How Did The Gedolei Hador From Previous Generation Become So Big In Torah?

1:15He studied for 36 hours straight. It's challenging to even describe how arduous 36 hours of uninterrupted study is. He did not take any breaks for smoking, only briefly went to the bathroom, and took his meals quickly. There were no distractions like playing with the kids—just 36 hours of continuous Torah study. He was dedicated to toiling in Torah, striving to reach the spiritual heights of Har Sinai. People are often astonished at such dedication, but it is through such intense effort that individuals can occasionally reach levels of Ruach HaKodesh. After he studied for 36 hours straight, he got to the train, ready to go to sleep. But he saw on the seats there was safek shatnez. Safek, there was a doubt, maybe there's shatnez on the seat. So he can't sit on shatnez. What is he going to do? He can't sit. So he stood up the whole train ride and learned for another eight hours. So you're on the train, and when you're wearing it,

2:17Steipler Gaon is in a different world. He decided to learn for the whole train ride, another eight hours, meaning 42, 44 hours straight, 44 hours straight of Torah. So as soon as he got to the shidduch, he said hi and passed out. So the girl, she got offended. She got offended. She goes, "Come on, this guy, he's not even excited to see me. He falls asleep." The Chazon Ish says, no, no. If he fell asleep, that means he learned the whole time for the last two days. If he fell asleep, that means he was either going to die or fall asleep. Marry him. I promise you, he fell asleep on a date and he couldn't talk to you. Everyone is going to want to talk to him, even though he's deaf in one ear, possibly from his time in the war. He may be deaf in one ear, but everyone is going to listen to what he says. The point I am trying to make is that...

3:39When the Torah says to be a chacham, to truly acquire Torah, you have to sacrifice your life. It's not figuratively speaking—it's literally speaking. The Maharsha, whose commentary you see on almost every page of the Gemara, decided to grow long hair because... They say it's not good to grow long hair as a Jew. Why? You look like a woman, right? Don't worry. He wasn't trying to look like a woman. Why did he grow long hair? One time, somebody asked him, "Why do you have long hair?" He didn't want to answer. Tzaddikim (righteous individuals) don't disclose their secrets. So they had to see it. What did they see? The Maharsha, when he was a child, was considered a fool. So to overcome his foolishness, he had to study extra. He had to toil with Torah because somebody that wants chochmah, Hashem gives it to him. It doesn't matter how you start off. So he decided that the only way he could overcome it was if he studied non-stop. That meant he couldn't afford to sleep.

4:53So, he would put his legs inside cold ice water to keep himself up. But sometimes, it's not enough to keep yourself up. So, what did he do? He grew long hair. He grew long hair and tied it to the wall. So as soon as his head fell down because he was tired and wanted to fall asleep, his hair would be pulled, and he would wake up. And that's how you become the Maharsha. A lot of people tell me, oh yeah, I studied all day today. Oh yeah, what'd you study? Oh yeah, I watched shiurim in my car, and I hung out with the kids a little bit. So how long did you study for? Oh yeah, I did a lot today. How much? Yeah, I watched half of your shiur. You're not the Maharsha though. It's good. It's good. It's better than baseball and football, but you're not the Maharsha. We're still waiting for that. Meaning, rabotai, that to be a talmid chacham, to be something special, a person literally needs to be willing to sacrifice his life. Now, why am I telling you this? There are two reasons. Number one, because each and every single one of you has an opportunity to be one. For the men, each one can be one.

6:02Doesn't matter where you are today. It only matters where you're going to be tomorrow. Why decide what you do with this information that you got today if you decide to continue making excuses for why you can't do it, or why you want to do it but you can't, or why you wish you could do it but you can't, and that you're going to do it, but not now? Then you're not going to be anybody, and most likely not even a decent Jew, because you're just full of excuses. But if you at least try to be somebody and... You may not be Rashi, you may not be the Maharsha, and you may not even be in their shoes, but you definitely will be something special in the eyes of Hashem, and also in the eyes of Am Yisrael today. So each guy, each man, has the opportunity to do it. For the women that are here, the opportunity is not necessarily for you to become Devorah or one of the Shoftim of Am Yisrael who were female. No, the opportunity is quite different. The Gemara asks, why do women go to Gan Eden? They don't learn Torah in the same way as men do. They just learn the basics of what they need to do in order to become a decent mom. So, why do they go to Gan Eden then? It's because they send their husbands and children to learn Torah. By supporting and facilitating their family's Torah learning, they earn their reward.

7:21It's difficult not to have a husband. It's difficult to send your kids, sometimes, to a faraway yeshiva. It's difficult to constantly encourage the entire family to go learn, even though you don't necessarily always get the benefit and pleasure of Torah yourself. The Rogatchover Rebbe once said, "You know, I'm going to go to Gan Eden, but not because of my own learning—because of my wife." Now, the Rogatchover Rebbe was such a gaon that when he met Einstein, after a five-minute meeting, Einstein left the room and he said, "You can make two Einsteins with his brain." Einstein, whom everybody—the goyim and the Jews—respected, said this about the Rogatchover Rebbe, who was a Chabadnik, by the way. I said, Rabbi, what did you say to him? He goes, no, he wants to talk about his shtuyot. So I told him how much I know about his own shtuyot. If he thinks I'm smart, come learn Gemara with me. I'll show you what I know.

8:27Meaning if you think I'm two Einsteins about your nonsense, come see me with Torah. One time, they invited him to a wedding. He only went because there was another big chacham at the wedding. But the chacham spoke his language, meaning they spoke just in sources. They didn't say the whole pasuk; they didn't say the page. They just spoke in sources—page this, page this, page this, page this—but their battle was a fire to such an extent. It was yelling and screaming. "No, it's 67a in Sanhedrin." "No, it's 47." They spoke in a language no one else understood, but there was a lot of yelling and... To such an extent, it went through the night. They started yelling at each other; they would knock on each other's doors at three o'clock in the morning. "No, it's Pesachim 7b." A half hour later, the other would come back to him, "No, you're wrong, it's Sanhedrin 3a." And this went to the point that they made a rule in the city: you're never allowed to invite both of them to the same wedding. What are they gonna be involved in the party? No, they learn Torah. That's what they do. They learn Torah. But these two in the same room, dangerous for society. To such an extent his wisdom was so huge that when his mom died, he started crying, but she was older. And he said, "Why, you really were close to your mom?" He says, "You fool, you think I'm crying over my mom? I'm crying because I'm not allowed to learn Torah."

9:54Because he's an avel (mourner), he's in mourning, you don't have to learn Torah. I'm crying because I can't learn Torah. He got to such a point that after the third day, after his mom died, on the third day, he started learning Torah, which was a sin. But not a sin. Why not a sin? He says it became pikuach nefesh. If he didn't start learning Torah, he would die. He said to himself, if I don't start learning Torah, I'm going to die. Alavai aleinu. It's not that he wants it. He's learning Torah for what? He's learning for Hashem. He says, "I have to learn Torah now, even though it's technically a sin in Torah, because it's not a sin." Why? Because of pikuach nefesh. If I don't learn Torah, I'm going to die. Halevai aleinu. But this very same Rogatchover Rebbe said something special. I heard from Rav Nissim, again, something worth a million dollars. He says, I'm only going to go to Gan Eden because of my wife. How is that possible? I just explained to you in several stories, this is a giant who couldn't live without Torah, knew the entire Torah back and forth like we know the back of our hand. And you're telling me you're going to Gan Eden because of your wife?

11:11How could it be? He says, when I go up to Shamayim, they're going to tell me, no, what did you learn? I'm going to tell them what I learned. He said, nah, you don't know how to learn. Get out of here. They're going to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. They're going to tell me, I go up to Shamayim, they're going to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. The biggest rabbi in the world says, I'm going to go up to Shamayim, and in Shamayim, they have the whole truth. My version in comparison to theirs, they're going to come to me and say, you don't even know how to learn. You don't even know how to learn. Not that you don't know anything. You don't even know how to learn, they're going to tell me, he says. How are we going to let you into Gan Eden? And then my wife's going to come. He says, yes, ma'am. Yes, Rabbanit. Gan Eden, please. For what? Married to the "Roko Jo" Rebbe. She says, yeah, but he doesn't even know how to learn. He doesn't know how to learn, they're going to say to her.

12:12My wife's going to say to them, "It's my fault he doesn't know how to learn. Did I send him to the kollel every day? Did I send him to go learn every day? It's my fault he doesn't know how to learn. I sent him to the yeshiva to go learn. It's not my fault he doesn't know how to learn." Gan Eden, please. He says, "You're right. You're right. It's not your fault he doesn't know how to learn." And they're going to let her go to Gan Eden. But then she's going to start crying. They'll ask, "Why are you crying?" She will respond, "Gan Eden without my husband is Gehinnom." Okay, okay, they're gonna bring me in because of my wife. Do you understand the chochmah here? The giant of giants is saying I don't even know how to learn. But I'm gonna go to Gan Eden because of my wife. That is the zechut of a tzaddikah who sends her husband to go learn Torah. Whether your husband becomes a giant or not doesn't make a difference. You still get Gan Eden. You could save the entire family. You could save the entire nation. Just send your kids to go learn Torah.

13:22But I believe we see here that people spend an enormous amount of time, money, and resources honoring all these doctorates, psychiatrists, degrees, and all types of nonsense in the world. Very rarely do we see anybody honoring the Torah. The reason why is because a lot of us have this problem that we want to be like half-Jews. We want to be like half-Jews. We want to be Jews, but we also want to be a little bit like Goyim. We want to learn Torah, but also watch football afterward. We want to learn Torah, but watch movies as well. We want to learn Torah and do mitzvot, but dress like the Goyim do. So the Chofetz Chaim, alav hashalom, said, and we'll finish with this. He said that everyone sees the difference between fake flowers and real flowers. Everyone knows, in many cases, the fake flowers are nicer. Why? Because sometimes the real flowers have a black spot or they're a little broken. They're not as pure as when they first bloom. If they're fresh, they're beautiful, but if they're not so fresh, then the leaf is falling, it's crippled, it's a baalmum – it's not always 100%. But the fake flower looks like it just bloomed.

14:52He says, "But the problem is, the fake flower doesn't reproduce." He says the Chafetz Chaim says everyone likes the way the half a Jew looks, the one that's keeping Torah and mitzvot, but really is like a Reform Jew, really is like a modern Orthodox Jew. Really, he watches TV half the day. He's like a fake flower. He looks more modern; the Rabbi is more modern. He gives me a high-five. He gives me a high-five. He plays basketball with me. The problem is with the fake flower, as it doesn't reproduce. The modern type of mentality, the secular type of mentality, doesn't reproduce Jews; it reproduces green. If the father is gonna play basketball, the son is gonna worship basketball. The father is going to talk about business on Shabbat. The son is not going to keep Shabbat at all. If the father is going to look at women who are not his wife, the son is going to marry a goya. Why? Because nothing is ever enough. If you're going to be a fake flower, you're not going to produce a real flower; you'll reproduce another fake flower, but the next one is much worse.

16:16And that's why the Rebbe, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, said, when someone came to him, "What's a rabbi? What's a Rebbe?" The Lubavitcher Rebbe says to him, "A Rebbe, it's a friend. A Rebbe's a friend." So the person that came from far away says, "Oh, Rebbe's a friend? I don't need a friend. I have a bunch of friends." So the Lubavitcher Rebbe gave him an answer worth a million dollars. He says, "No, I think you're misunderstanding. A Rebbe is a true friend, one who knows what you're thinking and still chooses to stand by you, guiding and supporting you through life's challenges. That's a true friend." your friends, if they knew everything you think about them after they don't do business with you, after they don't give you a ride, after they annoy you, and after all those little things—if they knew what you think about them all the time—would they still be your friends? He says no. He says, exactly. Rabbi knows you don't like him, and you hate him, and you don't want to listen to him, and you think this and you think that, but he still remains your friend. Why? Because that's the Torah's obligation, and...

17:26If you want to pick a rabbi, pick the one that's going to tell you the truth, regardless of what your emotions are going to tell you to do. Regardless of what your yetzer hara is going to tell you to do, or what your mom and dad and your friend and your wife and your husband and your this one and that one say. They'll all tell you to go against the rabbi. Trust me when I tell you, the rabbi knows. If he's a good rabbi, he knows that everyone is telling you the opposite. But you have to know, if he's a real rabbi, he's not going to care at all. He's only going to care about giving you Torah. Because that's the only thing that's going to save us. B'ezrat Hashem, we spread this shiur, we spread the chochmah, but also the da'at, all of the knowledge that we get from this shiur, not to ourselves only, but also to all of our family, to all of Am Yisrael, B'ezrat Hashem.