The Humility of the Spiritual Criminals - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (23)

0:15We hear back in there Avraham in Aventura, Florida, and our weekly shiur on Iggeret HaRamban. Nachmanides wrote us a beautiful letter almost 800 years ago. We've been reviewing it over the last few months. Today's shiur will be for a Refuah Shlema, Refuah HaNefesh, Refuah HaGuf for And Joshua, what's the name again? Tzipporah? Esther bat Tzipporah. Devorah bat Mercedes. So we're back in our series; it's a very deep series analyzing each and every one of the sentences in the letter that the Ramban wrote to his son and all of the students that would follow many, many years ago. And throughout the years, many of the Chachamim, throughout all of the generations, took the eitzah, the suggestion that the Ramban made to his son, which is to read this letter every week. He says in the letter, if you read this letter every week, you'll have a lot of blessings in your life.

1:38sentences in the letter that the Ramban wrote to his son and all of the students that would follow many, many years ago. And throughout the years, many of the Chachamim, throughout all of the generations, took the eitzah, the suggestion that the Ramban made to his son, which is to read this letter every week. He says in the letter, if you read this letter every week, you'll have a lot of blessings in your life. And it's a very important letter. And again, sometimes you first discover something in the Torah, a new sefer, a new chiddush, a new iggeret, a new letter. You want to read it again and again. And it's good, but sometimes you lose steam after a while. For example, there is a segula for parnassah. that many people do, at least for a short period of time, which is to read the Parashat HaMan, the parasha that talks about the manna bread, of how Am Yisrael got the manna bread, the food from heaven, and this is a very good segula to read daily for parnassah. Now, there are also other segulot for zivug, there are segulot for different types of things that people want to get in their life,

3:03But one thing that you have to know is like a small print disclosure that really should be the big print. Segulot don't work if you're a rasha. This is something that a person needs to know. And a rasha doesn't mean that you are an evil person that murders people on the street like Hitler. It doesn't mean that. Rasha is just simply a terminology for someone that forsakes the mitzvot of Hashem. He knows that he's not allowed to drive on Shabbat, but he drives on Shabbat. He knows he's not allowed to eat anything that moves; he is only allowed to eat something that's kosher. But he decides to eat anything that moves, and sometimes, if it doesn't move, he just kicks it until it moves. He knows that he is only allowed to look at his wife, but he wants to look at every woman. He knows that he has to watch his words and understand what Chazal said. Mitzvot of Hashem. He knows that he's not allowed to drive on Shabbat, but he drives on Shabbat. He knows he's not allowed to eat anything that moves; he is only allowed to eat something that's kosher. But he decides to eat anything that moves, and sometimes, if it doesn't move, he just kicks it until it moves. He knows that he is only allowed to look at his wife, but he wants to look at every woman. He knows that he has to watch his words and understand what Chazal said. about watching your Brit, to the extent where someone who is holy looks at their Brit as if it's their finger. They don't get all of these crazy thoughts as soon as they see themselves naked. They see that this is something that HaKadosh Baruch Hu created, and the Brit is the yesod, both for a man and for a woman. But the point is that he knows that he has to watch his Brit. He watched a few clips that we've made about watching his Brit.

4:32But he decides, "Oh, maybe one time a month, a week, a day, whenever I feel like it." So the Zohar HaKadosh says that a Jew who wastes seed, even if he learns Torah, all of the Torah that he learns goes to the Sitra Achra, all of it goes to the Satan, gives koach to the Satan. That’s how much Wasting seed is valued in the eyes of Hashem, meaning that even if you're doing mitzvot, but you continue violating the brit, you continue violating the Torah. The mazal that HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to give you, the shefa that He wants to give you, all the reward that He wants to give you, is unfortunately going to be wasted on others. So that's why sometimes people call you crying. They're 45, 55, 65 years old. They haven't been married and... They don't have any kids. The guy is 60 years old. All he has is a pit bull. You know, he doesn't have anything else. You know, she's lonely at 50 years old. She doesn't understand why. If you analyze your actions, you can see why. Maybe not today, maybe not yesterday, but it could have been 10 years ago. And until you do teshuva for it, all the segulot in the world are not going to help you.

5:53I have people calling me all the time or sending me messages all the time about trying to help them with different things. Before I talk to anyone about helping them, I ask them a bunch of questions. Many times, people are very confused by the questions because they're telling me, for example, that they have a son that's off the derech. that they haven't been able to find a shidduch or that they're having problems with parnassah. And I'm asking them, "How much time do you learn Torah every day?" In their mind, they're like, "What does it have to do with it? What if I learn? Is a woman going to appear at my house and marry me? If I learn, is my son going to go back on the derech? If I learn, am I going to get more parnassah? How is it going to affect my son that's now married to a goya?" I ask people all the time questions about themselves, and... Because I know that those people didn't come to me as the first choice. Usually, I'm the last choice. Usually, I'm the guy that's like 911, Mayday, we have no other choice. So can you give us something? Why? Because they've already tried everything else. They tried baking challah with 500 women. They tried reading Tehillim with 600 women.

7:07Tried having maybe a shiur or two in the community. They tried all types of other segulot. They tried donating a few dollars to some local Beit Knesset that tells you it's okay to drive on Shabbat or doesn't say anything, which is almost the same. They tried all the other stuff, and nothing worked. Five years, things got worse. So finally, they go to me because maybe they watched a movie, and they saw I went through a similar tikkun, and so on and so forth, and... But the reality is, rabotai, if you actually watched the entire movie, you'd understand that none of the blessings—none of the blessings that, baruch Hashem, we live with and enjoy on a daily basis today—were active, were even possible, were even open, or even showed us any sign of life until we started doing teshuva. Donations? I donated plenty of money. Shiurim? I went to a few shiurim. Hosting people, all types of things, whatever—you know, all those different things, I did it. All types of kabbalistic things and all that stuff. Nothing worked. Why? Because these segulot are something that HaKadosh Baruch Hu designates for His people. We cannot be considered His people so long as we forsake Him. If you're going to continue walking around with a miniskirt, even though you are still His daughter...

8:33you're the daughter. That's like, He's not so happy with you, so He's not gonna give you a reward and change nature for you and find you some zivug from Antarctica that's actually a tzaddik and wants to do all the good things in the world so long as you continue walking around like this. He's not gonna make nature change for you so long as you drive on Shabbat. Yeah, but I only drive to the Knesset. Okay, so I Where does it say in the Torah that you're allowed to drive to the Knesset? On Shabbat. On Yom Tov. The point is, Rabotai, it's very, very important for us to tell ourselves and tell our friends and family and so on that yes, there are many, many criminals that have a much bigger beard than me. And some even a smaller beard than me. They're going to tell you, give me some money and all of your problems will go away. They call themselves Mekubalim. They call themselves all types of things that they give themselves. They have Hachnasat people. They have all the, you know, 500 people show up looking for a miracle. 99.9% of those people will come with something, leave empty-handed, and stay empty-handed. Why? Because unless that Mekubal is a real Mekubal,

9:51not going to tell you that really if you want all the blessings in the world you have to start with teshuva. Yeah, but I'm already religious. Exactly, you think you're religious enough? Yeah, but nobody else told me to be religious. Okay, that's the point. That's why you have to do it. If the mekubal does not tell you to become more religious, closer to Hashem, work on your middot, work on your Shabbat, work on your, your, your, all of the, you know, character traits that are flawed that each one of us has, none of the segulot are gonna work. They're not gonna work because HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to give these special miracles to people that are trying, trying. to do better. It's important for us to pray for Am Yisrael on a day-to-day basis because most of Am Yisrael does not know this. They continue going to these criminals, giving them a bunch of money. They continue donating to places that might as well be a parking lot instead of a Beit Knesset. They continue to go to a bunch of different rabbis that might as well be priests instead of rabbis, who are simply manipulating you to give them your money and

11:02They're giving you some false hope and a false smile that everything is going to be okay. The only thing that's going to be okay is that their bank account will grow; that's what's going to be okay. It's important for us to know this because teshuvah is the ikar. That's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants from every single human being that's alive, Jew or Gentile. Every person is obligated to do teshuvah every day. Every... This is the reason why we're doing all of these shiurim. This is the reason why I have to leave my beautiful kids at home and their little sad faces and come over here. This is the reason why, whether I'm sick or I'm not sick, I still have to come. Because there are just not that many people telling people to do teshuvah in English. So you're stuck with me. The reality is, rabotai, that we have to know that teshuvah is never finished. Never. You're alive, you have to do teshuvah. You're never religious enough. You're never close enough to Hashem. You could always do more. And I promise you, if you try more, you'll see more. You'll benefit more. Not just in Olam HaBa. Here too. You'll start feeling things, seeing things. But if you think that you're finished, you're done, unfortunately, you're going backwards. Because there's no such thing as a Jew that's on neutral. He's either going up, closer to Hashem, or he's going down.

12:30So all of these shiurim are going to constantly repeat the message of teshuvah because that's the ikar. If you look at and you listen to all of the chachamim in every one of their sefarim, whether it's a sefer about halacha, or it's a sefer about mussar, or it's a sefer about Chassidut, or it's a sefer about anything. They're always going to tell you, they're always going to tell you that you have to do teshuvah. Someone did teshuvah in order for you to learn from this lesson, that you have to do teshuvah. That's the key. Now, so sometimes when you come to a shul, you get a special privilege. The privilege is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives the speaker siyata diShmaya, just for you. He gives him special assistance from Heaven, just for you. Where he's going to put words in his mouth, specifically to cater to you. Sometimes, we are so arrogant that we don't think it's for us. We think it's for everybody else. The rabbi is talking about Shabbat, and we're thinking, well, I keep Shabbat already.

13:36I don't even know why. Maybe I should leave early because he's talking about Shabbat. He's probably going to talk about Shabbat for another 15-20 minutes. Let me just get out of here, get to sleep a little early, wake up a little early, and learn more Torah that's really relevant to me. If you're in a lecture, the entire lecture has to do with you—some things more, some things less. Each one of us can improve our Shabbat, each one of us can improve our middot, each one of us can improve our taharat hamishpacha, and so on and so forth. So the special treatment that you get when you come to a shiur is that the speaker will give something just for you, and you have to be humble enough to know that it is for you and not just for everybody else, even if you're already doing the best you can. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is reminding you to stay this way. You're doing the best you can; okay, keep going this way. Well, how are you going to stay doing your best? By constantly getting chizuk on the same mitzvah. Even if you're the most modest woman you know, you're going to hear a shiur about modesty. Why? To get chizuk so you stay modest. Even if you keep Shabbat, people come to your house just to learn Hilchot Shabbat just by looking at you. You should still listen to a shiur about Shabbat. Why? To get chizuk so you stay that way. And don't believe any type of fairy tale that there's a shortcut of some kind. That if you do something

15:01If you buy something or if you do a certain thing, it's all going to work automatically. Everything has a prerequisite, which is Teshuva. All of this goes in the Torah. So, with that being said, the Ramban told us this letter is for us. It's for all of us. And each one of the sentences in this letter is another instruction. How can we improve our middot? How can we improve our character traits now for the first section or even more than half of what we've done so far? We have discussed not being angry, not being a person that loses his mind. Somebody cuts you off on the highway, you start throwing stuff, you start cursing. When a person really understands what it means to curse and what it means to make a swear word in Judaism, really, they'd feel bad about it. I know a woman; she saw a few of my shiurim, Baruch Hashem, and it happened to be there are no shiurim. I discussed what it means to Hashem when you use this holy mouth of yours to curse, to say a swear word. She understood it. It hit her neshama. One time, one of her kids really made her upset. Really made her upset.

16:25something really annoying and even though she doesn't typically curse, she cursed, but the second it came out, like venom, she felt like she wanted to die. She started crying hysterically. Why? Because, now you may think she's crazy, maybe she's overdoing it. No, no, no. She's not overdoing it. She knows that HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't like cursing. Why? Because you use this mouth to talk to Him, use this mouth to pray to Him. And Chazal says that if you curse, even if it was decreed in Shamayim for you to get 70 years of blessings, that one curse could turn it into 70 years of curses. Baruch Hashem, she cried enough where she actually got mamash, a sign. She told me. She got a sign that day. That day she got a sign that her teshuvah was accepted. Not all of us have such merit. The point is, the more we know about the danger, the more we protect ourselves from it. It's not a matter of scaring you constantly just for giggles. There's no pleasure in scaring people by explaining to them the magnitude of the sin. There is pleasure in seeing people not sinning, in seeing people improve their lives and getting closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It's very sad to me

17:48that many times people call me and tell me, "Listen, why don't you do something and talk to my son or talk to my daughter or talk to my husband?" And then I ask them questions about themselves. I tell them, "Listen, why don't you do this, this, and this: watch my movie, watch this lecture, work on yourself." And they respond, "What does this have to do with what I'm asking you about? I'm asking you about shalom bayit, and you're telling me to watch a Torah lecture." Asking you to help my son do teshuvah, you're asking me to watch a Torah lecture. I'm asking you to, you know, give me an idea for shalom bayit. You tell me to watch a Torah lecture. It's always the same instructions. Why? Because you're calling me because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling you you need to do teshuvah. No one calls me to see how I'm doing, and if they do, I don't pick up anyway because I have to help all the other people trying to do teshuvah and... We are in touch if you are watching this right now live or tomorrow or in five years from now. That means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling you that you have to do teshuvah. Yeah, but I already did it. Okay, do more. Do more. There's always more to do. You know I'm giving the lecture; I have to do teshuvah. Yeah, but what about the story that you already did teshuvah? No, I started the story; it's about my start of doing teshuvah. Teshuvah is continuous forever and...

19:03The Ramban is trying to tell us already for the first three quarters that part of teshuvah is to work on our middot. Specifically, stay away from the dangerous midah of anger. Then he moves on and starts talking about humility and arrogance—how despicable this is in the eyes of Hashem. We discussed it briefly last night—I mean, last week—about how Hakadosh Baruch Hu does not like the arrogant. He loves the humble, and... But we'll go a little bit deeper into it today because it pertains to something that I believe is poisoning many, many people in their day-to-day life in a place that they would never think it is. Many people go to Beit Knesset, watch shiurim online, do all types of things as their way of getting closer to Hashem. They go to school, they have their Rebbe, they have their Rabbanit, they have their whoever, their teacher, and they rely on these people in all of these holy locations, or at least what is supposed to be a holy location. They're relying on them to give them the truth, to give them the instructions from Hashem, to give them chizuk to keep going.

20:18But many times, they're getting the wrong instructions. But they don't ever think for themselves that these are the wrong instructions. Like when a woman said recently in one of our groups that she goes to church for some type of job activity. She's getting some job training. And she saw in one of my lectures that going to a church or even being next to a church hurt your neshama so much so that the Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah says it's better for a person to go next to a beit zonot, a place of prostitution, to pass by that, even risking the fact that one of these prostitutes will be outside to entice him, than to go next to a church Why? Going to a church, going next to a church, forget about inside the church, that's kal vachomer, that's needless to say. Going next to a church is so damaging to the soul, to the neshama, that it's much worse than a prostitute, le'havdil. That's what the Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah says. Obviously, neither one of them is allowed. But if you only have two choices, like they had in this Gemara,

21:37Had to go from point A to point B. They got to a fork in the road. On the right, it's the beit zonot; on the left, it's the church. One man says, "Okay, so let's go by the church because at least we won't look at the girls in case they're outside." The other man says, "No, no, no. Halacha is we have to actually go by the beit zonot and not next to the church." This is why he says that in the place of immodesty, the beit zonot, we close our eyes. Even if they're there, we don't have to see them. We could choose to overcome it. The church, there's no choice. No choice. Why? If you just pass by it, it might affect you. You go inside, you may not come out the same. So when a woman says, "Oh, yeah, I go for job training, I..." Church, we said you're not allowed to go. No, no, but the rabbi over here says it's good because it's for work. Now, can you blame this poor woman? You can't call this woman evil. She's bad. She's going against Hashem. She tried her best. What did she do? She asked the rabbi, the local rabbi, the puppet over there, and...

22:54And the puppet told her, "Listen, yeah, yeah, mitzvah, mitzvah. Go, what, for job training? Go, go, go. Even look at Yoshke and say hi. You know, go to the church. Why? You have to make parnasah, right? Like there's no other way to make parnasah in the world. You have to make a sin on the way." You can't blame the woman. You can't blame her. She went to the rabbi. Up to now, her judgment will be very, very minimal. Why? She didn't know, and she went to a rabbi that steered her the wrong way. Now that she knows, if she continues, because now she knows, and she chose now to continue, she can't go up to Shamayim and say, no, no, I never knew. No, you knew. A few people told you, you're not allowed. Yeah, but the other one said I'm allowed. Okay, at the very minimum, you would have had, now that you heard two opinions, you would have had to go back to the original that said allowed and say, can you show me what you said in a book? Can you show me a source that says I'm allowed, so when I go up to Shamayim, they're not gonna rip me in half. Can you show me in a book that Rabbi Yosef Karo, the Rav, or that Abaye, or somebody, somebody, says it's allowed? Even if it's someone from a recent generation, 30-40 years ago, someone wrote in a book, it's okay to go get job training inside a church. But, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, your neshamos are very, very precious.

24:20The Satan is doing everything possible to destroy them. Sometimes he's going to come to you in the form of a rabbi, or a rebbetzin, or a principal, or a classmate, or a brother, or a father, or a mother. He will come to you in all different shapes and sizes. You have to be strong, and the only way to do that is by being glued to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Always verify everything. Don't trust anyone, including me, and... I want to see it in the book. If it says it in the book, I don't need a second opinion. It's in the book. Some chacham said it. If they complain to me in Shamayim, I did such and such. Hey, hold on a second. You have this such and such book? Okay, let me see it. Page 37B, over here. Oh, okay, you have it in the book. No problem. If it's in the Gemara, if it's in Shulchan Aruch, if it's somewhere that some giant said it, you have something to rely on. But if somebody said it to you, it's not enough. Enough with "who said what" if the rabbi's wife is doing such-and-such. Can we just rely on the rabbi's wife? Can we just rely that if she's doing such-and-such, it's allowed? The Gemara says, who says? We learn from how people behave? We learn from books. We learn from sefarim for psak halacha.

25:43That's how we learn. That's Judaism. That's why the Jewish people, despite all of the anti-Semitism, the pogroms, the inquisitions, and everything else they tried to destroy us with a million times over, will never succeed. Why? Because we stayed glued to HaKadosh Baruch Hu through the books—without internet, without WhatsApp, without Facebook, without YouTube, without anything. Through the books. That's what saved Am Yisrael. That's what saved Am Yisrael. We have to stay close to our tradition, Rabotai. But you have to remember, the Satan is not off. He's not on vacation. He's going to continue working. He's going to continue trying to steer you the wrong way. And you have to know that you have to have a source for everything. Now the Ramban gave us many sources of why HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates certain character traits. But now he's giving us an instruction set of how to acquire this devoutness, this complete connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, which is by acquiring the character trait of humility. And in so many words, he gives us a four-step process. A four-step process of four specific actions, actual actions that a person must do in order to even try to acquire this amazing character trait of humility.

27:11Why is humility something so praiseworthy in the eyes of Hashem? A few reasons. Number one, if you're humble for the right reason, because you understand who your Creator is, that already shows that you have a connection. Number two, if you're humble, you understand your own worth, on the good side and the negative side. On the good side, that you are tzelem Elokim. Kadosh Baruch Hu is put literally. Part of your neshama is Him. Part of your neshama is Him, every Jew. Part of your neshama is Him. That's what keeps, that's the fuel. So you're humble because you want to protect that neshama. On the other hand, you know that if you don't protect that neshama, eventually you're going to be lunch for the maggots and the worms. Person that's humble understands what our tradition is all the way from three thousand three hundred years ago. Everyone knows that we got the Torah at Mount Sinai. Sometimes they call it in the Torah Mount Horeb. Now, if you ask a six- or seven-year-old why we got the Torah at Mount Sinai and...

28:34A six- or seven-year-old that goes to yeshiva or Jewish school, if you ask her, "How come we got the Torah on Mount Sinai? How come we didn't get it on Mount Everest? How come we didn't get it on the Rocky Mountains? How come we didn't get it somewhere else?" the six-year-old is going to tell you, "No, because Mount Sinai is the smallest mountain, the lowest mountain, and it's the most humble." That's the story. That's the Midrash. I'll tell you a secret. It's not the smallest. Don't tell anybody. It's not the smallest. Reality speaking, if HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted to give us the Torah in such a low place, why didn't He give it to us at Yam HaMelech, the lowest point on earth? In some type of, mamash, under the ground, under sea level. If He wanted to give it to us at the lowest point, why didn't He give it there? If He wanted to give it on a mountain, go to a nice mountain. Moshe Rabbeinu can climb. You saw he climbed three times. Without any tools, he climbed the mountain. So if he could climb Mount Sinai three times, he could climb one of the other mountains three times. What's the big deal? If not, just give him a clout, raise him up there. What's the big deal for it to be on Mount Everest? Respectable, big mountain, wow. To teach us, Rabotai, two things. That although HaKadosh Baruch Hu values humility,

30:04The Mount Sinai was indeed the humble mountain He's always reminding us. It's a mountain nonetheless, and if you want to learn Torah in order to get close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you will have to work for it. You will have to climb. You won't have to climb all the way to the top of Mount Everest by yourself. But don't expect it to be so easy that it's like walking down the hill. It's gonna be hard. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu is gonna help you. Humility is valued if it's used the right way. Sometimes the Satan arrives with something that appears to be humble. The guy has the appearance of a humble person. Smiles all the time and he's welcoming all the time and he says thank you when you give him a check, you know. He appears to be humble, even tells you things like you should love all Jews—all Jews are special. "I love you. I love you. I love you, unless you don't agree that my rabbi is the Messiah, unless you don't agree that our way is the best way." But he'll arrive to you in a certain way: "I love you. I love you. I'm humble. I love you. I love you."

31:24Unfortunately, the snake also said, "I love you." The snake also said, "I love you," and we have to know that we have to protect ourselves from the snake because the snake was a beautiful, extraordinary creation. He was the most beautiful animal in existence until Hashem changed how he looks, but he was absolutely beautiful. The snake came on to Chava, to Eve. Telling all wonderful things, enticing her. He looked kosher. He looked like he knew what he was talking about. He mentioned the name of Hashem. He said all types of things that she heard from Adam, that he said the name of Hashem. She heard this somewhere. It sounded kosher. But unfortunately, it was a snake. Sometimes the Satan comes to you... Someone that looks religious, acts religious, but unfortunately is steering you wrong by telling you to go to church, by telling you to go against Hashem in one way or another. This is one of the things we have to be aware of and we have to get stronger on because countless people that I know are constantly falling for this trap of the Satan and...

32:44Simply believing anyone with a beard, anyone that sounds religious, anyone that mentions Hashem's name and all of the work they did in the last year, two, three, four, five, ten years of teshuvah, literally goes to waste in one second. Why? They believe some story, some fairy tale, and this guy said... She said, and she decides also: "I don't need to really be as close and work so hard for Hashem, will be scared of Gehinnom, or be scared of punishment. No, I shouldn't. Hashem loves everybody the same." So today, we're gonna try to understand: what is true humility and what's fake? So, the Ramban says this four-step process. He says, "Let your head be bowed, cast your eyes downward, your heart heavenward, and do not stare at your listener to intimidate or belittle him." He says, "Let your head be bowed, cast your eyes downward, your heart heavenward, and do not stare at your listener to intimidate or belittle him."

34:04The first few we discussed a little bit, but we'll do it in a different way, a different understanding. Here the Ramban tells us that there are four things that you must acquire, you must have, four signs, if you will, that a humble person must have in order to have any inclination of humility within them. They have to lower their head, be bowed. They have to cast their eyes downwards when they walk, when they speak to someone. Their heart always has to think about HaKadosh Baruch Hu, be connected to Hashem. But also, when they speak to somebody, never do what the number one recommendation in the modern world today is, which is when you speak to somebody, look at them in the eyes. That's the opposite of Torah. And you go, I remember when I was on Wall Street, it was very common to hear all types of self-help people, motivational speakers, you know. All the guys that worked for me needed motivation sometimes. I would motivate them; sometimes I would suggest someone to motivate them. And it's very common for people to learn that when you speak to someone...

35:32To show a connection, to show that you understand them, to show that you are connected to what they're saying and that you're interested, look at them in the eyes when you speak. The Ramban says the opposite. Don't look at them in the eyes. So we're going to discover why. Why is the Ramban the opposite of what's recommended today? Isn't it going to make people uncomfortable if you constantly look at the floor when you talk to them? Do you really need to look at the floor the whole time? Well, she's going to talk to you and you're going to give her your forehead the whole time. So we're going to clarify this. But already we see that the Ramban is suggesting physical behavior, not just mental, but actual physical behavior of how a person needs to be. Now, to have a rosh kafuf, a bowed head, It's not only something that a person does for the sake of humility, but also it's tzniut. It's also protection. You'll see some of his pictures anytime that he's walking. He always walked around like this. And many of the giants walked around like this. And some people think, excuse me, some people think that it's because he was old.

36:57But if you look at some of his older pictures when he was really, really young, he walked the same way. This is the way of chachamim. This is the way of tzadikim. This is the way they walk. And one of the reasons is because the Gemara says that a person that stands up high with their stomach out, their chest pumping, they look up, they're walking like this, this is a sign of arrogance. And you're taking up too much space in the world with your arrogance, which means you have less space for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Now, Rav Moshe Feinstein says that there's a mitzvah in the Torah that we may not even know exists until today, which is in the book of Devarim, chapter 17, verse 7. It says, "And you shall destroy the evil from your midst." If there is evil, destroy it. You have a statue in your house, destroy it. A Jew is not allowed to have statues in his house, especially if it's a statue of a human being, a full human being. You're only allowed to have the face if you can have it at all. If you have a full torso of a human being, you are not allowed to have it as a Jew.

38:24not allowed to have a statue of a lion. Not allowed to have a statue of a bull. And also not allowed to have a statue of an eagle. But generally speaking, you shouldn't have statues. You shouldn't have statues. What if I like it? Okay. You like it. You shouldn't have it. Why? It's not good. Statues are not good. I know people use it for art and things like that. If it's one of the four that I mentioned to you, it's forbidden. Outright forbidden. Because these are the images on the Kisei HaKavod of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. These are the four faces, if you will: the human being, the eagle, the bull, and the lion. Amen. So one of the ways that I remember years ago that was a little bit of a shock to my life was when my rabbi told me exactly what I just told you. He said, these specific statues, you know, you shouldn't have them. I said, wait, hold on a second. You mean like a bull? He said, yeah, well, you have bulls in your house. I said, I'm a Wall Street guy. That's all I have in my house. In my house, in my office, the bull is the symbol of Wall Street.

39:40The bulls go up the stairs. The bears jump out of the window. There are all types of sentences and things like that. Bull means the market goes up. Bear means the market goes down. Every Wall Street guy has a bunch of bulls in his house, in his office, everywhere. Eagles even more sometimes. So I'm on the phone with him. I'm hysterical. I start taking these expensive statues and putting them in garbage bags, bigger garbage bags. Why? I want to be close to Hashem finally. I'm not even thinking expensive, not expensive. Maybe I should give it to someone. Why should I give my problems to somebody else? So it's like a one-second thought: no, no, everything is going out. Sometimes when you're on fire, you could do a mitzvah in two seconds. A big mitzvah in two seconds. Why? You want to destroy the evil in your midst! You have a non-Jewish boyfriend or girlfriend. You hear that it's not allowed to be with a non-Jew because you're a Jew. Immediately. No questions asked. I don't know if she wants, doesn't want. I don't care. Honey, can never see you again. Click. Change phone number. Move. One guy I know, one guy I know, had a non-Jewish girlfriend. But he knew he had to get away from this. But he knew it's not going to be easy. Why? Why?

40:53First of all, there are feelings. Second of all, even more than that, there is lust. Third of all, there are two personalities. It's not just him. Even if he wants to leave, it doesn't mean that she is going to want to go. He heard what he had to do. One day, he picked up, didn't tell anybody, called one of his friends. "Can you do me a favor? Can you come to my house with your truck?" "Yeah, sure, why?" "Just come. Just come." His friend comes to his house, they put all his clothes in the truck, and he never comes back to the house again. Changes phone number, changes location, changes everything. Why? It's the only way he could run away clean. He moved down the street and didn't move that far away, but she doesn't know he's there. Why? Because he knew that if he's gonna talk to her and she's cute and he's cute and they're cute together, Shamayim knows they're gonna be getting up together if he continues all the cuteness and everything. So rather than just, you know, one step at a time, he says, no, no, I got to get out of this now. I already put myself in enough trouble. All the money I have went down the tubes, this, that, and the other thing. How do I get out of it? He literally picked up and left. Left all of his furniture, left everything. That's a person that's mamash zealous for Hashem. He wants to get close to Hashem, and he makes a drastic move. Not everybody has such koach, such strength to do such things. But sometimes you do.

42:12To just destroy the evil in your midst. Don't try to save every little button. Sometimes you just have to destroy stuff. Sometimes you just have to move on. But Rav Moshe Feinstein says, there's another way to fulfill this mitzvah of destroying the evil in your midst. What evil? Your ego. Your ego is evil. Because your ego... distances you away from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The more ego a person has, the higher they think of themselves—whether it's because of their Torah knowledge, their looks, their money, their heritage, their gender, or whatever it is—the more you think of yourself, the less room you have for HaKadosh Baruch Hu in your life. Rav Moshe Feinstein says One of the ways that a person can start destroying their ego actively is by having their head down and their eyes down at all times and only using it to look up when needed.

43:21Because each time you walk around like this, you walk around like a humble person. Little by little, even if you still feel arrogant in the beginning, you don't just change your character trait overnight. But by physically acting this way, little by little, the neshama will follow. Little by little, the mentality will follow. Why? Because you're doing it for a reason. You're not doing it because it's more comfortable. You're doing it because you have the Shechinah that you're thinking about at all times. Now the Gemara in Masechet Yevamot, page 105, says that when a person prays, he needs to look down. Sometimes you're going to see, you go to a Beit Knesset, sometimes you see a few actors. A few actors that think they're little mini Moshe Rabbeinus. What do they do? You know, they start looking at the shamayim as if it's them and Hashem. And you know, they want to make sure they stand in the front so everybody can see them talk to Hashem. Most of the time it's fake. Sometimes somebody is really close to Hashem. You don't need to rebuke anybody for this. This is just sometimes you see this. You see people doing all this acting. Acting in shul. Like this, they look up the whole time. You know, this is the opposite of what the Gemara says. The Gemara says,

44:41You pray to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that means you believe He's there. Not that you believe He's in Israel. Not that you believe He's in Jamaica. Not that you believe He's in Australia. If you're praying, that means you believe Hashem is here now. You're in a shiur, that means you believe Hashem is sitting right here with us. That's what it means. If the King of Kings is here, the King of Kings is here, you dare look up, Look down. Look down. What is it like? It's like a servant giving something to his master, giving something to his king. He's not going to say, "Hey, Your Highness, here." He's not going to do that. You know what he's going to do? "Here you go, sir. Here you go, sir." From the humility of who the stature of this, this, this king, this flesh and blood king, you have the humility, the embarrassment, you have how lowly you are in front of him, you look down. So if that's the type of honor we give a flesh and blood king, needless to say we have to do it for the King of Kings, who has no guf or no image of a guf, no body or the likeness of a body.

46:02Rashi says the reason why we look at the ground is because it's the honor of the Shekhinah. We're honoring the Shekhinah. But the Ramban gives a chiddush. In this letter, the Ramban says a chiddush. Don't just look down when you're praying. Look down at all times. Now this is always dargah. Don't start tomorrow looking on the floor like this, like people are gonna think you're looking for change. You get to this. You start with a little bit. You start with a little bit more and a little bit more over time. A little bit over time. Don't go, I'm giving you, this is our goal. This is our aspiration. It's not something you can simply do overnight. It's better to go slowly with something like this since it's a character trait, since it's developing your character traits slowly and surely over time, rather than making drastic moves. Tomorrow you're walking around like this, and people are thinking you have a hunchback or something. Then, after three weeks, when you really have a big hunchback, you say, "Ah, to heck with it. I'm not doing it." You start walking around like this. Little by little, you grow into this, but I have to give you guys the goal. I

47:13I'm not gonna tell you all, "Just go like this and go like this." I'm gonna give you the goal, and you, little by little, use your brain, use your common sense to get to this. The Shekhinah says that when we pray, we look down because of the honor of the Shekhinah. The Ramban gives a chidush, and he says you have to look down at all times. Why? Because the Shekhinah is always here, not just when you pray. And if you're honoring the Shekhinah, especially if you're a talmid chacham, especially if you go to yeshiva, especially if you go into a seminar, especially if you're somebody that's trying to glue yourself to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you're noticing and you're understanding that Hashem is always next to you. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Menachot, page 110a. And also, this is in Teshuvot HaGeonim, in Siman 178. It says that Rava, one of the sages, had ten hanhagot, ten customs that he had, if you will. Things that he took on himself. And one of the things that he took on himself was to always have his head and eyes down to the extent where he would never see beyond four amot.

48:34For arba amot, somewhere in the range of six feet, he would walk down and he would always, always be able to see what's around him within six feet. He's not going to see, he's not going to be able to see what's down the street. So if some modest woman or someone down the street is waving to him, he has no idea it's happening. Within four amot of himself, that's how the tzaddikim walk. They walk such that they see; they allow themselves to see within that limited range. They don't walk with their heads down where they only see their feet. They see what's in front of them, but only within a short distance to limit any type of exposure to something they don't want to see. Now, in the sefer about Rav Elchonon Wasserman, zt"l, when he came to New York, one of the people that hosted him said it was unbelievable. Unbelievable how holy Rav Wasserman and Rav Shalom were. When they went, he didn't know anything about New York or America or anything. When he came there, and they passed a certain street, he started getting sick. Started getting physically sick. He said, "Disgusting, filthy tumah in this place. What is this?"

49:54What is this filthy tumah here? How do you guys live here with such tumah? He got physically sick. He says, "Oh no, what about that? That's Broadway." They passed Broadway. He fell. He didn't know what Broadway was. He was not looking outside the window. He just got physically sick from literally feeling, being so close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu that he felt the tumah in the air. And this was Broadway 80 years ago. Imagine if he goes there today. He doesn't think it's Gehinom. Now, the host says, it's the first time he ever saw someone walk around where he always would allow himself to only see four amot. At all times. That's how he would walk around all the time. He was a big guy. Only allow himself to see four amot. His head was down, his eyes were down at all times to allow himself to do what Rava said. Now you guys think this is easy? You're going to start doing it tomorrow? I'm going to give you a little bit of news. After Rava died,

50:57His talmidim saw these ten hanhagot, these ten customs that he took on himself—their Rebbe, their Tzadik, their Gadol HaDor took on. They knew they couldn't do all ten; none of them could do all ten. So they split it among each other. You do this, you do this, you do this. Why? To continue the tradition of our Rebbe. So Rav Yosef and Rav Sheshet took on the character traits. It's this minhag, or this hanhaga if I should say, of only allowing themselves to see within for a moment. After they saw themselves not being able to withstand this, it's not that they're looking, chas v'shalom, at women. These are tzaddikim, but it's so hard to constantly allow yourself to only live within literally six feet squared at all times. And They started praying for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to make them blind. That's what they prayed for. That's why it says in the Gemara, Rav Sheshet was actually blind. He became blind. Hashem fulfilled His will. Why? It's not that this hanhaga is not good. No. I need to do it. I just can't, Hashem. I'm just weak. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu will never break the tradition of my Rebbe.

52:20So I have to. Hashem, it's better that You make me blind. This, Rabotai, is how difficult it is, but also how righteous some of our ancestors are. No tradition, no religion, no one in the world has such people in their lineage. Now, the Sefer Chassidim says that a person shouldn't walk around with raised eyes, Because just like I said before, just like a servant is giving a dish to his king with lowered eyes, we, who are standing next to the face of the Shekhinah, must always do the same. Now, a person that wants to gain the chen, the pleasantness of having anavah, of having humility, must always have his eyes down and never walk around with an uncovered head. Never walk around without covering his head with a kippah. Without covering our head with a kisui rosh. Never. You're going to sleep, you go to sleep. All out, no problem. You're in the shower, no problem. Outside of those minor things, always have a kippah on. Always have a kippah on. Why? This shows that you have awe of the Shekhinah. You understand that the Shekhinah is here at all times. Now, sometimes,

53:45People that take on too much without direction make a mistake and confuse humility with lowliness. They look down constantly, thinking that we are nothing, we are nobody. We don't have any achievements. The guy learns all day. Talmid, can you give me a chidush on parashat hashavua? No, no, me, I don't know anything. Who am I? I can't say anything. But you learned all day. Shulchan Shabbat, no one else knows anything. You know, everybody else is just, you know, you're the parent, say something. No, no, me, no. That's lowliness. That's anava pesula, it's called. That is humility that's forbidden. Forbidden humility. It's humility that's not real. It's humility that's not good. It's humility that's not healthy. That's why the Ramban's third step is to have our heads high, our eyes low. But he also told us that your heart should be connected to the truth. First and foremost, you should know and...

55:03Chazal says every Jew should say on a regular basis, "The world was created for me. The world was created for me." Not just for me, but you say, "for me" yourself, for you, for you, for you, for you—not for all of you, but for you independently, meaning HaKadosh Baruch Hu. designed the world with such perfection, with a beautiful blue sky and clouds that bring rain to add more beauty to the world. It’s not really the rain you get from the clouds that feeds us; it’s the rain from the atmosphere. The point is, He made this whole system for you. The flowers. You know how many beautiful flowers there are? You know how many different colors the flowers have? All of them, even if you never saw them, are for you. Maybe one day you're going to see them. The mountains. The change in the land, how some are high, some are low. Some mountains have snow; some mountains have grass. All of the different animals on them. Different species in different places in the world. The same animal in different places looks different. Some are chasing people to kill them. Some want to play with them. Some you can eat.

56:17Some fly, some run, some crawl. All of this is for you. All of this is for you. Different faces of people—you see two people, even if they're identical twins, there's still a minor difference. Different people, different traits, different buildings, different creations, different thoughts, different opinions, different books—all of it is for you. And... All of it is for you. Meaning you're a big deal in Hashem's eyes. You're a big deal. Don't think for a second that you're nothing. You're a big deal. But that doesn't mean that you're allowed to be arrogant. It doesn't mean that you walk around thinking that you're better than everybody else. Because just like you say the whole world was created for me, the guy that's standing or sitting next to you in shul is also supposed to say the whole world was created for me.

57:17So what about if you have a little bit more talent than him? You can write faster than him. You can run faster than him. You can think faster than him. You can see better than him. Whatever it is, you have a certain talent that's better than him or her. Does that allow you to be arrogant over them? Absolutely not. Why? Arrogance is simply a confirmation that you do not know how to value human beings. You are judging yourself based on one tiny thing that you have that's better than the average person elsewhere. What about the rest of the human being? Do you have two eyes? He has two eyes. She has two eyes. Do you know how much money people who don't have eyes are willing to give for eyes? Any amount of money. you have a face? He has a face. Do you know how much money people are willing to give to have a healthy face if they don't have one? If they were born with a cleft lip, if they had some type of injury in war or accident. You know how much money they're willing to spend to get a healthy face? You have a face, he has a face. You have arms, he has arms. You know how much money people are willing to give for one arm, for one finger, for one nail? You have a brain, she has a brain.

58:42Know how much people are willing to give to have a healthy brain, to have a working brain? So you've analyzed your entire self and his entire self or her entire self on something minor that's a little bit better than them. What about the rest of the stuff that's the same or perhaps they're better at? Being arrogant simply shows that you have no idea how much a human being is worth. I Needless to say how much another Jew is worth. Needless to say how much your spouse is worth. How much your kid is worth. How much your parents are worth. How much your chavruta, your colleague, is worth. You have no concept. Why? Because you think that because you can do something better than them, that means that everything they have is worthless. What is it like? The Baalei Mussar give this analogy of an arrogant person. It's a fantastic analogy.

59:43Wealthy people get together, they start chit-chatting. As you would have it, people that are wealthy like money. That's why they usually spend their entire lives chasing it. And one of the things that wealthy people like to do is show off their money. I remember that any time I would go visit any one of my clients, the first thing they would do is show me their glory and their business, their land, their whatever it was, their choppers, their boats. That's what people with money have. You know somebody has to see it. Anytime somebody came to see me I would also show them my house. I would show them my whole building and the building I lived in on Wall Street on the 35th floor. But before I showed them the house itself, I said, I'll give you a tour of the building. I said, there's one floor that has a 7,000-square-foot balcony. You can sit there like it's on a beach. And then there's a pool in the middle. And then there's a billiards table there. But this is just the beginning. Let's go to the basement. And the basement had a bowling alley, a pool on the ground with a chandelier that's worth probably $50,000, and a safe.

1:00:51from the early 1800s, a racquetball room, all types of things. You know, you literally had like a circus inside the building. A gym. The gym was bigger than the gyms you pay memberships to. And everybody would tell me, "Wow, you must be here a lot." I'm like, "No, only when visitors come. Only when visitors come, I show it to them. Other than that, I'm never here." He goes, "What about this bowling alley?" I said, "It's good to show people. I never played bowling. Who plays bowling? Who has time to play bowling?" But to show people, yeah, I show it to people. That's what rich people do. So two rich people get together, and they start talking. They start comparing who has more glory, who has more money, who has more stuff. So one guy says, "Yeah, but you know, my new yacht is the fastest yacht." The other guy says, "But mine is bigger." Yeah, but the building I just bought, the GM building in New York, I got it for a steal, but it's still the most expensive building in the area. "Yeah, but I built the building in Dubai. But there, my car collection that I have, I have 18 cars that no one else in the world has." The other guy says, "I also have 18 cars that no one else has." And they go back and forth, and back and forth, who has this, who has that. After a few hours of comparing their balance sheets...

1:02:19What he has, what she has, what he has, what he has, what he has, what he has. They arrived and saw that they have exactly the same number. One of the guys reaches into a pocket and starts opening a little matchbox. He starts counting how many matches he has. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. 17 matches. The other guy got nervous. So he looked in his pockets, found a box of matches, and opened the box. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Ha! I have more money than you. You are nothing. You are homeless. Pah! And he throws it in his face. You have nothing. You are nobody. That's arrogance. That's arrogance. That's arrogance. That's looking...

1:03:36As if nothing else that the other human being has is worth anything except this minor little thing, this little match, this little q-tip that you have, it's better than him or her. What about the rest of the stuff? That's arrogance. That's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates it so much. You simply took His creation and you've minimized it to nothing, and... Rav Moshe Feinstein was well-known for his unbelievable humility. A person once asked him, "Kvod HaRav, how did you acquire such humility? How did you acquire such humility?" He said, "I worked on it for 36 years. For 36 years, day and night, I worked on myself to acquire the trait of humility."

1:04:39Now, when a person understands the value of humility, he knows how important it is, she knows how important it is, but they also know that it does not mean that you become a nothing. Not in the eyes of people, not in the eyes of Hashem. You still need to know that you're connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You're still extremely valuable. That's why it says "Yatlif chol le'ma'alah," always connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Who was an example of this? The Steipler Gaon was known to do a lot of work around his house himself. One day, he was supposed to build another room in his house or fix a room in his house, and the builders came and left all the bricks outside and said, "We'll come back tomorrow." The Steipler says to his son, "Okay, we're going to bring the bricks inside. We'll bring the bricks inside so no one takes them, they don't get damaged, and so on and so forth. Let's bring them inside. Why wait till tomorrow for the workers? Save time." So he and his son start taking the bricks, and his son asks him, "Abba, what do we do with the bricks?"

1:06:07The Steipler goes and says to him, "Wait, you think that just because we're moving bricks that gives you the permission to talk about mundane nonsense? Give me a Gemara, give me a Tosafot, give me a Chumash or something while we're moving the bricks. That's just the matter. That's just looking at our eyes being down on the ground. We still have to be connected l'maala. Even if we're doing the mundane work of the day-to-day, it doesn't mean that we're disconnected. We're always thinking, we're always learning, and..." We're always connected to Hashem. When a crazy woman arrived at the office of Rav Moshe Feinstein, she was hysterical. She started talking about some conspiracy of how everybody's trying to kill her. This is much more common today, by the way. And she starts talking and everybody wanted to, what was this crazy lady? He says, oh, Rav Moshe Feinstein, Stopped everyone, says, "No, no, let her talk. Let her talk. Let her talk." She continued talking for two hours. Imagine, the Moshe Rabbeinu of his generation is sitting there, as other people also, sitting there listening to some crazy woman with some conspiracy of how everyone is trying to kill her and how this is happening and all these UFOs and all types of crazy stuff.

1:07:33and the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation is sitting there, listening. How can you become Moshe Rabbeinu? You're listening to crazy people all day; you're never going to have time to breathe. But as time passed, someone noticed that the Rav was looking at her but murmuring something under his breath. They got a little closer and noticed, oh, she's talking, and he's giving her the respect by looking as if, you know, he's there, but in the meantime, he's reciting the entire Mishnah by heart. He's learning Torah. He wants to give her the respect to do it, but they asked him, "But why? Why do this for this woman?" He says, "That's chesed. That's chesed. She just needed somebody to talk to." Talked to him for two hours. He gave her a blessing. She went on her way, Baruch Hashem. It didn't stop me from being connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It didn't stop me from being connected to Hashem, learning my Torah. I could learn, but I still have to do chesed. When the Steipler's son, Rav Chaim Kanievsky,

1:08:47Shiyeh asked his father, "Abba, can I help you also fix some things in the house?" He said, "No, no, it's not for you. It's not for you. I don't think you can. No, no, you should continue learning." He goes, "But Abba, you're doing it." He goes, "Yeah, I don't think, I don't think, I don't know if you could do what I'm doing. See, when I'm fixing the wall, I'm reciting the entire Gemara, the entire, everything in my heart, in my head while I'm learning. I don't know if you're at that level yet. You're still young. I don't know if you're at that level yet that you could do both at the same time." If you could do it, yeah, come help me. If you continue learning while you're working, fixing stuff, come help me. But if you're going to be fixing instead of learning, no. Go back to learning. Until you get to the level where you can do both. This is the level of our sages, Rabotai. This is not a thousand years ago. We're talking about Rav Kanievsky, he's alive right now, Baruch Hashem. You can go visit him if you want. The Steipler Gaon, just a few decades ago, in the 80s. I know that seems like a thousand years ago for some of you, but it wasn't that long ago. Now, the Maharal, in his sefer Netivot Olam, in Netiv Avoda, the sixth perek, he says, in regards to this, in regards to having the eyes low but the heart heavenward, he writes the commentary on it by saying that

1:10:16a person is obligated to fall in love with Hashem. You have to work on fulfilling the mitzvah that you say in Shema Yisrael every day. So you have to work on yourself to fall in love with Hashem. But still, remember that you must still be like a servant in front of his master. So, in order to do that, in order to fall in love with Hashem, but yet at the same token, understand that you're still a servant in front of your master, a person must acquire the trait of anavah, the trait of humility. But never lose the understanding of having your heart connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, your heart lema'ala, and chas v'shalom, get to a point where you think of yourself as a lowly being, as a lowly nothing. because what ends up happening is that a person who has a flawed sense of humility, where they literally become self-conscious, gets to a point where they think of themselves as nothing in front of everybody,

1:11:32is a mistake to such an extent that a person will lose his reward through his actions of merit. He's trying to do actions of merit by acquiring humility, but the humility that he's acquiring is unfortunately misguided. Because now he's going to treat himself as a nothing and Anytime somebody asked him, you know, to give us a chidush, give us some divrei Torah that you learned this week, give us a, you know, maybe you arrange a shiur. Maybe you invite a bunch of people. This, you know, "No, I'm nothing. I'm just an unimportant person. I don't know anybody." What do you mean you don't know anybody? You know a few people; you have five, ten, twenty, thirty people. Why can't you arrange a shiur? Why can't you make a few phone calls? Why can't you call the rabbi and ask him an opinion on something? No, no, I don't want to bother. I don't want this. That is lowliness that's pasul. It's not good. You have to know that you have significant value, but that does not cancel out humility. Now, despite the fact that Rav Moshe Feinstein was so humble

1:12:46An example that shows how humble he was is that there's a famous story of one guy walking in the street and starts yelling, "Moshe, Moshe, stop it." So, Rav Moshe Feinstein was walking around, and he turned around. He goes, "Yes?" Can I help you? The guy wanted to bury himself in the ground. He wanted to call up all of his friends to pull him on the ground with him. The Gadol HaDor just turned around, thinking that he was calling him "Moshe, Moshe." He said, "No, no, no, kvodah. No, Moshe, my son, my son." His five-year-old son was running. He goes, "Why? I'm Moshe. My name is Moshe." He didn't think of it as a big deal. "Call me rabbi, call me Rav." No, "Moshe, Moshe" is my name. What's the big deal? So his humility was something unbelievable. But at the same token, there was one time that he wrote a halacha, and one of the talmidim said, "You know, Rabbi Akiva Eiger, 100 years ago, contradicts what you say." Rabbi Akiva Eiger, Gadol HaDor, giant, also very, very humble. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein says, "Yes, I know that Rabbi Akiva Eiger has a different opinion, and I disagree with him, and I'm going to have a debate with him in heaven. He knows the significance of Rabbi Akiva Eiger on anybody that came before him. But he also knew that he has to fight for them. Sometimes he's right, sometimes he's wrong, but nonetheless, he knows the significance of what he's doing. The power of Torah. So humility doesn't mean that you are not allowed to have an opinion, that you're not allowed to have your own mind, or something like that."

1:14:02has a different opinion, and I disagree with him, and I'm going to have a debate with him in Heaven. He knows the significance of Rabbi Akiva Eiger on anybody that came before him. But he also knew that he has to fight for them. Sometimes he's right, sometimes he's wrong, but nonetheless, he knows the significance of what he's doing. The power of Torah. So humility doesn't mean that you are not allowed to have an opinion, that you're not allowed to have your own mind, or something like that. Again, the opinion that I'm talking about is an opinion that meets the rules of the Torah, not just your opinion because you feel like it. Now, it's important to know that sometimes opinion is one of the tools of the Satan, one of the tools of the Satan, to use. in order to fool people, and that's why the sages were very, very careful before they accepted anybody's opinion. Page 42b says Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Shimon. This is a Mishnah that's authored by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and he expounded on a specific verse in the Torah.

1:15:32but it was based on his rationale. He broke it down based on his mind. So the Gemara says, who cares what he thinks? Meaning, it's his opinion. Why do we know that we're allowed to say such things? He says, look, the Gemara in Masechet Bava Metzia, page 115a, is a debate. It's a debate between Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. And Rabbi Yehuda, two Tanaim, two giants, two mountains. Our Oral Torah that we have today, if it wasn't for them, we simply would not have a large part of it. So now they have a debate. There's a halacha that says you shall not take a security, you should not take a security of the garment of a widow.

1:16:35This is in Sefer Devarim, chapter 24, verse 17, that if there's a widow and let's say she borrowed some money from you, you're not allowed to take her garments, her clothes, as collateral because then you have to return it every day. You have to return it every day and people are gonna think, "Oh, I You're returning it every day. Maybe you're doing something not kosher here. Why are you going to her house every day? They're not gonna say, "No, he's just returning this collateral so she doesn't have to sleep without these clothes." So, she's only giving you the collateral during the day, but if she needs it at night, she gets it. So, Rabbi Shimon says, "Yeah, but this is only relevant if she's poor." I'm sorry, Rabbi Yehuda says this is only relevant if she's poor, not if she's rich. Why? Because if she's rich, she doesn't need the clothes back every day. Rabbi Shimon says no, no, no, no, no. Whether she's rich or she's poor, you're not allowed to take the garments as collateral. Why? Because maybe you're gonna go back, and people are gonna think that you're doing something improper. You say, Rabbi Shimon, where did you get this from?

1:18:01Makes sense what you're saying that you shouldn't go back and forth to the house, but where'd you get it from? Do you have a source? Because it makes sense. What I'm saying makes sense. Rabbi Yehuda says, I don't accept that it makes sense. Although it makes sense, who cares that it makes sense? You have to have a source. We need Moshe Rabbeinu to tell us, this is it. It doesn't make a difference if it makes sense. Why? Because if we use just your mind, just your common sense, we're limiting the Torah. Imagine, Rabbi Yehuda tells Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, even though what you're saying makes sense, I'm not accepting it. Why? We don't analyze the Torah based on what makes sense. We have to have a source. So sometimes, Rabotai, there are certain things that make sense, but unfortunately, they're not true. One of my difficulties is that I have to be the bearer of bad news constantly about certain things that are very emotional to people. For example, last year, I think it was a year ago, when the Pittsburgh massacre happened and the murderer killed a bunch of Jewish people,

1:19:31were a number of rabbis that came out and said things that are the opposite of halacha, where they said that, "Oh, they got killed because they're Jewish, therefore that means that they died al kiddush Hashem. They are with Rabbi Akiva." Disregard the fact that there was a homosexual couple having a brit milah in the bet knesset. Disregard the fact that it was a Conservative shul that has goyim and Jews in it and actually one of the people that died was actually a goy, not even a Jew. Disregard the fact that they don't keep any of the halachot pretty much and they contradict Hashem on a regular basis. Disregard the fact that they got killed because they were Jewish, therefore they died al Kiddush Hashem. They are in Gan Eden with Rabbi Akiva. Unfortunately, a few really big or well-known, at least I should say well-known, rabbis said this statement. Now, we looked at Halacha together. What is the definition of Kiddush Hashem? Dying al Kiddush Hashem? You look at the Rambam, and you see that what they said is simply unfounded. There is no such Halacha. And...

1:20:54There is no such thing that if you get killed because you're a Jew, you're with Rabbi Akiva v'chaveirav. You may be considered harugei malchut, which is a high level, but you know, it's not that level. But that's also, again, has certain conditions. We went over it. I'm not going to go over it again. People went crazy. Oh, how could he say that? That's so mean. How could you say that? They died. Ah, what do you care? Now, What do you mean, what do I care? There's an issue here. And people think that just because you died and somebody murdered you, you're going to Heaven. It doesn't work that way. It simply doesn't work that way. There's no free lunch. No, what do you mean free lunch? They got murdered. That's not free. That's not what I mean. What I mean is you cannot live your entire life anti-Hashem, anti-Torah, michalel Shabbat, and think you're going to Heaven. It doesn't work that way. anti-Hashem, anti-Torah, mechalel Shabbat, and think you're going to Heaven. It doesn't work that way. It simply doesn't work that way. I wish it did, because that would absolve countless people that I know for many sins. But everything that we say must have a source in the Torah. So now...

1:22:20I had a debate, or a discussion, or an argument—whatever you want to call it—yesterday with a Meshichist rabbi from Chabad. And we spoke for an hour and 15 minutes. We practically disagreed on every single thing. But I'm not going to go over the entire conversation, but one point... drives me insane. Forget about the fact he thinks the Rebbe is Mashiach, and he actually even thinks that he's alive, like in the flesh. Strange things, strange. Forget about that, but let's put that aside for a moment. I provided him a proof that the Rebbe himself wrote in one of his sichot that someone who has died cannot be the Mashiach, but he completely ignored this and...

1:23:21Forget about, let's put all that difference of opinion aside. At one point, he says that he believes that anyone who went through the Holocaust, the horrors of the Holocaust, but didn't die in the Holocaust, lived many years later—70 years later, like his parents. but did not keep Torah and mitzvot. Didn't keep Shabbat. Didn't keep kosher. Didn't keep anything. Poof! Just because they went through the Holocaust, they're in heaven. So I told them, can you provide me a source? Please provide me a source. Where did you get this from that someone who went through trauma... I'm not minimizing the trauma in any way, shape, or form. You cannot judge these people, what they went through, and so on. But the bottom line is, to say that someone who experienced difficulty beyond any measure that we can understand is by default absolved from all mitzvot, and they continue violating the entire Torah for the rest of their life, but they're still going to Heaven...

1:24:46Source for that? Why, if I have a source for that, I'm going to make an entire series about it. Why could you absolve millions and millions of people from any judgment whatsoever? The Beit Din of Ma'ala judges, Beit Din of Mata agrees. If we have a proof of such a thing, I want it. I want to make a whole shiur about it. I asked for a source. He's a rabbi. He's a Rosh Yeshiva. I... Poppies, no source. No, no, but I'll get you one. I'll get you one. I'll get you one. Okay, I'll get you one. That's a big belief to have. He says, "What, you think that they get punished for violating Shabbat?" I said, "Well, what happened in the Holocaust is one thing, but you're saying they lived many, many years after." He goes, yeah, but they're traumatized. I said, no problem, they're traumatized. Are they a shoteh? There's a halachic term for someone that's not mentally there. Are they a shoteh? Are they considered like someone that is deficient mentally in some way? They're not able to count. They're not able to operate. They can't work. They can't speak. They can't understand who they're praying to. Is that? He goes, no, no, no. They're not shotim. Not shotim.

1:26:13says anyone that dealt with some trauma in their life, if a little girl, chas v'shalom, somebody molested her at nine years old, and she decides to make every sin under the sun for the rest of her life, she's going to heaven according to this guy. Pretty much, rabotai ha'kareem, the entire generation is going to heaven according to him, and I'll divide that he's right. I would love to find a source that he's right, but I'm sad to tell you he's wrong. He's terribly wrong. There is no such thing. Why? A few things you need to understand. Number one, the reason why you have problems is because HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave them to you. gave you suffering for many reasons: one reason is to help you do teshuvah (repentance), another reason is to wipe out some of the sins you've made So if, let's say for example, you arrive at the Holocaust, you arrive at the surgery, you arrive at this major disaster at 20 years old. Okay, so let's say you made a bunch of sins until 20 years old. Let's say that disaster, that trauma wiped out those sins for the first 20 years. Let's say it's that significant. No problem. But it doesn't absolve you from the continuous sins you make for the next 70 years. That's new stuff.

1:27:37That's new sins. You cannot simply absolve people from the Torah. So he gets upset at me. "Oh, what? You don't feel bad for them? You don't feel bad for people?" I said, "What does it have to do with anything? Of course I feel bad, but I'm not the one that decides what the halacha is." He starts to play with your emotions. This has nothing to do with emotions. Bottom line, where is the halacha? Is there a source? Is there a Gemara? Is there a halacha? Is there someone that said what you're saying? That just because you suffered, that's it. You don't go to Gehinom; you go to Gan Eden. He goes, "Yeah, but they suffered." I said, "Okay, fine." He keeps repeating the same thing over and over again. I felt like I was talking to a machine, like I was just pressing the button. I finished talking, he pressed the button, and he repeats the same thing over and over again. Same thing over and over. Give me a source, LeBron Olam. We can absolve the entire generation from anything. Go, drive on Shabbat, go to the beach, do whatever you want, you're going to heaven according to him. Now unfortunately, not everyone is smart, is clever, and is as fortunate

1:28:51You listening to it and understanding what I'm saying and how it doesn't make sense what he says because when he goes back to his class, he tells his young little students, his 13-14-year-old students, all this hogwash. And since they don't have a different opinion and They don't have a different rabbi telling them something else. They don't have the wherewithal and understanding that they cannot simply decide who goes to Gan Eden and who goes to Gehinnom based on the rabbi's word. You have to see it inside the Torah. So the rabbi says what he says, and he says what doesn't make sense? That someone who went through the Holocaust—Hashem feels bad for it—so now He's going to put him in Heaven with Moshe Rabbeinu. Does that make more sense? Wouldn't it be really mean to send that person to Gehinnom? Why do you guys think that Hashem is a monster? He takes Hashem and turns Him into a monster by saying there's no way that Hashem is going to punish this person for violating His entire Torah for 70 years because he had suffering 70 years ago.

1:29:57Tisra Botai, unfortunately, is the poison that's fooling millions of religious and non-religious Jews today. Simply using our opinion, our logic, our rationale, even though it's irrational, even though it's not logical, even though it's not valid, even though it's not even intellectually honest, because it suits us. It makes us feel good. just because the grandfather or the grandmother or you yourself went through some difficulty, therefore, you’re absolved from all sins? Well, guess what? Everyone has an enormous amount of difficulties in their own way throughout their life. No one lives a trauma-less life, and it's a heartbreak, or it's a sickness of some kind, or it's money problems, or it's a divorce, or it's child issues. People have trauma after trauma after trauma. If that trauma simply absolved you from Torah, you wouldn't have to keep the Torah anymore. Why? You're guaranteed to have trauma.

1:31:10If you're alive, you're guaranteed to have trauma. And it's not just through your life; your death can also be traumatic. What do you think, people die by just going to sleep all the time? 99% of people that die, do so in a traumatizing way. Some truck hits them, some have an unexpected heart attack, a brain aneurysm, AIDS, cancer—there are so many traumas. Read a statistic yesterday. They say literally over 50,000 people, 55,000 people, commit suicide in America alone. 55,000 people, which is actually double the murder rate. Murderers number around 25,000, while suicides are at 55,000. So all the campaigns you see the politicians fighting about are about the protection of guns, guns, guns, so people don't kill each other. But no one is fighting about suicide. And then when you add addiction, drug addiction, overdose, and things like that, you're at almost 200,000. Why? Because it touches people's emotions when you talk about...

1:32:19Gun control—we can control it. We can minimize it. No one cares about the people who are out of control, committing suicide, and who are addicts. What gets votes are people that are empty guns. But saving the people who are dying in much larger numbers because they have some type of emotional imbalance, some type of addiction, some type of other anguish and trauma? No, no. No, it's okay. They'll figure it out on their own at some point. I... It's the same thing like all of these fake campaigns, like we pretend we care. Like this Ellen Degenerate—she decided that she cares about a bunch of monkeys in South America. So she raised tens of millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars to save a few baboons in South America. If you actually took the money and gave it to the country, you'd actually save people and... But no, we have to save the baboons from going extinct because there are only a couple of hundred left.

1:33:29Tens of millions of dollars were donated to save baboons. And tens of hundreds of millions of dollars are daily being sent to save baboons and elephants and butterflies and all types of nonsense in the world. Why? Because we're not thinking with our mind. We're thinking with our heart. You're not allowed to think with your heart. It's wrong. When it comes to the Torah, there's no heart. There's halacha. What's allowed? What's not allowed? What's emet? What's sheker? Okay, we understand they suffered. I get it. We may be the reincarnation of them. Who knows? But to simply say something that's not mentioned in Torah because it feels good, you are destroying Judaism. Because now the current generation is gonna say to itself a kal vachomer. They're gonna do a calculation in their head. Wait a minute, if Tati and Imma and everybody else from the previous generation that went through the Holocaust went through some trauma, they didn't keep Shabbos. They didn't keep kashrut. They didn't keep Torah. They didn't keep nothing but

1:34:43Baby over here says, "Then can I did? Okay, so I don't have to keep nothing. I'll keep bupkis. I'll keep whatever I feel like, whatever fits my life because I'm surely to have something, some trauma in my life. That's the statistics; you're gonna have trauma in your life. Everybody does." The shtuyot that comes out of people's mouths, but unfortunately, these are sometimes the rabbis running the shul, running the actual Beit Knesset, the yeshiva, the Beit Midrash, and people don't know enough to ask, please give me a source. We don't learn this way. We learn from sources. Finally, I sent the guy, I sent a message: Please, can you please provide me a source that you promised to provide me? The Messiah—forget all that stuff. I want to know, are the 13 principles of faith still active or not? Because the 13 principles of faith say the Torah is the same forever; it's never gonna change. And one of the 13 principles of faith, on top of that, says that there's reward for the righteous and punishment for the wicked. Is this still active in your mind? Is there a way that we can absolve ourselves from this punishment? I want in.

1:36:00I want in. You guys want in also. You don't even know it yet. Everybody wants to be away from punishment. Can you please provide me a source that someone who had trauma, rape, Holocaust, whatever? Suffer trauma. I'm still suffering trauma daily. Sometimes I want to know I'm not gonna go to Gehenom for any reason. I want to know that that surgery that I went to, and another surgery, and another surgery, and another surgery, and the kapparot I deal with every single day—I want to know I'm not going to Gehenom just for that. Forget the Shabbat, forget Torah, forget Q; I want to know I'm not going to Gehenom. Can you show me a source? He sends me a story. He sends me a story. the Bobover Rebbe, that his kiruv strategy was very unique. He was a very holy man, and he asked a person that didn't look like he was keeping Torah and mitzvot to come be the chazan at his Beit Knesset. And he was the chazan at the Beit Knesset, and then a week later, he told him to come visit again. And he didn't come, so he sent his son to look for him, and his son looked for him and...

1:37:09And he saw him smoking cigarettes on Shabbat. So he came back to his father, the rabbi, and he said to him, "Abba, he's smoking cigarettes." He says, "Go bring him. I want him to be the chazan." Long story short, he went there. He told him, "Come." He said, "No, no, I don't feel comfortable coming at this point. I'll come another time." And he ended up coming another time. And he was the chazan. Eventually, he did teshuva. Long story short, that's his source. That's his source. I asked for a source of how somebody that suffered trauma is going to be absolved from all mitzvot, that's his source. Rabotai, I don't know what to do. If I ask the wall for a source, I may get one. From these people, I don't have anything. I don't have anything. I could also give you a story of what a mechallel Shabbat means. The Klausenberger Rebbe was an Ish Kodesh. He's one of the people that himself was inside the Holocaust. He himself suffered a pain inside the Holocaust unlike anything you can imagine. You read his bio, you cry on almost every page. Ten kids and his wife murdered in cold blood. Ten kids and his wife murdered in cold blood.

1:38:41He didn't give up. He continued fighting. He continued keeping every halacha inside the Torah, inside the Holocaust, inside the hell on earth. Shabbat, Pesach, Shavuot, Simchat Torah, Kashrut, better than all of us, kept the entire Torah inside the Holocaust. Inside Gehinnom he kept all of it. One time inside Gehinnom on earth, he told everyone, "We have to prepare for Pesach. You have a mitzvah of Pesach, the biggest mitzvah is to have matzah. Where are we going to get matzah?" He says, "We're going to get matzah." "What, there's going to be matzah coming from the sky? For that, please, I know you have emunah, but where is the matzah going to come from?" He says, "We're going to get matzah."

1:39:47Yet emunah, mamesh like he mamesh sees Hashem in front of him. Five days before Pesach, no matzah. People are already beat up physically, emotionally, and mentally. The Rebbe, the Klausenberger Rebbe, said, "Nothing changed, we're gonna get matzah. We're gonna get matzah." He had the belief like he sees it. And as HaKadosh Baruch Hu rewards those that believe in Him and have bitachon in Him, even inside Gehenom, He gave him matzah. There was an accident in the camps. Next to them, a big explosion. One of the planes from the Allies, from our team, bombed them, exploded a big thing over there. And the Nazis said, "Go fix it." And as they're going to fix it, they see there's a bunch of ingredients for matzah. So everybody starts putting it in their pockets, hiding it. Why? We need this for matzah, for Pesach. You have Pesach inside the Holocaust. But that's not the reason I'm telling you this story.

1:41:11The book is full of stories like that. I'm telling you the story because of something else. When they got all of the ingredients together to make matzah, one of the guys was excited. "I don't want to do it; I'm going to help. I'll make the matzah. 18 minutes, all that stuff, I'll make it, I'll make it, let's go, let's go." He started making matzah quickly. He got the matzah ready. "Rabbi, here's the matzah." "No, no, no. I don't want the matzah." What? Matzah inside the Holocaust. People are happy to have bread that's three weeks old. It's the matzah for Pesach. You say we're going to get matzah. No, no, no. I don't want matzah. Why? He's a mechallel Shabbat. The guy that made the matzah is a mechallel Shabbat. I cannot eat his matzah. didn't stop him from doing it; technically, there isn't leniency for others. But he understands. The Rebbe understands. What's the significance of violating Shabbat? This person's a mechallel Shabbat. I cannot eat his matzah. He got, miraculously, a different set of matzah that he made himself. The point being, Rabotai...

1:42:33A person that understands their responsibility in this world to HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows that when someone violates the Torah in any way, shape, or form, they're no longer considered the same as someone who's keeping Torah. They can no longer have the same destination as someone who is keeping Torah and mitzvot. You cannot go to Gan Eden with Rabbi Akiva, with Moshe Rabbeinu, with Aharon HaKohen, with any righteous Jew that ever lived if you do not keep Shabbat and you die that way. Nature changes just for you. No one else is like you. Hashem can even get to a point of changing all of your aveirot into mitzvot. But if you die as a Mechalel Shabbat, you die without doing teshuva for eshet ish, for nida, for wasting seed, for all of these karet sins. You don't do teshuva for them. There is no source in the world.

1:43:41will allow you to enter Gan Eden. Why? Because that would take the entire Torah and turn it into one sheker, into lies. But unfortunately, the reason why people like to believe these fairy tale stories from these nice, clever rabbi-like or rabbis because it soothes their pain, it makes them feel better that Zeidy and Bubby and Tati and all of our beautiful, amazing people that lived 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago but didn't keep Shabbat, didn't keep Torah, or are not keeping it right now, are still going to Gan Eden. What makes me feel good? What does it cost you? What do you care about agreeing? I'm sorry, it doesn't cost me anything. It costs me everything. It doesn't cost me anything. It costs me everything. Why? Because if I believe what you just said, that everybody goes to heaven, that means that the entire Torah is sheker amiti.

1:44:47breaking my head 24 hours a day for no reason. My entire life becomes meaningless. Your entire life becomes meaningless. All of Am Yisrael that's keeping Torah and mitzvot for all of the generations, their life becomes meaningless if that's true. Why bother? Go to heaven anyway. But that's why, Rabotai, the habit of such people is to look at the people, to stare at them in their eyes, to intimidate them, to belittle them because they're young, because they're ignorant, because they don't know any better, because they don't want to challenge you. Make it seem as if you know everything and you could take everyone out of Gehinom yourself, on your shoulders. Isn't it mean for Hashem to send people to Gehinom? What do you think, Hashem is a monster? What do you think, Hashem is evil that He's going to punish people doubly, both in this world and the next, and

1:45:54Of course, every little innocent Jewish soul or non-Jewish soul will listen to this and say, "Yeah, it makes sense. Why would they go through the Holocaust or cancer or, Rachmana litzlan, whatever they went through, and on top of it, go to Gehinom?" That sounds like a double punishment. Yeah, it makes sense they're going to go to Heaven just for having cancer. It makes sense they're going to go to Heaven just because they had AIDS. It makes sense that they're going to go to Heaven because they had a personality disorder. They were really self-conscious. She always had anxiety. She never had any money. He was really poor. He was really rich. He committed suicide. He overdosed. A million and a half reasons. So, of course, Hashem is not going to give him such a bad life here and, on top of it, punish him. It doesn't work that way. The suffering that we have in this world is to get us to do teshuva. It's not the real punishment. The real punishment doesn't even begin in this world. The suffering that a person gets in this world, generally speaking, is simply to get the person closer to Him and...

1:47:12whether that suffering is in a magnitude of a Holocaust or, say, surgeries or diseases or money problems or whatever it is, that suffering is to get you closer to Hashem to do teshuva, which means that if you do not follow that instruction, that yell from Hashem, that cry from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Please, my son, come back to Me," Please, my daughter, I'm going to put you through Gehinnom so you pray to Me, because there's no one else to pray to. You're in Gehinnom. Let Me get you out. Pray to Me. And you still don't get the message? You're not going to be rewarded for it. It's not possible. There was a yell, there was a cry, there were tears from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Spiritual tears from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, crying out to save the neshama of a lost Jewish soul. So He put him in a situation that no one else could help him. Why? Because when no one else could help you, what do you do? You cry to Hashem. In hospice, everyone's religious. But if you still didn't call to Hashem, if you still did not go back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, even that didn't work.

1:48:30Even that didn't work because those who cannot reward you for failing time and time again. To say otherwise is kefirah. It's heresy and is the equivalent of simply canceling the entire Torah. To practice such an understanding is simply practicing a new religion. It has nothing to do with Judaism and Judaism, we have reward and punishment. Even though it's not pleasing, even though none of us like it, none of us pray for it, none of us want it—not for ourselves and not even for our enemies. To believe such a thing is kefirah. It's worse than believing somebody is the Messiah or somebody is still alive even though they're not. Those things are just mistakes, confusions—you can even call it stupidity—but it's not to the same extent. Thinking there's no punishment simply cancels the Torah. But how do people succeed in doing that every day now? By looking you in the eye and smiling at you, and saying, "What? You really think Hashem is going to punish so many millions of Jews? Your grandfather, your brother that you love so much. He was such a good guy. He was so funny. Don't you remember? You think Hashem is going to put such a funny guy in Gehinnom? What's he going to do there? What does Hashem get out of punishing people? What, is Hashem some type of monster? That actually turns Hashem into a monster."

1:49:44Smiling at you and saying, "What? You really think Hashem is going to punish so many millions of Jews? Your grandfather, your brother that you love so much. He was such a good guy. He was so funny. Don't you remember? You think Hashem is going to put such a funny guy in Gehinnom? What's he going to do there? What does Hashem get out of punishing people? What, is Hashem some type of monster? That actually turns Hashem into a monster." That false ideology turns Hashem into a monster. But they do it subtly. They do it quietly. They do it in a way that touches your emotions. They make you feel what they say. They make you agree to something that doesn't even make any sense. It's the biggest con in the world today. More than anything else, this is the biggest con, rabotai yekarim. This is a verbal and mental assault on Am Yisrael to such an extent that most of us don't even feel that it's happening to us. You have religious and non-religious Jews that believe that there's no punishment, there's only reward.

1:51:10It's being taught by people with very, very nicely groomed and ungroomed beards, long and short peyot. They swish, no kippah, wash, all types of things. This is a tragedy because they're looking at you in the eye when they're doing it. So, the Chazon Ish says, when you want to express arrogance and... That's how you talk. You look at people in the eye. You're so confident they're going to Gan Eden. So confident. Moshe Rabbeinu wasn't confident he's going to Gan Eden. David HaMelech wasn't confident he's going to Gan Eden. Rabbi Yochanan, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai wasn't confident he's going to Gan Eden. But you're confident everybody's going to Gan Eden because they experienced trauma. How do you have all that on your shoulders because you read a story that has nothing to do with it? That's how your entire religion, your entire belief system, your entire educational system is based on these stories that have nothing to do with anything. Who taught you this? Who taught you this? A toy cookie in a Chinese store, where'd you get this from?

1:52:30Rabbotai, this is not how we learn Torah. As much as I would love to absolve everyone, myself included, please include me, from every sin in the Torah. I would love to. I would love to. Imagine you could just walk around sinless. Malach Hashem. You don't have to worry about anything. Eat everything, do everything, be everything. No sins. Why? You had some trauma. You know what's going to happen? Everyone's going to run into moving traffic every day. Whoever makes it, I'm going to Gan Eden. Whoever doesn't make it, he's going to Gan Eden. Why? Rabbi said, if you have trauma, you're going to Gan Eden. You're going to start jumping out of buildings. You have trauma, you're definitely going to Gan Eden. Hashem wants your trauma. He wants your suffering. And I'll finish off with this point. I'll give you a re'ayah. I'll give you a proof that not only is Hashem giving you the suffering, giving you the Holocaust, giving you cancer, not you, but the people of the past who have already died.

1:53:36People, diseases, giving people trouble, giving people anxiety, giving people money problems, giving people child problems, giving people all of the disasters throughout all of history. He did it, and He wants it. He wants it this way—not because He's evil, not because He's a monster, but because He loves you, and He knows that's the tool that's going to build you or break you. What's my idea? What's my proof? Proof is nothing less than the entire Torah. Adam HaRishon. What do you know about him? He lived over 900 years. 930 years he lived. What do you know about him? What's mentioned in the Torah about him? Did it mention that the malachim were doing a barbecue for him? No, that's the Gemara. Did it mention that he was a giant, that he was so big and beautiful? No, it doesn't mention that in the Torah. That's the Gemara. Does it mention that he had a wonderful vacation, that he liked the beauty of things, that he had a couple of friends? What does it mention about Adam HaRishon? Trauma. Born, made a mistake, got punished, kicked out.

1:54:52600 years we waited to meet him. 600 years he lived before we met him. We heard about it. He was born. Fast-forward 600 years and then there's the flood. What happened for 600 years? He must have done something. No? Why, did he just sit there waiting for instructions for 600 years? What did he do for 600 years? You play with a few things, you build a few things, you had a business, maybe you had a couple of friends, an argument, something, made a fortune, lost a fortune. What did you do for 600 years? You know what the Torah says? Who cares? Who cares what he did for 600 years? No, I know. The only thing that's mentioned about Noach, trauma. No, I'm gonna destroy the entire world. You've got a year, you've got a year to build this ark. Get whoever you can in there. That's actually gonna do teshuva, which pretty much means your family, and I'm gonna destroy everything that you know, everything that you don't know. I'm gonna ruin the whole world. Everything is gone. Talk to you later. Signed, G-d.

1:56:13Okay, went to hell, built this thing, everyone's making fun of him. He saw the entire world destroyed in front of his eyes. We get sick to our stomach if we see a dead animal in the street. He saw people melt. He saw the whole world destroyed to nothing and That's not trauma. Okay, let's go inside the ark. What happened in the ark? The lion hit him, and he suffered the entire year he was in the ark. He suffered the entire time to the extent where he was spitting blood—spitting blood in the ark. Okay, finally, let's leave the ark. Oh, he's going to go on vacation. Let's see some good news. Good news, Mazal Tov, Mazal Tov, Noach, Chazak U'Baruch, Mazal Tov, welcome to the new world. What happens? What do we hear about Noach? Do they have Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs, wedding parties? What do you have? He got raped by his grandson, Cham. He tried having a drink a little too much, got raped by his grandson. Then, Cham, what happened to Noach? That's what we know about Noach.

1:57:18We don't know about any parties. We don't know about any marriage ceremonies. We don't know about anything. What we know is the trauma that happened to Noach. Avraham Avinu, ten generations later. What do you know about Avraham Avinu? What do you know about Avraham Avinu? Avraham, leave everything that you know. Where am I going? Don't worry about it. Arrives, starvation. Famine. No food, no drink, no nothing. You have pretty much, your clock to live is running out. Fast-forward, fast-forward. By the way, you wait a hundred years. Okay, let me send you some guests. Let me send you some guests that, right after you chop off a piece of your body, unlike anybody else before you, I'm gonna send you guests on that day. Wait a minute. Chazal says that Avraham Avinu was a very, very hospitable person. Meaning, these are not his first guests. He's had guests for a hundred years. How come we don't mention the other guests? I mean, what? They don't matter just because they're not angels? What, there's discrimination in Heaven? Maybe there were angels that visited him at another point. Like, how come these are the only guests that are mentioned? What, all the other hosting doesn't matter? All the other cooking doesn't matter?

1:58:41Doesn't matter, not enough to be inside a Torah. Why? Because these are the only guests that he hosted while he was dealing with trauma, while he was dealing with pain and agony. That's what's worth a lot because that shows that you love Him and If you get close to Him through your trauma, through your difficulty, that means it's authentic, it's legit, it's 100%. But if you're only going to say "Baruch Hashem" when you win the lotto, who needs you? Even the atheist says "Baruch Hashem" when he wins the lotto. Fast forward. What do you know about Yitzchak Avinu? What do you know about Yitzchak Avinu? There's a couple of verses; we almost never hear about him. What do we hear about him? One, he almost got killed. Thirty-seven years old, his father is about to butcher him. Why? For the sake of Hashem, mitzvah. The second thing is, his two sons are having a battle; one wants to kill the other. Yeah, that's a wonderful story. I'll put that on a nice greeting card.

1:59:52What do you know about Yitzchak? That's what you know. Yaakov? Hashem Yirachem. What a life. What a life. His brother tries to kill him. On top of that, he arrives at the number one gangster's house in the world, who cheats him for 21 years. How come you don't hear about all the good he had? Oh, he had a nice date with Rachel. They had coffee. He made a malawach, maybe. They cooked in the morning. Went on vacation for a honeymoon. Pop kiss. Nothing. Married the wrong lady. Stayed for longer. Got cheated more. Then finally left. Then, oh, okay, so I finally left this Gehinnom called Lavan. Okay, I left. What happens? Oh, by the way, Yaakov, Esav's coming with millions of soldiers to kill you. That's what we know about Yaakov. Finally, he overcame that all, Baruch Hashem, he finally overcame it. Let's settle down. We passed Lavan. We passed Esav. Let's settle down. His daughter gets raped, Rachmana Litzlan. So we know in the Torah, every five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten-year-old reads this every year: his daughter Dina gets raped. Why? She went to look at what the Goyot were doing. What business do you have looking at what the Goyot are doing?

2:01:19That's what we know about Dina. The only thing we know about Dina is this. Now, if that's not enough for you guys, what else do we know about Yaakov? Oh, by the way, Yosef, his favorite son, dies but doesn't die for over 20 years. And he cries. An unimaginable cry that lasts over two decades. You try crying for 20 minutes, you're going to start losing your breath. An hour you're gonna lose consciousness. Twenty years he mourns. Twenty years he mourns the death of his son that didn't die. That's the life of Yaakov Avinu. That's what you know about Yaakov Avinu. You don't know about Yaakov Avinu going on vacation, having all types of inventions, building stuff. None of that is in the Torah. Moshe Rabbeinu, do I have to explain what happened to Moshe Rabbeinu? Before he even reached half a year old, they already tried to kill him. He had to live at the Satan's house, Pharaoh, just to survive. But then he tried to kill him himself. Why? Because he was defending Jews from each other. Then finally he comes back and gets thrown in jail by his father-in-law for 10 years.

2:02:45That's not enough. He finally goes to Mitzrayim to go help them. What happens? They curse him and yell at him, "Why'd you bring us all this disaster?" And they don't stop, they don't stop yelling at him. They don't stop accusing him of being an adulterer. They don't stop accusing him of being a thief. They don't stop accusing him of pretty much every sin in the Torah for 40 years. That's the life of Moshe Rabbeinu, that's what we know about Moshe Rabbeinu. You don't have a single verse in the Torah that tells you Moshe Rabbeinu went on vacation, had a good time, had some time off, relaxed by the pool, played with his kids a little bit, had some social time. Nothing! Nothing! There's nothing, there's nothing in the Torah that's not about trauma, that's not about difficulty. Why? Because those difficulties built us as individuals and as a nation. That's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants. Not that chas v'shalom He wants you to suffer; He wants you to use the suffering to connect to Him. Because when He gives you no suffering, what do you do? You run away from Him. That's why there's a verse in the Torah in Sefer Devarim

2:04:11Don't forget Hashem. What do you mean, don't forget Hashem? After He gives you prosperity, don't forget Hashem. That's what Moshe Rabbeinu says to the people of Israel. If there's a verse, there's a mitzvah like this, that after Hashem gives you prosperity, don't forget Him. What does that mean? It's a warning not to forget Him. Why is Hashem warning you not to forget Him after He gives you all the good? Because that's your nature, to forget Him. After He gives you good, what does He have to do? He has to give you bad. Why? Do you really think He gets pleasure out of you getting bad? No. But He needs to in order for you to connect to Him. To say that people who suffer or have suffered do not get punished if they do not connect to Hashem and start following the Torah is simply contradicting the entire Torah from Aleph to Tav. As you can see, the entire Torah is one big suffering full of beauty and a unique and extraordinary and beautiful way to connect to our Father in Heaven, who loves us more than we love ourselves. And that's why He's forced to hit us—because He doesn't want to lose us. The suffering is for our benefit and

2:05:38The suffering is because He loves us. He gives us suffering because He doesn't want to lose us. If He doesn't give us suffering, we will forget Him. And then, unfortunately, He's forced to punish us permanently and disconnect from us permanently. So that's why He's forced to give us suffering. So we call out to Hashem because we have nothing else. The money can't help us. The friends can't help us. The spouse can't help us. The kids can't help us. The rabbi can't help us. Nobody can help us other than HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu is forced, because He loves us, to give us suffering because He doesn't want to lose us. But if we still don't listen, and with such a shame, until the Gates of Gehinnom, we still don't do teshuva, what do you want Him to do? Change the Torah for you? Even if He wants to, He can't, because that means that He has to become a liar to all of the others that did keep His Torah and mitzvot. And He's not gonna do that because His signature is emet and

2:06:50His signature is emet; He cannot lie even if He wants to. He cannot change even if He wants to. He's so glorious and so magnificent and so unlimited that He's limited Himself to not be able to change. So, to say that there is simply anything other than what I just said that's true is a different religion. I'm sorry if that's what you've learned until now; I... But Baruch Hashem that you learned the truth today. Baruch Hashem that we learned the truth together today, because now you'll know how to treat suffering from this point on. If it's suffering, if it's difficult for me, that means Hashem wants my attention; that means Hashem wants to connect to me even deeper. A couple does not become a couple until their first fight. Not because the fight is good, but the fight shows them how strong their relationship really is. Are you going to give up on the whole relationship just because of a fight? Or are you going to figure out that we're going to fix this and get over this and overcome this despite the fight? HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves us, but He also has rules. And He gave us those rules in a love letter called the Torah.

2:08:12Torah is full of suffering, but it also tells you that if you overcome the suffering and you listen to the instructions and use that suffering to connect to Me. You will be like one of the people that I wrote about inside the Torah. You'll be like Adam HaRishon. You'll be like Noach. You'll be like Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, David, Shlomo. All the righteous people—why did they suffer? They're in Gan Eden because they connected to Me through the suffering. You do the same, you'll be in Gan Eden too. This realigns our minds to the straight path, to the path of Emet, and gets us on the path to get to Gan Eden.