Shiur Torah #7 What is your Covenant with HaShem

0:00We'll learn a few things. Hanukkah is coming up tomorrow, so we'll learn a few things about Hanukkah and also a few things about brit that I wanted to go over. Because we went over Shabbat, at least parts of it. You could talk about Shabbat for a year and a half straight and still not finish. But the basics of Shabbat, you guys obviously know by now. Then, as far as tefillin, we went over last week some of the basics of tefillin, and some of the cool things about it when you check it out scientifically. And then brit is the third core covenant that we have with Hashem that a lot of people don't actually know because people think that brit milah, when a kid is eight days old, is really the only thing that matters. As long as you have a brit milah when you're eight days old, everything's okay, you're considered Jewish, and you can do whatever you want after that. Unfortunately, nothing could be more wrong. As a matter of fact, that brit milah gets you started on a path that you really can't get out of, whether you want to or not. You become Jewish, you become someone that has a different type of agreement with Hashem.

1:28than a person that's part of the seven and a half billion people in the world. You know, when you're just another person, when you're not Jewish, you can pretty much do whatever you want. You don't have to do a brit milah. You have to just do seven basic mitzvot that pretty much most of them are just common sense. Don't worship another god, like an idol. You know, don't put one of these Buddha things in your house. Don't eat an animal while it's still alive. don't have marital relations with your sister, your brother, and stuff like that. Things that are basic common sense. Don't steal, don't kill. So these things are very, very basic common sense. You don't really necessarily need the Torah to know that you're not supposed to kill somebody if you're going to have a civilized world. Now, when you're part of that part of the world, which is 99.999% of the world, you really... have very basic requirements to satisfy Hashem. Unfortunately, most of those people don't do it. And the biggest reason is lack of knowledge, which is the same exact reason that you have with the Jewish people. Why don't people keep Shabbat? Why don't people keep the Brit? Why don't people do Tefillin?

2:51Because they don't know. It's not that they don't know it exists, it's that they don't know the significance of it. And I think there's a very, very big difference between knowing something exists and knowing how significant it is, knowing how real it is. So, for example, I was talking to my brother the other day, and I think I gave you guys the same example. A lot of people say they believe in God. In my opinion, and I'm nobody, but in my opinion, 99.999% of the world does not believe in God. Not the same God, that's a real God. Because if somebody believed in God, there's no way they would do anything against Him. Meaning that, right now we're talking, we're trying to learn some Torah. Okay, great. So, we're learning some things, I'm showing you some things from the book, Hashem's book, and He gave us some amazing things to learn about, He gave us some amazing... things that science has advanced in over the last several decades to prove certain things that were already written 3,300 years ago, and everything is all fine and dandy. But that's going to be very different. There's a certain amount of evidence that will show you something is real, versus seeing something for real. Meaning if something came down from Shamayim and Hashem started talking to us,

4:12That's a different level of knowing something is real than us talking about it in the way we are. And then even taking it one step further, somebody just says, "Oh yeah, I believe in Hashem in just my own way. I'll drive on Shabbat, but listen, me and Hashem have an understanding. No, I eat chazir here and there, but don't worry about it. When I get up there, it's going to be okay. I'll figure it out with Hashem. He understands my situation. He understands my situation, so don't worry about it. Because I have a problem... I have a big desire to eat chazir once a week. Hashem forgives me. It’s only once a week. Oh, because Hashem understands that I have a desire for women or I have a desire for men, then I can be a prostitute. Hashem understands. People have this illusion of who Hashem is. They make it into like one of their friends from the schoolyard. Like, oh, no, no, He understands me. Don’t worry about it. Yeah, yeah, I didn’t show up last week. We had a meeting. but if I show up this week, it's going to be okay. They create this illusion of what Hashem really is, and the problem is that the figure they're creating is not Hashem. It's not even close to Him. Because if Hashem came down and started talking to us, then we would know not only that everything here is real, and He's real, but everything He's saying from that moment on

5:42It becomes like part of our blood type. It becomes part of us. Hashem comes down and He starts talking to us. We realize that He's here. We realize that He's telling us, listen, Tomer, from now on, you have to show up on time. Nisan, from now on, you have to do this. Daniel, from now on, you can't pull no-shows last minute. You know, all these things. If He starts telling you guys these things... Obviously, you know it's real. He says, from now on you have to actually be a little bit more prepared before the lecture. Don't wait for Hashem to help you last minute, you know? So He has to give us something. But if He tells us these things, we know it's real. And we know it's there. And it becomes part of us. There's no doubt. Now, why does Hashem not just make it all easy for us and do what He did for Am Yisrael at Har Sinai? Am Yisrael went to Har Sinai, and as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, everyone saw His words and His sounds in Shamayim. They saw it. Every time a word came out, they saw the letters; the sounds themselves had indents in Shamayim. People saw whatever they could see from Hashem, because Hashem doesn't have a body, doesn't have anything that looks like a body, but whatever He wanted to show them, He showed them.

7:08And they knew for sure that He was there. Actually, some parts of the Midrash say that during the first two commandments out of the ten, He said them out loud and everybody heard. By the time He finished the second commandment, Am Yisrael, it's actually in the Torah, it says that Am Yisrael started crying to Moshe Rabbeinu. They said, "Please, please, you go talk to Him alone, and whatever He tells you, we're going to do. Just because if He continues talking to us, we're going to die." What was happening is that Hashem's kedushah was so significant that when He was talking, the neshamah of every single person was coming out of their body. They couldn't take it. People were actually dying. They actually say that's one of the things that's a little more complicated, but... Anyway, one of the Midrashim actually explains that this was one of the most significant, if not the most significant, times that Hashem did the first revival of the dead. When Mashiach comes, all of the tzaddikim that have passed will be brought back to life.

8:15It's actually one of the foundations of Judaism that you have to believe in. Of course, when you're far from Hashem, it's hard to believe something like that. But that's at least something that we need to strive for if we're not there yet. But one of the revivals, one of the proofs that it actually happened, is actually at Sinai when the Jews were up there and they started crying to Moshe Rabbeinu to tell Hashem to stop talking. Because they couldn't take it. They were dying. The neshama was actually coming out, and Hashem actually brought back their souls into their bodies. So the question here now is the most obvious question in the world that everybody should ask themselves. Hashem showed Am Yisrael that He was there. It was very obvious. He showed them the plagues—ten plagues over a period of a year: Dam, Tzefardea, Kinim. You know, you had all of these plagues that happened in Egypt. Each one took about a week, and then there would be a break for a few weeks. And then the whole series of the ten plagues took about a year. And they saw that this is obvious, this is obviously divine. This is not Moshe Rabbeinu doing this; this is not any magician doing this. These are things that are divine. So they saw Hashem's work. Then, during the Exodus, when they left Mitzrayim, and the Egyptians started following them, chasing them...

9:41Hashem put a pillar of fire, you know, from Shamayim to the ground to pretty much surround them to protect them and slow down the Egyptians. I mean, this stuff doesn't happen in nature. So obviously, there's something here. Then they go to Har Sinai and they see Hashem's words and things that have never happened, never happened before. Things that never happened before and things that will never happen again happened at Har Sinai. It's the most significant event in the history of mankind, in the history of creation. So, they saw this and they believed in Hashem. Pretty easy. I mean, listen, if I was there, which they say technically every neshamah was there, but let's say if we got brought back in time 3,300 and something years ago and we were at Har Sinai, we saw all this stuff life would be a lot easier as far as following what Hashem says because we know because we saw, right? So the question is, how come Hashem doesn't make it easier? Why doesn't He just come down here every time we have a shiur Torah? Let Him teach us. It's a quick question, no? Here's the difference: when Hashem showed Am Yisrael and made it obvious and made it indisputable

11:02that he's there, that means that the margin of error was non-existent. Meaning, you could not make an error and not get punished. So it actually says that, also in the Torah, in Torah Shebichtav, in the written Torah, that a person violated Shabbat, right after Har Sinai, the whole thing, a person that violated Shabbat, And Moshe Rabbeinu knew that this person is actually a tzaddik, a righteous person. So he didn't want to kill him because he knew the Torah says that somebody who violates Shabbat must be killed. That's his punishment. We already went over it. Kill him in this life, next life, and he's not part of the nation. But the first sentence is here. But Moshe Rabbeinu is a righteous person. He's very merciful. He doesn't want to kill him. He knows the guy is a tzaddik. Ayy. screwed up maybe, did something wrong. He doesn't understand why this guy did it. One of the Midrashim says that he did it on purpose just to show people the significance of Shabbat and the significance of the punishment and to make sure that people take it seriously. But anyway, the point is that Moshe Rabbeinu goes to Hashem and he says, Hashem, he violated Shabbat. What should I do? So for anyone...

12:31who thinks that Shabbat and the punishment for Shabbat is not real, or that the punishment that Hashem says maybe is metaphorical, you know, some people say this, which is a big, big, big, huge, gigantic mistake that couldn't be a bigger kefirah (heresy) against the Torah than saying something against what the Torah is saying, by saying that, no, no, the punishments in the Torah, it's only metaphorical, it's not real. the death penalties that they say are not real. It's just that it's metaphorical just to scare people because Hashem loves everyone. So anyone that says that is going against the Torah. It's not true. Because Hashem put this specific story in the Torah to answer this question in a very simple way. So Moshe Rabbeinu specifically asks Hashem, what should I do with this person? What does Hashem say? Kill him. Kill him in front of everyone. Not only kill him, kill him in front of everyone.

13:32Now, killing somebody by, let's say, shooting him with a spear, slicing his throat, or privately giving him poison, that's one level of death. Killing him in public—would you agree it's a different level of death? It's very, very different. So this answers the question. And I don't know anyone who says anything... Other than that, even read that verse, because it can't be translated differently. The Torah says that even though there are midrashim, and there are interpretations of certain sentences, when they elaborate on the meaning of certain verses, it never ever contradicts the basic, the pshat. Meaning what it says is what it says. Any interpretation will add to it, never go against it, never contradict it.

14:33So the pshat is what it is. It always means that. And the interpretation would be above that, meaning you could add to it and elaborate on it and give more details. So, for example, you could say, oh, there was a house there. Let's say that's what the verse says. But the interpretation is they look at the verse, they look at the words around it, they look at the sentences before it, after it, and even stories after it. When they put things together, they say the house was there. And it had three windows, and it had a door, and there were three people living in it. They give you more details of what was in the house. So that you can do. But to say, you know, the basic verse says the house was there, and another verse says, no, it really wasn't there, that you can't do. You can never go against it. So when Hashem specifically says that this person that is righteous, that was righteous his whole life, not only kill him, kill him in front of everyone, i don't know how anybody translates that verse any other way. You can't. And anyone that does is just lying to people. Unfortunately, it's a big problem today because people are scared to tell people the truth. And again, my opinion is that the softer way of lying to people until they finally wake up on their own just does not work. yeah, but the thing is that even if you interpret it, even if you interpret it the way it really is, you're telling people

15:59God said, if you don't keep Shabbat, then you get skila. Okay? But we don't. Okay, here's the thing. We don't because in the times that we're in, we get it and we get punished in different ways. I feel like God keeps giving us chances. Right, so that's the difference. That was the next point. Right, so that was the next point. So now, in those times, because everyone saw that Hashem was there, there was no doubt about it; if someone violated, the punishment was immediate. Why doesn't Hashem show Himself now? On one hand, we can say, wait, it would make our life so much easier. But in reality, it's actually His mercy that's causing Him not to show Himself now. Because if He did, He would have to punish us the same way and pretty much 90% of the world would be wiped out instantly. The fact that He doesn't show Himself now is the reason we don't get punished right away. Because now there's always an element of doubt that someone can have that says, listen,

17:03Yes, I read here, I read here, I read here. I haven't gone to a complete faith that I know for sure this is what it is. So, there's always an element of doubt that someone is going to have when they're not a Talmid Chacham, when they're not really reading everything. And his ancestors, whoever has any type of zechut in Shamayim, will always argue for their side and say, listen, they didn't really know or they knew but not enough. And they could argue for them not to get the complete punishment at that moment. What they get at the end, which is at the end of their life, no one can do anything about that. So, meaning that in this life that we're in right now, you can buy yourself more time, and Hashem is not going to kill you on the spot. The only problem is we don't know how long we have. One guy has 20 years. Another guy has 100 years. Another guy could have 15 years. Another guy could have 45 years. So that's why the Torah tells us, Chazal tells us, that a person needs to do teshuva every day. Because he never knows when he's going to die. So he needs to be prepared for whenever it happens. And that's just the reality of it. The thing is, though, that the fact that Hashem doesn't show Himself now is actually helping us out. It's giving us more time. The problem is, if He gave us one year, and two years, and three years, and four years, and forty years, and fifty years,

18:30and one shoe, and two shoes, and three shoes, and you've gone through 50 shoes already. How many times do you want, how much more time do you need? How much more information do you need before you realize, hey, by the way, buddy, you're not allowed to do it? So now someone can say the excuse, well, listen, I read it. I know that the rabbis say that it's not allowed, but I'm not ready. I'm not ready to do it. I have this excuse or that excuse. I have to do this, I have to do that. So then it goes back to the original argument. Which Hashem do you believe in? Do you believe in your type of Hashem or do you believe in the real Hashem? Because in reality, if you believe in the real Hashem, how dare you think that He didn't know you would have this excuse? What, you think He didn't know that you would have an issue keeping kosher because you work in a place that doesn't have any kosher restaurants? You think He didn't know that you would have a desire for women and that's why...

19:31you know, He put you in that situation. You think He didn't know that you're going to have a hard time keeping Shabbat because you like to go to the beach every Shabbat, because that's your favorite thing to do and you're a fisherman or something? He created the world. He put it there. That's the point. If it was easy, what's the point? If it was easy to do, why would He give you any reward for doing it? If it was easy for you to do it, What's the point? What's the point of your existence? Think about it, because if life was easy, meaning if to do everything that HaShem wants us to do was easy, why would He send us here? For what? What, to enjoy? Life is not really that enjoyable, if you really think about it. Most of life is dealing with problems. The vast majority of people's lives, it's not the depression; this is the reality. The vast majority of any human being, whether it's Bill Gates, or it's us, or it's some homeless guy, or it's someone in between all of us, the average life is consumed with dealing with problems: sickness, poverty, bills, women, men, kids, pets—everything that we deal with is a problem.

20:54We don't deal with them because we're happy to deal with them. We deal with them so we can move on to the next level, like a video game. Why do you beat this level? Because you want to move to the next level. It's like every day we try to beat this one level and another level and another level so we can move on with our lives, so we can finally get to that happy spot that lasts maybe a few hours. So what we try to do is deal with all of our problems. We try to fix all of our mistakes. We try to fix all of our issues so we can finally get to that celebration area where you're celebrating for a few hours. You're having a party for a few hours. You're in love for a few hours. You're doing whatever you're doing. You're happy for a few hours. Just like in a video game where you finally beat the level and they give you all these little drawings and a video of how great you are because you beat this level. But then you start all over again. And then you deal with the problems, and you go on, and you go on, and you go on, and you go on. And then you have fun, and then you go on, and it's the same thing over and over again. That's just a reality. It's not necessarily that life is miserable; it's just that that's life. You deal with issues. No one wakes up in the morning every single day, and from the minute that they wake up to the minute that they go to sleep, they only deal with...

22:05with the most pleasing things in the world and they don't have any flaws. Even people that are generally happy people will have things that, for the average person, are frustrating. Of course, it depends on how you deal with them, how you absorb them. One person can take something as a problem, whereas another person can say that this is not really a big deal. Of course, the Torah teaches us this, and that's actually one of the core foundations of the Torah: to teach you how to deal with these issues. But the point I'm trying to make here is that if our argument is that Hashem brought us to this world so we could have fun, it's already invalidated and canceled out by this one thing because in reality, there are easier ways for us to have fun. We were having fun as neshamot before we came to this world. Before Hashem put creation together, He created the neshamot. And the neshamot were only having enjoyment. And it got to a point where we had so much enjoyment that we started feeling bad for it because we didn't earn it. So let's say, for example, you went to a friend's house as a visitor. And the friend said, listen, come to the house. You don't have to do anything. Just wake up, do what you want. The food will be served for you in the morning. You'll have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You'll have everything that you desire. Just think about it, and I'll come to you. That sounds great.

23:34After the first day, phenomenal. Second day, still good. Third day, fourth day, it's okay. After about a few days, you start feeling bad. It's like, he's just giving me so much good. I gotta contribute. Let me at least take out the garbage. Let me at least wash the dishes. Let me at least help out. Okay, so listen, I lived in a little hotel for a couple of days, but after a couple of days, if you're a normal human being, you start feeling bad. You're like, okay, let me contribute something. Listen, you're buying me this, you're buying me that. After a while, you start feeling bad because, like, what is it? i don't deserve all of this. I need to help the guy out. That's a normal human being who would have these reactions. So the same thing with our souls. Our souls were created and we only had good. And it got to a point where all of that good made us sad because we felt that we didn't deserve all of it. So we actually asked Hashem to bring us to this world so we could earn it. Now obviously, to earn all of the good that He can offer us

24:34It's a big, big, you know, it's not easy. He's giving us eternal good. What can we possibly give Him? He doesn't need anything. So the test obviously is not easy. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's not possible. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's impossible, that it's too difficult. But again, you have to ask yourself, if I was here to have fun and work and do all of these things, then, in reality, why would Hashem bring me to this world? He doesn't need my work. He doesn't need my money. He doesn't need me to go build another house or move another house or repair another phone or pick another stock. He doesn't need any of these things. So, if we're already believing in the right Hashem, let's at least start thinking like He told us to think. If we're already on the right path, if we're not creating this fictional Hashem that most people do, and we have the right Hashem, let's start thinking like we're supposed to. So now, if we have this situation where He's telling us, listen, you have to come here and you have to do a mission. And we're like, no, no, I'm not really sure if that's right. Maybe I was here to get married and have kids. So how do you explain the people that can't have kids? There are plenty of people in the world that cannot have kids, either because they can't find a person to marry,

25:58Or they just don't have reproductive organs. Or they have a sickness. Or they have an illness. Or what about a child that dies early? Plenty of people in the world would give everything that they have in life just to have a kid, but they can't have a kid. So you're telling me that those people were created with no purpose? Obviously not. There's no such thing as a creation without a purpose. Nothing ever in history was ever created with no purpose. This is actually one of the things that Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi says, which is a great example. He says, you know, something as simple as this. You say, for example, you see this table that we're sitting around. Okay? We obviously know somebody made it. Right? It wasn't created out of thin air. I promise you guys, I didn't think about it, and it was created. Somebody created it, and I paid for it. So, the person that created it didn't just wake up one day and create this table, and put this table, and when somebody asked him, why did you make this table, he didn't say, "I don't know." Well, did you Is it going to be used for something? I don't know. Is it something that you're going to do something with? I don't know. I didn't create it for any reason. It makes no sense. Everything has to have a reason. This notebook was created because somebody wanted to sell it so somebody else could write in it. The phone was created so somebody could use it to communicate with someone else. The book was created so you could transfer information from one brain to another.

27:24The food was created so one person can sell it, the other person can consume it, and both can continue living and continue transacting business. Everything was created with a purpose, which means that every creation in this world, which includes us, has to have a purpose. So if we were created in this world to have children, it wouldn't make sense that that would be the purpose. Because there are many, there are plenty of people in the world, millions and millions of people that cannot have children or just never have kids. So you cannot say that Hashem, the Creator of everything, created something with no reason. You're pretty much saying that He made a mistake. It's not possible. So obviously, children are not the reason why we were created. Food is not the reason why we were created, because Hashem could have easily made us not necessarily need to eat. We don't serve any purpose by eating. Yes, we could make a bracha, but it's not a... Having fun and eating in different steakhouses is not necessarily going to elevate anyone's soul by any stretch of the imagination. No one is going to Gan Eden because they ate a good steak at one restaurant over another.

28:43So, children are not it, having fun is not it, working is not it, getting married obviously is not it because that has to do with children. All of these things are important parts of life, and they add to life; they add to the purpose, but they cannot be the purpose. So, the question is, what is the purpose? What is the point of life? That's the big question that everyone has to ask themselves at some point in life. And the people that create, there's two types of answers. There's the right answer and there's the answer that everybody creates. The answer that everyone creates has a lot to do with them creating a fictional god. Because since believing in the Torah will obligate you to do certain things that you may not want to do initially, that means you can't believe it fully. to do certain things that you may not want to do initially, that means you can't believe it fully. You'll believe it in a different way, which means that you will also translate things in a different way. You will translate things as they become convenient to you, as they fit you.

30:04So what ends up happening is that you say that, okay, maybe Hashem put us in this world to do some Torah and reach forward, but He also put me here to have a little bit of fun too and maybe go on vacation two to three times a year and also buy myself a Ferrari as soon as I get to a certain financial threshold and to also date a new girl every few months and so on and so forth. If you're already starting to translate things completely out of what Hashem is saying to you, there's no end. to how far from the core you're going to get. Because you're just going with the flow. It's whatever's going to fit you. And that's the problem. So when you create something out of thin air, there's no limitation to how wrong you're going to be. So the answer that most people will have is whatever fits their life at that point. So they're going to say that whatever is the most significant for them at that point. So someone that's relatively young and inexperienced is going to tell you, "Yes, my number one purpose in life is to, I don't know, have a girlfriend, have a boyfriend, get married, something like that, or get this job. This is my life, I need to get this job. This is the future, this is everything." You know, 10 years from now, they won't even remember that job, but the point is, that day they make it to that job is their life, or that girl is their life, or that man is their life. That's a convenient answer for someone who's choosing the wrong direction.

31:30The real answer is actually in the Torah. Hashem tells us what our purpose is. The question is, are we going to read Hashem's letter or not? The question is, are we going to actually spend the time to learn what He wants from us and start doing it one step at a time? As we learn, we do. As we learn, we do. As we learn, we do. Because You can't do both. You can't live both lives. You can't be a Chiloni and a Dati at the same time. You can't. It's not possible. You will eventually explode, either in this life or the next, unfortunately. Being in the middle is the most disastrous thing somebody can do to their life. And I'll tell you why: because it's something that is very, very difficult, and a lot of people try to do it, and it creates problems everywhere. It's like, I mean, anywhere you go, when you're trying to be a, let's say, for example, people that make the mistake of driving to shul on Shabbat, those people never actually enjoy Shabbat. They have no concept of what Shabbat is about. They go to shul because they like to socialize, they like to talk to a few people, but the actual concept of Shabbat being a significant day, a day where they rest and things like that,

32:55complete, not even close, not even remotely close to it. It's just not, it's not something that's part of their vocabulary. When you're getting to a situation like that, when you're using the Shabbat the way you want, the way you define it, it's no longer the same Shabbat. It just becomes another weekday that you don't work. And that's a reality. So when you're living the half Chiloni life and half the Torah life, What ends up happening is that both sets of people that you have in your life, people that are secular and people that are religious, neither one of them will eventually be able to stand you, because both will see you as a hypocrite. The secular people that you're around... will say, "Hey, listen, this guy's pretending to be a dati, what a faker," and what ends up happening? They think that everybody's like you. They're like, "Yeah, he's probably going to synagogue on Shabbat, but everybody's like him over there, because if he's like that, what's to say that the other people wearing a kippah are not like that also?" So what happens? Your little desire to drive to shul on Shabbat becomes a huge chilul Hashem, because now you're making people think,

34:12That everybody that wears a kippah is just like you. Because they know you're a nice guy. They know that you're a good guy. They know that you're a wonderful guy. They know that you're a great woman. They know that you're the most brilliant person on planet Earth. And you're this and you're that and everything else. So how could you possibly be such a bad guy? No, of course, everybody else that you go to shul with is just like you. So then you have pretty much the entire religion thrown in the garbage because you decided that you need to drive on Shabbat. Or you decided that you need to put pig on your Shabbat table. No, no, one is not different from the other, guys. I know that pig touches people's nerves a lot, where they say, "Oh yeah, eat pig? No, I never eat pig." But driving on Shabbat? No, it's not a big deal. Actually, driving on Shabbat is like eating a million pigs. Over and over again. Non-stop. thrown in the garbage because you decided that you need to drive on Shabbat. Or you decided that you need to put pig on your Shabbat table. No, no, one is not different from the other, guys. I know that pig touches people's nerves a lot, where they say, "Oh yeah, eat pig? No, I never eat pig." But driving on Shabbat? No, it's not a big deal. Actually, driving on Shabbat is like eating a million pigs. Over and over again. Non-stop. Again, every time you press the pedal, it's one Chilul Shabbat. Press the brake, Chilul Shabbat. Pedal again, light, another light, stop sign. It's over and over and over again. It's a disaster that you don't realize when you're doing it because it seems like it's not a big deal. But that's the thing. So the secular people become religion haters because we decide to drive on Shabbat.

35:39Or they think that everybody's like that, so they're like, ah, when is this guy going to give me a lecture about something? He's probably driving on Shabbat and just pretending like he's not, so how am I different than him? The religious people, they look at you, they're like, look at this guy. Look at how he's violating the religion. But most people are not going to have the nerve to tell you something. They're not. They're not going to have the nerve to say, hey, listen, buddy, you really can't drive on Shabbat. they don't know you well enough, they're shy, they don't want to embarrass you, or they just don't have the chutzpah to do it. They just don't have it. But it hurts them, and what ends up happening is that those people have children. And this happened to somebody I know. Someone who was pretty much raised in this family, very religious, yeshiva, I mean, just 100% amazing. Great guy, works nonstop. I think he has like three jobs. Wow. Just to provide for his family. But... Three jobs. But a couple of his kids, first he started with one kid, saw the people that were doing the halfway. He said, oh, wait, if they...

37:05talk on the phone on Shabbat, I can talk on the phone on Shabbat. And the phone became the car, and the car became that, and the next thing you know, he's completely not Jewish. So what happens is that, yes, maybe you won't affect every person, but you could affect enough. But one person that was pretty much brought up religious, but not with enough understanding, and now they don't know why they're doing it, and you can take them without even knowing it. Without even knowing that you even impacted anybody at all, you can take them completely off the derech and make them completely secular. That person could end up ruining their entire life just because they saw you talk on the phone outside of shul on Shabbat—one time. Because again, the impact you have on children is much more significant than the impact you have on adults. That child will remember what he saw forever. The adult may forget about it five minutes later. So that's why they say that when you're raising children, the way the parents need to communicate with each other has to be very, very different than the way they communicate with the rest of the world. The parents can never argue in front of the children. This is something that the Torah specifically tells us. You cannot ever disagree with each other in front of the kids. This unity reflects the shalom bayit, peace in the home, which is crucial for a child's development.

38:24If you want to have a successful marriage and successful children, you can't do any of those things in front of the kids. The kids need to see a uniform family. They need to see that the parents always agree. It can never be that the kid wants something and the mom says, "No, I'm not sure," and then the kid says, "Well, I asked dad and he said yes." It can never be that. Or they go to one, and she says no, and the other one says yes. It can never be different. The parents need to always agree. and then give the same message to the other parent. So what happens if the father is not home or the mother is not home and one of the parents agrees? When the other parent comes home, he has to support that decision. can never be against each other, unless, obviously, both of them realize that it's the wrong decision, then they can change. But if it's not necessarily a wrong decision, it's just that it's not one of their preferences, they have to support the other one. They can never disagree. If you want to have a successful marriage, you want to have successful kids, you have to do that. That's what the Torah teaches us, and that's true. You see, people that have these types of marriages, where they're fighting in front of the kids, and they're arguing in front of the kids, what ends up happening? The kids start arguing with strangers. They start arguing with their friends.

39:39They start treating their friends as if they're nobodies. And they replicate what they see at home. So it's very, very important to show the kids, especially when they're young, almost like a heavenly home, even if you didn't live in one when you were a kid. And that's just the reality. So the thing is, it's tough. It's not easy. It's not easy to do all these things. This is why... Two people came to a rabbi and said, "Listen, listen, Rabbi, we're having a kid. I think I told you guys this. We're having a kid and we want to learn how to raise kids." And the rabbi says, "Well, you're 20 years late." "What do you mean? How are we 20 years late? The kid hasn't even been born yet." He says, "That's exactly it. You should have been trained first over the last 20 years." Meaning we have to train ourselves in order to do this stuff. So,

40:39Going back to believing and knowing that Hashem's rules are what they are, or translating it into some fictional belief that we create in our mind. Anyone can say, listen, I believe 90%, but the 10% I don't believe. If you continue on that path, it will eventually change, where the 10% becomes the little faith that you still have, and the 90% completely disappears. disbelief. So again, the big deal of saying, why doesn't Hashem come to me? Why doesn't Hashem show me Himself? Why doesn't Hashem, you know, really give me a proof, right? Black and white. I want to see if this happens. It's actually for our own good. So when it comes down to Shabbat, when it comes down to all of the things that we do in our life that are sins, The fact that we don't get punished is actually because Hashem is giving us an element of doubt. If, for example, every time somebody turned on the phone on Shabbat, or lit a cigarette on Shabbat, or ate non-kosher, or something like that, they would explode, they would die, then obviously the test would be over. There would be no purpose of life anymore. Because if, let's say, for example, one guy lit a cigarette on Shabbat and he exploded,

42:00Another guy may do it also because he'll think that maybe it's just a coincidence. He exploded. By the third guy, no one would ever violate Shabbat. It would get to a point where everybody would just freeze. So there would be no more test. There would be no more purpose for this world. If everyone knew that this is 100%, something that's not doubtful, then there would be no purpose for this creation. So the key is to do the mitzvot because Hashem said so. Not because we see Him in black and white like we know for sure, but because there is an element of doubt and because these specific mitzvot will get us just a little bit closer to knowing Hashem. One time I asked my cousin, you know, in Shema Yisrael, which is one of the mitzvot de'oraita, meaning it's one of the biblical mitzvot that you have to do each morning and night, so first you're saying the verse that pretty much says that there's only one Hashem, so that's the core foundation of Judaism that differentiates us from the vast majority of the world. And then after that, you start reading a verse from the Torah. So the first word is, "And you shall love..."

43:28Hashem with all of your heart, with all of your money, and with all of your life. I mean, you have to be willing to give up your life for Him. So, before we get to your money, your heart, your life, it says you have to love Hashem. So I asked, I mean, this is, to me, a pretty obvious question, but... It took a while for me to understand the answer, meaning months, like more than months, maybe even a year, to really understand the answer. So this means it's a commandment. It's not that you should. It's not that you could. It's that you have to love Hashem with everything. with all of your heart, meaning that you have to pretty much be willing to give everything you can just for Hashem, with all of your money, meaning that if it was up to you, if it was in your hands, you would have to be willing to give everything you have—all of your possessions, all of your money, money that you have, money that you will have, money you had—everything, in one shot, no questions about it, just for Hashem. And with all of your life, meaning that you have to be willing to die for the sake of Hashem, meaning that if somebody told you,

44:56either bow to this idol or we will kill you, you have to die. No questions asked. And not only die, but be happy when you're doing it. Like, thank you very much for killing me instead of making me worship this statue that somebody made or some false belief that somebody created. It's just a lot to absorb So it's not easy. So first of all, all right, loving with all my heart. You know what? I love Hashem. He does some good things for me. I do good things. You know, He gives me life. He gives me this. He gives me that. Okay, great. So I can see why somebody would love money. Okay, I've said that. I don't really care about money. Okay, I'll give the money. Okay, my life, it's a little tough. I'm going to really die. I don't even see Him. I don't even know Him. I haven't seen Him. I haven't talked to Him. So the real question is, how can you love something? Can't see, can't touch, can't smell, can't hear. Can't use any of your five senses to connect to. But not only love Him, love Him to the extent where you're willing to give your life. And that's the question I asked my cousin.

46:30How can you love something like this? I don't know. He didn't come to me. Ah, listen, if I was Moshe, and I saw what he saw, and I heard what he heard, and I felt what he felt, I could say, maybe. But I didn't see it. I didn't feel it. How could I do it? But Hashem obviously gave us this verse not because it looks good on a siddur. Not because it rhymes. Not because it sounds kind of cool. He gave it to us because it's not a commandment just because He wants us to fail. It's a commandment because we have to succeed. Because there's no way that we should fail if we try. If you try... you're guaranteed to succeed. If you try, there's a difference between trying and pretending that you're trying. Pretending that you're trying is driving to shul. Pretending that you're trying is eating a non-kosher burger but not putting the cheese on it. Pretending that you're trying is, you know, sending your kids to a religious school but, you know, on the weekends they're dressed with no tzitzit, no kippah, the girls are dressed like you don't want to know.

47:55And there's really no religion whatsoever in the house. That's pretending. Pretending is, you know, telling everybody that you're really a Chareidi, but in reality, you're going to all the wrong places. The casinos, strip clubs, and all the worst places on Earth for a Jew to go to. That's pretending. That's pretending to try. Real trying is the opposite. Real trying is going. Shabbat, I'm learning Torah, I'm going to shul. I'm with the family. I'm doing what Hashem told me to do. Trying is eating kosher all the time. Trying is, if you're religious, you're religious all the time. Not sometimes. Not when you're in town, you're religious, but when you're on vacation, you're a Chiloni. Because some people do that too. In town, they're religious; you go on vacation, you wouldn't even know they're Jewish. They change. How many times have we seen, unfortunately, people that are supposed to be religious but are at the worst places on earth? It's a problem because then you're really... It does what we said before. No, you're a hypocrite, but not only that, you're supposed to set an example.

49:10And the example you're setting for the people that are around you, they're not taking you seriously. Exactly. That's exactly what we said before. That's the problem. We think that everybody's like us, and therefore we don't want to do it then. We say, oh wait, if this Haredi guy with a kippah and a shtreimel and everything that he has is in a casino with me playing 5-10 Texas Hold'em, then obviously it's allowed. I'm a tzaddik right now for sitting over here. I'm at the 10-25 table, so I'm an even bigger tzaddik than him. How many times... You know, that's the thing. You see them at the worst places and you think, oh wait, maybe this is Judaism. In reality, it's not Judaism. Jews are not necessarily the best representatives of Judaism. The only perfect representation of Judaism is the Torah. There are obviously a lot of really good Jews out there, but not everyone. So we can't compare ourselves to them. We have to compare ourselves to what HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells us. This is what a model Jew has to do. A model Jew is not allowed to get angry. Being angry is the equivalent of idol worship in the Torah. Did you ever know that? Being angry is the equivalent of being an idol worshiper. How are the two connected? How could they possibly connect? If I get angry, I get really, really ticked off at something.

50:36and I decide that I want to, I don't know, break something, break my screen, break my car, break my table, break anything in sight, I'm really, really, really, really upset. How could that be the equivalent of me taking some statue that some guy made 20 minutes before I bought it, and bowing to it, Chas V'Shalom. How could that be? How could the two be equivalent? The answer is that when someone's angry, they're pretty much saying, that something that was within their control was taken away from them. In essence, what they're saying is that it's not from Shamayim, it's not from Hashem, it's in their control. Meaning that if they lost this deal, let's say, for example, if it's a business deal, and that deal didn't go through, they're thinking that they're the ones that caused the deal not to happen or the other person is the one that caused the deal not to happen, not Hashem. So they're giving the credit to themselves or to another person for being responsible for whether something works out or not. In reality, we're all just little pawns in a big chess game. We're all tiny little soldiers where nothing is in our hands. The only thing that's in our hands is

52:01is if we're going to be righteous or we're going to be wicked. Whether we're tall, short, male, female, rich, or poor, none of that is in our hands. What's in our hands is whether we're going to follow what Hashem says or not. Whether the deal goes through or not is not in our hands. Whether today is going to be an easy day at work or a hard day at work is not in our hands. Whether our boss is going to give us a promotion or not is not in our hands. Whether this new business transaction is going to work out or not is not in our hands. It's not. Whether we work 16 hours or 18 hours or 20 hours or 2 hours, that's in our hands. The question is what we're going to do with that time. Someone can say, "Listen, Hashem, You put me in this world to learn Torah, but I had to work 20 hours a day, so I didn't have time for Your Torah." Because obviously, that means that you don't believe in Hashem, because Hashem says parnassah is from Me. It's not from your work. Whether you work two hours or you work 20 hours, whatever Hashem wants you to have, you will have. So the question is, which version do you believe? Do you believe in the real Hashem? Or do you believe in the one that you made up in your head? And the vast majority of people believe in something that they created in their head.

53:23And that's the only reason, that's the only way that I could say that someone would not do what is said. Now, it's obviously easier said than done. No one is perfect; no one is necessarily expected to be perfect. Hashem didn't say, "You are man, you are woman, I created you to be perfect, and you cannot steer from perfection, or else I'll destroy you." There's no version of Torah that says any of that stuff. He did not create us to be perfect. meaning that we cannot have errors, because if we couldn't have errors, the world would be destroyed over and over again every day. Everyone would just fail. We're not angels. What we are here for is to try. And we know if we're trying or not. So now, the core parts of Judaism, we already discussed. You have the Brit, which we'll talk about a little today. You have the tefillin, which we talked about last week, you have Shabbat, which we talked about today, last week, and pretty much every single shiur that we had, and we'll probably continue having it every shiur because I think it's the most important thing for anyone to do, even if they're keeping it already. So, brit, actually something very interesting, a couple of weeks ago, we read Parashat Lech Lecha, where Hashem is telling Avraham Avinu

54:53to leave the home he was born in, the home of his father, to pretty much leave everything that he's ever known and go to a place that He'll tell him at another time. He doesn't tell him where he's going. He just tells him to leave. That was one of the tests, one of the ten tests that Avraham Avinu had. that made him such a great person and one of the best people in all of history. So now in this parashah, Hashem says, you know, we actually start talking about the Brit Milah. Okay. So now, first of all, as far as the Brit Milah, we have, let's see, okay, so we have verse 17:9. I'll read it in English so everybody understands. God said to Avraham, and as for you, you shall, oh, so first He tells Avraham Avinu before this verse, He tells Avraham Avinu,

56:22that I will do all of this for you. I will give you the land. I'll make you exceedingly fruitful, meaning I'll make you into a great nation. Kings will come from you. Your, in essence, name will last forever. Amen. And He's going to give him the land of Canaan, which is later known as Israel, and pretty much reward him with an everlasting reward, which means forever, eternal, not just in this world, but also in the next world. So this is what Hashem says, "I'm going to do for you. What will you do for Me?" God says to Avraham, "And as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your offspring," after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you, and your offspring after you. So this is pretty much Hashem reestablishing this. Again, a couple of times He says "covenant," which in Hebrew is Brit, Briti. Briti means "my covenant." So He's saying this word several times, number one, to show its significance.

57:42...and to show that it's distinguished from every other word that's used in the Torah. So now He says, "Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. At the age of eight days, every male among you shall be circumcised throughout your generations. He that is born in the household or purchased with money... from any stranger who is not your offspring, he that is born in your household or purchased with your money shall surely be circumcised. Thus, My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. An uncircumcised male, the flesh of whose foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from its people. He has invalidated My covenant. So, there are a lot, a lot of things in this short

58:42paragraph that we can learn from probably for a few hours, but I'll try to keep it short and sweet. I mean, I have a few pages on it here, but the... I mean, the advantage of English is that it makes you understand the literal translation of things. The disadvantage of English, or any translation for that matter, other than Hebrew, is that it takes away a lot of the inner meanings of some of the things. So, for example... In Hebrew, it doesn't say, so in English it says "circumcised" and "foreskin." "Circumcised," everyone knows what circumcised is because we have the advantage of living in a civilized world that became part of our vocabulary pretty early in our lives. And we also know what "foreskin" is. We've learned about it at some point in our lives. When the Torah was written, though, neither one of those words was something that we knew. So for example, when Hashem says, this is my covenant, so it says, Zot Beriti. Okay, so Brit, we know already from, actually from Noah's time, that Hashem uses that word Brit, which is the agreement between Him and Noah, that He's not going to destroy the world again. That was the reason why He put the rainbow. The rainbow was created for the purpose of reminding people.

1:00:10us and Hashem, not really reminding Hashem, but Hashem says, I'll be reminded when I put the rainbow that I'm not to destroy the world. But that also means, by the way, just so you know, anytime you see a rainbow, you're not allowed to say to somebody, oh, go look at that. Because in reality, what the rainbow represents is that Hashem actually, if He did not have the agreement with Noach, He would destroy the world at that moment. That's what the rainbow means. That means that the world is wicked, and deserves to be punished, and He would destroy the world, but the reason why He's not is because He has the agreement with Noach, and the representation of that is the rainbow. So in essence, when someone says, "Ah, look at the rainbow," really what you're saying is, "Aha, look, Hashem can't destroy the world because He has an agreement and He can't go back on His word." So, things that we don't know as little kids, you always say, "Oh, look, look, look, the rainbow, the rainbow, how cool is that?" I love to do that. It's a blessing. It's a big blessing, but it's also something... You say the blessing, but that's also part of the reason. That's the big part of the reason why we even have the rainbow. So now, going back to the brit, we know that Noach had a brit with Hashem, but now we have a new brit between Avraham Avinu and Hashem, and he says here...

1:01:36What is yimol? Yimol is circumcised in essence. Okay, so that's... We don't really know what yimol is. We don't know what he's talking about. So then after that we say, comes from the root of the word orlah. Orlah is... The foreskin. The problem is that one of the things that the Torah was supposed to do is teach us Hebrew. It was written originally in Hebrew, and it was only translated into every other language later on. So now, how would we know what orlah is? This is actually one of the proofs that the Torah is divine and not man-made. Because if a man wrote the Torah... The last thing he would do is say that the orlah is part of the sensitive part, sensitive organ of a man's body. He would say it's maybe this, or maybe the nose, or maybe a piece of the eyebrow, or any other part of the body, but definitely not that part. That's also just one of the logical ways to prove that the Torah is real, and not from some person. So, now how do we know what orlah is? Orlah came from the Oral Torah; the Gemara explained to us what the orlah is.

1:03:02It's that part of the body and how to do it and so on. Now, a lot of people that read the translation don't really realize that the Sefat HaKodesh, meaning the holy language, didn't explain it like the translation is explaining it. Meaning that when it's written in English and you see the word "foreskin," you could easily understand what foreskin means. You could easily understand what "circumcised" means. In Hebrew, it's not like that. So this translation... is already using the Oral Torah as assistance to explain what this even says. So it's not necessarily a word-for-word translation in a way that would be exact, because in reality, many of the words in Hebrew cannot be translated exactly. So that's one thing. The second thing is that a lot of people make a mistake; many people actually say, oh, you know what, there are some people called Karaites, Karaite Jews. Karaite Jews are people who say that they go against the Torah Sheba'al Peh (Oral Torah), but they believe everything it says in the Chumash (the five books of Moses). However, everything that it says in the Gemara, in the Oral Torah, they don't believe in, which is similar to Christianity or Catholicism. They say, again, yes, we believe in the five books of Moses, but we don't believe in the Oral Torah. The problem with that whole mindset is that if they use a little bit of, you know,

1:04:28investigation, a little bit of research, a little bit of effort, they would realize that you cannot believe one without the other. Why? Not because, you know, there are a million reasons why you can't, but there's one very, very, very simple reason why all of them, that entire concept that one can exist without the other, can be canceled with just one simple answer. Without the Oral Torah, you would not be able to read the Written Torah. What does that mean? In English, you have the vowel system. You have the consonants and you have vowels. Every word has to have a vowel in order for a word to be created. So the word "and," A, N, D. A is the vowel, and N and D are the consonants. Okay? Every word has to have a vowel. They're pretty much A, E, I, O, U—five vowels that have to be, and sometimes Y. One of those letters has to be in every single word in the English language. They are, in essence, the foundation of every word. Every language has this to some extent, okay? In Hebrew, our vowel system is not letters, okay?

1:05:45It's not alef, bet, gimel, it's not that. Our vowel system is nekudot, the points. Which means that in order for us to know how to read something in English, the letters that make the core parts of the sound are the vowels. A is ah, E is eh, you know, so you get the point. In Hebrew, the word, the letter aleph, bet, gimel, all of these letters that we have in the Hebrew language by themselves make no sound. The way we know how they sound is based on the points that are under them, above them, or on the side of them. That's the vowel system. So, without the vowels, we wouldn't even know how the word sounds or what it even says because you can spell the same word with the same letters But if you use different points, it's a completely different word. Not even similar. It doesn't even sound the same or look the same. It has nothing to do with each other. It's not like English where, you know, there are two words that are spelled the same, but, you know, they have similar meanings, but not quite the same or anything like that. In Hebrew, it's completely different. So the vowel system is this Nikud. The Torah...

1:07:05originally was written only on scrolls. It wasn't written, it wasn't books back then. It wasn't printing machines, obviously, 3,000 years ago. And the scrolls, like the Sefer Torah you have in Shul, if you notice, there's no Nikud. There's no vowels. Why? Because it's a law that you're not allowed to have Nikud in the Sefer Torah. Wait a minute. So how could we read something if we don't know how it sounds? How could we read something if we don't have the vowels? That's where the Oral Torah comes in. There's something called a codex in English, or ketav. That's why you have ketav sometimes on the back of a sefer Torah. It always says ketav sometimes. It's popular. A lot of people don't know what that means. Ketav is actually the codex, which is the vowel system, part of the Oral Torah, which actually shows us where to put what in each letter in the Torah itself, where the blueprint pretty much... There's actually a very good book, a very good book called "The Aleppo Codex." It's a true story, a conspiracy-type of story, but nonetheless a true story about the codex, which is an original book that was written a couple of thousand years ago, that had the original nikud of the Torah.

1:08:30Now, the people of Aleppo, which is part of the Middle East, I think their codex was maybe a little younger than that, maybe 1,500 years or something like that. But anyway, they had this codex, this original version of the codex in their shul for hundreds of years, from generation to generation to generation. And when the war broke out after World War II and they founded Israel, there was a big issue of trying, you know, obviously the Arab countries... went and, you know, pretty much tortured all of the Jews that were living in their countries, and one of them was the people over there. So they did, you know, they burned a lot of Batei Knesset, they burned Sifrei Torah, they tortured all these people, unfortunately. So the people of this congregation pretty much didn't want to lose this amazing piece of history, and they, the whole book is about pretty much how it got from there to Israel.

1:09:32A lot of conspiracy behind it, how they weren't technically the government of Israel. It wasn't supposed to have it, but somehow they got it. It was really supposed to go to a different synagogue in Israel. A lot of disagreements, a lot of backstabbing. So a very, very interesting story. So now, if you guys want the book, it's a short book, it's pretty interesting. But anyway, to read the Torah... you have to have the vowels. Which means that in order for me to understand what this says, what the Hebrew words say, I have to know what they say. Because if I need to know what they say, even if I don't understand Hebrew 100%, in order for me to translate it, or have it translated, I have to first know what it says. So anyone that says, listen, I believe in the five books of Moses, but I don't believe in the Oral Torah, I don't believe in the Mishnah, I don't believe in the Gemara, I don't believe in the Zohar, I don't believe in all of these other books that are together, the Oral Torah, that can never be. That's a man-made belief but not a logical belief. Meaning that no one who is objective could ever truly say that. So if someone says, no, no, we only believe in the Five Books of Moses,

1:10:54because the rest of these books were written by rabbis or written by somebody else and so on and so forth, whatever reason they have for not believing in them, and there are plenty of reasons people come up with, they can never say that because, again, without that, you cannot have this. You can't have part one without part two because part two is part of part one. So that's the big flaw in believing in just one set and not the other. So now going back to the Brit, Hashem is telling us, He's telling Avraham that he has to remove this foreskin, and the Yevamot tells us what this foreskin is. Another thing that it tells us about the Orlah, it tells us a lot of different things about the Orlah. One of the things it says about the Orlah in Masechet Sanhedrin 38b, 38Bet, It says that the first Adam HaRishon, the first person ever created, Adam, was originally created with no foreskin, meaning he was created like we are today. But then after he sinned, the foreskin came out, and that was a sign that the sin created a barrier between him and holiness.

1:12:15The fact is, some people say, you know, there's actually, unfortunately, some people that are trying to outlaw circumcision. It's a very foolish thing, but nonetheless, people will do everything to be foolish. And one of the reasons they say this, and, you know, it's, even if you believe, you know, first of all, they think it's not healthy, which there's scientific proof that it is healthy, but they say, no, no, wait, even if you believe in this God of yours, Pretty much, by doing a circumcision, you're saying that God made a mistake. If God is perfect, how come He didn't create you perfect? Why do you have to cut something that He created? It's logical. It's actually a good argument. Think about it. It's a good argument if you think about all it is. What do you mean? If God is perfect and He created everything, He created it exactly as it's supposed to be. That's true, because you're not supposed to cut anything away from your body. Right. So how could it be... Why is it that only one thing you're allowed to cut? Ah, exactly. Exactly. Right. So how come? There's a lot of argument about that. It's a good argument. So, Baruch Hashem, we have answers. So Hashem tells us that Adam HaRishon was created...

1:13:29Perfect. Perfect is uncircumcised, meaning with no Orlah. After he sinned, the Orlah grew, because the sin created a barrier between him and holiness. The Orlah is a barrier. And what Hashem wants us to do, the purpose of circumcision is that Hashem wants, He gave us one part, He gave us our bodies, and He wants us to show that we're also making an agreement to be part of His Torah and mitzvot. By breaking this, and in order for us to get there, you can't just say, "Oh, listen, okay Hashem, you're going to do everything for me, and I'm going to sit here and relax." We have to show an effort. We have to go through a barrier, just like anything else in life. In order for every time you want to go to another level, you have to go to a different barrier, to different hurdles. So the orlah is just one barrier. Also, there are several different references here,

1:14:30of the word orlah in the Torah as a reference to it being a barrier. So it's especially a barrier to someone who is not going in the right direction of what Hashem says, is trying, but not necessarily trying hard enough. Meaning he's trying to teach him some things, or he's trying to learn some things, something's always stopping him from really going 100%. Something's always stopping him from really taking it in. Like, for example, you try to teach somebody, proving, let's say, somebody that's an atheist, and you show him every proof in the world that Hashem is real. You show him plenty of evidence that the Torah is real, Hashem is real, and the person takes it all in, listens to what you're saying, understands what you're saying, but still is not willing to say, you know what, I believe it. A person like that

1:15:32is a person that we say he has Orlah of the heart, meaning he has a barrier around his heart. That's just, in essence, his pride that he's not willing to break to really take it in. So in the Torah, in Leviticus 26:41, Ezekiel 44:7, and Jeremiah 9:25, it talks about the Orlah, and it's... how it's a barrier. So a man has to eliminate the barriers in his life in order to achieve holiness. So the key here is that how does somebody go through it? How does somebody go through these barriers? In order for someone to go through these barriers, the first thing they have to do in order to do teshuva is stop committing sins. Most people go about it the opposite way.

1:16:33What they try to do is perform mitzvot, and they think that's going to get them close to Hashem. It can. Doing a mitzvah, giving tzedakah, praying, doing all of these things is good. 100%. But what's better, a better, more direct way to get to Hashem is to stop doing wrong. Now listen, giving someone, giving a homeless guy a few dollars and helping him out, that's great. It's wonderful. But if you're eating a bacon, egg, and cheese on Shabbat at McDonald's, while you're giving the guy $2, I don't think Hashem is really going to care for you too much. That, you know, He's going to give you the pleasant life you're hoping for. So, again, the first thing, the first strategy is to stop sinning. But, you know, we're all predisposed to sin because we have a yetzer hara, we have an evil inclination. So getting over that evil inclination, another name for it is the olah of the heart, pretty much is being able to overcome our own desires. And again, this is just another way that the word olah is being used for someone who's trying to do teshuva, but is having difficulties going that one extra mile or one extra step.

1:18:02In Leviticus 26:41, I summarized it a little bit. So Hashem is pretty much saying, you know, He's talking about people that are doing teshuva, but they're doing an incomplete teshuva. Meaning, they're doing what we just talked about pretty much most of the night, where they're doing one, but they're not doing the other. They're going to shul, but they're driving to shul. They're trying to do their own little thing. Unfortunately, if they ever said, you know what, maybe Hashem is going to appreciate that I drove to shul because I went to shul at least. I even was a chazzan for 10 minutes. So, what's the big deal? You know, I davened out loud, and I parked my Ferrari only two blocks away. So, come on, you know, maybe you don't understand. If they're looking for an answer, Leviticus 26:41 has the answer. Hashem, in so many words, is saying, He will not forgive the incomplete teshuvah.

1:19:03that's insincere, from those uncircumcised hearts. "From those uncircumcised hearts" is, in essence, what we've been talking about. A lot of the heart, the people that have not been able to overcome their desires. Another way, another source is Yechezkel 44:7. Hashem is warning Israel about their uncircumcised hearts and of their friends. So people that have Friends that lead them in wrong directions. It's time to either change your friends, change friends, or do something about them. But you can't really go 100% when your friends are leading you in a different direction. Again, a lot of this stuff is easier said than done. But you have to look at things from the perspective of where do I want to be five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now, is this friend going to contribute to my life over the next twenty years, five years, ten years, or is this just, you know, a friend for now? If it's a friend for now and you're really giving up your eternity for them, it doesn't make sense. Even if it's a friend forever, and you think it's forever, it's still not worth it. But the point I'm trying to make here is that

1:20:29You know, you have to look at things from a certain perspective. We give up too much for very little in return. People spend their entire lives trying to work nonstop to make extra money so their kids can go to the best schools, and after that they can go to the best high schools, and after that they can go to the best colleges, and after that they can have the best, most expensive wedding, and after that they can have the best jewelry and car and house and everything else, and they all leave the house, and the parents are alone. And the kids are living their life. And the father that made all that money and the mother that made all that money have no Torah, no mitzvot, no life, and maybe even no relationship. People don't know, though. You visualize things differently, but you don't know. You don't know that what you're doing in this world and certain things that you do, how they reflect Olam HaBa. what you're giving up in this world for Olam HaBa, people, if they really knew, they wouldn't do it. That's why we said in the beginning that most people don't know, because if they knew, they wouldn't do it. The problem is that ignorance is not a very good excuse. Why? Because in our generation right now, even though we're the lowest generation...

1:21:50We're very, very far from prophecy. We're very, very far from the Torah and where we're supposed to be. But we have more access to Torah than any generation in history. Anyone that wants to learn Torah is only one button away. Our phone, our watch, our iPad, our computer, our television, shiurim in every corner, our Batei Knesset, there's more than enough of them. There's more Batei Knesset right now than there's ever been in history. If you want... you have access to it. So, to say that "I don't know" will hold weight for maybe a day. Because if you want to know, you can find out by tomorrow. You can find out in a minute. If you want an answer for what's allowed, what's not allowed, you can find out in minutes. It takes, obviously, some time to implement everything and learn everything. But to say that I'm going to spend 60, 70, 80 years in this world and come to Hashem saying, "Ah, you know what, Hashem, I didn't know," and think that that's going to work,

1:22:52that's, I think, may actually get an extra punishment for making Hashem feel like a fool or something like that. So, again, the ignorance excuse can hold weight for a very, very short period of time. The next one is from Jeremiah 9:25, where Hashem warns the Jews... who are uncircumcised physically but are also uncircumcised, oh, that are circumcised physically. Oh, this is actually a very good one. Yeah, so, a lot of people, obviously, there are a lot of Jews, you know, that didn't necessarily elect to be circumcised when they were kids. They were eight days old. But their parents did it. Some parents that completely didn't believe still did it, and some people that believed still did it. But the point is that It's one of those mitzvot that actually has a lot of luck where most Jews in the world and most people in the world these days actually have a circumcision. So in Yirmiyahu, people say, okay, listen, you know, I'm Jewish. I was born in Israel. I'm circumcised. I had a bar mitzvah. My mom is Jewish. I'm Jewish. What's the problem? I don't have to keep Shabbat. I don't have to keep this. I don't have to keep all those things because I'm already Jewish. So it's not a big deal.

1:24:18Remember I told you guys about one guy? I told him about the severe punishment of violating Shabbat. And he told me, "No, no, I'm Jewish. I have a Jewish passport." Remember I told you guys this? So, same type of response. So here, this is a response for him, actually, or anybody like him. What did he say again? I told him, I showed him the verse in the Torah. It says that one of the punishments of violating Shabbat is... Death here, death in the next world, and also being cut off from Am Yisrael, meaning not being considered part of Am Yisrael, not being considered Jewish. So he goes, "No, no, I'm Jewish. I have a Jewish passport." And he takes it out of his pocket and he shows me his Israeli passport. He doesn't understand you? No, no, he understood me. What does the passport have to do with it? Because he's from there. Because people... He's from the land. No, because you have to understand. People... Okay, sure. tie something physical to everything. People need something physical. They need something tangible in order to believe, in order to know. They need something physical. That's why idol worship was created in the first place. People needed something physical. That's why we act the way we act. For example, one of the most popular things that people do these days is they buy engagement rings.

1:25:44Why are they buying engagement rings? What, the woman wouldn't know that he's proposing to her without an engagement ring? Because it's a sign. She needs something physical. Okay, I know you love me. How much do you love me? That's the whole concept. People need something physical. It's unfortunately a part of our generation. It's part of our world today, where people need to tie something physical to every emotion, to every feeling, to every belief. There has to be something physical. where people need to tie something physical to every emotion, to every feeling, to every belief. There has to be something physical. So when I asked, when I told the guy what I told him, he immediately responded with a physical response by showing me his passport, saying, "This is my evidence that I'm Jewish." The only problem is that that doesn't travel to Shamayim. It only stays in this world. So I don't think it's going to hold too much. But in case he's watching and he's looking for an answer, you can look at Yirmiyahu 9:25. Hashem warns the Jews who are circumcised, who do possibly have an Israeli passport, so they're circumcised physically, but are uncircumcised spiritually, with the orlah on their hearts, saying that the days of judgment will come for them.

1:27:08and the gentiles who go against Israel. So, if it was okay to just do whatever we feel like, just because we're circumcised, just because our mom was Jewish, just because we have an Israeli passport, why would Hashem say over here, the days of judgment are coming? Shouldn't He say to some people that are not circumcised? Shouldn't He say, listen, for the people that are not circumcised, days of judgment are coming? Because they didn't get circumcised, of course, judgment is coming to them. But Hashem is specifically saying, the ones that are circumcised, days of judgment are coming because of their uncircumcised hearts. We already know what our uncircumcised hearts are from before. That's another thing. So, in this, going back to parashat Lech Lecha...

1:28:12verse 17, chapter 17, 17:10, 17:11, something very interesting. In 17:10, Hashem is saying, Zot Briti, this is my covenant. And in 17:11, it says, Le'ot Brit, meaning the sign of the covenant. So on one hand, He's saying the circumcision is is the covenant, is the agreement. But on the other hand, He's saying this is also a sign. So what does He mean by a sign? So we already know, okay, we know what the brit is. We already talked about it for the last 40 minutes. What does He mean, ot? Ot brit. So in Bereishit, when Cain killed Hevel, Hashem punished him. and it says that Hashem put an ot, a sign, on his head. He put a sign on him. Some say it was a physical sign, either a physical letter on his forehead. Some say it was even a dog that He gave him because Cain was very scared, saying, "Listen, since You have now cursed me and kicked me out of the land, anyone that sees me, meaning all of the animals, will no longer fear me. They'll kill me as soon as they see me."

1:29:39So Hashem says, no one will kill you for seven generations, and I'll give you this sign to protect you. So from there, and from other places, we learn that ot, meaning the sign, can also mean a physical sign. Something physical. So the brit milah, the circumcision, He's saying, literally, the reason why, on one hand, he's saying this is the covenant, this is the sign of the covenant, so it's not just a covenant that He had with Noach. It's not just a covenant that He had in other places in the Torah. There's a sign for this covenant, meaning that this is literally a mark on the body. That anyone that's Jewish, you're going to know that he has to have this mark on his body. And that also teaches us... why we're not allowed to have tattoos on our body. Because Hashem says, this sign, this physical sign that you're going to have on your body is going to represent the agreement you and I have for eternity. So I don't want My sign to compete with somebody else's sign. When somebody tattoos their body, they're putting a sign. They're putting something else. That sign represents something. Sometimes it represents idol worship and they don't even realize it.

1:31:02Sometimes they do realize it; sometimes it represents a boy, a girl, a dog, or nonsense. The point is, it is a sign on their body. They're putting a sign on their body, and they're stamping their body, and that is competing with, chas v'shalom, with Hashem's stamp, that He specifically told us not to violate. So that's another thing about tattoos, and also the sign aspect of it. Also, the question is, why did Hashem pick that spot? Why did Hashem pick that spot? There are several reasons for that, but why did Hashem pick that spot of the body? Why not the ear? Why not the finger? Why not just get a haircut? Why not shave for the first time? Why not, I don't know, cut off a toe? Why there? Because that part is a reproductive organ, and it's going to symbolize that the Brit is so important.

1:32:30that in order for Am Yisrael to continue surviving, the Brit has to continue surviving. The Brit is essential for Jewish eternity. Meaning if we just stop, if, Chas VeChalila, a law was passed, like the Greeks tried to do, actually during Chanukah, One of the things that the Greeks tried to do is destroy us. They were different from the Romans. The Romans tried to kill us physically, like the Nazis. The Greeks tried to kill us spiritually, trying to make circumcision, or they did make circumcision, a violation against the law. So the Brit Milah is on the reproductive organ because, in reality, if such a law was really passed, there was no more Brit, you wouldn't be able to tell who's Jewish and who's not. you wouldn't have this covenant anymore. So in order for Jewish mankind to survive, and the rest of the world really to survive, because one of the purposes of the world, the purpose of the world, is Judaism and Torah. In order for that survival to stay, we have to have this Brit. Why the eighth day? There are two interesting things about the eighth day.

1:33:54The number eight represents something supernatural in Judaism. So you have the six days of the week, you have seven days of the holy, number seven is a holy number, it's a godly number, and number eight represents something mystical, something supernatural. So how do we show that something is supernatural on the eighth day? People are constantly saying that Brit Milah is dangerous for kids, and if it's done incorrectly, it can be, But for some reason, Hashem is obviously blessing every child on the eighth day without most people even knowing that it's happening. So now, the human body has a certain amount of white blood cells, and a certain type of vitamin is created within the body as well that will continue getting lower and lower as they get older. So initially he's created with a certain amount, and then pretty much the amount continues deteriorating as somebody gets older. So that's why generally a kid will have a much easier time healing from a broken bone than an older man that's 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years old. But what we see with a newborn is that they're not born with their complete set.

1:34:56older. So initially, he's created with a certain amount, and then pretty much the amount continues deteriorating as someone gets older. So that's why, generally, a kid will have a much easier time healing from a broken bone than an older man who is 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80 years old. But what we see with a newborn is that they're not born with their complete set. they get the highest level of white blood cells that they will ever have in their life on the eighth day. But from that day on, it will always be lower. It's significantly higher on the eighth day than at any other time in their life, meaning that they will never be able to heal as fast from anything as they do from that day. This has been scientifically proven. So what happens to kids that have to wait after the 8th day? If it's a physical reason, obviously, there are people that are, you know, there are kids that are born prematurely, or they're having health issues, and it would be a health risk for them to have a Brit Milah at that time. So obviously it doesn't necessarily apply to them because they're outside of the exceptions.

1:36:19the outside of the law. So there's, for every rule, there's an exception to the rule. So in that particular case, you know, I actually know somebody that had a kid that was born with a very, very serious heart problem and was in the hospital, I think, for seven or eight months of the boy's life. Baruch Hashem, he's out of the hospital now and I think he's doing much better. But he was doing much better when I spoke to him last. Baruch Hashem, but very, very, very difficult for seven months, so they didn't do brit milah. Yeah, so it's, uh, brit milah is supposed to help us, not endanger us. We didn't do brit milah for seven months. Yeah, or period. No, eventually they did, of course. Wow, seven months for a kid without brit milah, it's not, uh, it's not easy. It's not easy.

1:37:25Also interesting about this, two last things about Brit Milah. So now, okay, so somebody says, okay, great, I had my Brit Milah already 30 years ago when I was 8 days old. I didn't even have a say about it, but I don't remember complaining either. So I'm great, right? Let's see. Hashem says, that's my covenant. shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Okay? An uncircumcised male, the flesh of whose foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from its people. He has invalidated my covenant. There are two things here. One, that soul shall be cut off from its people. That sounds familiar. Shabbat. But then another one, The second half of the sentence, actually there's an exclamation point here: "He has invalidated my covenant." Why don't I just say, "That uncircumcised male whose foreskin should not be circumcised, the soul shall be cut off from its people, because he invalidated my covenant." That would sound, you know, it sounds like it would be easier to say.

1:38:51So, obviously, the punishment is coming because of the violation of the covenant. So the question is, why is it being repeated? Why is it being said again? We already know the guy violated it. That's why he's being cut off from the people. Why is it being repeated again at the end of the sentence? Because this does not necessarily pertain to just someone that doesn't have a choice at eight days old. This is for someone that's living after eight days. This is for someone for the rest of their life. How do you violate the belief after that? Having relations out of wedlock. having relations with improper people, having relations with a wife outside of when she is in a state of niddah, things like that. So these things are not the easiest in the world to follow when you're first starting out, but again, you have to decide what's more important: today, 10 minutes of enjoyment, or forever. That's the reality.

1:40:17When my cousin first told me about the laws of niddah, I thought he was kidding. What do you mean? Can't touch my wife for half of the month? Are you insane? It's not even talking about touching intimately. I'm talking about just normal. It's very, very difficult in the beginning when you're so far from where you're supposed to be. And someone is telling you, listen, by the way, the person you're with all day, every day, all the time, you can't hold their hand for half the month. It sounds something like, wait, we only live in a different house? No, you're not allowed to live in a different house. You have to live in the same house. It's not the point to just live two separate lives. That's not keeping it. It's like when the malachim came to Hashem and said, listen, what did You create these humans for? They're going to violate the Torah. What are You going to create them for? Just give us the Torah and that's it. And Hashem said, meaning that there's no big genius here of just not creating so it doesn't go your way. So there's no risk here. There's no big genius in just not doing something, and therefore you can tell people, "I've never failed." So the key here is that it's for you to do it.

1:41:45for it to be difficult, and to overcome it. That's significant. And the Torah here specifically says, it talks to us about, again, there's a circumcision, circumcision, circumcision. It keeps mentioning, mentioning over and over again, but then again, in all the other places, it's very easy to understand why it's there. In this last sentence we just read, this last verse we just read, where again Hashem is telling us, after He's punishing this person, and cutting him off from its people, He's saying he's violated the covenant. Obviously, he violated the covenant. That's why he's cut off from the people. Why is He saying it again? And it's very easy to understand that this does not belong here if it's pertaining to the same type of person we talked about before, which is an 88-year-old person that doesn't even have a choice. So that's something key to understand again for our life because we're not going to get into it today. But the punishments for brit, you don't want to know. It's really something that gets, you know, it's very, very tough. It's very, very tough, to say the least. So, the key for us is not necessarily to scare everyone to death so they become paralyzed. The key is to at least know the truth so you can make a fair choice.

1:43:12If you don't know, then you're always going to have the excuse, "Ah, I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know." And when you get to Shamayim, Hashem says, "Oh, you didn't know? Oh, you didn't try hard enough. Well, now you know. Make a choice. It's very simple. Just make a choice. It's not, you have to decide. If Hashem is real, He has to be real all the time. If He's not real, then what's the point of doing anything? That's the real question here. If He's real, If the Torah is real, if you really believe that Hashem is the Creator of the universe, of everything, of everything that you see, of the atoms that are moving over and over again that make everything feel like it's solid, of the books, of the information, of our minds, of everything that we eat, consume, see, hear, touch, if He's everything, then He's everything all the time. Not just sometimes. So, if He's everything all the time, then why am I only doing what He says sometimes? A few quick things about Chanukah. Or you guys are going to fall asleep on me. Which one?

1:44:42Okay, so let's do some Chanukah stuff. 6:45, I was at my truck. No, no, no. This morning. I'm actually talking to Tom over here. He was playing with his phone. See, maybe the phone has more... I'm researching something. Like a Mozart, when I got a Mozart. So he's like, so what's interesting in the phone? He would say some jokes, but the phone... So tell me, what’s, you know. What are you reading? What are you reading over there? You guys, you guys, you’ve got to come with me on Motza'ei Shabbat, Wednesday night, whenever you have a chance. Now I see why, now I see why the sufganiyot, you said, they're good.

1:45:47Not easy, my friend, not easy. Okay, so, Chanukah, a few things. You ready? Or did I scare you away? Okay, so you know what, let's stop here. Let's stop here, and then we'll continue in another video. We'll start another video later, so... Baruch Hashem, we got some, this is, we'll call this the Brit Covenant video, and B'ezrat Hashem, we'll start a new video another time.