TeShuva Requires Major Life Changes

1:25They came to Rav Steinman, alev hashalom, and they told him there's a boy in the yeshiva who's causing issues. They said, "He's really not from the right family, and we really want to take him out of this yeshiva." He says, don't take him out of the yeshiva. No, nobody. It's not that he's not this, he's not that, he's not learning. He's slow; he's this, he's that. Rav says, don't take him out of the yeshiva. Yeah, but you have to understand, he's this and he's that, like they're fighting against this kid, this little 13-year-old kid, who took on a whole coalition against him. He says, listen, is he hurting other kids spiritually? Is he telling other kids... To get off the day, I said no, that he's not doing something that warrants taking him out of yeshiva. If he's hurting other kids, then yes, but everything else—he's slow, he's from this family, from that family—it doesn't mean he doesn't know anything. You're not to kick him out of yeshiva because he's not endangering anybody else. So when a woman is immodest, she's endangering Hashem's other children and...

2:39When she's endangering Hashem's other children, that puts a very, very big gap between her and HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? Because Hashem says, you are putting the rest of My kids in danger. I can't really listen to your prayers. I can't really give you special privileges. Why? Because you're causing harm to everybody else. It's not that you're sinning by yourself. Same thing goes for men. A man that wants Hashem to listen to his prayers cannot commit these major sins that cause a chilul Hashem. He cannot be one of those people who publicly goes against rabbis, publicly goes against the Torah, acts arrogantly, or steals—things of that nature. But also, a person needs to know that they have to keep the basics, starting with Shabbat. There's no Judaism without Shabbat. There's simply no Judaism without Shabbat from the beginning of the Torah all the way to the end. A person needs to keep Shabbat like the halacha, no excuses, nothing. You're only going to start feeling the enjoyment of Shabbat once you keep Shabbat like it's supposed to be kept. A lot of people say, "Listen, I keep Shabbat, but I hate it." Why? Why do you hate it? Why do you hate Shabbat? "Oh, I don't know. It's this, it's that, it's the..." And little by little, you start finding out he's not even keeping Shabbat.

3:58Why? Because he doesn't know how to keep Shabbat. He doesn't know all the halachot. So he's doing things that are actually violating Shabbat, but he doesn't know because he doesn't learn hilchot Shabbat. So he's violating Shabbat. So his neshama doesn't even get to enjoy it. Why? Because he's sinning, but he thinks he keeps it. Or she thinks she keeps it. So the reality is, rabotai, that when you keep Shabbat like you're supposed to, it's a pleasure of all pleasures. It's a small piece of the feeling of Olam HaBa. If you're not feeling that piece, there's something wrong with your Shabbat. So now, if a person wants to feel all of this joy in this world and live a life where they have literally no worry whatsoever, then First and foremost, they need to start taking on mitzvot more seriously. They can't just think that if they meditate a certain way or if they put a red string around their arm or they read certain books—even if they recite Tehillim 500 times a day—if they don't keep the mitzvot, it's a waste of time. Where does Hashem say this? He says through the prophets: Be people, be strong, keep doing it, and you will be blessed many times over.

5:17their mouths and with their lips they gave me kavod, they gave me honor, but in their hearts, they were far from me. They were far from me. Why? Because they gave me lip service. They said, you know, they sang songs, all the nice songs that people like to sing, but when push came to shove, they didn't really fight for me. They didn't really fight to protect my religion.