Is Religion The Cause Of War?

0:04Religion is the root of wars and evil deeds. Wrong. People desecrating the Torah are the root of evil and wars. Because the Torah teaches morality. The Torah teaches ethics. The Torah teaches how to be good. Without the Torah, there's only evil. If you look at the world before the Torah, what did they have? Did they have ethics? Did they have morality? No, they had wars. They had people killing each other just to gain more land, just to gain more women, just to gain more money. is the root of evil and wars. Because the Torah teaches morality. The Torah teaches ethics. The Torah teaches how to be good. Without the Torah, there's only evil. If you look at the world before the Torah, what did they have? Did they have ethics? Did they have morality? No, they had wars. They had people killing each other just to gain more land, just to gain more women, just to gain more money, and unfortunately, the atheistic, anti-Torah, idolatrous world has continued to do that throughout all of history until today. Why does America go to war with Iraq, even though they're on the other side of the world? Why do they go to war with Afghanistan, even though they're on the other side of the world? Why did they go to war with Japan, even though they're on the other side of the world? It was all about land and power. just to gain more stuff. And unfortunately, the atheistic, anti-Torah, idolatrous world has continued to do that throughout all of history until today. Why does America go to war with Iraq, even though they're on the other side of the world? Why do they go to war with Afghanistan, even though they're on the other side of the world? Why did they go to war with Japan, even though they're on the other side of the world? It was all about land, power,

1:09and you know, immorality, and all types of desires for things that don't belong to somebody, but a lust to take it. That's what all of the wars are. It had nothing to do with religion. Japan did not attack America because of religion. America did not bomb Japan because of religion. It had nothing to do with religion. so if you look at what the Torah teaches, it tells the Jewish people we're not allowed to go to war just for the sake of conquering land. There were laws; there were wars that God told us to go take over Eretz Yisrael and the wars to defend ourselves. somebody comes to attack us. But even at the time of David HaMelech, we weren't allowed to just go to wars just to beat up somebody and conquer their land for no reason. We weren't allowed to go and take over the world, even though David HaMelech's (King David's) army was very powerful. In fact, at the time of his son Shlomo HaMelech (King Solomon),

2:22The whole world, the whole world followed what Shlomo HaMelech said. Now, Shlomo HaMelech didn't go fight with anybody. He never had a single war. He could have easily had domination of anybody he wanted and taken whatever he wanted, but he didn't. Why? Because the Torah doesn't teach us to go to war just to take stuff that doesn't belong to us. The Torah teaches us the opposite, teaches us that Hashem gave us something, that's what belongs to us, everything else other people have is theirs. It's not our business. Our business is to follow God. He gave us our small little piece of land. The rest of the world has the rest of the world. But interestingly enough, you'll see that the greatest civilizations—not greatest in goodness, but greatest in size, power, and impact on the world throughout all of history... whether it's the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Turks, the Spaniards, the Greeks, the Romans, or the rest of the barbarian nations of Germany for the last couple thousand years that started from the Roman Empire all the way until Nazi Germany. These are all barbarian nations, over 300 nations that combined. All of these great powers

3:39No matter what they had, you know, in the time of the Babylonians, they literally had world domination. In the time of the Greeks, Alexander the Great—he had world domination. He was so powerful that when he died, which was at a very young age because apparently his boyfriend killed him—he was married to a man, or he was dating a man; he was one of these LGBT supporters. Anyway, Alexander the Great died at a young age; I think he was like 35 or 36. But his power was so massive that his empire had to be divided into four different kingdoms, each ruled by a different king. But interestingly enough, no matter how much the Greeks had, no matter how much the Romans had, no matter how much the Babylonians had, or all of the others had, they always made the Jewish people an enemy. And they always went to fight them in Eretz Yisrael. Why? What do you care about the Jews? We've always been few. We've always been distant, secluded, but always against, why? Because it's not religion that rules the world. It's not religion that ruins the world. It's when people go against the Torah, that's what creates all the animosity. That's what creates all the hatred. When people see what the Torah says, they realize that if the Torah is right, that means that they are wrong. That means that their immorality, their adultery, their betrayal, their theft, their murders, their endless crimes, and complete lack of mercy and care for anybody else other than themselves is wrong.

5:01what the Torah says. They realize that if the Torah is right, that means that they are wrong. That means that their immorality, their adultery, their betrayal, their theft, their murders, their endless crimes, and complete lack of mercy and care for anybody else other than themselves is wrong. so what do they do? They fight against those people that are promoting the Torah. Who's promoting the Torah? Only the Jewish people. So that's why, even though Israel was a small piece of land or the Jewish people were always a small community in different parts of the world—in Morocco, in Libya, in Egypt, in Poland, in Ukraine, in different places around the world. Enemies as great as they were, even if they literally had world control, did everything in order to destroy this little Jewish community. Why? Because that little Jewish community reminded them that it cannot be that we are right and they are right. Either we are right and they are wrong, which means they're like animals, or...

6:21We are wrong and they're right. And if we're wrong, they're right. Why do we allow them to exist? They've always attacked us, and they've always murdered us, and they've always tortured us. But guess what? He protects us. Now, while He allows us to get hurt, to get killed, He'll never allow anyone to annihilate us. But those that go against us, eventually, He annihilates them. And that's why all of those nations that I mentioned, and even the ones that I haven't mentioned, that were great powers, where are they? In history books. You don't see them in the world today. There are no survivors with descendants and lineage from the Greek Empire. There's no survivors with descendants from the lineage of the Babylonian Empire or any of the other empires. All of them are gone. Who's left? The Jewish people. And the Jewish people will always be here, whether you like it or you don't like it. Now, if a person finds themselves hating the Jews without really having a substantial reason, like no Jew actually did anything wrong to you, then that means your hate is no different than all of these other empires, all of these other evil monsters that murdered their own people, raped their own people, stole from their own people, and did horrible things to their own people. It's not like these great empires were good to their own people.

7:29without really having a substantial reason, like no Jew actually did anything wrong to you. So that means that your hate is no different than all of these other empires, all of these other evil monsters that murdered their own people, raped their own people, stole from their own people, and did horrible things to their own people. It's not like these great empires were good to their own people. They were horrible to everybody else, including their own people. They killed their own kids. They killed their own wives. They stole people's belongings, even from their own family members. They did everything horrible to everybody. They were horrible to everyone. So when you see that you find yourself in line with a common hatred towards the Jewish people, ...and that common hatred was toward somebody that was evil to everybody else. The only thing that you should be questioning is yourself. What's your motivation? What's your motivation? Are you ethical like the Torah teaches? Are you righteous like the Torah teaches? Are you honest like the Torah teaches? No, but tzaddikim, the righteous among our nation, are. And there's no Gentile on planet Earth that could compete with the righteous Jewish people.

8:51No Gentile on planet Earth. Now, of course, there are some people who are Jewish, but they themselves go against the Torah. That's not who I'm talking about. People who are Jewish and go against the Torah sometimes are worse than other people, worse than even some of the worst Gentiles. And I've spoken about this extensively over the years. I have many lectures about it. If you compare yourself to those that follow the Torah, to the righteous Jewish people that follow the Torah literally, when you look at their life, their behavior, what they do for the sake of helping people, for the sake of respecting people, for the sake of simply contributing to society, no one can compete. Not even the best among the Gentiles can compete against even a single Torah scholar. that is following what he learns cannot compete. Why? Because that's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us. He gave us a rule book of how to be good. Without that rule book, no Gentile in the world would know how to be good. You understand? So even if a person doesn't understand and doesn't want to agree to the things that I'm saying, test it.

10:12Test it. Go take a trip to a religious Jewish community. Go to Bnei Brak. Go to Yerushalayim. To the religious community. Just walk around. You'll see things that you will never see in any other country. For example, somebody has a store. Let's say you have a store. Let's say you sell in your store whatever you sell. You sell games. You sell food. You sell whatever it is that you sell. sells before he buys the food, before he buys the toys, or whatever he's selling in the store? What's the first thing that he does, that he invests into the store before anything else? Security. He makes sure that he has a good door, a good lock, a good camera system, maybe even a security guard, right? In America, that almost doesn't matter anymore because over here in America, there's a new law. sells before he buys the food, before he buys the toys or whatever he's selling in the store, what's the first thing that he does? He invests into the store before anything else: security. He makes sure that he has a good door, a good lock, a good camera system, maybe even a security guard. Right? In America, that almost doesn't matter anymore because over here in America, there's a new law...

11:34where you're allowed to steal up to a thousand dollars. They go to stores, they bash all the windows in front of the employees in the middle of the day without even a mask. They smash everything, they take everything, they leave. America, it's pretty much allowed if you're one of these hoodlums that wants to destroy and still claim yourself to be a victim. You're allowed to do it in America, but in the rest of the world, this is usually not allowed. Either way, I could tell you for sure that the store owners did not plan on having such a law before they opened the store. Had they known that such a law would be enacted, not a single store in America would have been opened. You're at a point where now stores have to reinvent themselves in order to fight this new legal crime where people walk into the store without a mask, without guns, just take stuff off the shelves and walk out without doing anything. But in normal society...

12:35The number one thing that a person does is they get themselves a good door, a good lock, a good camera system, maybe even a security guard. Why? Because no matter what you're selling, you do not want people to steal it. Not during the time that you're not there, when it's night and you're sleeping, and not during the time while you are there. Your number one concern is theft—somebody stealing your stuff, right? that doesn't matter what country, whether you are from Uruguay, Brazil, Bangladesh, or Russia, whether it's Moscow with the high-priced stores or some of the other parts of Russia where you can pretty much buy everything for five bucks. It doesn't make a difference; you have protection—stores, doors, camera systems, security guards, somebody with a gun, somebody with a, you know—that's what you have. But if you go into different parts of the religious community, in Jerusalem, in Bnei Brak, in Mea Shearim, and other parts of the religious communities of Israel, what are you gonna see? You're gonna see that yes, you have some stores like that,

13:47They're just like everybody else. They have a door, they have a camera system, they have this. But you're also gonna see some actual businesses, real businesses operating without any of it, where the guy has a bunch of stuff outside. There is no storefront. There's just a bunch of stuff next to it. There is a box where anybody that wants to buy something... it's 100% honor system. There are groceries, all types of groceries. There's a price on everything. Anyone that wants to buy whatever they want to buy, they go, they pick whatever groceries they want, they take money out of their pocket, and they put it into a little box. There's no computers, there's no scanning, there's no weighing, there's nothing. It's 100% you know what you got—your yirat Shamayim, fear of God. guy that sells it, you know what he does? He studies all day, so he says, "Listen, I have to study Torah, but I also have to make money. So what am I going to do? I'm going to trust that Hashem is going to help me. How? I'm going to put my groceries outside with a sign, the prices for everything, and a little box, and then I'm going to go back to work." "Yeah, what about having a security guard or maybe somebody work for you?" "No, no, it's too expensive." "So what if people steal?" "They steal. Okay, maybe they need it more than I do."

15:12but you yourself are, uh, struggling, yeah, but you know he goes and learns Torah. People go to his little grocery store without a store, buy, put their money in the box, buy, put their money in the box. how he makes his money. This is not one store, not two stores, not three stores, not five stores. You'll see this in every religious community. They're selling books, they're selling groceries, all types of things. Now show me another nation that has such a thing that dares to do such a thing. People literally are scared to leave their bicycle without putting two or three locks on it. While they go check the mail or buy something from the store, they put two or three locks on it. Why? Because they know that if they leave that bike without a lock, somebody is just going to take it. Even if he doesn't need a bicycle, he sees a bicycle without a lock and steals it. Why? That's the nature of people who do not have the laws of God to guide them.

16:23you don't have the laws of God to guide you. That means that you are your own god, you are your own lawgiver, and you decide that you deserve somebody else's bicycle more than he does because you got to it first. You deserve somebody else's money because you cheated him out of it. This is why they allow themselves to steal from people without remorse. Look at how many degenerate YouTubers that got famous doing all types of stupid things on the internet, got millions of people to follow them, only to betray all of those people that followed them and supported them and watched their videos by promoting fake Bitcoins and cryptocurrency or other types of scams, just so they could get those people to fall for the scam, so they can enrich themselves. that got famous doing all types of stupid things on the internet, got millions of people to follow them, only to betray all of those people that followed them and supported them and watched their videos by promoting fake Bitcoins and cryptocurrency or other types of scams, just so they could get those people to fall for the scam, so they could enrich themselves.

17:26This is what people without a God do. This is what people without a Torah God do. Because they can say they believe in God, but it's not the God of Israel. Why? Because the God of Israel gave the Torah. And the Torah is the law. If a person does not follow the law of the God of Israel, then he's following somebody else's law. He's following his own law. and that will allow him to steal, because according to his laws, he's allowed to steal. That will allow him to lie, because according to his laws, he's allowed to lie. That will allow him to rape, that will allow him to murder, that will allow him to do whatever he wants. So you see, it's not religion that caused the wars and hatred in the world, but rather anyone that goes against the laws of the God of Yisrael, is the one who's declaring war against God and the rest of the world. Chai Reuven really wants to help people. And he's not like the typical rabbi who wants to; he genuinely wants to make people better human beings, better people as individuals. That's why I love his Mussar lecture. There are tons of lectures on YouTube where you can find any topic you want. But there aren't many rabbis who actually teach people to be better people.