MUSSAR Special Blessings & Heaven For Sale

0:13Hashem Hashem Na'aseh Ve'Natsliach. Shiur Torah Oh Hashem. Another week here in Aventura. The shiur will also be for a Refuah Shlema to a very special baby, Yocheved Esther Bat Batya. With the help of Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, give her Refuah Shlema. Also, Refuah Shlema to Levana Bat Sarah, Sarah Bat Levana, Doris Bat Jorah, David Ben Nesria, Elisheva Chaya Bat Sarah, Miriam, Chana Bat Miriam, and all of Am Yisrael, Refuat HaGuf. So we're still not back to our Pirkei Avot series in regards to the next lecture, which I told you guys is going to be about Gehinnom, Masechet Gehinnom. And we're still not ready to do it.

1:24Hashem soon stuff to decide what and who and when to do it. There's also maybe next week, but there is very much more to learn right now that I think is relevant for us today, so there's not the Shema. That's where I came alive and Have mercy on us and give us good words to encourage everyone to do teshuva b'ezrat Hashem. Now, someone sent me a message. Baruch Hashem, people send me messages all the time, and they like to ask questions and get advice. Baruch Hashem. We try to do our best, sometimes get blessings, prayers, and so on. We try to do our best to stick to the law, to see what the Torah says, and tell you what it says.

2:32Whether it's in the lectures or it's because you've sent me messages in all different types of avenues, generally, I try to do my best to stick to the law and not necessarily give you my opinion. Because my opinion is exactly what it is—it's my opinion. It's not as valuable, or valuable at all, whereas Torah, on the other hand, is Torah. It's from God. And I think that's one of the main things that many people fail to... miserably to understand that when you're coming to the shiur today here, you're coming to any shiur that we have, when you watch any of the videos that we've made, when you look at any of the clips, any of the things we've written, and you don't like it. You don't like it because it goes against your own opinion. It goes against your own opinion. You heard in a lecture that wigs are forbidden, and you don't like it. You heard in a lecture that you're not allowed to drive on Shabbat, even if it's to a Beit Knesset, and you don't like it. You heard that even men have to be modest, not just women, and you don't like it. Women have to be modest, but not modest like the modern Orthodox way that wear mini skirts and tank tops, but like

3:59They have to cover their elbows, and they have to cover their knees six inches after they sit down, and the clothes have to be loose. They have to cover their hair with the mitzvah of kisui rosh, with a scarf or a hat, and you don't like it. You don't like it. And you say to me, "Rabbi, whatever you want to call me, some people call me this, some people call me that, some people call me other names. For some reason, people have a tough time with my name." They'll call me everything else but my name. Oh, Hashem, it's also part of the kapparah of this world. And you say, "I don't agree. I don't agree with you." I ask him, "What? What did I say that you don't agree with?" And you tell me. You said this and this in this lecture. You said this and this in this article. You said this and this in this clip. I don't agree. I said I didn't say it. He goes, "What do you mean? Look at the clip." I said, "No, no, I just repeated what the Torah says. I repeated what Moshe Rabbeinu said. I repeated what Rav Ovadia said. I repeated what the greatest poskim in all of history said. I repeated what God said, not me. I'm just a messenger."

5:13Like it? It's your problem with them. Take it out on them. I'm just saving you time. That's all I'm doing. I read the book; perhaps you didn't. I'm telling you what the book says. If you want, go read the book yourself. That's why I try my best to give you page numbers and sources and so on. If you don't like it, go read the book. If you still don't like it, talk to God. Tell Him, "Listen, change the Torah. I don't like it." So in essence, when you're saying that you don't agree, you have to come with something. Now, I get all these questions all the time, and you know, God bless them. Everybody's trying to do their best; everybody has a yetzer hara. Someone came to me, a relatively new student, a very nice person, and they say to me, "I don't agree with what you said about how a Jew can't be classified based on their DNA."

6:13Meaning that if a person has parents that are not Jewish—parents are not Jewish, father is not Jewish, mother is not Jewish—but they went through some DNA test from some company that sells these DNA tests like they sell candy, and they charge a maximum amount of money, and the company says you are 5% Jewish, 10% Jewish, 87% Jewish, 12%, just whatever they decided. level of Jewish you are. And you say, "See, I'm a Jew. So much more. I don't have to convert. I have the Beit Din. Moshe Rabbeinu was next to me, right?" I say, "I'm sorry. There's no such thing. Judaism is not based on DNA. Judaism is based on halacha. There are only two ways to be Jewish." Your parents are Jews. Specifically, your mother is Jewish. Her mother is Jewish. Her mother is Jewish all the way up to Moshe Rabbeinu, or all the way up to somebody who converted, which is option B. Option B, you have to go through an Orthodox conversion. So that's why I told her initially, and she says no. Some time passed, and she goes, "I think I'm gonna disagree with you," and...

7:35This, I think I'm gonna disagree with you on this DNA, and I said you're not disagreeing with me. You're disagreeing with the Torah. You disagree with the Torah. That's what the Torah says. And she comes back to me, and she says, "Show me. Show me where. Show me, teach me this stuff." I said, "Wait a minute, hold on a second. You decided that you disagree with what I said in a lecture, and..." You don't know anything about it. Meaning, you don't know why you think I'm wrong. You don't have anything to back yourself up. You don't have any books, you don't have any halachot, you don't have any rabbis. You don't have anything. You decided, "I'm disagreeing with you, disagreeing with you." I said, "The Torah is not a game of opinions." The Torah is not a game of preferences. The Torah is a book of laws from Hashem. It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what I like. It doesn't matter what you like. It matters what Hashem says. That's the Torah. So if you're going to go to a doctor and the doctor is going to give you a diagnosis...

9:02You have a headache. You're going to a doctor. You say to the doctor, "Thank you very much. I'll pay the $550 an hour bill, but I disagree with your diagnosis. I don't believe I have cancer. I don't believe I have AIDS. I don't believe I have whatever. I disagree with your diagnosis. I disagree." The doctor is gonna say to you, "Okay, good luck in a cemetery." What's he gonna say to you? It doesn't make a difference to him why you pay the bill. Good luck to you. What does he care? He got paid. But the reality is, at the same time that he's celebrating with the money that you paid him to go on his next vacation, he's also saying, "What a fool this person is." What a fool. Why? He's never gone to medical school. He's never worked on a single patient. He's never studied the subject of cancer, AIDS, or HIV. He's never even studied biology. He took a biology class in fifth grade because they forced him, but he doesn't remember anything because the only thing he remembers is some frog he had to dissect. That's the only thing he remembers. He doesn't remember the periodic table. He doesn't remember anything. He doesn't know anything.

10:23He never studied the subject. He doesn't know medicine. The only thing he knows about medicine is if he has a headache, he has to take one of these pills that says Advil or Tylenol on it because that's what they sell in the store. He doesn't know why it's Advil or why it's Tylenol. He doesn't know what the 200 mg means. He doesn't know anything. doesn't even know what milligrams are, but he decided to disagree with my diagnosis that he has cancer, even though I have the pictures here that I took—the MRI, the X-ray, and all of that, with 25 years of experience. "I disagree, doc. I disagree. I don't have cancer." The doctor is going to look at you as the biggest fool in history and he's going to give you a new diagnosis: you're also crazy. And we should send you to a mental institution. But no one goes to the doctor and says, "I disagree with the diagnosis." The doctor says, "You have something." You say, "Thanks, doc. Can you help me?" But in the Torah world, unfortunately, we have a yetzer hara. We have an evil inclination. A natural inclination, a natural character trait within us that automatically tells us to reject whatever is true.

11:40We don't reject falsehood. We reject truth. Regardless of who comes to you and tells you, "Listen, I think you're lazy." "No, I'm not lazy. I'm not lazy." Wait a minute. You woke up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon every day in the last month. That's a sign of laziness. "No, no, no." Think you're cheap. No, I'm not cheap. What are you talking about? I don't know, you have $10,000 in the bank, and the last time you gave a dollar was in 1912. I think you're cheap. No, I'm not cheap. What are you talking about? You don't know me. You don't know me. Well, I see your bank account. I'm your accountant. I see you gave a dollar in 1912, and it was a dollar that you found. It's the only reason you gave it. Think you're not modest. No. What are you talking about? I'm the most modest person in the world. What do you mean? You're walking around naked! You don't even have underwear on. How are you considered modest? You don't know me. You don't know me. Meaning, it doesn't have to make sense, and it doesn't make sense. But we do it, all of us, myself, you, everyone. That's the answer.

12:54Yetzirah is going to tell you to reject the truth. Why? Because the truth will set you free. The truth is what's going to get you to Gan Eden for eternity. But that also kills the Yetzer Hara. The more truth you have in your life, the less the Yetzer Hara has room to survive. So now, when someone tells you Hashem said this and Hashem said that... Unlike the doctor that you honor and respect because he has three letters after his name that you'd even verify if it's really true. You know many people have these PhDs and MDs and so on, and some of them don't actually have the degree. They just lied. This is not a conspiracy theory; this is an old fact. I know from the corporate world. In the corporate world, you know, we used to invest in big companies and sometimes These companies, they have CEOs who have a lot of enemies. They have executives who have a lot of enemies. So, what do you have to worry about when you have enemies? You have to worry about them catching you red-handed and

14:02sometimes those enemies are inside your own company, sometimes those enemies are your colleagues, sometimes those enemies are your partners, so sometimes they decide to expose the lie that you've been telling the whole world. They expose that your resume that you gave to the company 25 years ago, where you had a degree from MIT and you had a degree in Harvard and you had a degree from Yale and so on and so forth. Yet they tell everybody, by the way, I checked. I called the school. I checked this, I checked that, all on my own dime, just to verify to you good folks that it's all a lie. He doesn't have a degree from Yale. He has a degree from 7-Eleven. He doesn't have a degree from Harvard. He has a degree from Starbucks. He never went to school. Now, in reality, between you and me, 25 years later, does it matter? No. Why? By now, it doesn't matter. The degree that he got 25 years ago is irrelevant. By now, he got the experience that you can't get from school anyway. But to them, it does. Why? It exposes the truth. It exposes the truth. He lied about this. Who knows if he lied about something else? Automatically, they fire him. His career is over. He's destroyed.

15:20this is how lives are destroyed on a day-to-day basis in corporate America and the rest of the world. So, back to our subject at hand: If you go to your doctor and your doctor says you have this and this and this diagnosis, you're not going to check if this doctor really has a medical degree from the school that he went to, and if he really got the grades that he says he got, and if all the plaques that he has on the wall are really valid. You're not. You're just going to assume it's true. gonna assume it's true. And if he gives you a diagnosis and says you have this, you have that, you have this, it doesn't make a difference what he says. You're gonna assume it's true. Why? He's a doctor. He's a professional. He's trying to help me, and he's costing me $500 an hour, so it must be true. He must be good at what he does for $500 an hour. The more expensive he is, the more it must be true. So, him you believe. But when someone comes to you and tells you, listen...

16:20God said this, and it's not my opinion. It has nothing to do with a degree. It has nothing to do with whether I'm a rabbi or not a rabbi. As a matter of fact, if a donkey came to you like Bilaam's donkey—you know Bilaam had a donkey—Hashem opened the mouth of the donkey. It's in the Torah. He opened its mouth. What did she say? She told Bilaam, she rebuked him. Hashem gave the aton, Hashem gave the donkey the power of speech. So if a donkey came here, a donkey came over here and says, how are you? How's everyone? Someone that's a Mechalel Shabbat, someone that desecrates Shabbat, that's a Jew.

17:25Loses their life in this world, gets Shema, and loses years of their life here, has no share of the World to Come, and their Judaism is now on suspension in the eyes of Hashem. According to all of them, if al shem, they are considered 100% an idol worshiper. But it's not me saying it, the donkey said it. Does it make a difference? Does it change the validity of the statement? Does it change whether it's truth or not? No. Why? He's reading a pasuk. I He's reading a pasuk from the Torah and he's telling you, this is what Rashi says. This is what Rambam says. This is what God says. It's irrelevant that it's coming from the mouth of a donkey. Baruch Hashem, I'm not as bad as a donkey. I'm a little higher than a donkey. So if I say it, it's the same thing, at the very least. Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha'olam, shehakol nihyeh bidvaro.

18:26He doesn't have to do blessings, but oh. So the problem is that if you hear the truth in the Torah, your natural inclination is going to be, "No, no, no, it must not be true. It must be, no, no, it can't be. Why? Look, how could Shabbat be so stringent, so demanding, so overruling when over 80% of Am Yisrael does not keep it?" That means what you're saying is that most of Am Yisrael right now are classified as idol worshippers. How could it be true? It's true. That's what it says twelve times in the Torah, seven times in the Shulchan Aruch, multiple times in the Zohar. I haven't gone over it. All of the Sifrei Tzaddikim, anyone that mentions Shabbat in the previous generations...

19:27I said it, Yalkut Yosef, and Shulchan Aruch, it says so. The fact that we're failing is irrelevant; it doesn't change the truth. But yet we have a hard time accepting it, because it defies our logic. So, when I taught the religious world... According to halacha, you have a hundred and seventeen poskim all the way back to 2500 years ago from Yonatan ben Uziel. It says you're not allowed to wear a wig. Not allowed to wear a wig, regardless of avodah zarah or not. Not allowed. No, no, no, it must be wrong. Okay, you're not on it. Yonatan ben Uziel is wrong? He's the one that was able to revive the dead, but you're saying he's wrong. Why? Because I said it? You're not saying he's wrong because he's here telling you. You say he's wrong because he's not here. You're saying I'm wrong as if I said it. And we went over this subject on Sunday; we're not going to repeat. When you're saying that what we're saying in the shiurim is wrong and...

20:44you're not calling me out. I care less. Who am I? You're calling out the Torah, you're calling out God. So if you're gonna call out God, have something. Come with something in your hands. Say, listen Believe we're allowed to wear wigs? I believe we're allowed to drive on Shabbat? I believe we're allowed to eat pig? I believe we're allowed to do whatever—whatever you believe in, whatever concoction came up in your mind. I believe we should do this, this, and this. Fine. What do you have to stand on? Based on what? Do you have something that overrides Rav Ovadia? You have something that overrides the Vilna Gaon? You have something that overrides Rabbi Elyashiv? You have something that overrides anyone, anything other than your opinion? Oh no, my local rabbi said it. My local rabbi. Who's your local rabbi? Is it Rabbi Ovadia? No. Is it Rabbi Elyashiv? No. Is it the Vilna Gaon? No. Is it Yonatan Ben Uziel? No. Who is it? Oh, it's some guy that became a rabbi six years ago.

21:48Some guy's been a rabbi in the community for 20 years. Okay. Oh, did he write any books? No, no, no, he didn't write any books. Is he a posek? No, no, he's not a posek. What is he? Oh, he's a nice guy. He's a nice guy. He's a really nice guy. He's got a long beard, a nice hat, and his wife wears a wig, so it must be allowed. This is what you're going to go up to Shamayim with? They're going to tell you you have Avodah Zarah on your head, and you're going to go up to Shamayim and tell them, oh, my rabbi did it. Yerushalmi, there's a Gemara in Yerushalmi that specifically says you're not allowed to learn from rabbis based on what they do. Meaning, you're not allowed to learn from anyone based on what they do. You have to learn from books. What does the book say? Because we may have yetzer hara, he may not have control over his wife. Who knows? So to say, "I'm gonna go learn based on my opinion..." You have a problem, so I told this very, very wonderful person, I told her, "Listen, it's very nice that your opinion is to disagree, but that's not how the Torah is. That's Christianity; that's not the Torah. The Torah was given to us by God. We had the Written Torah, and we had the Oral Torah. All of them were given at Mount Sinai. The Written Torah was given to us up to Parashat Yitro, and then over the next 40 years, we got the rest of the Parashiyot of the Written Torah, and..."

23:17Then the Torah was given to us complete, much more extensive than the one we have today, though with many, many more rules. There were many, many more things that we don't have today. The reason why is because many of the giant sages — Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 of them — died, and we lost that Torah. We still have a lot, but nowhere near the extensiveness of what we had back then. We wouldn't survive if we had all of it. As a matter of fact, if you look at the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, it talks about what kind of Torah the Avot Kedoshim had—Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. This was before Mount Sinai. It says in the Torah that they followed the Torah as well. How do we know? Hashem says, "I love Avraham." Why do You love Avraham, Hashem? Why? Is it because he's a nice guy? Because he had a long beard? Because he had a nice hat? Why do You love Avraham? Because he follows My Torahs. Torahs, meaning plural. He already had a written Torah and he already had an oral Torah. So, the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah says, what kind of Torah did he have? It says he had his Masechet Avodah Zarah. We have Masechet Avodah Zarah today, tractate Avodah Zarah today, has five chapters—about 70 pages, 70 dapim. Avraham Avinu had anywhere—there's a machloket, a debate—whether he had 400 chapters or 4,000 chapters.

24:41Meaning his tractate Avodah Zarah was bigger than our entire Gemara altogether. That's how extensive their Torah was. So the Torah we have, Baruch Hashem, is extensive. It's extraordinary. We know what we're doing. We have rabbis that were given the power from Hashem to explain to us what He's trying to tell us. He says keep Shabbat, they explain to us how. He says keep Taharat HaMishpacha. They explain to us how. He says keep this mitzvah. They explain to us how. There's only one mitzvah in the entire Torah that's actually explained by the Written Torah, and that's Shemitah. Every seven years, we have to stop, and the details of it are actually told in the Written Torah. The rest of the 613 mitzvot that we have, none of them are explained in the Written Torah. Meaning, the only way we can actually understand them is from the Oral Torah, and...

25:41So now, when you say that I disagree with what you said, then you say, "Okay, fine. What I said is based on the Gemara, what I said is based on the Shulchan Aruch, what I said is based on the greatest poskim that ever lived, the greatest rabbis that ever lived. What's what you're saying? What's your opinion based on? Because you're gonna have to go to Shamayim with it. You have to go to Shamayim. There's a Beit Din of Shamayim, and they're gonna judge you." If you look at Minchat Yehuda, the book by Rabbi Yehuda Petaya, alav ha-shalom, he was one of the greatest Mekubalim in the last century and a half. Very scary book. Very scary book. Because this is an ish kadosh. This is a holy person, a real Mekubal, that literally understood what's happening in Shamayim. How did he understand? They spoke to him. People that were overtaken by different demons, or what is called dybbukim, don’t need to get rid of it, and he would go, they would come to him, and he would have to convince this other soul to

26:55that's overtaking the soul here. So, let's say the person, a regular Jewish person, and all of a sudden he has a soul, his own soul, and all of a sudden somebody else's soul comes in and takes over the body. They made a movie about this, a lighter case, a long, long time ago to try to give people an impression of what it is. In reality, it's very different, but nonetheless, the point is it's called a dybbuk. So he learned Not only from books, not only from his teacher, not only from his teacher's teacher, the Arizal, where we get all of the mystical parts of our Torah, we understand it only because of the Arizal. So, not only because of that, he also learned it from experience. He spoke to these spirits, and they told him what happens in Shamayim, and it's very, very scary. explained them in one of the parts here. It says that the Beit Din in Shamayim, in every place, in every country, has its own Beit Din overseeing it. The Beit Din is the size of a city, but it's not one room. It's one room, another room, another room, another room, another room, another room, and every room is close to half the size of this room, less a quarter of the size of this room, and there are three dayanim in each one, and

28:22Then it has three floors. So, the first Beit Din, or sections of Beit Din, is on the bottom floor. Sections of Beit Din are one room here, three dayanim, one room here, three dayanim, one room here, three dayanim, one room here, three dayanim, and there's hundreds and hundreds of them. The first level is to judge you on the really, really awful sins you've made and... Someone went with a married woman, someone went with a non-Jew, any type of sex crime altogether, michalel Shabbat, and so on and so forth. They're gonna judge you. They judge you, they show you, you sign off on it, and they punish you. You go get punished. The punishment is delivered. I'll spare you the details now. Maybe we'll save that for this shiur about Gehinnom. But then after you've received the punishment, you have to come back. Where? The second floor. That was just the first level of sin. Now you have to go to the second floor. Again, they're going to review the sin that they already judged to see if you really paid enough. Maybe you didn't pay enough. Maybe there's still a little bit of sin that came out of the sin.

29:44There's a sin that came out of the sin. So let's say, you could say, listen, somebody drove on Shabbat. It's terrible, but that's not the only sin. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, your little brother saw you. Your little brother saw you drive on Shabbat and he says, ah, you're allowed to drive on Shabbat. Your little brother—that's a sin from a sin. Second floor. They have to pay the bill again. Punishment should be a hiyuv; it could be years, it could be centuries. Finished. Third floor. We get to the third floor, room after room after room, you get the point. It's not all fun and games, and this is not even getting into Gehinnom. No, this is before, so when you say... Don't agree? Agree with what we said in the shiur? You have to go to Shamayim and maybe Rav Yisrael Salanter is going to be one of the dayanim. Maybe Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook is going to be one of the dayanim. Brother, yes, he is going to be one of the dayanim. What do you think they do over there, hang out and play pool? What do you think they do? They learn Torah, they become partners in the creation, in essence, to be dayanim.

31:08Say them all, by the way, already. I disagree with you. Okay, fine, you did. Based on what? I didn't like it. And that's one of the things that people have a hard time understanding. Like, wait a minute, didn't you say that Hashem is merciful and He's loving? Yes, He is merciful. He is loving. That's why you're still alive despite the sins that you've committed. Just like His mercy and His love are unlimited, so is His wrath. There are no limitations to how much He loves you, but there are also no limitations to how much the punishment will be if you go against Him. This is what we fail to understand. We fail to understand because we're constantly looking for a spiritual shortcut. We don't like it. I don't like Shabbat. I don't like kosher. I don't like modesty. I don't like what he says. I don't agree with him. Okay, fine. Based on what? What are you going to go up to Shamayim with? Oh, the Baba said something. That brings me to my next point. People that are looking for these shortcuts...

32:30Unfortunately, the Satan sends messengers to give them the inclination, the excuse to get the shortcut. He sends them fake rabbis, and sometimes those fake rabbis look more religious than any rabbi in the world. They have the whole garment. They have the hats. They have the beard. They have their older books. They have big books in front of them. They have messengers. They have all types of things, and they go to these people, and they pay them money, and... to get their opinions. One couple went to a shiur by Rabbi Ephraim recently. The shiur was at a levaya. Somebody died. The woman, the wife's father, died. And they asked Rabbi Ephraim to come give a shiur Torah during the seven days. and he gave several shiurim, Baruch Hashem, everybody got stronger. This specific couple is the one that I mentioned in the previous shiur. The wife said, "Listen, I give money to Breslov, to Chabad, to this one, to that one, to this one, to that one, but for some reason, Baruch Hashem, they make a lot of money. For some reason, I don't have any bracha in the money."

33:55I give a ton of money, it's tzedakah, tons every month. We can't, no problem. But for whatever reason, no matter what I do, we're always behind. We're always borrowing money from the banks. We're always borrowing money from loan sharks. The business is always behind even though I give tzedakah. Rabbi Frank didn't have to think for more than five seconds. He says, yes, because you're probably working on Shabbat, right? And... How do you know? How do you know? You could see this? He goes, no, no, I just learned from the books. I learned from the books. He says, you start keeping Shabbat, you start becoming modest, you'll be fine. She says, listen, you know, Israelis, they're very... Negotiators, they go to the point. He said, "Listen, for the nitzotz (spark). I like everything you said, the lecture—unbelievable, yesterday—unbelievable. Everything is fantastic. Baruch Hashem. You're smart, you're this, you're that—everything is fantastic. Let's do business. I give money to Breslov, I give money to Chabad, I give money to this rabbi, I give money to that rabbi, I give money to this yeshiva, I give money to that. I give money to all of them."

35:15I'm gonna give all of it to you every month. Your wife calls me, she tells me your bank account information. She gives me the bank account information you sent. All of it goes to you. Just let go of the Shabbat thing. Pray for me. Every month, all I ask from you is one thing: pray for me. The same gives me blessing, but forget about the Shabbat thing that you said. Everything else is good. Sure, all the money is going to you. Just imagine how much money this is. I mean, you know, you don't send $25 if you're talking about so much. Now, before I tell you what Rav Ephraim's answer is, you should know Rav Ephraim is one of the avreichim, part of Beit Hashem, and the kollel. He goes to kollel, works in the morning, you know, learns day and night. Kollels, you know, they start at eight, and they finish, I think, maybe around six, seven o'clock at night, and... Helps out the rabbinate for a short period of time and then continues to study through the night. We study together, and also he studies on his own. Baruch Hashem, the schedule is packed. What's that schedule? How much does he get from the kollel for studying six days a week? Longer schedules than your nine-to-five job that you get fifty or sixty or a hundred thousand dollars a year. How much does he get? Five hundred bucks a month.

36:43500 bucks a month, meaning a little homeless guy in the middle of New York gets more money than a talmid chacham. That's going to be the next door. The door gets more. Fine. No complaints. No problems. Miracles every single month. Baruch Hashem, we all survive. The Rav's answer is more impressive than a salary. The Rav's answer will explain to you the difference between whether you got your message from your opinion or from God. It's from your opinion. You say, "You know what, ma'am? I'm gonna find a heter for you. I'm gonna find a leniency for you. You sound like a tzaddeket. Maybe we'll get you to keep Shabbat eventually. Just keep giving tzedakah, keep supporting the Torah." Nice supporting this. Refrain, sister. I have plenty of money. I don't need one dollar from you. I just need you to keep Shabbat. Not one dollar. I have plenty of money. I just need you to keep Shabbat because not a dollar of the tzedakah that you're ever going to give is going to save you in the Beit Din Shel Ma'alah when you tell them you're a mechallel Shabbat. Have you lost your mind about time? When someone doesn't know how he's gonna eat this week, forget this month, when the five little babies don't know how they're gonna eat, and...

38:07No one knows how they're gonna survive because the rent for the house is five times the salary. Just the rent, never mind food, electricity, water, groceries. Forget it, just the rent is five times the salary. Don’t live in the streets, Moshe. He says, "I have plenty of money. I just need you to keep Shabbat." That's when you understand that the instructions came from God. There's no exception. There's no leniency. We're not looking for leniency. We're not looking for ba'alei batim that are going to give you a shortcut. Unfortunately, today people are constantly looking for these mekubalim. Mekubalim, you know, they're supposed to be well-known types of rabbis. Mekablim means they just receive money and...

39:08Sounds the same. You see all these posters and different WhatsApp groups. Tzadik ba'alot. No one's ever heard of the guy, but he's a tzadik, and there's a line at the door for people looking for shortcuts. Another woman comes to me, and she says, "Listen, I need this, I need this, I need this, I need this, I need this. You know any mekubal that's going to help me do this?" I said, "Well, based on the knowledge that I have of who this person is, just, I said, a mekubal is not gonna be able to help you." only one's gonna be able to help you is God because you're His enemy as of right now when you're violating Shabbat. You're immodest in every way, shape, or form, and you're not listening to anything that He says. Why do you think a mekubal is gonna help you? So you don't know anyone? You don't know anyone assuming like this. This avodah zarah is a disease and it's a disease that we have infesting our people, where somehow along the way we've turned Judaism into avodah zarah. Where somehow people think that if they go to some rabbi, they're gonna get a blessing and everything is gonna be okay. Someone came to the Steipler Gaon and said to him

40:31Sam, well, I was one of the gedolei ha'dor and had Ruach HaKodesh. Oh, I call this, you should get it, you should get Ruach HaKodesh. Now, Ruach HaKodesh is when somebody walks into the room, or somebody's across the street, or someone somewhere else, you already know what's going on with them. When someone would walk into his yeshiva, into his Beit Midrash, he didn't have to see him; the Beit Midrash was five times the size of this, and... Somebody who just walked in, if that person was a Mechalel Shabbat, the Steipler Gaon didn't have to see him, didn't have to look at him, didn't have to know he even came in. He would know he's a Mechalel Shabbat. He would start screaming, "Mechalel Shabbat, get out! You're an enemy of Hashem!" He wouldn't stand it; he wouldn't be able to tolerate it. So they said to Rav, the Steipler Gaon... Sikvona Rav, your son, Rav Kanievsky, sheyichye, is a Gadol HaDor. You're Gadol HaDor, Baruch Hashem. But for a Gadol HaDor, for a giant of the generation to have a son that's also, that's not normal. That's above and beyond the normal. How did you do it? How did you do it? He says, many nights,

41:56And many days I spent crying my heart out to Hashem to make him gadol baTorah. So Rav Nissim Yagen's sister went to the Steipler Gaon to ask him for a blessing. This is the gadol hador. She wanted a blessing from the gadol hador for her children to be good in Torah, tzaddikim. She goes to him... says kvod harav. Parashat Vayechi, Parashat Vayechi we're in this week. Yosef HaTzadik brings his two children to Yaakov Avinu. "Abba, please bless them, bless my children," and there's the whole story of how Yaakov Avinu switches the hands, and Yosef doesn't understand why. Obviously, these blessings are a big deal. We already have a source from the Torah; we have a source from his father, from Yitzchak Avinu. Yaakov who blessed Yosef's children and so on and so forth, so these blessings are a big deal. So, a woman goes to the door, goes to the Steipler, whose son is also a gadol hador. She says, "Kvod Harav, please bless my children, bless my children to be gedolim in Torah, to be religious, to be good in Torah, to have yirat shamayim."

43:24And the Steipler answered her, "I'm sorry, no blessing is going to help." "What? What do you mean? What do you mean no blessing? What do you mean it's not going to help?" "No blessing is going to help your children. There are only two things that are going to help them. Only two things are going to help your children. One, you." For them, every day as a parent, cry for them, pray for them, and pray for us and for mercy. What do they see? They see you make the Torah number one. Don't make it number one. They see you become religious once in a while. They'll be religious once in a while. If you take the Torah and you make it number one in the house, number one in their life... You make exceptions, if you look for leniencies, if you're half a Jew and half a goy, your kids are going to be full goyim. We only deteriorate. This is not from me, Reb Eliezer. This is from someone where I wish maybe, maybe one day after 120, I'll get to the level of his shoes. He said it. So...

44:50reality is shortcuts are not available, but we still try. We still try to look for shortcuts. We still try to look for someone that's going to fix our problems without us doing anything. To such an extent that we've turned Judaism into a mashup of avodah zarah and... was a mass text sent in the last few days, and it infiltrated one of our many groups or several of our groups on WhatsApp and other places. Someone said in the name of some mekubal, which I've never heard of, but that doesn't mean anything, and he said that this so-and-so mekubal had a dream his father or his grandfather came to him and said that if you forward this text to everyone you know, to a certain amount of people, they’re going to be saved at the time of Mashiach. But if not, you're going to lose a lot of money. And then it said some other words, but as soon as I heard "you're going to lose a lot of money," I deleted it.

46:11People took this to heart. I got no less than a half dozen texts from people asking me, "Is this true? Is it real? Who is this mekubal? Can we really be saved from the Mashiach by simply forwarding a text? That's it?" It's all I have to do. I don't have to come to shiurim anymore. Tuesday nights, I can watch football. Wednesdays, I can watch baseball. Shabbat, I can go to a hockey game. I can just forward a text, and that's it. I'm saving Mashiach. That's it. WhatsApp saved my life. WhatsApp saved my life. I'm with it. This is what it is. When you actually think about the stupidity of whoever sent it and whoever believes it, Makes you feel stupid for reading it because it's mamash. It's just the furthest thing from the Torah. You have a book of Torah. Baruch Hashem, Hashem gave you all the instructions you could possibly ever need.

47:22succeed in life, to succeed in marriage, to succeed in business, to have a good, happy life, to be complete, to be better, to be happy, to be generous, to do everything good that could ever exist. You have a book of instructions. You know how to do it. That's what Torah means. Torah means instructions. Instructions for what? Everything! Everything, and just like it's instructions to do good and Comply with the Torah. Be here, you live. You don't, you die. What does it mean to die while you're alive? Consider that. Why is your life miserable? You're unhappy. You're depressed. Your marriage is terrible. Your wife wants to poison you. Your kids want to kill you. They can't wait for you to die so they can take your money. You're this, you're that. Your boss wants to fire you but he can't because you own 5% of the company and he's too stingy to let you go. Your whole life is miserable. Why? You didn't follow Torah. So, the same instructions... That's gonna give you to live, also give you to die. But people are saying, "No, we're gonna put this aside. The Book of Instructions, we're gonna put aside, and we're gonna listen to text messages. My text message told me that if I forward the text to five people, or five thousand people, or five million people, that's it. I don't have to do anything else. Finished. We'll show up, I know. We're good. WhatsApp saved us. Facebook saved us."

48:54It took me a while to respond. I usually try to respond—I mean, I'm busy, but I try to respond to people as fast as I can. But when a few people sent me this message, I didn't know how to respond and not sound rude. Because again, how do you tell somebody, "Listen, this is stupidity," without, in essence, telling them, "Your believing it kind of sounds stupid"? You should watch more of the shiur. Maybe you'll stop being stupid. You've a disease. You're looking for a shortcut. There's no shortcuts. There's no shortcuts. Stop looking for shortcuts. So, if you're getting a mass text message that's going to tell you if you do this, this, and this, you're going to be saved, there's only one thing to do: delete. Delete. The end. No mekubal is sending you texts. No mekubal is telling everybody to do this, not even to pray. You want to pray, pray, but it has nothing to do with anything else. There are 620 mitzvot you have to comply with if they are relevant to you. If you're a woman, a certain section of mitzvot is relevant to you. If you're a man, a certain section of mitzvot is relevant to you. If you're a Kohen, a certain section of mitzvot is relevant to you. Whichever out of the 620 mitzvot are relevant to you, you have to do.

50:20Now it's 613 from God, 7 from the rabbis—Chanukah, Purim, and so on. So now, a text message, an email, any of that stuff, that's not going to get you anything. All it's going to do is waste another half hour of your life thinking that you're now saved, and... Another thing is that unfortunately that same woman I told you the story about, who went to the lecture and got the message of her life from Rav Ephraim that she did not expect. She thought that she just bought herself a get-out-of-jail-free card. "I'm gonna give all the money I give to Breslov, to Chabad, to the rabbi, to the shul, to all these organizations. I'm gonna give it to Rav Ephraim, and I won't have to keep Shabbat. Good deal, right?" Rav Ephraim says, "Nonsense. I..." So now she realized she has to keep Shabbat. This is difficult. This is not easy for her. She has to adjust her life. Why? Because everything he said during these seven days wasn't exactly, you know, little Smurfs and Care Bears type of Torah. He told people the truth. What happens after you die? Scared everybody to death. Because that's what the Torah says. What happens after you die is very scary. So she realized she has to do something about it.

51:48But then, the Satan shows up. She says, okay, I'm going to keep Shabbat. Baruch Hashem. Okay, I'm going to work on my modesty. Baruch Hashem. Husband's a little more difficult, but he's going to meet with you on Tuesday. Okay, Baruch Hashem. We meet with the husband on Tuesday. Baruch Hashem. Okay, whatever. I'll keep Shabbat. Everything is good. They kept Shabbat. Sh'tabach Shemo La'ad. Tuesday shows up. Hi, Kvod HaRav. Yeah, yeah, I want to talk to you about something. yeah, I went to this mekubal yesterday. You know, a famous mekubal. I came to him, and you know, we donated a lot of money to him. He's a very, very holy man. As soon as I showed up, he says, "Wow, I see your father in Gan Eden right now. I see him."

52:51This is what he said: "I see your father in Gan Eden right now. I'm seeing him in Gan Eden." Meaning, this person just eliminated the entire Torah. Why? First of all, our father was a Mechalel Shabbat. Second of all, our father didn't keep any mitzvot. Third of all, even if he was a tzaddik, there's still a 12-month trial. How do you get to Gan Eden so fast? After three days? After a week? How do you get there so fast? How do you skip? But as long as the check is made payable to cash, I see your father in Gan Eden. So now, what took several lectures, several conversations, hours and hours and hours of mamash, real Torah... almost destroyed in a matter of five minutes. Why? Because he went to a shaman who did the work for the Satan, and she was looking for a shortcut. She didn't want to keep Shabbat, so she tried to go to somebody, thinking maybe there's a way around it. Maybe he's not accepting my money. Maybe he's going to accept my money. He's going to take on Shabbat for me. People are constantly going to these foolish people, and unfortunately, they themselves are being foolish, but...

54:10Stupidity does not absolve you from sin, does not absolve you from punishment. Another couple, unfortunately, terrible, terrible situation: the wife showed up to the wedding, her own wedding. They got married, pregnant, already pregnant before marriage. Now in... Non-Jewish world there's no concept of marriage if a man and a woman are together. They're considered married. There's no chuppah. There's no kiddushin, nothing. But in the Jewish world, we have to go to a chuppah and kiddushin. We have to have a chuppah, a rabbi, and witnesses that are kosher. It's a process, and a woman has to be Torah, she has to go to the mikveh before you're able to be with her intimately, which means that she can only go to the mikveh after the chuppah. She can't go to the mikveh before the chuppah. If you're not married, you can't go to the mikveh unless you're converting, and that's a one-time thing. One-time thing, you're converting, you're going to the mikveh one time; after that, you can't go to the mikveh. Why? You're not married. You can only go to the mikveh if you're married.

55:33Now, if these people didn't keep any mitzvot and a woman shows up to the wedding already several months pregnant, that means that when they were together, she was niddah. She was niddah. Now, she goes to the Rav and tells him such and such... Trying to do teshuvah, they get stronger. Everything is good. Baruch Hashem, they're starting to do teshuvah. They're starting to keep Shabbat and so on and so forth. Everything is good. And then one day they hear about this mekubal. Again, these mekubalim are a disease, unfortunately, that keeps growing. And they go to the mekubal, and the mekubal says, "Oh, your son is gonna be like Baba Sali." have a little baby, and he decided that their son is gonna be like Baba Sali. Now, what's the problem? This is very nice. Thank you for the compliment. Thank you for the wish, but what's the problem? It cannot be. Maybe he can grow to be good over his life if he works on himself and so on and so forth, and

56:54To say he's gonna be like Baba Sali is a little bit of a problem, and the reason why is because to come out of a child that comes out of a nidah is problematic. In the very same book, Minchat Yehuda, it tells of a story of one of the people that had a dibbuk that came to him and this person, Shim'u, the details are very, very extensive. But the point is that the person was being punished. Why was the person being punished? Because they were immodest. They were immodest. It was a woman that was immodest, and these people that have these dibbukim, these people that have these spirits take control and torture them and hurt them, and so on and so forth. And It's not great people. It's people that sinned. Because if somebody's a tzaddik, the Satan and his soldiers don't have power over them. Gemara Masechet Hagigah says that his entire being is fire, meaning the Satan can't touch him. Can't touch him.

58:09So even though sometimes you have certain people that knew Torah, they had some problems. It's usually because of some hiccup they had along the way. Also, they said something they shouldn't have said, they did something. Overall, they're good. They kept the mitzvot, but there was a mistake they made. They went with a woman they were not allowed to go with. They violated some type of big law and so on and so forth. That was an opening, and unfortunately, they got punished for it. That's one of the punishments anyway. woman that went with a cheater on her husband. The cheater on her husband was an adulterer. And one day she starts feeling pain, and so on. She starts feeling like mamash shemi. This is awful, but she starts feeling like some other man is with her. But she isn't with anyone. And someone is taking control of her, and so on and so forth. I'll spare you the details, but the point is that she comes to the Rav, and And he says to her, yes, there's a spirit in you, there's a dybbuk, and so on and so forth. I'm sure that some of the haters are going to crucify me next to J.C. Penney with some of the stuff we're talking about, because I don't usually talk about this mystical aspect of the Torah. But it's in the book. You have a problem, go deal with them. I'm not the author. Anyway, long story short, he starts finding out more and more details about these dybbukim, these souls, this scary, scary stuff.

59:37Who are you? What's your name? They're liars and they don't tell the truth initially. Ultimately, he says, "The only reason I'm in here is because she cheated on her husband. And that's the same sin that I committed. I started going off the derech because I also cheated on my wife, and..." I ended up doing a lot of other horrible, horrible things and so on and so forth. I became a big kofer. What kind of big kofer? Shabbetai Tzvi. It was Shabbetai Tzvi. He was the soul of Shabbetai Tzvi, much more visible. He used to be a talmid chacham, used to be a big, giant rabbi, who eventually became a false messiah. became a false messiah, but it didn't start with just one day he misunderstood the Gemara and he decided, "Okay, I'm the Messiah." It didn't start that way. He was a big rabbi, knew a lot of Torah. Some people say that he was literally the gadol hador. It was unbelievable how much Torah he knew, which was the reason why a lot of the other rabbis had a tough time battling him because he knew a lot of things. He had powers and...

1:01:04Long story short, how did he fall off? It all started with adultery. He began by committing a sin that he was not allowed to do; he went with an eshet ish. From there, the Satan took over, and he went from bad to worse. He became a homosexual and also committed all types of horrible sins, even inside the Beit Knesset with tefillin on, and so on and so forth. Just imagine it, and he did it. Imagine it, and he did it, and eventually he died mitah meshunah, a strange death. But the point being is that the Torah, if you look at the Zohar HaKadosh, if you look at the Gemara, if you look at some of the things that Rabbi Akiva says, you look at any of the Chachamim that have ever talked about this specific issue, a child that comes out of a nidah is problematic to say the least. It's a problem. Does it mean that they're automatically going to be a rasha? Does it mean that? It just means that their soul is going to have a serious tikkun. Why? Because if you've made the sin, that means that Hashem has to give that sin to someone that deserves it, midda keneged midda (measure for measure). He's not gonna bring you Baba Sali, kodesh kodashim, and...

1:02:30had a pure soul from already generations before him into such an illegal marriage, if you will. Yes, then Ishmael, no, Ishmael was made in an illegal way. Shema wasn't a know he was allowed to go; he's allowed to go with her. God, his wife gave him the ability. In those days, you were allowed to be with more than one wife. Why are you allowed to be with more than one wife? Even today, according to the law, you're allowed to be with more than one wife. The Torah allows a man to be married to more than one wife according to halacha, and We see this not only from Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov but we also see it all the way up to about a thousand years ago, when Rabbeinu Gershom outlawed it, made a halacha. He was himself married to two wives, but one of the wives was jealous of the other.

1:03:36To such a point that she actually got Rabbeinu Gershom arrested. It's a very, very mystical, crazy story how he had to break out of jail, and the jail was in a tower, and he had to use Kabbalah Maasit to break out of it because there was no way to get in, there was no way to get out. They literally built a tower just to put him there. He still got out using spider webs and all types of things. The point is that I don't want this to turn into a Kabbalistic shiur. But the point I'm trying to tell you is that after that, he understood that we... have fallen already a thousand years ago and far away from the generation of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. We could no longer be allowed to marry more than one woman because we can't handle it. Anyone that marries more than one woman is not marrying more than one woman because of the mitzvah; they're doing it for lustful reasons. So, that's not going to work, and therefore you forbid it. Both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi men comply with it. There's only a small section of a few people in Yemen and, I think, in Morocco that still hold to it, but that's because they're still in their own traditions, and they haven't really been—they're not part of the rest of society today—and they're holding by their own rabbis, which is fine according to them.

1:04:53But nonetheless, for the rest of the world, we're not allowed to do it anymore. It's not against the Torah; it's a rule that the rabbis forbade simply because we're not able to handle it. If someone was Kodesh Kodashim and The wife was Kodesh Kodashim and the first wife permitted him to marry a second wife. That's a different story. But if no wife is going to do it, then no husband is Kodesh Kodashim at this point. And if one is, the other one isn't. In general, we're just not able to do it, even if both were. We still can't go against our big rabbis from previous generations. so the point being is that when you have a Torah that has an instruction set, one of those instructions is to follow what the Rabbis say. So when the Rabbis are telling you that yes, we have a law in the Torah that allows you to be married to more than one wife, good. Unfortunately, you can't handle it. Why? Because your wife will hang you if you tell her about another woman, and

1:05:54because you're not going to marry another woman because you are fulfilling the mitzvah. You're doing it because you have crazy things in your mind. You're not a tzaddik; you're thinking about, "I want to have this, I want to have a different one." You're thinking about crazy things. You're thinking that Shlomo HaMelech married a thousand wives because he was a psychopath. You're not understanding the real secret of what Shlomo HaMelech really did. He married a thousand women because he wanted to bring the Mashiach, and Because one of the conditions of the Mashiach coming is world peace. He says, "I'm gonna have world peace. Everyone under the same umbrella, everyone's a Jew if I have the princess of every single country. I'm married to her." Then everyone has to comply with what we're saying. Everyone's part of Am Yisrael. There's achdut (unity). Hashem's going to come. He didn't do it because he wants to be with different women, but you're crazy mind... Thinking, "Look at this guy, he had a different one every day for three years in a row. You wouldn't even see the same woman twice. That's the mindset we have." Yes, that's what we're not allowed to do; barely allowed to marry one, now you want to...

1:07:04So that's the thing. When these women go to these men, these mekubalim, and they tell them, "Listen, your son’s gonna be Baba Sali, your son’s gonna be this," and just make sure you make the check payable to cash. This is also a spiritual shortcut. This is someone just looking for somebody to tell them something that we all know is fake, themselves included, but for the right price, they’ll do it. One woman came... Rabbi Zitron, and she told them that she just came back from this mekubal, and the situation has gotten worse than ever. Ever since she started going to this guy in Brooklyn, her life has gone from bad to worse. Rabbi Zitron says, "Well, what did he tell you to do?" She replied, "Well, he said to buy this book for $15,000." "Book? $15,000? What's the book say?" She goes, "I don't know. It's in Aramaic. I..." I don't know how to read Aramaic. So you didn't know who this woman is. She comes to visit him, and he sees this woman doesn't know how to wear clothes either. She doesn't only not know how to read Aramaic; she doesn't know how to dress. The Aramaic is the least of her problems. The fact that she doesn't know that she's supposed to put clothes on herself is also a different problem. So he asked the woman, he has Yirat Shamayim, Rabbi Zitron. He asked the woman, "Listen, did he tell you anything about modesty?"

1:08:31Did he tell you anything about Shabbat? No. Did he tell you anything about kosher? No. No. No, this is the only thing he told me: to buy this black book. But ever since I bought this black book for $15,000, my life has gone from bad to worse. What should I do? Keep Shabbat, become observant, keep kosher. How about doing what Hashem says instead of spending money buying your ticket out? This is not a one-time thing; this literally happens to hundreds and hundreds of people every day. I'm giving you real cases. You don't think I'm just creating this stuff out of thin air. There's another mekubal, another guy, an imposter, an actor, a shaman who charges people. People go to him. Don't know his name, but they go to him, and he sits there—an old man. He sits there, and they tell him, you know, people come to him. He says, "First and foremost, you have to put a lot of kessef," meaning you have to agree to a monthly contribution to his cause.

1:09:50100, 200, 500, 5,000, whatever the deal is, I don't know what the deal is. But you have to agree to a monthly contribution. After you agree to a monthly contribution, then you can enter and sit in front of him. Now, once you sit in front of him, what does he do? Fall asleep? No, I'm serious. I'm not joking. He falls asleep like this. Nobody knows what to do. We're gonna start telling, "Hey, wake up." No, you don't know what’s going on because everyone is a maven. This guy knows what's going on, "Hashem, I'm gonna know what your guy's talking to Hashem right now. He's talking about Avraham Avinu." And it's exactly what he does. He wakes up after about a 15-minute nap. He took a little nap, the old man. "So I just came back from Shamayim. I came back from heaven. I just came back from heaven." See, I see good things being said about you. Wow, I didn't know you were so righteous. And he gives the guy the smoke and mirrors. The guy, if he gave five thousand, he’s upping it to fifteen thousand. He's putting a one in front of it.

1:11:00And he tells people that he sees them in Gan Eden and he sees their parents in Gan Eden. "I just came back from the yeshiva in Shamayim," he says. He goes, "I go to yeshiva in Shamayim." He doesn't go to yeshiva over here. He goes to yeshiva in Shamayim in his 15-minute nap. You know, the Talmud's a 15-minute nap. He went to Shamayim. He goes to yeshiva in Shamayim. Baruch Hashem, you guys are all smart, so you're laughing about this, but this is real. If this wasn't real, do you think I would spend two hours talking about it? Next, there's a story of an admor, an admor of a Chassidut. They admire and hold by their rabbis and some of them have very good minhagim, with a lot of respect for their rabbis, but some of them take it too far, like borderline craziness. So we're not gonna say any names, but one time there was an admor whose head rabbi died young.

1:12:02young, and he, this was the head rabbi, and he had one son a year and a half old. He had a year and a half old son, and his people were so overwhelmed by their rabbi and loved him, and so on and so forth. They didn't know what to do with themselves. So who's gonna be the next Admor? His son. His son's going to be the next Admor. We're going to make the son the Admor, the head of all the Chassidut that we have. But the problem is he's a year and a half old. So what do they do? It doesn’t make a difference. He's Kadosh. He comes from him. He has to be Kadosh. They got him little rabbi clothes. I'm dead serious. I think I'm making you laugh. I'm dead serious. This is funny, but it's sad. I'm dead serious. They got him little rabbi clothes, like little outfits from the mall. Now, people are waiting in line for a blessing from this year-and-a-half-old baby. After a little while, people come to him, they put his hand on top of their head, and everybody feels great or whatever. It's idol worship craziness.

1:13:26But anyway, after the mom at least had some sense. After a little while, I don't know how long it was, 15 minutes or an hour and a half, I don't really know. But after a little while, the baby started going, "Hey, hey, hey." He started going crazy over something. Got really, really excited about something. Wow, maybe he sees something going on in Shamayim. Maybe he's looking, maybe he's seeing something in Shamayim. And the ema says that the mom that had a brain, Baruch Hashem, and you know, this whole thing is nonsense. She said, "No, no, no, don't look at his mind. Look in his diaper. He's a year and a half old. He pooped, he pooped. That's why he's excited, because he pooped." understand, do you understand the stupidity we're in? This is the religious world; we're not talking about Christianity. Do you understand what's happening here? Next up with Rav Kidon ben Moshe. I know him personally. He's the rabbi of Rav Efraim. One of the rabbis of Rav Efraim is Rav Kidon ben Moshe.

1:14:44The Av Beit Din of Yerushalayim, one of the giants. Rav Kidon ben Moshe is an expert in several different things. Anyway, one day he goes to a place where they have chickens. And he oversees all the chickens and he sees a whole section of chickens. Not like one or two, a whole section of chickens. And he sees all of the lungs have a problem, there's worms. Lungs have worms, much like they ate up into their lungs. He sees one, two, three, five, six, seven. He says this whole thing is taref, all of them taref. Now, this story was told directly to Rav Chaim, who told me, so it's not like it's second-hand—it's first-hand. So he tells the story, says, I saw these chickens, talked about a lot of chickens, but they all taref. Something went in, whatever they ate, something, whatever it is. The point is, don't eat it, it's all bad. You know what they eat them?

1:15:45It's like eating a lion. It's no different. Or a rat or a dead animal—same thing. It's not allowed. A kosher animal has to be kosher. This is all treif. And he continues, and he sees other places, and he sees this. It just so happened to this mekubal. This mekubal comes in with his robe and his beard and his this and his that. And he just sees it. This guy comes in and... He comes next to the chickens that just a half hour ago, an hour ago, he said they're all treif. Now again, like I said, Rav Moshe is one of the experts of the world, not just a local community. Everyone who is in the Torah world knows who he is. Av Beit Din of Yerushalayim is a big deal and So he's always seeing, he doesn't say anything. He sees this guy, whatever he is, he comes to the section with hundreds of chickens that are horrible, dead animals that you don't want to eat. And he sees this, starts mumbling something, mumbling something. No one knows what he says. Five, 10 minutes. He says, "Okay, I'm going to take them."

1:17:05Tells the Baal HaBayit about all the chickens. "Okay, I'm gonna take them, put them on, put them in a truck." "No, no, no, sorry, it's all treif. It's all treif." He goes, "No, no, it's not treif." He goes, "No, no, no, it's treif. Look at the lungs." He goes, "No, no, I fixed it. Tikanti otam. I did a tikkun for them." He did a special prayer and now it's not treif anymore. Do you understand what we're dealing with here, Rabotai? Now this same person, people come to him and they tell him, "Give me a special blessing for my kid to be the next Gadol HaDor. Give me a special blessing for me to be able to make a million dollars. Give me a blessing for me to be able to cheat on my wife and she doesn't find out. Give me a special blessing for all these things." No problem! Just pay the money, everything is good. Mekubal, Mekubal. Next. Now, there was a, this is not a true story, but it's funny. One time there was a mekubal that came to New York

1:18:34went to a five-star hotel in New York. No one knows who he is. They usually wear these fancy-shmancy outfits; they look like wizards and Anyway, he comes in with, you know, one or two guys that work for him. One of the guys who works for him goes to the counter over there. He says, "Listen, we'd like to get room 613 for the rabbi, for the korbanot." "I'm sorry, sir..." Five-star restaurant hotel says, "I'm sorry, sir, but room 613 is taken. It's taken. Sorry." "What do you mean? The rabbi's here. You know, what's this?" He gives him a resume. "Sir, I don't know who he is. It doesn't make a difference. Somebody already has that room. Somebody's in there. You have to give it to him. This is a rabbi. Yeah, he's a kadosh. He's holy." "Sir, it's not up to me. There's nothing we can do. Somebody's in the room. I..."

1:19:48you be opposed for me to ask the person that's taking the room can I talk to him? It's not really normal, but come on, we'll pay extra. Just let me talk to him. What do you care? Go, no? They go to the room. You know, they take the guy to the room. He knocks on the door. A big black guy shows up. What do you want? Meaning the guy is not exactly connected to the Mekubalim. He's not connected to the Mekubalim, the guy. It has nothing to do with color. It's just that basketball player and Mekubal usually don't go together. So don't call me racist or anything. That's how the story is. I didn't make it up. So anyway, what do you want? Holy man, he's here in the hotel and he wants room 613. And you're here, please, for the honor of the Torah, for God, for this, for that. Hey, get out of here. He shuts the door in their face. Now, the guy that works for the rabbi is not just gonna come back to the holy man and say, "I can't do it." What does he do? Hello?

1:21:14The guy that works for the hotel is a little uncomfortable. He's going to get fired. What's he going to do? This guy is a little Jewish guy. He's a little pushy. What's he going to do? He's already here. He's pushing this. Big guy. What do you want again? Holy day. Get out of here. Close the door. What is he going to do? He goes downstairs to his rabbi with the guy from the hotel. he won't open. What are we gonna do? What do you mean he's not gonna open? Go tell him. I told him. Go tell him again. I told him again. I'm gonna go. The rabbi, the mekubal, is gonna go. The mekubal is gonna go now. The hotel clerk doesn't even know what to do with himself. He wants to bury himself right there and then. He'll get fired. What's he gonna do? But then he sees his little wizard come out and He's going upstairs to the sixth-floor room, 613. The guy that works for the rabbi runs to the door, already ahead of the rabbi, to make sure that the guy opens the door. "Hello?" A big guy opens the door, and he wants to hit the guy, but then he sees the rabbi down the hall. The rabbi is down the hall, and a few people from the hotel are there right behind them. He starts running at the rabbi.

1:22:33Go ahead. He's upset. He starts running at the rabbi, and as soon as he goes out, he freezes in the air. Freezes. Everyone is shocked. No one knows what to do. The big six-foot-six basketball player is just frozen in the air. And then the kabbalist is looking at him. He says, "Do you promise not to hurt any Jews ever again?" answer with your head. With your eyes, you promised to give me room 613. Like that, he starts moving, runs out, empties out the room, and... No one knew who this rabbi was, but for the next month, there was a line out the door of the hotel with people asking for blessings. Blessings for love, donations; people were coming with bags full of money. The hotel clerks witnessed this crazy scene. The only thing is, a month later, the same hotel clerk went on vacation, so he went to the airport and...

1:23:44And he saw the rabbi, the Mekubal, his helper, and the black guy at the airport going to the next city. You understand? So now, in today's world, there are a few Mekubalim. There are a few. Very, very few. Now, how do you know who they are and what they are and so on? First and foremost, they're not coming to your city. Most of the time, they're not coming, they're not known, they're not famous. As a matter of fact, one of the requirements for somebody to reach the level of a Mekubal, meaning someone who is truly holy, someone who is very special, is for them to run away from honor, run away from kavod, run away from all this fame, and so on. Many of them hide themselves their whole lives. That's number one. Number two, these people are glued to the Torah. They don't have time to go hang out at your house at 2 o'clock in the morning just to have some tehina because you're donating for their cause. There are a few out there in the world, and I can give you a couple of names. Rav Kook, whom we mentioned last week on Sunday shiur, is one of the mekubalim of the world, Baruch Hashem. The person is a holy man and...

1:25:01But what makes such a person holy? How do you get to that point? I mean, this is a person that removed himself from any joy of the world already as a young man. When he was studying in Ponevezh, in Yeshivat Ponevezh, he already understood the concept of what's important and what's not important in the world. And he decided that he doesn't want to have any joy whatsoever in this world, so he would put some type of liquid similar to gasoline in his food, just to make sure he doesn't have any joy whatsoever in life. I'm not recommending for you to put anything into your food other than some salt and some ingredients. But the point I'm trying to say is that these are different types of people. These are special people. There's another very famous Mekubal, Rav Yaakov Ades. If anyone saw the levaya of Rav Ovadia, there was someone that was screaming in a microphone as it became a very well-known part of the whole thing, very emotional and... Person that looks like he's worth three dollars, that's kodesh kodeshim, is Rav Yaakov Ades. This is a very, very holy man. Now, what makes him holy? Well, one of the people that witnessed him himself tells a story, and this is a first-hand story. One time, he was staying at this yeshiva or this area where there were a lot of talmidim, and one of the students...

1:26:27When they were with him at night, it was maybe around, you know, one o'clock in the morning. He was overhearing some type of singing from somewhere. So he decided to leave his room and go downstairs to check out what this singing was. And he sees Rav Ades walking around, pacing and singing. What is he singing? Yom Kippur songs—all the prayers of Yom Kippur. Could I help you? Are you okay? He says, "No, I'm sorry. I have a headache. I don't feel good, so I can't really study. So at least I'm repeating the prayers from Yom Kippur to get me going, to at least do something in the world. If you really want to help me, maybe go bring my Masechet Eruvin. Maybe we'll do something." I'm a city of a Masechet Eruvin. Eruvin is the most difficult part of the entire Shas. So he goes and brings the student of life, brings the Eruvin. He says, "Okay, so I'm gonna repeat everything that it says. I'm gonna say what's in the Gemara, and you tell me if I'm right."

1:27:40And he recites word for word everything in the Gemara with the commentary, with Rashi, with Tosafot, with the small letters, with the big letters, with the letters you don't even know are there. For not one page, already at 30 dapim, hours and hours he's repeating word for word. The avreich is just looking at it in amazement. This person has become so glued to the Torah, he knows the whole thing by heart. 30 dapim at the 30th page, which for me would take maybe six years. But for him, at 30 dapim after a few hours, the avreich said he felt like it was too much for him already. For him, it was too much information. So the point is, that's an ish kadosh. Someone that's holy is not holy because of his clothes. He's not holy because of his Facebook profile and... He's not holy because of any other reason other than the fact that he's glued to Hashem. He's glued to the Torah. But still, the story that we said in the beginning about the Steipler Gaon, where nothing is going to help other than your own prayers, yourself, and your children, and what you show as an example, that's the only thing that's going to help us in this world. Anyone that's looking for a spiritual shortcut is completely missing the point.

1:29:06missing the point of the entire Torah. Now, on Thursday, we have Asarah B'Tevet. It's a fast day. Now, what happened on Asarah B'Tevet? There are three different things that happened around this time. On the 8th of Tevet... Greeks translated the written Torah to Greek. They translated it, and the Chachamim say that after this happened, this was such a calamity. This is what we talked about during Hanukkah. They translated the Torah to Greek, which was not allowed, meaning they forced the Chachamim, they forced the sages, to translate it to Greek, and This was considered on the same level as the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, and it happened on the 8th of Tevet. The reason why is not because of the simple translation, not because of that. If anything, if you look at it logically, you think this is Kiddush Hashem, you think this is sanctifying the Torah, spreading the Torah to more languages, and

1:30:29People will learn it. Oh Hashem, this is great. The problem is it's quite the opposite; it's quite the opposite. The Greeks were not interested in translating the Torah so they could become tzaddikim. The Greeks were looking to translate the Torah because they wanted to find out how to go against it. They had their own chachamim, their own wise people, and Everyone followed their own philosophy. They were considered the smartest people in the world. The only ones who didn't listen to them were the Jews. So, they asked, "Why are you not listening to us? It's like we have our Torah. It's from God. So tell us what it says. We want to learn it, not because we're going to change ourselves. We're not going to learn Torah because we're going to do Teshuvah. We want to see what it says so we can find out ways to go against it, to go against the Torah." This is why there were three days of darkness. A spiritual decline in the world happened after this translation occurred, and there were three days of darkness. This type of mentality is not necessarily just from 2,000 years ago. The Maharil Diskin said about a hundred years ago that he put a cherem on

1:31:56speaking English. So you're not allowed to learn Torah in English. So not allowed—he put mamash, he put a decree about a hundred years ago not to learn Torah in English. Why? He says because this is where all the heresy is gonna come from. that are not looking to learn Torah for the sake of Torah. People are not looking to learn Torah for the sake of sanctifying Hashem. People are looking to learn Torah for the sake of doing the same thing that the Greeks did—looking for something that's misunderstood, something that's missing, something that's, you know, not for the average folks, something that we can go against, and so on and so forth. And obviously, as we saw, he was right, and Of course, many other chachamim came out later on and gave leniencies on it and took the cherem away. But the point being is that the message was loud and clear. He was afraid of the same thing that happened 2,000 years ago with the Greeks was going to happen again, and unfortunately, it's happening. Unfortunately, it's happening. It's happening in the Modern Orthodox world.

1:33:12It's happening in a different type of Reform, Conservative, Open Orthodox, and different sects of Judaism that are changing the Torah that's holy, that Hashem Yitbarach gave us. Hashem Yitbarach gave the chachamim, and unfortunately, they're making it into what they call modern or what they call something else. It's no longer the same. Why? Because they don't like it. Many of them are not simply coming out like the Reform, which just outright said we don't believe in the Oral Torah. Many of them are not coming out like the Conservative and saying we don't want to follow the Oral Torah. They're not coming out like them. Many of them, unfortunately, say, "No, no, no, the Rambam misunderstood it," and... if you look over here and you look over there and you look under the table and you look on top of the roof and you look at this guy, you look at that guy, and you translate this word and that word and this one, you combine all these different things, you got it. You're allowed to eat pigs. You're allowed to put wigs on. You're allowed to be a pig. Do whatever you want. Naval bireshut haTorah. That's someone that learns Torah but becomes despicable and

1:34:24With permission from the Torah, meaning not permission from the Torah, but he uses the Torah as his reasoning. But in reality, he desecrated the Torah. He didn't really use the Torah. So, this is one of the reasons why we fast on the 10th of Tevet, but this actually happened on the 8th and the 9th of Tevet. On the 9th of Tevet, both Ezra HaSofer and Nechemya both died. Both died. These were Kodesh Kodeshim. Tanakh has a book for each one of them. And since this is also one of the signs that you know, this was the last of it. This was the last of it, and we know we understand today that When a Gadol HaDor is alive, that's because the generation has the merit to have him. Not needs him, but has the merit to have him. When a Gadol HaDor dies, that means they lost their merit. They lost their merit to have this Gadol HaDor. When Rabbi Ovadia decided to make his son Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef

1:35:47the Chief Rabbi of Israel. Some of the prominent Rabbis say that during the whole era, whether we were accepting him was a big celebration to accept Rabbi Yosef. He's a big, huge Talmid Chacham. But I say, yes, I want everyone to say out loud that we don't accept Rabbi Yosef as our rabbi. Chutzpah! It's rude. It's embarrassing in public. No, it's not chas v'shalom because he's not a holy man. No, chas v'shalom because he's not a talmid chacham. No, but because if we all accept him as our rabbi, that means Rav Ovadia is no longer needed, chas v'shalom, and Hashem will take him from us. So that's what they did. I'll be talking about yourself included. He did it himself also. No, I don't know. But unfortunately, we lost our merit anyway. We lost Rav Ovadia anyway shortly after. Same thing when Rav Steinman died recently. It's not that they have lived their life. Once you become a giant tzaddik, once you become a real mekubal, your life is no longer in your hands. I

1:37:13Hashem decides. You can live 90 years. You can live a hundred years. You can live 200 years. It doesn't make a difference. It's as long as the generation not only needs you but has the merit to have you. So when Ezra Sofer and Nechemia died, we realized that we have lost a huge amount of merits in Shamayim, huge. For that, we cry to this day. But that happened on a night. There was the intent for the attack on Yerushalayim. Now, there are three different fasts that are fasted for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash: the Tenth of Tevet, the 17th of Tammuz, and Tisha B'Av. Each one of them has different parts. This is the attack and Spice of the Tammuz when they broke the breach through it and unfortunately, Tisha B'Av is when they destroyed both Batei HaMikdash, the first one and the second one. So, one of the things that is mercy from Shamayim is that the Chachamim say, listen, the fact that all of these major, horrible, horrendous disasters have happened in a very, very short period of time—I mean, literally one day after another, the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth—okay, obviously we learn that

1:38:34This is a time where Hashem opens up the books and reviews. Where do you stand? Are you one of those people that are looking for leniencies? Looking for a new religion, looking for a spiritual shortcut? Maybe you think, "I'll go to some mekubal, give him 500 bucks or 5,000 bucks, and that way I don't have to do something that Hashem asked me to do. It's gonna override Hashem." Or... You're one of the few that's actually helping save the nation. Use that same 500 bucks to actually get people to do teshuva. Which one are you? So we see it, but as a mercy to the generation and a mercy to Am Yisrael, they said instead of mourning three days in a row, which in reality is what we should be doing, we should be mourning the 8th, 9th, and 10th. The Chachamim knew that we can't handle it, so they pretty much combined everything to one day. The whole entire fast is going to be on the 10th of Tevet, which is on Thursday. the awful things that happened on this day are for the same reasons as awful things happening today. It's people that are looking for shortcuts, people are looking for excuses. And if you look at the books, if you look at the sefarim, if you look at the Kenim, what was their job? What was written about them? What did they do?

1:40:01They went and rebuked the people. They went and rebuked the people for being intermarried. They went and rebuked the people for Michalel Shabbat. They went and rebuked the people for going against God, not just with small things, but with big things. Intermarriage didn't become a problem in our generation. Chilul Shabbat didn't become a problem in our generation. Fake Mekubalim didn't become a problem in this generation. This is already a 2,000-year-old problem. And the cure is the truth. It's the same cure that we had 2,000 years ago. We're mourning right now because we weren't able to accept the truth 2,000 years ago. The question is, are we going to be able to accept it now, or are we going to continue looking for shortcuts? Many people are excited when there is a Brit Milah in the Beit Knesset. Why? Because that way they could skip Tachanun. Skip Tachanun. Or they're excited if it's a Chag.

1:41:02If it's a holiday, so they can skip Tachanun. They don't have to do Tachanun. Somebody gets married, Sheva Brachot, Baruch Hashem, we skip Tachanun. There's a lot of people I love. Every day, I receive at least one or two text messages saying, "Oh, there's a Hilulah of some tzaddik that no one ever heard of, or maybe you heard of them, but in reality, you didn't know today was the day that he died." Why is everyone looking? Every big Nasee, zatzal, Nasi, Hilulah of this one, Hilulah of that one. It's remembering the memory of this tzaddik that died today. Why is everyone constantly looking for it? Because when it's a Hilulah, you don't say Tachanun. If you're celebrating the Hilulah, if you're celebrating the Brit Milah, if you're celebrating the Sheva Brachot, if you're celebrating all of these different things, that's a way for you to skip Tachanun. Sounds good. Sounds like fun. Chol HaMoed, the day before Yom Kippur, these are all different days that you don't say Tachanun based on the Chachamim. But we're looking for more days.

1:42:13It's not enough that we don't say Tachanun on Rosh Chodesh. It's not enough that we don't say it on Shabbat or on Chol HaMoed, on the Moed itself, Rosh Hashanah, and so on and so forth. But we look for Hilulot. We look for different ways. Why? Why do we keep looking for it? Because Tachanun takes maybe an extra ten minutes or five minutes in your morning prayer, depending on whether you're skimming through it or You're actually reading it correctly. It could take literally five seconds, or it could take ten minutes, depending on who you are. But what's the technical aspect? Really, the technical aspect says: "Please, Hashem, our God and God of our fathers, let our prayers come before You and do not disregard them, our King." We are not arrogant and we're not stiff-necked people to the point where we think that we have not sinned because in reality, we've sinned sins that were accidental, we've sinned sins that were on purpose, but just because of the yetzer hara, and we've sinned sins that we did dafka to make You mad. We've sinned, us and the members of our household.

1:43:41Then you have to go through. So we're not pretending to be anything else, and then you have to go through what kind of sins we've made. Hashem knows we've been guilty of a million and a half different things. Instead of blaming everybody else: "No, no, I'm not going to shul because the rabbi is bad. I'm not religious because my wife is this. I'm not this because..." You're always blaming somebody else. In reality, you're the one that's guilty. Some guy that doesn't want to come to my shiur, his family wants to move. His family wants to move and he says, "No, no, no, but I'm not going to wherever Rabbi Reuven is. I'm not going to wherever he is." Yeah, but it's good for your family. What do you care about me? There are 60,000 people in the community. "No, no, I'm not going wherever he is." He's blaming his religiosity on me. Why? Because one time I told him the truth. He didn't like it. I But God did not betray us. Who did we betray? Ourselves, our family, our friends, but most of all, we betrayed God. Gazelle, we robbed. Every single time you ate without doing a blessing, you stole from Hashem. The bottom line, lashon hara, we spoke slander and gossip. I don't need to explain that part, I don't think. The speech that comes out of our mouth that's not lashon hara sometimes, I have been...

1:45:04We've actually caused other people to sin, knowing that it's a sin. We actually made people sin just to make Hashem mad. We acted wantonly. We just decided to follow whatever we wanted. "Now I'm going to wear a sheitel. Why? My rabbi says it. Why? I don't know, but I'm going to do it. It looks good." I'm gonna do this. Why? I don't know. I like it. Do you have anything to hold on to? Do you have anything to stand on? You're gonna go to Shamayim. You're gonna see Hashem. You're gonna see Hashem. He'll tell you, "Why did you do it?" "I liked it." Okay, Gehenom section 6. Right over there. See where all the other people are? There. What are you gonna go with? ...It continues, going word after word of different levels of sins, different levels of sins. Now, one guy will finish off with this. One guy came to the Ramban, and he says to the Ramban, Nachmanides, he says, "Look at this. Technically, 900 years ago, obviously they were much more righteous than us." But he says to the Ramban, "Look at this techno. Look how many differences. I didn't make all these sins. I..."

1:46:20Robbing, stealing, this, that, and all of this. Ramban says if you actually knew what each one of them actually means, the root of each word, not only will you realize that you violated all of them, but you violated even more. And the fact that you're questioning, the fact that you even think that... That you're not guilty of everything here. That by itself is going to be a reason why they punish you in Shamayim. So you better do teshuva just for that alone. This is Ramban. You have a problem, go to him. He's in Gan Eden right now, waiting for your questions. Waiting for your questions. You see, Rabotai, there's no shortcut to Gan Eden. There's no shortcut to fulfilling the will of Hashem. You want to go to Mekubalim, they're in Gan Eden right now.

1:47:21You want instructions? Hashem has provided them. It's called the Torah. Stop looking for leniencies. Stop looking for shortcuts. Stop making your own rules. All of us have this sickness. I understand it's hard. I understand it's different. I understand. If it's hard for you, fine. But don't start making new rules. Say, okay, I'm not a winner right now. I'm losing here. I can't do this, this, and this. Fine. But it's true nonetheless. Listen, I can't do that. Whatever your hardship is. Someone that can't wear tzitzit because he feels hot. Okay, someone who can't keep Shabbat a hundred percent because it's hard for him because of this dissonance. Someone who can't watch his eyes because he's a gilgul of a maayan (fountain). He needs to look at anything that walks. He's a reincarnation of one of these maayanot (fountains). And... Used to go like this all the time. Whatever. He can't watch his eyes, miskin. Or someone that eats everything that's in front of him. He's like a pig. He's a pig. If it moves, it doesn't move, he eats it. It's hard for him. Fine, it's hard for you. God understands it's hard for you. It's still wrong. But He understands it's hard for you. You have to overcome it.

1:48:42until you overcome it, until you're able to keep Shabbat, until you're able to keep modesty, until you're able to do what you know, and I know, and the Torah knows is right. Don't ever say it's wrong. Don't ever say it's not for you. Don't ever say it's not right. Why? Because by saying that it's too much is kefirah. That's a different level of sin. Saying that modesty is not applicable to this generation, by saying that you're allowed to put a kippah around your head, by saying that you're allowed to drive today because Moshe Rabbeinu didn't have a car, by saying all of these different crazy things that people say to justify their sins, that by itself is an additional sin. The reason why is because you're calling Abba in Shamayim, you're calling Hashem Yitbarach a bad father and... Because every good father in the world, of flesh and blood, every normal father in the world, will never give his child something to do that he knows for sure he's going to fail. Anyone here who has children knows that they're not going to tell the kid, "Listen, pick up this 2,000-pound weight over your head and jump for me." You're not going to tell him that because you know he can't do it, and...

1:49:59You're not going to tell him to pick up 2,000 pounds over his head. You're not going to tell him to go pick up a plane with one finger. Why? Because you know he can't do it. So you're not going to give him the horrible feeling of failing when you know that's the only feeling he can get because he can't pass. Why? Because you love him and you love her. What makes you different? You're a better father than Hashem? You think that Hashem gave you a rule that you can't pass? You think that Hashem gave you something that you can't do? Why? He wants you to fail? It's too much for you like this kofer, whatever his name is, that I see this guy that I keep talking about all the time says. He has a whole lecture: It's too much for you. He has a book called Too Much for You. It's a book. You wrote a book. Well, he probably didn't want to spell, so he had other people write it. But the point is that you wrote a book. It's too much for you. It's too much for you. Judaism is too much for you. The title is Kefirah. The title of the book is Kefirah in Hashem. It's heresy in Hashem. What do you mean it's too much for you? It's hard, agreed. It's hard to overcome the Yetzer Hara. The Gemara says it. Hashem says it. That's the point.

1:51:18That's the point. That's why there's a reward. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. There would be no purpose for the world. Don't say it's hard—fine, but don't say it's impossible. Don't say it's too much for you. Don't say it's wrong. Don't make a new religion. Why? Because then you're calling Hashem evil. You're saying He's giving you something that you can't do. That's one of the things that each and every single one of us needs to take home. You need to take this home, give your mentality a little bit of a wash and dry session in your mind, and understand. Yes, it's understood. It's understandable that there are certain parts of your life that are more difficult than others. It's understandable that certain parts of the Torah are more difficult for you than maybe somebody else. But the way that you can find out what your tikkun is in this world, what your whole purpose is in this world, you don't need to read the kabbalistic books. You don't need them. You can if you'd like. You don't need to read the Zohar. You don't need to read mystical things. You don't need a lot of people asking me questions about what mystical book I suggest, what book tells me about life after death, what book tells me the secret of life, what book tells me what happened. You don't need any of those books.

1:52:43Read them Torah, but if you want the answer, the answer is very simple. If it's hard for you, that's the point. That's what you are here to do. Of course, you are supposed to do the entire Torah: to keep Shabbat, kosher, taharat hamishpacha, everything. But the one thing that's specifically hard for you, that's your tikkun. That's what you failed in your previous gilgul. If right now it's hard for you to keep Shabbat, if right now it's hard for you to keep kosher, if right now it's hard for you to be a good husband, if right now it's hard for you to have Shalom Bayit, if it's hard for you to be a proud Jew, you're like a Jew in hiding. It's like you're a Jew, you keep it, but no one knows. Only God knows. And you. No one else knows you're a proud Jew. Why? Because you're like, you know, kippah is only at home, tzitzit is only at home, tefillah is only at home, a Jew is only at home. Outside, you're a goy. Outside, you look like everybody else, but inside, you're, you know, a Jew. If it's hard for you, that's the point; that's why you came here. That's why Hashem went through the trouble—not that it's trouble for Him, it's trouble for you—of bringing you back to this world, giving you another opportunity to fix yourself. So instead of focusing on looking for spiritual shortcuts by going to these fake mekubalim, mekupolim, mekubalim, Maccabees, whatever you want to call these people...

1:54:07Fake Care Bear rabbis instead of going to them that are gonna give you a leniency and call you a tzaddik when in reality we all know you're a rasha. We all know according to Torah if you violate Shabbat, you're a rasha. If we don't know you according to Torah, you're going with a married woman who is not your wife, you're a rasha. You're going against the Torah, you're a rasha. It's not to insult you, it's a reality. If you're an adulterer, you're a rasha both in the secular world and the religious world. But the big problem is the religious world. Why? Because that's Hashem thinking you're a rasha. The point being, instead of going to some rabbi that's going to give you shortcuts, that only have a price tag on them, and tell you everything is okay, and instead of lying to yourself and creating your own religion in your own mind, and saying, "I disagree with you, rabbi," based on nothing, look at the Torah. Say, "Abba, I love you."

1:55:08I need you. It's hard for me. Help me. Help me, Abba. Help me. Help me. I need help. And you have opportunities every single day to ask Abba for help. Every day you have opportunities to ask Abba for help. There's a countless amount of opportunities. If you don't know them, that's why the Chachamim gave you tefillah. A man, you're obligated to pray three times a day. Every single time you pray, the Chachamim already gave you words to say that they knew sound good in Shamayim. Now, sometimes you pray so much that you get used to it and you forget that you're praying. You're praying, but you're thinking about the stock market. You're praying, but you're thinking about your kids. You're praying, but you're thinking about your husband. You're praying, but you're thinking about the employees being late. You're praying, but you're thinking about some girl you saw. You're praying, but you're thinking about everything but God. So you should know that when you pray, God is in front of you. Think about that for a second. Second, in the prayer...

1:56:20There are different spots within the prayer that you can and should add your own words. Not to replace what the Chachamim say, but to supplement it. To add certain parts within Amidah, certain parts within other parts of Tefillah, where you should add your own words. Three. If you're really smart and you want bracha, parnasa, refuah shlema, and all the good blessings in the world, you should do Birkat HaMazon as often as you possibly can. Meaning you should eat bread no less than twice a day, but at least once a day. Why? Because all the things that you could possibly want in life are in Birkat HaMazon. And the best part about it is that right before the last paragraph, right before we ask Hashem to save us in a time of Mashiach, that's the spot where you usually say the prayer if you're a guest in someone's house. Instead of saying the prayer of the guest, that's the spot where you can say a blessing in your own words. Hashem, give me this. Hashem, help me with this. There's a specific spot designated for you to ask for something.

1:57:30In reality, everything that you could possibly want was already mentioned, but if you have something you think is more unique for you, ask for it. That's the spot. That's the spot you ask for it every single day. Oh, Hashem. We try to make it a very important part to do that. Pray for our kids, pray for learning Torah, pray for the zechut (merit) of kiruv (outreach) for it to actually work. Pray for Hashem to put the right words in our mouths. You guys could actually do teshuva (repentance), myself too. things. Pray for that. Last but not least, you have a time to pray at any moment of the day. The Hasidim call it hitbodedut, but the rest of Am Yisrael just calls it simple prayer. Just pick a spot and just talk to Him: "Abba, it's hard for me. Help me." For me to keep this, it's hard for me to do this. It's hard for me. I know it's real, I know it's right. I know I have to do it, but it's hard for me. Help me. That's an honest person. That's a person who has Yirat Shamayim. That's a person that wants to fulfill the will of Hashem. And that's a person that will fulfill the will of Hashem. Why? Because at least they're being spiritually honest and not lazy and...

1:58:50But if you're going to continue looking for different leniencies, if you're going to continue looking for different mekubalim to give you a shortcut, if you're going to continue looking for different rabbis that have different opinions than the truth, then all you're doing is setting yourself up to be like one of those stories about dybbukim that receive special, interesting punishments because that's the only way they can deal with you. Trust me, you guys don't want the shiur about Gehenom, because even the part before Gehenom is scary enough, and... That's the part that people just simply don't understand. It's not my rules. It's not my Torah. I wish it was. I'd change it. I'd tell you guys, do whatever you want. What do I care? But the reality of it is that Hashem knows better. And He says we all have to do it. So do it. Stop making excuses. Simple. Questions? Why not do a shiur about Gehenom? Why not do a shiur about Gehenom? No, no, not even close. Not even close. You know, that's the thing. I say how I say what I say. I don't sugarcoat it, but I don't talk about details of what happens in Gehenom because, okay, so I'll give you an example, maybe next week, but...

2:00:14We'll see, let's see, I'll give you guys a taste. I'll give you guys a taste of what we're talking about here. It's not because of any other reason other than the fact that I don't want to break you. Let's say it's really, if it's going to be done the way, b'ezrat Hashem, that I try to do things, that it has to be done right. I could do a shiur about Gehenom now, tell you some things about it, and you'll just escape for the next six years and... But it's not going to be complete. And the reason why is because, no, no, I didn't say anything yet. Trust me when I tell you, I didn't say anything yet in comparison to what's out there. The reason why is because I know that the people that are naysayers, all these Care Bear rabbis, all these Care Bears in general, they say, "Oh, where is this written? What's this? What's that?" They can look for a million and a half different sources. "What's this? No, maybe this, maybe that." So if I do it, I'm gonna have to give you guys a million and a half different sources so that way you're not only gonna be scared, but you're gonna be confident that it's true and have a real reason to be scared.

2:01:17I'll give you guys, I'll give you an example. I always try to explain to people what it means, you know, because they've been asking me to do a shiur about Gehinnom for a long time. And... Yeah. No, it's not about buying the city. He has to give it to you. He doesn't sell it. And yes, he did it. And in Hebrew, there's a couple of them. Okay, here goes. Before getting home, before someone has, in essence, the merit, if you will, the merit to go to Gehinnom, if you can't hear this, you should leave. I'm only going to say this for five minutes and then I'm going to finish, and you guys can ask other questions. Because I'm going to do a shiur on Gehinnom, we'll do it properly. I'll give you guys an idea. I... Before someone has the merit to go to Gehinom, there's something called Kaf HaKela. Now, when a person dies, the pain just begins. A lot of people who are depressed and mentally unstable think that if they kill themselves, they are going to end their pain. But little do they know that their pain is just going to begin.

2:02:45They think they are going to end their pain, but little do they know that their pain is just going to begin. The pain begins at the gravesite. So, first off, when a person dies, there are a few special types of vicious angels that extend the size of the grave. The grave is made deeper so that you can stand in it. They put the neshama back inside the body. So it's no longer that person as you knew them; the neshama goes back inside the body. Then they start beating it and beating it and beating it non-stop until they separate the klipa from the neshama. What's the klipah? The klipah is your yetzer hara. The klipah is all the sins that you've made in your life.

2:03:47How long is the beating going to take place? How long? Depends on how many sins you've made. If you are righteous and you've spent your whole life learning Torah, fulfilling the will of Hashem, working on Yirat Shamayim, working on Mussar, perfecting your character traits, eliminating your anger, your stinginess, all the horrible, horrible things that have become part of everyone's nature. You've already encountered suffering in this world, which made your neshama very soft, which made the separation between your neshama and the klipah just require a small tap. Just require a small tap. If, on the other hand, you are like the vast majority of people, which in reality are far, far away from everything I just described... Then they can be beaten shamayim. In shamayim, it could be years—years, not hours, not minutes, years. One story in the Yalkut Yosef was about a person who was beaten in the grave for 12 years. We're not talking about Gehinnom. We're not talking about Kaf HaKela. We're just talking about the grave. The concept of time is not the same thing as time here.

2:05:05Yes, the time is the same as time, but Hashem could change time. So, for example, there was one neshamah that Rav Ovadia Yosef, zt"l, helped elevate. This neshamah was taken out of Kaf HaKela and brought to Gehinnom. Then after he was a gilgul. He was suffering horribly, suffering Kaf HaKela, suffering Gehinnom, but then he prayed for him and so on, and he took him, and eventually the Gehinnom sentence began after Kaf HaKela. He prayed for him, and he appeared to him through a different person or whatever, and he asked him a question, "How far is..." Gehenom from the courthouse that makes the bed that the bed Din that I explained to you guys earlier today. How far is the Gehenom from that courthouse and how far is that courthouse from here? And he says the courthouse is 40 years away, 40 light years away from Gehenom, and the courthouse is 40 years, 40 light years away from here. And...

2:06:22So Rabbi Yehuda Fattaya said that Hashem just minimized 160 years to a matter of moments. Why? Because this person was in Gehenom at that moment. They took him out of Gehenom because Rabbi Yehuda Fattaya prayed for him and wanted to see him, wanted to talk to him, to ask him certain things to see where he's at. And he had the merit apparently. And they took him out, but in essence, a normal journey would take 80 years back and forth. Hashem changed that time, in essence, minimized or condensed time to 160 years. So yes, time is the same, but it's different. So when I say someone suffered for 12 years, it's literally 12 years, but it's not necessarily 12 years like you think 12 years. So that's the first thing or second thing. the third thing is that people have a failure in understanding. This includes rabbis, this includes people that know Torah, and this definitely includes pretty much everyone that doesn't know Torah. This includes Jews, non-Jews, and so on. They think in human terms. People have been trying to humanize God since the beginning of time and

2:07:36That's where all the idols come from. That's where Christianity comes from. That's where all these bubbes come from. That's where India comes from. All that garbage comes from people trying to humanize God. That's the last thing you're supposed to do. The reason why is because when we think of punishment, we think in human terms. We think if somebody puts their hand inside a fire, they get burned. It's a certain amount of pain that your brain can understand and... You put your hand into fire. It'll get burnt. Worst-case scenario, you lose a finger or whatever was in it. It'll be puffy and burnt and so on and so forth, but we can understand. We could somewhat reason. That's not Gehinnom. That's not Kaf HaKela. That's not the punishment. That's human terms. Just like Hashem—may He have mercy on us. Not limited Himself, neither is His wrath, neither is His anger, if you will for lack of a better word. He doesn't actually have anger, but nonetheless, His anger is not limited, meaning the punishment is not something you can understand. It's too much for you to understand. So, some of the things that I could tell you about it are being told in human terms. They're told in human terms, and they sound horrendous regardless, but it still doesn't do it justice to what it really is. And

2:09:07For example, one of the spirits that came to Yehuda Levi was trying to help him, but apparently, he didn't have the merit to be helped. So, these two malachim (angels) tortured him non-stop. I'm sorry, four malachim tortured him non-stop. You know, the neshamah (soul) feels more pain than the body. So, it's in human terms, but it's spiritual. It's not a body sitting there. So, they came there and they started ripping his body apart into small little pieces. They started with his organs. Starting with his sex organs. Why? He didn't have the merit to be helped. Can you understand that? Can anyone understand that? Can anyone even reason something like this? Is anyone not going to have a nightmare thinking about this? This is not even getting home. Honestly, if you want to understand a small concept of Gehinnom, go look at abortion films. Look at what happens to the baby that they kill and they think it's okay. At this point, mothers visit Planned Parenthood and all these abortion clinics. No, no, they're killing a little baby. It's nothing. It's just a p'ulah. It's nothing. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. There's nothing in there. Just a piece of meat. It's not even a piece of meat. It's nothing. It's a hormone. It's nothing. It's gas. It's nothing. But in reality...

2:10:33it's 100% a human being. Small, but nonetheless 100% a human being. After 40 days, it's 100% a living human being. Arms, legs, ears, eyes, brain, everything. Just small. And if you see what they actually do to him, they even do it after six months in some cases. It's a fully grown baby, but how do they take him out? They cut him into pieces. They can't take him out normally because that would be birth. And the mom would see it. So what do they do? They take, b'ezrat Hashem, these knives and clamps, and they crush the baby into tiny little pieces like you do when you eat a steak. And they take all of these pieces out after they crush them. And then you can see videos of what it looks like. Now, why do I tell you this? Do I want to make every girl, every woman here cry? Or do I want every man here to realize what happens in the world today? What am I doing this for? This is the best-case scenario in Gehinom. Best-case scenario. You want to be mechalel Shabbat? You'll have a price to pay. You want to go with a woman that's not yours? You'll have a price to pay.

2:11:53You want to do things against God? You want to decide that you're going to listen to some local rabbi because his wife wears a wig and they drive on Shabbat? If that is what you want to do, go do what you have to do. You have a price to pay. This is the best-case scenario. You guys really want to know about this stuff? Show of hands, how many people really want to know more? Two, three, God bless you guys. It's not a matter of right or wrong with truth. It's a matter of, if I tell you more information, you're eventually going to get to the point where you throw up. It's not a matter of being mentally strong; it just means you're mentally numb. It just means we're numb. We're numb. We don't even understand. We don't understand the pain. That's what Rav Yisroel Salanter says, that when you give people strong mussar, sometimes you see that certain people... They take it, they're able to listen to everything, but as far as changes, they take a little more time. They don't necessarily change right away, but they're able to listen to everything. Because what's the explanation? It says that certain people have become numb. Numb, they don't actually completely comprehend what it means. And this is not an offense to any particular person. We're all at that stage. We're all at that point at some point. So I can tell you myself, when I first learned about what Gehinnom is some years ago, I

2:13:17it's not the same as me learning about it again today. It's the same shiur. It's the same information, but it means something different today than it did several years ago. The neshama that you have today is not necessarily going to be the same if you continue learning Torah. It's not going to be the same developed neshama you will have in five years from now. So if you're able to handle certain things right now, that's as much as your neshama can handle, and but as far as the full truth, nothing changes. It's just that later on, you read the same information, and it will affect you differently. So it's not a matter of power—who can handle it and who can't handle it—that wasn't really the question. The question is understanding what we're dealing with here. And again, there's hard stuff that needs to be said. I spoke to my Rav about it, and he's not really against it; it's just that it wasn't time for years, and but for we're running out of time. Running out of time. The enemy, unfortunately, is growing. The Christian world, the missionary world, the fake Jewish world, fake people in general—unfortunately, they're winning. They're growing, they're getting bigger and stronger, and

2:14:46the ones that we call religious, the ones that we call our brothers and sisters, are progressing, but nowhere near as fast as the rest. So, since the shiur about Gehinnom hasn't been done yet, I think it is time for us to do it. So, I already agreed to do it. As far as timing is concerned, I don't want to open a petach l'Satan. I don't know when it's gonna be, and Maybe next week, maybe next month. I'm not really sure yet. But again, this information that I just gave you now, it's 2%. It's 3%. It's nothing. It's nothing. So understand that you're going to come to that shiur. Come. You should hear it. All of you should hear it. Everyone should hear it. Understand what we're dealing with here. The only reason I say this is for the same reason why the Chafetz Chaim wrote his book. Why was the Shulchan Aruch written? Why was the Gemara written? Why was the Torah written? All of this was written because, in order for you to stop sinning, you need to understand what it costs. Some people don't get a simple lecture. You could tell them a lecture. I have a guy who's been listening to my lectures for three, four years, and he still doesn't keep Shabbat—nothing.

2:16:04Loves the lecture. He thinks it's great. He loves it. Oh wow, amazing. I love it. Wow, great. I'll get all the compliments in the world. This doesn't keep anything. Well, he's not getting it. He's not getting it. You know, he doesn't listen to it on a regular basis, but nonetheless, he listens to it. Every time he listens, he sends me a message. Oh, wow, great, good for you, wow, entertaining, like you think it's like a talk show host. You know, so the thing is, though, is that we need to know, we need to know the price. Well, we've been in exile for 2,000 years. Well, we've been in exile for 2,000 years. I understand that, but why is this happening? Why, what's happening? Why is the world as far from where the truth is? Because we're going against God. I mean, it's our free will. If we didn't have free will, then there would be no purpose for the world. So as far as the reason why we mourn on Tisha B'Av, on Shivah Asar B'Tammuz, on Asarah B'Tevet...

2:17:31I understand that, but why is this happening? Why, what's happening? Why is the world as far from where the truth is? Because we're going against God. I mean, it's our free will. If we didn't have free will, then there would be no purpose for the world. So as far as the reason why we mourn on Tisha B'Av, on Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, on Asarah B'Tevet, for the Beit HaMikdash and you know, it's simply because when the Beit HaMikdash existed, there was no need to look for miracles. Miracles were in front of you 24 hours a day. There was no need to determine whether Hashem runs the world or not; you literally saw it. You saw Hashem performing things that were above and beyond the nature of what we think is nature. So Unfortunately, today, we don't really have an understanding of what we lost. So, most people, when we tell them, "You have to fast on Thursday," or "You have to fast on Tisha B'Av," immediately, they're thinking about their stomach. Immediately, they're thinking about how hard it's going to be for them to not eat and not drink. They're not thinking about the Beit HaMikdash. I can't believe it. They're not suffering for the Beit HaMikdash. I would, I would, I would really...

2:18:54Venture out to say that there are very, very few souls remaining in the world that actually suffer from the loss of the Beit HaMikdash. forbidden me gosh at any moment. Forget about just Tisha B'Av in general. Very, very, very few actually understand the magnitude of what we lost. What people are concerned about is food. So, like Rav Nissim Yagen, a"h, used to say, you know, Tisha B'Av and all of these fasts remind him of the old homes, the old people's homes, where people walk around with their flip-flops asking, "When's the food?" That's all people are worried about on Tisha B'Av. That's all people are worried about on the Tenth of Tevet. When's the food? When's the fast gonna be over? So the fact that we are where we are today, that we're only worrying about food, we're only worried about when is the prayer gonna be shorter, we're only worried about how good we look in front of everyone else in the world, whether they're Jews or non-Jews, and not necessarily caring about how good we look in front of Hashem, is simply the outcome of our own actions.

2:19:58Our own actions, being that we study less Torah, follow less Torah, and do less of what Hashem wants us to do, therefore distance ourselves from Him. So it's just like, simply, what is it like? A couple. You have a couple, you have a husband and wife. In the beginning, the husband is excited about the wife, the wife is excited about the husband. Everything is fantastic. After a little while, they have a kid. Sometimes, if they're not working on the marriage like it's a full-time thing, there's a little less excitement. Why? The excitement was transferred from husband and wife to the kid. Then you fast forward a little more, maybe there's another kid, and now the little bit of excitement that was in the marriage is now transferred, whatever was left, into another kid. And And it gets to a point where, unfortunately, sometimes the wife becomes like a baby oven. The husband cares less for anything else other than just her making babies, her cleaning the house, and her making food, and pretty much, in essence, just being there. And the wife just makes sure that the husband is the bank. As long as he brings money in, she doesn't really care what he looks like, she doesn't care what he acts like, she doesn't care what he does. In essence, it becomes more of a roommate type of relationship.

2:21:15This is not because they never loved each other; it could very well be that they did. But in reality, it's most likely not at some point that they did care for each other. What happened? Why did the marriage deteriorate to a colleague-type relationship, a roommate? Why? Because they stopped caring about what each person wants and Instead of what each person wants, they start caring about what they want themselves. If you want to have a good relationship, you have to remove yourself from the relationship. Rule number one of a successful relationship is: stop saying "I." No more "I." There's no more "I" in a relationship. There's no "I" in teams. There's no "I." There's no "I want this." There's no "I want this." There's no "What am I going to eat?" There's no "When am I going to do this?" There's no "I." The first thing in a relationship is to understand that you need to transfer all of your desires for happiness to the other person. Why? Because making them happy, if you truly care about them and you want to have a good relationship, making them happy should, by itself, make you happy.

2:22:35Default, it should make you happy. If making them happy does not make you happy, you are with the wrong person. So once you actually care only about making the other person happy, if the other person is a normal person, they'll do the same. If you remove "I" from your vocabulary, they'll remove "I" from their vocabulary. All they'll want is to make you happy and... If all they want is to make you happy and all you want is to make them happy, then you have a happy marriage. It doesn't matter if you have kids, don't have kids, if you're old, young, and so on. So that means that every single day you're looking for reasons, you're literally looking for reasons to do what they want. Oh, wow, you know, she likes flowers. I'm going to buy her a flower. Yeah, but it's not Friday. It's not Shabbat. It doesn't matter. She likes flowers. It's Monday. She likes flowers. I'm in front of a flower place. I want to buy her a flower. Ah, you know what? She likes granola bars. I want to go buy her a granola bar. Yeah, but it's going to take me five minutes. Oh, but it's this, but it's that. Yeah, but she likes it. She's going to be happy for five seconds because I bought her a granola bar. She's going to be happy for five seconds because I got her a coffee. She's going to be happy for five seconds because I called her. She's going to be happy for five seconds because I thought about her and I texted her and sent her a funny picture. You're constantly looking for reasons to make her happy, not because you're going to get something in return—that's business.

2:23:55Because you're happy, the business transaction is she's happy. That's the best change you can get. So, once you get to that type of mindset, you should get rewarded in two ways: number one, you get the happiness from her, and number two, she'll want to do the same thing for you or vice versa. So, in essence, you're looking for things to make the relationship happy, and nothing can come in the way—not kids, not money, not anything. If she knows that being close to Hashem makes you happy, she'll want to be close to Hashem simply because it makes you happy—not necessarily because she likes Hashem. She'll eventually like Hashem because she'll see the reward from it. But nonetheless, she'll do it for you if it's a healthy relationship. If she's not doing it for you, there's something wrong with the relationship with you, not with Hashem, because she doesn't understand what Hashem is. The same concept applies with the man if you. Treating the husband in a way where he's happy, he'll do whatever he can to make you happy. If he's not worrying about making you happy, that's because, in reality, he's not happy with you. A man that's happy with a woman will do anything—anything—to make her happy. A man that's not happy with a woman will do nothing. He could tell you, "I'm fine, I'm fine," because men are like, you know, elephants—just barely move. "I'm fine, I'm fine." They look for comfort.

2:25:19Look to sit somewhere on a couch and do nothing. In reality, a man that's happy will do anything—anything. The problem is most people don't know what happiness is because they have never felt it. So that's the thing in regards to relationships, even more so with Hashem. As a nation, we stopped caring about the relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. We started caring about what we get for it. If I keep Shabbat, am I gonna get money? If I keep Taharat HaMishpacha, am I going to get money? If I do this, am I going to get money? Money, money, money—it's all we want. Hashem, give me money, and then I'll be more religious. We get money, we become atheists. The biggest, biggest kofrim in the world are rich. We get money, we forget about God who gave it to us. So the reality is the world we're... Changed our relationship. We think that the reward is in this world and we ask for some to do business with us. I'll do this, but give me this. I'll do this, but give me this. I'll get it. You know, if you give me a job, I'll, you know, be religious. If you give me this, I'll do this. We try to negotiate with Hashem.

2:26:36Aside from the fact that it's stupid, when you really understand the significance of it, it's just the wrong way of going about life. And the reason why is because if you have that type of relationship with Hashem, and unfortunately many rabbis advocate this type of relationship where if you do something, Hashem will reward you for it in this world. Yeah, if you give tzedakah, Hashem will give you ten times more. If you donate to my cause, Hashem will give you a hundred times more. If you do this, Hashem will do this for you. The reality is that this is a system that's bound to fail. And the reason why is because Hashem eventually says, "You know what? Let's see what happens if I don't do it. Do you still love Me? I didn't do it. You gave tzedakah, and I took the money away. Not only did you not get rewarded, I actually made you lose money." You're still gonna get tested again. Do you still love Me? Did you give tzedakah because it's a mitzvah that Hashem commanded? Did you give tzedakah because you want to publicize Torah? Did you give tzedakah because you want to publicize Am Yisrael becoming Jewish and not just Jews wandering in the world not even knowing that they're Jewish? Are you advocating for the IDF because you want to show that we have weapons, or are you advocating for Torah to show that we actually have a weapon? What are you doing?

2:27:53That's the thing. So if someone gives tzedakah where they're looking for a reward, eventually they're gonna get a test. And this is not me wishing bad on anyone. This is just a reality. This is what the Torah says. Eventually, Hashem says, "I'm not gonna give. Do you still love Me? You still love Me. I didn't give it to you. I didn't give you a reward. I'll give it to you later, but you don't believe. In fact, I punished you for it. I made it look like a punishment." But you gave half a million dollars in tzedakah thinking that next you're gonna get five million. Not only did you not get the five million, you actually lost five million. Do you still love Me? I'm still God. Are you still gonna go pray? Are you still gonna go to minyan? Are you still gonna keep Shabbat? You're not gonna become kofer because I'm gonna give it to you eventually. That's the thing. So once we... Understand that all of the mitzvot, number one, we have to do them because Hashem said so - that's Yirat Shamayim. Second of all, if you want to have a good, successful relationship with Hashem, you have to worry about what He wants from you for the sake of the relationship itself, and ultimately get to a point of loving Hashem and exercising that love. Why Am Yisrael is not at that point is the very same reason why Mashiach hasn't come. Mashiach hasn't come because if he comes right now, this will be a bloodbath and...

2:29:14Don't know what percentage it is, but it's a large percentage, unfortunately. Unfortunately, it's a large percentage. It's like water everywhere; forget the paper towel. So, the key is to understand that we have a mission. We have to work on ourselves. We have to help on the side. So, did you get that? Thank you. Any other questions? I hope people don't get more scared. God bless you. You're the only one that's advocating for getting scared. I think I scared you guys enough. Okay, good.

2:30:23Right. Well, the difference is that the Mashiach, the story of the Mashiach, is the story of the Mashiach as it is because one of the promises that Hashem made is that once the Mashiach comes... He's going to slaughter the Satan. He's going to slaughter the Malach HaMavet. He's going to slaughter the Yetzer Hara. So the number one thing that the Yetzer Hara does not want is for the Mashiach to come. Because that's his funeral, if you will. So one of the jobs of the Satan himself, not even his servants, and not even his soldiers, and so on, is to get in the way of the Mashiach. To get in the way. So this is in essence a... thing that's very logical. So, in essence, every single time something that's relevant to the Mashiach happens, Hashem makes it happen in an unusual way in order to hide it from him, in order to not give him the opportunity to get in the way. So, for example, in the ma'aseh of Tamar and Yehuda that we learned a couple of weeks ago, the Satan thought exactly like what you said, and...

2:31:50You know impure comes from impure and pure comes from pure, so when he saw that Yehuda was being influenced by Hashem to go with a prostitute and Tamar was pretending to be a prostitute, he didn't know necessarily that they were going to be together. ...said nothing good could come out of what's going on over here because she's making a sin. He's making a sin. Hashem is not happy. I don't need to bother with this. Let me go bust the brothers' chops, the other 11 that are making mitzvot, fulfilling Hashem's will. Let me go mess with them. Let me get them to do something foolish. So that in essence gave that activity a moment... moment of opportunity where they were able to cohabit and, in essence, bring the two sons, one of whom ends up being the seed of Mashiach. If you go actually before that, Lot and his two daughters—again, the Satan saw that Lot wasn't exactly the most righteous man in the world, and him being in a cave with his two daughters didn't exactly look like anything good was going to come out of it, and

2:33:14He didn't bother getting in the way of anything if he knew that if they cohabit, Mashiach is gonna come out of it. So, Moav is gonna come out of it. David HaMelech is gonna come out of it. He would have stopped it. He would have appeared as something, saying, "Oh, come on. It's your daughter-in-law, Lo, let me take..." All of a sudden, he's righteous. Come on. You're going to be with your daughter-in-law. Let me wake him up. Well, you're drunk. You shouldn't drink. It's bad for you. Go smoke marijuana instead. I don't know. It's not something. So the point is that he would have gotten in the way. So logically, it didn't make sense. But that's exactly the reason why Hashem used it. Same thing with David and Batsheva. The way that the relationship looked initially, it didn't look like it was appropriate even though it was one hundred percent legal according to the Torah. And the Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat that anyone who says that David HaMelech sinned is wrong. He did not sin, but nonetheless, it looked like a sin. It appeared like a sin, and that's the reason why the Satan didn't bother getting in the way. So in essence, Hashem—this is just a few reasons that the Chachamim explained to us, the Gemara explains to us, and so on.

2:34:23Why Hashem does what He does, of course, there's an infinite number of reasons. This is just a taste that we know of, or at least that I know of. So, in essence, the root or the journey of the Mashiach has to be an unusual journey simply because someone is specifically getting in the way. whereas in other cases, for example, like the issue of Shabtai Tzvi or Elisha Acher, and so on and so forth, where, you know, they had souls that had issues. Like Elisha Acher, for example, the Gemara says how could it be that someone who learned so much Torah eventually went so bad that he became a heretic? You know, he murdered, he did this, he did that, he did a lot of bad things. How could it be? So the Gemara explains that initially, when he had his Brit Milah, his father, who was very rich and also knew some Torah, invited all the Chachamim.

2:35:38And a few of the big Chachamim, I think it was Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Yehuda, maybe it was others, but anyway, a couple of the Chachamim came to his home, and they started learning Torah, and they were the Gedolei HaDor, they were very, very holy, and when they started studying Torah, they literally started creating a spiritual fire around them. So the father saw this, he goes, whoa, you're burning my house? He goes, no, no, no, don't worry, it's spiritual fire, it's not burning anything, this is the fire of Torah. So the father said, "Oh, if this is what Torah does, I now have decided that I'm going to dedicate my son to learn Torah his whole life." So the Chachamim say this was a bad move, and the reason why is because he didn't dedicate Elisha, his son, to Torah because Hashem said so. Torah because Hashem said so. He didn't dedicate Elisha because it was good for Elisha; he dedicated Elisha to Torah because he wanted to get kavod out of it. He wanted to get honor out of it. He wanted him to make fire, to become a circus scene.

2:36:48Look, my son's attendee can study so well that he's creating a spiritual fire. So it came from a bad place, so in essence, his neshamah had a blemish, had some type of, you know, a little bit of rust in it now. Even though Hashem Puts every, you know, everyone has their own tests. Everyone has their own tests. Sometimes the test comes because the child is made out of an impure cohabitation. Sometimes a child is a mamzer. Sometimes a child comes because of, you know, bad parenting and so on and so forth. So then the neshamah that Hashem gives them is a neshamah that has some type of issue with it and Sometimes, literally, the neshama is a bad neshama, an evil neshama. It's literally an evil neshama. That does not mean that Hashem removes their free choice. No, the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains that if Hashem creates, to the most extreme example, literally brings an evil neshama, a bad neshama that has horrible traits, an Esav...

2:38:02Passed by the place of avodah zarah, wanted to go past the synagogue, didn't want to go, wanted to run away. So why do you say he removes his free choice? No, absolutely not. The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains that these evil neshamot, just like they have the inclination to do evil, they have at least just as strong an inclination to do good. So he gave them an inclination to be an idol worshiper, to be a pope. But he also gave him the same power to be the Gadol HaDor in Torah. So there was actually a famous story: somebody came to Rav Nissim again, and he said to him, "Listen, me and my friend, we both went to the same yeshiva. Me and my friend, we both learned from the same rabbi. Me and my friend, we learned Torah, ta-ta-ta, every day, ta-ta-ta, everything is good." We both had children. Both wives are kosher. Both wives are religious. Both wives are good. Kids. He had a kid. I had a kid. Both kids went to the same yeshiva. Both kids had the same rabbi. Both kids learned Torah. Everything is good. His son became a rabbi. My son became a kofer (heretic).

2:39:32How do you explain this for the love? He says, I don't know your son or you to explain what happened, but I could tell you why it could happen. His son saw his father every day wake up in the morning at four o'clock to go to tefillah, excited to go pray to Hashem. And then after he prayed to Hashem, he was excited to go learn some Torah. And then after he learned Torah, he was excited to fulfill the will of Hashem in one way or another, even during his business, his life, and his marriage, and during everything. When you whisper Torah in his ear, like Rav Aharon Kotler, when you would whisper "Torah"—just the word "Torah"—in his ear, even in the hospital bed, you would see his face change. So you whisper Torah in his ear; he gets happy. Unfortunately, sometimes people have a different attitude. You wake up in the morning and they go to the Beit Knesset because they have to. They go learn Torah; they learn, but they don't really feel like it because they have to. They do mitzvot because they have to. They build a sukkah and...

2:40:59They have to; they can't wait until Sukkot is over so they can go back to their house— that type of mentality. The other guy can't wait for the Sukkah so he can stay there, and he wants Sukkot to be extended. He says that's the difference. So one guy is excited about Torah, so his son sees that I have this Torah. Now I inherited this Torah that my father's so excited about. I'm excited about it; he's excited, I'm excited. He wants it, I want it. I want to replicate Abba. So the son's excited about Hashem. The other son, he says, my Abba, he only studies Torah; he only fulfills the Torah because he has to. I don't have to. I'm a new generation. I can do whatever I want. You keep your own dreams, Abba. I'm going somewhere else. And he says, that's why it happens sometimes. And as he's telling the story, the guy whose son turned to a priest starts crying. He says, that's exactly me. I'm the one that always did it just because I had to. I never knew that was a problem.

2:42:15Judaism is not something that you do simply because you have to; you have to do it because you have to. But you shouldn't stay that way. You have to work on eventually wanting to do it. That's why learning Torah is something that you have to do on a daily basis. If you're fulfilling the will of Hashem, you're going to make nes and you're learning and you're doing all different things simply because you have to, eventually you're going to break. Eventually, you're going to break. If you're doing it just because you want to show other people that you're doing it and they're not doing it, eventually you're going to break. If you're doing Torah for the wrong reason, eventually you're going to break. You have to do Torah because you're working on the relationship you have between you and Hashem. So that's the most important thing. Listen, I think that the issue of reward and punishment is important for all of us to know. The details of the punishment... Also important to know at least once in your life. At least once in your life. That's what my brother and I decided—that we have to do this shiur because it's simply not available in English. It's simply not available in English. So at the very least, once in our life, we have to do this shiur. It's not an easy shiur to do, trust me. It's probably hard for you guys to listen to some of this stuff. It's even harder, or at least as hard, for me to say it.

2:43:39So, at one point in our life, we need to know it simply because this is the type of stuff that gives us a little bit of a reality check when it shows up. But again, if this type of shiur, some of the stuff that we said today, doesn't cause you to go home and second-guess yourself, you should be very worried. You should be very worried that you're spiritually numb. If you're not going home today and trying to figure out how to fix yourself—how to fix your Torah learning schedule, how to fix your marriage, how to fix your relationship with your kids, how to fix your neshama, how to fix something—if you're not going home tonight, tonight, tonight, and thinking about how to fix, how to do teshuva, I don't care where you are. Me, myself, I'm going home and trying to figure out how I'm going to do teshuva. After basically a little bit, I told a little paragraph that I told you about what happens there. If you're not, that just means you're numb. You should be worried. You should be worried because the numbness comes before complete spiritual death. So, Baruch Hashem, we're still alive. So, the key for these shiurim is not to entertain you. I'm not an entertainer. I'm not looking for fans. Like some people say, "Oh yeah, you know, I got offended by what you said."

2:45:04What did I say? Oh, you said that if you wear colorful kippot, it's not, you know, I'm not religious. I said, I didn't say that, first of all. And second of all, you being offended by what I said, it depends. If I said it's my opinion, sure, I'm sorry. But if it's not my opinion, I don't really care if you're offended. You're offended by Hashem. I'm not looking for fans. I'm not looking for fans. You want to learn Torah? B'ezrat Hashem we learn together. You want to be fans? Go. There's plenty of other people who can be looking for fans. So, this is the type of shiur that needs to help you get to teshuvah. Tonight's shiur, B'ezrat Hashem, tomorrow's shiur, also around here. And anyone that wants to come should always be told to know me. And next week, most likely, is going to be the day that we do the shiur. Be ready. Take notes. And don't eat too much before you come to the shiur. About earlier with people that are trying to look for shortcuts, and they are saying that's not really for them, and they're trying to look forward to not do stuff. So they said these people are like one of the people that Hashem hates, and even when they're trying to do Teshuvah, Hashem will prevent them and not accept the Teshuvah. Is it like in this world, or is it like they have to die before they can have a chance to really do a real Teshuvah, or they have to really suffer before it's accepted before Hashem?

2:46:35No, as far as someone that's looking for excuses and, in essence, thinks that they're okay and they don't need to do teshuvah, then that angers Hashem a lot. And as far as, it depends on what level of excuses they have. One of the prophecies in the book of Yechezkel is that Hashem is going to force everyone to do teshuvah at some point or another. even if it requires for Him to break them. What does "break them" mean? Just use your imagination. So some people do teshuvah through shiurim. Some people do teshuvah because they broke a foot. Some people do teshuvah because they lost some money. Some people do teshuvah because they got AIDS or they got cancer or they have some disease that no one knows how to explain, and now they're in pain 24 hours a day. Depends. Which one do you want? Same price. Same price. So that's the thing that people need to understand. Messing with God is not like messing with your boss. It's not like messing with your boss. So as far as people that mess with Hashem, it depends. It depends. The Rambam says that the worst possible punishment that a person can get in this world is that Hashem literally gives up on him. Meaning that Hashem does not allow him to do teshuvah.

2:48:04What does it mean? Why don't you just kill him? I'll just kill him, put him in Gehinnom. No. Let him live even longer so he can make more sins, so the punishment will be even worse. To that extent. So, like I said before, Hashem's wrath is not like man's wrath. It's not limited. He's not, you know, your buddy. He's not your boy. He's not your local Chabad rabbi. He's not any of that. And anyone that thinks otherwise, aside from the fact that they're a kafar, they're an idiot for thinking that. Simply. Don't excuse my language. For thinking that Hashem is anything but Hashem, you're an idiot. Thinking that He's your friend, He's your buddy, He's your whatever. You have no concept of what you're dealing with. Yes, He loves you. No questions asked. He loves you more than you love yourself. But He will punish you if you do something wrong. There's not a simple thing that will be forgiven for, unless you do teshuva for it. The Gemara says, anyone that says that Hashem is just going to let go of things will get an additional punishment just for that foolishness. For that thought that they think, "I'll get away with this." That's an additional punishment for treating Hashem like He's one of your friends from the bar.

2:49:28so if you don't have fear in you, if you're not scared of what's gonna happen, then you have to check your pulse. You have to check your pulse, you know. So, it's not a simple thing. And again, you want sources? I have books and books and books of sources. I think I mentioned a few today. Why no one else talks about it in the English language, I have no idea. I can't speak for them. All I know is that we have to do it. We had a lot of problems doing shiurim like this. We had a lot of problems. When we did a shiur about wasting seed, literally the Satan himself showed up to the shiur. We had to use six cameras. So I don't know, whatever's going to happen between now and next week, or whenever I decide to do this shiur, b'ezrat Hashem, Hashem has mercy on us, and allows us to do this shiur. But that's a shiur that if, b'ezrat Hashem, whenever we do it, I'm not going to wait. I'm just going to start this shiur, and whoever's here is here, whoever's not here is not here, no questions asked. I'm just going to go through this shiur, b'ezrat Hashem, try to finish it as soon as possible. Again, some of the stuff I'm telling you, you understand, some of the stuff you don't understand. The point I'm trying to make to you is that...

2:50:42You have more than enough reasons to do teshuva. The shiur is to keep us there. Keep us there. So hopefully this will give you guys a little bit of food for thought. May Hashem have mercy on all of us and open our hearts that are made of stone and turn them into flesh. Help us do teshuva before Mashiach Tzidkeinu arrives. Baruch Adonai Le'olam. Amen ve'Amen.