MEZUZAH DEMONSTRATION, WHO IS AN EVED HASHEM & MORE..... - STUMP THE RABBI (61)

0:11we're back here in Aventura doing our Wednesday night series, questions and answers, and tonight we'll do something a little bit special to not only show you guys something really interesting but also answer a question that I had for a very long time. I'd say most of my life I never really understood this part until I saw it with my own eyes, you know, and I've already seen it many times but I've never shown it to anybody else, and I think you guys will find it very interesting. Tonight, we'll do something a little bit special to not only show you something really interesting but also answer a question that I have had for a very long time. I'd say most of my life, I never really understood this part until I saw it with my own eyes, you know, and I've already seen it many times, but I've never shown it to anybody else. I think you guys will find it very interesting. Even if you're not extremely versed in the Torah, or you're not extremely versed in halacha, and you're not anything. This is something I think you'll see a big difference, that especially in the secular world, there's always questions about the intentions of rabbis when it comes to money and things like that.

1:34I think this is an answer that will address a lot of questions. Yosef Yitzchak Ben-Bayla Rochel, Stefan Ben-Katarina, Yitro Ben-Avraham, Talia Bat-Sarah, Michal Bat-Yael, Serach Bat-Batya, Batya Bat-Sarah, Orit Bat-Ilana, and Yonah Ben-Sheri Hailey, Esther Bat-Tzipora, Dvora Bat-Mercedes, Sharon Bat-Avraham, Adel Bat-Avraham, and Rafael Ben-Esther. And also for good luck for Marsha Bat-Julie, our dear daughter, baby Ayla Bat-Marsha, Gabriel Ben-Esther, Yitro Ben-Avraham, Shaul Ben-Farzaneh, Gabi Ben-Doris, David Ben-Nesria,

2:45And all of Am Yisrael, especially the non-Jewish people that help us do what we're doing, which is doing our best to leKadesh Shem Shamayim, to sanctify HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name by sharing His Torah without any censoring, without any limitations, and trying to do everything possible to help Am Yisrael, to help the world see the truth about the Torah that we are so ignorant of. You know, every day you get new wonderful emails and new messages, along with the many others that are not so wonderful and not so great. You know, people have, unfortunately, a lot of problems, whether it's a threats of suicide, or people that have been molested or taken advantage of in other ways, or people that have problems in their family. There's a lot of, unfortunately, a lot of that. But Baruch Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has mercy on us, and each day, there are a few more people that send another email, another message.

4:05to let us know that from these shiurim that you guys are watching, that everyone is watching, these very shiurim were the ones that helped them get close to Hashem, keep Shabbat, keep Taharat HaMishpacha, keep kosher, abandon forbidden businesses and other acts. Protected bleeds and countless other mitzvot that both Hashem, you know, you get to hear people doing. Just today, these two young women sent a very nice thank-you message about how they're both young girls, both B'not Hashem. You've got two sisters, and they sent a nice blessing. It warms your heart to hear it. But even more so, it gives you hope because, unfortunately, there's so much bad in the world today. in the world today that it's hard not to get lost in it. Every second person you meet is in a depression. Every other person is taking some type of pills for the depression, whether it's because of the COVID-19, or it's because of financial issues, or it's because of this, or it's because of that. And there's just so much bad in the world, and everyone is worried about the economy, or they're worried about their health, or they're worried about war, or they're worried about so many different things.

5:21So when you see that there's still, Baruch Hashem, people out there that are worried about Hashem and their relationship with Hashem, it gives you a lot of hope. It gives you a lot of hope that things, Baruch Hashem, are definitely getting better for those who are looking for the truth. Now, I'm sure you guys have, or at least I hope you guys have, some questions that you want to ask, but I think this is something we need to do simply because it's extremely interesting. And also, I think it will be a kiddush Hashem to a certain extent, especially for people that don't know, are not aware. Now, we at B'ezrat Hashem, do everything. Anyone that saw a recent video, three-, four-minute video that, Baruch Hashem, Team Hashem made about different things, the alphabet of B'ezrat Hashem, for every letter there's something that we do at the organization. You know, every letter of the alphabet, we have one or two things that we do, whether it's helping

6:23you know, teach people that, you know, want to kill somebody, particularly babies that are in their stomachs. You know, so we try to teach them that it's a baby and not some steak or ...and we try to help women that are about to have an abortion in any way that we can whenever we have the opportunity. Baruch Hashem, we've had a couple of times already where it was last minute and Yishtabach Shemo, not only do we merit to see the woman say, no, she's not going to do it, but also see the baby too. And that little baby is going to grow up and never going to know how close they were to dying. But because of the power of the Torah, Baruch Hashem, the baby is alive and well. And many other wonderful miracles. And we do a lot of different things. We also, you know, have our Kiruv packages that we send all over the world. We sent one recently to the Philippines. We've sent them to India. We've sent them to Australia. We've sent things all over the place.

7:24Once in a while, people also purchase tefillin from us, which we get from people that we know have yirat shamayim. We know who the sofer is, meaning who the scribe is, and we know that this is not a person that's writing tefillin while watching the news. Or better yet, there was one story that became famous recently, a few years ago, where they found out that a certain sofer was writing mezuzot while watching the news. But how did they find that out? Because he was so into the news, he wrote part of the news on the mezuzah. He wrote a few words that he got from the news on the mezuzah. His mind was in the news, not in the mezuzah. Or sometimes you have people that have no yirat shamayim, and many times not even any belief in Hashem at all, where they hire goyim to write mezuzot or tefillin, especially Asian people who are more likely to have a skill set in writing Hebrew. And many times people, you know,

8:33come to us and say, I want to buy tefillin. We tell them, listen, this tefillin is from somebody that we know that has yirat shamayim, a tzaddik, this, that. Nine out of ten people have no idea what I'm talking about. They're like, oh, yeah, yeah, thank you, Rabbi. Can you just send it to me? How much? Can you send it to me? I don't have any money. Once in a blue moon, we also deal with mezuzot. But mezuzot is a little more difficult. Why? People don't understand the value of mezuzot. And today I'm going to try to teach you what the value of mezuzot is briefly. But not just words. I'm going to show it to you. Because sometimes people come to me and ask me, "Do you have mezuzot?" I say, "Yeah. I don't deal with cheap mezuzot. I don't have patience. I don't have patience to sell you $50 mezuzot. $50 mezuzot, I don't even know if it's kosher. Maybe you can find somebody that can send you $50 mezuzot, I'm sure. I don't deal with that. I usually deal with more expensive mezuzot. Not because I like to sell expensive stuff, but because I know it's worth it." worth it. So I have some basics that I get from a friend of mine. They're a little over a hundred dollars or so that are basic mezuzot, but they're kosher and I know this comes from a good source. If compared to some, if you go on eBay, you could buy for thirty dollars or ten dollars or five dollars, whatever you want to buy over there on Amazon. Maybe you could buy it; I don't deal with anything like that. That's newspaper.

9:52The cheapest one I have, that I've dealt with and that I saw is kosher and of good quality, that I'm willing to put in one of my students' homes, was $125, something like that. So if you have about seven, eight, or ten doors, you know it comes up to a couple of thousand dollars. So he says, "Oh wow, it's expensive." I said, "No, no, that's the cheap one. That's the cheap one. That's the cheap one." The ones I usually deal with are $500 and more. "What? $500 for a mezuzah? For one?" I said, "Yeah, one. Barely, but one." And now I have, Baruch Hashem, a tzaddik friend of mine, that's a dayan, mekubal, something special. He's trying to help us not only sanctify Hashem's name, but he's also helping us by taking part of the cost himself. He's the one that's writing the mezuzot, but he says for the time being, he'll try to do the best he can to keep it at 350. which is for a $500 mezuzah, $350. But in reality, you buy this mezuzah anywhere else, it's going to be $1,000. But in reality, you're not going to buy it. Why? Why would you pay $1,000 for a mezuzah? Why would you pay $300 for a mezuzah? What is the difference between the mezuzah that you can buy on eBay for $30, or the Judaica store for $50, $60, $70,

11:10and that's $125. I mean, that's $500. I mean, is that that much of a difference? I mean, Rabbi, isn't it after all just writing some words on a piece of scroll and we're finished? No. Now, I could explain it to you until I'm blue in the face, and you're not going to understand. Not because you have any lackings. simply, this is something you have to see to believe. So without further ado, come up, guys. Come up, ladies, after, and you can see exactly what I'm talking about. I'll explain to you the difference, exactly what you get at a Judaica store, at eBay, or at some place you don't even know. First and foremost, you need to know. Come behind me. First and foremost, you need to know... If you buy from a place that you don't know who wrote it, especially Judaica stores, eBay, Amazon, or internet-type places, there's a very, very high chance it's not a kosher mezuzah, even if it looks perfect. One reason is that it could have been written by a non-Jew. If it's written by a non-Jew, even if that non-Jew is Iyov (Job) from the Tanakh, even if he wrote a mezuzah, it's not kosher. Why? That's the way it is. That's just the bottom line. It could be great...

12:31are only for Jews. So if a non-Jew wrote it, it's not. Or better yet, a machine. A machine wrote it. There's now a machine that they invented. The Reform, the Reform heretics, they invented a machine that writes Sifrei Torah. Sifrei Torah that they write, it's not kosher. You can't pray from it; you gotta burn it. But they don't care. Now, a couple of weeks ago, we read Parashat Ekev. Asat Ekev is one of the places in the Torah that talks about mezuzot. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that you shall write them on your doorpost, on your house, upon your gates. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us a mitzvah from the Torah to have mezuzot. Why? This is number one. Number one, a commemoration of what happened in Egypt. 10 plagues: You had a plague where millions of people died in an instant. Who killed the firstborn? But if you were one of the Hebrews, one of the Jewish people—or would eventually become Jewish people—you put blood on your doorpost, you had protection. The Malach (angel) skipped you. That's one. Two, it's protection for the house. Three, it's the Torah; this is part of the Torah on your house.

13:54Now, what if you have a Sefer Torah, a $100,000 Sefer Torah, inside your house? Do you need a mezuzah? That's what Korach asked. He asked Moshe Rabbeinu, "If I have a house full of Sifrei Torah, each Sefer Torah contains the whole Torah, and a mezuzah has only a couple of paragraphs. So if I have a house full of Sifrei Torah, each Sefer Torah worth $100,000, $200,000, do I still need a mezuzah for $100?" Korach said no. Moshe Rabbeinu said yes. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu said it. What happened? Korach, the ground swallowed him. To this day, to this day, he's screaming. He and all of the people that followed him and his family are screaming inside Gehenom. "Moshe emet, Torah to emet, HaKadosh Baruch Hu emet, everything is emet. And we are liars," he says. It's a chacham. The Ba'al Ha'Avat Chaim, a book called Avat Chaim, has a lot of interesting stories. His grandson is an enormous talmid chacham, Rav Shani in Eretz Yisrael. He wrote in his book that one time a Jew met one of these Arabs while he was traveling, and the Arab told him,

15:10You want to come see something interesting? He said, what? He said, you want to come hear Korach? You want to hear Korach? He said, yeah. He takes him to a certain place in the desert. He said, come over here. He starts hearing sounds. He goes, come closer, come closer. He starts hearing, "And we are liars." put out something in the, uh, in the ground. He says it's so hot, it's so hot they have to pretty much stay away from it. Show them where it is now. So, obviously, Korach was wrong about his whole idea of a mezuzah. Now, what does a kosher mezuzah look like versus a non-kosher mezuzah and so on? Now I'm going to show you a few... So you see the difference with your own eyes. Okay. Okay. So you have, now if you're not a, you don't speak Hebrew, you've never seen Lashon HaKodesh, or you don't know the difference, in the beginning it won't make much of a difference to you.

16:35Okay, but be patient and you'll see. This is a mezuzah. The size of it is not necessarily relevant. You can make them small, you can make them big. But you can see from here, the letters are what they are. And this is not a kosher mezuzah. It has many mistakes on it. For example, here in this word over here, baderech, The Chaf Sofit looks like a Nun Sofit. So it spells "Badaren," not "Baderech." This is a verse from the Torah; you can't make mistakes like that. Other times, also again here, it's supposed to be a Chaf Sofit and it's a Nun Sofit again. A... Other times, you see some of the letters are too close to each other. There's very little space, but from the surface, there's not much of a difference that you can tell. I mean, it looks fine unless you know what you're looking for and how and who and why it looks right. It looks like a, you know, this is a right. You do me a favor, one of you? Yeah, all this, all this open. Actually, you know what? We'll keep this. You'll hold it open when I show all three. I'll show three. Okay, now I...

18:00This is also another mezuzah. The ketav, the writing, looks similar, but this is paper. This is printer paper. It's not klaf. It's printer paper that was made to look like klaf. You can't write on printer paper. You have to write on klaf; you have to write on a scroll. So, on top of that, there are many, many mistakes, similar to the other one. Here you see that the two letters are touching. That's already a problem. The Anokhi, the two letters, the Nun and the Kaf, are touching. There are several different issues with this. But again, from the surface, if you don't know what you're doing, it looks fine. Hebrew. Looks a little bit like what the Tanach looks like. Hebrew. Kind of looks cool, actually, with the little crowns. What's the problem? Right? Well, you have to look for it. So you figure, oh, maybe it's only for the spelling errors or if there are missing letters. No, no, it's not just that. So you have that. This is a better quality one. But still not kosher.

19:19Also similar, again, better quality writing, but also has different errors on it. But again, you see the writing for what it is, right? Okay. Now these are different mezuzot that you buy from people, from eBay, and so on. Now, if you have a real sofer who loves Hashem, I'm being sarcastic. He writes you something like this on cardboard. And he probably has some type of mental problems to write such a thing. If you look over here, for example, this one, this one is very special. This is very special. This, Anokhi metzavekha. But the tzadik looks like a three. Instead of a tzadik, he wrote a number three. Why? Because in script, The tzaddik looks like a three, but even in script it doesn't really look like this. Either way, the point is, you don't write script in the mezuzah. This mezuzah is what it looks like. But again, for the average person, it's Hebrew. It's Hebrew. Whatever. This mezuzah, that mezuzah. What's the problem, right? Okay. So, someone can hold this. Okay. Paper. Okay, hold that one. Don't worry, you can't ruin them. They're already ruined.

20:46Okay, you hold this one. But hold it so the camera can see it. I don't want to see your hand. I want to see your... You see? That's the whole point. You see it? Okay, so you got that. Those two examples are enough. Okay. Now, a simple mezuzah that's kosher. This is what it's supposed to look like. This is what it's supposed to look like. Now, you have this, right? Judaica store, eBay, Joe Schmo, Steve, Yoshke, whoever's selling it, this is what it looks like, right? Now, why would I go from $30, $50, $60, $70, $80, $90, and go pay almost double the price for a kosher mezuzah? For what? Why would I do such a thing? Because this is what it's supposed to look like. See, rabotai, this is what it's supposed to look like. You don't even need to know how to speak a word of Hebrew. This is what it's supposed to look like, like this. This is a beautiful kosher mezuzah, not five hundred dollars, but a good mezuzah that you know was written by someone who did not watch the news, not during, not after, and not before.

22:11And this is what it's supposed to look like. Compare it to this guy over here and this guy over here. How does it look so good anymore? Now, what does a... Now, if... Netanel, you could hold this one. What does a $500 mezuzah look like? There are a couple of different versions. I have one with me. The other one I forgot at home. Toda. Toda. Now, this may look the same to some of you, but it's a world apart. Number one, because of who wrote it. Number two, because of the Klaf. Three, because of the Kavanot. Four, because of the actual writing itself. Either way, the difference between this and this is shamayim v'aretz, it's heaven and earth. But even the difference between something like this and this one, for anyone that understands the issue, is a world apart. Now, for a pocket, of course, it's a world apart. But I'm talking about in reality. Someone that understands the difference in writing, who, what, when, and how, these two are worlds apart. And a person that knows and is able, this is the only thing they would go with, simply because, again, this is a world apart.

23:28Now, the mezuzah, when you go and buy it from some place, you're not going to check it. You're just going to put it on your doorpost. So you have no idea if you have toilet paper in there, or you have one of these things, which is probably a little less than toilet paper, or you have, well, you don't know what you have. So you're not going to check it. And then sometimes you send it to certain people—oh, you can't check it for me? Yeah, yeah, it's $10. Sometimes they don't really check; they just take the $10. so in reality, if you go and buy a mezuzah from a place you don't know, it's on you. It's on you when you buy something from a place that you know. If you could afford an expensive one or not, the bottom line is this: this is the protection for your house. You don't need to be an expert to know that there's a world of difference between something like this, as beautiful as this, versus this thing over here. I'm not talking about the size. Forget about the size. You can make this smaller also. You wouldn't, but you could make it smaller also. Why? Because if you recognize this writing, this one specifically, you know why you recognize it? Because this is exactly what is in the Sefer Torah. This is how you write a Sefer Torah. Now you write a Sefer Torah, it's 60, 70, 80, 100,000 dollars. Why? It takes a lot of work.

24:51enormous amount of work. It takes five minutes, if that much, and that's the reality. So that's the thing that a lot of people don't know. I didn't know this when I was young. I didn't know. Why would anybody spend five thousand dollars on a mezuzah? Just go buy one for 50 bucks. Why? Why would you go? Go buy five of them for two hundred dollars; get a discount, buy five, get one free. You could do that. You could buy one for five and get one free. But in reality, you have no protection on your house. When you have something like this, you understand that somebody cares enough about HaKadosh Baruch Hu to do this. Because the people that usually do these things, they’re not even doing it for the money. They’re doing it to try to make a living, a little bit, whatever. But the point is that to put that much work into it, it’s not worth it. Why? It takes a really long time and there aren’t many customers. There are a lot of customers for junk. Junk, you can get a dime a dozen. But for good quality mezuzot, it is very difficult. Even, you guys could all go back. Thank you very much for your assistance. Thank you. Now, Rav David Yosef, shlita, once told a story. He said that he went and visited a student of his.

26:14And the student asked him, he said, Rabbi, I need to get some new mezuzot for my house. He said, okay, no problem. He goes, how much do you get the mezuzot for? They told him a price, I don't know, a couple hundred dollars a mezuzah, whatever it was. He said, ooh, Rabbi, it's expensive. He goes, oh, yeah, maybe. Okay, think about it. He said, all right. He says, what, you got a new house? He goes, yeah, you want to come see it? Sure. So he sees the house. he sees how fancy the house is, and the Rav sees the window shades, you know, the window treatment, they call it in the rich world, the window treatment, like as if they went to a spa—the window treatment. He sees it’s fancy-schmancy. He says, “Where’d you get this?” “Oh, Rabbi, this is from Italy.” “Italy? Wow, this is expensive.” “It's the best, Rabbi, the best.” “How much is the best?” Because honestly, Rabbi, each window cost me $25,000. Because the guy's a thief. Because, Rabbi, how could you say such a thing? Do you know who this guy is? Do you know what kind of designer he is? Do you know how this and how that and how this and how that? It's like, oh, so if he's good, it needs to be expensive. Because, yeah, obviously.

27:39So how come a guy that decided to make himself famous by marketing himself a certain way—no problem for you to spend $25,000—but a guy that learns Torah all day and spends maybe an hour a day at 3 o'clock in the morning when he has time, writing his sefer, but he wants to sell it for a couple hundred dollars, that's too much? It's too much. How come? How come $25,000 for a window is not too much? And the guy never understood. Never understood until he realized from his own mistake that when you don't value something, every price is expensive. When you do value something, you'll pay anything for it. But sometimes, you have to see it to believe it. You have to see it to believe it. I have another one, a bigger version of this. I personally like the other one even more, but that's just my personal preference. And the beautiful thing is that when you see, you see mezuzot once in a blue moon. Somebody, you know, people ask me to check their mezuzot. I don't really like to do it because it takes a lot of time, but I do it whenever it's needed and there's nobody else to do it.

29:06Every time I'm shocked at how people buy this stuff without knowing what they bought, but worse yet, how someone would even allow themselves to sell it. Like how wicked you have to be to sell such a thing. Like, it's not even, forget about that, even the kosher version, even if, let's say, for example, the other two that you saw were kosher, if you compare the writing, it's not very, it's called, it's not mehudar. It's not good quality. It's like, okay, so even if, let's say, all the letters were in the right place, okay, and there were no spelling errors, and they were all drawn the right way, the writing difference, the difference in quality of writing, you see this one took, I don't know, 10 minutes, that one probably took a couple of hours. Why? Because you see that there's a big difference. So even if it's a kosher version, you see that there's a big difference. But when you see that someone sells you something that's printer paper

30:07Or a cardboard. And on top of it, they write you a handwriting that you have to probably be, I don't know, have some type of mental deficiencies to write. What do you see? What do you see? Lack of Yirat Shamayim, no fear of Hashem, and only fear of money. And the Gemara says, someone that has an addiction to money, it's more dangerous than anything else. more horrible than anything else. Why, they even sell their parents. How so? The Gemara gives an example. It says the Chachamim made a gezera that as soon as a person passes away, shem yishmor, even if he's a tzaddik, his body becomes tamei. Impure. Not to touch it. If you touch it, you become tamei, but we're all tamei now. But the point is that the body is tamei. This is why they make the bodies tamei. Why? This is because if the body did not become tamei, the kids, the kids that are obsessed over money,

31:32and are fighting over the inheritance of their father or mother, they're going to fight. You get the house. I'll take the land. You get the bank account. I get the stock account. You get this. You get that. Oh, how come you took more than me? How come you took more? They're going to fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. Eventually, they're going to get to the bottom line. Okay, fine, but you got more than me. You know what? That's it. I'm taking Abba's skin. I'm taking Ima's skin, and I'm going to take that. That's me. I'm taking the body. It's my body. And they take this. The Chachamim said they would have taken the parents' skin and turned it into carpets. Because when you have an addiction to money, and that's your god, you don't see that there's anything wrong with that. No, no, I'm commemorating the honor of my dad every time we step on the carpet, or every time we have a nice window shade. We think of Abba and Ima. right here we look at them all the time. Why? Addiction to money is a very dangerous addiction, and unfortunately, Chazal told us that in the last two thousand years of the world, the first two thousand years had a certain test, the second two thousand years had a second test, and the third, the biggest test, is money.

32:51People are simply addicted to money. They have no problem spending money to go on some non-kosher vacation, no problem spending $3,000, $4,000 on a navigation system for a car, no problem spending $20,000, $30,000 on a watch, no problem spending all types of money for nonsense, but when it comes to Torah, all of a sudden everybody's broke. "Rabbi, you have tefillin?" "Yeah." What kind of tefillin do you want? You want the good ones, the top of the line, you know, a couple thousand dollars, fifteen hundred or more. This? No, no, no, Rabbi, no, no, no. You have something cheaper? Yeah, you can maybe get for nine hundred dollars. You have a job, right? Yeah, yeah, I have a job. Nine hundred dollars, you want? No, no, you have something cheaper? Okay, you want for six hundred dollars? Six hundred dollars, you can afford six hundred dollars. I mean, it's kosher, but it's not the best. I mean, it's not really for you. I mean, you should get something that's good. At least you have tefillin. You have something cheaper, Rabbi? something cheaper? What do you want? Fifty dollars? Fifty dollars? Yeah, yeah, you have those? Yeah, yeah, no. Oh, you know who does? Yeah, Kmart, Costco. Go buy from Costco. A guy makes 50, 100, 200 thousand dollars, and he wants to buy a couple hundred dollar tefillin.

34:11Why? How come your car — you didn't think twice before you committed to a monthly plan, $500, $700 a month for a car? How come, when you bought the phone that you wanted, you didn't think twice before spending $800 on the first day it came out because you wanted to be the first to have the phone? $800 on a phone. How come you didn't think twice before that new Rolex came out? For a discount of only $18,000. First one to buy it. Discount. Cheap. Balash. Almost free. How come? Comes to tefillin. Comes to mezuzot. Comes to a tallit. You see grown men. Grown men wearing their bar mitzvah tefillin. The guy is 35 years old. He's still wearing the same tefillin his parents bought him when he was 13 years old. Abba, can you buy me a... Mezuzot for my new house? But you bought the house, though—a half-million-dollar house, a million-dollar house. Yeah, yeah, but don't you have a connection with the rabbi? Maybe he'll give it to you for a discount? How come you didn’t ask for a house discount? Want to save $20 on a mezuzah? Want to save $50 on a mezuzah? No, but rabbi, it's 10 mezuzot, 20 mezuzot. Oh, it's 20 mezuzot and you're actually complaining? What does 20 mezuzot mean to a smart person? You have 20 rooms.

35:39That's what it means. If you have 20 rooms, you can afford the $500 mezuzah and the $1,000 mezuzah if you have 20 rooms in your house. But what does a person who is in love with money think? Ah, 20 rooms, even if I get the cheap one, it's at least a couple of thousand dollars. Ooh, Rabbi, you guys are all about money. You guys, all you want is money. No, we don't want money. In fact, take your money. We don't want to sell to you. How about that? A woman came to Rabbi Miponovitch years ago. At Ponovezh Yeshiva, thousands of young men were learning Torah non-stop. They had a multi-million dollar budget, so they needed to raise a lot of money. A rich woman from America came and gave the rabbi a check. She wrote a check on the spot after she saw everything. "Here you go, Rabbi," she said as she handed him the check. It was for a quarter of a million dollars. She gives the rabbi a check. "Thank you very much." And she reaches out her hand to shake his hand. The rabbi had good middot. Of course, you're not allowed to shake a woman's hand if you're a man. If you're a woman, you can shake another woman's hand. But if you're a man, you're not allowed to shake a woman's hand. There are some poskim who are more lenient with it if it's for the sake of business and things like that. But in reality, the rabbi says no. You want to rely on leniencies? Good luck to you. No problem. But...

37:05Generally speaking, there is no reason for you in the world to shake a woman's hand. How do you do it? This is what Rav Povarsky says. He goes, no, no, no. We never say goodbye to our partners. In a nice way, we never say goodbye to our partners. We are going to continue talking, this, that. But she got the point. But she didn't like it. She got the point, but she didn't like it. So she said to him, oh, so my money is good, but my hand's no good? I would want to be says, "No, no, your money is not good either. Here's your check." He gives back the check — a quarter million dollars. "No, no, no, no, no. We don't want your money. Let it go, gone. Take your quarter million dollars. We say in French, Arabic, anyway, a year later..." get mail every day, an envelope shows up with a check in there — a hundred thousand dollars. From who? That lady. "Oh, Rabbi, here, look." The woman sent a hundred thousand dollars. He says, "Give me an envelope, give me an envelope." Okay, he writes an envelope and sends it right back to her. "We don't want her money. This is not the kind of money we want. Send it back. Why? If you think you're buying the Torah with your money, look somewhere else. Look somewhere else."

38:22You cannot buy Heaven with your money. You have to earn Heaven. Sure, you can get a lot of merits and things like that with investments in the Torah and kiruv and things like that. But you still have to fulfill the Torah. You still have to believe in it. You still have to follow it. But if you disrespect it because you gave money, it was better off you didn't give money. And that's actually what the Gemara says. The Gemara says, how come Korach... got 250 of the biggest rabbis in the world, at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, to follow him. As the Gemara says, because Korach was the richest man of the land, and he was a big donor. And all of those rabbis, already by the time he came to them and told them that he's trying to go against Moshe Rabbeinu, they were already in his pocket. What ended up happening? They all died. Horrible, horrific punishment by HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself. Why? You can't buy the Torah. It's not for sale. You have to fulfill it. You have to respect it. You have to honor it. And unfortunately today, Rabotai, we honor money a lot more than we honor the Torah. What's a test? You can always test yourself. You're in the middle of a shiur Torah. You're in the middle of learning in your house. You get a business call.

39:50Clients call on your phone. Do you answer? Clients can offer you $1,000, $10,000, $50,000. Do you answer? If you answer based on a certain price, that's how much you value the Torah. That's how much you value the Torah. If you're going to answer because the client can potentially give you, or he is going to give you, $1,000 or $50,000, that's how much the Torah is worth to you. how much it's worth to you. If you don't answer, that means the Torah is worth more to you than whatever money someone's going to offer you. This is a constant test; it's a constant test for us when we learn, when we pray, when we're simply living our life. So, it's important for us to know that, you know, if You're going to buy a kli kodesh, you're going to buy a mezuzah, tefillin, tallit, tzitzit, anything that's connected to Hashem. This is not one of those places where you just buy anything because it's expensive, or you look for discounts.

41:02When you invest in the Torah, it's not just about investing in buying CDs. It's also about investing in your own items that you deal with every day: your tefillin, your tzitzit, your mezuzah, wherever it is. You have to invest. What does it mean to invest? Not just the money. The time, the research. Do I know who wrote this? Do I know who did this? Is it worth it? Is it not worth it? Is it just buying? You have to put some more thought into it. This, I thought, is very valuable because I know that myself, when I was younger... stupider. I had a lot of questions, and one of my questions was why would anybody spend so much money on mezuzot until I saw it with my own eyes. I started checking other people's mezuzot and so on and so forth, and I saw the difference. I spoke to a few serious mekubalim, people who understand who, what, when, and how. And you see that it's like, it's like I show them a mezuzah that even a kosher mezuzah, a kosher mezuzah... then I show them the other one. I said, "Okay, so that one, that's like a taranta, and that one is like a plane. You know what a taranta is? In third world countries, many times they can't afford cars, so they have these little two-wheelers that are 800 years old, from the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, but they're still driving somehow. That's a taranta. A plane, a 787, I don't know, the president's plane—that's the difference."

42:23That's the difference between, even, I'm talking about a kosher one. Not about the non-kosher; non-kosher is garbage. I'm talking about the kosher one versus something that's high-end. Why? Because, again, who, what, when, and how is very, very important in Torah. So, with that being said, who wants to start with some questions? Okay, Joshua. My question is, if somebody does an act or behaves in some way unintentionally, So if someone does something unintentionally and somebody else benefits from it, does the person who acted unintentionally get rewarded for it? Is that the question? I mean, the particular Din of Shamayim is unknown, simply because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is merciful, kind, and endless. But generally speaking, no. Generally speaking, the person that is simply going like this...

43:40...in the middle of the street because he's trying to flag his friend to pick him up, but somebody else from all the way down the road is looking for a sign. "God, speak to me! Speak to me! Please show me if You love me, show me somebody saying hello to me!" And he looks down the road and he sees, and he thinks you're saying hello to him. No, you don't get a reward. Hashem used you for him for whatever reason Hashem has, but you're not going to get a reward for that, generally speaking. Can Hashem, will Hashem give you a reward for such a thing? Maybe. That's Hashem's world; He can run it the way He wants. But generally speaking, no. Where do we learn that from? Where's the ayah? The Rambam writes that you have the shiva mitzvot, the seven Noahide laws, which we went over last week. Now, the seven mitzvot of Noach are generally, the seven Noahide laws are generally speaking, common sense. You don't need the Torah to tell you not to murder. You know it as a human being. You know that it's not good to murder. Even as a little boy, a little girl, you already knew that murdering is not a good thing. Adultery, not a good thing. Avodah zarah, not a good thing. Eating an animal while still alive, not a good thing. And so on and so forth.

44:55Now, the Rambam writes, if a goy keeps those seven Noahide laws because God said so, he has a share in the World to Come. He goes to Heaven. He knows these are the laws, obviously also ethical rules, and so on. He follows them, and he goes to Heaven. But if he keeps those rules, not because God said so, but simply because they make sense to him—it makes sense to him not to murder, it makes sense to him not to steal, it makes sense to him not to pray to some Buddha—it makes sense to him. The Rambam writes that not only does he not go to Heaven, but he's considered in Shamayim as a stupid person. Instead of being called Chasidei Umos HaOlam, he's called the fools of the world. Why? You did the work, but you're not going to get paid. Why? Wrong intention. No intention. You did it with no intention.

46:03So that's one of the re'ayot that I can give you for why unintentional acts, generally speaking, will not earn you a reward. Can it? Possibly, that's dinei shamayim, you know, after 120, or whenever HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides to talk to me personally, you know, tell me otherwise. If He allows me to come back to you guys and give you another shiur, I'll tell you a different answer. Chavrei, who wants the next question? You had a question the other day that you sent me in a text, didn't you? Something. I think you did. Okay, women in today's corporate world.

47:05Does a religious Jewish woman belong in the corporate business in today's generation? What type of businesses are kosher for religious women? That is a very serious question. And the reason why is because, on one end, every family that's not living as part of the Dor De'ah, the generation of knowledge that gets manna from Shamayim, has to make a living somehow. So everyone needs to make a living. Everyone needs to sustain themselves. And you have to go to work. Now, even if your husband is a tzadik, it doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to make money as a result of it. He could be an avrech making, I don't know, a few hundred dollars a month, which means that the wife has to work. Or otherwise, if the lifestyle that you live is not enough for one income. You know, you have, you live in certain parts of the world, you live in New York, you live in different places, the rent is high, the mortgage is high, the food is high, everything is high, and your husband does not make enough money at his job to sustain even the basics. So the wife needs to work. So the first question is, should women work if there is no other choice? Yes.

48:23If there's no other choice, a woman needs to work. There's no problem with a woman working on the grand surface of things. Where do you guys see it on a regular basis? You see it on Shabbat. On Shabbat, you sing Eshes Chayil Mi Yimtza. The song Shlomo HaMelech wrote about his own mother. Right? Eshes Chayil. But it's really about the Torah. Now, Eshes Chayil, what is Eshes Chayil? What is this woman of valor? It says she goes to the markets, she makes sales, she does things, she works. She makes a living. Her husband is learning, doing Torah and so on, and she also makes a living. So it says her husband is respected and known by all the elders, which means that her husband is a talmid chacham, and she works. So, can women work? Yes. We see from the Torah that women do work. Do they have to work? Not necessarily. If the husband works and there's no need for the woman to work, then she shouldn't work. If there's enough money coming from the husband or some other way, there's no need whatsoever for the woman to work, and she shouldn't work. She should focus on raising her kids. But if there's no other choice...

49:29whether it's because the husband is not making enough or not making at all, then a woman has to work. Somebody has to work. Now, does that mean that she should just simply take any job? Obviously, everyone would come to the same conclusion: No, the answer is no. The answer is no. What kind of jobs can they work? It has to be a kosher job. Meaning, first of all, it has to be an ethical business. You cannot go work in an unethical business, whether it be a bar, a nightclub, a cash advance business, or a business that goes against God in one way or another. It has to be, generally speaking, a kosher business. Meaning that a business is not forbidden according to the Torah just by default. Even if you're not the CEO of it, even if you're simply a doorman, That job you are still not allowed to take because the place is not kosher. You being a doorman there is going to be a problem. You cannot be involved in any way in a non-kosher business. So that's one: It has to be a kosher business overall. Secondly, the environment—you should try the best you possibly can. The environment needs to be as kosher as possible, meaning if you're a woman, the less men, the better.

50:43The fewer men that you have to interact with, the better. Why? For obvious reasons. Third, and most important, you have to do everything possible to work with people who observe the Torah. You are forbidden from working with people who are against the Torah. to the opposite of Torah. Don't go work for some atheist heretic, lefty liberal that hates God and is one of the people investing in these anti-God organizations. You have to try to deal with people that are yirei shamayim. Now again, this is, the latter part is really to be more stringent, but really the more stringent you are, the more you'll have blessing in your life. Now that makes your life more difficult though. Why? Because most jobs are not going to have people like this. Most jobs are not going to have, but the point being is, is that you have to do your best. You have to do your best to pray to Hashem,

51:57to give you an appropriate job, to give you a job that has good-quality people, both men and women, that are good quality, even the guys. Even the guys. Don't go work in a place that's unethical. Don't go work in a place that's immoral. Don't go work in a place that's immodest, and so on and so forth. Why? Because, again, we are not allowed, according to the Torah, we are not allowed to put ourselves in the way of a test. Where even though you're just a janitor, let's say, you're the janitor at a club. You're the janitor at some stadium that has all types of tumah (impurity) and all types of filth there. You're just a janitor. The reality is, even though you're just a janitor, you'll be exposed to different tests that you wouldn't be if you had worked for a UPS, if you had worked for, uh, whatever, some other company that's a relatively neutral business. So you have to try to not only pick a kosher job, but also a kosher environment. Not put yourself in a way of test. And if you're a woman, even more careful. Even more careful. Why? Because unfortunately, women are a target for every man. Men don't care if you're married.

53:08men don't care if you are, uh, they don't care if, uh, you have five kids. They couldn't care less. So that means that you also have to have a certain attitude, which is business only. business only, meaning yes, you are allowed to work with other men who are your colleagues or whatever it is, co-workers in the company. It's not a problem, but it's business only. No minimal conversations, just chit-chat like, "Oh, how is your wife?" None of that. It's, "Is the report ready? Thank you. Bye now." Yeah, you can say, "Oh, that's cold." Maybe it doesn't make a difference. minimal, minimal. I'll tell you, I always tell you that, guys, it's a sad reality that many times you see that in the religious world, unfortunately, there are horror stories where the spouses, the wives, the husbands cheat on the wives, cheat on the husbands with co-workers.

54:20number one, number one, uh, uh, the most common thing is that women who are religious at times—and I know firsthand a few stories, more stories than I want to know firsthand—women who have kisui rosh, keep Shabbat, keep kosher, everything, have kids at home, cheat on their husbands for an extended period of time with a co-worker. Why? They spend a lot of time being friendly, too friendly, or worse yet, unfortunately, sometimes you have these monsters as bosses, which make the women feel like they're nothing, and they, in essence, convince them or otherwise. There was a story that became public knowledge in the last year or two, of some monster in Eretz Yisrael, who pretty much had his way with all of his female employees, one victim after another. And the reality is that these women, many times, they're coming from religious homes. They're naive. They're not familiar with the ways of the world in many cases. They don't know who, what, when, and how, and they fall. So that's why I also told you guys last week that it's very important for the women to be careful, the men to be careful, but also to be careful for each other.

55:43Check on each other. Jealousy between a married couple that's healthy is important. It's not only good; it's important to have jealousy between the husband and the wife. Why? You need to know where she is, and she needs to know where you are. If you don't want your wife to know where you are, that's because you're a liar. That's because you're a cheater. "No, no, I haven't cheated." You haven't had the chance yet. But the only reason you don't want your wife to know where you are is because you're planning on cheating. Just give me the opportunity. Your wife should know where you are at all times. Why? I don't have any privacy? No. No privacy. Why? You got married. Same thing for the wife. Same thing. Your husband needs to know where you are. Why? He's your husband. He's your husband. Now, people that say, "No, no, but I'm just going to go away with my friends." Stay single. You want to keep going away with your friends? You want to go hang out with your friends? Stay single. Don't get married. Why? Do us all a favor. We don't want any more additions to the divorce rate.

56:43Reality is, most of these divorces start because of things people see at work. They see things at work, they befriend people at work, they spend a lot of time with people at work, and unfortunately, people get too friendly. So yes, you are allowed to work. Yes, you should work, sometimes, again, like I told you, depending on the situation. But that does not mean you could just do anything you want. You have to be careful, just like anything else. You're allowed to eat, but not everything. You're allowed to enjoy, but not everything. You're allowed to look, but not at everything. Everything is allowed, but not everything. You understand? Just a kosher version of everything. And that, in essence, applies to everything in the world. Hashem created the world, this beautiful world, with a lot of stuff in it. We are allowed to enjoy this world, but just the kosher parts of it. There's a kosher vacation. There's kosher food. There's a kosher spouse. There's kosher reading. For everything, there's a kosher version. Everything. Hashem did not create the world for you not to enjoy it. You're supposed to enjoy this world. There's no problem. But with restraint, with limitation, with thought, and not simply on instinct like an animal.

58:02So, when it comes to work, yes, a woman should, and a man should, if it's necessary for different reasons and so on, but again, with a lot of thought. And this is also why sometimes you have to consult with your rabbi, with a Talmid Chacham. that knows what he's doing before you decide to take on certain jobs. If you have doubts, if you have questions, oh, should I take this job, should I not take this job? I have a few students who have asked me. Sometimes I tell them to take the job, sometimes I tell them not to take the job for different reasons. It's not a mitzvah to be poor. You're allowed to be successful, you're allowed to work, you're allowed to be ambitious, but not at the cost of God. Not at the cost of heaven. So if you're already going to work, be the best at it. Do the best that you possibly can. But again, always have God in mind first. Next question. The rest of you guys know? Here you go. Somebody knows. When discussing Nidah, the Maharal explains that the cloud over Sarah's tent was alluding to the fact that she kept Nidah. And the cloud over the tent is compared to the Clouds of Glory that were stationed over the Mishkan. Why is this comparison?

59:16Why is the cloud over the Mishkan versus the cloud over Sarah Imeinu? Well, the woman in the Torah is called Bayit. The Mishkan was the Bayit Hashem, the house of Hashem. And that was the Beit HaMikdash of the desert. And it was the only Beit HaMikdash that was not destroyed. We took it down, and they built the Beit HaMikdash in Yerushalayim, but the one that Moshe Rabbeinu put together was put together, put down. Put together, and they would travel with it, and so on. But it was never destroyed, Baruch Hashem. But what was this Beit? What was this Mishkan? This is Beit Hashem. This is the house of Hashem. A woman in the Torah is also referred to using an analogy and called Beit. Why? Wherever your wife is, that's where you live. That's your bayit. She is your bayit. Why? Because first and foremost, when you have a good kosher marriage, a marriage that's the way it's supposed to be,

1:00:26Your wife is, in essence, where you want to be at all times. A person that loves his wife, knows how important his wife is, and doesn't want to be away from his wife. Even Rav Kanievsky, already when he was in his 80s, one time his wife told him that she had to go take care of something. And she was very busy. Very busy woman. She had to go. Rav Kanievsky, there were some students, he says... They'll listen to the conversation. Rav Kanievsky says, "When are you coming back?" "Oh, I'll be back in an hour." "Oh, can you make it in 45 minutes?" Students were wondering, Rav Kanievsky, 80 years old, what does he care if his wife is going to be back in an hour or in 45 minutes? What, is she going to go hang out with some guys? Like, where is the Rabbanit going? She's going to do something important. So they asked the Rav, "What's the difference, Rav Kanievsky, Gadol HaDor?" learns more Torah in one year than most people learn in their entire life. He says this to the people there: "When the Rabbanit is not in the house, I don't have yeshiva daas. I can't study, I can't learn. Yeah, I'll learn, but I can't learn. Why? I'm thinking about, 'Where's my wife? Where's my wife?' At 80 years old."

1:01:34At 80 years old, why? That's a Jewish marriage. A Jewish marriage is not a marriage that's purely based on the physical. A Jewish marriage is a marriage between two neshamos that connect. And their love and affection for each other increases with every single moment that they're alive. Whereas in the secular world, the love, if it ever exists at all, deteriorates with every single day together. Why? Because it's dependent on the physicality of a person. And the reality is, if you look at my pictures when I was 18 years old, I was a good looking kid. Look at me today. Look what happened to me. The love, if it ever exists at all, deteriorates with every single day together. Why? Because it's dependent on the physicality of a person. And the reality is, if you look at my pictures when I was 18 years old, I was a good-looking kid. Look at me today. Look what happened to me. I tell my wife, I tell my wife, poor you, look what happened to you. Look what you got. You look at me, I was a hunk when I was 18. Nice, good-looking, handsome, muscles, everything. Look what you got, an old man. But that’s what happens to you too, guys. What do you think? Are you going to be good-looking for the rest of your life? What happens? You get older. You get older.

1:02:40And the women also. She's not going to be Malchat HaYofi forever, the 20-year-old that you bought. Oh, when she's 60 years old, it's not going to look the same. Now, if you have a secular mentality, even if you're religious, but you have a secular mentality, and you care only about the physical of your wife, guess what? Your love for them will deteriorate with every single day that you're next to each other. Every single day, it'll deteriorate. why bad hair day, bad this day, bad that day. You saw a good looking woman there, that day, every day it deteriorates more and more and more. Eventually, you just can't stand each other, sleep in different rooms, talk to different people, treat each other like garbage. Why? Because you're like, whatever, I'm already seventy years old, I'm stuck with it, what could I do? But if some 20-year-old came today, why? Because you can't, because there's no love there, it was all based on physical. the Jewish world in the holy Jewish world is a gift from Hashem who gives you a foolproof system of how to love each other more every single day. Now, unless you're married, you have no idea what I'm talking about, but I can tell you I'm married, baruch Hashem, 17 years now. When I first met my wife...

1:04:06I thought, wow, this is great. And everybody that meets their wife in the beginning thinks, wow, it's great. Yeah, I love her. I love him. I'm so excited to get married. We're going to have kids and maybe a couple of dogs, and we're going to have a bedroom here, and they play house. Yeah, everybody's excited, right? If you follow the protocol that Hashem put in this book, the love you had or you thought you had on day one will seem like hate. hate in comparison to the love you're going to have in 10, 15, 20 years from now. That's what the difference is. Now, yeah, you did love them in the beginning, or maybe, yeah, I'm not saying you didn't, but that love is so minimal in comparison to what it's going to be in 10, 15 years from now if it's in the way of Torah. If it's not, say Kaddish on day one. But that's the reality. And again, much of this, you have to see it to believe it. You have to see it to believe it. But we can't wait to see everything to believe it. You have to simply take the words of Chazal. But it's very, very important for a person to know that the Jewish marriage, the Jewish life, is indeed the best possible life that could exist simply because you have instructions. You have a cheat sheet. You have a cheat sheet from HaKadosh Baruch Hu on how to beat the game.

1:05:34That's what everybody wants to do. Everybody wants to beat the game, but they don't want to use the cheat sheet. Why? Oh, it's hard. Yeah, it's hard, but it's also easy. The other part looks easy, but it's hard. It's hard in the beginning because you're not used to complying with all these rules. But in the end, it's easy. Why? No divorce, no problems with the kids, no problems with money, no problems with a lot of things. Yeah, you'll have problems, but you'll know the answer of who, what, and when is giving you the problems. Whereas the other way, only problems. And no idea why. It looks easy in the beginning, but in the end there's divorce, and there are all types of other issues. That you don't need me to tell you, you just simply see it around you in society. You're never going to see a single couple, a single couple that's without Hashem in their life, that's happy after the honeymoon days are over. A single one. Why? It's impossible to be happy without Hashem. Impossible. Next question. So, to finalize, your answer is the woman is the bayit. Without this bayit, no marriage. Yes, in the back. Bayit Hashem, bayit...

1:07:04Question is, bottom line: What happens after the husband and the wife leave this world? Do they both go to the same Olam HaBa or not? Bottom line, right? So this type of guy, I once told somebody, came to him and asked him about a shidduch for his daughter and... and he told him that this guy is a nice guy, but he doesn't learn Torah. So this type of gadol says no, your daughter should not marry this guy. Even though he's a nice guy, you should not marry him. Why? Because your daughter is a tzadeket; this guy is not learning Torah. So they're definitely not going to be together in Olam HaBa. Not going to be together in Olam HaBa. Why? Because every person goes to his place based on his merits. the wife does the job that she's supposed to in this world. That means that she's not only going to be arm candy for her husband. She's not only going to be a baby oven. What is she going to be? She's also going to raise a house of Torah. The kids are going to go to yeshiva.

1:08:18The daughters are going to go to Beit Yaakov. The husband is going to go learn Torah. Even if he works, he's going to go to shiur Torah. Every day he's going to learn Torah. Every day. Why? It's important for the husband to learn Torah, for the wife, not just for the husband. the wife, every day, she has to make sure the husband learns Torah in the morning a little bit, at night a little bit, a little bit more when possible. That is the responsibility of a woman. That's what a woman goes to Gan Eden for—by raising a house of Torah and sending her husband to go learn Torah. That's what she goes for. Now, if the wife tries to send her husband, but her husband's a deadbeat, doesn't want to go, doesn't want to learn, doesn't want to do nothing, he wants to go watch soccer games... And she's a tzaddeket. And she tried everything. She tried to convince him with food. She tried to convince him with all types of wonderful love. And she tried to convince him with gifts. And she tried to convince him year after year. And she cried to HaKadosh Baruch Hu day and night.

1:09:21Day and night, please, Hashem, open his eyes. Let him watch the shiur Torah. Let him read the Chumash. Let him go to the shiur. Please, Hashem, I'm trying. I tried making him food. I tried all types of things. All types of things. He's not doing it. He's a chamor, this guy. He does not want to learn. I tried everything. Hashem, please, soften his heart. He's like Pharaoh. It's like Pharaoh. I didn't know that I married Pharaoh when I married him. I didn't know. And she cries to Hashem. Hashem will help her. Hashem will help her. But even if after that he remains Pharaoh, and she's a tzaddeket, surely they're not going to be in the same Gan Eden. Why? He's not going to Gan Eden. He's not going to Gan Eden. So surely, they're not going to go to the same place. Now, the Rogatchover Rebbe, the Rogatchover Rebbe, was such a gaon, such a giant in Torah,

1:10:23It's hard to fathom. In order to talk to him, to simply speak to him, you had to be a talmid chacham. To understand. He was an enormous, enormous talmid chacham. A Chabadnik. And he was very, very aggressive with talmidei chachamim. If some talmid chacham would come, ask a question that's off, or make a comment that's off, he'd tear him up. tear him up. The people cry. Chumash. One time, this rabbi, who was not exactly a very likable person, was going to visit. And he said, you're going to go see the Rogatchover Rebbe? He didn't really want to. But how can you go to the town with the Rogatchover Rebbe? The gadol hador is there and you're not going to go see him? Might as well not go. It's embarrassing.

1:11:25he said, "I'm going to go see. He's going to tear me up." It was well known that the Rogatchover Rebbe was kodesh kodeshim, but he was fiery, very fiery. Anyway, he says, "Okay, I'm going to take a chance. Ah, this rabbi wrote a book or two. I'll hold my own." Okay, got to the Rogatchover Rebbe's house... He welcomed him very nicely, spoke to him really, really nicely, gave him a drink, this, that, nothing, regular conversation. Really nice to him, actually. So at the end of the meeting, he said, "Oh, thank you, Rav. I appreciate it, but just one thing for the Rav. It's just, I don't know, people said that the Rav is very aggressive, and, you know, when it comes to dealing with Talmidei Chachamim." But Baruch Hashem, the Rav was very nice to me. He says, "Yeah, I'm only like that with Talmidei Chachamim." Meaning what? You're not a Talmid Chacham. Not a Talmid Chacham. Every night, I'll be like, you're a regular person. I talk to you like a regular person. Talmid Chacham. I have to be critical of him. Why? It's fire. Fire to keep him up, to keep him sharp. At this Kodesh Kodashim, one day, he says to his students,

1:12:49I know I'm only going to go to Gan Eden because of my wife. My Rabbanit. The Gadol HaDor says only because of your wife. Well, what does your wife do? She says, see my wife, Tzadikah. All day she does Chesed, she does Mitzvot, all day. She's going to go up to Shamayim. She's going to go up to Shamayim. She's going to say, "Taro, go to Gan Eden." I'm going to go to Gan Eden. Okay. Then one day, she says, "I'm also going to go. Before I have to go," and my wife is okay with my husband. No, no, your husband is, you know, nobody. I sent him to go learn Torah. I said, "Yeah, but he made mistakes. He doesn't know what he's talking about, so I'm gonna send this guy who doesn't know what he's talking about. Yeah, he learned Torah all these years, but he made mistakes. He doesn't know what he's talking about." No, we can't, my wife's gonna start crying. She's like, "What do you mean? I sent him to go learn Torah. I said to go learn Torah and it's not my fault. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I said, 'You told me to put him to go learn Torah,' right?" So yes, insurance. Yeah. Yes. Okay, so bring him to Gan Eden. But why are we bringing him up? Because I'm in Gan Eden and I'm lonely. I need my husband. So I'm going to Gan Eden because of my wife. But that's the love, that's the love, that's the love between a Jewish couple. So...

1:14:10The Chachamim tell us in some of the mystical books, which I learned with my rabbi, that the Imahot, the matriarchs, have a Gan Eden, and the Avot have Gan Eden, and they visit each other. They have a time during the day that they visit each other. Sarah Imeinu visits Avraham Avinu, they visit their husbands. Meaning, they're not together all day, having a drink on the beach. The husbands are learning Torah, doing whatever it is that you do in Olam HaBa, and the women also. Women also. So, yes, if the wife and the husband are on the same level, which in essence means that they both elevated each other, they will be able to see each other eternally. But if one is a Rasha and the other one is a Tzaddik or Tzaddekes and so on and so forth, surely they will not be together simply because, again, it's not like the story of the Rogatchover Rebbe to express his love for his wife. In reality, if he wasn't a Tzaddik, he wouldn't be in Gan Eden, even if his wife is a Tzaddekes.

1:15:27Everybody has to get to Gan Eden on their own merit. A wife has to make sure that her husband learns Torah. Obviously, she herself also has to learn because she has to maintain a Jewish household. She has to learn Hilchot Shabbat. She has to learn Mussar. She has to learn the Kashrut laws. There's a lot of stuff that a woman needs to know herself. And she should also go to a shiur Torah, and she should also learn on a regular basis. But the bigger obligation for more halachot is on the husband. And if a wife does not cry to HaKadosh Baruch Hu for her husband and kids to learn Torah, she did not fulfill her mission in this world. No, no, but I read Tehillim every day. Don't read Tehillim. Just send them to yeshiva. Don't read a single book of Tehillim your whole life. Just make sure they go to shiur Torah. Why? Tehillim is good, but not if that's at the cost of... your kids are all chiloni. Sometimes women have a warped idea of what their obligation in the world is. They think that if they hang out with their girlfriends and read Tehillim all day, that makes them righteous. If your husband and kids are not serious about learning Torah, you have a serious problem. You have a very serious problem. And the problem is that many times women say, "Yeah, but I tried, he didn't want to do it." When did you try? "I don't know, I tried for a couple of years, I gave up." Oh, okay, so you didn't try then.

1:16:46you try, that means you tried yesterday and today, and you're going to try tomorrow, and you're never going to give up. But there's different ways to try. It's not to be misunderstood. Sometimes I have people call me, asking me for different shalom bayit issues and things like that. And many times, people think that I'm... more harsh on the guys about how their manners are terrible and so on. Many, many people think that, and they're right. I am, it's true, I am more harsh on the guys. Why? Because more times than not, guys act like animals. But it doesn't mean that the women are all malachim. Many times the guys act certain ways because the women don't know how to treat them. Now, if a guy if a man, if a husband, if a Jew is going to be a good husband, he has to learn Torah. If a woman is going to be a good wife, she also has to learn Torah, and she has to convince him to learn Torah. The problem is that sometimes we think

1:17:50that we are good enough by ourselves and everybody else is nothing. And what ends up happening is that you have women who go to a Shiur Torah, read Tehillim with their friends, speak Divrei Torah among each other, and become little Rebbetzins among each other. And their husbands, they couldn't care less about what they do. they disrespect their husbands in such an awful way, thinking that it's okay. Now, if you disrespect your husband and you don't make sure that your husband is a king in your house, for sure you're not a queen. If you treat your husband like he's some janitor ...If you disrespect him like he's a nobody, if you make fun of your husband by calling him a loser, for sure you're going to Gehenom. Why? Because isha bonah, isha oreset. A woman builds, a woman destroys...

1:19:02If you do not build your husband to make sure he wants to learn Torah, he wants to do mitzvot, he wants to do everything possible to make sure that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is happy, even if it's just to please you, then you have failed miserably in this world. What? You think that maybe because you make some YouTube videos for your girlfriends to watch, you think because you walk around modestly, you think because you read the parasha, you think that because you know a few things about Torah, that gets you Gan Eden? No, you're not going to find a single place in the Torah that says that. There's not a single place in the Torah that says that a woman that gives shiurei Torah, or a woman that knows Torah, or a woman that reads Tehillim every day is going to Gan Eden. Not a single place. You know what it says? You have to get your husband to go learn Torah. How do you get him? Why? Do you think if you call him a loser, he's going to go learn Torah? You think if you tell him, listen, you don't learn, no food. Stay outside. Sleep on a bench with the homeless people. You think that's going to get him to go learn Torah? You think that's going to build your husband? Best case scenario, he'll be a loser. That's the best-case scenario. Why?

1:20:22A husband, as macho as he is, needs the support of his wife. He needs to feel like he's the best in her eyes. Same thing with the woman. A woman needs to feel like she's the most beautiful in her husband's eyes. If the husband looks at other women, automatically that makes the wife feel ugly. Why? Why is he looking at other women if I'm pretty? So if he's looking at other women, whether it be on the internet or in real life or whatever, If he's looking at other women, then obviously I'm not pretty enough for him. So maybe I should be more provocative. Or maybe I should look like one of these parot, one of these cows that walk around with no clothes. Or maybe I should act like… She starts thinking she's self-conscious. Why? He's not looking at me. He's not paying me attention. He's not telling me how much he loves me. Surely, so that means that he doesn't think I'm pretty. He doesn't think of this. So she loses her confidence based on the attention her husband gets. But it's not a one-way street, ladies. It's not a one-way street.

1:21:24The husband, if the wife does not make him feel like a king, as soon as he gets in the house, there is no "one second, honey, I'm finishing a phone call." That doesn't exist in a Jewish house. It doesn't exist. As soon as you hear your husband, I learned yesterday, she knows he has to knock on his own house door. Hang up. Hang up. No, no, honey, I'll be with you in a second. Nothing like that. The second your husband arrives in the house, you have to stop everything you're doing and go say hello. Oh, but I'm relaxing on the couch. Get up, the king arrived. You have to get up when the husband comes home. You have to get up. Why? He's the king. Why doesn't he treat me like a queen? Because you didn't make him a king. You treat him like he's some bus driver. You treat him like he's some teacher. You treat him like he's some, whatever his profession is, not as a king. So, obviously, you cannot be a queen if he's not a king. The second he arrives home, you have to stop what you're doing and go welcome your husband. Yeah, but I'm tired. Okay, so become untired. Become untired. Just like when your girlfriend shows up.

1:22:43You were tired, but as soon as your girlfriend shows up, all of a sudden you have energy. Obviously, you have energy to talk for four hours straight about everything that happened in the last three hours since you last talked to her. All of a sudden, you have energy. Before she came, you had the uh, sponge on your head. "Oh, I'm dying, honey, I'm dying, I'm dying, I need to rest, I'm dying." The second your girlfriend came out, she came up, "Oh, what are you doing?" Four hours speech, four hours. You just spoke to her three hours ago, how do you have four hours of material? Four hours haven't passed since the last time you spoke to her. Four hours, you have energy all of a sudden. Three hours ago, you were almost dying. But she showed up to your house, surprise, surprise, surprise, all of a sudden you have energy. No, why did you tell her to go? No, no, I'm okay, I'm okay. I thought you were dying. Honey, I was going to call 911. No, no, I'm okay, I'm okay. You're extreme. You told me to call 911. All of a sudden you have energy. Your husband arrived, you have to have the most amount of energy in the world. Meaning, you have to look pretty. Do not welcome your husband with a sponge on your head, looking like you just came from Tisha B'Av. You came from some funeral. Makeup's over here, here, here, and there. Looks like you're some cartoon. You have to look pretty when your husband, yeah, but he comes home late. It's 10 o'clock at night. Okay, so be ready at 10 o'clock at night. Why? That's your job. The king arrived.

1:24:08King arrived. You want to be a queen? You have to have a king. There's no queen by herself unless it's in England 500 years ago. She's a queen, no husband. A woman is, uh, older than they are in some religions in the world. Where's the husband? So, the king arrived. You have to look pretty. You have to get ready. Guess what? He has to have food too. Oh, but I'm tired. Okay, so you should have been untired and made him food. Okay, honey, I'll make him what he likes. Why? He went to learn Torah. He went to learn Torah. Make him what he likes. If your husband is picky when it comes to food, make him what he likes. Don't tell him, here's some potato chips. Layla Tov. your husband's picky; you want him to become a talmid, feed him. Now, I'm not telling you that you have to make him a three-course meal every night, but he has to be happy. He has to feel that when he comes home, he's welcome there.

1:25:19Never use such language like, "Oh, you're here? What do you mean, 'Oh, I live here'? What do you mean, 'Oh, I'm here'? Where do you want me to be? Oh, no, I thought you were working. Are you implying that I should go back to work? I could just live at work if you want. Maybe you'll pay the mortgage." You have to be excited. You have to be excited to see your husband. Oh, he's the king. king arrived. Now if you're half asleep, make a zohar here. You only look good when you go to the supermarket for Yose. Guess what? Your husband's not going to be happy. So he's going to say, "Listen, I'm learning Torah, but no one cares. If I made money, she cared. When I bought her a nice diamond bracelet, she cared. But when I got a chiddush, she didn't care. In fact, she told me she didn't even like it." Guess what? You just destroyed his entire ego, his entire confidence system. You didn't like his story about Moshe Rabbeinu. You didn't like his story about Rabbi Akiva. You said, "No, no, the rabbi says it better." Guess what? You just destroyed him. You are going to be judged in Shamayim as a murderer. Why? Your husband gave you a story. You didn't like it? You have to pretend you like it.

1:26:37Just like he sometimes pretends to like your food, you have to pretend to like his story. Why? Just like you don't like when he compares you to his mother, don't compare him to the Rabbi. Like his stories, cheer him up. Honey, you're really getting better at this. Wow, I love this. Pretend. Pretend. Why? You have to build him up. One of the G'dolei HaDor. One of the G'dolei HaDor, Rabotai Yekarim. When he was still a na'ar, a young guy, 20 years old. Just got married. Already at 20 years old. No one knew who he was. His wife would call him Gadol HaDor. One of his, one of the Avreichim at his kolel. Young guy. Came, knocked at the house. Yes? Oh, I want to see... He said his name. Who? Called him by his first name. Who do you want to see? Nobody like that. No, why? This is not the house of a... You mean the Gadol HaDor? You dare call the Gadol HaDor by his first name? The guy got shocked. He's never heard of this. Bushah, it's mamash. Made the guy red. His whole face became red. Why? How do you call the Gadol HaDor? One time another guy came to the house.

1:27:51And the Rav said, come here. And she saw that the guy was taking his time. She yelled at him, "The Gadol HaDor is telling you to stand up. You're still sitting?" You know what happened to him? He became the Gadol HaDor. He became the biggest rabbi in the world. You know why? His wife built him up. But if your wife tells you you're a loser, at best case scenario, you become a loser. If your wife insults you, tells you you're nothing. I should have married somebody else. Guess what? He wishes you did too. In the best case scenario, you'd be a loser. So this is why, Rabotai, mussar is for everyone. Not just for the husbands. Not just for the wives. For everyone. For your kids too. For your kids too. It is more common that men do certain things that are worse than what women do, but nonetheless, unfortunately, today, people in general do not know how to treat each other. They don't know how to treat each other, they don't know how to respect each other, and then they complain that they don't want to be with each other. "Oh, he doesn't want to be with me anymore." Yeah, who would? Who would want to be with you? I'm surprised he even said, "Oh, I do" in the first place.

1:29:05All you do is insult. You never want to do anything good. Everything is for you, you, you, you, you. You're the most selfish person on planet Earth. So he's doing you a favor. He's leaving you alone so he can be with you. Marry yourself. This is a common problem because everyone is looking for themselves. You want to be married successfully? You have to do everything possible for the other side with nothing expected in return. Do everything possible to make her happy. Do everything possible to make him happy. If all of your attention is only focused on making each other happy, guess what? You'll both be happy. But if you're only going to work off the barter system, barter system, which is, "I'm gonna do this for you if you do this for me." Guess what? You're both gonna be miserable. Why? Who goes first? "I'll do it after you do it." "I'll do it after you do it." Guess what? Nobody does anything. Everybody stays miserable. You sit in the same house, and you're roommates, not soulmates. Roommates. "Yeah, I live with this lady." "You mean your wife?" "Yeah, yeah, whatever you want to call it. Yes, that one. She cooks once in a while. Yeah, that one, the chef, the cleaning lady."

1:30:22she tells the girlfriend, "Yeah, the plumber." "You mean your husband?" "Yeah, whatever. The guy that unplugs the toilet whenever he gets to it. That guy. He's there." That's what happens. Why? No love. It's roommates. You have to be so much more. You have to love each other. But that means you have to remove yourself. "I don't want anything in return. I just want to make you happy." What happens if you're doing everything possible to make her happy and she's not making you happy? Keep going. Kill them with kindness. Keep doing your job. Don't worry about their job. Focus on making them happy. It will be reciprocated or, in the worst-case scenario, you'll just have a lot of kaparot. You go to Gan Eden just for that. But that's a very important question today because, simply, you have people getting married but they don't know how to stay married. Because there's virtually no courses on how to remain married. There are consultants. To charge you three, four hundred dollars a month just to hear you complain. You have to know what to do. Those consultants are not going to help you. You can help yourself. You can help yourself by listening to Torah. Next question, we're almost... Oh no, we have some time. Yes, how about... Rabbi Yisrael Salanter just said that Kiddush Hashem rectifies Chillul Hashem. How come the Gemara said that the Teshuvah for Chillul Hashem starts at the... So...

1:31:49The sefer by Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer, the talmid muvhak of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, is called Netevei Or. It has a section by Rabbi Yitzchak Blazer and also includes the letters of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. And in there, there's a very extraordinary, mamash, sweet, sweet teshuvah, sweet teshuvah to a big question about how you rectify Chilul Hashem. When the Gemara says to rectify Chilul Hashem, that's creating Hashem's name, begins with death. Why? Because the damage that comes from Chilul Hashem, there's nothing that's enough. That's enough for you to do, to fix it. Pretty much, a person has to suffer if he does Chilul Hashem. Because the damage is unlimited. We don't understand what unlimited means because we are limited. But when somebody, let's say, for example, says something against Hashem. Okay? Let's say, like one of these foolish people that has a show or page against the Torah.

1:33:08They don't think it's a big deal. They make a joke of the Torah and so on. They don't think it's a big deal. But one day, a young man or woman is going to listen to one of these jokes, one of these insults, and that is going to cool him off, or her off, on their Avodat Hashem. ...to cool them off. They were really happy about being religious, happy about Hashem. But they heard this joke and they kind of found it funny, and little by little, they got cooled off a little bit. So now, instead of being at one hundred percent, they're at ninety. But now they're already on a downward spiral, and they told a joke to another person. That other person wasn't at one hundred; that other person was already at seventy, and now he's dropped to fifty. And that person who was at fifty told another person that was already at fifty, and that person became zero... And the damage continues where the desecration of Hashem's name has no limits. And simply why? Because now each person, as they go down, their mitzvot that they're doing become lesser, and also they do less mitzvot.

1:34:10Like, the value of their mitzvot is not as good because they don't have the kavanah. But also, they don't feel like doing certain things anymore. Somebody asks them for tzedakah, instead of giving them 20, they give them 2. Somebody asks them to come to the shiur Torah, they ask how long the shiur is instead of where it is. Oh, if it's 2 hours, no, it's too long. I'm going to go to the 10-minute shiur. And so on and so forth. Their avodat Hashem, their servitude of Hashem, continues to decrease, and the damage from that is simply unlimited, because it continues, continues, continues, with a never-ending domino effect. Hence the reason why the price for the damage must be paid in a different world. But then Rabbi Yisrael Salanter brings a chidush, and he says that rectifying chilul Hashem can be done with Kiddush Hashem. Why can't it be done with Kiddush Hashem? Because Kiddush Hashem also has an unlimited capacity, unlimited effect. So much so that a single act of a person could literally change the lives of countless people. And I'll show you how. Maybe about five or so years ago, give or take.

1:35:29The story became publicized. There was a religious Jew in Eretz Yisrael whose car broke down on the road. He didn't notice, but he ran out of gas. So, he was in the middle of the desert somewhere. He had to get out of his car and take one of these gallon tanks. and walked to the nearest gas station. He walked and walked and walked, and he got to it. As he walked in the scorching heat, about to fill up gas, he saw a huge billboard on the gas station saying "Open 24/7." He quickly turned around and left. Continued walking, and after a little while of walking, somebody pulled over next to him with an American accent and said, "How can I help you? In Hebrew, obviously. 'Where are you going? Are you okay?' 'No, my car broke down. I need to walk to the nearest gas station.' 'Okay, hop in. I'll take you.'"

1:36:57So, they start driving. He says, "You know there was a gas station back there." He says, "Yeah, but I didn't want to fill up gas over there." He said, "Why not?" He says, "Because they mechalel Shabbat." He said, "What do you mean? What is that?" He says, "They work on Shabbat. They have a sign on the gas station, 'Open 24/7.'" He says, "Why do you care?" The guy was Jewish, the American guy was Jewish, but he didn't know anything about Judaism. And he was just simply visiting Israel. So the religious guy said, "Let me explain this to you. If somebody made a billboard, and on the billboard he wrote all types of insults about your father." Your father's horrible. Your father's terrible. Your father's this. All types of things against him. Would you go do business with him? What business? I'll burn the place. Okay, okay. We don't burn places.

1:38:01We don't burn anything. But we don't do business with people who go and desecrate our Father in Heaven's name. By them saying that they are doing business on Shabbat, the one day that HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Bechvodo Uve'atzmo, said He rested, and He wants us to rest, and He commanded us to rest. That's not just them violating Shabbat. That's them advertising their carelessness and disdain for my Father in Heaven. That's them advertising their carelessness and disdain for my Father in Heaven. I cannot bring myself to do business with them, even if that means I have to walk in the desert for several more miles. So the young man never really heard such a thing, but he said, "Okay, suit yourself." He gave him a ride to the gas station, got the gas, drove him back, shetibach shmo. At the end of the meeting, they exchanged numbers, said if you're ever in America, come by. If you're ever in Israel, you want to come for Shabbat, pass by. But nothing happened. Years passed. Years passed. And one day, this avrech, this avrech, gets a phone call in his house. Yes, Rabbi so-and-so, yes.

1:39:28you uh with teudat zehut identification in Israel this this this and this number yes you live at this this address yes okay we need to see you at our office what office our law office we're lawyers we need to see you at the office come to Tel Aviv why why do you want to see me What happened? Well, there is a business transaction that we need to complete. No, no, no, maybe make sure. I don't do business. I learn Torah all day. I don't do business. Sir, it's worth it for you to come. No, but come on, I have to learn. Sir, you need to come. There's something seriously important for you to come. There's an inheritance here. Inheritance? Are you sure you're talking to the right person? I don't want to go spend seven shekels on a bus and a couple of hours in Tel Aviv. I don't have that kind of time. It's worth it for you to come. Poor guy says, "Okay." Goes to the law office, meets the lawyer, shows him the ID, and they confirm it's him. He said, "Okay, you have an inheritance, 10% of the inheritance of such and such person." He says, "Why?" He says, "That's what you were gifted." He said, "I don't know him." He says, "Well, he knows you." He says, "Who decided this?"

1:40:52This person, you want to call him? Sure, let's call him. They call the number. Say, hey, how are you? Yeah, I'm fine, but who are you? He says, don't you remember me years ago? I'm the one that gave you a ride in the desert to the gas station. Hello, how are you? How are you doing? He goes, what is this? He says, listen, my father, he died. he left me some money, but he had a unique condition in his will. He said, "Give 10% to someone who cares about God." And I don't know anybody who cares about God. I'm a business guy; I don't know anybody. I just do my thing. But then I thought, how could I? I can't get the inheritance... until I meet this condition. And I thought, oh yeah, you know what, there's one guy that I know who cares about God. Why? Because he cares enough to walk five more miles in a desert and almost put his life on the line just because some gas station works on Shabbat. That guy cares about God, and that's you.

1:42:03says, "Thank you very much. What do I need to do?" He says, "No, just sit over there. The lawyer is about to give you a check for a million dollars." "Excuse me, what do you mean a million dollars? That's the inheritance?" "No, that's your section. The inheritance was ten million dollars. You get ten percent." "No, no, are you sure? It's a lot of money. I mean, I make $500 a month. That's enough." "No, no, I don’t know what a million dollars is because it's not even enough for you. You care about God; you deserve more." And this Avrech got a million dollars. Why? He cares about G-d. Now, of course, the million dollars is nothing. Nothing in comparison to what he's going to get in Olam Haba. Not only for sanctifying HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name when no one was watching. No one was watching him walk away from the gas station. He never knew that anyone would identify him walking away. No one was there to witness it. It's not like a story he could tell his friends, "Oh yeah, I was in the desert and the guy was working on Shabbat, and I said, 'No, I'm going to walk another five miles and put my life on the line.'" No one would see it. No one would know it. No one would believe it if you didn't hear it today.

1:43:15It was a Kiddush Hashem at the highest level. But you know what? That Kiddush Hashem doesn't end. You know why? Because that Kiddush Hashem led to the other guy. And the other guy saw it. And the other guy ended up understanding what caring about Hashem is. And then the other guy ended up doing a mitzvah of helping a ben Torah learn Torah. But that's not even it. Today, years later, you're all learning from it. You're all learning that HaKadosh Baruch Hu b'chvodo u've'atzmo, Him Himself, is watching everything. And He doesn't stop paying reward for people who sanctify His name. So that little walk away from the gas station, that Kiddush Hashem has no limitation. And just like that Kiddush Hashem has no limitation, Chilul Hashem has no limitation. And that's why Rabbi Yisrael Salanter gives a Kiddush. He says the only way to fix Chilul Hashem that has no limitation is Kiddush Hashem with no limitation. Why? They both simply are the only thing that could be something that matches each other.

1:44:23The only thing that can match each other because nothing else—nothing else—is unlimited like it. This is why, Rabotai, we try to do as much as possible, Kiddush Hashem, any opportunity that we can. But again, it's not an easy mitzvah. It's not an easy mitzvah. The Chachamim, not all of them will have the same opinion on every single thing. Some people, some Chachamim, will outright say that, yes, the Kiddush Hashem is not going to fix it. not going to fix it, will have its punishment, will have its reward. This is not accepted by everyone, but Rabbi Yisrael, many of his followers, many of the rabbis that he learned from, of course, many, many said the same exact thing, said yes, this can take a negative. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not looking for ways to punish us, He’s not looking for ways to get back at us. So if we have an opportunity to

1:45:25to fix something that we did, of course, He's going to give it to us. So that's the point. So yes, you're going to have some Chachamim that say that, no, this one gets his reward, this one gets his punishment, but you're also going to have Chachamim that you can rely on, like Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, his Talmidim, and his Rabbis, and so on, that will say that, yes, this can actually wipe out that. And that's also some of the things that I learned myself. Next question. Again. Well, a person that's Jewish is not allowed to live on an island by himself, meaning he has to become part of a community. He has to do everything possible to become part of a Jewish community. A Jewish community means that there is a synagogue, an Orthodox synagogue with a rabbi. There's a Jewish school for the kids. The Rambam writes that if there's no Jewish school in a city, that city has no right to exist. That's the halacha. Not allowed to live on an island by himself, meaning he has to become part of a community. He has to do everything possible to become part of a Jewish community, and a Jewish community means that there is a synagogue, an Orthodox synagogue with a rabbi. There's a Jewish school for the kids. The Rambam writes that if there's no Jewish school in a city, that city has no right to exist. That's the halacha.

1:46:38So that means that there has to be a Jewish synagogue, a place to pray, a place for the next generation to learn and become tzaddikim, to become Talmidei Chachamim. And he has to learn from Talmidei Chachamim. He can't just learn with his friends because they like it and he likes it and she likes it. It's not a good thing. Why? Because who says you're right? Who says that you like it, but who says that you like something that's right? Maybe your understanding is wrong. So you need to have a Talmid Chacham, who is, in essence, telling you which way is right and which way is wrong. Plus, how are you going to serve Hashem? How are you going to pray during the holidays? How are you going to, what are you going to, what are you going to do, a minyan by yourself? There's no minyan by yourself. You know, during the holidays, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, that's coming up, you have to listen to the shofar, you have to do all types of different things that are only done in the kehillah. During Sukkot, you have to have the lulav, you have to have the etrog. If you live on an island by yourself, there's no community, where are you going to get these things from? Do you even know what to do with them?

1:47:41So, a person that wants to live a kosher Jewish life has to live in a Jewish community. Now, of course, there are times in a person's life that he's going to move around, and there's not going to be something there at that moment. But as long as there is something coming in the very near future, it's being worked on, there's money being gathered, there are people being gathered, and something's coming in the near future, that's fine. That's fine. Because sometimes Am Yisrael would have to travel from place to place and restart all over again. But if a person simply says, "No, I was born here, I'm going to die here. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants there to be a synagogue here, He'll bring it here," type of mentality. Okay, buddy. We'll see if you have the guts to say that when you get up there. You have to make sure you do whatever you can to go find the Torah. Go chase the Torah. And the problem today is that people think that HaKadosh Baruch Hu owes them something. Like if He wants me to be religious, why didn't He send the rabbi here? If He wants me to be religious, why didn't He send the community here? If He wants me to be religious, why didn't He make everybody else agree? It doesn't work that way. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted robots, He would have created robots.

1:48:54One of the most important mitzvot that a person needs to know about is the mitzvah of mesirut nefesh. The mitzvah of mesirut nefesh is not an easy mitzvah. By default, it's the opposite. What is mesirut nefesh? Self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice for Hashem. Now, a question comes in the Gemara, Masechet Pesachim, page 53b. It says, when do you know that you are an eved Hashem, a servant of Hashem. Everybody thinks that they're a servant of Hashem as soon as they put a kippah on or a kisui rosh, a long skirt or dress, maybe peyot, maybe tzitzit. Everybody thinks, no, no, I'm a servant of Hashem. All day I'm watching shiurim. Yeah, you're a servant of Hashem. You have to test yourself. How do you know you're a servant of Hashem? I pray. Doesn't mean you're a servant of Hashem. I learn Torah. Doesn't mean you're a servant of Hashem. I do mitzvot, doesn't mean you're a servant of Hashem. Who's a servant of Hashem? Moshe Rabbeinu was a servant of Hashem. Moshe Rabbeinu was a servant of Hashem. But you're also obligated to be a servant of Hashem. Eved Hashem. How do you know? We're all obligated to be an Eved Hashem. The ladies, the men, everybody. Not to be Moshe Rabbeinu. Everybody's on their own level. But the point being, we're obligated to do it. How do you know you're there? How do you know you get there? How did you get there?

1:50:17As soon as you come to the conclusion that you're going to do what Hashem said, even when you don't want to, that's when you start understanding the role of an Eved Hashem. If your servitude of Hashem is only on your conditions, you are as far from being an Eved Hashem as Bilaam was. If you are going to serve Hashem only when it fits your agenda, only when it fits your schedule, only when it fits your budget, only when it fits your lifestyle, you're not an Eved Hashem. You're just another person that maybe does some mitzvot. An Eved doesn't have his own or her own will. An Eved has the will of the Master. Now, of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that he wants to do it. But he's going to do it because the Master said so. So that means that the Master said wake up early in the morning. I don't want to wake up in the morning. Who wants to wake up early in the morning? No one wants to wake up early in the morning. But the Master said to wake up early in the morning. So guess what you have to do?

1:51:31want to be an Eved Hashem, you have to wake up early in the morning. You don't want to be an Eved Hashem or you want to pretend? Pretend! Wake up at 12, 1, 2, 3, 5 o'clock. Wake up, go ahead, pretend. In your head, Eved Hashem means you have to learn Torah. Yeah, but I don't like to learn Torah. Okay, so you're not going to be an Eved Hashem. No, no, no, but I want to be an Eved Hashem. Okay, I'll learn Torah when I get a chance. That's not an Eved Hashem. I'll learn Torah when I have time. That's not an Eved Hashem. I'll learn Torah when I'm in a good mood. That's not an Eved Hashem. I'll learn Torah when I feel good. That's not an Eved Hashem. You know what an Eved Hashem is? You learn Torah even when you don't want to. Even when you're sick. Even when you feel like you're about to die. Even when you feel like you're on fire. Even when you are tired. Even when you are busy. Even when you hate it. Even when you don't understand it. Even when you simply want to run away. You know what you do? You learn Torah. That's in the name of Hashem.

1:52:31Yeah, but I feel like I'm wasting my time. Perfect. Just do it. Yeah, but I'm not benefiting from it. No, you're benefiting. You're being an Eved Hashem. Yeah, but I'm not learning anything. I'm learning. I'm reading, reading, reading. I don't understand a single word. Perfect. Who said you have to understand? Who said you have to understand? Learn Torah. Learn Torah. He didn't say you have to understand. Learn Torah. Obviously, try to understand, but learn Torah. Yeah, but why don't I just go read, like, I don't know, a kid's book or something? If that's Torah in that kid's book, read it. But if it's not Torah, then read what you're reading. Why? Because that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants you to do. But it's hard. Perfect. That's perfect Eved. What do you think? It's an easy job for an Eved? An Eved Hashem, Rabotai, is the person that when someone insults him, when someone yells at him, especially when it's his wife, especially when it's her husband, and she knows, Hashem doesn't want me to respond. Hashem doesn't want me to curse back. But I want to. I want to curse him to make sure his mother is reminded of what I think of him. I want to do something to this person that he's going to remember for the next three generations. But you know what I'm going to do? Nothing.

1:53:48Why? Because Hashem doesn't want me to do it. I want to do it. And I actually think he deserves it. What am I going to do? Nothing. I'm going to sit quietly. Tatale, I love you, honey. While he's cursing me? Yes, while he's cursing me. I love you so much. You're so cute when you curse. You're so adorable. What do you want to eat? You want salad with the steak? No. Why? Hashem wants me to stay like this. Why? Because if I fight with him, you know what's going to happen? It's going to get worse. So I'm going to do what Hashem wants me to do. What Hashem wants me to do is stay quiet. Yeah, but he's insulting you publicly. He's writing stuff against you on the internet. He wrote 8, 9, 10 articles about you. He called you names. He did this. Baruch Hashem. What do you mean, Baruch Hashem? Why don't you tell him back? Why? what purpose to show who? who are you showing? If he insulted Hashem, no, he insulted you. Who cares about me? If he insulted Hashem, that's something for me to respond to. Insulted me? Who cares about that? Why? Hashem is the only one who matters.

1:55:09Eved Hashem, rabotai yekarim, means that you're going to do a bunch of stuff that you don't want to do. Why? Hashem wants you to do it. And as soon as we realize that that's the life we're supposed to aspire to, that's when we begin our journey of being an Eved Hashem. Not quite an Eved Hashem, but that's when we begin our journey. The Gemara says in the book of Daniel, chapter 2, verse number 38, Daniel translates dreams for Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, the Midrash says, was the son or the grandson of Shlomo HaMelech, but also destroyed the Beit HaMikdash as a measure-for-measure punishment from Hashem for the mistake that Shlomo made marrying the Queen of Sheba. But nonetheless, Nebuchadnezzar was given a prophecy in a dream that the prophet Daniel told us, told him what it is, that he'll be the most powerful king until the Mashiach. Now, Nebuchadnezzar did not like it. Why didn't he like it? He says, why only until Mashiach? Why only until Mashiach? Why can't I be the strongest king ever?

1:56:31not enough to control the whole world while I'm alive. I want to control the whole world even after I'm dead, forever. Wasn't nothing. So what did he do? Nebuchadnezzar said, "See, in a dream I dreamt that the top of the idol was gold, and then silver, and so on and so forth, but it's different material representing different kingdoms that would follow me." So this is what I'm going to do. To fix this prophecy, I'm going to make an idol that's all gold. And I'm going to make all of the nations bow to it. And in chapter 3 of the book of Daniel, the test of all tests is given where this enormous monstrosity of an idol, this golden idol, an enormous, enormous idol that Nebuchadnezzar had built, is raised. As a celebration, he commands all of the leaders to come from all the nations and bow to it or die. Now everyone knew, everyone knew Nebuchadnezzar doesn't joke around, including Am Yisrael. This enormous monstrosity of an idol, this golden idol, an enormous, enormous idol that Nebuchadnezzar had built, is raised. As a celebration, he commands all of the leaders to come from all the nations and bow to it or die. Now, everyone knew, everyone knew Nebuchadnezzar doesn't joke around, including Am Yisrael.

1:58:00Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who are also called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego by Nebuchadnezzar. He called them different names to fit the culture of Babylon. They were given a test. Why? They were the ones that had to bow to this idol. So they went to the Prophet and they said to the Prophet, "Is Hashem going to make a miracle for us or not? Meaning, if we don't bow, he's going to throw us in the fire. Is Hashem going to save us for standing up for Him or not?" Hashem says to the Prophet, tell them, no. If they want to die al Kiddush Hashem, they're welcome to do it. I will not save them. The Prophet tells them, and they all walk away from the Prophet with complete intention that they're going to jump into the fire. They're not going to bow to this idol. They're going to die al Kiddush Hashem.

1:59:22In chapter 3, verse number 19, Nebuchadnezzar sees that these three tzaddikim refused to bow to the idol, and it says Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the form of his face became contorted. at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The Midrash says that his face physically changed as a result of his anger. That's how angry he got. Because it was a public desecration of his honor. Public desecration of who he was. These three Jews, they're not going to bow to my idol when all of these powerful kings are? He got so angry, his face changed. And he commanded them to throw these three tzaddikim into the fire. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, of course, saved them as He intended originally. And when the Prophet, right after the three tzaddikim left, asked Hashem, "How come you're not going to save them?" Hashem said, "I am going to save them. I just didn't want them to know that I'm going to save them."

2:00:49Because I want them to get the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem. But if they know that I'm going to save them anyway, there's no mitzvah. There's no free choice. So it's not that Hashem changed His mind. He just wanted them to get the mitzvah, and already from the beginning He told the Prophet, I'm going to save them. It's written in the Torah. So now the question the Gemara asks is, where did these three tzaddikim get the strength to do this? Now, you can tell me you love God until you're blue in the face. Come on now, you're jumping into a fire? You're jumping into a fire? It's not an easy decision, even if you're a righteous person. Many righteous people have failed in the past. To jump into a fire? It's a big thing. You know how you know it's a big thing? It's written in the Tanach. It's not written in some storybook. If it's written in the Tanach, it's a big deal. "So now the question is, where did they get this strength? Where did they learn this from? The Gemara says they learned it from the frogs in Egypt. Frogs in Egypt. Why? The plague of the frogs, after Pharaoh said enough, I'm going to let you go, Moshe Rabbeinu prayed to Hashem and said, the frogs should command it for these frogs to leave Egypt, to leave this place, that place, this place, that place, and go into the water, go into the fire, go into the ovens, just go away. So now the Gemara says, wait a minute, hold on a second..."

2:02:17the frogs should be commanded to leave Egypt, to leave this place, that place, this place, that place, and go into the water, go into the fire, go into the ovens, just go away. So now the Gemara says, wait a minute, hold on a second... You're saying that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah learned, they got the courage, they got the chidush, the insight to go jump in the fire because they learned it from the frogs. Why? Because the frogs, after HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded them to leave, what happened? Some of them jumped into the fire. They jumped into the fire. Why? Because the frog said, "Okay, I can go and jump in the water. I can go and run away, but that will take more time. And Hashem's will is not going to be fulfilled for those extra few minutes. It's better that I jump into the fire and serve Hashem now than let Hashem wait another two minutes." The frog thought this.

2:03:31So the Chachamim say, but wait a minute, that means that Hashem did command him to jump into the fire, because He said, jump into the fire. So comes Rabbi Yitzchak, Rabbi Yaakov Naiman, and he says, yes, you see, Rabotai, it's not just that they learned from the frogs. It could have easily said, learn from Avraham Avinu. Why did they learn from the frogs? Because if you look at the Pesukim in Sefer Shemot, it says, Hashem said, "Go." Fire, water, this place, that place, meaning you have a bunch of choices. You go into the fire, or you go into the water, or you can run away, or you can go to all types of places. Just like Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They also had multiple choices. The fire wasn't the only choice. They could have simply run away. They could have hidden. They could have done a lot of things. They could have committed suicide. But they chose the fire. Why? Because that's Mesirut Nefesh. Mesirut Nefesh, Rabotai Yekarim.

2:04:51When you have multiple options, but you choose the hardest option because that's the will of Hashem. Yeah, I can serve Hashem and pray at 11 o'clock in the morning because praying at 6 in the morning is hard. That's not Mesirut Nefesh. Mesirut Nefesh is to pray at 6. Yeah, I could go to a shiur, but I'm only going to stay for the first half hour. Why? Because two hours is long, and I have to wake up early. Okay, so it's good to learn for a half hour, but it's not mesirut nefesh. You know what mesirut nefesh is? Staying till the end and sleeping less as a result. Why? Because I want this Torah. I can give $100, $200 easily because I have it in my pocket. $1,000, $2,000 I also have, but that's going to hurt my pocket a little bit. No problem. $100 is a mitzvah. $200 is a mitzvah. It's not a problem. I'm not saying it's a sin, but it's not Eved Hashem. Eved Hashem is I'm going to do more. Why? It's the hardest option.

2:06:06It's the will of Hashem, that's what I do. It's a hard life. Shlomo HaMelech met a frog one time, the Midrash says. And the frog tells him, "I'm more important than you." Shlomo HaMelech says, "Why are you more important than me?" He says, you just think that I'm just like making noises all day. What you don't realize is that every word that comes out of my mouth, I'm sanctifying Hashem's name. All day I'm saying, "Baruch Hashem." All day I'm saying, "Shema Yisrael." No one does it like me. Every day we get a test to be like the frogs. ... get the easy choice, mediocre choice, or hard choice. Easy learning: go learn a five-minute clip. Higher learning: read the first part of the weekly parasha with some commentary. Hardest learning: learn some serious Gemara, break your head, break your teeth, learn for five hours straight without eating, drinking, or wasting your time.

2:07:24then finish the five hours and you don't even know what you learned and continue again the next day. All right, you have the choice. You could learn, or you could watch Rabbi Yaron Reuven’s five-minute clip. "Oh wow, Rabbi, you're the best! You changed my life!" It's good, it's good. Thank you, thank you. I have more... Thank you. Nothing, don't. You want to be an Eved Hashem, you have to add some Gemara to it, you have to add some Shulchan Aruch to it, you have to add Poskim, you have to toil, you have to sleep less, you have to do this, you have to change your life. Why? Eved Hashem. It's not easy. Not easy, Rabotai HaKedoshim, everybody thinks that to be a Rav Ovadia is easy. Why? Because most of us, our perception of Rav Ovadia was when he became a king already. Old man, Tzadik, Kodesh Kodeshim, the Goyim are scared of him, the Jews are scared of him, everybody loves him, everybody fears him. His Kedusha was something that kings were scared of. Kings were scared of. One time Rav Ovadia was invited by the king of Spain.

2:08:32king of Spain to come to the castle, and he and the Rabbanit went. All of a sudden, they saw the Queen of Spain stop everything she was doing and start fanning herself because she saw that the Rabbanit got a little flustered because it was a little hot in the room. So the Queen of Spain started fanning herself. She stopped, the Queen started fanning herself. Rabbi Ovadia says to the Rabbanit, you see, a pasuk from the Torah was just fulfilled right now, that the kings, the kings of the other nations will serve the Talmidei Chachamim. But everyone knows these stories of how Rabbi Ovadia was the king, how he was Kodesh Kodeshim. What does everybody not know? When Rabbi Ovadia was still a young man, 16 years old, he already started giving shiurim, started writing. When he was 18, he came out and he said, the Ben Ish Chai is wrong. We go with the Shulchan Aruch. Why? That's what Am Yisrael accepted. Go to Shulchan Aruch. We don't go according to the Ben Ish Chai. We go according to the Shulchan Aruch. Now, this may not mean much until you know what happened.

2:09:57The Babylonian Jews, Iraqis, hot-tempered people. They heard this. They said, "You're allowed to kill him." Why? He went against our Kodesh HaKodashim, the Ben Ish Chai. Allowed to kill him. But, not right away. So after he said this, they waited for him outside. Hey, Ovadia! What are you doing? He said, the Ben Ish Chai is wrong? No, it's, we go by the Shulchan Aruch. We pasken, can I go by the Shulchan Aruch? It's not a good idea, Ovadia. Why did I make it up, he says? That's Torah. Okay. The next day, came out of the yeshiva, and they beat him senseless until he lost consciousness for 24 hours. They beat him senseless—a bunch of them beat him up so badly that he lost consciousness for 24 hours, in a coma for 24 hours. After that, he told his Rav, "That's it."

2:11:22No more shiurim, no more yeshiva. I'm just going to learn Torah at home. I'm going to become a recluse. I'm just going to, I'm going to serve G-d. I can't. I'm done. So life almost died. Rav Ezra Attiya saw his talmid and he knew that Rav Ovadia is going to be gadol. You have to be a gadol to identify a gadol. And he knew he has to get him back. So he got Rav Ovadia to come back to the yeshiva. But the problem is that the desecration, constant insults, and threats didn't stop. And we're not talking about a bunch of secular people, anti-Torah people. We're talking about religious people, other avreichim. Other Sephardic people wanted to put him on nidui. You know what nidui is? He is banned, not allowed to pray with him, not allowed to talk to him, spit on him when you see him. They wanted to put him on nidui. But...

2:12:32Rav Ephraim Cohen, alav ha-shalom, put a stop to it. Don't put him on nidui; he's a talmid chacham. But still, the constant insults and the constant abuse continued, continued, continued. And Rav Atiyah, Rav Ezra Atiyah, alav ha-shalom, knew exactly what to do in order to put a stop to it. He invited the gadol ha-dor at the time, Rav Eliezer Silver. is known around the world, from America, but well respected all over the world. In America, they respected him; here in Israel, they respect him; everywhere, they respect him. He's going to Kodesh Kodashim. He says, "Please come speak at our place." Okay, now, when you invite a speaker, especially a talmid... You don't have the talmidim rip him to pieces. Usually, you listen to the rav. Thank you very much. Chazak u'Baruch. If you have a question, maybe you ask at the end. That's it. You don't go head to head. It's not kavod. But in this case, he told Rav Ovadia, at the end of the shiur, please, tell him what you think. Now, when Rav Eliezer Silver came, he didn't come by himself.

2:13:55Everyone followed, all of the talmidim. Everybody came, all of the big ones, including the people that beat up the Rabbi, including the biggest rabbis. Everyone came. When a big giant comes to speak, everyone wants to see. In fact, today, you have to WhatsApp people 500 times to come to the shiur for 10 minutes. Everyone came. He comes, gives a shiur, two, two, two, all types of things. Everyone's enamored, Kodesh Kodashim, shiur out of this world. At the end of the shiur, after he's given the whole shiur, any questions? Little Ovadia comes out, he says, Kvod HaRav, everything that the Rav said in this whole shiur, The Tosafot in Masechet Menachot says exactly the opposite. Meaning what? The Rav is wrong. In our language, the whole shiur is wrong. Huh? Well, while he runs to the back, gets K'vara Masechet Menachot, shows him, he knew the whole thing by heart. Here you go. For the Rav, the Tosafot says exactly the opposite of what the Rav said to his entire shiur.

2:15:23Rav Eliezer Silver was Kodesh Kodashim, ish emet. He says, Tzadakta, you're right. Meaning what? The whole shiur is nothing. Don't take anything he said. Why? This little avrech that you just almost killed a couple of months ago, he's right. That's when everybody understood. Now Rav Ovadia, Kodesh Kodashim. Even the ones that said, oh, you went against, they became his biggest fans. Why? In it. But it wasn't just an easy-peasy, oh yeah, he just became, if you study long enough, everyone's going to like you. It didn't work like that. You know, everyone likes to read the parts of the bio that after everybody makes it, after everybody succeeds, yeah, he has this, he has that, but nobody really understands that the real story is the war to get there. The war to get there, the battles to get there, the insults. The threats, the public desecration, the constant annoyance, the constant abuse—that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants.

2:16:31Why? He says, listen, look how much I cared about your kavod. I gave you a nice job so you have a nice house. I gave you a nice wife so you have a good time. I gave you a nice husband. I gave you nice kids. I gave you nice food. I gave you kavod. People liked you. People admired you. People this, people that. Look how much your whole life, 70, 80, 90, 120 years, look how much I worried about your kavod. Now the question is, how come you didn't worry about my kavod, at least like the frogs did? At least like the frogs did. If a person wants to be an eved Hashem, you're not going to look for the easy route, just to get by. The bediavad it's called. After the fact, it's allowed, but in reality, you shouldn't have done it. want to be an eved Hashem? It starts with getting your life used to sacrificing, especially when it's hard for you. Why? Because that's what Hashem wants. Hashem wants your heart. What's your heart? Everything. Make Hashem number one, and guess what happens? You become number one. Amen.

2:17:52We're very excited to offer you the new Be'ezrat Hashem app 3.0. It's a newer, faster app, full of Torah, lots of Kedusha from the shiurim that we do. Myself, Rabbi Efraim, Rabbi Chaim, where you'll also have newer features enabling you to use the app while using other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the lectures directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our kiruv and our Torah work that we're doing. And the most exciting feature is that you'll be able to actually ask questions directly on the app and get answers from the rabbis directly from the app. This is something unprecedented, and Baruch Hashem, we will be able to offer it. Thank you again for all of your support. Check it out. Make sure you have the kosher Torah that will re-energize your neshama each and every single day. Kol tuv, b'ezrat Hashem.