TeShuva Miracles & Obstacles, SHABBAT, Life After Death, CREMATION, Graphic Art-STUMP THE RABBI (51)

0:17We are back in Sunny Isles on our Wednesday night. Hopefully, b'ezrat Hashem, we will have some interesting questions and b'ezrat Hashem have even better answers. Today's shiur will be for a Refuah Shlema for Levana Bat Sara, Rav Ephraim Ben Shulamit, Rabanit Sara Bat Anat, Sara Bat Levana, Orit Bat Ilana, David Ben Esriah, Doris Bat Jorah, Esther Bat Zipporah, and b'ezrat Hashem have even better answers. Today's shiur will be for a Refuah Shlema for Levana Bat Sara, Rav Ephraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, Sara Bat Levana, Orit Bat Ilana, David Ben Esriah, Doris Bat Jorah, Esther Bat Zipporah, Dvora Bat Mercedes, Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sara, and also Hatzlacha Rabah for Shaul Ben Farzaneh, Oshri Ben Doris, Gabi Ben Doris, and Elad Ben Doris. HaKadosh Baruch Hu Yivarech Otam, B'kol Mikol Kol.

1:22and a very, very special prayer for all of the supporters of Irgun Be'ezrat Hashem, whether you are a supporter by your donations or you're a supporter by your skills of making the posters and the movies and the translations and the sharing of the lectures, or you're giving out CDs, or you're trying to get us donors, whatever you're doing for Irgun Be'ezrat Hashem, I just want to let you know, it's a very special thank you, not just from me, but from all of Am Yisrael, because it's working. It's working. So, as you guys hopefully start thinking up some questions, I'll give you guys a few updates and maybe a little bit of Divrei Torah. the change that can happen in a person's life can be so sudden that his past

2:37you know, in one second it seems like he thinks that it's never gonna be over, but moments later the situation can change so much that it becomes like a distant memory, even though it's only a few months ago or a few years ago. And I remember that maybe about four years ago... This guy in the kehillah that I was in the shul, he came up to me and said, you know, we're just first starting out, I think on YouTube or something, four or five years ago, whenever it was, or six years ago. And I was like, oh, I want to say chazak u'baruch. I saw you had a shiur on the internet. Wow, amazing. Good job. Chazak u'baruch. Where do you have it? In my house. Wow, amazing. I saw you have 180 subscribers. You're almost one of the Gedolim.

3:48He was making fun of me a little bit. You know, I smiled, I said thank you. I didn't know, I thought it was a compliment, but then I realized it was a slap in the face. Thank you very much. It's good for my neshama. Every time, you know, people like to fight the emet, but not with facts. What do they like to fight the emet with? With insults. So every day, Baruch Hashem, there's a few that make a very nice comment on Facebook or on YouTube or an email or something. I have one guy that already, for the last couple of years, sends me between 10 to 45 emails a day. full of curses and promises of how he's going to kill me. And he changes his name. Sometimes it's Yeshu, sometimes it's Allah. He changes his name. And he has, and we've tried blocking him. He has, I don't know, probably a thousand email addresses.

4:49But that's what he does with his day. So every day, you know, Baruch Hashem, he says, oh, how are you? Good morning, good morning. Don't read this email, just delete. But every day there are these comments and people cursing and this and that. But for every insult you have, Baruch Hashem, there are hundreds and hundreds of thank yous. You changed my life, saved my marriage, saved this, saved that, all types of credit that people want to give us. Baruch Hashem. But, you know, for me it doesn't bother me. And it never did even in the past. Baruch Hashem, I was on Wall Street, remember. You can't survive Wall Street if you have thin skin. But for some of the people, Baruch Hashem, that help us, or some of the people that watch us, you know, I have kavod for the Torah. They get so upset when they see somebody insulting. Oh, what are you going to do? Don't worry, it's fine, it's fine. What do you mean? This guy, he's a rasha, he's this, he's that. scared the poor guy. The poor guy is doing such a stupid thing. Don't you have to feel bad for him? He just dug himself another few years. Again, on top of that, you want to punish him? Sorry, he's punishing himself. For what? Right, guys? Poor guy, meskin. The poor, poor little person thinks that this is going to be conducive to his life. It's getting poor person. So, you see, you have all types of messages...

6:12But Hashem, Hashem also gives a lot of wonderful messages. And in the last six months or a year or something like that, the number of people that have been watching our shiurim, subscribing, donating, you know, sharing and all of that stuff. I mean, it's grown in such a, Baruch Hashem, such an amazing way. that, like I told you guys the other day, we're right now at almost 5 million minutes per month of people watching our shiurim. You're talking about 60 million minutes a year. It's a million hours. Now, to give you somewhat of a gauge of what that actually means, there's a very big Torah website that has somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 to 900 speakers. ...a lot of speakers. Okay, it's a big website, a popular website. It's a nice website; everything is good. They publicize every year when they raise, you know, they raise lots and lots of money for everything that they do. And they publicize that part of the reason why you should donate and support them is because they get seven and a half million hours a year of people watching their shiurim. Seven and a half million hours...

7:35Now, that's fantastic that there's seven and a half million hours of shiurim to be watched, but it's even more fantastic that Rabbi Ephraim and I have a million. And we're only two people. So, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is simply fulfilling the verse that at the end of times there's going to be a hunger, but not a hunger for food and not a thirst for mayim, not a thirst for water, but rather a thirst for Divrei Torah and Divrei Emet. And no matter how many people try to go against it, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is publicizing it rapidly. And I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes 600 million within the immediate future because a lot of people, Baruch Hashem, are waking up, and we're doing every single thing possible to reach them. Now, if that's not enough good news, all of these tzaddikim that have taken it upon themselves to publicize our shiurim, but on the field, not just on the internet, but go out there in their communities and give out CDs or give out these cards, you have good news too. Just two hours ago,

8:49Two hours ago, I'll read the text to you. I mean, this is just, this is literally, this stuff is happening. It was happening every day anyway, but now it's just happening all day. It's really unbelievable. Like, every day I want to dance, but then I get some bad news about somebody abducting some child or something, you know, so it's like, you know, Hashem gives you Tov, and then He gives you, yeah, I love you. So I get a text from a person I've never heard of in my life. He said, hello. I randomly received a flyer under my door from an unknown person inviting me to watch your film. Which flyer? This flyer that I tell you guys is ten cents. Ten cents. Ten cents. You got this flyer. Beautiful, cool-looking flyer. It has the QR code on the back. It has the website. You use your phone camera to go on there. It goes directly to the film. It's an hour-and-a-half film that has changed countless lives. We've already passed a million views. So now, it's not enough to just get that. We have to get flyers. We can't just stay on the internet and wait for people. We have Tzaddikim going out. They're giving these flyers out. You make a small investment. Hopefully, you're going to save somebody. So look what happened.

10:01So this woman says, "I randomly got this flyer inviting me to watch your film. I'm currently on the path to reconnecting with my roots and exploring and learning Judaism. So this flyer came at a perfect time." What a real example of Hashgacha Pratit. Your story is truly inspiring, and I enjoyed every minute of the film. A person was looking for HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu said, "Oh, you're looking for me? I made a promise 3,332 years ago on Mount Sinai that if you look for me, you will find me. But only if you look for me with all of your heart and all of your soul." Now, since HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows what's in our heart and He knows what's in our mind, He knew this young lady was looking for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He says, "You're looking for Me? I'm coming to your house. I'm coming to your house with the inspiring story that's going to get you." That's the truth. That's the truth. And we're getting this every day. People, Baruch Hashem, are making small investments. You just bought, just so you understand. Give you understanding. Now, if all of you are listening to all the shiurim, and you fulfill the mitzvot, and you keep Shabbat, we're going to talk about Shabbat a little bit today, and you're going to keep Shabbat k'halacha, you're going to keep all the halachot, and you learn halachot Shabbat, and you learn, you're never going to waste seed, and you watch your eyes, and you have good shalom bayit, and you do everything perfect, you get Olam Haba.

11:31B'ezrat Hashem, fantastic. Now guess what? This guy or this girl, whoever gave this flyer out, just got more than you. For one flyer, without doing all of what you just did. What did he do? He gave this flyer out, this woman is doing teshuva, he just got 310 worlds. 310. As Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai teaches us, the one that enables another person to do teshuvah, that one is bigger than the one that actually does the mitzvah himself. That's why I tell you guys, you have to invest every bit of time, money, energy, everything you possibly can to help other people do teshuvah. Of course, that also means you have to do teshuvah yourself, you have to fix yourself, because there's no way you're ever going to have the merit to have a 10-cent card give you 310 worlds. Whoever gave this card out had a lot of merits before he got the card. Why? Because there's a rule in the Torah.

12:40who brings the merit to someone that already has merit and an obligation on somebody that has an obligation. Meaning, if you already have merits, Hashem says, “I’m going to give you even more.” Why? Because you have the merit. It’s like, if you had a bank, who would you want to lend money to—the billionaire or some Joe Schmo that makes five dollars an hour? Of course, you want to lend the money to the billionaire. Why? Because you know he can pay it back. You don't want to lend money to the $5 guy, because even though it may be a nice thing, it's not good for business. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "I got a business to run. If you have merits, you yourself are doing serious teshuva, and you want to help others do teshuva, I'm going to make you successful." So a person works 70, 80 years to keep Torah and mitzvot, gets to the next world. This person, one second. Here you go, puts a flyer. One of my talmidim in Canada, he sent me a short little video, 30-second video, of him putting scotch tape on it, putting it on top of people's doors. One after another. What is he doing? Somebody looks at him, this guy has nothing to do with his life. This guy, what is he doing? What is he doing?

13:55Allaba, allaba, another 310, another 310. Why? Because all you have to do, you give out 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 in defense. How much is it going to take you? A few hours, a few days, whatever it takes you. One person, one person, one person bites. One person does it, you got it. Now, since it’s so easy... A smart person is not going to just depend on, "Oh, I'm going to give out a thousand, so hopefully one person does it." No, what does a smart person do? He continues investing. Some people say, "No, I just gave out a few hundred CDs, so I'm finished, right?" Yeah, I mean, you can, but if you were in business and it took you five minutes to make a billion dollars, would you stop working? No, you would continue working. In fact, you're going to work overtime. Why? Because you want it all. So that's what these people are doing. They're going out there, they're giving out these cards, and then there's a group of tzaddikim in California, in New York, and a few other places that are giving out the CDs, yishtabach shemo, where a person is simply making an investment in Olam HaBa. Because he figures out, he's like, listen, I'm investing all this time in this world, but what do I have for the next world? What do I have for the next world? This is what you have for the next world. So now, if that's not enough,

15:12That's not enough. Anyone that looks at the comments, one of my favorite things to do is to look at the comments of the shiur. You know, a shiur night, we have people that watch live, and you have the comments. So when I get home after everything settles down, I look at the comments, and everybody says, hello from Oregon, hello from Utah, hello from Dubai, hello from Japan, all types of places around the world, people watching the shiurim. Sometimes you have a missionary in there trying to drive people crazy, but overall it's a lot of good things. Of course, there has to be one Satan somewhere, at least once per shiur, but I believe it was a few days ago. A person shows up on there and he says, "Hi Rabbi, if you remember me, I used to work for you on Wall Street. I used to work for you on Wall Street and I... I remember all these things, and now I'm learning your shiurim, and I'm rediscovering my Judaism. Now I know, he thinks I remember everything about him. He didn't work for me for long. But I remember everything about him, especially that he had a very, very unique voice. A very deep voice. And...

16:21This person just comes up out of nowhere and he's now doing shiurim, he's watching a shiur. So I respond and say, "Oh, did you watch the movie?" "No, I didn't watch the movie." So I said, "Oh, watch the movie." I respond, "You can see this live, you can see this in the comments. Watch this movie." He comes back the next day. He said, "Wow, I'm so inspired by the movie. And I remember these people that you're talking about, these fake rabbis that would come to the office all the time and never helped any of us do anything. Now, Baruch Hashem, I'm doing something." Now this guy, Baruch Hashem, you have no idea what's going on here. This guy, What is he? He's a product of intermarriage. God bless him. He's a product of intermarriage. Jewish mother, non-Jewish father. But what is he doing now? He's doing teshuva. Why? Because somebody toiled to make a movie. And somebody toiled to edit it. And somebody toiled to market it. And somebody toiled to share it. I don't know which copy of this or that or how he got to the first. I have no idea. All I know is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Wait, you look for Me. Right here. I'm right here. You're looking for Me? I'm right here."

17:25All you got to do is look for Me with all of your heart and all of your soul. Now, imagine the amount of merits of the people involved in every aspect. It's not just one guy who gets a merit. Every single person that had anything to do with her teshuva, with his teshuva, with everybody else, every single person gets it. Another woman sends me a thing. She had, Baruch Hashem, God bless her. I've been trying to help them with a lot of different things. And it got to the issue of kids. And she has been telling me for some time that one of the problems they're having in the household is that their kid, one of their boys, who I believe is nine years old, is a very difficult kid. Very difficult kid. Causes a lot of trouble, this, that, the other thing, all types of things. You know, kids sometimes are difficult. So he says, what should we do? We did all the other things. Baruch Hashem, all the other advice you gave us is working. What do we do with the kid? So, 100% has nothing to do with me. I send her a message. I tell her, do these following things. She sends me a message this morning. She said, we've been doing everything you said for the last three days. I just got a letter from the teacher. He says, it's a different kid. Your kid's the best kid. He's amazing. Now this same teacher, this same rabbi, the yeshiva...

18:47was telling the mother, "You have to put your kid on Ritalin. You have to send him to some special school. We can't have him in the school." A week ago, he was telling her, "You can't take this kid." Now, he's the best kid in class. How long? Three days. Now, this is like the disclosure part. Not all things yield the same result in three days. Sometimes it takes longer. But the point is, you see that... HaKadosh Baruch Hu is so kind to us that anyone who wants the emet and grabs it with both of their hands, Hashem says, "You want Me, you got Me. You want Me, you got Me." It's easy. It's easy business. Now, how come so many people are having trouble with their own teshuva and so on? One of the primary reasons is because of our own sins and Now, there are certain things that are sins that you have to work on throughout your whole life, which are character traits and things of that nature. If you're angry, stingy, or arrogant, these are character traits that take time to develop and improve. But there are certain things that are simply a choice. You're either going to choose to keep Shabbat or not choose to keep Shabbat. You're either going to eat kosher or not eat kosher. This is not a character trait. This is not anything else. You're either going to do it or not.

20:08You're either going to go to work or you're not going to go to work. You're either going to be one of these hoodlums, breaking stuff and destroying people's livelihood, or you're going to be at home trying to do something good with your life. It's a simple choice. It has nothing to do with character traits. So, when it comes to certain sins, as we've talked about many times, there are certain sins that take time to fix because it's a character trait issue. But there are certain things that Hashem says, no time. You have to fix it right away. What are those? Issur karet. The karet sins. The sins that are so awful and they're so horrible, you cannot even afford to do it once. Now, of course, you may not be able to fix it overnight, but never for a second think that it's okay that you're making these sins, whether it's wasting seed, or Chilul Shabbat, or you have a girlfriend that you're intimate with without marriage, or you're with a non-Jewish person and you're Jewish. All of these things that are Issur karet.

21:09These things, you cannot afford to do them. Why? Because every time a person makes a sin, it’s not just a sin one time and he's finished. Every time. So let's say he is with a woman that's not Jewish. Or he's with his wife, but she doesn't go to the mikveh. Or he's just not married, so he's with his so-called boyfriend-girlfriend. But they're acting like husband and wife. Every single time they touch each other, they are cutting their connection to Hashem. There's a spiritual cord, a spiritual pipe connected from their neshama all the way to Ribbono Shel Olam. One shot. One shot, they're cutting it off. Over and over again. But that may not be graphic enough for you guys to understand. So just think about it this way. Remember I just said 310, the guy, the tzaddik, tzaddeket, whoever gave this card, it just got 310 worlds. with no end to the amount of good that he's going to get because you're a tzaddik, you're going to work 70 years to get one world. 310 times that. If you're a tzaddik your whole life, you can just imagine what kind of heaven you're going to get. To have 310 of that, what are you going to get? Now imagine, that's fantastic, right? It's the exact opposite. It's that bad. It's that bad. It's a nightmare.

22:32You can't afford to make those sins. Now, when a person makes those sins, Hashem has to give him also a physical reaction. What is that physical reaction? He becomes satum. He becomes closed to the emet. Very difficult for him or for her to accept the emet or even listen to it. That's why sometimes you'll see, if you pay attention, that the people that make the comments that are against the emet, they don't even listen to it. It's not like they reviewed the entire video against the child molesting supporter, Manis Friedman, and then commented. What do they do? They comment based on the title. if you pay attention, the people who make comments against the emet, they don't even listen to it. It's not like they reviewed the entire video against the child-molesting supporter, Manis Friedman, and then commented. What do they do? They comment based on the title. You have a 40-minute video on top of four other videos for another hour and a half. They don't even watch half of it. They don't even watch 10% of it. They decide, oh, I hate you. You're the worst. You're the bad. Vomit comes out of them. Why? Because they're so allergic to the emet from all of their sins, from listening to this lashon hara, that they can't even tolerate it.

23:43Even if you get the emet to them, they just reject it. It doesn't make any sense to them in their head, and it's unfortunately very common. How do you fix it? Just like you have to fix it when you give someone antibiotics, and it's not enough. What do you do? You have to increase the dosage. If 250 milligrams of amoxicillin is not enough, you go to 500 milligrams. If 500 milligrams is not enough, you go to 1,000. If 1,000 is not enough, you go to 1,500 or even 2,000, depending on how sick you are. Now, surely 2,000 milligrams of amoxicillin is nothing like 250. It's a world of difference. What does that mean in practical terms for us? That a person who wants to save their neshama from continuing to be satum, closed to the emet, has to listen to it even more. to do it even more, digging deep down to remove all of this klipah. As the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zatzal, said, people make sins and become numb to them. They don’t realize there's anything wrong anymore. So a person has to produce a lot of kedusha to remove this klipah that he put on himself. And that's one reason that a person

25:07can really cause themselves a lot of damage, a lot of damage by simply not accepting the emet. Now, the other aspect of it is that sometimes people are simply spiritually lazy. They want everything handed to them on a silver platter. They don't want to toil for it. They want to ask you a question, and they want you to give them the answer like you're Google. They don't want to read the book. They don't want to go through pages. So I got a kid, tells me, "Listen, can you tell me where this is? What's the answer to such and such question?" I told him, "I made a whole shiur about it two days ago." "No, no, I watched it and it's not there." I know what shiur I made, Baruch Hashem. I said, "No, it's there, it's in the first 20 minutes. You obviously didn't watch it." And if you watched it and still didn't get the point, then watch it again. So what did he say? "No, I really didn't watch it. I just wanted a quick answer." He admits, "I'm just lazy." Everybody in Gehinnom is lazy. Everybody. Everybody in Gehinnom is lazy.

26:24Everybody. There's not a single ambitious person in Gehinnom. Everybody's lazy. Spiritually lazy. They don't want to look for the truth. Sometimes people are spiritually lazy. They ruin themselves. Why? The Torah says at the end of Masechet Berachot, a person has to toil over it to the extent where he's willing to put his life on the line for it. day and night. Fight for it. Make time for it. Sweat over it. You're tired? Stand up. Read it while you're standing. Whatever you can, get more, more, more. Why? Because it's the only thing. It's the only thing that's going to help you. It's the only thing that's going to help you. Why? Because the Yetzer Hara is working hard. As it says in the Gemara Masechet Kiddushin Where Kaddosh Baruch Hu says, "I created a Yetzer Hara, he's a monster, he's huge, he's smart, he's clever. There's only one way to beat him: Torah. It's the only thing." So then, if somebody, let's say, he's not really spiritually lazy anymore, he's toiling, she's toiling, she's learning a little bit.

27:36and he's doing the mitzvot, they're doing the mitzvot, and they're not making the big sins, but they're still having a tough time progressing. What's the other reason? Their environment—the environment that they're in. where they are surrounded by a bunch of people that are simply resha'im, or ignorant people that are resha'im, but not necessarily on purpose. They're not resha'im to the extent where they're evil, but they just don't know anything about Torah, so naturally, what do they do? They just make fun of it, or they care less about it. So when they see that all of a sudden you show up with a kippah, instead of saying, "Ah, chazak u'baruch, you're doing teshuva," what do they do? "Oh, who died? What, did you come back from a funeral? What, did you come back from a bar mitzvah? Whose bar mitzvah did you go to?" "No, no, no, I didn't come from a bar mitzvah. I just started wearing a kippah." "Why? Why?" "Oh, no, no, I was just kidding." And he puts it back in his pocket. He's embarrassed now. He's embarrassed to wear a kippah. Why? Because his boys told him...

28:46What do you mean? We know you for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. You never wear a kippah. What, are you going to change on us? You're going to leave us behind? You're going to do this Torah like as if he's doing it to them. He's not improving. Or a woman, she sees you, she realizes there's a mitzvah in the Torah of covering her hair. That's not a suggestion, but an obligation that we learned from this week's parashat Nasso. HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells us that women have to cover their hair. The Rambam writes that even a single woman has to cover her hair starting at the age of six. But the Shulchan Aruch, Paskin L'halacha, which is what we go by on this specific issue, states that only if she's married. Only a married woman has to cover her hair with a mitpachat. So now, a woman that's either not been covering her hair her whole life... or she was covering her hair with a wig, and she saw some of our lectures and videos about how many problems are in wigs. And she realized, I have to cover my hair. So she gets a few mitpachot, she puts it on her head, she's starting to get used to it, it's a little difficult, it's a new look for her. And her girlfriends call her out, you know, why don't you come have a cup of coffee with us? And she shows up with a nice new kisui rosh.

30:11She has the courage to go out there, and as she's walking down towards her friends, her friends are already sitting, and everybody's faces all of a sudden zoom in on her. As if the whole world, all of the walls, are closing in, and she's starting to feel this small. Why are they all looking at me like this? Why are they shaking their heads? Why are their heads like this, like a dog that's usually confused? What's going on? And then they're all smiling, but not a smile of happiness, but like a smirk of dissatisfaction or maybe this is a joke. And one of them blurts out, "What happened? What happened? What is that? What's going on? Are you okay? Are you okay? Is there something you have to tell us? Like you have cancer?" What happened? Where did you become Muslim? What happened? Were you in a cult? No, I'm just wearing a kisui rosh. We don't wear a kisui rosh. Well, she does, but the wig. Why don't you wear it like her? No, because my rabbi tells me it's better. Your rabbi? What, your rabbi is better than everybody else's rabbi?

31:39your rabbi knows better than everybody else's rabbi? Are you going to be different from us? Why are you doing this to us? And they start tearing this woman apart. And the poor woman, what does she do? She gets embarrassed. She says, "No, no, I was just kidding." She goes into the bathroom. Maybe she takes it off, or maybe she doesn't. Maybe she just goes home and cries. And at that moment, She just guaranteed every one of those people at that table is going to get Gehinnom. Guaranteed. They're all going to get punished severely unless she withstands the test. If she doesn't, they have a very serious problem. Instead of satisfying her friends, she just brought the Holocaust to them. But she doesn't know that, and neither do they. Do they? Guy tries to put a kippah on, put tzitzit on. Friends say something. Guy's asking, why don't you come out with us to the club? He knows he's not allowed to go to clubs. Why? He's a Jew. No clubs. No bars. No wasting time. But he feels bad because they keep calling him. Why don't you come? Why don't you come? What's going on with you? Last week was sick. He missed out. He was sick last week. This week it's going to be ill.

33:05Next week, dead. But that's only after the middle of the week, coma. And he feels bad because he keeps getting text messages and voicemails and this and that. All of a sudden, everybody's interested in being sick. And it's a tough time saying no. And he has a tough time saying no. What are you going to do? So, Torah HaKedoshah, Masechet Shabbat, page 88. It says, Am Yisrael, Am Yisrael Hayakar, Am Yisrael HaKadosh, Lama Nimshelu Yisrael Letapuach, Shene'emar Ketapuach Be'atzei HaYa'ar, Hakham HaKadosh Baruch Hu Yodaya.

34:06parable comparing Am Yisrael to an apple. Tapuach. It says, there's a verse, "as an apple among the trees of the forest." What does one have to do with the other? So, if you look at the commentary, if you just read this, if you have no idea what's going on, go to the next page. But that's not where we learn Torah. How do we learn Torah? We look at the commentary. Without commentary, we're blind people in darkness. So, you look at the commentary. Look at the Baalei HaTosafot. What do the Baalei HaTosafot say? What's Tapuach? What's Tapuach? Tapuach Etrog. It's not Tapuach like you think. Tapuach here is really Etrog. It's really an etrog. Why is tapuach etrog? To show some verses, to show that this is really referring to an etrog. So why is Am Yisrael used as a comparison to an etrog? It says because an etrog, unlike other fruits, the fruit comes before the leaves.

35:30As it grows, the fruit comes before the leaves. Chachamim say, Rabbeinu Tam comes over and says, oh, hold on a second. We know from nature that's not true. Go look at the tree. Plant it. Grow. Wait. Be patient. You see what happens first? The leaves. Then the fruit. What are you talking about? Oh, the etrog is a very special fruit. Why is this fruit different? It doesn't wither. In essence, what ends up happening is that this fruit continues to grow as long as it's on the tree, to the extent that it can continue to grow for several years. So what does that mean? The leaves of the tree fall during the season change, but the fruit stays. So by the time the next season comes, you know, the leaves fell off, but the fruit is still there and the fruit's getting bigger and bigger. So when the new leaves show up, the fruit's already big. So it's as if the fruit's already been there, already developed, and the leaves just showed up. He says, what does that have to do with Am Yisrael? Why is Am Yisrael like this? He said, look at this, look at this etrog. Look how beautiful and how special this etrog is.

36:51He doesn't care whether the leaves are there or they're not there. He continues to grow. And that's a Jew. That's Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael doesn't care about the surroundings. Your friends like it, they don't like it, approve of it, don't approve of it. I'm going to continue growing. That's Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael is not going to care about what the friends are going to say or not going to say. I know what's the emet, I'm going after it 100%. Why? You're not going to help me at the Beit Din of Shamayim when they're asking me, why didn't I cover my hair? I said, none of my friends got in the way. Okay, we're going to put your friends in Gehenom too. What's that going to help you? Your friends. No, no, no, they're going to fight for me. They're going to say some good stuff about me. You're not going to help me. You're not going to help me over there. Oh, my husband doesn't want me to work his suros. Okay, so he can go to Gehenom and you go to Gan Eden by not listening to him. Now, what about shalom bayit? There's no shalom bayit when it comes to making sins. There's no shalom bayit when it comes to making sins. If your husband says, don't cover your hair, you say, either I'm going to cover my hair and you're going to just simply agree with it or go find a different wife. Why? The reality is, I'm not going to Gehenom for you.

38:13Of course, you have to be patient. You have to be supportive. You have to try to encourage them to like it. You have to do whatever you can to get them to buy into it. Use your wisdom. But don't ever think for a second that just because your spouse disagrees with your teshuva, you're allowed to do what Dror and company say—that you could just pretty much make sins. Because Dror teaches people that if your wife wants to go to the beach on Shabbat, You're allowed to go for shalom bayit purposes. That's not what the halacha says. Halacha says, if your wife wants to go to the beach on Shabbat, you tell her, "I'm not going. You can go and do whatever you want. I'm definitely not going, though." Well, what about shalom bayit? There is no shalom bayit like this. There is no shalom bayit like this. want to go do what you want. You want to go show yourself naked to a bunch of men? Just expect that by the time Motzei Shabbat comes, I'm not allowed to plan on Shabbat, but prophecy tells me that you can have divorce papers also ready. Why? I don't want my wife going and showing her body to the world. Yeah, but last week you were okay with it. Yeah, last week I was stupid. Last week I didn't know I was going to get punished for it. Now that I know, I'm not going to do it.

39:31I'm not gonna be happy about it. Okay. I'd rather you be not happy for a little while than not happy for a long time. But again, try to encourage them in a nicer voice than mine. Try to have them watch lectures with you. Try to educate them. But most importantly, never ever for a second think that it's okay to sin for them. And what about your friends? Forget your friends. Forget your friends. There are no friends. As we learned from the sages, you want friends? Rashi says, go buy books. Become friends with the sages. Become friends with the Rambam. Become friends with Rashi. Become friends with the Poskim. Become friends with them. Those are good friends. Why? They're always going to tell you the truth. These friends, whatever fits. Who needs friends like this? These friends are going to help you in Gan Eden? No.

40:31If God asked him, "Listen, either you or he is going to Gehenom, which one do you want?" Do you think he's going to pick you to go to Gan Eden and him to go to Gehenom? Absolutely not. So why would you pick him? I'm not saying don't have friends. I'm saying choose your friends carefully. And if you can't find friends like this, don't have friends. Don't have friends. Why? Because you have to understand. Your job in this world is not to have friends. Your job in this world is to get to Gan Eden. Do everything possible to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Serve your Master. Serve your King. Serve your Father. Now, what about all these outside influences? We have to learn from this Gemara. This Gemara says you have to be like the etrog. Why? Because the etrog continues to grow no matter what happens on its outside, and eventually you see that the etrog's strategy wins. Why? The leaves that left come back anyway. They come back. So it's not like you're losing it. Oh, I lost all my friends. I'm alone. That's just temporary. Oh, my family. That's temporary. If they were real friends, if it was real family, if there was real love there, eventually it's going to come back.

41:47And in fact, if you continue to grow spiritually, not only will they come back, but they'll come back asking you for a blessing. Why? Because two, three, four, five years have passed, their life is the same rotten hole, excuse for a life, and you have prospered. You're married, you have a kid or two now, your shalom bayit is strong, you've moved on with your life, they're still in some rotten sewer, like they've been. For the last few years, nothing has changed in their life. They're still miserable. They're still depressed. The only thing that changed is maybe a few more prescriptions for their depression. Nothing changed. Nothing. You see it. I see it all the time. People I knew from the past, haven't talked to them in many years, see them? Nothing changed. Nothing. Zero. Whereas the people who are doing Teshuvah, you see rapid changes. Six months later, boom. Another year later, boom. Another two years later, wow, a different life. Guys married, kids, this, that. You see this, wow. Like you did more in two years than you did in 30. How? Now the other thing, the question is why, why is

43:09Why is Am Yisrael compared to this tapuach? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that just like the Etz HaDaat The Tree of Knowledge says there are several different choices of what it could have been. It could have been wheat, it could have been grapes, and one of the options is a tapuach, meaning an etrog. An etrog was an etrog tree. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu, what did He do? What did HaKadosh Baruch Hu do? He created us like Him. How does this connect? You see, the actual verse they used, the tapuach that they're referring to is Hashem. Hashem is like the fruit inside the forest. And Hashem, when He created man, what did He say? He says, Hashem created man in His image. Even more so, Am Yisrael.

44:22He said, just like I am compared, I myself, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I'm compared to the tapuach, I'm compared to the etrog inside the forest, the sweetness, the good smell, all the good stuff, that's what I'm compared to. I created you just like Me. Now, this is a wonderful thing, but at the same token, while it shows us our potential, we have to go to the next stage of this sugya. Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 89a, says that when Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Mount Sinai, the Malachim saw Moshe and they said to Hashem, "What is the son of a woman doing here? What is he doing here?" Hashem said to Moshe, "Answer them." Moshe got scared. Hashem, they're a huge fire; they're going to burn me. Hashem says, hold on to My chair; I'll protect you. Go now, debate them. So Moshe starts debating them, because now he's not scared they're going to burn him, because Hashem has got his back. So Moshe says to the angels, what do you want? I'm here to accept the Torah. The angels say, you're here to accept the Torah? You're fit to accept the Torah? Why would Hashem give you the Torah? We were created before you.

45:50So Moshe says to them, well, clearly Hashem created the Torah for us. Because it says, honor your mother and your father. You have a mother and a father? No. It says you have to keep kosher. You guys eat? You don't eat. It also says, don't be jealous. Because jealous people, they don't get resurrected with the dead. Do you guys have jealousy? So then the Gemara stops over there. Stops the story over there. And Chazal says, hold on a second. Do the angels have jealousy or not have jealousy? Why are the angels even going against Moshe Rabbeinu here? Well, would angels have jealousy? He says, wow, there's a complication here. Why? Because we have a different limud, a different limud, where it says that when HaKadosh Baruch Hu says in Genesis, in Bereshit, Naaseh adam b'tzalmenu kidmutenu. that we're going to create, we are going to create man in our image. So Chazal said, who's "we"? Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem, who's "we"? It makes it sound like you have more than one God. He said, no, what it was, is that I created the angels before you, and because they're my servants, I don't want to make them jealous that I'm making you, so I use their guidance, if you will.

47:15I said, so we're going to make, we're going to make. Even though it's only Hashem, to give them some chizuk, we're going to make. But why? So they're not jealous. So they think, well, hold on a second. Wait, so angels are jealous or they're not jealous? So here's the answer. Angels are not jealous of each other. The angel Micha'el is not jealous of the angel Gavriel. Gavriel is not jealous of Refael. No one is jealous of Malach Metatron. He's great, he's there, but no one's jealous of him. They don't have jealousy. But here we see clearly there's jealousy. Why? It says, ask them, because you didn't want jealousy. On top of that, we see that they have an issue here with Moshe Rabbeinu receiving the Torah. There's jealousy here. What's the problem? They're not jealous of each other. They're jealous of man. Why would they be jealous of man? All of us want to be angels. We always want to say, "Oh yeah, you look like an angel." So how come the angels are jealous of us? Because the angels see...

48:25that a Jew that is a Shomer Torah u'mitzvot, that observes the Torah to its fullest, can get to their level and higher while still remaining flesh and blood. When Moshe Rabbeinu arrived in Shamayim to accept the Torah, the angels were flabbergasted, like, how did you get here? You're flesh and blood. You're a son of a woman. How did you get here? How do you, how? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Answer them. Tell them you purified yourself. Tell them how holy you are. Tell them you are Am Yisrael. You have something to stand on." And the angels are like, "Wow, this guy can eat pizza and be holy like an angel? Wow. Unbelievable. That's jealousy. That's jealousy." That also tells us how beautiful the creation is when you follow the instruction set. A person can simply sanctify themselves, make themselves so holy that the angels themselves become jealous. But a good jealousy, not a bad one. But at the same token, if he doesn't follow the instructions,

49:48He could simply ruin it all. One sin can ruin it all. One karet sin ruins it all. And that's why when you speak about these big sins, these karet sins, you cannot have any type of discounts. You can't have any type of leniency. You can't just say, oh, no big deal. You have to tell people, listen, you don't understand. You have the opportunity, you have the ability to be higher than an angel. Hashem created you with the potential to be higher than an angel. You have no idea what this means. But all of the work that you're doing could simply be ruined in one second. Like you worked your whole life, 50, 60 years, to make all of your money. But if you press that button, you're going to lose everything. But if the guy is just foolish and acting drunk, he's like, ah, I'm going to press, I'm going to press. What are you going to do to protect this drunk from his own error? You grab him, you tackle him, you do whatever you can. No, no, because it's too late. You can't, no, maybe you shouldn't. Ah, you know what, maybe you could try it. Like one poor woman tells me, listen, I'm trying to do teshuva after watching your shiurim. She's in London.

51:08watching Shabbat, my whole life has changed, fixing the whole issue with the kids, circumcising our children, keeping Shabbat, into marriage, divorce now, all the good things. He says, the only problem is I can't find a rabbi. I said, why? There are many rabbis over there. He goes, no, but I called the local rabbi over here, and I told him, I'm doing Shabbat, I'm keeping, but it's... Rabbi tells me, no, no, don't take it easy. Take it easy. You could still drive on Shabbat. It's okay. It's okay. You don't have to do so much. She said, I got scared after that. I never called him again. I didn't understand. What do you mean I could drive on Shabbat? Hashem gave commandments. He said, no. He said, no driving on Shabbat. Why is he saying it's okay? I already did it for 30, 40 years. Why is he saying it's still okay? Hashem never said it's okay. So I got scared. The problem is that he himself does not have Yirat Shamayim. But it's very hard to tell who does and who doesn't have Yirat Shamayim. So, with that being said, I'm going to read you a couple of things and then we're going to go to the questions. When it comes to Shabbat, a person has to understand, writes,

52:31in regards to the Midrash on Masechet Shabbat, page 10b, where HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu, "I have a precious gift in My treasure chest, and it's called Shabbat, and I wish to present it to Am Yisrael. Go and inform them," meaning that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave the gift of Shabbat to Am Yisrael even before the Torah. And the Chafetz Chaim writes in regards to this Midrash that there are many different types of precious gems in the world, some of which are literally priceless. Very few people have the means to purchase a large collection of such jewels. Even kings and emperors would find it difficult to obtain samples of every type of gem known to man. The more powerful the king, the more vast his empire is. The more likely it is that he will have a larger collection of rare gems. The Holy One, blessed be He, the King of Kings, has access to all the treasures of gold, silver, and jewels in the universe. But nevertheless, He does not take pride in any of these. Instead, He has a treasure, and He calls it Shabbat.

53:35has access to all the treasures of gold, silver, and jewels in the universe. But nevertheless, He does not take pride in any of these. Instead, He has a treasure, and He calls it Shabbat. which he called his precious gift. Clearly, it's impossible for us to conceive its true value, yet every Jew has access to this precious gift. All you need to do is observe the Shabbat. Everyone should be anxious to observe it to the very best of their ability in order to gain the largest portion possible of this precious gift. Now, here the Chofetz Chaim tells us that the master of all and the owner of all, doesn't call everything his precious gift. He calls Shabbat his precious gift and says, "I'm giving it to you." A person who is wise understands that he needs to do everything possible to get as much of this gift as he can. The Rambam in Hilchot Shabbat, chapter 30, halacha number 15,

54:43writes that whoever observes the Shabbat as the halacha prescribes and honors it and indulges in its pleasures to the best of their ability will receive an abundant reward in this world in addition to the rewards set aside for him in the World to Come. And in the merit of observing Shabbat The sins of a person can be forgiven to the extent where our sages, Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Abba, say that even someone who was an idol worshiper, as people did in the generation of Enosh, through observing the Shabbat as the halacha dictates, will be forgiven for idol worship. That's how valuable Shabbat is. Now, when you have such a treasure, and someone plays with fire and says, "Ah, sometimes he cares about it, sometimes he doesn't care about it," Sometimes he treats it carefully, sometimes not so much. What does that mean? He doesn't understand how precious it is. And that's where the Rambam continues. The mitzvah of Shabbat is equivalent to all of the other mitzvot in the Torah combined.

55:56It's a sign of the eternal connection between the Blessed Holy One and us. And therefore, anyone who transgresses any of the other mitzvot in the Torah is still considered a Jew. Even though they're a wicked one, nonetheless still a Jew. But someone who publicly desecrates the Shabbat is considered, for all halachic purposes, to be on the level of a member of the idol-worshipping nations. So when someone can go from gaining the greatest treasure Hashem has in this world, to now is about to lose it, but not just lose it, turn into an idol worshiper, we now understand why the sages speak so harshly on the sinners. We now understand why Moshe Rabbeinu had to kill Tzelofchad for violating Shabbat and being the first Mechalel Shabbat in history. He killed him with the worst death penalty, in front of everyone. The Zohar HaKadosh says every Friday afternoon, there's an announcement broadcast throughout every section of Gehenom that all of the suffering of the sinners has to be halted. But for those who didn't observe Shabbat while they were alive,

57:22The fires of Gehenom are never extinguished. Meaning, if a person committed sins and got themselves into Gehenom, but if they at least kept Shabbat, they'll have a break on Shabbat and eventually get out of Gehenom. But if a person died without doing teshuva for Shabbat, the fire never goes out. Not on Shabbat and not ever. The Chafetz Chaim elaborates further and says there are four different methods of halachic executions. The simplest one is chenek, which means strangulation. For the more severe sins, a person is executed by hereg, which is decapitation by a sword. But for the other, more severe sins, a person is executed by s'reifa, which is burning.

58:22But the most terrible form of execution in the Torah is reserved for the worst possible sins, which is sekilah, stoning. This punishment is reserved for the sin of desecrating Shabbat. The most terrible of all punishments that the Torah prescribes, Rabbi Yitzchak says. That means, Rabotai, a murderer A murderer gets a lesser punishment than a Mechalel Shabbat. They both get the death penalty. But a murderer is considered less of a sinner than a Mechalel Shabbat. There is an opinion from the Chachamim that a murderer still has a share in the World to Come. Some say he doesn't, but some say he still has a share in the World to Come. Yet, in regards to a Mechalel Shabbat in Pharhesia, everyone says across the board that he has no share in the World to Come. Why? Because Rachmana said that. HaKadosh Baruch Hu said he has no share in the World to Come. Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz wrote this in Ya'arot Devash, chapter 2, section 3. Our sages taught in Masechet Shabbat, page 156a, that someone who is born on Shabbat will die on Shabbat as well. This is because he forced others to desecrate Shabbat to save his life when he was born.

59:47Meaning if you're born on Shabbat, you have to violate Shabbat for him. He's going to die on Shabbat also. Why? Because he forced people to desecrate Shabbat for him to be born, and he's going to do the same when he dies. Now what happens if, so it's not ideal. It's not ideal. What happens if somebody dies right before Shabbat? Bein HaShmashot. and gets buried. The Ramban writes, the Chachamim concur, say someone that dies on Friday and gets buried Bein HaShmashot before Shabbat has such a high merit there is no Chibut HaKever. Meaning he goes straight to the Beit Din of Shamayim. No suffering in the grave at all. Nothing. Why? Nobody violated Shabbat because of you. Now,

1:00:52the sages continue saying that someone that violates Shabbat is considered as if he denied the truth of the entire Torah and is given the halachic status of an idol worshiper. It doesn't mean that he's considered not Jewish and he has to convert, but rather he's considered an idol worshiper when it comes to how you treat him. So, for example, if you have a Christian friend or other types of idol worshippers, and they see that you have an open bottle of wine on your counter, and they pick it up. That wine, you're not allowed to drink it anymore. Why? Because one of the forms of idol worship in the past has been that they would give this wine to their gods. It's a form of idolatry. So we don't know if they just picked it up to see the tag, or if it was really a form of idolatry. We don't know. We can't trust them. We have to throw it out. You can't even give it to your dog. You can't sell it. Nothing. Not if the guy's an idol worshiper. He believes in Buddha. He believes in some cow. He believes in some human being. A precious Jew that turns himself into an idol worshiper by violating Shabbat, if he touches your wine, you have to treat it the same way. You have to throw it out. That's what it means treating him like an idol worshiper.

1:02:18If an Arab, an Arab skilled at slaughtering, slaughters your cow, it is treif. You cannot eat it. A Christian, Muslim, atheist, some type of Buddhist, whatever they are, non-Jew, if they slaughter your cow or your chicken, you cannot eat it. It is treif. A Jew, A Jew slaughters the cow. If he's a Mechalel Shabbat, it's also treif. Now let's eat it. Why? A halachic consideration, idol worshiper. Now let's eat it. You had a wedding. You need two witnesses for a wedding. One of your witnesses is a Mechalel Shabbat. Your wedding is not valid. Why? A Mechalel Shabbat is not allowed to be a witness in a Jewish ceremony. Not allowed. That means that if you used a Mechalel Shabbat as a witness in your wedding, you have to get married again. A person has to understand that here you have something that's the greatest treasure that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has in His treasure chest, and losing it doesn't just mean you don't have it.

1:03:44It's so precious to HaKadosh Baruch Hu that you forsaking it, chas v'shalom, is such a disregard and disrespect to Him, it's as if you violated the entire Torah, which turns the person into an idol worshiper. And the S'ma ruled that this stringency applies even more to somebody who publicly performs acts that our sages forbid as well. Meaning, that it doesn't have to just be a Mechalel Shabbat who drives a car on Shabbat. That's considered an idol worshiper. But rather, even if somebody went against the Chachamim, the rabbinical mitzvot. Like, for example, Muktzeh. He doesn't care about Muktzeh. The Rabbi said, you are not allowed to touch your phone on Shabbat. You don't have to touch it. Torah doesn't say you are not allowed to touch your phone. Torah says you are not allowed to turn on your phone. Using your phone is not allowed. But to just touch your phone, just pick it up, the Torah doesn't say that. But the sages said, no, we have to put a fence around the fence. You're not even allowed to pick up your phone. You're not allowed to pick up a pen. And he says, "Ah, sages, shmages, I'm going to do whatever I want. I'm not going to turn on the phone. I just want to put it over here. I'm not going to write anything. I just want to see what it says. What's the big deal? No, you guys are fanatics." Chachamim say, idol worshiper.

1:05:07idol worshiper. Why? I didn't sin on Shabbat, Rabbi. Idol worshiper. Why? You disregard the sages. And on top of being an idol worshiper, there's a special punishment for making fun of the sages. What's the punishment? A person goes to Tzoah Rotachat. Not to a boiling seed. Who's going to be his next-door neighbor? Yeshu. That's where he is. Why? Because, as the Gemara in Masechet Gittin says, Yeshu made fun of the rabbis, disregarded them, and that's his punishment. That's his punishment. So, a person that disregards the rabbinical mitzvot thinks, ah, it's just rabbinical, rabbinical, you know? Rabbinical is a big deal. Why? Because HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, these rabbis, these are my soldiers. These are my most loyal. Even though he has not publicly performed any act that the Torah forbids, he has lost his status as a Jew and is considered an idol worshiper according to halacha. See Pithei Teshuva and Rabbi Akiva Eiger in Yoreh De'ah, section 2, halacha number 5. The Prophet Nechemia, chapter 10.

1:06:26recounts how the leaders of the Jewish people in his time, a few thousand years ago, signed a pact reaffirming their commitment to accept Hashem as their God and to observe His mitzvot faithfully. But later it was discovered that the people were not faithful to this pact during Nechemia's absence and were remiss concerning three of its clauses: the obligation to separate tithes, meaning give ma'aser, from all of their produce, to avoid intermarriage with women of other nations, and to observe the Shabbat. In reaction to this, Nechemia instituted various safeguards for the continued Shabbat observance of the nation, and he recorded this incident as follows. In those days, I noticed in the land of Yehudah that peddlers were coming to Yerushalayim from other cities to sell their wares to the residents of Yerushalayim. They engaged in the trade of wine, grapes, and figs, and they purchased fish from the peddlers of Tzor.

1:07:27I complained to the people, saying, "What is this evil thing that you're doing? You're bringing the wrath of God onto the people of Israel by desecrating Shabbat." Meaning, these people were doing business on Shabbat. He says, "What, you think that you doing business on Shabbat is just going to affect you? No, no. The wrath of God is going to come on everybody. You're violating Shabbat; everybody's going to get punished. It's not just you." Why? Number one, they're allowing it to happen. Number two, they're not rebuking you. Number three, everybody's connected. You violate Shabbat, somebody else gets hurt too. If you violate Shabbat and on the news you hear some Jewish soldier got killed, don't think twice. It's your fault. Don't think twice. It's your fault. No, I didn't kill him. Well, you didn't save him either. You didn't save him either. Tsunami? Hurt Jewish people? Your fault. Corona? Killed people? It's your fault. Don't mistake. It's not like, no, no, no, it's not. It's your fault. You're a murderer. You kill people. Don't blame the Arab that killed the Jewish soldier. Don't blame him. He's just a little pawn that Hashem uses to do His will. What allowed this Arab to murder a Jewish soldier?

1:08:52The people that are sinning, people that are violating Shabbat, people that are wasting seed, people that are changing the Beit Din of Shamayim, and changing the halachot, all types of stupid things that they say against the Torah, like there's no relevance to the 13 principles of faith, God needs us, homosexuality is no longer an abomination, all types of nonsense that Manis Friedman and his friends say. People change the halacha, make the Torah into some type of an opinion book. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I bring wrath to the world. You hear about Jewish people dying, don't think for a second of anything else. Whose fault is it? Their fault. All of those people. All of those people. Sometimes those people are religious, sometimes they're secular, sometimes they are mechalel Shabbat, sometimes they're shomer Shabbat, but they commit other sins. The point being, wrath comes to the world because of sins, not because Hashem has nothing to do. So Nechemia tells the people that by violating Shabbat, you're bringing the wrath of Hashem onto the Jewish people.

1:10:08When the shadows darkened the gates of Yerushalayim before Shabbat, I gave an order for the doors to be locked and shut, and that they were not to be opened until after Shabbat. I ordered that the doors of the city be locked so that the peddlers would not enter the city to sell their wares. The peddlers remained encamped outside Yerushalayim once or twice, and I said to them, why are you camped by the wall? If you do this again, I will raise my hand against you. From then on, they no longer came on Shabbat. I then proclaimed, please, my God, remember this good deed for me and have mercy on me as befits your abundant chesed. The prophet Nechemiah tells these people, if you come to Yerushalayim again, I'm going to raise my hand. What does that mean? When a prophet tells you, I'm going to raise my hand. What do you think, is that a fist fight? The prophet is saying, if you come here on Shabbat, I'm going to say one word, you're all going to die. One word, I say to Hashem, you're going to die instantly. One word. The Gemara Yerushalmi, Masechet Ta'anit, page 24b, says that there was a large populated city named Tur Shimon.

1:11:35Its greatness lay in the fact that every Friday they produced an enormous amount of loaves of bread to distribute to the poor people. Nevertheless, in the end, the city was sacked and destroyed. Why did this happen? They gave a lot of tzedakah. The organization gives a lot of tzedakah. People think, ah, they're such tzadikim. Look how much good they're doing. Why are you speaking against them all the time? They have challah parties, Chanukah parties. They help too, you know, they're good. So we have the Gemara that says, yeah, there are many other people in the past that had challah parties and Chanukah parties and donated a lot of money. They did. Yeah, plenty. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroyed them anyway. Why? Why did this happen, the Gemara says? It was because the people of the town had a practice of playing with a ball on Shabbat. They liked to shoot hoops. They liked to shoot hoops on Shabbat. You want to shoot hoops? No problem. I'll destroy everything. Want to shoot hoops? No problem. Section 7. Why? The Torah was not given to us as a suggestion book.

1:12:48The Shabbat was not given to us as something we can choose to take or not take. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "This is the greatest gift I have. Don't spit in My face. Honor it." So then the Chachamim say, "So what did Hashem give us the Shabbat for? What are we supposed to do? Learn Torah. Not play with balls. What are you, a dog?" you want to be a dog? Ask Hashem, "Please, please bring me back as the gilgul of a dog. I want to play with balls all day. My master will throw a tennis ball; I'll get the ball and come back. Maybe I'll jump into a pool, get the ball, and bring it back. No problem. You want to play with a ball on Shabbat? Just ask Hashem, 'Just make me a dog,' and that's it." if you want to be a Jew, you can't play with balls on Shabbat. Why? An entire city, not a family, not a person, an entire city full of millions of people, millions of people, was destroyed because people were playing basketball on Shabbat. This is written in his Ketzot HaChoshen.

1:14:03it's absolutely frightening to contemplate this passage and its message about the sanctity of Shabbat. After all, even those poskim who ruled that it's forbidden to play with balls on Shabbat agree that it's only because the balls are muktze and it's forbidden only by our sages. Yet this sin caused the destruction of an entire metropolis of Torshimon, despite the great merit of the charity that the people of that city distributed regularly. Furthermore, from the very fact that they distributed the loaves on Friday, we see that these people honored the Shabbat, meaning they kept Shabbat, because they gave the challah on Friday, which means it was connected to the Shabbat. These people watched Shomrei Shabbat. caused the destruction of an entire metropolis of Tur Shimon, despite the great merit of the charity that the people of that city distributed regularly. Furthermore, from the very fact that they distributed the loaves on Friday, we see that these people honored the Shabbat, meaning they kept Shabbat, because they gave the challah on Friday, which means it was connected to the Shabbat. These people were Shomrei Shabbat. They did not kindle fire on Shabbat, nor did they bake or carry from place to place on Shabbat. These weren't like people who were driving to the Boca Raton Synagogue. They weren't driving, they weren't working on Shabbat; they were playing basketball. They were playing with a ball, that's it. And Rav Avraham Chaim Na'eh writes, it's likely that they observed the rules of muktzeh regarding all other items.

1:15:24This one detail they ignored brought this massive, terrible massacre. Why? They ignored what the sages said. One thing, everything else they kept. Halacha. Everything they kept. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, it's too precious of a gift. It's too precious of a gift for you to mistreat it. It's too precious of a gift. You can't throw a diamond that's worth $100 million in the air like a ball. Needless to say, you can't throw the king's daughter in the air when you're on a 100-story building and on the balcony. It's too precious of a gift to take any risks. Too precious of a gift. Last thing.

1:16:24And then we'll get the questions. Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk wrote in Meshech Chochmah, if a Jew does not observe Shabbat, he lowers himself to less than the status of a dumb beast. To achieve atonement, he must be stoned to death. If he is not stoned, the connection of his soul with God and His Torah, the bond between God and the nation of Israel, will not be severed permanently. Therefore, executing him with stoning is actually doing him a great favor. Giving him the worst possible death penalty at the time of the Sanhedrin, we can't execute these things today, is doing him a favor because at least, his soul will not be permanently severed from Hashem. His Gehenom will end at some point. But since we do not have the Sanhedrin anymore, we can't execute this. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu, in His mercy, says, even though we don't have the Sanhedrin, the death penalty still applies. So when you see a person get into a plane crash, chas v'shalom, car accident, or fall out of a building,

1:17:47That's stoning. That's stoning. So why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I gave you the greatest treasure. I gave you the greatest thing. What did you do? You spit in My face. Why? Because you wanted to play with a ball. You wanted to drive on Shabbat. Yeah, but the shul is too far from my house. Don't go. there is no compromise. It is not a suggestion. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you have to understand, it's such a precious gift. This gift of Shabbat, if you observe it, not only is it going to reward you in the next world, not only is it going to reward you in this world with parnassah, with shefa, with shalom, a lot of things, shalom bayit, all types of wonderful things come on Shabbat.

1:18:54Your Torah learning is counted a thousandfold when you learn on Shabbat versus the rest of the week. So much so that some of the sages would literally not go to sleep on Shabbat, in order not to waste a single minute and learn the whole time. But on top of all this, Shabbat is one of the greatest teshuva tools in the world. Why? Just by keeping Shabbat, it's repenting for many of your sins, as great as the ones like idol worship. So it's so much loss that unless Hashem tells you and promises you, and He can't break His promise, the punishment is going to be the most severe of all punishments. You're not going to take it seriously. He says, you cannot afford this loss. You can afford other losses. You can afford to lose a hundred grand. You can afford to lose a foot. You can afford to lose an eye. You can afford to lose a lot of things. You cannot afford to lose Shabbat. Because if you lose Shabbat, you lost everything. Your teshuva will never happen again.

1:20:05Your reward simply goes into the garbage. Your parnassah and shefa, all the things you were supposed to get, will never have bracha. You may make a lot of money, but you'll never have blessing. All that money will go to bills, taxes, lawsuits. Hashem yishmor v'yatzil. And we're not even just talking about the biblical sins like driving on Shabbat. That's needless to say. You light a fire on Shabbat, it's obvious you're going against Hashem, mamash, like war. And one of my students, an engineer, tells me, "No, no, no, Rabbi, you made a mistake. You're saying that someone who drives a car is lighting a fire. It's wrong." It's not lighting a fire, Rabbi. It's lighting thousands of fires. So what do you mean? He says, okay, let me give you a graph. He gives me a graph four or five years ago. This is what it is. From zero to 60 miles per hour, for every approximately 15 minutes, it's something like 60,000 fires that you lit. That means you violated Shabbat 60,000 times.

1:21:08Just by going from your house to the traffic light. By the time you got to the shul, 20 minutes later, you need a miracle to get out of this Gehinnom that you put yourself into. So what did HaKadosh Baruch Hu do? He said, listen, I have a gift for you. What's the gift? Shabbat. Yeah, but I was violating it till now. Okay, keep it. So what do I do with the past? First of all, you keeping it, that already helps. That already helps. But better yet, It's going to help you purify yourself, purify your mind. You can understand a big secret I have in the world. It's called kiruv. Get other people to keep Shabbat. Take one of these CDs. Take one of these pamphlets. Take one of the USBs. Take one of the free online lectures. Share it with somebody. Share this clip right now with your friend who's not keeping Shabbat. With your friend who is keeping Shabbat, but not exactly as he should. Or even he's keeping as he should but he needs a little more chizuk anyway. Share this with everybody like spam mail. Buy a list of a hundred thousand Jews and send them all emails every single week about Shabbat if you have to. Why? Every single time you get one of these people to keep Shabbat, guess what? Every one of the Shabbatot that they're gonna keep for the rest of their life makes up for your Chilul Shabbat in the past.

1:22:36So instead of showing up to Shamayim as someone who keeps Shabbat but still has 20 or 30 years of Chilul Shabbat, you have 30 years of Shabbat violation as a deficit. You're still missing. What do you call up to Shamayim with? A surplus of thousands of Shabbatot. Why? You sent people the emails. You sent people the CDs. You sent people the posters. You invested in Kiruv. You didn't do anything. You just gave us money to do it. Whatever you did. But you did something on a regular basis that got people to keep Shabbat. Every single person that keeps Shabbat from that point on goes to your account. Every week it's like you're keeping 100, 200, 300, 400 Shabbatot. In a matter of six months, You've completed Teshuvah for 20-30 years of Chilul Shabbat. So from that moment on, everything is extra. When you go up to Olam Haba, guess what? Not only are you going to have an endless Olam Haba, but guess what? People, just like they pray to Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and Rabbi Akiva, and Moshe Rabbeinu for their merit, please Hashem, please, please, for the merit of Moshe Rabbeinu, for the merit of Rabbi Meir, please help me. Why? Because Moshe Rabbeinu, Rabbi Meir, all the saints, they have extra merits.

1:23:49People are going to pray for the merit of Reuven, for the merit of Shimon, that he got so many people to do teshuva. Please help me. Because you have so many merits. Because you got so many people to do teshuva. Instead of going up there with a deficit, you go up there with a merit. Now, no one's praying to you, but you're rather using your merit. And a person that goes up to Shamayim with a surplus, there's no one in the world that's more fortunate than him. With that being said, rabotai, b'chavod, give me some questions. B'chavod, Joshua. Absolutely, there's no end. There's no end. Where do we learn it from? The Gemara says that Rebbe HaKadosh, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, had a talmid who was also his cousin or nephew, Rabbi Chiya. And Rabbi Chiya, even though he was his talmid, he died before him. And Rebbe HaKadosh, b'ruach hakodesh, saw Rabbi Chiya in Olam Haba. Saw him in Olam Haba.

1:25:15And he saw that all of the tzaddikim, they have their world, they have their Gan Eden. And if they want to go visit each other, you know if Moshe wants to go visit Aharon, he has, yep, you gotta get angels, take me over here, take me over here. If Rabbi Akiva wants to visit Rabbi Shimon, take me over. He goes to angels, have to let him in. He says, no, no, Rabbi Chiya, he doesn't have anybody tell him where to go. He goes wherever he wants. He's higher than angels. Why? Because Rabbi Chiya did kiruv. When Rebbe HaKadosh saw how much freedom—pretty much Rabbi Chiya runs the show over there—he can go wherever he wants, no one can tell him what to do. Rebbe started crying, started crying, and in his old age, started running in the streets, looking to help people do teshuva, the biggest rabbi in the world, that his own generation of sages said, if Mashiach came, it would be Rebbe HaKadosh. The old man started running in the streets, looking for chilonim, looking for secular people. Who can help do teshuva? Who? Who? Why? I want to be like my student. I want to be like my student that did kiruv.

1:26:24Why? Because his olam haba doesn't end. He keeps getting more and more reward. All of his students, when they do mitzvot, Rabbi Chiya gets more and more. His reward has literally no end. No end to the extent where the biggest tzaddik in the generation started crying. He said, in comparison, I work, look, my student, he did kiruv. He surpassed everyone. Surpassed everyone. And that's why the chachamim say, when a person toils to do kiruv, meaning he makes kiruv a serious part of his life either by investing into it every single month with the maaser, with the tzedakah, or with their time or it's their vocation. Or they use their skill on a regular basis, meaning that kiruv is a serious part of their life. Not just something that's random; it's their number one investment and

1:27:25Not only does their reward not end, but the Zohar HaKadosh says when they go up to Shamayim, the Beit Din of Shamayim doesn't talk to them. No judgment. Says, go, Gan Eden. Yeah, but I had some sins. No, no, get nothing. Go. No judgment. It's the only get out of jail free card that exists. Why? People that do kiruv, they're among everyone else. No one else can reach such a level. Even someone that has Torah and mitzvot like Moshe Rabbeinu, cannot reach the level of somebody that does kiruv. Why? Because when you think about it, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has His children that He loves, very dearly, and he's been waiting for them to come back to Him for 3,332 years. He's looking for them. Oh, where's my son, Steve? Oh, where's my daughter? Where's my daughter? Where's my son? Where are they? I'm looking for them. Yeah, they're right there, but they don't notice me. Yeah, I gave them some money, but instead of doing good with it, they do bad with it. Where are they? How are they going to come home? How are they going to come home? And you give them a flyer. You say, "Hey, listen, Steve, this is really interesting." "What is it?" "It's interesting." "What is it?" "Oh, it's a movie." He comes back to you the next day.

1:28:54You changed my life. You changed my life. My whole way of thinking is different. This woman actually fought one today. I forgot to tell you. Fought one today. She says, "Listen, Rabbi, I got to tell you this." Look, she sends me a snapshot of her phone. She said, "My cousin was a soldier in Israel. He volunteered. He's an American, but he came to Israel to be a soldier. And he came over for the weekend and kept Shabbat with us for the first time in his life. And I'm going to say, Shabbat. I told him, 'Listen, why don't you watch this movie?'" Watch the movie. The next morning, he says, "My whole life has changed. I'm never going to be the same. You just fixed my whole life. I understand what I'm in the world for. Give me more." That's it. One time. One time. It's a specialness. Most people don't take one time. But this person, all this morning, I'm telling you, every single story I'm telling you, it's all in the last 24 hours. And there's probably more. I just can't remember them. It's so easy, it's so easy to get people to do teshuva today, you'd be foolish not to do it. And that's why Rebbe HaKadosh, Rebbe HaKadosh, Ba'al HaMishnah, the whole Torah depends on him, says, he started crying when he saw the reward. And on top of it, when we learned from Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, you go up to Shamayim as someone that invested into Kiruv.

1:30:16There's simply no Din. Meaning, obviously, of course, you didn't make any purposeful sins and do some horrible things. I'm talking about you did Kiruv and you stayed a Tzaddik. And Shamayim says, next. Wait, but I'm here. No, no, you're not here. You're in Gan Eden. Next. Next. People always ask me, oh, about Gehinnom, they're scared about Gehinnom. Don't be scared about Gehinnom. Do Kiruv. To do Kiruv, you don't have to be scared about Gehinnom. Why? Because you can avoid it. But not just one time. Oh, listen, Rabbi, I gave out 100 CDs. Okay, no. No. I gave. Okay, good, you gave. So what are you going to do now? I have to give more? Yeah. How much more? I don't know, a million? Can you give a million? Oh, that's a lot. Yeah. What do I do after that? Another million? As long as you're alive. As much as you can possibly do your whole life. Why? Every single neshama you bring back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you are just something special. You're the best. Why? I've been looking for this kid for 3,000 years. And you brought him back. You brought her back. You brought my daughter Sarah back. You brought my son David back. You brought Reuven back. You brought him back. You're the best. Nobody else brought him back. You brought him back. Surely you're going to get special treatment.

1:31:44What's the treatment? No, gei, no. Even though you had a few mess-ups here and there. Next. Yes, in the back. Aaron wasn't for... Both of them were rebuked. Some Chachamim said that Aaron was punished, though not at the same level as Miriam because Aaron was simply receptive and not actively speaking Lashon Hara like she was. He wasn't instigating; he was just there. But some said that he was punished because his sons died, and he had to suffer that. And it specifically says that when Aaron found out that his sons died, "Vayidom Aharon"—Aaron was quiet, didn't say anything. This was like a tikkun, a rectification, for what happened over there. Over there, when Miriam spoke Lashon Hara, instead of rebuking her and telling her something, he stayed quiet.

1:32:52So he had a problem; his sons died. They also died for different reasons, but he had to suffer for that as well. So what was his tikkun? When the punishment came, he also had to be quiet. So when it comes to the laws of Lashon Hara, you're 100% right, all the parties involved are guilty. The speaker of Lashon Hara, the listener of Lashon Hara, and the believer of Lashon Hara. For the believers of Lashon Hara, it is also a sin. And believe it or not, even the person that gets spoken about has a little bit of a problem too. Why? There's no such thing as people speaking about you and you're 100% clean. You have to fix something too. But as far as the punishment, it's the first three. So a person needs to know that it's not necessarily the same punishment. It depends where you're at with this thing. That's also, the Chachamim say, one of the ways that Hashem gave us a reminder of our obligation to not listen to lashon hara is the way that He designed our fingers. Did you ever wonder how come your fingers look like this? How come they don't look like something else? Why aren't they sticks maybe, or something else? The reason why your fingers look exactly like this is because your fingers, not my fingers, your fingers... of our obligation to not listen to lashon hara is the way that He designed our fingers. Did you ever wonder how come your fingers look like this? How come they don't look like something else? Why aren't they sticks maybe, or something else? The reason why your fingers look exactly like this is because your fingers, not my fingers, your fingers

1:34:11Your fingers fit your ears, but nobody else's. Exactly. You put your fingers in your ears, you can't listen. If I put my fingers in your ears, which is going to be kind of disgusting, it won't fit. It won't fit. If you put your fingers in mine, which means you're probably going to get a nice elbow, it's not going to fit. But if you put your fingers in your ears, your fingers fit. Why? Why? nothing, nothing why I don't want to go to get home, I don't get punished, leave me alone, don't speak to me, go somewhere else, find a different customer. No, it's true, exactly, it's true. When is it allowed? When is it allowed? There are a few conditions. One, when it's for a toilet, when you're looking to help somebody. Meaning, you have a son, you have a daughter, you have a wife, you have a friend that you're looking to help. So you come to the Rabbi and say, Rabbi, listen, my friend is doing such and such.

1:35:14In his business, he's stealing. In his marriage, he is not a good guy. In his marriage, you tell him. It's Lashon Hara, but it's allowed. Why? Because you come to the Rabbi and say, Rabbi, please help. I can't help her. She won't listen to me. I can't help her. She won't listen to me, and she won't come to you. So I'm telling you, so maybe you could find a creative way to help them. That's Lashon Hara le'toelet; it's allowed. Another Lashon Hara that's allowed... is if it's against heretics. People that distort the Torah, like Manis Friedman, Doron Kornbluth, and all of the people on that list. All of these resha'im and many others that go against the Torah, distort it. There's no din of Lashon Hara against them. In fact, publicizing their garbage is a mitzvah. Why? You're warning the public. You're warning the public. This is in Chafetz Chaim, Hilchot Lashon Hara, Chapter 8, Halacha 5. Then, third, if it's a Mechalel Shabbat, or an atheist, or an idol worshiper, there's no din of Lashon Hara. There's no din of Lashon Hara. People that are going against Hashem on a regular basis, you can speak about them as much as you want.

1:36:40But you shouldn't. You can. It's not a sin if you do, but you still shouldn't. Why shouldn't you? Not because it's not allowed. But you shouldn't get yourself used to speaking about other people. In general, unless it's to help people, you should never speak about people. should never speak about other people's houses, other people's marriages, other people's business, or anything related to other people. Don't speak about other people. If you want to speak about people, speak about the sages, some nice sipur (story), some nice story about the sages - how they did this and they did that and all the things they did. That's a good thing to speak about. Speaking about other people only creates problems; it creates problems in shamayim (heaven), it creates problems... of these families that end up having a complete meltdown, and there are divorces and fighting between the in-laws and all that stuff. All of it starts with lashon hara. He said this, she said that. "Yeah, but it's true." Exactly! Why did you share it? "I didn't mean it. I didn't do this. I didn't do that." All of it starts with people pretty much not minding their business, and that ends up being lashon hara. But when it comes to protecting the public

1:37:53because someone is going against the Torah and, in essence, is fooling people into believing falsehood, it's a mitzvah to speak out against those people. Mitzvah. Just like it's a mitzvah to keep Shabbat, it's a mitzvah to warn the public about those people. It's a mitzvah to shame those people, just like it's a mitzvah to make fun of idolatry. Mara Masechet Megillah says that what makes a Jew a Jew is being like Mordechai. Being like Batya bat Paro is being a Jew. Why? They make fun of idolatry, and anyone that makes fun of idolatry, that's a Jew. That's a Yehudi. So when someone makes fun of the Torah by distorting it, Even if they're a rabbi, even if they're whatever they are, if they make fun of the Torah, they make fun of the sages, they're someone like that, it's a mitzvah to make fun of them. Just like you make fun of idolatry. Next. Yes? When were all the other planets created, like the whole galaxy? Everything was created in Bereishit. Bereishit bara Elokim et ha-shamayim ve-et ha-aretz.

1:39:07So, the Zohar HaKadosh discusses it, and also the Rambam. The Rambam writes about it, having all of the knowledge, even before the time of telescopes, which were only really created 400 years ago. Galileo Galilei had the first telescope, which actually was a stolen design from somebody from a previous generation. But anyway, the telescope was really only invented 400 years ago. Yet the sages discussed the planets and different things 2,000 years before that because they had knowledge from Har Sinai. And the Rambam writes it in Mishneh Torah, talks about the spheres, talks about all of the planets and so on. All of it was created in Bereishit. When Hashem created in Bereishit, He created the Shamayim v'ha'aretz. But Shamayim doesn't just mean the sky that you see. Shamayim means the heavens, means the entire universe. The entire universe was created before this world. Hashem was creating and destroying worlds, and before that, Hashem was by Himself. And the Gemara Masechet Chagigah, page 12a, discusses how HaKadosh Baruch Hu originally was by Himself and had to minimize Himself in order to make room for His creation, if you will. Not that He's a physical form, but in essence, He was the only thing. And He had to, in essence, minimize Himself to make room for anything else.

1:40:29He created everything with a single dot that started expanding and expanding into the universe that you see today until He roared and said "Dai" (stop), and the universe stopped expanding. That is the reason why He is called El Shaddai, the God that said "Dai." So that's a name that you have, for example, on your mezuzah, and... If you have a mezuzah that's see-through, you'll see that name, Shin Dalet Yud, on your mezuzah. Because that gives protection for the house. You'll see that name in different parts of the Torah. Avraham Avinu discusses it and so on. It's a very holy name. And it comes from Hashem's creation of the world. And creation of the world doesn't just mean this... globe that we're in right now, but rather all of the other planets as well—the comets, the universe, the galaxies, and so on and so forth. Next, yes, what is the purpose behind panic attacks and muscle spasms? I mean, your body is going to react to different things that you have, both physically and spiritually.

1:41:47The Arizal discusses how there are certain things that a person reacts to without really understanding why, and that's in essence the soul's reaction to something that it already knows and recognizes from a previous incarnation, from a previous life that they lived. So, for example, if a person, let's say, in a previous life drowned and died, they could be born in this world today as someone who has a phobia of water. They don't know why they have a phobia of water because they never had a problem with water. But their soul knows that in their previous life, they had a problem with water. The same thing goes with bugs and so on and so forth. The same concept applies when it comes to anxiety or other things like that; the soul is telling the body that it has some type of resistance to something in this person's life. something that's creating distress, this problem if you will, that the soul already knows. The body restricts it to only knowing what you have in this life, in this world now, but the soul is in essence telling you this is

1:43:01Not a good match for us. We already have a history with this. You know, it's like somebody tells you, "Oh, here's my best friend." And this guy stole half a million dollars from you five years ago, but your friend doesn't know that. "Oh, he's my best friend." Yeah, yeah, best friend. Okay, I'll see you later. Well, where are you going? Why don't you want me to match this? Why? Because he doesn't know that this best friend of his is a guy that stole half a million dollars from you. you know, so that's what your soul is telling you. All of these things, you can see the trigger point every time you talk about a certain subject, every time you text certain people, every time you go to a certain place, every time you're discerning daat, whatever it is, you have anxiety, you have some type of physical reaction, you have some twitches, you have heart palpitations, you have headaches. Things like that, that is your soul reacting to something that your body is not aware of. Now, does that mean that you have to pretty much run from everything that you have a negative reaction to? Not necessarily. It means that this is going to be a more difficult obstacle for you to overcome than something that comes naturally to you. You know, because there are certain things you can't avoid. You can't avoid water. At some point you have to take a shower. Or else we're not going to let you come back to the shul.

1:44:17At some point, you have to, you know, do certain things. So you have to overcome certain phobias. And how do you overcome certain phobias? By purifying your neshama, by purifying your neshama and by learning more and more Torah and perfecting Perfecting your character traits. The more you perfect your character traits by meditating over the things that you are failing at, let's say, for example, you are stingy, arrogant, or an angry person, or whatever it is that you recognize as a negative trait because everyone complains about it. So what do you do? You have to learn about this topic and how to fix it from Jewish sources, not from Tony Robbins and from the Jewish sages, we have plenty of wisdom in our nation; we don't need to go to the goyim. You learn how to overcome this obstacle from the Torah, and part of that learning is meditating over the whole thing of what's happening, how you are failing, and start visualizing yourself overcoming this obstacle.

1:45:29So, for example, they did a study and they said there were two groups. One group of people was throwing a ball into a net over and over again to practice and improve their shot. Another group was imagining themselves throwing a ball, but they weren't throwing anything. Two groups: one was throwing the actual ball, one was throwing an imaginary ball. After a while, they tested out who had better aim. Surprisingly, the ones that actually imagined the ball had a better aim. The ones who visualized themselves putting the ball inside the hoop and succeeding over and over again had a better aim because they constantly visualized themselves succeeding. They didn't imagine themselves missing. On the other hand, those who were actually throwing the ball missed a bunch of times and succeeded a bunch of times, but they didn't have as much success as the ones who imagined themselves succeeding repeatedly.

1:46:34So when a person meditates over their character trait that they're failing at, and they start visualizing, okay, I'm an angry person. This person that's coming over my house is a very annoying person. And I know he's going to do something to annoy me. I know the yetzer hara loves this guy to come over my house. Now, obviously, I can't tell the guy not to come over because he's a family relative or something. Obviously, I can't get into a fight with him because that's definitely not going to do anything good for me. So what am I going to do? Okay, let me just visualize how this conversation is going to go. Usually, when he comes over, he says something and calls me a name. Typically, he makes up a new character name for me every time. Okay, when he says that, I'm going to visualize some cartoon in my head to make myself laugh, to pretend like I'm laughing at what he says. So you start visualizing yourself overcoming the first insult. Then, usually, he gives me a slap. And I'm going to pretend like he really is giving me a friendly slap, even though he really means to hurt me. And on top of that, after that, he's going to make fun of my wife's cooking. And I'm going to pretend like he really said a compliment on my wife's cooking, and it's really good for my wife to hear something negative because it's good for our teshuvah. Because, you know, this rotten person is her father, so what could she do? She can't rebuke him. And he does all of this in his head. He plays out the whole nightmare that he's about to experience for the next two hours for a week.

1:47:50Before it happens. Why? So when the guy finally comes, if he does all of that, he knows already how to deal with it. And if he doesn't, he's pleasantly surprised. And he gets rewarded for overcoming it. You see? So, a person has to use their imagination for that, use their mind for that, and b'ezrat Hashem, overcome the obstacles. Next question. Almost done. Yes? Yes? Okay, so with the resurrection of the dead, everyone, like all the tzaddikim, are going to come. They're going to be resurrected, right? Tzaddikim, yes. Okay, so if they're in Shamayim and they're going to come back down to earth, isn't that like a major downgrade? No, so there's different stages to the world. Right now, the tzaddikim are in Shamayim, but it's not the highest level of Shamayim that they're going to reach eventually. There are even higher levels than that. There's Olam HaBa. So the stage that they're in is a very high level.

1:48:52Once the Mashiach comes and the war is over and they bury all the dead, then there's going to be, some say it's going to be 40 years later, there's going to be resurrection of the dead. Those neshamot of the tzaddikim are going to be put into their body, their best body. They're going to be in perfect shape. There's not going to be any sickness. There's not going to be any yetzer hara. And they're going to live in a world of perfection. It's going to be very, very similar to the world they already lived in, but even a higher level of sanctifying Hashem's name. a higher level of sanctifying Hashem's name because over here there's going to be a better Mikdash. It's going to be the third Beit HaMikdash. Over there, there's no Beit HaMikdash. So it's going to be a higher level of them being able to sanctify Hashem's name without having to deal with the Yetzer Hara. So it's actually having the best of both worlds. That's going to continue for a thousand years, from the sixth to the seventh thousandth year approximately. And then after that seventh thousandth year, this world ends and everybody goes to Olam HaBa, which is the permanent place of...

1:49:57good for everyone, for all the tzaddikim. Now, there are some people that will be resurrected and live through the whole time of this world, the last thousand years, and then go to Olam HaBa. There are some people that will not be resurrected, but will go to Olam HaBa. They just don't have the merit to be resurrected with the dead. And there are, but there is nobody that has the merit to be resurrected, but no Olam HaBa. So it's either resurrected and Olam HaBa or no resurrection, but yes Olam HaBa. There's Olam HaBa, yes. Next one, yes. So the Torah tells us that there are two parts to you. You have the neshamah, you have the soul, which in itself has several parts, and you have the body.

1:51:09In the shiur, in the series called Iggeret HaRamban, I believe it's within the first ten shiurim, maybe shiur number six in that series, in the beginning of the shiur we have a whole section that talks about something called chibut hakever. Chibut hakever translates to beatings of the grave, of what happens to the body and the soul in the grave before they even go to the Beit Din of heaven. And the anguish that a person has to go through if they made sins. Now, if a person goes through that, goes through those beatings of the grave, then goes up to the Beit Din, then they make the judgment of whether they're going to Gan Eden or Gehenom. sometimes they'll go to Gehenom for a temporary period of time, then go to Gan Eden. Sometimes they'll go to Gehenom permanently. Sometimes they'll go to Gan Eden and then go to Gehenom and then back to Gan Eden, which is a question of its own. Now, a person that did not get buried because he was cremated and now he's on a Starbucks cup on top of somebody's counter

1:52:25or a person that simply was not buried for other strange reasons. Like in India, they don't bury bodies. In some communities, they just take the bodies and put them on some little raft and send them into the ocean, send them into the river. So there's another tribe of Indians over there that go to the bottom of the ocean and eat the bodies. So, and they use that tum'ah from the bodies to create all types of witchcraft. Yes, lots of interesting things in the world, right? It's not just America. Now, these people that have not been buried, their soul can never rest until they're buried. until they're buried, the body's buried, until the ashes are buried, and all of the bodies are consumed, their soul can never rest. So, in essence, by cremating people or not burying them in some other way—freezing them or something like that—you're simply torturing the person.

1:53:30And the person hates you. Permanently. Until you get him out of there. That's why I find it very interesting that HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as I told you guys a couple of times, that Hashem punishes measure for measure. And he had a Jewish person by the name of Albert Einstein who lived something like 60, 70, 80 years ago. He was a very smart person when it comes to science and math, but a complete idiot when it comes to God. And he used the gift that God gave him to do things that are not exactly for Hashem. He wasn't a good husband and he wasn't even a good person. if you read some of the things about his bio and how he treated his wife, it was a complete, complete and utter disaster of a human being with horrible, horrible traits. But he was an intellectual in regards to secular wisdom. But Hashem did not give him that brain for secular wisdom. He gave him that brain to do the servitude of Hashem. Since he did not use it, he did not use this precious gift, what was his clear punishment aside from the other things he's going to get? Something that you could see with your own eyes.

1:54:40his brain is still surfacing around the world, and it's sliced into many, many pieces and is in different universities. One of the universities that has it on display is Princeton University, which means that Albert Einstein, to this day, is not getting rest. Why? Because, as they say, measure for measure: "I gave you a brain ...to serve Me, you use your brain to go against Me. So, measure for measure, your brain will give you no rest. Point being, Rabotai, aside from scaring you, it's also to show you that Hashem is a God, not a friend. He gives us unlimited opportunities to get reward. There are so many opportunities for you to get good... it's simply ludicrous that somebody would go against Hashem. And that's why Moshe Rabbeinu in Parashat Ha'azinu calls the people a stupid people. Why? If you sin against Hashem, you're stupid. I'm not talking about sinning accidentally or sinning temporarily and trying to overcome it. It's pretty much sinning because you don't care. That

1:56:03stupid. Why? You're messing with Hashem. And you're only going to find out when it's too late. Next question. Yes? Your questions, Baruch Hashem, are always good. I have to study just for your questions. No? Mot Yumat. Right. Ah, it's a very, very good question. So, at the time of the Sanhedrin, part of the repentance of a person is the death penalty that we get at the Sanhedrin, because they would suffer. Does the death in this world that Hashem brings on serve as also a part of suffering, part of the teshuva of a person? And that depends. It depends on the person and it depends on the death.

1:57:19a strange and unusual death is definitely part of the repentance of a person. It definitely counts as something. For example, if somebody gets murdered, or if somebody gets into a car crash, or something like that, or some type of unusual death, then for sure that counts as a very significant atonement for certain things. I had a very, very dear friend who was actually a person and the only lawyer I've ever met that was honest. His name was Larry Krause. He’s a very, very good person and may this year be for his yahrzeit and for his aliya. And Larry Krause was a good friend of mine, and like I said, an honest lawyer, and a firm Jew. And one day I got the horrible news, one of the worst things I heard in my life, which is that on his way home from Motzei Shabbat, from Beit Knesset, there was a storm. He and another guy were walking, and there was a storm, and there was lightning that hit the tree, and the tree fell and killed both of them.

1:58:33killed both of them. Now, there are some more details that happened there that are extremely gruesome, but the point being, this is what's considered a strange death. A tree falling on a person is a strange death. A strange death. So that definitely counts as a significant price to pay for a person, and to repent for part of their sins. It doesn't necessarily pay for all of their sins, but for part of their sins. And we also see that there are some people in the Tanakh, for example, the Gemara says there were some resha'im that were a king that was a rasha. and, uh... he made some sins but then he did teshuva, but still there were some sins left in his account. So, what did the Chachamim say? What was his repentance? The fact that when his son, after he died, instead of honoring him, his son desecrated his body.

1:59:37In order to make sure that everybody knows that he's the king now, he didn't allow him to be buried. He tied him to horses and had him dragged throughout all the cities until all of his body parts were completely all over the place, and his body was completely desecrated. That strange and unusual burial actually helped him repent for a lot of different things that he did during his life. So these types of things, unfortunately, cause the soul suffering. It's not painless. Even though the dead body doesn't say "ow," it is suffering. The Gemara, Masechet Berachot, says that a pin inside a living body is not as painful as a pin, like a needle, inside a dead body. Meaning the soul suffers a lot more, 60 times more. When you stab it when it's dead, then when it's alive. Even though you don't see the person say, "Oh," because he's dead. Suffering. You just don't see it. Suffering. So that strange and unusual death, that strange and unusual burial, that desecration, that disrespect, all of that stuff is of significant value for that person. And many of them get to even enter Gan Eden as a result of it.

2:00:56And to get it as a result of it. Next. Yes. Yes, they teach everything. Yirat Shamayim, they teach also. What do you mean? Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. You know how this, along with this, this that says that someone who was born on Shabbat has to die on Shabbat because, you know, he made people walk on Shabbat, you know, to the demons. Technically, he didn't, you know, he didn't choose because Hashem chose, you know, chose a day, supposedly, because everything's bidei Shamayim. Hashem chose the day he was going to be born. How does that work? Okay, so this has to do with Cheshbonot of Shamayim. So you're asking, if everything is from Heaven except the fear of Heaven, how come a person has to be somewhat, I guess, punished, if you will, for being born on Shabbat? He didn't choose to be born on Shabbat.

2:02:01So, first off, it's not a guarantee that he will die on Shabbat. It's not a guarantee. It's just that this is something that can happen because of that. It is a more likely possibility. So if it's, let's say, one out of seven for somebody else, for this person, let's say it's three or four or five out of seven. But it's not 100%. We know from nature that people born on Shabbat don't necessarily die on Shabbat. But the second thing is, also remember, your soul is not in this world for the first time. Your soul is not in this world for the first time. Your neshama has been here before. Anyone that hasn't watched should watch the movie by Rabbi Mizrahi called "Life After Death." If you want, I also have some of the DVDs that I can bring next week. You just have to remind me. If you want to watch it on a DVD, I have the DVDs. It's a fantastic film that is full of different types of evidence of life after death.

2:03:04showing that reincarnation exists, famous stories from different scientists and psychiatrists, and all types of news outlets, and so on. From there, we already know from the Torah that life after death exists and life before death also exists. But science has already confirmed it. There's a whole area of science called parapsychology that delves into this subject now and deals with people that remember their previous life and know different languages even though they never knew them before, and so on and so forth. So now, when a person leaves this world but has not completed their tikkun, has not completed their mission in the world, they have to, in essence, come back to this world. that previous account that they have does have an influence on when they're going to come to this world and how they're going to come to this world. So, for example, the Arizal writes that sometimes people come to the world blind, or sometimes they come to the world deaf, or sometimes they come to the world without arms or legs, or they come to the world as someone that's completely, you know, unable to communicate, like a certain type of autism.

2:04:11or sometimes they come to the world deaf, or sometimes they come to the world without arms or legs, or they come to the world as someone that's completely, you know, unable to communicate, like a certain type of autism There's some type of autism that makes the person very functional but still autistic, and there's some that make them simply not able to communicate. So there are different ways that people come into the world, and that has to do with their previous life. And there's a very famous video online that also was recently publicized by Rav Mizrahi as well, but this is well known already from, you know, it was produced by other people, of a guy that was a severe case of autism and was only able to communicate through a special computer, and he communicates with people, and there's several cases like this, and they ask him, why did you come to the world like this? video online that also was recently publicized by Rav Mizrahi as well, but this is well known already from, you know, it was produced by other people, of a guy that was a severe case of autism and was only able to communicate through a special computer, and he communicates with people, and there are several cases like this, and they ask him, why did you come to the world like this?

2:05:13That's the autistic person. Why did you come to the world like this? And he says, because I did something really bad. And I said, what did you do? He said, I said bad things. I said Lashon Hara. So I came not able to speak. And so they said to him, he said one time, I said Lashon Hara. One time, I didn't say Lashon Hara his whole life. One time, I said Lashon Hara. So I came back like this. So they asked him, are you suffering? He said, "Yeah, I suffer, but don't feel bad for me. Feel bad for yourself." And he said, "Why?" He said, "Because me, I only have this one thing to fix, and I'm almost done. And once I die, I'm going straight to heaven because I'm actually a tzaddik. I just have this one thing to fix. You have a lot more to fix. You have a lot more to fix. So feel bad for yourself." So, Chachamim have discussed that these types of people, Hashem yishmor, are sometimes very, very high-level neshamot. And they are brought in a certain way for a certain reason. Needless to say, it's the same concept if a person is born on Shabbat or on Yom Rishon, Sheni, Shlishi, Revi'i, or any day of the week. There's a reason why Hashem chose that day. That has to do with Hashem's accounting, that has to do with that person's actions, and it has to do with their overall mission in the world. You know, there are sometimes people born in the world, and they're only alive for one day.

2:06:41Why? And it's a specific day. Because that day is when it was needed. After that, it wasn't needed. It's, again, for the people that are alive that suffer, it's an immeasurable pain. Immeasurable pain. But when a person realizes that there is life after death, there is life before death, and these people that live a very short time span or something like that are actually special holy neshamot, that came to the world for a unique mission, and they are now in Gan Eden. I have a person that I know, a very special couple that had a child who suffered from the minute he was born. We mentioned his name several times. This baby had so many different surgeries. I mean, it will break your heart. You see this kid, a little baby cutest little thing, suffering day after day, day after day, and all types of surgeries, and then he got good, and then he got bad, and Hashem, he died when I believe he was only two and a half years old, something like that, but literally every minute of his life was like some type of suffering. Now, when I saw this couple, I got such chizuk from them just by looking at them.

2:08:03chizuk from them. I did teshuvah by looking at them. They came to my shiur when I went to New York, and I already knew them from before, but that was the first time I met them in person. I get chizuk just by looking at them. Why? They understood completely why this happened in essence. Meaning that this neshamah is a righteous neshamah. It's a tzaddik that right now is in Gan Eden. So yes, they're suffering that they lost their son, Hashem Yishmael. But when you think about the overall picture from the Torah perspective, and you realize that this pure, beautiful neshamah is in Gan Eden, you're going to get to see it in Gan Eden one day. So he's enjoying himself. He's not having to deal with any surgeries anymore. And on top of that, the suffering that you have has repented for tons and tons of sins that you've made during this life or a previous life, whatever it is. Meaning there's an enormous value that you are getting for this enormous suffering, but the value you're going to get in the end is much more than the suffering because the suffering is temporary. The value you're getting is permanent.

2:09:11They were completely in full understanding of it. And to see such a precious Jew like that is amazing. But that's only found in a Jew that keeps Torah and mitzvot to the highest level. To the highest level. Why? You cannot get to this mindset naturally or psychologically. You can't. You can't. So that's the thing. When a person understands that there is reincarnation, there is a judge, there is a jury, there is Gan Eden, there is Gehenom, and so on, all of these different parts, they understand that there is more to the world than what you see with your naked eye, and therefore we should focus on our responsibility and not necessarily do all of the accounting for Hashem and His responsibility. We worry about our business, He worries about His business, and it all works out in the embrace of Hashem. Last question, and then we're going to call it a night. Yes, déjà vu.

2:10:24Yes, in the sefer, The Coming Revolution, by Rabbi Zamir Cohen, or it's also called Science Comes of Age, that's part of our kiruv package, there's a section about reincarnation that also discusses déjà vu, and déjà vu can and most likely is... a reminder that you were in this place. Your neshama is connected to that place in some way or another from a previous incarnation, from a previous life. It's not for naught that you have a clear and vivid memory of being in a certain place. A clear and vivid memory of a certain person. Sometimes you meet certain people, and for no reason whatsoever, you just love this person. You love them. You're connected to them. You spoke for five minutes, but you feel like you know this person for a thousand years. I know that with my wife, God bless her. I know we're connected from all... I know that. But don't tell her I told you. She may ask for most... She knows. But... So, I mean, it's clear as day. Clear as day.

2:11:38Some people, that's the way they are. Some people are the exact opposite of Hashem. They repel each other. He just looks at his face and he hates him, for no reason. No reason. He just hates him. Can't stand him. Can't stand him. He's like allergic. Why? What happened? Let's do it. Your neshamah knows everything. Remember, it's a piece of the Divine. It knows the full picture. It's restricted By your body. It's restricted by your body. It's restricted to time and space. It's restricted to a certain amount of knowledge, and so on and so forth. So it doesn't mean that the neshamah doesn't feel it, though. The neshamah still feels. So once in a while, it gives the body a little... It gives them a little hint of certain things. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. Last one. The short one. Somebody didn't ask any questions. In the back? Somebody didn't ask any questions? Okay, you're like a new person. Fine, you're allowed. You're allowed to ask. You're asking good questions. I apologize, it's not exactly a short question. I'm an artist and a fiction writer. I like high fiction. And I've always wanted to use that medium, for a tune, but I want to do it in a kosher way. So I've wondered for a long time, what kind of laws do artists and creators need to be aware of as they're making pieces? Specifically, I'm a graphic

2:13:07get while the comic books, things like that. Okay, so a person needs to be very careful when it comes to their vocation, regardless of what it is. Number one, to make sure, like you're saying, to make sure that it's a kosher profession, to make sure that it is not connected to idolatry. And three, to try to stay away from certain professions even if they're permissible. For example, a cross A cross by itself is not forbidden unless it was worshipped. There's even one that writes about a cross that was actually gifted by a certain king, and anytime he would meet with this king, he would wear it. Why? Because for him, this cross was just a respect for the king and a gift. It was for beauty and so on, and it had nothing to do with idolatry. It had nothing to do with idolatry, and it was allowed for him to wear it. But would you be allowed to go buy a cross right now? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Why? It's different things. But a cross by itself, are you allowed to draw a cross? Yes, you are. Should you? No.

2:14:31Now, if the cross was worshipped, it is automatically forbidden. Automatically, it is forbidden permanently. You can't fix it. Which means, whether it's a cross with Yeshu looking like some sheep on it, or it's a cross by itself, it doesn't really make that much of a difference. The bottom line is, if it was worshipped, it is forbidden. If it's just a drawing of that idiot looking like some shish kebab on top of the cross, and somebody just has it and thinks this is art, it’s not forbidden by itself, but it’s still not recommended for you to deal with it at all. So, what if you design crosses? Are you allowed to design crosses? If you're designing crosses for the sake of art, let's say for the Red Cross, or some type of institution, or some type of medallion for something that's not being worshipped, it's not religious, it's allowed. But you still shouldn't do it. But if it's to be sold to the Christians and the Catholics, it's forbidden altogether. Forbidden altogether.

2:15:34Either way, it's not recommended, but there is a stage where it's completely forbidden. So a person needs to know there are certain things when it comes to fiction and comics and all of that stuff that are forbidden completely and some that are not recommended. So, for example, if the book or the art is immodest, it's forbidden completely. So I remember in my sinful days, there was a video game called Lara Croft, which is something that pretends to be a superhero. So why do they like her? Because she was an immodest woman. Now, the artist of that, if somebody decides that they're gonna make art from this, every single time somebody plays that, he's gonna make sins. Every single time. So that person is in serious, serious trouble. So that type of art is completely forbidden. Completely forbidden. Let's say art for the Catholic Church, painting their saints and their... Completely forbidden. Completely forbidden.

2:16:40What about things like, I don't know, Pikachu? These little strange creatures or something like Mario Brothers or something like that. That's not forbidden. That's not forbidden. That's allowed. But again, a person needs to try to stay away from things that are allowed but still destructive. So, for example, video games. Video games are a destructive force. Why? They're addictive. And a person can sit there playing video games for 10, 12, 14 hours straight without even realizing it. whatever; as a kid with something, we had a little play video games. You sit there for hours and hours with Atari and Nintendo, the first one, and Sega Genesis, and the first PlayStation, and PlayStation 2 and 3 and 17, whatever it is. All these different things, hours and hours and hours in front of this machine, wasting your life completely. So, although you can find some poskim that will be lenient...

2:17:46with certain games and certain things, no one will be lenient with the bitul Torah, with the wasting of time. And unfortunately, video games are a very, very addictive thing. So therefore, even if you could find a posek that says it's allowed, which you most likely won't, but let's say you do, it's still not recommended. Still not recommended. Why? Because it's simply a bad business. Which means that if you are in that business, find a new business. Find a new business. Why? Because when it comes to parnassah, you should try to have it completely, completely clean. You don't even want to have a speck of something not kosher. So does that make it a little more difficult to make money? Sometimes for certain people, but in reality, when a person knows that Hashem is the One that runs the world, they're never going to lose. it may look like you're losing in the beginning, but you're never going to lose in the end. So whatever you're doing, whatever graphics that you're doing, it all depends on the specific content itself. But I have to review it; I'd have to go over it with a posek, try to get the overall scope of this specific art itself with this specific issue itself, and let you know more of a direct answer on that. But generally speaking, there are some things that are forbidden completely.

2:19:06Some things are allowed but not recommended, and some things are allowed. Some things are allowed. How? You can make Torah comics. There are plenty of comics and different magazines that are based on Torah. They're connected. It's still action figures. It's still all types of things because of the modern age, and people want something. And there's a spy. And there's, I don't know, some other super guy. All types of different things, but overall kosher. And they connect to the Torah. And they call the guy Mitzvah Man or something like that. And this is to try to encourage the kids to connect to the Torah in another way, to learn another story in another way. And these things are not only allowed, but they are a mitzvah. For example, there is a very famous artist who is a baal teshuva. His name is Gadi Pollack. Gadi Pollack is the most sought-after Jewish artist in the world. Right now, to the extent where you simply can't get him, like it doesn't matter what the price is, you can't get him. They are literally hiding him. You can't get to him; he's that sought after. His art is just exceptional. It's something out of this world. He's unbelievable as far as his talent, but also he's coming like he doesn't draw stuff from his imagination. He draws stuff based on a Midrash.

2:20:32Just stuff based on, so if you see, for example, the Haggadah that I suggested to you guys, the Katz Haggadah, if you see that Haggadah and you see what the Midrash says, you'll see the Midrash inside the drawing. He didn't just make the lion look like this or be there just out of his imagination. He put the Midrash, the Torah, and he drew the Torah. So, and he did this many times. There's also another one named Yoni, I forget his last name. And they made different things. They used their talents to make different beautiful things in the Torah world. There's also a series of books uh... that teaches character traits uh... the uh... about says what is it called the island of uh... middot of good middot and the uh... and things of that nature. It is as a series of books that is for children that are both small and also fifty years old, all types of children, uh... because you know, I don't know how to have good middot, uh... whether you're a small little, you know, one foot or you're six feet, it doesn't make a difference.

2:21:41because this book is fantastic. It was not only written by talmidei chachamim (serious scholars), but also designed by expert artists who make it very appealing to the eye. So, somebody who does that is not only doing a good job, but it's actually a job that's a mitzvah. It's a mitzvah to do that and It's actually like you're learning Torah and doing kiruv because people are going to learn this book, kids are going to learn this book, and actually learn good middot. You have no idea how much reward you're going to get for such a thing. So that is fantastic. Fantastic. So a person who does such a thing, that's not only allowed, it's a mitzvah. So again, as you can see, there are different levels: forbidden, allowed but not recommended, allowed, and allowed and mitzvah. So you have to review things on a case-by-case basis: what, who, what, when, and how. But when it comes to your job, which is where you spend a lot of your time, you have to make sure it's pristine. Don't look for any leniencies when it comes to work. Don't look for that job that's allowed for only certain types of people during difficult times. Don't look for stuff like that.

2:22:58Try to do the best you can to have completely kosher money, completely kosher with no exception. And again, it may be an obstacle. It may be a very big difficulty in the beginning, but just like HaKadosh Baruch Hu made Gadi Pollack a whole lot more successful after he did Teshuvah than before he did Teshuvah because the talent didn't change. He was talented before. very talented before, but he used all that talent now to publicize Hashem's name. He's a whole lot more successful today than he could ever imagine himself in the secular world. Why? Because he used that talent that Hashem gave him to publicize His name. And you're never going to lose by doing that, never, never. Anything else urgent? Or, but again, not 500 questions downstairs. Oh no, I didn't mean Elchanan. I mean Elchanan. No, no, no questions, nothing. Zero, zero, zero, downstairs, an hour and a half. I was like, how come you finished this shiur at 11:30? How come you didn't come home until 3? After-hours Torah. At least have it on camera so other people can benefit from it. Okay, Rabotai, thank you very much for learning with me. We're going to come back and learn together on Sunday.

2:24:15and come back here, but uh... to learn our... Chazon Ish series, b'ezrat Hashem, unless HaKadosh Baruch Hu miraculously finds us a house that we have to move on really quickly, and then we may have to postpone the shiurim, but just stay connected to the WhatsApp and the Facebook groups, or the email list, or whatever it is, and you'll know what the schedule looks like. B'ezrat Hashem, we'll continue learning. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'amen.