Shidduchim, DONKEY or Tzadik, Tikkun of Wicked, MESSIANIC CHILDREN, Ignorance - STUMP THE RABBI (56)

0:17We're back here in the "Stump the Rabbi" in Sunny Isles. As you can see, the Beknesset, Baruch Hashem, is moving to a different location. Next week we'll be in a different location, Baruch Hashem, also in Sunny Isles, but I'll give you the address later on. I think that the background is very interesting. It's symbolic of the Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, the Churban that we had 2,000 years ago. The Churban that we had on this day. Beknesset, Baruch Hashem, is moving to a different location. Next week we'll be in a different location, Baruch Hashem, also in Sunny Isles, but I'll give you the address later on. I think that the background is very interesting. It's symbolic of the Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, the Churban that we had 2,000 years ago. The Churban that we had on this day. that tomorrow we're supposed to be fasting from morning till night. Today's shiur, b'ezrat Hashem, will be for a refuah shlema for Rabbanit Levana Bat Sara, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, Rav Efraim Ben Shulamit, David Ben Esriah, Doris Bat Zhora, Esther Bat Zipporah, Dvora Bat Mercedes, Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sara, Michal Bat Yael,

1:44And all of Am Yisrael, b'ezrat Hashem, will have refuah shlema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf. And Shlomo ben Rivka, refuah shlema, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf. And hatzlacha rabba to all of Am Yisrael, especially when it comes to kedusha. So we have our stump the rabbi session. Hopefully you guys have some questions to make it interesting. All the hard? Yeah. Malach ben Yisrael, refuat hanefesh, refuat haguf, and also Orit bat Ilana, and Talia bat Sarah, and Yitro ben Avraham, and hatzlacha rabba to Shaul ben Farzaneh, and Yitro ben Avraham, and b'ezrat Hashem, all of Am Yisrael. Now, the Stamter Rebbe has been going on for a little over 14 months. Yes. Repeat that again. Chai L'oitze Blima.

3:00Bat Rivka will have a good Shidduch, b'ezrat Hashem. A tzaddik, yirei Shamayim, that will want to build a kosher Jewish home, b'ezrat Hashem. For all Am Yisrael, today is a big issue with Shidduchim. People are having such a tough time with Shidduchim, but an even tougher time staying married. I'm not really sure which one is more difficult: finding the shidduch or staying married after you found it. It's amazing how many couples today are simply giving up on marriage. A few times, I've already had people tell me in the last few months that they've simply decided they're going to stay single. He has to stay single because it's just too difficult to be married. It's not a realistic endeavor. Where? What? This? But you have to change the camera then. We'll just turn it a little bit. Shomer mitzvah lo yeida davar ra.

4:22So, yeah, many people are having such tough times with shidduchim. We try to help whenever we can. But the problem is that people are too picky. They want... Mal'ach Hashem. They want someone that's like God-sent. And they want love at first sight because they watch too many movies. And they want them to be a certain level of financial status. And they want them to look a certain way. And they want them to act a certain way. And if they squeak the wrong way, no, this one's not for me. So it's very, very hard to help people with shidduchim, because it's not really the shidduch that's the problem. It's the person that's the problem. It's a mussar crisis, it's a middot crisis that we have today, where most people simply don't know what they want, and they don't even know what's good for them. When it comes to shidduchim, there are two things that you have to be...

5:28no, uh, no exceptions really. You have to have two main things in this generation for a shidduch, two requirements. Everything else is nonsense. One, you have to have similar ideologies, meaning similar mindsets for what you want for your future. If you, thank you, if you want to get married and have several kids, but she wants to get married but go to Cancun, this is not valid. She could be She could be richer than Rockefeller; she doesn't want to have kids and you do. You have to find somebody else. If you marry her, you are making the mistake of your life. A lot of times, guys do that—they marry a girl because she looks a certain way or she has a certain thing, and they end up regretting it for the rest of their life. The same thing with girls; they marry the guys for a certain thing. They marry him because he has money, or he has this or he has that, and they don't actually check enough during the dates. she doesn't want to have kids and you do. You have to find somebody else. If you marry her, you are making the mistake of your life. A lot of times, guys do that—they marry a girl because she looks a certain way or she has a certain thing, and they end up regretting it for the rest of their life. The same thing with girls; they marry the guys for a certain thing. They marry him because he has money, or he has this or he has that, and they don't actually check enough during the dates.

6:30that, uh, hopefully, are kosher dates with no touching and no intimacy of any kind. It's simply an opportunity for you to talk to each other and find out if you have similar ideologies, similar mindsets of what you want for your future. Instead of doing that, they want to go be wined and dined. In reality, the dates are supposed to be at a place that's public, where there are other people, and you can talk. Where it is doesn't really make a difference. People always ask, "Where should I take her for a first date? A coffee shop?" Yeah, I did that yesterday. Okay, so another coffee shop. It doesn't really make a difference. The whole point of the date is to talk. It's not to go show off the mountains, it's not to go, uh, you know, go camping in the middle of some, uh, you know, some, uh, field with some, uh, wine from France that you got specially shipped in that morning. This is not the movies. Okay, the whole point of the shidduch, of the date, is for you to get to know each other and talk as much as possible, to get to know: Is this person someone I want to grow with or not? And am I a person that she wants to grow with or not?

7:38So, first and foremost, you have to have similar ideologies. If you don't have similar ideologies, you're never going to be able to fall in love. You're never going to be able to build a kosher home. You're going to have a lot of problems. Love is not something that you just look at someone and feel. That's lust. You know, what the goyim call love, the Chazon Ish says, we call karet. Love is not something that you can see. Love is something that you build over time as a result of the ideology. And when people are looking for lust, they find it, but they also find karet too. And that's not a good thing to find. So, first thing, ideology. Second thing is, you have to have attraction to each other. You cannot be disgusted by her, and she cannot be disgusted by you. You can pretend to be a tzaddik and say, "No, no, no, Rabbi, I don't care what she looks like." Okay, buddy, go to the jungle. Go marry a lion. I don't care what she looks like. Where did you come from? Mount Sinai? Even at Mount Sinai they cared what she looked like. The Gemara specifically says, you're not allowed to marry a woman until you see her. Why until you see her? Because you have to be attracted to her. I'm not saying you have to go stare, chas v'shalom, and see beyond what the face is. The point is that you have to have some level of attraction. Why? Because if you don't have any type of chemistry whatsoever...

9:02the marriage is temporary, and that sometimes also happens where people feel like they're pushed into marriage either because their parents want them to marry somebody specific or because of all types of peer pressure. They end up marrying somebody, but in reality, they think of somebody else. So, you have to have some relatively minimal understanding of what is necessary for marriage. But again, the point is that you have to have some type of traction. You cannot let it get to a point where you're going into a staring match, you start staring at each other, and you start thinking and having all types of hirhurim. This is why the dating process in the Jewish world has to always be in a public place. There have to be other people. You have to make sure that you protect yourself. You have to even minimize certain things and stay away from certain things simply because they create thoughts. But the whole goal is you're only allowed to go on dates if you are ready to get married. Meaning, if you don't know whether you're ready to get married or not, don't waste anybody's time.

10:15going on dates with them, you have to already be ready to get married mentally, and all you're looking for is the missing piece of your puzzle. If you're not ready to get married, then obviously, you have to work on yourself. Now, the problem with a lot of people today is that they think we're supposed to wait until we're 30 or 35, used and abused, until we get married. Pretty much when nobody else wants you, that's when you want someone to want you. This is a mistake, and a lot of people wait too long. What ends up happening is that they can't find a shidduch. The guys want to find a shidduch when they're still young today. What I see a lot is that guys are looking for a shidduch when they're still barely men. They're in their 20s, and they haven't really matured. And the girls, by the time they want to settle down, they're already almost 40 years old. That doesn't really work out so well. In such a shidduch, the girl could be his mother. It's not going to work out so well. So what ends up happening is that you have to start early. You have to start early. Now, of course, sometimes it happens that people don't find a shidduch for a long time. And what do you have to do? You have to ask why. You have to pray with tears and ask Him, "What interest does He have in keeping you single?"

11:36Obviously, He doesn't. He wants you to get married. It's one of the mitzvot in the Torah. So that means that you're missing something. You have to do teshuva for something. And many times, the things that are most difficult for you to do teshuva for are the things that will bring you to the yeshuah, the salvation. Many times for girls, it's them being ready to be a truly modest woman before she gets married. For guys, it's tikkun habrit. The Zohar HaKadosh and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and many Chachamim talk about how men not only delay but, in some cases, even get punished from Heaven and lose their Shidduch as a result of wasting seed. You know, in a generation like today, where the average guy pretty much doesn't even know it's a sin, Many guys are having a tough time, and it's because of that specific issue. So it's important for a guy to know that if you haven't found your shidduch, there's a reason for it. It's not happenstance. It's not a... Go ahead, go ahead. You can pass the cross. It's fine. It's not happenstance. It's not an incident. You have to work on yourself. Now, in Parashat Balak, we also see one of the...

12:49most unusual things in the Torah. We see that Bil'am, Bil'am was a prophet. Bil'am spoke to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and HaKadosh Baruch Hu spoke back to him. In fact, it says that Bil'am had a power that even Moshe Rabbeinu didn't have. And only by Chasdei Hashem, only by the mercy of Hashem, did Hashem not allow Bil'am to destroy Am Yisrael with his power. That's how powerful he was. If Hashem didn't have mercy that He did at that moment, you and I wouldn't be here. Now, interestingly enough, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, because He loves Am Yisrael so much, He rejected the intent of Bil'am because He loves His kids. Hashem loves His kids. And Bilaam understood that he did something wrong. Obviously, it didn't work. But yet, after he does everything wrong, he says, "May my soul die the death of the Yesharim, the upright," meaning Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.

14:15And may my end be like his. Meaning, I want to have my life, but may my end be like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. May Hashem count me to be like Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov. Chas V'Shalom, Bilaam. Now, if Bilaam was a tzaddik, that's all. Why not? Even David HaMelech, David HaMelech, Kodesh Kodashim, said HaKadosh Baruch Hu. How come it doesn’t say Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov and David? He said, I'm a tzaddik, I'm good, I'm this and that, I want to be. Hashem says to David, Gemara says, I didn’t test you like them. David says, test me then. Test me. David wanted to be one of the holders of the Shechinah. And in the end, he got it. Despite the test, the difficulties. But Bil'am, without being a tzaddik, in fact being the exact opposite, said, "Oh, may my end be like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov." So you have to ask yourself, I mean, this guy, he's not a fool.

15:26He's not an idiot. He doesn't have any major health issues. This is a prophet, this is a guy that was very rich, was very successful, spoke to Hashem. How could he not realize that this is a blessing that's not for him? Here, we learn the mentality of not only Bil'am, but also the mentality of people today. You see, a couple thousand years ago, the Chachamim put a mitzvah to fast on the 17th of Tammuz because several events happened on this day—tragic events for Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael sinned with the golden calf, and therefore Moshe Rabbeinu broke the Luchot HaBrit, the two tablets. The

16:27Goyim burned the Torah. They broke into Yerushalayim. Horrible things happened. Now, Chachamim say that technically this burning of the Torah, breaking the Luchot HaBrit, it's not really destroying the Torah because When HaKadosh Baruch Hu allowed Moshe Rabbeinu to break the Luchot HaBrit, it was just a piece of stone that broke, whereas the letters went up to heaven. Just like the Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit says, Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon, who was one of the ten martyrs of Am Yisrael. When the goyim (may their names be erased) burned him alive, they wanted to make sure that he suffered the most, so they wrapped him with a Sefer Torah. They put some type of sfog (sponge) between the Sefer Torah and his heart, so he would stay alive as long as possible and suffer more. So his talmidim asked him, "Rebbe, what do you see? While he's being burned, what do you see, Rebbe? What do you see?"

17:37You know, his daughter asked him, "Why is this happening?" So Rabbi Chanina says, "If I was only being burned alive by myself, then it would be difficult to understand. But the fact that I'm being burned with a Sefer Torah, anyone that mourns over the burning of the Sefer Torah will mourn for me also. They will want Hashem to take vengeance for me also." So the talmidim ask him, "What do you see, Rebbe?" He says, "I see that the scroll is what's being burned, but the letters are floating up to heaven." The Chachamim say that the Torah cannot be destroyed. You can break the stones, you can burn the cloth, but the letters, the Torah itself, is never going to change. So, in reality, the question goes, why do we mourn if really the Luchot HaBrit weren't destroyed? Torah wasn't destroyed. Yes, the scroll was burned, but the letters stay the same. Nothing changed spiritually speaking; nothing's changed. The mentality that people have is that we're mourning over a scroll or perhaps over some stones, just like the mentality of Bilam that...

18:54He can live his life, do whatever he wants, but he can say a blessing, and it's going to be accepted. Meaning, people have a distorted mentality of what's right and what's wrong, what gets you from point A to point B. They don't really know how to act so much. And part of the reason is because people do not learn enough about what the desires of HaKadosh Baruch Hu are—what He wants, what He expects from us as the King. Now, when it comes to the Torah and mitzvot, HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't make them as a suggestion. He said them as a commandment. Meaning, you have to do it. You can do whatever you want also, but the "have to do it" part means that if you don't do it, there's a consequence for it. And if you do it, there's a reward for it. What happened a couple thousand years ago, when Chazal made the takana of fasting on this day, it's not because of the stones, but rather because they wanted us to remember a very, very important klal in Am Yisrael: that the Torah itself is not something that you can destroy physically, but you can hurt it spiritually. How?

20:20When a woman walks around immodestly, a Jewish woman walks around immodestly, that's destruction of the Torah. When a Beit Knesset invites a pastor or a priest to give a lecture to Jewish people, that's destruction of the Torah. When people allow Am Yisrael to feel perfectly fine despite driving on Shabbat to the Beit Knesset or anywhere else. That's destruction of the Torah. When you have a rabbi that you ask him a question and he simply invents an answer—why? He figures you don't know right or left anyway. He could just tell you whatever he wants, and you'll take it, especially if he's a criminal in this issue himself. That's destruction of the Torah. Now, Bilaam knew all of this. Unlike many secular people today, who don't even know—most of them, many of them don't know what the real judgment is. They know that you're not allowed to do certain things, but they don't really know the punishment, Gehinnom, all of this, and most of them don't know. Even most religious people don't know.

21:42But Bilaam knew. Bilaam knew. Bilaam knew what Gan Eden is. He knew all of that. It says that Bilaam was so materialistic, so into physicality, that his wife was a donkey. and the aton talked to him, the donkey talked to him, and told him, haven't I always been, why do you hit me three times? Haven't I always been the reliable donkey that you've been riding your whole life? And Chazal say, oh yeah, she's his wife. She's his wife. And as a result of this filthy, disgusting behavior, Chazal say that Bilaam had to come back as a reincarnation of a donkey. But not just any donkey. The donkey of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says, Chachamim debate among themselves.

22:58Who were these Chachamim of, let's say, 1700–1800 years ago? They're debating about their teachers from, let's say, 50–100 years before them. They say, if our sages, our rabbis, were angels, then we are men. But if our rabbis were people, then we are donkeys. But not even the donkey of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair. Not even at such a high level donkey. What was so special about this donkey, the Tosafot in Masechet Chullin, page 7b, and also the Gemara of the Yerushalmi, Masechet Demai, in Perek Alef, Halacha Gimel, says an interesting story. One time, this group of thieves stole the donkey of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair. They stole it, and, you know, in those days, they didn't steal cars—they stole donkeys instead. Different times. They stole the donkey; there's no license plate on them, can't call the cops. What are you gonna do? They got the donkey, so after they got the donkey doing work, they want to feed the donkey.

24:28give the donkey food, doesn't eat. Okay, maybe he's picky, this donkey; give him different food, doesn't eat. Maybe he's not hungry, maybe just, I don't know, this donkey is on a special diet or something. Okay, we'll feed him tomorrow. Second day, doesn't eat. Doesn't eat. Change food, this, that, special diet, protein shakes, nothing. Doesn't eat. After three days, the donkey's not eating, the thieves say, "Listen, let's just free this donkey and bring him back to his owner because the donkey's going to die on us anyway. Who wants to take care of him? And you know, what are we going to do with this thing? Just get rid of him." The donkey comes back to its owner. The owner sees the donkey and says, "Oh no, no, no, come on, feed him right away, feed him right away. He hasn't eaten in three days." the thieves say, "Listen, let's just free this donkey and bring him back to his owner because the donkey's gonna die on us anyway. Who wants to take care of him? And, you know, what are we gonna do with this thing? Just get rid of him." The donkey comes back to its owner. The owner sees the donkey and says, "Oh no, no, no, come on, feed him right away, feed him right away. He hasn't eaten in three days." He says, "Rabbi, how do you know he didn't eat?" He says, "Because my donkey, he doesn't eat until you take the ma'aser from the food. He doesn't eat it. Meaning, if you have a certain amount of crops that you've gathered, unless you've taken 10% and given it for the Torah, he doesn't eat that food."

25:44Tamim says to the Rebbe, "But what you're telling us is that the donkey has to keep Ma'aserot? He has to pay Ma'aser?" He says, "No, they don't, but my donkey does. My donkey does. So that's why he didn't eat for three days, meaning to the extent that he starved himself to death." Rabbi Tzadok of Lublin says, "One of the things we learn from this story is that a Tzadik..." even has influence on his animals, just simply from his actions. From his actions, he can make his animals holy. He is so holy, he makes his animals holy. They start doing things that are not normal. But at the same token, Chachamim tell us, who is this donkey? This donkey is Bilaam. Now, how could this donkey be Bilaam? What do we learn about Bilaam? Bilaam is a Rasha. Bilaam is the filth of a human being. A human being was with a donkey. This is, this is, where is Ta'am and give him ma'aser? This guy is a rasha, violated Torah in every single way, shape, or form. The Gemara specifically says, this person, when Onkelos HaGer, before he converted, did a seance, he brought three neshamot, three neshamot back to tell him who runs the real world.

27:11One of the neshamot was Bil'am, and Bil'am was in a horrible place in Gehinom. And Chachamim talked about how Bil'am had a small part of him, a small, tiny part of him, that went back, was fixed, and went back to the original source, but the klipah, the vast majority of Bil'am, wasn't fixed. The Arizal was one time sitting with his talmid, And two crows, two crows came and started making noise next to him. He said, "Shoo away, go, go, go away." So the talmid says, "Rabbi, who are those?" Rabbi Chaim Vital, Kodesh Kodeshim, asked his Rabbi, the Arizal. ...are, these, says, that's Balak and Bilaam. They want me to fix them, fix their neshama because they're the same. They only take them out of the game that they're in and put them in Gan Eden. No chance, I don't want to help them. So the vast majority of them were never fixed, a little part because every single person and every single thing in the world has a piece of Hashem, has a piece of Hashem that went back to the source. So that piece is what was in the donkey...

28:32Still, nonetheless, how could this be that he was like this his whole life, and now all of a sudden he cares about giving himself to such an extent that he's willing to sacrifice his life and not eat for three days? Who knows? How do you say donkey in Hebrew? also represents the chomer. Chomer is materialism. The tikkun of Bilaam, the reason why he got punished so severely, was because of his addiction to chomer, to materialism, to physicality. He had to fulfill his desires. He saw something He wanted it. And he went after it. Yeah, but what about the fact that it's not allowed? Ah, not allowed for other people. I want it. I'm getting it. I want it. I'm getting it. Unfortunately, many people do the same thing today. They look at something. Oh, I want it. Yeah, but she's married. Oh, no, no. That's his problem. I want it. Yeah, but he's married. He's got kids. Yeah, yeah. I won't tell his wife. Don't worry.

29:55I want it. Yeah, but somebody else owns it. They owned it. Past tense. They owned. Now it's mine. Who did stuff like this? The Germans. Germans, yimach shmam, the Nazis. One of the things, one of the many ways they tortured Am Yisrael is simply by taking everything they ever worked for. Millions and billions of dollars. What about the fact that you said that you're bringing good to the world? How could you be bringing good while you're stealing at the same time? Well, we're not stealing. Yeah, but that stuff, that gold was theirs. That painting was theirs. That house was theirs. Oh, it was. It was theirs. It was. Now it's mine. Like they don't see anything wrong with it. Bil'am did not see anything wrong with fulfilling every one of his desires. So much so that he became addicted to his desires to the extent that there were no boundaries. And since HaKadosh Baruch Hu, His judgment is measure for measure, Bil'am had to come back in a tikkun, not only as a donkey,

31:07which is the worst way he expressed his fulfillment of desire. But in addition to that, a unique donkey. A donkey that is willing to sacrifice his life just to make sure that other people benefit first before he takes any benefit. I'm not going to eat until you take the maaser out of it. I'm not going to put my comfort and my needs first until everyone else's needs are met. That was the Tikkun of Bilaam. Now, many times you hear Sippurei Tzadikim where you see something that's quite the opposite. The Baba Sali, alav haShalom, One time, one of the talmidim walked in and he saw the Baba Sali crying. He said, "Baba, why are you crying?" He said, "This Jew came to me and told me about all of his problems, and I couldn't take it. So I just said to Hashem, 'Hashem, take me, just chop off my hands and remove his problems.'"

32:31If there are problems that have to come to the world, okay, don't give them to him anymore. Just chop off my hands. Give me the problems. Give me pain, suffering, everything. Just stop his problems. Don't give him any more problems. What does he benefit from it? Zero. Nothing. That's why he's a tzaddik. Rav Kahaneman of Ponevezh was... Unique person to say the least. What made him unique is something that really anyone can do, but simply very few ever choose to even get close to it. He decided that he belongs to the public. when you say you belong to the public you think, "Oh yeah, I belong to the public, so I'll give a shiur a few times a week. You know, I'll answer some questions." No, habibi, it's not belonging to the public. Belonging to the public means there is no you, there is no ani, there's no my desire, there's no "I want"—nothing. What's an example of it?

33:44Hagaon Miponovich, his house was the most wanted house in the world. Why? Everyone knew. That house was always full of people. You could just come and go as you please, no invitation, and stay for as long as you want. One time, a guy came in there for the first time, and he asked another person that's there, "Listen, I've been here for a few days. No one's taking any money." He goes, "No, no, chas v'shalom, don't take any money here." "Yeah, but they feed you everything." "Yeah, yeah, baruch Hashem." How long can I stay? He says, listen, I've been here for 15 years. No one says anything to me. Stay. You know who he was talking to? Rav Ponovich. He just didn't know. They were staying. They didn't know. He was like everybody else. One time he himself comes to the house, sees all the beds were taken. He takes the door off the wall. He sleeps on the door. Why? The house is, the house is stone, rooms, doors. They took the bed. I need to sleep on something instead of sleeping on the floor. This floor has tumah on it. Sleep on something. So he took the door, slept on the door. Yeah, but it's your house. Why don't you at least get a bed? My house? I bought it. Yeah, you bought it with your money. It's my money. Hashem says, it's not my money. One time, a few wealthy people

35:14Came into the house during the winter, so it's freezing. Freezing cold. So they went, they brought some wood. "Kevod Harav, it's a bunch of wood. Make some fire so it's warm." A few days later, they come back, see the house still freezing. They asked the Rabbanit, "What happened to the wood?" "Oh, he gave it to some poor people." ...why sister didn't have, yeah, but now he doesn't have. Well, that's right. So they went and got more wood, and they came back a few days later. It's still freezing. So what happened? He gave it to the poor people again. Okay, now we know what to do. Give it again, but now you're not allowed to give it to anybody. Not to give it, it's for you. Forbid you from giving it. It's alright, it's alright, we're giving it. We give rules. The rule is, you're not allowed to give it to anybody else. A few days later, they come back, it's still freezing. No, you gave it again. No, Chas V'Shalom, the Rav never gave it. What happened? No, it's sitting over there, all the wood. So why isn't he using it? He said, if the poor people are freezing, he should freeze also. That's the mind of a tzaddik.

36:33That's the mind of a tzaddik. A tzaddik is someone that simply takes other people's needs before his own. The exact opposite of how Bil'am lived his life. Bil'am lived his life in such a way where he only fulfilled his needs. He saw a donkey, "I want it, it's mine." He saw an opportunity to make money by cursing Am Yisrael even though they're the chosen of Hashem, he went after it. Whenever he saw an opportunity to make money, an opportunity to fulfill his desires, he did it. The Midrash says one time, Moshe Rabbeinu ran away from Egypt right after he killed the Egyptian and then one of the Datan V'Aviram... ratted on him to Pharaoh, he ran away. And there was a 60-year period between the time he ran away and when he came back to be the go'el of Am Yisrael in Egypt. What did he do for all that time? 40 years, he was in a place called Kush, and 20 years in Midian. What did he do in Kush?

37:58He went, he ran away, and he saw that at the border of Kush was the entire army, and the king was there. He started talking to the king. He said, "Why are you here?" The king replied, "We cannot enter our city because our city is surrounded by giant anacondas, huge snakes. Anyone that gets close to it is killed." You have this problem all the time. He goes, "No, no, someone fooled us with some witchcraft and got us to think that our enemies are attacking us. So we all left. By the time we came back, he and his witchcraft allowed these anacondas to cover the whole city." "Who is this person?" "Bilaam. Bilaam is the one that fooled the king." So Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the arch-enemy of Bilaam... told the king of Cush, "Here's a way for you to do it. But you have to listen to everything I say. Tell each one of your soldiers to gather, to get a specific bird. Get this bird, catch it, and starve it for three days. After three days, come to me." So they all followed what he said; they caught the birds and starved them for three days. Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Now free them. Free the birds."

39:19The birds got freed, and because they were starving, they weren't afraid to go against anything, so they went and attacked all the snakes. And that allowed the king of Cush to enter back into the city and reclaim his kingdom. Bil'am ran away, but shortly after, he died. So the people admired Moshe Rabbeinu so much, saying, "You're the one that saved our city, you're the one that saved our kingdom, you be the king." And he was the king of Cush for 40 years. And Bil'am ran away. Why did Bil'am do this? An opportunity to make a few shekels. Simple. Simple. He saw an opportunity. He did it. Yeah, but it's not a kosher business. Yeah, but I need to make some money, Rabbi. How am I going to pay rent? Well, you could get a kosher job. Yeah, I could get a kosher job. But you know, Rabbi, it's hard to get kosher jobs that pay so well. So how come other people find a way? Oh, they're lucky. They're lucky. I'm not so lucky. Oh, so you think that Hashem wants you to do this non-kosher job? I don't know what He wants, Rabbi, but listen, if Hashem wants to give me a kosher job, then I'm waiting. That's a person that's acting identical to Bil'am. Why? You tell that person, listen, you don't have a kosher job.

40:45You're stealing money from people. You're selling things that are not allowed. You're doing things that are forbidden. You think you're going to Gan Eden? Rabbi, I give a lot of tzedakah. I give my ma'aser. Why? Oh, so you think you're going to Gan Eden because you do a few good things, a bunch of bad things, but you think you're going to Gan Eden? That's what Bil'am thinks. That's exactly Bil'am. Bil'am did a few things that were right. They had to be. Yet, he did a lot of bad things, but he says that his end will be like theirs. Many of us think that our end is going to be like the tzaddikim. But the Torah teaches us that in order to have an end like the tzaddikim, we have to live like them too, and not just think that we can get the end like them. One of the ways that a person can get themselves out of their own way, if you will, and away from their own success is by starting to evaluate why they're doing what they're doing when it comes to everything. Is it simply to fulfill a desire, or is it because you need to do this? The job that you have,

42:15Do you have it because it's purely to fulfill a desire? Or is this your expertise? Is this the only thing available to you? Is this a gift? What is it? The food you're eating. Now, of course, you need to eat food in order to survive. But the second plate you got, the second dish, was that because you were still hungry? Or is that to fulfill a desire? One of the most horrific stories that teaches a lot of Mussar skills is one where a Jew teaches that the Nazis, yimach shemam, tortured Am Yisrael in many different ways. And one of the times, one of the Jewish people there in the camps didn't meet the unrealistic quota of the Nazis. So the Nazis started hitting him, beating him senseless.

43:20After he hit him and he hit him, the Jew looks up to him and says, "Now let me ask you, I know I didn't meet my quota and that deserves a certain punishment. But did you hit me this many times because I didn't meet my quota or because you just hate me because I'm a Jew?" was the reason okay it didn't mean my quota that deserves a fine but was that fine the 15, 20, 30 hits that you gave me or was the fine really five hits but you hit me an extra 15, 20 because I'm a Jew? Even the Nazi, yimach shemo, was caught off guard and ran away, and he never messed with him again, never touched him again, because you know he's got a point. got a point. We have a lot of points in Islam. We just have to make sure that the right points. Torah tells us there's no free lunch. You want to have the end of the tzaddikim, you have to live like them. In a day like today

44:41that we're starting, you know, the day at night and obviously continues into tomorrow. The fast is not supposed to be a tzom kal. You know, people have the habit of saying, have a tzom kal, have an easy fast. It's supposed to be a productive fast. Meaning, the whole point of the fast, the Gemara Masechet Ta'anit says, is not that Hashem cares if you eat or you don't eat. The point is to lower your materialism in order to increase your spirituality, or at the very least, leave room for you to just experience spirituality and less materialism. That's the point. Hashem doesn't care about your diet. Now, when you eat, and you're focused on eating, and you spend an hour and a half picking what you eat, and then another half hour making what you want to eat, and then finally five or ten minutes eating what you eat, but then thinking about the next meal already, when are you going to have time to actually do anything good?

45:41When we're so focused on materialism, it's very, very hard for us to think about Hashem. So Hashem designated several days a year where we lower our materialism more than usual in order to think about Him a little more. It's not so much about that Hashem wants you to fast from the morning to the night tomorrow. It's that Hashem wants you to commemorate the destruction of the Torah 2,000 years ago and the destruction of the Torah that's happening today. And not by the Christian missionaries. Not by the Muslims. Not by the atheists. No, by us. By us, disrespecting the mitzvot. By us, desecrating the bet knesset. You go to a bet knesset and you treat it like it's a lounge. People are surprised that HaKadosh Baruch Hu shut down all of the batei knesset for the last five months. What's surprising? How many batei knesset do you know of that people don't talk during the tefillah? How many batei knesset do you know that people can actually just sit there, pray, and then leave?

46:57How many Batei Knesset do you find where people don't go simply to socialize? Many times, you go to a Bet Knesset, they do Amidah, the guy just started, and the guy already finished. Why? He's not praying. He's waiting for everybody to finish so he can go back to talking. Or in the middle of Chazarat HaShatz, or sometimes in the middle of Kaddish, people are looking at their stocks, looking at the stock market, looking at the news, looking at their emails. And then they're surprised that Hashem doesn't want you to go to the Bet Knesset anymore. Tomorrow is a day, or tonight is a day, where a person needs to understand that the Torah is being desecrated on a regular basis. But, not to just mourn the destruction. Conjure up a plan of how you, yes you, will do something about it. How will you increase the Torah in the world? Whether you are 12, 13 years old and watching, or you are 25, or you're 45, or you're 65.

48:12How are you going to increase the Torah in the world? Are you going to pray better? Are you going to learn more? Are you going to honor the mitzvot more? Are you going to get other Jews to honor the mitzvot more and do the mitzvot and keep the Torah? What are you going to do? Or do you just think that just because you're you, you're going to go to Gan Eden, like Bilaam thought he was going to go to Gan Eden? It's not just wanting the end to be like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov; it's living like them. Let us use this day as a day that we do not think like Bil'am, being so focused on our own materialism that all day we think about the food. Oh, when's the fast over, Rabbi? When's the fast over? It hasn't started yet. Yeah, but I'm already hungry. So eat. The fast hasn't started. fast hasn't started. Eat. Eat as much as you need. Eat. "Yeah, I'm sick. Can I, can I, is this like obligatory, you know? Do I have to do it?" "Oh, well if you're sick, then no, you don't. You don't have to. You know, what kind of sick?" "I don't know. I think I have corona." "Did you go to the hospital?"

49:26Did you go to the ER? No, no, I just think... What makes you think that you have corona? I don't know. I don't know, Rabbi, but I'm sick. Oh, you're just addicted to food. That's what you are. You don't have corona. If you have corona, you don't need to fast. If you're pregnant, you don't need to fast. If you're breastfeeding, you don't need to fast. If you're sick, you don't need to fast. But if you simply are addicted to desires, then you should fast twice. One for the fast, and one to wake up a little bit. And realize it's not, stop being like Bilaam. Hopefully this gives you a few thoughts. Now you can start with as many questions as you want. Chavod. No? Ah, Chazak u'Baruch. The Torah says Bilaam is the man with the open eye. So the Gemara says, Chachamim are debating.

50:27How is it possible that Bilaam is such a rasha? Bestiality. There cannot be something more disgusting than that. Yet, he's a prophet that talks to Hashem. There are Chachamim that actually debate, saying, "No, no, no. He's not a prophet. He's not a prophet. He used all types of witchcraft. He's not a prophet." So, Chachamim. Anyway, bottom line is, everyone agrees, he talks to Hashem. whether he's a prophet or not a prophet, bottom line, if he talks to Hashem, how could it be? How could Hashem talk to somebody so disgusting? It says, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu created Bilaam specifically so the Goyim do not have an excuse. Once the Mashiach comes, you're going to say, "Listen, Hashem, how can you punish us for not following the Torah if" We didn't have Moshe Rabbeinu. Your nation, Am Yisrael, they had Moshe Rabbeinu. If we had Moshe Rabbeinu, if we had a prophet to talk to You face to face, we'd keep the entire Torah. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu, who knows all of the excuses before you even come up with them, says, I'm going to make you a prophet that has even something more than Moshe Rabbeinu. So you're never going to say, oh, you didn't have Moshe Rabbeinu. It says,

51:46There wasn't a prophet like Moshe Rabbeinu in Israel, meaning no one in Am Yisrael was ever like Moshe Rabbeinu. But among the goyim, they had Bilaam. Bilaam had one power more than Moshe Rabbeinu. So the goyim can never complain about not having someone like Moshe Rabbeinu. So how could prophecy come to someone so full of tumah, full of filth? It says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu created him with a missing eye. Instead of an eye, he had a hole there. And that's the only part of his body that did not sin. And because it was completely perfect and sinless, through there is where the prophecy would go through. Prophecy would go to that missing eye. So that's why he says, Bilaam, the one with the one eye, meaning the one eye that's pure, where the rest of him is full of tumah. Full of tumah. Good question. Next question. Why are there more negative commandments than positive? Why are there more negative commandments than positive commandments? HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants us to attain kedusha. Now,

52:58to get a person to do stuff, such as to build a sukkah, to put on tefillin—all of these things are all good, but it doesn't necessarily make you holy. The reason why is because there are plenty of people that even learn Torah, learn Torah, but they're still not holy. As a matter of fact, there's a story, a famous story of a talmid that was learning by Rav Kotler, Yeshiva of Rav Kotler, alav ha-shalom, and they caught him writing notes of Rav Kotler's shiurim on Shabbat. He's writing the notes of the shiurim on Shabbat. He comes to Rav Kotler, he says, Kvod Harav, the sha'ar of this guy, mechalel Shabbat, kick him out of the yeshiva. this is never going to kick him out. You keep him. Why? If he's writing notes on Shabbat because he loves the Torah, eventually that Torah is going to protect him and help him. So even if you're learning Torah by itself, it is not going to make you holy. What's going to make you holy is being able to control your desires.

54:19And our Chachamim teach us that each of our mitzvot, whether it's the positive commandments or the negative commandments, corresponds to our body parts, the ligaments, the tendons, and the sinews. Each and every single mitzvah affects a different body part. When a person wants to attain Kedusha, it's not just about fulfilling the obligatory mitzvot of putting on tefillin and keeping Shabbat and so on, but more importantly, it's to remove themselves far, far away from all of the things that separate him from the goyim, separate her from the goyim, separate them from animals, separate them from plants, and separate them from people that are against Hashem. There are simply more obligations to do. There are simply more things you need to separate yourself from because there are more things that can hurt you in this world than there are things that can help you. Now, when Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, Shammai and Hillel themselves debated this for years, for many, many years, whether it was worth it for a person to come to the world because there are, like you're saying, more ways to go to Gehenom than there are to go to Gan Eden.

55:38They said, technically, it was better off the person didn't get created. Why? Because it's more likely to go to Gehenom than Gan Eden. But now that he's been created, it's good that he was created. Why? Just don't do the sins. What does that mean? What's the pshat here? Don't do the sins. What about the mitzvot? If you don't do the sins, the mitzvot will come to you naturally. Naturally. But so long as you desire the sins, so long as you do the sins, so long as you are attracted to the sins, even if you do the mitzvot, your mitzvot are going to be full of filth. You're not going to want them. You're not going to like them. You're going to say, "Eh, I don't feel like it, Rabbi. I don't feel like it, Ima. I don't feel like it, Abba." What do you mean you don't feel like it? It's just waking up and saying, "Yeah, but why should I say it? Why should I say, I'm not really that happy that I'm here?" People say silly things. People say silly things because they think that they're the ones running the world. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu told us first and foremost, first klal of the Torah: run away from the sin and then do good. Stop sinning.

56:56then do good things. The sins can hurt you a lot more than the mitzvot themselves can help you. Because even if you do a mitzvah, if that mitzvah is done incorrectly, that mitzvah itself could be a sin. For example, somebody says, "Listen, I'm learning Torah," and someone is drowning. What does he do? He says, "Listen, someone who leaves his Torah, they're going to feed him special coals if he leaves his Torah to deal with mundane things." So this guy that's studying Torah sees somebody else drowning, and he says, "No, no, I'm learning Torah now. I'm learning Torah." That guy is a shoteh, that's a fool. It's not a mitzvah for him to learn Torah. Why? There's somebody drowning. Go save the person that's drowning, and then go back to learning Torah. Or somebody says, no, I need to go to Beit Knesset, or I need to go to Aish HaTorah, can I drive on Shabbat to go to Aish HaTorah? No. There is no mitzvah; you cannot make a mitzvah by way of sin. So, most important thing, stay away from sins. Secondly, start doing mitzvot. When you look at things that way, in that order, all the mitzvot will come naturally to you, you'll appreciate them, and you'll be connected to them a lot more than someone that's, you know, mishmashing everything. Okay, I'm going to do mitzvot, but a few little sins that I like.

58:17A few little sins that I like. It doesn't work that way. You don't meet people for shidduchim on Facebook in general. It's not a good idea to... That's why I said to that guy that he should come down to me. Yeah, but even then, generally speaking, when it comes to shidduchim, you have to do what you do for a living, which is you have to go to a shadchan; you have to meet people that way. Anyone that's willing to meet someone on Facebook and just go that way, it's usually problematic. yeah, but aside from that, I mean, I also would never recommend that you don't really ever call a... girls should not call guys and ask them if they're interested. It's not appropriate. Next question, more general questions, general... As bad as he was. Bilaam? Yeah, Bilaam. As bad as he was. But he reincarnated as a donkey to kind of right his wrongs.

59:22I'm not following the question. Yeah, Bilaam was a rasha, but there was something good about it. He came back as a donkey, yes. Right, right, right. Yes, he did. He did. So the part of him that did go back, but the vast majority of him, which is what's called the nefesh, that was never fixed. That came back in a gilgul of a crow that tried to get the Arizal to help him, but the Arizal was not interested in helping him. the part of him that did went back, but the vast majority of him, which is what's called the nefesh, that was never fixed. That came back in a gilgul of a crow that tried to get the Arizal to help him, but the Arizal was not interested in helping him. But the part that did, does. This is also... I don't really like to go into the Kabbalistic teachings because people... It's far away from most people. I'll try to explain it in a very, very simple way. Not that I'm a Kabbalist or even remotely close to it, but just to give you guys an understanding. There's a common way that the...

1:00:41Halakei lashon, the slick-tongued people that want to fool the public, fool them by showing them different Midrashim or even Gemarot and say, "Oh, see, this rasha Bilam fixed himself. He went back to," or "Esav looked at the Midrash that says that Esav went into Gan Eden. He got kicked out, but he went into Gan Eden." And they show you all different types of things of certain resha'im in history that part of them got fixed, and they say, "See, he's in Gan Eden." What they don't explain to you is that the neshama itself can be separated into an infinite amount of pieces. It's like fire: you take fire, take, let's say, a candle, and you want to light a second candle... You take the first candle, light the second candle, the original candle doesn't go down. Even if you use the first candle to light a thousand fires, the fire of the original candle is unchanged. In essence, a soul, a neshama, can be split into a million pieces and still be the same thing, in essence, the size. But there is a part of the neshama that's the chelek Eloka mima'al, it's the actual piece of Hashem Himself, and that has to exist. That is the part that's eternal.

1:01:59So in order for that part to come back to the source, it has to be fixed. Meaning, Hashem brought it to you perfect; a person, a rasha, made it filthy, so therefore it has to be cleaned up, whether it be Kaf HaKela, Gehenom, a combination thereof, a gilgul, all types of things, and eventually that piece goes back to Hashem. But that's not you. That's not you. That's the Hashem part. The person that made the sin, the you part, if he's a rasha to that extent, seventh level of Gehenom, you know, never did teshuva, wasted seed on purpose, violated Shabbat on purpose, all that stuff, all the stuff that brings a person to eternal damnation, that part gets destroyed. That doesn't go back to anything. That part, bye-bye. It takes a long time to go bye-bye because it's a soul; it's a very big deal. And Hashem wants to give it all the opportunities possible not to get to that extent because He doesn't want to destroy us.

1:03:05But that does exist. So many times you're going to see confusing midrashim or gemarot that tell you, oh look, Esav, Bil'am, or different types of resha'im, oh look, it says over here, they did a tikkun. They went back to the source, or they eventually will. It's not talking about the rasha himself like what we learned, but rather the part that's the chelek Eloka mima'al. That goes, everybody's part goes eventually back to the source. But the "you" part, if that "you" part is a tzaddik, that also goes back to the source. That also goes to, you know, good and everything is amazing. But if that person is a rasha, there's no good for them. So that's the thing. It's that a lot of times the people that are even more clever than the average, they're going to try to get the public to continue being comfortably numb when it comes to sins, comfortably numb when it comes to going against Hashem, and tell you, look, if Esav

1:04:13The father of Amalek, the grandfather of Amalek, he can go to Gan Eden. And Bilam, and this one, and that one, all these wicked people, they could all go. Then you're going to, you know, then I'm sure Hashem doesn't punish. And one of the people that did that recently, maybe about two, three months ago, is Manis Friedman. He took a bunch of Gemarot and Midrashim and completely distorted them. Like destroyed them completely. Tell him, look, see, everybody goes to Gan Eden in the end. No one goes to Gehinnom forever. So his followers that actually listen to his sheker are going to continue thinking you can do whatever you want. So what is it like to be in hell? There is really a serious, proper definition or description of hell. When you come home, home to your home, and you don't feel comfortable, that's hell. When you come to the place where you belong and you don't feel like you belong, that is horrible.

1:05:35in hell is not a fire with little demons with pitchforks. The burning in hell is the embarrassment that a soul feels when it doesn't know how to be a soul anymore. Some souls go back to the world of souls as if they never left, completely comfortable being a soul. That's heaven. But when you're uncomfortable being a soul because your soul is so used to being in a body, not being comfortable as a soul among souls, that's hell. How long does it take to readjust? Maximum 12 months. After 12 months, you're in heaven. So again, this is a deeper sense of Kabbalah and Torah because, for most people, it's very, very far away from them. Bottom line is this: every human being can understand right and wrong. If you do right, you get rewarded. If you do wrong, you get punished. If you do right, you get rewarded handsomely. If you do wrong, you get punished severely. That's the bottom line.

1:06:57So, a person needs to simply understand that this is how Hashem runs the world. And this is what a person needs to ensure they fix correctly, and no one can tell them otherwise. Anyone that tells you that you can do wrong and still go to the right place, just simply look at this pasuk. Look at what all the sages say about this pasuk and say, "Look, this is a joke." Anyone that thinks that they could do wrong but still get good in the end is mocking the entire Torah. Because that's, in essence, turning God into an evil God. Why should He give the guy that violates Shabbat on purpose, the guy that's wasting seed on purpose, the guy that's committing adultery, the thief, the pedophile, the rapist, the same end as Moshe Rabbeinu? As the tzaddik that keeps Shabbat, that makes sure to fight against the yetzer hara, that makes sure to honor Torah, to make sure that studies Torah? How are the two going to get the same end?

1:07:58Now, you cannot say that's a merciful God. A God that gives everyone the same judgment, that's not a merciful God. So that's one of the things that people try to confuse the public with, is to think that, or to let you think that you could do whatever you want and still go to Gan Eden. But usually, they have, like, you know, a condition. What's the condition? Give them some money. And that's what Christianity is built on. All the churches. Trillions and trillions of dollars. The richest entity in the world is the Church. The Catholic Church. They own more real estate than McDonald's. They own more real estate than Starbucks. They own more land in Israel than Jews. There's an enormous amount of money that they have. what does that all build on? It's built on this precedent that you can do whatever you want, and you're still going to a good place. You're still going to heaven. But there's a little condition: believe this guy died for you and give us some money. How much money? As much as possible. You want it? If I'm poor, go borrow some money.

1:09:21But if you don't have any money, you're going to gain them. Because the only way for you to go to heaven is planting seeds. And they have literally entire programs on Sundays where they raise tens and tens of millions of dollars from the public, but not rich people, poor people. They take advantage of people's fear of punishment and they tell them, "Listen, you can buy heaven with a few dollars." Who wouldn't want heaven? Anybody here, if I told you you could buy heaven for a thousand bucks, and you don't have it, anybody here would hesitate to go borrow the money, even at cash advance rates? I don't want to go borrow a thousand bucks to go to Gehenom, ten thousand dollars to go to Gehenom, I didn't. And that's unfortunately what Christianity does, and that's what a lot of people that are liars do. They in essence try to sell people heaven and paradise for a few dollars.

1:10:21And that's what the Torah tries to teach us from Parashat Balak, that it's not possible. You can do mitzvot with money, you can do a lot of good with money, but you can't simply buy heaven just with money. It has to have some actions too, aside from that. Next question. In the back, yes. In chapter 49, it shows a connection between blasphemy and Chilul Shabbat, in that they received the same punishment of stoning. However, in the Torah, after the blasphemer was stoned, he was hung by his hands. but the wood gatherer was not like this. The blasphemer was hung by his hands? After his stoning, they hung him by his hands for everybody to see. And then they took him down. Okay, so what's the question? So my question is, they both committed similar sins. Well, not the same sin, but they are connected as severe sins. So they received the same punishment, but one was hung by his hands, and the other wasn't. So it says that after Tzelofchad made the sin, where he gathered the wood, the witnesses saw him, caught him, arrested him, and they put him in jail before his death penalty would be delivered. Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu, even though it's the first Shabbat after Matan Torah, we got the Torah a week later, Tzelofchad violated Shabbat.

1:11:48Even though we got the Torah only a week before that, Hashem says to kill him with the worst death penalty. Out of all the four death penalties, this is the worst one, and kill him in front of everyone. Shortly later, the blasphemer, as they call him, who was the son of Shlomit, got upset that he didn't belong to any tribe and... Because his father was a goy that raped his mother. The Egyptian that raped his mother. And he didn't belong to a tribe. This, as a side note, is also an issue sometimes with converts. Converts ask sometimes, "What tribe am I going to be in?" No tribe. That's the tribe. "Oh, that's not fair." Okay, so go complain to Hashem then. do you want for my life? Do I decide what tribes? That's what the halakha is. There's no tribe. Oh, but whoever I belong to? You belong to Hashem. He's your Father and your Mother. And when Mashiach comes, I'll tell you what tribe you belong to. But if you care too much about the logistical stuff, probably you shouldn't convert. Probably shouldn't convert. A lot of times, people get upset about the little stuff, the small stuff. Oh, how come I can't marry a Kohen? You know, I'm a convert.

1:13:10What? Kohanim is the only thing Am Yisrael has? We don't have anybody else? You can't marry a normal Jew that's not a Kohen? Or how come I can't marry a divorcee? I'm a Kohen. Well, you can't marry somebody that's not a divorcee? Can't marry someone? What? You can't find somebody else? People sweat the small stuff. It's not a good thing. This blasphemer, he died because of that. And after he got arrested, it says that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know what to do with him. He asked Hashem. How come he asked Hashem this time? Because on one hand, the Mechallel Shabbat, they knew it's the worst sin. They knew it's the worst sin. So he's definitely getting the worst punishment. But the one that cursed Hashem, they didn't know if it's, they knew it's a death penalty. They just didn't know by which way. A, B, C, or D. Now, why does that matter? Because the Torah has the ultimate mercy even for someone who is a rasha. We're not allowed to punish someone one percent more than they are supposed to get. This means that Moshe Rabbeinu had to make sure to ask Hashem which punishment he should get.

1:14:26Because if I put him in the same cell as Tzelafchad, the Mechalel Shabbat, then he's going to know he's getting the worst death penalty. And if I'm wrong, and it's not really the worst death penalty, it's the second worst, that little bit of time that he's in the same cell thinking he's going to get the worst death penalty, rather than the second worst, is too much suffering. He's going to die. But still, he doesn't deserve that much suffering. That's also a reason why the Gemara says that after somebody makes a sin that the punishment is malkot, they have to whip him. It says 40 times, but not more, and the Chachamim say 39 times. After 39 times, you hit the rasha, he's your brother. What do you mean he's a rasha? He just told me to hit him 40, 39 times. why is he my brother now? He went from being a rasha to being my brother. Which one is he? Is he my brother? It says before you hit him; after you hit him, he's your brother. Why? You got the punishment finished; now he's your brother again. I love him again. I love him again. Not a hit extra, not an insult extra. After Hashem already punished him for what he did, that's it. He is your brother.

1:15:50So when it came to the blasphemer, everyone was confused, because they didn't know, is this the worst or not? Is this the worst or not? So, to make sure that everyone knew this is horrific, this is the worst, Hashem made an example of him, to make sure that everyone knows it, without any doubt, and made an example of him where, in essence, They hung them for everyone to see, to be a sign. Same way that they made a sign several times. For example, one example we learned a couple of weeks ago with Parashat Korach. Korach and his followers became a sign of Gehenom, forever. Anyone that says, "I don't believe in Gehenom," that means you're a kofer in Parashat Korach. It says that Korach and Adatam became a sign forever. A sign of what? A sign of punishment, that Hashem punishes the wicked. So Hashem wants people to know that He does punish. Why? Because when we know that there is punishment, we're more reluctant to sin. So when it came to the blasphemer, we just simply weren't sure if this is as bad as Chilul Shabbat. We know that Chilul Shabbat is the worst. We knew. Everyone knew. But to curse Hashem, we weren't sure. So Hashem says, for all of the people that will follow later on, that use Hashem's name in vain, they should know...

1:17:13Hashem thinks of it as the worst. Thinks of it as the worst. So a person needs to know that it's obviously not good, but it's a lot worse than what people think. For example, Chilul Shabbat, the way you fix it is by, if you violated Shabbat, let's say for 20, 30 years, the way you fix it is, number one, start keeping Shabbat. Start keeping Shabbat. Two, make sure that you're never in a position to violate Shabbat on purpose for the reasons that you did in the past. Three, say "I'm sorry" to Hashem. And four, get other people to do teshuva for Shabbat. Now, Chilul Hashem, desecrating Hashem's name, is more difficult. You can't stop doing Chilul Hashem. You simply just don't do it. So how do you fix Chilul Hashem? The Gemara says the punishment for Chilul Hashem begins with death, meaning there's nothing you can really do here to fix it. So Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says in his sefer, it's because desecration of Hashem's name is too grave of a sin to be able to fix with anything traditional. So what's the one way to fix it? Kiddush Hashem.

1:18:39Because the reward for Kiddush Hashem is too big for you to be rewarded for it. So it has to be something like that. Kiddush Hashem versus Chilul Hashem. Whereas Chilul Shabbat by itself is, you know, it's just not sinning. It's not the same thing as not violating Hashem's name. So that's the thing. It's, in essence, Hashem trying to explain divine logic to the non-divine, the people. Of course, there's a lot more color you can go into and who and what and when. The debate is for 500 years or 1500 years about every single pasuk and every single Gemara. But one of the things that you can say about that specific Gemara is that the blasphemer itself was a confusion even for Moshe Rabbeinu. Because even he did not know how grave the sin was until Hashem told him it's the worst. Next question. Yes. Actually, you asked questions. Go ahead. Sorry. So your father is a Jew, but your mother is not. Okay. So you're not considered a Jew. Why do we trace our heritage to Avraham and not Sarah? Look, so there are two things that make Am Yisrael. The tribe comes from the father.

1:20:04The tribe comes from the fathers; it says that the tribes come from the father. So if your father is from the tribe of Yehuda, you're from the tribe of Yehuda. If your father is from the tribe of Reuven, then you are Reuven. If your tribe is from Binyamin, then you're from Binyamin. There's almost no Binyamin left in the world because of many of the sins that they made, which was a prophecy that Yaakov Avinu actually said. It is time that Binyamin Benjamin's descendants, even though he was one of the four who never sinned in his life, made many mistakes and suffered for it, and were almost completely annihilated. But the point is that the tribe is decided based on the father, but the actual religiosity in regards to the religion, whether someone is Jewish or not, comes from the mother. so if the mother is Jewish, then the person is Jewish, even if the father is a non-Jew. Now, when it comes to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, they have to understand that once your mom is not Jewish, you actually don't have a spiritual father, because that Jewish father is not considered your father according to the Torah.

1:21:31He's not related to you. He's biologically related to you, but spiritually, you're not related. The children of the Goyah are not considered yours. So that's another issue. Again, some of this stuff, in this politically correct world, is going to rub some people the wrong way. But that's the reality. When a Jew has a child with a Goyah, that child is not his child. not considered his child. Now, when a woman has a child, a Jewish woman has a child with a goy, it is her child, but it's not his child, meaning the goy father. Those Jewish kids are not his kids, meaning even though the intermarriage does not produce children with two parents. spiritually. It produces children with two biological parents, obviously, but not spiritual parents. Spiritually, those children are orphans. Those children are orphans. And many times, those children have a lot of difficulties—kids of intermarriage. But the beautiful thing is that we are now living at a time, the Gemara in Masechet Sotah, page 49b, says is the end of times, where it's going to be the first time in history that

1:22:52where the children will make the parents do teshuva. Throughout all of the ages, it was the parents that taught Torah to the children and helped them stay close to the tradition that we've had for 3,000 plus years. But the generation before Mashiach is going to be the first time where the children actually suddenly become interested in what their fathers and even their grandfathers abandoned. Suddenly, the kids are interested in Torah. "Yeah, but you didn't go to yeshiva, kid. Why are you interested in your heritage?" "I don't know. I just want to know where I come from." "You come from your mom and me." "No, no, no. I want to know about my grandfather." "Your grandfather was the same thing. He was a sports broadcaster." "No, no, no. I want to know before that." "Why do you care?" He doesn't know why he cares. He doesn't know why he cares. The kid doesn't know why he cares. He's 20 years old, 15 years old. He's already the fourth generation of Jews that violate Shabbat, but suddenly he wants to know what it means to be a Jew. That's happening, and I see it literally every single day. Random Jewish kids, you know, they're not really kids anymore. Sometimes they're teenagers, sometimes they're in their 30s.

1:24:04Random, out of nowhere, suddenly: "I want to know, I want to discover my roots." What roots? Your roots? What roots? What are you talking about? Your father drove on Shabbat and got other people to go to the church. What roots? What are you talking about? I want to know why—what does it mean to be a Jew? Do you know that you are fulfilling a prophecy? You're interested in your roots of how come you're connected to Moshe Rabbeinu? How come you're connected to Avraham Avinu? How come you're connected to Rabbi Akiva? How come you're connected to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein? How come you're connected to all of these tzaddikim? You are fulfilling a prophecy without even knowing it. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, eventually, I'm gonna give everybody a chance, one last chance, one last hurrah, before the train leaves. And that last generation is going to do something that's going to defy nature. The kids that come from parents who have abandoned their heritage for already a few generations suddenly will have an urge, an unnatural urge, to come back to Hashem. And I see it every day, and it's amazing. The funny thing is that their biggest difficulty is getting their parents to jump on board.

1:25:23Because once they see the truth, they love it, they want to do teshuvah, they start doing teshuvah, but now they realize that their parents who have abandoned the Torah and the mitzvot, and their grandparents who have abandoned the Torah and mitzvot, who don't even know what Shabbat is anymore, they want them to go to Gan Eden. And especially if they hear my shiurim, they want them to avoid Gehinnom. So they start to get them to do teshuvah. What's their biggest difficulty? The biggest difficulty is their parents and their grandparents. Why? Because they're so used to the sinful life. And this happens, unfortunately, but that's why I always tell people: First, you have to save yourself. Once you save yourself, then you can start worrying about other people. But either way, this is one of the prophecies that's being fulfilled as we speak around the world, all over the world. You see young people, young Jewish people that were completely, completely disconnected have a sudden urge for Judaism. And it's not because of the speaker, and it's not because of the organization. It's simply Hashem giving His nation one last chance to do teshuvah.

1:26:29And fulfilling this promise. Next question. Yes. Who? What question? Yes. Hashem. Yes. Yes. So, the Rav is asking a good question. He says, if Hashem has rules, and He says that technically a Jew is not allowed to marry a non-Jew. And if a guy, a Jewish guy, marries a non-Jewish woman, whether he marries civilly or not is irrelevant, meaning they commit the act, they're intimate, and a child is produced out of it. How come Hashem allows this to happen? Because, in reality, He doesn't want it to happen. He doesn't want the Jew to be with a non-Jew. On top of it, He Himself says that there are three partners to every life.

1:27:54the husband, the wife, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself. Right? So how come Hashem is joined in this partnership that's forbidden? So what's the answer? The Gemara says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, if you come to become pure, I'll give you a hint. You want to do a mitzvah? What kind of mitzvah do you want to do? I want to give tzedakah. Okay, so let's see what you give, what you have. But Hashem, I only have five dollars. Okay, give Me five dollars. Fifty cents. You give fifty cents, Hashem gives you a dollar. Oh! So, I give it again, and He gives you again. You keep giving tzedakah, keep giving ma'aser, and Hashem keeps giving you more and more money. Why? Because you like the mitzvah. And the reward for a mitzvah is another mitzvah. You like this mitzvah, so I'm going to give you more opportunities to do mitzvot. Hashem, I want to get married. Why do you want to get married? I want to have kids. Okay, he got married, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives him kids. Hashem, I want to, you know, do these mitzvot. Hashem gives him the opportunity. He wants to do mitzvot, and Hashem helps him do mitzvot.

1:29:01On the other hand, it says, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, but if you are looking to become impure, meaning to create things that are against Me, to do things that are against Me, not only will I help you, I'll open the door for you. All of the options are available for you. Why? You have free choice. Your free choice. If I'm not going to allow you to make sins, then I'm removing your free choice. And then there's no point to the world. So I have to allow you to not only make your free choice of making mistakes, but I have to help you just as much. Just like I help you do a mitzvah, I have to help you for it to be completely free choice. I have to help you do the sins too. For it to be fair. For it to be fair, I have to help you in both ways. It's not because Hashem wants you to do the sins. Rather, it's because that's free choice. But that's also why the Kadosh Baruch Hu says, "You thought I was like you." What does it mean, "You thought I was like you"? You thought I was a sinner like you because I allowed you to make sins, therefore I agreed with them? No, I allowed you to make sins because you have free choice.

1:30:19You have free choice, and I allow you to do the sins. But at the same time, the mercy of Hashem allows us to have an innate desire to do the right thing. Everyone, at some point, evaluates their actions and knows that they are doing wrong. There is simply no one in the world who is not self-conscious. Everybody's self-conscious. Everybody questions themselves. Oh, did I do right? Did I say the right thing? Did I do this? Everybody questions themselves. Do I look okay? Is this the right food? Is this the right job? Everybody's self-conscious. Why? Hashem put that in us to constantly question ourselves. Why? To use this to evaluate our actions. Am I really marrying the right woman? Am I marrying the right man? Am I making money the right way? Am I fulfilling my life's purpose the right way? Am I even fulfilling it at all? Why? To have this unusual desire to come back to Hashem. Because He doesn't want to just help you avoid sins and just help you perform mitzvot. He wants you to have free choice, but at the same time, He gives you a little cheat code. What's the cheat code? You're going to want to do the right thing.

1:31:37Because you're going to see that the right thing is just something that you know feels better. It's just harder to do. It's harder to do. And that's why the Baraita says in Masechet Menachot, don't say that eating pig is disgusting because it doesn't taste good. Don't say that wearing shatnez is disgusting. It's not good. It's not true. Pig is delicious and wearing shatnez is a lot of fun. Some good clothes. But you're not allowed to do it. Why? Because your Father in Heaven said no. That's why you don't eat pig. That's why you don't wear shatnez. That's why you don't marry the goya. It's not because they're bad people or it's not delicious or it's not fun. No, the sin is delicious and it's fun. But you're not allowed to do it because your Father in Heaven said no.

1:32:39That's the reason. If you teach people that, no, no, no, being on a phone is terrible, the guy one day is going to grow up, he's 18, 20, 25 years old, he's going to take his friend's phone for the first time in his life, see a smartphone, and say, not only was I lied to, but this is the most fun I ever had in my life. The first time he sees an iPhone, he thinks that's Shimon Shmuel. So you can't just lie to people and tell them, no, this is not fun. No, no, it is fun. It is good. It is delicious, but it's forbidden. Why is it forbidden? Oh, that Hashem said. You want more explanation, you have to have a one-on-one meeting with them, but I promise you, you're not going to want it after you have that meeting, because no one comes out of that meeting. No one comes out of that meeting. Yes. So he's asking, the Rabbi is asking, the Midrash says that

1:34:03When Yaakov met with Esav after not seeing him for two decades, he hid his daughter Dinah. He hid his daughter Dinah, and for that, he was punished. Why? Because Dinah had the power to make Esav do teshuva. If she had married him, she had the power to make Esav do teshuva. And Hashem says, since you forbade her from marrying one of yours, I'll have one of theirs be with her. Meaning, He put her in a status where she is the korban for a sin that her father made. So the question is, why does he get punished for not wanting his daughter to marry a Rasha? Esav was a Rasha. The prophet says, Hashem says, et Eisav saneti. Hashem says, I hate Eisav. He doesn't say, I hate Paro. He doesn't say, I hate Nebuchadnezzar. He doesn't say, I hate Bilam. He only says, I hate Eisav. Only person in the entire Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, says, I hate him. Specifically by name. So how come he's surprised that Yaakov, his dear son, doesn't want his daughter to marry this Rasha Merusha?

1:35:20And that's where the tzaddikim, the chachamim in the Torah say, the tzaddikim are judged based on chuta se'ara, by a hairbreadth. On the level of us, or myself as a loser, if I don't want my daughter to marry Esav, it's a mitzvah. Mitzvah. Mitzvah, I'm going to go to Gan Eden just for not making her marry a rasha. Why? Because it's tzedakah, we're marrying a rasha. But on the level of Yaakov, the Ruach HaKodesh that he had, with the prophecy that he had, he was expected to know that his daughter could make Esav HaRasha become a giant, and so much so, he would even become bigger than Yaakov Avinu himself. Esav had the opportunity to become bigger than Yaakov Avinu. Why? Because the Gemara Masechet Berachot says, Esav was a Rasha, but if he would become a Baal Teshuva, a Baal Teshuva, even Tzadikim Gemurim, complete Tzadikim, cannot get to them. Meaning that if Esav would have done Teshuva, he would have gotten to a higher level than Yaakov. So the fact that Yaakov withheld that opportunity from him, if you will, on his level, he got judged harshly.

1:36:39got judged harshly. But not that Dinah got punished only because of her father, though. Let's understand that also. Dinah got punished because of her action, not just because her father hated her. Dinah made herself vulnerable. When? When she decided to go outside and hang out with some goyot, see what they're doing. What are the goyot doing? Why do you care? Why do you care what the goyot are doing? Your father is Yaakov Avinu. The fact that she went out to see what the non-Jews were doing, HaKadosh Baruch Hu punished her. One of the most horrific punishments in the entire Torah. some chamor raped her, and she ended up having a son, a daughter from it, and it tortured them, which is one of the most horrific things that happens in the Torah. Why? Because think about it, this story of Dinah is read by every single Jew, every single day, every single year for eternity. Meaning, your six-year-old, he's going to learn Sefer Bereishit. What is he going to learn about? One day Dinah went outside to see what the goyim were doing, and she got raped.

1:37:51now this little six-year-old is learning it for the first time in his life. He doesn't really know what it means, but in Shamayim they know. So, imagine you're a little kid, a little tinok, never sinned in his life, is reading, "Oh, Dinah did such and such. She went outside, she got raped." In Shamayim, it's all types of glory. She went outside, she went outside, everybody knows. Hashem yishmor, what a busha, what an embarrassment, but it's for her merit. Because anyone that learns that topic seriously does teshuva. And how many young girls, young b'not Yisrael, did teshuva after they really learned what happened to Dinah and therefore they didn't want to repeat it. So the point is that, yes, there's an embarrassing part, but there's enough merit that she's getting as a result of it. That makes it all worth it. But the point is, when it comes to the Rav's question about Yaakov, Yaakov in his level of being a Tzadik Gamur, he was expected more than what someone that's not even close to a Tzadik is expected to. So for him, it was considered, in essence, almost a sin. Not really a sin, but almost a sin. Next question. Seven in the back. Yes.

1:39:17no, it's not that he didn't want him to be bigger than him. He didn't want her to marry him, marry Esav, because he said he was expected to know. Now, he didn't know he was expected to know. It's like, for example, you drive on the highway you decide to drive a hundred miles an hour and the cop pulls you over and says, "What, are you crazy? The speed limit over here is 60 miles an hour." And you say, "I didn't know." Sorry, you're still getting a ticket. Why? You're expected to know the law if you're going to drive a car, and not knowing the law does not absolve you from the punishment. So there are certain things that we're expected to know. And Yaakov, on his level, was expected to know even more than the standard. He was expected to know that. Why is Hashem allowing Esav to come meet me? Why is Esav still alive if he's a rasha? If someone is a rasha and he's still alive, what does that really mean? That means that he has an opportunity to do teshuva. He's only being given life because he still has an opportunity to do teshuva. So Esav is alive, that means he has an opportunity to do teshuva. Why is this rasha

1:40:34meeting the biggest tzaddik in the world. So Yaakov was, in essence, expected to think, why is Hashem making this meeting? Why isn't Esav going to some different city? Why didn't he move to Jamaica? Why didn't he move to Honolulu? Why is he still here? And on top of it, he's interested in meeting me. Why? Yaakov was expected to think, in essence, do the calculations. Of course, it's very easy for us, 4,000 years later, to say we understand and we know, but we don't understand and we don't know half of what he said, even what we said. The point being is that a person needs to know that you are going to be judged, not only for the things you know, but the things you are expected to know. No, we have a couple more questions and we're finished. Chabad in the back. Eating kosher. If a Jew eats kosher, the benefit is that it's a mitzvah. Now, the Torah is not such a thing with all or nothing, meaning

1:41:55somebody says, "Listen, I don't keep Shabbat, so therefore I might as well eat non-kosher." No, that's not true. You don't keep Shabbat; that's obviously wrong, and you'll get punished for it. But you should still keep kosher, still put on tefillin, still do everything that you can do. Why? Because the punishment that you'll get for Shabbat is one punishment, and the punishment that you'll get for not eating kosher is a separate punishment. So, the point is, why increase the punishment? Furthermore, eating kosher could be something that will give you merit to still be able to learn Torah when finally somebody decides to teach you. Many times, when you meet new people that are not religious, their biggest change happens once they start keeping kosher, like strictly kosher. their biggest change happens once they start keeping kosher, like strictly kosher. The reason why is because the Torah says that when you eat non-kosher

1:42:56meaning that the Torah says that when we eat non-kosher, we become impure. And the Sages say, yes, but the word "impure" is spelled the same way as the word "to stupefy," meaning to become spiritually stupid. So, when someone is not eating kosher, Here's a shiur Torah: they have a very, very hard time understanding it. When someone who is not eating kosher reads a Jewish book, they have a very, very hard time understanding it. Once they start keeping kosher, automatically all of the food turns into their blood, and the blood is them. That's who you are. That's pure blood. That pure blood is able to understand more Torah. therefore be able to understand why they should keep Shabbat, why they should keep this, and why they should keep that. So, to keep kosher will have a lot of benefits to people. Sadly, though, it's very hard for a person to truly keep kosher if he doesn't learn Torah. The reason why is because I thought myself that I kept kosher my whole life.

1:44:09uh, I never ate pig, at least not on purpose, and I never ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese. I never ate milk and meat on purpose, and I thought that, okay, although I don't keep the mitzvot and I don't put on tefillin every day and I don't keep Shabbat and I don't learn Torah, I'm eating kosher. I'm still, like, connected. Wrong. Why? Because when you don't learn Torah, you don't know what you don't know. So what ended up happening is you think that as long as I don't eat non-kosher meat and no meat and dairy together, I'm eating kosher. So you go to a non-kosher restaurant and you ask them for fish or you ask them for salad. Little do you know that that salad has more sins in it than the pig sandwich. Why? All the bugs that you're eating. Because the goyim are not obligated to wash the salad and clean it from all the filthy bugs that are in there. Every time you eat a bug, it's six different sins. Pig is one sin. So you don't know. You're thinking you're eating a salad. It's kosher, perfectly fine. No, wrong. Second, you say, oh, no, no. You know what? No salad. I'll just eat pizza. I'll eat pizza. What's wrong with pizza? It's cheese and a piece of bread, some tomatoes. That should be kosher across the world.

1:45:27Wrong. You go to any professional person in the pizza world, let me ask you, how come your pizza is different than his pizza, is different than his pizza, is different than his pizza? Unless it's Florida pizza, which all tastes the same. Real pizzerias, you go to New York, every pizza is different. Florida, every pizza tastes the same. When I went to college, Binghamton University, it's not pizza, it's shoes. Shoes, they sell you, but you eat them. Different places, it's all based on the water. ...but the point is, how come your sauce is different than his sauce? Oh, because my sauce has a little bit of meat in it. There's no meat in the sauce itself, but it's cooked with meat. And my cheese has a little bit of meat in it, but you don't see the meat. It's not pepperoni; it's in the cheese itself. And what do you end up doing? You're eating pizza from Domino's and Pizza Hut and all of these other places, from Joe the Italian, and you don't realize you're not only eating non-kosher dairy... you're also eating non-kosher meat, and you're eating them together. So you see, you have a problem now. If you don't know this, you think you're eating kosher. Many times, Jewish people come to America, and they think that they're eating kosher because they're eating, you know, the salad and the fish. It's a mistake.

1:46:46It's a very, very big mistake. Another very, very common mistake that people make is they think, okay, you know what? I won't eat salad. I won't eat pizza. I'll just eat fish. I'll eat fish. And they order fish. And they get the fish. And the fish is ready. It's a nice little filet. And they eat the fish. And they think, oh, I ordered a salmon. And they think they got a salmon. I ordered a sea bass. I got a sea bass. No, sometimes the fish is not even kosher. why? Because the fish sometimes looks the same, but it's a completely different species. The point being is that if you don't know the law, you don't know what you don't know. If it's not kosher, there's a reason for it. In today's world of technology and commerce, it's very, very easy to find out if something is kosher or not. There are many, many rabbis and talmidei chachamim that are in the kosher world. They're going to tell you, this is allowed, this is not allowed. And if they say this is not allowed, it's not because of money. Trust me, they'd love to make that extra money to make it kosher. It's not kosher because there's no way to make it kosher. There's simply no way to make it kosher. Sometimes you'll see orange juice that is not kosher. Why would orange juice not be kosher? There's a company called Sunny Delight.

1:48:04For many years, it wasn't kosher. Orange juice, not kosher. How could orange juice not be kosher? Years later, they got the kosher stamp. What changed? They changed the coloring. For many years, they used a special chemical to make their orange juice more yellow. And that made it not kosher. Why is that chemical, everything has chemicals in it. Why is that chemical specifically not good? Because that chemical was made from beetles. And Jews are not allowed to eat beetles, at least knowingly. So, the point being, that's what made orange juice not kosher. And if you, I have a list on my website. Go to bezratHashem.org and you will see that there is a list. of ingredients that are used in non-kosher food. Once you read the list, you'll become more religious than me just from that list alone because you will see what kind of disgusting things they put in food: urine, stomachs of strange animals, rectal areas of animals, and all types of weird stuff they put in non-kosher food because of flavoring.

1:49:18because it has specific colors, because it has different things, which means that if you do not see a U, a K, OU, or whatever kosher symbol is supposed to be on it—there are a lot of different kosher organizations—if you don't see a kosher stamp on it from anyone, that means this thing is worse than pig. Like, something's seriously wrong with this thing. Now, there are some exceptions to what I just said, which is usually with drinks, with liquids, which simply do not need a kosher stamp because everyone knows this thing is far removed from anything that, and there is a website specifically for that. For instance, there are certain liquors that don't have a kosher stamp but are considered kosher. But if it doesn't have a kosher stamp and it's made by the same manufacturer, it doesn't mean it's kosher. You have to check. You have to check everything. Somebody just sent me a question two days ago. He got a present of a Belvedere vodka with some, I don't know, pink flavor or something, some flavoring in it. But it doesn't have a kosher stamp. He said, "Can I drink it?" We checked. It's not kosher. Not kosher. You can't drink it.

1:50:32Does it have pig in it? Does it have rats in it? Does it have bats in it? I have no idea. It's not kosher. It's not kosher. Don't eat it. Don't drink it. But there are certain things that don't have a kosher stamp that you're allowed to consume. But you have to check. The point is, if it's not kosher and you can't find anything on it, there's definitely a reason. And if you consume it anyway, you're not only committing a sin, but you're also making yourself spiritually insensitive, and it will make it very difficult for you to learn Torah. Last question and we'll finish for the night. most people continue buying kosher food even though they don't keep Shabbat for the same reason we did it, which is you're not an enemy of Hashem actively. It wasn't like I didn't like Hashem. I still prayed to Him. I still said "Shema Yisrael" my whole life since my mom taught it to me when I was a little kid. I put the letters "ב"ה" on every paper I ever wrote anything on, even as a little kid not keeping Shabbat. Nonetheless, I would always put "B'ezrat Hashem" on everything. most people continue buying kosher food even though they don't keep Shabbat for the same reason we did it, which is you're not an enemy of Hashem actively. It wasn't like I didn't like Hashem. I still prayed to Him. I still said "Shema Yisrael" my whole life since my mom taught it to me when I was a little kid. I put the letters "ב"ה" on every paper I ever wrote anything on, even as a little kid not keeping Shabbat. Nonetheless, I would always put "B'ezrat Hashem" on everything.

1:52:01I pray to Hashem. Anytime I needed something, I believed in Hashem. But I know that there is something called Shabbat. I know that there is kashrut. I know all of these things, or at least some of them. I just didn't know the ramifications of not keeping it. I just thought this is if you want the best Gan Eden, and this is if you want a little lower Gan Eden, like a little homeless Gan Eden, but some Gan Eden anyway. You know, like Gan Eden from Walmart or something. A discount. So that's what I figured. I figured, okay, so if you want the biggest Gan Eden, you keep Shabbat, you learn Torah, you go to yeshiva, you do all these things, you become Moshe Rabbeinu. I didn't go to yeshiva. I went to public school. played football in high school. I wanted to become a psychiatrist, and on top of that, I wanted to be a football player. I mean, I had all types of ambitions. It's not... I didn't grow up in a religious world, so I didn't know that there is either Gan Eden or Gehinnom to that extent. I figured that, okay, I may not be Moshe Rabbeinu, but based on my lifestyle, I'm still going to be, you know, in some decent department because I'm a good person.

1:53:11And I still keep some stuff. I still go to the Knesset on Yom Kippur, and I fast. I still eat matzah on Pesach. I still, you know, eat kosher, or at least to my knowledge, I was eating kosher. So I'm doing some things. And I figured that you could, like, you know, use the Torah like a shopping list. You go to a supermarket, you buy a little tomatoes, a little potatoes, maybe some of this, maybe some of that, a little seasoning. And then you go home and use half the stuff you bought. The rest of it goes in the closet forever. You never actually use it. And you figure that you can shop around and pick whatever you want to make whatever dish you want. That's what I thought. Why? Because no one taught me otherwise. And when the rabbis would come to my office three or four times a week, they never told me, "Listen, by the way, you know you're married to a goya, it's karet. By the way, you know you're driving on Shabbat, that's karet. And by the way, you know that you do this, this, and that, karet, karet." No one told me this. What did they tell me? Give me money. And then after I finished giving this guy, another guy came with another request, and asked for more. Okay, I gave him that one, and then others came asking for more money, money, money, and that's it. Then they would tell me, "Do you want to come over for Shabbat?" I would say, "Yeah, but I live downtown." They would respond, "Okay, no problem." They knew I would drive. And the store might invite me on Shabbat. For what? Because everybody else there drove. That one particular rabbi who would invite me on Shabbat, after I did teshuva, said, "The biggest mistake you made in your life is doing teshuva."

1:54:30So he used to be a nice guy before he did teshuva. So he told me. I said, you know you're a kofer, right? You're a kofer. I said, I used to drive on Shabbat to you. And he tells me, he's like, yeah, but in this generation there's only one mitzvah that you need to do. So what mitzvah is that? He goes, you have to give money. You have to give tzedakah. I said, you know you're going to Gehinnom, right? Anyway, this is Rasha Merusha, but that's the point. I didn't know, and even when I searched for knowledge, I didn't get it. I didn't get it. I paid; I didn't get it. I asked people to teach me; I didn't get it. Nothing. So eventually, Hashem had to teach me a personal lesson. Now, the reality is, I should have known anyway. Why? I have a brain, Baruch Hashem, that works for other things that I want. I could have picked up a book on my own and learned myself. Why did I depend on other people? And therefore I got punished severely by HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So the point is that everyone lives in this world who is not keeping mitzvot. It's not because they don't know anything. Some of them don't know anything, but most people simply don't know the consequences of not keeping the mitzvot.

1:55:45Because that is not taught by most people in the world. In English, it's zero, with the exception of me and less than a handful of other rabbis in the world. In English, no one is teaching anything about punishment. You look at the topic of Gehinnom in English, you're going to find a total of six and a half hours, of which I am six hours. Look at the topic of wasting seed. You're going to see, I don't know, something like 45 hours, of which I am 44. Now, that may sound like, "Wow!" It's not. It's sad because there are hundreds and hundreds of rabbis that speak English better than I do and have been rabbis for much longer than I have been, and they refuse to teach this to the people. So that's why people don't know. and they don't go learn and they ask the rabbi sometimes, and sometimes these reshaim even tell them, "No, no, no, no, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Don't worry about it. It's okay." Not only do they not teach them, not only do they not do their job, but when the guy finally got the information so well, they deterred him from it. So most of those people you see in the kosher store walking around half-naked, it's not because they're enemies of Hashem actively. They're enemies of Hashem unknowingly. They don't know.

1:57:08They don't know. So that's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu has mercy on His people and He sends them different messages in different ways. Sometimes that store has the kosher food but also has Rabbi Reuven's CD. The food you have to pay for. The CD is free. Sometimes HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to send you a link for free. Sometimes HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to invite you to a shiur for free. Hashem is going to send everyone a message. To me, He sent a message by sending me to a hospital for seven years. Sixteen years of suffering without stopping. Every single day for sixteen years I have pain. ...more pain than most people experience in a lifetime, every single day. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. Why? That's my shiur. I teach because I don't want you to have the same shiur. So Hashem has mercy on everybody in different ways. If you listen to my message, then HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't have to talk to you. And you could avoid all the pain and go straight to Gan Eden.

1:58:14But if you ignore the things that I say and go look for one of these Rabbi Noach, one of these people that just tell you whatever is comfortable for the day, they just want money, they want you to buy Gan Eden, then you have a serious problem because then Hashem is going to eventually have to talk to you. And those conversations don't usually go so well for us. So it's important for us to know that we are expected to know the truth and to search for it because just like you invested, let's say, five or ten years to become an expert in your profession, Hashem says, "How come you didn't spend at least five or ten years to become an expert in life? In the purpose of life." So everybody has an expectation, and by the love of Hashem, we all fulfill it. Unless there's something urgent, let's call it a night. It's getting a little late. Anything that's... It's your show. It's your place. No, no, it's not my case. It's Hashem. That's what I said. Yes.

1:59:31So, the Rav is asking what was the merit of Reish Lakish, who was a gangster. Not just a regular gangster, but the top of the mob, the top of the mafia. What was his merit that his rabbi and Havruta becomes Rabbi Yochanan, the biggest rabbi in the world. Rabbi Yochanan, not Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, that was a previous generation. Rabbi Yochanan, how could it be? What was his merit? So Reish Lakish, the story goes, Reish Lakish was a very, very powerful person. Everyone was scared of him. And one day, he sees in the river, There's a beautiful woman, so beautiful that her skin was sparkling like a diamond. There were certain people that lived in that day who were called Anshei Yerushalayim, the people of Jerusalem, who were exceptionally beautiful, so much so that their skin gave light like the sun—all the time, without putting makeup on.

2:00:56And he saw a woman like this swimming in the ocean, swimming in the river. He immediately used all of his strength to swim up to this woman and take her. And right before he got up to her, she turned around, and it was he. Who's he? Rabbi Yochanan. Rabbi Yochanan! Oh! He goes, ah! You thought I was a woman, didn't you? He says, yeah, you're too beautiful to be a man. Rabbi Yochanan says to him, if you want someone more beautiful than me, it's my sister. And I'll let you marry her if you do teshuva right now and you learn with me every day. The desire of Reish Lakish was so extraordinary, he said, I'm willing to give up everything, everything, just to marry somebody as beautiful as this. And at that moment that he said, yes, I agree, he lost all of his strength and he started drowning. He couldn't swim. Rabbi Yochanan saved his life. So now, why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu do all of this?

2:02:14First and foremost, you look at the end of Gemara Masechet Berachot. Reish Lakish says, anyone that wants Torah has to be willing to die for it. Where's the learning coming from? From himself. You want Torah? You have to be willing to put your life on it. Meaning, sacrifice everything for it. Even though he says, "I myself only really did it because I wanted a girl," there is a rule in the Torah that says even if you do a mitzvah initially because you don't want to but you just want the reward, it's still good. Why? Because eventually, if you keep doing the mitzvah, you will come to like it. Eventually, you will do it for the right reason. So, I myself started doing it for the wrong reason—I wanted some beautiful girl. But because I was still willing to sacrifice my life for it, Hashem accepted it with open arms. But at the same time, He took away all my strength. And I almost died for it. But it continued going, and he ended up becoming Gadol HaDor.

2:03:17So his merit is that he was willing, although he wasn't doing it for the right reason, he was willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of Torah, for the sake of this mitzvah, and therefore HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave him not only the opportunity to do teshuva, but gave him the best rabbi in the world. But that's also the only rabbi in the world that can help him do teshuva. Because just like the rabbi says, everyone does teshuva in a certain way. Everyone does teshuva in a certain way. Some of you may have had other people talk to you in the past and tell you to do teshuva and it didn't work. One day I come along and I say something to you and you listen. Why? They talked to you, it didn't work. I talked to you, it did work. Maybe I was the right key and they weren't. or you weren't ready at that time and now you are. Whatever the case is, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives every person different chances and opportunities to do teshuva, so when they come to Shamayim eventually, they can't say, I didn't know.

2:04:20Because He's going to show you your entire life. He's going to show you all of the opportunities that He sent you when you should have found out. Look, I sent you Yaron. Look, I sent you Yosef. I sent you Ovadia. I sent you Cohen. I sent you Reuven. I sent you all these different messages. You kept saying no, no, no. Okay, but I sent you the boat, the chopper, the airplane, the fire department. I sent you all these things to save you. You said no, no, no. What do you expect Me to reward you for it? So everybody gets a bunch of chances. Everyone. But eventually, we run out of chances. Reish Lakish had one chance, and he took it. We don't know of any other chances that he had. He took that chance, and he took it 100%, and he had the merit to have the Gedol HaDor become his rabbi. But that also means that Reish Lakish accepted the entire Torah in one go. Meaning he didn't say, "Listen, I'll start keeping Shabbat but I'm still going to go out with the Goyah." I'll start, you know, I'll leave the Goyah, but Shabbat's not for me. I'll start this, but not this. Meaning, if he lost all of his power, that means he accepted the entire Torah at once. No exceptions, no conditions. Just whatever you say, Rabbi, I'm going to do. When a person is tamim with Hashem, is complete with Hashem,

2:05:35Hashem gives them a lot of siyata diShmaya. That's one of the things I think that it's hard to find today. It's hard to find people who are willing to just submit to the Torah. Submit to Hashem and just say, whatever you say, I'm going to do. Most people, whatever you say, I'm going to do as long as I like it. If I don't like it, I'll do it later. Maybe. Sometimes. Bli neder. Bli neder. I'll keep Shabbat, Rabbi. Bli neder. Yes. Yes. Right? So the answer is that King Solomon had a stick which he always carried around with him. And on the stick, we all know, it said, Gam Zeh Ya'avor. Gam Zeh Ya'avor, yeah. In English, "This too shall pass." And that's a very powerful message. Yeah, we have a poster on the website. It says Gam Zeh Ya'avor. Yeah, it's good. It's good.

2:06:55Okay, Rabbi, next week I'm going to see you again, but it's going to be a different location. The Rabbi is going to actually show me where it is now. It's going to be in Sunny Isles, but I just don't know where it is. I'll get you some information soon. It's like five minutes from here. Thank you for learning with me. Remember, the fast starts in the morning, so if you want to eat, you go home and eat now. If you want to eat before the fast starts again, then you have to eat before sunrise. you have to say before you go to sleep that you don't accept the fast. As soon as you eat and wake up early, I don't know, something like four o'clock in the morning, you could eat at that time. The reality is all of us can use a diet, so stop eating. The seudah is going to meet with Rabot. Have a productive fast.

2:07:59...You have to say before you go to sleep that you don't accept the fast. As soon as you eat and wake up early, I don't know, something like four o'clock in the morning, you could eat at that time. The reality is all of us can use a diet, so stop eating. The seudah is going to be with Rabot. Have a productive fast...