Mezuzah REAL OR FAKE !! How to Spot them

0:56You know, teach people that, you know, want to kill somebody, especially babies that are in their womb. You know, so we try to teach them that it's a baby and not just a piece of meat. And we try to help women who are considering having an abortion in any way that we can, whenever we have the opportunity. Baruch Hashem, we've had a few instances already where it was last minute, and not only did we merit to see the woman decide not to proceed, but also to see the baby. 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 happen. We also do a lot of different things in our community. You know, we have our kiruv (outreach) packages that we send all over the world. We recently sent one to the Philippines. We've also sent them to India and Australia. We distribute these packages to many places, spreading Torah and mitzvot globally.

1:57Once in a while, people also purchase Tefillin from us. We get these Tefillin from individuals we know, who have Yirat Shamayim (fear of Heaven). We are aware of who the Sofer (scribe) is, meaning someone we trust, ensuring this is not a person writing Tefillin while being distracted by 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 could you 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 that are more likely to have a skill set in writing Hebrew. And many times people, you know,

3:06come to us and say, "I want to buy tefillin." And we tell them, "Listen, this tefillin is from somebody that we know has yirat shamayim, is a tzaddik, this and 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 while, we also deal with mezuzot. But mezuzot are a little more difficult. Why? Because 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 to 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. I have some basics that I get from a friend of mine. They're a little over a hundred dollars or so. They are basic mezuzot, but they're kosher and I know they come from a good source. If you compare that to some you can find 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.

4:03worth 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. The cheapest one I have, that I've dealt with, and that I saw is kosher and of good quality, that I'd be willing to put in one of my student's homes, was $125—something like that. So, if you have a house with seven, eight, or ten doors, it comes up to a couple of thousand dollars. So he's like, "Oh wow, it's expensive." I said, "No, no, that's the cheap one. That's the cheaper delivery. That's the cheap one." So, I usually deal with $500 and more. "What, $500 for a mezuzah, for one?" I said, "Yeah, one. One barely, but one." And now I have, Baruch Hashem, a Tzaddik friend of mine, who's a Dayan and Mikubal, 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.

5:22Which is for a $500 mezuzah, $350. But in reality, if you buy this mezuzah anywhere else, it's going to be $1,000. In actuality, though, 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 at a Judaica store for $50, $60, $70? And an Amud Zuzah, that's $125, an Amud Zuzah, that's $500. I mean, is there 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, Chas V'Shalom, you have any lackings. But simply this is something you have to see to believe. But simply, this is something you have to see to believe. So, without further ado, gentlemen, please come up first, and then the ladies afterwards. You can see exactly what I'm talking about. I explained to you the difference, precisely what you get at a Judaica store, on 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...

6:33That if you buy from a place that you don't know who wrote it, especially Judaic stores, eBay, Amazon, or internet-type of places, there's a very, very high chance it's not a kosher mezuzah. Even if it appears perfectly written, it might not be kosher because it was written by a non-Jew. If it was written by a non-Jew, even if that non-Jew were Iyov (Job) from the Tanakh, it still wouldn't be kosher. That's just the way it is—that's the bottom line. He could be a great person, but the halacha requires that a mezuzah be written by a Jew. Mezuzot are only for Jews. So if a non-Jew writes it, it's not kosher. Or better yet, if a machine wrote it, it's problematic. There is now a machine that they invented, the Reform, the Reform heretics, they invented a machine that writes Sifrei Torah. These Sifrei Torah, when written by a machine, are not kosher. You can't pray from it, and according to some opinions, you might have to burn it. But they don't care. A couple of weeks ago, we read Parashat Ekev. So Parshat Ekev is one of the places in the Torah that talks about mezuzot. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, that you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and upon your gates. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us a mitzvah from the Torah to have mezuzot. Why? This is number one, a commemoration of what happened in Egypt.

8:00Plagues, you had a plague where millions of people died in an instant because Hakadosh Baruch Hu killed the firstborn. But if you were one of the Hebrews, one of the Jewish people, or eventually became Jewish, you put blood on your doorpost, and you had protection. A lot of the plagues 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. Now, 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, a Sefer Torah has the whole Torah, while a mezuzah has only a couple of paragraphs. So if I have a house full of Sifrei Torah, each Sefer Torah valued at $100,000 or $200,000, do I still need a mezuzah that costs $100? Korach said no. Moshe Rabbeinu said yes. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded it. What happened? Korach, the ground swallowed him. To this day, to this day, he's screaming. He and all of the people that follow his family are screaming inside Gehenom. Moshe Emet, V'Torato Emet, HaKadosh Baruch Hu Emet, everything is Emet. And we are liars, he says. He's a Chacham.

9:16The Baal Ahavat Chaim, a book called Ahavat 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, You want to come see something interesting? He said, what? He said, you want to come hear your Korach? You want to hear your 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." He put up something in the ground. He says it's so hot. It's so hot they had to pretty much stay away from it. Mama showed him 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 gonna show you a few.

10:39So you see the difference with your own eyes. Okay. Okay. So you have, if you're not a, you don't speak Hebrew, you've never seen Sifrei Kodesh, or you don't know the difference, in the beginning it won't make much of a difference to you. Okay, 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, baderen, not baderech. The Chaf Sofit looks like a Nun Sofit. So it spells Baderen, not Baderech. So it's supposed to, this is a verse from the Torah. 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...

12:02Other 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 why it looks fine. It looks like, you know, this is right. You do me a favor, one of you, yeah, hold all this open. Actually, you know what, we'll keep this. You hold it open when I show all three. I'll show three. Okay, now I... This 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. In the word "Anokhi," the two letters, the Nun and the Chaf, are touching. There are several different issues with this. But again, from the surface, if you don't know what you're doing...

13:21Hebrew. Looks a little bit like what the Tanakh looks like. Hebrew. It 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. Better quality one, but still not kosher. Also similar, again, better quality writing, but it 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 (scribe) who loves Hashem, I'm being sarcastic. He writes you something like this, on cardboard, and he probably has some kind 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 because the tzadik looks like a three. Instead of a tzadik, he wrote a number three. Why? Because in script...

14:48The 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. Okay, 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've 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.

16:13You 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, and not $500. But a good mezuzah that you know was written by a Yireh Shamayim, a scribe who is God-fearing, someone who did not watch the news, not during and not after, not before. And this is what it's supposed to look like. Compare it to this guy over here, and this guy over here. How does it not look so good anymore? Now, if... Netanel, you can 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. Teida. Teida. 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.

17:31Either way, the difference between this and this is Shamayim Va'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, knows these two are worlds apart. And a person that knows and is able to, this is the only thing they would go with, simply because, again, this is a world apart. Now, the mezuzah, when you go and buy it from some place, you're not going to check it thoroughly yourself. You're just going to put it on your doorpost, trusting that it is kosher. So you have no idea if you have something legitimate inside, or you have one of these inferior ones, which is probably a little less than genuine. You just don't know what you have. And you're likely not going to check it yourself. Sometimes, you might send it to a sofer, a trained scribe, and ask them to check it for you. But you need to ensure they're reliable. Unfortunately, in some cases, someone might say, "Oh, can you check it for me?" and the response might just be, "Yeah, sure, it's $10," and sometimes they don't truly check it, they might just take the $10. It's important to find someone trustworthy to properly inspect your mezuzah to ensure it is indeed kosher. So, in reality, if you go and buy an artifact from a museum or 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.

18:56I'm not talking about the size. Forget about the size. You can make this smaller also. You wouldn't, but you get to 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 $60,000, $70,000, $80,000, $100,000. Why? It takes a lot of work. Enormous amount of work, this 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 anybody would spend five thousand dollars. Just go buy one for 50 bucks, like why? Why would you 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 mezuzah for five dollars, and get one for free. But in reality, you have no protection on your house. When you have something like this, you understand that someone cares enough about HaKadosh Baruch Hu to do this. Because the people who usually do these things are 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's a lot of customers for junk. Junk, you can find a dime a dozen.

20:19But 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, shelita, Rav Ovadia Yosef, zatzal, one time told a story, and he said that he went and visited a student of his. And 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 did you get the mezuzot for? They told him a price, I don't know, a couple hundred dollars per mezuzah, whatever it was. He said, ooh, Rabbi, that's expensive. The Rabbi responded, oh, yeah, maybe. Okay, think about it. The student then said, all right. The Rabbi asked, what, did you get a new house? The student replied, yeah, would you like to come see it? Sure, he responded. So he went to see the house. he sees a fancy house, and the Rav sees the window shades. Do you know the window treatment, as they call it in the wealthy circles? The window treatment looks as if it went to a spa. The window treatment is fancy schmancy. He says, "Where did you get this, Rabbi? This is from Italy." "Italy? Wow, this is expensive!" "That's the best, Rabbi, the best. Now, how much is the best?"

21:46He goes, honestly, Rabbi, each window cost me $25,000. He goes, the guy's a thief. He goes, Rabbi, how could you say such a thing? You know who this guy is? You know what kind of designer he is? You know how this and how that and how this and how that. He's like, oh, so if he's good, it needs to be expensive? He goes, yeah, obviously. He says, so how come 25,000 for a window is not too much, and the guy never understood? a guy that decided to make himself famous by marketing himself in a certain way — no problem for you to spend twenty-five thousand dollars. But a guy that learns Torah all day and spends maybe an hour a day at three o'clock in the morning when he has time writing his sefer, but he wants to sell it for a couple of hundred dollars — that's not, that's uh, too much; it's too much. How come? How come twenty-five thousand 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.

23:08You 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. Every 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 do you have to be to sell such a thing? 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 me'udar. It's not good quality. Even if, let's say, all the letters were in the right place.

24:16Okay, and there were no spelling errors, and they were all drawn the right way. 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—a kosher version—you see that there's a big difference. But when you see that someone sells you something that's on printer paper, or 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 Shammai. No fear of Hashem, and only fear of money. And Gemara says, someone that has an addiction to money, it's more dangerous than anything else. or a cardboard, and on top of it they write 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? A lack of Yirat Shamayim, no fear of Hashem, and only fear of money. And the Gemara says, someone who has an addiction to money, it's more dangerous than anything else. It's more horrible than anything else. Why? They'd even sell their parents. How so? The Gemara gives an example. It says the Chachamim made a Gezeirah that as soon as a person passes away, Shem Yishmor, even if he's a Tzaddik, his body becomes Tamei.

25:38Impure. Now let's touch it. If we touch, 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... and 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. I'm going to take that. That's me. I'm taking the body. It's my body. And they take this, they said, 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.

27:00Abba, Ima, right here. We look at them all the time. Why? Addiction to money. It's a very dangerous addiction. And unfortunately, Rabotai Yekarim, Chachamim told us that the last 2,000 years of the world, the first 2,000 years had a certain test, second 2,000 years had a second test, and third, the biggest test is money. People 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 in a car. No problem spending $20,000, $30,000 on a watch. No problem spending all types of money on 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? Do you want the good ones, the top of the line, you know, a couple thousand dollars, fifteen hundred, more of this? No, no, no, rabbi, no, no, no. You have something cheaper? Yeah, you can maybe go 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 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. It's good, at least you have tefillin. You have something cheaper, rabbi?

28:20The cheaper one? What do you want, fifty hours for fifty dollars? Yes, yes, you have those, yes, yes. No, oh, you know who does? K-Mart, Costco. Go buy from Costco. A guy makes 50, 100, 200,000; he wants to buy for a couple hundred dollars feeling? Why? 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 wanted the phone, 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...

29:40Mezuzot for my new house? But you bought the house, though—a half a million dollar house, a million dollar house. Yeah, yeah, but don't you have a connection with the rabbi? Maybe he'll give you 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 wise person? You have 20 rooms. That'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 that's in love with money think? Ah, 20 rooms, even if I get the cheap one, it's at least a couple thousand dollars. "Ooh, Rabbi, you guys are all about money. All you want is money." No, we don't want money. In fact, take your money. We don't want to sell it to you. How about that? A woman came to Rav Abiponovich years ago.

30:43Apikorsus had a yeshiva, with thousands of young men learning Torah non-stop, which required a multi-million dollar budget. Consequently, they needed to raise a significant amount of money. An affluent woman from America came and met the rabbi. She observed everything and decided to make a contribution. Right there, on the spot, she wrote a check for a quarter of a million dollars and handed it to the rabbi. She gives the rabbi a check. "Thank you very much," the rabbi says to her. She then reaches out her hand to shake his. The rabbi, known for his good middot, or character traits, understands that according to halacha, a man is not allowed to shake a woman's hand. If you're a woman, it's fine to shake another woman's hand, but for a man, the halacha is different. Some poskim, or legal decisors, are more lenient in cases where it's necessary for business or similar situations. However, the rabbi insists on maintaining the halachic standard and says no. "You want to rely on leniencies?" he adds, "Good luck to you. No problem. But..." Generally speaking, there is no reason to shake a woman's hand in the world. How do you handle such a situation? Rav Yitzchak Berkovits explains: you can say, "No, no, no, we never say goodbye to our partners." In a diplomatic way, you express that while you value the business relationship and will continue communication, you maintain your personal boundaries. However, she understood the message, but she wasn't pleased. She replied, "Oh, so my money is good, but my hand is no good?"

32:06Robert Bonaventure says, "No, no, your money is not good either. Here's your check." He gives back the check—quarter million dollars. "Here's your check. No, no, no, we don't want your money. Let her go. Gone. Take your quarter million dollars. Goodbye." What we say in French, Arabic. Anyway, a year later... get mail every day, Ishtabach Shemo, envelope shows up, check in there, $100,000. Who? From that lady. Oh, Rabbi, here, look, the woman sent $100,000. He says, give me an envelope, give me an envelope. Okay, writes an envelope, 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. You 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...

33:25Got 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, by the time he came to them and told them that he was trying to go against Moshe Rabbeinu, were already in his pocket. What ended up happening? They all died. A horrible, horrific punishment by HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself. Their tragic fate serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of valuing wealth over Torah and truth. 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. 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. Clients calling your phone. Do you answer? Clients are going to 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, $50,000, that's how much the Torah is worth to you.

34:53how much is it 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. And this is a constant test. It's a constant test for us when we learn, when we pray, and when we're simply living our lives. 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, a tallit, tzitzit, anything that's connected to Hashem. This is not one of those situations where you just buy anything because it's expensive, or you look for discounts. When you invest in the Torah, it's not just about investing in buying CDs. It's also about investing in the religious items that you engage with every day, such as your tefillin, your tzitzit, your mezuzah, or wherever else it applies. You have to invest not only financially but also with your time and effort. What does it mean to invest? It's not just about the money. It's about the time and the research. Do you know who wrote this? Do you know who crafted this? Is it worth it, or not? It's not just about buying; you have to put more thought into it. I realized this is crucial because I remember when I was younger, I didn't grasp these aspects as clearly.

36:02stupider. I had a lot of questions and one of my questions was why would anybody spend so much money until I saw with my own eyes, and I started checking other people's measurements and so on and so forth. And I see the difference. I spoke to a few serious people who understand who, what, when, and how, and they say that it's like I show them that even a kosher mezuzah, a kosher mezuzah... And then I show them the other one. I say, okay, so that one, that's like a Tarenta. And that one's like a plane. You know what a Tarenta is? In third world countries, many times they can't afford cars, so they have these little two-wheelers that are, seemingly, thousands of years old. They might as well have started from the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, but they're still somehow driving. That's a Tarenta. Now compare that with a modern plane, like a Boeing 787. I don't know, maybe even the president's plane. That's the difference. That's the difference between, even if I'm talking about a kosher one, not about the non-kosher ones; non-kosher is garbage. I'm talking about a kosher one versus something that's high-end. Why? Because, again, who, what, when, and how is very, very important in Torah.

37:29In the Gemara, we learn about Rabbi Akiva and his perseverance in his Torah studies. Rabbi Akiva at the age of 40 decided to learn Torah from the beginning. His dedication and commitment serve as an inspiration for all of us. Chazal teach us that "Talmud Torah k'neged kulam," meaning the study of Torah is equivalent to all other mitzvot. The Rambam, in his Hilchot Talmud Torah, emphasizes the importance of Torah study for every Jew, regardless of their circumstances. Therefore, dedicating time each day for learning is essential. Even the great Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin made it a point to learn daily with dedication and focus. It's a foundational practice for our spiritual growth.