Pay attention to small things, like a chazzan who is not kosher!!!

1:21I can tell you from personal experience, not just for myself, but many of my students tell me the same thing, that more often than not, I have a much better prayer experience when I pray by myself than when I pray at shul. Much better, I pray by myself, I take my time, I think, I focus. I'm not hearing any chazzan with his voice saying this or that. I'm not paying attention to anybody next to me, whether they finish before me, or they're going too slow or too fast. You know, when you have people around you, it's very easy to get distracted. So when I pray by myself, I'm in my own world. I don't look at the time; I don't know how long it takes. All I know is I do it, I talk to Hashem, and whenever I'm done, I'm done. And it's amazing. I have this, Baruch Hashem, it's a great prayer. But sometimes, when I go to shul with 500 people, I can't do it. You would think that with more people, there would be more power. But sometimes, for me, it doesn't work; sometimes yes, sometimes no. You might think it's better to stay at home and pray all the time. However, the value of a minyan is very, very significant in shamayim. How so?

2:37When you pray by yourself, your prayer comes to Shamayim and knocks on Hashem's door. They're only going to open it if you have the merit, meaning they're going to review everything before they let you in to meet Hashem. say, "Wait, who's this guy knocking on the door of someone praying by themselves? Let me see. Oh, you're the guy that walks around with a tank top all the time, not modest. Oh, you're the guy that eats salad at non-kosher places thinking that it's okay. Oh, you're the guy that's not really focusing on the prayer right now; he's thinking about his business. You're the fifty-fifty guy. No, we're not letting you in." Your prayer, okay, you get the mitzvah of praying, but as far as getting the answers that you want, come back next week. Come back next week, come back later tonight in Arvit. It's a tefillah, it’s a tefillah with quality. Right. So now you go by yourself, they're going to check you. But now when you pray with the kosher minyan,

3:46Different ball game. Why? Because Hashem is merciful. So what does He do? He takes the best piece of everyone. So this guy, the beginning of the prayer, powerful. But then right after it, he started thinking about the baseball game. The beginning of his prayer, amazing. The next 45 minutes, nothing. Another guy, first five minutes, not good. But the second five minutes, powerful. So Hashem takes his piece and his piece. But then they both are. Then he takes a third guy. The third guy, the next, the third part, the next 15 minutes later. Powerful, the first bracha, he did the Kaddish, and so on, had meaning. So what does Hashem do? Hashem takes the best of everyone's pieces and puts it together, and everyone's prayers get to Hashem. And everyone gets VIP treatment because now you have, it's considered as if everyone has a perfect prayer. Because he's using the best pieces of everyone. But here is the problem. Here is the problem. This is only the prayers of the people that are Shomrei Shabbat, Shomrei Mitzvot.

4:59Not the ones that are stealing in their business or gambling at casinos or going with married women or violating Shabbat or eating non-kosher. No, this is about the people that are at least trying to be righteous. They're the ones that he counts. Because the guy that's violating Shabbat, the Gemara says specifically, the Torah says specifically, his prayer is considered to'avat Hashem. You know what to'avat means? To'avat means disgusting. It means disgusting to Hashem. His prayer is disgusting to Hashem. Why is it disgusting? He says, wait a minute, think about this logically. You just shot 50 people in My army. You are My enemy. You launched an atomic bomb by turning on your car at 8 o'clock in the morning on Shabbat. And then you turned off the car, which is another atomic bomb. Then you pressed the gas pedal 50 times during the 20-minute ride. Each time you pressed the gas pedal, it's another atomic bomb. Then you used your iPhone; that's another atomic bomb.

6:16So just from Shabbat, from 8 o'clock in the morning to 8 o'clock at night, Hashem is telling you, you've launched 50 million atomic bombs at me. And now you want to pray to me and actually ask me to help you? It's a profound offense against Hashem. Reflecting on our actions and the magnitude of our requests during prayer is essential. There's no bigger chutzpah than this. That's why it's considered to'avat Hashem, which means it's considered disgusting to Hashem. Not only are you using what I gave you against me, but on top of it, you're asking me to help you with it? You're asking me to pay for the poison that you're giving me? Doesn't make any sense. So now, when you go to Beit Knesset, you have to look at who's around. You have to look at who's around. If you have Shomrei Mitzvot, you have at least 10 Jews that are keeping Shabbat, that's a minyan. You're in a good place, but it's not enough, it gets even better. But if you have a Reform, Conservative, or a secular shul where everyone is hafif, everyone keeps whatever they feel like, you're not doing any good for yourself. You're putting yourself in jeopardy every single minute that you're there.

7:31Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit, page 16. It says, sometimes, I thought this was only in our generation, but this actually has been happening for at least 2,000 years. Sometimes, people pick a cantor, a Chazan, because he has a beautiful voice. He has a beautiful voice. But that's not the point of the Chazan; it's for his voice, his sincerity, and leading the congregation in prayer. He reminds us of the Kohanim in the Beit HaMikdash. In the Beit HaMikdash, when someone brings a korban, specifically a korban chatat, it is because of some accidental sin they have committed. They bring a korban, a sacrifice, to atone for the sin. However, just bringing a sacrifice isn't enough. You have to do teshuva, because there's something called pigul. Pigul means if you brought the korban, but in your mind, you didn't really feel sorry. You didn't feel sorry. Like, "Oh, I cheated on my wife. Hashem, I'm not sorry about it. But at least I'm going to give this Beit HaMikdash, I'm going to give this G-d some animal, cost me $5,000, big deal." That's called pigul. Pigul means it's defective.

8:43Meaning that you can bring him 5,000 korbanot. 5,000 sacrifices are not worth anything. They're not accepted by Hashem. What's accepted? Teshuva. It's accepted for you to do teshuva. So one of the ways, one of the things that we miss, one of the things that really should break every Jew's heart when he actually knows this about the Beit HaMikdash, when we had the Beit HaMikdash... Someone would come with their korban, and sometimes they didn't come with full teshuva, only partial teshuva. They might feel somewhat bad, but not deeply remorseful. So they think, "Okay, let me give this cow, or five cows. I'm a wealthy person. I'll give five cows. What's the big deal? Each one is worth $10,000. Okay, I'll give $50,000." But they don't truly feel remorseful. So what happened at the Beit HaMikdash? The Kohanim would start singing. And the voice was so powerful that it would literally make people do teshuva on the spot. It would break their hearts. It would start making them think of their sins. And the people would start crying while they were slaughtering the animal. It would force them to do teshuva even if they didn't want to. That's how powerful their voice was. So a chazzan in a Beit Knesset is supposed to be like a minor Kohen.

10:08Suppose his voice is supposed to remind us of what we really should have. We should have the Beit HaMikdash. It should touch our hearts, so we do Teshuva. So sometimes people choose the guy, choose the Chazzan, because he has a beautiful voice. He has a nice voice. But here's the problem. If he has a very nice voice, but he's a Rasha, he is not considered a righteous person. he's not considered a righteous person. He shaves with a blade. If he shaves with a blade, he's not even allowed to be part of a minyan. Someone that shaves with a razor blade, Because it's a sin that's a regular sin, meaning it's a habitual sin, he does it every time. If it's a one-time sin — for example, he just shaved with a razor one time — but then he returns to normative practice, using either some kosher scissors or a buzzer that's approved, or he just grows a beard, that's fine. If he made a one-time sin, okay, he should do teshuvah, and that's fine. But if he shaves on a regular basis, which most men do every couple of days if they shave their face, then that's a different issue.

11:17That means that this sin is a regular, habitual sin as a part of his life. And someone who sins on a regular basis is no longer part of Am Yisrael. He's not considered Jewish anymore. He gets cast out of the community. He's not even part of a minyan. He's the same as a Mechalel Shabbat. So now, if this person has a pretty baby face... But not because he was born this way. Like a lot of people from Spain, a lot of people from Italy, or different parts of the world, they don't grow facial hair. So, the guy's 50 years old and looks like he's 16. He's got a pretty face. Okay, if that's the case, good, no problem. But if he has my genes and has a beard that's this big after a week, But you see that he has a baby face, okay, you have to find out if it's a razor or if it's not. If you see there's still a little hair all the time, then you know it's a buzzer. If it's a baby face, then it cannot be without a razor. You have to verify. You have to verify.

12:24So now, if this person is not considered a righteous person, either because he shaves inappropriately, or he doesn't keep Shabbat, or he doesn't keep kosher, or he had a situation in a shul where the chazan that they had, the baal koreh, the one that's reading from the Torah, not just leading the tefillah, was actually married to a goya. In an Orthodox shul. The guy is married to a goya. And he's reading from the Torah for the whole kehillah, 150 people. I couldn't believe this. How could this be? So now, what's the problem? Because he's supposed to be a representation, this chazan is supposed to be a representation of the Beit HaMikdash. And you chose him because of his pretty voice instead of his good deeds. The Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit says, in the exact words of the Gemara, there is nobody in the world that Hashem hates more than him—more than this Chazan. He brings a curse on the entire Kehillah. Everyone is cursed in the Kehillah that's listening to his prayer because they put him there.

13:45So someone, innocent, doesn't know what's going on, he comes to the kehilah, he comes to the beit knesset, thinking, oh, listen, I want to get a mitzvah, I want to pray with a minyan. I want to pray with a minyan, so what's the problem? He doesn't know, he goes to this minyan that has a chazzan who's married to a goya, or has a chazzan who just ate treif five minutes before the shul started, or he has, you know, all these different problems. He doesn't realize, he just came to shul, and instead, he got a curse. Who wants this problem? A woman doesn't qualify as a chazan also because it's not modest. Even though women have pretty, pretty voices, according to the Gemara, meaning that the voice of a woman is considered "ervah," part of her nakedness. A woman's voice is attractive to a man. Another woman can appreciate a woman singing and say, "Wow, she has a pretty voice." But a man who just hears a woman singing, if he doesn't know what she looks like, it's fine. However, if he knows what she looks like, he is not allowed to listen to her sing. Why? Because the natural human instinct of a man is to imagine the singing voice. It's a reality, and I can tell you it's verified.

14:55He doesn't know what she looks like; he's never seen her before, and there's no image that he sees. He's just hearing a voice; it's fine. But if he knows what she looks like, he's not allowed to listen to her sing. Why? Because the natural human instinct of a man is to imagine the singing voice inappropriately, to visualize this woman in an immodest way. It's a reality, and I can tell you it's verified. So, a woman's voice is very attractive to a man, and therefore a man is not allowed to listen to a woman sing unless it's his wife, and it's private. So, a woman, on one hand, is not allowed to be a chazzan because her voice is considered ervah, and it will make the entire kehillah think inappropriate thoughts. It's arayot; it's a sex crime. So instead of going to tefillah to pray to Hashem, the entire kehillah is engaging in what is considered the number one sin in the Torah, which is a sex crime. You know, Yom Kippur, b'ezrat Hashem, is coming soon. We're only about a month away or so, or a little more. At the end of the Yom Kippur prayers, we say a lot of sins: we made this sin, we made that sin, and it's a big, big list of sins. If you notice, the entire list, what is it? It's sex crimes. It's all sex crimes.

16:18Amen. It's all about forbidden relationships. It's all, don't be with your mother, don't be with your sister, don't be with your aunt, don't engage in homosexual acts, all these different forbidden relationships. The entire prayer, one of the sections in Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days of the year, the day that we're supposed to repent, is specifically addressing these forbidden relationships. So imagine a kehillah, like a Reform synagogue, that has a woman chazzan. They're committing the sin that we seek forgiveness for once a year, every day. This is what occurs when we rely on our own logic instead of the wisdom of Hashem. In the Gemara, Masechet Chagigah, it says, Talmidei Chachamim Kol Gufam Esh. Talmidei Chachamim, you know, wise people who are scholars, Torah scholars, their entire being is likened to fire. What does it mean for one's entire being to be fire? When someone has dedicated their life, their soul, their time, their pain, and their suffering, everything that they need to finally arrive at being considered a Torah scholar. It's not easy to be a Torah scholar. There are three things the Torah states can only be achieved through suffering and self-sacrifice.

17:42Eretz Yisrael, Olam HaBa, and acquiring the Torah all require significant effort and dedication. To become a Talmid Chacham, one must undergo suffering and make sacrifices. It is not possible to live comfortably in Eretz Yisrael without experiencing some form of hardship. Reaching Olam HaBa also involves sacrifice and suffering. It is an inevitable part of the journey. So now... They say the entire Talmid Chacham (Torah scholar) is eish (fire), meaning that once they have become one with the Torah and made all the necessary sacrifices to become a Talmid Chacham, their thoughts become like Torah thoughts. They only think what the Torah thinks. They don't have personal opinions. They don't think about, listen, but I think that you should do this, or I think, no, no, no. What does Hashem think? The bigger the Talmid Chacham, the less opinion he has. All he has is, what is Hashem's opinion? What's Hashem's opinion? Rabbi Tovia Singer,

18:54Phenomenal Rabbi does a lot of kiruv, especially with the goyim, Bnei Noach, and even Jews as well. One of the things, you know, during the times when we were learning about doing teshuva, was also learning about the falsehood of Christianity. I listened to him a lot. One thing that always appealed to me, he says, listen, in all the debates that he would have... He says, listen, my opinion doesn't count. He says, your opinion, the other guy, your opinion also doesn't count. He goes, the crowd's opinion, all crowds, 500 people there, he goes, your opinion doesn't count. All that counts and all that we should ask ourselves is what is Hashem’s opinion? What does Hashem say about this? That’s a Talmid Chacham. You have a Talmid Chacham? He's not going to tell you, "Listen, I think this, I think that." He's going to tell you, "Oh, you have a question? Let's see what the Torah says. Parashat Ekev, this is what it says. Parashat Va'etchanan, this is what it says. Parashat Ki Tavo, this is what it says. Whatever it is, this is what Hashem thinks. This is why He wrote it." So now, you find yourself in a situation where you're trying to fulfill these big mitzvot, which are a little easier to fulfill because you know that they're big. The challenge is to not overlook the smaller mitzvot, the ones that may seem insignificant at first glance but hold great importance in the eyes of Hashem. It's important to treat all mitzvot with care and attention, ensuring that your service to Hashem is complete and sincere.

20:17But here, he's telling you that there's a big reward in this world, and David HaMelech is also saying it as well in Tehillim, that he's scared of the small mitzvot. He's scared of the mitzvot that no one thinks are a big deal. The ones where you go to Beit Knesset and you're not really paying attention to who the Chazan is. You go to Beit Knesset and you're not really sure if there's a kosher minyan or non-kosher minyan. You're not verifying anything. You go to a restaurant, and you don't really pay attention to the kosher stamp—if it's valid or if it's not valid. You're not paying attention. Okay, so you may actually have a problem. You may have a serious problem. To such an extent that David HaMelech says, why is he scared? Why is he scared of these small mitzvot? Because David HaMelech was one of the humblest people that ever lived, calling himself less than a worm. He says, I don't even know if I have the merit to go to Olam Haba, chas v'shalom. David HaMelech, David HaMelech did not know if he's going to have a share in the World to Come. Of course, he became the fourth pillar in the Kisei HaKavod.

21:36of Hashem. But nonetheless, during this world, during this life that he had, he didn't know. He didn't know where he stood. He's like, "Listen, I'm trying. The big mitzvot, I know the big mitzvot, but the small ones, I don't know if I'm doing them well enough. And maybe these small ones are the ones that are going to make me lose my Olam HaBa." This is the difference between us and David HaMelech. We're often thinking, "Listen, we keep Shabbat, I'm fine. I'm a tzaddik already." Keep going. I went to a kosher restaurant and paid an extra 50 percent, already thinking, "I'm learning 20 minutes a day, okay, great, 20 minutes a day." We think we're already giants. But the real giants, the real talmidim, are telling you, "Listen, you got to pay a little bit more attention to what the Torah says." You have to pay attention to the small details. That's how we understand that when Hashem tells us here that He's going to remove every illness we have, He won't do it if you merely keep Shabbat. It's not enough if you just adhere to kosher because there happens to be a kosher store nearby, making it convenient to buy kosher salami just because it's next to the non-kosher section. What's the big deal? It's going to cost you an extra dollar. It's not going to change your life.

22:58You want special siyata di'Shmaya? You want special assistance from Hashem? You want Hashem to fulfill His promise over here, where He says, "I'm going to cure every illness?" You have pain in your life? Your legs hurt? Your mind hurts? Your neshama hurts? You have serious problems? Hashem says: start paying attention to the small details. Not just the big ones, but the small ones.