Shiur Torah #118 Please Let HaShem Run The World

0:01Thank you. Thank you. Shem HaShem Na'aseh V'natzliach, Shil Torah. Good to be in Miami. We had, Baruch Hashem, a big Shabbaton in Arizona. Very successful. Lots of lectures. Talked a lot about... Shem HaShem Na'aseh V'natzliach, shiur Torah. Good to be in Miami. We had, Baruch Hashem, a big Shabbaton in Arizona. Very successful. Lots of lectures. Talked a lot about

1:03Different topics from suffering to children to Rosh Chodesh Elul, and what we have to do. Last night, we also talked a little bit about the Parashah and also Rosh Chodesh Elul. Today, we'll cover some similar topics but also some new things. Also, thank you to Torah Anytime that's continuing to publicize our shiurim. If you go to TorahAnytime.com, you see our personal stories on the front page. It's become, Baruch Hashem, very, very popular. And then, you know, so anyone who wants to see the lectures, go to TorahAnytime.com or to my website, which is Be'ezratHashem.org. And also this shiur will go for a Refuah Shlema to Michel Cotto, Hadassah Bat Sara, Amparo Belufe, Reuven, Yosef ben Rivka, Sarah bat Sara, Gladys Nunez, Edina Guerrero, Isabel Perez, Josephina Matos, Marcela Matut, Anna Cedeno, Now, Parashat Shoftim

2:30Usually, it's either Parashat Shoftim or Parashat Re'eh that start Rosh Chodesh Elul. Both of them have a lot of Mussar, a lot of lessons that we can learn from and apply to our lives. Especially at this time. And the main reason why Rosh Chodesh Elul is not an opportunity that we want to miss to do Teshuvah is because when you really think about things, we realize that according to the Torah, we have Rosh Hashanah coming up, and then right after it we have Yom Kippur. But Rosh Hashanah is Judgment Day. Rosh Hashanah, for most people, whether they are business people or kollel people or anyone that believes in Torah, most people understand that Rosh Hashanah is the most important day of the year. When you're not in the religious world, most people think that...

3:40Yom Kippur is the most important day of the year. But in reality, it's really Rosh Hashanah. Because Rosh Hashanah is actually the judgment day. That's the day that Hashem decides if we'll have a favorable judgment, how much parnassah we're going to get for the next 12 months, what kind of... health we're going to have, and if we're going to have any children. Every single thing that's going to happen over the next 12 months is going to be decided on Rosh Hashanah. And Yom Kippur, on the other hand, is an appeal. This means that if, chas v'shalom, we received an unfavorable judgment on Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur is the last chance we have to change it. So if someone, for example, was going into a big case where this case can decide life or death, then they're not going to depend on the appeal. They're going to prepare for the main case as if it's the only time they're ever going to fight. They're going to read all the files. They're going to bring all the evidence. They're going to bring all the proof. They're going to do everything they possibly can to fight the case and win it on the first shot and not depend on a possible appeal.

4:55And that's one of the main things that we need to do. We can't show up to Rosh Hashanah thinking, ah, you know what, I'm going to be 50-50. And in case it doesn't work out, I'll just invest more time in my Yom Kippur. So that's one of the main things that we don't want to go into. We don't want to get to that point. So Elul, the whole month of Elul, is, in essence, a preparation process for Rosh Hashanah. And if we really think about it, if we were going to go to a big case, if, let's say, someone had a very big lawsuit, I remember some of the lawsuits that I had, we'd prepare for them for months. In some cases, even close to a year, we'd prepare for one lawsuit. Even if we knew 100% that we're innocent, we didn't do anything wrong, we knew the case. The person that's suing is lying or making up things. That wasn't the problem. We knew the truth. The point is that you have to prove it. You know, in a court of law and in the world, you have to prove your innocence, especially when it comes to business. You know, when it's a crime in America, someone is accused of a crime, it depends really on what his background is, because sometimes they're guilty until proven innocent, just because of who they are. You know, sometimes just because they're, you know, if they're Black or they're Spanish or they're some type of minority, everyone assumes they're already guilty.

6:22You know, and then, you know, if you have enough evidence to show that they're not guilty and you brought the real victim, the real perpetrator, then the real murderer, then you could actually say, okay, you know what, we'll release him. But sometimes, by the time you bring the other guy out and you show that this guy, this poor guy, is innocent, he's already been in jail for 10, 15 years. And it's happened many, many times where people serve jail time in this court that they see as justice, and obviously with no justice, because we're easy to judge other people just based on their outside. The good news is that in Shamayim, they don't judge you based on your outside; they judge you based on your inside. Now, your outside is also going to have some type of reflection of who you are inside. So, for example, just like it says in the Gemara Masechet Sotah, each man is going to be given a wife based on his actions.

7:23Based on his actions. A righteous person, a tzaddik, will get a modest woman, and a rasha will get an immodest woman. So you would think, naturally, you would think that it should be a tzaddik should get, you know, a righteous person should get a righteous woman, and a wicked person should get a wicked woman. But it doesn't say that. It says a righteous person gets a modest woman, and a not righteous person gets a woman that dresses like a prostitute. So this, obviously, doesn't make sense. So Rashi... Goes on and tells us that, yes, the reason why it says a righteous person goes with a modest woman is because, in order for her to have a chance at being righteous and being a good match for him, to him being righteous, she has to be modest. which also means that if he's not righteous, if he's wicked, he's going to get a woman who is not modest. She's going to be immodest. Why? Because if she's not modest, there's no chance in the world that she's ever going to be righteous.

8:30There's no such thing as a woman who walks around with a, you know, mini skirt and tank top and pretty much in today's, you know, what they call fashion, and she can still call herself righteous. And righteous doesn't necessarily mean that they're, you know, or not righteous or wicked doesn't necessarily mean that they're evil. You can have plenty of people that are very nice, charming, giving, generous, but have no idea what Hashem wants from them, and they think that the way that they're getting dressed is fine. They don't know that Hashem is actually writing in the Torah that this is a very big sin to walk around not modestly. They don't know. So just because a woman is not modest doesn't necessarily make her evil, but it doesn't make her righteous either. And so this is why Hashem gave us a Torah that specifically talks about how to be righteous and how to be wicked. The most important part that people have to understand is that whether someone is righteous or not can only be determined by the Manufacturer, can only be determined by the Creator above. We can't decide if someone is righteous or not because, number one, we're only looking at the outside, which is no different than the court system.

9:45They're looking at a guy, he's Black, he's White, he's Spanish, he looks rich, he looks poor, and we stereotype and decide who he is inside. That's completely wrong nine out of ten times. Plenty of people that look like very sophisticated, smart people ended up becoming serial killer psychopaths. You know, usually the people that are the craziest look normal. So, looking at the outside doesn't do anything for us. At the same time, we can't know the inside. We don't know the inside. And even if you think you know the inside, it takes a long time to develop that knowledge. So that means that the only one that knows what's inside and what's outside is Hashem. And Hashem is going to tell you whether someone's righteous or not. But Hashem gave us signs. He told us, listen, if their outside appearance is so far away from where it's supposed to be, you already know that there's no way that they're righteous. They may be a nice person, but not nice based on the definition of what Hashem wants them to be. So being nice to other people doesn't necessarily make you good. Because you could be very nice by saying, listen, I am helping different people collect money. I'm raising a lot of money to help people, to help the homeless. But at the same time, you're just like Robin Hood, and you're stealing it all from the rich.

11:10So even though the cartoon says, or the old story says that it's a nice thing to do, to steal from the rich and give it to the poor, it's not exactly a nice thing. You understand? So whether someone's righteous or not can only be determined by Hashem. And that's really one of the main things that we have to understand, is that this week's parasha says, "Shoftim v'shotrim titen lecha." Judges and officers shall you appoint to all your cities. So, in the beginning, the parashah is telling us that we have to set up a court system. The court system that we first learned about in parashat Yitro, in the book of Exodus, when Yitro gave the idea to Moshe Rabbeinu that Moshe, you can't handle all of these people at once. You know, you have to set up a court system: higher cases, middle cases, lower cases, and so on. And each person, you know, you have to have judges judge each one of those courts. And then only the really big cases go to you.

12:14And Yitro was given the credit for coming up with that idea, even though it was a very logical idea. Hashem specifically wanted to gift him this kavod, this credit, to create this court system that we still use today because he literally sacrificed his life for Hashem once he heard that Hashem is real, that the God of Israel is real. He left his idol worship, he left his family, he left his friends, he left his money, he left everything, and went to Mount Sinai to join Am Yisrael. And Hashem, obviously, not only gave him the credit and made a Parsha after his name, but also he became one of the most righteous converts that ever lived. So we first learn about the court system from Yitro, and now we're hearing about the details of it from Moshe Rabbeinu in the book of Deuteronomy, Sefer Devarim. And he's telling us that not only do we have to have judges, but we also have to have officers to implement the law. The judges can actually give you the details as far as the decisions of what's right, what's wrong, who's right, who's wrong, and so on. But there have to be officers that actually enforce the law.

13:24Now, this is the very basic meaning of it. One of the things that the sages teach us about this, which has to do with us even more so today, especially at this time of the year, is they say that just like you have to have a court system, that's going to enforce the law, implement the law, give you the details of the law. You also have to have judges and officers for yourself. You have to judge yourself and evaluate yourself on a regular basis and make sure that whatever is coming in or coming out of your body is going to be appropriate. So, for example, each person has several openings in his body and each one of these openings is an opportunity to either sanctify Hashem's name or to be a Chilul Hashem, a desecration of Hashem's name. So, for example, Hashem gives someone a mouth. That mouth could either be used to say nonsense, talk about baseball, talk about basketball, talk about sports all day, talk about business all day, and, you know, never, you know, curse, Lashon Hara, all types of things that obviously Hashem did not bring you to the world to talk about all these things. Or it could be used, that same mouth, to say Divrei Torah.

14:39never, you know, curse, lashon hara, all types of things that obviously Hashem did not bring you to the world to talk about. Or it could be used, that same mouth, to say divrei Torah. Either to repeat the Torah that he's learning, or he's reading a book, and every time you read a book, the best thing to do when you're learning a book is to actually move your lips and actually say it out loud if possible. One of the reasons why is because we learned it in the Gemara, Masechet Berachot. Bruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, saw one of the students studying the Torah, but just, you know, reading it like most people read a novel. Just reading it with his eyes, just moving his eyes. And she kicked his chair and she said, "Don't you know that when you learn Torah, you're supposed to actually say the words? Even if you don't necessarily have to say them out loud, really loud, but you have to say them where, number one, you move your lips, and number two, you say it loud enough for you to hear it." And the reason why is because it forces you to use multiple senses.

15:46which helps your memory. So for example, if I just read with my eyes, then I'm just using one of my senses, just using my vision. But if I do what the Rebbe said, which is actually say it out loud, then I'm using my eyes, I'm using my lips, and I'm using my ears because I can hear it. So now I have three senses that I'm using instead of just one, which is going to help me memorize whatever it is that I'm reading. So this is definitely highly recommended to do. So moving on, we have an opportunity to say Divrei Torah with the very same mouth that we have an opportunity to say Lashon Hara. One could be Kiddush Hashem, One is Chilul Hashem. Rabbi Meir actually asked Hashem one time, "Hashem, why don't you make us with two mouths? One for Divrei Torah and one for nonsense." It's a good question. So Hashem responded, saying that

17:02I give you one mouth, and people can barely control it and use it appropriately. If I give you two, both of them will say lashon hara. So this mouth that we have is a huge opening for big opportunities or big loss. So if we have judges And officers guarding this mouth. Number one, judges know what we need to do. We know what the halacha is. You know you're not allowed to say lashon hara about people. You know you're not allowed to waste your time talking about nonsense all day. You know you can't. So that is already knowing the law. And then, as far as having officers, you have to give yourself some type of reminder. Constant reminders, you know, to stop yourself from doing it. And usually, one of the best reminders is when you actually learn Torah on a regular basis, where you have your day divided into time periods. You know that during this time, in the morning let's say, you learn Torah. As soon as you become busy with learning Torah, you're not going to have an opportunity to waste your time talking about baseball and football and everything else. And keep yourself busy.

18:18After that, whatever, you have to work, you go work, you do what you have to do at work, and then if, once you finish work, you have a set time that you're going to learn at night. Once you have a set schedule and you constantly keep yourself busy, you don't really have much time to waste. Talking Lashon Hara and doing things that are a waste of time. So that's protecting your mouth. Your ears are very similar. You could either listen to Shiurei Torah, You could come to lectures, listen to the CDs, the Rabbi Ilan Meirov CD that we brought, really good stuff that he has. You could listen to Rabbi Mizrahi, you could listen to my lectures, you could listen to Divrei Torah, good things. Or you could listen to somebody else say Lashon Hara, which is also a sin. Saying Lashon Hara is a sin, and listening to Lashon Hara is also a sin. Because, in essence, what's happening is you're enabling that person to say it because now he has somebody to talk to. So there are very, very few exceptions when it comes to Lashon Hara as far as listening to it or not. Sometimes there are certain people that have to complain or have to say things, and it's almost like a sick person where they have to talk.

19:36And generally, the more you talk, if it's not Divrei Torah, it's only a matter of time before whatever you're talking about is negative. That's just human nature. Some people, if they don't have anybody else in the world to talk to, and you listening to them may be almost like pikuach nefesh. Now, obviously, you don't agree with them, you don't contribute to the conversation, but you could purely listen. You know, if it's a very unique case where they literally have no one else to talk to, and it's a, you know, it's a peculiar situation. But in general, there's no permission whatsoever to listen to lashon hara, because most people, obviously, if they tell you, they probably told five other people the same lashon hara, and it's just spreading, and it's enabling them to continue doing it. So again, your ears... If you have a set time where you know that every time I'm not working, if I'm working in the car, every time I'm not working, I want to put my CD on to listen to Shiur Torah, then you're not going to even think about calling so-and-so to see how they're doing because you know that just calling him, it's only a matter of time before he starts talking bad about somebody else. So that's having the judges and officers at hand. Next thing is your...

20:54your eyes. Your eyes are usually the most critical out of all of them. Because just like we say in Shema Yisrael, "And you should not follow after your heart and after your eyes." And the reason why is because unlike your mouth, where sometimes you can say something, but you won't necessarily follow through, you can say something and forget it. you could hear something and forget it. But when you see something, it's imprinted in your soul forever. It never leaves. Which means that when a man looks at an immodest woman, that imprint of the immodest woman will never ever leave him. He will always have an imprint of her. Now, even if he does teshuva and he works on himself and so on, b'ezrat Hashem, it becomes much less. It's in the back of his mind, but it never leaves. So when someone is constantly looking at women who are not modest, such as at the beach in Miami and Las Vegas and all of these places, and one day they want to do teshuva, they realize that they're going to have a very, very difficult time doing teshuva because they're always going to think about their past. This also makes marriage very difficult because what ends up happening is the person ends up thinking about these women instead of thinking about his wife.

22:24and then it leads to other sins, which is, you know, one of the things that we've talked about a few times, did some lectures on it, which is wasting seed, you know, which becomes a very big problem for men. So none of this happens if we control our eyes. There are a wealth of problems, an endless number of problems that happen as a result of not watching our eyes. On the other hand, if we do watch our eyes, It's much easier to become more righteous. In today's world, it's so difficult to avoid seeing immodest women. You literally have to train yourself to look at the floor most of the time as a guy. You have to train yourself to just stare at the floor most of the time and peek up once in a while when you're walking around in most places, whether it's New York, Miami, or anywhere else. The fashion today, in my opinion, is that we're only one, maybe two generations away from people walking around completely naked. It has become not only normal for women not to be modest, but it's admirable.

23:33Anytime you see a woman not modest, people admire it. And to me, it's bizarre that women who think very highly of themselves and respect themselves treat themselves in a manner that just one or two generations ago would be considered inappropriate. So I remember that, you know, for example, this new bizarre style that I saw. You know, I went on a plane on my way home from Arizona. You know, you can't pick who you sit next to, so I sit down, and there's this couple sitting next to me, and the woman, I see in the corner of my eye, the woman is pregnant, and she's literally wearing like this spandex something, and pretty much everything is showing. Like her arms are showing, like it's almost, it's like barely, it's just covering, I don't know, like a few things. So the whole flight, I have to look this way, and I'm forcing myself to go to sleep, hopefully, so I have to look to my right the whole time. from Arizona. You know, you can't pick who you sit next to, so I sit down, and there's this couple sitting next to me. I see in the corner of my eye that the woman is pregnant, and she's literally wearing something like spandex, and pretty much everything is showing. Her arms are showing, and it's barely covering, I don't know, like a few things. So the whole flight, I have to look this way. I'm forcing myself to go to sleep, hopefully, so I have to look to my right the whole time.

24:47And for some reason, I asked my wife about this, like, why would someone pregnant think that it's appropriate to, you know, wear, like, I don't know, something like a bathing suit, practically, outside on a plane? And she goes, "Yeah, it's the new style for women. Like, you're supposed to show off that you're pregnant." To me, this is very bizarre. It's not that I understand so much about women's fashion. I just find it bizarre. I can understand if, I don't know, some runway model wants to, I don't know, she wants the world to see her naked. That's what she does for a living. I can understand the crazy logic of something like that. But a woman who's not necessarily looking her best, you know, it's based on people's perception. I don't get it. It doesn't make sense to me. But this is, again, this is a proof of how the Yetzer Hara is controlling us and it has nothing to do with logic. They had a science experiment once and they showed twins, twin women to a group of guys. They both looked exactly the same. But the guys didn't know that one was married and the other one wasn't.

26:06...of all the men that they asked, "Which one do you think is more attractive?" Now, both women looked exactly the same. Every single person picked the married woman. Every single one. And there's actually a verse in the Torah, "stolen waters are sweeter." Our Yetzer Hara, they obviously didn't know she was married. They wouldn't even know the difference if they saw the two. But their Yetzer Hara told them, no, no, pick that one. The person himself doesn't even know why he's picking that one. But, because that's the one that he's not allowed to have. That's the one he doesn't get to have. That's the one he wants. So, our eyes... are you going to determine, especially for men, what kind of eternity we're going to have because our eyes are going to lead us to our day-to-day actions. If someone is spending his entire day, you know, like one of these water things, you know, in the yard, and he looks everywhere,

27:12You know, like a fan constantly going back and forth. You know, you can't really expect anything good in the present or in the future because the reality of it is that your wife is not going to be happy about it. You know, it's very, very disrespectful. And in general, obviously, Hashem is not going to make your life very easy that way. On the other hand, for women, it's also very relevant because it also says that the woman also can't follow her eyes. Now, for women, obviously, it's not the same as far as looking at men because a woman doesn't necessarily picture a man the same way that a man pictures a woman. But if a woman is constantly looking at her neighbor's field and constantly sees that the grass is always greener on the other side, she's going to be a lot more connected to material. If she's constantly looking at her friend's new dress, and her friend's new bag, and her friend's new car, and her friend's new house, and she's constantly in competition with her friend's material possessions, she's never going to be happy. Therefore, she will end up torturing her husband, and he's never going to be happy. Because it doesn't matter what he buys her, someone is always going to have something better. By the time you got your brand new kitchen, so and so got an even better kitchen.

28:34By the time you got the even better kitchen, so-and-so got a better house. So you can never catch up. Because, also, the more material possessions you have, the less you start to value them. You know, in the beginning, someone gets their first car when they're 18 years old or 17 years old. They get the new car, they're excited. It doesn't matter if it's a $3,000 car or a $30,000 car. You're excited. By the time you're in your mid-20s, you're not as excited about a $3,000 car. You want something better. By the time you're already making money, you want a brand-new car. By the time you have a lot of money, you need a brand-new car every couple of years. If you have even more, you want a car every year. And eventually, people get to a point where they literally want a car. As soon as they get the car, they're already bored of it. Within a matter of a week, a month, two months, they're already bored of this car. I actually know somebody who, as soon as he got the car, literally within a matter of days, saw that his neighbor got the same car, just a different color. And for the next three-year lease, he was eating his heart out that he didn't get the other color. So he enjoyed the car exactly for two days.

29:49Two days. Two days he enjoyed it. The rest of the time he suffered because he didn't get it in a different color. So this is what happens when you have a lot of material possessions. It is only a matter of time before this happens. So, protecting our eyes has a lot to do with material possessions and also has a lot to do with, you know, putting ourselves out of harm's way, which is out of sin's way. Now, a lot of people don't really understand the significance of modesty. They always ask me, where does it say in the Torah that modesty for women is such a big deal? You know, I mean, it's a... We learned in Parashat Balak that Hashem punished Am Yisrael for looking and being with the Midianite women. But people say, yeah, okay, so they made one sin, but it doesn't specifically say modesty. It says that they committed intimate, they were intimate with these people, so maybe Hashem only punished them because they were intimate. Prove to me that modesty is actually a big deal. that Hashem punished Am Yisrael for looking and being with the Midianite women. But people say, yeah, okay, so they made one sin, but it doesn't specifically say modesty. It says that they committed intimacy, they were intimate with these people, so maybe Hashem only punished them because they were intimate. Prove to me that modesty is actually a big deal.

30:59And then, when we go to the Oral Torah, we see that the only times a woman got compliments in the Torah, whether it's Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, any one of the women that you can mention, Chana, any woman mentioned in the entire Tanach, when they got compliments, it only had to do with their modesty. No woman got a compliment because she was really, really smart. Not that they weren't smart—they were brilliant—but that's not what Hashem created them for. That's not what Hashem is expecting from them. Because if the only way to achieve righteousness was by wisdom, then technically it's not fair for most women, because not every single one of them is going to be smart, just like not every single man is going to be smart. Hashem wanted every single person to have the ability to be righteous, whether you're smart or you're not smart, whether you have photographic memory or you don't. And so being smart or not is not up to us. You're either born that way or not. Obviously, you have to apply yourself. But Hashem did give us the ability to have Yirat Shamayim or not. The only thing that we really do have is the ability to decide whether we're going to fear God and think of Him at all times or not.

32:12So that's something that everyone has. So when you see that each time a woman is complimented in the Torah, it's because of her modesty, then you see that there's more value to it. But some people want even further proof. And we found what? Baruch Hashem, there's plenty, but this is one specific example in the book of Yeshayahu. In the book of Yeshayahu... Isaiah is giving us a prophecy of what's going to happen in Jerusalem, and he's telling us the reasons why. He's talking about what's the future. There's going to be a destruction. Beit HaMikdash is going to be destroyed. And a lot of times we've heard that Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of murder, because of idol worship, because of sex crimes. Now, Idol worship, we understand, could also be not just literally worshipping idols. Chazal also explain to us that it's also because they violated Shabbat. There were many people who violated Shabbat, and that's the equivalent of idol worship in Hashem's eyes. And also chasing money, which is today's version of idol worship.

33:22Uh, murder, we know, is not just necessarily murdering somebody with, you know, with a gun or with a knife. It's also wasting seed. Someone who wastes seed is considered 100% a murderer, but even worse than someone who kills one person because each time a man ejaculates, it's millions and millions of potential souls. Scientists have analyzed, and they say that the average person The average amount of seed that comes out of a man's body is somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 million each time. Which means that each time someone wastes seed, each time a teenager wastes seed, you pretty much are killing America. So, by the time the kid finishes the week, you know, seven days a week, if he did it once a day, he killed China. By the time he finishes off the month, he has killed the entire world more than once over. So now, when you show up to the judgment day of Rosh Hashanah and you ask for parnasah, and you ask for refuah shleimah, and you ask for all these wonderful things, after you just killed 8 billion people, in Hashem's eyes, this is what happened. How do you expect Him to give you a favorable decision?

34:41So, when we are getting ready for Rosh Hashanah, we have to start taking things into perspective and make sure that we're asking for things that are fair. And this is actually the reason why on Yom Kippur, Chazal obviously already prepared us because they knew that we would fail miserably with sex crimes. And at the end of the prayers for Yom Kippur, there is a whole section of prayers where we say "I'm sorry" and apologize to Hashem only for sex crimes. The whole prayer, it's maybe half an hour, 45 minutes long. is only for apologies for different types of sex crimes that we may or may not have committed knowingly or unknowingly. But all of this starts with, number one, if we don't watch our eyes, if we don't have the judges and the officers watching our eyes. The second step is, where are these eyes looking? The end goal is the sex crime.

35:42So, with the Beit HaMikdash, when it says that there was Gilui Arayot, the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash was caused by Gilui Arayot, which are sex crimes, people ask, what, people were just immoral? They just, you know, like today, where they have entire shows about being immoral and they highlight people's lives? Or is it something different? And here in the book of Yeshayahu, He's telling us exactly how it started. Hashem said, because the daughters of Tzion are haughty, walking with outstretched necks and winking eyes,

36:44you know, they walk around winking at everyone, thinking they're cute, thinking they're cute. Walking with dainty steps, jingling their feet. You know, they had high heels, and they had little bells on their heels because they wanted to get attention. They wanted to make sure every time they walked around, men would know that Sarah showed up, Rivka showed up, so-and-so showed up, and Stephanie showed up because they had these bells. Therefore, the Lord will afflict the heads of the daughters of Zion with lesions, and Hashem will bare their private parts. Hashem says just for walking that way. He's not talking about them becoming prostitutes. They went, and they went with married men. They went, and they did things. No, he's just talking about just for being immodest. For walking and winking at people. For being immodest in their behavior. But not necessarily actually taking action. Just for that, Hashem is saying, since you're causing other people to sin. Because you're causing this married man to look at you.

37:56You're becoming someone who causes other people to sin. That person, that married man, is going to think about you forever. At some point, somehow, someway, whether it's when he's with his wife or when he's praying or something, you're causing one of my children to sin. You are in a horrendous situation where Hashem says, "The Lord will remove the splendor of their shoe bells." The headscarves, the moon-shaped ornaments, the necklaces, the bracelets, the veils, the bonnets, the leg bands, the hair ties, the brouhahs, the earrings, the rings, the nose rings. Pretty much, He's going to completely take away all of the material that they have. And it shall be in the place of fragrance that they will rot. And in the place of the belt, abrasion. And in the place of the kofar, baldness. In so many words, this is very, very graphic. And he's saying that just like you are bringing attention to yourself and your private parts, those are the very same parts that are going to get the punishment. And it gets really, really graphic and horrendous of...

39:16Specifically talking about immodesty. It's not talking about, listen, she went and she was intimate with a non-Jew, or she was intimate with her boyfriend without being married, or she was intimate with a married man. No, no, it's not talking about intimacy. It's purely talking about how she acted, what she wore, and, in general, her behavior. And this is one of the reasons for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. This is one of the reasons why we have problems to this day. What people fail to realize and fail to understand is that it's not a coincidence that the number one cancer among people today is in the sex organs, for both women and men. Sex organs are the number one place where there's cancer. It's breast cancer, and obviously, it's not something that no one has heard of. Even little kids know what breast cancer is today. And obviously, the rest. The point is that Hashem is specifically telling you that you don't actually have to commit the full act in order for Him to punish you for it, because the mind is going to follow the eyes.

40:39especially for men, because that's how He created us. So as soon as a woman acts in a certain way that is seducing a man, in the man's mind, it's as if he committed the act. That's how they bring themselves to waste seed. That's how somebody goes to sleep thinking everything is fine. He wakes up and he has a whole big balagan in his bed. Why? Because in his mind, he actually fulfilled this whole action. You don't have to actually be 100% physical to get to the same outcome. And Hashem says, because you walked around with your high heels, you walked around with certain shirts, you walked around a certain way, and you winked and you were very flirtatious. To you, you thought that you were being cute, you thought that you were being extra nice. But Hashem says, you also led one of My sons to kill 300 million souls.

41:39And that's a problem. So someone said to me once, wait a minute, why is it our fault that there are 300 million souls each time the seed comes out? Not all of them are going to actually work out. You know, even if you were with your wife, only one will actually, you know, if Hashem decides, only one would actually turn out to be a child. So why are we getting punished for all 300 million? The reason is very simple because it's all based on potential. Each one of those seeds had a name. Each one of them had a name. And this is why each one of them will show up at the man's funeral after 120, and they're going to ask him, "How come...?" He didn't bring him to life. This is why in Jerusalem, there's still a minhag to this day, where anytime a man that has children dies, they don't allow the children to come to the funeral.

42:43because they're scared that these demons that he created from wasting seed will kill his children. To this day, they don't allow it. So these seeds can create a very, very serious problem for his children, for his own life in general. So that's one issue. The second issue is that even if it was just one seed, it's still more than one person, because that one person would have had a family. You maybe would have had four, five, six, or eight kids. Those eight kids would have also had kids. And one person can turn out to be billions. Proof: Adam, Noach. The whole world came from them. So there's an unlimited amount of potential that each and every single seed has. For us to just waste it is obviously a very big problem. This is why it's one of the three sins. Wasting seed on purpose is one of the three sins...

43:43In the entire Torah, there are the worst sins that get someone to Gehenom, to eternal suffering. There are seven parts to Gehenom. There’s one that the person doesn’t leave if he doesn’t do teshuva. One of them is violating Shabbat. Another one is desecrating Hashem’s name. And the third one is wasting seed on purpose. Now, if he wastes seed not on purpose, during his sleep, or he wasn't careful enough with his wife, then it's a lesser sin, but it's still a big sin nonetheless. Now, this is on the part of the guy. The problem here that we just read is that a big fault also falls on the woman. And if she's a machti'at rabim, if she's walking around immodestly, she can't expect a more favorable outcome. And this is why it's very, very important for women to be extremely modest, because again, it's not about whether Hashem cares about your specific clothes. He created you; He knows what you look like. It's about what you lead His children to do. So when we consider that the shoftim and shotrim, the judges and the officers, are for a court system,

45:00It's nice to have a court system. It's necessary. Even the non-Jews are supposed to have a court system. But in the month of Elul, it's a reminder for us to have a court system for ourselves. Actually having a consideration and a thought process that Hashem is watching at all times and is actually monitoring every single one of our steps. And if we monitor ourselves, He won't have to enforce the law because we're reinforcing it ourselves. So this is, again, an important thing that we will learn from the beginning. Now, the only way to really get to a point of actually thinking... enforce the law because we're reinforcing it ourselves. If we don't enforce it, He'll have to enforce it. So this is, again, an important thing that we will learn from the beginning. Now, the only way to really get to a point of actually thinking the way that the sages think, the way that the Talmidei Chachamim think, is as it says in the Gemara Masechet Chagigah: someone that has dedicated their life to Torah becomes the equivalent of fire, meaning that they get to a point where they become one

46:07With the Torah. The Torah is equivalent to fire, and the person becomes equivalent to fire. I think I said this in the last shiur that we were here. Now, when someone is trying to be righteous but is trying to do it without learning Torah, then King Solomon already told us, there's no such thing as a righteous person. that is ignorant. It's impossible. It's impossible for a person to be righteous without learning Torah. And this is why in the book of Yirmiyahu, in chapter 16, it says, when it talks about the Torah, So, when it talks about the Torah, it talks about Hashem saying, if there was a choice to leave Hashem or leave His Torah, Hashem says, meaning, I wish that they would just leave Me and not My Torah.

47:15Now, to say "I wish" means that it's like you say, "I wish I won the lotto. I wish I got a better job. I wish I married a specific woman. I wish I had many kids." That's when we say "I wish" is a good thing. So Hashem says, "I wish they would leave Me but not My Torah." Meaning that if I'm already at this choice, if I'm already at this predicament, where I have to choose for them to leave Me or leave My Torah, I wish it would just be leaving Me and not My Torah. Why? Because I know that by leaving Me and not My Torah, they'll still have a way to get back home. The Torah is the way to get back home. Whereas someone that says, no, no, no, I believe in God, but I don't follow this Torah, they're not believing in the same God of the Torah. They believe in something else. They believe in an idol. They believe in some mystical dreamland that they created for themselves. They don't believe in the same God of Israel. So this is why Hashem Himself specifically says,

48:16I wish that it would just be me and not my Torah because that's the way they come back for the good. So, moving on into the last part of this modesty. This is something I showed in a lecture, I think, in New York. You can see this. Hashem gave us all types of things in creation. It's the same picture over and over again. Hashem gave us all types of pictures in creation, all types of things in creation, where if you actually focus on some of these things, you would see that you can learn mussar from everything. You can learn a valuable lesson from everything. So, oh, that's different. That's the new CD. So, you can learn mussar from everything. Now, this picture here, it's the picture of the most beautiful part of every fruit. Anytime you want to see the beauty of a fruit or a vegetable, you cut it exactly in half. And the reason why is because when you cut it exactly in half, you see all parts of the fruit. You see the outer shell, or the peel, and then you see the body of it,

49:37And then inside, you see some type of structure that's protecting the seeds. And then you see the seeds. So this is the only way that you could actually see, by cutting it across the middle, it's the only way that you can see all parts of the fruit. And it happens to be, when you see all parts of it, it happens to be the most beautiful picture of the fruit. But from here, one day I looked at it and I said, you know what? What is Hashem trying to teach us by making the fruit this way? Now, what happens if you, let's say for example, take an apple or a banana, or for that matter any fruit, and you peel it, and you just leave it for a few minutes, it becomes brown, right? Why has it become brown? Obviously, the natural thing we already know is because oxygen can't touch the skin. But here's the mussar that I learned from it, that I think if we apply it and we learn from it, it can become very, very valuable to us.

50:50Each one of these fruits, each one of these vegetables, each one of these creations that's so beautiful is no different than a human being and what Hashem is expecting from a human being. So, for example, if you have these seeds here, you have the peel. The peel is, in essence, the same thing as our clothing. The body is the same thing as our body. So the peel is protecting the body. If we notice that the seeds have something protecting them, there's some type of harder material that usually you don't eat that is protecting the seeds inside. And that's our bones. Inside, you're going to find the seed, which is the ability to create something new, which is our souls. So if we compare the human body to a fruit, then we can also learn modesty from it. Because just like Hashem told these fruits that as soon as your peel comes off, you should be embarrassed, and therefore they become brown. They become brown because, obviously, you peel them, and you're showing their nakedness, and that's why they become brown. told these fruits that as soon as your peel comes off, you should be embarrassed, and therefore, they become brown. They become brown because, obviously, you peel them, and you're showing their nakedness, and that's why they become brown.

52:05Because as soon as you take off the peel, you're getting closer and closer to what they're not supposed to show. Same thing, if a fruit is embarrassed to show its nakedness, I think we should be too. Because again, this beauty is not necessarily for everyone to see. Maybe on a fruit it is, but not on a human being. So, there are plenty of things you can learn from. Fruit is just one of them. You could learn the same lessons in everything else. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach heard a joke one time. And he was generally a very, very, he's generally a very happy person. But one time somebody came and told him a joke. Listen, there's this joke. And he says, you just leave it there, yeah, just leave it there. And he says, you know, one time there was this stuttering person that, you know, wanted to go on a shidduch, you know, wanted to go on a date and find a mate, but the woman, after going out with him, she said, listen, he's everything that you said, he's good, but I just don't think he's smart.

53:27I don't think he's smart enough for me. He said, what do you mean? But he's a Talmid Chacham. He wrote several sefarim. He's well known to be smart. That's the one thing he definitely is. Maybe you don't like his looks because, I don't know, it's your taste. But you say he looks good? Yes. Maybe you don't like the amount of money he has because you have a higher taste. But you say it's okay? It's good. Maybe you don't like his personality because you have a different taste. She goes, no, personality's good. She goes, everything is good. Everything you said about him is true. Everything is good. I just don't think he's smart enough. He's like, that's the one thing he is. He's very smart. She goes, yes, but if he was really smart, if he was really smart... He already knows that he stutters. So he knows that as soon as he got to my house, it took him five minutes just to get the word "hello" out. He repeats himself, repeats himself, and eventually the word comes out when you're stuttering. He says, if he knew it's going to take him five minutes to say the word "shalom" out, he should start already saying it five minutes before he gets to my house.

54:32So the guys found it funny, but Rabbi Eberbach didn't find it funny. And the reason why, he says, you know what, this is what we have to learn in Elul. This is what we have to learn about teshuva. He said, if we already know that we're really not going to be, we're not really 100% ready to see Hashem on Rosh Hashanah. We're not really ready. We didn't do teshuva the whole time. We have to start early. That's how we can show that we're ready. Another story is that there was a... a few people who were criminals were constantly moving their goods, their jewels, and all types of merchandise across the border. They did this by putting everything in a coffin, pretending to be part of a morgue service. They would transfer their jewelry and other items in the coffin. Every day, they were allowed through, with the authorities letting them in repeatedly. After a while,

55:32The cop stops them and says, "You know what? Listen, I want to see what's in the coffin." They respond, "No, but this is just the same thing as yesterday." He insists, "Okay, I want to see it." What are they going to do? They start, they open the coffin, and the police officer sees all of this jewelry. Everyone gets arrested. Everyone starts crying. Please, officer, let us go. We're not going to do it again. And the officer says, "You fools. If you would have cried just a moment ago, before I opened the coffin, I wouldn't have opened it." This is the same thing that Hashem said to Noach. You know, a lot of people wonder, why is the Flood of Noach noted in his name? Because according to Hashem's description... Noach was tzaddik v'tamim. Noach was righteous and complete. He was the most righteous person in his generation, the person that Hashem chose to continue the world with. He was a very, very righteous person. And the holy books say that he eventually reincarnated and became Moshe. He was a very, very righteous person.

56:56But when was the last time you heard of a very righteous person having such a disaster named after him? You know, like imagine they say, I don't know, Rabbi so-and-so, the Rabbi of the Holocaust. Or Rabbi so-and-so, the Rabbi of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. Usually, it's an oxymoron, it doesn't fit. But here, Hashem is, on one hand, saying, Noach tzaddik tamim, But on the other hand, he's saying the flood is named after Noach. And the Gemara says that the reason why it's named after him is because he is at fault. He took on part of the fault of why it happened. And the reason why is because after the flood already started and Noach saw that Hashem destroyed the world, Noach started hysterically crying. look what happened to the world, everyone died. And Hashem said, you may be, you know, a tamim, you know, maybe complete with Me and you have faith, but you're like a drunk. Why a drunk? If you would have cried just a day before I did the flood, I wouldn't have destroyed the world. If you would have just cried for those people to do teshuva, I wouldn't have destroyed the world, I would have given more time.

58:21And this is also the reason why there's a very big difference between, according to the sages and also according to the Torah, Noah and Avraham Avinu. Because Avraham Avinu, even after learning about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, knowing that they're all wicked. I mean, they had horrendous laws over there where if anyone brought in a guest... they would take the guest. They would try to rape the guest. They would punish the person who would host the guest. You weren't allowed to bring in guests. If the guest was tall, they would put him in a short bed. Why? Because any part of his body that would stick out of the bed, they would cut off. If the guest was short, they would put him in a long bed and then force him to stretch his body to reach the end. They would kill people regularly because they refused to share their wealth, their beauty, their anything. So, even despite being so evil, when Avraham Avinu heard that Hashem had decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah,

59:30He immediately started praying for them and asking Hashem, "What if there are 50 righteous people? Are you going to punish the 50 righteous people along with all the wicked?" Hashem says, "No, I won't punish if there are 50." "What if there are 45? 45 and 50 is not such a big difference." Hashem says, "No, I won't punish them if there are 45 righteous." "What if there are 40? What if there are 30, 20, 10, and so on?" And he kept praying for them. and praying to Hashem to hopefully save them. At the end, obviously, there wasn't anybody that was righteous. Hashem destroyed the place. But the point is that that's the biggest difference. And that's the main reason why Avraham is considered higher than Noach, because he prayed for... other people. This is one of the main things that we're also reminded of in this parasha and generally in the Torah and during the month of Elul. Each person is obligated to take something on, especially this is a time that if you would take something on, if you're going to become more modest, if you're going to become more generous, if you're going to become, you know, more frum and actually start observing more laws, start keeping Shabbat, kosher, and so on.

1:00:43This is the time to start doing it. But another thing that each person needs to do right now, and it is very highly recommended, is to start spreading the news. Start influencing other people you know and start doing kiruv yourself to get other people to get closer to Hashem, especially now. And if you don't have the ability to speak, as we've talked about many times, give them a CD or bring them to a lecture, because just like you have Judgment Day... so do they. And the problem is that according to the Gemara, if we don't tell other people the truth, and they just stay stuck in la la land, living in illusion, we'd end up taking part of their sin. There's Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, one of the most righteous people that ever lived, and in the Gemara it says that He is judged unfavorably for one action that happened to him that he did teshuvah for the rest of his life, which is that his cow didn't keep Shabbat. His cow carried things on Shabbat. Now according to the Torah, even your animals have to observe Shabbat. They're not allowed to work; they're not allowed to carry on Shabbat.

1:02:07So the sages ask, is it really true that, I mean, someone that’s a genius like him, someone that was able to revive the dead, someone that was such a giant in Torah forgot to manage his cow? Could that possibly be? And they said, no, no, it’s really not his cow. It’s his neighbor’s cow. He saw that his neighbor... ...didn't manage her cow, and the cow ended up violating Shabbat, and he didn't say anything about it. And for that, he's judged as if he actually owned the cow, and the sin goes on him. So the same thing, if he is like this, obviously he has trillions of merits. If anyone was going to get Hashem to close one eye and say, "Okay, let it go. He's so righteous, let this one go," this would be it. So if Hashem is not going to let even something like this go, what makes us think that Hashem is going to let go of the fact that we have 50 friends and family that still don't even know what Torah is, still don't know what Shabbat is, still don't know anything? And we're the ones that are, you know, we started doing Teshuva, which is great, but we can't keep it to ourselves. And this is one of the biggest problems in the frum communities, more so than the people that are Baalei Teshuva, because usually Baalei Teshuva are much more passionate about helping other people do Teshuva.

1:03:32Someone that starts observing Shabbat, starts keeping Shabbat, starts keeping mitzvot, usually there's a little fire in them to get other people to join them. You know, anytime you see something good in life in general, you do something good in life, you want other people to enjoy it with you. You know, you have a party, you want to invite a bunch of people. You want to invite the whole world. Why? Because you want everyone to share your fun. You have some type of good news, you want to share it with people. Generally, that's the reason why stadiums are built in such a way. Because if you watch an event in a stadium, it's much more fun than watching it on television from far away. Because you're sharing the fun with... Tens of thousands of people. So someone that's a Baal Teshuva, that Torah and Judaism are still new to him, usually has more fire in him to help other people. But still not enough. The ones that actually have a bigger problem with doing Kiruv are usually the Frum communities, the people that are already religious from birth. Or they've been religious for a very, very long time.

1:04:35And for them, thinking that they're responsible for the secular people, or even for the people within their own communities that dress the part but don't actually have emunah... In their mind, it's a, you know, you actually have to show them that they're actually responsible for it. So, because they got used to it, to them it's become part of their life, a very permanent part of their life, to be religious, to be connected to Hashem. But unfortunately, in today's generation, there are a lot of kids that grow up, go to yeshiva, follow the rules, but as soon as they hit their late teens or early 20s, they leave everything behind and go off the derech, having zero interest in coming back. So one of the main things that people need to do is to prevent that from happening before it happens. The only way you can do that is by starting to do kiruv already before you need to use it. By actually getting these kids interested in Torah and not just feeling like they're obligated to do it. As a grown-up, you can show them, listen, you understand the difference between necessity and desire.

1:05:48You know, in real life, you have to do what you have to do. You have to do the necessity. You don't always get a chance to do what you desire. When you're still a kid, when you're a teenager, you think that all of life is just about desires and you don't have to do anything. I want to go on vacation. Therefore, I'm going to go on vacation. That's all. Nothing in the world matters other than this vacation. I don't want to go to work, so I'm just not going to go to work. And that's why I remember when I had the company, these young kids I would hire would sometimes just pull no-shows. They just wouldn't come to work. And, you know, to have somebody call, or I would call, or they would show up the next day and tell me, you know, what happened? Why didn't you come? He goes, no, I just didn't feel like going. I wasn't in the mood to come to work. Muslims don't want to come to work. So you fire them, but the point is it doesn't really help because the next day it comes along, it has the same mentality. They feel like if they desire it, then that means that they'll do it. If they don't desire it, they won't do it. And in real life, that's obviously very different. Moving on, we talked about it a little bit last night. One of the main things that influences...

1:07:06A lot of our decisions are about money. Most of our decisions in many cases. And here in this parasha, it says, you shall not pervert judgment. You shall not respect someone's presence and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe will blind the eyes of the wise and make just words crooked. Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue so you will live. So, here it says, first of all, if you're going to have fair judgment, then you know that your judgment cannot be from the secular courts. According to the Rambam, according to Halacha in Torah, we're not allowed, unless forced, unless there's no other option. Meaning someone sues you and you have to show up or else you lose by default. You're not allowed to take another Jew to a secular court, to a civil court. You're only allowed to go to a Beit Din.

1:08:18If it's Jew against Jew, you must go to a Beit Din. And if you can, even use the Beit Din with the non-Jews. You're not allowed to go to a civil court unless you have no option. And according to the Rambam, somebody that has the option of going to the Beit Din, having the Torah decide the law, versus the people's ideas decide the law, someone that goes to a court when they have an option otherwise, it's like they violated the entire Torah. they violated the entire Torah, even if that court would do the same thing, enforce the same law as the Torah. It doesn't matter what the law is. Even if, let's say, the Torah has a law of, for example, someone committed a certain crime, and the punishment is the death penalty. You know, for example, murder. The punishment is the death penalty. And the court also has the punishment as the death penalty. Even though they both have the same judgment, you're still not allowed to go to the secular court if you have a choice. In today's world, unless you're specifically dealing with a religious Jew, you pretty much don't have a choice. You have to go to a secular court. But if you do have a choice, you have to try to implement it each and every time because you're not allowed to go to a regular court. So the first thing is, the reason why, is because he says that in the court of Hashem,

1:09:43It's run by the Dayanim. It's run by very, very righteous people. Not just anybody can become a Dayan. And there are certain rules they have to follow. First of all, they're not allowed to pervert judgment. Meaning, that even if, let's say for example, there's a case between a rich guy and a poor guy. And the poor guy is suing the rich guy for $10,000. Now the rich guy has billions. Billions. And the judge knows, listen, even if he loses the case, $10,000... He doesn't do anything. He makes that in an hour. He says, you know what, let me rule in favor of the poor guy, help him out. He says, you're not allowed to. Not allowed to help the poor guy or the rich guy. You're not allowed to help anybody. You're allowed to only do what the Torah says. Whatever the law is, is the law. If Hashem wanted the poor guy to have money, He'd give him money. He doesn't need your help. If He wanted the rich guy to lose money, he'd lose money in different ways. He doesn't need your help to help him lose money. So first thing, first is to know that you cannot change the judgment just because it would look better or you think that you're doing somebody any favors. The second thing is you should not respect someone's presence, meaning which is the obvious that you're not allowed to decide based on who somebody is.

1:10:59based on who somebody is. Like, for example, this guy is the president. If I rule against him, it would embarrass him. If I rule against him, he may not come to my shul anymore, or something like that. You're not allowed to even look at that. Meaning you have to look at things based on facts. As a matter of fact, the dayanim were so careful that even if someone, if they didn't know who was going to be in their courtroom that day, and let's say they went in an elevator, on the way to the courtroom, some stranger said hello to them, and they responded hello, and then they saw that they are the judge to rule on that person's case, they'd remove themselves from the case. Why? Because even that small amount of "hello" would give their subconscious a little favoritism towards that person. As soon as it's bias, even if it's 1% bias, they remove themselves from the case. So, based on your...

1:12:02where it's not allowed to take another Jew to the court. No, you're allowed to take another Jew to a court, but it has to be a Jewish court. It has to be a Beit Din. Beit Din. Not a regular court. Unless you have no choice. Meaning, you want to take him to a regular court, you want to take him to Beit Din, but he refuses to go to Beit Din. Or he refuses to comply with what the Beit Din says. For example, sometimes... two people agree to go to Beit Din. They go to Beit Din, the Beit Din says, okay, you win the case, you lose the case, pay him the money. The other person says, I'm not going to pay him the money, I'm not going to listen to the Beit Din. Because the Beit Din of today does not have the power that they used to have in the past, they can't really force you to pay the guy. They can tell you that's what the law is, you have to pay him, but they can't force you like a government can. So then, at that point, you have to take him to regular court, because that's the only way you're going to get your money. So, there are three masechtot, three parts of the Gemara, that specifically talk about business and laws of business. And one time, I heard Rabbi Mizrachi, he said a story about having a conversation with his rabbi. And...

1:13:26He asked his rabbi, "What do you think? Do you think I should sue this person? There was some problem, some financial problem with a person." And he says, "It depends. Like, should I take him to a beit din? Should I take him to court? What should I do?" And his rabbi said, "Well, it depends if you have emunah or not." What do you mean? Of course I have emunah. I believe in Hashem. He goes, okay, so why are you asking the question? Of course you shouldn't. If you have emunah, if you have 100% emunah, you know that Hashem is judging everything, deciding everything, responsible for everything, you won't waste one minute going to court. So Rabbi Mizrachi says, wait a minute. We have three parts of the Gemara. Not one, not two. We have three parts specifically talking about the laws of business. What? They were written for nothing? No. They were written for people who don't have emunah. They were written for everyone. The Torah that's written is for everyone: the people who have emunah, the people who have no emunah, the people who have yirat shamayim, the people who don't have as much yirat shamayim. It has to apply to everyone. But it doesn't necessarily mean that it's applicable to everyone.

1:14:44because someone that doesn't have emunah, that thinks they have to work six and a half days a week. They want to work on Shabbat, they'll work overtime, they'll work non-stop, because they believe that they have to help Hashem make money. Then that person, yes, he has to go to court and sue someone. Why? Because he believes that it's his effort that's going to make the money. But someone that has more emunah than him and says, listen, I'm going to work normal hours. I'm going to work 9 to 5. After 5 o'clock, I go home. I'm with my family for a couple of hours. I study Torah. And I fulfill the will of Hashem. Why? I only go to work in order to live, in order to show my effort, but that's not who I am. Who I am is a Jew, and who I am is someone that's trying to sanctify Hashem's name. in order to live, in order to show my effort, but that's not who I am. Who I am is a Jew, and who I am is someone that's trying to sanctify Hashem's name. That's who I am. The job is just something for me to do, so I'm showing some effort to live. So someone like this, there's no reason for them to go to court. Why? Because if they already know that all of their parnasah is already decided on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem is going to decide how much you're going to make. So it doesn't matter whether you work 9 hours a day or 90 hours a day.

1:16:00It doesn't make a difference. Your parnasah was already decided on Rosh Hashanah. There's nothing you can do to change that as far as you working more hours. The only thing you can do is change how you get it. So there's... Do you guys... Did I ever tell you the story about the Baal Shem Tov with parnasah? So there was one time a... the Baal Shem Tov, one of the most righteous people that lived in the last several centuries, saw a guy carrying water on a hot day. He says to him, "Oh, how are you?" The guy carrying the water, very happy, smiled at the Baal Shem Tov and said, "Everything is good, everything is good." The next day, he sees the same guy. Same guy has been delivering water for 20 years. And for 20 years, it's been hot. And for 20 years, it's always been this way. The water is always heavy. Nothing changed. He sees him again, and he says, how are you? And all of a sudden, the guy's face changes.

1:17:18is not as positive as it was the day before. Instead, the guy is very negative and he says, "You know, I have such a difficult job. It's so hot outside, and the water is so heavy to carry from place to place. I'm not really sure why Hashem gave me this punishment of such a difficult job, so difficult to make money." So the Baal Shem Tov says, ah, Baruch Hashem, you finally helped me answer a question in the Gemara. And the guy said, what? What question? I helped the Baal Shem Tov, the Gadol HaDor, I helped you figure out something in Torah. What did I say, b'chlal? He says, you know, in the Gemara, it says, in Masechet Rosh Hashanah, and also Beitzah, it says that Hashem decides how much parnassah you're going to get on Rosh Hashanah until the next Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah, He decides, let's say, for example, He decides Yehoshua is going to get $200,000. That's what He decides on Rosh Hashanah. And that's what you're going to get until the next Rosh Hashanah.

1:18:34But then he says, the Mishnah, which came before the Gemara, says, no, Hashem decides how much you're going to get every day. So the Baal Shem Tov says, I always ask myself, wait a minute, how could this be? If Hashem already decided on Rosh Hashanah what I'm going to get until next year, why does He have to judge me every day also? Why is He doing the job so many times? He already judged me once, that's it, what happened? Right? And the Baal Shem Tov says, and you help me figure it out. So the guy carrying the water is just as interested as you guys. He's like, okay, how? What do I have to help you figure out? And he says, yes, on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem decides how much you're going to get. But every day, based on your actions... Whether you're making mitzvot, or making sins, whether you're sanctifying His name, or desecrating His name, whether you're modest or not modest, all of these things that you do, He decides how you're going to get it.

1:19:42Whether it's going to be easy parnassah or difficult parnassah, whether the water is going to be light like it's been for 10 years, or all of a sudden it's going to be heavy. Whether you're going to make your parnassah from your regular business, working every day, breaking your head 10 hours a day, or you go on a vacation and you find a suitcase full of money. Hashem decides how you're going to get it. He could say, you know, people always second-guess Hashem. There are plenty of stories where a guy gets fired. People get fired and hired all the time. So as soon as someone gets fired, they usually think it's bad news. But we just said Hashem decided how much parnassah he's going to get. So, if someone got fired at the beginning of the year, right after Rosh Hashanah, you would think, oh, so I guess Hashem decided that I'm going to be homeless. But then, if you look at how the year ended, you see that that guy ended up making sometimes even more money than he made the year before. How so? Perhaps he had some type of accident or some type of lawsuit or some type of issue that happened that materialized and he ended up making the money in a different way. He thinks, you know, people limit Hashem. They think that Hashem can only give the money through their job.

1:21:03If I go to work, that's the only way I make money. But Hashem is not limited to just your job. He can give you money from the stock market, from the bond market, from the gold market, from the commodity market, from lawsuits, from accidents, from insurance companies, from inheritance. You know, it's an infinite amount of options that Hashem has. So, if we really believe in what it says in this Gemara, and we realize that Hashem is really going to decide what your parnasah is, no Jew would ever work one minute of overtime. No Jew would ever work overtime. Why? Because there's no point. As a matter of fact, if we believe it 100%, no Jew would work, period. Period. That's why these avreichim, these talmidei chachamim, they don't go to regular jobs. They study Torah all day. Why? Because they know it doesn't matter what they do; their parnasah is going to show up at their house. It doesn't matter what they do. They have, you know, Rabbi Ephraim, God bless him, he has five kids. They live in a, you know, a three-bedroom house in Jerusalem. It's not cheap. Just the house alone is almost, you know, 5,000 shekels.

1:22:18and then you have all the other bills, it's maybe 10,000 shekels a month. That's about $2,500 a month. The kollel, studying every day, six days a week at the kollel, around, I think, nine, ten hours a day in the kollel, top payment, $500 a month. So already each avrech, is short between $1,500 to $2,000 a month before he starts the month. And that's for work. That's for studying full-time. It's not like studying once a week. It's studying even more time than most people work. Most people only work five days a week, not six days a week. So already they're starting the month negative $2,000. But, Baruch Hashem, they're never missing anything. The money shows up in different ways. How? Hashem sends it in different ways. Different miracles happen every single month. I see it myself for the last couple of years. I haven't worked a regular job, and Baruch Hashem, we're not missing anything. So I can tell you for sure that it works. But the point is that if we really believe it, it depends. Again, there are levels of emunah. Not everybody needs to get to the level of the avrech, where they don't go to work and they study Torah all day, because it's not necessarily for everyone.

1:23:30But we can't be the other guy either, the one who works non-stop and never has time for Torah. Because that shows that we don't even believe in Hashem. We have no emunah whatsoever. So, being in the middle should be the goal. Work some, study some. Work and do what you have to do, but you have to make sure that at some point or another, you're studying Torah every single day. If you start behaving that way, then you're telling Hashem that, "Listen, Hashem, I know that not only did You create the world, but You run it too. And if You're the One running the world, then You can obviously give me a few extra dollars to make sure that I have food to eat. If I do more of what You want, You'll do more of what I need." And that's one of the main things that we have to apply to our lives because, without applying this very simple rule, our lives are very easily miserable. If we're constantly going to chase money our whole lives,

1:24:32then it's very, very easy to be miserable throughout all of your life. It doesn't matter how much money you have or you don't have because it doesn't matter how much money you have, you're always going to be short. If you have a million dollars, you'll feel like you're short a million dollars. If you have a billion dollars, you'll feel like you're short a billion dollars. When your whole focus is on material and you think that you're the one that's making it, you're at a point where it's never going to be enough. And this is a continuation of this verse... it's never going to be enough. And this is a continuation of this verse, which says that after we make sure that we don't change the judgment just because we want to be favorable to somebody as if we're doing them a favor, and that we also don't respect somebody just because they're a certain person, it says, "You shall not accept a bribe, for the bribe will blind the eyes of the wise and make just words crooked." It says even if even the wise person, even the person who knows a lot of Torah, if they actually get to a point where they're violating the Torah by accepting a bribe,

1:25:39The whole case is worthless. There's no way that someone can actually take a bribe and still be just at the same time. It's the opposite. There was one time, it's a joke, but it's interesting at the same time. You can learn a lot from it. There was a judge who would take bribes. The judge would take bribes. But the way he was, you know, his nose was too high in the air to take the bribes directly in hand. So what he would do, he would have his shoes, his special shoes, right outside of the courtroom. And he said, "Listen, the right shoe is the prosecutor, the left shoe is the defendant. I go into the court, and right before I go into the court, I lift the shoe." Whichever shoe is heavier, that's the side that I pick. So people would put money in the shoes. Whoever has more money, it's the heavier shoe. So one time, some guy comes to him and he says, "Listen, Your Honor, I need your help. I'm innocent, I'm this, I'm that." He goes, "Listen, I don't work off of innocent or guilty. Everybody knows my system. If you want to find out, go look at the shoes." So the guy...

1:27:02was not a fool, and he goes, "Oh, okay, so he wants me to fill up his shoes. Fine." So instead of taking money, he put rocks in his shoes. So as soon as, you know, the judge picks up the shoes, "Oh, wow, it's a really heavy shoe." So he's thinking, "Oh, he's innocent," and he rules in his favor. Then after, the judge is excited to count all the money that he has in his shoe, and he sees that it's full of rocks. He's like, "Ah, cheaters." He doesn't view himself as a cheater. He only views them as cheaters. There's actually a story about one of the Gedolei HaDor from about 400 years ago, Rav Kapusi. Rav Kapusi was a giant in Torah, and towards the latter part of his life, he lost his vision. He wasn't able to see. And one day he's walking towards the synagogue and he overhears people talking about him. They say, "Yeah, you know, our rabbi, he probably stole money. He probably took bribes during his life because it says, 'bribes will blind the eyes of even the wise.' So one of the punishments that Hashem actually gives to people that take bribes is that He eventually makes them blind."

1:28:30So maybe he's blind, maybe the rabbi's blind, because he was a judge for many years, and maybe he took bribes. So Rav Kafusi took it very, very personally, and as soon as he arrived at the shul, he gathered the whole kehillah together, and he banged on the table, and he said, "Listen, I'm hearing people saying that they think that I took even a penny of bribes throughout any time of my life." I'm right now decreeing that if I took money, I stay blind for the rest of my life and lose the rest of my vision. But if not, Hashem, bless me with 100% vision and show these people that Your Torah is 100% true. And on the spot, he got his vision back. This is a very holy person. We can't really test Hashem the same way he did. But the people that... This is obviously a very, very far-fetched type of story. So the verification of it came from the Chida. The Chida, also one of Gedolei HaDor, 200 years ago. So they lived 200 years apart.

1:29:41The Chida says that I saw the rabbi's signature before he went blind, when he was young, his signature. It's organized like a regular signature. Then I saw his signature after he went blind. You know, he saw papers, documents with his signature after he went blind. And you saw, somebody that doesn't know where the line is, he signs everywhere. You could see there's a clear difference between before he went blind and after he went blind. And then he says, I have dated documents that I know for sure are after he got his vision back. And they're beautiful. From that moment on, after he got his vision back, he signed his name, Hashem Nisi, which means "God is my miracle." That's what he was saying. Instead of just his name, before his name he would say "Hashem Nisi," meaning "God is my miracle," acknowledging that He gave him back his vision. So here we see that when Hashem is telling us that the Torah is not a history book, it has the ability to change nature. It's not necessarily the Torah book itself that can do it; it's if you fulfill the words that are in it.

1:30:57To such an extent that you become glued to Hashem, Hashem will change nature for you. And this is what we learn also in the book of Yirmiyahu when it comes to kiruv. You know, we talked about it a few times. Anytime somebody is involved with kiruv, according to the sages, most recently, Rav Ovadia said that someone who is involved in kiruv, whether they're speaking, donating, giving out CDs, or arranging lectures—whatever it is—they're active in kiruv every day. They're active in getting other people to do teshuva on a regular basis. Rav Ovadia says no miracle is too big for them. All miracles become like nature. Nothing is too big. And I've seen it many times, not only with my students that help me do kiruv, but I've seen it in my own life. Whether it's people healing or people getting jobs or people getting all types of things. I've mentioned it in recent lectures a few times with a few of my students experiencing some recent miracles. It's amazing.

1:32:01It's amazing that you see different things change drastically. Hashem literally changing nature for people. The tough part for most people is not necessarily asking for a miracle. It's having the patience for the miracle to happen. Because everything... I'll give you an example. Everything... is a test. Everything is a test. Whether you suffer from the test or not is 100% up to you. 100% up to you. It's not up to anybody else but you. Meaning, two people can get the same test, one person can suffer, the other person can be happy. It's the same test. Two people can have, let's say for example, a flat tire. Both of them are on the highway. Both of them are going to the appointment. Both of them have a client waiting for them. Both of them need this client. Same thing. One person got a flat tire. He's so upset at Hashem that he's blaming Hashem for it, and he doesn't want to do tefillin today, or tomorrow, or next week, or for the next three years he doesn't do tefillin because of this flat tire.

1:33:24The other guy, on the other hand, starts celebrating Hashem's name. How could this be? It's a perspective. It all depends on who you think runs the world. If you run the world, then you're right, you should be upset. Hashem got in your way. If you run the world. But if Hashem runs the world, then that means He's doing you a favor. How so? The guy that is upset at Hashem, Why is he upset? Because he thinks that everything is supposed to go according to his plan. He's supposed to go... meet with the client on time because the client shouldn't wait. And therefore, when Hashem gave him this flat tire, then Hashem is getting in the way of his plans to go make money so he can take care of his family, pay doctor bills, pay tuition bills, go on vacation, and do all these things, and Hashem got in his way. Because the guy thinks that he runs the world.

1:34:30he thinks that he is in charge of his own world, when in reality, he's in charge of nothing. The only thing he's in charge of is whether he listens to Hashem or not, whether he has yirat Shamayim or not. That's the only thing that we are in charge of. Everything else, we have nothing. We're only in charge of our effort. What actually happens as an outcome has nothing to do with us. Meaning, when two people get together, they want to be married, they want to have kids, they want to have futures, they want to be grandparents, they want to do all these wonderful things, yes, that's their dream. Whether it happens or not is really not up to them. Because two people can end up being together, but they cannot have kids. They can be together and never have kids. Many people suffer because they can't have kids. I had one woman call me crying on the phone, crying hysterically on the phone. She's been trying to have kids for maybe 12, 13 years. Can't have kids. Righteous, everything is good. Can't have kids. She didn't go into her life thinking, hey, listen, I'm never going to be able to have kids. She went thinking, oh, I'm going to have five kids at least. But Hashem decided, not yet. Not yet. So, if...

1:35:54we think that we're the ones that are running the world, then that means that we also think that the outcome is in our hands. Which means that if anything gets in the way of the outcome, we're upset at Hashem for it, meaning Hashem is only getting in the way. In reality, though, Hashem makes the way. How so? The other guy also had a flat tire. And now he's thinking, wait a minute, Hashem is paving the way. Rabbi Akiva says, everything that the Merciful One does, everything that Hashem does, because He's so merciful, is 100% the best. Meaning that there is no better choice. Everything He does is to my favor. It's to help me. Even if I see it initially as punishment.

1:36:54It's actually helping me. So, instead of looking at the flat tire as something negative, let me think of what Hashem is doing for me as a favor. What happens as a result of this flat tire? That means I can't drive anymore. Maybe Hashem—obviously Hashem knows—if I continue to drive, there was an accident I would have gotten into. So yes, I would have been on the way to my appointment, but I would have never made it to the appointment. because there would have been an accident, as this guy was going a certain speed and I was going a certain speed, and based on science, we were supposed to collide. Hashem did not want me to be involved in the accident, so He gave me a flat tire instead. For that, I should sanctify His name and be happy. Instead of Hashem sending me to this appointment, maybe if I would have made it to this appointment, I would have signed a deal with the client. But Hashem knows that this specific client is very litigious. He likes to sue people.

1:38:04So, he would have started doing business with me for two months, three months, four months, five months. But after five months, he might act like I cheated him or it's not good enough. You know, some people just like to sue people. Especially in America, it's very common, because the legal system is very weak in America. So, anyone can sue anyone and torture each other in courts. Big companies sometimes pay huge sums of money just to be left alone. But they also torture people too. Nonetheless, the point is that since anyone can sue anyone, some people exercise this right to the highest extent that they just, anytime someone even looks at them the wrong way, they sue him. There's actually one guy, he's in jail now, but the Guinness Book of Records says... Signed him up as the most litigious man in history. He filed over 4,000 lawsuits in one year. But against everyone. He sued the Nazis. He sued America. He sued Star Trek. He sued the Sun. He sued everything. He's crazy. But the point is that he only took advantage of a system that allowed him to do such a stupid thing. You know how many man hours had to be wasted looking at every lawsuit? Is it real? Is it fake? Is it...

1:39:29So now, Hashem already knows that if you sign a deal with this client, the client, chas v'shalom, is going to sue you in six months from now. Hashem says, why am I going to put my son into such trouble? Let me just get in the way, and he doesn't get the client at all. So you think that you lost money because you didn't get the client. In reality, Hashem is saving you the headache and the money that you would lose paying lawyers and so on by getting the client. So when you give Hashem kaf zechut, give Hashem the benefit of the doubt, it's much easier to not suffer. Something similar happened to me on the way to Arizona. So they, Baruch Hashem, you know, I don't charge a fee for the lecture directly; I just have people sponsor CDs, and if anyone wants to donate, they donate. That's how we survive. But they sponsor each lecture; they sponsor a certain amount of CDs. And so the goal is to get the CDs out to people, as many thousands of CDs as we can get to the community as possible before I get there.

1:40:41And so people can find out about the lectures and then they come, and Baruch Hashem, they already know who I am. It's not some stranger. But as far as a flat fee for the actual lecture itself, I generally, you know, if they sponsor enough CDs, I don't charge anything. And Baruch Hashem, until now, I didn't have to charge anything for lectures. So, part of the cost that they have to cover is they have to pay the travel cost. Whatever it costs me to fly or whatever it is. So anyway, they paid for the flight to go from Florida to Arizona. Usually, I book my own flights or I have my wife book my flights, but they actually booked it for me, which is fine. But it's my fault I didn't pay attention that they booked the flight from Miami Airport. I usually go to the one that's closer to my house, Fort Lauderdale Airport, or the other one, Palm Beach Airport. They're closer to my house, like 20 minutes from my house. The Miami Airport is almost an hour from my house. So I didn't realize it until the day of.

1:41:53The problem is I woke up, you know, I slept for like an hour and a half. I wake up, it's like, I don't know, 5 o'clock in the morning or 4:30 in the morning. I realize I have a 6:50 flight. By the time I get out, by the time I'm ready, it's almost 6 o'clock in the morning. No, yeah, it's like almost, no, no, I'm sorry. It's, no, like 5:15 in the morning. 5:15, 5:20, I'm already ready. 5:20 in the morning, I'm ready. Okay, I'm like, okay, listen, I have 40 minutes. to get to the airport, it's enough. I call the Uber, the guy gets lost. The guy gets lost or he goes around the block a few times, kills about an extra 15 minutes, fine, no problem. I get into the car, I said, if Hashem wants me to get to this plane, I'll get to this plane. I have this nice driver, very, very nice guy, Jewish guy, old Israeli guy. And he's taking his time. It's not, you know, me, if I was driving, I'd drive 150 miles an hour. He's taking his time. So what am I going to do? So, you know, we start talking. And, uh...

1:43:08Start talking about it. He says he keeps some mitzvot, some he doesn't. So we start, I give him my CD to listen to. I start talking about Shabbat. We're going to be in the car for a while anyway. Long story short, I get to the airport. The flight's at 6:50. I get to the airport at 6:15, so 35 minutes before the flight. I get to the place. I'm like, Baruch Hashem, I got here. I tried to put in the thing, and they said, you can get through, but your luggage can't. No time. If you want to leave your luggage, leave your luggage. I will leave my luggage. I have to get my luggage. So I tell the woman, can you help me with this? She goes, no, you should get here on time. I understand. Thank you for teaching me mussar. Thank you for teaching me a lesson. I appreciate it. It's six o'clock in the morning. But can you please help me? Because I don't want to miss my flight. And she says, no, next time get here on time. She's very, very rude. So I'm like, yes, we're wasting time. Can you do anything now? It's like talking to a wall. Talking to a wall, nothing happens. Okay. I say, okay, Baruch Hashem. What am I going to do? Let's go look for the next flight. He says, go look for the next flight. You can't make this flight. And I can't leave my luggage there because I have my books, and it's going to be a Shabbaton. It's a Friday. It's not like I can wait and they give it to me on Shabbat. I'm flying Friday morning. I have to arrive Friday afternoon and that's it. So I can't not have my luggage.

1:44:39So I wait in line. I'm thinking, okay, b'ezrat Hashem, I'll get the next flight or something. Coming up, yes, sir, we actually have a connecting flight. Instead of a direct flight, we have a connecting flight in two hours. First, you're going to go from Florida to Dallas. And then from Dallas, you're going to go to Arizona. Arizona. And you'll get there, instead of getting there originally, you were planning on getting there, I think it was maybe like, I don't know, 11 o'clock or 10 o'clock in the morning, you're going to get there at 1. She said, oh, okay, I'm good, it's not a problem. She goes, okay, great, you want me to book you? I'm like, yes. She goes, okay, can I have your credit card, please? I'm like, for what? She goes, oh, it's $822. I'm like, what? Excuse me? The flight wasn't even that much money. The original flight wasn't that much money. It was like $300, $400. I'm like, $822 for this? It makes a change? She says, yes, it's the only option you have. The only other option, if you want it cheaper, is to fly at 8 p.m. I'm like, yes, but since this is a Shabbaton and 8 p.m. is already Shabbat, I don't think it's going to look very good for my Shabbaton, for me to fly on Shabbat. So obviously, I can't use that choice. So I'm thinking to myself, okay, $800. I'm not even getting paid for this lecture.

1:45:58And on one end, so if it's purely for money, there's no point. I should go back home, go to sleep. But then I'm thinking to myself, okay, if I go, then I still have an opportunity to help other people do teshuvah. And one person that does teshuvah, the whole thing is worth it. One person does teshuvah. So, I give her the credit card, and Baruch Hashem, there's enough money on the card, somebody, you know, that pays for it. So then I think to myself, why did the whole thing happen? What benefit came out of me losing this card? And so far, I came up with a few of them. So far, I'm sure there's more benefits. So far, I came up with a few benefits of why I had to lose $800 in order to get to Arizona. Okay, number one, if I was on time, the guy that drove me wouldn't have been my driver. It would have been a different driver. I probably wouldn't have talked to him. I probably wouldn't have been able to give him the disc, the CD. I probably wouldn't have talked to him about Shabbat. He actually told me he's interested in maybe possibly talking more, maybe keeping Shabbat. So that guy would be lost forever. That's one. Two, the second thing I came up with is that paying $800 to be on time reminds me that you have to be on time.

1:47:20In anything in life. Three, because I was late, it actually gave me an extra hour, between an hour and a half until the next flight, which gave me enough time to pray. Because I left so early, I left at 5 o'clock in the morning, I wasn't able to pray so early. It's too early to do tefillin at that time. And then I was pretty much relying on the fact that I would end up praying on the plane, which is not exactly the most comfortable place to pray. So now, because I was late, I was at the airport for an extra hour and a half, so it gave me enough time to pray as much as I wanted, to do my tefillin, and to do everything that I have. And you think about it, how much money is your prayer worth? How much money is your prayer worth? If you were actually praying to save your life, how much would you pay? Unlimited. Unlimited. So, not only did you get the time to pray, but on top of it, if each time they told you, "Listen, you have to show up to minyan in the morning, and every day you show up to minyan in the morning, we'll pay you $822," you would show up every day on time. Right? Okay, so I was able to pray on time. So, so far I got a few. Then, by the time, Baruch Hashem, I got to Arizona, I said to myself, okay...

1:48:37this is good, but at the same time, you cannot lose by doing a mitzvah. No one in history ever lost by doing a mitzvah. Sometimes Hashem pays for it right away, sometimes it's down the road, but in general, no one ever loses by doing a mitzvah. So, I go to Arizona, Baruch Hashem, we did many lectures. I don't know, I think we did 9 or 10 different lectures. Baruch Hashem, a lot of people attended, and at the end, you know, a few people gave some tzedakah. Some guy gave 20, some guy gave 50, and so on. It was a few hundred dollars that people gave, and then some people gave more, for the CDs and so on. I didn't even count it. I said, okay, Baruch Hashem, whatever it is, you know, whatever we got, it's for CDs, for different things. Baruch Hashem, whatever we got, we got. The point is that a lot of people were motivated. A lot of people said that this was life-changing for them. There were a couple of people that were intermarried. Now they're going to start conversion. Baruch Hashem, a lot of people were really, really motivated.

1:49:42And so for me, for that, it was already enough. Even if one person wanted to do teshuva, it was enough. I remember there was one lecture with a bunch of teenagers. We did one of the lectures, and one of the guys came up to me at the end of the lecture and he goes, you know, you're not like any other rabbi. And I said, "Why? What's wrong? Why?" He goes, "No, you're the only one that ever says the truth. I never heard any of this stuff from anybody else." I'm like, "Yeah, but it says it in the Torah." He goes, "I know. You showed us the verses. We asked you questions, and you showed us the verses where it says." He goes, "No one ever talks about this stuff." He goes, "This," he tells me. "Honestly, I didn't even know, I didn't even think this guy was paying attention." You know, kids, they look around, you don't know if they're paying attention or not. And he tells me, he goes, this was the best lecture I've ever been to. And then he started getting together with his friends, they started asking more questions, and it seems like they're all going to start doing something about it. So, Baruch Hashem. So just for that, it was worth it. So then, Baruch Hashem, we talked to a lot of people, everything was fine. And then, the night before, because I was leaving on Monday morning,

1:50:53Right after we finished everything, it was late at night. It was maybe like 12 o'clock at night. Somebody knocks on the door. I was staying with the rabbi. Somebody knocks on the door. It was the next-door neighbor. And he says, "Hey, Rabbi, how are you? I want to thank you for coming." And he gives me exactly the amount of money that it cost me to get there. Pretty nice, yeah. Not only the money for the $822, but the money that it cost me plus the cab going to the airport and back. Because it cost me the Uber to the airport and then Uber back from the airport to get to my house. Right. He gives me the exact amount of money. He didn't know, obviously. He gave me the exact amount of money for the extra plane ticket and for the two taxi rides to the penny. Hashem pays for what? That's Hashem. So, it would have happened anyway. Hashem would have done it anyway. The question is, do you suffer or you don't suffer? I could have suffered because I said, oh Hashem, why did you do this? Why did you do this? Why did you do this? Obviously, there's a reason for it. And you move forward. Sometimes it's because you think you run the world. Then you suffer. So, that's the thing. So,

1:52:19When we give Hashem the benefit of the doubt, and we tell Him, "Listen, Hashem, I know You know what You're doing," it's much easier to live life and it's much easier not to suffer. But when you think you're running the world, it's suffering every day. Because every day is a disappointment. Every day. Because you think about it. In general, life is full of disappointments, with moments of breaks that are good. So someone wakes up in the morning, they go to work. Work is not usually 100% fun. Even if you like your job, it's not always that you like it. You like it for an hour a day. So you have an hour of the day that you like, but you have 24 hours. Then you have another hour at home that you like. So in reality, out of 24 hours, you sleep six or eight. So that already takes up 25% of your day. if it's six hours a day, then you have a bunch of time that you've wasted. Out of the whole day, you enjoy maybe two hours. If you calculate that for the entire year, you enjoy, let's say, 700 hours a year. So in reality, if you compare the amount of time you enjoy versus the rest of the time, it's no comparison.

1:53:38So in general, life is not necessarily all grand if you look at it that way. If you look at it as if it's always supposed to be fun, always supposed to be a vacation, and so on. Even if you plan the whole year to go on vacation. The vacation you go to is something you work the whole year for. You finally go on vacation for a week, and out of the whole week of vacation, you actually enjoy maybe two days. Because sometimes it rains, and sometimes there's this, and sometimes you don't get along with someone. The whole week, you really enjoy two days, three days. So in reality, that's life. Life is a bunch of stress with moments of good in between. That's when we think we run the world. If we run the world, that's how life really is. But when we give Hashem the benefit of the doubt and we know that Hashem runs the world, you could technically change it to the opposite, where it's 100% of the time good. Because anything that happens in your life, you could find something good in it.

1:54:42Even if it's pain, even if it's suffering, even if it's divorce, even if it's death, there's always something good in it. It's obviously a very, very high level that, b'ezrat Hashem, none of us ever get to that test. But the point is, even the sages were able to get to the point of seeing the benefit of someone dying. For example, someone dies, they know he finished his tikkun, he finished his mission in the world. which means that he's at a better place now. If he completed his mission here, that means his real life, his eternity, just started. And if he was righteous or she was righteous, then that eternity is going to be very good. Why are we crying then? Why are we upset? If his eternity is going to be fine, then really, he's better off. We're still stuck here. So, you could turn everything into positive. It's just really a matter of whether you want to run the world yourself or you want Hashem to run it. He's running it anyway. It just depends on how we look at His perspective. So, I think that the only way to get there—I know, the only way to get there—is by constantly learning and seeing how Hashem is not only giving us the instructions of how to get there, but He shows us time after time how He actually runs the world.

1:56:06whether it's through the stories that we read about in the Torah, or it's through the actions that are in our day-to-day life. You know, we get into our day, we get into our car, we get into our life expecting, you know, certain things to happen, and then something completely different happens. You know, they say that if you want to make Hashem laugh, make some plans. You know? It's as true as it gets. So the one thing that King Solomon said in Sefer Mishlei, chapter 16, verse 7, is: "When Hashem favors a man's ways, even his foes will make peace with him." And we'll finish with this point. So King Solomon, the smartest man of all time, is telling you this is the secret to life.

1:57:06If you do what Hashem says, Hashem will show you that He's happy with you by getting to such a point that even your enemies will actually like you. So Chazal explain it in three different ways. There's more than three different possibilities, but there are three different ways. Rabbi Yochanan says that what does it mean that even his foes, even his enemies, will make peace with him? He says even his wife, if he has problems with shalom bayit, even his wife is going to be able to make peace with him. All of a sudden he makes Hashem happy. All of a sudden his wife is nicer to him. All of a sudden his wife is trying to make him happy. That's what Rabbi Yochanan says in the Gemara. Then there's a Midrash, a that Rav Kahana says that when someone is righteous to such an extent that Hashem is favoring his actions, even bugs are going to be scared of him.

1:58:15Even bugs are going to be scared of him. They're not going to touch him. And there's a story about Rav Steinman. Rav Steinman is maybe 102 years old, maybe 103 years old. And one day they find out he has a very, very simple house. And one day they find in his house ants. Big ants. Not like these small, tiny little ants. Like big ants in his house. And they go, they check the house. Okay, so, obviously, until you clean, it takes a while. So you go, look, look, they look at all the house, they see the whole house has these little ants everywhere, except one place, where he is. His room, where he studies all day, not one ant. Not one ant. This is somebody from our generation, alive right now. So, Rav Steinman is one of the gedolim. And he's telling us this is actually coming true. And the last miracle I can tell you, because everybody loves miracles, I have a student in Texas. And he's, Baruch Hashem, in the process of converting, a very righteous person, helps us do kiruv. And I always tell people, if you want miracles, do kiruv. It's not only that it's written in the Torah, but I see it every day.

1:59:39So, I have a guy, and he tells me this yesterday, or the day before yesterday. He says, "Kevod HaRav, you're never going to believe it. It's been a really, really long time since I've been pulled over on the highway. But today, I got pulled over. I was on the highway, I was speeding. And this highway patrol, which are not exactly known to be the biggest tzaddikim in the world," pulls me over, and he says, yeah, they're not the nicest people. You know, I had some, you know, difficulties with them in the past, I can say, when I was speeding. They don't like me. Or at least in the past, they didn't like me. But, Baruch Hashem, he says, I got pulled over, and the highway officer says, you know why I stopped you? He goes, oh, you know, the whole story. Hey, you were speeding, you were this amount of miles over the speed limit. He goes, yeah, you know, I'm sorry, officer. I'm going to go learn. He goes, what are you learning? He goes, I learn Torah. He goes, what's that? And he says, oh, I learn Torah. It's the Old Testament. It's this and that. He goes, oh, really? He goes, okay, I'll be right back. He goes and he gives him a ticket. Gives him a ticket. And he goes, tell me about this Torah stuff that you have.

2:01:04And he says, oh, the Torah? So he takes out my CD. Takes out my CD. He goes, yeah, here you go. Here's the CD. There's plenty. There's 30 hours of Torah on this CD. And I think maybe he gave Rabbi Ilan Navah a CD also that I sent in. And he gives him my CD and the other one. He goes, if you're interested, it's really good stuff. If you want to be woken up, if you're ready to be woken up. This is the way. He goes, wow, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. All of a sudden, the highway patrol officer became smiley. He goes, thank you very much. I appreciate being touched. OK, thank you. Then he leaves. So my student, Horatio, doesn't, you know, he's like, OK, I got a ticket. But at least I did kiruv. Another opportunity. Another guy, maybe convert, maybe teshuva. He doesn't know if he's Jewish or not Jewish. So before he turns on the car, he unfolds the ticket to see how much he owes. He sees, just a warning. Just a warning. When was the last time you got a ticket that says warning? You understand? When your actions are favorable in Hashem's eyes, even your enemies will make peace with you. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.