The secret password to survive judgment day (8 minutes)

0:11What happened? What happened, my friends? What happened is that somewhere along the line people forgot that Yirat Shamayim, Yirat Shamayim is everything. There's a verse in the Torah, Hashem says, Yirat Hashem hi otzaro. Hashem has a treasure chest. Hashem has a treasure chest. The whole treasure chest has one thing. He used to have two. He used to have Shabbat. He took Shabbat, He gave it to us. So there's one thing left. What is it? Yirat Shamayim. The only reason Hashem created the world is for you to fear Him, not for you to love Him. Love comes later. To fear Him gives Him a reason to create the world. When there's no Yirat Shamayim, there's no connection to Hashem Yitbarach. There's no connection, there's nothing. There's bupkis. So now, to prove this example, I'll give you a chidush from ArtScroll.

1:12Now, the basic pshat that talks about this Yirat Shamayim in Gemara Masechet Shabbat, page 31, it says, Yirat Hashem hi otzaro. Hashem, everything that He has as a treasure chest is the Yirat Shamayim. So it says, what is it like? What is it like, this Yirat Shamayim? It says, even if you know the entire Mishnah, you know the entire Mishnah by heart, No yirat shamayim, nothing. It's worth nothing. You know the entire Mishnah, the entire foundation of all Torah. All of it. You don't know it, you have it. You know by heart. You know Tosafot, you know Rashi, you know Aruch, you know Bavli, you know whatever you want. You know you have no yirat shamayim, it's worth zero. First thing. This is Aruch, says it's Rashi. Basics. He says, what is this like? Tell me, tell me more, tell me more. He says, tell me more. He says... When someone goes to heaven, there's the Beit Din of heaven. He died. 70, 80, 120, however many years he goes to heaven, the Beit Din of heaven. There's no more joking around. You have to pay the bill. They ask him questions. There are a few questions they ask. The first question they ask is, did you conduct your business with honesty, with faith?

2:42Or you're a dishonest person. Why didn't they ask him, did you go to Beit Knesset? Or were you honest in Beit Knesset? Why? Beit Knesset, everybody can pretend like they're tzaddikim. In business, there's no pretending. Why? Money. Money. You're not pretending. If you're honest, you're honest in your business. If you're a liar, you're a liar in your business. Bottom line. First question, did you conduct your business? Second question, did you make time for learning Torah every day? Or were you one of those guys that says, no, no, I'm working really hard, I'm going to study later. I'm going to make my millions, I'm going to study later. Later, after I have a few million in the bank, I'm going to study all the Gemara you want, Kvod HaRav. I'm going to study all this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to give tzedakah. Everybody blames God for their lack of tzedakah. They say, listen, listen, I don't have that much money now. I only make $50,000 a year. I can't give tzedakah now. When Hashem gives me a million dollars or $100,000 or $200,000 or whatever number they have in their little head that makes them believe that's the number that allows them to give tzedakah, then I’m going to give tzedakah.

3:59This shows that not only do they not understand what tzedakah is, but the yetzer hara has got them on a little leash. Because he's convincing them that they need more in order to give. The reality of it is that the tzedakah of the guy that doesn't have much sometimes is more valuable than the tzedakah of the guy that has a lot. Why? The guy that made 30,000 last year, that gave 300 bucks, that gave 100 dollars, is going to have much more merit than the guy that gave two million, five million, or a hundred million but didn't feel it. He didn't feel it; he has a billion dollars, so he gave you 10 million. Big deal—it's interest over a couple of months. The guy that gave 300, you know what? He had to eat a little less this month. You understand? So someone says, no, I'm going to give tzedakah when I have more. Obviously, you don't understand what tzedakah is. You don't understand who gives you the money and so on. There's a lot more we need to learn about that. So again, next question, did you make time for Torah? You didn't make time for Torah. We have a problem and so on and so forth. It says, let's say you answer. I'm going to fast forward because it's late already. It says, let's say you answered all the questions right.

5:14Everything's right. You made time for Torah. You were honest in your business. You were waiting. You were hoping for the Mashiach to come. You have to wait for the Mashiach. It's one of the main things you're being asked. You brought kids to the world or at least tried. You don't have to just stay single because you don't like people. You have to find a zivug. You have to actively look for it. Whether you find it or not is not your problem, but it's Hashem's problem. You have to look. You have to try. says, let's say you answered all the questions correctly. Got a checkmark next to each one. Last question is, did you have Yirat Shamayim? If the answer is negative, the judgment is negative. Everything goes to nothing. So now this is pshat. They give you, says, Gemara says, we want more. Give me an analogy. I need more. Gemara says, okay, I'll give you an example. Let's say a guy says to his servant, "Go to the, what is it called, attic. Go to the attic and put my wheat. Organize all the wheat, put it over there. Put all the wheat over there." The servant, a good servant, goes, takes the wheat, and puts it in the attic. He comes back down after a few hours and tells the master, "Yeah, finished."

6:41He says, did you put chumtin, did you put the preservative on the wheat? He says, no, no, I didn't put it. So the Baal HaBayit says it was better off you didn't do anything. Why? Before you did it, the wheat was fine. It was still in its place, it was fine, it was preserved, it was fine, its nature. But now you put it in the attic, and there's no preservative, which means it's all going to go bad because of you. So it's better you didn't do anything. The Gemara says, that's Yirat Shamayim. The wheat is all the mitzvot. All the mitzvot, you did this, you did learn Torah, you went, you had Chanukah, you had Purim, you had Shmittah, everything you had. The chumtin, the preservative, is the Yirat Shamayim. It says you have no yirat shamayim. It's not worth anything. It's not going to preserve. It's not going to last. This is basic Gemara. You learn it in any Gemara in the world. This is Rashi in basics.