HaShem is Present Even If You Think You Are Alone

0:06This Gemara is giving you different rules about what you're allowed and not allowed to do in the Bet Knesset, in the mini Bet HaMikdash. So first and foremost, the Gemara is very, very harsh in regards to treating the Bet Knesset like it's a Bet Café, like it's a coffee shop. The whole day the Beit Knesset attendees are reading newspapers. If they're reading Sefer Torah, Gemara, Mishnah, or Tosafot, I don't know, something in Torah, it would be different. But what are they reading? Newspapers. Newspapers inside the Beit Knesset. All day. Newspaper, coffee. Newspaper, coffee. Go somewhere else. It's not a coffee shop. It's a mini Beit HaMikdash. It's Sefer Torah. If you actually saw Hashem...

1:27Still reading the newspaper. Now, the fact that you can't see Him doesn't mean He's not there. Like we talked about before, if there was a ghost in the back of the room—don't worry, there's no ghost, guys! There was a ghost in the back of the room, but no one saw it except me. I had the zechut (merit) to see the ghost. Does that mean there's no ghost because you can't see it? There's no ghost, guys. There's no ghost. Stop looking behind. There's no ghost. Don't worry. I'm giving you a hypothetical example here. I should have picked a different example. The fact that you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there. It's the same concept here with the Avodat Hashem. Just because you don't see Hashem in the Beit Knesset doesn't mean He's not there. So why are you reading the newspaper in the Beit Knesset? I heard some people say that even if you go to shul and do nothing, you just sit there, it's enough. But how can you just sit there and simply tell us what the day is in shul without engaging in any real Avodah? I never heard that, but if you could provide some type of source for that, that's very interesting. Because to say I can't just sit there and do nothing, it's against the entire mission. Now, we learned last week, and you could hear it from whoever you want, it's not written in halachah. Thank you, people say a lot of things.

2:54What's written is something different most of the time. To say you could just sit there and do nothing inside four walls, that being a mitzvah? I don't know why. I learned the 613 mitzvot. It's not one of them. So maybe 614. So he says you can't feel at home in a shul. Can't feel at home in a synagogue. Don't joke around. Don't make jokes. Don't. This is not a place for joking. This is a place for prayer. It's a place for study. It's a place to connect to Hashem. You want to talk to your friends? Go outside. Go outside. Nobody's telling you not to talk. Talk to your friends. Hang out with them. Hug them. Kiss them. Whatever you want. Outside. Go outside! You want to read the newspaper? Go ahead. You want to waste your life reading the newspaper? Like it's gonna change the world because you read the headlines? You read the headlines—everything's gonna change now? You disagree with Trump? Everything's gonna change now that you agree with Trump? He did it because of you? Whatever you think, you believe that reading the news is changing the world? I say, ha, you think you're that powerful? Fine, go outside, not in here. It's a big mess. Hashem is here; the King of Kings is here. You read the newspaper in front of Him?

4:11If you ever went or ever worked at one of these companies where it’s not your business, and your boss suddenly comes in, everyone gets busy. So when I was a kid, from the age of 10 to 17, I had many jobs. Two newspaper routes. I worked in a shoe store, a clothing store, and a flea market. I think it was at a store called "Assault Computers" that sold all types of electronics; both of them. I have had many, many different jobs. It's very interesting to me because, you know, most of these jobs – yeah, you're a salesperson, you gotta do something, because you're not the owner, you're just an employee, and... But I would see there are other employees, and every time the boss comes, all of a sudden, the whole day they were sitting like they were in a tent. Everybody's sitting there, getting a tan from the bulb. They're relaxing. A customer comes, and they don't want to get up. Another customer comes, and still, they don't move. But as soon as the boss arrives, he starts cleaning. He's cleaning the mirror; he's cleaning things that don't even exist.

5:32All of a sudden, he gets busy. Why are you so busy? Why weren't you like that the whole week? If you cleaned like that the whole week, the place would be a diamond. Why didn't you clean like that the whole week? Why didn't you sell like that the whole week? Oh, now you sell like that because the boss is here. The boss is here. He got scared. He doesn't want to get fired. I remember every time in my company, I have cameras. Let's see if in my house, What's really going on in the office? You see the guys joking around, laughing, there's that. But as soon as I walk into the office, I see everybody's like on the phone. All of a sudden, everybody's on the phone, everybody's talking to somebody. All of a sudden, you've got somebody on the phone, right now already, somebody picked up the phone. They're making up conversations. "Oh yeah, Mr. Jones, yeah, how's that going?" Everybody's on the phone, wow. Amazing, everybody's busy. Why weren't you busy for the two seconds when I was looking at you on the camera fighting? I was looking from my house. Why did the boss come? The boss came. So now this is to teach us a mussar (ethical lesson). What's the mussar? We're scared of human beings, so they don't fire us. So how come we're not scared of Hashem (God)?

6:57We show up to his house, the Knesset, and we still act like He's not there. Okay, outside He's there also, by the way. He's everywhere. But outside you have an excuse. What's your excuse inside? At least when you're inside the shul, stop talking. Daven.