KNOWING THE TRUTH IS NOT ENOUGH

0:55Point is that you want to ask these questions because you want to answer the safek (doubt) that you have inside you. Because if a person is a real person, if you're an honest person, an intellectually honest person, then once you've answered all of the doubts that you have, at least the main ones about HaKadosh Baruch Hu, about Am Yisrael, about the Torah itself, once you know the Torah is from Hashem, then it becomes clear... Once you know that Hashem is real, then if you continue violating Shabbat, you're simply crazy, and we should just put you in a mental institution. Why? Think about it. If a king of flesh and blood came over here and said to you, "Listen, if you raise your right hand, I'm going to kill you," how many of you are going to raise your right hand? No one. Why? Because you don't want to die. This means that if we know that Hashem Yitbarach is the one who wrote the Torah, and He is real, and the Torah is real, then everything written in it is significant and must be adhered to. The Torah commands us on issues like modesty, instructing us not to walk around immodestly. It tells us to avoid intermingling with goyim and forbids the consumption of non-kosher food. The Torah also enjoins us not to violate Shabbat and many other commandments. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu authored the Torah and it outlines these directives, only someone lacking awareness or understanding would choose to transgress them.

2:25Now, we don't live in a generation of crazy people. We live in a generation of ignorant people. The vast majority of people are ignorant. They simply don't know. Either they don't know at all if the Torah is real, or they don't know at all if Hashem is real, or they know that Hashem is real and the Torah is real, but they don't know that the punishment part is real. They don't know that when Hashem wrote all of the punishments in the Torah, He was serious. They think, "Yeah, listen, if you keep Shabbat, you're a tzaddik; you don't keep Shabbat, you're still okay." Why? Because sometimes you have people that call themselves rabbis who tell you stuff like that just because they want your money. So they want to make you feel good about yourself, so they call you a tzaddik for no reason. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says who's a tzaddik and who's not a tzaddik. The Torah clarifies who's a tzaddik and who's not a tzaddik. They think, yeah, listen, if you keep Shabbat, you're a tzaddik, but if you don't keep Shabbat, you're still okay. Why? Because sometimes you have people that call themselves rabbis who tell you stuff like that just because they want your money. So they want to make you feel good about yourself, so they call you a tzaddik for no reason. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says who's a tzaddik and who's not a tzaddik. The Torah clarifies who's a tzaddik and who's not a tzaddik. He says who I love and who I hate. There are some people that Hashem hates and there are some people that Hashem loves. He doesn't love everyone. Anyone that tells you that Hashem loves everyone is lying to you. Why? Because the entire Torah describes the people He loves and also the people He hates. But sometimes you have difficult people, there aren't that many, but unfortunately, enough to drive you crazy, that even if they hear the truth, even if they know that Hashem is real, even if they know that the Torah is real, they still resist.

3:48Even if they know that, you know what, yes, there's punishment, but I'm not ready for it, Rabbi. I'm not ready to keep Shabbat yet. I'm not ready to leave my girlfriend Christine. I'm not ready to leave my boyfriend Jose. I'm not ready because I like him. He makes me happy. Yeah, but he's not Jewish. He's not going to make you happy in Ge'enom. I'm not ready. Oh, you're not ready? Okay. So when are you going to be ready? Oh, later on. How do you know you have later on? Who promised you later on? Who promised you're going to live until next week? Who promised you're going to live until next month? Who promised you're going to live 120 years? Even though it says on the birthday cakes "until 120," who promised you're actually going to live that long? It's only a cake. Sometimes there are certain people who are so delusional that even if they know the truth, unfortunately, they still violate it. And we have examples of this in our Torah. In last week's parashat Korach... The time of Korach, all of Am Yisrael saw miracles that no other nation, no other people have ever seen before. They literally saw HaKadosh Baruch Hu open the heavens and show them what's there. They saw Hashem split the ocean into twelve. They saw Hashem turn the biggest, strongest civilization that ever existed, the Egyptians, into nothing.

5:13But yet, they unfortunately had a few reshaim among them, a few wicked people among them. In last week's parasha, we had two people called Datan and Aviram. And Datan and Aviram, even after Moshe Rabbeinu came to them and he said, listen, you know that Hashem is real. You saw what He did to the Mitzrim. They said, yeah. He said, you know Hashem split the Yam Suf. They said, yeah, we were there. You know that Hashem just gave us Matan Torah, opened all the heavens, everything. You saw everything, right? You saw His voice, not just heard it. Every time Hashem spoke, there were words in the sky. You saw the voice and everything. And yet, you're still going against Him? You're still going against Hashem? As it says about Datan and Aviram, "V'ya'alu me'al mishkan Korach, Datan v'Aviram, m'saviv..." Datan and Aviram went out defiantly at the entrance of their tents with their wives, their children, and their infants. Datan and Aviram went out erect at the entrance of their tents with their wives, children, and infants. Meaning, after Moshe Rabbeinu told them the whole truth and said, "Listen, do teshuva, stop it, stop messing around. Hashem is not your friend. He's God." They went out with their heads held high. No, nothing's gonna touch me. What are you talking about me? No, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm a tzaddik. They made their own rules. They made their own Torah.

6:34They went out arrogantly, even though they knew the truth. And their end wasn't pretty. HaKadosh Baruch Hu opened the ground, swallowed them, put them into Gehinnom, and they will never ever see the light of day. Why? They knew the truth, and they still violated. So now, Rabotai HaYekarim, what we try to do, before we start questions, what we try to do is to enlighten you, Everyone else that's watching and will watch in the future, are here to observe with what Hashem said. We're not judges; we're not a jury. The reality is that everyone here is obligated to learn what the truth is. What you do with it? That's your business. You listen to the truth; you're a very smart person according to Hashem. You don't listen to the truth; you're a very foolish person according to Hashem. Because you listen, there's reward; if you don't listen, there's punishment—not only in the next world, but here, too. You see, all of the people who live without Hashem, not only do they have problems like everybody else, but they have problems worse than everybody else. Worst of all, they have a meaningless life. They have no hope, no dreams, and that's why the suicide rate in the secular world is exponentially higher.

7:54Exponentially higher than the religious world. Very, very rarely do you ever hear of a religious person committing suicide? Very rarely do you ever hear of a religious person getting a divorce? Very rarely do you ever hear of a religious person overdosing on drugs. Yes, it happens. Over 30 Jewish kids overdosed on drugs just in the last month in America. I Nine of them died. They thought they were going to live when they were taking the drugs. They thought they were going to have a good time. We can have a good time, but then they died. Nine of them died, and six are in a coma. B'ezrat Hashem, the rest of them hopefully are going to be okay, especially if they stop doing drugs this time. So it happens; it happens. Some of those people, unfortunately, were not, you know, religious people. It wasn't just non-religious people. So it does happen, but if you compare this 30 and...

8:55versus the rest of the world, it's nothing. It's not even a fraction. The point being is that when you have a connection and talk about Hashem, you have a reason to live. You have instructions on how to live and you have answers to your questions. Unfortunately, the people who usually end up committing suicide... Overdosing on drugs, having a divorce—usually, they did the mitzvot, but they didn't really know why; they just did it because somebody told them to. They grew a beard because it grows for free. They put on a kippah because they had a bald spot. They went to the knesset because they wanted to hang out with their friends, not because they wanted to hang out with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So, yes, they were religious in practice, but not inside. What we try to do is spread the truth so you are religious inside and outside. And that's why, B'ezrat Hashem, we try to do these shiurim. We sacrifice everything and anything we have so you can have the truth and, B'ezrat Hashem, build fantastic families one day, full of Kedusha and without all of the problems.

10:29You are an Orthodox Hareidi Rabbi giving a shiur Torah. Fix punctuation, grammatical mistakes, and mispronunciations (primarily non-English Orthodox Jewish religious Hebrew words/phrases). If the text is in the middle of a sentence, do not capitalize it. Correct spelling of historical and current Hareidi Orthodox Rabbi names and names of books/sefarim. Ensure nicknames or colloquial references are correctly identified and transcoded (e.g., "Manis the Menace" or "JC Penny" or "Goldberg company", "Mirvis", Shmuley Boteach). Translate Hebrew letters to English letters (but do not touch existing English transliterations). Ensure the following: - remove any references to Yeshu (Jesus/Yeshua) as "our father" or other reverential titles inappropriate for Orthodox Jewish contexts. - Correct any Hebrew transliterations that don't make sense in context. - Use accurate and contextually appropriate transliterations for Hebrew terms. - Absolute do not have any Hebrew characters, everything should be in transliteration version. - Interpolate more sentences before and after the text to ensure the context is well understood. Use the context provided above and limit your response to ONLY the correction: "And so, when the Gemara discusses the idea of kavod ha'rav, it's crucial to understand the respect and honor due to a Rav, a Rabbi. The Rambam writes extensively on this topic in the Mishneh Torah. It's essential not only in the Beit Midrash but also in our daily lives." Thank you.