Shiur Torah #112 The Road To Hell Is Full of Good Intentions at UnKosher Synagogues

0:01Thank you. Thank you. Always good to be in Miami. This is usually where the best shiurim are, Baruch Hashem. So also make sure we have tefillot for Michel Cotto, Amparo Belufe, Reuven Yosef ben Rivka, and Bill Deutschman. Always good to be in Miami. This is usually where the best shiurim are, Baruch Hashem. So also make sure we have tefillot for Miguel Cotto, Amparo Belufe, Reuven Yosef ben Rivka, and Bill Deutschman.

1:15Gladys Nunez, Edilma Guerrero, Isabel Perez, Josephina Matos, Marcela Matut, Naomi Bat-Ester, Raquel Bat-Sara, Alondra Matut, Estefany Meir, Jose Avila, Guillermo Suarez, Guillermo Solano, Sara Bat-Levana, Levana Bat-Sara, David Benesria, and also my very dear friend Emmanuel. Emmanuel is one of the most inspiring people I've ever met in my life. He's someone that unless Am Yisrael starts to wake up and realize the significance of doing kiruv, the significance of taking care of Hashem's children, he's going to be the one that they're going to be compared to. And the reason why I say that is because he wasn't born Jewish. He's in the process of converting. And just a couple of days ago, he had his Brit Milah. He had his circumcision. Now, circumcision for an eight-day-old baby, you know, you don't remember that usually.

2:29But a circumcision for someone that's a grown man is not an easy process. I mean, we even have in the Torah when Avraham Avinu had his circumcision on the third day. It specifically says it was the most difficult day. And Hashem actually made it the hottest day in history because the heat was the only thing that was helping him at that time. So it's known to be difficult for a grown man to do it. In today's world, they have surgery, but either way, the surgery itself, you don't feel, but after the surgery, it's very difficult. Painkillers or no painkillers, it's not easy. Now, Emanuel did not have to do any circumcision. He wasn't born Jewish. He wasn't obligated to do it. But he decided to do it and do any circumcision. He wasn't born Jewish. He wasn't obligated to do it. But he decided to do it, and Right now, you would think, okay, someone did a circumcision, someone had a surgery. Usually, people have a toothache; they don't want to do anything. The same day that he had the circumcision, he was back on the computer trying to do kiruv to save people from losing their souls, losing their eternity. I asked, how are you doing this? He goes, no, what are they going to do? These people are not going to have any Torah if I just sit there and relax.

3:49So this is someone that wasn't obligated to do anything. So what excuse are we going to have? We get to Shamayim and they're going to ask you, okay, so what did you bring me? What did you earn in your life? What did you do? So I had a nice house. Okay. Can't bring the house here. I had a nice car. Okay, the car is still over there also. I had a lot of money. Still can't use that over here. I had a nice family. Okay, that was for you. What did you bring me? Hashem is going to say, what did you do for me? i learned some Torah. You learned Torah for you. It's your purpose in life. What, you want a cookie? You learned Torah for you. Okay, I did Tefillin. It's for you also. If you don't do Tefillin, you won't come here. I prayed a few times. Okay, great. That's also for you. You prayed, you cried, you complained to me all day. Every night, every day, always complaining to me. It's for you. You didn't complain to me. What did you do for me? Hashem is going to ask you.

4:51What are you going to tell them? Now, I know that someone like Emmanuel can say, "Hashem, here are 1,500 Jews that did teshuva that day that I had the circumcision. I posted posts on the internet to make sure that they see shiurei Torah. Just from that day, 1,500 people did teshuva. They started doing teshuva. That's for Hashem." What benefit does Emmanuel have? They don't pay him. They don't give him any compliments. Most people don't even know he exists. He goes and tries to get people to do teshuva. The same goes for a lot of people that are thinking about the Mashiach. You know, I always tell people that there's two versions of Mashiach. One version is the one that everyone talks about, Mashiach is going to come very soon, b'ezrat Hashem, in a good way, but nonetheless, the Mashiach that we've been hearing about for several thousand years, the one that's going to be the Moshe of our day, the one that's going to lead us to the third Beit HaMikdash. But Mashiach is not going to save everyone.

6:05Mashiach is only going to save the righteous. If you're righteous, you have nothing to worry about. If you're not righteous, you have everything to worry about. If you're not righteous, you should pray that he doesn't come. Because once he comes, there's no more teshuva, there's no more conversion, there's no more nothing. Whatever you are, you are. That's the first version of Mashiach that Mashiach is going to ask you: "Okay, listen, I'm here to sanctify Hashem's name, to glorify it. What have you done for Hashem until now? What are you going to tell Him? That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to pray every day. You're supposed to learn Torah every day. You did all that for you. You're not doing it for Hashem. Hashem commanded you. He said this is what you have to do, just like if you go to school." I tell him, "Teacher, teacher, I did my homework." Of course you did your homework. If you don't do your homework, you don't pass. "Mommy, mommy, I ate all my food." Of course you're going to eat the food. If you don't eat, you're going to die. You're not going to survive. You're not going to get an extra bonus for doing what you're supposed to do. Of course, in Hashem's world, we do get a bonus for it, but that's not the extra credit. Mashiach says, "What have you done to sanctify Hashem's name?" You have to show something. And if you are the only one

7:27...that did teshuva, you're the only one that's connected to Hashem, but all of your friends, all of your family, all of your neighbors, all of your colleagues, everyone else is on the other side. He's going to ask you, what about them? You couldn't tell them anything? So all of them I have to destroy because you couldn't give them a dollar CD? But you spent half a million dollars on your house. You couldn't take 1% of that? and give it to these people, maybe they would be next to you. So that's the first version of Mashiach. The second version of Mashiach is really the day of death. When someone dies, he goes to Hashem, he goes, that's judgment day. Obviously there's no Mashiach up there, it's just, it's judgment day in essence. Mashiach coming to this world, or judgment day in the upper worlds, it's the same thing. They're going to ask you the same question. Did you conduct your business honorably? Did you make time for Torah? But they're also going to ask you, what have you done for Hashem? What have you done to fulfill your purpose? And fulfilling your purpose in the world is extremely important because, in essence, again, like it says, it's your purpose. Now we learn from Parashat Devarim that Moshe Rabbeinu tells us, repeats some of the stories, but one of the things we said in last night's shiur is that he repeats the parashah.

8:49story of all of the sins that Am Yisrael made throughout the last 40 years of testing Hashem in the desert. But he doesn't specify the details of each sin. Instead, he calls it by the name of the town that they were in, the city that they were in, not to embarrass the ones that were sinning at that time. But at some point... He mentions to them that I'm not going to be able to enter the land of Israel because of you. You made me upset. I got angry. And instead of speaking to the stone, I hit it. And Hashem told me, you missed an opportunity to sanctify My name. As we talked about a few weeks ago when I was here. You missed an opportunity to sanctify My name. This is Moshe Rabbeinu. This is not me. It's not you. It's Moshe. You missed an opportunity to sanctify My name. So, okay, listen. But Hashem, I sanctified Your name yesterday and the day before and the day after. And you know what? Okay, I missed an opportunity today. I'll sanctify it tomorrow. I'll sanctify it right now. Okay, missed one opportunity. Take it easy, Hashem. Relax. Why are You being so stringent with me?

10:09That's your purpose. Your purpose in the world is to sanctify My name. Your purpose in the world is Kiddush Hashem. You're not allowed to miss an opportunity. So when you show up to Shamayim and they ask you, "What did you do to sanctify Hashem's name?" and you have nothing to show for it, they're going to ask you the next question: "So what did you live for? The car and the house? To go to the baseball game?" Your brothers and sisters have to burn now because no one cared enough about them to tell them the truth. They're still praying in a mixed minyan, thinking that they're doing Kiddush Hashem by praying together because they made their own rules. This is a problem. This is also the reason why When Moshe talks about the sin of the meraglim, a big portion of this parasha discusses how the 12 spies were sent to the land. The Jewish people did not want to take Hashem's word for it when He said, listen, it's a land of milk and honey; there's only good there. They didn't want to take Hashem's word for it. They said, okay, we want to check.

11:32Before we went there, we wanted to check. It's not exactly a vote of confidence in the very same God that performed miracles for them every single day. But okay, they wanted to check. Now, this checking led to a disaster. As we know, when they came back, 10 out of the 12 reported a bad report, scaring everyone to death. got to such a point where they were saying not only lashon hara about the land that Hashem holds very dear, but they also said lashon hara about His servant who is very dear, Moshe Rabbeinu. And they even said lashon hara about Hashem. "Well, He took us out of Egypt because He hates us." Crazy. Think about it. He made miracles for you. Every single day, He destroyed the biggest civilization in the world for you. He stopped the world to give you the Torah. He forgave you for idol worship. And He hates you? He's giving you food from Shamayim. And you're saying He hates you?

12:52So this is obviously enough of a reason for Hashem to be very upset, which He did get very upset, and He wanted to destroy all of them. But nonetheless, Hashem forgave us again. But He said, okay, I forgive you, I'm not going to destroy everyone, but there is going to have to be a punishment. There's no such thing as, "I'm going to forget." What's going to happen now is that whoever sinned against Me, which is pretty much the entire generation—any male above the age of 20—committed the sin and is not allowed to enter the Land. And we're going to wait until he dies. So everyone from the age of 20 and above had to die in the desert. Anyone below, A 15-year-old kid, the wives, and the children were fine. But everyone else who was 20 years and over had to die in the desert. And that's why we were in the desert for 40 years. Because until that 20-year-old got to an age where he would die of natural causes and it wouldn't look strange, he'd have to be 60 years old.

14:16Am Yisrael did not really like this news. They all cried. And then they said, no, no. We sinned against Hashem. Now we're going to do what He wants. We're going to go into the land, and we're going to fight. We're going to fight in His name. And Hashem says to Moshe, tell them: don't go anywhere. I didn't tell them to go. The punishment has already happened. The decree has already been made. Your teshuva is too late. Do not go to war because I'm not with you. That's what he says. In chapter 1 of the book of Deuteronomy, in verse 42, Vayomer Adonai elai, emor lahem lo ta'alu v'lo tilachemu In verse 41, they said they spoke up, and you spoke up, and this is Moses repeating it to the people. In essence, what he's doing actually is, even though he's saying "you," he's actually talking about everyone's parents or grandparents.

15:43you spoke up and you said to me, we've sinned to Hashem. We shall go up and do battle according to everything that Hashem, our God, has commanded us. Every man of you girded his weapons of war and you were ready to ascend the mountain. So, we sinned to Hashem, we want to go to war. This is after they said bad things about Hashem, after they said bad things about Moshe, after they said bad things about the land. After the sin, after they cried all night for no reason, which is the reason why Tisha B'Av is a day of mourning for us forever, all the worst possible things that have happened to the nation of Israel happened on Tisha B'Av. This was one of the events. Hashem said that you cried for no reason; I'm going to give you a reason to cry. And every single year, this is a reason for us to cry. Throughout our generations, whether it's the first Beit HaMikdash, the second Beit HaMikdash, the Inquisitions, the Holocaust, or other events, all types of disasters have happened to Am Yisrael on Tisha B'Av.

16:58So, Hashem is telling them, no, it's too late. Hashem said to me, tell them, do not ascend and do not do battle, for I am not among you so that you not be struck down before your enemies. I'm not going to protect you. You're not going to win this war. I didn't tell you to go to battle. I told you I was going to give you a land of milk and honey. You didn't trust me. You went to check. You saw things in your own view. You saw a bunch of giants, and you got scared and became hysterical. You didn't trust Me again. You had no emunah in Me, and you came back and told everybody about it. They also didn't have emunah in Me. Then I told you, okay, you don't have any emunah in Me, then you don't deserve the land. And then you're thinking that just because you say, okay, okay, we didn't mean it. We sinned. That's it. Now why, I mean, in the Torah, regardless of what sin we make, everything is subject to teshuva. Teshuva is something that Hashem created because He knew that without teshuva we wouldn't be able to survive.

18:19Now, there are certain sins in the Torah, there are 36 of them, where the punishment is karet. Karet means an early death in this world, chas v'shalom, but also means no share in the world to come. This is a very, very big sin. So, if somebody violates Shabbat, that's karet. If somebody is with his wife when she's niddah, that's karet. There are certain things that are karet; it is a very big deal. So, if I make a sin like that, I mean, how do I, if there was no teshuva, I might as well not do any mitzvot anymore. I already ruined everything for myself. So Hashem knew that He had to create teshuva. So everything is always subject to teshuva. That's the good news. So why did he say over here that He's not with Am Yisrael? In essence, he's rejecting their teshuva. They said, we sinned. If every one of us spent a moment every day to tell Hashem, I'm sorry for the sins I made today, or I'm sorry for the sins I made yesterday, or I'm sorry for the sins I made any day of my life, that's already great. The entire nation is saying, we sinned. So why didn't He accept it?

19:46The secret is actually in the word, in the word itself. English is sometimes a very weak language when it comes to expressing feelings, whereas Hebrew is a very strong language because you'll have words that, in essence, in English mean the same thing. but in Hebrew, they have a higher meaning. So to give you an example, which we've talked about in the past, the word "sin." Sin in English has one word: sin, you made a sin. In Hebrew, there are three words. Every day when we do the Vidui, We say Chatanu, Avinu, Pashanu. So why do we say three different words? All of them, if you look at the English or the Spanish translation, it says we sinned, we sinned, we sinned. Okay, so if all three of them are the same, why are we using three different words? Because all three of them are different types of sins. Chatanu means we made a sin, the Shogeg, that's accidental. We forgot it was Shabbat.

21:05i forgot it was Shabbat, so I turned on the light. I forgot it was Yom Kippur; I washed my face. I forgot; it's accidental. Avinu means I knew, but I still did it. I knew it was Shabbat, but I still wanted to drive. I wanted to drive on Shabbat. But people do it all the time. I knew it was not kosher. I knew going to McDonald's is not allowed. I knew eating non-kosher pizza is not allowed. I knew that going to a bar full of immodest women and non-kosher drinks is not allowed. But I still did it. Now, there are places in New York. I heard from one of my students that a bar was opened in a Jewish neighborhood. And also one, I think it's like a chain, was opened in another neighborhood. Long story short, they make all of these flavored drinks, flavored alcoholic drinks, making drinking more fun. The problem is,

22:30that, aside from the fact that you should never go into a place like that when it has a bunch of immodesty, I'm seeing a lot of people who call themselves religious go there and think, "No, it's just liquor. What's the big deal? It's just liquor." Well, there's no kosher side to it, but it's just a drink. Well, if there's pig in the drink, yes, there could very well be pig in the drink and many other things. And that's what people don't understand is that if it doesn't have a kosher symbol on it, there's a reason. There was an orange juice that wasn't kosher for many years called Sunny Delight. And people always made fun of it. It's like, how could orange juice not be kosher? It's oranges. What's wrong with orange? All fruits are kosher. All vegetables are kosher. There's no such thing as a non-kosher fruit or vegetable.

23:32So, how could orange juice not be kosher? And then, people started investigating it, and they found out something very interesting. The company Sunny Delight, which I think today is kosher, before it became kosher, used to use an ingredient they called by a code name, I think it was E320. They may have changed the name by now for this ingredient. They use this ingredient in order to make their orange juice more yellow. It's more marketable. The most yellow orange juice on the market. That's why they call it Sunny Delight. Look at the sun. If you see Sunny Delight orange juice next to anyone else, it's much more yellow. It looks prettier. More attractive, wow, you're thinking to yourself, it must be healthier, it must be organic. You add all these things in your head, thinking it must be better because it has much better color, not knowing that the yellow is not coming from the orange juice. The yellow is coming from the beetles that they're crushing in order to create food coloring. Crushed beetles.

24:50And crushed beetles are used in a lot of food. Today, that's not kosher. There's actually a list; anyone that wants it, I put together a couple of years ago, actually, better said, my wife put together, of all types of non-kosher ingredients that are in 99% of all non-kosher food. If not 100% of it—obviously not all of it in one food. But the list, even for someone who doesn't care about Judaism... would be disgusted to eat non-kosher food after he reads this list. It has ingredients that you think are just normal food. Coffee, potato chips, beer, all types of food that are normal food. It's not kosher. People think that it's the rabbis who are cheating the system because they want more money or something like that, not realizing that it's the ingredients, not the rabbis. And these ingredients are disgusting. Everything from using the stomachs of pigs to the urine of raccoons. They actually use the urine of a raccoon as an ingredient. Now, anyone who has a little bit of decency, who is not a barbarian but a civilized human being, when they hear the word urine and food, usually it doesn't go together.

26:19Who would want to eat this? Bugs all over the food. All types of bugs that create food coloring. Now, when you look at the ingredients list of the food, it's not going to tell you, by the way, we used a roach, a spider, and six beetles. It's not going to tell you that. What are they going to say? It's going to tell you some code. It's going to say some chemical with a number next to it. So, unless you investigate what it is, you have no idea what it is. Same thing with the stomachs of most likely pigs because it's the cheapest animal. That's used in a lot of food that has cheese. That's why when you go to the supermarket, you see kosher cheese, there's maybe like a selection of five or six of them in America. But the non-kosher, there's a selection of 150. 150 types of non-kosher cheese, but just five little homeless kosher ones. Like, why? Why only five? What happened? Israel is the land of milk and honey. If you actually go to Israel, which is unbelievable how different the supermarket is over there, the milk products are half the store.

27:37You know how many different types of cheese they have in Israel? All kosher, of course. You know how many different types of milk products they have over there? It's a million times better than America. America has to grow another 500 years to catch up to where Israel was already 50 years ago when it comes to milk products. It's amazing how it's like when I go to a kosher supermarket and I see the five little homeless milk products they have over there, I'm like, this is the best we have? This is the best we have? There's nothing here. There's nothing here. Over there, it's like you think you're in heaven. It's like, wow, anyone that likes milk or milk products, it's like, wow, it's unbelievable. But now you go to the supermarket today, as you can see, I'm an eater. So... But you go to a traditional supermarket and you see five little kosher cheeses and 150 non-kosher. Why? What's wrong with it? It's just milk, no? No, it's not just milk. All non-kosher cheese has some type of meat in it. All of it. And it's not an American creation. It's actually in the Gemara.

28:53It's in the Gemara that was written 2,000 years ago in Masechet Avodah Zarah, the tractate of Avodah Zarah, when the sages ask, are we allowed to eat the cheese of goyim? He says, no. Why not? Because they put an ingredient that comes from the stomach of animals, and usually pig. So they've been using this ingredient for 2,000 years. The Americans didn't invent it. The Italians didn't invent it. The Greeks didn't invent it. This is 2,000 years ago. It's an old ingredient. But that's why it's not kosher. It's meat. Hashem said, no meat in milk. So when someone thinks that they're being very smart by going to Domino's, or going to Pizza Hut, or going to even a regular pizzeria, and saying, no, no, I'm not going to eat pepperoni. I'm just eating a regular slice of pizza. I'm not gonna go to McDonald's and eat a chicken sandwich. But I'll eat pizza, it's just cheese. They don't realize that this "just cheese" pizza has pig in it. Then, when you start talking about the sauce, ooh, it's even worse. But just the cheese is a problem. So, not only are you eating non-kosher cheese, which is a problem in itself, but you're actually eating cheese and meat.

30:15Which means you're making three different sins at the same time because Hashem specifically told us in the Torah not to combine meat and cheese three times in the Torah. Same verse, three times. To magnify the sin. Because we're not allowed to do three things. We're not allowed to cook it, we're not allowed to eat it, and we're not allowed to benefit from it. Now, cooking, I understand. Eating, I understand. But what does it mean to enjoy it? Meaning that if you were making, let's say, a kosher burger in your house, and accidentally, a piece of cheese fell on it, you can't eat it. So, you have to throw it out in the garbage. Come on, chaval, I don't want to throw it out. Let me give it to my dog at least. No, not allowed. Why? Because if you give it to your dog, that means that you would enjoy the fact that you'll have to give the dog less dog food. So you're benefiting from this milk and meat, which is not allowed.

31:17That's how significant it is to eat milk and meat. So when someone eats, goes and eats Domino's pizza, one of these non-kosher pizzas out there, they're thinking they're being a tzaddik. They're thinking they're being righteous, that they're not eating meat outside. They're not realizing that they're worse off than eating a burger at McDonald's. They're even worse. So, when we said to Hashem, chatanu, it means, oh, it's a non-intentional sin. Avinu means we knew it, but we still did it. Pashanu means we did it. We knew it was a sin. And not only did we do it knowing that it was a sin, but we did it on purpose to make Hashem angry. That's what Pashanu means. So now we have three words that all mean sin, but obviously we see now that they're all three different levels of sin. Now Am Yisrael. after the whole situation of what happened with the Meraglim, the spies, and they said Lashon Hara about Hashem, Moshe, and the land, and then they got the punishment, and they didn't like what they heard, so they wanted to do Teshuva, and they said, Chatanu. Chatanu LaHashem. Chatanu. We just learned, Chatanu means it was accidental.

32:43He didn't accidentally say Lashon Hara about Hashem. He didn't accidentally say Lashon Hara about Moshe Rabbeinu. He didn't accidentally say all types of bad things about the land. You knew it was bad. All of you are prophets. All of you are very smart. All of you are the chosen ones. You all knew that saying Lashon Hara about Hashem is bad. It's not an accident. An accident is walking into the wrong room, thinking you're going to the kitchen, but you end up going into a bathroom. That's accidental. Accidental is not paying attention to the road. And you end up bumping somebody from behind. That's an accident. You didn't mean to do it. That's an accident. But saying Lashon Hara about Hashem, saying Lashon Hara about anyone, has to be an intentional sin. The only question is whether it was an intentional sin.

33:58because you just felt like doing it, or intentional because you specifically wanted to make Hashem angry. Hashem wasn't upset about whether they were trying to get Him angry, or they just did it because they felt like it. That wasn't the big part. The big part was that they didn't even say it was intentional. The big part is that they pretended that it was an accident, which showed that their teshuva is not genuine. The teshuva is not real. Not only is it not real, but they're trying to do a mitzvah on top of it. They're saying, "No, no. We made a sin. We're going to go fight in the name of Hashem." But Hashem didn't ask you to go fight. Don't start adding mitzvot to the Torah, saying that Hashem said it. He didn't say it. He didn't say go fight. He said, "You made a mistake. You sinned. I'm going to punish you." He didn't tell you to go fight. Even before that, He didn't tell you to go fight. So, you just created a mitzvah.

35:02So you're adding more salt to the wound. First, you're pretending that it was an accident that you sinned. And on top of it, you're adding stuff to my Torah. And then when Moshe tells them, listen, Hashem specifically said, don't go fighting. He's not going to be with you. What do they do? They go fighting anyway. When you finally thought that it couldn't get any worse, they made it worse. What is this like? This is like the people of today who add mitzvot that they think are mitzvot to our Torah, invoking the name of Hashem. You have Islam adding a mitzvah to our Torah, saying that because the Jewish people are not all considered righteous, we're going to defend

36:02the name of Hashem. We're going to defend the name of Hashem and we're going to kill them. This is obviously not a mitzvah. Hashem didn't ask you for this favor. He didn't ask you to do anything at all. He doesn't need your favors. So each one of these Muslim fanatics that goes and ties bombs to himself in the name of Hashem, expecting that he's going to get rewarded for killing Hashem's chosen people, is going to be pretty disappointed when he realizes that not only is he not going to get any virgins, but he's actually going to get eternal suffering for it. And the people that told him to go blow himself up If it was so good, how come they're not blowing themselves up? Anyone ever think of that? So they add all types of laws. They say, listen, if the Jewish people are praying three times a day, we're going to pray five times. If the Jewish people fast one day, we're going to fast or partially fast for 40 days. Who asked you to do this?

37:25Where is it written in the Torah that you do all these extra things? Hashem specifically told you 613 mitzvot. And the rabbis are allowed to put a fence around His fence, and they added 7. Not 613, they added 7. Most people think that it's 613 de-Rabbanan and 7 de-Oraita. No, it's the opposite. 613 are in the Torah. And seven are from the rabbis, such as blessings. For example, right now, I actually have to do a blessing for a drink. This is mine? So this is actually a rabbinical mitzvah. The rabbis added blessings before you eat. The de'oraita, the biblical mitzvah of blessing, is Birkat HaMazon, the ending blessing.

38:26the same blessing when you finish eating. That's what Hashem told us. But the rabbis said, no, but wait a minute, you're gonna go enjoy this nice cup of iced tea, and you're only gonna say thank you after you finish it? Say thank you before you even got it. What if you were in a desert? No drink, no trees, no nothing, and all of a sudden there's a nice cup of iced tea waiting for you. You're going to wait to finish it and then say thank you? If you didn't get it, you wouldn't survive. Usually, when somebody gets this iced tea, he says thank you, thank you, thank you, and usually afterward you don't say thank you. So the rabbis added this mitzvah, and they also added Hallel, when we say Hallel at the beginning of Rosh Chodesh or the holidays, and a few other ones. But this was a fence around a fence. These mitzvot had a foundation in the Torah of why we were allowed to add them. But adding strange fasts, adding killing people, adding all types of stupidity to our Torah is not allowed. This is the reason why goyim are not allowed to keep Shabbat. As much as Hashem loved Shabbat, when He told Am Yisrael,

39:51I created, I have, He told Moshe Rabbeinu, I have a great gift in my treasure chest, and its name is Shabbat. And I've decided to give it to Am Yisrael. Go tell them. It's my greatest treasure, and I'm giving it to them. Which means that when the goyim, when the non-Jews, they can be as righteous as can be, keep Shabbat According to the Rambam, they're stealing. It's not your present. Now, the only time a goy is allowed to keep Shabbat is if he's in the process of converting to Judaism. But if a non-Jew is not planning on converting to Judaism, he's not allowed to keep Shabbat. And even if he's in the process of converting to Judaism, he's only allowed to keep 99% of the Shabbat until the last stage, when you're, let's say, about a month or two before finalizing your conversion, then you keep it 100%. The Zohar HaKadosh says, wait a minute, but Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov were all Noahides.

41:00We didn't have the Torah yet. Judaism was born at Mount Sinai. So what did they do? The Torah says that, according to Chazal, they kept Shabbat. How could it be? Actually, if you look at the Zohar, it says that Avraham Avinu knew, obviously, about the Shabbat, knew about the mitzvot of the Noahides also, and he would actually create something once every Shabbat in order to break the Shabbat. You create something in order to break Shabbat so he doesn't keep it 100%. But nonetheless, the Rambam says that the goyim are not allowed to keep Shabbat because it's a gift specifically to Am Yisrael. And also, if they were to keep Shabbat but not keep the rest of the mitzvot, because they don't want to convert, then in essence what they're doing is that they're creating a new religion. Religion of just Shabbat, like I think there are Christians who keep Shabbat or think they're keeping Shabbat, call themselves Seventh-day Adventists. This is a new religion. The Torah specifically says you're not allowed to create new religions. So, just keeping the Shabbat for a non-Jew is not allowed. Either you convert or you don't keep Shabbat. Simple as it gets.

42:26And I know that this is a sticky issue, especially for some of the students that I have on the internet that watch the shiurim regularly. They love the Shabbat, but they're not ready to convert, either because of a spouse, or because of where they are in their life, their location, and so on. It's a very, very difficult thing. Especially when someone wants to be righteous with Hashem, and they hear the shiurim, they read the Torah, they see how Shabbat is mentioned in practically almost every parasha in the Torah, mentioning something referencing the Shabbat. You're always constantly hearing about the Shabbat all over the Torah. So you say, oh, this is very dear to Hashem. When He said, "I have a very special present in my treasure chest," He really meant it. That's why He mentioned it all over the Torah. The only mitzvah that's mentioned more times than Shabbat in the Torah is the special love and protection for a convert. That's the only thing that's mentioned more than Shabbat. And we're so far away from Torah in our generation that some people are against converts. That's how crazy we are today. It's the number one mitzvah in the entire Torah as far as the number of times that it's mentioned. How much Hashem loves converts. How much Hashem protects converts. How you're not even allowed to pressure a convert. Like you say, listen, you obviously, as part of conversion, have to move to a Jewish neighborhood. So the convert doesn't really have much of a choice. He has to move.

43:52loves Hashem, she loves Hashem, needs to move to a Jewish neighborhood. Now they're going to have a real estate agent. That real estate agent has to be very careful with them. Can't mistreat them. Can't say, listen, you're going to live here because this is what I thought you should have. Yeah, but this is a lot more expensive than I can afford. And pushes and pressures them to buy something that they can't afford. This is not only unethical business, it's actually a sin from the Torah. It's 36 sins. 36 different sins for pressuring the convert. Good luck in Gehinnom with something like that. People have to be very careful. They have a sign on the door: "We do not accept converts." If a convert wants to come into the shul, even if no one's there, no one's there, no one's there, he wants to come into the shul and he just sees the sign.

44:54he gets hurt by it, everyone in that synagogue is going to suffer for it. Everyone has to pay. Well, you couldn't stand up for it and say, you know, it says in the Torah 36 times that Hashem loves converts, and you have a sign on the door: "I don't accept converts"? You might as well say, "I don't accept Hashem" either. You made your own rules. Make another one. This is what Am Yisrael said it would be. They started creating mitzvot... When you start creating mitzvot, there's no limit. And this is where the Muslims went. They started creating things, and eventually they landed at killing people. The Christians also created some mitzvot, and then eventually they said, you know what, there's one mitzvah, we're going to create it. Some guy died, and that means no one has to do anything. That's a mitzvah. Oh yeah, I know I mentioned in the Tanakh that Shabbat is the foundation of Judaism, but this guy said he's above the Shabbat, and his stupid book. Therefore, that's it. You don't have to do anything. Just believe in this guy. The level of foolishness that they reached is unsurpassed. It's mamash craziness. But unfortunately, we actually have very similar things happening within Am Yisrael. I just saw a video today. Unfortunately, my teacher actually sent it to me. So, my Rav.

46:21sent it to me to show me something. And if it wasn't him, I would actually be very, very sorry that I saw it. I'm still sorry that I saw it because it shows me how far we are from Torah. There's this guy who pretends to be an Admor. Admor is a very, very holy rabbi, like above the standard. A leader of people, someone that's like pretty much on the highest level of our generation. And he claims to be a miracle worker. And even though there are such people in the world today, there are very, very holy Jews who are miracle workers. They still exist. Not as many as there used to be, but there are some. But these people, unless you know them personally, you don't know who they are. They look to you like regular people, the real ones. The fake ones are the ones that wear strange clothes and look strange and act strange. But at the very least, even the ones that are just scammers, the ones that are just thieves,

47:37And they just tell people, listen, what happened? Oh, you can't give birth? Okay, here. Drink this water that he goes to the faucet. He puts the water in a little bottle. He goes, give me $1,000. Drink this water, you'll have a baby. And people fall for it, one after another, after another, after another. And unfortunately, there's quite a few of these liars. But even they still have to pretend like they're holy. Meaning that they're not going to show you, hey, listen, by the way, I'm stealing from you when you're drinking this water. Or, hey, by the way, I don't even keep Shabbat. No, they pretend to be holy. This guy is a whole new thing. I forget his name, but somebody recorded him in Malta, in the country of Malta. Touching women. You know, giving them a blessing by touching them. Taking pictures with half-naked women. You know, saying that religion is just a creation. An announcement. In English, he spoke: Religion is a man-made thing. All religions are good and should be together. Judaism and Christianity and Catholics. Everybody should be together. This is outright heresy against the Torah. And all while he has a half-naked woman next to him.

49:04And people think, oh, what a holy person. Why does anybody think this fool, this liar, this thief is a holy person? Because everyone wants a shortcut. Everyone wants to just get a blessing and then they don't have to do anything. If I just go pray to some rabbi once in a while, then I don't have to do the mitzvot. If I go and give some tzedakah, then I don't have to do the mitzvot. That's what people think. Hashem is specifically telling you there's no such thing, there's no shortcuts. And when you pretend like your sins are just an accidental sin, you'll get an extra punishment for that. And this leads me to my next point, which is what's happening in Am Yisrael, aside from these babot. There's no such thing, there's no shortcuts. And when you pretend like your sins are just an accidental sin, you'll get an extra punishment for that. And this leads me to my next point, which is what's happening in Am Yisrael, aside from these babot, when it comes to the Reform, Conservative movements of today and the problems and disasters that they have when it comes to prayer. Unfortunately, what a lot of people don't understand is that Hashem, out of all of the laws that He has in the Torah

50:17One of the main things that even the goyim, even the non-Jews, even the wicked non-Jews like Balak and Bilaam knew about Hashem is the strict laws of modesty. Am Yisrael must be modest. Why? Because G-d hates immodesty. Hashem hates zimah. A woman that's not modest is considered an enemy, a hater of Hashem. Now, obviously, a woman doesn't wake up every day wearing her miniskirt thinking, "Oh, I can't wait to upset Hashem." Most people don't even do it out of knowledge. The problem is that we're so far away from learning what it says in the Torah, that we start creating rules because you hear it from some rabbi say in a lecture, by the way, a woman has to wear clothes that cover her elbows. She has to wear a skirt; she can't wear pants because pants are not modest, and even the skirt has to cover the knees, even when she sits down, which means that they have to be at least six inches beyond the lowest point of the knee.

51:40The shirts need to cover the collarbones. There are modesty laws. There's halacha. And she also, if she's married, has to cover her hair. Not with a wig, but with a scarf or a hat. There are strict modesty laws. And it says in the Gemara that the hair of a woman is considered ervah. It's considered nakedness. Meaning that there's too much beauty in a woman's hair for her to show it if she's already married. Obviously, if she's not married, then she's more than allowed to show her hair because, obviously, she has to attract whoever she's going to meet that eventually is going to be her husband. But the point is, even then, she should be modest. Even a six-year-old girl has to be modest. Everyone has to be modest. But we've gotten so far to the point where not only do women of this generation not like this modesty because the President of the United States' wife created new modesty laws in the last eight years where she officially made it high fashion to not wear sleeves. Wearing tank tops became a nice thing. You see the First Lady wearing a tank top, you think, oh, look, she's so classy.

53:09In Hashem's eyes, it's not classy at all. So now, we've gotten to a point where women decided and men decided that men and women should be equal. So we have this feminist movement and other movements that are against the Torah and say they should be equal. So if they're equal, that means they should pray together. But not in accordance with the Torah where there is, you have a synagogue, you have a mechitza, you have a dividing wall. And each, the men and the women, pray on their own side. Like, no, no, no, they should all pray together. Sit together, pray together, stand together. What's wrong with that? And the reason why you have a mechitza is for the purpose of modesty. If a man, if a woman doesn't think like a man. This is one of the things that women just don't get. A woman can never be like a man, and a man, hopefully, can never be like a woman. Why? Because our souls and our minds work differently. When a man looks at a woman, he sees intimacy. Any woman, if he looks at her enough, he's eventually going to imagine her naked.

54:32Obviously, if he's just looking for two seconds to say hi and that's it, then if he's a normal human being that's connected to Hashem, it's not a problem. But if he stares at a woman, eventually, whether he likes it or not, he's going to imagine her in an intimate way, in an inappropriate way. A woman, I've never heard of a woman even imagining a man like that, even if she could stare at him for five years. Because a woman doesn't see a man that way. When she looks at a man, she thinks, is he nice? Is he not nice? Is he smart? Is he funny? Sometimes, is he rich? Is he holy? She's thinking about his personality. So, a man is closer to an animal when it comes to that than a human. But that's just reality. So when Hashem told Chazal that in the Beit Knesset you have to have modesty and the women have to be separate from the men, it wasn't because He said that the men are less than the women or the women are less than the men. It's that the Creator knows His creation. And He knows that if they're together, if they're able to see each other during prayer,

55:50They're not going to think about Hashem. They're going to think about each other. He's going to think inappropriate things about a woman. She could be married, she could be a sister, she could be whoever. There's no limitations with a man that's not close to Hashem. There's no limitations to where he can be. He's thinking about her and she's thinking about him. The one thing they're definitely not thinking about, they're not thinking about Hashem. This is not good. Now, what happened to justify it? To justify this, the Reform and the Conservative people said, no, no, no, we're gonna get everybody together. For Kiddush Hashem. For the sanctification of Hashem's name. Rabbi Yaron, didn't you just say the sanctification of Hashem's name is the biggest thing in the world? That's what we're doing. We're making peace. Didn't you say that the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of Sinat Chinam? Okay. So no more Sinat Chinam. No more baseless hatred. We're just going to all be together. They made a mitzvah using Hashem's stamp on it.

57:10But this is what the Rambam calls a "naval bireshut haTorah"—a degenerate with the permission of the Torah. Meaning that you just created a law, but you're calling it a Torah law. So in the book of Shemot, chapter 23, verse 25, It says, "You shall worship Hashem, your God, and He shall bless your bread and your waters, and I shall remove illness from your midst." The Rambam says this is the verse from the Torah from which we learn of the obligation to pray to Hashem every day.

58:23So, the Rambam says, what do you mean every day? It just says, pray. Meaning, you shall worship. Worshipping Hashem. How do you worship Hashem? How do you work for Hashem? By praying. It says, you shall worship. It doesn't say, you shall worship Hashem every day. It just says, you shall worship Hashem. But the Rambam says, No, the reason why it says you shall worship Hashem, that's the first part. The second part is that you worship your God and He shall bless your bread. Why does it mention He shall bless your bread? Because just like you have to eat every day, you have to pray every day. So this is the verse from which we learn the obligation to pray every day. The Baal HaTurim, who lived a little over 700 years ago, says in the name of the Rambam that this very same verse also teaches us not only to pray, but to pray with a minyan. With a minyan. How do we know it says to pray with a minyan?

59:43This specific verse, if you look at all of the verses before it, like, for example, when it says, "You shall not bow to other gods. You shall not worship them," it's talking, and in the Hebrew, you can see it more than you can see it in English, because in English, "you" can mean singular and plural. Whereas in Hebrew, there's no such thing. For example, to bow, in English again, it's just "bow." If you bow, it could mean just one person—you bowed, one person bowed—or it could actually mean many people. In Hebrew, it's tishtachaveh—that's for a single person—or tishtachavu. That's plural. So the English is not as sophisticated as Hebrew. But nonetheless, if you look at all of the verses, all of these commandments that Hashem is actually saying in this parashat Mishpatim, in chapter 23 of Exodus, all of these mitzvot, before and after this verse, the Baal HaTurim says that Hashem is talking in singular.

1:00:59You don't bow. One person. You don't bow. You don't worship. Don't kill. He's specifically talking to one person, meaning it's each individual. But in this specific verse, when he says that you shall worship Hashem so He can bless your bread and your water, the "you" is plural. Meaning the Torah says that when you pray, when you pray, pray with people, pray with many, pray with a minyan. The Zohar HaKadosh says Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that the prayer of a person praying by themselves versus a minyan is a night and day difference. How so? When someone prays by themselves

1:02:02Their prayer gets up to Shamayim, it gets to the door of Hashem, and Hashem looks to see if, do I want to let him in or not? Does he have enough merit for Me to look at his prayer? Is he righteous, is he not righteous? Did he study Torah today? Is she walking around modestly, or is she half naked? She could read Tehillim all day, all night. But if she's doing it with a miniskirt on, it's not worth anything. It's actually the opposite. It's an abomination. So Hashem looks at the individual prayer. But we pray as a group. Hashem lets everyone in. That's what the Zohar HaKadosh says. Chapter 23, verse 25, Exodus.

1:03:02The Ma'or VaShemesh, a Hasidic book by Rabbi Klonimus Kalman Epstein, said that the reason why this specific verse mentions food is because when someone prays with a minyan, Hashem will also bless their parnasah. just for praying with a minyan, already you have a blessing for parnasah. Now, each and every single one of these sages that talked about praying with a minyan,

1:04:03They're all referring to the same type of minyan. They're referring to a kosher minyan. A minyan that follows the laws. A minyan that does not create its own laws. So when the Reform and the Conservative movements decided to make a mixed minyan, where they count women and men in a minyan, they may think that they're doing a mitzvah. But in reality, it's considered a complete chilul Hashem. Why? Because while they're doing this mitzvah where they're counting the women as part of the minyan, and on top of it, they're praying together with no mechitzah, they're violating the one major law of Hashem Yitbarach, which is the law of modesty. The reason why a woman cannot be a chazan, they may think that they're doing a mitzvah. But in reality, it's considered a complete chilul Hashem. Why? Because while they're doing this mitzvah where they're counting the women as part of the minyan, and on top of it they're praying together with no mechitzah, they're violating the one major law of Hashem Yitbarach, which is the law of modesty. The reason why a woman cannot be a chazzan in a Beit Knesset is because it's not modest for all the men to look at her. Even if she's modest, even if she wears the most modest clothes in history, when you're the chazzan, you're the center of attention. Everyone's going to look at you. It's also the reason why a woman was not going, in the past, in a Beit Din, a woman cannot be used as a witness.

1:05:17Because not only does she become the center of attention where everyone stares at her, which is not modest, but on top of it, a woman can be pressured a lot more easily than a man can. She's much more emotional than a man is. Some men have no emotions; they're like stone, which is not exactly a compliment, but nonetheless, women are much more emotional. And she can be embarrassed much more easily than a man can. Now, Hashem considers each woman to be His daughter, and even more so Jewish women, who are His princesses. Obviously, if you're a princess, Hashem is going to have a special arrangement with you. He doesn't want you to be mistreated. He doesn't want you to be the center of attention. He doesn't want you to be embarrassed. He doesn't want the world to know what you look like naked. The queen of this world, of England, you don't see her walking around with a miniskirt. She's actually more modest than probably 99% of Jewish women. She even wears a kisui rosh. Wears gloves, she's a machmir. She puts the gloves on.

1:06:41Why? Because if you don't know, Queen Elizabeth, why don't you wear a tank top? Why don't you dress like Obama's wife? Why don't you wear a tank top? Tank tops, that's not for queens. Queens don't wear tank tops. Queens don't wear miniskirts. Queens don't show people what they look like when they go to the beach or when they're in the shower. The Queen, the Queen. So Hashem had to make sure that Bnot Yisrael, the daughters of Israel, know they have to look different. They have to be treated differently. It's not that they're less than men. If anything, they're more than men. Because women don't have to learn Torah like men do because they're naturally more spiritual than men. In order for a man to be connected to Hashem, he must learn Torah. It's the only way to be connected to Hashem. He must learn Torah. A woman can pray one or two Tehillim and she's already connected to Hashem in a much bigger way than a husband who learned one page of Gemara. They're just much more spiritual. So Hashem wanted to make sure that you're protected. You're the diamond. I don't want the diamond hanging out with the pigs. I'm not going to throw it in the mud to see if maybe it plays with it.

1:08:06Not better or worse. You're not supposed to be better or worse. You're not supposed to be equal. It's not something to compare. And that's the mistake that the Conservative and the Reform movements, one of many that they've made, where they said, no, because the Torah said modesty, we don't want to listen to it. Because obviously it didn't work. Because look, even though we had all these laws in the Torah... there was still sinat chinam, there was still baseless hatred, and we lost the Beit HaMikdash. So let's make a new rule. Let's say that everyone can pray together in order to make peace. It means a whole new law. So the Shulchan Aruch, the book of laws of Judaism, the foundation of our laws, is a machloket, is a debate between of whether you're allowed to pray in a place where you can see the women. Not stand next to them, not pray next to them, but actually even see them. Because there's one strong opinion, it's supposed to be a complete wall where you can't even see the women, can't see the men, the men can't see the women. And there's another strong opinion that, you know what, you could, for the purpose of camaraderie, you could see, you know, the face of each other, feel more, there's more unity. Fine.

1:09:32of each other, feel more, there's more unity. Fine. So obviously, if there is a debate about whether it's even allowed to pray in a place where the men see the women or not, obviously, it's a kal vachomer. It's needless to say that you're not allowed to pray in a place where there's no mechitzah. And it's even more needless to say that you're not allowed to pray in a place where it counts the women as part of the minyan, when the Torah specifically states they're not part of a minyan. Now, why are they not part of a minyan? Because women are not obligated to pray. Men are obligated to pray three times a day. Women, once a day. They’re obligated once a day. Which one? Whichever one they want. Why only one?

1:10:33Number one, as we said, women are naturally spiritual. They have less responsibility when it comes to that part of spirituality. But the reason why is because a woman in the Torah is called several names. One of them is Bayit. Bayit means house. Not because everyone's American and they're 500 pounds, but rather because a woman is responsible for the house. They're responsible for building houses. Kosher home, a holy home, to have righteous kids like this that come to a lecture at 11 o'clock at night. That's what you're responsible for. You're responsible for having your kids interested in Torah. You're responsible for making sure that when the husband comes home from a long day of work and a few hours of studying Torah, he has something to look forward to. You're responsible for the holiness of the home. But that also means that you have a full-time job. It's even more difficult than a construction company. It's even more difficult than a husband's job. Why? Because your job never ends. His job ends at some point. He wakes up at whatever time he wakes up. He goes to Beit Knesset, hopefully. He goes to work. He works from 9 to 5. Maybe if he has his own business, he finishes at 8 o'clock. He comes home at 8 o'clock. Hopefully, he learns. If he doesn't learn, he's probably watching a basketball game or some other nonsense. He goes to sleep. And that's it. He's finished.

1:12:00Manual labor is over. A woman, on the other hand, especially in the early years when they have kids, her job is never over. Why? She has to feed the kid nonstop, she has to change them, and also, most babies don't have a normal schedule. They wake up at 1 o'clock in the morning, at 2 o'clock in the morning, at 2:15, at 2:30, at 2:45, at 2:46, at 2:47, at 3:02. They don't stop waking up. And in most cases, the husband is still snoring. Not all the time—sometimes the husband contributes, like I try to once in a blue moon. But the point is that the wife is really responsible for this. Then, when the kid grows up, most husbands don't even know what grade their kids are in because they're busy in their own world, trying to manage the stress of the working world. Kid tells me, "Hey, look, I have homework, Abba." He says, "Oh, go to Ima. Do me a favor with the homework." Most fathers are not. They don't know anything. They don't know how to deal with that stuff. They're too busy. They're too tired, too this. So this is the responsibility of the mom. It's a nonstop job.

1:13:14How are you going to pray three times a day? How could Hashem put an obligation on you to pray three times a day and do tefillin and then go learn Torah for a few hours a day and do all of these things on top of a 24-hour-a-day job? That's not a fair Torah. So Hashem says, no, she's not obligated to do these things. Why is this important? Because if there's a mitzvah that you're doing out of will but not obligation, it changes the level of the mitzvah. Meaning, if I'm obligated, to pray every day, then that means that I can be a chazan and pray on your behalf. Because since I'm obligated for myself, I can also take you out of an obligation. When you have a cantor, we have a chazan, and he says a blessing and you say amen, when you say amen, it's the same or even more as if you did the blessing. Why? Because just like the one that hears and responds is the same thing as the one that said it, or even more so in some opinions. But nonetheless, the reason why you say amen to my blessing is

1:14:24is because I'm also obligated to do the blessing. So, since I'm obligated to take myself out of the responsibility, of the obligation of doing it, then I can also do it for you. But if I'm not obligated in this mitzvah, then I can't do it for you, because I can't do the blessing unless I'm obligated. So, if I'm not obligated and I'm just doing it for someone else, that means that at one point I'm actually violating one of the Ten Commandments. I'm using Hashem's name in vain since I'm just saying His name without taking myself out of an obligation. So, a woman is not obligated to pray three times a day. Therefore, she cannot be the chazzan. Therefore, she cannot be part of a minyan because she's not obligated to be part of a minyan. She's not obligated to be a chazzan. She's not obligated to pray at all. other than the one time that you can pick it anytime that you want. Tefillin? Tefillin, they're not obligated to do. In past generations, some righteous women did it. For example, the wife of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, Bruriah. Bruriah wanted to be and became one of the sages. One of the sages in the Torah that she dedicated her life to.

1:15:48to learning Torah. And she actually became even smarter than many of the sages, the male sages. And she laid tefillin. But Bruriah was an exceptional case. There are some other women in history that have done it also, but according to all major opinions in today's generation, the Gedolei HaDor, you're not really going to find someone like Bruriah in our generation. Usually, the women that are laying tefillin in our generation are doing it for vanity reasons. They're not doing it for Hashem. They're doing it for feminist reasons. They're doing it for the wrong reasons, in so many words. And this is why you have hideous, horrendous, wicked groups like Women of the Wall that go to the Western Wall, in miniskirts and tank tops, wearing tefillin. You don't even know how to dress, and you want to wear tefillin? You want an extra punishment? So not only do you not know how to be modest, not only do you not know how to act like a human being, but on top of it, you want to put Hashem's name on top to show everyone?

1:17:08That's to provoke, right? Right, it's to provoke people. So that's the reality of it. If a woman has already gone to such a high level, so that's a pashut no. Pashut no, chazak u'baruch. Yes, yes, that's pashut no. Chazak u'baruch. If a woman is already excelling, like she's amazing at all of the mitzvot that she's responsible for. She's amazing at shalom bayit. She's amazing at tzniut. She's amazing at tefillah. She's amazing at helping her husband in any way that she can with his Torah learning, with his sanity, with anything that's necessary. She's already doing every mitzvah that she has and she still has spare time somehow. And she wants to go put tefillin? By all means, you're allowed. But find me one woman like this. Until you know how to do your job at the best possible level, you're not allowed to take another job. Right. Anywhere. In anything. If you go and you work for, I don't know, you work for UPS, and they tell you, "Listen, we have two job openings. One is a manager and one is, I don't know, a vice president." Okay, I'll take both of them. You can't take both of them.

1:18:25Pick one because we like you and will give you one of the jobs. They both pay the same. But you can't have both jobs. Why not? Because first, you have to finish one job. Then we'll start talking about another job. Let's see what you do with one job first. You can't have two jobs. So, that's what happens when someone creates their own laws. When someone is not really genuine, and they say that a pashut, like these Women of the Wall, like the Reform, like the Conservative, like all of these people that are just creating laws out of thin air, with no foundation in Torah, That's why the Rambam has a specific saying for them, calling them a "naval birshut haTorah," which means a degenerate with the name of the Torah, using the name of the Torah. Because they are literally taking the Torah and treating it like a newspaper, where they can just edit whatever they want. And when a minyan is something that has foundation in the Torah, we have to be very careful with it.

1:19:28The son of the Chatam Sofer once came into a new town full of prideful people. And he went in there and he says, oh yeah, I want to meet the rabbi. And they told him, there's no rabbi here. Oh, when is he coming back? No, no, no, we don't have a rabbi. You have Jewish people. Why is there no rabbi? Doesn't look like you're lacking any money. We don't need a rabbi. We all know everything already. A rabbi can't teach us anything. Oh, really? Okay, I want to be a rabbi. Listen, uh... Sir, they don't respect rabbis. Sir, can you do yourself a favor? You don't want to be a rabbi here. Any rabbi that comes here trying to be a rabbi, as soon as he says the first few words, we all show him we know more, and we embarrass him and boo him off stage. He goes, okay, I want to do the same thing. I want to have a lecture whenever you, you know, tomorrow.

1:20:53On any subject you want. You pick a subject. Okay. It's given him enough time to study. The Chatam Sofer is very confident. He arrives at the Beit Knesset. Everyone is pumped up to embarrass this rabbi. He says, I'm going to start with a story of my childhood, so you know who I am. My father is very well known. His name is the Chatam Sofer. Now, when I was young, my father was very makpid, very stringent, about people respecting Shabbat—not just keeping it, but already removing themselves from the material world a few hours before Shabbat begins. You can't wait until the last minute. So every Friday, my father would send me around town to go to the different businesses and remind them that Shabbat is coming and they have to close the store. One time, I went to this butcher, who was known to be a little crazy, and I told him to close the store. He started yelling and screaming at me, and I ran out. The next week, I came again, and he started yelling and screaming at me and threw something at me, but he missed.

1:22:20And by the third week, I was very scared to go. And I told my dad, listen, Abba, I don't think it's a good idea for me to go. He goes, no, don't worry. You'll be fine. Doing the mitzvah, you have nothing to worry about. But then my father's students said, Kvod HaRav, the guy is really crazy. He's mamash, it's pikuach nefesh here. You may kill your son. You shouldn't put your son in danger, Kvod HaRav, don't you think? Obviously, they said it in nicer ways than I'm saying it. They have respect for their Rav. But nonetheless, the Chasam Sofer says, okay, come. He takes me into a room. He says, listen, in case something does happen and he does lose his mind, and he starts chasing you or tries to kill you, say this name. And the Chasam Sofer tells them, he told me one of the secret names of G-d.

1:23:20where if you say the name, you can make any miracle happen. And I went to the store, and the guy really did try to kill me. He got so upset as soon as he saw me, before I even said a word, he started chasing me with the knife, with the butcher's knife. And I ran, ran, ran, ran, but he was catching up, he was bigger than me. And I said the name, and he died on the spot. And I wanted to let you know, I still remember the name. He became their rabbi. So, he says that in the book of Devarim, the parsha that we were in, chapter 11, verse 13.

1:24:26This is a section of a few verses that all of you remember by heart from the Kriyat Shema. says that here it's talking about tefillah part of when it says, "and it will be that you will hearken," meaning that you hear Hashem and His commandments, that I command you to love Hashem, your God, and to worship Him, to serve Him. So it's referring to, part of the reference here, is to pray to Hashem. And Gemara, Masechet Ta'anit,

1:25:51It goes into the detail of how praying to Hashem needs to be done. But the Ketav Sofer specifically says, if you notice, that here again, similar to what it says, the verse that the Rambam used, the words are in plural again. The words are in plural: avdo, levavchem. Levavchem is multiple hearts. Nafshichem, Elohechem. Everything is plural. Why? Because when we pray to Hashem, we need to pray in a minyan. We need to pray with multiple people. But we can't make our own rules and pray with the wrong people. You can't bring a bunch of goyim and say, okay, they're going to be part of the minyan. They're not Jewish. They're not obligated to pray to Hashem the same way we are. You can't bring a bunch of women and say, "Okay, you're going to be part of the minyan." Not allowed.

1:26:55But also, you can't count certain people in a minyan who are kofrim, who are enemies of Hashem, either because they're heretics or because they're considered enemies of Hashem for not keeping the foundations of His mitzvot. For example, someone who does not keep Shabbat, someone who violates Shabbat on a regular basis, cannot be counted as part of a minyan. This is halacha, Shulchan Aruch. Why is a mechalel Shabbat not counted as part of a minyan? Because according to the Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva, and Hilchot Tefillah, someone that violates Shabbat is considered an idol worshiper. And he calls him, he's considered a Gentile in every way. But not a regular Gentile that could be a tzaddik like Immanuel that we were talking about at the beginning of this lecture.

1:28:00He's not talking about that kind of a Gentile. Someone that's a non-Jew but follows the seven Noahide laws, respects and loves Hashem, loves Am Yisrael, he has a share of the world to come. He goes to Gan Eden. That's not a Gentile that the Rambam is referring to. The Rambam is referring to someone who is an idol worshiper. Because Hashem, every time He mentions the violation of Shabbat, right next to it, you'll see the violation of idol worship. Because to Hashem, someone who doesn't keep Shabbat is the same exact thing as someone that is an idol worshiper. But does it apply to the same Jewish born? Is it even the same for a convert or not? Everyone, whether a convert or natural-born Jew, who does not keep Shabbat is considered an idol worshiper until they start keeping Shabbat. So if someone was not keeping Shabbat until today, but then decides, "Okay, Shabbat is in a couple of days. From now on, I heard this, I don't want to be an idol worshiper in the eyes of Hashem. I want to worship Hashem, I love Hashem, Hashem loves me, and I want to respect Him. I'm not going to be an idol worshiper in His eyes, and I'm going to start keeping Shabbat."

1:29:21They officially, at that moment, become a Jew again. And they can be considered part of a minyan, even if they haven't kept Shabbat yet. But they plan on keeping Shabbat, for real. Say, I'm not going to know. Any other rabbi in the world is not going to know. Even your own family is not going to know whether you're lying or not. But He knows. And this is why He told us you have to be genuine when you do your teshuva. If He knows that you really mean it, that this Shabbat you're going to keep, you could already be counted as part of a minyan at that moment, even before you kept Shabbat. If you plan on keeping Shabbat, your Judaism is no longer on suspension. When you violate Shabbat, your Judaism is put on suspension, and you get a different, horrible status: idol worshiper. So you have two choices: idol worshiper or chosen people. The Jew. The greatest or the worst. There's nothing in the middle. There's no like, he's like a 50-50. He's like a nice guy. There's no such thing as a nice guy. It's either you're the lover of Hashem or the enemy of Hashem. How do we know? In next week's parashah. Since I'm not going to be here next week, it's good to see next week's parashah. Actually, I'm sorry. Yeah, next week's parashah. Parashat Va'etchanan is next week, right? Yeah. So next week's parashah, Parashat Va'etchanan.

1:30:47The last three verses. In chapter 7, verse 9, it says, it says, it says, So here, Hashem is telling you, this is the definition of a lover of Hashem. Who's a lover of Hashem? It says, those who love Him, who observe His mitzvot. So we know that whoever loves Him, Hashem says, if he loves Me, then of course he's keeping My mitzvot. Just like a wife says, if my husband loves me, then of course he's going to be loyal. You can't cheat on your wife and tell her you love her. You can't cheat your partner and say, no, I really enjoy this partnership. You have to obviously do what the other party expects you to do. So Hashem says, if you want to show Me your love, don't kiss Me, don't send Me letters, don't do anything. Just do My mitzvot. Nothing more, nothing less. I give you mitzvot. I give you a book of instructions.

1:32:13of how to succeed, how to get a share of the World to Come, how to be happy, how to have a great marriage, how to have a good life, how to have eternity, and how to also get paid a reward for thousands of generations. That's what it says in this verse. I pay my lovers who observe My commandments for thousands of generations. obviously only going to live one generation, not going to live thousands of generations. So, obviously, this is referring to Olam HaBa. It's referring to the world after this world. So, anyone that asks, where is this talk about Olam HaBa in the Torah? Right here. Because, obviously, Hashem knows we're not going to live for thousands of generations. But He's also giving us a very critical definition. He's telling us that the lovers are the ones that keep the commandments. And then the very next verse says, Chapter 7, verse 10. It says, "And He repays His enemies in his lifetime to make him perish. He shall not delay for his enemy. In his lifetime He shall repay him. 'El panav' actually means to his face, meaning, Hashem will pay his enemy cash to his face. Like He'll just throw whatever you're owed for a few mitzvot that you did. Now, He's going to throw cash in your face just to get out of His face. Because why? 'Le'abedo.' What does it mean 'le'abedo'? It means to make him perish."

1:33:15In his lifetime to make him perish. He shall not delay for his enemy. In his lifetime, He shall repay him. "El panav" actually means to his face, meaning, Hashem will pay his enemy cash to his face. Like He'll just throw whatever you're owed for a few mitzvot that you did. Now, He's going to throw cash in your face just to get out of His face. Because why? "Le'abedo." What does it mean "le'abedo"? It means to make him perish. I'm going to pay him whatever reward I owe him for the few mitzvot that he made because he's only going to live this life. He has no share in the World to Come. He has no reward for generations like my lover. Why? Because he's considered my enemy. So if the lover is considered, and Hashem specifically told us, my lover is the one that keeps my commandments. So the hater is the opposite of the lover, which means the hater doesn't keep the commandments. So when someone doesn't keep Shabbat, he's considered a hater of Hashem. He's considered an enemy of Hashem. Saying that he not only should be part of a minyan, but should be the cantor himself, should be the chazzan. Some places have this. They have a chazzan that doesn't even keep Shabbat because he has a nice voice.

1:34:36The guy has a nice voice, and they want him to be the cantor, but the guy doesn't even keep Shabbat. Or the guy doesn't know how to keep other major laws, like, for example, he shaves with a razor. Now, you're not allowed to shave with a razor in Judaism. It's like eating pigs six times. And someone that does it on a regular basis also cannot be counted as part of a minyan. But because he has a nice voice, they make him chazzan. So the Gemara talks about those people. In Gemara Masechet Ta'anit, page 16, I believe, it says that when a kehillah has a chazzan that's not righteous, and he prays, in essence, on their behalf, Hashem hates this chazzan more than anyone else in the world at that moment. And He punishes him and all of the people that let him become a chazzan.

1:35:37For making him the leader in the Beit Knesset when he's not righteous enough to be the leader. So now people go to the Beit Knesset. Why do you go to the Beit Knesset? You go in there because the Rambam says it's a mitzvah. We need to do it. That's how we're going to get blessings for parnassah. That's how we're going to show Hashem we love Him. That's how we're going to get blessings. It's good. So everyone goes to the Beit Knesset for what? For good. So now you go to the Beit Knesset and you have this rasha that you put there as the cantor, and instead of getting a blessing, the Gemara says, the Torah says, Hashem hates you right now because you put him on stage. Or her, in the Reform, they put her. They put women as chazanim sometimes. Instead of a blessing, you got a curse. Who wants to go to the Beit Knesset? Who wants to go to the Beit Knesset to get a curse? Stay home. Tell them I'm better off staying home praying by myself. Well, I don't want to go get a curse. I'd rather stay even. No blessing, no curse, nothing. Oh, actually, you know what? They can pray at home and get a blessing also. It's not as high as the blessing you're going to get from a minyan, but it's still very good. It's definitely not a curse. This is what we don't understand. So, all of these people that think that they're making a mitzvah by going to shul...

1:36:58That's a non-kosher shul. It's not only not a mitzvah, but you're actually putting yourself and your family in danger. Because when Hashem says arur, arur means cursed. Now, if a human being cursed, okay, okay, okay is what he says. Who cares what some guy says? Maybe he's angry. Maybe he doesn't know how to control himself. Maybe he was born in a zoo. Who knows? He cursed a human being. Who cares if a human being curses? But when Hashem says arur, Hashem says, "I'm cursing you." That's a problem. That's a serious problem. There's one specific character in the Torah that we know what happened to him when Hashem said arur. It was the snake. And Adam and Chava were cursed. The snake was the most beautiful creature. He was supposed to be the king of all the animals. But because of what he did, which was, it was the first original sin, even before the sin of Adam and Chava, better said. Hashem said, "You're cursed." And He removed his beauty, he removed...

1:38:17his enjoyment, He removed his leadership, and so on. He's cursed forever. But there's also in Parashat Ki Tavo and in a few other places in the Torah that Hashem says these are the people that are considered cursed. And He has a list. A list of people that commit certain sins that are considered cursed. So To be cursed by Hashem is a problem. We don't want to be cursed. We want to receive blessings. Which means that if the synagogue is not willing to listen to Hashem, why are we going there? Now in Gemara, Masechet Berachot, page 8a, God gave us a secret. Amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu Hashem says to get the salvation, and I'm obviously putting this in my own words, but to get the ultimate salvation as if He's doing me a favor, as if He's saving me and my nation, and He's going to get special treatment for this, a person needs to do three things.

1:39:41Three things. Meaning, fulfilling, learning, and fulfilling the Torah. It says, keep kosher in the Torah, you keep kosher. It says, go pray in a kosher minyan, you pray in a kosher minyan. It says, respect the ger, respect the ger. Whatever it says in the Torah, you have to learn it, and you have to comply with it. has overwhelming kindness, which we'll go over in a second. And prays in a minyan. Prays with the public. So here we have a Gemara that specifically shows us that praying with the public, praying in a minyan, in Hashem's eyes, is one of the three major things. Because Chazal told us two things are going to save you in the days of Mashiach: Torah and Gemilut Chasadim, which are the first two of what we just said. Torah and overwhelming kindness. Now we have Chazal telling us that Hashem is saying you're going to have special treatment in this world and the next world. If you do those first two, which are going to help you with Mashiach anyway, but on top of it, you also add praying in a minyan, in a kosher minyan. Now if we have two options again,

1:41:08We have one option: praying in a kosher minyan. Hashem is happy with us. Why? We have a signature from Him directly; this is what we need to do. On one side, we get blessings when we're in a kosher minyan. We get saved in the times of Mashiach, we have a great next world, and we get eternity. We're blessed for thousands of generations. That's one side. Or, we can learn Torah, be very kind, but go to a non-kosher minyan. Go to a minyan where it's just six women and four men, and they're counting the six women as part of the minyan. Or go to a minyan where the chazan is married to a goya, and he's not allowed to be a chazan. Or go to a minyan where the chazan is not really a kosher person; he's not an honest person. He steals in his business. He gambles. He's not considered "agad", which means fair. He can't be a chazan. Being a chazan is a big deal. It's not like today where anybody with a decent voice becomes a chazan. Actually, they say during the High Holidays, during the times you want a special prayer to go up to Shamayim.

1:42:27Bring the person that has the most amount of poverty as your chazan, not the richest guy. Make sure not to bring a rich person. Why? Because a rich person, what is he praying for? "Oh, Hashem, I only made 10 million dollars this year. Give me 20." He's praying. The poor person, "Hashem, if I don't get food by tomorrow, all my kids are going to die." He's praying with a broken heart. And a prayer with a broken heart gets first-class treatment. Gets VIP treatment in Shamayim. So, what's better, to get somebody that's asking for another 10 million dollars, whether he deserves it or not, as Hashem is going to decide, or someone that's crying to Hashem? So, we want the guy that's crying to Hashem. So now we have a situation. We have someone that's not considered a goon, someone that's not considered a fair person, and he's praying on our behalf. So, not only are we now getting a curse,

1:43:29Instead of a blessing, because of this chazan that we're allowing to happen, we are actually receiving a curse. Because we can easily leave. The Beit Knesset is not a jail. You don't have to stay there. I actually had a situation one time where a chazan went up, and I had to leave. Because I knew the chazan is actually married to a goya. Married to a goya, I can't be in this Beit Knesset. He can have the best voice since Frank Sinatra. It means nothing to me. I know the guy is married to a goya. You cannot be a chazan. You want to stand here, you want to be this. I'm not counting you as part of a minyan, but you could be here. I'm not going to insult somebody in public. Hopefully, we can talk one day and I can tell him that he has a serious problem with Hashem. But either way, his problem is his problem. I don't want to make it my problem now. You want to go be married to a non-Jew? I understand where you stand. I used to be in that situation also. Baruch Hashem, my wife converted, and she is the most righteous person in the world now. I understand it's a difficult situation. I'm not discounting it in any way. Listen, we have recent statistics that came out that show that assimilation and intermarriage in America have destroyed over 30 million Jews since World War II.

1:44:59At the end of World War II, we had 6 million Jews in America. Today, still 6 million Jews. Nothing changed in 70 years, which is a mathematical impossibility. Why is there only 6 million and nothing changed in 70 years? And everyone else grew. We grew in Eretz Yisrael. We grew, you know, the other nations grew, the Muslims grew, the Greeks grew, everyone else grew except us. Except the Jewish people. We stayed 6 million for 70 years. Why? Because of assimilation. And based on mathematics, we should be today, just in America, 36 million. Which means that intermarriage has killed 30 million Jews, which is five times more than the Holocaust. People are crying about the Holocaust, and we're going to talk about it on Saturday night in this big lecture we're having in New York. We're going to show how everything that happened in the Beit HaMikdash happened in the Holocaust. And everything that happened in the Holocaust happened in the Beit HaMikdash. All of them are promises from Hashem when we don't listen to Him.

1:46:12but this is, everyone's crying about the Holocaust. Six million people died. Of course, I agree, it's horrible. But what about the 30 million? What about the 30 million we're missing right now? Why isn't anybody crying about that? Or just a few that you can barely hear? So when you have somebody that's intermarried and he's part of that statistic where pretty much he's decided... that's it. I have lineage all the way from Moshe Rabbeinu. If you're a Jew today, that means you have lineage, you're connected, unless you're a convert, you're connected to Moshe Rabbeinu. I heard this from my very, very dear friend, Rabbi Shalom HaCohen, and he told me this and he put it in perspective for me. He said, listen, if you're a Jew today, natural born Jew, You could actually trace your lineage all the way to the generation that received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Moshe Rabbeinu, Aharon, Yehoshua, King David, Shlomo, Chizkiyahu, all these amazing people. Prophets, tzaddikim. And if you look at every one of our generations,

1:47:32Each and every single one of those generations was willing to sacrifice their lives to save the relationship with Hashem. To save the Torah. To save Judaism. Sacrifice their lives. Okay, you want to burn us? We'll burn, but the Torah is going to stay the same. You want to hang us? You can hang us, but the Torah is going to stay the same. You want to torture us, you can torture us, but the Torah is going to stay the same. For thousands of years, people have been sacrificing their lives. So eventually, you come along, and you say, "No, I don't want to marry a Jewish girl. I want to marry a non-Jew, and I don't want her to convert. She has no interest in converting. I'm even thinking of converting to her religion." That's what some people tell me. But then you start thinking about it. Wait a minute. You're Jewish, which means that hundreds of generations have passed, or tens of generations have passed, and people have been dying for you to be Jewish. Because they could have easily worshipped idols and saved their lives. They could have easily intermarried and saved their lives.

1:48:56could have easily just left the religion and saved their own life, but they died for you to be Jewish today. And all you can say is, I'm gonna end it here. 3,300 years have passed of people dying for you to be Jewish today, and you're saying, okay, I'm gonna intermarry and I'm gonna end it because I am the end of Judaism. No Jew will come after me. A Jew can't come out of a Goya. So that means it ends. It ends with you. Are you ready for that responsibility? Are you ready to answer the thousands and thousands of people that came before you when they ask you, "Why did you end it? We worked so hard; we killed ourselves just for you."

1:49:57How did you end it? So now, the person that's in an intermarried situation, obviously if he hears this, thinks about it, puts things into perspective, he realizes he has a serious problem. But if we make him a chazan, if we make him the cantor in the Beit Knesset, if we give him an aliyah to the Torah, if we give him extra honor, why would he feel there's anything wrong with the situation? If we don't tell him the truth and instead honor him by giving him an aliyah, making him chazan—no, it's okay, you're intermarried, you can pray for us. It's okay, you're intermarried, you can be the reader of the Haftarah. It's okay, you're part of me. Pretty much, you're telling him it's okay to do what he's doing. So why would he change? No one is ever going to change something that everyone else says is okay. If you're saying it's okay, and I obviously think it's okay if I did it. So if you're telling me that what I think is right, you're agreeing with me. So if we both agree that it's okay, and then 50 other people also say it's okay, then everyone agrees that it's okay. Why would I change?

1:51:26Why would I think there's anything wrong with intermarriage, with violating Shabbat, with making my own rules? Why? I have a question there. Yeah. You know, I love Hebrew very much. And what do you think about me being called to the aliyah? To aliyah on... No, aliyah is not to reading at all. And... I only know how to read Hebrew, but I don't understand what I'm saying. So how about it? No, if someone is reading from a Torah, they need to know what they're reading. If someone is the Baal Koreh, if he's reading for himself, just for himself, then obviously he has to practice more, and eventually he's going to know what he says. If he's just reading for himself, for study purposes... And then, obviously, he has to practice and so on. Yes, he could read as much Torah as he wants and, B'ezrat Hashem, one day he will understand. But if he's the Chazan, if he's the Baal Koreh, and he's reading the Torah scroll on Shabbat or on Monday or Thursday, where he's reading on behalf of the Tzibbur, he has to understand what he's reading. Shema Yisrael.

1:52:41Hashem Elokim or Hashem Echad, I have to know what... Of course, you have to know the basic meaning. Obviously, the hidden details require study, but the basic meaning of what you're saying, yes. What I'm reading, the grammar of it... You have to know what it says. Making sounds is not what Hashem is asking of us. You have to know what it says. Reading without knowing is just making sounds. No, no, it's just making sounds. A monkey can make sounds too. When I was in Cuba... songs in English, but I didn't know what it meant. So I learned in my heart that now I understand English a little bit more than before. Now I'm in my car driving, and I start laughing because now I know what it means. I actually am terrible with lyrics; I remember when I used to listen to music, I would never know the lyrics. If anything, I would just make my own lyrics. Because I don't have a good ear, like I can hear you fine, but I don't have the ear that could actually understand what they're saying in lyrics.

1:53:41So I would just make up, my wife would always make fun of me that I would say words, because that's what I think they're saying, but it's completely different words. I just make up my own lyrics. But yeah, no, no, you have to know what you're saying, at least the basic meaning of it. But most importantly, again, if someone is righteous, they're not going to have that problem. And the reason why is because if someone is righteous, they're not going to want the responsibility of praying for everyone when they know themselves, they have no idea what they're doing. Right or no? If you're righteous, you're not going to go and say, listen, guys, jump. Okay, what's on the other end? I don't know. You're not going to tell them to jump. You're going to say, listen, I checked it. It's good. Let's go. I'm coming with you. So that's the difference. When you have somebody righteous as the chazzan, as the cantor, as the leader, as the rabbi, you're already in a good position. This is avinu, this is avinu, this is avinu, this is avinu. Chazak u'Baruch. Alright.

1:54:41So it's very, very important to understand these halachot because Hashem told us these things, Chazal explained it to us, and... it's not something that we should take lightly because when we go to the Beit Knesset, even though unfortunately most people treat the Beit Knesset like a social club where they go to see their friends and family and so on, it's a place of prayer; it's a mini Beit HaMikdash. We have to treat it as such, which means that we have to honor the Torah. At least if you're going to honor the Torah, one place you have to honor it is in the Beit Knesset. This is the reason why sometimes it boggles my mind when I see women that come to the Beit Knesset but they're not modest. But not only not modest, I'm talking about like they're half naked. People in this generation have no clue what modesty is. I actually have one of the avreichim we know from Israel...

1:55:43told this story where he said that there was some type of an event, either he or some other family member organized, and I think it was him who had finished Shas and had a party. "Let me invite all the family." And then he sees one of his aunts, an older lady, maybe 50, 55 years old, walking in, like she just came back from the beach. Her dress is like some type of design, and she's literally showing almost everything. And he can't even look at her. Tzaddik, the guy just finished the Shas. Can't look at this woman. And she's coming, wanting to hug. Oh, congratulations. Congratulations. Imagine the embarrassment, Hashem, of this tzaddik. And he said, no, no, no, I can't touch. She goes, oh, okay, can't touch, but I wanted to let you know, listen, I thought about it, and I thought I heard the Shas stuff that you did is a lot of Torah, so for Hashem, for Hashem, I went to the store and I told them, give me the most expensive dress that you have.

1:57:03So I bought this dress for Hashem. That's what she said. This is how crazy people are today when they don't learn Torah. So she thinks she's making a mitzvah right now. She thinks she's making a mitzvah, dressing the way she is, not realizing that right now she's classified as a machti et harabim, which is someone who causes other people to sin. Right? And according to Chazal in Pirkei Avot, someone that causes other people to sin has a much more difficult time to do teshuva. You can even get the ultimate punishment, according to the Rambam. The ultimate punishment in this world is that the doors of teshuva are shut. Can't do teshuva. So she thinks she's doing a mitzvah. She's running and saying, hey, I mean... Imagine the embarrassment of the poor guy, poor guy, what he has. So now we know, we know, we're going to finish with this point of what's kindness. Hashem said, do Torah. Hashem said, go pray in a kosher minyan.

1:58:24But He also said, do kindness. We've heard in many, many places. In our generation, people have an overwhelming kindness. But what is overwhelming kindness? Most people do kindness, they give away some challahs before Shabbat, they host people for Shabbat, they give someone a ride to the mall or to the hospital, chas v'shalom, or work. Yes, that's kindness, but that's not what gemilut chassadim is. Gemilut chassadim is showing overwhelming kindness. The ultimate kindness that anyone can show another person is to connect them with Hashem. Now, if that person is a Jew, connecting him to Hashem means helping that person do teshuva. Hey, today, up to today, you live 30 years, you have no connection to Hashem, you're not keeping any mitzvot, you have a serious disconnect from Hashem. Let me help you by connecting you to Hashem. And in essence...

1:59:47saving your eternity. And according to the Gemara, someone who helps somebody else do teshuva is considered his creator. Creator. Not just his father, his creator. Because, in essence, he was considered dead in Hashem's eyes until that point. He was disconnected from Hashem. So helping somebody do teshuva is considered the highest level of chesed, of gemilut chasadim. Now, there are a few laws about kiruv; there are a few laws about how to do it. One of the most important parts about helping people do teshuva is fulfilling the mitzvah of hocheach tochiach et amitecha. You must reprove your nation. You must tell people the truth. On Tisha B'Av, we have a story that they say is one of the reasons why Hashem destroyed the Beit HaMikdash, due to the sin of Sinat Chinam, baseless hatred. And one of the famous stories that we hear is Kamsa and Bar Kamsa.

2:01:11Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, the famous story goes, we're not going to go into all the details, but the wrong person was invited to the party. Instead of being a friend, it was actually a foe. And the owner of this party, the one that was hosting it, embarrassed him in public by kicking him out, saying, I didn't mean to invite you. My servant invited you instead of inviting my friend Kamtza. You're not welcome here. Get out. And he says, please, don't embarrass me in public. I'll pay for half the event. He says, no, get out of my house. He says, please, don't embarrass me in front of all these people. I'll pay for the full event. I'll pay for the whole party. Just leave me alone. He says, no, get out now. And he shamefully walked away. And then he looked and he saw all the rabbis, who didn't see anything. And that's what made him upset. He said, wait a minute. Him hating me, I understand. But all of these rabbis, these so-called tzadikim,

2:02:21Letting him embarrass me in public and not saying a word? When David HaMelech, one of the most righteous people that ever lived, the fourth leg in Hashem's chair, said anyone that embarrasses another in public has no share in Olam HaBa. Embarrassing someone in public is considered outright murder. It's considered murder. Whether embarrassing in public is in an event or it's even on the internet, you make stupid comments like a lot of people do. A lot of people are heroes behind their computer. It's considered murder. So what are you saying? These rabbis, these so-called tzaddikim, are not saying anything to him. When he's embarrassing me in public, I'm going to go and get them back. And he goes to the Roman emperor. And this eventually leads to the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. Now, what's the basics of the story? Obviously, Sinat Chinam—baseless hatred, where one guy hated this guy for no reason. They really didn't have that much of... You could have easily made peace. But the bigger story is the rabbi story. The bigger story, the hidden story, is the story that's still going on today. That we're seeing wicked people sinning, but not saying anything. That's the bigger story. Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz, a very holy person, spent his life trying to help Am Yisrael do teshuva.

2:03:49but not saying anything. That's the bigger story. Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz, a very holy person, spent his life trying to help Am Yisrael do teshuva. Every day he would suffer in a different way. People would go against him, say bad things about him, say he's not kosher, say this, say that. He's a holy of holies, this guy. It's not a regular... but they go against him, they go against him. Why? Because he fulfilled this mitzvah. He would rebuke people, he'd tell them this is the truth. The prophet Zechariah... When the head general of Nebuchadnezzar came to the Beit HaMikdash, he saw boiling blood. He said, "What is this?" They replied, "No, no, it's nothing, it's nothing." He said, "What, boiling blood is nothing? What is it? Tell me before I kill all of you. What is this boiling blood?" They answered, "No, it's just our korbanot, our sacrifices, our sheep. When we kill them, the blood goes and it starts boiling like this."

2:05:13Go show me. What are they going to do? They slaughter a few sheep. Blood goes there, but it's not boiling. He says to them, "What is this? What is this blood?" They say, "What can we say to you? This is the blood of our prophet, Zechariah. He rebuked us." He told us the truth and we didn't like to hear it, so we killed him. Because you murdered your own rabbi? You murdered your own leader? And he took it upon himself to start murdering all of the righteous people of Am Yisrael. He started with the children first. The children of the tzaddikim and so on and so forth. Why did G-d let all of this disaster happen? In the Gemara Masechet Shabbat, the Sages ask G-d this question. Okay, we understand. You destroyed the Beit HaMikdash. We sinned. I got it. We sinned. We screwed up. I got it. We got it. We are punished. But why did you kill the righteous first?

2:06:37Punishing the entire nation when they're all sinning. Idol worship, murder, chilul Shabbat, stealing, cheating, whatever sins they're committing. Okay, I understand. But the righteous, the ones that go to Beit Knesset, kosher minyan, they wear black and white, the hat, the beard sweeps the floor. They're righteous. They learn Torah. Why did you kill them? Not only did you kill them, why did you kill them first? First, you kill them, and not regular killing. The worst type, the biggest amount of torture. Hashem answers: Someone who doesn't rebuke, someone who doesn't tell people the truth, is not considered completely righteous. They were not considered completely righteous because they didn't rebuke the nation. They didn't tell them that you have to keep Shabbat. You have to stop murdering. You have to start keeping the laws. You have to have kosher minyanim. You can't waste seed. They didn't rebuke them. They didn't say anything. When they saw Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, they let them embarrass them in public. They didn't say a word. Why? Because they were enjoying themselves. They didn't want to be in trouble. They were at a party. It's not my problem. It's between them.

2:08:04We meet between them. That's your brother and that's your brother. You're Jewish, that's your brothers. You're letting him embarrass the other guy. You're letting him murder the other one in front of you, not saying anything. How could you do this? No, why don't I be politically correct? Maybe they have their own account. If they have their own account, they could do it privately. Why in public? Why are you staying quiet? And the Chazal says... Yes, but the generation was so wicked that even if you would have told them the truth, they wouldn't have done teshuva anyway. Look at what happened with Zechariah. Look, Zechariah came. He told them the truth. What did they do? They killed him. They chopped him into pieces. His blood was boiling. Look what happened to him. We don't want to be killed. End up being killed anyway. Why did they end up being killed anyway? Because Hashem said, "I knew that they wouldn't do teshuva because they were that wicked. But you did it." And as long as you don't know whether he's going to listen or not, because you're not a prophet, you don't have nevuah to know what people are thinking, you don't have Hashem's kedushah that you know what's in people's minds, you don't know the future, you don't know whether you're going to decide yes or no.

2:09:33And as long as you don't know, you're obligated to do what it says in the Torah. And that's why Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz says, and he only lived a couple of hundred years ago, he says, the worst type, the worst type of sinat chinam, of baseless hatred, is not the one that we think. It's not the one like, the Ashkenazi hates the Sephardic, or the Sephardic hates the Yemenite, and the Yemenite hates someone else, the Bukharian, and everyone hates each other. It's not that. Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz says it's something else. It's something completely different, and we're all missing it. We're thinking that if the Ashkenazim, and the Sephardim, and the Yemenites, and the Litvish, and the Chabadnikim, and the Breslevers, and this one, and all the groups, and everyone together in one house, everything is good. No, that's not the problem. We're missing it altogether. What's the problem? Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz says the secret. He goes, the biggest sinat chinam we have for 2000 years is when one Jew sees another sinning and doesn't say a word. That's the biggest sinat chinam. Why? Because you know the outcome of what's going to happen at the end of the sin. You know that there's a train coming right at him.

2:10:59And if he doesn't move by doing teshuvah, he has a serious problem. But it's going to be too late. So you know the train's coming and you won't say a word? That's sinat chinam. That's not fair. That's why even if the Beit HaMikdash was here today, it would be destroyed instantly. Because we still don't tell each other the truth. And that's our obligation. And that's the way that you show chesed by telling people the truth. Tell them what the Torah says. Let them decide. If they want to keep Shabbat, they're going to keep Shabbat. If they want to be in a kosher minyan, they're going to be in a kosher minyan. If they don't, at least they made a decision that's based on knowledge. And that's why Hashem is telling you the highest level of kindness that you can do. And any generation, let alone the generation of the Mashiach, the one we live in, is to save souls. But how are you ever going to save a soul without telling him the truth? Because as long as he thinks that his life is true, he thinks that driving on Shabbat is okay, he thinks that praying in a minyan that's mixed with men and women is okay, he thinks that being intermarried is okay, how are you going to save him? How are you going to tell him, "Hey, change all of these things that you think are okay?"

2:12:28Why would he change them? If they're okay, then leave them alone. There's a famous saying, if it's not broken, don't fix it. If it's okay, why am I going to change? So that's why we have to tell them, my dear brother, my dear sister, I'm happy to tell you, happy, it's not okay. Why am I happy? Because now that we know it's not okay, we have a diagnosis. And once you have a diagnosis, a cure becomes a possibility. But without a diagnosis, there's no cure. Because you don't even know you have a problem. Any questions? You know, I don't know. I don't know the story. I don't know what is the guy... No, I mean there's a lot of Midrashim and stories about what happened during the Beit HaMikdash, during these times. This, this Me'am Lo'ez,

2:13:50I was planning on saying some things from it, but I never really got to it. It has some really big details of different stories and different events that took place. I mean, anyone that doesn't cry on Tisha B'Av just doesn't know what really happened. Because it's just, it's horrible. Horrible what happened there, but there's a lot of these stories of different things that took place. The Kochba and Bar Kochba story is in there, along with many others, but it's highly recommended. It's the book of Eicha, or Lamentations in English, a highly recommended read for anyone who really wants to know the details of what happened during the Beit HaMikdash, because Chazal says anyone who doesn't mourn the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash will never live to see it. And anyone that mourns for it will, obviously, live to see it. So, mourning for the Beit HaMikdash is an obligation. Is there a question? If there’s separation...

2:15:11Meaning if there's a wall between them or some type of separation where the women are on one side and the men are on the other side, then yes, the prayer is accepted. But if they're mixed together and there's no separation, then no, it's the opposite. Not only is the prayer not accepted, everyone gets punished for doing it. So it's the complete opposite of what you want. Instead of getting a blessing and receiving something good, you end up getting something bad because we didn't follow the laws that Hashem specifically said on how to do it. you know, so it's like, uh, for example, if someone is... what's the place for it? And so can you say, for example, soccer and, uh, it's... okay, listen, the objective of the game is to kick the ball into the net, and you have to get the ball into their net. That's the opposite of the game, right? That's the whole point. Now, someone didn't hear the whole instructions from the coach. Instead of kicking the ball into their net, he kicked it into his own.

2:16:11So instead of getting a blessing where everyone is cheering, we're winning now, we're losing because of him. This is the same concept as a non-kosher minyan. Instead of getting a blessing, we're now all suffering because of this non-kosher minyan as a nation. So it's not like if he just comes in and nothing happens. It's actually, instead of a positive, it becomes a negative. So that's why it's very, very important that a minyan has to be kosher. May Hashem be with you. May Hashem be with you. Amen and Amen.