Shiur Torah #24 The OMER, Our Great Opportunity For Spiritual Elevation

0:00This week we just finished all the holidays. We obviously had a big break, and everybody is getting back to real life. But at the same time, we also have something that we do every day. It's part of the Moed, which is a preparation. You have Pesach, you have the Omer, and then you have Shavuot. The Omer is 49 days. And every day, you have to count one of the days. It's a big mitzvah to do it. And there are a couple of reasons why we do it. One reason is that it's 49 days from the end of Pesach until Shavuot. It's not necessarily a celebration, but it's something that we do every day. It's part of the Moed, which is a preparation. You have Pesach, you have the Omer, and then you have Shavuot. The Omer is 49 days. And every day, you have to count one of the days. It's a big mitzvah to do it. And there are a couple of reasons why we do it. One reason is that it's 49 days from the end of Pesach until Shavuot. So that was the time difference from when we left Egypt until we received the Torah. We went to Mount Sinai, and on Shavuot, we received the Torah. That's what we celebrate because, in essence, that's when we became Jews. Before that, we were called the Hebrews or the Israelites, but we weren't called Jews until after we received the Torah. So

1:19During this time that we were in the, you know, we crossed the Sea of Reeds, we went through the desert, Am Yisrael had many complaints for Moshe and against Hashem, you know, between having issues with faith, which is very similar to the issues that people have today. You know, most issues that people have today are people that do believe, or at least are trying to, are issues of faith. And faith is a very, very difficult thing to have during rough times, during tough times, especially when you don't work on it every day. Faith is not something that comes naturally to someone. It's very easy for someone to say that I have emunah in Hashem when things are good. It's very easy to say that, you know, listen, someone's making money, someone has a good relationship, kids are growing up well, everything is great, very easy to say that you have emunah in Hashem during good times. The real test of emunah is during difficult times. And that's the problem that most people have, and that's really the test. It's no big deal to say that you have full emunah in Hashem if everything is great. It's a big deal to say you have emunah in Hashem when things are not good. Are you still going to keep the faith? Are you still going to

2:48go and pray every day three times a day, you're still going to do tefillin, or you're still going to eat kosher, you're still going to not work on Shabbat, even though there's a potential for a very big deal on Shabbat, and you don't know if there's any other way for you to pay the rent or the mortgage without having that deal. That's when you know that there's a test of emunah. And that's when you know that Hashem is specifically testing you, to see if you think that what you're doing... is within your own powers, in your own hands, or it's in His hands. And the problem today is that most people fail the test, not because they want to fail the test, but because of a lack of knowledge and a lack of emunah muscles. Meaning that if you work on your emunah on a regular basis, then obviously, over time, when the time comes for you to be tested, you'll be prepared. Just like if someone trains every day for war, and little by little in the army they get better and better and better, and eventually when there's the real war, they're ready for the war. But someone who is just sitting in the back and hiding from it, maybe he's only training once a week, and then eventually the war comes. It's usually that person who gets hurt the most. It's usually that person who runs away from battle. And that's actually why David HaMelech,

4:14I used to tell all the soldiers before they went to war that if anyone had any fear, they weren't allowed to go to battle. Even if they had fear of the enemy, they were not allowed to go to battle. I thought that he was worried about that particular person having fear. In today's age, people would say, no, do like what any football coach would do. Just encourage the guy and tell him, listen, don't worry, everything's going to be fine. Play hard. And that logic will tell us that. But David HaMelech knew something a little bit different. David HaMelech knew that this is not a game. And he knew that if that soldier has 1% less emunah than he needs to, it's not just his life that he's risking, he's risking everybody else's life. Because one soldier getting hurt leads to other soldiers getting hurt and so on. So having emunah is something that's very critical for us to have on a daily basis. And the way you develop it on a daily basis is by listening to shiur Torah, by praying and really getting to a point where you're praying with full kavanah. There's actually a story that I heard about the previous generation. Something really amazing. I mean, it's really, I wish for something like that to happen to us on a regular basis. There was one time

5:39There was this one righteous guy who was telling a story about his grandfather. And he says, you know, my grandfather, when he was alive, we would have to change his siddur every three months. Every three months, why are you changing your siddur? Why, does the siddur get ripped every three months? What's wrong with the siddur every three months? He goes, no, you don't understand. Every three months, all of us, me and my brothers, all of the kids would have to change the siddur every three months because after three months, there were so many tears coming on that siddur from every one of his tefillot, that it wasn't even readable anymore. So imagine the type of prayer. This is just the previous generation; this is not 500 years ago. This is, let's say, in the last 100 years. This is someone that every time he's praying, he's praying with full kavanah, with full emunah, and he really believes that Hashem is really listening to him 100%, to the point where he's confronting Him with an open heart.

6:40Imagine if one of our prayers, not every day, but one of our prayers per week was just like that one guy, where he had it three times a day. Imagine that. We're not so far off from it if we try. So, when we're talking about the Omer, you have the issue. The first thing is that you're waiting to receive the Torah. You're waiting to receive the Torah. To receive the Torah, we have to be completely pure. As we said in the previous weeks, when we were in Egypt, Hashem took us out of Egypt. In the last minute, pretty much if it was one more sin, if we committed one more sin, we would have reached the level of 50, of tumah, of impurity, and we were at that point unrecoverable. Meaning that Hashem would have had to destroy the world. Because the purpose of the world is the Jews receiving the Torah. So if the Jews could no longer receive the Torah because their level of tumah, their level of impurity, was too extreme, it would be unsalvageable, then Hashem would have had to destroy the world. Obviously, Hashem knows the future, knows the past, knows the present, and knows exactly when the last minute is. And He took us out right at the right time. He showed us a lot of miracles and a lot of amazing things that we went through until we got to Har Sinai. But still,

8:08This is not something that happens overnight. You don't just go from being impure to being pure. You don't go from being a rasha to being a tzaddik overnight. This is also something that we have to realize for ourselves. In order for us to do teshuva, it's a work in progress. It's never something that you finish overnight. It's never something that you are, you know, one day you're not keeping anything and the next day you're 100% righteous. A lot of people try to go 100% right away, which is not necessarily the best thing to do if you don't know what you're doing. Meaning that if you already had a background in being religious, and you already kept all the mitzvot, and something happened, you fell off due to the yetzer hara, and you fell off and you stopped keeping mitzvot for a certain amount of time, then yes, that person needs to get back in a lot stronger. into the religion, then someone who has never done it in their life. If that guy was completely religious, 100%, and he fell off for a few weeks, a few months, maybe even a few years, he can't just start off by saying, okay, you know what, I'm just going to eat kosher once a week, or I'm going to eat kosher only, but I'm not going to keep anything else. He has to start a little stronger with his teshuvah to show that he's sincere. And for himself also, because again, there's just so much

9:36help that you're going to get from Shamayim when Hashem knows that you know and you're still going against Him. On the other hand, someone who doesn't know anything, who's relatively new to the religion, even if they've been Jewish their whole life, doesn't necessarily mean they know much. If they never kept anything and now they decide that, you know what, I'm going to start keeping Shabbat or I'm going to start keeping kosher. they don't have to necessarily worry about what they're going to do next week, or what they're going to have to keep next month, whether it's taharat haMishpacha, or keeping the modesty, and all the other things that come with Judaism. That can come with time, where little by little you're adding things to your observance. A Jew is technically supposed to progress in teshuva every day, meaning that even if you're religious from birth, technically you're supposed to do teshuva every day. Every day he's supposed to do teshuva. Why? Because there's no such thing as a tzaddik that has never sinned. Everyone sins. Obviously, everyone on their own levels. The sin of a giant rabbi is very different than the sin that we commit. For them, a sin is, let's say, one thought that wasn't 100% Torah, but it was just thinking about their groceries. For us, obviously, it's a completely different thought.

11:04So, again, everyone on their own level, but you're supposed to progress every day. The reason why you're supposed to progress every day is the same thing as when you have, for example, a business. If someone has a business, and that business obviously needs to pay the bills. Now, if you have a type of business, whether it's retail, wholesale, it doesn't really make a difference, that acts like you, a teshuva. where it acts like people, where they say, you know what, one week I'm going to go 100%. Pesach week, I'm going to keep this, I'm going to keep that, I'm going to keep the matzot, I'm going to keep all the kosher laws, I'm going to clean the house extra, I'm going to do everything possible. And then, three days after Pesach, okay, I'm going on vacation to Cancun and laying on the beach. Now, if that was your business, then imagine a business where Everyone says, "Okay, you know what, we're going to work hard." Everyone works overtime. They come in, they work, all the customers, everything. They set up all the appointments. They buy all the equipment, all the inventory. Every day they're preparing for a big sale. And then the next week, nobody shows up. None of the employees show up, not even the guy who has the key to open the door. Customers are still going to wait outside because you prepared them the week before.

12:31But you're going to have nobody in the store, and obviously, it's going to look very bad. You could pretty much lose the balance of everything that you worked on before. So religion, you know, in Judaism, is not supposed to be something that you look at as a burden. It's supposed to be something that's part of your life, but you're trying—you have to find a way to enjoy it. To enjoy it, you have to learn a little bit more about it. To learn more about it, you have to make it part of your day-to-day life. It can't just be purely about prayers. It can't just be purely about any one particular thing. You have to add different parts and make it part of a different day. That's why Hashem said at the end of every lecture, every shiur, they say, Rabbi Chananiah said that Hashem wanted to give us a reward by giving us a lot of opportunities to make mitzvot, in so many words. Why make so many mitzvot? Because He gave us the ability to not only obviously have a lot of opportunities to win, a lot of opportunities to get reward. Every mitzvah that you do, you get a huge reward. But aside from that, He gave us a structure for our day to keep us busy enough to stay away from trouble. From the minute that you wake up to the minute you go to sleep, you have something to do that involves Hashem. In the morning, you say,

13:52Birkot HaShachar, say the morning blessing, thank you Hashem for bringing my soul back, thank you for not making me poor, thank you for not making me this, thank you for all these different things that we have. Giving me food, bringing my neshama back, all these different things that you have in the siddur, plus certain things that you can add, but the key is that right away in the morning, the first thing you have to do is wash your hands and do everything to already remind yourself that there is a Boss in Shamayim. After that, you go and you do your tefillin. After that, you're going to eat something. So before you eat something, you remind yourself, okay, this is an apple, this is a donut, whatever you're going to eat, you do the blessing on that. After that, you go to your job, and shortly after you want to eat something again, you have your lunch, or you have to go to the bathroom, or anything that you do, there's always going to be some type of blessing involved. So much so, to the point where Chazal tells us, that if someone benefits in this world in any way without a blessing, he should consider it as if he stole from Hashem. Meaning, there's no such thing as benefiting in this world, enjoying yourself in this world, without there being a blessing for what you're enjoying. There should not be anything like this. There should not be in our mind anything like that, where this is a benefit that doesn't involve Hashem, because everything that we do has to come from Hashem.

15:20And what's the reward? There was one time, a righteous person, but he was very poor, who went to the Chafetz Chaim, one of the great sages, and he said, "Listen, I'm having trouble with parnasah, but I know that Hashem watches over us. So I was wondering if you could do some extra prayers for me, and maybe if Hashem could take my zechut for doing tefillin every day, maybe He could take the zechut of the tefillin for this week. And give me parnasah, give me enough parnasah to, instead of that zechut, instead of paying me in the olam haba, pay me in this world so I can at least get enough parnasah to eat. So the Chafetz Chaim says, I'm going to answer you with a story. What's the story? Kabbalah says one time there was a man and he was a very big saver. Very big saver. And every day he would collect these coins, and he would hide these coins, and eventually, he got to a point where, after all these years, he collected a few gold Napoleons. So he had a handful of them.

16:46He said, "Okay, this is my retirement money." And he took these coins and put them on top of his dresser. So, of course, the man has kids. The kids play around, and one day, one of his kids starts climbing the dresser. He sees something on top of it. He feels around and finds a coin there. He gets really, really excited about it and runs to the store. He tells the store clerk, "You know, how much candy can I buy with this one? It's a gold coin. Is this enough?" Each one of these gold coins is like a year's salary for this store owner. The store owner says, "Ah, as much as you want. Take whatever you want." The kid gets really excited, takes a bunch of candy, and runs back home. So his family sees all this candy and asks, "Where'd you get all this candy?" He goes, "Oh, I got it from the store." "Okay, you got it from the store, but how did you get it from the store?" He goes, "I bought it." Obviously, everybody got suspicious. "What do you mean you bought it?" He goes, "Oh, I bought it. I had some money." "Where did you get this money?" He goes, "Oh, I had it in the dresser. I found it." Immediately, the father almost had a heart attack. He's thinking, "Oh, maybe I have to go check my coins." He goes, checks his coins. He realizes that one of the coins that he saved over the last 30 years is missing. He runs to the store.

18:08tells the clerk, "You liar, you cheater. You took the coins, you cheated my little boy. He's a little boy, how could you take advantage of him? You know who he is, you know who I am. It's not like you don't know. How could you do this?" And of course, the father's right. He's right. You know, listen, the guy knows who his father is. He's not supposed to take a gold coin that's a year's salary for a few pieces of candy. It's not fair. So the Chafetz Chaim... tells the guy that came to him to give him, to try to ask him for help with the tefillin. He says, see, it's the same thing with you. Right now you're asking me to take your gold coin that's going to give you enough for countless years' worth of reward in the Olam HaBa, and you're asking me to tell Hashem to give you a lollipop for it, just so you have some parnasah for this month. I'm not a thief. he tells him, "I can't be part of something like that. So no, I can't help you." So the man understood, not only is that the right answer, but the next time he did tefillin, he valued it much, much more. And Baruch Hashem, he got parnasah in another way. So for us, it's very, very important to know that each one of our mitzvot is going to be a reward. Sometimes the reward is

19:35is going to have a partial benefit in this world, but the vast majority of the reward that we have is in the next world. It's very difficult for people, especially if you're not going to learn Torah on a daily basis, to believe in the next world. It is nearly impossible to believe in the next world, in Olam HaBa, without learning Torah on a daily basis. I don't mean believe in a next world where you say, okay, everybody goes to heaven and everything's going to be great one day in some theoretical dreamland that people create in their mind. I mean literally believe in a way where you know that this life is just a hallway to the real life that's waiting for us. Where your entire life in this world is just a preparation for that life. Your life here is going to take... It's course. You're going to have ups. You're going to have downs. You're going to have good times. You're going to have tough times. But you're always thinking with your mind on the goal, on the prize, which is Olam HaBa. I am preparing everything for Olam HaBa. It's like the guy that was saving all the coins all those years. He wasn't saving all those coins so he could look at them. He was saving all those coins for the days when he can't work anymore. He's retired. He's not able to work anymore. He's saving all those coins so that one day he's going to be able to use those coins.

20:59We have to have that same mindset about Olam HaBa. All the mitzvot that we do right now, all of the good deeds that we do right now, all the chesed that we do right now, all the Torah that we learn right now, all of that is supposed to be put in our mind as preparation for Olam HaBa. If someone doesn't learn Torah, it is very difficult to believe in this world. And the reason why is because when you're living your whole life in this world, which means that you're involved in business all day, family, material, and everything else, then that means your life is generally consumed with this world, things of this world, and you're consumed with material. Olam HaBa has nothing material. It's all spiritual. So it becomes very difficult... To connect to this spiritual world, because you have nothing in common with this world. You're always involved in material. You're always involved in making money, going to a party, going on vacation, buying this, buying that. All of it is wonderful. You can do all of those things. No one is saying that you're not allowed to enjoy your life. But if your life is consumed with material...

22:21then it gets to a point where it becomes impossible to connect to this next world. If it becomes impossible to connect to this next world, then it becomes impossible to even think about it when you're doing mitzvot. If it's impossible to think about it when you're doing mitzvot, then you start losing the meaning of why am I going to do a mitzvah? Why would I do a blessing? For what? So Hashem makes it any tastier if I drink it? No, it has nothing to do with that. Why am I going to do the mitzvah? So Hashem says, oh, good job. You start forgetting, why am I doing all of this stuff? Which means that the minute the Yetzer Hara shows his face, you become very vulnerable, and you could easily fall off. Like it happens, unfortunately, a lot of times, you fall off a cliff. When people fall, they don't fall like when you were a little kid, you just slip on the ground, you have a little scab. Unfortunately, when it comes to religion, if people who are not learning fall off, it's sometimes difficult to get them back up. They fall off, and they start going to such a far, far away land because the initial fall sometimes feels like freedom. The Yetzer Hara lies to you and gives you the feeling of freedom.

23:46So you stopped feeling, you know, so you used to pray every day. You prayed once, twice, three times a day. And you used to learn, you know, an hour a day or two hours a day or 15 minutes a day. And you used to do a blessing every time you went to the bathroom. And you did a blessing every time you ate. And you did all of these things. It became structure, just like Hashem meant for it to be. And then one day, you stopped. Oh, I didn't keep Shabbat. Oh, I didn't keep kosher today. All of a sudden, it's like, oh, I didn't keep Shabbat. But you know what? I went to the beach. I didn't keep kosher? Hashem didn't kill me. I ate chazir and Hashem didn't kill me. All of a sudden, you start feeling this freedom. Wow, great. It gives you this initial feeling where it's like you're doing something good. You're not keeping any mitzvah anymore and I'm released from this world. That's why, unfortunately, there are some movies, some interviews online you can see of these people that used to be very, very religious and now are completely anti-religious. you go from black and white and full uniform to now anti-religion. And initially, when they first do it, you see them with a smile, "Ah, it's so great, I'm free in this world, I don't need to go to shul, I don't need to do this, I don't need to do that." But then the Yetzer Hara says, "Okay, now you've become, you went from a candidate to a part-time employee, now you like it so much you're a full-time employee, okay,"

25:12That's it, now you're my slave. Now you can't leave. At that point, the neshama starts feeling it and misery sets in. The emptiness, the hole is created, and it's impossible to fix it without more pain. Why? Because the pain is required to peel off all of the Sitra Achra that you added to your body, all of the sins that you added to your body, all of the anti-attitude, anti-Torah attitude that you had in your body, it's going to take some effort to peel all of that off. So that illusion that we had, that stopping to do mitzvot is going to be good for us, is just the Yetzer Hara's genius illusion to fool us into doing it.

26:12So now, during these 49 days, we are preparing for the Torah. To prepare for the Torah, we have to purify ourselves. We have to get better. Whatever we are today, tomorrow we must be better. If we're doing 50 mitzvot today, tomorrow we have to find a way to do more than 50. 51, 55, 60, 100, as many as we can. Every day we're supposed to purify ourselves and become better than we are today. Why? Because we have a monumental event happening just a few weeks from now. This monumental event is the purpose of the world. It's not just another day. It's not just a nice holiday. It's not just, oh, no big deal. It's a big deal. The reason why we're here not just in this year, but in this world, is for this particular day, because we got the Torah. The reason why Hashem took us out of Egypt is for this Torah. This is a big deal. So for us to be pure enough to get this Torah, we have to improve. And this is part of the reason why you'll see sometimes people don't shave, don't get haircuts, study more Torah,

27:34...than usual, a little bit more focused on the spiritual than the material, because that's how you get yourself more focused. The material world is always going to be there. You don't have to worry about it. It's not going away. That is the substance of this world. So for us to fight the Yetzer Hara right now during this time is very critical because that's the time we have a chance to raise ourselves higher than normal. Why raise ourselves higher than normal? Because right now... Just like Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael was at the 49th level of Tumah. Then they obviously started improving. By the time they received the Torah, they were at the highest level we ever were in history. So you're talking about a significant change—the most significant change in the shortest amount of time in history. If they were able to do it, then obviously that is within Hashem's nature to allow us to do it. So if we want to raise ourselves, right now is the time. If we're studying only 15 minutes of the Torah right now, we should be able to push ourselves for 30 minutes. If we're studying only 5 minutes, then we should push ourselves for 15 minutes. If we're doing an hour, then try to do an hour and a half. If we're doing one tefillah a day, then now it's time to do two or three tefillot. And so on and so forth. Right now is the time to push ourselves because right now we're going to get extra spiritual help from Hashem.

29:02But if we don't take advantage of opportunities like this, then we're missing out on an opportunity that could raise us to an extraordinary level. That's something that we always thought about. Oh, one day I want to be that guy. Right now is the time to be that guy. Right now is the chance to be that guy. Right now is the chance to improve ourselves. The second reason why we don't shave and also count the Omer. on count of 49 days is because of a very, very well-known story, I'm sure you guys have heard, is that during this time, actually the first 32 days of the Omer, is when Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students died. Rabbi Akiva, obviously we know, is not only one of the most important Jews in history, but most likely one of the top, at least ten, if not three, most important people that ever lived. Not just because of the Torah that he learned, but because he is the essence of what a Jew is. Meaning that he is the teshuva story. He's the model teshuva story. He's the model teshuva story. Listen, you have many Jews that were born tzaddikim.

30:31born righteous, you know, in good families, and they continued building on top of it. You have some people that did teshuva at some point in their life, you know, they were 15, 20 years old, they saw a movie, they read a book, they heard a story, they did teshuva. Rabbi Akiva was something different. Rabbi Akiva was completely anti-religion. His parents were converts. So it's not like he came into a family that was full of Torah or anything like that. He actually says that when he used to see, before he did teshuva, when he used to see religious people, he would think about biting them like a mule. Why like a mule? Usually, when you bite someone, you want to bite them like a dog, not a mule. He says, yes, but a dog, when it bites, it just eats the flesh, just hurts the flesh. But when a mule bites... crushes the bone and disintegrates the bone. There's no recovery from it. Because that's how much I hated the religious people, the religious Jews. So then Rachel, who was the daughter of Kalba Savua, one of the three richest men in all of Israel, saw him. These three people actually had enough money to feed the entire nation for three years during the war. That's how much money they had. So Rachel saw Rabbi Akiva, who wasn’t Rabbi Akiva at the time, but just Akiva

31:57just cleaning the horses. And she saw that he had some nice midot. She saw he had some good character traits about him. And she decided, this is the man I'm going to marry. Now think about it. She's a young girl. She's not old. He's 40 years old, divorced with a kid. Not only that, Completely knows nothing about religion. She comes from a religious home. So now, she tells him, "Listen, I'm willing to marry you if you're willing to study Torah. Only study Torah. No working, just study Torah." Akiva says, "Of course, yeah, why not? I'll agree to this, why not?" He's thinking theoretically, "Yeah, once I get married, it's fine, but what's the big deal of studying Torah?" Problem is, he didn't know how to read or write. He was illiterate also. So, 40 years old, divorced, with a kid, and illiterate. Obviously, her father wasn't too happy, to the point where he disowned her. He said, "Listen, if you're going to be with this man, you're not going to get a dollar from me. You're not going to get any money from me. You're going to live off of nothing." So they immediately became poor the day they got married. No support, no help, no family, no nothing.

33:24So, Rachel tells Rabbi Akiva, okay, listen, you have to go learn. You have to first learn the alphabets. You have to go to kindergarten. So, he tells her, okay. So, he starts, you know, thinking about going to kindergarten. But he starts thinking about the embarrassment. The embarrassment this is going to be. I mean, this 40-year-old man going to kindergarten. It's not exactly the ideal situation. So, she says to him, okay, listen. You don't want to go to kindergarten to learn the alphabet? What? Fine. Take a mule. A mule. Put some sand on it. Some sand on it. And put a plant. And I want you to water the plant. And walk all around town with the plant. And let the plant grow on top of the mule. Why would I do this? I would do it. You don't want to go to kindergarten. So do this at least. Don’t think much of it. He saw that after, you know, in the beginning, obviously everyone is looking at this strange thing. Someone is watering a plant that's growing on top of a mule. Isn't that crazy? One day they're looking. Two days they're looking. Three days, not so much. By the fourth day, everybody is used to it. And she tells him, Rachel is very, very wise to think about this. She says, see, the same thing is going to be with the school. In the beginning, yes, they're going to think it's strange that a 40-year-old man is learning Aleph-Bet with a bunch of children.

34:53So the first day they're going to laugh at you or look at you funny. Second day maybe a little less. Third day a little less. But after a week, no one's going to think anything of it. And he listened. And he continued learning. And little by little started learning Torah. And then after learning Torah, he went away to learn an even higher level of Torah. And after 24 years... of learning. He first learned for 12 years, came back, and overheard his wife saying that if her husband could hear her right now—she didn't know he was behind her or listening to this conversation—if my husband could hear me, I would tell him to go for another 12 years to learn Torah and not come back now. So he turned around without even saying hello and went back to the yeshiva and learned Torah. After 24 years, he came back. He came at the start with all of his... if you don't mind opening it... he came into town with 24,000 students. Now, these students weren't regular students. These were the people that were part of the Gemara. These were the people, the biggest Chachamim in history. These people were giants in every way, shape, or form of Torah.

36:23Some of them were so significant, they were able to bring back the dead. People that, I mean, the smartest sages we have in our generation, you combine all of them, they weren’t like one of these students. That’s how big these students were. So these students, these talmidim, made a mistake on their own level. Now, a lot of people say that they had a lack of kavod, lack of respect for each other. And that's mistranslated a little bit. Well, people think that they don't have, like, they didn't like each other, they didn't have respect, like where they disrespected each other. That's actually incorrect. What it is, is that it wasn't, obviously these people were sages, these people were giants in Torah. Disrespecting each other is not even part of their... day-to-day thoughts. So, it's not disrespect like we think disrespect. It's a lack of love for each other in the sense that they didn't care enough about each other to correct each other. Meaning that if someone said, "Listen, I'm going to do this mitzvah in this particular way," and the other guy knew that

37:52He's incorrect. He's making a mistake. It's a minor error. He's supposed to, instead of doing it one way, he's supposed to do it a little bit differently. Instead of making the extra effort to show him why and how he's incorrect and things like that, they didn't do it. This is unfortunately very similar to the current generation where you have many rabbis that are saying, "Listen," you know, telling people to keep Shabbat, telling people to, you know, it's very, very important for them to keep Shabbat, telling people to keep kosher, meat and dairy, telling people that, you know, the critical parts of Judaism are a necessity, you know, they'll listen, they'll listen, I'm sure they'll find out, and if they want to do it, they'll do it. But to push them to be a little bit annoying, to put a little pressure on people. No, we want to do it in a nice way. We want to show them the nice parts of the Torah. And if they see so many nice things about the Torah, maybe they'll stop driving on Shabbat to shul. Aside from the fact that we see that that system does not work at all, there's maybe a 1% or half a percent success ratio. Once in a blue moon.

39:17You're going to find somebody that drove to shul and now stopped driving to shul, but usually it's not as a result of that shul's effort, but as a result of circumstances that happened somewhere else. But aside from that, what they're doing is exactly our generation's level of understanding. of why Hashem punished those 24,000 students, and for the next 32 days He killed between 700 to 800 of them per day. So imagine you have the biggest sage in the world, and now you have 24,000 of them. And every day the biggest Gadol HaDor dies. And there's 700 of them dying every day. By the time you even thought about burying him, the next day you have to bury him; obviously, you have another 700 who died. And another 700, another 700, another 700. Every day for 32 days. Why? Because we didn't care enough about each other to rebuke each other and fix each other. Hocheach tochiach is one of the things that we learned from the sages.

40:33where it's our obligation. It's not a mitzvah like it's nice to do it; it's our obligation to correct each other, but in a respectful way. So much so that we learn a lot of it in the Torah. You know, some of the things that some of the most important people in history did. We know that if they didn't rebuke the nations... If they didn't make people do teshuva, we wouldn't even know who they are. So, for example, we go to the top. We go to Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu obviously is the prophet of all prophets, the king, the highest human being that we've ever had. Masechet Megillah brings a verse that talks about Moshe Rabbeinu, but before it talks about Moshe Rabbeinu, it talks about Batya. Batya was the daughter of Pharaoh, who converted while Pharaoh was in power, and

41:56when she went down to the river, that's when she saw the basket that Moshe Rabbeinu was in, and she raised him. She raised him in the house of Pharaoh. And actually, her name, Batya, means daughter of Hashem. Bat means daughter, Ya means Hashem. Hashem gave her that name. So, it talks about Batya, but then it talks about how Batya had these three sons. But the Maharsha specifically says that all three names are referring to Moshe Rabbeinu, meaning they are three different nicknames that Moshe Rabbeinu had. One of those names is Gadol. Gadol comes from the root of the word in Hebrew, Geder. Geder means fence.

42:57Why "fence"? Because Moshe Rabbeinu fenced the breaches of Am Yisrael, meaning that he corrected the improper behavior of Am Yisrael. All of the improper behavior that they learned in Egypt, he corrected. He was, you know, Aharon, his brother Aharon, was, you know, they say that he chased peace. He was always a chaser of peace, always constantly trying to make peace between people. Moshe wasn't necessarily looking for peace; he was looking for truth. You made a sin, this is the punishment. You made a mitzvah, this is the reward. It's black and white. Hashem said so, that's it. No games. Oh, if Ilan were here today. Imagine a person speaking to God on a first-name basis.

43:59is getting noticed in those days for rebuking the nation. A nation that saw the words of Hashem and Shamayim. A nation that heard the words of Hashem. A nation that saw the miracles of Hashem on a daily basis for over 40 years. Food coming from Shamayim. I mean, this is not normal. Food coming from Shamayim every day. You don't have to work. You don't have to do anything. All you have to do is learn a little bit of Torah. You have food waiting for you. You don't have to take a shower because the cloud that's following you is cleaning your clothes. It's like a washing machine on a regular basis. You're always clean. You don't have to worry about drinking. You don't have to worry about eating. You don't have to worry about going to the bathroom. They said that the mann, the mann that we had in the desert, was a spiritual food. In essence, such a pure food that all of it would be absorbed by our bodies and we wouldn't have to go to the bathroom. Which they said is what's going to happen when the Mashiach comes, Be'ezrat Hashem, that we're not going to have to go to the bathroom anymore. Again, it doesn't seem like a big deal. But if you think about the blessing of Asher Yatzar, which is the blessing that we say every time we go to the bathroom, you actually think about the words in Asher Yatzar. Oto Hashem. Oto Hashem.

45:23you're talking about all of the details of how your body works. He made you holes in the right places. He shut off those holes at the right places. If one of those holes shut off when it's not supposed to be shut off, or one of the openings open when it's not supposed to be opened, we wouldn't be able to live or survive for one hour. So when you think about how your body works, just for a second, take a piece of food. You take a carrot, it turns to blood. You take an apple, it turns to blood. You take chicken, it turns to blood. You take ice cream, it turns to blood. You take anything you eat, it turns to blood. Who told the body to turn everything to blood? You take water, it turns to blood. Everything you take, it turns to blood. Some form of it goes to blood. You drink Gatorade, part of it goes to blood, turns into blood.

46:24The Gatorade, the chicken, the steak, the apple, the candy, the jelly beans, everything turns to blood. Who told them to turn to blood? Somehow all of this stuff turns to blood in a perfect, amazing, miraculous way. And the parts that we don't need leave the body, also in a perfect, amazing way. And it works regularly. Anytime the body consumes everything we need, the minute waste is created, it leaves the body. As soon as the body is ready to refill that space, more food comes in. It's a very symmetrical, amazing system. Everything you need turns to blood. Everything you don't need is gone. so you think about this blessing, you say, well, you know what, going to the bathroom is a pretty big deal. It's a pretty big deal. So Hashem says that in the Torah, when we were in the desert, the manna was so amazing, so spiritual, such a high level, even there's a machloket about what the berachah was. If the blessing was, I'll take you out of the land,

47:50that wasn't really a true blessing because it's not from Haaretz. So, what was the blessing? That He created the bread from heaven. That's what the blessing was, at least that's what most of the sages agree on. So now, all of it was consumed by our body. We didn't have to have any waste. And this amazing thing that we saw on a daily basis for 40 years, was just one of the many miracles. The ocean split, the plagues, the Ten Commandments, wars that we won. You know, when they had the war against the Amalekites, the nation of Amalek, we got attacked for no reason other than Amalek hates us, hates the Jews. And as long as Moshe Rabbeinu had his hands up in the air, we were winning. If Moshe's hands got tired, we started losing. But Chazal explains that that war, that first war against Amalek, which most people don't know this, was bigger than any other war that ever was or ever will be. Meaning it's bigger than even the war of Gog and Magog that's going to be one day. How so? He said because the

48:53Moshe's hands got tired, we started losing. But Chazal explains that that war, that first war against Amalek, which most people don't know this, was bigger than any other war that ever was or ever will be. Meaning it's bigger than even the war of Gog and Magog that's going to be one day. How so? He said because the It wasn't a natural war. It was a spiritual war also. The Amalekites, the nation of Amalek, had a lot of sorcerers, a lot of wizards and stuff that you see in the movies. That's where they get this stuff from. They get it from the Torah. They don't get it from their brilliant minds. And these wizards knew exactly how to time certain things. So, for example, they knew through their own powers that Hashem gave them... who is destined to die and who is not destined to die. So they picked all of the soldiers that they knew for sure were not destined to die that day. They took them to battle. They know, okay, I'm going to take all these soldiers. I know that Hashem decreed this guy is not going to die today. So imagine you have a guy that does whatever he wants and you know he's not going to die. On top of it, they knew that the nation of Yisrael

50:22would get weak once the sun moved and started going down, started moving and started going down. So Moshe Rabbeinu told Yehoshua Rabbeinu, he told him, "Listen, you go select the soldiers." What do you mean, "You go select the soldiers?" Why do you go select the soldiers? Because you know who's righteous and who's not. Go select the soldiers, go select the righteous ones. Because they have soldiers that are destined not to die. So, we have to also have soldiers that are very, very righteous, that can battle. It's not about power, who's stronger, who's not strong. It's not muscles; it's spiritual strength. On top of that, Moshe had to pray to stop the sun in the middle of the war. Stop the sun in its place. Because if the sun would have continued going down, we would have gotten weaker, and they would have been able to wipe us out. And this is just a small part of the spiritual war that happened during this war. And again, as Chazal explains to us, this is the biggest war that ever was. So this is just, again, one of the many miracles we saw. And even after all the miracles that we saw, after all the amazing things that we saw, there were still people that sinned. There were still people that were going against Hashem. There was still someone that we will read about soon that

51:48was the first Mechallel Shabbat. There was still Korach and his followers who tried to go against Moshe Rabbeinu. There were still people who sinned. And Moshe Rabbeinu is remembered not only as the leader, but this specific Gemara says that he's mentioned in another book of the Torah, in Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles) 4:18. He's mentioned by another name; he is given three other names, one of them being Gedol because he had the ability, the inclination, and the wisdom to rebuke the nation and correct their behavior. So Moshe Rabbeinu, who showed them all the miracles, still needed to rebuke people, still needed to fix people, because otherwise, they would just fall too far off the derech. And that's obviously something that he didn't want happening. So the people, the students of Rabbi Akiva, made their own mistake and they didn't rebuke each other the way that they were supposed to. And Hashem said, because you're at that level, obviously He's going to look at you at a different level, like He looks at us.

53:13And during that time, we nearly lost Judaism. Literally all of his students were gone. He had to start over. He had to start with five new students. So this was a very, very big ason, a very big disaster that happened to the Jewish people. So during these 49 days, we have to try to elevate ourselves. Number one, in memory of the students that we lost, to remember not to do what they did, but also to improve ourselves. It's our job to help each other. Number two, to prepare ourselves for the holy Torah that we're going to receive. And number three, to remember that now that we left Egypt, we have a mission. The first mission was to leave Egypt. Okay, we left Egypt. We went through Yam Suf. Now we left Egypt. Now we're on the way to Mount Sinai. Now we have a job. Am Yisrael has a job. Our job is to, in essence, become a nation and help each other out, getting closer to Hashem. Hashem built the world with certain nature in it. One of the things that He did is that He created a world that's going to live only 6,000 years, represented by each day of the week before Shabbat. So you have

54:42Sunday is the first thousand, Monday is the second thousand, Tuesday is the third thousand, and so on and so forth. Wednesday is the fourth, Thursday is the fifth, Friday is the sixth, Shabbat is the seventh thousand, but that's already the days after Mashiach. So, which means that this world that we're in, which is already the year 5775... It's now in the last hours before Shabbat comes in. What do we mean? So we're going to have 5,000. That's already Thursday. We finished Thursday, we got into Friday. Friday has 1,000, right? Out of that 1,000, we already spent over 700, 775, right? Which means there's only 230 left for the entire Friday to be consumed. Which means that Shabbat is about to come in, in a spiritual way, which means that any minute, Mashiach can come. Mashiach is going to come before Shabbat. He's not going to come on Shabbat. Maybe he comes on Shabbat. Either way, we're in the final hours, we're in the final years, we're in the days of Mashiach. Which means that if we don't become a nation

56:12that's righteous with Hashem. Not our own rules, but Hashem's rules. Now, when are we going to do it? We're running out of time, which means that right now, more than ever, it's our job to make sure that every time we have an opportunity to get someone to keep some mitzvah, whether it's Shabbat, or it's kashrut, or it's anything else, right now is the time to do that extra push. Right now is the time to be a little extra annoying. Right now is the time to be a little extra pushy. Right now is the time to be the one that reminds everyone to constantly do stuff. Because if not now, when? When? That's the thing that we have to start thinking about. And obviously for ourselves, if we're not going to keep the mitzvot, we're not going to keep all of these things that Hashem told us to do, then when? So, This 49-day period, which we're already in the 11th one, is our time to elevate ourselves. Elevating yourself works in a few different ways that are beneficial. Number one, it's beneficial in a way that obviously you could get to a higher level, which is something more to build on. The second thing is that in case, chas v'shalom, you fall, but you've gotten to a higher level,

57:41You have more of a cushion. You're not necessarily going to lose everything at once. It's just like, for example, when somebody makes money. Why do people feel more secure when they make more money? Because they figure, you know what, even if I made a few million dollars, even if I lose a few million, I still have some money left. I'm not going to be broke. But if I only made less money, say a few thousand dollars or a few hundred thousand dollars, and I put all of it into something and it doesn't work out, then I go to zero. It's much easier to lose it. So again, having that extra cushion is definitely a big advantage. Any questions so far? Another thing that I actually found very interesting in the same Gemara is that it mentions the book of Iyov. The book of Iyov is part of the Tanach, obviously.

59:08And it's a very difficult story to read, let alone to imagine ourselves in that story. But it's also the definition of Emunah. So we have Rabbi Akiva that we just talked about. He is the symbol of Teshuvah. Why? Because despite all odds, at the age of 40 years old, he not only learned Aleph Bet, He learned Torah, and he got to a point that over the next 24 years, he became Gadol HaDor. There's no major Gemara that doesn't mention his name. So, meaning he's telling us to this day, it's never too late. Never too late. You're 40 years old, you're 30 years old, you're 50 years old, it doesn't matter. It's never too late to learn Torah and get to a very, very high level. No one needs to think that, hey, listen, I'm already too late, I'm already 65 years old, and what am I going to learn? What can I really do? You don't know. The Torah is given to you by Hashem based on your effort, not learned by you. Meaning you're going to learn it, but what you're actually going to retain is going to be given to you through Hashem. So Rabbi Akiva is the model story of Teshuva, which in essence is the core of this world. Iyov, which is Job,

1:00:38one of the symbols of emunah. Why emunah? Because Iyov had a difficult test, to say the least. He went from being one of the richest people in the nation—rich to the point where someone like Bill Gates would be one of his employees; that's how rich he was. He had 10 kids, money... He did a korban every day for his kids, just in case they sinned. He was a righteous person. He wasn't even Jewish, because we haven't gotten to Torah yet. But he was a prophet. This is a big deal. It's not just anybody. In the Torah, it's written about him. Obviously. And in less than one day, in a matter of hours, he lost everything. One guy comes in and says, "Listen, all the cattle you had are dead." Another one says, "Horses are dead, kids are dead." One after another comes in and tells him, "Everyone's dead, and I'm here, the last one that survived, to tell you the story." His kids died, his money's gone, everything disappeared, and then on top of it, he lost all of his health. This is a test of all tests.

1:02:03Remember when we were talking about before, we were saying, listen, it's very difficult to have true emunah during tough times. In good times, it's easier to have emunah. Tough times like this, when you lost everything, you have difficult tests. It's a time to have a lot of questions. Push your mind. Iyov. The book of Iyov has something very interesting in it. It says, "This verse says, He will not remove His eyes from the righteous man until he is on the throne with kings. He will seek" He will sit them there forever. They will become exalted. This first verse, Iyov 36:7, is saying that Hashem does not take His eye off the righteous. And the Gemara explains it. That means that a righteous person who does mitzvot,

1:03:26Hashem pays him his reward, not just in the next world, but in this world. So much so, that He doesn't let it go until He pays him in full. That even if it takes several generations, even if the benefit of the mitzvah that the person did has to already go to the next generation and the next generation, his descendants will get the reward of a mitzvah that he did. Whether that mitzvah was tefillin, or the mitzvah was Shabbat, or the mitzvah was some type of chesed, anything that the person did, if the mitzvah is obviously exactly like it's supposed to be, Hashem pays the reward to the point where someone can get rewarded forever. And forever means just in the next life, and also in this world. How in this world? His descendants will get it. So this is good. This is good news. or the mitzvah was Shabbat, or the mitzvah was some type of chesed, anything that the person did, if the mitzvah is obviously exactly like it's supposed to be, Hashem pays the reward to the point where someone can get rewarded forever. And forever means not just in the next life, but also in this world. How in this world? His descendants will get it. So this is good. This is good news. but then the verse continues: and if they are shackled in fetters, trapped in ropes of affliction, He thus informs them of their errant deeds and their transgressions, for they have become overpowering.

1:04:54I'll continue reading in English. It's easier, I think, for everyone to understand. He opened their ears to discipline and said that they should turn back from wrongdoing. If they will listen and serve Him, they will finish their days in goodness and their years in pleasantness. But if they will not listen, they will pass away by the sword and expire for lack of knowledge. A few really, really critical things that we just learned from this, we'll explain in a couple of minutes. So, the first thing we know is that if we do mitzvot, Hashem will pay us in full. In this world, in the next world, our children, our children's children, and following, forever. But Hashem also tells us that if the reward He gives us causes us to become arrogant,

1:05:55causes us to become conceited, causes us to have too much pride, and not be the same righteous person that we were when He gave us the reward. So we were righteous, we did good, we were tzaddikim, we did good things. Tefillot, tefillin, kashrut, Shabbat, niddah, all the amazing things, we're amazing, we're the best, we're doing even above and beyond. Hashem says, ah, you're a tzaddik, I'm going to give you a reward. You're going to have this. You're going to have money. You're going to have good kids. You're going to have Torah. You're going to have amazing things. So all of a sudden, somebody says, I'm a full tzaddik. Great. And he starts having pride. He starts thinking that he's special. Hashem says, that person, not only is it not good, but I will embarrass that person. the point of bringing poverty on him. He's going to embarrass that person. He will take him all the way from where they are to nothing. To absolute nothing as a punishment for taking a reward and, in essence, using it the wrong way. Using the reward that Hashem gave you for mitzvot against Hashem.

1:07:19What's against Hashem? Something as simple as pride. Someone doesn't think, what, being prideful is such a big deal? Hashem hates pride. Hashem hates someone that thinks that they need so much kavod. Hashem says He cannot be in the same room as someone that is too prideful. So one, we learned, that if we do good, we get rewarded forever. If we do bad, we get a special punishment from Hashem. Specifically, it says in the book, this is in the Tanakh. This is not some foreign language or some mystical book. This is Torah. The embarrassment that we get, the poverty that we get, is to teach us a lesson until we do teshuva. And he says here, if that person does teshuva, then they will die in a good way. they'll get back and I'll give them back and they'll be rewarded and so on. But if they don't do teshuva, they'll die in misery. And anytime Hashem talks about life or death, it's not just this world—life or death is also the next world. Somebody could say, "Okay, great, you know what? It's very interesting that in the book of Iyov (Job),

1:08:47You mentioned this, but how do we know this is relevant to our life? How do we know he's talking about us? How do we know? Maybe he's not talking about us. Maybe he's talking about Iyov. Maybe he's talking about Iyov. I know something, Bechlal. Who am I, Bechlal, to tell you that he's talking about you? Or he's talking about me, or he's talking about you, or you, or you, or anybody. How do we know? The same Gemara, a few pages later, says, Am Yisrael, and the Torah mentions... That we had 48 prophets. Forty-eight known prophets that are mentioned by name. Nevi'im. And seven female prophets. Seven women, forty-eight men. So, prophets. Okay. You have the names. Hashem gives you the names. You have Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon. You know, the list goes on. Forty-eight names.

1:09:48Some of them are very, very well known, like Zechariah, Jeremiah, Amos, Eliyahu HaNavi, Elisha the prophet, and so on. King David was a prophet, Solomon was a prophet, Ovadia. Okay, great. But the same Gemara says something very interesting. It says, we didn't have only 48 prophets. We had more prophets, double the amount of prophets, than the amount of people that left Egypt. Meaning, in the Torah it specifically says that there were 600,000 men between the ages of 20 and 60, so there's obviously a lot more than 600,000, but it's referring specifically to that 600,000 number.

1:10:50There were 600,000 men between the ages of 20 and 60 that left Egypt. Throughout history, we had more than double that amount, which means at least 1.2 million prophets. Okay, so that's a lot of prophets. So why are only 48 mentioned? And how is this connected to what we're talking about? The Torah talks about, as Hashem said, if the prophecy that that prophet said was relevant for future generations, meaning le-netzach (forever), if what they said was relevant forever, we know their name. Their words were recorded in the Torah. But if their words were only relevant to a specific time that they lived in, then it wasn't recorded. Which means that every one of the 48 prophets, and every one of the seven other prophets, the female prophets, that's recorded in the Torah, in the Tanakh, is relevant from then until forever. And that's how we know that when Hashem mentions this particular verse in the book of Iyov,

1:12:15And he says, I will reward a tzadik forever for his descendants, just like I rewarded Rachel, the wife of Yaakov, for being modest. I gave her King Shaul as one of her descendants. And just like I rewarded King Shaul for being modest, I gave his descendant, I gave Esther, Esther from Megillat Esther, She was his descendant. So he was rewarded not just with money, not just with power, but even their descendants were great. So the righteous will get rewarded forever in this world and the next world. But if those righteous turn into wicked and they use the reward and become prideful and arrogant and do things that are against My Torah, I will take them down and embarrass them until they do teshuva. If it's relevant to them, and we just learned here that everything that the prophets say is relevant forever, then obviously it's relevant for us today. So, during these 49 days, we have to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to get closer to Hashem. Whatever we're doing, try a little harder. Whatever we're thinking, make sure it's a little more focused. Because right now is our chance to

1:13:39To really elevate ourselves. Because we have a Torah, and it's just a few weeks away. We don’t get to Torah three, four times a year. We get Torah once. We have a chance to really, really work on ourselves and try as hard as possible. And it's not just about the exterior. It's not just about growing a beard or not getting a haircut. It's not just about that. It's about the Torah that we're going to learn. The mitzvot that we're going to do. That's what it's about. The beard and the hair and all that stuff. That's great. It's great. It's nice. Do it. Don't do it. That's not the point of why we even do the external stuff. It's not necessarily because we want to look ugly. It's because we want to show ourselves and those people that we care about around us how little we care about materialism. If I'm not grooming myself like I usually do, then the world sees, "Wow, what's wrong with this guy?" And when they ask me, oh, why aren't you grooming yourself? I tell them, no, right now I'm trying to get closer to Hashem. I don't have time to groom myself because I'm so focused on Hashem during these 49 days. I don't have time to fix myself. That's how focused I am. And that's what we're trying to do. It's not just about growing a beard. It's not just about not getting a haircut. It's about focusing on Hashem. So yes, I know everyone works. Everyone has a life.

1:15:03Everyone has kids and this and that, everything, responsibilities. But everyone also has 24 hours in a day. There's no way that you're consuming 24 hours a day with just work. There has to be some other time during the day. There's an hour, there's two hours, there's three hours in a day that has to be somewhere that you can gather from a few places that you can learn Torah. It has to be. Maybe it's not three hours in a row, but it's 15 minutes here, half an hour there, an hour there. Take those few moments and learn, even if it's 15 minutes at a time. This is the time to take that chance. Because if you get to Har Sinai prepared, the gates of heaven open, and you get what we got back then. If not, you missed out on a big opportunity. So with Hashem's help, we're going to use this opportunity to really get closer to Hashem. Unless you have any more questions, I can share some more stories if you're still up for it. But otherwise, I think that's the biggest thing that we can learn today. Anything come up? Any questions? Any ideas? Anything? Okay. We'll have some more people next week. Try to get some more people. This is the job that we have to do also. It's really important. Right now, again, like we talked about before,

1:16:28Our key is to bring other people closer to Hashem. One of the ways we can bring people closer to Hashem is to learn Torah. So during these next few days, let's already start working on trying to bring some more people to the shiur. Give them CDs. If they don't want to come to the shiur, tell me about them, and we'll give them CDs. If they don't want the CDs, then bring them to the shiur, whatever. Just get them closer to Torah. And start working on it now so we can get this place packed. And if it gets to a point, we can do it even a few times a week, just to learn Torah. Because again, this is a big opportunity for all of us to do mitzvot. the reward that we get for Zikui HaRabim, meaning for making other people do mitzvot, is even bigger than the mitzvot that we do ourselves. So if you can get someone else to keep Shabbat, it's more significant than you keeping Shabbat. Obviously, you have to keep Shabbat as a prerequisite. But the point is that right now, to get them to learn to come to the shiur Torah, ...is more than double the reward. It's more than just you coming here and learning Torah. So if you could focus, try to figure out a way to get a few people to come, get a few people to listen to some CDs, maybe the link that I sent you guys with the shiur, and get people into Torah during this time. This is a time when we can purify ourselves and get ready for a big celebration. If we miss out on an opportunity like this, it makes it very, very difficult to get that same chance without waiting for another year.

1:17:56So b'ezrat Hashem, we'll get closer and closer to Hashem, we'll have a bigger shiur next week, and wish you guys all the success in the world.