STOP HATING EACH OTHER

0:17In the name of G-d, we will succeed and succeed. B'ezrat Hashem, we will continue the Tisha B'Av shiur. As now we're past half the day, so you're allowed to sit on chairs and no longer need to sit on the floor. We'll have another shiur, B'ezrat Hashem, and try to get a little bit of a better understanding of things that are going to affect us really, B'ezrat Hashem, for the rest of the year. Last night's shiur, Baruch Hashem, had a lot of good feedback. Lots of people watched it and got chizuk out of it. I just thought Hashem will do the same today. Today's shiur will be for a refuah shlema for Rav Chaim Ben Jorah and Rabbanit Shulamit Bat Najima, Rav Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat.

1:32And also the Tanya Tamar Bat Zulfa. And L'iluy Nishmat Tzach Ben Ilana. And hatzlacha rabba to Shaul Ben Farzaneh and the Montenegro family. And all of the donors and supporters of Irgun Be'ezrat Hashem. May Hashem bless each and every single one of them with hatzlacha rabba, especially when it comes to Torah, mitzvot, gemilut chasadim, and teshuva shlema be'ezrat Hashem. And may this be another thing, another shiur, another little bit of chizuk. that gets us closer to Avinu Shebashamayim. Now, for anyone that studied some of the Midrashim that discuss what happened nearly 2,000 years ago to Am Yisrael, the details are as horrific as can be. And the question is, was the...

2:56the punishment right for the crime. Because we say really today that the common thing is that the whole thing was based on sinat chinam, hating each other baselessly, senselessly, too much. The question is, what does that really mean? Does that really deserve such a horrific punishment? To the extent where we are reading midrashim that discuss how Am Yisrael was massacred by the millions, massacred in unusual ways, tortured in unusual ways. How could it be? How could it be? Now, at the end of the sefer Eicha, In the book of Lamentations, in chapter 5, the prophet Jeremiah says to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The prophet Jeremiah is the one who wrote the book of Eicha, and he says to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the last verse, Hashivenu Adonai Elecha V'nashuva Chadesh Yameinu Kekedem Ki Im Ma'os Ma'astanu Katsavta Aleinu Ad Me'od.

4:21He says in verses 21 and 22, "Bring us back to You, Hashem, and we will return. Renew our days as of old. For even if You have utterly rejected us, You have already raged sufficiently against us." Meaning, Am Yisrael is saying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, bring us back. We want to be back. We love You. We're sorry. We... we want to go back home. You kicked us out of the house. You punished us already. Meaning that even if we did something wrong, You punished us already. Enough. Enough with the cancer. Enough with the hostility. Enough with the tragedies. Enough. Bring us back. You already punished us anyway. So, the prophet Yeshayahu

5:23Prophet Isaiah, in chapter 40, verse number 1, says, where he talks in prophecy about the Churban that's going to be, the destruction that's going to be. And he says, for she received, doubled for all of our sins. Chazal asks, You know, Jeremiah says that Hashem, you already punished us. How much did you punish us? And Isaiah says, double for all of our sins. Whatever you sinned, pay double. You sinned one, Hashem punished you two. That's what Isaiah says. So Rashi comes. We cannot read the Torah without Rashi. We're not going to understand a single verse without Rashi. Rashi comes and asks himself, Is it HaKadosh Baruch Hu's way to punish double for a crime? But of course, we all know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a rule in the world that He has instilled for Himself, where it has to be measure for measure. Meaning one for one, two for two, four for four, ten for ten. If I did a crime level five, I should get punished level five, not level ten. So how could it be that we have verification here from the verses, from the prophets, that tell us that we got punished double?

6:45I should get punished level five, not level ten. So how could it be that we have verification here from the verses, from the prophets, that tell us that we got punished double? And the answer is in the prophet that's in between them, the prophet Jeremiah. Where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to the prophet in chapter 16, verse 18. It's the same Jeremiah that wrote Eicha. He says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I shall repay them first for the repetition of their forefathers' sins and transgressions. So Rashi says, you see here, we learn that HaKadosh Baruch Hu sometimes does pay double. Sometimes the punishment is double. Why? When is it double? It's double when you saw your forefathers' sins, and you continued. You saw that your father was a mechallel Shabbat,

7:54and his whole life in the end ended up becoming completely meaningless. Maybe it looked good when he was in his 20s and 30s, driving a brand new car every year, had a big office, had a big building, everybody was his friend. In the beginning, it looked good. But as you saw your father age, You saw that it wasn't as good anymore. All of a sudden, he lost. All of a sudden, he got sick. All of a sudden, people didn't like him. All of a sudden, he didn't know what he was doing in the world anymore. You saw that your father's ways in the end didn't pay out. Even if he had millions and millions of dollars, the rest of his life was meaningless. He was so poor that the only thing he had was money. There are many people like that in the world, where they're so poor that the only thing they have is possessions. Nothing else, though. No meaning to life, no purpose whatsoever, no good marriage, no good relationships, nothing else. No happiness, no joy.

9:06Whatever joy or happiness they have in their life is just momentary. They live in the moment, constantly needing to take either new vacations or buy new things in order to give themselves just a little bit of elation, a little bit of, you know, happiness that's superficial. But when push comes to shove, if someone told them, "Give me all your money and I'll give you happiness in return," they'll give it to them. If they actually know what happiness feels like. Many times people ask me, what does happiness feel like? What does it feel like? How does it look? How do you know? The truth is, happiness is not a feeling. Happiness is a state of mind. Happiness is a state of being. And if you're happy, you know it. You know that you're happy. There's no question if you're happy. That doesn't mean you don't have any problems. You could very well have a lot of problems. But that status does not change. But that can only be if you're connected to the source of happiness, to HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself. Which means that you have to be connected to Him through the vessel that He gave us, which is the Torah. But if you're only connected to different parts of the Torah that you like and you pick...

10:33You like to put on tefillin, so you're connected to that. You like praying, so you're connected to that. You like giving tzedakah, so you're connected to that. But what about shalom bayit? No, not so much. What about actually having yirat shamayim? Nah, a little bit. What about being honest in business? Nah, it's a little hard. I like the other stuff; it's easier. Put tefillin, I'll put it twice on Tisha B'Av. You know, I'll do a few things. But that other stuff, it's too hard. That's not a real connection. And that's also not going to be real happiness. So we see, Rabotai, that many times as we age, we see the people that came before us age also, and we see how their life turns out. And you talk to them, and ask them about themselves, And more than 9 out of 10, more than 9 out of 10 only like to talk about their past. When they were young. Oh yeah, when I was your age, I did this and we did that. And we went here and we did that. Okay, that's great.

11:49What about now? No, no, but listen, 20 years ago I did this, and I was here, and I was there. Alright, fine, that was 20 years ago, but what about now? Ah, no, nothing's going on. Oh, so that means that pretty much anything that is of any value to you is just a memory. It's just the past. In so many words, you just can't wait to die because there's nothing else for you to live for. your life didn't work out. That means your life didn't work out because, obviously, if you're living in the world for 70, 80, 90, 100 years, it's not just supposed to be good for the first 20, 30, or 40. It's supposed to be a fulfilling life. If you're telling me that all of your good memories are of yesteryear, of the previous generation, of all the things that happened when you were 20 and strong and good looking and everything, and now that you're 50, you simply have no reason to live but you're living because you don't want to kill yourself, that means your plan didn't work out. Your way didn't work out. And as a smart son or daughter that sees this, as a smart nephew

13:02or niece sees this, sees the older people get older and more miserable, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling us, you should have learned from them. Not learned what you chose to learn, which is to repeat the same crimes against Me when they were 20. Not learned from their stupid stories, of what they did when they were 20 years old and 30 years old. No, that's not what you're supposed to learn from them. You're supposed to learn from what was the result. What was the result of what they did when they were 20 and 30? Where they tried all types of drugs. What happened after that? Oh, from now, from that point on, he wasn't able to see in one eye. You should have learned from that, not from the story that he took drugs. You should have learned that he doesn't have an eye now. Oh, from the fact that he was a womanizer and every week he had a new girlfriend? Oh, you should see now. What's the result? He's single, he's 60 years old, divorced three times, and single.

14:11should have learned from that, not to be a womanizer. You should have learned not to be a womanizer because it doesn't work out in the end. It doesn't work out in the end. Oh, she told you that she used to like going partying with all of her friends. Now she's 45-50 years old, but she can't find a husband and she can't wait to have a kid. But unfortunately, you need a husband for that. And she's miserable about it. You should have learned from that. You shouldn't have learned that she went partying and she became a lawyer at 22 and that she did all these fun things and she went across the ocean to Japan, China, Bangladesh, and Tahiti. No, that's not what you should have learned from her story. You should have learned the outcome. Now she's 45, 55, 65, and miserable because she doesn't have any kids. She doesn't have a husband, and she doesn't have a purpose. That's what you should have learned. Not the stories, the outcome. Because I created you in My image, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says. I created you in an image that is able to decipher right or wrong.

15:22i created you with the wisdom that's able to take things and evaluate them in order to come out with an outcome. i created you with the ability to acquire da'at. and da'at is the most important thing for a person to acquire in the Torah. why? because that is the wisdom. The wisdom of how to determine right and wrong correctly according to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And it's so critical that the Gemara says, someone who does not have da'at, you're not allowed to be merciful on him. Meaning, he makes mistakes because he doesn't want to learn Torah. Not that he never learned Torah and he never even knew it's important. You told him it's important, he heard it's important, he agrees it's important, but he doesn't want to do it. Why? I'm busy working. I'm busy lying down on Tisha B'Av because I don't like fasting. I'm busy, you know, making money. I'm busy doing stuff. Oh, so you're too busy to acquire da'at? So that means that when you fall, and when HaKadosh Baruch Hu brings you to that stage, we can't even be merciful on you. Why? You did it to yourself. You did it to yourself.

16:45It's not that you lived in some jungle your whole life and you never knew who HaKadosh Baruch Hu was. It's not that you lived in some foreign country where there are no Jews and you never knew that you're the only Jew there. It's not like you never saw a minyan of ten Jewish people that actually keep Shabbat, and you got invited to pray along with them. It's not like you never knew what Yom Kippur was and that it's the day when you're supposed to fast and atone to HaKadosh Baruch Hu to give you another year. It's not like you never heard that your entire parnassah, no matter what job you have, is already decreed in Shamayim on Rosh Hashanah. You heard all these things, and you chose otherwise. You chose that you're going to figure it out on your own. We're not even allowed to have mercy on you. Why? You made your bed. You made your bed. And now back to the Prophet Jeremiah who tells us, when we see our parents and our grandparents and our uncles and all of the people from the previous generation, the ones that have not succeeded in doing avodat Hashem like they're supposed to, we see the outcome. And the outcome is,

18:02is always, with no exception whatsoever, a failure. The outcome of their life is a complete and utter failure. No exceptions. There is not a single human being that lived a life against Hashem that ended up being a success. And I mean a success in life, not a success in material. Because as far as success in material, That is actually an indication of failure many times, not always, but many times. As HaKadosh Baruch Hu says in this week's parasha, Parashat Va'etchanan, HaKadosh Baruch Hu pays His haters, the people that live a life that forsakes Him, the people that live a life without keeping Shabbat, without keeping kashrut, without having a kosher business, without being a morally righteous person. He actually pays them a reward in this world in order to eliminate them. And the Midrash Me'am Lo'ez says He also does the same for their children.

19:16Where many times the children see, "Oh yeah, my daddy's a success. Why is he a success? He's got six buildings." Yeah, but he committed suicide though. "Yeah, no, but he succeeded while he was alive though." Yeah, but he died on purpose. How is that a success? "Yeah, that's just because he got really depressed, and you know, it's a chemical thing." Yeah, but before that, he got divorced because he cheated on your mother. Yeah, you know, you never really know what's going on between a husband and a wife. Yeah, well, he cheated on her for 20 years with 20 different women. Yeah, you know, sometimes that happens. So, knowing all of this, you're still going to follow his way and you're still going to chase money for the rest of your life and run away from Hashem at the same time. Guess what? You're going to succeed. You're going to succeed in getting a lot of money because that's the curse. That's what the Midrash says. You follow your father, who went and chased money and acquired it, but lost everything else in the process, and you know it. You're going to succeed in acquiring money, but you will lose even more. Why? Because the punishment on you, on this generation, right now, is double.

20:39Because you should have known differently. You should have seen the outcome of their actions and the utter failure of every single one of them. People love to highlight in the news and all types of media. Oh, look at this guy. He just bought another building. He just bought another sports team. He just built another casino. He just built another Gehenom. He just put another kippah on for himself. He did all these things. Look how much stuff he has. And they like to take pictures of these people and put it in the media, as if all of a sudden, because he's got a billion dollars, he's good looking. I need to look at him now. Look at how much stuff he's got. And people are like, "Wow, what a success story. I'm going to read his book to see how he succeeded." but the reality is if you ever get to know these people or you ever read the real bios of some of these people that talk about their real life, you see how much of an utter failure they were. With no exception, every single one of them, whether it's the top of the top in the investment world like Warren Buffett.

21:49A complete and utter failure in life like no other, to the extent where his own wife does not want to be with him, left him alone. "Go live by yourself, I can't take you." His kids are almost like strangers. They talk about their father as if he's a third person, as if he's like a distant uncle. The media talks about him as if he's the Oracle of Omaha. Yeah, he knows how to make money, but nothing else. Yeah, but he's going to leave money to some charities. Okay, so the charities are going to forget about him two days after he dies because they have a little bit of money that he gave them, or a lot of money that he gave them, but who cares? Why does that give him any purpose? What about the stuff he did? or people like Steve Jobs or people like the celebrities that die or are still alive for the time being, who made a fortune in athletics, in movies, in all types of things. Every single one of them whom people admire is an utter failure to the highest degree when you look at their real life. You'll see the success in money, in acquiring stuff in many cases,

23:01But as far as life, complete and utter failure. And instead of learning from the failure not to repeat what he did, not to do what he did, not to do what she did, you chose to learn to actually do the wrong that they were doing. For that is a double punishment. Why? You should have known better. And that's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to the Prophet Yirmiyahu, yes, yes, you want to come back. I understand, and I want you back, and I'm never going to leave you, and I'm never going to destroy you, no matter how much I'm going to hurt you. But you should know that although you want to be back, I still had to punish you double for making the mistake again. Now, Of course, we know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not an achzar, He's not vicious. He's an awesome G-d, He's a jealous G-d, He's completely full of kindness. So, how do we explain a double punishment as being kind? How do we give HaKadosh Baruch Hu the kaf zechut, the benefit of the doubt, even though we just learned the reason behind it?

24:26Still, how is that kindness? How is that good? The Malbim brings a parable, a real parable. Not like some people say things are a parable from the Torah. He says, imagine a person who was caught committing a crime and sentenced to a 10-year prison term. Where every day he will get whipped. One time. Ten times. Ten whips a day. Ten whips a day, Rabotai. He is not having a good time. goes to the prison. He sees a bunch of criminals. Some of them are much worse than he ever was. And he knows he has to park his life over here for the next decade. And if that's not bad enough, they're going to whip him ten times a day. There's nothing for him to do. He got caught doing the crime. And he just waits for the prison warden to come with the whip and hit him.

25:41Because they said, that's the sentence. He prepares himself mentally, prepares himself physically, but the damage has to come. At some point, the prison warden comes with a whip, much scarier than it was in his imagination, and he starts hitting him. One, two, three, four. Four, five, and every single one he's screaming in agony and pain. Nine, ten, and he thinks, oh, Baruch Hashem, I just finished. Eleven, twelve, what's going on? The sentence is ten, it's ten, it's ten. Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, forty, sixty, one hundred times. completely collapses, passes out, wakes up the next day, just to have the same exact thing happen again. One hundred whips.

26:49He's thinking this place is the worst place on earth. I don't know how I'm going to survive here for 10 years. What's going to happen? A month into it, he's getting 100 whips a day. He doesn't know what to do with himself. This is a nightmare. This is Gehinom. This is Kaf HaKela. This is the worst thing in the world. How am I going to do this? Nine months into it, he's still surviving, but just a little bit. What is happening here? How come they won't listen to me when I tell them and I show them the document? It's only 10, ten, not 100, it's ten. And they keep going. And after a year of hitting him this way, he's about to lose his mind. The prison ward shows up again. But this time there's no whip. This time he opens the gate and he tells them, you're free. You're free to go. You paid. You paid for the crime.

27:57Amal Bim HaKadosh tells us that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will sometimes punish us double. Not chas v'shalom because He wants to punish us double because He wants to hurt us. But rather because He knows that there is a bill to pay. There was damage done and a bill to pay. You broke something, you have to fix it. But since He does not want to punish us for ten years, He does not want to punish us forever, He does not want to punish us for an extended period of time, He'll punish us a lot, but for a short period of time. So instead of giving us a little bit of punishment every day for ten years, just like the parable says, He punishes us a lot for one year. Now of course, Rabotai, This does not look like chesed when it's happening. When you're in agony and pain, nothing in the world looks like chesed. I promise you, I've been in pain for 16 years straight. The fact that I'm able to speak to you guys a few times a week, you have no idea how much of a miracle it is. If anybody actually sees me out of here, they say, wait a minute, are you sure it's the same person that's on the screen?

29:18My wife tells me, "Do me a favor, do lectures every day." Why? It's the only time you're normal. All the other time you're in pain. People have no idea what it means to be in pain. When you're in pain, it's hard to understand that this is chesed. That this is kindness. How is this kindness? I'm in agonizing pain. I can't stand up. I can't do stuff. How is this chesed? You only understand it when it's finished. You only understand it when you evaluate it according to the Torah, and you realize in reality your crime was much, much worse and what you're getting is expediting the salvation. Expediting the salvation. Because your way, according to what you're supposed to get, in so many words, it's supposed to be forever. Forever. Instead, it's a few years. Instead, it's a few days. Instead, it's a few hours. When a person understands that, instead of saying why, he says thank you. You stop asking HaKadosh Baruch Hu questions why. You know who asks why? Kofrim. Heretics ask why. Goyim ask why.

30:39Goyim that do not know that they're obligated to fulfill the seven Noahide laws, but instead worship idols. Jews that act like Goyim and don't know that there's a difference between the two. How many times do I have young kids that come from Modern Orthodox families tell me, "Listen, I don't really know why I have to keep Shabbat. I don't really know why I have to keep it. It doesn't even make any sense to any of my friends." every time, every week, I tell my friends, "Listen, I can't see you until tomorrow night." "Why not? We're having a nice game at his house. We're going to play some poker, then a little basketball, then eat some pepperoni pizza. Why can't you come? You've been hanging out with us the whole week." Yeah, because I got Shabbat. Who? Who's that? It's this thing that us Jews do, where from sundown to sundown, we simply have to, we cannot use electricity, we can't turn on the TV, we can't turn on fire. What are you, a vampire? What's this sundown to sundown? No, it's just this 25-hour period of time, we have to go pray and stuff. You just pray now, I'll bless you.

31:53I bless you. What do you want? You're good. You know why it doesn't make sense to his friends? Because many times he's friends with goyim. Many times he's friends with Christians. Many times he's friends with Muslims. Many times he's friends with all types of Hindus and all types of other religions. Of course Shabbat is not going to make sense to them. It's not their gift. It's ours. Of course they're not going to understand what it is. The question is, why are you friends with them? No, I play basketball with them. Why? Ran out of Jews in the world? Of course you're going to have doubts in your belief if your surroundings are contrary to your beliefs. All my friends don't know what this means. Of course your friends don't know and don't understand. They're goyim or Jews that are acting like them. So, of course, they're not going to understand. Why are you doing this to yourself? Don't you know that this is the reason why your father suffered so much? Your grandfather suffered so much? He made the same decisions as you. Don't you know? Yeah, but I'm different. I'm smarter than them. By repeating the same mistake, you're not smarter. You're actually stupider. And the problem is, Rabotai HaYekarim, is that many times HaKadosh Baruch Hu

33:18will bring different forms of punishment on us because we do not learn the right lessons from the previous generation. Now, when you bring such information to Klal Yisrael, many times, Baruch Hashem, people identify that this is true, And they get the spiritual strength to do something about it. But unfortunately, since this last generation before Mashiach is infested with Erev Rav, many times they're going to go to the shul and start becoming more religious in front of everyone. And they see people talking in shul and they say, "Listen, shh." We're praying. What are you, religious? Who are you? I'm talking. You want to talk? Go to a different Beit Knesset. No, but why don't you go to a different Beit Knesset? Why don't you go outside to talk? What are you, religious? More religious than thou? Who are you? What are you, becoming some rabbanit right here? No rabbanit of us here. And who's that talking? The rabbi.

34:36Who's that? The Gabbai. Who's that? Some president of the shul. Tell him, no, no, don't be too religious on me. We want to talk during shul. We want to do whatever we want. We want to have a little bit of vodka right before prayer. Maybe even sometimes during. Simcha, simcha. There's no simcha. A person that drinks is not allowed to pray. Even if he's religious. Even if he's talmid chacham. Even if he's a prophet. Even if he's a Kohen Gadol, what are we learning from? Aharon, a Kohen's children, two of his kids, kodesh kodeshim, were measured as equivalent to Moshe and Aharon. Both got killed by HaKadosh Baruch Hu for having a sip, having a drink, before serving Hashem. But yet you, that you want to be zealous now, you want to be about teshuva now, even though you grew up religious, even though you grew up Chassidish, and you're coming to the shul, you're coming to the Chassidish shul, you're coming to the Chabad shul, you're coming to the Breslov shul, you're coming to the Litvish shul, you're coming to all types of different backgrounds of synagogues, but this time you want to go to shul and it be a shul. So you don't want anyone talking while you're praying.

35:57You don't want anyone screwing around while you're trying to serve Hashem. You want to actually pray. So when other people are doing it, a little shh. And all of a sudden, they all attack you like werewolves with three-inch teeth. "Who are you to tell us what to do?" You go to the rabbi, and the rabbi agrees with them and not with you. Ah, there's nothing you can do about it. Listen, if you don't like it, you probably have to go somewhere else. Nothing I can do. Don't be so religious though. Don't be so religious. So, this, Rabotai, is a constant problem when you have someone that gets inspired to serve Hashem because he realizes that continuing his or her life will only yield them worse damage than the parents that they have, the grandparents that they have, and the other older siblings that they have, who made those mistakes. They want to start becoming more zealous; they want to become better servants of Hashem, but then they're surrounded by people telling them otherwise. So the minute they try to rebuke or say anything about it,

37:10The automatic thing that people will tell me is, "Hey, no machloket. Don't do machloket. No, no, no, no. Machloket, that's the reason. We're not allowed to have machloket. It's not allowed. No, no, no. Come on. Don't be about machloket. You know, that's the reason why the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. You know, that's the reason we're still in the exile. You know, that's the reason for this. And that's the reason for that. No machloket. Because we're not supposed to hate each other. We're supposed to accept each other no matter what." That's the mentality of the Erev Rav's teachings, and it's against the Torah. In fact, Rabotai Yekarim, machloket is very much a key part of Am Yisrael, where it can be utilized for good and for evil. There's a machloket l'shem shamayim, and there's a machloket she'lo l'shem shamayim. If your machloket is for yourself, for your honor, somebody insulted you, somebody made fun of you in some way or another, somebody beat you in business, somebody hurt you in some way, leave it alone, let Hashem deal with it. Don't even curse the person, don't wish them bad, in fact, pray for them. Yeah, but he insulted me, pray for him even more.

38:31Yeah, but he called me names. Yeah, I pray for him. He said, "Thank you, Hashem, for having somebody say Lashon Hara about me." What do you mean? Why Baruch Hashem? You should say thank you to him for saying Lashon Hara about you. What? This is a new teaching. This is a Chiddush. Why should I say thank you for Lashon Hara about me? He has spread rumors about me. Yeah, yeah, say even more thank you. Go, you should kiss his hand. Thank you. Why? Why? Because the Chachamim teach, the second he did that... The second he did all of that to you, he did you a big favor. Why? At the same process, the Lashon Hara came out of his mouth. At the same process, the Rechilut came out of his mouth. At the same process that he was doing all of these wonderful favors for you, you know what was happening? All of his mitzvot were coming out of him and going into your account, and you didn't even realize that your aveirot, your sins, were going to him. Tell him thank you next time you see him. It's good for your neshama. He said all those things about you. Hurt you a little bit. Good. Tell him thank you. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to take care of it. Don't worry. He's already going to suffer enough for it. You don't need to punish him.

39:44So there's no reason for you to have a machloket based on your personal issues. But when there is a machloket for the Kavod Hashem, when there are people that are sinning and going against Hashem, they're desecrating the Torah, they're distorting the Torah, they're distorting the Beit Knesset and treating it like it's a pub. When they're treating the Beit Knesset like it's some place that you just hang out in. When they're treating the Torah like it's some philosophical teaching. Like it's just another subject of wisdom that you want to learn. They make it equivalent to all the other wisdoms that you learn in the secular world. As if they're equivalent, that's l'shem shamayim and that's an obligation. Our entire Gemara, our entire Oral Torah foundation is built on l'shem shamayim.

40:46When you have a machloket l'shem shamayim, you're building the Torah, not destroying it. But people today have such a warped sense of what the Torah is, a warped sense of what good and bad is, that as soon as they see you speak against the wicked people and say, "No, no, you should say I'm sorry. It's not good. You should accept everyone. We should all get along." No, we shouldn't. No, we shouldn't. We shouldn't all get along. We should get along with the people that want to serve Hashem, or at the very least, are open to it. Not the people that are actively against it. Someone that's actively against Hashem, even if they call themselves religious and Chassidic and whatever else you want to call yourself, but you're actively against Hashem, you're making friends with the enemy.

41:49Like this Lordy guy that we keep talking about, just became best friends with Lapid. One of the biggest haters of Judaism in the modern world. Part of the Israeli Knesset has done everything possible to follow his father's footsteps, which is to destroy Judaism inside Eretz Yisrael. The former Chief Rabbi of England, Lord Sacks, because you can't call him a rabbi, He has an article that came out right before Tisha B'Av. What? He's now friends with Lapid. And he said, we don't have, he doesn't have to agree with me. He just needs to care about me. No, habibi, there's no such thing. There's no shalom with resha'im. There's no shalom with resha'im. There's no shalom with people that are anti-Torah. But you know why you're having shalom with him? Because you're also anti-Torah. Because you believe that Torah is just another wisdom that you compare to your sciences and your histories and your arts and your everything else. That's why. You just do it in the costume of a rabbi. He does it in the costume of a congressman. That's it. Politician. Different costumes.

43:07There is no mitzvah whatsoever of making shalom with those people. In fact, it's a mitzvah to have a machloket. Why? For kevod Hashem. For kevod Hashem. For the honor of Hashem. But again, it's a very thin line between are you really fighting for kevod Hashem? Or are you fighting to show you're right? And that happens also. Sometimes you have somebody becoming insulting to people who are ignorant. You tell them you see a post; people decide to make all types of, I don't know, open-ended posts. I never understood the purpose of these things. And they say, "Intermarriage is not allowed." Wow, thank you. That's really invigorating. I'm going to leave my goyah because of this post. You've just changed my life. Tell me why it's not allowed. What's going to happen if I do it? Don't show me some verse from the Torah and don't tell me who, what, when, and how. Give me some basis. I'm an ignorant person. I don't know anything. I'm married to a goyah. Tell me why I'm not supposed to. Tell me why. Don't give me some post. But better yet, what happens is one guy that is intermarried makes a comment on it. Oh, you're really judging people.

44:27And either the guy that makes the post or some other superhero starts insulting them. "No, you're just an idiot because you're doing this and you're rejecting Hashem." That's not rebuke. In fact, he's a tzaddik and you're a rasha. There is a way to rebuke people. There's a way to talk to people. There's a way to do certain things. You can't just go out there guns blazing without even giving people a reason. He doesn't know why it's wrong. He just knows that you're saying something he's doing is wrong, but you never told him why. You never explained to him why this is the case. And for any of the people that are still wondering why we took out the video with the 14 resha'im on there, and yet continue to talk about them, it is because obviously we didn't change our mind. They're still resha'im, every single one of them. But we took out the video because it didn't explain why enough. Each one of them is a rasha. It just explained the general topic that they were machti'ei rabim. But unfortunately, many people didn't know why they are machti'ei rabim. So we took out the video and we talk about it in detail, one after another. You can't just shoot the gun and not tell people why you're upset.

45:52And why are you upset? So when you just insult people, oh, you're making a mistake. Why am I making a mistake? Because you're making a mistake because you're not listening to Hashem. What did Hashem say? Oh, no, He said you're making a mistake. But who and what and when? Yeah, you're seeing. You're seeing that it's for Shamayim. You're seeing that it's because you're defending the honor of Hashem. You're not defending the honor of Hashem, habibi. You are arrogant. An arrogant person that thinks he's living a righteous life. No. There's nothing righteous. There's not a bone in your body that's righteous. You're full of arrogance. You're full of evil. But you do it in the name of Hashem. Because if you really cared, you'd say, "Listen, you know what? Let's go offline. I'll tell you exactly. I'll show you exactly. Without calling you names, without sending insults. There's no reason for that. You obviously don't know. So I'm going to tell you why. After that, you can make your own decision." But there's never a reason to go personally insult a guy, poor kid. There's no reason. This happens every day. Every day it happens.

47:07And they're right. Those people that end up becoming disgusted by religious people, they're right. Why? Because their version, what they saw, is disgusting. What's the problem here? They didn't see Judaism. They saw some arrogant fool representing it in the wrong way. So we have to be knowledgeable enough to know how to rebuke, how to talk to people, and how to show people a little bit of love. Even when we have a machloket with them. Even when we have a debate with them. It doesn't need to get personal and to just try to destroy people's lives. It needs to be about a point. What's going on? Now, this requires you to love him senselessly. This requires you to love him without even knowing him, even though he's on the wrong path.

48:15Why should you love him? Because that's the only thing that's going to give you enough energy and patience to want to help him, to want to help her. Even though, right now, their education level about the Torah is the equivalent of a monkey's. So you have to have a lot of patience to help people like this. And guess what? You should do it. You know why? Because somebody did it for you. You used to be a monkey too. You used to know nothing too. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu sent you somebody or something or some book or some show or some video where somebody else gave you the information and turned you into someone who actually knows what's right and wrong. And if you're not willing to give it back to somebody else, then you didn't deserve the present in the first place. So when we talk about hating each other, again, remember there are different reasons. There are some people you're obligated to hate. Obligated. Why? Because they're anti-Torah. A person like Lapid, a person like some of those people on the list, you're obligated to hate these people. They're constantly going against the Torah, and they're causing people to sin knowingly. They're changing the Torah knowingly. They're going against the Torah knowingly.

49:38You're obligated to hate these people. Obligated. But a person that's ignorant, grew up chiloni, grew up secular, grew up on some farm, grew up under the impression that you could just pick whatever religion you want, even though you were born Jewish, don't hate him for no reason. Try to educate him. Try to bring him closer. See if it's really in his blood to be anti, or he's just an ignorant person. But we just go attack everyone that's not like you, Mr. All-Righteous, that's not... And many times you're going to see that a new person, a new Baal Teshuva, even if it's a person that's been religious their whole life, goes back to the same shul that they've been going to for 20 years, but now with a new head on their shoulders, with the right head and the right Hashkafah, and starts telling people that, hey, listen, this is a Beit Mikdash Katan. This is a small Beit Mikdash. Let's not speak during prayer or at all. You want to speak, go outside. This is a place where we want to learn Torah, not learn Shesh Besh.

50:53Let's treat it like it is. Many times they get feedback that they don't want, or people tell them, "Listen, you're too religious for us. You're too much. You're a Ba'al Machloket. You're like Korach. You're bringing a Machloket." They're only saying that because they're ignorant of the truth. More times than not, it's simply because they're ignorant of the truth, either because they were taught the wrong way or they weren't taught at all, and they just assume that any conflict between two Jews is forbidden. This is not true. Our entire Gemara is built on the conflict between the sages to find Damn it. After toiling and toiling and looking at the verses, one after another, proving back and forth, yeah, but this verse means this. No, no, no, but the other verse means that. Yeah, but there's no way that the other verse means that because it's already being used somewhere else to mean something else. It cannot mean both things. Ah, you're right. Okay, so it does mean what you say. Yeah, but you just said you had this chiddush that took you three years to figure it out.

52:13Yeah, it took me three years, but I didn't know this new information that you gave me. So, these three years, I'll get rewarded for toiling in Torah, but it's the wrong conclusion, so I'm not going to use it. So, you just toiled, you just worked really hard to build this building for three years, and you're just going to destroy it? Yeah. It's not emet. That's all I care about. I only fought for the emet because I thought that's the emet. But now that you showed me proof that what I said is not emet, no problem. Gone. Garbage. It's garbage. Din taig mara is this. Back and forth, both sides and sometimes three sides are fighting for what they've toiled to a conclusion. They didn't just think this up. They're not shooting off the cuff. They thought this through and they arrived at this emet. But the other sage says no. And then sometimes the third one says no, and yes, and maybe. And they're all fighting, daf after daf, after daf, after daf. Yes, no, maybe, yes, no, maybe. Then comes the Rabban, says everybody's wrong, it's option D.

53:30When I saw this the first time, I wanted to like take all my hair out of my head and just throw it, just get it out. It was the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life. Because in the beginning, it took me six and a half hours to finish one daf Gemara. I was like half a retarded person. So even though I was extremely smart in everything else in the world, when it came to this, I just couldn't understand anything. Six hours for one daf. One, two, three. Ten dapim for one machloket. So finally, I thought, oh yes, I'm finally going to get to the end. Comes Rabban Gamliel and throws everybody into the garbage. I said, to heck with it. I quit. Why didn't he just come in the beginning and save me the ten pages? I asked my rabbi, what's the... He says, no. The whole point of the ten pages is not to show you the machloket and tell you his opinion and that opinion and that opinion just to get to the conclusion. No, if you want the conclusion, you look at the Shulchan Aruch, that's the conclusion. You don't pasken halacha from the Gemara.

54:30The point of the Gemara is to teach you how to think like a Jew. The point of the Gemara is to teach you that they've reviewed every single thought process that you could ever imagine, so when you finally see the psak halacha, you don't think maybe they're wrong. Because they've thought of everything already. The point of all of those ten pages is not because they have nothing to write. Trust me, the Gemara was much, much bigger in the beginning than what you have. The Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah says that Avraham Avinu, just his tractate of Avodah Zarah, was 600 times the size of our entire Gemara today. I'm sorry, 10 times. Greater than our entire Gemara today, just his tractate of Avodah Zarah. That's how much Gemara he had. That's how much Gemara he had. So how come you spent all of those pages to tell me him, him, him, you, no, yes, maybe, no, yes, why, why? To teach you how to think. To teach you how to think and also to teach you a certain discipline. That when a gadol hador says yes, it's yes. Don't ask a follow-up question, why? You want to know why? Go open a book.

55:55If he said yes, that means that he thought about everything that you can possibly think about. No, but are you sure that he... Yeah, yeah, sure of everything. Sometimes people ask me a question. Hey, listen, I put on tefillin this morning, but I heard that you're supposed to do it again this afternoon for Mincha, but I already did a blessing, so somebody told me that I should do it a second time, but without a blessing. So I say... Good, you did it, and do it again with the blessing. Don't put on tefillin without a blessing. So what should be the follow-up? Okay, thank you. What do I get? No, no, but you realize what I said. I said that I did it already, and I did a blessing, and somebody told me, don't do it with a blessing. Yeah, but I know. You told me the first time. You don't have to repeat the question. I know, I got it. When I gave you the answer, I took all of that into consideration. The fact that you don't like my answer, it's not my problem. That's the halakha. That's the halakha. You don't want to put on tefillin, don't put on tefillin. But don't put on tefillin with no blessing. Yeah, but you realize, you said it, I reviewed that information because you sent it to me. If you didn't send it to me, then yeah, maybe I didn't consider it because I'm not a gadol. But if a gadol, if a gadol hador says something to you, if he says p'sak halakha, don't ask why.

57:23Don't tell him, yeah, but you realize this and you realize... No, no, there is no but you realize. He's a gadol because he does realize a lot more than what you think. When he writes a letter that says X, Y, Z, guess what? He thought about all of the options, all of the circumstances, all of the people that will get hurt, and all of the people that will benefit. He thought about that. You don't ask a second question. That's the halakha. And the problem is that we do not know what a Gadol is, we do not know what the Emet is, we do not know what the Torah is. We look at the Rambam, we look at the Shulchan Aruch, we look at all of these different things as if it's just, "I disagree." And that's the mistake. This leads us to a lot of problems in our Avodat Hashem because when it comes to Avodat Hashem... If you don't have the discipline to listen to the Gedolei HaDor, if you don't have the discipline to listen to what the Halacha says, you're simply not going to make it in Judaism. Because there's going to be certain times in your life that it's not just one, two, three, and everyone understands. Everyone understands you have to build a sukkah. Everyone understands that you have to.

58:45live inside the sukkah during Sukkot. Everyone understands that if it's raining, you don't live in the sukkah. Why? Because of tircha (discomfort). You're not, you know, there's no reward for you suffering on Sukkot. You're supposed to be Everyone understands, that's an easy mitzvah. Easy mitzvot. But sometimes a difficult mitzvah, where you have somebody that's an anti-Torah person coming to your shul, saying all types of foreign ideas, anti-Torah ideas. You have an obligation to rebuke. You have an obligation to protest. That's not a comfortable mitzvah for anybody. Trust me when I tell you, it's much easier for me to do it from this position than for me to do it from your position. Why? Here, I'm talking generally to the world. But if you're going to do certain things, you talk to specific people; it's uncomfortable. But guess what? You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it. It's an uncomfortable mitzvah, but you’ve got to do it. If people are talking in shul, you have to say something. If people are treating the Torah like it's toilet paper, you have to say something. Why? Kavod Hashem. There's Kavod Hashem.

59:56When we did not give HaKadosh Baruch Hu kavod, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I have nothing to do with you. I have nothing to do with you. The last prophet that we had, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to the prophet, says to the prophet to the Kohanim, says to the Kohanim, you sinned against me. Kohanim say, why? We did our service in the Beit HaMikdash. How? How? We brought the korbanot. How did we sin against You? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you sinned against Me because you didn't want to do it. You treated the Avodat Hashem as if it's a burden on you. The rabbi said, come pray three prayers a day. Ah, no, all three I have to do? One's enough for Hashem. Hashem has a lot of people doing three. I'll do one; it's enough. What? Tefillin? No, come on. Tefillin doesn't necessarily need to be every... Ah, whatever. I'll do it when I get a chance. Rabbi, when can... It's 5 o'clock p.m. Can I still do Tefillin? Can I do Tefillin? Why didn't you do it at 6 in the morning? Why didn't you do it at 9 in the morning? Why didn't you do it at 10 in the morning? Why didn't you do it until now? Why? Ah, I didn't get a chance. Ah, you didn't get a chance. Everything else, you got a chance, though.

1:01:13You got a chance to make money. You got a chance to get a few clients. You got a chance to eat lunch. You got a chance to eat. You got a chance to do everything else, but to do tefillin, you didn't have a chance. Ah, you treated my tefillin, you treated my mitzvah like it's a burden on you. It's a burden. It's too much for you. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to the Kohanim, yeah, you brought the korbanot, but you treated it like a burden. You talked about my Beit HaMikdash. It's a filthy place. Who wants to be there? All the blood is there. Ach. I'd rather be with the rest of my friends, hanging out. If I could not be here, I wouldn't be here. If I could not be a Jew, I wouldn't be a Jew. Who wants you? Who wants you? Oh, I wish I wasn't a Jew. Okay, you're not a Jew. Go, bye. Bye. What? But you said you love me. No, I don't love you. I love someone who wants to be a Jew. You I don't love. Yeah, but I'm religious. No, you're not. You're just a monkey with a kippah on. If you don't want to be a Jew, no one needs you. That's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is saying to the Kohanim: you don't want to be a Kohen, you don't want to be a servant in the Beit HaMikdash? I don't need you, I don't need your korbanot. I don't need it. I don't need your prayer that you don't want to pray. I don't need the tzedakah that you don't want to give. I don't need the mitzvot that you don't feel like doing. You don't want to do it? Go give it to your mother.

1:02:40HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't need it. Why? If you're going to do mitzvot, it has to have kavod Hashem. Don't act like you're doing anyone a favor, especially not HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And we forget this a lot. We forget that we're not doing the mitzvot for Him, we're doing the mitzvot for ourselves. We treat His mitzvot like it's a burden on us. How? When's the fast end? That's all you can think about? Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, HaKadosh Baruch Hu's Shechinah is not with us? That's all you can think about, the fact that you're not eating like a pig? That's all you can think about today? That's it? That's it, the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed twice on the same day. Millions and millions of people were murdered in cold blood, a river of blood that literally reached the stomach of horses. Every single year, tragedies happen on this day. Throughout the generations, many of the pogroms, inquisitions, and natural disasters that we've had happened to our nation on this day, for the last 3,300 years, starting with the Meraglim. And all you can think about is the fact that you can't have a hamburger? Who needs your fast? The whole point of the fast is to think about the tragedies and the loss of the Beit HaMikdash, and all you can think about is when you can eat?

1:04:08That's it? Oh, I'm thirsty. Welcome to humanity. Do you want a plaque for it? All you can think about is that you're thirsty. All you can think about is that you're hungry. Did you think about Kavod Hashem today? Why do I have to meet Kavod Hashem? Well, let's see. 2,000 years ago, Rabotai Yekarim, or approximately, The Romans showed up to Jerusalem. Sixty thousand soldiers came out of nowhere, like a shed. The Jews had been fighting among each other for the wrong reasons. Their day's version of Zionism was called Biryonim. who anyone who didn't listen to them, they simply tortured them in different ways. And when they saw that there was a revolt, what did they do? They burned all of the food. They had enough food stored in Yerushalayim to feed all of the citizens in Yerushalayim for 21 years without leaving the city.

1:05:23The Biryonim, the Zionists of their day, the heretics of their day, the reshaim of their day, the modern of their day, you know what they did? They said, listen, if you don't listen to our way, we're going to burn all your stuff. Yeah, but why? Why do you have to burn my stuff? I don't agree with you. I have the Torah. Because it's my way or the highway. This is the new way. But I don't want to listen to you. I want to listen to Hashem. no, no, I'm going to burn your stuff. I'm going to ruin your career. I'm going to ruin your life. But why? Go away, go to the Gehinnom that you built for yourself. Have a good time over there. Let us religious people alone, leave us alone. We want nothing to do with you. If you're ignorant and you want us to show you what Shabbat is, we're more than happy. But if you're empty, go, go to your hole. Why do I need to listen to you? You have to. You have to modernize. What did they do? They burned all the food. So after this war happened, and they burned all the food, which was one of the biggest disasters, no one understood the damage until the Romans showed up. Because now the Romans surrounded us, and we couldn't run away, we couldn't go anywhere, and we couldn't even stay inside either.

1:06:37And the starvation began to the extent where literally the mothers would eat their kids. The starvation was so horrific that the good ones among us started doing things that even crazy people don't do. They lost their mind. They wanted to go talk to the Roman leader. Maybe there's some type of peace. Maybe we can do something about it. No, no, no, no, no. We're running the show here. We're the modern ones. We're the strong ones. We're the Zionistic ones. We're the Modern Orthodox ones. We have a kippah, but we don't follow all the Torah. We follow whatever fits. You can't go. Why can't I go? But I'm an individual person. No, no, no, no. You're not individual. We're representing everyone.

1:07:38He had to pretend like he was dead in order to be allowed to leave. They put him in a casket and said he died. "Our rabbi died, we have to go bury him." They said, "Let us check the body." "No, come on, that's not kavod hameit, that's not honor for someone dead. Needless to say, a big rabbi died, leave us alone, let us go bury him." "Let us stab him to see, to make sure he's dead." "That's really how you're going to treat somebody?" Okay, okay, go, go, go. By a miracle, Rabban Yochanan was able to exit Yerushalayim and go to Vespasian, who was at the time simply a general, a general leading the army. And he says to him, Vespasian says to him, "Rabbi, I should kill you twice for what you said."

1:08:38Once, for calling me "Kvod HaMelech," and I'm not the Melech, that's going against the king. The real king, the Caesar, he's the Melech. Why do you call me "Kvod HaMelech"? That's like you're desecrating the king, calling the wrong person Melech. I should kill you for that. Rabban Yochanan says to him, no, you don't understand. We have our truth that comes from the Torah, not from what you see as reality. We find the truth based on the verses. We see what's in the verses. And in the verses, in our holy Torah, it says that only a melech, only a melech can hurt Yerushalayim. Only a melech is given the power by the melech malchei hamelachim, the King of Kings, who will only give the power to hurt His children to another melech, not to just anybody. So you're a melech whether you realize it or not. As they're having this conversation, Rabotai HaKedoshim, a messenger comes from Rome and tells him, you are the melech now. You're the Caesar now. The other Caesar, he died. You're the new one. He sees this live in front of Rabban Yochanan.

1:09:55Rabban Yochanan was the rabbi of Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol, who was the rabbi of Rabbi Akiva, who was the rabbi of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes. Just so you understand who we're dealing with. Rabban Yochanan could decide who lives and dies based on his word. He tells him, you're a melech. Within the speech, within the conversation, he says. He sees he's becoming a melech, he becomes a king. During the conversation, he's so enamored by it, he says, I still need to kill you. Because if you say, I'm a melech, where have you been until now? If I'm a melech, if I'm a king, what took you so long to come see me? The Baalei HaMussar said the following: Rabotai Yekarim, every single day we say melech, melech, melech. We keep telling HaKadosh Baruch Hu that He's a melech.

1:10:56We say the blessing: Baruch atah Hashem Eloheinu, Melech ha'olam. Melech! Melech! He's the melech of the olam, He's the king of the world. Every day there's a blessing you say, "Melech ha'olam." You do Amidah, "Melech ha'olam." Constantly, we talk about HaKadosh Baruch Hu being a king, being a melech. But yeah, when it comes to emet, when it comes to learning Torah, when it comes to shiur Torah, you're fasting and everything, there's nothing else to do anyway. "No, I'm tired." But why are you fasting? Hashem said. Who's Hashem? He's the melech. Oh, so you don't want to learn His Torah? You say He's the melech, but you don't want to learn His Torah. He's the melech. You ask for parnassah, right? Yeah. You ask for a zivug, right? Yeah. You ask for kids too, right? Yeah. You ask for briyut, yeah. You don't want to have coronavirus. You keep walking around with all these strange masks, right? So you want the melech to protect you, right? Yeah. So how come you don't learn His Torah? How come when it comes to learning His Torah, all of a sudden He's not a melech? How come when it comes to all of the mitzvot, all of a sudden you don't feel like doing it? You treat it like it's a burden.

1:12:03You treat the mitzvah like it's a burden, like learning Torah, like you don't have time for it. "Hey Rabbi, can I only learn an hour a day, and then play video games the rest of the day? Is that okay, or is that too much Torah?" Why are you learning Torah? For what? Why even bother to do the hour? Why even bother learning an hour? Why? For what? Why are you going to do it? Oh no, you said God said it. Who's God? You say He's the Melech. I said He's the Melech, he said He's the Melech. Yeah, yeah, yeah, same thing. No, no, it's not the same thing. If I said, who cares what I say? I put on my pants one leg at a time, just like you. But if HaKadosh Baruch Hu said it, and I'm repeating it only to save you the time, if He's the King, Where were you until now? How come you're treating His Torah like it's a burden that you can only tolerate? You can only tolerate Divrei Hashem for an hour a day, so you can get to play video games for the next 20 hours. You can only learn an hour a day, but work 23 hours straight with no break. There's no problem for anybody to work to make money. Nobody ever says, "Wow, you're overworking me."

1:13:22But when it comes to shiur Torah, it comes to Gemara, it comes to Mussar, it comes down to, no, no, come on, I can't do it, I can't do it. Why can't you do it? How come you could work at some company building buildings, putting stuff over your head, making contracts, negotiating with people, arguing with people, with no limit? Torah, half hour a day, 15 minutes a day, once every few days, when I get a chance on Shabbat. On Yom Kippur, because there's nothing else to do. How come? If I'm a melech, where have you been until now? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, where have you been until now? How come my Torah is distasteful to you? How come my mitzvot are distasteful to you? How come you treat them like a burden? How come the only thing that you've established during Tisha B'Av is that you're hungry? How come the only thing that you cared about during Tisha B'Av is that you weren't able to, you know, drink whatever drink you wanted? How come that's the only thing you thought about the whole day? If I'm a melech that you're going to pray to the whole year, how come my mitzvot are distasteful to you? When a person understands that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is a melech,

1:14:45He has to now work on himself to get himself to enjoy the mitzvot, to enjoy praying, to enjoy learning, to enjoy doing every single mitzvah, which includes the uncomfortable ones. The ones that we don't really like to do so much. The ones that people call machloket. The ones that people call, you know, this is not politically correct. Why? Because if we are to say that we're going to love each other and stop hating each other, that means that we have to start thinking ahead. Just like we're responsible to think ahead. When we see the older people that have been here and have made mistakes and have ruined their own lives, and we have to think ahead not to do the same thing, we have to think ahead for each other. You see one of your friends playing more basketball than he's learning Torah. You see one of your friends stealing more money than he's actually earning legitimately. You see one of your friends ruining his marriage more than working on his marriage. You see one of your friends spending more time with his friends than he's spending with his kids. You've got to say something. That's love.

1:15:53That's love. When you don't say something after you see something wrong, that means you hate him. When you see your friend driving on Shabbat and you don't say anything, that means you hate him. In fact, that means you hate him so much that you care less about the fact that he's going to get a permanent punishment that makes the Holocaust look like child's play. a person that leaves this world a mechallel Shabbat, a person that leaves this world without doing teshuva for chilul Shabbat, for wasting seed, for all types of other morality crimes, a person like this that leaves this world with such a crime, their punishment according to the Ramban, according to the Gemara Masechet Rosh Hashanah pages 16 and 17, according to many, many sources across the Torah, their punishment is permanent punishment. permanent. Their Holocaust is permanent. Which means, Rabotai HaYekarim, if you don't know what that means, just watch my shiur about Gehinom; you'll get really well educated about that place. That's a permanent punishment.

1:17:08Not everybody gets permanent punishment. Only some people. Those people that die as Mechalelei Shabbat, or wasting seed, or somebody that didn't do teshuva, even for being with a married woman that's not his wife. Things like that, that's a permanent punishment. What does it mean, a permanent punishment? It'll take millions of years, or however many years it's going to take, to destroy that neshama until there's nothing left other than chelek Elokah mima'al. That goes back to Hashem. Meaning that you, the version of you, that person that was here, is gone. But only after suffering for millions of years. Now you know it. And if you see your friend doing those crimes, and you don't say something, that means that you're okay with him or her going to that place. and you don't say something, that means that you're okay with him or her going to that place. That means that somebody told you, "Listen, by the way, if your friend makes a right, and then a left, and then goes two doors down, right over there, they're going to kill him." And you see your friend going. You see your friend going, and you don't say anything. That means you hate him. That means you're a partner in the crime.

1:18:19because you know where that leads. You know where that journey leads. And you don't say anything, you hate them. So stopping the hate among each other is not like most people think in this modern world. Oh, accept everyone regardless of how they are. That's not the case. Stopping hating each other is fulfilling the Torah the right way, with Kavod Hashem in mind, with the honor of Hashem in mind, with an understanding of what is for our own personal interest, what is for the interest of the Torah itself, what does it mean, reward and punishment, what does it mean to help each other. Go towards the reward versus the punishment part. How do we fulfill the Torah without treating it like it's some burden? How do we literally work on ourselves until we love to learn, love to do mitzvot? Because it doesn't come naturally. In the beginning, it is hard. In the beginning, it could even be boring. In the beginning, it could be very difficult.

1:19:39When I first started going to shiur Torah, I wouldn't be able to last five minutes before I fell asleep. I'd go to shiur Torah, five minutes into it, max, fall asleep. You know what the solution was? Go again. Next week, I waited the whole day. Couldn't wait. Tuesdays, nine o'clock. Sometimes we had to wait for the rabbi an hour and a half until he came. Shiur didn't start till 10:30, sometimes even 11 o'clock. It wasn't that long of a shiur, usually it was a half hour to an hour, but sometimes you have to wait an hour or two for the shiur to start. But I was excited because it was new for me, and I was excited and I was there, and I got my little, you know, notebook. Shiur starts, five minutes into it, 200 people there, everybody's invigorated, except me. Sleeping. I slept better this year than I did in my house. But you know when I woke up how frustrated I was? How much of a nightmare it was? I waited all week for this.

1:20:50I waited all week for this, so I’ll take all types of things. I started bringing chips and little drinks and different things to chew on, but without making so much noise. I brought a pen and paper so I could write down everything. I just kept trying—five minutes, six minutes; a week later, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Eventually, I got to actually watch the whole shiur, but it wasn’t until after literally several months of suffering. everything else I'm awake for work, I can work till five o'clock in the morning with only two hours of sleep. Regular things, I don't even need to sleep. This Torah, five minutes, it was mind-boggling to me. The solution? Keep going, keep going. It's hard for you to learn from the book? You fall asleep after two minutes? Okay, tomorrow you try again. Still two minutes. Okay, try again. Still two minutes, a month later. Okay, try again. How long? Forever. Forever. That's what you have to do. You have to work on yourself until it works. How are you going to get it to work? Ask for Hashem's mercy. Tell Hashem through your actions, "Look, Hashem."

1:22:19I want to learn Your Torah. I want to learn it. I don't understand it. So I want to learn it. But how could I learn it if You only let me learn for five minutes? How could I learn if every single time I learn, I don't understand anything? How could I learn if just nothing makes sense to me? How could I learn? Please, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, please, please. Please. Open up my mind. Give me the ability to learn. Like a regular person that you want in this world. Now, if you do that, based on actions where you try every day, day in, day out, whether you fail or succeed, you keep going and going and going and going, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will eventually open up your mind, just like He did for Yehoshua bin Nun, who, until He opened up his mind, was known as the ksil, as the fool. But then Hashem opened up his mind, and he became the leader after Moshe Rabbeinu. But you have to try hard. Now, if you don't try hard and you just try whenever you get a chance, after you finish playing video games, after you finish work, after you finish everything else, you only get to it on Shabbat. You know what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to say to you? When you plead to Him, "Oh please, Hashem, I want to understand this one." Why do you want to understand it? Why? Because you're the Melech.

1:23:45If I'm a melech, where have you been until now? You have seven days a week, how come you only showed up once? You have a local shiur three times a week, how come you didn't even show up once? You have videos available online, how come you didn't watch any of them? How come the only video you watch is as long as it's shorter than five minutes? But when it comes to work and somebody tells you, listen, we have this project, but it's going to take at least three years to complete, no problem. But a video about Torah, five minutes max. How come? If I'm a melech, where have you been until now? That means, Rabotai HaKedoshim, that in order for us to get to where we need to get to, which is to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu with honor, to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu with kavod, to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu like we're supposed to anyway by default. That means we have to even earn that too, earn the merit to serve Him the right way. Because naturally, naturally, we just want the yetzer hara. Naturally, we just want to make sins. Everything we want naturally is bad for us. Everything we want is bad for us.

1:25:07What do we want? We want more intimacy? Bad for you. More food? Bad for you. More money? Bad for you. Why? Because unless you have Torah in your life, you don't know how to use money. So it's bad for you. More kavod? Definitely bad for you. You want recognition every time you donate money? Extremely bad for you. Why? Because when you go up to Shamayim and say, "Listen, sorry, but you used a ticket." What do you mean? "I have a ticket." Yeah, but it has holes in it. You used it. Why? Because every time you made a donation, the whole world knew that you donated this money. And you use your merits. So getting that kavod, bad for you. Everything we want is bad for us. So in order to get to the point where we serve Hashem the right way, where it's not bad for us, we actually have to earn that. We have to earn the merit. How? By serving Him even when we don't want to. Serving Him even when it's difficult for us. Serving Him even when it's something that doesn't make sense to us. But we keep pushing and pushing every single day. Yeah, but I don't want to be here. Okay, that doesn't really make a difference. Hashem said you're supposed to be here. He's the Melech, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so let's go. He's the Melech, right? Okay, so you do it. We don't do it because we want to right away. We don't do it because it's fun right away. We don't do it because we taste the deliciousness of Torah right away. We don't.

1:26:33We do it because He's the Melech. And b'ezrat Hashem, enough servitude in the right way will earn us that beautiful taste. That delicious taste of Torah. That siyata dishmaya that you have when you look at the Torah and you actually understand what it says. You look at a verse and say, wow, I got a chidush about this because it connects to the Gemara and it doesn't disagree with the sages and that's a chidush. it's mine and I brought it to the world. You gotta earn that, and that takes a lot. What's a lot? A lot of hardship, overcoming your yetzer hara that tells you, "Don't do it; it's not fun, it's not delicious." When a person starts fulfilling Torah that way, little by little he'll not only be able to serve Hashem the right way, but also serve society the right way. He'll start loving the right people and hating the wrong people. There are the right people to hate, and there are the right people to love. And there are also the wrong people to hate, and the wrong people to love. Because this too is also a mitzvah. This Tisha B'Av, Rabotai HaKedoshim,

1:27:51is a Tisha B'Av that we're experiencing because we have not done enough Teshuva over the last year. B'ezrat Hashem, this will give us enough chizuk to do Teshuva, finally. Do Teshuva where HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, yeah, you want to come back? You want to come back? Okay, I'll have you back. I'll have you back. Why? You earned it. Be'ezrat Hashem, we earn it. By fulfilling His mitzvot, whether we want to or we don't want to. By getting our brothers to fulfill the mitzvot, whether they want to or don't want to. But always doing it for Shem Shamayim. Not for recognition, not for money, not for popularity, not to show that we were right. For Kevod Shamayim. For the honor of Hashem. Nothing else. That is loving each other. Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll achieve this. We'll love each other. I'm going to see you guys in a little while. Six o'clock, we're having another lecture with the rest of the kehillah. Be'ezrat Hashem, so you guys can hang out over here, maybe learn some other stuff. I'm going to go in the car, take care of some other things, learn a little bit. Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll see each other in a little while. Baruch Adonai l'olam. Amen ve'amen.