Path From Angry to Humble - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (7)

0:13We're back in Ner Avraham here in Aventura. Sorry for the delay. We tried to do something new. It didn't work out at all. With all of the preparations, all of the sweat, and all the effort, Hashem didn't want it to happen today. Maybe tomorrow. We tried to make the shiur a little bit more interactive. We bought a very interesting and expensive camera system to try to make it more interactive. But be'ezrat Hashem, we'll try to implement it tomorrow. Even though today is not really a questions and answers shiur, usually there's a lot of questions at the end. So, sometimes people want to see themselves on camera, and sometimes other people want to see who's asking the question. So, b'ezrat Hashem, when we implement the system tomorrow, we'll have a couple of cameras, some pointing at me, and some pointing at you, to make you even bigger partners in the shiur itself, b'ezrat Hashem.

1:21But anyway, today's shiur is the continuation of the series on the Igeret HaRamban. Today's shiur will be for Iluy Nishmat Shalom Ben Yaffa. Also for Zivug Hagun, Parnasa Tova, Hatzlacha Rabah, and Berachot B'Kol Mikol Kol for Marina Mazal. And also for all of Am Yisrael. Now, the Iggeret HaRamban, Baruch Hashem, is helping a lot of people. Hopefully, it's helping you a little bit as well. Last week, we talked about anger. Quite a few people had some good feedback on it. A few people got scared, which is always a good thing. If you're scared of Hashem, then that means you're already going in the right direction. Unfortunately, in today's world, people think that being afraid of Hashem is a bad thing.

2:40And unfortunately, that's only because of the lack of knowledge that we have and understanding that we have of the Torah, of the commandments, and of our responsibility in the world. I was talking to my Rav today; we were going over today's shiur and a few other things. He has spent his entire life, Baruch Hashem, learning Torah. And I remember the first time I went to Eretz Yisrael to go see him. And I saw his library; it had something around 3,000 sefarim. So 3,000 sefarim is like a little mini library. Not even mini. And a lot of them had green dots on them. And my wife asked the question, she goes, what's the green dots? What's the green dots on the outside of the book? And he had this, you know, smile. He said, "Oh, I was hoping you're not going to ask this question." I said, "No, what's the green dots?" He said, "Oh, that's the books that I know." Most of them had green dots. What does it mean, I know? If you say I know something, what does it mean? It means you remember a few things. If I ask you a question about it, at least a 60% chance you can answer the right question. That's it. That's what it means. When he says I know, that means he knows them by heart.

4:05So, Baruch Hashem, now, why do I say this to you? He's not going to like that I told you this. He doesn't like to, but why do I tell you this? Because he says, Baruch Hashem, he spent his entire life learning Torah, doing kiruv, doing zikui harabim, and he says people live in this generation in some type of fantasy. where they think that they are brand new Baalei Teshuva, they just started keeping Shabbat a couple of years ago, or even if they were religious from birth, they're 15, 20 years old, 25 years old, and they automatically assume that their connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu is 100% Ahava, 100% loving Hashem. He says people live in a fantasy thinking that they even understand what loving Hashem is. Why? He says if you look at the books, you look at all the Sefarim HaKedoshim, and you look at how the Chachamim talked about Hashem, even though of course all of them loved Hashem, very rarely do you find it in the Sefarim that the Chachamim talk about their love for Hashem. It's very rare.

5:23You're never going to find a story in the sefarim of a bunch of chachamim stopping in the middle of the day to go into the woods, put some music on, and start singing, "HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we love you." You're never going to find that in the books. You're never going to find that they're going to have a party in the middle of the street singing about how much they love Hashem. How come? Because the Chachamim talked about fear of Hashem, being scared of Hashem. Now, how come we're so far? How come we think we love Hashem and we're not really exactly Tzaddikim? We're not Resha'im, but we're not Tzaddikim. We're not the Gedolei HaDor. And the Gedolim, all they talk about is being afraid of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. How come? Someone came to Rabbi Yisrael Salanter one time and asked him, "This fear of Hashem, this whole thing about being afraid of Hashem, why do you need to be afraid of Hashem? Well, I mean, okay, you made a sin, okay, Hashem forgives, no? Doesn't Hashem say He forgives? He forgives! No?"

6:41Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says, look at the sky. You see the sky? He says, yeah. He says, you see the stars? He goes, yeah. How many stars? He goes, I don't know how many stars. He goes, any one of those stars. How big is it? He says, it's huge. It's enormous. It could be bigger than Earth. Some of the stars are much bigger than Earth. Some of the stars you could put a hundred Earths in. He goes, but if you ask a six or seven-year-old kid, how big is this star? What's the kid going to tell you? It's this big. Why is a kid, why is a seven-year-old going to tell you it's this big? Because that's the way it looks from here. You look at the star, you look at it, this is how big it is, that's it, that's the star. But you, an adult, 30, 40, 50 years old, you know it's not this big, even though it looks that way. He says that's the problem. The only reason why you even have a question about fearing HaKadosh Baruch Hu is because you have no idea how big a sin is. You have no idea how HaKadosh Baruch Hu evaluates a sin in Shamayim. You think like the seven-year-old: it's this big. Because it wasn't such a big deal to make it. So what? So I looked at her once. Wow, what's the big deal, Hashem? There are eight billion people. You care that I looked at that one?

7:59eight billion people. I looked at one; I didn't look at all eight billion. Just one. I looked for five, ten, fifteen, twenty-five minutes. Why? Eight billion people, 24 hours a day. I spent five minutes looking at a girl who wasn't my wife. No, no, what's the big deal? It's just a quarter. No, it's just this big. The Rabbi says, "No, my friend, you think it's that big." In HaKadosh Baruch Hu's world, when He sees the entire picture of what happens, now He sees not just what you see, He sees what's going to happen as a result. He sees what's going to happen as a result in this world and above. Let's evaluate. Now you looked at the girl. 5 minutes, not a big deal, right? 2 minutes, 25 seconds, whatever it is. Your neshama records permanently every single thing that you look at. What is it like? Sometimes your mom asks you, "Honey, do you know where such and such is?" "No, I don't really know, I don't know. I don't really know."

9:04Three hours later, you need that tool, you need that thing, and you know exactly where it is. How come? When you were walking around the house, you saw it, but you just didn't pay attention. So when she asked you, you didn't know, you didn't care. But when you needed it, when it meant something to you, your neshama repeated that information to you and told you exactly where that tool is, exactly what you wanted. The priority list changed. When a person looks at something inappropriate, the neshama will record it permanently. And what ends up happening is that he's going to think about that when he goes to sleep. He's going to think about that maybe even 25 years later when he's with his wife and six kids. He's going to think about that image that he saw when he was 18, 19, or 20 years old. Now it's a problem. Why? It's going to create a dream, or perhaps it's going to create a reality. Different types of commentary, and Rabbi Yosef Caro himself says that if you wake up out of a dream—you had a dream, and you thought about some woman in your dream—and you wake up, and your wife is there. Yeah, but she's my wife.

10:30She's your wife, exactly. But you just had a dream about another woman, and now you touch your wife. Until when? Until you calm down. Why? So long as the thought of another woman is in your mind, Rabbi Yochanan says in the Gemara, if you touch your wife and it consummates in a baby, it could be considered a mamzer, an illegitimate child in Shamayim. why, yeah, but it was with my wife. Yes, but your mind was somewhere else. That's how important the mind is. So now, an average person is not going to think like this. He's even going to laugh about something like this. What, are you crazy? What are you, this? What are you, that? So then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to tell you, "Wait a minute, look, you looked at this..." Precious neshama, her father's a nice rabbi, her mother's a nice rabbanit, they worked their whole life to make sure that they give a good education to their kid, and now one day, they're going to find out that you looked at her. When are they going to find out? When they're in shamayim. It's going to be embarrassing to them in shamayim that you looked at their daughter inappropriately. And the point is, rabotai yekarim, the magnitude of the sin, the magnitude of the effect,

11:45of a simple thing that we take for granted, is shown to us in such a big way, that we realize that after all, it's not this small. It's not this small. In fact, it's not even this small. When HaKadosh Baruch Hu looks at things, it's very, very different. Where do we learn an example of how HaKadosh Baruch Hu looks at things? In last week's parashah. Anyone that read last week's parashah, The parasha of the Meraglim. In the parasha of the Meraglim, we had 12 spies, 12 people that started off the parasha, and they were called Rashei Yisrael. They were called the heads of Yisrael. What does it mean, heads of Yisrael? The biggest tzaddikim. The biggest talmidei chachamim. No, no. The biggest rabbis in Eretz Yisrael. In Am Yisrael. The biggest rabbis. Yehoshua ben Nun, Kalev ben Yefuneh, and so on and so forth. These 12 went to the Land of Israel, which was called Canaan at the time. They saw giants, they got scared to death, they ran back, they couldn't control themselves, they said a bunch of things that were inappropriate about the Land of Israel. Even more so, they said something inappropriate about Hashem.

13:11Where they said, yeah, we understand that Hashem promised a land of milk and honey, but there are giants there, and they’re stronger than us. Rashi says, what does it mean they’re stronger than us? They were referring to stronger than us, meaning these giants, they’re so big, they’re stronger than Hashem. Which is kefirah, which is heresy. You’re thinking that anything in the world is stronger than Hashem? Hashem punished them severely. Now, how did He punish them? I told you this a little bit on Sunday, but even more so, Hashem wants us to get to know Him in this parasha. And He says, Yom Lashana, Yom Lashana, Tis'u et avonoteichem, Arba'im shana ve'yeda'tem et tenu'otai. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, Because, you went there, you 12 meraglim. 10 out of the 12 sinned. They said good things. Hashem says they're going to see the land, they're going to go to Eretz Yisrael. Mashiach is going to come from one of them and so on and so forth. Good things. The other ten that spoke negatively about Eretz Yisrael...

14:28You're going to get punished like the rest of the people that followed you, which unfortunately was the entire generation. How are you going to get punished? He says, like the number of days that you spent in the land, you went, how many days did you go to the land? 40 days. A day for a year, a day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities 40 years. And you shall comprehend straying away from me. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says... you went there for 40 days. You saw what you saw, you came back. The sin itself was really four seconds, four seconds it took them to say something bad about it. But let's call it 40 minutes. That 40-minute conversation, Hashem says, even if it was 40 days, we're going to count every day that you went there, for each day, a 40-year punishment. Each day, one-year punishment, meaning...

15:28HaKadosh Baruch Hu's time span is very different. We think that a sin maybe is going to give us a little small sentence, a little small, no big deal. In Hashem's eyes, it's a big deal. Something that took 10 people literally a few seconds to do gave an entire generation a punishment of 40 years. And what does Hashem say at the end? From here, you're going to learn what it means to go against Me. Meaning, He's not saying, "Listen, I'm going to punish you and that's it." No, no, "I'm punishing you, but I'm also teaching you." what it means to go against Me. Meaning, He's not saying, "Listen, I'm going to punish you and that's it." No, no, "I'm punishing you, but I'm also teaching you." What am I teaching you? You may think that saying something bad doesn't have that much value because from your perspective it's limited. It's limited that you looked at something inappropriate. It's limited that you ate something inappropriate. It's limited how something seems from your perspective. Hashem says, I see the whole picture and I'm going to punish based on the whole picture. So it took you 40 seconds, but the punishment is 40 years. For who? For everybody involved. Who was everybody? The entire generation.

16:38So, this Rabotai, if that doesn't scare you, I don't know what would. That's why the Chachamim, when they write it in the Sefarim HaKedoshim, their holy books, that's why they're constantly talking about being afraid of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And very rarely do they talk about loving Hashem. Even though they love Hashem, and I wish, I wish that any one of us would simply be the dust they walked on one time in our life. I wish we could achieve such a degree. But the reality is, In our generation, you have many, many people thinking that they're even bigger than the Tzaddikim. They love Hashem. Why? They did Teshuvah last week. They started keeping Shabbat. And they started wearing the Tzitzit. They're for sure lovers of Hashem. Even though the Tzaddikim themselves barely talked about it. What does it mean? Rabbi Efraim says it just means that we have no idea how big the star really is. Our knowledge is like the knowledge of the seven-year-old.

17:39The seven-year-old that thinks the star is this big, even though really the star is the sun, which is 90 million times the size of Earth. Now, the Iggeret HaRamban, the Ramban writes us a fantastic letter 900 years ago and tells us, detail by detail, line by line, word by word, of different things we should stay away from. He starts off by telling his son and telling us that if we're going to communicate, you have to make sure that you have the right way to communicate. If the audience is young, make sure that you relate to the young. If the audience is old, make sure you relate to the old. If you are Going to speak, sometimes you have to speak to people strongly, sometimes in a softer manner, but nonetheless, always take things based on where they stand, not where you stand. Why? Because if you want to help somebody, because you care about them, you have to care about where they stand, not where you stand. It doesn't matter that you're right. It matters that they understand that you're right. And then he says that if you're going to do this, you have to make sure you communicate effectively.

18:59And you're going to care about them. You're going to never get upset. You're never going to get angry even if they don't listen to you. People think sometimes that because you raise your voice or you lower your voice or you do something with your voice, they assume a feeling. It just means you know how to fluctuate your voice. The Rambam says to make sure that when you communicate to certain people, you know where they stand and don't take things personally if they listen or even if they don't listen. because if you get angry, everything will be thrown in the garbage because somebody that gets angry, as we learned in last week's shiur, all of the bad, all of the evil, all of the worst things on earth, take control. All of the good intentions that you had get thrown in the garbage. you came to help this young man, you came to help this young woman, but instead of giving them guidance, you started yelling at them because they disagree with you or because they don't know what they're talking about. Whatever the reason is, you start yelling and screaming at them. Well, guess what? You're better off not talking because now, for sure, they're not going to listen to you. And even if they listen to you, they're not going to listen to you because they want to; they're going to listen because they're scared, and that's not exactly going to be very productive.

20:20That doesn't mean that you shouldn't say scary things if it's according to the Torah. It just means you need to know who you're dealing with. Because if you get angry, you lose your temper, even if it's between you and your brother, even if it's between you and your best friend, even if it's between you and your child. Once you get angry, it's no longer a mitzvah. Now then, he continues, the Ramban continues, he says, once you've distanced yourself, you've saved yourself from this anger, the quality of humility will enter your heart. And this humility is the finest of all traits. He says, once you save yourself, from the worst possible character trait that exists, which is anger, you will start understanding, you will enter the door of humility. What is humility? Humility is the best trait, meaning you're going from one corner to the other. Now, when somebody's angry, what are they really showing you?

21:44Hamim explained that when someone's angry, it's not only their expression of anger—cursing, yelling, breaking things, all the actions that make everyone else uncomfortable. It's not just that. It's actually a way for a person to express different types of limitations they have that they may not even be aware of. First and foremost, if a person feels the need to express his anger or her anger, it always means that they're self-conscious. They feel like nobody's paying attention to them. They feel like they're not important, that the only way they can sound important is if they intimidate the other person. So they raise their voice, they yell, they shake things up, they throw things around. "Listen to me!" And they're like, "Oh, okay, now listen." Why can't you say it quietly? Why can't you say it in a normal way? "Oh, I didn't know if you were going to pay attention, so I wanted to scare the heck out of you." The guy that's angry, the woman that's angry, what ends up happening is that because they have no confidence in themselves, because they don't feel like they're being paid attention to, they feel the need to yell.

23:02in order to get people's attention. They feel a sense of inferiority. But even more so, aside from lacking self-esteem, it also shows that their confidence is dependent on the opinion of other people. This, although it's very common, that people do care about what other people think, It's very common. It makes you normal. It's a sad state of affairs. It's a sad existence. Why? If you spend your whole life caring about what people think of you, and that's going to influence your behavior, then it's only a matter of time before you arrive at a state of depression, realizing it is impossible to make everyone happy. Why are you going to try to make such and such happy? So, you're going to do whatever it is that he wants you to do. But now, after you do what he wants you to do, you realize that what she wants you to do is different than what he wants you to do. So now, you're going to say, "Okay, maybe I'll balance. I'll do a little bit of what he wants me to do, and I'll do a little bit of what she wants me to do, and that way, I'll make both of them happy." Guess what? Somebody else in your life will say, "I can't believe you're doing this. I can't believe you're doing this to me."

24:25Why did you do this to me? What did I do? Oh, you're doing what he said. Oh, that's not what you want? And you realize she doesn't want, he doesn't want. Somebody's always unhappy with you. Somebody's always going to tell you that whatever it is that you're doing is wrong. And if your happiness is going to depend on everybody else's opinion, it's only a matter of time before you realize that you've spent your whole life trying to make everybody happy except yourself. So even if you've succeeded in making this one happy and that one happy, you forgot about what makes you happy. And even more so, you forgot about what makes HaKadosh Baruch Hu happy. Now, a normal soul will always have what makes her happy, which is what makes HaKadosh Baruch Hu happy. Why? Because they're connected. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave a piece of Himself, and that's called the soul, that's called your neshama. That neshama wants exactly what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants. Now, if you try to constantly make people happy, sometimes those people want what your neshama wants, but many times they don't. Many times, instead of coming to the shiur Torah, they tell you, why don't you come to the bar?

25:38Instead of coming to the shiur Torah, why don't we go play some pool together? Instead of coming to the shiur Torah, let's go for lunch, let's go for dinner, let's go play video games. Let's go light some firecrackers and see how they blow up in the air. Let's go do something, anything, but go to the shiur Torah. Why? Because the yetzer hara is what influences them, not the neshama. The neshama is already asleep over there. So if you're going to constantly try to make your friends happy, and this one happy, and that one happy, you're going to forget about your own neshama, you're going to forget about HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and you could live literally a life, 50, 60, 70 years, completely wasting your time only to arrive at the same conclusion that many celebrities arrive at right before they commit suicide, which is that it's impossible to make everybody happy. But now they've wasted 50 or 60 years of their life, and they don't even know where to begin. And that's why you see that many of these celebrities, even though they seem like they have everything... completely wasting your time only to arrive at the same conclusion that many celebrities arrive at right before they commit suicide, which is that it's impossible to make everybody happy. But now they've wasted 50 or 60 years of their life, and they don't even know where to begin. And that's why you see that many of these celebrities, even though they seem like they have

26:42the life everybody else wants. They have a hundred million dollars, the cars, the houses, the wife or wives, and husband or husbands, and kids with every one of them just to make sure they fulfill their obligation to every community. And you know, many, many covers of CDs with their bodies on it, sometimes with, sometimes without clothes. And you know, many movies that say, "Oh yeah, this movie was a blockbuster because of such and such actor." But then you see the such and such actor hang himself like many of them do, or kill themselves in some unusual way. And you ask yourself, why? Why'd you hate yourself so much that you hung yourself with a belt? Like that comedian did a couple of years ago, Robin Williams. He thought that his problems would end by killing himself. The same thing happened with the lead singer of Linkin Park, who left behind five or six kids and two or three wives. He thought his problems would end because he died. Another example is the famous chef who had a TV show and also killed himself.

28:06something with borders or something you travel to. What, Jeff, what is it? Bourdain? Anthony Bourdain? Oh, you said the name, or at least I thought you said the name, and I remembered it. His name was Anthony Bourdain. He was a Jew. All of these people were Jews. All of them were successful money-wise. All of them had people that cared about them, but all of them killed themselves in a strange way. Now on TV, they all look like they make everybody happy. Robin Williams, funniest guy alive. How could he not be happy? Little do we know that making people laugh is a defense mechanism to drown out your own depression. How come, why don't they just, if they didn't like their career, why don't they just quit? If they didn't like their life, why don't they just fix it? because they figured that they've spent already 50, 60 years achieving all the things they wanted to achieve, now they've achieved them and they're still not happy. So they figure that there's no point, because they have no idea where to start off. So the Ramban tells us that if a person understands his mission in the world, his obligation to himself,

29:29and to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the world, you can already start off on the right foot. You can already start off with an understanding, a clarity, that okay, this is what I have to do. Whether you do it or not, that's up to you. But at least you know what to do. You have a set of instructions. Which means, if you ever feel down, if you ever feel a little depressed, if you ever feel stressed out, No, it's not the situation. It's not money. It's not that you don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend or wife or husband or the job or whatever it is. It has nothing to do with material. It only has to do with a deficiency that your neshamah is telling you it has. Something is missing. If you have any negativity in your life, it's only because there's a distance between you and HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu is sending you a message. I'm sending you a bad feeling. Why? You're not connected to Me. I'm the source of good; you're not connected to Me, you cannot get good. You thought you were going to get good from getting a new iPhone. You got the new iPhone, and you're still miserable. You thought you were going to get good by getting the new iPad. You got the new iPad, and you're still miserable. You thought you were going to be good after you got the new car. You got the car, and you're still miserable. The new house, you're still miserable. The new wife or husband, you're still miserable. Sixteen kids, still miserable. Why?

30:53Because materialism cannot make you happy. Because happiness is a spiritual thing. And material cannot change that. It can impact you temporarily to give you a state of elation. but it's not going to change your state of existence, of how you actually feel about yourself. So when somebody's expressing anger constantly, they're giving you a clear message that not only are they unhappy with you, but even more so, they're unhappy with their own self. They're unhappy with their own circumstance. And that's why the Ramban says, if you not only Get away from this anger, but you save yourself from the anger. Tinatzel, tinatzel literally means save. Save yourself. Save yourself from what? Imagine somebody standing in the middle of traffic, and cars start coming, and somebody pulls him out of traffic. He didn't realize; he was, I don't know, walking, texting while he was walking. He didn't realize what was going on. Next thing you know, he was in the middle of the I-95 with 75 cars coming at him.

32:03Somebody pulls him out. What is that? He saved him. The guy just saved your life. Oh, thank you. He saved my life. So the Ramban says, if you've overcome anger, you saved your own life. Because a life full of anger is no life at all. Now, even more so, when a person has the worst middah, the worst character trait, He also does things that disgust Hashem. One of them is that he's angry because he thinks that everything should go his way. And this comes from arrogance. This comes from, "I'm right, you're wrong by default." And HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a verse in the Torah that says it's considered disgusting in the eyes of Hashem, anyone that's arrogant. Anyone that has arrogance, anyone that thinks that they're better than anybody else, in the eyes of Hashem, that type of behavior, that type of attitude, that type of mentality is considered disgusting. Now, who wants to be disgusting in the eyes of Hashem? Raise your hand. Nobody wants to be disgusting. All of us will try. Why are we here in the shiur Torah at 10 o'clock at night? Why does Hashem love us? How does Hashem love me? If Hashem loves me, then good things are going to happen.

33:29If Hashem is disgusted by me, then I can't really expect anything good to happen from that. Now, last but not least, this sense of anger, the reason why the Ramban says you have to save yourself from it, is because as long as you have anger, you can never have the best midah, the best character trait. What's the best character trait, as we just said? Humility. What's humility? When you humble yourself, it doesn't mean that you think nothing of yourself. Like people think in this generation, for whatever reason, people think that humble people are losers. That if someone's humble, then you can just walk all over them. That they have no confidence, that they're just... You can just beat them up, you can bully them around. No, humility doesn't mean you let people bully you around. Moshe Rabbeinu, as the book of Numbers says...

34:29He was the humblest man that ever lived. It says that he was very, very humble. Why very, very humble? It says that no person in the world could ever be like him. He was the most humble. Why? Because even if he saw somebody that had the disease called Tzara'at. Anybody here know what the disease Tzara'at is? Tzara'at is a physical and spiritual disease. not only does your body hurt because it literally turns into snowflakes and infections, but also even your spirit, even your neshama, hurts. The only way, the only cure, is teshuva. The only cure is when Hashem decides, "Oh, okay, you did teshuva, you fixed yourself. Okay, then I'll cure you." There's no medicine, there's no lotion, there's no doctor, nothing. Anyone who doesn't believe this disease exists, you should go to Eretz Yisrael in Yerushalayim. There's a hospital specially made for people that have tzara'at. Why? Because there's no cure. Once you enter, you cannot leave. The only miracle, the only cure is a miracle. Hashem decides to cure you. There's a hospital in Yerushalayim for people that have tzara'at. A machloket. Identical, unfortunately.

35:50identical. Unfortunately, it's a life full of suffering. Now, some people have more, some have less. You know, not everybody has the same level of suffering, just like not everybody has the same type of cancer. Not everybody has the same type of diseases. But nonetheless, yes, this exists. This is real. But unlike the times of Moshe Rabbeinu, today we don't have a cure. Back then we had Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu could pray for somebody and cure him in five seconds. His sister Miriam, two weeks ago in the parasha, it said that Miriam had tzaraat, the whole nation prayed for Miriam, and nothing happened. Moshe Rabbeinu said five words, and she was cured. We don't have Moshe Rabbeinu. We don't have Moshe Rabbeinu. So what do we have? We still have HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but that means we need a lot more... We need a lot more prayers than just the average person. The point being, Rabotai, is that when a person had tzaraat, this sad state of events, this sad state of affairs, he or she would have to be kicked out of the camp. You can't be next to them because it's contagious. The Gemara says someone that has tzaraat should be considered as if they're dead already.

37:13It's only a matter of time. If Hashem doesn't make a miracle, it's only a matter of time. So the Gemara also says, what does it mean that Moshe Rabbeinu was the humblest of all men? It says that even if he looked at somebody that had tzaraat, he would say, "Wow, he has some good qualities about him. She has some good qualities about her. I wish I was like him." He wouldn't look at the tzara'at. He wouldn't look at the fact that they're being punished and they have this disease that only Hashem knows if they're going to be cured. No, no. Moshe Rabbeinu would look at only the good things about this person and say, "I wish I had that too." So it doesn't mean that Moshe Rabbeinu thought of himself as a loser or somebody that you could just step over. No. It's that he saw good in everyone. Even more so, he saw that whatever good he had himself, He was strong, he was the smartest man that ever lived, he was the only one that spoke to Hashem face to face, and for anyone that's questioning whether he was the smartest man that ever lived because you heard many rabbis say that Shlomo HaMelech was the smartest man that ever lived, because that's what the pasuk says, but that's only because Shlomo HaMelech was compared to every man. Moshe Rabbeinu was already considered half malach, half man.

38:34And the pasuk says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave the wisdom to Moshe Rabbeinu that's one level below G-d. Whatever that means. So when Shlomo HaMelech got his wisdom, he wasn't compared to Moshe. He was compared to everybody else. Because there's nothing to compare to Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu had a special relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Now, as smart as he was, as strong as he was, as rich as he was, he's a multi-billionaire. He made a lot of money from the broken Ten Commandments. Hashem said, take the small little pieces and sell them. You can make a fortune so you have your own money. You don't have to wait for anybody to give you tzedakah or anything. Because the people thought that maybe he's stealing their money. So Hashem says, you'll have your own money, you'll have your own thing. Long story short, that as much as Moshe Rabbeinu had, he still saw that every single human being had something that he could admire. And anything that he had himself was simply a gift from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's humility in a box. That's humility in a box. Not only seeing the quality of other people, but also understanding that whatever you have,

40:02It's simply gifted to you by Hashem. You didn't work to earn it. It's not some, you know, you got it. You have money? Hashem gave you the money. You have good looks? You didn't create yourself. Hashem created you with those looks. You have a brain? Hashem makes that brain work. You have nice eyes? Hashem made those eyes the color that you think is nice. You have good kids? Hashem decided those kids will belong to you. You have a successful idea, who do you think gave you that idea? Anything you have is only thanks to Hashem. You have a bad idea, it depends how you got the bad idea. Is the bad idea a result of you distancing yourself from Hashem? Or is it a bad idea just because you perceive it as bad because the current results are bad? Sometimes the results look bad, so you think it's bad. You think that, oh, I decided to make a right, and I should have made a left. Should have made a left. Should have made a left. Right. I thought it was a shortcut. I ended up running into traffic. So you thought, ah, I had a bad idea. Hashem gave me a bad idea. No, my friend. Hashem gave you a good idea. You just see it as a bad idea. Why? Maybe on the left, there was a car accident.

41:27Maybe on the left, there was something much, much worse that you don't even know existed. Maybe Hashem wanted you to miss the appointment because if you would have made the appointment, you would have gotten the client, and if you would have gotten the client, that client happens to be very litigious, likes to sue people. He likes to start business but then he likes to sue people for it. I had some people like this. The point being, rabotai, is that it all depends on how you perceive things. Now, if a person has anger and has not saved himself from anger, if she still gets angry every single time somebody tells her what to do, if she still gets angry every single time somebody looks at her the wrong way, if she still gets angry every time her husband or her brother or her teacher says something and he uses a certain type of tone, Then the Ramban says, that person can never ever be humble. Because he didn't, because she did not save herself from anger, she can never get to the middah of humility. Why? Because the two belong in two different worlds. Anger comes from arrogance. If you're angry, that's because you believe the world should run according to your tune.

42:50you say something, it's supposed to exist as if you're God. If it doesn't happen, you're upset. Well, how could it not happen? I said it should happen. Why didn't it happen? You got in my way, as if you run the world. So that comes from arrogance. If you have arrogance, arrogance and humility cannot coexist. Just like HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, in a place where there is Avodah Zarah, I cannot be. If there's a statue, I'm not there. If there's arrogance, I'm also not there. Why? Because arrogance in the eyes of Hashem is considered as if you are worshipping yourself. So if you have anger, you have arrogance, you do not have humility, and unfortunately, you do not have much of a connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And that's why the Ramban views it as actually literally saving yourself. Now, somebody that starts thinking about it says, wait a minute, how could this be that you can't get angry? Moshe Rabbeinu got angry. Moshe Rabbeinu got angry. We know, we spoke about it on Sunday. Moshe Rabbeinu himself got angry, but yet it says he's the humblest man that ever lived.

44:01How could it be that he got angry, but at the same time, they say, HaKadosh Baruch Hu writes several times that he has humility that is unchallengeable? It all depends on what you get angry about. If you have humility, then you will never get angry at what somebody else does. You'll never get offended by whatever somebody does. Even if somebody curses you, or yells at you, or insults you, or defames you, you're not going to get angry. Why? Because if you have humility, that means that you understand that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the one that's running the show. It's not you. It's not you. It's Hashem. As Rabbeinu Bechaye says almost a thousand years ago, it's not him, it's Him. Someone that has confidence in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, someone that has a connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, knows that whatever is happening in their life, whatever thing, whatever stimulus is causing people to go crazy, it's not that, it's that.

45:21It's not her that's yelling at you. It's Hashem that's yelling at you. It's Hashem that's telling her to yell at you. It's not him that's firing you. It's Hashem who told him to fire you. Why? He wants to see what you're going to do. He wants to see if you're going to go crazy and then leave the entire religion because you got fired. He wants to see if you're going to become a heretic because you lost a little bit of money. He wants to see if you're going to say, you know what? This religion, I don't want it. Take your kippah off. You become a goy. Why? Because things are not going your way. The rabbi yelled at you. I don't like when rabbis yell at me. Okay, I'm not religious anymore. Put the kippah in the closet. That's it. Say Kaddish on the religion. You blame God for... your problems. That's the problem. The problem is you're blaming God for something inappropriately. Why? Yes, He's doing it. Yes, He's doing it, but you're not getting the right message from it.

46:21Yes, He's the one that got you fired. Yes, He's the one that allowed this rabbi to yell at you and insult you and whatever it is. Yes, He's the one that gave you the flat tire that caused you to miss the meeting. Yes, He's the one that made the whole Holocaust and killed six million people. Nobody else killed six million people. Hashem killed six million people. Don't let anybody fool you. It's not the Satan. Satan does not get permission to do anything without Hashem signing off on it. Anyone tells you, where was G-d during the Holocaust? The answer is, our Torah says He did it. Nobody else has power other than HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? That's a different question. Why did He do it? That's a different question. But who did it? Hashem did it. Hashem destroyed the Beit HaMikdash, the first one, the second one, which, by the way, were much, much, many, many more deaths than the Holocaust. Hashem put us in Egypt for 210 years, which, by the way, had many, many more deaths than the Holocaust. Not to minimize, chas v'shalom, the Holocaust and all of the holy people that died. But nonetheless, it was. If you look at the Midrashim, you look at the numbers, it was many, many more people. Add a few zeros to the number.

47:35That's how many. Add a few zeros to the number. Am Yisrael used to be much greater than people realize. If you look at the Midrashim of what happened at the Beit HaMikdash, you're talking about, technically, at some point, we had more people than China has today. Billions. But people think this is crazy. What do you mean? How can we go from billions to 15 million? This sounds crazy. This sounds like, "Okay, you have your beliefs. I have my Torah. You choose to believe whatever you want." If you need everything to make sense to you, you're going to have a very, very hard time believing. Why? It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. He's divine. He's supernatural. Nobody tells Him what to do. But yet, He's humbler than anything else. He allows us to walk on Him, disobey Him, curse Him, do everything wrong, and He still forgives us if we say, "I'm sorry." Us, people, somebody says the wrong thing to you, the right hand is quick to smack their face. Just give me the opportunity. No, no, but I'm sorry. Yeah, it's too late. The hand already smacked the face. It looked really good on you.

48:44Yeah, but I'm sorry. Yeah, next time say sorry before you do something. But Hashem, we do everything wrong, but we say I'm sorry, we do teshuva, Hashem says, oh, my baby's back. Like nothing ever happened. Like nothing ever happened. So now, Rabbeinu Bachya says, if you understand that everything that's happening in your life is HaKadosh Baruch Hu speaking to you, personally. He's giving you the problems, He's giving you the pleasures, He's giving you everything and anything you have. Then you will never ever get to a point where you are upset at any human being. Why? You know that whatever this human being did to you, to upset you, he got permission from Hashem. Now, who in their right mind is going to be upset at Hashem? I'm talking about their right mind, not the wrong. There are a lot of people upset at Hashem. But that's their wrong mind. I'm talking about normal people, regular people that understand who runs the world. Someone that understands Hashem runs the world, are they going to be upset at Hashem? They may not agree with what Hashem does because they don't understand the whole picture, but you're not going to tell Hashem how to run the world. So now, Rabotai,

50:09If a person knows that Hashem is the one doing it, he's not going to be upset at somebody that cut him off. He's not going to be upset at someone that yelled at him. He's not going to be upset at someone that embarrassed him. She's not going to be upset at someone that did something to insult her. She's not. Why? Because she knows that whatever happened, zehu, it's Him. he did it. He allowed it to happen. Yes, that person chose to be the vessel that Hashem uses to hit you, and they're going to get punished for it. That doesn't absolve them from the sin. Par'oh did things that Hashem allowed him to do, but Par'oh still got punished. Hitler did a lot of things because Hashem allowed him to do it, but he's still going to get punished. for eternity. It doesn't absolve the person from the crime. It's just that there's no point in being upset at them. There's no point in having one of these target practices with Hitler's face and throwing darts at it. There's no point. Why? First of all, that's not Hitler. It's just a picture. Second of all, it wasn't him. It was him. If a person understands things like this, he'll never be upset at another person.

51:28but he can be angry at people that desecrate Hashem's name. Why? Because that has nothing to do with him. And that's what happened with Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu, the only times that he got angry was not when people called him a womanizer. Am Yisrael, after he saved all of them from Egypt, introduced them to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in a way that no one ever did before or after. Imagine, he brought them the Torah, took them out of slavery, and what do they say? "Yeah, you're trying to steal our wives. And you stole our money. And you just brought us to the desert so you could kill all of us." Imagine the accusations. You just broke somebody out of jail, and he says, "You know what? I hate you." Why? They were going to kill you. They were going to give you a death penalty. They were going to hang you tomorrow. They were going to hang you and your whole family. I saved you. "Yeah, but I hate you." Why? "Because, you know, you probably saved me because you probably want me to do something for you. You probably want me to work for you. You probably want to take advantage of me in some other way."

52:44Think for a second. I just saved your life. They were going to kill you. I saved your life and you hate me? This is what happened to Moshe Rabbeinu. Millions of people that he saved, that's what they blamed him for. Moshe Rabbeinu never got upset about this. He never got angry. Even though, between us, if I was Moshe Rabbeinu, I'd tell Hashem, Hashem, you know what, you should kill them. When Hashem, a couple of times, came to Moshe Rabbeinu and said, "Moshe, let me kill them, and start a whole new nation from you," if I were Moshe Rabbeinu, between us, I'd say, "You know what, Hashem, it's a good idea. Chazak u'Baruch." Why? Look how annoying these people are. I'm doing everything possible for them, and they're saying I'm trying to steal their wives, they're saying I'm trying to steal their money. What's wrong with these people? But that's why I'm not Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu says, "No problem. Hashem, if you're going to kill them, kill me first. Why? I love them. Yeah, but they just insulted you. They just abused you. They did all of that because you allowed it, Hashem. If you allowed it, that makes me happy. Why? That means it's at Your will. You wanted it to happen. What is it like? Anybody here heard of the Baal Shem Tov? You heard of the Baal Shem Tov? Baal Shem Tov, you heard? You heard of the Baal Shem Tov?"

54:08I'll give you a story about the Baal Shem Tov. People think that the Chassidim never talked about punishment, never talked about Gehenom, never talked about bad things that no one wants to experience, but in reality, they did. Quite a bit. I have a whole shiur about it. We went over 1,400 sources in the Sifrei Chassidus. 1,400 sources. Going over different places where the greatest Chassidim actually discussed it in detail, whether the Tanya, the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and so on and so forth. But anyway, the thing that a lot of people don't know is that Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, for example, read the book Reishit Chochmah 400 times. Now, a lot of people read books many times, but why is this one highlighted? Why is this book highlighted, and why was he proud to say, "This book, I read 400 times, the same book 400 times I read it"? Why? Most of the details that we know about Gehinom come from that book.

55:30You want to be a Chassid? You want to be like a Chassid? You read that book too. You started that book, you know it by heart. Why? You need to know that side too. You need to know reward and punishment. Now, he was a Chassid. He was started by who? By the Baal Shem Tov. And the Baal Shem Tov said once to his talmidim, he says, when I get to Shamayim, if they tell me... You know what? We don't agree with Chassidut. We think you made a mistake. You have a sentence to go to Gehenom. The Baal Shem Tov says, "I'd jump into it. I'd happily jump into Gehenom." So Chassidim said, "What do you mean? Working so hard to be Tzadikim. Working so hard to do good." He goes, "Yeah. But if they're going to tell me in Shamayim, Hashem wants you to go to Gehenom, I'm happy to go. Why? That's the will of Hashem. If He wants me to go, I'll make Him happy."

56:31That means loving Hashem. Loving Hashem means that you're going to do it even if it hurts you. Now, of course, HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to give you good and not to hurt you, but that just gives us a little bit of an impression of what it means to love Hashem and what it means to not love Hashem. Most of what we do is because we want something for it, not because it makes Hashem happy. We keep Shabbat, we keep mitzvot, we keep this, we keep that, we give tzedakah. Why? Many times because we want something in return. Sometimes people like to give tzedakah. They like that because it settles their conscience. They figure that if I give the Beit Knesset or the Jewish organization tzedakah, then Hashem is going to close one of His eyes and He's not going to look at all my sins. I give the car, then the Rabbi is not gonna bother me about coming to shul anymore. If I give the car, then it doesn't really matter if I drive on Shabbat. It doesn't really matter if I give the car. It doesn't really matter that he's married to a goya. It doesn't really matter that she has a boyfriend. It doesn't really matter—all these things. People give tzedakah to quiet their own conscience. But the Torah says you cannot bribe God.

57:54So the Ramban says, if your anger is because you're angry at people for what they did to you, then you do not have humility. You do not have a true connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But if your anger at people is because they desecrated Hashem's name, then that means you do have humility, and you actually have love for Hashem. Repeat that. No. God's name is desecrated. He's not going to allow it to happen. But it's not something that He desires to happen. He's going to allow everything to happen. But to desecrate His name? No. Now... Anyone who is going, please make it quick so there's less noise. Now, once a person starts, okay.

59:19About what we're talking about or something completely different? If it's the same thing, then yes. But if it's something off-topic? Off-topic. Okay, let's try it. Go. It was a question of what's the way that you could... Oh, it's far, far away from the topic. Okay. After, after, we'll continue after. I have it, I have it, I have it. Okay. Right here. There was a question that I wanted to ask you last week, but I didn't get a chance. Well, that's too far. It's too far away from the shiur. Too far off topic. After I finish finalizing this, Gemara HaMasechet Shabbat says that when they asked Rabbi HaKadosh, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi questions, Somebody told him, don't ask him a question about that. He said, why? He said, because right now he's studying something else. You don't ask him a question about a different masechet when he's studying a certain masechet. You don't ask him a question about Masechet Shabbat when he's studying Masechet Rosh Hashanah. Why? When somebody's studying a specific topic, his whole neshamah is in there. Don't get him out of it. So, the Rebbe continues and he says that

1:00:40If a person starts to distance themselves away from anger, they're going to reach a state of hishtavut, which is called equilibrium in English. What is this equilibrium? This is a state of mind where, regardless of what happens in your life, good, bad, positive, negative—yes, no. You view it the same way: yes, it is the will of Hashem; no, it is the will of Hashem; good is the will of Hashem; bad is the will of Hashem. Whatever happens in your life is perfect. Why? Because Hashem is allowing this to happen. Once a person runs away from this anger and starts going into the door of humility, he starts looking at the world that way. Why? Because he starts realizing: if I'm not the one that's running the world, somebody must be. Somebody must be running the world now. It's not you, it's not you, it's definitely not me. It's not anybody in this room, it's not anybody in this room.

1:02:00So somebody that's angry acts as if they're running the world. So if I'm not angry anymore, then I'm realizing things a little clearer. I'm starting to understand things clearer. That, okay, I'm not the one that's controlling what goes on around. Somebody else must be. Somebody else must be. Oh, that must be Hashem. So if Hashem allowed a flat tire, then that must be His will. If Hashem allowed me to get here on time, that must be His will. Meaning that reaching a state of equilibrium doesn't mean that you're never happy or you're never unhappy. It's just that your perspective of things is that, oh, this is happening because this is the will of Hashem. What can I learn from this? What can I do with this? Can I build from this? Can I get a message from this to get closer to Hashem? Is this negativity a message from Hashem that I need to do teshuva? Is this positive thing a message from Hashem that I need to give more? What is it? What can I get from this? That state of equilibrium is literally becoming almost like a spiritual computer.

1:03:14where you're analyzing things, you're analyzing the experiences that are happening in your life, and trying to evaluate, okay, what is Hashem telling me with this? Instead of, like everybody else reacts. Usually, people react very emotionally. Something happens, they start crying; something happens, they start yelling; something happens, they start laughing uncontrollably. People are very, very emotional. Instead of being this emotional person, you start analyzing things. Okay, what do I do with this? Okay, what is Hashem telling me with this traffic? What is Hashem telling me with this bill? What is Hashem telling me with this lawsuit? What is Hashem telling me with this new kid? And so on and so forth. You start analyzing things. And try to find a way to connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Now, once a person starts looking at things that way, he's going to slowly but surely realize that the only way to build his own confidence, the only way to build his own self-assurance, is by continuously building on this. Where he's not going to be, he realizes, and she realizes she cannot get

1:04:26this positive feeling that she thought she was going to get from other people and what their opinion is. Whether they have 500 people saying, "Oh wow, you did a great job," or they have one, means the same thing. Why? Did you do a good job? Did you try to do your best? That's all that matters. You showed up, you did your best, that's enough. That's enough. It's not that you're patting yourself on the back to be a loser. No. You have to pat yourself on the back that you did your best. If that's truly your best, that's all you need. That's all you have. That was your best? HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not reward you for success. He decides success. He rewards you for effort. If you tried your best, you'll get rewarded. If you didn't, now you have a serious problem. Why? Because Hashem is going to ask you, how come you didn't try your best?

1:05:27How can you enjoy your best? I give you a certain talent. I give you a certain ability. I give you a certain brain that's able to remember half the Shas by heart. How come you didn't use it for that? How come you remembered all of your friends' phone numbers by heart? All of the basketball players' salaries? All of the, you know, stock quotes for every stock that's on CNBC? You remember all that by heart. But the Shas, you don't even know one page. How come? give you an ability. I gave you a memory. I gave you a brain. How can you use it for everything else except what I want you to do? How come? He's going to ask you that question. That's what's called judgment and accounting: judgment for what we did, but accounting for what we could have done. Now, if a person starts reviewing their own actions based on that, they start getting fulfillment from their own actions, and they become critical of themselves based on their own actions. That connects you and disconnects you from the world. It connects you because you realize that you have the ability to impact the world around you.

1:06:36Whatever it is that you do. If you have good hands, you're able to build stuff, you can impact, or Hashem sends you to the world to build certain things, to do certain things with your hands, and influence the public. Build something good. ...could build an atomic bomb, or you could build a nuclear plant that could actually generate energy. You could do a lot of things with your hands—the same mind, the same talent could do a lot of good and bad. You could get blood by slaughtering an animal or performing surgeries to save lives, or you could slaughter people and work for the mob. Both seek the same yield, but one is good, and one is bad... Point being, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to ask each one of us, "How much effort did you put into it?" If a person is going to view the world from that type of perspective, then they will see that they're getting that fulfillment because they're doing their best. And they're no longer going to be dependent on what people think. They're only going to be dependent on how much did I do. If I didn't do good, you're going to judge yourself enough.

1:07:43you're gonna judge yourself enough. You're gonna be critical of yourself for wasting your own time, for not doing enough, for not trying hard enough, and so on and so forth. Now, last but not least, if we fail to do this, if we stay with this anger, we stay with this sense of dependence on what other people think of us, Then we have some examples in the Torah as well. There was a person in the Torah that we read about every year. He was one of the richest people that ever lived. But he was an anti-Semite, hated Jews, no less than how much Hitler hated us. His name was Haman. When Haman came to Achashverosh, he also hated Am Yisrael according to the Gemara Masechet Megillah. Achashverosh also hated Am Yisrael, but Achashverosh didn't go out of his way to kill Jews. Haman wanted to kill all of them. Now, how do you convince somebody to do what you want? A little bit of money can make people go far. Now, since Achashverosh was already rich, giving him $10,000, giving him $100,000, he has millions. So Haman gave him over $330 million in order to get permission to kill all of Am Yisrael. That's why I did the cheshbon, I did the math. It says how many kikarei zahav v'kesef, how much gold...

1:09:07Giving him $10,000, giving him $100,000, he has millions. So Haman gave him over $330 million in order to get permission to kill all of Am Yisrael. That's why I did the cheshbon, I did the math. It says how many kikarei zahav v'kesef, how much gold... Gold and silver Haman gave to Ahasuerus. So, I once, a few years ago, maybe four or five years ago, did the math. How much is this in ounces? And how much is it times the current price? At the time, I think gold was maybe $1,300 an ounce and silver was like maybe $16 or $17 an ounce. So, I did the math. It ended up being close to half a billion dollars. That Haman gave him cash. For what? Permission to go kill the Jews. Now, Baruch Hashem, he didn't succeed. But the bigger question is, why did he hate them so much? Okay, so you're not the same religion. A lot of people are not the same religion. You don't go hate them. You don't go to China and say, "Oh, you guys are Buddhists. I'm going to kill all of you." You don't do that. You don't go to Saudi Arabia and say, "Oh, you guys are Muslims. I'm going to kill all of you." You don't do that.

1:10:28You don't go to different parts of the world and say, "Oh, you guys are Christians, I'm going to kill all of you." You don't do that. The only nation that constantly has this problem is Am Yisrael. Constantly. Why? Why does Haman, what does he have against us? Did we kill his mother? Did we, you know, did we steal his girlfriend? What did we do? Haman had all the money in the world. The Gemara says he was even richer than Achashverosh. That's why he was able to buy him off. He had even more money than the king. He had more power than anybody else. But one simple religious Jew with long, long peyos that you could see from far away refused to give him respect. In fact, did the opposite, disrespected him. And this, Rabotai, was intolerable to Haman, that even though he had millions, if not billions, of people bowing to him, he said, one Jew is not bowing to me, all of it is worthless. This is the perfect example of what arrogance can lead a person to do.

1:11:51When a person is arrogant, that means he needs to get approval from society. He needs people to constantly give him a pat on the back. Yeah, you're the best. Yeah, you're the greatest. Yeah, you're this. Yeah, you're that. All the compliments in the world. But as soon as you don't pay attention to him, all the anger, all the pain is coming out of this person. Because that's what he lives for. Haman, all that he lived for was constantly getting respect. So even though he got respect from millions and millions of people, one guy disrespecting him makes everything dark, makes everything seem worthless. This, Rabotai, is a danger for each one of us. That's why we read it every year. It's not that we're afraid of some Haman coming again today, even though the Gemara says that unfortunately, it will happen again before Mashiach comes. as part of Gog and Magog, and it looks like that war is coming closer and closer if you read the news. What's happening with Iran, what's happening even with the United States and other countries, that we'll leave for another shiur. But the point being, Rabotai, is that that teaching about Haman is also the Haman inside us, the Amalek inside us. That Amalek, that arrogance, that...

1:13:09Could literally ruin your life, ruin your marriage, ruin your work, ruin your career, ruin everything. Why? Because you need, you fiend on other people's attention. You fiend on other people's approval. When you do that, you're simply going to be the poorest man on earth no matter how much money you have, the poorest woman on earth no matter how many boats you own, the poorest person alive no matter how many years you've been in this world. because you're never going to be happy. There's always going to be at least one person who doesn't approve of your life, who doesn't agree that you're the most beautiful, the smartest, or this or that. There's always going to be at least one person. Most importantly, that level of arrogance is going to make you very, very far away from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu is far from you, that means that happiness is also far from you. So with that We learned a little bit about how dangerous it is to have anger. I think we've completed that part of the teaching. We're starting to touch a little bit more into anava. Next week, b'ezrat Hashem, we'll continue about anava, about humility, and some of the other benefits of it. But for now, guys, you can ask some questions. Chabad. I had the question run away by Mashiach.

1:14:27I don't know what the answer is. I don't know what the question is. Four conditions? I don't know why he thinks there are only four conditions. There are many more. The Gemara says it in several places. Gemara Masechet Sotah, page 49, has at least a dozen conditions over there. In Masechet Sanhedrin, there are probably another two dozen conditions over there. I don't know. I mean, I could pick 500. I mean, it's not a... Why four? Where do we come up with this four? I mean, first and foremost, he needs to be a descendant of David HaMelech. If he's not a descendant of David HaMelech, then... That means he also has to be Jewish. That means he also has to be righteous. He cannot be a Mechalel Shabbat and also the Mashiach. He cannot be a Kofer and also the Mashiach. That cannot be. A Baal Teshuva? Yes, he can be a Baal Teshuva. He can be a Baal Teshuva. Yes. From the... No, no. Directly from the seed of David HaMelech.

1:15:42It has to be directly from the seed of David HaMelech. I mean, as far as those two qualities alone, it already limits 99.999% of the population. Just to be the son of David HaMelech. There are a few people that believe they're the descendants of David HaMelech, but even fewer actually know they are. Some people actually know that they are descendants of David because they have a very famous long history of a family. For example, the Pinto family. The Pinto family is known, and at least a good part of the Pinto family are actually descendants of David. This doesn't necessarily mean that the Mashiach is going to be from that family. There are other families like that. The point is that that's a family that has a very, very long history that's well known in the Torah world. Like if somebody said, oh, Mashiach, his last name really in this world was Pinto, it wouldn't be a surprise. Why? Because that's something that we already know. There are other families like that. There are other families like that, that are famous families, that are descendants of David HaMelech. But the point is that that's just one requirement. The person has to be very righteous. It also has to be a certain type of generation. Certain things have to happen in the world.

1:17:05he obviously has to be alive, you know, for somebody to, you know. Some people believe that he could be dead and then become the Mashiach. Aside from being a silly notion, it’s also a very limited mindset. Well, here's the thing. There is one opinion in the Torah that's being misinterpreted to some extent by the Abarbanel, that the Mashiach can be, you know, someone that gets resurrected—someone that died and comes back. There is one opinion. Universal opinion rejects it. Everybody says he has to be alive. But this is from the Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin. So that's where Chabad, for example, says, "Oh, so see, there you go. So the Rebbe could be the Mashiach." But here's the problem. The Gemara continues, and that's what they don't tell you. The Gemara continues and says if it was somebody in the generation of Daniel, it would be Daniel the Prophet. If it was in the generation of Rabbi HaKadosh, it would be Rabbi HaKadosh. If it was in the generation of Chizkiyahu, it would be Chizkiyahu. It actually says Hashem wanted to make him Mashiach, and so on and so forth. Which means what? Which means that...

1:18:31If it was a resurrection, it would be one of them. It wouldn't be somebody from today. Because they were kol hakavod to the Lubavitcher Rebbe and any other tzaddik. We all know there are rules in the Torah. We are constantly deteriorating from generation to generation. We're not increasing. No matter how great the Lubavitcher Rebbe was, or even Rav Ovadia was, or Rav Elyashiv was, or Rav Kanievsky is, or his father the Steipler Gaon was, or even the Rambam. Not a single one of them is qualified to be a talmid, a talmid of Rabbi Akiva. Why? You have to resurrect the dead. You have to resurrect the dead. Not one of them can resurrect the dead. A second. A second. Both. Both. No limitations. When Antoninus used to study, Antoninus was the Roman Caesar.

1:19:42He used to study chavruta with Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. He built a tunnel underground. The Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah talks about a fantastic story. They were chavruta since they were young. But he couldn't tell his people because they would kill him. Anyway, he built a tunnel. The Gemara says he built a tunnel. between his place and Rabbi HaKadosh. And every day, at night, he would go there to study Torah with him. And he would have to go constantly with two soldiers. Wherever he'd go, he had two soldiers with him to guard him. But he couldn't afford to have any witnesses. So he killed one of them over there and he killed one once he arrived. So that way, there were no witnesses. Was it murder? No, it's considered, the Gemara says it's considered Pikuach Nefesh. If he didn't kill them, they would tell on him and they would kill him. So it's Pikuach Nefesh. It's like they had Din Rodef. Rodef meaning as if they're going to kill him if he doesn't kill them. So anyway, one day, he tells Rebbe HaKadosh, "Rebbe, listen, just make sure nobody is ever here. Nobody is ever here." One day,

1:20:50is studying with one of his, uh, talmidim, and Antoninus shows up after he killed one of his soldiers right outside. He goes inside and says, "Oh Rebbe, I said nobody here, nobody here. I said, you tell me this here, we had a deal. Ah, my life is in danger." Rebbe says, "No, no, no, don't worry. He shouldn't consider him like a human being; he's like a malach, he's like an angel. Such a tzaddik is like an angel." So Antoninus says, "Oh, you're like an angel? Okay, you know what? Go outside and bring my soldier in here." He didn't tell him he died. "Bring my soldier inside. Tell him to come inside. Since you're here, let him also bring him from outside." So the talmid goes outside and he sees the guy is dead. He says, "My Rebbe taught me that only a fool brings bad news to a king. Only a fool brings bad news." So what did he do? He brought him back to life. Brought him back to life. So now, Antoninus, huh? No, it's good news. He thought that he didn't know he'd lie. He didn't know that he was killing them. So he brought him back to life. He said, maybe somebody murdered him. So he brought him back to life. So he brings him back to life.

1:22:06So then the Gemara says, Antoninus laughs and he says, "Rabbi, you see, yeah, of course, all of your talmidim can do this. They're all like malachim, but next time, please, don't bring anyone." Meaning that anyone that was a talmid, a rabbi, which was even lower than... Then Rabbi Akiva had that ability, and it also talks about Rabbi Akiva's talmidim. Where do we learn from there? We learn from there that anyone that's actually named by name in the Gemara, where it says Rabbi such and such, Rav such and such, it actually says their name, that's a person that was able to revive the dead. Why? Because there are many places where it just says somebody said such and such, but we don't know who it is. Now that somebody is a tzaddik, kadosh. but he did not have the degree to be named in the Gemara. Why? He wasn't at the level of reviving the dead. He wasn't at the level of reviving the dead. So, to finalize the point,

1:23:08the what people are mistranslating with this about somebody that's resurrected is even if you want to use the single interpretation commentary by the Abarbanel of somebody that's reincarnated or somebody that comes back to life, it still would not be anybody from this generation or any time recently. Recently, it would definitely be somebody from previous generations because they were much greater than us. Most likely, if I had to guess, it would be Chizkiyahu. Why Chizkiyahu? Because Chizkiyahu is the only person on earth that HaKadosh Baruch Hu actually writes in the Torah, "I wanted to make him Mashiach." It actually says, Hashem wanted to make him Mashiach, but he made a mistake, so Hashem decided, no, not Mashiach. But he was one second from being Mashiach. That was the closest we ever got to Mashiach. And there's a verse in the Torah that says, Hashem wanted to make him Mashiach. Hashem desired for him to be Mashiach. What was the mistake? The mistake was that he didn't celebrate Hashem. He didn't thank Hashem like his grandfather, David HaMelech, did. David HaMelech used to sing to Hashem.

1:24:16And Chizkiyahu did not sing to Hashem when Hashem made a miracle for him. So the Malach HaMavet says, if his grandfather sang to You and You didn't make him Mashiach, How are you going to make him Mashiach? He says, you're right, he's not going to be Mashiach. But Hashem actually had the desire to make him Mashiach. Point being, Rabotai HaYekarim, is that if a person knows a little bit of Torah, it's very, very easy to arrive at the right conclusion. And know what's yes, what's no, what's kosher, what's not kosher. But when somebody just picks and chooses, what they want to know, what they like to know, what fits, what they already know, and so on and so forth, then you can make all types of convoluted beliefs and understandings, and you can say that maybe one of you guys is Mashiach, you can call me the Mashiach, maybe Michal is going to be the Mashiach, you know, you can say anything you want. But the point is that reality is, Torah says there are certain rules, and it's very clear.

1:25:20It's very clear who's not the Mashiach. Who's going to be the Mashiach? We'll see. No, no. That was just a joke. That was just a joke. I don't know. Maybe Hashem is going to make an exception for Michal. I'm not sure. No, anyway. Anything else? Anything else? I'll wait for Wednesday because I might get 50 bucks. I might get 50 bucks. Okay. Anybody else with questions about today's shiur? I know it's a little bit deep today, Baruch Hashem, so I may have lost some of you guys today, but I'll try to make it a little simpler next week. Sorry about that. I feel like I lost you guys. Maybe I lost myself. We'll see. Okay, I lost you. Okay, see, I know I lost somebody. No, oh, he disagreed. Baruch Hashem. i did a berachah on the Sprite. I didn't mean to have water. Repeat that. I'm sorry. I was too focused on the water. The distinction between doing something and thinking about it? What makes the distinction? No. No.

1:26:29...or the ten statements, yeah, of course, there's a difference between like, do not covet, right? Yeah, that's where even the thought is. Okay, so if you thought, okay, but you didn't actually say, "No, I cannot do this," okay, you should be fine. Oh, okay, so that makes me like a seven-year-old. No, no, no, thank God, it's such a big problem, maybe as you get older, you know it wasn't a big deal. Okay, so let me explain. Okay, so let me complete your thought. You're in the right direction... So the question is, is there a punishment or a reward based on a thought, or is it always based on action? Now, on one hand, you can say that if somebody killed somebody, obviously they're going to get punished for it. If somebody saved somebody's life, obviously they're going to get rewarded for it, that's an obvious. But what if somebody thought about killing somebody, but did not kill them, do they get punished or not? Now, on one hand, you're going to see that there are a couple of places in the Torah that say that you do get punished for thoughts. For example, one of them is what you just mentioned. Hashem says, "Don't be jealous." Don't be jealous of anybody else. The Gemara says, if you're jealous and you don't do teshuva for being jealous, you will not be resurrected with the dead.

1:27:53You won't have the merit to be resurrected with the dead. You may still have olam haba, but you will not be resurrected with the dead. So, this is a very serious problem for a lot of people, unfortunately. But nonetheless, that's what the Torah says. So that shows that actually there is a punishment for a thought, technically. Even more so, if somebody brought a korban, brought a nice $25,000, $30,000 cow, to bring for a sacrifice, because they made a sin. mean accidental sin. If it's on purpose, they kill the guy, not the cow. But if it's accidental, they kill the cow instead of the guy. They brought the cow because he turned on the light by accident on Shabbat. If you got a Shabbat, so now he brought this thirty thousand dollar cow. Now the Torah says if he goes and he brings the cow, and at that moment he's thinking, "Wow, I can't believe I don't have enough yirat Shamayim that I turned on the light. If I had enough fear of Hashem, I would have remembered it was Shabbat, and I would have never made this sin." If he did that, the korban, that thirty-thousand-dollar cow, is accepted as a replacement for your sin. That's a full...

1:29:05And they even had the Levi'im sing at that time to make people cry. It was a really, really emotional event. On the other hand, if the guy has a heart of stone, if he likes his money more than he likes teshuva, and he brings a $30,000 cow, and the whole time, the whole time, he doesn't say a thing. But the whole time he's thinking, I can't believe I admitted to an accidental sin, and now I have to waste $30,000 on a stupid cow to get... Why? Why? I'm not even going to eat this cow. I have to spend $30,000. You know what I can do with $30,000? $30,000, I can buy some more Amazon shares. $30,000, I can do some more kiruv. $30,000, I can build this. He's thinking about the $30,000. The Gemara says, that's pigul. What's pigul? He may go and continue with that korban; they're going to sacrifice, they're going to kill that cow, but in Shamayim, he's still 100% a sinner. It's considered as if he did zero teshuva. Why? His mind is elsewhere, so he just wasted $30,000. He didn't even get any benefit out of it. Which means he did get punished for a thought.

1:30:14So, here we see already a couple of examples, a couple of examples, where thought does have actual consequences. Now, to complete your thought, well, what if somebody thought about murdering? What if somebody thought about doing something that's illicit relations, but he didn't do it? Lust, for example. Lust. But no action. Now, if the Gemara says, don't look... at immodesty in the morning, because it will lead you to evil at night. Evil, meaning what Shlomo says. Evil could only be wasting seed, because that's the evil that brings a person to Gehinnom. Now, what does that mean? It means that if you're going to look at illicit things and immodest things, it will eventually lead you to sin anyway. either in this physical world, or even in your imaginary world, which would still lead to wasting seed, which would still lead to sin, which would still lead to a punishment. But let's say a person overcomes it. He looks at something, but then he spends the rest of the day doing teshuva for it. I'm sorry, Hashem, I can't believe I looked at her. I'm sorry, I'm going to read my Gemara. If you did that,

1:31:32then that action ends up turning into a mitzvah. Why? You used it, you made a sin, but you did teshuva for it, you could turn what you did into a mitzvah. On the other hand, if you don't do teshuva for it, you don't do teshuva for it, and now the thought leads to an action, voluntarily or involuntarily, the Gemara says he gets punished for both. He gets punished for the thought and the action. Why? The thought, if it just ended at thought, no problem. But nothing ends at a thought. Something has to happen. Something has to happen. If you do teshuva from it, it'll end up being something good. Hashem will reward you for it. You could actually, anytime there's somebody that's immodest, and you look away at that moment, you overcome that test, you could ask for whatever you want. Huh? Huh? If you do teshuva from it 100%, you get rewarded even more. Yeah, absolutely, you get rewarded even more. So the rewards, actually by the way, you should know that rewards are 500 times more than punishment. So if you compare apples to apples, if a punishment is one pound, the reward for the same thing is 500 pounds. No, five avirot is five sentences in Gehinnom. Five mitzvot is a certain amount of time in Heaven, and...

1:32:59it's, you know, oh, so you go to Heaven first and then you do teshuva? No, you go to Gehinnom first and then you go to Heaven, but that's assuming that you make the teshuva that can get you out of Gehinnom. No, most you can't, but not all. Some, you don't get out of Gehinnom, like for example, if somebody dies... they don't get out of Gehinnom. If somebody dies without doing teshuva for wasting seed, they don't get out of Gehinnom, which means it's not necessarily the quantity of sins, it's the type of sins too. So if somebody does a certain type of sin, he can do a lot of mitzvot but commit one single sin that can ruin his Olam Haba. For example, Doeg HaEdomi. Doeg HaEdomi was the head of the Sanhedrin. He was number one in the Sanhedrin. To be number one in the Sanhedrin, you had to know 70 languages. Which means that not only do you have to know French and all types of Latin, you also have to know the language of trees, the language of demons, the language of animals, the language of bugs, birds, and so on and so forth. He knew all of those languages. He was able to give you 300 commentaries on the most difficult halachot that exist.

1:34:12300 different ideas about it. Something that any one of us or anyone in the world today cannot do even half of that, or 10% of that. Now, Doeg HaEdomi, the Gemara says, has no share in the World to Come. He's in Gehinnom forever. Why? One small little sin. Why? He was jealous of David HaMelech, so he said some Lashon Hara. Finished. Finished. Why? It led to murder. It led to bad things. Consequences. The consequences were horrible. HaKadosh Baruch Hu sent him three malachim. The first malach made him forget the entire Torah that he knew. Why? Because you cannot punish somebody that has Torah. So one malach removed his Torah. Another malach killed him. The third malach burned his neshama. Burned everything. So God burned him. No, not himself. No, there's two pieces. One piece is HaKadosh Baruch Hu. One piece is something that, in essence, he created. It's not just HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You're not HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself. You have a piece, but that piece always goes back to the Source. It's not physical, nonetheless, but we talk about it as if it is. That piece of HaKadosh Baruch Hu always goes back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The other piece is you.

1:35:28The other piece is you that's connected to that piece. That piece can be something that gets rewarded forever or Chas v'Shalom, the opposite, until it's destroyed. Both. Both. As far as Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin, Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin has a whole chapter talking about all the different people that have no share in the World to Come. And it gives the different details of it. Several people that it mentions. It mentions the biggest. Meaning, it doesn't mention losers. You know, a lot of losers are in Gehenom forever. But you don't need the Gemara to tell you that. It's telling you about the biggest and best that ended up in Gehenom forever. The biggest and best. Like, you had Yeravam, for example. Huh?

1:36:28No, it's not luck. It's not your mind. Okay, this guy goes to Gehenom forever. Yeah, but let other things... Somebody that wants to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu... Everyone has their own challenge. Yes, but if... Why didn't he get tzara'at? Didn't the Torah promise he would get tzara'at? No. What ended up happening is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu knew his heart and knew that all of his Torah was not for the sake of Torah. It was not for the sake of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It was for the sake of arrogance. He was only learning and only doing for his own sake. It's like, for example, a rabbi today that only gives lectures to make money or only runs a synagogue so he can make money from it. That's a problem. That's a problem. That you're not allowed to do. You're not allowed to make Torah your moneymaker. You're allowed to make money, but that's not the reason you do it. So when you do things, when you serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu purely for material benefit, you have a very serious problem. Because eventually, you know that you'll be tested, and you'll fail because there's no real connection between you and HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

1:37:43Yeravam ben Nevat was also someone that Hashem held very highly, and he made a very big sin. He brought Avodah Zarah to the Beit HaMikdash, and he didn't want people to go to the Beit HaMikdash, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself, because he was such a giant spiritually, Hashem himself came to him in a prophecy. Hashem himself came to him and begged him to do teshuva. He says, teshuva and me and you and Ben Yishai, meaning David HaMelech. We'll all walk together in Gan Eden. Now, what did Hashem say? He said, me, you, and David HaMelech are going to walk in Gan Eden. Yeravam asked, "Who's first? Who's ahead, me or Ben Yishai? Me or David HaMelech?" Now, what did Hashem say? Hashem said, me, you, and David HaMelech. Which means, originally, it was him. If you do teshuva, you have a ma'ala even bigger than David HaMelech. But, the moment he asked, Hashem said, I'm sorry. Ben Yishai will be. Meaning, you're still with me, still in Gan Eden, but David HaMelech, he's going to be in front of you. Yeravam said, then I don't want to do teshuva. His arrogance was so big,

1:39:06didn't want to do it because of this, and he's in Gehinnom for eternity because of this. No, no, no, it's Gehinnom. How do we know? I have a shiur that's three and a half hours long, bringing about somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 to 200 sources in the Tanach, in the Chumash, in the Gemara, in the Zohar, in Sifrei Tzaddikim, in Sifrei Chassidut—countless sources that we reviewed—that show it's a literal place that exists physically. And there are two of them. There's one in this world, and there's one in the spiritual world. And each one of them has different chambers. And each chamber has chambers within it, and we know a lot of details about it. If you watch the shiur about Gehinom, you'll be scared to death, but hopefully do teshuva completely as a result of it, which a lot of people do. If you understand what the point of Gehinom is, then you understand that it's not an ideal place for Hashem to send a person. But if you think that that's where Hashem wants to send you, then I have no idea why you would even want to talk to Hashem.

1:40:16You know, God does not want to punish us. But there has to be punishment. I don't know, do you have kids? No, you don't have kids. Okay. One day, you're going to have kids. Now you're going to love your kids. Huh? Well, hopefully one day you'll have kids. Now, I'm assuming you're going to do 100% Teshuvah, so you're going to have kids. So now, one day you're going to have kids. Now, you're gonna love your kids. Just like I love my kids, right? Now, you're gonna wanna give your kids everything. But once in a while, your kid's gonna ask for something that you know that if you give it to him, it's gonna hurt him. Why? He's gonna say, Abba, I wanna put my finger inside that outlet. It looks really good. And my finger fits perfectly inside that electric outlet. The two-year-old's finger, perfect inside an electric outlet. And you're gonna say, no, son. Why, Abba? Starts crying hysterically. you're gonna do it because you know why it's gonna hurt him, and he's not gonna understand. He's not gonna understand why you pulled him away. "I was about to put both of my fingers in it! You hate me, Abba! I can't believe you! You're sadistic, Abba! You don't give me freedom! You don't give me the ability to do what I want! Let me express myself! I want to be in there! I should be in there with the rest of the people!" Guess what? You're saving his life.

1:41:32Right? But that's because you know the whole picture. And he's a little two-year-old that's still not even a monkey yet. That's us. we are not even the two-year-old monkeys next to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. We don't know the whole picture. So when HaKadosh Baruch Hu punishes us in this world, it's not to punish us per se like we think, "Oh, this hurts, this is painful, what is He getting pleasure out of it?" No, it's in order to entice us to do teshuva, meaning there has to be a message behind the punishment. Now, as far as punishing the neshamah in the next world, yes, that also has a message. It's either to clean the neshamah of all the filth that it added to itself, or it's to destroy the neshamah. Depends what type of gehinnom the person gets. Now, if it's to clean the neshamah, what is it like if you ever spent a day working for, let's say, the sanitation department or an oil company or some place that smells disgusting? Now, even after you go home and you take a shower and you clean the filth from yourself, you still stink. You do. Permit if you took a shower and you're not black anymore, you're not black anymore, but you still stink.

1:42:51Why? Because the filth is gone as far as the visual aspect of it, but it's still there. When we make sins, we add spiritual filth to our neshamah. Now that neshama, that neshama needs to be cleaned. Why? Because Hashem is not going to allow a filthy neshama to enter Gan Eden next to Moshe Rabbeinu, next to Rabbi Akiva, next to Rabbi Elyashiv, next to all the Gedolim, all the Tzaddikim. He's not going to let them be next to them. Why? They're clean neshamot, beautiful neshamot, and they don't want to be next to filthy neshamot. Hashem doesn't want him next to a filthy neshama. He wants the neshama clean like He created it. So if that neshama committed certain sins, but they're not the biggest sins, they're just sins, it has to be cleaned. He cleans that neshama, and then He puts it in a place of eternal good. But if that neshama betrayed Him, was an atheist, either in belief, or even in practice, or even in theory, they went to Beit Knesset every Shabbat.

1:43:57But they drove. They went to the Beit Knesset, they walked. But not because they believe in Shabbat, just because it was close to their house. But if you ask them, "What about Gemara such and such?" "Oh no, the Gemara is nonsense." "What about the Chumash?" "I'm not really sure if Hashem wrote the Chumash. I think Moshe Rabbeinu wrote the Chumash." That person, even if he keeps Shabbat, does all of the mitzvot, he has no share in the World to Come. Because his belief is worth zero. He doesn't believe. He does stuff. He's like a monkey. He's a monkey that keeps Shabbat. But his actual belief, his heart, is not with Hashem. That person has no share in the World to Come. So such a traitor that worships an idol, that violates Shabbat, that desecrates Hashem's name on a regular basis without ever doing teshuva, that person, Hashem has to destroy that neshama. Why? Because that neshama has no relation to the rest of the neshamot. Humble? Why does one thing have to do with the other? No, no, this is not anger. This is not anger. There is a cause and effect. If, let's say for example, somebody plays with fire. Some people call themselves pyromaniacs. They have this mental... No, not pyromaniacs. Yeah, they like fire.

1:45:26So, some people like fire, okay, but some people are addicted to it. Some people are addicted to stealing. Some people are addicted to all types of things. Now, if you tell one of these people, "Listen, I understand you like fire. I understand you like firecrackers. I understand you like guns, but if you keep putting your hands in the fire, eventually you're gonna get burned. Eventually, you're gonna get burned." Now, he doesn't listen to you and he gets burned. And he's going to tell you, why did you punish me? I didn't punish you. I just told you that's what happens. If you put your hands in a fire, you will get burned. There's a cause, there's an effect. I warned you about it. I told you don't put your hand in a fire. You decided not to listen. Is that punishment? No. There's a fire. I told you don't put your hand in it. Hashem is fire. Hashem is fire. Don't mess with Him. Hashem says don't violate Shabbat. You violate Shabbat. You are, in essence, the Gemara says, running in the middle of the street saying, "I don't believe You created the world." That's what it's saying.

1:46:30That's what it says. Why? Hashem says, keeping Shabbat is a covenant between Me and you, that you believe that I created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Which means, if you violate Shabbat and don't do teshuvah for it, that means that you don't believe that I created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, which in essence is saying, Hashem, I don't believe. i don't believe You created the world. I think maybe somebody else helped You. Maybe You hired a construction company. Maybe it wasn't even You. Maybe I did it and I just don't remember. I just don't believe it's You. Why? Because the deal, the covenant, the contract that You said I have to constantly sign once a week that certifies that I believe is Shabbat, and I am disobeying it. i'm disobeying it, therefore i'm not fulfilling my end of the contract. So Hashem says, okay, you're not fulfilling your end of the contract, i'm going to fulfill my end of the contract. Still, what's my end of the contract? If you keep my Shabbat, you get rewarded for eternity. You violate my Shabbat without doing teshuva, you get punished for eternity. That's it. It's not punishment per se that Hashem wants to punish a person, it's that there's a cause and there's an effect. If a person puts their hand...

1:47:45and to do with punishment. You can't blame Hashem for burning you if you put your hand in fire. You chose to do it. He didn't tell you to go do it. You decide to put your hand in fire. You want to continue doing it? Chaval. Enjoy. No one is forcing you to do anything against your will. No one is forcing anybody to put their hand in a fire. But if they choose out of their own will to put their hands in a fire, and they end up getting burned as a result of it, why is that Hashem's fault? He just told you that's the consequence. Don't do it. Because of Hashem, people rationalize, and they realize, listen, Hashem gave me seven days a week, 24 hours a day, Why do I have to drive a car on that day? Why do I have to watch TV on that day? Why do I have to violate His laws on that day? I'll just do whatever it is that I want to do—the car, and work, and business, and computers, and all the things that I want to do—I'll just do it on one of the other six days.

1:48:54That's it. It's a relatively simple decision. Unfortunately, when we're so addicted to our sins, we don't think like that. We think, no, no, I have to do it. I have to do it on Saturday. I have to do it on Shabbat. Why? I just can't do it on Sunday. I just can't do it on Monday. I just can't do it on Friday. I have to go there on Shabbat. I have to. We're addicted to our own sins to the point where we don't even make any sense. Why? Because that's what the Yetzer Hara's job is. It's to convince us that we can't do it. Convince us that we can't do it even though we can. How do we know we can? In the Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu tells us the words of Hashem, בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ לַעֲשׂוֹתוֹ. It's in your mouth, it's in your heart to do it. Meaning, you were created in order to fulfill the entire Torah. The entire Torah is inside you. It is what you were built for. That's what you do best, even though you think otherwise. so what is that like? I have a phone. That's something that was programmed to do what it does. You know that, but somehow you're violating the right. Exactly. I have a phone. I have a phone. That phone—you can use it for a few things. You can use it to go on the internet. You can use it to send text messages. You can use it to call people. But you could also use it as a weapon to throw at people that don't listen in the lecture. You can

1:50:19what was it made for? It wasn't made for a weapon. You can use it as a weapon, but it wasn't made for that. It was made to publicize Torah, and that's what we try to use it for. Now, you can use it as a weapon. You can use it as a simple phone to call your AT&T company or your Sprint or whoever it is. You can use it to do a lot of things, but the point is that the best use The best use is to do the will of Hashem, to do what Hashem said. That's the best use. Why? Because everything is for the will of Hashem. Everything is for the sake of connecting to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.