Hanukkah MUSSAR Increasing Personalized Miracles

0:14B'Shem Hashem, Na'aseh V'Natzliach. Shiur Torah, Baruch Hashem, good to be here. We have another Shiur, we're on the second day of Hanukkah, 5778, 2017, the year of the Notzrim (Christian year). The Shiur will also be l'Ilui Nishmat Yosef ben Avraham, and also Rav Shteinman. Zokh Hashem, Baruch Hu, will give them a favorable, easy judgment in Shamayim, and their zechut will protect us. Because right now, in the generation that we're in, the Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin, page 97a, says that before Mashiach comes, Unfortunately, the amount of Chachamim is going to decrease in the world. And in the last 24 hours, both of these precious souls left the world. Obviously, Rav Shteinman and the Gadol HaDor. And Yosef Ben Avraham, also an Avrech in a Kollel. And it breaks your heart to see how people really don't understand.

1:32what the Torah is, what the mesirut nefesh that these people have made in their life for the Torah. We're in a generation not only of yetomim, of people that are orphaned from the Gedolei HaDor, where there's very few left, but we're also a generation of, unfortunately, people that are clueless. of what's the truth, what's fake, what's important, what's not important, what's real, what's not. Not a day passes without someone sending me a message that they want to talk to a Mekubal. They want to talk to a Mekubal, do I know any Mekubalim that I can connect them with? Because they need advice. What do you need advice about? I need advice about marriage. I need advice about kids. I need advice about basic day-to-day things. And the reality is that people don't actually understand what a Mekubal means. And that's not necessarily just their fault; it's also the Baba's fault, the people that claim to be Mekubalim.

2:46Unfortunately, there are certain places in the world that are infested with them, like Brooklyn, New York, different places in Israel, and other places around the world that have these fake babas who are distorting the Torah and turning it into Avodah Zara. where they're telling people, "Listen, yeah, just buy this book that you don't understand how to read, put it in your library, pay me $15,000, drink some strange water that I filled up from the fountain, but I'm telling you it's valuable and everything's going to be okay." Then bad things happen to the person. It's like, "Oh, I think you were short. Maybe it's another $15,000." And they tell people to do strange things, and the reality is that they do not tell them to do the real things that they're obligated to do. One time I went to, I was doing a shiur at this Beit Knesset, and right before me, right before me, there was somebody there, meeting with a couple, a young couple, and I'm waiting outside, you know, because it was only them, knocking on the door, because it was early.

4:04I'm knocking and I'm knocking and I'm knocking. I see there's somebody there. It's not like there's nobody there. I see it, so I'm knocking. Nobody's answering. I wait five, ten, you know, six, seven minutes, maybe even ten minutes waiting. I don't want to intrude, but at the same token, eventually I go inside and the person passes me as if I don't exist. The two people that he was talking to We're not people of Torah life, if you will. The woman was barely wearing any clothes, and the man didn't even have a simple kippah on. But I saw within five seconds, you could tell this was one of those Baba conversations. You know, they want to give him a few dollars so he could solve their problems. And this happens every single day. Every day you have these different fake people that tell people that if you just give them a little bit of money and do something strange, everything is going to be fixed. And what happens, the reason why this is a critical situation is because this is one of the unfortunate Chilul Hashems of the world that is destroying the religion because it makes Judaism seem like something very, very different from what it really is.

5:27This was also one of the things that the Greeks, yimach shemam, were also trying to do. They tried to distort the Torah in such a way, like what we were talking about last night, where they said, listen, it's very nice, it's very interesting, it's mentally stimulating, just remove God from it, and everything's okay, we'll put it in our library. Just remove the God thing from it. Remove the obligation to do everything. Remove that part. Make it as if there's a new rule. There's no obligation. Let's just study Torah together, the Greeks and the Jews, everyone becomes one nation. And to testify to this, we want you guys to publicize that you have no share in the God of Israel anymore. How? By writing it on the horns of your bulls. Your bulls that you have. Write on the horns of the bulls. This is as if you put a bumper sticker on the windshield of your car saying, "I have no share in the God of Israel." And that's what the Greeks wanted Am Yisrael to do, and unfortunately got some of them to do it. They called those people Mityavnim, or in English, Hellenists. They didn't change a lot, at least that's what it seemed like.

6:49Just change one thing. I'm not telling you to change the whole thing. I'm not telling you to change the whole Torah. I'm not telling you to change the storyline. Just remove the obligation part. Seems like one change, one tiny little thing, is not such a big deal. Remove yirat Shamayim. And everything's going to be okay, they tell you. And unfortunately, that's how bad things are always born. And it started with the Greek war. If you notice, one of the things that makes Chanukah very different from all of the other holidays is that Chanukah is not mentioned literally in the Torah. It's a rabbinical holiday. But the Chachamim say that this holiday could very well be the holiest holiday of all. More than everything. Where do we know this from? We know this because there are mitzvot for which you are not obligated to sell your clothes in order to fulfill them. Except for two. There are two mitzvot that, if you can't afford to do them, they say go sell your clothes. Sell your clothes. One of them is the four cups of wine for Pesach. And the second one is the candles for Chanukah.

8:18It's the candles for Chanukah. You don't have money for candles of Chanukah? The oil for Chanukah? Go sell your clothes. It's a rabbinical holiday. Pesach, you can understand. It's De'oraita. It's from the Torah. You can understand. Fine. But a rabbinical holiday? Sell your clothes? Yeah. Why? So with Pesach, the significance of it is very easy to explain. Reminds us that the God of Israel decided that it was time, it was the place, and it was precisely dictated from the minute He created the world, obviously, to take Am Yisrael out of Egypt at the time of Pesach. The whole story of the Ten Commandments and everything that happened at Mount Sinai first started in Egypt and... Hashem tells Am Yisrael each time in the Torah, I am your God. He doesn't say I'm your God that created the world. He says I'm your God that took you out of Egypt. So one of the Koferim, the Gemara says, one of the Koferim (one of the heretics) came to Rabbi Akiva. He says why do you say such a thing? Why do you always say in your Torah, God says I am the God that took you out of Egypt. Why does he say I'm your God that created the world?

9:46Because it's just a God who created the world, why would God just start working on during Egypt? That's it? Before that, nothing? Autopilot? He says, God knows His creation and He knows that if He said, I'm God, the Creator of the world. Everyone's gonna have an excuse: Who said? Who was there? Who's the witness? Anybody saw it? Is there any writing? Is there any pictures? Is there any this? Is there any that? You know, it's the same thing with people. They look at a three-hour lecture. Well, I never heard of this, I never heard this one-second thing that I said. I don't know, I think he made a mistake. He said Rabban Gamliel instead of Beit Hillel. No, no, that's a mistake, the whole thing is canceled. The whole thing is canceled. No Shabbat, no kosher, no taharat hamishpacha. The whole thing is quiet. He may use the wrong rabbi's name. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't know. He doesn't know. So Hashem knows His creation. The Creator knows His creation. He says, if I would have said, I'm the God that created the world, somebody would have said something. So I said, I'm the God that took you out of Egypt. Why? He had millions of witnesses. He had millions of witnesses. He had millions of witnesses.

11:03And if one of them didn't agree, you would have said it right there and then? Why? Because the book that I wrote was written about the people that received it. Meaning the same characters that are in the book are the ones receiving it. Meaning we got the Torah at Mount Sinai, up to Parashat Yitro, up to the Ten Commandments. Meaning up to that point, all of the characters that are getting the Torah, all the people that I mentioned in there, are the people receiving it. So if you would have said, listen, you saw my voice in the sky. Don't you remember you saw Hashem's voice in the sky? There are millions of people. Some say there were 3 million, some say there were 30 million. I mean, high, big numbers. Either way, it's a lot. It's more than the few people that showed up to my shiur today. Is that a lot of people? If one guy says, "Hey, Moshe, Moshe, Moshe, Moshe, hold on a second, hold on a second. Before you give us Taharat HaMishpacha, kashrut, this, that—before you give us all the laws—wait, wait. You have a verse here that says everyone saw the voice. I didn't see it. I didn't see the voice. If what he says is true, we have a problem. Why? The Torah is not true; there's a mistake."

12:26So, Hashem says, "I'm the One who took you out of Egypt." So Pesach is the beginning—the beginning of Am Yisrael. The Chachamim also consider it really the real Rosh Hashanah. The real Rosh Hashanah is then. Fine, that explains Pesach. There are many, many other things, obviously, we could talk about, but not to overextend it. People are complaining about how long the shiurim are, so I'm trying to cut short, guys. So, fine, Pesach, amen. Fine, Pesach is, we understand. What about Chanukah? Chanukah is a rabbinical holiday. Why do you have to sell your clothes in order to raise money for the candles? If you don't have money, chas v'shalom, to buy the candles, to buy the oil for the candles, why do you have to sell your clothes? Why?

13:27And the Chachamim say the reason is because that was the turning point for Am Yisrael. The Greek exile, the Greek war, the whole story of Chanukah changed eternity. It seems like just a nice, interesting story for kids. A few heroes fought a big nation. They beat them. Yay for us. They happened to be religious guys. They light the Menorah. Yay for us again. Maybe somebody invented it to make a little bit of money to pay for the more oil. He invented the Sevivon. So they started playing the Sevivon maybe. Who knows? Marketing. Who knows? Sounds like a nice holiday. Fun. Yay. We eat some... Donuts get fat great, even another excuse for us to be fat, baruch Hashem. What's the... what's this? Sounds nice. Sounds nice. Why are you saying it's so religious? Turning point? No turning point. What's so turning point about it? Let's keep our Hashem, lovey-dovey, old enjoy.

14:36What's the turning point? Amen. What's the turning point? What's the turning point? What's the turning point? Okay, so we have another holiday. What's the turning point? They say it's the holiest of holidays. How? Before the whole war with the Greeks, every war we had, every enemy we had, was simply interested in killing bodies. The Egyptians were simply interested in killing the Israelites. They cared less about their beliefs. They cared less about their culture. They cared less about everything else. They wanted to make them slaves, and if they weren't good slaves, they just simply killed them. The Babylonians, no different. Nebuchadnezzar HaRasha was not interested in changing any religion. He was simply interested in killing Jews. That's it. He wanted to take over. He already had a predestined plan, before he even understood the significance of his position. He was actually friends, teenage friends, with Yirmiyahu. They were both walking one day, and...

16:05He says to Yirmiyahu, you know, if I ever get the power, the first thing I'm going to do is destroy the Beit HaMikdash. And Yirmiyahu, being a prophet, knew that what he said actually is going to come true. He said, no, no, no, don't destroy the Beit HaMikdash. Go somewhere else. Go here, go there. He tried, because Yirmiyahu knew this is Sha'at Ratzon. He knew that what he said right now, Nevuchadnetzar didn't even know what was happening. But Yirmiyahu knew. So he tried negotiating with him. No, instead of the Beit HaMikdash, go here. Instead of Am Yisrael, go here. Instead of all of this, go here. He started negotiating with them. Nevuchadnetzar said, no, no, no, I want davka. but he didn't want to destroy Judaism per se. He just wanted to kill Jews. The Assyrians, no different. The Greeks, on the other hand, were the first ones to want to kill Judaism. Quite frankly, they didn't have an interest in killing Jews. They just wanted to kill Judaism. They didn't have an interest in killing

17:20The lefty liberals, they wanted to put them in the government. And that's what they did. Who did they want to remove from the earth? The really religious folks. But since it's not a nice thing, it's not politically correct to just go kill people, they said, listen, guys, what do you need to go to Kollel for, $1,000 a month, $2,000 a month if you're a genius? What? Come work for our government. We'll pay you $10,000 a month. Take off this schmattah that you have around you. Look like a Greek. Come with us to the stadium, watch some sports, chase everything, chase the ball, chase it, this, that, and the other. That's it. What do you need all this craziness for? In essence, their job was to get people to leave it and... Now, they realized right away it wasn't happening very quickly. Some fell off, but not many. So, the Greek mentality was very unique. They were actually smart. And they did something that no other people ever did before. And unfortunately, we're still suffering from it until this day. One of the things that Rav Hutner says in his book that's really scary is that Hanukkah...

18:46It's a root for a couple of words, a few different things. But one of the things that we celebrate on Hanukkah is the miracles and so on. But also, something very interesting is that it's a reminder of a war that we're still fighting. Not a war that we fought in the past. It's a war that we're still fighting now. The Greeks died. Even though there are some people today called Greeks, It's not the same Greeks from 2,000 years ago. They're not connected. So what war are we fighting? He says what happened 2,000 years ago changed the face of the earth. Because what the Greeks realized is that to kill Am Yisrael, we have to use the instruction set of Bil'am, the only one that ever got close to destroying Am Yisrael. Balaam haRasha was a prophet himself. He knew that to curse Am Yisrael was not possible. He tried three times, and it didn't work. To get them to stop being religious just by telling them, it's not going to happen. So what did he do? He had to make them do something that was going to disconnect them from Hashem. So he sent them a bunch of Midianite girls.

20:12We already fell for that trick. Almost all of us died—24,000 Jews died in that moment, but almost all of them died until Pinchas put a stop to it. But the Greeks realized that the biggest poison to the relationship between a Jew and Hashem is himself. The biggest enemy of the Jews is himself. the biggest poison to the relationship between a Jew and Hashem is himself. And they realize that if we convince them to act like animals, we don't have to fight them. Now I have this student; she has all these pets, a lot of pets. I don't know if she has a shelter for pets or if she has the pets herself, I'm not really sure, but The numbers she tells me, she has 20 cats and 10 dogs and a zoo. I'm thinking she probably has, I don't know, a building or something. I don't know. But anyway, she tells me she has all these pets and 20 cats and dogs and this and that. That's what you want to do with your life. God bless you. What can I tell you? Fine. People like some people. Listen, to be honest with you, until I had my own children, I was 100% sure that my dog was better than any human being in the world.

21:43And quite frankly, he probably still is. And he died two years ago. So, she likes the pets. She likes the cats and the dogs and the birds and all these different things. Fine, baruch Hashem. So one time she said, you know, I think it was a picture that was sent or posted somewhere, whatever, I saw somewhere. And they had a video. It was a little video. Somebody gives a cat... Tiny little cat, little kitten, probably no older than a month or two. They give the little cat a ball, and the cat goes crazy with the ball. He's playing with the ball, and the ball doesn't stop. For hours, he's with the ball. Or they have another one. I remember I saw they had this new gadget where it's a light, and wherever the cat goes, the light goes somewhere else, and he keeps chasing it. For hours, he's chasing this ball of light, and he never gets bored. Amazing, amazing. Brilliant, brilliant technology. Brilliant and simple. The Greeks were smart enough, were brilliant enough, to know they could turn the Jew into that too. Wherever the cat goes, the light goes somewhere else, and he keeps chasing it. For hours, he's chasing this ball of light, and he never gets bored. Amazing, amazing. Brilliant, brilliant technology. Brilliant and simple. The Greeks were smart enough, were brilliant enough, to know they could turn the Jew into that too.

23:00He said, come to our stadium. Watch the baseball and the football and the basketball and the soccer ball and this ball and that ball and all the balls. Watch them. Keep going and going and going and going and going and going. And so long as you're chasing the balls everywhere and this guy jumps here with the ball and that one kicks the ball here and you're chasing the balls everywhere, you're not learning Torah. Baruch Hashem. Even the Greeks said Baruch Hashem. The Greeks said, "Why? Because the Jew is in the stadium. He's distracted with the ball. He forgot about God. He's so distracted with the ball, he forgot he's a Jew." We are chasing balls all day, baseballs and footballs and soccer balls and cricket balls and this ball and that ball, and every day there's a new game of a ball, and we've turned into cats. We've turned into a nation of cats. So this lady with all 20 cats is like a little Moshe Rabbeinu. What's going to happen? We're chasing all of this.

24:26The mentality that we have today to modernize Judaism—they call it Modern Orthodox, they call it modern this or modern that—is no different than Greek mentality. It's no different. The Greeks said, "Listen, put God on the side." The modern mentality, regardless of what you want to call it—I care less for labels—the modern mentality, Reform, Conservative, whatever, Anyone that says other than what it says in the Torah, anyone that says the Torah is not number one, anyone that claims the Torah is just one of the mitzvot and not the mitzvah of the Torah, anyone that says that it's just one of the mitzvot but there are many others, that mentality to modernize the Torah is no different whatsoever than the Greek mentality. In essence, what they're saying is to put God aside and just play with the ball, do something else, and...

25:27to tell me that it's okay that something else can become your priority has been one of the destructions of our nation. We're so busy chasing money; we're so busy chasing something that we forgot what we're even here for. Now, the Greeks were brilliant They realized that to just get us to chase the ball, it's not going to be easy. Why? It wasn't really a ball back then; it was a bunch of guys killing each other, killing lions, killing tigers, killing this, killing that. How are we going to get the Jews to come? They're going to think that if we ask them to come, we're going to kill them. So, how do we do it? I remember we just said, who's the biggest enemy of the Jew? The Jew. Okay, so let's get a few Jews, pay them off, and... And get them to be the recruiters. Hey, listen, why? You're in kollel, you make $1,000 a month, $2,000 a month. No, where's God now? Okay, God sent me. I'm going to give you $10,000. God, you believe in God. God sent me. I'll give you $10,000. Little by little, he believes less and less. He forgets more and more. And he becomes the number one recruiter for the Greeks.

26:47And for the first time in history, the Jew officially became part of the enemy. There was no such thing as Egyptian sympathizers. There was no such thing as Babylonian sympathizers. There was no such thing as Assyrian sympathizers. There were no Jewish Assyrians, Jewish Babylonians, Jewish Egyptians—no such thing. But there were Jews who became Greeks. For the first time in history, the Jew became part of the enemy. For those who think that the battle we’re talking about on Hanukkah happened 2,000 years ago, they haven’t read the current news and current affairs. the world we live in today, many people deny the Holocaust. Many, despite the fact that there is documentation, despite the fact that there is film, despite the fact that there are pictures, witnesses, and so on, many deny it. Even more so, some like to deny that

28:05Parts of the story: One part of the story is that some of the Nazis were actually Jews—not many, but some. Even more so, if you precede that story, you go to Russia. Communist Russia—who was it started by? Jews. You have sects there from Russia with the number one haters of Judaism. They themselves were Jews and... The Greek mentality of making a Jew an enemy in his own house is still alive and well. The Reform that pretend to be religious by having their women wear tefillin at the Kotel without proper modest clothing. The Conservative mentality that tells you it's okay to drive on Shabbat to the Knesset or anywhere else if you want. Kumbaya type of mentality where everyone is welcome, and everyone is friends, and we can do deals with the Christians. That, unfortunately, is now being done by some people who call themselves Orthodox rabbis. There are some very well-known Orthodox rabbis that are now in the pockets of the Christians through their partnerships. It's out in the open.

29:23Huge, multi-million dollar organizations. Judeo-Christian organizations. They say, "Oh, we're Zionists, we love Israel, we love Hashem, we love this." We're just going to work on our common beliefs. This mentality is a war we're still fighting today. Now, there are different parts of this war. First thing we have to acknowledge is that we're still fighting it. And we're fighting it because of one simple thing. It wasn't a big thing. It was a big thing. But there's one thing they told you. Listen, just one tiny little thing. You have a Torah, it's good, great. Just remove G-d from it. The whole Yirat Shamayim thing, you guys are afraid, huh? come on, what covenant? You have Shabbat, and I'll make it a different day. Do something else. What? The covenant? Be like yourself. Come on. No, guys, we're already here two thousand years ago. Or your two thousand guys. No, come on. You get stuck. By yourself. That's about me. No, a long time ago. Come on, modernize with us. Cutting the small things, cutting the small things we talked about last night makes a very big difference and...

30:44Modern mentality that does not want to believe in miracles and wants to always explain them in a rational way is a poison that's alive and well and growing, as a matter of fact. One of the things you were mentioning before is people that claim that the whole mystical aspect of Judaism altogether is not real, shouldn't be taken literally. Many of these people claim to use big names like the Rambam, saying that the Rambam did not believe in the mystical aspect of Judaism. This could not be further from the truth. If you actually read the works of the Rambam, which none of these people actually do, you realize that not only does he understand, but it's very much a foundational principle of Judaism. not real, shouldn't be taken literally. Many of these people claim to use big names like the Rambam, saying that the Rambam did not believe in the mystical aspect of Judaism. This could not be further from the truth. If you actually read the works of the Rambam, which none of these people actually do, you realize that not only does he understand, but it's very much a foundational principle of Judaism. that Hashem is above nature. He is nature. He is the Creator. But even more so, some of the things that are mentioned in the Gemara that are beyond our logic are very much literal. Some may not be, but some definitely are. There's actually a very amazing story I told you guys in a lecture several months ago. It's written in a new book by Rav Mazuz, one of the current Gedolei HaDor.

32:08And he writes in the book, an amazing story, that the Rambam was the chief doctor for the Egyptian king, I believe. The king liked him a lot, and they became friendly, and they played chess together. And the Rambam would always win. I'm sorry, the king would always win. The Rambam would always, like, let him win. But the king knew that the Rambam was letting him win. So the king said, "I've had it. I want you to play for real. And I'm putting everything on it." "No, no, no, you don't need to. You don't need to. No, no, no." Commending you as the king, you have to play for real. Whoever wins has to convert to the other's religion because you know that the only thing that's important for the Rambam is not money. It's not women. It's not material. It's none of this. It's only Hashem. So now he says you have to play for real. You can't fake it anymore because if you lose, you have to convert to Islam. So now...

33:30Rambam is forced into this, and he writes in the book. He says that the Rambam writes himself that the moment the game began, he lost all of his siyata diShmaya. He felt as if his head became empty. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know some of the rules. He didn't know what was happening. He didn't know how to win anymore. It's like all his help left, went away, went on vacation at the worst possible time. And the king is winning. One move. Another move. Another move. He gets closer. Check. Closer. Check. Closer. The Rambam doesn't know what to do with himself. He got to another point of check. Check meaning one move away from losing the game and being forced to convert. At that moment, someone abruptly entered the room. Tall. Very well-to-do.

34:31Person says, "Yes, can I help you?" Someone here, "Your Highness, to sue the Rambam. He stole 200 zuzim from me and I'm here to claim the money." came, looks to Rambam, "No, Rambam, it's not nice, it's not appropriate for somebody like you to take 200 zuzim. You, Rambam, I'll give it to you if you don't have money. Rambam, you worked for me, you worked for me, you're going to steal 200 zuzim, it's not nice." He says, "Your honor, I don't even know who this guy is. I have never seen him. I don't know who he is, I don't know what he's claiming, it's all nonsense." says, "Hey, I believe I'm going to say it's not real, what you're saying. Rabbi Moshe doesn't lie. He says, 'Listen, I knew that he was going to do this, so I'm willing to accept his swear if he swears in my language that he did not take the money. I want to accept it in front of you, your highness.'" Okay, so he comes up to him and...

35:52Starts whispering to him, speaking to him in Hebrew. The king doesn't know Hebrew. He says, "That one move it to the right, that one move it to the left, that one move it to the light." He gives him the moves of how to win the chess game. He gives him all the moves. In three seconds, the king is thinking that he's talking in an Aramaic language, telling him the agreement. The drama was going to say yes. Thank you. ...away, but that's what he's doing. He's telling the moves: this is how you're going to win the game. After that, he says, "Thank you very much," and leaves. After a few minutes, he goes back to the game. The king is excited; he only has one move to win. Less than two minutes later, he loses the entire game. He has no clue what hit him, what right, what left. How did the Rambam just do all of this? He just wanted to lose it. He goes, how did you do it? Finally, after all these years, I was going to win. What happened? Now, the Rambam was an Ish Emes. Meaning, when you're an Ish Emes, you don't even know how to lie. Lying is not an option. He says, Your Highness, to be honest with you,

37:04You know that man, that strange man that just came here, that very respectable, tall, nice man. Yeah. He told me how to beat you. What do you mean he told you how to beat me? How did he know? I don't know. I don't know. He told me all the moves, I followed everything he said, and that's how I beat you. The king screams, find him! All the soldiers, they start going in the markets looking for this guy. They find him, they bring him back. Yes, who are you? My name is Avraham Ibn Ezra. Where are you from? Spain. Spain! We're in Egypt. Where are you from? Spain. When did you get here? Today. When did you leave Spain? Today. Wait, wait, hold on a second. This is 900 years ago. Where did you come from? Spain. Where are you today? Egypt. When did you leave? Today. When did you get here? Today. you must go and appear at the king's house, the king of Egypt's house, and save this tzaddik, one of the gedolei hador. Save him by telling him exactly what to do to win in a chess match. Okay, great, you had a dream. Congratulations with the dream, we all have dreams. Paro had a dream in this week's parasha. I have dreams all the time. I don't know what it means.

38:29You must go and appear at the king's house, the king of Egypt's house, and save this tzaddik, one of the gedolei hador. Save him by telling him exactly what to do to win in a chess match. Okay, great, you had a dream. Congratulations with the dream; we all have dreams. Paro had a dream in this week's parasha. I have dreams all the time. I don't know what it means. Okay, so I came here. Oh, still, you didn't explain how you got here today? Oh, that's easy. I used Shem HaMephorash. I used the name of Hashem. And I got here. I could do whatever I want with that name. Kabbalistic stuff. Mystical. The king thought he was joking. And the Rambam says, no, Your Highness, he's serious. I could do it too. What do you mean you could do it too? I could do it too. No, do it. Okay, what do you want me to do? He goes, okay, there is a café in the city that's five days away. Five days away. Go there, get me one of their coffees with a receipt, especially one of the things that they have from there, with a signature from the owner. You went there, da-da-da-da-da, whatever. All the different signs that you went over there. Okay, I'll be right back. He leaves the door. Five minutes later, he's back with the coffee, with everything. There you go, Your Highness.

40:00That's in Rav Mazuz's book. So to say the Rambam didn't believe in the mystical aspect of Judaism is stupid. It's beyond stupid. It's beyond ignorant. Now, why do such people do such things? The reason why is because people don't like to read the entire book or the entire set of books. So they read Wikipedia. They read Wikipedia. They read a few things on the internet, a few paragraphs, somebody's article. They don't verify who wrote it. They don't know if it's a kofer. They don't know if it's a Christian. They don't know if it's the full contents of the book. They don't know anything. All they know is, oh, it was on the internet, therefore it's true. I remember there used to be a commercial. Shem HaShem, in the days I used to watch TV, there was a commercial. Some woman came to a friend, and it was like a joke. They made fun of the internet. "Why are you doing such and such?"

41:02Well, I saw it on the internet. Oh, if it's on the internet, it must be true. It must be true if it's on the internet. So, people, they see Yad HaChazakah, they see Mishneh Torah—big books, got big books—the collection from Lubavitch, English, Hebrew, 18 books. It's too big for me. Give me a short version, give me a Wikipedia one page. So, they read the one page, they think it's like they read the whole 18 volumes. Or they do something even better. Something better. What do they do? They say, no, no, 18 books, halacha, this, that. That's not for me. I'm not looking to learn halacha. I'm looking to learn Greek philosophy, this philosophy, that philosophy. Let me read Moreh Nevuchim. Let me read in English Guide of the Perplexed. The most complicated book in all of Judaism. Where even if you're a talmid chacham, You'll still be confused. When I told my Rav, I'm going to buy this book, he said, no problem. You want to buy the book? Buy the book. I said, okay. No, no. He goes, buy the book. I said, read the book. Fine. Don't ask me any questions. Don't ask me any questions. Why? He goes, don't ask me this. One book, don't ask me any questions. Ask questions about anything else you want. Don't ask any questions. Why?

42:27Moreh Nevukhim, Moreh Nevukhim. What are you reading Moreh Nevukhim for? What are you doing? It's different. It's beyond you. You have to be prepared. You have to be at a certain level. If you're not at a certain level, you know all the things I tell you guys about Kabbalah and Zohar and so on? How are you supposed to? Even the Chachamim, the Vilna Gaon, the Arizal, all of the giants themselves said you have to be at a certain level of holiness to even touch these books. It's no different with Moreh Nevukhim. It's more different with the Moreh Nevukhim. Why? Because if you're not at that level, instead of becoming closer to Hashem as a result, you can actually become a kofer. You can actually become a kofer from reading that book. Why? It's confusing. It says things that, if you're not well-rounded in the entire Torah and... You're gonna lose your right, your left. You're gonna lose gravity. You're not gonna know what just happened here. Why? Because you're gonna get to certain places, and what I believe is gonna make you second-guess certain things and maybe even lose your steam for continuing. You're not gonna continue to get to where you're supposed to, or you're probably not gonna understand what he's actually trying to imply, and so on and so forth. A lot of different things that it's not easy. It's not for the regular guy, and as a matter of fact, it's not even for most talmidei chachamim.

43:52So all of these people that say no, no, he didn't believe in this. I had one guy tell me, "Oh no, the Rambam said anyone that talks about shedim, about these demons, and so on, doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't believe in that." First of all, know what he said. You are misquoting what he said. First of all, it's wrong. What he actually said is that they don't exist in Israel at the time he was alive. They weren't there in Israel at the time of his life. He didn't talk about anything about the exile, which is the vast majority of the world because, last time I checked, Israel is like a little pinpoint on the rest of the world map. And second of all, we're not 900 years ago. We are now. So again, people take one little line and make it as if they heard the whole lecture. They take one little word and make it as if they read the whole series—forget the book, the whole series—and they could start writing articles and... And many times, you see people put the cart before the horse, and they don't know what right is, and they don't know what left is. And a pasuk says, "And Hashem opened the mouth of the donkey." Whose donkey? Bilam's. Because the guy, instead of saying the Torah in Hebrew, he's a donkey. What is he saying? He's saying nonsense. So, these are certain things you have to stay away from.

45:16Summarize things: there's no Torah for dummies. There's no shortcut. There's no short version. Torah is to be toiled with. So for all those people that are trying to cut it, what they're doing, in essence, is exactly what the Greeks tried to do. The Greeks tried to get you to cut little things, little pieces, cut one page here, one page there, one page here, one page there, little by little. You stop believing everything. So that's one of the things that we learn in this holiday, is that in Judaism, every little thing is important. Everything. Your netilat yadayim is important. Your tefillin is important. Your Shema Yisrael is important. Your bracha before you eat is important. Your bracha after you eat is important. Your bracha before you drink is important. Your bracha after you drink is important. The kashrut is important. The level of kashrut is important. Your rabbi is important. Your other rabbi is important. Your doctor is important. Your kid's teacher is important. Everything is important. Everything. Everything has significance. Everything. If you're a person that walks around thinking that there is a certain part of the world that has significance, and we'll call that the Torah, and a certain part of the world that's up to you, doesn't really carry much significance, your job,

46:42Relationship with friends and so on. You, my friend, are a lost cause because you're thinking on a level of kefirah. You're thinking on a level of heresy, where you're thinking there's something outside of God. You're thinking that there's something that's separate from God. God is everywhere. And the Gemara says, a person that does not have Yirat Shamayim, you're not allowed to be inside a room, a closed room, with him by yourself. Why? He may kill you. He may kill you. This is what the Gemara says. He may kill you. Why is he going to kill you? He's my friend. I know him since third grade. He may kill you. Why? He thinks he's God. If he's not afraid of God, he thinks he's God. The minute you look at him funny, the minute you say something funny, he's going to kill you. That's what it says. You're not allowed to be in a closed room with him if he doesn't have Yirat Shamayim. So when people think that there's something separate from God, in essence, they've turned into God in that place. So the Greeks wanted to separate us. They wanted to separate us from God. They wanted to separate us from the truth. And unfortunately, their poison is still working to this day. It's still working to this day.

48:06You guys have any more questions, or should I continue? You usually have questions. Everybody? Yeah. Anything? No, it was discovered at the time he was alive, but he didn't have enough time to go over all of it. And he said himself that had he had the book for a longer period of time, he would have changed certain things in his own writings. There are... certain opinions about certain parts of the Zohar. There are debates about it by the Chachamim. But it's accepted as a holy book to such an extent that they call it Zohar HaKadosh. Not everyone should read it. Quite frankly, most people should not. But that simple statement of saying most people should not makes everyone want to read it.

49:16The reason why people want to read it is not because they're actually aware of what's in it. It's the fact that it sounds more enticing, as a pasuk says: "Mayim genuvim yimtaku" (stolen waters are sweeter). I tell you, we have tractate after tractate of Gemara with holiness and with kedusha, with a mystical, with basic, with things you understand, with things you don't understand, with things that are beyond your understanding, and so on and so forth. You have an enigma, very simple, and you're allowed to study it as much as you want. No, no, no, it's too, you know, it's too much for me, son. Give me something, give me, I want Mashiach right away. I want the angels to come down to my room, talk to me, teach me, like the, you have to convince them to go away. Go away, I don't want to learn. Why? No, I want to teach you Torah. Angels came to him, said, I want to teach you Torah. He said, no, no, I want to pray for my Torah. I want to work hard for my Torah. I don't want you guys to teach me Torah. So people said, no, no, Gemara is not going to get you angels.

50:21Give me something else. Okay, Mishnah. Mishnah is before the Gemara, 2,500 years ago. No, no, no, come on. Something else. You have five books of Moses. Five books. Moshe Rabbeinu wrote it. Prophet of all prophets. No, come on. It's old news. It's old news. I studied it when I was in third grade. I already know. I already know the Chumash. Third grade I studied it. Yeah, but you're 47. You haven't read it in 50 years. You're in third grade. No, no, give me something else. Give me something else. I need something to really make me extra holy. Make me Mekubal in a week. Make me Mekubal in a week. So they want the Zohar. The reality is that it's something that most should not touch. There are some Midrashim that we use from the Zohar, but the deeper Kabbalistic aspects of the Zohar And not for people to touch. Number one, because it will confuse them. Number two, because they won't understand it. Number three, they can create serious, serious problems in their life. Serious problems in their life. There are certain parts of the Zohar that have names of angels. And if you mention those angels' names, they're not nice and joking-around guys like me. What they are is angels. And if you say their name and you're not a pure person, they could torture you.

51:43It creates some serious havoc in your life because you don't have the merit. Exactly what I said, you don't have the merit to say their name. And anyone who doesn't want to believe it, go to Har Nof in Yerushalayim. There's a whole hospital for crazy people. Specifically, there's a section. I'm not joking. Specifically, there's a section for crazy people, people that went nuts after learning the Zohar when they were not supposed to. It was right across the street from where Rav Ephraim used to live. I saw it. So, people think these are old jokes, exaggerations. You want to study? Go, be my guest. I don't care. It doesn't affect my brain. Good luck to you. It's not going to make you more religious, that's for sure. What's going to make you more religious is basics. What's going to make you closer to Hashem is basics. So, Hanukkah, in chapter 5 of this book,

52:43It says that Hanukkah means that it's both the inauguration of something and also training for the future. Inauguration is obviously self-explanatory, but the training for something new, training for the future, means for this continuous war. This continuous war that we have against the Greek mentality. Now, So, the mentality that's constantly looking for shortcuts, the mentality that's constantly looking for the way to get to the prize, is a mentality that's anti-Torah.

53:48When people hear about the stories of the tzaddikim, they hear about the after effect. They hear about the blessings they gave that came true. They hear about the major, major things that happened. But they don't hear about the toiling in Torah that these people did. For example, Rabbi Ovadia, when he was just nine years old, Nine years old, he had no interest in anything else but Torah. At nine years old, no interest in anything other than Torah. His father said, "Come with me to Baghdad. We're going to go." He had to do some work and so on. They went to Baghdad for a while. Little Ovadia had no interest in working in the store with his Abba. He said, "Abba, can I go to the yeshiva? Everyone's old there. Can I go to yeshiva over there?" Go, go, you're not doing anything anyway. Go. And he goes to the yeshiva. And the Gedolei HaDor of Baghdad were in there, learning. Learning, learning, learning, learning. And little Ovadia, little nine-year-old, sitting there learning his book. Nobody knows who this nine-year-old is. It's cute, it's nice. Instead of playing with a ball outside like a cat.

55:09He's learning, Baruch Hashem, good. Learning, a little nine-year-old's learning over there at a table. They continue to learn, and they're learning out loud. No, it's right, but Tosfot says, but da-da-da, da-da-da, argue, da-da-da-da-da. And they go back and forth on a sugya, on a complication. All of a sudden, little nine-year-old Ovadia says, excuse me, you're not understanding the Tosfot correctly. Excuse me? Who? Chutzpan? They said Chutzpan? But the Gadol HaDor, the giant, said, hey, let's hear him out. Don't say Chutzpan. Tell us, son. Why don't we understand it right? Because, because, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, in the Gemara, over here, and now, ha, ha, ha. Everyone's shocked. What just happened here? Mashiach arrived, what happened? These old men, a nine-year-old knows more than all of them. He said, okay. The big Rav says to him, "Listen, how much do you know?" "No, I just know this Mishnah. That's all I know. I don't know much." "What else do you know other than this Mishnah?" "No, nothing, nothing. I don't know anything else. Just this Mishnah I know. I don't know anything else." "I don't know. You already learned the Mishnah. It says you're not supposed to say how much you know."

56:35Because what other Mishnah do you know? I know a little bit of this other Mishnah. Which Mishnah? What else do you know? No, nothing else. I don't know anything else. A nine-year-old. I don't know anything else. I don't know anything else. What else do you know, son? Okay, I know a little bit of this other Mishnah also, and this other Gemara, and this other this, and this little nine-year-old knows more than everyone. And for the entire summer, the whole time he was there, he was there for a whole summer, or maybe a summer and a half, something like that. became the teacher. No day, no night, no playing with the ball like a child. He's learning. You hear about those stories? No, you heard about the miracles he said. This Kabbalah, that's what people don't know. Rav Galinsky, a"h, was a giant, a giant in a five-foot body. Less. Maybe four foot five. Tiny. Tiny little girl. Tiny little man. There are actually some lectures on the internet. Tiny. Every time he gives a lecture, he stands on top of the table because he's so small. Tiny. If you read his story, his life story, you're probably going to cry at least every other page. You're going to cry. Why? You're going to say, "Look what he's doing, what he's willing to do for Hashem, and I'm not even willing, barely reading it."

58:04He went to Gehinnom in this world. In this world. But he had the mentality of Novardok. Novardok was from the teachings of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. The original teacher was Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. His student was the Alter of Novardok. Who is the Alter of Novardok? In English, I think they say "the Elder of Novardok," but the Alter of Novardok is like the grandfather of Novardok. Who is the Alter of Novardok? The Alter of Novardok was a very, very well-to-do businessman. One day he's on a train, and Rabbi Yisrael Salanter is on the train. They're sitting on the train. They start talking. Rabbi Yisrael says to him, "What do you do? What do you do with your life?" No, I just have a business, and I have another business, and I have this and that. I have a wood business. He was in wood. He goes, okay, fine, but what do you do in life? What do you do for your life, for your living? What do you do for your living? No, I just told you I have a business in wood and timber. No, no, no. What do you do for life, you know, for real life? For eternity, what are you doing?

59:33He gave him a rebuke. He just met this guy. He gave him a rebuke of his life that the Saba mi-Novardok, a businessman, knew nothing, stopped at the next stop, got off the train, got back on the next train to go back home. Instead of going on this big business trip to do this, to do that, he went back home, sold all of his businesses, everything, liquidated everything, got all the money, and started opening yeshivot. opening yeshivot to learn for the rest of his life. They say that all of the yeshivot today in the Western world have some source, some connection to him. Rav Galinsky is one of the students. Now, if you read the stories of what they went through for the sake of Torah, the sacrifices they were willing to make and Today, in today's age, it's almost inappropriate to talk about it. It's to that extent. People are just not willing to get up out of their house to come to a lecture, let alone to not eat for a few days. You tell people to come to a lecture. Oh, what time is it? 7:15? It's a little too late. How long is it going to be? Don't talk for so long. You watch for two hours, three hours. No, no, no. 15 minutes. 15 minutes? It's two hours to get here. You only talk for 15 minutes. I...

1:01:00They give you limitations. So you tell people, listen, for the Torah, Rav Galinsky would skip eating. Skip, not just skip a meal. Skip eating for days. And he became a giant. Any opportunity he had, he would sanctify Hashem's name. Any opportunity he had, he would teach Torah. But the one main thing about Rav Galinsky is that he ran away from honor. But people would give him honor constantly. So he knew what kind of poison honor is. He knew that's the Greek mentality to want credit for yourself. You're smart. You're good-looking. You're powerful. You're rich. You're funny. Any type of compliment that you are going to take for yourself, that's not going to help you become holy. So Rav Galinsky ran away from it like it was poison. So one day he's giving a lecture and they start complimenting him. What does he do? He starts acting like he's crazy. He takes the microphone and starts saying, "Hello, can you guys hear me? Can you guys hear me? Okay, so I'll start the shiur now." And he starts putting the microphone to his ear to make it look as if he's old and senile. He doesn't acknowledge any of the descriptions they gave him that are completely not him.

1:02:25completely not him, and he would do this regularly anytime somebody would give him honor, mamash to such an extent. He detested honor like poison. But one time somebody asked him, "Rebbi, tell me something, tell me something about one of your stories where you are the Gadol Hador." Tell me something about Bnei Brak. What's the name of Bnei Brak? He says, well, in Bnei Brak, I found out I'm Gadol HaDor. Rav Galinsky just said, I'm Gadol HaDor, finally. I heard this right. Kvod HaRav. Why, Bnei Brak, you found out you're Gadol HaDor? Because, you know, one time I was waiting, you know, I was going to give a shiur. I was waiting at the bus stop. And, you know, I was sitting at the bus stop. It was windy. My hat fell. My hat fell on the floor. I grabbed it to get the hat. A couple of doves flew over me. Apparently, they had some cholent right before they saw me. They emptied it out all on my head. On my bald head. That's how they emptied it out. So the student says,

1:03:53Explain again? No, why? You don't know. It says, he would study to such an extent it would create a fire that if a dove flew over him, it would catch on fire. For me, they just go in their pants. He connected that to that. Learning Torah, but also learning Middot at the same time. Why? Run away from honor. Run away from this Gadol HaDor. You're good. You're a good speaker. You're good at this. You're nothing. You're Eved Hashem. If you're Eved Hashem, you'll be something good in your life. Eved Hashem. And that's the thing that's a constant battle. Why? Because we all have ego. All of us. I mean, I have this battle myself all the time. I mean, the truth is, you compare this life to the life that I spent a lot more time doing. It's a very different battle. In one life, every single person swears you're a Mashiach. In another life, every single person wants to kill you like one of the Nevi'im. It's very different. In one life, you can't do anything wrong; you get paid for it anyway. In another life, no one wants to pay you. Even if you want to give it for free, you have to pay them. It's a constant battle. You don't know what's right, what's wrong. It's this, it's that. It's not easy. One place, there's not enough room in the hall to fit the people who want to come see you.

1:05:23And the other one, you have to beg people to come. It's a constant battle. It's a constant battle. That's where you have to decide. Are you an eved Hashem? Are you a servant of Hashem or yourself? If you're a servant of Hashem, it doesn't make a difference. They come, they don't come. They do, they don't do. They donate, they don't donate. None of that matters. Why? The fact that you're alive and you're able to try, at least, try to be an eved Hashem, that by itself is a miracle. That by itself was worth the whole balagan that happened on Chanukah. The whole thing that happened on Chanukah, the war, and the people dying, and this, and that, and everything, and all that happened. 2,000 years of survival for you to live. For one day to be an eved Hashem, it was worth it for Hashem, it was worth it for you. On the other hand, if you're not, if you're doing it for yourself, you're doing it because you're a good speaker.

1:06:34doing it because you want people to give you a high five, you're doing it because you want people to donate an extra few thousand to your personal account, as well as the bank account and the other accounts. The donation itself is that you're doing it for the money, you're doing it for the honor, you're doing it for all of these other reasons. In essence, you're a servant of yourself, of your own ego, of your inner Esav. The Gemara says it was better you were never born at all. Forget the whole Chanukah happened, mesirut nefesh, wars, disasters. Forget about all that. It was better you were not born. It's a very, very small difference between the two mindsets. Because sometimes you're convinced You're doing right when everything you're doing is wrong. One time, someone came to one of the Admorim. And he says to him, I'm not sure of the name, so I'm just not going to mention the name. But it's a true story. Chas v'shalom, somebody says, oh, you mentioned the wrong name. Nothing matters. Everything is. Chilul Shabbat, Avodah Zarah. Okay, I'm not going to mention the name, guys. Fine. Don't kill me on this one.

1:07:58But it's a true story. I said it in a different lecture, but it's a good story. Someone came to one of the Admorim and said, "Kvod HaRav, I need some money for my daughter's wedding. I don't have any money." Kvod HaRav said, "No problem," opened the drawer, took out five dollars, and gave it to him. Thank you, Kvod HaRav. It's like a blessing. You're going to succeed. Raise the rest of the money for the wedding. Fine. A couple of days later, he arrives. He says, "I need money for the dress. My daughter refuses to get married unless she buys this ridiculously expensive dress for $5,000. $5,000." He says, "Well, the wedding, you raised all the money?" "Yes, we raised all the money. After you gave me the money, it was a blessing. I raised $20,000 for the month. Everything was great." "So now you need what?" "I need $5,000 for the dress. I don't know what to do." "One second, one second." He goes to the safe, takes out $5,000, and gives $10,000. $5,000 for the wedding, and $5,000 for the dress. The chutzpah! He asked for $5,000, and he gave him $5,000.

1:09:24He leaves. He left. What if talmidim see this? What just happened here? Five thousand dollars you give for the wedding. That's the ikar. The guy is a chutzpan enough and his daughter is a bigger chutzpanit. Asking, having the decency. She's asking for five thousand. She didn't have money for a wedding. You give. Baruch Hashem, you give them a blessing. They raise money for a wedding. Now she has the audacity to ask for the most expensive dress there is. What kind of nerve is this? And you, Kvod HaRav, are paying for it? Explain. You know how much good you could have done with that money? You could have used the money for the kollel. You could have used the money for the yeshiva. You could have used the money for the homeless. You could have used the money for the people that are in shelters, hungry. You could have used the money for so many good things, Kvod HaRav. Why did you choose to give it to this rude chutzpan for just a dress. And the Admo"r says to him, "You know, you're right. I also thought about everything you said. I could have used the money for the kollel. I could have used the money for the yeshiva. I could have used the money for the homeless. I could have used the money for the hungry. I thought of the same thing you said. But you know what?

1:10:53I only thought about those excuses after this poor guy came to me and asked me to help him make a kallah happy. After he asked me to fulfill a mitzvah of making a kallah happy, all of a sudden, I have these ideas. Maybe I should give the money here. Maybe I should give the money there. Why didn't I have them before he came? And that, my son, is called a mitzvah from the Satan. There's a mitzvah, but it's from the Satan. If it was a real mitzvah from Hashem, and I wanted to give it to the kollel, I wanted to give it to the yeshiva, I wanted to give it to the homeless, and I wanted to give it to the hungry, I would have thought about it before this poor guy came to me. But the fact that it came now, when I have another mitzvah in front of me, that means it's a mitzvah from the Satan. Sometimes you have a mitzvah you're excited to do, but something else comes along. All of a sudden something else comes along. A different idea, a different this, a different that. Hey, how come you didn't think about it before? How come you didn't think about it before? All of a sudden you want to do kiruv when it's time to learn Gemara. Why didn't you think about it before? All of a sudden you want to go visit the local shelter when it's shiur Torah. Why didn't you do it before?

1:12:17All of a sudden you do all these other things when it's time to do the mitzvah you need to do. That's called the mitzvah from the Satan. And unfortunately, the Satan sends us on trips, sends us on different things, just like the Greeks. He gives us a ball. "Hey, keep busy. Here's a ball, little kid. Yeah, yeah, you have a ball. Don't worry, your ball, cute. Go, go, play. Go play. You got the ball, right? You wanted a ball? Here's a ball. Here's two balls. Just don't do the mitzvah that you're supposed to do." Just don't do the teshuva you're supposed to do. The guy comes into the shiur, he eats this, he has this, he has this, he goes to the rabbi. No, rabbi, he says, he says, he says this, he says this, he goes, "Listen, just give tzedakah, everything's okay." Tzedakah, really? Everything's good? I'll sign for you. I'll sign for you, just tell me, don't worry about it. Rabbi, it's good? Tzedakah? It's good. How much? How much do you have? 9,000. Okay, 8,900. Down payment. For this week. Why? Mitzvah for the Satan. Mitzvah for the Satan. All of a sudden you have an investment to make when it's time to give Maaser. No, but I'm only investing this money so I have a bigger Maaser to give next time.

1:13:41I'm only investing the Maaser money not because I want to keep it hush-hush for the Rabbi. No, I'm investing the Maaser money in Bitcoin so you make more money for the office. You could print more CDs. All of a sudden, when it comes to shiur Torah, no, no, for the love. Listen, I was working... my business selling jewelry, selling cars, selling houses, selling people, selling cats, selling balls, selling everything. I was doing it. No, not for me. I have enough. Look at my house. It's nine floors. It's for you. I was working for you. So I give maaser. The extra money I'm going to give for kiruv. I'm going to give for kiruv. All of a sudden, everyone becomes a tzaddik at the wrong time. At the perfectly wrong time. Perfectly wrong time. That's a mitzvah from the Satan. And a mitzvah from the Satan sometimes will come to you during your learning. In fact, it will come to you during your learning as often as you allow it. If you allow it daily, it will come daily. Rabbi says, learn Gemara. What do you want? No, but there's a really good...

1:14:55Let me read that for a little while, and then I'll get to the Gemara. You read 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 30 pages. Great. As soon as you open the Gemara, sleep. All the energy is gone. Rabbi says, learn about taharat mishpacha. You're a woman, you need to know about taharat mishpacha. Oh, yeah, no, no, I'm going to read taharat mishpacha. Don't worry about it. I'm just going to watch this shiur one second. I'm going to watch you. I'm going to watch you. I'm going to watch you. I'm going to watch you now for two hours, three hours, nine hours shiur. I'm going to watch the shiur. And then I'm going to read the book you told me to read to be a woman that knows how to deal with a husband. I'm going to watch your shiur. You don't want me to watch your shiur? You don't watch the shiur. You did a nine-hour shiur for the Rav. Somebody has to watch it for the Rav, but I didn't say watch the shiur. I said read the book for taharat mishpacha because you're a woman, you need to be an expert in taharat mishpacha, Shabbat, this, that. Satan's gonna come to you and say, "No, no, don't do those things you're supposed to do. Here's a ball, go play. Here's a ball, go play."

1:16:02Time to do something. No, no, my friend is coming over. And you know, I need to help him out. I need to help him out. So I'm pretending to watch the game with him. I'm pretending. I'm pretending to watch the game with him. But he's watching the game, but I'm really getting ready that every time there's a commercial break, I'm going to give him a Dvar Torah. I'm going to give him a Dvar Torah. All these little creative things that Satan comes to you with the best excuses in history. He doesn't shortchange at all. He goes and he goes and he goes. And unfortunately, sometimes the mitzvah from the Satan is going to come from somebody with a beard. Sometimes the mitzvah from the Satan is going to come from a rabbi, a leader, and so on. And Rav Hutner says, this is also part of the prophecies. Leviticus 26:17. It says, and those who hate you will subjugate you.

1:17:02Meaning, that those who hate you will rise up from among you. Meaning, your own haters are also going to be your brothers. Your own haters, the ones that actually mean bad for you, want bad for you, steer you the wrong way. Sometimes you're going to look at them and you're going to say, oh, that's my leader. Yes, exactly that. The Gemara in Masechet Sotah, page 49, also Sanhedrin 97. Talks about the end of days. Talks about how rebuke is going to be despised. Honesty, lost. Fewer. The rudeness. Immodest behavior will rise. All the things that are the opposite of what we're supposed to do. And it's not just talking about Average folks, it's talking about everyone. It says the leaders are going to do the opposite of what's in the interest of the people. People are supposed to do ABC, they tell people, "No, no, do XYZ." Why? But that's the opposite. "Don't worry. That's fine. I'll sign off for you." It says, "Don't drive on Shabbat." "No, no, but you're driving to beit knesset." It says...

1:18:29Shalom bayit. No, no, no. You're just going away with the guys on vacation. It's shalom, you're a brother. It's peace between you and your brother. You're going to some kever. You're going to some grave. Yeah, my wife doesn't agree. Don't worry. She'll agree when you come back with the holiness that you'll have. The holiness you'll have around you, she'll agree. Don't worry. It says... It says, yeah, but your wife is dying. If she has another kid, she's going to die. She's not a baby factory. There's a way. There's a system. You have to consider her health. You look at the Avot. They didn't have 900 kids. They had whatever Hashem allowed. Whenever time and place allowed. When you have kids, make sure she wants it too. No, no, but poor book for the Rav, poor book. Fine, she also has to live too. She's more important than the baby that didn't appear. So a lot of people are trying to be extra tzaddikim in the wrong places on other people's accounts. Sometimes there are rabbis that are fakers. Somebody asked me today about a mekubal. Can I have a mekubal? Because I have this other mekubal. They gave me the name. I'm not going to mention the name because it's a waste of time. They mentioned the name. Oh, what do you think about this mekubal, this rabbi from this place in Brooklyn?

1:19:59Honestly, you don't have to be a genius. You don't have to be religious. You don't have to do anything. Just look up, just type the name in Google. Everyone says this guy's fake, this guy's a fraud, this guy's a liar, this guy stole money from me. The reality is that even if all of it is Lashon Hara, even if all of it is fake, the Gemara says if people are saying it about you, part of it is true. Nothing is from nothing. Nothing is from nothing. If they're saying it about you, there's something that you're noge'a in. No one is going to invent a lie about you out of pure nothing. There has to be something. And Shamayim knows. Shamayim knows. So, sometimes the enemy is within. Sometimes the enemy is within. The biggest thing that the Greeks wanted to do separate the physical and the spiritual to be two different things. Make sure that we focus on our physical aspect, muscles, looks, material, money, and so on, and let the spiritual aspect of it go somewhere else. And the Chachamim say this is exactly why the Rambam says in Hilchot Shabbat,

1:21:25Chapter 30 of Hilchot Shabbat, which we mentioned two or three weeks ago in a shiur in Hollywood, teaches how when a person is a mechaleil Shabbat befarhesya, a person who is regularly mechaleil Shabbat is considered an idol worshiper. So just to be like one of the Greeks, why one of the Greeks? Because he indeed separated his physical from his spiritual. He thought that his physical and spiritual can have different rules. The physical can live in this world, while the spiritual doesn't have to be put on the side. So the physical is Jewish because his father is Jewish. He comes from Avraham Avinu, he comes from Yitzchak Avinu, he comes from Yaakov Avinu, he comes from Moshe Rabbeinu, and so on and so forth. But spiritually, I don't have to keep the mitzvot. I don't have to keep them. They think that they're Jewish just because their mother is Jewish. And there's nothing further from the truth. Nothing further from the truth. What makes you Jewish is following the Torah. The...

1:22:28The biggest difference that we spoke about, but I think is something that you can never cover enough, and that I think personally is a problem in the religious world, is with all of these battles that we have with the different things we say about the wigs and so on, is that the enemy that creates the havoc is usually not a secular person. The enemy is usually a religious person. But it's a religious person that's selectively religious. He's religious when he wants. Whether it's this Dweck guy from London that's religious, you know, until a certain point. You're going to talk about homosexuals? No, they're allowed. They're in. We should welcome them. It's the best thing that ever happened. All the type of garbage that he said. He now has the support of the Chief Rabbi over there in London. Who knows?

1:23:57Who knows what more damage this guy is going to make. But this guy is being allowed to be a rabbi. And there are plenty like him. This other guy that I keep telling you guys about with the long peyot and looks like he's from the days of the Baal Shem Tov, but in reality, he's from the days of J.C. Penney maybe. He tells people that for shalom bayit, you're allowed to drive on Shabbat to take your wife to the beach. So, I mean, all types of mitzvot that touch people's hearts. It's like, oh wow, look, he's such a nice rabbi. He welcomes homosexuals. Oh wow, look, he's such a nice rabbi. He understands how important shalom bayit is. So when the wife says she wants to go to the beach on Shabbat, He says it's okay. See, that's a chacham. That's, wow, chazak u'baruch. For the naive, for the people that don't understand, it sounds good. It sounds terrific. And it all stems from the same place. It all stems from the same Greek infection that we've had for 2,000 years. The Greeks did something that no one else did. They made us our own enemy.

1:25:18And we've been our own enemy for over 2,000 years since. Whether it's what the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 54, says, that Hashem punished the rabbis first before He punished the secular people. The Gemara asks, why? It's because the rabbis knew the truth, but they didn't share it. They didn't tell people. They didn't rebuke them. It's as if they sinned. It's as if they murdered. It's as if they were violating Shabbat. You knew the truth. You saw your brother going against it, but you didn't say anything. You said, ah, he's going to figure it out on his own. So many of these people that know the truth, that read the same Gemarot that we read, They learn the same Mishnayot that we read. They learn the same Halachot. They learn the same Torah. They know what it says. They know what the Rambam says. They know what Shulchan Aruch says. They know what the Zohar says. They know what the Five Books of Moses say. They know what everything says. It's all the same exact thing. It all comes from the same source. It comes from the Torah. It's the same thing; it's just that different places mention the same thing. They all know it, and they don't share it. Hashem says these people are the worst. Why? They take on everyone's sin.

1:26:31They know the truth, and they're not sharing it with people. Why? It's a Greek infection. It's the mentality where, you know what? Let's just cut. Everything else is good that Hashem says. Let's just cut this one part out. It started with one thing, and then it's another thing. Then it's another thing. Before you know it, you've modernized Judaism, in essence, to change it altogether. You've changed it altogether into something else. Call it whatever you want; the labels are irrelevant. There are plenty of decent people in every part of Judaism, but as far as avdei Hashem, as far as servants of Hashem, we don't know how many there are anywhere. Why? Because, unfortunately, each one of us has a problem. So, the question all of us need to ask is: Where do we lie? Where do we stand? Where do we stand here? Are we fakers? are we actually doing everything because that's what it says? Are we doing things because it makes sense to us? Are we waiting for things to make sense to us? The Greeks told us, accept Torah because it's intellectual. Just don't accept Hashem. And to prove to us that you don't accept Hashem, write it on the windshield. Write it on the windshield of your cars. Write it on the horns of the bulls.

1:27:55Publicize that you don't accept Hashem. Go to public war with Hashem. That's fine. Women of the Wall, show your power. Show it. Why not? The Reform, the Conservative, no different. Unfortunately, it's also happening in the Orthodox world. Modern, non-modern, whatever you want to call it. There are certain things, certain mitzvot, that literally, it's as if they don't exist. People call themselves religious, and if you just simply look at them—you don't have to speak to them—just look at the person. You're not even sure if they're Jewish. Why? They look like a Greek. They look 100% like a Greek. I remember there was more than one guy, but there was one particular guy that I always saw in the synagogue. Always saw him in the synagogue. But for whatever reason or another, he felt that it was perfectly fine to walk around in beach clothes all the time—a tank top that shows most of his body and shorts.

1:29:12And slippers, like he was, I don't know, apparently, maybe he works on the beach or something. He's a lifeguard. I don't know. He's a 40-year-old lifeguard, 50-year-old lifeguard. I don't know. Whatever career he chose. But the point is that it was always like this, all the time. There was no concept in his mind that the little quarter kippah that he had on once in a while is supposed to represent yirat shamayim. It's supposed to represent that you're afraid of what's above you, which means that you have to be concerned with how you look in front of what you're afraid of. There's no concept of that. The people that argue with us about the whole issue of Avodah Zarah being on the wigs, they're all pretending as if I created this out of thin air, like I took Masechet Avodah Zarah and I wrote, "Dear God, please add this tractate to your Oral Torah, please. Signed, Yaron Reuven." Like I created this rule. Hashem says if this is Avodah Zarah, you're not allowed to benefit from it. Not allowed. So, one of my students sent me a message today and said, "Listen, I'm moving the book, Hashem doing Aliyah, going to Israel. There is this Israeli organization that's connecting me with different companies, and they told me that there's this Christian organization. It's a Christian organization."

1:30:40That's willing to pay for part of my expenses, and they don't proselytize. Don't listen to the claim; they don't know. It's the only section of all of Christianity that does proselytize and missionize. Am I allowed to use it? Absolutely not. Why? It's benefiting from Avodah Zarah. It's benefiting from Avodah Zarah. I have one guy Constantly asks me questions about how much to give. It's this card, it's that other thing. I don't respond to it at all. Why? He's thinking he'd say, "He is Avodah Zarah." The guy, I don't have anything against Christians, I have something against what they do. Plenty of very nice people. But when you are telling me that you're going to give me church money, I'm not interested in church money. Keep it for yourself. Thank you. interest, it's not allowed. I don't care how much money it is, how little or how much, it doesn't make a difference. It's not allowed to benefit from Avodah Zarah. So when you tell people, listen, it's market knowledge that before recent times, if you wanted to start a business, you had to go to wherever you wanted to do the business. If you want to start a

1:32:05Business and the manufacturer was in China, the manufacturer was in India, the manufacturer was in London, the manufacturer was in Bangladesh, the manufacturer was in Taiwan—wherever they were, you had to go there, negotiate, agree, give some money, sign an agreement. They send your container about six months later because that's how long it takes the ship to get from wherever they are to where you are, and that's how you do business. You really have to go to this place once in a while, and so on and so forth. But as technology advanced, today to such an extent, as we've talked about extensively, where all you need to do, you don't even need to pick up a phone anymore. All you need to do is type in a website, put in your credit card, and you can order whatever you want in the world. If you have enough money, you can order anything: a plane, weapons, wigs, whatever you want. People, anything you want. You can order anything you want with money and a computer. That's all you need. So, people pretend like they don't know anything, pretend like they're naive, pretend like, oh, we're all innocent, we're all this.

1:33:21And when I tell them, listen, it's market knowledge. It's not my theory. It's not a theory. It's market knowledge that all wigs have turned from being from Korea to different places in China to different places around the world that now, officially, it's all coming from the 95%. Some people say 99% are coming from India. Why? Because to get it from any other place is much more expensive. If you want to get your wigs from people that are selling it in Bolivia, in Cambodia, in Brazil, in any place in Europe, or wherever, you have to buy it for a much higher price. Why? Because no one is going to shave their head voluntarily. They don't do it for money. So naturally, a transaction is more expensive than a non-transaction. When someone donates their hair for free, that's automatically cheaper than any other price. Now, in some countries, they won't even sell it for any other price. Like, if you go to Brazil, they'll laugh at you. They'll tell you, "I'll shave my head, you shave your head. You chop off your head. Chop off your head. I'll put it in my canister with the food and the peppers for my food." They laughed at me when I told them, "Do Brazilians shave their heads?" Because many wigs today say "made in Brazil."

1:34:46They laughed at me, saying, "Our people would rather die from starvation than shave their heads. No wig is made in Brazil. It's a transitional process; they buy them from India." What people don't know is that a few really smart businessmen, when the whole wig thing took off, made a few deals with India and became some of the largest customers of India. It all says "Made in Brazil," but it's not really made in Brazil. You tell them, listen, the wigs, all of them come from India. Even if you have some hair that comes from a different place, some hair is going to come from India. And the reason why is because every wig is made from hair from three heads. Every wig is not from one head. It's not like one woman shaves her head and it goes into another woman's wig. It doesn't work like that. Three women shave their heads, and the hair goes into one wig. So, in essence, it also means that no single wig has, you even know where it came from. It could potentially be from three different places. It could potentially be from 500 places. So, you tell people, this is logic. This is common sense. This is market research.

1:35:54This is factual and so on and so forth. You cannot rely on it. If it's real hair, you cannot rely on it. And even the Gadol HaDor says, even if it's synthetic, it's no longer synthetic. Why? Because in some places like China, where they shave the head of the dead, which is also not allowed, by the way, according to Judaism. But according to them, they're allowed to do whatever they want. According to Judaism, they're not allowed to shave the head of the dead. In China, they shave the head of the dead. And they sell the hair. There's so much of this hair, because it's a billion and a half people. There's so much hair, they don't know what to do with it because it's short hair. No one's buying short hair wigs. So what do they do? They put their hair to fill in the synthetic wigs. They fill it in. So they did some research on synthetic wigs, and they said every one of these synthetic wigs has some real hair in it. Some have 1%, some have 3%, some have 9%, some have 50%, but all of them have something. Now, you're going to call your wig maker and tell them, "Hey, Mrs. Local Wig Maker, do you have any synthetic wigs with only 100% synthetic and no real hair?" Of course! Kosher! What do you want? Of course! Why? Because that's how they make money. Do they really know? No. Why? Because it wasn't made in their place. It was made somewhere else.

1:37:08Do you have any kosher wigs that are 100% from real hair, but not from India? Sure, of course, kosher, gross, Rabbi Gross koshered it. It's Badatz, it's this, it's that, it's the best. It's kosher. Moshe Rabbeinu signed off too. He'll tell you whatever you want. Why? That's how they make money. When you were in the factory, when they were chopping the head and this and that, you were there? No. But the market research... which is what was my expertise for 20 years. I don't know what else I need to explain. It's like you go to a guy who sold diamonds for 20 years. He tells you, listen, this is not a diamond. This is a rock. This is nothing. This is a fake diamond they make now in Russia. They make fake diamonds out of nothing. And they sell them as real diamonds. The guy's been in the business, like my father, for 50 years. He says, listen, this is a fake diamond. No, no, no. You don't know what you're talking about. What, 50 years is not enough research? It's not enough expertise? So, you tell people, you tell people, you tell people. So now, what happens is, they don't like it. They start fighting. They start this, they start that. Because, listen, it's a mitzvah. It's a mitzvah. Cover your hair, it's a mitzvah. Little do they know, this mitzvah they have is a mitzvah from Satan. Yes, you're obviously obligated to cover your hair. Just not with the wig.

1:38:33Just not with the wig. Now there's another chidush. We'll finalize and then you guys can ask some questions. That's actually one of the sources. One of the sources of the wigs. Most people don't know. It's in the Gemara. Gemara Masechet Shabbat. It's a Mishnah. And it says the following: Yotza isha b'chutei se'ar ben mishelah... ben mishel havertah, ben mishel be'hemah, u'betotefet u'besarvitin bezman she'en teforin u'vechabull u'vepea nochrit lechatzer. In so many words, it says a woman is... This is talking about whether someone's allowed to go outside when there's no eruv. When there's no eruv, you're not allowed to carry. She says a woman that has...

1:39:33fake hair on top of her head, that's her hair, or not her hair, her friend's hair, like somebody else's, or the hair of an animal, or it's a wig. Wait a minute. Hair, hers, not hers, an animal, and a pe'ah nochrit, or a hat. What's going on? Why is pe'ah nochrit different from hair? First and foremost, we need to understand that this is a phenomenal Gemara. And the reason why is because this is the source that one of the people, the Shiltei HaGibborim, used as a source to allow women to use wigs. original source to allow women to use wigs. But everyone disagrees with him. And the Be'er Sheva wrote a whole section about why he's completely wrong about it. But first and foremost, this is the source here. Now, what's very interesting is that if you break up this Gemara into a couple of pieces, you start understanding it. First and foremost, it's telling you something extraordinary: that

1:40:56there are different levels of hair. First, the hair if it's hers, or if it's her friend's, or if it's an animal's hair, and so on. It says it's allowed. Why is it allowed? Why is it allowed to carry on her head? Because the fear would be if she took it off. The fear, for example, is to... Wear certain things, for example, a pin. You know how to wear a pin. Why not wear a pin? Maybe you're going to take it off and carry it. So the fear of not wearing hair that's yours is maybe you are going to take it off and carry it. Yeah, so who wears this hair that's not theirs? First and foremost, you should know it's not the average person. Who is it? Someone who has bald spots, someone who is sick. So it's sick, it's not for... Someone that's sick. They have cancer, they have this, they have that. Someone that's sick. It's not someone that's an everyday person. That's first of all. Second of all, why are we not worried? Even if they're sick, why are we not worried they're not going to take it off? Why are we not worried they're not going to take it off? Why? Because Rashi says, the hair is sewn to the hat.

1:42:20The hair is sewn to the hat because there's no way that a woman is allowed to show a naked head. So, of course, she's not going to take off the hair because if she takes off the hair, she's also going to be forced to take off the hat. If she takes off the hat, she shows her head. If she shows her head, it's not allowed. Not allowed, which means that even the people who used this fake hair in the Gemara, the source, were not just going out like today's women showing hair. They wore this hair to cover a small or a big bald patch. Under a hat, it was always under a hat, it was always under some type of kisui rosh. There's no somebody walking around with a wig, you know, like a little horsetail on their head. Never in the history of Am Yisrael has this ever happened until now, never. So this is if you understand the original source. But how many women today that are wearing wigs know this?

1:43:23How many, what do they say? They ask their rabbi, "Rabbi, am I allowed to wear a wig?" "Yes." "Okay, I'll wear a wig. Baruch tzaddik, yesod olam." They start singing for the rabbi. Gadol HaDor, Kadosh, Mekubal. He allows wigs. You want to be a Mekubal? Allow wigs. You want to be a tzaddik? Allow wigs. So that's one main thing. Another chidush about this specific one is that it says, "Bechavul" is a hat. It's like a hat. It says, a hat with a wig. What is a hat with a wig? If you actually see, you notice, the two go together. It's not, it's not a hat or a wig. It says, a hat and a wig. Meaning, they go together. They go together. It's not, the wig is separate, the hat is separate. So, if you just simply go to the source, you simply understand.

1:44:24that this was ma'us, like despised in the eyes of Hashem. One of the reasons, it says the following—this is not my opinion, don't blame me. Go blame God if you want. But you may not be so nice. Listen. Tanna: ובלבד שלא תצא ילדה בשל זקנה, וזקנה בשל ילדה. He says, why is this wearing strands of hair on the head? What's the problem with it? If there's a problem, what's the problem with it? Why can't you just say yes or no? Why is it even mentioned? Why is it even mentioned? Where, nowhere, what's the problem? He says, an old woman would wear the hair of a young woman and look like a young woman, and a young woman would wear the hair of an old woman and look like an old woman. Is there anyone in the world today wearing a wig of someone that's not younger than them? Whether she's 70 years old with the wig or 60 years old or 30 years old, it's always— they just got it from a 16-year-old kid in India that shaved their head. So this mamash, the Gemara specifically said, why is it even mentioned b'chalal? It's mentioned because the biggest prohibition

1:45:50Prohibition of it is that an older woman will wear the hair of a young woman. Why? Because it will enhance her looks, and that's prohibited. It's not supposed to improve their looks; this is mamash. It's clear; it's a no, it's mamash. It's exactly what it says. You skipped the part. The rabbi skipped the part that I skipped the part. So this is again a... This is the reason why Rav Ovadia in over a hundred and seventeen poskim said it's not allowed. It had nothing to do with avodah zarah. Nothing to do with avodah zarah. Nothing to do with idol worship. The idol worship, every single rabbi in the world would not allow it. Every single one, except one. There's only one rabbi that allows it. Who? The one that runs the kosher wig section.

1:46:51Why? He doesn't believe it matters. He's like, "No, they don't mean it. They don't mean it. It's fine. It's okay. Don't worry. Don't worry." When Rav Elyashiv came out and said, "Listen, these wigs coming from Avodah Zarah are not allowed, go burn them," thousands and thousands of women started burning their wigs. Everyone was in so much havoc in 2004. You read about it in the papers, some of the archives. Unbelievable what was happening in Jerusalem and New York, everywhere. Hat stores were being sold out in seconds. No one knew what to do. The Gadol HaDor just said you're not allowed to wear any wig. Then this guy that no one really knew says, "No, don't worry. We're going to make a kosher wig. We're going to go make a kosher wig." And he became, little by little, a nuqdudi (a term for a small or insignificant person), all of a sudden, and everyone holds by him. No one else. No other kosher certification company, no other rabbi in the world ever dared, even the ones that agree with wigs. No one dared kosher the wig. Why? Because everyone knew it was a farce, please.

1:47:56Everyone knew it was nonsense. It was complete nonsense. Even he himself. Even he himself. Why? He wrote it himself. Even at the time. Even at the time that Rav Elyashiv came out and said it's all Avodah Zarah because it's from India, because of this, because of that. He's quoted himself saying, even if it comes from India, it's still fine. Why? It's okay. Don't worry about it. It's fine. Disagree, Rabbi Elyashiv, why there's no actual real principle behind it. That's valid that anyone agreed with them in essence. He doesn't believe that the wig needs to be kosher anyway, so what are you koshering then? If you don't believe it needs to be kosher, what are you koshering then? It's like someone who believes that all meat is kosher. You don't have to slaughter it a certain way. It doesn't have to be a certain type of animal. It could be a camel, it could be a calf, it could be a bat. It could be a lion. It could be a horse. Whatever you want. It's good. It's kosher. But that's... We'll put a sticker on it. Put kosher. It's kosher. He doesn't believe in it. And you put this guy as mashgiach.

1:49:09He doesn't believe in it. You can't put him as mashgiach. This is a joke. This is the biggest, mamash, mitzvah from the Satan in this generation, in my opinion. Why? Because it's destroying the religious world. It's destroying the religious world, and people just simply are running away from it. They're just running away from it. They refuse to believe it. Now, unfortunately, there's a lot of asonot, a lot of disasters happening recently. Dying people, getting sick, major accidents. It seems like, I don't know, that every time there's a new organization to raise money for poor people, more people are having more problems. It's unbelievable. Every day, there's a new list of another family that is damaged. Somebody died, somebody got injured, somebody... So people are asking, where is Hashem? Where is Hashem? Where? Where is He right now? Where is He? Where is the Holocaust again? He's hiding His face. Where is He? The Chafetz Chaim, alav ha-shalom, says many women pray to Hashem. B'not Yisrael are praying to Hashem. No question about it, they're praying to Hashem. But why aren't their prayers being listened to?

1:50:32Could kol b'ishah ervah. The entire woman is considered nakedness, so when a woman comes to Hashem with a wig, it's considered nakedness. When a woman comes to Hashem with uncovered hair, it's the same thing as a wig. Now that we know it's about das Yehudis, even worse, she cannot expect Hashem to listen to her prayer. Why? She's naked, and She's naked. How could Hashem listen to such a prayer? So, it's not me. Go blame Him. Go. Enjoy. The idea here is that everybody has to do teshuvah. Everyone has to question themselves. Where am I? Where is this? And the reason why is because this Greek mentality Being more material, more this, more that, it's ruining us. It's ruining the religious world. It's ruining the secular world. It's ruining everything. It's time that we actually start taking control. Okay, you know what? It's hard for me, but I know it's true. This is difficult, but I know I need to do it. This is this, this is that, but I need to do stuff. Start doing teshuvah, start addressing the problem because Hanukkah is that reminder.

1:51:53that if it wasn't for a few that stood up for the truth, very few that stood up for the truth, the rest of us wouldn't be here. Just a few. It doesn't need to be everyone. Just a few stand up for the truth, and the rest of us wouldn't be here. That's what Chanukah is about. Sometimes standing up for the truth means you have to do something that's beyond normal. You have to declare war against everyone. You have to declare war against the system. You have to declare war against what's considered normal. You have to declare war against what's considered acceptable. Why? Because you know that everyone is missing the same thing. What? The truth. What's acceptable is poison. What's acceptable is not good. What's acceptable is bad for everyone. They just fail to realize it, either because the Satan convinced them it's a mitzvah, or they're just not looking. They're relying on somebody else. Everyone thinks that somebody else looked. Everyone's relying on someone else looking. Go look. You look. Did you look? Yeah, yeah, I looked. Did you look? He didn't really look. Somebody else looked for him. You looked? I looked. No one really looked. And the guy that's originally, the guy that's officially supposed to look, you look? No. You look? No. You look? Look? Look? Everybody says no. Everyone's relying on someone else. The original guy that was supposed to look for everyone pretty much, what is he doing? He's playing with the ball. With the cat. He and the cat are playing with the ball. They're playing catch with the ball. No? Give me questions.

1:53:21A goy that believes in J.C. Penney? A goy that's pulling other people away from J.C. Penney, who actually believes in the God of Israel? Wait, he's pulling people away from avodah zarah? He's pulling people that J.C. Penney is... Nonsense. Okay, where is he pulling them to? Okay, that's a good thing. But does he believe in J.C.? No. So he's just a goy. Okay, that's fine. If someone is pulling people away from avodah zarah, that's a major mitzvah. He's in essence saving lives, saving souls. That's very good. If he chooses to be Obviously putting his soul on an even higher level. If he doesn't, he still has a lot of merit because if I'm assuming that he believes in Judaism, he's at the very least following the seven Noahide laws. If he follows the seven Noahide laws and all rational laws that are in it, although it's not the same level of Olam Haba as he would have if he was a righteous Jew, but he's perfectly fine as long as he doesn't believe in idol worship and...

1:54:49As long as he doesn't violate the Avodah Zarah rules, as long as he doesn't violate the Torah as far as the seven Noahide laws, he's fine. And if he's saving other neshamot, it's even more so. Even more so. A very unusual thing that we're seeing right now is that it seems like there are many goyim that are very, very interested in helping Jews. And I'm seeing it firsthand, not just one, not two, not three, not five, not ten. Many, many situations. Just today, actually, you know what? Just today, I had a guy who's not Jewish. He wants to convert one day, just life hasn't worked out so far for him to convert. But he's very passionate about kiruv, he's very passionate about Torah, and so on. And he's actually on an army base. He just got restationed in a new army base. And he told me, "Listen, I got restationed in a new army base, and I see there's a bunch of Jews here."

1:55:49Can you send me a few things? There are Jews. I packed up a box of CDs. So this guy is very, very active. He doesn't have much money. He doesn't have much talent per se that's useful for kiruv. But Hashem is putting him in places for him to implement this passion that he has. He has a passion to save other Jews. Hashem says, I don't need your money. I don't need your skill set that you don't have. What do you have? I'll put you in the right place for you to meet a few Jews. Just give them the CD and you get Olam HaBa. So I'm seeing it a lot. Baruch Hashem, I had one time a guy donate A guy donated a pair of tefillin. He said, "Listen, I'll give some money, use this money to get somebody a pair of tefillin." The same day he wanted to donate money, I had a guy call me. He said, "Listen, I want to get tefillin. I don't have any money though." So Hashem makes the matches. And sometimes it comes from a goy, sometimes it comes from Jews. But it's amazing. I mean, I can tell you from experience that sometimes you'll see that some of the non-Jews are much, much more passionate about kiruv than Jews are. And one of the reasons...

1:57:07At least I'm guessing, I don't know this for sure, but one of the reasons why I think it is, is simply because the goyim don't have a yetzer hara. The goyim don't have a yetzer hara against kiruv like a Jew does. So a Jew, for him to get, to save one other Jew, there's an endless amount of reward for him. It's 310 worlds in Olam HaBa, it's a big thing. It's also one of his obligations in the world as far as gemilut chasadim. There's a big reward for it. A non-Jew also gets a reward, but it's nothing in comparison. The Jew gets a reward. The non-Jew gets a reward. But if the Jew doesn't do it, he gets punished. If the non-Jew doesn't do it, it's fine. No big deal, nothing. It's like there was a sandwich, you didn't eat it. Okay, good luck. You're not obligated to eat it. The Jew is obligated to eat it. He's obligated to do kiruv. He's obligated to save other people. Why? Everyone in Yisrael is obligated to save each other. We're responsible for each other. You can't just sit there and take care of yourself and not care about anybody else. So that's the thing that people just... I'm seeing a lot of people that are not Jewish but are extremely passionate about saving Jews. And they themselves...

1:58:33want to convert, but apparently Hashem wants them to show how much they love Am Yisrael first. Apparently maybe this is their Akedat Yitzchak. This is their sacrifice. And I'm sure that Hashem is going to reward them endlessly for it. Next. If someone has a parent that's not Jewish, let's say their parents are involved in the Jesus. you pray for both. If a non-Jew dies, according to halacha, you're allowed to say Kaddish for them. Even though it's a non-Jew, you're still allowed to say Kaddish for them. There are opinions that you're allowed to say Kaddish, but it doesn't do anything. But it's still allowed. And there are opinions that say you're allowed to do it, and it does do something. It helps them. Either way, I don't know of an opinion that says you're not allowed to say it. I know that you're allowed to say Kaddish. According to halacha, you're allowed to say Kaddish for them. Even though it's a non-Jew, you're still allowed to say Kaddish for them. There are opinions that you're allowed to say Kaddish, but it doesn't do anything. But it's still allowed. And there are opinions that say you're allowed to do it, and it does do something. It helps them. Either way, I don't know of an opinion that says you're not allowed to say it. I know that you're allowed to say Kaddish.

1:59:56If you're allowed to say Kaddish, which is a very, very, it's the highest level of prayer to Hashem, then obviously you're allowed to also say Refuah Sheleimah to different people. What's the raya also? There was a Mubarak, Mubarak from Egypt. He wasn't exactly the biggest supporter of Israel. He didn't like us so much. We had peace with him for a long time. Not because he liked us. What happened? He respected the Chachamim. He respected the Chachamim. And one time, he wanted to build a road in Egypt. And the road was going to go over a cemetery which had a very big tzaddik there. And Rav Ovadia called him, before he became the famous Rav Ovadia, but he was still well known. And Rav Ovadia called him and said, "Please don't do it. There's a big tzaddik there. We can't dishonor the chachamim." And Mubarak said, "You know, listen, it's going to cost millions of dollars to do the plans all over again. You know, to go around this whole grave, this, that. It's an enormous amount of money. It's a highway. It's not like a flag. It's an enormous amount of money to redo the thing."

2:01:23This is always how much is it, two million dollars? Let's say. I'll raise the money for you. I'll get the money, I'll get the money, you get the money, no problem. Rav Ovadia, after he decided he agreed, he gave him a blessing, and the blessing is to him that I put you mean to have long days, long days of success, long days in life, and so on and... We see that it actually came true. He was a leader for like 40 years, which is unheard of in the Arab world. Forty days here already, Muhammad, forty years—it's unheard of. And there was peace also between us and them, but then the Arabs went back to being Arabs. They wanted to kill him, arrest him, and this and that and everything happened. Rav Ovadia went out and said, "Pray for him." He prayed for him, and, mamash, a miracle... Akatov for what he did. He redesigned everything. Akatov is returning the favor. He prayed for him and mamash, through a miracle, they released him from prison, and everything was fine, which is unheard of in the Arab world. Once you're in prison, you don't come out, unlike these billionaires that the new prince of Saudi Arabia arrested. They're never leaving. They're never leaving the prison. They may leave as homeless people if they leave at all, but most likely they're not leaving alive. They're leaving as bodies. That's just the way it is.

2:02:50So it shows that obviously there is a—it's not necessarily what? We're not supposed to pray for people to die unless they're mesitim—unless they are people that actively seek out Jews and try to bring them away from mitzvot. Not if they just believe in something wrong or idol worship or whatever it is, but if they actively go after Jews, then you can pray for them to die. Because this is such a person that's a meisit, that's a min, that's someone that's considered worse than a murderer. And that person can be Jewish or not Jewish. So, if a person has a non-Jewish parent, if it's a convert to Judaism, obviously, the non-Jewish parent, or most of the time it's a convert, because if the father is not Jewish and the mother is Jewish, then it's still technically a Jew based on halacha. If one of the parents is not Jewish, you're still allowed to pray for them to have refuah shleimah, but at the same time, you should also always pray for them to see the truth, to do teshuvah, to leave this idolatry that they have. Try to help them one way or another, give them a CD, send a CD anonymously, whatever—try to do something to help them. That's the biggest favor you could ever do for them as a son or a daughter, is to get them to stop being an idol worshiper. But it's not easy. It's not easy. So,

2:04:16Your merits as a righteous person will definitely help them. Definitely help them. Next. Anyone? Yeah... It's a very good question. Can a Jew live with a non-Jew, in essence, if the non-Jew is his parent or her parent? Now, this is a very tricky question. And the reason why it's a very tricky question is because some people are not going to like the answer, because the answers will touch your emotions. And again, you have to understand that Halacha is not based on emotions.

2:05:24Halacha is based on the law of God, which sometimes is not going to make sense to you because you're a human being. So based on Halacha, once a person converts from being something else, from being an Arab, from being a Christian, from being a Buddhist, from being whatever, into being a Jew, they're no longer considered the son or daughter of their biological parents. They're biological parents. Obviously, Hashem knows they came from that body. But as far as them being their parent, they're not considered their parents. This answers the question in so many words. Because, is a Jewish man allowed to live with a woman that's not his wife? No. Is a Jewish man allowed to live with a woman that's not his wife and she's not Jewish? No. No.

2:06:25Yeah, but it's his mother. No, it's not. So that's the tricky issue. Now, if a person gets older or sick, are you allowed to take care of them? Yes, there are certain leniencies when it comes to certain things like that. You have to go to the Torah. You have to look really, really deep into the Halacha and make sure that you're following all of the different rules that you need to follow. But as a rule of thumb, if your mom is perfectly healthy, your dad is perfectly healthy, are you allowed to live with them? No. So now I'll give you an example. There was actually someone that came to one of my shiurim, and she converted. She converted to Judaism, a righteous convert, and she told me, you know, I'm very scared because ever since I converted, I've been having these strange dreams, these strange spiritual experiences, which are part of the shiur b'Gehenom. They're in a horrible, horrible situation. Horrible. She sees things when she's awake. She sees things when she's asleep. She sees things when she's this. It's like one of these horror stories. She says, "I went to a rabbi. I went to a mekubal. I went to this. I went to that. I read this sefer. I read that sefer. Nothing changes. It's been years—four years. I have this thing."

2:07:53Four years, not like four months, four days, four hours. Four years, I have this thing. Now, I'm not a Kabbalist. I'm not a Mekubal. I'm not anything. But I have a little common sense, and I learned a little Torah from my Rav. And this is not the first time I heard this thing. So anyway, so I told her, wait, so where do you live? And she says, I live in so-and-so. I said, where do your parents live? She says, Well, they live in the same place. He said, what do you mean? You live in a different house? No, no, we live in the same house. My original biological dad is not there. The mom remarried to another guy and so on and so forth. And they're idol worshipers, especially the new father, the new husband is an idol worshiper, like an idol worshiper with a degree. the mom is like agnostic, she cares less about everything, and there's a little righteous Jewish girl. I said, okay, there you go. That's it. That's your issue. That's what's creating all those spirits and things and this and that. That's it.

2:09:08Yeah, that's it. Just why did all the other rabbis say the mekubalim and the mekubalim to this one, to that one, the folded ones, this one, the one with the big hat, the small hat, the big book, the small book, the black book, the yellow book. How come no one else said it? I don't know. Their problem. That's what's happening. So, I have to move? I said you do. Why should I move? I said today. Unless you want to see, you know, these things more. You want to see them climbing your walls and your... Did it work? Yes. She moved right away. And Baruch Hashem, I think within less than three months, four months, not only did it stop right away—all those things stopped right away. Right away, like instantly, as if it was a cure. Stopped right away. But Baruch Hashem, after she left, she had Siyata Dishmaya and I believe she got married within a couple of months. So, you don't have to be a Mekubal to use your common sense. Avodah Zarah... affects the Jewish neshama in a very, very horrendous way, in a way that the non-Jewish neshama cannot understand. Many people talk to me, and they send me emails, and they send me different things about how they have night terrors or they have these dreams that are—what is it called? Where, in essence, they're awake, but they can't move their body. I forgot what it's called.

2:10:37sleep paralysis. They have—they see things and all that stuff. All of it is connected to idol worship. All of it. 100%. 100%. It's all connected to idol worship one way or another. You have a statue in your house, you have an idol worshiper in your house, something is happening. It's 100% from idol worship. You have a coin. I'll give you a story. There was a guy... Real story. I wanted to say, I forget which book it was that I read, but I have it in my house. I'll show it to you if you want. The guy has no luck, no money, no nothing. One day, he finds a coin. Finds a coin. Since the day he finds the coin, things change. Why? The coin talks to him. The little coin talks to him. The coin says to him, "Listen, Mr. Jew, yeah?"

2:11:37Listen, go to this market. Give this guy five shekels for his beans. I'll tell you where they go. You can sell them for 15 bucks. The coin talks; are you going to listen or not? You listen. He goes, he buys the beans for $5, sells them for $15, and makes a $10 profit. Focus on the mitzvah. Give maaser now. So he goes and he does. You fast forward, and all of a sudden, this little guy with no money, no this, no luck, no nothing, becomes a gvir, ashir, gadol, really rich. Eventually, he becomes mamash well-to-do. And no one knows the secret. One day, the gadol hador, the original Rav Pinto, the original Rav Pinto, alav ha-shalom... Comes to the city, and he says, why don't you go meet the gvir, the ashir, the wealthy guy. He comes to his house, and he says to him, well, your father was very rich. The chachamim are very chachamim. They're called chachamim for a reason. He says, your father was very rich? No, no, not so much. You invented something? No, not so much. He goes, what's the secret?

2:12:56No, no, come on, what's the secret? Listen, because you're a Kevod HaRav, I'm not worried that you're about money or anything, but listen, Kevod HaRav, let me show you. He takes him to a private room, he opens a safe, and another safe, and a safe inside a safe, and a safe inside a safe, opens, got a little coin over there. Rav Pinto says to him, this coin has the Tumah of Avodah Zarah inside it. Inside it is the foundation of avodah zarah. You must destroy it. You must get rid of everything. The coin must be destroyed. This is a very difficult test. People think that these mystical things don't happen or that they're far from the truth. I'm sure there's going to be at least one or two skeptics who make fun of the story. Like I wrote it, like I made it up, like I'm getting paid off by everybody—the Pinto family—every time I say the story. But this is Am Yisrael. If you don't believe in miracles, you don't believe in Am Yisrael. We survived by a miracle. We are a miracle. We ourselves are a miracle. If you don't believe in these things that are beyond the norm, you don't believe in Am Yisrael. You don't believe in the Torah. You don't believe in anything. And that's the thing.

2:14:20When it's Am Yisrael, and that's Kodesh. Hashem made the Torah and Am Yisrael part of Him. So when you bring the polar opposite, the Tum'ah, the impurity of the world, which is Avodah Zarah, which is nothing, you bring that and you connect it with Kodesh, the impact is extraordinary. It's as if you bring a simple little Jew, doesn't know anything, he's a little innocent 13- or 14-year-old kid... Keeper, a little bigger than a quarter, has a couple of tzitziot. Everything's fine. There's not much to become, not big. Anything—you bring a little kid, you bring a little missionary, a statue, a cross, or any one of these things next to him. Now, you can't see it with your eyes, but if you could, it would look—I'll give you the image—it would look like 30 atomic bombs just went off. Why? This is one end, this is the other. This is purity, this is impurity. And it creates an atomic bomb. So, this also affects the non-Jews too. Not to the same level, because they don't have the same level of kedusha, but nonetheless, it affects them. And Hashem hates it. Hashem hates, detests,

2:15:45These Avodah Zarah, this idol worship. So that's why you see all of these tsunamis, all of these hurricanes, all of these natural disasters happen in the capitals of Avodah Zarah in the world. All of the capitals of Avodah Zarah in the world, that's where this stuff happens. You see major disasters happen in those places. Baruch Hashem, they're not happening in Bnei Brak. happening to me while they're happening in different places. Why is that? What does that have to do with us? It lies in the destruction of the world. So, that's the thing that people need to understand. I'll finish it off with this unless you have more questions. Quick questions, because then people complain about you guys. I'll finish it off with this. You have somebody? No? So I'll finish off with this. The...

2:16:48Marama says that Shabbat talks about why it is that on Hanukkah you light the candles. Why did Beit Hillel win the battle? Beit Shammai said you are supposed to light eight candles, then seven candles, then six candles, and five candles, and so on and so forth. Beit Hillel says, no, no, the opposite: one candle, then two candles, then three candles, then four candles, and... Why? He says, you increase Kedusha. You don't go lower in Kedusha. You don't go by 8 Kedusha, 7 Kedusha, less Kedusha. You increase Kedusha in the world. You increase purity in the world. You increase holiness in the world. You don't decrease it. But Beit Shammai says, no. I have a Re'ayah. I have a proof that we decrease. What's the proof? The proof is Sukkot. Sukkot. What's Sukkot? Sukkot, we bring 70 Korbanot. 70 cows. Each cow costs $10,000. Seventy cows are offered on the first day, then fewer each subsequent day. Why seventy? The seventy represent the seventy nations. The Gemara in Masechet Sukkah says that if the goyim knew what Am Yisrael does for them with those korbanot, with those sacrifices of the cows, they would send their armies and...

2:18:08Protect the Beit HaMikdash. That's how much good those sacrifices were doing for them, but they're foolish. They decided to destroy the Beit HaMikdash that was protecting them. You see, we have 70 cows for the 70 nations, but each day it's less, each day it's less, each day it's less. Just like Beit Shammai says with the Chanukiyah. No, it's not the same. It's not the same. Why is it not the same? I... The parot, the cows, are representing the nations of the world. It's representing the material of the world, the physicality of the world, the Greece of the world, the Edom of the world, the basics of the world, material, money, all of that stuff. Torah is telling you, lower it. The oil, the candle, is representing the Kedusha. It's representing Torah. You increase it. You increase it. You don't lower it. It's not the same. You increase it. So now, one of the Chachamim, one of his students, he was explaining this to him. And he says to him, when a cow is eating, a cow is eating, what's he thinking about? What's he thinking about? Well, the cow is probably not thinking. Don't be a cow. But more so, the cow is thinking that, look at all these people. They're serving me. They won't stop giving me food.

2:19:37What's he thinking about? What's he thinking about? Well, the cow is probably not thinking. Don't be a cow. But more so, the cow is thinking that, "Look at all these people. They're serving me. They won't stop giving me food." At a minimum, the biggest cow in the world. At a minimum, the greatest. I'm the gadol hador of the cows. Look, they're all serving me. This guy brought me grass. This guy brought me a wig. This guy brought me a... they're all feeding me. They're all serving me. They're all doing one... look. Little does it know, the Baalei Mussar say, little does it know, they're all feeding you because they're going to slaughter you later on. Now the olive, the little olive, what does he think when they're crushing him? They're crushing him and they squeeze him and they crush him and they squeeze him and they crush him and they squeeze him. What is he thinking? Look at the cow. They're all serving this cow. They're all serving this cow. They're giving her food. How come I can't be a cow? How come I can't be a cow? But what happens? The cow eventually is slaughtered. It's material. It's worthless. It goes away.

2:21:03Aleph becomes oil that lasts eternally. So, my friends, don't be cows. Be an Aleph. Baruch Adonai le'olam, amen ve'amen.