The Religious & Secular Who PRIDEFULLY Destroy Us - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (16)

0:14We are back here in Aventura, Florida. For anyone that lives within the hour, hour-and-a-half vicinity, you should definitely come to the shiurim because apparently the Yetzer Hara does not want the live feature to continue working, at least without a little bit of suffering. So it seems like anyone that's close should take advantage. Baruch Hashem, good to see a couple of new faces. Anyway, we have our Iggeret HaRamban series continuing. It's a very deep series. The letter is extraordinary, written over 800 years ago from Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman to his dear son, but really to all of us. trying to give us a little bit of advice that if we would simply listen to it, you could eliminate the vast majority, if not all, of the suffering you have in this life. It doesn't mean you won't have problems. It just means you eliminate the suffering because you'll see that the root of suffering, where it stems from, whether it's your fault or not your fault, whether it's something that you could do something about or you can't do something about, and...

1:33The shiur will be also for a Refuah Shlema for Avi Mori, David ben Nesria, my dear mother Doris bat Jorah, Rabbanit Levana bat Sara, Rav Efraim ben Shulamit, Rabbanit Sara bat Anat, Yochevet bat Batya, Batya bat Sara, Elisheva Chaya bat Sara, Dvora bat Mercedes, and all of Am Yisrael. Bezrat Hashem, Refuah Shlema, Refuah Hanefesh, Refuah Haguf. So, the Ramban is giving us advice that we could tell already from the last 15 lectures in this series is obviously applicable not only to his day, but to every day and to everyone, Jew or non-Jew. male or female, young or old, if you take the advice of the Ramban seriously, you can literally transform your life into heaven on earth. If you ignore it, then simply you'll continue living like everybody else, which for the most part is just living a life full of suffering and

2:39and quite frankly, there won't be that much of a change between this world and Gehinnom, because both are, apparently for most people, suffering. I see people, there's messages all day on WhatsApp and Facebook and emails. Ninety-five percent of the messages that people send me are one form of suffering or another. People are simply suffering, all types of suffering, whether it's broken hearts, broken spirits, as the thing working still? Because I see some type of error message on the screen. There's an error message on it. If you could just press dismiss. Is it working still? Not working? Failed? If it failed, then we simply have to just, the show has to go on, but... working okay? It's working okay? Somebody just monitor it from time to time so I don't have to ask you. It would be fantastic. So there's not much we could do anyway. But anyway, so you see, most people are suffering—religious, non-religious, old, young, male, female—people just suffering non-stop. They wake up in the morning; nine out of ten people are depressed.

3:57Those people are already taking drugs for it, thinking that the drugs are going to help them. People are really living an excuse for a life. Now, the world around us doesn't really do much to help because we see that there aren't really many people to look up to and say, "Oh, yeah, he's happy. I'm going to look up to him." No, who do people look up to? They look up to the celebrities, the rich and famous. They look up to them all the way until they find out what's really happening behind the scenes and... They find out that the guy who's famous is really an adulterer, cheating on his wife, maybe even with another man or something. The guy who's a celebrity really lost all of his money. He's a fake celebrity. He’s just pretending. He’s gone to every single gig because he has no money. He spent $100 million already. You see that he's addicted to drugs. She's addicted to drugs. All types of disgusting things. And you see, wow, I looked up to this guy. I can’t believe it. I just wasted five, ten years of my life reading all these people's books. And... he's an excuse of a human being. So what do we look up to? We look up to a bunch of people that, for the most part, are losers. But we don't know it until after. Now, those same people...

5:15The same exact people that are causing the nation itself to be slowly but surely put in great danger, no less and most likely much more than the danger that we were in over 70-80 years ago right before the Holocaust. Today, there were the elections in Eretz Yisrael for the first time in history. the Land of Israel. The election was fought by two obvious parties, meaning the message of one party was that they were fighting in order to protect the religion, if you will, to the best of their ability, and Netanyahu, even though he himself is not religious at all, pretends to like religious people because he has a library that has a few Gemara books in there and a Tanach. He pretends to have a shiur Tanach every week, even though his top marketing professional is a Christian missionary. He himself doesn't keep any mitzvot unless he likes it. But he pretends to like them because he likes the votes of the religious people, so the religious people went with him and...

6:20Whether it's Gimel or Shas or so on, they're like, oh, go with Bibi. Even though Bibi is a Kofer, we'll go with him. Why? Because he is a lesser evil than the other Reshaim. Lapidim, yimach shemo vezichro, and the other guys. These guys are Hamas, Nebuchadnezzar, and Hitler all together. So the lefty liberals outright said for the first time, their mission is to destroy Judaism. Just today, this guy Avigdor said, as soon as we get control, meaning they go into government, they win the election, the first mission is to eliminate this barbarous minhag called Brit Milah. That's what he actually publicizes on his Facebook page. His first mission on the job is not to help the economy, help the unemployed, or do something useful in the world. No, he's going to destroy this minhag, this barbarous custom in his eyes, called circumcision, and...

7:28That's his job in the world. Like everybody else goes to sleep with a lot of things on their mind. Some people go to sleep stressed out because they don't have enough money. They don't know how they're going to pay the rent. Some people are stressed out because they're lonely. They used to be married. Now they're divorced, or they want to be married. Some are stressed out because they can't bring kids to the chuppah. Some people are stressed out because of some tests they have tomorrow. People have all types of stresses. Avigdor, he's stressed out. Why? Because there are some Jews that have a circumcision on the eighth day. That stresses him out. He's no different than the mayor of Tveria. What is he stressed out about? Two things. One, he's stressed out that people want to keep Shabbat. So he says his number one job as mayor of Tveria is to force everyone to violate Shabbat. Public transportation and so on and so forth, but that's not enough. One stress is not enough. Come on, guys. We're all stressed out. Stressed out means you have more than one stress. What's the second stress? He's stressed out that there are holy grave sites. So right now, he's on a mission. He just sent a letter to the government. He's seeking approval and government assistance to destroy Kever Rachel. Not Rachel Imeinu, but Rachel, Rabbi Akiva's wife. He's bothered. He's bothered that there's a tombstone for a woman.

8:45people go pray there. He's bothered by it; he wants to destroy it. That's what bothers him at night. The rest of mankind are worried whether they're going to be able to eat tomorrow. But he's stressed out. Why? Because there are some people, they call them Jews, like his grandfather, who was actually a rabbi. They want to go to grave sites. Why? Because these are holy people. And you figure you pray to HaKadosh Baruch Hu at a holy site. Hopefully, you do something good for the holy person that died. And in essence, that holy person will pray for you in Shamayim. You don't pray Chas V'Shalom to the holy person. If you do, that's idolatry. You pray at the place. Why? Because you don't necessarily have to go to the place. But if you do, you pray at the place because you're saying, I'll do something for this tzaddik or tzaddeket. In return, this tzaddik or tzaddeket will fight for me in heaven. But you pray to Hashem. In essence, pleading your case with Hashem. But this guy, he's bothered. He's bothered. Why? No, no. It's unbearable for me for you to pray. You want people to pray to Him. You'd figure that people would wake up and say, listen, whether I'm religious or not doesn't really make a difference. Why do I care if these, call them crazy or otherwise, these religious people want to pray at a grave site? Why would I care? Go pray. Go break your head for all I care.

10:01Why would I care if these religious people want to do Brit Milah? What do I care? Oh, you want to cut your ear, cut your lips, cut your that? Go cut, enjoy. What do I care if you cut or don't cut? It doesn't affect me. You're not forcing me to cut. But, Rabotai Yekarim, the Amalek that we learned about in last week's parasha is alive and well and becoming more bold by the day. Now, The truth is, it's not just Amalek's fault. Amalek is Amalek; that's his job in the world. Amalek comes in the form of a Jew and a non-Jew. People think it's just the Nazis. No, Jew and non-Jew can be Amalek. One of the criteria of being Amalek is someone that hates God and His religion. Has no fear of Hashem, meaning even if the guy wears a kippah and has a beard, he has no fear of Hashem. He has one of the criteria—not for sure Amalek, but he has one of the criteria that describes Amalek. That's what it says in the parasha. Parasha last week, Amalek did not fear Hashem. And we haven't tried to kill Amalek now; we're not allowed because we don't really know who, what, why, and how. But in reality, in the days of the Sanhedrin, Avigdor, Korbi, and the rest of the guys killed on the spot without a trial. Why? These people are for sure Amalek.

11:24But we can't. But the reality is, it's not even their fault. You cannot even blame them. Why? It's our fault. It's our fault. They're just doing their job. You cannot blame a shark for eating a person. He's hungry. You happen to be in his way, so he wants to take a little munch. What's that? What? What? You look like a seal. Nice and delicious. White version. Fine. What? Sometimes white meat, sometimes dark meat. What? What's the problem? You happen to be... You cannot be blamed. Nobody ever says, "Listen, I'm suing this shark because he ate my friend." No. Why? He's doing his job. He's hungry. He eats. Amalek looks to destroy the Torah. That's his job. You can hate him, but you can't blame him. That's his job. You cannot blame Esav for being Esav. That's why Yaakov Avinu didn't say, "I hate Esav. Oh, I wish Esav died." No, what did he say?

12:27The pasuk reads, "Hatzileini na miyad achi, miyad Eisav" — "Please save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Eisav." Wait, your brother and Eisav are the same person. Why are you mentioning it twice? Because we see, yes, that's my brother; yes, that's Eisav. But what's the difference between the two? The difference is in appearance. When he's Eisav, it's obvious. We know that Eisav wants to kill us. Why? He's Nazi Germany. He's the Romans. He's the Greeks. He's Nebuchadnezzar. He's the Spanish Inquisition. It's obvious. He wants to kill you. He's Avigdor. He's Lapid. He's Kobi. He's all these people. It's obvious. He's outright telling you. But Yaakov said, meaning he's more scared of Achi. He's more scared of his brother. Who's the brother then? It's the same person. But when? Why am I more scared of him? Because he's in disguise. You don't even know he's dangerous. He has a beard and a kippah. He's a rabbi, a big rabbi. He's a bunch of rabbis, a bunch of students. He's scarier. Sometimes he comes in the form of a Christian missionary that pretends to love you. He's not coming with a knife. He's not coming with a gun. He's coming with hugs and kisses and some money too. And that's where we come in, Rabotai. The religious parties have made a critical mistake.

13:54And that is, they've made a repeated mistake that we've been making for over 2,000 years, and that is, each person wants to go his own way. So the Haredim have their Gimel, their miflaga, their part of the government. They don't want to be part of Shas. They're also religious. Why? Because you don't have exactly the same way of learning and doing and this and that. It's the same Torah. You're religious, we're religious, but you have a little bit different customs than us, and you have certain things that we don't necessarily agree with, as if two people in the world agree on everything. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna start another miflaga. We're gonna start another one. Another miflaga, we're gonna start another part of the government. So Shas, the religious party, and Gimel, another religious party, and there's another one or two here and there that no one really pays attention to. And guess what happens to the religious parties? All of the religious people, they choose which one. So the votes thin out. So nobody gets enough votes. None of the religious parties get enough votes. So what actually ends up happening, the religious parties break up,

15:01Which is the reason why we're still in exile for 2,000 years, because there's no unity whatsoever. Meanwhile, the sheini [the wicked ones] are moving. The lefty liberals want homosexuals to get married, they want Christian missionaries to come to the land, reform, cancel brit milah, eat pig in the streets—everything that's against the Torah. What are they doing? Uniting. All of the sheini unite. The so-called tzaddikim were separate. Why? Because your kippah is black and mine has holes in it. Because your beard is groomed and mine is like that, it's got a tree. You have a different beard, you wear suits, we wear this, we wear that. Everybody's got their own thing. Oh, so we shouldn't be together? So where's the sense? Give more power to being united. United. Now, for anyone who watched the shiur that we did, "Was Haman a Zionist?" If you didn't, you should. In one part of that shiur, we discuss all of the different warning shots that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave to Am Yisrael for many years before the Holocaust. And we see that in the book by Rav Elchanan Wasserman, Ikveta De-Meshicha.

16:18He was one of the people that screamed out warning shots after warning shots to the nation, hoping that the nation would do teshuva. Unfortunately, people laughed at him to his face, just like they laughed at his Rebbe, the Chafetz Chaim. When the Chafetz Chaim tried to tell people to do teshuva, they literally laughed in his face. Nobody did anything. Holocaust followed. In case anyone has been sleeping under a rock, six million Jews died during the Holocaust, and many, many more millions of non-Jews. Now, if you read the "Epic of Messiah" that we have on our website for free for anyone that subscribes to the website for free, it's a short book by Rav Elchonon Wasserman that's translated into English and if you read it, it's like reading the news today. Nothing has changed; in fact, we are worse. We're in much worse shape today than we were back then. Which means the following: if something drastic doesn't happen very, very soon by some miracle and

17:36Then HaKadosh Baruch Hu will simply repeat the same solution He has used many, many times. The solution He used at the first Beit HaMikdash, the solution He used at the second Beit HaMikdash, the Spanish Inquisition, all the different types of things that have happened to Am Yisrael for over 2,000 years. And that is, Rabotai Yekarim, the Holocaust. Hashem Yerachem Aleinu. You want to live in denial? You don't think it's going to happen? Not this time. You want to believe the slogan "Never Again"? Good for you. Good for you. You can live in denial all you want, but eventually, you'll realize that denial is just a river. It's not something that's going to help or be conducive to your life. We are in dire danger as a nation. Now, what's the root of the problem? the root of the problem for the religious and the non-religious that are simultaneously destroying the people is what the Ramban wrote about 800 years ago. After telling us about all of the horrible character traits that a person needs to protect themselves from, whether it be anger or all types of different things that lead to anger, judging people incorrectly

19:03Not being humble. He goes into more detail. He now goes into detail into the one thing that he repeats multiple times in this letter. And he says that I've need our way. Now, my son, understand clearly: the one who is prideful in his heart towards other men is rebelling against the sovereignty of heaven. For he glorifies, this proud person is glorifying himself in God's own robes. For it is written in Psalm 93, verse number 1, "Hashem reigns, He dons the raiment of grandeur." The one who is prideful in his heart towards other men is rebelling against the sovereignty of Heaven. For he glorifies—this proud person is glorifying himself in God's own robes. For it is written in Psalm 93, verse 1, "Hashem reigns, He dons the raiment of grandeur." meaning that pride only belongs to Hashem because He is the source of all good, all wisdom, all everything. Everything you do, in essence, you really didn't do it. Hashem did it. Someone that's proud of their intellect and their IQ, in reality, did you invent your own IQ? No. Did you even invent yourself? No. Did you create yourself? No.

20:23So being proud of your thought, of your chiddush, of your new insight, of your invention is for what? You're proud of something that Hashem gave you on a silver platter? Why are you proud? He's proud of his looks. Did you, again, go back to the same thing. Did you create yourself? Did you make yourself so good looking? your skin shining, your skin not shining, your eye over here, your eye over there—all that stuff that makes you good or not good looking, you did it? No. So, what are you proud of? And all the different things that people are proud about—what are you proud of? Money? Did you really make the money? You actually believe you made the money? There are plenty of harder workers than you that have more money and less money. There are people that literally deliver boxes every day. You guys call them UPS drivers. are worth 10, 20, 30 million dollars; you would never know it. I know a few of them—they have 10, 20 million dollars but deliver boxes. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Sometimes, "No, sir." Sometimes, they drop off the box and leave. They have 10, 20 million dollars, and that's some. They do the same exact thing with those same boxes and have maybe 20, not 10, 20 million—that's missing a few zeros. And some people that

21:31pray just so they can eat anything, even if it's dog food. And there's one guy that I know—I made a lot of money with him. He died already in Kansas. They made over a hundred million dollars selling dog food. Different people, different things. Hakadosh Baruch Hu decides who's gonna be rich, who's gonna be poor. So the Gaon says that if a person is proud, he's proud of something he never really created. And that's a very serious problem. Why? You're proud for no reason. This is the reason why we have such a lack of unity among our nation. Everybody wants their idea and their idea only. The non-religious say, wait a minute. We want to live a non-religious life. So it's not enough that you have free choice. You can do whatever you want. You want to drive on Shabbat? Go drive on Shabbat. You're not going to get arrested. You want to eat pig? Go eat pig. Good luck getting home with that pig. You and the pig will be in the same chamber. Whatever. But no one is telling you, listen, if you do it, we're going to shoot you in the face. Go. Do it. No, but it's not enough to be secular and lefty liberal. You want to eat pig and you want to force everyone else to eat pig. You want to work on Shabbat and you want to force everyone else to work on Shabbat.

22:53You want to go live a life against the Torah and you want everyone else to do it also? It's not enough to be secular and liberal and lefty, you want everybody else to do it. Why? All right, if you're not gonna follow my idea, how could I live with myself? Who's like that? Haman was the same thing. Now the religious is the same exact thing though, unfortunately, just on the other side. They say, listen, if you're not gonna wear a shtreimel, you're not religious enough for me. If you don't have a beard, you may not even be Jewish. I've had a few comments on the internet. People say to me, "Listen, why do you groom your beard? Are you really Jewish?" They ask me. Why? Because at some point I used to groom my beard, until I gave up on the whole thing because it just takes too much time. But literally, they decided that if you have a beard, and if you groom it, your Judaism is in question. I mean, the level of stupidity that people have today, I wonder whether there's actually a brain or a mouse inside that head. For sure there's no Torah because somebody who has Torah does not think like that. But that's how people are. Oh, if you wear a striped hat? No, no. You're too religious. You're under-religious. You're not this. So everybody is forcing their idea on everybody else. They cannot live as long as somebody else has some idea that's different. Even though our entire Gemara, our entire Oral Torah, is full of debates, we can no longer have a normal debate with each other and still hug each other after.

24:18We're not talking about having a debate with a heretic or a Christian missionary of some kind that's preaching idolatry. Those people, if it were up to us, we would pray for all of them to disappear from the world. That's what Hashem wants. Every time there's a church that's destroyed, you have to say a bracha, thanking Hashem for destroying avodah zarah from the world. We're not talking about that. We're talking about somebody that simply is not living the same exact things as you, same customs, and so on. You don't believe the Rebbe is Mashiach, he's not gonna save you. Wait, did you just turn Kabbalah into a new religion? I know some Chabadniks don't believe this; they believe that I'm Jewish also, just like you. But no, if you're crazy, you have to go full force. So this all comes from pride now. Shmuel Aviv, zatzal, said one time that he was walking and he saw a bunch of kids being entertained by watching the garbage men putting the garbage away. In those days, it wasn't as technologically advanced as the garbage system is in America where a machine pretty much picks up everything. The guy who's driving is pretty much living on borrowed time because it's only a matter of a few years before he's not needed either.

25:45In the old days, there were two guys, at least two guys, sometimes three guys managing one garbage truck. One guy would drive, and two guys would manage the garbage. One guy would stand on top of the truck, one guy on the bottom of the truck. The guy on the bottom of the truck takes the garbage, throws it to the guy on top. The guy on top throws it into the thing. That's it. That was the whole job. It actually used to be a relatively respectable job. Made a good living. She knew you were needed not so much anymore because machines have replaced many of these jobs. But the point is that back then, this was not such a bad job. It wasn't such an ideal job as far as hygiene is concerned, but such is life. So, Moshe sees a bunch of kids being entertained by watching the garbage men. And the guy that's on the bottom, throwing the garbage up, he looks at the kids. He says, what? Don't think, why are you looking at me? I'm here on the bottom. Don't think it's always like this. Tomorrow is my turn. I'm going to be on top. He's going to be here on the bottom. Don't think I'm always on the bottom. Tomorrow is my turn. I'm on the top.

26:56That's one of it says, look at what this guy is actually proud of. What are you proud of? That tomorrow you're going to be on top of the truck sitting on a bunch of garbage? That's the pride that you're actually proud of? This is how foolish we are, right? In essence, we're all standing on a bunch of garbage, and we're proud of it. What are you proud of? Did you create anything? Did you do anything by yourself without assistance? But we're proud. We're very, very proud of... Sometimes pride is obvious to see in a person because that's the way they manage their life. Immediately, they show you how proud they are and how you are wrong and they are right. It comes in all forms and sizes; it comes in religious and non-religious forms. Pride doesn't have an address. It simply can be in everyone's heart.

27:56We were all born proud. Until we start learning some Torah, we decide whether we're going to take this to heart or not. Pride is not one of those things that leaves by itself; you have to learn about it. Now, until you do, you'll justify being proud of everything that you have. If you have money, you'll be proud of it. If you don't have money, you'll be proud of it. Why? Look, I'm still managing in the world without money. You'll be proud of not having money. If you have intellect, you'll be proud of it. Why? Because I'm smarter than everybody else. If you're not, you'll say, look, I'm still doing okay even though I'm not as smart as Einstein. Meaning the poor and the rich are both proud of some stupid reason they created in their heads. Now, the Rebbe of Komarno, in his book, Notzer Chesed, says that, why does HaKadosh Baruch Hu despise a proud person?

28:57He says in Proverbs, someone that's proud, someone that's arrogant, is considered disgusting in the eyes of Hashem. What's disgusting? As I give you guys some visuals of this, every one of you that's actually paying attention to this shiur will listen to this for the first time, or second time, or third time. But if you're not paying attention to this shiur, I'll say it again next time for you. Sometimes you see, like a dead animal—some raccoon or cat or dog—that somebody hit while crossing the street at the same time that a car decided to cross or the garbage truck decided to go, and both of them had a, uh, nice meeting that just ended really quickly. So, after that meeting, the teeth went over here, the stomach went over there, the legs are over here, all over the place. And if nobody cleans it up, the next day, what happens in the nice hot sun of Florida? It starts cooking, starts stinking. It's filthy and disgusting. You see the stomach here, the eyes here, it's gross, right? That's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu says about someone that's proud, someone that's arrogant. That's what He thinks of them. Just as much as you think—just visualize—you're about to give this animal a kiss. Come, buchi, muchi, muchi. Come. Right? You wouldn't do it, right? Because it's disgusting. What do you think, Hashem is going to give you a kiss? When you're proud? No. Why? It's disgusting. Why?

30:20The Rebbe of Komarno says, why is HaKadosh Baruch Hu disgusted with such a person? He says because this person, in essence, what did he do by being proud? He started worshipping himself. He is his own idol. He is his own god. Why? Because he thinks that he's in charge of his own destiny. He's in charge of his own money. He's in charge of his own fortune. He's in charge of everything. anyone that crosses his path or disagrees with him, he acts as if he's a god. He has to put them in their place, saying, "What? You don't know what you're talking about?" He starts insulting them in public as if it's okay. Now, Avraham Avinu was the wisest man that ever lived. And the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 14b, says something very interesting. It says that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov followed the entire Torah. This is also mentioned in the Gemara Masechet Yoma. It says that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov followed the entire Torah. But there were certain things they would do in order to

31:45violate Shabbat because it wasn't gifted to them yet. It was only gifted at Mount Sinai. But as far as Torah, they had access to the entire Torah, in fact, access to much more than what we have today. So, the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 14b, says that Avraham Avinu also had a Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, just like we have today, a Gemara tractate Avodah Zarah. You're using a Hebrew version. It's just one book. If you're using the ArtScroll version, it's two books. But in essence, it's five chapters, five chapters. Very detailed, beautiful Gemara, with so much to gain from it. But Avraham Avinu didn't have five chapters. He had no less than 400 chapters. Meaning, his tractate of Avodah Zarah was bigger than all of our tractates put together. So now the Chachamim say, wait a minute, hold on a second. How many different forms of Avodah Zarah were there? All this idolatry, okay, so this statue, okay, so we know all the halachot of how to run away from statues.

33:04Okay, so there's a statue with a big nose, a statue with a small nose, a statue with legs, a statue without legs. There's Buddha, the Shmuda. There's a cow. There's the mouse. Okay, how many? 400 chapters. How many of these things can you have? Only a few things that the entire tractate of Avodah Zarah was about Avodah Zarah like statues. What does it mean? If you think that, that means you never read what we actually have. What is actually in the tractate Avodah Zarah that we have today? There are some things about idolatry that you know, and so on and so forth. But the vast majority of this tractate is about idolatry of how our character traits are managed, specifically pride. The entire tractate of 400 chapters that Avraham Avinu had. all of the different forms of pride that a human being can have. What could he possibly be proud about? Money, looks, weight, height, different types of achievements, and so on and so forth. All of the different flaws of a human being. Now

34:27Rabbi Chisda says in the Gemara that Avraham Avinu knew all 400 chapters cold, like you know the back of your hand. That's the other side that you're not holding your phone. But we don't even know the five chapters that we have. We're confused. That's what Rabbi Chisda said almost 2,000 years ago. Because we still see many of us, almost all of us, are proud about something. All of us are arrogant about something. All of us, all of us have a little bit, some more, some less, all of us. Meaning that we don't even know how to use what we have, the five chapters. We don't even know how. We know 400 chapters, do the whole thing now. The message that the Mesilat Yesharim writes in Chapter 11 of the Mesilat Yesharim is... What is really pride? Pride is when a person takes themselves seriously to the extent where they actually believe that they're worthy of praise and recognition, meaning they believe that people should give them a special hello. "Hello, sir. How are you?" Give them a seat, say "Chazak u'Baruch," give them all types of kavod. They actually believe they deserve this. That's a person that's proud.

35:54Some people think this because they're smart, they have intellect, they have a high IQ. Some because they're handsome or she's pretty, some because they're distinguished. They have a certain position in the world, whether it be in government or a company, and so on. Some because of their wisdom; they read a lot of books. Different reasons. The Messilat Yesharim says now... There are three specific types of people that the Mesilat Yesharim highlights. He says there's one person whose mannerism shows that they're proud, that they're arrogant, as they actually change their natural behavior in order to make an impression on other people.

36:54So, for example, they walk extra slowly as if they're elevated, as if they're walking on some cloud. Or they speak extra slowly. Like there's this one rabbi who has a lot of YouTube videos, and he knows a few things, but I cannot stand listening to him for more than five seconds. Why? It's just literally unbearable. He speaks so slowly, you think he might start going in reverse. The only way you kill it, somebody sent me one of his lectures recently. He says, listen, he didn't know that I know who this person is. He says, listen, you probably want to do yourself a favor and put it on one and a half speed or two and a half speed. Why? To speed up because, or else, it's unbearable. It's not just my opinion. He speaks so slowly and in such a way that you would think he's speaking in front of a bunch of developmentally delayed, deaf people who don't understand anything. And he pronounces every syllable, just to make sure. And this is the whole speech for a half-hour. And it's like you want to put an electric system to wake him up! Nothing. But this, rabotai, is not the way he talks. Why? Because I saw him talk in another place. He doesn't talk like that. I saw him. I heard him. I saw. He talks normally. He talks like a regular person. Maybe he's not as passionate and theatrical as I am. Nobody necessarily needs to be.

38:22But he talks normally. But in his lectures, he speaks so slowly that you want to shoot yourself by the time you finish the message. This comes from pride. nowhere else. It has nothing to do with helping people understand. It has nothing to do with certain pronunciations or the subject. It's simply from pride. It's somebody taking themselves too seriously and thinking their information, their words, their message is so critical you must listen to every word of it and i'll speak extra slowly because you're stupider than I am and therefore I need to speak to you at your low level. But that's the mentality of this proud person, and you think he's the only one. There are countless people like him. Countless people like him. Sometimes, certain people, you see them, they walk extra slowly as if they're elevated, you know, taking one step as if they're crawling and

39:27Also, it's not because of some physical issue. It's because they're next to certain company. They have the rabbi next to them or some businessman next to them, and they just want to, you know, walk for a half hour. This is how much they walk. No, this mannerism is them trying to portray what they believe is dignified. The British are very good at this. But so are the people that are extremely arrogant. Not necessarily all the British are, but the point is, you get the message. Now, the whole point of all of this is to arouse your attention. Wow, look how clear he speaks. I understand every word because it took five minutes to say it. Wow, look how he walks. He seems like he's at such peace, as if he's above all of us. That's the point. That's what he wants you to think, that's what she wants you to think. Now, they teach little girls to do this. They put them at a table. I don't know if they still do this, but I believe that at least the rich do.

40:45some at least still do this, where they tell the little girl, "You have to sit, and you have to have three forks here, 18 spoons here, and 17 plates here. You cannot eat from this plate that's more efficient and convenient. You have to eat from that plate, from below it, but you cannot use this fork for that." Why? Because that would just simply make sense. You have to use the third fork down the aisle and so on and so forth. In essence, what are they teaching this little five-year-old? Be dignified. Be dignified. You have to portray a certain thing. Now, of course, modesty is very important in Judaism, but this has nothing to do with modesty. This has to do with portraying a certain image. Because chas v'shalom, somebody would see you and say, "Oh, no, no, she cannot be the queen's daughter. She cannot be the king's daughter. She cannot be this rich person's daughter. No, no way. This is like a gangster." Why? Because she eats with the second fork, not the first one. She's a thug. She's probably in the Wu-Tang Clan maybe. Gonna start busting some rhymes over here. Why? Because she ate with the second fork. Cannot be. She's a butcher's daughter. This whole dignity nonsense all comes from Americans. They teach this to little kids. They teach this to adults. I remember guys that worked for me on Wall Street. And

42:14When they first came to me, I had to sometimes help them get a suit because they didn't have any money. I told them, listen, you don't necessarily have to wear a suit. Just wear a dress shirt and dress pants. I'm assuming you have that. If you don't, I'll give you 50 bucks or 100 bucks or whatever it takes to just go buy it. Most people have at least one dress shirt, one pair of dress pants. Some people, they had a suit. But as soon as they start making a few shekels, they got 5, 10, $20,000 for the month. All of a sudden, the tailor has to come in. All of a sudden, the tie, they're not going to wear the tie that's $9.99 from down the street, you know, $5 from the guy on the street. No, no. It has to be Gucci. It has to be Fendi. It has to be Amalek. It has to be somebody. What? Cannot wear the clothes of the commoners. Cannot be associated. Why? Because you made $20,000 last month. By the way, I'm the one that wrote the check. You know that, right? It's not about faith. It's about, he has to be dignified. I remember these three guys that tortured me, worked for me, but tortured me during the time. Baruch Hashem. Hopefully they do teshuva one day. And these three guys, once they made a few dollars, by the way from a business that I gave them, they decided they want to go and take a special lunch a couple of times a week. Why? To go to this special high-line restaurant

43:37that all the high rollers go to. And they all would get dressed extra special for that day. Three-piece suits, ties from, I don't know, from, I don't know, from heaven, I'm not really sure, someplace. And everybody looked, you know, like runway models. What happened today? None of them worked all day. They all just waited for 12 o'clock. Why? That's when they leave the office to go have lunch and spend three, four hundred dollars each on some non-kosher meat or something. To show off, to pretend like we're much more important than what we really are, dignified. This all comes from pride, and the pride comes before the fall. So this is obvious pride, obvious and disgusting arrogance, and unfortunately, you could find it in every room, every shul, every company, every office, and practically in every house. Somebody is like this. The second type of pride that the Mesilat Yesharim mentions is...

44:38The exact opposite is a person that demonstrates their pride by being simply a terror to the world, agitating everyone around them in the most insulting way possible and driving people crazy as soon as the... Waiter comes and the soup is not hot enough. It's not 92 degrees exactly. It's 89 and a half. He makes a scene like you just gave him a cheeseburger from McDonald's. "Huh? I'm a customer here. How dare you give me this kind of soup?" He starts throwing the soup in the guy's face, embarrassing him. Why? Because the soup is a little bit warm. It's not hot. Or, or... You gave him the wrong wine. He gave him the $999 one, not the $900 wine. "Wait, I'm in some posh mode. I'm a very important guy. I'm this, and you give me this wine? What kind of wine is this? You give this to all those people?" He starts embarrassing the guy because of this type of wine. One time, I had this cuckoo guy drive me crazy—a religious guy and a young kid.

46:00that one day decided that he wants to tell me how he feels. He used to come to my house; I used to give him and his brothers chizuk. Young kid, maybe 18, 19 years old. And one day he decides to send me a message and tell me how he is certain that chazak u'baruch for what you're doing, but you know, you're not really at my level, he tells me. Ball, you're doing all these lectures for people—good job, good for you—but you know, you're not really at my level of what I know. He thought, "Should I ask you, did I know that?" Look, even if you are, why are you sharing it? Now, I deal with a lot of kooky people in my life. Oh, I have like a magnet for people. So, I let it go. continued. He didn't get the attention he wanted. He thought I was going to start fighting him, debating him—who's smarter, who's stupider, who looks like a monkey. Now, he wants me to waste my time with this guy. He continued, continued, continued, kept sending me, like, mamash, it's like one message after another. Eventually, I told him to leave me alone in my own way, and he decided that he's going to come to my house and...

47:27his friend with his friend to offer a piece, so they came to my house. Sonny was meeting, God bless him, came to my house, and they came with a cake. They came with a cake. I listen, and they tell me. I open the door. First of all, I don't like anybody showing up to my house uninvited. I just don't like it. I don't know. Maybe you're a terrorist. Maybe not. I'm busy anyway. Why are you forcing me to talk to you? Make an appointment or, better yet, don't call me at all. Either one is good. You're showing up after you insulted me for no reason whatsoever. You're showing up at my household. So he shows up to my house with his friend, this other cuckoo, and they bring a cake as if I don't have food in my house. So they come with a cake, and I say, "Yes, I can help you." And they respond, "No, no, we just want to make sure everything's cool between us. We're good, this, that." I said, "Okay, fine, fine." He's about to give me the cake, and his friend says, "No, it's just that he just wanted to make sure that you know, I mean, in his opinion, he just knows a lot more Torah than you."

48:37I said, this is so special. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is sending me a message. Number one, calm my nerves down. I'm not so special after all. There's somebody more special than me. But two, this guy actually, like, he believes this stuff. He believes this whole thing, this whole craziness. And he came especially, an hour and a half drive, went to go get a cake just to tell me that he knows more than I do. His little 18-, 19-year-old little body. Actually, he's big. His friend was little. So he was about to give me the cake. I returned the cake. I said, thank you for the cake. You can take what you want, but please just leave me alone. Go on your way. Leave me alone. And it continued. I just closed the door. Bye-bye. I have a life to live. So now, this wasn't enough. I tell you, if I tell you all the stories I have in my life, you'll make 500 movies. It's just such special people I meet. So now... I actually, at some point, introduced him to my rabbi. I introduced him to Rabbi Fein. I actually made the appointment and all that stuff. He went to Rabbi Fein's house. So he had the contact information of Rabbi Fein. So he called Rabbi Fein and he tells Rabbi Fein, "Listen, I just want to explain to Yaron that I just know more than him. You know, that's it. I don't understand why he makes such a big deal out of it."

50:01Fine. You know, he deals with more cuckoo people than I do, and he says, "Okay, fine, whatever you want." He goes, "No, no," he says, "Listen, Rabbi. This is what he tells me, word for word. He goes, 'Rabbi, don't look at me like I'm a regular person.' He doesn't ever find this. He goes, 'Don't look at me like I'm a regular person. I'm not a regular person. You know, all the gedolei hador, all the gedolei hador in America, in Israel, they call me and...'" They ask me questions. He starts dropping names as if the people know he exists. The chutzpah! Why he actually believes this stuff? So after that, I said, "Listen, you have to forgive me, but I can't take him seriously. He's just a crazy person." But these people exist; they lie to themselves so much they start believing it. Some people drive others crazy with things like this. Some people drive others crazy by insulting them in public. You'll see somebody that makes any small thing into a big issue just to get the public's attention. If the guy at the register doesn't give him the coffee with milk in it or something small, something ridiculous, they make a whole big stink about it. The phone company overcharged them, and they scan for the guy that actually answers the phone. The customer service representative who answers the phone, they yell at him, they curse his mother, his father, everybody. They curse as if he's at fault for overcharging them on the phone bill.

51:11Guy at the register doesn't give him the coffee with milk in it or something small, something ridiculous. They make a whole big stink about it. The phone company overcharged them, and they scan for the guy that actually answers the phone. The customer service representative who answers the phone, they yell at him, they curse his mother, his father, everybody. They curse as if he's at fault for overcharging them on the phone bill. They ordered something from some website. The wrong thing came in the mail. Whoever answers the phone has to be the korban, has to be the sacrifice. Has to be. Why? It has to be his fault. Why? Because they have to express their hervos. And the best ones of all are the keyboard warriors. The guys and the girls of the internet. All geniuses. everyone one after another you see them in my comments all the time they make all types of nice comments and they start having debates. There's a lecture going on, but they're having debates amongst each other. Why are you watching the lecture? Go out and debate somebody else! And they debate and they start fighting with people on the internet and making all types of ridiculous remarks. They want to make sure that the world hears their strong and valuable opinion and

52:20all comes from pride, all of it, every single word of it, every single ounce of it. It all comes from pride because people love to hear themselves speak, love to hear themselves speak, and are certain they are right even when they're proven wrong. And they want to make sure that everybody knows it. The third type is the person that the Ramchal says thinks that he is already so invested with honor that honor is inseparable from him, and to impress this upon other people is starts conducting himself or herself in a humble way like humble people, meaning he pretends to be a tzaddik, she pretends to be a tzaddeket. So they read a book and they heard that, you know, when tzaddikim would walk around, they'd walk with their heads down. Why? Because they want to protect their eyes. This guy just did teshuva three months ago, and already he's like this. He walks like an old man—not like Rav Moshe Feinstein, 90 years old, walking like this. He's 25.

53:33Happened. "Why, is something wrong with your back?" "No, no, no, you don't understand, you don't understand." "What? What's the matter with you?" People like this, they pretend. There was one guy, true story, Rabbi Mizrahi told me the story. There was one guy that saw this, witnessed this whole story. He says one rabbi, a friend of Rabbi Mizrachi's, and... Says, you know, one of the days he started, he went to the Knesset or Beit Midrash, and he saw there were two chassidim. Two chassidim were walking with some guy, a young guy, but with a nice long beard, and the guy had something covering his eyes. Like he couldn't see anything, so he needed two people to walk him. Zorro, but without the holes in the eyes. So the rabbi says to him, he says, look, it's kind of strange. One of the other rabbis says, ah, you see that? Yeah, he goes, what's the story with this guy? He goes, that's my student. He goes, yeah, my student. Can you believe it? How holy this guy is? Six months baal teshuva.

54:50Six months about this guy already. He's so holy. He doesn't want to see anything from the regular world, so he covers his eyes anytime he's outside, anytime he's not in the beit midrash learning. He doesn't see anything, so I'm so holy. He has two guys walking him. The rabbi that heard this talmid, he's been around the street for a little while, he says, that's your talmid? Six more months, I bet he's gonna be with a married woman. I got so offended. The guy, that's a student, has gotten so famous. No, come on. How could you say this about my talmid? No, no, I'm out. I can't believe you. You know, and he walked away, got really upset about it, and then didn't talk to him for six months. Six months later, he comes back to him and says, how'd you know? Well, I know what happened. How'd you know? That's why we have prophecy because I don't have anything. What do you want from me? Well, I haven't talked to you in six months. He goes, how did you know he's going to be with a married woman? It was all that crazy guy with the Zorro office. He goes, yeah. He goes, how did you know? I said, listen, you cannot get to such a high level of kedusha no matter what, in such a short period of time, and

56:10Even Moshe Rabbeinu didn't get to that level of kedusha in six months. You think this yo-yo in six months is going to start covering his eyes? He's going to do what the Baal Shem Tov himself didn't do? A guy like that is hiding what's really inside him. What is inside him? The exact opposite. He looks at everything that moves. So in front of you guys, he pretends like he doesn't see. But when he goes and there's only four walls around him, he looks at all the garbage in the world. And eventually, the people that take him seriously will invite him into their home. "Oh, you're a tzaddik, you're a tzaddik, you're a tzaddik." And they'll feel comfortable that this tzaddik is alone with their wife. Why? Because a tzaddik doesn't look at women. Perfect opportunity for this vulture to eat his prey. He said that's exactly what happened. He says there are a handful of women that he has been with; they've been caught with him. All of this comes from pride, a person pretending to be a lot more righteous than what they really are. And no one says that you should do the opposite and start violating the Torah and start looking at every woman that moves and so on and so forth.

57:21But don't pretend that you're something that you're not. So now the Gemara, Masechet Yoma, on page 35 says something very, very interesting. And I have a chidush about it, Be'ezrat Hashem, I believe it's emet. And it says the following: it says that there are three people that are going to be questioned in heaven. when they arrive for judgment about why they did not learn Torah. One guy is a poor guy, doesn't have any money. One guy is rich, and one guy is handsome. And they're all gonna be questioned in the Beit Din of heaven. First question, you arrive in Shamayim, how come you didn't learn Torah every day? Goes and elaborates who, what, when, and how. It says the first guy says, "Oh, I was poor. I didn't have any money, so I had to constantly do whatever I could to survive." Hashem says in heaven, they're gonna respond to him, "Were you poorer than Hillel HaZaken? Were you poorer than Hillel HaZaken, who every day would just make one coin, spend half of it, and..."

58:47his family, and the other half of it paying the guy, the bouncer at the Beit Midrash, to let him in because that was part of his support of Torah in the world. It's not that he had to pay a fee to get in and go learn, but as part of his contribution, he felt like he had to do this support. So, half went to Torah and half went to his family. He let us in again one day. It was snowing, so he couldn't do his job. He couldn't cut trees. So that day, the bouncer, the guy at the door, didn't let him in because he didn't bring his contribution. Since he could not learn, what did he do? He went and climbed the building and... climbed the roof and laid down on it because there was a glass top. So he laid down on the glass top just so he could hear the words of the Living God that his rabbis, Shemaya and Avtalion, were saying. Both Shemaya and Avtalion, by the way, were converts. He was listening to the shiur Torah while on the roof.

1:00:02So he then was listening to the shiur Torah while he was on the roof. Now, he was so into the shiur Torah that he did not notice that it was even snowing. That night was Friday night, Shabbat, and it was the custom of the place of the rabbis, Shemaya and Avtalion, to learn Torah the whole night, all the way until sunlight. So after they finished learning, Shemaya looks at the sky and he looks and says, "Usually, there's light that comes into the Beit Midrash, but today it's dark." At the same moment, they both looked up and saw that the glass had the image of a body on it. They both left the place, climbed the roof, and found the body. Heated him up, put some oil on him. We resurrected him back to life. It says it's praiseworthy to violate Shabbat for his sake. Such a person that sacrifices life for Torah is praiseworthy. So in heaven, they're gonna tell a person that was worried about money and that's the excuse they want to use for why they didn't learn Torah. They'll say, were you poorer than Hillel? Did you at least make as many sacrifices as Hillel to learn Torah? Are you talking on your phone during the shiur the whole time? Which one did you do?

1:01:26So then the second person is gonna be a guy that's rich. The guy that's rich... It's going to tell Shamayim, "Listen, Hashem blessed me with so much money. I had all these businesses to run. I had my construction company. I had my moving company. I had my this company, my that company. Then I had my stock portfolio, my real estate portfolio, all the different things. So many employees to deal with. There was no time to learn Torah." I didn't miss a spot. What did I do? I gave money to the Beit Midrash. I gave money to a Kollel so they can learn for me. He thinks that's enough. He thinks that these are Charedi beliefs, that you pretty much pay somebody to learn and that absolves you from learning altogether. There’s nothing further from the truth than that. Yes, you can contribute money to Talmidei Chachamim. Even on our website, b'ezrat Hashem, we have a yeshiva and we send the money every month.

1:02:32But that does not absolve you from learning. You still have to learn. Why? How are you going to know how to be a Jew without learning? How do you know the halachot of Shabbat without learning the halachot of Shabbat? How do you know the halachot of Rosh Hashanah without learning the halachot of Rosh Hashanah? How are you going to know? Oh, you assume that he's going to learn for you and somehow it's going to magically appear in your brain? It doesn't work that way. You have to learn anyway. You're not going to learn full-time like this avrech that's learning 10, 12, 15, 20 hours a day. But you still have to learn a couple of hours. He's gonna arrive in heaven thinking, "No, no, I gave money to yeshiva. That's enough." They're gonna say, "Wait, wait. So you think that just because you had a lot of businesses that absolves you from learning altogether? Did you have more businesses than Rabbi Elazar ben Charsom? Who's Rabbi Elazar ben Charsom? Rabbi Elazar ben Charsom inherited 1,000 cities." 1,000 cities, not companies, cities. 1,000 Aventuras, 1,000 Hollywood, 1,000. And each city had its own huge, massive boat that he owned. And one day, he was so rich,

1:03:54Endless amount of employees, endless amount of servants, endless amount of money. One day, he was carrying a sack with him to go to בית מדרש (Beis Medrash) to bring them some food and to go learn with them. A few of his own employees stopped him and said, "You, you look like a good employee. You're going to work for our master." They didn't know it was him. They didn't know he's their boss because they had never seen him before. It's like, "Oh, you're a hard worker. You're going to work for somebody that's really rich in those days." He could, in that sense, force certain people to work for him. Why? Because he's the master of the whole city. He's like a king. "You, you look like a hard worker. You look strong. You're going to work for our master." And they didn't let him leave. He said, "Please, please, just let me go learn Torah. Just don't bother me, just leave me alone, let me go learn Torah." He said, "No, no, no, you have to work for him." He gave them a bunch of money without telling them he's their boss because he knew they weren't going to believe him anyway. He just gave them a bunch of money and said, "Here, here's all the money, give it to your master, whatever you want to do, please just let me go learn Torah. Let me go learn Torah." So they're going to ask this guy that's rich...

1:05:13Use that as an excuse for not learning Torah. Were you richer than him? Did you have a thousand cities? Would you have three companies? Big deal. Four companies? Who were you, Bill Gates? Yet, with eighty billion dollars, you still were not richer than him. Nobody in the world today has a thousand cities. He was so rich that his employees never even saw him, didn't even know what he looked like, and But yet, he found time, day in and day out, to learn an enormous amount of Torah and become one of the holy sages that we have in Am Yisrael. And then lastly, the Gemara says, what about the Rasha? Who's the Rasha? The guy that was really handsome. Why was he a Rasha? Because he comes up to heaven and he says, "Listen, Hashem, You made me so beautiful every girl wanted to be with me." Such a handsome guy. My skin was shining. My skin was this. Every girl wanted my number. Every girl wanted to hang out with me for the weekend. So after, okay Hashem, I protected myself. My brit, one, two, three, four times. I rejected the first five because they weren't really my type anyway. But anyway, I rejected them. But then number six, You sent me Malkat HaYofi. You sent me the beauty queen of the world. And then her friend and her daughter. Am I going to say no to all these people? So that's why I sinned, Hashem.

1:06:32Heaven, they're gonna bring who they're gonna bring. Yosef HaTzaddik. Yosef HaTzaddik was the most beautiful man that ever lived, right after Adam HaRishon. Yosef HaTzaddik was so beautiful that his skin literally was shining. When Eshet Potifar would try to entice him, she would change her clothes in the morning and at night. She would never wear the same outfit twice and... constantly trying to convince him to sleep with her. Now, Eshet Potifar wasn't exactly a gremlin. She was one of the four most beautiful women that ever lived. She was beautiful herself. And she was trying to convince Yosef HaTzaddik to sleep with her. Now, one day, He said, "No, no, no, no." Her friend saw that she was down a little bit. She says, "What's the big deal? Why are you so down? Why, because your servant doesn't want to be with you?" She was, "You're just saying that because you never saw him. I'll invite you to a party at my house, and you'll see him, and you tell me what you think." So the friend said, "Now, what's the big deal?" So, all the women were cutting different vegetables in the kitchen. And then Eshet Potifar says, "Yosef, please come here for a second," and...

1:07:51He's a servant. So he comes. He comes, and all of the women look at him and continue cutting. And they're in such awe that they don't realize they started cutting their own fingers. That's how beautiful he was. That's how beautiful he was. Eshes Potifar would change clothes twice a day. New outfits, new gown, new everything, just to entice him. Yosef HaTzaddik said no, so the Gemara says, how come he said no? He said no because he knew that if he lies with her in this world, he will have to be with her in the next world. The Gemara says, what does it mean? It says anytime a Jew sleeps with a non-Jew, she will be connected to him like a dog. They'll be together. Their neshamos are going to be connected and Gehinom together shall never leave him. Until he does serious teshuvah, but he can only do teshuvah in this world. He cannot do teshuvah over there. Yosef HaTzaddik says, if I do one time with her, one time, not twice, not three times, not even get married. Just one time, just to fulfill the sin, fulfill the desire. One time, she'll never leave me for eternity. Such is the magnitude of the sin.

1:09:13So this beautiful guy comes to Heaven and says, "Listen, Hashem, You gave me all these looks, and I was muscular, I was fit, I was tall, all these things. Why do You expect me not to sin?" He starts looking at Yosef HaTzaddik in Heaven and he starts realizing how much of a monkey he is next to Yosef HaTzaddik, and Yosef HaTzaddik never sinned even once. Now, that's the Gemara. What's the chiddush? The chiddush is the following... The root of the problem of all three sinners is the same exact thing. The guy that's poor, the guy that's rich, and the guy that's handsome all have the same root of the problem. What's that problem? Pride. Why pride? They all believe that their opinion is so valuable Heaven has to adjust to their opinion. The poor guy says, "Listen, Hashem made a mistake with me. He didn't give me enough money. So, of course, I don't have time to learn." The rich guy says, "Listen, Hashem gave me so much. How do I have time to learn? Obviously, He wants me to do something else." Yeah, he said to the yeshiva bochur, "You have to learn Torah in the morning and at night. But He excluded me."

1:10:23The poor guy says, "He excluded me because I'm poor." The rich guy says, "Hashem excluded me from the Torah because I'm rich." The handsome guy says, "The sins exclude me because I'm beautiful." The Torah is true. It's 100% true. It's just not for me. It's for everybody else. It's for you homeless people. It's for you poor people. It's for you ugly people. It's for everybody else. It's not for me. That's the pride. That's what the primary person says. And that's a religious person. We're not talking about a secular, heretic guy that's anti-God. We're talking about religious people in the Gemara. This is what the religious people's excuse is. If the guy was a poor guy that's also a kofer, it wouldn't be an example. Why? Because the guy didn't learn Torah. Because he was a kofer, he was a heretic. No, meaning if the guy's religious, he keeps Shabbat. The guy that's rich, he keeps Shabbat. The guy that's handsome, he keeps Shabbat. He even went to yeshiva. But he figures that you can go to yeshiva and have a girlfriend too. What's the problem? Because, you know, in this generation, we're so lonely, you're allowed to have girlfriends. Because the Modern Orthodox rabbi said so. He even allows boys and girls to go to the same school. And there's even a video on the internet right now of a so-called Chabad Rebbetzin. Rebbetzin. Rebbetzin. Chabad Rebbetzin. She's hugging the boys and the girls.

1:11:39The sin became so common, it's as if it's allowed. Rebbetzin is hugging the boys, 12, 13, 14, 15-year-old boys. She's hugging them. Now, a non-Jew says, "What's the problem with the teacher hugging the kids? Isn't that a good thing for you?" Maybe, but not for Jewish people. Why? Because we're not supposed to do that as soon as... ...woman touches the man, you have a very serious problem. Why? He's not our son. He's gonna have certain thoughts in his head. His little 13, 14, 15-year-old brain is gonna start thinking, "Oh, maybe she likes me. Maybe she's gonna leave the rabbi to be with me." All crazy thoughts, and what's gonna lead them to do? Hashem yerachem... But how did this all start? It all started with the pride that they thought, listen, even though our tradition says that boys go to one school and girls go to one school, it's not really applicable to our generation. We're just going to put them in the same school, in the same class. It'll make it more affordable. Yeah, but the Chachamim say no. The Lubavitcher Rebbe says no. The Chafetz Chaim says no. The Steipler Gaon says no. Halacha says no. Boys and girls don't go to the same class.

1:12:47No, no, but they were talking about 2,000 years before us. So the pride of a person makes them think that you can change the Torah and customize it because you are a special generation. So what happens later? Since it's customized over there, you'll customize it later on. By now, the rebbetzin is allowed to hug and kiss little kids. Boys, girls, doesn't make a difference. Why? Because that's what the goyim do also. There are many videos of the goyim in every part of the world where their teachers hug and kiss them, and people admire it, and there are millions and millions of views. So the Jews now think they can be like them. Shlomo HaMelech says the stupidity of man makes him sin against Hashem, and then he gets mad at Hashem for punishing him. So Gemara explains to us that the root of all sin is this pride. Now, the Rambam wrote that it's impossible to not have pride, meaning it's impossible to be humble without Torah, simply because you will never know how to do it. You will never even know how to identify that you are prideful and

1:14:09Most people do not see themselves as proud until they start dissecting their own character traits. Most people think it's perfectly fine to do what I'm doing because I don't think there's anything wrong with it. And the Rambam writes that it's impossible. One of the examples that put this to the test is that there was a famous sheikh. Arab sheikh that came to town, and he was known as the most humble man in the world. Obviously, the Arabs don't have the Torah, and it was unusual to see a non-Jew, needless to say a sheikh, known as a humble person. So the Rambam decided, you know, he’s known as humble, I'm gonna follow him. And he followed him for three days straight. Everywhere he went, he followed him. Why? Because this would put his own learning to the question: was I really wrong? Was I wrong to say that it's impossible to be humble without Torah? If I'm wrong, then I have to rewrite certain things. I have to change things. I have to change my mind itself. It's not to prove somebody's wrong; it's to prove whether I'm wrong or not. So he started following the sheikh.

1:15:19Follows him place to place, and this guy's a multi-billionaire. But yet, anytime he meets somebody, he starts washing their feet. Like Avraham Avinu was washing the feet of the three visitors, he starts washing their feet. You're a billionaire. Get somebody to wash feet for someone. You want to wash somebody's feet? Wash them, but have somebody else do it. You're a billionaire. No, he's washing their feet. And he says, thank you. And they say, and he's humble, humble. After three days of following him, the Rambam is confused. Why? He's doing all these things. I mean, he's telling every single person, "I'm your servant. I'm your servant. Yes, master." Yes, he's the master, but he doesn't realize you're my master. Wow, very unusual. After three days, the sheikh comes to the house of the Rambam and he says, "Onkh with love. I just wanted to say it was a pleasure to meet you and..." I'm leaving town now. I'm going to my next destination, but I want to say goodbye to my master. And the Rambam says, "Very nice to meet you, very nice to meet you. Kol tuv." Before he left, the sheikh says, "But one question, just one question. Isn't it true that you've never met anyone as humble as me?" and

1:16:43And the Rambam says, "For sure, nobody like you. Nobody like you." What happened at that point? He says, "Ah, Baruch Hashem, Torato emet. Moshe emet, Torato emet." Moshe emet, and the Torah is emet. It's impossible to be humble without the Torah. So how is this guy watching people's speech and saying, "Thank you, my master"? It's all a show. His expression of pride and arrogance is through his actions of pretending to be humble. He's actually more proud and arrogant than everybody else by pretending to be the exact opposite. And sometimes you see this in religious communities, in Ba'alei Teshuva, in Frum-from-birth, all types of people, where people simply think that just because they know a certain halacha, or they know how to keep Shabbat, or they know how to read something, or they know a certain book, everybody else is beneath them. One time, somebody came to Rav Mordechai Eliyahu,

1:17:54I'm sorry, Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, one of the Gedolei HaDor in the previous generation. He says, Kvodo HaRav, I want to take something on myself to, while I'm learning in the kollel all day, I want to wear tefillin the whole time. Morning to night, learn over here, but I want to put on tefillin the whole day. Rav Mordechai Eliyahu is Kodesh Kodashim. He knew exactly who, what, when, and how was in his Beit Midrash, and he says, "No, no, not for you. Just learn like everybody else, all the other Avreichim. Take the Gemara, take the Shulchan Aruch, whatever it is, and learn, not Tefillin." So this guy says, "No, no, b'kavod HaRav. You know it says in the Gemara, Rabbi Chiya da da da da da, and it says Rabbi Chiya tells him all the different maalot, all the different significance of wearing Tefillin while you're learning. You know, it's like you have Hashem in mind all the time." if he doesn't know, he says, "Listen, if you wear those tefillin, and one time in your life, one time, not every day, just once in your life, let's say over the next 70 years, one time in your life, you have that feeling, and you feel for a second, 'Look at me, I'm wearing tefillin while I'm learning. Look at me, I'm learning.'"

1:19:19I'm wearing tefillin while I'm learning the poskim. I'm learning chumash. What do these people have, these avreichim, these low lives? They don't have anything. What do they have? Well, they're probably thinking about baseball in their head. They're probably thinking about lunch. He says, one time in your life, you feel pride because of this mitzvah that you're adding. All of the benefit that you would have gotten from wearing tefillin your entire life not worth it for one time of having pride. That's how detestable pride is in the eyes of Hashem. Wearing tefillin is part of the mitzvah in the morning. Obviously, everybody's obligated to do it. We're not talking about the obligation; we're talking about something you're adding to your life. He says that you're not fit for it yet. Why? Because at some point, you see you have everybody in the room. You have 500 in the room. Everybody's learning, and you're the only one. Natural for you at some point to think, "I'm better than them. Why? There are 500 people here. I'm the only one wearing tefillin." This is for that little bit of pride. Don't worry because it's not worth it. This is because of a time...

1:20:37Aramod Echai Eliyahu knew exactly how much HaKadosh Baruch Hu detests and hates pride. I'm going to give you a few things that will give you an understanding of how much Hashem hates it. In Likutei Moharan, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says that a prideful person will ultimately fall into adultery. And this comes from the Gemara, Masechet Sotah. It talks about how Hashem hates pride to such an extent that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that someone who is proud cannot live in the same world as Him. They cannot coexist because he thinks he's God, and I am God, and we cannot coexist. Rabbi Eliezer says A proud person is perfectly fit for Hashem to chop him off like idolatry; He must destroy him at some point. Now, Rabbi Yochanan says that a person who is proud is considered disgusting in the eyes of Hashem, so much so that the Shekhinah cannot be there.

1:22:03And this, Rabbi Nachman elaborates, where he says, because the Shekhinah is not there, number one, this person has no protection from Heaven. If he has no protection from Heaven against the Yetzer Hara, he can't beat the Yetzer Hara. So, of course, he's going to fall for the worst sin in the world, for adultery. He's going to be with a married woman. She's going to be with a married man. Why? Because they're so proud, they think, ah, what's the... No, sin is not for me. It's for other people. So he's not going to have the protection of the Shekhinah. He's not going to have the protection of Hashem. Or better yet, he's so proud, she's so proud, she doesn't think that she's even subject to sin. No, no, no, I can hang out with my guy friend. We're not going to do anything. Yeah, but you're married. He's married. No, no, but we're only friends. We're platonic friends. Platonic relationship. More like atomic, not platonic. But no, no. Why? They're so proud, they don't think they're going to sin. Now this happens, Rabotai, very, very often. And that's actually why HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates arrogance, because it leads to all the worst possible sins. To such an extent that the Gemara says that someone who is proud, in Gemara Masechet Sotah, pages 4 and 5, talks about how a person who is proud

1:23:19like as if he's worshipping an idol, the idol being himself. A person that's proud is as if he's violating the entire Torah and all of the sections of all of the immoral morality crimes. A person that's proud, even if they fulfill the mitzvah of the highest level of tzedakah, they still have to go to Gehinom because that tzedakah will not help them. So what's the highest level of tzedakah? There's traditional tzedakah. The giver knows the receiver. That's the lowest level of tzedakah. You see a homeless guy, you see somebody, here sir, here's 20 bucks, here's whatever it is. Okay? That's the lowest level. A higher level than that is if he doesn't know who you are. You give it anonymously. highest level. The highest level is you don't know who he is, and he doesn't know you're giving it to him. Meaning he's receiving it, but he doesn't know he's receiving it from you, and you're giving but you don't know who you're giving it to. That's the highest level. The Gemara says the following: that level of tzedakah could literally break major judgments in heaven. But arrogance—it doesn't break. If a person has arrogance, even that level of tzedakah doesn't help them; they still have to go to Gehenom.

1:24:37And it says that there are two daughters of Gehenom. Who are these two daughters of Gehenom? These two daughters of Gehenom are screaming to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Hav, Hav." Please give me, please give me. Give me what? Where is it "give me"? Gehinom is a living thing. It's not some volcano with nothing there. And Gehinom says, "Listen, this guy, all his life thought that everything needs to go his way. So he demanded things from everyone: 'Give me money because I'm smarter than you. Give me business because I'm better than you. Give me, give me, give me,' constantly demanded." So Gehinom cries out, "Look, this person was punished dearly for this type of behavior, for this type of arrogance that led him to heresy, that led him to immorality, that led him to idolatry." So Gehinom says, "Everyone had their fair share of torturing this neshama that went against HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Give me my share now. Hav Hav."

1:26:02Christ was yet. I want my piece. Why? I've been waiting for this guy for 70 years. That might be my fair share out of this. This is Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 17a, for anyone who doesn't believe. So, it's a very interesting sipur about a Hasid by the name of Rav Mordechai Miliado. Rav Mordechai Miliado was a Baal Yeshuot (miracle worker), a famous Hasid. The Baba Sali, alav ha-shalom, would send many people to him, such was the respect between the two. Now, one time, it was Purim and all of the Hasidim of Rav Mordechai... Were there and you know, one of the guys, one of the chassidim, got drunk before the meal, not after that, during the meal. Before the meal, he already got so drunk. He was laying down under the table, under the table, under the chair, right next to Rabbi Mordechai. Another guy was sitting next to him, Rabbi Mordechai, a filthy rich chassid with a lot of money.

1:27:27And he saw this chassid that was drunk, a mess, under the table, and he kicked him in disgust. Not like hurt him, but he kicked him like, "Disgusting! That's how you behave next to the Rebbe? Filth!" At that moment, Reb Mordechai got up, left and went to his room. So he waited for a little while, not knowing what had happened. But after a little while, they went inside and asked, "So what's going on with the Rebbe? Everything okay?" They responded, "Rebbe, you know there are hundreds of people who came from all over the world to have the tish with the Rebbe on Purim." The Rebbe said, "I cannot come." They pleaded, "Please, Rebbe, come out." He responded, "I cannot come. Please, how about me?" No, Rebbe, hundreds of people are here for you. Please, what happened? He says, "I can't come until I remove the anger that has filled my heart." Anger filled the Rebbe's heart? He says, "Only two types of people. Only two types of people put me in a state where my heart is full of anger. One is a person that does not protect their kedushah."

1:28:43someone that does not make sure to keep the brit, watch their eyes, maintain their holiness. The other person is a proud person, an arrogant person. And until I remove this anger from my heart, I can't be with, I can't be next to people. Eventually, they let some time pass, the Rebbe calmed down, and returned, and they had the tish. They had the lunch, they had the celebration, everything was good. The question is, Rabotai, what was he angry about? I mean, the guy that's a mess on the floor, okay, he's a mess on the floor, it's not the first or the last one. The guy that kicked him, okay, he kicked him, he didn't kick the Rebbe. What is he so enraged about? I mean, there are plenty of things to be mad about. You're mad about the political situation in the world, the financial situation in the world, the Torah situation in the world. There are plenty of things to be angry about. You're angry about this? Why? The answer is because the Rebbe understood that when a person is proud and arrogant, he's in essence rebelling against the King.

1:30:05He's rebelling against HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He is an enemy of Hashem. How could you not be angry when you see there's an enemy of Hashem sitting right next to you, pretending to be a lover of Hashem? You're seeing somebody that's mored b'malchut, that's rebelling against HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the King of Kings. Sitting right next to you. It's not possible for you to stay the same now. Hashem hates pride so much that it says in Mishlei, chapter 29, verse 23, "God brings down the pride of men, and it will lead to his fall," meaning HaKadosh Baruch Hu has to break him and... At some point or another, he has to break that proud person with what he was proud about. If it was his brain that he was proud about, He'll do what He did to Einstein by never letting his brain ever rest. It's still being delivered from university to university till this day, being cut up. It was cut up in prison. It went to different universities until this day. This brain that everyone admires is in little pieces in different laboratories around the world and

1:31:30Artius, who was so proud of his strength, thought that he could escape Hashem. Hashem sent a little yatush, a little mosquito, that entered his nose and started eating his brain for the next seven years. By the time they opened up his head and killed him, the mosquito was the size of a dove and all of these proud people, at some point, HaKadosh Baruch Hu punished them very, very severely. Even if they have Torah, it's not going to help them. So much so, that the Gemara in Masechet Pesachim says that even if he has some wisdom, he learned some Torah, He's proud about it. He thinks that just because he knows something or she knows something, and everybody else does it, oh, see, I told you, I told you, you did. I told you all that wisdom goes in the garbage. That now is that you have, and you try that rebuke you thought was a mitzvah. It's not a rebuke anymore. It's not a mitzvah. It's a sin. It's better off if you didn't do anything. Sometimes people like to rebuke people and...

1:32:42And tell them the truth, not because they care about the other person keeping Shabbat or keeping Taharat HaMishpacha or keeping any mitzvah. No, it has nothing to do with that. They want to say, "I told you so." See, my rabbi told me the right things. Your rabbi is a homeless guy. Your rabbi is ignorant. Your rabbi should be in public school, your rabbi. Why? My rabbi told me the truth. Is your rabbi really a rabbi, or is he a rabbanit? What is he? Maybe he's that same one that's hugging kids. Where is this? Ah, see my rabbi? She's proud of her rabbi and she's showing, he's throwing in people's face. He's throwing in people's face. See? I told you it's page 16. I told you it's not 17. It's better off you didn't learn the Gemara at all. It's better off you didn't learn anything. If you're going to be proud about it, better off you didn't learn it. Why? Because the Gemara says someone that's proud as a result of his knowledge, meaning he calls himself a chacham, neveilah seruchah tovah mimenu. Dead animal in the middle of the street is better than him in the eyes of Hashem now. Pride, the Gemara says, is one of the things that brings judgment to the entire world. That's how much Hashem hates it. It's a very dangerous thing that unfortunately all of us, at some point or another, have failed.

1:34:08Most of us, myself especially, didn't even know that pride is a bad thing until I started doing teshuva. So what do you mean? Of course I should be proud. I am better than everybody else. I am smarter than him, him, him, and him. I am richer than him. He works for me. Why? I shouldn't be proud about that? I didn't think there's anything wrong with being proud. Why? It's right. He has nothing. I have a lot. So why shouldn't I be proud? He's one level above the monkey. I'm a few evolutions after, no? He's this, he's that. You start comparing everybody. It's like, how could I not be proud? Why? Because you think you did it, you think you made the money, you think you put your brain inside your head. You think you're the one that came up with the thought. You give credit for everything that is in your life to yourself. In essence, you make yourself into a god. And the Gemara in Masechet Sotah and also in the Zohar HaKadosh says something extremely scary. It says that there are such people that are religious and rich at the same time.

1:35:17And they decide that they want to do something big. They want to build a Beit Knesset. They want to build a Beit Midrash. They want to give a million, two million, three million, five million, ten, big money to bring more Torah to the world. But part of the conditions is to put their name on it. want to donate and buy an aliyah on Yom Kippur, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000. While it was quiet, they even go to shul sometimes, but they didn’t donate. Sometimes, but on Yom Kippur, when the entire community is in shul, all of a sudden he's the gevir of the world. 50, 100, 200, oh, he wants to make sure. "No, no, it's me, not him. It's me, me. I close my bid, 50,000." "Here, Reuven, yeah, yeah, me, me." Zohar HaKadosh says that people who give tzedakah because they want people to know, because they are proud, because they are arrogant, because they want to put their name on it, and...

1:36:28Donate a chandelier just so there's a little sign under the chandelier that says, "Donated by the family of such-and-such." They donate a door or a building or a book to make sure everybody knows they did it. Just don't think he did it. I did it. My family, for the zechut of my grandmother's grandmother's neighbor's cousin. I did it, and this one and that one. The Gemara says something scary; the Zohar says something scary. And... Where does it say? It says these people are the same people that said, "Come, let us build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves." Who are these people that say "let us make a name for ourselves"? These, Rabotai HaYekarim, were the generation of the Tower of Babel, a people that were enemies of Hashem, that wanted to build a tower to reach the heavens and go to war with Hashem. "Let's build a tower so we can reach the heavens and then kill God." That's how we can make ourselves a name.

1:37:50The Gemara says the people that donate for the sake of having their name out there are the same people. Just like Hashem destroyed the people of the Tower of Babel, confused them, turned some of them into monkeys, different languages, and so on and so forth, the same thing is going to happen to those people. Because their Torah, their mitzvot, their tzedakah is all going to the Sitra Achra. It's all going to the side of tumah, of impurity. And the reason why is because idolatry, the Gemara says, idolatry creates tumah, creates impurity. Just like idolatry creates impurity, ga'ava creates impurity. Meaning the minute he walks into this fancy, schmancy beit midrash that he donates, the whole place is tameh. He comes to the shul with his, you know, bodyguards. He's tameh, the whole place is tameh. He's bringing tumah to the place, not kedusha. He's like a klipah of the kehillah. He's not something that's an addition. She's not adding anything. Like this woman from Europe, thought she was going to do something big. Thought that she was going to do something Kiddush Hashem. Why? Because she donated, her husband donated a lot of money.

1:39:15Batei Midrashot in Israel and around the world and so on. So when the church of idolatry was burnt down to the ground, all of us were supposed to celebrate a big Kiddush Hashem, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is destroying a building full of idolatry for the last few hundred years and... A place that destroyed thousands and thousands of copies of Gemara. What did this moron do, this Jewish woman? She donated a hundred million dollars to rebuild it. She donated a hundred million dollars to rebuild it, to rebuild idolatry. In the name of what? In the name of all the garbage that's in our heads. And her friend, another friend, each donated huge sums of money. You have avreichim kedoshim, that the whole world is alive because of them, who don't have food to eat. But she's going to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to a church. What, it was a beautiful sight?

1:40:17Meaning, all of the tzedakah that she has given her entire life, all of it is worth zero. Zero. All of what she gave, even if it was meant for mitzvah originally, now it's uncovered that it had nothing to do with holiness. All of it has nothing to do with Torah. It just has to do with pride. She donated, her husband donated to the yeshiva, not because she cares about Torah and mitzvot. She cares that her name is going to be on the building. Unfortunately, her name and her husband's name are on many buildings because that's how the Yetzer Hara fools us into thinking that just because somebody donates money, they are automatically holy. Now, the last thing I'm going to tell you is going to affect every one of us over the next couple of weeks.

1:41:19But a Knesset today, unfortunately, is not exactly always run by tzaddikim. There's one organization that has a fundraiser. It doesn't have a date or a time for when they're raising the funds, but they're raising a lot of money to build a new Beit Midrash. On their website, I looked at it yesterday, and I couldn't believe my eyes. Honestly, if I didn't see it and somebody told me the story, I wouldn't believe it. The campaign is to build a big Beit Midrash. It's a very wealthy organization with very wealthy members. And now they want to build another big Beit Midrash. More people to learn, more Kedusha, more Torah. It's good, right? What's the name of the campaign? "Make Yourself a Name." That's the name of the campaign. "Make Yourself a Name." Donate. Make yourself a name. Who said "make myself a name"? Dor Haflaga. Tower of Babel.

1:42:19This is my watch. It's the answer right in front of you, but you're looking behind him as if he's not there. The same exact thing is happening in many Batei Knesset right now. Many Batei Knesset are inviting different Chazanim, different Ba'alei Tefillah, different people that are going to be the cantors during the holidays. Someone with a nice voice who knows how to pray nicely, touch people's emotions, and sing a few songs. Now, the Shulchan Aruch is very critical about Chazanut. The Shulchan Aruch in Orach Chaim 53, halacha number one, gives a very big rebuke to a chazan, saying that this chazan

1:43:19should stand before Hashem in fear and awe, full of trepidation. But if his purpose is to show his beautiful voice and his heart rejoices because of his skills, he is considered repulsive by Hashem. He is considered disgusting. disgusting. Okay, so he's disgusting in Hashem's eyes. Why is that my problem? I just go to shul. I'm just praying. Mar Zutra Bar Tovia on it, page 16b, says something very interesting. It uses a pasuk from the Torah where HaKadosh Baruch Hu speaks to the people, and He says, "My inheritance," meaning the Jewish people, "was to me like a lion in a forest," and She gave her voice against me and therefore I hated her. So the Gemara says, well, what does it mean? What does this analogy or parable, if you will, mean that she gave her voice against me? And the Sages say, Mar Zutra bar Tovia says in the name of Rabbi Chama, in the name of Rabbi Elazar, he says that

1:44:46this part of the verse is referring to the cantor, to the chazzan, to the shaliach tzibbur that's praying on behalf of everyone, who's unfit but nevertheless was chosen by the kehillah, by the community, to lead the prayer because of his beautiful voice. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu is criticizing the entire congregation for sending a wicked person to lead them in their prayers to Him. And the Maharsha says, this person is not righteous, does not have yirat Shamayim, and all he has is a beautiful voice. Instead of bringing goodness, salvation, mercy, and forgiveness from Hashem to the kehillah, instead, Hashem curses the entire kehillah. Why? He says, "I hate all of them." Look who they're bringing to me. Look who's representing them, this repulsive person. Meaning that if you're one of these batei knesset that just picks a chazan because they have a nice voice, like there's a place next to my house, a huge place, every year they get the same guy. Every year they get the same guy to be the chazan. I don't think the guy even keeps Shabbat.

1:46:10Now, first of all, kippah, only sometimes. That doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't keep Shabbat. What indicates that he doesn't keep Shabbat? Because I know for sure, firsthand, he tried to pick up a married woman at a wedding. He was the chazzan at the wedding, and he tried to pick up a married woman. He said, "Hey, wait, hold on a second, Rabbi, don't judge, don't judge, you know, kaf zechut. Maybe he didn't know she's married because she wore a nice long wig." No, she actually wore it. He said, "Well, shh." Meaning, you have to be blind, dumb, or stupid to not know that she's married. She has a kisui rosh, and he tries picking her up. He's a chazzan every year at this beit knesset. Every year. A person like that, you go to that beit knesset, guaranteed you will have a miserable year. Why? This is your representative. So that's why sometimes it's better to go to the smaller places that don't even have a budget. to hire somebody famous, hire somebody this, unless that person is a Tzadik, unless that person is Yashar Mayim. Why? Because if you're going to go to such a place, Rabotai, it's very, very dangerous. You could literally go to a place, and you're trying to do teshuva, but because the kehillah, the community, picked this chazzan,

1:47:29Wasted your time. That's how much HaKadosh Baruch Hu hates pride. He literally despises it to such an extent that He says someone who is prideful is as if he is My enemy. He's rebelling against Me. So, this is very, very important for each one of us to delve into and try analyzing ourselves. Where are we proud? Every one of us is proud about something, and You have a certain amount of knowledge, and you want to help somebody do teshuvah because of your knowledge. Are you doing it the right way, or are you telling people, "I told you so?" When you sent him the video that proved him wrong about a certain halacha, were you happy that he found out the truth and now he's going to do teshuvah, or were you happy that you proved him wrong and you knew it and he didn't? If it's the second, it's better off you don't send anything. him continue doing what he does. It's better he doesn't. Why? Because you're walking... I have many people tell me, "Ah, you know, I keep sending it to people, and these idiots don't listen." I said, "If they don't listen, don't send them anything." If that's the way you look at people because they're not following the same thing as you, and you're calling them this, don't send them. Why? You're not the vessel.

1:48:47I have one guy who blames his community. It's like, "Ah, this community is full of resha'im, they're all wicked, they're all the worst people, they're the reason I keep wasting seed." What? How is that? They're going in your pants? They're forcing you in your head? What's the matter with you? Meaning people are so proud of their own little bit of knowledge that they have, that in essence, what do they do? They start blaming everybody else around them for their sins. It's their fault. I don't have money. It's their fault. I'm wasting seed. It's their fault I'm doing this. It's their fault I'm not married. Meaning that your pride is so big it literally became another person. And you could literally live your entire life being the most arrogant, disgusting human being you know, without even knowing it. You're thinking you're going to Gan Eden, and Hashem is creating a whole new chamber just for you in Gehinom. Why? Because even the Torah that you learned wasn't for the sake of Torah. It was for the sake of proving other people wrong. That means you didn't care about their precious neshama. You didn't care about the fact that they're God's child. You didn't care about the fact that this will help their life in this world and the next. All you cared about is that you are right and they are wrong and ha ha ha, told you so. If you're that person, better off you just stay quiet and work on yourself.

1:50:10... Off you never talk again, go become a yotzei dofen for the rest of your life. Why? Of course, the Shechinah is not going to use you as a vessel, and that rebuke I am giving goes back to the beginning of our conversation, even though... Many of the people within the religious community are, Baruch Hashem, very righteous. They learn Torah. They fulfill mitzvot. Some of them are in the government bodies, whether it's Gimmel or Shas or whoever it is. All these different places. There are a few decent people, tzaddikim. But unfortunately, the representatives, the people sometimes that are pulling the strings or the people that are pushing the strings or whatever it is, unfortunately, they have too much pride. How do you know without even knowing them personally? Look at what's happening. First and foremost, no one else is good enough to be next to them. They can't be part of another religious party. They have to have their own. They have to have their own. It's not enough. If he's wearing a shtreimel, no, he's not like us. If he's not Sephardi, he's not like us. If he's not Ashkenazi, he's not like us. If he's not this, he's not good. He's not good enough. He's not Jewish enough. That means that it's your way or the highway. In essence, you've made your own religion, but you call it Judaism also.

1:51:24You know, you go to the flea market. Some people wear, you know, they sell sneakers. I know in the old days, I used to work in a flea market when I was a kid. And you sell sneakers. And you want to get these sneakers. And it looks kind of cool, but then you see, oh, Mikey. Wait, is that a misspell? Why is it Mikey? It's Nike. No, no, this is the Mikey brand. Then you go, you buy this sneaker, you go to school, you're all happy, you got a little kid with little Mikey sneakers, but you think it's Nike. Everybody starts making fun of you. "Hey, Mike, what's up?" I'm like, "No, it's Sharon." He goes, "No, Mike, Mike, what's up? Mike, what Mike?" He goes, "No, you're wearing fake Nikes." He goes, "No, it's real. The guy told me it's real." He goes, "Yeah, real. In your dreams, it's real." Same thing HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling us. Your religiosity is fake. Why? If you have pride, if you're only telling people "I told you so" and it's your way or the highway, it's wrong. Now, it doesn't mean that people are allowed to violate Shabbat or violate the Torah. I'm talking about customs. Customs are not Halacha. Halacha is Halacha. Meat and milk is never allowed. Driving on Shabbat, never allowed. Eshet ish, never allowed. Kashrut has to be Kashrut.

1:52:29The difficulties and the fights between the communities have nothing to do with Halacha, really. It has to do with customs. Wear a hat, don’t wear a hat, wear a long jacket, short jacket, have a beard, no beard, groom the beard, no beard, big nose, small nose—all types of nonsense that have nothing to do with the Shulchan Aruch, have nothing to do with the Torah. "Oh, we can't invite you to our community." Why not? "Oh, you rebuke too much." I said, the Torah rebukes too much. Go complain to God. Every parasha rebukes. Look at this week's parasha. If you didn't cry at the end of the parasha, you should check your pulse or your reading skills. Why? This parasha tells us if we do not do teshuva, Hashem yirachem aleinu, what kind of punishments we're going to get as a nation. Starvation to the point where people are going to eat their own kids. We think Hashem is joking. If He wrote it in the Torah, that means it's going to happen, and it's happened. This is what happened during the Holocaust. This is what happened during the Beit HaMikdash, the first and the second one. Hashem is not joking, even though we think we're joking. He's joking. Why? Because we're so proud that we think, no, no, Hashem did that to everyone else. But we're a special generation. So He won't do it to us. Where does that logic come from? Pride. It comes from pride. Why are there different units of religious parties in Israel? Pride. Pride.

1:53:59Why does everybody want to build a new Beit Knesset but no one wants to contribute to the local Beit Knesset and build it up? Pride! This Beit Knesset is not good enough for me. I'm going to build my own Beit Knesset so it has my own name on it. Wait, but if you already have money and there's already a Beit Knesset here for 25 years, why not just use that money to make the existing Beit Knesset bigger? No, no, it's not my way. Why not? Why not? So do you care about the Beit Knesset or the name? If it's the name, then who needs your mitzvah? This is happening everywhere. Had a friend of mine who works for a Jewish organization. This organization is blessed with money. I mean, so much so that they literally raise tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions, every year like clockwork. With the amount of money they have, you could literally build a new nation. Huge money. He sends me an email. I haven't spoken to him in a while.

1:55:00And he says to me something that, on one hand, made me feel, oh, he's such a nice guy. But on the other hand, I wanted to cry. Why? He says, Chazak U'Baruch for all the amazing work that you're doing. I haven't talked to him in a while. He just sent me a surprise message. Oh, I'm Chazak U'Baruch. Somebody's noticing my work. Baruch Hashem. Good, right? Another fellow rabbi once in a while actually likes me. Good, no? Chazak U'Baruch. All of the hard work that you're doing, all the kiruv that you're doing, I wish I could help you. That's the message. You would think, oh, you guys are thinking, wait a minute. He works in an organization that has money like it's dirt. I could give you a bunch of reasons to use it. Go, let's print a million CDs for Kiruv Brit. Another million CDs or another million USBs. Go do seminars in every single city. Pay for people to come to shurim and seminars just to get people to do teshuva. I could show you a million ways. A hundred million dollars, I get all of Am Yisrael to do teshuva. A hundred million dollars? Easy.

1:56:11Can I show you I can do it? But he said all right. He doesn't realize what he's saying. I wish I could help you. What is that really saying? It says about us that our pride is so enormous that even the religious organizations care less about the Torah, care less about HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Why? They care about their shita, their way. Doesn't matter that your way is actually more effective and gets more people to do teshuva, and there are dozens of people doing teshuva each and every single day from all walks of life all over the world, and everyone knows it. No, no, no. It's not our way. If it's not our way, I'm sorry, I can't help you. He's a tzaddik. It's not his fault. He can't do it. He tried, but the Baalei Batim, the people running the place, said, "No, sir. It's not our way." "Yeah, but it works though." Again, it's like a two-year-old. A friend of mine from the United Kingdom sends me a text message today. He says, "My daughter, two years old, two years old, little kid, baby, was crying in the car non-stop a couple of days ago. Nothing would help, nothing would help."

1:57:26So the father says, all right, so I try to talk to her. Honey, do you want this? Do you want this? Do you want this? Nothing. Crying. Sometimes you have kids, they cry. Nothing will stop. So he says, you want me to give you the phone? You play with the music? Play songs? She stops. She says, no, Abba. I want Rabbi Yaron. I'll show you the text message. I'll show you the text message. Changed my day. Changed my day. I was thinking maybe I should start taking antidepressant pills because of what's going on in the world. This little two-year-old gave me chizuk. It was like the Mashiach for me. This morning, I got it. This morning, I got chizuk from a two-year-old. Two-year-olds are doing teshuva. Obviously, it's working. People like to hear the truth. Jews, non-Jews, boys, girls, everybody likes it. Some people can handle the whole two or three hours. Some people can handle an hour and then they run away. But if they like it, they keep coming back. Why? Because it's true. No, but if it's not our way, I'm sorry, I can't help you.

1:58:33Yeah, but you realize the only two things that we need right now, only two things aside from the siyata dishmaya to continue. Aside from the miracle from heaven for this to exist, to continue. Aside from that, only two things we need: one, more lectures. People to set up more places with hundreds and hundreds of people to come so we can meet more people. That's one. Shouldn't be that difficult. You have a community. 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 people show up every Shabbat. Make sure they all show up one day for me to come at the same time and we sit there for a couple of hours and start doing teshuva. One thing, easy. If you care. Second, money. That's it. Somebody to bring money to the organization. Why? Because we have bills. Employees, we have stuff to pay. All the CDs, all the stuff costs money. Right now, we are only a few, maybe a thousand CDs away, and then we will have zero CDs. We can't print; we don't have the money to print. People keep asking me, "Listen, I want the USB." I said, "Yeah, I want the USB also. I know the new cars have the USB. I don't have the money."

1:59:36I don't have the money to print more CDs, a thousand more, two thousand more, something minimal. It's gone, finished. I just got two boxes today. I have a thousand in my house. I think there's another thousand in the warehouse. That's it, we're out of CDs. We've given out over a hundred thousand CDs in the last couple of months. No money to print more. I say it's our cards, forty thousand. We've given out each one of these which is supposed to be sold for five or ten dollars, buckets of them, everything for free. The point is that to continue spreading the message costs money and if someone has money or someone knows someone that has money and you want to help, that's a fantastic way to help. if someone can help you Arranging lectures where you can bring a hundred, two hundred, or three hundred people to one place. That's fantastic. Other than that, there are many other things that people could contribute, but those are the two main things. These two are easy-peasy for some of these companies, some of these organizations, to provide. Some of these big organizations have more money than they know what to do with. Korach is screaming from Gehinnom all day, "You guys have no money to me."

2:00:43So much money they have, but they don't do anything with it. You see some of these organizations, literally, they raise tens of millions of dollars every month. Not a single Ba'al Teshuvah comes from there. Not one. Maybe over a period of a year, they'll get, I don't know, maybe 10, with $100 million worth of funding. Nothing. A bunch of money being wasted. But that's because the receivers and the givers are not doing it for the right reason. receivers that are running the Jewish organization. They couldn't care less about the Jews or the Torah; they care about brand. "We have a brand, we have a marketing tactic, we have a nice website redesigned for the 18th time." Okay, but what about Torah? What about people doing teshuvah? What about the 90% who don't keep Shabbat? "Oh, yeah, we'll get to them eventually." Donors, listen. I'm gonna send you a million dollars this year. It's a little more than last year, but make sure this year you have my name in the flyer. Make sure this year you have my name on the website. The guy is giving, he's not giving because he cares about Eretz Yisrael, but because his name is gonna be on the newsletter. With such pride, we can't get out of our own way. So this pride of ours is...

2:02:08a cancer within every single one of us. Every one of us has to work on it. Even a speaker that speaks the truth has to be extraordinarily careful. And we'll finalize with this: how careful could a person be? Even if the person speaks the truth, the best truth, the ultimate truth, he always has to be worried because even Rabban Gamliel, Rabban Gamliel... When he was led by the Romans, the evil Romans, to his death, right before, he asked Rabbi Yishmael Kohen Gadol, "Why is it that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is punishing me? What sin did I do?" Not that he's, you know, he's complaining to Hashem. He just wants to know so he can do teshuva for it before he gets killed. So Rabbi Yishmael says, "If you spoke to the public..." And one time, one time, you're proud in your heart because of some chiddush that you gave. That's enough of a reason. Rabban Gamliel, Rabban Gamliel—the Gemara says—humility exited the world after he died. There's no more humility after him. Until his generation, they learned Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu all the way to Rabban Gamliel, you learned Torah only standing up.

2:03:30You can never learn Torah sitting down when you learn Torah. Rabban Gamliel was the last one. After that, since then, we've been sitting down ever since. That's why it's called yeshiva. Yeshiva means sitting down. But after Rabban Gamliel, you learn Torah standing up only. That's how holy he was. Rabban Gamliel says, ah, you comforted my neshama. There had to be meaning that even Rabban Gamliel, who was a descendant of David HaMelech, was ra'ui to be the Mashiach. There had to be a moment at some point over all these years that maybe I was proud of something that I said. That's how careful somebody needs to be of this spiritual cancer. And if Rabban Gamliel needs to be so careful and knows that he probably failed in it, needless to say us. So this means that this is in all of us. That's the sho'ur bayit. That's the homework for tonight. Everyone go home and think, where am I? too proud about or proud at all. Pick one thing, don’t go through the whole list. You may go into a manic depression. Pick one. Pick one thing that you remember yourself being a show-off about. Start working on that. Start doing teshuva on that. Before you go to sleep, say, “Hashem, I can't believe it. I'm sorry. I didn't even realize that what I was doing was disgusting in Your eyes. I'm sorry.” That already, Rabotai, makes us much better. As a result of this, you...

2:04:56Each one of us becomes much better, and every person that's watching becomes much better. Guess what? It improves the entire nation. Look at what's going on in the world right now. We are literally in a situation where pride is destroying us. Both the religious and the secular are exemplifying the highest level of pride. Religious people think that what they do is pure and holy regardless of what it is, and the secular think that what they're doing is pure and holy no matter what it is. This is what's happening; no one wants to change, no one wants to adapt, no one wants to do anything. So that's why, Rabotai, we need to start doing cheshbon nefesh as individuals. If we all do it as individuals, the whole nation will do it. If the whole nation will do it, we could arrive at Rosh Hashanah with actually something. It's not b'shem, this will incentivize at least a few of us to do something about it. B'ezrat Hashem, tomorrow night we'll do a shiur in Sunny Isles. The questions and answers are on Sunday. There's no shiur on Sunday, but we'll be back here next Tuesday, b'ezrat Hashem. Also, pay attention to the...

2:06:13The schedule, because of the holiday schedule, is going to be most likely a maximum of one lecture per night and one lecture per week. We'll try to maintain at least one lecture per week, b'ezrat Hashem. Anyone that wants to get the current updates should subscribe to the website, b'ezrat Hashem. The website is a good place to donate as well as subscribe to our WhatsApp groups. Get the daily updates, short shiurim, the new movie we released today, a short film for nine minutes to give a little chizuk with some music in it. So, Baruch Hashem, the team continues to work, and b'ezrat Hashem will continue reaching more and more neshamot around the world. Baruch Adonai le'olam, amen ve'amen. Did I have volume the whole time? Thank you for coming.

2:07:37We'll be right back.