Shabbat is the foundation of Judaism. (11 minutes)

0:00They got the Shabbat, the mitzvah of Shabbat, before they received the Torah. We hear about Shabbat here in this parasha. Moshe tells them, listen, collect on Friday food for both Friday and Shabbat, because on Shabbat, you're not going to find the manna. Don't go looking for it. You're not allowed to seek it out. It's Shabbat, it's the day of rest. So we received Shabbat before we received the written Torah at Mount Sinai. This, again, is another one of the many proofs that the foundation of Judaism cannot exist without its main pillar, which is Shabbat. There's no teshuvah without Shabbat. There's no Judaism without Shabbat. There's no connection to Hashem without Shabbat. You could put on tefillin five times a day. You could pray 24 hours a day. You could learn Torah and know everything by heart. If you don't keep Shabbat, it's all worthless. That's the bottom line. It's not what I say, it's what G-d says.

1:02Someone could do the 613 mitzvot even though technically you can't do 613 mitzvot because some of them apply to women and you’re a guy, or some of them apply to men and you’re a woman, or some of them apply to the Beit HaMikdash and we don’t have one, some of them apply to the Kohanim and you’re not a Kohen. So you really can't do 613 mitzvot. A lot of people are scared of the 613. In reality, you maybe could do 150, 200 at best. But let's just say you found a glitch in the system and you did 612 mitzvot, except one—Shabbat. Worthless. Your 612 are worthless. No share of the World to Come. That's what Shabbat is. If that doesn't give you an understanding of what Shabbat is, of how much of a foundation it is, nothing else will. An understanding of what Shabbat is, of how much of a foundation it is, nothing else will matter. I could tell you about punishments and Gehinom and all that stuff to scare you to death, but it's not going to help. Because you need to have common sense here. It's not about being scared only. It's about common sense. Without a foundation, nothing can exist. And that's what Shabbat is. That's why we received the Shabbat, and it's mentioned literally in this parsha, before we received the written Torah.

2:21And the nation of Israel obviously made a mistake here again. Moshe told them, don't go collecting on Shabbat. And a few of them went and tried collecting some manna. Hashem obviously wasn't very happy with it. Moshe obviously Hashem was not very happy with him. And He tells, you know, God says to Moshe, "How long will you refuse to observe My commandments and My teachings?" That's in verse 16:28, Chapter 16:28. mitzvot and the Torah. Hashem refers to them collectively as Torahs. Written Torah and Oral Torah. Some people ask, where does it mention Oral Torah in the Torah? When Hashem refers to the "Torahs," in many cases in the Chumash, it's referring to both. More than one Torah. So if it was just the Written Torah, it would say Torah without an 's.' So here, we understand that the Torah as we have it is dual in nature, encompassing both the Written and Oral traditions.

3:45Written Torah and the Oral Torah. Some people say, where does it say Oral Torah in the Torah? When Hashem refers to the Torah, in many cases in the Torah, it's referring to Torahs — plural. More than one Torah. So if it was just the Written Torah, which is what I have in front of me, then it would be Torah without an "s". So here, It actually says again, Torahs. So it's more than one. So that's referring to both the Written and Oral Torah. So He's telling you, how long are you going to refuse to observe My commandments, My teachings? I only gave it to you guys. You guys are on the 49th level of Tumah. You're one sin away from being destroyed like the other 80 or 99% that I destroyed. That's why I gave you the manna. Because I needed to purify you. You can't receive the Torah unless you become purified. But in order to be purified, you can't just eat the food. You can't just eat the manna; you have to perform some mitzvot. That's why I gave you certain mitzvot. I gave you Rosh Chodesh; I just gave you Shabbat. I gave you a few things to do so you could ascend from the 49 levels of impurity. But now you're already violating the Shabbat to look for the food that's supposed to help you?

5:15It's like drinking poison and expecting somebody else to die. It doesn't make any sense. How do you think that you're going to look for manna to help you become more spiritual by violating the most spiritual thing that I ever gave you and ever will give you, which is Shabbat? How could you do it? It doesn't make any sense. How long are you going to refuse? Why are they refusing? It's not because they want to go to war with Hashem. They're refusing because they have no emunah. It's the same reason why people work on Shabbat. They don't work on Shabbat because they want to go to war with Hashem. Nobody wants to go to war with Hashem. Even the wicked don't want to go to war with Hashem. There was only one wicked person that I know of in history, whose name was Titus, who actually wanted to go to war with Hashem. He was foolish, so he did it. But normal people don't want to go to war with Hashem.

6:15Even if you don't like him, you still don't want to go to war. Even if you don't believe in him, you're still not going to want to do it. If it exists, then you say to yourself, I don't want to go to war. If it exists, I don't want to go to war with him. No one that's logical would ever want to go to war. So people that are violating, whether it was today or 3,000 years ago, violating the mitzvot, it's not because they want to go to war with Him; it's because they don't believe in Him, or they don't know about Him. Most Jews know what Shabbat is. Most Jews have heard what Judaism is and what the Torah is. But just because they've heard that there's a day in the week called Shabbat, it does not mean they know what it actually means. What are the consequences of not keeping it? I know myself, before I observed Shabbat, may Hashem forgive me for all my sins, I thought that if I didn't work on Shabbat, That's enough for my level. Like, I thought that there are levels of keeping it. I figured that, okay, listen, I'm not working on Shabbat. Instead, I'm going to, I don't know, vacation or play cards or do whatever other nonsense I did at that time in my life. So, I figured that if I don't work, that's enough. Why? Come on, I don't have to drive and use electricity and watch TV and go to the movies and use money.

7:43go to restaurants, what's so bad about it? What does Hashem really care if I do all those things? I'm relaxing. That's my relaxation. I go to the casino, I put $30,000 on the table to play Texas Hold'em. That's my relaxation. He said, Shabbat, you're supposed to rest. I'm resting on the poker table. That was my illogical logic. That's the human logic that's flawed. I don't consider myself stupid. So, but that was my logic. He said, "Rest? I'm resting. And I'm even resting better if I win a hand, another 30,000. It's more fun for me." So I'm thinking that I'm not necessarily a tzaddik, but I'm not wicked. I'm not an enemy of Hashem. My prayers will still be answered. I can still be counted in the minyan. I was wrong about all of it. Violate Shabbat, and you can't be counted in the minyan. Violate Shabbat, and your prayers will not be answered. Violate Shabbat, and you are an enemy of Hashem. This is the Torah speaking, not me. Obviously, Hashem keeps you in this world because He doesn't want you to be His enemy. He didn't want me to continue being His enemy. He knew my potential. He knew that I could potentially keep Shabbat at some point or another.

9:11even though he had to put me through my own version of Gehennom to get to that point, but nonetheless, I got there. Everyone else that's watching this, that's here, that hasn't gotten there, can get there, can get to better, much higher levels than I have. Again, it's not that hard; it's just fighting the Yetzer Hara. The question is, how stubborn are we? How much of a k'sheh oref nation are we? If we're a stubborn, stiff-necked nation, then we have to go through Egypt in order to do teshuva. But if we're wise people, we just follow the instructions and have emunah that it's all going to work out and He's going to fight our wars. When you pay attention to His details, you're going to be scared of Him. When you're scared of Him, that's already a very high level of teshuva. Very high level. I wish that we could truly be scared of Hashem like we are scared of mankind. No one's scared of Hashem like they are scared of mankind. Hashem, you violate one of His major mitzvot, and you don't cry even for one second about it. A cop pulls you over,

10:39Oh, you're going to cry for a week because he gave you a $300 ticket. That's reality. Before he even pulled you over, you're already scared that maybe he's going to turn on the lights. You know, every time somebody passes a cop, they always look in the mirror—he's going to pull me over, he's going to pull me over. I drove 70 in a 60, I'm not sure. Everybody's scared of this cop. Nobody's scared of Hashem. So for scared of him, then we can believe in him. If we believe in him, then we're going to listen to the teachings. If we listen to the teachings, then we can sing. At the end of this parashah,