Shiur Torah #3 Honoring The Families Of HAR NOF

0:00Today was a tough day. I got a call a little past midnight from my cousin, Ephraim. He's the one responsible for helping me do the whole teshuva, teaching me Torah for the last few years. We went from not knowing anything about each other to becoming best friends, talking all the time, learning Torah together. Anyway, so I get a call. He studies Torah full-time his whole life, but now he's married with four kids. He studies Torah in the yeshiva, or it's called the kollel when you're older. He's the one responsible for helping me do the whole teshuva, teaching me Torah for the last few years. We went from not knowing anything about each other to becoming best friends, talking all the time, learning Torah together. Anyway, so I get a call. He studies Torah full-time his whole life, but now he's married with four kids. He studies Torah in the yeshiva, or it's called the kollel when you're older. And... in Yerushalayim and the place next door to him is this, uh, that at seven o'clock in the morning He was supposed to be there, but Baruch Hashem, he woke up a little later or he just didn't make it in time. But Baruch Hashem, that happened because at 7 o'clock in the morning, two Arab terrorists walked in with machetes and some other weapons and killed five people while they were praying with tefillin and tallitot.

1:15And butchered five people. Horrible, horrible pictures. And sent three other people to the hospital in critical condition. There are pictures on the internet. I saw this today. You see with the tefillin and everything covered in blood. Nightmare. Nightmare. Yeah. It's unbelievable. So, I mean, I got the call from him. It's at midnight. Wow. And it's just one of those things where it's... They just walked in. They walked into the synagogue and started attacking. Yeah. No, not shooting. With the... With the machete. I mean, with the machete. With also... They say also... Yeah, with the axe also. With the axe. Yeah, with the axe. So, here's the thing. So, now... Crazy. So, you have... Excuse me. Did they catch these bastards? The two people... They killed... But then there was a third one. The third one they couldn't find. So now, after this happened, there were cops everywhere and helicopters, and there was a lot of blood, just everyone in panic. But they knew that this one guy went missing. So they suggested for everyone to stay home, not to leave their houses. So my cousin stayed home with his family and didn't go to...

2:24...the toilet to study for the day. He just studied at home. And we actually decided to do a shiur Torah. He does videos online on YouTube—a shiur Torah about what's happening. And I decided to stay home. But he noticed that, you know, time was passing and the helicopters were still flying around. The cops were still outside. Even though the ambulances had already picked up the bodies and everybody had left, there were still cops everywhere. And he's not really understanding why they're still there. Later on, he finds out that a bunch of cops went right to his building, that one of the terrorists was hiding under his building. Hiding under his building exactly where his little girls play every day. Baruch Hashem, obviously, they stayed home. Hashem had mercy and they caught this guy. They caught him. Well, that's the dilemma, though. Here's the thing. Now, initially, when you tell somebody, oh, yeah, okay, so two people died, one guy they caught, usually somebody would say, okay, this is good news. They caught the guy. I think it's bad news. My opinion. Not necessarily everybody else's opinion. My opinion, it's bad news. Why is it bad news? Because he's still alive. Okay. Because here's the problem. In the current democratic system that we have in Israel...

3:50and similar in America, but not to the same extent. I think it's a little more extreme in Israel, is that they treat terrorists sometimes better than their own citizens. So these people come from nothing, these terrorists. They live in deserts and holes, and they just have these miserable lives. But they know that if they kill a Jew, which they're brainwashed to do their whole life, not only... Well, they get paid from the terrorist organizations, like Hamas and Hezbollah, and all of these terrorist organizations are going to give their family tons of money that they never had. But on top of that, they're going to go to jail. And the jail in Israel is like a five-star hotel for them. And actually, Daniel over here was just telling me before you got here, he used to work in one of those jails for a couple of months. I've been in there. The food in those jails is like a five-star hotel. My cousin was telling me that one of the yeshivot he used to go to, they used to get the jail food. He said it's amazing food. We're talking about rice and hummus and a whole big thing. You go into a restaurant later tonight, they have better food than you in a jail. It's not bread and water.

4:59It's not bread and water. Not like America. And that's the thing. So they have this wonderful life. But here's the problem now. The Arabs are smarter than our government in Israel. How are they smarter? Because they know that we value our people much higher than they value their people. Their people, they value nothing. They say their people are worth nothing. You go, because how do you know that? the whole Islam concept, this religion, this man-made religion is telling people that they're worth nothing. How? Because they're telling you, "Listen, you're worth nothing, so go kill yourself so you can kill other people because in reality, them being alive is worth more than your life." them being alive is worth more than your life. So they're telling you that, listen, you should kill yourself, because that would better the world by killing other Jewish people, which is insane. I don't know why anybody would subscribe to something like that, but the point here is that they are living this life where they're going into a situation where they're killing people, they get money for it, they go to a five-star hotel that people call jail, but for them it's not jail, and on top of that, after their friends on the outside

6:09end up kidnapping one of our people, they want to do an exchange. And what's the exchange? The last exchange we had, we released a thousand prisoners for one person. A thousand murderers, rapists, and horrendous people that should have been killed on the spot with no trial were released just for one person. Now, of course, the one person, one Jew, is worth millions of Arabs. But in reality, based on the Torah, we are not allowed to do it. Why? Because you know that these people are going to go out. All thousand of them are going to go out, and they're going to go back to exactly what they did before. And you're saving one person, but you're going to end up killing another hundred. But that's what's happening. All of these people in the last few weeks, we've had a lot of different terrorist attacks. Constant. Every other day there's something else. One guy ran over a little baby girl. Another one's stabbing. All this. Hashem, we have so many different problems right now in Israel. All day, all day. You watch the news and you become more and more depressed. Just watching our people die every day. But what's happening here? Who are these people we're asking ourselves? Who are these people that are killing us? Who is it? It's the people we released a few months ago. A year ago.

7:19It's the same people who were released. Every one of them was in an Israeli jail. And this is exactly what shows you that not only is the Torah right, it's the only system. Why? Because the human system, the logic that people use, does not work. They're trying to be politically correct and make America happy and make Turkey happy and make Iran happy and make everybody happy so that we can all sing "Kumbaya" and one day everything's going to be wonderful. In reality, it does not work. These organizations are built with one purpose: to destroy Am Yisrael. They say it on their websites: "Our existence is to kill you," in their own words. That's it. They're going to spend and dedicate their lives to kill us. So the question is, what does the Torah say about this? First of all, the Torah says if somebody is trying to kill you, you have to kill them first. So that's one of the things that's really, really important. Any one of these people that kills one of our people should not have a trial even. They should immediately be killed. They shouldn't be sent to jail. Why would you send a person like this to jail? What benefit does it serve us in any way, shape, or form other than pleasing the media by sending this person to jail?

8:43Why? For what? So he could spend more taxpayers' money? So he could live a better life in our jails than he lives in his own mother's home? Why? Why send him to jail? For what purpose? That's number one. So people like this, murder and anything similar to it, capital punishment is the only way. The second thing is, you have to ask yourself, a lot of people are asking themselves, how is it that this thing happened to religious people? Right. Because if, let's say, for example, I was not religious right now, and I saw, okay, so, I understand if there was a terrorist attack, and chas v'shalom, it hurt a bunch of people in some area around the world that were secular and weren't doing something that Hashem wanted them to do, I can understand, it could make sense in my head that, okay, maybe Hashem is mad at them. Tammer? All right, we're in the middle, so we're going to continue. Okay, buddy? Okay, okay. All right, so listen. So we're talking about what happened today in this whole terrorist situation. Okay. So now...

9:54We have these people who are killing our people. Our current democratic government in Israel is trying to use their own logic by sending these people to jail. The system is obviously not working because these people are going to jail and, in so many words, are living a better life than they were living before they murdered. And after some time, one of their other friends ends up kidnapping one of our people, and we exchange a thousand Arabs, terrorists, murderers. for one innocent Israeli soldier. So now the Torah says that something like this is not allowed. Why? Because we cannot sacrifice one Jewish life for another Jewish life. My life is not worth more than your life. Your life is not worth more than his life. You can never, ever do such a thing. You can never say that, listen, just to free—even if it was the president of Israel, the prime minister—you can never sacrifice his life and give away somebody else's life to free his life. It just doesn't make sense. And it's not something that the Torah allows.

10:58So, to free a thousand people that you know for sure are going to murder other people should not even be part of the game plan. The second thing is that a lot of people have to ask right now is why is something like this happening? Why? Why would Hashem allow these terrorists, these murderers, to not only kill us but to kill the best of us? The ones that are keeping mitzvot. The ones that are doing what Hashem wants us to do. If they were killing someone that was, even if they were Jewish, born Jewish, but they were anti-Hashem, then you could use your logic and say, okay, this one was a really mean person, a really bad person. Hashem had enough with him. And He's actually trying to do him a favor by killing him now instead of letting him live more years and make more sins. So what he's doing is that he's putting him in a situation where he's taking him out of this world. But if the person is going to Mincha at 6:30 in the morning, to Shacharit at 6:30 in the morning, and it also happens to be the time of the prayer, he has his tefillin on, he has his tzitzit on, he's praying to Hashem early in the morning. I can tell you this.

12:16At 6:30 in the morning, you're not going to find too many secular people. Listen, once in a while you're going to find some people that just don't believe in anything, but they feel they like the whole tradition and they go to shul even if they're secular. There are crazy people everywhere. But in reality, for the vast majority of people, you're not going to find somebody in shul at 6:30 when they don't keep Shabbat. You're not going to find it. So what's happening is that you have a situation... that people are asking a question here: How is it that they're religious, and Hashem punished them, because it looks like a punishment, but me, I'm sitting on the beach, sipping my latte, and I'm having a good time with all types of bad things around me, and I'm not getting killed? So why should I be religious? Now, there's only one answer to this. And the answer, my cousin Efraim gave in his lecture today in Hebrew, there's only one version of it. It's very, very difficult to hear for most people, but it's the only truth. And the answer is that because of the people, whoever it is, it doesn't matter whether they're secular or

13:36or they look religious, or even if they're religious but they're committing sins, because of the people that are making sins, because of pretty much the whole world that's making sins against the Torah, against Hashem, that's why Hashem punishes us. So the person that is saying, "Listen, I'm sitting on the beach, and I'm not keeping Shabbat, and not doing anything, I'm not keeping any mitzvot, and this guy went to shul at 6:30 in the morning, and he's getting killed," That person, one of the murders, could have been because of him. Why? Because he's going directly against Hashem. And here's the key. In the beginning of the Torah, Hashem says that He created Adam on the sixth day. Now, Adam had all of the souls that we have today, which are pieces of his soul. Originally, it was 600,000 souls, and souls are similar to fire, where pretty much if you take one match, with a fire, and you have a candle, and you want to light the candle, the candle will be lit, but the fire on the match will stay the same. It's not like the fire will get less if you use it for something else. So a soul is the same thing. So you can divide up a soul into as many pieces as you want. So that pretty much means that all the souls that we have today came from the original Adam, Adam HaRishon.

14:58Now, what ends up happening is that that's why the Torah specifically says that we're all part of the same nation, we're all part of the same thing. So if I sin, even though I think it's only affecting me, or sometimes I don't care, let's say, it actually affects you too. There are a couple of ways of explaining it. Now, the easiest way to explain it is, let's say, for example, the sages say a story like this: Let's say there's a boat, and there are all three of us on a boat, and each one of us has a room. Okay, so we have your room, we have your room, I have my room. We have a little boat. We're going to someplace nice. Now, I decide that, you know what, it's going to be a long journey. We're going to be on the boat for at least a couple of weeks. I want a pool. I want a pool in my room. So I decide I'm going to take a hammer. I'm going to take a nail. I'm going to start nailing this stuff and make a hole in the bottom of the boat. What do you think of this idea that I have? Not good. Not good. Would you guys be happy with this idea that I'm making a pool? Why? Because I'm going to make a pool, and we'll also drown all three of us. And that's why I said no. And that's the thing. So even though everyone can say, "Listen, leave me alone. Live and let live." You know, this famous saying that people have: "You live your life, I live my life. You have your beliefs, I have my beliefs." That's nice to say. They all sound great. They even look great on blogs and papers and all that stuff.

16:27But in reality, my friend, you can't do that. Especially with Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael is one soul. We're one nation. We're one people. Every single soul, even the people that you've never met and probably will never meet in your life, are affecting you today. And that's one of the ways that Hashem is telling us that if you have the ability to help another soul and you don't help them, for example, if you have the ability to help somebody keep Shabbat, or you have the ability to help somebody keep kosher, and you choose not to, part of that sin goes to you. And that's something that's critical that we have to understand. That's because we all are part of the same nation. We all have the ability to bring a tikkun (rectification) over here. Right? Yeah, but it's not like that with Hashem. No, you have to listen; we have to try. It doesn't necessarily mean that if we don't succeed, we get punished. We at least have to try. Hashem is not like our bosses who say, "If we go to work, he's going to pay us, but if we don't go to work, he doesn't pay us."

17:35Hashem is very different. Hashem says, if you try, even if you don't get the job done 100%, but at least if you try, you're going to get rewarded. The boss is different. He says, listen, you're going to go to work, you're going to do a great job, and if you do a great job, I'll pay you. Hashem doesn't work that way. He's not a human. He doesn't think like a human. For Him, it's all about effort. And b'ezrat Hashem, we'll succeed also. If we try, He'll help us and we'll succeed. But the key is to try. So we have to help every person that we know do mitzvot, keep the basics of Hashem's Torah. And we can't have this mindset where we're living in our own room and we can make a hole in the bottom of the boat just so we can make ourselves a little pool without any regard for anyone around us. to anyone around us because at the end of the day, what ends up happening is that the system will make all of us drown. And that's what's happening with the Israeli government right now. The system they have in place, where they want to satisfy the world's media, the world's governments, and their own pockets, is destroying all of us. Because what's happening here is that they want to be nice, but in reality, all they're doing is storing terrorists.

18:51They're just storing terrorists. That's all they're doing. They're storing them. They're treating them well. They're even educating them. These people are coming out as smarter terrorists when they leave. So this system... Educating them in which way? College. Like college. They earn degrees in prison. They get degrees. They get degrees for different jobs. There's a teacher who comes, teaches them. They take exams, everything. Yeah, just like if you go to college, you're getting a degree. So here's the problem: they're under this illusion that somehow these murderers are going to become prime ministers or they're going to become doctors or lawyers. It's never going to happen. And the 1% chance that it may happen out of thousands, it's not worth it. But that's what happens. They're drilling on the bottom of the boat. thinking that their pool is more important than the rest of the boat and we're all drowning, and there's not enough people saying, "Hey buddy, we can't do this. You can't make a pool because we're all gonna drown." No one is saying it. The other thing that needs to be known is that our words affect our environment.

20:09Now, in Rabbi Zamir Cohen's book, he has something really, really amazing where originally the experiment was done by a Japanese scientist who took these dishes of water, small dishes of water, and he would freeze them. You know, when you freeze the water, You know, the water, obviously, you could take it under a microscope and you could see these different shapes. So, what ended up happening is that he wanted to see what would happen if he would say nice things to the water on one dish, and then on another dish, curse the water. Oh, that was in the Rabbi Zamir Cohen book. And... The amazing thing that you would see is that when you curse the water, the shapes and the colors became dark and ugly, really something horrendous. And then on the water that he would say nice things to and compliments, it was beautiful shapes, stars, something amazing out of this world. He was like, "Wow, just words?" How does this apply to our life? Are we going to start a water-type of business that we're going to show people these dishes? No. How is this going to apply to our life?

21:24We're not going to do this. We're not going to become scientists. So how does this apply to our life? Now, it applies to our life with the language that we use. It shows you the power of the mouth. Exactly. So here's the thing. There are two things that you need to know. The first thing is, most of the human body, what is it made from? Water. Most of the human body, as a scientific fact, is made from water. So if... Bad words are going to affect the water on the outside in such a negative way that it could cause a plant not to grow, and it can cause water to darken and become, in essence, something horrific. What is it doing to the water inside us? So somebody that's using bad words, using bad language, cursing, and just using foul language in so many ways, In essence, what is he doing? He's feeding himself poison. And the most important thing to think about is that usually when someone is cursing, they're doing it one of two ways. They're either cursing because they're frustrated at someone.

22:39they're cursing because it's already become part of their language and you know it's just become their day-to-day thing now. Usually, the first one happens before the second; you don't just become used to cursing. Usually, you start cursing and you start using this type of language because you get so mad at someone. So, what happens when someone gets mad at somebody else and they start cursing him and they start yelling at him and start getting angry at him? What is it the equivalent of? It's the equivalent of getting poison, drinking it, and expecting the other person to die. It doesn't make sense. How could they die? But that's exactly what cursing is doing to our bodies because most of our body is full of water. And if the water on the outside is being impacted that way, the water on the inside is much, much, much worse. And then, when we talk about the holiness of the body, of the Jewish body, and who we are, someone that studied, the Gemara specifically says that someone who studied Torah their whole life, seventy years, can lose their entire holiness with just one curse. So what happens to us when we curse every two minutes? Hey, you, hey, this, hey, that. We see all these words that have become part of our expressive vocabulary.

23:56What happens? So that's one thing. The second thing is that we also need to know that the words that we have, even though we don't see them, they are very much there. They are very much something that exists in the world. So when someone is saying a bracha, those words travel through the air. They travel... And eventually they go up to the clouds. And eventually they go into the water that the clouds become. The water comes down. Where does that water go? It goes into the fruits. The fruits that we eat will have that water. Now if there was a bracha that went into that water, the person that's eating that apple or that cucumber or that anything could potentially benefit from it. Especially if they do a bracha. But if the person gets one of these drops that's more likely to happen, which is a drop full of curses and foul language, it's almost like they're eating poison. And we see it. How do we see it today? We see it in all of these new diseases that we're getting every other day, it seems like. And where are they all based from? Food. The Rambam specifically said,

25:17that the core to the sickness of the human body is from food. But why? This is just one of many, many, many explanations. It starts in the human language. So how do I protect myself from eating poisonous cucumbers? I like cucumbers. Do you guys like cucumbers? Cucumbers are good, right? Okay, well, I want to eat a cucumber and not feel like I'm being poisoned. So how do I do it? What did Hashem tell me to do? Make a beracha. How simple is that? How long does a beracha take? One second? Maybe five seconds. Maybe five seconds. So what do I make? What am I accomplishing in these five seconds to make this beracha? First of all, I'm saying, okay, this cucumber turned from poison to something beneficial. That's already a plus, right? I'm not going to die. I'm not going to get sick from this thing. The second thing that I'm doing is that I'm actually remembering where this came from. Where did it come from? It came from Hashem. Hashem... thought about this whole world, put this whole world together, all of the people that had to work in certain places, all of the farms that had to work in certain places, all of the rain that had to fall in certain places, everything that had to work the way that He made it work, just so this cucumber could arrive at my desk, and I could eat it, enjoy it, and become healthier because of it. Is that worth five seconds of my time? Of course.

26:45Five seconds. He made the whole world work in a certain way for me to get just one simple cucumber. And I don't own five seconds of my life. Five seconds. And that's what you have to think about. So when you say a bracha, a lot of people make the mistake of just saying it, and they go through it in such a way that's so fast that they forget that they even did a blessing. And that's why my cousin taught me that Every bracha, you have to break it into three parts. And then you do the rest of the bracha. Break it into three parts. Why? If you break it into three parts, it's slower, you're feeling the bracha, and it's meaningful. But if you go through it just to get through it, then what thanks are you giving, really? It's almost like you're thinking that maybe I'm doing Hashem a favor by saying this bracha. Maybe I should, instead of getting one cucumber, get two. He owes me or something. Think about these things. It's really important to understand who you are standing next to. Who is in front of you? Who is this Hashem? Now we can't see Him, we can't hear Him, we can't touch Him. But He is very much everything. So if we acknowledge that, everything changes.

28:06If we don't acknowledge it, we're already losing the war. So when we go back to this event, this horrific event that happened today in Yerushalayim, where you have innocent people die. A few more innocent people are in the hospital. You have 24 kids. 24 kids are going to become kids without a father. 24 kids. This is heartbreaking. They didn't do anything. Why does Hashem do it? For the very same reason of what we just talked about. For people that don't do very simple mitzvot. Hashem is not asking everyone to become Moshe Rabbeinu. Hashem is not asking everyone to become Rabbi Akiva. He's not asking anyone to become the Gadol HaDor. He's not asking anyone to become Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. He's not asking them to do that. There are just basic, basic things that we can do. He gave us the world. He gave us parnasa. He gave us everything that we have every single day. He gave us the air that we breathe. He gave us the eyes that we're able to see, the ears that we're able to hear. Without any one of these things, we wouldn't be able to function for an hour. He gave us all of these things, and He's asking us, listen, one day a week, don't work, don't watch TV, go to shul, learn Torah, and relax. Very simple.

29:33Food, make sure it's kosher. Don't worry, I'll give you the parnasa, you'll be able to afford kosher. If you want to eat kosher, don't worry, you'll be able to eat kosher. No one ever in Jewish history has ever starved only because they wanted to eat kosher meat or kosher food. If they wanted to eat kosher food, they were able to find kosher food. Unless there was a gezera, unless there was a punishment or decree, Am Yisrael, they had it at the Mikdash, where there was part of something happening, but, you know, then that's something different. But overall, anyone, especially in the modern age that we have right now, that wants to eat kosher food, it's accessible, it's affordable, and especially when you trust in Hashem, and you know that He's going to give you the parnasa regardless of what you do. Whether you work 6 hours, or you work 16 hours a day, your parnasa is going to be exactly the same. So, the key here is that if you really believe that... then the expense, the extra expense, even if it's 300% more to buy a steak or buy any meat or anything else, shouldn't even be calculated. So then you have the whole issue of Shabbat. Why is Shabbat something that some people love and other people just can't deal with it? I remember the first time I did Teshuvah, about 17 years ago, I was talking to Daniel before, the first time I did Teshuvah,

30:59I was 17 years old. I was going to college in my second semester. Between the semesters, I became religious, or at least tried to become religious. We started keeping Shabbat, started keeping more and more things, and I started learning a little bit. But Shabbat was dreadful for me. It was something that I just didn't enjoy. Because I was always alone. Because all of my friends would go out. And me, I didn't do anything. I just sat there and I slept the whole Shabbat. Once in a while, I'd go to shul. And I'd sleep the rest of the day. And eat. Here and there. And that's it. That was Shabbat. And that's pretty much what Shabbat is for a lot of people. Even people that still keep it their whole life. Their Shabbat is waking up, going to shul, eating, sleeping. Sunday. That's it. That's Shabbat. That doesn't sound like fun to me. Waking up, going to shul, okay, that's fine. I can connect to Hashem. I can talk to the Creator of the world. That's a big deal. Great. But I can do that every day. I can do that all day. Eating? I can eat all day. Okay, so let's say the food on Shabbat is extra special. Great. Sleeping? Okay, I sleep every night. At some point, I sleep. It's not that much, but I sleep. What's so special?

32:27Why is Shabbat so special? Because Shabbat has a special spiritual power that, if you really try to connect to Hashem the way He tells us to connect to Him, then you have a different feeling. And that's how you do that connection. That connection happens through learning Torah. The Torah that you're going to learn throughout the entire week is one certain type of Torah, but the Torah you're going to learn on Shabbat is a completely different type of Torah. And that's the key of Shabbat. The first time I tried it, i didn't learn any Torah. Because for me, the only Torah I was learning was from tapes and different things. And I couldn't do that on Shabbat. So I was left with only one choice, which was to sleep all day. And Shabbat became miserable for me. And I ended up, you know, falling. Eventually, I fell off. And it took me many years to get back on the horse. So, before we continue making those same mistakes, we have to look at our past and start realizing, what did I do wrong? What happened? And you correct it. The same thing goes for you guys. The same goes for anybody else that's watching this video. You have to see what's going to work. How does Hashem really tell us to keep Shabbat? Is He telling us to sleep all the time? No. He's not telling you to go to sleep all day. He's not telling you to eat all day.

33:40Eating is great, it's nice to have food, but food should not necessarily be the primary reason you enjoy Shabbat. I mean, if your number one reason for why you enjoy Shabbat is your food, there's a real problem. Because what if the food's bad? Does that mean that Shabbat's no good anymore? What if the food's not good? What if the food goes... Actually, you know what? This happened to my cousin one time. It actually happened to us also. One time, there was a problem with the fridge. We left the light on, so we couldn't close the fridge. So what happens if you don't close the fridge and you have food in there? It goes bad pretty quickly, okay? The whole night, yeah. Right. So that's what happens. And so if somebody's entire Shabbat is based on the kugel or the cholent or the gefilte fish or the rice or the chicken or whatever it is that you like to eat, and your entire Shabbat is based around this food, then if the food is not good or doesn't work or something happens, that means your entire Shabbat just doesn't work. Now, that can't make any sense. Why?

35:01Because Hashem says that Shabbat is the most important part of the entire week. He had six days that He created everything, and the seventh day's creation was to not create. It was a completely different type of creation. It was everything that the other days were not; that is what Shabbat is. Everything that those days would wish they want to be is what Shabbat is. It's the best thing. It's the best thing in creation. So to say that just because my food didn't come out so good, that my Shabbat doesn't exist anymore, it's insane. It doesn't make any sense. That means I don't know anything about Shabbat. So obviously that can't be it. So let's see. So that's another thing if I go to sleep. Sleep. Sleep. All right, well, if I am a typical teenager in today's age, I'm already sleeping most of the day. I'm already waking up at 12 o'clock, especially during the summer when I don't have school. So Shabbat is nothing special. So obviously that can't be it either. Going to shul is great, but I go to shul throughout the whole week. There are extra prayers and everything else. If I can really connect to the prayers, then yes, that definitely makes Shabbat special. That definitely makes Shabbat special. But the other thing is,

36:25is the Torah that I'm going to study. And you have to study things that you enjoy, especially when you're in the beginning of teshuvah, and you're just starting out, everything you read has to be sweet like honey to you. It has to be something you enjoy. You cannot read something that's torturous to you. If you don't understand anything, and you don't even know why you're reading it, then it's the wrong book. There are so many different books, there's so many different things to read about Torah, ...that the subjects can relate to everything. If you like psychology, there are Torah-related books about psychology. There's actually one rabbi, Rabbi Twerski. He's extraordinary. He's extremely successful, and he's extremely brilliant in both Torah and in psychology and in anything that has to do with the whole aspects of a human being. He's written countless books, and we've read several of them. If you like psychology... Rabbi Twerski is the first one you go to, in my opinion, but I'm sure there are many other good ones. If you want to figure out how to raise your kids, he's also written about that. If you want to figure out how to get healthier, he's written about that, and several other rabbis, very good rabbis, have written about how to become healthier. And that also, again, if it's written by someone who's connecting the Torah to the subject you want to learn about, it's considered Torah.

37:52The Rambam, who's considered one of the biggest geniuses that ever lived, was also a doctor. A very, very good one. So the things that you could learn from the Rambam, that you would think, oh, Rambam probably, you know, when you don't know anything, when you're in the beginning, you don't know anything. So what happens is that, like, oh, no, maybe it's too tough for me. I don't want to go to somebody from 800 years ago or 900 years ago. I want to go to a guy that wrote a book 10 years ago. Believe it or not, all of the stuff that he's getting from 10 years ago is what was written already 800 years ago. So you can read both. It doesn't mean that the guy who wrote something recently is not good. But again, if you're getting into it, find something that you like. If you like business, there's plenty of books about Torah that teach you how to do business, how to conduct your business. Because one of the first questions, I think it may actually be the first question they ask you when you go to Shamayim, when our time is done, after 120 years, a hundred and seventy years, a hundred and twenty years, whatever Hashem decides. Some people say a hundred and twenty is good, a hundred and seventy is good. I think a hundred and twenty is supposed to be a complete life. That's what David HaMelech lived. But anyway, after we finish our seventy years, and we get to the court of heaven, the first question they're going to ask you is, how did you conduct your business? Now this I actually learned from a business book, a Torah business book. So,

39:20Somebody would think, what do you mean that I conduct my business? Why don't they ask me how I conducted my affairs in the synagogue? Logically, you would think that would make more sense. If I conducted myself well in the synagogue, and I prayed really hard, and I wore a nice hat, and I wore a jacket, and maybe I had some peyot, and maybe I had a long beard, and I shuckled during the whole prayer, that means I'm a good guy, right? Not so much. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There's plenty of people that wear nice hats and have big beards and are not the greatest people in the world. And those people could be the reason why people today got killed. And then there are some people that don't have any of that stuff and are very big tzaddikim. And then there are some people that don't have any of that or have it and are big reshaim. And those people that don't do it, maybe the people that died today died because of them.

40:20So it's not specifically about if somebody is secular or if they're religious. It's if somebody is committing sins, it's affecting the entire nation of Am Yisrael. And in essence, actually affecting the entire world. So if I'm not going to keep kosher tomorrow, maybe somebody is going to die because of me. If I'm not going to keep Shabbat, maybe somebody is going to get killed because of me. And that's one of the things we have to start reminding ourselves: that we're not alone. Whether we want to or not, it's not up to us. And that's something really, really important. It's not just us. We are part of a nation. You cannot choose whether you're going to be part of it or not. You are part of it. You can do things to get yourself cut off based on what Hashem's decrees are. I really wouldn't recommend it. So when we go back to the business issue, And Hashem says, "How did you conduct your business?" The reason why it's how you conducted your business instead of how you conducted your affairs in the shul is because someone can pretend in the shul much easier than he can pretend in business. If I go to shul and I pretend like I'm shuckling and I pretend to have a nice hat and this one and a lot of things that are not completely necessary for religion but people make as part of them,

41:47And it's not negative, it's just not necessarily always a positive. The point is that if I do that, and I go, and I pray, and everyone thinks I'm some big tzaddik, that's great, but I could be a big liar. Maybe I'm not even praying. Maybe I'm thinking about some football game or something. Or maybe I'm just crying about some business deal that I lost, and I'm not really even talking to Hashem. It's much easier to pretend. In business, you can't pretend. Why? Because there's money involved. So Hashem is going to know whether you're pretending or not, in either case. But in the case of your business, when you're conducting your business, whether you're cheating somebody or not is going to affect everyone else. If I'm cheating in shul, no one's going to know; it's usually not going to affect anybody else. But if I'm cheating in my business, that means I'm stealing from somebody, I'm overcharging somebody, I'm just mistreating people. I'm doing a lot of things that in the shul wouldn't matter, but in business it does. So that's why they'll ask you, how are you really acting in your business? How are you conducting your business affairs? Because if you're stealing in your business or you're doing things that are not legitimate in your business,

43:05That not only means that you've hurt all the people that came to you, but that also means that you don't actually have a direct connection to Hashem. Because if you had a direct connection to Hashem, you would never have the feeling of needing to cheat people. Because you know that it's not a message from Hashem. That's why the Rambam said that for people that are asking, how much Torah do I need to study? We all know Torah is something that's the most important part of a Jewish person's life. You have to study Torah every day. In the beginning, that sounds insane. It sounds too much. It sounds something like, how could I read a book every day? I don't have time. I work. I have a wife. I have a kid. I have this. I have that. You have all the biggest excuses in the world not to do it. But in reality, when someone looks at their average day, you will see that the vast majority of your day is being wasted on nothing. It's being wasted on TV, it's being wasted on friends, it's being wasted on meaningless conversations, it's being wasted on watching, on listening to nothing. Sometimes it's being wasted on just sitting there and doing nothing, literally, but not realizing it. You mentioned to me to watch the video. Oh, the Torah and Science? So, actually what I did was I put the TV on, I said I was going to, and then the Yetzer Hara got to me and I watched TV all night. Amen. Amen.

44:26Amen. So, here's the thing. That's what we were talking about earlier today about TV. Now, everything... It doesn't agree with me. Everything that... Everything that's out there... It gets me really good. If I put the TV on, I'm locked. Not really. There are a couple of reasons for it. There are a couple of reasons for it. There's a scientific reason for it. There's a scientific reason for it. And there's a spiritual reason for it. The scientific reason for it is that there was actually some scientist who discovered the radio waves. There are radio waves everywhere that you can't see. Now the radio waves being used on the television... are actually used to make people go to sleep. It's the same type of radio waves. They're used for the TV. They're used to make somebody go to sleep. And that's why sometimes you're going to sit in front of the TV, and the next thing you know, four hours have passed. Or three hours have passed. And you're like, wait a minute, how did three hours pass? If I go to work, three hours is like a week. But here in front of the TV, three hours is like two minutes. How could that happen? So that's the scientific reason.

45:40The spiritual reason is, in the beginning of someone's teshuva, in the beginning of someone's journey back to Hashem, he has the biggest battle in his life. Who is the battle against? It's against his existing boss. Who is his existing boss? Yetzer Hara. Why? Because someone who hasn't been doing what Hashem wants his whole life, He's not keeping this, he's not keeping that, he's completely ignoring this, he's completely ignoring that. He's living a life like a typical non-Jew. What happens is that he's actually doing the job for the Yetzer Hara. Yetzer Hara is saying, wait a minute, you're doing such a great job for me. I don't even have to convince you to break Shabbat. I don't even have to convince you not to go to the pub. I don't even have to convince you not to do this, this, and that. You're doing it yourself. You're such a great employee. But all of a sudden you want to go work for somebody else? You want to work for Hashem? Are you crazy? I'm not going to let you. So you have the biggest Yetzer Hara in the world in the beginning because he doesn't want his best employee, his number one employee that he doesn't even have to tell what to do, to leave him now.

46:48Now, what ends up happening with things like television is that if you have a building and you have four sides of the building and one side, the entire side of the building, is just one big door. That's it. There's no windows. It's just one door that opens the entire side of the building, and the rest of them are just walls. Now imagine this was your building. When you turn on the television... or you do a lot of the things that have become part of our day-to-day life, it's like you've opened that door for only one guest to be able to come in and not out, which is the Yetzer Hara. Why? Because the television is something that is going to waste your time, remind you of things that you shouldn't be doing, and a million other things that end up getting you back into a place that you're trying to get out of. So this doesn't necessarily mean that somebody has to go from zero to Rabbi Akiva overnight. It's not possible anyway. But you can at least make it easier for yourself to win the battle. If you're going to play the battle against the Yetzer Hara, which is smarter than all of the humans that ever existed combined, according to the Gemara, if you're going to fight against somebody like this,

48:12Your best shot is to, you know, be prepared. But if you're tying your own hands behind your back, you're wasting your time. There's no chance of you winning. You already lost. So, if you want to watch TV, fine. But don't think you're going to succeed in doing it. It's not about me saying it's my loss. It has nothing to do with me. I'm telling you that, so long as I watched TV in the beginning... It was very, very difficult for me to get close to Hashem. Why? Because every time I would read something, learn something, or do something that made me feel better about this whole teshuva process, I'd watch a show, waste four hours of my life, and then completely lose all interest in learning again. It may take me two or three days to convince myself to learn something. Just because of one show for 20 minutes. Why? I saw some woman that's dressed, Hashem Elokim. Or I saw some guy that's doing this or doing that. All the wonderful things they have. All the educational things they have. All the shows that we used to watch. Everything. It's not conducive to your life. And I can tell you one thing for sure, no one in the history of mankind has ever become a tzaddik because of a television. Never. dressed, Hashem Elokim. Or I saw some guy that's doing this or doing that. All the wonderful things they have. All the educational things they have. All the shows that we used to watch. Everything. It's not conducive to your life. And I can tell you one thing for sure, no one in the history of mankind has ever become a tzaddik because of a television. Never. Now,

49:35The television could also be used for something good, like DVDs. You could watch different discs. You could watch DVDs for Torah and stuff like that. But that's only under the condition that you already have Torah in you. Meaning, if you're just starting out from scratch and you want to be able to continue watching TV, it's going to be very, very difficult for you to win the battle, but it's still possible. But the problem is, you know, you ask some people... that are religious have a television, and they're still continuing to be religious, and from time to time they will watch a movie, and from time to time they will watch a show, but it's from time to time. How can they control it and I can't? How come? Why? Because they already have a foundation. They already have Torah in their life. It already became part of their daily life. It already became the priority in their life. So when Hashem said, "I created the yetzer hara, but I created the potion, that could fight it, and it's called the Torah. So He created the yetzer hara in every one of us, but there's something that could beat it, which is the Torah. The only thing that can beat the yetzer hara is the Torah. So I gave you an obstacle, but I gave you a solution. I gave you a medicine for it. Now, if I've already been religious for five, six, seven, 10, 15, 20 years, and Torah is something that's part of my daily life, very rarely will I even want to watch TV. But let's say I do,

51:03i know I can control it because Torah is still part of my life and maybe, maybe I can overcome the obstacle. If I have no Torah whatsoever and I'm just starting out, I have maybe three hours of Torah over 30 years of life, so I don't have much. I know that Adam was somebody, and I know Moshe was somebody, and maybe they were friends or something. I don't know that much. I have a problem here. Because I don't have much Torah, I don't have much of this potion to fight the Yetzer Hara, which again, is the smartest of all creatures, of all humans. If you combine all the humans together, they wouldn't be as smart as the Yetzer Hara. So, I have a medicine, but not enough of it. So that's why you have to make, sometimes, the best way to achieve anything, whether it's in Torah, Yiddishkeit, or even business, is to take a leap, a big step. Sometimes a big step is the only step. You know, there's a saying that I used to say to people, especially when they would struggle: "Yeah, listen, one step at a time, one day at a time. Don't worry, it'll be fine. Just have patience." Sounds great, and sometimes it appeals to people and calms them down.

52:29In reality, though, it doesn't actually work most of the time. It depends on the person. Most of the time, it doesn't. For example, if I went to a doctor and the doctor said, "Listen, I have to remove half of your liver because the liver has a disease, and if I don't remove it, you're going to die." Sounds awful, right? Yeah. So what if I say to the doctor, "Oh doctor, listen, one step at a time. Why don't you take one piece this week, one piece next week, one piece a month from now?" What is the doctor going to think? "Are you crazy? By the time I get to the third piece, your entire body is going to be full of this." One step at a time doesn't actually work very much. I have to take one leap, cut it off, let's go. Yalla. Moving on. Same thing with the basic core of... The Torah and Hashem. There's a basic core. If I want to be on Hashem's team, I have to do the basics. I don't necessarily need to study from morning to night every day. I don't necessarily need to be the guy that has the most Torah knowledge overnight. I don't need to be something that I'm not overnight.

53:44But there's a very basic foundation that I need to do that requires a little bit of a leap. Kosher is not very difficult to eat. It's not difficult. Baruch Hashem, none of us are homeless here. We can all afford it. Eat kosher. And I don't just mean meat. I mean also everything else, whether it's cheese or anything else. Because again, we talked about it last week. The number one ingredient they use in sauces, for example, for marinara sauce, for pizza... to make a pizza. Were you here for that? Maybe you weren't. What is it? No, I don't think so. If you have five pizzerias, okay, all five of them are not kosher, but they all use the same basic ingredients, right? You have cheese, you have tomatoes, you have bread or dough, and you have some tavlinim (spices). But let's say they all use the same basic spices. They all have those spices available to them, but all five pizzas taste drastically different from each other. Why? Why? Because the sauce is cooked differently. Even though it's all tomatoes, it's all cooked with a different meat. And the most common and popular meat is pork. So the sauce that you're eating in that dairy pizza is not exactly dairy. And it's not exactly kosher.

55:08So even though we're thinking that we're eating... Listen, Rabbi, I am a... What's it called? I eat kosher meat all the time. That's what I used to say. Don't worry, I eat kosher meat all the time. No problem. Pizza? Yeah. Sushi? Yeah. You know, I eat noodles at the Chinese place. It's not kosher, but it's just noodles. No big deal. Yeah, it's just noodles. The problem is that those noodles were cooked with maybe a cat about 20 minutes before I ate it. And that's the reality. So... When I say kosher, it's everything kosher. Also, in the cheese, there is much cheese that uses the fat of the pork. How about this: If it does not say... Gelatin? Gelatin is from bones. Not gelatin, but cheese, like the expensive cheese, camembert, things like that. They also use the fat of the pork. I see different cheeses, and I'm happy with myself that I'm eating only kosher cheese. Good, good. You have to start somewhere. That's 100%. That's great. That's great news. And it's... You have to... Reward yourself for doing these things and encourage yourself to continue doing more because this is all improving yourself as a person, spiritually and physically. And the key thing is with some of these things is that there are some things that we wouldn't imagine have the worst things in them, like certain soups. What is it called? I forgot the same thing last time also.

56:30A French onion soup. I used to love French onion soup. I would go to Applebee's and some of these other non-kosher places and eat French onion soup. They'd say, no, no, no, I don't eat meat over there. I'm just eating a French onion soup. With cheese inside or something? No, forget the cheese. It's the meat that's inside. It's the bacon that's inside. What gives it the flavor? It's the bacon that's inside the soup that you never feel, see, or even hear about. That's what gives it the flavor. Did somebody tell me about this? No, this is something you learn after the fact. So I was thinking that I'm keeping kosher and I was far distant from it. And that's the thing. We have to wake up. People are dying. That's the reality of it. And I was trying to explain to someone recently about the significance of Lashon Hara. Lashon Hara is something that we take for granted because people don't really understand the significance of it. Now, the second Beit HaMikdash, we had two Batei Mikdash. The first one was around for 410 years. Then we had a 70-year break in between. Actually, there was 56 years, or 53 years, when they were able to start building it. Long story short, a 70-year break in between. And then we had the second Beit HaMikdash, which was around for 420 years. The Beit HaMikdash was pretty much having

57:55Hashem on speed dial. It was amazing. It was a direct connection with Hashem. The Shechinah was here on earth. It was something that we can't even imagine in a dream, how amazing it was. Now, the second Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of something called Sinat Chinam, which is baseless hatred. Not liking someone for no reason. Not actually having a real reason for not liking them. So a Sephardic not liking an Ashkenazi, Chas V'Shalom. Ashkenazi not liking a Sephardi, Chas V'Shalom. A Yemenite not liking one of them. All of these nonsense things that people put so much weight into. Oh, what are you? Oh, I'm Moroccan. Oh, I'm Yemenite. Oh, my people are better than you. It's all nonsense. I hear a lot of people make fun of the Lebanese. It's complete nonsense. Actually, you know what the funny thing is about Yemenites that people are so foolish about? It's so funny that people are so far from the truth that everything in this world is upside down. The Yemenites—people make fun of their language, people make fun of the way they talk. The actual closest way to the real Lashon HaKodesh, the real language from the Torah, is how they talk. They're the closest to the original.

59:12They are the closest to the original—Yemenites. Yet, everybody else is so foolish that they think, "No, we don't like their accent." That's the accent, buddy. That's the way you're supposed to talk, or at least it's close to it. You know, there's no, like, for example, there are a few letters that, when you pronounce them regularly, it's not even close to the truth. Like, for example, kuf. Kuf is one of the letters. Kuf is like "K" in English. So most people say kuf or kaf. Now, the way to say it is kuf. It's not even close to the original. But we're so far from the original that, you know, we've reinvented, I guess, Hebrew to some extent. The point is that the Yemenites pronounce it the right way. But the foolish people around them that don't know enough Torah make fun of it. Now, anyone that knows Torah is not going to do that. Anyone that really knows Torah. People that don't know Torah, yeah, they make fun of the superficial things. And that's exactly why we lost the Beit HaMikdash. We lost it because of superficial nonsense. People not liking each other because of food, because of culture, because of different stupid things that we added to our life and made them significant. Now, what is the foundation of...

1:00:36Causeless hate. How does it start? How does me not liking somebody start becoming a problem in the beginning? Maybe you don't like the way the person looks, you don't like the way he talks to you. So how would he know about it? How would he get to know it? How would he get to know it? Maybe you said something, right? Don't say something. That's called Lashon Hara. If I say something bad about you, even if it's to your face, obviously it's not good, but the point is, if I say something bad about you after you leave, and you go to work, and I say, oh, you know what, Daniel's such a nice guy, but he's very so-and-so. It's terrible. That is the foundation, that's Lashon Hara, and that's the foundation of causeless hate. Now, what's the point of, what am I trying to make here? What's the point of this? Hashem told us He destroyed the Beit HaMikdash because of causeless hate. We know that causeless hate starts from Lashon Hara. Now, we also know ourselves. We know what we do. But I don't know what everybody else around the world is doing. I don't know what you're going to do tomorrow. I don't know what the 14, 15, 20 million, however many million Jews there are in the world, will do tomorrow.

1:02:02All became tzaddikim. Not one of them said Lashon Hara for the day. No one. Everybody became so righteous. It was extraordinary. And I went to one of the guys in the Beit Knesset and said, "Yeah, you know what? Daniel did this, this, and this." Do you know what that means? That the Beit HaMikdash wasn't built that day because of me. So who am I to know that everybody else is also talking Lashon Hara? Because everybody said, "Nah, but I'm not the only one. He says it, and he says it, and he says it." How do you know he says it? Maybe everybody else became tzaddikim today. Maybe tomorrow they're going to be a rasha again. But today they're a tzaddik. So if I'm saying lashon hara, every time you say lashon hara, you have to remember, you're part of a nation. You're part of one soul. You're part of one body. And you're impacting everyone. Saying lashon hara is impacting everyone. If I say lashon hara, it could very well be my fault. And it is my fault that the Beit HaMikdash wasn't built that day that I said it. Because... It could very well be that day that everyone else didn't say it. And since that's the only reason that the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, that's it. So lashon hara is very important. The last thing I want to tell you is a story. I know you have to leave, but I know we talked about learning Torah before we started recording this shiur.

1:03:25And it's all about making time. Making time. So there's a difference. We can continue, but I know he has to go. But there's a difference. But I wanted to read you the story. It's something out of this world. I just got a minute to call, and I'll be back. Okay. So go make the minute, and I'll make the story. Okay, fine. Okay. All right. See, that's how we convince him to stay a little longer. So here's the thing. If we have all of these issues happening in Israel right now, All of these issues are, you know, then we would say, okay, if it's just in Israel, there's something wrong there. The problem is that all of this terrorism is happening around the entire world. All over Europe, there's anti-Semitism, there's murderers. Just the other day, there was a rabbi killed on the way to the synagogue. It also happened in Miami a few months ago. It's happening all over the world. In Miami, it happened. It's happening in America. It's happening... In Miami, a few months ago, it happened. Yeah. What happened? The rabbi was walking. I think it was two people walking. One of them got either murdered or, you know... Actually, no. I think he got killed. I think he was killed. Was it a hate crime? Yeah, it was definitely someone who doesn't like Jews. And it's happening all over the world. It's happening all over America.

1:04:47all over Israel, all over Europe, all over everywhere. And if we don't become one now, we have already lost the war. Because the government that is running the countries that we're in, whether it's America or it's Israel, they're not going to win the war for us. There's only one way for us to win the war, and that's Hashem. Now, Hashem doesn't require us to train in battle and go to a special gym and work out and learn how to shoot. Our shooting is this. That's it. That's what our shooting is. If we start keeping Shabbat, if we start keeping Kosher, if we start keeping the basic foundation of Judaism like Tefillin, if we start keeping these basic things, then we are winning the war because then all of these powers in the world mean nothing. because the perfect example of showing that all of these powers in the world mean nothing and all we need is Hashem is to look at all of the major civilizations that tried to destroy Judaism since the beginning of time. The Romans, the Greeks, the Turks, the Nazis, the Arabs—everyone has tried to destroy Jews since the beginning of time. And every one of those was a major civilization, the strongest power in the world.

1:06:15The Nazis were the strongest power. They were the strongest power in the world at the time. The Greeks were the strongest. The Romans were the strongest. So how is this little, tiny nation still here? When was the last time you talked to a Roman? When was the last time you talked to someone who even knew what the original Greeks looked like? When was the last time you talked to anyone who was part of some Nazi nation? There's Nazis here and there, of course, but it's not the same thing that it used to be. It's little bits and pieces of terrorist nonsense. Hitler got away with killing so many Jews. Got away with it, but he's also, he's in a Gehinnom that's nice for eternity, though. So yes, he got his pleasure for several years, but don't worry, he's got the rest of eternity to pay for it. And even that's not going to be enough. The key here is, what are we going to do about us? If Hashem showed us that we, being such a tiny little nation that shouldn't even be big enough to be discussed in the news at all, let alone every other day, somehow survived and these giant nations did not survive.

1:07:37Obviously, Hashem is showing us it's not because of our superpower muscles, superpower weapons, superpower missiles, or superpower brain. It has nothing to do with any of it. These are different tools that Hashem gave us, but in reality, it's all in His hands. So if we start waking up and start doing what He wants, all of the Arabs in the world would not matter. All of the anti-Hashem, anti-Judaism people in the world would not matter. That's the way to win the war. It's not building a fancier weapon or a better weapon. It has nothing to do with that. The problem is, when we had this war that happened just this past summer, they were throwing hundreds of missiles at Israel and people were becoming very, very impressed with our missile system. They weren't getting impressed with the miracles that were happening. And one time, one of the guys that worked at one of the missile sites, he actually... You know, he was not religious at all, but he witnessed the miracle himself when he reported it. He's one of the few that actually reported it the way it really happened. He said that there was a missile being fired at one of the busiest areas in Tel Aviv. Now, usually, the first rocket that's being shot at it on the Israeli side takes it down 80% of the time. The first rocket shot at it missed. They shot a second rocket, and it missed.

1:09:06Second rocket, 95% of the time, they get it, no problem. 95% of the time, if not more, it missed. Third rocket, 100% of the time, they've never had such a situation where it didn't go. 100% of the time, by the third rocket, this is the most fancy, shmancy situation they have in the world. Everyone wants to fight Israel because they don't want to give them the secret to this weapon system they have. It's that good. Third rocket, of course, has to hit, right? The third rocket didn't hit. Now they have less than three seconds left before this missile hits the busiest building in Tel Aviv, which is like Manhattan in America. Did you guys hear about Tel Aviv being hit? No, right? Because it didn't. Because that guy explains, on our screen, we had already started calling the fire department. We had already started calling everyone. From seeing it on the screen. Yeah, we're seeing it on the screen. We missed three times. It's never happened before. We have three to four seconds maximum before we have impact. And there are going to be thousands of people dead within moments.

1:10:22There's nothing we can do. It's too late. By the time any missile that we're going to shoot, it's already going to hit the building. We can't, there's nothing to do. So we're already calling the fire department and we're already pretty much starting to, you know, just look at the screen with our hands like this at what just happened. But all of a sudden, we see on our radar that a strong wind comes from nothing. A wind? A wind. Wow. A strong wind comes from nothing and pushes this missile into the water. Now, in the history of this type of, I guess, machine, and you know what, as a matter of fact, in the history of general warfare, no one is ever going to say that wind is strong enough to move a missile. from its direction to such an extent that it's going to make it crash. Maybe it's going to make you miss, like instead of, let's say, hitting this building, you're going to hit the one next door. Or even if it's shot from a long distance, you may hit, instead of one building, you'll hit. It's got power, it's fast. Right, but a wind is not going to make you crash. Well, this wind came from Hashem, and this one made it crash. And when that happened, this gentleman... into the water. Into the water. And that guy came out, and he said, Yes, Elokim!

1:11:50He knew it. "I saw Hashem," he says. "I saw Hashem at work. Because there was no other explanation for it. I saw Hashem." He called the rabbi that he met many years before that. He told him, "Listen, I need to learn Torah." The rabbi asked, "Well, what happened?" He replied, "I work in Kipat Barzel. I work at this place. I just saw Hashem at work. And if He's going to work like this, if He's going to show it to me, I want to learn His Torah." And he went and did it. And he publicized the story. And that's what happens also. It's important to know. Anything... If you know anyone, if you've ever experienced a nes, it's a chiyuv, not just a mitzvah, it's a chiyuv to publicize it. Okay, so I'm going to tell you a story because I know you need to go. So I told you one story, but that wasn't the story. This wasn't the story. Okay, so now, I know you want to stay here forever, but you have stuff to do. I know you do, I know. I'm not joking. So this is in regard to who really wants to study Torah. Now, I say I want to study Torah, but I study a certain amount a day. The next guy says he wants to study Torah, but he only studies half of what I study. Everybody has excuses. And then there are a lot of people that say, "Hey, listen, you know what? Once I get married, I'm going to study Torah. Once I do this, I'm going to study Torah." Well, here's a story of someone that really wanted to study Torah, and I'll show you how.

1:13:15His name was Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber. Now, it's in my cousin's book. It's amazing. It's called To Remain a Jew. His name was Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber. Okay, so he was in the communist nation in Russia during communism. And back in those days, they pretty much treated people like slaves. You weren't allowed to practice religion. If you practiced religion, if you practiced Judaism, they would kill you or they would torture you or do many other horrific things to people. So Judaism was not something that was widely practiced, even if people wanted to. But Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber became one of the biggest and the most special rabbis in modern history. One of the students asked him, "You know, how did you become so great?" He replied, "Well, because I made the Torah my number one priority." the Torah, my number one. He goes, "Well, how did you do it?" He goes, "Well, this is what I did. During the times when I was in communist Russia, they would make us do all types of manual labor. So I picked a job where I had to take these buckets of water from the river and bring them back to the camp. Now, the trip back and forth was an hour each way."

1:14:41And it was so much, the buckets were so big that this would usually have to be a four- to five-person job. But because I preferred to be alone, I told them that I could do it myself. I preferred that nobody would tell me what to do, and I didn't have to rely on anybody else. If you rely on somebody else and they screw up, then you both end up getting punished, maybe even killed. So I preferred to be alone and try to do a four-man job by myself. An hour each way carrying these giant buckets of water and other things. And they're working from 5 in the morning all the way to 7 o'clock at night. Fourteen hours a day, manual labor, no breaks. A little tougher than our jobs, no? A little tougher. A little, yeah. Well, I realized that studying in the morning, I didn't have time because... I had to start my day at 5, already working at 5, so I had to wake up even before that. At night, I was so tired from the manual labor—14 hours of straight manual labor—I could barely even keep my eyes open. After eating just a little, maybe a piece of bread, I could barely keep my eyes open. I couldn't concentrate. I was in so much pain every day. Nursing my pain and nursing my wounds was impossible for me. I wanted to do much more, and I still studied, but I felt like it wasn't enough.

1:16:07What do you mean, Rabbi? It's enough, even if you study for one hour that day. He goes, no, no, it wasn't enough. So I realized that it takes me an hour to go each way. But if I run, it'll take me less. So I started running with the buckets, and I realized that it took me 45 minutes each way. So what I did is I ran for 45 minutes, put down the buckets, then I hid them. under the mountain for 15 minutes, because they were expecting me to get there in an hour. So I had 15 minutes to myself. I brought one of my books, one of my Gemara books, and I studied for 15 minutes. And then I realized I could do this on the way back too. And even though it was very painful each way, the joy that I got from studying for those 15 minutes was worth more than 14 hours of pain. And that's what he did for years. during this slavery and these resha'im that made him do all of this, 15 minutes for each hour. And he said, "I would work for 14 hours, but I would study for three and a half during that time." And that's the difference between us, who make excuses every day for why we're not studying, and someone who really wants to study. Because if you want to study, you'll find a way. That's what we talked about before. Find a way.

1:17:36Pleasure, man. My pleasure. B'ezrat Hashem. Next week again. Yeah, yeah. B'atuach. So, yes. I'd love to stay, you know. No, no, listen. You guys got to do what you got to do. You got to enjoy it. And Baruch Hashem. We had a good shiur. This is also for refuah shlemah for all the people that got injured today in Yerushalayim. All of Am Yisrael. Also for zechut. Amen. Amen. B'ezrat Hashem. Next week again. Yeah, yeah. B'atuach. So, yes. I'd love to stay, you know. No, no, listen. You guys got to do what you got to do. You got to enjoy it. And Baruch Hashem. We had a good shiur. This is also for refuah shlemah for all the people that got injured today in Yerushalayim. All of Am Yisrael. Also for zechut.