Thinking of Someone Else - JEWISH INTIMACY (14)

0:00Hey everybody, we just did an extraordinary shiur as part of our series on Jewish intimacy, bringing the teachings of the Ramban from 750 years ago into today, very, very much relevant to every single couple, every single person in the world, not just Klal Yisrael. Why? Because the promiscuity has gone to the point in the world where people have become desensitized from what's right and wrong, so much so that they think it's perfectly fine to think about somebody else during the act of intimacy and getting to a point where... bringing the teachings of the Ramban from 750 years ago into today, very, very much relevant to every single couple, every single person in the world, not just Klal Yisrael. Why? Because the promiscuity has gone to the point in the world where people have become desensitized from what's right and wrong, so much so that they think it's perfectly fine to think about somebody else during the act of intimacy and getting to a point where Even psychiatrists and all types of consultants are recommending this garbage to people. Now, what does this really mean to us? What comes out of this? What kind of results will this bring? What is the magnitude of this? And even more so, how does this actually affect women? Are women supposed to protect their minds? Are women supposed to protect their husbands? Are they allowed to simply think about whatever they want, watch whatever they want,

1:03A lot of interesting details in this shiur. It's just one of those things where it's a must-watch. And quite frankly, I'll probably watch it again myself, even though I'm the one that said the shiur. It's just that informative, that great. So watch it. Let me know what you think. Make sure to subscribe, support, donate, all that good stuff. But the most important thing, learn and be holy. We're back here on our Tuesday night Jewish intimacy series based on the Igeret HaKodesh by the holy Ramban, Nachmanides.

2:06written about 750 years ago and changing lives literally every week as we learn it with countless families. Countless people have really transformed their lives, I think, from this series more than anything I've seen in a while. So, Baruch Hashem for that. It's amazing. how much a little bit of knowledge will do to a person. Tonight's shiur will be for the Refuah Shlema of Nelia Nekadam bat Esther, Rabbanit Levana bat Sarah, Rabbi Ephraim ben Shulamit, Avi Mori David ben Nesria, Imi Morati Doris bat Jorah, and Rabbanit Sarah bat Anat. And also for the Hatzlacha Rabah, of my dear older brother, Oshri ben Doris, who just did a Siyum Masechet today, Baruch Hashem. May Hashem bless him with many more Masechtot and a lot of hatzlacha for all of Am Yisrael, all the righteous Noachides, especially those that are continuing to learn with us and support the organization, whether it's by donations or by sharing the lectures or simply by learning with us. Anyone that wants to

3:18donate and support the work that we're doing here, can go to bhtorah.org or to the bezratashem.org websites, and you can support one of the many campaigns that we have. We have the campaign to help poor people in Israel. We have the campaign to fund our kollel of Torah scholars and Dayanim in Eretz Yisrael in Jerusalem. Of course, we have the Kiruv organization altogether, just a general donation, and many other things, Baruch Hashem, that we have. And we still have the campaign to help us market the new film Gehinom, the movie, which Baruch Hashem is really transforming a lot of lives once people see Torah from the right perspective and the Jewish perspective of hell, of purgatory, of Gehinom. of the worst possible place that anyone could ever imagine to the power of a million. When a person understands the magnitude of the sin, certainly it changes the acts of the day. Also, right now, we just started Sefer Shemot, the Book of Exodus,

4:26and our sages teach us, especially the sages of Kabbalah, that this period of six weeks from Parashat Shemot until Mishpatim is a six-week period of time where it's an auspicious time to do the teshuva for tikkun ha'brit, for the sins of immorality, whether it's adultery, or wasting seed, or any type of promiscuity, or someone that was with his wife while she was niddah, or homosexuality, all of those adultery, All of those types of sins have major stains that they cause on the neshama, which we'll discuss tonight. But to do teshuva for them is not simply just by stopping the act, although that's, of course, a prerequisite of doing teshuva, of repenting, is to stop doing the evil things, stop doing the things that are forbidden. But in order to fix the past, a person has to understand that they need to do tikkunim. They need to do tikkunim, and Rav Edri, sheyichyeh,

5:31gave a very good analogy to explain this. When people have a tough understanding of tikkunim, they figure, "Wait, this is a, uh, you know, it's either fast pretty much every single day until, uh, you know, you die, or it's, uh, replace it with money." And of course, many people don't like anyone telling them that they need to donate any money for their own benefit. But needless to say, anyone that has read the description that's on our website, tikunabrit.live, understands that these are the teachings of the Torah. These are the teachings that we got at Mount Sinai. This is not some new innovation. And the Kabbalists extrapolated these teachings in order to help a person simply clean up their accounts. Because if a person does teshuva, they start keeping Shabbat, they start becoming modest, They start doing all the good things, but yet they still have to understand that whatever they did in the past doesn't just go away. You know, it's not something that just simply disappears. Like some people are misled to believe that if you read 10 Tehillim, the Tikkun HaKlali, then that erases all the garbage that you've done in the past. This is sheker v'chazav. It's a complete falsification. It's a complete fabrication. There's no truth to it whatsoever.

6:50The whole point of Tikkun HaKlali is to entice you, to open up your heart to do teshuva and to do tikkunim. Now, as far as the tikkun itself, the Arizal elaborates on what's written in the Zohar that a person needs to fast a certain amount of times for each sin that they've made, specifically the ones that have to do with immorality, with sexual sins. And when a person understands that they don't necessarily have to do this, but they should, then it's hard for them to deal with the fact that this costs money. So, to explain it best, the Rabbi gave an analogy which he said, simply put, if, let's say, for example, I came to your house and, uh, you know, I asked you, "Listen, can you give me a drink?" and you give me a glass of juice. You say, "Of course, Rabbi, of course, I'm gonna give the Rabbi something to drink." No, you went to get a drink and something got into me while you were gone for those few moments. I take out a knife from my pocket and I start ripping up your entire living room. The couches, the chairs, the leather, the pleather, everything, all the pillows, everything is wrecked. By the time you come back, you have no idea what just happened. Literally, it looks like World War VII happened in your living room.

8:10And I have a knife in my hand. There's no denying that I did it. And you're like, "Bye-bye." Why? What did you do? And I start crying to you and I say, I'm sorry. You know, something got into me. I'm really, really sorry. I start, you know, I fall on the floor, literally apologetic and just crying my eyes out. Just telling you that something got into me. Not really sure. Maybe it's some demon or something. And I just had to do it. But I'm really, really sorry with all of my heart. And you see me crying and you have a heart. You have some emotions still left in you. You say, okay, you know what, Rabbi, forget it. i forgive you. Forget about crying. I love you. Everything is good. All right, so I take the drink. I tell you, thank you very much, and I'm about to leave. Whoa, Rabbi, I forgive you, but you have to pay for it. I forgive you for what you did. But I have to replace the furniture. I have to buy the couches. I can't leave it like this. I can't, you know, my wife shows up, she sees there are holes in every single place in the living room. She's gonna make holes in me. I have to replace it. So, you know, the, uh,

9:16the one that did it has to pay. So the reality is that this is the same concept as far as our previous crimes, whatever they may be. The Torah says that to commit incest, adultery, homosexuality, wasting seed by yourself, whether male or female, all of these things are considered crimes according to God. So if a person wants to fix those things, of course, they have to stop, but in order to clean up the past, all of those rips, all of that waste, all of that abomination that happened in the past, a person needs to rectify it with tikkunim. Now again, a person doesn't have to do it, but they need to understand that if they don't do it, they'll have to deal with it in a different way. And Hashem will give each person an opportunity to deal with it in a different way. Sometimes He'll give you the opportunity to deal with it in a different way uh in the form of suffering in this world, and of course, the Gemara details that there are certain sins that a person has to simply say "I'm sorry," pray on Yom Kippur, and that's enough. But there are certain sins, like immorality, where they have to suffer. They have to suffer in this world; they have to suffer money losses; they have to suffer pain, anguish, and sickness.

10:33death, all types of horrible things. And of course, anyone that reads this Gemara understands, "Wait, wait, I don't want to suffer. What do I need to do to avoid the suffering? I don't want to get cancer. I don't want to experience death. I don't want to lose any money. What do I do to skip this part? How do I do that?" That's where the Tikkunim come in. That's where the tikkunim come in, and a person can eliminate those sufferings. Now, of course, if a person dies without doing the tikkunim, then they have to suffer in a different place, not of this world, either in kaf hakela or in Gehinnom. And of course, the Chibut HaKever, for anyone that hasn't watched that movie, will certainly scare the living lights out of anybody that understands what comes with it. So the point being is that this is not for the purpose of scaring anybody. It's simply a warning. It's simply an announcement. let anyone know that you have something in your hands that allows you to fix a lot more than you can possibly imagine. And that's why we have these tikkunim. Of course, you know major organizations around the world do tikkunim during this particular time of the year, where you could donate to a kollel

11:44or to a different Beit Midrash, and in essence, replacing this sin that a person made. But the one thing that our organization has over pretty much everybody else, especially in the English-speaking world, is that when someone donates to this particular Tikkun HaBrit campaign, they're not just donating to the campaign and doing their tikkun, they're also part of the solution because we have The most well-known film about this particular topic is called "Tikkun HaBrit" that has reached over 10 million people, over 10 million views, I should say, because some people watch it more than once, in different languages, in Portuguese, in French, in Russian. in Hebrew, in English, of course, and anyone that has watched that movie typically watches it more than once, and typically it has transformed their mindset about how they treat themselves and how they treat others when it comes to this particular issue. So when you actually support such a film to help us get to more and more people, it actually magnifies your tikkun, because now that money, whatever money you donate,

12:48is now being used to help other people do teshuva. So each time another person watches that film and does teshuva, that is, in essence, fixing many, many more times than you can fix yourself. So the amount of benefit that a person has from contributing to such a campaign is literally endless. And that's why I say to people that if you really want to do Tikkun HaBrit, there's really no better place to do it than with our organization. This has been... the number one topic that we've covered over the last decade of giving shiurim, and Baruch Hashem, have helped an endless amount of people from religious households, non-religious households, Jewish, gentile, young, old, males, females—an endless amount of people that have taken these teachings, and we have uh, somewhere around 150 different lectures about this topic. With this one major film, it's helped a lot of people. So, the solution to it is available; we just need help to get it to more people. And again, this is the time to do it. It's an auspicious time where

13:50The reason why these six weeks are specifically highlighted by the sages is that, of course, a person can do this tikkun anytime during the year. But the reason why these six weeks are considered an auspicious time for it is because the gates of heaven are open specifically for teshuva of this particular issue during this time. Well, anytime somebody takes on themselves to do teshuva during this time and takes it seriously, you know, does tikkunim, does the prayers, does the teshuva, says "I'm sorry," learns Torah, does all the things, Hashem helps him. Hashem helps her tremendously, tremendously with such a thing. And of course, again, I know it's not cheap. I know it's not something that is necessarily even possible for everyone to do. But that's why we say that the most important part is to stop the act. second part, of course, is to learn about this topic. And if a person has the financial ability to donate, there's nothing better they could do with their money than this. It's literally more than any other campaign anyone could ever have because it's literally taking money.

14:53different crimes that a person has on their account and simply removing them. And there's really nothing else that can do such a thing for the sin of immorality. There are other sins that you could simply say, "I'm sorry," for on Yom Kippur. There are other sins that you could simply do other things for. But with this particular issue, the sages teach us, including Rabbi Yosef Karo, who calls the sin of wasting seed the worst sin in the Torah. Specifically because it creates the most amount of mazikin, the most amount of spiritual enemies, demons, and such that actually hurt a person by enticing him or her to continue sinning, which is, again, one of the things we're going to talk about tonight. So this website, if you see this flyer on our pages or anywhere else you see it, that's the website of the specific campaign for the Tikkun Shovavim. It's tikkunhabrit.live for anyone that is interested. If you're not interested, no problem. You don't have to send me emails to let me know how much you're not interested and how much you don't like it.

15:58I simply don't have the time nor interest in why a person is not interested. If they are, it's available. If they're not, no problem. You know, each person suits themselves. So, with that being said, we have, Baruch Hashem, an extraordinary Ramban here. This Ramban brings us literally this world today on a silver platter. And one of the things that I deal with, unfortunately, with many different types of couples and individuals, is is the fact that there are not just addictions to alcohol, not just addictions to food, not just addictions to all types of psychological things, but there are literally sex addictions. And the sex addictions that people have are sometimes with themselves, sometimes with other people, sometimes they lead to adultery, sometimes they lead to promiscuity. And the type of addiction Addictions that are out there are literally getting worse and worse by the day, and unfortunately, they're also in the religious world. They're not just in the non-religious world. When I first started teaching, I was naive enough to think that the issues of immorality are really primarily in the non-religious world. Quickly, I learned this is as far from the truth as can be because, unfortunately, there is also immorality in the religious Jewish world, as it is across everywhere. Why? Because all of us have an evil inclination.

17:10are really primarily in the non-religious world. Quickly, I learned this is as far from the truth as can be because, unfortunately, there is also immorality in the religious Jewish world, as it is everywhere. Why? Because all of us have an evil inclination. And if a person doesn't understand the magnitude of their evil, the magnitude of their crime, and in fact, they don't even see it as evil, they don't even see it as a crime, they could literally desensitize themselves to the most important emotions that they're supposed to have to such an extent that they could literally be committing adultery on their most loved one, During the act itself, and that's in essence where the Ramban is going with this today, where a person is married, happily married, everything is good, they have some kids, they don't have some kids. The bottom line is, it's not because they hate each other. It's not because they're cheating on each other. Simply, it's because they don't understand what Jewish intimacy is supposed to be, and what do they do? They think about other people while they're actually intimate. Now, of course, this is something that's heinous, it's horrific.

18:24But in the secular world, if you go to a sex therapist, many times if you tell them, "Listen, I've lost my interest in my wife, I've lost my interest in my husband," many times these sex therapists tell you, "Why don't you guys watch pornography together?" As if this is a solution. As if this is not the reason why you lost interest. As if this is not the reason why you have a demented mentality, a warped mentality that has nothing to do with reality. And the more a person is addicted to pornography, to Hollywood, to Netflix, to Hulu, to all of these different shows, the more a person has desensitized themselves from important emotions that they're supposed to have for the most important people in their life during the most important times of their lives. And the more a person understands that this is not only cheating, but this is a... It's a huge, huge risk. It's a huge hazard that is creating some of the biggest troubles that a person could possibly have. It is literally self-made. They created themselves the biggest tragedies that they have. You created these with your own hands; you created them with your own mind.

19:40you created with your own actions, and it all starts with the eyes looking at things that are inappropriate, which leads to thoughts. That's why the Gemara says the thoughts of sin are worse than the sin. One of the reasons why the thoughts of sin are worse than the sin is because the sin itself is something that sometimes requires another person, and you can't necessarily get another person whenever you feel like it, even if you're the most beautiful person. on planet Earth, it doesn't come on demand, and even more so, even if it doesn't necessarily require another person, it's not always something that you're able to do in the right place, at the right time, in the right mood, with the right health, and so on and so forth. Whereas the thoughts of sin, the thoughts of immorality, are literally something that a person can do 24 hours a day, they can have inappropriate thoughts in their mind.

20:4124 hours a day, they can think about their neighbor's wife. 24 hours a day, she can think about her best friend's husband. 24 hours a day, they can think about all types of pornography and immorality, incest, bestiality, homosexuality, and all the filthiest things that are destroying society today. So much so that literally today, I saw a report that they found that I think it was something like six or 700 teachers in Chicago schools have been in essence found that they have committed crimes with their students, and only 16 or 17 of them actually had charges pressed against them. that I think it was something like six or 700 teachers in Chicago schools have essentially been found to have committed crimes with their students, and only 16 or 17 of them actually had charges pressed against them. This has become such a norm in society where there is pedophilia, homosexuality, and promiscuity that you have teachers today feeling like there's no problem doing whatever they want with their own students—the way they talk to them, the way they behave with them—to such an extent that you have a city like Chicago. Chicago is a big city, but hey, listen, 600 or 700 teachers today

21:54are found to be with their students. I mean, literally, you have a better chance of throwing your child to Mars with your right hand than actually having your kids survive school without being damaged in one way or another, whether it's some suicide bomber or some psychopath that played too many video games, or it's pedophilia, or it's rape, or whatever it is. Literally, sending your kids to school these days has become a moral hazard. And one of the things that a person has to understand is that all of this, all of this is man-made, meaning you created a certain sin, you've done a certain sin, that's the outcome. That's the outcome. This is the outcome. There is no suffering without sin, says our Torah. No such thing as suffering without sin. You have certain things that happen to you, there's a reason why it happened. Now, most people think that, okay, so perhaps it's because of something I did now. And although that's true, it could actually also be something that your parents did. But not now.

23:09Rather, during that moment that you were conceived, what was on their mind. Now, if you tell the average person that it's normal for their spouse to be thinking of somebody else, of course, no one's going to be happy about it. Any man that loves his wife is never going to want to see his wife even looking favorably at some gardener or lifeguard, or even a banker, or some guy at a Starbucks store. No guy that loves his wife wants his wife to even smirk. another man. Needless to say, if he finds out that she's thinking about this guy during the time that she's intimate with him, you'd be surprised if this woman doesn't end up being on, you know, the eulogy list in tomorrow's paper and he's in jail. Why? Because no man wants that. Of course, it's even more so if a woman finds out that her husband is her loved one is even talking favorably to his secretary, talking favorably to a customer service agent that's on the phone, that he has no idea what she looks like. But he says a certain word, automatically the jealousy within the woman flames up. She wants to burn him with the phone. Now, if she finds out that he has some image of some woman during the act while he's with her, aside from most likely, you know, castrating him,

24:34would be surprising if he ever is intimate with her again. Why? She will become permanently disgusted by him. Now, of course, today many women and men have to deal with the fact that their spouse is cheating on them, not necessarily with a living person that they're meeting on a weekly basis but rather a living person that they're watching and on a minute-by-minute basis sometimes and, of course, on a week-by-week basis during pornography. There are many people that are addicted to pornography that have literally destroyed their marriages, destroyed their jobs, destroyed their parenting, and destroyed their lives with this. I even had one time a person I was trying to help, and anyone that watched our original lectures about wasting seed and when a person is promiscuous with himself, you know that the sages have taught us some very heavy things about this issue. Aside from the punishment for such actions, there's also physical damage. I literally saw—I had a guy, and this happened a couple of times, but this was the worst case

25:44where I had a guy that was so addicted to wasting seed that he literally just couldn't stop. And I tried consulting him, and I tried giving him advice—endless hours, all for free—to try to guide this young person to stop. And he finally tells me, breaks the news, "How could I stop if I constantly see my father watching pornography in the living room while doing the act himself, by himself, in the open, without any care?" Literally a beast. doesn't even do such a thing. You won't even see such things in zoos. But this poor kid, who's not really a kid, but whatever, this young man literally grew up this way. And he got to a point where he was so addicted to wasting seed that... It destroyed his body to the point that when I saw him, I honestly thought that he had just undergone chemotherapy, like he was dying. He had lost his hair, and his skin was so oily that when you shook his hand, you felt like you were going to slip and fall. It's unbelievable what it did to this young person's body. I've seen this a few times, but this was the worst case.

26:56And unfortunately, this is something that is part of our society today. Many times people think, "No, listen, if I just stop and I don't do it as often, it's not as bad." But you don't understand. Marriage does not solve this problem. a you know, changing the TV to, you know, exchanging it with the phone is not going to solve the problem. The cure to the problem is understanding what's at hand, and many times people, you know, have an addiction that is unresolved, and that addiction leads them to having these thoughts during the time of intimacy and during a time of intimacy, which leads to complete separation between the couple as far as emotions, it could lead to being violent, it could lead to simply a lot of really, really bad things. So the Ramban, who has been teaching us, literally holding our hand over the last few months, to explain to us the responsibility of Jewish intimacy, the responsibility of a man being with his wife,

28:04and a wife being with a husband, and how much holiness this can create, literally said that the highest level of holiness that a person can ever reach in this world is from this particular act. More than even learning Torah, more than doing kind acts, more than anything else. Person can reach the highest level of holiness through the act itself, which we learned a few weeks ago about the cherubs and everything else. Either way, when a person doesn't understand that, or doesn't accept it, or doesn't know it, then to them intimacy is just simply another beastly act. It's another thing that they do to satisfy their arousal, satisfy their desire, and they don't think much of it. And yet, later on, the fruits that come out of them are rotten. And they don't really have many answers for why they sent their kid to the best yeshiva, but he turned out homosexual. They sent their daughter to the best seminary, but she ended up marrying a non-Jew, which is forbidden for Jews. They sent their kids, and they raised them in the best neighborhoods.

29:20But their kids have no interest whatsoever in the holiness of Torah. They become atheists. How could it possibly be? This all has to do with this. And this is what the Ramban is now going to go into as we complete this second chapter. And he says the following. This is the secret of what we said, which is quoting the Gemara in Masechet Sotah, page 17. When a man unites with his wife in holiness and purity, the Shekhinah is with them in the secret of man and woman. So here we see that the Ramban, who was the head of the Mekubalim. Many people are familiar with the Ramban's commentary on the Torah, And of course, many other things that he did, fighting against Christianity with the famous debate in Barcelona. But few people know that the head of the Mekubalim,

30:22The head of the Mekubalim is the Ramban. And anyone that actually studied his commentary on the Torah knows that he literally puts Kabbalah in every other sentence; there's something Kabbalistic in it. So when he’s telling you, "I have a secret to tell you," it's a multiple-part secret. You pay attention because this is not a secret that you can find in your local bookstore. So he's telling you that there are teachings that we're all familiar with, we've all heard already for the last 12 lectures about the sanctity that a man and his wife have during intimacy, if they do it the right way, is something that's not only beneficial for them, beneficial for their marriage, beneficial for kids, but this is what brings the Shechinah. Brings the Shechinah from Shamayim to your house. makes you a partner with Hashem, and this is what we talked about last week: when a couple is together, they literally become partners with Hashem, partners with God if

31:30The act is done in holiness. If the act is done no different than the pigs and the horses and the dogs, then obviously you're not partners with Hashem; you're partners with the Satan, which we'll get to in a little while. But when the act itself of intimacy, the unification between a man and his wife, is done in holiness, then the Shechinah itself comes down and becomes partners with those people. Now, he says there's a secret in this particular teaching that takes it even further. And he says, this is the meaning of "before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you." This is a verse in the book of Jeremiah, chapter one, verse five. And the Ramban tells us this Shechinah being there, coming down and being partners with this holy couple during their act, a secret in it, and the secret comes from the verse in the prophet Jeremiah where Hashem says to the prophet, "Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and before you left the womb, I sanctified you. I established you as a prophet unto the nations." So here, the Ramban says this is what it is when there's holiness.

33:00during the act, that holiness means that the Shechinah is now a partner in the creation of that child, which brings a soul from the holiness. There are two parts: there's the place of souls that is holiness, and then there is the unholiness controlled by the Sitra Achra, the other side, the Satan. and the prophet Jeremiah was told by Hashem that already at the time that your mother and father were together, I already knew you. Why? Why do I already know you? Says the Radak, this is to tell Jeremiah and to teach us that Jeremiah didn't just happen to be a prophet because Hashem needed a prophet.

34:02are many, many people He could pick, but rather He had all of the tools necessary to be a prophet of God, primarily beginning with the intimate act between his parents where they did it in holiness and thereby created a holy neshama. where the Gemara in Masechet Niddah on page 16b says that there's an angel named Lailah that brings each and every single seed Hashem and Hashem investigates it. What is He investigating? How pure is this seed? What kind of act happened here? Was he thinking about his wife or some zonah that he saw in the street? Was she thinking about her husband or some filth that she saw at work? What were they thinking about? Why did they do this? How pure is this? How holy is this? And the holiness that the parents of Yirmiyahu and...

35:05Hashem produced a prophet that the Midrash compares to Moshe Rabbeinu. When Hashem says in the book of Devarim, chapter 18, verse 18, where Moshe Rabbeinu tells Am Yisrael a prophecy, "I will establish a prophet for them like you." will establish a prophet for them like you. The Midrash teaches us that Hashem is referring to the prophet Jeremiah. There are many similarities between the prophet Jeremiah and Moshe Rabbeinu. They both didn't want the job; they were too humble to accept it and didn't think they were the right fit. They both prophesied for 40 years and gave very sharp rebuke to the people—things that people don't want to hear but need to hear. the holiness of Jeremiah didn't start after he went to yeshiva and learned some sefarim. No, no, it literally started the moment he was conceived. And that's why the Rambam writes in Moreh Nevuchim (Guide for the Perplexed) in Chapter 32, that this particular verse teaches us the basic concept regarding the conditions for prophecy and

36:26where, although a person must exert much effort into perfecting themselves so that he would be fit to be a prophet, it's not enough. He must also have been endowed from birth with certain necessary personal attributes. What are those? How was he conceived? What were his parents thinking about at that moment? Now, the Chachamim teach us Alshich HaKadosh says that when Hashem says to the prophet Jeremiah, "Before you left the womb, I sanctified you," this is calming Jeremiah down. Because He's telling him, "You're going to be a prophet; you're going to have to go to all the wicked people and rebuke them." Jeremiah says, "I'm concerned. Why? If I'm surrounded by a bunch of wicked people, maybe they'll affect me. Maybe I'll be enticed." Hashem says, "You have nothing to worry about. Why? You were created with such holiness that your level of holiness is a shield against all of the wicked acts of people."

37:35You have nothing to worry about as far as falling to the evil inclination like other people. Why? You were made differently. You were made differently. Your spiritual status is different than everybody else because of the way that your parents behaved during that act. Now, when the Prophet Yirmiyahu was born, he was born already with a full set of teeth, speaking. And the Pesikta Rabbati, the Pesikta, in Siman 26, says that as soon as Jeremiah was born, unlike other babies who are crying, who are, you know, looking around, you know, what's going on over here, Jeremiah spoke. And he didn't just say, ima, ima, mommy, mommy, no. Jeremiah says, "You didn't conceive me legitimately." You have been brazen and have acted like a wayward woman. Why don't you go drink the water of the Sotah? His mother looks at him and says, Why is this baby speaking such words to me at such a young age? And Jeremiah responds to his mother, I'm not speaking about you, mother. Rather, I'm speaking about Zion and Yerushalayim, meaning about Am Yisrael.

38:59who has adorned her girls in immodest ways. The girls of Am Yisrael at that time were walking around without modesty. They're like a Sotah. They're like a wayward woman. How could you bring me into this world with such a thing? He's rebuking Am Yisrael literally the moment he was born. The moment he was born. That's how holy Yirmiyahu was. The Ramban tells us This all has to do with the moment that the husband and wife are intimate. What's on their mind? And he says further, and this is the secret of what we also learned from the Book of Shemot, chapter 13, verse 2, where Hashem says, "Sanctify unto Me all of the firstborn." Now, literally speaking, if somebody just studies the Torah on a basic level, then they know that Hashem is telling us that the firstborn belong to Hashem. That's why we have Pidyon HaBen. That's why initially, before Hashem sanctified the Kohanim, the Kohanim were the firstborn.

40:23Until they made the sin of the Golden Calf. That's when He replaced the firstborn with the Kohanim. But the firstborn are special. The firstborn belong to Hashem. And that's the basics. But then there is further teaching. As we know, our Torah has the Pardes: Pshat, Remez, Drush, Sod. Pshat is the basic meaning. Remez is the different hints that you get, different meanings that you get from what this is insinuating. Drush is the Midrash, the background story of certain things, and Sod is the secret parts of the Torah, the mystical aspects. Now, the Ramban says that the secret of this verse is that the firstborn has always been special, has always been part of the story of creation, and has always been part of the story of Am Yisrael since the time of Adam HaRishon. The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says that one of the reasons why the serpent enticed Chava to eat from the Tree of Knowledge was really because he wanted her to give that Tree of Knowledge, that fruit, to her husband.

41:48Because he wanted her husband to die, for Hashem to kill him. Because he wanted to marry Chava. Now, the Gemara says that before they understood the ramifications of certain acts, the serpent raped Chava. And that Zohama, that spiritual filth, went into Chava. And after they sinned, after Adam and Chava sinned, they were intimate, and the first child that came from them included that Zohama, included that spiritual filth in the firstborn, and that was Kayin, the first murderer. And this spiritual filth continued going from generation to generation and has affected society, the world, and Am Yisrael. Avraham Avinu tried to fix, to do a tikkun for Adam HaRishon. One of the things that was required was to bring souls to the world. The first son that he had was Yishmael. That son came from the spiritual filth, the Zohama. The second son, Yitzchak, came from the Kedusha. Yitzchak, his son,

43:15also had two sons. The firstborn was Esav. Esav came from the spiritual filth. He came from the Zohamah. Yaakov from the Kedushah. Hence the reason why when their mother, while she's still pregnant, walks by the place of idolatry, Esav is partying. He already has an inclination to go serve idols, already from the beginning while he's in the womb. He's already infected by this. Now, Yaakov Avinu, who is the head of the Avot, even though he is the youngest, Yaakov Avinu, he perfected himself to such an extent that he used the attributes of Avraham and the attributes of his father Yitzchak to perfect himself to such an extent that a seed did not leave his body until his first act of intimacy with his first wife, which brought Reuven, the firstborn. That's why in last week's parasha, when Yaakov blesses Reuven, he says, "You are my first vigor."

44:37you are my strength. And the Gemara in Masechet Yevamot, page 76a, says that Yaakov was so holy that a seed did not leave his body until it was used to create his firstborn son Reuven. So he was the only one that was literally able to have a firstborn son. Now, of course, we're not Yaakov, and that's what the Gemara says. Who's Yaakov now? who's Yaakov now that is so perfect that, you know, he's not going to have nocturnal emissions during his sleep once in a while? Or people that sin while they're young before they know the magnitude of it? People are not only unlike Yaakov, but the key to understand is that when a person sanctifies themselves while they're still young, the more they sanctify themselves, the more they restrain themselves. to only use your body for the sake of holiness, the more it's going to impact that firstborn child that you have. And this is what the Ramban continues to teach us and say, as our sages said, if they're together for mere lust and arousal, the Shechinah leaves.

45:55In the secret of the words "fire, fire," as in the words that we learned last week, Ish and Isha. Ish in Hebrew is spelled, that's the man, that's Aleph, Yud, Shin. Isha is Aleph, Shin, Hei. So you have the man and the woman, but if you take out the Yud from the Ish, which is the letter that stands for the name of Hashem, or the Hei... In the name of the woman, which also is another letter that stands for the name of Hashem, together they combine to spell another name of Hashem. If the act of intimacy between them is in holiness, Ish and Isha are complete, and the Shekhinah is between them. Literally, the Shekhinah is among them. But if it's not, if it's just simply for the purpose of arousal where he's thinking about a different woman, she's thinking about somebody else too, the Shekhinah leaves. And all they have left is Eish, Eish, Aleph, Shin, Aleph, Shin in both of their names which spells fire, fire.

47:08And the Ramban says, and this is the secret of where we learn from David HaMelech in Tehillim, chapter 58, verse 4: "The wicked are estranged already from the womb." Meaning that David HaMelech is teaching us here that the wickedness of a person is not just something that they develop as a result of bad education, bad teachers, bad environment. It could literally already be something that's instilled into the child before they're even in this world, while they're in the womb. Now the Gemara in Masechet Yoma gives us a couple of these examples. On page 82b, the Gemara says that there was a woman that was pregnant, and she smelled food being cooked, perhaps by one of the gentiles over there. Of course, they don't observe Yom Kippur, and therefore they cook and eat everything. But the Jewish people are not allowed to cook or eat on Yom Kippur; they have to fast, including a pregnant woman. She smelled this food

48:30And all of a sudden, she has this huge desire to eat. This huge craving to eat. Now, the sages teach us that these desires are not just something you can ignore and say, listen, you have to deal with it, you have to fast. No, because these desires, if they don't calm down, they can actually cause damage to the mother and the baby. It can literally cause a life-threatening situation. So, this woman was pregnant. She smelled food. She craved it on Yom Kippur. It started creating pain. The people came to the rabbi. Who is the rabbi? Rabbi Akadosh, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the Gadol HaDor. There’s a woman, she has a craving. What do we do? He said to them, go and whisper in her ear, "It's Yom Kippur." Just go to her ear and say, "It's Yom Kippur, not allowed to eat."

49:34Okay, that's what they do. And immediately after, they whisper it to her. Perhaps her husband says it to her, or maybe one of the women. They whisper in her ear, "It's Yom Kippur." All of a sudden, the desire, the craving, the pain—gone as if it was never there. Immediately, they run to Rebbe HaKadosh and tell him, "The craving has subsided, thank you." Rebbe HaKadosh immediately quotes the verse from Yirmiyahu, the same verse we just said, Yirmiyahu chapter 1 verse 5, where he says, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you left the womb, I sanctified you." are you saying this verse for the Rav? He says if this helped, that means that this child that's in there was created in holiness, is a holy child, and is going to come to the world. This is a special child. And what happened with this child who was born? He was born from this...

50:53Gadol HaMorayim, he's the one that literally put the Torah on, you know, the highest level. He made Reish Lakish do Teshuva, publicized the Torah in extraordinary ways. He had the beauty similar to Yosef HaTzadik. That was the baby. That was his mother. But then the Gemara says another story. The same exact thing happens with a different woman. Pregnant. It's Yom Kippur. She smells some barbecue that somebody's cooking, and she craves it. And it's painful for her. She's hungry. She needs something to eat. They run to Rabbi Chanina, one of the G'dolei HaDor, and they ask him, "Rabbi, what do we do?" And the Rabbi has the same exact Mesorah as Rebbe HaKadosh. He says to them, "Go and whisper to the mother, it's Yom Kippur."

51:53They go and they whisper to the mother, "It's Yom Kippur," but this time it didn't work. And they had to give her food. They tell Rabbi Chanina, "This didn't work." Immediately, Rabbi Chanina quotes the next verse that we mentioned from Tehillim, Chapter 58, verse 4: "Zohu Reshaim Mirechem." The wicked are estranged from the womb. This baby didn't come from a place of holiness. However they conceived it, something is wrong. This baby is a problem. And what happened with this baby? Who was this baby? This baby was a person named Shabtai, the hoarder of produce. He was a big criminal, torturing the Jewish community by manipulating prices, price gouging, taking advantage of poor people, and literally hurting his brothers and sisters throughout his life. This began with the act of his parents. Now a person could easily arrive at a thought that, wait, so doesn't that mean... manipulating prices, price gouging, taking advantage of poor people, and literally hurting his brothers and sisters throughout his life. This began with the act of his parents. Now, a person could easily arrive at a thought that, wait, so doesn't that mean

53:15that they don't have free choice? No, it doesn't mean that. Rabbi Avigdor Miller, alav ha-shalom, is quoted as saying in commentary on the Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin, page 101b, where the Gemara brings the names of different wicked kings that Am Yisrael had, that lost their share of the World to Come. And also a few commoners. They weren't kings, but wicked people mentioned in the Torah that lost their share of the World to Come. They're in Gehenom forever. And it gives the names of each and every single one of them. It tells the story of each one of them. And then it tells you how, look, from the root, from this name, you could see the wickedness. We see Yerovam.

54:16The example that they give first says Yerovam was a wicked person who built two golden calves because of his arrogance. He didn't want people to go to Yerushalayim to the Beit HaMikdash. He was afraid that they were going to serve a different, you know, the real Jewish king. He wanted to be the king, so he said, "You don't need to go to the Beit HaMikdash anymore. Here, there are two golden calves. They are God." And this is a person that knew an enormous amount of Torah but was a very arrogant, wicked person. It says you could already tell his evil from his name. Whereas Yerovam, one of the examples they give, created riv, discord, a fight between Am Yisrael and their Father in Heaven. So Rav Avigdor Miller says, You have to know, this is not to tell you that he had no chance, that he was programmed to be evil. No. He and everybody else have the nature that they can use for wickedness as well as for good.

55:42And the pretentious nature of these names is in no way inclined to force these people to live a life of wickedness, but rather every name had an equal potential as an augury of good. And had these people chosen to act righteously, they would have invested their names with other proper meanings. But only after these wicked people live a life of wickedness. Do we now see the wickedness within their name, meaning that although they were wicked and you see their names, we can learn that there was wickedness within a name. This doesn't mean that they had to be wicked; had they chosen the right choices to follow the Torah, to follow Hashem... would have been able to find righteousness within those names. Just like you have wicked people named Ishmael, and you have extremely righteous people named Ishmael; wicked people named Alexander, and righteous people named Alexander; wicked people named Moshe, and obviously the most righteous person named Moshe. So, it's not that if somebody starts off in a bad way that they have to be bad.

57:05...but if the act of intimacy is done in an unholy way, where he is thinking about a different woman or she is thinking about a different man, they have inappropriate thoughts. Certainly, the child is being brought into the world with their spiritual hands tied behind their back. Now... The Ramban continues, and he says the following: "Now that I have awakened you to the secret mysteries of the first path of the aspects of union, I will enlighten you on the second path, which is the opposite of the first." The Ramban is about to give us one of the most extraordinary chiddushim about the subject I've ever seen. Certainly a scary chiddush, especially during the time that we're in right now, this time of Shovavim, where many people are becoming more and more aware that they have to start controlling themselves, start being holier,

58:33...not waste seed, not be promiscuous, not do all the things that they are forbidden to do. But now, the Ramban takes this a step further and he says the following: For when a man does not have the intention for the sake of Heaven during the act of intimacy, that seed that was drawn from him is not holy, but rather a stinking, fetid drop of... which God has no portion of. It's actually mentioned in the Torah about such a seed in Genesis chapter 38, verse 9: "He spilled his seed on the ground so as not to give the seed to his late brother's memory." This act is considered a grave sin. Additionally, there are comparisons to other severe transgressions, such as planting an Asherah tree—a tree used for idolatrous worship—and raising calves for idolatry. For it is a defective seed. His drop has not been instilled with a soul. It is like a thorn. And regarding this, the sages taught us in Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin, he who spills seed in vain, God has no share in that deed.

59:56And regarding these embryos, these babies that will come from this, David HaMelech says in Tehillim 58:4, "The wicked are estranged already from the womb." Here the Ramban is giving us an atomic bomb of a chidush for anyone that understands, but whoever doesn't, I'm going to explain it. Until now, we have been taught, we have understood, that of course there are Torah commandments of things that you're obligated to do and Torah commandments of things that you're forbidden from doing. You're obligated to observe the Shabbat, eat kosher. On the other hand, you're forbidden from being intimate with your wife when she's niddah. You're forbidden from committing adultery. You're forbidden from wasting seed. You're forbidden from eating non-kosher and so on.

1:00:56the Ramban extrapolates from the Torah a teaching unlike anything that we've seen so far where he's telling you being intimate with your wife in a holy fashion is not just for the sake of bringing this holy baby, holy kids that speak to their parents with respect Not like these little Hitlers walking around in society today that yell at their parents and even hit their parents. It's not just for that. It's not just for the sake of making yourself holier or closer to God. No, no, no. You see, the holiness of the act is not just to acquire more holiness. There's another end to it. Where if the act is not holy, it's unholy. You're thinking about someone else. That's not your spouse. You're thinking about just pure physical pleasure, nothing else. There is no love whatsoever, there is no holiness whatsoever in the act. Now, if you're the woman and your husband is like one of these beasts, but you're a righteous woman and... Not holy, it's unholy. You're thinking about someone else—that's not your spouse. You're thinking about just pure physical pleasure, nothing else. There is no love whatsoever; there is no holiness whatsoever in the act. Now, if you're the woman and your husband is like one of these beasts, but you're a righteous woman and...

1:02:21and you know that if you're not with him, he's going to end up wasting seed, then you being with him is a mitzvah. It's actually a high level of mitzvah for the sake of Heaven so he doesn't waste seed. It's not the ideal, but needless to say, it's a mitzvah for you to be with him so he doesn't waste seed. On the other hand, though, on his end, he has a very serious problem. And, of course, if the woman is doing it completely for physical reasons, No holiness whatsoever is connected to her. They have a very serious problem. And what's that problem? The problem is not the child that will come from there. The problem is not that they won't attain holiness. The Ramban says when the act of intimacy has no holiness in it whatsoever, that seed that comes out of that man is... is considered the equivalent of wasting seed, meaning it's a sin. It is compared to idolatry, like an Asherah tree. It is considered a defective seed that God has no share in and wants nothing to do with.

1:03:43Seed came from the Satan; that seed is under his control, coming from the side of Tumah, the side of impurity. Now, the Gemara in Masechet Sukkah, page 52b, says: If the Menuval, the Yetzer Hara, the despicable Yetzer Hara, comes to attack you, pull him to the Beit Midrash; go learn Torah and run away from it. Why? Because when you learn Torah... The evil inclination, if he's a rock, he crumbles. If he's metal, he explodes. Torah is stronger than the Yetzer Hara. But then the Chachamim ask, why is he called Menuval? Why is he called despicable? Why does he have that name? Because the evil inclination, he already attacks the child, The moment the child is out of the mother, and sometimes even while the child is inside the womb, meaning that the child just came into the world, he still has all of the stuff that's on his body, or her body, from the womb. They haven't even cleaned the child up yet. They haven't even named him yet. Nothing. The Yetzer Hara already attacks. Already tells him a bunch of things. Already attacks him. That's why he's despicable.

1:05:11Now, when a person acts during a time of intimacy in such an unholy way, not only is the Yetzer Hara, the Menuval, there, but he's the source of control of that soul. It's like bringing a child into the world with their hands behind their back. It's like bringing a child into a prison that will literally require a lot of overcoming to get that child to become righteous. So, when parents are surprised that their children have no concept of connection to God, no concept of connection to the Holy Torah despite them going to yeshiva and seminary and being in a good neighborhood, but they have no connection, no nothing.

1:06:11They can't blame the child. They have to blame the person they see in the mirror when they look. Now, this, rabotai, is not just a bad thing. The Ramban says this is one of the worst sins a person can commit, being compared to this: wasting seed in vain. idolatry. That's what this act is compared to when a person is thinking about a different person, and there is no sanctity in their unity between them and their spouse. That act is compared to idolatry. That act is compared to wasting seed, prostitution, and abomination. Now, what does it produce? It produces

1:07:11Children that come under the control of the secret. Now, if you tell a person, "Listen, by the way, you know that kid you have, he's like the golden calf," they're not exactly going to be happy about it. So, I wouldn't recommend telling people that their kids are like little golden calves or some Christmas tree. But the reality is that sometimes the act of intimacy between the parents... lacks so much intimacy, lacks so much holiness, that literally they're creating little golden calves. And yet they're surprised that their kids want to be lesbian even before they realize what sexuality is. They're only eight years old. This didn't come from nothing. This didn't come from just a TV show. The act itself had some type of damage in it. What the Ramban is calling Zera Mekulkal. A defective seed. Defective Zera. Now, Rabbi Meir Shapiro from Lublin, the one that instituted the Daf Yomi, once had to face a wicked person. Because he used to be the one that constantly made fun of the rabbis. And this guy came to the kehillah

1:08:40yelling and screaming, trying to get people to listen to him. And Rabbi Meir Shapiro mi-Lublin faced him and said to go away, but the guy wouldn't listen. The guy yelled at him in front of everybody, saying, "Why would anybody listen to you? I'm successful. I'm smart. Why should they listen to you? You're just a rabbi." Rabbi Meir Shapiro mi-Lublin says to him, "You know what the difference is between you and me?" He says, "I am one seed; out of every 10,000 nights comes somebody like me. You, 10,000 each night like you come." Meaning that when my parents brought me into the world, they acted with such restraint. They acted with such holiness. that it's rare to have such a holy neshama like mine. Only one out of every 10,000 nights does a neshama like this come to the world. But people like you, 10,000 every day. That's why people shouldn't listen to you. It's not even a dime a dozen. It's much more. Now, of course, there is a way to deal with wicked people, and this is the way to deal with such a person.

1:10:09But there's a bigger teaching here: that the act of intimacy is not just about reaching a higher level of sanctity, but rather that if we don't even at least try to elevate ourselves, the damage that we're causing is unbearable. Now, this week's parasha we get to meet Moshe Rabbeinu for the first time. Moshe Rabbeinu was Kodesh Kodashim. Now, years ago, I told you guys about the story that the Midrash teaches us, the Gemara teaches us about a mistake. the mistake Moshe Rabbeinu made. And if it wasn't written, we wouldn't be allowed to even see it. When Moshe Rabbeinu, in this week's parasha, comes to Egypt, he tells Paro to let my people go, and Paro not only refuses, but he puts an even bigger burden on Am Yisrael. Moshe Rabbeinu complains to Hashem. Why? Why?

1:11:37Because now that he's not giving them the straw, they're not meeting the quota. And one of the rules in Egypt, evil Egypt, was that if you don't meet the quota in making the amount of bricks that you need to make, then they replace the brick you were supposed to make with your child. And they put the kids in the bricks. And literally, one Jewish child after another was put into the stones, crushed to death. And Moshe Rabbeinu is seeing his people, seeing their children being crushed to death, and he's crying literally bloody tears. Hashem, why did You make me be the one that brought this evil to Am Yisrael? Look at all these kids. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu, you don't have to worry. These are all evil neshamot. All of these babies that are being killed—they're all wicked neshamot. They're bad. So we're just getting rid of them. They're not good people. But if you want to test Me, you want to save one? Go ahead, save one. Moshe Rabbeinu sees one kid put into the stones because his father didn't meet the quota.

1:13:02grabs the kid, saves the kid, and he names the kid Michah. Michah, that in essence comes from the word that means he was supposed to be crushed by the stones, but at the last minute Moshe Rabbeinu saved him. Now, this Michah grew up and followed Moshe Rabbeinu around. When Moshe Rabbeinu finished the Ten Plagues and finished everything, we needed to leave. This few-year-old kid is hiding in the bushes, following Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu now needs to fulfill the promise that his grandfather, Levi, and the rest of the tribes made to Yosef HaTzaddik. That when Hashem takes us out of Egypt, we take the bones of Yosef with us. Now, Moshe is looking for the bones, looking for the tomb of Yosef. Only one person knew where it is, which is Serach bat Asher. Serach, the daughter of Asher,

1:14:30She is hundreds of years old. She’s the only one who met Yosef. She’s still alive, and she knew exactly where Yosef’s bones were. She tells Moshe Rabbeinu that the Egyptians deified Yosef because he brought so much blessing. So, they put him in a stone tomb and placed it inside the Nile River. Moshe Rabbeinu comes to the Nile River and sees that this No way to find this tomb. So he uses the Torah that Hashem taught him to get this tomb out. He takes a matbei'a, like a piece of stone or metal, and engraves on it the name of Hashem on one side. And on the other side, "Alei shor, alei." Because the symbol for the tribe of Yosef was the bull. And before he throws this into the water, he speaks to the neshama of Yosef. "Yosef, I'm here to deliver on the promise that our forefathers made to take your bones out of here. But if you don't take yourself out,"

1:15:59i'm leaving you here. This is your chance. He takes this mateh, he throws it into the water, and the aron, the metal casket of Yosef comes out of the water. And Moshe is able to deliver on this promise, and he takes the aron with him. Eventually, this aron is buried by Yehoshua bin Nun when they enter Eretz Yisrael. Now all the while this happened, this little boy named Micha is hiding in the bushes. And as soon as Moshe goes away, he jumps into the water and grabs that mateh, that piece that had the holy name of Hashem on it, and the sentence, "Alei Shor Alei." And this wicked neshama, this boy, keeps it. And you fast forward some time, we're at Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai: Moshe Rabbeinu goes up to the mountain after we receive the Ten Commandments. Everybody hears it; everybody sees the voice of Hashem. Moshe Rabbeinu goes up to the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. The erev rav entice Am Yisrael to lose their patience, telling them that maybe he died, that he's not here. Long story short...

1:17:22let's get ourselves a new intermediary. They go to Hur and tell him in English, "Make us a statue." He says no, and they kill him. They then go to Aharon and say, "Make us a statue that we can serve our God with," without any other options. i want Aharon knows that he cannot say no because if they kill him they're killing both the prophet and a kohen on the same day, for which there is no rectification. So what he wants to do is buy himself more time. So he tells them, "Okay, fine, just give me all of your gold, give me a bunch of gold, because you know we need to melt it." And he figures to melt gold takes days. By the time he melts it, even for a day or two, already by then Moshe Rabbeinu will come and we'll deal with this. So everybody all of a sudden becomes very generous. All the men, the women do not give any metal for this, any gold for this. All the men take off their earrings, their rings, everything. They start throwing it into the fire, filling it up with a huge amount of gold. Of course, to melt this gold takes time. Anybody that's in the jewelry business knows that it's not so simple to melt gold unless you have some serious equipment.

1:18:44using the fire of 3,300 years ago took a few days to build that fire, but not that day. While all these people throw their gold out there under the influence of the evil inclination, the little wicked kid Micha comes and he takes that mateh that he has and he throws it into the fire. Now, since it has the holy name of Hashem on there, This is something that obviously does something. It's not just a piece of metal. And as soon as he throws that into the fire, the gold not only melts but connects to itself, creates and forms into a bull that rises out of the fire and speaks, saying, "I am God that took you out of Egypt." The Golden Calf spoke.

1:19:45So now, of course, we all know the story of how Moshe Rabbeinu sees this later on, destroys it, and kills a bunch of people who serve the idol. The question is, what happened to this Mikha? Up to now, I've told you most of these details. The question is, what happened to this Mikha? Today, I'm going to tell you what happened to Mikha. Mikha. Hashem already said he's evil, Hashem said he's evil. Moshe Rabbeinu tested it, and it didn't lead to anything good. But was that the end of the evil of Mikha? No. The Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin tells us what happened to this Mikha. Rabotai, the tragedy continued for hundreds of years.

1:20:46There was a wicked person by the name of Yeravam ben Nevat. Yeravam ben Nevat was an enemy of God. He knew a lot of Torah, but his arrogance caused him to bring Am Yisrael to idolatry, building two golden calves and literally losing Olam HaBa. But who is this Yeravam ben Nevat? He's an evil person. Fine. Where did he come from? Well, it says, Yeravam ben Nevat. That means his father was Nevat. Who is this Nevat? The Gemara says, Nevat is Michahu. Nevat is another name for Michah, who is also called Sheva ben Bichri. Which Michah? The same Michah... From the time of Moshe Rabbeinu. And this Michah, this Rasha Merusha, was the father of Yeravam. And he himself continued his evil. He continued going against the Torah.

1:22:15where he eventually built a temple of idolatry that the grandson of Moshe Rabbeinu became the priest in. The grandson of Moshe Rabbeinu became a priest to idolatry in Michah's idolatrous temple. And this Rasha Micha thought that he was going to be king. Why? The Gemara says he had a dream, and in his dream, he saw fire coming out of his male member, and he thought that this fire means that the manliness, the strength that he has, he thought he was destined to be king. What he didn't understand was that this fire meant that his son, Yoram, was going to become a leader but lead with evil and cause Am Yisrael to go against God, just like he himself caused Am Yisrael to go against God and turn to idolatry. And

1:23:43Multiple times. At the time of Moshe Rabbeinu. Later on, when he built a temple of idolatry himself. And later on when his son put up two golden calves. He had one golden calf; his son, two golden calves. That's the evil neshama of Micha. Hashem says he could have been crushed, but Moshe Rabbeinu was sensitive to this little baby. From there, we learn a lot about how if Hashem is doing something, it's certainly always for the best because He has the full calculation. Another example of an evil neshama was Achitophel. Achitophel went against David HaMelech, joined forces with Avshalom, David's son, and told him to go against his father. Now, he also had a dream. This Achitophel, he had a dream that he had tzara'at on his male member, and he felt that since this is unique, that means I'm going to be king. That's how he translated and interpreted his own dream. A perverted mind manipulates the truth. Now, he did have a king come from him, but it wasn't him.

1:25:12It was that his daughter was righteous, Batsheva, was the daughter of Achitophel, and she ended up marrying David, and Shlomo HaMelech came from him. Shlomo HaMelech came from his daughter Batsheva, but Achitophel was a Rasha Merusha. Perverted mind, perverted actions. What made him most perverted and devious was that the way that he wanted to become king was by getting Avshalom to go against his father. But how is that going to make you king? If Avshalom wins against David, he becomes king. So what did he say? You have to make sure to give everyone the confidence that you're not going to go back and become friends with your father again. So how do you do that? Go and cohabit with all of his women. Go cohabit with all of them. And that way, once the people see that you are with your father's wives, or pilagshim, I should say, then no one's going to think that there's ever peace that can be made from this. And what was the real plan of Achitophel? Was that once...

1:26:41Avshalom makes the sin and goes with David's pilagshim. Eventually, David dies from the war. But then Achitophel says to everybody, "Listen, how can you have this Avshalom as king? He violated the Torah. He was with his father's wives. Kill him and become king instead." What a diabolical plan that was. Did that all come from immorality of the mind? You see, you notice all these people have dreams about their male member. This whole thing didn't start with the Freudian complex. This is all in the Torah. Anything of any value is in the Torah, and we see here these people that came from a bad root. and didn't change their acts, didn't change their behavior, didn't do teshuva, the evil just continued growing from each generation to the next. And even when there was something good that they had an opportunity to take advantage of, they turned it into bad. Hashem is giving you a message that kingship will come from you. They turn it into bad. Hashem is giving you, is giving you an opportunity to do teshuva. Turn it into bad. Everything turns into bad. Why? Why?

1:28:05This, unfortunately, is the evil inclination that took advantage of the opportunity that was open to him due to their parents. Now, the forbidden thoughts are not just things that are relevant to men. As we've learned from our sages, forbidden thoughts affect both men and women. And our sages teach us that anytime a person thinks of something that's forbidden to him, like an adulterous relationship, pornography, all types of filth, or idolatry, these thoughts create a klipah. That klipah, says the Torah of the Maggid, that klipah...

1:29:06searches for a body in order to enter into this body. Now, as soon as it searches right, left, up, and down, the easiest access that it has is to enter the body that created it. Therefore, that klipah is gives the person all types of foreign thoughts of forbidden matters that cause the person to have nocturnal emissions. to have the person desire strange things. All of a sudden, she desires her brother. All of a sudden, he desires his daughter. All of a sudden, they desire the same gender. All of a sudden, they have all these weird thoughts. That's where it comes from. In fact, one of the things we learn is that if a person is holy, he learns Torah, he does mitzvot, everything is good. But all of a sudden...

1:30:17He's somewhere, he's at a store, he's wherever he is. All of a sudden, he has some crazy thought about some woman. He doesn't know her, doesn't care, nothing. But he's holy. How could it be? The sages teach us that's because she's thinking of him. she's thinking of him, and that kelipah goes into his mind to affect him, to get them to possibly do a sin. Now, when it comes to promiscuity with other people, it's very easy to explain and to understand that it's forbidden. There are verses in the Torah that say it's forbidden for a man or a woman to be promiscuous. but many times people don't understand that promiscuity doesn't just start with the act. Promiscuity starts with the eyes and then it goes to the mind, and so on. So we tell people that women have to protect their eyes. They're not allowed to look at immodest things. They're not allowed to look at immodest women, immodest men, immodest anything. They're not allowed to look at animals mating. A woman has to also protect her eyes.

1:31:36Now, although immodesty doesn't affect a woman the same way it affects a man, this doesn't mean that she could watch movies and TV and do whatever she wants. This is a very big mistake. Because once a woman gets herself used to watching movies and things of that nature, aside from it destroying her time, marriage, and any opportunity to be a good parent, it also leads to... thoughts that lead to sin. And before adultery and other things like that start, usually it starts with promiscuity with self. Which, for whatever reason or another, people think it's allowed for women to do that. The Sha'ar HaKavanot, Inyan Derush Layla, Yefei Lalev 239, and also the Kaf HaChaim, Siman 239, Section 3.

1:32:38says that wasting seed, gama brit, applies equally to women as it does to men, and those that do so create mezikin (evil spirits) and klipot. Here, you have clear teaching from the sages saying that It's forbidden and it creates klipot, mezikin, things that will entice you to sin even further with worse things later on. You say, yeah, but fine, that's maybe Kabbalah, that's maybe certain sages, but what about halacha? Does it get any better than Rabbi Moshe Feinstein? Igrot Moshe, Even HaEzer, first siman, halacha 69. Rav Moshe Feinstein writes, it is also forbidden according to Halacha for a woman to masturbate, to be with herself, unless it's part of the act of being with her husband. Her by herself is forbidden completely. And this prohibition is also

1:34:01even entertaining forbidden thoughts, meaning she's not only forbidden from the act itself, she's forbidden from having these thoughts. Now, when a person understands that the Ben Ish Chai says that if you have these thoughts, it's going to lead you to create demons, klipot, and problems. Already, it puts things in a different perspective. Already, the movies may not be worth it. Already, the shows may not be worth it. When the Ramban says that if you watch these things, that means that whenever you're going to be intimate with your husband, you're going to think about these things. Why? Because those klipot, those demons, those mazikim, when do they come to attack? At the most extraordinary times. The worst possible times. When you're praying or when you're together with your loved one. That's when those thoughts come.

1:35:03And the Ramban says, if those thoughts come, they didn't come by themselves. It's because you did something. If they come during that time, guess what? It's considered as if you are being part of idolatry. You are wasting seed. You are committing a sin. Your act has become an abomination. A child that comes from such an act is a child of the Sitra Achra. That child will come into the world literally spiritually handcuffed with inclinations to forbidden relations, inclinations to forbidden activities, homosexuality, promiscuity, idolatry—all the worst possible things. And to get that child on the right path is going to take 50 times the effort. so for those of us that have children, if you've brought them in a way of kedusha, there's no one more crazy than you are. If you didn't, then make sure the next one you exert more effort to sanctify yourself beforehand. Now, if there's no child coming and you already have kids

1:36:23Don't start calling your little kids little demons. Don't start looking at your kids differently in a negative way, as bad kids. If anything is bad, it's your fault, which, in essence, will increase your responsibility to help your kid and invest more time and resources into your kid to get that kid on the right path. Why? Because anything bad that they have is your fault. It's not that kid's fault. Invest more time, attention, and love in that kid who has all types of strange thoughts. Don't put that kid as the responsibility of some doctor or some relative. Hey, listen, my kid wants to be a homosexual, lesbian psychopath. Why don't you fix him for me? Talk to my kid every day. No, you talk to your kid. It's your kid. you fix your kid. You did it, you fix it. Don't throw your responsibility and your problems on other people's laps. Why? It's your tikkun. It's your tikkun, and that's one of the things that the sages are trying to teach us. If a person wastes seed, if a person is promiscuous, if a person commits adultery, the outcome is the outcome. There are certain things you can fix easily.

1:37:43There are certain things, it takes a lot more effort. If a person made all types of immoral sins, sins of sexuality, there's a way to fix them. But it's not easy, and it's not cheap. But you should know that no one is going to be happier than you after you fix them. Because fixing them becomes a big part of your tikkun in the world, of your rectification and your purpose in the world. And that's what the Chida says in his Avodat HaKodesh of Machazik Beracha, Siman Tet. He says that the tikkun for gilui arayot is to make others do teshuva. Because just like a person wasted seed, whether male or female, that's why it constantly says "person" and not "man." Just like a person wasted seed and spread the sparks of Kedusha that Hashem gave him or her and wasted them, he or she now will have to go and collect them.

1:39:02Does he collect the sparks of Kedusha by helping other people do teshuva? Now, most people cannot encourage other people to do teshuva; either they don't have the ability or they don't have the knowledge. That's why I tell you that the Tikun HaBrit film and the other teachings that we have, like this one and others, are the best possible tools that a person has to fix themselves. Because not only is it a tikkun... for themselves to learn all of this and not continue falling into the same trap they fell into in the past. But to fix themselves, they need these teachings to continue spreading into more places so other people can actually do teshuva for similar mistakes that they've made. This is as relevant to men as it is to women. When a person takes these types of things seriously... They realize that there's no one that is responsible for your sins other than yourself. If you put yourself in certain situations, there are certain outcomes that will come. A person says, "Yeah, but you just said that my parents did certain things and that's why I'm this way." Yes, but what do you think? That Hashem just made you that way just because of your parents? No. It's that you were here already in a previous incarnation.

1:40:27You made these sins yourself. And the measure-for-measure consequence is that you had to be reincarnated with the same damage that you created in order to rectify it. Other kids that come from kedusha, that's because they have fixed themselves to a certain point that they only need to fix a few minor things. They're not going to have the same tikkun as you. But you, who perhaps committed adultery or wasted seed or did whatever you did in the previous incarnation, You left a big stain on your neshama. Hashem is giving you another chance, but He can't give you a chance with a blank slate. You have to come with certain damage. How could He create that damage? He gives you parents that will do their part. So, in essence, everyone is responsible for themselves. Everyone also is responsible for... whatever they create. That's why it says "Kol Yisrael areivim zeh la'zeh"—all of Israel are responsible for each other. You can't continue seeing your friends, your family, your community making sins, acting immorally, and say nothing. One of the worst things that happened at the time of Yerovam was that people didn't act out against him enough.

1:41:49when they heard that he was planning to build these golden calves, because initially it looked like he was doing the right thing, it looked like he knew a lot of Torah. So he got a bunch of rabbis to sign, and he told them, "You know, you agree with everything I say?" They say, "Yes." "You're gonna follow?" "Yes." "I'm gonna be king?" "Yes." "You'll do whatever I say?" "Yes." Even if I bring idolatry? One tzaddik says, "No, chas v'shalom. Ma pitom? Absolutely not." That was one of the prophets of that day, who said no. But then one of the wicked people, who liked money, who liked... Popularity that, like the position that he has, says, "Now come on. What do you think this talmid chacham, Yerovam, is gonna bring? An idol? No, he's just testing us to see if we're really loyal to him and follow him." And this poor tzaddik fell for the trap, signed the letter of support, and Yerovam continued to...

1:43:04Showing this letter to other people to get more people to follow him. So much so that the sin continued into the next generation and even affected the next tzaddik named Yehu, who was righteous and destroyed a bunch of idol worshipers and false prophets, but himself fell because of that letter. The point being is that without somebody fixing the broken, it doesn't just go away. Like most people think, oh yeah, we'll end with time. Like this problem, you know, time will heal all wounds. No, it doesn't. If it's a spiritual wound, it's not going away until somebody fixes it, until somebody does a tikkun. If you brought a wasted seed into the world, an immoral seed, act of intimacy that brought a child that the Ramban is calling wasted seed, a, a, um, defective seed, I should say. Guess what? You are responsible to fix it. Now, if you say, "Well, I'm not in touch with them anymore. I'm not in touch with there anymore. I haven't talked to my kids in a long time." Okay, fine. So help other people do teshuva.

1:44:27why you brought defect into the world, you have to fix it. You have to fix it, and this, Rabotai, connects the rest of the Torah to the act of intimacy, where we see that every little bit of action that we have in this world under our one and only God is connected like a spiritual nervous system, connecting us to the Torah. connecting us to God, connecting us to our nation. That even though you are forbidden from thinking about anybody else other than your spouse at the time of intimacy, if you do think of anybody else during that time, know that you will have to continue thinking about the rest of Klal Yisrael for the rest of your life to fix that mistake by helping those people do teshuva. You thought about somebody during that act. You made that sin. You now have to do a tikkun. What's that tikkun? To help Am Yisrael do teshuva for tikkun ha'brit, for immorality. To help Klal Yisrael that is promiscuous in all fashions. If they don't know the truth, to help them do teshuva along with yourself. And may it be His will that each and every single one of us

1:45:51will complete our tikkun, complete our mission in the world; help Am Yisrael do teshuva. And that will not only unite us with each other and with the Torah, but will unite us with our Creator and sanctify His name beyond anything that we could ever do by ourselves. Thank you very much for learning with me. May Hashem bless each and every single one of you with a lot of success in your spiritual endeavors to get closer to Hashem and His Torah. and good deeds. Anyone that has any questions, please send the messages. Anyone that wants to join the groups to get updates, you can join our WhatsApp groups. It's listed under the description, the phone numbers, and all those details. If you want to donate to support everything we're doing, as I said, you have the different websites to donate to, bezratHashem.org or bhtorah.org

1:46:53or the other ones that I've mentioned. And last but not least, if you're watching it on YouTube, instead of watching it on our app, don't forget to subscribe. Subscribe, we have a campaign, a raffle, I should say, for the subscribers. Every thousand new subscribers, we announce a new winner that will win some cool presents that we will send him or her to wherever they live. So, b'ezrat Hashem, many more people will subscribe, many more people will learn. Many more people will sanctify themselves, and many, many more people will sanctify others in order to fulfill the mitzvah that the Ramban closes this chapter with, which is: "You shall be holy, because I, God, am holy." Be holy. and B'ezrat Hashem, Hashem will give us everything we could possibly imagine to succeed.