The Divine Trial, Antisemitism, TIKKUN HaBrit and Yom Kippur 5781 - STUMP THE RABBI (65)

0:17New faces, old faces. We have a shiur tonight, Stamtor Rabbi number 65. B'ezrat Hashem, you guys will have some questions. B'ezrat Hashem will give us the answers. Tonight's shiur was sponsored by our dear friend, Marsha Bat Julie. B'ezrat Hashem will bless her and her children. Also, give a special siyata dishmaya to save her dear daughter, Ayla, from the sakana that she's in right now. And B'ezrat Hashem, bring blessings to her and all of her brothers. Also, for a refuah shlema for Rabbanit Levana Bat Sara, Rav Ephraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara Bat Anat, David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah,

1:37Yitro ben Avraham, Talia bat Sara, Yonah ben Sherry Chaya, Yosef Yitzchak ben Baila Rochel, Stefan ben Katarina, Michal bat Yael, Serach bat Batya, Batya bat Sara, Orit bat Ilana, and a special hatzlacha rabah for Marsha bat Julie, Shaul ben Farzaneh, Yitro ben Avraham, Oshri ben Doris, Gabi ben Doris, Elad ben Doris, and David ben Esria, and all of the donor supporters. employees, volunteers, of which really every day sacrifice their time, their efforts, their sanity sometimes, just to get another person closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Because the last thing we do is discriminate. The last thing, you know, we try to help everybody that wants to be helped. Now, if you don't want to be helped, we don't want to help you.

2:41if you don't want to be helped, we don't want to help you. Why? Because we have other people that want to be helped, and it's better to spend time, resources, and energy on someone that wants to be helped. You know, many times people ask me, "Oh, can you call my cousin? Can you call my friend? Can you call my this?" No. He can send us a message. He can watch a shiur. She can watch a shiur. She can attend a shiur. It's all free. But for us to go chase them when they're not interested? Not happening. Why? Because there are too many people that are interested. And your cousin, your brother, your husband, your child's blood is not redder than theirs. It's not. Why? Because they're interested. That's already a warm lead. Someone's interested, it's already a warm lead. You know, in the marketing business, when I was on Wall Street, it was marketing. What do you do? Try to get, you know, customers. Now, you could cold call, you could warm call. What's a cold call versus a warm call? Cold call is, you call a complete stranger. Hi, Mr. Jones. Yeah, this is Ron Rubin. How are you? Good. Listen, I have, by the end of the call, a million dollars. Why? Because I'm Ron Rubin. That's why. Now, that was the best. Stranger. But who's the best customer? Not that guy. That guy's not the best customer. You know who's the best guy? His friend.

3:55His friend’s the best guy. Why? After he made a few dollars with us and he likes us, he tells me, "Listen, I have a good friend." Oh, you have a good friend? I have a good friend also—your friend. So give me his phone number. "Listen, your friend Steve over here, I’ve been dealing with him for the last X amount of time and he’s set to call you." He says, "You know what? He’s right." And guess what? The second customer is the best customer. Why? Because I already have a reference. I already have a rapport with his friend and he’s vouching for me. That’s what we call a warm call. so it's always better to make a warm call than a cold call. Why? Because with the first guy, you're still trying to build a rapport, which takes time. With the second guy, you already did it. You already did it. It's no different when you're trying to save a neshama (soul). The price that's on the line is much, much more dear. Why? It's eternity, it's not just a few dollars. And the reality is that you cannot waste any time. You can't afford to. So you cannot just focus on cold calls all day. You have to try to get as many warm ones as possible. How? Simply by focusing as much of your energy as you possibly can on people that are interested in getting closer to Hashem.

5:09Don't waste your time dealing with Christian missionaries. Don't waste your time dealing with people that are anti-Torah. Don't waste your time with people that are atheists. Don't waste your time with people that are openly homosexual and are enemies of Hashem. Don't waste your time with people that are vulgar and disgusting and simply do not want to change. Don't waste your time with people that have an ego bigger than this room. Don't waste your time with them. Why? Because there are too many people that are more humble, that are at a position in their life where they realize they need to change. There are too many people that are interested in a more significant and more purposeful life. Too many people like that. Go to them. Why? Because they're much easier to get on board. This guy already wants to get on board. All you have to do is make a right, make a left. up at the lecture every, uh, you know, every Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at nine o'clock, you're there. You'll get—he already wants to go. The other guy tells us, "You want to come to a lecture?" "No, no, I don't believe in God." "What do you mean you don't believe in God? Where did you come from?"

6:18I came for a monkey. Okay, maybe you did come for a monkey. You look like one, so it could be. It could be you came for a monkey. See you? You may be right. The way you look, you may be right. You may be right. Why don't you come to the lecture anyway? No, no, no, I hate God. Wait, you just said you don't believe in Him. You said you don't believe in Him. Now you hate Him too? No, listen, I want to bring my boyfriend. What? Your boyfriend's also a monkey? Or he's your father? What's going on? People like that, don't waste your time. Why? what for what, go deal with normal people that want to change, that want to get close. Don't deal with the crazy people. When people that are missionaries start preaching Yoske to you, listen, you know, come here. No, no, I want to tell you about Jesus. You know, tell me about this. I'll tell you about Jesus. He's right now in the pool, a pool that's really, really warm. deal with that. Why? Too many people want to know Hashem, Hashem. Go deal with them. That's the warm lead, that's the warmest, the best lead. I'm telling you from experience. In the beginning, I thought that I could convince anybody to believe in Hashem, and with enough time, you technically can. With enough time, you can.

7:32But after you start dealing with a lot of people, you realize that it's not worth it to deal with everybody. It's simply not worth it. Why? Because let's say, for example, you've got this tough cookie. And this guy is a missionary slash homosexual slash apikores slash his brother too. He's all of the above. This guy is a piece of work. And you debate him for four months straight just to make sure that he realizes that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is stamped inside his DNA. And by the end of the four months, this guy says, you know what? You saved my life. I love you. You're the best. Great, right? You feel proud of yourself. Your wife is proud of you. Your husband is proud of you. Everybody's proud of you. in reality, you just wasted four months. During those four months, you could have saved 5, 10, 15, 20 people a week investing the same amount of energy. It's not fair. It's not fair to those 20 people. It's not fair. Why is he better than them? No, he's not better than them. And that's the reality. So after I realized that, yes, I saved a few tough cookies. One woman came to me, a missionary. She tried to convert me to Christianity. Today she's in the process of converting to Judaism. She's more religious than me. This woman is unbelievable. She was a missionary. But you know how tough of a cookie she was? If I'd do it again, I wouldn't do it.

8:54wouldn't do it. I can't, can't do it. Why? During that time, you could save a lot more people. During that time, it was early, early on, and so on. But the point being is that a lot of times people want to go davka, davka to the tough cookie. not fair, it's not fair for you to invest all your time and resources on the tough cookies. Go to the easy fish, go to the easy customers. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of people that want to get closer to Hashem. Now, to help you, we're constantly trying to give more new material. Each and every week, there's more and more material. We try not to go over the same material more than once. uh, jokes we repeat a thousand times because we don't have many, but we have a little bit more. And there's a lot of material, a lot of material, and every week there's more material. Right now, we have thousands, thousands of videos online—short ones, long ones, movies with music, without music—all types of things. Lots of tools for you to use.

9:55to learn and also to do kiruv, but also sometimes you need some things in the field. You need something to help your community—some flyers, some CDs, some USBs, some different things—and we constantly try to allocate funds to help people do kiruv. Now, CDs have been the number one tool because that's the most cost-effective way to get the lectures across the people. But also, even though people keep telling me for already four, five, six years, "Listen, the car doesn't have a CD player." I already knew that six years ago. I knew that ten years ago, your car doesn't have a CD player. I'm still going to print more CDs ten years from now. Why? It's not about the CD. It's not about the CD. It's about the... fact that if I give you a flyer, you're going to value it as a flyer. And it has a certain amount of value in your mind: 5 cents, 10 cents, 15 cents, 20 cents—that's what it is. But if this flyer is hard because there's a CD in it, even if you don't have a CD player, you're more likely to keep it. And even if you don't have a CD player, you're more likely to take it and put it in your pocket. And then go home and type in "Hashem took back His millions" on YouTube. And then you're going to find out that same exact

11:03name has a little over a million and a half views next to it. And that's going to make you interested to watch it too. Not on the CD. On a computer. But if it was on a flyer, you're less likely. So CDs are the best flyer there is. Whether you have a CD player or you don't have a CD player, it doesn't make a difference. It's a fantastic way. It's just that it's more expensive than an actual paper flyer. But the point being is that for those people that have a community, have a few dollars together, order some CDs, give them to your communities, help people have at least a way out of their own troubles. A way out of their own mistaken life by having a little bit of Emet, of Torah Emet in their life. And Baruch Hashem, these CDs have helped countless people. Just in the last year, we gave out over 300,000 CDs. Honestly, in the last, since Lag Ba'Omer, since Lag Ba'Omer, just a few months, we gave out almost a quarter million CDs. So most of the CDs we gave out in the last few months. A lot of CDs. And Baruch Hashem, many people are doing teshuva, watching the movie. Some of them are doing exactly what I just said. They take the CD, they type in the name, the CD stays on the counter, but they watch the movie, they watch everything else. Other people still have CD players. They're not as advanced as you guys. Point being is, everybody has a way to use these things. Now, on top of that, we have our...

12:24I say it's our posters, the plastic, uh... PVC they call it in the, uh... in the, uh... factory world. The, uh... posters, one side has a skin as the one side has a Sephardi. We pretend that we could actually sell, you know, these things and pay for a lot of things, but in reality, ninety-nine point nine percent of the beginning is for free. We distributed about forty thousand of them just this past year. All over the world, in Australia, the United States, Israel, and different places, b'ezrat Hashem, you see our posters in restaurants and houses in various locations. This is a fantastic way to have Torah in your own home, but it is also a good thing to distribute in your community. Now we have a little bit more... propaganda for you to help you guys out, do kiruv, and also to spread our Torah. We need more merits. We need more merit. So again, remind everybody. Remind everybody: you're on the go, you need Torah. If you don't have internet, sometimes you don't have internet, you...

13:26you're on a plane, you're in different places, the USBs are the best thing in the world, simply because you have over 400 hours of Torah on this USB, and simply by the time you finish, you're a mini rabbi. That's really what it is. There's a lot of Torah on this USB. It's not very expensive. I'm sure that you have a lot of things in your house that are much more expensive, including your phone. So, again, this USB, get it for yourself, get it for your friends, get a few dollars together, and get yourself a few USBs. This is the Pirkei Avot series. It took us two and a half years to make this series, and Baruch Hashem, quite a few people have done teshuva, got chizuk, got closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu as a result of this series. We have the same exact thing with Tikkun HaBrit, and movies on there, and so on. So, again, this is the USB. Uh, we have the card that I told you guys about. One of my favorite teshuva stories over the years has been from this card. One guy or one woman, I'm not really sure who it was because a few people bought some of these cards... I decided to give them out. They put it under doors in different places. One place was in New York City. New York City is like, you know, like Sodom and Gomorrah, but with business. So, you know, I used to live there, I know. So, anyway, one person put this little 10-cent card under a door. You know what he has right now for this 10 cents? He has 310 Gan Edens.

14:47310 Gan Edens and not one Gan Eden. 310 Gan Edens for 10 cents he bought. Why? Because one woman saw this card. She said, "You know what? It's interesting. I was interested in God. I'm Jewish and interested in God, but I don't really know anything about Him because I went to public school. I made all types of mistakes in my life. I'm 30-something years old and I don't know anything about God. So let me watch this movie." She watched this movie. She's been keeping Shabbat for a few months already, and now she wants to start a challah business. Why? Because she loves Hashem. She fell in love with Hashem through the movie. So, for what? This person, whoever did it, for 10 cents, he got 310 Gan Edens. We have one Gan Eden. Who has an assurance here to go to Gan Eden? He has assurance, he has 310 of them. For one card, for 10 cents. So this is, a few people were smart enough to give these out. Then we have the app. The app is a fantastic way to watch the shiurim because you don't have all the distractions from YouTube and other places. But on top of that, you have the blessing on one side, which is, I think I mentioned to you guys, the prayer before you go to a doctor, before you take any medicine, you should say this prayer to remind yourself and, in essence, tell Hashem, you are the real doctor. This piece of chalk, you're the only one that's going to make it work. This guy that has some funny tools in his hand and calls himself a doctor,

16:05Your only way he's going to be a real doctor that's going to heal me is you. You say this before you go, b'ezrat Hashem, you will have a lot more success. This is one flyer you get, again, on our website. Another thing we add is the mezuzah prayer. Anybody that's buying a mezuzah on b'ezrat Hashem gets these websites, gets these automatically now, so we just got them. But also, if you have a mezuzah prayer, you want to give them out, good, but you're going to say, yeah, but how many times are you going to do the mezuzah prayer? You buy a mezuzah, finish. You're not going to do it again. Okay, we thought about that too. The other side. Other side has the blessing for lightning and thunder. Lightning and thunder you do every year. Every year there is lightning and thunder. You have that on the other side. You have to remind yourself sometimes what the blessing is. Trust me, I sometimes forget. So don't feel bad. Lightning and thunder on one side and the mezuzah on the other side. But in case you don't like the horizontal, we got you the vertical also, just in case. But just in case you're bothered by the brown, we got you the white. Just, again, to give you selection and to keep you guys from getting bored. Anyway, if you want, this is the Tikkun HaBrit series, but you say, yeah, but how many times can I look at the Tikkun HaBrit series? Exactly, you're right. You shouldn't just look at Tikkun HaBrit. You should buy it already, for yourself and for your friends. But after you do, what do you do with this flyer? You have the 13 principles of faith on the other side.

17:1813. Then you understand why I made 50 million dollars in the stock market. Okay, so you see, yeah, I have the 13 principles of faith on the other side. Some genius, some genius name—I mean, I'm not going to tell you guys who it is. I'm going to tell you who did it. Let me tell you, all 13 principles of faith—this one is amazing. I loved it. So now the Chaburah series, in case you didn't listen to it on the USB, you have this again to give out. And in case people say, who is this Sharon Rubin? He's a salesman, he's a stockbroker—what does he do? This is what we do. And, Baruch Hashem, in the last year we did a whole lot of kiruv. We did more kiruv than anybody else that I know, at least published. One organization came out today or yesterday and said, listen, we have a fundraiser. We want to raise a million or a million and a half dollars in 24 hours. And guess what? They got it. They got a million dollars. What did they get a million dollars for? What did they get a million dollars for? Over the last, I don't know, I think it was the reported year, and over the last four years, they took something in the neighborhood. In the last year, I think they took 200-and-something kids.

18:22from public school, from public school to yeshiva. Baruch Hashem, it's fantastic. Now, for a million dollars, a lot of money for 200 kids. I mean, you could technically build a few yeshivot with that kind of money. But anyway, whatever, 200 kids, in the last four years, they got, I don't know, 900 kids went from public school to yeshiva. Now, this is costing them, apparently, they're raising a million, million and a half dollars a year, at least, just for this particular project. So a million and a half dollars for 900 kids. ...times four, so that's six million dollars for 900 kids. You give me six million dollars, I mean, you know we're gonna add a few zeros to that number, but that's a different story. Now, a million, a million dollars in 24 hours. 24 hours they got it. Enjoy the money, go buy some houses too, maybe you have spare money. But what did we do? What did we do? We got 60 million minutes of shiurim being watched online in the last 12 months. 60 million minutes. This is more than anybody, statistically speaking, out there. This is an enormous amount of Torah, and it's nothing like those; it's not even close to that. Why? Because everything we do is free.

19:35And Baruch Hashem, it costs a lot of money, but it's free for you. Now, we've given out hundreds of thousands of CDs. We've helped over 10,000 people eat. Simply eat. Right now, we just sent, like I said, we sent close to $100,000 to Eretz Yisrael in the last week. help a few thousand people eat during this chag. We're going to continue doing good things, and the reality is the more you help us, the more good things we can do. Now, for anybody, there's still plenty, plenty of people who don't even know we exist. This flyer is one of those things. You put a few of them, you put 10, 20, 30 of them in your beit knesset. Somebody sees it, "Oh wow, this looks good. Let me go on YouTube and find these names." Next thing you know, they're a subscriber, they're a donor, they're a supporter. Who does it go to? To your credit. Yeah, but I didn't even tell him about it. I just put the flyer there. Exactly. Exactly. You just put the flyer there. That's enough. That's enough. So, all of these things you can get on the website. If it's not on there now, it'll be there tomorrow. But the point being, Rabotai, is that sometimes people need something digital. Sometimes they need something more tangible, that's a hard copy. We have to do whatever we can to get people closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

20:47Whatever we can. Every person should do whatever they can to set HaKadosh Baruch Hu apart from everything else in the world. Because if you're marketing a business, you're starting a business, you're starting the next Google, you're starting the next Apple, you're starting the next little rinky-dink operation that you think is going to be the next big thing. What are you going to do? You're going to invest everything in it. Every bit of time, every bit of energy, every bit of thought. You're going to think about it at night. You're going to dream about it. You're going to draw. You're going to do everything. Even during your lunch, you're going to think about how your cookies look like this business you want. Everything's going to look like this business to you. Why? Because it's important to you. Hashem is more important than your business. Now, your business, you're going to invest everything you have. Not saying to invest everything you have. Everything else you don't. Everything you don't invest in your business, invest in the Kiruv. Why? Because this is going to yield you a reward you can take forever. Now, We have, Be'ezrat Hashem, a few more days before the big day. Judgment day was a few days ago, that's Rosh Hashanah. Now, none of us know, none of us know how we were judged. None of us know. Could be good, Hashem Yishmor, could be bad, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu, who knows His creation, knows that sometimes we show up to Rosh Hashanah

22:07slippers on, you know, we show up to Rosh Hashanah like we're going to the beach, like we're not really sure what we're doing here. We're too busy giving people high fives, we forget about Hashem sometimes. We forgot to pray on Rosh Hashanah, or sometimes we didn't pray enough on Rosh Hashanah, and He says, "Okay, we have Yom Kippur." Yom Kippur is a big day. That's the appeal. That's your second chance to change whatever decision was already made on Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu decided to give you $50,000, but you need $100,000 to survive. So how are you going to get $100,000? How are you going to get the other? You have to double what He already decided for you. Yom Kippur is the day. Yom Kippur is the day. Who decided that a certain person is going to, chas v'shalom, die? I'm not sure. HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides if a person will die three, four, five, six days, or months after Yom Kippur. Now, that could still be changed. I know people—everything can be changed on Yom Kippur. Everything. A person could show up to Rosh Hashanah with cancer and...

23:24Yom Kippur, HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides if the cancer is gone, and many times we've seen with our own eyes how miracles have happened to people, especially those who took the message from HaKadosh Baruch Hu seriously. Now, the Torah gives us clear instructions on what happens on Yom Kippur. Sefer Vayikra, Leviticus, chapter 16. HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells us about the eternal decree of having Yom Kippur. This shall remain for you an eternal decree. In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month.

24:34You shall afflict yourselves, and you shall not do any work, neither the native nor the convert who dwells among you. For on this day, He shall provide atonement for you to purify you. From all of your sins before Hashem, you shall be purified. So this holiday... says there is no better day for the am Yisrael than Yom Kippur. No better day. Now we're thinking, "Oh, it's tragic, we can't eat the whole day, we can't go on the internet, watch YouTube, we can't do this, we can't do that." No, no, you're mistaken. There's no better day than Yom Kippur because if a person simply knew what kind of decrees supposed to happen and then ended up being changed. The decree ended up softening; the decree ended up disappearing. Who changed? Where he said on Rosh Hashanah, "This country will now become Nazi Germany again," but then he saw how we did teshuvah. He saw how we cared about who? He saw how we cared about helping. You know what?

25:59Let's put that Nazi Germany thing off for a little while. If a person knew what kind of decrees were pending, were actually already sealed, but were reversed as a result of the actions we took before and during Yom Kippur, he would realize why the Gemara says that there's no better day for Am Yisrael than Yom Kippur. Now, But what does it mean? For on this day He shall provide atonement for you to purify you. For all your sins before Hashem shall you be purified. So needless to say, HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows His creation and knows that we're not showing up to Yom Kippur like angels. may look like angels. You're wearing white, you have a nice smell on you, you just took a shower right before you came to shul. Everything's good, right? But who sees what's inside? Inside, it says, "Oh, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin." It says you showed up to the Beit HaMikdash. You showed up to the Beit Mikdash Katan...

27:21Small Beit Mikdash, full of sins. All the sins you made the whole year. Even after you said, "I'm sorry," you still had a week left; you made more sins during that week. Who knows? He knows we are full of sins. But this day is a day you become pure. How do you become pure? How do you become pure? The Mishnah in Avot says... Someone that says, since I can do teshuvah later on, I don't need to do it now. I'll make a sin, I'll do teshuvah later. I'll go out with this girl, and then after I have a good time, I'll say I'm sorry to Hashem. just after I have a good time, this sandwich has all types of bugs and gremlins in it and stuff. It looks delicious, especially with cheese on it, so I'm going to have a few bites. You know, I'll get full, but I'm not eating the whole thing. I'm going to stop after I'm halfway through it. I'm going to say I'm sorry. It was good, but I'm not eating the whole thing. I really mean business; I'm only going to eat half the sandwich.

28:47HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, a jokester like this, that says, I'm going to make a sin with the intent, I'm going to do teshuva. Like he knows this is a sin. And he says, I'm going to make this sin because I have this desire. I have a desire to have a boyfriend, even though I'm a guy. I have a desire to have a boyfriend, even though I'm not married. I have a desire to have a boyfriend, even though I am married. All types of desires that are forbidden by the Torah. I'm going to do teshuva later. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, someone like this who says, I'm going to sin and then do teshuva, the punishment for that person in this world is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I'm not going to let you do teshuva. I think you say, wait a minute, hold on a second. We have a verse in the Torah that says, Yom Kippur, Yom Kippur is every year, Baruch Hashem. It says, this is the day that will purify you. So even if I can't do teshuva on my own, Yom Kippur is going to show up, right? The Mishnah in Avot says, continues, the same Mishnah, says that person that's not allowed to do teshuva, Yom Kippur doesn't help them.

30:02He can cry until he's blue in the face. He can fast for a week straight, not a day. A week, like the Ramban. Like Baba Sali used to fast from Shabbat to Shabbat, a week straight, every week. Like Rav Kuli, the Ba'al Me'am Loez, would fast a week. He can fast like that, not just every week. It's not going to help. Why? You made fun of the Torah. You made a joke of it. You made a joke of it. Person fails, normal. But a person is making a joke out of the Torah, says, "I'm just going to make sins and then do teshuva, with no care in the world," HaKadosh Baruch Hu says the punishment is, "I'm not going to let you do teshuva, and even Yom Kippur is not going to help you." Hashem yishmor. And the Rambam says this is one of the worst punishments that a person can get in this world. One of the worst. The worst one is, Hashem removes the person's desire to do teshuva. Meaning, it's not possible for him to do teshuva. Meaning that the other guy, it's still possible, even though it says that Hashem is not going to let it, meaning that it's going to be more difficult. The point being, rabotai, is that Yom Kippur is only intended for those people who are intending to do teshuva. If you do not intend on doing teshuva, Yom Kippur will not help you.

31:27if you show up to Yom Kippur and you leave Shabbat, you prayed for nothing. It's not going to help you. If you show up to Yom Kippur eating non-kosher, having a non-kosher business, having a non-kosher relationship without an intention to change, without a plan to change, you simply are just going to go pray in hopes that everything's going to work out. Yom Kippur did not help you at all. In fact, it makes things worse because you're making a joke of the system. So first and foremost, a person needs to show up to Yom Kippur understanding that this special day that purifies us is only if we want to be purified. We have an interest in being purified, not if we think that Hashem is going to do the job for us without us contributing. Second, someone asked a big question:

32:29Not just today, but a few hundred years ago. His name was Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says, the Rambam writes, about 900 years ago, that to do teshuva is really a four-step process. One, stop sinning. Stop. Stop it. If you still have a boyfriend, you haven't started doing teshuva. You still have a girlfriend? You still haven't done teshuva. You haven't started. You still watching filthy movies? You haven't begun doing teshuva. You still violate Shabbat on purpose? Teshuva hasn't begun yet. First step, stop sinning. Stop sinning. Second step, make a fence. Meaning, evaluate your actions your failures and understand what are the triggers that cause you to fall for the trap of the Satan. You know that every time you go to certain places on the internet or in person, you fail with Shmirat HaBrit. You know that every time you go to certain places or hang out with certain people, you act promiscuously.

33:51know that every time you go to certain areas or hang out with certain people, you end up eating non-kosher food or speaking non-kosher language, such as cursing or using vile language. You know yourself when you're at your worst and when you are at your best. Make a fence around yourself. This means to learn enough about the topic... To know what's allowed and what's not allowed. But also, evaluate yourself and put a fence around yourself in the sense that from now on, I have rules. I'm not like an animal; I have rules. From now on, I'm not allowing myself to go to such and such places. Why? Because every time I go to such and such places, I make sins. From now on, I'm not allowing myself to talk to such and such people. Why? Because every time I talk to them, I say Lashon Hara. I lie, I curse, I do this, I do that. Now what? Yeah, what about if they call you? Well, you could just press, you know, that red button on your phone. Red button, I don't know, I press it all the time. People call and I just press the red button all the time. Red button. Goes automatically to voicemail. That's it. Oh, what if they get offended? Let them get offended.

35:09they get offended. Who gets offended? Make a fence for yourself. You can't go to certain places, you can't do certain things because that's the fence that's going to keep you pure. That's step number two. So we stop sinning. We put a fence around ourselves to not return back to the criminal world. If you're an alcoholic, that means you cannot go to bars or even a bar mitzvah that has alcohol in it. If you are a drug addict, that means you cannot even walk around in a neighborhood where you know that there are certain people that do it. If you are an immoral person where you've done all types of sex crimes, that means that you cannot hang out with certain people or even be next to certain people or speak certain things because that's what leads you to do. And everybody knows themselves and so on and so forth. So we stopped sinning. We made a fence. And the Rambam writes, step number three. Regret your sins. Regret your sins. Your sins are terrible. What you did—say I'm sorry. Say I'm sorry, it's very simple. Step number four: When HaKadosh Baruch Hu tests you again with that same girl...

36:33at that same place, you better pass that test. Why? Because that's when HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to stamp "he is ba'al teshuva," and at that day, those sins that you've made turn into, from purposeful sins to accidental sins. Meaning, the judgment goes from level a million to a few hundred. The punishment was eternal, to now... maybe a few weeks. And it can eventually turn into even mitzvot, depending if you continue growing in your teshuva. So what's the question then? Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says, I don't understand. Why is the regret step number three? Shouldn't it be step number one? Isn't that the reason why I'm changing in the first place? Because I regret my sins? Rabbi Yisrael Salanter answers the question for us. In the sefer Or Yisrael, he says, the reason why you do teshuva has nothing to do with regretting your sins. In fact, when you first start doing teshuva, when you first start repenting, when you first start changing your life, it is not because you regret it,

38:01your past crimes, but rather because you simply decide that you want a better life than what you have now. Yeah, you had fun going to the clubs and going to the beach and eating whatever you want. You had a good time. But you know that settling down with a nice tzaddekes, settling down with a nice tzaddik is a better life. You know, have kids instead of boyfriends, have a house instead of, you know, vacation resorts, have a normal job instead of, you know, it's a better life. In the beginning, when you first put your kisuy rosh on, you're not regretting the time that you hung out at the club and you were doing all types of horrible things. No, you don't even think it's horrible. Why? Because when your friends come over, "Hey, girlfriend! Hey, how are you? You remember when we went to that club and that guy was there, yeah, we were dancing all night." You don't regret it at all. You don't regret it at all. Well, you had a good time. You went to the beach, you went to Cancun, you ate all types of animals you never saw before.

39:05You don't regret the fact that you took a bite. It was delicious. You actually say, how can we make a kosher version of this? How can we make a kosher lobster? How can we make a kosher pig? How can we make a kosher elephant? How do we make everything kosher? You like it. You sing. Now I want a better version. That's it. So how do I get to regret? Beside me, the Salon says, when you first start doing teshuvah, you don't regret the girl that you were immoral with. When you first start doing teshuvah, you don't regret the boy that you were immoral with. When you first start doing teshuvah, you don't regret every single crime that you've committed. Why? Because, quite frankly, you don't even know why they're crimes. You just know that there's a better way to live. When are you going to know that you are a criminal and... When you leave the garbage that you're in for long enough time to realize that the foul smell was coming from you. When you live in the garbage like a rat, you don't realize you're living in garbage. Why? Because it's your house. You don't call your house garbage. You live there.

40:24mouse and the rodent don't wake up in the morning. The guy can't stand this dump. He doesn't say that. He says, "Look at my house. It's a beautiful house. I got a box with roaches over there. I got a box with tomatoes over there that are almost perfect." He doesn't think it's a dump; he thinks that's my house. When your life is full of sins and filth, you don't think bad of it. Why? Because that's your field. It's your stuff. when you first started doing it, you don't think of it as filthy, gross, ugly, or disgusting. No, you're thinking, "It's my life, what's the problem? I'm just going in a better direction." But then, when you spend enough time coming to the shiur instead of going to the club, you spend enough time reading the sefer instead of watching television, you spend enough time talking to HaKadosh Baruch Hu instead of talking Guess what happens? You're leaving that filthy dump because now you're putting up a fence where you say, "You know what? I'm not going back to that place because I want a better way." It's not because I don't like Cancun, and it's not because I don't like pork and all the garbage. It's just that there's a better way. But after a while, you know, putting up that fence and learning about Hashem, little by little, time passes.

41:47And you haven't been in that dump for a while. And you figure, you know what? Let me look back. Let me see some pictures of back home. And you look back home, it's like, I used to live there? What's the matter with me? Look at that haircut I used to have. What was I, in a contest of ugly people? What was I doing? Why did I wear those clothes? What's that look on my face? Why did I get that tattoo? What's the matter with me? Who would put something on their face forever? And you start looking at the filth of your past, and you realize, what's the matter with me? How come you didn't say it when you were in it? Because you were in it. When you live in the garbage, you don't realize it's garbage, but once you walk out of the garbage for a long enough time, you get enough separation from the filth to allow yourself to realize, yes, there's still a smell, but I feel like it's behind me. Then you realize, oh, that's what I left behind. And that's when the regret comes in. That's why the Rambam writes, the third step of teshuva,

43:00Regret cannot be the first step because, in the beginning, you don't even know why it's not allowed. You don't even know why it's not allowed to drive on Shabbat. You don't even know why it's not allowed to eat whatever you want. You don't even know why it's not allowed to have a new wife every week. You don't even know why it's not allowed to do whatever it is that you feel like doing because it makes you feel good. You don't know why. But after you've separated yourself from the sin for a long enough time, and on top of it, you've done enough mitzvot to start purifying your neshama, you start realizing that the foul smell from your sins is behind you, and you want to make sure to keep it behind you. And you start realizing that you have made the best choice in your life subconsciously. You didn't even realize how good the choice was until you got away from it. Until you got away from that filth. Slammy Salon says that at the point when you regret the sin, that's when you've officially become a Baal Teshuva. Hashem will test you again, and if you pass it, Hashem signs off that he or she is a Baal Teshuva. Now, if you simply stop the sin but you don't regret it, you're not a Baal Teshuva. You're just a monkey that changed clothes.

44:28If you went from going to nightclubs to going to the synagogue, that doesn't make you a Baal Teshuva. It just means your entertainment places have changed. That's all it means. If you have changed your hat that looks like a baseball team to a kippah, it doesn't make you a Baal Teshuva. It just means that your fashion expression has changed. Your style has changed. You feel like, oh, yarmulke is cool today, maybe next month it's going to be hot again. A Baal Teshuva is someone that has distanced himself or herself from the sin for a long enough time to realize why it's disgusting to do all of those things and becomes simply disgusted with their past, to no longer want to do it. You don't want to go back to that girl, to that boy, to that pig, to that donkey. You don't want to go back there. Well, it's gross. So that means that if you have been going to synagogue for 5, 10, 15, 20 years, but you still reminisce with your friends about going to some nightclub, by the way, you haven't done teshuvah for 20 years. You just changed your fashion statement for 20 years.

45:56You've been reading books for 20 years, but you haven't done teshuvah. And guess what? A huge amount of people huge amount of people think of themselves as Baalei Teshuvah even though they still not only talk about their past, they admire their past. They tell their kids about their past, they say, "Hey listen, when I was your age, we're religious now, so don't do what I did, kid. But I had like 10 girlfriends at your age, kid. Yeah, that was the life back then. But no, no, you have a better life. You have a better life." Then he's surprised the kid goes off the derech a week later. He's surprised. He tells his kid about all the sins in the world that he committed, and he's surprised the kid doesn't want to go to yeshiva anymore. "Yeah, this looks nice on you, honey. Yeah, you know, I had a different style than you when I was your age." "What, Ima, what did you have? What kind of style?" "Oh, you want to see pictures of me when I was your age?" And she shows how she looked, practically like a prostitute when she was non-religious, and then she's surprised that her daughter doesn't want to be religious a week later.

47:04shows her pictures of herself when she was 16-18 and sinning. Why? She never regretted being like that. That means she hasn't done teshuva. He hasn't done teshuva. The third step of teshuva is regretting the sin, regretting the sin. Once a person regrets the sin, that's when HaKadosh Baruch Hu tests him, and that's when HaKadosh Baruch Hu can sign off on whether you've become a real Baal Teshuva or not. Now, if a person commits a sin against Hashem that was very pleasurable. Everyone can understand what kind of crime that could be—an immorality crime, whether with a person or by oneself. How can you get to a point of regretting that crime? I mean, after all, it was pleasant. You had a good time. How can you regret such a crime? Watch my shiurim about Gehinnom. Watch my shiurim about Tikkun HaBrit, wasting seed.

48:17Watch them over and over again. Understand the magnitude of the sin. Understand how much Hashem detests that particular sin and that particular subject altogether. And how holy a relationship is supposed to be. One of the shiurim that we have on the USB and on the playlist of Tikkun HaBrit is a shiur called Kosher Intimacy. Look at what you did versus what it's supposed to be. And you see how you acted outright like a beast that you can find in a zoo. And the way you're supposed to be is like an angel. Both are fun. It's just that one type of fun goes to Gehinnom permanently. The other type of fun is Kedusha and goes to Gan Eden permanently.

49:18It just depends. Both are fun, just that one of them ends up in Gehinom. Now, when a person understands how much Hashem has given us the ability to enjoy ourselves, but simply in a kosher way, and yet we chose the non-kosher way, the animalistic way, and you learn more and more about it, you start realizing what a mistake you've made. And you start realizing, wait a minute, I made this mistake with none other than Hashem's daughter. Now, it's bad enough that you made this mistake of wasting seed. It's bad enough that you made this mistake of being immoral. It's bad enough. Now, when you start realizing, wait a minute, I'm such a fool. What an idiot. Not only did I make this crime against the King, I did it with His daughter.

50:20I didn't want to, I mean, when you start analyzing, what did you do? One, two, five, a hundred, how many daughters? You took HaKadosh Baruch Hu's daughters, and it's not only that you made the sin with them, not only that you committed the immoral crime with them, but on top of this, you offended them. On top of this, you broke their heart. On top of this, you yelled at them. You insulted them. You destroyed their confidence. You destroyed their psyche. For the rest of their lives, they're always going to remember, you are the guy that broke my heart. You are the guy that I lost my confidence with. You are the guy that I thought I was going to marry that ended up leaving me a week later. And who's that girl? That's a Kadosh. That's the king's daughter. You did it. You start realizing, not only did I go against the king, Not only did he watch me do it, on top of it, I did it with his daughter. The deeper you analyze it, the easier it is to regret. So much so, that at some point you start crying. Why? You realize what kind of trouble you're in. At that moment, that's when you become a Baal Teshuva. That's when you become a Baal Teshuva.

51:35But if you're still admiring your past, you're still showing your daughter the half a dress that you used to wear as a full dress. You're still admiring the pictures of yourself with practically underwear. You're still admiring yourself in the past criminal life. You haven't even begun. You haven't begun. This is why, Rabotai, it's very important to use your imagination when you're talking about sins. Not your imagination of how the sin looks like, but rather what's the outcome of the sin after HaKadosh Baruch Hu catches you red-handed. Not the five seconds or five minutes of pleasure. Not that, your imagination. A little while later, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu sends those Malachei Chabalah ...to start investigating different parts of your organs with no limitations of a physical body, but a magnification of pain times 60, with all types of wonderful tools that you've never even imagined exist.

52:51No limit to how much pain a person can endure because, at this point, it's purely a neshama that has no limitations like a body does. Because the body, if it experiences a certain amount of pain, it could literally die from pain. And the neshama doesn't. A person understands that he doesn't want to sin anymore. So, is it worth it? But am I crazy? Am I a crazy person? This is what you need to do. Not should do. You need to do. In order to arrive at a point where you at least have the test under control. It doesn't mean you can become a tzaddik and never sin again, but at least get yourself under control where you're not some crazy person. One day you're in a synagogue learning Gemara, then five hours later you're committing a crime against Hashem, and He's watching you. so many bachurim, different people, young people, old people, tell me, "Listen, I don't understand. I go to yeshiva, I go to a seminar, I do this, I do that, but I still commit crimes against Hashem that a secular person commits. The same crimes. How?" You haven't used your imagination the right way. You only use your imagination to picture yourself committing the crime but not yet picture yourself receiving the punishment for the crime. You need to use your imagination for that too.

54:21Why is that going to help you stop? It’s going to help you stop. We should try to do this as soon as possible, but even more so now, before Yom Kippur. Why? Because whatever decree we have, surely getting ourselves to do a little bit more will help in the next few days to get a better decree for the following year. And one of the ways that you can get extra strength, as we learned from the Kav HaYashar and many other sefarim, one of the ways that you can get extra Yirat Shamayim, extra holiness, is by being a Shomer Brit, preserving yourself until you're married, and even when you are married, only to do it in a kosher way. And one of the ways to get the strength to be a Shomer Brit is by helping other people do teshuva. Help other people do teshuva. Help other people get closer to Hashem, specifically with this issue. Now, many great rabbis

55:28throughout the recent years, have focused on teaching people about Shabbat. You have to keep Shabbat; it's the foundation of Judaism and so on. Baruch Hashem, we've gotten quite a few people to keep Shabbat, and we continue to get more and more people to keep Shabbat. But if you've noticed, I spend at least as much, if not more, time teaching people about Tikkun HaBrit as we do about Shabbat. And the reason why is this: from my experience, from my experience on both sides of the fence, ...I know that there are many people, many people that observe Shabbat but are still going to go to Gehinom forever. They keep Shabbat their whole life, but they're still going to go to Gehinom forever if they don't do Teshuvah. Why? Because they waste seed every day, or they're promiscuous, and so on and so forth. Boys, girls, there's no difference anymore. It's not like in the old days; there's no difference anymore. Girls, boys, Shemirat HaBrit. They keep Shabbat, but...

56:30now what I find out through experience, I found out that someone that keeps Shabbat doesn't necessarily mean that he keeps everything else. but someone that overcomes, overcomes the obstacle of Kedusha and starts protecting his Brit, she starts protecting her Kedusha, she starts dressing more modestly, she starts protecting herself and preserving herself until marriage, Even after marriage, she still treats herself in a modest, holy way. He treats himself in a modest, holy way. Guess what? The entire Torah becomes easy to keep. He wants to keep Shabbat, he wants to learn Torah, he wants to do everything. Why? The Brit is the foundation, but it's not just the foundation because Shabbat is also a foundation. So why does the Brit make everything easy, but Shabbat not necessarily?

57:39because typically, a human being does not have a desire to violate Shabbat. You don't have a physical desire to violate Shabbat. You may want to do certain things on Shabbat, but it's not a physical desire only to do it on Shabbat. You would do that same thing any other day. But wasting seed, that’s a desire that you have to overcome. have to overcome because if you don't, simply, there is no way you will have any willpower to do anything else. But if you overcome it, if you can overcome this specific issue, that means that you have enough willpower to overcome anything, and this is why many times people that become Shomer Brit they become Talmidei Chachamim, they find a zivug much faster, their parnassah improves, they simply have a smoother path for the future they want than the people that don't.

58:45Many times people say, yeah, listen, I've been protecting my brit, but certain things haven't happened. First and foremost, we don't know Hashem's timing. Hashem's timing for every person is different. Second of all, sometimes a person thinks that they're protecting their brit, but in reality, they're still violating certain things. They're still violating certain things because they're not paying attention, they're not paying careful attention to certain things. And the reality is they're not doing what Hashem wants them to do, part of it. So you have to be very, very careful. There are certain things you have to simply do what you're supposed to, but there are certain things you have to go over and above. When it comes to Kedusha, when it comes to protecting Brit, modesty, and holiness, you have to do above and beyond. Above and beyond. And it's very important that a person does that. Because if he or she does it, they'll be able to have a much easier time following the entire Torah. But as long as you're walking around immodest, as long as you're speaking immodest, as long as you're acting immodest, as long as you're watching immodest things out there, it's going to be very, very hard to become what you can become. Which means that you'll have a lot more obstacles in the path. And it's going to be a lot more difficult for you to get to the destination that you want.

1:00:04This is one of those things where you have to go all out, and you'll see if you go all out and try your best. You'll have a much easier time changing your speech, and you'll have a much easier time doing a lot of things. So, this is why we spend a lot more time teaching about tikkun habrit and other things. But also, there's even more of a need for this because there are fewer people teaching it. So, with that being said, b'chavod, who wants to start with a question tonight? Yes, Uriel. Why does the year start on the first day of Shavuot? So, the Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah says that there are four new years. There are four new years. Rosh Hashanah is officially the day that Adam HaRishon was created. and where time began to be counted. That's Rosh Hashanah. Now, why is it the seventh month? Because there is another new year that is Pesach. Why is Pesach the new year? Because that's when HaKadosh Baruch Hu took us out of Egypt, and we became a people.

1:01:23We have four new years that are not just for mankind, but also for the trees, for the animals, and so on and so forth. And so although the world, in essence, time for the world began at Adam HaRishon, There's a different way that the Torah counts as the official day, which is in Nissan. Nissan is the time that the Torah counts as the first month of the year, even though the creation was in Tishrei, on Rosh Hashanah. Next question. Yes. Sorry, in last Tuesday's shiur, you mentioned the appropriate one, the... Very good question. The Gemara says that Shmuel was equal in stature to both Moshe and Aharon together, but yet Rambam writes in the Thirteen Principles of Faith that

1:02:28Moshe Rabbeinu was the prophet of all prophets, and no one could ever be like him, including the Mashiach himself. So how could it be? When the Gemara says that Shmuel was like Moshe and Aharon, it doesn't mean that he was the same as Moshe in prophecy, that he spoke to Hashem face-to-face like Moshe Rabbeinu. No, meaning that Moshe reached his full potential. Let's say his full potential, from 1 to 100, he reached 100. And let's say Aharon's potential, he reached, let's say, 100. Okay, they both reached their full potential. And the average guy maybe reaches 30, 40, 50, but they reached 100. Shmuel reached his full potential and some. Why? Because in his generation, there wasn't an Aharon equivalent. There wasn't an Aharon equivalent. So in essence, Shmuel filled both roles of Moshe and Aharon. Not that he was the same level of prophet as Moshe. Not that he was a Kohen Gadol like Aharon. Because when the Mashiach comes, who's going to be the Kohen Gadol? Aharon the Kohen. Aharon the Kohen is going to be Kohen Gadol.

1:03:45So the key is to know that in the generation of Shmuel, Shmuel in essence fulfilled both roles. He was that great. He was that great. And by the way, as a side note, Shmuel was the great, great, great, great grandson of Korach. Of Korach. ...uh, and that's actually why Korach thought that he would win the battle with Moshe, because he saw in Ruach HaKodesh. He misunderstood; he saw that Shmuel comes from him. He said, "Shmuel, somebody tzaddik like this is going to come from me. Surely I'm going to win the battle with Moshe Rabbeinu. Surely I'm right." He didn't realize that his own sons were going to choose Moshe Rabbeinu's side at the last minute. Because at that time when he was seeing this, his sons were on his side. So he didn't think that this was even possible, that his sons would go against him. Anyway, so in every generation, there are different people who have an ability that's beyond the norm. It's beyond the norm. And one of those abilities is to be the Mashiach.

1:05:00Every generation has a Mashiach possibility. Every generation. Now, surely everybody thinks that their rabbi is Mashiach. Just this past week we met at least four Mashiachs. Most of them were green, which is even more insane. But the point is, every day there's new Mashiachs. Many of them are, almost all of them I would say, if not all of them are, you know, meshugah. I don't know how to say this in a politically correct world—they're mental cases. They're mental cases. Every one of them. Some are Jewish. Some are even Israeli. But many of them are goyim. Some of them are even female. And all types of things. There's one idiot, I mean, I'm sorry, mental case, who is not Jewish.

1:06:01which is a requirement for the Mashiach. Just in case you guys are wondering. He's not only not Jewish, but he doesn't even speak Hebrew. He doesn't know anything. All he knows is what he watched on YouTube. And he decided that he's Mashiach. He lives in, like, India somewhere. And he decided he's Mashiach, and he just keeps making videos. Every video, he just says, "I am the one. I am the ancient one. I am the forgotten one." And he keeps saying this. And he says it enough times that people are watching this guy. I guess he's not as much of a mental case as the ones watching him. But anyway, he wanted to, he says, "I have a prophecy." He says, "A prophecy, see in the book," and he says the verses. He doesn't really know how to read it in English. He says, "Oh, yeah, the ancient one is gonna ride a donkey," and then he shows the video of him in Eretz Yisrael riding a white donkey. He says, "See, see, I fulfilled a prophecy. I rode a donkey. I rode a white donkey. See, I'm the ancient one. I'm the forgotten one. Why doesn't the Sanhedrin come call me? You guys need to call me, Sanhedrin." Like, he's so oblivious he doesn't realize that it doesn't exist.

1:07:11But anyway, this is one Mashiach. Then there's another one who is a woman, but she says she's the reincarnation of Jesus. And she's the ancient one, but she doesn't call herself the ancient one. She calls herself the Shechinah. She's the Shechinah. She wears jeans. Shechinah. And there's all types of mental cases. There's one mental case that talks to people like this for years already. Mashiach is coming. He doesn't care in Hebrew. He doesn't care. He talks like this. That's how he talks. And he closes his eyes, and he talks like this, like as if he's seeing something. One of the things of, you know, when you see prophecy in Ruach HaKodesh, it doesn't come whenever you feel like it. It doesn't come whenever you feel like it. You can't just say, "Oh, yeah, I'm talking to God now, and He's telling me this." Anyone who says that is a Mashiach Sheker. It's a Navi Sheker. It doesn't work that way. Prophecy, if you notice it from the verses, notice from the verses, the Prophet shows up and starts talking about something. All of a sudden, he is saying what happened? Well, you were just saying something else. Where does Hashem come from? You were just talking to Achav about something, and all of a sudden, you say, "Here is Hashem's message." Where did this come from? The prophecy shows up just like that. Just like that. One time, Eliyahu HaNavi comes to Achav.

1:08:31Comes to Achav, rebukes him. They want to kill him now. So Eliyahu HaNavi runs away because Izevel wants to kill him. Izevel was the goya wife of Achav. So you figure, where's Hashem? Hashem, I'm Eliyahu. Nothing. He's running in the desert. Nothing. Hashem is not talking to him. Not talking to him. He passes out from starvation. Passes out. An angel comes to him, gives him special food to give him energy to take a very long journey, a supernatural journey in the desert to go to Mount Sinai, and... him the food, he has the food, he goes over there in the mountain. Hashem gives him a chizuk, shows him all types of supernatural things at Mount Sinai. But how long does this take? Almost two months. Almost two months from the time that he asked Him to talk to him until He finally talked to him. Some say that Hashem did not talk to Moshe Rabbeinu for 40 years.

1:09:4240 years He didn't talk to him. So anyone that goes like this to you, "Oh yeah, Hashem is telling me this"—Navi Sheker. At the time of the real Sanhedrin, death penalty. Death penalty. That's what would happen. Today there is no death penalty, but anyone that pretends like they're talking to Hashem whenever they feel like it, that's automatic. Number one, they're ignorant. And automatic, Navi Sheker. So some guy does this. Another guy likes to look like a rock star. He wears all types of weird clothes. Another guy likes to go to different Hasidic gatherings. He goes to Hasidic gatherings. And you know, the Hasidim, they're nice people. And they have their traditions and so on. And this guy likes to show up. And he always has a cameraman somehow. Always has a cameraman. And he starts telling me, "Yeah, you know, one day I just said to myself, 'What does Hashem want? You know, what does Hashem...?' And then I said, 'You know what, maybe I should start keeping mitzvot. Yeah, I'll do teshuva.' And the next thing I knew, God was talking to me." then he told me, "You are the chosen one, you are the Mashiach," and he started telling about how he was a Mechalel Shabbat 5, 10, 15 years ago, and all of a sudden he's Mashiach. And there are countless of these crazy people, countless. Every week, I get emails from them. Every week. So if one day you wake up and think you're Mashiach, smash your head against the wall a few times. Come back, I'll teach you about it. I'll teach you—you're not. You're not Mashiach. Why?

1:11:07But this is every day. There are a lot of crazy people. Lots of them. Tons of them. Tons and tons of crazy people. So you have to understand. There is going to be a Mashiach. The Mashiach, b'ezrat Hashem, is not going to be something that we can even imagine. How he looks, how he acts, how he is. It's not going to be like anything that we can comprehend until we see it. Even the things that will happen at the time of Mashiach, even those things, we cannot even fathom them until they happen. The Rambam says there's no point in talking so much about what's going to happen after Mashiach comes because we're not going to know for sure until it happens. There are a lot of things that we simply can't get our heads around. I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example. Now, all of you know what darkness is, right? Go outside, it's dark, right? Now, some of you, perhaps, also know what pitch dark is. Pitch dark, right? Pitch dark is, it's not like now, it is absolute darkness. Can't see anything, right? But none of you know what the plague of darkness is. Why? You haven't been alive for 3,000 years.

1:12:23See, the plague of darkness wasn't like it was just dark and I couldn't see where I was going. The plague of darkness was hell on earth. Hell on earth. Because the darkness wasn't just something that existed. The darkness was something that actually, it was something solid. You could feel it. You could feel the darkness to such an extent that whatever position the Egyptian was in at the beginning of the plague, that's how he stayed until the end of the plague. So if he went like this, that's how he stayed in that position for three days. Now, that's not enough. guys ever watch, like, you know, before you guys all became tzaddikim, scary movies, right? Scary movies or perhaps maybe you're living a scary life because I know some people live scary lives. They hear stuff, hear voices, okay? Now,

1:13:26sometimes you hear something, and you're like, "Oh, what's that?" and it's like your wife or something. Oh, I don't know. But sometimes you don't know what it is, like something happened, and you have no idea what happened, right? Okay, but it's like one scary thing, right? Well, how about this: how about that for 24 hours non-stop, the scariest possible things you could ever imagine, and they're in your face, that for a few days? Time of Mashiach, 15 days. Fifteen days. That's what the Zohar HaKadosh says. That's not something we can comprehend. And we don't want to. We don't want to comprehend. I don't want to go through that. I want to be a tzaddik so I don't have to go through that. But that's the reality. So there are certain things that are going to happen at the time of Mashiach that are simply impossible for us to comprehend, to get our head around. But Chazal tell us little bits and tastes of it in order to motivate us to do teshuva so we don't get ourselves into trouble. So, with that being said, you have, Baruch Hashem, enough information, I think, today to give you guys some extra chizuk. I don't even know if I answered your question, but I got off topic. And that was the answer so far. Did I answer your question? I answered the question. Okay. Yes.

1:14:52so Rosh Hashanah this year fell when the first day of the 10 days of repentance started on Motzei Shabbat. Were we permitted to say Tzidkot on Motzei Shabbat? Well, you were able to do Selichot since the beginning of Elul. Selichot is a custom; it's not a halachic obligation, but rather a custom. as a form of prayer to connect to Hashem, to say "I'm sorry," because when you sing, it's a deeper part of your neshama. It's easy to become emotional. And in essence, that's the biggest purpose of Selichot, to sing to Hashem the prayers and the apology, to get closer to Hashem in preparation for the big days. So this you can really do all year round, but the custom is to do it specifically during the month of Elul for those 40 days, from the beginning of Elul until Yom Kippur.

1:16:02that's that 40-day period, so technically you can do it anytime you want. Now, surely the custom is that you do it early in the morning, but what about can you do it at night? Yes, you can, but that's not the custom everywhere. The custom that's most common is that you do it in the morning, but some places do it at night. also, the custom is for some to start it early. Some people only start it on Rosh Hashanah; they don't wait, they don't do it for the whole month—they just start on Rosh Hashanah. Some people don't do it at all. Now, do you have to do it? No. Should you do it? Yes. Now, what about if you are an avreich who learns Torah and... Your community in New York, in different places, they do it at, let's say, five o'clock in the morning, 5:30 in the morning. It's hard for you to wake up that early and still have your head on straight the whole day learning Torah.

1:17:16Because, you know, you learn during the day, you have a few hours with your family, then you learn at night, and, you know, you try to get some sleep so you have the energy to learn the next day. People think that lifting buildings is difficult. Learning Torah is much more difficult. Exercising your brain for a full day is much more difficult than lifting buildings. It doesn't look like it, but trust me, it is. Anyway, what about if you're that guy? Now you're waking up early in the morning, you're praying, you're doing that's nice, you hear the shofar. But by the time you get to your shtender at the yeshiva, by 11 o'clock, you're already sleeping on your sefer. You wake up at 12 and you go back to sleep at 12:30. The whole day you're off because you got one or two hours less of sleep. So what do you do? Don't do... Do it once a week, or go to one that's later on in the day. Why? Selichot is not more important than you learning Torah. Learning Torah is more important than anything else in the world. Learning Torah is more important than anything else in the world, Rabbi. That's why the Chazal says the mitzvah of learning Torah is as if you're fulfilling the entire Torah. So you cannot...

1:18:37lose out on learning Torah that's fulfilling the entire Torah obligations in order to replace it with a custom. This is not to, chas v'shalom, lower the value of the custom, but we need to understand what's where, who, and where's what. If you could do... and still learn Torah. But if waking up extra early is going to ruin your learning of Torah, then no. Most people don't learn Torah full-time. Most people go to work; they're teachers, doctors, lawyers, technicians—all types of different things. So for those people who are not learning Torah all day, you should go to sleep... But for people who are more serious learners, you should learn Torah. This is also one of the things that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef also said in regards to learning Torah. People would come to Rabbi Ovadia... to ask him about different tikkunim. What should I do? I wasted seed. What should I do? I did this. What should I do? I did that. What should I do? He constantly tells them, "Learn Torah." Okay, what about this? "Learn Torah for that too." What about this? "Learn Torah." Everything is a tikkun. Just learn Torah. Otherwise, it's this: learn more Torah; it's going to fix everything.

1:19:56That's the biggest tikkun of all. Biggest tikkun of everything. That's the ideal tikkun. Now, surely, you want to expedite certain things, you learn Torah, and you also spend some money if you have it on doing tikkunim and so on. But don't think that you can spend the money and not learn Torah. Learning Torah is a prerequisite, but sometimes people don't understand, so you have to be more clear. Learning Torah is a prerequisite to fix your neshama. But if you could learn Torah and on top of it also give tzedakah, do chesed, do things like that, that's even better. But either way, every time people come to Rav Ovadia for a question about doing tikkunim, he'd constantly give them the same answer as many of the sages said the same thing. Learn Torah, learn Torah, learn Torah. Next question. Yes? Why is it said that Esav hates Yaakov and not that Esav hates Israel? Ah, okay. So, Esav soneh et Yaakov, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says this, it's a halacha, it's a rule in the world. It's a rule in the world that Esav soneh et Yaakov. Now, Esav doesn't express his hatred of Yaakov all the time.

1:21:14As we even saw during the actual story itself of Esav and Yaakov, the actual people, at one point Esav befriended Yaakov and he said, you know, give me some food, I'll give you my firstborn rights. So he trusted him enough to eat his food. then later on, he wanted to kill him. Then later on, he, you know, gave him a kiss. Some say that it really wasn't a kiss; he was actually biting his neck. But then, when Hashem miraculously transformed Yaakov's neck into stone and Esav broke his teeth. The point being, it was a pretty wild relationship over there. But needless to say, it wasn't complete hatred all the time; it wasn't complete love all the time. It was a volatile relationship, to say the least. says, why do we have so many details? Why are there so many details of the whole relationship between Yaakov and Esav, especially when Yaakov comes back to see Esav. So, the Ramban says this is to give us an illustration of what it's going to look like at the end of days when Am Yisrael is there to meet Esav at Gog and Magog.

1:22:33You have to be prepared with certain things in order to face Edom, face Esav. Now, with that being said, the question is, how come it says that Esav hates Yaakov and not Esav hates Yisrael? Because Yisrael was also the name of Yaakov. Now, Yaakov was the birth name of Yaakov. Israel was the name that Hashem gave Yaakov later on. But Chazal tell us that if you notice, there are times that even after Hashem named Yaakov Israel, there are periods of time where Hashem calls him in the Torah Yaakov again. Why? Anytime he was Yaakov, he did not have the prophecy. When he was Yisrael, he had the prophecy. When was this specifically? When he was sad because he thought that Yosef died. So throughout the entire 20-plus years that Yosef was gone from his life, and he didn't know if he was alive, if he was dead, and so on, Yaakov was constantly called, went back from Yisrael, back to being called Yaakov. And then when he found out that Yosef was alive, it went back to being Yisrael. What is that like?

1:23:54Am Yisrael is not always the best that it can be. Sometimes we're Yaakov, sometimes we're Yisrael. When we're tzaddikim, we're Am Yisrael. When we're Yisrael, Kodesh Kodashim. When that's not so much, a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit of shakshuka over here, a little bit of babaganoush, a little bit here, you know. not exactly. He said we're a little bit of, you know, sometimes even a savage. No, that's not so good. He says it doesn't make a difference. It doesn't make a difference. Esav hates Yaakov. It's a rule. Hates him. But the expression of that hate, the expression of that hate, is when you act like... ...left. When he said, "When you're a tzaddik kadosh kadoshim, he still hates you, but he's not allowed to express that hate, not to touch you. He's scared of you even, but he still hates you. Don't think for a second he's your best friend. He hates you, but he's afraid of you. When you're not a tzaddik, when you're not the best that you possibly can be as a people...

1:25:18Esav is given the permission to express his hate, Hashem Yishmor. We pray to HaKadosh Baruch Hu that we may never see those days, but I'm afraid those prayers are more wishful thinking, more wishful thinking than we'd like them to be, because Esav's hate for Yaakov is very much alive and well. Anyone that... is paying attention to the world, you see that anti-Semitism is increasing rapidly. I myself am experiencing more anti-Semitism now than at any other time in the past. In the past, there were ignorant remarks and things of that nature, but now people feel free and proud of their anti-Semitism. Just, I tell you, just the last few days last few days, you know, I mean, people send comments. I have one particular guy; he sends me between 10 and 40 emails a day—no exaggeration. Sonny will vouch for it; he sees the emails. But we just delete him now. I don't know how to stop this idiot. Yes, we tried stopping him, but he has like a hundred different email addresses.

1:26:37So it's a psychopath. I don't even know how he has that much time. He sends me literally between 10 and 40 emails a day. Maybe if he's watching this show, maybe 50 tomorrow. But every one of them is full of curses and hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. I don't even know who the guy is. He's just a sick person. So there's that type of anti-Semitism. Then there's the people also that like to say all types of anti-Semitic remarks on our YouTube channel and Facebook and so on. That's the norm. That stuff is, you know, it's like dogs barking. You don't pay attention to it. What surprised me in the last couple of days is that, Baruch Hashem, we, you know, we started building our sukkah, you know, in the new house that we're in, in the backyard over there. And all of a sudden, I get like five emails from the association with pictures of my backyard. Like, how did you get pictures of my backyard? like it's in the front yard blocking people's view. It's not a Tower of Babel here, it's a little sukkah. But sending pictures of my backyard, which obviously the Nazi next door to me apparently took, and saying, "This must stop. What's going on here? We need to know." Phone calls, emails—they copied the mayor. The mayor was copied in the email. Lawyers were copied in the email. Within a few hours, the mayor's office showed up at my house.

1:28:04now, now listen, there are people killing people on the street. You can barely get the police to show up. But me building a sukkah in my backyard—the mayor's office showed up. So don't worry for a second; my wife and I—you know, I got these emails. I didn't respond. Get the email. Let me respond. It's like, "Oh, let me just think about it, and I'll respond when I have a good response to deal with these sick people." But you see my aggression, like, for not knowing what's going on. So we're walking around. Eventually, the mayor's office pulls over next to me while we're walking. And I said, yeah, can I help you? And he's like, oh, listen, hi, Rabbi. Listen, I'm well aware that this is the holiday season, but apparently there's somebody that lives close to you who has a problem.

1:29:07And they got us to come. I'm like, you're from the mayor's office? Seriously? Like, you can barely get a doctor to show up to work today. You can't get cops to show up for murder. But the mayor's office showed up to my house in a few hours? Like, is Bill Clinton next door to me? Like, who is this? Like, what's happening here? Is Hitler next door to me? He hates Jews that much? Like, how did this happen? He goes, I don't know. Something. So he's like, "Listen, I have to show up, but don't worry, we're not gonna do anything. Do whatever you want. Just letting you know, they're probably gonna monitor you for a little while." I said, "Okay, nice guy, Muslim guy." And uh, Muslim guy, yeah, you get more respect from the Muslims sometimes than you get from Jews. But, you know, the point is that he was a really nice guy. And we were both fascinated that this happened so quickly. We went back home, whatever. I eventually responded to the Hitler Association. I was contemplating sending them a picture of Mein Kampf or something, saying, hey. But then I figured, let's try to educate them a little bit and make them feel bad about themselves. And I said, no, listen, there's nothing to be concerned about.

1:30:30This is a temporary structure. It's not a permanent structure. It's a temporary structure. They're worried about lawyers, this, that. It's a temporary structure. It's not going to be permanent. And the funny thing is that by the time they get the lawyers to finally get the paperwork done, the holiday is over already. So it's a temporary structure. It's not in anybody's way. It's not bothering anybody. It's just a temporary thing. You should know, by the way, that after we pray for ourselves... Rosh Hashanah, on Yom Kippur, 2,000 years ago, when we had the Beit Hamikdash, Sukkot was a time when Am Yisrael would bring sacrifices to the Beit Hamikdash for the 70 nations. This is the time when we pray for the goyim, for the well-being of the goyim. For you! I pray for you. I mean, no, no, yeah, you're a nice guy. Yeah, you need to work. Yeah, I pray for you, my friend. I'm praying for you.

1:31:36So anyway, I said, "Oh, by the way, in case you want to see a source, as if these people even know what a source is, you can see actually this is the story about Alexander the Great. You know, Alexander Macedon. You know, he came and he actually liked to hear this so much so that he became friends with Shimon HaTzaddik, and he wanted to put a statue inside of our Beit HaMikdash. But Shimon HaTzaddik told him, 'Instead of putting a temporary statue, let's do something more permanent.'" will name every Jewish boy born this year Alex. And that's how the name Alex came to Israel. It's not a Jewish name, but that's instead of having a statue inside the Beit HaMikdash. But he liked it that we pray for the goyim. We pray for the goyim's well-being. Anyway, after that, you know, the lawyer's office, the mayor's office, everyone knew this was a complete waste of time. This is anti-Semitism, open anti-Semitism. But this little Nazi association still had to remain aggressive and disrespectful. So she wants to punish me, says, well, you have one week to remove it after the holiday is over, as if I'm gonna leave it there forever and ever.

1:32:53you have one week to remove it after the holiday, and it cannot be disposed of, you know, in the regular garbage. You have to remove it from the premises. Like she's trying to punish me, like I can't throw it in the garbage. At first, who's throwing it in the garbage? This is two thousand dollars worth of wood! What garbage? What are you talking about? But anyway, it's like they want to punish you because they didn't get their way, these little Hitlers. But this is now. If this was 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago, no chance in the world that this person would say a single word about the sukkah or anything else. Why? Because at that point, 20 years ago, it was still frowned upon to be anti-Semitic. There was a lot of it, but it wasn't like today. It's almost admirable to be anti-Semitic. It's almost admirable to be anti-Semitic. People have no problem being anti-Semitic. No problem. so we see here all the time, but he's only allowed to express it at certain times. Next question: later on in that portion, it says how children don't get punished for their fathers and fathers don't get punished for their sons.

1:34:16So why are Amon and Moab's descendants allowed to convert if they didn't do the sin? The sins of the fathers not affecting the sons and the sons not affecting the fathers applies to Am Yisrael. Applies to Am Yisrael. That's one. Amon and Moab too is that Amon and Moab did something that was despicable in the eyes of Hashem, which is that they did something that was inhumane. inhumane. Therefore, they lost their right to be treated like the rest of mankind because they expressed something that was inhumane, which is ungratefulness. One of the things that Hashem detests almost more than anything is people who are ungrateful. So, Amon and Moab showed a lack of gratefulness and therefore, Hashem says that they lost their rights. The men of Amon and Moab lost their rights to be treated like the rest of Am Yisrael or even the rest of mankind. Even the Egyptians, the Torah says, are allowed to convert to Judaism, even though they killed millions of Jews for 200 years.

1:35:38They weren't apparently as bad in the eyes of Hashem as Amon and Moab. But you should know that it only applies to the men of Moav and not to women. This was one of the big debates at the time of David HaMelech. That Yishai was the Gadol HaDor, the father of David. And one day he learned this halacha and he thought that he made a mistake because he thought that this applies to both men and women of Moav rather than just men, which made him think that he was forbidden to his own wife. But then later on, Hashem made it clear to him that it's only relevant to the men who are not allowed to convert, whereas the women from Moav were allowed to convert, as we know that Ruth, the Moabite, was his grandmother and the grandmother of the Mashiach, the grandmother of David HaMelech, and one of the most righteous women that ever lived.

1:36:43but, uh, yeah, the men of Moav did something inhumane. And by the way, just so you know, both Amon and Moav started with Lot. Lot is their grandfather from the incestuous relationship that he had with his daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s where Moav means "from my father," meaning the son came from the father. Amon means "for my nation," implying also "for my father," but in a more discreet way. She was more modest. But the point being is that the expression of lack of gratitude that they had was detested by Hashem and made them, in essence, detestable in the eyes of Hashem. Next question. Okay, when and how did Judaism start? When and how did Judaism start? So the Chachamim debate whether Judaism started with Avraham Avinu or Moshe Rabbeinu. Why is there a debate? Technically, it shouldn't be a debate. We should know clearly. Now, in some Chachamim's eyes, it is clear: Judaism started with Moshe Rabbeinu.

1:38:06How do we know? Because in the Torah, before Mount Sinai, Am Yisrael was not called the Jewish people; rather, we were called the Israelites, the Hebrews. We only became Jews officially at Mount Sinai. Why? What happened at Mount Sinai? We received the Torah. We received the Torah, we accepted the Torah—that's what makes you Jewish. And one of our proofs is, aside from what I just said, that anyone can become Jewish through their observance of the Torah. You can be born a Christian or a Muslim, but if you want to comply with the entire Torah, which means that you'll go through a formal conversion with a recognized beit din, and live a life in accordance with the Torah, you can become a full-fledged Jew. say, "Oh yeah, but that's probably like a convert, it's probably like a defective Jew, right? It's like a deformed Jew, it's like a lesser Jew." Wrong, opposite. According to the Torah, a convert is considered, a real convert, a righteous convert, whether male or female, a righteous convert is considered higher, higher than a natural born Jew. You can see the Rambam writes a letter

1:39:28to one of his students, and it's a very famous letter, where he tells him, "How the Avadiah"—I think his name was Avadiah, Avadiah, I don't know how you say it, but anyway, he writes the letter, and he tells him that Rambam is jealous of him, of this convert. He's jealous of him. Why? Because it's a great... i didn't choose to be Jewish. I, uh, you know, I was born this way. You chose to be Jewish. Me, I have my father's father was a goy. He says, you know, your father is Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu is your father. You can say, yeah, but my grandfather is also a goy. Yeah, it's your grandfather. Famous? His father? Famous? His father is Avraham Avinu. That's his father. The convert's father is Avraham Avinu. So Rambam says, you're praiseworthy. So now, a person that accepts the Torah, accepts the mitzvot, becomes a Jew. So we as a nation accepted the Torah and the mitzvot at Mount Sinai, thereby beginning Judaism at Mount Sinai. So why is there a debate about Judaism possibly starting beforehand?

1:40:50Because even though Judaism began at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu at Mount Sinai, we still say that our forefathers are Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. And the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah says that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov had the entire Torah. They had the Oral Torah, while the Written Torah was given later on, but they had the Torah and they were fulfilling the Torah. They were fulfilling the Torah, and in fact, they had a more extensive Torah than ours. more extensive Torah than ours. Our tractate of Gemara, Avodah Zarah, has five sections. Avraham Avinu's tractate of Avodah Zarah had 400 sections. We discussed the various opinions on why it is 400 versus 5. But the point is that he had the Torah, and he fulfilled the Torah. So Chachamim say he fulfilled the Torah. He was the first Jew, and some of the Chachamim say yes, Avraham was 100% a Jew even though he was by himself. But some say no, it cannot be because technically he was a Noahide who fulfilled the Torah 99%. He knew that he was not allowed to keep Shabbat, so he would violate it by creating a cow every Shabbat. That's how he managed, since there was no electricity back then. So, he created a cow instead. Yes, if it says he created a cow...

1:42:11And he would create a cow on Shabbat. And that's also the reason why Yaakov was able to marry two sisters. He was able to marry two sisters. You're not allowed to marry two sisters. The Jews are not allowed to marry two sisters. But Yaakov married two sisters. Why? Because he was, again, he was a Noahide. Noahides are allowed. So, the point being is, but then they say, yeah, but maybe it's because he was a Jew, but he wasn't allowed to do it in Israel. And that's why before they went back to Eretz Yisrael, Rachel died. That's why she died, because it's not allowed in Eretz Yisrael. It's allowed outside. And there's a debate, many, many pages. The point being is, Judaism for sure started no later than Mount Sinai. Some say it even started at Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, needless to say. All of them are Kodesh Kodashim. All of us are descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. And Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are something that is beyond our comprehension. The Avot and their children are beyond our comprehension as far as where

1:43:12Where Judaism's starting point is officially, like I said, the most common answer that I know of is Mount Sinai, but that doesn't lessen, Chas V'Shalom, the status and significance of the Avot. It doesn't lessen it, just again, there's a debate among the Chachamim about who, what, when, and how of certain specific points. Next question. Next question. Go ahead. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. A king is judged first because if he were judged later than the rest of the people, after judging the regular people, perhaps Hashem would be harsher on him than if he were judged first.

1:44:24So if Hashem is the righteous judge, how come certain people get judged first and other people get judged second? Another way to ask that same exact question is what does Chazal mean by saying that the reason why we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is to confuse the Satan? Believe it or not, those two are exactly the same question. Why? because if you're going to say that you confuse the Satan by blowing the shofar, okay, let's say you confused this genius once. Well, you confuse him every single year? Every year you're confusing him? He's that dumb? How could it be? So, in essence, the question is, how can we be confusing the Satan every year with the shofar? It is the same exact question as what you're asking: how come who is judging these people first and these other people second if He's really the fair judge? first and these other people second if He's really the fair judge. These are the same exact questions. Now, being that He's the King, He has to run the world. Being that He is our Father, He also has to deliver on His promise to keep us alive. Keep us alive.

1:45:44So, HaKadosh Baruch Hu instilled certain rules into His own world to guarantee our survival. And even the way He judges us is one of the ways that, although it attests to His justice and His stamp of emet, it also confirms our survival. So, each year He has us arrive at Rosh Hashanah. we blow the shofar and the Chaza"l say that this blowing of the shofar confuses the Satan. Why? Because throughout the whole year, every one of us acts differently. One guy wakes up in the morning, goes to shul, prays, "I love you, I love you, I love you" all day. Another guy doesn't go to the Beit Knesset. He goes somewhere else—goes to work, goes to a bar, goes to this, goes to that, goes to sins, goes to something else. Another guy goes to shul, but his mind is in business. Another guy is this. Throughout the whole year, all of us are in different places. So, Satan shows up and says, "Okay, I know this guy. I'm going to rip him apart. I'm coming to Hashem with the whole din. I have a whole book of sins this guy has. I'm going to tell Him, 'Look, he did this, he did this, he did this, he did this, he did this, he did this. Let me rip this guy apart.' That's my parnassah, the Satan. That's his parnassah—ripping people apart."

1:47:11You guys’ parnassah is money; his parnassah is ripping people apart. Blood is his parnassah, lament. So, you say, "Hashem, give me some parnassah. You judge, you're the judge, you're the fair judge. Give me, let me make a living." So, Satan prepares, "This is my portfolio. My portfolio of sinners. Oh, these tzaddikim, I can't really touch these people. So, I have these resha'im. Come Rosh Hashanah." For tefillah, all of us have our own walks of life, all of us look different. But there's one moment, one moment that we all look the same. When is it? During the blowing of the shofar. Why? During the blowing of the shofar. If you notice, whether you're religious or not, whether you go to shul all year or you don't, whether you're tall or short, whether you're a convert or natural born Jew, whether you're male or female, what do you do when you hear the shofar? All of a sudden, there's silence. The only time during the year everyone's quiet. We have a mitzvah to read the Megillah, and the halacha is if you do not hear one of the words of the Megillah, you have to start all over again. whether you're tall or short, whether you're a convert or natural-born Jew, whether you're male or female, what do you do when you hear the shofar? All of a sudden, there's silence. The only time during the year everyone's quiet. We have a mitzvah to read the Megillah, and the halacha is if you do not hear one of the words of the Megillah, you have to start all over again.

1:48:35start all over again. So what's the main thing they keep telling you before you read the Megillah? Shut up, be quiet. Why? Because if you talk with your loud mouth, I can't hear the Megillah. Start all over again. Be quiet. And guess what? People still talk. They still talk. Nu, what are you eating? Nu, where are you going after this? Also, what do you think? Again, Haman? Be quiet! Go somewhere else! Talk somewhere else! Go talk somewhere else! No, I still talk. Now I talk. We have another mitzvah. You have to hear. You have to hear the verse. L'mchot et Amalek. destroy Amalek. There's a verse we have to hear during the year to remember to go destroy Amalek. If you don't hear the verse, guess what? You start all over again. So be quiet, right? What people do is talk; they still talk. The one time during the year people are quiet, Satan gets confused and goes, "What's going on here? Everybody always looks like a tzaddik."

1:49:44This guy was told five minutes ago he didn't stop talking Lashon Hara. All of a sudden his tzaddik didn't say anything. So this sweetens our judgment. Sweetens our judgment. In essence, this helps our case because there is a moment that we have unity. There is a moment that we look righteous. There is a moment that we look better. And in essence, that's what your question is. How come Hashem judges certain people at certain times? Because if he were to judge, let's say, all the tzaddikim first and all the resha'im second, there's really nothing to judge. Why? Okay, so I'm judging all the tzaddikim, okay, you guys are going to olam haba, resha'im, I hate you. Finished. There's no judging. You don't even have to do it. Just take an angel, okay, kill these people, let these people go on vacation forever. That's it. If he judges the resha'im first, by the time he gets to the tzaddikim, it's...

1:50:53Nightmare ready. It's like it's Rasha, Rasha, Rasha. Listen. I don't want to talk to the tzaddikim. Whatever. Everybody's resha'im already. You see so much darkness all day. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu judges the people in a certain way to make everybody look a little bit better. Mix and match. Mix and match. Like a minyan. Why do we pray in a minyan? Why attend a ten-person minyan? Because when you pray by yourself, you don't have kavana 100% of the time. You have complete focus part of the prayer. So part of your prayer is excellent, and part of your prayer is not exactly very good. It's not a good day. Now, we pray in a minyan because the Sages taught us that HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves us so much that when we have unity and pray together, He takes the best of the prayers of each one of us and combines them into a perfect prayer. So Sani had five minutes. I had three minutes. Netanel had ten minutes. Gabriel had one minute. This one had three seconds. That one had, at the end, none of us had a full prayer kabbalah. What? But together, perfect. In essence, that's HaKadosh Baruch Hu who runs His world. He runs His world in order to allow us to survive despite our countless mistakes and sins.

1:52:14He has a system in place, which we will never understand, but I could just, again, minimize it to try to get it somewhat understandable and make it complex into something simpler, that He has a system in place to allow our survival without violating His stamp of emet. judging certain people at certain times, dealing with certain people at certain places, and so on and so forth. Sometimes you will see that there is a person, for example, that is making every sin under the sun, every sin under the sun, but one day Hashem's judgment shows up, and the guy gets into an accident, overdoses on drugs, car accident, something, and dies. dies, everyone cries, "Terrible, horrible, I'm gonna miss him." Wait a minute, five minutes ago you were cursing him though. "Yeah, but I'm gonna miss him now that he's not here anymore and I love him." Hey, boo-boo, everybody's crying, right? Then as everybody's still crying and everything is terrible, all of a sudden, what happened? What? He's awake!

1:53:23...came back to life an hour later, came back to life five minutes later. That's called a near-death experience. They go, they die, and they come back to life. It happens. There are approximately 30 million confirmed cases of near-death experience in the world. Anyway, a person dies and goes back to life. Now you would think, listen, if this guy was a big tzaddik... Big tzaddik. And he died. And Hashem says, you know what? Let me give you some more life. That makes sense. That makes sense. He's a good guy. He's a tzaddik. Hashem says, why should he die now? Let him live a little more life. Bring more mitzvot to the world. Have more opportunity to do mitzvot. Why not? But a rasha gets more time. Why? Doesn't make any sense. That's because you're thinking with your human brain. Human brain. Your brain is limited. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, in our prayer, had the sages put one of the Tehillim that says that Hashem takes our merits and plants them like seeds, plants them as seeds in order to see them flourish later on. And the sages teach us that sometimes somebody will do a certain mitzvah and Hashem will not reward him for it.

1:54:49right away. In fact, He may not even reward him for it in his lifetime. He gave tzedakah that saved somebody else's life. He did something that saved somebody else's life. Hashem says, "Don't worry, I'll pay you back, but not now. I'll pay it down the road." Years pass, this person leaves the world. A son comes into the world. He has a few kids. Lives a life, moves on to the next world. His sons have kids, move on, have kids, have kids. Ten generations later, one of his kids is off the derech, already for a while. A few generations already, not so good. One of them is destined to a place of doom. Drugs, alcohol, crime, every crime under the sun. Satan says, "He just showed up in my office, and he says, 'Listen, this guy's a criminal. We got to kill him. You said on Yom Kippur, death penalty. I'm going to kill him.' You said, 'Kill him, kill him.' Yeah, permission, right? Permission." All of a sudden, boom, car accident out of nowhere.

1:56:13The guy's head smashes. He doesn't know what happened. All he knows is that he's in Shamayim. And they tell him, "Oh, listen, Habibi, you had a good time in the world? Yeah, okay, now you're going to pay for it. You're going to go to Kaf HaKela for about 70 years. After you finish Kaf HaKela, you're going to chamber this, chamber that, chamber this, chamber that." They give him the whole din of all the judgments he's going to get. And this guy cries tears like crocodiles. Well, not crocodile tears—the tears are the size of crocodiles. because he realizes no more fun. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, an angel shows up. "Hey, hey, hold on. Excuse me, excuse me. Hey, hold on a second before you stamp that final deed. Excuse me, I'm the Tzaddik that his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather gave tzedakah that saved somebody's life, and I'd like to testify that..." He deserves a little more time to do teshuva. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, Mr. Satan, you'll have to wait. Why? This angel just showed up from 15 generations ago.

1:57:23It's right. I planted this angel. I planted it. I planted it. I made you think that you're going to get it. I planted this before you even knew. I planted this 15 generations ago because I knew this was going to happen, so I needed to give my kid a little bit more time. So, Mr. Satan, go find somebody else. And He gives the kid a little bit more time to go do teshuva. And that's what happens. That's what happens, Rabotai. HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves you, so He gives you countless opportunities to do teshuva, but that's also why the punishment is so severe if we don't do teshuva. Because that means that if you've lived an entire life without doing teshuva, and there's nothing else to do for a person, that means that everything has already been used. save you for 3,000 years, and you still failed. Instead, like every single resource that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has to save you has already been spent over the last 3,000 years. So that means that if a person finally gets that punishment, that means that they deserve it because they literally insisted on putting themselves in Gehinnom.

1:58:38That's why the punishment is so severe. Because all of the chances, all of the opportunities, all of the planting of seeds were already used. Abused for generations after generation, and a person simply never took advantage of it. Needless to say, that's the reason why sometimes certain souls need to be punished, perhaps even destroyed, ashamish mode. But that's why we come to teshuvah, to remind ourselves of these scary things and not fall into the trap that we've been falling into for a few thousand years. One or two more questions and then we're done for the day. Okay? If Hashem didn't want Adam to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, why didn't He hide it like He hid the Tree of Life? So the question is, if Hashem didn't want Adam to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, why didn't He just hide it? It's the same thing you could ask about, if Hashem doesn't want you to sin, why didn't He just make you with no evil inclination? And you wouldn't have a desire to sin.

1:59:43So the question has to—it's really a non-starter question—because it assumes that if Hashem allowed Adam HaRishon to sin, that means He wanted him to sin, which is what heretics say. Heretics say, now I'm not saying that you're a heretic, that if Hashem allowed Adam HaRishon to sin, that means He wanted it. That's what Manis Friedman says, by the way. which means, why do heretics say it? Because they say, if Hashem wanted Adam to sin, if you want Adam to sin, which means that if I'm sinning, Hashem wants me to sin. If I have a boyfriend and I'm a guy, that means Hashem wants me to sin. If I'm eating treif, that means Hashem wants me to eat treif. No. It's a heretical thought. It's the Yetzer Hara going inside. So, Hashem created human beings after He created neshamot. Neshamot He created, they were, in essence, all of us were perfect. But we, since we are, in essence, a part of Hashem. We're a part of Hashem, not that Hashem has parts, but for the understanding of our ear to the mouth, we need to say it this way.

2:01:02We're part of Hashem, and because He is the ultimate good, and the way you know if something is good is by it creating good, our neshamot also wanted to create good. But what good can we create for Hashem? He's the ultimate good. He's perfect. We can't give Him anything. So the neshamot felt like they were getting an undeserved prize, free bread. We didn't want it. We're suffering as a result of this undeserved bread, undeserved reward. So we asked Hashem to please give us an opportunity to earn it. So the whole purpose of a neshama coming into this world is that it's supposed to earn its bread, earn its keep. That's the point; your whole job in this world is to earn your keep now. When we came to this world, if we did not have an evil inclination, a desire to sin, and we only wanted to do the will of Hashem, then there was no point to the world. Why? Because the whole point of the world is for us to earn our way. How do we earn our way? By choosing Hashem despite having an enticing choice that's the opposite of Hashem's will. If we choose Hashem, because that's the only choice we have, then it doesn't deserve a reward. Because it's the only thing it has. If you tell your wife, "Oh, honey, you're the best cook, but that's because the only thing you have in the entire house is rice, and that's what you cooked," that's not exactly a compliment.

2:02:28because that's the only choice we have, then it doesn't deserve a reward. Because it's the only thing there is. If you tell your wife, "Oh, honey, you're the best cook, but that's because the only thing you have in the entire house is rice, and that's what you cooked," that's not exactly a compliment. only thing you have in the house is rice, she happened to cook it. Yeah, sure, you could say, "Good rice," but it's not really a compliment. However, if she has 87 different ingredients in the house and she made you a dish that's delicious, guess what? That deserves a compliment. Why? Because she could have made something that didn't taste exactly like that. So the point being is that when a person has two choices, one is good, and one is evil, and he chooses evil, he deserves punishment for that evil. Why? Because he chose evil; that's against Hashem. When he chooses good, he deserves good. Why? Because he chose good.

2:03:30Why does good deserve a prize, and why does evil deserve a price? Because, in essence, they're both enticing. They're both enticing; it's just that they're enticing in different ways. The good is enticing down the road if you have a long-term mentality. The bad is enticing today. Today, it's enticing—not down the road. Down the road, you don't even think about it. Who created man with the ability to choose? So, in order to reward Adam HaRishon, and in essence, reward the rest of us, He gave us choice. You can choose to do good, meaning the will of Hashem, or you could choose to do something that's against Hashem's will. If you do Hashem's will, that's considered good; thereby you are earning your good, you're earning your keep. If you choose bad, then you're not earning your keep, and you'll get punished for it. So, Hashem allowed Adam HaRishon to choose because that's, in essence, the purpose of creation. The whole purpose of creation is to allow us to earn our keep. It's not that He wanted him to sin, but rather He allowed him to sin. He allowed him to sin by making his own choice. It's not that He wants us to sin; He allows us to sin. He allows us to sin. Because if He did not allow us to sin, then it would be a fixed game.

2:04:58you know we would be robots, you know, robots that do exactly what the robot is supposed to do. A robot doesn't get a reward for it. If you press the button on your robot that's a vacuum cleaner, and it vacuums the whole house, you don't start clapping for the robot. "What a great robot! You go, robot!" You don't do that. There's no reason why. It's a robot; it's programmed to vacuum. It's programmed to do certain things. Who do you reward? Who do you clap for? Someone who is programmed, perhaps, even to do the opposite, but ends up overcoming something. So that's the key. It's a, it's a, Hashem's will is for us to choose life and the good, but He allows us to choose death and the evil. Death and the evil. We, and we should choose life, as it says in Sefer Devarim. Next question. Yes. We know that we don't have much description of Gan Eden, but is there enough description or feeling to tell somebody who's never experienced the learning of getting connected to Hashem and learning Torah to build that connection for them to understand what Gan Eden is if they've never experienced it in the spiritual world, which is the real true goodness. I mean, there are some books that discuss Gan Eden, even Reishit Chochmah

2:06:23that has Masechet Gehinom also has a section in there that discusses Gan Eden, and there are other Chachamim that discuss different aspects of Gan Eden more in the Kabbalistic world. But the reason why it's not in the basic levels of the Torah is because most people would not understand why it's even good. Like, for example, one of the things that it says that we do in Gan Eden is we learn Torah. Now, a person that doesn't learn Torah in this world and doesn't understand the beauty and the deliciousness of the Torah, says, why would I want to go to a place where I'm reading a book all day? Like, what's the... They don't understand that. Okay, so, how do you explain to a person what Gan Eden is... i, uh, I mean, again, you have to explain to people in their own language. So, people's own language is physical pleasures, physical pleasures. So, imagine you have physical pleasures that a person has in their life. What could they be? So, you have the physical pleasure they get from food, eating delicious food. Okay, so you put that in one basket.

2:07:29Then you have the physical pleasure they get from receiving honor. People give you respect, saying, "Good job, you're the best, you're beautiful, you're smart, everything is good," right? Okay, so you have that in another basket. Then you have the physical pleasure from intimacy. A person has intimate relations; there's a physical pleasure from it. Okay, you put that in another box. and you know there's just a limited amount of pleasures. But nonetheless, there are different pleasures that a person has. Now, you take all those boxes and combine them into one box, right? Okay, so that's for one person. Now, that person that lives life doesn't always have this pleasure. In fact, the vast majority of his life is not that pleasure. He's alive 24 hours, and most likely, he's not enjoying himself at all the vast majority of that time. know because he's probably asleep between six to eight hours a day out of the 24, so already you've lost 25% of the day, right? 25-33% of the day he's gone already. All right, so let's say you've got 16 hours left after you slept. He is probably working between work and traveling to work, which is probably another eight to ten hours a day.

2:08:42They say, oh, no, but I like my job. Yeah, okay, buddy. You know you like your job. Would you prefer to go to your job or be on the beach or on some vacation? Okay, so you may not necessarily detest your job, but it's not a vacation. It's not a vacation. You prefer to be in other places. It's not considered as one of the pleasures of the world. Let's just say that. Let's say out of the eight to ten hours that you like your job, let's say a half hour, an hour, at most, out of that eight to ten hours, you feel pleasure. Okay, let's say they give you respect: you're the best, you're the best salesman, you're the best this, you're the best that. Okay, so right now, we've already spent between 16 to 18 hours out of the day, but we still only have about maybe an hour of pleasure out of that, right? Then he has, you know, he's going home, he's with his wife, you know, but they're not always together. She's not always together with her husband; he's not always together with his wife, you know. Not a horse. Sometimes he's tired, sometimes he's busy, sometimes he has headaches, and sometimes he has a headache for a really long time, like years. But it's sometimes, you know, it's a different thing. So the reality of the pleasure is not always there, right? So it's...

2:09:53the food also, the food is not always delicious. Sometimes it tastes like a shoe, and sometimes it tastes like a table. Sometimes you wish you had ordered Chinese food. You know, it's not always that good. So, in reality, out of the 24 hours, you're lucky if you get an hour and 15 minutes, two hours max, of actual pleasure. So what does that mean, really? Less than 10% in the best-case scenario, 10% of a person's life in the best-case scenario is actual pleasure. So if he lived 100 years, 10 years were pleasure in the best-case scenario. In reality, it's much less, but let's say, okay? Now, I'm not trying to depress you. I'm just telling you reality. This is how life really is. Now, let's say you took all 10 years of pleasure, all 10%, and you gave it to the person in one shot. Boom! That's a lot of pleasure, right? Imagine all of the crazy stuff and experiences and deliciousness and good stuff that he had over a period of time. Okay, it's a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit there. But if you gave it to him in just one jolt,

2:11:10It's 10 years straight of pleasure. That's going to happen, right? Okay. So yeah, you put that 10 years in a box, right? We're at 10 years now, we'll put it all in a box. All that whole pleasure for one lifetime, one person in one box, that's a lot of pleasure. Now, take not just his pleasure, not just all of his family's pleasure, not just all of his neighborhood and his town and his city and his state and his country, but rather the entire world's pleasure. During that generation, you got, let's say, right now, close to 8 billion people, right? 8 billion people. Take all of their pleasure. Some of them are gonna live till 100, some of them are gonna live till 3, some of them are gonna live till 50. Everybody's pleasure. Let's say, well, you know, 10% average. everybody's pleasure, put in the box. Combine it with that other box. That's a lot of pleasure. Imagine getting all that pleasure for all eight billion people in one shot. It's a lot of pleasure. Okay, now it's not enough. Take not just that generation, but every single generation that ever existed from the beginning of time, including the generation of the flood, where they had all types of horrific pleasures, all types of crazy things.

2:12:28Immoral things that, unfortunately, are coming back to life today also. Sodom and Gomorrah's generation. Noah's generation. The Tower of Babel generation. Egypt's generation. All of the sinful generations. Obviously, they probably had more physical pleasures in the world than the standard. Take all of their pleasures from all of the generations. Just the pleasures. No suffering. Just the pleasure of all of them. Put them in a box together with that other generation. Another box. Now you’ve got a lot. Imagine a person gets all of that pleasure. That's a lot of pleasure, right? That pleasure from all of the generations of all of the people that ever lived is not a single minute of the pleasure that a righteous Jew will experience in Gan Eden. That's Gan Eden, in a way that we can understand. Any other questions? Ken? Are you allowed to have things that you would say HaMotzi on, like tortillas, that you would wash for but aren't bread itself? Repeat the question again, I'm sorry. Are you allowed to have things like tortillas or other things that are not bread itself but you'd say HaMotzi on?

2:13:53Are you allowed to say HaMotzi on something that's not bread? Why would you not be able to hand it to someone? For example, if I have a tortilla or if I have a donut or something else that I want to hand to somebody, I'm trying to understand why wouldn't I be able to hand it to somebody? i mean, technically, from understanding your question, if i have a cookie, or i have a tortilla, or i have a piece of bread, or i have anything really, i can hand it to anybody else. the only time that i can think of that a person may have a time that they have to be more careful with handing is during the motzi, when you have the kiddush of shabbat, or you have kiddush of the chag, of yom tov, The Chachamim say that you have to treat the bread, when you do the blessing of the bread, with a certain level of respect. So there's an old tradition that some people have that's mistaken, which is to take the motzi and throw it to people.

2:14:59throw it to people across the table. Why? Because you're not supposed to hand the bread to them. So he says, get it to them, but that's a disrespectful way according to some. So what's the best way to do it? You give it to them by putting it on a plate or placing it on the table for them to take. That's the only time that I would say you have to be more conscious of how you give it to them, instead of throwing it. But other than that, as long as you're not disrespecting the food or the person that you're giving it to, there's no problem giving something to somebody. But that's also something that a person should be conscious of, not just giving, but also knowing how to give. Many people know to give, but they don't know how to give. And this is not just with food, but it's with a lot of things because the way that you give something many times is more impactful on a person than what you gave. So, for example, if let's say you have a kid, and you tell them, "Listen, can you make me a coffee? I just came back from work after a long day." If your kid comes to you and just gives you some hot water

2:16:17that you're not even sure if the cup was clean before you put it there, and he puts a bag of tea or coffee next to it or something, and he puts the sugar next to it, and he's like, "Make it yourself." That's not exactly such a precious coffee that he made you. In reality, if you're a strict father or mother, you probably want to pour it on him instead of taking this coffee. It's not a good coffee. Why? This is how you give your father coffee? This is how you give your father coffee? Make it nice, delicious, give it to me, and say, "Hey, thank you, Abba, for giving me the opportunity to give coffee." That's how you give. But if you give me coffee like this, just with warm water and some mud next to it, it's not giving it to me in a nice way, right? So it's the way you give coffee. Another way, for example, if you say, "Oh, honey, I'm hungry. Can you give me something to eat, right? Give me something to eat." Now, if it's 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and you woke her up, she's giving you something—anything she gives you, you say thank you. But if it's, let's say, 2 o'clock in the afternoon... at two o'clock in the afternoon, or it's five o'clock, some normal time, and you say, "Honey, I'm hungry. I am hungry," and she gives you—hold on a second—all right, and she gives you a piece of gum that she has left over, but she needs the other half. "Here you go, eat, come on, yeah, go ahead, eat." Now, it's not exactly such a good wife, right? Why? Because it's not what you feed your husband. He needs a little bit more than a piece of half-chewed gum. So again, you gave him food, but it's not exactly the way to give. But sometimes, bnei Torah...

2:17:34You give tzedakah. Give tzedakah, right? Say, hey, hey, go. Here you go, tzedakah. You have a few dollars on you, and you see some homeless guy or rabbi or somebody, you know, looks homeless but isn't really. You say, hey, hey, hey, go, hey, hey. Like this. Hey, hey, look, he's a horse. Hey, hey, hey, here you go, hey, here. Like this. That's not a way to give. Why? Why does the whole world need to hear the whole thing? Why? Also, You have to treat the person that you're giving to with some dignity and respect and not treat them as if they're some poor miserable person. Many times people that give do the opposite, where they give the person not just the money but a little bit of embarrassment too. And you go, but before you take it, they hold on to the 20, they hold on to the 10, they hold on to whatever bill, and he's holding on to the other end, but they want to give him a speech too. Listen, use this money right, don’t spend it all in one place. And by the way, your wife didn’t look so good, so maybe you should get her something. And your kids, they look kind of hungry, so you get a speech too. Money like that is better if you don’t give it. Don’t give it. Other times, sometimes a person says, “Listen, they donate money and then, you know, they want to, uh, listen, did you get it?” “Yeah, I got it, I got it. Thank you, thank you. It’s got in the mail.” “Yeah, I got it, okay.”

2:18:55A day later, "So, you got the money?" "Yeah, I told you yesterday that I got it. I got it. I got it." "Okay, fine." A week later, listen, so did you spend the money that I gave you already? What, you need it back? No, no, I was making sure you got it. But I just told you I got it already. Okay, did you get anybody else? Start asking them 500 questions with this. Not necessary. It's not necessary. If you donated on the website, I got it. You don't have to tell me. Did you get it? If you donated on the website, you got a receipt, that means I got it. You don't have to ask 500 times. But a lot of times people do that. Why? Because what do they want really? They want to be acknowledged for their donation. They want to feel appreciated. They want—they don't want to give. They want to thank you. They want to know you appreciate that they gave. Now, if you're giving because you're waiting to get appreciation, it's okay, but it's not the best way to give. It's almost similar to that, like coffee with, you know, not-ready coffee.

2:20:01It's not mud, it's not like garbage, but it's not ideal. Why? Ideal should be the highest form of tzedakah. The giver doesn't know who the receiver is. The receiver doesn't know who the giver is. That's the highest form. Now, we can't do that all the time because, number one, we cannot trust people to just, you know, tell them, listen, you give it to whoever. And we cannot trust that, you know, the right receiver. So we have to sometimes know who we're giving it to. But we should try to aim... To be at the best level of tzedakah, and not make a whole ordeal out of it, like, "Listen, I want to make sure that when I give it to you, you give me a receipt every time, and you also send me a special thank you email, and a special message, and every time I see you, I need you to make sure that you look at me," and then, chalas. You don't have to make a whole deal out of it. Why? Because if you're giving for that, it's better you don't give. It's better you don't give. Why?

2:21:02Although it's meritorious to give, you're spending all of the merits in this world. When somebody donates, for example, in shul, the Sephardim have this custom where they do an auction before the prayers, especially during Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah. uh and they uh sell the aliyot to the Torah, and that's usually the time when the synagogue raises the most amount of money. But if you notice, most of the money is usually donated in many places by the people that don't come to shul most of the year. And most of the people that come most of the year don't donate during that time. They may donate to the shul, but not during that time. Why? They let everybody else get it a little bit. Chazal say that those people who donate, if they're not coming to the shul the whole year, why are they even donating? You would think, you know, the guy that's coming all year should donate. Yeah, he does donate, but just not then. Why? Let him. He's not coming next week; he's not coming next month. So if he doesn't donate now, he'll never donate.

2:22:09Okay, so we can understand the guy that's going to donate later, but why is the guy that's only coming once or twice a year donating? Why? Because he wants to get the respect from all of the other people. Even though he doesn't come, he's still supportive, he's still rich, he's still successful, he's still giving. And Chazal say that the guy that's donating because he only donates to get the respect, the honor, and so on... he's gonna cry later on when he arrives at the Beit Din of Heaven. He says, "Listen, I gave a million dollars during my life. I gave 10 million dollars during my life. I gave whatever amount of money during my life. That's good, right?" And the Beit Din of Heaven says, "Yes, it's good, but the problem is that you got so much respect..." forgiving publicly because every time you gave, it was like a billboard on the highway. Everyone knew you gave, you won the auction, you got the aliyah, you got the respect. Everyone knew you are the gvir of the town because you gave, so everybody gave you a lot of respect. And they even did more business with you; they married your kids... right? So all of that honor, that was the pleasure that you got, that was the reward that you got, but you got it in this world. All you have left is

2:23:32out of the pleasure that's, you know, uh, that's owed to you, only one or two percent is left in the eternal world when a person sees the value of one percent of the eternal world versus 99 percent of what he got in the physical world, he's gonna cry. Why? Because he's gonna see that that one percent is more pleasant than the 99 percent. But he already spent it. Meaning, had he not gotten all of that kavod in the physical world and saved it all, or at least most of it, for the spiritual world, his reward would be infinite, infinite. So again, there is a way to give and there's a way to give. You know, you can give, but sometimes when you give somebody, you're giving it to them and disrespecting them at the same time. Or you're getting too much reward and kavod at one time, and so on and so forth. So, a very good subject to constantly delve over and perhaps maybe revisit on a future date is not just to worry about giving, but also how we give.

2:24:43how we give. Your wife asked you a question. If your answer is a demeaning answer, an aggressive answer, a nonchalant answer, it's an answer that, yes, you answered her question, but you made her feel bad in the process. It was better off if you said, "I don't know." It was better off if you didn't say anything. It was better off if you weren't even born, actually. Why? Because at least she wouldn't be insulted. In a sense, sometimes your wife asks you a question because she wants to know how you feel about something. And you're frustrated because of a million and a half different reasons. But that doesn't mean that you need to give her your frustrations. Same thing vice versa. Sometimes you're frustrated, and your husband comes home and asks if there's something to eat because he's hungry, because he's a human being. And you happen to be the chef in the house. But you're frustrated because your girlfriend forgot to call you, your parents haven't come over, you're this, you're that, and the kids are driving you crazy. But all your husband asks for is a little bit of food. That's all he asks for. But you say, "Ah, no, come on, no, go to your mother's house." What? Okay. Well, it's better off you weren't married if you're going to answer him that way.

2:25:54Why does he deserve your frustration? Yes, you gave him an answer. You gave him an answer. But who needs an answer like this? Who needs an answer like this? So that's the thing. We give a lot. We're constantly giving in the world. We give tzedakah, we give headaches, we give heartaches, we give a lot of things. The most important thing about giving is to think about what you're going to give before you give it and think of it in a way as would you want to be the receiver of your gift. Before you give the gift of an answer, of a response, or whatever it is, would you want to be the receiver of that gift you're about to give your wife? Of that gift you're about to give your husband? Of that gift you're about to give your employee or the teller in the supermarket or whoever it is? Would you want to be the receiver? If the answer is yes, go ahead and give. If the answer is no, why not? Then why are you giving it?

2:26:56Why are you giving it? I think we've covered enough unless there's something pressing. Harold, good morning. Good morning. I was going to ask if giving can become like driving. Okay. Oh, it can. Absolutely. Absolutely. Sure, I mean, listen, sometimes a person can be bought. I mean, there's a pasuk in the Torah that the eyes of the wise are blinded by money. And the Gemara, I believe, Masechet Shabbat, says that how is it that the 250 rabbis at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu were the biggest rabbis in the world, all on the level of prophecy, and they all chose Korach instead of Moshe Rabbeinu, the prophet of all prophets. So the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says it's because Korach was the richest man in the land, and he was also very generous. So he gave them a lot of money over time. So by the time he kept giving them money, money, money, what ended up happening is that little by little, his opinion became more right in their eyes.

2:28:19became all right. Why? Because every time he says, "So what do you think?" he gave him a check for a million dollars. He's like, "You know what? Whatever you just said, I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it." So by the time he said, "By the way, I want to go against Moshe Rabbeinu," they liked his idea so much it was too far. Why? Because he said, "If I don't like it, it's going to cost me a hundred million dollars." So I like it. I like it. So that's the thing. Sometimes a person has to be very, very careful of who he's giving to. Because if if the rabbi that you're giving to, the Torah institution that you're giving into, is going to change the Torah for you, you should not give them a penny. If the rabbi is going to change his opinion for you, you shouldn't give him a penny. A penny! You shouldn't give him. Why? Because you're just buying an actor. Actually, you're not buying the Torah. You're not investing in the Torah. The Torah doesn't change for you. It doesn't matter what kind of check you write. This is one of the things rich people get frustrated with. They sometimes want to donate, but they expect to change the Torah. So when they receive the same exact Torah, they decide that sometimes yes, sometimes no. Many times they run away because they thought that maybe they could buy the Torah.

2:29:39But, you know, Baruch Hashem, we have a few decent people that have gotten the rebuke on their head a few times but stay generous regardless. But many times, somebody gets the truth, and they run away. They run away because they don't like it. A few times it happened where someone got an answer that they didn't like, and instead of being a generous donor, they at times turn into enemies. know, one day I was Mashiach for them; the next day, I became Korach. They toasted both of them. I became all 250 rabbis—all 250 I became in one day. Why? Because I told them something they didn't want to hear, but it was still according to the Torah. So that's the thing: if a person wants to buy the Torah, look somewhere else; don't come to Beit Shemesh. But if you want to buy authentic Torah, what the Torah says, that's what we have and we do. But that's very hard. It's very hard for people because, I can tell you even from my own experience, it's not an easy test.

2:30:41sunny test. I don't, I don't, uh... uh... you know, I don't, uh... I'm not jealous of the test of anybody else that has this issue because it's very easy, it's very easy, you know, to try to be more lenient when there's a lot on the line because you could rationalize it. So let's say, for example, you want to build a yeshiva. You have a certain number of students, you have a certain amount of Torah, you have a certain amount of good things that you have planned, and then The money you don't have. But this one guy, this Reform, deformed rasha, says to you, "Listen, I'll give you a check for $10 million to build your yeshiva, your this, your that, and I want you to put my name on the building. I want you to, you know, do this. Give me honor," even though he's a rasha. it's very hard to say no to that. Why? Because you're thinking, "Listen, he's a rasha, who cares about him? I don't like him. I'll put a stupid name on the building, who cares about his name? At least I can teach all these boys Torah, right? I can help all these people do teshuvah, right? It's a good thing." It's a very hard decision. It's a very hard decision. Very hard decision. Why? Tzaddikim wouldn't take the money.

2:31:54So the tzaddikim wouldn't take the money. Yeah, but it's $10 million. Let it be $100 million. It doesn't make a difference. If Hashem wants me to have the money, He'll give it to me in a kosher way. Now, it's very easy to say that in a lecture. It's very hard to live it. Very hard to live it because many times you're going to get tested. You're going to get tested at times where it's hard to say no to money. And we, Baruch Hashem, we get tested. Baruch Hashem, so far so good. But it's not an easy test. Especially when you're talking about big money. know, especially when you're talking about big money, because you know you have needs, you have plans, you have this, you have that. It's not an easy thing to say no when you have needs. And then there's also good involved too, like you're figuring, okay, there's like one percent bad but like 99 percent good. So your brain will say it's worth it, it's worth it, like you know you're going to war know to win against the enemy, surely some people that are not really your enemy are going to die. Collateral damage, they call it, right? So you justify the big war and killing innocent people because you know you're going to defeat the big enemy that caused bigger harm. So you're thinking that the mitzvah world is the same way. I can make a little bit of compromise for the sake of, you know, Kiddush Hashem.

2:33:16But it's very hard, very, very hard to stand the test. And it's not an easy test, and it's a daily test. But nonetheless, it's a test that a person has to pass. Has to pass, and we succeed in passing it. With what's going on in the world today, It's not an easy world for people in any aspect, whether it be money, health, family, this, that. Everybody is getting their own share of tests. The goal that we have is to give ourselves, you, and anyone that's watching enough strength from the Torah and the Mussar that we learn to be able to overcome more tests than not, and hopefully arrive next week even better than we did this week, and little by little get closer and closer to where Hashem wants us to be. Be'ezrat Hashem, each and every single one of us will have a G'mar Chatimah Tovah. Enjoy your time with your family on Shabbat. Prepare yourself both physically and spiritually for the big day of Yom Kippur.

2:34:27Like I said, if you want to contribute to one of our campaigns for Yom Kippur, there's the big campaign and there are smaller campaigns as well. Kiruv is a significant aspect of what a person can do, along with many other things. But most importantly, make sure to learn, do mitzvot, and perform teshuvah. That's the biggest thing. Kiruv is part of your teshuvah. If you're able to do more, do more. If you can't do more, you do less. But needless to say, each and every single one of us needs to do something before we show up to the big judgment day called Yom Kippur. And b'ezrat Hashem, each and every one of us will get a g'mar chatimah tovah. Baruch Adonai l'olam. Amen ve'amen. Baruch Hashem, we've completed another year, b'ezrat Hashem. Rabbi Ephraim and I are very proud to announce some major milestones that we've achieved, b'ezrat Hashem, and with your help, our dear partners. Over 60 million minutes of our Torah have been watched over the last year. That's a million hours of Torah to help people do teshuvah and get closer to Hashem. Over 300,000 CDs have been distributed around the world for free.

2:35:35We've also made over a thousand lectures between the two of us, as well as with Rav Chaim being added to the roster. Over 60,000 regular viewers are watching our Torah right now across the board. Over 200,000 answers regarding halacha, family, shalom bayit, and different topics on a regular basis are being given to people. Over 10,000 people have been helped, whether it's through food or different financial issues. 1,000 families of Torah scholars are being helped by Irgun Be'ezrat Hashem. We've published and distributed over 5,000 halachic books, kuntresim, newsletters, mussar books around the world. We are also currently helping over 130 families complete their conversion to Orthodox Judaism. Our TV channel continues to grow, our YouTube channel, our Facebook pages, our WhatsApp pages, everything continues to grow, Baruch Hashem. Thanks to Hashem, and thanks to our dear partners. B'ezrat Hashem, much more next year.

2:36:51where you'll also have newer features, where you'll be able to use the app while you're using other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the lectures directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our kiruv and our Torah work that we're doing. And the most exciting feature is that you'll be able to actually ask questions directly on the app and get answers from the rabbis directly from the app. This is something unprecedented, and Baruch Hashem, we will be able to offer it. Thank you again for all of your support. Check it out. Make sure you have the Kosher Torah that will re-energize your neshama each and every single day. Kol tuv b'hatzlacha.