Helping The Low Life - Jewish HaShkafa (97)

0:00Are you a lowlife? Do you know any lowlifes? Most people associate that term with something derogatory, insulting, but the truth is, it teaches us another meaning, something more intricate, something more relevant, and something closer to home. is a guy named David Ben-Gurion, shem reshaim yirkav. Many Orthodox Jews tell you that he's a lowlife, but here in his picture, he's shown that he's very sensitive to a brit milah that the rabbi is performing on a small, little, tiny, eight-day-old baby. How could such a person be a lowlife? On the other hand, "low life" is something that's very relevant to your day-to-day life, and the average person out there can be one or associated with one without even realizing it. And it affects them a lot. Low lives are people that cannot be used as witnesses in a Jewish court. Why? Why is that such a problem, even if they're not criminals? Even more so, there are certain things that the Sages say that are going to simply blow your mind into a new realm of reality that's so beautiful, that's so holy. You're simply going to say that anyone who doesn't watch this lecture is a lowlife by choice. Enjoy the lecture, share it, support it, and b'ezrat Hashem, we're looking forward to your feedback.

1:20we're back here to start a new week with our series of Jewish hashkafah, to learn the very key points of how to think like a Jew, the Jewish ideology. Tonight's shiur will be for the refuah shlemah of Rabbanit Levana bat Sarah, Rabbi Efraim ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sarah bat Anat, and Avi Mori David ben Esria. and also for all the people who are not able to watch the live on TikTok because we got kicked off last week for mentioning LGBTQ. Apparently, they're very sensitive over there to anything that contradicts their unfortunate reality. So with that being said, we're going to continue our series, and we have just a couple of updates. For anyone that hasn't received it or just simply needs another reminder, a couple of things that are going on. Right now we are only a couple of weeks away from Pesach.

2:25Pesach is an auspicious time to get closer to Hashem. Of course, it's a time to get closer with the family, to fulfill the mitzvah of discussing Pesach at the seder, which is the key part of the mitzvah of Pesach, aside from eating the matzah. But aside from that, one of the things that the Rambam paskens l'halacha in every Yom Tov is that the key part of being happy during holidays, during any Yom Tov, is by helping the poor, and Pesach is the number one holiday where poor people need as much help as possible. By the same token, we have poverty growing in Eretz Yisrael and around the world in different places. There's a bigger variance between the rich people and the poor people. You know, on one end, you're seeing huge banks declaring bankruptcy overnight. On the other hand, you're seeing the rich people who are either behind it, part of it, or connected to it in some way, still collecting their millions while the poor guy sometimes ends up suffering.

3:35So the big variance between the poor and the rich is continuing to grow and there's no exception in Eretz Yisrael, a place where it's run by a government that's literally against its own people. And unfortunately, one of the things that we're seeing is that the government specifically hates the religious people, causing a lot of problems for them, refusing to help them. in any way, shape, or form. One of the so-called religious people in the government, who's obviously just pretending to be religious, mentioned in the last 24 hours that he is willing to break up the entire government because the religious people want to get paid as much as the soldiers in the army, and to him, it bothers him as if it's coming out of his pocket that religious people should get paid as much money as a soldier. He doesn't actually remember in the Torah where it says that Moshe Rabbeinu sent, for every thousand soldiers that he sent, he also had a thousand avrechim, a thousand scholars learning Torah.

4:41so unfortunately this is the reality, and that's why we're here back again, asking for your help as we do each year to help the poor people in Eretz Yisrael, specifically the people that are scholars, people that have committed their life to the Torah. uh, last year we, you know, pretty much wrote a check for a quarter million dollars or a little more than that to help poor people, which is about almost a million shekels, I believe, in total, came out to help poor people. And this year We're trying to do as much as possible. But at the same time, we're trying to change the things that are happening in the world. The Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin, page 98, says that before Mashiach comes, there's going to be a big war. This war is a biblical war that's known, that's mentioned by the prophet Zechariah in chapter 14, or in the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 38, and it's mentioned several times across the different parts of the Prophets.

5:43...of this war being called Gog u'Magog, and this war is a horrific war, so horrific that even the sages were scared of it. And the Gemara says that the talmidim of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus asked him, "How do we get saved from this war? I mean, this is a horrific war. If it happens tomorrow, if it happens next week, how do we get saved from it?" He says to them, "You have to make sure that you toil in Torah and you burden yourself with overwhelming kindness, with loving-kindness." reality is that when this war was first discussed by the sages, many people around the world mocked it because, in their minds, it was simply not logical that the whole world could literally come to a war that could end the world and destroy two-thirds of it in eight minutes. Why? Because in those days, the weapons that they had were, you know, throwing spears and huge boulders. How do you end an entire world that way today? Of course, we all realize that things have changed; technology has changed. With the press of a button, and

6:55He could detonate a bomb that could cause a world war and that could literally end the world. Now, at the same token, a person that says, "Oh, maybe I'll protect myself with my little gun or my collection of guns," quickly realizes that the only thing he could protect himself from is perhaps if somebody wants to intrude in his house. But from a world war, only the One Above can help. The God of Israel can help any one of us. And the sages gave us clear instructions on how to save ourselves from this great war. And that's toil in Torah, be connected to Torah, and most importantly, be very kind. How can you be kind? The main way to be kind is to help others. Helping ourselves, of course, is a necessity, but at the same time, many people help themselves so much that they forget about other people. So it's critical for us to take some time, resources, and money to actually help our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael who don't have the ability to buy whatever they need during this holiday. They simply don't have the finances. And of course, each one of them has a family, has kids, and it gets expensive. Just because they live in Eretz Yisrael and they're learning Torah doesn't mean that the prices get any cheaper.

8:10So it's important for us to care enough about our brothers and sisters to help them. And that's why each year our organization, B'ezrat Hashem, has taken it upon themselves to help as many families as possible. In the same token, we know that the world has a lot more terrorism, a lot more anti-Semitism, and a lot more hunger and poverty. How do we deal with that part of it? We also have to add a token of Torah. Now, of course, the shiurim that we have, certainly helping thousands and thousands of people, but we wanted a special initiative for this particular holiday that we've never done before. This is why we recruited 540 Torah scholars of Rechovot to study together the entire Talmud Bavli, the entire Shas, and In a single day, each one will be designated a certain amount of pages, approximately five or so dapim. Study for five hours each at least. So if they can do more than five dapim in five hours, great. If it's less, somebody else can make up for it. But either way, each one of them will be studying for five hours.

9:13And at the end of that day, not only will the entire group have an entire Shas completed in a single day, which is monumental in itself, but each one of them will also get a very generous sum of money to help them with the holidays. Of course, in addition to that, we also have to help different people in Eretz Yisrael, the widows, the orphans, people that simply don't have the ability to help themselves. We're going to try to do as much as we can, but this all really depends on how much help you provide. That's why I recommend everybody to go to the website bhpesach.org, bhpesach.org, bhpesach.org. bhpesach.org. Over there, you'll see posters for this campaign. One of them is discussing the same thing we do each year, with a cute little bear talking about how we have to feed the poor. The other one is the new program that really is building on the program we had in the past.

10:15where we had hundreds and hundreds of scholars of all ages study Torah. This time we're only using older scholars because we have to complete the Shas. So this is the entire Talmud Bavli, the entire Shas learned in a single day. This certainly is going to help any one of the people that contributes, especially those that contribute generously. If you yourself have not completed the Shas, if you yourself have lacked in your Torah studies, this is certainly something that can help your own tikkun. So, this is one of those things where you could do two major mitzvot that can help you fulfill the mitzvah before the holiday to help the poor. In addition, do something that actually sponsors more Torah in the world. And three, most critically, is to help your own tikkun, your own tikkun of lacking in learning Torah for however many years it's been before you actually studied Torah. so, with that being said, we're gonna continue our series and really get into the next part of the Chazon Ish, going into the details of trying to figure out how we perfect ourselves, how do we fix ourselves. And of course, the Chazon Ish has told us time and time again that the study of Musar has to go together with the study of Halacha.

11:39If a person only studies Halacha and does not study Musar, a dead animal in the middle of the street is better than him. Why? Because a person that just knows the law but doesn't know how to behave in an appropriate manner is certainly going to be a problem for society. On the other hand, a person that only studies Musar but does not study the law, so he only studies about how you have to be generous and not angry, In so many words, this person is going to appear to have the image of someone who's righteous, but in reality, since he doesn't know the law, he doesn't know when to apply certain traits and when not to apply them. So this person will simply look at everybody as if they're evil. This is certainly not the pattern for success. The pattern for success, as the Sages discuss in many places in the Torah, is to study both the law, as well as the mussar, but of course this is in addition to scripture itself, to the Chumash, which the Shulchan Aruch obligates each and every Jew to study the weekly parasha twice and the commentary once. It's called shnayim mikra v'echad targum. So now that we know this, and the Chazon Ish has told us...

12:53last week that just like medicine, if you apply medicine that could very well save somebody's life but if you apply it to the wrong person or you apply the wrong quantity to the right person, it could still be wrong. Instead of helping, it could hurt and even kill. The same concept applies when it comes to Torah. If you don't apply the right amount of Torah to the person or you apply the wrong teachings to the person, this teaching could actually hurt the person. So it's very critical for a person to have a rabbi that's going to guide them, tell them where to go, what to learn, and what not to learn. At the same token, one of the things that we learn in the Mishnah is that the And one of the things that we see among the sages is that they're not shy about calling things out and telling people when they're wrong. It's an obligation to rebuke, but not just rebuke for the sake of rebuking—rebuke for the sake of helping people.

13:59And if a person cares about another Jew, cares about another person, then certainly if he sees that person doing something wrong, he's going to show that care, not by yelling and screaming at them, not by insulting them, but rather by actually telling them that they're doing something wrong. But sometimes you can tell somebody something and the mental capacity that that person has is so limited that instead of seeing your words as helpful, they'll actually see it as insulting. One of the examples is what this whole shiur is about, which is lowlifes. How to avoid being a lowlife is clearly something all of us want to do, but at the same token, how do we help lowlifes? Now, if you look at the definition of a lowlife, On a dictionary, you'll see that a lowlife is somebody that is unacceptable in society because of his immoral behavior, somebody that simply does not behave in a nice way and

15:04Now, of course, they also categorize a lowlife, and most of you, if you see, "Oh, this is a lecture by a rabbi helping lowlifes, or how to avoid being a lowlife," you might think, "This rabbi is too harsh; this is not nice; that's not the way to talk." But that's simply because you're not aware of the definition of lowlife. You're assuming that the definition by Wikipedia or by some Oxford dictionary is the definition for a lowlife because they categorize a lowlife as someone that's, by definition, a criminal, someone that is hurting others with his criminal behavior. Now, although that is correct, that's not the only definition of lowlife. The original foundation of lowlife is someone that has a ... or by some Oxford dictionary is the definition for a lowlife because they categorize a lowlife as someone that's, by definition, a criminal, someone that is hurting others with his criminal behavior. Now, although that is correct, that's not the only definition of lowlife. The original foundation of lowlife is someone that has low self-respect or no self-respect to the point where they're doing things that are simply despicable. low self-respect or no self-respect to the point where they're doing things that are simply despicable. There was a question that came up in the lecture last week, and this year, last week, stumped the rabbi, where someone shocked even me with the question that I kind of skipped the word that he used, simply because it was just

16:11uh, bothersome to me, I guess, where he has a guest that has been coming to his house for Shabbat for many years, and this guest apparently is a lowlife. And, although they may not see him as a lowlife, they certainly see him as a family member. He acts like a lowlife; how so? He feels so comfortable with the surroundings despite the fact that it's the Shabbat dinner, it's holy. when you're eating, uh, uh, uh, or you're eating bread in general, it's the equivalent in Judaism to the mizbeach, the altar, as if you're offering a sacrifice to God. So, of course, a person has to behave in certain, uh, certain manners, certain good manners. but this lowlife feels so comfortable and so at home with his surroundings that he has no problem flatulating and relieving himself of all types of gases from his body during the actual dinner, meaning, loud enough for people to hear, close enough for people to smell, and in so many words, disgusting.

17:16now, this type of disgusting behavior is indeed a perfect definition of the actions of a lowlife, not just because of what he did, but certainly, these are things that many people do and have to do at times. Typically, a normal person would do these things in private, in a bathroom, in a place where you're not going to hurt or anybody else or affect anyone else and certainly not show a lack of respect for the honor of Shabbat, for holiness, or for other people or for yourself. This type of behavior is unfortunately common among lowlives that have lost any semblance of self-respect. they simply do not see anything wrong with behaving in such a manner because they excuse it either because they have a stomach ache or because "what's the big deal, why are you so extreme, why are you so stringent?" Even if you try to help these lowlives, it's almost like a dead end because they don't even understand what's wrong with what they did. Typically, when you're dealing with a child

18:25if the child is smart, now you may have to explain yourself a few times, but typically the best way to explain to a child that they did something wrong if they don't understand right away is simply giving them the example of "What if I did this to you?" So let's say, for example, one child, you know, insulted their brother or sister and they said, "Oh, you are, you know, you're stupid." Now, obviously, that's not very nice, and the other kid starts crying and he goes to his mommy and daddy and says, "Oh look, my brother called me stupid," and the first child says, "Oh, what's the big deal? It's just a word." So, of course, if the parents want to help the kid instead of yelling at the kid, what are they gonna do? They're gonna go put the kid to the side and talk to him and say, "Listen, Why don't you say, "Well, what's the big deal? It's just a word." Okay, well, what if I said that you are stupid? "Well, I don't care, you could do it all the time." So, okay, so they don't get it. She's okay. What if I said, what if I went to school in front of all your friends and said, "Hey, by the way, this is my son or daughter, they're stupid." What do you guys think?

19:34Oh, all of a sudden the kid's face changes. Why does it change? Because all of a sudden they're starting to put things into perspective, and they realize, oh, maybe I don't want to be called stupid, especially not in front of people to be embarrassed. Everybody's going to call me names then. They're going to think I'm this. They're going to think I'm that. So when you're speaking to a child, even though you will sometimes have to explain yourself in multiple ways, and you have to have... ...an endless amount of patience if you want to be a good parent. With adults, it's not really that different, but sometimes it requires even more patience because that adult has been doing the wrong thing for so long they've actually gotten to the point where they believe it's right. The kid just doesn't understand necessarily the difference between right and wrong yet; he's brand new... he's like a clean piece of paper, white, there's nothing on it. The older person that's already in his 30s, 40s, 50s, or 60s, he has been doing the wrong thing for so long, he has turned what he thinks is wrong into what's right and literally has become a lowlife. So in our work, one of the things that we have to constantly deal with is

20:46the people out there, people out there that don't realize that they are low lives because they don't have Torah in their life. So for them, what they're comparing themselves to are other people that are just like them. Other people that use foul language, you know, curse and mock people, make fun of people, and yell at people. If they go to a hotel and their room is not ready on time, or if they go to a restaurant and the food is not ready, or they served them the wrong meal, they feel perfectly comfortable yelling at the waitress or the waiter and yelling at the people, and they think that's, you know, that's a show of confidence. The reality is that if you're learning your middot, your character traits, from television, from all the filth that's in movies and things like that, then yeah, you'll think that's right. But if you learn from the Torah, quickly you'll find out that these types of behaviors are the behavior of a low-life.

21:46So one of the things that each and every single one of us has to do as part of our own teshuva (repentance) transformation is to remove ourselves as far away from the low-life behavior that we've become accustomed to and to become a righteous person. But the first thing is to not be busy with being offended by the term and more be busy with actually... making sure we don't fit the definition of the sages. So, in so many words, a low-life is not necessarily always going to be a criminal, but certainly is going to be someone that has lost self-respect. The sages discussed this extensively. We're going to go into several different sources, but first we're going to start off with our basic foundation, which is the Chazon Ish. Last week, the Chazon Ish told us that it's an obligation for all educators to study every individual student, to see the roots of their personality, to make sure that whatever teachings they're giving them, which is in essence the spiritual medicine that they're giving them, is helping them, because if it's not helping them, it could actually be harming them.

22:57and it's critical for the teacher to make sure that their students are paying attention. Unfortunately, there are times where the student is simply not paying attention; he doesn't come to class anymore. A person like that you can't help. This is why I always tell people that when they ask me to call whatever relative they want me to call or friend they want me to call to help them come back to the right way of Hashem, I tell them before I call, before I talk, before I do anything, they have to watch several lectures. And the reason why is because I want to know first and foremost, are they looking to help themselves? Are they willing to help themselves? Or are they so confident in their wrong path that they're completely closed to any type of resourcefulness, any type of help? If they're not even interested in any type of education, there's nothing you can do to help such a person. So it's critical for the teacher to be helpful and to be conscious of what the students are learning, but it's even more critical for the student to be receptive. Now in this section, Chazon Ish says the following: The darkening or feebleness of the spiritual light is called baseness or lowliness of the spirit. Such lowliness,

24:17is like a closed door which prevents the entrance of morality. One cannot study refined concepts with anyone who lacks self-respect by eating in public or acting in such a manner. And one cannot expect someone who has the habit of behaving in a low manner to achieve spiritual greatness. Just these couple of lines are what we're going to focus on tonight because they're so critical. So first and foremost, we understand here from the Chazon Ish that when a person accustoms themselves, makes themselves used to behaving in a low-life manner, this darkens their soul. This darkens their spiritual light that was gifted to them by God. So much so that they can become accustomed to it, used to it, and really get to a point where they believe it's the right behavior. says that a person who commits a sin the first time and doesn't see himself get punished will do it again. If he does it again and doesn't get punished again, he turns what he did that was sinful into something permitted. This is on page 40a.

25:45So here we see that the nature of a person is to do whatever it is that they want, whatever they desire. He'll take something that doesn't belong to him. He'll touch something that he's not allowed to touch. She'll look at something she's not allowed to look at. Whatever it is, that's sinful behavior. Usually, they're going to just try to see what happens. They're not going to go all out and really do everything that they want, but they're going to just try. They're going to just touch something just to see what happens. How do the authorities, the police, react? How do the parents react? How does their wife or boss react? You know, they took something. Let's say, for example, there is what's called petty cash. This was more common. In the old days, where we used to use actual cash, today it's usually a credit card, where there's a company credit card that the boss gives to the employees. And he tells them, "Listen, if there are company expenses, things that you need to buy for the business, for the benefit of the company, use the company card."

26:48He has or she has the trust in the employees that they're only going to buy things that are relevant to the business. They're not going to buy their groceries with it or buy themselves jewelry with it. They're going to buy things for the business. Now, a lowlife is going to do exactly the opposite and... He may buy, you know, things for the business. Let's say, for example, if the business needs some pens or some paper, or he has to take out a client to dinner or lunch, he'll do that. But then, he'll say, you know what? Who's really paying attention to what I'm spending the money on? This company has so much money. Let me buy myself a ticket to a game. and let me buy myself also a new watch, and let me buy myself some sneakers. He starts, you know, buying small things, just a few hundred dollars, and he figures no one's going to pay attention. Now, if he sees no one pays attention, a month has passed, and no one has said anything what is he going to do? Next time he has this desire, he's going to buy something bigger. He's going to buy a more expensive watch. Instead of tickets to a game, he's going to buy a vacation. He's going to buy something more expensive. Why? Because his low-life mentality has given him the permission that since, number one, they’re not paying attention to what I'm spending the money on; number two, I deserve it for whatever irrational reason he thinks; and number three,

28:17Nothing happened after I did it the first time. Nothing happened. There's really no punishment. Even if they punish me, they'd say, "Oh, you shouldn't do it. I'll pretend like it's a mistake and I'll pay it back." And they rationalize these things. This type of low-life behavior is very, very common in corporate America, in corporations around the world, and unfortunately in society altogether. People test the system and they take and take and take until it's too late. This is even more common when people get grants from governments. There's no shortage of horrible stories, even from the Jewish community, where there were certain schools or different types of Jewish institutions that received government funding in order for them to use that funding, that money, to educate the kids, to build the school, to do things that, in essence, the funding is made up for. But instead of the money being used to help the kids, to build the school, to increase the education, a few criminal low-lives actually... to educate the kids, to build the school, to do things that, in essence, the funding is intended for. But instead of the money being used to help the kids, to build the school, to increase the education, a few criminal low-lives actually

29:25fit the definition in all of its capacity and started using that money for their own personal investment portfolios and vacations. Eventually, this chilul Hashem that was silent became a chilul Hashem that went into the news, and people ended up being in jail. There's literally no shortage of these stories. There was even a low-life that was part of a terrorism attack just a few years ago, where the shooter shot, and he was one of the people that got injured. And initially, this guy looked like a hero that he survived and he spoke out, and it looked like he was a really, really nice guy. And quickly did Hashem make sure that, oh, let me bring him to the top just like Haman, and then destroy him for all the low-life behavior that he's had over the period of years for stealing money. And that's exactly what happened. After he hit the top and got a lot of publicity, then Hashem brought out all of the real news behind the scenes about this guy, and he was exposed as a person who did a lot of wrong things with other people's money. So this type of behavior, unfortunately, is common, and it's not just in the secular world; it's not just in the

30:39non-Jewish world. Unfortunately, it's in the Jewish world, and the reason why we mention specifically the Jewish world is just like any other lecture. These are our brothers and sisters. We have to acknowledge the fact that we're doing something wrong in order to fix it and not be oblivious to the fact that there are some bad things in our own backyard. We have to face the problems in order for them to go away; they're not going to just go away by themselves. so the Chazon Ish is telling us here that this type of behavior darkens the soul and gets the person to a point where his lowliness, his low-life type of behavior, becomes his second nature. Once he has developed these negative traits, whether it's bad, disgusting behavior like we discussed or it's taking other people's stuff, or any other type of low-life behavior. Once they've become used to this type of behavior, once they've become simply disgusting, and they think it's okay to be disgusting, they do not realize that they were created in the image of God.

31:57God gave you the ability to determine right or wrong. You are the representative of God. Whether you are young or old, male or female, if you are a Jew, you have to be a representation of God and His Torah. Even if you think of yourself as, "I'm not religious," you're still a representation of God, or going against God. But needless to say, you are. And this is why Moshe Rabbeinu got punished so harshly when he missed the opportunity to speak to the stone, and instead, he hit the stone, even though it made common sense that hitting the stone would work because that's what happened last time. The first time that Hashem told Moshe to bring out the water, He told him to bring his staff and to hit one of the stones, and after Moshe hit the stone, the water came out. to speak to the stone, and instead, he hit the stone, even though it made common sense that hitting the stone would work because that's what happened last time. The first time that Hashem told Moshe to bring out the water, He told him to bring his staff and to hit one of the stones, and after Moshe hit the stone, the water came out. So, years later, Hashem asks Moshe Rabbeinu to do the same thing again: to bring water out after Miriam dies. Only this time, don't hit the stone. Speak to the stone. But because of all of the scoffers, the people that like to make fun, annoying Moshe Rabbeinu and seeing that it's not working because he spoke to the wrong stone and the water wasn't coming out, Moshe Rabbeinu hit the stone, and the water came out.

33:15Although the goal of getting the water out was achieved, the bigger goal of doing a Kiddush Hashem—sanctifying Hashem's name—was missed. That's why Hashem says to Moshe and Aharon, "You are not going to enter Eretz Yisrael because you did not sanctify My name." How so? If you would have spoken to the stone... the water would have come out, then it would have been a Kiddush Hashem. The fact that you hit it and it came out, although it's wonderful, since the people already saw it or they heard about that happening before, it was nothing new to them, so there was no new opportunity to glorify Hashem's name. The fact that you hit the stone missed the opportunity altogether. If you would have spoken to the stone and the water still would have come out, that would have been something new that would have wowed everybody and that would have sanctified Hashem's name and shown how great He is. You missed the opportunity, and because of that, you're not going to enter Eretz Yisrael, which from our perspective as lowly humans, seems harsh. But of course, Hashem has endless reasons for why He does what He does, and He is always right.

34:26So a person that is going to be lowly in his behavior, not in the extraordinary way of Moshe Rabbeinu, lowliness through righteousness, but rather lowliness in negative behavior, a person that is going to act like an animal, is going to be disgusting, make disgusting sounds when he or she eats, make all types of sounds, annoy people, go to the bathroom and leave the door open, do all types of things that are just simply inconsiderate of the world around them. in his behavior, not in the extraordinary way of Moshe Rabbeinu, lowliness through righteousness, but rather lowliness in negative behavior. A person that is going to act like an animal, is going to be disgusting, make disgusting sounds when he or she eats, make all types of sounds, annoy people, go to the bathroom and leave the door open, do all types of things that are just simply inconsiderate of the world around them. that type of person is not only considered a lowlife, but today we're also going to learn that such a person is not considered a kosher person. What do I mean by "kosher person"? According to the halacha, you cannot use this person as a witness in any Jewish ceremony. Similar to someone who desecrates Shabbat or an idol worshiper who is not allowed to be a witness, this lowlife also cannot be used as a witness.

35:29so it's to that extent. This is not just mussar teachings of "don't be disgusting, don't be a lowlife." This is a warning to lowlifes that if they want to be a kosher person, they have to stop and they have to fix themselves, or else they're simply putting themselves in a world of its own—a world of lowlifes. Now, who wants to go up to Shamayim after 120 years... You have a Beit Din in Shamayim. You have the greatest Rabbanim of the generation in front of you, the voice of God coming out from time to time, angels on the right, angels on the left, all types of extraordinary things your eyes have never seen, and you have a line of people in front of you—all the people that died that day. And And everyone is waiting for their judgment. And each person, before they get judged, they're shown a movie of their entire life. What they did when they were a little boy. What they did when they grew up a little more. Oh, over there, look, you studied another Mishnah. Chazak u'Baruch. Oh, look over there, you finished, you did a siyum on the Nevi'im series. Chazak u'Baruch. Oh, you did it with your brother and sister. Great job. Oh, over there, you didn't listen to your Ima and Abba. Mmm.

36:49Over there you did something that wasn't so nice. Did you apologize? Let's see. Oh, you apologized. Good job. And they show the kid's life, and then he's older. They show him when he's in yeshiva, and he's much more dedicated to Torah, and he's learning the Shas, and he's learning the Mishnayot, and he's learning Poskim, and he's learning the Zohar, he's learning Shulchan Aruch, and he's learning everything that's possible just to make sure he consumes all the Torah in the world. And he's teaching, and he's learning, and... Eventually, he gets judged like the righteous people out there. You are amazing. And then the next guy after him comes up. And the next guy says, "Oh, well, you aren't really a Torah scholar. What did you do with your life?" "Well, I wasn't a Torah scholar. I learned a little bit, but I used the money that I worked to help Torah scholars." "Ah, okay." So they give him also favorable judgment. And then there's another guy. But this guy, they say, "Hold on a second. Wait, wait, no, no. Hold on a second. You have to go to a different department." Why? The two people in front of me went. Yeah, yeah. They are good people, they’re not low-lifes. Excuse me? Yeah, you’re in the low-life department. You have to go to a low-life bed, you know, to just go to the Beit Din that deals with low-lifes. What’s that? Oh, you’ll find out when you get there. You’ll find out when you get there. It’s a little hot over there. What? Yes. Yes.

38:11Go to a place where they judge low-lifes, because they have a different judgment from righteous people. They learned Torah, they did mitzvot, they did everything. And the guy said, "Yeah, but I kept Shabbat." Yeah, you kept Shabbat, but you made everybody disgusted. While you were not driving on Shabbat, everyone else wanted to vomit every time they saw how you behaved. So you go to the low-life department. Yeah, but I gave tzedakah. Yeah, you gave tzedakah, but you made the guy that you gave tzedakah to feel bad because you made fun of him for being poor, acting like a low-life. Oh, but I also went to synagogue. Yes, you went to synagogue. But when you went to synagogue, you wanted to make sure everybody knew you were at synagogue. So you started talking in the synagogue, very loud, very obnoxious, and no one could even pray because you were so annoying. Again, acting like a low-life. Oh, but I worked really hard in business. Yes, you worked really hard in business, and you cheated your customers, and you cheated the government, and you cheated your employees. Again, the same exact low-life type of pattern was everywhere. In the synagogue, in the bank, in the restaurant, at work, you are a low-life across the board. Hence the reason why the Beit Din that will judge you will deal with you precisely because they deal with low-lives like you.

39:39who wants to be that guy? Raise your hand if you want to be that guy. I don't have to see you to know that no one's raising their hand. So you see, Rabotai HaKedoshim, being a low-life, being disgusting, being a thief, being a liar, being things that are negative, is not just a hazard for the people around you. It's a hazard for yourself. It's like drinking poison every day. This is why our Holy Torah tells us you have to learn the Gemara, but you also have to learn the Mussar in order to find out if you are acting like a tzaddik or a tzaddeket, or you're acting like a lowlife. So the Chazon Ish tells us that if a person has already gotten used to acting like a lowlife, to teach them becomes more difficult. Not impossible, but more difficult. And anyone that's involved in Kiruv has to know that going in. They have to know that they're going to be surrounded by lowlifes many times.

40:49And their job is not to make fun of the people, but also not to ignore the fact that these people are lowlifes. You have to acknowledge the fact that you are here to help them, not mock them. But that's not by ignoring the problem. It's by facing the problem, by letting people know, "Listen, that behavior is unacceptable. What you're doing is wrong." Because if you don't say it, you just join the rest of the people that are around this person and also don't say it. So if you don't say it and they don't say it, this guy thinks it's right. If he acts like an animal and his wife doesn't say anything, and his kids don't say anything, and his neighbor doesn't say anything, and the employees don't say anything, nobody says anything either because they're scared or because they don't even realize it's that bad. And then you, as the rabbi or the friend or the one that knows a little Torah, you come and see that, wait, this guy's acting like a lowlife. Disgusting. you don't say anything either. Guess what? You become just like them. And then he, in his mind, says, "Well, listen, you know what? I just did this really thing that some people say is disgusting, but even the rabbi didn't say anything, so it must not be disgusting. It must be okay." And he will continue acting that way, and you will also be guilty for his behavior because a person that sees his fellow doing something wrong and doesn't say anything gets sued in Shamayim.

42:14for that same wrong behavior. Now, many times the law of life will say, listen, you may be right about if I steal or I hurt people, but what I'm doing technically is not stealing or hurting people. It's technically not even forbidden according to the Torah. So it's okay that I do it. Wrong. How do we know? There are laws and there are חוקים. which are, there are laws that are things that are logical and things that are beyond logic. And character trait development is a combination of both. There are certain things that we obviously realize we have to fix, and there are certain things that, even if we don't realize why they need to be fixed, the Torah tells us we have to fix them. So the Chazon Ish tells us that if you're going to be teaching somebody who is a lowlife, you have to understand already from the beginning that it's going to be a difficult path. It's going to be a difficult journey. Why? Because that lowliness is like a closed door that prevents the entrance of morality, meaning that it's not going to be enough to tell this person once to stop doing it. You'll have to do it sometimes more than once, sometimes more than twice, sometimes more than three times or four times.

43:33It all depends on how this person has lived their life until now. Because the more they've gotten used to behaving this way, the more they're used to it in such a way where they actually think it's right and they'll even debate you on why it's right. So a person has to know that when they're first starting to do teshuva, The character trait development, the mussar that you learn, in so many words, is going to pinpoint things that you're supposed to do. And if you're not doing them, that means that you are currently leaning towards the low-life realm. For example, if somebody gets into doing teshuva, the first thing they hear is, you have to observe Shabbat. Good. Good. Shabbat doesn't really require you to change your behavior that much. It just tells you, don't work. Don't drive your car. Have a nice, beautiful dinner. Kiddush, bless before you eat. Bless after you eat. It doesn't require that much change in your behavior. But if a person hears that aside from observing Shabbat, you also have to protect your brit. Watch your eyes. Don't look at things that are not modest.

45:00Now it requires a person to change their behavior, not just one day a week, but the entire week. And that certainly is a character trait development. that takes a lot more effort. And every person says, now listen, I just can't do it. I have to look at everything. Okay, so you are on the side of the lowlife. You may be good in other places, but over here right now, because your eyes are like a scanning machine in the supermarket, just looking for something to look at, so you can scan it, analyze it, and do what you want with it, you are in the lowlife section. If you stay that way, already discussed what happens in shamayim, but if you continue learning mussar, you'll learn that, hey, the reason why the sages said you have to protect your eyes is because it says it in the Torah. And the Torah tells us, do not follow the things that are in your heart, the things that are in your eyes.

46:05Meaning there are certain times that your heart desires things that are not allowed. And there are certain times that you see something and then you want to do it even though you know it's not allowed. So the Torah tells you, don't do these things. It's not allowed. Now, if I do them, that means I'm a lowlife. I have to stop. I have to do whatever I can to stop, to control myself and not be an animal. So the more a person learns how to avoid being a lowlife, the more righteous they become, without even working on their righteousness, without working on doing more mitzvot, without even trying to spend any more effort to become righteous, they become righteous by simply eliminating the low-life behavior. Unfortunately, there are sometimes people that want to pretend like they're righteous. And one of the great sages in recent history that was known to be so honest, so full of emet,

47:07he simply couldn't stand this, even if it was among his own chassidim. The Admor of Kotzk, he was an ish emet, kodesh kodashim, extraordinary, and he didn't want talmidim, he didn't want chassidim. People literally would just chase him because they wanted to learn from him, they wanted his kedusha, and he just simply didn't want anyone that has even an ounce of falsehood in him. He was known to, when he would sign his name at the end of a letter or something, he would write his name and he would write, HaShafel Be'Emet. The lowly in truth. Lowly in truth. One of the chassidim saw that the Rebbe does this I'll do it too. So when he would sign some type of letter, he would also write his name and write "the lowly in truth." Now, this guy was not really doing the right thing. He was really a lowlife, but he wanted to pretend. You know, it's sort of like sometimes you have people who want to dress like the chassidim, or they want to dress like the rabbis. They want to dress like somebody that they're really not.

48:34worry about the exterior more than they worry about the interior. So one time, uh, some of the chassidim came to the Admor and said, "Rebbe, what does the Rebbe think of this guy that he signs his name just like the Rebbe?" And the Rebbe saw it. "Oh, he signs just like the Rebbe?" The Rebbe says, "He signs his name 'lowly in truth.'" And he signs his name "lowly in truth." He says, "I'll tell you what the difference is. I am lowly due to the truth of Torah that I constantly chase, and I know how much of a nothing I am because of how great the Torah is. I'm constantly realizing more and more how great the Torah is." And that shows how little I am, how lowly I am, how great is God and how lowly I am. He, on the other hand, is really lowly, but he's a lowlife, not low for the truth. And he literally said this,

49:47And although this may seem like the wrong thing, it was 100% the right thing. Not only because we don't question the sages, the chachamim, and so on, but also, simply put, this is something that's very common, where people don't want to do the work to become a real tzaddik, a real tzaddekes, a real mensch. they want to look like they are, so they want to put on the clothing. They want to look like they are with all of the exterior. And unfortunately, the people of truth despise this probably more than other things, almost more than anything else, because it is in itself a lowly thing to do. Because if you see somebody that just Stopped violating Shabbat. Just stopped eating pork. He just started doing teshuva six months ago. And all of a sudden you see this guy, he has already, six months ago, he was doing all types of wrong things. Now he looks like a rabbi. He has the hat, he has a long beard, he has peyot, he pretends like he doesn't look at anything. Now the regular people out there are impressed by this.

51:07They're impressed. Wow, look at this guy. Look how he transformed his life. That's amazing. Look, he has the hat and the beard. He's such a tzaddik. Look, he doesn't even look anywhere. He's like, he's like, he's probably Mashiach. That's what regular people think. The real people that actually know how hard it is to become a tzaddik, they frown upon this. Why? They know he's a fraud. There was a famous story that Rabbi Mizrachi, shlita, said years ago. where he himself witnessed this. There was a newbie that, again, maybe six months to a year old. He, a young guy, abandoned his way of evil, at least it seemed, but went to the extreme. All of a sudden, in a short period of time, the beard grows by itself, but he did much more than just a beard. Clothing changed drastically. The behavior more than anything else changed so much so that he got two people to volunteer to walk him in the streets because he wanted to protect his eyes so much that he put on something to block his eyes. He put some type of, like, I don't know what, a tie or some type of fabric to block his eyes, so he doesn't see anything until he gets to the Beit Midrash, so he can only see Torah and...

52:38Now, people were impressed by this. Wow, look at this. Holy Ba'al Teshuva. It's on him that it says that greater are the Ba'alei Teshuva than people that have been righteous their whole life. Look at how holy he is in such a quick time frame. He's already purified his eyes. He doesn't even look at any women. One of the Anshei Emet, the people of truth, saw this. And didn't have much that he wanted to say a lot, but didn't have the words that he wanted to say next to the people. He just, you know, made one of those facial remarks like, it's not real. So one of the people asked him, "Wait, Rabbi, what do you think of this tzaddik?" The Rabbi says to him, "Tzaddik? I'd be surprised if he's religious in a couple of years." What, Rabbi, come on, it's not nice to say. It's jealousy, it's not nice. He goes, "Oh no, it's not jealousy. Just be surprised if he doesn't get caught with somebody's wife." "What? Come on, Rabbi, you can't say this." Okay, so the guy walked away from the Rabbi very upset with him, how he said such a thing about this tzaddik.

54:00Shortly later, literally a matter of months later, this very same guy came back to that Rabbi and apologized. He said, "Rabbi, how did you know? Are you a prophet? How did you know? Are you a prophet?" The Rabbi had no clue what he was talking about. "What do you mean, prophet? What are you talking about? What prophet? How did you know he was going to be caught with somebody else's wife committing adultery?" "Oh, that guy, oh. That was already, the writing was on the wall. It's obvious." Why? He says, to sanctify your eyes, to have holy eyes, takes a lot of time and very hard work. It's not possible to achieve it in only six months of doing teshuva. It's not possible. Why? Because it requires you to restructure your entire life, both inside and outside. Your entire mentality has to change. And even more so, even if somebody protects their eyes. When did you see any of the gedolim, the truly righteous people of the generation who have toiled in Torah for the last 50, 60, 70 years walking around with something blocking their eyes? Is he more righteous than them after only six months?

55:12Obviously, there's something wrong here. And when somebody does something like that, they're overcompensating for what they're really hiding. And that's why I knew that he's not really hiding his eyes. In reality, he's using this as a tool to get closer to women. And that's exactly what happened. and many times people jump on the bandwagon of anybody that looks righteous or they see or hear things about them, and that's usually because of lack of knowledge. What people don't understand is that if a person does not toil in Torah day and night, if he doesn't learn Torah each and every single day to the extent where it becomes their life, there's no way for this person to be anything remotely close to being a tzaddik. many times the public doesn't realize this, so they judge based on the exterior look. "Oh, look at this guy, he's, he's a Nazir. Nazir? Last time we had a Nazir was two thousand years ago. What Nazir? What are you talking about, Nazir? No, look, he, uh, look at how he hasn't gotten a haircut in 10 years. Oh, that just means he hasn't gotten a haircut; it doesn't mean he's a Nazir."

56:16no, but he says he's a Nazir. He can say whatever he wants. He can call himself, you know, Pikachu. He can call himself whatever he wants. Why? Because, again, this type of exterior is supposed to match an interior. That interior, that behavior change, requires an enormous amount of Torah, an enormous amount of Torah. And if you're not seeing the biggest sage of the generation doing it. If you're not seeing them even recommending to do it, if you're not seeing those people being the rabbis of those people that are doing it, something's missing. Something is missing. Why? Because you have to learn from somebody to do these big things. You have to get permission from somebody to do these big things. If you don't have a big rabbi, you're already violating the Torah by itself. Everybody has to have a rabbi, including your rabbi. Everyone has to have a rabbi. Last week, we learned about Betzalel, Betzalel ben Uri from the tribe of Yehuda. The Gemara says Betzalel was a teenager, bar mitzvah, 13 years old.

57:42This little tzaddik was exceptional, not just because of the wisdom that Hashem gave him. The Gemara in Masechet Berachot, page 55a, says that the wisdom and Ruach HaKodesh that Hashem gave him were unlike anything else the world had ever seen. It wasn't like the Ruach HaKodesh that He gave to other people. You know, there are other people that had Ruach HaKodesh. Many great sages have gotten Ruach HaKodesh. But what Bezalel got was unique. It was one of a kind. But he got it because he himself, although at a very young age, was one of a kind. What did Hashem give him? The Zohar HaKadosh teaches us that HaKadosh Baruch Hu used the holy letters of the Hebrew alphabet to create the world. He took the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and He wrote, let's say, parah. Parah is cow. And guess what? Combining those letters in a certain way creates a parah, creates a cow.

59:10He wrote yam, ocean. Combine the letters in a certain way, only known to God, and an ocean was created. Shemesh, combine the letters of shemesh in a certain way, that only HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows, and a shemesh, the sun, is created. Yareach, combine the letters of yareach in a certain way, a moon. Everything was created through the combination of the Hebrew alphabet. That's how He created the world. Now, the Aron HaKodesh that Hashem commanded Moshe to build required the same type of wisdom because it wasn't a closet to store some stuff. How do we know? Very simple. If you calculate the Aron HaKodesh and how big it was, which the Torah tells us exact measurements, and then you calculate the stuff that was in it, it doesn't fit. Just the Ten Commandments physically should not be able to fit. Even one of them fit into the Aron HaKodesh. He had two of the tablets of the Ten Commandments. In addition to that, you had the staff

1:00:37Aron HaKodesh, how did it fit? Too long? The Aron HaKodesh was 20 amot, 10 feet high. 10 feet high means that his staff was 10 feet. Now, the Aron HaKodesh wasn't 10 feet. How do you fit this huge staff with fruits on it inside this little Aron HaKodesh? Then you have the manna. The manna was preserved for over a thousand years as fresh as... put something in your refrigerator for more than a week, most likely it goes bad. Even though it's a refrigerator, you put it in the freezer, it'll freeze, but it won't taste the same ever again. Why? That's just the way it is. But the manna bread was put in a little jar in the Aron HaKodesh, and this lasted until the times of Yirmiyahu. He showed it to the people. This is what Am Yisrael got in the desert for 40 years. Why are you guys going against Hashem, worrying about money, working on Shabbat? If Hashem gave manna from Shamayim to Am Yisrael in the desert for 40 years, without them working, why do you think you need to work? Hashem is going to feed you too. He showed them the manna bread. All of these things fit into the Aron HaKodesh and other things as well.

1:02:04make something like this. It's not just putting a couple of pieces of wood and a couple of pieces of gold together to make an Aron HaKodesh. No, you're talking about something that is unique. Even more so when you calculate the size of the Kodesh HaKodashim and then you calculate the Aron HaKodesh, you see it doesn't make any sense. Why? Because the Torah tells us that the size of the Kodesh HaKodashim, the room was the same with or without the Aron HaKodesh being in the way. Meaning that if you have from one end to the other 10 Amot, let's just call it 20 feet. Okay? Now if you have the Aron HaKodesh, that's, let's say, two feet or four feet in the middle. What does that mean? You have 20 feet across, you have four feet in the middle. Right? So that means you have 20 minus the 4, that's 16. So that means that if it's right in the middle, you have 8 feet to the right, 8 feet to the left. Left. That's what you're supposed to have left, logically. What was left? The same exact number. 10 to the right, 10 to the left. As if the Aron HaKodesh wasn't there. But it was there. They needed it, they opened it, they had the Keruvim on it, the cherubs on it.

1:03:31It didn't occupy any space. To make something like this, you needed unique wisdom. The same type of wisdom that HaKadosh Baruch Hu used to create the world. And this is what He gave to Betzalel. Why did He give this to Betzalel? Because Betzalel was unique. The Gemara says in Masechet Berachot, page 55, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu told Moshe exactly what to build, what to tell Bezalel to build. Well, He says to Moshe, go and tell Bezalel to make the Tabernacle, the Ark, and the vessels. And Moshe went to Bezalel and he said, make the vessels, the Ark, and the Tabernacle. I'll make the Ark, the vessels, and the Tabernacle. Meaning it's not in the same order. So Bezalel, he had such good middot. He was so beautiful inside and outside. He didn't want to tell Moshe Rabbeinu, you're wrong. You made a mistake, chas v'shalom. But it is a mistake. So what do you do? So Bezalel the tzaddik says to Moshe, Moshe Rabbeinu,

1:05:01way of the world is that first a person builds a house and then he builds the vessels into it, but you say to make the Ark, the vessels, and then the house around it, the Tabernacle. So if I build this way like you're telling me, I build the Aron HaKodesh, I build the vessels, where am I going to put them? Outside for regular people to look at them? Is it not going to be disrespectful for them? Why, you know, shouldn't I build the house maybe? The Tabernacle? And then build the vessels and the Ark inside? Moshe says to him, ah, yes, Bezalel, tzadik, yes, yes. It's like you were listening to the conversation between me and Hashem. Because that's exactly what Hashem said. Hashem said, build the house first, build the Tabernacle first, and then the vessels and the Ark. Exactly like you said. Exactly like you said. Chazak u'Baruch Bezalel. You were like the shadow of God. It's like as if when I was talking to Hashem, you were in the background over there listening to the conversation because what you said is exactly what Hashem said. It's just that I mixed it up. But Bezalel didn't take pride in proving his rabbi wrong, chas v'shalom. He said, maybe what you're saying, it's fine. I'll do it. But

1:06:24i do this, maybe it's going to be disrespectful to the vessels. Is it possible that maybe I should build the house first, and then the vessels inside, so they're not disrespected? Of course, yes, of course, you're right. So you see from here, the middot of Bezalel at 13 years old were absolutely astounding, amazing. never to even think to tell his rabbi that he's wrong, even though he knew he was wrong. How did he do it? Maybe there's another idea if you want to consider it. Maybe I heard that it could be another way. I heard, maybe, that rabotai, is the type of loyalty to the truth that makes a person great, that makes a person a tzaddik. But this is something that a person needs to toil in Torah, to work on themselves in order to acquire such things. It doesn't come for no reason. It doesn't come to a person naturally. But Betzalel was unique in that he developed these types of amazing traits already at a very young age. Hence the reason why Hashem chose him out of all the people out there.

1:07:44There are millions of people to choose from. Millions of kids to choose from. Hashem chose Betzalel due to this extraordinary character trait that he had. Now, the Gemara says, also in Masechet Berachot, page 47. Who is an Am Ha'aretz? Who is an Am Ha'aretz? Am Ha'aretz is an ignoramus. A person who doesn't know anything. say, "Oh, I'm out. It's probably somebody who doesn't even say Israel, doesn't pray, doesn't put on tefillin. That's an Am Ha'aretz." No, no, it's even worse than that. That's a rasha. That's a person who doesn't put on tefillin. Page 17a says he has no share of the world to come. He goes to Gehenom forever. Doesn't put on tefillin. No, we're talking about something simpler. An Am Ha'aretz. He's clueless. Who's clueless?

1:08:47Maybe somebody doesn't learn. Doesn't learn Torah. He's obviously clueless. No, if he doesn't learn at all, he has no share in the world to come. He goes to Gehenom. He doesn't learn. He doesn't even get resurrected with the dead. He doesn't learn. If he doesn't learn Torah, he's worse than an Am Ha'aretz. We're looking for something simpler. An Am Ha'aretz, somebody that's clueless. Who is it? says that even if this guy learns Torah, and he studies the Mishnah, but he doesn't serve the Torah scholars, he doesn't serve his rabbi, doesn't serve the Torah scholars, doesn't look to help them, doesn't look to be next to them and see what he could learn from them, that's an Am Ha'aretz. He's an Am Ha'aretz. And that's what Rav Huna says, that's the halakha. meaning that even if somebody learns Torah, he learns the books, keeps Shabbat, but he doesn't surround himself with Torah scholars that he could help, that he could serve, that he could learn from, he thinks he can do everything on his own, he doesn't have a rabbi

1:10:04that he's going to learn from, that he's going to serve, that he's going to watch, see. What else? What does he do? What does he say? That guy, Am Ha'aretz. Yeah, but this guy, he just completed the entire Shas, Am Ha'aretz. Yeah, but he finished the Mishnayot also, Am Ha'aretz. Shulchan Aruch, Am Ha'aretz. Why Am Ha'aretz? Because the Torah is not just learned from the books. There's also behavior that you need to learn. The behavior of the Chachamim, how they act under certain circumstances, what they do, what they say, how they say it. And if a person learns all the books without finally learning that he needs to learn from the Chachamim too, that's an Am Ha'aretz. It's a person that just is like a bookworm, but stays a worm, stays a nothing. Now, many times, that the Chachamim are very, very harsh on these people. There's a Gemara that says that there was a person who knew an enormous amount of Torah. He died, and they asked one of the Chachamim to say something at his funeral. He said, "What should I say? That he was like a bookworm? He knew a lot of books. Oh, but Rabbi, he knew, but he was a..."

1:11:29He wasn't considered a talmid chacham. He knew books. He learned books. But he didn't serve any rabbi. He didn't serve any of the scholars. He was too arrogant to check if what he learned was even correct. Meaning, whether he had the right answer or not was simply impossible for him to know. But yet he assumed that he had it. He assumed that if he read, therefore he understood. That means that he had a lowly trait of arrogance. Because even if you learn the book, it doesn't mean you understand it. Go ask the rabbi. Go double-check. Even if you learned the book and you understood it, how do you know you know how to apply it and when to apply it? Go ask the rabbi. Go learn from the rabbi. And unfortunately, this type of trait is as bad as the rest of them. Because this type of arrogance is a type of arrogance that can make a person live an entire life thinking that they're doing the right thing, but all the while they're doing the wrong thing. So the Chachamim were very, very strict on this type of behavior because...

1:12:49the world around them, it looks like this person is righteous, but they knew the truth. They knew that these types of people typically cause more damage than good. Now, the Gemara also says the same concept of what the Chazon Ish is saying here, where he says that a person cannot study refined concepts with anyone who lacks self-respect. And he gives examples. Someone who eats in public. What does it mean, someone who eats in public? Does that mean that we should shut down all the restaurants out there? No. If you are one of those people who goes to a restaurant and you eat in the restaurant, there's no problem. As long as you're polite and you have good manners, no problem. You have your corner where you eat, wherever it is that you eat, it's not a problem. There are some sages that are even strict on that, that even then you should eat in the corner without other people seeing you. But as far as Halacha is concerned, there's no problem. But if you're one of these people that goes to these public fairs or goes to one of these kiosks or even brings food from home and you decide to take your sandwich and you're eating it while you're walking around...

1:14:13You're eating it, you know, on the streets like this with your sandwich, and the hummus falling on your face, and you go, and you're one of those people who eat like that. You, my friend, are a lowlife. Lowlife. Worse yet. Oh wait, you know what? I'm not going to walk around with a sandwich. It's not even comfortable. You know what? I'll just grab a bench while I'm waiting for the bus, while I'm just, you know, sitting in a park, and I'll eat over there. Lowlife. Why? Because that's not where to eat. That's not where to eat. You're not supposed to eat in the middle of the street or at some bench place. If you have self-respect, you eat at places that are designated for food. How strict is this? The Gemara in Masechet Berachot gave me a chidush years ago, maybe 8, 9, 10 years ago. The Gemara discusses the issues of dealing with someone that died. But not someone that died somewhere else. Someone that died next to you. And you have to

1:15:23sit next to this body until they bury it. You can't leave the body alone, so now you have a body next to you, which is uncomfortable. Sometimes people put a mechitza, put something so you're not next to it if it bothers you, no problem. Now, if it's, let's say, Shabbat, no one's coming because the body is muktzeh; you can't bury it. So you have to wait until Shabbat is over. So this is a really long time. So what do you do? you could say, well you just, you know, manage. No, no, practical stuff. Where do you eat? You have to eat something, right? At some point, you get hungry, even though initially you're a little shocked. You know, assuming this is not like a family member and you're all hysterical and everything. You know, it's somebody, let's say, you work for Chevra Kadisha or you're just a volunteer and there's a dead body next to you, and you're there for 15 hours. You get hungry at some point. Where do you eat?

1:16:26do you eat, assuming that there's no kitchen, there's no other room? You have two options: either eat right next to the body or go outside. Go outside, eat outside. The Gemara says someone that eats outside is like a dog. That's what he is. That's what they compare him to—a dog. Dogs eat outside. Not tzaddikim. Tzaddikim don't eat outside. Meaning, the Gemara is telling us that it's better for you to eat your sandwich next to a dead body than to eat outside in public. That's how horrible and inappropriate it is to eat in public. in places that are not designated for food. Now, if you're talking about basic, I don't know, potato chips or some type of minimal snack or something like that, there are many poskim that are lenient when it comes to that. We're talking about things like sandwiches, like an actual meal of some kind. Rabotai, the Gemara says a person that eats in that fashion is friends with the dogs. Now,

1:17:59The Gemara Masechet Kiddushin page 40b has a Mishnah. And the Mishnah says as follows. Anyone involved in the study of Scripture, meaning Torah and Mishnah, and the practice of ethical behavior, will not readily sin. meaning that they won't make sins quickly. If they're learning Torah, they're learning Mishnah, they're learning Mussar, they won't sin quickly. As it says by Shlomo HaMelech in Kohelet 4:12, that the three-ply cord is not easily severed. three-ply referring to the Mishnah, the Scripture, and the Mussar. If you have all three that you're learning, you're not going to sin very quickly. Why? Because those three are going to hold you tight. You're going to be connected to Hashem. And anyone who is not involved either in the study of Scripture or Mishnah or in Mussar is not a member of society. What does it mean he's not a member of society? He's going to be one of these low-life people.

1:19:14Guaranteed. Why? Because the obligation is to learn Torah in order to, first and foremost, believe in the Thirteen Principles of Faith. Second, to have that learning bring you to do the mitzvot. And third, to develop your character traits. That's what the Mussar is for. And these three items... what you're going to learn from the Torah, from the Mussar, from the Mishnah, and a person that does not have all three of them is going to be missing one of the critical parts and therefore they are going to become one of these people who does not contribute anything positive to society. Now, the... asked what's greater, learning Torah or doing mitzvot. They gathered together with the rest of the sages and had this debate. What's more critical? The final psak came from Rabbi Akiva: studying Torah. Why is studying Torah more critical than doing mitzvot?

1:20:42says, because doing mitzvot, you could do a mitzvah one day and not do mitzvot another day. Why? Because nothing is holding you to keep doing it. But if you learn Torah, that learning of Torah, referring to all three that we just mentioned: Torah, the Mishnah, and Musar, that's going to get you to do mitzvot. Doing mitzvot is not going to lead you to do more mitzvot, but learning Torah is going to get you to do more mitzvot. But what if he's missing one ingredient? Let's just say he learns the Chumash, he learns Mishnah, but he doesn't learn Musar. The Gemara says, anyone who's not involved either in the study of Scripture or Mishnah, or in the practice of Musar, is not a member of society. Rabbi Yochanan says, He's disqualified from being a witness in a court. That's how bad his condition is. Why? Because if he doesn't learn one of them, he's certainly going to be lacking in behavior. And therefore, he's going to be one of these people that eat in the street, just like a dog does. And a person that eats in the street is disqualified from giving testimony in a court.

1:22:10person that eats in the streets is disqualified from being a witness in a Jewish court, just like a mechaleil Shabbat or an idol worshiper. Why? Because he's a low life. Of course, again, you didn't know until now; you can change now, absolutely. That's the goal of the shiurim. But here we see that the Chachamim are very, very particular about how a person behaves in such a fashion that they're not telling you, "Oh, you should do this, it's a good idea." They're telling you, "Listen, so long as you don't do it, we cannot rely on you to be a witness in a court, even if you saw the murder, even if you saw the cheating, the lying, the stealing, we cannot rely on you." Why? Because you have no self-respect. Enough to eat in a place designated to eat? At the dinner table? You eat running around? You eat in the streets? You eat outside? You have no self-respect. We can't rely on what you say being true. Your mind is not there. You're acting like a lowlife. So we can't use you as a witness. Who else is not qualified to be a witness? Someone that's a drunk or a crazy person can't be a witness. Why? He's crazy. But who's crazy? We need to define crazy. We're not talking about schizophrenic people. No, no.

1:23:33someone that's a drunk or a crazy person can't be a witness. Why? He's crazy. But who's crazy? We need to define crazy. We're not talking about schizophrenic people. No, no. We'll see what shoteh means. We're not talking about the type of crazy person that walks around naked, you know, without a shirt on, or breaks stuff, or throws rocks like the Palestinian terrorists. No, no, no, we're not talking about that. When I even talk about this crazy person, it's obvious he cannot be used as a witness. The type of person that we're saying is excluded from being a witness is a person that has pretty much lost his mind, where his mind is constantly thinking things wrong. He's constantly thinking like, oh, everybody's out there to get me.

1:24:54Oh, you see that? No, I think there's a conspiracy. I think the government's out there to get me. Oh, did you see how she looked at me? No, no, we didn't see anything. A person that suspects everything and anything, he's always stressed out for no reason. You tell him something, he understands it in a way that only aliens understand. That's the type of person that's a shoteh. even if this shoteh, when he speaks about certain matters, he's an expert. He's an expert archaeologist, an expert, you know, in, I don't know, in knowing whatever he's doing, a mathematician. He could be an expert on a lot of different things, but when it comes to specific matters specifically when it comes to Torah or other things, he's just like one of these people that's just lost his mind. We cannot use him as a witness, and unfortunately, this puts a lot of people in that category. A lot of people have committed so many sins in their life that they've developed a certain klippa.

1:26:05And this klippa has all types of mazikim, all types of demons, pretty much bothering them constantly to do all types of things, to think all types of things. They suspect everybody. They think the wrong thing about everything. Literally, they could be the smartest guy in the room about certain subjects. They could be the smartest mathematician, the smartest programmer, the smartest whatever other subject out there. But they have this thing about them that... They just lose their minds. But not lose their minds like they start killing people. They lose their minds into simply just suspecting things that are just completely off the wall. They have what's called a da'at meshubashet. You tell them, "Listen, we had a shiur on Tuesday at 9 o'clock. It was a good shiur." "Oh, it was? Why didn't you invite me then?" Oh, it's because you don't want me to come. Ah, that's why. No, no, I didn't say I don't want you to come. I just told you we had a shiur. Yeah, but you told me because you wanted to show off that I'm not invited. No, it has nothing to do with you. I was just telling you we had a shiur just to make talk. You know, just to talk. No, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. And they have this thing in their mind like, what are you talking about? These are called shotim. Shoteh.

1:27:30can this be fixed? Absolutely. With enough Torah, that can be fixed. But until then, he says you cannot count them as a witness, even if they're clever and smart in certain subjects. If they have this, what we can pretty much call anxiety that's out of control, they cannot be a witness. You also, then there are people that have this illness they call narcolepsy, where one moment they can be talking to you normally, everything is great, they're smart, they're clever, they have their mind all together Moments later, he's on the floor. A few minutes later, he gets up like nothing happened. He doesn't even know himself what happened. So they say that when he has these attacks, he cannot be used as a witness.

1:28:49in order to use them as a witness, you have to have somebody assigned to this person to see how often it is and to monitor it. Is he under the attack or not under attack? Why? Because he's not like the first guy that he's pretty much excluded altogether until he removes this craziness from his heart. This other guy, this guy that has narcolepsy, he's only excluded either during those specific times, or if it's an extreme case where it's constant. Who else is excluded? That was number 10. People that are, it sounds naive, but it's not really naive. "Naive" is not really a good translation. It's somebody that has this mentality that's so weak that if you tell him things and explain something to him, he will say something in response. Or even if he's trying to explain something to you, he'll say things that contradict each other in the most obvious way, but he won't even realize it.

1:30:14and they don't understand very simple things that the rest of the world understands. What is this like? You tell the guy, "Listen, I need you to go and buy me a 12-pack of drinks, waters. Okay? Okay. Here's the money." He goes over there, spends an hour and a half. He comes back with a bag of potato chips that he's eating himself. "Where's the water?" "Oh, yeah, I didn't see the water that you have there." "What do you mean you didn't see the water I have?" "Well, I saw here in the house you have, you know, the Poland Spring water, but in the store they didn't have it."

1:31:14You know, they didn't have Poland Spring. What, did they have something else? Yeah, yeah, of course, Dad. Like, I know there are like ten different types, but they didn't have the same thing you had. So why didn't you buy something else? Oh, oh, you wanted something else? I wanted water, anything. Oh, I figured you probably wanted the same thing. Wait, so you're telling me you didn't bring anything? No, I bought potato chips. What? What do you mean? The water—people are thirsty here. Doesn't understand. Mind is like it went on a mission to the moon. These people cannot be counted as witnesses. He's not crazy like he has to be institutionalized, but simply they cannot function like normal people function. They don't have the mentality. They're constantly thinking about other things, leading them to make mistakes that the average person doesn't make. And if you explain to them that they could have gotten any water

1:32:31what they'll do is they'll tell you, well, why didn't you tell me any type of water? You said get water. Why didn't you say any type of water? As if you're supposed to say any type of water, as if any other person on planet Earth that's normal would request that. This is a person that's also considered a shoteh. Also, people that are constantly scared, or under all types of, uh, have, uh, all types of, um, and I guess traumas, like all types of, uh, fears, people that are constantly losing their mind. These are all considered shotim. he says, and also whatever the dayan decides, meaning that certain people, only the dayan can actually determine if this person is not fit to be a witness. There are not enough words to describe it. So, from here we see...

1:33:47there are certain mental conditions that are not really mental conditions where you have to institutionalize a person, but rather mental in the sense that it's people who are affected by the loneliness of their spirituality due to certain sins that a person made or their parents made, or a combination of both, which led this person to behave in a certain way either having too much anxiety, losing their mind, suspecting everyone including their friends, and just simply people that have destroyed their lives are excluded from being a witness. The Beit Din also says if you walk around half-naked in the streets with no shirt, you're also a shoteh. Like if you're one of those people that goes and plays, I don't know, some type of sport or you're an athlete, and you decide to just, you know, take off half your clothes and just walk, you know, run around the streets with half your clothes off, you're also considered a shoteh. Wow, but I'm hot.

1:34:53And who says that just because you're hot, you need to take off your clothes in public? You're a shoteh. You're a crazy person, according to the Torah. You cannot be used as a witness. You eat in public like a dog. Can't be used as a witness. Can't control yourself. Can't be used as a witness. What does this all mean? This means, Rabotai, that if a person does not pay attention to the way that they behave... and they simply behave however they want. They could literally arrive at the Beit Din of Heaven one day, aside from ruining their life, because it's very, very difficult to live among such people. either people that are too much into themselves where they forget that anybody else out there exists, or people that are simply lying to themselves and to society about themselves. They pretend to be righteous. In reality, they're really wicked. Or they're simply such anxiety addicts. They have so much anxiety and craziness in their mind that they literally thrive on problems. They thrive on other people fighting. They thrive on all types of conspiracy theories. They thrive on bad news. They thrive like literally they want other things to have to be bad in order to calm themselves or they simply can't handle the basics of life because they're so consumed with things that are not relevant to them. All types of things that could lead a person to lose their mind with their own hands.

1:36:02on all types of conspiracy theories. They thrive on bad news. They thrive like, literally, they want other things to be bad in order to calm themselves, or they simply can't handle the basics of life because they're so consumed with things that are not relevant to them. All types of things that could lead a person to lose their mind with their own hands And they could eventually arrive at the Beit Din of Heaven after ruining their life here because no spouse would want to live next to such a person. No kids would want to have such a parent. But needless to say, many people have such parents and many people have such spouses. And that person could arrive at the Beit Din of Heaven thinking that they are the Admo"r, thinking that they're the Tzadik, the Tzadeket, and they're in the low-life department. Now, The beautiful part of having such instructions that are so clear from the Sages is that this is not even a warning. It's simply instructions: if you do this, this is your destination. If you avoid this, remove this, stay away from this, your destination is certainly going to be much better.

1:37:27if you want to act like the way of the world where women are walking around with no arms and no legs, you are— you walk around, you're a man, a woman, drunk, crazy person, lose your mind, argue in public, throw stuff. Constantly watching all types of crazy things on the news, looking for conspiracies, and spending all of your efforts trying to figure out who's Gog u'Magog, if the aliens are really here, if the movies are really based on reality, and if the coronavirus was really something that's supposed to destroy the world, or if there is going to be some type of third planet that's going to destroy it. All this mumbo-jumbo. Shoteh. Shoteh. Crazy. You're in that department. But if a person wants to straighten up their mind, say, listen, we have clear instructions on how to behave. We have clear prophecies of certain things that will happen. We have clear Torah on what's allowed and what's forbidden.

1:38:46Why should I go right or left from this? Why shouldn't I just do what it says and better my life, better my family, better my eternity, and certainly never have the embarrassment or the punishment of somebody that's considered a lowlife in the eyes of the God of Israel? Here we see how our beautiful Torah gives us something that's as real as it gets, to help us protect ourselves but also to guide us on how to deal with certain people. Because you will find certain people who pretend to be righteous because they do certain things, but I guarantee you that if they don't follow the Torah, it's only a matter of time before you see how they distort it and contradict it in their life. One of the famous examples of such behavior was by the rasha merusha named David Ben-Gurion. If you type up his name on the internet, you'll find

1:40:15many pictures of him and statements and so on. But if you type "David Ben-Gurion Sandak" in Hebrew, you'll see many pictures because people idolized him, glorified him, even though he was completely against the Torah. Many people thought he was a tzaddik and they actually used him as the sandak, holding their babies when they would get a Brit Milah. And David Ben-Gurion said he was very sensitive to the baby's pain. And there's even a picture like this one where he's holding a baby as the rabbi is doing the Brit Milah And David Ben-Gurion looks like the most sensitive little cutie out there, right? It looks like he's so sensitive. Oh, poor baby, he's crying. Oh, and he can't even look at it. David Ben-Gurion, you Rasha Merusha. You can't even look at the circumcision. Why is he a Rasha Merusha? Because this is in 1970. It wasn't too many years after this very same wicked evil happened.

1:41:30David Ben-Gurion instructed his soldiers to shoot down the Altalena ship, comprised of Jewish people, over 900 of them. Shoot it down because we don't want them to come here with their weapons. Either they give us the weapons... or we kill them. Yeah, but they want us weapons for self-defense. The Holocaust, everything that's happened to us, what's the problem? Shoot them down. And they shot down the Altalena ship. Sixteen people died in cold blood. And after Ben-Gurion found out about how many people died, instead of saying, "Oh, maybe we went too far. We didn't mean it to go that far." What did he say? That cannon that shot down and sunk the Altalena ship full of Jews. "That's a holy cannon that will be placed next to the Beit HaMikdash one day." So, the little baby Brit Milah, he pretends like he can't see the blood of the baby having a Brit Milah. He's so sensitive.

1:42:58murdering over a dozen Jews; that is not so sensitive. See, Rabotai, HaKadosh Baruch Hu makes sure that the fakers are exposed at some point or another. Another great example that you may have seen yourself is when men claim to love their wife, but yet they allow their wife to to walk around immodestly. Even more so, they allow her to go to the beach dressed in bathing suits. The Gemara says there are three types of people. One who finds a fly in his wine cup and throws the entire wine with the fly. That's like Papus ben Yehuda.

1:43:59was too strict. Some say he was the man that Miriam cheated on and went with Yosef, and from there came Yeshu. He was too strict on her; he didn't let her move. She eventually cheated on him, and Yeshu came from that. Another guy sees a fly in his wine, takes the fly out, and drinks the wine. Ma says that's a regular, normal person. Okay, there's a little issue, take it out and you drink the wine, why waste it? Then there's a third person. He sees there's a fly not just in his wine, in his tcholent, and something that's like samich, that's like, you know, absorbs and it's thick. does he do? Takes a fly out, starts sucking it in. That's good? What's new flavor? Says that's a rasha. Now, anyone that thinks that the Gemara is trying to teach us about wine or cholent obviously doesn't know anything. So let's explain. There's a person like Papus—he went too far with his strictness on his wife; he didn't let her leave the house.

1:45:26He locked her in the house. Can't do that. There's the righteous person. He knows that his wife needs to take care of certain things. She needs to go to the supermarket. If she works, she needs to go to work as long as it's a kosher work environment. No problem. As long as she knows how to handle herself and not be in inappropriate places, having inappropriate conversations with people. No problem. then there's the guy who lets his wife do whatever she wants, so much so that he even knows. The Gemara says he's like a guy whose wife goes into the locker room even though there are guys there. Let's say there's a beach or pool and there's a time for men and a time for women time for men is up and they're leaving, but they have to get dressed. She knows they're getting dressed, already dressed, but they're not finished—they're still there. She already walks in, and her husband knows that she walks in. She doesn’t care, and he stays with her. Rashi says that's a zonah, a prostitute. This girl, this is not a kosher woman. Who would be with such a woman?

1:46:43Chachamim say this is like a woman that's washing with the other men, as if she's Shemesh Mosh, as if she's in a shower together with them. What is this like? Chachamim say this is like a man that lets his wife go to the beach or go to the pool, and there are other men over there, and he doesn't think there's anything wrong with it. Now, if this man actually thought for a second, hold on a second... Let's say, for example, they had a gathering in the house. He brought all his family, his friends. All the guys came over to celebrate, I don't know, something that happened at work. And all of a sudden, his wife comes out with one of these bathing suits to serve them coffee. A normal husband would say, what are you doing? I'm going to throw you out the window if you don't put clothes on. What is going on with you? She'll say to him, "What's wrong? What? What? What? I wore this all day at the beach. I wore this at the beach. What? No, at the beach it's okay. Over here it's not okay. How is it over there okay and not okay here? Wait, so you tell me around these 20 people it's not okay to walk around like this, but around 20,000 people it's okay. You're a shoteh. You're a drunk. Drunk husband. Drunk husband."

1:48:08You're like the guy who ate the fly, sucked it, and said, "Oh, it's flavoring." You're that guy. This, Rabotai, is the mentality that is running rampant in the streets today without people realizing it. People are constantly questioning, "Why does she want a divorce? Why does he want a divorce? How do they get divorced? How come they won't stay? They have kids together. They have this, they have that." When you act like a lowlife throughout your marriage and throughout your life, and you allow yourself or your spouse or both of you to act like lowlifes, to do things like this, it's only a matter of time before that's going to get to a level where there's no return. The Torah tells us all of these intricate details not to put us in handcuffs, not to make us miserable, but the opposite. To contain us from losing our mind, to contain us and help us from losing our spouse, losing our family, losing our Olam HaBa. When a woman is modest, she's not only protecting herself from sins, from harm's way,

1:49:37but she's protecting herself from divorce, from losing her marriage. When a man respects his wife and honors her and makes sure that he buys her all the clothes that he can afford so that she will be modest and celebrate her beauty in a modest way, and makes sure that he gives her all the confidence in the world to be the modest queen that is only his and no one else's, he's not only going to make her happy, he's going to make himself happy. He's not only protecting the marriage, he's protecting his sanity. He's protecting the mother of his children. When a person listens to the words of the sages, he's not only putting himself on a path to get to the Beit Din of heaven and have a favorable judgment, he's also getting himself away from the path of being a lowlife in the eyes of man and the eyes of God. When a person listens and applies the words of the sages and learns the Torah, the Mishnah, and the Mussar without skipping a beat, he's not only educating himself, he's ensuring himself

1:51:04losing his mind and everything that's important to him. If a person avoids even a single detail of anything that we just said, I think you would all agree he's a lowlife, but by choice. And it's our obligation to help him or her. It would certainly allow us. Thank you very much for learning with us. May Hashem bless each and every single one of you to avoid the path of wrong and get stronger on the path of the righteous. B'ezrat Hashem, we'll learn more later this week.