Hanukkah Special It’s Time To Pick A Side

0:13A shiur today is going to be a little different than what we've been doing for a while now. We have the series; I think we just did 83 yesterday. A lot of really good feedback, especially one of the... things we talked about yesterday, of course, came true today. We talked about what was happening with Donald Trump and there were rumors that he's going to announce that the United States is supporting the opinion that Yerushalayim is the capital of Eretz Yisrael. Not that that really changes anything as far as Eretz Yisrael, but in the eyes of the world it does. So on the good side, he did announce it today, which is a big surprise. Usually these rumors go nowhere, so it was a very big surprise.

1:25On the bad side, the other part of what we said is also, unfortunately, a very big possibility, which is that a war is about to start. Because the Arabs, whether it's Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, or whatever other terrorist friends they have, all of these people pretty much said that all bets are off, all negotiations are off, b'shem Hashem, and they vowed to have three days of Gehenom that they're trying to bring to the world. It's not that b'shem Hashem is just going to be a Gehenom for them, but nonetheless, this is a sad reality that we're living in. So before we talk a little bit more about that, we'll do the refuah shlema. Refuah shlema, a special refuah shlema to Levana bat Sara, Sara bat Levana, Mikael Koto, Amparo Belufe, Reuven Yosef ben Rivka, Doris bat Zhora, David ben Nesria, Sara Lea bat Sara, Gladys Nunez,

2:31Melissa Norato Suarez, Bat Miriam Suarez, Lourdes Rensoli, Yehoshua Mikhael ben Hadassah, Patricia Valmana, Michelle Valmana, Sonia Suarez, Nicole Valmana, Agustin Hernandez, Jorge Hernandez, Elizabeth Bentancourt, Liliana Antebonia, Gilberto Beneses, Jaqueline Rojas, Edaya Garcia, Pablo Lorenzo, Miriam Bat-Sara, Jocelyn Morrejon, Ada Vazquez, Enid Vazquez, Suncher Vazquez, Sarah Gutierrez, Diego Hernandez, Devorah Bat-Mercedes, Yehuda Ben-Devorah, Miriam Bat-Mazal, Roselo Bat-Norah, Elisheva Chaya Bat-Sarah, Amber Bat-Noach, Rose—oh, I can't say her name twice—and Zechariah Ben-Anat, and all of Am Yisrael, oh, and Nadalia Romero, and Lindsay Meesters, and Miriam—all the Miriams in the Rabanut of Hashem.

3:35We'll have, and all of our, all of the people that love Hashem, may they have, the issue of having health is always a good reminder. Always a good reminder for the chesed, the chesed that Hashem gives you each day. That not only are you alive, but you're alive and able to function without having pain. Now, most people, Baruch Hashem, don't really know the difference. Most people, when you tell them, "Oh, listen, you know, I had pain, you should appreciate that you don't have pain," respond, "Pain? What do you mean? Like if I broke a finger? What do you mean if I hit the door with my toe or something? What do you mean pain?" No, if you have pain just existing, like you wake up in pain, you go to sleep in pain, in the afternoon you're in pain, in the night in pain, you wake up from sleep. Not because of a bad dream. You wake up from pain. You go to the bathroom, you're in pain, even more pain. You know anything about that? No. Oh, you should thank Hashem for that. You should thank Hashem for that. How do I thank Hashem for something? I don't know. Find a way.

4:57Find a way. Why? Because if you ask anyone what it's like to be in pain, not for a whole day, not for seven years or ten years, for an hour—one hour, one hour, one hour of pain. I'm not even talking about level 10 pain, Gehinnom pain. I'm talking about, yeah, you have a headache for an hour. Imagine you have a toothache. A toothache for an hour. Toothache for an hour. Imagine a toothache. You have to get a root canal. You have a toothache for an hour. Just imagine that. It's so important for people to understand this because this is the way that you can get both Yirah and Ahavah. You have Yirah, Hashem, thank God you don't punish me, Hashem Shalom, this could be a million and a half times worse if I don't do teshuva, so that's already Yirah. On top of it, you have Ahavah. Why Ahavah? You love Hashem, He's not giving it to you. I meet so many people and they have all these different machalot. Hashem, sick, this one's sick, that one's sick, this one can't go to sleep, this one is sleeping all the time, this one is in pain, doesn't know why.

6:14The doctors don't know. The doctors do know, but they're wrong. You know, you have to thank Hashem. You have to thank Hashem. And I tell you guys all the time, one of the things that is a good reminder, they say it's a segula for refuah sheleimah. If the sages say that if you say with full kavana, full kavana every time, not once, every time, every time you go to the bathroom, number two, number one, it doesn't make a difference. Every time you go to the bathroom, you say with full kavana, you look at the words. Now everybody remembers it after a hundred times you do it, everybody's going to remember it. But you look at the words, you look at the words every single time, you must mean it, you'll never get sick. To that extent. To that extent. So that's actually one of the reasons why we made the posters. Number one, because I appreciate what it means to have refuah shleimah. But even more so, people really don't know the significance of it until it's too late. Until you're sick. Until you're sick. So we have on the website, we have the store. Anyone that wants to get it, it's available on the store. Anyone that wants to just write it down, print it, whatever. It doesn't make a difference. I'm not trying to make money here. The point is, at least say it for yourself.

7:31Because I'm telling you, I just had someone tell me, just today, just today, someone tell me, you know what? Now I finally know, now I finally know when you said, I said in one of my shiurim, I said, you know, I got so sick, I couldn't even sleep. I would wake up from sleep from pain. And she tells me, you know, I don't know, what does it mean you wake up from sleep? I go to sleep, I wake up the next day. Sometimes I don't want to wake up, I want to sleep two days. What do you mean you wake up from sleep from pain? What does that mean? She said, "I had pain. I woke up from pain. I had pain. I woke up from pain," she says. "Now I understand what you said. People don't understand what it means to be healthy. You don't understand what it means to be healthy. And every minute that you're healthy, every minute you're not suffering, you should thank Hashem. That's a special gift from Hashem. He doesn't owe you. See? Smart guy. You should listen to him." so the, uh, the flash to my list is always good to remind us of what's out there, the benefits that Hashem gives us every day that we're healthy. The fact that you're able to come here, sit down for an hour, two hours, three hours—sometimes longer—and actually listen to this shiur without saying "ow," all that stuff, it's a kindness from Hashem.

9:00So now the question is that we have right now, we have this amazing series of mussar, but now we have a really big question that I think has yet to be answered that has a lot to do with this holiday of Chanukah. Chanukah, as we said recently, is a favorite holiday. Religious Jews love it. Secular Jews love it. The Reform Jews love it. The Conservative, the Orthodox, the Goyim. I mean, everybody loves it. There's nothing like Chanukah. Even some of these people... have office parties. You know these companies have office parties. They may have 300 employees, one Jew. They don't have a menorah in the office for him. Well, no, it's nice. There's nothing wrong with the menorah. You never see them having a machzor for Yom Kippur in the office. You never see them having one of the sifrei Torah in the office for the one Jew. No, but Chanukah, they put the menorah. What's the big deal? What's the big deal putting a menorah? It's nice. It's lights, shiny.

10:23Why do all of these people put up a menorah? Why is it such a favorite holiday? It's such a favorite holiday that out of all the holidays we have—Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, everything—every one of these holidays has a special section in the Gemara, in the Oral Torah, written about them. A whole tractate. So all of the fasts have a section in the Torah called Masechet Ta'anit. Tractate of Ta'anit, that's about all of the holidays that have to do with fasting: Yom Kippur, Tisha B'Av, Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, and so on and so forth. All the fasts are in there. Rosh Hashanah has its own tractate, Masechet Rosh Hashanah. A few sections in there are very scary. You look at page 17, Shem Yirachem. Page 17 Rosh Hashanah says some people get so wicked in Shamayim, Their punishment never ends. Source in the Torah. People always say, no, no, it's only one year. No, it's a source in the Torah. It's much longer. Then you have Sukkot, Masechet Sukkah. Pesach, Masechet Pesachim. Everything has. Purim, Masechet Megillah. Such a beautiful Masechet Megillah. Honestly, I think it's one of my favorites, if not my favorite. Such a beautiful Masechet. Talks about so many different things.

11:47Whether it's Moshe Rabbeinu, or it's Megillat Esther, or it's different rebukes and stories. Beautiful Masechet. You must, must read it. At least a hundred times. So, every holiday has one. Except Chanukah. Chanukah doesn't have one. They mention it a little bit in Masechet Shabbat. That's it. Masechet Shabbat, which is a big masechet, has almost 160 pages. Big masechet. Beautiful. And they mention it in the beginning. In the beginning of Masechet Shabbat, after they talk about the issur, how it's forbidden to take something from a public place to a private place without there being any eruv, they go into it and they go into the rules of... Hanukkah, which side to light the candles? Beit Shammai said that really you're supposed to light the candles, all eight on the first day, then seven on the second day, then six on the third day, and five, and four, and three, and two. And Beit Hillel says, no, no, no, it's one on the first day, two on the second day, the opposite, three on the third day, and so on. They have a debate, and in the end, it was decided that we go with Beit Hillel.

13:11Why? Because you don't lower from Kedusha. You're always supposed to increase Kedusha. This is also the reason someone asked me recently, what happens when a woman has kisuy rosh? She's married. She has kisuy rosh, Baruch Hashem. Kosher kisuy rosh, not a wig or anything. She has a scarf or a hat. And something happens, she got divorced. Or perhaps, Hashem, there's death in the family. So does she take off the kisuy rosh? Because she's single now, technically. She's single. She's a single woman. She doesn't have to cover her hair. What's the answer? The answer is, you do not lower from Kedusha. Once you got used to kisuy rosh, you don't take it off, even if you're single. So how are they going to know you're single? Hashem will take care of that. Hashem will take care of it. You go to a shadchan and you tell them she's single. No problem. Why? You don't lower in Kedusha. Once you do something, you don't stop. So that's how they decided in the Gemara which side goes. Hillel, you keep increasing in Kedusha. Every day there's another candle. Every day there's more Kedusha. Every day there's another candle. Shammai said 8-7. So in essence, you're lowering Kedusha. They agreed. No, we go with Beit Hillel. Okay, no problem.

14:37But still, how come there's no tractate for it? Well, you couldn't make just 10, 20, 30 pages in there just for a little tractate. Tell us a few halachot, tell us a few sipurim, something. One of the explanations—there are several, obviously, there are several opinions—but one of the most popular opinions is that Chanukah is such a beloved holiday, people love it so much, that they all remember the rules. They all remember the story. at least the synopsis of everything, that we don't need to really include it in the Oral Torah because it's become part of us. I had a chiddush last week where I said, really, it's a little different. It's a nice explanation. Yes, it is a beloved holiday, but the reality is it's beloved for the wrong reason. The reason why it's beloved by both secular and

15:38religious by Reform, Orthodox, Messianic, and real Jews that are actually following Torah, not making up their own Torah, which is only Orthodox at this point. The reason why they all love it is It's simply because the side that doesn't follow Torah thinks that it's an irreligious holiday. It's an irreligious holiday. It's a holiday where technically you don't have to do anything. Okay, you light the menorah, it's fun. You light the menorah, you eat the sufganiyot, the big donuts, fat donuts. Some people say maybe the eight days of Hanukkah is because you eat one donut, you have to run for eight days just to lose all the weight from one donut. But really, the Jewish donuts, the sufganiyot, if you actually have an authentic one, it's a little piece of Gan Eden. So, some people say, you eat some donuts, you play the dreidel, you light the candles, it's fun, it's shiny. Who's better than you? The chiddush is.

17:01It's if anyone actually understands the background of Chanukah, the real story of Chanukah, you'd actually realize that not only are they wrong for thinking it's not a religious holiday, it's actually the symbol of the most religious holiday. It's actually the most religious holiday of all holidays. It's the exact opposite of And our ignorance is the only reason we think otherwise. I have to admit, I didn't always think that. I thought it was a fun holiday, even when I wasn't religious. Hashem will forgive me, B'ezrat Hashem, hopefully one day. I also celebrate Chanukah every year. What? It's easy. You light some candles, you look at them for a little while, you go and do your business. It's pretty. Little did I know that it's the most religious holiday.

18:03And that's one of the things we're going to talk about today. What makes Chanukah the most religious holiday? Now, last night we talked about how the prophets say that at the end of days Before the Mashiach comes, there's going to be a lot of balagan in the world, a lot of problems in the world, to say the least. This is not a secret; you don't need to be religious to know that there are a lot of problems in the world. Whether you look towards places like Venezuela, where literally the government is starving its own people, some of them being Jewish... You're looking at places like the United States where every other day there is a conspiracy theory. Every other day, there's some government official that's either missing or doing something wrong. Strange deaths are occurring, connected to certain politicians. A lot of strange things are happening and...

19:23Go to Israel, you look at the cabinet, the makeup of their government. They actually have the enemy inside the government; the terrorists are members of the government. If that's not stupid, I don't know what is. You see North Korea is pressing the button, hopefully hoping that one of the missiles is actually going to work. Iran can't wait for a fight. Everyone is ready. There's a lot of problems in the world. Saudi Arabia obviously is having its own revolution. The guy pretty much took his whole family, threw them all in jail, and has been torturing them for the last couple of weeks. But no one can tell him otherwise. Problems in the world, this is just a small token of it. It's an understatement. Disease is at an all-time high. It looks like people are all healthy. It looks because, you know, I say, listen, we have the cure for this, we have the cure for this, we have the cure for this, but if you look at the statistics, a lot of people are dying. A lot of people are dying. Whether it be from drug overdoses, or from cancer, or from AIDS, or from all types of other diseases, some we know of, some we don't know of, people are dying left and right.

20:39You want to get the press, you read a paper, you just look at the obituary, you just see how many people died today and then yesterday and then every day. You don't have enough time to get to know people; you already see them in the paper. People are having so many difficulties. It's difficult to simply mail something now. Some things are very simple. You want to buy something, it's always very simple. You press a button, it comes to your house. You want to return it? It's kaparat avonot. You have to call this one, convince that one, convince another one. Certain things in life, there are always different problems, strange things. As you get older, your body changes, strange pains, strange ideas, sleeplessness, friends are no longer friends. The meaning of life, it's not the same thing as it was when you were 20.

21:40Everyone is stressed out all the time, chasing dollars, fighting for survival even if they're making a ton of money. It seems like everyone is on the same rat race. And everyone is fighting "the man." Who's "the man"? Some illusion that they have in their mind who they're competing against. Initially, it's their colleague, Sometimes it's their spouse. Sometimes it's their best friend. Sometimes it's the neighbor. Sometimes it's the government. Sometimes it's the doctor. Sometimes it's the lawyer. Sometimes it's the competition. It's always everyone fighting someone. And you see people are struggling. Mamash struggling to survive. One day they're married. The next day they're not sure if they should have been married. One day they're this. Everybody's struggling. And very rarely do you see people happy. Genuinely happy. they may have happy moments. They just got a new thing, a new something material. They got a new car, a new house. They had a baby. They went on vacation. It's happy moments. But genuinely happy, you wake up in a day and you're like, Baruch Hashem, I'm alive. Not so many people. So now when you tell them, "Listen, on top of all the problems you're already dealing with,"

23:04There's greater problems ahead that are gonna make all of your problems today seem completely meaningless. Sick, not sick, headache, no headache, money, no money, family, no family—all of those things that you think are significant in one moment, it's all going to become worthless in front of what's ahead. Hashem, this is not our opinion; this is what's in the Torah. Book of Zechariah chapter 14. The entire chapter 14 is as scary as it could possibly be. We're not going to read the whole thing, just the first couple of verses. And it says: "Behold, the day is coming for Hashem, when your spoils will be divided in your midst. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for a war. The city will be captured..." Houses will be pillaged and the women will be violated. Half of the city will go out into exile, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the city. Hashem will go out and wage war with those nations as He waged war on the day of battle. It continues and it continues, talks about how the Mount of Olives will split into two, and...

24:33Moshiach will come, but before that happens, it talks about what's actually going to happen. If you actually look at the verses, you don't need a Midrash to understand; if you just have some basic knowledge of the weapons today, he's literally describing a nuclear war. Now, for many years, people wondered why anyone would care about Yerushalayim. It's ruined. They ruined it 2,000 years ago. No one cared about it really for the last couple of thousand years other than the Jews. Why is everyone going to Yerushalayim all of a sudden? Maybe there's something wrong with the prophecy? Maybe it's not going to come true? Maybe Hashem decided against it. Maybe, really, this big war already happened. Because everyone tells me, no, some rabbi told me that Gog and Magog, the war, the last war, already happened. It was really World War I or maybe World War II. But it's over. Now we're already at the time of Mashiach. We just have to have the Mashiach and say, what's up, man? And that's it, go back to our life. It happened already. What are we so scared about? What's the problem? What's the real reason they're saying this?

25:51The real reason is because most people don't really want the Mashiach to come, because despite how many problems they have, they think that their sickness is actually healthy. They think that their spiritual sickness, their distance from Hashem, their bad character traits, the fact that they're chasing money, the fact that they're hopeful that one day it will be better, is already good enough. Why should I change it? What’s this Mashiach gonna do for me? I'm busy taking care of my problems because I'm I'm this close to being okay. I'm this close to getting the house I want. I'm this close to getting the wife I want, or the car I want, or the job I want. I'm this close to buying this. I'm this close to that. Everyone's this close. Everyone's really close. It's like, why isn't Mashiach Tzidkeinu going to ruin it? No, no, it already happened. It already happened. We're already in Gan Eden. Everything is okay. Everybody is so busy and so worked up where they're at right now. Don't change it. Don't ruin it for me right now. Religious, not religious, leave us alone. Well, Chanukah, okay, just light the candles. Light the candles. It's a nice holiday. But everyone was always wondering how is this all gonna happen and we are seeing it in front of our eyes. Today was an announcement. We talked about it yesterday as a possibility and today it became a reality.

27:19where Donald Trump decided to agree with the fact that Yerushalayim is the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy to Yerushalayim from Tel Aviv. Now, this may not seem like such a big deal for anyone who is not really aware of how much the Arabs hate us, but for anyone that's living outside of Eretz Yisrael, realized that this is, in essence, as big if not worse for the Arabs, in their minds, than 1948 when the United Nations voted in favor of Israel becoming an independent country. In their minds, all of this time there was always a chance that the world was going to be in favor of a fake nation of Palestine and say, oh, yeah, let's kick out all the Jews that are occupying their own land, but we're calling it our land. And technically, they had a lot of support for it for many years. The news stations even supported them, but now that you have the president of the United States saying otherwise officially

28:34Even going to put a stamp there by saying, "I'm moving my embassy to where? To the capital." So they decided that all negotiations are off. We're declaring war. And anyone that read this pasuk would realize that Yishmael just declared war on Esav. Nate, this is not a war between the Palestinians and the Jews; that's already been there. This is not a war between the Arabs and the Jews; that's already been there. There's nothing new. It's a chiddush. But just like the pasuk says that Hashem is going to make everyone fight over Yerushalayim. Why is everyone fighting because of today? Today is the reason why they're gonna fight. They said it's okay for Yerushalayim to be the capital and... The other side says, "No, it's not just one Arab country; all of them, even the ones that say, 'No, we don't really care,' they care. Everyone cares. So now you have literally the world split into two." And then the Midrash goes that initially the war starts with Yishmael against Esav. But then, unfortunately, the next chapter is that eventually, after they go to war and beat each other up for some time and...

29:59decided that it's all the fault of the Jews. The only other side left, and they go against on the side, and that's why it says in the same pasuk that Yerushalayim will be captured. Yerushalayim being captured for nine months, according to the sages. The sages say they're gonna be captured. So, for all of those people that are asking me all the time whether I should do Aliyah or move to Israel... because maybe it's safer there, or live in America because it's safer there, or go to some island and it's safer there, and it's safer there, and it's safer there, all over, you know, different safe places. The reality is that the only Aliyah that's going to make you safer is the Aliyah in your Avodat Hashem. Raising the stakes in your Avodat Hashem, your serving of Hashem, that's the only thing that's going to save you. Gemara HaMasechet Sanhedrin

31:00Asks what's gonna happen at the end of times? Very scary things or prophecies called Chevlei Mashiach. Chevlei Mashiach means like the contractions before a woman gives birth. It's the worst part. Baruch Hashem, I never felt it. The contractions are the worst part and the sages say... Righteous as they were, each one of them you named by name is able to revive the dead, Kodesh Kodashim. Each one of them says, "I don't want to be alive. I don't want to be alive when it happens." Why? It's gonna be very difficult. So what's gonna save whoever's alive? It says only two things. Rabbi Elazar says only two things are gonna save us: Torah and Gemilut Chassadim. Following the Torah and being glued to it. doing overwhelming kindness, meaning saving neshamot, helping people above and beyond the norm. Not just giving a five-dollar donation or a hundred-dollar donation, but doing something above and beyond. Instead of just giving to some

32:13Nonprofit organization you don't really know anything about, you give one that's associated with Torah, associated with Hashem. You have to think about it instead of just giving it to anyone that has his hand out. You think about it: Is this person going to do something that's against Hashem? If not, you have to think about these things. I mean, if it's small money, it's small money, but I'm talking about you have to act wisely with every decision you make and... Doing kiruv is the highest level of kindness, bringing people to lectures, giving them CDs, sending them, you know, a link, helping people get closer to Hashem. It's the highest level of kindness. Why? Because you are saving neshamot. People always ask me, "Markets are at all-time highs." I don't follow it, but they tell me all the time, "Markets are at all-time highs." Lately, I've been getting a lot of messages and emails from people asking me for investment advice. I tell them I don't give investment advice. I don't do it for money in Bnei Brak, and I'm definitely not going to do it for free either. But they keep asking, figuring, "You know, if it's free, why not?"

33:26And I keep asking, why don't you just go back into the market? Maybe make a few million. You could do it. You know, they give me the whole yetzer hara of why I should go back into it. They're already working. Yetzer hara sends them. One, two, three, four, five a week. Five a week remind me. And you know, there's tests. There's constant tests with money. It's constant tests with money. I had a guy ask me to... An investment for him, management investment, was practically begging me, begging me to do it for him, manage the money for him. Now, I know the work, obviously—I did it for almost 20 years. In reality, maybe 20 minutes of actual work. Let's say I'm rusty; I have to catch up. Let's say it's five hours of work. It's not, but let's say it's five hours of work. Five hours of work. Five hours of work. I make no less than $20,000. No less than $20,000 in reality. It's 20 minutes of work. 20 minutes of work, $20,000, meaning I'm making a good amount of money. But even if it's fine, even if it's 10 hours of work, 10 hours of work, anybody working for 10 hours making $20,000, it's a good deal, right? Now, he's begging me to take it. He's begging me. He's practically giving me the money. I don't know. No, thank you. This was three weeks ago.

34:49And before him, there was also another guy. And after him, there was another guy. Every other day, it's mamash like when I was in the business, I had to beg people to do business with me in the beginning. Now they want to do business. Okay, I'm sad about Hashem. No, no, not interested. No, thank you. No, no, but please, with this, with that, I'll pay you. I'll pay you more. Not interested. Same day, I do a whole shiur. I travel somewhere far away, seven hours, three hours, yet another hour and a half or two of questions and answers, after another two hours of traveling, seven hours. I think seven, eight hours, and they donated $30. Same day. Same day. He offered me $20,000 for 20 minutes worth of work. I got $30. It's a test. Anyone agree it's a test? $20,000 or $30? It's a test. It's a good test, right? Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem for this test. So people ask me, why? Are you crazy? Is something wrong with you? You get manna from Shamayim. You're already at that level. I don't get manna from Shamayim. And that $20,000 is a lot more money than I have. So why? The real reason is this.

35:58I know that most of the world, whether they're religious or not, Orthodox or otherwise, does not even understand the significance of Chanukah. Chanukah. Simple Chanukah. They don't understand what Chanukah is. I have to do it. I have to do this. I have to. Because... Most people don't realize it's pikuach nefesh. Every single time you do a shiur, every single time you have a conversation with someone after the shiur, before the shiur, every single time you bring more Torah to the world, that's telling people and convincing them to mamash wake up out of their slumber and ask Hashem, "Okay, what do You want? What can I do?" and start doing it. and you see it's working, you realize it's all pikuach nefesh. There are lives on the line, and people are being saved on a daily basis. So now, it doesn't matter if you love someone or you hate someone. It doesn't matter if you know them or you don't know them. If somebody told you, listen, if you're a normal human being, if you're a psychopath, and it's not for you, you shouldn't watch it anyway, you should go to a mental institution. If you're a normal human being and somebody told you, listen, I'll give you $20,000 to kill him

37:28Anyone would do it, anyone would kill somebody for $20,000 if you're a normal person, no, right? Or if he said, no, don't actually go kill him, don't kill him. I'll give you $20,000 now just to look the other way. Don't kill him, just look the other way, go somewhere else, go to the store, go to the deli, buy Bamba. Go buy some Snapple, make yourself a sandwich. 20 minutes. That's it. 20 minutes, an hour. He's gonna die, but what do you care? You don't even know him. Will it hurt you if he dies? Will you care if he dies? That's what's on the line. Spending 20 minutes, an hour, five hours, or six hours doing a deal, someone has to die. You have to be heartless to do it when you know the truth. Not everyone is given the talent, ability, or merit to do it. If you're given it, you have to take the bull by the horns and run with it. Now, what do I keep saying that most people don't know the point of Chanukah? And for most of my life, myself included, most people think that Chanukah is a holiday where we won some war, a few people fought, there was some miracle with the war, a few beat many, and then there was the miracle with the oil. And everyone together, we clap, yay, yay, yay, and that's it, we eat some sufganiyot.

38:59Anything with oil on it is also good. Want to make schnitzel, want to make sufganiyot, want to put them together, whatever you want to eat, just celebrate. They think that's the holiday. But the reality is that Chanukah is by far the most extensive, as far as example, of religiosity today. If anyone reads the history books of what happened, you read Chazal, you read the Sages, you read what actually happened. You see those many miracles. As a matter of fact, you see that the Chashmonaim, Matityahu and his sons, had unnatural strength. And Sefer HaGilgulim explains that they were the Gilgulim, they were the reincarnations of some of the tribes, some of the 12 tribes that we read about this week. Yehuda, son of Matityahu, who was the first leader, was the Gilgul, the reincarnation of Yehuda from this week's parashah. Yehuda from this week's parashah, if you read the Midrash, had unnatural strength similar to the superhero, the fake cartoon character Hulk—very similar. Even more so, if you read the Midrash, you read the sefarim about the kind of power he had. Just one roar, one roar, would kill thousands of people.

40:26Not talking about hitting them, rather, he roared. They were so scared that people would fall off the walls to their deaths. One roar could destroy two cities. The fights that they had, if you actually read at the end of last week's parashah, there's a Midrash Ma'am Loez, Midrash Rabbah, and several others that discuss the wars of the shevatim, the wars of the twelve tribes. It's mamash—you realize this is where comic books came from. Where did it come from? Everything that you actually read about today or see in movies today—the powers, superpowers, Hulk, and the Wolverines, and the Flash, and all these different characters—actually comes from the Torah. You see exactly all the powers you see in the movies actually existing in the Torah from three thousand three hundred years ago. Actually, in this case, four thousand years ago. They actually existed. The Shevatim killed... Tens of thousands of people, each in single battles. They didn't need armies; they were the army. One of them was the army and

41:32You read some of these stories, it's so much, it's like amazing. The first time I read it, I'm like, this is like the greatest thing in the world. My wife and I were like fighting over the book. No, you finish. Oh, so we take turns. And then we decide, we'll read it together. It's unbelievable. You know, it's the last thing you expect from Torah. Torah, you think, oh, it's Moshe, you know, nice guy, maybe tzaddik with some peyos or something. What do you expect? You don't know anything. There's kiddush, yayin, shalom aleichem, shalom aleichem, and that's it. But the family all can go home. What do you expect when you don't know anything? What you saw in the movies maybe, he held some two tablets, it was nice. They messed it up, he broke them, he had to go buy a new one. Expensive people, unappreciative. You read this stuff, it's unbelievable. But the Shevatim also made a mistake. In this week's parasha, you actually see it. Right in the beginning of the parasha, it says that Yosef was more connected with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, the two Shefachot. He was more connected to them. But then right after it, it says that his brothers hated him. Meaning, here is where Sinat Chinam among Am Yisrael started.

42:58baseless hatred started in this week's parasha, Parashat Vayeshev. Actually, the Chachamim are telling us that the fact Yosef was more connected to the sons of the Shefachot, Bilhah and Zilpah, who were really the wives of Yaakov also, rightful wives as well. They weren't Shefachot like people think. In the eyes of the other tribes, these five weren't on the same level. We're on the same level. Okay, listen, you're nice guys, but still, not the same. You're Ashkenazi. You're Sephardi from Lithuania or this one or that one. You're Yemenite. You're Litvish. You're Chassidish. Your head is this big. Your head is this small. Your peyos are this short. Your peyos go behind the ear, around the ear, in the ear, that ear. You have long pants, short pants, all these different things. You're not the same as us. Everyone is different. There are 12 tribes. Everyone is different, but especially if you're not from there. He says, you're from yourselves. We don't like him because he keeps making us jealous. But you guys, the daughters of Zilpah and Bilhah, they're not really like us. And Hashem says, oh, they're not like you?

44:31All of you are beautiful in my eyes, but apparently, you don't see it. So I'm going to send all of you to Egypt, and you're all going to be slaves there. Together. Then you'll learn to love each other and see that you're all the same. You're all beautiful to me. All of you are beautiful, and there's nothing wrong with you. That's what's written about this, a Shevet Binyamin and the tribes, you hate each other for no reason. Because this one's Yemeni, this one is Canadian, this one is Sephardi. This one's Moroccan Sephardi, this one is Tripoli Sephardi, this one is Egyptian Sephardi. What difference does it make? Already, we started this week's parsha. But nonetheless, we are still holy people. You fast forward a couple of thousand years and... you go to the Beit HaMikdash and we learned that the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of the same thing, because of sinat chinam. The sages tell us that every generation that the Beit HaMikdash is not built, it's as if they destroyed it themselves because it's only not being built because you still hate each other for no reason. Now, one of the reasons why we still hate each other for no reason is because very few of us know the real truth and

45:55Very few of us actually fold our sleeves and get to the bottom of it to see what Hashem really wants. What does Hashem really want? Does He want me to have a bigger hat, a longer beard, and a blacker coat? Does He want me to have short sleeves, long sleeves, this sleeve, that sleeve? What does He want? Or does He want me to have Yirat Shamayim? Or does He want me to work myself to Ahavat Hashem? What does He want? Does He want me to have a wig? Does He want me to have a mitpachat? Does He want me to listen to any rabbi that I choose? Or does He want me to choose one rabbi? What does He want? Many people ask the question, but very few people actually fold their sleeves and get to the bottom of it and find out what the truth is. And one of the reasons is because most people don't put it on their priority list as significant. They figure they'll get to it at some point. Similar to how most people say, we'll get to it at some point one day and learn the Chanukah story. We know the basics. We know the Chashmonaim. We know Matityahu said a famous statement, "Let's go to war." They won the battle. Who cares what happened after that?

47:09If you actually notice, the battles that happened at that time were very similar to the battles that the Shevatim had. Yehuda, the son of Matityahu, killed tens of thousands of people by himself. First battle, 8,000 people by himself. What about rockets, rocket launchers, tanks, F-16s? Not him by himself. 8,000 people in the first battle. The next day, 1,800 people. The next day, 20,000 people. 20,000 people! Can you imagine 20,000 people around you? What do you do? How do you fight all of them? Obviously, this is unnatural strength. But yet, the interesting part is that the other tribes, the other... Brothers also joined them and also fought very, very heroic battles and beat the Greeks. But yet, on Hanukkah, we all celebrate for the same reason, and none of these Midrashim are mentioned, really. Because we're all saying the whole thing is for the miracle of what? The oil. The oil is after the war.

48:33Isn't the fact that these five guys just beat a few million people by themselves more of a miracle? As a matter of fact, the Beit Yosef in the Shulchan Aruch says, well, listen, if you look at the actual holiday, it's eight days. It's the longest holiday. Hanukkah is the longest holiday. It's eight days. Pesach is seven days. Sukkot is seven. Everything is seven days. Hanukkah is the longest holiday. But it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. Why is it eight days? If you're celebrating eight days because of the miracle that the oil worked for eight days, then it's not true. Why? It really wasn't a miracle for eight days. It was a miracle for seven because the oil that they found that was pure was good enough for one day. So the fact that it worked for eight days just means that we had a miracle for seven days, not for eight days. So what's the real truth? Says the first day, the first day. That's the miracle of all the wars. All the wars, all the battles, where these few people killed so many people and beat all these people. That's one day. The rest of it is the miracle of the oil. But why? What do you care about this oil? What's the big deal if you got shut off in reality? I was talking about it the other day. Why don't they just use the other oil? Okay, so the Greeks messed with the oil a little bit. They made it impure, but based on halacha, there's really no such thing as impure oil.

49:59There's impure wine. You look at Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah; if an Oved Avodah Zarah, if a goy or a Jew that violates Shabbat in public on a regular basis, touches uncooked wine, just touches it, picks up the bottle, you're not allowed to use it. It's considered tameh. But oil doesn't have anything like this, so why don't you just use the other oil? And the answer is, Rabotai, the Chashmonaim knew the truth that most of us still haven't figured out. The truth is that the whole holiday is not based on materialism. It's not based on physical strength. It's not based on the wars we won against another army. It's based on the fact that you're still Jewish.

51:02That's the whole war. That's the whole war. The book Pachad Yitzchak by Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, aleha hashalom. Someone took a few things from the book, connected it to Chanukah, took the parts from the book to connect it to Chanukah. It's really extraordinary. I mean, he was such a giant chacham. Big Mokhiach, man of truth, but brilliant, brilliant, mamash brilliant. It's every, every little paragraph is like, "How does somebody think like this?" Now, when someone has mamash serious Yirat Shamayim, Hashem opens up their brain. And when someone prays enough, again, Hashem does the same. you see this book, there's one chiddush after another, after another, after another. Beautiful things. He says that the prophecy of the prophet Daniel that he gave to Nevuchadnetzar.

52:28a dream. He had a dream and no one was able to translate it, so they got Daniel, the prophet Daniel—kodesh kodeshim—and he was able to translate it. Then what was the dream about? He told him, "Your dream has to do with the end of times, and apparently you have enough merits in Shamayim despite being a sham resha." you did something right in your life where Hashem decided you're going to be the strongest king ever until the Mashiach. Every other civilization after you will be weaker and weaker and weaker until Mashiach. And he gives him the symbolism from the statue that he sees with the head of gold, another part of silver, another part of copper, another part of stone, and the bottom part of wood. And the wood somehow breaks all of them at the end and So there the prophet Daniel says this is all prophecy of each one of the major civilizations that's going to be used as a tool by Hashem to wake up the nation and hit them. And you're going to be the first. He ended up, you know, obviously destroying Beit HaMikdash. So now Rabbi Hutner says that this particular prophecy that Daniel had

53:54was already written in Sefer Bereshit. And in the second verse, right in creation, Hashem created the world. He already wrote what's going to happen at the end. And it says the following in Sefer Bereshit: it says, "Bereshit bara Elohim et haShamayim ve'et ha'aretz." That's the first verse: "In the beginning, Hashem created the heaven and the earth." It's the first verse. In the second verse, it says, "And the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters." That's the second verse. Pachad Yitzchak says: These four terms that are mentioned, tohu, vavohu, ve'choshech, and p'nei tehom, each describe four major kingdoms. Tohu, which means literally "without form," represents Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. No structure, no religion, idolatry, nonsense.

55:19Vavohu means emptiness. That's the Persians and Medes. They were together. That represents that kingdom. Both killed many Jews, not because they didn't like the Torah. They didn't like them. They didn't try to destroy the Torah. They tried to destroy the people. Darkness That's the Greeks. That's Chanukah. Why darkness? Because the Greeks didn't try killing the Jews, despite there was one, the first battle, they killed 80,000 Jews in one day, a single day yimach shemam. Antiochus killed 80,000 Jews in one day. It's not like today, you have guns, you have one bomb, Hashem can kill millions. One by one, one by one, 80,000 people yimach shemam vezichram. 80,000 Jews were killed in one day. But that's not the real battle. The battle is much worse.

56:25The battle was a spiritual battle. They told him, "Listen, we don't want to kill you. As a matter of fact, we want to give you better jobs. What do you have, a shoe store? What do you have, a diamond store? How about this? We'll make you a president of one of the areas over here. We'll make you a politician. We'll make you counsel to the president. We'll make you this, we'll give you jobs, we'll give you money, give you whatever you want. Make you rich." Good deal. Why, what's so dark about that? It's just that you have to stop keeping Shabbat. You have to stop keeping Rosh Chodesh. You have to stop allowing your wives to go to the mikveh. With the Rosh Chodesh, but even more so, you're not even allowed to write a ketubah. Anyone that writes a ketubah will have their hands chopped off. Which means that the marriages would be considered not marriages without a ketubah, an inappropriate act. And last but not least, no brit milah. That's it. You want to eat kosher, eat kosher, we don't really care. You want to go pray to Hashem, pray whatever, it doesn't make a difference. You want to go learn, learn whatever you want. Just those few things, don't do it. Who is behind this? Jews.

57:48Unfortunately, some of the Jews liked the material. They liked Edomite material. They liked it. They saw, "Look, this guy went to the same school as me, but he's a millionaire and I'm working as a teacher and I'm only making 30,000 a year. He just offered me a job. I can make five times as much. So why don't I work on Shabbat? What's the big deal?" So they joined. They became Greeks themselves. The Jews became Greeks themselves, and some of them got to a point where they started helping the Greeks go against the Jews. Hashem told them, "Listen, as long as the Jews have Hashem, you guys can't beat them. So you have to make them do things that are going to disconnect them. First and foremost, you have to tell them to stop keeping Shabbat. Why? That's the deal." that's the covenant between them and Hashem. That's the covenant. They break Shabbat, that's it. No more deal with Hashem. Now these fools didn't realize that. So if somebody puts a knife to your head and says, "Don't keep Shabbat," you're allowed to break it if it's by yourself. If it's in public, then you're not allowed to break it. It depends. To such an extent that we actually learn from this chag that the

59:13Jews that were really Muslim, who really wanted to sacrifice everything, teach us an important lesson. If there are three cardinal sins, which are idol worship, murder, or adultery, if they're going to tell you either rape this woman or have intimate relations with a woman that you're not allowed to be with, or worship an idol, or murder someone... No. Regarding the three cardinal sins, it means it's better that you die rather than commit one of those sins. But other things, it's not the same. If they tell you to eat pig, you're allowed to eat pig, but only if they don't. But that's only if it's one-on-one. If it's in public, meaning if their intention is purely to destroy Judaism and And we learned from the Chachamim that we learned something extraordinary from this holiday. And that is that even if the Goyim tell you, "You have a minhag that all of you, from where you come from, wear white shoestrings—white shoestrings on your shoes and your sandals—you wear white shoestrings. We want you to start wearing red."

1:00:38Not because we care about your shoestring, obviously. And not because the shoestring is part of the Ten Commandments or the 613 commandments. It's a minhag, it's a custom. But, we don't want you to keep that custom anymore. They tell you we don't want you to keep the custom anymore. You actually have to die for that. You're not allowed to change the custom for them. Why? Because it's not about the custom, it's about them destroying Judaism. So, the Greeks were not interested in killing the Jews. They were interested in killing Judaism. and the Chashmonaim knew that when they found the oil after they beat them in battle and they won the war and everything was fantastic and miraculous and so on, they realized, okay, we have oil, but this oil was damaged. They did something to it. We can't use it. Not because the oil has a specific halacha. No, no. It's because by using the oil that they tainted in some way or another, we'd be in essence changing our customs. No different than the oil. No different than the shoestring. No different than stopping to keep Shabbat. No different than killing somebody. It's no different. Why? It's better that we die than use this oil.

1:02:05By using this tainted oil that they used, in essence, we might as well lose the battle already. So they kept looking and they kept looking and they kept looking, and eventually, miraculously, they found one. And not only found one, but Hashem made it work for seven days further. So really, the Hashem on aim, and until this day... We're celebrating not the material battle, the physical strength we had, the miracles we had in beating a huge army much greater than ours, much more powerful, with many more weapons, much more advanced, much richer. No. We're celebrating the religiosity. Of the Chashmonaim. The Chashmonaim were as Haredi as it gets. Because even when they had a heter, even when they had a leniency, no one's going to see it. No one's going to care. They're already dead anyway. They're not actually trying to stop Judaism now. They're dead. If they were still alive and you were using the oil, or you were changing the shoestring, or you stopped keeping Shabbat, you stopped Brit Milah, you stopped any of these things, fine, okay, we understand. Now let's do it. But now they're dead. You can use the oil. We keep it, we keep it until the end.

1:03:18The most religious people on earth were the ones that won the battle. It wasn't some big heroes that killed people on a daily basis. For a handful of people to even think that they should go and that they are going to go to battle, even with another handful of people, forget millions, obviously you have to have something there. Either you're crazy, or you have such a high level of emunah, such closeness, such deveikut to Hashem that you know it's not you anyway. It doesn't matter if there are five of you. It doesn't matter if there are five million of you. It's Hashem anyway that's going to win the battle. So the holiday, unlike what most people think, is not a holiday about... Just a bunch of candles and a secular holiday. In fact, it's a holiday about people who are willing to sacrifice their life for a simple minhag (custom), not just halachot (laws), not just the holy Torah as a whole, but even a simple minhag. Why? Because they are the most religious people there are on earth. Now...

1:04:45The fact that the Greeks brought darkness was not over. The Greeks are the only ones whose damage still exists to this day. Unfortunately, even though the Greeks themselves are gone, there are still many Mityavnim. There are still many Jews who act like Greeks. And the reason why because their brother, their cousin, the Romans, continued what they didn't finish, but even worse. As the verse continues, it says, "I'll pin it to home." It's the face of the deep, the face of the abyss. Rav Hutner says that's the Christians, that's the Romans, and That's the ones that have been running the exile for the last 2,000 years. Whether it's the pogroms, the inquisitions, the Holocaust, the second Beit HaMikdash, that's it. Why? That's Edom, that's Esav. Now, for anyone who thinks that maybe...

1:06:09extreme? We're friendly with the Christians now. Look, they just told us that Jerusalem is ours. Thank you. They give a few billion dollars a year to Israel, not to yeshivot, but to modern Israel. They do some business with us. We live in their country. We live in America free. We're allowed to practice our religion and Okay, so there's a halacha in the Torah. It says "Esav sonei Yaakov," that Esav hates Yaakov. But maybe it's not relevant anymore. Maybe it was only relevant, you know, at specific times, like 70 years ago when they murdered six million of us for no reason whatsoever. Maybe it was only relevant during the Spanish Inquisition when they murdered millions of us for no reason and... kicked us out of our own houses and took all of our money. And so maybe it's only relevant during the Beit HaMikdash 2,000 years ago when they kicked us out and they killed us and they made a whole river of blood from the murders they committed, which was much worse than the Holocaust. Maybe it's just during those specific times. Maybe that's the only time that Esav hates Yaakov. Maybe it's not all the time. They seem pretty nice now. I...

1:07:19I mean, you see some Christians and Romans running the streets saying, "We want to kill Yaakov every day." Not really. Sometimes here and there, but not really. You're free. But as anyone who learned Torah would know, the halacha doesn't change. If Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu at Mount Sinai, "Esav hates Yaakov," then Esav hates Yaakov. When it looks like he likes him, eventually, when push comes to shove, Esav will hate Yaakov. He may not hate him right now. He may even be good friends with him. But there are countless stories of what happened during times of trouble, of how Esav had to go back to being Esav. Whether it was the people who told their own stories in the camps during the Holocaust. There was one very famous story of a very wealthy, formerly wealthy Jewish person...

1:08:19It was on the line in the Holocaust, crying hysterically. Everyone, obviously, was sad. Everyone was miserable. Everyone was ready to die. What were they going to do? But this guy was smashing his head against the wall nonstop until one of the other people told him, "Stop already. Okay, I mean, we're going to die probably anyway. You don't have to kill yourself. Enough." He kept going. He kept going. He kept crying. He kept going. He goes, why are you? What's wrong with you? What happened? We're all in the same boat. There's hundreds of thousands of us just here. What's wrong? What? He goes, you don't understand. All of this I did to myself. No, we're all here. No, no, no, no. All of this I did to myself by not listening to my Abba and Ima. He goes, "What do you mean you didn't listen to your Abba and Ima?" He goes, "My Abba and Ima, when I introduced them to my wife, and I told them, look, she's such a nice girl. So she comes from a nice Catholic house. She's very religious. She's getting me closer to Hashem. Okay, so she believes there's a middleman. Big deal. Maybe I'll convince her to convert. Maybe I'll convince her to do this. Maybe this. Maybe that. She's a nice girl. Look at her. She likes me." This, that.

1:09:31Parents told me, "No, Esav soneh Yaakov. You can't do it unless she wants to convert ahead of time. You can't do it. You can't take the risk." I didn't listen to Abba and Ima. Okay, so you got married. It's a sin. The guy says, "Okay, it's a sin. It's not good." But I said, "Because what? She's right there pushing the line. She's the one that told the Nazis about me." You see the woman over there yelling and screaming and looking at me right now? That's her! Esav soneh Yaakov. Push came to shove. Now people don't like it. People don't like, people don't like to think like this. Why? I tell people the things we said yesterday. No, come on. Someone said at some point that at the end of times Esav is gonna love Yaakov. It's going to be one of the blessings. So we don't have to move from America. We don't have to worry about them taking over. We don't have to worry about the war. It's all not relevant anymore. It's all not relevant. It's okay. It's fine. Everything's okay. Look, I voted for Trump. Look there, he's lowering this and he's doing this and the stock market's at all-time highs and the house extension that I bought is almost complete. Don't ruin it for me.

1:10:54Don't ruin it for me. Everyone likes their life so much in America and in England and France and all these different places all over the world. No one wants the Mashiach to come. They're this close to being where they want to be. This close. Bitcoin is almost a zillion dollars, so they're almost this close. Don't ruin it for me with your Esav stuff. But the reality is that anyone who doubts Rav Hutner, that the face of the abyss is Esav, Because of your merit, I had a huge insight today that puts no doubt. First and foremost, we know that "tohu va'vohu" (formlessness and emptiness), as we said, is Babylon and the Persians. They wanted to kill our bodies. Darkness is the Greeks because they wanted to kill the Torah. And Edom is the face of the abyss because they want to do both and... they want to kill both the Torah and the bodies. Now, maybe it's someone else. Maybe the face of the abyss is the Arabs. It's very easy for Jews to hate Arabs. It's a natural thing. It's very easy to hate Yishmael. Look, they're killing us almost every single day. They publicly detest us. They publicly burn our flag. They publicly want to kill us. Why isn't the face of the abyss Yishmael? Because...

1:12:24the face of the deep. The home is spelled with a hay, but if you spell it with a letter aleph, it makes the same sound. The only difference is the planet. The home that means the face of the abyss now turns into the face of the twin. Esav was the twin of Yaakov. Esav was the twin of Yaakov. Esav sonei Yaakov. Now, when the reality check sets in and you realize, okay, what do we do? First and foremost, we have to realize what got us into this place in the first place.

1:13:29Impact has continued with the Romans. The level of religiosity in Am Yisrael is unfortunately at terrible levels. Even though, Baruch Hashem, there are many people that are doing teshuva, it's still not enough. I was thinking about it the other day, the Yetzer Hara got into my mind, and mamash, I started becoming depressed for a moment. I said, you know what, whatever we're getting for each class, some classes are 5-10 people, some classes are 50 people, whatever it is. I said to myself, you know what, we're only doing a few classes a week. But let's say we did seven days a week. Oh, let's say I have a life. So let's say five days a week. And each class, each shiur, is 500 people. Like some of the shiurim I have in New York are 500 people. So let's say every class is 500 people. Every class, every shiur is 500 people. And every shiur, everyone does teshuva. Everyone.

1:14:30have to be a prophet. Let's say 500 people, five times a week, 2,500 people a week do teshuva. How many is that a month? 10,000. How many months a year? 12. That's 120,000 people a year. It's still sad. Why? You have at least 20 million Jews in the world. Meaning that even if you're doing something that's really impossible for a human being to do, and you're actually making 10,000 people a month do teshuva, you're still not even scratching the surface. I start thinking to myself, what are we doing? How are we going to do this? The point is, we're not going to do it. The point is, only Him. It's always been Him. So, when the ruach shtut, when this foolishness got out of my mind, I said, okay, Hashem, it's up to you. We're just going to do whatever we can. Five people or 500 people or 5,000 people, it's all You anyway. But the reality is that each one of us needs to make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes, the same mistakes that got us into this place in the first place.

1:15:37Greeks and the Romans, the Darkness and the face of the abyss, is the same thing—just one got a little worse than the other. The impact is the same. In the Gemara Masechet Chagigah, page 16a, and also in the Gemara Masechet Shabbat, page 15, it talks about a very famous machloket, a very famous debate. Why is it such a famous debate? It's the first debate that ever happened. It's the first debate between the Sages. One said right, the other one said left. What was the debate? The debate was whether you are allowed to do something called semicha on a korban on Yom Tov. What's semicha on Yom Tov? What's semicha? When they brought the korban, You had to press the head on top of the head of the korban, the sacrifice of the cow or the bull. You have to press on top of their head while you're asking Hashem for either forgiveness or you're praising Him, whatever it is that you're doing as part of the korban. You have to press on top of the head of the cow. Now, why would this not be allowed? It's not allowed on Shabbat. Why would it not be allowed? Because, in essence, it's considered as if you are, first of all, handling an animal. You're not allowed to touch an animal on Shabbat.

1:17:05It's considered muktzeh. But aside from that, it's considered as if it's carrying you. As if it's carrying you. You're not allowed to ride a horse or something like that on Shabbat. And there are a few different debates about it, allowed, not allowed. And the debate started between Yose ben Yo'ezer, who was the Nasi, the head of Am Yisrael, the head of the Sanhedrin, and his chavruta, Yose ben Yochanan. The debate continued for 200 years between the sages, all the way until it got to Hillel and Shammai 200 years later. Shammai said you're not allowed to do it on Yom Tov. Hillel said you're allowed to do it on Yom Tov. Eventually, after 200 years, they agreed. Hillel said we're allowed to do it on Yom Tov and... Point is, this debate continued for 200 years. People think that Am Yisrael made laws just out of quick thinking. Yeah, yeah, it's allowed, not allowed. Yeah, it's good, no good. Do it today, don't do it tomorrow. They think that it's like chafif. It's like, ah, happenstance, we'll do whatever we want. We're just guessing. For 200 years they debated whether you're allowed to push the head of a cow. During what? A sacrifice. Not like you're just riding a cow to see if it's fun.

1:18:29bringing a sacrifice to Hashem, and they're just debating if it's allowed or not allowed. But it's not like "allowed, not allowed." If it's allowed, it's a mitzvah. If it's not allowed, it's chilul Shabbat—death penalty. It's life and death. It's not like, "Ah, you're too strict for us." No, this is life and death on the line. Of course, we're going to debate it for 200 years. Doing anything less would make us irresponsible. For 200 years they're debating it. Imagine that. Each one of these laws you keep today, whether it's your tefillin, whether it's bet knesset, tefillot, kosher, everything you're keeping, it's not just, oh, it just happened. Everything is debated, and the debate is what brings out the truth. Now here you have the first debate. Why do we mention the first debate? Because the first debate, the first machloket, was the first sign of the collateral damage we got from the Greek mentality. Because Yosef ben Yoezer and Yosef ben Yohanan both lived at the time of the Greeks.

1:19:52both lived at the time of all of this sipur of Hanukkah, and unfortunately, the mentality, the materialism, the promiscuity, the tumah—the impurity—of the Greeks and their impact on some of the Jews affected even the religious. If you remember last night, we said a story from Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen. He came into his kollel and Upset that a student, he says, "We're not studying hard enough. For the love, why? I mean, we're here. We're here from morning to night. We're not doing this, we're studying. We're not studying hard enough," and he's very upset. "Why? Did you see, chas v'shalom, maybe one of the talmidim was riding a bicycle on Shabbat? Maybe, chas v'shalom, he was dating a non-Jew? Like, wow, what makes you think we're not studying hard enough?" He says, "I just heard a terrible story that there's a Jew in France who was caught violating Shabbat. We're not in France. It's a different country. It's far away." He goes, "Exactly. If you were studying Torah hard enough here, a Jew in France would not be violating Shabbat."

1:21:14We're all responsible for each other. The shiur Torah today is helping somebody else, not just you guys here. It's helping somebody else not make a sin. He's about to eat a McDonald's burger. He says, "You know what? It's not worth it." He's about to go out with someone that's not Jewish. He says, "Ah, it's not worth it." Why? Hashem put it in his mind. Why? Because there's Torah in the world that's affecting a different place. How did you get to the shiur today? Someone somewhere else learned Torah to give your Yetzer Tov, your good inclination, enough strength to beat the Yetzer Hara that told you don't come to the shiur. It's too late. It's three hours. The guy doesn't stop talking. He's too hard. He's too strict. Someone had to give you, somebody had to fight for you today. When there's sinat chinam, when there's baseless hatred,

1:22:15Obviously, this has less of an impact. When there's more sins as a result of the Greek mentality of materialism and promiscuity, this effect doesn't have as much of an impact. If you notice the decrees that the Greeks had, each and every single one of them had to do with brit Shabbat—the brit between us and Hashem. The whole issue of mikveh. They don't want us to go to the mikveh. Why? We're not allowed to be with our wives. And if somehow Hashem made a miracle, it says the sages say, the Midrash says that Hashem made a miracle. He opened the mikvaot inside the houses of the people. But then they told me not to celebrate Rosh Chodesh. So now the people, it's not like they have calendars like today. No one knows when Rosh Chodesh is. No one knows where the months are. No one knows where the times are if you're not keeping it. If you're not extra Hareidi and doing the calendar yourself, which is much more difficult in those days than today. There are no calculators. There are no things like we have today. It's not like you just turn on your phone and you can see what the date is. If you don't know when Rosh Chodesh is, that means you don't know how many days, when you went impure, when you were impure, when the day starts, when the day ends. You don't know when you're allowed to be with your husband.

1:23:32You don't know when you're allowed to be with your wife. You don't know if it's allowed. Why? What's the difference? The difference is if you're one hour early. We're not talking about three days early, a week early, or while she's still menstruating. We're not talking about that. If you're one hour early, just one hour, it's karet. It's din karet. It's the death penalty in shamayim. It's not a joke. So they said, let's ruin this. Let's make sure they don't have it. That's the bleak. They tried to make Am Yisrael the most promiscuous nation there is. Why? Because they knew that promiscuity (zima) is disgusting in the eyes of Hashem. That's what ruins our relationship with Hashem. Unfortunately, Am Yisrael sometimes doesn't get it. The conference time... I love Rav Shalom. He says that Am Yisrael pray. They pray often to Hashem Yitbarach. They pray, they pray, they pray. But sometimes they see their prayers are not working. Someone is sick, they pray, nothing happens. A husband now got fired from his job, they pray, nothing happens, and...

1:24:59Someone is sick. They pray, and nothing happens. They pray, and nothing happens. We pray, we pray, we pray, and not only does nothing happen, sometimes it gets worse. Rav Shalom says that's because they're praying in front of Hashem naked. What naked? They're immodest. A woman who is immodest might as well be naked. He says she's wearing a wig, and in his day, a wig looked like straw. How are you coming to Kodesh HaKodashim? How are you coming to Hashem Yitbarach naked? Clothes are too tight, naked. Too short, naked. How are you going to pray? You expect Him to listen to your prayers? You expect Him to listen to your prayers when you're naked in front of Him? Why are they naked? Because they don't want to listen to the Chachamim. They don't want to listen to Rav Elyashiv when he says, he says, all of these wigs, they're real hair, they're not reliable. They come from Avodah Zarah, not reliable. Stop it. They don't want to listen to him. It's not enough that he was Gadol HaDor. No, no, we're going to find somebody that's not Gadol HaDor and listen to him instead.

1:26:16They don't want to listen to the giants of the generation who say that your clothes have to be loose. They don't want to listen to the giants of the generation who say you have to cover your body. They don't want to listen to the giants of the generation who told you that you have to be modest. That's your number one mitzvah as a woman. They don't want to listen. They don't want to listen. And there's a pasuk for them. There's a version of Torah for them. What does it say? In Mishlei 28:9, in Proverbs 28:9, One who turns his hearing away from the Torah, meaning away from the sages, away from the rabbis, doesn't listen to the rabbis. Even his prayer is considered disgusting in the eyes of Hashem. You pray to Hashem and He's not answering. You know why? You're praying naked. But Yisrael, you are beloved by Hashem.

1:27:17You can't have candles of Shabbat with a tank top. I'm sorry. It's not kavod for Hashem. You can't think, "Oh, just because you put a lot of shmattes on your head and you're wearing a miniskirt, it's okay." You're in front of Hashem. You're in front of the King of Kings. This is how you show up? One guy was invited to one of his kehillah members' houses for a party. There's a lot of people there, and a rabbi just wanted to say hello, pick a pasuk, you know, it's one of the kehillah members. And he sees that the guy that's hosting the party is talking about how he's gonna go on vacation, he and his wife are gonna go on vacation to one of these beach resorts with a... People are practically naked; their bathing suits might as well be no clothes anyway, especially in our generation. And this story is maybe from about 20 years ago. I

1:28:31And he says, oh, we're going to go to this place, and then we're going to go on a boat, and then we're going to go to a beach, and then we're going to do this. And he's telling everybody what the plan is. You know, travel agent, set up everything. He's excited about this. He's a religious guy. He's not a guy that doesn't, he goes to Beit Knesset, that's why the rabbi is invited. He's religious. But he's going to go to a mixed beach. And he thinks it's okay because he's with his wife. So what? Everyone else is also with their wives on the same beach. So what? He doesn't think there's anything wrong with it. So the rabbi says, "Kvodo, can you please tell your wife to show me the bathing suit? Can she put it on so I can see what she looks like in a bathing suit now?" And the guy says to him, excuse me, Kvodo? He goes, no, can you ask your wife? I know she's talking to a few people. Can you tell her to go upstairs to put the bathing suit on? Come down. I want to see what she looks like in the bathing suit. The guy gets really angry. He goes, Kvodo, chutzpah. What kind of nerve do you have? You're asking me to tell my wife to come down here and show you herself in a bathing suit? What kind of rabbi are you?

1:29:51Rabbi, who actually was one of the few remaining people that actually had Yirat Shamayim, tells them, "Your ears should listen to your foolish mouth." Ask yourself, would you tell your wife to come and show herself in a bathing suit in front of the 300 people you have here in your big house? You obviously realize there's something wrong with that question. Why would you want your wife to appear in front of 300 people, practically naked? Yet, you have no problem going on vacation and showing your wife around to 30,000 people. There’s nothing wrong with that? Gump feel at oto eva. Even the prayer is disgusting. Why are you showing up to Hashem naked? What do you expect? You're showing up to Hashem with dirty hands, your blood on your hands because you're stealing in your business. What do you expect? The rabbi told you no, but you found a rabbi that said yes? People sometimes come to the rabbi not because they want an answer, but they want an excuse to find a leniency. I

1:31:05Comes to the rabbi. He says, Rabbi, I'm doing this, this, and this. I need a blessing. A blessing? You already decided, what blessing do you need? Someone came to the Steipler Gaon and told him, Kvod Harav, I need a blessing because I'm opening a kollel in America. Kollel? Opening a kollel? It's mesirat nefesh! Kollel, Torah. I'm opening a kollel in the United States and I want the rabbi's blessing. I'm going tomorrow. The Steipler Gaon says, don't go. No, no, no, Kvod Harav, I wasn't asking for permission. I'm opening it. I'm going tomorrow. The Steipler says, don't go. Why? It's a different story. He had his reason. He had Ruach HaKodesh. We don't ask such questions. Chacham, you have to have Emunat Chachamim. When a Chacham tells you no, it's no. He wasn't looking for a yes or no. He was looking for a heter, to not listen. He went anyway. On the way, he arrived in the United States. On the way to his location from the airport, he got into an accident and died.

1:32:26I'm going to do a mitzvah. It's no mitzvah if the Chachamim told you no. It's no mitzvah if they tell you no. It's no. Why? It doesn't make a difference. People have a lot of questions, but they're not really questions. More than a few times, I had people come to me that I thought were students. I thought they were students. And come tell me, "Listen, I'm doing this, this, and this." I said, "You shouldn't do it." "No, no, I just want a blessing." My blessing you already decided. I don't think you should do it, though. It's very hard for me to hold my opinion. Sometimes you get a gift of talking; you can't stop yourself from talking. I see somebody doing something wrong, I tell them, "I don't think you should do it." "No, no, no, I'm going. I just want you to know, I want you to give me a blessing." I said, "I wish you a lot of success in life, but this is a mistake what you're doing." And unfortunately, time after time, it's a mistake.

1:33:26But they don't want. So what happens? They disconnect. They disconnect because they don't like that I tell them that it's a mistake. Because I'm disagreeing with them. They love the truth that got them to do teshuva. They love the truth that got them to do teshuva. They love the truth that got them to have a little bit of Yirat Shamayim, maybe. They love the truth that gave them a few chiddushim until the truth affected them and they didn't like the truth anymore. They want a different truth. They want somebody else's truth. They want a truth that they agree with. They think that the truth is something that, you know, changes. It's something that changes. He has one truth. He has this truth. He has this truth. There are 70 faces to the truth. There's no 70 faces. There's one truth. There's yes, there's no. There's kasher, there's tamei. But that's also one of the things that we learn from Chanukah, that even the chachamim that had the machloket, We still learn about the machloket. We still learn about the debate. Why? Because that's also ratzon Hashem. Despite the fact that it's the wrong opinion, we still need to learn why it's the wrong opinion. It's still considered Torah, and we're obligated to learn it. Now, if a person takes things into account, and understands how much damage we cause ourselves, we realize that all of this is simply because of some of the things we talked about last night. We have jealousy, we have uncontrollable desires and if that's not enough

1:34:47and understands how much damage we cause ourselves, we realize that all of this is simply because of some of the things we talked about last night. We have jealousy, we have uncontrollable desires, and if that's not enough We search for kavod. We search for honor. We constantly look for people to respect us. And the Chachamim say that this Mishnah specifically goes in that order: jealousy, lust, and then kavod. This is because you can do teshuva for jealousy. You had jealousy in your life. You were jealous of certain people that had things that you didn't have. You could do teshuva for that. Lust. You made some mistakes in your life. You went with a woman or a man you're not allowed to be with. Had certain desires that got out of control, you could do teshuva for that. Even the worst of sins, like wasting seed, you can do teshuva for it. The Zohar HaKadosh says no, you can't do teshuva for it. What does it mean? Can't do teshuva for it? Everything is subject to teshuva. What does it mean? It means that with wasting seed, there's no help from Shamayim. It's hard to do teshuva for it. You can do it, but you're on your own.

1:36:10Everything else, Hashem will help you with. Wasting seed is so disgusting in the eyes of Hashem, He won't help you with it. Why? It's hard. You're killing, you're murdering neshamot. So if you're gonna do teshuva for wasting seed, you have to be serious. It's not something you can do on the side. It's not like tefillin, you wait for the guy from Chabad to come to your office and help you do tefillin every day. Get out of the jail free card. It's easy to do tefillin, five minutes. Wasting seed is a lifestyle. It's either you do it or you don't. So he says the lust, the jealousy, you could do teshuva for it. What's holding you back from doing teshuva? Your kavod. No, no, I'm too good for you. I like my lifestyle. Come on. Look how people are going to look at me. Why all of a sudden I'm Mr. Religious? You know, the first time you put a kippah on, like, "Hey, what happened? Somebody died? Why do you have a kippah on? Did somebody die?" You know nobody died. Oh, what are you, a rabbi? Well, I hope it's not overnight you became a rabbi. That's how easy you think it is to become a rabbi? Well, you're a rabbi now. You tell the guy, "Listen, you should keep Shabbat." What are you, a rabbi now? It's as many soldiers. You tell the guy, "No, I don't think you should eat that. It's not kosher." What are you, Moshe Rabbeinu? Quick, if we tell the guy, "Listen, I don't think you should eat that," oh, you know what? Maybe you're right. I...

1:37:36You don't, you... I don't think you should eat it. I don't think it tastes really good. Oh, you know what? I think you know what you're talking about with food. I see your stomach. You know what you're talking about? You tell that guy, "Don't do it for any other reason." Now, "I don't think you should date her." "Oh, why not?" "I don't know, I saw what this other guy thinks. He was a gangster. I don't think she comes from a good crowd." "You know what? I think you're right. You know what you're talking about. You dated the whole block." Guy, do not do it for any other reason. You know what? I think you know what you're talking about. You tell him, "Listen, I don't think you should date her. She's not Jewish." "Hey, what are you, a rabbi?" "I don't think you should go out with him. He's a terrorist." "Oh, who are you, a rabbi?" Rabbinate, I don't think you should eat that. It's not kosher. What, you have a kosher restaurant? You're gonna make money out of it? How do you know the rabbis are not lying? Everyone is all hachamolog. You know, they call, they're all geniuses when it comes to Judaism. Everyone knows everything. But still, they don't know why we celebrate Chanukah. Though Chanukah, they don't know why we celebrate. But what are you, a rabbi? Why kavod? For the jealousy...

1:38:48For the lust, the desires, we could do teshuvah. But what keeps us away from teshuvah is the fact that we're constantly looking for kavod. We constantly care about what people think of us. If we wear a kippah, ah, they're going to look at me differently. I'm not one of the cool kids. I'm not one of the, you know, sleek. Shishi, you know, one of the people that call the shots. I don't look like a boss, so I'll put on, you know, whatever I'm doing religiously. I'll put a hat on, fine. I don't want to put on a kippah, chas v'shalom. I look at you. I What about, you want to grow a beard maybe? No, no, no, then people are gonna look at me. No, no, no. You know, but why? People wear beards now, it's style. Oh, if it's style, then I'll do it. For style, I'll do it, but for religion, no. By the way, it's not a mitzvah to wear a beard. It's just chesed. And it's free anyway. You can shave it anytime you want. Even the goat has one. But you tell somebody...

1:39:59Listen, once you wear tzitzit, tzitzit gives you a mitzvah every second you're alive. Every second you're alive, the Gaon of Vilna cried on his deathbed. Why? He says, I'm leaving a world where you can make a mitzvah every second just by wearing tzitzit. If I go up to Olam HaBa and I say, you know what? I'm gonna give away my entire Olam HaBa just to do one mitzvah of tzitzit. One mitzvah, not forever, just one day, one second of wearing tzitzit. Can I do it? Can I replace my entire Olam HaBa for this one mitzvah of tzitzit? He says, you can't do anything in Olam HaBa. So I'm leaving a world where I could get a mitzvah of tzitzit for every second into a world where I can't do it. But yeah, you tell people, why don't you wear tzitzit? I wear it before I go to sleep, but that's not the mitzvah. The mitzvah is to wear it during the day. Yeah, but I'm not wearing four corners; I'm wearing it around. Oh, so the Vilna Gaon didn't know what he's talking about? So all the Chachamim didn't know what they're talking about?

1:41:05So Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know what he was talking about? All of them wearing tzitzit. We have Shema Yisrael, which talks about tzitzit. But no, we don't have to. It's not a big deal. It's part of your daily prayer. You have to pray every single day to wear tzitzit. Why? The tzitzit is a constant reminder that Hashem is watching you, is listening to you, and is writing down everything you're doing. Why? Because before you make the worst possible sin, you're gonna see your tzitzit. Why? Your pants are gonna be down. Before you make the biggest sin you can make and go with the woman you're not allowed to go with, wearing tzitzit like you're not supposed to, your pants are gonna be down. You have to see your tzitzit. That's why you wear tzitzit. Reminds me of Yirat Shamayim. When you're going to sleep, who needs it? Going to sleep, it's already too late. Why? Because when you go to sleep, your dream is not about what you're wearing when you're going to sleep. Your dream when you're sleeping is about what you saw during the day. That's what the Gemara, Masechet Shabbat, says. And Masechet Avodah Zarah. It says, watch your eyes in the morning because it's going to lead you to bad thoughts at night.

1:42:29That's why you wear tzitzit. But no, no, it's, you know, I don't want people to, I don't want it to ruin my style. I don't want it to ruin my style. You know, I got to look. Oh, what? You don't want to look Jewish? You're embarrassed of looking Jewish? You know, the more you think about it, the more I personally think about it, the sadder I get. And the reason why... They thought about this and then, you know, Satanism. I actually heard Rav Yisrael Moshe Friedman, a serious posek (halachic authority) and Israeli Rabbi. He had a clip where he said something similar, and it made me sadder about the state of events we're in. We've become so Greek, we don't even realize where we're at. If you look at the situation we're in, you have homosexuals pridefully taking parades. They're pridefully walking around naked, half-naked. They have parades. They're celebrating their war against Hashem. They're celebrating their war against the Torah. They're proud that they're going to war against Hashem. They're proud they're against the Torah. Whether it's in Washington, or it's in New York, or it's in Tel Aviv, or it's in Yerushalayim.

1:43:56They're proudly marching in their clothes or no clothes, proud. The Nazis, still to this day, exist, and they're proudly walking with their swastikas and proudly walking around saying, "Hey, we want to kill anyone that's not like us. Anyone that's black, we'll kill them; anyone that's a Jew, we'll kill them; anyone that's this, anyone that's that, we're gonna kill them," and they're proud about it. And the Arabs, it doesn't matter where they are, it could be on Broadway in New York when there are millions and millions of people, or it could be in Atlanta, or it could be anywhere in the world. When it's time for them to pray one of their five daily prayers, they'll put their little rug in the middle of the street and stop. traffic, and all of them will pray together to God. And they're proud of it because their prayer, they're praying for the government to be destroyed, for the people to be killed, for all the bad things in the world, but they're proud of it. They're proud of it. You ever find an Arab that's not proud? They'll kill him, they'll hang him if he's not proud. You ever find an Aryan, a Nazi, not proud of being a Nazi? They'll kill him.

1:45:13You ever find a gay person not proud? It's the opposite of the definition. You don't have to be gay; you have to be prideful. But yet you, the son of Hashem, are embarrassed. The gays, the Nazis, the terrorists—they're all proud. But you, the Jew, the chosen one, are ashamed, are embarrassed to tell the world, "I'm a Jew." And how am I a Jew? I look like a Jew. I have tzitzit. I have a kippah. I am modest. I speak appropriately. I pray to Hashem three times a day. I learn Torah because it’s the most important part of my life. I am a Jew. And I'm proud of it. Parashat Shavua is another reminder. It's another reminder of what it means to be a Jew, rabotai. In Parashat Shavua, we meet Yehuda. We meet Yehuda and we find out an extraordinary story about Yehuda and Tamar.

1:46:32and why Hashem decided to choose Yehuda to be the representative of all of Am Yisrael and why He called all of Am Yisrael Yehudim after the name Yehuda, Judah. Yehuda understood that his name wasn't a mikreh. His name wasn't just a happenstance. In essence, his family, his mother specifically, had a prophecy. Each name to this day, when parents name their kids, if they’re normal and they’re paying attention to the messages from Shamayim, even naming the children is a 1/60th of a prophecy according to the sages. In this case, it was 100% a prophecy because his mother was a prophet. Now Yehuda, when he was born, his mother said, "I

1:47:33i thank Hashem. And because I thank Hashem, I'll call my son Yehuda because Hoda'ah means to be thankful, to be grateful. Now if you look in the Tefillah Amidah that you pray every day, you have a section to thank Hashem, Modim Anachnu Lach. In this section, we read, especially when there's Shacharit, Mincha, and Musaf. You read it twice, actually, because one is the Rabbanan and one is the Deoraita. But the point is that there's Modim Anachnu Lach. Now, this section, most people just read it, breeze through it with very little acknowledgment of what we're actually saying. And Rav Hutner says, When we say: So first we say, we're grateful to You, Hashem, that You are God and the God of our forefathers, forever and ever, and so on and so forth. You're our strength, You're our rock.

1:49:00But then the very next sentence says again, we thank You and declare Your praise for our lives and so on and so forth. Nehudna says, most people think that the word means to think, to be grateful. But sometimes in Hebrew, the Sfat HaKodesh, a single word, has two meanings. Within the root of the word, one is connected to the other. So modeh, or even nodeh, they all come from the same root, which means both to be grateful and to acknowledge. How are the two connected? When someone is grateful, someone says thank you, they're also acknowledging that they couldn't have done it without you. That's the point of being grateful. Saying thank you is not really, if it's a meaningful thank you, being grateful because without this person, without this help, without the donation, without the lift, without the ride, without whatever it is, you wouldn't have been able to do it.

1:50:27And this is when someone is simply saying thank you to a person. Even more so, when you're saying it to Hashem, your Creator, the King of Kings. So, it says, it would obviously be silly—my language would be silly—to say thank you twice, one verse after the other. Just say it once, then... So, Avudner, alav ha-shalom, says no, in the first Modim, in the first sentence, we're saying, Hashem, we acknowledge that You are God. You are our God. You are the God of our ancestors. You are our strength. You are our rock. You are our protection. And then we say, and we thank You for it. We thank You that You are our God. We thank You that You chose us. Not only do we acknowledge, but we thank You. So the chiddush, Rabotai, of what a Jew is, Yehudi, got to today of being Yehudi. Yehudi is a Jew. When someone is a Jew, he needs to understand what it means to be a Jew. And the chiddush, Rabotai, is

1:51:47When you are saying, I am a Jew, I am a Yehudi, I am a Yehudiah, I am a Jew, I am connected to Hashem, what are you saying? You're saying, Hashem Yitbarach, I am acknowledging my obligation to You. I'm acknowledging that I have to fulfill all of the mitzvot. I'm acknowledging that You gave Am Yisrael the Torah. Gave my forefathers the Torah at Mount Sinai in front of millions and millions of people, which You have never done before or ever after. I'm acknowledging the responsibility that I have before I leave the house to think, "Do I look like a Greek, a Roman, or a Jew?" I'm acknowledging that even the way I look has consequences. I'm acknowledging that even the way I speak has consequences. I'm acknowledging that Your Torah is emet. I'm accepting this responsibility because I know it's true. By calling myself a Jew, I'm modeh. I'm modeh, meaning I admit, I acknowledge that You're God. But also, I thank You

1:53:13Thank you that You are God. I thank You that You chose me. Why? Because I need You. I need Your strength to fulfill Your will. I need Your strength. Without You, I can't do it. Yetzer Hara is too strong. Yetzer Hara is too strong. He gives me problems. He gives me headaches. He gives me flat tires. He gives me people that bother me every day. He gives me fights. He gives me arguments. He gives me shtuyot in my head. He gives me different people on my path that I'm not allowed to look at or even talk to. He gives me money issues. He gives me emunah issues. He gives me safek, doubts. I need Your strength. I need Your strength. So I thank You that You give it to me. But I know You're not going to give it to me until I admit that I have a responsibility. So first you have to say, I admit, Hashem Yitbarach, You're the only God. That's what a Jew is, my friends. A Jew is not someone that was born luckily to some mother. Why? Because if it was only because your mother's a Jew, then conversion would not exist.

1:54:17you had to have been born to a Jewish mother, and that's the only thing that makes you Jewish, then conversion would not exist. But yet, the Torah mentions 36 times the importance of loving the convert. To such an extent that the Rambam, alav ha-shalom, says you must love a convert more than you love a natural-born Jew. The Sefer Hasidim says if you have a convert, a righteous convert in Judaism, and It's better off to marry his or her kids than marrying the kids of natural-born Jewish kids that don't have these middot. Better to marry them. Why? Because they're righteous. They chose Hashem. He didn't choose them; they chose Him. And for that, He pays them double. Torah says that when a convert cries, Hashem answers. Anyone that caused them to cry will have to pay. He says, "I will take revenge against them—not my malachim, not my angels. I will take revenge, Me personally. I take revenge against them," He says. For everything else, He has servants. He's the King of Kings. There's no need for that. I take revenge. Why? I'm their mother and their father.

1:55:41So, if you had to have a Jewish mother, then conversion wouldn't exist. This makes us realize that what makes you a Jew is whether you are modeh ve'nodah. If you acknowledge and accept the Torah and admit you need Hashem. Admit you need Hashem to follow it. But Hashem Yitbarach That you're gonna need some help. He knew that it's not enough. It's not enough for you to do it by yourself. You need some guidance. You need some help at tough times. You need some help because it's not so easy to fight the Yetzer Hara. He says, "I'm gonna send you some Chachamim. I'm gonna send you some Chachamim that are going to save you."

1:56:43from who? From yourself. From turning yourself into a Greek. In the book of Deuteronomy, Sefer Devarim, Hashem Yitbarach instills the power in the Chachamim. And he says the following: you shall come to the Kohanim, the Levites, and to the judge. Meaning to the Chachamim, all the rabbis, all the Dayanim, the ones that are working and toiling and learning, decide wigs are allowed, not allowed. The modesty is this, modesty is that. Shabbat is this, Shabbat is that. Greek is this, Jew is this. Kosher, not kosher. Someone, he said, you follow. You don't have to have a million and a half proofs. He says yes or no. Don't be one of these people who says, "I'm not sure there's enough proof." Why? If you want enough proof, they're going to bring you upstairs and say, "Okay, now you have proof." He says, "Go to the Chachamim, the Beit Din of your days, shall inquire, and they will tell you the word of judgment. They're going to decide the law." Why? I gave them a living Torah. I didn't give them black and white.

1:58:08I gave them a Torah that in some cases both answers are right and they're both Torah. In some cases, white and black are right. Why? That's the Chachamim's job: to toil and toil and toil to uncover the truth. If it was black and white, no one would study it. It'd be boring. You just memorize it like you do for high school and have no emotion, no connection, no nothing. The battle for the truth, that's what gets you to toil. He says, and you go to the Chachamim, and they're going to tell you this is the truth. You shall do according to the word that they will tell you. Not the word that you think it is. Not what you understand. Who are you? Why? Because you went to yeshiva for a few years? Why? Because you read the same book and you think you understand? You understand the Rambam? You understand Rashi? Who are you? Just a chutzpan that thinks his intellect is higher than everyone else's. It's not about intellect. It's about toiling. It's about siyata dishmaya. Torah is not for you to be your own rabbi.

1:59:29And he continues and he says, from that place that Hashem will choose, meaning Hashem is giving them the answers. He's giving them the siyata dishmaya. Someone came to Rav Kanievsky and he told him, Kvod HaRav, I want to know I should buy this house once I retire. I'm supposed to get a retirement package which is going to be X amount of money. He goes, "When are you supposed to get it?" He goes, "In nine months from now." He goes, "Come to me in nine months." He goes, "No, but if I buy it now, maybe it's cheaper." He goes, "Come to me in nine months from now when you have the money." Nine months later, he comes to the rabbi. He says, "Yeah, you should buy it." He goes, "Why didn't you tell me nine months ago?" "Because nine months ago, I didn't have the siyata dishmaya. Because nine months ago, it wasn't realistic. He didn't have the money yet." Only get the advice. I only get the knowledge from Hashem at the moment of need, not at the moment of desire. So, Hashem will choose and you shall be careful to do according to everything that they will teach you. This is Devarim (Deuteronomy) chapter 17, verses 9 and 10.

2:00:40to the teaching that they will teach you again. It says it, "and according to the judgment that they will say to you, shall you do; you shall not deviate from the word that they will tell you, right or left." This is one of the places where Hashem Yitbarach instills the power in the sages. For all of these people that like to be their own rabbis and... Or they have a rabbi that's so far away, he doesn't even know they exist. Like, no, no, my rabbi is Rabbi Elyashiv. Yeah, you, I mean, that's who you go to because he died. So who do you go to now? How do you go to him? What do you do? Who's your rabbi now, living one? Oh, no, I don't know. I don't hold by anybody else. I hold by his books. How do you know you're translating the book the right way? Why? I've been learning it for 10 years. So what? Learned it for a thousand years. What difference? Who says you're right? Who says you understand it? One of the famous machlokot is about what was said in a book of Rabbi Tzion Abba Shaul. In one of the books, he says that a Sephardic woman is allowed to wear a wig. This is unheard of.

2:02:02So many people say, look, there's a Sephardic Posek that says you're allowed to wear a wig. How could it be? See, it's allowed. Go to the two students, Rav Mutzafi and Rav Gidon Ben Moshe. Two of his main students, Rav Mutzafi was his longest-standing student, and Rav Gidon Ben Moshe actually wrote the answer in the book for him. He says when he wrote it, "You fools, if you understand, you should understand the whole context of what he wrote. He didn't write you're allowed to wear a wig." He says, if the wife is wearing a wig inside the house, you're allowed to say Kriyat Shema, but it's inside the house. Chas v'shalom, she wears it outside. You're allowed to say Kriyat Shema if she wears the wig inside the house next to her. Why? Because if a woman doesn't cover her hair, you're not allowed to pray next to her. If your wife is next to you and she's not covered, you're not allowed to pray next to her. Why? It's considered nakedness. But he says, I have a leniency. If she's wearing a wig inside the house.

2:03:04You're allowed to say Kriyat Shema next time. You're allowed to pray because she's covering her hair, but it's inside the house. Chas v'shalom, if it's outside, never says it's allowed. So what happens? People translate things the way they understand it. That's why you have to go to the chachamim. You have to go to the author himself. What do you actually mean? What do you say? Who says you're right? Go to the one that wrote the answer. I went to the one that wrote the answer. He says chas v'shalom. He gave a heter for pe'ot. You understand the answer. Rabotai, when people translate things the way they want, they put themselves in severe risk. One of the saddest stories in the entire Torah is the story of Korach. Korach, unlike what most people think, was actually one of the Gedolei HaDor. Korach was actually one of the righteous people of his generation. He was not only wealthy materially, he was also a very, very smart person in Torah. And he came to Moshe Rabbeinu and he said to Moshe, "Moshe, who says you're right?"

2:04:26Look, you said the Torah says that the tzitzit has to have a p'til t'chelet, a string of blue. Look at my tzitzit; the whole thing is blue. So, if I have a whole tzitzit that's blue, do I still need a p'til of t'chelet? Do I still need a string if the whole thing is blue? Moshe says yes. He says, "See, it doesn't make sense." He brought 250 of the biggest rabbis in the world and... It says, "Korach, you're right. It doesn't make sense. The whole thing is blue." He says, "Moshe, tell the truth. I have a house. I got a lot of money. I got a bunch of sofrim. All these rabbis wrote me Sifrei Torah. All of them. Each Torah, 304,805 letters. The whole Torah, I filled up the entire house with just Sifrei Torah. The whole thing, from floor to ceiling, three floors full of Sifrei Torah. Do I still have to have a mezuzah?" $100 mezuzah, I have to put a mezuzah. A mezuzah only has a couple of paragraphs. I still have to have a couple of paragraphs. I have the whole Torah and have thousands of them. I have a whole house full of Torah. I still have to have a mezuzah. Moshe says, "Yes." He says, "See Moshe, you're making your own opinion. It's your opinion. Rabbi, as you see, it doesn't make sense." They say, "You're right. Korach, you're right. It doesn't make sense. Maybe you're translating it the way you want, Moshe."

2:05:54The Gemara says the Sun, the Sun for the first time ever, the Sun, the angel that's responsible for the Sun, went to Hashem and said, "Hashem, if you do not choose Moshe, I'm not lighting tomorrow. If you do not choose Moshe, I'm not lighting tomorrow." The Sun is like us. It's like you can tell Hashem, "Hey Hashem, I don't want to do tefillin tomorrow. I want to sleep late." What kind of chutzpah is that? Hashem will destroy it in a second. What does it really mean? So, the Malbim gives an amazing pshat that I heard from Rav Matisyahu Salomon, something beautiful. He says, in reality, what's happening here? Korach is telling Moshe, "Moshe, why do I need you? Why do I need you to tell me what to do? I'm also a prophet. If Hashem wants to tell me something, let Hashem talk to me. If Hashem wants to tell everyone here something, let everyone talk to Hashem directly. What do I need you for? Because all of us are Kedoshim, all of us are chosen."

2:07:16All of us are chosen. If we're all blue, what do we need? One little string. What do we need? One leader to stand out. We don't need a rabbi. We don't need a leader. We're all the same. Moshe says no. Hashem instilled power in the sages. You have to follow. You have to have da'as Torah. Not your own da'as. Not your own opinion. You have to have the opinion of the Torah. Because who says you're right? But look, if I tell you, it says, but it's two different mitzvot. It's two different mitzvot. Having a sefer Torah is one mitzvah. The mezuzah is a different mitzvah. People spend half a million, a million dollars on houses. When I tell them a good mezuzah is going to cost them 150 bucks, they're like, "Oh, you have something cheaper?" You spent half a million dollars on the house, don't you want Hashem to protect it and... It's been half a million dollars on the house, a million on the house, but they want a $30 mezuzah, a $50 mezuzah. Korach says, "What do I need you, Moshe? What do I need you? Hashem can talk to each one of us." So the sun said to Hashem, "Hashem, if Korach is right and there's no need for a leader, then you don't need me. You can light the world yourself." It's been half a million dollars on the house. Tell a guy he has to spend a few hundred bucks, a few thousand dollars, whatever it is. It depends on how many doors you have. If you have more doors, that means the house is more expensive. That means you can afford it anyway. If you can't afford it, why'd you buy it? But no, no, it's too expensive. When you have something for 30 bucks, like the Reform, you have a $30 mezuzah like the Reform have. They print it from computer paper.

2:08:41It's been half a million dollars on the house, a million on the house, but they want a $30 mezuzah, a $50 mezuzah. Korach says, "What do I need you, Moshe? What do I need you? Hashem can talk to each one of us." So the sun said to Hashem, "Hashem, if Korach is right and there's no need for a leader, then You don't need me. You can light the world Yourself." If there's no need for servants, if there's no need for anyone, you're right, Hashem, anyway, you're right. If there's no need, what do You need me for? You light the world. If there's no need for the sages, there's no need for the chachamim. If everyone's going to talk to Hashem privately, like everyone thinks, oh no, you do it, you do it, everyone's a rabbi. Everyone's a rabbi, everyone's a tzaddik, everyone's going to listen to their own opinion, translate their own opinion, listen to no one.

2:09:42Then, Hashem, just run the world by Yourself. What do You need all of us for? Hashem says, no. I didn't create the world this way. Of course, Hashem does everything. Of course, Hashem is everything. But the way of a king is to have servants. The way of a king is to have servants. I have the sun because the sun is a servant. I have the moon because the moon is a servant. I have the earth because the earth is a servant. I have my rabbanim because the rabbanim are my servants. When you go against them, you're going against the Torah. It's the same thing as if you're going against Hashem Himself. Problem today is that our kavod, our pride, is the main thing that makes us continuously go against the real opinion. We don't look for rabbanim; we look for opinions and... Instead of asking what's the Torah? What's the real truth in the Torah? What does Hashem say here? Can you translate, Rabbi? What does it say? What proof do you have for what you say? Is this what you think, or do you actually have a source? And is there a backup for the source, or just one guy out of 300 poskim said it? Because if there are 300 poskim on this one answer and one guy said no and 299 said yes, halacha is with the 299; they're right. You can't just pick one.

2:11:05It says yes because you like that one. So even if your rabbi mistranslated and chose the one guy, he's wrong. Why? He has no support. He has no support for what he's saying. But our pride, our pride continues to destroy us because instead of looking for answers from Hashem, we're constantly looking for excuses. And the Torah says really awful things. pride. This is first and foremost. If you're a rabbi, you should understand what kind of job you have in today's world. There are really two types of rabbis: the rabbis that are broke and the rabbis that are rich. The broke ones usually tell the truth; the rich ones, not always. Why? It's a bigger yetzer hara. It's a bigger yetzer hara. It's a bigger yetzer hara for someone that's getting two, three, four, five hundred thousand dollars a year or even more in some cases to be a rabbi. And some of these kehillot, it's a bigger yetzer hara for him to tell the truth. Why? Because the truth, he's gonna lose half of his donors, if not more. The guys with the biggest checks are usually the ones that are looking for the leniencies.

2:12:35So the Gemara says, and it is also mentioned in Mesilat Yesharim, Rabbi Menachem says in the name of Rabbi Tanchum, "All who receive a position of authority in order to enjoy it, is not like this thief who enjoys the body of a woman." says whoever accepts the position of authority, meaning whoever becomes a rabbi for his own benefit, because he wants to make some money—it's a good job, get a hundred, two hundred, three hundred thousand a year. That Dweck, rasha on the rasha, makes over a million dollars a year for some reason. I don't care about the money. It's just the guy is lying to people in their faces, but they're paying a million dollars a year to do it. He says whoever accepts the job and for his own benefit, because he wants to make money. It says he's no different than a no'ef. What's a no'ef? An adulterer. Who derives pleasure from the body of a woman, Hashem. You got a job. You got a good job as a rabbi. Why? Because you're making good money. That's the reason. You're not gonna tell the truth because you're gonna stop the donations. You're a no'ef. No'ef.

2:14:09There was a woman that married a Babylonian. In Masechet Nedarim, page 66b, it mentions that at the time when Bava ben Buta was a gadol hador, this woman had a different dialect than her new husband. She didn't understand some of the things he said and wasn't necessarily the smartest person on the block, but... The husband wasn't exactly the most calm person on the block either. But whatever, that's the matches that Hashem made. So one day, the husband tells her, "Make me two talfe," which is the feet of a cow, cow feet. And she didn't understand him. She thought he meant lentils. She made him two lentils, two little lentils. The guy is starving, worked the whole day, gets two little lentils, two little beans over here. He got so upset. He says to her, "Make me a lot. Make me a lot." So he figured that at the very least, he's going to get a decent amount. And make sure, with a lot of lentils that you're giving me, make sure you give me two avati'ach, two watermelons. Now she misunderstood again. Instead of two watermelons,

2:15:36It sounds the same as two oil lamps. So she made him a lot of lentils, but she brought them with two oil lamps. He got so upset. He says, "Go break them on Resh DeBava." "Resh DeBava" is like "go break them on top of a gate." But she understood it as "go break it on the Rosh," on the head of Bava ben Buta. She goes to the yeshiva, she takes the two oil lamps, little innocent tzaddeiket, and breaks them on Bava ben Buta's head. The students exclaim, "Who is this woman? A terrorist? What are you doing?" "No, no, no, don't touch her, don't touch her. Biti, Biti, my daughter, tzaddeiket." She says, "Why did you do that? Why did you do that to Bava ben Buta?" She responds, "My husband told me." He says, "Ah, since you did the will of your husband," May Hashem bless you to have children like Bava ben Buta, like me. Why? Because I'm nothing. If what you're doing is going to give you Shalom Bayit, that means you're doing the will of Hashem. You're doing the will of Hashem, you're a Yehudi. You're a Jew. You're a Jew. It's fine for me, even if it hurts my head a little bit. That's Da'at Torah. That's Da'at Torah.

2:16:58If it's the will of Hashem, it doesn't matter if it hurts. If it's the will of Hashem, it doesn't matter if you like it. It doesn't matter if you agree. He says, "Who am I?" That's an opinion you listen to. When the Rabbi says, "Who am I?" That's somebody. When he says, "Who am I?" he's someone. When he says, "Look at me," you're no one. You want to be someone? Realize that you're no one. Realize it's all Hashem. As long as you think you're really somebody, you're nobody. And that's not Torah. But the Greek mentality will convince you otherwise. The Greek mentality will tell you, no, you need money. You need money to succeed in life. You need to look a certain way to succeed. You need to act a certain way to succeed. You need to be arrogant. You need to be cocky. You need to have this suit and that suit, and this hair and that hair. You have to have a certain format. And Hashem gave us this amazing holiday of Chanukah. He told us, "Listen, all the wars, all the battles, the miracles of the battles—that's one day out of eight days."

2:18:20It's one day out of eight days. We celebrate one out of the eight days. It's for the battles, for the material. The other seven, that's for Judaism. That's for the Kodesh HaKodashim of the Torah. That's for the spirituality. So when someone says, "Listen, you have a big miracle with the Greeks. There was a chiddush we had about a week or two ago." It says if you look... The two main things that happened during Chanukah are nes, which is miracle, and Yavan, which is the Greeks. If you combine the two, nes and Yavan, it spells the word nisayon. Nisayon means test. The test is every day. The reason why you don't have a Gemara Masechet Chanukah is because the nisayon, the test of not being like the Greeks, is required every day, and the only way you're going to pass it is if you acknowledge the responsibility you have as a Jew and you thank Hashem for making you one. You thank Hashem for giving you the siyata dishmaya to pass the test, and that, my friends, is a miracle. That's what makes you a miracle. Any questions?

2:19:47. . . . the siyata dishmaya to pass the test, and that, my friends, is a miracle. That's what makes you a miracle. Any questions?" "It's actually 500. It's 500 different reasons for why it's eight days of . . . It's actually 500. It's 500 different reasons for why it's eight days of... Versus seven days, it's over 500 different opinions of why—500 different chiddushim from the Chachamim. The one that I mentioned is in regards to the Beit Yosef, that's Rabbi Yosef Karo, but you have 500 other opinions in addition to it. No one necessarily disagrees with it; it's just other chiddushim on top of it, like what we said.

2:20:52were the chiddushim of Rav Hutner, Pachad Yitzchak, and some of it was on top of what he said that we had, Baruch Hashem. So it's not my chiddushim, Chas V'Shalom, don't disagree with this. It supplements it. If the chiddush you have disagrees with the Chachamim before you, you're wrong. If it supplements it, it's fine. But again, you have to double check. Somebody else had it. Sometimes you'll have a chiddush, you usually find somebody else had it also. with the Levi tribes in general, Levi tribes had from, I know from the Beit HaMikdash time, a very, very unique voice. To such an extent that they would sing and cause the people that are bringing the korban to cry. They would lead them to cry so if somebody came there And they weren't ready to do teshuva, by the time they got there they started doing teshuva because the song had a spiritual impact on them to remind them of the sin. And they would literally do teshuva on the spot. One of the reasons that the Chachamim explain it is that if someone had a korban without the right thoughts, then it would be considered a pigul. Then the korban would not be accepted in Shamayim.

2:22:17So perhaps this is one of the ways that unless someone had a stone heart, they could stop somebody from sinning themselves. Go ahead. We're making a point about how Hashem sometimes can bring something of great significance. Right, right. Well, there is a law and there are teachings about giving people kaf zechut, but even giving people kaf zechut has restrictions. So if someone has...

2:23:21Well, there is a law, and there are teachings about giving people kaf zechut, but even giving people kaf zechut has restrictions. So if someone has... Known to be a righteous person. He's a rabbi if he's a talmid chacham, if he's just overall known as a righteous person, and you see that person driving on Shabbat one day, you're obligated. It's not that you should; it's not just a good midah. You're obligated to give them kaf zechut, meaning the benefit of the doubt, and use the imagination that Hashem Yitbarach put in your mind and... Instilled in you, instilling in your nature, and create an excuse of why he's driving on Shabbat. Make up a story in your mind. He gave you an imagination only for this reason. Now, you use your imagination maybe to draw pictures, use your imagination to build buildings, use your imagination to do all types of things. But in reality, the biggest reason why He gave you an imagination is to create an excuse of

2:24:34why he's not sinning. Why? Oh, he's driving? Maybe he has his wife or some other woman that's pregnant in the backseat, and he's taking her to the hospital, pikuach nefesh, because nefesh don't wish about. So if he's known as righteous, you are obligated to create an excuse for him. On the other hand, if... The part that people don't know or don't agree with or don't like or whatever it is, if the person is known as a rasha. Now, rasha doesn't necessarily mean someone that's evil. It doesn't mean it has to be Hitler. It doesn't mean it has to be a mass murderer that murders for fun. Rasha means someone that goes against Hashem on a regular basis, and everyone knows it. it's not someone that is openly going against Hashem, openly violates Shabbat every week, openly eats non-kosher, openly goes out with non-Jews, openly does business dishonestly, openly does things against Hashem. People think that means that if, let's say, for example, driving on Shabbat and

2:25:39The law of driving on Shabbat, or really anything, is that if a person violates Shabbat in public before a minyan, then it's a din karet. They have to kill them. Now people say, "Oh yeah, but if he doesn't do it in public, but what if public is considered ten people?" So what if 10 people don't see him driving on Shabbat, but he drove on Shabbat? What if he drove and he parked half a mile or five minutes away or two minutes away from the synagogue and walked the rest, but 10 people, 10 Jews did not see him drive. Is he still considered a public sinner? What if he smoked a cigarette, but in his house? No one saw him smoke a cigarette. Is he still considered committing a public sin? Answer is yes. Why is it considered a public sin? It's considered a public sin if ten people know that he drives on Shabbat. They don't have to see him per se; they just have to know. If ten people know he drives on Shabbat, he drove on Shabbat. If ten people know he smokes on Shabbat, it's considered a public sin. When he makes it known, it's considered a public sin. The Gemara specifically talks about this, and that's one of the things that rabbis don't mention to people.

2:26:58When I tell them, listen, they start making excuses. I remember this one rabbi from Boca Raton, rasha merusha that he is, who also happened to be the guy that was throwing out my CDs. He was trying to argue, "No, but ten people didn't see, ten people didn't see," and I bring the guy proofs. What are you talking about? Ten people don't need to see. Ten people don't need to see. Where do we learn it from? We learn it from the Gemara in Avodah Zarah and also in Sanhedrin. What does it say? Ma'aseh Pinchas. The Pinchas, what happened with Pinchas, Parashat Balak, Parashat Pinchas, it talks about how when Pinchas found out that Zimri and Cosbi were sinning, he went to Moshe Rabbeinu. He says, Moshe, the halacha is if you see a Jew and a non-Jew in the middle of the act, in the middle of intimacy, you have to kill them. Moshe Rabbeinu says, you're the one that said the halacha, you're right, go execute it. Now, it says that Pinchas went inside the tent and killed them while they were in the middle of the act. So, the Gemara asks, how could he kill them? There weren't public people; there weren't people. The halacha is in parhesia, meaning if people actually see that they're sinning. When they're in the tent, there's no one there; it was just them two.

2:28:25So, how could Pinchas, Kodesh Kodashim, kill them? And we know he did the right thing because Hashem blessed him for it. So how could it be? You can't make a sin and Hashem bless you for it. And that we learn. Ten people don't need to see it. Ten people need to know about it. The people outside the camp, his soldiers, his friends, the whole Kehillah, the whole Am Yisrael, much more than ten people knew that he was doing it. A lot to kill him. So in regards to driving on Shabbat, smoking on Shabbat, or doing any of the sins on Shabbat, you don't need to have ten people see you or even half a million people see you, or anything like that. Just people need to know you're doing it. If you're doing it, it's considered farhesia, so it's considered a public sin, a public desecration of Hashem. So that's the part that people don't like, but it's a reality. That's the actual halacha. Now, in regards to kaf zechut... Person is righteous. You must use your imagination to come up with an excuse for them, but if the person is considered a rasha, then you're not allowed to give him kaf zechut. Meaning, even if you see a rasha, or Hitler, giving sandwiches to homeless people, you are actually obligated to create an excuse of why there is something wrong with it. And

2:29:51He's a rasha, so you are obligated to find an excuse. No, no, he's not giving them food to feed them. It's probably because there's poison in it. Why? Because he's a rasha. So just by default, giving people kaf zechut is not quite that simple. It depends on who the person is. If you don't know them, if you don't know they're a rasha, you have to assume they're a tzaddik. You have to give them kaf zechut if you don't know for sure they're a rasha. If they're a tzaddik, you can give them kaf zechut. But if you know for sure this guy's a rasha, you're not allowed to give kaf zechut. So that's the part that is not politically correct. Why? Because it creates tension. It creates tension, and people don't like tension. The reason why is because they're comfortable in their Greek life and comfortable in their Greek life because they lack tension. Every time you tell people something different, you tell them what the actual halacha says. You tell them what the actual law of Hashem is. "Hey, you're creating tension." Telling people they can't drive on Shabbat, telling people they can't wear wigs anymore, because you're creating a difference of opinion. I'm like, no, you're creating it by doing the sin. Oh, every time everyone's talking about it, it's the truth. That's what it says. Look, Torah says not to do these things. What's...

2:31:06No, you're not talking about the messianics, it's lashon hara. No, there's no lashon hara din against reshaim. Lashon hara is only against people that are righteous, not against people that are kofrim, not against goyim. There's no lashon hara din for that. But people always scream, no, lashon hara, machloket, oh, the few terms they know. The few terms they know, they throw it at you. Why? Because they have to turn the tides. They have to make you look bad. Why? Because you're reminding them they're a Greek. Reminding them there's someone that's a slave. Now, the Greek people today, by the way, you should know, are not connected whatsoever to the Greek Empire of 2,000 years ago. They call themselves Greeks, but they're not connected whatsoever. Same thing like the Italians are not connected to the Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago. So, there are many decent people among them, and there are many people that are not, like anything else. And... Same thing with Amalek. Even though Nazi Germany was Amalek, today not all Germans are Amalek. There are actually a few that I know who are extremely righteous people. So, the point being is that you have to know who you're dealing with. But the biggest thing is you have to know who you are. You have to know who you are when you look in the mirror. Are you a Jew, or do you only pretend to be a Jew when you're in synagogue?

2:32:31You're a Jew until it comes to money. You're a Jew until it comes to kavod. You're a Jew until it comes to one of the sins that you can't get over. You're a Jew, but at home, in hiding. You know, you want to wear a kippah and tzitzit at home, but outside? No, no, no, no. It's going to ruin your style. It's going to ruin the M.O. you have. What will people think of you? They make pretend you're a Jew in a box. They buy you in a toy box, and they play with you when they want, and they don't play with you when they don't want. That's the thing that people need to understand. It's really bushah. It's really a busha. It's really an embarrassment. People that are embarrassed to be Jews should be embarrassed of themselves. There are many self-hating Jews, but that's not even who we're talking about. We're talking about people that are supposedly religious. Doing teshuvah or something, but they're having a hard time putting on a kippah. They're having a hard time being modest. They're having a hard time, you know, looking like a Jew. Oh, what are my girlfriends going to think of me if I start wearing a kisui rosh? Oh, what are my friends going to think of me if my skirts are always long? Who cares what they think of you? What does Hashem think of you? It's better to be viewed as a drunk for 70 years, the sages say.

2:33:48Then be viewed as a rasha in the eyes of Hashem for a moment. That's the reality. If you're still thinking about what are my friends gonna think of me? What are my girlfriends gonna think of me? What are my colleagues gonna think of me? What are some of the reshaim that call themselves rabbanim gonna think about me? What is the government gonna think about me? What is this? What is that? You're asking all the wrong questions. The question should only be: What does God think now? Am I a Roman from Edom or am I Yehudi? When God sees me right now, He sees you all the time. Does He say, "Ah, that's my servant's descendant," or does He say, "No, that's Ben Yaakov. That's Ben Yaakov. That's a Jew." What does He see? What are you portraying? A Ben Yaakov doesn't walk around with tank tops or with no sleeves or with a mini skirt or with no kisui rosh or with any type of immodesty, cursing, or disgusting behavior. A Ben Yaakov doesn't walk around like that, my friends. A Ben Yaakov doesn't walk around all flashy with his chest out, telling people what to do. That's not a Ben Yaakov. A Ben Yaakov doesn't disrespect his parents on a regular basis.

2:35:18A Ben Yaakov doesn't go against the rabbi just because he thinks he's smarter than everyone else. That's not a Ben Yaakov. The first thing you have to realize, by being a Yehudi, is that you're acknowledging that Hashem is above. And then you're thanking Him. That's what you're doing in Amidah every day, three times a day. That's what every time somebody asks you, oh, where you're from, what are you, this, that, when you say I'm a Jew, say it with pride a little bit. Anything else? Yeah. You know the Greeks, they had a war against the ideology of the Torah. So today it's the same thing. So where do you draw the line? As far as anti-Semites or atheists that are willing to attack you? But isolation is not an option. Isolation is not an option. So, are they attacking you physically? No. How? What kind of attack is it? Are they calling you names and things like that? Are they physically attacking you? No. Give me examples. Well, first of all, no one knows who you are because they don't see you; they see me only.

2:36:40Second of all, you don't have to mention names. You can just give me examples. So, I'll give you the possibilities. If someone comes to attack you physically, halacha is you have to kill them first before they kill you. Meaning, if someone comes to kill you, you're obligated to kill them first. There is no mercy here. We're not the Christians who say He comes to slap you, and you give him the other cheek? That is stupidity. Judaism says if someone comes to kill you, you kill them first. Why? Because your life is precious to Hashem. There is no mitzvah of being a fool. If somebody comes to hurt you, you hurt them first. That's one thing. The second thing is in regards to somebody embarrassing you. If someone publicly embarrasses you, it depends. It depends on the circumstances and... In reality, if you could avoid it, if you could avoid the altercation, then avoid it. If you could be quiet, then be quiet. If you could move away, then move away. It's better to avoid conflict in general, especially since we're in the exile, especially since we're under the rule of Edom, especially since the ruling is not going to be the ruling of the Torah; it's going to be the ruling of the Goyish court. So, if you could avoid it, avoid it. If you can't avoid it, it's a different story. Now,

2:37:59If there's an unavoidable circumstance, you work with somebody and they're constantly insulting you. It depends on the level. What are they insulting you about? Are they insulting you in a way where it's really just like they're hurting your pride a little bit? You could just be quiet and let them smash their head against the wall and kill themselves eventually? Or is it something that's really hurting you in some way? Meaning that because of the way that you're not responding, the boss looks at you and says, oh, this guy has no heart. I'm going to fire him. If you can lose out of it, then there's something to do. So again, it's not a one-size-fits-all. There's no one-size-fits-all. It all depends on the level of damage that's being done. Most of the time, most of the time, the damage is purely to your pride. And if it's to your pride, don't worry. It's kaparat avonot anyway. It's going to be fine. If it's something more, then you have to react. I'll give you an example. Yeah. Pornography. Okay. Being shoved in your face. Look away. Yeah.

2:39:04...you can try that many times until you draw a line. Okay, I don't want to. I mean, can you file a complaint if this is in a work environment? Can you file a complaint? Yes. What was the complaint filed, and what did they do? Nothing. They still did nothing. Well, I mean, right now, the whole issue of inappropriate behavior in regards to sexuality is a big deal... You know, everything that's happening with the government officials, with Hollywood, and a few other places, a few other people, it's become a big thing. Finally, the people have woken up and it's, in a sense, become almost in style to complain. There's a class action lawsuit... That was filed today against this Weinstein guy. Hundreds of women are complaining against him, and a lot of other dirt has come out against other people, other officials. Pretty much anyone that has dirt on them, and someone doesn't like them—which usually is the case because they want their job or their money or something—it's coming out right now. It's coming out. So I think for big companies, especially if you work for a small company and

2:40:07it's much more difficult, usually because they're willing to fire you instantly since they're a small company. Complaining to them, unless there are some decent people behind the scenes, doesn't have much effect. Pretty much, your only option is to leave. But if you work for a big company, whether it be a shipping company, an airline, a diamond company, or any significant company, then they'll definitely be very scared if you threaten to do such a thing as filing a lawsuit or a public complaint because no one wants bad press. They could lose millions and millions of dollars from it. Again, if it's a one-time thing and someone showed you some picture or something like that, you could tell them, no, thank you, go away. If they're extremely inappropriate on a regular basis, then put your foot down, tell them to stop, or you will complain. If they still do it again, complain. Complain publicly and go all the way with it because it's, first of all, illegal. It's illegal to do such a thing. Second of all, it's inappropriate. And third of all, there's something wrong with them.

2:41:34which means that if they're pressing on that button because they know it bothers you and they're not listening to you saying no, it means it's going to get worse. Because what happens with bullies is that they're going to press your button until it stops, until it doesn't work. If it doesn't work, then they start trying to strike, doing something new, something worse. Why? Because their whole thing is to get a reaction out of you and they're not going to stop by you doing nothing. They're going to continue. So if this is the case that you have, you're in a situation where you have no option but to complain against them. And whatever Hashem wants, Hashem is going to let that happen. But to stay there and be a victim and suffer is not an option. I have another question about the Chanukah blessings and I mean, you still say the same blessing, and the reason why is because when someone is a convert, they're considered a descendant of Avraham Avinu. The reason why is because in the nearly hundred years of

2:42:50hundred years that Avraham Avinu was alive. He was with Sarah for a large majority of it, and for most of that time, they weren't able to have any kids. Until he was a hundred years old, he didn't have a kid. Okay, but he had a kid; he had Yishmael 13 years before the birth of Yitzchak. But for a large part of those years, for decades—I don't remember off the top of my head the exact amount of years—but for decades, he did not have any children. And the sages say that They asked the question. I mean, if he knew that there's no way that she, that Sarah could ever get pregnant, was it considered wasting seed? Hashem said no, absolutely not. Hashem miraculously took each one of the seeds of Avraham Avinu and put it in a place waiting for the converts to come in the future. Meaning that every single one of the converts that you see It's the seed of Avraham Avinu. It's the neshama that Avraham Avinu created already 4,000 years ago plus. So that's why when someone converts, they say that they're the descendants of Avraham because they really are the descendants of Avraham. And that's the beautiful, beautiful Midrash, part of the Oral Torah, that many people just don't follow, don't know, don't do. It's simply because it's just a...

2:44:05Teaching for, you know, for Jewish people, most people just focus on natural-born Jews. You know, so Baruch Hashem, since this is an issue that's very, very close to me, I look for anything that's out there, and it's beautiful, the amount of stuff that's out there. I mean, if you see the language that the Rambam uses in Mishneh Torah, and how he talks about... Converts, some of the letters that he wrote, some of the things he wrote, I mean, it's true. I mean, some of the sages talk about the Rambam. I'm talking about converts. It's truly amazing. I believe it was the Arizal. He says, "When I die, bury me next to Avraham ben Avraham." Avraham ben Avraham was a convert and... who was a martyr. He died for Judaism. He converted. They told him, "Because you converted, we're going to kill you." He celebrated the whole way to his death penalty. And the Arizal saw him. I believe it was the Arizal. I usually confuse the Arizal and the Vilna Gaon, but I think it's the Arizal in this case. The Arizal saw him. He said, "This is the Gadol HaDor. This is the most righteous person in the generation. This is the most righteous person. This is the giant." So, to be a convert is not one, two, three.

2:45:23But that's why it's very sad when some converts ruin it for everyone. You know, unfortunately, there are a few. The Gemara says that converts are like a skin disease. Now, the Mefarshim say that this means a few things. What does it mean, skin disease? Skin disease, in one regard, means that when a natural-born Jew sees a convert he sees that the convert is much more passionate about Judaism than he is, even though he's already obligated. He had the privilege of being born to Jewish parents. He had the privilege of going to yeshiva his whole life. He had the privilege of being born in Israel and so on and so forth. But the convert that was born in Puerto Rico or born in Atlanta or born wherever he was born is much more excited about doing mitzvot than you, a natural-born Jew. What's wrong with you? So it reminds the Jew how he's not doing enough. So it's like a skin disease. It's annoying. It's annoying. Why? In Shamayim, In Shamayim, the Gemara says, when someone comes to Shamayim, they're gonna ask him a few questions. You say, "Oh, why weren't you a tzaddik?" "Oh, I didn't have any money." "Did you have a worse financial situation than Hillel?" Hillel HaZaken put his life on the line and hung out on the top of the Beit Midrash for Shmayah and Avtalyon just to learn Torah, and the snow went on top of him and almost killed him. Did you have a worse financial situation than Hillel HaZaken?

2:46:51No, no, women were chasing me. I was very beautiful. They're gonna bring him Yosef HaTzaddik. It's like, "You are better looking than Yosef HaTzaddik? Your brother, the most beautiful man that ever lived? You better look." And he was shining. He was so shining, so beautiful that when he became the viceroy of Egypt, the women would throw their underwear and jewels at him just to get him to lift his head and look at them. And he wouldn't. He would continue looking on the floor. He only lifted his head once because he saw the medallion of the granddaughter of Yaakov, so he knew that's the one I can marry. But the point is that it's that beautiful. You're more beautiful than Yosef? Obviously not. He said, no, no, I had a lot of money. I had a lot of money. They're going to bring him Korach. More money than Korach had. Boats, you can bring Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi. You had more money than that. Countries, countries! They had not a few shekels. You have what? You have ten million dollars? You could be an employee for Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi for ten million dollars. What do you have? You've been an employee, cleaning the carpets maybe. What do you have? So all the excuses, they say, "Oh no, it was hard. It was hard." They're going to bring him a convert.

2:48:12You bring him a convert. It was harder for him to give away his mom and dad. It's harder yet to give away all the holidays, the traditions, the friends, the family—the holidays, everything he ever knew—yet he gave it up. Harder for him, harder for her, just to give away a family. You had a harder time than her? That's why in Shamayim there's no excuses, no excuses. No excuses. On one hand, natural-born Jews say, "Oh, these converts are like a skin disease, so annoying." It reminds me of... I'm not doing enough. But unfortunately, unfortunately, sometimes the convert is like a skin disease because they're bad. Sometimes the convert converts, but he doesn't really want to convert. So he fools the judges, or she fools the judges. They're converting for money, they're converting for convenience, they're converting because now they want it, but not really, and later on they become secular, or they become kofrim either. And unfortunately, I know a few already.

2:49:13converted for not pure reasons. Unfortunately, I know a few such converts who are very wicked people. Wicked, like on a special level of wickedness, like a gross level of wickedness. But they think they're tzaddikim, they think they're the most righteous people on earth. Angry, nasty creatures, like a skin disease. So it's not all good and it's not all bad. When someone converts, they really have to understand what it means. There's no turning back. You can never make yourself not Jewish. There's no undoing it. There's no converting from a Jew to be something else. Even if someone converts to a different religion, it still means nothing. In Shamayim, they're still considered a Jew and they'll be judged as a Jew. Wicked or righteous, whatever it is, but they'll be judged as a Jew. There's no way out. That's why they tell them in a Beit Din. When we bring a person to the Beit Din, we tell them, "You realize you don't have to do this." "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know I have to do it now." "No, no, no, really, you don't have to do this. There's no undoing it like next week or next month or next year or next decade. If you don't like something, you can't undo it. You can't. It's not like there's no way to undo it. It's the stupidest thing in the world to convert and not be religious."

2:50:40You might as well just kill yourself. I mean, really, it's the craziest thing in the world. Why? Because you're putting yourself in a doomed situation. Things that you were allowed to do, now you're not allowed to do, and now you're putting yourself in a situation for the things, and you get punished for it. It's foolish. So, that's why the Torah says that the Erev Rav came from converts. Erev Rav came from converts, and we're suffering from them until this day. That's why there's skin disease. So yes, we have some of the greatest human beings that ever lived who were converts. Shemaya and Avtalyon, Rabbi Akiva's parents, Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, Avraham ben Avraham, and many, many others. Ruth, Yitro, many, many others, Baruch Hashem, came from converts. Some of the most important people in Judaism. Onkelos—all came from converts. But Erev Rav also did. Understand, so the fact that the life of a convert is difficult is no surprise. Some kehillot don't like them. Some people don't like them. Life is difficult. The friends are no longer the same friends. The family is no longer the same family. It's not easy. It's not easy. But that's why Hashem says, "I'm your father and your mother if you're converting for the right reason."

2:52:02Nothing in the world will bother you. Even the most annoying people, the kehillot, everything, nothing's going to bother you. Why? You're with Hashem. What do you care? Anything else? Get a list. I took all of it. Go ask. If I'm already, ask. The battery's still alive. Anything? Anything? Everyone's innocent? Nothing? Everyone knows the rest of the Torah? We have covered a lot of things. I think the most important issue to remember is what it means to be a Jew. A lot of people like to define it in different ways: your mother's this way, your mother's that way, you learn this way, you learn that way, your mustache is this way, your beard is that way, you had it this way, you had it that way. All that stuff doesn't mean anything. What means something is, first and foremost, to acknowledge that you are a chosen person, which means...

2:53:02you are obligated to do certain things in accordance with the Torah. After you acknowledge it, accept it, and realize it, say thank you to Hashem. Why? It's the only way that you can actually achieve any of it. So, b'ezrat Hashem, this will give us a much more significant Chanukah, a much more significant prayer every day, a much more significant learning every day, and a much more significant understanding of what it means to be a Jew. You are obligated to do certain things in accordance with the Torah. After you acknowledge it, accept it, and realize it, say thank you to Hashem. Why? It's the only way that you can actually achieve any of it. So, b'ezrat Hashem, this will give us a much more significant Chanukah, a much more significant prayer every day, a much more significant learning every day, and a much more significant understanding.