How To Avoid Gehinnom?

0:15We have lots of interesting things planned for this week. Tonight's shiur has a few interesting things, a huge, enormous chiddush that I learned from Aviv Re'im that I think that if you actually miss out on understanding this chiddush or listening to this chiddush, it's almost like having the lotto ticket... a winner for the grandest prize that ever existed, I don't know, a billion dollars or whatever it is, and losing it or leaving it in your drawer and never collecting on it. That's how big this chiddush is. Also, B'ezrat Hashem, we have a shiur on Tuesday night in Aventura. The Rav from Aventura, he actually today contacted me and B'ezrat Hashem is taking the advice, the idea, to start showing the movie to different groups of people. So, B'ezrat Hashem, tomorrow he's going to show it to a group of people, and then B'ezrat Hashem in a couple of weeks again to a different group of people, and maybe B'ezrat Hashem will go and give a shiur to the people after the movie. This movie, B'ezrat Hashem, is getting an enormous amount of feedback. Almost every single person

1:41that has watched it has given positive feedback. Some have said things like it's changed their life, it's given them a new perspective on life. But, you know, I say almost because, of course, there's always a few resha'im that just like to hate. Not because there's anything to hate, but just because if they don't hate, they have nothing else to do. Because that's all they know how to do. So, of course, there's always some people like that who complain about nonsense. But, like some people, if you notice, there's always, in every single video that we have on YouTube, Baruch Hashem, an enormous amount of good comments and likes. But there's always two dislikes, the same number every time. Always two dislikes, the same number every time. Before you even publish the shiur, it's three hours, two hours, 30 seconds after it's published—disliked. Meaning what? You don't like it, not because you watched it and you don't like it. You don't like it because you don't like Hashem. You don't like me. You don't like Torah. You don't like yourself. You don't like teshuva and so on. Unfortunately, there are some people like this in the world. May Hashem help them do teshuva or take them from the world, whichever one comes first. Because it's sad. It's sad that some people waste so much of their energy hating. It's such a miserable life.

3:06Such a miserable life. It's a chesed from Hashem to do one of those two things: either help them do teshuva or take them. It will be a chesed for the people around them. Imagine living next to such a person, being a wife or a husband to such a person, or a son or a daughter. It's a disaster. But anyway, we do not want to focus on the sad things or the bad things. We talk about them because we cannot avoid the truth. But there are a few amazing things. Also, b'ezrat Hashem, on Wednesday we'll have a very special event. Two of our children are getting married. Spiritual children, baruch Hashem. My biological children are still young. But baruch Hashem, we have many other children that are much older. They're getting married, b'ezrat Hashem, on Wednesday. And it's going to be a special chuppah shiur. It's going to be a shiur, the wedding reception is going to be the first one. that I've done as far as officiating at it, which is a lot harder than I thought. And learning for the things you need to know and all those different things. Never really planned on being a rabbi for weddings. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a different plan for me. I just sit there and say, okay, thank you. Sometimes Hashem is funny. He gives you something. It's like, are you serious, Hashem? This? Really? Really?

4:29So sometimes Hashem gives us these different tasks. But the interesting thing is that this is a very special story. It's going to be the shiur itself, not the chuppah. The shiur itself is going to be posted online. Maybe even we'll have the fortune to put it on live for anyone that's watching because it'll replace the shiur that we have normally here on Wednesday. But these two tzaddikim are inviting the public. It's not just like... friends and family, people that want to come learn shiur Torah, are welcome. So this is going to be a Wednesday event. Also, I know that at the start of the week, usually people have a lot of questions, so I know there are a few questions already in the air now that I'll answer. Then we'll go over into a chidush for anyone who is interested in learning how to avoid Gehenom. If you're interested in learning how to avoid Gehenom, this shiur is for you. If you're interested in not really knowing it, or you're interested in going to Gehenom just to see what's there, you could skip out, leave early, you know, and forget about it. Don't worry about it. You'll find out when you get there. We don't get there if we learn the shiur. But believe it or not, it's actually not as hard as you think. That's the chidush.

5:57It's only hard for 70 years. After that, it's easy. So, B'ezrat HaShem, B'ezrat HaShem. So, the shiur will be for Ilui Nishmat, Eliyahu Ben Avraham, and Refuah Shlema for Levana Bat Sara, Sara Bat Levana, Ovadia Ben Levana, Yosef Ben Levana, David Ben Nesria, So, with that being said, let's start off with a couple of the questions from the back over there. Yes importance of doing Netilat Yadayim. Chazal says in the Gemara Masechet Brachot that when a person goes to sleep, it's 1/60th of death. Meaning part of you died. The Neshama left, a big part of the Neshama left, and it's considered a partial death.

7:24so there is a special malach that, in essence, is in charge of this. And that malach is not your best friend, and that malach does not leave your body until you do netilat yadayim. The two most impure places in your body are your fingers and your toes. Now, since your toes virtually cannot become purified, even if you wash them, you're constantly walking, you're constantly doing things, we don't really necessarily, we don't have any mitzvah to wash your feet. That's also, by the way, as a side note, why the Kohanim would wash their hands and feet. But we have a mitzvah that as soon as you wake up, you say, "Thank you, Hashem, that you had emunah in me, that you returned my neshama." immediately, we go and we wash our hands. Now, some people take the mitzvah lightly, and it's a mistake, such a mistake, where they go about their business. They do something, sometimes they'll grab something to eat, sometimes they'll grab something to drink, sometimes they'll play with their phone a little bit because we all have a phone addiction. A lot of us do other things.

8:42And the Gemara says that it's better that your hands were chopped off than you use those hands to touch your eyes, your member, your female member, your male member, your rectal area, pretty much your body. It's better off that they were chopped off than you touch your body without doing netilat yadayim. Why? Because the tum'ah, the impurity of this malach, can affect and hurt those body parts. that you're touching. And the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says this, that if you touch your eyes, it can actually hurt your vision. You touch your member, it can hurt your ability to have children, and so on and so forth. So that's why a person needs to get rid of this as soon as possible. You don't need to be hysterical or crazy. You can just walk a few steps to your netilat yadayim. You take a canister, one, one, one, one, one, one, three times on each hand. But unlike Netilat Yadayim for bread, we do three on one side and three on the other side consecutively. In the morning, it's the opposite. One, one, one, one, one, one. So you go back and forth. There are certain things that are understandable and very clear in the Torah, and there are certain things that are beyond even our imagination.

10:04This is probably one of them because some people do not understand or even like mysticism, and it's hard for them to rationalize mysticism. They simply need to just say, "Okay, thank you. I'm gonna do what you say. That's it. Don't be an akshan. Don't be a stubborn person. You don't necessarily need to understand everything before you do it. You take medicine without understanding what it does, and... The doctor can say, "Yeah, this antibiotic is going to cure you." If you ask him, "Okay, how does it work?" he says, "Well, if you really want to know how it works, go to medical school, take some biology classes also before it, pre-med, do some chemistry classes too, then med school, then have maybe five to ten years of experience, and then maybe, maybe you'll understand how this antibiotic works. So maybe by the time you actually get through your first year of understanding, you'll die because you didn't take the medicine yet." Sometimes we want to understand, but the reality is that understanding takes a lot of time. So, sometimes we simply have to just do what it says without understanding it. But, of course, you can learn about it. As I said, this ma'amar is said about in Shabbat and many, many other sefarim talk about it today and other mitzvot. Different timing, different little beautiful things that you can learn about each one of them. But do not be one of those people that's foolish enough to say, "I'm not gonna do it."

11:24Until I understand it, because then simply you'll cancel out the entire Torah. Because in reality, the more you learn, the more you realize that you don't understand anything. Just like Shlomo HaMelech says, "This is rechoka mimeni, this Parah Adumah, this mitzvah of Parah Adumah. It's far from me. It's far from me." Why is only this one mitzvah far from me? He says, "No, no. From the Parah Adumah, I learned that the entire Torah is far from me." Meaning, I always thought, Shlomo HaMelech says, I always thought that everything had a reason for it, and that's the reason why we do it. But when I learned that there really isn't a reason for a human being to understand Parah Adumah, I realized that the entire Torah is just like that. The things that we know about it, it's not really the reason. It's something that Hashem says has a benefit to doing it. You'll have shalom bayit if you do this, this, and this. You'll have parnassah if you do this, this, and this. There's different things that you benefit from the mitzvot, but that's not the reason. The real reason to do all of the mitzvot is because Hashem said so, as we spoke about in detail on Tuesday in the Iggeret HaRamban shiur that we did last week. So with that being said, wash your hands right away in the morning. Don't waste much time. Some people, especially in the olam ha-charedi, in the really religious world, they're so careful and zealous with this mitzvah that they have a canister, a bucket,

12:44Right next to their bed. They put it under the bed. They cover the bucket. Then as soon as they wake up, they don't even get out of bed. They don't even get out of bed before they wash their hands. And the reason why is because there are chachamim that say one shouldn't even walk four amot, which is about six feet, four steps approximately, without washing their hands. But today, Baruch Hashem, especially in America, this is a very, very prosperous time for Am Yisrael. People are very rich. The distance between the bathrooms And the bed sometimes can take, I don't know, maybe 100 steps in some people's houses. So if you waited for that, it may take you 15 minutes to get there. So sometimes it's better to just have it under your bed. But if your bathroom is relatively close, have it there. Either way, wash your hands. You don't need to lose your mind if you don't have it. You don't have this canister and it's not ready tomorrow. The key is to wash your hands. Sometimes people are overly zealous to the point where they make the mitzvot distasteful. They try so hard to do perfect that they end up torturing the whole world, including themselves. Like this one rasha named Yuval Dayan, who says he left the religion. He used to be a rabbi, supposedly, but he left the religion. Why? Because he was tired of hating himself, causing anguish to himself. Who said you have to cause anguish to yourself?

14:03Oh, the tzaddikim used to do it many, many years ago, centuries ago, as part of their avodat Hashem. Who says you're a tzaddik b'chalal? Who says that you are one of those people that should do this? If you get to their level of Torah and Kedusha and you understand why you're doing it, then, okay, if you have permission from the Rav to do it, that's one thing. But who are you and who are your tzaddikim? You're a world apart. So this guy added something that was not really a mitzvah. Not really. Not a mitzvah at all. And it ended up causing him to hate the religion and gave him an excuse to leave everything altogether. So, this is unfortunately what happens very often. People add different things or they create too much pressure on other people. The way of the Torah is the way of pleasantness. even though sometimes we have to rebuke, even rebuke has to be a way of pleasantness. Even though sometimes we have to say things that are uncomfortable for people, even that has to be with pleasantness. You have to know what you're doing and how you're doing it. You can't yell at your kid because he woke up late and he missed Keriat Shema. Okay, it's not good that he woke up late and he missed Keriat Shema, but don't ruin his life. Don't call him a loser. Don't tell him that he's never going to be anything. Why? Because that means you're nothing. He's much better than you.

15:23Don't hit your kid because he's late to school. You should hit yourself. Or hit the kid. Certain things, educating the kids, it's good. You have to educate the kids. You have to discipline the kids. But there's a way to do everything. That's why you have to connect to a chacham (sage) that knows how to do things. You can't do nothing, but you can't overdo it. So that's also very important. So, when it comes to ...Time or anything else, as long as you wash your hands first thing in the morning right after Modeh Ani, you're fine. If you could do it even right after, right by the bed, that's even greater. But if not, no big deal. Just wash your hands—that's the key. Wash your hands just like keeping Shabbat—that's the key. Don't worry about if your Shabbat has 15 guests every Shabbat. It's good if you have 15 guests, but it's more important for you to have Shabbat first. If having 15 guests is going to cause you to hate Shabbat, guess what? Don't have guests. You're not allowed to have guests... That's why sometimes guys force their wives to have a bunch of their friends over every Shabbat. The wife becomes a hater of Shabbat. Why? She works like a slave. Every Shabbat she has to feed a bunch of strange people. She doesn't even have time to spend with her husband. She doesn't have time to spend with her kids. She doesn't have time to even eat herself because she's serving everybody like a servant. She doesn't like it. And her husband's like, "No, but come on, kavod Shabbat." What kavod Shabbat? You go to the house. What kavod Shabbat? I'm there, she's there, where she's a slave. So,

16:44If you're going to host guests, it always requires the permission of the wife. Always. Unless you're the one that's going to host them, meaning you're cooking, you're cleaning, you're hosting, you're this, and she's going to sit there like this: "Thank you, honey. Thank you. Give me a coffee. Thank you." And she's going to sit like that—have as many guests as you want. But if you're going to have guests and the whole thing is going to be on her, you have to ask her permission. You have to ask her for permission. Next question. Yes, you have another one. Good, good. I know you had like two, three, so just go to it. Can you stop somebody from playing video games or other types of mental addictions, cold turkey or not? Just like their faces are different, their personalities are different, and their abilities are different. It all depends on the kid. It all depends on the person. There are some people you could tell, "Listen, I know you've been smoking cigarettes for 20 years and it's a physical addiction, but you have to stop cold turkey." Another guy, same thing. He's only been smoking for five years. But you tell him, "Listen, you have to stop smoking, but one at a time. What are you smoking? A pack a day? Smoke half a pack. Then smoke five cigarettes a day. It's 20 in one pack. Then smoke one a day. Then eventually stop altogether." Why? Even though he's been smoking for less time...

18:08Technically, it could be less addictive. You tell him little by little; you tell the other guy all in one shot. Why? Because the guy who needs it all in one shot, his personality is such that he cannot handle a little bit at a time. He's either all in or not doing it at all. The other guy, he cannot even mentally comprehend how you expect him to do this all at once or how you expect him to stop altogether. You tell him to stop little by little. Little by little, he’ll get the hang of it. Same concept with video games or any other addiction. Although it's ideal to stop things that waste our time immediately, unfortunately, if you do a one-size-fits-all with everybody, you'll end up hurting more people than you save. And the reason why is because some people are not able to do it all at once. You tell your wife, listen, From now on, you have to look like Sarah Imeinu. You have to be modest, you have to do this, you have to do that. You tell her, she goes, okay, thank you very much, here's the get. Here's the get. On the other hand, if you go to the same woman, same woman, say, honey, I'm willing to buy you as much clothes as you want. Just make sure it's long dresses, it covers your elbows, covers your knees. You don't talk about kisui rosh on day one. You don't even mention it.

19:29You say, honey, I'm going to buy it for you. I'm going to buy you a present. What's my budget? As much as you want. I'll put our whole life savings into this. Why? It's a mitzvah. Hashem pays it back. You do this. She's like, oh, honey, wow, what a great husband I have. I can buy a whole new wardrobe. Next thing you know, she's wearing it for a few months. She starts liking it. She starts watching shiurim with you. And she says to you, honey, you think I should have kisui rosh? Why? Why the second time didn't she give you a get? She didn't want to divorce you. Because on the other hand, some women—I know there's a couple of women—as soon as they heard modesty, they literally threw out all their clothes. They threw out all of their clothes and started shopping for modest clothes. It all depends on the person. So you cannot have a one-size-fits-all approach. That's why you have to go to a talmid chacham who knows you and a little bit more about your personal situation. It's not just one-size-fits-all. Ideally, of course, it's ideal for all of us to stop our sins tomorrow, but it's not realistic because of our yetzer hara and how strong our addictions are. Next question. Chavot.

20:44Is it worse to kill a Jew or to break Shabbat? What's the nafka mina? What's the purpose of the question? You're a murderer and I didn't know about it? I gave you a ride home last time. I always wanted to know if I'm giving rides to murderers. One time, one time I actually gave a shiur and one of the guys that's, you know, people always stay after the shiur, ask questions, personal stuff, this and that. And this actually happened to me twice. Once in New York, once in Florida. And the guy I was talking to, it's a little weird. You know, it's like one of those people, it's like something off. You're not really sure what to say, what to do, and why. But you know, this guy is off. It's off, like it's just like... He might want to kill me. I'm not really sure. He's saying chazak u'baruch, but I'm not really sure. Maybe he means chazak u'baruch, you look tasty to me, I'm going to eat you. I'm not really sure. You're not really sure. Happened to me a couple of times. And Baruch Hashem, on one of those times, the guy asked me for a ride. The guy asked me for a ride. The other time, Baruch Hashem, he didn't ask me for a ride. But the other time, he asked me for a ride, and I'm thinking to myself, there's a good chance he may eat me today. Sad, you know, Hashem.

22:01But sometimes it happens. You have to be careful. But anyway, when you're doing a mitzvah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says you have the protection of the mitzvah. So you don't have to worry. But this will make you laugh a little bit. This really happened, though. Anyway, as far as the Torah says in the Ten Commandments, Parashat Yitro, there's a list of Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment is to keep Shabbat. Don't desecrate Shabbat. Rambam says that if a person desecrates Shabbat, he's considered an idol worshiper. He loses part of his life in this world because he also has a heavenly death penalty in this world. Because we don't have a Sanhedrin anymore, we're not allowed to kill anybody. But if the Sanhedrin were still around, they would actually stone him. They would kill him, giving him the worst death penalty there is. And since there's no stoning in this world anymore, there's a heavenly death penalty.

23:02that he may not feel that he just got, but if it was decreed for him to live 120 years, he just lost a few years. And every time he violates Shabbat, he loses a little bit more time of his life. He does die, he just doesn't realize it yet. That's why you see, if you look at the statistics, there are statistics of how many people die every single year. Approximately 54 to 56 million people die every year according to statistics of 2017. And if you look at the numbers, You would think that most people die at age 70 and over. Normally, that's what we would think—70 and older. Okay, you already lived a full life. Okay, you learned, you died at 71. You died at 76, you died at 86. Okay, you lived your life. Well, you know, okay, we're sad, but not that sad. We're not as sad as a five-month-old baby dying, Hashem y'rachem. We're not as sad as a three-year-old falling from the window. We're not as sad when a 75-year-old dies. Okay, we're not happy. it's not like the three-year-old that got shot in crossfires in the hood. It's not like the 18-year-old girl that got cancer and had no cure. It's not like that, right? But if you look at the statistics, there are actually more people dying under the age of 70 than people above the age of 70. More than that. Why? Why is that? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu...

24:28pays his haters cash to their face. People that hate Hashem, people that make fun of the Torah, people that make a joke of the Torah, people that don't take things seriously - Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't like them. He hates them. And what ends up happening is that he takes away years of their life. They don't feel it because they're 15 years old and they're strong, and they think, "No, it's not gonna happen to me." Well, guess what? I'm not that much older than all of you. I'm older than all of you, but not much older and... And Baruch Hashem, I already know over 25 guys, 25 guys and girls from my high school class, my graduation class, that already died. In their 30s, in their 20s, maybe even more. So death happens. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says keep Shabbat or you get a death penalty. Death penalty doesn't necessarily mean right away, it could mean early. You die at shem hachem or a person dies at the age of 35 or 45 before he even really had a chance to begin his life. When it comes to murder, murder is the sixth commandment. Sixth commandment. And the death penalty the Sanhedrin would give to a murderer is less, lesser of a punishment than a Mechalel Shabbat. Even though it's also a death penalty, it's a less severe death penalty. And I know that some of you are saying, what do you mean? If he's dying, he's dying, what difference does it make which death penalty he's getting? Trust me when I tell you, when you hear about the details of the suffering that the Mechalel Shabbat goes through, before he dies, versus what happens to the murderer, it's Shamayim Va'aretz.

25:52before he dies, versus what happens to the murderer, it's Shamayim Va'aretz. Just from hearing the punishment, you wouldn't want to do anything. Second thing is, there's also a machloket, a debate between the chachamim, if the murderer has a share in the World to Come. Meaning, the guy that violates Shabbat, for sure is not going to Gan Eden, ever. If he didn't do teshuva, he's going to Gehenom permanently. Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah page 17a and also 16b and several other places in Masechet Sanhedrin and so on, the guy that violated Shabbat, if he didn't do teshuva, he's going to Gehenom, he's not coming out. The guy that, again, if he didn't do teshuva, if he did teshuva, the guy that murdered, there's two opinions. One opinion says he has a share in the World to Come. After he died, that was his suffering. That was a big payment for the suffering, which he still has to go to Gehinom, but he gets out eventually. And there isn't a being that says, no, if he took somebody else's neshama, he loses the Olam HaBa. Meaning that it's a machloket. The point being is that, obviously from this, we see that violating Shabbat—driving to synagogue on Shabbat, working on Shabbat, or playing with fire on Shabbat—is much worse than murder. Even though this doesn't make sense to our rational minds,

27:16The Torah is not supposed to make sense to your rational mind. The Torah is from God. If you understood Him, you would be Him. Not everything makes sense. But nonetheless, we still have to do it. Next question. Okay, since you guys know the rest of the Torah, I'm going to try to give you a chiddush that perhaps you don't know. Now, I don't know, I mean, people ask questions all the time, but usually after the shiur. Now, we talk a lot about reward and punishment. We talk a lot about things that are not necessarily always pleasing to the ear, whether it be Gehinnom or Kaf HaKela, all these other places. The whole goal of talking about Gehinnom, the whole goal of talking about punishment, is not necessarily to give you nightmares, but rather to scare you enough to realize that you don't want to mess with Hashem. You simply got to do what He says, whether you like it, you don't like it, you agree with it, you don't agree with it, it doesn't make a difference. Hashem said it, you do it. Yeah, but I don't like to. It doesn't make a difference. It doesn't make a difference. The way you've got to look at it is, imagine somebody has a gun to your head.

28:38He says, if you drive on Shabbat, I'm going to shoot. You don't drive on Shabbat, I'm just going to sit here and do nothing. How many of you, by a show of hands, drive on Shabbat? You don't drive, right? Because you don't want to get shot. That's the way you're going to look at it. The good news is that the same guy in this analogy who has a gun to your head loves you. That's why he puts a gun to your head. And he wants you to do teshuva. And he wants you to avoid Gehinnom. Now, anyone that... has not watched my shiur, which was part of the Musar Kavod series, I believe it's number 84. Anyone that has not watched that shiur, or watched the shiur we did about Chibut HaKever, which was part of the Ramban series, one of the first few lectures, or the shiur we did a little bit about Kaf HaKela, these few scary shiurim, you should watch it, at least once in your life. Why? Because you can see that there are many, many sources in the Torah that discuss punishment. Many. We're not talking about a handful of books. Like some people think that Gehinom is a Kabbalistic teaching. Only fools and resha'im say that. Anyone that learned Torah, anyone that's talmid chacham,

30:04Surely knows that Gehinom is not only part of Judaism, but it's actually part of the foundation of Judaism. Because we believe as Jews in schar va'onesh. It's one of our 13 principles of faith. We believe that there is reward for the righteous and punishment for the wicked. And everyone here knows that not everyone who is righteous has a pleasant life in this world, which means that obviously the reward for all of their mitzvot is not here in this world. It's in the next world. So Sometimes you see really righteous people sitting in a hospital, suffering from some type of disease, or they lose kids. Or the Klausenberger Rebbe, Kodesh Kodashim, I'm reading his bio right now. It's hard for me to believe that he's classified as a human being like us if you see how holy this person was, and... He said, might as well be Mashiach. I don't know, be Moshe Rabbeinu. This is unbelievable. In the Holocaust, inside the camps, he put his life on the line. He put his life on the line not to eat non-kosher meat. He put his life on the line not to eat non-kosher bread. He put his life on the line to keep Shabbat.

31:26Every day, he put his life on the line. It was unbelievable in the beginning. They thought, "Come on, that's it. I think I'll be—don't be overly righteous. What are you making the rest of us feel bad? You don't need to keep all these mitzvot. We're in the Holocaust here. They're killing us day and night over here. What's going on?" The Klausenberger Rebbe said, "No, I'm not eating treif. I'll die, but I'm not eating treif. I'm not eating non-kosher meat." After they saw that he was really serious about this, everyone started respecting him, including the Nazis. That didn't stop them from beating him up and almost killing him a few times. But when you read this book, you see how many miracles happened to him. Now, you would think that someone who makes sure to keep Shabbat as a religion—I'm talking about he kept Shabbat better than everybody else in the room, including myself, inside the Holocaust. He kept Shabbat better than all of us and anyone that's watching. Inside the Holocaust, he would convince a few guys because the Nazis would starve us. They would give people just a few grams of bread. But if they gave a loaf of bread, it had to be divided among six people. So each person got, you know, every few days, one slice of bread. He'd convince a few people every week.

32:49Don't eat the whole loaf. Don't eat the loaf. Leave me a few loaves. Why? So I can do Lechem Mishneh. So I can fulfill the mitzvah of Oneg Shabbat and do the kiddush with two complete challahs. You're not allowed to do kiddush on an incomplete challah, one that's broken. You can, but it's not Oneg Shabbat. It's not Oneg Shabbat. In our course, he's worrying about this. We're not talking about lighting fire. We're talking about everything, including the things that we don't even think about or even know. He convinced a few people every week, "Don't eat the whole thing." But if he saw that some of the people were starving, and for some of the people, it was hurting them, it was putting them at risk, he said, "No, no, feed right now. I'm feeding you right now. Feed them the whole loaf if he had to." He never put other people's lives at risk for his mitzvot. But if they could handle it and wanted to be part of this mitzvah, baruch haba. So now, you read this book, you think this person, kodesh kodashim, this is a Sefer Torah. This is a Sefer Torah. somebody like this walks into the room, I don't know what I would do. I don't even know what I would do. It might as well be Mashiach. Now, you would think such a holy person for sure lived a fantastic life, for sure. The Nazis killed his wife and all 11 of his kids. Not a single member of his family stayed alive.

34:15Not a single one. And he knew it. He knew they all died. He didn't find out afterward. He knew it right away. They killed everybody. Little babies, all the younger ones, everybody. The Nazis put all of their heart into murdering in cold blood. What did he do every day? You have to serve Hashem with simcha. You have to serve Hashem with simcha. He would sing all day. How could this be? After the Holocaust... He fulfilled a promise. What promise? He promised Hashem, if You save me from this place, I'm going to open a hospital for Jewish people. And he opened the hospital in Netanya, one of the best hospitals in Israel. He opened yeshivot all over Eretz Yisrael. Kollels, Batei Knesset, Batei Midrash, everything. How do you have the energy, they asked him? All those horrible things that happened to you. He said, either I can go insane, or I can serve Hashem. So from here we see that serving Hashem doesn't necessarily mean an easy life. You look at all of the tzaddikim mentioned in the Torah, all of them. Noach. HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself says, ish tzaddik tamim b'dorotav.

35:43Meaning, Hashem wrote in the Torah, there's a pasuk that says that Noach is a tzaddik. It's not like you have to question was he, wasn't he? It says he's a tzaddik. The biggest tzaddik in his generation. One of the biggest we ever had. Hashem restored the whole world from him. Noach's life, nightmare. A year, a year he's in this teivah, suffering day and night. filth. They couldn't let the filth out of the teivah because the teivah would only open from the side. If you open from the side, all the water goes in. So, all of the filth—imagine being surrounded, literally—there's a whole floor of manure, of filth, of human filth, of animal filth, non-stop for a year. And it's not like today, with ventilation systems and all that stuff. Nothing. On top of that, one of the times... He was late in feeding the lion. The lion hit him, and the whole year he suffered in anguish and pain to the extent that he was spitting blood. Noach, Ish Tzadik, spitting blood for a year. That's how much pain he went through. His grandson, Kena'an, raped him. They left him Teivah. Okay, Baruch Hashem, no? Not Baruch Hashem. His grandson raped him. So, you look at Noach, Tzadik,

37:10Tough life. Avraham, at three years old, his own father rats on him to Nimrod HaRasha. Tells him he doesn't want to worship the idols. Nimrod says, you don't worship the idol, I'm going to throw you in the fire. Because my idol is fire. If you don't serve the fire, I'll throw you into it. Avraham says, I believe in a God that's stronger than fire. He throws him in the fire. Why? His father told on him. After that, Hashem tells him to leave the city and go somewhere else. No promises of a good place. You think Hashem tells you to go somewhere, and He tells you it's going to be a good place. You figure it's going to be good, but He didn't say a promise right now. He said you're going to have a lot of good, but not right now. He goes there—starvation, famine. His wife can't have a kid. His second wife has a son that's trying to kill the first kid that he waited a hundred years to have. No end to his suffering. Any one of his tests, none of us would survive. He brought his son as a sacrifice to Hashem, even though it didn't make sense. He still followed what Hashem said. He comes back after he passed the test. What does he see? His wife died. Sarah Imeinu died.

38:33Yitzchak, 37 years old. His father says, yalla, let's go. You're korban. If you are Yitzchak, you talk to this old man, over 100 years old, say, Abba, you'll be the korban. Me, korban, you'll be the korban. That's what the sons of, l'havdil, Sancheriv, Sancheriv, after the battle that he lost, Against his will, he went out because I sent the angels to kill all of his soldiers. He wanted to bring a sacrifice to his gods. He wanted to bring his son to sacrifice. What did his sons do? They killed him. Yaakov—how many tests did Yaakov have? First, he has his brother trying to kill him. Then he has to run away. Then he has to go to the place of Lavan. Lavan is the biggest gangster in the world. Such a big gangster that even Esav is scared of him. Lavan is a machmir, a big gangster. He's stringent about being a gangster. He changes his payment system, his salary, a hundred times. I'm going to pay you a thousand bucks a week. At the end of the week, no, no, I'm not paying you a thousand bucks. But you said you're going to pay me a thousand bucks a week. Yeah, yeah, I'll give you a hundred though. How am I going to live with a hundred dollars?

40:00I didn't really mean $1,000. Okay, fine, I'll do $100. A week later, $60. What happened? No, I didn't really mean $100. $100 is a lot of money for what you do. $60. Okay, fine. A week later, $20. What happened? What? What do you mean, what happened? I told you I was going to pay you $20. No, you said $60. A hundred times he did this. Then he changed his wages. How many tests? Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu. He saved Am Yisrael from Amas HaGehenom in Mitzrayim. What good did Am Yisrael return? They called him an adulterer. They called him a womanizer. They called him a thief. They didn't know it's Kedusha. Point being, rabotai, we see that tzaddikim don't necessarily get paid their reward in this world. Do they get paid some of their reward in this world? Yes. but you should not do the mitzvot for reward in this world. You should do the mitzvot because Hashem said so. By the way, it's freezing here. Maybe I'm the only one. Am I the only one that's freezing, or are other people also cold? Okay. Usually I'm not freezing here. Usually I'm hot. I'm the opposite. I'm hot. But today, Baruch Hashem, I see that there's a little bit of frostbite in my fingers.

41:29So, we see that tzaddikim don't necessarily get their reward in this world. Now, does that mean that you shouldn't do mitzvot in expectation of a reward? Yes, you should expect a reward, but in the next world. In the next world, should you pray for parnasah? Yes. Should you pray for zivug? Yes. Should you pray for good things? Yes. Don't give up on praying, but don't think that once you do get the parnasah, that's really the reward for what you did. You pray for it. Hashem is giving it to you. Why? To help you do more mitzvot. To help your emunah. And if He's not giving it to you, that's because either He says it's not good for you to get it, because it's not going to help your emunah, it will actually distance you from Him, or perhaps you don't deserve it. You did something wrong. Point being, don't give up. You keep going, keep going, keep going. Moshe Rabbeinu prayed 515 times. If you pray 515 times and Hashem doesn't answer, pray another 515 times.

42:32That's really cool. Next question: Canaan is the one that raped Noah. As far as the issue here is also the fault of Ham, though. Why? There's a Midrash that says that Ham's wife cheated on her husband before the Teivah. Canaan is the one that raped Noah. As far as the issue here is also the fault of Ham, though. Why? There's a Midrash that says that Ham's wife cheated on her husband before the Teivah.

43:36And she had intimacy with one of the giants. She was pregnant inside the Teivah. And she gave birth to Sichon. Sichon, if you remember, you read about him in Sefer Devarim, one of the giants. How the logistics work, I have no idea. This is what the Midrash says. Now, since Cham said, My wife is pregnant anyway. She gave birth, and birth wasn't necessarily nine months like it is now. He figured it's allowed to be with his wife. So what did he do? He violated the law that Hashem said, don't be with your wives. So he had intimacy, and from that came Canaan. So Canaan already came from a cursed place and ended up doing bad things. So that's the reason why Cham also was part of the crime. Next question, yeah. Yep.

45:07there is a, uh, there's a book I bought my kids that, uh, has some really nice pictures. But it was written by someone who put together a series. Even though it's colorful and it's for kids, really I think everybody should learn it as an adult because it includes a bunch of midrashim and so on. But it gives you the pictures, and one of the pictures shows the Teiva with a huge giant sitting on top of it. Why? Because that's what the Midrash says. The Midrash says that Og was saved. How? By sitting on top. Hashem allowed him to sit on top of the Teiva. Why? There are a few reasons. One of the main reasons is that Hashem wanted the people that would be born in the new world to know that He destroyed giants. Which means that if He destroyed giants, surely He could destroy us little people. Unfortunately, this only worked for 350 years, 360 years. We have the Tower of Babel already at the end of Parashat Noach. Already they became resha'im. But the point is that Hashem wanted to show us that He destroyed giants. That's why He left Og. There are other reasons also that He gave him a long life because he assisted Avraham by telling him that his nephew was kidnapped.

46:34So he did a few things, but in reality, the reason why Og did this mitzvah, he told him that he was kidnapped, was because he really wanted Avraham to die, so he could marry Sarah, because Sarah was so beautiful. Next question. I'm really freezing. I'm either getting really sick, or I'm freezing. Okay. But I'm the only one. I'm usually hot-blooded; I'm usually always hot. It's cold. Tikkun. Okay, no? This week. This week. What else? Yes? Right. The Zohar HaKadosh says, and all of the Midrashim say, that in that generation, people lost their concept of good. They would steal from people, they would murder people, they would waste seed, they would commit bestiality, they would be with animals. Even the animals didn't go with their own species. But the one thing that was completely unbearable for Hashem,

48:00was that they were stealing from each other because that meant that they didn't even have peace among each other. It's not just the war against Hashem, but it's also that there's no peace among each other. The real reason the Midrashim say that Hashem destroyed the world is because they were wasting seed. But the final token that, in essence, put Hashem over the top, saying, "Okay, that's it, enough is enough," was the stealing. Because once He saw that it's not just a war against Him, it's a war against each other. They lost their right to live when they didn't have unity. We cause a lot more problems than simply doing something against Hashem individually. When we don't have unity, the community suffers. I think it's mighty good, don't worry. Just watch me shake. It's like when I was younger, it was tense. Next? No? No?

49:17No, they started with immorality because they were greedy. They wanted more. A guy wanted more than his wife, so he stole his friend's wife. A guy wanted more than what he had in the bank, so he robbed his friend. A guy wanted more buildings, so he did all types of kinyanim, all types of strategies to steal from other people. And that type of mentality caused him to do other sins. Yes. Why is it Well, he's not losing his olam haba; it's that he's not allowed to enter until he does teshuva. So he's given another chance. I will tell you guys the story of the Baal Shem Tov and the horse. So, the Baal Shem Tov had one of the horses, and he went to one of his students, and... And, uh, he said that one of the horses is special and he wanted that horse. So the guy said, "Please, please, not this horse. Any other horse—there are hundreds of horses here—just take any other horse." He says, "No, I want that one." He says, "Please, this is the best horse I have." "I want that horse." He says, "Okay, since it's you, you can have the horse because you promised mine." "Yeah, how much is it?" "Whatever the money costs."

50:43And then after he bought the horse, they did a transaction. The Baal Shem Tov asked him, "Do you have a friend that recently died, maybe from freezing cold, maybe from different reasons?" He said, "Yeah. Not too long ago, my friend died." He goes, "Does this friend owe you any money?" He goes, "Yeah, he owed me 100 bucks." He goes, "You forgive him?" "Yeah, of course. I'm so sad about my friend dying so early. Of course I forgive him." He goes, "But how much? You forgive him, forgive him?" He goes, "Yeah, of course, Kavod HaRav." "Okay," he says, "say it. I forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you." When he finished the third "I forgive you," the horse died. He was shocked. He says, "How did this happen?" He says, "I saw..." The neshamah of this horse is your friend. Because he owed you $100, they weren't allowing him to go to Gan Eden until he worked for you to make up for the $100. But since you forgave him, he's allowed to go to Gan Eden. So I don't think there's anybody in the world that has a koach, at least not to that extent, and can see anything in horses. But the point is that

51:49If a person owes other people money, they should pay it back. If other people owe you money and they refuse to pay it back, it's better for you to give it up. Forgive them. Why? Because if they return, you have to return also. Even if you're a tzaddik. They have to return it to you. So, hence the problem. Forgive people. It's better to forgive people. Thank you. I think you should give everybody a cup of tea. I feel like I spoke about the Holocaust and I'm reliving it right now. It's freezing cold, at least. If anybody wants to make some tea because you're freezing or because you want it, go to the back. Same price, $0.50.

52:51Sugar is a high commodity. Listen right now, it's a high commodity, literally. No, next, I need to get warmer before I give you guys this shiur. What was there before Hashem created the world? Or before He created day and night? And how long has Hashem been there? The Gemara says that there are certain questions that it's such a waste of time to ask that you shouldn't ask them. Why? Because they can get you to more confusion than you already had before the question. But there are certain questions that you must ask. Now, Hashem

53:52Answered the first question and did not answer the second. What's the answer? Before He created the world, it was Tohu Vavohu. It was a state of nothingness. And the Gemara in Masechet Chagigah, page 12a, says that initially, there was only Hashem. After that, He decided that He wants to bring good to the world. And He, in essence, created a dot that expanded and expanded and expanded until He told it to stop expanding. From there, we know that His name is El Shaddai, the God that said "Die," the God that said "Stop." This is similar to the evolution and world expanding and so on. The difference is, the Torah says that the world stopped expanding because Hashem said stop. The scientists believe the world is expanding still because they base that off of the past. not off of the current or the present or the future. So before the world was there, it was only Hashem, and it was, in essence, nothing. How long has Hashem been there? Forever. That's the question he didn't answer, meaning that we do not have as many details, simply because if Hashem had a starting point, then that starting point would be His God. He wouldn't be God.

55:18Whoever created Him would be God. And He wouldn't be God. He would be the creation. Since He's the Creator, a creator of the world cannot have a creator. Because that means He's not a creator Himself; He's a creation. So Hashem does not have a starting point or an ending point. That's why we say He has no rishon, no acharon; He has no first one, no last one. There's no one before Him, there's no one after Him. Next. Next. I think I want to bathe in the tea. No, go ahead. Is there, like, a certain point that you should, like, stop telling people to stop cursing? Because if they're telling a group that everyone's cursing around, they'll say, like, stop, and then they curse at me for telling them to stop. And let's say they wouldn't have said that curse word before, but you could have told them they wouldn't be rebellious and go against me as long as I'm there. Cursing, unfortunately, is part of the epidemic of a world that lacks knowledge.

56:20And by knowledge, I mean knowledge of Hashem, knowledge of His Torah. The less knowledge a person has, the more likely he or she is to commit sins, such as cursing, being promiscuous, stealing, and so on. Now, when a person simply has no knowledge, you telling them to stop without telling them why is simply annoying. Why? Because you're telling them to stop, but not telling them why they should stop. If you tell them, "Well, Hashem said so," if he or she is already keeping Shabbat and other mitzvot, then saying "Hashem said so" may mean something to them. But if they're not keeping Shabbat or the basic foundational mitzvot, then obviously they don't follow the rest of the mitzvot of the Torah. Needless to say, this one is just going to be an added part to the rest of their violations against Hashem. So, it's important to know who you're speaking to. When people do not keep mitzvot, the basic foundation, your main focus in rebuking them should be, number one, to convince them to watch and read Torah. Because at least that way, you'll educate them. If you educate them, they'll find out on their own. Especially if you send them to this shiur or other shiurim that we've done. Education is key. If you teach people Torah, they can become yirei Hashem. Without Torah, they cannot become anything.

57:51So much so, the Chachamim say, what if somebody wants to watch his brit, because he knows that it's bad to waste seed. It's bad for your health, it's bad for your marriage, it's bad for a lot of things. But, he doesn't want to keep Shabbat. He doesn't want to keep Shabbat. It's not for him. Chachamim say, he will never succeed in watching his brit. Why not? Because the koach, the strength to watch your brit, the most enticing aveirah that a human being has, you need that strength to come from Shabbat. That's a brit, and that's a brit. So long as he doesn't keep Shabbat, it's only a matter of time before he fails and desecrates his brit. If he keeps Shabbat, like halacha, eventually he'll overcome the brit if he wants it. But if he doesn't, he'll never watch his brit. One brit depends on another. So if a person is desecrating these big sins, work on those by sending him shiurim, sending her shiurim, to get him to start learning. And also specifically focus on the big mitzvot, on the big sins, the ones that even he or she can understand are a big deal. Cursing today has become a second language for most people, in some cases even their first language. You have some of the most famous celebrities in the world who don't stop cursing for a living.

59:20Their entire album of music is full of curses. If they don't have curses, they don't sell the video. If they don't have immodest girls, they don't sell the CDs. They don't sell the videos. They don't do anything. Meaning, we've trained the world to be like Sodom to the extent that people think that in order for me to succeed, I need to curse, I need to have immodesty, immorality, and so on and so forth. So most people don't see the wrong in cursing because you're going to tell them, don't curse, Hashem doesn't like it. He's going to tell you, okay, if Hashem didn't like it, how come He made Kanye West and 50 Cent and Eminem and all of these other clowns so rich? They don't stop cursing. There's not a single song they have that's not full of curses. It's a big deal if they make something for children that doesn't have curses. Like, it's a big deal, but it doesn't sell, really, because the rest of the song is not for children anyway. So that means if you tell a person, "Don't curse," unless they're already willing to serve Hashem, it can be very hard for them to accept it. So focus on the bigger mitzvot. If you focus on the bigger mitzvot, and the people still say no, don't give up. Try again next week. Try again in two weeks. Try again in two months. Try again. Don't give up. Why? Because you have to look at it this way.

1:00:44If you don't help them, they're going to Gehinnom, a place that has a bad beginning and doesn't end. All of the bad stuff that all of you can think of together, combined. Think of the worst nightmares you've ever thought of. Your nightmare, his nightmare, his nightmare, his nightmare, his nightmare, all of you together. Then take all of the people that you know, take their imagination, including the people that make scary movies. And then you take the rest of the world, almost 8 billion people, the worst of what all of them thought, combined, put it all into a little box, that's not even one hour in Gehinnom. Which means, rabotai yekarim, that if you know that if this person does not do teshuva, they're going to this horrible, awful place, how could you allow yourself to stop? I tell you the truth, I don't want to live in America. Aside from the fact that I don't really like it very much. There are certain benefits of America that I do like. But when it comes to kedusha, when it comes to Torah, there's plenty more Torah in Israel. Plenty more. I go into a kollel, enter and never leave. There's so much Torah over there. There's over, Baruch Hashem, over 100,000 avreichim. Over 100,000 people that study Torah for a living. That's all they do. Imagine, it's like a city.

1:02:14of people just learn Torah. So, realistically, I want to go there. I want to go to Yerushalayim. I want to be next to my Rav, Rav Ephraim. I want to learn Torah. But most importantly, I want to have a future for my kids. Because here, in Florida, and in many parts of America altogether, I cannot tell you that I give you two thumbs up for any school. Many schools have a lot of problems. So, Baruch Hashem, we don't have to move tomorrow, but we have about a year and a half. Once my daughter turns close to six years old, I have to send her to school. And the school has to be at the level of learning that would fit her and fit our lifestyle. It doesn't have to be an ultra-Hareidi place where everyone's covering their eyes or something like people think. Just a place that teaches emet. Unfortunately, that virtually does not exist. in many places, because even the places that have emet, from a few teachers, there are a few teachers that ruin it. There's one school, Beit Yaakov for girls. I won't mention the name yet, because we're giving them a chance to do teshuva. There's one place, a Beit Yaakov. Beit Yaakov is a school for girls. I spoke there. I met some people there. You know, over the years, you meet people and so on. And you see, the girls are such precious neshamot. Good girls.

1:03:45Some of the teachers are fantastic human beings. Amazing. But after hearing some of the things that the principal of the school is doing, I said they shouldn't call this place Beit Yaakov; they should call it Beit Esav. Why? Because of the things she's doing. And she's considered a frum lady. There's nothing frum about her. So, for me to send my kid to that school is like sending the kid to a sacrifice. can't do it. So, with that being said, not wanting to live here, not having the schools, moving a state is almost as difficult as moving a country. Plus, you don't have necessarily as many benefits in both places. So we decided, you know, over the holiday, and I spoke about it last week, that if HaKadosh Baruch Hu hears our cries, hears our prayers, hears and has mercy on us, Allow us to open a big Bais Yaakov and a yeshiva—the whole nine yards. If He allows us to do it, some people who are rich will step up and start writing some big checks. Not for me, for the school. B'ezras Hashem, we will be here happily trying to save every single kid in Florida, and even if he’s not in Florida, as long as he wants to come here.

1:05:03Every single kid, as long as he's Jewish and wants to keep Torah and Mitzvot, I don't care if he has money or doesn't have money—we'll figure it out. If Hashem allows us to do it, because we don't want to do it for kavod, we don't want to do it for money, and we don't want to do it for any deals, but we need a lot of money to do it. If Hashem allows me to do it, then obviously He wants me to do it, and we'll do it. If not, most likely, in the future, the only shiurim that most people are going to watch will be on the internet. Why? I cannot allow myself to send my kids to a sacrifice. Kids, your blood is not more red than theirs, and so on and so forth. I'm more than happy to stay here and try out this new system and new school, and so on and so forth, but to send them to this Esav—not in a million years. Not in a million years. Unfortunately, Florida is not the only place that has such issues. Today I heard there are several places in practically every corner of the world. There are problems everywhere. It's not just here. But this is where I live. And we need to do something for two reasons. Number one, for my own kids. It's a little selfish. But in reality, if it was just selfish, I would just go to Israel. It's a much better place anyway. It says somewhere in Israel, they erase the sins. I wanted my sins erased. But there's something even more. What's more? I spoke to a couple of Gedolei HaDor in the last couple of days.

1:06:33And they said, if you and Rav Mizrachi leave, virtually there's not going to be any emet left in America. Surely there are other people, but perhaps they are not as popular, perhaps they don't post their shiurim online, or so on and so forth. But these big chachamim say, okay, if you want all of American Jews to go burn, go, leave. Go, enjoy. But if you think it's a mitzvah to do it, you're wrong. meaning you need to do everything possible to do your own to do something so that way you know if it opens, it's Hashem. If it doesn't open, it's also Hashem. You fulfilled your obligation. We can't just do nothing and just protect yourself and go somewhere and tell everybody else "good luck." Watch me on YouTube, even though most of the people that watch our shiurim are all over the world, and this is a very, very small portion. The people that actually watch me, you guys live, are just a small portion of it. Needless to say, the people that are here locally do count on us for many, many things, and you need to have a local Rav that is going to help you. So, the point being is that we'll try everything that we can to open a place—a big place, a holy place—and turn this entire state into a holy state, turn it into a mini Yerushalayim.

1:07:55If Hashem allows. If He doesn't allow, He doesn't allow. But if Hashem does, if you guys can help with your prayers, with your money, with your time, with whatever you have, whatever skill you have, you'll be part of saving countless neshamot that are simply going to gehenom if they do not go to this school. Just so you know, when we first started this program, this Torah Challenge program a few months ago, Baruch Hashem, there were many other people. Some of the people are missing Because they start school again, it’s a harder schedule to stay this year until 11 or 12 o'clock. For some of the people, it was too much for them. They weren’t ready to do teshuva. But my favorite is that almost 10 of them who came here on Shabbat, even though they weren’t initially keeping Torah, are now in yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael learning Torah. Ten kids! Anyone that could do such a thing, obviously Hashem wants him to continue. So anyone that sponsored the shiurim, anyone that, you know, donated for the shiurim that helped us pay these kids to come to the shiurim, guess what? Now they're learning Torah, and every single second that they do a mitzvah goes to your account also. There's no one luckier in the world than you because you have somebody in yeshiva now. Not somebody just doing teshuva, somebody's already at the next step. He's in yeshiva learning. Every word that he reads is a mitzvah, every letter he reads is a mitzvah.

1:09:24How many mitzvot are you going to show up to Shamayim for? For a few dollars that you donated? Oh, Hashem. Hashem wants to reward us. Next question. How many exact number? I don't know. I spoke to another Rav, Rav Zev, today. He's tzaddik. He's kodesh. And he, God bless him, is a grandson of the Ben Ish Chai. He also grew up with Rav Kaduri, to the extent that every day he would have breakfast with Rav Kaduri. He learned Torah with many of the Chachamim in his generation. He told me that in his generation, they didn't know where Jaffa was. Jaffa is the next city. Rav Zev said that in his yeshiva, they once asked him to go to the next city over, Jaffa. And he says none of the talmidim in the yeshiva knew where Jaffa is. They didn't know what it was. That's how much Torah they had. They were in the yeshiva literally day and night. Didn't have enough time to see anything of this world. Asked him, so what did you do? He said, we had gedolim to look at.

1:10:53We had Rav Kaduri, Rav Ovadia, Rav Tzion Abba Shaul, Rav Tzadka. All these Kedoshim would be in a choir with us. We'd look at them. It was like seeing the Shekhinah. Who needs to go see Jaffa? Who needs to go see Tel Aviv? Who needs to go to the beach? He's seeing Gedolei HaDor, he's seeing Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation. Four of them, five of them, every day. That shows us where we were and where we are. The same Rav Zev, says that unfortunately today, even though there are Gedolim, there's Rav Kanievsky, there are several Gedolim in America, Rav Mazuz, and several others, the problem is that they're not on the same level as the previous Gedolim, not only because of knowledge and Yirat Shamayim and so on, not just that. that we would have to be them in order to evaluate it, but rather because none of them have as much power over the people, as much influence over the people as what we had 10 years ago, five years ago even. When Rav Elyashiv in 2004 said that wigs are coming from Avodah Zarah, you had almost a million Jews, almost a million Jews around the world take off their wigs on the spot and burn them in the streets.

1:12:20happened in the year 2004. It was all over the newspapers; there were huge bonfires all over the world, in New York and other places, of wigs. Today, we had a letter that three or four or five signed. What do we get? "No, my rabbi says to ignore this." Who's your rabbi? Your rabbi's bigger than them? "No, he, uh, you know, he's 35 years old. He's a really good speaker." Should you listen to this clown next to the Gedolei HaDor that said not to do it? No, he's my rabbi. He says, listen to your rabbi, right? Yeah, but not if your rabbi goes against Da'at Torah. Obviously, Da'at Torah is with the Gedolim, not with your little rabbi. So that's the problem. So even though there are Chachamim in the world today, we're still considered a generation of Yetomim, a generation of orphans, because we do not have Gedolim to lead us. Few people have a rabbi they listen to and ask questions of, but sometimes many of the people that listen and ask questions of the rabbis do it, do it, do it, until they don't like the answer. This happened to me countless times. You help somebody for a couple of years, you help them do teshuva, you help them learn, you help them with shalom bayit, you help them with everything, but one day he asks you some question and he didn't like your answer. Either because he heard somebody else say something else,

1:13:48Because it hurts them to do this, it hurts him to shut, you know, shut off his store on Shabbat. It hurts him to shut down his illegal business. It hurts him to say "I'm sorry" to his wife and so on and so forth. So at that moment, not only does he stop listening to you, many times he turns you, instead of a rabbi, he turns you into an enemy. And you guys, some of you that have been with me already for a few years, have seen this live. Somebody that came here, I let him, not in this shul, a different shul. I let him speak. He finished the masechet. I wanted to give him kavod. Simei, you know, some ambition to do more, to do more, to do more. I let him speak. This guy hates Hitler less than me. I helped him with shalom bayit, helped him with everything, everything. Other facets, I invested more in him and his family than probably anybody else at that time. That guy hates me. Another woman, we told her not to kill her kid. She was pregnant. She wanted to kill the kid and... We convinced her, Baruch Hashem. It was almost nine months of convincing. Literally, we had to convince her every month for nine months. I mean, how do you kill a nine-month-old baby? He's going to be due next week. Okay, one month, two months, you don't feel anything. At nine months, he's already been inside you. He's kicking. He probably said your name already, for heaven's sake. How do you still want to kill him? For nine months of convincing, especially the Rabbanit. She convinced her and this and that. After they had the baby, they saw us in the neighborhood. Passed by us like we were ghosts. They didn't even say hello.

1:15:11This happened many, many times. I'm just giving you a couple of stories that are probably shocking you a little bit, but there are many, many like it. Why? Because people are ungrateful, to say the least. And two, people like the truth until it obligates them. As long as it doesn't obligate them. If they keep Shabbat, they don't mind you talking about Shabbat. If they keep Kashrut, they don't mind you talking about Kashrut. If they keep Nidah, they don't mind you talking about Nidah. But as soon as you talk about—thank you—as soon as you talk about something... that they are, you know, they're guilty of turning into Amalek. Even though you're doing it because you love them and want to save them from Gehinnom, arrogant people do not look at it that way. So that's what happens. As far as how many, we have a few, but like I said, not a single one of them

1:16:11Respected like the ones even from just three or four years ago. I tell several people, someone asked me, "Oh, you know, I need to show a really powerful gadol that is against the wigs." I said, "It's Rav Kanievsky, shlita. He's called Sar HaTorah by all Jews, even the secular ones." The general of Torah. He's good enough. He finishes the Shas, Bavli, Yerushalmi, Midrashim, Zohar, and many, many other books. We don't even know how to say it. Every single year. Is he good enough? His father is Rav Stiepler, the Steipler Gaon. Good enough. He said, "Yeah, it's good. Send it to me. Send it to our rabbis." No, it's not good enough. Why? Because the rabbi holds by another rabbi that's not even enough to fit the shoe of Rav Kanievsky. But because he likes the way he speaks and he already knows his opinion, He doesn't want to listen. He doesn't want to listen. This happens, unfortunately, a lot. People that are looking for, you know, fake news, people that are looking for lies, they will always find someone to give it to them. People that are looking for the truth, only if they look for it with all of their heart and all of their ambition and all of their efforts and all of everything of theirs, only then does Hashem give it to them.

1:17:28The only people that find me, or find Rav Mizrachi, or a few other Rabbanim that speak the truth, are people that have gone through hell and back, and they finally admit that the truth is the only way to live. Or, they hate the truth, and they just want to fight somebody. Because there are not really that many people that tell the truth, so it's easy to find us if you hate the truth. But, if you love the truth, you find me. You find a shiurim, you get hooked on them, you get addicted to them, And before you know it, you become a tzaddik or a tzaddeket. Next question. What time is it? 10:36, so we only have... Okay, so we have an hour. We have an hour if we live. Okay, it's okay. If Hashem wants, we'll finish this shiur, this chidush. If He doesn't want, Rabotai, we'll continue next time. Hopefully once, because I think... If you understand the chidush, it can change your life; it can make you happy. And now we started this shiur with a thought that there are some people who want to start doing teshuva, but it's incomplete teshuva. What's an incomplete teshuva? Incomplete is what it says, incomplete, meaning that they actively,

1:18:56intentionally lack something significant that they don't want to do either. They don't want to do teshuva for wasting seed because they're addicted to it, or they don't want to do teshuva for being married to a non-Jew. As it says in the book of Nechemia, the prophet Nechemia punished Am Yisrael for being married to non-Jews. Why? Because Hashem hates it. It's not allowed to be married to a non-Jew. It says it all over the Torah, but that's another place. So, they don't want to leave the Goyah. They don't want to leave the Goy. They don't want to leave Carlos. They like Carlos. He's a good guy. He buys our lunch every day. You know, Linda is a really nice girl. Why? She sleeps over at his house and nobody complains. Steve is a great guy. Why? He looks Jewish, but he's really not. So people sometimes... they want to start doing shiurim, they listen to the shiur, they like it, they know that it's emet, but they're not ready to abandon their falsehood and the things that connect them to falsehood. The other thing that they're not ready for could be, aside from mitzvah directly, it could be an indirect mitzvah that leads them to all of their mistakes, which is they do not have kavod chachamim. They do not have honor for the chachamim. Meaning, don't ask a rabbi,

1:20:24Rabbi, is this allowed, yes or no? If the rabbi says yes, and they want yes, they'll listen. If the rabbi says no and they don't like this answer, what do they do? They shop around for another rabbi. Many times people tell me, "Yeah, but you said this, but Rabbi so-and-so said something else." First of all, you're supposed to tell me that you asked another rabbi. That's ethical to ask a person a question. You know you have to tell them that you've asked the question from somebody else for many, many different reasons. But needless to say, if you're asking me or you're asking another rabbi a question, that means that you are portraying yourself as someone that wants da'at Torah, someone that wants the opinion of the Torah. If you want the opinion of the Torah, why are you asking so many people? Why don't you ask the rabbi that knows you, the rabbi that helped you get closer to God? The rabbi helped you with shalom bayit. Not just the rabbi that's at your local shul, who says hello and collects tzedakah, but someone that actually knows who you are and helped you get closer to Hashem. Sometimes they say, listen, I like what you say, but you're too strict. I said, when am I too strict? What stringency did I teach you? He says, no, you said netilat yadayim. If you don't wash your hands, it's better off that you cut off your hands. I said, I didn't teach that. No, no, I saw it. It was in shul. It was on Sunday. No, I didn't teach it.

1:21:45What do you mean? I'll show you the video. He sends me the video. So no, all I did is repeat what the Gemara said. That's all I did. If you disagree, you're disagreeing with Hashem, not me. Oh, then how come my other rabbi didn't tell me the same thing? I don't know who your rabbi is; I can't answer for him. Why don't you ask him? Why don't you ask him why he didn't say it? And I'll save you some time if he says, yeah, you know what? That's true. You have to wash your hands. It's dangerous if you don't, spiritually. Good. He's a good rabbi, or at least indicating that he is. If he says, nah, this is not applicable to this generation, that rabbi just violated the 13 Principles of Faith, which say that the Torah will never change, and you are forbidden from learning Torah from him until he does teshuva, which most likely is never. So, people ask questions and if they don't like the answer, they look for somebody else. They go shop around for rabbis like they shop around for fruit. They shop around for rabbis like they shop around for all types of things in life, like houses. You ever see people shop for houses? At minimum, they are not satisfied unless they've seen at least five to ten houses. Why isn't the first house good? It was good. Sometimes they pick the first one, but they have to fulfill their desire and...

1:23:10By seeing another nine options. Why? Just to make sure it's the best one. That's human nature. But the point being is, that if you shop for houses that way, you're not going to gain them. It's okay. But if you shop for rabbis that way, it's a very serious problem. Now, the Torah tells us that if a person does teshuva, the Gemara, Masechet Yoma... Page 86a. It says if a person does teshuva out of fear, all of his sins turn into shogeg, accidents. Meaning that he caused people to die, wasted seed, he violated Shabbat, he did all types of things. She walked around immodestly with tight clothes that you can't tell if it's her skin or if it's her leg. They violated Hashem. They violated the name of Hashem. But now they're doing teshuva, saying, "Hashem, we're sorry, Hashem, we didn't mean it, we didn't know it was so bad, we're sorry." So the Gemara says in Masechet Yoma that their past sins that they made turn into accidental sins. Like I told you recently, meaning that they still have to pay for those sins. There's still a Gehenom for those sins.

1:24:40There's still a punishment for that sin because, after all, somebody still died. Somebody still suffered because of you. You still did something that's against Hashem. So you have to get punished for it. But on the other hand, the same Reish Lakish says, Reish Lakish, who is a ba'al teshuva himself, says that someone who does teshuva from love does not go to Gehinnom. Why? If he doesn't sin anymore from the time he does teshuva... Or he does teshuva for all the sins that he did in the future. He doesn't have to worry about all the sins that he did in the past. Why? Because all of those sins turn into mitzvot. So he's very, very rich in Shamayim spiritually. That's the Gemara, Masechet Yoma in Talmud Bavli. Now, Reish Lakish had a rabbi, obviously, that helped him do teshuva.

1:25:41Who's his rabbi? Who wants to answer? Rabbi Yochanan. Rabbi Yochanan is his rabbi. And Rabbi Yochanan says in the Gemara Yerushalmi, the version of the Gemara that was written in Jerusalem, in Israel. The Bavli was written in Babylon, in Iraq. But in the Yerushalmi, Rabbi Yochanan says something extraordinary. Says anyone who does teshuva, all of his sins turn into merits. Wait a minute, hold on a second. How could it be? It's good that if he does teshuva, all of his sins turn into merits. We thank you very much. But is this halacha or not? Because we have a different opinion. So, The Gemara in Masechet Yevamot says there are rules to the Torah. Masechet Yevamot says that if there's a machloket, a debate between Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish, his student, the halacha is like Rabbi Yochanan. That's fantastic. What does Rabbi Yochanan say? If you do teshuva, all your sins turn into mitzvot. No Gehinnom.

1:27:10Amazing. But the Gemara says there are more rules. More rules. And these additional rules are the reason why we have to teach about Gehinnom. Why? Because the Gemara also says that anyone who sees that there is a machloket, a debate, so the Gemara says if there's a machloket, a debate, between the Talmud... Yerushalmi, and the Talmud, Bavli. Halacha is Bavli, Babylonian Talmud. Why? It came second. The Yerushalmi was written first, but the second one, the Bavli, was written second, which means that it reviewed everything that was in the Yerushalmi and included other things as well. Therefore, it's closer to the emet. That's why most people that learn Gemara, 90% of them, 95% of them, focus only on the Bavli, not on the Yerushalmi. So now, on one hand, we said that if there's a makhloket between Rabbi Yochanan, who said in the Yerushalmi that if there's a makhloket and he said in the Yerushalmi that your teshuva erases all your sins, you don't go to Gehinom. On one hand, we listen to Rabbi Yochanan, but on the other hand, we listen to the Gemara in Bavli, which holds the opposite. So what do we do in this situation?

1:28:38We listen to the Bavli, meaning that if a person does teshuva from fear, his sins turn into shogeg, accidents. If he does teshuva from love, he loves Hashem, then all of his aveirot turn into mitzvot. But now we see here that this is an enormous chiddush. We can't just let it go just like that. If this chiddush can be verified, and we can find somebody that proves that Rabbi Yochanan actually thought, also agreed with this, meaning that he had a debate with Reish Lakish in the Bavli, if we get him to see that this side is the truth, then that means that all we need to do is teshuva. It doesn't matter if it's teshuva from fear or teshuva from love, we can all skip Gehinnom. This is a chiddush of chiddushim. So b'siyata d'shmaya, Rabbi Freiman says, if you continue looking at the Gemara, Masechet Yoma, page 86, at the end of 86a, beginning of 86b, you see that Rabbi Yochanan

1:30:00actually said that someone who does teshuva gets all the way to the Kisei HaKavod. All the way to the Kisei HaKavod. Not past it, but all the way to the Kisei HaKavod. So Chachamim said, okay, wait, so how does this relate to teshuva from love, teshuva from fear? He says, if he does teshuva from fear, he gets all the way to the Kisei HaKavod, to the throne of glory. If he does it with the public, with people, then it's teshuva from ahava. That's teshuva from love. Yeah, but this is not the same as what you said about Reish Lakish, which means that there is a machloket between Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan. Rabbi Yochanan says the only way you can avoid Gehinom is if you do teshuva from love. Rabbi Yochanan, that's Reish Lakish. Rabbi Yochanan says if you do teshuva, period, If you do teshuva, period, you don't have to go to Gehinom. You're good. That's the opposite of what Reish Lakish said. And what did we say before? If the opinions of the two are the opposite, who do we go with? Rabbi Yochanan. Which means that Rabbi Yochanan does think that if we do teshuva from fear, we could literally get to a point where Hashem erases all of our sins and turns them into mitzvot. Now, this is a fantastic chiddush, but we need some chachamim that say this.

1:31:22We can't just decide for ourselves what halacha is. So there's a chacham named Rabbi Avraham Katz. He lives in this generation, and he wrote a book called Tefillin Shel Rosh. And he's the son-in-law of the Admor of Chust. The Admor of Chust quotes one of the chachamim before him from a couple of hundred years ago, Rabbi Meir Abulafia, in his book called Or LeShamayim. In parashat Shelach, it says on the pasuk, when Hashem says, "I forgave," He says from here we learn that teshuva, that a person makes, that's enough to erase all of his sins, turning them into mitzvot. And what about the machloket between Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan? You have to understand who's saying what. That's why it's important to understand who's saying what. Reish Lakish himself was a ba'al teshuva. When he first started doing teshuva, he did it from fear. He realized his whole world was collapsing. Rabbi Yochanan told him, Gehenom, Kaf Hakela, Chibut Hakever, they're going to rip you apart, this, that, you know, much worse than what I tell you guys.

1:32:33So he said, okay, I'll do teshuva from fear, and all my sins will turn into shogeg, accident. I didn't know. But then, as he learned more and more and became chavruta with his rabbi, Rabbi Yochanan, he also became one of the Gedolei HaDor. He realized that what his rabbi said initially, that if you do teshuva, period, you are going to Gan Eden. You're not going to Gehinnom. Again, assuming that your past sins are your past. You're not doing any new sins now. If you do new sins now, you have to pay for those sins. So, here we see one of the Chachamim verifying everything that we just said. Now, there is another Chacham, Rabbi Shlomo Kluger, in the book Al HaTorah, Parashat Bechukotai, who says there is no chance that a Jew doesn't do teshuva from love. Meaning, every Jew that does teshuva, if it's real teshuva, it's for sure from love. What's the re'ayah? What's the proof? He says, we learned this proof from the Rambam. We learned this proof from the Rambam. Where did we learn it from the Rambam? Look at the Hilchot of Gerushin, the laws of getting divorced. And Rambam says, what happens in chapter Bet, perek Bet, and says, what happens if the woman wants a get, but the husband refuses to give her a get. He wants to keep her a prisoner. Rambam writes halacha,

1:34:00You beat him up until he says, yeah, yeah, I want to give her a get. Until he wants to give her the get. So then Rambam says, what do you mean he wants to give her the get? He didn't want to give her the get until you beat him up. Rambam says, no, you don't understand. The neshama of a Jew is pure, it's good. The only reason he makes sins, the only reason that he says no to give his poor wife a get and move on with her life is because the Yetzer Hara took control of him. Once you beat up the Yetzer Hara senseless, the Yetzer Hara leaves. All you have left is the Yetzer Tov, and of course, the Yetzer Tov wants to do mitzvot. So from here, we see Rabbi Shlomo Kluger says that if a Jew does teshuva, surely he does it for ahava. But now you have a question. It's a big question. What's teshuva? Is teshuva just keeping Shabbat if you are still married to a goya? It's teshuva, you know, watching your brit, but you're not keeping Shabbat. It's teshuva, eating kosher, but only in your house, outside, sometimes. What is teshuva? Chavod, okay? If the Rambam says to...

1:35:21Right, because that person that does not want to give a get, he is holding somebody prisoner. He's holding his wife prisoner, meaning he's already defined as a Rasha. He's already defined as a Rasha. But furthermore, like I said, the Rambam answers that question. He says, the guy really wants to do teshuva. The guy really wants to give her a get. He just doesn't know it yet because he's so used to being a sinner. He's so used to his ga'ava. Now, what is teshuva? Who can tell me what teshuva is so we don't get off track? What is teshuva? If I start keeping Shabbat, is that teshuva or not? Part of it. If I start learning Torah every day, is that teshuva or not? Part of it. If I start watching my brit, watching my eyes, is that teshuva or not? But what if I only keep one of them? It's not teshuva. So what does that mean? Teshuva is in essence admitting that you're wrong. You're wrong in the things that you're doing. It's violating the mitzvot of Hashem. And you're going to start improving. But when, that's in essence the basic level definition of it. Changing your ways. That's what Chazal say that

1:36:41Person that has the desire to change. That's someone that's already starting as teshuva. But when is he considered a baal teshuva, a baal teshuva by the eyes of Hashem? So the Rambam writes there are four steps to teshuva. The first step: stop sinning. Stop driving on Shabbat. Stop stealing money. Stop yelling at people. Stop looking at women who are not your wife. Stop doing things that Hashem says not to do. and start doing things that Hashem said to do. Eat kosher, go pray with the minyan, and so on and so forth. So the first step, the Rambam writes, what is teshuva? Teshuva is you stop sinning, mainly. Mainly stop sinning. Second step, the second step is to make yourself a fence that protects you from those past sins. So if you know that in the past you liked to go to clubs, every time you drove by Lincoln Avenue, you ended up going to a club at some point that week, not just that day. You have to make yourself a fence. What's the fence? You are under no condition ever allowed to go to Lincoln Avenue. If somebody says, "I want to meet you at Lincoln Avenue," you have to say, "I'm sorry, I can't. Can you meet somewhere else?" You have to make yourself a fence to protect yourself. If you know that every time you hang out with certain types of people

1:38:07They convince you to cheat on your wife, cheat on Hashem, cheat on yourself, and all your teshuvah goes in the garbage. So what do you do? You decide, "I'm no longer hanging out with these people." Yeah, but they're my friends for 20 years. Okay, so they're your friends for 20 years. Thank you for being my friends for 20 years. I'll find new friends. Yeah, but there's nobody like them. That's perfect. That's the point. You find people that are not like them because they make you sin. So you have to abandon your ways, and you have to make yourself a fence. will protect you from your sins, things that you know that if you go next to it, you're gonna do something. You know that you are addicted to food, and you know that every time you drive next to McDonald's, you have to go inside and eat a Big Mac. You have to; it's like people who have never felt. What do you do? No, not allowed to go next to McDonald's or Burger King or whatever those restaurants are that sell treif. So that's the second step. First step is stop. Second step, make a fence. Third step, what's the third step? Third step is to think and meditate over all of the sins that you've made in your life, one at a time. You're not going to remember all of them in one shot. Hashem will only allow you to remember a set amount that you can handle without breaking, emotionally, physically and so on. Think about the sins that you've made in the past. You had an abortion, you wasted seed, you violated Shabbat,

1:39:31Wasted time instead of learning Torah, you played video games, and so on and so forth. And now, meditate over the past and say, 'HaKadosh Baruch Hu, I'm sorry. How much am I sorry? As much as you possibly need until you cry. How much do you cry? Until you stop crying. What if it takes me more than one time? Perfect, that means you're really doing teshuva, because that means you understand the sin.' And the fourth step is, Hashem testifies that you are a ba'al teshuva. Now, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter in the book of Or Yisrael has a question. He says, wait a minute. How could it be that he stopped the sin, put a fence around the sin, but only regretted it as the third step? That doesn't make any sense. He should regret it first, and that should lead him to stop. if you regret being with somebody, you're going to stop. And therefore, you're going to do teshuva, right? That's what a lot of people wait for. Like, no, I still like smoking. No, I still like him. No, I still like her. No, I still this, I still that. And they're waiting for everybody else to do teshuva before they do teshuva. No, my family hasn't done teshuva yet. How am I going to keep teshuva by myself? No, I don't know. How am I going to leave my girlfriend or my boyfriend? And so on and so forth.

1:40:53So the Rambam writes, the only way that you can do teshuva is if you regret it. But the regret has to be the third step, not the first step. Why the third step? Rabbi Yisrael Salanter explains something extraordinary. He says, when you make a sin the first time, you weren't really sure if it's allowed or not allowed. You thought it's not allowed, but you didn't necessarily know about all the punishments or whether it's going to happen or not. You heard the rabbi say that the Mechalel Shabbat loses the Olam HaBa, but you've never seen anybody lose the Olam HaBa. Everybody you know is still here. So what do you do? You fall for the trap of the Satan and you violate Shabbat. After you've done it one time, you see nothing happened. Hashem didn't kill you like it says in the Torah. So what do you do? You do it another time, just to check it out. Maybe the next week, maybe a month later, maybe when there's a party, maybe there's a wedding, whatever it is, you think, you know, I violated Shabbat in the past, nothing happened, so I'll do it again. It's not a big deal after all. Now the Gemara says, once a person makes the same sin twice, in his eyes, that sin has now turned into a heter. Meaning, in that person's mind,

1:42:09Driving on Shabbat is now no longer a big deal even though he learned his whole life that it is a big deal. He did it; nothing happened. He knows a bunch of people that did it; nothing happened. In his mind, it's not a big deal. Which means that one day, when he hears a shiur about Gehinnom, and that's where he's going if he doesn't do teshuva, or one day hears about how he's gonna lose all of his money, and that's what's gonna happen after he doesn't do teshuva for a certain amount of time, he gets scared. He gets scared. Why? He doesn't want this stuff to happen to him. It's fear. So he stops doing the sin. He doesn't stop doing the sin because he agrees that it's not allowed. Because until now, nothing happened. He does the teshuva. He stops sinning because he decided that it's not worth it to continue. He wants to be more righteous. He wants to be closer to Hashem. He wants to get more money from Hashem. He has problems in his life and so on and so forth. Therefore, the reason why he does teshuva is not because he really repented and is really scared of the punishment, but rather because he wants to be more righteous. Now, how does he get to a point where Hashem testifies that he's really a ba'al teshuva? Because if he continues this feeling that it's not a big deal, but he keeps Shabbat anyway, that's not teshuva. Most people today that keep Shabbat are not actually doing teshuva. They do nothing. They're not considered ba'alei teshuva. They're just considered robots that keep Shabbat.

1:43:37What happens? What happens, Rabotai, is once he follows step number two, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says, and he makes a fence, and he stops going to the parties, and he stops hanging out with certain people, because he knows if he continues hanging out with these people or going to clubs, he's never going to be more righteous. He's never going to be able to do teshuva. So what does he do? He stops going to those places. He puts a fence around the fence. once he is distant from the sin for an extended period of time, he finally realizes that he's been standing in manure his whole life. He's been standing in a place of sins his whole life, and he only thought it was allowed because nothing happened yet. But now he sees, as he learns more Torah and He's distanced away from the sin and develops a bias for the good versus a bias for the bad. He now realizes, "I don't want to do it." He regrets the sin. He starts crying. She starts crying that she walked around immodestly. She starts begging Hashem to forgive her. He starts begging Hashem to forgive him all the time, as often as they possibly can. And then Hashem says, "Ah, now you regret it. Now you are a baal teshuva. Now all of your sins are...

1:44:52have turned into mitzvot. That's what happens. So that means, Rabotai Yekarim, yes, you can get out of jail free for all of the past that you've done, but only if you do serious, serious teshuva to the point that you're disgusted from your past sins. If you still talk about your past like it's a good thing, you went out with different girls, you stole money. You did all these things that are against Hashem. If you're still proud of the past, that means you haven't reached level 3. You haven't regretted it yet. If you haven't regretted it yet, Hashem has not signed off on you being a Baal Teshuva yet. So this, Rabotai Yekarim, is one of the greatest Chidushim that a person can understand, but there's one little addition. In last week's parasha, or two weeks ago's parasha, Parashat Bereshit, we learned that The two brothers, the two sons of Adam HaRishon, didn't do so good. Why? Hashem punished one of them and said to him, "Why did you bring me garbage? You know, if you do Teshuva, I'll accept the Teshuva." But He allowed him to kill Hevel. Kayin didn't do good; he brought Him garbage because he was so arrogant. He thought Hashem would accept anything he wanted.

1:46:16Anything I give Him, He doesn't accept. Why? Nobody's giving Him anything anyway. Nobody's doing Kriyat Shema. Nobody's going to Yeshiva. Nobody's learning. Nobody's doing anything. So Hashem will accept whatever I give Him. So he gave Him a bunch of rotten fruit. Hashem rejected this korban. He says, "I don't want this. L'petach chatat rovetz, you're a sinner. If you stay this way, the sin will take over you." And that led him to do the next sin, which is to kill his brother, Hevel. Now, Hevel brought a good korban. After he saw Cain give the korban, Hevel brought the korban, but instead of Hashem rewarding him, what happened? He allowed Cain to kill him. Why did He allow Cain to kill Hevel? Cain did the wrong thing, Hevel did the right thing. Rabbi Ephraim says a chidush worth a million and a half dollars. He says if you notice, Hevel only gave the korban After Cain. Why? Because Cain, like his name, he's arrogant. He thought, I give Hashem whatever I want, He'll take it. Hevel was like his name, was like a nothing. He thought he was self-conscious, a lowly person, didn't think that he's good enough to give a korban to Hashem. Who am I to bring a korban to Hashem? Who am I to do a shiur Torah? Who am I to open a yeshiva? Who am I to help people do teshuva? Who am I? I'm a nothing. I'm a zero. I'm a loser.

1:47:42Hashem says to be humble when it comes to the mitzvot is good. But not to be humble to the point where it leads you to stop doing mitzvot. Where you show lowliness and you act like a loser, you're making other people not want to be religious. You're making other people not want to do teshuva. Why? Because you're nothing. You always say, people ask you, so how are you doing? Eh, you know, kaparat avonot. Oh, did you, everything okay with the cholent? Yeah, you know, we struggle. Everything okay with this holiday? Yeah, you know, holiday for people like us. Yeah, it's tough. All you do is complain. You are making the Torah smaller, uglier. And that is Chilul Hashem. And for Chilul Hashem, Rabotai Yekarim, Chilul Hashem, death penalty. Meaning that Chilul Hashem for being a lowly person when it comes to mitzvot, you don't think that you're good enough to do mitzvot, you don't think you're good enough to give a shiur to the kehillah, you don't think you're good enough to screen a movie to help them do teshuva, you don't think you're good enough to give out CDs, you don't think you're good enough to be an Eved Hashem, be even better, learn the entire shas, and so on and so forth. That's Chilul Hashem.

1:48:53Why? Because you're acting like a loser. Hashem didn't create losers. He created winners. Especially when it comes to the Torah, as it says in Divrei HaYamim 2, chapter 17, verse 6, "And his heart was very high in the ways of Hashem." Meaning, if you're doing what Hashem said, you have the full permission to be proud of it. Because you're doing the will of Hashem. But if you're doing your will, you're doing just whatever you want. No, that's ga'ava. It's no good. There's ga'ava that's allowed, ga'ava that's not allowed. How much is the one that's not allowed, not allowed? To the extent that it's even worse than the ga'ava of Kayin. Hashem killed Hevel, not Kayin. Even though Kayin was the murderer. He says making the Torah look bad is worse than murder. Like Chazal say. So if it's not the shame, this helps us cheer ourselves up and realize that it's on us to help Am Yisrael do teshuva, no matter where you started, no matter what you have, no matter nothing. Do the best you can with what you have. Baruch Adonai Le'olam. Amen ve'amen.