The Power of Prayer - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (33)

0:17Today we're going to talk about a very popular subject. B'ezrat Hashem in a little bit of a different way, in the ways of the Ramban, the ways of the Chachamim, that are not always discussed, which is about tefillah. That's the next part that the Ramban talks about in his letter from 800 years ago to his son about how to pray, why to pray. But B'ezrat Hashem in a little bit of a different way, in the ways of the Ramban, the ways of the Chachamim, that are not always discussed, which is about tefillah. That's the next part that the Ramban talks about in his letter from 800 years ago to his son about how to pray, why to pray. what a person should do before he prays, after he prays, really what's the point of prayer? Meaning, Hashem doesn't change His mind anyway. What's the point of you praying? Today's shiur will be for a refuah shlema for Levana Bat Sara, for David Ben Esria, Doris Bat Jorah, Serach Bat Batya, Batya Bat Sara,

1:29Dvorah Bat-Mercedes, Esther Bat-Zipporah, and all of Am Yisrael, b'ezrat Hashem, will have refuah shlema, refuah hanefesh, refuah haguf. So as a little bit of an update, on Sunday, I asked anybody that wants to get some opportunities to do mitzvot, especially at a time like we have right now, where you have a major decree around the world, not only the economic issues that are showing a lack of stability, but also because of what's happening with this coronavirus. And it seems like the Satan is trying to cool people off by putting suddenly, out of nowhere, there's now two sides to the argument. One side says that there's no cure to this disease and it's really only a matter of time before the whole world gets infected. putting suddenly, out of nowhere, there's now two sides to the argument. One side says that there's no cure to this disease and it's really only a matter of time before the whole world gets infected. And the other side says that, nah, it's just a conspiracy, only a few people died, all those videos where people are just falling in the middle of the street and dying, it's just fake, it's just 70, 80, 90-year-olds that were already dying anyway, and all things like that. Put it this way, if HaKadosh Baruch Hu brought it to the world and shocked the world, including Am Yisrael, there's obviously a reason.

2:59Now, if anybody doesn't pay attention to the details or perhaps didn't hear it, today it was announced that there's a yeshiva in New York that has several people infected with coronavirus, and they're forcing the school to shut down. This is one of the ways that... It seems like they're going to try to connect it to Jewish people, in my opinion. Some parts of the conspiracy are that this virus was man-made. It wasn't from bats or cats, but it was actually man-made. Either due to lack of paying attention or carelessness, or perhaps intentionally spread into the world. All types of shtuyot that are out there. I'm just letting you guys know that there's going to be mixed opinions of what's going on out there. One thing for sure, Hashem is trying to get our attention.

3:59While people were celebrating in the last several hours about the win in the Israeli Knesset, where Benjamin Netanyahu won the election, two things are being missed in that aspect. Number one, he still doesn't have a government. He still needs one of the enemies to join forces with him in order for him to actually not have to have a fourth election. And although it seems like what’s the big deal of getting one more person to join him, when you hate somebody, you'll do a lot of stupid things. And that’s actually what happened three times already. So people that are celebrating the win shouldn’t necessarily celebrate so much, but there's even a bigger reason. is an even bigger reason why a person shouldn't really celebrate at all. Because although Benny Gantz and his dear Amalek friend Avigdor are both resha'im gemurim, don't think for a second that Benjamin Netanyahu is your friend. If you're a religious Jew, he's not your friend. He's a politician. And for anyone who doesn't know, the word politician comes from the Greek word that means tick.

5:15You know, blood-sucking ticks. Because that's pretty much what politicians are. Politicians suck everyone's blood as long as they have an interest. As long as you have blood for them to suck, they'll take it from you. Once you don't have any blood, they move on to the next body. That's what people like Benjamin Netanyahu and his friends do. They'll befriend the religious people now, even though he was best friends with Yair Lapid, who was torturing the Avreichim not too long ago. Why? Because right now it meets his agenda to befriend the religious people and get more votes. But don't think for a second that if he has an opportunity to go against the religious people and not lose any votes, not lose any power, and in fact gain something out of it, he won't turn it around again and do it. And then you'll say, "No, but why? He's a nice guy. He has a Tanakh session every week." So do the Christians. Christians have a Tanakh session also every week, sometimes more than once a week. They don't keep Shabbat either. And neither does Bibi Netanyahu. So, it's very important for people to know that

6:25It's to be clear that the coast is not clear or even close to being clear. There's still a decree in the world. There's still a lot of judgment. There's still a lot of people that are going against the Torah, against the mitzvot. It doesn't mean that the two Amalekites were a better win or better than Bibi. I think in one aspect of it, it would be better; in one aspect, it would be worse. but nonetheless, regardless of what happened, the coast is not clear. If anyone's asking what makes it better, what makes it worse, it reminds me of a story about the Baal HaTanya. The Baal HaTanya started the Tnuat Chabad. He, at his time, Napoleon was little by little conquering the whole world. and he was about to face his most difficult battle against the Russians. And if he would have won that battle against the Russians, he would have conquered the entire world. Now, many Jews, many Jews wanted Napoleon to win. And the reason why is because Napoleon was nice to them. He wasn't against the Jews. He wasn't against the Jews, like Trump, who just wanted more power.

7:51It was nice of them. On the other hand, the Russians were killing Jews in the streets. The Russians hated us. They didn't allow us to practice religion. They're anti-religious, just like Avigdor and his friends. And many Russians, unfortunately, are in Eretz Yisrael but are 100% Nazis. And the reality is that many Jews said, oh, it's an obvious situation. We should pray for Napoleon to win. The Baal HaTanya, with his Ruach HaKodesh, says, no, we have to do whatever possible to make sure Napoleon dies. Napoleon loses. Why? He says, if Napoleon wins, that means that the Russians are not going to get in the way anymore. There's not going to be any more anti-Semitism. We're going to befriend all the goyim. Before you know it, there will be no more Am Yisrael due to intermarriage. Why? Comfortable. Like America. Ninety percent intermarriage in Denver. Eighty percent in the rest of the country. The best neighborhoods in America still have seventy percent intermarriage. Like America, he likes us. He likes us, yeah, he likes us as long as we're not, you know, practicing our Judaism. As long as we like him and we're just like him, we'll have dinner like him. He says the Russians, on the other hand, they remind us every single day we're Jews. By beating us up, by torturing us, anti-Semitism says it's good for us.

9:18So even though not everybody agreed with him, we see today that he was very much right. And he actually, the Baal HaTanya, planted one of his Chasidim, told one of his Chasidim, "Go do whatever you can to get into the army of Napoleon." And he went into the army of Napoleon, and little by little started gaining traction, started going up the ladder, started getting some more of these little pieces of metal on his shoulder. And every time he would do it, he would give more reports to the Baal HaTanya, which in essence would give them to the Russians so they could go against him. Eventually, he got up to become one of the top guys. This Chassid became one of the top guys for Napoleon. But Napoleon started noticing he's losing the battle against the Russians. What's going on? so he started realizing there has to be a mole, there has to be some type of spy inside his own army. So he got together all of his people and he had a very unusual way of dealing with people. So he got them all in one room, everybody scared to death of him.

10:30Because he actually has the power to kill people, and no one has the power to kill him. No one dares to do it. They're so scared of him. And he starts looking and he tells everybody, "There's a spy inside our army that's telling secrets to the Russians." And he looks at everybody to see who's flinching. And then he continues talking, and then he starts, he points at one guy, and he smashes his chest, puts his hand on his chest, he goes, is it you? And he puts his hand on his chest, sees that his heart starts pumping, boom, shoots him in the head, dead. Continues talking, is it you? Puts it on another guy. The guy's heart starts shaking, boom, shoots him in the head. Starts killing one after another. He says, if your heart is shaking, that means you're the one. You're scared, you're the spy. Oh, there's one, there's two, there's three. All of you are spies? He got to the Chassid. He got to the Chassid, is it you? Nothing, calm. He goes, it's definitely not you. He's so calm, this Chassid is definitely not you. When the Chassid told the story, they asked him, how did you do it? He says, listen, the Tanya told me that it's written in the Torah that anyone on a mission of a mitzvah, nothing can hurt them.

11:40Nothing can hurt him. So I knew it didn't make a difference what Napoleon was going to say. You, no you. I knew that the Tanya already promised me there's a pasuk in the Torah that protects me. Why should I be worried? He's the only guy that survived. And Napoleon eventually lost. And anti-Semitism increased. But intermarriage decreased for a while. Decreased for a while. Until we became friends with the goyim in Germany. And then later on in America. And Hashem yishmor v'yatzil. But the point is that anti-Semitism is one of the tools that HaKadosh Baruch Hu uses in order to remind Am Yisrael that they are Am Yisrael. reminds Am Yisrael that they need to pray to Him. Reminds Am Yisrael that they need to do all types of tefilot. And a few days ago, I told you that there's an opportunity right now with all of the decrees in the world, whether it's economic, health, or other things that are happening, there's an opportunity for each person to improve their mitzvot. Because our job in the world as Jews...

12:43It's not only to take care of ourselves, to pray for ourselves, to make money for ourselves, to do things for ourselves. Our job in the world is to be or lagoyim, a light to the nations. But not just the other nations, a light to our own nation. So that's an obligation for Am Yisrael to do kiruv, to care about each other, to help each other do more mitzvot. So, Be'ezrat Hashem, our organization is donating 10,000 Asher Yatzar cards. We sell them usually for $5. So you're talking about a huge investment for our tiny little organization. For anybody that wants to give these out in his community. We really want to try to focus on America because there's, Baruch Hashem, plenty of Americans and this is only a small number. so anyone that wants to take the time and give these out in their community, you want 100, 200, 500. You know, usually, the most will start with somebody's 300, that's assuming you're very, very serious to give them out in your community. You put another 20 in a Beit Knesset, another 20 in a kosher supermarket, another 20 in a different Beit Midrash, and so on and so forth. This is going to give you an opportunity to do kiruv, to get people to do mitzvot because even if they know...

13:53that the blessing by heart of Asher Yatzar, when they read it, gives it a different meaning. And that's one of the things that the Ramban talks about today. So this Asher Yatzar card, just one woman that saw this shiur a few days ago, wanted to get a few of them. She said, "I've been looking for a good-looking Asher Yatzar poster for a while, and Baruch Hashem, I watched the shiur and I got it." So she's very happy about it. A few people obviously ordered it to give out in their communities, but there's still plenty left. We sent, I don't know, a few thousand already today. We're going to continue sending them out over the next few days for anyone that wants to give them out. But the point is to give them out because we need the mitzvot, both individually and as a nation. Now, The other thing is that there are still some cards left, the movie cards. This is, I believe, one of the best tools to do kiruv, to get people introduced to our work. Somebody goes, sees this card in a supermarket, in a beit knesset,

14:56scans the card with their camera, and goes directly to the movie and can sit there for the next hour and a half doing teshuva. So there's still some left of those. And then, Baruch Hashem, I got some word from China today, or yesterday, that the package is almost ready. And, Baruch Hashem, hopefully we should have it in America. would say sometime next month, hopefully by the middle of the month. So, for anyone that wants to continue sponsoring or pre-order some CDs, let us know. Because this is going to be, I believe, the cure for a lot of the physical and spiritual diseases that we have in the world today, especially regarding the issue of brit. is just one of those issues that the Zohar HaKadosh calls, this is the tikkun of the generation before Mashiach. The Shulchan Aruch says that violating the brit is the biggest sin in the Torah. And all of the Chachamim that discussed this issue made a very, very big deal about it, including the Ramban. Including the Ramban. The Ramban writes in his Sha'ar HaGmul. In Sha'ar HaGmul, he talks about Gehenom.

16:14And he talks about reward and punishment. Sha'ar HaGmul means the gate of pretty much what you have waiting for you—reward or punishment. That's what gmul means. So in English, they translated it to the gate of reward. But there's not really that much reward in Gehenom, I promise you. But anyway... He talks about it and he says there are certain people that go to Gehenom for 12 months. There are certain people that go to Gehenom forever. He says, who is forever? He says, forever is the people that are violating the Brit. There's one example. People that are heretics. People that are idol worshippers. You know, that's some of the examples that he uses. So you see that the Chachamim talked about this issue very, very seriously. Even if you look at Kabbalah. Look, Kabbalah discusses different names for the various parts of the soul. But all of them connect to the foundation called the Yesod. The Yesod, where is it on the drawing? Where is it on the map of the soul? The Brit. So, this CD set is going to be a double CD. One DVD is going to be full of movies: the personal story movie, the Shabbat movie, and the Teshuva story movies, among others. And then the other CD is going to be audio, which is all about Shmirat HaBrit. By the time you finish those two CDs, you're a rabbi.

17:26...uh... and the key is to understand that this is very much needed for all. It just simply does not exist in English. So anyone that wants to help us get more of them, to order more than just a few hundred thousand, really we want to get to 1.5 million. Anyone that wants to do that, please go to the campaign. But also anyone who does not have money, wants to give them out, also you can send me your information and let me know a little bit about your community. And when we start giving them out, we're going to need distributors. So anyone that wants to give them out, let us know and we'll do it based on a first-come, first-served basis. You know, there are a lot of people ordering them to actually, you know, get them and give them out. But some people don't have the money to pay for it, but they want to give them out anyway. I'm sure we're going to have some need for that as well. So with that being said, the Ramban here tells us that aside from working on our... We'll do it on a first-come, first-served basis. You know, there are a lot of people ordering them to actually, you know, get them and give them out. But some people don't have the money to pay for it, but they want to give them out anyway. I'm sure we're going to have some need for that as well. So with that being said, the Ramban here tells us that aside from working on our...

18:29Middot on our character traits, calming ourselves down, not being so angry, not being so jealous, not losing our mind, being very humble, judging people carefully, and not jumping to conclusions. I find it very common today that people do not know what the word empathy means. Empathy is one of those words that, if you don't know what it means, you have to not only learn the literal definition of it, but you have to learn how to apply it to your life. Because if you don't know how to be empathetic, then you're simply going to be a very mean person to everyone around you who thinks he's a tzaddik. mean person who thinks he's a tzaddik. Why? Because you're never going to... Empathy means putting yourself in somebody else's shoes. So Chazal explained to us that if you're going to judge someone, before judging them, put yourself in their shoes. Would you do the same thing? Would you fail? Because if you're going to, let's say for example, fulfill the mitzvah of rebuking...

19:40First, you have to say, wait, am I good at this mitzvah or am I a hypocrite? You cannot rebuke someone on Shabbat if you're a Mechalel Shabbat. You cannot rebuke someone for not knowing how to have Shalom Bayit if you don't even know how to get along with yourself. You cannot give somebody criticism about their business if you've never owned a business. So you have to also put yourself in other people's shoes. You cannot just rebuke people just because it's you. And people don't do that. People very quickly jump to conclusions, tearing each other up, thinking they're doing mitzvot. If you're not empathetic, you're going to fail miserably. You have to, even if you are right, even if you are keeping Shabbat and you want to help somebody keep Shabbat. You have to also look at things from their perspective. Why are they violating Shabbat? Are they violating Shabbat because they hate God? Are they violating Shabbat because they're ignorant about God? And if it's the latter, were you ignorant about God? If you were, then why don't you educate them about it? Let them know what they're doing, not just the punishment aspect of it, but also why you should keep it, why it's better for you, and so on and so forth. The point being, Rabotai,

20:57is that there's a lot more to rebuke than just simply telling people, you know, yes, no, and so on and so forth. You have to actually care about people. Now, you cannot start caring about people without caring about yourself first. And one of the ways that a person can show that he cares about himself is the way he prays. And the way she prays. If your prayer is one of those prayers where you feel like you're doing God a favor, where every time you pray, you can't wait for it to be over, then in so many words, what you're telling yourself is that you hate yourself. hate yourself. That's pretty much what you're saying if your prayer is like one of those mundane prayers. You know, you show up to the prayer, you show up to meet the King of Kings, with sweatpants, a sweatshirt on, and your pajamas. You just woke up two seconds ago and you're already going to pray. You didn't even do anything yet; you're just, "No, no, let me just get this over with. Watch, okay, let's just get it done. Let's go. What, two minutes? We're finished." You put the tefillin on the head, the arm tefillin on the arm, you're not even sure who's right and who's left. You just want to get it over with. Come on.

22:11You hate yourself. Why? Because prayer is the number one tool. The number one tool for you to talk to Hashem. The number one tool for you to bring blessing to your life. The number one tool for you to bring any type of salvation that you need. And that's why the Ramban writes, He says, before you pray, before you stand and pray, cast all external matters from your mind when you stand to pray, and carefully prepare your heart in the presence of the Holy One. He says, if you're going to pray, first and foremost, understand what you're about to do. You're about to meet the King of Kings. Understand that you're about to meet the King of Kings. Understand what prayer really is. And if you're already going to pray, pray. Don't pray and think about the stock market. Don't pray and think about your marriage. Don't pray and think about your job and whether you are going to take lunch at 12 or 12:30 today.

23:35Don't pray and think about, you know, I don't know, did she look at me just now? Or did she not look at me? Is she making fun of me? Are they talking about me right now? Is the rabbi paying attention? Did he fall asleep just now? Everything else is on your mind. Don't pray like that. He's telling you, before you pray, make sure to take all of the external matters of the world and throw them in the garbage. After you finish praying, you go back to the garbage, take them back in, put them back in your mind. You don't have to, but for sure, not during prayer. Why? The Gemara Masechet Ta'anit says, what does it mean to serve Hashem from your heart? A lot of people say, I love Hashem, I love Hashem, you know, me and Hashem, we're like this, I love, it's all about love, love, love. So the Gemara says, what is loving Hashem? What is serving Hashem with a full heart? The Gemara says, Tefillah. Praying. It's the number one way that you show HaKadosh Baruch Hu you love Him. How you pray. If your prayer is random, once in a blue moon, you pray only on Tuesdays, you and Hashem have zero connection. Forget about love. There's just no connection.

24:56There's no connection. It's like a guy calling his wife, "Honey, I miss you. I love you. You're the best wife ever. You're the greatest." What? Who is this? You haven't called her in so long, she forgot who you are. Who is this? Who are you? Oh, it's your husband. Oh, now you call. I haven't heard from you in six months. No, you know I'm busy with business. Okay, busy with business. You call me once every six months. Yeah, you love me, buddy. Why are you calling? What do you want? Oh, I'm coming home tomorrow. Come home somewhere else. You're home somewhere else. We moved. We moved. We moved, buddy. We moved. Don't have HaKadosh Baruch Hu tell you, "I'm sorry, I moved." Why? You haven't called Me in six months. You haven't called Me in a month. You pray once in a blue moon. You want to tell Me you love Me? Do it every day. You want to have a good marriage? Tell your spouse you love them every day. And by the way, ladies, the husbands also want to know if you love them. Even though they play hard, they want to know if you love them. Now,

25:59People are very proud. And so proud, they forget about telling their spouses that they love them. And sometimes, you have a marriage completely shattered. And then they come to me and tell me, "Oh, I need shalom bayit help." Like, what happened? "I don't think he loves me." Why not? Did he tell you he doesn't love you? "No, he just hasn't said he loves me in, I don't know, 15 years." You call the guy, "I know what's wrong with you. How come you don't love me?" "Oh, what do you mean I love her? I live for her." So how come you don't tell her? "I told her 15 years ago. If anything changes, I'll let her know." People think that, you know, saying "I love you" is like, oh no, I sent a text message every day. I told her I love her. I sent a text. You know? I sent a text message with the heart sign. HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants more than a text message. What is it like? Anybody here ever have a court date?

27:00Court dates, court dates are not fun. I had a few of them. They're never fun. Anybody ever meet with a government official of some kind? Scary, right? Police, or some type of Social Security office, or even getting your driver's license. You have to take a test. Or you met with the principal of the school. Oh, Steve, yeah, the principal's calling you. What? Principal, why? What does he want? I didn't even know I'm here. How does he know? Oh, you attend this school. How does he know about me? He has 500 kids. You have one of those meetings, right? Now, before that meeting, when you don't know what it's about, you just got a letter from the IRS. You just got a letter from the government. It says your name on it. Before that meeting, what's going on? Even if you know what's going on, but needless to say, if you don't know... What happens? You get butterflies in your stomach. You want to vomit sometimes. You want to go to the bathroom. You're not really sure. You're scared to death. What's he going to say? Oh, I'm having a bad hair day. Maybe he's going to make fun. All types of thoughts in the head of the person. Why? He doesn't know what's going to happen. He doesn't know what's going to happen. When we are about to meet somebody very powerful...

28:09or at least more powerful than us, whether it be a teacher, a principal, a boss, a customer even, a government official, immediately we get butterflies in our stomach. And that's considering the fact that regardless of how important this person is, they're still a person, just like you. They still put on their pants one leg at a time. You know, they still think just like you, they still bleed just like you. They may or may not have more money than you, they may or may not have a better life than you, but nonetheless, they're just like you. But we're scared of them. We're scared of them. We get butterflies in our stomach. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is asking, how come when you're about to meet the president, or your boss, or your big customer, or your teacher, or your principal, how come you're so scared?

29:09How come you have butterflies in your stomach? But when you come to meet me every day for tefillah, when you actually show up on time, how come you're not scared? How come you don't have any butterflies in your stomach? How come you're not nervous? The Ramban says, that's the King of Kings. Which means, he says that... You have to prepare your heart in the presence of the Holy One, meaning you have to understand who you're going to talk to. Who you're going to talk to. The least we can do, if we can't necessarily get ourselves to a level of fear of the Almighty, to a level of love of the Almighty, if we're not really really sure what's going on and what's so mighty, at the very least we should treat Him just like we would treat somebody else we're scared of. the very least because if He's real, which if you're here, He's real, that means that at the very least He's just as significant as this person that you're scared of. So, we cannot show up to Beit Knesset, you know, with pretty much still some eye shadow on our eyes because we haven't woken up yet.

30:26We cannot show up to Beit Knesset, you know, half asleep, or better yet, playing with our phone the whole time. You can't wait to finish. You're praying Amidah while you're texting your friends. Or you're monitoring your stock portfolio. You can't do that. So, a person needs to know if they're going to meet the Creator, if they're going to meet HaKadosh Baruch Hu, these are going to be some of the cases against us. How we prayed. Because Hashem says, you talk to Me every day, but in reality, you're talking to everybody else except Me. You pretend like you're talking to Me because you come to the Beit Knesset, and you move like this, and you move like that, and sometimes you go like this, and sometimes you go like that. You know, maybe you can do the hokey pokey, turn around, but praying to Me you're not doing. Praying to Me you're not doing. So, the Rosh... Almost a thousand years ago, a person must remove all worldly matters from his heart before he starts praying. Before he starts praying, everything that's on your mind—your stock portfolio, your wife, your husband, your kids, your sickness, and everything else—remove from your heart. Don't think about it.

31:53Now, every one of us right now is saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, but we have no idea how to do it yet. We'll get to that, b'ezrat Hashem. I promise, we'll get to that. But, the point is, all the problems that you have, remove them. Now, all this sounds wonderful so far. Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll remove them, I'll become like Moshe Rabbeinu. Tomorrow, I promise, Rabbi, I'm going to be Sarah Imeinu and Moshe Rabbeinu combined. I'll be the best prayer in the world. Everyone's going to look at me and say, wow, look, he's glowing. I think he levitated, you know. One second. One day at a time. First, let's start by thinking about G-d. Now we'll get to levitating. Now, the Gemara Masechet Berachot elaborates further on page 28b, saying that a person should visualize themselves as if they are praying at the Beit HaMikdash. Every time that they're praying, they have to visualize themselves as if they're in a Beit HaMikdash, right now. Now, in the Beit HaMikdash, there wasn't any shortage of miracles. As I told you guys in the past, the Gemara Masechet Yoma says that every day there was a fire in the shape of a lion that came down from heaven.

33:12No woman had a miscarriage. No fly ever came into the Beit HaMikdash despite the many slaughters every day. Just an unbelievable amount of miracles every single day. You have to treat your little rinky-dink Beit Knesset in a side apartment in the middle of nowhere with 10 people, or the big place where you pray with 500 people, as if they're the Beit HaMikdash. You're going to go pray? Pray like it's the Beit HaMikdash. Now, you may want to do it, but the other 499 people don't necessarily agree with you. What do you do? As long as they're not talking in the middle of Amidah, in the middle of Shema Yisrael, in the middle of Chazarat HaShatz, in the middle of a reading from the Torah, and they have some respect for the Beit Knesset, No problem. You do your thing. Go to the corner, away from everybody else. Don't get into any conversations during prayer. If you're going to rebuke anyone, rebuke them after or before prayer, not during prayer, because then you just become part of the talkers. No, I'm doing a mitzvah. It's not a mitzvah to rebuke anyone during the prayer. The most you can do is shush. But that's like once and finished. Not like, you know, a long shush that is 15 minutes. Then you become elevator music.

34:42But a person needs to make sure that he goes to a Bet Knesset that's kosher, that the people over there, there's at least 10 people that keep Shabbat. You know, if everybody over there drives on Shabbat, You're better off praying at home. But most likely there is another Bet Knesset for you to go to. But the point is, is that even if the whole Bet Knesset is great, ideally you should pray away from everybody else. Go to the corner. So you don't have any Yetzer Hara to talk to anybody. You know, your friend, you can go to the Bet Knesset together, but as soon as you're there, go different ways. Why? So in case you or your friend get like, you know, a little bug that you want to talk to each other. Try to go to the Bet Knesset as if you're going to attend the Beit HaMikdash. In the Beit HaMikdash, everyone knew God's there. God's there. You're not going to talk while the King is there. You're not going to talk. Now, the Rambam,

35:53And what he said was not only in the Gemara, was not only said by the Rosh, but was also codified in the Shulchan Aruch. The Rama says in Orach Chayim 98:1 that before a person starts praying, he has to meditate upon the loftiness of God and the lowliness of man, of himself. How great is God? And how much of a nothing you are. How much of a nothing I am. You have to delve into this. Think about this. Hashem, You're everything. I'm zero. We're not finished with this. They said, just before you start. Already start thinking like this. Why? Because the number one tool, the number one tool of the Satan to use to make you and God enemies is arrogance. Pretty much, you're bogus. You know what bogus is? Bogus is like little kids say, "I don't want to talk to you." Bogus. 40 years ago, that's how it was. And you guys probably have something else, like punch each other. No, back then we didn't punch each other. We said, "No, I don't want to talk to you." Why? I don't know. I don't know. So, to get Hashem and you not to talk to each other anymore...

37:11There's one tool Satan uses. What is it? Ga'ava. Arrogance. You walk into the Beit Knesset, or you walk into your bedroom, start praying, thinking you're Moshe Rabbeinu. Thinking you're Avraham. We know that Hashem is waiting for you out of all the people in the world to pray. You're going to save the world. You and your prayer. Your prayer is so great, the world cannot continue without it. You are so great, the world cannot exist without you. This is the wrong mentality. is the wrong mentality. It's anti-Torah. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Me and him cannot be in the same room together." Why? He's arrogant. She's arrogant. She shows up to the Beit Knesset with a three-thousand-dollar dress. Why? Not because all of our dresses are three-thousand dollars, but because she wants to show all of her girlfriends that she can afford a three-thousand-dollar dress. So in reality, she's pretending to pray. She thinks that now that she has the dress on, she's going to have the best prayer. In reality, all she's there for is to get attention from her girlfriends. Hashem is not paying attention to her. Why? As soon as He sees arrogance, He runs away. He says, I cannot be in the same room as such a person. So the first thing that Chazal says is, if you're already going to pray, already think how great is G-d, how much of a nothing you are. No matter how much you have or don't have.

38:37Then he continues and he says, let him pluck from his heart his yearning for the mundane pleasures of the world. You have to start thinking, how can I remove my mind from thinking about my bills, my kids, my wife or husband, my rotten boss, these customers I can't wait to get rid of, this phone that's not working—how do I get my mind away from all the shtuyot that's in my head all day? How do I get rid of it for the next 20 minutes? Now there's no reset button you can just press on your temple, and it just gets deleted while it's processing so you can pray. But the point is, you have to do it. So how do we do it? We'll get to that. We're building it up. One way is to understand where you are.

39:42You are in front of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the King of Kings. Now, what does it mean, I'm in front of HaKadosh Baruch Hu? What does it really mean? Now there are two aspects of it. One is the fear. Two is the love. You have to fear God. You have to love God. So if I understand that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is next to me, do I have to be scared? But also very excited to see my Father. I have to be scared because He's my King. I depend on Him for money, for health, for everything. I'm scared. He may judge me and think that I'm wicked, and He may kill me. He may take away everything I have. He may do all types of things to me. I'm scared. He's my King. He decides whether I have air to breathe or not. Scared. On the other hand, who else am I going to go to with all my problems other than my Father in Heaven? So I'm excited, I'm going to go see Him. But that means I have to show this love. So the fear aspect of it is very easy. It's very easy because once you understand that HaKadosh Baruch Hu

41:00is who you rely on in this world, and you don't think that you're the one who made the money, you don't think that you're the one who controls the house, you don't think that you're the one who controls your life, it's very easy to be scared of God. My cousin, two years ago, he died at 23 years old. Now his father, we tried helping him do teshuva, but the hundred million dollars that he has got in the way. Why? Because when you have $100 million, you think that you're God. And the God that the other people have, these religious people, these little, you know, these bearded people, nah, it's not really God. It's not really God. $100 million makes you God. So he thinks. So what did the real God do? He killed his second son two weeks ago. The second son was 48. He died two weeks ago. Now, this is awful. Awful. But it's potentially the only thing that's going to work to wake somebody up from the dead. Because the neshamah of this uncle is simply spiritually dead.

42:16If you see that after gaining all the money in the world, you still have no life, and on top of it, your kids are going in completely different directions than what you hoped for them. On top of it, your marriage is a disaster. On top of it, you're unhappy. On top of it, everything is wrong, but you got the stuff. You got what you wanted, but you still have nothing. you don't get the point. Then who starts rebuking you? You don't get the point. The rebuking doesn't work, so He starts killing your kids. He starts killing your kids; you still don't get the point. He killed one kid; you don't start doing teshuva. You don't get it, okay, so He kills the second one. That may be the only thing that's going to wake him up, or it's going to get worse. it's the worst thing that can happen. He himself dies. If he himself dies, that's the worst thing that can happen. Why? There's no teshuva in Heaven. There's also no teshuva in Gehinnom either. And the Ramban writes, the Ramban writes

43:31The wicked, the people that do not keep Torah and mitzvot, they don't keep Shabbat. They don't walk around modestly. She wants to walk around like she is one of these runway people. She wants to walk around like she's a zoo animal. She shows off all of her skin, just like the cows. Everybody needs to know her business. He wants to walk around and let everybody know that he's the boss. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't like such attitudes. He wants to eat whatever moves, whatever doesn't move, like the Chinese. Bats, cats, dogs, kosher, not kosher, it doesn't make a difference. Kosher? Yeah, yeah, at home I eat kosher. At home I eat kosher. He wants to put on tefillin whenever he gets, you know, whenever he gets a chance. You know, like once, twice, three times a year. No, Rabbi, come on, you exaggerate. It's three times a week. Okay, three times a week. Well, you think it's any better? You've got six days out of the week you have to put on tefillin. You only put on half. What if Hashem gives you half a neshama? Half a breath. Half a head. What if one day you woke up and half your body is missing, not working? Why? I gave you half. You gave me three days to put on tefillin. I gave you one arm that works. No? Why? You only need one arm. No? When HaKadosh Baruch Hu understands that the King of Kings runs the show, you start thinking about these things.

44:55The older you get, the more people you meet that don't understand it. And unfortunately, HaKadosh Baruch Hu explains it very well. The Ramban wrote 800 years ago that the wicked descend to a place called Arka. Arka is a place in Gehenom and they never come up again. Their punishment endures forever. Now, there are some people that do... go to different places, and some people that the angel, who does what he needs to do with them—striking them, whipping them, with fire—all these types of interesting things that a person would not even want to know in his nightmares. This responsibility is given to an angel called Kuteiel, and he says to them while he throws them into the fire... And they're consumed because they rebelled against Hashem. Now, there are all types of other places that the Ramban talks about in the Sha'ar HaGmul. We're not going to go into it, but the point is, Rabotai, it doesn't sound like fun. I went over it. There's not even one fun moment in Gehinnom.

46:22There's no barbecue, except if it's you. Except if you like being barbecued. All right, now, there's no fun in Gehinnom, I promise you. It actually even says here—hold on a second—it actually does say that, by the way. You guys think I'm making that up? It actually does say that that's the... Yeah. There's a barbecue of you, of a person that's sinning. Where is it? Hold on, I'll find it for you guys. So you don't think I'm just making this stuff up. People think I'm just exaggerating. It's good to know. Why? Next time you pray, you're going to be scared. Next time before you sin, you're going to be scared. In that way, you're not going to sin. The whole point of all these scary things is for people to not sin and to take their life seriously before it's too late, like my cousins. Two poor guys, young guys, 23, once 48. Hashem yishmor v'yatzil. It's a... I'll find it and I'll remember where it is. Anyway... Oh, here we go. Where's Korach? He talks about Korach.

47:46Where's Korach and the people that go against the big rabbis, the small rabbis, anyone that's a real rabbi? Says the Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit. He quotes Gemara Ta'anit 11a. It says, when a person dies, all of his deeds are brought before him for review. Meaning, Hashem shows you a movie. Of all the things you did in your life, every time you drove on Shabbat, every time you walked around immodestly, every time you stole, every time you lied, every time you did something that Hashem says is not allowed. They show you a movie of your whole life. And he justifies the punishment upon himself. Meaning, after you see the movie of all the things you did, and Hashem shows you all the things He did for you. He gave you money, He gave you children, He gave you a house, He gave you a wife, He gave you a husband, He gave you a dog, He gave you a cat, He gave you everything. But instead of returning good to Him, you gave Him bad. So what happens? You feel so bad, the neshamah feels so bad, it says to Hashem, you have judged me well.

48:47And asks Hashem, please throw me in Gehinnom. Why? I deserve it. For what I did to You, I deserve to get destroyed. And he says, there's a place where Korach is. Korach, who the ground swallowed him, where every 30 days, Gehinnom turns them as flesh is turned in a pot. They say, "Moshe is emet, his Torah is emet, and we are liars," meaning a person lived a life of lies. He says, "Oh, you live this life, you go to a place with Korach, where every 30 days, Gehinnom turns them over. You know, they flip you over. One side is hot, and after 30 days, it will be the other side. Barbecue, like I said, barbecue, barbecue." This is the Ramban. I'm reading your book; you guys can read it also. You can buy it from stores now. this is the fear. So if somebody's not scared of losing their kids, or losing a spouse, or losing their own life, or losing all that stuff, the reality is you're not scared of losing money. You think that everything's okay. This is enough of a reason to be scared. Next time you go pray to Hashem, next time you go do anything, you think about Hashem. Why? Because you're scared. Because if you're not scared of losing things in this world, surely you will realize that at some point you're gonna have to meet your Maker. You have to meet Hashem.

50:14And Hashem is going to tell you, "How come you didn't keep Shabbat? How come you were stealing? How come you were doing all the things I said not to do? How come?" No, the Rabbi called me a tzaddik. Rabbi can call you all types of names. Were you a tzaddik is the question. Because sometimes the Rabbi is a rasha, but he calls you a tzaddik. Because next to him you're a tzaddik. He steals from people, he lies, but he pretends to be a Rabbi. So next to him, But the point of love with Hashem, that's the fear part. What's the love part? What's the love part? The love part is when you understand that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is really the only place that you can get your answers. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the only place that you can get your salvation. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the only place that you can get anything that you need in this world. Anything that you want in this world, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has to sign off on it. Now, HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves us so much that sometimes we ask for things that are against Him. And He still gives it to us. And you're going to say, wait a minute. If He loves us so much, why did He give it to us? He should not have given me this girl if He knew she's not good for me. Yeah, but you prayed for her. You prayed for her. You wanted it, so He gave it to you. Yeah, but if He didn't give it to me, I would have stopped. No, no, Hashem knows you wouldn't have stopped.

51:44Hashem knows you wouldn't have stopped. You continued and continued and continued until He gave it to you. You want to go against Me? Hashem says, I'll even help you go against Me. Why? That is your choice. You don't have a choice of whether you live or die. You don't have a choice whether you will be tall, short, ugly, or good looking, no matter how many surgeries. You don't have a choice in those things. What choice do you have? Your choice is whether you're going to serve Hashem or not. Whether you're going to listen to Hashem or not. That's the only choice you have. you follow the Torah, you don't follow the Torah. That's the choice that we actually have in this world. So Hashem loves us so much, He's going to give us everything we want. What does He expect back? He expects us to fear Him because He's the King, but He also expects us to love Him. How much do we love? How do we show love? Like I said, first thing, pray to Hashem. Not to the rabbis, not to some statue, not to yourself, not to money. Pray to Hashem. How do we pray to Hashem if we have all this junk in our head? So the first thing is to know that He's the only place you can get all of the stuff that you want. Anyway, He's the only one that can give it to you. Second of all, to know that when you pray to Him, He's expecting your full undivided attention. So much so, that...

53:13The Shulchan Aruch says you're not allowed to even kiss your own son inside a Beit Knesset. You know, sometimes parents bring their kids, which most of the time they shouldn't because the kids cause too much noise. If your kid causes noise, you're not allowed to bring them to the Knesset. If your kid is quiet, then you can bring your kid to the Knesset. Why? It's not everybody else's problem that your kid doesn't know how to sit down. Why should they suffer and not be able to pray because your kid wants to jump on tables? If your kid can be under control, bring them. If he’s not under control, he has to stay home. She has to stay home. Also, second thing is, don't bring your girls into the boys' section. It's not appropriate, especially if she's over five or six years old. Some guys, they bring their 9, 10, 11, 12-year-old daughter to the Beit Knesset because they view her as a baby. Guess what? The rest of the guys don't view her as a baby. Ah, you're sick. No, no, it's a reality. It's a reality. They don't view her as a baby.

54:23You bring your 10, 11, 12-year-old girl to the men's side. Aside from it being a problem and a sin, and no one's allowed to pray, by the way, aside from that, nobody looks at her as a baby. Only you, because you changed her diapers 10 years ago. So, if your child knows how to stay on the right side, knows how to be quiet, bring him to shul. If not, stay home. But sometimes you bring your kid. He's so cute. He's like one of those kids that has this face, and he's got a puffy face, and you just want to kiss him. That's all you want to do with this kid. You know, some kids are cute like that. You're not allowed to do it in the Beit Knesset. You're not allowed to do it. Even if he just did something amazing, he just read from the Torah, it just doesn't make a difference. You're not allowed to kiss anyone inside the Beit Knesset. Now, you're going to go to some Sephardi Beit Knesset, you're going to say, what do you mean? They don't stop kissing each other. Okay, it's a problem. Why are you not allowed? Because if you understand that HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the King of Kings, your Father in Heaven, is inside the Beit Knesset with you, how dare you give anyone else love? Where do we see this in the Torah? I don't think there's any father that ever loved their son

55:45more than Yaakov loved Yosef. Most likely, I don't think any father loved their son as much as Yaakov loved Yosef. But at the very least, no one loved more. It says in the Torah, there's a pasuk in the Torah, that Yosef was his favorite son, he loved him dearly, he gave him special presents, and so on and so forth. When Yaakov found out that Yosef was gone, and was led to believe that he died, He didn't stop crying for over 20 years. His neshama knew there was something wrong. He couldn't get over it. Fast forward, they tell him Yosef is alive and he's the viceroy of Egypt. Let's go down there and see him. Everybody moves to Egypt. There's the famous meeting between Yosef and his father Yaakov. It says that Yosef hugged Yaakov. It doesn't say that Yaakov hugged Yosef. Now, normally, with all due respect to all parents, the reality is your kid is never going to love you as much as you love them. Never. It's never going to happen.

57:10A parent will always love the child more than the child loves the parent. It doesn't mean that the child doesn't love the parent. It's just not possible for the child to love the parent as much as the parent loves the child. Why? Because the parent views the child as part of their body. Even if your right arm hurts, you're not going to chop it off. Say, no, no, you know what, I'll settle with the left one. I just like the left one, right one. You go, you know, you're simply, this is part of your body. You're not going to cut it off. A parent looks at a kid, that's part of my body. Especially if it's the mom. Because the mom carried the kid. So even if the kid's rotten, even if the kid's annoying, even if the kid is the worst, she's still going to welcome them back home. She's still going to do whatever she can just to make sure this kid knows, oh, I'm your Ima, I love you. Father, not always. Sometimes the father says, "Oh, you don't like me? Get out. See you in 20 years, after we both get old." But sometimes the father loves. But the point is, the son or the daughter will never love the parent as much. Some kids love their parents a lot. They can't live without them. But it's still not as much. Still not as much. Why? You're not a part of my body. So it's unusual...

58:18that the Torah says that after 20 years of suffering and not seeing each other, and it says clearly that Yaakov was the one that was crying for 20 years, that Yaakov wanted to die for 20 years because he didn't have his son. Finally, he sees his son, and he doesn't cry. Who cries? Yosef cries. It's unusual. It's against nature. Chachamim (the Sages) say, why? the moment that Yaakov saw his son Yosef, he was so overwhelmed with feelings. He was so happy, he was so excited, he was about to cry, but then he caught himself at the last moment and said, "Wait a minute, how dare I give all of these feelings, all of these built-up feelings that have built up for over 20 years, all of this emotion, all of this love, all of this excitement, how dare I give this emotion to anyone other than HaKadosh Baruch Hu? How can I do such a thing?

59:35i never gave Hashem that much. How can I give this to somebody else? Flesh and blood, even if it's my own flesh and blood. So at the moment that they embraced, Yosef was crying, Yaakov was saying, "meaning Hashem, all of those feelings, they belong to you. No one in the world is going to have my heart other than you, HaKadosh Baruch Hu." Not allowed to give my heart to anybody other than You. That's why he's Yaakov Avinu and we are we. So we see here, maybe we cannot get to the level of Yaakov Avinu anytime soon or ever, but Da'at Zekenim says at the very least, don't go to the Beit Knesset and show love to anyone else other than Hashem. You could do it outside. You could do it in your house. You could do it wherever you want to do it. Don't do it inside the place of prayer. Why? That's the place where you and Hashem are talking. That's the place where you and Hashem are supposed to embrace. That's the place where you and Hashem are supposed to be connected. Don't show love to somebody else. Guys come to Beit Knesset, they start kissing their friends. Hey, how are you? They haven't seen each other in 10 years. You just saw each other yesterday.

1:01:02Do it outside. Don't do it in front of the Aron HaKodesh. That's the love part. A person has to understand that their heart belongs to HaKadosh Baruch Hu first, especially in the Beit Knesset. Now, the question is, okay, let's say I'm ready to focus. I brought my own siddur. I came to Beit Knesset. I'm not going to kiss my son or daughter in the Beit Knesset. I'm not going to talk to anybody. I'm just going to focus. How do you get, if you had all the worst problems in your life happen the same day? The IRS sent you a letter. The boss fired you. Your wife hates you. All the problems in the world happened. How can you get all that junk out of your head while you're praying to Hashem? There's no reset button. How can you do it? So the Chachamim explain the following: you have to look at the careful choice of words that the Rama said. He said, "pluck all of these yearnings for the mundane pleasures of this world from your heart."

1:02:28Which obviously means to remove them from your heart. Because what happens when we pray? We pray for Hashem to give us money, give us a car, give us a house, give us a zivug, give us kids—us, us, us, us. Give us all this stuff. For what? For us. Why do you want a house? Because I want to live somewhere. Why do you want a car? Because I want to drive somewhere. Why do you want to eat? Because I'm hungry. Meaning, all of our prayers are just about us. We pray to Hashem, solve my problems with the IRS, solve my problems with the lawsuits, solve my problems with the bills, my problems, me, me, me, me. It's constantly about you. So how can I remove me from me? He says, no, it's not about removing you from you. It's about understanding you have to convince Hashem to care about your problems.

1:03:28How can you have Hashem care about your problems? By making them His problems. How can you make your problems His problems? Say, Hashem, I want a house because I want to do the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim (welcoming guests). I want a house because I want to get married and have a wife and children that I can teach Torah to in this house. I want a car so I can go to the shiur Torah by myself and not depend on a ride every time and be late half an hour each day. I want a job so I can give tzedakah and give ma'aser. Every time I get paid, Hashem, I'm going to give 10% to the Torah. I don't want the money because I want the car and the house. No. I want all those things in order to fulfill Your mitzvot. All of the things that I want, Hashem, really, what is it for? It's for You. I want to serve You with those tools. I want to serve You with the car. I want to serve You with the house. I want to serve You with the money. I want to serve You with the kids. Teach these little cute kids about Torah and mitzvot. I want to serve You with the wife. Have babies and raise these kids religiously.

1:04:39I want to serve You with the husband. I want to send my husband to the shiur Torah. Why? Because it says in the Gemara, if I send my husband to the shiur Torah, I'm going to go to Gan Eden. I'm not going to send my husband to take me out to dinner every day. I'm going to send him to the shiur Torah, meaning I'm not going to have a husband. Why? I'm giving him to You, Hashem. I want the husband, so I have somebody to give. All the things that I want, Hashem, are for You. It's to serve You. That's what I want. That's how you make your problems His problems. When you pray, and you have that in mind, and Hashem knows what's in your heart. You can't lie to Hashem, saying, "No, I wanted a house for guests," but you're the cheapest person on the planet. One guy came to your house, you gave him a little doggy bag, saying, "Go home, no, no, there's no dinner." The guy goes home, you know, tail between his legs, he looks in, it's a half-eaten chocolate bar. No house, no guests, no nothing. Hashem knows if you really want to do those things because of the mitzvah. But if a person uses his prayer as an opportunity to ask Hashem for more tools to serve Hashem, you've convinced Hashem. It becomes easy. Easy to pray and easy to have those prayers answered. Now, the Ramban writes in his commentary in Sefer Shemot chapter 13 verse 12 that the intent of all of the mitzvot that we have in the Torah is for each person to get to a point where they have complete belief in God and proclaim Him as the one and only God that created them.

1:06:05writes in his commentary in Sefer Shemot, chapter 13, verse 12, that the intent of all the mitzvot that we have in the Torah is for each person to get to a point where they have complete belief in Hashem and proclaim Him as the one and only God that created them. This is the very purpose of creation. There is no other motive known to us, he says. The Supreme Being asks of man only that he comes to know Him and testify that He is his Creator. So the prayers that we recite in the synagogues that we build and all of the special mitzvot that we do are designed to give an outward expression of our inner conviction that Hashem is our Creator. And that's what we say in our prayers, that we are Your creations. Meaning that the whole point of your prayer is not just to ask for stuff, but also as a way to express what you really feel about G-d. of our inner conviction that Hashem is our Creator. And that's what we say in our prayers, that we are Your creations. Meaning that the whole point of your prayer is not just to ask for stuff, but also as a way to express what you really feel about Hashem.

1:07:28If your entire time that you're praying is thinking about worldly problems that are not associated with God, you just want more money, you just want a better deal, you just want another house, you just want a vacation, you just want a raise, and it's just about you, then not only is it not about God, but you're not even thinking about God. Like you're praying, but you have no idea, you're not praying to God, just praying for yourself, you're praying for a magic trick. I have a friend, he's a very serious talmid chacham in Yerushalayim. And he's also a mekubal, he's one of these hidden mekubalim. You look at him, he looks like an average Jew that knows some Torah, but you're never gonna see this guy as a mekubal. He doesn't wear all the robes and strange outfits that some people pretend to wear. Now, of course, some tzaddikim wear it also, but the point is that today, anyone that looks weird, people think he's a mekubal. So, this tzaddik, he deals with kameot.

1:08:38Now, there's fake kameot that you can buy from the streets for any amount of money, and then there are real kameot. Real kameot are different holy tools that have specific things written on them, and there are specific ways of how they're made and so on. They're made for different reasons. If you have a problem having a child, there's a kameah for that. If you have a problem learning Torah, there's a kameah for that. you want help with your memory, there's a kameah for that. There are kameot for pretty much everything. And these things really work if you know what you're doing. You have to go to the mikveh, you have to fast, there's a lot that goes into it. Rav Kaduri, alav ha-shalom, is one of the most well-known mekubalim in the last hundred years who dealt with kameot on a regular basis. And everyone knows that his kameot were very serious. So much so, that even goyim would come to him. Even goyim would come to him. There was one couple, a Jewish couple, they couldn't have a kid, as if the wife had no uterus. They come to Rav Kaduri, cry to him, and he says, "Okay, no problem."

1:09:56Do we have a kameah? No, you don't need a kameah. What do we need to do then, HaRav? You take 15 grains, 15 grains of wheat, and plant them in your yard, and just water them every day. This doesn't make any sense to anybody. You're right, it doesn't make any sense. You have Ruach HaKodesh, it makes sense. He says, when it starts growing, the decree is over, you're going to have a kid that year. 28 years later... The woman has seven kids, and she says, to this day we have no idea why he picked wheat, and why 15, and not 16, or 14, or 12, but we know, Rav Kaduri says something, you just simply do it. One goy, one Arab goy, came to him, also had a serious issue. Also, his wife wasn't able to have a kid, or I think she was sick, one of those things. He told her a few things to do; finished, he did it. The point is, Rabotai, it's very well known, people that are serious Mekubalim, they deal with this stuff. They know different secrets to the code, if you will. Now, my friend, he got access to many of the Kameot that Rav Kaduri used to make. So, one time, we talked about it, and he says, listen, these Kameot,

1:11:24Make sure that people know, they don't work for someone who is a Mechalel Shabbat. They don't work for someone who acts like an animal. Like, if I give you a Kame'ah, you have Shalom Bayit problems. And I give you a Kame'ah, it's not going to work if you still act like an animal. It's not going to work. Like, you have to do Teshuvah for the Kame'ah to work. It's not going to work if you're still an animal, if you're still doing things against Hashem. And that's what people don't understand. People are willing sometimes to pay tens of thousands of dollars for these Kame'ot just so they don't change. They think that if they buy this Kame'ah, even if it's real, it's going to work without them changing. It doesn't work that way. A Kame'ah is a tool for you to get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Prayer is a tool to get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And the ultimate key is for us to understand that if we use all of the materialism of the world to serve Hashem, it's going to be very easy to pray to Hashem without losing focus. But if we're praying for stuff, then it's like somebody that has a Kame'ah, but in reality he's still driving on Shabbat, and he thinks the Kame'ah is going to help him. You know, I have many people sending me all types of letters saying, "Listen, do you have any special secrets for Ayin Hara?" Yeah.

1:12:49Stop showing everybody your stuff. Stop talking about all the things you have. Stop walking around with a $30,000 watch. Stop being flashy. That's why ayin hara. No, no, is there anything else that I can buy? Buy tefillin. Put them on every day. No, is there anything I can do? Yeah, keep Shabbat. Keep Shabbat. Oh, what else can I do? Learn Torah. No, but you're not telling me anything special. That is the special part. That's the thing. That's the most special. You're supposed to do that. Oh, I can't find a husband. Put on some clothes, you'll find a husband. Why? What does one thing have to do with the other? There's measure for measure. You walk around immodest, you're causing men to look at you. Those men look at you, they think about you, they go home, back to their wives. Their wife, when they finally got home, looks like she just came out of Tisha B'Av fast. because she was sleeping or she was working or whatever. So she doesn't look like she's pristine like you, like you just came out of a movie. She just woke up; it's eight o'clock in the morning. So they look at her, but they think about you. So you're causing that husband to like his wife a little less. You created shalom bayit problems.

1:14:06So Hashem says, you create a shalom bayit problem, you create a husband that likes his wife a little less, is attracted to his wife a little less. When he's with her, he thinks about you, even for a second. Hashem says, measure for measure, you created a problem, I'll create a problem for you. What's the problem? No husband. And that's why there are many beautiful women. No husbands. No husbands. No husbands. Robert, can you find me somebody? Yeah, it's a store. Buy clothes. In fact, you can even do it on the internet. It's better you don't go outside. You don't have the clothes yet. That's how you find a husband. I'm serious. That's serious. Guys can't find wives. Stop watching all that nonsense on TV and the computer. Watch your brain. You'll find a wife. I've never met anybody that is serious about Torah and mitzvot, protected their brit, protected their mouth, protected their eyes, and had a tough time finding a spouse. Baduk u'menuseh. Why? HaKadosh Baruch Hu has no reason to punish somebody that's not causing harm to other people. You protect your brit, you'll find a wife. You don't protect your brit, you'll stay alone, lonely.

1:15:33So a person thinks, no, it's magic tricks, maybe I'll buy this, maybe if I buy an aliyah at the Beit Knesset, maybe if I donate $20,000 and let everybody know that I donated. No, no, none of that stuff is going to help unless you do teshuva. It all starts with teshuva. It all starts with fixing ourselves. Then you build from there and you don't do other things. If someone tells you that your cure for cancer is going to come from money, very likely it's a scam. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Berachot, page 31a, says that sometimes when a person prays, he forgets that prayer is a pathway to Hashem. It's a way to connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Now, a pathway or direction has to go in a certain direction. The direction in Hebrew is Kavanah. Meaning, you can go fast or slow, but if you're going in the wrong direction, you're not going to arrive at the right destination.

1:16:34whether you drive 50 miles an hour, or 500 miles an hour, if you're going in the wrong direction, the destination is not going to be the right one. Because you're going the wrong way. If you pray fast, or you pray slow, if you pray with Ashkenazim, or you pray with Sefardim, if you pray and you say every word, or you don't say every word, if your head is not into the prayer, you're going in the wrong direction. You're not going to get the results you want. And that's why Chachamim say that a prayer without kavanah is like a guf without a neshama. If you pray without having your mind on Hashem, it's like having your body walk around the world as if you have no soul; you're just a dead person. There's nothing. Why? It's as if there's no prayer. Because you're praying, you're saying words, but you're not thinking about Hashem. You're thinking about other things.

1:17:34So this is why Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanos, on his deathbed, the Gemara says, also in Masechet Berachot, when his students asked him, "Rabbi, teach us a lesson that will help us get to Olam HaBa." He says to them, out of all the things he could teach them, he could teach them, "Learn a lot of Torah, give a lot of money, make sure to teach your kids this, make sure you teach..." No, what does he say to them? He says, when you pray, know before whom you're praying to. That way, you'll have the merit to go to Olam HaBa. Simple. Anyone can understand. He said, when you pray—morning prayer, afternoon prayer, night prayer, emergency prayer, I need money prayer, I'm lonely prayer, I have nothing better to do prayer—whatever prayer it is, you're praying. Talk to Hashem. Your prayer doesn't only need to be the prayer that's from the Siddur. You can just simply sit there, in your car, and talk to Hashem.

1:18:48You can sit in your office, talk to Hashem. Be in your kitchen, making cholent, talk to Hashem. Make a cake for your family for Shabbat, talk to Hashem. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be always in the Beit Knesset. But the point is, when you do it, talk to Hashem. Connect to Hashem and nothing else. Don't have so much focus on your problems. Have focus on who you're talking to. Why? He's the solution, no matter what the problem is. Now, Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein writes in his book on Emunah, that when a person truly understands that Hashem is the only way he's going to get any solution to any of his problems. Hashem is the only way you're going to get refuah shleimah. Hashem is the only way you're going to get anything in life. That should lead a person to pray like he's a beggar. When you pray to Hashem, you're not supposed to look...

1:20:11like you're the boss. Your chest is stuck out, sticking out. It's like, no, I'm God's son. That's why I'm like, no, no, no, my friends. The opposite. You pray to Hashem, you're supposed to be like a homeless beggar. Why? Because you realize you really are a homeless beggar. Everything you have, He gave you, and the only way you're going to keep it is if He allows it. Everything you want, He's going to give it to you or not give it to you. And that's where you should be. When you talk to Hashem, talk to Him like a beggar. Please, Hashem. Please, Hashem, help me get to work. Please, Hashem, help me survive the day. Please, Hashem, help me not have pain at the dentist. Please, Hashem, help me communicate with my wife the right way. Please, Hashem, help me deal with this customer. Talk to Hashem, ask Him for everything. If we are beggars in front of Hashem, Hashem is excited to be our Father in Heaven. Why? Because we understand that He's the one in control. He's the one that's going to give us everything we want. That He doesn't owe us anything. And guess what? When we treat Hashem accordingly, Hashem becomes excited to give it to us. Why? He wants to give His son or His daughter presents. When your son and daughter are more appreciative of the gifts you give them, what does that make you do? It makes you want to give them more.

1:21:41If every time you give your son a present, the son just goes, takes it, and walks away, he doesn't even say thank you. A little small piece of your heart just got broken. Next time, you say, oh, maybe you made a mistake. Next time, you give him another present, and he just takes it and walks away. Now, another piece broke. You figure out, maybe he said it, and I didn't hear it. You keep giving your son and your daughter excuses for why they didn't say thank you. After they do it a bunch of times, you figure, why should I give them anything? They don't appreciate it anyway. I gave them a car, they didn't say thank you. I gave them a wife, they didn't say thank you. I gave them a husband, they didn't say thank you. Every time I give them stuff, they don't say thank you. They say thank you to the clerk at the supermarket... They say thank you to the guy at the store. They say thank you to the gas attendant. They say thank you to their customer. But they don't say thank you to me. Why should I give them anything? So, a person that says thank you to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Hashem is excited to give it to him. Now, the Yalkut Yosef writes some interesting things. He quotes the Midrash Tanchuma in Parashat Vayera that Hashem said to Am Yisrael...

1:23:02writes some interesting things. He quotes the Midrash Tanchuma in Parashat Vayera that Hashem said to Am Yisrael, "Now it's not a Rabbi anymore. Now it's Hashem Himself. Hashem spoke to Am Yisrael and said to them," Be careful in your prayer. When you pray to Me, be very careful. Because there isn't a better tool than it. If a person recites many Tachanunim, I bring much kindness to him. What's Tachanun? Tachanun, Rabotai, is an admission of guilt. The Sephardim in America, For some reason, many Ashkenazim in America don't do this. They skip this part. The reason why is not because they don't believe in it, but their Chachamim say that if you don't have full kavanah...

1:24:24When you're saying the tachanun, the vidui, you say to Hashem, I sinned accidentally, on purpose, just to make You mad, I stole, I robbed, I went against my parents, I went against this, all that stuff. When you say, you're admitting to Hashem all the crimes you committed, If you don't really mean it, if you're not really paying attention, the Ashkenazi Chachamim say, better off not doing it. Why? It'll work against you. It's like you're laughing in Hashem's face. Oh, Hashem, I stole. I robbed. I murdered. Like, you don't care. So that means that when you say this part, you have to have kavanah. You say, Hashem, I'm sorry. I stole. Hashem, I'm sorry. I was pogea b'brit. Hashem, I'm sorry. I didn't watch my eyes. Hashem, I'm sorry. I didn't study enough Torah. Hashem, I'm sorry. I did this. I did this. I did this. So, the Sephardim in America, in Israel, all over the world, and also the Ashkenazim in Israel, they do this every day. Hashem likes the tachanun. If you do it right. If you don't do it right, even the Rambam says, you don't do it right, it works against you.

1:25:30works against you. But HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to Am Yisrael, be careful when you pray because there isn't a better tool than it. But He's specifically mentioning the part of the Tachanun where we admit all of our wrongdoing. And in essence, what are you doing when you say, "I'm sorry I did such and such"? What is that really doing aside from admitting what you did wrong? It's Teshuvah. It's apologizing, and it's in essence a promise, or at least an indication, that you have an intent to fix it and not continue. If you're sorry about it, and you're genuinely sorry about something, then that means that you don't intend on continuing doing it. You cannot say, "Hey Rabbi, listen, I really want to do teshuvah for P'gama Brit." Okay, so what are you doing about it? Nothing. Oh. are you doing then? No, I just want to do teshuvah. I want to do teshuvah. I want to watch my eyes from now on. Okay, so you're still watching movies? Yes. You're still looking at pornography on the internet? Yes. You're still on the internet all day? Yes. Okay, so what teshuvah did you exactly do? What did you exactly do? I wanna, I wanna... How do you want it? In your mind? You want it to go to a mental institution in your mind? Stop wasting everybody's time. Teshuvah is not done in your mind; teshuvah is done in action. You have to do something about it.

1:26:54Oh no, Rabbi, I promise I'm going to leave her. Oh, can you tell you're going to leave her? Because she's not for you? Because she's not Jewish? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was going to tell her. When are you going to tell her? You know, like in a few months. This is a joke. This is like a viduy. It's a joke. So you tell Hashem, yeah, I robbed, I stole, I did this, I promise I'm going to do it next year. Your boss asks you, no, so did you do the project? No. I'm paying you for it. Yeah, no, I'm going to do it. When are you going to do it? In a few months. And you actually expect to get paid the whole time while I wait for this project from you? Yeah, I need the money. What are you going to do during those three months? Nothing. I'll play Tetris on a computer. In three months I'll do the project. This is making a joke of the system. Teshuvah, Rabotai, is taking action. It's not just showing intent; it's actually doing something about it. Which means that even if you fail, you tried keeping Shabbat, but you failed. Something happened. You tried keeping your Brit, but you failed. Something happened. But if you do Teshuvah Yisrael, that means you're going to try again next week. That means you're going to try again tomorrow. Not, I give up.

1:28:13I really, really want to learn a lot of Torah. Okay, so how much Torah are you learning now? Oh, not much. How much is not much? About two, three, four hours? No, no, less. How much is less? You know, like once a week for 20 minutes. You're making a mockery of the system. You cannot tell me you want to learn a lot when you're not even learning a little. You cannot tell me you want to do a lot of mitzvot when you're not even doing a little mitzvot. So the point is a person has to be serious when they're doing viduy. When they're talking to Hashem and say, Hashem, I'm really sorry about all the things I'm doing wrong. I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to start fixing. And Hashem says, if you're careful enough to be serious about this viduy, I will help you do the mitzvot. I will help you in your life. I will help you get the things that you want to get. But you have to be serious. The Midrash Rabbah in Parashat Va'etchanan says something out of this world. Something that actually explains a big question. How come HaKadosh Baruch Hu answers the prayers of idol worshippers? Sometimes you have idol worshippers, people praying to Yeshu, people praying to Buddha, people praying to a wall or a cow or a motorcycle.

1:29:38or somebody that's an atheist, but he's on his deathbed and he wants to live, and sometimes he lives. How come? The Midrash Rabbah says, Hashem does not cancel out the prayer of any of His creations. Meaning, anyone that prays, Hashem listens to it. Even if he's praying to someone else. Hashem looks and reviews every prayer. It doesn't automatically cancel out, anyway, and sometimes He even answers the prayer of the wicked. There's a pasuk that says, "Someone that has confidence in Hashem, Hashem gives them kindness." And the Gemara says, notice that it does not say anyone that's righteous and has confidence in Hashem, but rather anyone that has confidence in Hashem. Meaning, even if the person is wicked, But he has confidence that Hashem is going to help him, Hashem will help him. That's how much HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves prayer. Furthermore, the Gemara says that prayer is even more powerful than korbanot, the sacrifices we made at the Beit HaMikdash. Because it says about the sacrifices in Deuteronomy, Hashem says, what do I need? All of your sacrifices, all of these numerous sacrifices.

1:31:05Meaning, Hashem doesn't need all these sacrifices, and then the verse continues, I won't even answer your prayers, because this was part of a punishment. I won't even answer your prayers if you continue going against Me. Meaning, that the Korbanot, I don't need these Korbanot, because I'm not even listening to your prayers, and your prayers are even higher than the Korbanot. If I'm not listening to your prayers, do you think I need your sacrifices? And the Sefer Derech Shmuel in Parashat Shemot says that Hashem's name is mentioned 26 times in the Amidah prayer. Every time it says Tefillah in the Gemara or Shulchan Aruch, it's referring to the Amidah. His name is mentioned there 26 times. Why 26? As a defense against the 26 times that His name is mentioned in the sections of the Torah that talk about rebuke, where there are curses against the sinners and punishment promised to the sinners, His name is mentioned 26 times. In 26 different ways, Hashem is rebuking us. He says, every time you pray the Amidah, that's a defense against the rebuke.

1:32:24Now, a lot of people think that after the Beit HaMikdash, our connection to Hashem has become lesser because we cannot bring the sacrifices anymore. Now, if you look at the Tanach, the Prophet Hoshea, chapter 14, verse number 3, it says, The Prophet says, now that we do not have the Beit HaMikdash, let our lips substitute for bulls. Meaning, let our prayers be the replacement of the sacrifices. And that's what the Pesikta de-Rav Kahana says, that the Tefillah of Amidah, specifically, is a substitute for all of the korbanot. Every time you do Amidah, it's like you brought a korban to the Beit HaMikdash. But the Shelah HaKadosh, one of the greatest sages that we've had, in his Shaar HaShamayim, says a big chidush. He says that one of the ways we see that praying to Hashem is even more significant than bringing a sacrifice to the Beit HaMikdash, is that there are certain

1:33:45sins that a sacrifice cannot help you with. Meaning, if a person violated Shabbat accidentally, he turned on the light on Shabbat accidentally, He forgot it's Shabbat, so he got into the car. Then somebody says, "Oh, Shabbat!" He got out of the car. Accident, right? He didn't drive to the Beit Knesset on purpose. It was an accident. While it's Shabbat, he has to stop his business, buy a korban, go to Yerushalayim, and finish. Everything goes on hold; he has to go bring a korban. Why? He has to remember that... cow, that bull is getting slaughtered. But in reality, provided they're eating on Shabbat, even though it's an accident, you're really supposed to be slaughtered. But Hashem loves you, so He's not going to slaughter you, because it was only an accident. But that's an accidental Chilul Shabbat. What happens if you violate Shabbat on purpose? You knew it's Shabbat, those witnesses told you it's Shabbat, don't drive, no, no, I'm driving to Beit Knesset, the rabbi said it's okay. That's a death penalty.

1:34:47No korban is going to help you. You could bring a million cows. Bet HaMikdash rejects the korbanot because you're a mechallel Shabbat. Bring them to the Beit Din, kill them. He says something amazing. The Shelah HaKadosh says the following: He says there is prayer that can actually fix your chilul Shabbat, even if you did it on purpose. There's no korban for that. There's no sacrifice, even at the time, even if there was a Beit HaMikdash 2,000 years ago. Beit HaMikdash, somebody violates Shabbat, he can bring korbanot until he's blue in the face. He can bring a million cows, can't do anything about it. But there is a prayer today. Today you can pray, say to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Hashem, I'm sorry I violated Shabbat for 40, 50, 60 years. I'm really sorry." Hashem takes that, says he's really sorry, okay, sorry, finished. Finished. That's how powerful prayer is if it's serious. The Olat Re'iyah, in Chelek 4b, says the following, even at the time of the Beit HaMikdash.

1:36:15Even when we had the first and second Beit HaMikdash, there were still prayers every day. Why? Because even at the time of the Beit HaMikdash, Hashem favored tefillah more than sacrifices. Meaning, even though every day we had to bring sacrifices, all these korbanot, korban tamid, korban olah, korban this, korban that, all types of things, every day we had to bring korbanot, sometimes for a sin, sometimes it's to honor Hashem, and so on and so forth. That if you had serious tefillah, Hashem liked it even more, more than all these korbanot. Which means that you have an opportunity, if you seriously pray to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you have an opportunity to serve Hashem on the highest possible level, even right now, without a Beit HaMikdash. By simply having a kosher minyan, and you seriously pray. Now, Rabbeinu Bechaye, in Parashat Toldot, chapter 25, verse 21, says that prayer is so powerful that it can cause Hashem to change nature, making a barren woman bring a child into the world and, in essence, change a decree altogether.

1:37:40All of the damages that happened to Sennacherib, who tried to destroy Am Yisrael, brought 185,000 generals. Each one of them had an army of his own—millions of people. Chizkiyahu HaMelech prayed to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and went to sleep. HaKadosh Baruch Hu said, no problem. He sent a malach who killed all of Sennacherib's soldiers. Historically proven, it's not like a fairy tale. It's in the Tanakh, and it's historically proven this whole thing happened. Rabbeinu Bechaye says that war was won based on what? Prayer. That's how powerful prayer is. Now, there was a guy that Rabbi Fein knows, a rabbi, Talmid Chacham, who had a brand new baby, a daughter, who had autism. Now autism, whether it's the worst kind or the least, none of them are easy to deal with. These are special neshamos. But whether they're special and the parents realize it, or they're special and the parents don't realize it, it's still difficult. And lo aleinu, lo aleichem,

1:39:06This, you know, these kids, these young kids come to the world, and it's very difficult to deal with them. This rabbi had a daughter who had autism. He went to Rav Kanievsky, asking him for guidance. Rav Kanievsky said, you know, if you seriously pray, if you have serious prayer, Hashem can cure the autism. If you believe that Hashem can cure autism, Hashem is going to cure the autism. Now, all of you are saying, yeah, no, come on, that's exaggerated. Well, good news is, it happened. He followed what Rav Kanievsky said, and the kid is not autistic anymore. You can ask how, who, what, when, you can do what you want. Prayer is so powerful, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, I'll change nature because you have serious prayer. Now, The question is, why would HaKadosh Baruch Hu change a decree? We say that Hashem doesn't change. There's even a pasuk in the Torah that Bilaam says, Hashem does not think like man, changing His mind today from what He thought yesterday. So it actually says that Hashem doesn't change His mind. So, number one, why do we even bother praying if Hashem decreed something in the world?

1:40:35He obviously knows what's better for us than we do. If He says you're not going to have a car, that means the best thing for you is not to have a car. If He says the best thing for you is not to have money, so He's not going to give you money. Why are you praying for money? If He decides you're supposed to be alone, not married, by yourself, why even bother praying for marriage? If Hashem wanted you to marry, He'd send your wife, no? Or husband. Who are you to convince them otherwise? If He wants to give you a wife, a husband, kids, money, or all the stuff that you want, He will give it to you. Why do you bother praying? The Sefer HaIkarim by Rabbi Yosef Albo says everything I just said. You're not going to be able to change Hashem's mind. But yet you're obligated to pray every day, and you're obligated to pray for all your tzarot, all your problems, and you're obligated to go to HaKadosh Baruch Hu like a beggar. But if I can't change the decree, what's the point? He says you're not supposed to change the decree. That's not what prayer does. Prayer doesn't change decrees, Rabotai. You're not going to change Hashem's mind.

1:42:03So what's the point of prayer? The point of prayer, if it's real prayer, if you really connect to Hashem the right way, if you're really using the prayer the way it's supposed to be used, is that you change. Because of the prayer. You are now closer to Hashem than you were before. You are now a Baal Teshuva and no longer the sinner. You are now a new version of you. Anu Shaul, Anu Yaron, Anu Arik, Anu Yeshua. You are a new version of you. And that new version, that better version, doesn't deserve the bad decree. So the Malach comes to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and says, "Hashem, this guy doesn't have any money. Huh? Doesn't have any money? Tzaddik, this guy, give him some money. He doesn't have a car. Poor guy, how is he going to get to work? Give him a car now." Why doesn't he get a car? Oh, his father all of a sudden is going to go crazy and buy him a car. All of a sudden, stuff is going to happen.

1:43:07And you're going to get your blessing. Why? You change. Hashem didn't change. And Hashem will not change. The point of prayer is not for you to change Hashem's mind. The point of prayer is for you to change. If you change, the decree changes. Why? Because the decree belonged to someone else. Not having something, or having something you don't want, belonged to someone who deserved all that stuff. Once you pray the right way, you do teshuvah the right way, you promise to change, and you start changing, that decree, that negative decree, is no longer yours. is no longer yours. It's someone else's. It's the past self. And that's why David HaMelech says in Tehillim, "Hashem, they're lying about me." Chachamim say, who is he talking about? He's talking about all the malachim. These malachim are lying about me. What malachim? He goes, oh, there's a couple of sins that somebody says he made. They're saying I sinned. No, I did teshuvah, Hashem. Not the same person.

1:44:10They're still saying I sinned. It's not me. It's someone else. Someone else sinned. I did teshuvah for it. I'm clean. Now, the last thing I would say is this. Rav Zilberstein says that there was a person who was sick and bleeding uncontrollably. And the doctors were not able to control it. The doctors were dumbfounded. If he continued bleeding, he was going to die. So, in a matter of moments, they had to get an answer. The family contacted one of the G'dolei HaDor, Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein, and told him about the situation. All Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein said was,

1:45:11was, "Hashem will have mercy on the sick." As soon as he finished that sentence, the guy stopped bleeding. The doctors didn't know what to do, how this happened. Everyone knew it was from his blessing, even though it wasn't even exactly a very long one, or a very elaborate one. It wasn't with kame'ot. It wasn't with jumping up and down. It was nothing. He just said, "Hashem will have mercy on the guy." That's it. Like Moshe Rabbeinu was talking to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, learning Torah. All of Am Yisrael at the same time were crying, praying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? Miriam the prophetess, she said something, so Hashem punished her and gave her tzara'at. Now, Gemara says, if you have tzara'at, it's like you're considered a dead person. What's tzara'at? Tzara'at, rabotai, is a spiritual and a physical disease. The spiritual part is uncontrollable pain and distance from Hashem. The physical part is you simply have body parts fall off. Walk around, a finger falls off. Walk around, another finger falls off. Foot falls off, tooth falls off. Body parts just fall off. It's like you leave a piece of yourself everywhere.

1:46:34So everyone now, the prophet, the tzaddeket, she has tzara'at, they're scared she's going to start falling apart. So everybody's crying. Millions and millions of Jews, the Torah says, are crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Please, Hashem, please, please, please, please." Nothing. Hashem doesn't answer their prayers. Millions of people. Hashem does not answer one of their prayers. Nothing. Aharon realizes that it doesn't matter; they can pray until they're all blue in the face. It's not going to work. Why? Moshe has to pray. He comes to Moshe, he says, "Moshe, she's our flesh and blood, please pray for her." Moshe says five words: "Please, Hashem, heal her now." Instantly, she's cured. Five words. Hashem heals on the spot. Meaning, Moshe Rabbeinu's prayer was more powerful than all of Am Yisrael put together. It didn't have to be an elaborate prayer, a big prayer. No, it was one hundred percent. Why? His heart was connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Now, when Rav Zilberstein said those few words,

1:47:53the merciful One will have mercy on the sick, it worked, whether you were secular or religious, you realize this was a miracle. Now, they asked Rav Zilberstein, this is in his sefer, so we know that when Hashem gives you a miracle, it takes away a piece of your merits in Olam Haba, your reward in Olam Haba. So if, let's say, you're supposed to get a nice, luxurious Olam Haba for all the good things that you did, if Hashem gives you a miracle, something supernatural happens in your life, He splits the ocean for you, He saved your life somehow, if He does that, there's a price for that. A piece of your Olam Haba is a payment. So they asked Rav Zilberstein, so, okay, Was this prayer by Rav Levinstein a miracle? So that way, this guy, okay, he's alive, but he lost a piece of Olam Haba? So the answer is, Rav Levinstein writes, he says, we learn from the Gemara in Masechet Kiddushin, page 29b, that when there was a mazik, a demon with seven heads,

1:49:13in one of the Batei Midrashim, 2000 years ago, that was dangerous, hurting people, they called Rav Acha Bar Yaakov to deal with it. So Rav Acha Bar Yaakov prayed seven times, each time for each head, and killed this demon. And he said from there, listen, how do I deal with this? It wasn't a miracle, it was prayer. Meaning the prayer is even more powerful than the miracle. So Rav Levitzky says, from there we learn that when you pray for something good to happen, for the decree to change, because you're changing, and Hashem answers your prayer, that does not take away from your Olam HaBa. Why? It's not a miracle. It's that the prayer is more powerful than the miracle. So rather than us pray for miracles, we should simply pray. And pray with 100% kavanah. When you pray with 100% kavanah, that prayer itself is more powerful than a miracle.

1:50:24With that, Rabotai, we see that HaKadosh Baruch Hu does a lot of different things that put us in situations where we have to pray. We're having all types of problems, we're having all types of issues. Maybe, just maybe, if we pray every day, at least once, maybe twice, but let's just settle at once, With 100% kavannah. Just once a day. Maybe He won't give us any problems. Because He won't have to get our attention since He already has it. Try it. If it doesn't work, I'll give you your money back. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen ve'Amen.