Shiur Torah #65 Stop Making Eternal Decisions For People, Emet (Truth) is Above Everything

0:00Thank you again for having me. The shiurim are popular on YouTube. Baruch Hashem, people like them. This is, you know, when you organize a shiur, you're part of the whole mitzvah of Zikui HaRabim. So it's great to do more shiurim now and really try to reach out to different Jews from everywhere. You know, it's amazing how... with the Jewish people is that it's, when you tell them some of these things, it's almost, in some cases, people don't want to hear it. You know, some people just don't want to hear it. Like, oh, they're used to their life, they're used to doing whatever they're doing in their life. But most people, it's almost like they've never heard any of this stuff before. They've gone to shul, they've gone to the Beit Knesset, they've prayed here and there, they had a bar mitzvah. But when you tell them, listen, you're not allowed to drive on Shabbat, And they tell you, no, but what if I'm driving to shul? And you explain to them, no, you can't drive to shul. You can't do a mitzvah by doing a sin. There's no such thing. And you explain to the people the significance of each mitzvah and what we need to do, and it's like, it's brand new. I have one guy I've been studying with for a little over a year. And

1:21Before he started coming to my shiurim, it was amazing. He's been driving to shul for 20 years. And he told me no one ever told him not to drive. No one ever told him. And that's, unfortunately, the mentality today with rabbis and with other people, that we're so concerned, especially in the United States, we're so concerned about being politically correct that we forget about being correct. You know, we're so concerned about not turning people off and being scared that, oh, if I tell him the truth, maybe he's not going to come back, maybe he's not going to donate, maybe he's not going to like it, maybe he's going to be offended. Maybe, maybe, maybe. And people start doing the cheshbon of Shamayim, they start doing the accounting of Shamayim, they start deciding, you know, what is going to happen, as if they know the future. You don't know anything. You're just a human being. You start from a, you know, putrid seed, and you live your life as a body, and then you go back into the ground like every other human being. The worms and maggots eat us, and then we go, and Hashem leaves. That's it. We don't know anything about the future. We're not prophets. So when we decide for people what they can handle, what they can't handle, we're trying to be mini-prophets. It's not our job to be prophets. This is what Hashem wrote.

2:48And that's all we say. It's not our business to decide which part is good, which part is not good. I'm sure that when Hashem wrote the Torah, He took us into our generation, into mind, and said, okay, there's going to come a generation that's so far from Torah that people are going to be scared of keeping Shabbat. People are going to be scared of, you know, they're going to be embarrassed to wear a kippah in the street because they don't want their non-Jewish friends to make fun of them. It's going to be a generation. I'm sure He took us into mind. He created the heaven and the earth. I'm sure He took us into mind. It's not our job to decide for people what they can handle and what they can't handle with the basics. Now, of course, there are some things that are above the basics. And you need to know how to tell people things to do. If somebody doesn't know anything, you can't talk to them in a way where you're pretty much telling them, "Listen, by tomorrow you have to keep all 613 mitzvot. Even the ones that are not relevant to us, you have to keep." You can't. It's going to overwhelm them. But you can't tell them, "Listen, it's okay for you to violate Shabbat openly because you're not ready for it." There's no such thing. You have to tell people, "Listen, you have to keep Shabbat. If you're not ready for it, that's your business. But at least you need to know that you need to do it." So this is just like at work. If your boss is coming to you and he says, "Listen, I need you to bring in $100,000 every month worth of sales. Right now, you just started. You only bring in $5,000 a month." So he's not going to fire you tomorrow.

4:13Because you didn't get to $100,000, he can't expect you to make $100,000 by your second day, or by your second week, or even by your second month. But he has to give you some type of goal that you have to aim towards. You have to get to this point. You have to know what the goal is in order for you to get there. Because if you don't know what the goal is, how are you ever going to get there? You're just blind, you know, it's like a chicken without a head. you have no idea where you're going. So if you tell somebody, "Listen, it's okay for you to drive to shul, or drive on Shabbat, and not keep Shabbat for now, and eventually you can keep Shabbat," the reason why that's a flawed strategy, despite the fact that it's very, very popular today, where people tell others that they can drive on Shabbat as long as they're going to Beit Knesset, or maybe one day they'll keep Shabbat, it's a completely flawed mentality, because in a human mindset, we're always going to listen to the Yetzer Hara's opinion. The Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination, is always going to give us his opinion. And he's going to tell us eventually, even if we're starting to keep mitzvot, in two months, in three months, in four months, in five months, and then eventually, the rabbi comes to him and says, okay, listen, it's time for you to keep Shabbat. He says, why? Six months into it. Yeah, but if it was good for six months not to keep Shabbat, let's see what happens over the next six months without keeping Shabbat.

5:29So a year passes, and the rabbi comes back, "Okay, it's time for you to keep Shabbat." "Yeah, but if it was good for me not to keep Shabbat, you said it was good, it was okay for me not to keep Shabbat for six months. You said it was okay, I'm new. I still feel like I'm new. I know I'm doing it for you, I still feel like I'm new." So another year passes. Another year, another year, and the next thing you know, the rabbi doesn't ask anymore. So 20 years go by, and he's still not keeping Shabbat, but he feels like he's a tzaddik because he goes to shul. So that's why it's not our responsibility to decide for people what they can do, what they can't do. You tell them what God said, you tell them what is our responsibility, and you don't judge them if they can't do it, but you tell them, listen, this is where you need to aim towards. You get to it soon. Personally, I don't believe that anyone in the world violates Shabbat knowingly. I think that anyone who violates Shabbat is either doing it because he doesn't realize the significance of Shabbat, or he just doesn't believe in God. Even if he goes to shul, even if he learns Torah here and there, even if he goes to shul and learns Torah for 20 years. If he violates Shabbat, it's either because he doesn't believe the Torah is real, or he doesn't know the significance of Shabbat.

6:47Most people, it's because they don't know the significance of Shabbat. And the reason why I say that is because once you start learning about Shabbat, it's not all fun and games. Violating Shabbat is the worst sin in Judaism. It's worse than murder. It's worse than disobeying your parents. You could give extreme examples, like, for example, a murderer that works for the mafia, and every day, six days a week, he murders people. But on Shabbat, he rests. He goes to the Beit Knesset, he eats cholent, he has the family, wears a nice suit, doesn't shoot a gun, nothing. Doesn't drive, nothing. And then you have another guy, really, really nice guy, doesn't kill anybody, works at a bank, and he gives people ATM cards. Really, really nice guy, but he drives to shul on Shabbat. His punishment in Shamayim, the little banker that makes $50,000 a year, who has a very, very nice, calm life, his punishment is drastically worse, drastically, like the comparison of here to the sun, drastically worse than the murderer every day. Why? Because the person that's keeping Shabbat is saying, "Listen..."

8:11I have an evil inclination, I have a desire for money. Each time I kill somebody, they pay me; the mafia pays me $25,000. The money means more to me than human life. Fine. But I know that God created the heaven and earth, and I know eventually I'm going to have to pay the bill for this. But at least I'm going to live here. That's his mentality. The one that's not keeping Shabbat is pretty much telling God, I don't believe in you. I don't believe you created the heaven and the earth in six days. I don't believe that, for in so many words, I don't believe you exist. And that's why in Yom Shishi, Hashem says to us that it's an eternal covenant, that He created the world in six days. Which means that if we don't observe it, we don't believe He created the heaven and the earth in six days. You know, you can believe in anything else. And that's why 12 times that it mentions the punishment of Shabbat in the written Torah, 12 times that it mentions it, every single time it mentions it right next to idol worship. Right next to people that, you know, buy a statue from Chinatown and bow to it and think that somehow this statue that they bought for $10 is going to give them money and give them everything else they want. Stupid, right? But Hashem is comparing the idol worshiper

9:25to the person that's violating Shabbat. Same thing. In Hashem's eyes, it's the same exact thing. There's a lecture on my YouTube I did in New York, really interesting, that goes more in detail about the Shabbat versus idol worship and why Hashem compares the two. Why every single time he mentions it, it's always one next to the other, because to Him it's the same exact thing. Someone who violates Shabbat is the same thing as an idol worshiper. And that's why in Judaism, somebody that, you know, Shulchan Aruch, and the Gemara, and the Zohar, and the Written Torah, in all of them it says someone who violates Shabbat is not even considered Jewish. People have a hard time hearing this because they believe that they're Jewish. Their mom was Jewish, they go to the, you know, to the Beit Knesset a few times a year, they eat Jewish food. They tell everybody else, listen, I was born in Israel. You know, they feel Jewish. But according to the Torah, they're not Jewish. So, when you tell people this, it's a wake-up call. Most of the time, it makes them want to change and hopefully change. Sometimes, they fight a little bit before they change. Sometimes, they don't want to change and they just run away. But it's very, very rare. So...

10:36if anyone says, listen, what about that? Let's say, for example, you have 10 people, or even 10,000 people, that out of all of them, you're going to have, let's say, 9,999 are going to listen, and they're going to change over time. But one is going to lose. One is going to run away from you. You lost a Jew. It's a big sin. Losing a Jew is a big sin. So this is where we go to a much, much smarter person than anyone else we have in the world, even if you combine all the wisdom together, which we go to the Rambam. The Rambam, you know, as Sephardim, we call ourselves Sephardim not because we were born in Spain. Most of us weren't. Some people were, but most of us weren't. The reason why Sephardim call themselves Sephardim is because all of the Halachot, all of the rules that we have for the Sephardic people, are based on his teaching, which he obviously got from the Torah. And since he lived in Spain for a period of time before he moved to Egypt, we follow his teachings. That's why we call ourselves Sephardic. So, Rambam says, if I'm going to give a talk and I'm going to speak words of truth, and that's all he did, it wasn't politically correct. And I know that in a crowd of 10,000,

12:01I will lose 9,999. Lose them. They have no interest in listening to the truth. If anything, they'll go against me. But in that 10,000, I'll save one true soul. One person that wants to know the truth. This is the opposite of what I just said. I'm saying, we'll save 9,999 and maybe lose one. He's saying, if I lose 9,999 just to save one, I'll do it all the time. I have no interest and no care in the world. for those other 9,999. Why? Because the truth of Torah is the truth of Torah. It doesn't matter whether somebody agrees with it or doesn't agree with it. Hashem created it. Hashem wrote it. Don't agree with it? Go fight with Him. Go argue with Him. So that's the thing that people need to understand. You can't worry about the future, if he's going to like it, if he's not going to like it, if he's going to agree, if he's not going to agree. It's not your business. You tell him the truth. And let him decide for himself. And that's also one of the, to finalize that point, then we'll start to polish up. If you have two people, a doctor has two people. He has two people. One of them, you know, both of them are sick. Both of them are very, very sick. One of them, he tells the person, "Listen, you're sick, you have six months to live. Six months to a year you have to live." The other guy also has six months to twelve months. He decides not to tell him. Which one is better off?

13:31The one he told that he's sick and he has only a year to live? Or the one he didn't tell? Which one is better off? What do you think? He told one guy he knows he's going to die in a year. The other one doesn't know. One day he's going to wake up, he's not going to wake up. So which one is better off? The one that doesn't know. The one that doesn't know is better off? Yeah. Why? Because he doesn't know. He's sick, not a child. He doesn't know the truth. Okay, so he doesn't know the truth. Okay, so let's play this out. If we have the guy that doesn't know, he's going to go to work every day. He's going to work at the bank. We're still talking about the same banker. He's going to go work at the bank, and every day he's going to give out ATM cards. He's going to do the accounting. He's going to work extra late because he has overtime to make because he wants to get his bonus this year. And one year passes, he spent all that year working extra, extra, extra, extra, barely even saw his family, and boom, he died. He didn't know he was going to die. He died after a year, but that whole year he spent most of that time working, barely had any time for his family or friends or loved ones, and he died. The other one knows. So do you think the other one is going to go to work for even one day? He's not going to go anyway. He's going to go spend it with his loved ones. He's going to go on vacation. He's going to live life.

14:56He's going to go on vacation. He's going to spend time with the kids. He's going to play with the dog. He's going to spend time with the grandkids. He's not going to go to the bank. He's not going to do anything. He's going to enjoy life. Maybe he's going to daven to Hashem. Makes sense. So he's better off that he knows because he's going to occupy his time with something meaningful. He knows he has a limited amount of time. So when you have a limited amount of time, you want to do the things that you love most. You're not going to go work. You're not going to care about the bills. And that's the thing. So when you tell somebody the truth... They're always better off. What they decide is not your business. Whether they decide to keep what Hashem said or not, it's not your business. What your business is, if you know the truth, you tell somebody, you obviously try to do it in a nice way, in an educated way. If you can't do it, then you bring them to somebody that can. But nonetheless, it's not our job in this world to predict the future. And that's why I think, and I mention it often in shiurim, that it's a very, very common mistake that very, very smart people make. And, you know, the people that are making these mistakes, they're not fools. And if they spent even five minutes thinking about what we just said, they'd realize that it's a mistake. But most people just don't think about it. Sometimes the things that are most obvious are not things that you think about. In the beginning of Mesilat Yesharim, Path of the Just, look, the Ramchal says...

16:16I'm not here to teach you anything that you don't know. Most of what I say are things that you already know. I'm just here to remind you of all these things. But the reason why he wrote the book is not just to remind us. He says that these things are so simple, they're common sense. He's talking about middot (character traits). They're so simple that most people, even people that learn Torah, don't study them because they're simple. And people think it's just common sense. And if it's common sense, then that means that I'm going to do it. It's common sense that you shouldn't be cheap. It's common sense that you should be generous. It's common sense that you shouldn't be angry. It's common sense. But how come most of our friends and family are angry, cheap, or some other extreme? It's common sense not to be. The fact that it's common sense is the reason why we don't think about it. Because people are saying, ah, it's so easy. Everybody knows you shouldn't be angry, so you think that I don't need to stop. Since I know that you shouldn't be angry... That means that I know how not to be angry, which is completely wrong. Getting to a point where you never get angry requires work every single day. And your character traits, if that's your difficulty that you have, require you to work on anger every single day. How to get to a point not to get angry. And it's not like the secular medicine that they have today from psychiatrists where they tell you, listen, if next time your wife makes you upset, don't respond.

17:41And just curse her in your heart. And then eventually, it'll go away. And instead of beating up your kids, just go punch a punching bag. Go get yourself a punching bag and beat up the bag. And all these other ideas. And... if your wife doesn't want to be with you, just get yourself a girlfriend, but don't tell her about it. And eventually... she'll get the point. And they have all these crazy messages today. Sometimes they even advise couples that the way to fix the marriage is by them going with other people. I'm not making this up. I wouldn't even be able to make something crazy like this up. But this is what's happening in our world today. If you want to fix your marriage, maybe both of you should get, like, a boyfriend or girlfriend on the side and give each other a break. And this is the logic of secular medicine today. Yeah, that's the advice that I've seen on TV. Yeah. Oh, even TV. Even TV. Yeah. Yeah, they advise you to get a girlfriend. Get a girlfriend on the side. And, you know, finally, it will come up again. Yeah, yes. So, this type of advice is not only not helpful, it's destructive. And one example with the person that's angry...

19:03if the person is continuously angry, and now, instead of taking out his energy on his kids or his wife, he's taking it out on a punching bag, or he's keeping it inside, okay, that may work for a little while. And he may not beat up his kids for a while, and he may not yell at his wife, but eventually, he's still keeping all of this anger, and if anything, now that he's able to express all of his anger on this bag, If anything, he's developing even more anger. He's just projecting it in a different way. But one day is going to come when that bag is not going to be available because he's going to be in the car, or he's going to be in the office, or he's going to be in the mall. The bag's not going to be there, and he's going to be really, really angry. Now that he's trained his anger so much and built it up, He's going to have to express it in some way or another. And that's why you have people that lose their mind and start shooting up places, go to the post office and start shooting people, or kill their family one day. Every day everything looks great and one day they just kill everyone. People just lose their mind. And it's all the doctor's fault. It's not the person's fault. You just listen to the advice of the doctor because that advice is flawed. He's not

20:19helping you with anger. If anything, he's showing you a way of how you can hide it and slowly but surely make it even worse. So if you want to work on your anger, you have to learn how not to be angry at all. Not how to control your anger, but how not to be angry. And the way to do it in a simple way, obviously this requires a lot more than what I say, is to realize that you really have no reason whatsoever to ever be angry. The Ramban writes in a letter, he writes to his son, at the end of his life, that when a person gets angry, all types of Gehinnom are controlling him. The worst evil there is, is taking control of the person. If you've ever seen a person you've known for a long time, you're used to him, he's a nice person, generous, funny, you know, But then one day you saw that person, her or him, angry, and it's a completely different person. One day they're nice, they're generous, they're great. Next thing you know, they're taking a chair and smashing it over somebody's head. It's two different people. Because when somebody loses their patience and gets to a point where they get really, really angry, it's mamash, becomes a completely different person. So when...

21:41we learn how there's never really a reason to ever be angry because everything that happens to us is dictated by the One Above. It's not dictated by us. Once we realize that everything that's happened around us has nothing to do with us. Yes, of course, certain things are the outcome of our own actions. Of course, if you hang out in a dangerous neighborhood and somebody beats you up, it's your fault. It's not G-d's fault. You put yourself in that situation. if you hang out with a bunch of people that are thieves and one of them ends up stealing your money, it's your fault, it's not G-d's fault. We have to also realize that if we put ourselves in a dangerous situation, then the rules don't apply. But in a normal circumstance, if we realize that G-d decides everything that's happening to us, decides the pluses, the minuses, when He sends us tests, It's because He loves us and He's trying to bring us higher. So when He sends us somebody that's going to upset us, it's because He wants us to learn how not to be upset and how we don't have a reason to be upset, so we can develop patience and eventually deal with and even help people like that. When He sends us money problems, it's only because He wants to hear our prayer and He wants us to get to a point where we realize that He's the only one that's going to give us sustenance. He's the only one that's going to decide how much money we're going to get.

23:06And it's not up to us. So whether we work 40 hours a week or 80 hours a week, our income is going to be exactly the same. So all of these things are tough for us to naturally understand because we're used to something that's completely different. We're used to the secular medicine that we get. We're used to the TV show telling us that we should get a girlfriend on the side along with the wife and kids. That's what we're used to. So you turn on the TV... And you see, Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil and Dr. whoever else is popular, I tell him, "Listen, do this, do this, do this, do this." All of them go against the Torah. Someone's homosexual, let's give him a show. Someone leaves his family, but there's a disastrous story I heard just in the past week or two. I said it yesterday in the shiur, but it's enough of a... It shook me up enough that I have to repeat it again, just to remind myself of what kind of world we're living in. A guy who's married for, I don't know, maybe at least 15 or 20 years, with seven kids, in his late 40s or even early 50s, decided that he doesn't want to be a father to his kids, doesn't want to be a husband to his wife. What he does want to be is a seven-year-old girl.

24:28So, he decided that he's going to be a seven-year-old girl. He left his family, and now he dresses like a seven-year-old girl. He was adopted by two elderly couples who now act as his fake parents, and he plays with toys all day. Instead of sending someone like this to a mental institution, they put him on prime-time television. They gave a whole special about this person, and one TV show is interviewing him, and another one, and another one, and it's all over the internet. That's how I found out about it. I don't watch TV, but it's on the internet. It's mind-boggling. So instead of putting a person like this, that's that crazy, okay, put him in some cage or something. I don't know. This person belongs in a mental institution. But instead, they highlight... This world that we live in is highlighting people like this and giving them credit, and people are sending them letters. Oh, good for you for telling the truth. Good for you for being yourself. Being yourself? Well, you're not a seven-year-old girl. What yourself? Seven-year-old girl? People are just crazy. In reality, people like that, all they want is attention. That's ridiculous. We recently had...

25:44This Kardashian show in which this gentleman becomes a lady. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now he's even more famous than before. Exactly. And he's making tons of money just because there is a lot of craziness. So that's why the sages say, this is the world of lies. Everything is the opposite in this world. So when you realize that these very same people are getting highlighted and credited and money and all of this stuff. And it's obviously wrong for anyone that has 2% common sense to realize there's something wrong with these people. They should be put in a cage, not highlighted on television. So you realize that the advice we're getting from the secular world is obviously wrong. It's not just against the Torah, it's against human logic. This is Sodom and Gomorrah. So we realize that we can't listen to any of it. are getting highlighted and credited and money and all of this stuff. It's obviously wrong for anyone with 2% common sense to realize there's something wrong with these people. They should be put in a cage, not highlighted on television. So you realize that the advice we're getting from the secular world is obviously wrong. It's not just against the Torah, it's against human logic. This is Sodom and Gomorrah. So we realize that we can't listen to any of it. We have to go to the Manufacturer. We have to go to the Creator who wrote the instructions. He told us how to live life. The Torah is not just a book of stories. The Torah is advice on how to live a fulfilling life, how to be happy, how to be successful in business, how to be successful in marriage, how to be successful as a parent, how to be successful as a partner, how to do everything the best you possibly can and get reward for all of it.

27:11That's the best part about it. Every day in the morning, we wake up, every normal human being washes his hands, washes his face. God says, you know what, I love you so much that if you just remember Me when you do it, and you do it a certain way, where you wash one here, one there, one here, one there, three times on each hand, not only are you doing everything you're going to do anyway, but you get a reward for it. A reward that you can't even compare to anything material in this world. Just for washing your hands once. That's it, just washing your hands once. One person came, I believe it was to the Baal Shem Tov, and this poor, poor person comes to the Baal Shem Tov and he says, Rebbe, I'm very, very poor. I'm thinking, you know, you speak to, you have a direct contact with Hashem, maybe you could pray to Hashem for me and tell Him, listen, all the zechut, all the reward that I'm going to get for doing tefillin... Just for one day. I know it's a big zechut. I can't, not for my whole life, but just for one day. Instead of the zechut that I'm going to get, instead of the reward that I'm going to get for the tefillin for today, just give me some money instead. The Baal Shem Tov says to him, he goes, do you think I'm a thief? No, no, I'm asking you for your help. Because you're not asking me for help, you're asking me to be a partner in a crime.

28:35partner in a highway robbery. He goes, how? How am I asking you to do that? He says, if somebody had a coin, a very, very special coin, and one day his kid took the coin, and the coin's very special, it's worth millions of dollars. And the kid, the little five-year-old kid, took the coin. He doesn't know it's worth a lot of money. And he gave it to the store clerk. Obviously, everybody with common sense as an adult knows this coin is worth a lot of money. Maybe they don't know it's worth millions, but they know it's worth a lot of money. They know it's not ten cents. They know it's not one dollar. And the store clerk says, what do you want, kid? Oh, no, I want a Snickers bar. And he takes the coin for the Snickers, but knowing that this coin is worth a lot more than what it says on the coin. And the kid, the little five-year-old kid, took the coin. He doesn't know it's worth a lot of money. And he gave it to the store clerk. Obviously, everybody with common sense as an adult knows this coin is worth a lot of money. Maybe they don't know it's worth millions, but they know it's worth a lot of money. They know it's not ten cents. They know it's not one dollar. And the store clerk says, "What do you want, kid?" "Oh, I want a Snickers bar." And he takes the coin for the Snickers, knowing that this coin is worth a lot more than what it says on the coin. Now, is this store clerk a thief or not? He goes, "Yeah, of course he's a thief. He knows the coin is worth a lot more money." He goes, "That's what you're asking me." He goes, "How am I doing?" He says, "You're thinking that your mitzvah of tefillin is something that you can compare to anything material in this world." He goes, "The amount of reward that you're going to get just for one day of tefillin is more good than is available for every human being combined in this world."

29:48that they're ever going to have. Just for one day of Tefillin. So for me to tell you to give you a little bit of money, there's not enough money in the world for God to give you for just one day of Tefillin. So I can't be part of this robbery. I can't tell you that it's okay for you to give your set of Tefillin for what? What do you want? $500 a week? $1,000 a week? You're not even asking for millions. You're asking for just some bread. Don't worry. Na ra'iti gam zakanti, v'lo ra'iti tzadik ne'ezav, v'zar'o mevakesh lachem. It's in Birkat HaMazon. Every day we read Birkat HaMazon, we eat bread. King David tells us, "I've been young and I've been old, and I've never seen a righteous person starve or his children begging for bread." No such thing. If you do God's will, Hashem is not going to let you starve. Of course, there are times you're going to be going through difficulties, but there's no such thing as a righteous person that starves. Just tests. And Hashem tests us in order for us to elevate ourselves. Now in this week's parashah, we have a lot of these amazing stories, but b'ezrat Hashem, we did a shiur about it last night, so the interesting part is that we do a shiur here, we also do it about parashat hashavua, but I try to do a completely different shiur. And I know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu tests me also, so it's good. He keeps me on my toes.

31:08So, in the beginning of the shiur, it talks—in essence, it gives us a message of everything we just talked about—in just one sentence, where it says, "Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years, and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years." Now, why do I say this sentence means so much? Because, in essence, he's telling you that Jacob is ending his life. And now Jacob is trying to close all of the accounts. He's trying to make sure that before he leaves this material world, he finalizes the things that he needs to finalize. And obviously, when someone gets to that time where they know they're going to die, they realize that, you know, they start looking at their life. What have I done in my life? Has it been worthwhile? Is chasing all this money worth it? Is chasing a new girlfriend every week worth it? Is spending all of my time doing things that are good for my ego but bad for my overall life worth it? You start evaluating your life. Now, obviously, Yaakov...

32:24It was not a day he didn't spend just thinking about Hashem constantly and doing mitzvot. But even he, when Par'o asked him, "How many years and days have you lived in this world?" he says, "Less than my father's." He considered himself less than Avraham and Yitzchak. Even though technically, there are some that say he's even more. That also shows you the midah of anavah, the humility that he had in him. So the first thing that he says... here after the night, he calls his son Yosef, and he asks Yosef to make a swear. You need to swear to me that you're going to not bury me in Egypt here, you're going to bury me in Canaan, which is eventually going to be Eretz Yisrael. You have to swear to me. Why is he making him swear? Because he knows that Par'o and all of Egypt look at, not just Yosef, but look at Yaakov as a very, very unique person. As soon as he came to Egypt to join his son, the famine stopped. There was supposed to be a famine for seven years. The famine was only for two years by the time he came. And as soon as he gave the blessing to Par'o, the famine stopped. So you see, this is not a regular person. And there were a lot of blessings since the day he came. And he's a very old, wise man.

33:47So he knew that the Egyptians idol-worshipped everything they could find. Whether it was the river they wanted to idol-worship, or the animals they wanted to idol-worship, or Par'o himself they wanted to idol-worship. So this person, they knew that if he dies, they're going to find out that he's not only not like them, but he's above what's normal. Why? Because a righteous person, his body doesn't disintegrate. You know, the human body disintegrates. After somebody dies, after three days, not only does it start smelling really, really bad, but also the body starts to disintegrate. Worms and all that stuff, you know, and after approximately a year, it's just bones. There is scientific proof of this today; it's not just something that is written in the Torah, this is proven. Righteous people, they've dug up their graves, sometimes accidentally, sometimes intentionally because they wanted to move him to a better area for many reasons, but they opened the grave, sometimes without even knowing the person was a righteous person. And they see the person looks literally like he's just sleeping, like he died yesterday. And this is three, four, five, six hundred years later, a thousand years later, so not like, okay, it was last week, so okay, he lasted more than three days. A righteous person, a truly, truly righteous person, a tzadik, that never had jealousy in his life

35:11His body doesn't disintegrate. Yaakov knew that he was such a person, even though he was very, very humble. He was humble next to Hashem, but next to mankind, he knew where he stood. So he knew that if he died in Egypt, they had the custom of mummifying people. So eventually, they're going to see that. He also knew that the plagues are going to come to Egypt... And when they see that the lice plague comes to Egypt, does not affect his body, and they see that his body has not been affected for hundreds of years, they're going to think, "This person is above human." They're going to start idol-worshipping him. They're going to turn him into an idol. He doesn't want that. He doesn't want anyone worshipping him. He wants people to worship God. And that's also one of the mistakes that we have in our generation, unfortunately. is that people got to a point where they've turned rabbis, current and past rabbis, into actual idols. This is unfortunate because these rabbis, if they were alive today and they saw this, they would be more angry at their own students than I think even Hashem. Because people have these righteous people, whether it's the Lubavitcher Rebbe from Chabad,

36:35or the, you know, others that have died in the past, that, you know, these are really, really big tzaddikim. But unfortunately, some of their students didn't exactly pay attention in all the classes, and after they died, they started idol-worshipping these people. They started pretty much teaching people, or telling people, that in order for you to get to God, you have to go through this Rebbe, which is against the 13 principles of faith. of Judaism. It's outright idol worship. This is what Christianity is. When Christianity tells you, in order to reach God, you have to get to this JC guy, the reality of it is, it's idol worship. That's true. It's idol worship. Some say he's God himself, whatever. The point is that it's 100% idol worship. Whether it's a rabbi, or it's a different religion, or it's a cow, or it's a statue. It's idol worship. Now, obviously, most people, you tell them, oh, you know, you tell a Christian person, listen, you're idol worshipping, they think you're crazy. You have to show them that what they're doing is idol worship. You have to explain it to them. You tell a religious Jew that by him praying to this rabbi instead of praying to God, they're idol worshipping. In the beginning, it's going to be very, very difficult for people to accept it. Many people don't accept it. But it's 100% idol worship.

37:55And this is the main thing that Yaakov was very worried about—anybody idol worshipping him. It got to a point where Hashem did not tell anybody where Moshe was buried. He's the only one. We don't know where he's buried. Hashem buried Moshe Himself. He's the only one in history where Hashem buried him. Hashem didn't bury Yaakov. Hashem didn't bury Avraham or Yitzchak or Aharon. or anyone else. I don't remember any other person that Hashem buried Himself, even King David. Hashem didn't bury him. The only person He ever buried in history was Moses. Why? Because He knew that if people knew where Moses was buried, not only the Jews, but all the Goyim, all the non-Jews, would turn him into an idol. He's the only person that spoke to Hashem face to face, spoke to Him like you and I are speaking to each other right now. There's nobody like that. Even Avraham, Yaakov, Isaac, Adam, all of the others, they spoke to Hashem also, but not on the same level as Moses. Not on the same level. Everyone else that spoke to Hashem, spoke to Him either through some type of dream or meditation; they were either laying down or sitting down. The only one that spoke to Him standing up, meaning awake, was Moses. So, Hashem knew that He created humans, He knows human nature, He knows if I tell people where he's buried, they're going to turn him into an idol.

39:17and he's, instead of enjoying Gan Eden, going to be suffering, knowing that he spent his entire life just to serve Me, and now the outcome of all his mitzvot has turned into something that I detest, an abomination—people doing avodah zarah. One question that is very, very good to ask and answer is, why does Hashem hate avodah zarah so much? And remember, we said before, during the shiur, before the shiur, we said that avodah zarah and violation of Shabbat is the same thing. So, the question is, why does Hashem hate avodah zarah so much? Anybody have any idea? So, the reason is, one of the reasons is that Hashem, obviously, we're saying, you know, He wrote the Torah, He created the, you know, heaven and the earth, everything in between, everything above and below, things we know about, things we don't know about. He doesn't think like us, He doesn't look like us, He doesn't have an image, or anything resembling an image. He has no limitations. He's not bound to time. He's everything. According to the Zohar, technically He is everything, and there's nothing else other than Him, including...

40:33You, me, and the closet, and the walls, and the house, and the world, and the cosmos, everything is technically Hashem. There is nothing else other than Him. So He is everything, right? What's an idol? When you think of an idol, you think of something material. You think of something, you know, a little statue that somebody bought from a store. You know, somebody made it in a machine or out of a piece of wood or a piece of metal. Somebody made it. So when someone is idol worshipping, they're replacing everything, the One that created everything, with the creation of one of His creations. So it's not even that they're replacing the Creator with His creations. They're replacing the Creator with the creation's creation. So it couldn't be farther. It's the farthest point. It's everything with nothing. So there couldn't be more disrespect to Hashem. It's the worst version of disrespect that you can have. You're replacing everything with nothing. And that's why Hashem says to the Nevi'im, He says,

41:56Your nation replaced Me with cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Maybe they will contain some water, maybe not. I am the source of living waters. It never ends. They're replacing Me with broken cisterns. What are they replacing Me with? And that's what people need to understand. Idol worship is not about God being a jealous God. People think that He is jealous of the statue. You know, when it says God is a jealous God, it doesn't mean He's jealous of the statue. The statue is nothing. It's that people were replacing Him with nothing. It couldn't be a bigger sign of disrespect. So, when someone says, okay, this is, I understand, it's easy to understand why God would be upset at you replacing Him with nothing. So, the other thing that we need to understand is that idol worship is not relevant to most Jews. It's not relevant to even most people in the world that understand what the concept of God is. Most people that are engaging in idol worship are doing it by mistake. Very few are doing it intentionally.

43:01and even once they learn that it's a problem, even Christians, you tell them, "Listen, your religion is idol worship." Many of them stop following Christianity and start becoming Noahides. We've helped a few of them start learning. They believe in the Torah and never knew or even thought about how Christianity has turned God into a human—that's complete idol worship. So now, when you tell people this and they love God, they love the truth, they follow it. It's an easy transition. That's also why the Rambam says the reason why God allowed Christianity and Islam to be created was technically these two religions gave us more problems than anybody else. You know, the problems with Islam didn't just start today, unfortunately. There were more murders in Jerusalem today. A rabbi was killed by a terrorist. An Argentinian rabbi. Oh, Argentinian, was he? Yeah, he was from Argentina. Uh... That's something tragic, every day a new tragedy, every day a new tragedy. So these reshaim, these wicked people, think that they're following the word of God, which according to the book of Daniel, they will get the biggest punishment, even though their war against the Jews and the persecution of the Jews is actually less.

44:25then what the Christians have done, and the Catholics have done to the Jews throughout history, the fanatic Islam is going to get a much bigger punishment. Much, much bigger punishment. And the reason why is because they're using God's name to justify their actions. So now, you ask yourself, why did God even allow these two religions to be born? Before them, there was either Judaism or paganism. you either worship God or you worship statues, or a star, or something like that. So, why do we have to allow this? I mean, they give us so much trouble. The Holocaust is not the beginning. It's not the end. What's happening today is not the beginning or the end. We've had things that have happened throughout all of history. Why do we allow this to happen? Rambam says it's because this got... The pagans took one step closer to the truth. It got them from being pagans to at least the perception of, for Christianity, the perception of one God, monotheism, and for Islam, monotheism. Even though they don't follow the rules of God, and they've created some of their own, nonetheless, they're still monotheistic. They still believe in God. If somebody was running away from an enemy, and they have to hide somewhere, and you have several choices. One choice is a church. Another choice is a Reform shul, Reform synagogue. Another choice is a mosque. Where can you hide? Seems like an obvious question, right? Maybe, yeah.

45:50and they have to hide somewhere, and you have several choices. One choice is a church. Another choice is a Reform shul, Reform synagogue. Another choice is a mosque. Where can you hide? Seems like an obvious question, right? Maybe, yeah. Reform synagogue, church full of crosses and Jesus this and Jesus that, and then you have Muhammad and his buddies in the mosque. Where can you hide? Enemies are coming, guys. You have to wake up. The enemy is going to catch you in Reform. No. What do you think? Well, I will say Reform. Okay, what do you think? Because if you go to other places... It's not pagan. No, we just said Allah is the same God as us. Muslims have the same God as us. It's not pagan. Believe it or not, that's the answer. The mosque is the only place you're allowed to hide in. The mosque is the only place you're allowed to hide in. Why the mosque? We already know Christianity, the church, you're not allowed because it's pagan, because it's idol worship. Right.

47:14Mosque, we know you're allowed to hide because Allah is the same God as us. You just call Him Allah. Just like you say God, you say, you know, several names for Hashem. It means the same thing. Why not Reform shul? Because Reform have changed the religion even more so than the Christians did. So much so that you're not even allowed to walk in. It's worse than, it's the highest, it's the worst desecration of Hashem's name there is. Um, You're not even allowed to walk in. They give a bar mitzvah to dogs. They marry men to men. Rabbis are women. These are all things that are against the Torah. Giving a bar mitzvah to a dog, marrying men to men—these things are against the Torah. They're changing scripture. With Christianity, at least they have some respect for our scripture. They're lying with their new book, but nonetheless, they say, "Listen, the first book is your first book. It's our first book. We have the same first book. It's just that we say we have a second book. And it's a continuation." Okay, the second book contradicts the first, but they do it discreetly. And most Christians, if you talk to them...

48:28most people, you know, they believe that the Old Testament, that the Torah, is real. Unfortunately, they just never read it. Why? Because the Church is not going to teach them the Old Testament. They're going to teach them the New Testament. Why? Because if anyone that learns the Old Testament is going to realize the New Testament is complete garbage. Right. So, no, very few people actually ever read the Old Testament. That's why anyone that actually spends extra time, who's Christian, spends extra time reading the actual Tanach and really studying it, like, you know, A kosher translation, not a Christian translation, a kosher one from rabbis who know Hebrew. It's very, very quick that you find out there's something wrong with Christianity. It says it outright. You're not allowed to have a tree in the house. In multiple places, in Yirmiyahu, in the written Torah. It's all over the place. Hashem says you're not allowed to have a tree. Celebrate a tree. Put a Christmas tree in your house. Not allowed to do it. It's avodah zarah. It's outright. It's a verse. It's not like a translation or an interpretation. It outright says you're not allowed to have and celebrate these trees. You're not allowed to put them in your house. What do they do every year? They put a Christmas tree. People think, "Oh, it's nice." People, unfortunately, in Reform schools, they tell people to get Hanukkah trees. Hanukkah trees. Hanukkah trees. I haven't seen that. Oh, yeah. Type "Hanukkah trees" on Google. You'll see millions of them.

49:47It's very far. When you start changing the rules, there's no end. But at least with them, you can say, listen, they obviously made mistakes, there's a problem, but nonetheless, they say, you know what, your first book is real, we're not changing your first book, we just say we have a second book. With the Reform, they're just saying that the first book is the only book, but it's not relevant anymore, so we're just going to write a new one along the way, whatever is convenient for us. No, God made a mistake here, God made a mistake there. And they're pretty much judging God. No, God made mistakes. If God made mistakes, then He's not God. That's a human being, people. Right. So that's the problem. So people don't understand that when you start changing the rules, even the smallest rule, you can't change. Even if there was a custom... meaning that it's been around for many, many years. Like, for example, the Ashkenazim, they don't eat rice on Pesach. Now, technically, rice is not chametz. It's not chametz. You're allowed to eat rice on Pesach. But the Ashkenazim don't eat rice. And even, I think, Moroccans also don't eat rice. But the Ashkenazim don't eat rice because somewhere around 400 or 500 years ago, most people were poor.

51:11And they would reuse the sacks that they had wheat and barley in, also for rice. So they never knew if there were even a few grains of the non-kosher with something that's kosher. So they said, listen, since we're reusing the sack, we have no guarantee that our rice is kosher. There could be one grain of chametz in here. It's a big aveirah. Someone eats chametz on Pesach. It's karet. It's not a small... It's not something that's no big deal. It's not like you forgot to netilat yadayim in the morning. It's a big deal. So they said, we're not risking it. So from now on, we're not allowed to eat rice on Pesach. Now, of course, today, no one reuses sacks. No one even uses the same plastic bag anymore. But since it's been around for so many years, so many centuries, you don't change the rule. And this is not even halacha. So of course, if you don't change something that's a custom for so many years, you're certainly not going to change a halacha; you're not going to change a rule. So when you have Reform, changing the rules and trying to give credit and celebrating homosexuality,

52:22celebrating, giving, putting tefillin on dogs, celebrating things that are outright against the Torah. You can see this stuff on YouTube. I don't make any of this stuff up. You can see a Bar Mitzvah for dogs. You'll see a dog with tefillin on its head. Real tefillin, not fake tefillin. Real tefillin. But that's in Reform shuls. Reform shuls. So, it's a problem. And when you get to that point, when you start changing the rules, there are no limitations. Originally, Reform was not supposed to be like it is today. It wasn't like it is today. Originally, it was just that the head rabbi said, you know what, maybe we should give our kids secular education, not just focus on yeshivot. Maybe we should send them to have secular education, send them to universities. This was somewhere around 200 or 300 years ago. And I'll be the example. I'll send all ten of my children to universities. In his life, God punished him by showing him what the outcome of his action was going to be. Every one of his ten boys married a non-Jew. Every one of his ten boys completely left Judaism altogether. This is a rabbi. So this is one rule change. Less Torah. A few generations later, listen. Listen.

53:44you're allowed to drive on Shabbat. A little more time, your dog should get a bar mitzvah also. Why should you disrespect the dog? A little more time will pass. Why is it a problem if the rabbi is openly gay? I mean, it says, it only says, God says it multiple times that it's pretty much the worst possible sin you can commit and it's an abomination. But no, God made a mistake. He doesn't know our times. So that's the problem. That's the problem. People need to understand these things. And unfortunately, most people are not educated. Not educated about this thing. And Conservative also has a similar problem. Conservative is, it used to be, Conservative in the past, Conservative shuls, used to be what Orthodox is today. Used to be. Today, they're getting closer and closer to Reform, unfortunately. And it's a problem. And it's not, it's not—the funny thing is that most of the people that go to Conservative shuls want to practice. They want to do more. If you tell them, listen, you can't drive on Shabbat. Listen, you can't eat everything you want. You've got to do this, you've got to do that. If you tell them, they'll do it. But when they have somebody that calls themselves a rabbi tell them, listen, you're allowed to do this, you're allowed to break this rule, break that rule, break that rule—they don't have time to learn, a lot of these people. They don't know the significance of it, so they just follow what the rabbi says.

55:03And they think that they're being cautious. They think that they're doing great. This one guy sent a question in. A woman sent a question in. "My son is... I'm trying to get him a... I'm trying to... You know, we've been keeping Shabbat. But he has a... He's going to university. And his professor says that he has to take a test on Shabbat. His final has to be on Shabbat. I told him, we can't come to... can't come to school on Shabbat, can't come to university on Shabbat. And the professor is such an anti-Hashem person, he says, no, no, I spoke to the woman rabbi at my local shul, the woman rabbi, so obviously this is a Reform shul, and she knows a lot more Torah than you, so you're allowed to come take a test on Shabbat. So if you don't come, I'm going to fail you. This is a very difficult test. Of course, he's not allowed to go take this test. Let him fail the test, and he should even leave the school. But nonetheless, it's a very, very difficult test for a 17, 18-year-old kid. And that's the problem. So when you change the Torah, there's no end to the damage that you make. And what's happening also with Reform is that little by little they're changing the rules. The head rabbi of this, people need to know this, the head rabbi of the Conservative shul, Conservative organization in general in Jerusalem, is openly gay. This was a, he became head rabbi about a year and a half ago.

56:33The head rabbi of the Conservative movement in Jerusalem is openly gay. This is a problem. This is pretty much your, when you're, okay, if he's in the closet and no one knows, no one knows. But when you're celebrating this, you're saying, no, not only is he openly gay, but we just made him president. It's almost part of our decision was made because he's that, to show how open-minded we are. You're outright going against Hashem. You're saying that it's okay. So these are things that people need to understand, that it becomes a serious problem once you break one of these rules. And that's why I tell people, listen, if you have one of two choices, you have one of these non-kosher shuls or no shul, don't go to shul. You're not obligated to go to shul. You're obligated to pray. You're obligated to do the mitzvot. You're obligated to keep Shabbat. You're obligated to keep kosher. You're obligated to do all of those things. But you're not obligated to go to shul. Especially if the shul is not kosher, don't go to shul. Why would you go to shul? So again, this is not necessarily telling people, listen, we should go to war with all of our friends and do things like that. You should tell your friends the truth. And just like we talked about, people that learn the truth...

57:54more times than not, will want to do the right thing. Most people that are making these mistakes don't want to make these mistakes. You know, they don't know, listen, I didn't know that this shul gives Bar Mitzvahs to dogs on weekends. I didn't know on Sundays. I didn't know. I don't come here on Sundays. So you ask. You ask around. What is this? What are we? What's this? You ask questions. And little by little, if you have a small shul, 50, 30, 40 people, even if it's Conservative, you can tell the rabbi, "Listen, we don't want to be Conservative anymore." If you get enough people in the congregation to do it, you can change. "Listen, we're ready for the next step. You no longer need to make the decision for us and tell us we're allowed to break all these rules because, in reality, according to the Torah, we're not allowed to break anything." there's no such thing as a half-hearted Judaism. So again, these things are difficult tests. Nonetheless, I know it's not easy. I know it's a major change, all the things that we're talking about for people here, people that are watching. But the reward is endless. The rewards are endless. And when we think that

59:13hey, listen, maybe if I don't do this, I'll do it somewhere down the road. It's the same type of mentality where someone says, "Listen, I'm not going to put enough money away for retirement now. I'll do it once I get a little older." The problem is, once you get a little older, you realize that you forgot to save any money for retirement, and you realize that you have to work your whole life. So there's no such thing as planning for later. Certain things, if it's the truth, the truth is more important than everything else. And that's the main thing that we learn, just literally, at the beginning of this parasha. We learn that when Yaakov and the sages talk about the end of their life, the most important messages that they gave are at the end of their life. The whole book of Devarim, the last book of the Torah, is completely rebuking Am Yisrael. Moshe wrote this book, And God asked him to add it to the first four books that God wrote. In the fourth book, you see Moses rebuking the nation, reminding them of all of their countless mistakes, reminding them of the ten tests that they tested God. Not God tested them, they tested God. Imagine this, you heard God's voice.

1:00:41You heard His voice. When we were at Mount Sinai, the voice was so extreme that every single person died and was brought back to life twice. They heard the first two commandments. Each time they heard the commandments and the voice of God, they died. Everyone died. Millions and millions of people died. God brought them back. Second commandment, everyone died. God brought them back. Then they told him. They felt this. Dying is not like you're going to sleep. They felt this. That's what they told Moshe. Listen, we can't take it anymore. We can't hear His voice. If we hear His voice, we're going to die. They know because they died already. That's why they said we're going to die if we hear His voice. Because they died already. You go talk to Him. Whatever He tells you, just tell us. We'll do it. Not na'aseh v'nishma. We'll do it and then we'll hear it. Whatever He wants. We can't hear His voice anymore. That's too scary. Imagine that. And he says, no, God's not here to scare you. He loves you. He's testing you if you really love Him. So imagine this. They tested these very same people. Every one of them became a prophet. The lowest level was a bigger prophet than Yechezkel.

1:02:01The last prophets we had—the lowest one, the lowest level at Mount Sinai—was bigger than one of the biggest prophets in history that we have a book about. And they tested God. Obviously on their own level, and it's a different level against Sarah, but nonetheless, they tested God. So, Moshe knows what he's dealing with here. Moses is saying that pretty much the entire book of Deuteronomy is rebuking the nation, reminding them of how they tested God, how they questioned God, how they didn't have enough emunah in God, how He gave them everything and they didn't necessarily return what they were supposed to. They questioned His sincerity over and over, and He told them the rules. Parashat Bechukotai. These are two very, very difficult parashot. Some shuls don't read them out loud. You know, on Shabbat, you read the parashot out loud. Some shuls don't read them out loud. Big sections of those parashot are not read out loud. You know why? Because the sections of those two parashot contain curses. Hashem says, Hashem says, it's very common. It's not just one congregation or two, it's most.

1:03:17Low voice. Low voice. In the old days, by the way, just to show you the difference—in the synagogue I go to, same thing. In most synagogues, it's like that. In the old days, when they were much, much more religious than our generation—and obviously, there are some places around the world still that are that religious and do it—not only was it not in a low voice, it was in an extra loud voice. The opposite of what we do today. Why? Because Hashem wrote it because He wants us to know, not so we whisper it. He said He gave you the blessing and the curse. Why the blessing and the curse? Because there's no one without the other. It's a package deal. You do what's right, you get the blessing. You do what's wrong, you get the curse. There's no such thing as if I don't do anything, I don't get anything. If I don't do anything, if I don't do any mitzvot, then I don't get anything. I don't get a blessing, I don't get a curse. No, no, it's not such a thing. That's why people make a mistake about free choice. People always think we have free choice. Rabbi Mizrachi talks about it in the lectures. Maybe it's in one of the discs that I left here for you guys. He talks about free choice. It really doesn't exist. There's no such thing as free choice. There's choice, but not free choice. What does it mean, choice? Our free choice, we believe that we can do whatever we want, and the outcomes...

1:04:37are going to be what the outcomes are. So, for example, if I go to work, the guy will pay me $100. If I don't go to work, he won't pay me anything. That's what we believe free choice is. Hashem tells us we don't have such a thing. We have choice, not free choice. What does that mean? If I go to work, I get $100. If I don't go to work, the boss sends somebody to my house and beats me up all day. Not only do I not get paid, but I get beaten up. That's the curse. That's not free choice. That's choice. So it's either you get good, or you get bad. There's no middle. And that's what G-d is telling us in those two parashot. It's blessing and the curse. So the key is that if you already know it's the blessing and the curse, and you hear it in Beit Knesset, you realize, okay, you know what? Curse, not worth it for me to get beaten up. I don't want to get beaten up. So let me do the blessing.

1:05:38See, it's an easy decision. All I need to know is just what it is, what I need, where do I sign up? If I get a blessing for all these things, why not? Wash my hands with a netilat yadayim cup, I get a blessing, great, okay. Wrap tefillin around my arm every morning, I get a blessing, great. Say a small blessing before I eat, after I eat also. What's the big deal? It's not so far. It's not so difficult. It's not as difficult as people make it to be. Our yetzer hara makes it seem like it's the most difficult thing in the world, but in reality, it's not that difficult. So, that's why Hashem says it's so easy that if you think it's difficult, it's not My Torah. One of the sages tells a story. He says to one of the people, he says, "Listen, I..." left my bag someplace, if you could please go get me the bag. What does your bag look like? It's black, it has a stripe. He gives him a description. The guy goes and gets the bag, and the Rabbi sees him, and he sees he's dragging the bag, it's really, really heavy for him, he's dragging it, he's struggling, he's sweating. The Rabbi says, no, no, no, stop, that's not my bag.

1:07:01What do you mean it's not your bag? It's the exact description you gave me. It's not my bag. But you're seeing it, it's the same description, it's the same bag you showed me in the picture, same bag. It's not my bag. He goes, how do you know it's not your bag? You haven't even opened it. How do you know it's not your bag? He goes, because my bag was full of diamonds. Diamonds are very, very light. You're carrying this bag, it's really heavy for you, so it can't be my bag. That's what God is telling us. If you follow my Torah, my Torah is full of diamonds. If it's hard for you, if these mitzvot are hard for you, it's not my Torah. You're doing something different. You're doing something wrong. My Torah is not hard. My mitzvot are not hard. What, did I tell you to wash your hands? What, did I tell you to say a blessing after you came out of the bathroom so you thank God that your body works? Is that such a big deal? To eat an animal that's healthier for you because it's kosher, because they salted it, took out the blood, so you're not a scavenger, so you're not an animal. To be nice to people, not to be angry, to work on your character. Something's wrong with that? You should be wanting to do it anyway. That's diamonds. It's a diamond. So if it's heavy for you, you're doing something wrong. It's not my Torah. My Torah is diamonds.

1:08:29And that's why Moshe Rabbeinu spent so much time, a whole book, rebuking the nation, explaining to them, "Look, all these mistakes are your mistakes. It's not God's mistakes. He didn't make any mistakes." And that's why, going back to the parasha, Yaakov spends his last moments blessing his children. But if you notice, when he blesses his children, it's not always compliments. When he blesses Reuven, the oldest son, he rebukes him. He tells him that you lost your firstborn status. You're right. You're technically supposed to be my oldest, supposed to be the leader. You lost it. Why? Because you made bad decisions. You're too emotional. Too erratic. Yes, I know it was passionate. I know that you have a lot of love. I know you did teshuva. Reuven is the first one to ever do teshuva.

1:09:31without being asked. Meaning, you know, when Cain killed Abel, he did teshuva eventually. When Adam made a sin, he did teshuva. Anyone that made a sin did teshuva. But they all did teshuva before Reuven, they all did teshuva after they got punished. Reuven did teshuva before any punishment happened. Nothing happened to Reuven, and he realized that he made a mistake when he took his father's bed and put it next to his mother's. After Rachel died, he realized he made a mistake. And he did teshuva. And that's why, at the time that Yosef was sold, Reuven wasn't there. It says Reuven came back. Where did he go? He told the brothers not to kill him, to throw him in the hole, because it says he was planning on saving him. But then Yosef was sold, and it says Reuven came back. Where did he come back from? He went, and he was praying because he was fasting, and he couldn't watch his brothers eat. All of his brothers, while Yosef was in the pit, were eating. They were all eating, having their lunch like normal human beings, even though their brother was suffering. It's not exactly normal, but nonetheless, they were all eating. Reuven was fasting, just like we were supposed to be fasting yesterday. The Tenth of Tevet was a fast day. We talked about it yesterday—why do we fast in Judaism? I'm not going to go over it today due to a lack of time.

1:10:55But you should watch it. Why do we fast? Does Hashem really care about whether we eat or not? Does He just like to see us suffer by not eating for a whole day? There is actually a big misunderstanding about why we fast. People think that Hashem likes to see us torture ourselves for some strange reason. If He wanted us to not eat, He could just bring famine to the world, like He did to Egypt. So it has nothing to do with torturing us. It has a lot more to do with connecting with Him and having less materialism. But nonetheless, with Reuven, Reuven was fasting, and after he finished praying, he came back to the hole to go save his brother, and he realized his brother was not there. And he realized that the brothers sold him. So now, although he did teshuvah, his father said, "Listen, you already made a big sin. Of course, in Shamayim, hopefully, they forgive you for what you did, but you are still a very emotional person. But I promise you..."

1:11:55that there's going to come a time when your tribe is going to be blessed by Moshe, the leader of Israel. And based on your actions, he's going to bless you accordingly. There was still also a misunderstanding between the tribe of Reuven and Moshe, which we'll go over at the time that we go over that parashah. But nonetheless, he got blessed by Moshe. But at this time, with moments left in his life, Yaakov decides... to tell Reuven all of these difficult things. After that, he rebukes Shimon and Levi. And he says, "Accursed is your anger." Their behavior is unacceptable. Not them. He's not cursing them, but he's saying that their behavior, obviously, is unacceptable. And that's the worst possible thing that you can do. "Accursed is their rage, for it is intense." The worst possible thing that you can do is be an angry person. When someone is angry, according to the Gemara, he's idol worshipping. Anger. Someone expresses their anger. Not if they're angry just inside. Someone expresses their anger, kicks a table, starts smashing it, beats people up, starts yelling at people. It's the equivalent of idol worship, which we just talked about. Why is it equivalent to idol worship? Because someone that's angry, that anger stems from pride.

1:13:21How does it stem from pride? Because when someone is prideful, he thinks that he's entitled to everything. Everything has to go his way. So when it doesn't go his way, he gets angry. So why would anybody think that everything needs to go his way? Because he thinks that he's the master of his own destiny. So in essence, he's turning himself into an idol. That's why the Gemara, as Chazal say, it's a very, very scary thing. Someone who doesn't understand these things, it's a... A very, very, it's the worst midah of all is to be angry. That's why it says in the beginning of the letter the Ramban wrote to his son, we talked about it before, that the worst midah of all is to be angry because all types of gevurah don't take control over you. There's no limitation to how many sins you can commit when you become angry. Now we all know all of this stuff. But the question is, what is the solution to anger? Anger is not easy to fix. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, who started the Mussar movement, said that in order for a person to change a character trait, it's not overnight. It's not even close to overnight. If someone learns Gemara, learns the Talmud, and he does one page per day, one daf per day,

1:14:47It takes approximately seven and a half years to finish the entire Shas, which is a huge undertaking. Big. If you finish it, most people don't finish it even once in their life. So, if you finish the entire Talmud in seven years, it's considered a big undertaking. Obviously, there are some people who finish it much faster, but again, even for a person who is smart and dedicated, finishing it once every seven years is a big, big undertaking. There's an organization that makes a huge event where The whole, you know, people from all over the world learn the same page independently every day. Daf Yomi, as they call it. Daf Yomi, a page each day, or Daf each day. All over the world. And they all learn the same thing each day. And after seven and a half years, at the same exact time, they have a party in Madison Square Garden. They rent out the entire Madison Square Garden in New York or other big stadiums with tens of thousands of people to celebrate this big event. So finishing the Gemara, studying the Talmud just one time, is a very, very big undertaking and a very big commitment. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says to change one character trait takes everyday work, just like the Gemara, but it's more difficult. It takes six years. It takes at least six years, and it's much, much more difficult than finishing the entire Gemara.

1:16:18Why? Because most people, number one, don't realize that they need to fix themselves. Second of all, it's very easy to lose steam. It's very easy to lose, you know, at one point just say, okay, I worked on it enough, I'm not angry anymore. After you read a few self-help books, you read a couple of books, you went to a seminar by Tony Robbins, okay, I'm not angry anymore. Six months later, the guy beat up his best friend. You know, so people, you know, to really work on character traits, it really requires everyday work. All of us need to work on these things. Some people are angry, some people have other problems, but nonetheless, to change character traits requires a lot of work. So, the solution is, number one, to realize there's no shortcut. Number two is to realize that the only way we can solve these issues is by following the instructions, following the One that put these things in this world. Torah is the one that teaches all these things, and there are Torah teachings about how to fix each one of these character flaws that we have. Everyone has character flaws. Part of the job and the purpose of a person in this world is to develop their character, to become a better human being. The Torah is not just about looking a certain way and acting a certain way and being next to certain people.

1:17:44The Torah is about becoming a better person that improves the world around him. Part of the reason why Hashem sent us to the four corners of the world, aside from the fact that it was partially a punishment, is, number one, to better the rest of the world, to be a light to the rest of the nations, and two, towards the end of times, to convert many people that want to be part of Judaism. And that's actually a misunderstanding that some people think that Judaism does not want converts. It's a mistake. It's a very big mistake. It's not true at all. Judaism would love to have converts. The reason why it's a much more difficult process than Christianity or Islam or any of the other religions out there is because we can't afford to have fake converts. So, the process is much more difficult. We want to make sure that whoever is converting is serious. He's not doing it for his girlfriend. She's not doing it for her boyfriend. She's not doing it because her friend did it. And she's not doing it because, you know, it's in fashion now. Or she heard that this movie star is Jewish, so maybe I want to be like this movie star. You know, you're doing it because you know the truth and you want to learn the truth, you want to commit. That's why also people that go and go through conversions... It's serious. He’s not doing it for his girlfriend. She’s not doing it for her boyfriend. She’s not doing it because her friend did it. And she’s not doing it because, you know, it’s in fashion now. Or she heard that this movie star is Jewish, so maybe I want to be like this movie star. You know, you’re doing it because you know the truth and you want to learn the truth, you want to commit. That’s why also people that go and go through conversions...

1:19:06One of the main things they have to understand is that if they have, if they go through the whole process, and they go to the Beit Din, and they answer all the questions right, if they go into the Mikveh with no intention of keeping the mitzvot, the conversion is not valid. The rabbis can tell you you're Jewish all they want. They don't know what you're thinking in your head. But in Shamayim, they know. In Shamayim, they know. You go into the mikveh as Muhammad, you come out Muhammad also. You don't come out Avraham. You don't come out Moshe. You're still Muhammad. You go in there as Chris, you come out Chris. You don't come out Yaakov. So people need to understand. Some people go, no, no, I'm going to go to the mikveh, and as soon as I do the mikveh... I don't need to keep anything anymore. I'm Jewish already. And that's what happens. Some people do that. People convert with no intention whatsoever of being Jewish. So, the truth is what saves all of us. Because if we know the truth, we're able to make better decisions. And that's what you see at the end of the life of Yaakov. He told his sons the truth.

1:20:23One of the things that he told them is that in the beginning, he told them, "I want you to gather because I'm going to tell you what will befall you, meaning your descendants, at the end of days." He was going to tell them exactly when the Mashiach was going to come and what was going to happen at the end of time, at the end of days. I spoke extensively about this in yesterday's shiur, so I recommend everybody to watch it. But he was going to tell them exactly when the Mashiach was going to come. And Hashem stopped him. Hashem took away his knowledge about the exact time that Mashiach is going to come. But what he did do is he gave him some information about what will happen, what will take place, the war of Gog and Magog, and other things that we have knowledge of. One of the sources of that knowledge is from this particular meeting between Yaakov and his sons. But as far as the exact time of when Mashiach is going to come, the reason why Hashem

1:21:23did not want to tell this to Yaakov. It's because if we knew exactly when Mashiach was going to come, then some people would think that they could outsmart Hashem. Oh, Mashiach is going to come next week? Okay, so I'll do teshuva this week. Mashiach is going to come in 20 years from now? Okay, so I'll do teshuva in 19 years from now. That's the mentality of people. And in their minds, they say, "Oh, better late than never," justifying it. Better late than never. So, Yaakov is rebuking his first two children. He's telling them, "Listen, your anger is something that you have to take control over." And he's giving them mussar. He's giving them mussar. He's giving it to them on their head. Some people love mussar. Some people can't take it. Some people want to hear the truth. Some people can't handle it. The message gets to both of those people's hearts. Some people don't want to change. It's too difficult for them. While other people say, okay, it's not convenient to hear that I'm a sinner. It's not convenient to hear that I'm making mistakes. But at least I know, so I can change. Even if I'm not ready to do all of it, I'll do something.

1:22:44And that's why, before the month of Elul, before the holiday started, I had everyone that came to the shiur write one thing. It was a very, very strong lecture, a very big, strong mussar. I told everyone, listen, I think it was actually shiur number 45. I told everyone that, listen, if this shiur, this lecture doesn't affect you, I can't help you. I can't help you because this is as strong as I know. And if this doesn't touch your heart, nothing will. You're a stone. Which means that this has to change something for you. So I need you to write anything. Anything you want to change. If you're going to start wearing tzitzit, if you're going to start washing your hands, if you're going to start keeping Shabbat, whatever. Each person with their own issues. But some level of commitment. And I wish I could do it in every lecture because, realistically, that's the ideal. You want everyone to commit to something. No one is going to get from here to their ultimate level overnight. It just doesn't happen. But each person, the purpose of going to lectures is for your heart to be touched, for you to be moved. If you go to a shiur Torah and you're not moved, and you're not willing or even interested to change something about your life, not only did you waste your time, but the lecturer shouldn't have even come.

1:24:07If a lecturer gives a shiur Torah, and the shiur Torah doesn't affect anyone, what he's teaching doesn't require anyone to change. He shouldn't even teach. He should keep the information to himself, maybe write a book. I'm serious. If you're not going to change, if you're not going to impact people and have them improve themselves, what's the point? Exactly. Judaism is a religion of doing. It's not a religion of theory. It's not a religion of, oh, me, I intended to do a mitzvah, but instead I went to the club. I just didn't get a chance. Judaism is a religion of doing mitzvot. It's doing stuff. You know, we have to realize that. So, if you come to a lecture and the person that's telling you things, you don't connect, you don't understand, you don't... Fine. But one time, two times, three times, you realize that this person is maybe interesting to some people, maybe even interesting to you, but it doesn't obligate you. It doesn't obligate you in any way. There's no purpose of going to this shiur. This is also part of the reason why Christianity is so popular. Most people don't understand about Christianity and why there are churches...

1:25:30all over the world, mostly in the United States, that literally have members of 50,000, 60,000 people, 200,000 people, going to one church. It's bigger than a sports stadium. It's amazing how many people go to these places, how much money they donate. One guy I heard is evangelical. Christians are, it's something amazing how much money they donate. One guy once asked the congregation to donate 65 million dollars so he could buy a jet. A private jet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He wants a private jet so he can give lectures in other places around the world. So he wants to buy this special private jet, a G600 or something like that. And he's asking his congregation to pay for it. To give him $65 million to buy a jet. And he's not the only one. There are multiple cases. Well, you're talking about the Puerto Rican guy. I don't know. He said he's got...

1:26:32and he preached to the people that he's got in person. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's more than one. That's the thing. More than one of them are asking for jets. This has become a very common thing. They're asking for private planes. They're asking for, you know, all these, you know, they live the life of the rich and famous, these priests. And either way, why do people go to these places? I mean, if you spend any time reading the New Testament, which I don't recommend for anybody. But if you spend any time in the New Testament, you see there are contradictions and mistakes on every single page. It doesn't require that much effort to see those contradictions. One simple example: as you see in the beginning, they say that J.C. was born from God. You know, Mary had a relationship with God Himself, and somehow J.C. came out of it. Okay, fine, let's, you know, The fact that it's complete nonsense against the Torah is irrelevant. Let's say that happened. But then, several pages later, it talks about the genealogy of Joseph, and it gives you 25 different names, and then another book gives you 25 different names from the first 25. There are two different 25s.

1:27:48and they claim that both of them are the genealogy of Joseph, which the two lists of 25 are supposed to agree with each other at the minimum. They disagree with each other. But nevertheless, why do I care what the genealogy of Joseph is if he's not really the father of J.C.? What they're trying to do is to connect Joseph, the carpenter, to King David. Because they know that in our Torah it says that in order for someone to be the Messiah, he has to come from King David. So they're trying to connect Joseph the carpenter with King David. Okay, fine. Even if he's connected to King David, which he's not. Even in the whole book, there are mistakes. But nonetheless, even if he is connected to King David, he's not J.C.'s father. You just said on the first page that God is his father. What, God is the son of King David? So this contradiction is that if you just spend five minutes on this stuff, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. That's why I send it. When I send discs to people, I also send them the debate that Rabbi Mizrachi had and other debates that are out there between Christianity and Judaism because it's good for Jews to know the mistakes of other religions because it shows you the quality of information that we have. I think it actually may be on that disc number one. So, the key is to understand that all of these other religions...

1:29:16have one major thing in common. Christianity and Catholicism have one major thing in common with each other, which is, it doesn't obligate people. It doesn't obligate you to do anything. You don't have to keep any mitzvot. You don't have to do anything. Okay, once a year, you have to put some ashes on your head maybe, not eat meat. But even if you don't do it, it's not a big deal, as long as you believe in the god. And even if you murder people, technically, if you believe in a guy, it's fine. You can do whatever you want, as long as you believe in some person that may or may not have lived 2,000 years ago. Everything's fine. So not only does it not obligate you to do anything, it actually removes any obligation that you already had on yourself. Because if somebody wanted to be a good person, and I said, listen, I'm not going to steal. I'm not going to beat up people. I'm not going to do all the bad things that I saw bad people do. But then, they go to church, and the guy says, "Oh yeah, I'll donate the $300 towards the $65 million jet." But that means that I have room now, since I did something more than what I needed to do, I have room. So if I make a mistake, it's not a big deal, because I believe in JC. So it removes your own obligation of yourself. And it puts you in a situation where not only do you not have to do any mitzvot,

1:30:43but also gives you some false sense of justification for bad behavior. And that is because you're thinking that, okay, I can act badly, but as long as I believe in this belief, everything's okay. And that's one of the things that attracts people to it, because it gives people a false sense of hope. So while they do bad things, while they steal, while I'm not saying that all Christians are thieves or anything, I'm just saying that while a person who's wicked is stealing or killing people, or doing anything that's against the Torah, he still feels, "I'm religious, because I donate some money." And this also goes back to us Jews. Many Jews that are not keeping mitzvot are saying, "No, I'm religious in my heart. I'm not keeping anything, but I'm religious in my heart. In my heart, God knows what I believe." This is complete nonsense. There's no such thing as being religious in your heart. So you're religious in your heart, but by the Torah's definition, you're an enemy of Hashem. How could the two be? It doesn't make any sense. Yesterday, we were watching a video. It was a debate between a pastor and a rabbi. The rabbi said to the pastor, "Let's say I'm the Messiah." The pastor said, "Yeah, yeah, okay. You agree that I'm the Messiah?" "Yeah, okay. When I come back..."

1:32:08I told you that. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry. And that's an old man. An old man from Jerusalem. Yeah, he's fine. He's clever. He's clever. But that's the thing. The reason why it's like that, the reason why people are attracted to it is because it gives them a false sense of being righteous. They believe that they're righteous because they're part of this big organization. It makes them part of this very, very big religion. People always want to be part of something really big and something that's the favorite. There are two billion of them in the world, so of course they're right. That's the logic that says that. The second thing is, the third thing is, that it also makes you feel like you're good. You're doing the right thing. And it doesn't put you in a situation where you have to change anything about yourself. You can do as you please. As long as you do a few things, whether you have confession or other things out there, everything is fine. Judaism and the Torah are nothing like that. Aside from the fact that you have to follow the mitzvot, you have to work on your character, you have to treat people a certain way, you have to be a good person, you have to be a light to the nations. So when Jews are telling people, listen,

1:33:33We're going to test you and test you and test you over and over again. If you really want to convert to Judaism and you want to go through an Orthodox legitimate conversion, you're going to have to be tested. It's not just a test to see whether you know information or can memorize stuff, but we want to test to see if you're truly committed, to know if you really want to do this. One of the main things that you're asked during conversion is, why? Why would you want to be Jewish? We're the most persecuted nation in history. You're not joining the favorite in this world. You're joining the underdog. We're the ones that get beat up all the time. Of course, we've won overall. I mean, all the nations that have beaten us up throughout the years, whether it was the Nazis, the Turks, the Spaniards, the Greeks, the Romans, wherever it was, they're not here, but we are. But still, we get beaten up every day. Why would you want to join that? I actually remember hearing our Rabbi say, "You're out of your mind. There's something wrong with you. Why would you want to be a Jew?" Obviously, he's not trying to discourage the person, but he wants to test them. Have you really thought about this? Have you truly thought about this? So, this is to test the person to see if they really want to do it. And also, a righteous Rabbi that's converting you, a good conversion...

1:35:02...is only going to convert you if he knows, based on his knowledge of you, that you do plan on keeping the mitzvot. If a rabbi knows that you're going to violate the mitzvot, like the core ones—I'm not talking about, obviously, everyone makes some type of sin, even the most righteous people make some type of sin—but if he knows that you're not planning on keeping Shabbat, if he knows that you're not planning on keeping kosher, if he knows that you're not planning on keeping the foundation of Judaism, not only is he not allowed to convert you, even if he converts you, it doesn't count. Like we said before, Muhammad stays Muhammad. Okay, maybe the rabbi is fooled by money or he's fooled by, you know, your charm. But in Shamayim, they're not fooled, not by money and not by charm. So, that's the thing that people need to understand. Conversion is something; it's a life commitment, it's an eternal commitment. The reward is endless. The reward is endless. In Judaism, a convert is considered higher than a natural-born Jew.

1:36:03Someone who is naturally born as a Jew, with righteous parents, and does mitzvot his whole life, versus someone who is a convert, a righteous convert, converts are considered higher. According to the Torah, loving the convert and the special protection of a convert, a righteous convert, is mentioned in the Torah more times than anything else, more than Shabbat. It's mentioned 48 times. Jews are obligated to love each other, But a convert has one extra. You're obligated to love him as a Jew, and you're also obligated to love him as a convert. It's two separate things. You have to love a convert even more than you do a natural-born Jew. So the reward for a convert is eternal. It's in this world, it's in the next world, it's something extraordinary. It's the best thing you could possibly do for yourself if you're able to commit. If you're not able to commit, you don't need to convert. Be a Noahide, keep the seven laws of Noah, and you're fine. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not for everyone. But again, it's all based on whether someone wants to be righteous with Hashem, whether someone wants to be honest with himself, and not just try to fit in, in any way. And really, truly, truly do what Hashem requests of us. It's not easy. A friend of mine says, it's not easy, it's not simple to be a simple Jew.

1:37:31And honestly, it's a very true statement. It's not simple to be a simple Jew. It takes effort. But when you realize that you're carrying diamonds, all of a sudden the bag becomes lighter. If you don't know what's in the bag, you're upset that you're even carrying the bag. but if you realize, if you peeked into the bag for a second, so it's full of five-carat diamonds, all of a sudden you're lifting the bag with one hand, you're running around, you're enjoying it, oh, give me another bag. You know it's diamonds. So in reality, whether we keep the mitzvot or not and enjoy it or not, it's all based on perception. The only way to get the right perception is is by learning what it says. This is where Mussar comes in. When we do, when we learn Mussar, when we learn about character development, how to improve our traits, how to improve ourselves, how to improve ourselves as human beings, based on the definition of good that God has, not mankind. Because as we've talked about already tonight, mankind's definition of good today, there's a little bit of a problem with it. Yeah.

1:38:55to say the least. So, we have to look at what is God's definition of good. Okay, let's try to be good. When we do this stuff, by learning Mussar, by learning how to do these things, all of a sudden you start noticing that not only are you changing as a person, and all of a sudden you're not angry, and all of a sudden being a little more generous, and all of a sudden you're not as anxious, you're not as stressed out. And you discover there's a secret to life. Something that everyone here and everyone around the world, everyone is aiming for but very, very few ever reach. And that's happiness. Everyone in the world wakes up every single day and says, I want to be happy. No one in the world wakes up in the morning and says, oh, I want to be miserable today. I want to be extra miserable. No one wants to be miserable. Everyone wants to be happy.

1:39:56The key to happiness is to understand that it's not something that you could just buy. It's not something you just wake up with. It's not something that you get infected by. You know, if you hang out with happy people, you'll be happy. That's just, you know, maybe they're happy. They have a wonderful life. It doesn't necessarily mean it will change your life. Maybe you have problems. Happiness is not something material, and that's what most people misunderstand. They think that if they get more stuff, that stuff is somehow going to close the hole that's in their heart. Happiness is something spiritual. So you cannot get a spiritual feeling by material means. I've known people who get angry at happy people. Of course. Of course. I remember myself. What are they so happy about? What's so great about this world that you're so happy about? That's what I would ask myself. I remember. People walking around with a smile, and you get upset about it because you're not happy. What are you so happy about? I'm stressed out. I have so many problems. I have this, I have that, and they're happy. You think there's something wrong with it. No, but in reality, it's number one, jealousy. Number two, it reminds you of how miserable you are.

1:41:18People don't really truly see their own situation until they see the outside world. That's why I always tell people that, you know, a poor person doesn't know that he's poor until he sees a rich person. If there's a poor person on an island and he's, you know, he's by himself with, let's say, another 25 people and somehow he got, you know, a 35-year-old car. He's the only one on the island that has a car. When there was a shipwreck, his car survived, it's 35 years old, and he's the only one that has a car. But back at home, before the shipwreck, he was considered poor. But now on this island, he's considered rich. He's happy, he's great, everything is wonderful, right? When does he become miserable again? As soon as somebody else shows up with a better car. He loves his car, he thinks his car is the best car in the world. But as soon as somebody else comes to the island with a brand new car, he can't stop hating his own car. He can't stop thinking about how poor he is. It's all based on our perception. So, when we're learning all of these things, it's very, very important for us to understand that the definition of good, we have to look at what Hashem says, not what mankind says. The grass on the other side is irrelevant. But as soon as somebody else comes to the island with a brand-new car, he can't stop hating his own car. He can't stop thinking about how poor he is. It's all based on our perception. So, when we're learning all of these things, it's very, very important for us to understand that the definition of good, we have to look at what Hashem says, not what mankind says. The grass on the other side is irrelevant.

1:42:45It doesn't matter what they have. It doesn't matter what people have. It has nothing to do with... What Hashem decides for them to have, they'll have. It has nothing to do with you. If anything, if you hear that somebody is doing well, you should be happy for them. Because you cannot get towards happiness with a mindset that there's a limitation in the world. A lot of people have a problem. They talk about other people's money all the time. It's become very fashionable today to talk about athletes and... and other types of superstars and how much money they make. People go, oh, this guy, this, I don't know, baseball player makes $100 million, and this model makes $200 million, and now I win this, and now I made $20 million, and now I made $100 million. People love to talk about that stuff. They love talking about how much other people make. The first thing I've always thought, and I never understood why anyone wants to talk about it, is what do you care? He's not paying your bills. What do you care if he makes $200 million? If he was paying your bills, then yeah, of course, hopefully, he makes more money so he can pay more of your bills.

1:43:46He's not paying your bills. He doesn't care how much money you have. He's not talking about you. So I don't know why people do that. But the second thing is that when you talk about other people's money, it's only reminding yourself of how little you have. Why would you do that to yourself? It's self-defeating. If you're talking about other people having $200 million, you don't have $200 million. You're just reminding yourself of how much less you have. Yeah, so what's the point? But if you have the nature where you're happy when other people are happy and you're happy that other people are successful, great. You know, it's very tough for people to get to that point. So, again, these types of little secrets are all over the Torah, they're all over this, you know, teaching of the Gemara, from Mussar books and the Torah. All of these things are part of what Mussar is. And that's the message that Yaakov and all of the sages told each one of their sons or their people before they died. And the reason why they chose that time to give that message is because they knew that that's the one message they're going to remember. little secrets are all over the Torah, they're all over this, you know, teaching of the Gemara, from Mussar books and the Torah. All of these things are part of what Mussar is. And that's the message that Yaakov and all of the sages told each one of their sons or their people before they died. And the reason why they chose that time to give that message is because they knew that that's the one message they're going to remember.

1:45:05If you talk to somebody today and every day and every week and every month, okay, once in a while you're going to forget what the conversation was because you're used to talking to them every day and every month and every year. But if you know they're on their deathbed, you're going to remember that speech. You're going to remember what they told you. Yes, it's the last thing that you ever heard from them. That's why when people talk about September 11th or other major events that have happened throughout history, people always remember where they were. Where were you on September 11th? Most people remember where they were on September 11th, even if they didn't live in New York or anywhere near New York. They remember that on September 11th they were on a certain street, at a certain bar, in a certain office, or doing something specific. Where were you when JFK got assassinated? Oh, the people that lived during that time remember: "I was doing this, I was eating this, I was drinking a Coke." How do you remember this stuff? Because it's a memorable event. Yaakov (Jacob) knows this. He thinks, "This is a memorable event. They're going to remember my last day in life."

1:46:05So I need to make this day useful. I'm not going to play chess with them. I'm not going to tell them how great they are and how wonderful they are, how much I love them, give them kisses, and say, "I miss you," and all this stuff. That's not going to help their life. What's going to help their life is me telling them the truth, especially knowing that they're going to remember this message. The truth is above everything. And when you know that the person you're talking to is going to remember it, you have to take advantage of the opportunity. you're talking to, is going to remember it, you have to take advantage of the opportunity. One of the things that I try to do each time in each lecture is mention at least part of the foundation of each of the mitzvot, especially Shabbat. Probably every one of my shiurim mentioned Shabbat at one point or another. Personally, I think it's the biggest problem we have. And second of all, I think it's the most understated mitzvah that we have because most people don't realize how significant it is. Statistics show that 80% of Am Yisrael does not keep Shabbat. That's a problem.

1:47:05So, the reason why I mention it is because each lecture I have new people, even though sometimes the same people come. But you have new people here and there. There's one person that sprang up that I had never met before. So I don't know if I'm ever going to see them again. I don't know if they're going to go on YouTube and watch my shiur. I don't know if I'm ever going to have a chance to ever speak to this person again. So I can't risk not saying it. Why? Let's say I leave this world tomorrow. I go up to Shamayim. I'm finished. You're never going to hear me again. Okay, they wait some time after 120. They leave the world. Hashem asks me, "Oh, Mr. Stephen, did you keep Shabbat?" "No." "How did you not keep Shabbat? You went to Shiur Torah." "Yeah, a long time ago I had a Shiur Torah. This guy, Yaron Reuven, he gave a Shiur Torah." "Okay, Yaron Reuven talks about Shabbat." "No, no, you didn't talk to me about Shabbat. I don't remember." So they're going to review the Shiur. "Oh, you didn't talk about Shabbat." I'm partially responsible for you not keeping Shabbat.

1:48:06It's too much of a risk. It's not worth it. Now, again, there's so much someone can do. By the same token, when you know that someone is there and is obviously making a sin that's too significant, you have some level of obligation to tell them. It's an obligation. It's a biblical obligation. It's in the Torah itself. You're obligated to rebuke your people. Obviously, you can't openly embarrass them. You can't just call him out in the street, "Hey, Steve, you're a Mechalel Shabbat." No, poor Steve. You can't do that. The guy's going to start crying in the middle of Shabbat. He's scared. Okay, take him to the side. Talk to him. "Listen, by the way, Steve, I don't know if you know, but the fourth commandment is Shabbat. You're not allowed to do it. I don't know. Maybe you don't know enough about it. So, here's a disc. It talks about Shabbat. Maybe you should watch it. I'll watch it with you."

1:49:06If it's a kid, if it's a young kid, somebody's child, 15 years old, telling them Shabbat, no Shabbat, if they're not going to yeshiva, it's tough. So what do you do? Okay, listen, if you watch this DVD or you listen to this shiur Torah about Shabbat, I'll give you 50 bucks. Money always works with kids. Oh, I'll buy you a game, I'll take you to whatever, something. Give them, if you have to pay them, pay them. If you have to buy them something, buy them something. Why? Because you're saving their souls. And if you can't deliver the message yourself, get somebody else to do it. But it's very, very important to do what Yaakov is doing here. Why? Because, number one, you don't know if this person knows the truth or not. Most likely he doesn't, because you have to be insane to violate knowingly. Because, again, I'm not telling you guys all the consequences of violating Shabbat, because it's heavy, and it's dire, and it's scary. But you get the message. You know, you get the message. What I'm telling you is not even 1%. You know, so again, it's significant, so it's not worth it. And also, the best part about it is that if you actually keep Shabbat like you're supposed to, it's enjoyable. Turn the whole world off. No phone, no computer, no car, no nothing. Just be with your family, be with your friends. What's so bad about it? You hate them that much that you don't want to be with them for a full day?

1:50:27What's wrong with your family and friends? Nothing. Be with them. Pay attention to the world. Stop looking at your phone. Stop, you know, what's the big deal? So, Shabbat becomes a very, very enjoyable day. So, again, if we can deliver the message, we do it. If we can't, we find another way. Give them a disc. Give them a link on the computer. You know, a YouTube video. Things like this. Have shiurim in your house. All these different things. It's the best thing you can do. Because why? Because once a person wakes up, like, you know what? This is the best thing that ever happened to me. I actually have one day a week where I take vacation. The whole year I work and work overtime and overtime and overtime, more overtime, so hopefully my boss gives me a one-week paid vacation. What do I worry about this vacation? I vacation every week. One day a week of complete vacation. You have 52 days a year of vacation. Minimum, because that doesn't count the holidays. It's pure vacation. You don't need your boss to give you permission. The Boss from Shamayim obligates you. He obligates you to take vacation. So again, when you have these opportunities to tell people the truth, you have to take advantage of them. This is one of the most foundational lessons we learn from the sages. It's what we learn from our patriarchs. We learn this from them because this is the basis to life. If there's no truth, there's nothing.

1:51:55The stamp of Hashem is Emet. Emet means truth. When He wrote the Torah, 974 generations before He created the world, He wrote it giving not only mankind rules, He gave Himself rules. Why did He give Himself rules? He says, "I love, it's My creation, so of course I'm going to love My creation more than they even love themselves." So Moshe comes to me and he says, listen, I kept your entire Torah. I made a couple of sins in my entire life. Aside from that, everything you wanted I did, and even the sins that I made were not intentional. Okay, Moshe gets Gan Eden, great. Then you have little Shalom come over and say, no, God, I didn't keep any of your mitzvot, but I was a very funny comedian, made a lot of people laugh. Once in a while, I gave the homeless guy that was outside of the comedy studio a few dollars. I bought him a shawarma. "No, God, I was your creation. Don't you love me?" God says, "Yes, I do love you, but I gave Myself rules. If I didn't give Myself rules and I didn't give Myself the stamp of being emet, being truth, then actually, I would let you go because I love you, but I can't. Why? Because if I let you go, my entire Torah becomes one lie." And Moshe, who worked his whole life to get to Gan Eden, is going to be in the same place as you? That can't make sense. It makes Me a liar. Hashem can't be a liar. And that's what people who say, "Well, I'm religious in my heart," think. They say, "No, once I get up there, we'll work it out." It can't, you know, it doesn't work that way. It's no farther from the truth.

1:53:20my entire Torah becomes one lie. And Moshe, who worked his whole life to get to Gan Eden, is going to be in the same place as you? That can't make sense. It makes Me a liar. Hashem can't be a liar. And that's what people who say, "Well, I'm religious in my heart," think. They say, "No, once I get up there, we'll work it out." It can't, you know, it doesn't work that way. It's no farther from the truth. you're humanizing God. Because when you're thinking of a person, you're saying, listen, I know he's a tough guy, I know he's a little conceited, I know he's this, I know he's that, but I know how to talk to him. You know, somebody always says this. Let's say there's a person in a position of power, whether it's the president of a country or a company or even a principal of a school. Kids always think that they somehow have a special relationship with the principal of the school. Yeah, I know he's this, he's this, he's this, he's this, but

1:54:21i got a special connection with him. So I'm going to cut class, but tomorrow I'll explain to him what and who and then... Okay, with a person, maybe you can get away with it once or twice. God, you can't get away with it. He's not a person. He doesn't think like a person. And that's the thing. That's the misunderstanding that people have about Torah, where they think that you can compare the Torah to people. And that's, in essence, what the other religions did. They humanized God. When you said God came back to the world as human flesh, you humanized God. So of course you're going to think about God like a human. Of course you're going to say, no, He took my sins for me. He loves me so much, He took all my sins. But you didn't make the sins yet. Yeah, even the ones that I didn't make, He took them already. So that's what happens when you humanize God. It completely removes all obligation from a person to act like a person. And that's why you have situations happening around the world where people act literally like animals. So, we'll finish in a few minutes. The key here that we see is that after he rebukes the first few brothers, he tells Judah that the Mashiach is going to come from him. He doesn't tell him literally, he doesn't use the word Mashiach.

1:55:48but he uses the word Shiloh. Shiloh is another name for the Mashiach. He says, "A lion cub is Judah." Each one of the brothers had a symbol, had a sign. Joseph was a bull, Judah was a lion, and the other brothers also had different signs. So each tribe had a flag with their signs and also their powers. If you guys remember in the last shiur, I told you that some of them had literally special powers. That's the foundation of comic books and all the special powers, superheroes, come from the Torah. You know, Judah was ultra-strong, He had a roar of a lion, even stronger than a lion. When he would roar, he would literally be able to destroy cities with his roar, just with his voice. He was ultra-strong physically. So this is all in the Midrash. A lot of cool stuff. In the other shiur, he watched the YouTube videos, talks about some of this stuff. Really, really cool stories. Better than any comic book. And anyway, so he says, a lion covers Judah.

1:57:15from the prey, my son, you elevated yourself. So by this, he's saying, what do you mean by from the prey, my son, you elevated yourself? Technically, Judah had an opportunity to either lose everything or gain everything in one instance. And that's the story of Judah and Tamar. When Judah cohabited with Tamar, he didn't know that Tamar was Tamar. He thought she was a prostitute. And Hashem, in essence, pushed him onto Tamar because he wouldn't have done it otherwise. Because Hashem wanted to bring the Mashiach in an unnatural way. And the reason why He wanted to bring him in an unnatural way is because when the Mashiach comes, one of the first things he's going to do, or one of the ultimate things he's going to do, is take away evil from the world. Evil is the evil inclination, the Satan, the one that's enjoying all of us making sins. He's going to remove him from the world. So the one thing that the Satan doesn't want to happen is the Mashiach to come. So he's always going to try to get in the way. So if you pay attention to the story of the source of the Mashiach throughout all the Torah, each story that involves him is always strange. Whether it's the daughters of Lot, where they had incest with their father. They're actually, you know, after Sodom and Gomorrah.

1:58:43Hashem destroyed the world. Hashem destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. They thought that Hashem destroyed the world. They went into hiding in a cave where the angel helped them get to that cave, protected them, and they hid in the cave. Two young daughters and the father. The mother died on the way because she didn't follow what Hashem said. He said, don't look back. She looked back. She turned into a pillar of salt. They went into a cave. There was wine in the cave, and they thought, okay, listen, the world is destroyed, we have to restart mankind. They were trying to do a mitzvah. They weren't into their father or some sick thought that people have today. They were trying to restart mankind. They knew that Adam and Chava, at that time, were allowed to be with their family. So that's why Kayin and Hevel were each born with a twin. Cain was born with a twin sister. Abel was born with two twin sisters. So those were their wives. That's actually part of the reason why Cain was jealous of Abel—because he had two wives and Cain only had one wife. That's the reason why he killed him. It wasn't just about the story of the sacrifice and how Hashem didn't accept the sacrifice. There's a story behind the story. So anyway, they figured, okay, God allowed Adam and Chava to start the world by doing incest, so...

2:00:03We have to restart the world. They thought that the world was destroyed, so they cohabited with their father, and from their seed is actually part of where the Mashiach comes—one side of the Mashiach comes. On the other hand, we have Yehuda and Tamar. Yehuda's wife died. Tamar was married to two out of the three sons that Yehuda had. Both of them died. Because they were wicked, Hashem didn't want them to waste seed. They were wasting seed, so Hashem killed them. But Tamar had received a prophecy that the Mashiach is going to come from Yehuda. She wanted to be part of it. She wanted to be the mother of, you know, the descendant of the Mashiach. So she pretended to be a prostitute. And Hashem, in essence, pushed Yehuda to do this. Again, an unnatural thing. If we fast forward even more, King David, King David was with Bathsheba. You know, a lot of people question that whole thing. Many people in the world think that King David sinned with Bathsheba. He really didn't sin according to the Gemara. Anyone that says that King David sinned is making a mistake. He didn't sin. She was not with her husband at the time. She was divorced. She had already a get. But needless to say, again, the whole story is strange. Why? When King David had other wives...

2:01:30He had any woman that he wanted in the world. He was the king. It had to be Bathsheba. It had to be Tamar dressing like a prostitute. It had to be Lot with his own daughters. And other stories involving Ruth, the Moabite. She was a convert. It had to be a convert. You couldn't bring her to a nice little Jewish girl. Why not go to a convert? So the beauty of it is, number one, Hashem is showing you how the righteous come from everywhere. Jews, non-Jews, they come from everywhere. Converts can reach a much higher level than regular Jews because, unlike a natural-born Jew, the convert chose Hashem. A natural-born Jew was born into it. Someone who is not obligated, non-Jews, are obligated to follow the seven laws of Noah, not all the 613 mitzvot. So when that non-Jew decides to convert and says, "No, Hashem, I want to do everything that You say, and not just what You obligated me, but even more. I want to take more on myself," most Jews don't even want what we have. He wants to take even more. So he chose Hashem. The Jews didn't choose anything. He was born that way. That's why Hashem loves him so much, the convert.

2:02:54So Hashem adds that to the story. He adds all these things that are unusual to the story of the Mashiach. One is to trick the yetzer hara, trick the Satan. But two is to show you how His wisdom is nothing like ours. Human minds think that we know so much more than we really do. We know nothing. And His wisdom works in a completely different way. He says it in the Torah, "I don't think like you." In any way, you cannot compare man to God. And you see this just with the root of the Mashiach. So He says here to Yehuda, as He blesses him, He says, you had an opportunity to either be a prey... but you elevated yourself. How did he elevate himself? When you cohabited with Tamar, you didn't know, and then you were going to burn her because you thought that she was doing something that was not allowed. But then she rebuked you, and she told you, listen, she didn't even tell you to your face. She just said, "You know who this belongs to." So she gave you the opportunity to either admit to what you did,

2:04:21or deny it. So, in essence, you are prey because you have an opportunity where, at that point, you could maybe win by not being embarrassed in front of everyone, but you lose everything else as far as what your seed could potentially be. But you elevate yourself by lowering yourself, by telling the truth. And then he says, he crouches, lies down like a lion, and like an awesome lion who dares rouse him. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a scholar from among his descendants until Shiloh shall arrive and his will be an assemblage of nations. I might say this, you know, from you is going to come Shiloh. Shiloh is one of the names of the Mashiach. But why did it happen? All of this was because Judah was willing to lower himself for the sake of truth. Judah was the leader. He wasn't like a regular person. He could have easily denied the whole story of Tamar, could have gotten another girlfriend, another wife, could have done whatever he wanted. He lowered himself. Why? Because he realized there's something much higher than him. There's something above. He watches. There's an eye that sees everything. There's an ear that hears everything.

2:05:49He knows there's a real Boss to the world. Let me stay quiet. Let me tell people the truth. And that's one of the main messages that you hear from every one of these stories: that the people mentioned in the Torah are not mentioned because they were really smart. They're not mentioned in the Torah because they were really beautiful. Okay, some of them were really beautiful, like Yosef was a beautiful person. King Shlomo was a very smart person. Judah was very, very strong. Moshe was extremely strong. Great, but that's not the reason why God mentions them in the Torah. They all had a common quality. They were all humble. They were all ultra-humble. Humility is a very, very important characteristic to have if somebody wants to have a connection with Hashem. The only way to get it by learning the words of Hashem. And this is why the very next blessing that we'll finalize this year with, unless you guys have questions, which I'm more than happy to answer, I just don't want you guys to, you know, overdo it, and then tomorrow you tell me, next week you're going to tell me, listen, your shiur is too long. But the next blessing is that he blesses Zevulun and Yissachar, the two brothers, now the two of the sons,

2:07:14but he blesses Zevulun before he blesses Yissachar. Now, if you look at the order of the blessings, it's generally by age. So, if anything, he's supposed to bless Yissachar before Zevulun. So why is there a change in order? If you say it's because of Torah, Yissachar is the Talmid Chacham. Yissachar is the one that learns Torah 24 hours a day. Zevulun is the one that works every day. He's a big import-export businessman. So it's not the Torah, it's not, what is it? It's because of the special arrangement that Zevulun and Yissachar had. The arrangement was, Zevulun said, "I'm in the import-export business, I'm going to give you money so that you will not have any needs whatsoever. I'll take care of everything you need. You, in return, study Torah for both of us. I'll take care of all finances, you will not have any needs whatsoever. It's not like I'm giving the guy $100 here and there." I'm taking care of everything, you take care of everything in regards to Torah. So the arrangement was that Yissachar actually literally studied 24 hours a day. He never slept because he wanted the reward of all the Torah. So he said, if I'm already sharing it, I want to get more. I still want to get 100% of what I was going to get, so I just won't sleep. And the Torah gave him the power to literally never sleep.

2:08:39But why did he do this? Why? Because he realized the significance of the Torah. Both of them realized the significance of the Torah. Yissachar realized that sleep, I don't need to. If I learn enough Torah, I won't need to. That's where you see some of the sages, some of the, you know, the big, the big giants of Torah in history, they didn't sleep like us eight, ten hours a day. They sleep two hours. They sleep two hours. They don't sleep, you know, they don't sleep half the day. You know? So, you know, guys, the... It takes time. You have to train your body. But Zevulun realized also the value of Torah, but he also realized that in order for Torah to exist, we have to finance it. You need to live. You need to eat. You can't just live on nothing. So I need to make sure this Talmid Chacham studies. I need to make sure that I help him out so he can study and get to the highest level. He still studied himself also whenever he had time, but the biggest part of the studying...

2:09:40was made by Issachar, and they had the arrangement. And again, when Yaakov decides to bless them, he blesses the businessman before he blesses the Torah student. And the reason why is because in the Torah it says, the one that helps another person do a mitzvah is a bigger beneficiary than the one that did the mitzvah. So the fact that Zevulun is helping Yissachar learn Torah, he's getting an even bigger reward for it. Because he's a true partner. It's not just tzedakah here and there. It's mamash, something significant. It's a full life commitment on both of their ends. And that's one of the things that we need to truly understand when you're giving tzedakah to people, organizations, or any type of cause. You have to, just like you look at your investments in stocks, in forex, in real estate, in business, you have to look at your investments of how it's going to pan out. What is my reward for this? Now, there's all types of tzedakah. You could donate for Chanukah parties, and you could donate for saving souls. You have to look at everything as what is the reward. Zevulun is telling you that learning Torah is the number one thing in the world.

2:11:09at that time and for most of time until the last few generations, that was the number one mitzvah that you could possibly do with tzedakah. Why? Because someone who learns Torah, every letter that he reads, letter, not every word or sentence, every letter is a mitzvah. The Chafetz Chaim did the math. He said an average talmid chacham can read 600,000 letters per day. If he learns, if he reads an average a normal person reads in an hour, he studies for 10 hours a day, he'll have 600,000 letters per day. That means he made 600,000 mitzvot per day just from his Torah learning. That's it, just from his Torah learning. So, on the other hand, you say, "Listen, but I donated to a homeless person." Okay, so you got one mitzvah. "Oh, I did tefillin." Okay, you got another mitzvah. "Oh, but I donated to a Chanukah party." Okay, so a few people ate. So you got another mitzvah. That's one.

2:12:10There's no other way to get that many mitzvot. You bought a Sefer Torah for $100,000. Okay, so they read it three times a week. Let's say your Sefer Torah is the only Sefer Torah there is in the Beit Knesset. They read it. Each time they read, you get a mitzvah. So you get three mitzvot a week. Where are you going to be getting 600,000 mitzvot? Every day. Every day. So when he's a partner in it, when someone is financing a Talmid Chacham, for every mitzvah he gets, you get. If Yissachar is getting 600,000 mitzvot, Zevulun is getting 600,000 mitzvot. That's why up to that point, and even until the last few generations where pretty much most Jews were religious, the best mitzvah you could possibly do is to invest in a Talmid Chacham. Invest in somebody who learns Torah all the time. Because it doesn't end. The benefit doesn't end. You can't get that many mitzvot in anything else. In our generation, there's one other thing that some people say is even higher, which is kiruv. Those discs that we give out for Rabbi Mizrachi and other rabbis that do kiruv, saving souls is the most extraordinary thing you can have as far as mitzvot. And the reason why is because

2:13:30When you save, you're getting a part of every one of its mitzvot. When you save one soul, one person, doesn't keep Shabbat, all of a sudden he becomes Shomer Shabbat. Every time he keeps Shabbat, the person that helped him gets a mitzvah. Every time he does another mitzvah, because now he started teshuva, not only keeping Shabbat, he started doing prayers, started doing tefillin, started doing other mitzvot. Each time that person does a mitzvah, goes into the person that helped him do a mitzvah. He gets married, helps his wife become religious, that goes into the account. They have kids, that goes into the account. There's an endless amount of mitzvot that that person has. And also, when you talk about Gan Eden, there's one Gan Eden that's above all. Above all. Above all, even from Talmidei Chachamim, even from kings, even from everything. It's for people that actually bring back people to Hashem. Save souls. So when you're actually thinking about these, you have two major things that you can get an endless amount of mitzvot. If I'm going to donate $5, or I'm going to donate $5,000, it doesn't really make a difference. I want to make sure that investment goes to the best possible place. So when he's doing that, when Zevulun is investing all of his money into this Talmid Chacham, he knows this is better than my business.

2:14:56When someone donates to Rabbi Mizrachi or any rabbi out there, because he knows that he's going to help people do teshuva, he knows that I now become a partner in saving souls. So this becomes an endless reward because that person becomes religious and all of his descendants are religious. So you have an endless amount of reward coming from all of this. So again, this is not me asking for donations or anything like that. The key here is to understand that people donate money for nonsense. Nonsense. You have a synagogue, listen, we need a new closet. Okay, I'll donate $5,000 for a closet. How much Torah learning can you get for $5,000? You know how many Talmidei Chachamim you can help for $5,000? No, I want to have a Hanukkah party or a Purim party. Okay, yeah, it's $15,000. We want to have something really elaborate this year. Oh, yeah, sure, just put my name on it that I sponsored it. Okay, great. You know how many people you can help, how many souls you can save with $15,000? I'm not saying they shouldn't have these parties. They want to have these parties, have these parties. What can I tell you? But as a person that's learning Torah at 11, 12 o'clock at night, we have an opportunity to do something smarter. Just like you invest in Forex, just like you invest in real estate, just like you invest in anything in the world. You want the best return for your investment. That's the bottom line.

2:16:21Okay, if it's a few dollars, $20, $5, fine. But when you're talking about serious money, when it gets to the point where it's, you know, it's hurting your pocket, at least make it worth it. And that's the message here. That's what we learn from Yissachar and Zevulun. Zevulun is telling me I can donate to anything. But I donate to Yissachar. And because of that, I get a reward in this world and the next world. In the next world, we already know. In this world, look, it's obvious. My name was mentioned before his even. Yaakov is giving us a message that we're going to remember forever. And he wants us to remember forever that someone financing Torah, financing the children of Hashem, can't get better than that. So b'ezrat Hashem, that's what we all get to one day. Any questions? There's a lot more to the parasha, but you can get it in the other shiur. Anything? Baruch Adonai le'olam, amen v'amen.