The Reality Of Real Kiruv Speakers

1:29So now, we have to understand when to talk and when not to talk. The next thing it says is that after we comprehend the significance of speaking and remaining silent, it emphasizes that if you're going to talk, If you are going to talk, let it be worthwhile talk. Let it not only be permissible talk, but let it be worthwhile. Because he's saying here in the Mishnah, it's not that you're just giving a speech. Great, you gave a speech. You gave a thousand speeches. What happened out of it? Did somebody do teshuva? Did somebody improve their life because of it? Did something happen? Like what was the point? What's the bottom line? Did somebody leave the place with tzitzit on? Is somebody laying tefillin the next day? Did somebody keep Shabbat? Did somebody get married? Did somebody have a kid? What happened? What's the point of your speech other than you making money? What happened? Is there a point for your speech? If someone doesn't consider this part of the Mishnah important, they could be a speaker giving 15,000 lectures in their lifetime.

2:48with not one purpose, not one point, not one reason for them, not one contribution to the world. All they cared about is being one of these scholarly-looking people that today, you know, a lot of the talmidei chachamim, even if they're Rabbis, they all look like models. They're all groomed, and this, and the fruit, and the tie is this, and the tie is that, and everybody's all groomed, and they all speak a certain way, and they all learn a certain way of speaking. You have to say this, you have to say that, you have to order, and you have to make sure you mention the Mishnah. You have to make sure of this, you have to make sure... And sometimes they'll give you a certain sheet so you can follow it. All nice and all. Great. Do it. Whatever you have to do. If it works for you, great. They make PowerPoint presentations. Great. What's the point? Did something happen because of it? Did somebody do teshuva? Did somebody get chizuk? Did somebody not get divorced because of you? Did something happen? Or did everybody say, oh, what a good speaker. And that's it. And they went home and they went to sleep, and nothing happened.

3:56Are you looking to be an aristocrat, or are you genuinely looking to help people? Because it's not the theory that's important. It's not your ideas and your speaking skills, your sophisticated PowerPoint presentation, how you arrived at the climax of the conversation, how you broke down, connected a bunch of complex issues, and broke them into a simple formula to make yourself look like a brilliant speaker. Wow. Who cares? Something happened. What's the point? Something happened. Because it's not the theory that's important. It's not your ideas and your speaking skills, your sophisticated PowerPoint presentation, how you arrived at the climax of the conversation, how you connected a bunch of complex issues and broke them down into a simple formula, and made yourself look like a brilliant speaker. Wow and wow, wow. Who cares? Something happened. What's the point? Something happened. There's a result, there's money, there's something. What's the point? Because if you don't consider this part of the Mishnah, your whole life is a waste of life. Everything is a waste. Whether you're a public speaker or you're private, whether you're speaking to your kids to educate them, or your wife to develop a relationship, or you're president of some organization. If you don't consider this part of the Mishnah, everything we just said up to this point is meaningless. All or nothing. It's either you're going there to say words that are of value, or you're just wasting your time. Or you're just Tochen Mayim, Rav Kook.

4:57or your wife to develop a relationship, or you're the president of some organization. If you don't consider this part of the Mishnah, everything we just said up to this point is meaningless. All or nothing. It's either you're going there to say words that are of value, or you're just wasting your time. Or you're just tochen mayim, Rav Kook. One said, "I don't speak because I have the power to speak. Oh Hashem, a very powerful Rabbi, a very big Rabbi. He says, 'I don't speak because I have the power to speak. I speak because I don't have the power to remain silent. I see a bunch of sinners, and I don't have it in me to let them continue sinning.'" I love Hashem too much.

5:58I love Hashem too much to see all my brothers and sisters get themselves first-class tickets to Gehinom by being Mechalelei Shabbat and committing all of these other major sins. I speak because I don't have the power to see them go and destroy their lives, destroy their marriages, destroy their kids, destroy their everything. This is one of those people that doesn't understand. The mesirut nefesh that's required to do this, to do kiruv, to do what Rav Mizrachi does, to do what I try to do, to do it in this style, specifically. More so than anything else. Not because anything else doesn't work or anything like that. There are certain styles that work, and there are certain styles that don't work. But in this style of Oh, Hashem, when you're teaching people the entire Torah, you're teaching them the nice things, the not-so-nice things, the yirah and the ahavah, you also gain yourself a lot of haters. You get yourself a lot of people who don't necessarily like you, but 50, 100-fold more people who love you, do teshuva, convert, and do everything good. For every one hater, you have thousands of people who love you, do teshuva, and everything changes. But who wants to get a hater? Even if you have one hater, I got one email,

7:20This one guy hates me like I was Hitler, and it makes me feel bad. It makes me feel terrible. Why does somebody hate me? What did I do to you? Did I kill your parents? What did I do to you? You hate me? Okay, you don't like what I said, but I said it. I created it. The guy hates me, but what keeps me going... Thousands of people, Baruch Hashem, say they appreciate the Torah—not me; who cares about me? The point is to appreciate the Torah, to appreciate the truth. The point being here is that when people say, You talk about Yirat Hashem all the time: fear of Hashem, fear of Hashem, fear of Hashem. Why don't you talk about Ahavat Hashem like they do in Breslov? Why don't you talk about Ahavat Hashem like they do in, you know, Chassidut? Why don't you talk about Ahavat Hashem like they do at Chabad? Why don't you talk about Ahavat Hashem? It's for more advanced people. No. I thought that it's for more advanced people only. You teach both though. You also teach Ahavat Hashem. The only reason

8:34The only reason that I do this, the only reason that Rav Mizrachi has been doing it for 22 years, 23 years, is because we love Hashem more than anything else in the world. Because there's no other benefit. There's no money in it. You don't get paid for lectures. You give lectures for free. You have, once in a blue moon, a donor. The millionaire will build 15 Batei Knesset before he sponsors 1,000 CDs. And it's not like you keep the CDs; you give them out to people for free. It's not like you keep the books; you give the books for free too, and all this stuff costs money. The millionaire will support a $50,000 Hanukkah party before giving you a $500 check to help you survive the month. There's no money in it. You don't charge money for lectures. You have guys that wrote a book, so they charge $15,000, $20,000 a lecture. No one ever did teshuva from that guy's lecture, but they're still going to pay him $15,000 for the lecture. No one ever even got chizuk from him, but he's still going to pay him $15,000 for a lecture. You go from different places every day to give lectures for free—not $1 you charge. If somebody wants to donate, they donate, but you don't charge. So there's no money in it.

9:54On top of that, you have a bunch of people who don't like you, especially people who are supposed to be your friends, like other rabbis. What do they do? Instead of helping you, they take your CDs and throw them in the garbage. They argue with you in the middle of the lecture. They get into debates with you for no reason. They write letters about you and publicly embarrass you. Meaning that the only benefit, the only benefit of actually doing this is a connection to Hashem because you love Him. That's it. There's nothing else. is a connection to Hashem because you love Him. That's it. There's nothing else.