Newest Religion, UNGRATEFUL, Barren Women, PLASTIC SURGERY, Heaven For Wicked -STUMPTHE RABBI (77)

0:16In the name of God, we will do and succeed. May the Torah be blessed. We are back. We haven't seen you in a little while, but we're doing our "Stump the Rabbis" session. You guys have gathered some good questions over the last week since we've seen each other, and we'll have the siesta to answer the questions as we have in the past. So, tonight you will be for a ... We are back. We haven't seen you in a little while, but we're doing our shiur "Stump the Rabbis" session. You guys have gathered some good questions over the last week since we've seen each other, and we'll have the si'udah to answer the questions as we have in the past. So, tonight you will be for a... And also for David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah, Rabbanit Levana Bat Sara, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, Rav Efraim Ben Shulamit, Orit Bat Ilana, Michal Bat Yael, Talia Bat Sara, Yitro Ben Avraham, Stefan Ben Katerina, Yonatan Ben Sherri Haley,

1:34And also for Marsha Bat Julie and her dear daughter. I love Marsha, Shaul Ben Farzaneh, Yitro Ben Avraham, Oshri Ben Doris, Gabi Ben Doris, Elad Ben Doris, and David Ben Esria. And all of Am Yisrael, especially the ones that are helping us, all of the righteous Noahides that are helping us do all the things that we're trying to do. So just a brief update before we start. We are moving along. with the new space, the location is 8715 Sterling Road in Cooper City, Florida. We're working on it. We need to get some stuff. As I said in the past, initially, we're going to start off it being a lecture center for us to do our shiurim. shortly after, we'll convert it also into a learning, a Beit Midrash, a Beit Mussar. And then, at some point over the next six months to a year, we'll also start doing the daily prayers there and have it as the community's synagogue. Of course, for all of this, we'll need continuous assistance and help from our dear friends.

2:51that have helped us. This is a very big investment. And like I said, you know, the people that are paying attention and care about Am Yisrael, care about the work that we're doing for the sake of Am Yisrael are helping as best as they can. And we have a campaign that we started uh, just a week or two ago, which is the yeshiva campaign. If anyone wants to see the new website for the yeshiva, which is much more than just what we're doing now, right now we're starting a Beit Midrash, which again is going to be for learning and for, um, eventually a synagogue. But the yeshiva is going to be all of that and much more, also a school. for everyone from birth all the way to olam haba. And that's a much bigger project. We'll need to buy some land. We'll need to build. And we're trying to raise about $4.5 million. We may end up even needing more. But the point being is that everybody can take a share in the zechut of all the things that we're doing by simply partnering to the best of their ability.

4:03as far as the merits that a person gets by investing with B'ezrat Hashem are concerned, you'll have a partner, a proportional partner, relatively speaking, to what we do and the results we achieve. I think that anyone who's been following our work for the last six or seven years sees that, Baruch Hashem, there's an enormous amount of ba'alei teshuvah, converts, and people getting chizuk, all over the internet, all over the world, in person, and online, and so on and so forth. So, a person who wants to invest in it for us to do even more, please do so and try to do as much as you can, even if you can't simply because the only thing that we're left with from this world are the mitzvot that we have. So, with that being said, you have a couple of days. For anyone that cares about tax benefits, you know donating is a good idea, and almost 30% of all donations are typically made during this Gregorian calendar month of December, which ends tomorrow night. So, anyone that wants to have the tax benefits for this particular year, obviously try to do whatever you can within the next 24 hours.

5:27Now, as far as sending checks, even if you send a check today or you've sent a check already in the last couple of days, unless we deposit it no later than tomorrow—and even tomorrow is kind of cutting it close—it won't count for this year. So anyone that, you know, wants to make a donation for this year, I would highly recommend doing it via our website or via the Facebook page. So, see here, you have a donate button on the bottom. This way, it's calculated for this particular year. You know, we've had it in the past where people sent a check, and by the time we got it and it was deposited and the banks recorded it, it was already the new year. And, you know, again, there's only so much we can do. So, anyway, that's enough about money. Let's talk more about Torah, much more important things. And, even though the Torah says, you know, without sustenance, there's no Torah, there's no mind, and of course, the money is needed, but nonetheless...

6:31Torah, Baruch Hashem, provides everything at some point or another when we need it. So the world today is confused, no different than it was a week ago, perhaps maybe a little bit more. I think that the confusion grows, in my opinion, on a weekly basis, simply because people are not connecting to the Torah, but rather are connecting more to the news. you have a vaccine that or several vaccines that have been released or are being released that perhaps are causing no less confusion than we've had in the last year combined, where many people are simply, you know, just losing their minds, you know, they're losing their minds and Should I take it? Should I not take it? And we've spoken about this briefly, I think, about a week ago. I told you, we listen to the Gedolei HaDor. So to save you the time, as far as, you know, people ask me all the time, should we take the vaccine? Should we not take the vaccine? The answer is simply this. If it's an obligation, if it's an obligation to take the vaccine where you live, then your case has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

7:55with your rabbi and, you know, it all depends on what the ramifications are of whether you do or don't take the vaccine. To my knowledge, it's not an obligation anywhere in the world. I may be mistaken; I don't follow the news very closely or at all. Most of the news I get is what people tell me happened somewhere. But the point being is that if it's not an obligation and then you don't have a need to take this vaccine. You can take it if you want, but you don't have an obligation to take this vaccine. Simply because the Gedolim, Rav Kanievsky, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, and Rav Mazuz, and many others, have discussed this. Some have said take the vaccine, some have said no, some have said that the ones that said yes were really under pressure. There's a lot of conspiracy, a lot of craziness going on, The bottom line is, if it's not an obligation, then our chachamim, our sages, are not going to get the same level of siyata dishmaya as they are going to get once it becomes an obligation, if it becomes an obligation. Now, with that being said, whether it's an obligation or not where you are, or whether it will be or not, because I know that in Israel, little Bibi is trying to make it into an obligation by saying that he can get rid of the coronavirus within a couple of months by vaccinating people.

9:19vaccinating people, you know, two and a half million people, two and a quarter million people, twice in one month, which means that within a few months the entire country of Israel is vaccinated. And he's very enthused about it, as if he's going to make a dollar on each one or maybe more. But the point being is that if it's not an obligation, then... You don't have to take it. You don't have to take it. Now, if it is an obligation, then the answer is very different. Now, it's not necessarily 100% yes, and it's obviously not necessarily 100% no. But as I mentioned before, saying yes or no has to come from the Gedolei HaDor. And the reason why is because if you say yes, then that means that you're taking everybody's risk on your head. You're taking everybody's risk on your shoulders. If you're saying no, that means you're telling Am Yisrael to go into a civil war with the government. wherever that government is, whether it be Israel, America, you know, anywhere else in the world. So, it's not such an easy answer that your local Rav can give you. If it becomes an obligation, if it's not an obligation, then it's really more of a preference. So, with that being said, whether it’s an obligation or not, there is no permission whatsoever from the Torah

10:31for you to make coronavirus, COVID-19 or COVID-20 or however many mutations it's already had, into a religion, where all day and all night you're spending your energy and your resources watching these stupid videos, Whether they come from rabbis or they come from CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, and of course YouTube and other types of media channels full of different conspiracies and interesting information that may or may not be true. No one ever told you you have permission to do such a thing. No one ever told you that you have to make COVID-19 into a new religion, where pretty much you're fulfilling all of the seven mitzvot b'nei COVID—the seven COVID mitzvot. What? They tell you, don't make anybody else your other god for the Noachides, right? Same thing with Am Yisrael. So people with COVID, with their obsession with COVID, making it into a religion, all they do is learn about COVID-19. A vaccine doesn't work. A vaccine does work. Bill Gates is behind it. Bill Gates is not behind it.

11:43Donald Trump took it, Donald Trump didn't take it, Bibi Netanyahu took the vaccine, or he took sugar and water, all types of nonsense that's out there. They simply don't miss a shiur. They don't miss a video about it. All day, they think about it. And this obsession is not only sickening you, but it's sickening simply because you're forgetting who runs the world. Forgetting who runs the world. Instead of having yirat Shamayim (fear of Heaven), people have fear of COVID. Instead of dedicating their life to Hashem and learning Torah, they have dedication to COVID. Instead of learning Torah, they learn about COVID. Instead of toiling in Torah, they toil in COVID. They make sure they follow the news headlines, and then they make sure that... They look at all the medical reports, pretending to know what they're talking about, pretending to know as if they understand it. Suddenly, a degree that takes many years to acquire has somehow been acquired by the masses. Everybody is now a doctor. Everyone is a biologist. Everyone is a chemist. Everyone understands the effects of everything. Everyone can read the lingo of the different reports that are coming out and the scientific news headlines. Everyone understands everything all of a sudden. Everyone is in medicine and in viruses, and everyone is going to tell you, "No, it's not really a virus, it's really... there is no such thing as a virus, it's really this and it's really that."

13:04different reports that are coming out and the scientific news headlines. Everyone understands everything all of a sudden. Everyone is in medicine and in viruses, and everyone is going to tell you, "No, it's not really a virus, it's really... there is no such thing as a virus, it's really this and it's really that." everyone is scared to death of it. Everyone makes sure to present it publicly, how they wear their masks. They wear their masks, and if you don't wear your mask, they rebuke you. They fulfill the mitzvah of COVID, not of the Torah. We told them to rebuke somebody that's talking in shul. "No, come on, Rabbi, it's not comfortable." You told them to rebuke somebody because they violate Shabbat. "No, Rabbi, come on, it's not comfortable. I don't know him like that." But if he's not wearing a mask, if he's not six feet apart from you, you rebuke him in the middle of the street. No, or not. They're fulfilling the mitzvah of COVID, and literally, you look at every one of the mitzvot that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us, and people are replacing it with COVID for the sake of COVID. This obsession that people have with this thing is much more dangerous than the disease, much more dangerous.

14:21If this was only a problem in the secular world, then I would say, what else do they have? They don't have a religion. They don't really follow what Hashem says. So they, in essence, created a new religion. If only the goyim were doing it, then it's not really a surprise. Why do the goyim have over 80,000 religions and cults? So to add another one called COVID-19 or 26 or 22 or 67 or 51 or whatever you want to call it, who cares? call it, go for it, add another religion, add another false god to the list. The problem is that, proportionally speaking, just like the Jewish people are leading the world in Nobel Prizes and many other achievements, they're also leading the world in discussions about this topic of COVID-19 and this obsession with it. But that's just my own personal estimation, just by the number of people that I deal with on a regular basis and what they show me and who's covering it and so on. And the obsession that Am Yisrael has with this specific issue is disproportional. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Their entire heads are in this COVID situation. And if that's not bad enough, the election situation obviously is an additional toil people have invested their efforts into.

15:42And this, rabotai, is going to be a rebuke on us. This is going to be a rebuke on our nation, Hashem yishmor, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to tell us, "I told you to toil in Torah and study a few hours a day, study more than a few hours a day, but you told me you didn't have time. Why? Because you were working." So how come you had time to look at COVID videos for two, three hours every day? How come you had time to read every article that came out on the news about COVID? How come you had no shame whatsoever rebuking somebody that wasn't wearing a mask or someone that was against the vaccine or someone that was for the vaccine? How come you had no second thoughts? How come you felt perfectly comfortable? perfectly, with full confidence, talking about this. But when I told you maybe you should give a shiur about Torah and your Shabbat traditions, you know, so maybe your kids will see what type of mesorah you come from, you said, "No, Rabbi, I don't really know how to talk. I don't really know how to talk. I don't really know anything." But when it comes to COVID, you know everything. How come about COVID you learned everything? How come about COVID you never get tired? As soon as the shiur starts, you fall asleep.

16:52But if there's a video about COVID, you're up till 4 o'clock in the morning. If you're invited to a shiur Torah, you're like, "No, listen, I'll watch it online. I'll watch it on YouTube. I'll watch it tomorrow. I'll watch it when I get a chance." But if there's a community meeting of some kind, you're there. If there's a Zoom meeting, you're the first one. You're organizing it. It's going to be a rebuke. It's going to be a rebuke on us on Yom HaDin that's coming up. Yom HaDin that's coming up. going to be a rebuke on us. We have no excuses. We have no excuses for how and why we're dedicating so much time and effort to COVID. Why have we forgotten who is our Owner, who runs the world? People are scared to death of this thing. But if you talk to people about Judgment Day, "Oh, why are you being so negative?" Judgment Day. Judgment Day with God. You realize that. Hashem. Hashem is God. God is the judge. You're not scared of that? No, you're being so negative. But you talk about Corona. Say, no, listen, 2 million people dying. It's not the end of the world. I mean, you technically have 8 billion people in the world. 2 million is not the end. I mean, yes, of course, some good people died, including one of my dear friends. But the point being, statistically speaking, it's not the end of the world.

18:12Come on. You're always so optimistic. How come you look at things that way? That's two million people. That's a lot. That's too many. What do you mean? When I told you about this, you said I'm too pessimistic. When I told you about these, you said I'm too optimistic. Pick one, pick one. So what if I'm not your opinion? Does that mean that I'm wrong? That's a problem. It's a problem that we have as a people. It's not a problem that we have as individuals. The problem we have as a people and... Because you're seeing that it's an enormous amount of attention spent on this. Rabbis are feeling perfectly comfortable talking about it on a regular basis and rebuking their community about not being safe, not wearing a mask, not wanting to vaccinate, not attending the community events via Zoom or otherwise to become informed about it, the vaccine, or the different things. But yet, when you tell the rabbis, listen, why don't you tell people about Shabbat, that if they don't attend Shabbat every week, Hashem is going to kill them? Why don't you tell them to attend all of the lectures about Gemara Bli Talmud, that if they don't attend those, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to put them in Ge'enom and never let them out? How come you don't tell them about those things? How come you don't have the same comfort and audacity, the same chutzpah, to tell them the truth about Torah as you do about COVID, what you think is true at least?

19:39is going to be a rebuke on us. It's going to be a rebuke on us, and it's a rebuke that each one is going to get in a different way. Each one's going to get it in a different way: not speaking up, not speaking enough, speaking too much, listening too much, and so on and so forth. Each person has to do hisbonenut, self-accounting, to see where they stand. Now, of course, those that are fighting for either side, whether it's for or against, believe wholeheartedly that they are speakers of the truth. They are believers of the truth. They're advocating the truth. They're trying to protect people. They're trying to warn people and so on and so forth. But as we all know, There's nothing that's true other than HaKadosh Baruch Hu's Torah. Nothing else is true. Everything else is part of this Alma Deshikra, this world of lies. Yet people have turned the news into a new Chumash. And that's going to be a rebuke on us. Now, the problem is, Rabotai, that all of these so-called truth speakers, whether Jews or Gentiles, they all believe that they're speaking the truth. And if you speak against them, you say something against them, you comment against them,

20:51They want to rip you apart. Now, this is one of those things where a person doesn't really understand where they stand. They don't really understand what the truth is, and how do you determine if something is the truth or not? And it's something that each person needs to evaluate on a day-to-day basis. Now, how do you evaluate such a thing? I mean, if you can't evaluate yourself, you're biased. You have to evaluate it by going to a Talmid Chacham. And if that Talmid Chacham is your Rav, even more so. Even more so, go to that person and ask him, "What's the truth here? You decide the truth for me." Why? Because you have what's called Da'at Torah. You have the opinion of the Torah. You dedicate a certain amount of time of your life, of your day, to Torah, to the truth, the only truth. Surely, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will put the truth in you, and whatever you say is going to be the truth. Now, just because somebody's a rabbi doesn't necessarily mean that he's always going to be truthful, as we've spoken about many times in the past, as many, many false leaders, the Erev Rav. But we're not going to delve into that today, but maybe next week when we go back into our Erev Mashiach. But the point being is that

22:03People today do not use their rabbis for the right reasons. Unfortunately, the types of questions many times being asked of rabbis are things that are more like impersonal things. Things like, when does Shabbat come in? Can I eat this? Can I go over there? Can I do this? Can I do that? But when you talk about life decisions—should I marry this woman? Should I marry this man? Should I take this job? Where should I donate?—and so on and so forth, the things that are much, much more meaningful in a person's life, people don't think that the rabbis know. People don't necessarily involve their rabbis, or better yet, sometimes they involve the wrong rabbis because they have a certain perception of them. And it's very important for a person to have a Rav. It's very important for a person to honor their Rav and to respect their Rav's opinion, not as an opinion like anyone else. And here we have a people that are all seeking the truth. And Baruch Hashem, anyone that listens to my shiurim knows that unless you're looking for the truth, it's going to find you by itself and hit you in the face. So

23:21You have to decide whether you want it or not early on. But the point is that some of the things that the truth says are tough to hear. Whether it is that a Jew who violates Shabbat on purpose by driving, using a telephone, cooking, working, or exchanging money is considered 100% an idol worshiper. They cannot be counted in a minyan, and are a person whose cooking you cannot eat, and so on and so forth. That's a truthful statement from the Torah. You look at the Rambam in Hilchot Shabbat, chapter 30, halacha number 15. It discusses how someone who is Mechalel Shabbat is considered an idolater. The truth also says that someone who wastes seed on purpose without doing teshuva is going to Gehenom. and is going to suffer for eternity. There is no heaven for them even if they gave a billion dollars in tzedakah. That's the truth. The truth also says that no rabbi can become God. No rabbi can become someone that you need in order to serve God. Doesn't matter how great he is.

24:25But that's the truth. That's the truth that some people like and some people dislike. The truth is that the Torah has one statement after another that negates, negates our society's standards, that conflicts with it on a regular basis. And if you're going to glue yourself to a talmid chacham, this is the type of stuff that you have to get prepared to listen to and accept wholeheartedly. The problem that we have is that many people enjoy watching shiurim, enjoy attending lectures or going to a chabura where you have a group of people learning and so on, but they have a very difficult time accepting a rav as if this is the word of God. They accept what he says if they agree with it. But the second that what he says disagrees with their opinion, they look for a different rav. They look for someone else. They look for something else. The second that his shiur is too strong for them, they look elsewhere.

25:35And this is part of the root of the problem of why so many people are lost in COVID religion, in COVID world, and not in the Torah world. And it's not necessarily because COVID is something new. There have always been conspiracies. There have always been problems. There's always been news. It's just that this is the most recent news that's taking up a lot of attention for people. And you could say, no, but it's affecting so many lives. Trust me when I tell you, the news always affects everybody's lives, depending on how much you allow it to affect you. Either way, when a person is connected to a Rav, and connected to a Talmid Chacham, that Talmid Chacham is going to tell them what to take seriously and what not. When a person does not accept the Rav as a real Rav, but rather as just somebody I confide in, he's my buddy, he's my friend, he's someone that I listen to once in a while when it's convenient for me. This can create more problems than if you didn't even have a Rav. And this is not a new problem. This problem has always been with Am Yisrael. And we see that this problem can lead to a lot of damage.

26:49I'll tell you a story that I heard years ago, and we reviewed again this sugya today. Two different stories. The Gemara in Masechet Bava Metzia, page 84a, has a story of how Rabbi Yochanan, the great Amora, met Reish Lakish. Reish Lakish, before meeting Rabbi Yochanan, was the head of the mob. a gangster, the most powerful one—everyone was scared to death of him. One day, he decided that he wanted to go for a swim. He saw a beautiful woman swimming in the river, and he jumped, nearly reaching her with one leap. only to see that woman, that beautiful woman, whose skin was shining because there were beautiful people in Jerusalem at the time who were so beautiful that their skin was shining without makeup, without trying. And this beautiful woman turns around, and it's not a beautiful woman, but rather it's the great sage whose name is recorded in the Talmud, and he says, "You're a woman!"

28:04Let's say what's going on here. He says to him, "Why are you wasting all your power on this stuff, all your strength wasted? Invest it for Torah." Rabbi Yochanan cleverly responds, "Why are you wasting all your beauty on just being a man?" Rabbi Yochanan says to him, if you come invest your time in Torah with me, you'll marry someone much more beautiful than me. You'll marry my sister. I'll give you my sister. You see the mesirut nefesh, the sacrifice that Rabbi Yochanan made in order to get a gangster to do teshuva. And so the story goes, fast forward, that he does teshuva, they start learning together day and night, and as the years go by, Reish Lakish becomes a Talmid Chacham, that's line with his Rav, not greater than his Rav, not even at the level of his Rav, but they constantly debate and they constantly question and so on and so forth. The story is amazing of how they grow. You see throughout the entire Gemara, Reish Lakish says this, Rabbi Yochanan says that, and sometimes they're the same, many times they're the opposite. This is, in essence, their debates and on and on and on and

29:15There's no Gemara tractate that does not have their names in it. No Gemara tractate that doesn't have their names in it. There's almost no chapter. There's no chapter that doesn't have their names in it. They're all over the Gemara, these Amoraim. But it ends with a tragic story. The Gemara on page 84a says that one day they had one of their debates about a knife. And Reish Lakish says, yeah, but when you deal with the knife a certain way, it's a... put it in the water, you take it out of the water, that's when it hardens, and so on and so forth. In response to him saying, "Yeah, you would know about knives because of your past," he takes it personally instead of acknowledging the fact that he recognizes his expertise, his being correct in his opinion because of his experience. He takes it personally. He says, "What he's still reminding me of my past. He wasn't trying to remind him of his past. All he was trying to simply tell him is that, obviously, you have more experience with knives than I do. That's it. He took it personally. He was sensitive that day and made the mistake of his life. He says to his rav, actually I should say, he says to the rabbi, "What happened? What did you do for me? I used to be a gangster back then, the head of the mob, and everybody would listen to me. I was the rabbi of the gangsters."

30:40Today, I'm the same. Meaning, you're still considering me as if I'm a gangster because you still call me as if I'm connected to it. He took this even more personally. He says, "What did I do for you? What did I do for you?" What did I do for you if not bring you under the wings of the Shechinah and bring you to a place where you could earn your eternal world? What did I do for you, you say? And he got upset at Reish Lakish to the point where Reish Lakish got sick. The wife of Reish Lakish, who is the sister of Rabbi Yochanan, came to him begging, "Please, please, forgive him. Forgive him for what he said. He's very sick." Rabbi Yochanan did not forgive. And shortly later, Reish Lakish died. This is by far one of the most tragic stories, not only in the Gemara, but in all of Am Yisrael, how this famous chavruta ended this way. And if that's not bad enough, shortly after Reish Lakish died...

31:51Rabbi Yochanan missed his chavruta. The Rabbanim brought him other talmidim to learn with, and he couldn't get along with them, even though they were chachamim also. Why? They would tell him, "Listen, Rabbi, you're right." Rabbi Yochanan says to them, "I don't need you to tell me I'm right. I know I'm right." I don't need you to tell me what I said. I need you to tell me things that are the opposite of what I said. The question is to make sure that what I say is valid. Every time I say something, you say I'm right. I had Reish Lakish for so many years. Every time I said something, he gave me 25 reasons why I'm wrong. And I had to justify and overcome these 25 different obstacles. That's how you reach the emet. What did he tell me I'm right for? And no talmid was good enough. There was no other Reish Lakish in the generation or ever again. And Rabbi Yochanan would start walking in the streets looking for Reish Lakish, who had died, to the point where he went crazy. He went crazy. He lost his mind from the sorrow of losing his chavruta, losing his talmid. And the Chachamim prayed for him to die, and he died shortly after. Tragic is an understatement. In another Gemara around the same time, around the same time,

33:10In Gemara Bava Kama, page 117a, we have another story of Rabbi Yochanan. Rabbi Yochanan was very old, reaching nearly the age of 120. The whole world recognized who he was, and always will. And there was a huge Chacham in Bavel named Rav. And Rav had a talmid named Rav Kahana. Rav Kahana was an enormous Talmid Chacham who made a mistake. As Rav told him, because you made this mistake, you have to go into exile. Exile does not just mean living in a different country other than Israel, but rather, being away from your Rav is considered as if you're in exile. If your Rav is in a certain city and you move somewhere else, you're putting yourself in exile. It's not a good idea. Many mistakes are made when someone is not close to their Rav when they can be. Anyway, this Talmid, Rav Kahana, was an enormous Talmid Chacham, and his own Rav, named Rav, says, you have to go into exile for seven years. But not just any ordinary exile; make sure that they

34:25Do not recognize you or give you all the kavod, all the honor of being a Talmid Chacham because over there, where you're going, is Rabbi Yochanan. Rabbi Yochanan is a Gadol HaDor. I don't want to give you any kavod because you're such a Chacham and you're my Talmid for seven years. So Rav Kahana went and he attends a shiur by whom? By Reish Lakish. Reish Lakish is teaching and Rav Kahana, a new student, comes from Bavel, from Babylon, from Iraq, and everything that Reish Lakish says, he goes against, he goes against, he goes against, not goes against again, meaning he's asking questions, tough questions he doesn't have answers to. Reish Lakish is shocked. i don't know, you have this new guy who is asking questions, giving answers, providing information. That's all right. And where did this lion come from? He comes to Israel. Rabbi Yochanan says, "Ready? Listen, a lion has come from Bavel. A lion has come from Bavel." You can have a shiur. Don't think that this guy is like all the other Talmidim. He's a lion. This guy is a Talmid Chacham. He's a giant.

35:40Okay, if he's a giant, Rabbi Yochanan says, put him on the front line. In those days, you knew who was the Talmid Chacham in their level based on where they sat in the Beit Midrash. The front line are the Gedolei HaDor. Second, a little bit less. Third, a little bit less. Fourth, a little bit less. All the way to the seventh, which is the people who didn't know very much, but nonetheless, knew obviously more than anybody else today, but nonetheless, weren't at the level of the first line. So, as the story goes, the Gemara says, They sat Rav Kahana in the front line, and Rav Kahana sat quietly, like a sleeping baby while Rabbi Yochanan was giving a shiur. Rabbi Yochanan says, "I'm giving a whole shiur, and he didn't ask one question. He's not asking any questions, nothing. Put him back one line." They kept taking him back one line, another line, because he's not asking any questions. He doesn't show his wisdom. don't have any questions? It's either you know everything or you don't know anything. What do you mean you don't have any questions? What's the matter with you? So they kept putting him back one line after another, all the way till he got to the seventh line, meaning with the people that don't know anything, in so many words, in comparison to the first line.

36:58Because of the sorrow that Rav Kahana had, because he knew the answers and he knew the questions and so on, he said, let this embarrassment that I had, the suffering that I had of being thrown seven lines back, be the equivalent of my seven years in exile. And the next day he asked Rav Yochanan, please give the shiur again. Rav Yochanan, almost 120 years old, was sitting on seven pillows. They used to study that way. He would sit on seven pillows, one for each of the lines. And Rav Kahana is in the back. He says the first few statements, Rav Kahana asks a question. Rabbi Yochanan has to have an answer. Because he doesn't have an answer, he says, how could I be? I don't have an answer. He knows more than me if he has such a question. So bring him up a line. And Rabbi Yochanan takes off one pillow. A little bit more, he says. Another question. Another bomb.

38:01doesn't have an answer. Bring him up a line. Takes another pillow all the way to the point where Rav Kahana goes back to the front line. Almost 120 years old, sitting on the floor, no pillows at this point. He was wondering, "Where did this lion come from? Let me see him." He was very old and he had very long eyebrows that covered his eyes. They came and lifted his eyebrows with a special tool to touch the gadol hador, such a holy person. It is not like today, where people allow anyone to touch them or they touch anyone. To touch the eyebrows of the gadol hador required a certain person of kedusha. They lifted his eyebrows so he could see who this lion is that's asking all these tough questions and and Rabbi Yochanan sees someone smiling in his face, and he says, "You're making fun of me because you're asking these questions and I don't have an answer." Rabbi Yochanan was upset. Rav Kahana died on the spot. Died on the spot. In the Beit Midrash. They take him, they bury him. A few days passed.

39:22to have a shiur, and Rabbi Yochanan is teaching mussar. What's the mussar? You see that person, even though he learned a lot of Torah, even though he knew a lot of things, he has no manners. Laughing in my face just because he knew something I didn't know. One of the talmidim was scared to death to ask a question of Rabbi Yochanan. You ask a question that's off-base, he'll kill you. So he's scared. But at the same time, I have to say this. He says, I'm sorry, but he wasn't making fun of you. Rabbi Yochanan says, what do you mean? I saw with my own eyes he was making fun of me. He was laughing in my face. He says, no, no, Rabbi. His lips have a deformity where it looks like he's always smiling. It's a deformity. He wasn't laughing at you. Rabbi Yochanan says, oh, no. Oh, no. Let's go. Close the Gemarot. Yalla. Close everything. Close the books. We're going to the gravesite. Who's going? Everybody's going. The whole Beit Midrash goes to the gravesite of Rav Kahana. At the gravesite, there's a tunnel and there's an enormous anaconda snake in the front. Rabbi Yochanan says to the snake, snake, move.

40:30Doesn't move. Rabbi Yochanan is here. The snake doesn't move. He keeps saying different things, but it doesn't move until he says, "The Talmid, Rabbi Yochanan, the student of Rav Kahana, wants to enter." The snake moves. They enter. Rabbi Yochanan, again, this is at the same time as the whole situation that I mentioned. With Reish Lakish around that same time. We're not talking about a 50-year difference or anything like that. Around the same time. This is towards the end of his life anyway. Rabbi Yochanan comes to the gravesite, prays a few words to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, please bring him back to life. Please bring Rav Kahana back to life. HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Brings Rav Kahana all the way from Gan Eden back to this world. Rav Kahana stands up. Oh, yeah, okay. We made a mistake. Sorry about that. Let's come. We need people like you. We need lions like you. Come study with us in the Beit Midrash. Rav Kahana is scared to death. No, Kavod HaRav, I'm scared to death. I don't want it to happen again. I say something and it kills me again. The point being here is that he brought him back to life. Now, here's the question. The question is this.

41:48When Rav Kahana said what he said, Reish Lakish got upset. He died. But when Rabbi Yochanan realized that he made a mistake, he went and he brought him back to life. Just like all of the sages that are named in the Gemara, the Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah says, they can resurrect the dead. And many of them did. So how come Rabbi Yochanan did not do the same thing with Reish Lakish, his dear talmid, his chavruta, his study partner? How come he didn't do it with him? The Midrash Tanchuma, in next week's parasha, Parashat Shemot, in Siman Hey, says that, based on a pasuk, that a new king, a new king of Egypt, did not know Yosef. How did he not know Yosef? Yosef put Egypt on the map. How do you not know? He didn't know. He forgot the good.

42:48literally forgot. He was ungrateful for the good. Just like the king of Egypt started with not knowing who Yosef is, meaning not being grateful to the one who gave him good, it eventually culminated in the very next paragraph where it says, or a few paragraphs later in chapter 5, verse 2, where it says that Pharaoh says, "Who is Hashem that I should listen to Him?" meaning he started with being ungrateful to somebody that gave him good and he ended up with being ungrateful to Hashem to the point of not recognizing His existence. On this, the Midrash says: "Whoever is ungrateful to his fellow who gave him good, eventually will become a heretic in God Himself." And God Himself. How does one connect with the other? Okay, so he's ungrateful. Why is being ungrateful to Steve over here going to lead me to chas v'shalom, being not only ungrateful to God, but to the point like Pharaoh, not even recognizing God?

44:11So the book of Isaiah, chapter 1, verse 3, says: "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib." Chachamim say that someone who shows ungratefulness is worse than an animal, because even an ox knows who its owner is, and even a donkey knows who its master is. Who gave him the work that he has? Who gave him the food? Who gave him everything? The donkey, the ox knows. Anyone who's ungrateful is worse than an animal. And the Gemara Bava Metzia, page 33a, says that a person that found the belongings of both his father and his rabbi, both his father and his rabbi, the Gemara says he has to return the stuff that he found of his rabbi before his father. Even though there's a commandment to honor your parents, in this particular case, you have to honor your rabbi more than your parents. Why? Because although your father brought you to this world, the Gemara says,

45:28...your rabbi brought you to Olam HaBa, brought you to the eternal world. And by you not returning his stuff, by you not helping your rabbi even before your father, it shows that you're not accepting that he's your rabbi. You're not accepting that he's bringing you to Olam HaBa. And you're being ungrateful. And if you're ungrateful to your rabbi, surely you'll be ungrateful to God... only a matter of time, and that's actually what was poskening the Rambam in two places and also in Yoreh De'ah 242:34. Paschal Adacha where a person has to make their rabbi a priority over his own father, helping the rabbi more than he helps his father. Why? Because although the father deserves respect and gets respect because he does good for you and he did good for you, if the choice is there, the rabbi is number one. By not having the rabbi being number one, it means that a person is ungrateful and...

46:47Being ungrateful is despised by Hashem. A person who is ungrateful makes HaKadosh Baruch Hu cry. Why does he make HaKadosh Baruch Hu cry? Because when He sees that you are ungrateful to somebody who gave you a job, you are ungrateful to somebody who helped you out. You are ungrateful. Somebody gave you a loan. Somebody that may give you a shidduch. Somebody that did something for you. It doesn't have to be a rabbi. Anybody. You're ungrateful to somebody, HaKadosh Baruch Hu starts crying. Why? He says, ah, if he's ungrateful to his fellow, if he's ungrateful to his friend, it's only a matter of time before he's so ungrateful to me, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, that he'll forget that I even exist. He'll forget that I'm the one that gave him the money. he'll forget that I'm the one that gave him air in his lungs. He'll forget that I even exist, and he'll spend more time learning about coronavirus than he will about my Torah. And this is a problem, Rabotai. This is, Rabotai, a very big problem. Now, there's a sefer, a sefer called Kerem Yosef, by one of the chachamim of this generation, Rav Yosef Chai Simantov.

47:57Page 172 brings and talks about this whole sugya with Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan. It also brings the Gemara Masechet Gittin, page 58a. It says the following. During the time of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, one of the talmidim of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin died. He was very wealthy, and in his will, He instructed, let the Gadol HaDor, meaning the biggest rabbi of the generation, handle the money, whatever he wishes to do with it. Give it to the community, give it to the poor, give it to yeshivot, whatever he wants to do with it, I trust that the head rabbi of the entire generation, the biggest rabbi of the entire generation, he knows what to do. The problem is that in order to fulfill this mitzvah of following the will of the person that's passed away, You have to know what he means. The problem is, he didn't say a name. He just said the Gadol HaDor. He said the biggest rabbi of the generation. So, how do you know who's the biggest rabbi of the generation? There were several really big talmidim. Two stood out the most. One of them was Rabbi Chaim Volozhin. And one was another giant chacham. Huge chacham. Huge. So, how do we decide who's the Gadol HaDor?

49:18He writes in the Keter Yosef, they decided, Rabbi Chaim Volozhin is the Gadol HaDor, he's the biggest rabbi in the world. How do you decide, what do you give him, an IQ test? You give him a test? No. Rabbi Chaim Volozhin is the Talmid of the Gaon MiVilna, the Gra. And he's connected to his Rav so much that he's continuing his teachings, which means that Rabbi Chaim Volozhin is continuing the teachings of the Gaon, of the Gaon MiVilna. The Gaon MiVilna is continuing from his Rav, from his Rav, from his Rav, all the way to Moshe Rabbeinu. Rabbi Chaim Volozhin is continuing what we've had for already a few thousand years. Now the Chacham, he's a big Chacham, but he's not connected to his Rav. He's not connected to a specific Rav. He's not continuing anybody else's teachings. He's not the Gadol HaDor. He's a Gadol. He's a giant. He's amazing. But he's not the Gadol HaDor. Why? The Gadol HaDor has to be connected to his Rav all the way to Moshe Rabbeinu. Has to be. If he's not, he cannot be the Gadol HaDor. On that, we're asking this way. We're asking this way. And that's how they decided. He says this is the problem.

50:27With what happened with Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan and Rav Kahana. Rav Kahana made a mistake. Rav Kahana made a mistake at Ezra's place. And Ezra sent him to exile. By going to Rabbi Yochanan, he was in exile. He listened to Ezra. Whatever happened between him and Rabbi Yochanan, Rabbi Yochanan realized it was a mistake and brought him back to life, because all he was doing was following what Ezra was saying to him. On the case of Reish Lakish, Reish Lakish, his Rav was Rabbi Yochanan. And he said, oh wait a minute, you still recognize me as this, you still recognize me as that, what did you do for me? In essence, Rabbi Yochanan understood it, and we understand it. And again, we're not even the dust under the feet of Reish Lakish or anybody we mentioned. This is just simply Torah that we have to learn. Reish Lakish is Kodesh Kodashim. But Reish Lakish did not recognize his Rav, Rabbi Yochanan, as his Rav. Why? He saw: we're equals. We're on the same level. Even though he's a Gadol, I became a Gadol too. What did you do for me? Oh, you don't recognize? Rabbi Yochanan says, no matter how much I love him,

51:48no matter how much I love him, no matter how much he's important to me, he's ungrateful. He's ungrateful, and therefore, he lost his right to live. Lost his right to live. A person can sometimes forget who gave him the right to live. Literally. He thinks he has the right to live because his parents decided to have a baby. He doesn't understand that the second he became bar mitzvah, 13 years old for a boy, or bat mitzvah for a girl, she became 12 years old, the only right to live is the fact that if they fulfill the will of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, if they fulfill the will of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, they have the right to live. If they go against HaKadosh Baruch Hu, they simply have no right to live according to Hashem. Why? Hashem said, you violate Shabbat, you lose your right to live. Hashem is going to punish the person very severely and can literally take their life on any given day. Someone who does certain sins, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that they're living on borrowed time. Why? Because they're not doing what Hashem says, the King of Kings. says that they're living on borrowed time. Why? Because they're not doing what Hashem says, the King of Kings.

52:54When a person comes from a world without Hashem, or even a mistaken version of who God is, a mistaken understanding, and somebody comes and says, listen, come listen to my shiur, come learn with me, come do this, and you're going to understand what the truth is. That person helps you do teshuva, that person just got you to Olam HaBa, that person just gave you not only a purpose to life, but an actual right for life, a right to live. And for you not to be grateful for that is the worst, worst show of gratitude in the world. Meaning it's the highest level of ungratefulness that a human being can express. For a person not to be grateful to his Rav, whether a woman or to his Rebbetzin, whoever helped you, Personnel to do to God and simply said, "No, listen, they motivated me a few years ago, and I would have probably gotten motivated anyway. I was looking for God anyway. I was reading some books anyway. I would have done it anyway, or I ended up learning a lot more after that anyway."

54:09Not recognizing that initial fire that got you to do teshuva is the highest level of ungratefulness that a human can express, to the point where HaKadosh Baruch Hu starts crying over His son or daughter, saying, "Look at what they're doing. They're being ungrateful to someone that gave them a right to exist, someone that gave them Olam Haba." They think that because they built a big company, and they did a lot of other studying, and they met a lot of other people, and they did a lot of other things, after he ignited the fire, they don't owe him any gratitude. Why? He did something, but other people did a lot more. HaKadosh Baruch Hu starts crying over these people, saying, "Look at these people. It's only a matter of time before they forget I even exist, like Pharaoh." The only amount of time before they exist, they forget that Hashem exists. They only see the "In God We Trust" on a dollar, not in shamayim. They only see Hashem when it's relevant to them, when it's fit. They forgot who their owner is. They forgot who their Creator is. And the Gemara says, and the Zohar says the same thing: Someone that helps you do teshuva is like he created you. He becomes partners with HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

55:30But when a person has not listened to his rabbi, only damage happens. And Rabbi, it's happening in countless places today. No one wants to listen to their rabbi. It's not just in regards to COVID-19. Every day, everybody has a different rabbi. They have a rabbi for halacha. They have a rabbi for shalom bayit, for this. They have a rabbi for COVID-19 lectures. They have a rabbi for conspiracy lectures. They have a rabbi for mussar. Who's your rabbi? No, the real rabbi that helped me, that got me, that helps me the most—yeah, I don't go to him for everything. What do you mean I don't go to him for everything? Why not? No, you know, he's busy. Yeah, but every time you ask him a question, he answers it all. So how come you say he's busy? In reality, it's not because he's busy. In reality, it's because you only want him to be your rabbi whenever you feel like it. Because you don't really recognize that he's your rabbi, and so on and so forth. The point is, when we are ungrateful to our Talmidei Chachamim, we're ungrateful. to the people that are partners with HaKadosh Baruch Hu in giving us the right to live. According to the Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu cries over it. He cries over it because He says it's only a matter of time before you become ungrateful to Me. Before you become ungrateful to Me to the point that you'll be just like Pharaoh. You'll be just like Pharaoh. Now, if you think that Pharaoh is the only one that did such a thing, you're mistaken. You're mistaken. We'll give you a few examples. Who made such a mistake?

56:53Muhammad made the same mistake. Muhammad forgot who his Creator is by making up all types of silly things, saying that some angel came to him and told him about a new religion, a new Quran. The same thing happened with Jesus of Nazareth, who caused a machloket (dispute) against Hashem. Before that, he knew a lot of Torah; he learned with Yeshua ben Perachia, one of the Gedolei HaDor. And this Jesus of Nazareth learned with Yehoshua ben Perachya, one of the Gedolei HaDor. But as soon as his rabbi rebuked him, he thought he was too good to continue saying "I'm sorry," to recognize his rabbi for being his rabbi. If he rebuked him, he rebuked him for a reason, and he went against him. showing the highest level of ungratefulness there is. If that's not enough, same thing with Haman. Haman went against his rabbi. Who was his rabbi? Mordechai. Mordechai HaYehudi was his rabbi, was his owner. They were both generals in the army, the Midrash says. And because Mordechai was a holy Jew, he taught his soldiers to eat only what they need, not to eat

58:19more than what they need. Haman had no good middot, didn't learn mussar, was an idiot when it came to character development and character traits. And his soldiers followed suit, which means that after each barrack got, each platoon got their food, the soldiers of Haman ate all of their all of their quantity that they got in one day. Whereas Mordechai's soldiers, they had only what they needed. They had plenty left. The next day, the soldiers of Haman come to Haman and they say, listen, if you don't get us food, we're going to eat you. We're going to kill you. Haman ran scared to Mordechai. He says, listen, we're in the same army. Please help me out. Mordechai says, why should I help you out? He says, come on, it's pikuach nefesh, it's life risk. What are you going to give me? Why should I do it? Haman says, if you help me, you'll be saving my life. You'll be saving my life. I'll be indebted to you forever. I'll become your slave. Mordechai says, okay, write it on my shoe. Write on my shoe this contract. Haman inscribes this on the bottom of the shoe of Mordechai. He saved his life. He became a slave of Mordechai. That's why Haman

59:42Every time after he got out of this, got the power with Achashverosh and so on, became rich and so on, he hated Mordechai more than everybody else. Why? Because every time he would come to Mordechai, not only would Mordechai not bow to him, but he would show him the bottom of his shoe. He says, listen, Haman, you think you're powerful? You realize that all your money really belongs to me. You realize that all of the things you have really belong to me. We signed a contract. You're my slave. ...and Haman was ungrateful to his master. Why? He said, "Oh come on, he just saved my life one time. One time he saved my life. Oh, just one time he helped me out one time," as if it's not a big deal. A person that shows lack of gratefulness hates him. Why? It's only a matter of time before you become a kofer, a heretic in Hashem Himself. a heretic in Hashem Himself. This Rabbi is very critical for each and every single one of us to learn. Every single one of us has a Rabbi. Every single one of us has someone that helps us. A person needs to know that Rabbi, that main vessel, is something that I have to invest all my energy into. Why? Because this is not something that I need in order to connect to Hashem. You connect to Hashem by yourself.

1:01:04But the reality is I wouldn't have found out that I connect to Hashem anyway. I wouldn't have found out how to connect to Hashem had it not been for this vessel. Had Hashem not had mercy on me and sent me him as a vessel. Had Hashem not had mercy on me and sent me this Rebbetzin as a vessel. And that's the reality, Rabotai. Every person needs to know that even great people have made mistakes, and our Torah is not selective like some of the other religions, the fake religions out there that only put good things in their books. Our Torah tells us even about the mistakes of our sages and our patriarchs, the mistakes they made. We highlight why we need to learn from everything. But if we don't learn... Because we think that something is not relevant to us, we think that it's too much, it's too this, it's too that, we're being ungrateful. We're being ungrateful for Hashem, literally exposing the flaws, if you will, the minor mishaps.

1:02:06the different things that they have done, which in essence, it's embarrassing to some aspect. It's embarrassing to learn that Dinah was raped. It's embarrassing to learn that Hashem rebuked some of our patriarchs. It's embarrassing to learn. But in reality, He still did it. We don't listen to the Chachamim. We don't listen to our patriarchs. We don't listen to our Torah. We're being ungrateful. Ungrateful to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the highest level. it's important for each and every single person to know that gratitude is the ultimate way, the ultimate way to express our connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Because if we are grateful for the things we have, we get from our parents, the things we get from our rabbi, the things that we get from our brothers and sisters, the things that we get from our bosses, the things that we get from the local clerk at the supermarket. If we're grateful for everything that's around us, it is very easy for us to be grateful to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But if we're ungrateful, we think that everyone owes us something. We think that he owes me an answer, and she owes me money, and he owes me time, and the whole world owes us something. It's very easy to become a heretic, 100% against the hand that feeds you. And this, Rabotai HaKedoshim, is a critical lesson every single one of us has to know. Has to know because you could be someone that learns Torah,

1:03:34day and night, think that you have already outsmarted your rabbi. In the Torah world, it's called someone that outsmarts, meaning that they learn more. more than a rabbi, talmid oleh al rabo. It's a person, a talmid that learns more than his rabbi at this point. Why? Because the rabbi has a community, has public needs, and so on, and you have yourself; you can learn 18 hours a day, 15 hours a day. The rabbi may not be able to learn like he used to when he was younger and less popular. Maybe he learns an hour, maybe he learns 20 minutes, maybe he learns 5 hours. The point is, you think that after you learn 10, 15 hours, oh, see, I'm better than my rabbi. I know more than him. I know more than him. I told the rabbi that he should do this, this, and that, and he said, no, no, it's not needed. I think the rabbi, I'm already better than him. I'm searching for that midah. This rabbi, yeah, he helped me a long time ago, but I think he's becoming a little reformed. I think the rabbi is becoming a little reformed. Why? He doesn't want to listen to me. Even though I study, I watch shiurim, and I read sefarim, and I already learn 15 hours a day, he doesn't learn 15 hours a day. He learns a few hours a day. That's it. I'm already better than him.

1:04:44Marty saw that he's been doing it for 20 years. So why are you doing it much longer? I catch on fast, and you already think that you're better than your rabbi. You forget that he's your rabbi. You forget the hand that feeds you. You forget who is the one that gave you the right to exist in the first place. How can you say such a Torah? a person, a person that learned a lot of Torah, watches shiurim and reads books and finishes the Shas and so on, but doesn't recognize, doesn't recognize his rabbi, doesn't recognize the hand that fed him, the hand that gave him the right to exist. Dead animals are better than him. What does this mean? What would it hurt to meet a woman who does not have a rabbi to help her get through all the difficulties, and she thinks she knows more than the rabbi? A dead animal is better than her. Oh no, the rabbi told him something, but he disagreed. I don't think his rabbi knows what he's talking about. You, my friend, the only thing you know is that you don't know. You don't know anything. I

1:05:55don't know anything. Why? Because you think you know more than your rabbi. The reality is you think that you know more than your rabbi. Sometimes, questions that people ask and the rabbi tells them an answer they don't like. "Rabbi, can I go to a Reform shul? It's the only one in the community." "No, you can't." "Ah, this rabbi doesn't understand society today." start thinking that the rabbi doesn't know what he's talking about. Why? Because he doesn't agree with you to go to a Reform or Conservative shul. You don't realize that the rabbi is telling you it's better to never go to shul a single day in your life rather than to go to such a place. But you think, "Now the rabbi doesn't understand society, the rabbi doesn't understand the times, the rabbi doesn't understand that you can change everybody, the rabbi doesn't understand." You, my friend, are worse than a dead animal—not even a living one, a dead animal. Why? Because if the rabbi told you something and you don't value it, you don't appreciate it, you don't take it 100%, that means it's only a matter of time before you become a heretic in Hashem. A heretic in Hashem, rabotai, a kofer b'Hashem. It all starts with gratitude. Gratitude doesn't just mean giving money or saying thank you. Gratitude means recognition. Recognition, this is the source.

1:07:10is the source. If you don't understand this is the source, you're no different than Yeshu, you're no different than Muhammad, you're no different than Haman, you're no different than all of the other reshaim that went against the rabbis. No different. You hear somebody that just makes fun of the rabbanim for no reason whatsoever, you have to run away from such a person. Why just make fun of vague Topics or people and so on wrong if you have specific people they did wrong, the heretics. It's a mitzvah to go against them. But just go and be somebody that makes fun of all of the rabbis, all the Talmidei Chachamim in the world, is a mistake and a half. A mistake that most likely you cannot fix, most likely you cannot fix in one lifetime. Why? Because it's Chilul Hashem. It's the desecration of Talmidei Chachamim and so on and so forth. But it doesn't have to be that big. Even if you simply say, listen, Rabbi, yeah, I used to listen to his shiurim, but I don't listen to them anymore. Why? No, you know, I already know everything he's going to say. I already know everything he's going to say. You say that to anybody other than yourself, you have a very, very serious problem in Shamayim. Number one, you're an ungrateful person. Number two, you're an arrogant person. Number three, you just called somebody else. That's midat Amalek. The point being, Rabotai HaKedoshim, is that

1:08:29Gratitude is not just a simple meaning like it is in English. In the Torah, having Hakarat HaTov, having a recognition of who your Rav is and what that means, is a whole teaching in itself. Many times people mistakenly think that when I talk about stuff like this, I'm talking about myself, like you guys are supposed to honor me or anything like that. I'm your rabbi. It's the opposite. It's the complete opposite. The whole lecture is for me to make sure that I recognize who my rabbi is. What you guys do is your business. I have no idea who your rabbi is. The whole lecture is for me, the whole shiur is for me to recognize who my rabbi is. Why? That's my key to all the rabbanim. What you guys choose is what you guys choose. I just happened to attend my shiur. The problem is today, rabotai, is that many people think that they're better than their rabbi, so they start doing things that are against their rabbi. They start doing things that they think, no, no, my rabbi doesn't understand. He's old. He's stupid. He doesn't know this. He doesn't know that. Mistake. Mistake, Rabotai. Your ticket to Hashem has been and will always be your rabbi. Not that you need your rabbi to connect to God. Don't mistake that. Rather, your rabbi is going to tell you what the emet is. You cannot determine what the emet is by yourself. You're biased.

1:09:50You're biased. You may be able to say what that emet is sometimes, but not all the time. Not on a consistent basis. Why? You're biased. Your wife yells at you. She complains to you. You're going to think that you're right because she yelled at you and she's wrong, right? Wrong. Sometimes she's right. Sometimes she should yell at you. The only way you're going to know that is if you go to your rabbi. Tell him, "Listen, my wife said this. She's upset about this. What do you think, Rabbi?" The Rabbi's going to tell you, "I think you're right," or "I think you're wrong." If he doesn't want to tell you, "I think you're right," or "I think you're wrong," you've got to pick a different rabbi. Why doesn't he want to tell you you're right or you're wrong? The point is, Rabotai, if your investment of time and resources is more on Wall Street, more on watches and cars, more on COVID-19 and CNN, more on that stuff, rather than acquiring a Rav, you are losing your life with your own hands. You're literally wasting it. You're wasting it. Why? You don't understand the value of what a real Rav is. You don't understand it. You don't understand. Every tzaddik had a Rav. Every gadol hador had a Rav if he was recognized as a gadol hador, even as we saw from the story, from the Kerem Yosef. With that being said, Rabotai, hopefully this gives us a little bit of inspiration to ask good questions, ones that are going to help us all get to Olam Haba. Let's get some questions.

1:11:13I'm sorry, I don't read Russian, so I have no idea how to say your name, but I can read your question. There is some conspiracy that the volume is always low on the rabbis on Facebook. I can't hear Rabbi Mizrahi either, but I have zero problems with the volume on any other video. Okay, um, there is—I mean, it's not really a conspiracy. It's just, yes... I mean, if it's a video about nonsense, full volume, that's very normal, simply because the Yetzer Hara wants you to waste your time listening to nonsense. But if it's someone that's telling the truth, the Yetzer Hara is going to interfere. He's going to make the internet slow. He's going to make the rabbi low, and so on and so forth. But you have to overcome it. You have to prepare for it, and you have to pray for it even. You have to pray. You have to pray to have the merit to learn Torah. Uh, okay, Yonah, some sages in the Talmud apparently discussed praying in certain directions besides the Temple, like the north and the south. Can one do this today? Since the, uh, the Am Yisrael has decided, or rather Hashem has decided, that we have to pray in one particular direction, a person cannot do otherwise.

1:12:27Once something became a halacha, or even a widely exercised custom, we cannot change it. Why? Because it's part of fulfilling the mitzvah, of fulfilling the Torah of our forefathers and our fathers. So if Gedolei HaDor decided this, this is what it is. This, by the way, is one of the difficulties that heretics like Prager Dennis Prager, who is a massive Chillul Hashem, a massive Chillul Hashem on a public scale, that every time I hear his name, I just find out more information that makes my skin cringe. He may be a nice person personally as an individual, in some people's opinion. But when it comes to Torah, when it comes to Judaism, he's perhaps one of the biggest destroyers that exists today. One of the people that has expressed Midat Amalek more than anyone else. But he does it in such a clever way, you don't even realize that he's doing it. So Dennis Prager, for example, his dilemma, if you will, or his heresy,

1:13:38is that he doesn't agree that we should keep Yom Tov Sheni, which is a second Yom Tov if you live in the exile, because the Chachamim decreed in the Gemara, in Masechet Moed Katan, Masechet Rosh Hashana, and several other places, it talks about Yom Tov Sheni, where if you live in the exile, you have to keep two Yom Tovs, except if it's Yom Kippur. But that's because in those times, the clock and telling time and the new month and so on was different. So he says, since we know the time now, we know the time even better than then, because we have atomic clocks today, this should not be practiced anymore today. Now, he has a problem. Why? Because he forgot that although he's right about what he says, that we have atomic clocks and we know time better today than we did back then, he's wrong. Even though he's right, he's wrong. Why? Because there's another very, very important rule in the Torah, which is to listen to the Chachamim. And the Chachamim said that, yes, although there are going to be certain things that change from time to time, once certain things become halacha, once certain things become the custom, once things become something that is, that's it, it's standard, and there's really no benefit in changing it.

1:14:54There's no life danger. There's nothing else. Once there's something that's already been practiced among Klal Yisrael, we don't change it. Even though it's not relevant anymore. Meaning Yom Tov Sheni is not really relevant anymore in regards to the time aspect of it. That's not the reason why we keep it. We keep it because it's the custom of Am Yisrael. But Dennis Prager doesn't agree with it. He also doesn't agree with the fact that you're not allowed to drive on Shabbat. Why? He says, listen, you know, they said that 39 melachot, don't light fire. You know, yeah, he has even videos about the Ten Commandments as if he knows what he's talking about. He even has commentary, his own heretical commentary on the Five Books of Moses. So he thinks that he knows what he's talking about. So he says, listen, I'm not driving to the mall with my car on Shabbat. I'm not driving to the store. I'm not working. I'm just driving to shul on Shabbat. Now, If he was openly Reform and everyone knew it, then I wouldn't even mention him. Like there are many other resha'im we don't mention. Why? Everybody knows they're Reform, they're demented. But here, his primary stage, other than the Christian world, his primary stage is in Modern Orthodox and Chabad synagogues.

1:16:05which, in essence, is supposed to be Orthodox. They give this guy Prager the stage, they make him even more popular by the day. They listen to his show, they watch his videos, they promote him, they highlight him, despite the fact that he's openly heretical against our Torah, by being openly against our Chachamim. If that wasn't enough, you know, you don't think that, oh, maybe he's acting alone. No, he's not acting alone. His whole thing is that he's promoted by a few well-known rabbis, well-to-do rabbis, one of them being from Chabad. Unfortunately, Chabad has many members, and some of them would be better off if they weren't even Jewish. Some of them are very good people, but unfortunately, some of them would be better off if they weren't even Jewish or weren't even born. because they cause so much damage. This particular rabbi is one of them that highlights and promotes Dennis Prager. Dennis Prager felt so comfortable with his own heresy that he even gets to the point where he makes videos about it. He laughs about it, thinks he's smart about it, and even marrying the goya that he married is also perfectly fine to him. You know, divorcing the Jew and marrying the goya that had a fake...

1:17:20Conversion? That's fine too. Why? Because, again, once you steer from one direction, from one halacha, it's only a matter of time before the domino effect occurs. The point being is that when we have a masoret, we have a masoret. We're not allowed to steer away from it. Whether that masoret is the direction that we pray, or that masoret is the way that we tie our shoes, or the masoret is how we put on our tefillin, or the masoret is which way we go this way, which way we go that way. Point being is, we have a masoret. A masoret is one of the foundations of Am Yisrael. We are the only nation in the world, the only nation in the world that can trace back our masoret all the way to the beginning. all the way to the beginning. The others do not have it. They don't have it. Why? There are skips; there are differences. You can't say that Christianity has the same mesorah, the same lineage. Why? It's several different religions within one umbrella of a religion. It's not just Christianity. You have Christianity, you have Catholicism, the Protestants, the Lutherans, the Seventh-day Adventists, this one, that one, all of these different sects. They're all, in essence, different religions, if you will, under the same umbrella of idolatry.

1:18:46So, it's not the same thing. And the same thing goes for everyone else. The point being, Abutai, Amir says, the only one that has the mesorah. Although we had different rabbis that had differences, that they disagreed with each other, it's all documented. It's all documented. He says this, he says this, he says this. They all say yes on this. But then there's a few that say no. It's all documented. It's all documented. Why? Because we need to know who said what and why. When someone decides to be their own rabbi and decides that their own commentary, from their own opinion, that does not connect to a real Rav, a real Talmid Chacham, who does not connect all the way to Moshe Rabbeinu, it's a different religion. And that's, in essence, what Dennis Prager and his other rationalist-type followers have. They have a different religion. They have no connection whatsoever with Elokei Yisrael, the God of Israel. whether it be Dennis or his students, some that are online, some that have written heretical books, some that are writing heretical columns and blogs, every single one of them, every single one of them has no share with the God of Israel. None whatsoever. It's not that I decided. This is what I was told it is. You go to any gadol, any giant sage, you go to Rav Kanievsky, you go to Rav Mazuz, you go to any giant in Torah, you tell them, these people,

1:20:14They're part of the same people. Not that they're Jewish. Yes, no, no. What they believe. Is that in line with what Moshe Rabbeinu said or no? Because if it's in line with what Moshe Rabbeinu said, maybe I should follow what they say. Maybe it's more convenient for my life. But if it's not, then obviously we cannot be the same people. We cannot be. So, important to note that even something as simple as praying in a certain direction is all part of the mesorah of Am Yisrael. Now, as a disclaimer, if someone makes a mistake and prays in the wrong direction, you don't have to repeat the prayer, and it's not necessarily a sin. You didn't do it on purpose. But the point is that if there's a custom that's already practiced by Am Yisrael, we stick with it. Okay, next question. Okay, thank you for everybody's nice comments. We should not forget our Creator. Yes, you're right. That's a given. There's even a pasuk in the Torah that says we shouldn't forget our Creator. But it's also very important to know that without our sages, we don't even know what our Creator said. See, the Christians, they don't have a very deep connection with their sages, if you will.

1:21:37Why? Because they have their Bible, their Bible that's just simply written, and you read it in your own understanding. Even though Shlomo HaMelech says, "Do not rely on your own understanding," and our Torah says repeatedly, "Don't rely on your own understanding," in Christianity, they rely on their own understanding, and they, in essence, have their Bible that has the New Testament, or what we like to call the False Testament. and a translation of the Torah, which they call the Old Testament, which is a mistranslation—not really a translation—because they translate things wrong on purpose in order to serve their agenda. But they say to everybody, "Listen, you read it and you understand what you understand out of it." Doing that creates a new religion. Doing that creates idolatry. In the Jewish religion, in the Torah world, We do not allow ourselves to understand things based on our own intellect alone. We have to have something to rely on. We either have to have a source in the Gemara, a source in Shulchan Aruch, a source in the Tanakh, a source in the Zohar, a source in the written or the oral Torah, bottom line. We have to have a source. Or from a rabbi. Or, you know, a Talmid Chacham. We have to have a source. We cannot just simply say, oh, I understand it that way and therefore it's that way.

1:23:00We have to have some things in the Gemara that have a source from the Chumash itself, from the Five Books of Moses, and that's the highest possible level you can have. But some things, they have something from the Tanakh, Nevi'im, Ketuvim. That's called an Asmachta. It's important, but needless to say, he still has to have a source. We do not read the Torah based on our own understanding, which means that we do not know what the Creator wants from us and what He said based on our own understanding of what the verses say. We have to have a source. meaning that you can't just read the verse and say, this is what the Creator said, but rather you read the verse and you see what the sages, the Jewish sages, who toiled and toiled and dedicated their whole life, what they said this means, and that's what it means. That's what it means. In essence, we need the sages to interpret the Torah for us. We cannot interpret it ourselves. So although you're right about not forgetting our Creator,

1:24:04It's not as simple as that. It's not as simple as that, meaning, yes, of course, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is number one and will always be. There isn't even a number two. But we need to know what He said. And since we have not toiled the last 3,000 years on our own. We are only alive 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years, whatever each person is alive in, right? 20 years, 15 years. So therefore, we're not on the level of Rashi. We're not on the level of the Baalei Tosafot. We're not on the level of the Rambam. We're not on the level of all these other sages. We're not. So we need to know what he said. What does this verse mean? For an eye, tooth for a tooth. What does it mean? If somebody poked my eye, I could take his eye out? No, that’s not what it means. That’s what the literal verse says, but that’s not what it means. You look at what the sages say. The sages say that "an eye for an eye" means that if you hurt somebody else's eye, you have to give him the value of the eye back, meaning in money. So how come there's no dollar amount on it? Because maybe his eye—for example, let's say he's just a regular cleaning person. He doesn't really need both eyes as much as, let's say, a surgeon. A surgeon's eye is probably worth $10 million, whereas the guy that's cleaning houses, his eye is probably worth, I don't know, a few hundred thousand.

1:25:24And again, these are hypothetical examples. Why? Because his income does not really rely on his eye, whereas a surgeon's income does. He can't be a surgeon anymore. So you're hurting him a lot more, and therefore you have to pay him more. So in essence, again, if it wasn't for our sages giving us the interpretation of the Torah, which is a very fundamental part of the Oral Torah, we would not know what God said. We would be dumbfounded, blind, and most likely idolaters, no different than the Christians. we did not have our Jewish sages, so although we obviously never forget our Creator, we always have to remember our sages as well. Gabriel, man, here we go again, trying to sell Torah for money. Yeah, Gabriel, I'm making millions and millions of dollars. Hahaha. You fall for money, all this. We automatically charge your credit card for everything you have because you watched me for free and... It's not for free. We are automatically, Facebook gives us access to your credit card, and we take every dollar you have and also your 401(k). I already have access to it. I'm looking at the stocks you have. I'm going to sell everything tomorrow because everything I do is for money because that's what you think, Gabriel. Stupid comments deserve stupid responses. That's what you get, Gabriel, man. I just don't understand you though. Why do you watch?

1:26:47Why do you watch if you dislike what we say? Why do you watch? Why do you bother? Why don't you go smash your head against the wall a few times? Maybe you'll get something better out of it rather than a sin. Think about it. If you don't like what we say, go watch something else. There's plenty of people that don't like us and Baruch Hashem, a million and a half more that do like us. You don't like us? Go somewhere else. Go fly a kite. It's no purpose of you earning another sin. You're killing yourself with silly comments like that, especially something that's completely false. If I wanted to go make money, I'd go to Wall Street. I used to make $3,600 an hour. $3,600 an hour. Well, probably you don't even make that in a month. I used to make it in an hour. If I wanted to go make money, I'd go there. To say that I do it for money is the furthest thing from the truth because I don't even take a salary from the organization, you fool. You think that I do it for money, and your comment affects other people, so I have to address it. I have to address it because people like you cause damage to Islam. I do it for money? Ah, Jonah, how can one combat internal arrogance? So, arrogance in one's heart—outward arrogance is relatively straightforward to stop, but inward arrogance seems harder to tackle.

1:28:05Jonah, it's a very, very deep question. Obviously, outer arrogance is, in essence, showing off certain things. Inner arrogance, you could pretend. You could pretend that you're humble. You could pretend that you're not as good as other people, like some people do. They walk low, and they see certain things. They even embarrass themselves in public. But in reality, deep in their heart, they think that they're better than everybody else. So how do you defeat it? You defeat it with more Torah. What does it mean with more Torah? The more Torah you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know. Again, the more Torah you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know. And I don't mean just learning one particular topic, but rather covering the entire Torah. You learn the Chumash each week with commentary. Perhaps if you're good enough, maybe a few commentaries. On top of that, you learn a few pages of Gemara, or at the very least one or two pages of Gemara each and every single day with commentaries.

1:29:08If you're advanced, read some of the Tosafot, read some of the other Mefarshim, go look at some She'elot u'Teshuvot, connect the two, read a Halacha, read the Poskim. The more you learn Torah, the more you realize how much you don't know, which you realize at that point that you have nothing to be arrogant about. Why? Because all the things that a person could possibly be arrogant about in this world are material things. But the truth be told is that those material things You can't take it with you anyway. That car, you can't take with you. That house, you can't take with you. Those looks that you have are not going to stay with you whether you like it or not. Everything at some point or another is lost, is left behind. So all the things that people are arrogant about are things they don't truly possess. They're not theirs. Because if it was yours, you'd be able to take it with you wherever you want. Your car, although you paid for it, it's not yours. Your house, although you paid for it, it's not yours. nothing is yours because you can't take it with you except your Torah and your good actions

1:30:13That's what's yours. Your sins also are yours. The point being is, when a person realizes what they actually have, they realize that the only thing they should be, should be arrogant or embarrassed of, are things they truly possess. Because all of the other stuff is not really theirs. It's like somebody stole the crown of the king and is acting as if he's the king. I mean, it's silly. It's silly to be arrogant about all these material things. So the more Torah that you're going to learn, the more you realize how much you don't know and how much you don't possess. And the point being is, nothing is yours because you can't take it with you except your Torah and your good actions. The less you have to be arrogant about. Now, to work on yourself cannot be simple by any stretch of the imagination, because to work on yourself means that you have to constantly repeat what I just said, and many other things like it, on a regular basis to yourself. You have to constantly test yourself. There's a very famous story about one of the tzaddikim in the previous generation, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak ben Berditchev. the less you have to be arrogant about. Now, to work on yourself cannot be simple by any stretch of the imagination, because to work on yourself means that you have to constantly repeat what I just said, and many other things like it, on a regular basis to yourself. You have to constantly test yourself. There's a very famous story about one of the tzaddikim in the previous generation, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak ben Berditchev.

1:31:10already was recognized as a big chacham when he was very young. And one of the wealthy people of the community saw, recognized his wisdom in Torah, and said, "I want him to marry my daughter." And he decided to take him as a husband for his daughter. Surely the daughter wants to marry one of the people who are going to be the next giant of the generation. And so they got married. Now, shortly after the marriage, it was Yom Kippur. So the gevir, the wealthy person, the father-in-law, wanted to celebrate with his son, but also show him off to the community, and he invited him to his community for Yom Kippur. And the community heard about all the good things about this Rabbi Yitzchak Miberditchev, this young chacham, and they wanted to give him kavod, they wanted to give him honor, by making him the chazan for the Kol Nidre, starting the Kol Nidre, the beginning of Yom Kippur.

1:32:10So Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Miberditchev walks up to the bimah, takes up the talit, and puts it down. Takes it up, puts it down. Takes it up a few times. And then he starts talking. No, you do it then. No, you do it. No, I'll do it. No, you do it. You do it. You do it. Okay, you know what? If you're going to do it, I'm out of here. If you're going to be here, I'm not going to be here. You do it yourself. Everyone starts to laugh at the wealthy man that just had his daughter marry this crazy person. He's talking to a talit on Yom Kippur nonetheless. But he didn't say a word. They continued praying. And after they finished praying later on that night, on the way home, the gvir says to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Miberditchev, "I don't understand." why did you choose to embarrass me this way? If you want to embarrass me already, why don't you just do it some other way? He says, no, I wasn't looking to embarrass you. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. So he says to him, the father-in-law says to him, that if you aren't looking to embarrass me, then what was that all about? What was that whole thing? You're talking to a tallit. He goes, no, I wasn't talking to a tallit. He says, what happened?

1:33:36He says, Baruch Hashem, I arrived at the shul, and everybody's giving me kavod, honor, and so on, and if that wasn't enough, they say, why don't you be the chazan for Kol Nidrei? And all of a sudden, I get to the bimah, and who shows up other than the Malach HaMavet himself? The Yetzer Hara shows up also. So I say to him, what are you doing here? He says, I'm going to be a chazan. I say to him, but I'm going to be a chazan. He says, "No, no, no, no, I'm going to be the chazan." He says, "Okay, so you be the chazan." He says, "No, I'm going to be the chazan. You be the chazan." They go back and forth. So Rabbi Levitz says to the Satan, "Listen, but I earned my way. I learned a lot of sefarim." The Satan says, "I learned a lot of sefarim too." He says, "Yeah, but I toiled and toiled in Torah." The Satan says, "I toiled and toiled in Torah with you." He says to him, "But I worked on myself." The Satan says, "I worked on myself too."

1:34:36says to the Satan, "If you know so much Torah, if you worked on yourself so much, if you think you're so good, and that's why everybody's giving you kavod, you'll be the chazan. I'm out of here. I'm not going to be chazan." Satan does teshuva with you. You think that you're getting greater, you think you're getting better, you think that you're becoming a tzaddik. After six months, six years, twenty years, you think that you have no sin under your belt. You don't realize that Satan is doing teshuva with you, and he's looking for you. He's looking for you to turn all of those mitzvot, all of that tzedakah, all of that chesed, all of the things that you have—he wants you to turn all of it into arrogance, into something that you think makes you better than other people. And that makes it all worth garbage. That makes it all go to the garbage, chaverim. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak miBerditchev was not only a talmid chacham,

1:35:42But he also understood his own limitations. He also understood that the Satan was looking to give him kavod. Why? To take all the Torah that he has and turn it into garbage. This is what a person needs to know. On one hand, in reality, if you compare yourself to some of the greatest rabbis in the world, some of the greatest talmidei chachamim in the world, some of our forefathers, already you have nothing to be proud of. Why? Because the only thing that you could possibly own is Torah and mitzvot, and they had a lot more than you, so what are you so proud of? What are you so arrogant about? That's in a simple way. If that's not enough, remember, even if you are learning, even if you are doing, even if you're reading and writing books already at this point, remember that the Satan wants you to express arrogance. Why? To take everything that you have and turn it into garbage. And that's unfortunately what's happened many times to different people that were doing good at first, helping people do teshuva, helping people get closer to Hashem in the beginning, but then they turned arrogant, and unfortunately, everything they did turned into garbage. And you see it from their speeches, perhaps even from their books and otherwise. Yaakov, I, Rabbi, my daughter is a bat mitzvah and has always been excited about Torah and davening, but lately, at 14, she has depression and sleeps. Seems to be her idol.

1:37:05What do I do? We can only think that the depression came from her scoliosis surgery, but it was in 2019. Her desire is only sleep. First and foremost, you should know that the Yetzer Hara grows with the person, especially after Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah. So the Yetzer Hara that she had when she was 7, 6 years old, 8 years old, 9 years old, 10, 11 years old, was very, very small to the point of insignificance, so that's why it was very easy for her to learn. She loved it. She had very little remorse, temptation to go against it, and so on. Once she became Bat Mitzvah, the Yetzer Hara grew even more, grew much more because now the mitzvot went from being something that she should do to something that she has to do. which is a very, very big difference. A very big difference that most people don't understand. The obligation to do a mitzvah and understanding that the mitzvot are an obligation is much more important than simply liking the Torah and liking the mitzvot. We do the mitzvot because we have to, and we get rewarded for doing the mitzvot because we have to.

1:38:29Not because we like it. It's good if you like it, but the main reward is because you have to. That's a person that serves his Creator. This person that serves his Creator because the Creator commanded him is much more important in the Creator's eyes than someone that just decides to do something for the Creator even if He didn't ask him to. Now, of course, you can say, yeah, but what about Chassidut? Chassidut is not different. Chassidut, in essence, is serving the Creator, but even more than what He commanded us. So you're doing what you have to, but even more so. So the point being is that since the Yetzer Hara changed with her bat mitzvah, because now she's obligated to do the mitzvot, whereas in the past she wasn't, That's a difficult battle of its own. The second thing is you're saying that you had some health issues. I can tell you from personal experience, it is very, very easy to want to sleep forever when you're sick. Very easy. It's very depressing. It's mentally challenging. The sickness is more difficult mentally than it is physically, even if you have pain.

1:39:39It's more difficult mentally to continue going up. So it's important to know that you have to be as patient as possible with them. So much so that the Gemara says that we don't judge someone who is in pain. Meaning, if someone who is in pain expresses anger, he doesn't get judged the same way as everybody else. If someone's angry and they break something, it's considered idolatry. If that person is in pain, it's not considered idolatry. why? Because once a person is in pain, you cannot judge them. Period. You can't judge. It doesn't mean that they're allowed to do whatever they want, but in essence, it is a very, very big leniency. A very big leniency, which we'll discuss another time, how big that leniency is. But nonetheless, when someone is in pain... You cannot judge them at all. At all. Why? Because being in pain is something that you cannot quantify. You can't tell somebody how much pain you're in. I can tell you that I have pain from 1 to 10 and I'm at a level 6. And to you, okay, that's not so bad. But in reality, next to somebody else, a level 6 may be like Gehinnom. whereas to that person, maybe less, and so on and so forth. So pain is something you cannot see. Pain is something you cannot quantify. Nonetheless, pain is not something that you can judge. So when a person is going through pain of some kind, it's very difficult. It's also an age where people tend to be lazy. They tend to be lazy, sleep a lot, and do a lot of things, even if they're not sick. Needless to say, if they are sick. So this all goes in line. What I would suggest is that

1:41:06you just simply ask her as best you can. to obviously follow the rules of the house, follow the rules of the Torah, not to desecrate it openly, but also try to reason with her, try to talk to her, try to have maybe your wife talk to her, see if there's anything you can do to help her. Perhaps maybe she wants to watch a shiur with you, or there's a video, or perhaps she wants to do other things, but you have to be very careful not to push her too far because she's already dealing with a lot. So you have to, with people like that, you have to, in essence, use the leniencies that are permissible to use. For example, there is no obligation for a woman to pray three times a day. Women simply need to say Shema Yisrael and the Amidah once a day. That's what a woman has to do. Now, if she doesn't, if she doesn't, then, you know, again, you could try to see if you can get your wife to talk to her or maybe perhaps reward her for it, encourage her to do it, pray together with her, see if you can get her to do it. Or perhaps, just again, there are certain times that you have to let certain things go because she's going through her own difficulties and her own tests.

1:42:15But I would say in this particular case, when there's pain and health issues involved, you have to be very, very patient. Very patient, but don't just do nothing either. Try to talk to her. Say, "You know what? I'll pray, and you just listen." At the very least, she knows that it's still in the house; it's still within. Even though it's not fulfilling the mitzvah at all. But at the very least, she sees that someone else is praying. Maybe she'll want to join you. Okay, you know what? You don't have to watch the lecture, but I'm going to watch it. Why don't you just at least sit next to me? You can do whatever you want while you're next to me, but just sit next to me. Listen to it in the background, and so on and so forth. Try to be reasonable with her. Again, because it's a very big battle. It's a very big battle, especially for someone who's young and doesn't have the same equipment as someone who's older and experienced. So you have to be patient with her as much as possible. Of course, you could try to see if she can talk to somebody more openly, whether it be your wife or the local Rebbetzin or somebody that she could talk to more openly to see if there's anything specific that's bothering her or causing her to be tired or causing her to be lethargic altogether. Is it depression? And perhaps even check if there's something chemical.

1:43:39It could be a chemical imbalance that may require some help. I don't necessarily recommend antidepressants very easily. In most cases, I don't think that people should use them. But there are some cases where people need to have them in order to survive and not commit suicide. So sometimes this could happen at different stages of life. So you have to sometimes check. Maybe it's a chemical imbalance. Not just simply a... uh, you know, being down or bored or something, but it's actually something physical, so you have to check. But the point is that don't give up. But also, don't push too much. Don't push too much at a time when she has pain and agony. Does using donations as a tax break take away from the merits of the donation and count as a payment in this world? a very good question. Uh, now if somebody's only donating for the sake of taxes, then, you know, most likely the donation itself is not worth very much anyway, not because of the loss of merit, but rather because if he only cares about the tax benefit, then he does not have much merit.

1:44:59that he's looking to acquire. He's looking to just simply acquire honor from somebody. So the Gemara says that Hashem brings merit to those who have merits and are looking for merits, and obligation is one that's looking for obligation. Meaning that if someone is looking to do a mitzvah, just itching for a mitzvah, let me see if I can help somebody, let me see if I could donate somewhere good. He's looking for something good to do. have merits and are looking for merits, and obligation is one that's looking for obligation. Meaning that if someone is looking to do a mitzvah, just itching for a mitzvah, let me see if I can help somebody, let me see if I can donate somewhere good. He's looking for something good to do. Hashem will bring him something good. He'll give him a good organization that helps people do teshuva, do chesed, and so on and so forth. He'll bring it to his attention that he'll donate to such an organization. But if he's just looking for a tax benefit, most likely the emails that he's going to get are going to be from the family zoo or from Jews and Christians Alliance or something like that, and he'll end up supporting idolatry. maybe to help save some whales or maybe donate for rescuing dogs, he's not going to donate to anything that's worth anything. So, there is no merit to speak of for such a person. If a person is donating for the right reason, then he's going to get the full merit of it, and the tax benefit is just a cherry on top. It's just a cherry on top as a result of what he's doing, but he's not doing it for the tax benefits. So, therefore,

1:46:20It does not take away from his merits, because he wasn't donating for the sake of taxes. Now, if he's encouraged to donate more today, rather than normally, because today will have a bigger benefit to donate for, tax-wise, than it will in, let's say, two days from now, once the new year in the Gregorian calendar starts, he should not refrain from donating anyway, simply because, again, it's one of the things we learned from Avraham Avinu. that when we have a mitzvah opportunity, we have to expedite it. We have to hurry after it; we have to run after it as soon as possible. If a tax benefit will motivate us to run after it, then so be it. Let that motivate us; let that be the motivator. Why? Because the mitzvah will have enough reward and enough good in it that we need to do it now. Whereas, if we delay, we could potentially open the door for the Satan to not only not have us do it the right way, but not do it at all. So if the motivation is tax purposes or some other type of motivation for donating now, it's still good to do it. It's still good to do it that way. Of course, a person should be donating at all times and whenever they can, but sometimes people need to be reminded and therefore use whatever tools you can to motivate you to do the mitzvah as soon as possible.

1:47:47Mike, I read that if the Rav embarrasses his talmid, the talmid will merit to understand the most complex halacha of commerce. Why does this benefit come through embarrassment? Isn't it considered murder to embarrass somebody? It's a very good question. Now, there are different forms of embarrassment. There is embarrassment that is intentional, and there's embarrassment that's unintentional. Now, it's not intentional or unintentional like we would typically understand. We might think that unintentional means, "Oh, no, he didn't mean to embarrass him, and it ended up being embarrassing." And if it's intentional, it might seem like, "Yeah, I wanted to kill the guy. That's what embarrassment is." No, that's not what I mean by that. Intentional but unintentional embarrassment means it had a purpose. Sometimes a rabbi will rebuke his talmid or tell his talmid something, and that will cause embarrassment. That will cause embarrassment for the person, but that was not the purpose of the rebuke. The purpose of the rebuke, the purpose of the rabbi telling his student that he's wrong, wasn't to embarrass him. The purpose of it was to tell him whatever he needed to tell him. It caused embarrassment, but nonetheless, it wasn't the purpose of it.

1:49:08The latter part is if you need to embarrass the person. You need to embarrass him because he's doing something that perhaps, you know, requires embarrassment. Such as the Rambam points out, one of the examples in Halacha, in Mishneh Torah, it says that if somebody talks in shul, You have to rebuke him. You have to tell him something to stop, and if he doesn't stop, you rebuke him again. If he still doesn't stop, you have to embarrass him publicly. Why? Because he is causing everybody's prayers in the kehillah to not be accepted by Hashem. All their prayers are being put on hold, and... You have to publicly embarrass that person if they don't listen to rebuke. So that type of embarrassment is a mitzvah, even though it's an intentional embarrassment. The other type of embarrassment that is unintentional is also a mitzvah. Why? Because he wasn't rebuking his... student. He was rebuking a student for the sake of helping the student. The fact that it helped him by embarrassing him in the process is not a bad thing. It's a good thing that he delivered the message to him. There was no other way to do it, meaning, for example, if you have medicine and the only way to give it to a person is through a needle. No one can say needles are good and fun, unless you're a crackhead. But in reality, no one says that needles are good and fun. I think even they don't mind.

1:50:31Why? Because they hurt. But you need to administer the medicine in a painful way. Why? Because you need the medicine. So sometimes the rebuke, the truth, has to come in a certain way that's painful, but nonetheless, it's not a bad thing. And if the Rabbi embarrasses his talmid with a good purpose, meaning to rebuke him, to help him, to show him something, and the talmid accepts this openly and welcomingly, even though it's embarrassing for him to realize that his whole answer... openly and welcomingly, even though it's embarrassing for him to realize that his entire answer what the halacha was is wrong. It is the rabbi telling them, "No, what you're saying is wrong. Even though it took you three days of learning and studying and preparing, everything you said is wrong. But here's the right answer." Surely, that's going to be embarrassing for that talmid. But if the talmid accepts it like he's supposed to, which is that although I spent three days... Getting the wrong answer. I'm still going to get fully rewarded for studying, and even more so now, I actually have the merit to learn the truth. Even though I spent, in essence, from some people's perspective, I wasted three days, and it's embarrassing that he's telling me that I'm wrong in front of 500 people because he can't afford not to tell me. They could think I would be right with the wrong answer, so it's embarrassing. But nonetheless, the talmid accepts this answer and,

1:51:57way he's supposed to. That's a good thing, and that talmid will have major merits for accepting the truth, even though it's embarrassing. A person that loves mussar loves not just listening to mussar but even accepting mussar intentionally when the rabbi tells him he's wrong, when the rabbi tells us she's wrong, and so on and so forth. You need to fix yourself, and you welcome it even though it hurts. you get rewarded handsomely both in this world and the next. But if a person is embarrassing another person simply for the sake of embarrassing them, then that's obviously bad. Like you're saying, it's like murdering somebody. But like I said, there's multiple types of embarrassment as we just mentioned. Martina, is plastic surgery kosher? If it's for a woman or even a man that is having major life difficulties, either they're not able to breathe or they have some type of deformity that's causing them to be made fun of or not get jobs or get married and so on, then it's good for them to do plastic surgery. You know, whatever they need, they should do, no problem.

1:53:15But if it's simply one of these people that just doesn't like themselves and they want to look like a mannequin, and they keep adjusting every little thing in their life, they adjust their fingers and their fingernails and their chin and their tongue and their eyes and their lips, that's a crazy person. That's forbidden. A person that has certain things to make themselves better looking in certain aspects is not necessarily a bad thing. is not necessarily a bad thing. In some cases, it's actually a very good thing. It's a very good thing. But, again, anything that's excessive other than Torah is not good. Crystal is asking, is it okay to have dogs around when studying Torah? Yes, it's okay to have a dog around when you're studying Torah. It's not recommended, but it's not a sin. It's not a sin. Dogs have a certain level of impurity. It's more relevant to Jews, but nonetheless, a dog can also be a little annoying at times.

1:54:37Depends what kind of dog. Depends on what's going on. But again, there's no prohibition against it. There's no prohibition against it. And sometimes, if that's what's possible, that's what's possible. No problem. Noahides are allowed to study Mussar and stuff like that. Noahides are allowed to study the Chumash, the Tanakh, and Mussar. That's what Noahides are supposed to study, meaning that they study everything that's relevant to them, which is the Tanakh with commentary on it. Even though it's part of our Oral Torah, it's relevant to them. They learn what happened, not just the story, but also the behind-the-scenes of what happened from creation all the way to the end of the time of the prophets, because it is relevant to them. There are many things that are relevant to them. They can also learn ethics from there, and also learn Mussar, because that's the ethics or character development that they need to learn anyway, like the rest of mankind, including the Jews. So Mussar and Tanakh are the primary places that a Noahide should find themselves, more so than anything else.

1:56:06Yes, there's no problem learning the entire Tanach. but don't delve too deeply into the parts that have to do only with Am Yisrael, like specific mitzvot. For example, when you get to the section that talks about tefillin, you can read the basic commentary by Rashi to understand what's being said there, but don't delve deeper into it. Nonetheless, if you have a Tanach with commentary by Rashi, Whether you're Jewish or Gentile, you could and should learn it.

1:57:30Ma'aser, he wrote Mussar, but it's Ma'aser. Tithe is gratefulness to Hashem for your parnassah. If you made money and bought books of Torah learning for your spouse or another family member as a gift for their birthday, it's more than 10% of what you made. Does that count as Ma'aser or tzedakah? It depends on what it is, because a man is obligated to learn Torah, and also they are obligated to have their kids learn Torah. So when you're obligated to do something, you cannot use your ma'aser, your tithe money, to pay for an obligation. You can't use your tithe money to buy love. You can't use your ma'aser money to, let's say, do things that you're obligated to do. So this would be counted as a gift. You give a gift. On the other hand, if you're buying something that's a, you're investing into Torah, you're publicizing a specific type of Torah, you're doing certain things that are not obligations, that could potentially be ma'aser. It could be potentially ma'aser. But generally speaking, the ma'aser is supposed to go for the sake of publicizing Torah,

1:58:52or helping people do teshuvah, even if that is your own household. So if the books that you're getting are going to help them get closer to Hashem and so on, it could potentially be ma'aser, but it's not always, because it depends on how much you have and what you have and what level the person is on. So a person that wants to make sure that they are giving ma'aser would not use the money that they're giving ma'aser to buy themselves books or to buy anybody else books, but rather to help the Torah be publicized, either help people learn Torah who are avreichim or people who are secular, help them do teshuvah. That's what you should use your ma'aser money for. But it doesn't mean that what you did is bad. What you did is perfectly fine. It's just that it most likely is not ma'aser. It doesn't qualify as ma'aser.

1:59:54Shabtai ben Anita. Should a Jew who is returning to religion after a generational gap go to yeshiva? Still learning Hebrew vowels and starting Aramaic. You inspire me to better myself. I can't stop watching Yeshayahu, and I have a rabbi that studies with me. Thank you for learning with me, Shabtai. I really appreciate it. As far as your main learning, you should do as much of it as you possibly can on your own. by watching our lectures, and reading good, authentic Torah books from legitimate Orthodox publishers. That's the minimum. But if you can go to yeshiva, if you're at the age of going to yeshiva, then you should go to yeshiva, yes. As a side note, again, I don't know how old you are and much about you. If you're a young person that's going to public school, then yes, you should leave the public school immediately and go to yeshiva, go to a Jewish school. Do not go to public school for a single day. But if you're already older, let's say you're in your 20s, where school is no longer an obligation for you, you could like to go to school, but you don't have to go to school.

2:01:14then if you have the ability to go learn in a yeshiva, I would recommend it, at the very least, even if it's for a month, two, six months, a year, however much you can. I have quite a few students that we've sent to different yeshivot, to Ohr Sameach, to Aish, to different places, when they first started doing their teshuva. In some cases, they only went for a month or two; in other cases, they went for a couple of years because that's where you could really focus all of that time and energy on learning some fundamental things that will take you much longer to do on your own with all of the distractions of life. So if you have the ability to go to yeshiva, then I would recommend you go to yeshiva. But if you don't have the ability, then continue doing what you're doing. But I wouldn't spend too much time learning the language. I would spend more time learning the Torah because the Torah is what's going to get you to Heaven. Not the language. There are plenty of people that speak Hebrew and even Aramaic that are going to end up going to Gehenom for eternity. Because you don't go to Heaven just for knowing Hebrew or Aramaic. But you do go to Heaven for knowing the mitzvot and then fulfilling them. So especially since you're in the early stages of teshuva, I would highly recommend that you focus on learning the mitzvot and learning the Torah and what happened and who, what, when, and how.

2:02:40more so than the language itself. If you have a large block of time to learn, let's say you could learn 10 hours a day or more, and you want to designate, let's say, a half-hour or even an hour of that time to learn Hebrew, then that's fine. But if you only have, let's say, two or three hours a day to learn Torah, then spending a half-hour or more on learning Hebrew, I think is not going to give you as much as you can get from learning more Torah. And anyway, you'll learn more and more Hebrew over time. So again, there are priorities and you have to look at everything you do like you look at an investment. Where am I going to get the most out of it? Both in this world and the next. Can your sins go to your parents' merit if they are old, if they're off the derech like the mitzvah one does? I feel my biological mother will be in Gehenom. Could I get her to Gan Eden by my mitzvot? I'm afraid not. I'm afraid you cannot get your mom to go to heaven by simply you doing mitzvot and she doesn't. She has to at least keep something.

2:03:58That's the basics of Judaism. She has to keep Shabbat, she has to keep family purity, she has to keep kosher. The very basics where if a person dies without keeping the mitzvot, they can't go to heaven, even if their son is the biggest rabbi in the world. But if they do keep the basics and they have a son or a daughter that does keep even more than the basics and becomes very important and does many, many more mitzvot than they're even required to do, then that extra merit can help that person. But that's also because the person is already in Heaven. But if the person does not keep the basic foundations of Judaism, they get no benefit from what their kids are doing because it's not to their... It's not that they're married. They didn't do anything for it. They actually did the opposite. Plus, it is said that if a person doesn't keep Shabbat, they don't go to Heaven. They go to Gehinnom. Yaakov Goldsmith. What is the purpose of a Jewish woman's life if her children have already grown up and she is no longer able to have children?

2:05:14Is the purpose of a Jewish woman's life to influence a husband and children to learn Torah? What if she couldn't be married for 80 years because she has no chen? This sounds more like a man asking a woman's question, which is not really the best idea, but I'll answer it anyway. A woman has a lot more purpose in life than simply having children. Anyone who thinks that the only purpose for a woman in the world is to have children is an idiot. Why? Because a woman is Hashem's daughter. She can fulfill mitzvot specific to women. She can do certain things that only women can do. And it's not just having children. Surely, having children is a great benefit of having women in the world. But needless to say, it's not the only one. So women can do much more than just simply have kids. But if she has the ability to have kids, she should have kids because if it wasn't for her having kids, the rest of the world would not be able to exist. But that doesn't mean it's the only purpose. It's just part of the purpose. Now, aside from that, if, let's say, for example, she can't have kids because, like you're saying, she

2:06:40is 80 years old, and she looks like, you know, a troll, and she wasn't able to get married, according to what your question is, because she's so ugly. First and foremost, you should know that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a match for everyone. Even someone that you think is ugly has a match in the world. And to be honest with you, statistically speaking, and just from my experience in the world for a little bit of time, I can tell you that it's actually easier, easier for ugly people to get married than for good-looking people. Much easier for them to find somebody to marry than for good-looking people. And the reason why is because they're less picky and they're looking more at a person's personality, which is really important. then they are looking at the superficial stuff like good-looking people do. And you also see that all of these celebrities that are getting divorced on a regular basis, like as if it's changing t-shirts, they're all very good-looking people, but they're miserable people with their good looks, and they're also promiscuous people. There's a Gemara where one of the princesses of the Goyim comes to one of the sages and says to him, you know, you're a very ugly person.

2:07:59And the sage tells her, okay, and he gives her some advice that causes her to lose or her father to lose a lot of money. And then he's brought in front of the Caesar and says, why did you do this to me? She said, well, she said certain things and I said something back. And I said to him, but she's right though, you are ugly. And he says, well, you may or may not think I'm ugly, but if I wasn't ugly the information that I gave her, you know, I wouldn't have, meaning the Torah that I know I wouldn't have. Why? Because if I was good-looking, I would spend more of my time seeking the admiration of the public for that good looks. So there are actually certain benefits to being ugly. The next point is that most people, meaning the overwhelming majority of people, will at some point turn ugly in their life and... If I wasn't ugly, the information that I gave her, you know, I wouldn't have—meaning the Torah that I know I wouldn't have. Why? Because if I was good-looking, I would spend more of my time seeking the admiration of the public for those good looks. So there are actually certain benefits to being ugly. The next point is that most people, meaning the overwhelming majority of people, will at some point turn ugly in their life and Although most people don't necessarily think they are, most people will turn ugly in their life due to age and different life changes. Whether it's in teenage life, where you have all types of acne and different types of things in your body you have no idea what to do with, or it's when somebody simply gets old and wrinkled and they're not their former self of 20 or 25 years old, like a bull that could rip trees out of the ground with their teeth.

2:09:25But the reality is that if a person thinks that looks are more important than what they are, then they may not be an ugly person physically, but they're an ugly person inside. And most likely they'll be alone or miserable or both throughout their life. So a woman does not need to be good looking in order to get married, and neither does a man. In fact, it's actually easier if you are less good-looking to find somebody because you're more likely to look for the important things in life. But either way, even with all of that being said, a woman who does not have a husband and does not have eggs to have kids can still be extremely productive and resourceful in the world by using her abilities, whether it's to work and make money, or otherwise, to publicize Torah, to help the world learn more Torah by doing kiruv, by investing in Torah, and so on and so forth. Which means that your question comes from a lack of maturity, chauvinism, and outer ignorance if you really look at it superficially. But at the same token, it was a valuable question, because at the very least, anyone else that has your question

2:10:48will now be able to learn the answers and not think that the Torah is a chauvinistic, sexist type of document that thinks that only the men have value because they learn Torah. This is what the reform-minded want you to think, that only men have value. It's the complete opposite. So much so that the Gemara and the Zohar HaKadosh both tell us that the Mashiach is only going to come because of the merit of the righteous women. And Am Yisrael was saved from the Egyptians because of the righteous women. So obviously, here we see that it's not just because of women that have kids, because some women didn't have kids. Some women, their kids died. Some women, they couldn't have kids and so on and so forth. So it's not just because of children. There is more to life. for a man or a woman than having children, although that is a very big plus. So it's a valuable question, which I appreciate, but at the same time, I have to make that comment that it sounds a little bit chauvinistic, the question, but hopefully it's because you're trying to help somebody else see the truth and not because you actually believe some of the things that seem to be implied by the question.

2:12:11Dana, your question got deleted. Maybe I don't know; I didn't delete it. So, um, what are the mitzvot that Noahides can do? The Seven Noahide Laws. I have lectures about the Noahides, what they should do, and you can learn that. Uh, my question got deleted, so I'll rewrite it, okay? The Torah allows donating our organs when we die. When you're alive, you could donate organs, like donating your kidney and so on. As far as once you're dead, some say no, some say yes, but it's a very, very touchy issue simply because there's really no need for you to donate your organs. And it's also very problematic

2:13:12to desecrate the dead body. So the general opinion is don't deal with any of this. Any donations of any organs or any bodies won't help you. Donate your time while you're alive. Donate your money while you're alive. Your body, the world doesn't need it. Just let Hashem take it back as it is. it's not a good idea to donate any organs after you die because it's very problematic as far as desecrating the dead body and so on. And there are plenty of non-Jews who are doing it anyway. But if you're alive and you don't need a certain organ, whether it be part of the liver or the kidney, something like that, then some even say it's a mitzvah to do it. You're saving a life or something like that. But there's... Better ways to do mitzvot. Put it that way. Better ways to do mitzvot than donating your body.

2:14:41I'm almost done. If someone has been, Yaakov was asking that question. Someone has been doing serious teshuva for a while and has acquired yirat Shamayim, recognizes ein od milvado, and understands that time is an unwarranted gift, yet one time he accidentally wasted an hour thinking he was doing things he thought were important but really weren't. What should he do now? Learn more Torah. That's what you do. Dana. I hear Shulim and the rabbi said that giving tzedakah will save the person in the next world. I personally know some people that don't keep Torah and mitzvot. However, they give tons of tzedakah. So how is it that they will receive reward in the next world? They will not receive reward in the next world. Whoever is telling them that they'll receive reward in the next world, is lying to them because he wants their money. A person that does not observe the Torah, does not keep Shabbat, does not keep the basics of Torah, and gives tzedakah, all of their reward will be rewarded in this world. As it says in a pasuk in Parashat Va'etchanan, Meshaleim el son'av el panav la'avido. Hashem pays His haters

2:16:04for their merits, giving tzedakah or doing anything, catch to their face in this world in order to destroy them. This is one before the last verse of Parashat Va'etchanan. A person who does not keep Torah and mitzvot will not get rewarded in the next world. They will get destroyed in the next world. They will go to Gehenom in the next world. They will not get rewarded for it. But if a person has some sins and some mitzvot, but it's not the sins that are irreparable in the next world, then the tzedakah will help them. But as far as if they don't keep any Torah, but they just donate money, it's not going to help them one bit in the next world. They'll get punished severely. And they're actually going to get punished even for giving that money. Even for giving that money. There's a pasuk (verse) in the Torah, and the Gemara, Masechet Ta'anit, talks about it also. Different people think that they can bribe God.

2:17:04There's no bribing God. You can't bribe God and have Him give you Heaven. If you don't follow Torah and mitzvot, no Heaven. Hi, can you please make the shiurim live on YouTube as well? One day. How do we fulfill both mitzvot of erasing Amalek's memory from the face of the earth and remembering what they did to us? If we erase their memory, then we can't fulfill the mitzvah of remembering them. Well, erasing their memory is not necessarily always killing the person, killing an Amalekite. We don't even know who Amalek is. Erasing the memory of Amalek is, let's say, for example, a person does teshuva, gets closer to Hashem, but she still has pictures of herself when she was young and practically naked in the streets. or he has pictures of himself when he was young and promiscuous with different girlfriends, most of them being non-Jewish. Destroying those pictures, destroying them from the face of the earth, is erasing Amalek. It's erasing Amalek.

2:18:19As far as not remembering Amalek, not remembering Amalek is a little bit of a different mitzvah. It's a little bit different mitzvah. Or remembering what they did to us is a different mitzvah. It's a mitzvah of acquiring Yirat Shamayim, acquiring fear of the Almighty, because the reason why Amalek felt comfortable fighting Am Yisrael is because of the Torah and because they had no fear of Hashem. So acquiring Yirat Shamayim in essence, remembering Amalek, plus there's a verse in the Torah that you read once a year or twice a year technically. But the point is that erasing Amalek and remembering Amalek is not just literally, you know, with a people named Amalek, but rather with certain things that are within your life, certain actions that are connected to Amalek. Like, for example, if somebody tells you not to go to a shiur Torah, even though it's a very good shiur Torah, or someone tells you not to keep Shabbat. or somebody tells you not to marry a good, kosher person. That's a character trait of Amalek. Ending that relationship, or even at the very least not listening to them, is a way of fighting Amalek. So Amalek is not just a person per se. There's more to it.

2:19:45Can there be any benefit to taking vitamins or supplements? Because Hashem is completely in charge of our health, is taking a supplement making a reasonable effort, or thinking we need to help Hashem? No, there's a pasuk in the Torah that gives permission for doctors, as well as chemists, and pharmaceutical companies, the right to cure people. And there are different things. Some of them are cures per se for specific diseases. Some of them are supplements. And there is an entire book that the Rambam wrote about different things that are supplemental. They're not necessarily cures, but they're supplemental to your health, different things that can help your health. It doesn't all work the same today as it used to work back then. But it's very effective medicine or supplements that you can learn from. And there are actually, I would say, quite a few books written about ancient Jewish medicine. But many of those things are not necessarily per se just medicine to cure diseases, but also supplements.

2:21:11Meaning that you are allowed to take vitamins or any type of supplements to improve your health for different reasons. There's no problem doing it. No problem. Now, as far as one thing I would add to it is to always remember that if it has a good taste, if the pill or the liquid has a good, sweet, or whatever good taste, then it has to be kosher. Then it has to be kosher. If it's a supplement, because you don't have to have it. But even if it's a medicine, it has to be kosher. If it doesn't have a taste or has a bad taste, then it does not need to be kosher. So, meaning like a pill that—actually, let's repeat. So, let's say if there is a vitamin or multivitamin that's gummy and it's sweet. If you're a Jew, you want to consume one of those gummy vitamins, it has to be a kosher one. You cannot eat one that's not kosher. Why? Because the non-kosher one has gelatin. It has gelatin in it, which is coming from the bones of animals, and it's not kosher. On the other hand, almost all pills have gelatin in them because they need it for the adhesive, for the pills, for the casing, and so on.

2:22:40So how come you're allowed to take those? They're not kosher. That's because all of those pills and medicine for your antibiotics and other types of pills that people take either have no taste or a bad taste that even a dog wouldn't eat. Therefore, the gelatin that they have has been destroyed to the point where it's no longer food. And that's why Rabbi Ovadia says that you're allowed to consume gelatin that has a bad taste or no taste. But you're not allowed to consume gelatin that has a good taste. Now, how would you know if the gelatin is the one that's giving good taste to the multivitamin that's gummy? You don't know. Therefore, you stay away from it, and you go find yourself a kosher jelly gummy vitamin. ...you want to consume that or medicine. If you don't care about the taste, then just take something that doesn't have a taste. You can choose whichever. Hopefully, that was a good explanation. But what is the Messianic era in the Tanakh and in Hebrew terminology? I ask because each time my husband hears the word "Messianic"—his mother tongue is Hebrew, and his second language is English...

2:24:02He understands "Messianic" as Messianics running around trying to be Jews. I'm unsure how to explain this to him. The Messianic era means that there is an era that is more likely to be the end of the world, where there are going to be certain events that take place in the world in order to prepare the world for the Mashiach to arrive. Now, we are in that Messianic era. To learn what happens in the Messianic era, you could watch our "Era of Mashiach" series or some lectures that I have, or Rabbi Mizrachi has, that discuss the different things that will happen in the Era of Mashiach. But in so many words, it's a time period where the whole world gets their last chance to do teshuva and to do the will of Hashem before the final Judgment Day. The final Judgment Day, we're in that final Judgment Day. Everyone will be, you know, in essence, anyone that's alive will be judged based on whether they followed what God said or not. If they follow what God said, then they will be rewarded eternally.

2:25:24If they don't, then they will be punished and possibly punished forever. The reason why I say possibly punished forever rather than definitely punished forever is all depending on how much they did that's against Hashem. If they did only a few things that are against Hashem, which is unfortunately quite common, then they'll get punished to a certain extent, but then get rewarded for the good that they did. But if they did big things like violating Shabbat on purpose without doing teshuva, wasting seed, eating chametz on Pesach, eating food on Yom Kippur, and other types of karet sins, without rectifying those by doing teshuva, then their punishment will be permanent once the Mashiach comes. So it behooves a person to learn more and more Torah in order to do teshuva, in order to get closer to Hashem. As far as people running around saying the Mashiach is coming or Mashiach here, Mashiach now, yeah, that's already been happening for a long time. It's nothing new. But the real messianic era is, in essence, an era where Hashem does different things in the world in order to prepare the world for the culmination of the world by bringing His Mashiach, who is going to, once he comes here, defeat

2:26:47and destroy all of the enemies of Israel and the enemies of the Torah, which is the vast majority of the world. At that point, after he destroys all of them, the righteous Jews and righteous Gentiles will serve Hashem to the fullest extent. Shortly thereafter, some say 40 years later, there will be a resurrection of the dead, which are going to be the resurrection of both the dead who were righteous and the dead who were wicked. Whereas the resurrection of the righteous, they will be resurrected and live in this world for another thousand years until the end of the 6,000th year. And the resurrection of the wicked will be a short-term resurrection where they will wake up, see all of the beauty and glory and awesomeness of the world and how Hashem is rewarding all of the righteous and all the things they're missing out on, and then they'll be destroyed. So, in essence, their resurrection is a form of punishment before their bigger punishment, which is in a different place. But again, the era of Mashiach is going to have multiple things. Number one, there's going to be certain things that happen in the world

2:28:12that test each and every single one of us to choose a side of whether you're going to be with Hashem and His Torah or against it. Then the world will heat up even more, and there will be a war called the War of Gog u'Magog, where the vast majority of the world will fight against Israel and the Torah. Then the Mashiach will arrive and destroy all of the enemies of the Torah and Israel. And the only survivors will be the righteous Jews, not all Jews, just the righteous Jews, and the righteous goyim, the righteous Noahides. Not all the Noahides, but just the righteous ones. Meaning, only the righteous will survive. And with that being said, they will then be able to bury all of the wicked, which will take some time, several years. I think it's seven years burying all the wicked because there will be a lot of dead. But you won't have to fertilize the world for a long time because of all that blood. Either way, after that, the glory of Hashem will be at the highest it's ever been. And then we'll be able to serve Hashem for another thousand or so years in this world, in the last thousandth year, before we go to a different world after this.

2:29:36Okay, if the righteous Jews will be resurrected from the dead when Mashiach comes, does that mean that they will leave Gan Eden to come back to live? Or are they not in Gan Eden yet? Oh, very good question, Rafael. There's two Gan Edens and there's also Olam HaBa. There's Gan Eden Tachton, Gan Eden Elyon, and there's Olam HaBa. So there's several different parts, several different parts even within them. So everyone that's in Gan Eden is in a good place, an amazing place, and a place that's much better than this world. But this world will change into a different version of itself once Mashiach comes, which will be superior to the Gan Eden that's available now. But then after that Gan Eden, when this world culminates at the end of the 6,000th year, they will all go to a different Gan Eden that's much more superior than anything else before it. And that's usually referenced as Olam HaBa. Olam HaBa.

2:30:38Jacob says, you're correct that she's in pain. Her spine was at 100 degrees. Oh, okay, so there you go. So you have to be very patient with somebody that's in pain. If COVID-19 is on red alert where I live, is it an obligation for a man to go to synagogue so he could pray in a minyan? Is it red alert? I don't know what that means, red alert. Does that mean anyone who goes outside dies? What does that really mean, COVID is on red alert? COVID has been around since day one. It's a non-obligation to go to synagogue to begin with, even more so a non-obligation to put your life at risk. So if somebody believes that their life is going to be at risk, by going to synagogue, then they should not go. But it seems like it's not really such a life risk to go to synagogue or to be outside with or without COVID. Because even though a lot of people have died, like I said many times, even from the beginning, it's not as bad as the news makes it seem to be. So, red alert, purple alert, burgundy alert—I don't necessarily think that it's as bad as people make it seem to be.

2:32:00But that doesn't mean that a person should go out there and start coughing on people and giving them hugs and kisses, too. Every person needs to do what the Torah says to do anyway, which is to keep your hands to yourself and to be respectful of other people's space and not touch anyone. That's actually something that we need to do throughout the whole year. Either way, if a person does that, I think they'll be fine, especially if they're learning Torah, doing mitzvot, and keeping Shabbat; they won't get hurt. ...they won't get hurt for doing those mitzvot. I mean, it may be for something else, but not necessarily for the mitzvah part. Sam says, "Can a convert use his or her mother's name, who's not necessarily Jewish, for the purpose of tefillah or mi sheberach?" No. The person that converts is no longer related to his biological father or mother. their father and mother are Avraham and Sarah. So a person that converts has to say that their father is Avraham and their mother is Sarah. Saying that their mother and father are their biological parents, he can say it if it's referencing, I don't know, your government documents, and if somebody asks you personally, but for the sake of a mitzvah, for the sake of spirituality,

2:33:25it would be considered a lie. It would be considered a lie. So he has to use Avraham and Sarah. And if a person has not converted yet and still has a problem with what I just said, they should reconsider whether they should convert or not. Because it doesn't seem like they understand yet what conversion is. Because they're connected to their past. And I understand that you're saying that it's your parents and you love them, that's fine, but Your parents are not at synagogue because they're not Jewish. What difference does it make if you mention their name or not? It means that there's something else here in this question. I don't want to go too deep into it, but the point is that a person should really, really think twice before they convert if they're still deeply connected to their past. If a person goes somewhere not good, for example, a church, because he or she was forced and pressured by the parents and by the husband, will Hashem still hear the person's prayers since he or she prays to Hashem only and doesn't participate in any other worship? A person who is a Jew is not allowed to go into a church. A non-Jew is also not allowed to go to a church because it's a place of idolatry.

2:34:51But there is a greater sin for a Jew to go to a place, to a church or a place of avodah zarah. And no, their prayers will not be answered when they are in a church. And no, they cannot use the excuse that someone pressured them to go to a church. Because they have to stand up for themselves, and they have to not go. And if they stand up for it like they would for anything else, they will eventually win. Shachar, when are we going to build the third and final Beit Hamikdash? And don't tell me "when Mashiach comes"; it's up to all of Israel. We're going to build it tomorrow. That's what the Gemara says when Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi spoke to Eliyahu Hanavi, and he said to him, "When is Mashiach going to come?" He says, "Tomorrow. Go see him."

2:36:02Go see him. So he went to go see the Mashiach. It was at the gate of Rome. He asked the Mashiach, "When are you coming?" And the Mashiach said, "Tomorrow." And the following day, he came, and he didn't come. So he came back to Eliyahu Hanavi, and he said to him, "What, is the Mashiach a liar?" He said, "No, he meant tomorrow, meaning that I'll come tomorrow if all of you do teshuva." So that's the answer. When is Mashiach going to come? When are we going to build the Beit HaMikdash? When we all do teshuva. When we all do teshuva. A person that understands what it means, Mashiach coming and the Third Temple being built, will not be so focused on Mashiach coming and the Third Temple being built, more than they'll be focused on doing teshuva and helping others do teshuva. Because if the Mashiach does come, then that means that everybody that has not done teshuva will be destroyed.

2:37:03...and that's not going to be a fun day, Jojo. Where can one buy Sefarim by Rabbi Eigan? Uh, interesting question. The reason why I say it's an interesting question is because Rabbi Eigan has books in Hebrew, which I believe you can get online... Different places, Hebrew stores sell them. But the English books, they’ve been published but you can't buy them anywhere. Why? No one's selling them. And there's one famous book by Rabbi Eigan called "Netiv Ohr" that was translated to English but... For almost a year, there hasn't been one available in America that I found online. Now, why is that interesting? It's interesting because of that shortage of such important books. We have been in the process of acquiring...

2:38:20a bunch of sets of his books, and we'll soon be publishing, posting the ability for people to buy them, but only as sets, not as individual books, for multiple reasons. So, in English, in English. So, Be'ezrat Hashem, the Be'ezrat Hashem page, will have the set of books of Rabbi, again, all of his books that were translated to English, will be available very soon, Be'ezrat Hashem, and they're amazing. There are so many books. We'll talk about it once we're closer to it, which is probably, you know, within the next month or so, maybe less. Okay, I was happy to be back, happy to learn with you. Hopefully, you were enlightened. and Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll take some of this to apply to our lives. As I said before, the important thing in life is to understand not just where we're going but also where we came from, to make sure that we apply the Torah to its fullest extent, whether it agrees with our opinion or disagrees with our opinion. The most important thing is to agree with Hashem's opinion.

2:39:49And be'ezrat Hashem, each and every single one of us gets closer and closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, publicizes the Torah, supports this Torah, and fulfills our own purpose in the world before Mashiach comes, before that final day of judgment, before that awesome day where HaKadosh Baruch Hu will show us that He is the one and only God in the world. Baruch Adonai le'olam, amen ve'amen. Hashem, Hashem, na'aseh ve'natzliach. Introducing the new Be'ezrat Hashem lecture center. We have Be'ezrat Hashem here in Cooper City, Florida on Sterling Avenue. In the same shopping center, we have a major kosher supermarket. Lots of Jews out here. Initially, we're going to start off this place next month with a place where we're going to do our weekly shiurim three times a week. And as the crowd grows, maybe we'll add some more shiurim in Hebrew as well. Initially, it's going to be for men and women in English. And then later on, we'll do some other things. Later on, we're going to need to transform this place also into a synagogue. But as you can see, the walls are empty. We need an enormous amount of books.

2:41:06We need a Sefer Torah, we need our own Aron Kodesh, we need a Mechitza, we need a Bimah, we need all the holy things that you need for a synagogue. Now, throughout the years, we've been very generous to other people who've donated Torah, who've donated money to different synagogues, and I'm sure that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to send us the right people to donate all of these things to our organization because all we want to do is spread Torah to the world. So anyone that is serious and looking to make a major contribution to our organization, whether it be the Sefer Torah, or the Aron Kodesh, or the Mechitza, please contact us, or simply go to our website, BezratHashem.org, and may Hashem continue to bless you.