Shiur Torah #74 You're Obligated to Do Kiruv, A Special Message to Converts and Noahides

0:00Amen. B'Shem Hashem Na'aseh V'Natzliach, Shiur Torah. Glad to be back. As I said, the conversation we have before the shiur is usually better than the shiur. But please ask more questions. Baruch Hashem, the good news is that we have, so people online also know, the popularity of the shiurim has skyrocketed over the last few weeks since Rabbi Mizrachi has been putting our shiurim on Facebook. and also there's this, Nativ is putting it also on their site, and this other blog, I think it's called Devorah, also putting it on, I forget the name of it, but, you know, so a few places are publicizing the shiurim, and one thing I noticed is the shiurim here are the most popular. So there's a special kedushah in this house that's helping the shiurim, it's helping a lot of people. No, shiur, the shiur number 71, shiur number 71 was very mamash, I enjoyed it a lot. I hope you enjoyed it a lot. The people online are enjoying it. It was a very, very popular shiur. There was a lot of siyata diShmaya. You know, the sages say, Chazal says, that when there's a speaker, you know, and he has the right intentions, and he's trying to, you know, get people closer to Hashem, Hashem gives him the words. Hashem gives him the words. So I always tell you, before I come here, I don't really know what I'm going to say.

1:23And even if you were in my house, I don't know, I don't have a prepared speech or anything. It's really, Baruch Hashem, Hashem tells me what to say. You don't have to give me any credit. It has nothing to do with me. Anybody else comes, he would say the same thing. But the key is that when you have special people, they have a special message. That day we left at 1. We left in the morning, yeah. Listen, anyone that's working today taught at 1 o'clock in the morning as a group. You left at 12:30? I'm still here. So, Baruch Hashem, the shiurim here are very, very good. And Baruch Hashem, we'll continue. We'll continue getting more and more people closer. The parashah of this week has a lot to do with what we were talking about before. You know, the parashat Mishpatim. But for anyone that didn't see last week's shiur, we didn't do it here, we did it in Boca. Oh, actually, I'm sorry, before I forget. This also goes to refuah shlemah for Lourdes Garcia, Mikael ben Sarah, Atul Koto, Hadassah bat Sarah, Angela Schiffman, Jocelyn Morajon, Edilma Guerrero,

2:38Moshe ben Menachem, Reynaldo, Emanuel, Liz Myra, Isabel Perez, Josefina Matos, and Jose Avila. Zot Hashem, Hashem will give refuah shlemah to all of Am Yisrael. A lot of issues are happening in the world today, so hopefully Hashem continues to show us His kindness, His chesed, and gets us to have the ability and the strength to do His work, to do His will. Now, last week's shiur, Parashat Yitro, is a very, very special parasha. And the whole parasha, in the beginning, it talks about Yitro, it talks about how Yitro went from being the number one idol worshiper in the world, the pope of the world, to being not only a righteous convert, but getting to a point where Chazal tell us that he became not only a Talmid Chacham, but he also reached a level where he had Ruach HaKodesh. Obviously, he started small. He started with leaving Avodah Zarah, then he went to Moshe, saw the truth, converted on the spot, stayed there for a year, and learned some Torah with Am Yisrael,

4:07But then he left. Why leave? He says, I can't know the truth and leave all those poor people back home without knowing the truth. Yes, I could spend the rest of my life here and learn a lot more. But that's selfish. It's not nice. All of these people back home, they have a train coming at them. They have an earthquake coming at them and they don't know. This is one of the things we need to learn is that someone who knows the truth and doesn't tell people the truth... is outright wicked. There's no one meaner than that person. Because what do you compare it to? If you know that this person is living a life that's outright against Hashem. It's against Hashem. Hashem says, the person who commits this particular sin, he is considered my enemy. We're not talking about ISIS saying you're the enemy. We're not talking about ISIS saying you're the enemy. We're saying Hashem. Hashem says this person is the enemy. That's a problem. If you know this person is an enemy of God, but he doesn't want to be an enemy of God. He thinks he likes God. He thinks he believes in God. And you don't tell him, there's no one more mean than you. The guy has a train coming at him and you don't tell him, listen, by the way, there's a train coming at you. Whether he moves or not, it's not your business. He wants to get hit by a train, let him get hit by a train.

5:34But at least he needs to know. You know, you're seeing the train. The train is coming. Sir, move. Sir, sir. Oh, it's coming? No, you know what, I'll stay here. He wants to stay, stay. But you have to tell him. That's what he told him. That's what made him such an amazing convert, such an amazing person. So much so that Hashem made a parsha in the Torah named after him. Not every convert that ever lived has a parasha named after him. Obviously, there have been many converts throughout history. Some of the most righteous people in history have been converts. Either their parents were converts, like Rabbi Akiva, or Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, or they were converts themselves, like Shemaya and Avtalyon, who were even before Rabbi Akiva. Even before Rabbi Akiva, Shemaya and Avtalyon, both of them were righteous converts. Onkelos, the one who gave us the commentary and interpretation of the Torah, was not only a convert, he was meant to be the next emperor. His uncle was Titus. Titus. His uncle was Titus. Onkelos was supposed to be the next one to get the job. But he converted to Judaism.

6:53See, I'm a tzaddik. There are a lot of tzaddikim. But even they don't have a parasha in the Torah. Yitro got a parasha in the Torah. Why? Because Yitro was selfless. Yitro was a person who said, "Listen, I know enough about the truth that I know the train's coming. I know the earthquake's coming, chas v'shalom. I know something bad's coming if some people don't change. I have to go back home." I have to go help them. I have to tell them at least the truth, save as many as I can. Save as many souls as I can. He went back, and Chazal tells us in the Midrash that after some years, he met the nation of Israel in Eretz Yisrael, and he brought with him hundreds of thousands of converts. Hundreds of thousands of people that converted to Judaism based on one year's worth of knowledge. You don't need to be a big rabbi to convert people. You don't need to be a big rabbi to tell people to do teshuva. You need to do some basics. Show them some proofs of the Torah. And obviously, in those days they knew a lot more than we do today. But nonetheless, you don't need to be a talmid chacham for 25 years to tell people, "Listen, there's a train coming." If you don't know how to speak, give them a disc. If you don't have any discs, bring them to a shiur. It's very, very simple. People don't know that a train is coming. People don't know bad things are coming. They don't know they're an enemy of Hashem.

8:18So Yitro is telling us, as soon as I knew, I had to leave. Just like as soon as I heard. The parasha last week starts, Vayishma. Vayishma means, "And he heard." Yitro heard one time. One time he heard the truth, that was enough. That was enough for him. He didn't have to hear two times, he didn't have to be convinced, he didn't have to go to a debate. He heard one time: that Hashem is the real God, more powerful than all the gods, all the idol worship, all the everything. That was enough. He left everything—left money, left everything. He went to Hashem, went to the nation of Israel. I wish it would be upon us where people heard one time and they do this. But this is one of the things; it’s in the Torah because we have to learn from it. Are you going to be stubborn, or are you going to hear once and that’s enough? But even if you are a stubborn person, at least ask the right questions. Don't try to ask questions that are going to justify your misbehavior. You have a question? You have a doubt? Fine. Ask the question that you really have a doubt about. What? You don't believe God exists? You want proofs? Okay. You want scientific proofs? Okay, the scientific proofs. You want verses? I'll show you verses. You want a...

9:34the proof that there's Gan Eden and Gehinom, I'll show you. Whatever you want. You have doubts? Fine. Ask the questions that you have doubts about. But don't ask a question that has nothing to do with you. Like, okay, so if Judaism is so good, why is this rabbi so-and-so in jail? Or why is this so-called rabbi molesting children? Why is this there? It has nothing to do with Judaism. Just because the guy calls himself a rabbi doesn't mean he's righteous. Call himself whatever, call himself Moshe. Who cares what he calls himself? Judaism has nothing to do with people. It has to do with Hashem. When someone chooses to be righteous with Hashem, that means that they have a relationship with Hashem. If they happen to be surrounded by people that also want to be righteous with Hashem, great! But even if you are alone on an island, you still have to be Jewish. You still have to keep the laws. You still have to be a Noachide if you're not Jewish. You still have to keep the Torah. It has nothing to do with the people, whether they're evil, they're wicked, they're righteous, they're great people. It doesn't make a difference. The Torah is a relationship between you and Hashem. That's it. So if you have doubts...

10:49Ask the questions that really matter, not people and this one and that one. Don't give yourself excuses, nonsense. This is also one of the things we learned from Yitro. Yitro said, "I heard, that was enough for me. I had to go back, I had to convert people, and I had to make the next step, which is to tell people the truth." This is how this week's parasha begins: וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים לִפְנֵיהֶם. And these are the ordinances, the rules, that you shall place before them. This is what Yitro did already last week. Yitro says these people don't know anything. Like our generation today, people don't know anything. Maybe they went to religious school when they were 6, 7, or 8 years old and they think that they know stuff, but in reality, they haven't learned Torah in 30 years; they don't know anything. Anyone that's violating any of the major laws of Judaism obviously doesn't know enough. Maybe he knows that something called Torah exists, but that doesn't necessarily mean he knows what it says. The problem today is that most people are not following what Yitro did and are not following what this first verse says. The first verse says that you have to put these laws in front of people, bifneihem.

12:16Before then, you have to tell people what it says. Don't beat around the bush. Don't make up things. Don't modernize the Torah. Don't add to it. Don't subtract from it. This is what it says. I know sometimes you hear things and it hurts. Someone who is Mechalel Shabbat hears that if they're Mechalel Shabbat, they're not Jewish. They shouldn't say Kaddish. They're not counted in a Minyan. If they touch wine, you're not allowed to drink it. These things are painful to somebody that's a Mechalel Shabbat. It's painful. But it's true. If it's not painful, that means your soul is dead already. If it's painful, it's good news. But people that are in a position of power, a position of leadership—and it doesn't necessarily just mean a rabbi. It could also mean a parent. A parent doesn't tell their kid their kid's 25 years old. Doesn't keep anything. The parent knows that, by the way, if my kid doesn't do teshuva soon, this is a serious problem. The parent says, "No, no, but I don't want to offend my kid. I don't want him to be offended." Okay, so you let him continue going out with the goya, or you let her continue going out with the goy, and violate the Torah that way, or he has a boyfriend. "No, I don't want to offend him. I don't want to offend him. We accept him." It's true. It's funny, but it's true. Parents don't want to offend their kids.

13:43No, no, I know the Torah says that, you know, being homosexual is not allowed, but I want to accept my kid, I want to tolerate it. The Torah says otherwise. The Torah says, these are the ordinances that you put in front of them. "In front of them" means you have to tell them, we just received the Ten Commandments. Now, that was the monumental event of last week. We got the climax of the Torah. We got the Torah. That's the highlight of the entire Torah. It's the biggest thing that happened. More than Egypt. More than leaving Egypt. More than the sages before, the forefathers before. More than going into, more than anything. The world exists because of what happened in last week's parasha. We got the Torah. Obviously, later on in the Torah, we go into more details. But nonetheless, we just got to the highlight of the Torah. And instead of saying, "Oh, the next week, we should be celebrating. We should have a parasha about parties. We should have a parasha about, I don't know, all types of celebrations. We should have a parasha about continuing the story of how everybody was happy." No. Hashem says no. You have the Torah, now you have to put it in front of people. Why? Because the whole purpose of everything, all that exists,

15:14is for you to put the Torah into action. The Gemara says, the Torah that a student learns before they get married is virtually worthless in comparison to the Torah that he learns after he gets married. When you first hear this, it's a little difficult to understand because if you know before they got married, they were learning 10, 12, 13 hours a day. After they got married, they're learning 3 hours a day, 2 hours a day. Even if they're talmidim in a kollel, they're learning 5, 6, 7, 8 hours a day. Either way, they're not learning as much as they learned before they got married. They have a wife, they have kids, they have responsibilities, things they didn't have before.

16:15So how could you say that the Torah from before is not only less, it's drastically less than the Torah after you got married? Chazal explain it this way. The Torah was given to us not just to learn it, but to apply it to our life. Before you got married, there are a few things you could apply. You could do tefillin, you could do in the morning. You can eat kosher. You can do a few things. Not that much of a big deal. Once you got married, all of the mitzvot apply to you. Raising children, teaching Torah. Also, you don't have to be a teacher in a yeshiva to be a teacher. You have children, you have to teach them. In a position of leadership, you have to tell people the truth. That applies to your friends, that applies to your family, applies to anyone that you have a connection to.

17:16The rest of the mitzvot apply to you. That's why when you got married, the Torah is worth much, much more because you've actually put it into action. So what happens when we don't tell people the truth? Then the second verse begins. Ki tikneh eved Ivri, shesh shanim ya'avod, uvashvi'it yetzei la'ḥofshi ḥinam. It goes and it talks about Jewish slavery. It talks, if you buy a Jewish bondsman, a Jewish slave, in essence, he shall work for six years, and in the seventh, he shall go free for no charge. And in the next several verses, it talks about the laws of slavery in Judaism. We talked about it in detail in last night's shiur, so I don't want to spend too much time on it. I really want to spend more time on why, out of all of the mitzvot, We have 613 mitzvot, not necessarily all of them apply to every Jew or any Jew, because some of them are specifically for Kohanim, some of them are specifically for women, some are just for men, so no one can actually do 613 mitzvot. But nonetheless, out of all of the mitzvot that we have, why does Hashem choose slavery as the first one to tell us here? He says, these are the laws, and He talks about slavery. Why don't you talk about something nice? Talk about Shabbat,

18:44talk about kosher, talk about bar mitzvah, circumcision, I don't know, wedding, chuppah, talk about something like that. Why are you choosing slavery? I heard something from Rabbi Riskin again, Zecher Tzadik Livracha, in one of his drashot, and it says, one of the reasons that the law of being a slave has a limit, is because if somebody stole money, and they don't have money to pay back, they could sell themselves as a slave, and over six years of their service, they've paid their money back, and then they leave. They go back to their family. But if the person decides that he wants to stay a slave, because Jewish slavery is not like slavery that we know of in this world. Jewish slavery is a very favorable treatment to the person, so much so

19:45But the Torah says, when someone buys himself a Jewish slave, he buys himself a boss. Because in Judaism, according to the Torah, someone that has a slave has to treat the slave better than he treats himself. Meaning that if he has, let's say, one pillow in the house, one pillow to go to sleep on, he has to give it to the slave. If he has one mattress in the house, he has to give it to the slave. He can't sleep on a mattress if the slave sleeps on the floor. Food, everything, he has to give to the slave. And on top of that, he has to treat him very, very nicely. And when he leaves, he has to give him many gifts. This doesn't really sound like slavery. It sounds more like being a CEO. So, So, that's why it says the law of if somebody doesn't want to leave. Someone doesn't want to leave. There's a punishment for him. They say they make a hole in his ear. If the slave doesn't want to leave after six years, he wants to stay. It says in verses 5 and 6, "But if the bondsman shall say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children...'"

21:13i shall not go free. Then his master shall bring him to the court and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore through his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. Now, first off, we should know that "forever" doesn't actually mean forever here because it would mean until the next Shemitah year. Once the Shemitah comes, which is every seven years, then all a previous business, including loans, are canceled. So this would include slavery, which means that the maximum amount of time somebody could be a slave would be 14 years, and they would leave in the 15th year. So still, he gets a punishment. He gets this earring, if you will, but not a nice earring. Why is he getting punished? He wants to be a slave. He likes his master. Why is he getting punished? Why is this the first thing that's mentioned in the laws over here? It's odd. So the sages say, first of all, to become a slave, you violated, obviously, one of the laws that you heard on Mount Sinai: "Do not steal." You're not allowed to steal. That's why you became a slave in the first place, in most cases. Second of all, the fact that you decided to stay a slave...

22:43made it an even bigger sin. Because when you're a slave, you're not able to do a full repentance, because you can't do a full teshuva. You're not able to do all the mitzvot. You have the same level of mitzvot as a woman, and a woman is not obligated as much as a man to do mitzvot, because her neshama is higher, and her responsibility is higher than the man's. She has to teach the children, she has to maintain the house. Some women think that the Torah is… sexist, but in reality, it's the opposite. It favors the woman over the man. Her responsibility is higher, and her neshama is higher. That's why she's not supposed to do as many mitzvot or obligated to do as many mitzvot as the man does. But anyway, so after you've done it for six years, okay, you made a mistake, fine, but the fact that you chose to stay makes it a worse thing. Why? Because Hashem says, I brought you to this world to be My servant. But instead of being My servant, you chose to be man's servant. You chose to be My servant's servant. And this is where we have a very clear understanding that there are only two choices. There are only two choices in the world. We're either Hashem's servants,

24:10or servants of men. There's nothing in between. No one serves themselves. Even if they want to pretend like they're an idol, like Paro (Pharaoh). Paro thought that he was a god. But in reality, he knew that there had to be something in control. How did he know? Every time he had to go to the bathroom, he knew that his body was in control. It wasn't him. He knew that when Hashem brought the plagues on him, it wasn't in his hands. Everyone has someone that's in control of them. Everyone has a boss. Sometimes it's the wife. Sometimes it's the husband. Sometimes it's the kids. Sometimes it's the dog. Sometimes it's the manager. Sometimes it's the CEO. Sometimes it's the customer. You know, a guy that's trying to run a small business or even a big business. one of these customers finds, I don't know, a nail in the food, that customer becomes the new boss of the company. Why? Because the company will do everything they can to keep his mouth shut. We'll do whatever you want. You're the boss. We don't want you to publicize that our food has nails in it and destroy our company in a week. The customer becomes the boss. Everyone has a boss. Hashem is telling you, you also...

25:39can choose it. You're either going to be my servant, or you're going to be man's servant. If you're my servant, I'll take care of all those so-called bosses; you have nothing to worry about. If not, you'll be bound to the troubles of these people. Now, when you think about the word "Avdi," "Avdi," which is servant or slave actually, it doesn't have a good feeling about it. Amen. It doesn't have such a good feeling about it. Being a slave? Who is known as a slave in the Torah other than the nation of Israel? The nation of Israel was slaves. The only time we know that they're slaves, that's popular, that everyone knows, is that the nation of Israel was slaves in Egypt. That wasn't exactly something they're proud about. No one made special flyers and special postcards, wrote, “Hey, dear cousin in a faraway country, I'm enjoying my slavery over here in Egypt.” Right? No one said that.

27:04So why would Hashem say it's either we're slaves to Him or slaves to mankind? The highest compliment that we have in the entire Torah that Hashem gave a person is to Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu is the highest human being that ever existed. Not only was his soul a perfect soul that he fixed and corrected himself to become the perfect soul, but he also had the highest level of prophecy and was able to speak to Hashem face to face. the highest prophet that ever lived, the only person that spoke to Hashem face to face in the sense that he was able to speak to Him while awake. He received the Holy Torah. The Torah is named after him, the Five Books of Moses. Hashem promised him that the world will know and believe in him forever, that even atheists, historians, and scientists know that Moses existed.

28:04Whether they agree or don't agree is irrelevant. Hashem promised that people will know and believe in you forever. It doesn't get better than that. And countless times throughout the entire Tanakh, whether it's through the Five Books of Moses, or it's in the Nevi'im and the Prophets, Hashem describes Moses with one single word. Moshe Avdi. Moses, my servant. Moses was Eved Hashem. Moses was the servant of Hashem. Now what does it mean to be a servant? What does it mean to be a slave? A slave is someone that has no personal decisions.

29:05Everything that they decide to do is based on their master. The master wakes up at three o'clock in the morning and he tells the slave, "Listen, make me a coffee." The slave can't say, "Listen, I'm tired. I have a meeting tomorrow morning." The slave responds, "Yes, sir." The slave does not have an opinion, does not have an interest. His only interest, his only focus is his master. If that master is man, it's a bad situation. The master is the Creator of all creations, the One who created the heaven and the earth and everything in between. The One who controls everything. The One who loves us more than anything, loves us more than we love ourselves. If He's the Master, there couldn't be a bigger privilege than to be His servant.

30:05Moses got to the point of having no personal opinion whatsoever. And when you asked him, "What do you think? What do you want to do?" the answer would be, "What does God think? What does God want to do?" This is where we need to aim towards: the highest point. If I told you today, listen, don't aim to be like Moshe. Aim to be like a regular person. Most likely, just look in the business world; you'll never even get to be a regular person. In the business world, I used to tell my employees, most people make, at most, 60% of whatever they think is a lot of money. If someone's ambitious, they want to make a lot of money. Now everyone has a, you know, a a predisposition, an idea, a feeling of what they believe is a lot of money, or what they believe is a lot of anything. Some people think that a million dollars is a lot of money. Some people think ten dollars is a lot of money. Some people think that nothing below a hundred million dollars is a lot of money. People have different ideas. Now, if you're in the business world,

31:30The most you're ever going to get, or even in the sports world or anything else, the most you're ever going to get is probably somewhere around 50-60% of whatever you think is a lot. That's your highest peak. You're never going to get to your goal. And the reason why is not that you're not able to get to your goal, but that especially when it comes to money, the closer we get to it, the more scared we become. In the beginning, when you first start working, when you first start a new business venture, you don't even know what you don't know. So you take risks that someone who has experience would never take. A brand-new guy in the investment world will take ridiculous risks that a guy who has been in the business for 10, 15, or 20 years would never ever take because he knows better and he doesn't want to lose. The guy that's just starting out doesn't know what losing feels like. He's assuming he's always going to win. It's supposed to work. And he doesn't have that much to lose. Later on, he starts making. He starts getting closer to 100% of where he wants to be. He's now at 30%, so now at 30%, he's going to take...

32:56A little fewer risks. Why? Because now he has something to lose. At 40% and 50% of his total goal, he's going to take far fewer risks because now he has a lot to lose. Once he gets to 60%, in more cases than not, he'll stop taking risks altogether. Because the new goal is going to become, the new 100% will become just to stay exactly where you are. That's generally the same thing with businesses, the same thing with anything in the world. It's also the same thing with learning Torah. If your goal is to be basic, you'll never even get to be basic. If your goal is to get to the highest level as humanly possible, you have a chance of getting to a very good level. I can't sell you a lie and tell you that you can become Moshe Rabbeinu. I don't know. Not everyone can be Moshe Rabbeinu. But the point is that in life, you have to be overly ambitious and aim high. Because at least, even if you get to half of where you want to be, it's still a good situation. Moshe Rabbeinu got to the highest level that a human can achieve, where he reached a point where he became the servant of Hashem. His opinion no longer mattered. And ultimately, that's the one thing that we want to be. We want to reach a point where if I ask you, so...

34:23What do you think about ABC? I don't know. What does Hashem think? If that eventually becomes your reflex response, you, my friend, have reached a very, very high level. If it's not there yet, then you know where you're going. You know where you're aiming towards. And the main reason why Hashem mentioned this at the beginning of the parashah is because He's telling us that there's really no middle ground. You have a choice to make. You're either going to aim high and become My servant, or your highest goal will be to just be mankind's servant. That's not usually your ideal position. After this, it talks about different laws, talks about, I think, 53 different laws in this parashah, from murder to stealing to bestiality, unfair business practices, and many, many different things, including loans.

35:51Obviously, we can't cover all of them. We'll cover a couple of them that are the most relevant. One of the things that it talks about in the parashah is stealing. Stealing is not just—there's not one form of stealing. There are four forms of stealing. There's stealing, which is ganav, which is stealing behind people's backs. Someone, you know, it's... Dark outside, or the guy's not paying attention, you take his wallet, that's stealing. Then there's Gazlan. You do it in the open, right in front of him. You go to the store, you take the candy bar, you take the cash from the register, right in front of the guy, and you run away. That's the second form of stealing. The third form of stealing, Chamas... is that you do it with force, in essence, that you put someone in a position where you make the choice for them, like the mafia does. So you go to a person's store and tell them, "Listen, I like your store. How much are you selling it for? How much do you want?" He goes, "No, no, it's not for sale." "I didn't ask you if it's for sale, I'm asking how much do you want." You force the person to give you the business.

37:17It's interesting that Hamas is also a terrorist organization that wants to occupy the land of Israel. You can always see that it's already a prophecy because in the Torah it also talks about how the nation, the land of Israel, is going to be full of chamas. On one hand, you can translate it as it's going to be full of stealing, but on the other hand, you can translate it to this generation being full of these terrorists. Now, stealing is one of the worst possible sins, not because of the punishment that you get immediately, not even because of the punishment that you get in the real world, but because of the total package. Now, we've talked many times about Shabbat, about being with a married woman, things of that nature, those we know are big punishments, this big problem. Stealing, says here, someone steals, he has to pay, he has to pay double. He steals 100, he has to pay 200. Doesn't seem so bad. In the business world, sometimes it pays to steal, if you're a big company.

38:20being with a married woman, things of that nature, those we know are big punishments, this is a big problem. Stealing, it says here, someone steals, he has to pay double. He steals 100, he has to pay 200. Doesn't seem so bad. In the business world, sometimes it pays to steal if you're a big company. During the market crisis, when the whole stock market and financial crisis happened in 2008, a lot of stealing was exposed. All the people that were stealing beforehand for years during the good times, no one cared because everybody was making money. After everybody started losing money, then all the dirt started coming up. In the business, in the investment world, they call it, we

39:20you know, the tide receded and we saw who was swimming naked. When everyone was making money, no one asked any questions. But then, once everybody started losing, you had Madoff. All of a sudden, people were asking, "Where's my money?" And then they realized the money was gone. Then you had Stanford, another thief. No one asked anything. If his bank is even legitimate during the good times, after things crashed, they realized that not only is the bank not legitimate, but the money is gone. Many, many other small Ponzi schemes. But you also have very, very big investment firms—big and very popular investment firms. It showed that during the financial boom, where everything was good, they were actually going and betting against their customers. So the customer was trying to get a service, And they're betting against the customer. So, it's like someone comes to your business. Let's say he wants to buy a candy bar from you. So, at the least, you should, you know, give him a candy bar with a smile and say goodbye. If you don't want to say goodbye and you want to smile, at least give him the candy bar. These firms...

40:46were not only, you know, smiling, but they were smiling not because they gave them the candy bar. They were smiling because there was a little bit of poison in the candy bar. So the customer would give them two and a half billion dollars or three billion dollars or four billion dollars. And in reality, they knew that the customer was going to lose, and almost all of that money was going to go into their pockets. So now, when you're a really, really big firm and you have a lot of political connections in this fake world that we live in, you can get away with it. So one of these big firms pretty much had a deal for $2.5 billion where they knew the customer was going to lose. So after they got caught, the regulator said, okay, pay a $500 million fine for being unethical. Pay a $500 million fine and everything goes away. Now, if you think about it first, oh, $500 million is a lot of money

41:46It's a big fine. But then you think about it, wait a minute, they made $2.5 billion. So that means that they're still profitable by $2 billion. So in this fake world we live in, Alma Deshikra, the world of lies, according to what Chazal and the Gemara already talked about 2,000 years ago, it pays to steal. In the real world, it's one of the worst things you can possibly do. And the reason why is because even if you keep all of the mitzvot and you're a very, very righteous person, you can never enter Gan Eden if you stole money in your life. Ever. You have to fix it before you enter Gan Eden. Now, stealing doesn't necessarily mean that you are robbing banks or robbing clients. It could also mean that somebody lent you money and you didn't pay them back. It could also mean that you, you know, you stiffed the landlord and didn't pay him, you know, last month because you just didn't feel like it. You know, you can get away with it because it's not enough money for him to sue you. Or it's a, you know, stealing doesn't necessarily need to be a big, you know, bank job. And sometimes you see that there's people try to start a business. Somebody told me this just yesterday. People try to start a business. It didn't work out. And one of the guys that invested the money... last month because you just didn't feel like it. You know, you can get away with it because it's not enough money for him to sue you. Or, you know, stealing doesn't necessarily need to be a big, you know, bank job. And sometimes you see that there are people who try to start a business. Somebody told me this just yesterday. People try to start a business. It didn't work out. And one of the guys that invested the money

43:11wants to get his money back, but the other guy doesn't want to give it back. And he knows that it's too small of an amount for there to be a lawsuit. He knows he can just get away with it. The problem is that it doesn't pay. No one in the world has ever stolen money if they really knew what the punishment was. So first and foremost, since we don't have the Sanhedrin, we don't have the Jewish court that we used to have that actually had power, even though there's still a rabbinical... court today, they don't have any power. Like, if they tell somebody, "Listen, the violation, according to the Torah, we have to give you a death penalty," they can't do that. According to the Torah, if we have to give you lashes, you're not allowed to do that. They send all of them to jail, just for even thinking it, I think. I think maybe I'll have some problems just for saying it. So, the Sanhedrin was, in essence, the, you know, laid the law of the land. And it says if somebody stole, they have to, you know, they have to pay double. But that's just here. Now, since the Sanhedrin is not here anymore, Hashem says the law still applies, which means that He takes the money back. Someone steals a thousand dollars, Hashem will take two thousand back. It may be the next day, it may be the next week, it may be five years later. But they're not going to realize, if they don't have yirat Shamayim, they don't have fear of Hashem, they don't have connection to Hashem, they're not going to realize that's what it's from. They're going to think it's an accident.

44:39Oh, all of a sudden they have a medical bill for $2,000. They're thinking, ah, bad luck. Or the car broke down, $2,000. Ah, bad luck. Or there's a customer all of a sudden that they had for 20 years, who doesn't want to order from them anymore. Ah, bad economy. They're always going to attribute it to something else. And that's just the first part of the punishment. The second part of the punishment is when they get up there. They have to get clean. We talked about it in a little more detail yesterday, but it's a very, very dire punishment. I don't know how scary you guys want me to be, but in so many words, it's very, very scary. If you want to hear it, I'll say it in yesterday's shiur. I don't want to ruin your night. It's a bad, bad situation in Gehinnom. But that's not finished. after they got clean, they went up there, they got beat up, they went through their own version of the Holocaust up there. It's not finished. Now they're clean. They show up to the gate of Gan Eden, say, okay, I'm clean. He goes, no, you still have one thing left. Why? But I kept Shabbat. Yeah, yeah, but you still have one thing left. No, no, but I did Tefillin. Yeah, but you have one thing left.

46:08What? You have to return the money. You have to come back as a reincarnation to this world to return the money. You can never enter Gan Eden as long as you have theft on your file. It doesn't pay. You take two, three, four thousand dollars from somebody... they think, ah, I got over it, ah, whatever. It's no big deal. The guy's a millionaire. I took $4,000 from him. What's the big deal? The big deal is you have to come back to this world. It doesn't pay. No one in their right mind would ever go through all of this knowingly for doing something so silly. What, for a few hundred dollars, a few thousand dollars, even for a million dollars? It doesn't pay. So this is, again, one of the things that we see that people are doing this constantly. The world is full of stealing. People are constantly doing dishonest business, constantly overcharging people when they know that it's not right, constantly selling them bad goods, selling brand new as refurbished, selling refurbished as brand new, you know, because you could cheat the system. I remember in the electronics business, that's what they used to do 20 years ago. They used to, you know, buy computers and televisions, all different, especially computers,

47:34They buy from these stores, from these manufacturers, after they refurbish them, meaning that the computers were returned by the customer because something was wrong with them. And the company finds it more cost-effective to give the customer a brand new computer instead of waiting until the old one is fixed. But eventually, all these computers are fixed. So what do you do with them? You don't want to throw them out. You want to sell them, especially back then. Computers were worth a lot of money. Unlike today, when computers can be as cheap as $200, back then, each computer was worth a significant amount of money. So they have to sell it to somebody. So these stores would buy these computers, but then they would find some black market or somewhere, I don't know where they would get this, they would get labels of what they use and what they put on the boxes of the brand new computer. And they would clean the computer and make it look brand new and sell it as brand new. So the customer is paying retail full price for a brand new computer when, in reality, It's not, even though it's a good computer and it functions, it's not brand new. It's not a brand-new price. So if I went to a car lot and the guy told me, "Listen, there's a brand-new Jaguar." Okay, a brand-new Jaguar is worth $95,000. Great. Five minutes after I leave the lot, it's not worth $95,000. Even if it's five minutes. Five minutes later, it's worth $70,000. Five years later, it's worth $5,000.

49:02It's not worth that much anymore, right? Even though I may have only ridden it one mile, it's still not worth the same as brand new. Brand new has a special value, a hypothetical value that people add to it. So, this is what people would do in the business world—a lot. People do it today. Every business has some type of problem. It's not worth it. There's a famous story that happened in New York about 25 years ago, where a Jewish guy kept a few mitzvot here and there. He was in the toilet paper business and kept a few mitzvot over there, but he didn't know that much. He didn't know about this. So, in the toilet paper business, you know, he would sell to stores. No one counts each toilet paper, how much is in it. So he knew he was selling 100 yards. Everyone was selling everything based on 100 yards. where a Jewish guy kept a few mitzvot here and there. He was in the toilet paper business and kept a few mitzvot over there, but he didn't know that much. He didn't know about this. So, in the toilet paper business, you know, he would sell to stores. No one counts each toilet paper, how much is in it. So he knew he was selling 100 yards. Everyone was selling everything based on 100 yards.

50:02He said, "Listen, no one's really paying attention. I'm going to give them 95 yards. What, they're going to check 95 yards? I'm going to check." So he started selling 95 yards. He sees nobody's complaining. He says, "Okay, let me go a little bit more. I'm going to sell 90 yards. But I'm selling it as 100. I'm selling 90 as 100." A few months pass. No one's complaining. "Let's go to 80 yards." Now he's selling 80 is 100. It's 20 less. 20%. Okay, you know what? No one's complaining, but it looks too small. Let me go to 85. And that's what he did for a few years. He sold 85 as 100. One day, Hashem has mercy on him. Hashem does not want you to go to Gehinnom. Hashem does not want you to suffer in this world or the next world. He didn't bring you here to suffer. Hashem loves you. Hashem wants the best for you. When there's stealing, it's our doing, not His. He didn't decide for you to steal or for me to steal or for anybody to steal. We decide these things. Now, who you stole from, He decides. Because that person deserves it, or that company deserves it.

51:28For whatever reason they did. So, the stealing, we decide. The victim, He decides. Why is Hashem going to decide for someone to be a victim of stealing? Because that's their way of paying it back from when they stole in the past. either in the past, in the same life, or past in a previous life. They stole a thousand from somebody else. They had to come back to this world to pay back a thousand dollars. How are they going to pay back? This person died already. How are they going to pay back? That other person also has to come back. And he's going to steal from them back. It's a continuous disaster. It never ends. If someone stole money from you, just remember, don't feel so bad for them. They're a thief. themselves. Yeah, somebody stole from them, but they stole also. Maybe not in this life, but in a previous life, you were a thief. You stole. That's why you got the punishment. Okay, you have to, obviously, you don't necessarily need to tell this to their face in such a way where you make them feel bad about themselves. They already lost money. But, again, don't say, "Oh, Hashem is not righteous. Hashem is not just." Everything Hashem does is righteous and just.

52:49So this person was stealing from his customers for a few years. One day, Hashem has mercy on him and He says, this person continues stealing for the rest of his life. There's no end to his gain. He can never return it back because he's stealing from customers. And I can't bring back all of these customers and all of these companies' employees and all of the victims of his theft to life just for him. That means that his punishment will never end. One day he goes to a shiur Torah. People get saved from shiur Torah when the rabbi says the truth. And the rabbi says exactly what I just told you. He says someone that steals has to come back to this life. Now he had a little bit of yirat Shamayim. He got shocked. He didn't like what he heard. So he went to the rabbi after the shiur. He said, "Rabbi, I need to talk to you. Yes."

53:51I've been stealing from my customers for the last three years. And I don't want to go to Gehinnom. I don't want to be punished. I don't want to come back to this rotten world. I want to finish. I want to do the job one time, 50, 60, 70, 120 years. I'm done. I want to go to Gan Eden, hang out with Moshe Rabbeinu, Rabbi Akiva. I don't want to come back here. Problems, headaches, bills. Who wants this world, by the way? I want to go hang out with Moshe Rabbeinu, eat manna, learn Torah. What do I need all this stuff for? Having a good time. Yeah, I want to have a good time. You're telling me not only am I not going to get to where Moshe Rabbeinu is, you're telling me I'm going to go to the place where Hitler is? I don't want to go there. You're telling me after that, after I go to this bad place, I have to come back here again? And I'm only going to lose what? For a few dollars that I made? I'm not even a big company. But the problem is, how do I return it? I didn’t steal from one guy. I stole from all these companies. If I tell them right now, "Listen, I've been stealing from you for the last three years," first of all, they're all going to stop doing business with me, which means that I can't return the money. Second of all, they're all going to sue me, which means I'm going to go out of business, which again means I can't return the money. So what do I do? The Rabbi was smart. The Rabbi says,

55:16So how much have you been stealing? Fifteen. Fifteen yards out of a hundred. This is what you do. Instead of giving them a hundred, give them a hundred fifteen. Without them knowing. So little by little, you're going to return everything you stole. You're supposed to give them a hundred. They're buying a hundred. So give them a hundred fifteen, without them knowing. Now, beautiful part of the story is how Hashem gets so happy and excited to see us do teshuva. Because teshuva does not make logical sense. Teshuva should technically not exist. Why? If someone robbed a bank, they go to the judge. The judge says, okay, you robbed the bank. Are you upset? Are you sorry for what you did? Now that you took the money back, yes, I'm upset and I'm sorry for it. Okay, well, either way, we took the money back and you have to go to jail for five years, ten years, twenty years, whatever it is. That's regular, that's normal, how our logic works. Not only do we have to return what we took and what we violated, but on top of it, we get punished. Teshuva is not that.

56:45Teshuva is if somebody made all of these sins, they stole a hundred million dollars, they come to the judge, the real Judge, and say, "Hashem, I'm really sorry. I promise I will never do it again." Hashem not only takes away the punishment—there's no jail sentence if it's a real teshuva—but on top of it, You don't have to return all these sins. Some, yes, but many you don't. You can't fix if you had an intimate relationship with a woman that's not your wife. You can't fix the violations of Shabbat that are in the past. The way you can fix it really is by making other people keep Shabbat. But you can't go back to the past and keep the Shabbat that you didn't keep. You can't throw up the chazir that you ate 25 years ago. You can't. Hashem says, you want to do teshuvah? Are you serious? Not only do you keep whatever goods are left, but I'll even give you a price. Sometimes you see this price in this world and that's what happened in this story. So the guy, for the next six months, he's giving his customers 115 yards. One day his wife tells him, honey, honey, look at what's on TV. They're talking about you.

58:13And it's one of these investigative reporters. He says, "We've been investigating the toilet paper business. We looked at these 10 companies, and everyone is cheating. They're all supposed to be selling 100 yards. And this one is selling 70. The other one is selling 75. This big company is selling 92. No one is selling 100." ...except this small little company in New York, where for some reason, every single box we open, they sell 115. Obviously, he got some great promotion, became a multi-millionaire. Everybody wanted to do business with him. When they asked him, "Sir, why are you giving so much extra to your customers?" He says, "Oh, my rabbi always told me that I should give extra to customers." You know, even tell him, "Listen, I was stealing from my customers for three years. But you see how Hashem rewards us for teshuvah. It's also one of the things you need to know is that when someone does teshuvah, they're, in essence, reborn spiritually to Hashem." Are you giving so much extra to your customers? He says, "Oh, my rabbi always told me that I should give extra to customers." You know, even tell him, "Listen, I was stealing from my customers for three years. But you see how Hashem rewards us for teshuvah. It's also one of the things you need to know is that when someone does teshuvah, they're, in essence, reborn spiritually to Hashem."

59:30And Hashem treats them like a baby, and He gets excited at every little mitzvah that they do. Just like when you see a little baby, I know I see my little eight-month-old, and, you know, she starts crawling, it's the most exciting thing in the world. Wow, she's crawling. Or she said something that sounded like Ima, it's like, wow, it's the most amazing thing. Now, if somebody who's 25 years old started crawling on the floor, you'd probably send him to a mental institution. He must be drunk, right? He's drunk. Something's wrong with him. But an 8-month-old, it's very exciting. It's the same thing when someone observes Shabbat. When someone keeps their first Shabbat, the heavens are celebrating. Hashem is very excited. Even when someone does something as small as Netilat Yadayim, says, when he leaves the bathroom. Every one of these things makes lots of parties in Shamayim. Hashem is very, very happy because it shows my little baby over here is coming back to Me. Now, what happens when we make a mistake? By accident, on Shabbat, I'm trying to keep Shabbat, but by accident, I turn on the light. By accident. I didn't mean to, Hashem. Even that, it's not only forgiven, even that is cute to Hashem.

1:00:48because He knows it's accidental, obviously not on purpose. Why is it cute? Because you're still a baby. So, when the baby starts standing up, but then he falls, it's cute, it's funny. A 25-year-old falls, and we think, "What's wrong with you? Drunk? Are you doing hashish with your friends again?" But a little baby, when he falls on his little tush, it's funny, it's cute. That's about teshuva. He's cute. He's cute to Hashem. When we know these things about how Hashem loves us and how much He appreciates us, it encourages us to want to be connected to Him. To want to aim towards the highest possible goal and reach where Moshe Rabbeinu reached, which is to be Eved Hashem, a servant of Hashem. Get to a point where my opinion is His opinion. my desire is His desire. It's the same thing. What do you want? What does Hashem say? What do you think? What does Hashem say? What should I do? What does Hashem say? And it's always the right choice. You're always going to win by going Hashem's way. Why? Because Hashem made a decree. No one can ever lose in the end by doing a mitzvah. No such thing. Even though sometimes it looks like we're losing.

1:02:15You know, it looks like we did somebody a favor, we lent them money. This parasha has a mitzvah, one of the mitzvot that it talks about is our obligation—not a nice thing to do—obligation to lend money to a Jew that's in need. If you have the ability to lend, if you have the ability, you have money, and you don't need it, or it's not necessarily money that if you give it to somebody, you're going to not pay the electric bill. You have money in the bank. And you know there's a friend or another Jew, even if you don't know them that well, you know there's a Jew that keeps Torah and mitzvot. Not if he's a gambler, degenerate, or crack addict. If he's a person that keeps Torah and mitzvot and he's in need, he doesn't have money, misken, you're obligated to lend him money if he asks you. Obligated, not a nice thing to do. Obligated. It's higher than tzedakah. It's an obligation. Just like there's a mitzvah to have good feelings, there's a mitzvah to keep Shabbat, there's a mitzvah to lend money. Interest-free. When you do that, you become partners with Hashem. Why? Because Hashem says, I'm the one that's responsible for giving everyone parnassah. This person is going through a test. He's going through a test to see how much he believes in Me. I'm not going to give him enough money. He's going to have to borrow money. I want to see what he does. Hashem gives us these difficulties to test us. Either to wake us up or to test us.

1:03:44Do You have to wake us up because we're far away from Him? And we only think about Hashem through problems, unfortunately, most of the time. Or, to test us, how much do you love Me? Okay, if everything is good, you have a mansion, you have a house, your wife loves you, the kids love you, they're all scholars, of course—who's going to complain? But if there's a difficulty, do you still love Me? Hashem tests us. So this person, I'm going to test him and see how much he loves Me. But you, lending him money, in essence, you're lending Me money, He says. Hashem says, you're lending Me money. I'm going to give him money anyway. But when you become the person that lends him money, you're lending Hashem money. That means that you don't have to worry about interest. You don't have to worry about paying it back. Sometimes you see the guy's not going to pay you back. So it looks like the mitzvah you did didn't work out.

1:04:45it looks like you lost out. But that's only if you're not paying attention. If you give it enough time, and have patience and faith in Hashem, you will see that not only does the $1,000 come back, but it comes back multiple fold, in a different way. All of a sudden, this customer that forgot about you comes back and sends you business, $5,000. All of a sudden, you forgot that you had this drawer with $2,000 in it from seven years ago. All of a sudden, you find money in the street that doesn't belong to anybody else. It has no identification on it. You have no responsibility to return it to anyone. Different ways that Hashem can give it to you. All of a sudden, an insurance company remembers you. "Oh yeah, we overcharged you six years ago. Here's a check for $2,700." When you trust in Hashem,

1:05:46These things happen on a daily basis. I'm telling you this not just from now, I'm telling you from experience. It's unbelievable. Hashem does not think like us. Whatever we think Hashem would do is not even a percent of a percentage of what He's going to do. Because He doesn't think like us. Whatever we think is an option for Hashem is not even an option. He's thinking far, far beyond. He already planned it. during the creation of the world. He planned what’s going to happen this week and next week and the week after. Everything that you're thinking that you don't even think is going to happen, He's already planned a solution for it. "My thoughts are not your thoughts," He says. So, when a person takes on the mitzvah of lending money, he's doing something that's even bigger than tzedakah. This is very, very important to know because

1:06:46In today's world, it's very, very difficult to lend money with faith, without having faith. Because, unfortunately, in today's world, when people are, you know, not many are honest, people take advantage of the system and they run away. Now, like I said, lending money is a mitzvah, to lend money to somebody that's doing mitzvot, someone that, you know, keeps the Torah. you're not allowed to even do business with a person that goes against the Torah in an open way. If you have a business, if you have a choice, and you have a choice of choosing someone that has Yirat Shamayim versus someone that doesn't have Yirat Shamayim, always choose the person that has Yirat Shamayim, the person that has fear of Hashem. Why? Because if someone fears Hashem is not going to do anything bad to you, because he's not afraid of you. He's afraid of Him. So even if he doesn't like you, he's always going to think about, any chance that I have to cheat him, yeah, maybe I could cheat him, but what about Him? He's afraid of Him. Someone that's not afraid of Hashem, of course he's not going to be afraid of you. It's almost a guarantee. It's a guarantee.

1:08:11that in any opportunity that he has, he's going to do something bad. And that's what you see in the business world today. People generally that do things that are dishonest are people that generally don't have a connection to Hashem, even if they have black and white clothing, beards, and all that stuff. I'm not talking about just non-religious people. Some people that look religious and act religious are also dishonest. This applies to anyone that acts that way. They can call themselves whatever they want, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they have Yirat Shamayim. The Next thing that's extremely interesting and also connects to last week's parasha, that it talks about here, is this is one of the most commonly mentioned, or it is the most commonly mentioned issue in the entire Torah, which is the issue of converts. and 22:20. It says, וְגֵר לֹא תוֹנֶה וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ כִּי גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם. כָּל אַלְמָנָה וְיָתוֹם לֹא תְעַנּוּן. אִם עַנֵּה תְעַנֶּה אֹתוֹ כִּי אִם צָעֹק יִצְעַק אֵלַי שָׁמוֹעַ אֶשְׁמַע צַעֲקָתוֹ. וְחָרָה אַפִּי וְהִרַגְתִּי אֶתְכֶם.

1:09:38So this combines, as it usually does, the convert, the widow, and the orphan. It says, you shall not taunt or oppress the stranger. Stranger means convert. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Meaning that when a convert converts to Judaism, In essence, they're leaving everything behind. If you know converts that go through their stories, Baruch Hashem, we've met many of them and are working with a lot of them today. And it helps them convert also, Baruch Hashem. And personally, I think converts and Noahides are the most amazing people on earth. People that are either keeping the seven laws of Noach, knowingly, not just people who just don't do anything, just luckily they're keeping seven laws, but people that knowingly are Noahides or converts are the most amazing people on earth. Personally, I think they're the greatest people on earth. Obviously, there are some great Jews also, but from my experience, the love of Hashem that these people have, these special people have,

1:11:03It's extraordinary. If all of Am Yisrael had the love of Hashem like these converts and these Noahides do, the Mashiach would have come here a long time ago. They're so dedicated. It's really, really amazing. I have a few recent ones. This one amazing person from Norway. I'm telling you, every time we exchange messages, it's emotional for me. How much does this person love Hashem? He has such Yirat Shamayim. I wish I had Yirat Shamayim like him already. He thinks I'm great. I'm looking at him. He's great. Another one from Bulgaria. Yeah. He's telling me, wait, I think this is... It says this in the Shulchan Aruch. It says this. Are you sure? He's asking me these questions. Things that he's not even obligated to do. He's doing above and beyond what he has to do. And he can't wait to convert. Or the other one is making sure that he's observing the laws of the Noachide exactly like it is. And he's so passionate about it. And there's another one that says, I can't...

1:12:16You know, I can't stand the past, the fakeness, the fake religions and all that. They're so, so passionate about Hashem and the Torah. And it's truly amazing. And finally, after seeing it from personal experience, from helping some of them, from meeting many of them, I finally, finally understand why this particular verse and why others like it are found in the Torah more than anything else in the Torah. Forty-eight times. Forty-eight times it talks about the special connection, the special protection Hashem gives the converts. It says here, "You shall not taunt or oppress the stranger." Now, what does it mean you should not taunt and oppress the stranger? It means when someone is a convert... First of all, you're obligated to love them. Obligated. Not you should. You're obligated to love them more than a natural-born Jew. More. That's one. So much so that they have to receive special treatment from the rest of the Jewish people. That even if they come, they're brand new to town, you have to give them special favoritism.

1:13:42You can never make them feel like they're a stranger, for we were strangers. If you're trying to say, "No, no, no, this convert is not good. His forefathers are not Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov," Hashem is telling you, "No. What are you making fun of his past? You were an idol worshiper in Egypt. Avraham was an idol worshiper in Egypt. What are you making fun of him for? Your forefathers also were different from you, because look at what you did." You have nothing to make fun of. Aside from that, you were born into Judaism. He chose it. That puts him on the highest level. You're obligated. You were born. It wasn't your choice to be born Jewish or not Jewish. You were all born into it. It's not their choice whether they're going to be tall, short, male, or female. None of that is our choice. We're born into it. Lucky, but sometimes we don't know that we're lucky. He chose it.

1:14:42just like Batya. Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh. Why did Hashem give her a name Himself? Batya means the daughter of Hashem. "Bat" means daughter. "Ya" means the name of Hashem. Hashem gave her the name. Obviously, her Egyptian name wasn't Batya. Why would Hashem name her a daughter of Hashem? Because she made such a... This is not a normal choice. On one end, The Pharaoh does not have any sons. He only has this one daughter, which means that when he dies, she takes control of the most powerful civilization on earth. Most money, most power, most everything. On the other hand, these Jewish people are their slaves. She says, I'm going to choose the slaves. give up the money, give up the power, give up the fakeness, give up the idol worship, to go with the slaves. I want to be part of them. Why? Because they have the one and only true God. That's what a convert is. That's someone who chooses the Torah over everything else. And that's why, when you see, there are many online stories, Baruch Hashem, that have been publicized now over the last few years,

1:16:10The stories are extraordinary. Every kind of story is better than the next. One guy came from idol worship in Japan and became a rabbi in Jerusalem. Another guy was a Hamas terrorist and became a rabbi in Israel. It doesn't get worse than that. Another guy... was a big-time priest, a pastor, big-time, huge, you know, huge congregation. He's now not only a Jew, but he's the head of one of the most influential organizations called Nativ, which is helping Noahides worldwide and Jews do teshuva. extraordinary stories, and there are many, many more. One guy was a gangster who turned into a rabbi, just came out with a song also. I mean, the stories are unbelievable. Why? Because they do exactly what Yitro did. They find out once, they hear once, that's it. It's enough. One time I need to hear the truth, all I want is Hashem. I want to be Eved Hashem. They want to be servants of Hashem.

1:17:40And that's why Hashem says you're not even allowed to oppress them or taunt them. Meaning that you can't even put pressure on a convert. If there's a business deal, you have to be very, very mellow with them. Tell them, "Listen, this is what it's worth. If you'd like it," you can't pressure them into buying something from you. You can't pressure them into fitting in and doing something within the congregation. You can't put pressure on them to make them feel different, or make them even feel nervous. You have to really, really treat them with special care like they're babies. Why? Hashem says when they converted, they left their mom and dad, their physical mom and dad, their souls, and I became their mom and dad. Obviously, their biological mom and dad are still here. But Hashem says I became, to all of Am Yisrael, their father. But to the converts, I'm their mother and their father. Now, the same issue is what He compares it to constantly throughout the entire Torah. He always mentions the convert, the ger, with a widow and an orphan. Why? Because they also have a similar vulnerability.

1:19:09And to give anyone, you know, there's unfortunately congregations that are—I don't know, maybe they're reading a different Torah—but they're anti-converts. And I'm not talking about congregations that are not religious. I'm talking about congregations that are religious. They're anti-converts. They don't like converts. They have their own reasons for why they started it in the past. Because there was a lot of assimilation where people were converting, but it wasn't real conversions. And they were converting really just to, you know, get money or please the parents and so on. I understand why it started. But why it's still here, I don't know. Why there's still an outright huge sin from the Torah that's being done by an overall community, I don't know. and to understand what is the risk here. Now, we just learned for a while now, what is the risk of stealing? We didn't know how bad stealing is. Even stealing $300 from your friend and not paying attention, or overcharging the guy when you're not allowed, $300, $400, $5,000, it's all the same. We don't understand how big it is. Now that we understand how big it is, we realize, okay, we have to double-check that everything we do is honest, right? So we need to know, what is the risk of mistreating a convert? And it says it outright in the Torah.

1:20:33If you dare cause him pain, for if he will cry to me, I shall surely hear his outcry. My wrath shall blaze, and I shall kill you by the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children orphans. Mistreating the convert is like playing with an atomic bomb, but not just playing around and seeing what it looks like—no, pressing the on button. Let's see if it blows up. Let's see if it blows up. It's the craziest thing in the world. Hashem is telling them, even if they don't cry to Me, even if they don't pray to Me because they're righteous people, they don't want to bring a decree to Am Yisrael. They love Am Yisrael. They know they're making a mistake, but they love them. They don't want to do it. Just the fact that you made them feel bad, you already put yourself under a decree that I'm going to take revenge against you, Hashem says. Who wants to deal with this?

1:21:36Who in their right mind will ever do such a thing? This is worse than even making... Hashem is telling you, I'm taking revenge against... It's not that you're just My enemy. There's an enemy. There's a distant enemy. Israel is a distant enemy with Turkey. We never liked each other. We had some business dealings for many years, but recently things have been falling apart. But we didn't go to war with them. They're a distant enemy. Egypt, we went to war with them many years ago, but now we've been somewhat allies, somewhat enemies. Nonetheless, the bottom line is, we don't really like each other that much. The distant enemy. That's a distant enemy. That's someone that's violating some of the big laws, like I told you, someone that's making Shabbat as a weekday. He's an enemy of Hashem. Hashem has patience for him, though. One day he's going to do teshuvah. One day he's going to come to the shiur Torah. And I'm going to have mercy. I'm going to bring him somebody that's going to tell him the truth without being politically correct. And he's going to do it. Because he knows the risk. The bill's too big. I don't want to pay it. No, I'm not coming. I'm just going to take one steak. I don't want to order the whole menu. Why? Because I know the whole menu costs $3,000. I don't want to order $3,000. I want to order one steak for $50. When someone knows how much something costs...

1:23:01They're going to order the right thing. But if they don't know how much it costs, they're going to order the entire menu. Someone doesn't know what the outcome of violating Shabbat is, the outcome of being with the wife when she's niddah, the outcome of not doing tefillin, the outcome of stealing, the outcome of all these things. When they don't know what the outcome is, when they don't know what the risk is, they're going to do whatever they want. But if they find out, the risk is too big. It's not worth it for me to steal $300 from Joey. Whether he's a goy or he's a Jew is irrelevant. You're not allowed to steal from anyone. It's actually even worse if it's a non-Jew. It causes chilul Hashem. You have an added sin on top of it. That's the desecration of Hashem's name. Because now the non-Jew is not going to say, "Listen, you know, this guy is dishonest." He's going to say, "No, the Jews are dishonest. All of them." So they classify the entire religion, the entire people. That's the desecration of Hashem's name. You've added another disaster to the file. It's not worth it. When we know how much it costs, we're not going to do it because we realize it's too expensive. It's not worth it. Pray to Hashem, Hashem is going to give me parnassah. But that's a distant enemy. Hashem is telling us when you go against the ger, you're no longer a distant enemy. I'm going to war with you now.

1:24:32I'm going to take revenge against you. Someone goes against the gerim, it's a close enemy. It's an enemy Hashem goes to war with. Who wants to deal with that? Obviously, you can't win. And that's one of the things that I don't understand sometimes about all this bureaucracy that's in the Jewish world today. how they're making it more and more difficult for people to convert. In some cases, they're charging outrageous prices. They tell somebody $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 for conversion. It should not cost anywhere near that. Or even worse, they don't tell them outright it's $10,000 or $20,000. No, no, it's only $2,000, but they drag it on for five years, and over five years it's $2,000 a year, so it ends up being $10,000 anyway.

1:25:33Or they don't even tell him the right story. They tell him, yeah, yeah, you convert over here, but it's a fake conversion. The guy is a baba. He's nonsense. He's telling him to convert just to get some money. The guy's certificate is worthless. Or they tell him, no, no. We're not accepting converts. And that's it. They don't give the guy... a way in, in any way. They close them out. And even if someone converted somewhere else, no, no. You convert what? This Orthodox Beit Din of New York? Yeah, it's good, but no, you'd need to do a whole new conversion in Jerusalem. Why? Orthodox Beit Din. It's not Conservative, Reform, Christianity, or something. It's Orthodox Beit Din. Orthodox Beit Din with real rabbis. What's the problem? No, we change policies so we have to do it anew. Why? It's nonsense. They make all these different... Why? It's all money. At the end of the day, I'm telling you the bottom line, it's all money. Everybody wants money. Not everybody that has a beard and a hat has Yirat Shamayim. This is the craziest thing in the world because it says again over here, it says again over here in verse 23:9,

1:26:55Do not oppress a stranger. It's twice in the same parasha. Hashem didn't forget what He already wrote on the previous page. Again, the same parasha. In case you didn't realize, in case you didn't pay attention when I said I'm going to take revenge against you for oppressing My stranger, for oppressing My convert, I'm going to remind you again. Do not oppress the stranger. You know the feelings of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. It's the same exact thing again, and it's over and over again throughout the entire parasha. Why make the converts have a tough life? This leads me to one of my points that I wanted to go over and make sure to emphasize: there is a very big, widespread misunderstanding of what is the obligation of every person in this world, Jew or non-Jew.

1:28:02For several thousand years since we received the Torah at Har Sinai, we knew that the obligation of Am Yisrael is to maintain the Torah, to keep and observe the Torah. We don't have any way out of it. There are no discounts. We have to do it. What about the rest of mankind? Seven and a half billion people in the world. They can't keep Shabbat. Not allowed. If you're not Jewish, you're not allowed to keep Shabbat fully. You have to violate it in one way. Turn on the light. Do something to violate the Shabbat. But, you are obligated to serve the Creator. So if you can't do all the mitzvot, what do you do? The Torah has told us in the Gemara, Masechet Sotah.

1:29:09that all of mankind has to do teshuva, even the idol worshipers, even the non-Jews. They all have to do teshuva, they all have to serve Hashem, which talks about how the non-Jews have to keep, at the very least, the Noahide laws. Now, there's a misunderstanding of what the Noahide laws are. We all know that at the end of Parashat Noach, we discovered that Hashem identifies the seven laws of Noach. Now, it's not really seven laws that He gave Noach. They weren't brand new at the time. Six of the seven were actually given to Adam, the first man in creation. The seventh one He gave to Noach, and that's why they're called the seven laws of Noach, because Noach brought them to completion. But the seven laws of Noach are not really the only rules. that the rest of the non-Jewish world is obligated to do. They’re obligated to do the seven laws, plus every one of the mitzvot that’s common sense. Every one of the 613 mitzvot that Hashem gave us, that’s common sense, unless it specifically says they’re not allowed to do it. Like, for example, Shabbat—a non-Jew is not allowed to keep Shabbat.

1:30:28So they have to violate it in some way. It's good for them to keep Shabbat to that extent, where they turn on a light or they turn on a fire of some kind, small, something like that. If they want to keep Shabbat and enjoy that day, that's great, but they can't keep it 100%. That's a special gift that Hashem gave to Am Yisrael. But the rest of the laws, there are many laws that they are allowed to do. But even more so, there are laws that they're obligated to do that are common sense. What do I mean by common sense? For example, Respect your mother and father. It's not part of the seven laws of Noach, but it is common sense. Obviously, in order for us to have a functioning world, we have to give respect to our parents. It's common sense. That's one of the Ten Commandments. But even if it wasn't part of the Ten Commandments, everyone would be obligated to do it. To just have a functioning civilization. So there are many common sense laws that we have. that the non-Jews would have to keep. I think the total of maybe the mitzvot that the Noahides have to keep is probably somewhere around 40. Maybe somewhere around that range, maybe more. But for anyone that wants to find out a lot more about the Noahides, there's, as I said, the organization Nativ, N-A-T-I-V. There's also some lectures by Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, many lectures by Rabbi Tovia Singer, or Rod Reuven Bryant.

1:31:57Rabbi Skobac, there are a few big rabbis who talk about it a lot and give the details. So, Noahides have a share in the World to Come. It talks about it clearly in the Gemara. It talks about it in the Torah that we are obligated to do it. But now there's confusion. Where's the confusion? In the last few days, someone came out with a video. Someone who actually cares about converts, someone who has good intentions. But I believe he is clearly mistaken. I'll give you some sources to explain why he's mistaken in what he's saying. He scared some people. He scared some people. It's probably not the first time he said it, but anyway.

1:32:57He scared some people by saying that, technically, non-Jews are not allowed to remain Noahides. They're obligated to become Jews, and they should convert as soon as possible, and so on. Now, I know that there are some Noahide organizations that are not necessarily following the Torah as it says, and it's pretty much like they're creating a brand new religion, so obviously that's excluded from my argument because that's not being a righteous Noahide. following the Torah as it says, and it's pretty much like they're creating a brand new religion, so obviously that's excluded from my argument because that's not being a righteous Noahide. That's not being a righteous non-Jew. I'm talking about righteous Noahides that learn the Torah, comply with the Torah, and do the will of Hashem as a non-Jew, not as some new religion where they don't learn the Torah and they just pretty much do as little as possible. People that are righteous with Hashem, who are pretty much fulfilling their obligation. Now, how do I know that being a Noahide not only has a share in the world to come, but that this argument that everyone is obligated to be Jewish is completely wrong? It's very, very simple. You don't have to look too far.

1:34:21You can simply look at our biblical figures. Not sages even. Not people in our generation. Look at the Torah itself. In Masechet Sotah, page 27b, it says, "On that very day, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hyrcanus expounded the following." Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hyrcanus one of the biggest sages in history. He's telling us a chiddush over here. Job served the Holy One, blessed is He, only out of love. For it is stated by Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him." this is mentioning a verse in Job 13:15, where Job says that even if Hashem were to take his life, he would still look forward to serving Him, to connecting to Hashem. Even if he knew that Hashem is about to take his life. But on the basis of this verse alone, the matter still hangs in the balance. If one might inquire, does the verse mean "I would yearn for Him," or "I shall not yearn for Him?" Moving forward, it says, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, on the other hand, disagrees.

1:35:47But on the basis of this verse alone, the matter still hangs in the balance. If one might inquire, does the verse mean "I would yearn for Him," or "I shall not yearn for Him?" Moving forward, it says, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, on the other hand, disagrees. For all your days, you expounded that Job served the Omnipresent only out of fear of His retribution, not out of love. As it is stated, "There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was wholesome and upright, fearing God and shunning evil." So here there's a machloket between two major sages. One of them is saying...

1:36:52that Iyov and his entire story that he went through, entire story full of difficulties, in a matter of minutes he discovered he lost all of his money, all of his business, all of his children, everything. Later on he would lose his health. And later on in the book, he still said, when his wife tells him, "Why are you still serving this G-d?" He says, "G-d gave, G-d took, may His name be blessed." He understood fully that everything he had is really G-d's. It's G-d's. And everything He took, He just took what belongs to Him anyway. May His name be blessed. The fact that He gave it to me to use is great. But if He doesn't want me to use it anymore, it's still great. May His name be blessed. He understood it fully. This is after he lost all of his money. And he continued going with this belief in emunah completely, even losing his health, losing his everything.

1:38:20And one sage is saying that Job served Hashem out of complete love, because he said that even if Hashem were to kill me, I'd still yearn for Him; I'd still do everything I can to connect to Him, to do everything He wants. Even if He was going to kill me, I don't care; I'd still do it. Another sage is saying, no, he was scared of punishment; he was scared of it getting worse. Another interpretation of it is that it's saying that really there's two levels of connecting to Hashem, which we've talked about in the past. There's Yirat Shamayim and there's Ahavat Shamayim. Yirat Shamayim is fear of the Almighty. Ahavat Shamayim is love of the Almighty. To understand how far we are in this generation of our understanding of it even...

1:39:20is because you have many, many people today teaching that we need to love Hashem. We need to connect to Hashem through love. We need to do teshuva out of love. And love, love, love, love, love. Great. Yes, it would be great if we could all do teshuva out of love. But why does it mention Yirat Shamayim in the Torah and Tehillim and everywhere, countless more times than Ahavah, is because Hashem is also telling us that only a rare few can ever reach that level. Why? The highest level of Yirat Shamayim, the highest level of fear of the Almighty, is the lowest level, is just the beginning level of love of the Almighty. So someone that completely fears Hashem, and not just fearing that He's going to punish him, Fearing hurting the relationship he has with Hashem. Fearing offending Him. Fearing doing something that He doesn't really like. Fear doesn't only mean fear of getting beaten up. That's the lowest level. When someone is married and they care about their relationship, they have to have some type of fear there. Not fear that the wife is going to beat him up when he gets home from work, or the husband. It's not that.

1:40:45Maybe, you know, it's the wife. It all has to be bringing up the husband at some point. It's not the fear of that. It's fear that the wife is going to be disappointed. Ah, that's what you did after work? You went and played poker with your friend instead of spending time with me? What, is she going to beat him up? No, she's not going to beat him up. Fine, she's going to give you one of those looks that's going to torture you for at least three or four days. That's fear. It's not love. It's fear. You need to have that fear. If you don't have that fear, there's no connection. It can't always be love. Fear means also respect. So the highest level of fear of the Almighty, Yirat Shamayim, is the lowest level of Ahavah. So when we're saying we should all do teshuvah out of Ahavah,

1:41:45...when none of us are scared of Hashem, even at the lowest level, who are we fooling here? Oh no, the guy is not even keeping kosher, you want him to do teshuvah out of ahavah? He doesn't even know who G-d is, and you want him to do teshuvah out of ahavah? Come on, why are you selling people dreams? So we have to understand what it is. But here, we're talking about Iyov, not us. One major sage that's able to bring back the dead, that's how big he is... Because he's named by name. Anyone that's named by name in the Gemara can bring back the dead. That's how high of a level they are. Through the Torah, through his prayers to Hashem, not his own powers. One sage says Job is at such a high level, everything he did was because he loved Hashem. And he did everything purely out of love. Another sage says the opposite. He goes, no. Of course, Job is righteous. They're not debating whether Job is righteous or not.

1:42:45They're saying here, even Job, at his high level, that he said that he would even, even if he knew that God would kill him, he would still do it, that was actually Yirat Shamayim. That was the highest level of Yirat Shamayim. That wasn't like Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu, Hashem says, he's my lover. He's the only one. Iyov didn't reach the level of Avraham Avinu. That's what they're debating here in so many words. So he says, no, him, he's so righteous, he reached the peak of Yirat Shamayim. So there's a debate here. Who's right or wrong is irrelevant to what we're trying to prove here. Getting to Yirat Shamayim, you can see that the fact that there is even a debate about Iyov is amazing. Why am I mentioning all this about Iyov? How is Iyov

1:43:46related to what we talked about until this point, is because it's never debatable whether Iyov was righteous or not. It was never debatable whether Iyov loved Hashem or not. It was never debatable whether Iyov feared Hashem or not. It was never debatable about anything. Iyov has a part. One of the 24 books of the Tanach is Iyov. It's not Yonah then. It's Iyov. Right? Iyov's not Jewish. Job's a Noahide. How do we know he's a Noahide? He lived before we got the Torah. We didn't have the Torah yet. We had the Oral Torah, but we didn't have the official Torah yet that we could be Jewish. Judaism was created on Mount Sinai. Before Judaism, on Mount Sinai, the first Jew was Moshe, because he's the first one who accepted the Torah. Before that, we had Yaakov. Yaakov was Yisrael, the Israelites. Before that, we had Avraham and Yitzchak, the Hebrews. They were not Jewish; they were Hebrews, Israelites. Judaism was created at Mount Sinai. Iyov lived before Mount Sinai. He was one of the servants of Paro. One of the three servants of Paro. He was very, very righteous. Righteous.

1:45:15talks about him in the Torah, talks about him in the Gemara. Obviously, if he's a Noachide, it's okay to be a Noachide. Even better than that, as we just said, our forefathers, the fathers of Judaism, the fathers of Am Yisrael, were themselves not Jewish. They didn't have the Torah yet. You couldn't be Jewish before Mount Sinai. and even the one that's called the one that the non-Jews are supposed to aim towards, Noach himself was not Jewish. So how can you say that the rest of the non-Jewish world has to be Jewish because it's not good enough to not be Jewish if Noach, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Iyov, Countless others are plenty of good. If Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, or any of these people came to this world, we would go on fire just from a distance, just from their kedushah. They sanctified their neshama and their body to such a high level, we would not be able to tolerate them. We would not be able to sit next to them. We would go on fire. Literally. Literally.

1:46:41So when someone says, listen, you have to convert to Judaism, you have to do this, you have to do that, relax. Yes, it's great if you convert, great. But you can't tell people and put people into a panic that they have to do something they don't really have to. It's not nice. So after this thing came out, you know, I'm getting messages from nervous tzaddikim. One hasn’t finished his conversion yet. Another one can’t convert because of family issues. Another one is trying, you know, but you’re putting these people in a panic for no reason. Why? For what? You can’t tell people stuff like that. It’s not nice. And it’s, again, it has very, very little substance. The substance that it has cannot be true because it would contradict the entire Torah. You can’t tell me Avraham Avinu is not good enough. can't tell me Yitzchak, Yaakov, Iyov (Job), any of these people cannot tell me any of that stuff. So, this, by the way, was in Masechet Sotah, page 27, about Iyov at least. So, the beauty of the converts and the Noahides that are true converts and true Noahides is that they have special protection from Hashem, and I think that

1:48:09The love of Hashem, obviously He's talking about the converts mainly here, but the love of Hashem that they have is, because it's by choice, it gives them special privileges. So, my main recommendation is for anyone that knows a convert, do your best to befriend them and to help them in every way you can. usually very, very nice people and lovers of Hashem. You can't get better than that. Righteous Noahides, in my eyes, are no different. Not that I'm the one to lay down the law of the land or anything, but from my experience, I wish some Jews would be even half the Noahides that I know. This is as real as it gets, so The key, the ultimate key, is to find people that love Hashem. Find people that love Hashem. Why? Because ultimately, what Hashem brought us into this world to do is what it says here in verse 23:13. After He talks about the special...

1:49:37Treatment of the convert, all the laws of theft, all the laws of dishonest business, all the laws of kosher, non-kosher. Mentioned Shabbat, again, one of, I believe, 36 times mentioned in the Torah. Shabbat is mentioned more than anything else other than the convert. So, if anyone asks why I mention Shabbat in almost every single shiur, it's not only because there's a big need in our generation to keep Shabbat, but it's literally mentioned in almost every single parashah. in our generation to keep Shabbat, but it's literally mentioned in almost every single parashah. So, for anyone who doesn't think it's a big deal, read the parashah. After it mentions Shabbat, and the way you, you know, with slavery and so on, and, uh, also even talks about how Hashem hates liars. Not good things to have. Violating these sins is not a good thing. So, in verse 13, Hashem tells us what is the purpose of life. What is the simple thing? ובכל אשר אמרתי אליכם תשמרו. Be careful regarding everything I have said to you.

1:51:01He didn't say be careful with just some things. Be careful with netilat yadayim. Be careful with just stealing. Be careful with just keeping a little bit of modesty, but not full modesty. Be careful with keeping just half of Shabbat, but not the full Shabbat. Be careful with just stealing from half your customers, not all of your customers. No, He didn't say that. He said everything. Everything. Not some things. So now, someone is just starting out. Someone that's new. Someone that's, even if he's been a Jew their whole life, and he's Jewish, and even if he went to yeshiva, but he knows he's not at the level he needs to be. Taking on everything overnight is not possible. Number one, usually you don't know everything you need to do. Number two, you're not at a level to do everything you need to do. Hashem does not expect us to be perfect. But He does expect us to try as hard as possible. So when He says, "Be careful with everything," He's telling you that I know what's really possible and what's not possible. If you're going to the beach on Shabbat, if you're going to work on Shabbat, I know that you're treating My Torah as a joke. And that's why I call people like you an enemy.

1:52:30If you're not at a level to go to pray at the minyan every day, but you pray at home, you don't pray the full prayer, you just do Shema and Amidah, fine, I know you're trying. Sometimes you forget the bracha before you eat, fine, I understand you're trying. You keep the Shabbat, but you make a few mistakes, fine, I know that you're trying. You learn some Torah because you need to know what's going on, what, who, when, who's against who. Fine. You're not learning the whole day. You're not learning even for hours. You're learning 15 minutes a day. But I know you're trying. You're sincere. So you have one extreme or the other. You're either going to be treated like a baby, which Hashem loves and enjoys and has fun with, or the other guy. There's nothing in between. Because He said everything.

1:53:33This is what we need to understand, that again, we don't need to go into a shock or nervous breakdown because we have to comply with every law that we don't even know exists yet. But whatever you know, do. Whatever you can, do. If there are problems, pray to Hashem. Ultimately, the best advice I can tell you today is to pray to Hashem as much as possible. If you have a problem, pray. If you have a desire, pray. If you have a difficulty, pray. Talk to Him. I don't mean just talk to Him from a siddur when you're breezing through the prayers because you have to go to work or you want to go to sleep or you have to go out or whatever it is. I mean pray to Him in your own language. Pray. Talk to Him. Talk to Him as much as possible. Talk to Him for two minutes. Talk to Him for five minutes. Talk to Him for five hours. Whatever you can. But talk to Him. If you have a problem keeping Shabbat, talk to Him. If you have a problem with zivug, talk to Him. Talk. Pray to Hashem. Connect to Him on a very, very deep level. Talk to Him as much as you possibly can. When you're in the car alone, stop listening to ESPN nonsense sports. Talk to Hashem. Either listen to a shiur or talk to Him. Whatever you want. Talk to Him as much as possible. Ask Him for help. Because unlike mankind, when you ask them for help, even if they're your parents...

1:55:00Even if they're your parents. You tell them, "Listen, Abba, Ima, I need a thousand dollars. I need to pay the rent. I don't have any money. I need five thousand dollars. My teeth are broken. I don't have any money, and I'm in too much pain. I need to borrow your car. I need to get to work." When you ask Abba and Ima, Abba and Ima love you and they give it to you. But in reality, because of you, they have less. Before they gave you $5,000, they had $5,000 more. So yes, they give it to you with love, and they love you, and they want to give it to you, but in essence, this transaction made them have less. Eventually, that well dries. Obviously, Hashem provides, but the point is that in a natural way, you take $5,000, and $5,000, and $5,000, and eventually, it ends.

1:56:03Hashem's will never ends. Hashem's will never ends. Whether He gives you 5,000 or 1,000 or 1 billion, His will stays the same. Nothing changes. And He's happy to give it to you. It's there. It's waiting to be given to someone. It's not going to change for Him. It's full all the time. Problem? Pray. He has a solution in the world. Difficulty? Pray. He has a solution in the world. Whatever it is, pray. It's in there. And it doesn't change for Him. It doesn't lessen for Him. And He's happy to give it. Just pray to Him. Ask Him. Talk to Him. And you'll get the answers. You'll get the strength to overcome all of these difficulties—personal difficulties, generational difficulties. And ultimately, you'll get to the ultimate truth of being a servant of Hashem.

1:57:32can't get there without praying to Him on a regular basis. And if we do that, again, there's no end to how much He has and how much He wants to give you. Just give Him a reason. Prayer and belief are pretty good reasons. But it has to come from someone who's not an enemy. We talked about the guy that's saying Kaddish while he's writing bad blogs. It has to be from a friend, from a lover, from a baby. We're all babies. Let's be the babies. It's better to be the baby than the guy that has a tough situation waiting for him. It's better. It's much more fun. Hashem will give us non-stop. Just pray then. Pray, pray, pray. Especially you women. You have a much easier time crying than men do. Men have too much ga'ava sometimes and just also have a different build than women do. When all the gates are closed, the gate of tears is never closed. A woman cries when she prays. You can open whatever request that you want. You have to just try. Everyone around you,

1:58:59Tell them the truth like it says in the parashah. Tell them everything needs to be done. And if there's a difficulty in telling somebody the truth, how are you going to tell them? What are you going to tell them? The same rule applies. Pray. How can I tell this guy? How can I do this? What's he going to say? Pray to Hashem. Hashem, give me the strength. Give me the knowledge. Give me a way. Something. Pray. Pray for assistance. I can't do it. Whether you pray for money or you pray for answers, it's all the same. Hashem has a world that never ends. And this is what is written in this Torah, in this Holy Torah. This is what Am Yisrael waited for, accepted, and is obligated to do until today. Nothing changes. Torah doesn't change, doesn't become modern. It stays the same. So unless you have any questions, usually Fidel has a couple of questions. Questions are usually better than this shiur. No? No questions. No, come on, you have a few questions. You make the shiur interesting.

2:00:28I'll have to study it. Very interesting. When I see the parasha tomorrow, when I see the video again, then my questions start arising. So here's ultimately, I'll finish off with this. When we went to Har Sinai, every Jew reached prophecy. Chazal says that in the verse 23:26, it says, Lo tihyeh No, it says... Yeah, same verse. It says, "There shall be no woman who loses her young or is infertile in your land. I shall fill the number of your days." The last part of that verse, obviously... a woman not having any problems with birth or anything like that, any woman in the world knows the significance of that. But even more so, to give you an idea of how much Hashem wants to give us, the last part of the verse says, "I shall fill the number of your days." "I shall fill the number of your days" meant, originally, that before we made the sin of the golden calf, we were supposed to live forever.

2:01:55Never died. That's how much Hashem wants to give us. So your thousand dollars that you want, or the problem telling the guy the truth, Hashem, until we made the sin of the golden calf, that was the decree. It made them live forever. They would have lived forever. We messed it up. Now we can return, because teshuva, we talked about it, makes us babies again. And Hashem gets excited about it. He's very happy about it. We do teshuva, there's nothing better than that. And everyone's obligated to do teshuva. All of mankind is obligated to do teshuva, whether they're a Noahide, or a Jew, or a convert that's, you know, becoming, is brand new to Judaism, whatever. Everyone is obligated to do teshuva. Everyone. And Hashem, wants to give us everything, and like I said, He wanted to even give us eternal life in this world. This is just a small part of the real world. So, B'ezrat Hashem, we all get stronger, pray to Him, talk to Him on a daily basis, and little by little, aim really high to just be like Moshe Rabbeinu and be servants of Hashem. Baruch Adonai le'olam.