SuperNatural Emunah, TIKKUNIM, Eternal Gehinom, FLIRTING, Orphaned AMEN, MaAser-STUMP THE RABBI (54)

0:17We're back here in Sunny Isles. I believe this is the second to last shiur in this location. I think the last one is going to be on Sunday, Bezrat Hashem, if I got my calendar right. Yeah, Sunday, I think. Stay tuned for a new location, address, and all that stuff. So tonight, Bezrat Hashem, we'll do another Stump the Rabbi show with you guys asking questions. Kadosh Baruch Hu giving us answers, Bezrat Hashem. But as we always start with Darkeinu Bakdushah, we'll start with a couple of interesting Divrei Torah that I thought about today, and I think we'll probably answer quite a few questions that we have sometimes, trying to make sense of things.

1:33Today's shiur will be for a Refuah Shlema for Rabbanit Levana Bat Sara, Rabbi Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, Orit Bat Ilana, Talia Bat Sara, Yitro Ben Avraham, David Ben Esriah, Doris Bat Jorah, Esther Bat Zipporah, Yehoshua Ben Noach, Serach Bat-Yah, Bat-Yah Bat Sara, and also for Hatzlacha Rabah for Yitro Ben Avraham, Marsha Bat Sara, Shaul Ben Farzaneh, Oshri Ben Doris, Gabi Ben Doris, Elad Ben Doris, and all of Am Yisrael, especially the ones that are partners with Irgun Be'ezrat Hashem to help Klal Yisrael do teshuva, either with their money, with their time, or with their skill set. Baruch Hashem, we keep getting more and more people to join Team Be'ezrat Hashem to do all types of interesting things. And it's amazing

2:56that there are so many talented people on the team that each day we have new ideas, new things. where people are just seriously interested in using their talents to help Am Yisrael do teshuva. And really, when I spoke to Rabbi Ephraim one time recently, someone came up with an idea to do a sweatshirt and asked him what he thought of it, just generally speaking. He said, as far as modesty is concerned, of course, this is catered for men, not for women. But the point being, what do you think? And I run everything by him.

4:00And he says this to me, and you know, it's a sentence that's priceless. He says, any gimmick that you can possibly use to get Am Yisrael closer to Hashem, do it. that's it. Anything you can do, whether it's a USB, a CD, a movie, a blog, a newsletter, or whatever it is—whatever you can possibly do—that maybe this is going to be the one thing that's going to get this guy and not another guy. And that's really what we've been doing over the last six years. trying to get Am Yisrael closer to Hashem with every tool that we have, every idea that we could possibly, you know, b'siyata d'shamaya, of course, utilize to get Klal Yisrael closer to Hashem. Because it's amazing how Hashem will send you ideas, and you never get, naturally, I say, why would this even work? But when you remove yourself from the equation, when you remove your own, oh, this was my idea, that's where it worked,

5:03When you simply realize, Hashem gave you that idea because there's something to it. Maybe you should utilize it to get people to do teshuvah. And if it works, it's Hashem. If it doesn't work, it's Hashem. What do you do? You just press buttons to make it look realistic. That's pretty much it. And when a person simply does that, we have so many different ways that people have been doing teshuvah. You know, there's one thing that's one of my, you know, it's like an interesting secret tool where not many people know about it, but just about 3,000. Just about 3,000 people know about it, which is the TV channel that we have. We have a channel on this system called Roku. which is like online television. You subscribe to it and so on. We don't recommend TV for anybody, but if you already have the system, then at least you'll have some Divrei Torah. And so we already have this thing for a while. I never really looked at the numbers. Okay, this is just another thing. We pay for it. Hopefully, maybe somebody is going to watch Divrei Torah on it. And I noticed that we have, there's a ton, a ton of Christian channels, a ton of them, and one Jewish channel. Who? Us. That's it.

6:15There are a few others that pretend to be Jewish, but they're, you know, either Reform or Messianic and so on. So, I said, okay, maybe, b'ezrat Hashem, somebody's going to look up something Jewish and find us. Right now, baruch Hashem, I got numbers recently, it's over 3,000 avid watchers. And I already have personal stories from some that said they did teshuvah through it. "Oh, I found Rabbi Reuven on Roku." I said, "Wow, I didn't find me on Roku, but you found me." Another one is the podcast. We have a podcast for anyone that is traveling in the car, is in the car for a while, or whatever. If you like podcasts, some people love podcasts. So we have a podcast on Apple, on Google, and on all these different media outlets where you can listen to the Mussar Pirkei Avot series every week. We publicize one or two of the lectures. which is plenty of information for anybody. It's usually three hours of lecture. And one of my students from New York says this is his thing. He says, you have to let people know about this podcast. It's the best. It helps me, this and that. I said, honestly, thank you. I said, for me, I don't know. I don't even know how to use a podcast. I've never used a podcast in my life. But it's another tool. We started it, I don't know, maybe six months ago, I would say.

7:39And Baruch Hashem, there are quite a few people who are avid watchers or listeners of this podcast because that's their choice. That's how they want to drink their divrei Torah. So, anyone that listens to podcasts, you have Emet through the podcast. You go to the, type in B'ezrat Hashem, or I think type in my name, or both, and you'll find us there. And again, this is another convenient way. Now, my personal favorite is the app. And the reason why is, especially now that we updated it. After almost nine months of Mesirat Nefesh, back and forth, updating, fixing this and that, we recently released another updated version of the app. And it's truly amazing because it has a feature in it that I don't think you're going to find anywhere else. Um, aside from the fact that it's kosher and better than YouTube or Facebook or anything else, because the app is just the app. There are no commercials, no distractions. You put on the app, you can watch the video or you can listen to it, whichever you prefer.

8:54All of our shiurim, both myself and Rav Efraim, are available in one central place. You can also do other things there, like donate if you want. Aside from that, we have a new feature, which is questions and answers. So, you know, we have, I don't know how many subscribers we have, but the few people that are using it love this feature, and they're starting to send questions. I try to answer the questions usually once a week. I answer all the questions at once, and it's usually a bunch. Quite a few people already told me this is the greatest thing in the world because it's not just that they're able to ask questions, but they're able to benefit from other people's questions. You know, because sometimes you had the same question, but you didn't ask it. Sometimes you didn't even think about this question. But you liked this question, and now you enjoy the answer. So I like this feature a lot, and my hope is that B'ezrat Hashem will eventually transition from the WhatsApp terminal that I have to this, to the app.

10:08because every day now we answer hundreds of questions on WhatsApp, which is unbelievable but very, very time-consuming. Realistically, it only benefits individual parties. So if everybody could start asking their questions on the app, you know, you still have your anonymity. No one knows who you are anyway. You don't have to worry about that part. But you could at least let other people benefit from what you learned. So, on the app, we can answer the questions in text and also in audio. I personally prefer audio because it's easier than typing, but sometimes I do this, sometimes I do that. So, I highly, highly recommend people to use the app. I can tell you that most likely if... people pay attention and they want their questions answered. Most likely, I would say it's going to become more and more likely that you'll get your answer faster from the app than you will get from WhatsApp, simply because with WhatsApp,

11:14It's individual kiruv with the app. I could answer your question, but also help whoever else is paying attention and listening. And it's also stored, and B'ezrat Hashem, we will put it on the website too. So another way to help Am Yisrael do teshuva. A few people are jumping on the offer of the USBs. They like it. Anyone that hasn't heard about it, the USBs are on the website. 400 plus hours of Divrei Torah. I think it's an enormous amount of Torah where, if you actually study it, you're going to change as a person. Just one woman today took the initiative even a step further, her and a few other people, where they're not only listening to the series of the Mussar Pirkei Avot, but they're also doing it with the book that I recommend. So they're following along with what I'm reading and what I'm saying, or at least part of it, highly recommended, and she's saying that this already, she's only up to, I think, maybe lecture number 15 or 20 out of 180, and she already feels like it's changed her life dramatically. So, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem. took the initiative even a step further, she and a few other people, where they're not only listening to the series of the Mussar Pirkei Avot, but they're also doing it with the book that I recommend. So they're following along with what I'm reading and what I'm saying, or at least part of it, highly recommended, and she's saying that already, she's only up to, I think, maybe lecture number 15 or 20 out of 180, and she already feels like it's changed her life dramatically. So, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem.

12:23Now, with that being said, we see that a person has a unique ability to transform themselves unlike any other creature in the world. Rabbi Ya’akov Galinsky, zt”l, said, that if you look at it and you study the issue of tumah v'taharah, which is perhaps the most difficult subject in Judaism—purity and impurity—not very applicable to today, because we don't have a Beit HaMikdash, we really don't have a way to purify all of the things that make us impure. Like, for example, all of us have an impurity of the dead. You know, either because you've touched somebody that died, or you touched somebody else that touched somebody that died. And pretty much everyone in the world has this.

13:25And there's no way to purify it until we have the Beit HaMikdash and the Kohanim will use the red heifer as part of the process to purify all of Am Yisrael. But there are certain things, like for example, the Tum'a of the Nida, where a woman that goes to the Mikveh every month, if she's married, she purifies herself. And the Zohar HaKadosh says that there's no Tum'a stronger than the Tum'a of the Niddah. Meaning the Tum'a of the Niddah is even stronger, has more power to affect people, than the Tum'a of dead people. Now this doesn't, chas v'shalom, make a woman bad or evil or anything like that, chas v'shalom. It just means that this is just one of those places where a person needs to be very, very careful with his wife, if he's married, to make sure that they're only together and even touching hand to hand when she's pure, which is approximately half the month. And needless to say, to limit any type of touching whatsoever before marriage. Simply because this creates a lot of problems in a person's life, and many times the people that come to me with their major issues, whether it's sickness, financial problems, marriage issues, children issues, all types of issues, nine out of ten times it is because of

14:52immorality. Immorality either because they're married but they don't know how to be together with their spouse in a kosher way, or because they're promiscuous, or because they waste seed, or because of a number of other issues that people have where the immorality in this generation is running rampant, so much so that there is a group of an enormous group, and a growing group, unfortunately, of homosexual people that are celebrating their public sins against Hashem by having parades about it, and the public thinks it's normal. Now, it's bad enough, you know, homosexuality has always existed, even at the time of Noach, which was actually one of the biggest reasons why Hashem destroyed the world. Now, there's always been homosexuality, but only twice in history was it celebrated. time of Noach, and today. Other times, people would, generally speaking, hide it. Now, last time, Hashem destroyed the world. This time, we have a promise from Hashem that He's not going to destroy the world with a mabul. But we don't have a promise that He won't destroy the world. Now, I don't think necessarily that Hashem is going to destroy the world like He did in the time of Noach, but we see that

16:13man has enough power in his actions to not only change himself, but change the creation and influence the Creator. Now, when it comes to impurity, everything in creation, once it's impure, it cannot become pure again. So if, let's say, there's an animal that became impure, There's no way to purify it. There are bugs. Bugs are always impure. The Torah talks about it. And also, there are specific types of reptiles and things like that that are also impure. There's no way to purify them. Everything that's impure stays that way. Except man. Except a human being. A human being, a Jew, can make themselves pure even if they were the most impure person on earth. Even if they were as bad as Menashe.

17:15Menashe was an evil Jewish king at some point that became a kadosh, the symbol of teshuva. But it was a very difficult teshuva, it was a very painful teshuva, but nonetheless he did teshuva, the Gemara says. But he made every sin under the sun. You name it, he did it. Murder, stealing, rape, incest—name it, everything. He murdered his own grandfather, who was the prophet Yeshayahu. The prophet Isaiah, you see the book of Isaiah in the Torah, that was his grandfather. He cut him to pieces. And he murdered a lot of people, but in the end, he did teshuva after HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave him one last chance when he was caught by a bunch of cannibalistic goyim who decided to cook him. They put him in a big pot and started cooking him. So in the beginning, Menashe started praying to his idols.

18:27Idol A, save me. Bubkes, nothing. Idol B, nothing. The sun, nothing. The moon, nothing. The Buddha, nothing. Yoshke, nothing. Everything you want, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Tried everything, everything failed. Finally, he got to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He said, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, if you're real, you save me right now. And I'll do teshuva. The Chachamim said, look at this chutzpan. Not only does he go against Hashem, kill a bunch of tzaddikim, and commit every possible sin under the sun, but he prays to idols before he prays to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. After all of that fails, then he goes to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and has the nerve to make demands. Like, if You save me now, then I'll do teshuva. Like, I won't do teshuva now unless You save me. But this also shows us how much HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves His children. where He knows how stupid we are sometimes, and how many mistakes we make, and how we don't know right from left sometimes, because we think that the sin is delicious, we think that the sin is good, and we commit the sin, we become addicted to it. But then finally we call on HaKadosh Baruch Hu and we say, "Hashem, I'll do teshuva if You save me." And Hashem knows our heart.

19:51one of our 13 principles of faith is that Hashem knows our thoughts, meaning He knows what's in our heart, He knows what's in our mind. You don't have to say it. Hashem already knows it. And He knew that Menashe was genuine, and not only did He save him, He saved him in a miraculous way, that while he was being cooked in a huge pot, He made this pot the first UFO. The first UFO. The pot started flying in the air, arrived in Yerushalayim. The Tanakh says the pot flew up in the air and arrived all the way to Yerushalayim, and at that moment Menashe obviously knew that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the one and only G-d, and he did teshuva. The Gemara, Masechet Sanhedrin, says that Menashe did teshuva, but it's only mentioned at the end of the Tanakh because The teshuva that he did was not completed during his lifetime because there were certain sins that he made that he couldn't fix while he was alive. For example, the idolatry that he did had certain consequences. So until all of the idolatry that he brought into the world was removed, his teshuva was not complete. This was many, many years after he died, but nonetheless, his teshuva was complete, and he has a share in the World to Come.

21:09So here we see that a person can transform themselves from being as impure as impure gets, to being so tahor that we mention him in a shiur Torah, that we mention him in a Tanakh, that we mention him in a Gemara, that we learn from him. That's the power of a human being, of how great they can get to, but also how lowly they can be. There are times that we say stories from the Midrashim or the Gemarot that some people have a hard time believing. For example, the Midrash says, how come Am Yisrael, which were numbered in the millions, how come they didn't just pick up and leave Egypt? Why don’t you just go? Hey, Mustafa, I'm out of here. What are you going to do? Kill you? Okay, so make a protest. Look at what's happening in New York and Minnesota and everywhere. 20, 30, 40, 50,000 people protesting. The cops pretty much gave up. They're like, yeah, just ruin everything. They don't want to deal with it. They're destroying public property as if it's a mitzvah. Police don't even want to do anything about it. Why? What are you going to do? 50,000 of them. In order to do something about it, you have to start killing people. It's hard.

22:34So they gave up. So why didn't Am Yisrael do the same thing? Why didn't Am Yisrael just say, listen, we're numbered in the millions. In fact, there are even more of Am Yisrael than there are Egyptians. A lot more. So let's go. We run towards the exit. A few of us are going to die. A few of us are going to live. Yalla. Sacrifice. And the Gemara says... Few reasons. One of the reasons is because Hashem instilled fear into Am Yisrael. They were afraid of the Goyim. Just like an elephant is afraid of its owner that holds on a little leash. You ever seen a circus? You've got this owner that's the size of like half a leg of the elephant, and he has a leash that belongs to a dog, but he put it on the elephant. But this guy is controlling this giant elephant somehow. Why are the elephants scared of him? Am Yisrael was scared of the Egyptians. As part of the whole situation that was happening there, Hashem instilled fear into Am Yisrael to be scared of the Goyim. Now, one of the reasons why they were scared of the Goyim is because anytime somebody tried breaking out, something terrible would happen. What would it be? The idols, the idols of the Egyptians, would come to life—the huge, giant idols at the borders.

24:04And as soon as the Jews would come close to the exit, the idols would come to life and start screaming and scaring them to death. Now, until now, until I mentioned this last part of the idol, a piece of stone coming to life, it was very easy to understand the rest of the story. Once I go into this mystical teaching of a piece of stone coming to life and scaring people, now that gets a little tricky for some people. Why? They don't want to believe in stuff like that. So, I'm going to ask you a question, and I'm going to give you the answer, of course. How could it be that an idol comes back to life? Ah, comes to life. Starts talking, starts yelling, starts beating up people. How could it be? Possessed by demons. Possessed by demons. It's a good one. Who has another one? Who has another one? Now that answer would be a good answer.

25:05But then you're going to have to explain to me another incident. Elisha HaNavi. Elisha HaNavi. He was Kodesh Kodashim. There was this poor woman who was married for many, many years, never had a kid. And she came to Elisha HaNavi. She was hosting him. She was hosting him, taking care of him. She was such a good host. Very tough to find good hosts. This woman was hosting him with a husband, but no kids. He sees there's no kids. She says, "Rebbi, my teacher, tell me, I'm going to go pray to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to the King. I'm going to go talk to the King. What do you want? Tell me what you want." Not because he doesn't know what she wants. It's good for her to say it. She says, "My dear prophet, my dear rabbi," Don't pray for me. Pray for Am Yisrael. If you're already going to pray, pray for Am Yisrael. She doesn't have a kid. She's been married 20 years. No kid. What does a woman want when she's married? Kids. Sarah Imenu says, if I don't have kids, it's better off I just die. All the Imahot, all the matriarchs, were having problems having kids. They didn't have the ability to have kids. HaKadosh Baruch Hu made them have a problem because He wanted to hear them pray. A woman

26:30Naturally wants to have kids. So when a woman doesn't have kids after 20 years of marriage, you ask her, what do you want? The prophet is going to go talk to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu talks back to him. In so many words, you can ask for whatever you want. This is your chance. Instead of saying, listen, do me a favor, Rabbi, tell Hashem to give me a kid. Just one. Two if He wants. Five, also better. But one, Baruch Hashem. Instead, she said, no, no, go pray for all of Am Yisrael. What a tzaddeket. The prophet says, Elisha HaNavi says, in nine months from now, you're gonna have a kid. Nature is gonna change for you. Why? Because you love Am Yisrael. So now the kid is born, nine months later, Yishtabach Shemo. And then something happens. The kid gets a high temperature, dies. Baby, dies. Shem Yishmor. She doesn't lose a beat.

27:32runs to the prophet, "Yes, you prayed for me to have a baby. What's the point of praying for me to have a baby if it is going to die a few months later? What's the point?" And he says not to worry. Gehazi, take this stick, take this stick, my staff, and go touch the forehead of the baby with the staff. He'll come back to life. Gehazi made fun of this, not in front of the prophet. He went outside, and he started talking to me. He goes, you think this stick brings life? Doesn't, right? You think this brings life? This is Gehazi, this is the rabbi, the rabbi, a big rabbi. He heard all the lectures with Elisha HaNavi. All the lectures, but he still made fun. Because he didn't believe, what is it, a stick, a piece of wood is going to bring the kid back to life? Doesn't make any sense. So he started playing around with it, and he saw a dead dog in the street.

28:44That dog. So he touched the dog with the stick, and the dog came back to life. He goes and gets to the kid, touches the kid, but the kid is still dead. Nothing happens. Why? You already used it. The woman comes back to Elisha HaNavi and says it's not working. Elisha knew what happened with Gehazi, the mistake he made, or what he did. Elisha himself goes, sees the kid, and brings him back to life. Now, back to Satan. If you're saying that the statues had a demon in them, it's a nice answer. That's why they were able to come back to life. But we can't use that same answer for Elisha HaNavi. Ah, there's an angel in this one. One's an angel, one's a Satan. Okay, see? Satan's smart. But what if I tell you it's not an angel and not a demon? No angel, no demon. What's the next answer? Hashem is inside the stick. Thank you. Hashem makes it happen. That's an answer. That's what you guys are saying to me. No. Think, think, think. What does it mean? I have a stick. Go touch. Use this piece of stick. Use this piece of bottle. And go dip in the water. What? What happened? Somebody comes. Says, Rabbi. Rabbi.

30:09We want to have a baby. We've been married five, ten years. We want to have a baby. The Rabbi says, one year from now you're going to have a baby. A year later, they have a baby. No stick. No water. The Rabbi said they'll have a baby. I saw this with my own eyes. How come? No stick. No, but we can't have it with Egypt. It still has to be the same answer. So the answer is, Rabotai, half of what you said, Emunah. What does that mean? Unlike all creation, a human being has the ability to change itself, in so many words. And so much so that they can go from being impure to pure. And

31:10a person understands their own power, they could literally instill power into the domain; they could instill power into something that's otherwise just a solid, lifeless nothing. So, the Egyptians had many different types of witchcraft that they used. And they utilized that witchcraft in order to instill life into the idols. Now, many people can read different types of witchcraft books, try the same trick, and it doesn't work. On the other hand, on the positive side, Elisha HaNavi was Kodesh Kodashim. He instilled life into a piece of wood, and the wood brought somebody back to life. On the other hand, somebody comes to Rabbi Ovadia, somebody comes to Rabbi Yagen, somebody comes to many Rabbanim, as documented throughout all of history, and things happen—something supernatural.

32:34One of the famous stories about Rabbi Salman Mutzafi that I mentioned to you guys last night. He was a very famous Mekubal who made open miracles. People witnessed them. Thousands of people witnessed these miracles. And every so often, he would do it to give chizuk to people. And he was a Kodesh Kodashim. Talmid Chacham, Mekubal, according to all opinions. Sephardic, Ashkenazi, it doesn't make a difference. His son today is one of the Gedolei HaDor, Rav Ben Tzion Mutzafi. Now, one time, one of the famous stories that was witnessed by countless people is Rav Salman Mutzafi, alav haShalom, told many of his students, we're going to go pray at Kivrei Tzadikim, at the grave sites of the Tzadikim in Tiberia, Tiberias.

33:37We'll go pray there. So, a bunch of people showed up and they all went. When they got to Tiberias, one of the little kids ran across the street and a car ran over him, a truck ran over him. Crushed him. Shema Yisrael. The body is laying there on the floor. Everyone is in shock. ambulance shows up. There's still a little life, but the guy at the ambulance says, "Kvod HaRav, we're sorry. You don't see it, but his insides are completely crushed. There's no way he's going to survive." Rav Salman Musafi, he says to the kehillah, "Okay, let's go to the kever of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes." Let's go climb, go to this kever, pray over there. And then we'll go to the hospital to see the boy. Okay. Everyone's nervous. Everyone's crying. And they go to Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes. They pray over there. After they finish, they go to the hospital. Rav Salman Mutzafi goes in by himself. He sees the doctors, and they tell him, "Kvod HaRav, we're sorry. The kid's not going to make it. It's too much damage."

35:02The little boy is not going to make it. So why don't you just, maybe you could say Shema Yisrael next to him. Maybe you could blurt out a word or two before he dies, and that's it. Rav Salman himself, he says, it's not possible. It's not possible this kid is going to die. Right? No, he's crushed. Finished. The truck, 18-wheeler, ran over this kid. It's finished. It's nothing. It's not possible. It's not possible he's going to die. Why not, kvod harav? So we prayed. We just prayed. We just went to... We prayed over there. It's not possible he's going to die. I'm going to go inside. Okay. No one knows what's going on here. Just like you. Rav Salman Mutzafi sees the boy, comes back outside, and tells the doctor, "Okay, I'm going to take him out. I'm going to take him with me. If you unplug him from the wires, he's going to die instantly. Stop me, don't worry." In those days, you could do stuff like that. Today, if you said something like that, they would arrest you. Don't try it at home. Unless you're Rav Salman Mutzafi. If you dare, you can still do it. So he goes inside.

36:28Unplugs everything. Comes back. The kid's walking. Nothing happened to him. Not a scratch. Zero. Everyone saw it. Nothing. Walks out. Hundreds of people watching this. They have no idea what just happened. The doctors. How was it? Two seconds ago, we were inside. We saw the kid, crushed, finished. What happened? Nothing happened. I told them that there was no hole. How could it be? We went to do a mitzvah. We went to sanctify Your name. How could it be that one of Your children is going to get hurt doing a mitzvah? How could it be? And on top of it, we prayed. How could it be? Hashem said, I agree. Everything is fixed. Now, if this story wasn't witnessed and written in papers and things like that, people would have a very hard time believing it. But this is, Rabotai... The answer. The answer to the question that we started the day with. You see, when a woman comes to a Rav and asks the Rav, please give me a blessing. And the Rav gives her a blessing that she'll have a child, or she'll find a zivug, or whatever the blessing is, or that she'll be healthy and so on. If the woman believes in the Rav, believes that the Rav's blessing will come true, believes that HaKadosh Baruch Hu pays attention to the Rav,

37:54like believes it, not 90%, not even 99%, 100%. She herself instills power in his blessing. When Rav Mutzafi was praying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu to bring this boy back to life, there was no doubt in his mind that this is going to happen. That the kid's going to come back to life. And that's why it happened. When Elisha and Avi saw the poor woman didn't have a boy, he had no doubt in his mind that HaKadosh Baruch Hu was going to give her a boy. And on top of it, when the boy died, he took a stick and he believed 100% that giving this stick to his helper and having this stick touch the boy was 100% going to work and put life into the child. His emunah, And HaKadosh Baruch Hu's unlimited power, unlimited glory instilled power into something that otherwise is lifeless. When we believe in something, we instill power in it. Now, this has enormous, enormous ramifications in our day-to-day life.

39:18Now, I don't believe any one of us is going to plan on becoming Rav Moshe Feinstein anytime soon. Because it requires you to study Torah 20 hours a day too, not just say the kid came back to life. But the reality is, many of us want our words to come true. This is why it's critical to start working on our bitachon, our emunah, and our connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But even more so, to be extremely careful with the words we choose when we speak to other people. Because what happens is, sometimes somebody makes you upset. So what do you do? Something not so nice. Yell at them. Scream. Maybe even curse them out. Maybe insult them. Maybe remind them of something horrible they did a million years ago, or last week, whichever one. Tell them they're a loser. Tell them they're not a winner. Tell them all types of things. What you're not realizing is that your words, whether you mean them or not, are actually causing something to happen. Sometimes I meet young people, and they ask me simple questions. They ask me, "Rabbi, do you think I could one day be a rabbi?" "Sure, why not?" "But I don't understand what I'm reading." "Okay, so study harder. You have to understand." "But you really, really think that I'm going to be a rabbi one day?" I said, "Yeah, why wouldn't you?" "So, I don't know. Nobody else thinks so."

40:40young people, and they ask me simple questions. They ask me, "Rabbi, do you think I could one day be a rabbi?" "Sure, why not?" "But I don't understand what I'm reading." "Okay, so study harder. You have to understand." "But you really, really think that I'm going to be a rabbi one day?" I said, "Yeah, why wouldn't you?" "So, I don't know. Nobody else thinks so." Rabbi, do you think I can be successful in business? Sure, why not? But I don't really know how to add or subtract. I'm not very good at anything. So what? You can still be successful. Rabbi, you really believe I can do all this? Yes, 100%. Wow, you're the only one that says that. And I see this story over and over again—people who do not believe in themselves and are surprised that I tell them they can do whatever they want. How come there are so many people that have such low self-esteem, such a low evaluation of themselves? How come? Because that's what they heard their whole life. They wanted to do something, but somebody told them—usually somebody important in their life—that they can't do it.

41:54I want to build this. What do you think? No, it's not awesome. It's stupid. Don't look at something big. Go to something smaller, something more manageable. Don't do big things. Why would you want to fail? You don't have to do something grand. I want to open a store. Outside? You know we can open a store. For what? You're not going to succeed. You don't know what you're talking about. Stay calm. Stay working with me. Don't do anything ambitious. Make a blue-collar living. We don't need... I don't want to marry this girl. She's beautiful. Nah, she's too much for you. She's never going to look at you. No, no, no, no, no. Go, go. Do this, do that. Constantly. I don't want to finish the whole Shas. Son, you don't even know how to speak Hebrew. Yeah, but it's in English too. Yeah, but you know, Shas, you're already too old. You're already too young. You're already this. You're not even that religious. No, no, don't do it. Constantly. Our life is full of naysayers, of people telling us that we can't do anything. And our problem is that we believe them. How do we know we believe them? Because it affects us. If somebody ever said something to you that was negative and you were affected by it, that means you believe it. Even if you say, no, no, no, I don't really care, you believe it. Part of you believes it. And because you believe it, it'll affect you.

43:17It'll affect your psyche, it'll affect your mentality, it'll affect your ability. And in essence, you yourself are giving their words power. And you're turning yourself into what they said you are, even though you weren't before they said it. They said you can't do it, and a part of you believes it. By the way, what happens? You can't do it anymore. Before they said it, you could do whatever you wanted. After they said it, you believed it, and that's it. That ability, garbage. You wanted to complete the entire Shas because you saw that it's a big thing to do. You started, you're reading, you're on page number seven out of 2,711, but you're as excited as can be. Your friend comes up to you and says, "What are you doing?" "I'm learning Gemara." "What do you want?" "Well, why? Just, I don't know, watch a show online if you're already going to learn something." "No, no, I want to actually read the Gemara. I want to finish the whole Shas." "You're going to finish the whole Shas? Hey, guys, guys, guys, look at this guy. He thinks he's Rav Kanievsky. Look at this guy. Don't make fun of him."

44:31believe a word that they said. You're affected by it in one second. You're giving them power. You're giving them power. That's why, Rabotai, the first halacha, the first one: when somebody comes to make fun of you and your avodat Hashem, don't pay any attention to them at all. Why? Because you're paying attention to them you agreeing with them, you second-guessing yourself for a second, is already taking away your strength to do what you want to do. If you know that what you want to do is good, you have to simply use these two fingers, put them in your ear anytime somebody wants to say something to you, and you have to be aggressive about it. Meaning, one of these people that's always Tisha B'Av, comes to you and tells you their opinion of you and their opinion of your limitations. Because they can't do it, they assume you can't do it either. You have to be aggressive about it. How so? They start talking; don't let them finish. Say, "Do me a favor, go tell that to somebody else." They might insist, "No, no, I'm telling you, but it's not relevant to anybody else." Respond, "No, it's not relevant to me either. I know I'm going to do it. You go tell somebody else. Go, go. I don't want to hear it."

45:54don't let them talk. Don't let this venom enter your neshama. Why? It's going to affect you. You start putting on some modest clothes; all of a sudden, you're wearing a dress that reaches the floor. One of the girls says, "What are you wearing?" Don't get upset if you know that she's asking the question in a derogatory way. have to answer in an aggressive way, "I'm wearing what my grandmother Sarah Imeinu was wearing. You should do the same and leave." Don't give them the time of day to inject you with their poison. Why? Because the Midrash says that Adam HaRishon was created after all of the other creatures. after the lion, after the bear, after the panda, after the snake, after the yetush even, the mosquito. The question is, why? Why after everybody? Now, on one hand, the Gemara says, because if the person is not a Shomer Torah u'Mitzvot, he doesn't learn Torah and Mitzvot, then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to tell him, "Look,

47:14Look at you. I brought you to the world to learn Torah, and you didn't even do that. That mosquito is more important than you. How do I know? Look, I created him before you. So he was already better than you. And the only way you can become better than him is if you fulfill your will, my will, by living Torah u'Mitzvot, studying Torah. You didn't do it. You stayed something as insignificant as something that's below a mosquito. On the other hand, the Gemara says that the reason why HaKadosh Baruch Hu made Adam HaRishon, mankind, after all of the animals, is because He took a piece of the strength of every single one of the creatures that He created before them and instilled it into man. a little bit of the snake, a little bit of the donkey, a little bit of the bull, a little bit of the lion. Sometimes you hear somebody roaring, screaming at his wife. That's a lion. Sometimes you see somebody, he likes to say something that's really going to hurt you, gets right under your skin. That's a snake, venom. Sometimes you see somebody just making a mess for no reason. That's a donkey.

48:38Sometimes you see somebody who is so lazy, he doesn't even want to get out of bed. That's the elephant. All of these things are animalistic behaviors that are in all of us. The question is whether you're going to use them or not. Now, when somebody comes and attacks your idea to serve Hashem at a higher level, to do something good in life, you want to make a very big donation to help a bunch of poor people. You want to do something significant, and you want to build some holy place that's going to be full of kedusha. You want to do something that nobody else has done ever, or maybe any time recently. The second somebody comes to you with their venom, with their cobra venom and their midat Amalek to cool you off, you have to use your animalistic lion and roar them away. Roar them away, don't let them speak even. As soon as you know they're going to try to cool you off,

49:50if you know this is a good idea, your Rav says it's a good idea, anyone that wants to get in your way, do me a favor, tell this to somebody else. Why? I know it's not me that's achieving anything. It's all Hashem. So everything that you're saying is about my limitations. But I know I have limitations. You don't have to remind me of my limitations. But I also know I'm not the one that's doing it. Success is in the hand of the Creator only. What I'm doing here is I'm telling Hashem that I want to be His vessel to do something good. That's all I'm doing. I'm not doing anything. I'm not building any buildings. I'm not teaching any books. I'm not saying any divrei Torah. I'm not doing anything. All I'm doing is I'm asking Hashem, Hashem HaKadosh Baruch Hu, please, please, I beg You, I beg You, use me as the tool. Use me as the vessel.

50:52...build this yeshiva, to marry this beautiful woman and have beautiful kids who are all tzaddikim, to be the father of all these tzaddikim, to be the mother of all these tzaddikim, to do all of this good. Please use me as Your tool. I can't do it, and he—this guy over here, this venom over here, this cobra—will be a friend of mine... This frenemy just wanted to come here and remind me that I can't do it, but I told him I know I can't do it. It's You. Please, use me. Because all I have is the desire to do Your will. Once a person understands their own limitations, and at the same time understands Hashem's unlimitedness, And at the same time understand that their belief, their emunah in something, literally instills power in something. They're going to know how to navigate in their life for good and for bad. They know that if they reacted a certain way that was negative, there will be negative consequences as a result. Sometimes right away, sometimes a tsunami that arrives a week later. Needless to say, something will happen.

52:07Same thing with positive. If a person looks to do something positive, they have to already think of things in a way that's appropriate. Eliminate any negativity from around them. Eliminate any of the naysayers. Eliminate anything that is telling them, no, you can't do it. Not because you think you can do it. Like the goyim say, if you believe in yourself, then you can do it. That's not what we're saying. No, you agree you can't do it. you can't do anything; you're just a piece of meat. But Hashem can, and all you want to do is convince Hashem to use you as the vessel to bring this thing to life, whatever good thing that is. This includes success in business, success in marriage, success in parenting—anything that you want. Know that it's all in Hashem's hands to do anything. And know that you have to eliminate anything that's going to confuse you, which sometimes means your friends, your family, and whoever else. You have to eliminate all of these types of things because as long as you are focused on what you need to do to constantly pray to Hashem, to be used as that vessel, you can literally succeed in things that are beyond your imagination.

53:30beyond your imagination to such an extent that you're not going to believe that it's happening. But you have to be very careful with the people you have around you. Quite frankly, the more success you want, the fewer people you want around you, unless they have the same mindset as you. The bigger your mindset, the fewer people will have it. So, this Rabotai answers a lot of different questions. Not only how the tzaddikim can literally say a prayer and make a promise that something good would happen and it happens, but also how the goyim could literally instill life into something that's solid, lifeless, and how you could implement it into your life, for good and for bad. With that being said, hopefully, this gave you some ideas and hopefully some questions. B'kavod, who wants to start? Give me an example. Right.

54:53No, there are different things that require different types of tikkunim. And there are certain things that you don't have a tikkun for at all. Like, for example, there's no tikkun for Chilul Hashem. Chilul Hashem has no tikkun. You could fast a million times, it won't help. But you can fix Chilul Hashem with two things. One is... Dying. Not a good idea. Don't try it. The second is Kiddush Hashem, sanctifying Hashem's name. the talmid of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, Rabbi Blazer, he writes in the sefer Or Yisrael, how the sanctification of Hashem's name has such a great reward that it's the only thing that could undo the great damage that was created by Chillul Hashem. Now, when it comes to specific sins, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and then later on the Arizal,

56:01codified, if you will, a certain cure for certain sins in order to eliminate things to the extent as if they didn't exist. Now, of course, Teshuva for sins begins with stopping them; stop the sin. The second step is to put yourself in a situation where you're not going to repeat the same sin and So if you sinned because you were ignorant, start learning. If you sinned because you didn't know about the consequence of the sin, then learn about that topic. If you sinned because you went to a certain place, then make sure you don't go to that place. If you sinned because of certain people, don't hang out with those people anymore. And so on and so forth. This is called a fence. A fence around a fence. Meaning, you have to forbid certain things to yourself that led you to sin, even if those things are allowed for other people. they're allowed for other people because they didn't sin. They're forbidden for you because you did sin. So that's step number two. Step number three, say I'm sorry to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, which means that you have to get to a point where you realize that the sin is terrible and not just not allowed.

57:10So you have to say, "I'm sorry" to Hashem. This takes a little time to get to the understanding that your sin is actually something terrible you have to say sorry about. Because most people don't understand. Why should I say sorry for having some type of immoral crime? I felt good. Why should I say sorry about it? So that means you haven't gotten to that point where you realize it's bad. So your first two steps have not been completed yet. If you've completed your first two steps appropriately, where not only you've stopped, but you've put enough fences, which means you have enough knowledge and so on and so forth, to make sure you don't sin again, then you would have distanced yourself enough from that sin to the point where you realize that the bad smell, the bad things that are happening are coming from it, therefore it's bad. If you still don't see your sin as bad, that means you haven't completed step number one and two yet. Your completion of step number one and two will allow you to get to a point that you realize it's bad and therefore complete number three, which is to say, "I'm sorry to Hashem." After you say, "I'm sorry to Hashem," Hashem is going to test you. And if you pass the test, that's completing the teshuva. But sometimes that teshuva is not enough, where you need to undo it.

58:30So you could undo it by getting other people to do teshuva, and you could undo it and, in essence, erase it altogether by doing a tikkun. A tikkun is usually a fast. For example, if you wasted seed or were with a woman who is a nida, even if it's your own wife, you'd have to fast over 80 times for each sin. Now if, let's say for example, your wife was a niddah, or forget about your wife, it was a girlfriend. A girlfriend is automatically a niddah. And on top of it, you weren’t doing it in order to procreate. So you made two sins, wasting seed and being with a niddah. So you now have to fast over 160 times. You have to fast over 160 times. Now, if you tell most people, go around, around, around. Oh, actually, yeah, around, around. Yeah, around the other thing. A person that was with a niddah, one time, I'm not talking about a six-month relationship. One time, he has to fast now over 160 times. I believe it's 166 times. Just for that one sin. And you tell somebody, listen, fast one time for Yom Kippur, he's already having heart failure. Sonny, can you move the thing so he can sit, please?

59:59You tell somebody to fast for Yom Kippur, they're already, "Oh, come on, the whole day?" Yeah. Tisha B'Av, "Oh, is this an obligation?" Yes. 17th of Tammuz coming up. "Do I really have to do it, Rabbi?" Yes. Five times a year you have to fast. People are already scared to fast five times a year. You tell them you have to fast 160 times? They say, "Listen, Rabbi, I think I'm going to convert to Christianity." "What, you believe in Yom Kippur?" "No, but I just can't fast 160 times for one time I sinned." Okay, so the reality is fasting is not realistic for most people. So what do you do? Chachamim said that you have to replace the fast with something else that's a little painful, which is money. Something that is a replacement in a way where you have to evaluate how much food, how much it costs you to eat per day. Not your big steak and top restaurant, $300. We estimate it's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 to $7 a person can survive. In Western society, probably in other places in the world, it's even less.

1:01:00So, the way you look at it, for example, instead of fasting 84 times for wasting seed, a person has to give tzedakah for that specific sin, to publicize Torah for that specific issue, for that specific teshuvah, 5 times 84. 420. and, uh... if he lives in a certain part of the world where he knows that his meals cost ten dollars a day, then he has to do more if it's a little less. Needless to say, he has to replace the eating cost for the entire day times the amount of fasts. It is just arrived at the age of 20-25 and he pretty much just realized that wasting seed is forbidden, or she just realized that she caused a hundred men to sin with her. She realized that she did all these different things because of the way she looks, because of the way she dresses, and so on and so forth. She has to do teshuvah for it. Now, of course, you can't fix all of your sins at one time unless you're a multi-millionaire. So what do you do? You fix them one at a time, or half at a time, or whatever you can. If you could afford $400, you do $400. If you could afford $4,000, you do $4,000. If you could afford $4 million, if that's how many sins you made, you could afford $4 million. The point being is you do whatever you can. Hashem is not going to punish you for what you can't do. Like, if you have, let's say, one guy told me, "Listen, Rabbi, I don't know. I was really addicted. I probably have like $4 million in sins."

1:02:29I said, okay, so what do you want from me? He said, "Rabbi, I have $4 in my bank account." Missing a little bit. So, okay. Well, I can't lend you the rest; I don't have it either. But Hashem is not going to judge you based on what you can't do. He knows what you can't do. He's the one that made it happen that you can't do it. So first, focus on the other steps that I mentioned, which are: number one, stop; number two, put a fence around the fence; number three, get to a point where you're sorry about the sin; number four, try to get other people to do teshuvah, which you can do for free. And then, b'ezrat Hashem, He accepts your teshuvah, and... He's going to give you more bracha. You're going to make a little bit more money. And once in a while, you're going to be able to afford 50 bucks, 100 bucks, 1,000 bucks, 5,000 bucks, whatever it is. And you give it as you can. That's it. That's how you're supposed to do it. When a person looks at things that way, then in the big grand scheme of things, the $4 million bill looks manageable. Why? Because he knows that Hashem is merciful. He's not going to punish him for not being able to pay. He's not the IRS.

1:03:32I said He's not going to punish you for what you can't do. He's going to punish you for what you can do and you choose not to. You have the money, but you don't want to spend it. You'd rather buy another watch. You'd rather buy another house. Huh? What if you encourage others? You encourage others, it's also very good. The Mishnah in Avot says, someone that encourages other people to do mitzvot gets an even bigger reward than he himself doing it. So, you encourage other people to donate; it's even greater than you giving yourself. Absolutely, it helps even more. You have a rich uncle who has a few million dollars to donate; if you help him donate to the right cause, it's as if you donated all that money. So the point being, Abutai, is not to necessarily focus so much on money. The point being, in regards to the tikkun, is we need to know that the tikkunim are very much real, and people should take advantage of them if they can. But don't get overly nervous about the big bill that you have once you see the list of tikkunim and how many fasts you have to make, and so on and so forth.

1:04:35You only have to be responsible for what you can do. If you can afford $5 a year, then that's what you do. If you can afford $5 a day, that's what you do. Whatever you do, you do. If you don't want to do it, don't do it. We're not Nazi Germany. We're not obligated to do anything. The point being is that there is a way to clean up our past. But back to your original question, why do some sins have a bigger fast or a bigger tikkun than others, even though on the grand scheme of things it doesn't look like it's the right cure? Part of the reason is because the Chachamim who figured out what exactly is the tikkun knew that this specific code works for this saf and doesn't work for the other saf. So you could have, for example, a certain code for your saf. Now every time you go to your saf, you put in that code, that's what works. You put 32, and then twist it three times to the right, and then you put 37, and then two times to the left, and you put 12, and it opens the lock.

1:05:38Now, if you use that same code, that same mechanism on a different safe, it's not going to work. Why? Because that safe has a different code. So the Chachamim knew and understood what the code is for every single sin. And sometimes this sin has less than something that's even graver. On the other hand, sometimes the things that look less are actually worse. Like, for example, today it's very, very normal for people to go to a comedy show, stand-up comedy, and enjoy themselves. It's a form of entertainment. People love to go to stand-up comics. Now, when, b'ezrat Hashem, all of you arrive at Gan Eden, I can make one promise to you. You're not gonna see a single comic there. Not a single stand-up comedian there. Reason why? Unless they retired and did teshuva, which is almost impossible. Why? Because one of the key things that stand-up comedians do and do best is what? Make fun of the audience. They make fun of people and embarrass them in public. Now to us, it's funny. If I'm not the guy that's being embarrassed, and sometimes even if I am,

1:06:56It's funny. He just called me this. He just called me that. Ha, ha, ha. Everybody's laughing and, you know, whatever. You laugh. It's fun, right? Someone that causes other people shame, public shame, loses their Olam HaBa. So although to us it doesn't look that bad, it's funny, he's doing it. The guy's coming there knowing that he has a risk of being made fun of and all the different excuses that you could have in your head, bupkis. Anyone that makes fun of other people in public has a very, very serious problem, even though to us it doesn't even look like a problem sometimes. We think it's funny. We think it's, wow, he's really talented, this guy. He could give you a joke about every single guy, every single nationality, height, weight, everything. Bad. So also remember that the divine law and the divine logic are not human logic. So that's why sometimes the tikkun on one thing looks like it's less because you think it's a lesser sin, but nonetheless, it is a bigger sin. Other times it's because the code is different.

1:08:06And other times it's just simply that there is no tikkun available that's full rectification for that sin like there is for others. So it depends. It depends on what it is. But nonetheless, the tikkunim are available for many, many things. Some people utilize them effectively. Some people ignore them. They think it's just a money scheme. They think that it's just a way for rabbis to make money. And there... Privy to think whatever they want. They can think it and not take advantage of it. Remember, if the rabbi or whatever tzaddik is your mashpia, if his primary focus is constantly to tell you to donate, and he's calling you during the afternoon, at night, in the morning, constantly asking you for money, it's probably not the right place to donate. Probably not the right place to donate. But if its primary focus is to teach you Torah, that's already a good indication you should donate. Why? Because that's a holy place. But if the primary focus is constantly donations, it's not a good place. So if the people offering a tikkun are constantly telling you, "Listen, I can't answer your question unless you do a tikkun. I can't do this for you unless you pay me," if they start selling the Torah...

1:09:25then that's a place you should run away from. But if they simply offer different things, free information, free this, free that, and you could pay for this also if you want, they offer it, you could take advantage of it or not, that's it. It's obviously not a money-making scheme. And many, many times I tell people, when I see that their main focus is money, the first thing I tell them is not to donate. I had one guy whose introduction to me He sent me a message after I told him I can't talk on the phone. You know, I told him I can't talk. Don't take offense to it. I'm just really busy. I can't talk on the phone. Just send me messages, which is what I tell everybody. And his introduction to me was that he makes $5 million a year. That was his introduction to me, like he thought it was important enough for me to know his annual income. But he was surprised that my response to it was, "First, thank you for letting me know, but please do me a favor. Don't donate a dollar to me."

1:10:26the reason why is because I want to make sure that I can help you, and if you think that I can help you only because you're paying me, it is going to fail. So as much as we need money to do a lot of good things, we need to help you first. So don't donate anything. He was very surprised because he thought that was his ticket in, that if he donates, therefore, I could answer his call at any time and do whatever he wants, because that's what he's used to with other rabbis and other people. he throws a few dollars their way, and they jump. Baruch Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, didn't give me that tikkun. In fact, it's the opposite, because I know that if that relationship would have started with money, it would have never succeeded. It simply wouldn't. But the problem is that sometimes people don't get it, and they think, no, no, no, there's something wrong here. What do you mean? What do you mean, no? Oh, that means you want more? No, no, I'm telling you, I don't want the money. Don't donate. Do me a favor, don't donate. Okay, I'm going to find a different rabbi. Okay, find a different rabbi. What, a rabbi that you can buy? Well, that's what you want. You want to go buy somebody? Go buy. Go buy. Of course, donations are fantastic, and donations help us do all these different things. But if a person's primary focus is just because, you know, money, it's already a bad thing. Especially if it's the rabbi that's interested in money constantly. So again, the tikkunim are very, very expensive. They're not cheap.

1:11:49There's no question about it. I have some people that I know that literally have paid tens of thousands of dollars for their tikkunim in different organizations and different places and so on, and they're perfectly happy about it. And I have some people that regret sending 400 bucks. What's the difference? One understood, one didn't understand. That's it. That's the difference. Next question. Yes. Okay. What do you mean, it's not forever, only this happens? Oh, until that soul is destroyed completely? Yes, yes. So this is...

1:12:51I spoke to a famous speaker recently who was asked a question. The question was, is it true that Gehenom is forever? And he said, no. Now, otherwise, I don't listen to this speaker, but from what I heard, otherwise, he's a relatively wise person and knows some Torah. So when someone brought this to my attention, I was very, very disappointed. Why was I disappointed? Because there are countless sources in the Torah, including the Gemara, including the Zohar, including Chachamim and so on, that say that Gehenom has a section that is permanent. There's even a source in the Torah. You look at the last verse in the book of Isaiah. It says that Gehenom is forever. You look at Rashi on this week's parsha, parashat Korach, which talks about Gehenom. And that's where Korach is, for a very, very long period of time. So the Gemara outright says that it's forever. So I said, you know what?

1:13:58since this speaker otherwise is okay, I'm not going to go against the public and not some cowboy. Obviously, I have to investigate this, so I called them. I called them and, uh… and I asked them, uh… why did you say this? I mean, you are aware of the Gemara in this place, in that place, in this place, in that place, in this place, in that place. You are aware of the Ramban in Sha'ar HaGmul that he says Gehenom is forever for such people and such and such. He goes, yeah, yeah, I'm familiar with most of those places. I said, so how come you said that Gehenom is not forever? He says, because it's not. So, I said, what do you mean? He goes, well, eventually the soul gets destroyed. I said, oh... Oh, so you are being... Oh, this is much worse. This is much, much worse. Why? What is he doing here? To appease the public, especially the English-speaking public, "forever" sounds like Hashem is vicious. So what does he do to appease them? He tells us "not forever," but he doesn't elaborate on what "not forever" means.

1:15:14So the Chachamim discussed this in Chazal and a few other places, especially the places that talk about Gehinnom. Gehinnom is not supposed to be for everybody forever, obviously. Only certain types of sinners. Mechalel Shabbat, for example, with Pesha, unfortunately, if he has no merits whatsoever, he has a very, very serious problem. A permanent problem that he's not going to be able to fix. Now, that soul is going to be suffering all types of agony and pain for a very, very long time. It could be literally millions of years in our time. There is no concept of time there, but if you compare the timing, it could literally be millions of years. ...until that soul is literally completely destroyed and the only thing that's left is the original piece that God instilled into, breathed into Adam HaRishon, and that goes back to the original source. But what comes back to the original source is not you. It's not the person.

1:16:19It's the part of God, if you will. Hashem doesn't have parts, but for softening this to our ear and making it understandable, we have to say parts. So the part of God goes back to God. The part that was in this world, the guy that was making, or the girl that was making all of these horrible sins, eventually gets destroyed. But only after a really, really long time. It can be thousands of years, millions of years, whatever it is. A really, really, really long time. Okay? So this... What I would like to say, con man, is fooling people by saying, no, it's not forever, which is technically correct. It's not forever. But when you understand that it's for thousands or millions of years or some type of infinite amount of time, which in essence ends with complete destruction, it might as well be forever. That's why the Gemara, I, and anyone that's at least trying to be a talmid chacham say forever. Not because it's literally forever, because at some point everything shuts down and at some point the thing is destroyed and so on, but because for lack of a better term, for all intents and purposes, it's forever. That's it. So that's the problem with English-speaking people

1:17:45rabbis sometimes, or sometimes Hebrew-speaking people, and simply people that want to appease the public. not appease HaKadosh Baruch Hu. They word things in such a way that they make you feel good about yourself. "Oh no, no, no, this sin is not forever. There's Rabbi Reuven? No, he said it's forever. It's not, it's not. Look, Rabbi, uh, Joe Smith over here said that. There's no such rabbi. The rabbi, this guy, said it's not forever. See? He's wrong. So everything else Rabbi Reuven says is wrong because he said it's not. Therefore, I can't listen to anything. I can't listen. He's, uh, he's caught, this guy." The reality is, who is Korach? He's the liar. He didn't lie technically, but he lied. By being dishonest and vague, it might as well be a lie. might as well be a lie because let me ask you guys a question. If until now, every time I described to you Gehinnom, I either did it like I usually do, which is forever, or I could say it could be forever. Change this: everything means forever, or I would have just given you all of these details that it's 1.7 million years of this chamber, then another 2 million in that one, and this one. Now, when I give you all the details, eventually it's over, but that's just because you no longer exist.

1:19:02which would you guys prefer? Just let's cut to the chase: it's forever. I'll give you the details of, "Oh, it's not, it's really not really forever because it ends, but the sinner ends also." Bottom line, that's what we speak. We speak clearly. Bottom line, what is the bottom line? Kasher Allowed, not allowed. Black or white. That's what this generation requires. They require simple yes or no. But when people try to be very, very particular with words, they can manipulate them in such a way that they could look like they're doing the public a favor. In reality, they're doing the public a disservice. Why? Because now somebody that was scared to death being a Michalel Shabbat, scared to death from wasting seed, scared to death for being immoral, scared to death from doing all of these types of sins that can get them a permanent Gehenom. Now, all of a sudden, they heard, "Oh, it's not permanent." Okay, so it's really not that bad after all. Okay, fine. Okay. We're gonna go have a barbecue this Shabbat. That's what happens. You just cool them off and

1:20:11just like Amalek does, and the people think that all sins are the same. And the Ramban writes in Sha'ar HaGmul, anyone that says or even gives the illustration that all sins are the same, meaning they all have the same consequence, is a heretic. Why a heretic? By saying that all sins have the same consequence, it turns God into an evil God. Because if the murderer, the rapist, and the pedophile get the same punishment as the guy that stole $10, there's no justice. If the guy that cursed God and the guy that cursed his friend get the same punishment, there's no justice. Justice if the guy that violated Shabbat and the guy that forgot to simply cut Amazon get the same punishment. There's no justice. If there's no justice, then you're saying God is evil. So, hence the reason why we go into the details, but we try to simplify it as much as possible without missing any of the details. We try to be clear to let you know this danger is

1:21:30Don't go there. As soon as you know what danger to stay away from, it gives you more inclination that you'll do more good things. But so long as you think that all of the danger is equivalent, you might as well violate the entire Torah. So, although what you said is right, it's not permanent, but it is permanent for all intents and purposes. Next question. Good question, by the way. And I still didn't expose that Rabbi because I still didn't get permission yet. Waiting for that. Next. Yes. Okay. Okay. Why doesn't the Torah teach us the phrase of what? Why doesn't the Torah use the same phrase over and over again? No, why doesn't it use that phrase? Why is it very specific?

1:22:53Oh, okay. So you'll see from the Gemara when there are different times that HaKadosh Baruch Hu uses different phrases to say, in essence, the same overall message, but to teach us an additional lesson. So the Gemara in Masechet Yoma says that when it talks about bringing korbanot, it says bring two sheep, two sheep, but it mentions two twice. Why do I need to know twice? Just mention it once. So the Gemara says that this is to teach us that it's not just to bring two, but also two that are the same. overall, same size, same this, same that, but then it elaborates even further and says no, but there's another time that it actually mentions two but it's only one time. So in this particular case, it's actually referring to two being the same, but the time that it says two, two, it's actually saying a chidush: it's two, but it's two that don't have to be the same, meaning one can be big, one can be small.

1:24:18So when you study the Gemara, you see that every single word is there for a reason. There are an enormous amount of lessons to be learned from it. And therefore, Hashem uses different terms sometimes to describe the same basic level of meaning. like what you're seeing, the same type of death penalty, but apparently that particular verse, if you look it up in the Gemara and see where it is, look at the Mefarshim and so on, you'll see that there are other lessons to be learned and why it's described this way this time and why it's described that way other times. So that's across the board in the entire Torah. I mean, if I was Rabbi Ovadia, I could probably tell you exactly what and who and what and when in every single verse, but since I'm nothing, I can't tell you that. But I can tell you that the general teaching is that every single word that's used in the Torah is there for a reason. There is a lesson to be learned from it, especially when it's the same message, but a different word.

1:25:22In fact, there are times that the same word is in two different places, but it's spelled differently. Sometimes with a Vav, sometimes without a Vav. Sometimes with a Yud, sometimes without a Yud. The same exact word, same exact thing, but it's spelled with one less letter because the sound of that letter could be done by one of the... In Hebrew, our vowel system consists of these little dots and exclamation points and those little things. That's our vowel system. So, you can make the same sound with more or fewer letters. It's not like in English, where the sound has to be made by the letters. For example, if you want to have the sound of "oh," you need to use an "o." In Hebrew, you don't need an "O." You don't need just a Vav. It could actually just be a dot on top of the letter. So sometimes you'll see the same exact word in the Torah that's spelled differently. And that carries a certain message. For example, in the parasha where Avraham Avinu is buying the Ma'arat HaMachpelah. He's buying the Ma'arat HaMachpelah. He's buying the cave to bury Sarah Imeinu.

1:26:48The first time that the name of the seller of the Me'arat HaMachpelah is mentioned, it's spelled longer with more letters, one extra letter, the letter Vav. But later on, it's spelled with less. And the Gemara teaches us that's because before he sold it, he was considered in essence righteous, but since he was proven to be not righteous, where he made many promises but did very little. the seller of the Me'arat HaMachpelah is mentioned, it's spelled longer with more letters, one extra letter, the letter Vav. But later on, it's spelled with less. And the Gemara teaches us that's because before he sold it, he was considered in essence righteous, but since he was proven to be not righteous, where he made many promises but did very little, On him it is written, Reshaim, say a lot and do little, while Tzadikim, say little and do a lot. So his name is mentioned in the Torah again, but with fewer letters. This, in essence, teaches this lesson and other lessons. There are countless lessons to be learned from how certain things are spelled, needless to say, how different words are used in different parts of the Torah, and that surely is one of them. Actually, I haven't read it, but there's a new edition of Chumashim,

1:27:57by ArtScroll that I believe came out in probably the last year or two, maybe even less. It has the Chumash itself, unlike the traditional Chumash that's very famous—the Stone Chumash. It has English and Hebrew, and then it has commentary by Rashi and a few other mefarshim. They now have a Chumash that has all of the times that this verse is mentioned in the Gemara. So you could learn a lot of different things there. Apparently, it looks very, very interesting. Especially if you love to learn Chumash, you could actually learn Chumash and Gemara. And it's, I believe, every one of the books, every one of the books of the Five Books of Moses is now the same size as what their old Chumash was by itself. So there's a lot of stuff. But surely if you look at that verse, it's mentioned several times in the Gemara. And I'm sure they're going to discuss that and many other points. Next question. Go ahead. Yeah, Naomi, yeah. Do I keep the phone?

1:29:12According to Or HaChaim, despite the display of divine retribution in the Korach rebellion, the very next day a large group of people started to complain and were furious over the deaths of the dignitaries, so much so that they threatened to kill Aharon and Moshe. However, 38 years after the rebellion, it says right after Miriam's passing, the people failed to shed tears for her. So the well that was created on the second day of creation in her merit, refused to shed water for them. Okay? Why did the generation mourn the dignitaries of the rebellion, but their children did not mourn Miriam? While the previous generation was referred to as a generation of knowledge and their children would have known Miriam's deeds, did she not receive a proper mourning period because they knew she was righteous and going to Shamayim? If so, then why did they mourn Moshe and Aharon? Three questions. While the previous generation was referred to as a generation of knowledge and their children would have known Miriam's deeds, did she not receive a proper mourning period because they knew she was righteous and going to Shamayim? If so, then why did they mourn Moshe and Aharon?

1:30:25And why did they mourn? Why didn't they mourn? Okay, so a lot of questions here. Okay, so in so many words, you're saying that the... Why did they mourn after Korach and all those people died and not mourn Miriam? That's at least my understanding of the first question. So... the human condition is that we take things for granted naturally when they come to us easily. Many times, if you give somebody something for free, they'll look at it as if it's worthless. But if you told them they have to pay for it, they'll look at it as if it's priceless. Even though the product itself didn't change. If I told you, you know, here's a phone, a brand new phone, take it as a gift. You may like it, you may enjoy it, but you're not gonna be as careful with it as you would be if you had paid for it. Why? Automatically in your mind,

1:31:51The second you pay for something, it has a higher value. So Miriam didn't have to kiss up to anyone and plead for her to have such a great marriage to the extent that Hashem literally brought a well that followed Am Yisrael for 40 years. They were able to drink the water from there, and it was always fresh. They were able to drink it, and it was like the man. It would taste like whatever they wanted. If they wanted to taste wine, the water was like wine. If they wanted Coca-Cola, it was Coca-Cola. Diet, whatever. Whatever you wanted, that's how the water was. So they didn't have to cry for this or beg her or say thank you every week, nothing. What happened? They took it for granted. took it for granted. So when she died, they didn't really realize what they lost because they forgot already that it's only to our merit that they're able to drink. Only to our merit. And when we don't have respect for people that have brought us a lot of good, we can easily get to the complete opposite extent of disrespecting them. Meaning you brought them a lot of good.

1:33:16Instead of them saying, at the very least, "Thank you," they go against you. This happens, unfortunately, many times. One of the other reasons this happens is because people don't know how to say thank you, because they have a very big ego. One of the Chachamim used to have a habit of, every time somebody would come to him and ask him for guidance or ask him for help, at the end of the meeting, after he helped them, he would give them a little candy. And one time, after seeing this for many years, one of the students was brave enough to ask the Rav, "Why do you give everybody a piece of candy? What's with the candy?" And the Rav said something that, when I heard this, changed my life. The Rav said this: "This person right now, he came to me for help. He likes me. So I gave him advice. One day, he's going to pass this time of difficulty that he's dealing with, and he's going to remember that I did him a favor."

1:34:31helped him pay the mortgage. I helped him find a wife. I helped him with XYZ—whatever it is, I helped him with something that he's going to realize that he can't pay me back because I don't need him to pay my mortgage. I don't need him to find me a wife. He can't help me the same way I helped him, and that is going to create a conflict inside him. Why? His ego is going to be bothered with the fact that he got help from me, and he can't even pay me back. And that's going to create a hatred. He's going to start hating me. And he's probably, if he's not going to learn enough Torah, he's probably going to want to throw something at me. So I'm hoping that when he finally gets to that point where he wants to throw something at me, that candy is still in his pocket and he just throws the candy at me and not a rock. This is as real as it gets, guys. That's what happens constantly. The people you helped the most sometimes become the worst things on earth. And the love of Am Yisrael has to make you continue doing it despite that knowledge. Many times, people tell me, "Listen, I helped this girl, I helped this guy, and they did something against me." I said, "Yeah."

1:35:48That's normal. What do you mean? She's so bad. Of course, you're right. She's bad. You're right. He's horrible. Yes, you're right. So why are you saying it's normal? I said, because that's what people do. Most people eventually will go against you, even though you helped them. In fact, the more you help them, the more likely they are to go against you eventually. So who would want to do that? I said, you. You should do that. You should continue helping them. Why? Because that's what God wants. God wants you to help people, despite the fact that you know they're going to go against you one day. That shows the love of God. The reality is, it gives you a little taste of how God feels. That's what we do to Him constantly. But the point being is that that's part of the reason. So when Miriam died, we did not appreciate her enough while she was alive. Needless to say, we did not appreciate her after she died, and therefore Hashem punished us and stopped the well. The Gemara says that when a kosher person dies and the people do not mourn him, it brings an evil decree on people to the extent where Hashem could kill their kids. So when Miriam died, we did not appreciate her enough while she was alive. Needless to say, we did not appreciate her after she died, and therefore Hashem punished us and stopped the well. The Gemara says that when a kosher person dies and the people do not mourn him, it brings an evil decree on people to the extent where Hashem could kill their children.

1:37:05That's how much Hashem dislikes when such a thing happens. So anytime you hear that a very big tzaddik died and so on, you should mourn. You should mourn. Now, when Am Yisrael did not mourn, Hashem punished them severely. Now, what about with Korach? They mourned him. They were upset about him. They weren't necessarily upset that Korach died; they were upset that Korach lost the war. They saw how much power Moshe and Aharon really had, that, in essence, there is no going against them. And they got such a fear into them that they thought that anyone who would make Moshe and Aharon upset would automatically die. They thought that it was like a mafia. And that was obviously another mistake. That was another mistake that Am Yisrael made. And Am Yisrael, Baruch Hashem, made many, many mistakes. Ten specific ones. Hashem mentions that they tested Me ten times. But if you actually count the tests, it's much more than ten.

1:38:12So I don't really know which ones Hashem counts as the ten, but I remember years ago, I did a shiur about what I think are the ten, or at least eleven, even though it mentions ten. The point being is that the lack of appreciation for someone who is righteous, for someone who did good for you, can easily get you to a point where you're not only under-appreciating it, but you could actually turn into an enemy. Hence the reason why Moshe Rabbeinu gave gratitude even to something that was lifeless. When Hashem told him, "touch the water and it'll turn to blood," Moshe Rabbeinu said, "No, no, Hashem, I owe gratitude to this water because the water didn't drown me when I was a little baby. When I was a little baby, my mom put me in a little basket to hide from the Egyptians. The water didn't just drown me." Okay, what about hitting the ground, turning all the ground, all the sand into lice? No, Hashem, this ground I owe gratitude to. Why? Because when I buried the Egyptian after I killed him, the ground didn't spit him back up and tell all the Egyptians that I did it. So I owe this, something that's lifeless, I owe it gratitude. Now let me ask you guys a question. Did the water tell Moshe Rabbeinu, "You're welcome"?

1:39:41Did the water send Moshe Rabbeinu an email and say, "Moshe Rabbeinu, now I know you're appreciative because you said thank you to me"? Because you didn't hear me? Does the water have any life? No. But what did Moshe Rabbeinu really do here? Moshe Rabbeinu taught us a very valuable lesson: anything that gives you good, you have to be appreciative of it to no end. To no end. If you have a limitation on your appreciation of the good that someone's giving you, you, my friend, can even get to a point where you can spit in the hand that feeds you. Because that's how it is. So, Moshe Rabbeinu showed us that you have to be so appreciative. good, that even if that good is given to you by something that doesn't have life—water, sand, and so on—you have to be appreciative of it. You have to incorporate it into your character traits to be extremely appreciative of any good that anybody has ever given to you, even if that good sometimes is given to you by an enemy. And

1:40:47Even if it's given to you by an enemy. So, the point is that Am Yisrael was unappreciative of Moshe Rabbeinu, unappreciative of Miriam, unappreciative of all the tzaddikim until they died. Until they died, they didn't realize what they lost. Whereas when it came to Korach, it was a different situation. It was really more of a situation that they got scared. I don't know how to turn this phone on to read the rest of the question, but I think I answered most of it. Next question. I'll answer the rest after somebody can tell me how to turn the phone on. Yes, go ahead in the back. Did Aharon die at Har Sinai? Did who die? Aharon. Aharon? Did Aharon die where? At Har Sinai? When Hashem was giving the commandments. I'm not following. Oh, because all of Am Yisrael died, did Aharon also die at the same time? To my knowledge, yes. To my knowledge, everybody died except Moshe Rabbeinu.

1:41:49It could be that Aharon didn't die. I don't recall a Midrash or Gemara that says otherwise, because the only thing I remember is that Moshe Rabbeinu is the only one who stayed alive. But it is very possible that he stayed alive. The reason why is because Moshe Rabbeinu is the only one who was at that level, who was able to hear Hashem's voice and not die, whereas everybody else who heard Hashem's voice, their neshama simply ran out of their body. But it is possible that there is an opinion out there that Aharon HaKohen didn't die, because actually now that I remember, there's a Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, I believe, that says that only part of the nation died, and another part of it flew 12 miles away. from the glory of Hashem's voice, they, you know, like, imagine a wind or like somebody stepping on something, and it's like the power that comes out of it. So, in essence, that happened, and many of them flew very, you know, very, very far away, and they came back. So, now that I think of it, there is a source that could tell you that Aharon and actually other people didn't die. Some died, and some didn't. So, yeah. Next.

1:43:05Why is a Jewish slave going to be given a non-Jewish woman? Ah, okay, so when somebody steals... and they can't return the money, the Torah says there's no jail in Judaism. There's no prison in Judaism. What they would do is that the person who stole the money would have to sell themselves and become a slave. Now, of course, even though that person becomes a slave, he still has needs. still has physical needs and so on and so forth. So they allow him to marry a non-Jewish woman because that non-Jewish woman is also a slave of the owner and she is his property. Now, the reason why is because if the person is not a thief, they're not allowed to be owned by anybody. Meaning you're not allowed to own a Jew just because.

1:44:23you're not allowed. So the Jew is not allowed to marry a Jewish woman because he himself, being a slave, is not able to fulfill the entire Torah. He's able to fulfill the Torah like a woman, which is partial mitzvot and limitations. So, with that being said, he is allowed to marry a non-Jewish woman, but that's because that non-Jewish woman is owned by the same owner. ...and when he leaves, she stays with the owner, and the kids stay with the owner. If, after seven years, he finishes his sentence and he doesn't want to leave because he likes the woman, then there's a process or procedure that is done where they make a hole in his ear. They make a hole in his ear so that he can now stay a slave permanently, but they punish him, in essence, for making such a decision. ...for making such a step. Because he heard the words of Hashem at Mount Sinai, and he still didn't listen, they remind him by making this big hole in his ear. Next question. Yes, they can become partial Jews while they're slaves. But if they're eventually freed...

1:45:42it's a different story but, uh, no. If they're born while they're there, no, they're slaves for life. This is not really applicable today; there's no real slavery anymore. But, uh, at least in the Jewish world, there's slavery in the non-Jewish world. But, uh, no. Whatever, whatever, uh, children he has under the slavery are property of the owner, property of the owner. I know this is a foreign concept to people, that a human being would be property of another human being, but in the Torah world, that does exist. It does exist. Ah, the magic phone. Part 17. I don't even know where I'm going. Korach's Rebellion, number three. Okay. Reference to Korach's Rebellion. Rambam Bamidbar 16:6 states that Moshe felt the spirit of prophecy return to him, but this was only after Datan and Aviram left, when Moshe was trying to dissuade Korach and his supporters. Why wasn't Moshe able to receive prophecy in the presence of Datan and Aviram at that moment? So the Gemara says, in Masechet Shabbat and a few other places, that anytime somebody becomes angry,

1:47:03they lose their wisdom, and even if they have prophecy, they lose their prophecy. So Datan and Aviram were specific, unique resha'im, that we learn about them before we even know their names. Now, all of you have heard the famous story of Moshe Rabbeinu when he first decided to become Moshe Rabbeinu, where he saw that there was an Egyptian beating up on a Jew. and he killed the Egyptian. The next day, he saw two Jews fighting, and he yelled at them. He called one of them a Rasha because he had his hand in the air. The Gemara tells us that from there we learn that to become a Rasha, all you have to do is have your hand in the air threatening somebody, even if you don't hit them. Even if you have your hand like this, even if you're joking, Rasha— not allowed. I know that brothers do that to each other sometimes, but it's not good. So the point is that He went to those two people, to those two Bnei Yisrael, and he told them, "Why are you fighting? Why are you fighting?" And they said, "Oh, what do you think, you're our boss?" They went and told Paro about him, and Paro tried killing Moshe Rabbeinu after that. That's the basic pshat of the story. If you look at the Midrash over there, you find out something very unique. Who are these people? The first story starts with a woman named Shulamit.

1:48:28Shulamit was a very, very nice lady that was too friendly. Every person that she would see, she'd say, "Hello, hello, hi, hi." You know, like sometimes women tell me, "Yeah, I have a lot of guy friends." Like that kind of person. That person, she likes to have a lot of guy friends. It's a big problem. That's like Shulamit. She has guy friends. Now I don't have guy friends. You barely should have girlfriends, needless to say, guy friends. have to have one man in your life—that's your husband—and if you have children, that's your children. That's it. No guy friends. There's no platonic relationships in Judaism. But people like to have it because they think they're being nice. Well, they need to learn from this story where Shulamit was very nice. Even though she was a slave, she was very nice. She said, "Hi, hi, hi" to everybody. And one day, the Egyptian saw her. He said, "Hi, hi, Egyptian. Hi, Mustafa." And Mustafa says, "She likes me. She said, 'Hi.'" Which, by the way, is very normal for guys. Very normal for guys. You say "hi" to him, he thinks you like him. "Yeah, but she's married with six kids." "Yeah, but she doesn't want to be with this guy. She wants me." "How do you know?" "She said 'hi.'" "Yeah, she was selling you ice cream, you fool." "No, no, no. I saw it. She looked at me. The eyes, the eyes. I see it. I see it in the eyes. Everybody has a prophet. Like the Egyptian prophet."

1:49:51So the Egyptian thought she liked him. So what did he do? He came later on that night, somewhere around 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, and he started yelling at her husband, "You go to work." He said, "Mustafa, I have at least another hour before I go to work." "No, go now. You have a special shift." So he got him out of the house, and he went back inside. In those days, there were no lights, no electricity. He went back into the house, and he went into the bed with Shulamit. Shulamit didn't know it wasn't her husband. didn't know, so she was with him. In essence, she got raped without even realizing it. When they finished the act, the husband came back, and he saw the Egyptian. He knew what happened. That's why the Egyptian saw him and was embarrassed that he caught him doing what he did with his wife. So he tried killing him, started hitting him, started insulting him, started doing all types of things. Moshe Rabbeinu, in his Ruach HaKodesh, saw, when he saw this happening between this Jew and this Egyptian, he saw everything. Not just what was happening, but the whole behind-the-scenes story. And not only did this Egyptian Rasha rape this guy’s wife, but on top of it, he’s torturing the Jew over it.

1:51:09So that's the reason why he said Hashem HaMeforash, he said Hashem's real name, and he killed the Egyptian on the spot. Now what happened is, that the next day, the guy comes to his wife and he tells her, "Listen, the Egyptian touched you, you can't be my wife. Yallah, go, go back to your father's house." So she went, Shlomit went back to her father's house. And her brother said, "What are you doing here? My husband threw me out because the Egyptian touched me." She told the whole story. So the brother comes to the husband and he says, "What are you doing? Why are you kicking my sister out? She got violated; it's not her fault." He goes, "Yeah, but this, but that." So they started fighting. "Why are you guys fighting? Why are you guys fighting?" And they started yelling at him. Who were those two people? Datan and Aviram. One of them was the husband of Shulamit, and the other was her brother. So, both of them are, in essence, in the story. Moshe Rabbeinu saved one of their lives, while the other saved his sister's life. But both of them were ungrateful, so much so that they didn't leave with Am Yisrael when Am Yisrael left Egypt. They stayed behind.

1:52:29They wanted to keep their jobs with Paro, and they encouraged Paro to go after Am Yisrael. And after Paro went after Am Yisrael and then drowned in the ocean with the people and so on, Datan and Aviram realized they had nothing to work for, they had nothing. So what did they do? They went back into the ocean. They went back after Am Yisrael, and Hashem split the ocean for them alone, the Midrash says. Midrash Me'am Loez. Where did their merit come from that Hashem would split the ocean for them? They protected Am Yisrael from the Egyptians. They were the police, and every time the Egyptians wanted to beat them, they would take the beatings for them. So they had some merit. But they were resha'im, ungrateful resha'im. So then when they went, again they went against Moshe Rabbeinu on multiple counts. One of them, the last one being when they joined Korach, Moshe Rabbeinu already got fed up. As soon as he would see them, he tried rebuking them. He tried telling them, no, no, come on, stop it already. They didn't even want to talk to him. And they said to him, even if you take out our eyes, we're not going to listen to you.

1:53:35Meaning, go kill yourself, Moshe. So, automatically Moshe Rabbeinu said, "Okay, that's it, finished." So, when he saw them, he got angry and he lost his prophecy. He lost his prophecy, but only for that time. As soon as they left, he got his prophecy back. So, that little question just gave you a 25-minute Midrash. Next question. We're almost done. Yes. Yes. Is someone punished for saying "Amen" to someone's blessing in vain? Is someone punished for saying "Amen" to somebody's blessing in vain, meaning he made a blessing for no reason and you said "Amen"? No. I mean, it's a... I mean, unless you knew that his blessing is in vain, but if you just simply said "Amen"... No. There is an interesting Midrash in a... In Reishit Chochmah, it's mentioned by Rav Kanievsky in Orchot Yosher where he says that the third level of Gehenom is called Dumah, where a person is punished for not answering Amen.

1:54:54and for davening with constant interruptions because there's too much talking in the shul, so when it comes to going back to shul at some point when things settle down and so on, you should be very careful to make sure not to talk in shul—not just during the prayer, but at all. All the reason why is because the shul is a place of kedusha. It's a Beit HaMikdash katan. So when you talk or say anything mundane in a shul, even when there's no prayer, you're going to become like someone who is ungrateful to the Ribbono Shel Olam and to the tzaddikim. You're going to think that this is like your house, and you're going to become more comfortable to talk even during prayer. And Rav Kanievsky mentions the Reishit Chochmah and the Zohar Chadash, where he says that there's a special Midah in Gehenom for those people. It's called Duma. Why? Because people that are talking during shul, they have that place. But also people that don't answer Amen when there is a blessing. But they're too busy talking, they also go to that place in Gehenom. So it doesn't mention not going to Gehenom for not saying Amen, but for not saying Amen...

1:56:13because you're too busy talking is not a good thing. Now, as far as saying Amen, you should always make sure that you heard the blessing, and not just say Amen blindly, like you just heard the last word this guy said, and don't just say Amen. If you heard the whole blessing, then you can say Amen. There's a concept taught in the Zohar, and I believe also in other places, called Amen Yetoma, an orphaned Amen. Orphaned Amen requires all to be sure about it, but it's a relatively scary subject because it shows us how we could really get punished severely just for something as simple as Amen. something as simple as "amen," not saying it the right way or pronouncing it like "amen, amen, amen." Sometimes people forget how to say "amen." It's too hard for them to say "amen." It has two syllables, so that's too much for them. They start sounding like sheep. That's an orphaned "amen." That's called an orphaned "amen." And they get punished for it.

1:57:20punished for it. So it's, uh, important to say "amen" appropriately and, uh, because in essence, what are you saying with "amen"? What does "amen" really mean? "I'm true," what's true? "Amen" is an acronym for El Melech Ne'eman—El, the God; Melech, the King; Ne'eman, trustworthy. Trustworthy, meaning God the King, whatever He says He's gonna do. If He says He's gonna give you a blessing, He's gonna give you a blessing. If He says He's gonna give you a punishment, there will be a punishment. If He wrote it in the Torah, you can bet the bank times a million. For sure it's going to happen. And that's why the Gemara also says, anyone that calls Hashem "Vatran," meaning Hashem is just going to let this one go, is mistaken. Yeah, but He said you're not allowed to be with a Goyah. Yeah, but you know, Hashem has such a big world. What does He really care? Just one time, Rabbi. One time. Not the whole time. Not marrying her! One time! Hashem said no. Hashem said He's going to punish you. Nah, nah. Me and Hashem are like this. Hashem, don't worry. I got this.

1:58:30I got this. She's Jewish. She's Jewish in her heart. El Melech Ne'eman. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says He's going to punish you, and He will. Maybe not right away. It could be 40 years later. It could be 40 years later, but for sure you're going to get punished for it. 100%. Same thing with reward. You could do something good, nothing happens. You gave somebody tzedakah, you helped somebody, you paid their rent. Actually, I got a story for you guys. Shetibach Shemo. Years ago, maybe... Five years ago, something like that, five, six years ago, this guy tells me this story—unbelievable. He says he had a seriously difficult time, and he got evicted from his house. He was evicted from his house, and his wife and kids—so on, a nightmare. So now he has to find a place. Now, you're not getting evicted from your house because you have a lot of money; usually, it's the opposite.

1:59:32So he went to this one guy. He said, "Listen, I don't know what to do. What happened? We don't have a place to stay. What do you need? I need a house. I need a house. I need a place to stay." He's like, "Okay, I got you." "What do you mean I got you? It's a lot of money. It's this, it's that." "Okay, whatever you want. I got it." No, it's going to cost, I don't know, 20,000 or 30,000 shekels or something like that with the deposit and everything, and the guy took some of the furniture, all types of balagan. Bottom line is it was something like 30,000 or 35,000 shekels, a lot of money. A guy that makes 1,500 or 2,000 shekels a month, 30,000 shekels pretty much means he has to work three years for it. Not happening. But he's got his wife and kids practically in the street here. So this guy, I don't know, touched his heart, and he says, "Listen, I got the money, I'm going to send it to you." Yeah, but you're not rich. "Whatever you need, I happen to have it in the bank. I'm going to send it to you." Doesn't even know him, like barely knows each other. Something touched his heart, he decides, Rav Reich told me this. So, he helps him, pays for his whole move, gets some furniture, everything he needs. Five years passed, a few months ago.

2:00:46Something happened to the rich guy, whatever, the guy that had the 30,000, 40,000 shekels, and apparently he lost all of his money. He had no money. And what happened? He ended up in the same situation. Same situation, he's getting evicted. The landlord is like one of these Amalekites, doesn't want to wait a day, suing this, that, all types of wonderful things. You know, there's a special merit to deal with those people. And this guy, poor guy, him, wife, kids, no place to go. Now, he doesn't have the money. So even if he wants to go to another place, he doesn't have the money. So he doesn't know what to do. Out of nowhere, he gets a phone call. Somebody knows, hey, how you doing? Another thing, how you doing? I'm stressed out a little bit. No, what's going on? Why are you stressed out? It doesn't matter. What do you need? No, I just want to check how you're doing. Uh, I don't know. I'm stressed. I need to go get a place because we're getting kicked out. What do you need? I need a lot of money to get a new place. How much money do you need? I don't know. I need to rent, month's rent, two months' rent, security, this, that. Okay, what's your bank account? What? What's your bank account? What do you mean? You know, what do you need my bank account for? I'm gonna send it to you right now. He sends him...

2:02:16$26,000 without asking, without verifying, without anything, within five minutes of that conversation. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu said, you did it for somebody else. Now, when you did it initially, I didn't get paid for it. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, no such thing. no such thing. The tables will be turned, and when you need something, you yourself just planted a seed for your own salvation. You did it. Don't worry; when you need it, you won't have to ask. And that's how it is. That's how it is in life all the time. I witness the stories, it's unbelievable. But you see stories like this all the time in my life. All the time. It's just that there are too many stories. You could have a whole show just about stories. But it's unbelievable how a person, when they do good, they're literally doing themselves a favor. That's why it's never a good idea to tell other people about all the good you do. Like sometimes, you know, people for some reason feel the need

2:03:28tell other people about the good they do. Oh, you know how much good I do? I pray at five o'clock in the morning, I read this, I did that, I went there, I donated here. Why are you telling people all the good stuff that you're doing? For what? Who are you trying to convince? Who cares? Even if you told them, what can they do for you anyway now that they know you're such a good person? Oh, maybe you're trying to remind Hashem. Do you think Hashem needs a reminder? By you reminding other people of all the good that you do, it's not doing anybody any good. In fact, it's doing bad. you're getting credit for it, you're getting covered for it, and in essence, you're getting some of the benefit for it. It's better to stay quiet. Why? Unless you're publicizing in order to encourage other people to do good, because then it becomes another mitzvah. But it's better to stay quiet. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows exactly what you did, and don't worry. El Melech Ne'eman, God... The King is reliable. Reliable to pay you exactly what you need and what you deserve. When? When you need it. Not when you want it. When you need it. So a person understands how amazing HaKadosh Baruch Hu is. He never has to feel bad about the good he did and didn't get paid for it.

2:04:49Because you're going to need it at another time. No, no, but I need it now, Rabbi. If you're not getting it now, that means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu already knows you're going to need it much more later on. You're going to need it much more later on. But the beautiful thing is that every single time somebody does good, you see it. If you follow them long enough, you're going to see how Hashem pays them in such a beautiful way, in such an unexpected way. It's unbelievable. I've merited to see this a few times in my life. And every time it's like you connect the dots. This is happening. It's just too similar to that. And you can easily connect the dots. This is because of this. It could be that you're going to get much more. But at the very least, you see how Hashem runs the world. And it's unbelievable. Unbelievable. One thing I can tell you is that when it comes to tzedakah, It's important to know, the Torah says that when you give somebody tzedakah, somebody that lost all of his money, it says you have to feed him and give him based on what he's used to, not based on what he needs. Meaning, if he's a rich man, if he's a rich man and he lost everything, you giving him a little sandwich with cheese in it is not tzedakah.

2:06:07It's not tzedakah. Why? That's not what he's used to. He's used to a steak. He's used to some big potatoes the size of his head. He's used to all types of dressings. That's what he's used to. He used to be a millionaire. So if you're giving this former millionaire a little piece of steak, a little piece of cheese, you think you're doing tzedakah? It's not tzedakah. It's not tzedakah at all. Why? You're actually causing him suffering. That's what it says. You're causing him suffering. Why? Because now he didn't have anything. He was suffering. Now you give him this little piece of cheese, this $5, he's suffering even more. He's like, "Look what I got to. I used to be a king. I used to be this. I used to eat $150 breakfast. Now this guy thinks he's doing me a favor with $5." So you're causing him even more suffering. So if you're going to give somebody, you have to make sure you know this. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows it. And you see how HaKadosh Baruch Hu is unbelievable. Someone lost money, all types of horrible things happened, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu, when He gives, He gives like He says to us to give. Nothing's missing. You used to a lot, when I give you, you're going to get a lot. You used to eat breakfast, $100 breakfast, you're going to eat $100 breakfast.

2:07:26used to having the comfort, the comfortable house, you don't have a comfortable house. Yeah, but I don't have anything. You don't have anything. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "I have everything. What I want to give you, I'm going to give you like I tell other people to give." And it's unbelievable. Unbelievable. So, when a person gives, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is gracious with him. When a person is cheap, a person is doing himself a disservice, mamash, because they're burying themselves in a place that they don't even want to, they don't know how to get out of. But when it comes to, somebody actually asked me a question today, or a few days ago, about the issue of Maaser, and we'll finish with this point. Where the mitzvah of Maaser is 10%, but the Gaon MiVilna says that 20%. 20% is what you're supposed to give if you want to become rich in this life. So, where's the source? In the Shulchan Aruch, in Yoreh De'ah, in Hilchot Tzedakah, in Siman 249, Seif Aleph. 249, one. Rabbi Yosef Karo says,

2:08:43Yes, a person must give based on what he sees is needed. But if he sees that the need is even higher than what he can give, he should give at least 20% of his income, chomesh. Now, further, The Gra wrote a famous letter to his wife. When he made a trip to Israel, he didn't know if he was going to be able to come back. In those days, it wasn't like planes and automobiles. If you made a trip that's a long trip, very likely you didn't make it back. or at least make it back. So the Gra mi'Vilna wrote a famous letter to his wife. And he gave her instructions, in essence, on what to do with the household, what to do with the kids, and so on and so forth. And he told her specifically that she should give 20% of whatever income.

2:09:59whatever income she has from all the things that they had over there, because if she gives less than that, she is committing several of the lav sins, which are the worst sins in the Torah, by giving less than 20%. And then in the sefer called Keser Rosh, in Ot 123, Rabbi Chaim Volozhin writes in the name of the Gaon of Vilna that whoever gives ma'aser is not going to lose his money, but whoever gives chomesh will become rich. This is in Keteros in Ot 123. So here we see that when it comes to giving tzedakah, there are two separate mitzvot: there's tzedakah and there's ma'aser.

2:11:01Ma'aser is based on your income. Tzedakah is based on your assets, what you already have. Ma'aser, you give 10% of your gross income. You make $1,000 a week, you give $100. You make $500 a week, you give $50. And so on and so forth. Now, a lot of people say, "Yeah, but if I have a lot of expenses, if I give 10% of it, I'm not going to be able to survive. I'm not going to be able to pay my expenses." That's where the Emunah test comes from. You know, some people say, "Yeah, but why don't you just give 10% of the..." the net, once you get 10 percent net, if you give 10 percent of the net, for most people it's going to end up being like two dollars because you end up spending so much of your money. You make $500 a week, by the time you pay your basic bills for that week, maybe you have ten dollars left. So your amount is going to be ten percent of ten dollars, a dollar. You think that's real? So obviously, it has to be of the gross, and that means it's an Emunah test. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Levu alai v'Ani porea." The Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit, I believe. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, borrow money to fulfill My mitzvot like Shabbat, Chagim, you have to spend extra money for those mitzvot. Tzedakah, He says, you borrow money to do My mitzvot, I'll pay it all. You borrow on My name, He says. Levu alai v'Ani porea.

2:12:28So when a person gives, passes the test of giving the Maaser or the Chomesh, which is 20%, based on their gross, HaKadosh Baruch Hu promises them that it's going to work out. It may not work out in the first check, second check, third check, or even tenth check. But ultimately, for sure it's going to work out. I've seen it with my own eyes. Now, that's 10%. Anyone who gives 10%, the Gra (Gaon of Vilna) says, the Torah promises us that that person will be protected, meaning even if there's a Great Depression in the world, financial collapse, they'll be protected. They're not going to go into the same situation as everybody else. But if a person wants to be wealthy, wealthy during his life, he has to give 20%. And 20% is much harder. Not just because the number is higher—10 times 2 is 20. Not because of that. Because in reality, it's a large chunk of money, especially as you start getting the blessing. In the beginning, when you're making $500 a week, and you end up giving $100 of ma'aser, you know, that's 20%. Okay, $100, I mean, if you're a relatively generous person, 100 bucks, 100 bucks, everybody can really, you know, reason with giving $100.

2:13:43But what about, HaKadosh Baruch Hu starts blessing you, and you start making $30,000 a month? That means that your Chomesh now is a $6,000 check. $6,000, that's a lot of money. $6,000, you can pay rent, car, this, that. You can pretty much pay for your life with $6,000. So now you're thinking, wait a minute, I'm going to give the $6,000 to Kiruv? Am I crazy? No, no, no. Ma'aser is already enough. $3,000 is enough for them. Because I'm technically giving more. I used to give 20%. It was $100. But I'm sure Hashem is happy with me. I'm giving $3,000. Failed. So the reality is, when it comes to Chomesh, it's much harder because the numbers get much bigger. You start making $100,000 a month, a $20,000 check you have to write. It's a big check. You already start thinking about how many great things you could do with this check that you're about to give. And it starts getting much, much harder, even though you're getting a blessing. What the Torah says, "Don't forget God," what does it mean? Don't forget God after He gives you prosperity and reward. Don't forget Him. Don't be one of these ungrateful people that you fulfilled some of His mitzvot, Hashem gives you a little bit of good in your life, a little blessing in your life, and that blessing causes you to forget Hashem.

2:15:01So that's why tzedakah is a very, very big test. But if you pass it, Hashem guarantees that you'll become wealthy in this world materially, and not a day before you die. Obviously, you get to enjoy it to a certain extent. Now, this is a test for some people. Most people do not even give 10%. Don't even give 10%. They think that it's enough if they give a couple of times a year. They give tzedakah. They buy an aliyah during the chagim. They see a campaign on the internet. They donate some money here and there. It's good to give something; it's obviously better than zero. But it's not the same. It's not the same. There are two mitzvot. There's tzedakah and then there's the ma'aser. A person that wants to have financial protection, that wants to have a blessing in their parnassah, has to not only give tzedakah, which has no limitations, but also has to give the ma'aser. Now, because the ma'aser, even more than tzedakah, shows your real emunah in Hashem. As life goes on, because it's in essence, every time you get money, you give ma'aser.

2:16:13It's not like you don't do yourself a disservice by saying, "No, I'm going to give ma'aser at the end of the year when I realize what happened." No, no. Give ma'aser as soon as the money comes in. As the number gets bigger, the test gets bigger. But the point is that people who do it, benefit. But a lot of people don't do it because it's tough. It's tough because they rationalize things and so on. So it's highly, highly recommended for people to do it. But also, like I said yesterday in the shiur, make sure that if you're giving, you're giving to the right cause and not to some Hanukkah party, Purim party, or Save the Whale party. Give it to something that's going to sanctify Hashem's name, that's going to help Am Yisrael do teshuva, and that's going to publicize Torah and so on. If that happens to be B'ezrat Hashem's organization, good. If you have another one, tell me about it, I'll donate to them too. Let's say if it's good, it's good. Unfortunately, there aren't that many good causes out there, but if something is good, then why not support it? If you already have something that's good, that's where you should invest all your money. With that said, I would say hopefully this answered all of your questions that you have for the day. We'll see each other again on Sunday.

2:17:25Back here, B'ezrat Hashem. And hopefully by then I'll also have the address of the next location. Baruch Adonai l'olam. Amen ve'amen.