Modern Orthodox Teachings Have Psychological Flaw

1:35Mainstream schools provide the source sheets, and they give you whatever information the Rabbi is going to present. He's going to give you a 50-page source sheet for what he's going to say in an hour. Fifty pages, and he's going to briefly go through a variety of different opinions. Rabbi so-and-so said this, another Rabbi said that, and yet another Rabbi said this. Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no. So, what's the path? What's the bottom line? Do I have permission now? Oh, you have to make up your own mind. This is weakening the Torah. This is weakening Torah. Why? Because the average person, whether he's wearing a kippah from the day he was born, or he just put it on for the Knesset, does not know how to make a decision on his own. That's appropriate. Why? He doesn't have Da'at Torah. He doesn't have Da'at Torah. If he has Da'at Torah, he's not listening to you. He's learning. He's not sitting in your lecture with your 80 source sheets. He's getting his own source sheets.

2:36So you're giving 50 opinions to the average person, for whom most of the time the only Torah they learn the entire week is this shiur, and maybe 5-10 minutes between Mincha and Arvit every day. That's their entire Torah learning for the whole week. Yet, you're going to present him with 50 opinions from different rabbis that say yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, without clarifying the conclusion, yes or no. And then you tell him to make up his own mind. have the option to choose based on my own understanding. This is because, as a secular person, I might not fully grasp the significance of both opinions being the words of the Living God. In my previous secular life, I would think that since Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel both provide different perspectives, it simply offers me the flexibility to make my own decision. It's difficult to comprehend the depth of Torah debate and reverence for both schools of thought from a secular standpoint. I don't know what it means, I don't know what it means. Both this and that are the words of the Living God. I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means that Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel are both right even though they're on two different sides. I don't know what that means to me as a secular person. Neither one of them knows what they're talking about. I'll make up my own mind. He says no, he says yes, okay, I'll say maybe.

3:47Sometimes, yes, sometimes, that's how it is. Sometimes I agree with him. Sometimes I agree with Hillel. Look, I love everybody. I'm the next Rabbi something, I'm Rabbi Yochanan. No, I'm starting a new Beit Midrash. Who's joining? Who's joining? No, I'm agreeing with him. I love everyone. So, a secular person says, "Wait a minute, when there are two minds, there's yes and no. I'm gonna take everybody." And that means they missed something. Why? The Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah, page 14, says someone who takes the leniencies of Beit Shamai and the leniencies of Beit Hillel is a rasha, wicked. Beit Shammai and the stringencies of Beit Hillel. You think, what is it? A wicked person? No, the Gemara says this is a fool who walks blind in the night. For the one who walks blind in the night, it's not about yes or no. It's not about difficult or easy. It's about what's the truth. Meaning, whenever Beit Shammai says yes, he goes. Whenever Beit Hillel says yes, he goes. Whenever they say no, he goes with the other one. He only looks for leniencies. Rasha - wicked. Why? Because he's not looking for the truth. What about someone who wants to be Machmir? Someone who wants to say, "I want to do all the most stringent things. I want to do the stuff that's most difficult. I want to be Moshe Rabbeinu." The Gemara says that someone who takes the stringencies of both...

5:03Bet Shamai and the stringencies of Bet Hillel. You think, what is a tzaddik? No, it says, this is a fool that walks blind in the night. For he walks blind in the night. Why? It's not about yes or no. It's not about difficult or easy. It's about what's the truth? What did you toil and toil and toil and work and work and work and work to do? To arrive at the actual truth that your neshama understands. Since we're not betting your mind, when I bet he led, we have a rabbi. You have to have multiple rabbis. You have a posek that you have to hold by. If you're Sephardi, most Sephardim hold by Rav Ovadia. If not, whatever, whoever your Posek is, that's your Posek. That's where you go by halacha. But then you have to have your local rabbi. And then whoever with Beit Knesset you go to, hopefully has at least ten people that actually keep Shabbat. That's another rabbi. It's a local rabbi, basic day-to-day questions. And then you have your rabbi that's your mechazek, that's your guy, that's your rabbi. That's the one that really knows you. That knows if you're honest to your wife or not. That knows if you really have money, you just look like you do.

6:27Knows if you cheat, if you don't. He knows all the stuff about you. The one that you ask all the questions, including the uncomfortable ones. The one that's going to pick you up when you are a little mattress on the floor. He's the hook. So, a person needs to have that. But if he's just looking for a "Rabbi Noah," he's looking for the rabbi that's the most comfortable for him, because "noach" also means comfortable. Whatever's comfortable and going with him. That's a rasha. That's a wicked person. That's a wicked person. So a person that teaches the public every opinion — yes, no, maybe; yes, no, maybe; yes, no, maybe — is doing damage to the community. Why? Because the average person does not know the Torah. In fact, unfortunately, the statistics haven't changed much. They've deteriorated over time in America and the world, especially America, where at this point, 90% of American Jews do not even keep Shabbat, the very basic mitzvah of Judaism.

7:42To such an extent that the Rambam in Hilchot Shabbat, chapter 30, last halacha, says a Jew that violates Shabbat by driving on Shabbat, smoking cigarettes on Shabbat, watching TV on Shabbat, grinding on Shabbat, all of these different things. A Jew that's a Mechalel Shabbat is considered in the eyes of Hashem and His Torah 100% an idolater, an idol worshiper, no different than a Christian missionary. One of the TVs was off. Differentiate between a silver cup and an inanimate object regarding its connection to Shabbat. When discussing the concept of chilul Shabbat, when it involves inadvertent actions, for example, if a person unintentionally turns on an appliance or electronic device due to lack of awareness, it is a different issue. The main question becomes: Why does he have a TV in his house to begin with? That becomes a separate problem, but it is not considered chilul Shabbat. No, that is not chilul Shabbat—that is not considered a desecration of Shabbat. Shabbat is when you're actively turning on the TV. You're turning on the car. You're pressing the ignition. That's what it means for a sin to be done b'farhesia. When ten people know that you are violating Shabbat, they don't need to see you. They know that Johnny smokes on Shabbat. They don't need to see you. People think that b'farhesia, a public sin of Shabbat, means that ten Jews saw you. No, if you look at the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, it specifically uses the story of Pinchas and...

9:06Teach us. What does p'farhesya mean? What does a public sin mean? A public sin means when ten Jews know that you are sinning. Ten Jews knew that Zimri was with the Goya, Cozbi. They didn't see him. They were in ohel. What do you think it was? Everybody was inside his ohel. No, ten people know they both went in there, and they're doing whatever they're doing in there. Ten people know. Pinchas says that gives me the right to kill them. that's the din of a zealous person that sees a Jew and a non-Jew in the middle of an act; if they're zealous, they're allowed to kill them. We don't have that din anymore because we don't have zealous people anywhere in the world. But the point is what we learn from Parashat Pinchas is that now parhesya means when ten Jews know that you drive on Shabbat. They don't need to see you drive, they don't need to see you smoke. A person that violates Shabbat is not going to know. What does it mean to have 50 opinions? The rabbi tells them this is yes. There's no, there's Rambam, there's Tosafot, there's this, there's that. Fifty opinions! What's the mechalel Shabbat going to say? "Oh, no one knows like me. Maybe I'm a bigger tzaddik than them. I think I'm nice. I paid for the synagogue. I paid for a sefer Torah. You know how much money I donated?"

10:31You know how much money I spend, do you know how good I am, you know how nice I am to them? I buy sandwiches from them. I bought, I bought - the guy doesn't like people to magnify their day-to-day life as if they're Moshe Rabbeinu. So the guy doesn't know right or left; he drives on Shabbat still, and the rabbi never told him anything. He's thinking, "If the rabbi never told me anything, that means it's okay for me to drive on Shabbat because there's yes and no." So, I'm choosing one, he says yes, and on the other one, no. Driving, yes; parking, no. I'll give it to the valet. That's a big message in Beverly Hills, as they call themselves Orthodox, beit knesset, Orthodox witness in Beverly Hills. They have valet parking on Shabbat, but they call themselves Orthodox. I don't know why, why bother? Why bother calling yourself Orthodox? Just don't call yourself anything, call yourself Reform. Don't call yourself that. Why? What's the point? Why lie to yourself? don't understand that, but this is not the fault of the people. It's not completely their fault. It's the 50 sources, it's the flawed teachings that are disconnected from the people by telling them you can make up your own mind. It's all subjective. It's all subjective—what you think, what you don't think. Do what's right in your heart, and

11:56Bil'am thought that what was right in his heart was to kill Am Yisrael. Does that mean it's right? Hitler thought that to kill Am Yisrael was right in his heart. Who said this is Christianity? So, the first flaw of the teaching style of providing multiple sources without an actual 'yes' or 'no' is that it weakens them. To the average person, it kills them. For the slightly above average, one who's trying, one who's trying to get stronger, but he's not quite there yet. He doesn't have daas yet. He's like a new Baal Teshuva. Three, four, five years into it, he's not learning every day. He's not in a kollel, but he learns a little bit. Yeah, he goes to a shiur, he learns a little bit from the books here and there. Now, you give him a shiur with fifty sources—you've ruined all of his learning. Why? Because now he thinks that in order for him to ever arrive at an actual opinion, he has to know all the sources. And even if he goes to all the sources...

13:00What makes it right? Maybe it's wrong. So maybe sometimes I'll do it. Maybe sometimes I won't do it. And Rav Soloveitchik said over here, this one. And the rabbi said over here, this one. And this one said this one. And again, you've mixed him up. Not that different from a secular person. It's one step removed. You've confused him. Now, he is now a kofer. A kofer, but he doesn't know it though. He thinks he's good, but why? He says, "No, no, the rabbi said there's 50 opinions, I just picked that one," like he thinks it's a shopping list. He doesn't know that you're not allowed to do such things. So that's another problem. Now, the one who actually knows Torah and can discern and learn with you all of the opinions, and understand that all of them are words of the Living God, 9 out of 10 times, if not 9.9 out of 10 times, he's not in your shiur. He's not attending, he's not attending, and even if he's attending, you didn't give him anything to see anyway. Why? Yes, that's all. So who are you making this shiur for? You have a thousand people. I remember we were in BRS every week; they gave out these 50-page source sheets to a thousand people, six hundred people, eight hundred people in the crowd.

14:23People learn it and, you know, I'm sitting there. I didn't go to many shiurim. I'm just in the beginning, and I'm just trying to see what's going on in the place. Sometimes I'll come to tefillah a little early, so I have nothing to do, so I sit there and hear the guy finishing his speech. When you start overhearing people talk, one guy would say, "Oh, so what do you think?" The other responds, "Oh, you know, I just sit here and pretend like I know what he's talking about," as the people talk to each other, and they're religious. So what do you think was I’m pretending like I know what he's talking about. I just keep nodding. He goes, Jeremy, they give each other a high-five. So this is not my opinion. I see this from the people. I was there; no one knows what's going on. You've ruined a thousand people's development in Torah for Shabbat. A thousand people, instead of getting an hour of Torah, got an hour of confusion. The rest of the week is ruined. So when a person not only acts as a sponge himself but also speaks like a sponge, sharing everything—the good, the bad, all of this—and doesn't provide guidance or say yes or no, he is doing a disservice to the people. You're doing a disservice to the people. Please stop. You're ruining it. Now, last point, statistically, you could guess your opinion. That's your opinion. It's your opinion. All this stuff is your opinion. I have students who are benefiting from it. I have students who like it. Okay, so let's see. Your style of teaching people everything has been utilized by you and the likes for a while now. A while didn't just open last year when I became religious and...

15:50Statistically, you could form a guess or opinion. That's your opinion; it's your perspective. All this stuff is your opinion. I have students who benefit from it. I have students who like it. Okay, let's see your style of teaching. Everything you have utilized has been used by you and the likes for quite some time now; it didn't just start last year when I became religious. Been around for a while. Let's say, right? Let's see the Jewishness of the Jewish people throughout that time. Has it improved? No, it's deteriorated. It's deteriorated to such an extent that many of the G'dolei HaDor are saying that the modern Orthodox today are what the Conservative used to be 50 years ago. The Conservative that are now Reform. Used to be like the Modern Orthodox today. I spoke to one of the gedolei ha'dor in America, and he told me, "Modern Orthodox is a different religion." I asked, "What do you mean? It's Judaism." He replied, "No, no, they call themselves modern; they call themselves Judaism, but it's a different religion, Modern Orthodox." When you say something, they respond, "It's different Torah. They have their own halachot; they listen to 50 opinions. They don't want to listen to one opinion. They want a 'yes' or 'no' answer."

17:09Don't know, everything is subjective. Everything is about what you think. What is this thing we use? We like to cherry-pick the rabbis and the opinions like Skittles. "Oh, no, I like red. Okay, give me all the reds. Oh, I like green. Give me all the greens." This is a blatant example of the Torah's disrespect. This is a disrespect of the Torah, and it's causing a lot of confusion. People are simple, people are simple, people are simple. People need to know yes or no. They don't need to know the whole team of how you got to it, and who said this one, and who said that one. The reason why I mentioned sources is just so you know I didn't say it. Don't blame me for writing the Torah. That's why I mentioned sources to you. I don't necessarily expect every one of you to write down the page number and go there. Maybe you will, but if you do, you'll find it. But I'm not telling you because I think you're going to write every single word that I say down. The point is to show you that there is a source. But in the end, what we try to do is say yes or no. Even more often than not, there is an opposite opinion.

18:21Many times there is a "yes" for every "no," and there's a "no" for every "yes"—many times, not all the time. Many times there's an opposite opinion, but that's not what we go by. We have a direction. What's our emet that we arrived at? That's the emet that we go by. Yeah, but there's another opinion. Good thing, good thing for his opinion. We don't go by his opinion. We go by this opinion. Yeah, but Rabbi, he's also big. Good. Chazak U'Baruch. He's in Gan Eden. I'm trying to get there. He's in Gan Eden. Good for him. I'm not there. I'm trying to get there. Okay, so why don't you do what he says? Because I don't go by him. I don't go by Rabbi Sgt. Sash. I go by Rabbi Ovadia. I go by Rabbi Elyashiv. I go by whoever your posek (halachic authority) is. You go by him. You stick to him. You can't pick and choose rabbis like you do sandwiches. Unless... your own rabbi said you can go with the other opinion. sometimes you'll see in halacha that the rabbi says this is yes, and anyone who says no—there are enough chachamim who hold that opinion, so you can follow that too. you have something to rely on, meaning that you're allowed to go with the no, and

19:40your own Rabbi said, "Even though I've arrived at the truth, my truth is yes, I'm not saying that the 'no' is wrong. There is enough wisdom that others have arrived at, and even they have the right, so you can go with either one. He's telling you, 'I'm doing yes, but they said no. If you choose to do no and'" Okay, you have something to rely on. Your own chacham said you have something to rely on, but if he says, "I say yes, and whoever says no is wrong," you are forbidden to go to a different opinion. You're forbidden. This is why it's mamash bushah ve'cherpah for all of these Sephardic Jews that want to rely on Ashkenazi poskim to wear wigs and... Because they, the Sephardic Jews, for the most part rely on Rav Ovadia. Now, Rav Ovadia said it doesn't matter if it comes from China or it comes from India—wigs are forbidden. He provided a comprehensive list of over a hundred different poskim throughout the generations stating that it is forbidden to wear wigs just because of modesty. Forget about avodah zara (idolatry) and...

20:50It's not allowed to wear a wig for a Jewish woman according to Rav Ovadia, according to the Vilna Gaon, according to Rav Elyashiv, and so on and so forth. The list goes on all the way to the days of the Gemara. He says you're not allowed. So, for a Sephardic Jew to say, "No, no, but Rabbi Moshe Feinstein or the Lubavitcher Rebbe said yes," yes, but you don't hold by them. cannot go to them when it's convenient for you. That makes you a "shotah," a fool. So a Sephardic person can never do such a thing. But unfortunately, many of the local rabbis don't tell them that. Why? Because the local rabbi's wife also wears a wig. So he's nogea. He's biased. No, absolutely not. Yes, that's a real rabbi. Yes, that's a real rabbi. The point is, the truth is the truth. You cannot avoid the truth just because it's not convenient for you.

21:50So now, a person that teaches the public needs to take all of these things into consideration. You cannot just tell people they can decide for themselves. They don't know what the Torah is; the average person needs to know: Am I allowed, or am I not allowed? Yes or no? Many times, my rabbi tells me yes, but the answer is not always so simple. Yes or no, I said. For me, I'm like a cow; I need a clear yes or no, right or left. That's all I think, yes or no, and these specific, certain things. I want to know how to handle all the complications—right, left, or the certain things. I want to know. But certain things I just listen to because I don't care enough about them to investigate, as I'm too busy investigating 70,000 other things. So just tell me what's right. I want to go to Gan Eden. Tell me what's right. What do you do? What do you do? Did you do it? You wear a wig? No. Okay. I'm not wearing a wig. What do you do? You eat, you eat, uh, beit yourself? Yes. Okay. I eat, beit yourself then. You eat, uh, okay. What do you do? That's what you have to ask. What do you do? Yes or no? What do you do? Would you eat it? No. Okay. So I'm not eating it too. Why not? Because you're my rabbi. If you go to Geronimo, I want to be with you.

23:10have to ask somebody some questions. What do you mean a woman has questions? What do you think if we go to get it, then look at me? If you go to get it, then he's a what? To Misha'el benu, I'll have a chance if we go to get home together. So, now what I... this is the key. This is the key. You need to know it: sponge, sponge. It's good, but it's terrible. Why? You have a talent that Hashem gave you, and... Absorb a lot of information, but you're absorbing too much. This is like a person who wants to live a religious life and a secular life at the same time.