Rabbi Reuven’s Annual HoShanna Rabbah ALL NIGHTER Torah Lecture

0:15Good to be here again in Aventura, the Breslov Center, baruch Hashem. We have a one-of-a-kind event tonight. It's going to be a two-part, all-night shiur. We're going to do our regular shiur, which is usually a couple of hours, two to three hours, whatever it is. We're going to try to finish around 11:30 for the first part of the shiur because more people are going to come here to do the tikkun of the night. And then we're going to move to the other room and study the rest of the night. Now, the first part of the shiur is going to be regular. Same thing, you guys can say some things, we can go over the Mishnah and so on. The second part of the shiur is going to be a completely different shiur; it's going to be a completely different type of shiur. Meaning, it's the same mussar, same Torah, nothing really changes, except that we're going to go over the number one mussar book ever written in history. There is no mussar book that will ever be better because this mussar book was written by God.

1:26So we're gonna go over that, and that is Sefer Devarim, the book of Deuteronomy in English. I have no idea how they got the word Deuteronomy from Devarim, but anyway, that's the way it's known today to make sure that people know what we're talking about. But the first part, again, it's a Mishnah Avot, a lot of chiddushim, Baruch Hashem, a lot of very serious stuff. Things that gonna make a difference of whether someone can live or die. Everyone always asks what's gonna happen when Mashiach comes? The resurrection of the dead. How could it be that the sages, and you know, that are mentioned in the Gemara, if they're mentioned by name, then that means that they were at the level of kedusha that they were able to revive the dead. Meaning someone died

2:27If Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi saw him, and he died, he could say, "You know what? He deserves to live." He could pray to Hashem, and one, two, three, he is alive. If he is mentioned in the Gemara by name, that means he had that power. His level of kedusha was that high. If he did not have that level of kedusha, his name is not mentioned in the Gemara. The name of that person is not mentioned in the Gemara. His Torah could be a hundred percent right, his Torah is perfect, but they don't mention him by name. They say, "Someone said." A talmid of someone said this dissonance, but they don't mention him by name. Why? Because even though he was a tzaddik, chacham, kadosh, everything was great, he wasn't at the level of a Tana that could revive the dead. He cannot be mentioned in the Gemara by name. Now, this is a wonderful thing we've gone over several times in previous shiurim. Rav Mizrachi mentions it all the time. Other Rabbanim always mention it all the time. It's an amazing thing. The question is, can you, you, you guys sitting right here, everyone sitting at home, can you revive the dead? Can you get to the level of a Tanna?

3:32Asking a serious question. I'm not asking you guys just a comical question, just to, you know, elicit an answer. No, it's not a rhetorical question. No. Can you revive the dead? Can you revive the dead? Anyone? I heard somebody made a comment yesterday in the shiur that we had online. He says he can move stuff. I don't know if he's joking or he's serious, but anyway, we're going a step higher. We're going higher than Kabbalah here. Can you revive the dead? The answer is actually yes. The answer is yes, and by the end of the shiur, you're going to find out how. Now, to do it is not easy, but you can do it. And every single one of you sitting here, each and every single person watching online, every single person could actually do it: revive the dead. I'm dead serious. It's not a joke. I'm not being comical. I mean 100% serious—you could mamash (truly) revive the dead. Whether you have the merit to or not is a different story, but you can. So the first part of this shiur, the first couple of hours, is going to be finding out how we can revive some dead people and...

4:52starting with ourselves. The second part of this shiur is going to be all night, where we're going to need extra siyata dishmaya to do something that, to my knowledge, hasn't been done yet: where someone teaches Torah all night without stopping, from nine o'clock all the way to six o'clock in the morning and You do the math: nine hours on live feed. Now, maybe somebody did it; I just don't know. But we're gonna try to do it, and hopefully, maybe somebody did it—I don't know. I know that we're gonna try to do it. Obviously, it's all gonna be b'ezrat Hashem if we succeed. It's all gonna be b'ezrat Hashem if we fail. Our failure really means we don't have the merit. Hashem decides whether we succeed or fail, but we're gonna need some special miracles tonight and... Survive because, listen, studying on your own all night is not easy. It's not easy. Studying with a few friends is a little easier. It's fun; you talk, you go outside, you smoke a couple of cigarettes, you eat, you drink, you go to the bathroom, take a nap here and there. But teaching nine hours straight, I've never done before, so I can't even tell you how hard it is. So, b'ezrat Hashem, we'll see, we'll succeed, b'ezrat Hashem.

6:16Just like it's gonna be hard for you. Have mercy. It's gonna be hard on me, too. So the least I ask you to do is stick around and make sure that you realize that this is for Hashem. It's not for me. It's not for anyone else. This is for Hashem, and the reason why we do this is because tonight is Hoshana Rabbah. Hoshana Rabbah is the seventh day. Sukkot, where Chazal says, technically, if anyone knew—in the Zohar HaKadosh, it says—that if anyone knew the significance of Hoshana Rabbah, they would be more scared of Hoshana Rabbah than Yom Kippur. Now, most people, even if they don't keep Shabbat, even if they don't keep Taharat HaMishpacha, even if they don't keep anything, they know Yom Kippur is serious business. Everyone knows Yom Kippur is serious business. Even non-Jews know Yom Kippur is serious business for Jews. But most people don't know that Rosh Hashanah, technically, is scarier. And the reason why is because Judgment Day is Rosh Hashanah.

7:28We went, we prayed, we said, "Avinu Malkeinu, please save us. Have mercy on us. If not as a father, then as a king. If not as a king, then as a father. Whatever you want, just do, just have mercy on us. We're not tzaddikim, we're not nevi'im, but judge us like we are. Why? Because we're going to try better this year. We're going to try to do teshuva." So, where do you need to do teshuva? I need more money, God. Where do you need more money to do teshuva? I need money, I need money. Okay, I need a new car. Why do you need a new car for teshuva? I need a new car, Hashem. Just help me out. I need a new car. I need a new wife. You already have one. No, no, I need a new wife, Hashem. I need it. This wife is not, it's not. I need a new husband. Why? You already have a husband. Yeah, but this husband is not good. He's not good. I need a better husband. A richer one. I need a new this, I need a new that, and you ask Hashem for non-stop requests on Rosh Hashanah. During the Ten Days of Teshuvah, we read Avinu Malkeinu, and you ask Him for things that, mamash, if anyone actually understood what they're asking for from Hashem during the Ten Days of Teshuvah, they should be embarrassed. I'm not joking. I'm not trying to insult anyone. I'm included in this.

8:41If anyone actually understood what you ask for Hashem to give you during the Ten Days of Teshuvah, you should be embarrassed. Why? Because we're saying, listen, we're not tzaddikim, we know, we're not trying to lie, but we want to be written in the same book as the tzaddikim and the chassidim, the highest. But if that's not enough, we want a good life. What's a good life? A good life is a life with no problems. If that's not good, not enough, we want to be in a Sefer Yesharim U'temimim. What's Yesharim U'temimim? The same book that Noach is in. We want to be in the same book as Noach. We want to be in the same book as Noach. We want Parnassah Be'harchavah, we want good livelihood, sustenance, we want You to forgive all of our sins, we want to see the Mashiach. All these wonderful things, Forgive everything. That's what we ask from Hashem. Hashem is our Father, so He knows that His kids are a little ridiculous sometimes, but it doesn't matter—you are His kids. But chas v'shalom, if our request doesn't get answered, Hashem gave us the ten days of teshuvah and then Judgment Day. Repeatedly, the appeal process is Yom Kippur.

10:06Yom Kippur is a time where we're crying to Hashem because, as we know, this is really the last chance. We have already got Shema and been judged guilty, so we're trying to appeal; we don't want to go to jail for eternity. It's the appeal process, so that's when we start crying. In essence, you're really supposed to be crying on Yom Kippur. In today's world, people are embarrassed to cry in the Knesset; people are embarrassed to cry anywhere. Really, you're supposed to cry because you're fighting for your life, that's what's happening. But today, instead of fighting for our lives, many people are fighting over who has the biggest wallet, who has the nicest car, who has the nicest house. So instead of saying "Avinu Malkeinu" to give us atonement or "Avinu Pashanu," they're too focused on talking in the Knesset about the deals they made or the deals they want to make. There's a lot of joking around in Batei Knesset today, unfortunately. It's sad, but it's a reality. So for this, Hashem gave us Hoshana Rabbah. Hoshana Rabbah is, Hashem is telling you, this is really your last chance. You already had two chances and really you're out of chances. But technically, technically the judgment hasn't been made yet.

11:29The stamp is not stamped yet. Even though everyone says Chatimah Tovah at the end of Yom Kippur and Gmar Chatimah Tovah and this Chatimah Tovah and that Chatimah Tovah. Really, really? Zohar HaKadosh says Chatimah hasn't been made yet. The signature on the judgment has not been made yet. When is it being made? Tonight. It's being made on Hoshana Rabbah. It's being made on Hoshana Rabbah. Whether someone is going to live or die, whether someone is going to have parnassah or not, whether someone is going to find their final zivug or not—all the things that you asked for are being decided on Hoshana Rabbah. So the Zohar HaKadosh says that if you really understood how much is on the line over the next 24 hours, you'd actually be more scared than you were on Yom Kippur and... you don't have the same tefillah you had on Yom Kippur to help you. So, this is why we take the Torah and learn it all night. We take the Torah and learn it all night because we try to emulate the angels. We try to look like angels. Angels don't eat, don't drink, they don't go to the bathroom, they don't hang out, don't socialize, and...

12:53Angels just fulfill the will of Hashem. So we're supposed to fulfill the will of Hashem by learning Torah all night. So, in case we're at forty-nine point five percent in our favor and fifty point five percent against us, that extra Torah over the next 24 hours, or really over the next nine or ten hours, is going to move it to our favor. next 24 hours is going to help you get a judgment of chayim tovim and Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll have the merit. So, this is the reason why we study all night. It's not just because we're bored or have nothing to do with our life; it's really mamash because it's pikuach nefesh. So, I mentioned this in the previous shiur, but it's still worth mentioning again: the Shulchan Aruch, the Beit Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Karo, says if didn't see your friend for a year. You didn't see him for a year. When you see him, if you like him, if you like your friend—if he's your enemy, you don't say anything. But if he's your friend, or at least you haven't found out he's your enemy yet, he's your friend, you like him, and it's the first time you saw him after a year, you have to say the bracha. What bracha? Mechayei hameitim—reviver of the dead.

14:19That's the halakha that Shulchan Aruch says: If you haven't seen your friend in a year, you have to do the blessing of Mechayei Hameitim—"Thank you, Hashem, for reviving the dead." Now, if somebody actually died and came back to life, they call it a near-death experience or NDE. What do you say? Birkat HaGomel. You don't say Mechayei Hameitim; you say, "Thank you, Hashem, for taking me out of danger," the same blessing that you do if you flew from New York to Florida. If your life was in danger, you traveled a long journey, almost had a near accident, or just had surgery—anything like that where your life was on the line—you're supposed to go to Beit Knesset with a minyan, ten people. Usually, people do this on Shabbat, but really you should do it the next day when you feel better. And especially after women give birth, because every time a woman gives birth, even if it's an easy birth, Still, technically, our neshama was in danger. Our body was in danger. She was in danger. But I must say that Shabbat says that every time a woman is in danger, every time a woman is in labor, that's when all the mekatrigim (prosecutors) against her go to Shamayim and say, "I know this is the time. Look how many sins she made, look how many sins she made." That's the time. So that's why every time a woman gives birth and...

15:43She has to say the Birkat HaGomel. "Thank you, Hashem, for removing me from danger." But the same thing if somebody got into an accident, but both of them came out of it healthy, they have to say Birkat HaGomel. But if somebody went on vacation for a year, they went to Hawaii, and they put Facebook Live once in a while to show you they're in Hawaii and... Did some Skype sessions with them. You know exactly where they are. They're having a good time. They're having a blast, but you didn't see them in person. But you know they're having a good time. They're not in danger. But you haven't seen them in person. If you see them in person after a year, you have to say the blessing of Mechaye HaMeitim. Thank you, Hashem, for reviving the dead. So Rabbi Yosef Karo says, why? Why do you have to say that blessing? Because if you haven't seen them in a year, Definitely, one Rosh Hashanah has passed, and if one Rosh Hashanah has passed, the fact that they're alive is a miracle because it's against nature for any one of us to survive Rosh Hashanah based on our sins.

16:52So each person that survives each year, it's mamash a miracle. It's mamash mercy from Hashem. People always ask, where's the mercy from Hashem? Where's the mercy from Hashem? The fact that you're still alive is mercy from Hashem. Why? Because technically, if we didn't have mercy, we make plenty of sins. Plenty of sins. Doesn't mean that He doesn't judge us. Doesn't mean that He doesn't punish us. It just means that if He sees that you have the potential to do teshuva, He gives you more time. Gives you more time. So, now you have Hoshana Rabbah. Which is mamash the time where you're gonna get judgment in Shamayim. B'ezrat Hashem, it's gonna be a favorable judgment for all of us. B'ezrat Hashem, it's gonna be a good year full of Torah, mitzvot, gemilut chasadim. But the reality is the same thing that got us to enter into these shiurim the first time is what we need to know, relearn again from Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov. And what he says in Mishnah Dalet Yud-Gimmel, it says the following: So Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, he says the following:

18:20He who fulfills even a single mitzvah gains himself a single advocate, and he who commits even a single transgression gains himself a single accuser. Teshuva and good deeds are like a shield against retribution. So again, like all of the other Mishnayot that we've read so far, the literal translation is relatively simple to understand, but the deeper meaning is what gets us going. By the way, anyone that wants to eat, feel free to eat. That's the point of the food. If it's going to help you stay awake, if it's going to help you stay alert, if it's going to help you enjoy the shiur, go eat. There's no problem. That's the point where we brought it. But don't socialize at the sushi. Hey, what did you think of the food? Take the food, eat, enjoy it. There's more food in the back for the all-nighter. There are going to be snacks. There's more sushi. There's more, I don't know, all types of food, Baruch Hashem. We've got a lot of stuff to help everybody stay up so I can watch you guys eat the whole night. So Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov gave us a very simple Mishnah.

19:36Unlike most of the previous Mishnayot, where, for example, the one we went over last night was broken up into multiple pieces, first Rabbi Meir, who lived in the same generation as Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov. That's why the Mishnayot would follow each other. Chazal says that's one of the signs that they lived in the same generation, lived in the same time. So... Rabbi Meir had a Mishnah that broke up into multiple lessons. Oh, here we go. The Yetzer Hara showed up to the shiur, Baruch Hashem. The camera is upside down. Good. This is how we know the Yetzer Hara is attending. It's good. It's amazing. It's really amazing how he does it every shiur. He shows up. He tells us when he shows up. If anyone doesn't believe in Yetzer Hara, this is the perfect way to do it. Just watch the shiurim, and you'll see Yetzer Hara attend. Okay, Baruch Hashem. Now we have a scheme against the Yetzer Hara. We'll put things sideways. He wants to put it sideways, we put it sideways also. No, because I saw how when the camera changes, it's very annoying to watch me like this the whole time. So, all right. So, Rabbi Meir gave us a few things. He said, limit your business activities, engage in Torah study, meaning that no matter how much you work,

21:05Your parnassah will stay the same. Why? Because it's decided on Rosh Hashanah, how much parnassah you're going to get until next Rosh Hashanah. Doesn't matter if you have one job, two jobs, three jobs, or four jobs. Doesn't matter if you sell diamonds, gold, stocks, or Q-tips to hotel chains. Makes no difference. Makes absolutely no difference. Whatever Hashem wants you to make, you'll make. There are plenty of people who work many, many hours and are poor, and there are many people out there who work very few hours and are rich. Why? Hashem decided this one will be poor no matter how much he works, and this one will be rich no matter how much he works. Shlomo HaMelech is already telling you this in a very simple way. Don't waste your time overworking. Do the bare minimum of what you need to do. Why? Because in reality, you're supposed to learn Torah. That's the first lesson in the Mishnah of last night. The second lesson was, be humble of spirit before every person. Meaning, just because you're learning some Torah, doesn't mean that you should show off that, oh, I know more than you. That's against the Torah. The next thing is, if you've neglected Torah, then you'll have many excuses to neglect it. Meaning, if you're

22:14Instead of learning Torah, you're answering the phone, you're answering your text message, you're doing a lot of different things that you're not supposed to do during the time that you're supposed to learn Torah. You'll never run out of excuses, and eventually it's going to get to a point where Hashem could punish a person to such an extent that He won't allow him to learn Torah until he goes through a serious tikkun. Meaning, every time he opens the book, he falls asleep instantly. He can't learn. So, this is actually a real punishment for bitul Torah. And then last but not least, he says, if you've labored for Torah, if you've worked hard to learn your Torah, Hashem has ample reward for you. Chazal explains it's both the reward in this world and the next, even though the majority of the reward or the real reward is in Olam HaBa. But here we see the last night's Mishnah and pretty much almost every single Mishnah before tonight and... The sage that talks about the Mishnah gives you multiple lessons in the Mishnah. It's not one thing. There are a bunch of things you can learn from this one Mishnah. He breaks it up. But Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says, no, there's only one lesson I want to teach you. There's really one point. All of it is connected. It's not broken up. You can't break it up. It's one piece. If you do this,

23:36you'll revive the dead. If you do what he says completely, not just like joking around, if you do what he says, you can get to a point where you could mamash revive the dead. One lesson now before we listen to this Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, because it sounds kind of extreme, let's see who he is. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov was, like I said, lived in the same generation... as Rabbi Meir Ba'al HaNes. In Gemara Masechet Gittin, page 64a, it says something extraordinary about Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, something that it doesn't say about many other sages in the Torah, including Rabbi Meir. Even though Rabbi Meir, most of our Torah that we have today, most of it is from Rabbi Meir Ba'al HaNes, he was one of the five students that restarted the Torah with Rabbi Akiva.

24:36And you see in almost every subject in the Gemara, Rabbi Meir has an opinion. In almost every single one. But even though he's one of the main contributors to our Gemara, halacha does not always follow him. Halacha... One second, I have a little technical difficulty here. Satan is... Improved. New and improved. Never had internet problems until now. So, apparently, I upset him. I upset the Satan. Oh, see? Dropped off. Okay, now. Part two. Al Hashem.

25:39We're just having some technical difficulties, and we're starting. One second. Okay. Okay. Okay, so, with the technical difficulties continuing... So Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov lived in the same generation as Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes. But even though Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes contributed to almost every single Mishnah and almost every single Gemara and almost every single subject in the entire Torah, Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes contributed his opinion. However, the halacha does not always follow Rabbi Meir. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There's a few people, like Rabban Gamliel, where the Gemara says anytime Rabban Gamliel states an opinion, the halacha is like him. So there's a few people that have that. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, in Gemara Masechet Gittin, page 64, it says, any place that Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov states halacha, he's correct. He's right. Halacha is like him. Why? His Torah was correct. Meaning,

27:01opinions. What he says, that's Torah. That's Mount Sinai. There's no second opinion. There's nothing else; you can't dispute him. He says it, that's it. And this is in 122 different halachot. 122 times that he's mentioned, which is not many considering how many halachot we have. Anyone that looked, for example, through the halachot of Shabbat. If you're Sephardic, then you're looking through Yalkut Yosef. It's a book that Rav Ovadia, Zecher Tzadik Livracha, started and then he let his son Rav Yitzchak Yosef continue it. The series. The Rishon LeTzion right now is Rav Yitzchak Yosef. He continued it and you have a collection of Yalkut Yosef and now Baruch Hashem they've completed, I would say, a little more than half of The collection is a translation into English. It's a very, very extraordinary series, and it simplifies all the halachot. Now, many people listening to this, you know, I mentioned it a few times, and they started buying the Halachot Shabbat. The Halachot Shabbat section is three books.

28:05Now, each one of these books—you see there's hundreds and hundreds of halachot, and this is just about Shabbat. We're not talking about kosher, we're not talking about taharat hamishpacha, tzitzit, tefillin; this is just Shabbat. Hundreds of halachot. Tefillin, for example, has over a thousand halachot. So when you say 122 halachot Rabbi Eliezer contributed to, initially it sounds like a lot. Wow, 122. But in reality, it's not that many. It's not that many. Which shows that Rabbi Eliezer, he doesn't speak often. speak often, but when he does, he's right. Imagine that. Imagine you didn't speak much, but whatever you said was right. We're wrong half the time, yet we still think we're right. So Rabbi Eliezer—everything he said was right. So whatever he's telling us right now is halacha.

29:05It's not an opinion. It's not a nice strategy. This is halacha. This is what the Gemara says. This is what the Shulchan Aruch says. This is everything he says right here. This is Mount Sinai. This is, we're all at Mount Sinai right now. This is what God said. What did he say? Anyone who fulfills one mitzvah, chabibi, eat, eat, please. Anyone, don't fear. It doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me. I brought the food for you guys to eat. Listen, somebody has to eat it. So please, somebody has to eat it. It doesn't bother me. No, but the socializing you can't do. The eating, yes. The Shulchan Aruch, Rabbi Eliezer Ben Yaakov... Telling us something that seems relatively simple but at the same time he's telling us something that could mamash get us to the highest level we could possibly imagine, that until now we didn't think was possible in our generation. He says the following: if you make one mitzvah, you fulfill one mitzvah. We're not talking about ten mitzvot, twenty mitzvot, the Gadol HaDor. You learn the entire Torah by heart. No, he says one mitzvah, just one mitzvah, any mitzvah. Pick a mitzvah: Tzitzit, Tefillin, Limud Torah, whatever you want, any mitzvah. Baruch Habah.

30:25any mitzvah, you fulfill one mitzvah, one mitzvah, that mitzvah creates an advocate for you. What does it mean, an advocate for you? What does an advocate mean? Chazal explain it creates something called a Sanegor. A Sanegor is an angel that vouches for you in Shamayim. On the other hand, if ...a person makes a sin, he creates for himself an accuser. Chazal say, what is this accuser called? A kategor, a prosecutor. So in the Gemara, it talks about when someone gets to the heavenly court in Shamayim and... No one is surprised. There's no surprises in judgment. Why is it no surprises? Because all of the sin angels and the prosecuting angels that you've created your whole life are right next to you. And they talk for you. So the first one says, hey, I'm the one that he created when he ate pig. I'm the one that he created when he ate pig with cheese. I'm the one that he created eating pig and cheese on Yom Kippur.

31:52I'm the one that he created when he turned on the car on Shabbat. I'm the one that he created when he turned on the radio on Shabbat. I'm the one that he created when he pressed the gas on Shabbat. And these are my friends for the rest of the ride. And you have mamash millions and zillions of prosecutors against you. So you can't say, "No, no, no, I didn't do it." You can't say, "I didn't do it." Why? They're right next to you. That's the evidence. You gave them life. You're their father. You're the mother. This is a problem. You can't lie in your mind. You can't sweet talk. The same token is with the sin. The sin is one. Each time you make a mitzvah, you create an angel that vouches for you. I'm the one that he created when he laid tefillin. I'm the one that he... Created when he read one word in Torah. Each word in Torah has a few letters. Let's say the average word has four letters. An average word in Torah is four mitzvot, so each time you read one word in the Torah, on average, you're creating four angels. You read parashat hashavua. That's why it's halakha, by the way, in Shulchan Aruch, that you have to read the parasha twice and then once with commentary every week.

33:10This is also why we say Shema Yisrael several times a day because it's coming from the Torah. These are pesukim from the Torah. Hashem wants you to create angels even though you don't even know they exist. Because you're going to need them. You're going to need them. Now, this story I heard maybe five, six years ago. But I heard it again today and it hit home even more today than it did back then. There was one time a guy, he had three friends. Friend was like his best friend. He spent time with him all the time. They'd go on vacation together. They'd go to work together. They'd hang out together. Best friends all the time. They were together. Another friend—they weren't as close, but he was with them a bunch of times. The third wasn't really a friend; he was more like an acquaintance. He would visit him once in a while, whenever he didn't have anything to do. Whenever the first guy was busy or the second guy was away, he'd hang out with the third guy. This is three friends this guy had. Now, one day this guy gets into trouble. Oh, here we go. Oh, okay. Baruch Hashem, Satan left; we had technical difficulties. So, one day the guy gets in trouble and he's scared. Why? Because the guy got into a major, major problem, and it could be that he can go and actually get the death penalty.

34:33Had a friend, real-life story, who was a major executive in a big energy company. He made a fortune, hundreds of millions of dollars. Retired, thinking that he's on top of the world. He's in his prime, has tons of money in the bank, more than he knows what to do with, and... One day he goes to pick up his friend from the airport because that's apparently what friends do for each other—they pick each other up from the airport even though there are taxis and other things you can pay for. But for some reason, people like to pick up other people from the airport. By the way, if I ever come to your town, don't pick me up from the airport. Just, if you want, pay for the cab. It's a complete waste of time to pick up people from the airport. It's double the waste of time and it doesn't cost any less. You still have to pay tolls, you still have to pay for parking, and you still have to pay for gas. I don't know why people do it. But anyway, such is life. People always ask me, "Oh, can you give me a ride to the airport?" No, I'll give you money, give you money for the airport. Whatever it costs, I'll pay for the cab. I'll never take you to the airport. No, but what, no chance. Why would I waste three hours of my life taking you to the airport? I just gotta pay a guy; it takes me 30 seconds. You're in the airport, and I save myself three hours of my life. My three hours are worth more than the fifty or hundred dollars it costs. So anyway, this guy was very, very rich, apparently didn't have anything to do, so he wanted to pick up his friend from the airport. But...

35:57The way to the airport, the guy in front of him stopped short on the highway, and he was going really fast. So he hit him. He hit him in the back, stopped, pulled over. He got hurt. Then they go to the front of where the guy is. The guy that stopped short on the highway died. The old man died. Now, what's the case? Did he die before he hit him, and that's why he stopped short on the highway, and... Think he's gonna meet his fate or did he die from the hit? This was a major case that took millions of dollars, tons of time, and everything was on the line for this guy. So all the money in the world that he had was worthless now because he could spend the rest of his prime years in jail. They were trying him for murder. They were trying him for murder. Well, Hashem ensured he got released and everything was good. They determined that the guy died before he hit him. The point is that all the money in the world couldn't help him at that point. It was just Hashem deciding whether he's gonna spend the rest of his life in jail or not. So, this guy that’s in the story—now we’re back in the story—was in danger in a similar situation and...

37:20He's in danger, and he calls his friends. The first guy calls his best friend, the one he's been hanging out with every single day for years. "It's okay, buddy. Listen, I have this big case. I got a trial. I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know if they're gonna convict me. I don't know if they're gonna... I didn't do it, I promise, but I need some support, some moral support." What does his friend say, his best friend, his BFF that he spent all these years with? "I'm sorry, buddy. I can't go. I'm busy. I..." I can't go, no. But come on. You're my friend. You're my boy for years. We've been together. We're like this, coming to the cave. I'm not asking you to fight for me. I'm not asking you to give me money. I'm just asking you to be there for moral support, sitting in the court. I'm sorry, buddy. I'm busy. I can't go. What a letdown. This is worse than the case. This is worse than being convicted guilty. So what does he do, misken? He calls the second guy. The second guy that, you know, he hung out with once in a while. He says, listen... My friend didn't come through. Can you help me out? Can you give me some moral support? Can you come with me to do my big case? They may convict me. I may be guilty. I may not believe it's a problem. What does the second guy say? The second guy says, listen, I can come with you, but all the way to the courtroom. Once you get to the courtroom, I'm leaving. I'm not going inside. I'll give you a ride to the courthouse. I'll give you a ride to the courthouse, but I'm not going inside. I'm not going in with you.

38:46I'll take it. What are you gonna do? I'll take it. But I still need somebody to give me some nechama (comfort) when I'm in the court. I'm crying, something. So what does he do? He calls the guy he hasn't talked to in months, the guy that he was an acquaintance with. Once in a while, we'd visit him. Listen, I'm in trouble. Hey, we're in trouble. Where are you? I'll be there. No. No, I got a case. No problem. I'll be there. Tell me where it is. I'm there. I'll be with you throughout the whole case. I'll even vouch for you. I'll write a letter for you. All of a sudden, this acquaintance that he was friends with is writing letters for him. He's vouching for him. He's fighting for him. "Your Honor, he's a tzaddik. He didn't do it. Well, you know what? He didn't know, but I know he didn't do it. He's a tzaddik." It's a This guy got the surprise of his life. His best friend didn't show up. The middle guy gave him a ride. The guy he was friendly with is writing letters on his behalf. Surprise. What's the biggest surprise? The biggest surprise is that the story is about us. This entire story is about us.

39:56How is it about us? A guy invests all of his time with his best friend. What's his best friend? Money. Every day, he chases money. Every day, he goes to the drugstore and sells drugs. He goes to the muffler store to sell mufflers. He goes to the diamond store to sell diamonds, and he spends overtime to save for a vacation he's never going to take. He spends extra time to build a company he doesn't need, and he spends extra time to build another house that he doesn't even want. And he's there overtime and overtime and overtime and overtime. He spends all of his time there. That's the best friend. On Judgment Day, when a person goes to Shamayim after 120, a person comes to Shamayim. Hashem says, "I'm sorry, you can't bring your money with you. It can't come. What, you have a million, five million, ten million, twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred million? It all stays behind. You can't bring it with you."

41:01It stays behind. That extra big house that you just built an extension for stays behind. The big bank account with the 401k next to it stays behind. That best friend you spent all your life with stays behind. It can't come to court with you. Who's the second guy? He says, "I gave you a ride." That's the family. Family—you spent a little time with them, an hour here, an hour there, like you're doing them a favor. "No, what do you mean? I was home for eight hours last night." Yeah, but you slept seven and a half. You ate dinner. You went to sleep for seven and a half hours. You count that as being home. But they're going to give you a ride to the funeral. Someone dies. They're about to meet their Maker. What happens before the body goes to the funeral? They're going to give you a ride to the funeral. It's the least they can do; it's the most they can do. They can't come with you to Shamayim. They can't come with you to Shamayim. But who's your best friend? Who's the guy that's vouching for you? Who's the guy that came through and you didn't even spend any time with him at all? Once in a while, you did him a favor. That's Torah. That's mitzvot. Once in a while, you did a mitzvah by accident. You created an angel. Once in a while, you laid tefillin on time. You know, before 3 o'clock in the afternoon. You know, like on time in the morning when the rest of religious people do it in the morning.

42:28Once in a while, you do it right. You get an angel. You get him a malach, right? An angel. What is he doing in Shamayim? Oh, you're in trouble. I'm writing a letter for you. What happened? He's tzaddik. Hashem says he's a tzaddik. What do you mean tzaddik? Look what this guy—no, no, Hashem says he's a tzaddik. He's vouching for you. That's what this Mishnah from Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov is saying—that one that you don't spend any time with, that's who's gonna vouch for you. Money, your family, your friends, and everything else can't do anything for you. Nothing. I heard the story five or six years ago. It hit the spot back then, but today it hit more. You know, repetition is one of the things you're supposed to do. We learn Torah, you repeat, you go over things, and every single time you go over Torah, the second time is better, the third time is better, and it keeps getting better. That's the beauty of Torah. So, there's also another story... Rabbi Yosef Karo, it's known, wrote the Shulchan Aruch. But there's also another book that he wrote that was, in essence, like his journal. Why did his journal become so famous? Many little girls write journals. They don't become famous unless, like Anne Frank, or something like that.

43:51For the most part, if you have a daughter, she writes a journal. At some point, it goes in the trash or in some, I don't know, safe that no one's ever going to open, as a sentimental journal that no one's ever going to read. But in reality, it's never going to become famous. Rabbi Yosef Karo's journal became famous. Why did it become famous? Because in his journal, he wrote who his best friend was, who his chavruta was. Who was it? The angel. He had an angel that was his chavruta. And the angel's name was Maggid. That's the angel's name. The angel's name was Maggid. So one day, he writes in his journal, he says that at night, the angel would come to him. This is the Baal Shulchan Aruch. It's not a crazy person. This is a tzaddik, Yisroel Ram. This is one of the greatest minds and people that ever lived in history. He wrote Shulchan Aruch, which is the book of laws of all of Judaism. We base everything on him. He took it from the Rambam, and the Rambam took it from the Gemara. But the point is that what we have today is from him. This is not just some guy. Whoever doesn't know who Rabbi Yosef Karo is, like I didn't know who he was initially, and then eventually he learns, like, oh, this is the Moshe Rabbeinu of his generation. So he was at the level where he had a chavruta of an angel.

45:11We can barely spell the word "angel" because sometimes we spell "angle" instead of "angel." He actually had a chavruta with an angel. So now he writes in the book one time, "The angel came to me at night, and he rebuked me." Why did he rebuke me? He says, "Why didn't you learn Musar today? You're supposed to learn at least two hours of Musar a day." Rabbi Yosef Karo had to learn two hours of Musar a day. A person that has an angel as a chavruta had to learn Musar two hours a day, and the angel rebuked them because he didn't learn a full two hours. If Rabbi Yosef Karo had to learn two hours of Musar a day, we should learn 200 hours a day. We should pray that Hashem judges us like the tzaddikim, like the temimim, and not judge us. Just give us 200 hours a day so we can learn Musar, not 24 hours, so we can catch up to Rabbi Yosef Karo. So he says the angel rebuked him because he didn't study a full two hours. That was one of the times. Another time he was learning with tefillin on. Now, it's a known thing that when you have tefillin on, you cannot fall asleep. You cannot, you know, go to the bathroom with them. It says in the Gemara, if you have to go to the bathroom, you have to take them off and put them on the side. You can't pass gas.

46:34Believe it or not, it is a problem for some people. Mom is sick at Shabbat, talks about it. It's a very big problem if somebody passes gas when they have tefillin on. This seems like a silly thing, but it's a reality, especially for little kids who don't know yet. A 13-14 year old kid doesn't know it's a big deal. Sometimes adults don't think it's a big deal. They don't learn Mussar. They don't learn ethics. They don't think it's a big deal. But when you have tefillin on, in essence, what you're doing is that you have a direct phone line open with Hashem. It's like Skype; Hashem is in front of you. It's a direct line. Whether you see it or not is your problem, but He's there. So when you're laying tefillin, you can't even get to a point of thinking about anything else other than Kedusha, other than holy things. You can't think about the stock market. A lot of people socialize with tefillin on. Hey, what do you think? What are you doing today? What do you think of the real estate market? What do you think of the stock market? What do you think of this market? What do you think of this girl? What do you think of this shidduch? What do you think of this guy? All that stuff. Now, you’re only allowed to think about Torah when you have tefillin on, either during prayer or learning Torah.

47:56And the sages in the days of the Gemara used to wear tefillin all day, which means they literally learned Torah. They had Torah on their mind at all times. So Rabbi Yosef Karo was learning Torah one time, and suddenly his head tefillin broke. The strap broke and it fell on the floor. Now, this is not a strap made of paper. This is leather. Leather doesn't just break. It's like someone cut it, but there was no one there. He was really in a lot of sorrow, and he started really doing teshuvah, crying because having tefillin fall on the floor is like a Sefer Torah falling on the floor. You have to fast. It's a problem. At night, his friend, the maggid, the angel maggid, says, "Oh, you cried today, huh?" "Yeah, yeah, I cried." "Why did you cry?" "Because your tefillin fell on the floor." Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, you know, okay, fine. I cried because I did it. I cut that tefillin. I made them fall on the floor. You know why? Because for a moment while you were studying Torah, you weren't thinking about Torah. You weren't thinking about Hashem. You were thinking about something else for a moment, and that moment you didn't think about Hashem, and this Torah caused Hashem more sorrow than the tefillin hitting the floor.

49:24So I cut it to give you sorrow. You deserve it. So there's a price to pay when you have an angel as a chavruta. That's what he wrote in his journal. So here we see, we have sometimes angels that we create but don't see. Rabbi Yosef Karo was able to see it. When a person makes this mitzvah, he makes himself an angel that's going to help him. This is the one mitzvah that can take him to the positive side because the Gemara in Masechet Kiddushin, page 40b, says that each person is supposed to judge himself as if he has and

50:2750-50 meaning he's even. The next mitzvah or the next aveirah takes him to the positive or the negative side. And since kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh—all of Israel are responsible for each other—they're all relying on each other. They're all dependent on each other. That means that your next mitzvah or your next aveirah could literally take the entire nation to the positive or the negative side. So that one angel that you create has a positive or a negative effect on you and also on the entire nation. So there's a lot on the line here. Now, on the other hand, when you're committing a sin, most people think that sins are not relevant to today anymore. We're such a weak generation. Who here hasn't heard about how weak this generation is from some rabbi? Rabbi usually starts the lecture with "This is a weak generation, weak generation, weak generation." We get to a point where sometimes we think we're so weak, we shouldn't do anything. But in reality, the Torah that we got at Mount Sinai is the same Torah. Nothing changed, absolutely nothing changed. And Reish Lakish says in Gemara Bava Batra, page 16, that the Satan is also the Yetzer Hara and...

51:53And the Yetzer Hara is also the Malach HaMavet. Meaning that first the Yetzer Hara comes to you and tells you, listen, go look at that girl. Yeah, but she's not my wife. Go look at her. Who cares? No one's going to see. It's okay. It's okay. Don't. Go look. The rabbi's not here. Go look. Go look. Yetzer Hara convinced you to go look at the girl you're not allowed to look at. Yetzer Hara caused you to something nasty to your wife yet, so that caused you to overcharge your customer yet, so that caused you to do something against Hashem. After you do it, you fall for it because he convinced you. What does he do? He goes to Shamayim and he says, "Hashem, look, look, look, look what he did. Look what he did. Look what he's looking at — the girl. He's looking at the girl." That's Satan. That's the Satan. He goes and he tells on you after he convinced you to go do it. He goes, "Oh, look at Shimon. Look at his rasha. Look what he's doing against You. Look, Hashem, you're watching, Hashem." Like I said, "I don't know, you're watching, Hashem. He's watching this guy." That's Satan. That's called mesitin alav. And after Hashem says, "Oh, okay, you know what? That's it. We're finished. Rosh Hashanah passed, Yom Kippur passed, and a harsh judgment is passed."

53:07I'm sorry my friend. We have to deliver a judgment. Hashem yerachem. He says to the Malach HaMavet, "Go do what you do." Who's the Malach HaMavet? The same one that convinced you to make the sin in the first place and the same one that told Hashem. The Gemara says it's all the same thing. But in reality, you are the one that gave him power. By himself, he doesn't have any power. You're the one that gave him power by making different sins that open the door for him. Every time you make a sin, every time you listen to him, you give him more power. Now, maybe in a Midrash we'll see that this specific Mishnah talks about, first of all... How every single mitzvah makes a positive angel and every sin makes a negative angel? This is the proof. This is the source that we use that there's no such thing as a weak generation, and if you sin, the Shem Yishmor isn't going to let it go. Meiri and Midrash were written hundreds and hundreds of years ago and...

54:29Telling you what people say today. It's complete nonsense. This is the Mishnah that proves it's nonsense. Because if a sin created a negative angel, a bad angel, a prosecutor 2,000 years ago, it still does now. If a mitzvah creates a positive angel, it's going to be a defender for you. It still does now. This is the proof. There's no get-out-of-jail-free cards with Hashem. There's no such thing. Hashem says, yeah, you know what? Just do whatever you want. No big deal. You're in a weak generation. Go, drive on Shabbat, eat pork, go out with a non-Jew, marry them if you want, waste seed, do whatever you want. Why? You're in a weak generation. Don't worry. Everybody has Olam Haba. Don't worry. Don't worry. It's true that everyone has Olam Haba. The problem is there's two sides to Olam Haba. One side is hotter than the other. It's a reality. There is Olam Haba for everyone. It's just that one of them is hot, and there's no air conditioner. The Baal Shem Tov one time came to one of his opponents, somebody who used to say lashon hara about the Baal Shem Tov, and he came to him and he said, "How could you say lashon hara?"

55:51inside your sukkah. It was Sukkot. It happened to be Sukkot. So how can you say lashon hara on Sukkot? Inside your sukkah. We just had Yom Kippur. We just had Rosh Hashanah. I mean, how can you say inside a sukkah? You're saying lashon hara? The guy that said lashon hara was also a rabbi. He was in shock. How do you know? How do you know? Who told you? He says, what do you mean who told me? The angel told me. since when do angels speak lashon hara? Meaning, the angel saying that I said lashon hara—that would actually be lashon hara! If, let's say, for example, somebody says something negative, even if it's true, he says something negative and you heard it and you go tell the other person, "Hey, Mr. So-and-so, this guy said something negative about you." There's a possibility, a likelihood, that what you're doing is actually Lashon Hara unless you're protecting them because what the other person said could cause damage. If it's just, "Ah, this guy said you're ugly, this guy said you're fat, this guy said you're a fool,"

57:13You telling them is not useful at all. It's Lashon Hara. By you telling the other person, it's Lashon Hara. You're not allowed to do it. So there are laws of Lashon Hara. But the point is, is that these angels told the Baal Shem Tov what this other guy said. So they said, "Since when do angels say Lashon Hara? Oh, when you said Lashon Hara inside your sukkah, you created an angel. That angel came to me and told me you created him by saying Lashon Hara about me. Just like the creator of the angel doesn't care about committing sins, neither does the angel that he created. He also doesn't care about committing Lashon Hara." The child is the same thing as the father. That angel is considered a child. The fact that Baal Shem Tov was at such a level that he was able to see somebody else's angels is a different story. But nonetheless, we see here that this is very much a real part of Judaism. It's not just fairy tales and stories. Some people don't like to believe this stuff; they say it's too mystical, but that's their problem.

58:34One of the biggest things that's hard for people to understand is that sometimes there are rules in Torah that are black and white. Black and white. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You're not allowed to drive on Shabbat unless it's for pikuach nefesh. Unless you're saving a life, unless you're driving to the hospital, Now, let's talk about driving on Shabbat. You know, driving to the beit knesset, driving to your parents' house to make your wife happy—driving on Shabbat is a black and white rule. There is no exception, except if it’s a life risk (pikuach nefesh). There are also certain things, certain black and white rules in Judaism, that have no exceptions. There is no leniency. So sometimes when you tell people about these things, they think that you are a machmir (stringent) and everyone else—all the other rabbis that don't say anything—they're more lenient than you. But the truth is, you’re telling them what the actual halacha is, black and white, and all the other rabbis just didn't tell them for different reasons. Sometimes they're scared of them. Sometimes they don't care. Sometimes they're evil.

59:56There are many, many reasons why someone's not going to tell you the truth. The point is that there are certain things that are black and white. One of the biggest things that is black and white is Jewish education. Jewish education. Now, when you tell somebody, "Listen, to send your child to public school, to American public school..." It's worse than murdering him. Worse than murdering him. Why is it worse than murdering him? Because in essence, you're guaranteeing the kid, unless by some major miracle, no less than Rabbi Yosef Karo's angel that was his chavruta, the kid is going to become a goy. The kid is going to be just like his friends. He's going to be surrounded by kids that are not keeping Torah, not keeping mitzvot. Many of them are not even Jewish. he's gonna befriend them. He's gonna want to be like them. Everybody wants to be like their friends. If they don't want to be like their friends, they're not friends. People hang out with people that they want to be like, that they can relate to. So a parent sending their child to public school is pretty much destroying them. It's a black-and-white rule. There's no ifs, ands, or buts. There's no, "No, he's gonna get his rabbinical teaching at home with a private tutor." No such thing.

1:01:21Even if he has Moshe Rabbeinu come to his house to teach him Torah after school, it is still not allowed to go to public school. To such an extent that Rav Nissim Yagen, zecher tzadik livracha, says it's better your son dies than you send him to public school. It's better he dies. That's how bad it is. It's a black-and-white rule. But sometimes people make exceptions and There's no room to make an exception. There's no room to make an exception. So, there are other parts of Judaism that are not so Jewish. For example, there are some people that call themselves Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, Open Orthodoxy, or Messianic Judaism. These things call themselves as Jews, but they have nothing to do with Judaism. Some of them actually have mothers that are Jewish, but as far as the actual practice, it has nothing to do with Judaism. The only similarity is that they see the Torah as something they read; it follows a different story, a completely different story. So now, sometimes people say, "Listen, the yeshiva, the Orthodox Judaism yeshiva, the regular traditional yeshiva...

1:02:41expensive or it's not teaching certain subjects that I want to teach my son or my daughter, so I'm gonna send them to this other yeshiva. That's being taught by Reform rabbis or by Conservative rabbis. This is worse than public school. Worse! We just said public school, Rav Meir says it's better the kid dies; sending him to Reform or Conservative is worse. To such an extent that a lot of people think that Reform is worse than Conservative. It's not true. Rav Hillel Lichtenstein, if you remember, we talked about him last week or two weeks ago. He was one of the Chatam Sofer's students and he wrote a book called "Avkath Rochel," a very famous book. Musa, but he was about mussar that traveled from city to city. To such an extent that when he would step over the border and people found out that he's coming into the city, everybody would start doing hatano. Rav Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer was not doing teshuva.

1:03:47White if he's here, if Rabbi Lipa is here, we must do teshuva. He's not here for no reason. He heard that we're cooling off. He heard we're not doing enough. There's something wrong. He's not coming for no reason. It's not like today, you just go on a train, and two hours later you're in a different city, or you go on a plane, and an hour or two later you're somewhere else. Back then, to travel to a city took a while, mesirat nefesh. If Rabbi Lipa came here, we have a problem. Kabbalah Michael Maya says Conservative is much worse than Reform. Much worse. Why? Reform gives bar mitzvahs to dogs. You know, it's not Judaism. You know, it's not Judaism. It's not like someone thinks, someone in the world actually thinks this is authentic Moshe Rabbeinu Judaism. No one thinks, including the rabbis there, who are most of the time not even Jewish. Most of the time, the rabbis themselves are not Jewish, and sometimes they're not even men—they're women. No one thinks this is Judaism, including them. So it's obvious, it's obviously treif. It's obviously treif. With Conservative, at least in his day, he says it had the image of Judaism because, in his day, sadly...

1:05:09Conservative was similar to Modern Orthodox today. They weren't like the Conservative of today, where the head rabbi of the Conservative movement in Jerusalem is openly gay. Today, the head rabbi of the Conservative movement is openly gay, and now there is one major decision being considered by all of the Conservative leaders. What's the decision? Should we allow intermarriage? meaning, should we change the Torah and say there's a new rule that from now on, goyim and Jews are allowed to marry and we'll actually get them into our kehillot and everything is okay? This is already accepted in Reform, by the way. Now they're saying, in Conservative, we've been considering it for many years, and we feel like we're losing our people if we don't start accepting intermarriage. But in his day, in Rabbi Lamm's day, the reality was that Conservative was actually closer to Modern Orthodox and

1:06:11he still says this looks like real Judaism. That's why it's more dangerous. Now, I'm not telling everybody that you have to look a certain way, act a certain way, be a certain way to be real or not real. The reality of it is every single day someone has to look in the mirror and they have to ask themselves the same question I ask myself: Am I doing what God said or am I just making new laws and Is it my opinion or God's opinion? Hashem said you have to be modest. Am I modest? Not modest. Hashem said you have to watch your mouth. Am I watching my mouth or not? Hashem said you have to pray at a certain time. Am I doing it or not? Hashem said learn Torah. Am I learning Torah or am I learning the salary cap of all the basketball teams in the NBA? Hashem said certain things. Am I doing it or am I just making new laws? Do I know more about the stock market than I know about Moshe Rabbeinu? Am I doing it? Am I doing what God said, or am I just creating new opinions? Hashem has said this, and did I say something different? Am I doing something different? That's the question you have to ask yourself. It has nothing to do with looks. You don't have to wear black and white. You have to wear a black kippah? Wear a pink one for all I care. It doesn't really look good on a guy, but if you want to wear a pink kippah, enjoy. But it's better you wear a pink kippah that covers your entire head than wear a tank top that's black.

1:07:42It's where it's better you wear a pink kippah that covers your entire head than have a rotten heart that cheats people all the time while wearing black and white. So, the problem with these other versions of Judaism is that they are not versions of Judaism at all. They just look like it. Today's biggest poison is not even Reform and Conservative. Today's biggest poison is called... Messianic Judaism, and the reason why it's the biggest poison out of the other ones, is because it has absolutely nothing to do with Judaism to such an extent that it is a guarantee for a person to never have a share in the World to Come if they go there. Why? Because Messianic Judaism is Christianity in disguise. They tell you, "Listen, we learn Torah, but we worship JC," and...

1:08:45We learn Torah, but we believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, and we believe in the New Testament, and we believe this and we believe that. They don't follow any of the rules, but they say they believe. Now, because they call themselves Messianic Judaism and they keep reading you verses that are very hard to understand from the prophets, it has the image of Judaism. Many Jews are falling for it. Many Jews. I'm not obviously as many goyim that are falling for it, but many Jews are falling for it, too. Very few are doing anything about it. So why am I mentioning all of these things? It is because any time we make a shiur that talks about all this stuff, what's the biggest defense that these people try to say? "Hey, listen, you shouldn't say lashon hara. You shouldn't say lashon hara about Messianic Judaism. You shouldn't say lashon hara about Conservative Judaism." So once and for all, I want to explain to everybody: there's no such thing as lashon hara against a rasha. If someone's an enemy of God, there's no such thing as lashon hara. As a matter of fact, you're obligated. It's a mitzvah. You're obligated to publicize that he's a rasha. You're obligated to publicize that he's a kofer. You're obligated. Why? Because once somebody leads people away from Hashem, they're now under a different definition. They're no longer, even if their father is Jewish, their mother is Jewish, they're all big rabbis and everything else.

1:10:10They're leading people away from God to some other form of some fake Judaism or non-Judaism. They now have a new classification. They're no longer considered a natural Jew. They're now considered under the definition of a "min," m-i-n. And a min is someone that is outright an enemy of Hashem. In Gemara, in the Rambam, it is noted that he says there are certain people that have no Olam HaBa, but to such an extent that... If they did teshuva you help them, but certain people go to such a far extent that even if they want to do teshuva, you're not allowed to help them. They could do it; if they actually succeed, good luck, but you are not allowed to help them do teshuva. Who is it? Meaning people that led other people away from God, people that led people to Christianity, people that led people away from Hashem in one way or another. You are not allowed to help them do teshuva. Why? Because they are enemies of Hashem.

1:11:12This is a very serious problem because, unfortunately, today it's almost popular to lead people away from Hashem. You don't even know who you're allowed to help and who you are not allowed to help. So, the Mishnah here is telling you, if you take it into consideration, that every single time you take any action, you're creating an angel, good or bad. Already the beginning of your teshuva. Why? Because if you actually visualize it as an angel right now being created as a result of whatever you're doing, that should change your behavior. If it doesn't, there's something wrong with you, or you just don't believe it's doing it. It's a different story, like many people tell me, "Listen, he knows everything, but he doesn't keep." There's no such thing. There's no such thing as someone who knows everything and doesn't keep. They may know the halachot. They may know you're not allowed to drive on Shabbat. They may know that you're not allowed to be with a married woman who is not your wife. They may know that you're not allowed to do certain things. But they don't believe it. If you don't believe it, you might as well not know it. To know Torah and believe Torah are two different things.

1:12:34different things. If you believe it, then whatever you know is a hundred percent real. If you don't believe it, you might as well not know it. It doesn't make a difference. It's like knowing the secret of how to win tic-tac-toe if you never play; it doesn't make a difference. It's like knowing the secret of how to make codes, but if you work as a guy that's a mechanic, it doesn't make a difference if you know code. You're not using it. So if you know all halachot by heart, but if you don't believe what they say, it's all meaningless. So there's no such person on earth that believes the Torah and actually doesn't follow it; no such thing. Why? Because if you know Torah, that means that you know the 13 principles of faith, and the 13 principles of faith elaborate on what Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov is saying. He's not only saying it here, he's saying that every time you do something... There's an angel, a positive one or a negative one. The 13 principles of faith expand further, and he says eventually you're either going to be rewarded or punished by this very same angel. This very same angel that you created—if it's an evil angel, he's going to be the one hitting you. So, why would you want to create people to beat you up or angels to beat you up?

1:14:02Somebody's, you know, getting a group of guys. "Hey guys, come, come over here. Come over. Okay. Jump me, beat me up." No one in their right mind would do it. So, the people that know Torah, or that they consider themselves that they know Torah but don't follow it, that means they just don't believe it. They don't believe anything. That's a different story. It's a different argument. It's a different argument. You have to show them proofs that the Torah is real, the Torah is valid, the Torah is divine, and so on and so forth. Then you explain to them why this and why that to the best of your ability. But to believe that someone who knows everything yet is not following it is the biggest mistake in the world. It’s not possible. The reason why is because part of learning Torah—one of the most important parts that you eventually get to—is to learn what punishment is, like what actually happens. Punishment? You losing some money, it's punishment. You getting a cold, it's punishment. Your wife yelling at you, or your kids failing in school—it's punishment. What's punishment? Eventually, you get to a point where you learn that punishment is not that; punishment is much, much worse. So, anyone that knows Torah knows a little bit about what punishment is, and anyone that knows a little bit about punishment immediately gets out of their mind.

1:15:22There's no way that you know even 1% of 1% of what punishment really is and still sin against Hashem on purpose. Everyone makes mistakes, but nobody in their right mind will do it on purpose. Nobody. So, the first and foremost is telling you: Make a mitzvah, good. Aveirah, no good. You're creating problems for yourself now. Yetzer Hara is much stronger than us, much smarter than us. And we talk about it all the time. How do we defend ourselves against it? Now, if you remember, anyone that prays every day, it's a lie showing up again. Anyone that prays every day...

1:16:23I'll eat which we'll do after this. Whoever did it already, fine, but whoever didn't do it should do I'll eat after this. You could do I'll eat, by the way, as far as you could do it until morning if necessary. You should do it before midnight, but you can technically do it until morning, all throughout the night. So, if you ever get stuck when you come home at 3 o'clock in the morning from a lecture and you haven't done I'll eat, you can still do I'll eat. So, in our Feel-out in several places in Shacharit and actually in our tefillah. It also says after the Amidah, "she'yaser et hasatan milfanenu u'me'achareinu," meaning to break and remove the satan from before us and from behind us. Now Breaking the satan, removing the satan—anything that's negative against us is good. It's good to get it away from us. We don't really need much of a chiddush about that; we don't really need much commentary about that. The tough part is, what do you mean the one that's in front of us and the one behind us? What does it mean? The one that's behind us means all the things that we're dealing with right now are

1:17:47It's in front of us. Actually, all things that we're dealing with right now: help us, Hashem, help us make the right decision. Help us make the right decision instead of going to sleep; go to shiur Torah. Instead of going to a basketball game, go to shiur Torah. Instead of doing this, this, and this, learn Torah. Help us make the right decision. That's just in front of us. But behind us, that's a tougher one. What do you mean, behind us? The sin already happened and... Already happened, so why protect us from the Satan from behind us? No, no, no. If sin can happen from things you already did, you just don't know it yet. What could it be? This is what we learned last night. Last night, we learned that sometimes somebody will pass the first level. The Satan comes to him and says, "Don't learn Torah. Don't learn. Go watch basketball. Go to some, you know, lecture that talks about money." To do something else, just don't learn Torah. You overcame the Satan; you overcame the yetzer hara and you actually went to shiur Torah. Now, that is not retiring. What does he do? He comes back again. Just like he came back in the Shulchan Aruch at least four or five times, he comes back again. What does he do after you went to shiur Torah? You feel good about yourself. You feel good about yourself. You come home, "Honey, I'm a talmid chacham. I went to shiur Torah for three hours."

1:19:12You slept two and a half hours, but I went to shiur Torah for three hours. I went to shiur Torah. Everything I read, I understand. Everything, I know everything. I don't even need to go to shiur Torah anymore. I'm good. I'm perfect. I think I get teeth next week. That's me'achorenu. That's the Satan me'achorenu. The mitzvot you did, Satan's going to try to ruin them. You made a mitzvah, now it's going to go to your head. It's going to go to your head and you're going to think you're Moshe Rabbeinu. You think you're bigger than what you really are. You think that all of a sudden you gave some tzedakah. Oh, tzedakah? I give tzedakah. Oh, you don't know how much I give? This building. Who do you think got the money? This rabbi. Who do you think pays for him? Do I have to say? No, come on. Do I have to say? Do I have to say? Do I have to say who it is? Who do you think runs this place? Do I have to say? That's the Satan. You already did a mitzvah, you gave tzedakah, you gave money to the rabbi, you gave money to kiruv, you donated a sefer, whatever you did.

1:20:25But what do you say? Do I have to? You don't know? I'm not a regular person. I had one guy. I had one guy call. God bless him. God bless him. So hopefully this will be true one day. This guy, a special soul, a special soul indeed. He calls my rabbi, Rabbi Ephraim. I'm not going to go over all the details, but the point is that he says a few things, complains about a few things, and Rabbi Ephraim, God bless him, he listens, he lets you talk. And he says to the rabbi, "You know, I'm not a regular person. I'm not an ish pashut. I'm not a simple person. In the Torah world, that means you're a Talmid Chacham." Not like ish pashut, like I'm a commoner. No, no. Meaning ish pashut is a commoner. But if I'm not a commoner, that means I'm a Talmid Chacham. You know, I'm not an ish pashut. I know. When the G'dolei HaDor make a decision, they call me. Well, Ephraim says at that very moment, I know that he's a shoteh. What's shoteh? Meshuga. He's crazy.

1:21:38Everything he says, he's patur. He doesn't know if they have to do a mitzvah to her. It's not do mitzvot, whatever. He does not do mitzvot. Why are the G'dolei HaDor calling you? You're barely 21 years old. The G'dolei HaDor are calling you? You just learned how to wipe yourself without a diaper, and now the G'dolei HaDor are calling you? But that's how people get into their heads. It gets into their heads. They learn a few gemarot, they learn a few halachot, and they think they're off. They have a little notebook where they write their chiddushim, 90% of which are wrong anyway. Oh, you know why? Do I have to say? Do I really have to say who I am? I'm not a simple person. That's the people. You didn't do the mitzvah, you're ruining it. You're ruining it. Be quiet. Humble. Quiet. So, the good news is,

1:22:39your efforts, whether you're making a mitzvah or it is going to create a complete or incomplete angel, meaning if your mitzvah is with full intention, your angel is going to be a powerhouse angel—strong, big, with six wings. Powerful, you should have eight wings, but they lost two. After Beit Din, they lost two. The Gemara says they lost two wings; now they have six. Some say it's only four, but still, a powerful angel can help you win the case. On the other hand, if you're one of these people that wear tefillin like the tefillin is on the side, you think like it's one of those baseball hats like they used to wear on Public schools, where you wish to go, they used to wear their hats sideways. You are wearing your tefillin sideways because you think you’re doing a favor by wearing tefillin. Or you give tzedakah, but you have 300 dollars in your pocket, and you give three dollars because you think, "Three dollars is enough. It's enough for them. It's enough for them. Look, they have a building already." Yes, but the building has expenses.

1:23:56So if you're one of those people who does a mitzvah that's incomplete, then what happens is your angel is deformed. He's missing an eye. He's missing an arm. He's missing a leg. So Rabbi Levi Yitzchak MiBerditchev came to Hashem and said, "Look, Hashem, I know it's Yom Kippur. I know it's Judgment Day. I know, I know, I know. Look at these angels, all these demons that Am Yisrael created. I know we made a lot of sins, Hashem, but come on, look, Hashem. We also have some mitzvot. Okay, okay, Hashem." He always looked for the kaparos for Am Yisrael. Okay, Hashem, we don't have as many mitzvot. We don't have as many good angels as we have the other ones. I understand, Hashem. But look, the ten angels that we have on the good side are strong. When we did a mitzvah, finally, look what kind of mitzvah we did. A hundred percent mitzvah. It's like I gave a hundred percent. feeling 100% okay. Shabbat was 50. Kosher was 55, but look to me. It's what we did powerful. I've a lot. Look, this guy's missing an eye, this guy's missing a leg, this guy's missing a wing. What does it mean, Hashem? It shows these angels are ba'alei mum. They're deformed angels because when we did the sin, we weren't so sure we wanted to make a sin, but listen, we have yetzer hara.

1:25:19So it's not from Your kavod, Hashem, to keep these ba'alei mum, these deformed angels that are yetzer hara. So You would fight for Am Yisrael. You would argue with Hashem for the benefit of Am Yisrael, figuratively speaking, obviously. But this is actually very much real. All of the stuff that I'm telling you, these angels are very much real. And David HaMelech actually talks about it. In Tehillim, Psalm 91, verse 7, it says, this is actually something you read in tefillah. You read it in tefillah. And... yeah, 91...

1:26:19Okay, so it says, "A thousand may fall victim at your side and ten thousand at your right, but it shall not approach you." Meaning, you will not be affected by it. What is this? What is the Vilna Gaon saying? He says, "When you finally listen to the rest of the Mishnah, the Bartenura says..." Eliezer ben Yaakov said, "You have protection." He says that teshuva and good deeds are like a shield against retribution. When someone sins against Hashem, Hashem has different creations in the world that He created purely for punishment and... Sometimes it's a bug. Sometimes it's deflation. Sometimes it's inflation. Sometimes it's a boss. Sometimes it's a rock. Sometimes it's a car, plane, weather, whatever. There are different creations that Hashem has that He uses for different things. And sometimes their only usefulness is to punish someone. And as we talked about last night, Chazal say that there are plenty of things that Hashem created in the world that are waiting to be used.

1:27:44For what? To punish people. That's their only purpose in life. It's the only purpose of why Hashem created them. There's a certain mosquito that was created in the world just to punish somebody who did something wrong, and the next day he's going to scratch himself for three hours because of this mosquito, for whatever sin he committed. So anytime somebody commits a sin, he creates this angel. Eventually, Hashem has to pass judgment. He has to judge the person and punish him for certain things. Now, that means he sent a messenger. Now, Rabbi Eliezer says if you do teshuva and good deeds, they'll act like a shield against the retribution. Why doesn't it say if you do teshuva, you don't have to worry about anything? It should cancel out your sins. It should kill the bad angels. No, it doesn't, because even though your teshuva He's good. He did teshuva. Baruch Hashem. The problem is Hashem already created that vehicle to punish you. He created that mosquito. He created that car. He created that plane. He created those things. So it's already created. It's already in the system. But if you do teshuva and good deeds, that teshuva and good deeds will actually act as a shield. Meaning that even though they're gonna come, that mosquito is gonna come,

1:29:10As soon as he sees the new version of you, he's gonna walk, he's gonna fly right. He's not just gonna disappear out of existence. He's gonna be reused, rerouted. Like when I make eighty mistakes on the way here or somewhere else, my GPS says rerouting, same thing. Same thing, rerouted. The car, the plane, the wind, Irma. Irma came, they wanted to punish a bunch of people. Baruch Hashem, a few people's houses, and made a right turn. Didn't touch it. Everybody else around was destroyed. That house, nothing. Baruch Hashem. Why? They deserve the punishment. Simple as it gets. They deserve it. That shows, if you actually look at the details of what happened during Hurricane Irma, who got hurt, who didn't get hurt, you go into the details of some of the miracles that happened during that storm, it's mamash, you see the intelligent design behind everything. You see the hand of Hashem behind everything. It's unbelievable.

1:30:10So, here, David HaMelech says, thousands are going to fall, and 10,000 are going to fall by your sides. Who are these thousands and 10,000? What are these? That's the demons you created. That's the bad angels you created. He says they're going to fall, meaning they're going to fall, but they're not going to touch you. They're there, but they're not going to touch you. Why? You did teshuvah. You did teshuvah. The problem is that sometimes we do teshuvah in the beginning and then we go back. We start keeping Shabbat, but then one of our childhood friends shows up unannounced on Friday night and he tries to convince us to go out and

1:31:12start keeping Shabbat, and all of a sudden our parents, who don't keep anything, want to come over for Shabbat, and they want us to watch a movie with them. We start keeping kosher, but all of a sudden our boss invites us to our annual dinner at a non-kosher place. We start keeping mitzvot, and all of a sudden our The new company that wants to hire us wants to invite us to an event in Las Vegas, aka Sodom and Gomorrah. But we want this job, so we're being tested. And unfortunately, many times people fail. They just start doing teshuva, they start keeping Shabbat, they start wearing tefillin, they start keeping mitzvot. Hashem says, "Okay, let me see if you're really serious." To be religious at home is very easy. easy. Everybody's religious at home. People tell me, "You know, I wear tzitzit all day." I said, "Yeah, what about when you leave the house?" "No, come on. I don't want to leave the house, but at home, I wear tzitzit all the time. I go to sleep with tzitzit." Again, the problem is that tzitzit is a mitzvah for during the day, not at night. You go to sleep with it, enjoy, but the mitzvah is for during the day when you're outside. He goes, "Yeah, but I wear a kippah." "Where? Do you wear a kippah outside?" "No, no, I don't wear a kippah outside. I wear a kippah when I'm home."

1:32:36Their religion, their Judaism, their God is only in their house. It's not in the mall. It's not at work. It's not everywhere else. It's only in the house or in the synagogue. It's very easy to be religious when no one sees you. That's why Hashem sends tests to those people. I want to know what you're going to do when everyone sees you. I want to know what you're going to do when you're getting tested, when I send that beautiful girl in front of you. Are you going to look at her? Hashem created beauty, but is it for you? Is it for you to look at? So that's the thing that people fail at. Why? Because they hide. They hide their Judaism. Hashem gives them a convenient way to be religious, a convenient way to do teshuva, and... There are a few new friends. The synagogue is right next to the house. They can work out of the house, or the job is really close. Nobody gets in their way. There aren't really many tests to do teshuva, it becomes easy. Eat kosher. Okay, so instead of shopping at this supermarket, shop at that supermarket. Big deal. Keep Shabbat. It's a vacation once a week. No one should really take that much credit for keeping Shabbat. It's not really that much of a big deal.

1:34:01Sometimes it is a big deal if you really think about it. It's very easy to keep Shabbat today. It's very different to keep Shabbat today than it was a hundred years ago. You can do so many things on Shabbat that are permissible. There are more things that are allowed than not allowed. It's no problem keeping Shabbat, but people themselves extra credit for keeping a few mitzvot. But then, as soon as Hashem gives them a test, they're keeping Shabbat for three months, four months, five months by themselves, or with their spouse, or with their friends. But all of a sudden, Their usual environment changes, and someone comes in to stir the pot a little bit—the parents who don't keep anything, the friends who don't keep anything, the boss. Someone comes in to stir the pot, and all of a sudden they become chiloni. This actually happens very often with Israelis who go to live in America and go to visit Israel.

1:35:02They do teshuva in America. They start keeping mitzvot, but they go on vacation to Israel. As soon as they go on vacation in Israel, they become chiloni, they become secular. They go to the beach, they do a lot of things, and they become secular. Why? Because they feel at home, and it's like everyone at home knows them as their past self. They're not comfortable with themselves yet. It was very easy to be religious in America. So this happens very often. Now, here's the problem. The problem is that Hashem doesn't view this very favorably. To such an extent that Shlomo HaMelech in Mishlei (Proverbs) 26:11 says, "Just like a dog eats its own vomit, so too a fool returns to his folly."

1:36:03When I first read this, I immediately got it, and the reason why is that I used to have a dog. Now, someone who doesn't have a dog might not understand this. What do you mean a dog eats its own vomit? That's actually what they do. Even though a dog can eat garbage, they can eat complete garbage. Sometimes they'll throw up, and the vomit is even worse than the garbage, but... Seconds later, they eat their own throw-up, and it's brand new to them. It's like a brand new meal, a brand new steak. That's a dog. Shlomo HaMelech, the wisest of all men, says someone who does teshuva and then goes back is no different than that dog. Why? Because the vomit is disgusting, and... The only one who doesn't know it's disgusting is the dog. Everyone else that's watching is disgusted. You watch it. When I saw my dog—old dog, God bless him, he died already—but when I saw him, you know, eat his own vomit, it was disgusting. I was like, "What's wrong with this dog?" I thought it was just unique to my dog. My dog is really strange. He's eating his own vomit. It's disgusting. I would yell at him, "Stop eating your own vomit! It is disgusting." But then you find out every other dog does it.

1:37:23Dogs do it. That's part of their nature. Everyone knows it's disgusting except the dog. The problem is with our sins: not only does everyone know it's disgusting, even we know it's disgusting. That's why we did teshuvah in the first place and... We left the sins, the dirt, the tum'ah because we know it's bad. We know being with someone who is not your wife or your husband is not good. We know that cheating in business is not good. We know that cheating God is not good. We know that doing things against our Creator is not good. It's not good. Once you realize it, you know it's disgusting. Once you realize what a sin really is, it's obvious that it's disgusting. There's no debate. No one in the world thinks that a sin is good. That's the problem. When you go back to the sin, you're worse than the dog, Shlomo HaMelech says. Because here at least the dog doesn't know the vomit is disgusting. But you, going back to the sin, knew it was disgusting. You just forgot conveniently. Conveniently forgot. But how many times has this happened to us? We make the same sin over and over and over again.

1:38:52The judgment is dear. The judgment is much harsher than we know. Many people tell me all the time, "Oh, why is it so harsh? Maybe you should talk about happier things." This is Torah. This is what it says—no happier things. This is what it says. The fact that 95% of shiurim that are out there talk about happier things is because they're all talking about the 1%. It's not relevant to most people. they talk about the same 1%, they all gather that 1%, which is a huge amount of information, but nonetheless, this 1% that's there, that's happy-go-lucky, it's Gan Eden, is not really relevant to most people. Because most of them are not going to be in Gan Eden if they continue the way they act. They're not. They're not. This is why the Gemara in Masechet Megillah says Gan Eden is 60 times the size of Earth. Gan Eden is 60 times the size of Earth. Gehinnom has no size. Why no size? Because it keeps getting bigger. There are more attendees. It's not what I mean. It's not my own rules. I didn't create this.

1:40:08Happy-go-lucky type of lectures that make people feel good about their own sins is also not realistic. Anyone that lives in the real world knows it's not realistic. Real life is tough; real life has problems. Real life has obstacles. Real life is not easy. The real part of the Torah explains to you why. It tells you that even when you get suffering, there's a benefit to it. There's some sin that you made five years ago that Hashem gave you five years to do teshuva for. You didn't do it yet. So He has to give you a little bit of a punishment, a little slap in the face. You lost $5,000. You were really supposed to lose $500,000, but you did teshuva. You saved yourself $495,000 now, but you're still gonna get $5,000 worth of damages. You think it's the worst thing in the world. You lost $5,000. In reality, you don't realize that He just saved you $495,000 by delaying punishment and giving you time to do teshuva. You think the flat tire that made you lose the appointment that lost the $5,000 contract is the worst thing in the world. In reality, the original punishment was not a flat tire. The original punishment was a car accident. But Hashem delayed it.

1:41:25That's real Torah. That's what actually happens; all these trials and tribulations are actually written in the Torah because there's a benefit to them. They're a part of real life. To say that if you believe positively, everything positive will happen to you—that's not reality. Look at Moshe Rabbeinu. Does it say that Moshe Rabbeinu went to Tahiti for vacation? He had a positive life... They say that Avraham Avinu went to the Bahamas to have a positive life and that he was on vacation and nothing bad happened to him. They say that Rabbi Akiva was on a pension plan, didn't have to work, and was just vacationing all day, sitting in front of his house in a garage all day, looking at his neighbors and seeing what they're doing. That's what people sometimes do; they get so bored, they sit in front of their garage all day and look at their neighbors. Worst. Have no idea why it's so much the worst. The other day, this happened to me. We took the kids to the playground and wanted to park, but the parking lot didn't have a spot, so I just parked on the grass. It's not bothering anyone. It's not part of anybody's grass and...

1:42:47Comes out, runs out of her garage. "Hey, you know, they're gonna tow you, they're gonna tow you." I said, "Okay, okay, I'll move the car. Let me just drop off the kids at the playground, and I'll come back. Don't worry." She was so nervous, like I was doing something that was a chillul Hashem or something. So I dropped off the kids at the grass, and I tell my wife, "Listen, I wasn't planning on going back. The kids are gonna be in the playground for 15 minutes. I'm not gonna go back. It'll take me 20 minutes to find a parking spot." So I tell my wife, look, I'm counting the clock. Ten minutes, this woman comes from where she lives, starts looking for me in the streets. My wife's like, come on, she's not gonna do that. I'm like, why is she gonna do it? I'm telling you, I felt like a prophet. For a moment, I felt like a prophet. Ten minutes later, you see this woman nervous. She's on the phone, and she's calling the towing company. She's on the phone looking for me like this.

1:43:48My wife's like, "Okay, let me go move the car. Move the car." But this is sometimes what people do. They have nothing to do with their lives. Their minds are completely empty. Their lives are completely empty. They sit outside and look at other people. And they cause trouble. It can be scary. It can be scary with these people. But this actually happens in life. This happens in life. This is real life. So now, all these things happen to me. I don't know. You can't even make this stuff up. My wife tells me you attract these unique types of incidents in your life. I guess it's for the lectures. It has to be for the lectures. These are my jokes. The joke's on me. So, what time is it? 11? Okay, so we have about a half-hour to go. Okay. Half-hour to go before we take a break and then start the second part of the shiur. Okay. So, angels Positive and negative teshuva can protect you, so far so good, so far so good. Now, once somebody goes against Hashem, meaning they know it's a sin and they go back, they started keeping Shabbat, but they start violating it again anyway. They start keeping kosher, but then the boss asks them to eat at a non-kosher place and they go eat. "No, it's one time, God. It's one time, I'm only gonna eat this one time," and...

1:45:14The problem is there's a Mishnah written for them also. Someone that says, "I'm gonna sin and do teshuva, I'm gonna sin and do teshuva," the punishment is that Hashem's not gonna let him do teshuva. Meaning if you know it's a sin and you keep going back to it with an intention to do teshuva, "I'm only gonna eat non-kosher with my boss one time..." I need to get this promotion, God. Don't You want me to donate to the Beit Knesset, God? Like you're debating with God. Don't You want me to donate to the kiruv rabbi, God? Save Am Yisrael, I have to eat non-kosher once. Isn't this pikuach nefesh? You start debating halacha with God. So you make a sin thinking you're going to make a mitzvah as a result. What's the punishment? The punishment is you get to a point where you become hated by God. Hated by God. Now, where's the source? You go to Tehillim, Tehillim 139, verse 21. David HaMelech again...

1:46:34David HaMelech tells us something extraordinary, extraordinarily scary. He says, "For indeed those who hate You, O Hashem, I hate them, and I quarrel with them, with those that rise against You." With the utmost hatred, I hate them. They have become enemies unto me. So David says, as part of my love to You, Hashem, not only am I fulfilling my mitzvot, but I hate Your haters. I hate Your enemies. Now, who are Your enemies? We learn in the book of Deuteronomy, in the last three verses, Hashem gives the definition of who His enemies are, who His haters are. Who are these haters? He says, "My lovers are those that keep My mitzvot. I pay them for a thousand generations. But My haters, which are the opposite of the ones that keep My mitzvot..."

1:47:47Paid them cash to their face to destroy them, meaning I gave them whatever reward I owed them in order to eliminate them because they have no share in the World to Come. Why? Because I hate them. Now, we already have gone over this in the past, but it's still relevant again. There were some really, really horrible characters in the Torah. You have Nimrod. Nimrod was named Nimrod because he was the first one that openly went against God and... Nimrod means Mored. Mored means an enemy, an enemy of God. Nimrod was named Nimrod because he was an enemy of God. He made himself into an idol. He didn't even go to Chinatown to buy an idol. He actually just made himself into an idol. He killed many people that went against him. Whoever went against him, he killed them. Pharaoh was even worse. Not only did he make himself into an idol, but he would bathe with the blood of Jewish babies every day because he had a skin disease and his necromancers told him that the cure was bathing in the blood of Jewish babies. He would bathe with them in a jacuzzi every single day. Everything that happened in the Holocaust was only a fraction of what happened in his time. But he would bathe with the blood of Jewish babies every day because he had a skin disease and his necromancers told him that the cure was bathing in the blood of Jewish babies. He would bathe with them in a jacuzzi every single day. Everything that happened in the Holocaust was only a fraction of what happened in his time and

1:49:13was much worse in Egypt. As a matter of fact, one of the books, as bad as the Holocaust was, obviously—you know, people know it's horrible, and I 100% agree—but actually, if you read the Midrash of what actually happened during Egypt or what happened during Beit HaMikdash, the first one or the second one, it's actually worse. More people died. Horrible, horrible situations. So Pharaoh was terrible Who destroyed Bethlehem? Nebuchadnezzar. Terrible human being—to such an extent he destroyed so many Jews that there was a river of Jewish blood from city to city. A river of blood. Haman wanted to destroy all of Am Yisrael. Different people are mentioned in the Torah—horrible, horrible characters. Not one time does God say, "I hated Pharaoh." I hated Nebuchadnezzar. I hated Nimrod, not once. Who does He say I hated? He tells the prophet, "I loved Yaakov, but Esav I hated."

1:50:27Esav, out of all people. Esav, I hated him. Why? I hated Esav. Esav is worse than Paro. Why? He killed millions and millions of babies, millions of adults. No, he killed a few people. But he didn't kill as many people as even a fraction of what Nimrod did, of what Paro did, of what Nebuchadnezzar did. He didn't. Okay, he killed a few. Okay. He didn't follow mitzvot. But why do you hate him and not them? This doesn't make sense. What makes sense is: Esav had the opportunity to learn. He knew the truth. He knew what Torah was. He knew what mitzvot were. His brother was a tzaddik, his father a gadol, and his grandfather even bigger. His brother was Yaakov, his father was Yitzchak, and his grandfather was Avraham Avinu. It doesn't get better than that family. He knew every day, these are mitzvot, these are aveirot. He knew every day. He knew the truth. And every day he said, "I'm going to do teshuva tomorrow, I'm going to Netz. Tomorrow I'm learning Torah all day. Tomorrow I'm giving tzedakah. Tomorrow I'm eating kosher. Tomorrow I'm doing this, tomorrow I'm doing that." And every day he would lie. Every day he wouldn't do it.

1:51:48Hashem says, "I hated him, asaf saneti," why? I hate him because he knew the truth and he still went against it. He's worse than the dog that eats its throw-up. The dog that eats its throw-up doesn't think there's anything wrong with it; it's natural. But the human that eats his throw-up, that commits the sin again, he's worse than the dog. Why? Because he knows it's disgusting and he still does it. He knows it's disgusting in the eyes of Hashem and he still does it. Causes a person to be hated by God. So all of those people that say, "No, God loves everyone." It's not true. There are certain people that God hates. There are certain people that God hates a lot. If they do certain things that are against Hashem, God hates them one hundred percent. This is what the halacha says. So the Rambam in Hilchot Teshuva...

1:52:50Goes into details about some of this. Very good to read it. Hilchot Teshuva, really all of the Mishneh Torah by the Rambam. This is the following: The first halacha in chapter 4 says that there are 24 deeds which hold back teshuva, meaning that get in the way of your teshuva—24 different things that could hurt your teshuva. And... Are the commission of severe sins? God will not grant the person who commits such deeds to repent because of the gravity of his transgressions, meaning such a person that makes such sins, Hashem will not help him do teshuva. He could still do teshuva technically, but he's on his own. It's like the multi-billionaire father says, "Listen, you want to go work, you want to go start a business? Good luck. I'm not helping you though. But you're a billionaire. I'm not giving you a penny. Good luck." I Homeless, you're homeless. You're on your own. Technically, you could succeed, but you don't have a penny in your pocket. You're most likely not going to succeed. Same concept. So, the Rambam continues, Halacha: This is actually what we live by. This is not like a theory. It's not a thought. It's not an opinion. There's no machloket. This is it. This is as if you got it from Mount Sinai. Same thing. This is good. He says the first one...

1:54:15Someone who causes the masses to sin. This is what we talked about before. This is a person that's called a meisis. Someone that causes other people to sin tells all his friends, "Hey guys, let's go to the beach." All these people became ba'alei teshuva, started doing teshuva. He comes and says to these guys who did teshuva, "Let's go to the beach. Let's go to the strip club. Let's go to the bar. Let's go to the rave. Let's go to Sodom and Gomorrah. Let's go somewhere." That person is a meisis. If he says, "Let's go to the church," same thing. Same thing. You should know there are a few things that it says it's better you die than sin. One of them is not to murder somebody over your own life. Why? Your blood is not better than his. If someone says, "Kill him or I kill you," you die. Don't kill anybody to save your own life. The second thing is not to worship an idol. If someone says, "Go to a church or I kill you," you... not to go to church even if someone is chasing you with a knife. Not to go to the church, not allowed. You can go to a mosque, but we can't go to a church even though probably everybody there has a knife too. The third option: don't commit any sexual crimes. Oh, about that, don't commit any sexual crimes. Where's the me? Don't commit any sexual crimes.

1:55:35Someone says, "Listen, let's go to the beach. We're pretty much nobody. Who wants cool clothes over there? Die. You don't go to the beach. Why? It's considered giving away our yichud. So here someone tells guys, 'Let's all go to the beach.' It's better to die and not go to that extent. To that extent. So someone that's a meisis, someone that causes other people to sin, you have a serious problem. Rambam says Hashem doesn't help him do teshuva." Second, a person who leads his fellow man astray from the path of goodness to that of badness. For example, someone who proselytizes or serves as a missionary for idol worship, specifically a missionary who brings them to Messianic Judaism, if you will, like this, the Shama or Shaya—what does he call himself? It's like Shapira. The filth of the world, this guy, this guy—Hashem is not gonna help him do teshuva even if he wants to do teshuva. No chance whatsoever. Why? He's destroying souls on a regular basis with trauma while he is eating it, and he makes videos about it like he's a tzaddik. That's the best part about it. Third, someone who sees his son becoming associated with evil influences and refrains from rebuking him.

1:56:56Sees this kid becoming a little Russia, a little Hitler, and doesn't say anything. No, no, he's gonna grow out of it one day. So that's a problem. You have a problem with him, you have a problem with your mission. V'shinantam l'vanecha, you have to teach your kids Torah. What's Torah? Behavior, ethics. It's not just Moshe Rabbeinu. There are a lot of parts to the Torah. You can't just have your kid become a little mini Hitler and cause everyone in the beit knesset to suffer because you don't know how to discipline him. People bring their kids to beit knesset and... Cute kid until he opens his mouth and starts causing trouble the whole day. No one can pray. You can't bring a kid like that to beit knesset. Train him first, then bring him. No, no, he'll learn from the connection. No, he's not gonna learn. Home first, and then you bring him. I don't have to suffer because he's your kid. Who said I have to suffer because your kid? People bring their kids to beit knesset and think it's a mitzvah. It's not a mitzvah; he's ruining everybody's prayer. It's 500 people in a beit knesset, 100 people in a beit knesset can't pray because the kid is jumping on tables.

1:57:56It's not a mitzvah. It's not a mitzvah at all. It's a sin. You're disturbing people's prayers. You're not doing your job. So, here he talks about some pretty aggressive stuff. We don't have that much time before the next part starts, but we'll continue with this. We'll go to this one. Here. It's the benefit of life. Okay, so now the Rambam says, what's the beauty of teshuva? What's the amazing part of doing teshuva? What's something that people don't really understand? All of the prophets spoke about teshuva.

1:59:00Do you want to bring Mashiach? You have to do teshuva. All the prophets talked about teshuva. All the prophets, whether it's Moshe Rabbeinu, or it's Yirmiyahu, or it's Zechariah, or it's Yechezkel, everyone told Am Yisrael to do teshuva. Why? The Mashiach depends on it. In essence, you want the Mashiach to come, you have to do teshuva. Now, the Gemara also talks about how we've run out of time. Run out of time, and really, if Am Yisrael doesn't do teshuva, Hashem is not going to bring the Mashiach. That's what Rabbi Eliezer says. So Rabbi Yehoshua, this is Masechet Sanhedrin, Rabbi Yehoshua says, no, no, no, it doesn't mean that He's not going to help them. What it actually means is, if Am Yisrael does not do teshuva, then Hashem will bring a king who decrees harsh decrees just like Haman, which will force Am Yisrael to repent. Meaning either Am Yisrael is going to do teshuva from seminars and lectures, or they're going to do teshuva from Hitler. One of the two has to happen. Something has to happen. It's either a good way or a bad way. But the Rambam says something extraordinary about teshuva. He says if you actually look at the sixth halacha, it says teshuva

2:00:24great for a person because it brings them close to the Shechinah. Just like the Prophet Hoshea says, "Shuva Yisrael ad Hashem Elokecha," and many other verses in the Torah talk about how Hashem says, "When you come close to Me when you do teshuva, you're coming close to Me." But the extraordinary part the Rambam says is... that teshuva brings a person who was far removed. What does "far removed" mean? What does someone who is a "chook" really mean? He says previously this person was hated by God. So, as you see, this is Rambam; it's not my language. This person was hated by God, was considered disgusting and far-removed and an abomination. Now he's considered beloved and desirable and close and dear. Before teshuva, when he was eating his own throw-up, when he was eating his own sins, making the same sins over and over again, he was considered saneh, which means hated. He was considered meshukatz, which means disgusting and...

2:01:43So this is Rambam's language. You can't blame me. You have a problem? Go to Rambam 900 years ago. Why? He gave you everything, and you're using it against him. Now, since we don't have much time. Oh, actually, this is not a lot of time. Six, six. Now, a person that reviews his sins on a regular basis is much more likely to have a real teshuvah stick. Much more likely to have a teshuvah that's going to last through thick and thin, through the big tests. Of course, you're going to fail from time to time. Everybody fails; there's no such thing as a righteous person who doesn't sin. Even Shlomo HaMelech writes it. No one's expecting you to become a malach. You're still human. You...

2:03:00But to go back to your sins on a regular basis, you were a mechalel Shabbat, you were, you know, and now, you know, did teshuvah, and then you're going to go back to it. You wasted time and never learned Torah, and you're going to, you know, you're learning, and now you're going to go back to not, you know, to wasting your time again. You did all these sins, now you did teshuvah, finally. You started going to shiurei Torah. You know what, I already did teshuvah; I'm gonna stop going and all of a sudden become a sinner again. You have put yourself in a worse situation than you started. Why is it a worse situation than you started? In the beginning, you didn't know. Before you did teshuvah, you didn't know that Hashem finds what you're doing disgusting. Before you did teshuvah, you didn't know that Hashem finds you driving on Shabbat a serious, serious abomination, a serious problem. Before you did teshuvah, you didn't realize that Hashem actually cares whether you eat kosher or don't eat kosher, whether you overeat or you undereat, whether you're honest with your business or just honest at home and pretend to be honest in your business. You didn't know. Then you learned. Then you learned the truth. When you didn't know, you were in essence considered an anus.

2:04:17I'm sorry, I mean that you were just somebody that was like some stolen baby that was thrown in the middle of the jungle. You didn't even know you were Jewish. You didn't know anything. You were the same thing as a cow. You didn't know anything. You just thought that you're there for somebody to milk you and for you to say moo all day. You didn't know anything. Then you did teshuva. Then you learned. Then you learned you're a Jew. Then you learned that being a Jew is a special responsibility. It's a special thing. There's a special reward for it. And you still went against it. That's why Hashem says, et Eisav saneti. Eisav, I hated him. Why? He knew the truth and he still went against it. He knew it. His brother was Gadol HaDor, his father was Gadol HaDor, and his grandfather was even bigger than both of them. Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. You can't say he didn't know. Everyone tells me, "Oh, my father's a rabbi, my uncle's a rabbi, my great-grandfather wrote a book." Great! They're in Gan Eden, you're an Esav. Unless you do teshuva.

2:05:29They're in it. They're in Gan Eden just like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. But if you choose to be Esav, you'll be in the same place as Esav. What does the Gemara in Sanhedrin say about Esav? Esav has no share in the World to Come. Nothing. Finished. So the beauty of doing teshuva is that teshuva has a significant amount of power. I told you in the beginning that... If you want to be like the Tana'im, revive people from the dead, you actually have the ability to do it. Now, obviously, it's not the same way as the Tana'im, where they just pray and somebody goes back to life. But one of the benefits of doing what we do and helping people do teshuva is that you get to see real-life miracles. daily basis. So most people thought that, you know, when we first started talking about the whole problem with wigs having a source of avodah zarah in India and all of that stuff, they thought it was just my opinion, like I care, like I have some hat store or something. Look, I'm going to make a fortune out of selling people hats. I

2:06:51But eventually, people started listening and started seeing that this is a serious problem, and baruch Hashem, some of the gedolim from Eretz Yisrael got involved and confirmed everything we said already a year and a half ago. They put out a new halacha that you can't trust any wig out there that's made from real hair because you can't confirm whether it is or isn't from India. Even if there's one hair from the wig that's from India, the entire wig is assur because you can't identify the hair. Therefore... The whole wig is assur. You can't use wigs. Technically, you weren't able to use wigs anyway because of modesty issues, but even if you use the five poskim that say that wigs are allowed, those same five poskim did not say that Avodah Zarah is allowed. No one says Avodah Zarah is allowed, or that benefiting from Avodah Zarah is allowed. So just recently, they gave you recent miracles, recent stuff that happened. A couple of religious people saw the shiurim. They contacted me, asking some questions about the wigs and so on. One of them told me, "Listen, this was maybe two weeks ago." She said, "Listen, I want to tell you a real-life story because I know that this is something that you may want to tell people." I said, "Okay, what?" She said, "Because I decided to listen to what you say and..."

2:08:15I decided to take off my wig. She's been wearing a wig her whole life, her whole married life, for years. It's not like something she just started last week, and she wasn't used to it. Her whole life, she's been wearing a wig. She says, "We've been looking for a house for five years, five years we've been looking for a house. The day I decided to throw my wig out in the garbage, we got a call. We found a house." Five years I'm looking for a house. The day I threw it out, I'm looking up. We're closing now. She says we're in the closing now. Five years we found a house. Okay, to some people, it's a coincidence. Coincidence. So another woman calls. Actually, she sends me a letter and she says, "Listen, I decided to take off my wig, and I've been praying for something for a very long time and it never happened, and..." But then I decided to throw it away. I just decided, you know what? It's time to do teshuvah. I know it's true. I can't use this wig. Inside, I know what you're saying is real even before you said it. But once you said it, that was it; that was the nail in the coffin. It was just really a matter of me overcoming my desires because the wig looks good. It's long. It's pretty. It's done all the time. Who doesn't want to wear a wig? I decided to throw it out. Something I've been praying for years to happen.

2:09:45She had some huge test that she failed four times. It's a big test—I don't know if it was for law, for medicine, or something big like that. She just couldn't pass it. She said, "You know what? I'm gonna go take the test, but instead of taking it with the wig, I'm gonna take it with a hat on. From now on, I'm gonna throw the wig away and I'm going to..." Wear this hat or this mitpachat from now on. Should I pass the test? Again, to someone who doesn't want to believe or someone who is looking for excuses, all this stuff sounds like meaningless nonsense. So the third one is the best one. The third one is someone who says, "I was married for five years. Five years married. What do you do when you get married? Try to have kids. That's technically the point of being married. Otherwise, it's just a roommate." Even so, I mean someone who says to Hashem, "If You don't give me a kid, I might as well be dead." A woman that can't have kids feels it's a punishment. So, this woman was married for five years. Five years, no kids. Doctors say it's not possible for you to have kids. Not possible, not possible, not possible.

2:10:57Decide to do what we say, give him some advice, follow, do teshuva, keep mitzvot, basics. Day of chuppah, she got pregnant, and Baruch Hashem, there's a kid. Alive and well, healthy and everything is good. This is the type of stuff that I see every day, Baruch Hashem. It's not me. It has nothing to do with me. Just listen to Hashem. The beauty is that Torah has the ability to save lives. Sometimes you see people, hear many stories, popular stories, where you see people that are in danger. They've had a major surgery. They're sick, chas v'shalom, they have cancer, they have some major disease. The doctor tells them they have a week to live, two weeks to live, all these doctors... have no care in the world about people's emotions. They tell me you have a week, you have six days, you have six and a half hours. They tell you as if they own the world. But times of fear usually cause people to do major things. Fidel volunteers in the hospice center. He says everybody's religious in the hospice center. Everyone's religious. Even the atheist is religious. The guy that was an atheist his whole life, he's religious in the hospice center. He knows he is about to meet the Maker he didn't believe in his whole life.

2:12:17So sometimes people get smart and they make the right decision, and they say, "Okay, God, I got the point, I got the point. I'll do teshuva." And all of a sudden, the cancer disappears. All of a sudden, the disease that they had disappears. This is not one or two or three or four or ten or fifty or a hundred stories. There are many, many documented stories of real people, sometimes on video, sometimes in books, sometimes in papers, sometimes in medical records—different things that are completely unexplainable based on science but one hundred percent explainable based on Torah and When you do Hashem's will, He'll do your will, meaning that if He needs to change nature for you, it's not a big deal for Him. He is nature. That's why the word for God in Hebrew, one of them is Elohim, and HaTeva, the nature, have the same numerical value. It's one of the hints and

2:13:30There is no nature being a separate entity. He is nature. So for Him to change something, it's the same thing as you breathing. Under normal circumstances, it's the same thing. You don't have to try to breathe; you just breathe. So if you want to revive the dead, just do what Hashem says. You want to perform miracles, start with yourself. You want major things to happen in your life? Start taking serious teshuvah, not just half-hearted teshuvah. We just keep Shabbat and keep kosher because it's convenient for you, and it's tasty. But the stuff that's hard for you, that's what you have to do. It's hard for you to be modest? That's what you have to do. It's hard for you to learn for an hour or two in the morning and an hour or two at night? That's what you have to do. It's hard for you to pray every day in the morning? That's what you have to do. Why? He says "kol hamitzvot" — all of my mitzvot, not some of them that you like. Anywhere in the Torah that Hashem says "mitzvotai," He doesn't say some of my mitzvot that you like. It always says "kol hamitzvot" — all the mitzvot. Don't start making exceptions. All my mitzvot. Once you start listening and...

2:14:51What Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says is, "Listen, you have two options here: you do good, you create a good angel; you do bad, you create a bad angel." If you actually visualize what he says on a regular basis and take this into serious consideration, it's much easier to do what Hashem wants. Why? Because you become scared. You... You become scared to make these bad angels. You become scared to become one of these bad characters that the Rambam says God hates. Who wants to be hated by God? Even the one that hates God doesn't want God to hate him back. No one wants to be hated by God. But at the same token, you can't just sit there doing nothing. expecting positive things to happen. We'll finish with this and then we'll take a small break and then start the second part of this. You are in the back. There's a serious mussar I learned from Rav Shteinman, shlita. One time they wanted to help him travel to go give some shiurim to the public overseas and

2:16:17He never went, already in his 90s—90 something years old now. He's over a hundred, baruch Hashem, but at 90 years old, he never traveled on a plane or anything. So, for the first time in his life, he's on a plane at 90 years old—90, 92, something like that. And he goes through the machine, and it beeps. Beeps. A 90-year-old man—what is he carrying? Machine gun, where's he carrying? What is he gonna do? It's the airport, especially the Israeli airport. They think everyone's a terrorist. So he takes off the jacket, he takes off this, he takes off that, goes through again—beep, beep, beep. Again, he takes off the belt, takes off the shoes, takes off this, goes again—beep, beep, beep. This is very embarrassing for a 90-year-old man. He keeps beeping. What are you gonna do? You have to go through the process. keeps taking off more and more clothes, more and more things. Eventually, he realizes, "I have a piece of metal in my leg from 70 years ago. I had a surgery and I forgot about that. I broke something, and they had to put a piece of metal, a screw of some kind." And then he realized this is what it was.

2:17:47But then he started crying. And the students asked him, "Why are you crying? You passed already, they know, it's okay." He goes, "No, no, you don't understand. 70 years ago, I had surgery to put a piece of metal in my body, and I forgot about it. Imagine when we arrive in Shamayim and they show us all the screws and the screw-ups we made." We forgot about and we're expecting to be judged like Moshe Rabbeinu. We're going up to Shamayim expecting to be like Rabbi Akiva, no less. We're expecting Gan Eden, Olam Haba. It's mine, I'll give you guys some room. We forgot all the other thoughts from 70 years ago. He goes, "If I forgot something that's inside my body that I needed to walk, it was in his leg apparently." Imagine how they're gonna show me in Shamayim what I also forgot about. Don't be one of those people that's hated and you forgot Teshuvah. It's not so hard. No, because Shamayim is not so far from you. It's not easy, but it's not so hard. Especially when you start realizing that as you do more and more Teshuvah, as you get closer and closer to Hashem, you learn more and more Torah, you become a better version of yourself and...

2:19:16You're a three; you could become a ten. It takes time and effort. But as you get better, you start enjoying the teshuvah. In the beginning, it's hard. Let's not joke ourselves. It's hard to change your behavior. It's hard to change your activities. It's hard to change your hobbies. It's hard to change your friends. It's hard to change a lot of things. But once you start seeing a little bit of benefit in it, then you enjoy. All of a sudden, the fact that you're walking around modestly, you start realizing, "Hey, you know what? It's actually classier to be a modest woman. When people look at me, they look at me with respect; they don't look at me like a piece of meat in a supermarket." I spend my time learning Torah. I actually improve my mind. I can take something from that and use it at work, use it at home, use it in different places. When I watch shows for five hours, nothing happens. I watch the show, I enjoy the show, but at the end of the show, I can't do anything about it. It's the end of the show. I can't use anything; I can't use it for any advantage whatsoever.

2:20:33You start realizing that Hashem's will is really your will. You just have to get over that angel that you created, that’s trying to influence you to do bad things. So, b'ezrat Hashem, now we'll take a little short break. Anyone that needs to eat, eat. Anyone who wants to eat, eat. And then we're going to set up in the back. And b'ezrat Hashem, we're going to learn all night. But something completely different. And questions, answers. And b'ezrat Hashem, whatever else Hashem wants us to say. Baruch Adonai le'olam, amen ve'amen. B'ezrat Hashem, we're going to try to learn some serious Torah tonight, whether it be questions and answers that you have. If you run out of questions, or I run out of answers, then we'll ask the people online to give me some easier questions, because you guys look tough. Also, we'll go over Sefer Devarim. It's customary, not an obligation, but it's customary to go over Sefer Devarim on Hoshanah Rabbah. This, in essence, is the fifth book of the Torah, but really it was Moshe Rabbeinu's journal. It wasn't originally meant to be a part of the Torah,

2:21:47But Hashem decided that Moshe Rabbeinu should make it the fifth book of the Torah. Obviously, he wrote it all with Ruach HaKodesh and prophecy. And that's why we see so many prophecies that have come true in the fifth book of the Torah. But in my perspective, and I think anyone that really understands what Sefer Devarim talks about, what the book of Deuteronomy talks about, in my opinion, it’s the number one... Always was and always will be the number one Mussar book in history. And the reason why is because you can't read it, understand what it says, and not change your life. Mussar has to do with ethics, has to do with behavior. You can't stay the same person after you read it and understand it. If you read it and you didn't change, that's because you didn't understand one word you read. So how can you get to the point of really understanding it? Now, of course, there's the literal translation, but the Torah is not supposed to be read literally. There's more to it. There's more behind the scenes, like even from Pirkei Avot, which is a part of the Oral Torah, we learn there's just a basic pshat, the basic meaning of the Oral Torah is good, but the deeper meaning, what we say for two, three hours...

2:23:05is something we get from commentary, from Chazal, from Gemarot, and so on and so forth. Even more so with the five books of Moses, with Sefer Devarim and the rest of the Torah. The commentary by Rashi, by Rambam, by Abarbanel, and by some of the major sages throughout history is what really gives us the understanding of what Hashem really means. Because some things, the literal translation can confuse you. To such an extent that you think the opposite of what the opinion of the Torah is. You can't read the Torah literally. You have to read it with commentary. That's what many Christians do. That's what many people who are looking for excuses not to follow the Torah do. They read the Torah literally and they mistranslate it, sometimes intentionally, sometimes ignorantly. They mistranslate the Torah. and it's really a shame because the Torah is so beautiful and so extraordinary that it doesn't make sense to misuse it like that. So we can start with questions. We can start with Tzephat D'varim. We can start with whatever you want. If anyone online is going to have some questions, we'll go over them as well. We'll try to get to everyone. So anyone actually that has a phone and has a battery, at some point I'm going to ask you to

2:24:29check online for the questions, because I can't record and check the questions at the same time from the same screen. So you don't have to check it now, but if you guys have questions, I'll answer your questions first. And also eat, drink, enjoy, and we'll succeed. So we have a lot of time on our hands. We have a lot of time on our hands, but we have to use that time, because if we're just going to waste time, we're just going to eat and sleep, might as well go home and sleep. If they seriously learned Torah in order to look like angels before Hashem on this final judgment day. So, who wants to start with some questions? Okay. I'll give you a response once somebody gives me something to drink. But, okay. The Sprite, the orange soda, whatever is closer to you. Whatever is cold, actually. Cold. Cold. Nothing's cold? Oh, Hashem. The water is cold, actually. The water is cold. Okay.

2:25:59So the first question is, can someone give themselves an Emunah test? That's the question, really. By quitting their job and saying, "I'm going to go learn Torah all day," or "I'm going to sit there and do nothing all day." Okay, so this is the answer. Someone came to Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, alav hashalom, and he asked the same question. He said, "Kvodo HaRav, in the lecture today..." Oh, wow. Kvodo is here. Mir is here. The Holocaust survivor is here to learn with us 24 hours. Hold on a second. This deserves a break for a second. Wow. Baruch Haba. Baruch Haba. Baruch Haba. Baruch Haba. How are you? This is... Oh, my name is Yaron, yes. Yaron. This is a lot.

2:27:23Where is it going to sit? In here? In here. Okay, so you want to hold this? Okay. Okay. So we could actually... I'll put it over here. One second. Let me put this somewhere. Okay. Learning Torah all night with you over here, oh Hashem, it's going to be extra good.

2:28:24So it's going to be good. Now you're going to be here. Give him also. I'll give him my drink and give him also. Give me another one. Water for him? Okay. See, it's the benefits of life. Benefits of life. How are you? Ready? This one cannot stay here. Do you need another chair to put this on? This is his obsession. Okay. So, he has this and this. I think this one cannot stay here. Why? Leave it there? Okay. I can come sit down. Yeah, you can put it on another chair. This is for him.

2:29:26Okay, I'll put the etrog next to the lulav. Okay, let's put it over there. This is his sefer. Wow. This is your phone? No, his phone. His phone, okay. So I'll put it over here. Is it over here? No, no, I'm not going to stay. Oh, do you want to? He's going to stay. Okay, so. I'm going to stay with you. Ken, ken, ken, I want to show it to the camera, to the people. Show them the book. Here's the water. You want some water? Faster. Ken, have a seat, have a seat. Faster, not water. Water. Oh. Yeah. Oh. Oh, Shimon, Shimon. Here's your water. All right. OK. OK. Faster. OK. Got it. So, anyone who doesn't know, Mr. Gad Meiri, this is his book. This is his book.

2:30:42He's 94 years old, Baruch Hashem. So, at least another 26, 27, 30, 100 years, at least. But he's a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor. And Baruch Hashem, this is his book about his experiences, about his life. And he came to our shiur for the first time last week. And it was a big surprise. It was a big surprise. Is that it? Is that it? Make sure he's sitting on the chair for me. So, Baruch Hashem, he has an extraordinary experience. I got to sit down with him last week a little bit after the shiur. And I haven't read the book yet, but I heard from him a little bit about his life. It's an amazing, amazing life, amazing experience. And One thing everyone should do here before you leave is get a blessing. So, mamash, it's our honor because we talk about different things that are real and hard to listen to sometimes, hard to say about the Holocaust. And last week was, again, we mentioned some things, and he was in the crowd. He was with us, learning with us. And everything he says, everything is true. It's not a...

2:32:07As hard as it is to hear sometimes, when people ask, where was God during the Holocaust? He was there. He was there. He was doing it. Why? Because that's what He said in the Torah. Actually, in the book we're going to read tonight, one of the things He says in Parashat Ki Tavo, is that if we sin against Him, eventually, He's going to send us an enemy. And the enemy that He describes in there is really identical to the enemy of Nazi Germany. So many of the secrets, parts of the Torah, Torah codes, talk about different things. One of them, actually, in regards to the codes, the secrets about Nazi Germany, comes from Sefer Devarim, from this book. So, Baruch Hashem, he's here learning with us. It's really amazing, but we could really learn more from him. So, Chavrutah. Okay. Let me change, let me turn the camera around. Oh, ken, ken. Okay. Thank you. So, if you have questions, because I lived through it.

2:33:31You read about it, but I lived through it. And you might have questions, and I'm here to answer those questions. Okay? So, again, the question is, the big question I always had is how did you have the mental strength? Physical strength is different, but mental strength, to overcome all the big tests, the Holocaust, the torture, the disaster, people dying everywhere. It's a nightmare just to think about. I can't imagine living through it. How do you survive mentally? I was not exposed to that because my parents sent me to England. And in England, first one family and then another family. And many families. From one family to another family to another family. And finally, I wound up in Chester, in Cheshire, along the River Dee. And there...

2:35:00A very bad thing happened to me. My parents, before I left, gave me 90 pounds. That's a lot of money in those days. A lot of money. And all of a sudden, I got on the bus, oh, front row, feet up, right? You know how the buses look like in England, right? We got off the bus to see a movie. So I went for my wallet with the 90 pounds. The 90 pounds were gone. See, when I put my feet up in the front, it must have fallen out. That was my... bad, bad experience in England. As you can imagine, you lose all the fortune that you had and all of a sudden it isn't there anymore. How would you feel? How did you survive? Work? We walked home. We walked home.

2:36:26And then from day to day, you know, you try and make it. You walk to shul, you walk back from shul, and you survive. What can I tell you? But war was everywhere. War? War. Bombs, attacks, soldiers, everything was everywhere. So how did you, I mean, survive as far as the regular life? Everyday life became dangerous for everyone. Even if you weren't in the concentration camps, life was still dangerous. No, it was not, what do you call it, a good thing. Let's put it that way. It wasn't a good thing to live through those days, and I remember one thing.

2:37:26when Seymour declared that England would declare war if the Germans invaded Poland, but the Germans didn't invade Poland. So we were in a state of war, and all of a sudden, declared war. That means there is war, and you hear the planes. Well, it couldn't be. It couldn't be. Because the planes from Germany to come to Chester in that time period could not have happened. You know it? So what can I tell you? What can I tell you? When it comes to that time, were people really religious, anti-religious, similar to today? Well, let me tell you. Funny thing to say, there was all of a sudden, from somewhere, I don't know, to this day we don't know where the guy came from, but there was a Jewish man,

2:38:51And he asked for all the Jewish children at a certain time to go and come to the church. And we went there and he told them, it's not Christian, it is Jewish. He would like us to come on Shabbos. He would like us to come, you know, to be there. And we didn't have a Sefer Torah or anything like that. He read from, what do you call it? From the Tanach. From the Tanach, yeah. And that's how we survived as Jews. It's very interesting that if I look at it today, you know, it's funny if I talk about it. What happened was that the landlady with whom we lived, she prepared rabbit pie for us. David told me to take it out of the kitchen.

2:40:17So, you are in a strange land, and we were not perfect in our English, you know what I mean? We were put into one big bed, and that's how we went to college the first day. So, how we survived, you know? Wow. Well, then the next day, the son of the people with whom we stayed took us to school and introduced us to the principal. one big bed, and that's how we went to college the first day. So, how we survived, you know? Wow. Well, then the next day, the son of the people with whom we stayed took us to school and introduced us to the principal.

2:41:18It's very interesting; we each separately told our story, who we were. We were Jews who were sent to wind up here. And we had to try and make the best of it. It wasn't easy, I mean... to go to school and come home and serve rabbit pie for a Jewish guy like myself and my friend. It was a very, very difficult time. When did you write the book? When did I write the book? In the recent or the summer of many years ago? What? Yeah. Oh, 2010. Okay. So, it's only seven years old for you. Seven or so. That's the journey from Esed. That's where you lived, right? Esed is where I lived. Okay. So, God may heal you. There's no shame. You should definitely buy the book, read the book. When we talk about survival,

2:42:45I am a survivor. I am a survivor. I am a survivor. In the books that are out, I share how I went to school in the morning, and I remember my mother told us we had long stockings. She told us not to put them down, to keep them up because it's cold outside, you know? And as soon as we're around the corner, we, you know. The book is interesting in one part. I had a fight with the son who was the son of an important Nazi. He was the son of an important Nazi. We had a fight. We had a fight. And I remember my grandmother, and they were after the Jew.

2:44:07You know, they came running after the Jew. And I was running. They were on bicycles. They were on bicycles. But, you know, at a certain point, I stopped, I folded my arms like that, and I said, so who wants to be the first one to start with me? And the first one to start with me was a guy by the name of König. Having been trained by HaKoach, anybody know what HaKoach was? No. That was like Maccabi. Like Maccabi, but called HaKoach. And they trained us pretty, pretty good. in that facility, which was good with American money. American money built the facility, big, big, big facility. And we trained pretty well on the horse, on the length, on everything, you know what I mean? So you survived different experiences? So we were in pretty good shape.

2:45:36I'm sure that some of the things we're going to see in the Sefer Devarim, you're going to connect to the Holocaust and different things that are happening today. Not easy to think about the Holocaust, but at the same time, it's very important to know that it happened, that it's real, that it could happen again, that it's a reality. This is what I want to say. When we sit around here, each of us should remember it can happen again, and it can happen here. Yeah. Very easy. That's the reality. That's the reality. Many people don't think that it can happen here. And you say, why wouldn't it happen here? How could it happen here? But it could. In America. In America. Yeah. Germany was like America in its day. Before the Holocaust, Germany was like America. Jews were at the top, politicians, businessmen, very successful, very rich, and eventually

2:47:01Hashem decided to change things. And all of a sudden, the rest of them became enemies. Our friends became enemies, just like Hashem says in the Torah: "I will turn your friends into enemies." That's part of the punishment. So, the amazing thing for me to meet Mr. Meiri is the fact that everything we talk about, you know, when we talk about the Holocaust and how Hashem told us that it's a possibility, that it could happen, he prophesied it. It's hard for people to talk about it. But most people that are offended by some of the truth that the Torah says about the Holocaust and different things didn't go through the Holocaust. They're offended because somebody they know went through the Holocaust. Here we have somebody that was alive at that moment, that went through difficulty at that moment, and there's nothing offensive about what we say because we know it's all true. So, this is one of the things that's important to learn tonight and throughout the whole year, that, like he said, the Holocaust is not just something that happened. It's something that can happen again. And the one who decides whether it happens again or not is Hashem. And the decision is based on what we do. Our actions will determine what He decides, how He responds, as a cause and effect.

2:48:28We do something, He reacts. If we do good, He gives us good. If we do bad, He gives us bad. It's as simple as it gets. So, with Hashem, we're going to talk a little bit more about it. We're going to address some other questions. Maybe some people will have questions for you later on. But we'll go over it a little bit and give some simple advice. Anything else you want to add? If you have questions for me, we'll turn it over a little bit and then probably turn it back and forth a few times. So next time we get professional, we'll get two mics, three mics, four mics, right? The microphone, microphone, microphone. I put it over there, you didn't notice. So they can hear you. So they can hear you. Okay, so, Sefer Devarim starts the following, and then I'll go over some questions if you guys have any questions along the way. It says, Parashat Devarim, Eleh HaDevarim Asher Diber Moshe El Kol Yisrael. Book of Devarim, you need it? The garbage? Yeah, it's fine. You can move it out of the way, but it's fine. As long as it doesn't smell bad. It's fine. As long as it doesn't smell, it's fine.

2:49:51These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel. On the other side of the Jordan, concerning the wilderness, concerning the Aravah, opposite the Sea of Reeds, between Paran and Tofel and Lavan, and Chatzerot and Di-Zahav, So, these are different places that Am Yisrael has passed through. But why does it say, "These are the words that Moshe Rabbeinu said to Am Yisrael"? Now, originally, Sefer Devarim, as I said before, was part of the Oral Torah. Originally, Sefer Devarim, the Book of Deuteronomy, was part of the Oral Torah, was in essence... the journal for Moshe Rabbeinu. Similar, similar but not the same, but similar to the Book of Creation that was written by Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu, Sefer Yetzirah, there's a book that he had that we don't have the whole contents of today. Some people make believe like we do, but we don't. We have, you know, parts, small parts of it. But it's a very high-level Kabbalah book.

2:51:18where one of the secrets that we learn from there confirms, for example, that non-Jews are not allowed to keep Shabbat. This is one of the things we know. Non-Jews are not allowed to keep the whole Torah. They're allowed to keep certain mitzvot that are relevant to them. But, for example, there are certain mitzvot like Shabbat that non-Jews are not allowed to keep. Now, they could relax, they could not work, they could have a party, they could do whatever they want. But they can't refrain from doing the 39 melachot that Am Yisrael is not allowed to do on Shabbat on purpose. If they just happen not to drive, it's fine. If they happen not to turn on or off the electricity, it's fine. If they happen not to cook, it's fine. But to not cook intentionally or to not light a fire intentionally, they're not allowed to do. So, one of the secrets or mystical parts of the Torah is... We learn that from the Sefer Yetzirah, from the book of Avraham Avinu, where it says that technically Avraham Avinu and Yitzchak Avinu were not considered Jews; they were considered Noahides because we didn't have the full Torah yet at that time. We only got the Torah at Mount Sinai.

2:52:30And Judaism technically began at Mount Sinai. So the question is, how is it that Chazal, the sages, say that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov kept all of the mitzvot even before we got the Torah? Because if they kept all of the mitzvot, that means they kept Shabbat. And if they're not allowed to keep Shabbat, how are they violating the Torah and keeping the Torah at the same time? So Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation, actually says that Avraham would break Shabbat by using this book, this Book of Creation, to create a cow. He would create a cow. And you're not allowed to create on Shabbat. He would create a cow on Shabbat. That's how he would break Shabbat. So just like, for example, if someone is going through conversion... And they're going through a conversion process. During the conversion, they're not allowed to keep Shabbat 100%. All of the mitzvot 100%. They're supposed to keep it 99%. So keep Shabbat 99%, but turn on the light or turn off the light once, just to intentionally break Shabbat until the last stage of conversion. Once you have a date for when you're going to convert, then the beit din says, from now on, keep Shabbat 100%, just like a Jew. But until that moment, you keep it 99%. You have to break it.

2:53:46Because if you keep it 100%, you're not allowed in Shamayim; it's a death penalty, a heavenly death penalty. It's not a joke. So Avraham Avinu would break Shabbat by creating a cow. Now some people say, oh, that was Avraham Avinu, that's where it started, that's where it ends. Not true. There was a chavruta in the Gemara by the name of Abaye and Rava. Abaye and Rava are mentioned more than anyone else. One day they got together and they had the Sefer Yetzirah. They had Avraham Avinu's book. They said, "Let's create something." What did they do? They created a cow. They created a cow. So these powers are still in the world. The fact that we don't know how to use them and so on is a different story. But the Sefer Yetzirah was part of the Oral Torah. Sefer Devarim, the Book of Deuteronomy, was originally also supposed to be a part of the Oral Torah because it was technically Moshe Rabbeinu's perspective of what happened. What happened from the beginning to the end in his perspective. But Hashem says that since he wrote everything through prophecy and Ruach HaKodesh...

2:54:59then He wanted it to be the fifth book of the Torah. So when it says, "Here we learn that these specific things," it is referring to Torah, and these specific things are talking not only to Bnei Yisrael of that time, but to Bnei Yisrael of today. So no one can say, "Oh, it's only relevant from 3,300 years ago." It's today. Just like Mr. Meir said, a Holocaust happened 70 years ago, it can happen today also. Don't think that it just happened, it's far, it's in the past. No, no, no. Everything that happened can happen again. There's nothing new under the sun. So the key is to understand that Moshe Rabbeinu, when he's writing this Torah, he's referring to you and me. Not just to Aharon, and Yehoshua Ben-Nun, and Betzalel, and all the people that lived in his time. No, he's talking to you and me. Now, the scary part that we learned recently is that Chazal says that at different times during the year, we have obligatory fasts, we are obligated to fast.

2:56:22And there are different times when we should fast, like a rabbinical fast. But we don't have to; it's a rabbinical fast. For example, an obligatory fast like Yom Kippur or Tisha B'Av—you have to fast. But a rabbinical fast, with more leniency, is, for example, the Fast of Esther, right before Purim. But there is another fast; we fast during Elul. During Yud-Zayin Be-Elul, the 17th of Elul, we fast. One of the reasons we fast on that day is because, if you close that door, better, better. One of the reasons why we fast, Chazal explains and Rabbi Yosef Karo explains, is because that's the day that the Meraglim died. Now Rabbi Yosef Karo, Baal Shulchan Aruch, says technically it should be a celebration while we're fasting. They were Rashaim. These Meraglim, they went, they were originally leaders of each one of the tribes. They went, ten of them with Kalev and Yehoshua bin Nun, not Bezalel,

2:57:42Kalev and Yehoshua bin Nun. I look at Bezalel, so I keep thinking Bezalel. They went with Kalev and Yehoshua bin Nun to Eretz Yisrael, and they came back saying Lashon Hara. And Hashem punished the whole nation, and we ended up being in the desert for 40 years and so on and so forth. So they're Resha'im. So when they died, it should be a celebration for us. Why? They caused us all to suffer in the desert for 40 years. So Rabbi Yosef Karo asks Why do we have to fast on the day they died? It should be a celebration. It's a very serious question. Why do we have fasting for no reason? Well, we're bored. We want to eat. We want to drink. Why are we fasting? Why are we fasting? Because the Midrash explains that once they said Lashon Hara, their punishment from Shamayim was a very serious, serious punishment, a horrible punishment. The Sefarim HaKedoshim explain that the punishment of the Meraglim, for the sin of saying Lashon Hara, was that their tongues came out, stretched, and reached their belly buttons.

2:59:01Worms were coming out of it. There was a horrible, awful, slow death. So when someone's tongue stretches out of their mouth and connects to their belly button, they're dying a slow death. At some point, they do teshuva. At some point, they're doing teshuva. They realize, "I made a mistake." Especially since these people were religious. It's not like these people were atheists. These were the Gedolei Hador. These people were the giants. It's not like regular people. These were the Gedolei Hador, rabbis, Ahed B'din. Okay, they made a mistake. They said Lashon Hara about Eretz Yisrael. Fine, now you punish them. Now they're doing teshuva. But the Shulchan Aruch says we fast on the day they die. And the reason why is because despite the fact that they did teshuva, Hashem did not accept it. That's why we fast. We don't fast for them. We fast for us. We become such that Hashem doesn't accept our teshuva. It's a very scary chiddush.

3:00:12So, Eleh HaDevarim Asher Diber Moshe. Moshe is telling you, this is a Mussar book. This I'm going to tell you rules. I'm going to tell you laws. I'm going to tell you what God wants from you. But not wants it like, hey, you know what, can you do me a favor and give me a ride? Oh, no? Oh, it's okay. Don't worry about it. No, no, my friend. Rules meaning you have to do it whether you like it or not. You have to do it whether you understand it or not. You have to do it. No excuses. You have to do it. Without questions. You can ask questions to understand the meaning of the mitzvah if you want, but whether you understand the answer or not, it's irrelevant. You still have to do it. So Moshe Rabbeinu starts, "These things I'm telling all of you. These are the things." What things? Everything that's written in the entire book of Devarim. So that's already... an introduction to the book. Just the first few words. We already learned some serious mussar. And the Gemara Masechet Megillah, page 31b, says that when Moshe Rabbeinu died, when Hashem took back his neshama, Hashem cried. Hashem took Moshe Rabbeinu's neshama and then He cried. Why did He cry? He says, "Who is going to rebuke My people as good as Moshe Rabbeinu?"

3:01:35Who's gonna give it to them on their head to get them to do teshuva like Moshe Rabbeinu? Ke'er Be'er Rabbis, they always existed. They existed back then, they exist now. People that lie existed back then, they exist now. Korach used to be a tzaddik until he became a rasha. He was a tzaddik and then he became a rasha. Achitofel and Doeg were tzaddikim until they became resha'im. Many people were tzaddikim until they became resha'im. They're not just born resha'im. The kiruv rabbis that lie to people today, they used to be tzaddikim when they were in yeshiva. They were tzaddikim when they were learning in the beginning. They were tzaddikim when they started their kehillah. They were tzaddikim. Eventually, something happened, and they started lying to people. Usually, that test is money. Usually, when a person doesn't have any money, they're honest. They're truthful. They're good. They're nice. As soon as you put money in front of them, Hashem is with you. Hashem is with you, so He says to Am Yisrael: There's no better Mussar teacher than Moshe Rabbeinu, and this is what he says, obviously to Hashem.

3:03:02Continues: So in chapter 1, verse 5, it says On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moshe began explaining this Torah, saying, and he started talking about all the laws. Now Chazal asked, why does it say Et HaTorah HaZot, this Torah? Why does it say Et HaTorah, the Torah? Why does it say this specific Torah, this one? Chazal explain to show you that this Torah That you're reading is the same one that Moshe Rabbeinu was explaining 3,300 years ago. Nothing changed. This Torah you're pointing out, you're reading this peirush, same thing. Nothing changed in 3,300 years. Nothing changed. No words, no nothing. Nothing changed. It's not like Christianity where in the last 2,000 years they have pretty much written over 200,000 versions of the New Testament.

3:04:18The current most popular version is the King James Version. The problem is that even the King James Version has more mistakes than probably the rest of them, including putting cartoon characters in the book like the unicorn. A unicorn is not a real animal; it's a fictional, mythical animal they created for cartoons. But they put that as the translation for the Hebrew word Re'em. a combination of a giant bull and deer that lived in ancient times. Since they translated the Hebrew to English, they mistranslated it because they don't actually know Hebrew. They translated the word Re'em nine times in the Tanach, in what they call the Bible, to the word unicorn, and unicorn, like I said, it's a cartoon character. It's not real; it's a mythical character that never actually existed. It's a horse with wings and a horn. It's not a real entity. So, their book has changed 200,000 times so far. I'm sure that in a few years, it's going to change 300,000 times. The Quran has changed no less than 9,000 times; there are over 9,000 different versions of the Quran—9,000 different versions. Torah? One version.

3:05:41There is a disagreement about the spelling of five words in the entire Torah, which is one letter difference. So instead of an aleph, there's a heh, or instead of a heh, there's an aleph, or something like that. between the Yemenites and the Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Everyone knows that the Yemenites are actually right. But since we already have, each one has their own belief that you spell with an aleph instead of a heh, we're too scared to change the rules. But the aleph or the heh don't change the meaning of the word or the meaning of the sentence. Nothing changes. It's just a disagreement of whether to use, let's say, as an analogy, whether to spell with an e or without an e. to spell with a silent "k" or without a silent "k." For example, the word "knife" is spelled with a "k." In reality, it's a useless letter, but in English, they like to use unnecessary letters, so they put a "k" in there. The "k" has nothing to do with the pronunciation of the word, so they just threw the "k" into "knife." In reality, you could just take away the "k" and it would be easier to read, "knife."

3:06:56so same thing, but the fact that there's a "k" or there isn't a "k"—nothing changes. Same thing with these letters, but still the same exact Torah that we had 3,300 years ago. Like Moshe Rabbeinu is telling us here, then it says, "You are like today" in verse nine. So Moshe Rabbeinu, before he starts rebuking the people, starts giving them serious mussar, you went against God, you did this, golden calf, complained about the manna, complained about this, complained about that, before he gives them all the mussar, he gives it to them on their head, because really, in reality, they complain non-stop. He tells them, listen, look how much good Hashem gave you. He starts soft with them. He starts with them soft, and he says, look, Hashem, your God, has multiplied you, and behold, you are today like the stars of heaven in abundance. Why? Why does he mention this specifically? Why does he say, you’re a large amount of people? There are 50 million of you, there are 500 million of you, there are 3 million of you. Why does he just say, listen, there are a lot of you? Why does he specifically say, you have multiplied greatly like the stars of heaven?

3:08:23Why? If you remember in Sefer Bereishit, in Genesis, Hashem Yitbarach promises Avraham Avinu and He says, "your children are going to be, your descendants are going to be like the stars of heaven or like the sand of the sea." So Moshe Rabbeinu is reminding Am Yisrael, right off the bat, look, you're great in number like the stars. Meaning that when Hashem makes a promise, He delivers. He keeps His promise. He's not like a politician, where when they're running for election, they promise the world, but once they get the job, they don't do anything. Here He says, look, Hashem promised Avraham Avinu. He doesn't have to keep His promise. He makes the rules. He doesn't have to keep His promise. You could say, "I promised him. I don't feel like keeping it. I don't feel like doing it. Yeah, I promised him he's going to be there. I don't feel like doing it. If you say anything, I'll destroy you. What are you going to do about it? Complain about me? Father, complain. What are you going to do?" Hashem says, no. My Torah is rules for Me also. I make a promise; I have to keep it. So He made a promise to make us great like the stars in heaven, and that's what happened. Why? Because we did His will.

3:09:43But why is he mentioning it to them now and not later on? Because he's about to give them some mussar. He's about to rebuke them about all the mistakes they made. He says, just like He delivered on the good. When we did His will, He gave us reward and we multiplied. But when we went against Him, he's also going to punish this. Why? Because He also promised that. He also promised that. By the way, there's a bunch of food there, so you could take it. Pasta and a bunch of things that are warm, so you guys could all bring it, eat whatever you want. In case they're hungry, let them eat. Just keep them alert and up. So,

3:10:51Okay, so far, any questions? Could be a different question. It doesn't have to be your question. Okay. their own direction, yeah. So, I was listening to a lecture that said, like, if those people were like a soul from before, when they die and go up to Shamayim for their judgment, it's like they're coming back to fix something. When I heard, they said Hashem showed them two ways: if you pick this way... that's what's going to happen, and if you go this way, that's what's going to happen. So, if they chose this way, they didn't see every single thing that was going to happen again. So, it is the big thing. Actually, somebody asked a question before, right before you came in, about, um, and we'll not test, but anyway, the...

3:12:05One of the main things that Chazal say is going to happen at the end of times when the Mashiach comes is Hashem, the first level of punishment for the Resha'im, is that Hashem is going to show them the reward of the Tzaddikim. He's going to show them how the Tzaddikim are going to benefit and what they're not going to get, and how they could have actually gotten it. So, to see to fail in something is terrible. But to see your enemy succeed is even worse sometimes. So, in Shamayim, it's even more so. Because they show you in Shamayim a movie of your entire life, what you did, what you didn't do, what was good, what was bad, and so on and so forth. But at the same time, they show you the consequences of your actions. The consequences of your actions. So, for example, many women think that

3:13:05It's okay for them to dress however they want, and if a guy looks at her and starts thinking sexual thoughts because she's dressed immodestly, it's his problem, not her problem. Recently, someone told me—I don't watch TV—but someone told me today or yesterday, there was some debate on TV, some nonsensical show they have, where the women were debating because one of them went to church. And she went dressed as she dresses for the show, which is immodest—not covering herself, not covering her arms, not covering her legs, and so on. So, she went to church like this. You should be even more modest in a synagogue. But nonetheless, she went to a church like this. And someone at the church told her, "Listen, really, you should watch yourself and how you come to church. You should look more modest." Maybe one of the men is going to look at you and he's going to think sexual thoughts, causing him to sin. The real religious Christians, even though they're idol worshippers in reality, still know the basics. So she was talking about it in the show. She says, "Well, what do I care about what some guy thinks? It's not my problem what some guy thinks." In reality, everyone knows the truth.

3:14:27The goyim, the Jews, the secular, the religious, the ones that believe, don't believe—everyone knows the truth. Everyone knows that immodesty really only started in the last hundred years. Before that, Jews and non-Jews were always modest. There was no such thing as immodesty. Even the prostitutes were modest. People knew they were prostitutes for different reasons, but they were still modest. They still covered themselves. They didn't walk around naked like people do today. So now, a woman today says, "Listen, I'll dress however I want. It's not my problem how a guy sees me." And he imagines it's his problem. It's not true. It's not true at all. And the reason why is because if you dress a certain way, you're not dressing that way because it's hot. You're not dressing with a mini skirt and no sleeves because it's hot. Because you're still dressing that way during the winter when it's not hot, and you're complaining all night that you're cold. But you still won't put anything on because you still want to show everybody your body. So you're dressing like that specifically because you're trying to get sexual attention. That's the only reason. No one dresses like that because they're hot. Because the reality of it is that everyone was hotter

3:15:44for the last 6,000 years than we are today. They didn't have air conditioners and they wore more clothes. They didn't complain about being hot. This whole hot thing is nonsense. No one's hot. Everyone has excuses. The second thing is, when it comes down to, "Oh, it's a guy's problem. If he looks at me and he thinks about something, it's his problem." That's not true either. And the reason why is because everyone knows that when you go to a certain place, have to respect the place, so for example, in America, they have a rule: if you go into a courtroom, a civil courtroom, you have to take off your hat. Now, even though your hat, his hat, his hat doesn't bother anybody, nothing's changing, no one's going to say you're guilty or you're innocent because you're wearing a hat. No one's going to say you're smarter or stupider because you're wearing a hat. But you still know by default, you go into the courtroom, you take off the hat. Why? That's the rule of the courtroom.

3:16:44And if they let one person violate the rule, you are affecting other people. Therefore, they'll punish you for it, or you have to take off the hat. So you obey that rule because you know it's affecting other people. The same thing is with traffic. No one likes traffic laws. No one likes to drive the speed limit. Everyone wants to drive faster or slower or make their own rules. But you follow the rules. Or at least you're supposed to. And you definitely do when the cops are around. why? Because you know that if you drive faster than you're allowed and you break the rules, you're affecting other drivers. You could cause other drivers to get into a car accident, and so on and so forth. So, the fact that your actions affect the public is something you already know; you live by it. The only time you stop caring is when it has to do with Hashem. When it has to do with Hashem, and all of a sudden, you don't want to be modest. Why? Because not being modest is something that you want to do, yetzer hara wants to do, but Hashem doesn't want you to do. So now, the same goes with different leaders. Whether it be religious leaders, such as rabbis, or different types of teachers, and so on. Where they started off good and ended up going off.

3:18:11Hashem is going to show them what the outcome of their actions was. So, a modest woman that says, "Oh, I don't care. What do I care if somebody looks at me?" In Shamayim, they show her, "Look, you walked around in the street with your miniskirt. You walked around in the street with your tank top. You walked around not covering yourself, or you walked around with extra tight clothes, and so on and so forth. You caused 50 men..." Sin to look at you and think about you at inappropriate times. Because they saw you, they didn't talk to you, they don't know you, they don't know your name. But your image is implanted, is tattooed in their mind. It's tattooed to their soul. The only time you think about an immodest woman is in the most inappropriate times. Usually, it's when you pray to Hashem or you're with your own wife and... That's usually when you think about other women. You don't think about other women when you're working. You don't think about other women when you're talking about baseball. You don't think about other women when you're just hanging out eating lunch. You don't think about other women. Think about lunch. The steak is more interesting to you than what you saw. When do you think about the immodest women? When you're either in front of Hashem or you're in front of your wife. Right at the worst possible time.

3:19:39That's when the Satan comes. So that woman who dressed immodestly, she just became the volunteer that became tattooed in your mind to be there. So every time you thought about it, you sinned. And you could potentially make even more sins. Why? Because you thought about it and then you acted on it. You could act on it in two different ways. Negative way one: you can waste seed, which we have extensive lectures about. The significance of the sin of wasting seed, how it's considered murder in the Torah, how it's one of the things that Hashem says is disgusting even for the goyim to do, and so on and so forth. You're not allowed to waste seed, and usually, what do people waste seed on? They waste seed based on pictures and movies. People were crying that some guy, Hugh Hefner, died recently. In reality, he was one of the worst people on earth, according to Hashem. He created more wasting seed than probably any human being in history. So, could have been a nice guy, as far as, you know, meeting him as a nice guy, but as far as Hashem is concerned, he's an enemy of Hashem. That's just the reality. There's God, and then there's everything else.

3:21:00So, one option is to waste seed. It is a horrible sin—very, very difficult, nearly impossible to fix. Nearly impossible, but possible. The way to truly fix wasting seed is a combination of learning a lot of serious Torah from Gemara and also causing other people to stop sinning by bringing them to lectures to talk about wasting seed, giving them CDs, and sending them lectures to get other people to stop the same sin that you used to commit. Wasting seed, by the way, is the number one way to ruin your parnasah. You want to go broke? Waste seed. Doesn't matter if you have 10 million, 20 million, 100 million. If you continuously waste seed, you will go broke eventually. And even though some people that are the worst people, like this horrible person that's in the news now, unfortunately sounds like a Jewish name, this Weinstein guy that seems like he had... New prostitutes show up at his door every five minutes. People like that, Hashem punishes them in multiple ways. We learned in the Mishnah a few weeks ago that one of the ways to go broke is wasting seed. But another way is that when you do Chilul Hashem, when you desecrate the name of Hashem in secret, when Hashem finally punishes you, He punishes you in public.

3:22:28So, you wanted prostitutes and wasted seed in private, right? You thought no one's going to know. Now everyone knows. Measure for measure. Measure for measure. That's the way Hashem runs the world. This is a Mishnah in Avot. Chilul Hashem in secret is the same thing as Chilul Hashem in public. So when Hashem punishes the one that sinned in private, He's going to punish him in public. This we learned, I think, in a Mishnah three or four weeks ago. So, first thing that an immodest woman can do is lead a person to think about her at that time and waste seed. That's a horrible thing. She becomes a partner to that crime. A partner to that crime, she's a partner to murdering millions and millions of neshamot that come out as the seed. The second thing that a person can do, it's not as bad, but it's still terrible, that a person can, let's say, be married and he could decide that he's thinking about some woman who is not his wife because he saw her a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, whatever it is, or in a magazine or in a movie. And he decides that, you know what, I'm hot, let me be with my wife now. A lot of psychologists, psychiatrists recommend couples that have difficulties with Shalom Bayit to watch pornography.

3:23:58what they said. This is one of the worst things you can possibly do. Why? The Gemara says that if a man is thinking about another woman in his dream, he's dreaming. It's not on purpose. He went to dream. You're not responsible for your dreams, or at least that's what we think. You went to sleep. You're dreaming. You're dreaming about some woman. And he woke up and he's hot. He wants to be with his wife right next to him. Shulchan Aruch, the book of laws of Torah, says he's not allowed to touch his wife. He's not allowed to touch his wife until he's completely cool and has no sexual desire whatsoever and has to start all over again only with pure thoughts on his wife. Why? Because the Gemara says in Masechet Sotah, if he fulfills intimacy if he's intimate with his wife at a time he's thinking about another woman. There's a safek, meaning there's a doubt if the baby that comes out of it is considered a mamzer. A mamzer is a special type of Jew that's not allowed to marry any regular Jew. He's only allowed to marry another mamzer or a convert.

3:25:19So in English, you could be out of wedlock? No, mamzer, it's not really wedlock, but it's close to it. It's as a result of a... of wedlock, it's like two people that are not married. Uh, you know, that's not it. What it is, is someone being intimate with somebody else's wife. It's adultery. It's a result of adultery. So when he's thinking about another woman, it's like he committed adultery, and then a child that came out of it. So here, this woman walked around innocently in the street with the miniskirts the tank top and she thinks everything's okay. Now she's responsible for a safek mamzer. This neshamah that came into the world, this mamzer, he's going to suffer the rest of his life. Whose fault is it? The miniskirt and the tank top, right? Right. Everybody's at fault, but the point is that wasting seed is worse.

3:26:28Immodesty, it's up there. It's up there on the same level. Wasting seed, for example, for a man, there's no way that a man can go to Gan Eden if he did not do teshuvah for wasting seed. As a matter of fact, if he wasted seed knowingly and continuously without doing teshuvah for it, there's no way that he could actually ever get out of Gehenom. It's one of the three sins that Hashem says Gehenom forever. Bava Metzia page 17. says there are certain types of people that commit certain sins that make Hashem so angry that even when the Mashiach comes and Hashem ends the regular world, their Gehenom will not end. And the book Reishit Chochmah says one of them is a person that wastes seed on purpose without a care in the world, even when he knows it's not allowed. That's one. So, a person that wastes seed Like that, they are putting themselves in the worst possible situation. They can keep Shabbat, they can keep Tefillin, they can learn Torah every day. And this generation, it seems like that's one of the biggest tikkunim of this generation, where the Satan is telling this generation, do everything else, do teshuva. Learn Torah, keep Shabbat, keep Tefillin, donate money, do everything except stop wasting seed.

3:27:50Why? Shulchan Aruch says that wasting seed is the equivalent of destroying all the other mitzvot. It's as if you didn't do anything. You show up to Shamayim, and you have nothing. That's wasting seed. On the other hand, when it comes to immodesty for a woman, since a woman is not obligated to learn Torah, it means that whatever she is obligated to do is significant. most significant mitzvah that she has out of the realm of mitzvot that she has. She has to educate the children, she has to keep taharat hamishpacha, she has to keep kosher, she has to keep Shabbat, and so on and so forth. But the number one mitzvah for a woman is modesty. So, let's say, for example, if they were graded from one to one hundred, like we were when we were little kids in school, and a passing grade is 65. 50. Let's just use round numbers. If 50 is a passing grade and a woman is not modest, she cannot get more than 49. Meaning, 51% of the test is modesty. So even if she does everything perfectly—Shabbat perfect, taharat hamishpacha perfect, kosher perfect, everything perfect—but she's not modest, she cannot go to Gan Eden. She fails the test. Why? Because it's 51% of the test. That's so...

3:29:16It's the same level. So now, to go from wearing mini skirts and tank tops yesterday to becoming a Rabbanit, doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen overnight. Just like to go from never learning to learning five hours a day, doesn't happen overnight. But Hashem wants to see you try. He wants to see you try, and each time you put on another sleeve, He'll give you another miracle. Each time you learn another page of Gemara, He'll give you another miracle. He'll help you along the way because, in the beginning, you're like a baby. Like we were saying before, you're like a baby. So when a baby first stands up and falls on their butt, it's cute. So Hashem laughs; it's cute, it's a baby. But if they're 25 years old and they're falling on their butt, it's not cute; they're drunk. So in the beginning of your teshuva, Hashem accepts your progress, even if it's slow, as long as there's progress. The problem that I see today, personally, is that many people start, they rush through the door, they take something big on, they take Shabbat, they take certain things, something big on, and they stop. Three years, four years, five years, twenty years, same mitzvah, nothing changed.

3:30:29That's a problem. Why? That's how you can become Esav. Remember we were saying before, Hashem says to the prophet Yeshayahu, I hated Esav. Why? He knew the truth. He found out the truth. He found that you have to keep Shabbat. And he started keeping Shabbat. Kept Shabbat every week. No problem. But by knowing that there's Shabbat, he also knew I said a bunch of other things. He also, I didn't just say it, it's not just Torah, Torah, page one, Shabbat. No page two, no nothing, just Shabbat, that's it. There's only one word in the Torah, Shabbat. No, you see there's hundreds and hundreds of pages here, over a thousand pages, with the Targum. It's not just Shabbat, there's many mitzvot here. But he only kept Shabbat. I hated him. Why? He knew there's more, but he chose not to learn it. He chose not to learn because he was trying to hide. Trying to pretend. Trying to fool me. God. Trying to fool God. There's nobody that's a bigger chutzpan than someone trying to fool God. Learn and you didn't get to it, it's a different story. You didn't get to it. But not learning intentionally, that's when you become sanui. That's when you become hated by God. Because you're trying to fool the One that gave you a brain. It's like the iPhone trying to teach the guy how to make phone calls.

3:31:54It doesn't make any sense. You understand? So this is the basics of how we can get close and how we can get far. It's the same thing. So when someone gets to Shamayim, or when someone sees the Mashiach, all of this is going to be in front of them like a clear picture. Just like you see me, just like you see everybody here. Just like you see the food that is eaten and the food that's not eaten yet. I'm hoping you guys finish all the food. I'm not taking it home. So just like you see the picture clearly, it's going to be even clearer. Even clearer when you're in front of the Creator. Why? He's going to show you the entire picture. Right now you just see what's in front of you. When you're going to be in front of judgment b'ezrat Hashem after 120, when the Mashiach comes and you have righteous judgment, He's going to show you everything. What's everything? He's going to show you, here, this was door A, this was door B. You chose door A. This is what happened. This is the outcome of your actions. You chose to donate $50 to Kiruv. $50 went to CDs. Out of the 50 CDs, three people did teshuva.

3:33:07Those three people got married and helped their spouses become even more religious. Their kids were little tzaddikim. One of the kids became a rabbi. Another kid became a gadol hador. Another kid became a teacher. These kids have other kids. Look at what your $50 accomplished because you came to shiur Torah. You donated. You got CDs. People did teshuva. Look at how many tzaddikim are your creation. Meaning, what do you mean by creation? In... the commentary says that one of the main things that Hashem loves about kiruv, about helping people do teshuva, is that He says when you help another person do teshuva, you're considered like Him. What does it mean like Him? You're considered a creator. If you helped another person do teshuva, it's like you created him. It's like you created him. That's what Hashem says. So you did teshuva, you came to the issue. You only just started keeping Shabbat. You don't know much. But you gave something, somebody did teshuva, another one did teshuva. You go in front of Shamayim and it says, look, door A, 5,000 people are tzaddikim because of you. Me? What did I do? I'm barely a tzaddik. I'm barely keeping Shabbat, Hashem. No, look, 5,000 people are tzaddikim. The whole kollel was built with your $50.

3:34:30That's door A. Door B, nah, I didn't want to donate the $50. I wanted to go spend it on some lotto tickets. Maybe I'll make 600 million. Door B, $50 went to the lotto company. You did not win. But the $50 was used for things against Hashem. Like, let's make anti-Semitic signs on the highway. Let's start anti-Semitic programs. Let's tell the Jews to shut down all the yeshivot, chas v'shalom. Let's tell the Jews to get out of the country. Let's use the money against Jews. So now instead of a tzaddik, what happened? Your $50 that you wanted to spend on lotto tickets. Where did it go? It went to kill Jews. That's option B. They're going to show you that. In Shamayim, they're going to show you the whole picture. This is what you did. Well, it's only $50, God. Yes, it was only $50. Look what you did. You killed 5,000 Jews instead of creating 5,000 Jews. That's a 10,000 Jew difference. You understand? So, they're going to show you. When you didn't wear the miniskirt, look. This guy didn't look your way ever again, and he actually had, Baruch Hashem, a baby with his wife, Takanah, and the baby became the Steipler, became Gadol HaDor, a giant.

3:35:52Why? Because he thought good, holy thoughts when he was with his wife. That means, "I'm gonna give him a holy baby." Or you decide to wear the miniskirt, and he looked at you and thought about you at the wrong time. Now his baby is Haman. It's Haman. Well, you don't know how Haman came? You know, one of the most righteous people that ever lived was Shaul HaMelech, King Saul. King Saul was the official... One of the most righteous people that ever lived is Shaul HaMelech. So righteous that God, God Himself, picked him to be the first king of Am Yisrael. Official king. God decided, not like, it wasn't an election. It wasn't on Twitter, listen, choose, vote Shaul. Hashtag S-H-A-U-L. No. God says, here, King Shaul, Tzadik. But what was his enemy? David HaMelech, also Tzadik. Mashiach comes from David HaMelech.

3:37:14Why? Because Shaul thought that David was trying to go against the king or trying to steal something that was not his. He was mistaken. But Shaul, it says in the Gemara, if the roles were different, if Shaul was born second, he was younger, and David was Melech first, was the first king, and David was trying to kill Shaul, instead of Shaul trying to kill David, Hashem would let Shaul kill David. Meaning, at some point, he was considered even more righteous than David HaMelech. To that extent, Shaul HaMelech. So now, Shaul HaMelech, what was he known for? He was known for his humility. He was a very humble person. And the Gemara in Masechet Megillah says, what was the reward for being humble? His granddaughter was Esther. Esther HaMalka, whom we read about on Purim.

3:38:17But Shaul made a critical mistake. A critical mistake. He said, listen, Hashem is a merciful God. He told us to go kill Amalek. So I killed Amalek. But now Amalek has a bunch of sheep. Why should I kill the sheep? Let's go bring them as korbanot in the Beit HaMikdash. Makes sense, no? A bunch of you, I'm going to kill the sheep. What did the sheep do? What sin did the sheep commit against Hashem? Why should I just waste it? Each one costs $500. Just kill it and throw it in the garbage? No, why? Bring a korban. Not that he's trying to make money out of it. He's going to bring a korban, do a mitzvah. Plus, the whole army of Amalek is destroyed. Everyone's destroyed except the leader. The leader was a little scrawny guy. Little scrawny, little peon, nothing. Little guy. Leader. He says, I'm going to kill this guy. This guy's scared of his own shadow. I'm going to kill him. It's a waste of time. What's he going to do? I'll just leave him in jail forever. I'll leave him in jail. What do I care?

3:39:29Hashem is merciful. Why? He wants me to kill this little scrawny guy. He can't even defend himself. That's not nice. Momentarily, Shaul translated the Torah to what makes sense. That's wrong. He made a mistake. Why? That night, Agag, the king of Amalek one of the maidservants came to him in his prison, and he slept with her. And from that came Haman. Haman, who tried to destroy all of Am Yisrael, the Hitler of his day, was born from that night. From when? Shaul tried to be extra nice. So Shaul decided, let me be extra Nice. Who asked you to be nice? Who asked you to decide what the Torah says? I said kill Amalek. Did I say kill most of Amalek? Did I say kill all of Amalek but not their sheep? Who asked you? Don't use your common sense, please. As tzaddik as you are, it's a problem. He sent the prophet to him. The prophet says, because of what you did, you're no longer king. And soon you're gonna die and David HaMelech is gonna become king.

3:40:52So here we see that sometimes Hashem gives us a black-and-white rule. He says, this is what you do. That's it. Don't try to understand it. This is what it says. The knowledge is beyond you. Sometimes He gives us the zechut to actually know what He's saying. But overall, it's very, very important to know that when Hashem says something, He's serious about it. He's not joking. He's not your friend. He's not your buddy. He's not going to wait for you forever. What's next? What's the other question? We have all night. Go. Ken, yeah, yeah. The ten leaders, the Meraglim, were leaders of the tribes, but then they were replaced after they sinned. They were replaced by different people, but they were sinners. They were sinners, they were considered resha'im, and it was considered that they don't have a share in the world to come. From there, actually, the Chafetz Chaim learns that Lashon Hara can get to such an extent that you have no olam haba. The Rambam says that someone who says occasional Lashon Hara, occasional Lashon Hara, has a serious problem with Hashem.

3:42:21serious problem with Hashem, but someone that says Lashon Hara on a regular basis, he says there's no judgment for him. Why? Because he definitely doesn't have Olam Haba. The judgment is so bad for someone that says occasional Lashon Hara, it's so bad for occasional, that if he does it regularly, like every other day, oh, this guy is a Rasha, this one, this one, this one stole, this one's ugly, this one's fat, this one's this, this one's that. If every day that's all he talks about, he says... It doesn't matter what he does. He's like a Meragel. He's like the Meraglim. There's no Olam Haba. Now, the reality is today, who doesn't talk Lashon Hara? If you don't talk Lashon Hara, you're either a Tzadik or you're crazy. Who doesn't talk Lashon Hara? That's why we have to watch our words. We have to learn as much Torah as possible so we don't have time to say Lashon Hara. Because Lashon Hara is critical. We small talk. People love to small talk. Small talk. Oh, he bought this. You heard he bought that. You heard he sold this. You heard he bought this. You heard she married him. You heard they had kids. You heard... Everybody likes to talk about everybody else's life. Nobody wants to talk about their own life. About this life and that life and this life and that life. Talk about yourself. Why do you talk about everybody else? Everyone wants to count everyone else's money. Oh, you heard he made 10 million last year. Oh, no. That guy only made a million. I don't think it's 10 million. You know, you don't have to say that.

3:43:45Why? You tell somebody he made 10 million, or he made 1 million, or he doesn't have, or whatever. That's Lashon Hara. Even if it's true, it's Lashon Hara. You do it on a regular basis, you're ruining everything. You're ruining everything. You go put on Tefillin, everything else you're doing, you're praying, you're learning Torah. You say Lashon Hara on a regular basis, you're ruining everything. So this is why the Gemara says that someone who wants to commit suicide talks a lot of nonsense. Why? Every single word takes away years from his life, time from his life. So, next question. Any questions, anything, whatever you want. If I know the answer, I'll give you the answer. So far, so good. Okay. Can a convert begin by following one path, let's say, Sephardi or Ashkenazi, and then later on he wants to switch from one to the other, or to Yemenite?

3:45:00Even if he doesn't have to, even if there's a natural-born Jew, and he wants to, for example, if he's Ashkenazi but he doesn't connect to Ashkenazi prayer, he doesn't connect to Ashkenazi customs, and he decides to change, he's allowed to change. But change, not change every week. On Pesach, I'm Sephardi; the rest of the year, I'm Ashkenazi. Change, change. Yes, you're allowed to change as long as you change. Especially if it's easier for a convert because a convert is not obligated by the mitzvot of his forefathers. For example, it's difficult for, let's say, someone who is Sephardi or Ashkenazi to change to the other way because the Rambam and the Torah itself say you shouldn't change or go away from the laws of your ancestors, from your fathers and your mothers. the convert, his mothers and fathers were idol worshipers, possibly, so there's no, uh, there's no marriage. No, so technically he can change, but he can't be a yo-yo. He can't start Ashkenazi, then Sephardi, then go back to Ashkenazi, then Sephardi, then Yemenite. He tries everything; every month he's something else.

3:46:15Decide this is it. That's it. You know, like whatever. You could try a couple and try your life, maybe even more, but the point is that he has to be serious. There has to be a real reason why, not just because he likes the peyot that the Yemenites have more than he likes the peyot that the Ashkenazim have. A lot of people, unfortunately, today are religious with the exterior and... exterior is religious, inside it's rotten, rotten tomatoes. They look a certain part, the peyot nice like a dugma, like a model. This one, this peyot that they have, even different types of peyot, by the way; one is Chassidish, one is Litvish. There are different types. What we've gone to these days, these different types of peyot, then suits, different types of suits. One is shiny, one is not shiny. One is this shirt, one is that shirt. Then it's a tie. Oh, well, you're wearing just that tie. It's only a $5 tie. Oh, if it's not a $300 tie, don't bring it here. You see sometimes Talmidei Yeshiva, Talmidei Yeshiva in rich communities, they come see each other. First thing they do, before they say hello, let me see, they turn around the aniva.

3:47:27Testing, are you checking how much money I have in my pocket? What do you get from knowing what kind of money I have? What kind of tie I have? This is the pitifulness of Judaism today. We're exterior religious. Inside, we forgot about. That's why Mussar is the only cure. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter already said 200 years ago. 200 years ago he said the good news is that physical illness... diseases, we have just as many doctors as we have diseases. The bad news is, spiritual sicknesses We have a growing amount of spiritual sicknesses but no doctors at all. Because no one wants to be the doctor. Why does no one want to be the doctor? Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, 200 years ago, says because there's only one medicine. What's the medicine? Mussar. Mussar and Yirat Shamayim. That's it. Mussar to teach Yirat Shamayim. That's the only medicine. It was already 200 years ago. Imagine today. So to be religious on the exterior, it's nonsense.

3:48:34You have to be religious inside. Of course, the exterior is important, but it's not the ikar. So if you're changing from Ashkenazi, Sephardi, I don't know, different chassidut, whether it's Chabad or Breslov or whatever it is, it's different types of chassidut, why? Why are you changing? For what? What's behind it? you know, is it just this week you're connecting to it, or is it because you really learned the Torah of the Chachamim, and you say, this is for me. Now this guy looks cool. In a sense, that's the important thing. It doesn't necessarily have much to do with whether it's a convert or not a convert. I mean, it's easier if it's a convert to change, but still he's not allowed to change regularly. It has to be a real reason. Next? The negativity that the Ten leaders of the tribe brought back regarding Israel. You referred to it as Lashon Hara, right? Yes, they said Lashon Hara about the land, about rocks. Because they spoke negatively about it? They spoke negatively about the land. They said that the land eats the people. Was it their perception? Was it their fear? Was it their rebellion? Was it their doubt? So the real reason was that when they came to the land, when they came to the land,

3:49:50They saw there were giants, there were Nephilim. Excuse me, there were the sons of the Nephilim. The sons of the Nephilim, or the descendants of the Nephilim, they were giants. It actually says here, here we go. Chapter 1, verse 28: "To where shall we ascend? Our brothers melted our hearts, saying, 'The people are greater and taller than we.'" The cities are great and fortified to the heavens, and even the children of giants have we seen there. So it literally says in the Torah they went to Eretz Yisrael, which they called Canaan at the time, and they saw Anakim. Anakim means giants. So it's not like some translation. It's literally what it says. Anakim means giants. So, giants. But Hashem made a miracle that every time they go to different communities, they see giants, someone died. Someone died. Because if they saw the people, they would say, "Who are you? You don't belong here. You want to attack us. You're an enemy. You're an intruder." They would kill them. So Hashem made sure that the giants were busy burying bodies so they wouldn't see the Meraglim spying. If America saw a bunch of North Koreans and...

3:51:10Looking into malls, they'd arrest all of them, probably give them all the death penalty without a trial. Why? They're meraglim, they're spies. Same thing if Americans went to North Korea or Iran or somewhere else. So Hashem made sure they're busy doing something else. They're busy burying their friends, their family members, and so on. Unfortunately, the meraglim, the spies, made a mistake. They said, "Look, the land..." so poisonous that even the giants, it's killing even the giants. The land is swallowing its own people, the giants. In reality, though, why did they say this? Why did they see it? It didn’t happen. Why did they say the story? Why did they get punished? Maybe it was like you said, maybe it's their perception. Maybe it's their perception. Maybe they really believed that the land is poisonous and it's killing the giants. if it's just their perception, why are you punishing them with such a heavy punishment? No lamah (why) for wrong perception. If someone tells you, "Listen, Moshe is the greatest of all prophets," it says it's one of the 13 principles of faith. There's no perception there. But if you say that Yehoshua is the second greatest, that's an opinion. That's an opinion. If that opinion is wrong, you don't lose your Olam HaBa (World to Come). It's an opinion.

3:52:34There's no one who says that number two is somebody else. It's not part of the foundation of Judaism. You're allowed to be wrong about who number two is. Number one is a rule of Torah: it's Moshe Rabbeinu. Nobody is greater than Moshe Rabbeinu. But number two? Debatable. If you're wrong, no problem. So if they're wrong about their perception—they saw giants, they saw that they were dying, and Then they shouldn't be punished so badly. Their tongues stretched out, connected to their umbilical cords, to their belly buttons. Worms were coming out of it, worms were going into it. Horrible, horrible punishment. The Midrash gives a description. You start crying when you hear this. What happened to these people? So why such a horrible punishment for a wrong perception? Because it wasn't perception. It wasn't perception. What was the real punishment for? The real punishment, Chazal explains, is that in reality, in the desert, all of them became leaders. All of them became rich; all of them became powerful. They said, if we go to Canaan, to Eretz Yisrael,

3:53:44People are going to spread out. We're not going to be all together in the desert. People are going to spread out. This guy's going to go to Yafo, the other one to Chaifa, the other one to Tel Aviv, the other one to Netanya, the other one to Yerushalayim. Everybody's going to spread out. So we're going to lose power. We're going to lose money. We're going to lose respect. We can't let that happen. We can't go into this land. We have to keep our power. Let's keep them in the desert by telling them it's not good to go here. They lied about the land. It wasn't a perception. But they made it seem like it was perception. But Hashem, who knows what's in your heart, knows it's not perception. You understand? So the truth is that you could also see that Kalev and Yehoshua Ben-Nun also saw the same thing. They saw giants. They saw them die. They didn't have the same perception. Why didn't they say, listen, the land is great. The land is bountiful. Look at these grapes. Look at this. Everything is wonderful. How could their perception be so different? Because Yehoshua ben Nun and Kalev were tzaddikim. They didn't care about leadership. They cared about truth. They cared about what it says. What I saw is what it says. So that's unfortunately what happens today, that sometimes people get tested with money. Most people...

3:55:11Say, look, even Yaakov Avinu, Yaakov Avinu did not want to be broke. Yaakov Avinu said to Hashem, Hashem, please, don't give me the test of money. Don't give me the test of money. I don't want to be broke. At least give me some food to eat. At least give me some clothes to wear. I don't want to be broke. So most people think that the biggest test in life is to be broke. Shlomo HaMelech says, Shlomo HaMelech gives us the truth. Shlomo HaMelech, he had a ton of money. power, respect, anything you want—he had. He says, even in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), "I had everything, everything you want, I had it. Everything you want, I had it: wisdom, power, everything." And he says, "Everything is everything; everything is nonsense." He says, "I ask two things of You." Who is "You"? Hashem. This is Chapter 30, Verse 7, in Mishlei (Proverbs).

3:56:36I ask two things of You. Do not withhold them from me before I die. Please give me these two things. These two things I'm asking. Keep vanity and falseness far away from me. Give me neither poverty nor wealth. Don't make me poor, but don't make me rich. So he's not like Yaakov. He says, "Don't make me poor and don't make me rich." Why not make me rich? Rich, everybody wants to be rich. Who doesn't want to be rich here? Who doesn't want to be rich? Everyone wants to be rich. The number one request, everybody on Yom Kippur: "Hashem, give me the lotto." I heard a beracha, one rabbi in the Knesset: "Give me the lotto." What? And not health, not parnassah, lotto. That's what he said, mamash. Give you the lotto. What happened? Everybody wants to be rich. Shlomo HaMelech tells you, "Don't make me rich." Someone that was rich says, "Don't make me rich." Why? Why does he say, "Don't make me rich"? He says, "Don't make me rich, but allow me my daily bread. Just give me just enough to eat." Why? "You're rich already. Why do you want less?" He says, "Lest I be sated and deny You and say, 'Who is Hashem?'"

3:58:01says if you give me too much money, I'm gonna forget who You are. I'm gonna say, "I'm God. Who's God? God? I'm God." That's what Moshe Rabbeinu teaches us in the second to last parasha. He says, "God gave you memory, and what do you do? He gave you memory to remember, and He gave you memory loss as a gift. What do you do? Use that memory that He gave you to remember things you're not supposed to, and the memory loss to forget Him." Instead of forgetting the shtuyot, instead of forgetting the pain, you forgot G-d. Shlomo HaMelech says, almost a thousand years or 500 years later, he says, don't make me too rich, G-d. Why? If you make me too rich, I'll forget You. lest I become impoverished and steal and take Your name, the name of my God, in vain. If You make me too poor, I don't have enough, it will lead me to start all over again. I'm gonna go start stealing. The biggest test sometimes is someone who has lost a lot of money.

3:59:15Someone gives them a chance, "Hey listen, you can make all that money back; you just gotta do one robbery. You can make all the money back; you just gotta do one fraud, one signature, one shot, make it all back." That's why the lotto is so enticing. That's why the lotto is so dangerous. Why? It makes you believe that you can get everything in one second. The whole concept of "get rich quick," the work of the Satan himself. Why? He says you can get everything for nothing, get all the reward for no reason. Why? You bought a ticket for one dollar, and everyone always knows somebody that won something. "Look, he won something, something, something," so that means I could win? No, it doesn't mean that. So that whole concept of wanting to be rich... The reality is, if you want to be rich, you're still far away from God. Why? Because if you're close to God, you're already rich. If you're really close to Hashem, you're already rich. It doesn't matter how much money you have or don't have; you're happy with what you have. Give him a hand over here.

4:00:38Anything else? Repeat that again. The beginning of the question. Do we follow the Rambam? Do we have some people that follow only the Rambam? Yes, there are some who only follow the Rambam. The problem is that you can't only follow the Rambam because you have to apply certain things to modern technology. For example, there are certain things that change. One example is the bathroom. One of the best examples is the bathroom. In the days of the Rambam or the days of the Gemara, you weren't allowed to do Netilat Yadayim in the same place where the bathroom was. Why? Because a place that has filth, where there is still waste,

4:01:53You're not allowed to say any prayers. You're not even allowed to think about Hashem. It's really impossible to not think about Hashem if you're close to Him. But in so many words, you're not allowed to say any prayers. You're not allowed to do anything holy in a place that has filth. Now, what's filth? Filth is also smell. So if it smells bad, if a place, it could be a room just like this, but someone passed gas, it smells, we have to stop the shiur Torah. How long? Until it passes. Until there's no more smell. No more time. It could be five years. As long as it smells, you're not allowed to learn Torah there. As long as it smells, you're not allowed to pray there. Same thing for prayer, same thing for learning Torah. You're not allowed to mention Hashem's name or even do anything relevant to Hashem in a place that smells. Because a bad smell is bad for the neshamah. It actually hurts the neshamah. Hurts the neshamah. So... In the old days, in the days of the Rambam, when they made halakha based on the bathroom, they said that if you go to the bathroom, netilat yadayim has to be in a far away, distant place. Why? You can't do it next to the hole. And the bathroom in those days was, for the most part, a hole in the ground, a mile away from the city.

4:03:09Because they didn't want to have it in the city, because then it would be disgusting and cause disease. So they would have it a mile out of the city, two miles out of the city. You want to go to the bathroom? Walk 20 minutes. Now, in today's world, the bathrooms are in some cases nicer, more expensive, more elaborate, and cleaner than many homes around the world. So the Chiddush, Rav Tzion Abba Shaul, Zecher Tzaddik Livracha, said, he said the bathrooms of today are not the same as the bathrooms of the Gemara, of the Rambam, and therefore the bathrooms of today, not only can you do Netilat Yadayim in the bathrooms of today, not only because there's usually a sink, in the bathroom of today. I'm not talking about public bathrooms that always smell 24 hours a day. I'm talking about your home bathroom or an office bathroom that doesn't smell. A nice, clean bathroom. Not only can you do the netilat yadayim in the bathroom with the cup and everything, but on top of that, you're actually allowed to do netilat yadayim with the water inside the toilet, if you have to. You shouldn't, because the water in the toilet is clean water. It's brand new water. There's no waste. Once it's clean, once it's flushed.

4:04:29And not only that, technically you're even allowed to say the blessing of netilat yadayim and asher yatzar inside the bathroom. Why? Once the seat is clean, once there's no urine, there's no excrement, and the seat is closed, it's like a shower. That's the chidush of Rav Tzion Abba Shaul, who was the chavruta of Rav Ovadia. So, if you only go by the Rambam, you'll still be washing your hands a mile away from your house. That's where we go by Rav Ovadia because he modernized and applied it to today. He applied it to today—what's applicable today. So, even though Shulchan Aruch, Rambam, Gemara, it's all 100% applicable, there are certain things that modernized in the world, that changed around the world, that you have to apply to today. Electronics were not available back then. You know, back then the problem of muktzeh was a rock. You're not allowed to pick up a rock that's muktzeh or, you know, trees and different sticks. You're not allowed to pick them up in the street because that's muktzeh. Today, muktzeh is an iPhone. Today's muktzeh, you know, it's things like that. Nobody picks rocks. Who picks rocks? Except if there are some of these crazy religious guys that throw rocks at me. Other than that, nobody picks rocks.

4:05:54You know, so you have to apply it to today. Next. Finished all Torah? Okay, we'll continue. Yalla. If you have questions, stop me. Okay, so now it continues. And he says the following: ובדבר הזה אינכם מאמינים באדוני אלוהיכם. So Moshe Rabbeinu starts rebuking the nation, and he says in the wilderness, in chapter 1, verse 31: "In the wilderness, as you have seen, that Hashem, your God, bore you as a man carries his son on the entire way that you traveled," meaning Hashem carried you like little babies from... Egypt used to be slaves, used to be getting beaten up, used to be missing arms, broken legs, broken backs, broken everything. Hashem not only took you out of there, which was already enough mercy, but He healed all of you. If you were blind, now you can see. If you were missing an arm, now you have a new arm. If you were missing a leg, now you have a brand new leg.

4:07:04Mamash, brand new. Brand new in the box. And He carried you like little babies. Even the walk in the desert for 40 years, you didn't have to change clothes. You didn't have to shower. Why? Because the cloud that carried you made sure that you never got tired. Never had to change clothes. Never had to shower. You didn't have to go to the bathroom. 40 years you didn't have to go to the bathroom. You didn't have to go to the bathroom for 40 years. You know what that is? Not going to the bathroom for 40 years. For one day you don't go to the bathroom, you already start feeling sick. The manna went completely into the bloodstream. It was completely absorbed by the bloodstream because all the food that you eat turns into blood. Whether it's steak or it's an apple or whatever it is, it turns into blood. Whatever doesn't turn into blood turns into excrement, turns into waste that leaves your body. So the manna was completely turned into blood. So they never had to go to the bathroom. Anyone that ever had stomach problems knows that not going to the bathroom even for two days and still feeling good is a miracle. Forty years, aleihem. So he says, Hashem carried you like little babies the entire way until you arrived in this place. Yet in this manner, you did not believe in Hashem, meaning you didn't have emunah in Hashem, who goes before you on the way.

4:08:20to seek out for you a place for you to encamp with fire by night and show you the road that you should travel with the cloud by day. He says, Hashem carried you from Egypt. He destroyed the biggest, most powerful civilization in history. A million times stronger than America is today. A million times stronger than anyone else that ever existed. Egypt was number one in the world. All the countries in the world used to pay them taxes. Even the Americans don't pay taxes. Back then, every country had to pay taxes to Egypt. That's power. You live in North Korea, you have to pay Egyptian taxes. You live in Sudan, you have to pay Egyptian taxes. You live in India, Egyptian taxes. Everybody had to pay them taxes. Most powerful country in the world. All of a sudden, He made the powerful country slaves, nothing, and the slaves became the masters. First and last time in history this ever happened.

4:09:21carried you like babies. He gave you food from Shamayim. Food came down, you didn't have to work. You learned Torah all day, Hashem brought the food right to your door. You didn't have to do anything. Which actually, this is one of the places that we see, one of the proofs that Torah is connected to parnasah. Torah is connected to parnasah. There were a couple of times throughout history where Am Yisrael was very rich, but not rich in the sense where they were millionaires only. Rich in the sense where they had everything they wanted without working at all. When was it? When they learned Torah non-stop. In the desert, all they did was learn Torah. The second time was with King Chizkiyahu. King Chizkiyahu made a decree, he put the sword down, and he said, please, he put the sword down, and he said, everyone must learn Torah from now on. Whoever doesn't learn Torah, I'm going to use the sword on them, I'm going to kill them. So it got to a point where even the six-year-old little babies all knew the entire Mishnah by heart. Little babies knew the entire Mishnah by heart. Today, adults don't know half the Mishnah by heart. They, little babies, knew the entire Mishnah by heart.

4:10:39so He gave you, man, He gave you Torah. If you learn Torah, Hashem is going to give you parnasa. If you don't learn Torah, whatever parnasa you get is going to be very difficult. There are plenty of people that make a lot of money, but it's hard money, meaning it's tough for them to earn it. They work really, really hard. They work overtime, the job is hard, it's hot, it's cold, customers are complaining, customers don't want to pay, the expenses keep going higher, the income is going higher, but the expenses go higher. I remember when I was in the business world, we were making, on a bad month, two or three hundred thousand a month. On a bad month, a horrible month, I barely came to work, two hundred thousand a month. But somehow, at the end of the month, I was at zero. Still had money in the bank, but whatever I made last month, gone. Somehow, whatever I made that month, had no bracha. Expenses. Yeah, but last month the expenses were 100,000. How did they double in one month? Oh, this happened and that happened, this happened and that happened, 200,000 this month. Okay, fine, no problem. You work the next month, okay, this month I made 400,000. You think at the very least I should have 200,000 left. Makes sense, no? Last month, expenses were 200,000.

4:12:02This month, it should be, at the worst-case scenario, 200,000. Somehow, the money is gone. When you don't have bracha from Shamayim, there's no power in the world that can stop it. Only Hashem can stop it. Only Hashem can decide if you have bracha or not in the money. So people spend an obnoxious amount of time chasing money, not realizing that your money is connected to your Torah. You learn Torah, you'll have just enough money, whatever you need. You don't learn Torah, it doesn't matter how much you work. Doesn't matter how much you work. No bracha in your money. No bracha, amen. No bracha in your money. And I'm not telling you this as someone who didn't have money. Everybody knows I had plenty of money in my life. So, if somebody tells you a lot of things about money, but they never had money, it's worthless. Someone who had plenty of money, I'm telling you, you won't have any bracha in your money. Take it. It's written. Signature. So, now you have a situation here where Moshe Rabbeinu says, look, He gave you manna. Egypt was begging for you to leave. He gave you a cloud you could walk on. You didn't have to get tired. He gave you a cloud to bathe. You didn’t have to take a shower. You didn’t have to change your clothes for 40 years. Brand new, like you bought it from the store, with the tag on it and everything.

4:13:23Everything brand new. You wanted light? You didn't even have to pay an electric bill. There was a pillar of fire. You wanted to read a book? Anytime at night, you could read it. You didn't want to read a book? Go to sleep. The pillar of fire didn't affect you. Everything you wanted, He gave you. He said, "Go to the blessed land, the land of milk and honey." And you didn't have emunah. All of a sudden, you lost your emunah. He gave us everything, but this, no, no, it's too much. What is this like? What is this like? It is like us. This is exactly like us. We say, okay, you know what, we'll do teshuvah. What's teshuvah? Oh, I'm going to start going to the Beit Knesset. Okay, everybody goes to the Beit Knesset. Okay, go to the Beit Knesset. What do you do at the Beit Knesset? Oh, as a guy, you do tefillin in the morning. Netz, 8 o'clock, whatever you like, you do tefillin, you pray. Okay, what else do you do? Mincha, okay, I pray Mincha. Arvit, pray Arvit, usually it's connected, so it's easy. What else do you do? Go to Shiur Torah. Okay, I go to Shiur Torah. How many times a week? Once? Okay, I'll go once. If you could go five times, you should go five times. But if you can go only once, I'll go once. I'll go to Shiur Torah. Get married? Okay, get married. Have kids? Okay, have kids. Where do we lose our emunah? Everything else we do. We don't do teshuvah. Tzaddikim, right? Moshe Rabbeinu says, you, you, right now, you and me, everybody, you have no emunah. Why do you have no emunah? What do I do? I do teshuvah. Keep Shabbat, Halachot, you have no emunah. Why?

4:14:45Why do you work so much? Why are you not sure if Hashem is going to give you parnassah next month? Why? Why did you work overtime last month? Why did you work overtime two months ago? Why are you still working overtime next week? You're already planning next week to work overtime. How do you know you're going to need overtime next week? Maybe you're going to have enough parnassah. You already planned to work overtime next week. You already planned that you're not going to have. You decided what you're going to have. The answer is... Parnassah is connected to your Torah. You learn Torah, Hashem will provide parnassah. You don't learn Torah, Hashem's not going to provide parnassah. But the problem here is that when you don't have the trust that He's going to do His end of the deal, He doesn't do it. He says, "Oh, you didn't trust Me? Okay, go ahead, you do it then." If you don't trust Him to do His end of the deal, that usually means you're not going to do your end of the deal.

4:15:45You're not going to learn Torah. You're going to say, no, listen, I don't have time to learn Torah. I have to go work. If Hashem wanted me to have money, He'd already send it to me. You want Hashem to work on your time, on your schedule. So Moshe Rabbeinu says, He gave you the man, He took you out of Mitzrayim, He gave you this, He gave you that, but when it came to the land, when it came to money, He said, no, no, no. He ran out of money. He spent all of His money. He doesn't have any money. Hashem spent all of His money. He used all the money to build the world. Then He had to create it. So an unnecessary, unexpected expense came up. He had to build the world again. Construction companies, titles, cities searched. He had to create the world twice. He didn't only create it once. He ran out of money. So, everybody thinks God is broke. He says, you have no emunah. You have emunah for Him to give you eyes? Yes. You have emunah for Him to give you a wife? Yes. You have emunah for Him to give you air to breathe? Yes. But money? Nothing. Nobody has emunah that Hashem has money. It's the most ridiculous thing in the world. Mamash ridiculous. Everything else you trust Hashem. You ask a guy, are you going to get married? Yeah, of course. How do you know you're going to find a wife? Because of Hashem.

4:16:56You're going to have kids? Yeah, of course I'm going to have kids. How do you know you're going to have kids? B'ezrat Hashem. You're going to get a job? Yeah, of course I'm going to get a job. How do you know you're going to get a job? B'ezrat Hashem. You're going to go do this? You're going to do that? Yeah, of course. B'ezrat Hashem. You're going to go to shiur Torah? B'li neder. B'li neder. B'li neder. I don't want to promise. Why? I got to work. What do you mean? This God that you trusted to give you a wife, to give you kids, to give you avodah, to give you this, to give you that, you don't trust Him to give you money so you can go learn Torah? Everything else you trust Him to give you a wife, to give you kids, to give you eyes, to give you ears, to give you food, to give you... Everything else you trust Him except to give you money. Money He doesn't have? He broke it? You need to help Him? You need to go get a second job? Moshe Rabbeinu is saying, you have no emunah. Why don't you have emunah? Well, it's one thing—you didn't listen. One thing, you don't have emunah in one thing, it's poison for the rest of it. If I say once, chas v'shalom, you have a Sprite bottle, a beautiful Sprite bottle for two, three, four, five dollars, whatever it costs today. Nice, right? But I said, listen, the Sprite, perfect, came from Coca-Cola. Wonderful. But I put just a little bit of poison in it. A little bit, not that much. A little bit of poison. Who's drinking first?

4:18:10No one's drinking. Why? Because you know it's poison. That's what Moshe Rabbeinu is saying. Moshe Rabbeinu is saying, he's not saying no, he's saying you have no emunah. Why don't you have emunah? Because that emunah that's fragmented, that's broken, that's not a reliable emunah in one place, destroys everything else. Destroys everything else, makes everything else stinky. Why? It starts with no emunah with money. The next thing you know, there's no emunah with Shabbat. The next thing you know, there's no emunah in Rabbanim. The next thing you know, there's no emunah in zivug. There's no emunah here, there's no emunah there. The next thing you know, you become Christian. That's it, we're finished. You become a different religion. So, that's Moshe Rabbeinu. Already, this is just the beginning. Questions? Or we go? Continue.

4:19:13Same thing as what we always say: modesty in those days wasn't a problem because actually the Rambam says that in his day, even someone can rely that even the daughters of the goyim would be virgins. Of course, the daughters of Am Yisrael would be virgins. Meaning that modesty, not just in clothing but even in behavior, was not really a serious problem. Immodesty in that day would be a certain way that a woman would walk. She would move a certain way. That's immodesty. So Rabbi Hanina ben Teradyon in Masechet Berachot says, That, why did his daughter get punished? Why did his daughter get punished? We talked about it last night. She was modest. She was a tzaddeket. Everything was good. But the Romans saw his daughter walking around and said, oh, look at this girl. They made a comment.

4:20:20And she liked it. She liked the comment. Who doesn't like a compliment? The problem is, she reacted. How did she react? She started walking like this, with a nicer walk. Hashem says, "Oh, you want the attention of the goyim? No problem, you'll have it all day." What was her punishment? He made her a prostitute. They kidnapped her, and they put her in a prostitution house. They put her in a prostitution house, and Avimelech had to save her. Avimelech ended up saving her, but Hashem says, you, tzaddeket, modest, everything is good, you walked. Not that you lifted the skirt, wore a tank top, or wore tight clothes. No. You walked. An immodest way to get a little attention, already immodest. Already immodest to such a point that Hashem says, you want attention from the goyim? You'll have it all day. So Rambam, same concept, same exact thing. The clothing was not an issue in that time. Of course, kisui rosh, ...as always and will always be kisui rosh of mitpachat or kova, either a scarf or a hat. Only in the last couple of hundred years, or even less—150 years—were wigs even a topic in Judaism. Before that, it was never a topic; it was never part of anything because there was no such thing as wigs. In the days of the Rambam, in the days of the Ramban...

4:21:43In the days of Rashi, in the days of the Gemara, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, there was no such thing as a wig. The one time that it says in the Gemara, Masechet Shabbat, the word Pe'ah, it doesn't mean Pe'ah, it doesn't mean wig. What does it mean? It means the end, the corner of a land. It doesn't mean wig. Pe'ah doesn't mean Pe'ah like a wig. Jewish women never wore wigs. There's no such thing as wigs. This is only a new thing that started in the last few generations. But the original decree to wear wigs only started because of a decree of the goyim. The goyim decided that they wanted the Jews to go against God. Because they knew anytime the Jews go against God, it is good for them. So he said, you're not allowed to cover your head anymore. Even though the goyim themselves cover their heads, he said, you're not allowed to cover your head anymore. You have to wear, you can't cover your head. So the Jews started wearing wigs. But what kind of wigs did they wear? They wore wigs that looked like straw, like putting a broom on your head.

4:22:50So it's identifiable even from a far distance, not just from close by, but from a far distance that this is not real hair. Rabbeinu Shach says that when the first women arrived in Yerushalayim with one of these wigs, even a blind person could tell it was a wig. A blind person could tell it was a wig in Yerushalayim. He says everybody started throwing rocks at HaRav Harkon HaReshayit. How could you wear something like that and not a tichel or a hat on your head? This is in a time when he's saying a blind person could tell it's not real hair. The havdil of today, where even our own husbands can't tell if it's our own hair or not, because the hair is real hair. And the whole goal of the wigs today is for it to look real. There's a book, The Secret Life of Hair. It's by an anthropologist who did research about wigs, not for religious purposes. She's not religious, but she did research. A lot of the facts that we got about how the main source of real hair wigs comes from India, and it's avodah zarah (idol worship).

4:24:12And she, one part of her research, was going to different places around the world, in London, different places in Israel, and so on. And Jewish places, because the biggest market for wigs is Jewish people. Whereas the goyim usually buy hair extensions. Hair extensions are for goyim; Jewish people buy wigs. So she went to the wig makers and so on in London and different places. And they asked the customers, they asked the people that make wigs, "What's your ideal wig? What's the ideal one?" And every single person answered the same thing: "For it to look real, like I'm not wearing a wig." Which, by definition, is the opposite of what you're supposed to do. So the ideal wig is for it to look like it's not a wig, which, by definition, is the opposite of what you're supposed to do. And this is from the Jewish people saying it. It's not from the manufacturer or the Jewish people themselves—the customers, the wig maker, the hair maker, all that stuff. They're saying it; that's their goal. So, by definition, it's going against Hashem, by definition. So, the issue of wigs only became an issue in recent history.

4:25:27Hashem, some of the shiurim we did here and in other places, talking about the real roots of avoda zara that are connected to wigs, have helped. Some people have dropped the wigs and started putting on real kisuy rosh. As I told you in a previous shiur, a few women just last week told me about some miracles that happened to them after they stopped wearing the wig and started putting on real kisuy rosh. One of them got a house and... Another one got a license that she's been trying to get for four years. I think another one is having a baby, Baruch Hashem, for the first time in five years. Miracle after miracle after miracle. When you do the will of Hashem, it's very easy for Him to do your will. When you start making excuses, changing His rules, changing this, changing that, it's a new religion. And then people are surprised why there are punishments from Shamayim. This is what Hashem says in this book, and we're gonna get to it. There's another section in the chapter where the Parasha talks about a key concept. Hashem says, "When you treat Me with casualness, meaning you treat Me like I'm one of your friends in the bar, you treat Me like I'm one of your boys, the punishment will be double. One punishment for sinning, the other punishment for treating Me like I'm one of your friends."

4:26:49There are two punishments. If you just sin, sin. Get punished. You treat Me with casualness, like, eh, Hashem, it's okay. Me and Hashem are like this. We're like this. We're like this. My friend. My friend. My friend is Hashem. He says, for that you get double punishment. I'm not your friend. I'm God. I'm not your friend. Where in the Torah does it say Hashem is your friend? Where? Which parasha? Which sage? He's not your brother. He's not your friend. It's God. The best-case scenario is "Avinu," meaning your Father. But Hashem says, you have to fear your father like you fear God. Same thing. The best-case scenario is your Father. So, this is the silliness of today. People treat Hashem with casualness, and Hashem says, "Nothing new under the sun." This is not new. People made the same mistake a long time ago too, and Hashem punished them.

4:27:52Continue, okay? Yeah. So, chapter 2, verse 7 says: "For Hashem your God has blessed you in all your handiwork. He knew your way in this great wilderness. This 40-year period, Hashem your God was with you. You did not lack a thing." And... He says, even in the wilderness, in the middle of the desert. Why does he keep mentioning the desert? Don't we know we were in the desert for 40 years? Did we forget Moshe Rabbeinu? We were there. Why does he tell us we were in the desert? He says, the fact that you were in a desert and you're still here, not only here, you didn't lack one thing. That by itself should give you all the emunah in the world that whatever you want, Hashem can give you. Not only did you have, you had a surplus of everything. You had the best food in the world. You had everything you could possibly imagine. In a desert. In a desert. In a desert.

4:29:09And you still complain? You still don't have emunah? How does it make sense? How does it make sense? So, the Gemara says that a person doesn't see his own flaws. He looks in the mirror, he sees everybody else, not him. He looks in the mirror, but he sees everybody else's mistakes. No, no, they're not looking at me the right way. They're looking at me from the wrong perspective. They don't know me. They don't know me. Like I have this guy, this guy, You know, again, I don't care for, Baruch Hashem, I don't care for honor, and I've already got plenty of it that was completely worthless in the business world, Baruch Hashem, I don't care about it in the Torah world. It was meaningless back then, and it's even more meaningless right now. But some people like to say, Kevod Rav, Kevod Rav, all this Kevod Rav stuff. Fine, whatever. There's one guy who said, Kevod Rav, Kevod Rav, Kevod Rav, for two years. Two years, Kevod Rav, Kevod Rav, Kevod Rav, you're my Rav, you're my Rav, Kevod Rav, Kevod Rav, I'm a great Rav. Okay, fine, whatever. First time in two years I rebuked him. Now usually I say something applies, something doesn't apply, but it's not always direct. It's not always direct. But one time he made a mistake, a critical mistake that put not his own neshamah on the line, somebody else's neshamah on the line. Now when it's your neshamah on the line, it's 50-50 I'm going to rebuke you. Why? I have to determine if you're going to listen to me. If you're going to listen to me, I'm going to tell you. If you're not going to listen to me, then maybe I'm not because I'm going to try to go in a different way.

4:30:37to get you to listen. I still have to say something, but I'm rebuking in a different way. But if it's a different neshamah, all bets are off. I have to say something. Why? Who are you to kill people? Even if it's your son, even if it's your wife, even if it's your daughter, even if it's your dog, it doesn't make a difference. So now, two years later, he puts somebody else's neshamah on the line. I told him, "Listen," What you're doing is a big mistake. And if I was your son, I wouldn't want to be religious at all. I would want to become a kofer. That's how much pressure you're putting on your own child. I wouldn't want to be your son. I wouldn't want to be Jewish if I was your son. Now, for a rabbi to say such a thing, there has to be a reason. Why? Because he's playing with people's neshamot. He thinks that he's a gadol. I told him, you're suffocating the kid. Instead of supporting him, instead of helping him, instead of promoting him, even the mistakes, he's interested in Torah. That's already a miracle in this generation. It's already a miracle. He's interested in Torah as a kid. It's already a miracle. You're judging him like he's Rabbeinu Tam. What's the matter with you? Relax. Relax. He's 13, 15, whatever age he is.

4:32:02I told him, if you were my father, I wouldn't want to be religious. I want to be Jewish. All of a sudden, the tone changed. Oh, listen, you don't really know me. I just watch your shiurim once in a while. Your judgment of me is wrong. You don't really know what you're talking about. All of it. Where's Kevod HaRav? What happened to Kevod HaRav for two years? Kevod HaRav for two years. You're my rabbi. You're my teacher. All of a sudden you don't know me. You don't know what you're talking about. You're just a shiur. I watch your shiur once in a while. What happened to Kevod HaRav? Why? Because for two years it was shiurim. So, you were indirectly getting the mussar. Now you got it. It hit home. You don't like it. You don't like that you're wrong. Gemara says, no one wants to be wrong. But that's how you do teshuva. Shlomo HaMelech says, someone that hates mussar is considered dead. Why considered dead? Hates Mussar. Many people hate Mussar. They're alive and well. They're jumping and doing whatever they want. He says, no, no. Someone who hates Mussar is considered dead. Why dead? Because they're never going to change. They're never going to change. They're never going to do Teshuva if they don't like Mussar. The only way to do Teshuva is Mussar. The only way. Every other form of Teshuva, in most cases, in general, it's not real Teshuva.

4:33:23Somebody growing a beard? It's not Teshuva. It's not Teshuva growing a beard. Saddam Hussein had his mustache. His little cousin, Osama Bin Laden, had a beard. The goat has a beard. The goat has a beard. Why do you think the goat has a beard? Because the Taish says even the goat has a beard. The Taish has a beard. Let's make it anything. The goat has a beard. The Taish has a beard. Big deal, you have a beard. Or the hat, even the clown has a hat. So why do you have a hat? They're black and white, so Wall Street. I used to wear black and white before I came to the religion. So what? Black and white, black and pink, black and whatever. What difference does it make to your religion because you wear black and white? Only in recent history, people wore black and white. Until then, we looked like the Arabs look today. Exterior means nothing, nothing. This is actually part of the reason why the Vilna Gaon and also the Arizal, both of them, were anti-Chassidut. They didn't like Chassidut. They didn't like it. Why? They said it's all exterior. There's more truth to it now than maybe there was back then, unfortunately. There's a lot of people with long peyot, rotten insides. So we have to make sure that we work on the inside. If the outside agrees with the inside, Baruch Hashem.

4:34:41But don't pretend. Don't be one of these guys with the peyot all the way to the floor, but inside is rotten tomatoes. So here, Moshe Rabbeinu says, Hashem gave you everything in the desert. You still have no emunah. You still didn't trust Him even though He gave you everything. Everything, everything. Said the Another mention of the giants, the Refa'im, the Anakim, different giants that existed at the time. A lot of people say, you know, where does it mention all these big creatures that existed back then? It says it literally in the Torah in multiple places. Then, we learn another thing in this first parashah. It says, a very easy pasuk to pass on and not learn anything from it, but it's a very critical pasuk. In chapter 2 verse 30, it says in one of the wars that Am Yisrael fought, it says

4:36:00was not willing to let us pass through, meaning to let us go through. For Hashem, your God, hardened his spirit and made his heart stubborn in order to give him into your hand like this very day. This seems like a very simple pasuk. Okay, so this is the same thing that happened to Par'oh. Hashem hardened his heart and Caused us to go to war with him seems like an innocent pasuk. What's the big deal of this pasuk? The big deal of this pasuk is that this actually shows what the Rambam said to us earlier today, which is that Hashem can get to such a point of anger—obviously, whatever anger means to Him. He doesn't have anger like us. But as it says in Hilchot Teshuvah, Hashem can get to such a point where a person sins. Against them, Jew or Gentile. Sins against them to such an extent that Hashem decides, no free choice. He removes the free choice from the person. Why remove the free choice? No more teshuvah. Teshuvah is not available to him. Not like I said before where he's not able to do teshuvah with Hashem's help. No, no, no. This is a step further. This is, he's not going to do teshuvah.

4:37:26The second he wants it, I'm going to give him a reason not to do it. I don't want this teshuvah. But I'm going to make him live long enough to make more sins. This is the worst possible punishment. So we see here, where does Hashem, what does it say in the Torah? That Hashem takes away free choice. We learned from Pharaoh. But you could say, if it happened in Pharaoh, it's only one time it happened. one-time experience. Sihon is another time. He says, Sihon, Hashem hardened his spirit and made his heart stubborn. Meaning, Hashem removed his free choice and made him make decisions that are even against his own nature. Why? So He could put them into your hands. So I can punish him and put them into Am Yisrael's hands. He sinned to such a great extent, which was sex crimes by the way, that I took away his free choice, not to give him the ability to do teshuva, not to give him the ability to do anything good, but to actually lose himself and everything he has into your hands. And Sichon was not like a little tiny army like Iraq. Sichon was a major civilization, a major army, a major king of a major army. I believe there were also giants, by the way. So now,

4:38:45we finished the first parasha with the last verse here that is critical for all of these Zionists. A lot of people are Zionistic. They love Israel, which, rightly so, you can love Israel. The problem with loving Israel and being Zionistic, if you will, only starts... Once you forget God, once you think that your protection is going to come from missiles and airplanes, if you think that the Iron Dome they have in Israel, or the planes, or the bombs, or the army, or the tanks, is what's protecting Eretz Yisrael, is what's protecting Am Yisrael, if you think that's what's protecting us, you have a lot to learn. Why? At the end of this parasha, he says, Moshe Rabbeinu says to the nation, Command Yehoshua at this time, saying, "Your eyes have seen everything that Hashem, your God, has done to these two kings. So will Hashem do to all kingdoms where you cross over." So he's talking about how you went to war, and you saw how Hashem destroyed these giant armies, made them all into little ants in your hand. Though they were much bigger than you, much stronger than you, much more skilled than you, much more everything, but Hashem made them into little puppies. And...

4:40:07last but not least, verse 22 says, "You shall not fear them, for Hashem, your God, He shall wage war for you," meaning, once and for all, that the only one who wins wars is God, no one else. No one else—your army, your planes, your missiles, your whatever. It's cute. Hashem allows you to create it just to make it look realistic. That's it. Other than that, you're not winning any wars by yourself. It doesn't matter how many tanks, weapons, or money you have. Next parasha, Parashat Vaetchanan. Any questions first? Go. Is a Jew allowed to make... ...fighting with each other. They used to be friends. They're not friends anymore because one of them owes the other money. They were accusing each other, and they were practically at each other's throats. He knows that one of them made friends, supposedly. He comes to a third one who knows both of them and tells him, "Oh, this one actually hurt that one. Haven't you heard?"

4:41:29fighting with each other. They used to be friends. They're not friends anymore because one of them owes the other money. They were accusing each other, and they were practically at each other's throats. He knows that one of them made friends, supposedly. He comes to a third one who knows both of them and tells him, "Oh, this one actually hurt that one. Haven't you heard?" Oh, so he's lying. Yeah. Well, it says in the Torah, it says in the Torah... Right, no, it says in the Torah, from a thing of lies, you have to stay away from it. It doesn't say don't do it, it says stay away from it. Meaning to such an extent that if it's a lie, then not only don't say it, but stay away from it. Meaning even as a joke, even as something funny, even in passing. Just stay away from things that are not true. And unfortunately, with that type of joke that you're explaining, these practical jokes or things like that, it's dangerous in multiple ways. It's dangerous in the sense of getting the person acclimated to lying. It's dangerous in a way where it can potentially scare the other person to give them a heart attack. So one of the chachamim of the previous generation says that when you see that a kid

4:42:47just, uh, stole an apple, stole an apple. It's not the kid's fault, it's not the kid's fault. Why? He saw it at home. The father said, "No, I never stole any apples." He goes, "No, you didn’t steal any apples, but when someone called your house or someone knocked on your door, you told your son, 'Tell them I'm not home.' You taught your kid to lie." taught your kid to do things that are dishonest. Eventually, he graduated; he became better than you. He started stealing apples instead. Stay away from things of lies. Stay away from them as a joke, as whatever it is, unless it's to save a life, unless it's for the sake of shalom bayit—where there are certain exceptions to be made if it's, again, allowable, allowable ways to do it. There's a lot of ways to do it. But to just outright lie, never allowed. Next? Any others? Questions? Okay, yeah. Parashat Va'etchanan: Va'etchanan el Adonai ba'et hahi lemor, Adonai Elohim, ata hachilota leharot et avdecha et gadlecha ve'et yadecha hachazakah, asher mi El bashamayim uva'aretz, asher ya'aseh kema'asecha u'gevurotecha. So,

4:44:09Moshe Rabbeinu says, "I implored," meaning I begged. I begged Hashem. I begged Hashem at that time, saying, "My Lord Hashem, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand, for what power is there in the heaven or on earth that can perform according to Your deeds and according to Your mighty acts?" So, Moshe Rabbeinu is begging in front of Hashem. He's giving them compliments. But it says he's begging. So from here, from the word Va'etchanan, we learn that Moshe Rabbeinu begged 515 times. How do we get 515 times? The numerical value of the letters Va'etchanan is 515. Vav is 6. Aleph is 1, so that's 7. Tav is 400, so that's 407. Chet is chet is 8, so that's 415. Nun is 50, that's 465. And another nun is another 50, that's 515. So Moshe Rabbeinu begged Hashem 515 times, 515 prayers, to let him go into Eretz Yisrael. And Chazal say that Moshe Rabbeinu said to Hashem, "Listen, let me in as a human being."

4:45:35No. Fine. Let me in as a cow. No. Why not? As a cow. Let me in as a bird. No. Why? Why not? So here we see, from just this first word, we learn that Hashem, when He makes judgment, He makes judgment based on an entire picture. Whereas when we make judgment, we make judgment based on the wall that's in front of us. Whatever's in front of us, that's the only thing we can see. That's why He says to the prophet, "Your thoughts are not like My thoughts. My thoughts are not like your thoughts." Meaning, whatever you think about, it's not even something that Hashem thinks about. Why? Different world, different level. And the Rambam explains, they ask him, "Do you understand how Hashem thinks? Do you understand Hashem?" He says, "If I understood Him, I would be Him. To understand Hashem, you have to be Hashem." We can understand His work, we can understand different natures that He gave us to understand, but to know His thinking? Impossible. He says, if you thought about it, I'm definitely not going to do it. So a lot of people like to give Hashem options of how He can help them. Hashem, listen, I know you've got a lot of stuff going on. Let me win this lotto, and then you don't have to worry about me for parnasah anymore. I'm not going to ask You for anything anyway. If that's the solution you thought about, He's definitely not giving it to you.

4:47:01So one woman saw that her son has financial problems. So she said, "Hashem, why don't you make my son, instead of this wine or beer maker, why don't you make him a nice, chashuv doctor? Make him a doctor overnight. You know, like you know how to do, Hashem. One, two, three, he's successful. He's giving surgeries, making 800,000 a year. He's paying all of his bills. What's the problem for You, Hashem?" She prays, she prays, she prays. Nothing happens. Two weeks, two weeks. He's still a winemaker, a beer maker. Nothing changes. She says, "Hashem, you know what? I get it. Fine. Doctor, maybe it's too far. Why don't you make him into a lawyer? Make him into a lawyer. What's the big deal for You, Hashem?" A lawyer starts with the candles, with this, with that. Two weeks pass, nothing changes. The only thing that changes is that the son keeps getting more and more notices from the government. If he doesn't pay his taxes, they're going to kill him. Because in those days, not like today where you don't pay your taxes for 10 years and they still just send you envelopes for 50 cents a month. Back then, if you didn't pay taxes, you had a serious problem. So,

4:48:24Chief prays, doctor, lawyer. Okay, Hashem, you know what? Make him into a businessman. Businessman. Let him find some diamonds, some jewels, some this, some that. Start trading. Start going from place to place. Chazak u'Baruch. Tzidki for you, Hashem. Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi this, Rabbi that, Rabbi, Rabbi. Nothing changes. Two weeks pass, nothing changes. One day, the mayor from a different city knocks on his door and says, "Excuse me, I heard that you make very good wine. Very good wine. I need a cup, just a glass of wine." The guy, a misken, is in so much debt, so much everything, he doesn't have enough money to buy merchandise. He says, "I'm sorry, I don't have. I ran out. I don't have." He goes, "Listen, I'm fine. I understand. What do you charge? 50 bucks a glass? I'll pay you 100." He goes, "No, no, no. It's not about the money. I don't have. I don't have." He goes, "Okay, fine, fine. I know you Jews. You guys want more money. $200. I just want a glass of wine. I have money. Don't worry about money. Money I got. $200 for a cup of wine." He goes, "No, you don't understand. I don't have it." He goes, "$500 I'm going to give you for one cup of wine."

4:49:48The miskain said, "Listen, I don't have wine, but I'm thinking $500, how much $500 can be for me?" He's like, "I'll be right back." He goes downstairs, he's like, "All I have is the barrel, whatever fruits are on the bottom of the barrel. There's nothing there." He's like, "You know what, let me put some water on it and give it to the guy. Worst case scenario, he beats me up." So he puts the fruits in there, mixes it with some water, gives it some color, and gives it to the guy, praying. The guy takes a sip. He's like, "See, I knew you had it. Wow, this is the greatest wine I ever tasted. Wow. Why didn't you just tell me it's $500 a glass? Why are you being so tough? Why are you pretending like you don't have it?" He said, "Listen, I just moved into the next city. I'm the mayor. I'm this, I'm that. I'm going to have a big party three months from now. And I want to get..." 500 barrels of the same one you just gave me, and I'm willing to pay you $500 per glass, meaning he made the guy a millionaire. He told his servant to come give him a down payment and made the guy a millionaire in a second. Solved his problems and everything. What does the mother of this poor guy say? The mother says to Hashem, "You know what, Hashem? Even I didn't think about that."

4:51:07Even I, you know, wow, that was a good one, Hashem. Even I didn't think about it. So we always want to give Hashem different strategies. Different strategies of how, but if you thought about it, it's not my thoughts. You're not going to think like me. You thought of a solution being lotto, being a job, being this, being that, Hashem is definitely not going to give it to you that way. Why? If you thought about it, and He gives it to you, Then what are you going to say? You're going to say, you did it. What is it like? A guy says, "Listen Hashem, I know I'm not the best Jew in the world. But I have a meeting. In this meeting, I have the potential to make a fortune. But this guy is crazy. He's from Korea. I have to be on time. He told me to be at the job at 8 o'clock in the morning. If I'm late one minute, the contract is canceled. Hashem, help me, please. Let me find parking." The guy is looking for parking. "Hashem, please, no, I need parking. Right, if, okay, fine, Hashem, you know what? If you give me parking right now, I'm going to Beit Knesset from now on. I'm keeping Shabbat, Beit Knesset, everything." As he was finishing the sentence of what the Teshuva is going to do, somebody pulled out right in front of him. He goes, "Hey, Hashem, I got it. Don't worry about it. You don't need to do it. I got it, Hashem. I got it. Don't worry about it."

4:52:26Meaning after Hashem gave him what he wants, he forgot Hashem. Shlomo HaMelech says, "The stupidity of man will lead him to sin against Hashem." And what does he get mad about? He gets mad at Hashem for punishing him. You went against Hashem and now you're mad at Hashem for punishing you? So, we learn... Moshe Rabbeinu is praying to Hashem 515 times, "Hashem, please. Okay, I know it's a sin. But let me in as a bird. Let me in as a cow." Here's the problem. When Hashem decided that Moshe Rabbeinu is going to be the Mashiach, the Goel of all Geulim, he's going to be bigger than me. He's bigger than even the Mashiach that's going to come. Without Hashem, no one's ever going to be as big as Moshe Rabbeinu. So, when Hashem decided, Moshe Rabbeinu is it. Moshe Avdi, Moses, my servant. He has no personal opinion. He says, whatever I give him is permanent. It's my signature. I give him Torah, Torah is permanent. I give him Am Yisrael, Am Yisrael is permanent. Whatever I give him, whatever he does, whatever he puts his hand on, is permanent. That's the deal. Because when Moshe Rabbeinu said to Hashem, "Listen, I'm going to go to Am Yisrael and tell them, 'Listen, you spoke to me.'"

4:53:52They say, how do we know He spoke to you? I'm gonna speak to you in front of everyone. Listen to me, I'm gonna speak to you in front of everyone. I want to make sure everyone knows that when you speak, it's like me speaking. And when I speak, I don't change my mind. When I say something, it stays the same forever. Hashem doesn't change His mind. That's what we learned from Bilam HaRasha, Bilam the prophet. He says, what do you think, Hashem is like a human being? He changes opinion, changes His mind? It doesn't change anything. Parashat Balak. It doesn't change anything. We think it's a human being. So here we learn Hashem made a deal with Moshe Rabbeinu. I'm going to make sure they know that when you say something, it's the same thing as if I said it. If you do something, it's like I did it. So, the problem is that if I let you go into Eretz Yisrael, you only see right now what's in front of you. I see the future. Hashem says in a thousand years from now, fifteen hundred years from now, Am Yisrael is gonna make a big sin. They're gonna kill people. They're gonna waste seed. They're gonna be Mechalelei Shabbat. They're gonna worship idols and do a lot of big problems. They cut the goal. Satan is gonna come to me and say, "Listen Hashem, according to your Torah, make this sin a

4:55:17Death penalty. Make this sin, death penalty. Make this sin, death penalty. Make this sin, death penalty. They made all of them. It's time, Hashem. You have to destroy them. I'm going to say to him, "Listen, you're right, Mr. Satan. I gave you a job; you're right. I know you're the prosecutor; I know you're right. And my stamp is emet; I can't go against my own Torah. But I put collateral. What's my collateral against Israel? My own house. I'll destroy the rocks and stones and all and everything that we have invented. My own house." And not My nation. Why? Same thing. My own house is like destroying My nation. So I'll destroy My house instead of the nation. The problem is, Moshe Rabbeinu, if I let you in as Moshe Rabbeinu, the first thing you're going to do is build the Beit HaMikdash. If you built it, I can't destroy it. Why? Because I built it. If you built it, it's like I built it. I can't destroy My own house. I built it. But if Am Yisrael built it, I can destroy it. That's why Beit HaMikdash HaShlishi has to come down ready. Why? It's permanent. Hashem built it. Hashem built it. The third Beit HaMikdash has to come ready from Shamayim. It's permanent. But the first one, Am Yisrael built it. That I can destroy. If Moshe Rabbeinu built it, I can't destroy it.

4:56:40So, Moshe Rabbeinu says, okay, no problem, I should invite Hanan. 515 excuses he has. One of the excuses is, okay, fine. Okay, Moshe Rabbeinu, I can't come in. Fine. Commoner, I can't come in. Fine. A cow. A cow. I can be a cow. No. Cow. What's a cow going to do? What's the purpose of a cow? Some kosher Jew is going to shecht the cow. Another kosher Jew is going to do a berachah, eat the cow. That's it. Permanent. It becomes part of Beit HaMikdash. Become a korban in Beit HaMikdash. Beit HaMikdash becomes one with the korban. It's permanent. It's like you built it. Okay, what about a dove? I can be a dove. Same thing, korban. You cannot enter Eretz Yisrael. Why? Because I don't want to destroy My people. Not because I don't want to let you enter Eretz Yisrael. Not because of that. But because I don't want to destroy My people. So a lot of people, my whole life, I always thought about this. I'm like, come on, Hashem, why are You so mean? Just let the guy in. Let him go to Eilat, to Tel Aviv, to Yerushalayim, see something, some nice things. Baruch Hashem, back then there was still modesty. It wasn’t Sodom and Gomorrah, gay parties, and parades. Back then, Baruch Hashem, holy land, mamash holy land. Today, Hashem, you can't go to most places. You can't go to most places. You can't without closing your eyes. You can't. If you want to watch your eyes, you can't.

4:58:03Even Yerushalayim, it's hard sometimes. That's a reality. It's a reality we live in everywhere. In Florida, you have to stay home. You can't leave the house. Not during the day. You want to watch your eyes? You can't leave the house. Stay home. Beit Knesset, only early, early in the morning when nobody else is outside. You can't. Everybody's naked. I feel bad for people that are in the business world. Why? Can't watch your eyes. You have to look at the floor all day. So, Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Listen, I understand, Hashem. I understand, but I still want, is there another way?" Hashem Yitbarach says, "Enough. 515 tefillot is enough. Don't even give me one more prayer." Why not one more prayer? "If you give me 516, I'm going to have to let you in. Because that's the limit." At 515 is the limit. You break the limit, I'm going to have to let you in. I'm going to have to answer your prayer and let you in. But that means the demise of Am Yisrael. That was the limit of each prayer. Each person, each tefillah has a threshold. So, for example, let's say you have a wall.

4:59:22You have a wall, and you want to destroy the wall. You want to take down the wall. If you just hit it with your hand, nothing's going to happen. There's not enough pressure. If you hit it with a small hammer, you're going to chip. You hit it with a bulldozing hammer, you're going to chip the whole thing down in one shot. Why? It's a lot of pressure. Same thing with prayer. Sometimes you ask for something small. Hashem, please find me a parking spot. One or two prayers, you find a parking spot. Hashem, please let me wake up on time. One prayer, you wake up on time. Hashem, give me this job. That may require 10 or 15 prayers. Hashem, find me a wife. That may require a thousand prayers. The bigger the request, the more pressure you need, meaning the more prayer you need. Same thing here. Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem to do something that Hashem didn't want to do. Why? Because it meant something would have to change with the nature, and Hashem says, I don't want to change nature. I don't want to remove Am Yisrael's free choice in the future just to let you in today.

5:00:24I want to let them sin like they're supposed to sin, like they're going to sin, or at least choose. So that's the biggest thing when it comes down to Va'etchanan. The first word we already learned, that there are sometimes things that we pray for and we don't get. We don't get. You pray for zivug, you pray for parnassah, you pray for refuah sheleimah, you pray for a lot of things, you don't get it. Chazal explains there's only a couple of reasons why this happens. Number one, you're like Moshe Rabbeinu. You have not prayed enough. You prayed 515 times; you needed to pray 516 and you gave up. You didn't pray enough. You needed to pray for whatever you're asking for. You needed to pray 50 times; you prayed 40. There's still 10 more. So you're putting pressure on the wall, but it's still not enough. So, the first thing is, usually you didn't pray enough. The second reason is Moshe Rabbeinu at the end of Va'etchanan. The answer is no. Hashem heard your prayer. Hashem says, thank you very much for your prayer. No, I don't want to give it to you. I don't want to give it to you. Why? Zivug, I want zivug. No, I don't want to give you zivug. Why? Because the zivug you are going to get right now is not good for you. Gemara Masechet Sotah, page 2.

5:01:47says a person gets the zivug, gets the mate, gets the partner, based on who he is, based on his actions. So Rashi explains, if his actions are good, if he's a tzaddik, then he gets a modest woman. If he's a tzaddik, he gets a modest woman. If he's a rasha, he gets a woman that's like a prostitute, meaning immodest. So the question Chazal asks is, wait a minute, why is it tzaddik and modest and rasha and immodest? Shouldn't it be tzaddik and tzaddeket, rasha and resha'it? What does modesty have to do with tzaddik or tzaddeket? It should be one and the same. So they explain, Rashi explains, he says, if he's a tzaddik, he's going to get a modest woman. Why a modest woman? Because if she's modest, most likely she's a tzaddeket. But if he's a rasha, he's only going to get an immodest woman. Why is he going to get only an immodest woman? Because if she's immodest, she's definitely not a tzadeket. She's definitely a resha'it. She cannot be a tzadeket and immodest at the same time. She could be a nice person. She could be very generous. She could have good middot, but she's not a tzadeket. Tzadeket means she's doing everything Hashem says. She's a Sarah Imeinu.

5:03:12modest, modest with clothing, modest with speech, modest with behavior, knows Torah, teaches Torah to her children, and so on and so forth. Immodesty kills everything. It's a type of poison to the woman's soul. So the Gemara says specifically, if she's immodest, it's impossible for her to be a tzaddeket. So if a man is a rasha. He doesn't follow, doesn't keep Shabbat, doesn't keep mitzvot. Rasha doesn't mean evil. Rasha means wicked, meaning that he doesn't follow the will of Hashem. Hashem says keep Shabbat, he doesn't want to keep Shabbat. Hashem says keep kosher, he keeps kosher only in the house, like Hashem is only in the house, not in the pizzeria. Hashem says be honest, he's only honest with his friends, not honest with his enemies. He cheats his enemies, steals from them and everything. That's a rasha. So, Hashem says, if you're a rasha, you're going to get an E-minus woman. But you're going to ask for a zivug. And I see they've started doing teshuva. Now, let's say from 1 to 10 level. 1 to 10 level. As a rasha, you're level 2. But I know that if you continue coming to shiurei Torah, in the next 3, 4, 5, 6 months, you're going to be a level 5. In the next 6, 7, 8 months, you're going to be a level 7, 8.

5:04:29So the woman that technically you deserve right now is a level 2. If you continue praying, continue doing your teshuva, I'll give you a woman, but in 9 months from now at a level 8. If I give her to you now, you don't want what I want to give you now. Why? Because you're going to be at level 8, and she's still going to be at level 2. She's going to ruin you. So wait a little bit, motek. Wait, wait. Savlanut. Wait a little bit. Eight months. You get to a better level, I'll give you what I've always wanted to give you. But if I give you your prayer now, it's not good for you. So here we learn from Va'etchanan, sometimes the answer is no. But it's not no because Hashem is being mean. It's no because Hashem wants what's in your best interest. And unfortunately, you don't know what's in your best interest. The Rambam explains that everything you think is in your best interest is usually the opposite of what your best interest is. What do most people want? Almost 100% of people want money. Lots of money. Money is not good for you. Why is it not good for you? It's a very big test. Most people fail.

5:05:42Like I said before, not having money is a very difficult test. Even Yaakov didn't want that test. But being rich is a more difficult test. Why? There are more ways to make aveirot. There are more ways to sin when you're a millionaire. Much more ways to sin when you're a millionaire. Much more ways. So most people cannot be righteous and rich at the same time. So that's why Shlomo HaMelech was rich and successful. He says, I only want what I need, not more. Not more, not less. So, Rambam says we want money, and the reality of it is most of us, if not all of us, will fail the money test. The second thing, we want sex, non-stop. Too much sex will ruin every marriage. If there's no separation between the husband and wife for part of the month, when she's niddah, in a matter of months or less, he'll become sick of her, she'll become sick of him. That's when you see celebrities that are usually very beautiful people, they look beautiful, they have five, six, seven, eight marriages. What happened? How did you get married to the guy? He's that bad, she's that bad, a day later, a week later, what happened? Still the same beautiful person,

5:06:58If it was based on physical before the marriage, it's still physical after. So what changed? What changed? He's still beautiful. She's still beautiful. What changed? Too much physical. Too much without separation eventually makes every husband disgusted with his wife, and the wife disgusted with her husband. That's why Hashem says there has to be a separation to create a certain amount of missing each other. There are obviously many, many, many other benefits for Taharat HaMishpacha, but this is just one of them. So, we want sex. Too much of it is not good. Another thing is too much sex, meaning you know, wasting seed. You're not going to have a baby with every single one. You have a serious problem there. Anyone that wants to go broke, like I said earlier today, wastes seed. That's the cure. That's the disease that ruins all parnasah. It ruins all parnasah. If Hashem wanted to give you a million dollars and you waste seed, that's your million dollars. You got the million dollars, but in seed. You ruin your parnasah.

5:08:00So, have some potato chips or something to chew. It's easy to stay up. So now, we want that. We want a lot of things that are not for our own interest. Hashem says that most people who want these things, I have to answer them, knowing even Shlomo HaMelech had a special prayer to Hashem: "Hashem, please don't answer the prayers of Am Yisrael if what they want is against their own interest." Shlomo HaMelech asked for this from Hashem. He asked, "Hashem, please don't answer Am Yisrael when they ask for things that are against their own interest, when they can't do any good with it. Don't answer their prayers." So... sometimes the answer from Hashem is no, simply no. Why? It's against your interest. You think it's good for you, but it's not. You want a brand new car that's really, really fast, but Hashem knows that if you get this, something bad can happen. You want to marry this woman, but Hashem makes the woman leave you because He knows that this woman is not loyal. You think she's loyal, but she's not, and she really has a boyfriend on the side.

5:09:09But you want her, and when she leaves you, you break your heart. You're crying, "Ah, Hashem, why did You do this to me? Why do You hate me, Hashem?" Hashem is looking at you, "I hate you? You know what I did for you? I saved your life. She was cheating on you every day. She was cheating on you every day. You just don't know it. You can't see straight. I see the whole picture." So that's the thing that we don't realize, that Hashem does everything for the good, but He doesn't tell us how. So, That's why when Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem, "Let me see Your face, let me see Your front," Hashem says, "No one can see My face and live." One of the 13 principles of faith, meaning one of the 13 foundational statements that you must believe in order to be a kosher Jew, says that Hashem has no image and no likeness of an image.

5:10:10Meaning He has no body, He has no arms, He has no face, He has no back, He has nothing. You cannot even visualize when you pray. There's a mistake that people make — people try to visualize something in the sky. You're not allowed to do that; that's avodah zarah. If you're visualizing an image of some kind, it's a problem. He's there, that's different. Something is there, fine. But a lot of people visualize an image. So they visualize a hand, they visualize a face. Always with a beard, by the way. What do you mean, Moshe Rabbeinu? We'll get to it. We'll get to it. So, or some people visualize the words, Yud-hei-vav-hei. Yud-hei-vav-hei. They visualize that word. You don't have to visualize. You don't have to visualize anything for Hashem. Nothing. Not the words, not the letters, not the image, not nothing. Nothing. And people do this all the time. People make this mistake all the time. It's a very common mistake for people to visualize God. Because since the beginning of time, people have been trying to humanize God. As soon as God has an image, He's like us. That's why Christianity made God into a human being. That's why people love to make idols. That's why people sometimes like to make their rabbis into an idol.

5:11:37What's the problem with visualizing, for example, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh? Because you're visualizing an image for Hashem. You're visualizing, that's what He looks like. It's a name. Again, it's still an image. You're visualizing it as something that that's what it looks like up there. It doesn't look like that up there. That's not even His real name. It's one of the names, but the real name is 72 letters. It's not something we have today. It's not the real name. Visualizing something for Him is 100% not allowed. It is not allowed to visualize letters, and it is not allowed to visualize a hand, because, in essence, you're making Him into something material. You're minimizing Him from what He is. And in reality, by the way, you should know that every letter of the Hebrew alphabet is a name of God. Aleph is a name of God. Bet is a name of God. Gimel by itself, without anything else—Gimel is a name of God. Every letter in the alphabet is a name of God. That's why every time you read Torah, every single time, every letter, not just every word, every letter you read is a mitzvah. You said Hashem. Same thing like you're saying Hashem. But you now have to visualize what it looks like up there.

5:12:52You could have that you're not visualizing God. You're visualizing a certain name. You're not visualizing what's in Shamayim. You're visualizing those specific letters that are in front of you that have to do with a segulah for parnassah. And so on and things of that nature, you are visualizing letters for a certain angel. It has nothing to do with an image of God. It's nothing to do with an image of God. Yeah, so we're gonna answer both of those questions. So when Hashem said in Genesis, "Let's create man in our image," He didn't say "my image," He said "our image." So first, the kofrim, the idol worshippers, say, "Look, that's the Trinity. There's many gods. He says, 'our image.'" So that's because they read the Torah literally. They don't read the mefarshim. They don't read the commentary. What does that mean that Hashem said, "Let's create man in our image"? What's our image? Chazal explain to us that before Hashem created man, He created angels. Why did He create angels if He can do everything and He technically does everything?

5:14:15Because the way of a king, the way of a king is not to serve himself. The way of a king is to have servants. What kind of king doesn't have servants? If he doesn't have servants, he's not a king. Part of being a king is to have servants, so he created angels. But since Hashem is not your typical king—He's the King of Kings, but He's also a merciful God—He says, "Listen, I don't want my angels, my servants, to feel bad about themselves. Like they're pure slaves and that's it. I want them to feel like they have some type of significance." So how do I make the angels feel like they have any significance? They know the truth. So I'm going to ask them their opinion. What do you guys think? Let's make man in our image. Not that He needs their opinion, but He's asking their opinion as if they have a part in it. What is it like? It's like when the owner of a business tells one of his long-time employees. It's a janitor though, a guy who has worked for 25 years, but he's a janitor. Jonathan, the guy makes $50,000 a year or whatever janitors make in New York. They make a lot of money, and...

5:15:21He says, "Listen, what do you think? Should I buy this building? This building is $400 million." He's asking a janitor who makes $50,000. What does a janitor know? The janitor says, "Yes." He goes, "You know what? I'm going to do it. Because you said it, I'm going to do it." Not because he cares about his opinion. He just wants him to feel important. He's a child. He works for him for 20 years. He wants him to feel good about himself. "Let us make man in our image." Why? To make the angels feel like they have a partnership in creation. That's one. Two, the second thing is, what does it mean "our image" when there's no image? The image means that man is able to choose between right and wrong. They have free choice. They have free will. Hashem obviously has free will; He created free will. The angels, He gave them a certain amount of will. They also have free will, but it's limited, meaning that it's free will, but if they choose wrong, they get punished on the spot. And

5:16:26It's free will. They can do whatever they want. But if they do wrong, they get punished on the spot. Where do we learn it from? From creation. The same thing we learn in Bereishit. The two angels went against the decision. They said, "No, Hashem, don't create them. Don't create man. Why? They're going to go against You. They go free. They're going to go against You. They're going to worship idols. They're going to do this. They're going to be immodest. They're going to gamble. They're going to do this. Why? Why? Give us the Torah, Hashem." He says, "Ah, you think that if you went to the world..." You can pass their test. I'm going to send you to the world. Let's see what you do. So He sent the two angels to the world. They became the Nephilim. They became the giants and they became the biggest sinners and caused the Dor HaMabul. They caused the flood. So even they could not pass the test, and Hashem sent them to a place called Azazel as a punishment. But needless to say, the angels have a certain amount of free choice. Man, he says, man has free choice. What's his free choice? Is it free choice to come to the world? No. Did you choose to come to the world? No one asked you. Does a man have free choice whether he's male or female? No. Even though people believe they do, they don't. You come to the world, male or female, Hashem decides. Does he have a choice of being tall or short? No. With all the surgeries in the world, you still don't have a choice. Black or white? No. Even though some people like to put chemicals on their skin like Michael Jackson, they're still black in reality.

5:17:53Or they’re white in reality, whatever they are. You can't choose that. Rich or poor? No, it's not up to you. Why? Hashem decides whether you're going to be rich or poor. Hashem decides. It has nothing to do with you. You can work as a plumber and be rich. You can work as a stockbroker and be poor. You can work as a diamond manufacturer and be rich. You can work as a janitor and be even richer. How? You own the janitorial company. But the point is that Hashem decides whether you're going to be rich or poor. What's up to you? What's your real free choice? Your free choice is, the Gemara says, everything is in the hands of Shamayim, everything is from Hashem, except whether you have fear of Hashem. Whether you're going to do what Hashem says. That's your free choice. Hashem says, learn Torah. You have a choice to learn Torah or not learn Torah. Hashem says, go to Beit Knesset. You have a choice, go to Beit Knesset or not go to Beit Knesset. Hashem says, do mitzvot. You can do mitzvot or do aveirot. Hashem gives you Torah. You have a choice whether to follow it or not. But the free choice we have is not really free choice. Why? Free choice to us means we choose something

5:19:13If we do it, we get rewarded. If we don't do it, we get punished. That's free choice. If I go to work, I get paid. If I don't go to work, I get nothing. That's free choice. That's not what we have. What we have is choice. Not free choice, but choice. What does it mean? If I go to work, I get paid. If I don't go to work, I get punished. The boss sends people to my house and they beat me up. That's what we have. If I do good, Hashem gives me reward. If I don't do good, if I don't follow His laws, He punishes me. That's what we have. That's choice. That's not free choice. There's Gan Eden and Gehinnom. There's bracha and klala. It comes together. It's not bracha o klala, it's bracha u'klala. Meaning, it's a blessing and a curse. Not a blessing or a curse. It comes together. Package deal. So, here we learn that when Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu, "No one can see My face and live, but I'll show you My back," it contradicts everything we've said in the last 15 minutes. Why? Because we just said Hashem doesn't have an image.

5:20:33So, what's this? A face is an image. A back is an image. Where's the image? So, Hashem is not talking about an image. Because if you look at the Torah, Hashem says, "I took you out of Egypt with a strong hand." He doesn't have a hand. Wait, Hashem's hand came out from the sky? No hand. So, what's the image? What's the image? The image is this: Hashem says... You cannot see what I'm doing as I'm doing it, what's in front of you, the face is in front of you, what's in front of you, and understand why I'm doing it. For example, He showed Moshe Rabbeinu Rabbi Akiva. He showed Rabbi Akiva teaching Torah, teaching special secret halachot from the ketarim, the crowns of the Hebrew letters. Moshe Rabbeinu says, "I don't understand what he's teaching. If you have such a person in the world that's going to come to the world, don't give me the Torah. Wait 500 years, 1,000 years. Let him come to the world. Give him the Torah."

5:21:41I don't know as much Torah as him. And then he sees, Moshe Rabbeinu sees Rabbi Akiva say, and everything we have, we got from Moshe Rabbeinu from Har Sinai. Meaning, it's the same thing that Moshe Rabbeinu got, it's just expanded on. He elaborated on it. But then he shows the end of Rabbi Akiva, and he shows that Rabbi Akiva, when he was killed, he was killed in a very vicious way, where the goyim, yimach shemam v'zichram, took his skin and shaved it, like you peel a potato. And then they took his meat and they sold it in the shuk (market) to eat. So Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hashem, "This Torah, this is Torah, this is a Sefer Torah, this is Rabbi Akiva. And that's the reward he gets?" Hashem says, "Rav lach." Hashem says, "Be quiet." Why be quiet? He says, "You're not going to understand what I'm doing as I'm doing it."

5:22:42and be able to understand why I'm doing it. Why? You're still human. You're still limited in your human form. Even though you're holy, you're still limited in your human ability. You cannot understand what I'm doing as I'm doing it. You could only do it once you're not human. So you can't see My face and live, meaning you can't see what I'm doing, understand it, and still be alive, still be a person in this world. But I'll show you My back. What does it mean, "I'll show you My back"? I'll show you all My finished work. I'll show you Adam HaRishon, what he did and why I did what I did. I'll show you Noach, what he did and why I did what I did. I'll show you everything I finished already. So Adam HaRishon, Adam HaRishon lived 930 years. What? 930 years? Hashem got bored at 930? That's it? He just picked 930? Okay, that's it. Finished. Metushelach lived a few hundred years more. He wasn’t more tzaddik than Adam HaRishon. It doesn't say that he was more tzaddik than Adam HaRishon. Why did Adam HaRishon die at 930 years? What's the answer? The answer is, Hashem says, if you sin, if you eat from

5:23:57the Tree of Knowledge, then I will have to kill you on that one day. I'll have to kill you that day. I'll have to kill you that day. Take your life that day. So David HaMelech in Tehillim says, one day to you, Hashem, is like a thousand years to us. One day to You is like a thousand years to us. So Hashem delivered on the promise He made to Adam HaRishon. He says, I told you, if you sin, I'm going to kill you on that day. But not a day like a human day, a day like God's day. Not that God has concepts of time, but as David HaMelech explains, it's a thousand years. That's when we get the thousand. but he still didn't live a thousand years. What happened? 70. What happened with the 70? Adam HaRishon had prophecy. Adam HaRishon was able to see until the end of time. Hashem showed him the end of the world. He says, how's the Mashiach gonna come? Mashiach, he says, is gonna come from a seed. The problem is, that seed doesn't have any merits to live. Meaning, it's gonna be a stillborn baby.

5:25:00It's going to come to the world and die instantly. It's not going to live. So Adam HaRishon says, how can I ever fix my sin if there's no Mashiach? Hashem says, you can't fix your sin. So can I give him 70 of my years? Hashem says, yes. So he gave him 70 years. So that's how he lived only 930 years. But the Zohar HaKadosh says that Adam HaRishon regretted it. He says, you know what, give me back the 70 years. But Hashem says, you already made a decision. So, anyway... Adam HaRishon was supposed to live a thousand years. He gave seventy years to David HaMelech. David HaMelech, from whom the Mashiach comes, was supposed to die at birth. But if the Mashiach comes from him, how is the Mashiach going to come from him if he dies at birth? He's not going to be able to have kids. So, Adam HaRishon, the first Adam, says that in order for the Mashiach to come, he has to live, he has to have kids, he has to have Shlomo HaMelech, and so on and so forth. So, he says, "I'll give him, since I'm going to live a thousand years, what's 70 years? Big deal, 7%. Big deal." The problem is, when he got to an older age, when he knew that he was going to die soon, he wanted the 70 years back. But Hashem gave us the full answer to that, or at least the answer that we know of.

5:26:20Because He showed it to Moshe Rabbeinu. He showed it to Moshe Rabbeinu and He says, after I finish, then you'll understand. My back you can see, meaning everything that's finished, you can see and you can understand it. But while it's still happening and it's still an unfinished product, you cannot understand it and live. You cannot understand it as a human being. So there's no such thing as a face of Hashem or a back of Hashem. He showed him all the future; He showed him all the generations. He showed him all the generations in the past, all the generations in the future. And as a matter of fact, one of the things He showed him is He showed him Gehenom. The scariest thing is that Moshe Rabbeinu saw Gan Eden, he saw the future, he saw Mashiach, he saw the end of the world, he saw everything. And he also showed him Gehenom. Now Moshe Rabbeinu saw Gehenom, he says, "What is this place? What is this place, this awful place?" And Hashem says, "This is the place that I punish the resha'im." And Moshe Rabbeinu started shaking. "Moshe, give him a hand. Hold the chair at least in place."

5:27:44So Moshe Rabbeinu got scared and started shaking uncontrollably, only to stop when Hashem said, "Don't worry. You will never see this place." Meaning, you're never going to go to Gehenom. Moshe Rabbeinu was so humble he didn't even know if he was a tzaddik or not. He didn't even know if he was a rasha, one of the resha'im who’s going to go to Gehenom. So, that's also in the book Reishit Chochmah and a few other places. Also Gemara. So, image of God, there's no image of God. We explained that. We explained that. We explained that. We continue now. Unless you have questions. Go. Repeat that again. Okay. Because God commanded it. God gave the instructions to make them. It's not an image that they created. God created it. God created it. God decided to have it. It's the instructions of God. So, for example, I'll give you another example.

5:29:12God makes the rules. So, one of the ways that you can see that God sometimes has different rules that you could say contradict, don't contradict, whatever you want to say. The point is that it goes against the rules. One of the main things that they would do every single day is korbanot, sacrifices. How's a korban? How do you make a korban? Slaughter it, and you burn it. You burn part of it, eat part of it, and so on, but you burn it in this fire. What days of the week would they do it? Every day, including Shabbat. Why? Because Beit HaMikdash was like its own country with its own rules. Still, fire in the Beit HaMikdash. Why? Because Beit HaMikdash has different rules, different rules, and... same rules but different rules, you understand? same concept. Same thing with the Harim. Hashem says, "Yes, don't have an image, don't have a likeness of an image, don't have images of people, don't have images of certain types of animals," and so on and so forth. But there are certain things that He decreed. That's what He wanted, that's what He decided. I'm sure there's much more about those specifics that I'm not talking about, but in general, the very simplest answer...

5:30:35...is that Hashem decided it. Hashem actually decreed, "This is what you build. This is how you build the Aron. This is how you build the Mishkan. This is how you build this. This is how you build that." He gave him the definition of everything, and He actually gave Bezalel the Ruach HaKodesh, which they consider was like a divine wisdom to build it, because a regular human being, even five times Einstein, would not be able to do it... So you have to have special Ruach HaKodesh to be able to build all of these things. So here, next in Parashat Va'etchanan,

5:31:36In chapter 4, verse 10, and chapter 1, verse 10, it talks about what you're supposed to do: teaching your kids, doing certain mitzvot, and so on. And here it says the following, meaning when you stood at Mount Sinai. so here Hashem gives us insight about one of the most important, if not the most important mitzvah in the entire Torah. Technically, we're not supposed to measure mitzvot specifically, but Chazal explains that without this, there's no Judaism; without this, there's nothing. What is it? Hashem says, "Gather the people to Me, and I shall let them hear My words." Meaning, Hashem will let them hear His words so that they shall learn to fear Me all the days that they live on earth and that they shall teach their children.

5:32:57so that they shall teach their children. Meaning, they should fear Me and they should teach their children to fear Me. It doesn't say they should love Me. It doesn't say they should believe in Me. It doesn't say they should like Me. It doesn't say they should be fond of Me. Or should think I'm smart. It says they should fear Me. Why? Without Yirat Shamayim, there's nothing. Without Yirat Shamayim, nothing. Gemara Masechet Shabbat says, Hashem has no treasure other than Yirat Shamayim. That's His treasure. That's His treasure. No other treasure. He used to have Shabbat. Then He gave it to Am Yisrael. He gave Shabbat to Am Yisrael. One treasure left. What's left? Yirat Shamayim. Yirat Shamayim. This is in the Gemara Shabbat, page 31b. So, here we have Mitzvah, one of the many sources in the Torah, talks about Hashem saying, "Fear Me." Why "Fear Me"? Why not "Love Me"? Why not love? Because Chazal say, you have an instruction set of how to connect to Hashem. That's actually repeated in your tefillah on a daily basis. Every day you mention it, but in passing. Why? Because as part of tefillah, you get used to it when...

5:34:22Most people that say the same tefillah without changing, without working extra hard on themselves, really, really extra hard on themselves, repeat the same tefillah every single day. It's very easy to let the words just go through the system like air. So you see this verse in Parashat Beshalach every day in Shacharit, but in reality, most people have never considered what it is. And in Parashat Beshalach, after Am Yisrael... crossed the Sea of Reeds, crossed Yam Suf. They had the miracles in Egypt. They had the miracle where Hashem destroyed the Egyptians in the Sea of Reeds. Now they passed the Sea of Reeds. They passed it. And it says the following, in chapter 14, verse 31, in Exodus, in Sefer Shemot, it says, Vayar Yisrael et hayad hagedolah asher asah Adonai b'Mitzrayim, vayiru ha'am et Adonai, translation: And Israel saw the great hand that Hashem inflicted upon Egypt. It doesn't really need much explanation. Israel saw the great hand of Hashem, how Hashem destroyed them, and the people feared Hashem.

5:35:44And they had faith in Hashem, meaning they had emunah in Hashem, and in Moshe, His servant. This is what we repeat in tefillah every single day. This is in the parashat Beshalach; we repeat it at least once a year. Oh, oh, oh, hagesh na, hagesh na, hagesh na, hagesh na. Okay, this, put this on the other side, please. No, no, sorry, it's my fault. Okay, so why is this in our tefillah? Why do we repeat this one verse? There are many verses in the Torah. There are over 300,000 words in the Torah. Why this verse? Because this is a map.

5:36:50This verse is a map. Did the thing just go sideways again? It was fine for a little while. So, see, we're starting to get good. Finally, she was getting good, so the Satan is changing the camera sideways. Okay, it went sideways, right? Yeah. Wait a second. So, this verse that you read in Tefillat Shacharit, this verse that you read in Parashat Beshalach, is a map. What's a map? A map to Emet. A map to connecting to Hashem in the one and only way there is. There's no multiple ways. There's one way to connect to Hashem.

5:37:55Everything else is not Hashem. It's something else. Like a lot of people say, "I believe in Hashem, but I work overtime," or "I work six jobs," or "I don't keep Shabbat," or "I don't keep mitzvot." I say, okay, you believe in a different Hashem. Because my God doesn't require you to do all those things. And definitely does not accept the fact that you're violating Shabbat. Does not accept the fact that you think that you need to sin in order to do mitzvot. Let's hold on a second. How did I do this before? Just like this. Okay, like this. Okay. So, there's only one way. And he says this is the map. When we were at the prime, at the peak, right before Matan Torah.

5:38:57First, we were at the 49th level of tumah. We were at our worst. Then we got to be the best. Here's how we got there: we finally read the map. What's the map say? The map says Yisrael saw the hand of Hashem. What does it mean, "saw the hand of Hashem"? We just talked about how Hashem doesn't have a hand. What did they see? They saw how Hashem is in control of everything. Nature, nurture, and everything in between that we don't know and know. Whether it moves, it lives. It doesn't live, it breathes. It doesn't breathe, it swims. It doesn't swim. We see it, or we don't see it. Am Yisrael realized the Yad HaGedolah. Am Yisrael realized Hashem is in control. He's in control of you, me, and... Him, the one who doesn't know, the one who does know. The one who believes, the one who doesn't believe. Everything is in His control. Am Yisrael realized the Yad HaGedolah. What does it mean, saw the great hand? They saw who's the boss. Who runs the world? They saw it.

5:40:10Immediately when they saw who’s the boss, it says they feared Him. Why did they fear Him? As soon as you realize He’s in control, how can you not fear Him? As soon as you realize Hashem is in charge of your parnassah, Hashem is in charge of your zivug, Hashem is in charge of your children, Hashem is in charge of your refuah shleimah, Hashem is in charge of everything you know and everything you don't know, Hashem is in charge of the atoms, you know the atoms, you have atoms. Technically 99.9% of everything, everything is an atom, but 99.9% of everything is nothing. Meaning, everything is made out of atoms. But 99.9% of the atom is empty space. There's nothing. It's one ball spinning around another ball. And scientists recently investigated and searched even deeper. They said that even the balls themselves are not really

5:41:13complete matter even themselves. They're one ball around another ball. Meaning, even what's outside of the atom—the proton, the neutron, and the electron themselves—are not by themselves. Meaning, there's even more nothing in them to such an extent that if we actually understood Atom, we realize that everything is an illusion. It's an optical illusion. It's completely nothing. So why do we see this table as a table, as solid? You, me, the meat, the sky, whatever—why? Because, just like a fan, when you see a fan in the air, when it's spinning really fast, it looks like there's a single blade. Single blade. But then you slow it down, you realize, oh, there are four blades. But there were always four blades. Why did you only see one blade? You only saw one blade because it was going really, really fast. Why does everything look solid? Because the atoms are moving really, really fast. But these very same scientists said, but there's one question: What happens if the atom stops spinning?

5:42:31then we see the real part of the atom, which is that 99% of it is nothing. So what happens if it stops spinning? Is there an explosion? Does it break? What happens? Everything disappears. no breakage, there's no atomic bomb, there's no war, no discussion, there's nothing. Everything disappears. Why? Because the nothingness is now exposed. So 99.9% of everything is nothing. Now you see the nothing, and the matter that actually exists, whatever it is, according to these same scientists... You could put the matter of the entire universe, not just Earth—all of the universe, all of it—into a box of matches. That's how little there really is. So now the next question is: Who keeps this atom spinning? Because we need it to keep spinning. If it stops spinning, all disappears. The same God

5:43:44We saw the great hand. That's the hand that's spinning the atom. That's the hand that's giving you everything. That's the hand that gave you the Torah. That's the hand that does everything. Which means that as soon as you realize there's only one hand and that's the hand, of course you're going to be scared. If you're not scared, you're a psychopath. There's something wrong with you. You're patur from all the mitzvot anyway. You're shoteh. There's something wrong with you. If you're not scared, there's something wrong with you. Of course you're going to be scared. So, the continuation of the map is, they saw the great hand, they feared Him, and then it says, after they saw, then they feared, then it says they had emunah. In who? In both Hashem and in Moshe Rabbeinu. In both Hashem and the teachers.

5:44:44and the Rabbanim, and the ones that teach you real Torah. But before you have Yirat Shamayim, there's no Emunah. There's no such thing as Emunah. There's no such thing as Ahavat Hashem. There's no such thing as anything else. Before you have a foundational understanding of who you're dealing with, everything you have is fake to such an extent. The Zohar HaKadosh says in Parashat Terumah, Some people think, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says, that they can get to Hashem straight with Ahavat Hashem—straight Ahavat Hashem. They think they can skip Yirat Shamayim. He says those same people, if they don't get to Yirat Shamayim immediately, eventually that same Ahavat Hashem, that same love of G-d, is going to be the tool they use to become kofrim against G-d. Why? It's not real love. It cannot be real love without fear first. Chazal says when you have fear of Hashem, Yirat Shamayim, without love, it's a connection to Hashem, but it's incomplete. Meaning, ideally, you should have fear of Hashem and love of Hashem. That's ideal. Ideally, fear of Hashem and love of Hashem.

5:46:13When you have just fear, no love, it's not ideal, but it's a connection to Hashem. When you have just love, Chazal says this, not me. When you have just love, you have nothing. You have no connection at all. Why no connection at all? He loves Him. He says, no, no, he doesn't love Him. He loves something that he thinks is Him. He doesn't love Him. He doesn't love Hashem. Why? If he knew what Hashem was, of course he would fear Him. So you can't love something you don't know what it is. You can't love something when you have no concept of what it is. Here, he's telling you, the little bit of concept that we have of what Hashem is, immediately should scare you. Why? He's in charge of everything. Go ahead. Love, then fear? Right, so now how it works is this: The Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah says there's an argument, there's a debate. Iyov, did he love Hashem or did he fear Hashem? Iyov, love Hashem or fear Hashem? Because he said, even if Hashem were to destroy me, I'd still serve Him. Even if Hashem were to destroy me, I'd still serve Him. So there's a debate. Is this loving Hashem? Is this fearing Hashem? What is it?

5:47:42Here we learn something extraordinary: that love of Hashem and fear of Hashem, both of them have levels. There are levels of love; there are levels of Yirat Shamayim. The Baalei HaMussar explained it in depth, and they got it from the Rambam. And the Rambam got it from this Gemara and several other places. So how does it work? The lowest level of fear of Hashem is fear of punishment. I don't want to go against Hashem because I don't want Him to punish me. That's the lowest level of fear of Hashem. I don't want to go against Hashem because I don't want to lose money. I don't want to go against Hashem because I don't want to go to Gehinom. I don't want to go against Hashem because, I don't know, I don't want to get a flat tire. Whatever the reason is, you're scared of punishment. That is the lowest level, the first level, of fear of Hashem. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, in that same Parashat Terumah in the Zohar, says to stay at that level of only fearing Hashem because of punishment is unhealthy. Why is it unhealthy? Because it's full of klipot. It's full of not good things. You don't want to just stay there. You have to keep growing. The highest level of Yirat Shamayim is what Avraham Avinu got to. What Avraham Avinu got to

5:49:09The Malach tells Avraham Avinu, "Don't touch the young lad. Now I know you fear Me." What does it mean, "now I know you fear Me"? Avraham Avinu, when Hashem told him, "Listen, you can have one son, and from him you can have Am Yisrael, and all the details. Your descendants are going to be like the stars, and like the sand of the sea," and so on and so forth. But then He tells him... Bring your son, make him a korban. This contradicts. Avraham Avinu didn't ask any questions. He went. Why did he just go? He went because he loved Hashem. But not loved Hashem like the highest level of loving Hashem. He loved Hashem meaning he feared Hashem to the highest possible point, where he feared a disconnect. He feared that there would possibly be, if he doesn't listen to Hashem, there would potentially be a disconnect between him and Hashem, similar to a disconnect between a husband and a wife. When a husband or a wife is disrespectful or does something against the other, the husband who cares about his wife is not going to mistreat her. Not because he's scared she's going to kill him. Not because he's scared that she's going to beat him up. He's scared to mistreat her because he doesn't want to hurt the relationship.

5:50:30So it's still fear-based, but it's not the same fear as the original fear. Second, the highest level, the lowest level of fear is fear that we will get punished. The highest level of fear is fear that we will hurt the relationship. And Chazal say, that's the beginning of loving Hashem. When you get to the highest level of fear of Hashem, that's the beginning of loving Hashem. So for anyone that sees this map here and it says, Am Yisrael saw the great hand of God and they feared Him. Here we understand that Am Yisrael got to a high level of fear because they immediately got to Emunah. They immediately got to a point where they realized, oh, not only do we fear Him, but we believe what He's saying. So they already got to the next level. What's your question? Can I have...

5:51:42They all loved Hashem. That's why they had so much blessing. That's right, that's right. So they say in the time of Rebbi, they all loved Hashem. Who is "they all" and where does it say that? No, you give a class that in Rebbi's time, they all had blessing. In Rabbi Shimon's time, most of them failed. No, Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Shimon. Because they couldn't, they had to go work afterwards. Who says this? It's not possible to go to love Hashem. It's not possible. You cannot love Hashem without fearing Him. It's not possible. It's not humanly possible. Huh? They will bring the fruit. But everyone who knows Hashem must fear Him punishing them. Even though that's not their main connection to Him, that's not their main reason for what they do, what they do. Everyone has to build on it. So, for example, when someone gets to a higher level of Yirat Shamayim,

5:53:01He starts with the low level of Yirat Shamayim, fearing punishment. Then he gets to the next level of Yirat Shamayim, which is fear of punishment plus fear of disconnection. Eventually, he gets to Yirat HaRomemut, the fear of the awe, the awe of Hashem. He’s like, Hashem Almighty, Hashem is greatness. He’s awed by Hashem. The highest level of Yirat Shamayim. And he's afraid to disconnect from this extraordinary being. That is the beginning of loving Hashem. So, throughout this whole way, when he got to loving Hashem, he didn't lose the original fear of sin, of punishment. He didn't lose the second level, the third level, the fourth level. He still has all of them. He still has all of them and must have all of them in order for that level to be contained because each level is the foundation to hold up the next one. So, if you remove the fear of one of these levels, you immediately fall. Each one is like a floor of a building that holds up the next one. How do you know if you fear one week and the next week you feel confident?

5:54:22Well, fear of sin, fear of sin in our generation is a very hard thing to achieve. That's why I say constantly, not because I'm trying to make people feel bad. I just know reality. There is what we read and then there's reality. Reality is Most people in this generation, most, not all, because obviously there are certain tzaddikim in the world. Most people in the world cannot even comprehend, cannot understand what it means to love Hashem. Forget about loving Hashem. They don't understand what it means at all. don't know what it means. Loving Him is a different story. It's like Mars; it's Pluto; it's Venus; it's a different planet. I'm talking about they don't understand what it means to love Hashem. What does it mean to love Hashem? You know what it means to love Hashem? Loving Hashem means you have no opinion, you have no desires. What do you do? What do you want to do? Whatever Hashem wants me to do. Okay, Hashem wants you to go into the mountains? I'm going. Hashem wants you to fast for a week? I'm fasting.

5:55:34Hashem is going to destroy you for doing the mitzvot. I'm doing it anyway. No, forget it. You're going to get punished for the mitzvot. I'm doing it. I'm going to get punished for the mitzvot. I'm doing it. Why? Because it's still going to give Him pleasure that I do it? Yes. That's loving Hashem. You love Hashem? You think anybody in the world loves Hashem? Nobody loves themselves like that. Nobody loves their wife like that. Loving Hashem is something we don't understand what it means. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, when they talk about Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, they say, oh yeah, he loved Hashem because he did extra mitzvot, and that's not why. You know what it says? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi had kaparat avonot for 29 years. 29 years. What you know about is 13 years. You forgot about the 16. 13 years he got kaparat avonot because one day, One of the little calves, tiny little calf, ran away from the butcher. And he went to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and hid under his cloak. Okay, so Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi had a little calf run away from the butcher.

5:56:56Now, in order to be in the Sanhedrin, you have to know 70 languages. You know 70 languages? If you know two languages, it's considered a skill in America. Two languages. Most people don't know English, and they are Americans. I remember in school, and still to this day, one of the most embarrassing things in the world is finding out that Americans don't know how to spell. They're American. They only know one language. They still don't know how to spell it. They still don't know how to speak English. It's sad. So, 70 languages is far from us. If you know Spanish, it's already, wow, you have a new resume—Spanish. Yeah, whatever you're going to be, CEO. So anyway, I'm going to start a new division because you know Spanish. So anyway, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, to be in the Sanhedrin, knew 70 languages. One of the languages was the language of animals. So when the bull came to him, the bull was talking to him, moo, moo, moo, but he understood what moo means. Moo, moo, moo. What does moo, moo, moo mean? Moo means he's trying to kill me. So Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says, listen, what do you think you were created for? To learn Torah? You were created to be a bull, so a kosher Jew slaughters you in a kosher slaughter.

5:58:20Somebody else makes a bracha, eats you, after they cook you, and there's no blood and everything else. Kosher animal. Go back because that's what you were created for. That's halacha. Was he right or was he wrong? He's right. That's halacha. That's the reason why the bull was created. He's not created to say "moo" all day. He's created to become meat so a kosher Jew can eat him. That's the point. Everything in the world was created for them. To such an extent that Gemara Masechet Pesachim, page 49, says that if someone is an ignoramus, doesn't want to learn Torah, doesn't try, doesn't want to do anything, and wants to go to a shiur Torah once a year, the rest of the year he doesn't learn anything. The rest of the year he doesn't want to do anything. He's an Am Ha'aretz. Gemara Masechet Pesachim says he's not allowed to eat cows. Not allowed to eat meat. Why? The cow is better than him. The cow has a couple of purposes. What's the purpose? One is to become meat, kosher meat. The other purpose is to say moo all day. And the cow is good at saying moo. You have a purpose to learn Torah. You don't learn Torah. You're less than a cow. So...

5:59:31so now, Rabbi, was he right or was he wrong? You're right according to anything you want. What's the cow for? The cow is forced to eat, and he tells the cow, "Go back to the butcher. That's why you were created. That's what you were created for." In Shemayim, they said, "Rebbe, you're right, but you're wrong. You're right based on halacha, but you should have exercised more mercy. You should have exercised more mercy. The cow came to you, spoke to you, cried to you. Once someone comes crying to you, even if it's a bull," ...course, if it's a human being, of course, if it's a broken house, of course, if it's a child, even if it's an animal that comes crying to you, you must have mercy. If you don't have mercy, you're not fulfilling the will of Hashem; you're not emulating Hashem's middot. And Hashem brought suffering on him for 13 years. Now, for 13 years, why didn't he say...

6:00:5313 years he didn't have Yom Kippur. 13 years he didn't have Rosh Hashanah. 13 years he didn't have Hoshana Rabbah. Everything you want, 30 is Gadol HaDor, wrote the Mishnah. Teshuvah every day, Chatanu Avinu, quite every day. The suffering he had was that he had stones. Stones where every time he went to the bathroom or pretty much throughout the entire day. He would be suffering to such an extent, especially when he goes to the bathroom, he would scream so loud, they would hear him in the middle of the ocean. In the middle of the ocean, they would hear him. That's suffering. When you go to the bathroom, by the way, anyone who hasn't experienced it, should say thank you to Hashem twice tomorrow, not once. Go to the bathroom extra just to say thank you twice. If you don't know what it means to suffer in the bathroom, you should say thank you to Hashem twice. I'm not joking. Anyone who knows what it means to suffer in a bathroom knows what I'm talking about. If you don't know, you should say thank you to Hashem twice. One for normal, one for, I don't know what it means to suffer. Because unless you suffer in a bathroom, you don't know what suffering is. It's one of the things that saves you from Gehinnom. When did the tzaros stop? When did the din stop? When did the punishment start?

6:02:16When in Shamayim they saw, what happened? What happened after 13 years? After 13 years, one day Rebbe sees the cleaning lady sweeping away mice. Sweeping away mice, but they're alive. Hey, have some mercy on them. They're still living. Don't kill them. Whatever, you could shoo them away, but don't just kill them. And Shamayim they said, ah, you learned, you did teshuva. You did real teshuva, not "chatanu avinu" for no reason; you don't know what it means. Not "Hashem, we're going to change," but you don't know what to change. Now I'm going to give tzedakah, but I don't know why I'm giving tzedakah. They just put money into an empty box; they don't know why. They give money to some institution; they don't know what it does. No, you change yourself. That means you did teshuva. If teshuva, stop suffering. That's the 13 years you know about. What's the other 16 years? What made the love of Hashem obvious with Rebbe? Rabbi, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, how did he show his love? To such an extent that everyone in the generation, all of the Gedolim, said if Mashiach was here now, it would be Rebbe. It would be him. How? How did everybody know that he loved Hashem?

6:03:32Now, everyone knew the Rebbe was a Ba'al Tzedakah. He would actually invite his friends who were also wealthy to give Tzedakah, not because he needed the money. He said, "Listen, I could give it all myself, but then you're not going to have any zechuyot. So I'm sharing the zechuyot if you want." So, he was not only a Ba'al Tzedakah; he was helping his friends become Ba'alei Tzedakah. Mezekiah Rabin, he never looked—forget Tosh—he never looked below his waist. He never saw his bottom half in his entire life. That's why they call him Rebbe HaKadosh. Why Kadosh? Kedusha comes from purity. Kedusha comes from purity. That's why Yosef HaTzadik is called Yosef HaTzadik. He protected his brit. No one else is called Tzadik. Yosef HaTzadik is called Yosef HaTzadik because he protected his brit. Rebbe HaKadosh is called Rebbe HaKadosh. No one else is called Kadosh. You don't say Rabbi Akiva HaKadosh. We all respect Rabbi Akiva and everything. He's a holy of holies. But no one else is called Kadosh. Who's called Kadosh? Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi. That's who's called Kadosh. Why? He never even looked below his waist. So now,

6:04:55You have yourself the same person that everyone says, "This could be the Mashiach. This could be the Mashiach." But he says, "You know what? I learned that our forefathers say that suffering is good for us. Meaning, I don't know if I made aveirot, what I did make, what I did make." He doesn't know. No one knows how many sins they made. No one knows how many sins they made. No one knows exactly what they made right away, unless they do accounting all the time. So, no one knows exactly all the details. So he says, "I want to make sure that Hashem knows that I'm not only not going to enjoy this world, but just in case, just in case," I made something to dishonor Him just in case. I want to suffer here. So he brought on himself toothaches for 16 years. He brought on himself the worst possible pain for 16 years to suffer because there's a benefit.

6:06:18There's a benefit to suffering. And he understood it. That is love of Hashem. When you not only accept the suffering that Hashem gives you with love, but you actually ask for Hashem to give you suffering just in case you dishonored Him, just in case of Chilul Hashem. We don't even want to lose our keys to the car. Was he married though? Abir Danasi, from what I know, yes. He was also from Rabban Gamliel's family, meaning that he was perfect to be the Mashiach, because Rabban Gamliel's family came from David HaMelech. Yes, he is also one of them. They also loved Hashem. The sages loved Hashem. They understood what it means. But again, that also means they got to the highest level of Yirat Shamayim. But they still made mistakes along the way to get to that level. They didn't just go to a couple of Breslov shiurim and all of a sudden, some rabbi with long peyos made them love Hashem. It doesn’t work that way. They have to go through serious tikkunim. You're not just born a lover of Hashem. You have to go through hell and back, and hell and back, to get to loving Hashem.

6:07:38Avraham Avinu had to put his son as a korban to prove he loves Hashem. Avraham Avinu had to put his son as a korban to prove his love for Hashem. We are not willing to put a dead chicken as a korban because we don't want to waste the money. We don't want to have any sacrifices for Hashem. You tell a guy, "Listen, you made $50,000 last year. Give Maaser. Give $5,000. Maaser." "No, no, no. I need the money." "For what?" "I need it for this. I need it for that. All of a sudden, I need an extension for the house. I need money for yeshiva. I need money for..." But Maaser, it's not your money. Maaser, it's not your money. Hashem gave you the 100%. You give 10%. not your money. You're taking the 10%—that's God's money. It's not your money. Tell the guy to give ma'aser. "No, I don't have enough. If I had more money, if I was a millionaire, I'd give a hundred thousand." Everyone wants to give what they don't have. We said a joke last night, but a mussar joke: A guy goes to... They asked, they tried to rate all of these soldiers who's gonna be

6:08:51soldier that's dependable, reliable, and there's no question about it. They give everybody a profile from one to ten: good soldier, nine, ten, eight, nine, ten; not such a good soldier, six, off the team; anything below five or four. So the Caesar interviews one guy... or the Caesar's servant is like, "Hey, listen, you're going to serve the Caesar?" "Yes, yes, I'm going to serve the Caesar." "You love the Caesar?" "I love the Caesar." "You do anything for the Caesar?" "No problem. I'll do anything for the Caesar." This thing is really... We're talking about... So this is what it is. "Oh, you know what? Let me just try." "No, let me just try this." I don't know, this is not working. What about this? Ah, okay, that's why it's being pulled. Alright, there you go. So it's not going to work. I said that we'll fix that in a second.

6:10:17It's sideways again, right? This thing on the internet? Sideways? You see me sideways? Oh, you see me fine. No, no, I just want to get it out of the way. Sideways again? Okay, let me see. Okay, this. It's slanted, but still, you see me upright? Let me see. Oh, it's sideways.

6:11:18Alright, let me see. Maybe you have to update your iOS. No, no, no. It's not that. It's update the deal I have with the Yetzer HaRa. Leave me alone. Give me my machzor. Give me my machzor. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. No, it's just a thing. It's not... You know? Okay, what about now? Feels good? What were we talking about? Now it's too close to my face. How is that, how is that close? Double knot.

6:12:19See, this is Yetzer Hara. This is anyone that wants to live. This is... This is... Actually, you know what? This is what we'll do. This is what we'll do. We're going to do this. Uh-huh. Okay. One second, one second. I'll fix this camera. Still fighting with the Yetzer Hara. I think he's winning. What about now? Why are you so close? Okay, let's go. What are we talking about? Oh, so Rabbeinu HaKadosh. Rabbeinu HaKadosh...

6:13:21suffered for 16 years. He brought this suffering upon himself just in case he dishonored Hashem, just in case he benefited from this world, and just in case he was losing any share of the World to Come. He didn't want to lose it, so he brought suffering on himself. We don't want to suffer at all. When someone forgets where their car is, they park their car, and they forget where they parked it, they say, "Hashem, why are You doing this to me?" Because they think somebody stole their car. "Hashem, why are You doing this to me?" Nothing happened to your car, you just forgot. But you say, immediately, "Hashem, why are You doing this to me?" When the kids are not behaving and they don't want to sleep at night, "Hashem, why are You doing this to me? I'm trying to do this, I'm trying to..." Immediately, we blame God. So... Anytime you blame God for anything, anytime you have a complaint against God, you, my friend, I'm not trying to discourage you. I'm just trying to be realistic. You don't love God. You love yourself. You love you. You're doing what you're doing because of you. You're following Torah because you'll benefit from it in this world and the next world. You're not following Torah because you love God.

6:14:46you have complaints against God. If you have requests from God, you don't love God; you love yourself. Now, this doesn't mean that you're never going to get there. But let's be realistic about where we stand. If we lie to ourselves to believe that we love God, but in reality, we're still in the beginning stages of yirat Shamayim. But we think and we say to ourselves, we lie to ourselves that we love Hashem. What does it mean? We're never going to do teshuva. We're never going to fix ourselves because we think we're already there. The guy that thinks he's successful is not going to work harder. Why? He thinks he's fine already. But the guy that's worried about the guy that's behind him, that's trying to steal his position, he's running fast. He's running fast. Go ahead. Let's say I want to be a good Jew, but I don't want to suffer. Who wants to suffer? It's easier said than done. It's not easy to pass a test when you're suffering. You could also blame Hashem for it. Let's say I want to be a good Jew, but not suffer, live a good life. In order to live, you have to suffer.

6:16:01Suffering is a part of life. Suffering is a part of life, exactly. Suffering is a part of life. Suffering is a necessary part of life to cleanse your bad middot, to soften you. Hashem has to let you suffer. I'll give you an explanation. Give me an explanation. When does somebody become humble? Does somebody just become humble because they read some books and... They read some books. How to be humble. Rule number one: Do this. Rule number two: Do this. Rule number three: Do this. Rule number four: Do this. Do they become humble after they read the book? They can read the book 5,000 times; they're still not humble. How do you become humble? Hashem humbles you. You realize you're nothing. You realize you're not exactly as great as you think you are. Everyone thinks they're better than what they really are. Everyone. When Hashem wants to humble you, He says, "Hey, son, you're not as great as you think you are."

6:17:09Not because He wants to destroy you, not because He wants to discourage you, but He wants you to know where you stand. So, I'll give you an example. One of the examples is during Yom Kippur, during Rosh Hashanah, during tefillah, what do we do? We make promises to Hashem. Hashem, give me another chance, give me money, give me a zivug, give me, give me, give me, and if You give me, I will do such-and-such. We make promises. I'm going to go to tefillah every day next. I'm going to read Torah every day. You become a malach. By the time you finish Yom Kippur with the three days in a row, Yom Tov, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, by the time the holidays are finished, you feel like you're a mini malach. First day after the holidays, you break your promises. First day. Why? Hashem says, I want you to break your promises. I'm going to make you break your promise. I'm going to give you a test. Most likely you're going to fail it. Why? I want to remind you, you're human. You made a lot of promises. You can't keep all these promises. Whatever you want to do, cut it into three. And then take that piece. So, first and foremost, you need to understand that

6:18:24In order to humble yourself, you have to go through difficulty. You must go through difficulty. You can't learn humility from a book. Moshe Rabbeinu did not learn humility from a book. He went through major difficulty. So that difficulty is part of making you. A diamond doesn't become a diamond straight out of the ground. It's cut, and it's cut again, and it's broken again, and cut again, and cut again, and cut again, and cut again, and eventually becomes a diamond. It doesn't just become a diamond. No diamond ever comes out of the ground as a perfect diamond that's already beautiful and everything. It's ugly. It looks like a rock. It looks like it's worth five cents. It's part of making you. A diamond doesn't become a diamond straight out of the ground. It's cut, and it's cut again, and it's broken again, and cut again, and cut again, and cut again, and cut again, and eventually becomes a diamond. It doesn't just become a diamond. No diamond ever comes out of the ground as a perfect diamond that's already beautiful and everything. It's ugly. It looks like a rock. It looks like it's worth five cents. Only after you cut it, and cut it, and cut it, and cut it, and cut it, and cut it, does it become a diamond. Same thing with the neshamah. Only after you train it, and train it, and train it with hardships, does it become something special. Now, Am Yisrael as a whole, it's written about Am Yisrael, it's an am k'shei oref. So the question should be, why did Hashem send Am Yisrael to Mitzrayim?

6:19:34They didn't sin. What did they do? It's a good question. Still, making them slaves for 430 years was before they got comfortable. Why? Hashem said to Avraham Avinu, "Your descendants are going to be slaves." They didn't make any sins yet. They weren't born yet. Already, you're going to decide they're going to be slaves? They didn't do anything yet. Hashem gives us a very big secret. Malach HaMavet is back on the internet. He killed the internet. He killed the internet of the... No, it's Yetzer Hara. Yetzer Hara, Yetzer Hara. Yetzer Hara, Yetzer Hara. In a fail. Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem. Part 3.

6:20:34You could kill the internet, but you can't kill a camera. Okay. So, the question is, why did Hashem already tell Avraham Avinu hundreds of years, hundreds of years before Am Yisrael became slaves, that his descendants are going to become slaves? Chazal in the Sefarim HaKedoshim say something extraordinary. It says, Hashem Yitbarach

6:21:47Already after Egypt, after they were already in slavery out of the 210 years we were in Egypt, we were hardcore slaves for 86 years, not 210 years. We were there for 210 years, but we were slaves for 86 and... But even after that, we still sinned against Hashem. Even after that, we were stubborn. Even after that, we were difficult to such an extent that Hashem Himself says, "It's a stubborn people." What's the chiddush here? The chiddush here is that even after all the difficulty we went through, 86 years of Holocaust. 86 years of Holocaust. Not five, not ten, 86 years of killing us, 86 years of enslaving us, 86 years of suffering, 86 years. We're still a stubborn people, we're still not humble. Why? Because originally Hashem created us with such extraordinary abilities that the Shevatim, the 12 tribes, had superpowers.

6:23:00Naftali was able to run from city to city in seconds. What does humility mean? Humble, sure. Humble means it depends. Again, there's humility in front of man, and there's humility in front of God. The Ramban says that you're supposed to look in the Igeret HaRamban... He said, you're supposed to not only obey Hashem, but you're supposed to look at every other person as better than you. How so? What if he's rich and you're poor? So you look at him as he is; you have to give him kavod because he's rich. What about if it's the opposite? It's easy to be humble in front of a rich person because he has more than you. But what if he's poor and you're rich? Then you say, the Ramban says, yes, he has less money than me, but he has more mitzvot than me. So he's also better than me anyway.

6:24:06Always look at another person as if he is more righteous than me. He knows more than me. And anything that I have is only due to Hashem. If he's committing a sin, he's committing a sin because he doesn't know. He's committing it by accident. If I commit a sin, I'm committing a sin on purpose. So he's more righteous than me. He's a bigger lover of Hashem than me. So humility means that all of the good things that you have, you contribute to Hashem. all of them you contribute to Hashem. And all of the things that other people have that seem like they're less than you, it's only because they have more than you somewhere else. That's, in essence, humility. But most people today, humility, they feel, is not a good thing. When you're humble, it seems like you're weak. But in reality, it's not. It actually shows strength. You're comfortable in your own skin.

6:25:06But in order to become humble, you have to go through major difficulty. You have to have tests. Hashem has to test you. You can't say, oh listen, I'm the humblest guy without having tests. What is it like? This is like, for example, a person came into town, and he pretended to be the most humble person in the world. Pretended to be the most humble person in the world, until somebody disagreed with him. Say, "Hey, I don't think you're right. I don't think you're right." Immediately, the humble person, the humble guru said, "Do you know who I am? Everybody agrees with me. Who are you to disagree with me?" Already, we see that his whole humility is fake. Why? He thinks something of himself. He thinks he's special. He thinks he's better than everybody else or even anyone else. Now, humility doesn't mean that you have...

6:26:06You're self-conscious and have no confidence. You have to have confidence. You know, to be a talmid chacham, you need to have confidence. But you're contributing anything good that you have, not to yourself. You're contributing it to Hashem. And you're also seeing the positive traits of the world around you, the people around you. That's humility. Yeah. maybe you're supposed to get some suffering, right? But let's say you could do certain sins that could bring you a thousand times more suffering, like you could waste seed, or if you violate Shabbat one time. To fix that, you might have to go through a car crash to atone. But if you try to be as righteous as you can, it could prevent a lot of suffering if you actually follow the Torah. That's what you surely missed tonight. So it says here, If you do teshuvah and you perform good deeds, they act as a shield against retribution, meaning that when someone commits sins, Hashem has to punish them. But when they start doing teshuvah, even though Hashem already sent the punishment on the way to that person, that teshuvah and ma'asim tovim can act as a shield to stop those things from hitting him.

6:27:28So yes, the person will still get some level of suffering, but it won't be as much. He might experience a hurricane, but he won't get directly harmed from it. There are a lot of different ways of suffering. Yes, there's a lot of different ways of suffering, but the reality of it is that in order for a person to become humble, they must go through a lot of suffering. The reason why is because Am Yisrael, when they were created, like I said before, they were created with superpowers and They were greater than everyone else. They were more powerful than everyone else. They were stronger than everyone else. They were smarter than everyone else. I mean, Yehuda, Yehuda had such power that when he would scream, he could destroy entire monuments, entire buildings just from his scream. When each one of the Shevatim lived, each one of them had major, major powers, so they had all the reasons in the world to be arrogant. They weren't; they were tzaddikim. But the descendants from them were also great, but weren't tzaddikim. So Hashem says after we were slaves for 210 years, we were still am k'she oref; we were still a stubborn nation, meaning that before slavery, we were completely unbearable people to the world.

6:28:54Even after the Holocaust of Egypt, we were still a difficult, stubborn people, meaning that before the suffering we were unbearable. That's how Hashem created us. Why? Because we really were the best. We really were powerful. We really were strong. We really were bigger. We were everything, but each time man sins, Hashem makes him smaller. Well, they're not the chosen people. They're not the chosen people; we are. So why do they sin? If the problem is some word they had, their feeling that giant and so on...but the point being is that suffering is a necessary part of life. If you want to get high, you want to get, you know, high in life and

6:29:54you know, as far as spirituality, the only way to truly do it is by limiting your involvement in this world. Anyone that wants to be rich doesn't want to be holy. Anyone that wants to have a good time in this life, going on vacations every other day, is not really that interested in being holy. Why? Holy means it's you and God. It's you and God. The more connected you are to Hashem, the less connected you are to material. You don't care about money anymore. Why? Because you already feel rich. You have God. What else do you need? You have God. What else can you possibly need? If you need something else, that means you don't have God. You have something. You have something close to it. You don't have God. You have safek. You have like H. You don't have the whole Hashem. You have a chesron, partial. That's the thing. When you're still connected to material, you still haven't gotten to the point. So, again, this doesn't mean that if you're holy, you have to be poor. There have been plenty of people who were rich and holy, but they did not make their life a life that's dependent on or even cared about the material part. Hashem gave them the material, but that's it. Yeah.

6:31:24The softness in character, the softness in the count, just like, for example, when you make chicken cutlets. Yes, because the thing is, in the Shemoneh Perakim by the Rambam, he writes: What's the difference between all the prophets? There's Moshe Rabbeinu, Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak Avinu, Yaakov Avinu. The 12 tribes were all prophets. Then we have Yehoshua Bin Nun. You have Aharon HaKohen. You have David HaMelech. You have 55 different prophets: 48 males and 7 women. And then there were many other prophets that are not mentioned in the Torah. A lot of prophets. But it says Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest of all prophets. The last of the prophets was Malachi. What's the difference? Why is Moshe Rabbeinu, it says, spoke to Hashem face to face, when we already know that Hashem doesn't have a face. Why did Moshe Rabbeinu speak to Hashem face to face, and everyone else spoke to Hashem, but not face to face? Why? It says, the Rambam explains, that each time somebody makes a sin,

6:32:48They're, in essence, making a barrier. They're themselves creating a barrier between them and Hashem. Between them and Hashem. In essence, it's like they're putting a wall up between them and Hashem. Because Hashem is pure. When you make a sin that's impure, you're separating yourself. You're further from Hashem. You're further from the truth. So the more sins you make, the more of a barrier you have between you and Him. How does the Rambam explain it? He says, all of the prophets were tzaddikim, the righteous prophets were tzaddikim. There were some wicked people among them. But each one of them had a certain amount of separation between them and Hashem. When you look at the prophecies about the end of times, about the Beit HaMikdash, from the prophet Yechezkel versus the prophet Yeshayahu. They both talk about the end of times, the third Beit HaMikdash, but Yeshayahu is more understandable than Yechezkel. Yechezkel speaks in parables and code, and it's hard to understand. Yeshayahu is easier to understand. Why? The prophecy of Yeshayahu was higher than Yechezkel.

6:34:01Why? Because he was closer to Hashem in essence, as far as his level of prophecy, because of fewer sins, better middot, and so on and so forth. This doesn't mean that anyone was... Comparison to us, they're all the greatest in the world. But between them, Yeshayahu was higher. But then if you read the Five Books of Moses, and you compare it to any of the prophets—Yirmiyahu, Zechariah, Yechezkel, Hoshea, Ovadia, anyone you want. compare the Five Books of Moses versus any of the prophets. You can't compare. Why? The Five Books of Moses are the closest thing to being literal. They're the closest thing to being. You just read it and you understand. It's clear. Everything else, it's like side messages, hidden messages, secret messages. The Five Books of Moses, this is what it is. Why? The prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu

6:35:01was pure. What does it mean? He perfected his Middot to the highest possible level. To such an extent that in Shemoneh Perakim, the Rambam says that the separation between him and Hashem was the equivalent of glass. So there was still separation, but it was like glass. It was like he could see through it. That's the separation between Moshe Rabbeinu and Hashem. And that's why Moshe Rabbeinu says, let me see Your face. Show me Your honor. What does it mean, show me Your honor? Moshe Rabbeinu knew he reached the highest level. I perfected myself, so now I should be able to see everything. Hashem says, ah, up to here. You can't see everything and live. You want to see everything, I have to take you from the world. Because he got to the height. So, Moshe Rabbeinu didn't ask Hashem, "Show me Your honor" for no reason. He wasn't chutzpah. "Show me the inside of Your house. Show me the safe." You know, some people, they come and knock on your door. "Hey, how are you? You just moved in? Yes, yes. Can I see your house?" No, you can't see my house. Get out of here. What do you want to see my house for? You have a house. Go see your house. Why do you want to see my house? "Oh, I just want to see. Oh, it's one floor?" Get out.

6:36:19Get out of here. Why do you want to see my house? Oh, wow, it's so big. What do you want from my house? Go away from my house. People want to go see your stuff. Rude people. Why do they want to see your house? They want to be jealous. For what? What good is it going to do to go see your house? Moshe Rabbeinu did not go and ask Hashem, "Let me see everything" like a chutzpan. Moshe Rabbeinu knew, "Listen, I got to the highest level, you know and I know. I got to the highest level, I perfected my middot. So now I should be able to see." Hashem says, "This is the highest level. You've got to the highest level, panim el panim. We're talking face to face. But there still has to be a glass." Glass separation. For everyone else, it's a wall. It's a darkened glass. It's different. It's not the same. That's why the Five Books of Moses are much clearer than any other book. Much clearer, much more commentary, much more understanding, much more significant. And that's why also, for example, even mystical aspects of the Torah, like Torah Codes and things like that, we only use the Five Books of Moses for Torah Codes. We don't use the entire Tanach for Torah Codes.

6:37:34And other things are based on the Five Books of Moses, not on anything else. That's the clearest prophecy there is. Yeah, what else? Because loving Hashem sounds like fun. Fear of Hashem sounds like an obligation. Loving Hashem sounds like, hey, I love Hashem. He's my buddy. I love Him. He's my boy. He's great. Love sounds like a fun thing to do. I love my wife. I love my kids. I love my boss. I love the food. I love a hamburger. I love shawarma. I love, everybody loves everything. You love fish? Yes. So why'd you kill it? If you love the fish so much, why'd you kill the fish? You don't love the fish. You love... the taste of the fish because you love yourself. You love anything. People don't know what love means. People think that love means, you know, between a couple. It has to do with intimacy. Love has nothing to do with intimacy. In fact, the more intimacy there is, usually the less love there is. Because love means that you are willing to do something

6:38:51You're willing to do something that doesn't benefit you at all, that only benefits the other party and sometimes even hurts you, only because you want to benefit the other person. That's love. Love is removing yourself from your own desires. Love means you're willing to do something for someone else even if you're going to lose because of it. That's love. That's love. Love is, there's no benefit for me. Love is, oh, if she's nice to me, I'll be nice to her. That's not love. That's loving yourself. Oh, I love her because she's a really good mother. No, that's you loving yourself here. You love the fact that she watches your kids. Oh, I love her. She makes good food. Exactly. You like her food. If somebody else made better food, you'd love them. But you don't love anybody. You love yourself. Loving somebody means you want and do things for them without any benefit whatsoever and are even willing and happy to do it even if you're going to lose because of it. Their pleasure gives you pleasure; their happiness gives you happiness. That's love. Most people don't even know the definition of love, forget about loving Hashem.

6:40:07They think that love is like a deal. So sometimes I have a couple come to me and they ask me about Shalom Bayit. Awkward about why we have Shalom Bayit problems. Why? Oh, he's doing this, he's doing that, she's doing this, she's doing that. Both of them are blaming each other. He's on the side, she's on the side, everybody's wrong. So why are you together? Oh, I love him. Why do you love him? Oh, you know, he takes care of my kids. He pays for the house. Oh, you just love his money. If you just loved the money and he left, you'd be happier. Oh... Why do you love her? Oh, you know, she takes care of my kids. She's good. Intimacy. Oh, so you don't love her. You love the body. So get yourself a doll. Same thing. You love what they do for you. You don't love them. That's one. The second problem that I see with couples is they allow Facebook to destroy their life. What do they do? As soon as something happens in their shalom bayit, as soon as something happens in their life, what do they do? They tell the entire world. My husband just yelled at me. They don't just say, "Listen, I need an ear. I need somebody to listen to me." She calls the girlfriend.

6:41:23Listen, my husband just yelled at me. It really broke my heart. No! Which is already bad enough, by the way. You shouldn't tell your problems to anybody. Only tell your rabbi your problems or rebbetzin problems. Don't tell anybody. Including your parents, including anybody. Why? It's not going to do you any good. It's not going to do you any good. Everyone's going to end up hating your husband. Because they're only going to hear about the problems he gives you. They're never going to hear about the good things. So eventually, everyone's opinion of your husband is that he's a rasha. Or vice versa, everyone's going to think that your wife is an evil woman because you're only going to tell them about the bad things. You're never going to tell them about the good things. Telling people about your personal life, about your marriage, is the worst thing you can ever do. What do people do? Not only do they tell somebody, they tell the whole world. "Oh, I would like everyone to know, I hate my husband. I hate my wife. She's mean. We're getting a divorce. Okay, we're back together. Oh, we love each other. Oh, we hate each other. Oh, we're getting a..." Why are you telling the whole world? Why are you fiending for attention? Dying for attention? Why? Because you really don't love each other. You love the image of each other. You love the way you look in pictures together. You look cute in pictures. You look like a cute couple, like a model couple in a magazine. You like that. But being together, you have no idea what it means. That's what people are missing. They report their life to the whole world.

6:42:49Because they like people to know their image, what they look like. In reality, they're enemies. They hate each other. They hate each other. Many times, these couples that advertise their personal lives to the world, they hate each other. They're not even good friends. Forget about lovers or husband and wife. They're not even good friends. In order to love somebody, you have to be friends with them. have to care for the person as a person. So the problem in today's world is that we don't even know the basic definition of love. Love, what love is. I'm not even talking about loving God. I'm talking about loving your husband, loving your wife, loving your kid. You have no idea what it means. How do you know a mother loves a child? She's willing to die for the kid. But how are you going to benefit if you die for the kid? I won't. That's love. It's psychotic, but it's love. It's a mother's love.

6:43:51A husband will never love the kids as much as the mother. A natural, normal mother, and a normal father will never love as much. Why? The son or the daughter came out of the body of the mother, meaning that at some point, they were considered part of her body. Just like you consider your arm your arm. If somebody told you, listen... I know more about your arm than you do. You're going to tell him, "Okay, I'm going to use this arm to slap you back into reality. What are you talking about? You don't know anything more about my arm. You don't know anything about my arm. It's my arm. How could you tell me I don't know anything about my arm?" That's the same thing as a husband telling a wife about the kids. I know more about the kids than you do. You don't know. If it's a normal relationship, a normal mom, and a normal father, under normal circumstances, it's not possible for the father to know more about the kids, their feelings, desires, and so on, than the mother. Why? They used to be a part of her body. And to her, in her mind, they still are a part of her body. They still are a part of her body. How can you tell her you know more about her arm?

6:44:59So that's the thing. Guys don't realize this. Guys don't see this. They're like, why? She gave birth. That's it. They're finished. They're grown-ups. No, no, no. To you, they're grown-ups. To her, it's moving body parts. That's what it is. It's moving body parts. Oh, look, my arm. Oh, look, my heart. Oh, look, my lungs. Why? Because she's willing to die for them for no reason. You, you don't even want to die for her. It's a reality. It's mamash a reality. So, we don't know what love is. And you're telling me everyone here, everyone, all of Am Yisrael loves Hashem? Everyone loves Hashem? We don't know what love is. We don't know how to love each other. We don't know how to love each other. I had a rabbi contact me today, Hashem Yerachem, Hashem Yerachem. This rabbi, God bless him, hopefully he does teshuva. I don't know what to tell you. Hopefully he does teshuva. He's part of a group, whatever, organization. Now, I have, Baruch Hashem, many groups that we post our shiurim on WhatsApp, on Facebook, on this, on that. Baruch Hashem, we're very active. We have a whole team, 30-40 people, posting everything everywhere, Baruch Hashem. Some people are employees, some people are volunteers; most are volunteers, Baruch Hashem. But we're very active in the...

6:46:23of some of these bigger organizations. People think we're like Microsoft. They think we have an unlimited budget. They don't realize it's a miracle for us to survive every month. But anyway, we have many groups, and I have no problem letting anyone that's kosher post in my groups. So, for example, Baruch Hashem, we have a Second or even possibly, at this point, the largest, but it's at least the second largest Orthodox Jewish group on Facebook, period. There are many Jewish groups, but they're not really Jewish—they're Zionist, Reform, Conservative, or I don't know, dogs getting bar mitzvahs. I'm talking about truly Orthodox Jewish. We have, Baruch Hashem, the second largest Jewish group on Facebook, period. We have many WhatsApp groups. We have a Facebook page with, I don't know, 10,000 followers, and so on and so forth. When we post things, it goes in front of somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 to 150,000 people every time we post something. Not everybody watches it, but the point is it goes in front of people.

6:47:36Tim Hashem works endless hours. Now, to build these groups, to set up these groups, to manage these groups, all this stuff takes time. Time, money, and resources. So if somebody, it's a kosher rabbi, comes and wants to post his stuff in my groups, if he's kosher, I let him. Even though we worked hard, we built it, we did it—no problem, no fee, no nothing. You want to post? Post. Why? It's Torah. So if you're posting in my groups, you're benefiting more than me. Now, I don't know, maybe I used to be in like 30 different groups myself. I'm now in just my own groups and maybe like one or two other groups that somebody invited me into. It's a small group, I don't know, 80 people or something like that. He tells me, he sends me a text today, "Please don't post your shiurim in our group. Our board doesn't like it."

6:48:37Our board of directors doesn't like it, and I said, "Well, I've been posting in your group for a year and a half. What happened? What changed? Did I do something wrong?" And he was like, "Who gave you permission?" I said, "Well, the founders of the group or whatever it was." And he says, "Oh, well, I'll have to ask." I'm like, "Well, you know, before you ask, this is actually kind of a ridiculous thing because maybe you don't realize, or you do realize, but..." Your organization posts in many of my groups, which are drastically larger than this tiny little group that you have here that I'm posting in once in a blue moon. Clearly, you're the bigger beneficiary of this relationship. Yet you don't see that because obviously something is wrong. Something is wrong with, I don't know, your opinion of me changed or something changed. What is it? What is this? What is all this whole thing? Sinat chinam. Sinat chinam. Why was the Beit HaMikdash destroyed 2,000 years ago? Hatred for no reason. Why is the Beit HaMikdash still not built today? Hatred for no reason. Why do people hate? Because you're successful and they feel like you're stealing their bread.

6:50:02That's the problem. This is the story of my life. My whole life in the business world, in high school, after. It's constantly, it's my tikkun in life. I'm just trying to mind my own business. You want to make money, go make money. I'll help you make money. I'll help you for free, no charge. Whatever you want, I'll help you. I have no problem helping people. I find it enjoyable. But as soon as people think that I'm doing well, they say, "Don't do it in my backyard." What do you mean? It's my backyard. How are you complaining? You tell me not to use my own backyard? No, don't make money. Who's making money? But that's the thing. It's sinat chinam. It's sinat chinam. It's mamash disgusting. It's hating and being jealous for no reason. What, am I making money out of this? Do I get a salary from Be'ezrat Hashem? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. No, no, but you collected donations on your page. Yeah, it goes to Be'ezrat Hashem. It doesn't go to me. Someone wants to send me, they send me. But in general, most of it goes to Be'ezrat Hashem. What do you, even if I'm making, let's say I am making money. I'm not, but let's say I'm making money. What, is it taking money out of your pocket?

6:51:21Are you not eating because I made money? But that's the thing. That's sinat chinam. People can't stand to see someone else succeeding. It's a horrifying reality. What we can do about it, the only way to fight sinat chinam is to spread truth in the world. Spread Torah in the world. Why? The more purity we have in the world, the more we can fight against impurity. You can't change human nature just by telling them, "No, you shouldn't do it." That's not going to do anything. The only thing you can do is teach them Torah. Hopefully, they will work on their middot and realize that they're wrong. Being jealous is also being a kofer, by the way. When you're jealous of another person, you're also a kofer in Hashem. The reason why is because when you're jealous of another person, you're in essence saying to Hashem, "What You gave him, really You were supposed to give me." You give him a nice car, I deserve the car. He doesn't deserve the car. You gave him a nice house, I deserve the house. Not you. Not him. Which means you're saying to Hashem, Hashem, with all due respect, You messed up on this one. You made a mistake. You're kofer gamur. Kofer gamur. Why? You told Hashem You made a mistake. So that's the thing. People have sinat chinam for no reason. No reason. No reason.

6:52:47Mama, there's no reason. They're just bored out of their minds. Bored out of their minds. And that's what happens when we can't even get to a point of loving each other, loving each other for no reason. Oh, wow, he does kiruv? I do kiruv too. Okay, let me help him out. Why? No reason. He's trying to get people to do teshuva. I'm trying to get people to do teshuva. Okay, so let me help him. Teamwork. We're on the same team. That's ahavat chinam. That's loving for no reason. Why? We're on the same team. Instead, what do we do? Oh, he does kiruv? Oh, he's stealing business from me. When they donate to him, they don't donate to me. That's sinat chinam. That's jealousy for no reason. That's hatred for no reason. That's lack of emunah. That's a lot of bad things. And that's why we don't have good in the world. so when we can't even love each other, we can't love our own brothers and sisters. How can you dare imagine in your twisted mind that you love Hashem? How can you love Hashem if you hate His children? How, how, how can you possibly love Hashem when you hate His children?

6:54:05When someone hates another person, another Jew, he's hating Hashem's child. How can you love Hashem when you hate His kids? Alright. You can't hate, period. Unless it's hating a rasha. Hating a rasha, it's a mitzvah. It's different, yes, different levels of hate. No, the spirit or... Okay, so whatever, whatever. I think that's what has to be done first. Sure. What do we mean when we say we hate somebody? What is hate? What is hate? Explain to me what is hate? Hate is wanting someone to lose, to have a loss for no reason, meaning that even if their loss doesn't cause you a gain, you're still happy about it. That's hate. Now, most people that want to win are willing to win even if it causes another person to lose, not because they want the other person to lose.

6:55:26but because they want to win really badly. So for example, in gambling, you play against another person. It's not that you necessarily want the other guy to lose; it's that you just want to win. So if you can both win at the same time, great. But in reality, you just want to win. That's not hate; that's just competition. That's being competitive. But what's hate? Hate is when you want him to lose, even if you're going to lose. Even if his loss will cause you a loss also, you're still willing to do it. That's Amalek. That's the Palestinians. That's the Gerushim who are willing to do everything possible, including killing themselves, just so you can die. That's hate. He took out his neighbor's two eyes. That's hate. That's hate. So that's what we've had, unfortunately, against Am Yisrael throughout all of history, where till this day Am Yisrael is hated for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Yes, we're difficult. Yes, we're this. Yes, we're that. But in today's age and every age, we're not so different than everybody else. They're not exactly roses. I disagree with you. Meaning? Generally speaking, we are small.

6:56:55smarter. We're still difficult people. It makes us very difficult. We're tough negotiators. We're usually better at business. And we have a lot of things that other people want, therefore causing jealousy. Sure, it's a negative character trait because they're poor. Everyone says that everyone is cheap. Germans are cheap. Turks are cheap. Persians are cheap. Everybody is cheap. Whoever doesn't like somebody else says the first thing is cheap. Why? It's easy to say he's cheap. How can you prove it? It's an easy way. Somebody could tell you that many people who are very generous are cheap. How do you know? How are you going to prove it? It's just a negative way to politely insult someone. To politely insult them. But also, don't we keep ourselves a target of hate? Or a target... No, we're a target because we're not doing the will of Hashem. Right, which is, if we were doing the will of Hashem, we wouldn't be a minority. No, right, we'd be the majority, exactly. Right.

6:58:17So that's still, yeah, you ask and answer the question. That in reality, when you do the will of Hashem, you're only going to win. When you don't do the will of Hashem, you're only going to lose with some wins in between to give you the illusion that you're winning, but in reality, you're losing. So, why does a casino player continue going to the casino, even though he lost every single time? Because once in a while, he wins. Once in a while, he wins. He goes for a whole year, 12 times. Once a month he goes to the casino. He wins twice. The other 10 times, he loses. But he still goes. But he still goes. Why does he go? Because the two times, he's like, no, this year it's going to be different. This year I'm going to win 10 times and lose only twice. Or, I'm going to lose 11 times, but the one time I'm going to win, it's going to be the jackpot. That's the addiction. That's the yetzer hara that feeds the addiction. So that's a self-hating person. No, they know. They know, but they want to win more than they think losing is going to hurt. No one thinks that they're going to be a victim. Do you think anybody in the world thought that AIDS is going to kill them? AIDS. AIDS. No, AIDS. HIV eventually becomes AIDS.

6:59:43HIV is the virus, but you could still live with HIV. Once you have AIDS, your clock is running out. So, no one thought they were going to get AIDS or HIV or any disease until they got it. No one ever thought they would be a victim of cancer. No one ever thought that they would be a victim of a car accident. No drug addict in the history of mankind who ever overdosed thought, "I'm gonna die from an overdose." No one ever thinks they're going to die, even when they're 150 years old. You think that anyone in history thought they're going to die? No. Everyone planned life as if they're going to live forever. Today, there are businessmen in the world, like Kirk Kerkorian, Warren Buffett, and many other people that are in their 90s, late 90s, even over 100 in some cases, that are still working full-time every single day. But I'm not talking about full-time just to occupy their minds. I'm talking about them working full-time as if this 20-30 billion dollar deal they're making, they're going to survive to see the fruits from it in 20 years from now. But they're not. But they think they will. Why? Because no one thinks that anything bad will ever happen to them. Until it does. That's part of the reason why Hashem sends us suffering: to remind us that He's in control; to remind us that we are still humans.

7:01:11and the reality of it is that when we forget that, it's impossible for us to be humble. Impossible for us. That's why when a person expresses anger, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says it's the equivalent of Avodah Zarah, the equivalent of idol worship. When someone takes, I don't know, one of these things, a remote control, a rock, or anything, and throws it across the room because he's angry, That's Avodah Zarah. Why is it Avodah Zarah? Because Hashem says, "Don't bring an abomination into your house." What's an abomination to your house? Don't bring the Satan inside your heart. When you threw that remote control across the room, when you threw the rock at the window, when you punched the car, not only did you let the Satan in, he took over.

7:02:14And when he took over, you had to worship him. You worshipped him many times. So the point is that it's the way we get to loving Hashem. It's not simple. It's not a simple journey. It's not one lecture and you're going to go and love Hashem. It's not one book and you're going to love Hashem. Oh wow, look at Rabbi So-and-So wrote this book. I love Hashem. No, no, no. It takes time, effort, trials, tribulations, and many, many tests. Many, many difficulties. Many difficulties. And it's only an illusion and only lying to ourselves to think that we can skip the basic level and go to the expert right away. you know, that's what we used to do as kids, playing video games. No one wants to play the whole game. You just want to beat the game, just to tell people you beat the game. So you buy these cheat codes. You'd buy cheat codes, even in the old days of Nintendo and different systems, but before your time probably. Some of you guys weren't even born yet. And...

7:03:28You'd buy these cheat codes. You'd buy them in a book. You'd buy this book from the library or different magazine stores, and you'd put these codes in a remote, and so on, and it would pass levels. Instead of starting at level one like every other Joe Schmo, you'd skip to whatever level you wanted. Or you'd have superpowers. Or you'd do this. Or you'd do that. Everyone wants that with Hashem. Everyone wants to be Moshe Rabbeinu without going through the 80 years of suffering that Moshe Rabbeinu had to endure to become Moshe Rabbeinu. Did Hashem make him suffer for him to become Moshe? Or did he happen to suffer and then he became great? Like, did Hashem say, "You're going to suffer and then you're going to become great?" No, He didn't give him a heads up, "Hey, listen, you're going to suffer." No, no, but did Hashem plan it for him? Everything that Hashem does is planned. Everything that Hashem planned was planned already before He created the world. But that doesn't change your free choice. That didn't change Moshe Rabbeinu's free choice. Moshe Rabbeinu still had an opportunity to be Moshe Rabbeinu or to not be Moshe Rabbeinu. He could have just been Moshe. He could have been a sinner. He could have avoided killing the Egyptian and said, you know what, let me just stay the king of Egypt. Who cares about this Jew that just died? It's not my business.

7:04:44Go kill them all. Who cares? He's the king. In today's world, if a Jew was given the same position as Moshe Rabbeinu, most likely that's what he would do. He would let the Jew die and go be a king, go be president. They say Moshe Rabbeinu's grave was buried in Yericho. It was designed from such a big receipt. So Hashem really knew before he said that he's going to go with Yisrael. Hashem knows the future, yeah. Hashem knows that you're going to sin before you sin. Hashem knows I'm going to sin first. No, absolutely not. Hashem knows everything you're going to do before you do it, but that doesn't change your free choice. But the point is that His knowing what you're going to do doesn't change what you do. So what's it like If, let's say, for example, I write on a piece of paper ten things, I put them in an envelope, and I give it to you. I say, open it tomorrow at the end of the day. So you go about your day. You do whatever you want to do during the day, whatever it is that you do every day. At the end of the day, you open the envelope, excited to see, maybe I wrote you a check for a million dollars, maybe, what did I write you? And then you see that I wrote exactly what you did that entire day. I wrote exactly what you did the entire day.

7:06:09Now, the fact that I knew what you were going to do before you did it, did it change your free choice? Did you do something different? No. You still did whatever you wanted. The fact that I knew didn't change anything. That's God. So the fact that He knows what you're going to do doesn't change your free choice. Why? Because in order to learn certain levels of Torah, Rabbi Yisrael Misalant explains that there are certain levels of Torah that anyone can learn basics, but certain things that the only way that you can learn them is after You've meditated on them after you've cleaned your neshamah, you've peeled off the kelipot, meaning you have to have the merit to learn this Torah. So that's why when you read, let's say, Parashat HaShavua or Gemara or really anything, even a story about the tzaddikim,

7:07:22The first time you read it, you get a certain level of understanding. The second time you read it, you have a new understanding, new insights. The third time, again, new insights. You can read the same thing 80 times, a thousand times, when it's Torah, every time there's going to be a chiddush. Every single time, never fails. If you don't have a chiddush, you didn't study hard enough. There's always a chiddush. Why? It's divine. It doesn't end. It doesn't end. That's the difference between that and secular knowledge. So, as far as when there's a subject that, for example, you can't understand, it means that you don't have the merit yet to study it. When Hashem wants you to study it, you'll study it. But people try to focus a lot of energy on the mystical or the philosophical parts of Judaism and run away from the basics. Judaism is not based on mysticism. Judaism is not based on philosophy. Judaism is based on fulfilling the will of Hashem. Hashem says, do this, you do it. Why? He said so. That's the real reason. Your boss said, come on time. Why? I feel like it. I want you to come at 8 o'clock in the morning. Yeah, but I just sit at my desk doing nothing all day. I don't care. I'm paying you. I'll tell you when to shut off the work.

7:08:46So if the boss that pays you however much he pays you every week tells you and feels free to tell you when to work, when not to work, how many bathroom breaks you're allowed, how many vacation days you're going to have, when you can take a sick day, when not, what makes you think that Hashem doesn't have a right to do even more? So Hashem says to you, do whatever you want, but just know there are going to be consequences. One of the consequences is that someone can get to such a point of being a sinner, we're not talking about Mechalel Shabbat, we're talking about smaller sins, but, or at least people think it's smaller sins, Hashem can decide, listen, if he does this, this, and this, this punishment, this, this, and this, this punishment, this, this, and this, ultimate punishment. Long story short, you're trying to do teshuva, start learning Torah, but Hashem makes you tired. You can't learn Torah, you can't do teshuva. Okay, so you say, you know what, let me sleep tonight, I'll sleep eight hours. Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, I'm going to do teshuva, I'm going to start learning. Tomorrow, you wake up, you do this, you do that, eight o'clock in the morning, you try to start learning, and all of a sudden you're tired again, just like yesterday.

7:10:04Okay, fine. You know what? I'll sleep for four hours. I'll rest. It's really early in the day. Fine. I'll wake up at 12. I'll study then. 12 o'clock comes and goes. You want to study? Your wife needs you. The kids need you. You need to get lunch. You need to get groceries. You need to go to the bathroom. You need to do this. You're going to do that? You're not back at the computer or learning from the sefer until 8 o'clock at night. Finally, you want to learn? The phone rings over and over again. Emergency. You don't know who it is. You pick up the phone. Oh, it's your sister. It's your brother. It's your mother. It's your partner. It's someone that has a problem, and they need to tell you all about it. Telling you all about it takes an hour and a half. Takes two hours. Takes three hours. You're not thinking, "I'm gonna be on the phone for three hours." You only realize you are on the phone for three hours after three hours have already passed, and it's now 11 o'clock. And you have to decide: Do I go to sleep and have a normal night of sleep? Or do I get less sleep in order to learn this Torah that I didn't succeed in learning all day? The Mishnah says if you've passed your day and you didn't learn Torah and...

7:11:12You have a serious problem to such an extent that Chazal says someone who is Mevatel Torah, wasting time from Torah study, they feed them hot coals in Shamayim that never go out. They take hot coals that never go out, like lava, but lava that doesn't go out, and that's what they feed them. So the point is that When you have an opportunity to learn, you have to learn. When you have an opportunity to do a mitzvah, do the mitzvah. When you have an opportunity to do whatever, do what you have to do. But remember, everything has a price. Everything has a price. If you don't think there's a price, you're living in an illusion. Next. Coffee, if anyone wants to make coffee. Okay, so. We got the message from the map of Moshe Rabbeinu. He says Am Yisrael saw the great hand of Hashem. They feared Him and they believed in Him and in His servant. Then we sing the song of Moshe Rabbeinu, which is actually part of our tefillah also.

7:12:38Song of the Sea, sung by the sea, contains a lot of secrets. One of them is very nice to know because it's in tefillah. I always asked, why does it say "Mi kamocha ba'eilim Hashem, mi kamocha ne'edar ba'kodesh?" Who is like You? In chapter 15, verse 11. It says, "Who is among the heavenly powers like Hashem? Who is like You among the heavenly powers? Who is like You, mighty in holiness? Too awesome for praise." So, Am Yisrael praises Hashem by saying, "Who else is like You? Who else is like You? No one is like You. There's no other God." But, "like You, who is like You" is spelled, it says twice, "Who is like You, Hashem?" that's holy, who's like You, Hashem, that is kind. So holy and kind. So even though it's the same word, kamocha and kamocha, one of them is missing a dot.

7:13:54One is pronounced differently. One is spelled with a dot, the other one is spelled without a dot. Anybody here ever wonder why there's a missing dot? Did they forget it? Actually, when I first read it, I used to put the dot. I'm dead serious. I would see it in my siddur and think, ah, the printer made a mistake. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. You want coffee? Copy? No? So, I would see it in my siddur, and I would think that the printers made a mistake. Made a mistake. It's the same exact word, but one has the dot, and the other one doesn't have the dot. This must be a mistake. Anybody here think it's not a mistake? I heard something. it's the same word. It's the same word spelled differently twice.

7:15:22What is it? The secret lies in this song. The Song by the Sea. The Song by the Sea is after Am Yisrael left Egypt. Hashem split the ocean for them, let them pass, and drowned all of the Egyptians except one. Who is the one? Pharaoh. Pharaoh was left alive. So then it says that Am Yisrael starts singing a song to Hashem. The angels wanted to sing also. Hashem says, look, my creation, my Egyptians, even though they were resha'im, they're also dead. What are you going to sing now? Yeah, but the humans are singing. The Jews are singing. They're singing because they used to be slaves. You aren't slaves for the Egyptians. They're allowed to sing. You're not allowed to sing. Okay, so the angels couldn't sing. But then you see the song and you have this word here. It says, "Who is like You, Hashem?" twice. And it's spelled differently as far as the vowels. The vowels are like these dots in Hebrew. Why? Because that one survivor, Pharaoh, was in the water.

7:16:40When they were singing the song and he heard them sing the song, initially he wanted to join the song. So, when he said, he wanted to say, "Who is like You, Hashem?" also, but he didn't have the strength because he had just finished drowning and had lost a lot of strength. So, the way he pronounced it was like losing breath. So the first time "Kamocha" is mentioned, it's Paro mentioning it. The second time, it's Am Yisrael mentioning it. Source: Midrash Me'am Loez, Parashat Beshalach. Paro did teshuva. Paro did teshuva; that's why he became the king of Nineveh. He became the king of Nineveh, did teshuva, then fell off, then did teshuva again, and so on. But, The reason, huh? Does teshuva count at that point where he was ready about to die? He's ready to die, so... Is this...

7:18:10as much as it would have been or should have been, because there was that minute or two Before he passed away, he did do Teshuvah. It's not like while he put the Jews through slavery, he had no Teshuvah, he had no mercy. So he didn't die. First off, he didn't die. What do you mean he didn't die? Pharaoh was the only one that Hashem left alive. And he actually went, he left Egypt, and he went to a place called Nineveh, and he became the king of Nineveh. He became the king of Nineveh, and the book of Yonah, the prophet Yonah, that Hashem sent him to Nineveh to go tell these goyim to do teshuvah.

7:19:33Jonah didn't want to do it. He said, well, I don't want the goyim to do teshuvah. I want to help the Jews. Hashem said, I'm going to send you where I want to send you. He didn't want to do it. He went to the sea. Hashem had a whale swallow him. Eventually, he listened, and he went to Nineveh and he went to the king and he told the king, listen, you have to do teshuvah or Hashem is going to destroy all of you over the next 40 days. And it says that Nineveh did teshuvah. They all put sackcloth on. They all did teshuvah. They started praying. They all gave in. But they all did. Why did they do teshuvah right away without arguing? Because the king was Pharaoh. And he knew when he said God is going to punish you, he knew what Yonah meant. He knew what God was. He knew he wasn't joking. That's why he did teshuvah. So Pharaoh didn't die here. He didn't die here. He's actually the only one that was left alive. He's the only one that was left alive. But as far as Am Yisrael as a whole, we have a lot to learn from this story. Number one, it shows that technically anybody could do teshuvah. Even if Paro follows what Hashem says, he could do teshuvah. The problem is that most of us want to do teshuvah without teshuvah. We want to put the kippah on, but we don't want to change our middot.

7:20:58We want to go to Beit Knesset, but we don't want to be Shomrei Shabbat. We want to be Shomrei Shabbat, but we want to sleep all day. We want to do all these different things, but in our own way, and not in the Torah way, not in the big Chachamim way. And that's a serious problem. The reason why is because when you start deciding right away that you're going to do things your own way, you're pretty much playing with fire. Because it's only a matter of time before you decide, "Let me just do everything my own way." What if you are doing teshuvah on a certain subject that you're working on, and you just keep on finding yourself falling on that specific thing that you're working on, and you do you do teshuvah again, you fall again, you do teshuvah again, and it's just this vicious cycle of teshuvah, fall, teshuvah, fall, teshuvah, fall, and at a certain point it's... You lose the cheshek. You lose the cheshek, exactly. So you do teshuvah and you fall, and then you're...

7:22:26Your teshuvah doesn't feel like it has any meaning behind it. After you say teshuvah, "I'm sorry, Hashem, I messed up, okay? I'm going to work on it." And then you fall again. So I feel like He's not even believing in my... The good news is, the good news is that Shlomo HaMelech says in order for you to be a tzaddik you have to fall seven times. Any tzaddik, anyone that's a tzaddik had to have fallen seven times. Not because Hashem enjoys the fall and not because the tzaddik needs to fall in order to be a tzaddik. In essence, he fell seven times but he also got up eight times. Meaning, it doesn't matter how many times you're going to fall; the way to become a tzaddik, the way to do teshuva, the way to get closer to Hashem, is not to ask the question, "Oh, how many times am I going to fail, and is Hashem going to forgive me?" That's not your business. Your business is to do teshuva. That's the main, most important thing for you, to focus on what your job is. Simply because once you start worrying about the judgment in shamayim, you're never going to end.

7:23:48My question is more, is He even accepting my teshuva after it's been way more than... seven or eight or nine. It's not like, "Okay, it depends on the sin, it depends on what you're doing," and so on. There are a lot of different moving factors. The Rambam says that when does Hashem really accept somebody's teshuva? When does He accept your teshuva? When Hashem can vouch for you that you're not going to sin. When Hashem can vouch for you that you're not going to sin, then you do teshuva. So Chazal says, what do you mean He's going to vouch for you that you're not going to sin? Is He going to change your opinion if you want to sin all of a sudden again? Let's say, for example, if it's a gambling problem.

7:25:09Somebody stopped going to the casino for six months, for a year, and then all of a sudden, after a year, they go back to the casino. And they say, "No, I only went once, I only went once." Hashem says, "You might as well have gone the whole year because you failed. You failed the test. I gave you a test, and you failed it. I have to give you another test for you to get back to where you were in the first place." But that also means that Hashem is giving you these tests in order to build you, in order to help you, in order to make you better. It's not just to torture you. So when it comes down to failing the test, failing the test is necessary in order for you to grow as a person. There's no limit. So what does it mean when the Rambam says that Hashem has to vouch for you that you won't sin? It doesn't mean that Hashem takes away your free choice, absolutely not. What it means is that when someone actually does teshuva out of sincerity, Hashem knows what's in their heart. Hashem says, you know what, at this moment...

7:26:19He believes that he's not going to sin. I know he's going to end up sinning, but at this moment, I take his teshuvah. Why? I can vouch. I know what's in his heart. I can vouch that that's actually what he feels. Right now, he says he's not going to sin. And right now, if I give him a test, he won't fail. Tomorrow, next week, next month, next year—different story. But right now, I can vouch for him; he's not going to sin. That's teshuvah. So now if you sin again, you have to get to the point where Hashem sees what's in your heart and that you really mean it. But if somebody says, "I must start keeping Shabbat, I must start keeping Shabbat," but in their heart they say, "I can't wait for the barbecue on Shabbat," in their heart they're already preparing the neighbors for the barbecue next week. Hashem says, "I know what's in your heart also. I know you're a rasha. I know you're doing exactly what Esav did. Esav would make promises and not keep them." And that's what it says. There are very few sins like that, such as, for example, wasting seed. Wasting seed is one of the most difficult sins to fix, but there is a way to fix it. It's much harder, similar to chilul Hashem. Chilul Hashem is much harder to fix, but it is

7:27:40Fixable. How do you fix that? That's what we did. How do you fix wasting seed? That's what we did. What was it? Same point. So, how do you fix wasting seed? Okay, so, first and foremost, we talked about wasting seed in regards to how bad it is. Someone wants to ruin their parnassah, waste seed. Why? Hashem gives you shefa. Hashem gives you a million dollars. You decided to Waste seed? That was the million dollars He gave you. You want to destroy shalom bayit? Waste seed. Why? The neshama of your wife knows the truth. She sees that your neshama cheated on her. With what? With the picture in the Playboy magazine. She sees you wasting seed. All of a sudden, your wife gives you an attitude. You didn't do anything, but your wife all of a sudden hates you. Why? Her neshama knows you're a liar. Her neshama knows you're a cheater. You want to destroy shalom bayit? Waste seed. You want Gehenom forever? Gemara says there are three types of sinners that go to Gehenom and never leave. One of them is wasting seed b'mezid. So, all the reasons not to do it—that's enough reasons. You want more reasons? There's a three-and-a-half-hour shiur that I gave in New York about wasting seed. How do you fix it? We're going to get to it.

7:29:02But we have to first tell them, why do we need to fix it? There are many things. Why do we need to fix it? First, we have to go over why we need to fix it. Because it's really bad. So first, we have to establish that it's really bad. For anyone who doesn't think it's bad, it's bad. It's as bad as it gets. How do we fix it? Now the seed you've already wasted, you can't undo. You've already destroyed those neshamot. You can't undo it. So... There's a few things that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai talks about, also Rabbi Nachman of Breslov talks about, and a few other sages in history talk about. There are a few things that are difficult, there are a few things that are impossible, and there's one way that's easy. So we'll talk about the first. Difficult. The most important thing in teshuva in general. Teshuva cannot happen without learning Torah every single day. If you want to do teshuva for anything, for chillul Shabbat, for wasting seed, for not laying tefillin, for anything, you must learn Torah every single day. Without learning Torah every single day, your teshuva is worthless. Why? It's a matter of time before you fall off. There are plenty of people that keep Shabbat without learning Torah for 15 years and eventually become chilonim. Why? They only kept Shabbat because it was convenient.

7:30:20Not because they believed anything. So, teshuva requires learning Torah. Now, if you want this Torah to help you specifically with teshuva for wasting seed, then you have to learn high-level Torah. High-level Torah means Gemara. That's the highest level of Torah. But the point where you're learning with difficulty, meaning you're not learning occasionally — you stop here, you read five lines, you go over there, eat a little sushi, you come back here, another five minutes, you take coffee, okay, coffee is good, you go outside, smoke 10 cigarettes, you come back, three hours here, you learn for 13 minutes. No, no! It means you're learning for hours at a time. So the ideal way is to learn for two hours straight without talking. That's ideal. But if you're brand new, brand new baby, to tell you go learn two hours straight without talking is like telling you to go fly. You're not going to do it. It's not possible. So you have to start with little baby steps. Little baby steps mean learning Gemara with a Chavruta, minimum 30 minutes straight, no talking. Meaning you can talk, but only about Torah. No baseball, no basketball, no business, no your wife, no your kids. 30 minutes straight without talking. But every single day, no break.

7:31:37This is going to start. This is eventually going to get you to have the ability to learn an hour a day straight without talking. And hopefully within a matter of months, just like when you work out, eventually you get strong, you're able to lift more weights. Eventually, you get to the two hours with Ta'anit Dibur. That's the serious Torah, where at that point, according to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, It's only learning, I'm sorry, the Arizal, it's only learning if you learn four hours. In our generation, if you're learning two hours, it's already a nes. It's already a miracle. So you have to learn high-level Torah. Shiur Torah is good. But unless it's a high-level shiur Torah, it's not the same. If you're brand new, anything is good. If you're brand new, anything is good. Meaning anything, not like anything is good, like you're in the background while you're smoking cigarettes and the rabbi is talking. Anything is good, meaning shiur Torah or Gemara or Me'am Loez or whatever, it's all good, just get started. Because you have to learn Torah every day. Get it into your blood system every day. Get it to be part of your every day. That's the first step. That's semi-hard.

7:32:42What's impossible? Impossible is that the Arizal says every time you've wasted seed, in order to make teshuva for it, you have to fast 86 times. You have to fast 86 times; that means you died. No. But it's for each time you've wasted seed, 86 times. The average teenager will have to fast 30 lifetimes. The average teenager will have to fast for the rest—not for this life, for Olam HaBa; he's fasting for his friends' Olam HaBa; he's fasting. So the 86 fasts are not relevant to us. Why? Because we messed up too much. So how do you do it another way? More difficult is you give tzedakah. Tzedakah means you have to give the equivalent of 86 meals for each time you've wasted seed. You have to give 86 meals. Now, a meal can cost $10; that means for each time you wasted seed, you have to give $860 in tzedakah. That means you have to give tzedakah for the rest of your life unless you're a millionaire. So that's also very difficult and almost impossible. What's the easy?

7:33:52What's the easy? What's the best? What's the one that works for sure? If you combine it with number one. Number two, 99% of people can't do. Either they can't afford it, or even if they can afford it, they're not going to do it. Maybe they'll give $860 this week, $860 next week, $860 for a whole month, or a whole year. Eventually, they're going to stop. Why? Too much yetzer hara. It's a lot of money. Learning, you're on to something. It's free. What's the third one? The third one is the best one. The third one is the easiest one, but the third one has the most yetzer hara. It's the easiest one to do, but has the most yetzer hara. You get other people to stop. You do zikui harabim, and you get other people to stop wasting seed. How do you get other people to stop? You stop, hey, hey, stop touching yourself. What are you going to tell them? "Hey, stop it." What are you going to go into bathrooms and check? What are you going to do? No. Obviously, as a Jew, you know that other people are also having that problem. If you're a man, you have the problem. Unless you are mamash davuk baHashem, a talmid chacham with serious yirat shamayim at the highest level, you have this problem. Why am I saying that? Because most of the people that come to me with this issue are not regular people.

7:35:13Most of the people that come to me with this issue are people that learn in yeshiva. Avreichim. So you would think they don't have the problem. It's the opposite. They have the problem. And they're the ones that want to fix it because they know how bad it is. Why do they come to me? Because unfortunately, in the English language, there's a total amount of six hours of information, of lectures about wasting seed in English. Out of the six hours, about five hours are from me. The other hour is an hour or so from Rav Alon Anava and Rav Mizrachi. The other five hours are from me. That's it. There's nothing in Hebrew. You can find a sea of lectures about wasting seed. In English, it's non-existent. Non-existent. So I've become the expert in wasting seed, apparently, in the English language. So, Baruch Hashem, a lot of people come to me with this issue, and it's...

7:36:14Ideal solution, the way to fix it is a combination of one and three. One, learn Torah every single day, so you can actually continue wanting to fix the problem. If you don't learn Torah, eventually you're not going to care. Eventually, you're going to waste seed, you're going to get worse. Without learning Torah, you get worse. It's only a matter of time. So you have to learn Torah every day. The more, the better. Specifically Gemara, specifically Mussar. Mussar is because you need Yirat Shamayim. Without Yirat Shamayim, your Teshuva is worthless. Why? You're not going to continue. If you're not afraid of something, you're making yourself into God. You have to be afraid of Hashem. If you're not afraid of Hashem, there's no Teshuva. So first, learn. That's step number one. Every day though, not like sometimes. Second step: get other people to stop. How do you get other people to stop? There are a couple of ways. Number one, you can arrange lectures. Set up lectures like we have right now. Get a group of your friends. "Hey guys, we're going to have a lecture about something interesting." "What is it?" "It's really interesting." "What is it? Really interesting?" Don't tell them anything. Just come. Bring food. Bring sushi, bring pizza, bring whatever you want. Just get people to come.

7:37:29You bring somebody, whether it's myself or one of the other two experts in the English language, about wasting seed to come speak and wake them up. Each one of them is going to go home with a heart attack. Why? Because they're going to realize what just happened. They just realized that their entire life they're living a lie. Why? Because they're wasting seed freely thinking it's okay and they realize that it's a serious problem. It's considered one of the three worst possible sins in the entire Torah. Shulchan Aruch says it's the worst sin in the entire Torah. So it's a problem. It's not like so-so. It's a problem. So now you get people to stop. Each time he stops... You fixed yourself. But not once you fixed yourself. He used to, I don't know, if he's a teenager, once, twice a day sometimes. You got to stop. It's like you fixed once, twice a day. So now you stopped yourself and he stopped. You were doing it once a week. He was doing it twice a day. Now you have yourself each day. It's like you stopped making a sin.

7:38:32Several times each week, you got one guy to stop. Next thing you know, you have another guy to stop, and then another guy to stop. Next thing you know, you got a bunch of people to stop. So, that is one way to arrange it. The second way is to get CDs with my lectures. You have some in the front for free. If you ran out, I'll give you some more. If you want to sponsor them, you can; if you want to get them for free, that's fine too. If you have money, sponsor them. If you don't have money, I'll give them to you for free. It's not about making money; it's just about doing zikui harabim. You give people the CD; you tell them to listen to this CD, track number five. That's the wasting-seed lecture. It's a three-and-a-half-hour lecture. You don't leave that lecture the same person. It doesn't matter who you are—you could be a talmid chacham, you could be a rabbi, you could be anyone. An atheist. At the end of the lecture, you're a different person. Why? I was a different person at the end of the lecture. I was scared at the end of the lecture. It's not a joke. It's a serious, serious lecture. Proofs from the Torah. Maybe a hundred different proofs from the Torah. Why it's so bad. Shlomo HaMelech, Noach, everything you could possibly want. It's the most comprehensive lecture about the subject.

7:39:41So you give people CDs. A CD, if you want to sponsor it, is a dollar. It's not exactly your average $25 CD from the store; it's a dollar. If you don't have money, I'll give it to you for free. So that's the second way. The third way, if you don't have money and you don't have CDs, you go to my page, go to YouTube, go to bezratHashem.org. You type in "wasting seed, Yaron Reuven, lecture" and it comes up. Take the lecture, copy, and paste it to whoever you want to send it to. It's free. They watch the lecture. They stop doing it because they get the shock of their life. Every time they stop, you're doing teshuva. A combination of one and three is the perfect combination. I can tell you what happens once you actually listen to me. I have a guy who's an avrech. So it's not like some avrech, learned Torah his whole life. Serious guy. Tells me, I have this problem. By the time I realized it's a problem, it was too late. I'm addicted. I said, okay, get married. He goes, I'm married. I said, okay, have kids. He goes, I have kids. I said, okay, destroy your computer. He goes, I don't have a computer.

7:40:56I said, "Okay, destroy your phone." He goes, "I don't have a phone." I'm like, "So when are you doing it? How?" He goes, "Once a week I have a phone. Once a week I see somebody else's phone. You don't understand. It's just something where as soon as I have a chance, I break. I don't know." I said, "Okay. Do what I just said to you guys. Work on it. Make sure your mind is occupied with Torah much more than what it is right now. Give some instructions." Six months passed. He says, "You don't understand what happened." I said, "What? You stopped?" He goes, "Yeah, of course I stopped. Of course I stopped." I said, "Okay, so what happened?" He goes, "You don't understand. Before, when I had the problem, that wasn't my only problem." I said, "What was the other problem?" He goes, "My other problem was my wife wanted to divorce me." And I didn't know why. She was always mad at me, but I was always nice. I don't know why. She hated me. Now, since I stopped, I didn't change. Nothing changed. But all of a sudden, she's my best friend. She loves me. Everything is great. Shalom Bayit is amazing. I said, oh, of course. Of course she loves you. He goes, why? I said, because her neshama knew your neshama was a cheater.

7:42:08Her eyes can't see. Your eyes can't see, but the neshama can. Her neshama knew you were cheating on her every night. With whom? With some magazine, with some image you have in your head, with whatever. Her neshama knew you were a liar. She hated you. Her neshama knew you were a cheater. She hated you. That's why you had shalom bayit problems. And now, she knows you're a tzaddik. And now you have shalom bayit. So all of this is real. These are real stories. This is real stuff that happens. It takes work though. It takes effort. It's not easy. The Zohar says it's a very serious addiction, to such an extent that Rambam, the Rambam writes in Issurei Bi'ah, it is the biggest addiction a human being can have. It's the biggest, it's the most difficult addiction to overcome. So it's not easy. That's why I say it has to be the combination of the two. If you just give out my CD like it's hotcakes, it's not going to be enough. Why? Eventually you're going to get bored of it. Eventually you're going to say, why am I giving the CD? Is anybody listening to the CD? How do I know if they're listening? All of a sudden you have questions in your head. Why? There's no Torah.

7:43:19There's no Torah holding you in. If you just learn Torah, okay, you're learning Torah, but you still have millions and millions of seeds you've wasted that you can't fix with just Torah. It's not enough. It has to be a combination. If it’s a combination, it's not a shame, you'll succeed. But how do you reverse? You're talking about preventing. Reversing is by getting other people to stop. So, for example, someone, for example, was a Mechalel Shabbat. Someone’s Mechalel Shabbat, until the age of 20, or until the age 30. Shodot t'shamayim. Hashem, I did teshuva at the age of 30. At 100, I died, so seven years I kept Shabbat, I was a tzaddik. Hashem says, yes, but you were mechalel Shabbat. No, I kept Shabbat seven years, Hashem. Well, you don't remember? No, no, I remember. But from the age of 13 to 30, you were mechalel Shabbat. Now, we're not going to judge you from 13 to 20, we're going to judge you from 20 to 30. Seven years were giving you leeway. You're not really judged for the first seven years from 13 to 20. You're judged from 20 to 30. From 20 to 30, you were mechalel Shabbat. Now, I know you did teshuva. The problem is, during those 10 years, you still have missing Shabbatot. Okay, so you became a tzaddik, kept Shabbat, learned Torah, everything is good. The problem is, you're still missing those Shabbatot for the 10 years. How many Shabbatot are in 10 years? At least 520.

7:44:50So you still have 520 Shabbatot that are missing. Well, you're just going to go. It's okay. Deficit in the account. You have to pay. You have a missing balance here. How are you going to pay for it? You get another person to keep Shabbat. He keeps Shabbat and you keep Shabbat. It's like you kept two Shabbatot. So now when you go up to Shamayim, yes, you violated Shabbat for 10 years. But you got the other guy to keep Shabbat for 10 years. He paid your account. You got the Shabbat, you got the guy to pay... Right. You got the guy to keep Shabbat for 50 years. Now you have a surplus. So now when your moms pray for you, what do they say? Oh, zechut Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, zechut Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, zechut this one and all the tzaddikim. Why zechut tzaddikim? Because the tzaddikim arrived in Shamayim with a surplus, with more mitzvot than they need. more Shabbatot than they need. You need to only keep, let's say, Shabbatot your whole life. They kept Shabbat themselves, but they also got a few other people to keep Shabbat. So they arrived in Shamayim with five times the amount of Shabbatot they need. So when you say the z'chut of Rabbi Meir, the z'chut of this one, the z'chut of that one, it's because they have extra. When you get another person to keep Shabbat, you can arrive in Shamayim instead of with a deficit, you have extra Shabbatot.

7:46:14Same thing with wasting seed. If you get another person to stop, instead of having a deficit for 10, 20 years of wasting seed, you get a few people to do teshuvah, you could arrive there, not only do they pay your account and your deficit, you could have a surplus. That's Gan Eden. Yeah? What about having like 12 children and having to watch each other a lot? I mean, Is it the same? No, it's not the same, but it's also great. There's a chair right there, anyway. Well, I mean, you know it is in this meaning: if you have kids, however many kids, and those kids are tzaddikim and... That goes to your merit, meaning it goes to your account that you actually raised. When they do mitzvot, you benefit from it in many, many ways. But it's not the same as getting somebody to do teshuva. Why is it not the same as getting somebody to do teshuva? Avot de-Rabbi Natan,

7:47:42Avot de-Rabbi Natan, one of the sages, gave a commentary on Pirkei Avot. He says, getting somebody to do teshuva, Hashem Yitbarach treats it very differently than He does with giving birth to a child. Why? He says, when you get somebody to do teshuva, Hashem says, you are just like Me. You are just like Me. And the verse that's being used, I'll show you in the Torah, So, you don't think I'm making this up. One second. Yirmiyahu. Okay, Yirmiyahu. Here. So, this is the verse. The verse says, So, therefore, Hashem says—so it's not somebody else, Hashem is saying this—if you repent, meaning if you do teshuva, I will bring you back and let you stand before Me. If you do teshuva, you used to be Mechalel Shabbat, you used to eat Treif, you used to waste seed, you used to do all these bad things against Me, but if you do teshuva, I'll let you stand next to Me. What does it mean I'll let you stand next to Me? I'm not going to tell you you used to be a Rasha, I'm going to tell you you're a Tzadik now, you're a Tzadik. Your teshuva is accepted.

7:49:09I know you did all those bad things, but once you did teshuva, I accept you. Not only do I accept you, but you're gonna stand right next to Me. I accept you at the highest level. Why? The Gemara in Masechet Berachot, page 34, says the place that the ba'alei teshuva stand, even tzaddikim gemurim cannot get to. Why? Tzaddikim gemurim don't have the same tests. They don't have the same tests. It's like the tzaddik gamur was born into a righteous family. He never had the test of business, the test of women, the test of this, the test of that. Whereas the guy that did teshuva had many tests. He saw strip clubs, he saw bars, he saw this, he saw all these bad things in the world, and he still chose God. He is considered higher. There's another pirush on it where the Rambam says actually what it means is that a Baal teshuva that did teshuva... It's doing teshuva out of loving Hashem, fearing Hashem, and loving Hashem. Whereas a tzaddik, if he's just a regular tzaddik, he's only doing teshuva based on fear alone. That's why a Baal teshuva reaches higher. But if a tzaddik gamur gets to loving Hashem, he's actually higher than the Baal teshuva. So there's a debate. Either way, both are good. Point being is, someone does teshuva, Hashem says...

7:50:31You're good. I love you. You're my lover. I love you. You're amazing. But here's the thing. The verse continues. If you bring somebody else to do teshuva, somebody who used to be a sinner, and you make him precious. Zolel means he was like nothing. He mistreated himself. He used to be a king wearing shorts all day. A queen wearing tank tops, that's not a queen. But you make him into yakar. Yakar means precious, meaning you help somebody else do teshuva. KePi Tiyeh—you will be like My mouth. So Chazal says, what does it mean you're going to be like My mouth? I said something, and the world was created. You're the same. You're the same, meaning Hashem says when you get somebody else to do teshuva, you're considered his creator. To that extent, in Hashem's definition, not my definition. You're considered a creator. You're considered a full partner in creating this person. Why? Before he did teshuva, he was considered dead.

7:51:46A rasha, someone who goes against Hashem, is considered dead even during his life. Even if he's alive, he could be running a casino, he could be running a company, he could be running whatever, in Hashem's eyes he's considered dead. Why? His life ends here. So a rasha is considered dead even in this life. When you brought him back to life, it's like you gave him life. You created him. He's considered your child. He's almost considered your child, your own creation. So what's the biggest significance of it? Chazal say that keviachol also means that whatever Hashem says comes true. Therefore, if you say a blessing, if you ask for something, and you're a mezakeh harabim, Hashem makes it happen. Why? It's like He said it. If He says, I want the sky to appear, the sky appears. If mezakeh harabim, a serious mezakeh harabim, not somebody who does it on the side,

7:52:47Serious mezakeh harabim starts praying to Hashem, "Hashem, I know that You've decided to give this person a disease. I don't want him to die. Why? I know they're going to do teshuva. Please, Hashem, take away the disease." Hashem says, "I decided, but you overrode My decree. Allowed." Why? You're a partner. It's to that extent. So... So it's to that extent. It's mamash to that extent. So being a mezakeh harabim, being somebody that helps other people do teshuva, it's not only a key to teshuva itself, but it's also a key to getting your blessings heard. But then comes the last part. The last part is, this is why it has the biggest yetzer hara. In the beginning, everything I'm saying to you sounds easy. Learn Torah? I already learned Torah. Give out some CDs? What's the big deal? Sponsor some CDs? I have 50 bucks. I have 100 bucks. I'll sponsor CDs. No problem. In the beginning, it all sounds easy. All of a sudden, the yetzer hara shows up. All of a sudden, you start asking questions. All of a sudden, you don't feel like doing it. All of a sudden, you're too busy. All of a sudden, it's not working as smoothly as it did in the beginning.

7:54:07Why? Hashem doesn't give anyone the ability to be a PTA. Hashem doesn't say, "You want to be Mr. Kabrin? Go, go, do what you want. Whatever you say, I'll do." He doesn't just give that merit to anyone, especially if that person has no merits. So I'll give you an example, a real example. One time, I had a lecture, and a guy shows up. I've never seen him, him and another guy. shows up at my house, we're having a lecture. This is maybe two or three years ago. He likes the lecture, found it very interesting, found it very this and very that. After the lecture, he pulls me aside and says, "Listen..." I have a business, I have this, I have that. I want to invest in your Kiruv organization. I want to give. What's the budget? They asked me a bunch of different questions. I said, sure, whatever you want to give, give. He goes, no, no, I want to really seriously take it seriously. I want to be a partner. I want to do... A lot of promises. No problem. Whatever you want to give, give. Okay. He said, I'm going to look at the numbers.

7:55:19I'm going to get back to you with a number right away. The next day, I did another lecture in another place down the street, and he came to that lecture too. I saw him, same thing, "I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this." Okay, fine. He came to a couple of lectures with a lot of promises. Now this guy, me? I have no idea what you're saying. Oh, okay. No, no, leave that over there. Talk for however many hours we've been talking, I guess the mic eventually dies. Okay, so this guy, this guy, this guy, supposedly worth a hundred million dollars, meaning to give a few hundred thousand, a few million. It's all chump change to him. Nothing. A hundred million dollars. It's like you're printing money at that point. And he wants to invest, he wants to do this, and he wants to do that. All of a sudden, he disappears. Done.

7:56:45My lectures didn't change, nothing changed, all of a sudden he's gone. But not gone like he stopped showing up once a week. Gone like disappeared from the face of the earth. No one knows where he is, no one talks to him, nothing. Gone. Still alive, but gone out of the picture. Why? I knew it wasn't going to work. Why wasn't it going to work? What's the business? What's the business that makes all these millions and millions of dollars? Clubs. Clubs. Clubs, nightclubs. You can't expect Hashem to allow you to bring people to Gan Eden when every day you're bringing people to Gehenom. Measure for measure, it doesn't work. You don't have the merit to get people to Gan Eden with Zikui HaRabim, where each person, you take them from Gehenom, you put them in Gan Eden. Why? They used to be Mechalelei Shabbat, now they keep Shabbat. They used to cheat. Now they don't cheat. They used to waste seed. Now they don't waste seed. When we actually go give lectures, people do teshuva. You mamash take people out of Gehenom and you put them in Gan Eden. You can't expect to be a partner with that when you're the one that put them in Gehenom. In the nightclub, in the strip club, in the bar, in the whatever, all this stuff. You can't. No merit. So that's the thing. So to be a mezakeh harabim, to be a partner...

7:58:07whether it's in money, or it's in time, or it's in skill, or it's in anything, you mamash have to have a merit. You have to have merit. If you don't have merit, you need to earn merit. You need to work hard. You need to learn more Torah. You need to try really hard. It's a little more difficult, but it's still possible for everybody to be mezakeh harabim. It's possible for everybody to do it. And the key is everybody should do it. And the reason why is because they need it. You don't just need it because you want to love Am Yisrael and you want to do teshuva. You need to do it because you need to do it for your teshuva. I need to do it for my teshuva. You don't just need to do it because you want to be a nice guy. You want to do it because you have to. Because without it, your teshuva is not complete. There's not one man, there's not one man that didn't waste seed at some point. If they did, they should be giving the shiur. They should be Yaakov Avinu. Every man wasted seed. Every man. To fix it, you got to get somebody else to stop. One person, two people, ten people, a hundred people, however many you can. That helps your teshuva. When you do zikui harabim, it's not easy. There's a lot of yetzer hara, a lot of yetzer hara. But, Baruch Hashem, there's also a lot of miracles that come with it. There's a ton of miracles that come with it. There's a lot of benefit to it. It feels good to see people change their life.

7:59:36It feels good to see people do good things, get married. I'll tell you guys a story. I told it earlier today, but it's still worth telling. I think it's a similar story. One guy came to me, an atheist. You know what an atheist is? An atheist believes in nothing. An atheist means he believes he came from nothing and he's going to be nothing. Within three shiurim, he believes in God. Already we've achieved something. guy believed in nothing for 30-40 years. All of a sudden, he believes in God. That's already an achievement. Now, yeah, we'll leave it for now because it's almost the end, so... The guy comes to me as a Mechalel Shabbat, doesn't believe in anything, thinks he's going to be a tree one day. Baruch Hashem, within three shiurim, he believes in God. Within five, six shiurim, he starts learning Torah every day from CDs. I give him my CDs, I give him Rav Mizrachi's CDs.

8:00:52Within a few months, he starts keeping Shabbat, starts laying tefillin; we give him tefillin, ta ta ta ta ta. Little by little, Baruch Hashem, the guy starts doing serious teshuva. One day I find out that the wife he's married to, Baruch Hashem, they never had a chuppah and kiddushin. Never had a chuppah and kiddushin. Why? They were both atheists. Why are you going to have chuppah and kiddushin for a G-d you don't believe in? I said, why don't you have a chuppah and kiddushin? He goes, eh, for what? He said, "No, I'm stressed out." "Why are you stressed out?" "Listen, we're together five years. Together five years, no baby. No baby. A woman that can't have a baby feels like she's dying. If you don't give me a baby, just kill me. Five years we're together, no baby. Nothing. Doctor said, no baby possible. Doctors decide like they're God. I said, you have chuppah and kiddushin, you're going to have a baby." You're doing teshuva, you're keeping mitzvot, you're keeping Shabbat, you're laying tefillin, your wife became modest. You're following Torah, not me. It's not my laws. I didn't make the laws. Hashem didn't ask me for permission when He wrote the Torah. I said, you follow what He says? You're going to have a baby. Sure? Sure. Sure. Just a few friends got together. Nice little party. Nine months later, brand new baby.

8:02:23Brand new baby. Five years, no baby. Nine months later, baby. It's a mikreh, it's happenstance, it's a coincidence. No. This is a reality. I give you a new story every day of people like this. Every single day. Why? That's what kiruv is for. So it pays to go through the difficulties. It's difficult. Very difficult. You know how much kapparot I will not have to go through every single day just to survive? It makes my old Wall Street career into child's play next to this. Wall Street looks like it's a game, like a little tiny baby game next to kiruv, how difficult it is. But it's worth it. Why? Because you see people's lives change. So when you're doing it, you're doing it for two reasons. Number one, one thing that's going to fix this world is is less sinat chinam. Everyone talks about sinat chinam, sinat chinam, sinat chinam. How do you fix sinat chinam? Ahavat chinam. What's ahavat chinam? Loving people for no reason. Rabbi Yitzchak Miberdichev says that the biggest sinat chinam is when Am Yisrael sees one another's sin and doesn't say anything.

8:03:42You see another person, you don't say anything. Why? You know the train's going to hit him, you still don't say anything. You know Hashem's going to punish him. At some point, He's going to punish him, and you still don't say anything. It's like somebody put poison in a cup, and you don't say, "No, no, no, let's see what happens." It's poison; he's going to drink it. He's going to die. "No, let's see what happens. You never know." That's sinat chinam. Ahavat chinam is you love him for no reason. Meaning, you're going to do whatever you can to help him, even if you don't benefit from it. Even if he hates you for it. Even if he hates you. Why? You saved his neshama. Doesn't matter if he hates you. Who cares if he hates you? You saved his life. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, we'll finish with this. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, they asked him one time, what if my friend doesn't want to hear it? What if he doesn't want to hear it? What if he doesn't want to hear it? Can I still tell him? So the Lubavitcher Rebbe, זצ"ל, said this. He said, listen, imagine you had a roommate, and your roommate was a very angry person. And one day he told you, listen, listen, I'm going to sleep.

8:04:57Don't wake me up. I don't care who calls. I don't care who writes. I don't care who does anything. Don't wake me up. You're like, I'm never going to wake you up. Stay asleep forever with that kind of attitude. You leave the house all angry, all upset. By the time you get downstairs, you smell fire. There's fire in the building. Your friend, even though he's nasty, he's still your friend. You run upstairs. You wake him up. "Hey, there's fire!" And the Lubavitcher Rebbe asked the guy, he's like, do you think the guy you just woke up, who told you not to wake him up under any condition, when you woke him up and told him there's fire, do you think he's going to be upset? Why is he not going to be upset? Because you just saved his life. Same thing with a person, same thing with a person that didn't do teshuva yet. When he's a sinner, he's sleeping. He's sleeping. Once you get him to do teshuva, of course he's not going to be upset. Why? Because he finally realizes you saved his life. He realized that he was in a fire. Until then, let him scream, let him yell, let him do whatever he wants. You're saving his life. If, let's say, your brother was about to chas v'shalom, whoever's brother, whoever's, some non-Jew's brother. Somebody was about to jump off a bridge and you had to punch them in the face 50 times to save them.

8:06:24Do you feel bad about it? No, why? Because they're going to kill themselves. If somebody was going to jump off a bridge, you had to shoot him in the leg. Do you feel bad about shooting him in the leg? Why? Because you saved his life. So it doesn't matter if he's in pain. It doesn't matter if he doesn't like you. Why? You saved his life. That's the ikar. You saved his life. Let him hate you forever, but you saved his life. Otherwise, he dies forever. He's gonna hate you more. When he dies forever, he says, "How come you didn't tell me? Now I'm in Gehinnom forever. You didn't tell me. You didn't try enough. I would have tried hard. I would have shot you in the leg in a second." So that's the thing. You have to try as hard as possible. And the key is to make sure to understand that when it comes to saving neshamot, don't do any accounting for Hashem. Don't do any consideration for feelings. Save neshamot. Save whoever you can get. The guy is 50-50, get him to 51%. The guy is here, get him better. Why? You have to save him. We're running out of time. We're running out of time. Not just for this year, but in general. We're running out of time. And as soon as Mashiach shows up, there's no more teshuva. There's no more teshuva.

8:07:44Nobody can help us once Mashiach comes. Finished. So it doesn't matter if they like you or don't like you. Don't do any accounting for Hashem. Save people. I promise you, they'll love you in the end. One of my first difficulties was having a family member go against my teshuva. They hated the fact that I was doing teshuva. Now, Baruch Hashem, they're the number one advocate. Now they're the number one advocate. Why? In the beginning, they hated it. Today, Baruch Hashem, they're the number one promoter. Why? Now they see they were on fire. So, b'ezrat Hashem, this will help Am Yisrael do teshuva. Baruch Hashem, Hashem gave us the strength to do a shiur Torah. I didn't even know what time it was, but Baruch Hashem, He told me it's almost 6 o'clock, so I think we have to pray now. So, Hoshana Rabbah, it was a big day. Hopefully we praised Hashem. We sanctified Hashem's name. Hopefully people take some of this message home to help them do teshuva, to help Am Yisrael do teshuva, help you guys do teshuva. Like I said before, if you have friends, if you have people you know, you have people you care about that are not keeping mitzvot, arrange a shiur. Wherever it is, I'll come. It's free. So you don't have a problem with money. Just get people, get a location, I'll show up.

8:08:54You want to donate? Donate. You don't want to donate? Don't donate. I don't really care. The point is, get people to do teshuva. You have CD players? Put the CD players. You don't have CD players? Take the link, put it on the thing. The key is to get people to do teshuva. Why? Not only do you need it because you want to be a nice Jew, but you need it for your own teshuva, for your own tikkun, because you wasted seed at some point, you were mechalel Shabbat at some point, you had bitul Torah at some point. Everybody did something. Helping somebody else do teshuva helps that something. It helps you fill that hole. Helps you fill that deficit. So, B'ezrat Hashem, this helps everybody get motivated. B'ezrat Hashem, to this new year, to help Am Yisrael do teshuva, prepare for the Mashiach, B'ezrat Hashem. So when he comes, say, hey, look at my friends. I got 50,000 of my own tzaddikim. I got 400,000 of my own kipat yarmulkes. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen. Very nice.