Interesting Questions & Answers (Intermarriage, MaShiach, Amazing Story)

0:01Go ahead. Okay, so the first question, I'm wondering if because we weren't supposed to, or Jews weren't supposed to marry Ammonites and... Moabites. Moabites. Yes. Is it possible that that's why we have secular Jews today? Is that, or is it impossible because Hashem did not allow it? Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay, so the first question, I'm wondering if because we weren't supposed to, or Jews weren't supposed to marry Ammonites and Moabites. Moabites. Yes. Is it possible that that's why we have secular Jews today? Is that, or is it impossible because Hashem did not allow it?

1:16No, I mean, obviously, there are definitely people who went off the derech. There's definitely, you know, in the parsha it also talks about the concept of a mamzer. A mamzer is not a child, like a lot of people think a mamzer is a child that's out of wedlock, like a bastard in English, but it's not. A mamzer comes from a relationship that's never going to be allowed, meaning a relationship that's from incest or a relationship with a goy and a married woman, you know, adultery, and a son comes out of it, that's called a mamzer. And that mamzer is going to be a mamzer forever. Is intermarriage considered mamzer? No, it's not considered as mamzer. the father is Jewish but the mom is not, those kids are not considered Jewish according to Halacha, even if the kids or the mom convert later on. This is because, at the time of their conception, the Jewish status of the mother determines the Jewish status of the children.

2:31Those kids, let's say the father is Jewish, but the mom is not Jewish. And let's say one day, you know, one of the kids converts to Judaism. The kids, not the mom. The mom converts, doesn't convert, doesn't matter. Even if the mom converts, those kids are still not his. Because at the time they were conceived, spiritually, biologically, obviously they're his. and he would be responsible for them financially for the rest of, you know, however much time they have. But spiritually, they're not. Meaning, for the purpose of piryah u'reviyah, for the purpose of fulfilling the mitzvah of, you know, multiplying, they're not considered a mitzvah. And on top of it, they're actually considered a sin. This is no fault of their own; this is his fault. But, It's such an issue that according to the Torah, if one of those kids grew up one day, and the girl wanted to convert, and she converted, she became Jewish, and she wanted to marry her father, her biological father,

3:46According to the Torah, she would be allowed. The sages don't allow it because it would look disgusting and awful to the Gentile nations. It would look like we're having incest with our own kind. But according to the actual Torah, it would be allowed. That's to show what Hashem views because Hashem views us as, you know, our neshama, not our body. Like mankind views each other through our body. We don't view each other through our soul. Even if there's complete ignorance on the side of the person that's Jewish, to the fact that they were Jewish. They didn't know they were Jewish. They find out that they're Jewish, and then they're still staying healthy. Yeah, again, it's not the same level of sin. It's not like we were talking about before. If someone is wasting seed on purpose, it's the worst possible sin there is, and they go to the worst possible place there is. If someone wastes seed unintentionally to the point where they just do it, not even through their own actions, but when they were sleeping, and then they're still staying healthy. Yeah, again, it's not the same level of sin. It's not like we were talking about before. If someone is wasting seed on purpose, it's the worst possible sin there is, and they go to the worst possible place there is. If someone wastes seed unintentionally to the point where they just do it, not even through their own actions, but when they were sleeping,

4:50Not everybody has control over their sleep. It's still a sin. It's nowhere near the same level of sin, but it's still a sin nonetheless. The same thing applies to the person who was an anus. It's called anus. Well, actually, not anus in the case where they were clueless. If they knew they were Jewish but didn't know much about Judaism, then yes, it's definitely a sin. However, if they didn't even know they were Jewish at all, it would be a different situation. If they denied they were Jews, but they knew they were Jewish, obviously Hashem knows the truth. If they didn't even know they were Jewish, they were born in some jungle, and their best friends were a monkey and a wolf. And one day they came to civilization, and civilization says, "Oh yeah, you're the boy we've been looking for for the last 20 years. Look, here's your picture as a baby. Here's you, you're Jewish." "Oh, really? Yeah, who's your father?" "Oh, it's Rabbi Samhon." "Oh, okay, that guy, whatever sins he made for the first 20 years of his life, he can't be, it's not even a sin."

5:51Why? Because he didn't even know anything. He was an animal. But the person who knows they're Jewish but doesn't know anything about Judaism is worse. A person that knows he's Jewish but is ignorant about it, he's ignorant about it by choice. He's ignorant. Just like he spent years and years studying for his profession that's going to survive 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years. Why couldn't he spend an hour finding out about his eternity? So yes, he's not at the same level as the highest level of sin, where someone knew and did it anyway, meaning someone that knew it's a sin to be intermarried and still did it. But it's still a sin. They can still do teshuva. They can still, you know, fix their eternity. But this obviously is going to leave some scars. Why couldn't he spend an hour finding out about his eternity? So yes, he's not at the same level as the highest level of sin, where someone knew and did it anyway, meaning someone that knew it's a sin to be intermarried and still did it. But it's still a sin. They can still do teshuva. They can still, you know, fix their eternity. But there are obviously going to be some scars. Next question was, in the parasha I was talking about hanged men being cursed. Does that apply to, let's say, the lynchings that we did in our country? No, the hanged men being cursed, meaning, it's in the beginning of the parasha, we mentioned it, is that... Being cursed? No, not the hanged men. The hanged man is not being cursed. It's meaning that Hashem is telling us that we have to bury the bodies...

7:12is to bury the bodies after we hang them. When someone was stoned, let's go back from the beginning. When someone was stoned, after they were stoned, they were hung also. Okay? After they were stoned, they were hung also. After they were hung, the mitzvah is to bury them that night. We were talking about the proof against Christianity, that you have to bury them that night. And you have to bury them that night because Hashem considers it a curse to to keep them not buried that night, meaning that Hashem considers it a personal insult against Him, Himself, if you don't bury that person, because even though Hashem was the one that decreed that this person should be hanged, because he did some type of major sin, he still is a creation. He still was created in the image of God. And you're still not allowed to disrespect the body. Even the dead deserve respect. So it's not that the body is cursed. It's that it says in Devarim (Deuteronomy) chapter 21 verse 23, "And..."

8:42So it says, his body shall not remain for the night on the gallows; rather, you shall surely bury him on that day, for a hanged person is a curse of God. ...and you shall not contaminate your land, which Hashem, your God, gives you as an inheritance. So, like I said, the Ramban explains it, and also the Meshech Chochmah mentions it, that it's not necessarily that the person is cursed; it's that Hashem is saying that He would consider it a curse. Next. Just a last question. No, ask as many as you want. I'm not in a hurry. The two, where it says that if a man has two wives, one loved and one not, that doesn't apply to Yaakov and Esav and Yitzchak and Yishmael because it's only related to if you marry someone through

9:42War after war, like, right? It's not... Right, well, two things. One is that, you know, Yaakov, Esav, Avraham, Yitzchak, all of them, they lived before we got the written Torah. So a lot of the mitzvot did not apply to them to the same extent. Even though they kept most of them anyway, because they had the Oral Torah already, they were allowed to do certain things we were not allowed to do. So, for example, we're not allowed to marry sisters. But Yaakov was married to sisters. But Chazal says, because... Hashem did not want it to ever look like Yaakov sinned inside the land of Israel. Right before he entered the land of Israel, Rachel died. So even though technically it wasn't a sin for him,

10:44Still, it could be viewed at some point down the road in a different generation that maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, really, it's not. The point is that Hashem made it so that certain things worked out to that extent. But nonetheless, they were not obligated by the same level of mitzvot as us because they lived. Many, many generations before the Torah was given. As far as these two wives are concerned, as I mentioned before, according to the Torah, a Jew is allowed to marry more than one wife if the original wife permits it. But that's only in previous generations. It's no longer allowed already for a few hundred years, maybe more than that, actually. And it's not allowed in our generations. It is still being done in a few countries in the world that haven't been involved with the rest of the world, for example, Yemen.

11:46There are still some Jews in Yemen who do many things that we do not. This is because there is no such thing as modern technology there. There are no TVs, no computers; it's a third-world country. They are completely disconnected from the world. According to many sources, there has never been a Jew in the history of Yemen who violated Shabbat, ever. You know, there's also a few other places, like, for example, there's these Pathans in Afghanistan that, according to their sources and according to research, they could very well be one of the Lost Tribes. And there are millions of them. Some estimates say as low as 6 million, while others say as much as 16 million. They keep the laws of the Written Torah in an extraordinary way, including practices such as shechita (ritual slaughter), brit milah (circumcision), family purity, and so on. In those places, they likely also fulfill the mitzvah of marrying more than one woman.

13:04because they were not part of the rest of the world that had this additional decree that said it's no longer allowed. Yeah, you can find it. There's a rabbi called Rabbi Kin. Eliyahu Kin. He's a genius. Speaks at least five languages, if not more. Perfectly. Like, perfect. Like, high level. He is a huge Talmid Chacham. Reminds me of Zamir Cohen. Rabbi Zamir Cohen. English version. Has very, very interesting shiurim. He's based out of California. He also actually did a Shabbaton at the place in Phoenix that I just did recently. Big talmid chacham. And he has a shiur called, I think it's called The Ten Lost Tribes. where he talks about the lost tribes, and he also shows a movie that was made by this, uh, other guy, uh, who was actually at that event. They believe in the Jews that, uh, found these people—these different people throughout the world—showing that they are being uncovered now, which actually also reminds me about some developments. If you guys remember a few weeks ago...

14:31I told you there could be a big thing happening. Oh, there was a big thing happening where this king from Africa was introduced to the world by Rabbi Daniel Assor, and he expressed his desire to convert and to have his people convert as well. I mean, there are other... African kings also, but nonetheless, this one particular guy was very impressive because he claimed to be the king of all the kings in Africa. And he went to Rav Kanievsky, got a blessing from Rabbi Auerbach, and he went through a few of the Gedolei HaDor. a few of the Gedolei HaDor to get their approval to publicize this and so on, and it looked great. It was recently discovered, about a week ago, that unfortunately, he's a charlatan. Unfortunately, he's a liar.

15:48This King Hai, this King Hai is a complete liar. He is not really interested in Judaism. He was interested in gaining fame so he could use Judaism to promote Christianity and idol worship. He is Zevel Shel HaOlam, which translates to garbage of the world. and he fooled a lot of people, including some very smart tzaddikim. But nonetheless, this actually is a further proof that we are in messianic times, that we are in the days of Mashiach, because this is exactly... What they said is going to happen. It's to such an extent that some of the sages said it's going to be so much confusion at the end of times, it'll be even hard to stay religious. That's how confusing it's going to be. Very, very confusing times. A lot of confusion is going to be in the world, and this is one of them. And just so you know, he actually is claiming to be the Mashiach now. Two stars.

17:02This guy, this high guy, yeah. He's high, I think, is what's happening. So he's claiming to be a Mashiach, and unfortunately, unfortunately, he's got at least two very religious Jewish women fooled. They became his assistants, and they actually believe he's the Mashiach. Maybe Yitzhak Shapiro is working for him, too. Yeah, Shapiro probably, yeah, that guy, yeah, Yitzhak Shapiro is probably working for me. Who knows? Unfortunately, yeah, this is sad. But again, this is why we have to be glued to Torah. We can't really focus on any of these other things. It's going to be, you know, Rambam says, we're only going to know what's going to happen in the days of Mashiach once they happen. Everything else, as far as timing, as far as who, as far as names, as far as what, and when, and all that other stuff, it's all speculation. I have a lot of respect for some rabbis that are saying some things about the Mashiach, but this is not Da'at Torah. I personally also think that, and I think everyone thinks, the Mashiach is coming soon.

18:16Could be tomorrow, could be next year, could be five years from now, twenty years from now, could be whenever. I think he's coming sooner than anyone thinks, probably. Rabbi Alon Anava thinks he's literally coming, I think, next year or something; he's mentioned it in a lot of lectures, or he says it's very, very likely that he's coming next year. The point is that we don't know; no one knows when he's coming. And it doesn't really make a difference. It doesn't make a difference. Why? Either way, you have to do teshuva. Either way, you have to be religious. Whether he's coming in a year from now or in five years from now, you're going to need every minute of that time to do teshuva. If it's five years from now, you have five years to do teshuva. And hopefully, you make it. And I'll leave you guys with one story to give you a little bit of an understanding of what real teshuva is. I'll give you an understanding of what... If you understand the story, then maybe you have begun your teshuva. If you don't understand the story, then you haven't begun your teshuva. I mentioned Rabbi Nissim Yagen a lot. Rabbi Nissim Yagen, Zecher Tzadik Livracha,

19:34huge tzaddik, huge talmid chacham, huge, giant. On top of all of it, top of being a tzaddik, top of being a Talmid Chacham. He was the number one rabbi of Zikui HaRabim in the world when he was alive. Number one. There was nobody who could challenge him. There are communities, communities in New York, in Israel, in different places that he built. In other words, like he helped this guy do teshuva, that guy do teshuva. So with communities, like in New York, for example, where my parents live in Staten Island, there's a whole community in Willowbrook, the whole community he built. Everyone's religious, religious, like frum, black and white, as you can get. He built the whole community. The whole community he built. Everyone's religious because of him. Amazing. Powerful speaker. Personally, I mean, I've been a professional speaker for many years. I've heard a lot of speakers. I appreciate speakers. Aside from Torah, I appreciate speakers. Personally, I think he's the best speaker of all time about any subject. He's amazing. On top of all that, he was a huge, huge, huge 'chomer' (personality). Now, I heard this story when I was in Phoenix.

20:57From someone that was at this lecture, someone that saw this, meaning this is coming first-hand, not coming from Rabbi Yisrael again. It's coming from somebody that was there. He says we went to a seminar. Listen to this story. This story could change your life. For this story, I think it was worth coming. We went to a seminar. Rabbi Yisrael again, on Shabbaton. In a hotel, Rabbi Yisrael again was powerful. His speech, his words, everybody was really into it. And this was towards the end of his life, misken. He died relatively young from cancer. And this is someone that's like, mamash, like the G'dolei HaDor, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef would call him a star. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef called him a star. All of the Gedolei HaDor showed up at his funeral, crying, hysterical. Crying. Gedolei HaDor most don't even, you know, they don't know every single person who does Kiruv. They all showed up and cried at his funeral, just to show you. So he says at the Shabbaton, this was towards the end of his life, he was very, very sick. Very sick. Us, we have a headache, we don't want to go to a shiur Torah at all. He was sick with cancer, dying. He had a Shabbaton.

22:22Just to give you an idea, a Shabbaton is non-stop lectures. Non-stop. Morning, night, afternoon, in between the afternoon and the morning and the night and everything. Everybody eats, you do a lecture. I went to Phoenix, and from the minute I landed, we had a break for a few hours. Started talking and didn't stop from Friday night until Monday morning when we got back on the plane. I think we did 9, 10, 11 lectures, whatever it was. But Baruch Hashem, it's a lot of work. But Shabbat Shalom, a lot of good results. A lot of people doing teshuva, conversion, and so on. so this guy tells me, we went to a Shabbaton with Rav Nishmi again. It's powerful, everyone is pumped up, really excited, really getting closer to Hashem. Some people are secular, some people are religious. And then he says, one day, one of the days, Before he starts talking, we just see him, he's just sitting over there at his table, you know, and everybody's gathered. The crowd sits, and he's waiting for them to start talking, to give one of the lectures. A minute passes, two minutes pass, then you see him looking, just looking, looking, okay? And you start seeing him cry, hysterically crying. When he sees me again, he starts hysterically crying.

23:49He tells the crowd, "Pray for me, please pray for me. I'm going to meet my Maker soon, I'm going to meet Hashem." The crowd starts crying; the crowd is in shock. They say, "Most of us didn't even start doing teshuva yet. We kept this Shabbat, and we're already thinking we're going to Gan Eden. This tzaddik..." His connection to Hashem, I don't know how you can get more. Does he quit Harabim when he has cancer? He has cancer, and he doesn't quit Harabim. Does he quit when he has cancer? And he says, pray for me, because I'm going to meet Hashem soon. Because he's scared. Because he doesn't know how his judgment is going to be. Do you understand what this... I heard this, I got goosebumps. The guy is telling me, we all started crying. If he's worried about his judgment, what about us? He's worried about his judgment. We just start keeping Shabbat, we do Tefillin for five minutes, the short version. He's on a different level. Do you understand what's going on here?

25:19Do you understand? Once you know, once you know what it means to meet your Creator, then you start doing teshuva. Then you start doing teshuva. And still, you start thinking about, what's it going to be? What's it going to be to meet my Creator? You haven't started. Why? Look at the entire Torah. David HaMelech, Shlomo HaMelech, all the tzaddikim, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Moshe Rabbeinu—every single person in the Torah mentions the day that they're going to meet Hashem. Every one of them. There's no writing that doesn't mention the end of this life. We don't like to talk about the end of this life in this world. In the secular world, they don't want to talk about that. They want to talk about, "No, no, no, it's either good here or good in Olam Haba." They don't want to talk about the actual in-between. But this is the thing: one day you're going to go meet Him. What are you going to say? "I didn't know, I wasn't sure, I had some questions." What are we going to say? What are you going to say? I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to say.

26:33When I heard this story, I knew even less than I thought I knew before. I think if I would have heard this story before the Shabbaton, I don't know if I would have been able to do the Shabbaton. I don't know. For me, it shocked me, this story. I'm missing again. Scared of meeting Hashem? If I was missing again, I'd be excited to meet Hashem as soon as possible. Look what I did. Look how many people I helped do teshuva. he knows. He knows. The fact that he's worried shows that he knows. The fact that we're not worried shows we don't know. You understand? We're hoping that Hashem has a lot of mercy on us. A lot of mercy on us because there's no other way. No other way. But listen. The fact that you guys are coming to shiurei Torah at 10, 11, 12, 1 o'clock in the morning, learning Torah, obviously shows that There's a lot of love. There's a lot of love in you for Hashem. You're looking for the truth. You're trying to fulfill the truth. You're doing great. You're doing amazing. Keep going. Keep going. This month, Rosh Chodesh, you know, in Chodesh Elul, you've got to get stronger than ever. Your surroundings, the people, the friends, the family, and everything else, try to grab anyone you can with you. If they're not coming, move on.

27:48Unless you have no choice. Unless it's your kid and he lives in your house. Unless it's your husband and he has no idea why he's even alive, you know? If you have a choice, if it's a friend, then find a new friend. But if you don't have a choice, and you're stuck with this person one way or another, do whatever you can. Get them in. Get them in. Get them in one way or another. Bring them here. being here will do private sessions, we will do whatever we can to answer questions and debates. But right now is when we have to wake up because the way it looks, with all of this stuff that's happening, honestly, if I would be, if this guy from Africa continued to be publicized as a Jew, or someone wants to convert and everything else, I don't think I would be as confident that the Mashiach is around the corner as I am now. The fact that he says that he's fake, or that everybody says that he's fake. How did they catch him red-handed? They saw that Rav Asor saw that he's still violating Shabbat. He saw in his text that he was still posting texts on WhatsApp

29:07on Shabbat. Because, you know, you have a time stamp. You have a time stamp. He's dumb, that king. Huh? He's dumb. Of course he's dumb. All of these kofrim are dumb. Who's a kofer that's smart? Who's a heretic that's smart? Show me one guy that's a heretic and smart at the same time. You're dumb. So yeah, he saw that he was violating Shabbat still. Then he was also saying weird things. He started saying weird things about how, you know, some different things that sound like witchcraft that he was doing. And then he started saying that Hashem spoke to him. and rather so as a when it should speak to you exactly when it is. I was there when it spoke to you. You were at my house for three months. When did he speak to you? He saw that he started to create things. He's getting into the heim. Well, that's the thing also that they say. In the beginning, he said he was very rich. Then he's not rich, or maybe who knows what he is. The point is that... The story is problematic. The whole situation is not good. So now they're trying to undo what has already started because he has already begun gaining some fame in Israel and around the world as someone who supposedly...

30:27going to be a big Jew, and he's going to convert people, and so on and so forth. They're trying to undo it. But this Rasha is now trying to use the credibility that they already gave him and use it. So he has some lectures that he booked in London in the name of the rabbis, even though the rabbis are not okaying it. And these two women who are Jewish are falling for this trick, unfortunately. And I'm sure other people are falling for the trick also. The thing is, the problem is that some people want the Mashiach so badly that they're willing to go against the Torah to do it. They're willing to cancel the entire Torah, just to hear that Mashiach is here. You must realize that the Mashiach, the only reason why Mashiach comes is for the Torah, not to cancel the Torah. But that's what happens sometimes. People get stuck on this whole Mashiach situation and they forget the Torah. You know, and this is actually also what happened with Christians. They say, no, no, no, he's the Mashiach, he's the Mashiach, he's the Mashiach. Before they said he was God. When they realized he's not God, they say, okay, now he's the Mashiach. And, okay, he's the Mashiach, okay, but he violated the entire Torah. No, no, but he's the Mashiach. Okay, but he violated the Torah. The Mashiach can't violate the Torah. One of the main things about the Mashiach is that he is going to be completely righteous.

31:52So that's the thing. Torah comes before everything. Torah is more important than everything. Torah is more important than Mashiach. Torah is more important than Am Yisrael. Torah is more important than anything else. More important than anything else. It was created before everything else. Hashem put Himself in the Torah. A piece of Himself is inside the Torah. Each one of the letters in the Torah is considered one of Hashem's names. Each one of these, you know, the Hebrew alphabet, each one of the letters used in the Hebrew alphabet to write the Torah is considered by itself, just the letter, not the whole name. Each, just the letter, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, all of the letters, 22 letters, each one of them is considered Hashem's name. That's how holy the Torah is. Hashem put Himself inside the Torah. The Torah is more important than everyone else. More important than everyone else. If the biggest tzaddik in the world, if Eliyahu HaNavi, Eliyahu HaNavi, Eliyahu HaNavi, who never died, comes and tells you that you don't have to keep Shabbat anymore, you must reject him on the spot. No, no, even if it's him, even if it's not going to be Eliyahu HaNavi, but even if it's him, even if Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Rabbeinu comes and says you don't have to keep Shabbat anymore.

33:17Torah is above all. Torah is above everything. You understand? So there's no such thing as Mashiach being above anything. Mashiach is a messenger of Hashem. He is one of the tools Hashem is going to use. If we focus only on the Mashiach, we're bound to fall for this stupidity that we fell for many, many times, and people much smarter than us fell for. Focus on Torah, focus on Torah. Whenever the Mashiach is going to come, he's going to come. We're going to know it. And that's why I have a hard time. Someone asked me a question. I'll finish with this point. Someone sent me a question. Seems like a Talmid Chacham who knows a lot of Torah. He says, you know, there are some sources that say that Messianic times are not going to be so miraculous. It doesn't have to be so miraculous. The Rambam and a few other sources say that it could be that Mashiach just shows up one day and just makes people religious. It doesn't say exactly that, but let's say it does. It doesn't necessarily have to have all these miracles. Which is true. It doesn't necessarily have to have all these miracles.

34:23But for me personally, it's harder to believe, harder for me to believe that it's not going to be even bigger than Yetzias Mitzrayim and Har Sinai, than anything else. Why? Because Yetzias Mitzrayim, Har Sinai, Matan Torah, were the biggest events in history, as it says in the Torah. Mashiach is going to be bigger. So how can you make a bigger event? What, a private session? He just shows up to our shiur Torah and says, "By the way, guys, I'm Mashiach. Let's go." Plus, when he speaks, his words are going to destroy. Right, so it's hard for me. I never read this source that says it doesn't have to be miraculous. But Gog u'Magog, that's completely miracles. The entire nation leaving, all the countries going to Israel. That's all miracles. I don't really understand what people mean when they say it doesn't have to be miraculous. Like some people even say that, oh, and he just shows up on a little, you know, white donkey or something, a little homeless guy. And, you know, he says, hey, I'm the Mashiach. Hi, guys. Come on. You really believe it's going to happen?

35:37It's going to have to be something major. It's going to be, you know, it's not some guy, some little guy with a beard saying, "Hey guys, I'm Mashiach." It has to be like, it's going to be craziness. Craziness in the world. Why? Because Hashem has to make it indisputable. Meaning, everyone is going to know. No soul in the world, no animal, no living being, no bug, no human, no heretic, nothing. Everyone must know because this will be the culmination of the world. So to say that it's not going to be miraculous is crazy to me. It happens soon, but the teshuva that we need to do... The real teshuva happens sooner. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen.