The Poison of The Generation

0:15I could start it with a little bit of a story that maybe will wake us up a little bit, give us a little bit of an understanding of how much HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves us, but at the same token, how unlimited, how unlimited HaKadosh Baruch Hu is. You see, most people today, most people struggle with emunah. Whether you're religious or not, people have a hard time believing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu really cares about every little thing that you're doing. I've met religious people and non-religious people who have a hard time believing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu cares whether you wash your hands in the morning. Whether you're religious or not, most people struggle with emunah. They have a hard time believing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu really cares about every little thing that you're doing. Whether you're religious or not, many have difficulty accepting that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is involved in all aspects of our lives. I've met religious people and non-religious people who have a hard time believing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu cares whether you wash your hands in the morning. Whether you're going to go to the Knesset or not, whether you're going to pray on time or not, whether you're going to keep Shabbat or not, a lot of people think that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is simply too busy. You should know that thinking this way is a Greek belief. That's what the Greeks, over 2,000 years ago, told Am Yisrael. Yes, we believe that there's a creator of the world, because obviously this vast universe we live in had to have come from somewhere.

1:33So we believe in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but we believe He's so big and so powerful that He left. He's too busy to care whether you're going to wash your hands or not, whether you'll find a zivug or not, whether your paycheck is going to clear or not, whether the stock will go up or down. He's too busy for that stuff. He left. That's a Greek belief. That's why we celebrate Chanukah next week, which we'll discuss, you know, certain Halachot about it next week, b'ezrat HaShem, when it's more pertaining to the times. But nonetheless, that's what the Greeks wanted us to believe. Many Jews today have the beliefs of the Greeks without even knowing it. There was a study done about two and a half years ago by a Jewish organization about the Modern Orthodox community. Now the people... 2,000 years ago, people also had yetzer hara, just like us. Unfortunately, they fell for it, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu destroyed the Beit Hamikdash because of them. Every day the Beit Hamikdash is not built means that if it were, we would be destroying it. That's why HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling us, "No, no, you don't have the merit to build the Beit Hamikdash right now." If it were built right now, Hashem would end up destroying it.

3:00because of all the shtuyot in our mind. And this study that came out two years ago confirmed it. What did it confirm? One of the findings that they discovered about the Modern Orthodox community, a study of about 4,000 or so different people, which is a relatively decent-sized study for that size of a community. that over 50% of modern Orthodox Jews, which again, if you ask a modern Orthodox Jew, "Are you religious?" He's going to absolutely tell you, "Yes." No modern Orthodox Jew will ever tell you, "I'm not religious, I'm secular." The point of being modern Orthodox is that you believe that you are religious, but you're more modern with the times. It's like, you know, stylish religious. People think this is perfectly fine; Torah doesn't, but people think, "Okay. No problem." So, what is modern Orthodoxy? What has it brought us to today? Over 50% of modern Orthodox people, both males and females, admitted...

4:06That they do not believe in Hashgacha Pratit. They do not believe in divine providence, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is monitoring every single thing you do, including playing with your phone, not paying attention, thinking about the girl you're not even allowed to look at, or whether you believe that Hashem is going to give you parnasah or not. Everything. All the things that are in your mind. This is one of the ikarim of being a Jew. It's one of the foundations of being a Jew, that Hashem is so great. He knows. In real time, not like yesterday's slow email; in real-time, 5G, 900G, He knows exactly what every single one of us is thinking right now, what we thought a minute ago. Every single thing is being watched, every single thing is being written down, every single thing is being heard, and every single thing is going to be shown to us one day on Judgment Day. This is one of the foundations of our belief in Judaism. Over 50% of the so-called religious Modern Orthodox say this: I don't believe. Now, if you know who this person is that says, "I don't believe," you have somebody, your friend, your brother, your father, your mother, you yourself don't believe this, you cannot be counted in a minyan.

5:32Need ten people to pray together, ten people to say Kaddish, ten people to have any major Jewish ceremony. A person who doesn't believe in Hashgacha Pratit is considered completely an apikores. Now if this was only, let's say, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, or ten percent, it would be a tragedy. Ten percent of Am Yisrael not believing in Hashgacha Pratit is a tragedy. 50%? Hashem yerachem. It's an epidemic. To say it's a tragedy is like saying the Holocaust was a tragedy. Any Holocaust survivor would tell you calling the Holocaust a tragedy is the understatement of the year. Six million Jews dying and being slaughtered in cold blood—calling that a tragedy is an understatement. How do you know it's an understatement? Take some time, go pick up one of the sefarim, or go on my YouTube channel. Look under the playlist called Holocaust Research. You'll find a list of different lectures we did on the topic, including an actual movie. A movie that was made to show you what happened during the Holocaust. After you watch the movie, and you wipe your tears and probably clean up the vomit, you're going to realize why it wasn't a tragedy at all.

6:57It's not tragic at all. There is no word to describe what happened in the Holocaust. Tragedy is an understatement. It's sad and even more tragic that this generation, most kids have no connection whatsoever to what happened in the Holocaust. Most Jewish kids today have no connection whatsoever. What do I care about the Holocaust? What? Tati. He survived. Okay, so he has a tattoo. I have a tattoo too. He got his for free. What? They have no real understanding of what happened in the Holocaust. That means that we don't have to be concerned about the fact that the generation today is not connected to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moshe, and Aharon from 3,000 years ago. We are so far removed from our reality, from our heritage, that we cannot even connect to a generation and a half ago. Why? One of the reasons is that we are the most ignorant generation that ever lived. that we cannot even connect to a generation and a half ago. Why? One of the reasons is that we are the most ignorant generation that ever lived.

8:11We are simply a generation of people that are unlearned. Most of the information that people learn is from the internet and advertisements. That's how we learn. You tell somebody, "Listen, read this book," and they can tell you, "Do you have a video?" Okay, I have a video. "Oh, it's an hour and a half. Do you have something shorter?" If something's shorter than an hour and a half, how long do you want it? Three minutes, three and a half. You know, like Prague University. You know, like one of those videos. You have that? Give me the whole world history in three and a half minutes. Can you give me that? That means that it's impossible to teach such a generation. of the people that are making these one-minute Torah videos, three-minute Torah videos, and even ourselves that are making clips of the shiur in five to ten-minute clips. The shiur is not supposed to be limud. It's not supposed to be your daily studies of five to ten minutes. That’s supposed to be the appetizer. That five to ten-minute clip is supposed to entice you to want to watch the rest of the shiur. It's not supposed to be your entire learning.

9:23If all you're learning every day is five- or ten-minute clips, you're never going to get far away. You're never going to get far, period. You're simply going to stay not very different from how you started. I tell you this hard information because, rabotai yekarim, the Holocaust is about to happen again. Gog u’Magog is written in the prophets over 3,000 years ago. It's a promise. It's not an assumption. It's not an estimate. It's a promise from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And anyone who has not done teshuva will regret the day they were born. Now, I highly recommend that people take things seriously. Now, does that mean you have to become a rabbi? No. Does that mean that you have to study from day till night? No. But it means you need to take Judaism seriously. First step, learn what the truth is. Second, do it. Enough with the excuses, because what's happening with rabotai is that people have all of these sfeikot, these doubts about Judaism. It's simply because they've never arrived at the emet.

10:52They've never arrived at the emet. They want to live the lie in this world, and they've never arrived at the emet. Now, David HaMelech in Tehillim, Chapter 84, Verse 11, states: "For one day in Your courtyards is better than a thousand elsewhere." Now, most people, myself included, understood this Tehillim, this verse, is a very famous verse. As David HaMelech is saying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Hashem, one day in a Beit Midrash is better than a thousand days spent playing basketball, playing video games, or working on Wall Street making a million dollars a day. One day in the Beit Midrash, learning the emet, is worth more than a thousand days of making a million dollars a day. That's the pshat, that's the basic understanding that everybody had. It's David HaMelech talking to Hashem, saying to Hashem, "I love you so much, I love the emet so much, that even one day of having it is the greatest thing in the world." But the Gemara, Masechet Makkot, page 10a, says the opposite. It says it’s actually David being talked to by Hashem.

12:20David said to Hashem, "Hashem, when am I going to die? When am I going to die, Hashem?" Hashem says, "I can't tell you." He says, "What day of the week?" "It's going to be Shabbat. You're going to die on Shabbat, David." We spoke about this last week. So David says to Hashem, "Okay, so let me die on Friday." Let me die on Friday, so at least I don't die on Shabbat, so they can bury me on Friday. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to David, I'm very upset at Am Yisrael. I'm very upset at Am Yisrael. Why am I upset? All of Am Yisrael, all of the people under David HaMelech are looking forward for David to die. Why? Because they already know the prophecy is, as soon as David HaMelech dies, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to give the kingdom to his son Shlomo, and Shlomo is going to build a Beit HaMikdash. Beit HaMikdash, it's like having HaKadosh Baruch Hu on better than WhatsApp, being friends with Hashem on Facebook. Go to the Beit HaMikdash, talk to Hashem.

13:36You see a fire, a fire coming from heaven every single day in the shape of a lion to burn the korbanot. Imagine, after the cloud, but it's fire, blue fire coming down from heaven every day. A lion. Who's not going to believe in miracles? Who's not going to believe in Hashgacha Pratit? You're seeing stuff happen. It's not like stories anymore. So all of Am Yisrael is looking forward to this. They want to build the Beit Hamikdash. David says to Hashem, "Let me die earlier, so that way everybody wins. One, I don't die on Shabbat because you can't bury a person on Shabbat. I die on Friday. And two, Am Yisrael is happy." Why? Because I die a little earlier. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to David, "One day of your learning Torah..." is worth to me more than a thousand korbanot, a thousand sacrifices that your son and the rest of Am Yisrael will make in the Beit Hamikdash. Why is this a big deal to us, Rabotai? Anybody hear David HaMelech? No. Anybody here related to David? Not so sure. Rabotai, HaKadosh Baruch Hu told David, you learning Torah,

15:05...is worth to me more than the Beit Hamikdash itself, more than the Korbanot, more than everything. Why is this important? That means that you sitting here right now, listening to Torah, is worth to HaKadosh Baruch Hu more than all of the sacrifices of the Beit Hamikdash. You opening a Gemara, learning and sweating a little bit, trying to figure out what does it actually mean, who's against who, why are they arguing, why can't they all be friends, why is that much conflict, why do I care about this specific issue if it already happened 3,000 years ago, and so on and so forth, you're toiling to get to the bottom line of the truth and... Learning often involves sweating a little bit, trying to figure out what it actually means. Who is against whom? Why are they arguing? Why can't they all be friends? Why is it such a significant debate? Why should I care about this specific issue if it happened 3,000 years ago, and so on and so forth? You toil to get to the emet, to get to the bottom line of the truth, and... is worth to HaKadosh Baruch Hu more than korbanot, more than sacrifices at the Beit HaMikdash. That's how much it's worth. So with that being said, this is how we know how valuable the emet is to Hashem. How valuable it is for Hashem for you to know it before it's too late. Because the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah says, once Mashiach comes,

16:21There's no more, nothing. There's no more conversions. There's no more teshuva. There's no more, "Oh, I'm sorry." Once Mashiach comes, we're finished. The reality is, the reality is, it's finished really before that. Why? Why is it finished before that? Because Gog u'Magog is going to happen before the Mashiach comes. Gog u'Magog is not going to be a peaceful war. You know, one side shoots, and the other one waits, gets hit. Okay, you know what? We'll wait two weeks, then we'll hit you back. Gog u'Magog is going to be a very, very scary war, making everything else that happened before it seem like child's play. And that means we're not going to have the opportunities we have today to study Torah whenever we feel like it, to go wake up. Look at your phone. Instead of seeing all the junk, you go on BeEzrat Hashem dot org, you go to our YouTube channel, you go to our app, you go to the podcast, you press play, and you sit there while you're drinking your coffee. A few times a week, you roll out of bed, you have a shiur 20 minutes away, 5 minutes away, for free.

17:41We're not going to have those opportunities, meaning that to do teshuva during the war is not going to be a piece of cake. Go to minyan, go pray; you have five, six, seven, or even ten choices in many Jewish communities to pray whenever you feel like it sometimes. You need tefillin? All you have to do is make a phone call, send a text message, send a few dollars, and you've got tefillin within a few days. You want a book, you go on the internet, within two days you've got the book. Whatever book you want, whatever sefer you want. It's not going to be that easy. It's not going to be that easy. Meaning that to do teshuva once the war is out, it's pretty much the end of times. It's pretty much the end of doing teshuva. Because to do teshuva takes time. You need to know stuff. You need to know what you don't know today. You need to know halachot Shabbat. How do you keep Shabbat? Better yet, how do you not violate Shabbat? Most people think that keeping Shabbat is sleeping, eating, going to shul if you feel like it, and hanging out with the guys. That's what most people think keeping Shabbat is. That means that all of the cows,

19:03Right off of I-95, they all show up on Shabbat then. They do it every day. They eat, they drink. They don't go to Beit Knesset usually, though. Whenever they go, they come as steak. So what, they're all going to go to Gan Eden? Shabbat is not just about eating, drinking, going to Beit Knesset, and sleeping. It's more than that. You need to know that. You need to know how to keep the holidays, not just to fast. Fasting on Yom Kippur. is not really the ikar. Most people think they fast on Yom Kippur and say, "Oh yeah, I keep Yom Kippur." The vast majority of people do not keep Yom Kippur without even knowing it. Why? The Mishnah says, someone who says, "I'm going to sin, then do teshuva, sin, do teshuva," HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not going to let them do teshuva, and even Yom Kippur is not going to help them. So Chachamim said, what does this mean? Yom Kippur says the whole point of Yom Kippur is for you to do teshuva, not for you to fast. If you fasted on Yom Kippur, but you didn't do teshuva, you didn't commit to stop sinning, all you did is diet. And Shamayim didn't even count that you kept Yom Kippur. It's meaningless. Shamayim doesn't care if you eat.

20:32Hashem cares if you eat. If He didn’t want you to eat, He would just send starvation or famine. Everyone would become religious. So, the point is, Rabotai, these are the types of things you're going to need to know because that's the emet. That's the emet. If you didn't know it until now, welcome. This is Judaism. Does that mean it's really hard? Not necessarily. Judaism is not hard. It's only hard for people who don't want to do it. If you don't want to change your life, Yiddishkeit is extremely hard. But if you want to change your life, you want to be a better person, you want to be closer to Hashem, then Yiddishkeit is very easy.