Religious Hypocrisy, Mitzvah vs. Murder, Disable Racist, Stealing From Goy - STUMP THE RABBI (41)

0:17We're back to our Florida shiur Wednesday nights. Just landed a few hours ago from the New York trip. Oh, Hashem, it was a successful trip. Lots of new faces, a few old faces, Baruch Hashem. People are watching our shiurim online. Today's shiur will be for a Refuah Shlema for Rabbanit Levanah Bat Sarah, for Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sarah, David Ben Esriah, Doris Bat Jorah, Rabbanit Sarah Bat Anat, Rav Efraim Ben Shulamit, Dvorah Bat Mercedes, Esther Bat Zipporah, and all of Am Yisrael, Be'ezrat HaShem, will have Refuah Shlema, Refuat HaNefesh, and Refuat HaGuf.

1:19So, as I said, the couple of days we went to New York, Baruch Hashem, it was worth the effort and the physical anguish I have to go through flying. It's not much fun. I don't know, it's nice. Some people, Baruch Hashem, most people have healthy bodies, so flying for them is a breeze. For me, it's a kaparat avonot, but you got to do what you got to do. The reason why is because the Chida says in Birkei Yosef, Orach Chaim, Siman 290, that a person who listens to Mussar directly from the rabbi is nothing like someone who simply reads Mussar. Needless to say, watches Mussar. And the people that came to this shiur that have been watching my shiurim for a few years, some of them have been watching since day one, several years already—six years. Some started a few years ago, and some started only a few months ago.

2:32And each one of them always starts the conversation that way. Being in a shiur is nothing like watching a shiur online. When you're watching a shiur, you're getting educated, Baruch Hashem, as many people watch online, and B'ezrat Hashem will continue watching online. But when you come to the shiur and you actually pay attention, and you become part of the shiur, You simply become part of the shiur. Suddenly you see that the rabbi is saying things that are directly impacting your life. Suddenly you see that the rabbi is saying things that are answering the question that was in your head. You didn't tell the rabbi, but he already answered your question. This is all called siyata dishmaya, divine assistance. The rabbi gets it when he's looking to help you and you're looking for help. You know, a... Someone that comes to become purified, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives them a hand. Meaning that if a person really truly comes to become purified, he's coming there or she's coming there in order to learn, in order to become educated, in order to improve herself, in order to improve himself, then HaKadosh Baruch Hu will give the speaker specific things to say that he didn't plan on saying.

3:53But it says, someone that's looking for, you know, obstacles, is looking to make sins and things of that nature, Hashem also helps him too. Meaning if a person is coming just to try to interfere, or he's trying to see if he could find something that the rabbi did wrong, or all types of things, Hashem will even help him too. Why? Go dig yourself a hole in Gehinnom. And this is the answer to many people, Baruch Hashem, over the last several weeks, I guess it's been even a couple of months, have woken up from their slumber in regards to several issues. One in particular has been this Rasha Merusha, Manis Friedman, and of how he distorts the Torah in practically every single one of his lectures. but, unfortunately, you see, there are still many people defending him. Most of them are as ignorant as can possibly be. They don't know an ounce of Torah. They don't know at all. But the best part yet, the best part yet, is that you see these superheroes that, you know, they want to rebuke me. So what do they do? They make comments on the internet.

5:20saying, making fun of me, calling me all types of names, or insulting me in other different ways, and saying, why? Because they're saying, oh, why? How come you didn't talk to Manis Friedman before you made the videos? like if they thought about what they did for just one minute, not like the whole day, just one minute, they would see how stupid they are, and there's no other word to describe such people. You can't say foolishness; foolishness is too polite. Outright stupid. Why? You're rebuking me, you're telling me that I should have called him, which, by the way, this whole thing has been going on for several years. People think it started two months ago. we'll get to that in a moment, but just to understand the level of stupidity in this generation. You're rebuking me publicly, you're calling me names, you're saying I'm the worst—whatever you want to say—because, under your understanding, I didn't speak to him beforehand before publicizing his own clips. I didn't create clips; I publicized his own stuff.

6:29So I'm bad while you're doing it to me. How come you didn't contact me before you went public against me? Why? Am I less of a Jew? What, his Jewish neshama is different than mine? That's how dumb people are. That's how dumb people are. A person does not see an obligation in himself. He'll murder somebody, without having a cause, without having any substantial evidence whatsoever, just based on an assumption. Why? Because he thinks he murdered somebody else. The beauty of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, how He directs these people to dig themselves a hole, is unbelievably precise. I mean, it's unbelievable. You couldn't even make up a story like this. And it's just one after another. Just before this lecture, somebody sent me a lecture, somebody sent me a public comment by a guy that I was actually relatively friendly with, from a goy that helps Rabbi Tovia Singer. His name is, I forget his name, he has a show called Tanakh Talk.

7:41It's Tanakh Talk, but he calls it Tenach Talk. And, you know, I was actually on his show some years ago. And apparently, he went public against me. Right, apparently today, I guess. And because, you know why? Because he's friends with Manis Friedman. He's on his show. He asked me to be on his show, but I couldn't commit. But that's a different story. But anyway, so he goes public against me. How come you didn't? Because under his understanding, I didn't reach out to Manis Friedman. Under his understanding, I didn't reach out to Manis Friedman. So, therefore, he's allowed to go against me. But how come you didn't reach out to me? How come you didn't reach out to me? How come you didn't do what you're blaming me for doing? How come? Because you're a hypocrite. Because you don't see the obligation in yourself. When you look in the mirror, you see everybody that's behind you. Now, The next thing, I've said this once, I've said this twice, I've said this a thousand times. There is a difference between going against someone personally and calling them names and insulting them, which is in essence what these fools are doing against me, and warning the public of a danger. Now, if you saw your child

9:06go into the electric closet and start playing with the wires. And you said, honey, can you get out please? You are a horrible parent. Horrible. Terrible. You should be put in a bird cell. Just be with the birds. Go talk to them that way. Why? Because it's too far gone. The kid is inside the electric closet. There's no time to be polite. You have to get him out of there, whatever measure it takes. He's in life danger. But that's only physical flesh. That's only physical flesh. If you have countless tens of thousands of people in spiritual danger, they could go to Gehinom and never come out because of their heresy. They are listening to a false speaker who distorts the Torah and never provides a single source for his claims. When we asked him for sources, he rejected our request. In one particular case, he actually said, "I don't disclose my secrets."

10:07We asked them for sources. I know, I don't disclose my secrets. This has been almost three years in the making. I've been trying to be quiet about this for three years and Hoping that we can solve this issue and not go public. People think I have some type of agenda, going against people in public like I'm bored, like I get anything out of it. "Oh, you're trying to become popular, trying to become popular." I don't need to try to become popular. I'm trying to help people go to Gan Eden. I don't need to try to become popular. I'm already relatively popular. But nonetheless, it's not because I tried. I... But fools say, no, no, it's because you didn't listen, you didn't hear about, you didn't learn Tanya. How do you know I didn't learn Tanya? Well, you come to my house, you see my books. If you come to my house and see my books, you see that maybe you're wrong. In fact, if you watch my shiurim, you see that we have one particular shiur that uses over 1,400 sources from Chassidut. That's a few more sources than just Tanya. No, you don't understand Chassidut. How do you know what I understand?

11:13Assumptions and insults and all types of things. Why? Because it's inconvenient. Oh, no, you don't understand him. If I don't understand him, that's a problem. That's what the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot says. Wise men, you have to be careful with your words because you can lead your students to Gehinnom, the Mishnah says. If I don't understand him, then, honestly, none of you are going to understand them. With all due respect, none of the people that are watching on YouTube are going to understand if I don't understand them. Not that I'm the smartest guy in the world. This is what I do all day. If you spend 20 hours a day immersed in the Torah, then maybe you have a lot more knowledge than I could ever have. But if you don't, then most likely you're not going to understand more than me. So if I don't understand, who's going to understand? Pikachu or the little meaning from the movie, well, who's gonna understand if I don't understand? But that's why we double-check; we go to our rabbis. We ask them, "Do you understand?" If he doesn't understand, well, if Rabbi Ephraim doesn't understand, he's also an idiot? He also doesn't know what he's talking about? He's also clueless? He doesn't know Hasidut? Now they can say, "You're gonna say Rabbi Ephraim doesn't know Hasidut either? He learned with the Hasidim for almost 20 years, but he doesn't know Hasidut like Manis Friedman. He doesn't know."

12:34you know more, you little YouTube listener. You've been watching shiurim for two years. You know more than him, more than Rabbi Ephraim, who has over ten semichot from the Rabbanut. The head rabbi of Israel said this: from now on, you have to call him a gaon. But he doesn't understand. Call him a gaon from now on, but he doesn't understand. And what about the rest of his kollel? The entire kollel was asked this question. One of them is one of the head rabbis of Jerusalem. They asked him the same question. Do you understand? Rav Gideon ben Moshe said, I don't understand. They told Rav Gideon ben Moshe one time, "Listen, here's blood from a woman. Is this nida or not nida? You know, for family purity." Some superhero tried to fool him. He says, "This is my wife. Is she nida or not nida?" Rav Gideon ben Moshe looks at her and says, "What are you trying to do, make fun of me? This is from a tooth. The blood's from a tooth." The guy's face dropped to the floor. After 15 minutes, he picked it up and asked, "How does the rabbi know it's from a tooth? It's blood."

13:42How do you know it's from a tooth? He says, go, go, go find your friends. Go find your friends. What do you think, you're going to fool me by showing me blood? You think that I don't know what blood comes from? You don't know, because you don't know anything. Someone that's been learning with the Gedolei HaDor for 60 years, you think he's the same as you. So if he doesn't understand what Manis Friedman says, you understand, YouTube listener? You little Mr. Facebook Live, you have a little Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei on your post over there. You think it's a mitzvah to put Hashem's name on your Facebook? You have no idea that the Gemara Masechet Ta'anit says you have no share in the world to come for doing it? You don't know how to say Tefillat HaDerech, Tefillat HaDerech. Oh, what's Tefillat HaDerech? You don't know that it's the prayer you say before you go on a trip. 2,000 or more out of the city. No, no, no. Oh, but you know, you know more than him too. More than the entire kollel in Arnona. The foolishness of people just jumping. Why? Emotions. Emotions. They're very emotional. They assume everybody's wrong. They assume everybody else knows less than them. And that comes from ego. That comes from ego. So last time,

15:00The story of Manis Friedman is almost three years in the making. We have tried everything possible to get information from this clown. And I have to call him a clown because that's what he is. Anyone that knows an ounce of Torah, watches his shiurim, sees the guy, is an outright stand-up comedian. That's what some of the chachamim say: is he really a rabbi or just a stand-up comedian? Because that's how he acts. He acts like a stand-up comedian. There's not one shiur that anyone has watched that mentions one source. When the Mishnah in Avot says you have to mention sources, you have to mention sources. Now, if you don't want to mention sources, no problem. Can I get the source after? So we tried getting the sources. He tried to convince us to sign up for a membership, to pay him five dollars a month to answer his emails. Five dollars a month if you want me to answer your emails. If that wasn't enough, he says, no, okay, so what about a meeting? Okay, I'll meet with you guys. $400 for a half hour. No, we just want to know one source. Here, you said this. Where's the source for this? Oh, I don't disclose my secrets. When I spoke to his son, not the one that molested children, by the way. You know he has a son that molested kids, right? Oh, you guys don't know this? You don't know he has a son that molested children?

16:23He made fun of child molesters. He made fun of people that were not child molesters. In 2012, he made fun of somebody that asked him, "Listen, Rabbi, what if someone, which I'm assuming the guy was talking about himself, what if someone was molested when he was a kid? 2012, this is public knowledge. What if somebody was molested by somebody? Should he tell this to a shidduch?" So he responds to him, "He goes, if you had diarrhea, would you tell it to a shidduch?" It's not a problem. He starts making fun of it. He's like, ah, listen. At one point he says, there's no yeshiva kid that hasn't been molested. Hashem yishmor v'yatzil. If you think this is the standing yeshivot, you should shut down every single yeshiva in the world, throw every rabbi in the world in jail, if that's what you think. He makes fun of it. They went against him. He removed the video. You could still get it online, but the looks are horrible. You could just hear the voice. You hear everything I'm telling you. It's not a made-up story. 2012 was a big balagan, but he paid a fortune to get this removed. Now, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, what does HaKadosh Baruch Hu say?

17:34HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, if you desecrate Hashem's name in hiding, He exposes you to the public. Five years later, one of his ten sons, like the ten sons of Haman, was caught molesting a kid on Shabbat. He was a teacher in a yeshiva. He was a teacher in a camp. By the way, guys, please do me a favor. Don't send your kids to camp. I... There's just too many horror stories. It's mamash like 50/50 if he's going to survive as a normal kid. It's not worth it. Don't send your kids to camp. There are just too many horrible stories. I cannot... People ask me, "Do you know of any camps?" No, I don't know anything about camps. Don't send. I only know bad things about camps. That's all I know. This guy was a camp teacher. Catch him with the kid, not like the kid keeps quiet. No, they catch him with the kid, and then the cops go on the news. They said there are at least three cases, but for sure there's going to be more from this guy. But if you look him up on the registered sex offenders list, you're not gonna find him. Why? Lots of money makes the story disappear, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't let stuff like this disappear.

18:49But a guy who makes fun of child molesters, his son ends up being a child molester. And then someone said, you know what, maybe there's something there. They said, listen, the child molester, he was molested himself also, which is very common, by the way. Child molesters end up being molested themselves. I just wonder who the molester is. You still want to defend him? Person speaking like this to the public: "Oh, you didn't know? Now you know. What, do you think I go against people because it's a hobby? It's a danger to the public to listen to things that he says because they're against the Torah, not against my opinion. And then people start sending me shiurim, look, this rabbi spoke about it, spoke about something similar for three hours, two hours. Yes, okay. Listen, I'm not gonna listen to a three-hour shiur. Give me a source. Give me a page number. I..."

19:50I have plenty of books in my house. Give me a page number. Give me a source. Where does it say what he says? Not one person came with it. Not a single person comes with a page number. Everybody just says, "No, no, if you listen to this shiur, you'll understand." I don't want to listen to this shiur. I want a page number. I want to read it with my eyes. Where does this clown get it from? Where does that clown get it from? They're saying the same thing. Fine. Where do they get it from? "Oh, no, he said it." So what? If he said it, does that mean it's true? If I say something, does that mean it's true? I provide you guys with sources. Don't trust me, trust the Torah. You don't trust the Torah, we have a different conversation to have. But the point is, rabotai, that people think, no, no, because it's their favorite rabbi. Therefore, you must be wrong. You must have an agenda against him. What agenda do I have against anybody? Unless you're against the Torah, I have nothing. I don't care that you exist b'chlal. Why does it affect me? What does it affect me? What do you think? He's stealing YouTube listeners from me or something? Like as if what? YouTube sends me less than zero than it sends me now. We don't have advertising on our YouTube. We're not making money off of you. I don't understand. Where do people get this? Where do they get these little bugs they have in their head? Where do they get the idea that there's an agenda here? If you're against the Torah, I have an obligation to warn people.

21:13Because if they listen to you, that means that they're gonna get punished. I love Am Yisrael. It's the only reason why I do this. I love HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I love Am Yisrael. No offense. I love Hashem more than Am Yisrael, but that's okay, too. That's why I do this. That's why there's a shiur today. I just landed a few hours ago. I really wasn't supposed to give a shiur. I said that we haven't talked in a few days. We have to learn something. But people come out and they start attacking you, contradicting what they said themselves with no sources, with no backing, with nothing. And unfortunately, people fall for it. Oh, look, he's talking against him. Oh, it's like a boxing match. If a person says things that are against the Torah on purpose, not a mistake... Purpose, not on one occasion, but on multiple occasions, saying things that will lead them to sin. Such as the thing that he said: that no matter what you did, Hashem is not going to punish you. Why? Because we've been in exile for 2,000 years, we've had the Holocaust, and it doesn't matter if you keep or you don't keep; He's not going to punish anybody and...

22:35that it's not our fault that Hashem, as you know, came to Mount Sinai, you know, and then He left and hasn't wanted to speak to us in 3,000 years, things like that. These are things that are against the Torah. These are things that are against the Torah, and there are countless other things we haven't even mentioned that he says which are against the Torah. I'm tired. I'm tired of listening to it. I feel like I'm becoming stupider every time I listen to one of his clips, and It's like you listen to one five or ten minute clip, and you have to do a tikkun, tikkun chatzot, tikkun this, tikkun that. You have to do all types of tikkunim just to get it out of your system. I'm tired of it. I don't want to listen to any more of his clips. Mamash, my IQ drops five, ten, twenty percent just from five minutes of this guy. I can't handle it. It's mamash too much, like listening to Christianity. that's the reality. So if a person says things that are against the Torah, you have a moral obligation, a biblical obligation, to publicly go against this person. You do not need a Beit Din, you do not need the whole world and all of the rabbis in the world to say, "Yeah, you go against him." You don't need that. Why? Because he's a public speaker.

23:54He's a public speaker. He's hurting the public. He's a public speaker that's hurting the public. You're not allowed to give him the benefit of the doubt. He doesn't have the regular traditional things applied to him. The Rambam says such a person, Hashem doesn't even allow him to do teshuva. I already know a bunch of people that have gone off the derech, that have become secular atheists because of him. That's the thing that pretty much kept egging me on to look further and further into this before we finally went public. One after another is going off the derech. I said, what happened? Why? Oh, look at Manis, what he said. He said this and he said that. It doesn't make any sense; it contradicts the Torah. So Manis must be right. So the point is about this: if a person is doing things that are against the Torah on a public level, of course, you should always double-check with your Rav and even with several rabbis.

24:55But to think that you need a Psak Din to do such a thing, I don't know where anybody got such a thing. To think that you need to be, I don't know what people are thinking anymore. But the point is that if a person is a massive murderer, he's murdering people on a massive scale, there's no room for you to be patient and, and, and hope that everyone agrees with you that he's a murderer. You have to warn people; you have to warn them. That's the key. If I didn't warn you, you would continue listening to him and continue having false ideology. Little by little, people have a completely different religion in their mind. That's the whole point. There's no agenda. There's no money coming out of it. It's other than a headache, nothing else, honestly. Other than a headache, nothing else. I've spoken to people. You should speak to real, real Chabadniks. They'll tell you. I speak to real Chabadniks, and guess what? They have much worse things to say about him than me. Much worse things. They tell me this guy is like the tzara'at of Chabad.

26:11But how come he is still invited to other Chabad where he gives big lectures? Because they're on his team. Unfortunately, there are a couple of factions within Chabad for anyone who doesn't know. Not all Chabad is the same. Not all Chabad is united. Even at 770, there's already a 10-15 year lawsuit between the two big sides of Chabad: the Messianics and the non-Messianics. Lawsuits, even among the normal ones, the good ones. The Messianics refuse to leave. And they force their false beliefs on people. They put flags all over the streets of the Rebbe as Mashiach, and you have to be a believer in the Rebbe or else it's this or that. You know, Christianity all over again, 2000 years, Christianity remix. So the point is, I've spoken to real Chabadniks. They have many, many things to say worse than me, but they don't speak publicly. So, you know, I'm the messenger.

27:15I ask him, how come the big guys in Chabad don't speak against it? He goes, ah, we ask the same question, they tell me. How come the big Chabadniks don't speak against those whole Messianics? He goes, ah, we ask the same question. How come this, how come that? How come they don't speak against Shmuley Boteach? Ah, we ask the same question. There are a lot of questions about Chabad as far as what's going on here because the reality is you have a few people... The Baruch Hashem are fantastic human beings. They know what they're talking about. They're really seriously learning Tanya, seriously learning what the Lubavitcher Rebbe says, seriously learning all of Chassidut. And then you have a bunch of complete ignoramuses that, unfortunately, some of them are very, very famous, creating new laws, new religions, new everything every other day, and selling millions of books. Completely full of falsehood and no one says a thing. Every other day, Shmuley Boteach comes out with another disastrous announcement. Nobody says a thing. Manis Friedman, every few hours, not every day, every few hours, has a new video.

28:33There's not a single video that you'll find as kosher if you know what you're talking about. No one says a thing. So no one says a thing. The Mishnah says, "In a place where there is no leader, you be the leader." What do you think, this is fun? I'd much rather talk to you guys about other things. But unfortunately, what are you going to do? You have a bunch of people that are being led astray, and it's a dangerous situation because we already have enough problems. We already have enough problems. If there is a person that's speaking things that are against the Torah publicly, you have an obligation to do something about it. You cannot sit quiet. It's forbidden for you to sit quiet. It's a sin for you to sit quiet. What's the source? Several sources. You have the Halacha. "Hocheach tocheach et amitecha." Then you have Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah. Then you have Gemara Masechet Shabbat. Then you have Masechet Sanhedrin. You have several places that talk about the obligation to rebuke when you have the ability to. Meaning, when you know someone is sinning, you have to do something about it. If you don't, the Gemara says the sin goes on you.

29:47If you know your friend is sinning, and you know that you have the ability to influence them a little bit, influence her a little bit, but you don't do it. Why? Because you don't want to ruin the friendship. Because you think, you're assuming it's going to ruin the friendship. You don't say anything. You see her driving on Shabbat, you don't say anything. The Gemara says the sin goes on you. Both of you go up to Shamayim, you're both Mechalelei Shabbat. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria, one of the Tannaim, almost went to Gehenom for this. because he didn't rebuke his next-door neighbor for, the Gemara in Shabbat says this, he didn't rebuke his next-door neighbor for how she treated her cow, that her cow was carrying bells on Shabbat, and he didn't rebuke her because she was a widow. After he found out that he was wrong, he fasted for the rest of his life until all of his teeth turned black. For not rebuking one time in his life. People do this every day like it's a mitzvah. And that's one person. Then the Gemara continues, if you are a person that has the influence of a kehillah, of a community, but you don't rebuke the community, the sins of the entire community go on you. And then the Gemara continues, it says, if you are a gadol, meaning you have the impact to influence a generation, and you don't rebuke the generation, the entire generation's sins go on you also. Not that they don't have sins, they also get punished, but nonetheless, the person who doesn't rebuke, he gets everybody's sins.

31:13So if you have a following—10, 20, 50, 100, 200,000 people watching your shiurim—that means that you have a reach. Maybe not the entire generation, but that's your reach. Your 10, 20, 50, 100,000 people, that's your reach, right? If you don’t rebuke, guess what? Any one of those people that sins because of you, all of that goes into your account. You might as well just take off your jacket and jump into Gehinnom headfirst, like a pool. What's the point of doing any mitzvot if you're already gonna go to Gehinnom anyway for keeping quiet? So if you see someone sinning to such an extent causing people to sin, like Manis Friedman or Shmuley Boteach or any of these other clowns that are distorting the Torah, you have an obligation to warn people. It comes from one of the sources I mentioned. Another source is because you have to love your brothers. You have to love your brothers. You cannot see your brothers continuing to sin because they're listening to false speakers and thinking, no, no, they'll find out eventually. What if they don't? Oh, it's not my problem. According to Torah, it is your problem. So this is important to know, Rabbi Yitzchak Karo.

32:26And for anyone who wants to continue speaking against me, by all means, have fun, have a blast. It doesn't really bother me. I really feel bad for people that do it simply because, again, I'm not really using my opinion. If you have halachic sources, if you have anything that you can provide in black and white, an actual page number and a book name and a halacha number or something, b'chavod. I have no problem whatsoever retracting everything I've ever done from day one if you want. If you can prove something that I said is wrong, no problem making a whole shiur about it. This is not a battle of egos. This is simply truth versus falsehood. Someone says to you that no matter what, you're not going to get punished, or that Gehenom is a place where you don't know that you're a soul, all types of shtuyot that he says that I don't really want to repeat anymore. Someone says things like this that contradict Chazal in a million ways. I'm sorry, Rabotai, this is kefirah. This is kefirah, but it's not regular kefirah. If you believe this nonsense yourself,

33:27and you believe this yourself, that's one thing, you have a problem. But when you're a public speaker and you have the reach like he does of countless people, tens of thousands of people, if not more, this is a massive epidemic, no less than Corona, no less than any of the biggest diseases we've ever had, no less than the Black Plague. In fact, it's worse. Because those plagues kill bodies. They don't kill souls. So for anyone that wants to provide a source of why it's wrong or right and so on and so forth, no problem. But as far as what we've done in order to get to this point, like I said, it's been several years in the making. We've spoken to many Talmidei Chachamim. We've tried to get information from this guy. We even spoke to his son. Not the rapist, but the other one that we asked for sources. Instead of providing us sources, he said to us the famous statement that I've told you guys: "So what if my father lies a little bit? So what if he lies a little bit? Look at the results." This is a statement that is like in my nightmares every day. I have a nightmare. This is it. This is the nightmare. Someone says that they know they're lying and they're saying, "So what?"

34:44This is not... This is that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You still want to go defend them? You still want to go watch them? Don't say you weren't warned. Don't say you weren't warned. You were warned. You want to go against me? I couldn't care less. Oh, you're not going to watch my shiurim anymore? Don't watch. I'll tell you to stop the royalty payments from your views. Stop it, please. Subscriber number 10,006 says he's not going to watch anymore. So please, YouTube, please, stop the royalties. TorahAnytime, stop the royalties. Everybody, stop the royalties. So what? Don't watch. You do me a favor? Do yourself a favor. I'm teaching Torah. You want to watch? Watch. You don't want to watch? Don't watch. What can I do? I'm going to beg you? Emotions get the best of people, unfortunately. Anytime somebody disagrees with their thing, they think I'm attacking. I'm not attacking. I'm providing you sources. Same thing goes with all the things we've talked about in the last week about this cash advance. Unfortunately, some people are getting the point, but some people are still not getting the point. And this is just the reality of the situation. Maybe we'll talk about it a little bit more, but for now, let me give you guys the stage. You guys ask some more questions so we can go to a different topic. B'chavod, who wants to start?

36:09A friend of mine actually told me to ask you this. Why is it okay for somebody to go into the bathroom with tzitzit but not a tallit? Who says it's not allowed to go with a tallit? They always tell you to take it off when you're in shul. You have it on, usually people take it off and then go inside the bathroom. Okay, you should take it off, but I'm saying what you're saying is not allowed. It's two different things. As far as your tzitzit, there's a very common-sense answer that your friend perhaps did not consider. Your tzitzit, your tallit katan, is part of your clothing. It's not something that you take off and put on. It's part of your clothing. To take it off and put it on would mean you would expose your nakedness to the public, which is a bigger sin than obviously taking even your tefillin into the bathroom. So you're not allowed to expose your nakedness to people. So it's part of your clothing. There's no problem with it being in the bathroom. Tallit, again, also, it shouldn't go into the bathroom because there's no need for it since you're not going to go to the bathroom with the tallit on anyway. You're going to take it off in the bathroom. Since you're going to take it off in the bathroom anyway, leave it outside also. There's no point in taking it into the bathroom. It's not part of your clothing. So that's the basics of it. But if you look at the Gemara, Masechet Berachot,

37:30In those days, there weren't bathrooms like we have today in every building, on every corner, in some places, several bathrooms. In those days, people would have to take their tefillin with them, and they would place these tefillin inside the holes of the bathrooms so nobody stole them because they didn't want to go on the toilet or the hole that was in the ground. relieve themselves with their tefillin on; instead, they would put them inside the walls, right outside of it, so no one would steal them. Meaning that the stench was still there and so on, but it wasn't perhaps right there and then. Why? Because they were afraid of losing them. The issue of bringing kedusha into places of tinofet, where there's filth and bad smells and so on, is not as significant as the issue of actually practicing meaning praying inside the bathroom or learning inside the bathroom where there's filth and so on. But you should also know that Rabbi Tzion Abba Shaul gave a fantastic chiddush where he says that in the bathrooms that are discussed

38:33in the Gemara and in the Shulchan Aruch, the bathrooms of those times, in essence, were holes in the ground that were filled with the filth of everyone who went there over an extended period of time, and then they would clean it up. Now, this meant that that place was always filthy, always smelled terrible, and some parts of the world still have this, unfortunately. But nonetheless, this was it. So that's why every time it mentions the place of a bathroom, you were never allowed to pray there or say Hashem's name there, and so on. But today's bathrooms are different. Why are they different? He says because... Today's bathrooms, first of all, if you go into your home bathroom, not like a public bathroom that always has constant movement. If you go to your house's bathroom, some people's bathrooms are more expensive than houses. They're quarter-million-dollar bathrooms. Olam HaBa may be worth five dollars, but their bathrooms are quarter-million dollars. But nonetheless, they have a bathroom. It's a beautiful bathroom. But even if it's not beautiful, if it's just a regular nice bathroom, it doesn't have to be a quarter-million dollars. Just a regular, I don't know, regular bathroom for one of these houses over here.

39:44The bathroom's mechanism is that as soon as you flush the toilet, the feces, the fecal matter, all of that stuff that was there is gone instantly. It's gone instantly. It's as if it was never there. And after a short period of time, there's no smell either. Sometimes even no time because of certain technology they have there and so on. The point is that this is not the same type of bathroom. So now... If a person, let's say, has, which is what's common in America, a bathroom with a toilet and a bathtub in the same area, in the same room, if you will. It's a big room, and it has both of them in it. And let's say they want to sit in the tub and relax for, I don't know, a half hour or an hour. As long as they're covered, meaning their ervah is not exposed outside of the water or anything like that, or are... The bathroom itself is clean. There's no fecal matter. There's no waste whatsoever there. It's completely clean. There's no bad smell whatsoever. You're actually even allowed to listen to shiur Torah. Why? It's no longer a bathroom at that moment. There's nothing there. It's just the water that's in the toilet at that moment. You could drink it.

41:05I wouldn't necessarily recommend it because there are certain germs, but as far as that water, it's the same type of water as what you drink from the faucet. There's no difference. You're going to find it disgusting, but in reality, it's the same thing. It comes from the same source. Do you think there's special water that goes to your toilet? It's the same water. And all the waste is gone. That's it. The ceramic is not retaining anything. That's why they use ceramic and not other materials, because with ceramic, nothing stays on there. Being outside of germs and so on, there's nothing different about that water. You can drink it and do anything like that with that water if you want, as long as there's no waste whatsoever. You have to clean the toilet. There's no smell; you close it and so on and so forth. Now, this was extraordinary news because we understand that the times do affect the law to a certain extent. do affect the law to a certain extent, where the law itself didn't change, but we have to apply the existing law to the same circumstances.

42:05So the bathrooms that are mentioned in the Gemara and the Shulchan Aruch are not the same bathrooms of today. The bathrooms of today are simply a place where, once you've completed whatever you have to do, water takes it away, the smell is gone usually relatively quickly, especially if you have all types of technology there, and it’s as if it never existed. It's as if it never existed. Now, should you make all of your learning inside the bathroom? No, obviously. But the point is that you understand that it's not the same thing. The point is that you understand it's not the same thing. Don't start learning Gemara inside the bathroom. I mean, that's not the point here. Don't distort my words into something that it's not. But the point I'm trying to say is that it's not the same thing. It's not the same thing. So the bathroom of today is different. Now, but that's again only if it's clean. If it's not clean, then that's different. That's the same thing. So that's also a huge issue. Next question, Yehoshua.

43:36If someone kills somebody unintentionally, and then he gets punished for it, you're saying? So how is this measure for measure? Okay. So there's a principle in the Torah, it's mentioned in the Gemara, that in heaven, the Beit Din of Shamayim brings a... merit to someone who has the merit to have that merit and an obligation on someone who has an obligation. Meaning, if someone is doing good things, he's a Shomer Torah u'mitzvot. He's a person that learns Torah. She's a person who is modest. They're doing all types of good things and they do mitzvot. So the Torah says, the reward for a mitzvah is another mitzvah. So if a person does a certain type of big mitzvah that Hashem really favors, then Hashem will give him the opportunity to do an even bigger mitzvah.

44:49That's why one of the Chachamim said at the time of the Shulchan Aruch, "I'm not jealous of Rabbi Yosef Karo that he wrote the Shulchan Aruch; I'm jealous of the mitzvah that he did in order to earn the merit to write the Shulchan Aruch." So if somebody does a very big mitzvah, Hashem gives them an opportunity as a reward to do an even bigger mitzvah. So, for example, he likes to give money, he gives ma'aser. He gives ma'aser and he gives 10% every time he gets paid, even though he's struggling, even though it's difficult, even though it's constantly a test. So Hashem says, ah, you're passing the test constantly, you're constantly giving ma'aser, guess what, I'm going to give you more money so your ma'aser becomes even bigger. And if he continues passing the test, Hashem is going to make sure that that ma'aser goes to places that generate even more rewards. Not just give it to your local shul, but perhaps help people do teshuva and so on and so forth. So, a person that earns merit by doing the right thing, he earns even bigger merit as a reward. The opposite works the same. If a person is not doing good things, he's doing all types of things that are perhaps borderline sins or sins themselves, then Hashem puts him in a different basket. This guy, anytime there's going to be any type of punishment coming onto the world, anytime there's going to be any type of decree coming onto the world, or perhaps I'm going to use him as the vehicle...

46:06Punishment coming onto the world, anytime there's going to be any type of decree coming onto the world, or perhaps I'm going to use him as the vehicle. Meaning, he's training in the gym instead of going to yeshiva. Why? He wants to be a boxer. He wants to be a UFC martial artist. He wants to beat up people. He wants the next Arab guy that says something to him to punch him in the face ten times. That's what he's training for instead of going to shul. And understanding that Am Yisrael never won a single war because of their power, never won a single war because of their power. All of our wars were won because of our spirituality. I'm talking about in the times of the Torah. Not a single war was won because we were such great warriors. We won because of our Torah and That's why Moshe Rabbeinu, for every thousand soldiers that he sent to go fight the war, had a thousand people learning Torah. Why? Because the merit of learning Torah is the reason why we win wars or lose wars. Now,

47:09A person that skips learning Torah in order to go train, in order to go shoot guns and so on, Hashem says, "Oh, you think you're the solution? Okay. So you're not only mevatel Torah, which is a sin like no other, a person that wastes time instead of learning Torah, he does other things." But on top of it, you're ignorant, so you're making sins on top of it, and on top of it, you think, "So what, I'm gonna do this?" This particular person deserves to die because he did something. Some random person deserves to die because he did something bad. Hashem decided this person's time is over. I'm gonna use you to kill him in one of your gun training sessions. You know, you're going to shoot, you're going to show off to your friends, you're hitting the bullseye, bullseye, bullseye. And you didn't know that this guy was one of the employees and he was standing right behind the bullseye and you were shooting him the whole time. Yeah, but it was an accident. Yes, it was an accident decreed by Heaven. It was an accident decreed by Heaven. Why? Because of things you did.

48:10So that's the midah k'neged midah. The measure for measure is that it's not that he made an accidental sin, but he didn't deserve the sin. He deserved the sin, but not for that particular thing, but for something else that he did. If you could do me a favor, press the button behind. The battery apparently is dying quickly. Is it green? You see the green there? It's white? Okay, so push it to the other side where you see the green. No. Now it's green? So press the thing close over there. That's it. That's it. Finished. Thank you. So the people that had the accidental sins, they deserved that sin, meaning they deserved that whole thing. That was the measure for measure. But it wasn't for that particular act they were doing at that time. So the guy was, let's say, working in a construction company. and all of a sudden, you know, he was working and the hammer fell, and somebody was standing right below him. The hammer fell on his head, and the guy died. Accidental murder. It's murder, but nonetheless, it's an accident. Why did he get this? Because he did something to deserve to kill somebody accidentally.

49:26did something to deserve it. So that guy deserved to die for something else that he did, and he deserved to kill somebody accidentally. Therefore, he doesn't get punished with the death penalty, but he gets punished by being exiled from the city. He gets kicked out of the city. That's the punishment for accidental murder; it’s not death. It's being exiled from the city. So, that's in essence the measure for measure. But the biggest thing that a person needs to know is that if There are different explanations for everything that we have in the Torah, but the truth be told is that everything... It's in the Torah. The answer to the question, the famous question of why. Why does Hashem want us to keep Shabbat? Why did the Holocaust happen? Why does Hashem care if we eat kosher? Why does Hashem only allow us to be with our wives when she's Tahor? Why does Hashem care about any of this stuff? The answer to all of it is because Hashem said so. That's the real answer for everything. But the sages... teaches from the Torah itself different ways that we could make it easier to understand by rationalizing it in accordance with the rules of the Torah. They are not making it up out of thin air; they are telling us this is one of the many possibilities of why Hashem did this. However, it could also be an unknown reason, and that's what Shlomo HaMelech learned from the Parah Adumah.

50:55Parah Adumah was a unique mitzvah that Shlomo HaMelech, when he got to it, thought he understood the entire Torah. But then he got to Parah Adumah and said, "This one is rechoka mimeni; this one is far from me." I said, what, just this mitzvah is the only one you don't understand? He goes, no, I learned from the Parah Adumah that the entire Torah is far from me. Like everything I thought I knew, I don't know anything. Now, he knows a lot more than anybody else in the world combined, but the point is that he understood how great the Torah is. Even all of the explanations that we have for every single mitzvah and for every single act don’t necessarily encompass everything. There is always something else, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is infinite. As He even told Moshe Rabbeinu, we learn in Gemara Masechet Berachot, "I'll do whatever I want," meaning you don't necessarily need to understand everything. We have explanations for certain things, but... one of the, uh, stories that rings a bell right now that explains this in a, uh, different way is that, again, when he was younger, he, uh, had a question: Where was God during the Holocaust? You know, a lot of people died—six million people died—not all of them

52:15Not all of them were resha'im. Many of them were tzaddikim. Not all of them were liberal, lefty, atheists, and, you know, converted to different religions. Many, some people were tzaddikim. Rabbi Asa was a huge tzaddik, and many, many other tzaddikim other than him. So how come they died? First and foremost, the basic answer is that when there's a decree on the entire nation, the Malach HaMavet gets permission to kill the tzaddikim and the resha'im. Because everyone is at fault to a certain extent. But still, nonetheless, he wanted to go deeper. So he went to a very well-known professor who was friends with Einstein but was a religious Jew, unlike Einstein. I forget his name, but this famous professor was his next-door neighbor. So he asked him this question: Where was God during the Holocaust? So he said, come over to my house on Shabbat and we'll learn together. So he comes to his house. and Rav Yagen at that time was a young guy, maybe 20 years old, 18 years old, and they're standing and he's asking him a question. And as he's asking him the question, a little mosquito flies between them. The professor, who was a serious talmid chacham, knew how to use the world in order to learn from it. So he tells Rav Yagen,

53:44You see that mosquito? He said, "Yeah." He says, "Do you think that mosquito understands our conversation?" He says, "No." He says, "Why not? He doesn't speak Hebrew? You think maybe he's an Arabic Muslim mosquito?" He goes, "No, he's just a mosquito." He goes, "So what if he's a mosquito? How come he doesn't understand what we're talking about?" He goes, "Because he's a mosquito. I mean, the distance between our intellect and the mosquito's intellect is far." Distance between us and the mosquito is far, therefore he doesn't understand us, right? The distance between us and HaKadosh Baruch Hu is much, much greater than the distance between us and the mosquito. Therefore, we don't have to understand everything that He does. You understand? You don't have to have an explanation for everything. There are explanations for almost everything, but even if you sometimes have a different explanation for the same thing that's based on Torah, Both of them are words of the Living God.

54:48Even if the two explanations are not necessarily the same, that's another aspect of the 70 faces of the Torah. But again, it has to be based on Torah laws, Torah principles, not just your idea. There are certain laws that every idea, every chiddush has to be founded on. It cannot just be something that you just came up with out of thin air. Like people come up with nonsense. For example, people love to play with gematria. the numerical value of single words and so on. You know, your calculations because the gematria—the Mishnah says these are like different, um, I guess it's like different, like, one of those things that you put flavorings and so on, on food. So the gematria will give you certain secrets, and, you know, you could delve into it to find different secrets within the Torah. it's not the Torah itself per se that you don't learn Halacha from gematria, from figuring out the numerical value of a word. You don't learn, you know, the basic foundation of Torah from the gematria, but it's different hints. You get different hints of which direction this is heading, which direction that's heading. Like, for example, the word Elohim, which means a God, but the measure of judgment of God has the same numerical value, the same gematria, as HaTeva, which means nature. So Hashem passes His judgment on the world, punishment per se, through nature—hurricanes, earthquakes, Corona, all types of things like that. That's how Hashem passes judgment on the world.

56:07Elohim, which means a God, but the measure of judgment of God has the same numerical value, the same gematria, as HaTeva, which means nature. So, Hashem passes His judgment on the world, punishment per se, through nature—hurricanes, earthquakes, Corona, all types of things like that. That's how Hashem passes judgment on the world. So, one of the ways, per se. So now, you're not going to learn, you know, I'll watch about from gematria, though you're not going to learn even the date of Mashiach from gematria. But that's the foolishness of people. So what did they do? They said, "Oh look, Donald Trump. He might be the Mashiach. Oh..." And some fools even have a whole website about this. "Oh, see, Donald Trump is the Mashiach." Ignoring the halacha that the Mashiach has to be a Jew. Ignoring the halacha that the Mashiach cannot even be a convert. Why? Because he has to be a descendant of David HaMelech. You cannot be a convert and a descendant of David HaMelech.

57:16...so ignoring everything else, no big deal. Why? Because the gematria of Donald Trump and Mashiach is the same. Therefore, Donald Trump is Mashiach because he's good to Jews, like people think he's good until he's not going to be good. But the point is, Rabotai, people need to understand there are Torah laws of how to verify and validate a chiddush, an insight. And let's see whether it's legit, whether it has any legs to stand on. It cannot just be anything. But again, even if something that you have is a unique... No one has said it before as long as it's still within the body of laws of the Torah. No problem. Chazak u'Baruch, that's your chiddush. And the Zohar HaKadosh says that every Jew has his own chiddushim to bring to the world. Every Jew has his own chiddushim to bring to the world that no one's gonna bring other than him. And if he doesn't bring them, they're gonna have a case against him in Shamayim.

58:20Look, there's a certain part of the Torah that you are supposed to uncover in the world. Like, you know, every time you peel another layer of the onion, you are supposed to take that layer with your new insights, and you didn't bring them. Why? Because you didn't study. Instead, you went to basketball games. You went to bar mitzvahs. You went to do a bunch of different things that you weren't obligated to do, and you forsook your obligation. And because of you, there's less Torah in the world. That's also something a person needs to know. The chachamim explained that when a person goes up to Shamayim, he'll have to give a shiur Torah for 180 days straight, no breaks. No jokes either. Man, Friedman jokes aren't going to work up there. 180 days straight means you have to know a lot of Torah during your life. During your life. Next question, Sutton, you had a question? No? I answered it already? Oh. Okay. If you see your neighbor driving on Shabbat, do you have to tell them directly? Is that the question? So your neighbor doesn't like you, but you see him driving on Shabbat.

59:47right, okay. So, that's why the — very good question, very good question. So, the mitzvah of rebuke starts with, "You must rebuke your brother, but don't get to a way of sin," meaning your rebuke should not lead the person to sin. So, one of the ways to explain it is that sometimes there are certain people... They refuse to listen to you even if what you're saying is true. You're not the vessel. Usually, this happens between spouses and siblings, and it's very hard for an older brother to listen to rebuke from his younger brother. No matter how smart the younger brother is, it's very, very difficult. The older brother has to be like a mini Moshe Rabbeinu in order to listen to the rebuke of his younger brother. Even if his younger brother is a rabbi and he's smart and he's a good guy and he means well and so on, he's still a younger brother. The same thing with parents; parents will have a very, very almost impossible time listening to rebuke from their children. Why? Because no matter how smart you are and how well-intended you are and how wonderful you are, they will always look at you as this little boy or little girl that they used to change diapers for. Even if you're 50 years old, you're still that same little kid they changed diapers for. So now you're telling me what to do? No, come on. he's still a younger brother. The same thing with parents; parents will have a very, very almost impossible time listening to rebuke from their children. Why? Because no matter how smart you are, how well-intended you are, and how wonderful you are, they will always look at you as this little boy or little girl that they used to change diapers for. Even if you're 50 years old, you're still that same little kid they changed diapers for. So now you're telling me what to do? No, come on.

1:01:13Hard for parents to listen to rebuke from kids, very hard, almost impossible. Same thing with spouses with each other. Wives like to rebuke their husbands, tell them what to do. This is not exactly the ideal situation. But obviously, somebody has to tell them what to do, so the wife has to be smart about when to do it and how to do it. First off, I remember hearing Rav Yagen one time say, if you see a husband do something wrong, don't tell him right away. Wait a few days. Wait a few days. Why? If he's doing something wrong right now, maybe he's upset, maybe his mind is preoccupied, and maybe he already knows. Wait a few days before you give him the rebuke. Don't be like one of those people who attack right away because he's not going to take it well. Already he's not going to take it well because you're his wife. Already she's not going to take it well because you're her husband. But nonetheless, you should be very clever with the way you rebuke and who you rebuke. So sometimes a person needs to know that it's not necessarily the message but rather the messenger that is the reason why the person is not getting the rebuke. So if you already know that this person is a person that doesn't like you, do not rebuke them directly. Why? It's a foolish move because, by default, they're not only not going to listen to you, but they may end up making the sin even worse just to spite you.

1:02:38which will lead them to sin. So there's no point in you rebuking them because now, even if they know you're right, just because you said it, they'll do something worse. So that's not smart. You want to help them, after all. You don't want to prove them wrong. You just want to help them. That's the whole intention of rebuke—to help people. So what are you supposed to do? You have to rebuke them indirectly. Whether it's your spouse, your neighbor, or whoever it is, rebuke them indirectly by sending them a video. If they truly don't like you, then send them the video anonymously—anonymous email, anonymous text message, anonymous letter—so that they don't know it's coming from you. And have that video be of me talking, Rabbi Mizrachi talking, or anyone else discussing this specific issue and conveying the truth. this issue. Have them tell them in the video or the book or whatever it is that's going to deliver the message to this person. Because once they hear it from me, I don't know them, so they know I'm not talking about them per se, but it is about them. So they're not going to feel attacked by me because I don't know them. The video is talking to a bunch of other people, but the message is related to them. And if they're clever...

1:03:52They'll take it to heart. Hopefully, they're clever enough to take it to heart after only one video. But sometimes it takes a year's worth of videos, two years' worth of videos. Point being, Abutai, is that sometimes people do themselves a great service by not doing things directly, by being smart enough to know that they're not the messenger. They're not the messenger to rebuke people, but they want to help the public. They want to help other people. So what do they do? Instead of doing it themselves, like I said, they have me do it by sending one of our video clips, by giving them one of our CDs, sending them one of our shiurim, adding them to the group, bringing them to a shiur, and so on and so forth. So that way that person will get the message, but not necessarily from the vessel that they're refusing. and that way you will help them as well as help yourself because you're fulfilling a huge mitzvah of rebuke, but not necessarily by doing it directly. However, it's no less of a mitzvah—it's actually a bigger mitzvah.

1:04:53There's a principle in the Torah that someone who enables another person to do a mitzvah gets a bigger merit, a bigger reward than the person who actually does it himself. So you, let's say for example, you donate $100 to B'ezrat Hashem, I'm going to do all the work, right? But the fact that you donated $100, I'm going to go rebuke the person or tell the person to do this and that. They end up keeping mitzvot because I was able to pay the rent or I was able to pay the employees. I was able to buy some batteries, or whatever I was able to do with that money or CDs. Now, I was able to do all this because of that $100 that you gave, right? Even though I'm the one that made them technically do teshuvah, you get a bigger merit than me. Why? It was done with your money. It was done with your money. So that's why people that contribute money to kiruv, real kiruv, resources and things of that nature, there is no one more fortunate than them.

1:05:55because they enable the mitzvah to happen. They enable the mitzvah to happen. So don't think that the rebuke always has to be done directly. But sometimes, this is a side note quickly, sometimes you are the messenger. Sometimes no one else in the world will be the messenger. Like, for example, the event we had last night in Five Towns, the guy that hosted the event, he told me himself. When Sonny and I arrived, we were talking for a little while, and he told me, "Listen, I've been listening to rabbis for years. Listening to many different rabbis for many, many years. But nothing changed. Nothing changed. I started listening to you, but I fell asleep in the beginning after five minutes. But that five minutes shook me up. So I tried it again, another five minutes, fell asleep after five minutes. But every time I would listen to you, it would shake me up. I started changing and... I realized, guys, very smart guys, as I realized you're the messenger. Other rabbis are nice. They're smart guys. They're all wonderful people, but you were the messenger. I said some people are the messenger; sometimes I'm not the messenger, but I was in this case. So that's the key. A person needs to know that sometimes you are the messenger. You're the only one. There's no one else. One woman sent me an email today. She said

1:07:15Thank you for helping me do teshuvah for modesty. She says, "I get embarrassed when you talk so bluntly about the immodest woman because I know you're talking directly to me." She says that's the only thing that helped me change because I know you're talking to me. I don't even know her. I've never seen her in my life. I... But the words that I say, she heard other things from other places, from other rabbis, other books, and so on. But the message that came out of my mouth, that's the code. Just like you have a safe, Okay, your neshama has a safe. And there's a certain code that's going to work. You could put a bunch of different numbers; it's not going to work. You could play with the numbers, have a good time with the numbers, play tic-tac-toe if you want, but it's not going to work. It's not going to open the safe. But then there's the code. There's certain words that are going to come from a certain messenger. That's a specific code for that neshama. Nothing else is gonna work. Just that one. So sometimes you're the messenger. Sometimes it's me. Sometimes it's you. Sometimes it's others. But you need to be honest enough with yourself to know when you are and when you're not the messenger. Don't let your ego get in the way and force yourself on things. That's why, for example, when people ask me to talk to certain people about helping them do teshuva, I say before I talk to anyone, have them watch my movie.

1:08:34Why? Because that movie, aside from teaching a lot of different things that impact everybody's life, whether you're rich, you're poor, you're on Wall Street, you're not on Wall Street, you're in business, you're not in business, you're intermarried, you're not intermarried, you have a kid that's intermarried, you have a friend that's intermarried, you're sick, you're healthy, you're afraid of being sick, all types of issues, Baruch Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave me a nice, fantastic rollercoaster to go through for the merit of Am Yisrael, and also for my sins, unfortunately. But nonetheless, that whole movie is also going to give the person clarity on whether I'm the messenger. Because at the end of that movie, you're either going to love me and want to listen to more things that I say, or you're just going to say, "Not for me. Not for me." The overwhelming majority of people have said they loved it and they continue to watch, but I'm not delusional. I know there are some people that probably won't like it. Point being is that you have to be honest with yourself. You can't force yourself everywhere and just say, oh, no, no, I'm the messenger. I'm the only one. But for some people, you are the only one. For some people, you are the only one. Next question. Ken.

1:10:05Is this a regular member or is this a key? Is this a rabbi, like a leader of the community of some kind? No, so that's if it's a regular member of the kehillah. It's a good friend. You told a certain friend of yours that... To start keeping Shabbat, and he's not listening to you, that is a lesser issue than the rabbi because the rabbi has a constant obligation to rebuke people. i mean everyone has a constant obligation to rebuke, but even more so for a rabbi because that's his role. That's really his job. The job of a rabbi is not to tell everybody they're all tzaddikim, you're all great, you're all wonderful. The job of a rabbi is to, in essence, help people get to the Torah, raise themselves to the Torah by teaching them about the things that they're doing wrong, helping guide them to go on the right path, and also teaching them how to do things right. That's the job of a rabbi.

1:11:05It's not to be a money collector. It's not to be the Chazan in a Bet Knesset. It's none of that stuff. You can do all that other stuff, but that's not the primary reason you have a rabbi. The primary reason for a rabbi is to get the whole kehillah to the Torah. So he has a constant obligation to rebuke. So much so that the Rambam writes, and I believe it's in Hilchot Teshuvah, that you have to rebuke a person until he beats you up. he has to constantly tell him over and over again, obviously in his own way, in a nice way, depending on the sin, sometimes not in such a nice way, in a raised voice, in a low voice, in whatever manner he knows, using his wisdom of how to do it, and how frequently to do it, and how... what time to do it and so on. But nonetheless, he has the constant responsibility to rebuke people until they beat him up. Some say it's until they threaten to beat him up, but nonetheless, it's definitely not one time. It's pretty much until you get to a point like it's too much. So the Rambam writes that if someone is speaking in shul, while everyone is praying, you have to rebuke them privately first.

1:12:22if they continue speaking in shul, you have to embarrass them publicly. Even though to embarrass a Jew publicly is a person can lose their Olam HaBa. Someone that embarrasses another Jew in public loses his share of the World to Come. Even if they kept Shabbat, even if they kept this and they kept that, you embarrass another Jew in public, you can lose Olam HaBa. But the Rambam says, yes, but that's only someone that is not desecrating Hashem's name. That's not this person. That is speaking in shul. He's desecrating Hashem's name. You are obligated to go embarrass him in public. Why? Because he's talking in shul and the whole kehillah is suffering, their prayers are not being answered while he's talking. That's what the Shulchan Aruch says. This aveirah that he's doing, talking in shul during prayer, is too big. He doesn't even say how big; it is too big. It's the only thing in the entire Shulchan Aruch where he says this sin is too big. Why? Because everybody's tefillah in the Beit Knesset doesn't get answered because of him. So the Rambam says, you asked him nicely. Once, twice, you asked him nicely to stop it. If he continues, embarrass him in public. And he actually even says, I believe I read it somewhere else, either Rambam or somewhere else, that in the older days, you're supposed to have something like police in the Beit Knesset to escort these people out, to kick them out.

1:13:49escort these people out. So, the point is that obviously this stuff doesn't really exist today, at least not in the places that I know in America, but rebuke is very much an important part of not only Judaism, but of human life. Without rebuke, without telling people that they're going in the wrong direction, that means we cannot teach anything. Everyone's always right, then what's the point of teachers? You know, your kid tells you, "Uh, yes, your kid, I know how much 1 plus 1 is." The kid says, "11." Now, if you don't correct that kid, the kid's gonna end up becoming ignorant. He's not gonna graduate first grade. Why? Because it's not 11, it's 2. In case you're wondering, it's 2. One plus one is two. You have to correct the kid. Oh, but then he'll cry that he was wrong. Okay, let him cry. What do you mean? It's better that he cry for a minute than I cry for much longer. You have to tell him. Now, of course, everybody does things in their own way, lightly, politely, not lightly, not politely. You have to know how to do and what to do. But the point is that correcting people, i.e., tochacha (rebuke), is very much a necessary part of human life. That's what...

1:15:13Everyone in the world uses this with no problem in every part of their life. If you work for a sales team, if you're a salesman, for example, usually you have sales meetings. Okay, if you're a teacher, you have teacher meetings. If you're part of a kitchen, your chef or part of a team of chefs, you have meetings with all the chefs, right? Now, if you're all types of employees, you have team meetings. What happens in those team meetings? What happens in those corporate meetings? The leader comes and tells everybody, "Hey guys, I've had it with you. You gotta step it up. Sales are down. The food stinks. We're losing customers. You gotta do something to get people up there." Everybody has their own way; some people do this, some people do that. But the point is that the whole purpose of the meeting is to get everybody to step up and fix their ways. And no one has a problem with it. Why? Because they know they need to do it. When do they have a problem with it? When it comes to Torah. When it comes to Torah, the only time it actually matters. The only time it actually matters, you tell the guy, listen, you have to do this, this, and that. You have to be modest. You have to keep kosher. You have to learn Torah. No, no, no, come on, stop judging me. I'm not judging you. I'm just telling you things you need to do to save your olam haba. But that's the thing. The yetzer hara doesn't interfere with your corporate meeting. But it interferes with your rabbi meeting. It interferes with your Torah meeting.

1:16:37That's a person needs to be honest with themselves and realize if someone came to you and rebuked you, that's because HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself sent them. HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself sent this person to rebuke you, and that's why Shlomo HaMelech says, "Don't hate rebuke." Those that hate rebuke die. That's what he says. Those that hate rebuke die. Why? Because someone that hates rebuke is not going to listen to any correction. He's going to continue living his life in mistake. Day after another he says he's going to be a sinner, and now sinners, the reshaim, are considered dead while they're alive. Because there's no chance this person will go to Heaven if he doesn't fix the sin. And if he doesn't want to listen to rebuke, then how's he going to fix it? So it's very, very much necessary to do it. Yes, how about the question? It's only... The Torah? The Torah, I mean, the sale is going to happen. They're always speaking. People are always constantly speaking. It doesn't matter what you say to them. They have the rabbis in their pockets with money, basically. I can't say anything. I get up, I'll try to say something. Does the rabbi talk also? He says that he tells everybody to stop. People shush, but just keep talking. They don't care. And I see and I hear and I just move. I move from chair to chair. Right, so what's the question?

1:18:03So what do I do? Do I get up and move? Because I keep doing that, but I feel like I'm still part of it. Okay, so the question is, there's a Beit Knesset with a kehillah full of amei ha'aretz, ignorant people that speak during shul, during the prayer, during the reading of the Torah, during Megillat Esther, which by the way, if you hear, if you miss one word from the Megillah, you did not fulfill your mitzvah, just so you know. If the Baal Koreh is reading from the Megillah, People are talking for sure. You're gonna miss words. That means you have to start from the beginning. So, if you have a shul where people are talking and you know they're gonna talk during the Megillah reading, don't go there because you're not gonna fulfill the mitzvah. You might as well stay home or go to a different shul. But anyway, if you have a shul full of ignorant people, rude people that care less about anybody other than themselves, and they're talking during prayer no matter what the rabbi says and meaning even if the rabbi says to them "shush," they don't. What is the answer? What do you do? There's only one solution: change batei knesset. You cannot go to such a beit knesset. The same answer my rabbi told me. I told him, "Listen, there's a beit knesset. It's wonderful. It's big. It's beautiful. Lots and lots of people."

1:19:23it's right next to my house, so it's really, really convenient. There's only one problem: the mechitza. The mechitza between the men and the women is see-through. It's like there are holes in it. It's almost as if it's not there. So what do I do? Can I just, uh, look? Now look, he says, you're not allowed to step into such a beit knesset, not to pray there. Why? You're not allowed. Go find a new one. I said, yeah, but the next one is two miles away. He says, no, so exercise. There's no other beit knesset. Who says you have to go to a beit knesset then? You should go to a beit knesset, but you can't fulfill a mitzvah by way of an aveirah. A place where there are clowns like this that speak during shul no matter what, they have no kavod for the Torah, you're not allowed to go to such a beit knesset. Not allowed. You step away, you leave, and you go to a different place. But I mean most places are not like that. Most places have people talking during shul, but if you shush them, Or the rabbi at least shushes them. Usually, people are polite enough to quiet down. If they're not even that, then these people are simply people you have to run away from. Run away from them like they have the coronavirus. Seriously, I'm not joking. Run away from them like they have the coronavirus because these people are infectious, rotten people. They're rotten neshamot. It's not an exaggeration. Somebody that speaks during shul is simply somebody that has a desire.

1:20:51selfish desire. But someone that disrespects the rabbi after the rabbi tells him to be quiet and he still continues to do it week after week, day after day, no matter what, that's a rotten neshama. There's no doubt in my mind, that person's Erev Rav. So, now you're not, since we don't know that for sure, you're not allowed to kill him, but definitely don't be next to him. Why? Because if a bomb falls, most likely, if you're next to him, you may not be spared. Serious, and it's making fun of it a little bit, but I'm being serious also. Don't be next to such people. People that have bad manners are bad people; just don't be next to them. It's so much so that sometimes you'll see somebody that knows Torah, but has bad manners. So the Gemara says, what's better if I have a Talmid Chacham, someone who knows a lot of Torah, but has bad middot, bad manners? You know, he does all types of things that are bad manners. I don't have to explain to you guys what bad manners are. But then I have another guy who doesn't know anything. He doesn't know anything about Torah, but he has good manners. He has good manners. He's a generous guy. The Torah says to run away from this rotten Talmid Chacham and befriend the person who is ignorant but has good manners. Why? Because if

1:22:11If the guy has good manners, we can teach him Torah. And he'll be not only a Talmid Chacham, but also have good manners. But if the guy already learned Torah and he still has bad manners, this person is worse than a dead animal in the street. He doesn't even know how to use the Torah. He learned the Torah, but didn't learn anything from the Torah. He read the Torah, but didn't get anything from it. So this guy used the medicine, but it's not curing him. He's dead. Bad manners are something that the Torah hates. Hates, hates with a passion. HaKadosh Baruch Hu despises people like that. So much so that the Gaon of Vilna says someone that does not fix his manners, does not fix his character traits in his life, there's no purpose to his life. He says, what did you live for? Now you're going to say, oh, what about if, you know, I have relatives that have bad manners? You can't pick your relatives, right? But it doesn't mean you have to be next to them.

1:23:12Can't pick your parents, can't pick your brothers and sisters, can't pick these people. Doesn't mean you have to spend time with them. Yeah, but then they'll get hurt. Let them get hurt. Better they get hurt than you get hurt. Like this young woman came to the shiur last night. She's been watching my shiurim, Baruch Hashem, for several years. She's a black convert, and I was telling her that it's time for her to find a shidduch, get married, Baruch Hashem. And she says, oh, but I'm concerned about, you know, racism. If I marry another black guy, then maybe they're going to say something. But if I marry a white guy, then they're going to say something else. I said, first off, I spoke about this topic last week. For anyone who hasn't watched, I spoke about it extensively last week, about this whole racism issue in regards to Judaism. A little bit more updates than what I said initially a few months ago. But I said some more stuff last week. But even more so, I had a chiddush while I was talking to her.

1:24:14some people, some people are colorblind. Some people are colorblind; it's a mum, it's a defect. A person doesn't see color; he looks at everything, everything is black and white. He's still in the 1940s. Everything, everything is black and white. But some people, all they see is color. Meaning, they don't care what you say, but if you're black, or you're white, or you're burgundy, or you're Chinese, or you're whatever, that's all they care about. The fact that you're different than them. So I said, listen, let's be honest with each other. If you saw some paraplegic fall off the chair, are you going to make fun of him? He goes, no, chas v'shalom, no. Why? It's wrong. It's wrong to make fun of somebody that's a ba'al mum. It's wrong to make fun of somebody that has a defect, right? So if they told the colorblind guy, no, no, what color is that? You see that pink over there? He says, no, you're not going to make fun of him that he doesn't see colors, right? It's not nice to make fun of somebody that has a defect, right? So the guy that only sees color, he's also a ba'al mum. He's also defective.

1:25:19Why are you taking anything he says into account? He's defective in his head. He's racist. He's a defect. Don't care what he says. This guy is a paraplegic in his head. All he sees is black and white and green and burgundy. He doesn't care about the opinions. And that's a personal defect. Why would you ever put any value on his opinion? Defective mind. Doesn't deserve any value. No, that's it. So, Baruch Hashem, this hit the... was what she needed to hear. She'll move on in a positive way in her life. But that's for everybody, that's really for everybody. There's always going to be people that are haters, there's always going to be people that are going to judge you for the wrong reason. Don't pay them any attention. If you know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu agrees with what you're doing, that's all that matters. Yeah, but it hurts me. Why does it hurt you? Why does it hurt you? Because they look at you because you're Black, or they look at you because you're Sephardi, or they look at you because you're a Yemenite. Why does it hurt you? Why? Does it hurt you because they're right? Or does it hurt you because you don't understand that they are defective? They're defective. I mean, you're upset because someone defective made fun of you. Like, I mean, who's really wrong here? You or them?

1:26:38You're upset that someone defective made fun of you. I mean, come on. They're a defective person. If there was a special class for people, that would be it. They would be the class president. Why are you upset that they're racist and defective people? Don't take what they say into account. Who cares what they say? Let them go smash their head against the wall. In Judaism, color does not matter. What matters is how you live your life and what kind of Torah you live. Your opinion is valid or not valid. It's valid if it's from the Torah; it's not valid if it's not from the Torah. That's what Judaism talks about. You look at all of the books in the Torah, you'll see it cites all types of sources. It mentions Rashi, it mentions the Rambam, the Ramban, the Baal Shem Tov, all types of sages, and guess what? There's no pictures next to any of the sages. Why? We don't care what they look like.

1:27:39We care what they say. We care what they say because we know what they say is from Har Sinai. So it doesn't matter what they look like. One of the fantastic stories that I heard in my life is one of the people that was in the Beit Midrash of Rav Elyashiv, one time found a piece of paper with a fantastic handwritten chidush. A new insight, Torah insight, written on it. But no name. Now they know this Beit Midrash is where Rav Elyashiv is the Gadol HaDor, not just of that Beit Midrash, but of the world. But they know that he writes a lot of things. So they came to the Rav and said, Kevod HaRav, this chidush, is it yours? It doesn't have a name on it. So Rav Elyashiv, in his humility, in his beautiful emet, he says, Is it good? If it's good, then who cares where it's from? If it's bad, then also who cares where it's from? Throw it in the garbage. If it's good, use it. What does it matter who it's from? If it's good, use it. Baruch Hashem. But if it's not good, it's in the garbage. Even if it is from me. Even if it is from me, but if it's not good, it's in the garbage. Throw it in the garbage.

1:29:05That's what every person needs to understand. In Judaism, we don't care about your color. We don't care about your height and weight, your gender, and so on. All we care about is whether you're living the truth or not. Now, if you're going to care about it, then that means you're the one who's racist. If you want everyone to give you special attention because you're Sephardi or you're Ashkenazi or you're Hasidic or you're black or you're white or you're Chinese or you're from, I don't know, some other place, you're an alien, you have three heads, whatever, you want special attention, then you, my friend, are the racist, not everybody else. You, my friend, are the racist. But that's the reality. Anyone that makes fun of you, they're a ba'al mum. Ba'al mum. Ba'al mum. A ba'al mum cannot be a Kohen. A ba'al mum cannot work in a Beit HaMikdash. You know, if it says there's a special parasha that talks about the Kohanim. If the Kohen has a unibrow, it's considered a deformity. He is not allowed to work in the Beit HaMikdash. What do you think is the worst mum? Being racist or having a unibrow? A unibrow you can fix. Take a little pincetta, you fix the unibrow. Racism is very hard to fix. Why? It becomes part of the person's nature. You understand? So don't take offense.

1:30:21People that are ba'alei mum. You just feel bad for them. You know, hopefully one day, HaKadosh Baruch Hu puts them in a special institution to fix themselves, and maybe you guys could donate for that cause. That's it. He's kidding. He's kidding. I must be skinnier. That's all this. I have a guy who sends me a Now it's gone away. It was sending me 40, 45 emails a day. Then he stopped for a little while. Now he's back. Baruch Hashem. He sends me about 15 to 20 emails a day telling me about how much he doesn't like me and how racist he is and how he hates Jews and how he hates me and this and that. It's a ba'al mum. Delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. Delete. That's it. Baruch Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu created a delete button. That's it. Delete. Delete. Move on with your life. Don't even read it. Don't even pay attention to it. Move on. Move on. Move on. It's like a bad smell. Go away from it. It goes away. That's it. Baal mum. Just think about it next time somebody says something to you. Oh, poor guy. What do you mean, poor guy? You just made fun of me. I called you a name. Meshugene. Meshugene. Give the guy a hug. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. You know what? Let me write something. Let me give you a check for the next foundation for the baalei mum of race. Give the guy tzedakah, baby. Hey, hey, hey. Come here. Meshugene.

1:31:49You see somebody missing a leg, missing an arm, you're probably going to give him some tzedakah if the guy needs, right? Guy's racist, give him some tzedakah. I love you, I love you. Don't worry, it's going to be okay. Give him some tzedakah, the guy's a baal mum, he's getting racist. You have to understand, he's already ruined his own life and his olam haba. How are you going to be upset about it? He's already ruining his own life. He's already ruined his own life living with so much hatred in himself. What kind of life is that? Give him some tzedakah. Give him some chesed. Maybe he'll enjoy something in this world at least. Get some candy. Chesed. Poor guy. Yeah, give him a lollipop. Give him a lollipop. Give him a hug. Give him a hug. No, no, don't touch me. Oh, you're skinny. Give him another hug. Give him another hug. Okay, no, here, here. Here's $20. I was going to give you five, but I see you're really a serious mum here. Here's $20. Here's $20. Here. Here's $20. Pay attention to these people. Skinny. Poor people. No. Almost last question. No? Anything? Chabad. If you keep all the mitzvot, if you keep Shabbat,

1:33:09You don't believe in the coming of Mashiach? What do you mean you don't believe in the coming of Mashiach? But do you believe Mashiach will come? I'm not saying you, I'm saying the person believes the Mashiach will come. Forget about all the mitzvot. Does the person believe? Okay, so you're asking. Hold on, one second. One step at a time. So a person is keeping all of the mitzvot. Amen. And... but he doesn't believe the Mashiach is going to come, or he believes the Mashiach is going to come, but not anytime soon. Which one is it? So I understand the question. He doesn't believe in the Mashiach. Like he doesn't think there is a Mashiach, he just thinks that this world is the world? It was just a story made up. It was just a story that pushed people to continue. Oh, okay. So this...

1:34:22All right, so a person that does not believe in the coming of the Mashiach is violating the 13 principles of faith, and he's considered 100% a kofer gamur. He's considered a heretic. He has no share in the world to come. He could keep whatever he wants, keep a nice collection of kippot; it doesn't make a difference. So there's a person that doesn't believe in the 13 principles of faith... these are foundational beliefs of Judaism. Now, to say that he keeps all of the mitzvot is impossible. And the reason why is because each mitzvah connects to another. Each mitzvah connects to another, which means that if a person violates one of the principles, surely the other mitzvot have some type of mum in them, some type of deformity in them. This means that the Rambam writes that a goy who keeps the seven Noahide laws, if he keeps them because God said so,

1:35:28then he's considered one of the righteous among the nations, and he has a share of the world to come. But if he keeps the seven Noahide laws only because it makes sense to him not to murder, it makes sense to him not to eat the limb of a living animal, it makes sense to him to have a court system, it makes sense to him not to commit adultery, it makes sense to him, not because God said so. The Rambam says not only is he considered a fool, but he also has no share in the World to Come, even if he fulfilled all of those mitzvot. You have to fulfill all of the mitzvot because God said so, not because they make sense to you. So a person that violates one of the 13 Principles of Faith is a person that's not keeping the laws because God said so, but rather because they make sense to him. And if that's the reason, then none of his mitzvot have any merit whatsoever. It's like a person that washes his hands; he's not going to get a merit for washing his hands. If he doesn't say a blessing, then he's going to get a merit, he's going to get a mitzvah for it. But if he just washes his hands, there's no mitzvah for that. So the point is that a person that starts manipulating the law to his own liking, he has a very, very serious problem, especially when it comes to the principles of faith.

1:36:50If he violated other things, he could still have a share in the World to Come. But if he violates one of the 13 Principles of Faith, that's a very, very serious infraction. Unfortunately, it makes the person a heretic. Next question. That's it. You guys know the rest of the Torah? Alright, since we have a little bit of time, I'm going to add a few things to... This issue that we have in regards to doing business with goyim. Now, if you notice in your siddur, there's the Ten Remembrances, and one of them is that you have to remember what Amalek did to us every day. We also have that mitzvah in Purim, which is less than two weeks away, but the mitzvah of remembering Amalek is... Something that we have to remember every day is what he did to us so we don't repeat what he did. Now, Sefer Devarim (the book of Deuteronomy), chapter 25, verses 13 through 16, is called Parashat Zachor. Just those verses are called Parashat Zachor, and it talks about Amalek. Over there...

1:38:13Rashi says that after teaching the laws of honest business and then warning that a violation of these business laws, not of anything else, is considered—meaning someone that's dishonest in business is considered—an abomination in the eyes of Hashem. Disgusting. saying it in street language like us, for example, if you walk across the street and as you're walking, you see there's a nice raccoon suntanning with his intestines out in the middle of the street because some car ran him over two days ago, so it's had a nice amount of time to get suntanned, and all types of maggots are coming out of him right now. You guys are disgusted just by my words, right? That's much less disgusting in the eyes of Hashem than a dishonest person in business. So Rashi says this person that's dishonest in business, it's considered to'evah baHashem, and

1:39:28is connected to the reminder of Amalek and what he did to us to teach us that the use of fraud with dishonest measures in business provokes Amalek, as it says in Proverbs: "Deceitful scales are an abomination to the Lord." When willful wickedness comes, then comes disgrace. So Rashi says here that when a person is willingly dishonest, not unintentionally, honestly, in his business, he's running a pawn shop, and he's ripping people apart, telling them that their goods are worth $5 when in reality, he knows they're worth half a million. He sells them something that looks like gold, tells them it's gold, but in reality, it's not even copper. sells him brand new stuff, but in reality, it's refurbished. He charges them interest that's 20, 30, 40, 50 times the market rates. All types of things like this, this type of dishonesty, this type of wickedness, gives power to Amalek. That's why those two things are connected: dishonesty and the whole remembering of Amalek, because that was Amalek's nature—dishonesty and

1:40:54Now, the Sefer Tzror HaKesef HaAruch, it's Rabbi Chaim Ben Shmuel, who was a Talmid of the Rashba, in Derech Chamishi and Shaar Vav, Ot Alef, he says, one who lends with interest commits six lav sins, six major sins. The lender, the borrower, the broker, the contract maker—we mean the sofer—are all sinners, the Rambam writes. And even to lend money with interest to a goy, he says, It says that one who benefits greatly from interest, from neshech, will end up losing it to one who favors the poor, as it says in Proverbs 28:8. So the sefer Tzur HaKesef...

1:41:56says that, okay, obviously if you lend money to a Jew with interest, you're committing six different types of sins. You're losing Olam HaBa. You're not going to get resurrected with the dead. You're the worst of the worst. But even if you're going to use the leniency of lending money to a goy with interest, because there are some that say you can lend money to a goy with interest, if you're going to make money out of it to the point where you're becoming successful, just know all that money, Hashem is going to take away from you. Meaning, Hashem hates this business. Even if you want to use the leniency to do it with the person you're allowed to do it with, Hashem still hates it. Hashem still hates it. Now, what if you borrowed money from a cash advance person, and you know he's sinning? You know he's sinning, so can you just default? No, not default. While you borrow the money, you have to pay it back.

1:42:56have to pay back as soon as possible. Don't do the payments because they're going to rip you off with the interest. But the point is, you have to pay back because you borrowed the money. If you don't pay back, it's gezel, it's stealing. You're also a thief. But nonetheless, a person needs to know that this business of lending, Hashem hates it. Even if you're doing it in a so-called kosher way. Now... The Torah permits us to lend money to a goy, but the heter was made only for making a living. Meaning, lending money to a goy is allowed only if it’s just enough to make a living. You need three, four, five thousand dollars a month to pay your bills. That's it. You're not allowed to make a penny more. You don't have to get rich off of this business, even on the permissible side. And not to become wealthy, says the Yalkut Yosef, unless the person is a Talmid Chacham who's even permitted to become wealthy from it. So if a person is a Talmid Chacham, he has a little bit different rules. But how many people are Talmidei Chachamim in any of these cash advance places?

1:44:18I don't even think these people know how to read Chumash sometimes. But nonetheless, you have a serious situation. Now, Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson in Sefer Divrei Shaul, Hilchot Edut, Perek 2, Halacha number 5, says a person shouldn't even lend money to a goy if he wants to do teshuva for lending money with interest because He must uproot the desire to lend money from the heart. So when the Torah said to lend money to a goy as a mitzvah, it also told you that you can escape from this mitzvah by not lending at all. Like one who has a mitzvah of shiluach haken, The mountains which you can avoid, meaning even though there's a mitzvah to do shiluach haken, which is shooing away the mother bird to take the eggs, you have this mitzvah you can do in the mountains. But no one told you that you have to go do it; are you going to climb a mountain now? So, it says yeah, it's a mitzvah to lend a goy money, but no one is saying you have to lend them the money. No one is saying go do it. You could do other things; you could lend money to a Jew with no interest. But that's the problem, people forget that part.

1:45:36so remember, he says, remember that when you lend money with interest, there is an issue of Chilul Hashem, meaning even if you fulfill, let's say, the mitzvah of lending money to a goy with interest because you're allowed, because there's a heter to lend money with interest, assuming it's fair interest—not the cash advance 40-50% interest craziness. Let's talk about, let's say, you're lending him 15% market rate, let's say, okay. Even then, you have to be concerned because of Chilul Hashem. Because that guy is always going to look at you as a Jew representing Judaism. Even if you're not religious. Even if your kippah is smaller than a quarter. Even if your beard is only because you forgot to shave. He's still going to look at you as Moshe Rabbeinu. And if he doesn't like how you're treating him, it becomes an issue of Chilul Hashem. You have a very serious problem on your hands. Now,

1:46:36He says that a person is seriously taking a big risk even trying to make a living out of this business. Now, okay, so Rabbeinu Bechaye says Commentary on Parashat Ki Tetse, Devarim (Deuteronomy) chapter 23, verse 21. He says that he mentions these two major sources that talk about ribbit (interest) to goyim and so on in Masechet Makkot page 24a and Bava Metzia 71a. He says all of this permission to lend money with interest is only referring to a talmid chacham.

1:47:37just to make a living. So then Rabbeinu Bechaye ben Asher continues, says, what about the verse that says, that you may cause The Gentile to take interest, but you may not cause your brother to take interest so that Hashem your God will bless you in everything. What about all of that? He says the fact that it's permissible to charge a goy interest shows that it's in nature and it's not a crime per se like stealing. Stealing, everybody knows that you're not allowed. So charging interest is not like stealing. But the Ramban actually elaborates on this particular point, especially since the Torah promises a reward for not charging interest, which is not promised for not stealing. Meaning if you don't steal, you don't get a reward. But if you don't charge interest, it says you get a reward for it. So the Torah teaches that just like Jews must give tzedakah to each other, they also must give loans interest-free to each other. But the Gentile, they're not permitted, meaning there's no permission to turn the lending to goyim as the mitzvah that you're doing. Needless to say, there's also no permission for you to turn the lending into stealing.

1:48:58They also must give loans interest-free to each other. But to the Gentile, they are not permitted, meaning there's no permission to turn the lending to goyim as the mitzvah that you're doing. Needless to say, there's also no permission for you to turn the lending into stealing. And So further on that particular verse in Leviticus 25, verse 37, where it says, it says don't give him your money for interest or for increase. Don't give your food. I am Hashem. So Rashi says interest is called two things here. First, it's called neshech, interest. And second, it's called marbit, which is increase.

1:50:04This is to show you that lending money with interest is two sins. Two sins. And the Kli Yakar says neshech comes from the word neshicha, which is like the bite, the biting of the borrower. Every time he takes interest from somebody, he's like biting him. But the marbit, the marbit is referring to that the person is becoming rich off of other people's misfortune. therefore, to increase the fortune of the lender is due to hurting the borrower. In essence, the reason why Hashem hates the whole business of making money with interest beyond what you need to make a living, and assuming you know you're a talmid chacham, is because the whole business of making money from interest is predatory in nature. You're making money off of other people's hurt, other people's pain. But then you say, "Wait a minute, but he's borrowing the money, he's reinvesting it, and he's making money with it." Yeah, but he could do the same thing if you didn't charge him interest. Like he doesn't need you to charge him interest in order to do his business. Your interest is not helping his cause; it's hurting it. If anything, it's jeopardizing everything he's doing, not helping it. You're not helping his mitzvah. Don't live a delusional life. Now, in Exodus 22:24, it says, when you lend money to My people...

1:51:29To the poor person who is with you, don't act towards them as a creditor, it says. Don't lay interest upon them. So the clear account says, if you help the poor by giving them an opportunity to do so, Hashem helps you. And Hashem requires a person to have compassion for people that are needy, meaning that charging them interest is the opposite of being compassionate. It's a bad middah. It's a bad character trait. And that's why the prophet Yechezkel, chapter 18, verse 13, says the following: Someone who gives loans with usury and takes interest, should he live? The prophet says: He shall not live; he shall surely die, his blood is upon himself. And

1:52:31And the Midrash Me'am Loez says, this is one of the sources we use with the Prophet Yechezkel. You lend money with interest, you lose Olam HaBa. Because the Prophet says, what? Someone lends money, is he gonna live? What do you mean live? Not live here. You think he's gonna get Olam HaBa? You're out of your mind. He is not only gonna die, but it's his fault. Why? Because he knew it was wrong. you're in a business for a few months. You start seeing people default. You start seeing people cry. They can't pay on time and so on and so forth. You're seeing the whole business is gross. You're seeing it. You have a whole file of defaults. You give it to somebody else, and they start calling them and hounding them in the middle of the night. "Sir, when are you going to pay?" They start knocking on the door, sending them lawyers, doctors, this and that, giving people heart attacks because of all this. And... So, Prophet Yechezkel says, Damav Bo—it's his own fault, he knows, his blood is on his own hands. Now, some people, the wicked people, think like Lot, who said, why put the muzzles on your sheep? Let them eat wherever they want. Because anyway, Hashem promised everything to Avraham.

1:53:52Meaning some people, the wicked people, they're like, "Listen, you're allowed to make money from the goyim, right?" So that's one reason to do it. Another reason is, "If I don't lend the money, someone else is going to lend the money. So it might as well be me. What's the difference? It might as well be me." So the answer to Lot is, "Yeah, you were right that Hashem promised the land to Avraham, but not today." Yeah, there is a permission to lend money to goyim, but not to you. Yes, someone's gonna lend the money anyway, but it doesn't need to be you. Doesn't need to be you. That mentality is a mentality of a rasha. So in Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 358, halacha number 2 says, anyone who steals even a perutah, even a dollar, is violating a law of prohibition, lo tignovu. which comes from Leviticus 19:11, and one must repay the money whether it's to Yisrael or to the Gentiles. Whether it's from the old or from the young. Meaning, stealing is forbidden from Jews and non-Jews. It's not that you're allowed to steal from non-Jews, chas v'shalom. Shulchan Aruch says outright, in the whole issue of stealing, even a perutah, you have to pay back to goyim also. You're not allowed to take more money from them. You're not allowed to take advantage of them. Who says you're not allowed?

1:55:22And the commentary by the Shach says, on this specific halacha, that this shows that stealing from a goy is a biblical prohibition. Stealing from non-Jews is actually a Torah violation. It's not rabbinical. It's not lesser. Hashem puts it in the same exact class. And that's what the Maharshal says, the Rambam, the Tur, and the Sma all say the same exact thing. Now, there's two different types of things. There's genevah and there's gezel. Genevah is hidden theft. Gezel is open robbery. Open robbery. Now, if someone, for example, robs a house while it's night, no one's there, that's genevah. If he robs it during the day where everybody's there, that's gezel. Robbery. Gezel. What about charging interest and overcharging and things of that nature? That's considered gezel. Why is it considered gezel? Because the guy is watching you take the 40, 50, 60, 80% in his face. It's not like he doesn't know that you're doing it. Yeah, but he signed the paperwork. Yeah, he signed it not realizing what kind of damage you're causing him. Everybody that signs contracts doesn't realize what kind of damage is in the small print.

1:56:39Everyone that signs the contract doesn't realize that they're going to be that exception that's really not an exception. That's actually more the standard. Everyone that signs the contract is overly optimistic. No one thinks that they're going to lose their whole life savings because of you and your strange language and your poignant language in order to take advantage of people. No one is going into this agreement with even an ounce of expectation that the worst thing is going to happen. that the interest that they're gonna pay is gonna be as much. Everybody has different situations. So the fact that he signed the contract doesn't mean it's allowed. You manipulated him into signing the contract. "No, but he called me for the money." Yeah, he called, you said yes. But in reality, you told him everything's gonna work out. You didn't tell him that 90% of your clients are defaulting because of such high interest and they're looking to refinance as soon as possible to get them out of the hell that you put them into. And You didn't tell him about the conversation you had five minutes before him, of the mother that is now a single mother because the father committed suicide because he couldn't make payments. And they lost the house. You didn't tell him about that part. You didn't tell him. All you told him is the thank you letters you got from a few people just the day they got the money, not by the time they paid it back. You're lying. You're lying. That's the reality. You're lying. Now the Rambam, Even HaEzer, Siman 28, Halacha number one.

1:58:08says that if a person is mekadesh a woman, meaning he took her as a wife, instead of using a ring that he bought, he robbed this ring. But he robbed it from a... uh, he robbed it from, actually... yeah, okay, we'll go with this, it's a little bit deep. He robbed this ring from a goy. Is it still a valid marriage? He says, yes, it's a valid marriage. Why is it a valid marriage? You robbed this ring, aren't you not allowed to benefit from the marriage? So the Gemara says, it's not referring to this gezel that the Rama is talking about. It's not referring to gezel that's in broad daylight, but rather simply taking borrowed money from somebody and not returning it. So that's still considered gezel, but it's not the same gezel as you just mamash robbed them in the middle of the street and so on. And the second thing is that the Beit Shmuel elaborates on this point, saying that really this is still a valid marriage because the woman that took the ring, she's benefiting from it, but she's not robbing it from the person. He gave it to her. She's a new owner. So

1:59:37So for the people that are talking about, you know, whether stealing from people is allowed or not allowed, you know, they're going to try to use this Even HaEzer or this Rama, saying, "Look, you could even steal from goyim" and so on. He said, no, no, you have to know that there is stealing and there's stealing. There's gezel and there's gezel. There's different classes of gezel. Don't try to misconstrue certain things or misinterpret them. Now, the Shulchan Aruch in Siman 359, Halacha number one, says that you're not allowed to rob or steal anything, kol shehu, from a Jew or an idolater. And the Yerushalmi says that midat chassidut even forbids taking a stick off a tree or a garden that's not yours. You're walking around, you see your friend's tree, and you decide to just take off a little piece of his tree. I don't know, you just like to take off stuff a bit. If you were trying to be someone that's really righteous, even that's not allowed. Even that's not allowed. Is your friend going to actually get affected by it? Is he going to lose his sleep over it? Probably not. But if you're trying to be mamash righteous, even that's not allowed. Why should you even pay attention to your friend's property to the extent of a leaf in his tree? That's really what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants. Why? The commentary is on that. The Yerushalmi says because a person, a real Jew, is supposed to be even more stringent

2:01:05With the property of others, needless to say, one must be even more stringent with Gentiles than he is with Jews. Meaning, you should be more careful with the business dealings you do with Gentiles than you do with Jews, because if you violate the agreement between you and another Jew, that Jew is going to tell you, "Listen, you're a bad guy," and... But if you violate the agreement or ethical rules between you and a non-Jew, that non-Jew is going to say, "Ah, all Jews are bad." Meaning you've become the representative of all Judaism, and it turns into Chilul Hashem. So a person that's doing business with Goyim needs to know that you have to be even more stringent, more strict, and more honest with the Goyim than with Jews, which is the opposite of what people's mentality is today. So, what's one of the examples? The Shach says in Siman 3:37 that a Jew who works for a Goy is forbidden to eat while working, even though he is allowed to eat while working for a Jew. Let's say you've worked for a Jew; you're allowed to eat during your job because you have to survive, and so on and so forth, right?

2:02:23But if you work, while you're working even, you're allowed to eat because you haven't eaten, whatever. But if you work for a non-Jew, you're not allowed to eat during your job. You have to wait for your designated break time. You're not allowed to eat anything. Why? You have to be more strict with how you work for the goy because he's not going to understand anything. He's going to judge all of Judaism based on you. And the Tosefta in Bava Kama says, one who steals from a Gentile must repay him just as if he stole from a Jew. But you should know that theft from a Gentile is much worse—much worse than stealing from Jews. To such an extent that the Knesset HaGedolah in Siman 359 says that even stealing from a Jew, it talks about you're not allowed to steal a dollar. He says from the Gentiles, even less than a penny is forbidden. Even stealing a penny from him is forbidden. Because it's worse than stealing from a Jew, the Knesset HaGedolah says.

2:03:35Because a Gentile doesn't forgive even for a small amount. Meaning, if you stole a dollar from your friend that's a fellow Jew, he'll let it go. Ah, it's a dollar. Okay. Whatever. It is what it is, right? But the goy is not going to give up even for a penny. Even for a penny. Now, I told you guys a story about the guy that was stealing in the toilet paper business. It was a guy that was stealing in the toilet paper business. And it's one of the clips we have on the internet. Good story, famous story. The guy that was stealing in the toilet paper business heard from a rabbi that he's not allowed to steal. He did teshuva, and he started giving his customers extra toilet paper from now on without them knowing, and he ended up getting rewarded handsomely by Hashem because of it. Now, why did he do this teshuva? Because the rabbi says that anyone that steals cannot enter Gan Eden, even if he fulfills all of the mitzvot. that steals. If you keep Shabbat, keep this, keep that, and he steals, sorry, you cannot enter with blood on your hands, because stealing is blood on your hands. So, one of my students heard this, and she said, "You know what, I borrowed a hundred dollars from my sister 15-20 years ago."

2:05:02and I never paid it back. After that much time, it's stealing. You didn't pay it back, it's stealing. You borrowed money, and you have to pay it back. Now you don't have it. You have it. You didn't have it at the time, but you have it to pay back. You didn't pay it back, that's stealing. But all the time it's our sister. But then she said to herself after she heard this clip, she said, what if she didn't forgive me? She didn't forgive me. I have to come back in the gilgul. She says, "You know what? I decided after I watched that clip, I said there had to be a reason I'm watching this clip." I called my sister, "Give me your bank account." She sent it—$100. The day she sent $100, her sister sent her an email with all of the receipts and all of the records she had still kept for 15 years about this $100, meaning she was right. She never forgave her. She had receipts of all the money, where the money went, and how she still owes them, and how it got up to $100. For $100, 15 years, the sister didn't forgive it. And guess what? The sister, the one that lent the money, that didn't forgive, she died six months later. She died six months later. So my student tells me, "Thank you for that shiur. Because if she would have died, I would have never known this, and I would have had to come back in a gilgul for $100." $100.

2:06:26Unbelievable, unbelievable how the Torah shows you how right it is. So, the Knesset says it’s even more forbidden to steal from a goy to the extent where even if it’s less than a dollar, because the goy is never going to forgive the Jew. Simply not going to happen. He’s always going to remember you stole a penny from him. You stole 50 cents from him. You stole 90 cents from him. Don’t mess with it. It’s mamash lava. It’s not even fire; it’s lava. Rabbeinu Zalman says, even if the goy hurts the Jew, he hit him, he punched him, he embarrassed him, not with money, he didn't hurt him with money, but he hurt him with other things, it's still forbidden to hurt the Gentile with monetary loss. Even if the goy punched him in the face and hit him, and he's the worst guy in the world, it's still not allowed to steal from him. Yeah, but he's a bad goy. Doesn't make a difference. It's still not allowed to steal from him.

2:07:27Just because he's bad doesn't give you permission to be bad. Now, Shulchan Aruch, 228, Halacha number 6, says it's even forbidden to deceive the Gentile with geneivat da'at. And the Sefer Pischei Choshen adds that even if the Gentile will never find out that you cheated him, you're still not allowed to deceive him. Even if he's not going to find out that you cheated him, it's still forbidden. Let's say, for example, he came to you and said, "I want to buy kosher meat," and you sold him non-kosher meat for the price of kosher meat, which is more expensive. He's never going to know whether it's kosher or not. There's no way for him to tell if the meat is kosher or not. He has no way of knowing. The halacha says it's not allowed. It's not allowed even if he is never going to find out. Even if there's, let's say, no way for it to become a chillul Hashem, it's still not allowed.

2:08:28The Maharsha says you're even forbidden to lead him astray to allow an error. This all applies to this cash advance business. Why? Because they're saying, "Listen, we're giving him a contract with all the terms. We're gonna charge him 40, 50, 500 percent, whatever it is. If he signs it, it's his problem." No, the Maharsha says you're not allowed to lead him to a point where you know he's making a mistake and... You know that no normal human being with common sense is going to sign such a contract that's going to pay interest that's simply unpayable, unless the business doubles in size. It's just that no one would ever do such a thing. No normal human being would do such a thing. No normal human being would sign a contract where you're pretty much putting a gun to his head. If he's late or if he defaults on a payment by one month, you pretty much take over all of his possessions because of the confession of judgment part of the contract that they have. When guys default on a payment by one month, in 24 hours they take over all of his possessions. No one normal would ever sign such a thing.

2:09:42And even without the confessions of judgment, no one normal would sign a deal where you're going to pay him 80% if he's not in desperate, unrealistic terms. So even leading him astray to allow him to make an error, the Rambam in his commentary says it's also not allowed. And that's why The verse in Leviticus says that you should not grieve your fellow because you have to fear your God. This is referring to business conduct. A person is not allowed to take advantage of other people. Now the Pele Yoetz, we'll finalize with this. The Pele Yoetz is this. The Pele Yoetz in Erech Gezel says sadly the intentional forgetful that the Gezel has become a heter, meaning permissible.

2:11:07in their eyes, by changing its name to hustling or to being shrewd. Because we know stealing from a goy is worse than he's saying because of the Chilul Hashem. He says that, you know, people are calling their stealing, "No, no, I'm just hustling and I'm just being shrewd. I'm just being aggressive, but you know as if it's allowed. He says we all know it's not allowed. We all know it's stealing from a goy. It's a hundred percent Chilul Hashem. As the Mekubalim, like the Chida, the Arizal, and the Chida mentions the name of the Arizal, and also Rabbi Chaim Palagi in Kaf HaChaim 21:7, they all say, Israel that steals from a goy, caused the Sar, the angel of the Goy, to take the Shefa, the reward that the Jews are supposed to get, they take. Meaning, when a Jew steals from a Goy, he's giving permission to the angel of the Goyim to take the reward of the Jews. So when you have Jews benefiting from stealing from Goyim,

2:12:24Even if you're not the one that's stealing. You're not stealing. But there are guys in the neighborhood that are stealing. There are guys in New York that are stealing. There are guys in Florida that are stealing. There are guys that are stealing from the Jewish people. They're also hurting you. Why? Those people that are stealing from goyim, they're giving permission to the angel, the sar of the goyim, to take it back. Meaning, Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Bazeh is not just in the physical form, but also spiritual. When we allow Jews to take advantage of non-Jews, all Jews lose. All Jews lose. And that's what, in the late 1600s, Rabbi Moshe Rivkash, the Be'er HaGolah, writes. He writes this for future generations. Because I've seen many wealthy men that benefited from the mistakes of the Goyim, not even from stealing from Goyim. He said, "I've seen many people that became wealthy from benefiting from the mistakes of Goyim lose all of their blessing and all of their money."

2:13:44Because they didn't even take advantage of the Goyim by stealing from them and so on. They just benefited on a regular basis. Every time a Goy made a mistake, they took advantage of it. They never told them. The guy gave him change. Instead of giving him $100 change, he gave him $1,000 change. Instead of giving him 10 tens, he gave him 10 hundreds. He didn't pay attention to it. This guy loved when Goyim were making mistakes. So the Beer HaGolah says, I saw some people that got rich off of those mistakes. Every time the goy would make mistakes, they never said a word. I saw Hashem take every single one of their dollars. All of them. As the Sefer Chassidim wrote, those who returned the mistakes of the goy made a Kiddush Hashem and had their wealth grow rapidly. He says, I saw the two sides. The people that took advantage of the goyim ended up losing everything they had. It looked like they were getting rich in the beginning. They bought a bigger house, a bigger company, a bigger building. But in the end, they lost everything. They lived like homeless people. And then the people that did the right thing, who gave the money back to the goyim and didn't take advantage of them, they did good, even though they didn't have much to give. They did it. In the end, they received a blessing from Hashem and became rich.

2:15:06Meaning that HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves honesty to the extent that if a Jew is honest in his business, there's no question that he will have bracha. He will have bracha. And bracha, rabotai ikarim, has no number on it. Because when you have bracha, you simply have everything you need. And there's nothing better in the world than that. I know a few people that have millions and millions of dollars, but no bracha. All of their money is being wasted on medical bills, lawyers, doctors, all types of divorces, all types of horrible things. They were better off not having the money. And then the few people that don’t have very much, but they have bracha, almost as if they're richer than anybody else. Why is that? So, a person that steals, a person that's dishonest, a person that's unethical in business will never have bracha, no matter how much money he donates. So much so that the Klausenberger Rebbe said to a rich guy that came to his Beit Midrash to donate big money, like millions of dollars to one of his yeshivot,

2:16:17When the Klausenberger Rebbe spoke to him, he said, "What do you do?" He replied, "I have companies, this, that, the other thing." So the Klausenberger Rebbe said, "Wow, so you must have a very difficult schedule." It was a very difficult schedule. He goes, "No, Rabbi, I already made so much money. I'm relaxing. All my companies are making money on their own. And I just go, play some poker and some cards with my friends. I go on vacation. I have a good time. But thanks for caring, Rabbi." The Klausenberger Rebbe's face changed. He looks at him. He says, "You're not ashamed of yourself. You're already 70 years old, and this is how you act? You don't learn any Torah. Instead, you go play in a casino and play cards with your friends. When are you going to know Torah? Why?" He says to him, "Why? You think you're going to go to heaven because you're donating money?"

2:17:23Just so you know, he says to him, everybody says, hundreds of people there watching this. Just so you know, all that money that you donated, you're going to go to Gehinnom for it. Why? Because that money was made from gambling. That means that those boys that benefited, that yeshiva that you paid for, that yeshiva that you paid for... Those kids got the money. They were able to eat. But guess what? Those kids were not able to understand the Torah because the money was tamei. It came from an impure source. So you hurt those little boys. You didn't help them. You're going to get punished for every single one of them. You're going to get burned, he says to him. The guy's face, the billionaire's face turned pale. Forget pale. See-through. See-through. He ran out of there. Everybody else got, you know, upset with the Rebbe. He's not usually like this. So the Rebbe, after he left, says to them, "Listen, I'm not delusional to think that he's gonna stop stealing and he's gonna stop gambling and he's gonna change everything overnight. I'm not delusional. I know it's gonna take time, but I know that from now on, he'll have a little bit of pain every time he does it. So hopefully, he'll do teshuva before he dies."

2:18:43And it's worth it for me to give him a chance to do teshuva than getting his money to make him think that he's doing okay. If your money is coming from a non-kosher source, there's never going to be blessing in your life. Never. It's a rule in the nature that HaKadosh Baruch Hu created. So if a person is in this cash advance business or any unethical business, In the end, there's no bigger loser than you. Because even if you make money, that money will turn into a curse because you took advantage of people. Whether they're Jews or Gentiles, it's still a sin. Obviously, each one has its level of sins. But nonetheless, there's no doubt, there's no dispute that overcharging goyim, taking advantage of their mistakes, taking advantage of their desperation—there are countless sources that discuss how a person is not only considered wicked for doing so but is losing everything for it. Losing everything for it. In this world and the next.

2:19:56It's assur, I know this will get a few people to do teshuva and leave that business, but at the same time, we'll get a few people to shut it off and continue living a fake life. We don't make these shiurim for the people that shut it off and continue living their fake life. We make these shiurim for the few people that will do teshuva. Hopefully, more and more people do teshuva, and b'ezrat Hashem, that despicable business will have no Jew in it. b'ezrat Hashem. Anything else? Yes? What happens if you have somebody that was your friend, and he had a product that he was buying from outside, and you give a certain amount of money to him, and you're expecting that product or the money back after an argument happens. So an argument happens and you rebuke him, as you said, you rebuke him, slowly. After he, well, okay, so he was leaving, and then you tell him, okay, so send me the money. And then he texts you, saying that he's going to send you the money, and that night, he's going to send you the money. He didn't send you anything. Then he writes to you and expresses how he feels, and then you write to him and express how you feel, and then the friendship...

2:21:21Forget about all the details. The bottom line is that he owes you money. The guy owes you money, or it was just a business deal, and he chooses not to repay it. Meaning, okay, you gave him money, he's supposed to pay it back, and he's choosing not to pay it back. That's the bottom line. The rest of the story doesn't really matter. The bottom line is you lent the money or you gave him money, and he's not paying it back. Okay, so what's the question? Why is that considered stealing? You don't need to rebuke him. No, he already knows he's a thief. Okay, so you don't ask him again, that's it. If he's a kosher Jew otherwise, meaning he is shomer Torah and mitzvot, then you go to a Beit Din, and you sue him through the Beit Din, you bring him to, they invite him into the Beit Din. Prove you and he comes to the Beit Din and you show proof that he owes you money. You go to a Beit Din. You show he comes to the Beit Din. You show the Beit Din proof that he owes you the money, and they will judge if you're right or wrong. And then they'll decree on him to pay you the money back right away.

2:22:43He doesn't pay it back, then he's put in cherem. He won't be allowed in any kehillah. That's if he's a kosher Jew. If he's not a kosher Jew and he rejects the invitation of the Beit Din, then the Beit Din will give you permission to go to a regular court to sue him there. But if you are like what you said, you don't care about the money and... Then you should say to yourself, don't even say to him—you could say to him also—but you should for sure say to yourself, "I forgive the debt." You should say to him also, "I forgive the debt," and really forgive the debt. I forgive the debt. And the reason why you want to forgive the debt and not just not care about the debt... Forgive the debt because if he dies tomorrow, he has to come back to life to pay you back. Now, he's not going to come back to life right away; it may take 20, 30, 40, 50 years if he even gets a chance. Which means if you're not alive at that point, you have to come back. Even if you earned Gan Eden, you're in Gan Eden, you kept Shabbat, you kept this, you kept that, you're in Gan Eden, hanging out, chilling out, having a good time with Moshe Rabbeinu, all of a sudden...

2:23:54Moshe. Moshe. Yeah, why? What do you guys want? I'm in Gan Eden with Moshe Rabbeinu. What do you guys want? No, you got to go back to the world. Why? Tzvi just came back and he has to pay you the money back. So you have to come back so he can pay you back. And you can't say machul lecha over there. So what do you do when people owe you money? Say machul lecha. I forgive you. I forgive you. Don't pay me back. what you just did until now, no problem. Now you can say, "I forgive you. Don't pay me back. I don't need the money back. I don't want the money back. You're forgiven." That's it. And if he decides to give you the money back after that, you should consider it as a gift. Not as a, when we're turning back.