How Smart Do You Think You Are? - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (19)

0:15For David ben Nesria, Doris bat Jorah. You know, saying the tefillot for David ben Nesria and Doris bat Jorah... You never really appreciate it until you need it. So it's amazing how in one second Hashem can really make you realize how much of a nothing you are. Where the other day when I was freezing in the shiur... You never really appreciate it until you need it. So it's amazing how in one second Hashem can really make you realize how much of a nothing you are. The other day, when I was freezing in the shiur,

1:36After the lecture, it wasn't really cold, and I realized why they weren't cold and I was cold. I was getting a fever. By the time I got home, I had a 104 fever, Baruch Hashem. So it was a very interesting night. But Baruch Hashem gives us different tests. We try, Baruch Hashem, to pass all of them. Baruch Hashem, we will. But sometimes Hashem will make you fail or make you stumble for your own good. And that's going to be one of the things we're going to learn from the Ramban today: that sometimes failure is good, and sometimes failure is necessary, especially when it comes to chochmah. Because one of the things that people really do not value very much is that people today do not have very much emunat chachamim, you know, faith in our sages. People don't have very much value for the chachamim. You know, many times I hear people call rabbis by their first names. I remember when I first moved to Florida, I met twin brothers

2:42that had a very, very successful business, and we were in a house, someone invited us to the same house, and we were having a conversation, and I got into religion, of course. They asked me, "Do you listen to anyone? Do you do this? Do you do that?" We started exchanging different names, and I mentioned Rabbi Mizrachi. So, usually you mention Rabbi Mizrachi, or you mention me today, you know, you'll get different reactions. Sometimes people love him, sometimes people hate him, but you know, you're never going to get a neutral reaction, Baruch Hashem. It's always something. But this one surprised me, because I was still relatively new. And these two yo-yos said, oh, Yossi. I looked at the guy, what? Who? You mean Yossi, Yossi. I'm like, who's Yossi? You know, Rabbi Mizrachi. You mean Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi? You're calling him Yossi? Yeah, you know, Yossi, Yossi. And honestly, I wanted to take the plate and throw it at them. Like, what's the matter with you? Forget about whether you like him or don't like him. It's irrelevant. Have a little decency. Have a little decency. But that's the thing. People don't have it. And you see it more and more today.

3:57People call rabbis by their first names because it's not necessarily that they're trying to disrespect the person. It's not necessarily coming from bad intentions. It's that, number one, people want to be friendly. And they think that if they call you a rabbi or a doctor or a mister, that's not friendly. The second thing is, which is more critical for our topic, is people have no erech for chochmah. They have no concept, no value for what chokhmah is. They don't understand how much you have to toil and break your head and sacrifice over and over and over again to ever even understand a single halacha like you're supposed to. To ever understand one sugya in the Gemara. One line in the entire Gemara, understand it like you're supposed to. No one actually understands it until they do it themselves. And that's the problem. People have no concept. They think that being a rabbi, that's, you know, a Talmid Chacham, you know, not just somebody that just decided to call themselves a rabbi. But someone that's actually learned a lot of Torah, teaches people, helps people change their lives, and so on and so forth. To do that, they think it's the same thing as being a doctor. They think it's the same thing as being a lawyer, or an accountant, or an architect.

5:22They think it's the same thing. Why? Because that's a profession. That's a profession. That's the problem. If you think that nuclear physics is on the same level of intellect, sacrifice, and wisdom in general as Torah, you, my friend, have to do teshuva—a lot of it—because you have no understanding of what the Torah is. For example, I always tell you guys that there are a lot of people from Florida who watch the shiurim. But unfortunately, the vast majority of them do not come. Now, baruch Hashem, thank God, there's many, many people watching the shiurim around the world. People from Mexico, people from Nigeria, people from Australia, Austria. You came from Austria, right? You know Austria. Now he's here in Florida. You know from Chicago, our dear friend over here, now he's here. We have people from all corners of the world, and... But the amazing thing is, is that there's also a lot of people in Florida that watch the shiurim. How do I know? They send me emails and text messages and questions and so on and so forth. I always ask myself, how come they don't come? Oh, but it's going to be online, no? So I'll just watch it online. I'll just watch it on Facebook. I'll just watch it on YouTube tomorrow with popcorn at my convenience. And that's good if you live in Antarctica.

6:48That's okay if you live in Israel, if you live in Chicago, if you live somewhere that's really far away that requires a plane. If you require a plane to come to the shiur, no problem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu understands. You, 100%, you're doing mesirut nefesh for watching the shiur. You're good. But if you live within an hour's distance of the shiur and do not attend, I always tell people that you're missing a big part of the learning. And the big part of the learning is The fact that when you come to the lecture, you become part of the lecture. As the Chazon Ish said in Orach Chaim, Siman 290, he says exactly, I'll read you word for word: "Lo domeh adam sheshoneh mussar meharav le'adam shekoreh mussar misifrei mussar." A person that learns mussar from the Rav directly from him is...

7:48Nothing like someone who learns it from a book, nothing like it. He says that when you actually attend a lecture, when you hear the Rav directly speak and become part of it, because in the voice of the rabbi is all of his strength, all of his Yirat Shamayim, all of his wisdom, all of the things, and you are part of it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu will give the rabbi specific Chokhmah at that moment just catered to you, meaning when you come to the lecture, the rabbi a hundred percent of the time will say something just for you and no one else in the world, and become part of it because in the voice of the rabbi is all of his strength, all of his Yirat Shamayim, all of his wisdom, all of the things, and you are part of it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu will give the rabbi specific Chokhmah at that moment just catered to you, meaning when you come to the lecture, the rabbi a hundred percent of the time will say something just for you and no one else in the world, and That's why many times people come to the shiur and say it's very different. When I watch it online for two years, I came to the lecture, something happened. I don't know; it was very different. So yeah, it's very different. When you came to the shiur, you became part of the shiur. When you're watching it from your apartment 20 minutes from here, you're not part of the shiur; you're learning, but you're not part of the shiur, and that's a big loss. It's also a big loss because the Gemara in Masechet Berachot says that in the old days...

9:08They didn't have YouTube and Facebook or even cars. People used to travel days just to attend the shiur Torah. Just to attend the shiur Torah, one of the chachamim would travel six months, six months just to go learn with Rabban Yochanan for one day. One day you'd learn from him and then go back home for six months and... Talmidim at the yeshiva say, "Well, what are you doing? You're wasting your time, six months, six months. Just go buy a book. Why are you traveling all six months?" Rabban Yochanan says, "No, no, no, don't make fun of him. His Torah is more valuable than all of yours." They respond, "What do you mean? But we're learning day and night all year round. We're not traveling. We're not wasting time. We don't even take vacation." He says, "Yes, but his mesirut nefesh is much greater than yours. You would never be willing to do what he does. His Torah is much more valuable than yours to Hashem." When a person travels to learn Torah, he gets something called schar halicha. Schar halicha means you get a reward for going there. How much is the reward for going there? The Gemara says the reward for going there is greater than the reward of being there. Now you would say, wait a minute. I came to the shiur. I sat there. I didn't even play with my phone.

10:27Actually sat there and listened to the shiur. I played with the phone a little bit, but don't tell the Rabbi. A little bit I played, but I listened to ninety percent. Okay, eighty percent. Or seventy percent of the shiur. I listened, for sure. Sixty, sixty-five. I'm not gonna lie, sixty percent of the shiur. I let forty percent phone. Forty percent phone? Okay, fifty-fifty. No, stop it. Be honest, fifty. Okay, fifty percent. I listened to you fifty percent, Rabbi. I don't get anything for it? He says, yeah, you get something for it. But the problem is that the fifty percent that you listen to the shiur, or even if you listen a hundred percent... Are you gonna remember 100%? No, you're not gonna remember 100%. Why? You're a human being. You're not gonna remember. If you remember 5%, that's already hatzlacha. You remember 5% of the lecture tomorrow and actually apply it to your life, that's a huge hatzlacha. Huge. Huge hatzlacha. How do you remember this shiur? Taking notes. Now already it's different. Learning it again is already different. You attended the shiur multiple times already, but one time you just came, sat there, and watched it like a movie. 5% at most. 5% of the lecture you remember, that’s already a hatzlacha. So Hashem wants to give you the full pie. He doesn't want to give you 5% reward. So what does He do? He says, "I'm gonna give you a full reward, not just for going there, not just for being there, not for that 5% of memory that you have."

11:54I'm gonna give you a hatzlacha for the 20 minutes that it took you to get there, for the $20 you spent on Uber to get there, for the gas you spent to get there, for the 20 minutes it took you to walk there, for the traffic you withstood, for all the yelling and screaming you had to deal with just to come here because this one wanted this from you and that one wanted that from you. Say, "No, no, no, listen. It's nine o'clock. I gotta be at the shiur. The world ends without the shiur Torah." HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives you a hundred percent. Even if you live next door, even if you live an hour and a half away, Hashem gives you a hundred percent. That's why it's so valuable to come to a shiur Torah if you have the opportunity because you live close by. When you don't do it, you're missing out on a big part of the zechut, the merit, and you also miss out on being part of the shiur itself. Last but not least, since HaKadosh Baruch Hu obviously is not giving us that much more time to live in this world,

12:54Mashiach has to come soon. The world is destroying itself, so there's not really that much time. So that means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is fast-forwarding a lot of things. In the past, when the Ben Ish Chai would give a lecture a few times a year, over 10,000 people would show up. 10,000 people would show up to every lecture, and every single one of them would hear his voice without a microphone. When his son, Rabbi Yaakov, took over, they couldn't hear him. He said, "We can't hear you, we can't hear you." He replied, "I'm sorry, I don't have HaKadosh Baruch Hu speaking from my throat like my father. My father was not like a normal human being. Hashem was speaking through his throat. That's why you heard him." But even the Ben Ish Chai, with 10,000 people showing up at every lecture, okay, you were limited to 10,000 people. Today, if HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants, this lecture or any other lecture could literally reach millions of people.

13:55Every single person right now watching this, either live or tomorrow or in six months from now, simply does themselves a favor and presses the share button. If every single person, let's say 5,000 viewers, presses the share button, that automatically becomes a lot more than 5,000—25,000, 50,000, 100,000—and every single one of those people that hears it because of that share button that took you exactly three seconds to do... Mitzvot go to your account, but the best yet is the people that contributed to you by attending, by donating, by promoting, by doing whatever they can. I have a few Tzaddikim talmidim in different places around the world—in Atlanta, in Montreal, in Toronto, in a few different places. They have shiur parties. What's this shiur party? Every week, at least once a week, they invite a bunch of their friends to their house or their shul and they stream this shiur live and... Why? People like to do things together. That’s why sports are successful—because people like to cheer on together.

15:05There's a lot more. It's a lot more fun to watch an event with 30 or 40,000 people than to watch at home by yourself on TV. Even though technically you watch the sport or whatever you're watching much better from the TV because of the camera, when you have 30,000 voices saying "yeah" or "boo" or whatever they're saying at the same time, it's a lot more fun. Needless to say, with Torah, when you have a lot of people watching this, it creates a lot more merits. Now... When a person understands this to the extent where they realize this is the emet, this is what makes sense, let me do something about it, that alone is a first step of change. The problem is, rabotai yekarim, is that that's only one of the steps. The other step is that we still need to learn. Whether you attend a shiur or you don't attend a shiur, you still need to learn. what happens is that sometimes people take God's advice and they start learning. They watch a shiur, they read a few books, and they start changing their life. They start going up the ladder, getting closer and closer to Hashem. They change their looks, they change their activities, and so on and so forth.

16:30But then if you look at their spiritual ladder, as it's going up, up, up, up, up, up, all of a sudden, if it was a chart like a stock, you'd see a crash at some point. Now their learning continues; it didn't stop. They continue to do, do, do, do, do—they're learning. They're even learning more. Now, instead of learning one sefer at a time, they're learning two sefarim at a time. Now, instead of watching a shiur with the phone, they're watching a shiur without the phone. Instead of eating popcorn and bisli and all that stuff while they're learning, they're just focusing on the book. Not just the bisli, they're not having dinner and Gemara at the same time. They have so much learning, but their spiritual ladder, instead of continuing to go higher to get closer to malachei ha-shareit, you see them collapsing like a stock that went from a hundred to zero in one shot. Why? If they continue to learn, technically, she continued going up. Why is the spiritual ladder, meaning the value in Shamayim for what they're doing, dropping so horrendously? A woman is taking on tzniut. She's covering herself. She thinks ma'aser. She's doing at least one hachnasat orchim (hospitality) act per day. She's reading Tehillim. She's praying for the Shechinah to come down and save all of us. She sees she's doing all the good things.

17:55Even decides to take on a fast once a year, other than the regular fast, just for me, saying it's a good thing. How come the spiritual ladder collapsed? Who wants to guess? No, chavruta? Maybe you guys start teaching. I've got to give them more chances; you're killing them. A person becomes prideful. A person becomes arrogant, and instead of talking to Hashem and getting close to Hashem and doing the mitzvah for Hashem, what does she do? She says to her friends, "Oh, so how are you doing? Oh, no, I'm good. I just finished, uh, you know, the book of Tehillim today. It's only 12 o'clock. I just finished." She publicizes each footstep. "Oh, so how are you doing? How's everything? No, I just finished feeding the homeless. I'm good. What did you do today? It's nine o'clock already. What did you do?" I didn't see any homeless people. You start publicizing your mitzvot, or better yet, the guy's rabbi starts talking. They interrupt: "No, no, Rabbi, I don't think you're right over here," and they start giving all types of things. The rabbi is answering somebody's question; somebody asked a question. They said, "No, Rabbi, I know this answer," and they start to answer. Or best yet, they ask the rabbi a question, the rabbi gives them an answer, and they say, "No, Rabbi, I don't think you're right."

19:19About you. He is still in diapers, but he doesn't think the rabbi is right. He's been learning for 20 years. Still, he hasn't gotten out of diapers, but he read Mesilat Yesharim and understood maybe one and a half percent of it. Usually, he knows the preface of who wrote it. But no, Rabbi, I think you're wrong. He still doesn't know. He actually didn't even know this well, the whole job, but he just thought you're not allowed to drive. "Rabbi, I don't think you're right about this one." Worst is if you actually did learn a lot, meaning he actually finished a bunch of Masechtot in the Gemara, meaning he even finished the Shas. He talks to people like he has completed it. Daf Yomi or two or three or five or seven times. Whatever he did, if he completed all of Shas, people ask him a question, he goes, "Oh, you don't know? It's easy. Beit Shammai is right." Ask him a question, he makes you feel like you're a loser. You don't know anything. Oh.

20:19That guy, his Torah, zero. His spiritual climb, destroyed. Everything he just did went to zero. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is disgusted by arrogance. Especially when it comes from the Torah. Why? Because that means, that means you're not learning Torah. you're learning something that resembles Torah, but it's not really Torah. The way you're supposed to learn Torah is that it's supposed to soften your character and make you more humble. Because the more Torah you learn, the more you realize you actually don't know anything. The more you learn, the more you realize how great the knowledge available is, meaning that the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know, and Beginning, you thought there was one book. Once you got to the end of the book, it said, "Oh, and you can read the recommended books here." There's a list of 5,000 books. All of a sudden, you thought you were accomplished. You saw there's a list of continued reading: 5,000 books. Okay, fine. Let me just start going to the 5,000 books. He starts going to another couple. He feels like he's getting ahead. Getting ahead on book 150, he sees there's a completely different list of another 30,000 books.

21:49He feels he's achieved something because he already read a hundred books. Now, he sees another thirty thousand on top of the five thousand. He starts reading another few books. Then, he finds another list with another ninety thousand books. He feels like he's going backwards instead of forwards. That's taught: the more you read, the more you understand how much more knowledge is available. There are literally millions of books available. people to learn Torah today, different books, not the same book. Even if you read all of those books for a thousand years, day and night, 24 hours a day, you still would not know even 1% of the Torah. That's how big the Torah is. In fact, you wouldn't even know as much as Chazal did because the Gemara tells us in Masechet Avodah Zarah Avraham Avinu had 600 chapters to his tractate of Avodah Zarah; some say 400. Either way, our current Masechet Avodah Zarah in the Gemara has five chapters, meaning we don't even have what Avraham Avinu had four thousand years ago.

23:10says Chazal, when they were learning Mishnayot, it talked about how you have to know the entire Mishnah by heart. In Masechet Shabbat, when they judge you in Shamayim, you're supposed to know the whole thing. But if you don't have Yirat Shamayim, then it's not worth anything. What are they really talking about? They are talking about knowing the entire Mishnah. What was the entire Mishnah for Chazal? Chazal had 600 parts to the Mishnah; we have 6. 6 parts of the Mishnah. They had 600. That's how minimized the Torah has become, more and more, every generation to fit the generation. Meaning that even if you know everything that you think is available, it's still literally nothing in comparison to what's really there. And their Torah was not even as big as Avraham Avinu's. Now the Ramban says the following: The letter continues and he says to us, if the person takes pride in his wisdom...

24:35Let him understand that God may remove the speech of the most competent and take away the wisdom of the aged, as it says by the Prophet Job in chapter 12, verse 20. Now the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 152a, says that a talmid chacham, as he ages, his wisdom increases. only because he continues to learn, and not only because he continues to have more and more experience, but also the chochmah that he gains over the years—that stuff that he learned 30 years ago and 40 years ago from his rabbi starts making more sense to him. For example, there are certain things that I learned from my rabbi five, six years ago; only now they're starting to make sense and I know for sure that in ten years from now, based on Hashem, they're gonna make a whole lot more sense. Like, for example, why did he choose out of all the stories in the Torah to tell me the story of Yitro and Moshe? I already have a few different reasons, but I know there are many more. Why is this, and why is that? You only learn some of this stuff over time. So as a chacham continues to mature, his chochmah matures, and

26:03He starts understanding different aspects of the learning that he has. But an ignorant person, as he ages, his ignorance increases. Hence the reason why you'll see Talmidei Chachamim brighter than any 20-year-old, even when they're 95. Rav Ovadia, alav haShalom. Rav Elyashiv, alav haShalom. All of the giants. You see, the vast majority of them, days before they left this world and left us as an orphaned nation, they were reading Gemara, they were reading Shulchan Aruch, they were reading and paskening on things, mamash, doing things that no one else was able to do. No one else was able to understand. Such sharp minds. A hundred years old, sharp mind like a knife. Twenty-year-old, ...like a butter knife. The 90-year-old is sharp. But then you see the regular average person who used to sell cars for a living, an average person. I don't know, sold hotels, built hotels. At 70 years old, most of the time he's starting to lose it a little bit. By 80, he's a meskin. Once he continues to grow older, at 80 years old, most of the time, he doesn't really want to live. They're just forcing him to...

27:31Most people, as they age, life becomes miserable. Why? Because their brain walks away from them. They start being, you know, if they're not really rich and they don't have a family that loves them a lot, they end up going into one of these nursing homes where pretty much they feed you gruel all day and beat you up because you didn't go to sleep or because of this or because of that. Because the evil people many times, and they're just, you know, pretty much everyone's waiting for the guy to die. Why? Because no one can talk to him. He doesn't remember who you are, and if he does, he doesn't remember what you told him. It's a nightmare. He's worse than when he was a baby. That's the ignorant person. That's what the Gemara says. And that's life. You want proof? Go to a nursing home. After you finish the nursing home, go to a Beit Midrash in Yerushalayim. Go see the difference. In the Beit Midrash in Yerushalayim, you'll see young and old. the nursing home on the old. One guy says that he went to yeshiva with the other. Yeshiva, I love asher lonu. After yeshiva...

28:47Continued learning for a little while and he would always see Rabbi Elyashiv learning, learning, learning in the chair in the corner of the Beit Midrash with his book. Learning, learning, learning, just sitting in his chair, not moving, like a statue. People coming, people going, night and day—it doesn't make a difference. He's still there. He says he left, he went to America, made a bunch of money. Sixty years later, he came back. Sixty years later, he had his life, had his kids, had the family, had the business, had the millions, had everything. He came back to the same place, and Rabbi Elyashiv was still in the same place. It shocked him a lot; still the same spot, same book, same chair, sixty years later. See, he didn't change the chair. That's why I believe you know who he is. Or, if you want to know, you just go on Google and... Half a second later, you'll have 50 zillion different images and articles and so on, and the other guy, we don't even know his name. But to become a Rabbi Elyashiv is not just about sitting in the chair. It's understanding where you stand. It's understanding how valuable this Chochmah is. Now, the...

30:11Midrash Tanchuma Parashat Pinchas chapter 8 says that a Talmid Chacham who becomes prideful for his Torah and mitzvot is doing the opposite of his purpose. Why is this viewed as the opposite of his purpose? This is because he doesn't understand the purpose of his learning. If you've learned a lot of Torah, you've read a bunch of books, you have a whole library in your house, another library at the kollel, another library everywhere, you have a bunch of books, you chew them up, but now when people ask you a question, you kind of make fun of them, you make them feel bad about it, that they don't know. Or better yet, you don't have any kavod for the rabbi, or you don't have kavod for talmidei chachamim, or the best part, When someone tells you, yeah, but Rabbi Ovadia said this, or Rabbi Elyashiv said this, or Rav Kanievsky said that, you're like, yeah, you know, you don't necessarily have to agree with them. You treat the Gedolei HaDor like they're like you. You put yourself on the same pedestal as the giants. Like you and Moshe Rabbeinu, same thing, we're both human beings. We both put pants on one leg at a time, what's the problem? You think you're just like them. Somebody like that,

31:32Doing the opposite of what he was created to do. Why? Because what he doesn't understand is there's a pasuk in the Torah that says, "וְהָגִיתָ בּוֹ יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה" meaning that you have to engage with it day and night. Engage with what? Engage with the Torah. What does that mean literally? If you learn Torah and find a way to learn it 24 hours straight... You learned Torah 24 hours straight. No break, with the exception of bathroom, because you're still human. But that's it. You didn't eat, you didn't drink, you didn't do anything. 24 hours straight. Everyone that's watching will think, wow, that's definitely something to be proud of. I know one person that in 24 hours, he did a Shabbat; he learned the entire Masechet Shabbat. Masechet Shabbat—if you learn it in a year, you're already great. He learned it in 24 hours on Shabbat. It's a minhag avot that some chachamim do. They literally learn the entire Masechet Shabbat. It's not very common anymore because we do not have such chokhmah in the world. But it does happen once in a blue moon. I know one guy that did it. 24 hours he learned the entire Masechet Shabbat. Almost 160 dapim. Figure a few thousand pages in regular books. 24 hours.

32:55Not twenty, not a few thousand pages of Harry Potter. A few thousand pages in regular books—one page a regular person can take five weeks just to understand it. So if you figure you learn 24 hours, after you finish this 24-hour shiur, your chest should be puffed up. Come on, look at me. Who else is like me? When Hashem created man, He thought about me. You know, that's what people think. What does the Midrash say? What do the Chachamim say? The Chachamim say you have nothing to be proud of. Why? All you did is fulfill the minimum. What do you mean I fulfilled the minimum? I studied for 24 hours. Exactly, you fulfilled the Pasuk. You got to it morning and night. So that's what you did. You got to it from the morning. You studied all the way to the night. What else do you want? That's the minimum. As the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot says, chapter two, Mishnah number eight, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai says, if you've learned and you've studied much Torah, don't take any credit for yourself because that's why you were created. That's your purpose. That's the only reason you exist.

34:19Hence the reason why the Gemara in Masechet Pesachim says someone who doesn't learn Torah should not be allowed to eat meat. That's what the Gemara in Masechet Pesachim says. Why? Because the cow is better than him. It's fulfilling its purpose. It's mooing. It's mooing. It's giving milk without resistance. Have you ever seen a cow say, "No, I don't want you to take milk"? No, come on, moo today. No, no, I'm not mooing today. I'm on strike. No, the cow will moo. The cow will give you the milk. That's what it's supposed to do. But you're supposed to learn Torah, but no, you don't feel like it. Well, I'm going to the game. No, please shoot some hoops. I'll be the next LeBron James, Jewish version, all five foot six of me. The most bizarre thing in the world that I've seen is this generation of how many young kids play basketball thinking they're going to go to the NBA. I never understood that. Just by the fact that you're Jewish, you should immediately throw that in the garbage. You wanna play for activity, for exercise, I don't know, you wanna exercise, go do it, no problem. It's good to exercise a little bit. But don't live in a fantasy thinking you're going to the NBA. Yeah, but there is one guy that's in the NBA that's Jewish. Yeah, one. You know how many other hundreds of thousands tried to be that one?

35:47You know how many millions try to be anyone in the NBA? I used to deal with athletes in the business world, so a lot of times we try to get rookies as clients because the rookies usually make a lot of money. The problem with rookies is that you have to start dealing with them and talking to them sometimes before they have anything to talk about while they're still in college. Every kid in college, whether he's a freshman or a senior, is sure he's going to the NBA, sure he's going to the NFL, sure... What they don't realize is only a few hundred people get selected every year out of tens of thousands. And if you don't get selected that graduating year, there is a 99% chance your career is over. "Yeah, but I worked on it for 20 years to be in the NBA, to be in the NFL, to be in anything." So did a hundred thousand other people, sorry. "Yeah, but why can't you pick me next year?" If you weren't good enough this year, you're probably not going to be good enough next year. I Tried so hard. Should try something else. Maybe actually go to school. And this is people that have the physical abilities and the physical stature and the nine feet tall and they're this big and so on. Most Jewish kids, what are they? They're little, scrawny kids shooting a ball. Okay, so you hit the hoop. It's not enough. The best feature is the sneakers.

37:14What's the point? Kids play and they dream this thing: "I'm gonna be a basketball player. I'm going to the NBA." They live this fantasy. Why? Because the Yetzer Hara keeps telling them, "You were created for basketball. You're gonna be the next best thing in game town and in PlayStation world." While the Yetzer HaTov says, "No, no, my dear son..." That's not why you're here. You're here to learn Torah. Nah, that's not possible. No, you're here to learn Torah. That's the point of your whole life. No, it's not possible. I'm here to be a businessman. No, no, no, Torah. No, I'm here to be a soldier. No, Torah. And Yetzer Hara and Yetzer HaTov fight every single day until the Yetzer HaTov unfortunately just doesn't do anything anymore. Why? You're numb. You become so far from the Torah, you don't even realize you're supposed to learn Torah. That's most people in this generation. Now, sometimes, part of the reason why people quit the Torah world is not necessarily because of their upbringing, because they went to yeshiva. They went, and they learned, and they did a few things. But sometimes, they have a rabbi or a teacher who himself learned a lot of Torah, but instead of learning the Torah...

38:37To the extent where it changed him in a positive way, it makes him worse. It makes his bad character traits, like arrogance, much, much worse. And when one of the students asks a question, instead of answering the kid because he doesn't know or because he's double-checking, the rabbi insults the kid, yells at the kid, makes the kid feel like a loser. And the kid doesn't know how to deal with it. and he breaks. I know a few kids like this, here in Israel, in different places. They simply left the Torah world, even though they had the talent, the upbringing, and the potential. But one bad word from the rabbi, one yell, one scream, one misunderstanding—whatever it was—that's all it took to let the Yetzer Hara take over. I know two kids; they're not kids anymore, now they're in their 30s,

39:37The same principle in New York threw them out of school because they didn't have a lot of money like some of the other people. That already didn't make their families donors. On top of that, they were Sephardi. He didn't really like Sephardi people so much because he wanted to fulfill the sin of... Instead of the mitzvah, you want to fulfill the sin of sinat chinam. So he decided that, as the first excuse, he would throw them both out. Unfortunately, since he threw them both out at 14-15 years old, within a matter of a couple of months, they stopped keeping everything. Today, almost 20 years later, they are still both mechalelei Shabbat. They both still keep nothing. They believe in Torah 100%, believe in Hashem 100%, but they do not keep anything now. Why not? Yeah, it's not for me—religious people. I don't like them. What does that have to do with religious people? No, listen, every time it goes back to the same story, the same story. Why? Because that rabbi, instead of actually teaching the kids, in essence, was making himself more prideful. So who says if you are learning a lot?

40:58it's improving your character, you're going in the right direction. But if you're learning a lot and it's making you more prideful, if it makes you think for even a second that you are better than anybody in the world, then you're not learning Torah. Your Torah is not from Shamayim. Now, one thing that a person understands as he really learns Torah is that the more proud you are the more it symbolizes that you actually don't know Torah. It's the opposite. Usually, you would see the guy that walks in, he's proud, he's supposed to be the guy that actually possesses all of what he says he does. In the Torah world, it's the exact opposite. The more proud you are, the less Torah you know. Now, the Ramchal says something very interesting.

41:59He says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a certain way to deal with certain people because He wants to protect them because of the merit of their Torah. So much so that even if a person is about to sin, Hashem will put barriers in order to try to protect them from that sin. There are a couple of examples in the Gemara where some of the Tanaim, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, were tested from Shamayim. The Satan himself was sent to show them that even with all of their Torah, on one end, they're everything, they're very important in Shamayim; on the other hand, they're still nothing. How so? He impersonated and transformed himself into the most beautiful woman on earth and enticed both men at different times. And both Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes almost fell.

42:59to this fake woman. To Satan himself. Something, the beauty you cannot even imagine. They couldn't handle it. They almost fell. Satan turned around. He says, "You're lucky." And then he turned back into the Satan. He says, "You're lucky. In Shamayim they say, 'Don't mess with Rabbi Meir. His Torah is very important for us in Shamayim. Because if they didn't say that, I'd slaughter you right now. Just for thinking you can be with me.'" Meaning, on one hand, your Torah is very important to us in Shamayim, and that's why we didn't let you sin. But on the other hand, you should be reminded that even with all of the Torah, there's no barrier to immorality. No one is above and beyond it. Everyone can fall to nothing. you're never, you're never righteous enough. You're never knowledgeable enough. You're never free from sin. Nothing. Everybody is going to have to fight. But like I said, it's only hard for the first seven years. After that, it's easy. You barely walk after that. But the key thing is, ahuvai hakareem, is that this type of protection that the Ramchal says in Mesilat Yesharim in

44:14Is one of the hands of Hashem to show us chesed to the chachamim. In chapter 22 of Mesilat Yesharim, he says the following: He says, first of all, what are the reasons why a person should never be proud of the Torah that he actually has? Meaning, let's say the guy toiled. He has books. He learned them. He has the Gemara. He learned it. He has the Chumash. He learned. He's learning. After he learns and he learns and he learns and he continues to learn and he learned a lot. Messilat Yesharim says you still have no reason to be arrogant about it, prideful about it, or even think you're better than anybody else in the world. Why? He says, first of all, even the finest mind is imperfect and prone to error. Even the most accomplished sage makes mistakes, and... In so many words, the Ramchal tells us it is humanly impossible for you to not make a mistake. Meaning that as smart as you are, even if you become the Gadol HaDor, you become something special as smart as you are. It's impossible for you not to make a mistake at some point. In fact...

45:32page 14a says that the only way that a person becomes wise and actually can stand up on his Torah is after he falls. But not falls and makes a mistake and, let's say, violates Shabbat because he didn't know this halacha. Or he made a mistake in halacha because he didn't learn. No, he learned, but he learned incorrectly. If the person makes a mistake in halacha and eats something that's not kosher because he thought it's kosher, or he does something on Shabbat that's not allowed because he thought it's allowed, if that mistake is made because he didn't learn, no, that's not falling. That's just, you already failed before you started. But he learned, but he made a mistake. Misjudged. It said allowed, but he misread. It's really not allowed. It's like, for example, today. I got some guy who sent me a message. I haven't responded yet, and he sends me a whole megillah about someone, one of my students in Montreal.

46:39Bothering him. Why is he bothering him? He says, why don't you watch the shiurim by yourself? He's talking about wigs. Why start? Why don't you listen to it? It's not allowed. It's not allowed. It's not a halachah of his father. It's not a halachah of his father. First of all, that's not my focus. The whole debate between Sephardim and Ashkenazim is 400 years old already. I don't have shoes big enough and shoulders broad enough to get myself and throw my name into that debate. That whole world is completely different. That's not the whole thing. The issue with wigs that I only mentioned is the issue with Avodah Zarah because of real hair wigs coming from, you know, from India. But the reality is even a woman called me earlier this week or left me a message earlier this week. I sent her a 10-minute personal shiur to explain to her that despite whatever she decides to do, it doesn't matter to me. I'd be more than happy. I have quite a few students that have wigs and don't have wigs. It doesn't make a difference to me. I simply educate. I don't judge people. I'm not a judge. I'm not a jury. I simply provide information. You want to listen? Listen. You don't want to listen? Don't listen. It doesn't make a difference to me. I love everybody the same way.

47:43People think that if I see somebody with a wig or if I see somebody driving on Shabbat, I become a terrorist. Like I start, you know, shooting them. Taking my Uzi out. What do you think? I'm Rambo? I'm providing information. Providing information. You want to do it? Do it. You don't want to do it? That's it. I did my job. I did my job. I don't judge. I know nothing. You know how many students I have that still wear wigs? They're fantastic people. Amazing people. I don't judge anything. I want them to be careful. I want to make sure that everything's okay. Double-check. At least make sure that you know where it came from. You did. You did your search. You're okay with it. Baruch Hashem. You're not okay with it? Okay, so double-check. Double-check it says kosher, but you know, the kosher kind of looks like it came from China. Okay, so check well. Why is there only one kosher body in the entire wig world, but in the kosher world of food, there are thousands? You have to ask these questions. So ask. You felt you verified; your Rabbi said it's okay. No problem.

48:47No problem. On the other hand, if somebody drives on Shabbat, I see him, I know he's driving on Shabbat. I'm not going to invite him to my house on Shabbat because I don't want him to drive at my expense. I don't want to be the reason for him to drive. But if he comes to the shiur, I'll give him a hug just like everybody else. The point is, Rabotai, people think things and they feel like they're attacked for the wrong reason. Why? Because you asked the question. You asked the question, they think they're attacking you. I spoke to a woman today. Apparently, There's not much help here in Florida for people that are needy. So someone told me there's an organization that helps people in need. So I called them because I happen to know a few people who are needy and I get to know a lot of people. So if anyone is needy, I need to know who to go to, who helps. So I called the woman. I said, "Yeah, we provide food. We do this. We do that." "Okay, great. Can you tell me when you give it?" "Okay, we give them on this day." "Okay. Can you tell me what time?" "Okay, we give them on this day." "What's the requirement?" "Okay, we do this." "Okay, fine. What's the kashrut? What's the kashrut of the food?" "Ah, it's kosher." I said, "Okay, I understand it's kosher. That's why I'm calling you. I'm a rabbi. I'm not a priest. If I was a priest, I'd go to McDonald's. It's easier than you."

50:03I'll buy the food from McDonald's. A dollar, you can buy a burger, feed ten people. But it's kosher food. It's more expensive, so I need to know what's the kashrut. "It's kosher, sir. It's kosher." "Okay, sir. What kind of kosher? Is it ORB? Is it Kosher Miami? Is it Kosher India? Is it Kosher Zimbabwe? What kind of kosher is it, though?" "Sir, if they're hungry, they'll eat." I said, I'm sorry. If you were serving goyim, that would be an okay response. If they're hungry, they'll eat. You're right. But in the Jewish world, if you're going to serve the Jewish people, some people are makpidim, they're more stringent on kashrut than others. They will accept this one, but not that one. So I don't want to send a guy to you, and he doesn't accept your kashrut. Why waste this time? Why waste your time? Why insult people? The point is, what's the big deal? If you're giving this food out anyway, what's the big deal? Just look at the label. Okay, okay, I'll get back to you. She already got back to me. At some point, she told me I'm being very aggressive. Why? Because I asked, what's the kashrut? People don't like to be asked questions. Now I don't even know if I want to recommend it.

51:26Maybe it is Kosher India. Who knows? Kosher Zimbabwe. It's coming with a bone from one of the bodies they find. Who knows? Why? What's so hard about looking at the label? That's the thing about time. Sometimes people do mitzvot for the wrong reason. And they do not understand why they're doing what they're doing. If you're going to teach, teach with the intention to help people, not to insult people, not to, you know, hurt people in any way, not to offend them, not to win. debate. Like some of these clowns on the internet that like to debate people just for the sake of showing that they won. The point of teaching is to provide people information and let them make educated decisions based on this information. If they like it, Ishtabach Shemo, if they don't, B'ezrat Hashem, try something else. Try something else. What's the big deal? Every one of us has a laundry list, a laundry list of things to fix and

52:26I always tell you, I'm the biggest one. The shoe is for me. You happen to be here. Everyone has a laundry list. Okay, so she doesn't want to change this, so she'll change that. He doesn't want to change that, so I'll change this. You'll find something in the shoe, but sometimes people feel attacked. Why? Because you mentioned the one thing that really, in Shamayim, that's what he has to change. So, in this particular issue, this guy sends me a message, ...and he says, "This guy, just your student in Montreal, is attacking me and hounding me because he keeps telling me that wigs are not allowed. I asked my rabbi, and the rabbi says it's okay. I asked another rabbi, and the other rabbi said it's okay. Then I called Yerushalayim, and I called my other rabbi, and he says that Rabbi Tzion Abba Shaul says it's okay. So why are you bigger than Rabbi Tzion Abba Shaul? Rabbi Tzion Abba Shaul was the chavruta of Rav Ovadiah. Now, first of all..." You're being very aggressive, I should tell them. But that's not really going to help them. But in reality, there's a problem with the whole question. Number one, his attitude is awful. Why are you comparing me to a Gadol HaDor? If I'm an ant, I'm still not enough. What's the comparison? What's the comparison?

53:50Did you actually read what Rav Tzion Abba Shaul said? Or did you just assume that what the rabbi said is correct? Because now, if you really believe it's allowed or not allowed, it's on the line, and you relied on an answer that someone said to you. That means that you're essentially saying it's either allowed, I'm going to Heaven, or it's not allowed, I'm going to Gehinom. That's your decision here. That's what happens in the world. That's how Torah works. It's not allowed, I'm going to Gehinnom. If it is allowed, I'm still going to Gehinnom because it's just a, you know, discount version. This is a big difference. Did you check? No, he didn't check. How do I know he didn't check? I haven't responded to him. How do I know he didn't check? Because Rav Tzion Abba Shaul never said that. I know his talmid that helped him write that book. Rav Gideon ben Moshe helped him write that book and that answer. What he was talking about when it comes to wigs for Sephardim, we're not talking about Avodah Zarah, we're talking about just the wigs for Sephardim versus Ashkenazim when it comes to the modesty issue. All that stuff that the Ashkenazim have a heter, the Sephardim do not. But some people mistakenly think that Rav Tzion Abba Shaul says it's allowed.

55:05Why? Because they read the answer incorrectly. If you double-check with the co-author, Rav Gideon ben Moshe, he will tell you what he said. No, if you look at what happened before, what is he talking about? He's talking about, can a person say Kriyat Shema, let's say he's praying in his house, can he say Kriyat Shema next to a woman that's immodest? No. Can he say Kriyat Shema next to his wife, She has a wig on instead of a kisui rosh that she wears regularly, and he says yes, it's his wife. It's in the house. He is allowed to say Kriyat Shema, meaning if she's wearing a wig in the house, she's fine, but she wears a wig in the house. No problem. That's allowed. He never said go wear a wig in the streets, but that's the problem. People just, you know, they assume that someone read it. They don't double-check, and what happens? They don't get to the bottom line. They don't get to the bottom line. Why? Because people are either spiritually lazy, extraordinarily arrogant, or simply do not want to change. Simply don't want to change. But the problem is, rabotai, that if you don't want to change, no amount of Torah is going to help you. It doesn't matter how many masechtot you read. It doesn't matter how many shiurim you watch. There are some people who have been watching my shiurim for two, three years. They became angels.

56:29Honestly, I asked him to give me berachot once in a while. They met, I asked for berachot, so you get some. "Said the king, give me berachot." I don't know how people do so, they go to Torah like it's walking in the park. So give me berachot. Some people watch shiurim for a couple of years, and nothing happens. Not often, but it happens. Sometimes you see people who watch all the shiurim, and nothing happens. Because in reality, the way that the two people were studying was different. One was watching the shiurim with an intention to apply what he learns. The other one was watching it for entertainment and mental stimulation purposes only. He liked the way I sound; he liked some of the funny things I say once in a blue moon. I he likes the little action when I do my little dance here. That's what he likes. He likes that. He thinks I'm funny. He thinks I'm this. He thinks I'm that. That's what he likes. But as far as changing his life, nothing. Two years, still married to the Goyah. Three years, he's still driving on Shabbat. Nothing changed. It's not common because some of the things I say are relatively hard for people to hear on a regular basis, which requires a person to change or to simply stop watching. But the point is that

57:50It does happen. Why? Because some people simply do not want to change. And that's what we learned from the Chazon Ish last week: that the most important middah, the most important character trait of a human being, is the desire to change. If you have the desire to change, automatically all of your character traits improve. You're less angry than you would be if you didn't have a desire to change. You're less stingy than if you didn't have a desire to change, and so on and so forth. Now, even if a person has learned an enormous amount of Torah, the Ramchal says that you're still going to make a mistake. We're going to learn why you're still going to make a mistake, why Hashem actually causes a person to make a mistake as a way of helping him. The Ramchal continues, and he says secondly, a person really deserves little credit for his genius,

58:51Because the man who knows more than others merely is following the dictates of his nature, and is no different than a bird whose nature is to flap its wings and fly. Meaning, just like the Mishnah in Avot says, you learn a lot of Torah, don't be proud because that's what you were created for. You're never going to see a bird flying in the air saying, ha ha, I can fly, ha ha, I can fly. You're never going to see that. Why? Because that's the point of the bird—to fly. You're never going to see a chicken start making fun of the fellow chickens. "Look, I can lay eggs. Look, I can lay eggs." You're never going to see that. Why? Because that's the point of the chicken. If it doesn't lay eggs, slaughter it, eat it; it's a schnitzel. That's it, finished. But the reality is, as long as it lays eggs, it's maybe worth it for you. Doesn't lay eggs? Okay, it becomes schnitzel. a human being has a purpose; a Jew, even a higher purpose. What's the Jew's purpose? To learn Torah, to learn the book of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's why you were created. Meaning, if you actually follow this advice, it means that you are actually following your nature. You're following the purpose of why you were created. There's nothing to be proud about; you're following your instruction set and

1:00:10Good, you'll get a reward for it, but there's no reason for you to think that you're doing something above and beyond to make you better than other people. All you're doing is following instructions. You'll get rewarded for it. They're not following instructions, and they'll be punished for it. You should feel bad for them, and that's why I try to tell people. Sometimes you tell people to do something. You want to help your friend, you want to help your colleague, you want to help your cousin, your mom, your dad, whoever, to do teshuvah, but they don't want to listen. You send them a video. They said, please do me a favor. Don't send me to this Rabbi anymore. This Reuven guy, he's crazy. Don't send me anymore. You send it anyway. Next time they say, okay, don't send it. Third time, they don't say anything, but they don't watch it. You keep sending it once a week, but after a couple of months of sending it, you see nothing changed. Or better yet, they keep telling you, don't send it. Don't get offended. Don't get upset at them.

1:01:14There's no reason for you to be upset at them. Why? The fact that they don't see the emet like you do is no reason for you to be mad. If anything, you should cry. Cry for them. Maybe then they'll watch it. They'll see the emet. because so long, if you actually care about them rather than care about being right and them being wrong, you should cry, not get mad. If you told your mom to stop driving on Shabbat, and she doesn't want to listen, you told your dad to stop making money on Shabbat, and he doesn't want to listen, you told your brother to leave his non-Jewish girlfriend, and he doesn't want to listen, you told this one to do this, and no one wants to listen to you, don't get mad at them. there's no reason for you to get mad at them unless you just want to be right. If you just want to be right, and that's the only reason you're telling them that, stop anyway. Why? Because you're not doing it for the right reason. You're doing it out of pride. You're doing it to win. But if you're doing it because you care about them to do teshuva, then you should cry. Why? Because they don't see the emet like you. They don't see the truth like you, which means that if they continue going this route,

1:02:35Their end will not be good. That's a reason for you to cry, not to be mad. Imagine you know that this blind guy is standing on the tracks of a train, and the train's coming. But he also happens to be deaf, too. And you could call him "Steve." Nothing. "Steve, come here." He's deaf. He doesn't hear you. You go like this, nothing, he can't see you. Like this even more, nothing, smoke signals, nothing. What, are you going to get mad at him for not listening? He can't hear you. He can't see you. He's blind. He's deaf. He can't see you. Yeah, but the train's coming. Okay, so that's not a reason for you to be upset, as far as getting mad at him. You should feel bad to the extent of doing something else about it. Maybe cry, maybe pray, maybe do chesed for him, do a big mitzvah for him, make a big donation for kiruv. I don't know, do something else, but definitely don't get mad. The poor guy can't see.

1:03:38That's the difference. A lot of times people tell me, "Yeah, I'm so angry. She didn't listen to me. I'm so angry. They didn't listen to me." You're so angry—don't do anything. Do me a favor; you're making things worse. You're trying to be right. No one wants to lose a battle, meaning that even if she agrees with you that you're right, she'll still disagree with you. Why? She doesn't want to lose the debate. So even if she agrees that really Hashem said to keep Shabbat, she's still going to say, no, it's not for me. Why? She doesn't want to lose the debate. Why? Because you came from a bad place. What is that like? There was a certain Jew that lived in a place called Pshischa. He was a tailor. And he was known as the best tailor in town. So the paritz, the nobleman of the town, came to him Instead, listen, here's a very precious garment that I got. I want you to make me a special suit. Make sure it fits me. Make sure it's this. Make sure it's that. Make sure this. Make sure that. So the Jewish paritz, the Jewish clothier, says, "No, come on. Do you really doubt me?"

1:05:03Aren't I known already as the best in town? I make the best suits in town, the best dresses in town. Okay, that's why I came to you. No problem. Some time passed. He came to the nobleman with this new beautiful suit. He shows him the suit, puts it on him, and the nobleman hates it. He starts cursing him out. he says, "You stupid this, and you bad that," and he curses his mother, where he came from, and where he went. "You're the worst guy in town! I'm gonna ruin your business, and I'm gonna do all I can to scam you. You wasted so much of my money. I went all the way to Paris to get this stuff, and you wasted all of it! I'm gonna ruin you, and I'm gonna do this to you!" The poor guy shriveled up into a little turtle, back into his little shell, and ran away.

1:06:07Immediately he went to one of the Gedolei HaDor, Rebbe Yerachmiel, the son of Yid Hakadosh of Pshischa, and he told him the story. And the Rebbe says, "Take the suit, remove all of the thread from there." Where you sew together? Remove all of that. Take all the stitches off and then sew it back together using the exact same stitches. Then go back and bring it to the nobleman. In those days, unlike today, they had emunah in chachamim. When a chacham says something, we don't ask 25 questions. Today, people ask me questions. I give them an answer, and they ask me five more questions about the answer. But why is this? But why is that? Can you give me a source? Yeah, I gave you a source. Yeah, but can you give me another source? Yeah, but one source is not enough. You didn't know there was one source for this. Now you want five more sources? Why don't you trust the one source? Because it's not enough? It's not enough? It's not enough? No, I just want enough. Somebody else also said it. What, you want God Himself to come to your house? Say it to you? Is that enough? In those days, you didn't need that. A chacham said something, finished. He said, take the stitches off.

1:07:36Put it back in the same exact place is enough. So this guy did it without asking any questions. A day later, he comes back to the nobleman with the suit. He said, "Here sir, I fixed it." He's very angry. He says, "Okay, I hope you did for your sake." He puts on the suit, looks in the mirror... And he says, "You must have hands of gold. What did you do? How did you fix this? It's unbelievable." And he starts giving him compliments, praising his mother, his father, his Creator, and everything. "Wow, you're the best." He ends up paying him more money than he owed him, just as a tip for how great he is and how amazing he is. "You're the best ever. I don't know what you did, but you must have hands of gold." Now, this poor Jew has no idea what just happened. So he goes back to the Rebbe. He says, "Please teach me what just happened. I didn't do anything." He says, "No, no. What you don't understand is that when you sewed that suit together the first time, you were full of ga'ava. You were full of pride. Pride doesn't yield any grace. So your suit was full of ga'ava. That's why he hated it. His neshamah repelled it."

1:09:03Because one gavtan hates another gavtan. Arrogant people hate arrogance. You're never going to see two arrogant people as best friends. If they're married, it's on the way to divorce already on the same day. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. But after all the insults, where in one second you went from being the best guy in town to now he's going to ruin your life, humbled you. So I knew If you take out those stitches and you resew them in your new humble nature, that humility will create the grace that's necessary. So when you gave him the suit, it came from humility, and automatically his neshama liked it. If you're going to help people, whether it's by teaching lectures, reading a book, giving a CD, or giving advice, or whatever it is, if you're going to do it from humility, good, go ahead and do it. Because that alone will yield results. But if you're going to do it for the sake of winning, or for the sake of being right, or for whatever other thing that you have that's motivating you that's not the right place, it's better not to do it at all.

1:10:15It's not going to yield the results that you want, and it may weaken you worse than when you started. Now, the Gemara continues, saying that if a person acquired knowledge, one of the other reasons why he has no reason in the world to be proud is because that newly acquired knowledge also gives them a newly acquired responsibility. What is that responsibility? The Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah says that if somebody learns Torah and does not share it with people, it's like somebody who doesn't have a God. Why? Because Hashem is the one that wrote the Torah and... also gives them a newly acquired responsibility. What is that responsibility? The Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah says that if somebody learns Torah and does not share it with people, it's like somebody who doesn't have a God. Why? Because Hashem is the one that wrote the Torah and One of the main things that Hashem teaches us through the Torah is His character traits. One of them is being gracious, giving, giving. Hashem gives, never gets. No one gives anything to Hashem. Your mitzvot are for you. Your learning is for you. Your Torah is for you. Everything is for you. Nothing is for Hashem. Hashem gets nothing from us. Now,

1:11:35If a person learns this, learns this Torah the right way, he learns that Hashem is very gracious. In essence, you're supposed to repeat and emulate Hashem. So if you've learned Torah, but you're still not gracious, you're not sharing the Torah, then it's like you're somebody who doesn't have a God. So that's what Rabbi Yochanan says, or Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai says, that a person that has acquired newly found knowledge has no reason to be proud because he now has a newly found responsibility, which is to share that knowledge, to teach other people in whatever form or another. So, having another job, especially if you're not getting paid for it, what are you so proud of? Now, one of the things that helps a person is The stumbles that Hashem puts in front of him. We asked before, why is it that Hashem makes sure that no matter how smart you are, and how hard you try, you're going to fall? At some point, you're going to make a mistake. You're going to violate the mitzvah. Instead of, you know, doing the berachah on the Rashi Tefillin, you'll do the berachah on the Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin.

1:12:56Instead of starting Shabbat at the right time, you forgot that they went back an hour; you violated Shabbat for a whole hour. Made a mistake, an honest mistake, we forgot. Instead of keeping this, keeping that, you made a mistake. Hashem is going to make you make a mistake on purpose. So the Chachamim say, One of the reasons that HaKadosh Baruch Hu does this and forces a person to fail is actually in order to protect them from themselves. Because once you see that your own wisdom, your own knowledge, your own learning failed you, you now no longer have a reason to be arrogant. As smart as you are, you failed at some point. And if you fail, that means that you're flawed. You're not as perfect as you thought. Sometimes you'll forget a halacha, and your own student will have to teach you that halacha. Sometimes you'll misread something. It happened to me a couple of times. I misread something. A student of mine during shiur corrected me. On one hand, it makes me feel like I'm zero. On the other hand, I'm grateful that I didn't continue with this error for a long time.

1:14:23But if you're trying to be arrogant, your chest is puffed up, you don't want to be wrong. You tell the guy, "No, no, there's no way that you're right and I'm wrong." HaKadosh Baruch Hu will sometimes make you make a mistake intentionally just to humble you. Because He likes your Torah. He values your Torah. He doesn't want to lose it. He wants you to continue climbing. He doesn't want you to continue climbing and then become so arrogant that everything goes to nothing. So, He wants you to once in a while get you climbing, then have a bump in the road. Why? Because you made a mistake. Get up, go again. Get up, go again. If you see a talmid chacham make a mistake, there's nothing to make fun of. There's nothing to even feel bad about. That's actually an indication that he's going in the right direction. He has God's protection. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is protecting him by making him fall once in a while. Not making him fall with a major sin where it becomes a public desecration of Hashem or something like that. I'm talking about a simple honest mistake. Simple honest mistake. Now, the other tools that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us are...

1:15:47Mussar. And I'll give you a couple of stories to simply understand what it means. Mussar. What does it mean for a person to have a Torah mind versus an average person? A famous story of a couple came to Rav Steinman, זצ"ל. The couple had a debate, and they needed daas Torah. They wanted a rabbi to help them. They had some money... The husband wanted to buy a fancy car. The wife said, "I'm worried." Why is she worried? "I'm worried about ayin hara. People are going to see you're driving a half a million dollar car. It's ayin hara. They're going to look at us; it doesn't look good." So, okay, no problem. We're not going to get a divorce like people do today. We're going to go to the rabbi. Whatever the rabbi says, that's what we're going to do. Today, people fight; they get divorced two days later. People can't handle fights anymore. They think that a marriage is a recreational activity. So they go to the rabbi. Rav Steinman says, "What's the problem?" He says, "Oh, my husband wants to buy a car. It's a very fancy car." He goes, "What's the problem with the car?" He goes, "No, it's a very fancy car. It's very, okay, so you don't have the money?" "No, no, we have the money." "Okay, so what's the problem buying the car?" So the wife says, "I'm worried about ayin hara." And so he looks at the husband. He says,

1:17:17How many times have you completed Shas (the Talmud)? No, no, no, I'm not asking about how much business you do. Oh, you can't complete this? Okay. So, how many masechtot in the Gemara? There are 36 masechtot. How many of them do you know by heart? No, no, no, I'm a businessman. I don't know those Gemara by heart. Oh. How many Mishnayot, Mishnayot, how many Mishnayot do you know by heart? Mishnayot, Mishnayot could be one line. How many Mishnayot do you know by heart? Okay, he's embarrassed now. He says, no, no, because I don't know any Mishnayot by heart. But the car, the car, the car. No one has anything to be jealous about. That's, that's a lot. That's a lot. If you have no Torah, who is going to be jealous of you? What are they going to be jealous of, some piece of metal that cost you half a million dollars with some rubber on it? That's stupider than you! What are they jealous of? What do you have? You have a piece of metal that moves, boom, boom, boom. What's there to be jealous of? You have no Torah. Where are you going to go in your mind?

1:18:37Helping your mind. No, so what's gonna be jealous? That's stupid. But that's only gonna come from somebody that acquired Torah through toil and understands the value of it. Some of the Talmidei Chachamim that I know, people look at them and they think, "Wow, you know a lot of Torah. You must have a very, very supernatural memory, a gifted person." They don't understand what these people went through. One Talmid Chacham that I know, when I first met him, I didn't know what his financial situation was. All I knew is that he studied a lot of Torah, he had a few kids, and he was doing his best that he could. Maskoret in the kollel, the income at the kollel, 400 bucks a month. Learns 12 hours a day. 12 hours a day, $400 a month, three or four kids, you can't do much with it.

1:19:39So one day, I don't know, through conversation, it came up. "Oh yeah, Baruch Hashem, today is a good day." "Wow, what happened?" "No, I found some cookies in the Bet Knesset, so I had some food for my kids." I said, "What? No, I had some food for my kids." "What do you mean you had food for your kids, cookies? What do you mean? You don't buy cookies?" "No, I had food for the kids. I had cookies. That's what I fed them. I found it in the Bet Knesset. Nobody ate them. They were leftovers. So I fed the kids the cookies." That's what he had to feed his kids. That's it. He found it in the Bet Knesset because people had a party. There were a few, 3, 4, 5, 17 cookies, whatever it was. That was the food for the kids. Why? Because I'm learning Torah. And everybody's happy. Another time, a different person, Rav Meir Eliyahu, a Yud Shetami Chacham, says when he was learning in New York, people look at him today and think he's a computer. they don't realize what he had to do for it. He says when he was first learning, he was so poor that after his stomach was pretty much growling to the point where he couldn't learn anymore, it was late already at night, he would look at the fridge to see if there's anything left, if there's a cookie left, or some leftovers, something so he could eat. Why? Because he wanted to learn Torah. He could have gone to work, could have been a businessman, smart guy. No, I want to learn Torah. Another guy, the kehillah says that they need somebody to complete the Shas, I'm sorry, to complete a Masechet for Erev Pesach. Why? Because all of the bechorim, all of the firstborn, don't want to fast. So you need to either finish a Masechet yourself...

1:21:10Another guy, the kehillah says that they need somebody to complete the Shas, I'm sorry, to complete a Masechet for Erev Pesach. Why? Because all of the bechorim, all of the firstborn, don't want to fast. So you need to either finish a Masechet yourself... You have to attend this; you must say it. But something happened—the guy that usually does it didn't do it. They called him, "Listen, please, can you help us?" "What do you mean? I have to finish my Masechet in one night." Okay. He says he studied all night until he was spitting blood. Why? The public needed him to learn Torah. And you go look at these people, these are huge chachamim. Wow, probably born this way. Wow, they probably have, their father must be a big rabbi. Wow, they probably have a special brain. What? No, nothing special, nothing, nothing. These people put their blood, sweat, and tears, literally, to get Torah. A group of men walk into a big elevator. At the same time,

1:22:35walks into the elevator. The elevator ride must have been long because it was one of those old elevators that takes a year and a half just to get from floor to floor. And they see one of them mumbling something and then start saying Kaddish out loud. "This is good. I have everything okay. Oh no. Baruch Hashem. We just completed the Shas." "What do you mean, oh, I have a Shas. I've been taking my learning in my head and..." that I review any time I'm walking. Not the stuff that I learn in the kollel. No, that's different. Any time I'm walking from, let's say, from the house to the beit knesset, that takes me three and a half minutes. So during those three and a half minutes, I learn the dapim in my head. And then on the way home, it's another three and a half minutes. So I learn a few more dapim in my head. And then I go to the pharmacy, That's another 15 minutes. That's another few dapim in my head. And then I go to the doctor. That's another eight, nine minutes. So now I'm in the elevator. It's another few minutes. And over time, I've completed the Shas. So you guys arrived at the right time. I just completed the Shas inside the elevator. His daughter tells a story, says that one time she saw Rav Elyashiv take out wine and a little cupcake.

1:23:57He wasn't exactly a big eater. He didn't have a sweet tooth. She says, "Abba, what happened?" He goes, "Oh, Baruch Hashem, I just completed the Shas, my 202nd time. So I figured maybe I should eat something sweet to celebrate. My 202nd time. Who knows how many times he finished it after that. 202nd time." People think they're a big deal when they do Daf Yomi and finish the Shas one time in seven years. You finish the Shas one time, you're a big deal. But not really a big deal. Why? Rabbi Yashiv finished it 202 times and he had a cupcake. What's the Shas? Thousands and thousands of dapim of Gemara that just to understand one of them can take you weeks. Now, what do you think? Was it easy for him? You think he didn't spit blood? You think he didn't toil day and night for it? Of course, he toiled. But anybody that came to him with a question, he had an answer. Simple answer. A lady calls one time to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's zt"l house. She says, "Hi, can I speak to Rabbi Feinstein, please?"

1:25:27No, ma'am. I'm sorry, but he passed away. Oh, okay. Well, do you have somebody else that can help me? Yes, yes, ma'am, what can I help you with? Just what time does Shabbat come in? Excuse me. She says, what time does Shabbat come in? Oh Answer the phone, say it comes in at 6:15 today. Oh, okay. Fine. Thank you. Wait a minute. Hold on a second. The guy was curious. Wait, you wanted to ask Rav Moshe Feinstein what time Shabbat comes in? She says, "Yes, I've been doing it for 30 years. Every Friday, I call him at the same time and ask him what time Shabbat comes in, and he tells me what time Shabbat comes in." The Moshe Rabbeinu of America is answering the phone. A lady says, "What time does Shabbat come in?" He says, "No problem, 6:15," and... Why? Because she asked the question. You give an answer. What are you so proud of? You have the answer. Baruch Hashem, you have the answer. You're the lucky one. Now she has the answer. She's as lucky as you. She has the answer too. You're at the same level. You're at the same level. She knows 6:15. You know 6:15. Baruch Hashem, you're equals now. But she doesn't agree. 6:15. Feel bad. Don't be angry.

1:26:54couple things. Anybody here know the story that caused the Ponevezh Yeshiva to, in essence, reignite the Mussar movement? It's a fabulous story that, at first, was hard for me to understand. You hear it a few times and it hits home. So this is one of those stories you maybe want to rewind a few times. There was a... a certain shoemaker in town, a Jewish guy, who for years was just fixing shoes and barely making ends meet, making only a few putot. But one day, something worked out. He invented something and he struck gold, started making money. got rich really quick after years of barely making ends meet. The guy who was almost a beggar becomes one of the wealthy guys in town. Now, anyone that knows wealthy people, especially if they're second-generation wealth where they didn't actually acquire it themselves, knows they're not exactly always very nice. Sometimes they're a little snobby. I met a lot of them, that's who I used to deal with. Now

1:28:21Sometimes, if you're new money, yeah, you're not like us. You're not like us. It's like sinat chinam. They hate you for no reason. Now, he had a wedding and he wanted to invite all the other millionaires to his fancy wedding for his daughter. to see what he made of himself. Now he's one of the boys. He made a really elaborate wedding and invited all of the other rich people to see that he's not really the shoemaker anymore. He's not really the shoemaker. He's somebody. So you see the chandeliers, and there are all types of fancy flowers, and there are all types of parrots and all types of wonderful, amazing things. It was like a jungle. Everybody comes in, and they see, wow, what an elaborate wedding. You know, all these sounds, special effects. But you know, this one guy, he doesn't like it. Why? He's one of those like, no, no, no. You're either born rich, or you're not rich. You can't join us. He didn't like it. So he decided to make a joke. What did he do? He took off his shoe, and he brought it to the shoemaker, the millionaire.

1:29:41He says, let me ask you something. My shoe, if you look at my heel, it's kind of, it's not stable. Can you fix it for me? The shoe guy, multimillionaire now, inventor, big donor, was so embarrassed he got a heart attack and fell. his own daughter's wedding, you're reminding him of his past to fix your shoe in front of all these people. When Rabbi Yisrael Salanter heard this story, he said, "That's it, I'm opening a Beit Mussar." They asked, "What's going to be there?" He replied, "I'm going to teach people Mussar." Teach them ethics. He goes, yeah, but these resha'im, I don't know if they're going to come. These wicked people, they think they know everything. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter looks at them like they have eight eyes. He goes, what? I'm not building the Beit Mussar for these resha'im that showed him the shoe. I'm building the Beit Mussar for this poor guy that was a shoemaker but now thinks that he's somebody and he got a heart attack because somebody reminded him what he does.

1:30:57...Him I'm building the Beit Mussar for. To remind him that he's still nobody. To remind him that there's no reason for him to be embarrassed. Why? Because somebody told you to fix shoes? What are you embarrassed of? What's there to be embarrassed of? Because you have money, you don't have money—that changes who you are? No. For him I'm building it. Why? Because for him I have hope. For him I have hope. The other people, there's no hope for them. There's sometimes also no hope... For another type of person, and we'll finish with this story. The Chafetz Chaim says in his book Shem Olam in chapter 6 that there are certain people who are born with talent – memory or the ability to analyze questions – they're inquisitive.

1:32:00But they don't like to use that talent. They like to do what we call in street language, bust chops. So what do they do? The Chafetz Chaim says that the Yetzer Hara makes these people who have talent come into the Beit Midrash and ask questions just to stumble people. Not because they want to know the answer, just because they want to show that maybe you don't know anything. Maybe I asked a question. You know, there's a bunch of people, a bunch of groups learning. And they come, they ask him, oh, what are you learning? So tell me, on page 32, it talks about who's the Rabbi. So really, who really is the Rabbi? Ah, you don't know. Think about that. Go to the next guy. What do you think? So, no. Egg. In the beginning of the Gemara, it says, do you pick up the egg on Yom Tov? You don't pick up the egg. Ah, you haven't got that yet. Ah, okay.

1:33:02He goes there, Masechet Shabbat, Hashem said you're gonna give him the present, but did he really give him a present? No? Come on, ah, you don't. Starts asking questions, all types of things, confuses everybody, then leaves. He doesn't really want to know the answer. You guys have seen that sometimes. Somebody asks a question, and the question is answered, but leaves him to know the answer? You saw that sometimes. They ask a question, oh, I want an answer, okay, you ask me to answer, I start answering, they leave in the middle of the answer. You ever see that? That's that. That's that. They ask the question, they leave though. Why? They don't want to know the answer. They're not looking for chochmah. They're looking for showmanship. The Chafetz Chaim says, he writes about those people. The Chafetz Chaim says that the Yetzer Hara uses these people to go and stumble other people. But in reality, these people don't know anything. Meaning the guy that stumbled the people with the first question, he actually doesn't know the answer. The one that he stumbled those other people with the other question, he also doesn't know the answer. But he also knows they probably don't know the answer. But he wants to make it seem like he asked the question, which means he knows the answer. He wants to make it seem like he knows something.

1:34:18Because he asked a clever question, and even if he knows the answer to that, that's the only thing he knows. Nine million other things he doesn't know. But he makes you think like you don't know anything, and he knows more than you. He asks the tough questions. Sometimes there are certain questions for which there is no answer, or few people have it, because not many people study it. He likes to ask those questions, just to show you don't know, but pretend like he does. That people in the yeshiva world... They call him Merabev. Merabev, Merabev. He comes to the kollel, starts asking people questions just to create havoc. Now, the Chafetz Chaim says, but for himself, he doesn't have anything. Meaning he doesn't actually possess any knowledge, any wisdom, any anything. He's just confusing other people to think he does. But in reality, he doesn't have anything. And in reality, what does he have?

1:35:19He has a sin of bitul Torah because instead of going to learn, he just went and confused other people. He has a sin of arrogance, where even if he had chochmah, Hashem would remove it from him. He is considered in Shamayim like somebody that works for the Federal Reserve, that prints money, and has become an expert in deciding and determining whether the bills are fake or not. Why? Because he deals with a lot of bills. Have you ever seen any of these videos of the money-making system in America? They don't stop printing bills; those printing machines are like meitim—they don't stop working. They print money like nobody's business. Now, the guys that work in those places—I met one guy that worked there, and he said they're literally around billions and billions of dollars every day and that are being printed, but also billions and billions of dollars that are coming in from the banks that are old bills that have to be determined whether they're real or not. If they're fake, they're returned, and the bank loses that money.

1:36:29they're real, but let's say the bill is destroyed, they issue a new bill, and so on and so forth. So, there are certain people who are experts at determining whether it's fake or not. Especially now, with new technology, it's become harder and harder to determine whether it's fake or not. But there are certain people who are real experts. So, imagine this guy; he's become an expert in determining whether the bill is fake or not. He says he's an expert at looking at the bills. But he takes it in his own mind. He starts thinking that just because he deals with a lot of bills and he's an expert in determining whether they're real or not, he starts thinking in his mind as if the bills are his. Those bills are not yours. They're the government's. They're the rich guy's bills. You just know. You just have a skill. You just have a talent that was given to you. You have a job that was given to you. It's not your actual money. You go home without this money. The money stays in the building. You go home to your little shack. The money doesn't go with you. It's not your money. Yeah, but I know so much about it. So, that's a person like this. Sometimes people have a specific talent. They have a sharp brain where they can pinpoint something you said, and they can confuse you.

1:37:45making you think that you know more or they don't know much, and so on. In essence, that's the same thing. They're only sinning, and all of that comes from arrogance. These are just some of the reasons why Hakadosh Baruch Hu hates arrogance, regardless of where it comes from, whether it's arrogance because of how you look or arrogance because of how much money you have, or even arrogance that you would have from doing what He said to do, which is to learn Torah and person is never allowed to be arrogant. There's only one type of kosher pride: if you're fulfilling the will of Hashem. Like we learned about on Sunday, if you're fulfilling the will of Hashem by helping other people, fulfilling the will of Hashem by learning His Torah, by doing His mitzvot with pride, not being like one of these people that's looking for a discount. He bought a house with 20 rooms, but he wants to buy the mezuzah from eBay and He doesn't know that some Chinese woman who knows a little bit of art wrote the mezuzah. That's why it's $35. He has a fifty, sixty, hundred-thousand-dollar bar mitzvah for his kid. You ask him, "So what tefillin did you get for the kid?" and

1:38:57The kid arrives with a Harley-Davidson bike. Okay, the bike's cool, but what about the tefillin for the kid's bar mitzvah? Meaning he is now responsible for the mitzvot. What about his tefillin? Not tefillin he wouldn't have to get? Why not? "No, I have something from my great-grandfather, so I let him use it." The tefillin have turned white. That's how old they are. But he wanted to save money on tefillin. Sometimes you see guys arrive at the shul, but they don't have a tallit and... Why don't you have a tallit? You're a grown man. Why don't you have a tallit? No, the shul has a tallit. I'll use a tallit from the shul. And if nobody has a tallit, he doesn't have a tallit. Everybody uses a tallit already. He arrived late. He doesn't have a tallit. He just stands there with no tallit. He does Birkat Kohanim. He asked somebody, "Do me a favor, can I borrow your tallit for Birkat Kohanim?" You're a grown man, Ribbono Shel Olam, buy yourself a tallit. What is it, a couple of hundred dollars? You have a $5,000 watch on your hand. You have a $50,000 car in the lot. Go buy yourself a couple hundred dollar tallit, Ribbono Shel Olam. No, but when it comes to mitzvot, he's cheap. He wants to get a discount. He wants to buy the etrog, that's not really an etrog, it's like a lemon.

1:40:06It goes to the guy 20 minutes before he closes the shop, right before Sukkot. No, no, no. How much is an etrog now? $20. That's expensive. $5. No, in 20 minutes, it's not worth anything. No, come on. The poor guy doesn't have anything. He gives him an etrog for $5. Why? Because he knows in five minutes, really, he can't sell the etrog anymore. The chag starts already. But he waits for that. Why? He thinks he does a big mitzvah. By buying an etrog, he got a big discount. That's the problem, Rabotai. We spend a lot of effort to get discounts when we're not supposed to. We spend a lot of effort on things we're not supposed to because instead of listening to the Tzon Hashem, we listen to the Yetzer Hara. But the line between the two is sometimes difficult to determine. The only way that we can know it is simply by seeing what the Torah says. You have a question? Look at the Torah. You have a Talmid Chacham in your life? Ask him. You don't have one? Find one. The key is to understand that Torah is not a tool for you to think that you're better than anybody else. It's not a tool even for you to think that anything. It's simply a guide for you to live your life. If you have answers from the Torah that other people don't, help them with it and get them to be on the same level as you.

1:41:31You have, if you don't have knowledge, don't be cheap when it comes to mitzvot. Sometimes people, you know, have a fancy-schmancy house. But when it comes to education for their kids, the kid needs a tutor. The tutor comes. "Okay, what do you want me to teach him?" "I want you to teach him Gemara." "Okay, how much do you charge?" "I'll charge $70 an hour." "Oh, wow. Are you crazy? I..." $70 now. What are you really doing for this kid for $70 an hour? What are you, Lockheed Martin? Are we making missiles? What are you teaching this kid for $70 an hour? What do you mean, what is he teaching this kid? He's teaching him how to get to Olam HaBa. If this kid actually becomes something, you may go to Olam HaBa also. That's what he's teaching him. To get a tutor for the kid, if the tutor required a million dollars and you have it, you should pay him if he's a good tutor. To teach him Gemara, to teach him Shulchan Aruch, to teach him how to live as a Jew, if it was a million dollars and you have it, you should pay it. But that's what people don't understand. Why? They have value for the things that are of this world, zero for the value of the next world. We have to understand that the Gemara says something critical, and we'll finish with this point. The Gemara in Masechet Berachot says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives Chochmah...

1:42:51people that are. He gives wisdom to people that already possess wisdom. So the question is: How come He gives wisdom to the people that already have wisdom? Shouldn't He give wisdom to foolish people so they could catch up and be like the wise? That's the question. So Rabbi Yochanan answers the question. He says to a person, if you had a lot of money, who would you lend the money to? Let's say you had millions of dollars and two people asked you to borrow $10 million. Would you lend the $10 million to somebody that has $10 million? Or would you give the $10 million to some homeless guy that doesn't have anything, but he wants a chance? who would you lend the $10 million to? And every smart person would say, I would lend the $10 million to the guy that has $10 million.

1:43:56Kind as you may be, you're never gonna lend ten million dollars to a homeless guy. Never. You may give him a hundred bucks because you feel good, but you're never lending him ten million dollars. Why? Because you know that the guy that has ten million dollars can pay you back the ten million dollars he's borrowing. The guy that's homeless can't pay you back. He's gonna pay you back with your own money. If he spends it, you both lose. He has nothing to lose. You're not gonna give him that. He says that's how it is with chochmah and... Those chachamim, those people that possess wisdom, they only possess wisdom because they love wisdom. They appreciate wisdom. That's why they acquire wisdom. If they acquire wisdom because they love it, Hashem says, they will know what to do with it when I give them even more. The guy that doesn't have wisdom, the woman that doesn't have wisdom, it's not because she was born an idiot. She chose to be. She chose to watch Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres go save a bunch of monkeys in South America instead of watching a shiur Torah. She chose to look at monkeys. The other one chose to look at a shiur Torah. The wise, Hashem will give her more wisdom. The one that wants to look at monkeys, Hashem will give her monkeys.

1:45:12Why? Because even if Hashem gave her wisdom, she doesn't know what to do with it. Why? She's so used to monkeys, she doesn't know what to do. What, is she going to give the monkeys two bananas instead of one? What is she going to do with it? That's the key, Rabotai. If you want HaKadosh Baruch Hu to give you even more wisdom than what you have now, you have to show Him you love wisdom. Loving wisdom means you have to study. Loving wisdom means you have to toil for it, you have to make sacrifices for it, and you have to pay for it. Because your money is your life, and if you put your life on the line, that fulfills the message about what the Mesilat Yesharim says on page 62, that a person needs to sacrifice their life for the sake of Torah. It doesn't need to be literal, like jumping off a bridge, but sometimes money can replace your life and... Because we spend our time acquiring money. So if to fulfill a mitzvah is going to cost you $500, don't look for a discount. Look for a discount when you buy a car, not when you're doing a mitzvah. Don't look for the Rabbi to give you a discount on whatever it is that he's doing for you.

1:46:28Don't try to negotiate the mezuzah to be a little cheaper, the tefillin to be a little cheaper. Oh, this aliyah is $5,000. No, I'll buy the next one, it's a little cheaper. If you have it, buy it. Why? Because it's worth it. You're showing HaKadosh Baruch Hu that you love His Torah. You appreciate His Torah. Torah is not a place you look for discounts. Many of these parents that are getting discounts from schools for no reason—they have the money, they just want a discount because they know they can take advantage of the school. It's gezel (theft). You don't have the money and you can't afford to send all your kids to the school and you need the discount—no problem. But if you have the money and you're just simply cheating the system, you're not allowed to. If you can pay the full fee, you have to pay the full fee. And you'll see, the people that pay the full fee, their kids turn out to be something. Sometimes the people that can't afford also, their kids turn out to be something more likely than not. But the people that cheat the system, their kids always materialize to nothing. Why? Because it all comes from something bad. Lack of appreciation for Chokhmah. So B'ezrat Hashem, this helps us appreciate Chokhmah to a higher extent, but even more importantly, even if we are fortunate enough to acquire it one day, not to get ahead of ourselves and think that we're better than anybody else, and look to help people instead of win. Helping people means

1:47:51You simply want to provide them information, provide them help, provide them something they don't have, not necessarily win a debate or show them they're wrong. And B'ezrat Hashem, this helps people that are trying to help people, at least help them in the right direction. Baruch Adonai l'olam. Amen ve'amen.