Rabbi Reuven Class In Maimonide School Montreal

0:31Shalom Aleichem. Hi, everyone. If I have your attention for just a little bit, I promise you I'm going to try to be interesting. If I'm boring, you can throw tomatoes. Question: I'm going to ask you three questions, then I'm going to start telling you why I'm asking these questions. First question is, has anybody ever seen this drawing before? Okay. Does this look like something that a human being made or that Hashem (God) made?

1:59This is for the people who may be a little shy to admit that we came from monkeys because then, if you really believe you came from monkeys, you might not think of yourself as a great person, since you're not visiting your grandfather in a zoo. But the reality is that everybody has to ask themselves, Be'emet, did we come from monkeys? It's a really serious question. Did we come from monkeys? Are the Goyim, who created this whole theory that says we came from monkeys, correct? Now, By a show of hands, how many people believe in God? Everybody believes in God. Okay, that's good. Now, why does it make a difference if you believe in monkeys or you believe in God? Why does it make a difference if you believe in God or you believe you came from a monkey, or you believe this is man-made by a machine or Hashem, or anything like that? The reason is, is because each one of those answers is available—it's free, in essence, as far as money is concerned—but it also has a price at the same time. Most of my life, I lived in a world where I thought, similar to some people in the world, that it's possible we came from monkeys, or it's possible we didn't come from monkeys. All I knew was that I didn't know, and I didn't know anybody else who knew.

3:26I would ask certain people certain questions. Sometimes these people were rabbis, and I would ask them, "Can you prove to me that the Torah is real? For example, does the Torah have anything about dinosaurs?" I saw on television that there are dinosaurs; they're really big, they're really strong, and I never heard a rabbi give a shiur about dinosaurs. So there's a problem. How are you telling me a dinosaur is real? So the first rabbi that I asked told me, "No, dinosaurs aren't real. They're not real." I said, I didn't really like the answer. Why? Because I saw bones in a museum. Where did they get the bones? Now, later on in life, I found out that over 90% of the bones you see in a museum are fake. But I didn't know this as a kid. I thought they were real because I figured if they're in a museum, why would they make fake bones? Did it have nothing to do with real life? Apparently, yes. But then I asked another rabbi, and I asked him, are there dinosaurs in any Jewish texts? in the Torah? And he says, yes. I said, where are the dinosaurs in the Torah? He says, yeah, there's an animal called Leviathan. I said, why the Leviathan? Leviathan, I was born in Israel. I was born in Israel. I know a little bit of Hebrew. I said, Leviathan means a whale. It has nothing to do with dinosaurs. It has nothing to do with dinosaurs. So every time I would ask rabbanim and certain people about dinosaurs, this was the question that was mind-blowing for me as a kid.

4:53It meant a lot to me that there would be dinosaurs in the Torah. Why? Because if there are dinosaurs in the Torah, then that's something into which I can invest more time. If there are no dinosaurs in the Torah, that means there's something missing, and I don't want to read something that's missing. I want to read the truth; I want to read everything. So as I grew up in life, I started coming to an understanding that there is a God. I reached an understanding that He does run the world, but it didn't seem to me like anybody really knew what they were talking about. So I decided, you know what? I'll create my own rules. I'll keep certain things that I like because of tradition. When the chagim came around, whether it was Pesach, Yom Kippur, or anything like that, I would go to shul. But in reality, I would just read. I had no idea what I was saying. I read a siddur like most people, like a robot, and raced everybody to make sure that I was finishing first. And every time they finished before me with the siddur, I'd pretend like I finished also. Why? Because going to Beit Knesset is just going. I have to do it. It's like homework. Who wants to do homework? No one is excited about doing homework. Unless homework has a value. So, as I got on with life...

6:04In the United States, I started liking more and more of what the Goyim were doing. They played sports. I went to high school, and although I was a good student, I also played football, American football. Even though I was small, short, and slow, I still thought that maybe one day I'd play in the NFL. You know, we have dreams, we're kids. As time went on, I started making a little bit of money in high school, and I realized I liked money, so I decided I was going to go to Wall Street one day and make a lot of money. Eventually, that happened. When I was already almost 19 years old, I dropped out of college, even though I was a good student. I didn’t want to be a doctor, I didn’t want to be a lawyer, and I didn’t want to be in school for 100 years. So I wanted to go make money. My friend told me that there's an opportunity to work on Wall Street, and you don’t need a college degree for that. I joined. I went to Wall Street, where what you really do is invest other people's money, but in essence, you're a glorified salesperson. All you're doing is convincing people to invest in different companies and so on. For the first couple of years, my number one goal in life was to make money, but I wasn't achieving it. I reached such a point of poverty that at some point, I had to borrow a dollar every day just to survive, like a homeless person.

7:25But I had a dream that one day I'm gonna make it, one day I'm gonna be rich, and one day I'm gonna be able to find the answers for all the questions I ever had. Well, the day came after a couple of years. In 2002, I was only 22 years old. I broke a company record and made over $100,000 in one month. After that, I started making more money like that every month. It got to a point that by 2003, I was 23 years old and I had already made my first million dollars. At that point, life changed. Why? Because now I could buy anything I wanted. All the things that I saw on TV my whole life, I could buy them. If I wanted to go somewhere, I didn't have to ask how much. I would just go. If I wanted to go to a store, I didn't ask them how much is this shirt. I was 23 years old, and I had already made my first million dollars. At that point, life changed. Why? Because now I could buy anything I wanted. All the things that I had seen on TV my whole life, I could buy them. If I wanted to go somewhere, I didn't have to ask how much. I would just go. If I wanted to go to a store, I didn't have to ask them, "How much is this shirt?" Or how much are these pants? Or how much is this watch? I would just get, I would just grab things and buy them. And I would take my younger brother shopping, and I would tell him, whatever you want. He goes, what do you mean, whatever I want? I said, buy the whole store if you want. We have money; we can buy, we can use this. That's what money is for; it's a tool. I never really cared for money, and I just said, you make it, you use it, and spend it. It's more fun to make it than to actually spend it, believe it or not.

8:40But as time went on, and I made more and more money, and I built a company, and other people worked for me, I started becoming bored with life. The reason is that every single person, whether young or old, eventually asks a question. Typically, a person asks this question several times in their life: what is the point of life? Why am I alive? Initially, you might think, oh, I'm alive because maybe one day, I'm gonna make money and I could buy all the stuff that I want. But that can't be true, because there's a lot of people that have all the money in the world. They have enough money that they could burn money, but they still decide to commit suicide. They did research in the United States and they confirmed that people who decide that their life is worth nothing to such an extent that they don't want to live anymore are usually rich. They're usually very, very wealthy people. Anybody heard of the comedian Robin Williams? Robin Williams made a couple of funny movies. When Robin Williams died, he had a net worth of over $100 million.

9:46$100 million, just to give you an understanding of what it means, $100 million. $100 million means you can pretty much buy anything you want without ever being considerate about how much it costs to such an extent that if you spend a million dollars every month, every month of your life you spend a million dollars, you're still never going to run out of money. Why? Because the money that's left, you spend a million dollars after one month, you have 99 million left, right? But within a few months, the money that you have left will generate another million dollars. Meaning that you literally will never run out of money. Even if you spend a million dollars a month, it's an enormous amount of money. He had all the money in the world, but he still decided that his life was worthless. And there are many people like him that have all the money in the world, but they prove that money means nothing. It's just a tool, just like a door is, just like a hammer is, just like a pen is, just like anything else. It allows you to do certain things. It doesn't solve your problems though. Meaning that you literally will never run out of money. Even if you spend a million dollars a month, it's an enormous amount of wealth. He had all the money in the world, but he still decided that his life was worthless. And there are many people like him who have all the money in the world, but they prove that money means nothing. It's just a tool, just like a door is, just like a hammer is, just like a pen is, or just like anything else. It allows you to do certain things. However, it doesn't solve your problems.

10:47So when I had this money, I realized that I'm still unhappy, I'm still unfulfilled, and there's still no point to life. I thought, okay, this must mean there's something else. So I said, perhaps it's time to find a wife and have children. There are plenty of people who have a spouse and children, yet they prefer not to have them. They express that they do not want the spouse or the children, saying that they were happier when they were single. Many people are married, but they're still miserable. Which means that in reality, that cannot be the reason why you came to the world. Because there's also plenty of people who have lived their whole lives and can't find a spouse. They can't find a husband. They can't find a wife. They can't have kids. Which means that this God, whom all of you agree that you believe in, if He created the world like you said He did, there's no way that He would create a person with no purpose. Meaning that if their purpose was to have kids... and to have a wife, and he lived his whole life without finding a wife and without having kids. That means he has no purpose in the world? That doesn't make any sense. That would imply God made a mistake. God doesn't make mistakes because if He did, then He'd be human. Humans make mistakes. God doesn't. So I realized that that can't be the real truth. That cannot be what makes you happy. And I continued looking for different arguments, whether it's kids, or a wife, or money, or success in some type of endeavor, or a hobby.

12:10Kept looking, looking, looking, and I couldn't find it. When you look for the truth, Hashem promises you that you'll find it, but the truth comes in two forms. One, it comes in the form of a lecture like this, where someone's going to tell you the truth, and you have a choice at the end of the lecture whether you're going to do something about it or it's going to go from one ear out the other, and you're going to go back to your life. Sometimes it comes in a shiur like this. Sometimes it comes in a seminar. Sometimes you hear a CD. Sometimes you may see a video on the internet. Who knows? Just different ways. This is the cheapest way to find the truth. Easiest way to find the truth. The other way to find the truth is much more difficult. Why? Because then Hashem talks to you. But when Hashem talks to us, since we're not Moshe Rabbeinu, He doesn't talk to us through a burning bush; He talks to us through life experiences. And usually, the life experiences that remind you of Hashem are difficult. Somebody that usually wins the lotto doesn't say, "Thank God." They say, "Where's the next car shop to buy cars? Where's the next plane that I can buy?" They think that now it's time to have fun. They don't thank God for the success they have, usually. Usually, the people that are the most religious in the world are very poor, very sick, and very miserable.

13:33Those people have no other hope; that's why if you look, for example, at the most religious neighborhoods in the world, they are usually very poor. Because those people have nothing to rely on other than Hashem. Now, I went through life, and I had money, but I asked the same question. What's the point of life? What's the point of life? Little by little, I got to a point where I became very depressed because I couldn't find an answer. But one day, I decided that, you know what, let me just continue with my life, and I wanted to have a... vacation, I went to Las Vegas for a month and a half, and I thought that maybe I'm going to just think about things and have a good time. I had just made a million and a half dollars the month before, so money wasn't really a problem. I figured, you know what, this is a good thing to do, and I went and I had fun. But even after two days, it became boring, so it wasn't the purpose of life. After I came back, I said, you know what? Maybe being in good health is the point of life. So I started exercising and eating healthy, and then one day, I realized that maybe I could have a surgery to fix something that was bothering me once or twice a year. They told me that having the surgery is very simple. You arrive for the surgery in the morning. After a couple of hours, the surgery is completed. They send you home. You're a bit uncomfortable for a couple of days, and then you recover. They call it an elective surgery, meaning you don't really have to have it, but if you want to, you can. Like, for example, some people have a nose surgery. Some people do it for cosmetic reasons because they want to look better; they don't like the way their nose looks. But some people do it because they can't breathe well. You don't really have to have it because, technically, you could still use your mouth. However, if you want to breathe better, you can have the surgery and enjoy its benefits. It's a very simple surgery. I had a similar surgery like that, and it was straightforward. The difference is, not everyone has the same reasons or needs, but the process itself is uncomplicated.

15:03I had a similar surgery like that. It's a very simple surgery. The difference is that my surgery didn't go so simple. When I woke up out of the surgery, I woke up in an enormous amount of pain. Something went wrong. My entire body was in pain. They cut some type of nerve that they don't know what they cut or what they did, but it changed the entire makeup of my entire body, where everything hurt, from my head all the way to the bottom of my feet. To such an extent that I was screaming my lungs out and they had to give me the most amount of morphine legally allowed. is that my surgery didn't go so simply. When I woke up from the surgery, I was in an enormous amount of pain. Something went wrong. My entire body was in pain. They cut some type of nerve, and they don't know what they cut or what they did, but it changed the entire makeup of my whole body, where everything hurt from my head all the way to the bottom of my feet. To such an extent that I was screaming my lungs out, and they had to give me the most morphine legally allowed, just to calm me down. just to calm me down. Eventually, they calmed me down, released me, and said, "No, this is just a slip-up, everything is okay, you can go home, rest, you have nothing to worry about." It was very easy for them to say, but very hard to actually do. When I got home, I went to rest and woke up 45 minutes later with even worse screams than I had before. Only this time, the screaming, yelling, and crying didn't stop for 62 days. My body started failing,

16:29And I literally started dying. Little by little, my body started failing, and all the things that we enjoy in life became something that was no longer available to me. After a couple of months of this, I realized that, you know what? Obviously, this surgery was a mistake, but there has to be more to life than all the things that I'm doing. And as I started getting healthier and healthier, I began looking for more answers. But I still never looked at what Moshe Rabbeinu told us to look at, which is the Torah. I looked everywhere else except the Torah. So the first sign that Hashem gave me, that He's not so happy with me, I didn't get the message. He sent me a text message by giving me a very difficult surgery. I didn't get the message. Hashem sends you messages. And those messages come in difficulties. Sometimes you lose money. Sometimes you get sick. Sometimes your heart breaks for some reason. Different things happen in life. And that's all messages from Hashem. I wasn't taking it as a message from Hashem. I was taking it as just bad luck, like most people. So, nine months later, Hashem had to send me another message. I had a pain in my leg to the point where I couldn't walk. I went to the hospital. They said that I have an internal infection called an abscess.

17:51that's so big that if I would delay the surgery by another hour, it would explode, go into my bloodstream, and I would die instantly. I said, oh, that sounds like fun, so I had the surgery. Then I had the surgery, and I had to stay in an intensive care unit next to a bunch of people that were dying for the next month. After a month, I got the message, but I thought again, it was just bad luck. So six months later, Hashem gave me another sign, another surgery. I still didn't get it. So, three months later, he gave me another sign. I still didn't get it. And then another month later, and every month, I would go to the hospital, to a doctor, or to some type of surgeon, and it got to such a point that I became a part of a study for science. They said, "Listen, there's something wrong with you, but nobody knows what." They even suggested, "You should donate your body to science, because at least somebody will benefit from it." I didn't actually like the comment so much, but nonetheless, I became part of a study.

18:52They tried to discover what was wrong with me because they couldn't understand how one simple surgery could change your entire body. Every month, I would have to undergo some type of surgery. Every week, I would have to be part of some study. I was in pain 24 hours a day. I had enough painkillers just to survive, and even that didn't work. But after seven years of this, you get to a point where you give up, and... So I decided that since I still haven't discovered the point of life, and my life is essentially miserable, with constant pain, there's really no reason to continue. There seemed to be no purpose. As a result, I became suicidal. However, Hashem promises in the Torah that He will never give you a test that you cannot pass. Meaning that as soon as you reach your breaking point, when it's truly your breaking point, that's when Hashem gets involved. I reached my breaking point. So when I started thinking and planning, how do I leave this world? I feel bad for my mom, she's probably going to cry. I feel bad for my wife, she's probably going to cry. All these nice people who actually care about my life more than I care about my life. I feel bad for them, so maybe I should be nice to them before I leave the world. So one day I decided to call my mom, and she's crying hysterically.

20:12I said, why are you crying? She goes, please talk to him. And I said, to whom? I said, to Ephraim. I asked, who is Ephraim and why is he making you cry? She says, Ephraim is your cousin. He's a Rabbi in Israel, and he wants to talk to you. I said, if it’s going to stop you from crying, I’ll talk to anyone you want. So I told her to have Ephraim call me. And I never knew who Ephraim was. I had never met him. All I knew was that he made my mom cry. So Ephraim calls me, and we have a conversation. And I start asking him questions about life, and he starts giving me answers. But not the type of answers where I say, "What do you think of the purpose of life?" I ask him a serious question, and he tells me not only an answer but an actual source in the Torah that proves this answer. One of my first questions is, are there dinosaurs in the Torah? For 20 years, I've been trying to find this answer, but I didn't really try to find it by looking into a book. I just figured somebody should know. She says, "Yeah, of course it's in the Torah." I said, "Where is it in the Torah?" She replies, "It says in Sefer Bereshit. Sefer Bereshit, Hashem says that he created the taninim hagdolim. Tanin gadol, by definition, translates to giant reptiles, which is exactly what dinosaurs are." She says, yeah, of course, it's in the Torah. I said, where is it in the Torah? It says in Sefer Bereishit. Sefer Bereishit, Hashem says that He created the taninim hagedolim. Tanin gadol, by definition, translated as giant reptiles, which is exactly what dinosaurs are.

21:26I said to him, I'm like, how come nobody ever told me this? It's in the Torah, it's so obvious. You don't even have to be a big giant chacham, talmid chacham, rabbi to know this. It's literally there. I said, how come nobody knows this? She said, what do you mean? Not everybody's an expert in every single word. Just like there's an expert doctor in hearts, there's an expert doctor in brains. There is an expert doctor in teeth, an expert doctor in some other form of medicine. Not every doctor knows the same material. It's the same thing with rabbis; not all rabbis know the same material. Yes, there's the basics that most people know, but science is not one of them. Not all rabbis study science. So, I told him, you know, rabbis should study science because, in today's generation, we need to know science. He said, "You should do it." I thought he was joking; a couple of years later, I realized he wasn't. Anyway, so I continued asking him questions, and I realized that there's actual truth available in the world. Some of the questions that I asked were my questions, and some were other people's questions. One of the things that I always wanted to find out is, did we come from monkeys? Because if you came from monkeys, I should go visit them. I should visit my grandfather in the zoo. Maybe my grandfather is in the zoo in Montreal.

22:40The zoo may be in Los Angeles, and in every zoo, there's some type of relative. The deeper you delve into Torah, the clearer your understanding becomes of what the truth is. Now, I'll show you the truth. It's very, very simple to see. Now, all of you have seen this illustration. It's a little bit humorous because it depicts that eventually we become robots. But let's disregard the robot aspect. Now, for instance, if we began with monkeys, right? Right? We eventually became something else. Now, how do we prove that we didn't come from monkeys? It's very simple. Does anybody know the answer? Because the monkey is still here. That's the answer. If we came from monkeys, the monkey wouldn't be here. The reason why is because if the monkey is the first step and we are the last step... The very minimum, the very minimum, that means that the monkey was strong enough to survive by himself. But so was the second one. So is the second step in between us. But the scientists don't say that there were two steps; they're saying there were many, many steps—an infinite amount of steps over millions and millions of years. They say so. The reality is that for anything to mutate, according to the scientists, that means that they need to be strong enough to survive even without mutating.

24:08Because even if they didn't mutate, even if they didn't mutate, they need to be able to survive. Because if they depended on mutating, they didn't have enough time to, they weren't strong enough to mutate. The point being, Rabotai, is that If the monkey is real, he's the first step, and we are the last step, you'd have one of two things happen here. Number one, the monkey wouldn't be here. Number two, even if the monkey is so strong as a being that he would still be here, all of the different steps in between would also be here. It's impossible for the monkey to still be here, and for us to be here, and nothing in between to be here. Look, you're never going to see a half-monkey, half-human. Sometimes people look like monkeys, but they're not. They're not monkeys. Sometimes they act like monkeys, but they're not. In reality, if the monkey is the first step and we are the last step, you have to have one of two equations in order to make it valid. One, the monkey is not here, which means it's nonsense because you can't prove it. Two, all of the steps in between have to be here; all of them have to be here. Now, why is that? Why is this very valid?

25:23Why is it something that you need to know? Because if you didn't come from the monkey, then you have to explain where you came from. There's only one other theory, and that's the Torah. There are no other theories other than that. It's either the Torah, or you came from a monkey. There's nothing in between. Some people take part of this, and part of that, and part of this, and they make shakshuka out of it, but in reality, It's either this or it's this. There are two theories. Either we came from monkeys, lizards, and some dirt on the floor that somehow transformed into a human being, or we came from the Torah. That Hashem decided, "Here you go, there was nothing, there was a piece of dirt, I made him into a human being, I called him Adam." Those are the only two theories available. There's another way to prove that the only valid way is... We could have come into existence without mutation, without the whole process of survival of the fittest that scientists discuss. Without the whole process of coming from lizards, monkeys, amoebas, and all these types of things. The reason why is because these other processes depend on something called mutations, and a mutation doesn't just start from nothing.

26:38A mutation doesn't just start from nothing. First, you have a cell, then the cell goes through either mitosis or meiosis, which you probably learned in some science class, meaning the cell replicates itself, either identically or similarly. As it replicates itself, eventually, one of the cells decides it doesn't want to stay a cell anymore, it wants to be different, and it decides to become something else, so it mutates. Sometimes a Jew doesn't want to be a Jew anymore. He wants to be a goy, same thing. Now, this mutation has to be perfect because if something wrong happens, the cell dies. Now, this drawing that I asked if you think it comes from a human being or not is one of the proofs that I have had in my life. This is called a flagellar motor, and Flagellum or more flagellum. Now, scientists discovered this motor. But they didn't discover it at NASA. They didn't discover it at some type of engineering company. They discovered it in the human body. In fact, every single one of you has trillions of them, and you need them in order to survive.

28:06Because every single bacterium that you have in your life, in your body, that gives you life, that gives you the ability to operate, needs to move from one place to the other. Now you've all seen, I'm sure, some type of visual image of your blood cells moving from one place to another through your veins, or something else moving in your body. How do they move? They move through some type of mechanism. That mechanism is partly because of this motor. This motor works in a very perfect way. where it operates, where this thing swings over and over and it goes from place to place and it takes cells with it. Now, this motor has many, many pieces, but they highlighted a few of them. There's the green one, there's the yellow one, there's this one that's gray a little bit, there's blue, there's light blue, there's the orange, there's the red. Meaning this is not just one piece; this is many, many pieces. In real life, it actually looks like this, but there are no color images here because you can't take a color image since this is so small. This picture is 50 million times the size of what it really is. 50 million times the size.

29:21The scientists that discovered this said that if one of these pieces didn't work, decided to go on vacation for a weekend, and didn't want to work, not only will the motor not operate anymore, but very likely the subject will die. Why? Because that cell, that bacteria, that needed to transfer from point A to point B, if it doesn't... That could potentially mean that the person can't breathe anymore. Or that could potentially mean that the person can't see anymore. Or that could potentially mean that something in the body that he needs is not going to happen, and he simply just cannot operate. Why is this important to you? Why am I giving you a science class instead of a shiur Torah? Because in order for this to come from nothing, to come from some type of mutation, it has to be perfect from the outset. This illustrates the extraordinary complexity and order within creation, suggesting an intelligent design. Once I discovered insights like this, I began exploring further proofs of the existence of Hashem. There is a book by Rabbi Zamir Cohen... That means that the first time out, that it mutated from nothing into this, it has to be perfect. Not only once, but an infinite number of times. Because if there was ever a mistake in any of the motors that you have in your body, life would be very, very different. So with that being said, once I discovered things like this, I said, okay, so let me see some other proofs that God really exists. There's a book by Rabbi Zamir Cohen,

30:35Science comes of age, or the coming revolution, is the same book that contains a collection of various scientific facts. It explains how non-Jews discovered different phenomena in life that could serve as proofs of God's existence. For example, has anyone ever gazed at the sky and wondered how many stars there are? There are more stars than grains of sand in the world. It's a nice theory. I don't have the exact number of how many sand grains there are in the world, but I do have the exact number of stars. Four hundred years ago, there was a person by the name of Galileo Galilei. Have any of you ever heard of him? When the Hubble Telescope was developed, people began to look into the stars. Initially, people looked into the sky and said, "You know what, I can see 800 or 900 stars. That's how many stars there are in the world." However, when they came out with the Hubble Telescope, they realized that there are stars you can't see with the naked eye. Now they thought, "Oh, maybe there are a thousand stars." As the telescope became more advanced, they realized, "Oh, maybe there are eight million stars."

32:04In 1994, they connected a telescope to a supercomputer, and the supercomputer and NASA estimated that there are 10 to the 21st power stars, meaning 10 with 21 zeros after it. That's a lot of stars. Fast forward 10 more years, a university in Australia came up with a more precise supercomputer, and they said, no, you overestimated. There are really 10 to the power of 18 stars. That's a 10 followed by 18 zeros. You overestimated. They didn't actually count it; they just estimated based on certain scientific facts and algorithms. Now, Am Yisrael has known exactly how many stars there are since the beginning of the world. In the Gemara Masechet Berachot, which is the Oral Torah that we have and we depend on, on page 32b, if anyone wants to look at it themselves, Hashem's relationship with Am Yisrael is explored.

33:15Hashem says to Am Yisrael, "Am Yisrael was complaining to Hashem, 'Hashem, You destroyed the Beit HaMikdash. You know, You forgot about us. Even a man that leaves his wife eventually remembers that he used to be married to her. So You're treating us like some woman that You never knew.' So Hashem says to Am Yisrael, 'Biti, my daughter, look what I did for you. I created the heavens and...'" ...that has so many different parts, and he gives a detailed, specific analysis and number of how many stars and where they are with a precise number of how many stars, which is 1,064,340 and then 12 zeros after it, which is approximately 10 to the 18th power, just like the scientists said 15 years ago. The only difference is we have the exact number. They're just estimating. It's 10 to the 18th power. We know it's 1 0 6 4 3 4 0 and then 12 0s after it, meaning we have the exact number. This indicates that it took the scientists 3,300 years to catch up to the information we already knew without a telescope. Now, how could Am Yisrael know such information and write it down in a book without having a telescope? Exactly. This means that if...

34:37We don't have a telescope. There's only one way to find out. The One who put it there, He told us. So this was another proof that I saw. So not only did Hashem create the world, but He gave us information, scientific information that we can prove that He exists. Most people think they see scientists discover things, and they think that the scientists are contradicting the Torah. But in reality, scientists are only catching up to the Torah. ...are going to be rewarded by the sun, while the wicked are going to be punished by the sun. How could you be rewarded and punished by the same thing? David HaMelech tells us a very big secret. He says that Hashem is going to take the sun out of its shell, and then the immense amount of heat is going to burn the wicked who didn't want to keep Shabbat, didn't want to keep Taharat HaMishpacha, didn't want to keep Kashrut, didn't want to do anything. However, this same intensity will serve as delight and healing for the righteous, as they have embraced the commandments and followed the path of Torah. This dual nature of the sun's heat is a profound message about the divine judgment and the distinction between those who adhere to the mitzvot and those who disregard them. It's a vivid reminder of the power and precision of Hashem's justice and the reward awaiting those who remain steadfast in their faith and commitment. are going to be rewarded by the sun, the wicked are going to be punished by the sun. How could you be rewarded and punished by the same thing? David HaMelech tells us a very big secret. He says that Hashem is going to take the sun out of its shell, and then the immense amount of heat is going to burn the wicked that didn't want to keep Shabbat, didn't want to keep Taharat HaMishpacha, didn't want to keep kosher, didn't want to do anything.

35:56But the righteous that kept it, it's going to heal them. Meaning, if they were missing an arm because they had an accident, it's going to bring the arm back. If they were blind, it's going to make them see. The same exact sun. So the scientists made fun of us. They said, "Listen, it's a nice little theory that you are hopefully thinking that one day you're going to cure cancer with this sun of yours. But there's a problem with this theory. The theory depends on the sun being in a shell. Where's the shell? And then when you want to look at the sun, do you see a shell? There's no shell." But indeed, there is. Scientists, with the advancement of technology, decided to take an X-ray picture of the sun, and they found and confirmed that the sun indeed does have a shell. The real sun is a fraction of the size of what you see. The real sun is 15 million degrees, but what we get... A part of the 6,000 degrees that the outer shell has, so how did this 15 million degrees get lower to 6,000 degrees? Because Hashem literally put a shell around the Sun. I could show you the pictures for anyone that's interested. That actually makes the 15 million degrees go down to 6,000. Why is this very important? Because if you

37:19If the 6,000 degrees became 15 million, it would significantly alter the conditions necessary for life on Earth. Should the 6,000 degrees increase to 6,001, even a single degree higher, Earth's conditions would become untenable for sustaining life. A difference of one degree either way could lead to catastrophic consequences; a temperature just one degree lower and we would face freezing conditions, unable to sustain our current existence. Earth moved one degree further from the sun, meaning it got one degree colder. All life on Earth would freeze to death. If we got one degree closer to the sun, everything would burn. This means that it's exactly and precisely in the only place that it can be, and exactly and precisely the temperature that it can be. This cannot be by chance; that cannot be by chance. Some types of statistics don't matter how many years have passed. So, this book is full of these proofs, and there are many books like it. I have looked at many of them and realized that now I know for sure. It's not just belief in God; I know God exists because nothing else makes any sense. Nothing else even makes sense, especially as you know many, many proofs. I have both, b'ezrat Hashem, five movies—five short 15 to 20-minute movies similar to this—but with the illustrations, the visual effects that you can watch online with different scientific proofs of God that you can actually see from the Torah. Now, why is this very important to know that, number one, God exists and

38:42Number two, we didn't come from monkeys. Number three, God runs the world to such an extent that even the cells you have in your body, He runs them. This means that once you have all of that information, you need to find out what He says because we depend on Him. Because if He doesn't do what we want Him to do, He doesn't have to bring a war. He doesn't have to bring poverty. He doesn't have to bring any of the big things that people are scared of. All He needs to do is make one protein not work. That's it. Just one protein stops working, and a person can stop seeing. This is what happened to me—one part of my body simply stopped working, and no one to this day can identify it. I started getting answers from my Rav, Rav Ephraim, and I started realizing that G-d is very much real. I had to find out what else He says. G-d says that you have to keep Shabbat if you're a Jew, and the reason why is because He decided to create something for you to appreciate being a Jew. Now, most Jews today don't really like Shabbat; they think Shabbat is optional. You can keep it if you want.

39:55You don't have to keep it if you don't want. Maybe it's nicer to go to the beach, maybe the casino, maybe the mall. Jews don't necessarily think that Shabbat is really an obligation. They think it's nice. It's like a mitzvah that if you do it, maybe you're going to be friends with Moshe Rabbeinu in Gan Eden. But if not, you'll be friends with other tzaddikim. The reality is, if you look at the halachot of the Rambam, Hilchot Shabbat, chapter 30, the last halacha, he says that a Jew that violates Shabbat on purpose is considered like an idol worshiper. Why is he considered like an idol worshiper? Because an idol worshiper took God, threw Him in the garbage, and replaced Him with nothing. Replaced Him with some statue you buy from the store. When a Jew doesn't keep Shabbat, in essence he does the same thing. The reason why is that Hashem said, "You can't really create anything like Me. I'm Hashem. But you can do one thing like Me. What is it? You can stop. You can stop creating certain things." So Hashem specifically limited Himself. He established rules for Himself after six days of creating the heavens and the earth, the animals, human beings, and everything else: the plants, the air, the laws of nature, and so forth. After creating all of it, He decided He wanted to make His chosen people, His children, feel like they are truly His children, not just think it. Now, how do you know you are your parents' child? What if one day your parents said, "Hey, listen, we're not really sure you're ours."

41:24That's not going to be such a nice thing to say. When you say, "Well, I have proof. Why? I look exactly like you. I look exactly like you. We have the same nose, we have the same eyes, and so on and so forth. We have the same DNA." You can prove it. But how can we prove that we're Hashem's children? After all, He has no body, no image of a body, and no likeness of a body. Hashem says you can prove it one way: by doing something just like Him, which is to keep Shabbat. So Hashem says, I'm going to stop creating on the seventh day because you're going to stop creating on the seventh day, which in essence is going to give you the ability to feel just like I did. When I stop creating, you're going to stop creating. So when a Jew decides that he doesn't want this present, it's akin to rejecting a significant gift. Hashem giving us this is like someone receiving a present from their parents. Imagine, let's say, for example, all of you are either about to drive or have already started driving, right? Most of you drive or are close to getting your driver's license. You're excited about driving; this is probably one of your dreams at this stage of life, right? You're all excited about driving. Who's not excited about driving? Raise your hand.

42:32The only one that's been driving for 50 years isn't excited. Everyone who hasn't driven is excited, right? I remember at my age, when I was 16, 17 years old, the greatest thing in the world that I was looking forward to was driving. Now imagine, your parents have been saving money since you were a baby. Every month they put in $10, every month they put in $20, every month they put in $100. Why? To save for the car they want to buy you when you're finally allowed to drive. One day, you turn the age at which you're allowed to drive. You get your license and are given a car. You look at the car and say, "I don't want this car. No, I don't. It's better off you didn't give me anything." Now, I'm going to ask you, are you a nice person or a mean person? Very mean, right? Why? Because you're not taking into consideration how much effort they put into giving you this car. There's no appreciation whatsoever. They've been saving for 17 years, and you're looking at it and saying, no, it's not the color that I want. It's not the wheels that I want. It's not this that I want. So I'd rather not have it at all. That's not a nice person by anybody's definition. So Hashem created the entire world.

43:48Created the heavens, He created all other people, He created animals, He created lizards, He created everything. But He also created you, and He created something for you. And He told Moshe Rabbeinu, "I have a very special matana, a very special present, in My treasure chest, and the name of it is Shabbat. And I want you to give it to Am Yisrael as a special present from Me." So when a Jew says, "No, this present, ah, it's not for me," does that make him a nice Jew? I'm not such a nice one. So these, Rabotai, are some of the questions I started asking myself. And the reason why is because I realized that I needed to depend on Hashem. I needed Him to cure me. I needed Him to give me money. I needed Him to give me a wife. I needed Him to give me kids. I needed Him to give me air in my lungs. The good news is, you also need all of that. Everybody needs all of that.

44:48So as Am Yisrael, we all have to at least realize, maybe we're not all going to become Moshe Rabbeinu, maybe we're not going to become Sara Imeinu, but there are certain basics that make us Jews. A Jewish woman, whether she likes it or not, has to be modest. Why? Because she's a princess, that's the daughter of the King of Kings. The daughter of the King of Kings can't just walk around like some pitzah, some woman that doesn't care about anything. Why? Because you're the daughter of the King of Kings. You have no permission to do such a thing. A Jewish man has to know Torah. Why? Because you need to know how to be a Jew. You can't just decide, "No, no, I'm going to learn once I'm married and I'm old and I have nothing else to do." What are you going to do for the first 50 years? So these are certain basic requirements. There is a certain basic minimum that's required of us. Why? Because every day we ask Hashem for stuff. Right now, you ask Him for basic things. You ask Him to help you with the test. You ask Him to help you get a car. You're asking Him for your parents to be happy. You're asking Him for basic things. As you get older, you can ask Him for more. The very least we can do is a little bit of what He said. Do what He said.

45:59And little by little, you'll see that the more you do what He said, the more He'll do what you want. I found this out a little late, but not too late. As soon as I started doing teshuvah, I started learning, I started teaching, and I started realizing that there's more meaning to life than just working and making money. I started realizing that a lot of people are just like me; they don't really know the truth. So I started teaching other people. But in order to teach people, you can't do it if you're in pain 24 hours a day. So I put Hashem in a situation where either I can't teach, or He has to heal me. It was a good deal for him, so he decided to heal me. How? I have no idea. He runs the world. So little by little, my body stopped hurting. Little by little, the infection stopped coming. Little by little, I was able to function like a normal human being. But I still thought, maybe I'm going to work in the business world as well as actually teach. But eventually, Hashem said, no, no, I don't want you to be in the business world at all, so He took away the business. Giving me a kind of option where I had no option but to learn. I had to learn and teach. But

47:06This time around, I wanted to do it because I see a lot of kids like you—some your age, some a little younger, some much older—they're still not sure if we came from monkeys or not; still not sure if we're the same thing as goyim or not. So, when I found out, I realized that I have to teach other people. So now I'm going to have you ask me any question you want because most likely, I've asked the same questions you want. Anything that you've always had as a question, ask away, because if it's going to mean something to you, it's going to make you closer to Hashem and further from being a monkey, then maybe that's the only reason I came to Montreal. So go ahead and ask me some questions. Same price. Go ahead. What's the argument that the Torah has against... Planet Earth is. It's a good question. So, the calendar that we have today, the Jewish calendar, says that we are in the year 5779. 5779, meaning that from the beginning of the Earth until now, five thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine years have elapsed. Scientists are sure, as if they were there, that the world is much older.

48:17They're sure that the world is much older than that. Some say it's 50 million years old. Some say it's 250 million years old. Some say it's 500 million years old. Some say it's a billion years old. Some say it's 13.4 billion years old. That's the biggest number so far. So how come all the scientists don't have the same opinion? ...is that, number one, you're never going to find two scientists with the same theory, because each one is guessing. One scientist might estimate 200 million years, while another might say 250 million years. To some, it may sound similar, but in reality, just imagine your life so far, spanning 16 or 17 years. Consider how much has transpired in those years. That amount of history, although over a short time, shows how theories could significantly differ. that, number one, you're never going to find two scientists that have the same theory because he's guessing just like he's guessing. For them, if one guy says 200 million and the other one says 250 million, it sounds like the same thing, but in reality, just imagine your life. You've been in the world for 16 to 17 years; imagine how much has happened in your life in 16 to 17 years, just the amount of history that has happened within such a small amount of time.

49:19So to say that the world is either 200 million or 250 million years old, just throwing 50 million years up in the air like it means nothing, obviously there's a problem with these theories. First and foremost, the Torah says that when Hashem created the world, He created time. Created time. Which means that at the end of the first day, He says, "Vayehi erev, vayehi boker, yom rishon. Vayehi erev, vayehi boker, yom sheni. Vayehi erev, vayehi boker, yom shelishi," and so on and so forth. Meaning that it was evening, it was morning, end of first day. It was evening, it was morning, end of second day. It was evening, it was morning, end of third day, and so on and so forth. But there's a problem. The problem is that He didn't create the sun and the moon until the fourth day. So how did He tell whether it was morning or it was night without the sun and the moon? That's how we tell time. If there was no sun, we wouldn't be able to tell time. It would always be morning or night or whatever you want to choose.

50:20We tell time based on the sun and the moon. God doesn't tell time by the sun and the moon. God tells time based on Him. Meaning, Erev and Boker, He decided to create time. He gave it 24 hours, and that's how He created the world. This is part of creation. Now, how do you go against the scientists that say they're sure it's much older than that? You have to go into how they got to the conclusion of that theory. Most of them used something called carbon dating or some other form of chemical analysis involving substances in the world, whether from trees, coal, carbon, or other elements to estimate how much time has elapsed since the origin of the object. The problem with all these theories is that a scientist came forward with an actual analysis. That's a conclusive analysis that no one has been able to challenge for over 25 years. And the analysis says that all of these theories depend on one single thing, which is that the atmosphere, the temperature of the world, has to remain constant. The reason why is because if the temperature changes, for example, if, let's say, for example, you take this piece of plastic and you put it on a table for 10 years. If nothing changes with the temperature, you'll see, you'll be able to assess where it's been to some extent. But if throughout the next 10 years, there's one second, one second that you put it under flames. One second, not the whole time, just one second, you put a torch to it. And then you, the next 10 years, same thing.

51:45For 10 years, if nothing changes with the temperature, you'll be able to assess where it's been to some extent. But if throughout the next 10 years there's one second, just one second, that you put it under flames, not the whole time, but just one second you put a torch to it, and then the next 10 years, the same thing. Do you have the same information? Can you still say this 10 years and this 10 years is the same thing? No. Why? Because the temperature changed. Something drastic happened. Now the only thing that science can prove for sure is that the temperature of the Earth, the temperature of the atmosphere, has changed by no less than one degree throughout history, which means that all of these dating systems that depend on a constant depend on zero being a flat number. Cannot be right. Why? Because it changed, and no one knows when it changed. And no one knows exactly how much it changed, but we know for sure it changed. Why? Because it's continuing to change. And all of those theories depend on a constant. They depend on things not changing. Now, how come they're not going to tell you what I just told you? Why do they continue coming up with more theories and more years and more? Because if you tell people, listen, by the way, all the things we said until now are completely wrong, then people stop donating money, and the government doesn't give grants.

53:09And the colleges close down, and the universities close down, and the scientists lose their jobs, and they become homeless. So, obviously, they're not going to do it. So they're going to keep telling you because no one actually cares enough to find the real information. They say, "Oh, this scientist said it's 300 million years old. This other one said 13 billion. Let's go with him because he sounds more realistic —13 billion." The reason why all of them do it, aside from money, is because as long as you believe that the world doesn't really have answers, then you don't have any obligation to serve Hashem. This is the reason why many people want to believe in science. Because as long as they think that science is right, that implies there is something else other than Hashem. And if there is something else other than Hashem, who is to say who is right? But the truth is that you can prove Hashem scientifically from the scientists. Whether it's through this argument of time and the world being as old as it is, or otherwise, there are many scientists who have gone to the depths of the truth and actually realized that, you know what? Whether the world is 6,000 years old or 13 billion years old doesn't make a difference. Why? It doesn't change the mitzvah of Shabbat. It doesn't change Ma'amad Har Sinai (the Revelation at Mount Sinai).

54:22doesn't change. It doesn't change anything, meaning even if the world was 13 billion years old because some rabbis say it's possible. There's a Zohar that mentions the first three days could have been many years. It's good there is an opinion like that. The truth is, it still doesn't change anything. Even if it is 13 billion years old, you still have to keep Shabbat. Even if it is 13 billion years old, it doesn't change the fact that you still have to eat kosher. None of that has changed because all of the mitzvot in the Torah were given to us 3,300 years ago. So, how old the world is has nothing to do with anything. There's no mitzvah that depends on the world being 5,000 years old. Like, it's not, "Oh, I only have to keep Shabbat if the world is 5,000 years old. But if it's not, there's no Shabbat anymore." There's no such thing. So whether it is or it isn't is irrelevant. But the truth is, the reality is that it's not 13 million years old, because the scientists themselves have proven that it's just a theory and not actual science. Next question. Downstairs? Okay. Questions could be about anything, business or otherwise. Thank you for having me.

55:37Thanks for watching!