere else. You don’t need to go anywhere. You can find enough excuses on your own. But you’re looking for the truth. You’re looking for what Hashem wants? This is what Hashem wants. Hashem wants you to be sincere. To be sincere. Do it just because it's the right thing to do. Because He's giving you above and beyond what you need. He's giving you above and beyond what you even want. At least you can show some gratitude. That's what Rosh Hashanah is about. What does Hashem consider gratitude? Teshuvah. Repent. Stop sinning. Try to stop sinning. Work hard on it.

1:12:04This is the whole purpose of Rosh Hashanah. When Rosh Hashanah comes, that's what Hashem is waiting for. He's waiting to see when you're praying, when you're making the noises, when you're pretending to cry, when you're pretending to care, when you're pretending to be such a righteous person. Everybody pretends to be Moshe Rabbeinu and Sarah Imeinu all the time. When you're pretending, while you're pretending, is there any part of you that's sincere? That really is doing teshuva? That really believes that they sinned and they really don't plan on sinning again? Is there any part of you that's real? Any part, not the whole thing. Any part of you that really means it? Or are you just pretending to pray better than everybody else? That's what Hashem is looking for. He's looking. Are you at least here when you're talking to me? Talking to God. Talking to God. With me. Are you going to lie to my face too, or are you just lying to everybody else? That's what Hashem is looking for. He's looking to see who is here to do teshuva. He sent us prophet after prophet after prophet for generations to find the diamonds in the rough. The prophets didn't succeed in making the entire nation do teshuva. But that never stopped them from trying. They tried to get everybody to do teshuva. They got it wherever they could. That's the job of kiruv speakers, to get Am Yisrael to do teshuva. But with all this stuff, with all these people that are just looking for excuses, time's up. Rosh Hashanah is here. You can't show up to Beit Knesset and think that you should get out of jail free card because you showed up.

1:13:19do teshuva. But that never stopped them from trying. They tried to get everybody to do teshuva. They got it wherever they could. That's the job of kiruv speakers, to get Am Yisrael to do teshuva. But with all this stuff, with all these people that are just looking for excuses, time's up. Rosh Hashanah is here. You can't show up to Beit Knesset and think that you should get a get-out-of-jail-free card because you showed up. like you're doing anyone a favor. Or like you donated some money, like you're doing anyone a favor. Or you made some prayers, like you're doing anyone a favor. The whole point of Rosh Hashanah is it's time to do teshuva. It's time to admit: I've sinned, I'm sorry, I will do my absolute best to improve. I'll become more modest, whether male or female. I'll become more generous, whether male or female. I'll become more righteous, whether male or female. I'll learn more Torah, whether male or female. I will do better. How? I will do it. How? I have to look at the instruction set and start learning.

1:14:34What do I need to improve on? But I will do better. Do better. That's what Rosh Hashanah is about. It's not about the food. It's not about going to the shul and seeing all your friends you haven't seen all year. It's not about that. So sometimes Hashem says, you know what, you did a good job this year. But there are a few things that weren't so good in the past or even this year. So I want to get you, by the time you get to say this "I'm sorry" part, that I'm going to do better, I want you to already have a good case for yourself. So I'm going to give you some kaparat avonot. I'm going to give you Some extra suffering right before the end of the year to clean you up so you look even better when you get in front of Me. It cleans you up—those sins that you committed in the past, whether this year or in previous years—they need to be cleaned up. There's two choices: they can be cleaned up in this world or the next world. I want it to be cleaned right now so you show up at Me clean.

1:15:35So he gives you extra kaparat avonot. He sends movers to you that look like a legitimate company but end up being thieves. They steal your stuff. They violate it. They do all these different things that are awful. And it's a big test. But we don't understand how much this test itself is the biggest chesed of all. It's the biggest chesed of all. And I'll finish off with a story. The Vilna Gaon, alav hashalom, knew secret parts of the Torah, mystical parts. And one time he told, he writes in his book, he told his students about the details of what happens to a person after they die. Who comes to see them, the angels, what happens if they're good, what happens if they're bad. He says there are several things that are hidden from men. The Gemara says several things that are hidden from men. What are hidden from men? One of them is the Omek HaDin. Omek HaDin means the depth of the judgment in Shamayim, of what the actual judgment is, what Hashem actually looks at. And the Vilna Gaon explained this to his students.

1:16:58And he says that there's actually an angel that is responsible for monitoring every single second of your life. And he's going to use every second wasted. Every second. We're not talking about every minute or every hour or every year or every month. Every second wasted, he's going to use it as a case against you. This is what the Vilna Gaon was saying. Every second, to such an extent, even swallowing spit, is considered a waste of time. This is beyond any person in this generation at least. So, one of the students of the Vilna Gaon understood what the Rav was saying and passed out. He got shocked and passed out. Completely passed out, lost consciousness. They woke him up, threw some water on him, he passed out again, water on him. Eventually, he woke up. They came to the Rav, they came to the Vilna Gaon and said, "Kvod Rav, you scared him to death. I mean, the guy passed out." The Vilna Gaon says, "Why?" He says, "Everything you said." "I'm not sorry. This is the truth. It's what Hashem says. What do you want me to do? Everything I said is the truth."

1:18:20So now, even the people that helped this guy get out of his unconsciousness are about to pass out. He goes, oh, actually, wait a minute. I forgot to tell you one thing. So everyone's eager to hear what this thing is. And the Vilna Gaon says, I forgot to tell you how valuable suffering in this world is when it comes to judgment in the next world. The amount of value that they give for any little bit of suffering, any major suffering that you have in this world, is so significant in Shamayim, that if we knew it, if we truly knew it, we would actually pray for suffering. That's how valuable it is. So you see, sometimes Hashem wants to give you a gift. He says, you know, I really want to give you a good judgment on Rosh Hashanah. I really want to give you a good judgment in Shamayim. But you did a few things, a few things that are not so good at some point. ...you use an improper word, exhibit improper behavior, there's a million and a half things you can do wrong, every day, every second. But you did a lot of good, enough good that I want to give you good. But I have to fix these few sins. So I'm going to give you some suffering. Why? That way, when it comes to Rosh Hashanah, you're clean. You're clean. You're clean.

1:19:41You show up, there's no mekatreg, there's no prosecutor against you. Why? You already got his. The Satan already got his. You came up, clean slate. I can say, not only innocent, reward. So that's the biggest chesed. So yes, they stole the stuff, and they tried blackmailing us, and they eventually got the stuff to us, but it was damaged, and it was violated, and it was this, and it was that. But in reality, look at how much chesed Hashem gave us. Look at how much, let's just count, just a few things I can remember. First of all, look at the amazing students we have that invited us into their home. I mean, mamash, it was like... Amazing. They just invited us into their home. We felt like it was a five-star hotel. Amazing people. Made us feel so comfortable. Just to know that there's somebody in the world that cares about you, other than your own parents, your own family. You know, someone who cares enough about you that is actually eager to help. You know, sometimes people help, but it's not necessarily because they want to. Someone eager to help. That already gives you good. Then you have the rabbi needs chiddush. The next morning he says, look, Yosef HaTzadik. Then you have the other chiddush, Yaakov Avinu. Then you start seeing that Emunah in Hashem, especially during tough times, that's the test. Then you start realizing, hey, look, this is actually cleaning me up before Rosh Hashanah. Then you start realizing, hey, you have to be serious. This is Rosh Hashanah. So many different things. So many different gifts from Hashem Yitbarach. It looks bad.

1:21:10But look how good it really is. Hashem loves each and every single one of you. He wants to give each and every single one of you an amazing judgment. But all of us need to do something about it. We need to show up with something. We need to show up with something. If you're going to go pray, don't just pray to make noise. Pray with real, serious intentions to change. Change your behavior. Change your modesty. Change your overall connection to Hashem. Change. Improve. It's time to improve. It's time to become a better version of yourself. If you want to do something big to help other people, do it. All the work that we do, it's all free. Obviously, people pay for it. Do you want to donate? The best time to donate is right before Rosh Hashanah. Why? Because Rosh Hashanah is also a time That Hashem decides who's going to live and who's going to die. And it says, tzedakah will save a person's life. Could save a person's life. So if there was ever a time to donate, to donate to a major cause, donate to save souls. Just like you want Hashem to save your soul, you want to show Hashem that it's worth it to save your soul. Why? Because you're contributing to saving other souls.

1:22:30So instead of donating $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 to the Beit Knesset that could get it from a bunch of other people looking for kavod, you could donate the same amount of money and you could save thousands of souls. Thousands, not one, two. Thousands of souls. Same thing. Difference is, you won't get as much kavod in this world for donating for kiruv as you do in the Beit Knesset. So if you're looking for kavod, this is not it. If you're looking for a major mitzvah to help Am Yisrael, to help Hashem's children come back to Hashem, this is it. That's one thing you can do before Rosh Hashanah. Last but not least, get ready for a major year. A lot of extraordinary things are going to happen this year. A lot of things. A lot of good things. A lot of major things. You've got to get ready for it. You've got to make sure you're doing everything possible to prepare yourself spiritually. Forget financially. Spiritually, not materially. Spiritually. Connection to Hashem now.

1:23:32Don't wait until Mashiach comes. Don't wait until, chas v'shalom, somebody's sick. Don't wait until somebody's broke. Don't wait until somebody's about to get married to a non-Jew. Don't wait until there's damage. Now. Prepare now. A lot of big things are going to happen. B'ezrat Hashem, we all have a Shana Tova, Shana Metuka. Learn from wonderful, wonderful experiences like this where even though somebody decides they can have the right to pee on your stuff, you still see Hashem Yitbarach doing you a favor. Shana Tova, Shana Metuka. Love you all. B'ezrat Hashem, we'll talk soon. Kol Tuv.