Recognize Your Nothingness To Become Something - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (9)

0:17We have our Tuesday night shiur on the letter by the Ramban, written almost 850 years ago to his son. After he made Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, the beautiful part about the letter is that each and every single word teaches you something, not only about the Ramban, not only about the type of son that he had that he would write such a letter, but also you can learn a lot about yourself by studying the letter. The shiur will be for a refuah shlema for Avi Mori, David Ben Asriah, Doris Bat Jorah, Levana Bat Sara, Rav Ephraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, Anytime I forget somebody, I'm sorry. I just can't remember everybody's names. But surely Hashem knows my kavvanah.

1:22So anyway, the Ramban so far has told us a little bit about ourselves, what to stay away from, and unfortunately, one of the good things is also one of the bad things about Am Yisrael, that Hashem describes Am Yisrael as an am k'shei oref, a stubborn people, a stubborn nation. So the question the Chachamim ask is, why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu have to send us to Egypt? for 210 years. I mean, technically, we didn't do anything. We didn't do anything. It's not like we worshipped idols or we were such bad people. He already told Avraham Avinu, "I'm going to send your descendants, your grandchildren, I'm going to send them to Egypt, and they're going to be slaves over there." Before they were even born, before they even did anything. Now, if you read the Midrash Me'am Lo'ez, ...and you read about, in the third installment, you read about the wars of the Shevatim, the wars of the tribes, and you see that each one of the tribes had superhuman powers. Aside from being beautiful people, being big, being strong, being rich, they also had literally superhuman powers. And their kids as well.

2:47and they were simply a superior people. Now, a lot of people today say, yeah, you know, the Jews today, you know, they're the smartest. Per capita, if you look at the statistics, Jews have won more Nobel Prizes than any other nation in the world, statistically speaking. Number-wise, we're number two behind America, but if it was statistically, if you compare the amount of Jews in the world versus the amount of Americans, the Jews have won more Nobel Prizes than anybody else out there. So much so that the Koreans came to, I believe it was the Koreans, came to Eretz Yisrael, and they went into a Beit Midrash with a camera system. It's on the internet. I said, "What do you want?" He said, "We want to see" The secret, what secret? He goes, we want to see the secret of how Jews keep winning the Nobel Prize, how Jews are leading the number one companies in the world, how Jews in general are much more successful than regular people, than everybody else. There are eight billion people in the world, but the Jew is always on the news. There aren't that many Jews in the world; there are only about 15 million Jews that we know of, but yet every day there's at least one Jew on the news that did something. And many times it's a big thing, whether it's a new company, a new product, a new drug,

4:06Whatever it is. So the Asians came and they said, listen, we asked around, how is it that Jewish people are so much smarter than everybody else? And we kept getting the same answers because the Jews learn the Talmud. They learn Gemara. So we came here, we wanted to see what it is like to learn Gemara. So they came to the Beit Midrash and they saw a bunch of Avreichim learning Gemara. they ended up taking the Gemara and translating it to Korean, and there are people in Korea today learning. Little do they know that, unfortunately, many of these Jews who are very, very successful and are constantly in the news and running Hollywood and businesses and so on are not exactly learning But nonetheless, it is a very well-known fact that Jews, in general, have been a superior people throughout the generations. We've also been a hated people. No one has been hated more than Jews throughout all of history. No one has been persecuted more than Jews throughout all of history. Not the Black people, not the Indian people, not the Mexican people, nobody.

5:11Jewish people have been hated around the world from the beginning of time until the end of time, because that's one of the tools that HaKadosh Baruch Hu uses in order to rebuke us, to do teshuvah. Now, the question still remains, before HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us the Torah, He still decided to send us to Egypt. Why? So the Chachamim say, because Am Yisrael, the children of Yaakov, the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, were superior to the rest of the people. They were stronger, smarter, richer, and so on and so forth. They were created differently, in so many words, physically and spiritually. They were also very, very arrogant people. And in order to get them to a point where they could receive the Torah, Hashem had to break that ga'avah. He had to break that ego. He had to break that mentality that you're better because of yourself and not because of your Father in Heaven. And what way is there to break us? He sent us to Egypt. He made a leader into a slave. And we went, still, after we left Egypt, and until this day, we are still called the Am Kshei Oref. We're still called a stubborn nation. Meaning...

6:34that we were so detestable before Matan Torah, before Egypt, that the world wouldn't be able to tolerate us. So much so, that if we didn't accept the Torah, the Chachamim say that Am Yisrael would have destroyed the world. They're strong, they're powerful, they're smart, but without Torah, they're dangerous. Now, Baruch Hashem, we accepted the Torah. Baruch Hashem, we have the Torah. Baruch Hashem, we learn the Torah. But the point being, Rabotai, is that the Torah is not a book that's going to tell you the history of Am Yisrael. The Torah is a book that's going to give you an instruction set of how to be Am Yisrael. How to be what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants you to be. And one of the main focuses of the Torah, one of the main purposes of the Torah, is to use it as an instruction set in order to break those horrible character traits that all of us have. Some people are more arrogant than others. Some people are more self-conscious than others. Some people are more stingy than others. Everybody has some type of flawed character trait. Not everybody is the same.

7:42But the point being is that there are certain character traits that HaKadosh Baruch Hu calls detestable, disgusting. One of them being anger, another being arrogance. And that's what the Ramban, Nachmanides, starts the letter off with by telling us to stay away from anger, save yourself from it, go towards the trait of humility. make sure that you run away from anger and get to a point of humility. And then we get to this week, where he uses a Pasuk. He uses a Pasuk, he uses a Pasuk, The Ramban continues, and he says, on the heels of humility comes the fear of God, which is a pasuk from the book of Mishlei by Shlomo HaMelech, chapter 22, verse 4. We'll explain in a moment. It says, on the heels of humility comes the fear of God, meaning one leads to the other. If you're going to develop your Yirat Shamayim,

9:02you're eventually going to arrive at humility. If you're going to work on humility, you'll arrive at Yirat Shamayim, the fear of God. And through this humility, the fear of God will intensify in your heart. And once the fear of God intensifies in your heart, you will always be aware of where you have come from and where you are destined to go. And you will realize that in your life, You're as frail as a maggot or a worm, even more so in death. This last part, although it seems gruesome and morbid, is actually a very famous Mishnah in Pirkei Avot. And we'll explain. Now, we talk in many of our shiurim over the last five or six years i try really hard to mention Yirat Shamayim in almost every shiur. I think we've mentioned it practically in every shiur at least once. Some are focused only on that, others less, but nonetheless we talk about Yirat Shamayim, the fear of Hashem, constantly. Now, this is not some obsession that I have, but rather this is an obsession that the Torah has.

10:17Every single parasha, every single book by a chacham, every single chacham is going to constantly talk about Yirat Shamayim. And the reason for that is because that's the foundation of connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. After Am Yisrael crossed Yam Suf, it says they looked back and they saw that the Egyptians drowned, they recognized the hand of Hashem, they recognized the miracle, And they feared Hashem and they believed in Him and in Moshe, His servant. Meaning that after a normal Jew sees the hand of God, sees the creation, sees the miracles, sees the things that are going on, he immediately becomes afraid. Why? Because he realizes simply how little he is and how big Hashem is. How, with a little bit of a stomach ache, all of a sudden we can't move. A toothache, a small toothache, not even the whole mouth. One tooth hurts, all of a sudden you're sick, you know, you don't want to move. You don't want to talk. Your whole mouth is puffy. You want to go to a doctor. Give me some shots. Take some pills. Why? It's only one tooth. You have 30-something teeth. When you get older, there are fewer teeth because they start taking them out. But the point is, Rabotai, what happens? A little toothache, all of a sudden you can't move. An earache, you can't move. A stomach ache, all of a sudden, nobody else can move. Everybody else wants to move away from you.

11:42We realize that us, young, healthy, Baruch Hashem, strong, maybe you lift some weights, maybe you can run really fast, maybe you can climb really quickly, and so on and so forth, but the reality is, you twist your ankle one time, can't move. One little twist, one ankle going right a little too much, that's it, all the climbing, all the jumping, all the lifting, everything ends. One tendon on the knee... Gets ripped, story's over, career's over, your football career is over, your baseball career is over, even though they were planning on paying you $20 million a year because you were so good at hitting the ball. Now, torn ACL, torn meniscus, and so on and so forth, career's finished. I remember when I was a kid, there was a famous athlete that played both sports, played baseball and football. His name was Bo Jackson. and he was equally as good. Other athletes usually play sports and they play other sports, they play basketball, they play this, but very rarely do you see somebody succeeding in both sports. Like Michael Jordan, for example, famous athlete for my generation, he was very good at basketball, but after he retired, he decided he wanted to play baseball.

13:04In comparison, even though he was okay, and in comparison to the average person, he was very good, in comparison to the rest of the professionals, he didn't belong there. He didn't belong in the major leagues. Just wasn't famed. Basketball, best of the best. Baseball, Mike, we're only letting you in because you bought the team. You're so rich, you bought the team. So that's the only reason we're letting you in. If you didn't buy the team, if you didn't have the name of Michael Jordan, you're not coming in. But Bo Jackson was actually so good in both baseball and football that there was constant talk that as soon as this guy retires, he's gonna go to the Hall of Fame in both baseball and football. That's how good he was. Until one day, they were having a running play against the Cincinnati Bengals. He gets tackled, a normal tackle, nothing out of the ordinary, but his hamstring gets pulled a little too much, just one centimeter. The guy's huge, a monster, one centimeter, one centimeter a little pulled. A regular person says, "What's the big deal? One centimeter, one centimeter." Whole career is over. Baseball, football, everything over. his hamstring gets pulled a little too much, just one centimeter. The guy's huge, a monster. One centimeter, one centimeter a little pulled. A regular person says, "What's the big deal? One centimeter, one centimeter." Whole career is over. Baseball, football, everything over.

14:24not all of him in this one, not all of him in that one. Nobody even knows where he is and what he did since then. Nobody cares. Why? He's a has-been. He's somebody that only people that are my age remember. Meaning that no matter how powerful a person is, he's nothing in comparison to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Gemara says that Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest human beings that ever lived, saw there was a person by the name of Bar Koziba, later on called Bar Kokhba. And this person had superhuman powers. When they were fighting against the goyim, he just said, "Don't bother me, I'll do it myself." All the Romans, the Greeks, whoever wanted to come, they came against me, by myself. And all the goyim were scared. There's millions of them, but they're scared of this one guy. Why? He had literally superhuman powers. Instead of, you know, regular people, you know, in those times, they had what they had, spears. They had spears, they had bows and arrows, a few hammers, a few axes, that's it. They didn't have guns and bombs. But if you were going to Bar Kokhba, you had to bring guns. You had to bring a bazooka. You had to bring an atomic bomb. Why? It's the only way.

15:42He would take boulders the size of mountains and throw them, killing thousands of people at once with his superhuman powers. So Rabbi Akiva said, "This must be the Mashiach. Bar Kokhba must be the Mashiach. Why? It's not normal for a human being, flesh and blood like us, to have such superhuman powers. It's not normal. It's not normal for such a person to have such powers. He can lift half a mountain." Well, Bar Kokhba was given superhuman powers, but unfortunately, instead of using those superhuman powers and recognizing that they were given to him, gifted to him, in order to do the will of Hashem, he took it to his head and actually, for a moment, thought that they were his, thought that he was powerful. So one day, the Gemara says, Bar Kokhba tells Hashem, Listen, the goyim are coming. Why don't you do this? You do whatever you have to do. I'll do whatever I have to do. Don't bother me. Don't get in my way. I'll fight them. I'll fight them by myself. Meaning he thought he's fighting the goyim by himself. Hashem says, no, you think you're fighting by yourself? What does it say? The Torah says, the pride of man is how Hashem is going to embarrass them.

17:01So the goyim had a reward on his head. Whoever brings me, whoever kills him, gets whatever he wants—X amount of money, billions and millions, and so on and so forth. But you have to bring me his head. You have to bring me the head. You have to show that he died. Now, don't tell me, yeah, he died, but there's no proof. I want to see that he died. So, one time, one of the goyim goes into, you know, the war slowed down, they're not really sure what's going on, maybe it's a trap. One of the goyim goes into the woods, and he sees this giant guy, dead. But there are no spears, no swords, nothing. He looks closer, closer, closer, ah, it's Bar Kochba. died with his pants down. Why? He went to the bathroom. Hashem says, "What, you think you're doing everything by yourself? So it says, when you go into the bathroom, I'll bring a snake. He's going to bite you exactly in that area and kill you on the spot, so you die embarrassed. The whole world's going to see that you're nothing." This guy actually pretended like he killed him, but then the king said, "Listen, I saw him. There's no way that you killed this person."

18:17I want to see the rest of the body. They went, they saw the body, and obviously discovered that a snake actually killed him. The point being, rabotai, is that sometimes there are powerful Jews throughout all of history that HaKadosh Baruch Hu brings to a generation. If they use their strength, their wisdom, their cleverness, their money for the good, they could do a lot of good. If they don't, their end is usually very, very embarrassing. The reason why is because HaKadosh Baruch Hu despises arrogance. He despises when you take the gift that He gave you and, in essence, use it against Him, as if it's your power, it's your money, it's your talent, instead of Him giving it to you. So the question is, what really is fear of Hashem? What is that? Are you supposed to just sit there and just cry all day? Hashem, I'm scared. I'm scared. What do you have to be every time you go outside? It's gonna be like the boogeyman is gonna catch you? Like, what's Yirat Shamayim? Anybody want to volunteer an answer? What is Yirat Shamayim in your words? No, somebody? You guys came to enough shiurim. Fear of Heaven. What does it mean, fear of Heaven? What does it mean to fear God? Why? What do you fear? What are you afraid of? Okay, that's one thing. No, next.

19:44He gave you the same answer? You have one? Similar. No, give me your version of it. No, you have more. You have more. Go ahead. Hashem is the most powerful. Okay. Now let me ask you guys a question. To be aware. Aware of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Okay. No, you guys came to a thousand shiurim by now. You should already give a shiur. What's Yirat Shamayim? You're writing me a book right now. You're writing me a book. You know, you're too sophisticated. Well, I'm on a little bit of a level. I'm first-grader, come on. Hey, you've been to too many shiurim, so you know, you know how to give a shiur right now. So yeah, you got to give us a bit. Simple people. What's the, what's, what's being made, what's, what's your action right now? All of us can see it. The question is, can we do it?

20:46All of us can say, okay, I'm afraid of Gehinnom. Honestly, the last time you looked at a girl that you're not supposed to look at, did you think about Gehinnom so much? You looked. If you looked, obviously you didn't think about Gehinnom. The last time you saw one of your friends or somebody on the block eating a cheeseburger and it kind of looked delicious, were you thinking about Gehinnom? Were you thinking about, oh, I'm going to eat it, maybe I'll get punished? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The last time you went to pray in shul, and you wanted to make sure you showed up on time, or you came to shul, you said, "Oh, let me be there on time." Why? God is there. God is in a shul. Why? It's a beit midrash. God has to be in a beit midrash. Did you think, "I have to be in a beit midrash on time because God is there? Because if not, I'm going to be in Gehinnom. I'm going to get punished." We say it in shiurim, but in reality, in practice, very rarely do we live up to it. And the reason is, because Gehinnom, the punishment, all of that stuff, yes, it is, in essence, part of yirat shamayim, but it's not the definition. It's the outcome. Yirat shamayim, the fear of God, is, in essence, when a person surrenders to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. A person raises their hands,

22:10it's on You, Hashem. Everything is You. The good, the bad, the ugly, whether I succeed, whether I fail, whether my eyes are going to work today, whether my ears are going to work today, whether I am going to have money in my pocket, whether I get married, whether I don't get married, everything is on You, HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Simply submitting to HaKadosh Baruch Hu 100%, meaning that by default, you're humbling yourself and recognizing that you are nothing. You're recognizing your own nothingness, not in comparison to just your fellow human beings—maybe smarter, maybe not. No, no. You recognize that, and you compare the two: you're zero, less than zero. if Moshe Rabbeinu says we are nothing, we're not even something, Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest of all people that ever lived, he says we're nothing, we're less than Moshe Rabbeinu. But let's say we're equal to Moshe Rabbeinu. Let's imagine we're like the same thing. Let's imagine we're the same species. Reality is, if he says he's nothing, then for sure we're nothing. If David HaMelech says, I'm a worm, but not a human being. Meaning,

23:30Hashem, I'm nothing, I'm like a worm. So how did they arrive at such a conclusion? Like Avraham Avinu saying that I'm dust. Dust, nothing. The greatest that we've ever had in our history described themselves in ways that we don't really like to call ourselves dust. We don't really like to call ourselves nothing. Last time I checked, no one really called themselves, "Hey, I'm a worm." It doesn't usually go well. No, usually you like to give yourself a better description. No, you know, I'm smart, I am. You know, I check my IQ on the internet, it's 145. Me and Einstein are best friends. Everybody compliments themselves. Everybody visualizes themselves drastically better than reality, let's just say that. Most people believe that they are much, much better than what they really are. Rarely does anybody call themselves a worm or nothing. the ones that do usually do it in a very unhealthy way. They're not calling themselves nothing because they have humility; they're calling themselves nothing because they have no self-confidence, because they are just depressed. But if somebody crosses them in certain ways, all of a sudden that "nothing" becomes "something." "Nothing" means that if you walk on it, nothing happens.

24:57Something means that if you walk on it, it says "ow." If somebody cuts you off on the highway, if you're a "nothing," you don't react. If you think you're "something," you start cursing him out, you start beeping, you start trying to hit him with your car, trying to find a cassette to throw out of the window, maybe you'll get his attention next time. Call the cops, do something, why? You cut me off, who are you to cut me off? You know who I am? So when a person wants to have, wants the beginning, the beginning of Yirat Shamayim, you wanna have fear of Hashem, you have to know at least what it means. And it means to surrender to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. To simply admit we are simply nothing in comparison to Him. We cannot control the future. Whatever effort we exert to do something is just simply Hashem making it look realistic, because in reality, He's doing everything. If you made a certain amount of money, you didn't make it; He did. He just decided to give it to you. And yeah, you pressed a few buttons, and money came out, but that's only because He decided for the money to come out.

26:15you had an idea and you develop some fantastic new drug that you want to charge 2.2 million dollars for. Guess what? He's the one that gave you the idea, and He's the one that convinced all of the other people that, yes, it's worth 2.2 million dollars. And He's the one who decided that there's going to be a customer for that 2.2 million dollars, and so on and so forth, meaning that we are like puppets, if that much. The results are all in His hands and you went to the gym tomorrow and you decided I'm gonna bench press the most average bench press. You want to bench press, I don't know, three or four hundred pounds. You're like a mini bodybuilder and it works. Until now, you lifted 25 pounds; that was your max. All of a sudden, tomorrow, all of a sudden, 400 pounds, you're doing sets. Guess what? It's not you deciding that your body is going to lift that weight. submitting to HaKadosh Baruch Hu means that you recognize where you stand and where He stands. This is one of the most difficult concepts for people to understand and accept, even if they understand it, because we love to give ourselves credit. We love to give ourselves a pat on the back.

27:34You know what I did? You know how much I do? You know how much I did? You know how much I'm going to do? I want to be rich because I want to give tzedakah. I want to do this because I want to do this. Everybody wants to be recognized. They donate $50, they want to make sure that eight shiurim are named after them. For the rest of generations, they're going to be recognized because they donated a few shekels. They donate a few dollars to a book. They want to make sure that the first five pages of the book are not about the book but about recognizing their greatness because they donated to the book. A guy spends $100,000 on donations, $500,000 publicizing his donations. We want to be recognized. We want people to know that we did something while we were here. And that's one of our mistakes. We actually think that we're the ones doing it. You are only responsible for choosing. The actual success or failure is in the hands of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And Yirat Shamayim, the definition is simply fearing Hashem to the extent where you are surrendering to the Almighty.

28:44You know, everything is in His hands. Somebody asks you, where are you going? Wherever you're going, I'm going there, b'ezrat Hashem. Meaning, I'm planning on going to the store to buy some milk because my mom told me to buy some milk. B'ezrat Hashem. Why b'ezrat Hashem? I don't know if I'm going to make it there. don't know if Hashem is going to give me enough power in my legs to actually get there. I don't know if Hashem is going to allow the car to arrive there in one piece. I don't know, I don't know. I know that I'm planning on going there, but I'm only going to get there with His help. What are you going to do for a living? I'm going to go into accounting, be'ezrat Hashem. Why are you going to go? What's this accounting? What does accounting have to do with be'ezrat Hashem? I'm planning on being an accountant and hopefully have some hedge funds as clients and hopefully have some football teams as clients and hopefully do a lot. I'm hoping to do a lot of things, but I'm only going to achieve be'ezrat Hashem, with God's help. What are you going to do? Are you going to get married? Be'ezrat Hashem. Are you going to have kids? Be'ezrat Hashem.

29:50Everything and anything a person does, if he says and means be'ezrat Hashem, he is already building a nice foundation of Yirat Shamayim. Why? Because he's recognizing that he cannot move an inch without Ezrat Hashem, without the help of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. An arrogant person, on the other hand, which unfortunately we have many of in the world, is a person that lives an illusion. lives an illusion where he thinks that he's independent of God, that he's self-sufficient. They say stupid things like, "I don't need God. Who needs God for this? Look how much money I have. Look how many things I have. Look what I'm doing." You guys heard of the Rothschilds, right? Rich Jewish family. The original Rothschild was a big tzaddik. Some of his grandkids followed his way. Some of his grandkids went off the derech. One of them, one of them, the Rothschild family in general had a lot of money. One of them forgot who gave him the money. And one day, the rabbi tried to rebuke him. Told him, "Listen, you realize that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the one that gave you the money."

31:14Listen, Rabbi, I get it. He gave us the money. He didn't give us the money. Right now, I have it. So what if I don't keep this and I don't keep this and I don't keep that? What is he gonna do? He's gonna crash the real estate market? I own ships. What, he's gonna make the ocean have a tsunami and sink my ships? I have gold. What, he's gonna make the gold market crash? I own stuff in the stock market. What, he's gonna make the stock market crash? I own some land. What, he's gonna make the land catch fire? I have businesses. In order for Hashem to take everything I have, He simply has to destroy the whole world. Hashem's gonna destroy the whole world for me? This is what the guy said. One day, as was his custom, you know, people that have a lot of money and they don't realize that it comes from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, they like to count it. So he had a very fancy, huge safe. He had one building full of money and gold and jewels and so on. And he went into his safe, looking at his glory, looking at all the gold bars that he had, looking at everything that he had. And it was right before a long weekend. And the people that worked there didn't realize that he's in there, it was so big, they didn't realize he was in there, they closed the safe. Now he's there, knocking, everybody left. No one can hear. Knocks more, no one can hear. Knocks more, it's to no avail. looking at his glory, looking at all the gold bars that he had, looking at everything that he had. And it was right before a long weekend. The people that worked there didn't realize that he was in there; it was so big, they didn't realize he was in there, and they closed the safe. Now he's there, knocking. Everybody left. No one can hear. He knocks more; no one can hear. He knocks more; it's to no avail.

32:45Okay, a few hours, no big deal. The problem is it's a long weekend. Nobody's coming back—not the next day, not the day after, and not the day after that. By the time people came back, they just thought, "Oh, I guess the boss didn't come to work, so we don't need to open the safe." So they just continued operating; they just figured, "Oh, he's probably on a long vacation." There's no phones. There's no cell phones. There's no text messaging. There's no WhatsApp. Nothing. So they're operating. But after a couple of weeks, they realize there's something wrong. Where is this guy? They get in touch with the family. The family thought that he's with them. He's with them. So on and so forth. Eventually, they open the safe and they see that he wrote in his own blood on the walls: "Hashem gave and Hashem took." Meaning, yes, I thought that I owned everything. In reality, HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't have to destroy the world in order to take it back. He didn't have to destroy everything in order to take it away from me. He just took me away from it. How? By showing all of it is worth nothing. All of the money I had, all the buildings I had, all the land that I had is worth nothing. Why? I needed food. I needed air. I needed some water. I didn't have any of it.

34:10After a few days, a person dies. Why? Because a person is nothing. It's flesh and blood. One of the other Rothschild descendants, who was much more righteous, used to do a very unusual thing. Every so often, he would leave the office for an extended period of time. Nobody knew where he went, and he'd come back the next day. One of the clerks wanted to follow, where does the boss go? So he followed him, followed the caravan, and he saw that after he left the city, he continued riding and eventually stopped at a Jewish cemetery. He follows him, follows him, follows him, and he sees that he walks in and there's a hole in the ground, a grave. And he goes, he takes off his expensive frock, his jacket, takes it off, puts on the tachrichim, the clothes of the dead people, the white clothes, it's like bed sheets pretty much, that's how you're buried. And he goes inside the grave. And he lays inside the grave, repeating to himself what he learned from his Rebbe,

35:37Remember that you are nothing in this world. You came from a tipah seruchah (putrid seed), and eventually, the maggots are going to eat you. So you have no reason to ever be prideful. Now this may sound weird to most people, but the reality is that somebody that makes themselves into a nothing is somebody that actually becomes somebody. Not just in this world, most importantly in the next world. because when you realize that the gift of anything that you have, whether it's simple things like vision and hearing, food and water, marriage and children, or money, fame, fortune, and any dream that you have being actually achieved and attained, all of those things are simply gifted to you by HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If you recognize the hand that feeds you, you are something. If you think you fed yourself, you're less than nothing. So unfortunately, the Rothschild had both, like the rest of Am Yisrael. We have some good, some bad. The arrogant among us So, unfortunately, the Rothschild had both, like the rest of Am Yisrael. We have some good, some bad. The arrogant among us want to give ourselves a lot of credit for everything that we do, so much so that we make sure that everybody knows every time we give a few dollars in tzedakah. Everybody needs to know every time we did somebody a favor, we helped some homeless guy. We're recording it with our iPhone. You ever see those guys on the internet? They help some homeless guy, but they make a whole production out of it.

36:46want to give ourselves a lot of credit for everything that we do, so much so that we make sure that everybody knows every time we give a few dollars in tzedakah. Everybody needs to know every time we did somebody a favor, we helped some homeless guy. We're recording it with our iPhone. You ever see those guys on the internet? They help some homeless guy, but they make a whole production out of it. You know, you help one guy, you gave him $100, but they ended up making $15 million out of it. Why? Because they put it on YouTube and they show the whole world how they gave this homeless guy $100. Maybe you should give the $15 million to the homeless guy. Maybe you can help him that way. Or at least give him a job. People make a whole big deal out of helping people. You're supposed to help people. That's what makes you human. Matter of fact, even the elephants help each other. So, by helping another person, it doesn't necessarily make you so special. But people want a lot of recognition. Arrogant people want so much recognition that they actually make themselves believe that they did it themselves. And this is one of the most detestable character traits that a person can have. Now, the Chovot HaLevavot in Shaar Ahavat Hashem, chapter six, says a story

38:11says there was one time a tzaddik was stuck in the woods, and he was there at night. He slept, and all the other people asked him when he came out, "Rebbe, weren't you scared?" He says, "No..." Once you, I mean, there's, you know, that's like a jungle over there. There are lions, there are tigers, there are snakes, scorpions. It's a zoo. I said, yeah. Wasn't the Rebbe scared? Did you pray the whole night? He goes, I did what I usually do every day. I said, Rebbe, what's your secret? How are you not afraid? He says, I'm too afraid of Hashem to be afraid of anything else. I'm always thinking Hashem is next to me. The fact that He's next to me scares the living lights out of me. The fact that He's next to me, I'm already scared. There's not enough time to recognize anything else, any of His other creations, because none of them are as scary as Him.

39:19If He decides, my eyes won't work. If He decides, my ears don't work. If He decides, my brain doesn't work. If He decides, my speech doesn't work. If He decides, I'm simply not going to live for another moment. If He decides, I don't have to do anything. He can just simply decide. That's scary enough. A person that's arrogant thinks that they're the ones controlling themselves, controlling their own destiny, controlling their own future, controlling their own Success is simply a person that thinks that they're self-sufficient to the point where they don't need God. Now, to have true Yirat Shamayim takes a little bit of work, but most importantly, it takes a little bit of recognition that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the one that's running the world. Now, the Masechet Derech Eretz Rabbah, the seventh perek, says that wisdom, humility, and yira'ah all go together. Having wisdom, having humility, and also having yirat Shamayim, having fear of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, all come together. They all feed off of each other. Now, the Ramban says here that Ekev Anava Yirat Hashem, that the heel of humility is the fear of Hashem.

40:48So where does wisdom come in? So first of all, let's understand what this pasuk really means. Ekev anava means the heel of humility. It means that at the beginning, the beginning of the heel, he says, what's going to be the beginning? That's yirat shamayim. Which means that the thing that is the most admirable in the eyes of Hashem is for you to fear Him. says that the treasure of Hashem is fear of Hashem. Why did He create the world? So you could fear Him. Why? Because if you fear Him, you serve Him. The most admirable thing that a person can have is yirat Shamayim. Once you have yirat Shamayim, you're actually attaining some humility by default. But also, the only way you'll attain... Wisdom is the same way, by having that same Yirat Shamayim. The beginning of wisdom is fear of Hashem. So from here we learn that all three of them are connected. All three of them are connected. Having wisdom, having fear of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and having humility are all connected.

42:07But sometimes you're going to see certain rabbis, or people that call themselves rabbis, that don't exactly portray humility, don't exactly portray yirat shamayim. Like, for example, a few recent experiences, there's things that I saw. Yesterday, I don't know if any of you guys heard of this kofer, he calls himself the Rabbi of America. His name is Shmuley Boteach. Shmuley Boteach is, unfortunately, he calls himself a Chabadnik. I don't really think that Chabad really associates with him. But he has actually been a problem for Am Yisrael for quite some time. He wrote a book some years ago because he wants to make money. He wrote a book called "Kosher Jesus." Kosher Jesus? Kosher Avodah Zarah. Then a year ago, he wrote a book with one of the biggest zonot in the history of mankind, a woman named Pamela Anderson. One of the women that caused more men to sin than probably anybody else in the last century. He wrote a book with her. About what? About sex. A rabbi. So if that's not bad enough, yesterday he goes on camera, records himself—he likes to record himself.

43:25all the millions that he has, apparently he can't find anybody that's going to be his cameraman, and he records himself rebuking the head of education in Eretz Yisrael that says that people that are homosexual but yet want to maintain a Torah lifestyle need to go to counseling, need to help themselves. You cannot be a kosher Jew and homosexual at the same time. You cannot be a good husband and a wife-beater at the same time. It's not possible. You cannot be a good Jew and be an enemy of Hashem at the same time. It's not possible. Hashem says that people who perform homosexuality are considered disgusting in the eyes of Hashem. So, you cannot say, "I perform homosexuality," not just have the feelings and desires, but actually, you know, exercise the feelings and desires, and think that you're a kosher Jew. It's not possible. Why? Hashem says it's considered a to'eivah. To'eivah means disgusting to Hashem. So, how many of you want to go home and see one of your parents say, "Oh, hi, son, you're disgusting." Who wants that? "Hey, son, you disgust me." Who wants this? "Hey, honey, how are you? Yeah, you're disgusting, honey." Who wants this? Nobody wants this. Why? Nobody wants to be disgusting. Well, guess what? Somebody who performs homosexuality, that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is saying. "Son, you're disgusting." That's what it says. That's what the Torah says many times.

44:51to such an extent that somebody who does not do teshuvah for homosexuality has no share in the World to Come. They go to Gehinnom and they don't leave. It's that disgusting. It's not like one of those things where you stole and you have to give it back, or you lied and you have to get punished a little bit. No, no, this is horrible. This is one of the 36 things that the Torah says... Karet, meaning Hashem disconnects from those people if they do not stop and do teshuvah. Now, Baruch Hashem, we've been successful at helping many Jews overcome this desire because, at the end of the day, it's only a desire. It's not a disease. You know, the secular world tells you, "No, he's born that way. He's born that way, she's born that way. You can't change them." No, my friend. No one's born that way. Yes, you may have desires, but that doesn't mean you have to exercise them. Some people have a desire to steal stuff, but that doesn't mean they have to steal. Some people have a desire to eat anything that moves, but that doesn't mean you have to eat it.

45:52Some people have a desire to see blood. Doesn't mean you have to be a serial killer. You could be a butcher too. You could be a surgeon. You could use your desire and apply it to different things. You're attracted to something feminine. So, okay, that makes you normal if you're a guy. But if you're a woman, you're attracted to something feminine. Okay, so find a feminine guy. You're attracted to something masculine as a guy. Okay, so find a woman that's masculine. It doesn't mean that you have to find that it has to be the same sex. People are crazy. The point being, rabotai, is that people think, no, no, this is not a problem. Why? Because they have people like this Shmuley Boteach kofel that comes out, calls himself a rabbi, the rabbi of America nonetheless, and says, listen, The Torah, of course, says that it's not allowed to practice homosexuality. But we have 613 mitzvot. Okay, so he makes one sin. So he has 612 other ones. What's the big deal? He just took the entire Torah and put it in the toilet. There's no such thing as "what's the big deal." If HaKadosh Baruch Hu says this is a big deal, nobody in the world can change that.

47:06Nobody in the world can change that. Now you're gonna say, wait a minute, so how could a rabbi, nonetheless, a rabbi of America, a guy that's so famous, has a million likes on Facebook and so on and so forth, how could such a guy that knows so much Torah, how could he make such a foolish mistake? I mean, this is a series of mistakes over an entire career, but nonetheless, this is the most recent one from yesterday, is because just because you've learned Torah does not mean that you have Yirat Shamayim automatically. does not mean that you have Yirat Shamayim automatically. It does not mean that you fear Hashem automatically. Just because you've attained a certain chokhmah, a certain level of wisdom, a certain amount of knowledge from the Torah, doesn't mean that you've actually acquired the humility and the fear of Hashem that are supposed to go with it. Because sometimes people learn the Torah like a history book. Sometimes people learn the Torah simply for mental stimulation, like you do in a university. We call those people "university rabbis," where they study the Torah the same way that they study history, the same way they study math, the same way they study science, the same way.

48:20And they say, oh yeah, they can tell you all the facts, they can tell you what the halacha is, yes, no, allowed, not allowed, Moshe Rabbeinu went here, Moshe Rabbeinu went there, Avraham, Yitzchak, they'll tell you the stories, they'll tell you even more stuff than I can tell you. But as far as their character traits, the same rotten way they came into the world, the same rotten way they are today. And we learn that people much greater than anyone we have in this generation also fell for the same trap. One of the wisest people that lived, but yet, the Torah in Masechet Sanhedrin says he has no share of the world to come. His name was Doeg HaEdomi. Doeg HaEdomi was the head rabbi of the world, the head of the Sanhedrin. He knew over 300 halachot, 300 laws about the most intricate and difficult parts of the Torah, more than anybody else in his generation. But yet, his Torah all went to the garbage because he didn't apply it to his life. He knew the information. He knew what you're supposed to do and what you're not supposed to do, but he did not apply it in order to fix his character traits. So he didn't apply it in order to attain kedusha. And unfortunately, this happens in every generation. So anytime you see a rabbi speak things that are not exactly kosher, don't be scared away. They've existed in the past, they'll exist in the future, unfortunately.

49:46It's just people that know some information, but they don't necessarily apply it. It's like, for example, a guy that's a surgeon specializing in lung surgery for people that have been long-time smokers. Right after he finishes the surgery, he goes outside and smokes a cigarette. This exists in the world. Yeah, he does the surgery, but he goes and smokes a cigarette. That doesn't make him evil—stupid, but not evil. Why? He's addicted to cigarettes. I was addicted to cigarettes for over 20 years. I can tell you it's very addictive. And quite frankly, if it wasn't for teshuva, I would never stop. Why? I like smoking cigarettes. But then when my rabbi told me, "Listen, yes, you like smoking cigarettes, but that's not the will of Hashem." Yeah, but I like it. "Okay, you can like it as much as you want, but that's not the will of Hashem." That's enough of a reason. That's enough of a reason not to do it. The point being is how much... Do you want to work on your connection to Hashem? Do you want to work on your connection to Hashem as hard as you work on the things that are most important to you? Or is it going to be like a side project you could do whenever you get a chance? That's what Yirat Shamayim is all based on. How close do you want to be to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Do you want to be first in line, right next to HaKadosh Baruch Hu when you leave this world? Or do you want to hopefully make it in?

51:12The problem is that people that hopefully make it in usually never end up making it in. Now, the Chachamim continue in saying that when a person works on Yirat Shamayim as if it's the most critical thing in their life, it does become the most critical part of their life. ends up living life in a very different way. He recognizes his nothingness. He recognizes how insignificant he is in comparison to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So much so that even someone like David HaMelech, who literally had everything. Anybody here read a little bit of Midrashim about David HaMelech? A few things about David HaMelech? Now, David HaMelech, his father, for the first 17 years of his life, thought that he was a mamzer. Mamzer means an illegitimate child. Because before David HaMelech came to the world, his mother wasn't able to have any children anymore. She wasn't having children for a while. So,

52:23She knew that Yishai was a tzaddik. His father, David HaMelech's father, was one of the four people in history who never sinned. The Gemara says there are four people who never sinned: one of them is Yishai, another one is Amram, who is Moshe Rabbeinu's father, another one is Kilav, Shlomo HaMelech's son, and another one is Binyamin, one of the twelve sons, one of the twelve tribes, one of the twelve sons of Yaakov Avinu. Four people lived their whole life without sinning even a single time. To us, it's completely beyond our imagination. We're more likely to fly to the moon without a rocket than live one day without sinning. That's just the reality. But there are four people in all of history who actually lived their whole life without sinning. One of them was Yishai, the father of David HaMelech. So the mother of David HaMelech knew that he wanted to have more kids, but she couldn't. So she said, listen, according to halacha, a Jewish man is allowed to marry more than one woman.

53:23This is no longer allowed. Over the last thousand years, it's forbidden. Rabbeinu Gershom was married to two women, and he saw that the generations had deteriorated so much that already in his generation, there was a lot of jealousy between the women. Plus, the men who were marrying multiple wives were marrying for the wrong reasons. They were marrying because of lustful reasons, not because of Kedusha. They were marrying because they wanted to try a few things, not because they wanted to bring more Kedusha to the world. The real reason why man is allowed to marry more than one wife is for holy reasons, not for the garbage that's in our minds, probably as I'm speaking. That's just the reality. That's the generation we live in. So the last thousand years, it's not allowed. But there are still customs in the world, like for example, in Yemen, even in certain places in Morocco, that haven't joined the rest of the world, that it's still practiced. The rest of society, like America, Israel, Europe, it's no longer allowed. But anyway, David HaMelech's mom knew that he wanted more kids and she wanted to give him more kids, but she couldn't. She said, why don't you have the shifcha? Have the maidservant, have a child with her. And the maidservant was a tzaddeket. He said, listen,

54:39can't be with your husband? You be with him. She was, yeah, but he wants to have a kid. Because I'll have a kid with you. Because no, but it's not working. I'll have a kid with you. I'll pray for you, this, that, the other thing. Long story short, she said, but he's not going to want me. He goes, well, we'll make it extra dark, so when he goes into the room, he doesn't see who it is, whether it's me or it's you. He doesn't know. So Yishai goes into the room. He is with his wife, but he thinks it's the other woman. What happens is she actually ends up getting pregnant. His wife gets pregnant, which is a miracle of its own. But now Yishai says, "Wait a minute, how did you get pregnant? I wasn't with you. We haven't been together in a while." She says, "No, no, it's you." He didn't believe her. He didn't believe her that it's him. Why? Because it's a when. And she tried to explain to him, but he didn't buy the story. So what ended up happening, because there was a doubt, he actually thought that she cheated on him with another man. and that when David HaMelech was born, he was really somebody else's son, not his son. And this continued for almost 20 years. The brothers of David HaMelech thought he was a mamzer. Yishai thought that David was a mamzer. Eventually, the prophet came and showed them the whole miracle of how it all happened.

55:56And they saw that David HaMelech is indeed his son and is actually going to be the king of Am Yisrael, and so on and so forth. Now, David HaMelech, when he became king, it wasn't like being a king today. Like today, a king—who do you think of as a king today? When you think of the word king, who do you think of? Trump. No, what else? Who else? You're right. Trump is probably the most powerful person in the world today. Who else? Putin, you're right. Also one of the most powerful people in the world. Well, it's a debate. Who's more? Who else? King Henry VIII. Okay. Used to be, but yeah, something. Definitely. So he's, so who are we, who do we, now, let's ask a question. Now, if Trump, if Trump tomorrow goes on the street, he wants to buy a falafel sandwich, wants to buy a falafel sandwich, and somebody bumps into him, on purpose, not on accident, on purpose. Somebody, you know, like sometimes, you know, when you're in school, or somebody wants to be like a bully, and he bumps shoulders with you just to show you that he's stronger, that happens to you guys too, right? Didn't just happen to me when I was a kid. Happened to you.

57:04When I was a kid, that used to happen a lot. You know, you walk in the hallway, and a guy all of a sudden, he's like five times your size, and he wants to remind you he's five times your size, so he gets closer and closer to you, and he bumps you with his shoulder. So that happens. Bullies, we call it. Let's say somebody does that to Trump, if anybody even allows him to get close to Trump. Let's say that happens. And Trump points, after the guy bumps him, he points at the guy, and he tells all of his security guards, "Kill him." he points to the guy. It's funny, right? But it says that, do they kill him or no? Huh? They can't now. If King Henry the 13th, right, 13th, 14th, 15th, whatever King Henry, and he points to somebody in the streets, "Hey, that guy, he looked at me funny, kill him," do they kill him or no? But today, no. Putin Putin, maybe. That's why it says, debate who's the strongest. I don't even think Putin has to say "kill him." I think Putin just looks at him the wrong way, and they just kill him. Somebody reminds me of a story. Somebody said a joke; he says one time

58:29One time, Putin lost his pipe, his smoking pipe. He looked and looked but couldn't find it. He told his servant, "You have to find my pipe today." Everybody was nervous and sweaty. "Where's this pipe? Where's this pipe?" An hour and a half later, they all came and said, "Okay, sir..." We got it. Already, eight people have admitted they stole the pipe. Twenty-three were still being questioned, and another 150 are online; we're not really sure. Meaning the fear caused people to admit things they didn't do and accuse people of things they didn't do, but that doesn't make you a king. If you have the power to kill somebody, then you're a king. David HaMelech had such power.

59:30But not only such power against human beings that are weaker than him. David HaMelech, even before he became the king of Israel, everybody here, I'm assuming, has heard the story of David and Goliath, right? You've heard of it. Now let me ask you a question. If I take a piece of stone and I throw it against a piece of metal, is it possible for the stone to pierce the metal? Yes? Strong metal, like, you know, the kind you make safes out of. You know, two inches thick. Not going to do much. But what if I throw a really big stone? What if I take a small stone? What if I take a middle-sized stone? What if I take a stone from the mountain? In so many words, no stone can pierce the steel. Why? Stone is stone, steel is steel.

1:00:32Then how did David HaMelech beat Goliath? No? No? Forehead. Now here's the thing. I'm going to tell you guys a secret. It's been a long time since I told you a story. David HaMelech wasn't just a melech because his father was Yishai and HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided to pick him because he had red hair. David HaMelech was Kodesh Kodashim. His whole life he cried to Hashem. His whole life he sang to Hashem. And David HaMelech, through song, through music, reached the highest level of Kedusha. David HaMelech had an eighth note. You know, in music, I believe you have seven notes. He had a note that we don't have even today. He had a note of music that we don't have today. And through his music, through his songs, through Tehillim, he reached the highest level of Kedusha. So much so, that he was able to become king over the angels. So now, Goliath was a giant. David wasn't exactly so big. He was a little guy, with red hair.

1:01:47The match didn't make sense. But he comes, he says, "I only need two rocks." Shaul HaMelech was huge. Shaul HaMelech was big, because Shaul says, "Wait, do you even know how to fight, you little kid, little teenager?" He goes, "I'm coming in the name of Hashem." He's coming, why? He's coming with a sword, is this? "I'm coming in the name of Hashem. I don't need any, I don't need to know. I know how to fight. I already killed a lion that tried to kill me. I killed a bear that tried to kill me. Why? Because I do everything in the name of Hashem." ahead to the battle, he goes into the battle. Rabotai, now when Goliath sees this little guy coming at him, he thinks it's a joke because, well, who sends this little, this little, uh, chihuahua against me? Who sent this little kid against me? Go bring somebody serious. Why? Because Goliath was not only big, he was not only huge. He was also like a tank. He was full of steel. He had armor covering his entire body, including his face. Meaning that even if you had a sword, even if you had a gun, you couldn't kill him. Aside from being big, aside from being strong, he was covered from head to toe. So even if you had a sword, you throw it, you hit him, it didn't do anything. Why? He's covered by steel.

1:03:14Imagine a walking tank. What are you going to do against the guy? And then you have this little kid, a 13-year-old kid, coming with two little rocks and a slingshot. I remember when we were kids in Israel, that's what we did in the summers. We made slingshots and tried to shoot birds. That's why that little kid—you guys have PlayStation and stuff like that. When we were kids, we shot birds; that was our game. That was our PlayStation. It gives you an idea of how much older I am than you. Now, also, in those days, Israel was still a third-world country. Today, Baruch Hashem, it's much more developed. Today, they have PlayStation, unfortunately. Now, David HaMelech had a slingshot with two little rocks. How are two little rocks going to beat a tank? Now, any of you ever gone to a brit milah? Went to a brit milah before? Not your own brit milah. Somebody else's brit milah. Anybody ever see a brit milah? See a brit milah? Not so much fun. And if you see a brit milah, you notice that the knife they use to perform the brit milah is made of metal. But according to halacha, the original way they did it at the time of Mount Sinai, at the time of Avraham Avinu, wasn't with metal. It was with stone. Stone is actually much sharper, much sharper than steel.

1:04:36If you go, for example, to some of the best chefs in the world and you look at their sets of knives, they have stone knives. They don't have metal knives. Stone knives that are made out of stone are much sharper and better in general. Now, of course, there's always going to be one guy on YouTube that disagrees with me, but the point is that this is a common thing. In those days, when they did a brit milah, they cut the orlah... for circumcision with a knife made out of stone. David HaMelech knew he needed divine assistance. He needed something superhuman. So because of his Kedusha, because of all the good things that he did, because of how connected he was to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, he knew the names of the angels. And he commanded the angel of metal to come. The angel of metal comes and he says, "I'll make a deal with you. I'll make a deal with you. All I have right now is two rocks. All I have is two rocks. He has steel. I need you. Since you're the angel of steel, you're the angel of metal, you can manipulate, you can do whatever you want with metal. Allow my rocks to pierce his steel."

1:05:56The angel says, "For what? What am I gonna get out of it?" He says, "Once I beat him, I'm gonna become the king. Once I become the king, I become the Gadol HaDor, the biggest rabbi in the world. And I'll make a new rule that from now on, they're gonna do brit milah with steel. They're gonna do brit milah with metal instead of stone. You're gonna be a partner in every single brit milah for the rest of history." The angel of metal agreed, liked this deal, and that's exactly what happened. As the rock went towards Goliath, the angel opened up the helmet and allowed the rock to pierce it. Now, the point of the story is that we see that David HaMelech wasn't just a Donald Trump, lehavdil. wasn't a Putin, wasn't just somebody that had power or money over just people. He literally had enough kedushah and understanding of things that are happening beyond this world. Yet the same David HaMelech says in Tehillim, number eight, verse number four and five, he says, when I behold the heavens, the work of Your fingers,

1:07:12The moon and the stars which You have set in place, what is frail human that You should remember him? What is the son of mortal man that You should be mindful of him? So this same David HaMelech, who was all-powerful, king over everyone, everyone was subservient to him. understands Torah, knows Torah, and everything, yet he says to Hashem, "Once I see Your creation, I see the stars, there's an extraordinary amount of stars in the heavens. We can't even count them by eye; we have to count them with computers." I see the moon, I see the stars, I see the creation itself, I see that every little flower has a different smell, and every flower has a different shape and a different color. You could have made everything gray, but yet you can see certain flowers that are in the shape of skulls, certain flowers in the shape of ballerina dancers, certain flowers in the shape of different animals. There are literally flowers, flowers that are in the shape of things.

1:08:19And that's just flowers. You see certain animals, how beautiful some of the animals are, how the whole ecosystem works. David HaMelech says, "When I look at Your creation, when I look at the sciences, the nature of the world, I see how glorious You are, and I think to myself, why do You even bother spending any time thinking about man at all, that's so frail, that's such a nothing?" You're so glorious, You have so much to do, Hashem, yet You end up spending time on us. Meaning that despite how huge he was, David HaMelech understood how little he was at the same time. He was more powerful than anybody else in the world today, wiser than anybody else we have today. The Mashiach comes from him, yet he thought of himself as a worm and not a man. Why? Because it's all about what you are comparing yourself to. So the Admon Mibesht says that humility depends on what kind of yardstick you're using. If, let's say, for example, you're the tallest one here, how tall are you?

1:09:37Six-four, okay, so if you compare yourself to the shortest guy here, let's say a little kid right here, you compare the two, you look really tall. But if I compare you to one of my former clients who was a football player, you're like a little kid. Why? They were six-nine, seven-one, huge people. huge people, you seem like a little kid next to them. But next to some of these guys over here, oh wow, look how tall he is. Meaning it's all about the yardstick. Who are you comparing yourself against? If you compare yourself against fools, you may be the smartest guy on the block. If you compare yourself against the wise, you may be average. If we compare ourselves against the glory of Hashem, it's very, very easy to become humble. Now, The goal, before we open up for questions, because I'm sure you guys have some good questions today, I'll tell you a story. A story that's worth coming for, just for this story. Now, I asked you guys one time, how many of you keep Shabbat? Most of you, Baruch Hashem, raised your hand. I'm not sure if it's the same crowd, if still everybody keeps Shabbat, or some of you are faking Shabbat, but I always tell you that the Chachamim say that if you don't learn Hilchot Shabbat, you're definitely not keeping Shabbat.

1:10:49Why? You don't even know how to do it. Yeah, maybe you're not driving a car. Yeah, maybe you're not turning on a TV or playing on the internet. But if you don't know the intricate details of halachot Shabbat, it's very likely that you're violating it. Sometimes you can go into a religious person's house and you see them violating Shabbat on things that are as simple as can be. They'll put hot water, they'll put water into their cholent because there's not enough water in there. That's chilul Shabbat. They don't know how to make tea the right way. They put kli rishon and so on and so forth. There are different intricate details to keeping Shabbat. For anyone that wants to know, I brought you books. Anyone that stays to the end, you get them for free about halachot Shabbat. But what does it mean to keep Shabbat? Why do we need humility and yirat shamayim in order to keep Shabbat? I saw and heard a story from the Klausenberger Rebbe yesterday. It gives you an idea of what it means to have yirat shamayim. The Klausenberger Rebbe was one of the people that survived the Holocaust but suffered extraordinarily. He says that when he went to Auschwitz, the Nazis didn't have much mercy on anyone, needless to say on rabbis. So he tried to make sure that nobody knew he was a rabbi. But as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz...

1:12:17They were weak, they were hungry, and they were scared to death. So as soon as the Nazis offered them food, no one questioned anything. The Rebbe says, "I'm not eating treif. I'm not eating non-kosher meat. Not eating non-kosher meat." The Rebbe, they may kill you just for saying no. They may shove it down your throat anyway. They may say, "You're hungry, you need to eat." "I'm not eating treif." You don't want to eat? Don't eat. That's taking a life risk, saying no to the Nazis. He stayed in the barracks while everybody else went to eat. As everybody else is eating, he's sitting there. It's Shabbat afternoon. And he starts crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He says, "You took everything from me. Everything I had, You took from me."

1:13:19Shoes I don't even have. But at least I have a connection to You. Now You want me to eat tref? Now You want me to eat non-kosher meat? And he starts crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, meaning, all I did is what You wanted. My whole life. Learn Torah, mitzvot. You hear a recording, an audio recording they have of the Klausenberger Rebbe praying selichot, ...is what we do in the yamim right before Yamim Noraim. You hear him—it's a 40-minute recording. I only lasted three minutes because I started breaking down. The whole time he's crying hysterically. People today sing it; they think it's like an opera. You see secular people go into the Knesset because they like the tunes... We sinned, Hashem, we're supposed to cry. People sing today because they may want to make it happy. They forgot why we're even doing it. You hear him pray, your heart breaks into 50 pieces. He says, all I did, I want you. You, you, that's it. Please, Hashem, I don't want to eat. He says, at that moment, somebody knocked on the barrack door. He stayed; he didn't move.

1:14:41He knocked again. They came to me and said, "You're the Rebbe. There's somebody here for you." I didn't respond to them because, who knows, maybe it's an SS soldier. Maybe it's a kapo, which is unfortunately some of the Jews ratting on each other. Some of the Jews, just like in Egypt, in order to get ahead, in order not to get killed, in order to protect themselves, unfortunately, some of the Jews were called kapos. They would rat on each other and... He goes, "I don't know who's knocking." I stayed in the bed. I stayed in there. I didn't move. I was crying. But then they said, "Wait a minute. They're saying your name. Is the Klausenberger Rebbe here?" He says, "If they know my name, then obviously I can't dodge. I can't say I'm not here." So I said, "Yes, I'm here." He says, "Is your uncle the Kishinever Rebbe?" He says, "Yeah." He says, "Here, this is for you." He gives him a big loaf of bread with jelly. He says, "He sent it to you so you could have something to eat for Shabbat." The Rebbe says, "At that moment, I knew that even here, in Gehinom, in this world, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is also here with me."

1:16:06How did my uncle know that I'm in this chamber? I'm here. How do you know I'm here? How do you know I'm gonna be here today? How do you know I'm not gonna eat the food like everybody else? Everybody else is eating. It's, it's a life risk. It's not even a sin. It's a life risk. How do you know that I'm going to withstand a test? That means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is here. He says, and I never saw that person again. That person could have been Eliyahu HaNavi. Who knows who he was? But I knew that if HaKadosh Baruch Hu is here in Auschwitz, in Gehenom, I made a commitment under no condition am I eating non-kosher no matter how long I'm here. And he says he was in the Holocaust. He was in a concentration camp for over a year. And Baruch Hashem withstood the test. But today, we have people going to McDonald's and eating non-kosher on purpose, not by accident, simply because they don't know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is there too. Simply because they don't have the yirat Shamayim that's necessary. Sometimes, I have people send me a picture of a wrapper after it's opened and empty, and they ask, "Wait, this doesn't have a kosher symbol. Am I allowed to eat it?" I say, "You were supposed to call me before you ate it."

1:17:20Not after it's just a wrapper. That's the difference between someone who truly cares and someone who just wants to look good and pretend like they have it. When you have yirat Shamayim, you call before you eat. When you don't have yirat Shamayim, you eat and then you ask. The difference between And what we're trying to be is that Tzaddikim literally attained the highest level of Yirat Shamayim because they knew HaKadosh Baruch Hu is there. No matter the problem you have, no matter the difficulty you have, no matter even if it's Auschwitz itself, even if it's the concentration camp itself, even if it's Gehenom in this world itself, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is there with you. They knew it and they were even scared of HaKadosh Baruch Hu there. That's why anyone that reads the book To Remain a Jew, ... one of the most fantastic books I've ever read in my life. Rabbi Zilber was a Hasid who literally lived through Gehenom. They sent him to Siberia. Anybody who knows a little bit about Siberia knows that you go there, you don't come back. People don't survive the jails of Siberia. They simply enter, and they don't leave; they just die.

1:18:38slavery that was there, the horror, the punishments, all the things in Siberia. He kept the entire Torah in Siberia. In Siberia, he put his life on the line to have the mitzvah of tzitzit and of Chanukah. Meaning that the real Hasidim, whether it’s Chabad or any other Hasidut, they not only knew the Torah but they knew that the foundation of Torah is Yirat Shamayim. Once we understand that and we start applying what we learned to our life to develop Yirat Shamayim, then we can become just like them on our own level, in our own ways. Most importantly, we need to know not to run away from Yirat Shamayim, not to run away from fear. Rather, embrace it and know how to apply it because once you have Yirat Shamayim, you'll be able to attain humility. Once you're able to attain humility, you'll realize and recognize your own insignificance in comparison to the Creator, and that's going to make you something. As the Rabbi has said many times in his lectures, if you want to be somebody, first understand that you're nothing, and then you can become something.

1:19:59not becoming self-conscious. It's not thinking, "Oh, I'm a loser." It has nothing to do with that. It's just simply embracing the fact that there's a Kadosh Baruch Hu in charge of everything, and then there's you living in His world, having your own mission within that world, having your own responsibility within that world. Once you understand, "I'm on a mission, I have a job to do," you start becoming scared of sinning. Why? You're gonna Ruin the plan. You're going to interfere with what the King wants. How dare you interfere with what the King wants? This, Rabotai, is the beginning of Yirat Shamayim. Next week, we'll talk more about it and other parts. The second part of this pasuk, which is what does it actually mean that you come from a putrid seed and end up becoming eaten by maggots. It's actually much prettier than it sounds, but I'm sure you guys have a few questions. Bechavod, whoever wants.

1:21:01The questions, I think, just ran out with the hot dogs. They ran out with the hot dogs. Tomorrow, we have, I think, the most popular shiur of the week, which is the shiur about questions and answers. Also, anybody that wants the halacha book, please just come with me to my car. I have it there. You lose your kedusha by exercising every desire that you have. So for example, when you look at women, the Torah says don't look at immodest things, watch your eyes during the day, so you don't come to evil at night. What ends up happening is that when a person looks at immodest things, whether it be on the internet or in real life, they end up doing something about it, either themselves directly or indirectly by, you know, going to sleep and they end up wasting seed. Now, people think in this generation for some reason that wasting seed is either not a sin or it's not relevant to this generation, which is a mistake. Because if you look at the Gemara, for example, the holiest person of Am Yisrael was usually the Kohen Gadol.

1:22:23And the Gemara Masechet Yoma, I think it's page 18a, says that there's a Mishnah there. It says that before Yom Kippur, before the Kohen Gadol went to the Kodesh HaKodashim, he went into a one-week period where he would be just in the Beit HaMikdash. He would be separated from his wife so he wouldn't have any seed coming out of him. He wouldn't become tameh and so on and so forth. Now, the night before Yom Kippur, they made sure to do the opposite of what they did the rest of the week. During that first week, during those first six days, they prepared him, but they allowed him to eat whatever he wanted. They fed him whatever he wanted; they let him do whatever he wanted to do, as long as he followed the plan, which was to practice every day, and so on and so forth. But the night before Yom Kippur, he wasn't allowed to eat much. Even though he's about to fast like everybody else, he wasn't allowed to eat much. why? He says because if he ate a lot, he would go to sleep, and he wasn't allowed to go to sleep the night before Yom Kippur. He says, "Why isn't he allowed to go to sleep? Why? It's a big job the next day, going to the Kodesh HaKodashim. You're there for five minutes. Actually, he went in there three times on Yom Kippur. The point is, if you go there and you're thinking about anything that's unholy, you die on the spot."

1:23:41...is because this is the Kohen Gadol, so at least let the guy eat a little bit, let the guy relax, let the guy sleep. Why are you keeping the guy up all night? What is this, a techno party? He says, no, no, they weren't allowed to let him go to sleep that night because they were afraid that if he went to sleep, he would actually have semen come out of his body. He would have a wet dream, and if he did, he could not be the Kohen Gadol the next day. We'd have to replace them. Meaning that Am Yisrael was even scared of such a thing, even from the most righteous among us. Needless to say, the average Joe. So, the point is that if a person preserves their eyes, they're not going to have that problem, at least not often. If a person doesn't, if a person looks at anything that moves, It's needless to say, he's definitely going to have a problem one after another and even on a regular basis. And that's it. Tomorrow night we'll continue. Ken? See, now the questions start. I threatened the cameras are going to go off. No? Ken? Eighth note? It doesn't exist anymore. We don't have it. We don't have it. If we had it, we'd make a lot of money. Is he the only one able to play it?

1:25:04my knowledge, yes, to my knowledge, he's the only one that was able to play it. It was a note that would literally elevate his music and kedusha to heaven. You get very kabbalistic teachings about that. But he had a very high level of kedusha that's simply unattainable in this generation. When Mashiach comes not "gets resurrected, but gets comes." When Mashiach comes, then he'll show us what that tomb was. David HaMelech is the grandfather of Mashiach. Anything else? Anybody? Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, in the car. Yes, yes. This one. This Hilchot Shabbat. I have one here and I have many in the car. Okay, we'll continue tomorrow.

1:26:31not "gets resurrected," but "gets comes." When Mashiach comes, then he'll show us what that tomb was. David HaMelech is the grandfather of Mashiach. Anything else? Anybody? Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, in the car. Yes, yes. This one. This Hilchot Shabbat. I have one here and I have many in the car. Okay, we'll continue tomorrow.