How To Convince HaShem To Keep You On Top Of The World

1:31We're closer to a monkey than we are to the shoe. Not even to Yaakov Avinu; to the shoe of Yaakov Avinu. Fourteen years without sleeping, he goes to yeshiva, seder. But then it says something scary: he goes to sleep. After fourteen years, you get kind of tired. Seder. Not bad. I'm tired after fourteen minutes; he's tired after fourteen years. Baruch Hashem. Seder. Seder. And it says here, in verse 12, "And he dreamt, and behold, a ladder was set upon the earth, and its top reached toward heaven. And behold, angels of God were ascending and descending on it." Vayachalom vehineh sulam mutzav artza verosho magia hashamaima vehinei malachei Elohim olim veyordim bo. Olim veyordim bo. Ascending and descending. Now my whole life, ever since I discovered that God was real when I was a little kid, I remember in school, we went to a little religious school, and they gave us a picture of Yaakov Avinu taking a nap on this rock.

2:54There used to be a few rocks that became one rock, and there's a ladder next to him. And there's a group of angels ascending and a group descending. That's what I thought. Why they're ascending and descending, who knows? Maybe they're playing or having fun. The Gemara, in Masechet Pesachim, page 68, and also in Masechet Chullin, both agree with each other. Reish Lakish says that if it wasn't written in the Gemara, we wouldn't be allowed to say it. What does it mean? Ascending and descending. The angels are going up and seeing Yaakov Avinu's face on the Kisei HaKavod. Wow! They come down to see who this person is. He seems to be sleeping.

3:56They go back upstairs to Shamayim and say, "Hashem, we should kill him. There's no sleeping for Kisei HaKavod. Yeah, but he was awake for 14 years." So what? So what that he was awake for 14 years learning Torah? That's what he was created for. So what that you learned 15 minutes or 15 hours and you gave tzedakah and you kept Shabbat? So what? That's what you were created for. Chazal say, meaning they are contemplating how to kill him. They're coming to kill him. And if it wasn't for the Shekhinah, if it wasn't for Hashem Yitbarach Himself, they would kill Yaakov Avinu. If Yaakov Avinu is being rebuked like this by the angels, I think we need to learn some Mussar. Now, what saved Yaakov Avinu? This week's Pirkei Avot. In the last couple of weeks, we've been learning what Hillel, Hillel and Shammai used to say. So, Hillel said the Mishnah last week, and he says another one this week. He was accustomed to say, the reason he says "he," is because it's the same person that said it in the previous Mishnah.

5:20I didn't understand it either. Don't worry, I can just make the sounds. Let's read in English so we understand. It was in Aramaic anyway. He was accustomed to say, "He who seeks renown loses his reputation. He who does not increase his Torah learning decreases it." He who refuses to teach Torah deserves death, and he who exploits the crown of Torah shall fade away. As we learned from the series so far, we see that each one of these verses, each one of these sayings, can be broken down and learned for 60 years, not 2 hours. For 60 years and we're still going to learn more from them. That's how much Mussar is in each one of these. We're going to try to learn for a little bit to see what it means here. So, Ilaylah is telling us, someone who is looking to build his reputation, "Hey, I learned some Torah, I know the whole Shas by heart." can be broken down and learned for 60 years, not 2 hours. Even after 60 years, we're still going to learn more from them. That's how much mussar is in each one of these. We're going to try to learn for a little bit to see what it means here. So, the mishnah is telling us, someone who is looking to build his reputation, "Hey, I learned some Torah, I know the whole Shas by heart,"

6:35I know this, I know that. He says, that's the person that Hashem is going to take that away from him. The very same wise man we talked about earlier says that pride comes before the fall. Before Hashem brings somebody down, He makes sure that they go all the way to the top. Why? Because the fall is much bigger. It's much more painful. You're forced to look up. If it's a little fall, you built your portfolio up. You went up from 800,000 to 1.1 million. You feel happy about yourself. You're smart. You're good-looking now too. Maybe you're going to buy a new car. Maybe you're going to throw a party this year. It's nice. Go down from 1.1 million to 900,000. Eh, okay, I can still keep the car. I'm not going to sell it. I can still... The extension on the house, I'm going to keep that too. It's no big deal. The party said, so we're not going to get a five-course meal. Let's just make it four. That's not what we're saying yet.

7:56Hashem says He's going to create an artificial bull market for 10 years, based on nothing. Similar to what we have right now, with absolutely no reason for the market to rise. Technology companies are being valued at 50, 100, 200 billion dollars for no justifiable reason. Even if they achieve the growth rates they project, they'll never truly be worth what they are valued at today. It's based on nothing, but people are making fortunes off of this. I bought the stock at 50, it went up to 200. The $800,000 portfolio is not 1.1 million. It's 3.5, 4, 5 million. Everyone's IQ went up with their portfolio. Everyone thinks they're smart. Everyone thinks, what am I wasting my time working a regular career? I should be a day trader, I should be a... Investor. I should be an advisor. I should tell all my friends to invest. I should start investing seminars and start teaching people how to become millionaires in the stock market. Leave my job and do this, everyone became smart. Hashem says, I'll take you from the little portfolio you had with the retirement account that you built for 30, 40 years, and you put everything, and I take it to 5 million.

9:22Now, if you do the right thing, and use the money for good, you give tzedakah, you bring more Torah to the world, then there's a reason that you gave Hashem to allow you to have this money. Because He didn't give you the money for you to have it. The whole reason why you have any money is for you to publicize Torah. To eat, obviously, you need to eat. But Yaakov Avinu also has to eat. Yaakov Avinu learned more Torah than us—14 years without sleeping. What did he ask? He says here in Parsha, Parshat Hashavua. He says here. In verse 20, then Jacob took a vow saying, if G-d will be with me, he's not even sure. He learned 14 years without sleeping. He's not even sure G-d liked his Torah. He's not sure. He goes, oh, maybe it's not enough. Maybe I should learn 15 years without sleeping.

10:38Maybe 16 years, maybe 30 years. If Hashem is going to be with me, if Hashem is going to give me any attention whatsoever, will guard me on this path, will protect me where I'm going, what do I want from Him? All I want from Him is to give me bread to eat and clothes to wear. He learned for 14 years without sleeping. All he's asking for is bread to eat and clothes to wear. We learned for 14 minutes, we went to Shiur Torah, and somebody tells me, listen, I listened to your whole shiur, the whole two hours. I said, okay, good, Baruch Hashem. He goes, yeah, but I was expecting a prize at the end. Yaakov Avinu was expecting clothes to wear and food to eat after 14 years. It's a little bit of a difference. So now if we do the right thing with the money, B'ezrat Hashem, Hashem is going to give us more. Not only is He going to give us more, but we become messengers for Hashem. However, if we do the wrong thing with the money, buying cars, houses, and having parties without purpose, there's no reason for Him to give it to us. And what happens is what happened to me. Ga'avat adam tashpilenu.

11:49Hashem uses pride, the very tool He created within us, to bring about our downfall. This calls for self-reflection. And from where do we learn this insight? We learn it from Hillel, Hillel HaZaken. Who was Hillel? Hillel was the nassi, the leader, the preeminent sage of his time. In Gemara Masechet Sukkah, page 28, it tells us about Hillel's students. He had 80 students. Eighty students, in a nice little kollel, who were students. Thirty of them deserved to have the Shekhinah rest upon them like Moshe Rabbeinu. Thirty of them were on the level, in their generation, of Moshe Rabbeinu. Another 30 deserved for Hashem to stop the sun in the middle of the sky for them, like He did for Yehoshua bin Nun. Yehoshua, Gedol Hador, right after Moshe Rabbeinu, Yehoshua bin Nun. 30 of them deserved the same privilege that Yehoshua bin Nun got. 30 of them. And 20 were beinonim, 20 were average. 20 were average. Let's see what these averages are.

13:12Do you know the names of these individuals? Huh? Do you know the names of these individuals? That's it. We know, it's all the Tannaim. The top student was Yonatan ben Uziel. The top student was Yonatan ben Uziel. The least of the students was Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. Every page in the Gemara was Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. You see his name. He's considered the least of them, or the lowest. What Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai knew is what he knew. He knew all the halachot, all the mishnayot, everything by heart, obviously—no books. There's no Oral Torah written yet at this point—everything by heart. All the halachot, all the mishnayot, all the gemarot, all the gematriot, all of the calculations needed to figure out the calendar. They didn't have nice calendars with a picture of a rabbi on every wall. No, they had to figure it out themselves. They had to bring people, they had to... See if the moon came out, if it didn't come out, calculations, a six-digit number, a lot of chochmah, a lot of wisdom to figure out the calendar. Do you know how to compute the calendar? You know all the Midrashim, all the Aggadot, all the stories behind the stories, all of the analogies, all of the small debates and the big debates that everyone would have had?

14:40Especially the ones by Abaye and Rava. Abaye and Rava, on every page in the Gemara, you see Abaye or Rava debating about everything. He knew all of them. But that's just average. This is the beginning. What else did he know? He also knew the language of all the angels. Apparently, the angels have a different language. He was able to speak to angels. But also, he knew the language of all the shedim, all the demons. And if that wasn't enough, he knew the language of all the palm trees. Which one of us knows how to speak to a palm tree? There are a bunch of them. There's one right next to my car; I want to tell it something. Anybody know how to talk to palm trees? This is the least of the students of Hillel HaZaken. He knew how to talk to palm trees. He knew how to talk to shedim, and he knew how to talk to angels. The top student, Yonatan ben Uziel, said that when he would study Torah, it would create a spiritual fire, such that if a bird flew over him, it would immediately burn up. Poor bird, engulfed in flame, as he learned Torah. So now, if you have students like this, who are you? If the least of his students is Rabban Yochanan...

16:03Who is Hillel? And Hillel is telling us, now that I'm at this top position, I'm telling you, that if I focus only on the fame and fortune, Hashem is going to use this to bring me down. Where did he learn it? From Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov Avinu got famous, and everyone found out, "Hey, you stole the fortune, the blessing from Esav." You're on the news, everyone knows, everyone's talking about you. If you take advantage of the fame only for your own interests, Hashem will use it against you. So, what do you do? Despite how big you are, you go to step number two. U'dei Ma'amad Yesaf. He who does not increase his Torah decreases it. He says, you want Hashem to keep you on top? You want Hashem to keep you rich? You want Hashem to keep you famous? You want Hashem to keep you where you are? Increase your Torah, my friend. My students, the least of them, knows how to talk to Shedim. He goes, yes, even you have to increase your Torah.

17:26That's what Hillel is teaching us here. If Hillel has to increase his Torah, given his status, then surely, what about us? How much Torah do we have to learn? Last time I checked, I don't know anybody who knows how to talk to shedim. I don't even know anybody who knows how to hold the halachot by heart. I look at Yalkut Yosef, and after 15 pages, I already think I'm a gadol hador. And then I look at, oh wait, there's another 40 volumes. So he says, you want to stay at the top, increase your Torah. This is why Yaakov Avinu, as soon as he ran out, he didn't go to Lavan. He says, if I want Hashem to protect me, I have to go to the yeshiva of Shem and Ever for 14 years to study Torah without sleeping. Because that's the only way I can justify Hashem protecting me. That's the only way I can justify Hashem giving me food and clothing. Not more—just food and clothing. Fourteen years of studying without sleeping.