The Main Problem From Genesis Until Today

0:15Person that has jealousy. There are a few different levels of it. The most extreme form of jealousy is somebody that's upset that someone else has something and they don't. Simple and to the point: he has a car, I don't; he has a big house, I don't; he has a wife, I don't; he has this, I don't.

1:42the most tolerable level is someone that's jealous of his friend actually having something and just wishes that he had it also. This is natural jealousy, like seeing that he has a nice house and wishing, "I wish I had a nice house." It's still jealousy. All of them are bad. The serious problem we have here is that simply wanting something someone else has—not because I'm upset that he has it, but just because I want it—is also considered bad. However, the sad reality is that most people fall into the first category; most people are upset that the other person has it and they don't. And this is the root of all the problems that have ever happened from Bereishit until today. When you look at the entire Torah, you're going to find an endless amount of stories that start with kinah, that start with jealousy. It starts off with Adam HaRishon.

2:50Adam HaRishon, the angels in Shamayim looked at Adam HaRishon, they thought he was God. They thought he was God in human form. He was so big, so beautiful, so perfect, such wisdom that they could not even comprehend. They thought he was God. They were about to bow to him, and that's when Hashem made him go to sleep. They knew Hashem doesn't go to sleep. Oh, it's not God. But they were so jealous of Adam HaRishon, the Malach HaMavet said, I can't let this continue. I'm gonna ruin it. I'm gonna ruin it. Why are they so jealous of him? I'm gonna ruin it. He went on ruining, became the snake, became the serpent to do, you know, the whole story, made the woman sin, and then him sin, and then they were both kicked out of Gan Eden. Didn't know that before they got kicked, after they got kicked out, what happened? Their sons, Cain and Abel. What happened with the sons, Cain? Had half the world; Abel had the other half of the world. Who's better than you? You don't have to worry about a mortgage. You don't have to worry about banks calling you. You don't have to worry about insurance companies. You don't have to worry about yeshivot. You don't have to worry about anything. You have half the world. Whatever you want is yours. No, no, no, no. I don't like it. Why? He has two wives; I only have one. They were both born with twins. And in those times, obviously, since it was the creation of the world, Hashem allowed for a brother to be with his sister if they were married.

4:18So Cain was born with a single woman twin, and Abel was born with two girl twins. It was triplets; Cain didn't like it. He has two wives, and I only have one. He didn't like it, and jealousy killed him. You fast-forward, and you go to the generation of Noah, and... Generation of Noah, what happened? All the sin of it, all the wrongdoing. What happened in the Generation of Noah is not too different from today's generation. What happened? People started stealing each other's wives, jealousy. Fast forward to Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak Avinu, Yaakov Avinu – each one of them had their own trials. You go to this week's Parashat HaShavua, this week's Parashat HaShavua... You have Yosef HaTzaddik. Yosef HaTzaddik. The only person in the entire Torah whom Hashem says is a tzaddik. Yosef HaTzaddik. Who's better than you? Hashem called you tzaddik. Halvai Hashem will just call us, just come in. Just say come in. Don't even say my name. Just come into Gan Eden, and it's already enough. He says Yosef HaTzaddik. This parasha...

5:40His brothers were also tzaddikim. This refers to the Shevatim. The Am Yisrael comes from them. It says Yisrael loved Yosef more than all his sons because he was a ben zekunim. Israel Yaakov loved Yosef more than all of his other sons since he was a child of old age, meaning he was a Talmid Chacham; he had a lot of wisdom. And he made for him a fine woolen tunic. His brothers thought that it was him whom the father loved the most, and the brothers hated him because of it to such an extent that they couldn't even say hello. They hated him so much, not like saying, "Listen, he's an Obama fan or he's a Trump fan." No, the jealousy was that "Abba loves him more than us. I can't stand it." Yosef was a tzaddik and tamim.

7:06Yosef, God bless him, was a tzaddik; he was little, he was young. So now, he didn't realize that his tzaddik brothers could possibly hate him. So what did he do? When his father made him this special clothing, he would wear it, and he would tell them, "Oh, look at the clothing I have, look at the clothing I have." Now, he was thinking they would be happy for him. Why would his brothers, tzaddikim kedoshim, be upset? Be happy for me. Abba made me a special outfit. Look at the clothing I have. Look at the clothing. Shem HaShem. Yosef, what are you doing to yourself? What are you doing to yourself, Yosef? So we see that it's also here. Fast forward. Fast forward. Paro. Paro could not have enough. Could not have enough. Bilaam could not have enough. But these are Reshaim. Nebuchadnezzar couldn't have enough. It didn't matter what he had. If someone had something else, he had to have it. But he's a Rasha. It's not really a good example. What's a good example? Korach. Korach, Korach, Korach. Korach is a good example. Why? Korach was a Tzadik. Korach was a Tzadik. Korach was one of the Gedolei HaDor before he went to Tarbut Ra'ah.

8:33Korach knew the entire Torah. Korach was wealthy and a big Baal Tzedakah. Korach, from Shevet Levi, was one of the leaders. He was so significant that he got 250 of the Gedolei HaDor to sign off. Yes, we agree. We agree. We had a missionary want to come to a Beit Knesset a year ago. Went to get a single signature. I think I have to give my heart. I have to put my heart on the table as I gave my heart. Give me the signature in exchange for one signature. Who am I to say, "Here is my heart, take the heart, take this, take this." Okay, just give me one signature, Korach. Two hundred and fifty of the Gedolei HaDor signed on the spot with no questions asked. For what? Not against the missionary. Against Moshe Rabbeinu. Against Moshe Rabbeinu who made all of them do teshuva. Moshe Rabbeinu, you're going against Moshe Rabbeinu. Why? Because I'm jealous of Moshe Rabbeinu. I want to be a leader. Why is Moshe Rabbeinu a leader? Why? He's smart, I'm smart also. Why? He has money, I have money also.

9:50Why is Moshe Rabbeinu the leader? Why not me? Maybe he didn't really speak to Hashem. Maybe Hashem didn't really mean for him to stay the leader. Maybe this, maybe that. Why? Jealousy. Jealousy took Korach out of the world, and the Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin says "Korach ein lo chelek le'olam haba." No Olam Haba. Why? Jealousy. Simple jealousy made the ground open up and swallow him and his family, with the exception of a few of his kids that did teshuva at the last minute and... swallowed him and everything that belonged to him. Meaning if somebody still continued holding on to any of his money, the ground swallowed him also, just for holding on to anything that belonged to Korach. Why? Hashem hates jealousy. He hates it. So now we see that there are literally endless examples in the Torah about how much Hashem hates jealousy.

10:54They come in and say, look at the middah [trait]. Being jealous is hated by Hashem to such an extent that anyone guilty of lo tachmod [do not covet] should question whether they're following da'at Torah at all. Why? Because if someone has this... Jealousy, it gets out of control. It's very easy for someone to violate all Ten Commandments because of it. There's a teaching in Chazal that discusses how jealousy leads a person to violate all Ten Commandments. The Midrash discusses how a person who is consumed by jealousy can ultimately transgress one prohibition after another. It gives a story you know, it gives a story of how somebody was, what, jealous of his next-door neighbor's wife. His wife was good-looking, and he saw her through the window over there, and he said, "Oh, she's pretty." That's it, nothing else. Maybe she's wearing a sheitel, who knows. Says she's pretty, but every day he would peek in, peek in, and see, "She's pretty, she's pretty, she's pretty."

12:10Okay, whatever the guy is, looking at a woman, shame on him. It's not good. But why do you call him a rasha already? Yes, why? Look what happened with the story. One day the husband left town. As soon as the husband left town, this guy that's peeking in from next door, no, so what did he do? He breaks the fence. Already, he's vandalizing, he's violating the commandments, vandalizing his neighbor's property, and... Next thing he does is break into the house. The next thing he does is rape the wife. So now he's already violated a few commandments. The wife starts trying to defend herself, and he kills her. Now he's violated another commandment. Then the cops come in. People start screaming, "Whoa, what's going on?" He goes, "Oh, look what happened. Some murderer was here." i just came; he just ran away. I just came, I tried helping her. I just came because I lent the husband some stuff, some stuff for Shabbat, and I came to pick it up. And this is what I found. So now he's going against the Torah in every single way. Then I said okay, we have to take you to trial, and he swears in the name of Hashem that this is what happened.

13:33From just looking at a woman that's not yours, it is said to violate all ten commandments. As a matter of fact, if you look at "Reshit Chochmah," I didn't really want to go into "Reshit Chochmah" too much, but you should know that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, in the second chapter of "Reshit Chochmah," Masechet Gehinnom, discusses this issue. He met with Eliyahu HaNavi, and Eliyahu HaNavi came to him and asked, "Do you want to see Gehenom?" He said yes. Eliyahu then told him about all the different things that he saw, but I’m not going to go into it now because I want you guys to be able to sleep this week. However, he did say, "And I saw some people who are hung by their eyes." Why? Because they looked at a woman who was not their own. Why are you looking? Is it your wife? No, it's not. Then why are you looking? Why are you looking at someone who isn't your wife? If you actually understood the din in Shamayim, when you look at a woman who isn't your wife, you would never look at another woman again. Never. If you need to have a conversation with a woman for whatever reason—maybe to help her, or she's your client—look once to see who you are talking to, but after that, look away.

14:58Constantly, once in a while, go back just to make sure that she knows you're talking to her and so on. However, as much as you can, pretty much 99% of the time, if you can, don't look directly at her. Why? As a man, it's almost impossible for you to have a clean mind unless you're glued to Hashem. It doesn't matter if she could be 95 years old, she could be 15, or anything else. Anything your yetzer hara does not have limitations. Does not have limitations. Maybe thinking about what Rabbi Yehoshua saw in Gehenom, maybe it will help you a little bit. Break that rock. And it talks about, in Perek Shlishi, it says three go to Gehenom and do not come back. A ba'al eshet ish is the first one—someone that goes with a married woman. ...the Gehinom will end, but Gehazi will not end. So we're not gonna go over anything else here, so I think it's scary enough for tonight. But the point I'm trying to say is that here you have all of these disasters begin with a simple look. A simple look at the grass on the other side. You know, there's a famous saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side." And the real question should be, why are you looking?

16:28Why are you looking at the other grass? Why are you looking on the other side? What difference does it make to you if he makes a lot of money? What difference does it make to you what his wife looks like? What difference does it make to you how much money he has, what car he has, what house he has? What difference does it make to you? Do you realize that you're killing yourself? By looking somewhere else other than yourself, you're guaranteed to lose. Guaranteed to lose. On one end, The most likely end, you're gonna find something that he has that you don't have because that's usually what the Yetzer Hara looks for. So, his wife is unattractive and yours is attractive; you're not gonna care about that. His house is small, and yours is big; you're not gonna care about that. His bank account is small, and yours is big; you're not gonna care about that. What are you gonna do? You're gonna find out, oh, one of his kids is talented in something while my kids are not as talented. Can't be. Can't be. Now you're jealous of the kids. Now you have Ayin Hara on his kids. The Gemara says 99% of people die from Ayin Hara. 1% die from regular death. You look at his kids and say, oh they're so smart, they're so smart, they're so this. My kids are not. You're putting Ayin Hara on his kids. Why are you looking? Why are you looking?

17:46That's the thing; a lot of people waste their lives – many waste their lives looking at other people's lives, whether it's on social media, on Facebook, or different things like that. And that's why I always tell people, if you're smart, don't ever put anything personal on Facebook – no pictures and no sayings. You really shouldn't be on it anyway, but whatever, if you're using it for good, to do kiruv or something like that, fine. You're able to use it for good purposes, just like you can use a computer for good purposes in general, or a car for good purposes in general. Just like you can use a house for good purposes or bad ones, and so on. But the point being is that to use any of these vehicles that Hashem gave you just to publicize things about your life is the stupidest thing in the world you can do. First of all, you're leading other people to sin. You're a pretty woman. Even if you're an ugly woman, it doesn't make a difference. You're showing yourself immodest; you're showing yourself in general. Someone's gonna sin because of you. There's a very scary movie that came out recently, in the last couple of weeks, about a woman who had a near-death experience maybe some ten years ago or a little less than ten years ago. She was about teshuvah, to do teshuvah, and...

19:10she did teshuvah. She used to be a model when she was young; she was like 16 years old. She was a model and then she started discovering Hashem, and so on and so forth. She did teshuvah, got married, had kids, and initially, she covered her hair with a mitpachat, with a kerchief, with a tichel and everything was fine, but then She started seeing that she moved to a new neighborhood, and she noticed that in this new neighborhood, which was also Haredi and religious, more people were wearing wigs. She decided, "Wait, it is allowed to wear these wigs." She said, "Okay, I'll wear a wig." She started wearing a wig, and she tells the story herself: she starts wearing a wig, and the wigs become more and more stylish. Says, "Oh, the clothes become more and more stylish, a little tighter, a little this, a little shorter." She said herself, "I started cutting my skirts a little bit, just an extra two inches. Why? I want to fit in. They were wearing it right to the knee, so I'm wearing it right to my knee. They're wearing tight clothes, so I'm wearing them too. They've done this their whole life. What do I know? Shamayim, especially since the rabbi told her it's okay. Her husband told her that's not okay."

20:34No, but they both spoke to a rabbi. It was supposedly a big rabbi, and he said, "No, it's okay. It's allowed. Fine. Go ahead and do it. Go ahead and do it, do it. It's fine, no problem." Yeah, we have some rabbi, sometime a million years ago, who said it's okay to put a straw on your head, but we're translating it to mean hair that's better than what you have. Fine, go. Okay, she did it little by little. Life is good, she says. One day, they decide to take a trip, like on a regular day, a family trip. They get into a car accident. Her husband dies on the spot. One of her kids is in critical condition. One of them is saved miraculously, and she's in critical condition. And she goes into a coma. The coma continues, but something else is happening over there in Shamayim, she says. She goes to the Bedin of Shamayim. She starts to see things. She starts seeing all these millions and millions of neshamos, millions of neshamos. The coma continues, but over here continues in Shamayim, something else is going on. She says in Shamayim. She goes to the Beit Din of Shamayim. She starts seeing things. She starts seeing all these millions and millions of neshamos, millions of neshamos.

21:44Yelling at her, “You did this to us. We hate you, you did this to us. We sinned because of you, you, you!” She's shy and says, “I don't know why they're yelling at me.” She's crying, saying, “I don't know why they're yelling at me. It's so embarrassing; millions of people are yelling at me. I don't know what I did.” And then they show me a movie of my life, and they show me modeling and me today. And it looks the same. was given another chance in the ocean. She got another chance, and she says, "I accept everything that I got with love because I know what actually happens out there, and I shouldn't have done what I did. I ask forgiveness for another chance." The story is much more extraordinary than I have told you. She went to Rav Avraham Yehoshua Soloveitchik zt"l before he passed away. I mean, this is, like I said, about a 10-year-old story or so, maybe even longer. Wanted another chance in the ocean, she got another chance and she says, "I accept everything that I got with love because I know what actually happens out there. And I shouldn't have dismissed it. To me, forgive me for another chance." The story is much more extraordinary than I tell you. She went to Rav Avadya, alav hashalom, before he died. I mean, this is again, like I said, about a ten-year-old story or so, maybe even longer.

23:11Nobody says you must publicize this to everyone, and I personally never heard it until the movie came out recently. I'm telling you, if you don't cry hearing the story, you should double-check your pulse. You're probably not alive. Yeah, I don't remember, but I think it's something to do with a crown, something crown, something. I'll send it to you. I'll send it to you. I'll post it on, post it somewhere so Now, why did she start all of this? Why? Why? What was wrong with the mitpachat? What was wrong with the hat or the scarf and hat? What was wrong with it? Nothing was wrong with it. She saw the neighbor. She saw the neighbor wearing a wig, long, nice, pretty. This looks like a 16-year-old model. She goes, why should I wear the schmatte on my head? And she looks like she just came off the runway show. It's a lot. I'm doing it though. Jealousy, why are you looking? Why are you looking? So, jealousy is literally the root of all evil. Every single sin you're ever going to make usually starts with your eyes. And that's the reason why Shema Hashem. The "puleyema kadoshim" say that the first thing that happens after a person dies if they're wicked is...

24:33The demons that come to punish him immediately before he even gets to Shamayim—first thing they do is they break his eyes. Why? Because he violated by following his heart, because he saw something. He saw something; don't look, don't look—watch your eyes. And people really don't understand what it means to watch your eyes. In Gemara Masechet Shabbat 64a, there are a few different things mentioned. It says Moshe Rabbeinu, when he saw Bnei Yisrael come back from the war against the Midianites, he noticed they were bringing a korban. Why are you bringing a korban? What did you do now? This was after the whole incident with Balak and Bilaam when Am Yisrael sinned with the non-Jewish women, and Hashem brought a plague during which 24,000 died. He almost annihilated everyone, but then Pinchas came and killed Zimri and Cozbi, stopping the entire catastrophe. So Hashem said that now you have to go fight them. You have to go fight the Midianites. Why fight them? Go take revenge.

25:44Okay, so Am Yisrael, tzaddikim, did teshuva, chatanu, avinu, pashanu, and they went to war, starting to kill people. Why? Because you made a sin. You almost endangered the entire nation. Fine. They return from the war after they won, and no one died. Why? They did teshuva. When you do teshuva, Hashem fights the war for you. "Hashem yilachem lachem, v'atem tacharishun." Hashem fights your war, and you should remain silent. Meaning, you go with the spear, but in reality, Hashem is the one orchestrating the outcome. You go with the tank, but in reality, Hashem moves the bullets. You're not really, you're making it look realistic. That's all it is. So now they come back from the war, come back from the war. Moshe Rabbeinu says, "What's this korban? You guys, all right, again made a sin. What, you go with the Midianites also, like you did with the Moabites?" They respond, "No, no, no, chas v'shalom, chas v'shalom, Moshe Rabbeinu, chas v'shalom. We didn't do it again." He asks, "So what's the korban for?" We looked at them. We looked at them. The truth is, we didn't sin with them. We looked at them. We looked at them. So we have to give a korban. Do you understand? Looking at them is a sin. Looking at them is a sin. Looking at a girl that's not your wife is a sin. Kol ha-mistakel b'etzba k'tana shel ishah ki-ilu mistakel b'makom ervatah. Erva.

27:08Whoever gazes at even the little finger of a woman where her ring is, a wedding ring, it's considered in Shamayim as if they looked at the place of her nakedness. Don't think that just because it's a finger, it's no big deal. Oh, it's just because it's a face, no big deal. It's an ear. It's a hair. Everything's a big deal. The entire woman is considered 'ervah' (nakedness) if she's not your wife. Stop looking. Stop looking at women who are not your wives. Why do you ruin your life? You're going to ruin your life. Why are you going to think about it all day? You're going to think about it all night. You're going to commit sins. You're going to think. You're ruining your life. You're going to look at your wife, you're going to look at her. Occasionally, other women might appear more attractive than your wife. So what happens then? You might start thinking, "He has something I don't have." Such thoughts can ruin your life. Prioritizing your wife and the sanctity of your marriage helps maintain a peaceful and fulfilling life.