The Torah vs The Satan - MUSSAR Iggeret HaRAMBAN (29)

0:17And our weekly shiur, Tuesday night shiur in Florida, is for all the people watching that live here but, for some reason, think I'm in New York because I have a New York accent and I spent 30 years there. We have our Tuesday night shiur on Igeret HaRamban. Tonight's shiur will be for Refuah Shlema for David Ben Esriah, Doris Bat-Jorah, Rabbi Efraim Ben Shulamit, Rabbi Nitza Bat Anat, Levana Bat Sara, Batya Bat Sara, Yocheved Bat Batya, Esther Bat Zipora, Levi Mordechai Ben Rivka, Stefan Ben Katarina, and all of Am Yisrael. Bezrat Hashem, we will have... Levi Mordechai Ben Rivka, Stefan Ben Katarina, and all of Am Yisrael. Bezrat Hashem, we will have. So, tonight's shiur, we're going to continue with the letter that the Ramban wrote a little over 800 years ago.

1:40and try to delve even deeper into really the Jewish life that, Baruch Hashem, we're all striving to get to. Our shiur on Sunday, Baruch Hashem, has had fantastic feedback. Some of the long-time listeners really felt it hit home with them. When somebody new, Baruch Hashem, we have new people watching the shiurim all the time, They watch the shiurim. They're very excited. They make very nice comments. And it's obviously always appreciated. Anyone that makes a good comment on the shiurim, presses like, shares the lecture, subscribes, does all of that. It helps the channel grow. It helps Am Yisrael learn more Torah. It encourages other people to watch also. Because, you know, the yetzer hara tells you, shows you, hey, listen, this shiur is two and a half hours. Who has time? Watch a clip. Five minutes. It's enough. So when someone writes a nice comment or shares it with other people with a description that's really motivating, that helps a lot. And that happens a lot, baruch Hashem, from people that are new. And baruch Hashem, there are a lot of new people all the time watching the shiurim. There's somewhere in the neighborhood of about a little over 2 million, maybe even 2.5 million at this point. 2.5 million minutes per month.

3:02that people are watching our shiurim just on one of the channels. I don't know the total of all the channels; it's a lot more than that. So, you can just imagine how much Torah is being shared around the world. From everywhere, people right now are watching in the Philippines, in Morocco, in Australia, in the United States, obviously in Israel—all over the world people are watching, and there are always new ones being added. But what's really exciting is when someone who's already been watching and learning for a few years, makes a comment like, "This was it, this was the best one." And sometimes people say, "This is the best one all the time," and that's nice, but when someone that doesn't necessarily usually always make comments, or perhaps someone that's been watching for a long time, says, "This shiur hit the spot for me, this one was the best one," that's really inspiring for me, because it shows that, Baruch Hashem, the Torah continues to grow, not only with the teacher, but also with the student, and vice versa.

4:05and a lot of people actually said that about the shiur that we made on Sunday. So for anyone who hasn't watched it, it's called "Building a Jewish Home," and it addresses a problem that all of us have and continue to face on a daily basis. What does a Jewish home actually look like? Really, the Jewish home begins with you, begins with your own mind, begins with your own heart. Where's your heart? Where's your mind? That's really the Jewish home. You are the Jewish home. The Gemara says that there are a couple of names for the wife, and one of them is Bayit. Why Bayit? It says because the wife's main responsibility is to build the Bayit, to build the home. If the wife is on board with Torah and mitzvot, then the husband and the kids have pretty much a ticket to Gan Eden. Why? Because if a wife is on board, you know, by being modest herself, by following Torah herself, by sending her husband to go learn Torah, by sending the kids to learn Torah, and she's not one of these women that wants to go shopping instead of going to Shiur Torah. She's not one of those women that wants to have a television to watch soap operas, but she wants to watch Shiur Torah. She's supportive of it, not theoretically, but in reality.

5:23then the husband got the gift of all gifts. He should simply kiss her feet and her hands every day just because of that. Even if she doesn't clean, doesn't cook, doesn't do anything—if she sends the kids and the husband to go learn Torah, and she keeps the husband from sinning, this is an eshet chayil. This is the ideal woman. What about cooking, cleaning, everything else? That's extra. That's extra. You have that, you may not even have enough room for Gan Eden because you're already living it here. point is, Rabotai, is that to have a Jewish home, it's not about the neighborhood, it's not about the size of your house or the type of clothes that you wear. Rather, it begins in your mind, in your spouse's mind, and what you put into your children's minds. If you put the right things in there, good things will come out. If you don't, Hashem... And that's this problem that we're dealing with everywhere, whether it's in the frum world, people that are already religious, but they're seeing that the next generation, that their kids are getting softer. You know, Abba used to learn in the kollel, and the kids, not so interested in the kollel. You know, they're more interested in, right here, there's a couple of seats, or in the middle.

6:44The Abba used to learn every night, and the kid, once in a while... No, no, no, don't touch the camera, don't touch the camera. Actually, switch chairs with him; he's the camera guy. Switch chairs with him. The key is to... Sorry, I just... It would be too late if I didn't say anything. The key is to know that if a... If a person has the right mentality, that mentality should be given to the kids. That mentality should be given to the spouse. That mentality should be given to everyone you surround yourself with. And the problem is that today we're seeing that at some point along the line, even in the frum world, we skip a beat. We messed up at some point, where the kids, even if the father and the mother were frum, sometimes there's going to be a home where one of the kids, or two, or Hashem yishmor, even more, don’t really want the same thing that Abba and Ima have. They don’t want the frum life; they want the money life. They want something else. Now, surprisingly, this is the identical problem that the secular world has when the parents want to do teshuvah.

7:58Parents want to change everything. They live the lie of sheker. They don't want to continue living a secular life because they're seeing that their kids are not exactly turning out to be what they want them to be. And they want to change. And they see that sometimes the kids don't jump on board right away. The kids still want to continue playing video games all day. The kids continue wanting to do other things. It's not really the fault of the kids. That's all they learned up until now. Sometimes you have the issue between a couple, where the husband or the wife wants to do teshuva, and the other doesn't want to do it, wants to stay in their current lifestyle. Needless to say, this also happens in the world of conversion, when someone wants to convert, but the other spouse is not ready. Either they want to remain a Noahide, or perhaps they don't want to convert at all. The point is that this problem, it's a recurring issue, and it's the same exact thing everywhere. One of the reasons for it, which we discussed on Sunday, is that a person needs to know for themselves that it all begins with their own mentality. If you understand what Torah is, eventually the world around you will change. If you don't, it won't change. So that means

9:22if you understand that the Torah is not a suggestion but rather an obligation, if it was a suggestion, He would say these are the 10 suggestions that you should live by. But instead, He says these are the 10 commandments that if you live by them, you will live, and if you don't, you will die. There is a huge gap between these two things. A suggestion means you could do it or not, no big deal. You can go to the store, you don't have to go to the store. You can go to work, you don't have to go to work. The other one, the commandment, says, listen, if you don't go, I'm going to kill you. That's not a suggestion. If a person, in their own mentality, and in the way that they appreciate the Torah, value the Torah, serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and learn His Torah that way, The world around them will see, the world around her will see that she is living for the sake of Torah. Everything else comes secondary. That world will eventually change. People will stop asking you to go to the movies. They will stop asking you to play video games. They will stop asking you to do things that are against your lifestyle. So how come they ask so many people?

10:45What, they don't have anybody else to ask? How come they ask you, davka? Because they see, and their yetzer hara sees, that in reality, you haven't committed 100% yet. You still want to enjoy a little bit of the yetzer hara's world. You still want to be a little bit into that world. So they know it's like, he's not playing, but he likes it. He's watching. He's not going, but he wants to go. He's not looking, but he's peeking once in a while. He's not staring, but he's peeking. You know, he's peeking. He's not dating her, but he always says, "Wow, she looked pretty today." The Yetzer Hara knows this, and the Yetzer Hara knows people also know this, and so long as we have that mentality, we're treating the Torah as if it's a suggestion and not a commandment, and the world around you will not change. In fact, the world around you will become more and more difficult. And you'll be living in two lives, living in two worlds, one foot in, one foot out. One foot in, that you want to go to Gan Eden, one foot out, that's already in Gehenom, and you don't even realize it.

11:54And that's a very, very difficult life to live. It's like being a little bit bipolar, having multiple lives, having two families at the same time, but nobody knows about each other. You have to continuously live this lie. So when does this change? This changes once a person themselves begins with themselves by changing. Don't wait for everybody else to change. The Torah says you change first. What if they don't change? They will. They may not change for the good like you want them to. They may not adapt your lifestyle like you want them to. She may not, you know, put on a sheitel because you wanted her to. The kids may not all of a sudden start learning Torah like you want them to right away, but their attitude towards your life will change. And they'll value it, they'll appreciate it, and they'll know this is it. It's like a statue, they know it's not gonna move. So, Having that type of mentality requires a lot of learning, a lot of doing. And that's one of the things that the Ramban goes and discusses now. He says to his son, and thereby to us, "The Ramban writes,"

13:19Take care to always study Torah diligently, so that you will be able to fulfill its commandments. When you rise from study, ponder carefully what you've learned, see what there is in it, which you can put into practice. That's the next part of the Ramban's letter. Now, this is something that if we delve into it, we could sit here for 5,000 years and still not finish. Superficially, we finished. In reality, you could delve into what he is actually saying here for 5,000 years and still not be finished. Why? First and foremost, he stresses that the first thing he says is that you have to learn Torah. But he doesn't just say "learn Torah"; he says "learn Torah always." Always study Torah. He pushes the point that you always have to learn Torah. And the Rambam in Hilkhot Talmud Torah, chapter 1, halacha number 8-10, says the following. He says, every man is obligated to study Torah without exception. It makes no difference whether he is rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old. Even the pauper who lives from the alms and begs from door to door must study Torah.

14:39Every man who is pressured to support his wife and children, every Jew, must set aside definite times to study day and night. And a person must continue to study Torah until the day of his death. This is halacha, meaning this is a rule. It's a commandment. It's not that Rambam is suggesting, "This is a good idea for you guys to do, shop for your groceries on Tuesdays." No. This is, he's saying, HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded us this. You have to learn Torah, especially if you're a man. A woman has to learn Torah as well to know what she needs to do in life, such as the holidays. But a man has to learn not only all of those, but even the things that don't even pertain to his life, like the things that happen at the Beit HaMikdash, and the holidays that have already passed or that are not even coming up for another five, six months.

15:40Like the rules of business. The rules of how to deal with going to a store. For example, let's see, let's test our own knowledge. How many of us, how many of us, this is not joking, I'm serious. How many of us have gone to a store and we had no money on us? We had no money on us and no intention to buy anything. But we saw something and it's interesting. I don’t know, some tchotchke or whatever it was, and we asked the guy, how much is that? How many of us did this before? I'll raise my hand so you're not embarrassed. Everybody did it at some point, right? We all violated Torah. Why did we violate Torah? We stole his time. We stole his time. Chazal say, if you have no intention to buy, don't give the guy the thought, oh, maybe this is the customer. Maybe this is the customer. You stole his mind. Even worse, what did we do? By asking him for a price, a simple price, and we're not intending on buying. If you're intending on buying, there's a chance you're going to buy, yalla. But if you're not intending on buying, you don't even have money on you. Meaning there's no chance in the world. You're not coming back. You live in a different state. He's asking just to see. You wanted to see if your guess in your head was right. You had in your head, "Oh, this is $5,000." And you wanted to see if you're right, just to see how smart you are, how much of a smart shopper you are.

17:08says you caused him damage. Why? He caused him damage aside from what I just said. He says there could be another customer watching that was possibly interested, and he saw you ask the question, "How much is it?" and then you said, "Oh, okay," and you didn't buy. So the other customer is thinking to himself He's not buying because it's not a good price. He puts the money back in his pocket. He's not interested either now. He was going to buy it. He thought $5,000 was a good price until you said you're not interested. Now you're just costing business. Now you're just costing business. Yeah, but then you're gonna say to me, wait a minute, hold on a second. Maybe there's no cost to me, it's just me and him. The guy, misken, he's bored all day. I'm giving him some action. I'm at least giving him an illusion. It's worth it for him to keep the store open. Aren't I doing him a favor? That's what the yetzer hara tells you. Aren't I doing him a favor by asking him how much? At least, I'm not intending on buying, but I'm giving him the illusion that it's worth it for him to stay open. Still causing damage. Why? Because now, you ask them. He doesn't know you have no intention of buying. You're going to say, how much? He says $5,000. You say, okay, thank you, and you leave.

18:17What do you think? It just escapes his mind? No, my friend. It stays in his mind, and he eats himself up. He says to himself, "I knew I should have priced it at $4,500. What a fool I am. I should have priced it at $4,500. The guy would have bought it. I knew it. I did it." And he eats himself up the whole day. The whole day he eats himself up. He comes home. He's angry as can be. His wife says, "How are you? How are you?" He starts fighting with his wife. Why? because he thinks that he made a mistake because you didn't buy. He doesn't know what's in your mind—that you never intended on buying. That's how precise the Torah is. It worries about everything, literally, what impression, what footprint we are going to leave everywhere we go. To such an extent that a person needs to literally count his words and think about his words before he says them.

19:19Make sure that you know what you're going to say before you say it. Why? Because it's going to cost you. Rabbeinu Lopian is one of the giants of the generation over the last hundred years. He was known as a person who calculated every one of his moves to such an extent that he would never turn his head. He would never turn his head like we do 500 times a day. He would never turn his head without thinking about it. One time he was sitting at a bus stop, waiting for a bus like everybody else. There was a line of people, and the bus was late. Every two seconds, you know, he's learning, and every two seconds, everybody's like this, everybody's like this. You know, they're waiting for the bus, the bus, the bus, you know, like everybody does. Now, if you look more, it's not going to make the bus come faster. It's not going to go. So what's the point of looking, right? But everybody keeps looking, and then they look, and they look at the clock, and they look, and they see, you see it? Oh no, that's the 12. No, I need the 14.

20:22You look at the watch, like a watch is gonna make the bus come faster. And then you go like this. And then you start walking to the stop, walking back and forth. Maybe that's gonna make it come faster, but nothing's gonna change. So it's not like the rest of the time, he's not looking. But then one time, it was a while, and everyone's looking, everyone's looking, everyone's looking, and he caught himself looking. Once. He just picked his head up. He looked just to see, maybe the bus is coming. He was so upset with himself. He wrote about this. He was so upset with himself that one time, one time in his life—I'm not talking about every day of his life—one time in his life, he looked. He said, what a waste. What a waste that we calculate our moves that way. Now, when a person understands that his obligation to learn Torah...

21:22not only to his own favor, but it's also to his own survival, where the only way to be an ethical, decent human being is by knowing God's law, knowing everything. Because obviously, until about five minutes ago, none of us thought of it as being such a big deal asking the guy, "How much is this thing?" even if we don't want to buy. But now that we've discovered at least three different obstacles that it causes, how many of us, by a show of hands, are going to continue asking people, "How much is it?" Nobody's going to do it. At least they're not going to admit it openly. Because then you're going to feel like, "What's wrong with you?" But the reality is you're not going to do it. At least you're going to try not to do it. The worst-case scenario, the next time you do it accidentally, you're gonna think, oh, you know what, I'm sorry, don't even ask me. Because you're gonna think, oh, I said it because that's my nature, but you know what, I'm sorry, you're gonna feel bad about it. Why? Because now you realize, wait a minute, I could have caused this guy damage. You're gonna think about it twice.

22:23The Torah is something that's going to teach you this stuff, and every single other thing you can possibly imagine. All of the wisdom that exists in the world is inside the Torah. There are different types of wisdom. All types of sciences and philosophies, medicinal, etc. Every wisdom that exists is inside the Torah. To such an extent... That the sages, even in recent years, like the Chazon Ish, the Aish Kodesh, never went to medical school. Never went to medical school. Never went to Chazon Shom College. Spoke against it. Spoke against it. When they asked him, oh, are the kids allowed to go to the army in Eretz Yisrael? The girls? Are girls allowed to go to the army? He says, it's better that they die and don't go to the army. meaning he wasn't, uh, you know, hafif; he was the best of the best. He never went to medical school, never did any of that stuff, but yet the top surgeons in the world would call him on a regular basis, asking him how to operate on different parts of the body, how to operate on the brain. The surgeons, not the patients.

23:46The surgeons are calling him for years. Some of them still study his instructions. He already passed on many years ago. They still study his instructions to this day. Where do you learn it from? In Torah. Now, when he says, oh yeah, this is in Gemara, Masechet, blah, blah, blah, where he says, people look and say, I have no idea how he knows how to operate on the brain from this Gemara. This Gemara is talking about a cow. He's talking about a brain. I have no idea. But of course, when you learn Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives you anything you want. Now, if you go learn it, you're not going to get the same thing as him. You toil as much as he did, you'll get. The point is that the Torah says delve into it and delve into it because everything is in it. Everything, literally. Hence the reason why the Rambam says it's halakha, it's an obligation from HaKadosh Baruch Hu for you to learn it day and night, every day. You have to make time; you're allowed to go to work, make money, make a living, no problem. But you wake up in the morning, just like you wake up in the morning and make time to eat, just like you wake up in the morning and make time to do all the other things you need to do, no, you have to make time to learn Torah. What about at night when you're really tired? Even more so.

25:03Learning at night, the Rambam says, is even more critical than learning in the morning. Because all of the wisdom that a person gets is from his learning Torah at night. And he writes, if it wasn't for the obligation from the Torah to learn Torah day and night, we would only learn at night and never sleep. We'd sleep during the day. But since the Torah says, if not for My covenant being learned day and night, the rules of the world will cease to exist. being learned day and night, the rules of the world will cease to exist. Meaning HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, if someone is not learning Torah in the world 24 hours a day, there has to be somebody learning Torah, otherwise the world ceases to exist. No Mabul, no flood, just disappears. That's why Rabbi Chaim Vital used to have a yeshiva He was the talmid of the Arizal. His yeshiva would have talmidim learning 24 hours a day. He would have shifts—morning shift and night shift. When these guys are sleeping, the other guys are learning. Why? His argument was that we don't know what's happening in the rest of the world. We don't know; maybe we're the only ones learning Torah. If we don't learn Torah, the whole world is going to explode. So we have to hold up the world.

26:32This is also, Chachamim say, the reason why HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world in such a way where there are time zones. If you really think about it, what's the point of time zones? Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu create time zones? Why is it now, you know, 9 or 10 o'clock here, but in Eretz Yisrael, it's 7 hours forward? It's 4 o'clock in the morning. Why can't the sun rise and set the same way? Is it hard for Hashem? You can explain all of the physical reasons. No, because it's round, and because of the sun, and it rotates. Good for you with those explanations. Go to science class, give them a class. Reality, tachlis, what's the point? If HaKadosh Baruch Hu could create the whole world, He could create a system where the sun rises the same for everyone, and the sun sets the same for everyone. In fact, it seems easier. So why does the sun set here and rise over there, and it rises here while it sets over there? Why is there a 17-hour difference in Australia? It's pretty much a different day. I used to have a client when I was on Wall Street who would spend half the year, or a little more than half the year, in Australia. So I knew during that time of the year, I could only start talking to him at four o'clock in the afternoon.

27:37Why? That’s when he woke up, but you didn’t wake up at four o’clock in the afternoon. Over there, it was morning. So, what's the point of all that? What do you think it's for, the stock market? No, it's because HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants to make sure that there's always going to be somebody studying Torah 24 hours a day. You're sleeping here, and now, while you're asleep, they're already learning Torah. They're sleeping over there. Someone in the world, in Europe, in America, or anywhere, is learning Torah. Why? To give the world the fuel it needs to survive. Because if not for that, Hashem says, the whole world ceases to exist. No warning. Now, the Rambam writes further, in chapter 3 of Hilchot Talmud Torah, that no matter what a person's intellectual abilities are, The only way that he will ever succeed in truly learning Torah is with mesirat nefesh, sacrifice. Meaning it doesn't matter what your beginning IQ is. You could have the IQ of an Einstein or Einstein's pet.

28:51Does it make a difference? Whatever your beginning IQ is, if you truly sacrifice, you will become knowledgeable; you will know what you're talking about over time. If you don't sacrifice, nothing's going to change. Now, I actually mentioned a perfect example right before the shiur started. You know, there are a lot of smart people in the world, a lot of people that have built things, designed things, invented things. But if you put some of them in front of a Gemara, they're going to tell you, "What language is this?" They tell you, "What do you mean? You speak Hebrew, no?" "Yeah, I speak Hebrew, but I don't understand this stuff." "Why don't I just read it?" He goes, "Yeah, I read it five times, I still don't understand." "Okay, I'll put it in English. What do you want, ArtScroll, English? No problem." "No, no, what about French?" "Okay, French too. Korean, French, Arabic, whatever language you have, Gemara has been translated to it. Whatever you want." He reads it in every language, still doesn't understand. This guy's IQ is 5,000. What's wrong? How come you don't understand? Why doesn't he understand? The first day of Gemara, he's of course not going to understand. Why? He hasn't made the sacrifices. He hasn't made the spiritual and physical sacrifices in order to be gifted the gift of understanding the Torah.

30:08Yeah, you read him a story, you tell him a story, you read him a basic, "Uh, you know who created the world? Who took us out of Egypt?" Yeah, that stuff he will understand. But delving into the details of who and what and when, and simply why you shouldn't ask, is like asking how much something costs when you're not planning on buying. If you ask him that question five times, you won't get the answer. He doesn't have that brain; he doesn't have that wiring yet. On the other hand, you could have a kid... Like this young man in Eretz Yisrael that was born with Down syndrome. Now, he was interviewed with Rabbi Ephraim's father, Rabbi Chaim Kahlon. Rabbi Chaim Kahlon is not only a Talmid Chacham, but he's truly a tzaddik. And I'm not saying it because he's related to me or related to Rabbi Ephraim, he's just one of those people that if he's one of the 36, I wouldn't be surprised. He's just one of those people that's truly an unbelievable human being. And this was just a small example, a small example of what Torah can do. Now in this interview, they interviewed this boy, he's a man now, in his 20s, probably, I think, 22 or 24, something like that. He's interviewed next to his mom, his adopted mom. His mom adopted him.

31:34and uh, they asked her, "How was he when you first saw him, when you first met this boy?" She said, "He had the worst kind of Down syndrome. His tongue was out, his eyes weren't looking straight, he wasn't able to walk. The worst." We're not talking about, you know, some people, there's conditions. Some are, you know, they're relatively normal, they just look different. Some look and act, and everything's different. She said, "This boy, I saw him, I said, 'I have to help him.'" Now his mom, God bless her, she's invested her whole life in helping this young kid. She took him to all types of rabbis and all types of activities and all types of physical therapy and so on and so forth. But one day she met Rav Chaim Kanievsky. And she asked him, "Can you teach him Torah?" Absolutely. Someone wants to learn Torah? Absolutely.

32:38What do you think now, in America and the rest of the world, when you have a kid that has, let's call it, a deficiency? You know, in the politically correct world, you cannot say "retarded"; you have to say "deficiency." You cannot say someone is disabled; you have to say he has special treatment or whatever they call it. You know, deficiency—yeah, special needs, there you go. Special needs, okay, now special needs, now... Bottom line is, there's a deficiency here, right? Something's missing, something's off. Okay, now, what do we do? Where do we send this boy? You send him to where they sent me. Oh, you guys don't know? I was in special ed. You guys didn't know I was in special ed? I was in special ed. When I came to America, 30 years ago, 30 plus years ago, this gives some people that are in special ed today some hope. 30-something years ago. Hopefully, it gives you hope; I don't know, maybe it doesn’t. Over 30 years ago, I didn't speak English. I spoke the first three letters of the alphabet. Why? I saw it on the cereal box, and someone told me, "That's A, that's B, that's C." Okay, I know the alphabet, and then I found out there are a lot more letters. One time, after six months of being in fifth grade class, you know, the teacher asked a question. I understood what he said.

33:52understood what he said. He said, "Who has, what animal has the best vision?" And that's something I know: eagle, eagle. But I didn't know how to say "eagle," so I said, and the teacher's like, "What's the Israeli kid saying?" So one other kid that's been, you know, Israeli says, "Oh, he's saying 'eagle.'" The teacher was looking like, "Wow, how'd you know that?" I don't know, I knew it. It's like they thought I was a mute, I was, I was retarded. I didn't think, I was like, because I didn't speak, I was in an ESL class. now, after, when you're a kid 10 years old, you catch on quickly to a new language. So after the first year, I had already caught on to the language and I passed the ESL test. But because the public school system is itself They think that just because English is your second language, your brain is a second language too. Your brain is second degree. They don't realize that the rest of the world doesn't always speak English. They speak other languages: Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, Italian. There are other languages. So what do they do? Instead of sending me to a regular class, they send me to special ed.

34:53so my classmates were like 30 years old and I'm 11. And I see the guy has a beard. I said, "What happened to this guy? How is he still in my class? Is he the teacher? Is he a student? He has a beard!" One girl was like nine feet tall, this giant. I said, "Wow, well, they make giants in this school. I never saw such big people." I didn't know that they were all like literally 17 years old, still in second grade or fifth grade. So anyway, I was in special ed for a little while. Why? Because they thought I was, I was, I was deficient. And, um, little by little, I got myself out of this hellhole, but it took me two years. It took me two years to convince the schooling system to get me out of this place. The teachers eventually fought for me because they said, "Listen, he doesn't belong here. The test is too easy for him. He already knows the answer before we give him the question. Why is he here?" It's like, "Oh, well, he's special ed. What's special about him? He knows the answers." They said, "No, he doesn't speak English." They replied, "He speaks English better than you."

35:53So eventually I got out of it. I got to better classes. But the point is that sometimes there are special needs. So what am I trying to get to you? When someone in the traditional schooling system has any type of deficiency, today the most common epidemic that we have in the world is ADD. Everyone has ADD. You don't even have to go to the doctor. You can just claim you have ADD. have attention deficit disorder. I can't pay attention. I keep getting up. No, it just means you're human. That's all that means. It doesn't mean you have attention deficit disorder. Oh no, but I'm, uh, you know, I get tired. Okay, it means you're lazy. It doesn't mean you have attention deficit disorder. It just means you're lazy. You're lazy. You know, if I give you a video game, you'll play for nine hours straight. for an hour, but the paper shoot off five minutes, I get tired. Maybe, maybe I have, uh, I have some type of disease. No, it's called laziness. You're lazy and not interested. That's what it means. ADD is the biggest, fakest, fakest disease created. The vast majority of people

36:59it's just nonsense. It's just that teachers have gotten lazy, and students have gotten lazier. Parents want nothing to do with it. Why? They just want to give the kid a few pills to pacify him. "Just shut up, kid. Here's a pill. Stop bouncing around the walls, probably bouncing on the table." That's what kids do, though. They bounce against the walls. What do you want the kid to do, say, "Oh yeah, you know, just be a robot"? Want to go buy a robot? Sure, they sell it at Apple. so now everybody thinks that ADD... So what happens with these ADD kids and other kids that have any type of deficiency? They put them in special ed classes even if the kid is brilliant, even if the kid is a better mathematician than the teacher, even if the kid could write a book in first grade. They put him in, uh, no, no, because he jumps around or because he, uh, he has a cleft lip or because his eyes look in two different directions or because of whatever other mum that he has. Already, this is special needs. And what happens is, I learned from Rabbi Schreiner,

38:08He said it. When they asked him, how did you do this? How did you get this kid that had Down syndrome, that now, fast forward 10 plus years, he has now completed more than half the Shas, more than half the Talmud Bavli. He speaks normally. He's a Talmid Chacham. You ask him something, he'll give you an answer. He'll tell you a place, he'll tell you a source. You ask him a halacha, he'll show you which book it's in. They asked him, how did you do this? Did you give him some type of Kabbalistic medicine? He goes, yeah, it's called Torah. But how? He says, I did not put him in special ed. I put him next to everybody else. They said, yeah, but he's special needs. He goes, what's special? He has ears, he'll listen. He has a mouth, he'll talk. If he's going to be surrounded by a bunch of other people who are also special needs, then that's what he's going to aspire to be, just like them—people who are also special needs. Which means that he'll stay exactly where he started. He's never going to get better. But because I put him next to me, next to the rest of the talmidei chachamim, next to regular people who are not special needs,

39:24Now he aspired to be something better. Now he worked on himself to become something better. Now, when we have a shiur, we have our daf yomi, they just completed the Shas, Baruch Hashem. They just completed the Shas. I actually think he did complete the Shas. Guess what? Guess what? He asked questions like everybody else. In fact, when we say, "Anybody have questions?" if I don't look at him, he says, "What about me?" He's just like everybody else. Why? Because we treated him like everybody else. We didn't treat him like special needs. You said you would give them to us, but you took them from our classroom. You just removed them. It's not appropriate. I think that to put them in the classroom is the opposite. Children of this kind, once you put them in a regular classroom, you can improve them. Once you put them in their classroom, you can just remove them. It's up to them to learn. It's obvious that all of his development is because he's in our classroom, and you treat him like a friend.

40:31This, by the way, was, for me, as innovative as it could possibly be when it comes to the world of teaching, because I come from a world like you: special needs, special needs, regular, regular, advanced, advanced. I was in special needs; later on, I was in regular; and eventually, I got advanced in this high school that taught me that I came from a monkey. So, I was advanced at thinking that I came from a monkey. But guess what? There should never be special needs. because I come from a world like you: special needs, special needs, regular, regular, advanced, advanced. I was in special needs; later on, I was in regular; and eventually, I got advanced in this high school that taught me that I came from a monkey. So, I was advanced at thinking that I came from a monkey. But guess what? There should never be "special needs." why, with the power of Torah, anyone can be advanced. I saw this with my own eyes. Now, of course, it's much more difficult; it requires a lot more patience, right? It requires a lot more abilities and so on. But nonetheless, Rabotai, this is what the Rambam

41:46is telling us here is that the Torah, the success in the Torah, only comes through mesirat nefesh, meaning that it doesn't matter what your beginning stage is. If you make the required sacrifices—the living sacrifices, the sleeping sacrifices, the financial sacrifices, the, uh, just simply life sacrifices—you can become something special. You can become a genius. Now, many people that do not know what the Torah world really is, they go and they see a picture of, let's say, a kollel, a picture of a yeshiva, and they see hundreds and hundreds of young men and older men learning from books for years. Some with long beards, some with short beards, some with a hat, some without a hat. But all of them have books in front of them. All of them are learning. Some of them are debating with each other. Some are yelling. Some are monotone. But everybody, something's going on. And they're saying to themselves, like, why? How many times can you read that book? Like if everybody thinks, like I used to think, there used to be like one book. I didn't realize there are millions and millions and millions of books. You could read books 24 hours a day for a million years and still not finish with the Torah.

43:08Endless amount of Torah in the world. So you say, why? Why are you learning all this? For what? Why don't you go get a job? Thinking that they're like less. Once you actually meet these people, you find that many of them are pure geniuses. geniuses to the extent where they could literally reinvent the wheel, geniuses that could build rockets, geniuses that can and have done major things. One time, I remember the first time I was exposed to the Torah world almost 20 years ago. I was in Monsey, I was 17 years old, and I went to learn for a couple of days, and one of the guys that I met, he told me, you know this guy? He is employee number six for Microsoft. He's like one of the founders, almost, of Microsoft. I said, what is he doing here? He says, this is where he is 24 hours a day. He quit Microsoft, he now learns Torah 24 hours a day. And to me, I'm like, why?

44:11I didn't know, you know, 17 years old. Why? Why did you leave Microsoft? I knew what Microsoft was. Why did you leave Microsoft and you're learning from a book? Like, what's wrong with you? Until you start learning. So, the Rambam writes that these types of sacrifices, whether it's financial, career... All types of sacrifices are necessary in order for somebody to become somebody in the Torah world and eternity. Now, when a person gets to be somebody in the secular world, the truth is he can't take any of it with him. Because even if somebody becomes the richest man in the world, are they going to bury him in a different grave? No. Is his grave going to be bigger than anybody else's in a cemetery? No. may have, they may buy him a nice house around the grave, but the grave itself is still the same size. Nothing's going to change. Is he going to be able to take his, you know, lofty, heavy bank account with him? No. It stays true for a bunch of people, and some of them he probably doesn't like.

45:22All the money that he worked for his whole life, all the deals that he did, all the wheeling and dealing, all the anger, all the frustration, all the things that he did, made a bunch of money with it. Now, who's that money going to? It's not going to him. It's going to a bunch of other people. Surely some of those people that are getting the money are people he probably doesn't like. Surely some of them don't like him, but they like his money. So he worked his whole life to what? To pay somebody else's bills that he doesn't like? so what is he going to do? Okay, what about the houses? Houses also stay here. Cars stay here. Inventions stay here. Reputation? Who cares about it? You're dead. What can he take with him to the next world? Nothing. If a person believes that life is eternal, then the secular world literally loses its value very quickly. the more he goes into the Torah world. Because he realizes, okay, I need to make a living, but it cannot become my life. Making a living cannot become my life. Why? Because there's no point. Okay, you want to make money, whatever you want to make, whatever career you want to make, no problem. But it can never become your life because there's no point for it to become your life because you can't take it with you. Whereas this daf Gemara that took you nine hours to learn, that you can take with you.

46:41Why? Because they say, in Shamayim, every person arrives with his book. What book? What did you learn in your life? In the Beit Din of Shamayim, Chachamim say a person has to give a Shiur Torah for 40 days straight. 40 days straight. There are no breaks, by the way. But some say, and I'm giving you the low estimate, some say it's 188 days. A Shiur Torah for 188 days. people are impressed that I'm able to give a shiur for nine hours. You know, we've done it a few times already—three or four times. Shiur for nine hours straight. People are impressed by it, but they don't even realize this is not even a down payment of what you have to do in Shamayim. No breaks. No bathroom breaks, no snacks, no popcorn, no bisli, nothing. 188 days straight. And you can't give jokes; there are no jokes in Shamayim. That means you have to have an enormous amount of Torah. Now, what happens if you run out of Torah after two hours? Do I have to tell you what happens if you run out of Torah after two hours? I have to tell you? You're the expert. You know what happens if you run out of Torah after two hours. You don't go to Gan Eden. There's another place.

47:55There's another place that, because the Torah, Torah is what? Torah is fire. He said, ah, you didn't delve into the fire of Torah in the world, we'll delve into the fire somewhere else. So the rabbis taught. The Rambam writes, the rabbis thought that the Torah could only be fully comprehended by those who kill themselves over it. The Gemara in Masechet Berachot says, Reish Lakish, the ultimate Ba'al Teshuva, who used to be a mafia boss. He says, if you want to learn Torah, you have to be willing to put your life on it. Meaning, if someone says, "Either learn Torah and I'll kill you, or go to the Super Bowl and live," he says, "Kill me instead. Kill me, I'm not going to the Super Bowl." So Rambam writes, there are countless places in the Torah where a person must take great care not to interrupt his Torah study with frivolous conversation. As the sages said in Pirkei Avot, Chapter 4, Mishnah 11, whoever neglects Torah because of wealth will ultimately be forced to neglect it out of poverty.

49:20But whoever studies Torah, despite poverty, will ultimately fulfill it in wealth. One of the main problems that we constantly deal with when you tell people they have to learn Torah every day, is the excuse that the Yetzer Hara puts in everybody's heads, like, yeah, but I have to work. When am I going to have time to learn Torah? I have to work. I wake up in the morning, I'll pray, and then I gotta go to work. And then by the time I get home, I'm tired. So the Rambam writes, he says, listen, all those excuses are wonderful, but it's not gonna hold any weight. Why? Because you have 24 hours in a day. If you really wanna do something, you'll find a way to do it. You have 24 hours in a day. Somehow you found a way to do the remodeling on your house by yourself. Somehow, you found a way to go to the movie you wanted to go to. Somehow, you found a way to spend a couple of hours with the guys at the bar. Somehow, you found a way to go on a date. Somehow, you found a way to go to a restaurant. Somehow, you found a way to watch a show. Somehow, you found a way to do a bunch of other things that you're not allowed to do. But you found a way to do it. So how come the one thing that you're supposed to do, you can't find a way to do it?

50:43Meaning, yeah, everybody works. You're not the first person in the world that ever worked. Everybody works, since the beginning of time. Adam HaRishon was the first employee. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you want to make money, you have to sweat. Work is not only work, it's hard. Everybody works. You're not the only one. The Rambam writes in a letter, 900 years ago, he says he worked so much that by the time he finished his day, he finally had time to swallow his own spit. He had so many different things. He was the doctor for the king. He had all types of things. He had, I think, six, seven different professions on top of writing his sefarim and learning Torah. And everybody came to him for medicinal reasons and other reasons, advice, halacha, and so on. He says, finally, by the time he finished his day, he finally could swallow his spit. That's how busy he was. But yet, somehow he found the time. he finally had time to swallow his own spit. He had so many different things. He was the doctor for the king. He had all types of responsibilities. He had, I think, six or seven different professions on top of writing his sefarim and learning Torah. And everybody came to him for medicinal reasons and other reasons, advice, halacha, and so on. He says, finally, by the time he finished his day, he could finally swallow his spit. That's how busy he was. But yet, somehow he found the time. to write the Mishneh Torah, one of the foundations of our Torah in the world today. So a person that uses the excuse that "I'm too busy to learn Torah because I work, and I want to make money," the Mishnah says that neglect of Torah is not only not going to yield the person success, but in fact, whatever success they do get, they go on Wall Street, they make $100,000 a month,

52:10They go into the car business; they make $100,000 a month. They start a new app, a new technology company, and they start making a few million dollars. All that money is not going to have bracha. It's not going to have the blessing. Why? Because it did not come in a blessed way. It came at the expense of the Torah. He didn't learn Torah, which means that the Torah says that neglect will have a punishment in this world, which will mean that the person will go into poverty. Meaning all the money that he worked for, all the things that he did all those years, he's not going to enjoy the money. There are plenty of people that I know, myself included in the past, who made a fortune but never had a blessing, never had bracha in the money. Whether you made a hundred thousand a month or you made a million and a half dollars a month. At the end, somehow, you're out of money. All the money goes to a bunch of places you don't want it to go to. It goes to the IRS, goes to medical bills, goes to your enemies, goes to debt, goes to a bunch of places you don't want it to go to. What does that mean? When you're working so hard, no matter what you do, you're not really enjoying the money. You know, you go on a vacation, you're sick six out of the seven days. You buy a car, you hate it already a week later. The house, ah, I don't really like it. I remember when I bought my own apartment, and somebody came to me and told me, "Listen, they're building the first apartment building on Wall Street. You know, back then there used to be only commercial buildings." Somebody came to me and said, "Listen, they're turning the old House of Morgan, the old headquarters of J.P. Morgan, into an apartment building."

53:28and somebody came to me and told me, "Listen, they're building the first apartment building on Wall Street. You know, back then there used to be only commercial buildings." Somebody came to me and said, "Listen, they're turning the old House of Morgan, the old headquarters of J.P. Morgan, into an apartment building." almost 40 stories. Why don't you look into it? I said, okay, sounds interesting. I've been renting all these years. Let me see if I can buy a place. So they told me a place, a few million dollars. I said, no problem. Okay, bought. When is it going to be ready? All right, it'll be ready in a year from now or something like that, or seven months later. I said, okay, no problem. Gave them the money. And off to the races. Now, all this time, seven months, a year has passed. You know, I'm psyched up. I'm excited about this apartment. I got an apartment, 35th floor, 400 square foot balcony. The apartment itself is 2,000 square feet, which is bigger than most people's houses. Enormous, amazing apartment. The view is amazing. Amazing, right? So I'm excited. People ask me, so, so. I'm like, yeah, it's almost ready. It's almost ready. It's almost ready. Then it gets delayed by another six months. Then it gets delayed. Then there's a...

54:32Finally, it's ready. I show up to the place. "Oh, you want to get a walk-in, you know, before you sign everything and finalize everything?" I walk into the place. In two seconds, I tell the realtor, "I hate this place. Anybody want to buy it? I hate it. Hated it. I don't even know why." Anything you could say, it was a beautiful apartment. I mean, listen, two million dollars, you're going to make something beautiful. No idea. Hated it. I wanted to give up on the deal, but then I would lose money, and so on and so on. Long story short, I ended up buying it. But the point is, what does that mean? No bracha. You have the money, but you can't enjoy it. This is the vast majority of people. Even if you have the money, you don't enjoy it. You made a festive meal, but it doesn't taste good to you. It tastes good to everybody else except you. You worked on this meal for six hours, but you're the only one that hates it. Everybody else likes it. What does that mean? No beracha. That's cursed. That's why it's being cursed. And the Mishnah says that's a result of not learning Torah.

55:44Because you neglected Torah in order to cook a meal for six hours. You neglected Torah in order to make a few million dollars to buy an apartment. You neglected Torah in order to buy this car that you don't want to enjoy now. You neglected Torah to go do this, to go do that. So Torah says, okay, so even that wealth that you've acquired will be like poverty. You may not actually go poor literally, you may keep the hundred million dollars, but you won't enjoy it. You'll live like you're poor. Rabbeinu Yonah, in Shaarei Teshuva, in chapter 3, 14th section, writes that the mitzvah of learning Torah is the central mitzvah of the entire Torah. Meaning it's the foundation. And therefore, it has higher stakes. Just like the punishment for neglecting learning Torah is harsh, so is the reward greater than all of the other mitzvot. If you learn Torah, you've pretty much bought yourself Olam Haba. If you learn Torah and follow it, obviously. But if you don't learn Torah, it doesn't matter what you do. Why?

57:06You're missing the ingredient. You're missing the key ingredient. There are many people that are what we call robots that keep Shabbat. You know, they keep Shabbat, or at least they think they are, but they don't learn Torah. They sleep half the day, they go to shul, they eat cholent, they eat gefilte fish, they eat all types of food that somebody cooks for them. They hang out with a few guys. They'll even show up to the shul and beit knesset, but they'll socialize the whole time. The rest of the week, business, business, business. Some of them are Chassidim, some are religious or Orthodox, some are Modern Orthodox, all types. But Torah? You ask them, come for a shiur Torah at nine o'clock on a Tuesday, nah, tired. Come to the movies, come to the basketball game, yeah, yeah, no problem, I'll pick you up. I'll pick you up. It says that neglecting the Torah... has a very, very harsh punishment. It's a loss of this world and the next. Whereas learning Torah, a person that learns Torah seriously, gets both. Because if you ever meet anyone that knows a little bit of Torah, serious Torah, you'll see that they don't have the same mentality as everybody else. They don't walk around with the same stresses as everybody else. Although they may have similar issues, whether it be financial issues, kids, wife, husband, and this and that, people have the same problems recurrently—health, all that stuff. But their mentality, their attitude towards life's problems is completely different.

58:24the same mentality as everybody else. They don't walk around with the same stresses as everybody else, although they may have similar issues, whether it be financial issues, kids, wife, husband, and this and that. People have the same problems recurrently—health, all that stuff. But their mentality, their attitude towards life's problems, is completely different. their attitude towards losing a loved one. When someone dies, it is very different. When you see someone, for example, who is not religious lose a loved one or even a friend, you start seeing them cry hysterically, you know, going into a depression, start taking things—drugs, alcohol—losing themselves. But when you see a rav, you see a big tzaddik... Lose somebody? Yeah, they'll cry for a couple of days, but they never lose themselves. They go back to learning, they go back to their life. Not as if it didn't happen. It happened. But they know that this life is simply a corridor. The real life only begins after this life. So they don't lose themselves. While the secular person or the non-Torah person thinks, oh, this is the end of this person.

59:40That's it. No, no. It's just the end of your relationship with them here. That's what the end is. But he continues, she continues. If she followed the Torah, he followed the Torah, you should be happy. They're in a better place. But if they didn't learn the Torah, then yeah, you have something to cry about. But it's too late anyway. So a person that sees Torah for what it is, looks at the world, in so many words, with a different shade of glasses. When the sisters of the wife of Rav Ovadia, a"h (alav hashalom), came to her when they first got married, They were so poor, Rav Ovadia and his wife were so poor, their entire house was a single room. Now I don't mean a single room, it was a bedroom, like one bedroom. Like people say, "Oh, how big is your house? Oh yeah, I have one bedroom." No, no, I mean like the whole house was one room. The bathroom was outside of the house. It was like a public bathroom.

1:00:46was no like, you know, this is the room for the kitchen, this is the bedroom. This is no, no, the whole thing was like one, you know, just a square. Not exactly a studio; a studio has a bathroom, a studio has a few closets. No, this was a room. The situation was so dire, so poor, that one time someone came to meet Rav Ovadia to discuss halacha with him. And Rabbi Ovadia invited them in, and they sat at a table, similar to a dinner table, and they started discussing Torah. And the Chacham said that it was very, you know, there was nobody else there, and we were learning for a while, learning for an hour, hour and a half, and I was just wondering, it was getting late, where is Rabbi Ovadia's family? And then suddenly, I heard a cry, like a baby crying. I looked and there's no room, like where's this sound coming from? And then I realized, the kids are under the table waiting for us to finish because there's no other place for them to go. So she's waiting over there with the kids under the table until they finish learning Torah. Why? Because it was the primary thing for the world. Go ask a wife today to go do that—good luck with that one.

1:02:06So put you and your friend under the table and maybe bury both of you with the table. Nice American wife. So now, Rabotai, when her sisters, when the Rabbanit's sisters came to her and they said to her, "Why did you marry him? What are you going to eat? You have no food to eat. What are you going to eat? His books? What are you going to eat?" Forget big house, small house, car, no car. No. Eat food. What are you going to eat? He doesn't work. He learns Torah all day. How are you going to eat? Are you going to eat his books? And she took a lot of abuse. A lot of abuse from her friends and family. With the exception of her father. Her father was a very big fan of her. But the sisters were like a Yetzer Hara for her. And she withstood the test. Sometime later, when Rav Adria finally finished his first sefer, it was so highly admired that the government of Israel gave him a reward for it. Meaning, the government is a secular government, but it was such an extraordinary sefer that he received a reward from the government. That's how good it was.

1:03:28Imagine you write something. Yeah, of course, you get a few dollars, but the point is you write something about Torah and Hitler. Hitler himself writes you a thank-you letter for writing this book. That's how the government was in some cases. The Zionists were so anti-Torah. For them to give a reward for the sake of a sefer that has to do with Torah makes no sense. When there was the rewards dinner or event, Golda Meir, She wanted to, if she brought Rav Ovadia to the stage, she wanted to shake his hand. Rav Ovadia didn't shake her hand. Why? He can't shake the hand of a woman. Even though there are some poskim that give leniency if there are no feelings and so on and so forth. But Rav Ovadia says, "I don't touch a woman's hand. If it's not my wife, I can't touch her." She took offense to it. She was very offended. So then I believe it was the president or the prime minister, whatever it was, that was also an important person in the Israeli government, who didn't want to shake his hand because of that. Didn't want to shake his hand. But the point is that until then, until his book hit the world, they had to go through suffering, insults, and abuse from the people closest to them.

1:04:47Why? Because this is part of the sacrifice. When you make teshuva, when you change your lifestyle, when you live a religious life the way you're supposed to, it doesn't mean that the world is going to agree with you. In fact, the world is going to disagree with you many times. It's going to tell you you're a fanatic, you're crazy, you're too much. And that's what they mean as part of the test regarding sacrifices. You have to stay strong. Even if everybody else tells you you're fanatic and you're crazy and everything, as long as HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't think you're fanatic, in a bad way, as long as HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't think that you're doing anything bad, that's all you should care about. Now, there was a time when people, no different than today, thought that if you have a little bit of money, you can buy yourself into the Torah world. Meaning that even if you didn't delve into the Torah, you didn't learn, but if you give a little bit of a donation, or a bigger donation, then you're set anyway.

1:06:08Now, this is one of the places where the Chachamim discuss how it's actually the opposite of true. One of the sages that we have, Hillel HaZaken, had a very successful brother who wanted to, you know, there's Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel. So Hillel, his brother was very successful. made a lot of money, and came to Hillel later on in their life, and said, "Listen, I made a lot of money, you have a lot of Torah, but no money. Let's do this, let's do business. I'll give you half my money, and you give me half of your mitzvot, give me half of your Torah." And even though he wanted to agree, you know, it's his brother, he wants to give him, he's going to learn more, he didn't really care, okay, no problem. They say that a bat kol, a heavenly voice, came out from Shamayim and said that even if you not only gave him half your money, you gave him all the money in the world. you can never buy a mitzvah that has already been performed. Meaning, when you invest in the Torah world, it can only be for future mitzvot. For example, I'm going to invest $100,000 now for you to build something, for you to print some CDs, some USBs, to do some more things. I'm going to invest in the future. You can't buy a mitzvah that has already been performed. Now,

1:07:26But even if you do that, even if you donate to buy mitzvot, and you're a fantastic donor, you send, Be'ezrat Hashem, five, ten, twenty, a hundred thousand dollars every month, you're a fantastic human being, you're very, very generous. Don't ever think for a moment that that absolves you from learning Torah. Now, you may not be able to learn Torah all day like an avrech in a kollel, but you still have to learn Torah every single day, no exceptions. Now, one guy that was a very, very successful and generous Jew came to the Klausenberger Rebbe. And the Klausenberger Rebbe was known not only as an ish kodesh, but as a person who loved Am Yisrael. He built a Jewish empire in Germany, America, and Israel. And the Klausenberger Rebbe took nothing for himself, helped Klal Yisrael, built a hospital, built kollelim, built yeshivot, built schools for girls, all types of institutions to help society. Not just a yeshiva with just people learning Torah, but literally even things to help the rest of the world, Jews and non-Jews. So the need for money was dire and constant.

1:08:52Now, there are just so many rich people. And it's just, it's not exactly easy to convince rich people to give. Unless you're making sins, then they give a lot. But one guy, one philanthropist, came to the Rebbe. They brought him to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe started talking to him. And he says to him, "What do you do for a living?" And the guy innocently tells him, "My businesses are so successful that I don't really need to attend to them very much. Most of my time I spend vacationing, traveling, and playing some cards. Meaning, I'm making enough money, I don't need to worry about anything. I play some cards at the casino, play some cards with friends, you know, put a few hundred thousand dollars, no problem. Go on vacation, go..." I don't have to worry so much, thinking that this is perfectly fine. The Klausenberger Rebbe changed his tone instantly. And he looks at the man, he says, you're already 75 years old.

1:10:15You're already 75 years old, and you have not started thinking about your neshama and what's waiting for you in Olam HaBa. You say you believe in Hashem, you believe in reward and punishment. You have to know where you're going and before Whom you're going to give accounting for your life's activities. And this was just the beginning of the rebuke. As the rebuke continued, he tells the rich guy that's about to write a check for millions. For millions. We're not talking about a $100,000 check here. It's stock money. Millions of dollars. You could build buildings with this. The Klausenberger Rebbe says to him, you think that because of your charitable contributions, you're going to be in Gan Eden? With all of the tzaddikim of Am Yisrael, you're making a huge mistake. You're going to be brought to judgment for every minute of your life that you wasted. And in fact, the money that you contributed that came from winning your card games is going to land you in Gehenom.

1:11:32Because that money was used to feed students who are learning Torah. And since the money came from impure sources, it affected the hearts and minds of those young students. Now, they are not going to be able to learn properly, and you are going to be judged in Gehenom for that. You will be held responsible for it. Go show me one Rabbi that's gonna tell it to a multi-millionaire with a checkbook out and 10 figures ready when you have emet. There is no way you can buy this emet for a certain price. You could ignore this emet for a certain price. Now his students were upset because the guy left angry, didn't give a penny, obviously. Never did anybody speak to him that way. Never did anybody publicly embarrass him that way. So he ran away with his big checkbook. And the talmidim of the Rebbe were upset. Why? Because he couldn't build another building for the Rav.

1:12:51And he says to them, "I don't fool myself that even after a rebuke like I just gave him, he's going to immediately change his ways. But if until now he was likely to end his life believing that he was going to go straight to Gan Eden, perhaps at least now there's going to be a chance that in the final moments of his life, he's going to have the pangs of regret and do teshuva." And that arousal is worth more to me than all the money that we could have received from him. That's an ish emet. Page 222 of his biography of the Klausenberger Rebbe. Now, when you do what you do to help Klal Yisrael, when you do what you do to help society, the world, there's no price for that. The problem is that people think there is, and that's partly because the leaders, whether they be rabbis or not, have given them that impression that if you're a donor, you can pretty much buy Gan Eden. Even though there are clear verses in the Torah that you cannot bribe God, you cannot buy God, you can't buy Torah, you can't bribe yourself into Gan Eden. Even if you donate, you still have to learn.

1:14:14Even if you're the biggest donor in the world, you still have to fulfill the mitzvot. There's no get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to learning Torah. Now, many people learn Torah, Baruch Hashem. They watch our shiurim, take some of the advice we give, and read some of the books we recommend. And Sometimes they don't enjoy it. Sometimes the suffering in their life continues. They figure that as soon as they start learning Torah, putting on tefillin every day, and keeping Shabbat, life is going to change miraculously. Okay, you weren't keeping anything, or you weren't keeping as much. You figure you start putting on tefillin, praying three times a day, learning in the morning, and learning at night.

1:15:15You figure that, okay, that's enough. Hashem should miraculously fix all my problems. All of a sudden, your heart doesn't hurt, and your arm doesn't hurt, and your head doesn't hurt, and the bank fills itself up without doing... All of a sudden, everybody wants to hire you. That's what people figure. And don't worry, I thought the same thing. You would think that your problems would just go away. Why? Because you're doing what Hashem said. You're saying, Hashem said, learn Torah, and you're learning. Hashem said, keep mitzvot, and you're keeping mitzvot. But yeah, your problems don't go away. In fact, many times, people do not enjoy their learning in the beginning. They hate it. It's torture for them. They see a lecture for two hours, they're like, why is it so long? Are you almost finished? I just started five minutes ago. We just completed the introduction. You want to read a book? Yeah, what book? Oh, here's that book. Oh, do you have anything smaller?

1:16:16You have a smaller book, you know, for like kids with pictures. Actually, we do. But you have to read more than one book. Now, sometimes people don't enjoy it. The question is why? Anybody want to volunteer an answer? Chaviv. The question was why we don't enjoy reading the books, not why we don't want to. Sometimes people learn but don't enjoy it because they don't want to. No, they won't even if they're learning. Why would somebody not want to enjoy something if they're already doing it? It's like saying, "I'm going to eat, but I don't want to enjoy my food." Why not? Don't eat it. You have to elaborate. We're not Kabbalistic. Hold on. Go ahead. Go ahead. A lot of blockages. Blockages. It doesn't speak to them at first. It's like a small light. You can't really see in the beginning. You just keep going. It gets bigger. Your first answer was better than the second answer. No? You're on the right track. Go ahead. The sins they've committed taint their soul. Committed? Committed.

1:17:37The sins they've committed, the sins they commit, taint their soul, and they can't enjoy Torah. Page 5a. It says the following: If a person has suffering, has misfortune, he should scrutinize his ways. As it says... In Eicha, Lamentations, chapter 3, verse number 40 by Jeremiah, "Let us search and examine our ways and return to Hashem." Now, if a person fails to find, if after looking at his own actions, He still fails to find his flaws. He says, "Listen, I have suffering. Nobody has suffering like me. You don't understand how much I'm suffering. I'm in Gehinnom in this world already. But I'm doing everything Hashem said. I'm keeping Torah, I'm learning Torah, I'm doing mitzvot. But Hashem says, if you have misfortune, if you have suffering, review your actions. What happens if you don't find it?"

1:19:03in your eyes, you're crystal clear, you're good. If he fails to find his fault, then he may be assured, meaning for sure, the problem is that he's being punished for his Torah study. Now, wait a minute. If the guy says, I look at my actions, I looked at the Torah, Torah says, do mitzvot, learn Torah, and I'm doing all of that stuff. But I'm still suffering. Every time I open a sefer, I fall asleep. Every time I go to Beit Knesset, I can't wait to leave. Every time I daven, I can't wait for it to be over. I'm not enjoying it, and on top of it, I have problems. I have financial problems, this problem, that problem. How come I'm having all that stuff? He says, look at your actions, review them. He says, I look, and I can't find anything. Oh, if you can't find anything, then it's definitely the cause of your bitul Torah, your Torah study wasting time. What do you mean, wasting time? I just told you I learn Torah. I told you I learn Torah, so what wasting time are you talking about? So the Gemara says...

1:20:13He says that, what does it mean, bitul Torah in this case? He says, the fact that you think you're flawless, the fact that you think that everything that you're doing is perfectly crystal clear, that you're good, that you should be getting all the rewards that your mind tells you, means for sure the Torah that you're learning is not enough. You have no idea what you're talking about. Because had you known enough Torah, you would know that you're making a lot more sins than you think. Let's just think about it this way. Every day, a Jew is supposed to pray three times a day. Three Amidahs. Now, Rav Galinsky, zt"l, used to use a verse from Tehilim, that says, 'Some are in chariots, some are on horses, but we, in the name of Hashem.'

1:21:14And he says, some people need to go on their vacation in chariots and cars. Some people go on their vacation on a horse. We go on vacation as soon as we say, already our mind left the Beit Knesset, we're in Tahiti, we're in Honolulu, we're on Wall Street. We're not thinking about God at all. We're thinking about all of our problems that suddenly arrive in our mind. ...so already you said in reality you're not thinking about it, you're thinking about, "Oh, I forgot to buy groceries. I can't believe I forgot to buy groceries. What are we going to eat tonight?" Okay, Hashem, Baruch atah Hashem, again Avraham. Avraham, Avraham, my kid Avraham. I can't believe he fell today. My kid Avraham fell today. I don't know what I'm going to do. Oh, I can't believe it. My mom's yahrzeit is coming up. Every bracha, instead of thinking of what you're praying and who you're praying to, you're thinking about how it is relevant to your life. Oh, I hope the market goes up next week because I really want to sell before tax time. Oh, because...

1:22:17...the whole time we're thinking about this, we're thinking about this instead of talking about who we're thinking about. When are we finally reminded that we're actually talking about Hashem? At the end, when we take three steps back and say "Oseh Shalom." Why three steps? Like I told you guys last week, finally you're supposed to recognize the whole time you were in front of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, hence the reason why we say vidui... Right after, technically, we should be doing what we do before Amidah. We should be confessing all of our sins before Amidah. Why? Because Amidah is the highlight of the prayer; it's the high point. So if I'm at the high point, I just spoke to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and He and I are like this now. I said, "Hashem, you're the best, thank you, I love you," all the good things I said, right? "You are the greatest." So why am I saying I'm sorry all of a sudden? If anything, I should be saying, "Hashem, give me, give me, give me." No, instead, what am I saying? "Hashem, I sinned. Hashem, I'm a murderer. Hashem, I'm this. I stole. I lied. I cheated. I'm the worst person on earth." That's what we do. We do it every day. We do it every day.

1:23:31Ephraim says, most likely you made all those sins during the prayer. You thought about stealing, you thought about lying, you thought about going somewhere else, you thought about all the aveirot in the world at some point during your prayers. Because your head is not in the prayer. Your head is somewhere else. If our head is in the right place, then it's in the right place, and our prayer could be something that we enjoy. Now, a person who thinks that their suffering should not be coming to them means that they have not learned enough Torah to know about all the crimes that they actually are committing. Now, of course, there's no such thing as a righteous person who does not sin. But hence, the point is that the Chachamim say that everybody sins. If you think you haven't committed sins, that means you haven't learned enough. Or perhaps you've learned from the wrong teachers who tell you that no matter what you do, Hashem loves you, even though the Torah says otherwise. Hashem doesn't love everybody. There are certain people Hashem says, "I hate them." There are certain people that Hashem hates.

1:24:52Now, even though His hate is better than our love, the point being is that there are people that He hates. The Gemara also goes into other things. What are other reasons why we suffer? The Gemara says that sometimes Hashem brings suffering to people as an affliction of love. ...the person is doing really good but he committed some sins in his life and therefore Hashem does not want this person to go to Gehinom, so He gives him some of the suffering in this life. Or perhaps Hashem is testing him in order to build him. He wants this person to one day handle something very big and very precious, but you cannot simply give the keys to the castle to a three-year-old. So in order to get the three-year-old to become fit to be the king, you have to train him. How do you train him? With difficulty. And there are several other reasons why Hashem gives people suffering. Sometimes it's for sins that they've made in a previous life. For the most part, everyone in this world is a reincarnation of somebody that already lived here before. The Arizal goes into depth about it in Sefer HaGilgulim, how people, their souls have been here, they've reincarnated, and

1:26:14The reason why is because they have to fix something. They messed up somewhere, something in their previous life, and they're brought back into this world in order to fix something. And sometimes they suffer in this world, in this life, because of something they did in their previous life. And you're gonna say, "Yeah, but that's not fair that I don't remember." Yeah, but if you remembered, then it wouldn't be a test. It wouldn't be part of the test. In fact, it's to your benefit that you don't remember your previous life. Because if you remembered your previous life, it would ruin your existing life. Because if suddenly you woke up in your mid-30s or 40s with a wife and three kids, and suddenly you remembered your previous life, you were married to a different woman, instantly your love for your wife decreases. Instantly, your love for your children decreases. Instantly, your value of your own life decreases. Why? Because you now are living in the past.

1:27:15Instantly you start feeling bad about things that happen but are no longer relevant, like somebody's father died in a previous incarnation. Why would you want to remember that? One of the greatest gifts that Hashem gave us is forgetfulness. So sometimes, we suffer because of a previous life. Sometimes, we suffer for our own protection. We're making a mistake. We made a wrong decision. We made a deal... with somebody that Hashem knows is not a good person, and Hashem makes the deal go bad really quickly, while it's still small. Because He knows that if the deal goes well, you're going to do a bigger deal and lose a lot more. Sometimes you think, I can't believe that I lost $5,000 on this deal. But Hashem knows that if you would have made money on this deal, you would have invested a lot more money and the guy would have stolen it from you. It happened to me one time. One time, I had a guy come to me and tell me, "Listen, I want to do these things. I need an investor to do these stores and malls." At the time, I had a lot of money, and I said, "No problem, I'll do it with you." I already liked the guy. I liked the deal. I said, "No problem, I'll do it with you. How much do you need?" He said, "Oh, maybe $150,000, $200,000." I said, "No problem, I got it for you whenever you're ready." I said, "Okay." So, he tells me, "I got this trip coming up. Can you spot me $5,000?"

1:28:42give it back to you later on. I said, "No problem." If I'm already thinking in my head, "I'm going to give this guy a couple of hundred thousand dollars in a month or two, why do I care about five thousand dollars?" Well, the guy took five thousand dollars and said goodbye to both of them, and they disappeared, never to return. Now, in the beginning, I said, "I can't believe this guy stole five thousand dollars from me." How dare he steal $5,000 from me? But then I'm thinking to myself later, Baruch Hashem, that he stole $5,000 from me. Why? I was ready to give the guy $200,000. If he would have asked for half a million, I would have given it to him. I liked him so much. God did me a favor. And this happens all the time. If you look at the picture clearly, you'll always see that even the bad comes for a good reason. Sometimes suffering comes to us in order for us to increase our reward. What does that mean? If you study Torah in luxury, let's say, for example, you're studying Torah while eating candy. You're studying Torah while eating Bissli, Bamba, and potato chips, and

1:29:55You're studying Torah while someone is serving you coffee five times in one shiur. You're studying Torah with your legs hanging on top of the table. You're studying Torah fully healthy. Everything's good. You're like in the Taj Mahal. All you need is somebody to take some feathers and do it for your feet. You're in perfect shape. And then there's a guy, every second, he's in a shiur, he's in agony. His leg hurts. His arm hurts. He thinks he's having a heart attack. His head's about to explode. But he's going. And he's not giving up. And he's going to go through it. And his tooth hurts. And he's not giving up. And his wife is sending him messages that she can't stand this life. And she hates everything. And he's doing. And he's going. And he's next to you. You're getting the little feathers on your feet. And this guy, misken, the poor guy, he's like, "Oh, I'm going. Hashem, I want this Torah. I want this Torah." Now, does anybody here actually think rationally that the reward for their Torah is the same? Not even close. The one guy with the Bissli and the Bamba, he's going to get some Bissli and Bamba as a reward. In comparison to the other guy that's going to get worlds. Worlds. Why? He studied Torah while eating Bissli and Bamba and enjoying this world and having a good time.

1:31:19So it's good you studied. Chazak u'Baruch. You did good. But the other guy is dealing with agony and pain and still overcoming it. That shows you love Torah. So sometimes Hashem, when Hashem sees that you love His mitzvot, that you love His Torah, and He wants to reward you even more, He'll give you suffering. Why? He says, you're already doing it. You already love it. And I know that you're going to be able to withstand the test. So why not pay you more? Anyway, this life is maximum 70, 80, 90 years. Big deal. I'm going to give you more for eternity. Okay, so you suffer for an hour more. You suffer for a week more. You suffer for a month more. But the eternal reward, you're going to thank me for it. The other guy eating Bissli, not so much. But if they both go to Gan Eden, what's the difference? What could be more? They were both in Gan Eden. That's a good question. What's the difference between one Gan Eden and another? Fantastic question. Now, just like Hashem is not limited in the things that He can do in this world,

1:32:26He can create something from nothing. He's the only one who can create something from nothing. We can innovate as human beings. You could take some water, put some coffee in it, and all of a sudden you have coffee. You could take some sugar and make it sweet coffee. You could take this coffee and somehow put some other chemical into it and it becomes gasoline or something. I don't know. You could innovate. You could take some pieces of metal, make it into a TV or into an iPad or some computer or build it into a building. You could take something that exists and innovate into something else. Hashem can create something from nothing. He's the only one. Meaning that He's unlimited. He's not limited in time, meaning to Him, the past, the present, and the future are all the same. Whereas to us, The present is the only thing that we can understand, barely even. We cannot really understand the past very much, because it's beyond us. It's something that's already passed, so you don't usually remember everything that happened in the past unless you have an unnatural memory. The future is usually something that drives us to anxiety because we are always afraid of the future.

1:33:31and the present is something that we usually forget about because we're either living in the past or we're living in the future. To Hashem, it's all the same, and He doesn't have anxiety. He's not limited to time. He's not limited to space. He's not limited in any way, shape, or form. Just like He's not limited in this world, He's not limited in the real world. Meaning that His ability to give you a reward does not have a limit. And you're your body here is limited, which means that even if He wants to reward you in this world, you're limited. He is limited in essence in giving you reward in this world because of your own physical appearance, your physical ability. Your body can just enjoy a certain amount. But once that body is eaten by the ground, and the real you, your neshamah, leaves, goes to the next world, you are now not limited. So the amount of reward that He can give you is not limited. And not limited means that it could be, let's say, Gan Eden Stage A,

1:34:40which is good, and then there's A+, which is better, and then there's A++, which is better, and then there's, you know, there's different levels. And the Chachamim explain that even the lowest Gan Eden that exists is much, much better than anything this world could ever offer. But needless to say, the reason why, for example, the Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah says that every year on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem opens the books of the living and the dead. Now, we can understand why He opens the books of the living. He looks at us, we're alive, Baruch Hashem, and He says, what did Yaron Reuven do this year? Oh, Yaron Reuven made some mitzvot, okay, so check here. Yaron Reuven made some sins, okay, check there. Okay, there's a reward for the mitzvot. The punishment will be put on hold because he got some already, Baruch Hashem. And that's what he has, we're living. And the same thing for everybody else, right? So why does He open the book of the dead? They died already. Because He also checks them. He says, wait a minute, he died, but he left something behind. This chacham, this rabbi, this tzaddik, he left something behind. This wicked person left something behind. What did he leave behind? Now on one hand, the wicked guy, what did he leave? He left two kids that didn't know any Torah, any mitzvot, and both of them married goyim. So each time that they exist with their non-Jewish spouse, they're making a sin. Well, who's at fault?

1:36:04The father, the mother, they're at fault. So he says, "Ah, your kids that are still alive made more sins. And in fact, they had kids with their non-Jewish spouse—that's even more sins. And those kids are making sins. Guess what? Not only are they going to get punished, but the parent—the parent that left this world, that actually caused this to happen, that sent him to public school, that sent him to play baseball instead of to learn Torah—that parent gets punished even further." On the other hand, if somebody did something good, for example, somebody died and left their inheritance, instead of for their kids to buy a third house, he left their inheritance for more people to do teshuva. He donated to Be'ezrat Hashem. Now, we take the money, we invest it for people to do teshuva, CDs, USBs, movies, and so on and so forth. Free shiurim like today, all this costs money as employees. So now... They open the book. HaKadosh Baruch Hu opens the book. He says, oh, let's see. He had a million dollars left. Let's see what happened with this million dollars. Oh, it went to Be'ezrat Hashem. What did Be'ezrat Hashem do with this money? Oh, they got some CDs. They got some of this. They got some of that. Okay, so what happened further? Oh, look at these CDs. Another 100,000 Jews did teshuva. How many mitzvot did those 100,000 Jews make?

1:37:18Look, he made five thousand a day. He made a thousand a day. He made a hundred a day. He did this. He did this. All of those mitzvot, where do they go? They go to the guy that died. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, look what you have, look what you left in the world. The money that you left is now producing you dividends. So now you're in Gan Eden level one, but that's not yours anymore. Why? Because you have a billion more mitzvot now and... than you had last year. We have to take you to level number five. Level number five is nothing like level number one. What is it like? Rabbi Shmuel Levitz gave a description. He says, the fire, the Gemara in Masechet Berachot says that the fire in this world, the highest level of fire, let's say lava, is something that you cannot even stand next to without wearing some type of body suit or body armor of some kind. And the highest level of fire in this world is only 1/60th, 1/60th of the level of fire in Gehinom. So how do you compare this to? He says, if let's say you have two people, one guy is inside a fire, one guy is outside of a fire. He's just hanging out like us.

1:38:40He says the difference between them, the guy that's inside a fire, that's getting burned, Hashem yinkom damo, and the guy that's just hanging out healthy, sitting here on a nice comfortable chair, he says that difference is the difference between this world's fire and the fire in Gehinnom, only the first level. Now the difference between the first level and the second level is again that. Another 60 times. So it's not 60 times the original number, it's 60 times 60. And the second and the third level, and so on and so forth. Now, the same goes with the reward. The reward in this world, the greatest good that you can get in this world, is nothing in comparison to the next world. But that's just the first level. You go to the second level of Gan Eden, it's 60 times 60. Actually, in fact, when it comes to good, it's 500 times. a separation of 500-fold. Meaning, if you take all of the good of all of the people that ever lived in history, in all of their lives, let's say you have, for example, I gave this example the other day, last week I believe it was, let's say you have a person's average life. Let's say it's a hundred years just for argument's sake. Out of the hundred years, he doesn't really live a hundred years and enjoy a hundred years. He enjoys, let's say, maybe 20.

1:40:0015. Why? Because at least 30-35 years he's sleeping. Okay, then the other 35-45 he's working. Then the rest of it is eating, bathroom, errands, and so on. Out of all hundred years, maybe he enjoys 15 years. Now let's say you take just the 15 years part ...of not just his, but all of the people that ever lived in history. Right now, you have almost 8 billion people. The previous generation had about 6.5 billion. The generation before that had about 6 billion, and so on and so forth. All of these people, billions and billions of people from the beginning of time all the way to today, and you just take the good part that they had. You put it all in one box. You give it to one person. All that joy to one person—that's not even a down payment for what a person will benefit from in the lowest level of Heaven. the separation between the lowest level of Heaven and the next level—not the highest level, just the next level—is 500-fold. Hence, the reason why the tzaddikim continue benefiting from the mitzvot they made even 2,000 years ago is because Hashem does not have a limit to how much He can reward a neshama, because that neshama is also not limited since it's a piece of Him.

1:41:18So now, when a person learns Torah, you came here, you're going to be here for a couple of hours, maybe longer. Because since we just finished the introduction, we're going to see how long the shiur is going to be. The key is, now, you're going to get a reward for every second you were here. Why? Because we learned Torah. Aside from me making a few jokes that are terrible, we learned some Torah. Now, you're going to get a big present from HaKadosh Baruch Hu for this Torah that you learned. All the good that everybody ever had in history is not going to be even a down payment for the shiur Torah that you attended or that you watched. Oddly, people that wanted to come but didn't feel like coming—they went to the basketball game instead, they went to watch a movie instead, they went on a date with a girl that they're not married to instead, and they don't plan on getting married, like the guy who is not planning on buying anything but asks how much. The punishment is just the same, so that's why the Gemara says if a person has suffering

1:42:30And he doesn't know where it's coming from. It's only because he's imagining himself to be spiritually flawless. But in reality, he has to be certain that he's not properly fulfilled his obligation of learning Torah. If you don't know what sin you've made, that means you don't know enough Torah. It's not that you didn't make any sins. And the reality is, if you're not enjoying the mitzvot, it's only because you're still sinning big sins. Everybody sins. Everybody sins. Let's not fool ourselves. Everybody sins to some extent. But the sins that kill our joy The sins that kill our connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu are the big ones. The karet sins. Now if, let's say for example, you ate and you forgot to do a blessing. You forgot to do a blessing. You drank something and you forgot if you did a blessing, you didn't do a blessing. And since it's a rabbinical mitzvah to do a blessing, if you forgot whether you blessed or not, you don't do a blessing because it's much worse to do two blessings and say Hashem's name in vain than to not do a blessing.

1:43:39now, it's not good to not do a blessing, but if you don't know if you did a blessing or not, the obligation is don't do a blessing. Now, if you didn't do a blessing and you drank or you ate, it's still a sin; it's not a mitzvah. That sin is not good, but it's not wasting seed, it's not being with your wife when she's niddah, it's not eating pork. It's not eating on Yom Kippur. It's not eating, you know, chametz on Pesach. These are all karet sins. If you drank this without a blessing, okay, it's not great for your neshama, but it's not killing your connection with Hashem. Say, I'm sorry, be more careful next time. Say the words out loud, break your blessing into three. Whatever it is, when you break your blessing into three, it gives the blessing more meaning. You look at the food, don't start chewing it before you bless. You know, don't be an animal, and so on and so forth. Be more careful with the blessing. You won't forget...

1:44:47But when it comes to doing teshuva for it, it's relatively easy to do teshuva for it. On the other hand, if you slept with a woman that's not your wife, you have a serious problem. Why? You just disconnected yourself from HaKadosh Baruch Hu and you need to work hard to fix that. you just wasted seed on purpose, not that you went to sleep and it happened. I'm talking about you watched some movie, you looked at some magazine, you went to some club, or you just simply lost your mind. Whatever you did, you decided, "I want to go to Gehinnom, I'm going to waste seed." You did that, even if it's one time. Guess what? It's not that Hashem is going to punish you in Gehinnom right this second. All of a sudden, you start feeling your whole body on fire. No. What's going to change? All of a sudden, you're going to open your sefer Torah. You're going to read the parashah that you usually enjoy. You enjoy learning about Moshe Rabbeinu. You enjoy learning about Rabbi Akiva. You enjoy learning about HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You enjoy. All of a sudden, you're like, I don't feel like doing it. You go to the Beit Knesset. Usually, you like it. You see your friends. You see the Rabbi. All of a sudden, you get to the Beit Knesset. You're like, I can't wait for this to be over.

1:45:58Wow, so long. So long. What long? We haven't started. The Kaddish. What long? How come you don't like it? Disconnect. The spiritual disconnect. The reason why you're not enjoying the mitzvot is because you're still making big sins that are constantly disconnecting you. So even if you're learning Torah every day, Every day you're learning Torah because you go to yeshiva, you go to kollel. But as long as you're making these big sins, all of the good, all of the new wires, if you will, the spiritual wires that are reconnecting you to Hashem, you yourself are chopping them off. You're building one day, two days, three days without a sin, four days without a sin, a week without a sin. You're getting back. You're starting to feel a little bit, a little bit. You're starting, you know, something is moving. And all of a sudden, Ah, you're back to square one. All of a sudden, you're depressed again. All of a sudden, you're suicidal again. All of a sudden, you want to go back to the secular life again. What happened? You made a sin. You made a sin. You made a big sin. And that cuts you off again. It's like building a house and destroying it at the same time.

1:47:06As crazy as that sounds, that's what we do to ourselves when we waste zera. When we go with a woman that we're not married to. When we go with our own wife and she's niddah. When we do a lot of things that Hashem says, these are a big deal. These are a big deal. Now, most people that make these big deal sins, these karet sins, It's usually because they're ignorant of the consequence. And the Gemara says that a person does not really understand what his obligation is in the world. So, the Gemara gave us clarity on what we're really supposed to do. Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair said, He says, he gives us direct instructions of what to do, how to attain even a level of Ruach HaKodesh. He says that a person

1:48:36She studied Torah, and that studying Torah brings a person to zehirut (watchfulness). Meaning that a person is going to be conscious of the transgressions and is going to refuse to do them. He's not going to be as prone to making sins. After that, further studying is going to bring him to zerizut (diligence). which means he's going to make a proactive effort to avoid sins. He's not going to go to certain places. He's not going to hang out with certain people. Then he's going to get to a level of cleanliness, meaning that he's going to get to a point of not making sins, at least not the big ones, because of his constant thoughts of running away from these things. Then the cleanliness is going to get him to a point of asceticism, which is even not allowing himself things that are allowed because he wants to be really holy. He's allowed to hang out with certain people, but he knows that hanging out with them is going to be a waste of time. So he'd rather study Torah instead. He's allowed to eat certain foods, but he says, why should I eat certain foods right now? Why should I eat three meals a day? I can eat once; it's enough. I don't need to eat three times a day. Who am I, a dietitian here? I eat once an hour, once a day, it's enough. You're allowed to eat three, five times a day if you want.

1:49:55But you really need to. He's getting even to a level like this. And little by little, he keeps going and gets to a level of tzidkut, purity, piety. This is the same system that the Mesillat Yesharim, The Path of the Just, the Ramchal, describes in a slightly different order. But the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 20b, gives the details. The person follows this instruction set. The Gemara says he gets to a level of Ruach HaKodesh. And not only that, he can even get to such a high spiritual level that he could literally revive the dead. See somebody dead, say, "Hashem, I don't want this person to die." Hashem says, "You said it, I'll do it. No problem." That's how high a person, a human being, can get to. There are clear instructions on how to achieve that. ...not easy; it doesn't happen overnight. Even if it takes one year, it takes a long time. But the point is, a person can sanctify themselves to such a level, and such people have existed. So, a person that sins and ruins that obviously does not know his own potential, and obviously does not know how much reward he can get, not only in the next world but even in this world. Imagine you have such a clear understanding of what your role is in the world...

1:51:17Now, the Gemara doesn't just say this, though. See, it only teaches this after it teaches in the previous pages a few other things. It says that there is a blessing that you make when you see beautiful people. There are certain people that are exceptionally beautiful. that lived in previous generations. In today's world, the most beautiful person is ugly in comparison to the beautiful people that lived in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Their skin literally shone. It was like a diamond. Now, And there's a blessing that you make when you see certain types of people. So the Gemara says, wait, are you now allowed to look at people? Are you allowed to look at people? No, no, no. There is a blessing for it if you see it, but you're not allowed to stare. So why are you not allowed to stare? It says, because the Torah says that you have to, ונשמרתם מכל דבר רע,

1:52:21that you shall beware of everything that's evil. What's evil? Evil are things that will entice you to promiscuity and immorality. You look at an immodest woman, it's going to give you thoughts, and that's going to lead you to waste seed and so on. So here we see that before we learn how to become really holy, we're being taught what to stay away from. But then the Gemara continues, Even before that, it says that when a person jokes around instead of being serious when it comes to Torah, he likes to joke around. So Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says, someone that you tell him serious stuff, tell him Hashem says this, Hashem says that, and he likes to make a joke. likes to make one of these comments, that's a joke, he likes to make fun of the Rabbi, he likes to make fun of the Torah, and so on. He says, oh, that guy, guaranteed Gehenom. Wait, you just told me about Gan Eden, what's this Gehenom stuff? He goes, no, no, no. We're going first, now we're reversing, we're not going forward. We only told you the good stuff of being able to be really holy,

1:53:39After we discussed what to stay away from. Why? Because the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 17a, which is three pages before all of this stuff, says that Gehenom has two daughters. And these daughters say, have, have. All day. Give me, give me. He said, what give me? He said, give me all these reshaim. Let me pay them, Hashem. It's my turn now. my turn. All these wicked people that went against You for 70, 80 years in this world, it's my turn to handle them. What's this lesson? The lesson is, if you're not enjoying the Torah, you're not enjoying mitzvot. It's only because you're still sinning. And you're still sinning because of one of two reasons. Either you don't know the reward that you're going to get in this world and the next, being able to be really holy, being able to understand your role in the world, clarity, unlimited reward, or worse, you don't know the punishment. You don't know Gehinnom's two daughters that are waiting for all of the wicked people.

1:54:57One or the other is missing in your system. Either you don't know or don't believe that there's punishment, or you don't know or you don't believe there's reward. Because that's the only reason why anybody sins. It's either reward or punishment. So when somebody tells people that there's no punishment... After putting us in Galut for 2,000 years, after giving us a Yetzer Hara, After creating sins, He is going to punish us if we do a sin? That sounds like a monster. That's indecent. That's like blaming the victim. Today, because of how long the Galut has gone on, there isn't a Jew in the world who deserves punishment, no matter what he does. We're being given such a bad impression about God.

1:56:08That's what I said before. We say God doesn't need anything. He doesn't take anything from you. You can't do anything for Him. But when He gets angry, you're in trouble. That's a monster. That's not God. What are they simply doing? In so many words, they're destroying the entire Torah because they're saying that there's no point to keep the Torah since there's no reward and there's no punishment. If people told you there's only reward no matter what you do, then guess what? You're going to do whatever you want to do. If they tell you there's no punishment no matter what you do, same concept, you'll do whatever you want to do. The only way that someone would comply with the Torah is when there is a reward and punishment. Now, many people like to quote the Chafetz Chaim. Especially when we speak out against resha'im, we mention their names, they say, "Oh, Lashon Hara, Lashon Hara, the Chafetz Chaim, Lashon Hara." First and foremost, you should know the laws of Lashon Hara. Not only allows for you to speak against wicked people, but actually obligates you. The Chafetz Chaim, laws of Lashon Hara, chapter 4, halacha number 7 and 8, says that a person is allowed to repeat the wrongdoings of a person who was raised in a religious environment but went off the derech. And the reason is because if we allow a wicked person

1:57:33continue going unchecked in our own community and we don't take a stand against evil, our silence is not counted as righteousness but rather as foolishness for allowing such a cancer to go unhindered. So, even if you have somebody in your own community that's off the derech, if you don't start telling people, "Listen, make sure your kids stay away from this kid," it's not just a warning—you're warning people from a danger. This kid is no longer keeping mitzvot, so tell your kids not to hang out with them anymore. Yeah, but he's only a kid. One is only a kid. He's putting your kids in danger. Further, in the Chafetz Chaim, Klal number 8, Se'if number 5, he says the prohibition against speaking Lashon Hara applies only when spoken about someone who is considered amitecha, which means your people, part of your people. This refers to people who observe Torah and mitzvot. So if a person does not keep Torah and mitzvot, this law doesn't apply to them. However, regarding people who are recognized as apikorsim, meaning people that say things that are against the Torah, they say that there's no resurrection of the dead, or that there's no reward and punishment, or that there's no Gehinnom, or that there's a, what's the point of people learning Torah, things like that, that are against the foundation of the Torah,

1:58:59or that they think that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't write the Torah, or that they think that we came from a big bang, or any nonsense like this that's against the foundation of the Torah. These are called apikorsim, heretics. To speak against them is a mitzvah. To disparage them and shame them is a mitzvah. To do it to their face and behind their back is a mitzvah. For everything that one witnesses or hears about them, meaning, usually, you're supposed to witness something yourself to make sure it's true. But once you know this guy is an apikoros, even if you don't know if it's true or not, you just heard it, and you're not really sure, it's still allowed. It's a mitzvah to speak against him. You don't have to verify. Why? Because he's already known as an apikoros. He's already known as a heretic. And the Torah says in Leviticus 25:17 and 19:16, that a person should not wrong his fellow and do not act as a talebearer among your people. But heretics don't fit under this category.

2:00:11For they do not act as your people. They're not, you know, these heretics, these apikorsim, they're not considered part of Amitecha. Like when we speak against people like Manis Friedman, or Dror Kasuto, or Goldberg, all of these people that literally go against the Torah on a regular basis in their own conniving way. You know, calling themselves a rabbi, but saying things that are against the Torah. That's actually a mitzvah. And it's a mitzvah that's an obligation because you're warning the public about someone they don't even know is dangerous because he looks kosher. So, here we see, Rabotai, that the Chofetz Chaim's laws of Lashon Hara are a little bit different than what people think they are. And he says that We follow this practice that's learned in Avot D'Rabbi Natan, which states: "Those that hate You, Hashem, I will hate. And those that rebel against You, I will dispute." And a heretic, an apikores, is one who denies the laws and prophecies of Israel, whether it's the Written Torah or the Oral Torah, even if he says that the entire Torah is true, except one verse. Needless to say, a gezerah shavah, or grammatical details.

2:01:39And this includes even kal va'chomer. Even if he intentionally wishes to destroy it. The point is, Rabotai, is that people who manipulate the Torah in any way, shape, or form, to their own likings, because they want to get more fans, HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not take that very lightly. Now, this Chafetz Chaim that people like to quote all the time, what motivated him to be the Chafetz Chaim? So, the Chafetz Chaim himself wrote that he started to appreciate the Torah to the extent that he did when he was young. He went to a—it's a famous story—he went to a hotel called the Vilna Hotel. And he found out that next door to him, the next room next to him, was the Gadol HaDor, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. so there was a young guy at the time, and he wanted to, you know, he wanted to hear what the Gadol HaDor, the biggest rabbi in the world, what does he do at night? What does he do at night? So he put his head against the wall, and some even say he looked through the door. Meaning, in those days, they had key doors, and it was a big key, so you were able to see, not like today's keys; you were able to see through the door from the keyhole. So he says that in the middle of the night...

2:03:07He heard and he saw Rabbi Yisrael Salanter repeat the Mishnayot Pirkei Avot over and over again, saying, "Whoever fails to learn Torah forfeits his right to live. Whoever fails to learn Torah forfeits his right to live." Over and over again. For hours. And then he learned Torah the whole night. That's what the Gadol HaDor was doing. The Chafetz Chaim says, once I saw that the biggest rabbi in the world is working on himself to give himself chizuk, that he himself needs to learn more Torah. And if he doesn't learn Torah, he has no right to exist. He has no right to live. The cockroach is worth more than him. Once I saw that the biggest rabbi in the world has that type of clarity about the importance of learning Torah, that's when I knew I had to do the same thing. And that's how he became the Chafetz Chaim. That's how he went from being Yisrael Meir to the Chafetz Chaim that we know today. Now, sometimes a person

2:04:29will have a difficulty in his life that he thinks the mitzvot are causing him or her. And there's another reason that I had a chiddush about why a person could have this difficulty, this suffering. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Berachot, page 6b says, that there's a huge advantage to having fear of Hashem. Why? It says in Kohelet - Kohelet is Shlomo HaMelech - Kohelet says that in the end, all things will be heard because I fear Hashem, and that's really the purpose of man. So the Gemara says that any person who has fear of the Almighty, his words are heard. As it says in a verse, that in the end everything is heard. Why? Because he fears Hashem.

2:05:50So they use this source. What do you mean by fear? What kind of fear? It starts with fear of punishment and eventually it's fear of the Almighty. There are levels of fear also. So first, a person is afraid that Hashem will punish him, either by taking his money, or taking somebody he loves away from him, or taking something else that he cares about, or sending him to Gehinom, or giving him a disease, or countless other sufferings. That's the first level of fear. Suffering in this world, or even in the next world. He's afraid of that. He's afraid Hashem is going to punish him. Whether it be in this world or in the next world, that's the lowest level of fear, which is really mercy in the end, yes. But nonetheless, if it's a permanent punishment, then it's not exactly ideal, to say the least. Now, a person needs to be afraid of Hashem because of punishment.

2:06:50But then, as he connects closer and closer to Hashem, he becomes afraid of Hashem, not because of punishment, but rather because he's afraid to ruin the relationship. Similar to a marriage. When a person is married to somebody that they love, they're not afraid that that person is going to kill them. What are they afraid of? They're afraid of hurting the relationship. So they're not going to do something wrong to disturb that relationship because they're afraid of losing that relationship. So that's also a fear. That's actually a higher level of fear. It's a higher level of fear. He's not going to yell at his wife because he's afraid she's going to be offended and not want to talk to him. He's afraid that he'll hurt her. He's afraid. So that's actually a higher level of fear, a more valuable level of fear than being afraid that she'll simply leave him or slap him in the face. He's afraid to hurt her. So being afraid of Hashem's Almighty, of His glory, of ruining that relationship, is a much higher level of fear than being afraid simply because of one's own personal interest in losing something or going to Gehinnom.

2:07:53So, there are levels of fear. But the point is that a person needs to know that fearing Hashem is critical. Why? Because the Gemara says, if you fear Hashem, everything that you say will be heard. So one of the things that the Chachamim say is that if a Talmid Chacham, someone who knows Torah, or even a regular person, has fear of Hashem, he'll see the world around him change. Why? If he tells his wife and kids to do something, they'll listen. Why are they listening? Because he has fear of Hashem, therefore they have fear of him. Not fear that he'll kill them, but fear of his mightiness, fear of his glory, fear of his kedusha, of his holiness. So, because he has fear of the Almighty, in essence, Hashem makes the world listen to him. He tells the boss that he needs some time off for a Jewish holiday; the boss doesn't invite him. Why? The world hears him. So that's one level that this Gemara says: if you have fear of Hashem, there's a certain benefit. The world around you listens to you. If you're a speaker, the people want to listen to your shiur for two hours. If you write sefarim, people want to buy your books.

2:09:06If whatever you do, people want to hear it, they like it. Why? Because you have fear of Hashem. So now I had a chiddush. The chiddush is, how come people suffer? People say they suffer. People say that, "I can't believe it. I'm praying to Hashem, I'm doing mitzvot, but I'm still suffering." No fear. So here we see that this same Gemara applies to that too. If you're doing mitzvot, you're doing what you're supposed to, or at least what you think you're supposed to, or at least what you think is enough. and your prayers are not being answered, we just found two more reasons why you're still suffering. Either because you don't have fear of Hashem, and therefore your prayers are not being heard. You're praying to Hashem outside; you're praying to a wall. Not working. Why? Because Hashem says, if you have Yirat Shamayim, your prayers will be heard. So how come your prayers are not being heard? Because in reality, you're fooling yourself. You have no Yirat Shamayim whatsoever. You're afraid of your own bank account. You're not afraid of Hashem.

2:10:26If you were afraid of Hashem, Hashem would listen to your words. So that's one reason. What's the other reason? Maybe you're not praying enough. Because if you really had Yirat Shamayim, your prayers would be heard. If your prayers are not being heard, there's something wrong. Maybe you're not praying enough. Maybe your prayer itself has something wrong in it. But needless to say, you're probably not praying at all. You're probably praying for everything else, except your own issue. Because you're thinking, it's a given. Hashem knows that I need this stuff. He should just give it to me. Now, Hashem sometimes likes to hear, "Hashem, please give it to me. Hashem, please help me." So, here we see, Rabotai, that some of the things that we learn from the Torah, ...are things that you're not going to learn in school. You're not going to learn in your typical self-help book. You're not going to learn this stuff anywhere else. You're only going to learn these things in the Torah itself. You're going to learn when it's right to speak out. You're going to learn when it's right not to speak out. You're going to learn when it's right to get married, when it's not right to get married, when it's right to make a certain step, a certain deal, whatever it is. The problem is that sometimes there's so much confusion because there are so many different people speaking differently.

2:11:47And in fact, they speak the opposite. They say that everything is good and you simply should, you know, you have a case against Hashem. Instead, you have a lot to do in order for Hashem to give you what you already have. There's confusion out there. So that's why it's very important to know that a person must also pray for a kosher rabbi. for kosher Torah, for kosher teachings. And the reason why is because you could be learning from a certain rabbi, a certain teacher, a certain lecturer for five years, ten years, but nothing in your life will change. Nothing in your neshama will change. Nothing. I know certain people tell me that they listen to certain speakers, and I tell them the first thing that they contact me, the first thing I tell them is, please change your profile picture. Oh, what's wrong with it? I said, you're naked. That's what's wrong with it. If you want to talk to me, I don't feel like looking at your picture every single time. So, change your profile picture. Yeah, but nobody listens to Torah all the time. I don't know what "all the time" and what kind of Torah you're listening to, but if you're listening to Torah for five, ten years, and this is how you dress, I don't know, maybe you're listening to the New Testament.

2:13:05Maybe you're listening to Buddha. Maybe you're listening to, you know, construction of how to build buildings. Or build a PlayStation. You're not listening to the Torah. Why? Because the Torah, after five years, by now you should at the very least know how to dress. At the very least. At the very least, you should know the laws of modesty. At the very least, you should know the laws of learning Torah. At the very least, you should know the laws of how to respect the Torah, the world, Hashem, and so on. If you've been learning for five years already, and you're still the same behemah, the same animal you started as five years ago, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. Oh, that's not nice, that's lashon hara. No, no, it's the truth. Years ago, there was a heretic, who was known as a chacham for some time, who told people, if you learn Torah... Doesn't matter if you make sins. You can make any sin you want, as long as you learn Torah. And he even gave them a source. He says, look, it says in the Zohar: you learn Torah, they don't even judge you in Shamayim. He didn't read the rest of the Zohar, what it says. He just read one tiny little sentence. And he says, I even have another source. In the Midrash, there's a story of a thief

2:14:27that the king caught him, but since this thief knew how to play the violin in a really nice way, and the king liked the way he played the violin, he let him live. And he would play the violin all the time, and the king enjoyed it. But the people hated this guy because he stole from them, and he hurt them, and he was a wicked person. One day, somebody lost their mind and chopped off his hand. Which hand? The hand that plays the violin. So the guy, the thief that's a violin player, thought, the king loves me so much, I'm going to be okay. The king says, "Hang him right now, kill him right away." He says, "Your Highness, how come? I played the violin for you." He says, "Yes, while you were playing the violin, I had use for you. Now that you're not playing the violin, I have no use for you." So this chacham, who actually is a heretic, says, look, as long as you learn Torah, it's like you're playing the violin of God. He's not going to judge you. He's not going to hurt you. This is the mentality of Manis Friedman, who says that a woman should be immodest, wear whatever she wants, because she has to look pretty for the world. In modern times, the most convenient way to cover your hair is with a wig.

2:15:44If the wig happens to look better than your hair, bonus. If you're going gray and you don't want to be gray, so one of the things you'll notice is that there are no old women in this congregation. Men are all gray, but you won't find a single gray woman here because the wigs are not gray. Now, the fact that the wig looks good is a benefit. We're not trying to not look good. Beauty is not something you hide. Beauty is meant to be in the eyes of the beholder. So you don't hide beauty; you hide what is private. Beauty is not private. You can't be beautiful in privacy. When nobody's looking, you're beautiful. ...is a benefit. We're not trying to not look good. Beauty is not something you hide. Beauty is meant to be in the eyes of the beholder. So, you don't hide beauty; you hide what is private. Beauty is not private. You can't be beautiful in privacy. When nobody's looking, you're beautiful... Beauty loses all of its meaning. So, we're not trying to not be beautiful or attractive. We're just trying to distinguish between what is meant to be public and what is meant to be private. Or he tells people in another video that homosexuality is not a to'eva, even though Hashem says it's a to'eva. Why is homosexuality an abomination? Why is it?

2:17:14It's not. It's not. Homosexuality is an aveira. That's what it is. It's an aveira. It's an aveira like eating on Yom Kippur. It's an aveira like adultery. It's an aveira like eating chametz on Pesach. That's what it is. Now, unless you believe that eating chametz on Pesach is an abomination, if eating chametz on Pesach is not an abomination, then neither is homosexuality. Made okay? Made okay? Ah. So here's how it happened. First, the very religious came along and said, it's not just a sin, it's an abomination. Then they figured out, you know what? It's not an abomination. Oh, okay, then do it. You see? If you try to embellish, you end up losing. You don't need to embellish. It's an aveira.

2:18:37Why is it a worse aveira than anything else? Who said? Who could say that it's a worse aveira than anything else? Come on, stop it. An aveira is an aveira. You have your favorite aveira, I have my favorite aveira. Hashem says it's disgusting to be homosexual. But Manis Friedman says, no, it's just another sin. You have your sins, I have my sins, together we're going to make all the sins in the Torah. So he says in a video. So, calm down. There are 613 mitzvot, which means there are 613 ways to misbehave. And we all do. You did that one, I did this one, together we violate all of them. That's why there's 14 million Jews in the world, to make sure that we cover every aveirah. So just because you don't do that aveirah doesn't mean nobody should. I mean, somebody's got to. So, he says in the video, actually it's a video like this. Says you have your sins, I have my sins, we're all together, we're going to violate the entire Torah together.

2:19:56It's funny, but it's not funny. That's what leads people to Gehenom. The reason we go to hell when we die is because we want to be with our friends. If you go to heaven, who are you going to talk to? You know, Christians... Christians are afraid of hell. Right. It's a Boro Park thing. Yeah. So first of all, what is Gehenom? What is it?

2:20:59Oh, what is it? You burn, like a barbecue. You roast on a fire. What are we talking about here? A neshamah? Your neshamah goes to Gehenom and burns. How do you burn a neshamah? Your neshamah isn't physical. That's right. How do you burn it? When he sees the fire that's going to burn him and anyone that follows him, it's not going to be funny. He says homosexuality is just another sin. No big deal. Why are you making such a big deal? Or he says that we say that God will punish us. It's not our fault that He doesn't want to talk to us for 3,000 years, and we forgot His mitzvot. God forbid. God forbid that God should be punishing us for our sins. Because you know when you don't talk to your children for 3,000 years, they forget some of the things you tell them. He says that no, Gehinom is just that your soul does not know that it's a soul. It doesn't know how to be a soul. So it's uncomfortable for a year while it's being introduced to being a soul. He said this in Florida about a year and a half ago.

2:22:26He doesn't know how to be a soul. He's confused. The soul is confused because it's a soul. So what is it like to be in Gehinom? There is really a serious, proper definition or description of Gehinom. When you come home and you don't feel comfortable, that is truly a form of Gehinom. That's hell. When you come to the place where you belong and you don't feel like you belong, that is horrible. The burning in hell is not a fire with little demons with pitchforks. The burning in hell is the embarrassment that a soul feels when it doesn't know how to be a soul anymore.

2:23:31Some souls go back to the world of souls as if they never left, completely comfortable being a soul. That's heaven. But when you're uncomfortable being a soul because your soul is so used to being in a body, not being comfortable as a soul among souls, that's hell. How long does it take to readjust? Maximum 12 months. After 12 months, you're in heaven. So now, when you tell the world at large that there's no punishment, there's no Gehinnom, that there's simply a free ticket to do whatever you want, that even though it says in the Torah that homosexuality is a to'eva, it's disgusting in the eyes of Hashem, it's an abomination in the eyes of Hashem, and you say, no, it's not. Meaning you just simply took the Torah and threw it in the garbage. that there's no punishment, there's no Gehinnom, that there's simply a free ticket to do whatever you want, that even though it says in the Torah that homosexuality is a to'evah, it's disgusting in the eyes of Hashem, it's an abomination in the eyes of Hashem, and you say, no, it's not. Meaning you just simply took the Torah and threw it in the garbage.

2:24:42That's no different than this chacham from a couple hundred years ago that says, listen, if you learn Torah, you can commit any sin you want. Now, the Ma'aritz, one of Gedolei Yisrael, wrote in Chelek Aleph, Siman Kaf, a teshuva about this. And he says the following. He said that this person, Manis Friedman, or anyone like him, before or after, spoke lashon hara about Hashem by saying such things. Spoke evil against Hashem by saying such things. And did not learn the subject fully, and we may not give them any kavod whatsoever, and we must speak against such people. And then he provides them sources from the entire Gemara, every other masechta of why his entire logic is wrong, flawed at best, and outright heresy. And he says,

2:26:09We see that in the Gemara, Masechet Chagigah, at the end of it, it says that people who learn Torah, talmidei chachamim, don't get burned. don't get burned by fire. Why? Just like there's an animal called a salamander, which is like a dragon of some kind, that does not get burned by fire. It says, learning Torah is not going to burn by Gehinnom. Now, if you learn just that by itself, you're going to be confused. Wait a minute, you're going to say the heretic is right. Manis Friedman is right. That's not how you learn, though. You cannot learn a single point in the Torah by itself and make the entire Torah stand on that one point. You have to learn the subject completely. You have to learn the subject completely, see what the other Gemarot say, what the other Poskim say, what the other Midrashim say. You have to learn the full scope. The entire Torah does not get simplified to one point that explains the entire Torah with one word. It doesn't work that way. You have to understand the whole issue. He says,

2:27:28Look at what the Gemara says. It doesn't just say that the salamander doesn't get burned in the fire. It also says that as soon as the salamander is outside of the fire, it dies instantly. And then it compares it to Talmidei Chachamim that learn Torah. Why? Because Talmidei Chachamim that learn Torah, the Torah is like fire. So long as these Talmidei Chachamim are connected to the Torah, they're connected to the fire, nothing can touch them. But the second they abandon the Torah, the second they start making sins, it's no longer fire. They left the fire; of course, they're going to get burned. The fire of Gehinnom is only going to hurt them if they're not doing the Torah. But if they're learning Torah, if you're making sins, surely you're not fulfilling the Torah. Surely you're not fulfilling the Torah. But that's the problem; many times, these heretics, these oil salesmen, are constantly looking for things in order to confuse the public, either because of their ignorance or because of their wickedness. And another example is this, and we'll finish with this point. In Avot de-Rabbi Natan,

2:28:45The heretic brought another source saying, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the Baal HaZohar, says, Am Yisrael doesn't see Gehenom. Bnei Yisrael don't see Gehenom. There you go. Yaron Reuven, garbage pail. Torah, garbage pail. Everything is garbage pail. Look, Rabbi Shimon, that's my rabbi. I'm going to go to Meron every year. Rabbi Shimon, as long as I go to Rabbi Shimon. After putting us in galus for 2,000 years, after giving us a yetzer hara, after creating sins, He is going to punish us if we do a sin? That sounds like a monster. That’s indecent. That’s like blaming the victim. Today, because of how long the galut has gone on, there isn’t a Jew in the world who deserves punishment no matter what he does.

2:30:08Chachamim say, no, no, no, it doesn't work that way. You can't just learn one sentence and say this is the entire Torah. Learn the sentence before, learn the sentence after, learn the page before, learn the page after, learn the Gemara before, learn the Gemara after. But in this case, it's even easier. It's the very next sentence that explains it. It says, what is this like? What is this like? What is this example from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai? Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Who is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai? Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai wrote the Zohar. What is the Zohar specifically connected to this issue? 90% of the details that we have about Ge'enom, I should say 70% of the details we have about Ge'enom, come from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. So how could it be that on one hand, he gives us an entire picture of every chamber of Ge'enom, and here in one little sentence he says there's no Ge'enom? How could it be? Following, he says, what is this like? This is like people came to the king and leased a piece of land from him that was of inferior quality.

2:31:28in order to be sharecroppers and in return to give him a certain amount of wheat per year. He said, okay, I'll give you this piece of land. You have to give me 10 kurim. Let's call it 10 tons of wheat every year. That's the deal. So these people, these sharecroppers took the land, They fertilized it, they hoed it, they watered it, and they weeded it. But despite their efforts, nothing came out. Only one kur, only one ton. So the king told them, "What is this? What is this? You promised me ten. Where is this one?" And the sharecropper said, "Listen, Your Highness, You know that the nature of the field that you gave us, you know, is inferior. You know that in reality, it's supposed to be a parking lot, not a place to grow crops. Nobody wanted this land; you know it already. But we tried anyway. We harvested it, we watered it, we fertilized it, we weeded it, and what can we do? Nothing came out. So the king says, "Ah, you did all that? Okay, fine, no big deal."

2:32:57i know he did all that. That's how we arrived to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's how we arrived to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He gave us a body that wants to make sins. He gave us a body that wants us to sin. He gave us a really not a fair battle—giant, smart, huge, strong, everything. We have a body that wants to follow the yetzer hara all day. Really, in reality, it's a deficiency. It's a deficiency. It's not fair. He's big. We're small. This, that. It's not fair. So you're going to arrive to HaKadosh Baruch Hu after you learned Torah, you did mitzvot and everything. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, wait a minute. You told me you're going to do all these mitzvot. You're going to finish the Shas ten times. You're going to do all these great things. What did you do? One mitzvah. What did you do? And I say, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, what can I do? The body that You gave me has these needs, and yet Sarah has these things, and I had these sins. But look, I tried. I tried. What did I try? I fertilized it. I learned. I did mitzvot. I worked on my middot. The water is the equivalent of the Torah. I completely stopped the big sins. So yeah, I have some aveirot, but not the big ones.

2:34:19And Hashem is going to tell us, ah, you tried, you learned Torah, you fulfilled mitzvot, you worked on your character traits, you gave some tzedakah, okay, you have a couple of small sins, no big deal, it's on me. That's what Rabbi Shimon means. On the other hand, what happens if these sharecroppers come to the king and say to him, he says you owed me ten, you gave me nothing? Nothing you gave me? He's like, yeah, your highness, I don't know, it was just too hard, we didn't do anything. the king is going to still say, "Ah, it's okay"? No, because he didn't even try. If we arrive to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and tell Him, "Listen, we have needs, we have desires, we have so much, we figured, 'The heck with it, we're just going to fulfill it. We're going to just follow Manis Friedman instead of You. We're going to follow all the heretics. We're going to do whatever we want,'" you think Hashem is going to just say, "It's okay"? Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says, no. If you tried your best, you learned Torah day and night like you're supposed to, you fulfilled the mitzvot like you're supposed to, you worked on your character traits to the best of your ability, you stayed away from big sins to the best of your abilities. Even if you fall here and there, Hashem says, okay, no worries. I'll help you out. A little suffering here, a little suffering there. You have to pay for everything, but eventually, you're going to be with Me in Gan Eden.

2:35:46Why? Because you tried your best. But if you didn't even try, you don't belong in Gan Eden. Because all the people that are in Gan Eden, all the neshamot that are in Gan Eden, sacrificed their entire life to get there. I can't just let you in. If a person only learns the first sentence of what Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says in Avot de-Rabbi Natan, of course, he's going to be confused. Of course, he's going to listen to Manis Friedman and company. Of course, he's going to listen to all the heretics, even the heretic from 200 years ago. Why? It's confusing. What do you mean no one's going to Gehinnom? But that's not how you learn Torah. You don't learn Torah from one verse or one sentence or one thing. You have to learn the entire subject. Every single day, with no exaggeration, someone sends me an email or a text message or some type of communication. I think eventually they're going to send me doves. Some form of communication trying to prove what we teach wrong. Every day.

2:36:50Every day, no one succeeded, and no one will succeed. But what are they all basing it on? One thing that they found that they're confused by, but they don't think they are—like as if you can cancel out hours and hours of shiurim on one verse, on one sentence that they don't even understand themselves, on one commentary, on one opinion. It doesn't work that way in Torah. In Torah, you have to learn the entire subject. And the entire subject is very, very clear. When you see in the Torah that it says that there's reward and punishment to such an extent that Hashem says this is the foundation. Without reward and punishment, there's simply no Torah. That's why the Rambam writes, if somebody does not believe in reward and punishment, he's considered an apikores. A heretic. You can't count him in a minyan. You cannot have him as part of a religious Jewish ceremony. It's a very serious status. He's considered a missionary. Do you understand here? So speaking lashon hara against them is a mitzvah. It's not a sin. That's one of the things we need to learn. When the Rambam writes...

2:38:17that you have to learn Torah, you have to learn it every day, you have to apply it to your life. This is what he's referring to also. Because sometimes there's two types of Torah: there's Emet and there's Sheker. If you see or hear the Sheker, the Mareh and the rest of the Poskim say that a person must abandon, must abandon these teachings. must abandon these teachings, must speak against it, because they have to stop the Chilul Hashem. When a person that supposedly knows Torah says things that are the opposite of the Torah, you have to speak against it. Because it's a Chilul Hashem so long as it exists in the world and people think it's true. Hashem's name gets desecrated every second people think what he says is true. So if you learn the entire subject, you'll see that The subject is very clear. There are no two questions about it.

2:39:20If you still have questions about it, that means that there's a very serious problem with your learning. Most likely, it's because of certain sins that a person is committing that are not allowing him or her to learn the truth the way it's supposed to be. B'Ezrat Hashem, this truth will help us get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, help us understand the difference between truth and falsehood, and B'Ezrat Hashem, help the rest of Klal Yisrael do the same. Baruch Adonai L'Olam. Amen ve'amen. B'Ezrat Hashem, this truth will help us get closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, help us understand the difference between truth and falsehood, and B'Ezrat Hashem, help the rest of Klal Yisrael do the same. Baruch Adonai L'Olam. Amen ve'amen.