Shiur Torah #51 Signs of Mashiach, Achieving Your Purpose? Will God Forgive Us?

0:00We're back in Boca Raton after the holidays. The holidays were good. We had a lot of shiurim in New York. We did probably nine or ten shiurim over there. A lot of siyata diShmaya, a lot of kiruv. It was great. You know, you get to see some old friends, you meet some new ones, and you realize that everybody has the same exact problem. We all have a disconnect from Hashem. We don't have enough of a connection with Hashem because we're still having problems with emunah. We still think that we need to work seven days a week, 25 hours a day, to make parnasah. We still think that Hashem, when it comes to parnasah, can't handle it. Or, people have a tough time keeping certain mitzvot. And, um, The key to learning Torah is not just about learning the stories. It's about seeing the details in the stories and realizing that the same problems that we have today have been around since the beginning. Nothing new is under the sun. That's what Shlomo HaMelech said. There's nothing new under the sun. The same thing that you're going through, the same thing that you've already gone through is in the Torah.

1:26If you study it enough, you will find common problems, you will find common issues, and you will see that the Torah can truly answer every one of your questions. So now, Baruch Hashem, after the holidays, we start the Five Books of Moses again. We start with Parashat Bereshit. Since we didn't have a shiur last week, we'll do it today. Parashat Bereshit tomorrow, Baruch Hashem, we'll do Parashat Noach. Parashat Bereshit, we've gone over it together a little bit in small details and scientific parts in past Monday Night Shiurim, but we'll go over some of the details also if you guys obviously have any questions. But my goal tonight, if we have time, is to learn some of the details of creation, learn the story of Adam and Chava and the lessons from that story, and then connect it to the situation today, which is the end of days. It's a subject that's very, very interesting, but unfortunately, it's a subject that most people like to deny. Most people do not like to think that right now we are in the end of days. We are at the time of the Mashiach. If you look at the world around us, you have to be blind to not see that it's here. Whether it's going to happen

2:53in the next few weeks, few months, or few years, we don't know. But there are a lot of signs that it's closer than ever. Closer than a few years. Some even say closer than a few months. Before I start the parashah, I'm not sure if anybody saw it, but I sent it out. I sent out a text after the holiday. It was a video that came out right after the holiday. a 15-year-old boy that had a clinical death. And the boy, before this clinical death, was completely secular. He lives in Israel, completely secular, no Torah life whatsoever. Now, I'm not sure what his zechut is, but when he had the clinical death, he went up to Shamayim, and they showed him everything. By everything I mean, they showed him Gan Eden, the gate of Gan Eden,

3:53entrance of the lowest level of Gan Eden. They showed him the entrance of Gehinnom. He gave a little bit of details of both. But the most interesting part is they showed him the end of the world. They showed him what's happening right now and they showed him the war of Gog and Magog, the end of days. And they showed him the details. For many years we've been trying to find out who Gog is. He saw him. And we'll go over more details later on, but miraculously, this boy that knew nothing about Torah, nothing at all, you can see his picture, you see the video, you can tell he's secular. It's not a big secret. You know, he's wearing a t-shirt with a... Sorry, did you see Gog's face? Yes, yes. He also knows his name. Unfortunately, he's the President of the United States. So... Say that again? Unfortunately, Gog, according to this boy, is Obama. No, I thought you meant he saw God's face. Not God, Gog. And he was Obama. I was saying, what?

5:14No, no. Gog, Gog. I mean, there's so much light revealed that you can't even look at the sun. No, no. The war of Gog and Magog is the war of all wars. It's the end of days war. It's the last war. And it's led by one leader. That's according to the prophets. It's written by the prophets already 3,000 years ago. Almost 3,000 years ago. 2,500 years ago. And... The war of Gog is led by one person by the name of Gog. And for many years, we've been trying to identify who this person is. There have been different indications that Gog is Obama. But again, it's all guessing. Until you know, you're not going to know. According to this boy, he saw it and understood that it is him. Whether it is or it isn't, I don't know. I wasn't there. All I can tell you is that it's a... Not a surprise, but at the same time, it's not good news either. Especially since we live in America and we appreciate the country and the things that it has. It's unfortunate. But one thing we do know from the Nevi'im, one thing that we do know from the Torah is that at the end of days, the entire world will go against Israel. There will be no allies. There's no such thing as allies. Everyone will go against Israel. Including the U.S.? Including everyone. All seventy nations will go against Israel.

6:41all seventy nations will go against Israel. If you want to learn more about the end of days, it's detailed in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah 14 talks a lot about it. I actually spent a few hours today reading it and learning more about some of the prophecies. It's pretty extraordinary. So anyway, the boy says that the end of days is here. The last war has actually already started. quietly in Syria. And there's going to be a very big event soon, meaning in the coming months. They'll make the entire world go into a massive war against each other. And then everyone will get together and go against Israel. Because they'll realize... This is the next couple of months? Yes, next few months. Because they'll realize that Jerusalem is... Why should I be on a diet? Hey, have a piece of pizza. Yeah, you might as well. So, how are you? Hi. So, they said that the... Have the pizza, enjoy. So...

8:06They said that the war has started already and different things are going to happen. We'll talk about it a little later, but the reason why I even mention it, and the reason why I even believe it, and the reason why I posted it and reposted it and tried to send it to Am Yisrael, is because It's too believable to be a lie, meaning that it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to 100% happen. There are many people who have seen prophecies that were true, but Hashem decided not to make them happen. But it does mean that we are in big danger right now as a nation. And bad things are coming unless we do serious teshuva as a nation. Bad things have already started. If you just pay attention to the news for five minutes, you'll see that there are countless deaths and injuries all over Israel, all over the world. There's major anti-Semitism, there are major terrorist attacks, and it's getting worse and worse by the day.

9:30Right, I just found out before this shiur that the Arabs have this new strategy where they're putting this perfume in mailboxes in Israel. And it looks like perfume, but in reality, it's poison. So you guys can see. It's similar to our September 11th, isn't it? Yes, similar. It's really poison. They're putting it in mailboxes so people don't know. They think it's perfume. They're like, "Oh, let me try it." They're going around with knives, stabbing people. Bombs. Women and men terrorists. Not just men. So you can't defend yourself. There's nothing you can do. But you know, the funny thing is, I think it's safer in Israel for us as Jews to be in Israel than to be here. It's safer... If you keep mitzvot anywhere, because at the end of the day, there's not going to be any safe place. As a matter of fact, one of the things you see from the video is this kid who knew no Torah whatsoever. Nothing. He knew nothing. All of a sudden, he knows Torah. He knows things that would take you at least 20 or 30 years to learn.

10:51He knows verses by heart. Did he have a near-death experience? Yes. He died three days before he gave this lecture. Only 15 years old. Wow. So he gave this lecture. I mean, the kid's 15 years old, completely secular. Three days before that, he had a near-death experience. He got healthy. He saw what he saw. He died for 15 minutes. And all of a sudden, he has all of this wisdom. And it's extraordinary. And... Scary at the same time. So this boy knows a lot of different things that would take 20, 30, 40, 50 years of learning. And he knows it. Like that. That's not something that you can make up. And everything that he says was written in the books. He didn't even know it was written in the books. He never saw the books. He's never picked up a Torah book. He never learned any of this stuff. So he's saying things. He goes, "Oh yeah, he's telling a story. I saw this and this." And the Rabbi that he met, who is hosting this kid, is saying, "Oh wait, hold on a second. Stop one second. Let me show you what you just said is written." And he opens the book in Zechariah. And he says something else. He goes, "Okay, hold on a second. Let me show it to the audience where what you just said is written." And he shows another. Everything that he says is in different books in the Torah.

12:18you can't make up a story. I mean, you have to be better than the best actor of all time. At 15 years old, I don't think you can find something like that. So it's too crazy to be fake. At the same time, to say that we have to stop our life and just hide under a table, that's also not what we're suggesting here. The key is that How about if you just stop two things, dieting and exercise? The key of what we do need to do is do teshuva. That's what we need to do. So he says a lot of different things, and one of the things that he says that's going to disappoint a lot of people that support the Israeli army is the same thing that the Torah says, which is that the Israeli army will be defeated in two days. And Israel will be conquered. and will be dominated for, I believe, it's either seven or nine months by the goyim. How can it be so short? Because the entire world will attack them. No, but I mean, if it's only seven or nine months, what happens after that? Oh, Mashiach.

13:36Mashiach beats them all. So, it's not like they regain strength. No, it's just like the book of Zechariah says, you're not going to win with your army. There's not going to be any army. You're not going to need an army. No army. We don't win. The Mashiach doesn't need an army. He doesn't have weapons. He doesn't use weapons. So, he's saying this is all going to happen now. As we speak, it's already happening. If you pay attention to the details around the world, it's not too far from what's really happening. You're seeing Russia and China and North Korea I've all gone together, all of a sudden all of them care about Syria for some reason, which doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It has to be about the money. What money? Russia has a bunch of money. They don't need Syria. They don't need Syria. Syria is nothing. It's just sand and dust. Syria is nothing. It's not like they're going to attack Saudi Arabia with oil. Nothing is Syria. Nothing. Unless Assad is a magician. No reason. There's no reason. There's no reason. Yeah? It's the same thing as Afghanistan.

14:44There was a headline in the newspaper in the UK yesterday: "We are 30 seconds away from World War III." That was the headline of the newspaper: "We're 30 seconds away from World War III." Pretty much, if anybody presses the wrong button, we're in World War III. You've seen the attacks in Israel. You've seen the attacks of anti-Semitism in New York yesterday or the day before. Two kids. There was a firebomb thrown at them. Two Chabadniks. Arab guy. Stabbings. Killings. Bombings. Everywhere. And this is what the end of Gemara Masechet Sotah says, I believe it's Masechet Sotah, that at the end of days... We will have nothing to rely on other than Avinu She'baShamayim. We'll have nothing. We can't rely on the army. We can't rely on our allies. We can't rely on our friends. We can't rely on anything. Nothing. Our money, our resources, nothing. Nothing. At the end of days, we will have nothing. All your money is worthless. All the gold is worthless. Medicine is worthless. Everything is worthless. The only thing you have is if you have a connection with Hashem. That's it.

16:04So what do we do at times like this? We have to connect to the only source of help we can have. Unfortunately, we still have a big problem. More than 70% of the Jewish nation does not have a serious connection with Hashem. So when we start Parashat Bereishit, Hashem is giving us another opportunity to reconnect. learn the beginning from the beginning. Why should I have a connection with you? We learn the stories, but in the stories, there's a lot of wisdom, and you'll see that also connects us to the end of times. So we'll go over some of the other things, and if you guys have any more questions, I'll answer them. Or I can send you the video; you can watch the video for yourself. I sent it a few days ago when it came out, but if anyone didn't see it, I'll send it again. and this is not the only one. This is — that's the, oh, that's the part I forgot. Rabbi Kanievsky also came up with the same thing a few months ago. The same guy that I told you learns the entire Shas, the entire Gemara, the entire Shulchan Aruch, the entire Midrashim — pretty much everything that everybody takes seven years to do, each one of them — he learns everything in one year. He already said this is all going to happen a few months ago. So the Mashiach is here. So the Mashiach is here.

17:25Get ready. Announce it to everybody. He doesn't talk much. He spends all of his... learning that much, he doesn't have time to talk to people. So... The point I'm trying to make here, and the reason why I mention it, is not to scare people to death and to go on to, you know, stop their diets or to hide under the table. The point is that if we're not going to wake up now, when are we going to wake up? If we're not going to keep Shabbat now, when are we going to keep Shabbat? If we're not going to do tefillin every day, when are we going to do tefillin? If we're not going to keep kosher, when are we going to keep kosher? When Mashiach comes, there will be no more time. No more time. In the beginning of God's creating the heaven and the earth, when the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and a divine presence hovered upon the surface of the waters. So, one thing that we learn from Bereishit...

18:33Bereishit means "in the beginning." It teaches us one of the most valuable things that we need to know about our life. First of all, there had to be a beginning. The world is not like Aristotle used to say, or the Greeks, or some scientists in our generation who claim that the world has always existed. There had to be a beginning. The second thing is the Ramban explains that Bereishit could also be translated to mean BeChochma—with wisdom. With wisdom, God created the heavens and the earth. Everything in creation has extraordinary wisdom behind it. wisdom behind it. Nothing was ever created for no purpose. Not you, not me, not the picture behind you, not anything. Everything has to have a purpose. The reason why it's important to know that everything has to have a purpose is because you start with the simple things. The guy that made this chair made the chair because he wanted somebody to sit in it. The guy that made the table made it because he wanted people to put things on it.

20:02The guy that made the building made it so people could occupy it, or businesses, or... The guy that made the plane made it because he wants people to fly and go from place to place. The car, also, to drive from place to place. What about you? The One who made you obviously made all of these other creations. He's the one that created the guy that created the table and the plane and the phone and everything else. So of course, if they're smart enough—if the people are smart enough to create something with a purpose—the guy that made the chair made it with a purpose. He didn't just put a few things together and say, "No, I don't know why I created it." He didn't just make a table and say, "No, I don't know why I created a table." Obviously, there has to be a purpose. So if he's smart enough to create something with a purpose... then, of course, his creator, at the very least, needs to be smarter than him. Or as smart as him, right? So obviously, if he created him, he created him with a purpose. Now, if we say that our purpose is to make money, because that very same Creator created all of us, it's not like a different Creator for each one of us. There's one Creator. There's one God. So, if the Creator created all of us,

21:27It's okay. He gave us all purpose. He gave us all a mission. Now, if someone thinks, "No, maybe He created us because of money," then how come most of the world is poor? If you actually make more than $320,000, you make as much money as the top 1% in the world. The top 1% in the world... If you already make $320,000, which in America is not... It's a lot of money, but it's not... You're not the rich and famous or anything like that. $320,000, you're already above the top 1% in the world. So obviously money is not the real purpose. If you say maybe He created us to have kids, there are many, many, many people who don't have kids, even if they want to. So it's not for kids. It can't be for kids. That would mean that... Most, you know, millions and millions of people would not be able to, were created with no purpose. And someone who is perfect cannot create something that is imperfect. Same thing with money. If He says that He created us for money, that means that everybody would have to have it. People who don't have it, which is the vast majority of the world, that means that they were all created for no reason? That doesn't make sense either.

22:54Can we each individually have our own purpose? Each person has their own individual mission, yes, but there is an ultimate purpose that we all have. The ultimate purpose is to serve the Creator. The king, if let's say there was a king of flesh and blood, the king is going to run his country with a certain mission in mind. Even if he wants to enjoy himself every single day, he can't run his country that way because then it would go into ruin. He can party as much as he wants, but the country as a whole, his kingdom as a whole, would have to have a certain mission either to conquer more land or become very wealthy. Whatever the mission is, the overall creation or the overall things that he has in order under his rule have to have some uniform purpose. The uniform purpose is to serve him. enjoy himself every single day, he can't run his country that way because then it would go into ruin. He can party as much as he wants, but the country as a whole, his kingdom as a whole, would have to have a certain mission, either to conquer more land or become very wealthy. Whatever the mission is, the overall creation or the overall things that he has in order under his rule have to have some uniform purpose. The uniform purpose is to serve him.

23:55do what He says. So, of course, if a flesh-and-blood king wants it, then the Creator of all creations, of course, is the same thing. Now, the Creator also told us how to serve Him. He gave us an instruction set. It's called the Torah. It says if you learn My Torah, that's serving Me. But not just learn it like it's a science book. Learn it by doing what it says. If it says do a brit milah, do a brit milah. If it says eat kosher, eat kosher. If it says you know, be with your wife only for approximately half the month, because when she's not niddah, then that's what you do. If it says, keep Shabbat, keep Shabbat. Whatever it says, do. So the uniform purpose that we all have is to worship Hashem. The individual purpose that the Jews have is to learn Torah. That's why we were chosen. By chosen, meaning that we were the ones chosen to live and comply with the Torah, because we get added benefits for doing so. And of course, each and every one of us has our own individual mission within that. And that is to work on character traits, your middot. You were not brought into this world to make money, you were not brought into this world to meet many women, you were not brought into this world to get married, you were not brought into this world to do anything other than work on your middot.

25:23Character traits. We've spoken about this briefly in previous shiurim, about the fact that each one of us is a gilgul, a reincarnation of a previous generation or a previous time, and the reason why you were brought back is to fix something that you weren't able to fix last time. So for example, if someone in their past life died cheap or was a very cheap person, they came into this life to overcome that. unfortunate disease of being cheap. People that are cheap, it’s a disease. It's not something you can stop automatically. You have to work on it. Some people are angry; they get angry at everything. You say the wrong thing to them, and their head explodes. They come to this world to work on their anger. Other people can work on their tzedakah. Other people can work on their connection to Hashem, their emunah. Other people can work on their learning Torah. And different reasons. There are different character traits that you came here to work on as your individual purpose. How do you know which one is given to you? Very good question. How do you know which one is your mission? The one that's the most difficult for you to do. That's your mission. How do we know that? That's the one. How do we know that?

26:46We know that, first of all, obviously, everything we say, we know it from Chazal, from the sages. But the easiest way to understand it is that if you came here to fix something, that means that the other things that you don't need to fix should be fine. So if you weren't cheap in your last life, you're not going to be cheap in this life. If you weren't angry in your last life, you're not going to be angry in this life, and so on. So if you came into this world... ...and your main problem is that you have anger issues, or you have loyalty issues, or whatever it is, then obviously you know that's the key. Most of us have more than one thing to work on. Let's be realistic here. It's not just one thing. But overall, working on your middot (character traits), that's your primary individual mission. You cannot overcome your mission and succeed in it without following the instructions.

27:47The instructions are called the Torah. Another word for Torah is ora. Ora means instructions. So, in other words, you work on your character development with the guidelines of the Torah—not just the guidelines, but the instructions. Because without the Torah, you wouldn't know how to fix it. Because each person, if left alone... will define good based on their own understanding. So, for example, somebody would say that they think being cheap is good. But we all know it's not good. But if they lived on an island, they would think that it's good. Another person could say that being promiscuous and having a new woman every day or having a new man every day is good. Another person would say killing people is good. Hitler thought that. He thought that getting rid of the Jews was a mitzvah. That was his own definition, though. But seriously, it is. He didn't wake up in the morning and say, "I'm a bad guy." No one in the world wakes up in the morning and says, "I'm a bad person." Everyone thinks they're good. Everyone thinks they're good. Not only good, everyone thinks they're perfect. So, he wakes up and he thinks, "Oh, I'm going to get rid of the Jews. I'm going to help the world."

29:09So he was left to his own definition. That's how we know how far off reality you can be without using the instructions. And this is what God tells us in Bereishit. He tells us, "I built the world with chokhmah. I built the world with wisdom. Everything has instructions. Everything has a way. Everything has a reason. If you simply follow what it says, you have no problems. If you don't follow it, you can end up worse than the worst." That's one of the things we're going to learn in a couple of weeks when Hashem tells Avraham Avinu that your descendants are going to be as high as the stars and as numerous as the sand. How could it be? How could it be like the stars or the sand? It says that a Jew with Torah, he can reach the stars. He can reach something extraordinary. Without it, he can be worse than the worst in history. And that's one of the things we see in today's world, all the headlines of all the stabbings. You know, the media publicizes this stuff. The interesting part is that if you look at the headlines, it's usually "Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian." They don't say in the headline, "Palestinian killed three Jews before the Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian." And unfortunately, those media companies are owned by Jews.

30:40Liberal leftist Jews that are anti-Torah are our worst enemy. They're worse than the Arabs. Right. So that's what Hashem... From the statistic that I heard, I don't know if it's accurate, but it said of the population of the United States, only 10% of the Jews in the United States are Orthodox, and 27% of the population of Israel, the Jews, are Orthodox. I mean, it's a very small percentage. Yes, only about... Let's say there's like 6 million of us here in the States that, you know... you know, 10%, you've got 600,000 Orthodox Jews in the entire United States. Very small population. Yeah, no, they're saying that there's approximately 2 million Orthodox, observant Jews. Jews that keep Shabbat like you're supposed to keep Shabbat. Not keep Shabbat... Worldwide? Worldwide. Only about, figure, let's say, 20%. If we're, let's say, we want to be very optimistic, let's say 30%.

31:50let's just say 30% of Am Yisrael are keeping Shabbat, like God said so, not like man said so, God said so. Because man says that you're allowed to drive on Shabbat. God didn't say that. Man says that you're allowed to, you know, play music, take showers, and cook on Shabbat. God didn't say so. Man says that if your business makes a lot of money, you should work on Shabbat. God didn't say that either. Okay, so... As far as the way of observing Shabbat and the rest of the mitzvot, let's say 30% of Am Yisrael keeps it. This creates a very serious problem. This means that 70%, at best, are not. As we've learned about Shabbat many, many times over, and all this year we will continue to learn, someone who does not observe the Shabbat has no share in the World to Come. That's not the least of their problems, but that's a big problem by itself. However, there are many other problems. Do you think Hashem, from a mercy point of view, will say that 70% because they weren't brought up Orthodox will get some type of exemption?

33:05from being not Shomer Shabbat. What do you mean they were not brought up Jewish? They knew they were Jewish? They were Jewish but they never heard of Shabbat. Never heard of Shabbat? 70% of people didn't hear of Shabbat. No, they heard of Shabbat but their parents never taught them. There's a concept called "Tinok Shenishba," which is a baby that was pretty much lost, and someone that was, I don't know, brought up in the middle of Africa or Antarctica and didn't even know he was Jewish. What happens if they were in a Jewish neighborhood and their parents never taught them? Parents, not parents. The person grew up in their life, they learned a career, they learned how to clean, they learned how to cook, they learned how to fish, they learned how to be a stockbroker, they learned how to be a mortgage broker, they learned a lot of other things. They lived in the modern world. They know what Judaism is. If they knew they were Jewish, they're not a Tinok Shenishba. Tinok Shenishba means they didn't even know they were Jewish. So they lived, let's say, in the Ukraine, and in the Ukraine, at certain times, they weren't allowed to be Jewish. So they're liable even if their parents didn't teach them. No, it's not their... It's the parents' responsibility to a certain age. After that, they're adults. You can't blame your parents when you're 50 years old. Okay, after 13 years old, yes, your parents will get punished for it, 100%. But after that, you're a man. That's it. You know, you learn how to be an architect. An architect takes...

34:32I don't know, 20 years of school, 10 years of school. Torah takes an hour to know what it is even. And after that, obviously a lifetime. But the point is that, you know, you need to know that there's an obligation. There's a gosh. It takes 10 minutes. 10 minutes. So someone had to ask themselves at some point or another, "What is my purpose in the world?" Maybe not when they're 15, maybe not when they're 20, but at some point in their life, they have to ask themselves. And if they think that their purpose in life is to, you know, is to be an architect or to be a... know a pilot. I don't believe that's the case for their whole lives. People have, you know, people ask themselves the purpose of life. And if they know that they're Jewish and they've heard of what Judaism is, then obviously they know what Shabbat is. So they cannot be considered. Now, the next question we should ask is, with Hashem being one that has unlimited mercy, would He still say, "You know what, okay, I understand"? You knew, but you didn't feel like doing it. But I don't want to kill 70% of my people. That's what people think. No, okay. Listen, I didn't do it. I didn't keep. But me and Hashem, we're like this. I kiss the Mezuzah. You know, when I come in, I go to Beit Knesset twice a year. It's not last year. It was only once. This year, it's twice. I eat kosher whenever I get a chance. Come on, Hashem. We're like this. I love you. So unfortunately for those people...

36:00Hashem can't do it even if He wanted to. He can't save them and forgive them even if He wanted to. Because Torah also, by Him creating the Torah, He created the Torah 974 generations before He created the world. Before this statement was put into words, He created the Torah before the world, 974 generations before the world. White fire on black fire or black fire on white fire. That's how it was originally written. In that Torah, He gave Himself rules. Meaning, He is unlimited, but He limited Himself. Because without rules, there's no point. So if He says, listen, Moshe Rabbeinu complied with all of the mitzvot, he's in Gan Eden. Rabbi Akiva complied with all of the mitzvot. He's in Gan Eden. You know, Tzvika complied with all of the mitzvot. Gan Eden. Tommy over here, he didn't really do anything, but I like him. He always said, "Me and God are like this." He always said, "You know, mezuzah, I spent 60 bucks on it." Come on. I can't do it. That would make Hashem a liar. And another name that Hashem has is Emet.

37:25Emet means truth. That's His stamp. His stamp is Emet. He cannot be a liar. So even if He wanted to save someone who did not comply with the mitzvot, He can't. Because that would make Him a liar. Because when the person comes to the same place as Moshe Rabbeinu, he says, "Hey Moshe, hey Rabbi Akiva, hey Rabbi Shimon, I'm Stephen over here. I didn't keep any mitzvot, but I'm in the same place as you in Gan Eden." Moshe Rabbeinu will come to Hashem and say, "Oh, I didn't know You were a liar." Hashem is a liar. Can't. Can't do it. So my Hashem writing in Torah is not only rules for us, it's rules for Him too. So unfortunately, we have a dilemma here. We have 70% of the nation that are not keeping. So now the next question people will ask, well listen, come on. Hashem loves the Jews, the chosen people. He constantly saved us, constantly made miracles, da-da-da-da-da. He's not really going to kill all of us if we don't do teshuva. All you need to know, all you need to spend is maybe five minutes. And you'll see that it wouldn't be the first time. It's already happened. The first time that it happened is in next week's parasha, Parashat Noach. It wasn't just Jewish people. It wasn't just a few million people. It was everyone. He killed everyone. The world was no smaller than today. It was no less developed than today. People think that it was a bunch of king's men.

38:48in caves with spears, chasing lions so they could eat. No, it was a developed world. They had much, much, much more significant wisdom and spirituality than we could ever have. You had giants, you had angels, you had spirits. It was a magical world, much more developed than what we have today. People think that it was like Buba and Haba together and chasing Noah to let him into the cave. No, it was a developed world. It was a lot of people. A lot, a lot of people. Hashem destroyed everyone. Another time, Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah was the most beautiful place in the world. The most beautiful place in the world. Something amazing. Like, you know, like Las Vegas is viewed as something beautiful. Las Vegas wouldn't be the equivalent of a room in Sodom and Gomorrah. The beauty of Las Vegas is not even a room in Sodom and Gomorrah. There were reshaim over there; they were evil. Hashem destroyed all of them. Everything, everything. Didn't leave anything, nothing. What do you have today? You have the Dead Sea.

40:01The Dead Sea is beautiful. So imagine the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, how beautiful the destruction is. When you ever go to the Dead Sea, it's amazing. You see pictures of the Dead Sea. It's something extraordinary. We went there about two years ago. It's something unbelievable. That's the destruction. So just imagine how beautiful the finished product was. So that's the Dead Sea. Then you have Egypt. Egypt. Every Passover. Every day. Every day we are obligated to remind ourselves of Egypt. Every day. Twice a day, you're obligated to remind yourself of Egypt. Shema Yisrael. When you do Shema Yisrael, that's the purpose. Shema Yisrael is to remind ourselves of Egypt. When people don't understand about Egypt, they think that just Hashem went, He beat up the Egyptians, we left. Okay. Everybody's again. Moshe Rabbeinu. or be alone. Everybody's high-fiving each other. No, it's not like that, guys. No. Unfortunately, after we beat up the Egyptians, they lost power. We stopped being slaves. But now, the Jews didn't want to leave. Moshe Rabbeinu was telling them, listen, right now,

41:23We gave seven plagues. Hashem gave seven plagues on the top of the heads of the Egyptians, the strongest nation in the world. Much stronger than America, much stronger than any nation in the world today. They had literally control of the entire world. Very, very strong nation. Hashem destroyed them, put them to nothing. They lost control of their slaves. It's seven plagues. Moshe Rabbeinu is telling Am Yisrael, I'm sorry, ten plagues. Moshe Rabbeinu is telling Am Yisrael, listen, we're going to leave soon. We're going to do what Hashem wants. We're going to go to the desert, and He's going to give us the Torah, and we're going to do what He says. The Jewish people coming to the Torah, desert. Come on, Moshe. Be real. We were slaves for the last 86 years. You want us to go to the desert? You go to the desert. I don't want to go to the desert. I have my business over here. I have my friend Zvika. I have Steve. I have Muhammad that I'm friendly with. Come on. Leave me alone with the desert. עזוב אותי (azov oti). Come on, a desert? I was just a slave. I was getting beaten up every day. Finally, I'm not a slave. Finally, finally, I'm not a slave. You want me to go to a desert? I have nothing to do with my life. Tell God, maybe later. Maybe later. I'm not going right now. Technically, their reasoning was very logical. If you actually think about it, it was very, very logical. Listen, they were slaves for 86 years, getting beaten up every day.

42:54Non-stop suffering. Now you want them to go to the desert? People don't come out of the desert. You want me to go into the desert? I have nothing better to do with my life. And for what? For this Torah that you've been talking about for the last year? Come on. Just give me the Torah here. So what does Hashem do? Hashem says, okay, the eighth plague is darkness. If you don't want to do what I say, You have no purpose in the world. If you have no purpose in the world, you cannot exist. This means that everything that exists has to have a purpose. The smallest bug has a purpose. The biggest, smartest scientist has a purpose. The most foolish person has a purpose. The sick person has a purpose. Everything has a purpose. As soon as you do not have a purpose, you cannot exist.

43:55Why? Because the intelligent design behind everything that we call Hashem has a purpose. So when they said, no, we don't want to go, Hashem said, you no longer have a purpose, and He killed all of them. How much is all of them? Like 15 million people, right? The smallest number is that 80% of them, that's the smallest number, meaning that only 20% left Egypt, right? 20%. So let's say, for example, there were, let's say, 10 million people who left Egypt. Okay, or 20 million people, let's say, no, let's say 10 million people left Egypt, that means that 40 million were killed. That's what, 3 million people. Let's say 3 million, then that means 12 million people were killed. That's the smallest estimate. Okay? But some of the sages tell us it wasn't 1 out of 5 that left Egypt. Was it? It was one out of 500. One out of 500? Who says that? The sages. Some of the sages in the Gemara say, in the Midrashim, it was one out of 500 who survived. That means out of every 1,000, only two people survived. So how many Jews does that make? A lot. How many Jews does it make? Forget about how many survived. Forget about how many survived.

45:23Think about how many died. Survived, you know, whether there were 3 million or a billion. It doesn't matter. Right now, we know what we have, and that's it. But, you know, my chavruta, Rabbi Ephraim Kachlon, and I did the math of how many people left Egypt. It's much, much larger than 3 million, by the way. Much, much larger. But it doesn't matter. Don't think about how many. 10 million or 15 million or 100 million. It doesn't make a difference. The real question is how many died? How many died if one out of five hundred survived? Two out of one thousand survived. Why? Because they didn't want to go get the Torah. And they actually had a bigger reason than us. They were slaves. You're not a slave. I'm not a slave. You're not a slave. There's no slaves. Jewish people are not slaves anywhere. We didn't suffer. The last generation that suffered is seventy years ago. It's not anyone in our generation. The funny thing is, those ones that suffered, who wanted to go to Eretz Yisrael? Okay, there you go. There you go. That's it. Exactly.

46:40So that's the thing. So when people say, no, no, Hashem wouldn't do it. All you got to do is look at the Torah. Look at Hashem's stories. Look at Hashem's history. Look at Hashem's rule book. Look at Hashem's instructions. He's done it many times, much, much worse. Why? Because He's Emet. He's truth. He's justice. It's not about He wants to do it. He didn't create us to destroy us. He didn't create us to torture us. That's not the purpose. He created us for our own good, our own benefit. He doesn't benefit from us. He's perfect. He doesn't need us. The fact that He created us, we still don't know why He created us, other than to create good, because good wants good, so it creates good. Someone who is a good person likes to share. Someone who is a bad person doesn't want to share. That's a character trait that indicates if someone is good or not. If someone has a problem sharing, they're usually not a good person. That's just what it is. If you have a little kid that doesn't want to share, you better teach them how to share because a lot of really bad things come out of it if you don't know how to share. So He's good. Hashem is good. He's perfect, but in essence, He's good. So He created good, but as far as for Him, for His own purpose, we don't know why. It's one of the few questions we just don't know. Until Mashiach comes, we will not know because He's perfect. So what did He create us for? What benefit does He have from us? We will discover in a few months. Good night.

48:08So that's the thing. So now we have ourselves a situation where we have to wake up. Because if Hashem is emet, if Hashem is truth, and Hashem will always be truth, then nothing is going to change now. Which means that we have to find a way to overcome our evil inclinations, and start doing what He says, so we can be part of the 20 or 30% that get saved. We can no longer say, you know what? I'm not ready to keep Shabbat. I'm not ready to keep kosher. I'm not ready to, you know, I don't know, whatever other sins people do. I'm not ready to stop idol worshipping. I'm not ready to, you know, and start doing what He says, so we can be part of the 20 or 30% that get saved. We can no longer say, you know what? I'm not ready to keep Shabbat. I'm not ready to keep kosher. I'm not ready to, you know, I don't know, whatever other sins people do. I'm not ready to stop idol worshiping. I'm not ready to, you know, stop cheating on my wife. I'm not ready for those things. No, listen. When? When are you going to be ready? So, that's the thing. So, I don't know, how much time do we have left? All for now. Okay, so we'll fast forward through some of this stuff, because we've gone over it already, but we'll fast forward some of this stuff. This lecture is a little bit all over the place, but...

49:31Honestly, I really want to talk more about the Mashiach than I did about the parasha, because we've talked about the parasha before. Plus, it's really critical times, honestly. If someone is not scared, they are living in an illusion. Okay, so now, going back to this parasha, and eventually, this parasha actually connects to the Mashiach anyway. So, one way or another, we're going to end up with the Mashiach. So, just to see some of the beautiful things about creation. Now, Hashem says that He created, which is He created in the... Okay, so I'll just fast forward to the last part. I'll just read it. God said, okay, so this is just part of the foundation of what Hashem is creating here, putting together.

50:54God saw that it was good. God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, herbage yielding seed, fruit trees yielding fruit, each after its kind, containing its own seed on the earth." So I'll focus on the fruit trees yielding fruit, each containing its own seed. So the fruit tree creating fruit, one of the eitz pri oseh pri. One of the amazing things about it that's different than today is that, unlike today where the tree is something hard that we use for furniture, the original tree was actually a fruit. The original tree—you would eat the tree too, aside from the fruit that it creates, you would also eat the tree. Because the tree was fruit and it created fruit. It's like the verse says, the tree was fruit and it created, it yielded fruit. If he would have just said He created a fruit tree, then he would have just said He created a fruit tree. But it's saying here, fruit tree, yielding fruit. Etz pri, oseh pri. So the etz is a pri, the tree is a fruit, and it makes fruit. Oseh pri. Etz pri, oseh pri. So if you want to just say, a fruit tree, then you say,

52:21You're repeating the same thing twice. Obviously, if it's an etz pri, of course, it makes a pri. That's why it's called an etz pri. It's only one pri. Why is there fruit twice? Because the tree itself was a fruit. That's one of the things. It was an edible tree. Second thing, there was something beautiful that Hashem obviously always worried about—the longevity of everything—is that He's telling you right here already that the tree that's a fruit and that yields fruit, you won't have to worry about it because it will continue forever. Each one of its fruits has a seed in it, and each one of these seeds will yield more, will reproduce. So Hashem is constantly worrying about and telling us how there's continuity to everything. The next thing that shows us, a lot of people ask, you know, how do we know that the world was created for Torah? Because technically the word Torah does not appear in the first parashah.

53:39It doesn't say Torah. It doesn't say, "Hashem created the Shamayim v'Haaretz and the Torah." Hashem created Shamayim v'Haaretz to worship the Torah. No. It doesn't even say Jewish. Nothing. So how do we know? This is the beautiful part about it. It's very, very simple. It does not require much understanding of any language other than just a single language. You want Hebrew or English or any other language because it's understandable in every language. It's a literal statement. You'll see that the purpose of the world is the Torah. It's not even the Jews. It's the Torah. Because the Jews only became Jews because of the Torah, not the Torah became Torah because of the Jews. Until we went to Mount Sinai, we were another nation. Once we accepted the Torah, we became Jews. This means that if we didn't accept the Torah, and somebody else came along and accepted the Torah, they would be Jews. So what makes us Jewish? Torah. So weren't the first Jews always Abraham and Sarah? No, Abraham was considered Ivri. Even though they actually followed the oral part of the Torah, they were not obligated to do so.

54:54We were only obligated to do so at Mount Sinai once we received the written Torah. I see. So in other words, from Abraham all the way to Moses, they weren't obligated. They weren't obligated in the same way we are now. So we didn't receive the Torah until Moses. But Abraham was considered an Ivri. Then you have Yitzchak, who was considered an Israelite. His other name... Jacob, sorry, Yaakov was considered an Israelite because his other name, you know, his name was changed to Yisrael. He was an Israelite. And then we got to Mount Sinai, we became Jews. So what makes us Jews is Torah. So anyone tells you, you ask somebody, you know, are you Jewish? Yeah, I am Jewish. What makes you Jewish? They'll tell you, oh, my passport says it, or my driver's license says it, or my mom tells me I am. No, that's not what makes you Jewish. Torah is what makes you Jewish. You comply with the Torah, you're Jewish. You don't comply with the Torah, technically you're not going to be Jewish. That's really what it is. Somebody off the street says, "Listen, I want to be Jewish."

55:55I wasn't born Jewish. I was born Christian. I was born Muslim. I was born Chinese. I was born Pakistani. Whatever. I want to be Jewish. Okay. Listen, we have a Torah. You comply with the Torah, you convert and become Jewish. That means that anyone can be Jewish. How? By complying with the Torah. But that also means that if you don't comply with the Torah, you're not Jewish. I didn't make this up. So, the Jews that don't follow the Torah are not Jewish? Technically, by Halacha, they're not considered Jewish, no. Wow. Someone doesn't follow... Someone doesn't observe... Excuse me. The Shulchan Aruch says it. The Shulchan Aruch says it seven times. The Gemara says it several times. The Zohar says it. It's all over the... Written Torah. It's all over the Torah. Someone who just doesn't observe the Sabbath is not considered Jewish. It's considered a non-Jew in every way. It's Shabbat. Just Shabbat. Now everybody always asks me, how come you always talk about Shabbat? Because it's the most important. Now we have, before we got the Gemara, to explain to you what Shabbat is.

57:14Before we got the Gemara, we got the Mishnah. The Gemara comes from the Mishnah. The Mishnah is the foundation, the rules, and it's the highest level of explaining the rules, but we don't understand it, so we needed the Gemara to explain it to us, and even today we need the Mefarshim, the interpreters, to explain the Gemara. But if you look at the Mishnah, it has six books. Almost 40% of the Mishnah, two books of the Mishnah, are about Shabbat—only Shabbat. Nearly 40%, because even the other ones mention Shabbat in them also. Almost 40% of the Mishnah, which is the core rules of all of Judaism, talks about Shabbat. Which means, when you went to school, there's a grade to pass. You know, they didn't say, "Listen, if you get five on your test, you pass." No, you need a 70 to pass or 65 to pass, right? I remember when I was a kid, it was 65 to pass. Maybe it changed. Today, maybe it's like 30 to pass because kids are expected to fail. Today, you get 18th place in a competition, they give you a trophy. Hashem, I don't know, the generation is downhill.

58:31But in my generation, in my generation, you needed 65 to pass. So in Judaism, if you're like my generation in Judaism, okay, you need 65 to pass. That means that if you fail with Shabbat, that's 40 off of 100. That means you already failed. You're at 60. You can't pass without Shabbat. You cannot pass without Shabbat. You can't pass go. You don't collect $200. So... There's a bar, okay, so in terms of keeping Shabbat. So let's assume on a scale of 1 to 10, you're like at a 6. Okay. I mean, I was told... It's not about the keeping, it's about not violating. Okay. Not violating is more important than the keeping part. Meaning, there's one guy that has Shabbat... where he has all of his friends over, he's like Avraham Avinu, he brings everybody over, the wife cooks, she has the platter here, the platter there, and she keeps it, and she makes sure that she takes, when she makes the tea, she takes from one cup and she puts it into the other cup to make sure that she's not cooking. Two cups. Two cups or three cups? Two, two cups. She makes the tea a certain way, she takes the water from here, directly from the heater, into one cup, but she empties out that water into the second cup, just chas v'chalila, that she's not cooking, so it goes from one cup to the second one. Okay, there you go. For that by itself, for that by itself was worth the company. I knew that from Julian. Okay, so the point is, there's a lot of different things to keep, and this one is not putting bread into his soup because he doesn't want to cook the bread. So, this guy is a ten. Right? And there's another guy. He sleeps all day. No guests.

59:49into one cup, but she empties out that water into the second cup, just chas v'shalom that she's not cooking, so it goes from one cup to the second one. Okay, there you go. For that by itself, for that by itself was worth the company. I knew that from Julian. Okay, so the point is, there's a lot of different things to keep, and this one is not putting bread into his soup because he doesn't want to cook the bread. So, this guy is a ten. Right? And there's another guy. He sleeps all day. No guests. No tea, no Beit Knesset, no nothing. He's home, he's sleeping, that's it. He wakes up at 4 o'clock and eats jachnun, goes back to sleep. See, that word I know because my daughter takes jachnun to my grandson. It's good food. Now, yes, of course, number 10 is going to get a bigger reward. Number 10, the guy on the right, he's going to get a bigger reward. But the other one is still keeping Shabbat. Because this one that keeps Shabbat, the one on the right that keeps everything with the plata and this and that, he's a 10, so he has oneg Shabbat also. He's enjoying Shabbat. He's keeping it, he's observing it, he's enjoying it. It's oneg. The other one is just not violating it. He's not violating it.

1:01:12The violation is more significant than anything else. Meaning that if the other guy, let's say we throw a third guy into the mix, he does everything that the other guy does, except he drives to the Beit Knesset. He has guests. He has 60 people at his house. He has a big house. He's very rich. He has 60 people at his house. And he has all the food. And he has special catering. And every Shabbat costs him $50,000. And he has the Beit Knesset right next door to him. And he buys the aliyot. And he makes, donates a million dollars to the Beit Knesset every week. But he drives on Shabbat. On Shabbat, he's chata. He's worth nothing. No Shabbat, no nothing. All that stuff that he did is worth nothing. It's actually even, he'll probably get an additional punishment. for the chutzpah. So the violation is much more significant. I better sharpen my sword here. No, no. I told you, even if you sleep all day, sleep all day, you're still fine, as long as you don't drive, as long as you don't smoke cigarettes in public, as long as you're not playing with the television. Or in private. Even in private, obviously, but...

1:02:19Befarhesia is even worse. But the point I'm trying to make is that the violations are much, much, much more significant than the oneg part of Shabbat. So in the beginning stage, stop violating. Later on, you advance. Just like when we were kids, we played video games or played some games. In the beginning, you just pass the first level, you collect a few points. After you play the game for a little while, you don't really want to just pass the level, you want to get more points. After a little while, you want to get the highest score. That's it. Same thing with Shabbat. In the beginning, sleep all day, but keep Shabbat. Don't violate anything. Later on, okay, I'm going to make some food too. Later on, I'm going to make food, and I'm going to go to synagogue. Later on, I'm going to make food, go to synagogue, maybe invite my friend. As you progress, you do more. But the key is to stop violating it. Because if you violate it, it's worth nothing. Everything else you do is worth nothing. Why do I talk about it so much? Because without it, you can't pass. Chazal says, without Shabbat, there is no such thing as teshuva. No teshuva without Shabbat. No teshuva without Shabbat. No such thing. So if you take a shower on Shabbat, and you dry yourself... Hot shower, cold shower. If you take a cold shower... You're not allowed to take a shower in general. Right. You're not allowed to take a shower in general. How about a mikveh?

1:03:39Not allowed to take a shower in general, but if it's a cold shower, then it's, you know, there's some that let it go. But hot water under no condition. Unless it's pikuach nefesh, unless it's saving a life. In fact, you're not allowed to dry yourself, right? You're allowed to dry yourself, tap yourself. Yeah, if you tap it, make sure that it's not soaked. But you have to make sure not to take off, you know, hairs. Hairs. Because the drying, it's not the drying so much that's dangerous, it's that you can take off hairs. Taking off hairs is, you're not allowed to take off hairs. That's why you're not allowed to brush your hair. There's a lot of different intricate details. You can brush your teeth unless you know for sure, 100%, that you're going to bleed. The guys that come to shul look like they just got out of GQ on Shabbat. Somebody's combing their hair. They didn't wake up looking like that. Like I said, there are levels. Is this a brush, like a woman's brush?

1:04:44You're taking a risk of ripping hair off. And when you brush your teeth, no toothpaste, because the toothpaste is solid. It's a solid to a liquid. It's a different, changing form. You can brush your teeth unless you know for sure that you're going to bleed. I use mouthwash. Listen, there are levels, levels, levels of Shabbat. I can tell you about halachot of Shabbat from here until next year, of different things, of how to perfect the mitzvah of Shabbat. It's not going to help you. What's going to help you? It's basic level. First, we stop driving. Then we stop playing with the phones. Then we stop with the computer. Then we stop with TV. If you're already doing all that, Baruch Hashem, then we can talk a separate shiur with you. Okay? So now it's time to enjoy it. Now, you're keeping it? Now it's time to find a way to enjoy it. Because if you're keeping Shabbat because you're scared that Hashem's going to kill you, or send you to Gehinom, or whatever else, Then we have to find a way to learn about the beauty of it and enjoy Shabbat. How do we enjoy Shabbat? It's nearly impossible to enjoy Shabbat, or I personally think it's impossible to enjoy anything without some level of Torah. Now, obviously, you have to learn something you like.

1:06:03You can't just learn something because it's learned. You can't just pick up anything and just say, oh no, I'm going to learn because it's Torah, I have to learn it. No. Especially in the beginning stages, you're actually obligated to learn things you connect to, that you like. If you connect to the Chumash, the Five Books of Moses, you want to learn about the miracles of Egypt, you want to learn about Adam HaRishon, you want to learn about Noach, that's what you should learn. If you want to learn, if you like things that are very complicated and how you figure things out, then you go with the Gemara. If you like mysticism, then you go into, you know, different stories. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Kabbalah and Zohar for anybody unless you've been a scholar for a minimum of 20-25 years and you know the entire Torah because it can confuse you. Listen, stories you can learn about anything. You can learn stories from the Gemara, you can learn stories from the Zohar, you can learn stories from everything. But as far as learning the intricate details of the Zohar, it's not recommended for anyone unless they actually already know everything else really, really, really, really well. Because it can confuse you. Some of the things there are not exactly the same as in other places. So if you're not what's called baki, really grounded and groomed with the rest of Judaism, it can confuse you.

1:07:18So it's not recommended. Either way, listen, let that be our problem, that we want to learn more Torah, but we're just trying to figure out which one to learn. You know what I'm saying? So Shabbat is very important, and I repeat it, and I repeat it, and I repeat it. Number one, because, again, like I said, you can't pass the test without it. Number two, not enough people talk about it. Unfortunately, not enough. I've been in the community we're in. For over a year, I haven't heard one Shabbat shiur. One. There are many lectures. There are at least five lectures a weekend in our community. Not one time have I heard a shiur about Shabbat. I don't know why. I'm not a rabbi in a community or anything. I just try to teach Torah. I'm not responsible for anything. But for me, based on my learning, it's that important, and you don't hear one shiur about Shabbat, there's something wrong here. So that's another reason that motivates me to teach it. And it's not the same; it just influences other people to learn it also. Something very interesting about Shabbat is actually on the seventh day, you learn something very, very interesting. And then we'll go back to what I just told you here. On the seventh day, you actually say this in Kiddush every Friday night. You say, right? Okay, so it says...

1:08:45On the sixth day, which is actually the end of the last paragraph, on the sixth day, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their array. By the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done. Right? So this is what you say in the Kiddush on Shabbat. The interesting part is, who is obligated to keep Shabbat? Everybody. If I'm from a different religion, do I have to keep Shabbat? Only Jews. Only Jews, right? Non-Jews are not allowed to keep Shabbat. Right. not allowed to keep Shabbat. Only Jews are obligated to keep Shabbat. This is one of the tiniest, tiniest—this is the smallest sign of the wisdom that's in every single verse, not just the creation of the world, but every single verse. If you study one verse, you could study for the rest of your life. One verse—the first verse of the Torah—if you just stare at that verse and you learn just that verse, you could spend from now 120 years just learning that verse and you still wouldn't know everything. One verse. The Arizal said that every single mitzvah and halakha you can find from the root of the word Bereshit. Using the letters of Bereshit, from the root of the word Bereshit, and he shows you how to get in a handful of examples. My chavruta, Rabbi Efraim Kahlon, Baruch Hashem, I got a big zechut of learning with him, he's a big, big chacham. He said so far he's found a thousand. A thousand mitzvot and halakhot from the word Bereshit.

1:10:09A thousand? A thousand. But there's only 613 mitzvot. Yeah, but there's more halachot than mitzvot. Oh, halachot? Yeah. Halachot, mitzvot, everything. Oh, halachot. What does that mean? It means that the word Bereshit, you can pretty much learn just the word Bereshit for the rest of your life and there still wouldn't be enough. There's ultimate wisdom in Judaism and Hebrew. This is the point. So now, all the letters, he built letters, each letter. So, he's gathered a thousand mitzvot, and I'll quote from this word, Bereishit. Now, the sentence you say in Yom HaShishi, remember we said, only Am Yisrael is allowed to keep Shabbat. Okay, if you go, how many days are in a week? Seven. What's the most important day of the week? Shabbat. What day is that? Saturday. Seven. Okay, so we go to the first letter of Yom HaShishi, right? The first letter of Yom HaShishi is Yud. Right? Yom. Yud. Yud. Yud is the first letter. Seven letters. We get... Where do we get them? Yom HaShishi. Where does it start from? What's the first letter? Yom. Yom. Yom. Yom HaShishi is the last two words in the last paragraph. Yom HaShishi. This is what you say in Kiddush. Yom HaShishi. Yom HaShishi. Yom HaShishi.

1:11:26Yud. Count seven letters. Chet. Count seven letters. Resh. Count seven letters. Aleph. Count seven letters. Lamed. Yud. Right. Yisrael. Who keeps Shabbat? Yisrael. Even in that sentence, you see the wisdom. Who keeps Shabbat? You know, you're not finding America here. And what's the number? It's not like a number like 37. It's 7. It's just a little bit, tiny, tiny, tiny, small example of the wisdom you can find just in one verse. We got Eser Nekudot. Eser Nekudot. B'ezrat Hashem, we're going to finish the first two pages. So then you have, we'll learn more tomorrow, B'ezrat Hashem. So you have, how do you know that the world was created for for Torah and not for parnassah or for women or for anything else. It says over here, after the third day, we go into the fourth day. God says, let there be luminaries. He's talking about the sun and the moon and the stars. Let there be luminaries in the firmament of the heaven to separate between the day and the night. Okay?

1:12:55And they shall serve as signs for festivals, for the days of the year. If there's no Torah, what festival do you have? No festival. It's not like a party. Festivals, he's saying that we need the sun and the moon so we know the time. Why do we need to know? To know exactly when to celebrate the Chagim. Moadim is Chagim. Moadim is the festivals. That's Judaism. Simchat Torah is rabbinical, but you have Pesach, you have Shavuot, you have Sukkot, Shabbat. So, even before the seventh day, this is still, this is even before, he's already telling you it's all created for the Torah. Because Torah is where you find out the details of the Moadim, of the Chagim. So that's what we know, that we had to come for, you know, we came to this world for that. Next thing is, if anybody ever has questions about dinosaurs, dinosaurs are in the Torah. It's called Taninim HaGdolim. They were created on the fifth day. Fifth day, okay. Fifth day, Yivra Elohim et haTaninim HaGdolim.

1:14:14Is that whales or just whales? No, not just whales. They're not called this a... So they were alive. Yeah, taninim gedolim. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. It's a taninim gedolim. What's taninim? A taninim is a reptile. Gedolim is big. Big reptiles. Why did they get extinct then? Yeah, why did they get extinct? Were they in the world before with man? Were the taninim gedolim going to live in the world with man? Yeah, of course. Yeah, this is on the fifth day. Adam is created the next day, sixth day. But didn't they want to eat us? Dinosaurs. We weren't as small back then. Also, animals feared man initially. Animals only started not fearing man after he became resha'im. An animal—actually, there are plenty of stories in the book of Daniel. I think I've told you guys this story. In the book of Daniel, they throw him into the dungeon, into a dungeon full of lions that haven't eaten for several days. And all the lions become his pets. They don't touch him for days. Why? Because he was an ish kadosh. He was holy.

1:15:30Then they put a rasha that actually caused him to go into that dungeon. He said, "Oh, maybe there's something wrong with the lions." So the king that liked Daniel said, "Okay, you know what, let's check. You go into the dungeon and see what happens." He didn't even land. They ate him all in the air. They devoured his body in the air. Daniel walked away with nothing, not even a scratch. So, again, the next thing is, Hashem creates Adam and Chava. We have to go into the story of Adam and Chava. And then we have the last part, which we'll finish off with, because you probably know the story of Adam and Chava, but something that's really, really interesting is the Chiddush. Second, find it, because we are limited with time. Okay. Okay. This is actually the story of Cain and Abel. When Cain and Abel are born, they both go to work, and they do... Whose children are they? They're Adam and Chava's children. The first two children in the world. And they each bring a korban, an offering, to Hashem.

1:16:52And Cain brought an offering to Hashem of the fruit of the ground. And Abel brought the firstlings of his flock from the choicest. Two minutes, I'm finishing. So, Abel brings the best of his stuff to give to Hashem. In essence, it's a korban, an offering for Hashem. But Cain, not so much. He brings Him the worst stuff. He's like, okay, I'm going to give it to Him. He gives Him his garbage almost. So Hashem doesn't take Cain's offering, but He takes Abel's. And it says over here that Cain gets very upset and very depressed because of this. It's a very, very interesting verse here. We also learn, number one, the concept of Teshuva, and also learn the first hint of the Mashiach. It says, It says, After a period of time, but in Hebrew, Miketz Yamim means the end of days. Cain brought an offering to Hashem of the fruit of the ground. Okay? If you fast forward, now Cain is saying to Hashem, he's not happy, right? Hashem is asking, what's wrong with you? Why is your face down? He's saying, well, you know, why? He's saying, uh...

1:18:13He didn't accept his offering. So Hashem says, it says, but if you improve yourself, you'll be forgiven. But if you do not improve yourself, sin rests at the door. What's "sin rests at the door"? What's "sin rests at the door"? At the end of times, you hear from that video from the little boy, the 15-year-old kid, but you also can read it in the Torah itself, is one of the ways that Hashem is going to protect the righteous is that He's going to open Mount Olives. And He's going to let the people that are righteous in. But how is the Mashiach going to know who's righteous or not? He's going to smell them. He's going to smell their sins. He's going to know already if somebody's sinning or not. So whether you're wearing a hat and you have a beard longer than anyone, than Avraham Avinu or anyone else in the world, it doesn't mean anything. If you're a tzaddik, he's going to know. If you're a rasha, he's going to know. If you're tzaddik, he lets you in. If you're not, what does it say? Sin rests at the door. So at the end of days...

1:19:28If you improve yourself, surely you will be forgiven, meaning you get in. But if you don't, you rest at the door. You stay outside. You die with the Nehamat Gilgul HaGov. And b'ezrat Hashem, we all do teshuva. We have another shiur tomorrow night. B'ezrat Hashem, we'll have more stuff to learn with Parashat Noach. We'll learn the other part of this parasha. And hopefully next week we'll have some more time. But... Glad to be back. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.