Korbanot HaKetoret: The Secret Game Changer For Your Daily Tefillah (12 Minute Film)

1:29When I can barely light a fire for a barbecue, then I'm sure Hashem can find me a new job. I'm sure He can figure those other things out. I'm sorry for having any doubts. That's the first thing. The second guy, when he had the emunah yeshara, he didn't look up. He just left. He's like, you're just one of these people with so much rage. He said, "To hell with it," and he just left. You know those people? They don't want to talk about it. "I don't want to talk about it," and they just run out of the house. Like a little mouse, they run. Okay, so he ran away. But you know, after a while, you run, and you get tired. What do you do when you get tired? You look back. How far have I gone? He's in the mountains already. He's looking back, and he sees Am Yisrael in the camps, in the desert. Millions of them. You can't miss it. See, millions of them over there at the camps. There's Tatte. And then he sees the pillar of smoke. Wow. You know what? Judaism is not just about the Jews. Judaism really is about Hashem. Judaism does not depend on the Jewish people; it depends on you and Hashem. If you do the will of Hashem, whether others do it or not is not your problem. Of course, it says that everyone's responsible for each other. But, at the end of the day, if they are all reshaim, and they don't want to do anything, and they want to wear avodah zarah on their heads, or they want to drive on Shabbat, or they want to eat non-kosher, or they want to steal, or they want to do all these different things, it's ultimately their choice.

2:50You do teshuva? You okay? He says, I see the pillar and I realize it's a miracle. What do you mean, a miracle? Hashem is in control. He goes back to the king. So the first guy had Emunah issues; he gave him Chizuk. The second guy almost left the Derech; he did Kiruv, and you brought him back, and he did Teshuvah. Who's the third guy that's in question here? The Goyim. The Goyim would look from far away and always wonder, why does Hashem do so many miracles for Am Yisrael? Why does He make them Nobel Prize winners? Why does He make this little country make so much noise? I mean, technically, they're a statistical anomaly. We should never hear about the Jews. There are what, 15 to 20 million of them? How many out of 8 billion people? It's not even a rounding error. When you say 8 billion, you don't literally mean 8 billion. It's probably 7.96 billion, so you round off the extra 40 million to just say 8 billion. Meaning that the 20 million is not even around the era. You should never hear about any Jew. There are many countries much greater in size than Israel. You never heard of them before. Jews, every day is a new one. Every single day we're in the news. Every single day we're in the reports. Every single day we achieve something. Every single day we do something somebody knows about, and it's reported on the news.

4:08How? The goyim are always asking, why are they rich? Why are they smart? Why are they this? Why? Why are they so confident? And then they see the pillar of smoke of the Beit HaMikdash or the Tabernacle. Doing the will of Hashem. Look, we're not doing any avodah zarah (idol worship). What are we doing? We're worshiping an idol? Worshiping Buddha? Worshiping some figure that passed away 2,000 years ago? What are we doing among the Goyim? What are we truly accomplishing? Nothing. Instead, we're investing into businesses, into money, into materialism, and using all the gifts that Hashem gives us against His will. However, the Jews, at least, are fulfilling the will of Hashem. Look, they have smoke from their offerings! They have a Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple). That's why... Hashem does what He wants. Hashem gives them reward. So what do you do now? You have Emunah with the first guy, Kiruv with the second guy, and with the Goyim, a Kiddush Hashem. You sanctified Hashem's name. Here, we see three good and amazing things. from one ma'aseh, from the smoke. That's not the chiddush though. That's just the reality. What's the chiddush? The chiddush is what happens when we make a mistake. Why does Rabbi Natan, Rabbi Yehuda say, chayav mitah? Why is Hashem saying it's din karet?

5:22It's one of the 36 worst possible sins you could do on earth. Why? For the same exact consequences. Just the opposite. The Ramban, alav ha'shalom, says when there is a mistake in the incense, it becomes an esh zara. What is an esh zara? Foreign fire. What does it mean, foreign fire? Foreign fire means fire but no smoke. The incense makes a fire; it's a natural thing. You put it under, it makes a fire. The pillar doesn't reach the sky. Okay, so what? First guy that had emunah (faith) issues because of the kids, because of his wife, because of his rabbi, because of his son, because of his this, because of his that, and he lost the job and everything else. He looks up, he sees nothing. He was looking for something and he found nothing. The guy is going to get worse. He went from bad to worse now. He's going to go to the mountains now. He's leaving. I've had it. I'm not doing it anymore. It's too much for me. That's it. Done. The second guy already left. He turns around. What does he see? Nothing. He sees the Jews, but he doesn't see Hashem. He doesn't see the smoke. He doesn't see the miracles. He says, oh yeah, that's why I left. Because of all these people that were doing this and that to me. Good decision. I'm continuing. You lose a Jew forever. Hashem. The third is the Goyim. The Goyim look up and they say, why does Hashem, why does God make so many miracles for this nation, this little tiny nation? Why does He make so many miracles for them? They look up, they also see nothing.

6:29What does he see? Nothing. He sees the Jews, but he doesn't see Hashem. He doesn't see the smoke. He doesn't see the miracles. He says, "Oh yeah, that's why I left. Because of all these people who were doing that and this to me. Good decision. I'm continuing." You lose a Jew forever, Hashem. Third is the Goyim. The Goyim look up and they say, "Why does Hashem, why does God make so many miracles for this nation, this little tiny nation? Why does He make so many miracles for them?" They look up, and they also see nothing. And now they say, maybe God's making a mistake. Maybe there's no God. Now we went, instead of doing chizuk for emunah, kiruv for the rechokim, and kiddush Hashem in front of the goyim, we've achieved the exact opposite. Instead of chizuk, the guy got off. He's gone. Instead of kiruv, we just now lost the Jew. When you lose a Jew, it's like you destroyed the entire world. This is why Rabbi Yehuda says, if you make a mistake with the incense offering, it carries the death penalty.

7:46Why? You lost a Jew. You made others weaker. There's an outcome for your actions. It's not that we just care about the ingredients because we're making a shakshuka. It's because what you're doing has significance. People are going to see it. People are going to watch it. People depend on it. But instead of doing Kiddush Hashem, all you created was Eish Zara. You made a foreign fire, not a fire of Am Yisrael. We lost people because of you. We lost the honor of Hashem because of you. And you expect to live? You're lucky that you were even given a chance. But once you do such big things, there's no teshuva. The only teshuva is in a hot place. So, Rabotai, you read this three times a day. Three times a day. When I had this chidush, I mean, when you get a chidush and it sounds right, you get really excited. You have to double-check. I asked my Rav. My Rav was amazed. He said, I read it a million times. Never had the same thing. Baruch Hashem, everyone has their own chidush in Shamayim. However, I always had a safek. Who am I to really receive a chidush? This was a few years ago. I am still a nobody today, but back then, I was even less than a nobody. Who am I to receive a chidush? No one else. I told my Rav, somebody else probably said it. He said, "I'm telling you, I checked, no one said it." I said, "My chidush?" He responded, "It's your chidush." But I always had a doubt, always had a doubt. Maybe, well, sometimes you receive gifts, sometimes you're undeservedly fortunate.

9:10So Hashem apparently liked my chiddush. How do I know? He didn't speak to me. I'm not Moshe Rabbeinu, Baruch Hashem. I don't have that job. But He did communicate with me in a different way. How? For the next few days, I'm having this doubt in my mind. Should I say it in the shiur? Should I not say it in the shiur? I'm not sure. Even though I have the okay from my Rav. Even though it agrees with the Chachamim. It agrees with the Ramban. It agrees with the Mishnah. It agrees. It's not contradicting anyone. Still, it's me. Who am I, in general, to have a chiddush? I go out to do a little shopping for Shabbat for my wife and me. My parents were visiting at the time, so there are witnesses to the story. We had just moved to Florida maybe six months before that, or a few months before that. Anyway, while I'm gone, one of my students comes to my house and he drops off a gift. I come home, and as soon as I come home, my mom says, "Hey, look, Nissan gave this to you. Look at this." Before I even analyze what just happened, I'm wondering why he is giving me a gift. I don't need anything. What's going on? It's a nice picture. I asked Nissan, "Nissan, what is it? You dropped this off. What are we going to do with it?" He said, "No, no, it's a gift for you. The people he was helping move that day said they didn't want this."

10:17Apparently, it belonged to somebody who had already passed away, or whatever the case may be. They didn't want it anymore. He said, "If you want, take it." He had already had this in his truck for months, six or seven months, meaning it was before I even moved to Florida. So, he thought about me that Friday and said, "Oh, you know what? Maybe your mom's going to like this." He decided to give it to me. Since I wasn't home, he dropped it off and gave it to my wife and my mom, who were in the house at the time, and then he left. I say, okay, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Then I go to look at what this painting is. This painting is not a normal painting. What is this painting? It's not a painting. It's a drawing of the Beit HaMikdash. But it's not just a drawing of the Beit HaMikdash. There are many drawings of the Beit HaMikdash. The drawing of this Beit HaMikdash is made from words. meaning someone drew the lines, but it's actually words. What are these words? All of the halakhot from the Rambam of the Beit HaMikdash. Okay, this is nice, but we're not finished. What is this specific halakha? The ketoret, the incense offering, the ketoret, this drawing is all about the ketoret. And you see that everything is in words, except the ketoret is a pillar of gold. You come see it in my house, I look at it, every time I see it, I remember it. It gives me...