The One Second Difference Between Life And Death!!

1:16Lighting the Shabbat candles is a fundamental mitzvah that demonstrates the wife's observance of this important commandment. This mitzvah is one of the three significant mitzvot for women, mentioned during the Shabbat prayers. These three critical mitzvot include lighting the Shabbat candles, separating challah, and following the laws of niddah. They are reviewed in Shamayim on a regular basis, especially when the woman is about to give birth. Why, when a woman is about to give birth, does the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 34, I believe, state that at that moment she's in sakana, she's at risk? Malach HaMavet comes to Shamayim and says, look Hashem, she lit the candles, she lit the candles every Shabbat, but every Shabbat she was one second late. In Shamayim, that's Chilul Shabbat, 100%. One second late means you lit candles, you lit fire on Shabbat. Now, talk about being 20 minutes, a half hour, or even longer late, like some reform people, who decide to light candles in the afternoon of the next day because it’s nice and smells good.

2:28No, we're talking about when you think you're doing a mitzvah. The timing of a mitzvah, even one second into Shabbat, can be the difference between life and death, especially when she's about to give birth. The Satan comes to Shamayim and says, "Look, that one time she was late. Why? Because she was playing around, talking, and speaking Lashon Hara all afternoon. She was on the phone with her friend and her sister, with this one and that one. She forgot about Shabbat until one second before it began. She lit the candles, but it was too late. It was already Shabbat." The significance of this moment in Shamayim is profound, and we must all be conscientious in our observance and attention to timing, especially for something as sacred as Shabbat. At the time of pregnancy, the Gemara says, this is the reason in Shamayim they decide to kill her. Why? She has to have merit to survive pregnancy. Not the pregnancy of the whole nine months, but pregnancy in essence, the actual labor itself, and actually having the baby. And people think, I used to think, nah, this doesn't happen anymore. Today, modern technology, medical technology, no one dies. Yesterday, somebody died. Two days ago, somebody died. A week ago, a week and a half ago, every day you get so much news. In the same place, Rabbi Fahim, God bless him, and his wife just had a baby boy. She said, the woman next to me, the woman next to her gave birth at the same time, went home, everything was fine. She came back, she had a little bit of pain. Six days later, they checked into her, and she died on the table.

3:54After six days, you're already home, already celebrating. I had a boy. I had a girl. I had whatever. Six days later, Mal'akh HaMavet was still waiting. People think this doesn't happen, that it's far away. No, no. It's happening. You just don't know. It's happening. So, the one-second difference made a difference. We don't know for her or anybody else. The point is, that one second is the big difference. But the Satan tells you it's not a big deal. Another mitzvah is niddah. A woman must go to the mikveh every month in order to become purified and to be able to be with her husband. This is not only because of intimacy; it is also because you are not even allowed to touch his finger. You are not allowed to touch your husband's finger, and your husband is not allowed to touch your finger if you are in niddah. A woman came to the Chachamim and said, "Look, my husband was a Talmid Chacham, but he died. I thought the Torah says that if someone learns Torah, Hashem protects them." The Chachamim didn't have an answer for her. She kept crying and crying.

5:13Eliyahu Hanavi comes. She goes to Eliyahu Hanavi, Elijah the Prophet. She tells him, "My husband learned Torah, did mitzvot, but Hashem killed him at a young age. What kind of God is this?" And he says to her, "When you were nidah, did he touch you?" "No, he never touched me, never touched anything. He never touched even my finger he wouldn't touch. Nothing." "Oh, okay." Did he sleep with you in the bed? Not intimately, he just slept on the other side. He slept on one side of the bed, same bed. I slept on the other side, but he didn't touch me. Eliyahu Hanavi says in the Gemara, Baruch Hashem, that Hashem killed him. It's El Melech Ne'eman. We can rely on this God. Why do we rely on God? He's Emet. He's 100%. That's the truth. You're not allowed to put yourself in that jeopardy. You're not allowed to sleep with your wife in the same bed. Either have two beds right next to each other, sleep in a different bed, whatever it is, you're not allowed to be in the same bed. So now, nida, see, it's a more important mitzvah. Most Orthodox Jews know this mitzvah. Now, one thing that the women may not tell you is that there's a woman in the mikveh who watches. Why do they have a woman there? Why don't people know how to go? They go to the pool every day for 30 years; they don't know how to go into the pool. For 30 years, they go into the pool; they don't know how to go to the pool?

6:39Go in the pool, that's it. Why do I need somebody to look at me? For what? What's this for? What's this woman for? It's annoying. Come on. It's not that they see you naked, chas v'shalom. The point is that it's invading your privacy. Why? In reality, if it's a woman with Yirat Shamayim, not one of these resha'ot that tells people Lashon Hara about you after you leave the mikveh. Talk about honest women who have Yirat Shamayim. Because sometimes you have women who are at the mikveh just because they want to know everybody's business or they make fun of people and stuff like that. There are resha'im. Don't worry. There are a lot of resha'im. There are resha'im in the world. There's one mikveh here in Florida, Hashem yerachem, that rejected one of my students. They said, no, no, don't come here. A tzaddeket, a kedoshah, came to the mikveh and was told, don't come here. Don't come to the mikveh. Somebody like that, you need to pray for someone like that to change their ways. If it were permissible to pray for another Jew to perish, I would pray for this person to be removed from harmful influence. Someone like this, a rabbi who tells one of my students not to attend because he's racist, prejudiced, or otherwise biased. If it were permissible, I would pray for him to face consequences. That's how much his actions affect me. You're allowed to disapprove of his actions. But anyway, when someone has yirat shamayim, they are genuinely trying to save your life. Why are they trying to save your life?

8:01Because we said if a man is with his wife when she's in nidah, a man is with a woman when she is in nidah. All these single guys that have girlfriends and act like they’re married, you should know she is in nidah. And that's Issur Karet. That is a severe sin. That's Karet. There are 36 different sins for which in Shamayim they cut you off. It's like Chilul Shabbat, or Avodah Zarah, or idol worship. It's Issur Karet. Being with a woman who is in nidah is Issur Karet. This is horrendous. Rambam says there's no recovery from it in the next world. Recovery here, you can do teshuva here, but if you go into shamayim with karet, there's no recovery. There's no teshuva in shamayim. So this woman, she has Yirat Shamayim; she's trying to save your life. Why? Because if you have one hair sticking out while you immerse, it could make all the difference. You have tens of thousands of hairs on your head, and if just one hair sticks out of the mikveh that you've been using for 30 years, it matters. One single hair sticking out can affect the status of the tevilah, and therefore, you still need that guidance, that second pair of eyes, to ensure everything is kosher. You still need that support in the mitzvah of taharat hamishpacha.

9:17That's why the law in Judaism is to have someone over there. See, why? Your hair needs to be inside. It's not that you don't know how to dip in a pool, but you don't see your hair, what happens to it? It could be sticking out. One hair is the difference between Nidda and Torah. One hair. Satan says, nah, come on, she's invading your privacy, she's annoying, these rules, these this, these that, crazy, machmirim. No, no. Saving your life, really. But the Satan tells you crazy things in your head. Another thing is modesty. I don't know how many women I see when they come to Shiur Torah or they're in the kosher markets and, you know, you train yourself eventually, you have a reflex. You see a woman, you look away. But there's still a half a second, one second that you see the person. And the Yetzer Hara lets you see the person and what ends up happening is you see how they're dressed. So I don't know how often it happens where I see someone and say, oh, Baruch Hashem, this is a tzaddeket. Why? Most women are six inches from Gan Eden. Most women are six inches in this generation. I'm talking about religious, I'm not talking about the secular people. Secular people are not wearing clothes at all.

10:44I'm talking about most religious women, religious Jewish women, are six inches from Gan Eden. Six inches. What's six inches from Gan Eden? Six inches too short. If there were six inches more, they would actually go to Gan Eden. They wear skirts that barely cover the knee. Barely. Sometimes don't cover the knee at all. Six more inches. If they would actually cover the knee, pass the knee, after they sit down, they would be considered modest. It's modest, but because it doesn't cover the knee, or it covers the knee, but as soon as they sit down, it doesn't cover the knee, it's no longer modest. You're not allowed to wear it. So mamash, the fact that it's six inches too short is the difference between modest and not modest. And in shamayim, modesty for women is the number one mitzvah. It's impossible for a woman to go to Gan Eden if she's not modest. Impossible. So, mamash, you have religious women, they're trying to do their best, they're trying to do this, they're trying to do that, they eat kosher, they cook this, they do that. They're great people. Nothing wrong with them as people. But apparently, their rabbanim didn't tell them that they're six inches away. Six inches. Mamash, six inches. Really, ideally, they should wear the skirts or the dresses that are all the way to the ankles. But even if you want to wear something a little shorter, you're allowed, but it has to cover a third of your calf.

12:08has to cover a third of your calf, which the Chachamim debate whether it's four inches past the knee or six inches past the knee. Nonetheless, it's definitely past the knee after you sit down. Not where people just get the thing and as soon as they sit down, they keep pulling it down like it's one of those stretch toys. I never understood why you wear a skirt anyway. Right, the Satan tells you that it's okay, it's no big deal. Six inches too short, six inches too long—it's all the same. It's just six inches, come on. The skirt is already two feet; six inches is nothing. "Look at the rest of me," you understand? Six inches. The Satan tells you six inches is nothing. Also, you know, if you don't watch it carefully, just one second can make it chametz. When you make matzah, one second difference, one second difference, you have matzah, 18 minutes, you have one second difference, chametz. Meaning you have din karet. You eat chametz on Pesach, karet. Cut off from the nation. One second difference. We're not talking about 10 minutes. We're not talking about, you know, cooking it over a weekend. One minute, one second difference. You didn't follow the halacha, you let the matzah rise, you let the... Not kosher.

13:28the reported times for candle lighting are usually before Shabbat, meaning that the times you see on, let's say, Chabad or other applications, are not reporting the exact start of Shabbat. They are reporting the time to light candles, but actual Shabbat usually begins about 18 minutes after that. That's why when you go to the shul at that time, they are doing Mincha. If you did Mincha, and it was already Shabbat, you wouldn't be able to do the weekday Mincha. are usually before Shabbat, meaning that the times you see on, let's say, Chabad or other online applications, are not reporting exactly. They're reporting when to light candles, but actual Shabbat usually starts about 18 minutes after that. That's why, usually, when you go to the beit knesset at that time, they're doing Mincha. Now, if you did Mincha and it was Shabbat, you couldn't do the weekday Mincha. You're still doing the Mincha of the week. When does Shabbat usually start? It's supposed to be set up in a way where you're actually saying Lecha Dodi. Lecha Dodi, that's when Shabbat starts. We do Kabbalat Shabbat, you finish Mincha, it's still a regular day, and you go right into Kabbalat Shabbat. You get to a section of Lecha Dodi, and at that moment, Shabbat starts.

14:44So that's somewhere around the 18 to 20-minute range or so. They finished Tefillah pretty quickly today. It's about 18 to 20 minutes after that time. But that means that you have to be at the shul. You have to know when they're doing it. You can't just say, no, no, I'll just start Shabbat on my own 20 minutes after this time. No, if you're home, you start Shabbat at that time. You don't start it 20 minutes later. So you have to be careful. Why are we careful? Because again, even a small difference, a minute difference, you're playing with your life. You're dealing with eternity. We're not talking about playing with a hundred bucks or a thousand bucks or a hundred thousand dollars. It's not a gamble. You're not playing with money here; you're playing with eternity.