MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (Series Finale) TIME TO THANK HaShem!

0:17We are back for our Tuesday night shiur on Iggeret HaRamban. Tonight will be the finale of the series. We are up to lecture number 39. Tonight's shiur will be for a Refuah Shlema for Levana Bat Sarah, for Yitro Ben Avraham, Rafael Ben Chana, Shmuel Ben Rivka, Miriam Bat Suri, for Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sarah, Dvora Bat Mercedes, Elisheva Chaya, Bat Sarah, Rav Ephraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sarah Bat Anat, David Ben Esriah, Doris Bat Jorah, and all of Am Yisrael, Be'ezrat Hashem, will have Refuah Shlema, Refuah Tanefesh, and Refuah Taguf. So, Baruch Hashem, we are at the end of the letter, the last sentence in the letter, and

1:44The Ramban has taken us to school on a new wave of thought, a new understanding of what it means to be pure, what it means to be righteous with Hashem, what it means to understand what our mission is in life. And a person that listens to this letter, from the first verse, from the first sentence of it, until the end, understands that the words of the sages are nothing like the words of scholars of today or any other time. As they thought every single word, every single sentence, every single letter, and to the extent that you could study their letters, from the first verse, from the first sentence of it, until the end, understands that the words of the sages are nothing like the words of scholars of today or any other time. As they thought every single word, every single sentence, every single letter, and to the extent that you could study their letters, that they wrote to their children as Torah Kedosha, as Torah from Sinai. And learn an enormous amount of lessons from it where if we did a whole new series, another 39 lectures, the next 39 lectures would be completely different from the first 39. Without a word being repeated. That's how much you can learn from the Chachamim. Now, the...

3:13The issue we have many times today is because of our many sins as individuals and as a nation, we've lost our understanding of what a chacham really is. We've lost our understanding of what a tzaddik really is. We've lost our respect for our sages, where sometimes you hear people talk about the sages as if they are just anybody. "Oh yeah, that guy." What do you mean, "that guy?" Rabbi so-and-so? What do you mean, "Rabbi so-and-so?" Ramban, Rambam. They're friends, these guys? And, you know, anyone that knows a little bit about Chachamim, knows a little bit about Torah, is shocked. Shocked that the sages are being regarded as such, but at the same time, understands where we're standing in the generation, where people don't understand where we're at.

4:16part of the reason why a person can get to such a low level of misunderstanding the Chachamim is because of all the tum'ah that they bring onto themselves from their actions, whether it be the big sins of chilul Shabbat and wasting seed and nidah and kishuf and so on, or it could be just simply ignoring the advice of the Chachamim and exposing themselves to Avodah Zarah as if it's not such a big deal. Exposing themselves to things that are not recommended as if it's not such a big deal. And the problem is that they don't realize that the Gemara says in Masechet Avodah Zarah, when the Chachamim debated, if you have to go from point A to point B and you have two possible directions to go there, two possible roads, One road, you'll have a house full of znut, a prostitution house. And the other road has idolatry, it has a church. Which one do you pick? So one Chacham says, well, we can go by the idolatry because there are no girls over there, so we pass. The bigger Chacham says, no, absolutely not. It's better for us to go by the prostitution house.

5:35by the beit znut, than to go next to the place of idolatry. Why? Because by the prostitution house, we can simply close our eyes and not see anything. Whereas with the place of idolatry, even if we simply go there, whether we close our eyes or we don't close our eyes, it'll still affect us. It'll still affect our neshamot. Sometimes you tell stuff like this to people. I said, what do you mean it affects the neshamah? I don't see anything. They think the neshamah is like your body. You know, where you fall, you break your hand. You see some blood. Oh, see, I broke my hand. Because you saw blood, or you saw black and blue, or you saw your skin turning to all types of colors. You figure something bad happened. Neshamah doesn't work like that. The neshamah was given to you pure. And the goal is to return it even purer, or at the very least as pure as you received it. But when we expose ourselves to things that are forbidden, whether it be television or video games, or all types of things that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says are forbidden, you decide that you want to go to your friend's wedding at the church, because he's Christian and he's your best friend.

6:49you decide that you want to go to his wedding, even with the mixed dancing wedding over there where all the shedim are created along with the wedding. This is because he's your friend or he's your brother, and they say no, but you say, "Yeah, but they don't understand. It's my friend, it's my boy, it's my girl, it's my this, it's my that." So okay, suit yourself at your risk. "Nothing happened? See, Rabbi, I went, nothing happened. I didn't even look at any of the girls. I did nothing. Nothing happened." You think nothing happened? You just don't realize that you brought home with you about a thousand, maybe fifteen hundred, possibly even two million. They're living in your house right now, rent-free. Why? They have to go somewhere. They were created at the wedding; they have to go with the guests. A person doesn't understand that. "I don't see it, Rabbi. How could I? How could I tell?" We'll see tomorrow. All of a sudden, the next morning, usually he wakes up for netz minyan, 6 o'clock in the morning. The next morning, 8:30 in the morning, his wife is still trying to wake him up. "Honey, wake up. Wake up. They're almost going to finish praying." "No, no, I'm feeling sick." "What happened?" "I'm tired." Tiredness became a sickness today. "I'm tired. I'm tired." All of a sudden, by the time he prays, it's the afternoon. It's 1:30. "Rabbi, can I put on tefillin at 1:30 in the afternoon still? It's okay."

8:20Shutaf. Yeah, I watch it. I watch it online. I watch it online. Online shows up. Rabbi comes on. But so does the Christian priest. So does, you know, the sports channel. So does the znut and all the garbage that's on TV with all of these reality shows. I don't understand how people don't get depressed watching reality shows. You just see how horrible people's lives are. And people continue watching it. It's like heroin. You know it's bad for you, but you still do it. Yeah, Rabbi, I had you on. So what do you remember from the lecture? Not so much. You know, in the background, there was a reality show, a sports show, and this show and that show. So in between, when they were having commercials, I was watching you. What happened? You used to be an avid watcher. You used to be a talmid chacham of the shiurim. You would write notes and everything. Yeah, I don't know, Rabbi. I don't know. Since that wedding, I don't know what happened. But Rabbi, I got to tell you a secret. What? I really did look at somebody. And she called me. And she says she wants to go on a date. Her name is Christine. Hashem yishmor v'yatzil. She's my boy's sister. She likes me. What do you think, Rabbi? Maybe we'll convert her? Yeah, in Gehenom, we'll convert both of you. We'll call you Kaf and Hakela.

9:46Rabotai, you don't have to see sins in order for them to affect you. And that's one of the main things that the Ramban is trying to deliver to us in his Shaar HaGmul, in his Iggeret HaRamban, in all of his work, in all of the work of all of the Chachamim, you see that Yirat Hashem Yotzaro, the fear of Hashem, that's His treasure. Why? That's the foundation. Sometimes you're going to see a person that's relatively learned but doesn't have much yirat shamayim. You ask him a question, and he can give you an answer. Basic stuff, not a gadol or anything. You ask him a question: Rabbi, am I allowed to do this, not allowed to do this, can I eat this, can I eat that, all types of things, so yes or no. But he himself walks around as if you're not even sure if he's Jewish, you're not sure if he's religious. You see him taking pictures, putting them on his Facebook page with, you know, women. not really sure what's going on with this guy, but he knows a lot of stuff. What does that mean, Rabotai? That means that something's wrong with the foundation. And when there's something wrong with the foundation, it is very, very hard, in my experience, almost impossible to change that person without HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself breaking him first.

11:09If the person is simply ignorant, like Baruch Hashem, the vast majority of the generation, like we used to be, and we try not to be, don't know much. Ask them about Moshe Rabbeinu, they remember a movie. Ask them about Noach, they say, yeah, there was another movie. Or the Torah that they know is from movies. Somebody like that, you can help them easily. Five minutes, I can help them do teshuvah. Five minutes. Why? Simply prove to them... That even if there's a 1% chance that I'm right, they still should do complete Teshuvah. Why? Four and a half minutes about Gehinom. Do Teshuvah in a second. to do another way, logically it takes about 10 minutes, scientifically seven, any way you want. You can help a person do Teshuvah if it’s empty—if the canister is empty, you can fill it up with kedushah and help the person right away if they're open, obviously. If they're not biased and they're already addicted to their sins—if the guy's a crack addict, I can't make him open a new center for AA overnight; it takes a while. But if it’s an empty canister, you can help the person do Teshuvah relatively easily.

12:15Why? It's empty. He doesn't have anything. Oh, he has shtuyot. He thinks he came from a monkey. I can prove to him he doesn't come from a monkey in two minutes. It's not a problem. Go show him his grandfather in the zoo. He says, that's not my grandfather. I say, oh, he didn't come from a monkey. Then let's go show your real grandfather, Avraham Avinu. finished, but if the person knows a few things, Rabbi, he's a rabbi from your local Chabad or your local Modern Orthodox. The shenanigans that they have over there, or he's a, he's a, he's a Friedman follower, he's a Dror Hasid, he's one of these people—it's almost impossible to change. Why? Because what happened is, at some point, he didn't realize that he was learning tum'ah, he was learning impurity, he was learning things that are against the Torah, and he built a foundation. And after that, he continued learning Torah. The problem is that the Torah, the purity, is sitting tight on top of impurity.

13:20And you can't fix it; the purity is there, so it's mixed. You can't tell the difference. He doesn't know what you're talking about. Why are you saying these people on the list are k'firim? Why are you saying this guy is there? What are you talking about? What do you mean? What are you talking about? The guy said that Adam and Chava are a parable. The other guy says that the Torah says that homosexuality is an abomination, but he disagrees. It's not an abomination. He says it five times. But he disagrees with the Torah. He disagrees with Hashem. It's not an abomination. He says, Hashem needs us. It's against the 13 Principles of Faith. So what are you talking about that you're saying he's not a kofer? No, no, you're mistranslating. Listen to what he said. Do you want me to transcribe it for you? You could just read it instead of listening. Maybe the power of the voice will have an impact. What happened? How could these people, smart people, sometimes rabbis, go against one guy? Someone leaves me a message: "I'm Rabbi such-and-such from some state in America. I think it was Seattle or something, and I only watched a few seconds of your video, and I think that you're wrong." Like, he didn't watch the four videos we made; he watched only a few seconds and decided I'm wrong.

14:37So what happened? How could such a thing happen? Because when there's a rotten foundation, everything that's built on top of it is spoiled. If you build a house, you build a building, before everybody moves in with their furniture and their computers and the employees, it looks good. "Look, sir, your million dollars were well spent. Look, we have four stories! Look at the outside; we have these windows. They're beautiful windows, specially made from Italy. And the rocks? We got them from Guam, and this one, and now all types of things. Beautiful house, right? And the color, just, you know, sir, we got it not from China. Not from China. No, we got them somewhere else. Well, I gotta tell you what it is because maybe you gotta tell your neighbors. But listen, the best stuff, million dollars well spent. This house is worth at least five million, sir." looks good. Look, sir, your million dollars were well spent. Look, we have four stories! Look at the outside; we have these windows. They're beautiful windows, specially made from Italy. And the rocks? We got them from Guam, and this one, and now all types of things. Beautiful house, right? And the color, just, you know, sir, we got it not from China. Not from China. No, we got them somewhere else. Well, I gotta tell you what it is because maybe you gotta tell your neighbors. But listen, the best stuff. Million dollars well spent. This house is worth at least five million, sir. Okay, great. All right, moving company, let's go. Moving company brings a couch, the whole house goes down. One couch, the house collapses like the World Trade Center. How come? Rotten foundation. You look, you investigate. Insurance company investigates. What's going on? You made a claim for a million dollars on day one before you moved into the house. They investigate and say your guy built the entire house on a swamp.

16:00And he never dried the swamp. He never fixed the swamp. He never even put cement on top of the swamp. How did he expect this house to stand? Insurance claim denied. Why? Your guy's an idiot. He built a lot of good stuff, expensive stuff, unbad, unspoiled. Which is the reason, Rabotai, it's important to know that when you see... people that look smart, have titles, say that the obvious wrong is right, that means that their foundation is wrong. Their foundation is wrong, their foundation is rotten, and they are part of that crew. And the only way to get such a person to do teshuva, from my experience, and from the experience of people much, much bigger than me, is if HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself breaks these people. gets involved, shows them they're worth zero, and all of their knowledge is worth zero. Which, Baruch Hashem, this COVID-19 is helping out a lot. Everybody's realizing zero. I had one guy send me a whole megillah of a message. Rabbis want to say, a few years ago I went...

17:20I know I was watching Yeshuim. I stopped watching it because I had a discussion with some local rabbi. It happens to be, again, I don't know why this name keeps appearing. I had a discussion with this, uh, with this rabbi, and he convinced me that the whole generation are all tinokot she'nishbu, and you are wrong, and he is right. And then in the Lubavitcher, and all types of things, so I stopped watching Yeshuim. why? Because you guys were strict? Everything strict? Straight? What strict? I just teach the basic minimum of halacha. What’s strict? Teaching you to stop being mean to your wife? Teaching you to stop stealing in your business? That's strict? What, you want me to give you permission to steal? Oh, it's strict? The rabbis say you're strict? Everybody's tinokot she'nishbu? They're all "captured babies"? We should leave them captured? That's what the rabbi says over there? But then, after I see how Hashem is judging the world, He writes to me. I see how Hashem is upset with us. And He's killing us by the dozens. Hashem Yishmor. Killing us by the dozens with this COVID-19. In one second, people lost billions of dollars. Entire companies went bankrupt.

18:30Families lost loved ones. It didn't make any sense. But then I thought, maybe, maybe, maybe they're not. If they would be upset, they captured babies; they don't know anything. Let them live. Oh, come on, put a diaper on them. No, what's up? But if Hashem is upset, how could He be upset at a baby captured nonetheless? he says the conclusion is they're not captured; they chose to be captured. It's like sometimes a little kid hides under the covers and says, "Abba, can you find me? You can't see me, you can't see me." That's what they are; they're choosing to hide, and they think you can't see them. Hashem sees everything, and he realized that the other ...the other set of instructions that's out there in the world that tells everybody that everything is perfectly fine and everyone's a tzaddik as long as you give tzedakah, because that's of course always relevant. Everything is fine, he says. That's wrong. You have to tell people to change; you have to tell people to do what the Torah says, no questions asked. But that's also why, when you look at the prophets, anyone that studies a little bit of the prophets...

19:51You start realizing that our shiurim are a little bit too soft. They're a little bit too soft. The guys are making movies, they're making movies, but they love the parts where I read the prophets. Why? It's the scariest stuff in the world. i read you guys once in a while it appears in a movie, in their clip here and there. i read the prophets, prime time movie. why? why? why? why? why is this? no, no, no. we got the prophets. why the prophets? look what the prophets say. the prophets scare us to death every time, week after week. the prophet Malachi talks to us about the end of days. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to us in a very clear way to this generation, as the Gemara in Masechet Megillah says to us, everything that appears inside the Tanakh is relevant to every single generation. In chapter 3, verse 6, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to us, Ki ani Hashem lo shaniti, ve'atem b'nei Yaakov lo chilitem.

21:04HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "For I, Hashem, have not changed. And you, the sons of Yaakov, you have not perished." You see, Rabotai, HaKadosh Baruch Hu clearly tells the prophet to tell us today. He didn't change. Nothing changed. Torah doesn't change. As the Zohar HaKadosh says to us, HaKadosh Baruch Hu and the Torah became one—HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Torah, and Am Yisrael. He says, "I have not changed. And you have not perished. Yes, you struggled. Yes, you suffered. Yes, you were persecuted. But I kept my promise that you will not perish. You'll always be there. But just because you didn't perish doesn't mean that everything is okay. I have not changed. You're still not complying with My Torah. And the suffering will continue if you don't change. And if you're waiting for Me to change..."

22:04Stop waiting. It'll never happen. HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't change. Torah doesn't change. Yeah, but the generation, the old generation, people think that the sins of this generation are new. It's not new. All the sins are old. The way we commit the sins sometimes is new. People think that immodesty and girls walking around half-naked is new. The prophet Yeshayahu rebukes a group of women, calls them resha'im, Talmas will be walking around with high heels and bells on. And then eventually, we see the punishment of what HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives these people. Hashem Yishmor V'Yatzil, what He does to them. He makes all types of horrible smells and rotten flesh come out of the worst parts of the body—the parts they were trying to expose. Why? Because when the prophet was rebuking them, told them, "How could you walk around like this?" What was their response? "Ah, no, come on, Rabbi. What's the worst thing that can happen? The goyim are going to like us? They want to marry us? So let us marry. Let them marry us." Chachamim asked, "Who are these rotten women? Who are these rotten women that answer the Gadol HaDor, the prophet, in such a way?" He says, "These were the wives of the rabbis of the generation." People think

23:32that the sins of today are new. Nothing is new. The way of making the sins is maybe new sometimes. The point is, Rabotai, that the Ramban tells us very clearly, week after week for 39 lectures, it's time we change our ways, it's time we fix ourselves, And as Rabbi Ephraim says, if somebody simply listened and followed just the first sentence of this letter, the Holocaust wouldn't have happened. The Holocaust wouldn't have happened. And the next Holocaust wouldn't happen. What's the first sentence? Hear, my son, the Musar of your father. That's it. Go to the end of the letter. What's the end of the letter? If you do this, you'll get endless reward. That's it. The rest of the letter you can skip. Just follow the first one. Listen to the Musar of your father. Bad things won't happen. Why? When you listen to Musar and you apply it to your life, you become a pure person.

24:45He told us to run away from anger. He told us to run away from arrogance. He told us that if we want Hashem in our life, we have to run away from such things because HaKadosh Baruch Hu runs away from us if we are arrogant. It says in the Gemara, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to Am Yisrael, "Me and him cannot be in the same room." Why? There's only one God. When a person is arrogant, he thinks he's God. HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates arrogance, hates prideful people. They want the world to dance to their tune. So now, after we've heard some harsh mussar, see that it is critical for us to run away from certain things, but yet we see sometimes that people come in, and they like it. They're starting to do teshuvah, and they come back to their shul, they come back to their school, and their friends haven't listened to the same shiurim and haven't fixed themselves, and they're still, you know

25:51Back in the Avodah Zarah type of mentality. Still pray to a rabbi instead of to Hashem. Still think the rabbi is going to help them somehow and take them out of Gehenom because they had long peyos or because they went to his grave. Not because they learned the Torah. No, that part not so much. All types of nonsense that people have added to Judaism and turned Judaism into some type of witchcraft. so now you start listening to shiurim, you start applying them, you start doing teshuva, you come back, you see some of your friends, some of your girlfriends, some of your boyfriends—all these different people—not so much. So now you have a decision to make: am I going to stand strong with the Kedusha? or I'm just gonna... I'm not gonna... I'm gonna pretend like everything's okay. Like I'm gonna be religious but quiet on my own. I'm not gonna show everybody. You know, when I go to school, I'm gonna wear the immodest clothes like them. Then I go home and put on the long dress. When I go to school, I'm gonna walk around with a, you know, tank top and shorts, looking like I just came out of the shower. Then I go home and put on tzitzit.

27:13I'm with my friends, I'll play video games with them. Oh, I'm gonna watch Rabbi Yaron, I'll watch him on YouTube. It doesn't work. Doesn't work. Why? Chachamim tell us if you're going to purify your mind, you have to go all the way. As long as you continue delving into the forbidden, you're never going to be where you need to be. As a rabbi, alav ha-shalom... Rav Shalom Shwadron, as I told you a few days ago, was not only one of the greatest Kiruv rabbis of the generation, but also one of the Gedolim. He says that it's better that there is one person who is an idol worshiper and one person who is Eved Hashem, Servant of Hashem, instead of having two people They want a little bit of Avodah Zarah and a little bit of Torah too at the same time, mixed. Instead of having two people modernizing the Torah, it's better one of them is completely an idol worshiper and one of them is a tzaddik. One of them is good. Why? At least one of them is going to go to Gan Eden this way. Because if both of them want to delve into the Avodah Zarah, neither one of them is going to Gan Eden. What's the point?

28:42So, the Ramban tells us the following: "Every day that you shall read this letter, Heaven shall answer your heart's desires." He gives advice to his son, Nachman, Rabbi Nachman. that if he follows this letter, reads it, and prays to Hashem, Hashem will fulfill his prayers. And this is an amazing segulah. You're telling me if I read this letter every single day, whatever I pray for is going to happen? It's unbelievable. So the Chachamim toil over this. Is this segulah for everybody? Or is this just for his son?

29:42So Rabbi Yisrael Salanter toiled over this letter and he concluded that the main message in this letter is measure for measure. Where he tells his son, the Ramban tells his son, if you do what I say, you give Kibbud Av Va'em, honoring your parents, you'll get HaKadosh Baruch Hu to answer your prayers because you honored me. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to honor you, in essence, going to honor your prayers, measure for measure. So the segulah, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says, is for his son. But that doesn't mean that it's not for us too. Why? Because Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says, if you actually study this letter, which is what the Ramban was telling his son to do, obviously it's going to change you. Obviously, it's going to change your mentality. Obviously, you're going to apply this to your life in certain ways and purify yourself. And if you purify yourself, of course HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to answer your prayers.

31:00As we read every single day in our siddur, in tefillat mincha, "Karov Hashem l'chol kore'av, l'chol asher yikra'uhu ve'emet," HaKadosh Baruch Hu is near to all who call Him. But then he continues, all who call Him be'emet. Person that hears this and reads this every single day right before Amidah, which is a verse in Tehillim 145:18, immediately goes to the question: "Wait a minute. So you're telling me that anyone that prays to Hashem, Hashem responds to him? Well, then there's a complication. I prayed for three months for this thing. Nothing happened. I prayed for three years for this thing. Nothing happened. I..." So what? It's a mistake in the system? I prayed for parnassah, I'm still struggling. I prayed for this, I prayed for a lot of things, it didn't happen. So what does it mean here? So first, we have to understand that David HaMelech, in the first part of this verse, says anyone that prays to Hashem, anyone that calls upon Hashem,

32:23But in the second part, he gives you the code. Anyone who calls upon Him be'emet, sincerely, with the emet. Not just call Him, "Hashem, Hashem, please help me rob the bank right now." Or, "Hashem, Hashem, please let this girl come home with me." Or, "Hashem, Hashem, let this pork sandwich taste delicious." No, be'emet, come to Him with emet, come to Him with sincerity. So, the Ramban suggests to his son to read this letter every single day because this letter is going to help him fulfill the Mishnah in Avot, chapter 2, Mishnah number 4, where it says if you treat God's will as if it was your will, God will treat your will as if it was His. Person that purifies themselves, works on their character traits, works on their anger, works on their stinginess, works on their arrogance, works on all of their flawed character traits, purifies themselves. And that, since they are treating Hashem's will, which is to purify ourselves and to work on ourselves, as if it's their will. In reality, if someone asked you, "Listen, if you have a choice, you have a choice to stay the way you are or work on fixing it," and...

33:44You're gonna immediately think, if I have a choice and there's no consequences, I don't want to do anything. I'll sit there on a couch like a couch potato, doing nothing all day. Why? It's much easier. Much easier to do nothing. To fix a character trait, you know how much I have to work on myself? You know how many books I have to read? You know how many times I have to bite my tongue and not say what I want to say? You know how many obstacles I have to overcome? It's tough to fix a midah. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter himself says it Rabbi Yisrael himself says it's easier for him to complete the entire Shas than to fix one character trait, one middah. And this is the Baal HaMussar, this is the king of Mussar. So of course, it's hard. And if someone asks you, do you have a choice? No consequence. You're going to pick, no, do nothing. So that means that when Hashem says you have to do it, and we do it, that means we're doing His will. And when we fix our character traits, when we fulfill the mitzvot that He commanded us, what ends up happening, Rabotai, is that we're turning His will into our will. Even though it's really not our will. We don't really want to do it. But we're doing it because He said to do it. Hashem says, I'm going to do what you want Me to do, even though sometimes I don't want to do it.

35:04Even though sometimes I don't want to give you a big house, I'm going to give it to you. Why? You're a good boy. You worked on your character traits. You're not stingy anymore. You finally donated some money. You finally stopped yelling at your wife. You finally took some time and patience and taught your kids for half an hour or an hour. You finally did things that were tough for you. Why? Because I said so. Not because you wanted. I'll give you what you want. so He gives us a code where He says when we fix ourselves, when we turn Hashem's will into our will, He will turn His will into ours. Now, sometimes we pray to Hashem for certain things and they don't happen. So David says, "Wait, I said if you pray to Hashem, you call out to Hashem." Remember that prayer has to come with emet—with sincerity. Don't call Hashem to fix your entire life after you just started fixing things for two weeks. "Rabbi, I've already been keeping Shabbat for a long time now." "How long?" "Two weeks already, Rabbi. You know how hard it was for me two weeks ago. How come Hashem hasn't sent me a new job already?"

36:30Rabbi, I don't understand what's going on. Is Hashem listening to me? I'm already keeping kashrut for a month and a half. How come I'm not healthy already? I still have the cancer. I still have this. What do you think, Hashem dances to your tune? No, it doesn't work that way. David HaMelech tells us, all of us that call Him be'emet. Be'emet, that means that you've overcome the obstacles. That means that it became part of you. he means that it's your mitzvot; they are now your emet. His will has become your emet. And if a person does such a thing, who is going to answer his prayer? Now, when a person prays, many times he prays for things that are out of the ordinary. He prays to get something that in reality has nothing to do with him. He wants to get a job three times above his pay grade. He wants to get a woman that looks like she's from a different planet in comparison to him. He looks like he belongs in a zoo, and she looks like she belongs in Gan Eden. She wants to marry a guy...

37:53that could potentially be a king of a town. Well, she could be the cleaning lady. We want stuff that's more than what we deserve. We want miracles. We want Hashem to cure cancer, stage four, in a week. We want HaKadosh Baruch Hu to fix undetectable diseases. Went to 25 doctors, no one knows what it is, but you want Hashem to fix it in a week. Why? Because you started keeping modesty for three days. We want miracles. Maraz says in Masechet Kiddushin, page 29, that we shouldn't rely on miracles. But the Maharsha comes over there and he says, listen, we cannot just rely on miracles, but when you pray, that sentence, That rule doesn't apply to you anymore. Why? Your prayer, asking for miracles, that's by default. All of your prayers are for miracles. All of your prayers are for miracles. We can't pray for miracles. What can we pray for? Everything is a miracle. For you to live another day is a miracle. When you pray for miracles, that's not depending on miracles. Why? Because the answers to your prayers, by default, are all miraculous.

39:25Pray for as many miracles as you want. Don't be completely delirious. Understand that there are certain qualifications, certain things that you need to do in order to qualify for a miracle to happen to you. But the point being is, we pray for miracles, k'vod, enjoy. You want to marry a guy that owns five countries? Go for it. Pray for a shidduch, maybe Hashem will give it to you. You want to marry a girl that is the most beautiful in the world and you look like Uncle Scrooge? K'vod, go for it. As long as you're tzadika, chazak u'baruch. You want to pray that you're going to complete the Shas for the first time in your life within only one year? Go for it. As long as you study every single day, you don't expect to sleep 8, 9 hours, 12 hours a day like some high school kid. You study every day, you want Hashem to give you the strength to finish the Shas in one year? Go for it. Pray. Why? Prayers are miraculous to begin with. The fact that HaKadosh Baruch Hu listens to our prayers is miraculous. answers our prayers, gives us what we want. Go for it, but pray and make sure that you show up to the prayer with the right tools. What's the right tool? Show up to Hashem with emet. Don't show up to Hashem with lies.

40:43Don't show up to Hashem with a warped ideology. Don't show up to Hashem right after you finish the conversation, bad-mouthing half your kehillah, bad-mouthing your family, bad-mouthing your wife, bad-mouthing your husband, bad-mouthing your rabbi. Don't show up with sheker. You said hello to them, I love you, everything is good, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then when you left, they left five minutes later. Let me tell you what really happened. I have juicy details for you. what did he say to you? Are they getting divorced? Are they sick? Really? Is this, huh? Don't show up. Don't pray. Don't even bother praying to Hashem if you have such a conversation. Now, we learn, says that we are forbidden to just waste our time. But even more so, having just a mundane conversation, even that has to be very limited. For sure, it shouldn't be done on Shabbat and on Yom Tov. But even during the week, it should be very, very limited—whatever is necessary. As the Mishnah says, a person shouldn't speak a lot to a woman. Who is the woman? It's his own wife. Don't speak too much to your own wife.

42:11Needless to say, somebody else's wife. But the point is that a person needs to limit. There's a beeper still from the 1990s. Oh, oh, yeah, it's a clock inside my thing. Somehow it turned on. No, inside, inside the big one, on the bottom, under the papers. Tell me, get on with it. So, Yetzirah went into my bag and somehow turned on the alarm. It's amazing. Amazing. For the season finale, he's got to come up with something new. Season finale, no? Sent us a spider, sent us people to enter, all types of things. Clock goes inside a bag, turns on a clock that's been off for three, four, five months.

43:12I don't even think I have the battery. Check the battery at the end of the show. Probably there's no battery. So now, when they have conversations, it's very different. There was one time, it's written in a sefer by one of his talmidim, one of his serious talmidim, Rabbi Shmuel Rahman. And he writes stories that he himself saw or heard from the Chafetz Chaim, not that he heard from different people, but from the Chafetz Chaim himself. He saw enough and learned enough from the Chafetz Chaim. And he has one part of the sefer on top, it's the commentary on the Torah, different verses of the Torah. And the other part is what the Chafetz Chaim said about this, different stories that are relevant, and so on. And Parashat Yitro, Parashat Yitro, he tells in chapter 19 of Parashat Yitro, he tells a story about how there was one time a big Gadol, a big Talmid Chacham, by the name of Rav Naftali Zilberberg. He's one of the Gedolim in Varsha, in Warsaw. And one day,

44:42Another Talmid Chacham shows up, and he tells him, "What can I do for you?" He says, "I'm looking to sell some books. You know, I wrote a little bit of a sefer, and I'm looking to sell it." "Oh, okay." And then they start talking. Talking about different things for an hour. After an hour, Rav Naftali Zilberberg catches himself and says, "No, I have to go. I have to go teach Torah. I can't just stay here and have such mundane conversations. I don't have the luxury to have such conversations. When am I going to learn Torah?" So the Talmid Chacham says to him, "Well, although Kvodo is right, there's a need to learn Torah." Zilberberg catches himself and says, "No, I have to go. I have to go teach Torah. I can't just stay here and have such mundane conversations. I don't have the luxury to have such conversations. When am I going to learn Torah?" So the Talmid Chacham says to him, "Well, although Kvodo is right, there's a need to learn Torah." Our conversation wasn't really mundane because we didn't say anything bad about people. Everything we said was meaningful and worthwhile, and this too will be considered Torah in the eyes of Hashem.

46:06Immediately, Rav Zilber jumped for joy. He says, you're right, that's the halacha, you're right. We didn't say lashon hara for a whole hour. We spoke good things. That's Torah. That's the fulfillment of Torah. What book are you selling again? What book are you selling? He says, no, it's like a little book. It's called the Chafetz Chaim. Rav Zilber almost fainted. He goes, Kvodo is the Chafetz Chaim? Yeah, yeah, no, what does it matter? You want the book? He was sorry, I'm talking to you for an hour. There's no pictures, YouTube, all this nonsense back then. He didn't know what he looked like. He was talking to the Chafetz Chaim for an hour, he didn't know. He said, I'm so sorry, I disrespected the Chafetz Chaim. He was selling, I even gave the Chafetz Chaim, the head of the teachings in our history, I gave you a rebuke about what we talked about, I'm so sorry.

47:06From that day on, every time the Chafetz Chaim came into Warsaw, he would go to Rav Zilberberg and speak to him—not Torah, just conversation. Why? Because he says that a conversation with the Chafetz Chaim, that's Torah. When you speak to a Torah Chacham, even a regular conversation, that's the living Torah. That's the living Torah. That's the Torah in action. the conversation people, regular people have—"How are you? How are the kids? Where are you guys going for vacation? Are you going to buy the second house or not? I'm expanding, so what about the kitchen? What about this? Nice sneakers, nice hat. What about this car? Yeah, my neighbor has the same one." Garbage conversation, meaningless. "What do you think about the salary cap of the NBA, of this, of that?" Completely meaningless conversation. The conversations of the Chachamim—that's the living Torah. That's the living Torah. And that's, in essence, what the Ramban is trying to give us as one of the messages, where he tells us if we read this letter on a regular basis, we're going to, little by little, become kedoshim, like HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us to become in Parashat Kedoshim last week: Kedoshim Tihyu Ki Kadosh Ani.

48:27you'll be holy because I'm holy. How could you become holy by reading this letter? Not just by reading it and you don't even know what it says. By reading it and following what it says, studying it, thinking about what the message inside this is. You watched all 39 of the lectures that we've done in the last several months? Now study them again and again and again. Why? Because every time you study them, you'll see there's a different message that hits you, a different thing that applies to you. Sometimes, you show up, and the rabbi mentions arrogance. Even though you're as arrogant as can possibly be, you don't know it. Why? Because you're so arrogant, you think you're humble. By the time you got to shiur number 39, you're like, Hashem, I got to do teshuva. 39 shiurim, it took you to do teshuva. What do I got to do? Go back to shiur number 1. Why? Because now I finally realize he's talking about me. So now I have to listen to the message all over again and start playing it because the whole time you were talking about arrogance and stinginess and all types of things, and you were just like, yeah, delete, delete, delete, cancel, delete, delete, delete, archive, delete.

49:43Why? You didn't think it'd apply to you. You're waiting for the stories. You're waiting for the Sippurei Hasidim, because you thought you were a Hasid. You thought you were a Hasid, so you're waiting for the Sippurei Hasidim. You didn't realize you were the Rasha in the story. And that's the question. Where are we in the story? The Ramban tells us clearly, study this daily. Why daily? It's going to help you fix yourself, purify yourself. Become, become, he has to listen to shiur Torah also. Become, no, it's okay, it's okay, leave him alone, leave him alone. He's alive, it's okay. It's okay, he'll go maybe, he wants to listen to us. Leave him alone. Don't be mean to bugs. It's, unless he comes on my books, then he's a rasha. But if he's just over there, he wants to learn. The Ramban tells us, we have to work on ourselves. We have to work on ourselves. We have to toil over the Torah. We have to turn our conversations to Torah. We have to turn our conversations into Torah. And that takes a lot of learning. But even more than learning, that takes a lot of restraint. Working on our character traits. Working on our middot.

51:01Because you can know a lot of Torah, but still like to talk about basketball and football and all types of other nonsense. So that's why Rabbi Sholom Schwadron says it's better that there's one guy that's a tzaddik, and the other guy is an idol worshiper, rather than both of them being 50-50. A little bit of idolatry, basketball, NBA, football, all this nonsense, and a little bit of Torah once in a while. It's better one guy is chareidi, no TV, no internet, none of that nonsense, unless it's shiur Torah, he's not interested. She's not interested. If it's not shiur Torah, she's not interested. Better her than the guys that are 50-50. So, further, he tells us about praying for miracles, a person that It's a call upon Hashem with the emet. Be-emet means with the emet. Anytime you have a bet before a word, it means with. With the emet, call Hashem with the emet. Don't pretend that you're something that you're not. But this also means that you have to understand

52:24what you're saying to Hashem. For example, many times, unfortunately, we get calls from people or messages from people that are sick, and they want a cure. And you know, you get some information from them, and you tell them, listen, do teshuvah for this, start becoming modest, put kisui rosh on, keep Shabbat, whatever's missing. After you get an idea of what these people are missing, if it's the foundational stuff, that's the advice. What does me putting on a kisui rosh have to do with me getting healthy? What does me putting on a long dress have to do with getting healthy? What does me eating kosher have to do with getting healthy? Is that a specific diet, Rabbi? It has nothing to do with the diet. First, you fulfill the mitzvot of the foundation, then we can talk further. But most likely, if you fix this, everything else can be fixed. People have a hard time. They have a hard time taking this in. By the way, if it's bothering you that much, the bug, then you can kill him because he's bothering you that much. Whoever wants to kill him, I see all you guys, instead of looking at me, you're following the bug, where he's going. He's going to Tel Aviv, he's going to Yehoshua, he's going here. I've seen eight eyes already going to different places. If he's bothering you that much, just kill him. If not, it's okay. If he's not bothering you, leave him alone. Let him do his teshuvah.

53:53The people have a hard time. Hard time accepting such advice. Why? They were expecting something they consider more powerful. A segulah. Give me like a Tehillim I can read 87 times upside down and that's going to fix all my problems. Give me a rubber band I can put on my ear and that's going to fix my problem. Give me some type of book I don't know how to read, because I don't even know the language, but I can put it in my library that cost me fifteen thousand dollars, and that's going to fix my problem. Give me an amount, let me write a check right now, that's going to fix my problem. People want that. You don't need that. What do you need? Do the basics of what HaKadosh Baruch Hu expects from you. That's going to fix it. Now, what happens? They don't follow through. They don't follow through. They say, okay, okay, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it. Next two, three, four days, yeah, Rabbi, I have a new appointment with another doctor. This doctor is the best doctor on the East Coast. It took me a long time to get an appointment, but I had to call my friend who knows his wife and is our sister's this and that, and I got an appointment for today.

54:58So pray for me, Rabbi. This is the best doctor. Or, listen, Rabbi, I got the best lawyer. This lawyer is the best lawyer. He's such a good lawyer, the defendants are scared to even defend themselves next to him just from a conversation without even charging. And he's going to win the case for me, Rabbi. Pray for me that the lawyer is going to win the case. Guess what? That's kefirah. That's kefirah. That's heresy. Why? You're going to a doctor? You think the doctor is going to give you the medicine? You're going to a lawyer, you think the lawyer is going to be the Mashiach. Mistake. When David HaMelech tells us, pray to Hashem, but pray to Him with emet. Meaning, have in your mind a clear understanding of who has the ultimate emet. Who has the cure. That's only HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And you're only telling HaKadosh Baruch Hu, please, please, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, give me...

55:58give me the messenger that You chose, whoever You chose, that he’s going to be the one that’s going to bring me the cure that You want to bring. It’s not that he’s going to bring me the cure; just use this doctor that knows, barely, how to count from one to ten but not further. Use him to give me the cure. Use this lawyer to win the most difficult case in the world, even though he just graduated last week. Whatever it is, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, use him because You are the solution. Not this lawyer, not this doctor. None of these people are the solution. You are the solution, Hashem. If you come to Hashem with such a prayer, your prayer will be answered. And Hashem can use anybody to give you any piece of chalk and call it medicine, and it will work. or the opposite, He can make the greatest doctor with 20 years of experience mess up your entire body and make you fight for your life for a decade and a half. I know; I was there. But I also know that if I knew this little trick that I'm about to give you for free, it wouldn't have happened. It's free because you guys are bothered by the voucha over there.

57:14What's the trick? Understanding what you're doing before you take medicine or anything in life means you understand that the only reason this piece of chalk, this piece of gel, this piece of syrup is going to work is only if HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides for it to work. Not because there's good science, not because it's a big company, not because it's expensive, not because the doctor knows what he's doing. You know, he's really a good doctor. so you know how many good doctors kill people? The best doctors kill people too. The best ones. You think it's a mistake that it says, "The best of the doctors goes to Gehinnom"? I mean, it's referring to something else, but nonetheless, don't think it's just because somebody's a good doctor, he has a solution. What's the solution? Hashem. Now, if you're ever going to take any medicine, whether it's an Advil for a headache or something much more serious, say the following: "It's obviously with a hey, not a k."

58:39May it be Your will, Hashem, my God and the God of my forefathers, that these dealings, these health dealings, will work. Because You are a free doctor. You are a free doctor. Not the medicine, not the doctor. Before you go to a doctor, you say this. Before you go to take any medicine, you say this. Why? You're acknowledging to Hashem, Hashem, I know this is just a piece of syrup that somebody sold me. I have no idea what's in it. And even if they told me, I still wouldn't know the difference. In reality, this could be the cure for everybody else in the world except me. Or the exact opposite. It could not work for 999 million people, but only work for me. Why? You decide. You decide. So please, since You're a free doctor, make this work. Make this work. Make this message. I'm going to go to the doctor to check on me. Make him know what he's doing. Because You're the free doctor. You're the doctor, Hashem. This, Rabotai, is coming to Hashem with the emet. What's the emet here? The emet is that you know who has the cure. The moment you rely on people, you're steering in the wrong direction. Now, a

1:00:02A person has to humble themselves and have an extraordinary amount of emunah in order to recognize that everything is in the hands of Hashem. Humble themselves because that means that you are simply removing all of your own strengths and realizing that any strength that you have, any money you have, any good you have is not yours to begin with. Your talent is not yours. Your ability is not yours. Any success you have is not yours, only because Hashem decided to give it to you. So the first thing, when you're going to have such emunah in Hashem, you have to humble yourself. Now, in order for this emunah to work and for these tefillot to work, you have to have bitachon. betachon that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will answer your prayers, you have to have confidence that Hashem is going to answer your prayers. Now, it's very interesting that we pray every single day, but many times we pray so many times that we forget what we're actually saying. Now, we're not going to go over every single thing, but...

1:01:26Just going to go over a little bit of what you all did in Mincha today. Before you got to Amidah, you told HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you read to Him Psalm 145. And in there you said that Hashem answers all prayers, anyone that answers with emet. And who are those people? That the will of those who fear Him, those who have Yirat Shamayim, that's who He's going to fulfill. That's who's proving that he has prayer that's with emet. Because you have Yirat Shamayim. No, but what about loving Him, Hashem? What about loving Him, Rabbi? Oh, it doesn't say anything about loving Him. It says fearing Him, it does say. Fear Hashem, He's going to answer your prayers. But the interesting thing is, it says, He doesn't say He's going to actually fulfill their prayers. He's going to fulfill their will, which is even higher. Meaning, if you've gone to the point of Yirat Shamayim, you don't even have to ask Hashem for it. You thought it in your head, "Well, I wish I had a bigger house." "Honey, my dad just gifted us a house." Wow, Baruch Hashem! What happened?

1:02:50That's how it works. That's how it works. When a person has real Yirat Shamayim, he doesn't even have to pray for stuff. Before you even ask for it, before you even need it, that's how amazing it could be. But if they start crying to Hashem, He will hear their cries and He will save them. If they get into trouble, they start crying, "What do you want, my son?" we cry, "Why did he beat you up? I got it. I'll take care of him. I'll take care of him. He hurt you? He did this to you? No problem. You don't have any money to buy something? Don't worry, I'll send you money tomorrow. What's your Zelle account? What's your Venmo? Do you have PayPal? What do you need? Check? Cash? What do you want? Stop crying, son. Stop crying, my dear daughter. Don't cry. No, I'll give it to you." Why? If you have Yirat Shamayim, you cry, talk to Hashem. who said that's what you said? This is what you said before you got to the Amidah. Now, then you go into the Amidah, you go into the Amidah and you say, "Blessed are You, Hashem, the God of our forefathers, powerful, the awesome God, the Most High, the One who bestows all of the good, all of the kindness, the Creator of everything."

1:04:16In so many words, you're complimenting Hashem with as much as you possibly can, but in reality, there's never enough compliments. But Baruch Hashem, we're allowed to do this because Chazal put this together. Because in reality, if we complimented Hashem from here until the end of the world, it wouldn't be enough. But you're complimenting Hashem, saying, thank you Hashem, that, you know, I'm connected to what? To Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. I may not have any merits whatsoever, but they have enough that I still exist. I still have a right to exist in Your eyes because of their merits. And thank You for being the Shield of Avraham. Then you talk about how Hashem gives a further, a different compliment. What? He's the powerful, the ultimate, and the only one that can resurrect the dead. He's the only one that controls the weather. He's the one that brings parnassah, sustains all living beings. In essence, you're telling Him everything that He already knows. So why are you doing it? To remind yourself.

1:05:35that He's the One that makes people come to life from a little putrid seed, from nothing. And He's the One that turns this big, tall, strong guy into dust. Nothing. And if He wants to turn him back from dust into something, He can do that too. How glorious are You, Hashem? You revive the dead. Who else can do that? The Ramban himself writes in his commentary to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 34, verse 10, that the reason why Hakadosh Baruch Hu fulfilled all of the miracles of the prophets that we see in the Torah was because of their tefillah, because of their prayers. That's how powerful prayer is. Then you tell Hashem, "You're holy, Hashem. Your name is holy." Everything that has to do with You is holy, Hashem. If we were to praise You from now until forever, it wouldn't be enough. Bless You, Hashem, for being so holy. So far, the first three prayers that you do in every single Amidah, no matter where you are during the year, whether it's during Yom Tov, on Shabbat, or during the day, the first three are always the same.

1:07:02Thank you, Baruch Hashem, that I'm part of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, my forefathers. Hashem, You're the most powerful, You're the most kind, You're the most everything. You're the only one who can resurrect the dead and turn the living into dead. Hashem, You are so holy, it's unbelievable. That's the first part of every prayer. So, in essence, we're recognizing His infinitude in everything that is good. Then we go on, and we talk about how Hashem is gracious to a person, where in reality, all knowledge that you have, He's the one that gives it to you. It's not because you study a lot. He's the one that graces us with knowledge. He's the one that gives us wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. So again, we are back to thanking Hashem. We thank Him for making us Jews and part of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov's lineage. We thank Hashem for being so powerful, so kind, being the only one who can resurrect the dead, the only one who can bring the living, the only one who can make something from nothing, being so holy. And now we're thanking Him for giving us everything that we have as far as wisdom is concerned.

1:08:28That's the fourth prayer. Fifth prayer. Please, Hashem, help us return to Your Torah and bring us closer to serve You. Return us to help us. Let us present it. Give us help. Help us. We can't do it by ourselves. Help us do teshuva. But not just any teshuva. Before you. Why? Because when I see you, I'm not going to have an opportunity. I see you on Judgment Day. I see you in Shamayim. I'm not going to have an opportunity. Oh, I'm sorry. There's no "I'm sorry" in Shamayim. Please give me the strength to do teshuva now, Hashem. Please give me the strength. I'm so weak. I'm such a nothing. And You're such an everything. Give me the strength to do teshuva. We pray for this three times a day. Three times a day we ask Hashem, please help me do teshuva. Wait, but I'm frum from birth. I don't need to do teshuva. You have to do teshuva even more now. for just saying that. Needless to say, for thinking that. That's, Rabotai, the next one. Then, we go on to the next one. Selach lanu Avinu ki chatanu.

1:09:39Hashem, there's something that is getting in the way. What? My sins. Please forgive them. Please forgive me. I've made sins. I've made so many sins. Hashem, don't remember all the sins from my childhood, my teenage life, before I started watching the shiurim, before I started keeping... Please, Hashem, please forgive me. Pardon all of my sins. You're my King. I'm a poshea. I'm a criminal. Because I sinned woefully. Why? Why are you going to forgive me? Because You're good. Not because I deserve it, but because You're good. You're good and You're forgiving. Next, we say, Hashem, look how much we're suffering. How much are we suffering, Hashem? i didn't have money to pay the mortgage. I didn't have money to pay the bills. My wife is yelling at me. The kids don't listen. My boss told me I have two weeks left before he's going to decide whether he's going to fire me or not. None of my friends want to talk to me. I have this itch on the side and I think it's something. And this and that. I'm suffering constantly. Hashem, please. Acknowledge my suffering.

1:11:04the fights, all the issues that I'm dealing with, and bring us the salvation, the complete salvation. Salvation as individuals, salvation as a people. What salvation? Bring us the Mashiach. Bring us the good. Now, I have a question. We have... The Torah continues after this. The Middah continues after this. We ask for health. We tell Hashem, "Thank you again for being the one that gives us parnassah, controls the weather, the climate, and so on." But before we go into those, did anybody ever notice that before we ask for Mashiach, we say thank you to Hashem a million and a half times? for being Jews, for Him being so powerful and majestic and unlimited in His forgiveness. And He gives us all of our knowledge and all of our money and everything that we have. Finally, we ask for salvation. Finally, we ask for the best. How come? Chachamim have explained many times,

1:12:27If you want HaKadosh Baruch Hu to bring you salvation, do teshuva. How do we know? We pray for it every day. Every single day, before you ask finally for the ultimate salvation, for HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name to be Echad U'shmo Echad, one and only. That's it, everybody knows He's the only one. That's it, finished. No more competition, no more idolatry, no more atheism, no more nonsense. For His name to be sanctified once and for all, for all of us to have just good permanently. Before all of that, Look how many times, first we thank Him for having patience with us, for even picking us to be part of His chosen people, for being such a great God that has so much patience, and so much generosity, and has so much forgiveness. And then we ask Him, listen, even though we know You're so forgiving, You're so kind, You're so generous, You're so amazing, You're the only one that can resurrect the dead, You're the only one that can bring the living, we're still not grateful enough, so please Hashem, help us do teshuva. That's what we ask for.

1:13:33help us do teshuva, forgive us also for the sins, too. Give us the strength to do the mitzvot because we're not really realizing how good You really are, even though we say it three times a day. So give us the strength to actually mean what we're saying. And furthermore, forgive us for all the garbage that we said about You last week, forgive us for all the garbage that we thought about You two weeks ago, forgive us for all the garbage that we did against Your Name two, three, four, five years ago. Forgive us for all of it. Before we ask for salvation, for Mashiach, for good, for redemption, for everything, what are we doing with the first sixth of them? What are we doing? We're doing teshuva. That's what the Amidah is for. And how often are we doing it? Three times a day. Three times a day. ...finally, after we asked for teshuva, we asked for everything. Okay, Hashem, give us the redemption. Why give us the redemption? Because now we're finally ready. Now we finally deserve it. We thanked You. We glorified Your name. We acknowledged that You're the best. We've acknowledged that You're the only hand that feeds us. We've acknowledged that You're all-powerful. We've acknowledged that we are sinners and we're not good enough, but we're trying. We've acknowledged that we need Your help in every single thing that we have. We've acknowledged everything. Now,

1:14:53We have made ourselves deserving for You to help us even further. Now we have made ourselves deserving. What? Because we did teshuva. So now after we did the first part of the teshuva, we say, "Hashem, can we ask for some more? Can we get some more stuff now? You know, my head hurt all day." My tushy hurt all day. My foot hurt all day. My wife, my this, my that. Hashem, give us refuah shleimah. I don't want to have any more pain. I don't want her to have any more pain. Give us refuah shleimah. Why? What are we going to a doctor for refuah shleimah? The doctor doesn't know anything. What does he know? How to fill a prescription? The only one who understands him is a pharmacist. Why? Because they have really good eyes. They understand his gibberish handwriting. does he know? He knows how the body works. Ask him how many muscles and tendons had to be utilized in order for you to just get up from the chair. See if he has an answer. What does he know? Does he have all the knowledge?

1:16:02you're the free doctor. You give us—you want to use him to give me—you want to use Nyquil to give me—you want to use a piece of chalk to give me—no problem. Use whatever you want, but just give me the refreshment, please, Hashem. Why? I did teshuva already, remember? And Hashem, now that I'm healthy, can you give me some money too? Why? You know, I live in a neighborhood. In my house, we have, you know, Baruch Hashem, the family's growing. We only have one room. Can you give me a little bigger house that's more comfortable, with fewer Shalom Bayit issues and everything? Why? You're the one. You're the one. That's the next thing we ask for. You're the one that controls it. Then we ask again, Hashem, don't think I forgot about the salvation, the climax of this world. Teka b'shofar gadol, make us free, make us free by blowing a shofar, a banner to proclaim that the exile is finished.

1:17:14Take us from the four corners of the world and gather us into one place. No more America, no more England, no more France, no more Canada. Bring us to the end already. Why? Because once we get there, You can then bring us to Beit Din. The Sanhedrin can be instituted. The beginning, the whole thing. Restore the judges, just like you had in the beginning. In the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, it was Moshe Rabbeinu sitting initially, but then Yitro came to him and said, "Moshe, you can't do this by yourself. It's not good for you, it's not good for the people. Set up a Sanhedrin. Set up a court system," which even the secular world uses to this day. But a court system that's based on Torah, not a court system that Dror Kasuto wants to use. wants to go to a civil court because we use this video on YouTube, a video that he's publicizing himself. He just doesn't want anyone to know about it. Please, Hashem, bring us the righteous judges, the Shomrei Mitzvot judges, just like You had at the time of David and Shlomo.

1:18:42Remove for us all the sorrow and the groaning from the rule that we have from all of the other countries, all the other kings, whether it be Trump or Obama or Osama, whoever it is. We don't want their rules. We want Hashem. Then, We acknowledge the fact that this is really what You want, Hashem. It's not just our will, it's Your will. Because why? You are a King that loves mercy, who loves tzedakah, and You love mishpat. You love righteousness, and You love judgment. Why? Right and wrong. There's right and wrong. There's no middle ground. There's right and there's wrong at the end of the day. how are we going to get ourselves to deserve all of this? The most interesting one, in my opinion, is the next one. It says, Hashem, in order for us to really have a deserving opportunity to have You as our King, to have You as our Judge, to have You as everything, have You mamash...

1:19:55All the heretics, all the informers who take us to secular courts, all the informers who go to the secular authorities and go against the Torah, they will have no hope. All the zedim, all the people who sin intentionally, they'll perish instantly. All of your enemies, all of your haters have to be cut down, uprooted. All of the evil has to be uprooted and broken down. That's what has to happen, and we pray for that every day. You are the God, You're the only one that can take them all down. But why do we pray for it if You're the only one that can do it? To show we want it. Hashem, You are the only one that can do it, but we want it. We want all the gerushin to go away. We want all the missionaries to go away. We want all the idolatry to go away. We want it. You're the one that can do it, but we want it. That's why we pray for it.

1:21:06What about the righteous? Help all the righteous, all of the pious, the rest of their nation, even if they're not the most righteous and even though they're not the most pious, at least they're your nation. They keep Shabbat. They keep Torah, they learn. They're not the best, but they're okay. They're still your nation. All of the righteous converts, and us too. Why is it all the righteous converts and us too? Because I've told you many times, we read from the Rambam, a righteous convert is considered higher than a natural-born Jew. Give them all reward, good reward. Why? Because they had bitachon in You. What's such a big deal? Of course, if they're righteous and they're on this list, of course, they have bitachon. Why do they have to get a reward for it? Because many of them suffered for having that bitachon. It looked like they were losing for having bitachon in Hashem. Sometimes you're the guy that has bitachon in Hashem. No, everything's going to be okay. Everybody makes fun of you. Whatever, everything's going to be okay. You don't have a house. You're still renting. Your kids have clothes that are ripped. What bitachon? What's going on with you? Go get a job. Go do this. Go do that. Everybody makes fun of you.

1:22:23Every day we pray to Hashem, "Hashem, show the world that these righteous people who have bitachon in You, who kept Your Torah, who fulfilled Your Torah, learned Torah all day, eight kids in the house living off $1500 or 1500 shekels a month, and a miracle. Show the world they are right. And not the guy that works on Wall Street. Not the guy that sells clothes." Show them they're the right ones. Why? Because they had bitachon in You, enough bitachon, they fulfilled Your entire Torah and learned it, day and night, even though everybody else went against them. Bring us the Shechinah. Bring the Shechinah to Yerushalayim, Your city. Just like You promised. Build the house of David. Soon, in our days. Build Yerushalayim again, we say. Bring David, Avdecha, bring the Mashiach. Bring the salvation. And after we've said all of this, hopefully, by now, we're crying a little bit.

1:23:44The next one should make us cry. What do we say? Please hear our voice. We're not just praying for naught. We're not just repeating this like robots. We said all this with real feelings, Hashem. Please hear this. I'm not just sitting here reading it just because, you know, I don't want the rabbi to tell me off if I'm not going to shul. Please hear what I request. I'm sincere. I came to You to hear what I meant. Accept our prayers with mercy and favor. Why? Don't leave us empty-handed. Don't let us pray and nothing happens. Because You are the only One that can hear our prayers. Who are we going to pray to? The rabbis? Who are we going to pray to? The wall? Yoshke? Who are we going to pray to? A statue? You're the only One that can answer our prayers. Where else are we going to pray?

1:24:46please, Hashem, be favorable to us, to Your nation. You start praying for the nation of Am Yisrael, all of their prayers. Even if you hate the guy next to you, he's part of Am Yisrael. You're praying for him too. You have to be a special type of rasha to take that out. Establish the Beit HaMikdash again. In mercy, even though, again, we're not exactly perfect, but we're still Your kids, and we're still trying our best. And we acknowledge that You are the one and only. And we thank You for it. "Modim" means we acknowledge. "Nodelecha" means we thank. Now, after you've done all of this, and you... Tell HaKadosh Baruch Hu that Your Name is good, You're the ultimate source of good, and it's fitting to thank You only. Why thank You? What else am I going to thank? Everything I have is from You. Then you ask Hashem to bring peace, goodness, blessing, and so on. And you tell Hashem that...

1:26:11Everything that you said is true. Everything you said you felt. Please guard my tongue from evil, my lips from speaking deceit. If someone goes against me, I'll be like dust. Let them walk on me. Why? Because it's coming from You anyway. Now, what about someone who once told me, "Listen, this guy in my shul—" I was praying and he ran into me. He says, "Okay," I gave him my elbow and returned. "Okay, Rabbi, it's a mitzvah, right?" What do you mean it's a mitzvah? You just said you're dust. You said you're dust. You didn't finish the prayer. You stopped becoming dust. We tell HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Rabotai HaYekarim, to find favor in all of our words because they're true.

1:27:11If we don't mean our prayers, it's no surprise He doesn't answer them. Now, I know it's not exactly easy for you to have 100% kavanah in every single one of our prayers. Halvai, we always have kavanah in every prayer. But that's what the Iggeret HaRamban is supposed to be here to help us with: that by purifying our character traits, and realigning our mind in such a way that we're constantly fixing ourselves to be in line with what Hashem's will is, that's ultimately going to help our prayers, too, become the will of Hashem. Now, the power of a prayer literally has no end because that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided to instill in the world. Many people fall into the trap of going against Hashem's will, going against Hashem's order, because of the success that He gave them. So many times, you know, people have a lot of faith in the army of Israel, or America

1:28:37And they think that's what's defending us. But if you look at all of Jewish history, you see that all of that is complete heresy and bogus. Generally speaking, we've always been alone. We didn't have allies. Our allies ultimately turned into enemies. whether it was Spain or other countries or Germany, were allies at some point. They welcomed us for a little while and then eventually they vomited us out. People who think that's going to be different with America, you're delusional. There's a reason why all of these people that tortured us for the last couple of thousand years had a symbol of an eagle: the Romans, the Nazis, America, there's a reason for that. It's not a coincidence. And many others. It doesn't mean they're bad now. What it means is, don't rely on their protection. Further, don't rely on the Israeli army either. Because at the time of Gog and Magog and at the time of all the wars, the only thing we're going to have to rely on is HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Now, at the time of Yehoshua ben Nun, if you look at the book of Yehoshua,

1:30:00there was an obligation that we go into Eretz Yisrael and remove all of the nations that are in it. Now, one of the nations that was in it was extremely powerful, not only in weaponry and in ability, but no one was able to enter their city because they had the greatest weapon system of all. good defense. What's a good defense? You can't enter, period, because they had seven walls surrounding the city—seven enormous walls surrounding the city. So, imagine a wall starts from here and ends at the end of the room, surrounding the entire city. And then, after you finally climb this wall, or whatever you did, if you didn't get shot somehow, what are you gonna do? Again, another wall. And then another wall, and another wall, and another wall, seven times. So they weren't worried so much about anybody attacking them. But then they heard about Am Yisrael, this nation that was slaves for a couple of hundred years, roamed in a desert for 40 years. They're coming to take over. And they got scared. The Torah says they got scared to death when the spies, when the Jewish spies arrived.

1:31:23Over there, they found out that they're scared of the Jews. How are you scared of them? We're in a desert for 40 years, we don't have tanks, nothing. They're scared to death. They don't know how, but there's sudden fear in the enemy. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu put fear in them. It's not logical for them to be afraid. It's not logical for our enemies to be afraid of us. But if you see, at different times HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides for the enemy to not be afraid of us, and other times for them to be afraid of us. Yeah, but they were greater. They were more powerful. Their weapon system was greater. They had walls, everything. Yeah, but they were afraid of us. It's like they already knew they lost the battle before they even started. But how? They have a hundred million people. We have three people. How are they going to lose the battle? It doesn't even make any sense. If they all spit, we all drown. They're afraid. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the one who decides if they're going to be afraid of you or not. Why? Because He uses them just like pawns in chess. Here, they're afraid. Here, they're not afraid. Here, they're a friend. Here, they're an enemy. Hashem decides how to use the Goyim. Now, Am Yisrael is commanded by HaKadosh Baruch Hu to come in and take these people out because they didn't want to submit, they didn't want to leave. You got to destroy them. Yeah, but how are we going to enter? Is Hashem going to give us a special tank?

1:32:48give us an angel, maybe a malach, who is going to come with a bazooka or something from Gan Eden, or maybe, who knows, something else. Maybe a malach is going to come to us with a sword to take it away. How are we going to take down seven walls before we even get to them? Forget about how we're going to fight with millions of people. We don't have them. How are we going to fight with them? Forget about that point. How are we going to enter? Who says, uh You realize they're bigger than America, right? Yeah. You realize they have, like, you know, weapons. Yeah, yeah, of course, yeah. You have a Shofar. Shofar. Each one of you get a Shofar. Judaica store sells them for sometimes less than a hundred bucks. Chabad. Good. Shofar. Now, if Yehoshua Bin Nun had even an ounce of doubt, do you think it would have worked? It wouldn't have worked. What do they all do? They show up with cannons? They show up with tanks? No. They show up with Shofarim.

1:34:15Am Yisrael showed up with shofarim, they surround the entire city, one next to the other. Everybody just holds hands, holds hands. No, no, no, one line, one line, like little kids, one line, one line, and the enemies are looking. What are these crazy religious people doing? What are these people doing? Look at this peyos, what is this thing in his hand? What is this thing? Why does he have this hat? What do they wear? Do they have a special weapon? No, no, sir, it's a, I think it's a horn of some goat. They have goats with them? What? What are they doing now? Oh, they're taking it out. Sir, they're taking it out. Shoot. No, no, no. Let's see what they do. They start surrounding the city. And they stop. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. They all leave. All the Jews leave. Next day, they come back. Yehoshua bin Nun. around the city with the horns. "Sir, Your Highness, these Jews are back with the horns again." "Yeah, okay, let's watch them. It's kind of fun." No, they stop. Finished. They leave. For seven days, they're going by, already laughing about what's going on with these people. Were they bored? You know what happened though on the seventh day?

1:35:40All seven walls were swallowed by the ground as if they were being pushed by a hand from heaven into the ground. And the entire city was conquered and destroyed in one day. In one day. With the horns. With the shofar. Why? Because who decided that the horns are going to work? The shofar is going to work. Yeah, but they had weapons. Who cares? Now, it's what every Jew must say: I believe with 100% certainty that this happened, can happen, and will happen again. We don't need an Iron Dome or an F-16 or F-45 or F-anything. We need HaKadosh Baruch Hu. People think, no, but if I live here, it's going to protect me. And if I go here, it's going to protect me. Bubkes. That's what's going to protect you. Nothing. Unless you believe in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's how it works. That's Jewish history. If you say you're a Jew, you have to believe in this. And you think this is the only example? Gideon. Gideon was a son of an idol worshiper. Generation of idol worshipers.

1:37:04Jews, idol worshiping, realize the mistake. Here, we got to go battle the enemy. Gather 30,000 men. Let's go fight, take over, take our country back. Hashem says, "Too many people." What do you mean? They have millions! I only got thirty thousand. We're already relying on a miracle. Hashem says, "Now, thirty thousand is too many." They have millions. Yeah, it's too many. Already thirty thousand, it looks like maybe you guys are good warriors. So ask, whoever's afraid, go home. Hashem says, "Okay, uh, whoever's afraid, go home." Twenty thousand leave, ten thousand left against millions. Millions! Ten thousand left. Hashem says, "Still too many, still too many." okay, what do we do now? Take them to the lake, have them go drink some water. Okay, whoever bends down to drink the water, send him home. They go, 9,700 of them bend over to drink the water.

1:38:30300 get the pick up the water and drink it this way standing up. Send them home. Nine thousand seven hundred. Can I keep the nine thousand seven hundred and the three hundred? No, no. Send home nine thousand seven hundred. You have three hundred. It’s a lot. Why? Why sending them home? The ones that bent over to drink like a dog—they're already used to kneeling, they're all used to avodah zarah. They have avodah zarah ingrained in them. They won't have the merit to fight this war. 300 are still loyal, still connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, still act like Jews. They can fight the war. And guess what? 300 won the war easily. Against millions. And this is our story, Rabotai HaKedoshim, time and time again. One secular father, one time, lights the menorah

1:39:30of Hanukkah with his family, and his young kid doesn't really know anything, goes to public school, doesn't know right or left about Judaism. And he says, "Abba, what is this Hanukkah thing?" You know, the Abba knew a little bit. He doesn't keep Shabbat or anything, but he knew a little bit. And he says, "Oh, Hanukkah is the time when the Chashmonaim, the Maccabees, fought and we won." "Who did they fight?" They fought the Greeks. "And Abba, these Maccabees, what were they like? Were they, because they were Jews, like us?" "Eh, you know, not exactly like us. They were a little, you know, not exactly like us. Similar." "And the Greeks, what, the Greeks were bad? They wanted to kill them? That's why they fought?" No, not exactly, son. The Greeks didn't actually want to kill them. They just didn't want them to be religious. They didn't want them to, you know, it's history. They didn't want them to read these books and stuff. "Oh. What happened then?" "Well, you know, there was a fight." "What happened before that?" "Well, before the fight, there was this guy, Yehuda HaMaccabi, and he saw another Jew..."

1:40:56Joining the Greeks by bringing a pig as a sacrifice to their idol. So you, the Maccabee, kill them. He says, wait, Abba, you mean the pig, like the white meat that Ima just bought from the supermarket that we ate for lunch? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's different. That was a long time ago. It's different times now. You know, things change, son. Things change. So wait, so the Maccabees were like fanatic Jews and stuff? Yeah, yeah, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, son. And the Greeks, they wanted what, like sports and things like that? Yeah. So you agree with the Greeks? No, no, son. We're Jews. Wait, so you, what, you agree with the fanatic Jews? Yeah, kind of. But we ate the pig though, Abba. Yes, son, it's complicated, you know. Well, let me ask you a question, Abba. No, last one, son. If this Maccabee Greek thing was happening right now, which side would you be on? Go to your room, son. You're punished for a week. No more questions. Why? When you're not keeping Torah and mitzvot, you start realizing your whole life is fake.

1:42:21Even the holidays you like are fake because they celebrate the war against you and your current status. You see, one of the biggest poisons that we have sometimes is that we lie to ourselves. We lie to ourselves about what our status is. And in the weekly parasha, Parashat Emor, the Chafetz Chaim says, In regard to chapter 23, verse 42, it says, "You shall dwell in the sukkah for seven days. Every native in Israel shall dwell in the sukkah." that your generations will know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell and I took them out of Egypt. Wait a minute, first, He tells us the mitzvah of sitting in a sukkah for seven days. Then He's telling us that, uh, so your generations will know. What's the connection? Since we've got for seven days, your great-great-great-great-grandkids three thousand years later are gonna know. He says you have to understand

1:43:49If you want your kid to be a real Jew, and you want him to understand why the Sukkah is the Sukkah, and why the Chanukiah is the Chanukiah, and why Yom Kippur is Yom Kippur, you can't just tell them that on the day of the holiday. You have to sit with him for seven days in the Sukkah, sit with him. Your whole life has to be consumed with this mitzvah. If your whole life is consumed with this mitzvah, then he'll remember this mitzvah for generation after generation. But if he's only finding out what mitzvah we're doing and what we're doing here, what we're doing there, because the rest of our year we're living like goyim, he's not going to know for generations. Now, Rav Kotler, alav hashalom, was one of the Gedolei HaDor, one of the pioneers of American Judaism, who built Lakewood. And when he was terminally ill, his students went to the Steipler Gaon in Eretz Yisrael and asked the Rav,

1:45:05Some questions said there are tens of thousands of people praying for him, and he's getting worse. We feel like our prayers are not being heard. We're praying a lot, and it's not being heard. The Rav says to them, "No, no, no, no. Your prayers must be heard and must be answered, but they may not be answered in your timing." It may be answered next week, or next month, or next year, or 10 years from now. And if not in your lifetime, your prayers will be answered for your kids. But for sure, they will be answered. Sometimes a mother cries for her kids when they're little. She thinks that something is supposed to happen and sometimes nothing happens. But she doesn't realize that Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes that special prayer full of tears and puts it in the ground, and He takes it out when it's needed later on. The kid is about to make the sin of his life with some non-Jewish person, and at the last minute, something happens to break that up. Why? Because his mom prayed when he was three years old.

1:46:28She was praying for Hashem to help her with parnassah or something for that month. She was hoping for Hashem to help with something. Hashem says, I like this prayer so much. Don't worry about this parnassah stuff. Let me take this prayer. Why? I'm going to put it in a safe. You're going to need this prayer. You're going to need this prayer. I'm going to put it in a safe for a little while. How long? 20 years later. 20 years later. Sometimes I see Young guys come and say, listen, I'm already second, third generation, completely atheist, secular family. But I love your shiurim, I'm doing complete teshuvah. Just last week, I had a handful of them. Second, third generation, completely reformed, completely nothing. But the kid loves the shiurim. "I want to eat your whole Torah, I want to learn everything, it's beautiful, it's delicious, Rabbi." ...doing already two, three, four, five, six months, a year already. I'm keeping Shabbat; my parents can't stand it, but I'm doing it. What happened? Well, how is this kid doing it? His parents hate it, his grandparents hate it—how is he doing it? How is he doing it? Because his grandparents, parents, they prayed...

1:47:47Who says, "Grandma, I'm gonna take this; I'll put it in the bank. I'll put it in the bank for a little while, put it in the safe for you"? "Oh, what are you gonna need it for?" "Why, your great-great-grandkid is gonna need some help. Why? His parents are gonna be completely off; his grandparents are gonna be even worse. He's gonna need it. I'm gonna help him. I'm gonna help him." That's how prayer works sometimes. Hashem doesn't necessarily always answer our prayers right away, but He always answers them. And that's what the Ramban tries to teach us, teach his son, teach his descendants. When we purify ourselves, that means that we're purifying the words that are coming out of our mouths. We are purifying our neshamot (souls) and we are making ourselves, our neshamot, fit to pray to Borei Olam (the Creator of the Universe), to pray to the King of Kings with a clean mouth. There's a reason why it's a halacha, it's an actual halacha, that you must wash your mouth in the morning before you pray to Hashem. Why? It's not kavod (honor) for the King for you to talk to Hashem with a filthy mouth. You have to wash your mouth before you talk to Hashem. Needless to say, you have to wash your neshama before you talk to Hashem.

1:49:04We have to do teshuva when we talk to Hashem. He says this letter, you read it every day, you're gonna do teshuva. You like it, you don't like it, you're gonna do teshuva in the end. Why? You read this letter enough times, it's gonna become part of you. It's gonna become part of you. And that means that your prayers will become more pure, your prayers are gonna be more significant, your prayers are gonna be more welcome. And when a person sees themselves becoming holy, they could already be assured that now HaKadosh Baruch Hu is treating them differently. themselves becoming holy, they could already be assured that now HaKadosh Baruch Hu is treating them differently. Why? Because once a person has become a holy person, a godly person, speaking to Hashem with emet becomes his nature. And when someone speaks to Hashem with emet, with holiness, HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself listens to him. and answers that prayer. Yehi Ratzon that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will hear all of our prayers because we've made teshuva, because we're trying to do teshuva, because we're trying to get Am Yisrael to do teshuva, because Rabotai Yekarim, He's the only solution. He's the only thing. There is a Gan Eden. There is an ultimate reward waiting for each person who does teshuva.

1:50:31but there's not much material about it. Why? We wouldn't understand it. And the Ramban writes, the Ramban himself writes in Sha'ar HaGmul, when it comes to the issue of Gan Eden, it's impossible for us to understand it. It's difficult for us to accept the details of Gan Eden, therefore there's not much detail. So what do you do with those people who just, no, I don't accept that answer. I want more details, Rabbi. The Ramban says, if those people who consider themselves wiser than the law of God find it difficult to accept that the soul is encompassed by place in lower Gan Eden, meaning that you don't accept the minimal details, you don't accept that there's a lower Gan Eden, there's an upper Gan Eden, all the different things, you don't accept it. I want more. He says we will answer them

1:51:32with the possibility that we have put before the teachings of Gan Eden, the issues concerning the sinners of Gehenom. If you don't accept the Torah at face value, and there's a reason why HaKadosh Baruch Hu limited certain information about reward, you don't have to worry about the reward anymore. There's a different section for you. Now, when a person purifies their neshamah, they don't have to worry about Gan Eden. They don't have to worry about Gan Eden. And the reason why is because they start living Gan Eden. Suddenly your parnassah has beracha. It doesn't mean you become rich and you can start buying millions of dollars of stuff. No. It's just that your parnassah has beracha. What does having beracha mean? You have everything you need. your marriage has beracha. What does it mean? Does it mean your wife is the most beautiful woman in the world or you're the most handsome man? No, it doesn't mean that. It means that you're happy with what you have. Your children have beracha. Does it mean you have 500 kids? No. Whatever you have, you're happy with what it is. Your kids are healthy, your kids are in good shape, your kids like Torah, your kids want to do what Hashem says, and your kids have kavod (honor) for their parents.

1:52:53So yeah, surely you're going to see sometimes the religious people that are righteous have a lot of money and sometimes have very little money. Everybody's got their own tests. But I promise you that when a person purifies themselves, the Torah itself promises us that their life will be blessed, but not just this life that's temporary for 70 years. eternity. You see, the problem is that we invest all of our time in this world. A person comes to this world, and he works every single day for more stuff in this world. So, let's say you have the best career, and you're making a lot of money, and let's say you're going to live a hundred years. You made money every week, you're making money—another 100, another 200, another million, another 2 million. And you're making money, and you're making money, and you got this stuff—you got this building, you got that building, you got this house, and that car, and this watch. Now you're old already; you don't even want to watch, you don't want to drive these cars, and you don't want to go to these houses. You're tired already. What are you going to do with all this stuff? Yeah, you have it—you know, investments for a rainy day, like your mabul maybe. But anyway, you have all this stuff, and you live your life, and guess what? One day, you're gone.

1:54:02And all of the money that you've made and all of the work that you spent a hundred years gathering this stuff doesn't belong to you anymore. You can't take it with you anymore. You show up to Shamayim, homeless. Why? All of your toil was for this world. A guy shows up to the Chafetz Chaim and he says to him, "Rabbi, I need a blessing for this, for that. You know, I donate a lot of money." you know, before we get the blessing, let's check something. Sure, what should we check? Let's check how much you donate. You know, the guy is a little uncomfortable. "No, no, Rabbi, I don't have, I'm trying to be very generous, Rabbi." "Okay, let's check, let's sit down, let's check how much you donate." He says, "Rabbi, handsomely, yeah, I'm generous." "Okay, how much? Let's just do the account."

1:55:04says, "I donate one ruble to 12 yeshivot. Each yeshiva gets one ruble every year. Respectable, no?" Rabbi says, "Yeah, respectable. One ruble for yeshiva each year, 12 yeshivot, respectable, very nice. Ah, okay, so we want—no, hold on one second before you move on. Your house, I see, is very nice." The windows, the window treatment that you have over there, they seem to me a little different. They're very luxurious. How much did you spend on the window treatment that you have? The guy gets red. No, Rabbi, no, it's expensive. You know, it's from Italy. It's not regular. You know, it's mesh with silk and this, and it's specially made. It takes three years to make. Okay, but how much is it, though? How much? the whole thing? No, how much is it? Just, you know, one window, 25 rubles. How many windows do you have? Six. So you spent and wasted 150 rubles on this world and 12 rubles...

1:56:26on the world that's for eternity. And you expect a beracha? You see, Rabotai, sometimes we think that we're doing a lot more than we are. The message from every single one of the lectures of the 39 that we had the merit to learn with you, that the Ramban is trying to teach us is to check ourselves. Check ourselves carefully. Check ourselves daily. We're not horrible, and we're not even allowed to look at ourselves as horrible. But we're also not as good as we think we are either. If you're going to give tzedakah, you're going to give ma'aser, Make sure that you keep a count, that it's always up there. Why? That's your investment for Olam HaBa. You're working on your character traits, don't only work on the easy things. Work on the things that are the most difficult. You're learning, your learning becomes easy, pick it up a notch. Stop just watching shiurim and start reading books too.

1:57:48The important thing, Rabotai, is to make sure that we're constantly checking ourselves. If we're checking ourselves on a daily basis, little by little we'll become more purified, little by little we'll become people that are becoming holy, and when we pray to Hashem as holy people, Hashem doesn't need any excuses to answer us. Hashem answers us because we've already made the argument for ourselves. Each one of us uses this series to learn how to sanctify ourselves, to become kedoshim, to become closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to influence ourselves, our family, our friends, and even the strangers that are related to us in some way or another, because we're part of the same people. And even the world around us, of all the righteous Gentiles around the world that love Hashem and just don't know what's right and what's left but need direction. We use the tools that the Ramban taught us and that the sages taught us and that HaKadosh Baruch Hu expects from us. And we use these tools to get closer to Hashem, to bring HaKadosh Baruch Hu's light to the world. So when He's here, it's a familiar light.

1:59:12that we've thought about, dreamt about, and wanted our whole life. Rather, it's the first time we ever see it, so we're blinded. Ve'ezrat Hashem, we use this series, we use the learning as a way to sanctify HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name, as a way to get Am Yisrael closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to do Teshuva Shlema. So when, b'ezrat Hashem, He sends us the Mashiach, we are part of those that have been expecting Him, but most importantly, doing something to bring Him. By sanctifying ourselves and the rest of our people. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.